Forsaken: Forgive and Forget

I don't know how the story goes once Cataclysm comes out. As I have said, I don't have key to the beta. That's probably a good thing. You know. For my life and stuff.

But what if I was dead and stuff? I'd love Sylvanas even more than I already do. Probably the hawttest dead chick around, these days. Also, good with a bow. But I've heard and read, and I'm sure its the same for all you other people without beta keys, little tidbits of the kind of stuff we can expect story wise in Cataclysm, and one of those most tantalizing bits is not only interfaction conflict but some delicious intrafaction conflict.

After this, if you haven't played through a lot of Wrath of the Lich King, it is SAFE: Spoilers Are Fucking Everywhere.

Apparently, Garrosh Hellscream, the new Warchief, doesn't get along with Sylvanas all that well. Something about a Val'kyr, some name-calling or something. I don't know. It's easy to see how they wouldn't, even without knowing the exact events that go down. There is the fact that Garrosh is a pretty bull-headed jerk and he didn't even drink the Blood of Mannoroth. Sylvanas is an independent type of woman, sort of the Beyonce of incidentally-necrophilia-related-fantasy-inducing ranger elves. Strong enough to flip off the first Lich King and claim some of his kingdom as her own, and then go toe-to-toe with the second one. There is also the fact that nobody really likes the Forsaken in the first place, unholy by-products of demonic machinations they are. They smell pretty awful as well. Yep. That's pretty much it.

What?

Omg, I knew you were going to bring this up. Yes, I know, then there was that whole Wrathgate thing. Again with this? Fine. So the Forsaken betrayed the Alliance and the Horde at a pivotal moment, nay, the very inception of their siege on Icecrown, destroying the Scourge and the living alike with their New Plague which they'd been clandestinely developing for years to unleash vengeance on an unsuspecting world, whether the victims actually perpetrated it or not. Big deal. How long are you going to keep throwing that in their faces? Bolvar didn't actually die, you know. And most of the people there ran away screaming, not dead, so....yeah. No big deal.

Playing Dumb

Yeah, its tough to get over that. But I, and my character, a blood elf mage, actually do believe that Sylvanas and the Forsaken as a whole had no intention of betraying the Kor'kron and the 7th Legion at the Wrathgate.

Why do I believe that? Well, notice what I said. I didn't say Sylvanas did not know the New Plague was being developed. I didn't say that she did not know that its purpose was to lay waste to the Scourge and to the living alike. I didn't say that Sylvanas and the Forsaken had no intention of betraying their allies in this war. I didn't say that they had no intention of eradicating or enslaving every other race and lording over Azeroth.

As far as the statements of the last paragraph are concerned, its almost impossible to play as Horde through any set of Forsaken given or related quests and not run into the development of the New Plague. Remember a Forsaken telling you to test the latest formulas of something or other on unsuspecting mobs or prisoners? Remember some Apothecary telling you gather worm bladders, or some shit, giving you something to take to some other Apothecary? The "New Plague" article on Wowwiki linked above lists fully 7 quest chains which make some direct reference to the development of a new plague. And you help test it on the living at least as often as the undead. Doing nearly anything for the Hand of Vengeance in Howling Fjord and especially Dragonblight means you were directly involved in the finalization and perfection of the New Plague's formula. As far as we Horde players go, who among us can really claim ignorance? Check out this quest text:

Executor Dahlia, The Battle of Hillsbrad:

"I am under direct command of Varimathras. We are to quell
the human infestation until our apothecaries can develop the
new plague."

"Quelling the human infestation"? The people you kill in this quest are not Scourge, nor are they even Scarlet Crusade. They're just some humans. Also, that Varimathras is the Varimathras who was working with Putress.

Apothecary Renferrel, A Recipe for Death:

"Arthas's numbers are overwhelming. But with a New Plague we could eradicate both the Scourge Army and the Human infestation once and for all."

Again with this "Human infestation," which he goes so far as to distinguish from the Scourge.

Apothecary Lydon, Elixir of Pain:

"I look out my grimy window and long for the day when our New Plague brings this world the death it deserves."

The New Plague is not just to kill the Scourge. It's to bring death to "this world". As in, Azeroth.

Apothecary Renferrel, Journey to Hillsbrad Foothills:

"The Royal Apothecary Society is under extreme pressure from the Dark Lady to develop a New Plague."

And here is evidence that it goes all the way to the top, to the Dark Lady herself. If you've read Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, there is a scene where you can see that she directly oversees the Royal Apothecary Society's activities when they test it successfully on the living.

Keep in mind, this is several years before Wrath of the Lich King even started. You might argue that all these references the NPCs make might be only in reference to the coming Scourge War in Northrend, and the Humans which are encroaching upon what the Forsaken believe are their lands, or the Scarlet Crusade. That's quite an equivocal statement, fit for the Azeroth United Nations World Summit. Anyone who has dealt with the Forsaken for anything more than one or two quests at a time knew about the Plague, and what they intended to do with it. If Putress was treacherous, it was only because the rest of us were complacent, or didn't read the quests (which you did, right?) Give me a break. We all knew.

Pointing Fingers, Dead Puppies

And are you really going to tell me that you and I, some random Horde adventurers, knew about the plans of the Forsaken to rain death over Azeroth with the New Plague and Sylvanas didn't? Come on. Clearly she was biding her time, waiting for the right moment to pounce and take Azeroth, or at least a very large portion of it for herself. No one has ever denied that the Forsaken have always been looking out for #1. It's just that Putress and Varimathras jumped the gun on her. What Sylvanas is trying to do, when she claims innocence in all this, is make puppy dog eyes at the rest of the Horde.

Note that when you deliver Saurfang's armor to his father after the Wrathgate, Sylvanas is found kneeling in front of Thrall. Does Sylvanas seem like the type to kneel in front of anyone? Seems a bit obsequious for her. And notice what she says to Thrall as she has fled to Orgrimmar from the coup,

Lady Sylvanas Windrunner says: Lady Proudmoore, the Warchief
speaks the truth. This subterfuge was set in motion by Varimathras and Grand Apothecary Putress. It was not the Horde's doing.

See? It was their fault, not hers. Really, she has been digging her own grave the whole time (see what I did there?).

But so were the rest of us. If Varimathras and Putress were treacherous, then the rest of us, including the other Forsaken, were complacent. So that if you think of the Wrathgate as the precipitating cause for the coming hot war with the Alliance (as opposed to the previous cold one), none of us can really point fingers. My character, Ambassador Luqa stands up at the Azeroth United Nations and uses some expert doublespeak here: No one can blame anyone because we are all guilty.

The complacent culpability of the Horde is evidenced by the internal Horde political response, which was predictably too-little-too-late. Instead of the abominations guarding the city, there are now Kor'kron Overseers. Of course, this was after they've won the battle and the rebellion put down, when there is a relatively small chance of more Forsaken starting shit after the decisive victories in the Battle for the Undercity.

You might argue that Sylvanas could have been in on the Wrathgate plan and some kind of dispute broke out beforehand which resulted in Putress and Varimathras betraying her. I'm not sure I believe that. One the one hand, it doesn't seem like such a brilliant military tactician as herself would choose the beginning of the siege on Icecrown to pull the rug out from under it, and Sylvanas might be tricky to deal with, but she is pragmatic if nothing else. On the other hand, she did try to solo the Lich King in the Halls of Reflection. Still though. Trying to figure out how to point the finger at her, or the Forsaken, is pointless. It was either all of our failure or it was none of ours.

Let Bygones Be Bygones

In a sense, playing as a member of the Horde, and as a Blood Elf in particular, I have to believe this. It is a very convenient way of thinking about things for a few reasons. Let me speak in character for a minute here.

First of all, in a twisted sort of way, it's actually good that the Wrathgate happened the way that it did. If Sylvanas really cannot be trusted, then we all got lucky at the Wrathgate (except those who died). The lesser traitors were exposed and elminated before they did something that could really have broken the combined war effort against the Scourge, even though they came damn close. More importantly, Sylvanas was beat to the punch; to save her own ass, now, she has to get in line.

To put it back in terms of the coming war, King Wrynn and the Alliance, they don't place the blame on the Forsaken or Sylvanas, either. They place it on the Horde as a whole. That's with them only having a hint at what we were confronted with repeatedly. So what good does it do us? It will only fracture and divide us at a time when we need to unite and put our collective boot snugly up the Alliance's haughty, self-important ass.

Like it or not, the Forsaken are an indispensible military ally. No one can say Sylvanas doesn't know what's what when it comes to the battlefield, and her people who weren't killed in the rebellion are fanatically loyal to her. They advanced through southern Northrend all the way to Venomspite on their own, fueled pretty much by pure hatred. The Undercity and its surrounding territory is a key vanguard and stronghold for the Horde on the Eastern Kingdoms. They have held their own against the rest of the Alliance and the Scarlet Crusade and the Scourge since they took Lordaeron City from the Scourge. With the Scourge threat largely neutralized, they're only going to get stronger.

And as a Sin'dorei, there is a strong cultural and political tie as well. It isn't just the "enemy of my enemy" thing. Forsaken aid at Tranquilien in the Ghostlands was key to helping us defend ourselves from the Scourge, the Amani, and to integrate ourselves into the Horde. We should not forget that. With the Undercity sitting south of Silvermoon, they are a buffer between the elves and the humans, dwarves, and gnomes that haven't had the cojones to try to step to them yet.

The rest of the Horde, surely we can identify with them being an outcast, demonized, suffering and/or severely threatened people. Maybe we can't all get along, but we can at least get where they're coming from. The Forsaken may not be the nicest looking, or smelling, or nicest in general, but they are useful.

Oh, Sylvanas. What Will We Do With You?

Here is the dilemma, though. It's clear that the Forsaken cannot be completely trusted, yet it is also clear that we cannot leave them to our own devices. We'd lose a key ally first, and second, we risk adding another faction to the list of Horde enemies. A strong one, at that. We should not forget how important they are and have been, or they will not see the need to remain our allies. Yet we can't make it clear to them that we need them that badly, or they will not see they should follow the agenda of the Horde. They are a double-edged sword, and a cumbersome one to wield at that. Garrosh could be the best Warchief to walk that tightrope. He doesn't take shit off nobody, except for maybe Saurfang. Yet he may desire total victory enough to admit that he needs Sylvanas.

Or he could be the worst. Many people are as distrustful of the foaming-at-the-mouth new Warchief as they are the calculating, cold-on-the-inside-and-outside Sylvanas. We might see two camps within the Horde rising. Especially because it will be interesting to see how the Sin'dorei-Forsaken alliance plays out in the future, particularly because of the geographical split with Silvermoon and the Undercity on the east of the Great Sea, and Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, and the Echo Isles on the west.

It will be interesting, to say the least. I don't know what will happen, cause I still don't have a beta key. All I can say, is that once Cataclysm drops, shit is going down, and not just geologically.

The Evils of Faction

I don't have a beta key, but I read obsessively about Cataclysm to know that, at least at this point, Garrosh is not well-liked. Let me preface everything I am saying by saying that I spend far and away more time as a Horde mage than I do as an Alliance anything, and I'm also an Ambassador to the Horde, so I like to think I know a little something about Horde politics. Or at least, my character does. I as a player spend a lot of time pondering over it, in any case. To tell the truth, as things stand now, I don't particularly like him myself. Generally, from now on, when I say "I", I mean "Luqa, the Blood Elf."

Of Blood and Honor.

Let's talk about the old Warchief. Thrall is not without his criticisms, but I've always had a great admiration for him. If you've read Lord of the Clans, you know what rags-to-riches story he is. Thrall was pretty much the lowest of the low. He grew up as a slave gladiator in the orcish internment camps following the Second War, treated like shit, and thinking that he deserved it. I didn't even realize this until I read the book that thrall is actually a synonym in English for slave (vocabulary expansion win; I thought it was just some made up name like every one else in every fantasy name ever). Thrall, with the help of others, reconnected to his orcish heritage then liberated and united a broken people, who were already fugitives from a shattered world. Then, he took them across the Great Sea and forged an entirely new home for them, while garnering allies in the Sin'dorei, the Forsaken, the Tauren, and the Darkspear Trolls, all the while leading the New Horde to defend Azeroth from some of its recent threats. That's not such a bad resume. Also, he basically goes around calling himself "Slave". How fucking badass is that?

What I respect most about him was insistence that the New Horde not be the Old Horde, that they were not the blindly warlike and bloodraging beasts of some decades ago (although its arguable whether they were really that, if you ask me). The Alliance was not some great foe that needed to be cleaved and smashed at every opportunity, nor was anyone else. Sometimes you have to work with them, like with Jaina, or the War of the Shifting Sands, or the reinvasion of the Draenor. And how could anyone with a brain judge otherwise? Azeroth is a tough place to live. Someone's always trying to enslave you, corrupt you, or just plain murder the shit out of you. You can't go around destroying and raping and pillaging constantly. Thrall is a smart guy, and each of the Horde races has enough problems without going off and creating new ones for their own sake.

Garrosh Whoscream?
Now look at Garrosh. He's warmongering, bloodthirsty, hot-tempered, and brash. He was appointed the Overlord of the Warsong Offensive (at the end of Wrath of the Lich King). And how did he get there? Well, first he was chieftain of the dwindling, ailing Warsong clan, in Nagrand, and he reconnected with their now Azerothian counterparts through Thrall. Thrall brought him back as a personal advisor for no clear practical reason of which I am aware. Then, he has the nerve to give Thrall lip about how he intends to handle the Scourge threat, which leads to an out-and-out duel, rudely interrupted by the Scourge attack on Orgrimmar. Then he appoints him the Overlord. Like, of the Warsong Offensive. To defeat the Scourge. As in, the single greatest threat to Azeroth remaining as far as they know.

So this guy, Garrosh, he comes out of nowhere and rocketed straight to the top of New Horde leadership, talking all this shit about who everyone should be and what everyone is doing, and meanwhile he is probably the least experienced warrior and leader of nearly all of his new peers. Where do you get your stones, buddy?

Actually, I can see where his stones are coming from. He thought that he was the last of a dying breed of worthless, dishonorable curs, and that we next in line to shame his family. His father was, after all, Grom Hellscream, the first to drink the blood of Manneroth. But then he learned, through my (or any player's) help, that actually not Grom had been the one to finally kill Mannoroth and free the orcs from their corruption. He went from depressed wretch to a newly empowered alpha male foaming at the mouth pack leader type. It's got to feel great to realize that you are worth something, and now he wants to do something with himself.

Broken Front, Broken Leaders

From what I've seen in Wrath of the Lich King, he is a strong leader, but not a particularly wise one. There is the famous conversation in Warsong Hold at the opening of Wrath of the Lich King, where Garrosh is talking a big game, how they should be killing the Scourge and the Alliance, and he oversteps his bounds, and Saurfang has to take him down a peg. He insists on making war with the Alliance, turning Northrend into the theater for a two-front campaign. He is openly insulting to Varian and even neutral people like Tirion, and disdainful of any attempts to do things other than his way. And look at who the people are he puts in power. Conqueror Krenna, who completely abandons the war against the Scourge in favor of mucking about with the Alliance, so much so that I (or you) had to actually depose her and put her far more sensible sister in power. Korm Blackscar, who commands the Orgrim's Hammer, is clearly more interested in fighting the Alliance than the actual Scourge based on the dailies he gives.

The Broken Front in Icecrown is a quintessential example. In front of Mord'rethar: The Death Gate, the Horde waited til the Alliance were engaging the Scourge and the Hored attacked from behind, pretty much ensuring that the only people not defeated there were the Scourge. Now Garrosh did not directly order nor know about this, and neither did Korm, but Thrall would have been furious, and would never allow such a supremely stupid and brash attack. Under Garrosh, we have so much leadership that just refuses to acknowledges what's at stake for their own personal vendettas and desire to make war. This culminates in the Gunship battle in Icecrown itself. It just never stops with these people does it?

What Garrosh Doesn't Get

I was pretty annoyed by this. And I was thinking, do I really want Garrosh as my warchief? Until last night, when I remembered that I read somewhere (unfortunately I cannot remember where, I've been scouring the internets all day for the long forgotten URL) that Garrosh doesn't really understand what Azeroth is about. I didn't really understand that statement at the time, but then I started thinking about the politics of the Horde, and who its constituent races are. You've got the Orcs, who are essentially a bunch of refugees that have undergone some serious breaks with their heritage in the past few decades, and are trying to carve out a new home for themselves against the wishes of many of the other peoples of Azeroth. You've got the Forsaken, who are just as abhorred as their former peers the Scourge, and, some might argue, rightly so. They are quite proactive about it, but they really just want to have a place for themselves, too. The same goes for the Darkspears, outcasts from their home, and just recently able to take it back. Then there are the Tauren, who share their shamanistic connection with the land and tribal society with the orcs and trolls, but not much else. Finally, you have the Blood Elves, whose ancestors were in the Alliance, another outcast people who has turned toward the dark side in order to ensure their survival and and find a place for themselves.

The Horde is really an alliance of convenience between peoples who need allies to survive, between peoples who do not necessarily want to conquer Azeroth for themselves so much as find some way to live in it. Garrosh does not understand this. He knows only of the deeds of the Orcish Horde, and even of that, he knows very little. So he goes for what is easy to understand: Blood and Thunder.

The silver lining to this for me is twofold. One, you've got King Wrynn on the other side running the Alliance who is just as hot-tempered and brash (mutual foils, anyone?). He wants to go on the offensive against the Horde, and he's going to be doing it. It's going to be good to have a Warchief who is game for this. The best defense is a good offense, as they say. And I think the Horde is a faction that, culturally, and societally, is quite disparate and pulling in different directions- especially the Forsaken who are always trying to do their own thing. A strong leader in time when the Horde is under threat will be invaluable for demanding unity and direction at a time when it is most necessary. I also think that he can spend some time here and learn about the people of Azeroth, even though he has not shown much interest in that.

And now there is no supposed enemy that he has to begrudgingly ally with, except for maybe, as he sees it, the Forsaken. But still, I worry about Garrosh's judgment. It says in the Art of War, if your enemy has a choleric temper, inflame him. Garrosh is quite strong, but its clear what his weaknesses are. By all means, I'm willing to get behind him in a fight where the enemies are clear, and the decisions are black and white. But experience tells me that things in Cataclysm will not be that way, and in general they rarely are, so that's not the measure of a truly good Warchief.

The best Warchief, like Thrall, excels when the situation is the opposite.