So Calia will be like Gauldoth Half-dead from Heroes of might and Magic 4 death campaign?
I had kept with the posts here but it has gotten too crowded now so I just wanna leave a few things I read earlier on.Calia did not act well, as pointed out by Anduin and even figured out by Sylvanas. She acted on her own and while certainly she is the rightful heir of Lordaeron, Sylvanas is its current leader and what you end up having is a battle of politics and who plays their cards right against whom. Look at it with Stromgarde as example, how Galen while being an undead was claiming it as his right, had Danath come back before Galen was killed by the Ebon Blade you could have expected some power struggle within that kingdom and would had been something interesting to see. And yes, I understand its different since they are part of the same lineage but it is possible that you may get the idea.Im sure we will read more about the reconstruction of Stromgarde Keep in the book.Anduin explains Sylvanas actions as correct, because they are. Anduin could start a war for this but it would not be 100% defendable, defectors can be killed if given the opportunity before they are in the protection of another faction, now if Sylvanas had sent units into Alliance territory to assassinate those targets, thats a whole different story. Calia acted wrong and she could have laid her claim of Lordaeron in a much different and effective way, thats where her naivety shows up. She could have easily used the support of the Alliance to slowly do so or even to enforce her claim. But with the events that we know will unfold, she must definitely will have her opportunity to become more of a leading role with the Alliance taking over the North Eastern Kingdoms. This plot seems quite interesting now and perhaps we can see the land finally heal in the Plaguelands without the presence of the Forsaken.About the resurrection; Light and Death magics are not opposite. Life and Death are, Light and Void are. If you want to think from a lore perspective what would hurt more a Forsaken I would argue that it is Life magic from say, druidic magic that would actually do so, while Light one is just discomforting, most likely because Light and Life are somewhat working together but Life to a lesser extend (Check out Light Artifact Weapons relics). For quite sometime now we have seen that the lore is being written towards allowing the undeath coexist with the use of the Light as long as its wielder can channel it properly.As for Calia coming back, we are talking about a Naaru, she had recently died and lore resurrections are very few and require a considerable amount of energy/power. I think that we can agree that the way it was portrayed seems reasonable enough to accept that she could be brought back to life. Sure, Naaru are not these impossible to kill and godlike beings as we saw with Xe'ra but they still posses A LOT of power. And it took a VERY beefed up Illidan to somewhat manage to break out of the bonds then kill a weakened one. Im pretty sure that one with the help of very powerful light users can achieve this resurrection.Anduin becoming A leader, I dont know why people are so surprised by this? Anduin is a very liked figure and his growth through MoP and Legion was something that made the story just overall BETTER. And it became somewhat obvious that for him to keep doing so his father had to be out of the picture since Varian's shadow was covering his and not letting it grow. The book focusing on him is only natural and just continues this path. Again, we only saw a lot of extra on his side, Sylvanas may be doing a whole lot more in the full book.Thinking that he may become an actual leader for Azeroth as a whole? We dont know... We could very well be seeing some sort of Light vs Void content soon and perhaps he is only the leader of the Light wielders, it would certainly be very out of character if he succumbed to the Void (Dark path as Arthas did) with all the growth that he has had to endure. But remember his comic and how he is "destined" to lead alongside Velen in the future unless/until retconned.Sylvanas shooting her own people because it could be that they are returning to her only because of fear and making her look like a tyrant ruler, how is this any different to the general creation of Forsaken? When you are risen you are given two options, join the Forsaken or be given your Last Death. THIS IS how Sylvanas has always ran her faction, again, hopefully you can read my previous post about it because everything regarding Sylvanas has to be seen as very sceptically and for me at least, I always expect the worse out of her. *hint* mind control *hint*As I mentioned before, the possibility that Sylvanas gets taken completely out of the picture is a pleasant one for me. There is no room for true gray as long as she is there, if you check my previous comment on which I list what were and what have been the general goals of the Forsaken from its first day of being claimed as a faction then you can see why. For the Forsaken to finally be just a "misunderstood" faction of people who succumbed to Arthas in his path to become the Lich King and of future undeath that may be risen to have another shot at living (as we will see in BfA Lilian Voss questline), then Sylvanas has to go, she seeks only revenge and hatred. She is not some amazing leader to me, I would put her in the same light as Grom, revered leaders who actually took their people down the same path even when given different opportunities, but for whatever reason people grow fond of characters like these.But in the end, we dont know if the story will be written into a redemption arc for her, personally I enjoyed this sample very much. Take off your faction pride blindfold (for both sides) and understand that the characters are in constant growth, but there are some that are not going to ever change, as well for some it may take much longer. And yes, this can lead to a lot of issues when Blizzard has decided to make everything lawful good and shades of gray and all that crap, but we are just here to go along the ride, we are not in charge of it. You don't have the option to simply oppose your faction in a decision that YOU (as your very and specific individual) find morally wrong.
IMO, you have very emotional leaders on both sides that triggered them to do heinous acts.Greymane lost his child to Sylvanas and he saw the Horde's retreat on Broken Shore as a betrayal. If you played Horde, you know there's more than meets the eye; Vol'jin was terribly wounded and Sylvanas' troops were losing hence they retreated. They're relationship is so tumultuous that she didn't have the time nor day to let the Alliance know what's going on. This just adds to Greyman's hatred towards the Horde.Sylvanas was killed by Calia's brother and as successor to Lordaeron, she saw Calia as a threat. She's already bitter as it is being undead, imagine being reminded of the cause of it. All-in-all, wars are usually ignited by deep emotional rage from world leaders and their people suffer for it. Excited to see how this unfolds...remember Sylvanas is destined to meet with her sisters too! #hype
And what heinous act did anyone on the Alliance commit?You can try and claim Calia being there is at all equivalent to Sylvanas murdering her own people. But it's not. Again, it's political opposition that Sylvanas couldn't handle, because all her claims of Forsaken free will are a lie, and her subsequent seeming removal of free will from the equation entirely and the recruitment of former Scourge overlords all but confirms this.There is no moral equivalency here, stop pretending there is.
Here's the thing: I'm willing to accept that Calia did something wrong here.Regardless of how valid you think her claim to Lordaeron is, sneaking into an enemy city in order to try and gain Forsaken followers while your head of state is in peace talks with them is a very stupid decision that can only serve to undermine your cause if you're caught. And given that her plan was to cast off her disguise and loudly proclaim her heritage, that's more "when" than "if". Best case scenario, it ends with you in a prison cell and your side disavowing you and your actions.... you know, if you're dealing with an even slightly rational enemy leader.But Sylvanas' actions in response to this are @#$%ing insane. Murdering Calia I can sort of understand, because I don't think even Sylvanas' staunchest fanboys will try to claim she's nice. But murdering everybody in earshot of her? Even the ones rejecting her and trying to flee back to her? Then disavowing all peace talks with Anduin even as he unequivocally condemns Calia and her actions, and using all this as the catalyst for the burning of Teldrassil? That's completely insane. It's not even remotely proportionate to the crime committed.I literally do not understand how anyone can look at this and think that what Calia did was some unforgivably evil act, but what Sylvanas did was reasonable and justifiable.Also: "'But how much of that was fear? How tempted were they until that point?'" lol okay now she has a problem with using fear to bring people under heel. Sure.
People are desperate to rationalise Sylvanas' actions by any means. They've been doing it for months now.Oh Sylvanas uses blight and raises undead? Well it's because the Alliance are massacring civilians! (Re: SI:7 sometimes attack a civilian npc who spots them in Undercity)Oh Sylvanas started the war in the forst place by attacking and genociding the night elves? Well it 's because SI:7 killed some goblins/Genn attacked her fleet in Stormheim!Now it's this. They never consider that even if true in every case, Sylvanas' retribution is completely disproportionate.They refuse to accept that Sylvanas is being written as a total psychopath due to their bias. Granted Blizzard continually gaslighting us and making statements about how Sylvanas "isn't evil", "evil is a matter of perspective" and "the Alliance is just as bad" doesn't help.I'd really like to know what perspective Ion could imagine where killing your own civilians because they didn't return to you fast enough after you shock them with a surprise retreat because obviously they fear you more than they love you isn't in fact the action of a cruel, insane and *evil* dictator.And let's talk about Blizzard for a moment, their treatment of fans in all this is nothing short of appalling.They seem to deliberately want "controversy" while throwing up their hands and proclaiming innocence when confronted about it.Moreover they now seem to think it's all acceptable for Horde players because Golden has written a narrative where Sylvanas is lying to the Horde about her actions, making her appear to be the victim to justify her war (assuming the Horde is that stupid and gullible, and again disproportionate retribution).What Blizzard either don't get or don't care about is that Horde players are just as aware of the overall story as Alliance players. We're all aware Sylvanas murdered her own people, even the ones were not in fact defecting (and most who did were only fleeing to the human lines out of terror over what Sylvanas did). We're all aware Sylvanas wanted a war all along and thus anything else is an excuse. We're all aware Anduin genuinely wanted peace. We're all aware Calia's only crime is being undiplomatic and naive in the face of a true monster.Sure I could try RPing an idiot who is completely oblivious to Sylvanas and her depravities and is instead convinced Anduin is a deadly threat... but I don't want to. The Alliance players don't have to, why do I?Or do they think this book is only for Alliance players? It seems written only for them at least. The entire book is about the golden pure Alliance that does no wrong, the evil depraved paranoid tyrant Sylvanas a and the poor oppressed Forsaken who turn out not to be monsters... mainly because they really look up to Calia and are drawn to the Alliance.
Sylvanas: I can't normally siege Gilneas as it would risk my dwindling and unrecoverable population, I simply must use chemical weapons while giggling like a childAlso Sylvanas: those forsaken slightly hesitated when I blew the horn to leave and must be shot on site and branded as traitors, as well as the council that's kept my city running while I was chumming it up with Helya
And that was likely at the behest of Blizzard as well.I remain sure to this day that Blizzard's original plan was to set Sylvanas up for a fall in MoP, that's why they suddenly had her be emotionally unstable, do supervillainous things in the books and had her go full Lich Queen on Gilneas and Andorhal where previously there was near full deniability between herself and the darker aspects of the Forsaken.Then there was all that miscommunication and Sylvanas becoming a dear waifu to many, so Garrosh got the chop instead.Essentially, this makes BfA a repeat of what they intended to do with MoP. And the entire Horde gets to be sacrificed as a result. Yay.
Also kind of shocked by the people who are expecting or hoping for a redemption arc here.Sylvanas' crimes are so egregious and numerous that, even if we're generous enough to assume it is possible to give her a redemption arc without it feeling inadequate, it would have to be long, drawn-out, and spectacularly well-written and expressed. Otherwise it would just feel cheap and forced.No idea why you would expect a well-done redemption story from the writing team that brought us "DRAENOR IS FREE" and Illidan's intergalactic windchime cheerleader, though.
You know what this deserves?*slow claps*That's what.. Slow, demeaning applauding. Story and writing, real good. All for it and it's awesome! Christie Golden makes it epic once more. From a lore perspective though.. Good job for our Horde Faction. Finally we seem to be the good guys for a second with Silithus and then Sylvanas goes and does -this-.. this is why the Horde is seen as the baddies, guys. These kind of warchiefs are the reason we continue to fail on the one thing we pride for. "Honor".We are loosing Saurfang cause of these kind of *!@# decisions. Soon the other leaders.. I'm sorry.. I mean, glorified advisors.. will leave the horde. Just as quick as an arrow is shot from Sylvana's quiver.. How ironic huh?I am gonna point out a few things here:the Darkspear will rebel, like Vol'jin did. Do to the Horde suddenly not valuing honor any longer.the orcs will likely rebel do the same reason as Saurfang, lack of honor.The taurens (also highmountian) will be pissed off from Sylvanas burning of the world tree. Seeing as the Taurens respects the nature and the Elves in that regard as well.Goblins will go where the coin is. And where there is the most people, is where there is the most coin.The Blood elves are basically left behind when Sylvanas retreats and has no backup other than the reinforcement that are able to come through the portals.The Night fallen will likely follow the tide and the rest of the Blood elves.For once Blizzard.. Can you give us a compitent warchief that does not go powerhungry or dies within 1 expansion? Who actually thinks and works for the Horde and not their own agenda? please?