Last time these heatmaps were posted they were rightfully critisied for massive Alliance bias and assumptions based off of nothing, and yet they've been reposted, unchanged.Why?
The plaguelands are not "neutral", you've drawn a huge blue line from the bulwark across a chunk of it, despite the Alliance mission there being lead by and only mentioning Chillwind Camp.The justification for Alliance apparently owning all of Tirisfal was also the Battle for Lordaeron scenario despite the updated world showing no remaining Alliance troops and instead lingering Forsaken defenders, along with the Alliance troops being called out as returning from Tirisfal in the Horde jailbreak scenario. The mission quoted just says Forsaken troops are marching "toward Tirisfal" and that the Alliance want to stop them. No mention of where the Alliance are deploying from, nor their holdings.Then you've got Gilneas, marked entirely in blue also, despite the sole mission mentioning it being Undead Rising which just mentions Forsaken "marching on Gilneas". Again, why are we to believe that the Alliance holds all this land when similar comments on Horde missions only give them small dimples of red (looking at north Silverpine especially here).
An interesting thing about the Black Dragon Island invasions, when I killed Tyrantion (one of the BD mini bosses) he said "We will not be lost to time" Makes me wonder if the Infinite Dragon Flight are now trying to erase the Black Dragon flight from the timeline. After all the ID seem to have a thing about killing the 'bad people' making 'bad decisions' before they do so....
What about the Mounted Resistance mission that hints at Tarren Mill being under Alliance as it says that Horde forces are to infiltrate Wildhammer roost and the location is Tarren Mill?
I love all these background stories going on here, it sets up so much for the future so Blizz don't have to make random #$%^ up for new expansions down the line.
I've discovered another mystery with the blood plague: There must be two blood plagues.First bloog plagueIn King's Rest the dungeon kompendium for The Golden Serpent says: "Kings' Rest has come under attack before. After a foolish troll tried to summon Hakkar the Soulflayer to this island many millennia ago, the priests of Zandalar created a mighty construct to defend this tomb. The Golden Serpent has stood against intruders ever since, judging who is worthy to enter these sacred halls."Also a plaquard before the halls of xx says: "BEWARE - The Soulflayer's touch may yet abide here. If you become infected, leap off this bridge. Better to die quickly than unleash the plague on Zandalar again."The dungeon kompendium also says about Mchimba: "There was once a caste of Zandalari whose purpose was to preserve and defend the remains of past rulers. But when a terrible plague of corrupted blood tore through the empire, it was too risky for mortals to handle the dead. Golems were summoned for the grim work of preservation and burial: they have been used ever since."The last placard says: "HERE LIES - Dazar, the First King. He who raised us beyond the curse of blood. He who defied the Dark One. He who built an empire."So Hakkar spread a blood plague, and the Zandalari start to handle this thread use golems to do the burial. Dazar defeated the curse of blood and defied the "Dark One". This must happens long ago, when the trolls arise...also long before the war with the Aquir (-15.000) started, because Dazars reign was the first period, and before the war with the Aquir many different trolltribes where established. It also explained the aversion of Zandalari against Hakkar.Second blood plagueThe second blood plague, where the blood trolls eventually derive from, occured in the end of the period when the council of tribes rules and the Zandalari finally beginns to burn their death tribemembers, like the Urn of passage mentioned. This means, the blood plague they face in this time cannot be same plague when King Dazar was in charge. We know G'huun is responsible for the development of the blood trolls, deriving from the Zandalari who lived in Nazmir and resulted in the abandon of the area.So the questions are:What is the connection between Hakkar and G'huun? Is Hakkar a tool of G'huun or are they totaly separated?-->both uses blood magic, and booth are able to give thier whorshippers the power to draw life/blood from thiere enemys-->Dazar refers to Zul in King's Rest that he once fought against his Master, but how did he know about G'huun or is he mistaken G'huun with Hakkar, because both foes use this corrupted blood magic?When was the first time G'huun is able to reach outside or let his blood magic flow outside of Uldir?-->personally i think when the first sigil in Atul'Aman was destroyed in the battle between Mythrax and Sethraliss or at latest by the sundering, when Zandalar was shattered, maybe the prison also was damaged.
I think it's important to point out for the elemental lords section of this post that Lord Smolderon, the fire elemental we helped become the new fire lord of the fire lands during the Shaman class hall campaign during Legion is gone. We find out during the Dark Iron quest chain a sect of Dark Irons are tryin to resurrect Ragnaros.
If only any of this was shown in the actual game, huh?
Mission text should not be trusted. Some missions feature NPCs that were killed before and quite a bit of described conflicts are logistically impossible or contradictive, like Barrens at War claims that Bael Modan is functioning, while it was reduced to rubble in Cata. Ashenvale missions are another myth, since as per The Good War, the Horde has captured the forest almost entirely, and is quite comfortable to use its roads as supply routes, which in turn makes any assault on Crossroads impossible. These little pieces of text were always just something for players to read as they send orders out.I am surprised the article does not mention sightings of Taunka on Jorundall (who seem to be wielding some dark magic, subjugating elementals) and Necromancers in Havenswood. Granted, they do not have a quest item associated with them, but I feel they deserve a mention. It has been a long time since we have interacted with them.
I loved reading all of this! I did all the quest of the mission table of the horde and alliance (well this side still have some missions to complete), also the achievement "tell me a tale" was awesome to do!, I like how they are preparing the scenario for new things to explore and discover maybe in this expansion or the next one, sad thing few players I know like to do expedition islands :( to talk about this.I will keep this in my favorites to read it again <3
Just wanna point out, regarding the Gnome who says "Big G doesn't like it when I talk too much,", you wrote in the article that he's talking about Gallywix. And although the nickname sounds very goblin-ish, it's worth nothing that "Big G" could also, technically, refer to Gelbin Mekkatorque.
@vbriss these are great points and I've modified the Black Dragonflight text to show there are more besides Ebyssian, but he's one of the few we've interacted with recently.The other points are interesting, but I think they may fit better in followups that focus on one specific topic, like the Taunka could be in a post compiling new developments with Elementals in BFA. Havenswood could also be expanded to cover the flavor text on the Risen Mare, as well as the names of the transmog items. Could be interesting in a 'how do Island environments tell stories' post, which I believe they want to do more of in 8.2 with Crestfall.
looks like that mission table map battles would be better if we actually did them as our chars rather then the followers,that would have given more immersion given the bfa is HvA exp and in reality random incursions seem kinda meh. Shame that the mission table is still present in the game when ppl hated it in WoD and in Legion but hey dont you guys have phones right
I would take mission table lore with a grain of salt, considering that some of them have you fighting figures who have died already, or have you sending your followers out to fight the opposite factions' followers. The mission "Orgrimmar Armory" for instance has Shandris as the main objective. Or have dubious lore, as some comments already pointed out.
As much i am excited with this "Little bits of lore scattered around the world"It'll be suck when next expansion came out and these lores are just forgotten.The possibility of Ragnaros being revived using Azerite is what intrigued me the most, honestly.And a possible revamp of the world (cata 2.0), aftermath of Battle of Azeroth.
Most people hate the mission tables. Especially now that the rewards are so lackluster. Putting story there is just.. bad. Like someone above already said, why not have the player actually *experience* some of these things? I would rather this be published as a novel I can read in one sitting rather than drips through the mission table.
Seems like there's a lot of work that went into this content. Shame it sits behind one of the most boring aspects of this expansion.
You know what would be cool?If these events were actually in-game instead of behind a mission table. Like come on, if you want this game to feel like a war, you need to make it actually feel like a war..