My take on rewriting BFA story

[Nephys]

I always liked to write and it is my dream to be a writer some day, I hope you enjoy it but I have to warn you: I tryed to keep it small but its a long read.

The story starts in Legion with the allied races, the first races to be added would have been the High Elves (lead by Veressa) and the Mag’har, followed by the Dark Iron Dwarves and the Nightborne. There should have been a greater connection between the Nightborne and the blood elves, I would create some quests where the Blood Elves come to Shal’Aran and use their knowledge of addiction to delay the withering process on the Nightborne in there.
The Vindicar, now powerless would be “parked” near Stromgarde, Turalyon, Alleria and the rest of the Lightforged would help the High elves rebuild the city. There are very few Lightforged left and without Xe’ra they can create no more. They would also build a city on the place that would become Ak’Gorok in the future.

The expansion is supposed to be about the faction war, but also Azerite and N’Zoth, so the obvious storyline would be we all fight against each other until we realize there’s a bigger enemy. Fortunately, I will have nothing of that shit on my story so instead we will have a story about a war created by N’Zoth manipulating the factions against one another, but there will be no joining together since after a while, the atrocities committed by both sides would have created enough bad blood to make it so that there will never be peace. Doesn’t matter who stroke first, both were manipulated by N’zoth, there is no right or wrong, there is no morally gray, everyone is doing what they believe is the right thing, the Horde is not evil, the Alliance is not good. This is about faction pride, not shame.

Another point is that the Alliance is made up of more races other than Humans, and some of them deserve a bit of love, especially the Night Elves. I would create a Nelf NPC that would be the leader of the Night Elven Rogues, it was always odd to me that the race defined by its stealth had no major rogue characters. Also it needs to be female (in warcraft 3 only the female elves had shadowmeld and while that’s not the case for gameplay reasons we could say that female nelfs are more stealthy than males), lets call her Ashira.

Ashira would receive intel from an agent (in the future we will discover that this agent works for N’Zoth, there will be a Horde spy working for N’zoth as well, but these NPC’s will give important information that will asure N’Zoth’s schemes) that Sylvanas doesn’t know that the Vindicar is powerless, and she fears its power in the event of a war. Because of that she is amassing a massive army poised to attack Stromgarde. Ashira, Shaw and the Alliance player immediately go to Stromgarde to contact Turalyon and they decide to check on this army with their own eyes. Upon confirmation of the threat Turalyon decides to attack the army before they can grow in numbers even more and become unstoppable. The Horde is utterly defeated, Anduin is not happy that he was not consulted before Turalyon made an attack on the Horde but Turalyon doesn’t care, he won’t risk losing his home a second time. The Horde has a different side on this quest, it starts with Sylvanas sending the Horde player to Arathi Highlands to investigate strange reports of Alliance activity there. Upon arrival the player finds the Frostwolves under attack by the Alliance, but they were not prepared to fight, there were no warriors in there, mostly women, children and old people, it was an unprovoked slaughter (later we will find that N’Zoth cast an illusion, for the Alliance it was an army, but they were just civilians). Thrall is there, the player character helps save him and some frostwolves, but Thrall is gravely injured.

Back in Orgrimar the Horde is displeased with Sylvanas, they are not happy that the Frostwolves were murdered, they represent the beginning of the Horde we have today, attacking them is the worst possible crime the Alliance could have committed. Sylvanas promises that there will be revenge, she names Saurfang as the supreme commander of the Horde armies and she rallies everyone to attack Silithus (a lie).
The rest of the pre-BFA event is similar but there are some changes. First, during the War of Thorns, Saurfang is the one leading the Horde while Sylvanas is doing her thing, we later find out that she is preparing a trap for Malfurion, once he shows up she surprises him and tries to take him out, but she fails, wounding him instead, which takes him out of the battle. Tyrande fights with Nathanos and she is defeated. During the battle for Undercity, Saurfang wants to stay back because there are still people inside the city and he wants to buy as much time as possible, also he wants his warriors death and this is the perfect place for it. Sylvanas still needs him to lead her armies but she decides to let him die as he wishes, something that Anduin will deny him.

With the beginning of Bfa the story goes pretty much the same way, with the only difference being that Saurfang is not in the Stockades, the Horde players only save Talanji and Zul from the Alliance. Saurfang later kills his guards and escapes on his own. The questing zones and Uldir are actually quite nice so I won’t change much, but the War Campaign needs lots of changes.

First thing that we notice at max level is that there are a lot of Doomsayers throughout the cities and if players keep talking with them they have a chance to proc a special dialogue which leads them to speak with different people and eventually join a reunion with lots of other people, a Cult for following N’Zoth. In the end the player is asked by the Dark Inquisitor if they want to receive the Gift of the “master”, if they accept they become “servants” of N’zoth, if not they are expelled from the reunion. A player can cleanse the gift the same way it happens on live. While they have the gift they have access to special quests given by an NPC. If not they receive different quests from their faction. Maybe they can even have a sort of “reputation” within the cult. The players who have the gift can see the rogue NPC that is infiltrated on their respective factions during their reunions.

Horde War Campaign. The start of this campaign is not so bad, the Horde tries to get influential characters from Kul Tiras history, they get Derek Proudmore, some high ranking military and I especially like Zelling. The Horde steals the Scepter of Tides, and with it Zelling creates a new group of “Dark Shamans” on the Forsaken. The Alliance doesn’t steal it back.
Alliance War Campaign. After what happened at Teldrassil the night elven rogues are working with the SI:7, under Shaw, so Ashira is sent to track Sylvanas and discover what she is doing. The Alliance player goes with her and they learn that Sylvanas doesn’t care about the War, she left that to Nathanos and Saurfang, and that she is working with someone important. After a while of tracking Sylvanas Ashira starts getting impatient and wants to assassinate Sylvanas and be done with it, Shaw forbids it because since she is working with someone, killing her wouldn’t stop what they were doing, and that’s what they needed to stop. They argue and Shaw decides to assign her to the War Campaign, where she can better utilize her skills. The player character then follows Shaw and together they discover what happened with the Frostwolves and that Sylvanas also knows. Shaw then sends the player back, because getting this information to Anduin is extremely important, but he will stay back and try to discover who is Sylvanas working with, later we will discover that it is Azshara.

With the release of the expansion the Vulpera join the Horde and Kiro is named High Chieftain (for administrative purposes). Malfurion discovers a group of Satyr in the Dream that are being “reeducated” by N’zoth and he saves them. These Satyr prove to be highly resistant to N’zoth’s corruption and they join the Alliance to defeat the Old God and be finally free from its madness.

The first Warfront comes out along with its story, Saurfang wants to attack Stromgarde, but Sylvanas thinks its a bad decision, since it will be hard to maintain an assault on the enemy’s continent, but Baine supports Saurfang’s decision based on how important the Frostwolves were to the history of the Horde. Geyarah (High Chieftain) says that an attack against any member of the Horde cannot go unanswered, and even Kiro wants to join and prove his loyalty. Sylvanas finally agrees with it, but not before showing them something. The orcs have gone a long way without a leader, Saurfang cannot do it, he commands the Horde armies, they need a real leader, and there is no one better than Thrall to lead the orcs, Thrall is named High Chieftain of the Orcs and the 4 races assault Arathi Highlands. Under the leadership of Saurfang they attack High Elven city near Stromgarde, that city is later named Ar’Gorok and will be the place to launch the offensive. On the Alliance side, they again receive reports that the Horde is preparing to attack Stromgarde, but Anduin is aware of what happened the first time so he refuses to send help, instead he wants to make sure they are not being manipulated again. His refusal to act means that they lost the High Elven city and allowed the Horde to establish a staging ground in Arathi. After realizing the terrible mistake that he made, Anduin creates an army with the humans, dwarves and the gnomes and sends them to defend Stromgarde, Turalyon will lead the defense. There will be 3 different quest lines here, the Horde players will be trying to build an Alliance with the trolls from Arathi, those who follow N’zoth, whether Alliance or Horde will plant void artifacts and visions in the trolls camp, and the Alliance will see those trolls as corrupted by the void and assume the Horde and Sylvanas are working for the N’Zoth, and they will kill all the trolls.

With the release of Battle for Dazar’alor comes more War Campaign. Shaw is never heard from again so Ashira is now in charge of leading the SI:7 in the war effort and comes up with a plan to destroy the Kul Tiran Fleet and the alliance between the Horde and the Zandalari. They don’t use the Scepter of Tides, they use Tidesages instead but the result is the same, they attack Dazar’ Alor and kill Rastakhan, further cementing the alliance between the Zandalari and the Horde but destroying their fleet in the process. This attack pretty much decides the outcome of the War.

After the Battle for Dazar’Alor the Horde player is sent to help Sylvanas with a job, she wants Xal’Atah but the dagger is in the hands of N’Zoth’s followers. On the Alliance side the player is sent to find Shaw since he never came back from the earlier mission, we don’t find a lot of clues, Sylvanas wouldn’t leave them, but we are smart and we manage to find evidence of a struggle, but its not clear whether he is dead or alive, we keep following the tracks and we discover that he has been revived by Sylvanas and mind controlled to track and kill SI:7 agents to disrupt alliance intelligence.

New Allied races: Zandalari and Kul Tirans, pretty much the way it happened.

Tyrande asks for Anduin’s help on Darkshore, just like what happened he refuses, so she goes alone, Genn decides to help the Night Elves in order to repay his debt to them, the Satyr also join because of Malfurion. Moira is smart and she knows how to play politics, helping the Night Elves now will cement their friendship forever so she decides to join. Upon their arrival Tyrande knows that she needs more power, so she starts the Night Warrior ritual, but they receive an emissary from Sira, she is leading the Wardens that stayed on Darkshore fighting the Horde and she is asking for help, saying that they can’t hold anymore against the Horde, but Tyrande refuses to stop the ritual midway and decides to keep pushing forward. After becoming the Night Warrior they receive more requests for help from Sira, she says that Elune abandoned them, they only have each other, but Tyrande won’t divide her forces, she will keep going forward and destroy every single Horde in Darkshore. They arrive after all the Wardens and Rangers were killed and their corpses taken to be reanimated, she fights with Nathanos, but this time even with a Val’Kyr powering him up he is defeated, and the Val'kyr dies in order to allow his escape. Maiev is not happy about what Tyrande did, abandoning her Wardens, but she understands, she made the same choices when chasing Illidan, yet there’s too much bad blood between them both to ever be friends. On the Horde side, they receive notice that the Alliance is attacking Darkshore, so they send their forces there, and it's not much different than what happened, they get the Dark Rangers and escape, with an extra detail, they know that the Wardens asked for reinforcements, but dividing Tyrande’s troops is good for the Horde. Unfortunately Tyrande doesn’t do it and the Wardens get really mad about it. As before, the Horde would try to ally with the trolls from Darkshore, the followers of N’zoth would plant visions and the Alliance will kill them all. Later the players who follow N’zoth will learn that the same happened to the Frostwolves. We also learn that Malfurion is now leading the Night elves since Tyrande’s only focus is hunting Sylvanas. The battle for Darkshore will be led by Tyrande and Nathanos. The Horde forces will be the Forsaken, the Goblins, the Blood Elves and the Nightborne.

Nazjatar comes, Ashira becomes leader of the SI:7 and they discover intel that shows Nathanos leading what’s left of the Zandalar Fleet on a mission, which they chase, leading to Nazjatar as we know it, Nathanos leading the Alliance and the Dagger to Azshara. During the War Campaign the Alliance finally captures Shaw and they manage to read his mind, discovering that Sylvanas was been working with Azshara all along (but they don’t know that they are working against N’Zoth), unfortunately his mind has been completely violated so they have to put him down. Azshara fails to kill N’zoth so he is released at the end of the raid and he takes Azshara with him. They also discover where Derek Proudmoore is and manage to save him before he turns out like Shaw. They take Derek to Calia, and she turns him into a Lightborne undead like her. Later she convinces various Forsaken to leave the Horde to join her in the Alliance. We start hearing rumors on Horde cities about people that are not happy with Sylvanas’s leadership (N’zoth is trying to turn the Horde against her), which is further cemented by her most controversial decision, allowing the Naga into the Horde. Sylvanas claims that these Naga have been enemies of N’Zoth all along, but they could never fight back (which is a lie, these Naga are loyal servants of Azshara, they are still following her, but they can’t show their plan or N’Zoth will stop it), These Naga could be a modified version of the Worgen skeleton, as we know there are all kinds of Nagas, we just haven’t seen this type before. According to the Alliance (manipulated by N’zoth’s spy and the player) Sylvanas was made Warchief by N’Zoth and was always working for him. Her plan was to turn the Horde into N’Zoth’s agents and now she has corrupted everyone, the Horde are nothing more than mindless servants now, first it was the Legion now it is the Void. The Horde also believes that Sylvanas has fallen into madness, but they can’t depose her yet.

The Alliance, still being manipulated by N’Zoth’s spy learns that Sylvanas intends to open a portal to the void on Tyr’s Tomb (Tirisfal Glades) and bring the Void Lords into Azeroth, but their armies are depleted so they need new allies for this final assault against Sylvanas. Calia says that her people will fight to bring Lordaeron back into the Alliance and Jaina also pledges the Kul Tirans for this assault. Velen claims that he can bring the army that they need to fight the Void, an army that has been fighting the Void for far longer than any of them: the Legion. Anduin doesn’t like this idea, but Sylvanas has the support of N’Zoth and the Naga, the Alliance needs help if they are to defeat her so they reluctantly welcome the Eredar into the Alliance. Their leader says that their only purpose is to defeat the Void, and they will work for the Alliance in order to make it so. The offensive into Tirisfal will be led by Tandred Proudmoore.

The Horde (manipulated by N’Zoth, just like the Alliance) learns that with N’Zoth freed, Alleria wasn’t able to control the whispers and now serves the Old God. She intends to open a portal to the void on Tirisfal Glades and bring the Void Lords into Azeroth, so they send the rest of their armies against Alleria. Talanji manages to mend the relationship between the trolls and the Mogu so they join the Darkspear and the Naga against Alleria.

While the Alliance and the Horde are killing each other N’Zoth’s plan comes to fruition and he is physically summoned into Azeroth, at which point Sylvanas and Gallywix appear on a flying ship (apparently not even N’Zoth can con Gallywix into a bad deal) and they use the cannon on Azshara to fire a massive Azerite bomb into N’Zoth and destroy him (along with half of Tirisfal Glades). After this the war becomes a “cold war”, they have seen what the use of Azerite can do so no one else wants to do it again (a bit like the Nuclear Bomb). The following expansions will all use the cold war to justify PvP, but it never becomes an open conflict again. N’Zoth is not dead, just retreated back to Ny’alotha.

The Shadowlands cinematic could be what it was, only its a new NPC and not Sylvanas going against the Lich King (Sylvanas will remain Warchief).

It would also be nice to finally appoint leaders for all races, and maybe some capitals as well.

Humans: Leader: High King Anduin Wrynn. Capital: Stormwind.

Dwarves: Leader: The Council of Three Hammers. Capital: Ironforge.

Gnomes: Leader: High Tinker Mekkatorke, assisted by Prince Erazmin (Mechagnomes customization to gnomes). Capital: Gnomerengan. Together with the Mechagnomes they take back the city, it can be a Heroic max level dungeon in order to justify resources in updating it to a proper city.

Night Elves: Leader: Malfurion Stormrage. Tyrande is chasing her revenge so Malfurion takes the reins. Capital: Duskwood. The Night Elves deserve something, they could have found a way to purify the branch of G’Hanir or maybe they had a seed of Teldrassil, or maybe they found a new tree on the Emerald Dream and used it to found a new city inside the big tree on Duskwood, or maybe a gift from the Satyr.

Draenei: Leader: Velen. Capital: The Exodar.

Worgen: Leader: Greymane. Capital: Gilneas. Without the Forsaken on Lordaeron Gilneas was easy to occupy.

Orcs: Leader: High Chieftain Thrall. Capital: Orgrimar

Tauren: Leader: High Chieftain Baine. Capital: Thunderbluff

Trolls: Leader: High Chieftain Vanira. Capital: The Echo Isles.

Forsaken: Leader: They name Belmont King of the Forsaken, but they later realize that a monarchy is not the best choice for a race who can’t reproduce so instead they create a council with the leaders of their important organizations. 4 members, the leader of the Dreadstalkers, the Royal Apothecary Society, the Dark Rangers (and the Wardens) and Zelling (leader of the Dark Shamans). Capital: This one is hard, maybe Hellheim or their big city on Northrend?

Blood Elves: Leader: Lord Regent Lor’Themar Theron. Capital: Silvermoon.

Goblins: Leader: Gallywix. Capital: their city in Azshara.

Allied Races

Kul Tirans: Leader: Jaina Proudmoore. Capital: Boralus.

Dark Iron Dwarves: Leader: Council of the Three Hammers (Moira). Capital: Black Rock Depths. Same deal as with Gnomerengan, new high level dungeon to update the city.

High Elves: Leader: Veressa Windrunner. Capital: Stromgarde.

Lightborne: Leader: Calia Menethil. Capital: Lordaeron. Slowly rebuilding the zone and reclaiming the city.

Satyr: Leader: Some new NPC, possibly a Magister since they are Highborne, could function similar to the Nightborne. Capital: Maybe The Hinterlands? Or Zul’Gurub? They could kick the Gurubashi out.

Eredar: Leader: Some new NPC with a very long name. Capital: Antorus or maybe a modified Legion ship.

Mag’har: Leader: High Chieftain Geya’rah. Capital: a new city built on Stonetalon Mountains, a more “primal” city.

Zandalari: Leader: Queen Talanji. Capital: Dazar’alor.

Nightborne: Leader: Magistrix Thalyssra (Valtrois promoted to First Arcanist). Capital: The Nighthold.

Vulpera: High Chieftain Kiro. Capital: this one’s tricky, should they even have a city? If they do, it should be in Voldun.

Naga: Leader: Regent Lord new NPC, while they search for their true Queen he or she leads the Naga. Capital: Nazjatar? The Eternal Palace?

Mogu: Leader: Stormlord new NPC. Capital: The Throne of Thunder.


Each of the Warfronts is led by an important faction NPC and the races represent its faction in a different way.

Arathi Highlands. Typical Lawful Good Alliance with priests, paladins and tinkers against the Tribal Horde with warriors and shamans. Turalyon vs Saurfang.

Darkshore. The Savage Alliance, with druids and rogues against the Pragmatic Horde with Rogues, casters and tinkers. Tyrande vs Nathanos.

Tirisfal Glades. The Zealot Alliance with Paladins and priests against the Redemption Horde with Shadow Hunters and other magic users. Tandred vs Rokhan.

[Krawu]

So the long and short is: The Alliance is manipulated into thinking the entire Horde is under N'Zoths influence while the Horde is fighting a war that has been started by the Alliance unwittingly slaughtering civilians.

I can get behind that. Much better use of the Old Gods meddling and scheming. No clear bad guy on either side but it shows and makes good use of the flaws of the main characters (Sylvanas not having much backing within the horde, Anduin being too passive and opposed to conflict etc).

Some stuff I disagree with (Kiro being made High Warchief (lol), Satyrs for the Alliance) but that's all minor stuff since the overall story makes much more sense and has a much better flow.

Also, work Tinkers into it ffs.

I also liked the angle that came up a few months ago that even Magni has been completely manipulated by NZoth, Azeroth actually having been killed by Sargeras with NZoth tricking Magni into thinking his voice was hers all along. That way we could've segwayed into the Shadowlands expansion with N'zoth completely overtaking Azeroth and killing everyone, Shadowlands telling the story of us making a Last-ditch attempt to take over the minds of our own selves back in the Classic world, splitting the time line and thus explaining the level squish back to 60.
We'd be aware of all the Old Gods's plans and put a plan of our own into action to prevent the death of Azeroth.

[allawyn]

So the long and short is: The Alliance is manipulated into thinking the entire Horde is under N'Zoths influence while the Horde is fighting a war that has been started by the Alliance unwittingly slaughtering civilians.

I can get behind that. Much better use of the Old Gods meddling and scheming. No clear bad guy on either side but it shows and makes good use of the flaws of the main characters (Sylvanas not having much backing within the horde, Anduin being too passive and opposed to conflict etc).

Some stuff I disagree with (Kiro being made High Warchief (lol), Satyrs for the Alliance) but that's all minor stuff since the overall story makes much more sense and has a much better flow.

Also, work Tinkers into it ffs.

I also liked the angle that came up a few months ago that even Magni has been completely manipulated by NZoth, Azeroth actually having been killed by Sargeras with NZoth tricking Magni into thinking his voice was hers all along. That way we could've segwayed into the Shadowlands expansion with N'zoth completely overtaking Azeroth and killing everyone, Shadowlands telling the story of us making a Last-ditch attempt to take over the minds of our own selves back in the Classic world, splitting the time line and thus explaining the level squish back to 60.
We'd be aware of all the Old Gods's plans and put a plan of our own into action to prevent the death of Azeroth.

Not bad. It was better than BfA. But to avoid damning with faint praise, I'll also say it was on par with other good WOW plots.

[Nephys]

So the long and short is: The Alliance is manipulated into thinking the entire Horde is under N'Zoths influence while the Horde is fighting a war that has been started by the Alliance unwittingly slaughtering civilians.

I can get behind that. Much better use of the Old Gods meddling and scheming. No clear bad guy on either side but it shows and makes good use of the flaws of the main characters (Sylvanas not having much backing within the horde, Anduin being too passive and opposed to conflict etc).

Some stuff I disagree with (Kiro being made High Warchief (lol), Satyrs for the Alliance) but that's all minor stuff since the overall story makes much more sense and has a much better flow.

Also, work Tinkers into it ffs.

I also liked the angle that came up a few months ago that even Magni has been completely manipulated by NZoth, Azeroth actually having been killed by Sargeras with NZoth tricking Magni into thinking his voice was hers all along. That way we could've segwayed into the Shadowlands expansion with N'zoth completely overtaking Azeroth and killing everyone, Shadowlands telling the story of us making a Last-ditch attempt to take over the minds of our own selves back in the Classic world, splitting the time line and thus explaining the level squish back to 60.
We'd be aware of all the Old Gods's plans and put a plan of our own into action to prevent the death of Azeroth.

I am so happy that you enjoyed it, I was a bit scared that people would hate it.

The High Chieftain Kiro is because he's supposed to be the "leader" of the Vulpera, I think that worldbuilding is important, so each race having a leader and a capital city is important to me.

About the Satyrs, I understand you reservations, I choose some controversial races, the Naga, the Eredar, Satyr, Mogu, the Lightborne perhaps. I kinda just gave in and went for what I thought would be cool (a bit of fanservice to me).

I didn't know about that theory around Magni, but it actually fits quite nicely.

Last, Tinkers, personally I'm not a fan, but I would say that Tinkers would need an expansion based around Titans, mechs and so on, I could fit them if I could change the next expansion, but with that being Shadowlands a Dark Ranger or Shadow Hunter would be a better fit, I'm actually extremelly disapointed that it didn't happen.

[Krawu]

I am so happy that you enjoyed it, I was a bit scared that people would hate it.

The High Chieftain Kiro is because he's supposed to be the "leader" of the Vulpera, I think that worldbuilding is important, so each race having a leader and a capital city is important to me.

About the Satyrs, I understand you reservations, I choose some controversial races, the Naga, the Eredar, Satyr, Mogu, the Lightborne perhaps. I kinda just gave in and went for what I thought would be cool (a bit of fanservice to me).

I didn't know about that theory around Magni, but it actually fits quite nicely.

Last, Tinkers, personally I'm not a fan, but I would say that Tinkers would need an expansion based around Titans, mechs and so on, I could fit them if I could change the next expansion, but with that being Shadowlands a Dark Ranger or Shadow Hunter would be a better fit, I'm actually extremelly disapointed that it didn't happen.

Well, I'm not saying having Kiro as some functionary within the horde is completely unreasonable, but not right after joining. Maybe after an expansion or two.
Tinkers could easily be explained after Mechagon, just expand that story line a little. There also was a fan theory about Gallywix and Mekkatorque being among the last few survivors after N'Zoths purge, being forced to team up and using technology to breach the border between Azeroth and the Shadowlands to get the Heroes back.

The Magni bit was assumed as almost guaranteed based on an Il'gynoth whisper: "The king of diamonds has been made a pawn."
Then, after defeating Il'gynoth Magni tells us to just ignore said whispers. It was seen as highly suspicious. There's actually an article on wowhead discussing many of these:

https://www.wowhead.com/news=295827/...is-speculation

[Nephys]

Well, I'm not saying having Kiro as some functionary within the horde is completely unreasonable, but not right after joining. Maybe after an expansion or two.
Tinkers could easily be explained after Mechagon, just expand that story line a little. There also was a fan theory about Gallywix and Mekkatorque being among the last few survivors after N'Zoths purge, being forced to team up and using technology to breach the border between Azeroth and the Shadowlands to get the Heroes back.

The Magni bit was assumed as almost guaranteed based on an Il'gynoth whisper: "The king of diamonds has been made a pawn."
Then, after defeating Il'gynoth Magni tells us to just ignore said whispers. It was seen as highly suspicious. There's actually an article on wowhead discussing many of these:

https://www.wowhead.com/news=295827/...is-speculation

Thanks for that article

"The King of Diamonds has been made a pawn" is related to Magni using the Azerite Necklace to heal Azeroth but it would be later used to free N'Zoth, not sure why he repeats it in Ny'alotha. Can still be a plot point for the future, if he is actually working for the enemy he would surely prefer us to not know it.

I know that a lot of people wanted Tinkers and there are ways to make it work with Shadowlands of Course, but if you really think about it, it sounds silly. Using tech to contact the dead? You have so much more interesting ways to go about it, Shadow Hunters, Dark Rangers... Bwonsamdi Priests...

I don't mean that Tinkers don't have their place, but adding a class on the content of a single patch is a bit of a stretch. With a different expansion based on titans and mechs there would be a true reason to add Tinkers, and don't worry, Tinkers are probably the next class that's going to be added to the game.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Retcon BFA, WoD and parts of BC & Cataclysm and you have a sensible story.

[Shibito]

All good except high elves they are blood elves

[Rafoel]

Ok, listen, I won't judge the story, but from the lore perspective it contains significant errors and/or straight up go against whst is knows as established lore. The biggest of them is that Old Gods' power doesn't work in the way you describe it. N'zoth can't just deceive everybody and make them see and hear things that aren't real. Old God corruption works on MIND, but only someone completely corrupted wouldn't understand what he is actually doing. What's more, corruption ALWAYS works body first, mind at the end. There are hundreds of examples, most prominent being shadow priests and void elves, of beings physically changed by the void yet keeping sane minds. No examples of reverse (corrupted mind with intact body). Even more, a being that gets de-corrupted is always aware of its previous state, so for this to work everybody would have to be permanently corrupted - a state in which N'zoth already won and controls everything and everybody. There is no room for player's free will driven storyline in such setting.

[Wangming]

Well this is a much better use of Old Gods. Though personally I hate that Old Gods and their manipulations can be used as a sort of get out of jail free card. Nobody is evil, just the old gods. This isn't a problem with THIS story, but the idea of the Old Gods in general Especially since now they are just parasystes with no actual plan.

As for this story in particular, I would reconsider Shaw being brainwashed. That was the exact same plot of the Rogue Order Hall campaign.

[Darth-Piekus]

I would change two things. One thing would be the first battle between Tyrande and Nathanos and the first battle between Sylvannas and Malfurion. There is no way Nathanos and Sylvannas are able to go one on one against them. I would change changed it into a trap or something that would surprise them like having an army by their side when fighting either Malfurion or Tyrande. The second I would change is how Nzoth dies. An Azerite Bomb is not able to just kill him. I instead would have left the same ending with the Necklace.

[Varodoc]

I don't like how you want Alleria to become a villain right after she was reintroduced in the story after 20 years. That's not character development either, that's character assassination, you need time to set-up a fall from grace arc. Also completely removing the Void Elves is lazy. If you think they don't work, find a way to make them work. Simply erasing them and replacing them with High Elves is just lazy.

[Nephys]

Ok, listen, I won't judge the story, but from the lore perspective it contains significant errors and/or straight up go against whst is knows as established lore. The biggest of them is that Old Gods' power doesn't work in the way you describe it. N'zoth can't just deceive everybody and make them see and hear things that aren't real. Old God corruption works on MIND, but only someone completely corrupted wouldn't understand what he is actually doing. What's more, corruption ALWAYS works body first, mind at the end. There are hundreds of examples, most prominent being shadow priests and void elves, of beings physically changed by the void yet keeping sane minds. No examples of reverse (corrupted mind with intact body). Even more, a being that gets de-corrupted is always aware of its previous state, so for this to work everybody would have to be permanently corrupted - a state in which N'zoth already won and controls everything and everybody. There is no room for player's free will driven storyline in such setting.

What I wrote is based on my knowledge of the lore, if there is stuff that I don't know I would like to rectify that!
About the Old Gods power, you may be right, I just realized they never demonstrated those kind of abilities, but that doesn't mean they don't have them. I think these kinds of illusions are a perfect fit for N'Zoth. One thing about writing is "show, don't tell", but we ever only hear that N'Zoth is extremelly smart and manipulative, we never actually see any of those manipulations and long games, we are told that even when he loses, it is for his benefit, but he just died without doing anything at all.

Also, supposedly we are all corrupted by the curse of the flesh, I get your point, you are right, what I said was never "demonstrated", but it was also never "denied" as far as I know at least

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I don't like how you want Alleria to become a villain right after she was reintroduced in the story after 20 years. That's not character development either, that's character assassination, you need time to set-up a fall from grace arc. Also completely removing the Void Elves is lazy. If you think they don't work, find a way to make them work. Simply erasing them and replacing them with High Elves is just lazy.

I didn't "erase" them, I started writing since before they were "created" so I figured I could just not mention them, and even if I wanted a Void race I would rather go with Broken than with Void Elves, no reason in creating something out of nothing when there's already estrablished lore for something that fits.

You probably didn't read all that I wrote, I don't hold it against you, I wrote a lot of text, but I'll explain the thing about Alleria. Alleria didn't actually lose herself, it was an illusion planted by N'Zoth to make the Horde think she was. N'Zoth needed a believable illusion to turn the Horde against the Alliance, and there's no one more believable to be corrupted than Alleria. It was the same with the Horde, Sylvanas is not working for N'Zoth, she was working against him, that's why he turned both the Horde and the Alliance against her, because he was scared of her and wanted someone to stop her.

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I would change two things. One thing would be the first battle between Tyrande and Nathanos and the first battle between Sylvannas and Malfurion. There is no way Nathanos and Sylvannas are able to go one on one against them. I would change changed it into a trap or something that would surprise them like having an army by their side when fighting either Malfurion or Tyrande. The second I would change is how Nzoth dies. An Azerite Bomb is not able to just kill him. I instead would have left the same ending with the Necklace.

My idea (maybe it wasn't clear, sorry for that) is that Sylvanas knows she can't defeat Malfurion, so while Saurfang is leading the Horde against the elves she is creating a trap for him, she actually spends all her energy to just trap him, and even with him falling on her trap she isn't able to kill him.

About Nathanos vs Tyrande, the point is to make Tyrande desperate to the point of risking everything just to gain more power (not much different from Illidan) so that she can defeat Nathanos, and her loosing the first time is for that purpose. Also its quite possible that Nathanos is stronger than Tyrande without her power up, the man was already a genious before dying and he is not a regular undead, he is more a "Death Knight" than a Forsaken, and Death Knights are ridiculously overpowered.

The Bomb was a fun way to use Gallywix's cannon on Azshara, at least you have to give me that. Also making Gallywix resistant to the whispers because even N'Zoth can't bullshit him actually gives something positive to a character that until now demonstrated no "redemptive" characteristics.

[Varodoc]

I didn't "erase" them, I started writing since before they were "created" so I figured I could just not mention them, and even if I wanted a Void race I would rather go with Broken than with Void Elves, no reason in creating something out of nothing when there's already estrablished lore for something that fits.

You probably didn't read all that I wrote, I don't hold it against you, I wrote a lot of text, but I'll explain the thing about Alleria. Alleria didn't actually lose herself, it was an illusion planted by N'Zoth to make the Horde think she was. N'Zoth needed a believable illusion to turn the Horde against the Alliance, and there's no one more believable to be corrupted than Alleria. It was the same with the Horde, Sylvanas is not working for N'Zoth, she was working against him, that's why he turned both the Horde and the Alliance against her, because he was scared of her and wanted someone to stop her.

Weren't you rewriting BfA's story? The Ren'dorei were already a thing in BfA. So you erased them. Besides there is established lore for Void elves too ----> See Alleria Windrunner and High Astromancer Solarian.

The only part about Alleria I could find is one bit where you mention how she succumbed to the whispers with N'Zoth freed and was trying to summon the Void in Tirisfal Glades. The armies of the two factions confront her and she mysteriously vanishes from the story.

Also I don't understand that explanation. So the real Alleria is fine, N'Zoth just created a fake one to deceive the two factions.... how does his plan succeed? Can't the real Alleria just say "Hi, I'm the real Alleria, I'm fine. Don't listen to my creepy copy created by N'Zoth. To prove that I'm the real one, I'll help you stop the fake one. You can tell the Horde that they are being deceived."

[Kokolums]

I always liked to write and it is my dream to be a writer some day, I hope you enjoy it but I have to warn you: I tryed to keep it small but its a long read.

we will have a story about a war created by N’Zoth manipulating the factions against one another

NO.

One of the ways Blizzard writing is VERY tired is that no-one ever takes full responsibility for their actions anymore. If someone does something wrong, there's ALWAYS an excuse. I was corrupted. I was misled. I had bad parents. I had a bad hair day. A fresh take at this point would be for someone to do something wrong and own it.

Maybe take a young hero that had everything handed to them on a silver platter by wonderful parents and a loving home and family, and it turns out they are just a bad egg because they are a bad egg. That would be refreshing for wow lore right now.

[Nephys]

NO.

One of the ways Blizzard writing is VERY tired is that no-one ever takes full responsibility for their actions anymore. If someone does something wrong, there's ALWAYS an excuse. I was corrupted. I was misled. I had bad parents. I had a bad hair day. A fresh take at this point would be for someone to do something wrong and own it.

Maybe take a young hero that had everything handed to them on a silver platter by wonderful parents and a loving home and family, and it turns out they are just a bad egg because they are a bad egg. That would be refreshing for wow lore right now.

You are right, but the purpose of what I wrote was to create a world where what you said can happen. After both factions have commited these atrocities it would make sense for pretty much anyone (possibly even Thrall) to do evil things. Perhaps I should have included some of those on BFA but I wanted to focus on N'Zoth and his machinations.

The world of Azeroth is too "good" to make a fun story. Everyone knows whats the right things and wants to do it, I wanted to make it a bitter world filled with hatred and regret in order to fuel future stories just like what you mentioned. It makes me sad that you didn't like my story though, but thanks for sharing!

[Nephys]

Weren't you rewriting BfA's story? The Ren'dorei were already a thing in BfA. So you erased them. Besides there is established lore for Void elves too ----> See Alleria Windrunner and High Astromancer Solarian.

The only part about Alleria I could find is one bit where you mention how she succumbed to the whispers with N'Zoth freed and was trying to summon the Void in Tirisfal Glades. The armies of the two factions confront her and she mysteriously vanishes from the story.

Also I don't understand that explanation. So the real Alleria is fine, N'Zoth just created a fake one to deceive the two factions.... how does his plan succeed? Can't the real Alleria just say "Hi, I'm the real Alleria, I'm fine. Don't listen to my creepy copy created by N'Zoth. To prove that I'm the real one, I'll help you stop the fake one. You can tell the Horde that they are being deceived."

Ill answer first about Alleria, in my story the players who have the "gift of N'Zoth" will plant different illusions in order to maipulate the factions against one another. For the Alliance Sylvanas is working for the Old Gods, for the Horde Alleria is working for them, but in truth none of them is. This works because they are in War, Alleria can't just walk into Orgrimar and explain everything, the same for Sylvanas on Stormwind.

The Ren'dorei were added as part of the pre order of BFA, but I don't think the point where I decided to begin matters that much, the real discussion would be about wether the void elves are a positive addition or not. Personally they are one of my favorite races, but its also true that they came from nowhere, and that is especially bad since people were asking for High Elves for so long. Also "they are just blood elves with blue eyes" is not valid because that didn't stop other races like the Highmountain from happening.

[Varodoc]

Ill answer first about Alleria, in my story the players who have the "gift of N'Zoth" will plant different illusions in order to maipulate the factions against one another. For the Alliance Sylvanas is working for the Old Gods, for the Horde Alleria is working for them, but in truth none of them is. This works because they are in War, Alleria can't just walk into Orgrimar and explain everything, the same for Sylvanas on Stormwind.

The Ren'dorei were added as part of the pre order of BFA, but I don't think the point where I decided to begin matters that much, the real discussion would be about wether the void elves are a positive addition or not. Personally they are one of my favorite races, but its also true that they came from nowhere, and that is especially bad since people were asking for High Elves for so long. Also "they are just blood elves with blue eyes" is not valid because that didn't stop other races like the Highmountain from happening.

Didn't you say the war started precisely because N'Zoth cloned Alleria and used the copy to start tensions with the Horde? Which means that Alleria could warn the two factions before Fake Alleria can start causing havoc.

Background is boring. That's lore, and most people don't care about lore, they care about story. The Ren'dorei might not have a rich background, but they have a lot of story potential and their rise is being told in their introduction questline. I'll always prefer something with a lot of story potential and little background, than something with 0 story potential and 30 different customs.

[Rozz]

NO.

One of the ways Blizzard writing is VERY tired is that no-one ever takes full responsibility for their actions anymore. If someone does something wrong, there's ALWAYS an excuse. I was corrupted. I was misled. I had bad parents. I had a bad hair day. A fresh take at this point would be for someone to do something wrong and own it.

Maybe take a young hero that had everything handed to them on a silver platter by wonderful parents and a loving home and family, and it turns out they are just a bad egg because they are a bad egg. That would be refreshing for wow lore right now.

There is a difference though. I don't think people are tired of this trope, I think they're tired of poor execution. A reason for conflict that builds the world is always preferable to forced set pieces and dropping inconvenient threads. It would be refreshing for the writers to maintain continuity and believable consequences no matter what trope is used.

[matrix123mko]

I love it. Ashira smells like self insert but it is overall better than BfA. The ending feels satisfying. Both sides are morally grey. Also, I get the naga.

But why did the Forsaken change leaders?