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makanidotdot · 3 months

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How I would have done Teldrassil

There was some Sylv discourse today on twitter, which I totally missed and Nobbel deleted whatever tweet he made so idek what it was about lol, BUT I read some "how it should have been" tweets and I wanted to write down how I would have done Teldrassil:

So, Azeroth just got stabbed and everyone is trying crazy experiments with the newly discovered Azerite. Kaldorei druids end up making some azerite infused super-life substance that has pretty great healing properties, but by accident, they discover it has the opposite effect on undead. It vaporizes undeath. Maybe someone had an undead battle pet out and it touched the goo and it died like a cartoon in roger rabbit.

Anyway, the worst thing to happen to Azeroth in recent history WAS undead and having a potential weapon against that is super good, but there's the whole political problem of ~oops~ we have something that can instantly vaporize a particular enemy race… a race that's not insanely well liked even by their allies... a race that can only keep 'living' by preying on the dead of everybody else, and makes anywhere they live spooky and rotting and gross to everyone but them… anyway we won't keep this secret forever, but, in the middle of this whole azerite-rush, we'll just wait until tensions are not QUITE so high, then bring this all to light in a peaceful and honest way and both factions will have control of supply and security etc., and use it only for the good healing properties, or against any new undead threats, and definitely not against Forsaken.

But ofc, Horde spies end up discovering the existence of this Undead-Away and tell the Warchief.

A good Warchief would handle this by demanding it all fully be turned over to both factions, they would acknowledge the benefit of having that kind of power, studying the tech, but also acknowledge the extreme danger to an integral part of the Horde, and take extra steps to ensure their safety and reiterate the Forsaken's value to the Horde.

Warchief Sylvanas, however, would need to ensure Undead-Away was destroyed, and kill anyone who knew how to make it, at any cost. That type of unique threat to the Forsaken could not be allowed to exist. She would claim the Night Elves had been creating a weapon unbeknownst even to their allies (technically true), and were therefore preparing to be aggressive (a lie). She would omit the fact this weapon only affects undead, maybe even orchestrate an incident that made it seem like it affected the living too, with the help of her alchemists. Even if it came to light that this weapon only really affected undead, the idea of deceitful Night Elf weaponry would still have been planted, that particular knowledge would come too late to really matter.

Teldrassil must be attacked and temporarily controlled in order to purge this substance too dangerous for either faction to control. "USE IT ON THE ALLIANCE" some more bloosthirsty members of the Horde would say. No, no, Sylvanas would say, that would be dishonorable :). For the good of Azeroth, such a weapon must be destroyed. Sylvanas has turned a new leaf after all, she's not blighting anymore, she's interested in stability as Warchief. Both factions should be kept in check.

So, the plan would be to surprise attack Teldrassil, occupy it, purge the city of all the Undead-Away, and then... leave. They would make their intentions clear to the Alliance (after they had started the attack, of course) and actually, pretty true to their word, they would let anyone who wanted to leave the tree go peacefully. Obvs any nobody-druid who knew how to recreate the weapon would wind up dead, and any too-important druid would have to risk escalating the conflict by calling out Sylvanas's lies. But for the most part, there would be no excessive death caused by the Horde forces, Sylvanas would even make a point of publicly punishing any Horde for unapproved violence.

Sylvanas wouldn't need or want a greater conflict than necessary, so there would be none, unless the Alliance wanted to return to all out war against the Horde over what would ultimately amount to just be humiliation.

Because a pre-BFA, pre-Jailer, pre-shit Sylvanas's end goal was this: Don't die. She tried dying before, and she went to Hell, so her goal now is Never Die Again. Never Dying would be achieved by ensuring the Forsaken are a strong race with a secure future. For that, she needs a balance of Forsaken power, but also healthy and happy living races that keep reproducing, so that they keep dying, so that Forsaken can keep reproducing.

But, at some point during the occupation, Teldrassil burns. And we don't know why. Maybe some Horde did it to be mean. Maybe it was an accident as some Night Elves fought back righteously against the occupying Horde. Maybe some kind of magic + Undead-Away is insanely flammable. We never learn the truth, and if we did, it doesn't matter. The Alliance blames the Horde, and the Horde blames the Alliance.

The leaders of the Alliance heroically and epically rescue most of the citizens still in the city, with Tyrande and Malfurion leading the effort. The Horde occupying the city are not quite as lucky, but they're soldiers. So a lot of them are tryhards and have gliders so they can just jump off the tree :). And some Alliance and Horde still die horribly in flames.

Night Elves lose their home, and Sylvanas prepares for the Alliance's retaliation. It wasn't her goal, but it's something she can work with. The Horde and the Forsaken will not fall, and the banger ass BFA trailer actually makes sense and isn't false advertising.

#not art #warcraft #sylvanas

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sekhithefops · 6 months

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Yeh got any o' that... azerite? O_O

#world of warcraft #blizzcon #the war within #upcoming content #magni bronzebeard

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birmit · 1 month

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I didn't share this on twitter but I think I can do it here. Some time ago I started a new hobby and now I make epoxy resin dice sets for myself and friends 💜🩵

Not everything works out as planned, but the main thing is that I like the process

Set on the first photo was a gift for my partner and inspired by their Bronze Dragonflight OC / azerite

#not art post #idk just a hobby #dnd dice #handmade dice #sorry for the cat fur its everywhere in my apartment

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erikailustra · 10 months

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Oh, I've just noticed! Does Lunnadan (I hope I've spelled it right) has a prosthetic arm?

Yes, he has! And you spelled right! Here is an explanation, resumed:

Lunnadan lost his arm during the events of Teldrassil, leaving him with half a shoulder and a permanent burn (azerite burn). In the Battle of Darkshore, the blessing of the Night Warrior grew on him to the point he could do an energy arm, but more and more he became "poisoned" by the power, consuming his very being (the first picture is an old one, showing how he and his dagger was affected by this).

After all the events in Shadowlands, he got a prosthesis from the artisans at the Glitterfall Basin in Ardenweald as thanks for everything Lunnadan did for them - and as an empathy act for a fellow artist since Lunnadan is a book restorer and a calligrapher. It is made of wood, amber, and a tiny drop of the Heart of the Forest's anima.

#warcraft oc #night elf #my art

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theaceofskulls · 2 months

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Fixing WoW's Modern Story: BFA

Got stuck the other day thinking about World of Warcraft story fixes and I've got to get it out of my head.

It began with me thinking of how I've come around to how the faction conflict was handled in Legion, where a complete misunderstanding and actions taken led to two specific members being the ones to duke it out and it shifted into an entire rewrite of BFA and SLands with a quick detour at the start to Legion.

Anyways let's start.

There's very little I'd change about the main story of Legion to be honest (but I have opinions on zones and class halls). But I think the major thing I'd change to start out is not killing Vol'jin.

It feels like it was done for parity because that's something that the community and blizzard at the time were obsessed with. If something bad happens to one side, the other has to get an equal black eye. But it was clear that Varian was the focus with getting Sylvanas into the Warchief seat as the other driving force and I feel like it undercuts a lot of potential down the line.

So to change, he still gets stabbed, he still nominates Sylvanas to take over due to Loa whispers, but instead he's now in a coma. And to add to it, the Horde starts trying everything but his condition keeps worsening. This furthers the bad blood between the two factions as rumors about dark magics being practiced by the Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves (letting them be edgy again), and even the undead are reaching the Alliance. This also gives the other leaders something more tangible to be working on than the assumption that they're just fighting the Legion elsewhere.

We end things mostly the same way, with Azerite being a thing from the wound but we're going to change some stuff. The big stinger though isn't the goblins mining, it's news that Vol'jin has awoken.

Now onto BFA.

First up, I'm doing this as a fix it, not a replace it, meaning I still want this to be a Faction War xpac with a void twist. But we're going to do some massive changes to get there.

Acknowledging fan discussions done to death by this point, everyone is correct and it's the most common items mentioned: Teldrissal burning is too far and the Alliance has to be the ones to strike first in order for it to play out.

However, we're going to make some changes to things.

First up, let's go to Vol'jin who has come back into things. Sylvanas will attempt to hand over the title of Warchief to him, but he declines, saying that she lead them through the Legion invasion and deserves to command the armies of the Horde. Before anyone can say anything, he then states that the Horde must change and that it will no longer be ruled by a Warchief, but by a new leader. Title pending here but let's go with True Chief.

This rankles some people but others want Vol'jin back. Sylvanas steps back, complicated expression on her face. Vol'jin sees the Azerite found and decides it's time to start mining to fix the damage done by the Legion and to empower the horde. It should be noted that there's a little bit of a mystery on whether or not Vol'jin is benevolent on his return or if there's hidden plans. We'll lean into that later.

Meanwhile the Alliance is now confronted with multiple new items. The Horde emerged from Legion strong. Tyrande fumbled the Nightborne who are looking to join the Horde along with the Highmountain, though they have been bolstered by Alleria and Turalyon, both of whom have opinions on the Blood Elves, the Undead, the Orcs (with the Lightforged also taking some particular umbrage), Theramore, and Genn's reports about the Broken Shore and the mysteries of Vol'jin's recovery.

We make a point here to start to address the concept of the Alliance and what it means and whether Anduin should even be the leader of it. The reports of Azerite being mined add to the fire, as do reports of undead activity (more on that later).

Rather than copying Makani's homework here regarding the undead-be-gone (though it's a great option to also stick here), this does eventually lead to a conflict that escalates to Lordaeron after Blight stores are detonated too close to Gilneas during one of the border conflicts.

One thing that players discover that they're unable to share in time for the battle however is that both alliance troops and forsaken involved in a couple of these conflicts seem... wrong. And some of the damage to the surrounding area doesn't seem like it was the Blight.

Before we get to that we're going to rework Before the Storm into here with some minor tweaks because I like Calia and elements of that story enough to keep and because I'm trying not to toss too much here.

However, a couple of important details here. First up, Sylvanas reveals that despite Vol'jin's proclamation, there have been troop movements in the eastern kingdoms that she hasn't been informed of, including some forsaken, so when Calia appears and the council begins forming, she begins to panic. However, before she does anything, someone else kills the Menethal princess with an arrow that disappears in a puff of black smoke. One of the undead in attendance claims Sylvanas planned this all along to complete her revenge on the family that wronged her, but in the aftermath this undead is not among the captured or dead and no one can identify them.

The Battle for Lordaeron happens. On the Alliance side, we see Anduin take to the field to try and solidify his hold on the fracturing Alliance. During the battle, he is overwhelmed by oddly powerful soldiers after being separated. With his sword knocked from his hand, he tries to reach out for the light only for a darker power to answer, obliterating his foes to his horror. The Light still answers him and he tries to push past this as he regroups with his allies.

On the horde side, we fight a losing battle as something is stopping teleportation magic from working. We suspect it to be Jaina when she's revealed, but the times don't match up. Blood Elf reinforcements along with Nightborne who traveled with them show up but it's not enough to turn the tide of the focused Alliance. As those inside prepare for a last stand, not sure that they would be able to surrender, Blight begins to erupt from the ground. Sylvanas denies this to be her fault to Saurfang (who had been sent with an advance force to hold out), but it's clear he doesn't believe her and at this point it's not clear if she's telling the truth. Eagle eyed players noticed some horde soldiers leaving the battle to retreat underground during the middle portion of the battle before a general retreat inside was sounded.

The alliance manages to teleport away to the surprise of the Horde. While they confirm it's working, they'll never be able to get everyone to the silvermoon gate in time. This is when we see the airships of the Horde arrive, allowing escape just in time.

Vol'jin takes the news poorly as Lorthemar and Thalyssra attempt to console Sylvanas who is fuming about losing her home. It's revealed at this point that a shipment of Azerite was raided, with signs pointing towards the draenei and night elves. Vol'jin declares that he won't have enemies in Kalimdor any more, but promises Baine that he will show mercy to them if they surrender after he objects. Baine is given command to ensure this, enraging Sylvanas who should as Warchief and who is still upset over Lorderaon.

We move towards Teldrassil now, though Alliance players are allowed to learn that the shipment raid is suspicious as it seems to have come from Theramore and the Azerite has vanished completely. An investigation was launched but the ships vanished along the way. Something is wrong but the World Tree is in danger and we have to move to save it.

This battle is more solidly in the side of the Horde. Most of the Alliance's attempts to fight back fail unexpectedly. Dwarven and gnomish ammo and machinery is missing or damaged. Darkshore's nature seems to be working against them for some reason. The Vindicaar is experiencing malfunctions. Something is wrong and it's quickly apparent the battle is lost.

Malfurion stays to buy time for an evacuation but is beaten and captured (I'm not killing him in this because while Night Elves won't suffer as much, I'm not doing that after Ysera went down. Nelves still have to take a black eye but don't worry we'll do better by you before the xpac is over). Unfortunately, not everyone gets out.

True to his word at least, Vol'jin spares those left behind, but Teldrassil is occupied by the Horde. We're going to have some small raiding adventures later for the alliance to rescue people, including some smaller named Nelves to give the feeling of fighting back and a little bit of underdog love to it down the line.

At this point though, it's clear, it's open war now.

We still need our navy plot line but we're heading into this with one big change: It's clear to players who have been following along that someone is pulling the strings.

(Quick aside, we're just going to have the allied races be left alone. I'm gonna be typing too much anyways here and I want them in)

So we'll start with the Horde.

We still have Talanji approach the Horde and honestly we still have Rokhan be one of the primary characters there too along with Nathanos. We're going to edit up the leveling story but this is gonna be a long post so I don't have time for that here. We do raise the question of how relationships will work out between Vol'jin and Rasatakhan all things considered but we're mostly keeping some stuff the same.

When we get to the war campaign, we still have Sylvanas raise Deryk and Baine still gets pissy and eventually sends him to Kul Tiras, but Vol'jin shuts down the plan to use him as a hostage but doesn't condemn Sylvanas for raising him. She does it as she feels she's losing control of the military and isn't actually in command in anything but name and wanted to enact a scheme. She's also concerned that several of her soldiers appear to be MIA or have disobeyed commands.

This culminates in her killing Zelling under the belief of him being a traitor when it comes out that he's the one who alerted Baine to her scheme. Baine is disgusted but it's not enough to make him quit the Horde but he demands she face justice. Vol'jin points out that as Warchief it's in her rights but chastises her as well.

Meanwhile this sets up more conflict between her and Saurfang where the players will eventually pick a side but it's less of an obvious "pick the resistance or the clearly evil tyrant".

Meanwhile on the alliance side we're making some more changes this time around. Sure the fact that Sylvanas isn't in charge changes a lot of the war campaign, but for this side we're starting with some immediate stuff.

The first thing of note is that the theme of Kul Tiras is going to be different. It needs to be about the Alliance being a force of building and healing rather than just gathering up the different nations together to fight together. It still does that part but one big thing is to work on how your actions make peoples' lives better.

(Note: I am primarily a horde player but part of my fix-it for this xpac involves examining the alliance and its justification for continuing to exist after the faction conflict is over. This is not a "The Alliance needs to be the good guys" because trust me that's not going to happen)

Most of the zones need just slight tweaking but Drustvar is where I'm setting my sights on fixing things. Drustvar is so disconnected and while I enjoy it, it also could use some extra touch ups.

To do that, the Drust are just flat out going to be pointed out as a result of a flare up of Death magic. We're gonna do better setup for the next xpac and we're not going to have them be a weird afterthought. We could also maybe use a lore character to weave into here to explore that rather than leaving them until the end but again runtime on this post is too long here, let's keep moving. (I'd pick Vereesa to get her into a story about Theramoore here and have her do something a little more relevant for once)

We do need to weave in more Ghuun things into Kul'Tiras for the raid to make sense though. That's important. We'll eventually have Anduin learn about it and task the players with taking care of it as he's concerned about the Void stuff that keeps popping up.

Going to the war campaign, we're going to work on it in a number of ways. First up, the stuff you don't see on the Horde side is going to appear over there. Horde players will learn about the San'layn and the blood elves using Anima (pandaria era). The San'layn are going to hint that they're throwing in with the horde because events in Icecrown are unfolding.

What we're going to add here is Telaamon as a rising star in the Lightforged army and we're going to have him butting heads with Velen who is looking at finally healing in the wake of the victory over the Legion. Since a large amount of Draenei are vindictaars, more and more have been joining the ranks of the Lightforged, and Telaamon is firmly in the hawk faction of the Alliance at this point, having learned more about Draenor and is furious. Velen is worried that his time has come to an end and that he should step down and let another lead.

In both Kul'Tiras and Zandalar, we're going to have some of those Azerite zones not just have people trying to harvest it, but we'll also have some void stuff going on as an attempt to corrupt it. That's just to hammer home for people who have somehow missed it where we're heading.

We have some patch content to go through now.

Calia has her stuff alongside Deryk but Voss is less... admiring (I charitably considered it shippy but it always came off more as "the rightful heir" until they attempted to change course in SL). Xal'atath is still let go but not due to Sylvanas. In fact this is probably the time to actually have some void elf specific content come up.

We have a couple of reports on the alliance side that the Zandalari fleet is sinking ships, but Shaw and Flynn don't find anything true to that after digging but the ships are missing.

With Vol'jin not dead we instead do a little more with Talanji and him as characters as a questline. Vol'jin will by this point have been a little more aggro than players were expecting and will acknowledge that himself, wondering if the stress has gotten to him.

Quick side trip, let's address Arathi. We're still keeping that warzone but we're building it up more. We're pointing out that the hawk faction is supporting the reconstruction and emphasizing the fact that this was where Before the Storm went down. With the Wildhammer Dwarves and the Arathi Kingdom on the rise, Vol'jin authorizes fighting there, while Anduin is concerned about the human kingdoms splitting. He meanwhile tasks you with finding out who killed Calia. Players will discover an undead corpse, thoroughly corrupted by void magic.

Dazaralor still unfolds though during setup we have Telaamon fight against Saurfang and dies facing the orc but not before rattling him about his actions in the past (because I like that one bit of his story). This eventually deepens his feud with Sylvanas but it's also to allow us to air out the scars the factions have against each other.

Rastakhan is killed, Talanji declares vengeance and things seem worse than ever.

Lastly we have Darkshore with the Night Warrior as a rescue mission (and attempted retaking of the tree, and while the latter isn't successful, we do free Malfurion).

We move to the next patch and we've got to address both of the zones.

Mechagon starts up not because "Bwhaha, I will rule the surface world" but because all of the void corruption that has led to the King deciding that the curse of flesh must absolutely be undone right now.

Mostly things unfold the same way but we fix that zone to be vastly more interesting outside of the dungeon or just make it into just the dungeon.

Nazjatar is a lot different however. Well mostly it's the same. Azshara schemes to get our artifact power to fully free N'Zoth and kill him in one blow but we're doing something fun:

Inciting incident is that both sides have received reports of a giant island of azerite and both rush to get there first. We're keeping the boat the same but we're not having Nathanos leave since this isn't a trap set up by him and Sylvanas. However here's where a lot of the characters learn about the void saboteurs that have invaded their armies and been egging on this war.

While Nathanos and Genn both still want to continue the conflict, when both of them realize that the conflicts that started this fight were done by agents of their own nations with Genn realizing that Gilneas is at risk of being consumed consumed by the void and Nathanos realizing that so much of his queen's suffering has been caused by Azshara's meddling, the two are convinced by their allies to parley. For now.

Btw, the raid happens similarly, and Azshara lives in the same way. Because I love her and support women's wrongs.

Meanwhile, since Saurfang isn't in exile (I don't know what to do with Zappy Boi in this fix but I'm not too concerned with sitting down and figuring out what to do with him since his character seems to begin and end with Saurfang), we need someone else to pull Thrall out of Outlands because we might want him down the line.

And here's where I put Anduin, who has been losing control of the Alliance as the hawk side has begun to really take over as the war has gone on. I'm also using this to parallel down the line for the War Within because let's assume we planned that far ahead.

Anduin goes there in part to try and get someone who Vol'jin respects to tell him about the dangers he's discovered. As the conversation unfolds, Anduin questions if he should just give up the High King position. Thrall realizes the parallel with his own decision to give up the Warchief position to Garrosh, looking to the distance in Nagrand at where the duel in the alternate universe took place. He tells Anduin he regrets the pain he allowed to happen by letting the Horde be led by those who only want war and the atrocities committed because he felt he couldn't be the one to lead it. Both of them leave determined to put an end to the Fourth War.

The Horde players get to have a Saurfang vs Sylvanas questline here as Sylvanas begins executing various people very publicly all of a sudden and the players are asked to pick a side.

Saurfang's side uncovers that Sylvanas has been deteriorating over the course of the war, egged on by the factions own hawk faction such as Gallywix (who has decided to encourage the Warchief in order to help sell more weapons and keep the azerite profits coming), Talanji (mourning her father), Geya'rah (since we don't edit the allied quests too much she's still convinced the alliance is outright evil), and a couple of the sub leaders. Moreover, he learns the Vol'jin isn't blind to the various plots and schemes we see throughout the war campaign and that he's allowing the executions. Saurfang realizes at this point that the Horde will always be at war and feels that the very position of Warchief is to blame, with some shots of him seeing Sylvanas in the same light as the Lich King and shots of his dead son scattered throughout it.

He comes to a decision: he must eliminate the Warchief position somehow if they are to break free from this and finally find peace, with his talk about how honor is a lie being given to someone other than Anduin.

(Sorry I'm robbing anduin of a dad, but he collects those like pokemon)

Sylvanas supporters meanwhile get to see the full nature of how everything was manipulated by the void and learn her executions are targeting void agents. However we also get to learn that there's movements in Icecrown and Sylvanas has been receiving psychic messages from what she believes to be the Lich King, terrifying her. She confides in the player that she has seen the other side and can't die or be enslaved again. We see hints of the death magic radiating off her.

Both of these quests end with Saurfang publicly challenging Sylvanas to Mak'Gora for the position of Warchief with the duel taking place later.

Swapping to the Alliance side, Anduin summons his council. We frame the shot to very clearly show the hawk side is in the majority by this point. Notably, Genn is still among this side. Anduin reveals his findings that the war has been manipulated by agents of the void and Azshara. This is going to be one of those "hard to place if it comes before the raid" type cutscenes so we don't mention Nzoth being freed by this point.

Night Warrior Tyrande points out that while the war may have started under false pretenses, the Horde still hold Teldrassil and still threaten the Alliance as well as how much losses have been incurred by all up to this point. Jaina is the one to break the silence that follows, speaking of her experience back in her home and stating that the scars we gain don't define us, but how we choose to move forward. That continuing to suffer helps no one. She stands by Anduin but most of the hawk faction continues to hold their ground.

Tyrande asks if this want for peace is an order from the High King, asks directly if she and her people, and gestures towards the others, if their people should heed his commands because of his lineage. Another silence follows.

Anduin speaks up sorrowfully and asks "What is the Alliance for? Is it a weapon to strike back against those that wronged us? Is it a shield we only turn to when there are enemies before us? Are we united only by hate, strangers to each other when that is gone? Are we just soldiers who fight alongside each other? Was I a fool to think we were friends and family".

We show several members of the hawks looking to one another. Moira gazes away from the meeting, towards Magni who is waiting a bit away, watching apprehensively. We see a bandaged Mekkatorque looking towards the other members of the three hammers. We see Genn look at Anduin, squeeze his eyes shut before opening them again and striding forward to put a hand on his shoulder.

"We are here for one another when they need us."

Moira comes forth joined by the other two, "We move forward together."

Malfurion looks at his wife and daughter and moves over to Anduin, a look of small surprise on their faces before saying "Together, we protect this world and those that live in it"

Shandris looks at her mother and joins the rest of the others as the slowly drift towards the other side. Squeezing her eyes shut for a second, she opens them and moves forward herself, asking "well then, what path would you have us follow?"

Anduin shakes his head, "Not follow." He gestures to those around him and says "We shall lead our people forward. For the Alliance. For Azeroth."

A smile crosses Tyrande's face only to be interrupted by a messenger bursting into the room with a message, from Vol'jin. The gathered members turn together to hear what he has to say.

(Unfortunately I'm working still within WoW story constraints here so we can't actually sit down and plan what the new direction of the Alliance would be and we still have to have grand but vague gestures to illustrate that everyone is now on the same page but that it's from a position of strength. The forums will still hate it but I don't respect them enough to care).

The duel arrives, and we see a gathered crowd. The horde leadership is seated on a small platform, watching the empty arena apprehensively. As we cut to shots of Sylvanas and Saurfang preparing, a figure approaches the leadership from the side, making his way past the seated leaders, those noticing him showing their surprise on their face. Vol'jin fails to notice as he's observing the arena too closely until the voice shakes him from it.

"Mind if I sit here?" Thrall asks, depositing a chair next to the stunned but slightly gladdened troll.

The two exchange some words but Thrall becomes serious and says "We need to talk. About the Horde."

Their conversation is interrupted by the duel's start. During the battle, which is less one sided but not as much as you'd expect, Saurfang declares to Sylvanas that these wars must end, that the Horde must change. From Sylvanas's side we hear whispers that we can't make out. She blocks one of Saurfang's overhanded blows with her daggers easily and begins to push an advantage, stating that all she's ever done is to protect everyone and that they don't understand the true danger out there. (I'm sorry to those of you scarred by this from the actual story but we're going to have to still keep some vague gesturing right now)

Saurfang rallies, and if we somehow kept Zappy Boi, we'll have the two of them exchange looks before he manages a solid blow and gives her that stupidly small scar. She's knocked to the ground and Saurfang tells her to give up and that she can still serve the horde, but not as Warchief.

We're gonna copy paste the "Serve" bit from the Sanctum of Domination cutscene here, with Sylvanas rising up, whisps of dark energy gathering on her arms. Saurfang closes his eyes regretfully and prepares to charge for the killing blow as the undead elf extends her hand with the expected line of "I will never serve!"

"For the Hord-" We have our blast and Saurfang is dead to the shock and horror of everyone including Sylvanas though she's the quickest to shake it off, loudly proclaiming those in attendance to be blind and that she will be the one to save them before taking off.

Thrall questions if it was void magic only for Vol'jin to say it was something else. Something familiar.

After Saurfang's funeral, Thrall approaches Vol'jin to tell him he needs to end this war, to focus on the true enemy, N'zoth. Vol'jin gets angry with Thrall and during the conversation we see evidence that Vol'jin has a little bit of that void in him, though in a moment of realization, he loudly shouts that this isn't him, and it is expelled by a wave of force. The shadowy figure that emerges from the discarded void energies remarks it's a pity but that all will serve soon enough anyways.

Thrall asks if his friend is alright, and Vol'jin states that he's got one last enemy to fight but afterwards, things need to change. The two nod and say their "For Azeroth"s together before Vol'jin summons a messenger and says he needs to tell something to the Alliance.

Anduin still punches Wrathion cause we gotta though we show the king trying to manage the void corruption with some light magic. Unfortunately 8.3 plays out mostly the same but I'll have N'zoth trapped in the dagger rather than killed outright with the dagger taken by the Light or something at the end.

God that's a massive post. We'll get a part 2 for Shadowlands.

#world of warcraft #god this is massive and the shadowlands one is going to start with me locking you all in a box to talk about zovaal so i'm sorry in advance #look if you hit expand know that it's gonna go on for awhile #battle for azeroth

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tess-grey-maned · 5 months

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Sender take a stab for reciever.

Tess and post shadowlands Sylvanas

thank you so much!! fic below the cut :D ngl i haven't written tess in a long time and i've never written post SL sylv before so pls be nice to me!

She’s been struggling with her memories since the soul fusion.

Some of the faces she guides out of the Maw are familiar, their names or their deaths hovering on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach; their consciousnesses brush hers, screaming wordless obscenities at her, stabbing her with cold, condemning anger as she sends them on their way. Not once does she flinch. Not once does she fight back. She keeps her eyes down, and her focus on her penance.

One soul, brimming with youth and broken optimism, breaks ranks and rushes at her in a swirl of Thalassian tulips, a smiling mouth open and calling her name-

But she flings them up before they can. Insults in Darnassian she takes in stoic silence. To hear herself condemned in her own tongue would… hurt.

There are no days in the Maw, and Sylvanas rarely allows herself rest. She stumbles from one lost soul to another, worn down like a cog in the Azerite machines she can’t quite remember the blueprints for anymore (were there three levers or four? One goblin operator or two?) On occasion she cleans her leathers. When her boots go into holes, she hunts Maw-touched beasts to replace the soles.

There are no hours in the Maw, no sunrises or sunsets, nothing familiar, nothing she can cling to. But no matter the circumstances, no Windrunner would be too tired or disorientated to recognise she was being followed.

Followed by the living, no less.

They’re good, she’ll give them that. Their footsteps are too soft even for her hearing. They cling to the shadows like a child to a blanket. But they are still human, and so she guides one more soul upwards, flinching at the psychic bellow of IHATEYOUIHATEYOUMURDERERBUTCHER it jabs her with as it’s pulled away.

Then she turns to the rock beside her, and folds her arms.

“Princess Greymane. An unexpected- surprise.” She has to pause to cough mid-sentence. She’s had no need for words since her sentence began; her throat feels dry and clogged. “What brings you- ahem- to the Maw?”

“Oh, bollocks to it,” comes from behind the rock, and Tess Greymane emerges, brushing her own breeches off. “I should have known the Banshee Queen would sniff me out. What gave me away? Did I leave a footprint?”

“To your credit, no. I did indeed sniff you out.” Sylvanas shifts her weight onto one leg. “You had roasted Gilnean boar for lunch, with a seasoning mixture from the Gilnean royal family’s cookbook. My spies were nothing if not thorough.” And, when Tess only blinks in response: “Though the recipe originated in Quel’Thalas. The Dawnstrider family. No. No, the Dawntreader- no- why are you here?”

“Well, make your mind up!” Tess’ fists are clenched above the pommels of her daggers. “I want you to lead me to Liam. The Arbiter says he hasn’t passed through yet. He’s still down here somewhere and… well, I… you’re uniquely placed to…” She pauses. Her mouth works silently. “Erm, locate him,” she finishes, uncertainly.

“… And who is Liam?”

The screech that rips itself from Tess’ throat has Sylvanas stepping backwards sharply. “I beg your- how dare- what do you mean, who is Liam?” She lunges for Sylvanas, eyes wild. “My BROTHER! You MURDERED him!”

“You must understand-” There are so many I killed here, how could I possibly know where one is, which one was he-

“You fucking murdered my brother and you don’t even REMEMBER!” One flailing fist grabs Sylvanas by the collar; she jolts forwards with a grunt. “Let me enlighten you, you rotting bitch, you conquered my homeland and you slew my brother, yeah? Sound familiar?”

“I-”

“Don’t give me that shit! Nobody fucking forgets something like that! I don’t care if your fucking Scourge brains are turning to fucking liquid between those knife-ears, I want you to find Liam so he can be at peace, so that my family has justice, and so that my father will finally fucking accept he’s gone!”

“What did he look like?”

“Like me!”

Of course. But long red hair in a ponytail, where hers is raven-black (like Minn’da’s). Steely faced- it was obviously his first battle. He was on horseback. A blade in one hand, a blade with gleaming runes, the dewdrops froze on her skin as he charged her down no he held a torch he was another human prince it impaled her and it stole the air from her lungs, it cut her so deep, cut her soul

“-Windrunner! Fucking snap out of it!”

She jerks back to reality as Tess Greymane slaps her in the face.

“Ow,” she says, on nothing but instinct.

And Tess- actually rolls her eyes, like a gossiping maid-servant. “Oh, come on. That didn’t hurt.”

“No. No, it didn’t. Though if you want to tell everyone on Azeroth that you hurt me, I’m sure they would be delighted to know.”

One hand still gripping her collar, Tess tilts her head, staring at Sylvanas. “You know,” she says, and wets her lips with the tip of her tongue, “I always thought of you as this malevolence. This wordless evil in the dark. A brooding, ruthless assassin who stole my brother away. And you’re just a-”

“You’re not the first to call me a monster, and you won’t be the last.” Tess’ brows furrow. “For what it is worth,” Sylvanas continues, and gently untangles Tess’ fist from her shirt, “I had no quarrel with your brother, nor your country. Garrosh- whom I did have a quarrel with- he gave me the “choice” of staying together and risking my people’s annihilation in a hopeless, pointless war with Gilneas, or watching my people be carved up into regiments and thrown at the Alliance until none of us remained.” She shrugs. “Obviously, I chose the former. I cannot apologise for acting in my people’s interests.”

“Well,” Tess snaps, “I won’t apologise for acting in my people’s interests.”

And she slaps Sylvanas hard enough to send her stumbling backwards.

There’s a pause, as Sylvanas silently prods at her teeth one by one with her tongue.

“No ‘ow’ this time?”

“My apologies. Ow.”

“Huh.”

The silence falls again.

“I… fuck’s sake. I thought this would give me closure too. But I knew it was Garrosh. He admitted it all at the trial. I-” Tess’ shoulders slump. “He… he was really going to do that to the Forsaken? Deliberately send you to your deaths?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell us or something? Pretend to invade? We could have-”

“You would have slaughtered us on sight, like every other human nation.”

Tess opens her mouth, the beginning of a protest on her lips-

And promptly closes it. Sighs, heavily, and plops down on the rock beside her. “Yes,” she admits. “Yes. We would have.”

“And Garrosh knew that too.”

“Fuck him.”

“That,” Sylvanas says, and prods her face to check for any blood, “we can agree on.”

“Yes.”

Finding nothing but dry, cold, lifeless skin, Sylvanas straightens herself up, hands folding behind her back. “If you are willing to help guide me to him, I am willing to find your brother. It may take some time. The Maw is a hostile environment to living creatures.” Even now, a presence is creeping nearer, and she readies herself for another psychic bombardment from a night elven soul. “Many adventurers died here in their attempts to stop Zovaal, and many condemned entities remain even after his demise. Entities that will slaughter anything living they come across.” Is that a soul? Do you need guidance?

No, comes the guttural answer. Sylvanas stiffens.

Tess stares at her, oblivious to the shadow materialising behind her. “But our reports said there was nothing-”

“MAWSWORN!” Sylvanas shouts, and dives at Tess to throw her away from the dagger that lodges in her stomach instead.

The Mawsworn rears back with a screech, dragging a second blade from its holster and Sylvanas yanks the dagger from her belly just in time to parry the killing blow with it. “He’s gone,” she cries. “Zovaal is gone!”

“BETRAYER!” Their blades clash so hard it sets Sylvanas’ ears ringing. Her feet scrabble desperately for purchase in the dust. “THE WORLD MUST BE BROKEN!”

“He,” she pants, feinting this way and that way for some sort of opening, “is-”

There THERE her blade flashes in to puncture its heart just as Tess’ buries itself in its back and the Mawsworn screams in agony, flailing at her wailing at her and they jump back from its death throes.

“Dead,” she finishes as it dissolves.

The cloud dissipates to reveal Tess, one shirt sleeve bloodied, staring dumbly at her.

“You… you saved me.” A hand comes up to point at Sylvanas’ belly. “You- you actually took a dagger for me. You did.”

Sylvanas looks down at herself. At the black blood oozing lazily from the stab wound to her belly. The sluggish, half-forgotten ache of her cold body going through the motions of mending.

She looks back up at Tess.

“Oh, right,” she says. “Ow.”

#sylvanas windrunner #tess greymane #world of warcraft #fanfiction #my fanfiction #prompt #thank you for the prompt!#much appreciated <3 #look mum i can write post sl sylvanas too #lmk if i should post this on ao3 idk who reads what where

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