A Hero's War
Prologue: A Meeting of the Times
It was called the Time Room. A small space that existed outside the natural flow of time of all other realities. This space was rather bare, the walls, floor, and ceiling were all blank white with no doors or windows, and the only objects inside the room were a number of chairs arranged in a circle. Some were mundane, some were more ornate but all were facing inward.
Many times had the owners of these chairs, all of them time travelers, come together to debate on what course of action they should take to decide the fate of one universe or its neighbors. One of the owners was currently sitting in his chair. Said owner was a man who looked to be in his fifties. He had short black hair and wore a white lab coat over a tan vest, black pants and dress shoes. Around his neck were a pair of lab goggles. The chair he sat in looked to be an ordinary office chair.
Currently he was looking down at the golden pocket watch he had open in his right hand. He remained silent as his eyes carefully fallowed the second hand tick its way around the watches face.
"Afraid that I would be late Paradox?" The man called paradox looked up just in time to see another man take his own seat. Said man looked drastically different from paradox. From the waist down he wore bronze and brown robes with matching sleeves. His upper body was decorated with tattoos, a large, ornate, bronze necklace hung from around his neck. On his right shoulder was a large pauldron in the shape of a dragon clutching a glass orb filled with sand. He had long bronze hair tied back in a pony tail, and glowing blue eyes, as well as long pointed ears that stretched over his head. The chair he sat on was one of the more ornate, made of sculpted gold with light blue cushions.
Paradox just smiled, "Not at all, just debating the merits of a time traveler arriving fashionably early." The other man chuckled,
"It is good to see you again, old friend." He said. Paradox gave a small nod.
"And you as well, Nozdormu." Paradox said, closing his pocket watch and sliding inside his coat pocket.
"Now, what was it you wanted to discuss? The future events of my world?" the man named Nozdormu asked. Paradox's expression shifted from his usual soft smile to a very serious look.
"Indeed, I have seen the upcoming conflicts in their entirety, as well every possible out outcome. I'm sorry to say that most of those outcomes end tragically, and those that don't come at the cost of so much unnecessary bloodshed." Paradox explained. Nozdormu sighed.
"As is the fate Azeroth always seems doom to repeat. Still we both know what would happen if you or I try to interfere directly." Nozdormu explained.
"True, however I believe I have discovered something of a loophole." Paradox stated.
"What do you mean?"
"You see, it is because we are both acutely aware of the timelines and the effects we would have on them that cause undesirable consequences." Paradox explained. "However if we were to introduce a new factor into Azeroths history at the present time that does not have complete temporal awareness, then the future will change naturally, opposed to the forced changes you or I would cause."
Nozdormu pondered Paradox's words silently for a moment.
"That may be a possibility," he admitted. "But surely this new factor would have to be tremendously powerful in order to change the fate of Azeroth, nothing short of an army to rival that of the Legion's could bring about such change."
Paradox smiled slyly. "As a matter of fact the person of which I speak is an army. A one man army, as it were."
"One Man?" Nozdormu questioned.
"Yes. Well... he will be. In a few hours." Paradox clarified, pulling out his gold pocket watch and flipping it open.
Nozdormu was slightly taken aback by this. While he knew his friend would never steer him wrong, and admittedly had a much better understanding and view of the time stream than himself, was he really admitting to putting the fate of Azeroth in the hands of someone who was just outgrowing childhood.
"This person you speak of, is he truly capable of so much?"
Paradox nodded, "I have seen his action, time and time again he has come up against overwhelming odds and emerged triumphant. Yet despite all of his power he still only uses it to protect those who are incapable of defending themselves. So much so that the inhabitance of his world have taken to call him 'Hero'".
Nozdormu had never heard paradox talk so passionately about someone before. And he knew better than anyone that the thing that Azeroth need more than anything was a hero.
"Would you put your faith in this person?" He asked, even though he could probably guess the answer.
"Completely." Paradox stated without any hesitation. Nozdormu took another moment to think.
"If what you say is true, then this hero may be one of the best chances Azeroth has; but what of his own world? Will they not require his aid?"
Paradox's expression shifted back to seriousness. "A few, however if Azeroth falls, then those small events will be rendered inconsequential."
A statement that Nozdormu knew that paradox would not make lightly.
"Tell me Paradox, this... man, what is his name?"
...
In the middle of a humble little suburban town called Bellwood sat an ordinary looking single story house. Inside the lady of the house was currently in the kitchen making pancakes. She happily hummed to herself as she prepared breakfast. While she normally was in a cheerful mood today was extra special. After all it's not every day your only son turns eighteen. After she flipped the last flapjack onto a large plate stacked full of them, she turned off the stove and placed the stack in the middle of a table set for three.
With that done she looked over to the clock and saw that her birthday boy should have woken up by now. With a sigh she headed down the hall towards her son's bedroom, giving it a few gentle taps.
"Oh Benjamin, are you awake?" she asked sweetly through the door. When no response came she carefully turned the doorknob and peeked her head inside.
Laying sprawled across a disheveled bed on the far side of the room next to a window an eighteen year old boy with short brown hair, and emerald green eyes that were currently closed, barely stirred from his sleep.
She gave the door a few slightly harder knocks. "Come on Ben, time to wake up. I spent all morning making you your favorite pancakes and I'm not going to let you eat them cold."
Ben's eyes slowly fluttered open, "Thanks mom, I'll be out in a minute." He said sleepily
"You better." She said, before leaving, closing the door tight behind her. Ben lazily stretched his arms over his head before simply letting them drop. He laid on his back and stared up at the ceiling for a good solid minuet before quietly saying to himself,
"Happy birthday Ben Tennyson."
...
This is an idea that I've been toying with for a while. While I will admit that these two stories are very drastically different, I do think that there is a potential for a cross over here. I have always held the notion that almost any two or more stories could cross over is written correctly. However, I do recognize that not everyone will hold that opinion or will say that my writing style isn't correct for this kind of story. So I've decided to just write this prologue to see how well his story resonates with people. If I get a lot of feedback I will start writing more. That being said even if a lot of people like this and want more don't expect much for a while, I'm going to need to do a lot of reading up on vanilla WoW lore before proceeding. More to the point I would probably lose my mind if I tried to have Ben do EVERY single quest line and event in the game so I'm only planning on doing the major storyline. In fact while I'm at it I'd better outline a few thing while I'm at it.
This is a cross over with WORLD of Warcraft, so only the events of the MMO will be taking place, with a few key events from the novels thrown in there to better tie things together, like Warcrimes.
As stated above it would be impossible (or at least VERY frustratingly long) to include every quest line and event so there will be things I miss. As well as certain changes that I will have to make for the adaptation, a lot of summarizing, condensing, and streamlining of events. The two Varian's, the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, Ashbringer (oh god, Ashbringer). So if any hard core WoW lore experts read this don't expect a one to one adaptation. You will, however, have my word that I won't just make changes for the sake of changes.
While I may have built Ben up as this universal deus ex machina, he will be filling the role that the player character has in the game, and to be fair that pretty much is how the player is treated in the game. Additionally, Ben will be a true neutral character between the Alliance and Horde.
And I think that about covers it. I look forward to see what you all think and if I should continue this story or not. Oh and if any of my followers are reading this and wondering about RWBY and Emerald, Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.