#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

[theaceofskulls]

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.