Originally Posted by
Fleugen
This is not the story of Deepholm at all. In fact, Deepholm's Pillar was ALREADY destroyed. We invade because we need to restore the Pillar, and we spent almost the ENTIRE questing experience earning the trust of the Earthen there, only to THEN ally with them when the Twilight Cultists realize what we're up to and try to stop us.
And Hyjal, again, only STARTS with a Cultist attack. The ACTUAL story of Hyjal is the reawakening of the Ancients - Aviana, Goldrin, Cenarius. The Cultist attacks FUEL this story, but almost no part of the story is defending Hyjal other than the very beginning - All of the rest is awakening the Ancients to fight back. It ENDS with you removing the Twilight threat from Hyjal entirely with their assistance. This is what I mean - Relevance to the MAIN plot of the expansion should be SECONDARY, not front and center.
Highmountain isn't about us recruiting the Highmountain to stop the Legion - The Highmountain come to US, because their High Chieftan is dead and they are desperate for help. We spend the entire questing experience solving their plights, and ultimately, discover the Legion traitors within their ranks and weed them out.
Stormheim isn't about stopping the Legion from killing Odyn, it doesn't even start with the Legion at all - Sylvanas has plans and Genn wants to stop them. Then Odyn recruits you for his tournament, believing you a worthy soul - Which is when you discover that the Legion has gained a foothold in one of the Vrykul settlements, and their champion to the tournament is one of those Vrykul. While, yes, your intent is to stop him - You spend almost the entire questing experience doing the trials for Odyn's tournament instead, only culminating in the dungeon where you finally kill him.
This isn't the case for Shadowlands zones. The Anima problem fuels every need for us to be there. The Anima problem is directly caused by the Maw, the main problem of the expansion. The fact is that it's all the same story in neat little packaging - The leadership of the various Shadowlands zones are corrupt, some due to blindness, others due to greed - But they all decide they need to hoard all the Anima they can. That's the story of EVERY Shadowlands zone.
I believe in bolding for emphasis. You don't have to consider bolded words right, it just means I'm putting more emphasis on them. :shrug: