WarCraft IV possible factions based on current WoW retail lore

[Allarielle]

Version 1: alternate timeline immediately after the cataclysm
Faction 1: The Alliance - Mostly Humans, but with Elven, Dwarven, and Gnomish units scattered about. There might be Draenei hero units.
--- Campaign 1 would focus on rebuilding, rooting out spies and plants from the other three factions, and trying to get a foothold to fight against the sudden Twilight's Hammer presence. There would also be a major focus on investigating and coming to terms with the massive number of strange new developments that have arisen, such as new locations never before seen or dangerous artifacts going on rampage.

Faction 2: The Twilight's Hammer - Lowest tier minions would be of any of the other races, but higher tier units would all be variations of Faceless Ones and Drakonids.
--- Campaign 2 would focus on building up to Deathwing's ascension, taking over by corrupting everything in sight, and unlocking the potential of various hidden artifacts. There would also be a deceptively important role in stopping the Burning Legion's efforts, which would ultimately fail.

Faction 3: The Burning Legion - All of the various units used by the burning legion, including their robotic/mechanical units, but with a focus on the smaller more deceptive units
--- Campaign 3 would focus on covertly setting the seeds for their eventual return en masse, while weakening the other factions from the inside. It would culminate with a successful sabotage of the Twilight Hammer's master plan.

Faction 4: The Horde - Mostly Orcish, but with several Tauren and Troll units. Special campaign missions might include undead and blood elf units as special mini-factions.
--- Campaign 2 even while the world is ending around them - or especially while that is happening - the main conflict in this campaign is an internal one. The various races of the horde no longer trust each other, or in some cases don't even trust themselves, and the now known threat of legion and twilight spies and provocateurs only adds to the tension. Through all this, the final battle against Deathwing is looming, and you may need to bring in more than just your own heroes to come home alive.

- -- --- ----- --- -- -

Version 2: continuation of the WoD timeline
Faction 1: The Army of the Light - Mostly Draenei, including various techno-mechanical units. Hero units might include Broken, Half-Draenei, and Naaru.
--- Campaign 1: Newly ascendant but determined to keep it that way, the Army of the Light sweeps Draenor to stamp out all resistance and ensure that good is all that remains.

Faction 2: The Resistance - Many Orcish units at mid levels, but with lots of mechanical units and lots of tamed creatures fleshing out the roster.
--- Campaign 2: The light can't shine on what it doesn't see, and the resistance has survived so far by staying hidden. First Garrosh, now the Light, the Resistance now fights for their very existence against overwhelming forces. They may not be completely out of options, however...

Faction 3: The Burning Legion - Burning legion units with a focus on massive walking fortresses and mindless swarm tactics
--- Campaign 3: Draenor once belonged to the Legion, and nearly did so again just moments ago. The higher ups aren't happy, and bad things happen when that's the case. The light is bad news, but the Resistance has continued to... resist. It's time to come in and start building a beachhead that even the Naaru can't push back.

Faction 4: The Apexis Renaissance - Arakkoa and Ogres, yes, but also some unexpected additions
--- Campaign 4: The light is all well and good, but the impressionable and foolish Draenei aren't doing any favours for the future of Rakshar, and the fact that the other three factions even managed to destroy the world entirely in a different timeline only goes to show how unfit they are to be in power. Unfortunately, even amongst their own kind, centuries of fear and depression has made them feeble allies. It's time to rise up and prove why Rakshar has always belonged to the greatest of its own children, in a way that none of the other three factions will ever be able to forget...

- -- --- ----- --- -- -

Version 3: the Arathi, long ago
Faction 1: The Araithi - mostly small foot soldiers and lynxes, but with occasional siege weapons and commander units that can boost all the others.
--- Campaign 1: Newly arrived in the new world, lead by the ever reliable visions of their divine leader, the Arathi must struggle to make landfall and build up their civilization against the innumerable unknowns of the new world. They took a beating in the crossing, however, and the locals are far more dangerous than they had ever imagined.

Faction 2: The Verdant Conclave - units are large but expensive, and their core mechanic focusses on building up existing units even at the cost of retreat vs. building up their outposts, army, or economy.
--- Campaign 2: Long the custodians of the wild land, the descendants of green dragons are not amused by the sudden invasion of corrupted forces from afar. Their divine leader is going to be nothing but trouble in a land already teeming with it. Worse, their appearance here, now at this time, may not have been nearly as accidental and one might at first assume...

Faction 3: The Black Tower - lots of devious tools that can lock down units, deny economy, or swallow bases whole if successfully executed, but weak in direct confrontation
--- Campaign 3: The true descendants of the Black Empire have seen better days, sure, but theirs is still the greatest civilization ever built on Azeroth, and they're not about to just let invaders take over. Unfortunately, their connection to the past may be weaker than they'd like to believe, and they aren't the only ones around with illusions of grandeur.

Faction 4: The Vaern - buildings are expensive but extremely solid, so mechanics focus on ranging squads that bring back resources to the slowly advancing front line. Once a place is taken over, it's yours for good, but you have to fight have to make that happen.
--- The largest faction on the continent, the Vaern have embraced all of its most chaotic secrets and been uplifted in turn. Theirs is an impenetrable wall beyond which the invaders will never pass... unless something goes horribly wrong on the inside.

[Biomega]

I wouldn't be surprised if a new RTS like some hypothetical WC4 does away with factions entirely in favor of some new system. Maybe a kind of mix-and-match loadout system where you "build your own faction" by filling a set number of slots from a large selection of units to serve as your "faction" in the match. Or whatever other thing that upends the traditional model.

WC would be interesting for that because it has a lot of iconic stuff going on, and so combining Death Knights with Goblin Shredders and Bear Druids or whatever could be something cool to play with. The possibilities are endless if you include broadly enough, given that things range from very primal (elementals/animals etc.) to primitive (shamanistic/druidic etc.) to futuristic (draenei/ethereal technology etc.). I could see something like that.

But fixed, rigid factions like we had in WC3? Nah. That's just not new enough for an RTS in 2024+ and you'd really have to be something very new to break into that space in any kind of mainstream way.

[Arikara]

None, because the current lore is a mess and its story a joke. WC4 released today would be a travesty and a betrayal of all that Blizzard once stood for.

Personally I don't think a direct continuation of TFT into WoW would really work for an RTS. The Horde and Alliance story is too similar without some major retcons.

If they were going to ever make a WarCraft IV then I think the factions would evolve just like the did in WC3. But this time based around the cosmic forces. Which is where the story seems to be leading us.


Order - Titanforged (Earthen, Vykrul, Giants)
Life - Elunites (Night Elves, Shapeshifters, Tauren, Trolls)
Light - Arathi Dominion (Humans, Elves, Half-elves, Draenei)
Disorder - Burning Legion Exiles (Fel orcs, Aldrachi, demons)
Death - Sinsworn (Venthyr, Stoneborn, undead)
Void - Black Empire (Aqir, Ethereals, Evolved Nerubians)

Exhibit A. What utter degeneracy. Oh, how have we fallen so low to look to the retconned cosmic flavors of all things?

[Khaza-R]

Exhibit A. What utter degeneracy. Oh, how have we fallen so low to look to the retconned cosmic flavors of all things?

Hilarious considering I am usually the one making fun of the cosmic elements of the story.

Nonetheless, the premise of the thread is a theoretical WC4 based off current WoW. Not some altnerative reality. This is simply where modern WoW is going. Like it or not.

[Syegfryed]

If it ever happens, i hope it start after war3.

Horde get goblins and blood elves amongst its units
Alliance get gnomes and night elves

We get more faction like Legion, Naga and Scourge

[Hipnos14]

I personally would do something like Total Warhammer 3, races would be categories, and you would have ''commanders'' inside each race, so for example, if you choose Orc, you can choose between 3 commanders: Blackhand, Doomhammer, or Thrall, each one would have some different units, but others would be shared, the 3 of them would have grunts for example.
You could do something like:

Humans
Anduin Lothar - Only human units
Turalyon - WC2 human units
Uther - WC3 humans

Orcs
Blackhand - Only orc units
Doomhammer - WC2 orc units
Thrall - WC3 orcs

Night Elf
Tyrande - WC3 nelfs
Malfurion - WC3 nelfs but only with druidic/animal units
Maiev - WC3 nelfs but only sentinel/warden units

Undeath
Arthas Death Knight - WC3 undeath units
Sylvanas - Units resembling more the forsaken faction from WoW
Kel'thuzad - WC3 undeath but with a focus on skeletons (no nerubians or gargoyles, for example)

In my mind a WC4 would cover WC1/WC2/WC3, and then start with DLCs so you have everything, and the game would be called just ''Warcraft''.

[Soon-TM]

A hypothetic WC4 imo should be set after whatever it happens at the end of The Last Titan. The story of WoW (after the WSS) would pick up where WC4 ended.

[Lacardar]

Storyline taking place in the near future after TLT:

1. Human, Gnomish, Dwarven races as Alliance (Azeroth)
2. Tribalic and tech races - Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Taurens as Horde (Kalimdor)
3. Eldritch races (Gilnean, Undead) as Tirisfal Faction
4. Draenic races and Arathi half-elves as Light faction
5. Elven Empire as Life faction (Night Elves, Nightborne, High Elves)
6. Denathrius forces.

[loras]

Alliance as is.

Horde as is.

Old gods & cultists.
(being unkillable is pretty much their entire thing, hence the prisons with local failsafes that could easily kill them if that were the better option)

Legion warlords & cultists.
(we only killed the leadership after all)

Scourge remnants.
(spread worldwide in the events up to SL)

And many neutrals that can be convinced, coerced or converted to your cause.

[Swarzsinne]

I actually think a new RTS would be a good way to set WoW up for a massive time skip. Set one to take place well after the world soul saga. You can re-establish faction conflict by making the factions akin to mercenary groups that are fighting (then any race can choose which faction to join). Then you don't have to try and continue the old A v H and can keep it as more of an important part of WoW's history, but not something that holds back story progression. Pop in a third faction of new entities akin to the Legion (or probably the soon to be void stuff) that they have to reluctantly work together to beat and there you go. You've skipped some years, can establish some new alliances and conflicts between factions that may have not gotten along before (Tauren should really get along well with the Night Elves).

Then just make the next WoW expansion take place after this one by sending the PC forward in time for whatever made up reason and boom, you get to keep your character but jump in time to a point with some semi-established lore but functionally a WoW 2.0 without completely rebuilding everything from the ground up.

[Triceron]

I really dig the Blackrock faction in WCRumble, so I'd say a Twilights Hammer faction with lots of Blackrock notes would be a strong contender that can match up to the Alliance and Horde. They're open enough to include any race, and they have a lot of interpersonal connections to A/H and they aren't just bound to servitude to any given group. Even if they are known to worship the Old Gods, I can see them serving anyone to use their power as a means to bring about the End Times.

[Al Gorefiend]

Warcraft 4.

Completely new continent/planet. No orcs. No humans. No dwarves/elves/undead/no anything we've seen before.

Completely new lore, absolutely nothing that already exists goes into it. Planet/continent has never made contact with Azeroth/current continents. it is in a completely different galaxy/other side of the world.

Then they can save the crossover reveal for the next decade

[Soon-TM]

Warcraft 4.

Completely new continent/planet. No orcs. No humans. No dwarves/elves/undead/no anything we've seen before.

Completely new lore, absolutely nothing that already exists goes into it. Planet/continent has never made contact with Azeroth/current continents. it is in a completely different galaxy/other side of the world.

Then they can save the crossover reveal for the next decade

That would pretty much be Warcraft in name only. Indeed, it could perfectly be a whole new franchise.

[Golden Yak]

Also don't call it Warcraft. 'Battlebuild,' that's the ticket.

[MrLachyG]

First, set it 800 years later. Then make whatever factions you want.

agree with this, it needs to be set far enough into the future that it won't affect or be affected by WoW Lore.

[Soon-TM]

• The Alliance of Lordaeron, aka Old Alliance: human/dwarf based, with some gnome and high elf representation. Roughly Lawful Neutral.
• The Spiritchasers, aka Western Horde: Orcs, Tauren, Trolls. Add a few Goblin/Vulpera units, while you're at it. Honourable, easygoing, but quite short-tempered. Mostly Chaotic Good.
• The Forsaken, aka Eastern Horde: sentient Undead and Blood Elves/Nightborne/Naga. Power-hungry and distrustful, especially towards non-elves, living folks. True Neutral.
• The Dreamweavers: Night elf/Dragon-based, especially those from the Emerald Dragonflight, with a handful of void elves and other Shadow/Nightmare units. Supremacist, xenophobic and generally Lawful Evil.

You could always add cool factions such as the Titans (with heavy Protoss vibes) or the Burning Legion (the ultimate Chaotic Evil faction) as DLCs.