What do you think most Horde characters felt about the Burning of Teldrassil?

[OwenBurton]

I am surprised that during Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard seemed to almost skate over the "elephant in the room". Remember in Mists of Pandaria, there was heavy discontent and internal tension from very early on, with lots of different leaders such as Baine and Vol'jin and even Sylvanas criticizing and resenting Garrosh Hellscream's policies and actions. Vol'jin himself went as far as threaten to literally shoot an arrow through Garrosh's heart, and that was long, long before Theramore and Pandaria.

But in Battle for Azeroth, right after the War of the Thorns and the night elf genocide, most of the Horde leaders and the Horde characters seemed to be fine with the Burning of Teldrassil and everything Sylvanas did. Look how quickly Lor'themar and even Baine Bloodhoof (both of whom had ties with major Alliance characters) and most of the Horde military forces rushed to defend the Undercity at Sylvanas's command without commenting on Teldrassil or anything that just happened in Kalimdor.

Some Horde characters such as Rexxar became even more hostile towards the Alliance during the war than before, not less, even vowing to kill Jaina herself, and most of the Horde army still continued to invade Kul Tiras and attack Stromgarde and fight in places such as Darkshore and Ashenvale against the night elves regardless, remaining loyal to Sylvanas. It is implied that even after Saurfang openly started his revolution, most of the Horde actually remained with Sylvanas (although most of their leaders might have gone with Saurfang).

So what did most of the Horde characters actually think about the Burning of Teldrassil, not just the major leaders and fighters, but for example, the average person in Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon and Suramar? What did most tauren and trolls and blood elves and nightborne think about what Sylvanas did? Were they celebratory, or upset, or mostly indifferent for the most part? Why did most Horde characters seem to reel at Garrosh's actions, but seem to openly support those of Sylvanas?

[RadasNoir]

As always, the Horde leaders are only worried when one of their own is threatened. Clearly, attempted genocide is no biggie as far as they are concerned.

But Sylvanas was mildly dismissive to them once during a fit of rage, so obviously they deserve to be forgiven.

[Shadowferal]

You're comparing MoP where Taran Zhu condemned the factions as an excuse for a race war, and BfA, which was all about excusing anything for the sake of having a race war.

Horde characterization would have felt horror at the attempted genocide and foreboding at the consequences. The more honorable, would have quit the Horde and reached out, notably the tauren through the druids kinda becoming a real-life version the "Red Cross/Crescent."
The Pandaren as a whole strove for a middle ground, but the Burning would have been a shove beyond the pale firmly into Alliance arms.

[voidox]

As always, the Horde leaders are only worried when one of their own is threatened. Clearly, attempted genocide is no biggie as far as they are concerned.

lol true

in particular, it's even worse for Thalyssra who was all "oh I'm not like Elisande" to Tyrande, then the literal next expansion is fighting in a world war against them, on the front lines and everything. She had nothing to do or even say to the night elves after the genocide. Like, did she even care about her kin being massacred like that anytime in the expansion? has she actually done anything to help the night elves in any way after the genocide?

instead, she seemed more interested in pursuing a stupid romance with Lor'themar

at least in the SL 9.2 finale dialogue, Lor'themar acknowledges this part of how they still followed Sylvanus after the genocide. At least they had him realise that, saying: "Perhaps, in the end, judgment will come for me as well."

same for some the other leaders (tbf, not all of them would care, like Geya'rah), it's so dumb how they all just followed along with Sylvanus post-genocide, and only did something way later cause she was mean to them and tried to mind control Derek.

But Sylvanas was mildly dismissive to them once during a fit of rage, so obviously they deserve to be forgiven.

b-but she called them all nothing!!!! like omg, that was so evil and terrible and they deserve to be forgiven after being called that, poor things.

No need for the horde to give the night elves any sort of reparations for their involvement in the genocide, heck, the horde are completely fine to keep going into night elf territory and contesting land (as we see in SL book).

I'm sure the horde will also be seeing a personal apology from "all about renewal now" Tyrande, where she'll be sorry about being "too aggressive" over that small genocide matter that was totally only sylvanus's fault and doing.

[Super Dickmann]

Canonically? Apathy. There was no mass movement of opposition after Teldrassil, even Sadfang only rebelled because he was assmad about the idea of Lordaeron Keep being a trap. The majority of the Horde stuck with Sylvanas to the point of her having numerical superiority to the rebel + Alliance forces in front of Orgrimmar in both 8.2.5 and the Sylvanas book, while her opposition consisted of the racial leaders who didn't even have support among their populations, per Bob and the tauren arresting Baine. The idea of basing the entire Horde story around self-flagellation and then self-abolition was nonsense but Blizzard's ineptitude meant they botched even that.

[Skytotem]

Both in and out of game I think most people were upset.

There was no motivation and no real benefit, it was just senseless villainbatting.

[RadasNoir]

in particular, it's even worse for Thalyssra who was all "oh I'm not like Elisande" to Tyrande, then the literal next expansion is fighting in a world war against them, on the front lines and everything. She had nothing to do or even say to the night elves after the genocide. Like, did she even care about her kin being massacred like that anytime in the expansion? has she actually done anything to help the night elves in any way after the genocide?

You don't understand, Tyrande was rude to Thalyssra the one time, so obviously both Thalyssra and the rest of the Nightborne are totally justified in being completely apathetic to the attempted genocide of their former kin.

I'm sure the horde will also be seeing a personal apology from "all about renewal now" Tyrande, where she'll be sorry about being "too aggressive" over that small genocide matter that was totally only sylvanus's fault and doing.

One of the few halfway decent parts of the Shadowlands ending is the fact that Tyrande actually stayed pissed and sentenced Sylvanas to comb the Maw for the souls of the Night Elves she murdered, even after Sylvanas had her soul returned to her.

But you're right; that's probably not going to last. Since they didn't have Tyrande do a character swerve in Shadowlands, that's probably the real reason why she's taking the spotlight again in Dragonflight. The Blizzard writers must think that an expansion of helping out little baby dragons should be enough for Tyrande to get over her silly "mad about her people being nearly genocided" thing.

[Aresk]

I suspect the response to the burning of Teldrassil differed greatly from one Horde person to the other. For instance, I find it difficult to believe that most of the tauren druids would've been in favor of it given their close relations with night elves. Overall I think a lot of the Horde felt pride at the victory but some level of disgust at the means--burning civilians alive isn't exactly noble behavior. Some I'm sure had no problem at all with it: they used civilians for target practice back during MoP. However, I don't think those that disliked the burning of Teldrassil had greater dislike of that action than they had trust in their faction, as evidenced by the fact that most did not revolt against Sylvanas, and those who did rebelled not because of the burning of the tree but because of Sylvanas' questionable leadership.

Also, bear in mind that Sylvanas didn't actually burn the tree down. She issued the order (and is still at fault), but it was the shamans and catapult operators that actually performed the operation. They had to know the potential civilian casualties from their actions and still acted on those orders, so we know there was enough buy in from the troops to execute it.

[Raisei]

According to the writers they were all a-okay with it. As always the Horde only reacts to atrocities when they are threatening them. Genn puts it very nicely in the new dialouge with Lor'themar.
The elf goes on about how terrible it was to follow Sylvanas orders and how bad he feels about it and Genn just drily responds: "Then you shouldn't have followed her orders." Because in reality Lor'themar couldn't care less about the Nelfs. But Judgement time has arrived and he needs to show how truly sorry he is, or he might land on the chopping block next to Sylvanas. Too bad for him that Genn doesn't buy this fake remorse.

The truth is that if Sylvanas had not arrested Baine, then the Horde would have stuck with her until the end. They would have sided with the Jailer as long as it was only the Alliance being wiped out.

[Syegfryed]

Who would not be against it?? even the most elf hater(me) don't see how this is a good thing.

Like, even if there was horde characters, who were 100% in favor of faction war, and wanted to exterminate the alliance, should see that burning that place would be bad and a waste of useful resources, it counter productive and serve no purpose.

Ocupying would bring resources, hostages, and a powerful strategic location.

Burning leave you with nothing, well, more than nothing, cause you lose a golden opportunity to build a powerhourse, you wasted resources and manpower to ultimately fail and be in a even worse situation that you were before.

Only character who would see as a good thing are the Sylvanus loyalists, some blood elves and forsaken, who only care about worship her, even if she says they are nothing. No one else would see it as good.

[LordVargK]

My initial thought was "That is a massive design flaw" considering how easy it was to destroy it.

My initial thought was:
"Blizzard has no idea that living Trees don't burn".
Honestly, the burning of Teldrassil was the most stupid event in all of Warcraft lore. It was a healthy, magical tree. Miles from the coast. Surrounded by nothing but water. Darnassus was literally build upon lakes or channels. There is water everywhere. But Blizzard was like "We are form California, we know that trees burn lol!".
And yes, magical fire, bla bla bla. Honestly, with the firepower it took to burn Teldrassil down the Horde could have won the entire war. It makes me literally angry how little thought went into that event.

[rayvio]

opinions amongst Horde who weren't present would probably depend a lot on what version of events they believed. it's unlikely that the official story was "an elf pissed Sylvanas off so she threw a pyro-tantrum" more likely it was propagandised as "they fought hard despite suffering heavy losses and were determined to fight to the last person, so we crushed their spirit by burning their home to show that our might is stronger and they should surrender. there was much honour and glory and stuff and then we of course let them evacuate the city and totally didn't gleefully murder civilians as they tried to flee"
obviously many of those who were there would have had a different story to tell. but how many dared tell it and how many would believe it?

[Accendor]

I am surprised that during Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard seemed to almost skate over the "elephant in the room". Remember in Mists of Pandaria, there was heavy discontent and internal tension from very early on, with lots of different leaders such as Baine and Vol'jin and even Sylvanas criticizing and resenting Garrosh Hellscream's policies and actions. Vol'jin himself went as far as threaten to literally shoot an arrow through Garrosh's heart, and that was long, long before Theramore and Pandaria.

But in Battle for Azeroth, right after the War of the Thorns and the night elf genocide, most of the Horde leaders and the Horde characters seemed to be fine with the Burning of Teldrassil and everything Sylvanas did. Look how quickly Lor'themar and even Baine Bloodhoof (both of whom had ties with major Alliance characters) and most of the Horde military forces rushed to defend the Undercity at Sylvanas's command without commenting on Teldrassil or anything that just happened in Kalimdor.

Some Horde characters such as Rexxar became even more hostile towards the Alliance during the war than before, not less, even vowing to kill Jaina herself, and most of the Horde army still continued to invade Kul Tiras and attack Stromgarde and fight in places such as Darkshore and Ashenvale against the night elves regardless, remaining loyal to Sylvanas. It is implied that even after Saurfang openly started his revolution, most of the Horde actually remained with Sylvanas (although most of their leaders might have gone with Saurfang).

So what did most of the Horde characters actually think about the Burning of Teldrassil, not just the major leaders and fighters, but for example, the average person in Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon and Suramar? What did most tauren and trolls and blood elves and nightborne think about what Sylvanas did? Were they celebratory, or upset, or mostly indifferent for the most part? Why did most Horde characters seem to reel at Garrosh's actions, but seem to openly support those of Sylvanas?

The whole story of BfA was about how basically the whole horde enjoyed the war and was in favor of it. Remember, they stood with Sylvanas till the very end. The horde never abandoned Sylvanas, Sylvanas abandoned the horde.

That's the Problem we will have to face forever now: The horde is fundamentally evil. Nobody really likes that, but that's were we are at.

[Darknessvamp]

Well we have to remember that prior to the Burning the Night Elves were still killing Horde labourers that were trying to get lumber from the Aszhara-Ashenvale border and before the assault on Astranaar they had mobilised most of their armed forces towards Silithius with the goal of wiping out what amounted to a division of press-ganged goblin miners, so it's unlikely they had a positive impression amongst the Horde citizenry even following the defeat of the Legion. It's also unlikely that they ever heard the true account that the Burning was the result of Sylvanas having a hissy fit and probably just accepted it was a necessary military move through the argument that occupation was unrealistic and that leaving it to stand would allow the Night Elves/Draenei the ability to reclaim it later. At most the Shamans, Druids and some of the Tauren of the Horde should have viewed the Burning as an irredeemable act due to the level of destruction it was on Azeroth especially following the Sword being stabbed into the planet but the average citizen would have probably been indifferent and even felt it was justified when the rest of the Alliance then randomly decided to (in their perspective) put together an invasion fleet in response and assault Lordaeron despite the Night Elves fueling the previous conflict.
Also the difference between Garrosh and Sylvanas in this case was:
Garrosh, be a dick to your own people, beat on pandas, newly encountered race and trying to help, because why not.
Sylvanas, be a dick to enemy elves, beat on Elves, who have caused probelms for years, because why not.

[OwenBurton]

opinions amongst Horde who weren't present would probably depend a lot on what version of events they believed. it's unlikely that the official story was "an elf pissed Sylvanas off so she threw a pyro-tantrum" more likely it was propagandised as "they fought hard despite suffering heavy losses and were determined to fight to the last person, so we crushed their spirit by burning their home to show that our might is stronger and they should surrender. there was much honour and glory and stuff and then we of course let them evacuate the city and totally didn't gleefully murder civilians as they tried to flee"
obviously many of those who were there would have had a different story to tell. but how many dared tell it and how many would believe it?

I think even compared to real life, for example, in the last world war, lots of Americans and British people might have been mildly upset that German and Japanese civilians were killed, and the same for some Germans and Japanese people during the conflict regarding other civilians. But it's not enough to make them openly stand against their government, they still reasoned that it was necessary, based on the "us versus them" mentality.

I do think it is curious that the nightborne and blood elves didn't seem to comment whatsoever on the Burning of Teldrassil though, especially given their respective histories.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

I felt upset, because I played horde at this time when it happened. I remember I was sending complaints to Blizzard and spamming them for not having a choice. Haha

[Every Pwny]

They were mostly all fine with it and continued to fight for it afterwards, just like they were fine with what garrosh was doing in cata/mop. The only thing that changed their mind was Sylvanas was torturing baine, just like in mop the thing that changed their mind was garrosh trying to assassinate Vol'jin and putting the echo isles under martial law. Someone like Rexxar was in stormsong valley leading the horde there to butcher purely civilian populations in brennadam.

[Antbregante]

One of the few halfway decent parts of the Shadowlands ending is the fact that Tyrande actually stayed pissed and sentenced Sylvanas to comb the Maw for the souls of the Night Elves she murdered, even after Sylvanas had her soul returned to her.

Pretty sure Sylvanas will be done with that really quick after all the souls I pulled out of there.

[Moonrage]

Let's not kid ourselves, most Orcs were probably euphoric when they heard of it, and so were most forsaken.

Tauren, Blood Elves and Nightborne were probably horrified.

Trolls and Goblins probably didn't care.

[Combatbutler]

For something to feel about it, they would have to be characters, not just nametags on xpack related npcs, but blizz has made it abundantly clear they can't write characters.