Are we really a Alliance?

World of warcraft is a game about two factions being at war with each other. Er....... except it isn't there is only really one faction and that is the horde the Alliance lore and story is a mess to be quite honest with you. I will try not to make this a rambling rant about alliance lore, instead my aim is to be constructive. Pointing out were and how Alliance lore could be better.

So to begin with i want to briefly touch touch upon points made by the writers at WowInsider in there Know your lore columns a few weeks/months ago. Firstly the Alliance story is mainly reactive as opposed to proactive. Most of the Alliance story over the last expansion or even two has been i response to actions that he horde have made. This has been especially true of MoP, only really at the beginning of the expansion with the incursions into Pandaria did we see real Alliance action. By know we are reduced to a process of cleaning up the horde's mess, ie the divine bell, taking Lei shens Power. (this last one intrigues me as it stand the most powerful mage in Azeroth has the Thunder Kings power in her staff! maybe she will use it position Dalaran somewhere new?) While it is good and it shows prudence and wisdom to sometimes allow the enemy to strike first. It also makes for poor game play if we spend the entire expansion cleaning up the hordes mess.

For example the siege of Orgrimmar, would it not make more sense for the Alliance to leave Garrosh and Vol'jin to duke it out. While we focus on strengthening key Alliance areas, for example Ashenvale, Arathi Highlands and Also creating a new Port/City Hub in Kalimdorto replace Theramore. While i understand that we have to be there from a game play point of view as otherwise there would be no End raid for Alliance Players. To be honest the Ultimate outcome of the SoO is that the Alliance should occupy Org, it makes no sense for the Alliance to hand it back to Vol'jin. The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend................... Until we go to War. Therein lies a large part of the issue there is no way that SoO can have a good and fist punching ending for the Alliance. Quite simply because it is the major horde capitol city, it would impact on the game far to much to have it captured by the Alliance. But Not capturing the city is just massively stupid for the Alliance, therefore rendering any Alliance actions as irrelevant.

We arrive now at one of the Biggest issues with the Alliance lore, that ties in with the title. The Alliance is divided far to many of our Races have issues. Yet these issues seem have very little resolvent in game. While i must admit that the Blood in the Snow scenario seems to have settled the Drawves for the time being. The Gnomes are still city less as are the Worgen, who seem to be in the odd situation of all there people live in Darnassus but there King reside in Stormwind. The Dranei are horribly underused, for a race that is ancient with massive knowledge of battle and the light you would assume to see them everywhere aiding and training the Alliance forces. The Night Elves despite having a host of the greatest heroes/leaders around. Malfurion, Tyrande, Jarod Shadowsong and Cenarius himself. They do very Little just allowing the Horde to mow its way through Ashenvale. Finally we reach the Humans, were Varian has gone form a blood crazed psycho to balanced leader in the blink of the eye and on top of this he also has the Support of Jaina and the Might of Dalaran at his disposal. (I like varian a lot i would like to see him evolve into a Anduin Lothar for the Alliance Uniting its people and leading it to Victory on the Battlefield.)

I want to focus on two Alliance characters for a second, Malf and Varian. They are both very cool and powerful character's, i played as Malf through WC3 and its expac. yet sadly for most Alliance players the largest part of there stories play out in the Novels. I enjoy the the novels that Blizzard writes, indeed if you are Alliance you should read Stormrage, Wolfheart and the Tides of War. They will fill in huge gaps in the Alliance story, like why Malf is back and why Genn is in Sw all friendly with Varian and also why Varian is a more Balanced character. Most importantly they also explain far more clearly the true events of Theramore, and who the Alliance lost. My point here is Malf and Varian are massive characters for the Alliance, they cant just spring into the game (Malf appearing in Cata) or Suddenly change (varian in MoP) in the blink of an eye. It cheapens them as characters, especially when compared to Garrosh,  a character you met in TBC then played alongside while he learnt war in Wotlk. While playing thoruhg the game you learn about Garrosh in way you never can unless to read the novels for Malf and Varian. Novels need to supplement in game lore not play out game changing situations out of sight of the majority of the player base.

So enough of me pontificating about whats wrong with the Alliance, though i could continue for quite a while. One of the biggest issues of is the lack of action that we see from our Leaders. For example the Horde are tearing down the forest of Ashenvale, yet the Arch druid is doing nothing about it. I would love to see them phase in a load of battles for key Zones, in a similar way to how the barrens works with the Lvl 90 content phased on top of the existing Zone. You could in a main city ans suddenly a Alliance herald appears calling your side to battle you zone into Ashenvale, or Westfall, Arathi any Zone that needs aid. You find a faction Leader (one that makes sense to be there ofc) then you proceed to back up your boss as he pushed back the Horde forces. It can be Npc toons and you just help in the slaughter, upon completion say 15-20 Min's all lowbies in that zone get a buff something Like 'Valor of the Alliance' granting them increased xp for a bit or something along those lines. You could even add daily/weekly quests to encourage 90's to go help. This i think would help solve the issue of faction leaders doing nothing, yet would not effect the game play. Its just some world phased content. It is also dynamic you could tie it into the Guild challenge system, as a guild help your faction reclaim Ashenvale earn gold for your Gbank.

The other action that could be taken is for Blizzard to use the scenarios, to play out events from the novels in game so people can see what is happening. You cant go back and un-write the novels but u can at least help to bring them into the game more. For example a CoT Sc about Stormrage you could have to defend Malf from Fandrals minions and the Nightmare while he wakes and heals himself. I'm not talking anything complex here just simply quick lore heavy scenarios that help bridsge the gap, and inform the player base. In my mind this is what Sc's really are for progressing lore content, and allowing individual players to get up close and personal with it.

Finally i just want to clarify my though on SoO, i am not saying it is going to be a poor raid. I am sure it will be as much if not more fun than all the other raids. What i mean is it cannot and will not ever be a success moment for the Alliance, no matter how the Devs word it or people argue. To sieges your Enemies city and throw him down, but then to leave and not take his city makes no sense on any level. There is no way around it they only way for the SoO to be a success is if we sack Org, and bring Garrosh back in chains to SW. however it is impossible to have a major faction city as just a smoking whole in the ground, no matter how much it should happen. Ultimately game play has to take precedent over lore, there is no other way.




Ok so I'm going to wrap this up now it has grown somewhat larger than i had intended at the outset. But it is very east to get carried away when it comes to talking about in game Lore.