Warcraft: Descent of the Golden Age
Disclaimer: Warcraft owned by Blizzard Entertainment
Authors Note: I was partially Inspired by 'The Third War' which was written by 'The Iron Youth', i like how it was written, how did it influence me you might say?... well i was listening to Antoino Vivaldi's four seasons whilst i was reading his work and my mind went "How would Warcraft Change if Humans where like the 1700's, with Redcoat's et cetera" and this is exactly what i had to do... i had to set my idea down on paper so to speak... and here i am now, presenting my wacky idea to an audience.
Description: (AU) In the First War, Humanity learnt the cost in men when it came to fighting against Orcs... they then learnt of a new invention from the Dwarves that consisted of a tube filled with an explosive and a ball... In the Second War, The Humans began to learn how best to utilize the invention to best cover any loses they may sustain... But how will they fare in the Third War?
This Story is AU (Alternate Universe), is set in the time period of Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos, assumes a 18-19th (1700's-1800's) century-esque version of Humanity and Dwarve's, with similar such culture and technology. So expect tricornes (Triangular hats), Ponytail's, Red Coat's, Soldiers and militia armed with Flintlock rifles, Knights in armour leading cavalry charges of people armed only in cuirasses with sabre's, Opera houses, Ball's (As in dancing balls that people dance in accompanied by classical music/baroque music et cetera), Cannon's (mortars were featured in Warcraft III but they never showed off cannons). So expect to see differences and similarities.
The Orcs are unchanged, except that they now rely mostly on Guerrilla warfare, as charging into well prepared lines of gunners is not the most sound of tactical solutions.
Night Elf's unchanged.
High Elves are also unchanged, they feel that their rangers have faster firing rates and more accurate weapons (Bows) and view the gun and similar technology with disdain.
Chapter 1: To the Western land
Year 617 of the Kings Calendar, aboard the 80 gun Third Rate Ship of the Line 'Shadowmourne's Breath'
Admiral Marlowe Mullen, a man of some forty-years, with his greying reddish hair, his mutton chop's and his narrow figure donned in his all red coloured coat adorned with a buckle strap and a blue diagonal slash, golden tassel's hanged off his shoulders demonstrating his rank, and a small golden fob-watch hanged from one of his sidepockets, the golden chain gleamed in the glare of the mid day sun.
Admiral Marlowe couldn't help but be amazed at Humanities progress, and by extension the Dwarve's technological progress as well, just some thirty years ago, strapping young lads like the marines aboard his vessel would have once been donned in plate and given swords and shields, but now they wore fine cloth and wool coats coloured all red, whilst they now used Dwarven Musket's, replacing the mundane old days of sword and shield for the killing power of Musketry, and of repeated combat drills replacing the old days of training one man at a time until each were expert, now the power of a nation rested solely on the amount of guns and cannons that that nation could field at any one time.
The power equality was changing rapidly, now the Lords and knights of the land were being replaced by musket armed militia forces who had even more of an impact at the call to battle, the cavalry charge was going away, and melee battles now consisted mostly of bayonet charges, how much things had changed, and for the better in Marlowe's eyes, Human swordsmen were weaker than Orc's individually, but the power of a single gunman could kill an Orc with a single well placed shot, or maim them with a bad shot... all at an acceptable range, Armour was going away as it could not repel the power of musket balls, unless they were enchanted, so armies and governments lost the armour and gained freedom of movement, soldiers were now cheaper to maintain, and the common man could within less than a month have the power to kill a knight with a musket.
What better way was there to demonstrate the power of the Musketman than during the second war, when the Human leaders learned how to drill and train their soldiers in quick fashion, to teach their men rank and file, to march, to load, and when best to give fire, it was learned through several battles how to make the men fire better, it was then learned that by having the first rank fire, kneel down once they fired and reload whilst the second one fired and henceforth could cause for withering, repeated barrages of gunfire, and to this day, newer things were being learned on how best to utilize their guns, meanwhile, the days of the sword were numbered, why spend years developing a useless art when the moment you stepped foot in a battlefield you could be shot down, no... Guns were the way forward, and even the Orc's knew that, it was why they switched from large frenzied charges to skirmishes and Guerrilla warfare.
But Marlowe had to clear those thoughts away from his mind and back to the task at hand... which consisted of searching for some mystical hidden land far to the west, and that was what he was going to do.
Marlowe had misgivings about the whole situation, he had only recently heard about the reasons for the journey in the first place, but no one on board told him anything further, and his Marines alike knew next to nothing, and Marlowe did not like being left out of the loop, he was going to level things out by asking the so called 'leader', a miss Jaina Proudmore.
"Admiral Marlowe, how goes our journey to the west"
Admiral Marlowe turned to face the speaker, who by the tone of the voice he could tell that it emerged from the very person that he wanted to see, miss Jaina Proudmore.
"Aghh, Miss Jaina Proudmore, just the person that i wanted to see".
Jaina proudmore walked up close to the Admiral before speaking.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, i wanted to discuss why you even wanted to travel west in the first place... nothing is out west except for boundless ocean"
Jaina looked puzzled for a second, but then she just looked into Marlowe's eyes and spoke.
"I do not know the details, just that we must go west to avoid some catastrophe that is sure to arise"
Admiral Marlowe did not like the explanation, it sounded more like an excuse or a flight of fancy, But Admiral Marlowe knew that he could not disobey her orders, for her family has extensive political power behind it (She was the daughter to the Lord Admiral), and Marlowe would not like to be 'retired' at any time in the near future, if he could at all avoid it.
"Land Ahoy... Land Ahoy!"
Admiral Marlowe turned to look up at the lone man on the main mast who issued the shout, and he was pointing his hand out in a westerly direction.
Admiral Marlowe followed the direction of the mans hand and reached out in one of his pockets a small brass tube, tapped it until a smaller, thinner section of hollowed brass tube came out from the other tube, it was Marlowe's Naval Telescope.
Marlowe brought the device over to his eyes and he could not help but laugh at his previous statement... Jaina was right the entire time... and what else could lay further still, what still remained unexplored... the possibilities were endless.
What Marlowe saw was a distant shore, surrounded by palm trees out further in the distance, and Marlowe calculated that they would make land fall about twenty minutes.
Marlowe folded up his Telescope and returned it back to one of his pockets before turning to face Jaina, where he issued one statement.
"Well Miss Proudmore, it seems you were right the entire time, their is an island out west, and we have found it, it will take many hours to escort all your soldiers off by the small boats"
Jaina looked at the Admiral before replying back.
"Small boats... who said anything about small boats, i say that we should land the ship and get everyone off of it"
Admiral Marlowe knew exactly what Jaina was suggesting and thus he issued his retort.
"Surely you did not ask me to beach my vessels, to beach my Third Rate and the four fourth-rate ships of the line, do you have any idea how much these ships cost to build!?"
Jaina knew exactly how much they cost, and how long it took to build them... but there would be no going back to Lordaeron, and Jaina needed the Cannon's and the marines aboard these vessels, as well as the man power to quickly begin construction of new buildings.
"There will be no going back to Lordaeron, you have to beach these ships... if the enemy where to find out that we have escaped here, it could bring with them the plague... the scourge... You have to beach these ships, and then i need you and your men to help in the construction of new buildings and homesteads".
This was the first time that Marlowe had heard of any Plague or Scourge, but he was not going to press the issue, not when he had to beach his own vessels... especially 'Shadowmourne's Breath', the girl had done a lot of things back in her day, and she saw a lot of fighting, and it would hurt Marlowe just to have her beached and then have her planks broken apart and used to make new houses and buildings... it didn't sit right with Marlowe, but like always, he had his orders and he would see that they were done.
"Very well, but leave your Brother's vessel left intact... he would do well to explore the very continent that we shall soon be calling home, that way we could possibly avoid any nasties that might linger in the area's, but i am confident that our guns will clean the land's of any savage that they come across"
Jaina had to agree with the Admiral's decision, although she believed that her brother would be pleased with the responsibility of leading an expedition.
Short, i know, but i had to finish it there, or the chapter would have been 'To the Western Land... and then building stuff on it', so i ended the story there.
Edit 1: I decided to leave one ship behind, so that regiments of men could explore the Mainland... otherwise it would not have made much sense since i overlooked the tiniest of things related to Geology on Azeroth.