World of Warcraft®

**CAUTION!** You are about to enter -the- No Spin Zone...
Hah! Just kidding. But seriously, SPOILERS may be ahead, so participate at your own risk.
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From a lore standpoint, according to where we are currently (at the end of WoD);
with all that has happened to Azeroth since "vanilla",
and with all that the people of either faction have suffered together,
where then dose this conflict stand?

If it isn't clear, then what is the general consensus or "best guess"?

I know it must be an ongoing feud. If lasting peace was suddenly declared between the Horde and Alliance then the whole premise of the game would end (I would think), but then what fuels it now?

What are the Horde's goals? If they "win" what then do they get? What are they aiming for?
What are the Alliance's goals? If they "win" what do they hope to accomplish?

[edit]....or....

Is there even any point to a horde or alliance faction?

Is there a unitited front anymore?

Or, is everyone (each race) just fighting for their own reasons and they're allying with these other people (races) just to help them reach their own goals?

Really, it's hard to say for me.

When Garrosh was running things it seemed pretty clear that the old horde goals of world domination was kicked into high-gear. I'm not well versed in horde-lore and current events but it also felt like there was an air of personal vendetta where Garrosh was concerned. When his story (and leadership) ran its length it felt like his replacement (Vol'jin) might just uphold the more peaceful ideals of the "Thrall Horde", to live and let live. This was at the end of Mists of Pandaria, so it makes me wonder now where Vol'jin and his "Troll-horde" are now, that we've essentially ended Warlords of Draenor.

It seems to me that Vol'jin has the backing of the Trolls, Tauren, and Goblins. The orc seem to be rather splintered between the Garrosh-Kor'kron loyalists and the more neutral Thrall-Horde idealists (as I see it at least).

I've no clue where the Blood Elves are right now. I'd assume they've fallen back in line with Vol'jin but like the Night Elves they're a mystery card to me. I mean, I can understand why they sided with the horde in the events of Burning Crusade but it just doesn't gel with me that they'd throw away nearly 2000 years of positive alliance history with Humans to join with the very beings (orcs, trolls, forsaken) that once threatened their very annihilation. Unless there is an angle there that I'm not seeing.

On the alliance side (again, not an expert here) it seems like (at the end of MoP) Varian Wrynn put aside his anger, distrust, and personal vendetta (if only for the moment) to give Vol'jin a chance. If nothing else, to see where his leadership takes this conflict. Maybe there is more too it than this. I'm not certain if Vol'jin and Varian have any history, as Thrall and Varian do.

I can understand Jaina's position shift given her involvement and story arc from Wrath of the Lich King to Garrosh's Cataclysm atrocities. I can especially understand her personal anger at not being the one to ultimately punch Garrosh's number when it came time. She wasn't even involved, sadly. I can see her being a bit of a wild card going forward, but by and large she's with Varian. (I think.)

I'm not clear on just where the Night Elves stand. They're alliance with everyone else has always seemed like a "the lesser of two evils" decision, so as long as there is a fight to preserve Azeroth and Nature then they're on-board. Otherwise,... It seems that the Gnomes and Dwarfs will always back Varian. No idea where that leaves Gilneas as it would seem like their loyalties could be split between their human cousins in Stormwind and their saviors in Darnassus.

By and large though, I generally don't see any major rifts forming in the alliance. Then again perhaps I'm missing something.

That brings me to the Forsaken and Sylvanas.

These just seem to be a totally separate faction to me now. Theirs always felt like a alligence of convenience, which felt to me like it ran its course in Wrath of the Lich King. Since it appeared as though they're just playing along until they can figure out an appropriate exit strategy, then it'll be game-on as they give everyone the middle finger.

*head-scratch*

So, yea, I have no idea where everyone is at right now at the end of Warlords of Draenor. It would seem like this expansion would have given the races of each faction a great opportunity to solidify their bonds and come out of this expansion more united since they've essentially liberated (and saved) an entire world. Going forward I can see how the alliance could be bolstered by their Draenor-Draenei counterparts, and how the horde would in turn be bolstered by their Draenor-Orc counter parts.

Could it be possible that through this unique relationship with their Draenor counter parts they could reach some sort of armistice?

Well....

Officially, I believe there is still an armistice. Conflicts haven't flared up on Azeroth itself, which is significant because the questions that started the last war (all of them) were never answered. The Horde rebelled against Garrosh because of his methods, not because of the fact that he went to war in the first place, or because of his reasons for doing so. These could very easily resurface at any time. I'll get back to these a bit later.

On Draenor itself, we are seeing that the Alliance and the Horde militaries still do not trust each other. It's not just Ashran, but those follower and ship missions are canon as well. There have been some combined efforts, but the factions have gone from having some joint operations to having substantially none. This will be important after the Broken Front where supposedly everyone dies - especially so depending on how many "cooler heads" we lose.

But again, back in Azeroth, the geopolitical fault lines should be very much an issue as again, those matters have never been resolved. I'll focus on two in this post: the Arathi Highlands and Ashenvale forest.

Arathi:

With respect to Arathi, I've said before that regardless of how one might feel about Sylvanas's warpath through Silverpine, Gilneas, Hillsbrad, and the Plaguelands, were I in her position, I would do the same. The Forsaken have historically been unable to translate major offensives into substantive victories without using the plague and the val'kyr as force multipliers. Further from this, the war they're fighting is one of extermination, and both sides have clear eyes on this. With the capitol city itself vulnerable to attack from either an offensive through the Silverpine Valley or across Lordamere lake, I see the forsaken strategy as adopting three prongs:

1. Secure the plaguelands, link up to Quel'thalas. The mountains around the western region provide sufficient geographical barriers for fallback strongholds in Andorhol, Hearthglen, and Strathholme, if they can maintain control of the Bulwark and Chillwind Pass. The Argents are useful for clearing the scourge out, but this must all become forsaken territory if the Forsaken are to endure a future concentrated offensive from the Alliance - especially if they can open up a beachhead in the Tirisfal Glades.

2. Maintain a strong navy, with the ability to defend coastal areas from invasion.

3. Prevent armies from being able to lay hands on the Silverpine valley or Lordamere lake - otherwise the capitol is vulnerable. In this context, the attack on Gilneas makes complete sense, but the other issue is that Hillsbrad and the Arathi Highlands are a) relatively flat, and b) wide - both recipes for costly wars of attrition that are options for the Alliance and mandatory sacrifices for the Forsaken. Both need to be locked down to prevent attacks from the south. The best way of doing this is to secure at least the Thandol Span, and to deny remaining Alliance forces access to the coast.

During Legion, I would expect to see the Forsaken taking advantage of any chance to stymie their enemies in anticipation of what is to happen after the Burning Legion's defeat, if they are not putting their hooks in to make future advances easier. Think of a queen gobbling up isolated pawns to make her own side able to get a couple of promotions off later on down the road - if the Alliance allows this. I'm fairly sure that Genn, at least, has clear eyes on what might happen, and it's been suggested that he is going to play a significant role in Legion as a counterbalance to Sylvanas.

(Continued)

(Continued from above)

Ashenvale

I agree with Caileanmor on this: the Night Elves are a significant wild card. For all of the advantages their methods, druidism, and their symboitic relationship with nature have brought them, this is still a relatively primitive culture encountering World War I era technology, global trade, and new methods of magic in what is, for them, an incredibly short span of time. It would be like if we suddenly were colonized by aliens who may not necessarily be more advanced than we are in certain areas, but have still mastered space travel, and are undeniably more advanced in other areas. A lot of changes are happening all at once.

This creates two problems: a practical and a political one. Regarding the first, I would imagine that all but the most conservative and traditionalist Night Elves are going white at the prospect of being dominated by other nations, a concept that very much came to the fore during the last war, and which still looms when considering that the Alliance is actually quite capable of influencing their policy against their will.

The political one is one that's played out in RP among the big RP servers since forever ago: traditionally conservative night elves who distrust foreigners and their innovations are facing increasing pressure from those who see merit in the way people in the east are doing things, and from behind with state support of the Highborne's return, as well as the integration of groups who would have been killed on sight just a decade before. This will worsen when demon hunters start running around.

These problems would be bad enough if not for another one: the loss of immortality and the blessings of Nordrassil. It's also difficult, if not impossible, to overstate the severity of this. The specter of disease now looms over a population that just hasn't had to deal with it, for example. Worse still, while the trend has only been documented in those who were around before the War of the Ancients and the blessings of Nozdormu, many of the older Night Elves are starting to feel the effects of old age in an accelerated fashion. If I remember right, Wolfheart even suggested that Tyrande might be going blind. Considering that substantially all of the leadership is in this age range, and that there isn't really a bench of successors to draw from, we could see some intense political upheaval - where again, none has existed for a period of time longer than the lifespans of five Roman empires as measured from the founding of Rome to the fall of Constantinople - in a relatively quick fashion.

Who will emerge? Vacillating Kaldorei apologists who fritter away their country's defenses to the point where war becomes unavoidable? Ultranationalist conservatives hoping to establish a strong Night Elven state by any means necessary? Something in the middle? I don't know, but it would be interesting to find out.

On the other side of the fence, we have the Horde, which is in a period of rebuilding after not being able to find success from a war that was waged to rebuild.

Remember here that during vanilla and BC, yes, the Orcish state was established, but they have had resource problems since their inception. They have always clashed with the Night Elves due to the orcish philosophy of: "we take what we want". No Orcish leader has avoided these conflicts. Notably, after Hyjal, when there was no misunderstanding of where the borders were or who had control of Ashenvale forest - when there was a state of peace between the Night Elves and the Orcs - Thrall either ordered, allowed, and/or condoned continued acts of war in Ashenvale. Garrosh doubled down because the Orcs had another problem: Thrall never set the country up agriculturally to produce for itself, which led to a dire food crisis.

Garrosh, to his credit, implemented strong reforms in that area. Baine's short story confirms that he used the Southfury river for irrigation (despite that he later let the goblins pollute it). Several more farms pop up during his reign. Orcs line the docks for fish. In the barrens, several range-farming operations are set up. He has a firm grasp on the fact that the country needs to produce internally as well. The big open question is: is this enough? If it's not, what are future Horde leaders going to do about it?

There's also another snake in the grass with this problem in particular. When orcs like Garrosh asserted that the Horde was just in launching an invasion for the purposes of stealing resources, there was no opposition, anywhere. Even Varian and the Night Elves somehow could not be asked to take a strong stand against the idea that it's acceptable to butcher your neighbors if they have something you think you need.

(Continued - goodness this is getting long)

(Continued from above)

Night Elven druids, whose friends and loved ones were being killed and whose homes were being destroyed did nothing. The Night Elves' natural allies, such as faerie dragons, hippogryphs, and chimaera did nothing. The Draenei did nothing. The Worgen did nothing. Malfurion, even after the Molten Front business had passed did nothing. Leaving aside the events of Wolfheart, the sentinels and the civilian population were isolated. None of these groups could even raise a scathing word for what was going on - and that can only embolden future Horde acts in Ashenvale.

The best anyone got on this was when Varian made that speech in Orgrimmar, but it's important to pay attention to what he said. He didn't say that if they made acts of war on the Alliance that they would end them (presuming the Alliance even had the capability), he said if they ever abandoned "honor" the Alliance would end them. Let's think about this: Theramore per Blizzard was considered the big "Pearl Harbor" moment that galvanized the Alliance. It wasn't when the Forsaken bombed Southshore. It wasn't when the Horde rampaged across Ashenvale, or when they bombed the druidic school in Stonetalon. Civilians died in each of these conflicts, but they were not enough to truly galvanize the Alliance. I expect this to be applied to that pledge.

So, what of Tyrande then? Well, after the Siege ends, she informs the player that the Night Elves are ceding Azshara to the Horde in hopes that it will provide them with the resources they need. This seems reasonable until you consider the following:

1. The Horde chews through resources at an incredible pace, but instead of having the impetus to reform their practices, this gives a new lease on them. What happens when THOSE resources run out?

2. Ceding Azshara also concedes to the Horde's argument for war in the first place. Tyrande is confirming that it is acceptable for the Orcs to kill Night Elves for resources, even if she didn't intend to. The problem is defined as the Horde not having enough resources, as opposed to the Horde's need to develop its economic infrastructure, depend less on war - which will kill them as a society eventually, and engage in trade with their neighbors instead of trying to kill them.

3. It tells war-loving Orcs: If you win, you get everything you asked for. If you lose, you still get some of what you asked for. If orcs lined the streets protesting war dead like humans might in the case of an unnecessary war, this might not be a problem. But Orcs celebrate war, and if WoD confirmed anything, they are far more aggressive than Thrall would like us to think.

Now, the Orcs are in the political wilderness right now, and if their return to positions of power is gradual, these things may well be avoided. But if it is sudden and carried on by a charismatic leader - another Garrosh - much in the same way as it was when Thrall left power, this could translate into yet another war in Ashenvale.

The Ashenvale explanation went on for a bit longer, but I do see dominoes on both sides being set up. I would say there are more contingencies at play here, but conflict is still very much a possibility. As I said, the questions that started the last war were never truly answered. The same triggers, and motivations to pull them exist.