Sylvanas Windrunner - good or evil?

[Varithorn1]

She's a lone wolf. Although allied with the horde, she still has her own personal agenda(see: revenge for Arthas turning her into a Banshee). She's friendly enough with the Horde, but is on the edge of the gang. She can take it or leave it, but probably won't do something stupid and rash to make 9 factions hate her.

[Lightning4]

Neutral. By no means is she anything close to good, but she's not outright evil. In fact, she's shown that she still has some grasp on her former life and mentality (The Ghostlands pendant).

She's vengeful against Arthas, but I see no reason that she really harbors anything more than mild resentment against the alliance and humans. No more than any other high/blood elf, at least.

I'm curious what will happen if the focus of her hatred does die. We don't know what will happen to Arthas yet, but death is certainly possible. But not only her, what happens to the Forsaken? Do they actually start looking for a cure for their undeath? Do they just quiet down and maybe start rebuilding Lordaeron?

I don't think Sylvanas is foolish enough to start lashing out at random against the Alliance. It'll put her at further odds with the alliance (than they already are, of course), and it'll also put her against Thrall and a large part of the horde.

Of course, that'd be a semi-decent plot device to carry into the Maelstrom. Peace from a lore standpoint is what everyone wants, but not what the gamers or what Blizzard really wants. I'm going to guess the Garrosh/Varian stuff will be resolved by Icecrown so they'll need something new to facilitate conflict between the factions.

[SilverLynx]

She isn't good OR evil. She's UNDEAD.

Clearly not one of you "OMGSHE'SEVIL" twits have played a forsaken and played them through all the lore quests in brill (and the ghostlands).

Forsaken are not perfectly normal souls in deformed bodies. Part of that deformed nature has actually TOUCHED their souls. Most (and I do mean nearly all) Forsaken have completely lost their capacity for compassion, love, happiness, and most general, positive feelings. This isn't merely "emo-bitterness" but a part of being undead. Many of the lore quests for the Forsaken demonstrate how Forsaken characters can't understand why they no longer care about people they love. It's mystifying to them that they still have trinkets from the past. Oftentimes quests concerning their human lives end with the quest giver saying "I don't know why I thought this would make me feel something, but it really didn't. Here, take the trinket from my past. I don't care about it."

What does this have to do with Sylvannas? Even Sylvannas struggles with a loss of her attachment to life, even though she was the original 'forsaken', and spent minimal time under the Lich King's control. When she murders the human and the forsaken her response is amusement - not because she is in a state of actively enacting violence on the horde or alliance, but that the toxin is effective against both the living and the the dead (in her mind, the Cult of the Damned as well as any undead member of the scourge). She is hyper-focused on her revenge against Arthas, and would not have considered using that toxin against her alllies against Arthas (in that, she'd consider both the Horde and the Alliance allies - anyone who kills Scourge is acceptable to her).

So in the case of "did she know that Putriss would use the toxin on both the Horde and the Alliance"? No, she didn't. And she wouldn't have considered it.

In the case of Putriss' betrayal of the Horde, Sylvannas is innocent.

[Elementium]

She's a lone wolf. Although allied with the horde, she still has her own personal agenda(see: revenge for Arthas turning her into a Banshee). She's friendly enough with the Horde, but is on the edge of the gang. She can take it or leave it, but probably won't do something stupid and rash to make 9 factions hate her.

After their revenge is complete would she even care who loves and hates her? Once the Lich Kings dead I think a good amount of Forsaken will be happy to rest in peace.

[Shelly]

Of all the members of the Horde the Forsaken really do come the closest to being considered classically "evil."

They take slaves, they work on a plague which would effect non-sentient undead as well as the living (sorry but most of the undead story lines are about figuring out ways to enhance the scourge plague), and let's face it, it's hard to trust the guy who essentially looks upon you as food. (Cannibalize racial ability.)

Also one of the core tenants of their religion, the worship of darkness, is a constant rejection of all that one would normally consider "good."

It's just really hard to cast them in any light other than well ... evil.

However as their story progresses it becomes rather clear that they know how scarce they are in number. They can't just go off on their own. That's the thing that keeps them in check and ensures Sylvanas' loyalty. She knows that without the reinforcements of the horde and their constant threat to the alliance on Kalimdore and elsewhere that her people could be wiped out.

So if you were going by D&D character alignments you'd probably have to rate her as Lawful Evil. She's not good but she won't betray her alliance, not until or unless her people can be totally insulated from their actions and come out ahead.

[Vongimi]

The Royal Apothecary Society is an alchemical society based in the Apothecarium in Undercity. It was created by Lady Sylvanas Windrunner in order to create a new Undead plague to wipe out the scourge and other forms of life. Its members are all Forsaken or other types of Undead beings who joined Sylvanas' cause. They are constantly brewing up new plagues to unleash upon Sylvanas' enemies. The other races of the Horde believe they are working on a remedy to cure their "illness". Members of the Apothecary society are called Apothecaries. Due to repeated failures by the society to make a new plague of undeath, Sylvanas has recruited necromancers to find other means of raising slain enemies to her cause. If the society cannot finish their master plague soon, they may find their society disbanded by Sylvanas

- Horde Player's Guide (Yes it counts)

And yes, the books are official they count too. Alot of the times in game there are events based off the books, like Anveena at the sunwell.

Time is a luxury that is not afforded to those of us under the employ of Lady Sylvanas. Surely you know this by now. As a member of the Royal Apothecary Society it is my duty to share my knowledge with my colleagues so that our collective efforts might one day provide The Dark Lady with the New Plague she so badly desires. Take these findings to Apothecary Renferrel who is stationed at The Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest. Follow the roads to the south from Brill. From the Undercity go southwest.

-Quest: Delivery to Silverpine Forest

Arthas's numbers are overwhelming. But with a New Plague we could eradicate both the Scourge Army and the Human infestation once and for all.

- Quest: A Recipe For Death

The Royal Apothecary Society, a sect of Forsaken alchemists, are fanatically loyal to the Dark Lady. Recently, the alchemists were assigned by Sylvanas to a project to create a master Plague, similar to Ner’zhul’s, to wipe out the living races as well as the Scourge. The apothecary Faranell heads the project, constructing a New Plague to wipe out all of humanity and the Forsaken’s nemesis, the Scourge. So far, the Society has not yet produced results. Since the world at large refuses to accept them as people instead of undead, they will continue their dark designs to eliminate all non-Forsaken life forms on Azeroth. However, at this point their Plague kills only humans, and doesn’t affect the Scourge at all. The Royal Apothecary Society believed that their usefulness to the Dark Lady may be coming to an end. They were afraid that if they could not finish their master Plague, they might find their Society disbanded. Due to repeated failures by the society to make a New Plague, Sylvanas started recruited necromancers to find other means of raising slain enemies, into her cause.

- Horde Player's Guide, also shows how the royal apothecary society may have started to veer away from Sylvanas. But the end result was still the same.



Shes evil, /endthread.

[archform]

- Horde Player's Guide (Yes it counts)

And yes, the books are official they count too. Alot of the times in game there are events based off the books, like Anveena at the sunwell.

-Quest: Delivery to Silverpine Forest

- Quest: A Recipe For Death

- Horde Player's Guide, also shows how the royal apothecary society may have started to veer away from Sylvanas. But the end result was still the same.



Shes evil, /endthread.

/revivethread

her number one concern is survival
then revenge
then i dont know

so what did she do thats evil again?*that doesnt count as self preservation*

was the plague crap her idea?

[Vongimi]

/revivethread

her number one concern is survival
then revenge
then i dont know

so what did she do thats evil again?*that doesnt count as self preservation*

She has no compassion like was said earlier, showing that she will take any means neccessary, no matter the moral implications of it, to do what she wants. I remember somewhere saying that she wanted to create a world where Forsaken were dominent and pretty much everyone was forsaken, thus she is pretty much just like Arthas. Ill see if I cant dig that up somewhere.

But all in all, i wouldnt put it past blizz to retcon some of this stuff and make her good. Probably gonna have something to do with alleria.

[Hattai]

*waits for Kovacs to enter the thread spouting "HUR HUR ALL HORDE IZ EVUL" and claiming that the alliance are so good and pure they fart sunshine and fairy dust*

[archform]

*waits for Kovacs to enter the thread spouting "HUR HUR ALL HORDE IZ EVUL" and claiming that the alliance are so good and pure they fart sunshine and fairy dust*

i say everything evil in the game
is everything that is attackable
otherwise neutral or good for everything else
most conflict starts from a misunderstanding or a accident
so no one is really at fault
*kinda

[Deleted]

PPL get used to it and stop creating threads, Sylvanna will never be evil, because of gameplay!

The Forsaken needs Leader and there is no such a big lore charachter as Sylvanna is among the Forsaken. Few Argent Dawn knights we not count..

So imagine the situation: Sylvanna declares war on Horde and Alliance and loses. She is dead and her people will be leaded with who? Faranel? Argent Dawn? Thrall himself ?

Till the wow end Sylvanna will remain good, get used to it

[Abelino]

At least she's sexy, with exeption for her red eyes.