Wolfheart spoilers

Zaelsino posted this on mmo-champ (and as mentioned already, thar be spoilers!) ~
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Original thread found here, though you'll have to sift through the usual faction wank to find the good stuff. I'll outline the major points and interesting details here. Same story as with Thrall - people have received their copies by now, and since there was no NDA, things are starting to circulate.

Massive spoilers aplenty. You were warned:

- Garrosh has some big ambitions. He plans to create a new city to rival Orgrimmar in Ashenvale, and launches a large-scale invasion to make this happen. He's acquired some sort of special weapon to turn the tide here. The "weapon" in question is actually proto-drakes and magnataurs from Northrend, and Garrosh has shipped them to Ashenvale.

- I'll come out and say it: Garrosh is handled quite well, from what I've seen. He comes off as somewhat antagonistic, naturally, but he's portrayed as both cunning and quite competent.

- Varian doesn't like the Gilneans. He (literally) spits in Genn Greymane's face, and is the only Alliance leader to deny them entry into it. He blames Genn for sealing off his nation, reasoning that Lordaeron may not have fallen and the Horde could've been nipped in the bud, if egotistical pricks like him and Anasterian hadn't abandoned the Alliance of Lordaeron. Varian is almost attacked by several worgen for this, though Genn calls them off. Varian (rightfully) mocks an apologetic Greymane relentlessly, despite all of the other Alliance leaders vouching for him.

- Malfurion feels responsible for the worgen curse, looking back to that Ralaar stuff covered in some comic that I didn't read. This is why he feels obligated to give them a home.

- There are male sentinels now.

- The Alliance leaders meet in Darnassus: Varian, Genn, Tyrande, Malfurion, Archmage Tervosh from Theramore, Falstad and two random dwarves from the Dark Iron/Wildhammer clans, Gelbin, and Velen. Apparently that night elf called Pained in Theramore got smashed up fighting a "dark magi," and Gelbin nearly kills one of the dwarves in his mechanostrider.

- Malfurion tries to talk some sense into Varian, though fails to get through to him.

- All of the Watchers were killed during Maiev's hunt for Illidan, and Maiev herself came back to live in Teldrassil, despite some harsh arguments with Tyrande. She's training a new generation of Watchers now.

- Anduin and Varian's relationship is as rocky as ever. Varian almost breaks Anduin's arms after a ragefit, though slinks off afterwards. Velen takes Anduin under his wing for a while - and also hints that Anduin has a great destiny ahead of him with the light. A nod to him being a priest, I took it.

- Anduin makes reference to feeling "something not quite right" about Archbishop Benedictus. You should know why.

- Jarod Shadowsong is a major player. Turns out he disappeared after the WotA, citing Malfurion's interests being more in helping nature than his own people. He got married around this time, to a (now deceased) priestess called Shalasyr Shadowsong. There's a slightly awkward reunion between him and a somewhat jealous Shandris, who reflects on how different their roads have been.

- Maiev is... alright, fuck it, I'll tell you: Maiev is a villain now. You know that murdered highborne mentioned in the preview? Maiev is the one hired to solve the mystery... but, of course, it turns out Maiev is the killer. She's plotting to kill Malfurion and take the night elves out of the Alliance, viewing the other races are a pestilential blight infecting their people. She fails, though, and escapes death towards the end. Possible raid boss in the future, sadly... What a waste.

One of her Watchers, to Jarod: "Figured it out, did you? You are not just pretty but smart too! Your sister is going to cleanse our people of all their taint! No Highborne, no mutts, no humans...no Alliance! We need nothing from them, and all they do is bring their foul ways to us!"

I'd have worded that a little differently, but hey...

- The Watchers have a bit of a superiority complex, though without Maiev is seems the loyal ones need a new leader.

- Needless to say, Jarod confronts Maiev and frees Malfurion; they fight for a bit, and then Maiev escapes.

- The Horde zerg Silverwing Refuge. Garrosh has some fun; cutting down Alliance here and there. He has some inner thoughts about how they fought well and honourably, deserved the clean death that Gorehowl gave them, etc. He goes on to think about Grom, about how Thrall and his father will respect him as a hero after he's conquered Azeroth, about how he's the future, and all that.

- Garrosh had planned that attack with a goal in mind - to lure out Tyrande. He's right, and Tyrande personally shows up to fight off the Horde. Though, the Horde release the magnataur who in turn rush the Alliance, and Tyrande herself is shot twice with arrows. One of her commanders signals a retreat. Here's his thought process:

Quote Originally Posted by Garrosh Hellscream
"Ashenvale falls!" Garrosh Hellscream thought with growing anticipation. "Ashenvale falls, Father!"

Garrosh wondered how his father would have viewed this victory. Would he have been proud? Even eight magnataur had proven enough to easily crush the decadent Alliance. They had been all he needed to tilt the balance once and for all.

"This land will help us grow," he thought, as he surged forward with the rest of his loyal force. A Sentinel caught behind the collapse of her linessought to bring more glory to her doom by suddenly leaping up from the dead to attack him. She proved to be a decent adversary, briefly stalling his advance, and so when Gorehowl ripped through both her breastplate and her torso, he wished her spirit well in the afterlife.

This would be a battle of which the young would be taught forever. Every family would have heroes to name in the festivals that would come after the war's triumphant end.

Even the legendary Thrall, Garrosh's predecessor---even Thrall, who had been reluctant to renew the struggle for Azeroth---would surely call Garrosh the champion of the orc race and of all the Horde.

"Ashenvale is ours...and the rest of Azseroth will follow...There is nothing more mighty than the Horde...nothing that the Alliance can do to change what fate demands of this new world..."

One had to be strong in the Azeroth that Deathwing had created. The Alliance had once been so, but it was of the past. The Horde was the future.

Garrosh was the future.

He almost pitied the night elves and their ilk. They fought bravely but without a chance. They acted as if there were hope, when it was obvious that there was not. Garrosh had used the very summit intended to bring his enemies together in order to catch them most off guard. The other factions of the Alliance had provided the night elf force with the handful of supporters that he had calculated. By the time Theramore and the others were able to send greater numbers, the Horde would have Ashenvale secured.
- Varian and Genn make up. After killing some bear with only a skinning knife, they give each other some veiled compliments. Genn then shows Varian the Tal'Doren ritual (the one where worgen regain their humanity), and Varian undertakes it. He comes to realize that "loss" is his biggest issue, and that having lost so much, he simply could not bear to lose much more. Genn also reflects on the sentiment. The two rush the Horde's flank, and down some of the magnataur together.

- Garrosh and Varian duel. They're evenly matched at first, though "something" clicks inside of Varian, to the point where he gains complete and total focus on Garrosh alone, despite all of the slaughter around them. He charges him, and cuts his way through all of the Horde that come at him, and "somehow" (bear with me, this gets dragonballzish) manages to completely fight Garrosh off despite not quite understanding how. Varian then takes the advantage, striking Garrosh's arm and disarming Gorehowl. Some dying magnataur collapses between them, and Garrosh composes himself to rush Varian once more. As he moves, though, some Kor'kron convince him to stop - the fight is lost either way. Garrosh grudgingly sounds the retreat, and swears to kill Varian as the first step to realizing his dream.

- There's still some nonsense about Varian's relationship with that wolf god, though our gentle readers have been somewhat coy about spilling the beans on that. Either way, it seems like it's more in the vein of "influence" than "possession," but it still comes off as contrived.

That's the general outline. I'll add any other interesting points, though you can look through the thread I linked for anything I've missed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

- All of the Watchers were killed during Maiev's hunt for Illidan, and Maiev herself came back to live in Teldrassil, despite some harsh arguments with Tyrande. She's training a new generation of Watchers now.

- Anduin and Varian's relationship is as rocky as ever. Varian almost breaks Anduin's arms after a ragefit, though slinks off afterwards. Velen takes Anduin under his wing for a while - and also hints that Anduin has a great destiny ahead of him with the light. A nod to him being a priest, I took it.

WTF?

- Maiev is... alright, fuck it, I'll tell you: Maiev is a villain now. You know that murdered highborne mentioned in the preview? Maiev is the one hired to solve the mystery... but, of course, it turns out Maiev is the killer. She's plotting to kill Malfurion and take the night elves out of the Alliance, viewing the other races are a pestilential blight infecting their people. She fails, though, and escapes death towards the end. Possible raid boss in the future, sadly... What a waste.

YAY! But also

Thanks for posting this sad to see Maiev turn into a villain but GOD she still sounds as awesome as ever so whatever.

TBH, as long as Maiev's reason for villainy is actual belief that the Night Elves need to split from the Alliance and not some stupid "madness" being the 'real' reason, I'm totally okay with her being a villain. Good characters don't have to be heroes. They just have to have proper motivations if they're on the evil side.

That's what fucked up Fandral... instead of making him simply a nationalist night elf, they gave him a stupid, lame madness story, which made him completely boring.

I just hope they don't pull the same route with Maiev. Give her an honest-to-god racial pride and belief that the night elves would be better without the Alliance and have that be her primary motivation as a villain.

Hmm I seemed to have missed that part ....

THAT'S AWESOME. I AM SO JOINING MAIEV IC!!!!!!!!!

First I was like,


Then I was like,

...

Well.

Guess I'm a villain now.

Wow, just when you think Varian -cannot- get more douchey.

One word.

Lol.

Inb Garrosh gets a son and becomes father of the year.

All that OP stuff regarding Garrosh and Varian and what happens in Ashenvale made my expression go:

What develpments are there to the Draenei or the Belf story lines?

Lexgrad/Dreth wrote:What develpments are there to the Draenei or the Belf story lines?

Haha

None, they are past expansion material, thus irrelevant. Garrosh and Varian are the new hype.

Appantly velen and Lor'themar sat down and where going to have an epic debate to rival that op fight. Was going to use reason and logic, subtle traps to outwit each other. But no the Varian and the elf wolf god thing is better *nod*

And on another subject.... the alliance won?

Lexgrad/Dreth wrote:Appantly velen and Lor'themar sat down and where going to have an epic debate to rival that op fight. Was going to use reason and logic, subtle traps to outwit each other. But no the Varian and the elf wolf god thing is better *nod*

And on another subject.... the alliance won?

Does that make Velen Dumbeldore?

Please.

What we get to kill him? I will be snape!

Well, anyone not a nelf/human/orc only appears in the books to make the main characters look more awesome.

So in the end what happens really? Is the Horde driven back, do they claim Ashenvale?

I'd assume they'd get driven back.

They get driven back in ashenvale and the forsaken get SW to balance everything.

Judging from what I'm reading here (might be taking things the wrong way), basically nothing changes whatsoever. Pretty much like any Saturday morning cartoon. Garrosh runs off shaking his fist shouting "Next time, Wrynn! NEXT TIME!" and daily life in Ashenvale continues. All feels like that whole plot was a little useless, all in all. Nothing was accomplished whatsoever and all's the same way as it started out as. Guess they don't have to do any updates in-game that way.

Kozgugore Feraleye wrote:Judging from what I'm reading here (might be taking things the wrong way), basically nothing changes whatsoever. Guess they don't have to do any updates in-game that way.

This.

From what I read on the MMO Forums, and from what I read from the pieces of the book linked there, its pretty bad writing and that Knaak should be fired from Blizzard for writing such poor pieces. And naturally that there are no developments what so ever as Kozgugore said.

Seems like Knaak was fired from Dragonlance previously for writing like a monkey with a type writer.

How I see it;

Nothing happens? They introduce a new villain that isn't insane. The Worgen join the Alliance and the Night Elves become splintered. Garrosh matures it seems, Andiun progresses under the teachings of Velen, the Horde push further into Ashenvale, Varian becomes a demigod (lol).

All of these changes where obvious from a very basic summary from a forum. Don't fixate on one plot of many and still get it wrong

I like Knaak anyway, Warcraft has never been very intellectual or super serious, his writing is perfect for the franchise. If you wanted some deep and thoughtful high fantasy plots you're looking in the wrong place. His Warcraft novels have always been easy to get into, interesting and "cinematic" in my opinion.