Event Suggestion - Rise of a False King

note: this event is being planned for well after Cataclysm, when initial craze has settled. Considering the scope, however, it is best to start thinking and preparing early:)

It is common for noble families to intermarry, and should some ill befall Varian and his son, there will be somebody who is next in the line of succession and has a genuine claim to the throne of Stormwind. How, suppose, one of those nobles just doesn't want to wait and see, and takes matters into his own hands, murdering his way up the line and may be even succesfully poisoning (not lethally ofc) prince Anduin.

Eventually this evil bastard is unmasked, but manages to escape capture. He flees into the countryside, declares himself the King of Stormwind and starts a propaganda campaign that Varian is a failure of the King, has ruined the Kingdom, betrayed the people etc etc, and that he will make a far better ruler. This fake king will then start trying to get others to support him with promises. He may offer the Elves full human aid in Ashenvale if they support him, promise cultists some concessions, offer land&titles to criminal lords if they join him, offer restored rights to Crimson Flame and so forth.

It will be a tense of situation where alliances are made and broken, people move camps, promises are given and taken away. Political backstabbing, diplomacy, assassination, skirmishes as two armies move into place...and probably ending with an epic attack (no massive emote-battle zerg ofc!) on Stormwind, where the fake king is finally crushded.

Event can progress something like that:
-Roaring lion starts posting stories of this and that noble turning up dead
-At some poing connection is made: all these are in line of succession.
-Crown Prince is poisoned?, and heroes are sent out to find the cure (delighted at chaos, cultists may try and stop them? Criminals can seek to find the cure first and sell it at an outrageous price?)
-The noble is unmasked, SI;7 tries to get him down, but he manages to escape.
-Noble and his henchmen send letters asking for help, spread propaganda, make promises and start the whole political/shady RP
-Noble receives aid, makes camp and has a bit of an army. he has skirmishes with Stormwind garrisons and so forth.
-Unexpecidly, he turns up in Stormwind, his army wreacking havoc on the city and he with his elite group infiltrating the keep for the final confrontation. It can be seen as groups of 5ish vs 5ish fighting in various places, creating a sense of total chaos without swarming anybody's screen with ONE MILLION EMOTES.

And of cource all the spontaneous RP in between.

My question to you:
1) Do you think this event is possible and fun to do?
2) Do you have any suggestions/corrections of your own?
3) Would you or anybody you know actually take the side of the Fake King?
4) Would you be interessted in RPing, at least at start, one of Fake King's retinue? (he needs men to send out and call for aid!)
5) We need somebody who can be trusted to go through this event without causing drama, can RP well, and is active to fill the role of the Fake King. Any suggestions?

Thank you for taking your time to read this!

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eep.

I'm too tired to give a proper reply right now. I just want to make it known that I think it sounds like a fun event. I'll get back with some questions and a more proper reply a bit later.

hey, love the look of the event, sounds awesome, and ari will be very excited about the SI:7 side of it, but I must say on a personal level the other side calls to me on some level, so if you want me I can roll as the fake king, or someone in his group, (will of course make and level a new toon for it shouldn't take to long) only do it if you want me, and of coursey ou can't find anyone better I won't take it personly if you don't (i still get to be involved on ari himself)
good luck, and I honestly can't wait, this could be the event that people talk about when saying what RP on the server is like to new players =P good luck once more.

I approve highly this idea. This sound like very fun and interesting. This can create a new guild (the false King guild) and a lot of interaction of all kind.

Obviously Whitestar Magazine can be involved in this on different lvl.

This sounds very interesting and I wish you luck with it :3

But hot damn I'd stab my eyes out if I ever had to see a 5v5 Emote fight XD

Mikasa wrote:This sounds very interesting and I wish you luck with it :3

But hot damn I'd stab my eyes out if I ever had to see a 5v5 Emote fight XD

"/ e The young admirable warrior, the elemental shaman of untold experience and the frost mage enhanced in his arts open up on the holy paladin of high esteem"

"/e the holy paladin radiates his body in holy light as his partners charge towards their warrior to force him to lash out his shield in a solid defense to reduce his onslaught. However the holy paladin is struggling under the weight of the mage especially and erupts his body into a shield of untold defense"

"/e the shield runs out but it is too late for the mind of the paladin was too slow to save the warrior anyway, and poor henry fell to the floor with the breath "Was too slow to click shield wall"

Otherwise, sounds like a good idea to think about Ex.

Whitestar Magazine can be recruited to become Fake King's Ministry of Propaganda

And thanks for replies; aye, there should be a Fake King's guild, probably
. And it should RPing semi-activly a few weeks before the event so that people know who they are etc. Make a few social/charitable events to win the love of the people.

"Hey, Bob Wellington proclaimed himself King Bob!"
"...who the hell is he anyway?"

I think this serie of event would be awsome ! It's a long term project, and it's good in that way. I mean, it's worth to prepare and take our time for the whole story as every step will be a serie of fun events and nice random RP.

Differents questions :

Can this false king come from Gilneas ?
Can this false king be a false ..queen ?
Can another group use and manipulate this false king to control Stormwind ?



I'll speak about this project arround me, as there is some players I know who will reroll, they could make a character which fit this story ligne already.

EDIT : evil idea ---> I personaly have always find King Varian as a stupid retard King, short tempered and thirsty of Horde blood.

The false King could be someone good in heart. Someone presuaded himself that Varian is a pleague. Someone whilling to take the risk of murdering his way to save the world of humans. It could be a real idealist, a revolutionaire, a kind of Che :p
And this false King would maybe want to work actively for the peace with the Horde. He would then have the approval of a group of horde with similair views. Horde who refuse Garrosh and his violent politic.
In this case we can extend the plot to some Horde guilds, and this can drive to some wolrd PVP event.

Loyal Alliance VS Revolution Horde Revolution Alliance VS Loyal Horde.

Obviously this idea make the whole plot a bit more complex, but I think it would be really really interesting.

And, the reason I did not provide any motivations/personality to the False King is because whoever will end up playing him must have a say about the character of course

But, False King cannot come from Gilneas. since he is high-up on the list of succession, he should be a Stormwinder. It would make sense if he was a Greymane or a Menethil; but I doubt House Wrynn will intermarry with small nobles of other Kingdoms. Kinda waters down the power of his claim.

I am not sure how the laws of succession work in WoW, but I believe that in a time of all-out war a KING will make a far better candidate than a Queen *runs from all the feminists*

Since this is a long-term, open RP event: yes, others can manipulate the King. Say somebody rolls the False King's son, he can even murder his father and push forwards his OWN claim so to speak. And yes, the King can be anybody: a power-hungry tyrant, an idealist, a visionary, he may even be a revolutionary who promises his people a constitution and a parliament. Depends on the person who ends up playing the role.

As to the horde-extension. If Stormwind is in state of Civil War it will make no sense for horde not to intervene! So there will definatly be W-pvp where hordies try to bring divided Stormwind to it's knees. As to Revolutionary Horde...hard to say...depends if there is interest on the horde-side I guess.

To make up for my anti-feminist remark

The False King pretending to rule Stormwind, can in fact be ruled by his wife behind the scenes

I am not sure how the laws of succession work in WoW, but I believe that in a time of all-out war a KING will make a far better candidate than a Queen *runs from all the feminists*

This excatly that ! Time to change the world !! Time for the real Queen to get her trone back ! As older sister of King Varian, she should have been the Queen but this archaic law giving more important to a male offspring have rejected her to the simple rank of princess. During years, she plotted her come back, waiting for the right moment to strike, claim her trone and change this miserable machist society.
With her army of amazone, and her militia where all officers are exclusively woman, she is plotting with a sect of feminist orc who want as her, reverse the machist power.

Yaarrrrrrrr!! /charge







That would be so damn fun !

And...Fake Queen has one additional shady tactic of getting support of others for her cause over a Fake King! *nod*

Ooh yes !
and she would be a awsome archer, never wearing pants, but mail skirt for fighting. Elegant and Strict.


(sorry to troll this post, I'm a bit entousiast ^^)

Hordy stumbling in here, but it seems y'all have your eyes set on a noble family already established in WoW.. Why? Personally I've always seen such a thing as a very bad thing to do. A pretender (not necessarily a family member, or an alive one) could do quite well and keep the royal family lore (as in the members, their relations to one another etc) firmly in the hands of Blizzard, as it should be.

Have a pretender claim to be a dead family member or so if one is available, have a popular demagogue from a noble family declare himself a worthier king and start such a propaganda campaign. In real life this was not a very uncommon practice so why not here?

At the same rate we can have an oligarch akin to Oliver Cromwell make his bid for the throne.

But yea, I see your point Antistia. It is something to be considered. However, since this is only for the sake of one event, not for the sake of self-glorification of some RPer who wants to RP a character and walk around saying "Hey! I am 3rd in line of succession!", it shouldn't be that bad.

Well my long speech about the older sister of King Varian was not serious, and even if it would be extremly awsome to role play, I understand that's playing a bit to close the Lore to be allowed.
So it was just ranting for my part.

Though, we could find some ideas in this...

I personaly really like those 2 ideas :

- The whatever pretended cousine, older sister, in short : a girl heir, who want to reverse not only the King, but also change the machist society and build a society where woman have access (or control) the power. alignement : chaotic neutral
The queen would have a "secret" (or not secret) militia at her disposal (Amazone) and would have a cover gouvernement, but strangely few males are among her officers, and concelors. She would use charms and persuasion.


- The idealist disliking the reign of Varian, finding him too blood thirsty, not wise enough, too tyranic. He want a revolution. He want peace with the Horde, he want another Alliance. Hop revolution ! alignement : chaotic good
Here you imagine more a usual revoltionaire, close to the people, defending who he consider as oppressed (and no, not the cultist or the scarlet crusade :p they just deserve to be opressed).

Yes, it is for the sake of one event, Exaythe, I completely understand that. But I firmly believe we shouldn't touch the make up of the royal families of WoW as is being proposed. One event can give precedent to a series of events which can then become a character's continued existence. Blizzard should be the only ones to mess with the make up of royal families, we are not in a position to do so. It is a slippery slope which we should avoid at all costs. It is far more preferable to have an oligarch akin to Oliver Cromwell make a bid for the throne in one such event than to invent a new family member. Before you know it you will have the sons of Calia Menethil running around, the forgotten brother of Genn, the Forsaken adopted by Sylvanas, another son of Anasterian, the list goes on and on and on.

We should not give any excuse whatsoever for such practices, it is better to use the oligarch or whatever as the essence of the event remains.

The "family member" don't need to be a real one. He could lie about it. In this case we are not messing up with what Blizzard is creating.

Elloa wrote:The "family member" don't need to be a real one. He could lie about it. In this case we are not messing up with what Blizzard is creating.

Aye, this is part of what I meant with having a pretender.

Sad part is, that without a blood-link any noble who tries proclaim himself a king will seem like a god-damned opportunist out for power.

Exaythe wrote:Sad part is, that without a blood-link any noble who tries proclaim himself a king will seem like a god-damned opportunist out for power.

Well, that depends on the rhetoric employed if you ask me. You can really pose as an idealist, you can want the betterment of the kingdom (The loss of Andorhal would probably be a blow to Varian's credibility and thus an opportunity) but yes, it would slightly hit the legitimacy of that noble.

But hmm, yea, if he comes with a clear and appealing agenda:
-Constitution, Parliament, local councils in every shire
-Peace!
-Fighting corruption (always an appealing thing!)

as well as private offers of Lordship, aid or government positions etc to those who support him...hmm...can work!

Exaythe wrote:But hmm, yea, if he comes with a clear and appealing agenda:
-Constitution, Parliament, local councils in every shire
-Peace!
-Fighting corruption (always an appealing thing!)

as well as private offers of Lordship, aid or government positions etc to those who support him...hmm...can work!

Yep, can work quite easily. I think you can find good talking point in the November revolution and in the American revolution.. Perhaps the French Revolution too.

Pointless piece you probably guessed but i'll throw it here anyway; Westfall has alot of homeless refugees thanks to the Cataclysm and Varian's new war tax. The Defias scoups these up of course, but who is to say this 'King' would not want to get them fairly informed on his course of action? Act as a good bulk of his 'freedom fighters' so to speak. That and the.. ship.. thing.. they have in the deeper Deadmines ready to sail.

Mind you whilst the Defias certainly aren't fans of the House of Nobles, it wouldn't be the first time they've worked with the more courrupt ones.