Reviews:
Guest 1: Simply Marvelous Dear, Marvelous!
Guest 2: Imperial citizen: "Umm, who are the Alliance?" Imperial High Command *Sweats in having to explain a blue skinned, horn and hoove having race thats not to mistaken for Beastmen but understood as their own unique thing.*
Guest 3: Maybe, but maybe the killstrike will actually work this time neutering the Alliance Warmachine and leaving the Horde dominant in both terms of Azerite and portal control.
Guest 4: Having played a healer in instances and Raids, and seeing WoWs artwork both for comics and just to depict the wars, as well as the cutscenes...they seem to think formations are useless, yet dense uncoordinated mobs any healer would fail to manage healing for and that would get destroyed by minimal ranged volley fire is great, best thing ever. Formations exist to optimize equipment, weapons ans abilities, and at very least the Horde does whatever is the exact opposite of that, and often Stormwind eagerly follows their example giving up on mutually beneficial formations with the worlds best healers well defended in the center...for a really cool looking head long charge at a Orc who will totally wont (yes they will they already did 30 seconds ago in the cinimatic) kill them in a single swing of their axe. And then lets not forget that at their worst many raid groups would kick new players simply for not standing in the right spot in the group...which that is the definition of a formation, they'd kick new guys for not knowing where in the formation to stand.
The Fireballs defense just makes WoW dumber to the point of it being a world of borderline suicidal maniacs, since human men and women are CHOOSING to use swords against foes who are bigger, stronger and have magic healing. Said foe is there with a Body mass that their bulk alone would knock the sword weilding human on their ass in a clash, leading to a swift and pointless death of the poor stupid human... Yet laser guns exist and the Alliance can apparently pump out a tank in about a hour from a front line workshop, not even a factory which is optimized to mass produce weapons but knowing IRL workshop vs factory times Alliance is pumping out a Siege tank every 10 minutes per factory, no need to mine and smelt the metal used apparently via word of God... pretty mind numbingly stupid, but Blizzard has even told us that these humans are "just humans" so no super strength or other benefits to justify a lone man somehow stoping the charge of a creature whose arms are thicker around than his torso, and has five times his armored weight on him, as well as the momentum of a 40 yard running head start, let alone as a lone man surviving a fireball, which btw by the time the next lone guy is in range of it "fireball" is ready again to fire, so they all still die anyways all they really did was drag out their deaths since according to some fans Azerotheans dont ever flee, this isn't DnD with spell slots the casters regenerate mana naturally and have numbers also on their side. And the whole point of dense formations was so you had extra weight to bowl over guys when you and your buddies ran into them, or the other men could brace you so if a guy twice your size charged you he wouldn't just run right over you, for example Rugby, American Football, Red Rover.
Guest 5: Oh a Empire politics vote. And giving it a look over yeah it's like Hannibal and Iberian mercs, or Husite' and War Wagons a combo that you don't think much about until they go punching well above their weight class.
Guest 6: Oh i dont intended to nerf any of the sides, unlike GW's end times, and Blizzard's...well almost all their expansions since Cataclysm (minus Legion or so I'm told)...I don't intend to blatantly ignore allies and advantages nor strip characters of their basic intellect and skills. So no Skaven just suddenly dying due to off screen "we didn't want them in our story", no Saurfang suddenly deciding that suicide by arrow is exactly what the Horde warriors all want. Seriously who in their right mind orders their troops to swim across a river while arrows are raining down on them, as well as lightning bolts and ice magic, particularly when they had viable alternatives available to them?
Guest 7: Illidan "finally" *Gets tackled aside,
"NO THIS ONE IS MINE!" Crazed Orange Dwarf gets sealed away with Sargeras...and because of rule of funny/cool manages to win.
all the players watching the cutscene while revisiting a favorite raid: "...WTF?"
...actually that would make for a good lighthearted/non-serious story all of WoW but with Gotrek but from a Players POV logging in each weekend after school/work only to have him ruin the experience.
Guest 8: ? Is this in regards to a statement or because of what happened with Tarei...because that one has point in two details. 1) she's a vampire, she can't exist without Shyish. 2) just as planned.
Guest 9: whose to say all of those aren't true. After all Skaven still hold the Portal, and Sylvanas thanks to Shadowlands is acting as part of plots so pointlessly convoluted Tzeentchians would have trouble keeping up.
Random Anon: Laughs in knowledge of what horde is doing. Also as for the Grudge thing that one is a little inconsistent. If its blood or debt based grudge it always holds out until paid, otherwise it could go either way, the Dwarves COULD see it settled, or they could still say the family owes, and then ironically it could get better OR worse. Better off the logic of "well he's dead already, just say he was a peice of shit, give me a gold and we'll not slaughter your village" or worse in "Your great granduncle started this grudge, and you dare live your life as if nothing happened!"
TheJackinati275: I can easily slip into a Cathay arc...however that might be a little delayed until i can fix my computer so i can play Cathay and get all their "GW Official" lore blurbs, shouldn't take long but you'll have to be blue balled for about a month.
Hakuryuu: Thanqual was killed in a off hand sentance in the Archaon Endtimes book. And the sisters of battle Codex for 6th ed was written via committee over the course of a single weekend and had more effort put into it than the initial release/announcement of AoS's "fight over the rules and fuck the fans" pamphlet. AoS wasn't planned but was a executive knee jerk decision that was announced the same weekend as a financial returns meeting and has since been retconned more times than Warcraft has ever been in that IP's entire life and their fans are coming off the Shadowlands retcons depressed and upset like GW just nerfed Tau and they're Tau players.
GW pretending to have a grand and brilliant plan for it is a load of bull meant to try and protect the executives from criticsm, much like how GW started hiding the authors of their codexes. Whenever a Executive makes a bad decision GW prerends it was planned for a long time but then the employees work in the background to try and fix the issue that the executives make so AoS started as well absolutely insulting shit with nothing resembling quality and a flat statement of "everyone you liked is dead" But then the Writers started patching the thing...i still hate the gameplay but the story has gotten infinitely better than the BS the executives tried to ram down people's throats, and if it wasn't for the sense of "why am i reading this it's going to be retconned next week anyways" I'd actually enjoy the AoS books. And the executive issue continues to be a problem much like the former Hasbro executive whose first act in GW was to go after content creators including lore channels after GW had released a statement saying that they were cool with the content creators "but please encourage Warhammer" Immediately contradicting the company and making them the badguys of youtube...all for Warhammer whose first release wasn't even good enough to match the Warhammer 2 cinematics.
Also 40k was already in year M42 before Gathering Storm, all the Guilliman reveal did was a 150 year timeskip and add super super soldiers that conveniently everyone can survive the transformation to and which can cure people so dead they couldn't be put in dreadnoughts (thanks sgt lazurus for running the credibility of the primarus transformation). and then throw everything back into the same status quo like it's Blizzard between Expansion packs. GW like it's always done gave people a morsel then blocked the story from advancing to serve the executives and petty intenral competition rather than letting good writers write. 40k...there's still over 1000 years of ignored Imperial history to fill in, after all this time and 40k is just as guilty of arbitrarily long whatevers as Blizzard is. as for WHFB the story should have advanced but GW kept resetting because they weren't getting the results the executives wanted.
A MUCH better example (and take note blizzard fans this example goes for you too) is War Machine's plotline. Post Cadia blowing Up GW forced everything back into the same status quo even replacing Cadia with a cheap knockoff plannet and having Abbadon sit around suckling his power thumb rather than achieve his life's ambitions, post any WoW expansion does anything really change between the Horde and Alliance much, other than adding a new God to the "gods I've killed" tally and a new game zone for players? Without blowing the whole world up Borders can be redrawn, governments actually toppled, not just "oh look a new king" but entire new systems put in place, entire nations conquered put under occupation and complex revolutionary actions as well as whole seperate independence movements, and an entire species effectively destroyed, reforged into something horrific new and absolutely awesome. (heavy Everblight bias here but fuck you everyone knows he's best Dragon).In a decade Privateer Press advanced their plot further than 40k, WHFB or WoW has and did it in a way that wouldn't get fans lost, didn't require blowing up the world or having to unite everyone "or else we all die", didn't invalidate everything else before it, and didn't take away from their gameplay...the low quality models at far too high prices did that.
On the story.
As for an Horde attack and "recovering" well they routinely commit genocide against themselves yet somehow still have the numbers advantage by the next expansion, in their time litterally next year later. And note the numbers advantage is basically the only real advantage the Horde Holds as everything else is either Alliance Aligned, wants to defect to the Alliance, or wants to genocide their own allies then fight the enemy with BFA finally ending with the Horde having something of note on their side, but a entirely neutered leadership. The Horde are like the Eldar in a way, even if you genocide half their population a dozen times a year the writers will still magically make population come out of the ether rather than going "yeah we need time to recoup our losses".
And as Ikit remember thats Thanqual's POV on the subject, not reality and Thanqual fully expects Ikit to suffer for his failure otherwise it really was totally a plot against thanqual by some brilliant foe, likely Felix.
micelzod: Of that they will have to see.
Rook435: IDK why i misspelled his name. But thankyou.
jweller12: Probably not, they don't fly that far on their own...though some of the Horde corpses could have had them on em when they got taken back. As for the effect on the Elementals probably no Worse than what slavery under the Black Empire did to them...so completely evil forces of destruction.
Formations of Azeroth
Kaldorei Sentinels
Next well jump back across the Azerothean oceans to Khalimdor this time going to the forests of Mount Hyjal. Here rhe Kaldorei or Night Elves stand virtually independently as the strongest individual power of the Alliance. This strength is born both of(...realistically fantasy elf bias...) years of experience, training, and a soft power network of alliances with various lesser races and spirits through the powers of Druidism. The standout national points for the Kaldorei are.
1) The Blessing of Elune: Or otherwise known as Shadowmeld. The full extent of this ability is apparently up for some contention. But each Night Elf theoretically recieves a supernatural camouflage allowing them to blend in with whichever shadows they inhabit. Clearly this ability works best at night, and as it is attributed to Elune might also be tied supernaturally to the Moon.
2) Elf: In almost all military fantasy armies of elves, even War Machine's cool bearded elves who can drink you under the table and beat a lumberjack in a arm wrestling match, their species is always given the benefits of speed, agility, magic, and accuracy as well as decades of experience. This remains absolutely true for the Kaldorei who have mastered small unit tactics to such an extent no force on Azeroth can hope to compete against them in this thanks to Shadowmeld and their forest friends, Thus wide front tactics, or forcing the Night Elves into pitched head-on battles are the two best ways to fight them...
or we can use my final solution, before Blizzard's Elf simps cause too much more of a explosive population growth of the Night Elves, we take the Vindicaar into high orbit and nuke the entire Mt. Hyjal site from Orbit. Game over man, Game over. Praise be rule 34 Draenei.
3) Druids and Priestesses: So the NE form the basis of all Druids in WoW and then go beyond that with even more Druids granting them almost complete control of the actual battlefield itself. Meanwhile the Priestesses of Elune are decisively NOT like the Priest class of WoW, yes they do healing, but they would best be described as a hybrid of Priest, Warrior and Hunter in semi-equal measures, this means these ladies stab you, shoot you, and then heal you.
4) Forest Allies: Meta I wanted to label this animal friends as a hippy joke, but these guys get hugged by trees too often and their animal allies are very much on their side as well. The Kaldorei can call upon Treants, the Ent-Like Ancients, Dryads (centaur like forest spirits who throw poison dart/spears at you) and then more sentient/less Wild god-aligned entities such as the Furblogs, Mountain Giants, and the Gilnean Worgen who have more or less given up on their homeland entirely. Though half of these allies operate on a more strictly defensive point rather than as forces that would participate in a offensive outside their territory.
When it comes to Resources the Kaldorei are almost excessively abundant in resources for the needs and purposes of their people. Their woods and the spirits of the Emerald Dream exist in abundance, and they sit atop massive quantities of natual mana and magics. Though their people do lack in advanced metal deposits.
When it comes to technology, the Kaldorei are THE leaders when it comes to druidic magics, and clearly understand the advantages of cannons and guns but show little ability to manufacture these weapons in large quantities on their own onstead intending to make expert use of what they already possess.
Tactically the Kaldorei are natural masters of Gurrilla warfare and mobile squad fighting, making them the undisputed unquestionable masters of Azeroth's preferred forms of warfare. Meanwhile their Forest Allies then fill in the gaps for the Kaldorei holding melee lines, serving as artillery, seige weapons, or cavalry.
-Generally the Kaldorei use Alliance terms for their unit organizations. And starting with the Sentenels most important component the Squad, we will observe the most mobile and free moving Squads on Azeroth, each usually comprised of five women.
•Sentinel Ranger Squad: The standard of the Sentenels fighting forces. Five Archers combat foes from range while fading into the shadows and staying just out of reach of many enemies on Azeroth. Each member remains within eight yards of the next closest member on average.
•Druid Squad: Five druids coordinate to provide frontlines combat or magical support to their allies. The Druids have no formal organization and simply perform how they think they would best.
•Treant mob: Treants are typically forest spirits and young animated trees. These will form Mobs of various sizes ranging between three and ten and be guided by druids to swarm and fight the foes of the Night Elves, serving as the long traditional front line infantry of the Kaldorei people.
•Worgen Squad: The Gilnean refugees are the newest people to be taken in. Many of the Gilnean people afflicted with the Worgen curse, and their previous national identity lost instead gave themselves to the Service of the Kaldorei, serving as a swift front line infantry, adopting the Sentinels use of light weaponry and armor. They serve in squads of five and will fight with mixed use of ranged and melee weapons, though know they are intended as the melee anchor for the Sentinels to hold enemy forces.
• Sentinel Guardian Squad: Following many tragic moments during the third war and the various localized wars in its aftermath the Sentinels realized that many of their foes had learned to counter their archery focused mobile hit-and-fade style of warfare thus leading to the creation of the Guardian Squads. Five loosely arrayed Sentinels will seek to attack foes with melee weapons pinning enemies for the Sentenel archers to shoot down the enemy before retreating. often these Sentenels will use Glaives, boomerang/chakra like weapons that they can throw.
•Single Entity: Like all Azeroth forces there are many larger, or more powerful and rare beings who serve individually on the battlefield. For the Kaldorei these are Ancients, Glaive Thrower artillery, Forest Chimera, and Mountain Giants.
•Sentinel Rider Squad: Sentinels also will often form bonds with Panthers to ride into battle with throwing glaives, bows or even lances, or they could even bond with and mount Hippogryph though these riders almost exclusively use bows. Riders will form into squads of five looking to use their mobility to exploit enemy openings and new attack angles.
•Priestesses of Elune: A more unique and confusing force when compared to the others, Priestesses of Elune fight and battle much like the Sentinels do. However as Priestesses they also are able to channel the moon goddesses powers to rain down starshards on enemies and heal their allies. The Priestesses from Squads between three and five members and will roam the battle lines healing or attacking as they see fit.
•Nature's Allies pack: A bit of a open position in the Sentinels army organization wild animals, Furblogs, Dryads, and keepers of the grove will all form mobs or packs of varying size with little to no thought towards military organization instead relying on magic, anti-magic and natrual powers to fight and clinging to the courage and natual charisma of whoever is currently leading them.
•Highborne Mages: Despised by their Night Elf kin, only recently accepted back into their society and held in contempt by the Dryads and nature allies of the Kaldorei. Three Highbore mages and two Sentinels form a squad which will scarcely appear in Kaldorei armies, and far from most Druids or Nature's Allies.
-After the Squads the most organized and tactically revealing part of the Kaldorei organization are their Companies. The Organization of these units while still loose still exposes more if the Night Elf's combat plans and resources than their individual squads, or larger contingents.
•Sentinel Front Company: The most balanced comapny of the Sentinel army. The Front Company Consists of four Sentenel Guardian Squads, Worgen Squads, or close combat focused Rider Squads, arrayed among or just slightly ahead of five Sentinel Ranger, or ranged Rider Squads, then the last three Squads are open to either more Ranger Squads, Treants mobs, Nature's Allies packs, or Druids who will often be placed to the side and rear of the company.
•Sentinel Ranger Company: The classical Kaldorei Sentinel formation. The core eight squads of the formation are Ranger Squads who will either serve as bait for, or wait in, ambush. meanwhile two to four Rider Squads will ensure enemies are encircled and ride down any who escape, the last two spots also are available to druids or Nature's Allies packs or single entities such as Glaive Throwers.
•Forest Wrath: The Druids own Company standard, six Druid squads will support six Nature's Allies packs, Treant Mobs, or single entities such as Ancients, Mountain Giants and Forest Chimera. Often the Druids will be in the middle of or using their bodies and magic to protect those under their care.
•Nature's vengence: Comprised of three Druid Squads following nine Packs of Nature's allies or single entities such as Farie Dragons and Forest Chimera. The Druids support their allies from close behind while the Nature's allies often will house keepers of the Grove and Dryads in larger numbers. This Company type is usually spontaneous formed in response to the will of the Keepers of the Grove and more often a response to unnatural magics such as Fel, Demons, or Arcane spellcasters and is never accounted for in the Kaldorei army organization.
•Ancients Grove: Formed of only two druid squads supporting a full four to six Treant Mobs and four to six Ancients. The Ancients Grove is difficult for the Kaldorei to field offensively but as ancients form a decent enough artillery and are massive warbeasts an Ancients Grove can serve as an effective threat when supported by just one other company against a walled town or as a seige tool.
•Tyrande's Sentinels Company: Formed distinctively by Tyrande and the Priestesses of Elune. This formation is also a classic of the Kaldorei consisting of nine Sentinel Ranger Squads ir rider squads and three Priestess of Elune Squads to support them, this company exists to support the Sisterhood as they roam aiding a battleline until deciding to thrust into the enemy likely to strike a vital position.
•Warden Company: Exclusive to the Wardens a Warden Company comprises of five elite Warden trained Guardian Squads forming an agressive front line with two more Guardian Squads as a reserve with three Ranger squad supports flanking, and lastly two rider squads or druid squads may serve as supports for the Company.
•Worgen Company: Newest to the Sentinels and only partially intigrated into their military. Worgen and those closest to them form the "new technological cutting edge" of the Kaldorei. Six Worgen Squads will coordinate with Six Ranger squads or single entities, these ranger Squads will typically be armed with newer or more unique weaponry such as Guns, Arcane magic, the Glaive Thrower, or even artillery cannons often imported from the Gilneans.
• The Raid: Almost exclusively used by adventurers, the effectiveness of the 15 to 30 man raid on Azeroth and beyond has not been questioned and national leaders still throw out money to adventurers willing to form raiding groups which often ignore mainline battles, and instead go "boss farming" killing champions, commanders, monsters, and vital assets of a enemy force.
- After Companies the Kaldorei Battalions, due in part to the temperary nature of some of their forces, are more of a organizational structure for record keeping and seldom used for forming military structure or planning campaigns.
• The Sentinels (Traditional): These Battalion halves are the most consistent portions of the Kaldorei armies and will be relied on for planning military campaigns, though this varient is from the Kaldorei's traditional warfare against foes less well suited to counter or use small unit tactics. A Sentinel Battalion will consist of four Sentinel Ranger Companies and a Tyrande's Sentinel Company as support.
•The Sentinels (modernized): restructured Sentinels adjust their military structure slightly to counter the Horde and other enemy's ability to fight against the Kaldorei's once absolutely dominant tactics though this "Modernized" structure still isn't universally applied. Two Sentinel Front Companies are supported by two Sentinel Ranger Companies and a Tyrande's Sentinels Company or the druids who will form a Forest's wrath.
•Worgen Sentinels: Organized by Gilneans intigrated into the Sentenels. Five Worgen Companies form a broad battleline combining their human discipline, Worgen nature, and Sentinel training.
•Wardens Battalion: Not part of the Kaldorei Sentinels the Wardens are not expected to fight for the Night Elf's national military and follow their own independent structure as a semi-independant military, and only commit themselves as their leaders see fit. They Consist of Four Warden Companies and a Sentinel Front Company or a Worgen Company.
•Nature's Tide: Existing only for post battle reports or to be included in mid battle planning a Nature's tide is a rare event where Druids and Keepers of the Grove gather enough of the forests suppport or a foe has gathered enough rage of the forests and the animals and inhabitants that a half of a Battalion of Nature's Wrath (at the least) gathers and throws themselves at the enemy, though this is almost entirely unplanned for by Kaldorei Generals and simply a convenient or welcome development.
•Walking Forest: If an Ancient Grove is difficult for the Kaldorei to field offensively the Walking Forests is a commitment to Total War if used on the attack. Two or Three Ancients Groves are mixed by the Druids with the forces of two or three Forest Wrath Company formations to create a Walking woods Battalion Half. This force can either be used to mobilely establish a grove for the Kaldorei to make their base camp in, or should the Ancients and Druids be motivated enough used as a offensive force against an enemy fortress or settlement.
Fires of Ashenvale
Anduin stayed to support the dwindling Alliance forces in spite of the mounting protest of his commanders. But Anduin's knew he could not afford to abandon the Night Elves to face this foe alone. Instead Anduin sent a runner to find a Void Elf and to inform Stormwind, Darnassus and Exodar of the developing situation.
Even with Portal support from the Void Elves and the Army of the Light's Vindicaar relocating troops the Army of Stormwind most likely wouldn't arrive in time, either the Night Elves would defeat these Rat invaders, or the Rats would devestate Mt Hyjal. But to ensure Hyjal wasn't devestated by these creatures reinforcements were needed, immediately. Unless the Kaldorei sent more Sentenels or Druids the day would be lost and the rats would destroy everything around the the Summet, maybe even target the World Tree itself.
Anduin prepared to set forth to join the front lines again. There were very few of them, yet the experience of the Empire Knights and the Influence of Volkmar was proving invaluable in holding the line against the Rats, who seemed to bring out a new weapon or counter strategy for each and every one of Stormwind's own. Only the Night Elves seemed effective in stalling these rats but now even their lines were struggling.
"We need hold for as long as possible. I'm heading out. Where is Volkmar right now, I'll be joining him?" The young King ordered, his plan set.
"We're not entirely sure, He took a number of Knights and has been launching attacks into the flanks of the Ratmen forces before retreating back to the treeline." One of the Lion's Guard at Anduin's side reported, sinply getting a nod from the King.
"Right, then where does the line need my help most?" The King asked his eyes scanning the battlefield. Hordes of rats threw themselves at Blocks of Stormwind Footmen, those that tried to flank or go between the formations coming under fire from mages and archers while Priests steadily healed those fighting. Yet Anduin could see each individual soldier drop, holding out hope they would get back up but far too often noting that they never got back up again.
Then the Lion's guard pointed to a segment of the line, one close to the Night elves and Guardians of Hyjal but where the Rats were clearly throwing heavier infantry and weapons. "There my King. If they breach our line here they'll be able to start seperating us from our allies."
Anduin nodded before a loud series of clangs and what sounded like a engine grabbed the Prince's attention. There at the Portal a new massive device had been rolled through the portal, one that looked like an oversized version of the Dark Iron's Mole Machine. And there to the side of the portal a multitude of Ratmen were using green drills to start carving tunnels. Already these rats were doing everything in their power to make their defilement of the sacred mountain obvious, and this tunneling was clearly just another step in that path. But even more...Anduin couldn't decide if he was enraged or disappointed...but even moreso these Skaven had adorned their mining machine with, and raised all around the dig site, banners embrazened with the symbols of the Horde.
Anduin couldn't afford to concentrate on that though at the moment, instead the King had men who needed him, their lives all depended on both his leadership as a commander and his support on the field. But even as Anduin rushed to support his soldiers green lightning and Green Orbs started to streek across the sky towards the Shine of Goldrinn and a horrific screeching emerged from the Skaven's side of the battlefield.
Ikit Claw, glared down at the odd, stupid creature that had come through the portal. For a moment he considered killing it, putting it out of his misery. But then it stop screaming and instead hissed and stood to full height, already dead spirits flooded around it as it scanned the terrain. Then the foolish thing dare to speak to him in Reikspiel.
"You, how do you plan to take your army down Mount Hyjal?" The Master Warlock considered torching the insulent lesser thing for daring to speak to his Billiance that way, but Ikit could see an opportunity to show off his superior brilliance.
"Look-Look at map, only one road up and it goes long way around the mountain. Too-too long to get to Horde-Army, and Elf-things will annoy my brilliantness all the way. I dig down-through mountain to where Horde-army will be-go. But-but while here, destroy-kill Elf-things hope." The all brilliant Right-Fang of the Emperor of Warlocks told the Draenei his wicked grin spreading as he spoke.
The Draenei simply stared flatly at the Rat with no reaction. Perhaps her old self would have reacted, scream, fought him, even while on the same side as she is now. But Tarei she couldn't care less if the Gods suffered a final irreversible death, honestly those wastes of space deserved it as she looked upon her old world with new eyes.
"So how do you intend to do it?" The Shuk'tar asked, and Ikit stared at her like the fool he was certain she was.
Ikit simply gestured to the the hole and the massive drill that was slowly being angled down into it. Next he pointed to a line of three Lighting Cannons, each aimed for the weird Wolf God statue distant from his army. As they both looked both Cannons fired bolts of green energy streaking from well beyond the range of the Ancients and striking. The first round missed the Shrine of Goldrinn by yards, the second hit a Ancient square on splitting the Ancient in half the interior of either side now smoking with embers and slowly growing flames, the third brushed another Ancient snapping off its arm and lightning its foliage on fire. And as the Cannons fired, Green spheres crashed among the trees and the Druids spreading a gas that looked a lot like Blight and whose horrible effects were near instantaneous and reminded Tarei a little too much of Blight.
"Well, good luck God killing." Tarei stated while setting off finding every non-Skaven corpse she could that was still intact enough to raise as Zombies or in a few cases as Skeletons to serve as her army when the time came.
Ikit growled at the disrespect from the Blue Dead-thing but dismissed the fool. The Drill began and already dirt and massive stones were being thrown out from where it began. Countless, because no one would bother counting, slaves would soon die digging the tunnel down Mt Hyjal, and Ikit was already planning to work more of them to death in order to create a new workshop.
The ruins of the stupid Man-thing Alliance base had left behind a suprise for Ikit to work with, two ruined Steam Tanks, and one still intact sample. Surely these could help the Tinker-rat develop a new weapon a better weapon, one that would see itself tested and fielded before this campaign was over.
Still by his best estimates it would take the Skaven more than a day to reach the place the map called Astranaar, but little more than half that to Ashenvale. So until then he would have to distract himself with 'God-slaying' as the blue idiot-fool had called it. Ikit liked the title, it was worthy of him.
Malfurion Stormrage's sleep was disturbing. He had chosen to visit the Emerald Dream while resting in Darnassus since his wife had gone to wait for Anduin in Stormwind. Instead of seeing the Emerald Dream and performing his druidic duties, he was accosted by visions each disturbing and enraging. The Alliance Portal which he had already been unsure about was now open and a black souled swarm was pouring from it. Green Lightning striking the Shrine of Goldrinn shattering the state, fire spreading across the Grove of Aessina, and what looked like blight raining down on the Shrine of Aviana.
Even the earth of the mountain itself screamed in the Emerald Dream as the defilers continued their chittering and laughter echoing through the Dream. And then the most damning detail of all played before Malfurion, one he had always refused to think yet, these monsters were all bearing the mark of the Horde. The Horde had willingly invited them to Azeroth.
And then Malfurion was awake, pounding loud and rapid came from the door. Quickly the Arch-Druid rose and answered the door, there a Sentenel stood panting and looking disturbed. "Speak." The Co-ruler of all Night Elves ordered.
"Eriadnar, my lord, I come baring news." The Elf panted, clear signs of exhaustion even as various Priestesses attempted to feed and tend to her.
"The Summit of Hyjal is under seige by invaders." The Arch-druid stated the fact he feared to see in reality. However the Kaldorei looked to her leader with confusion.
"No, Ashenvale has come under attack, the Horde they attack with a force beyond our ability to hold for long, We fear they will have crossed Falfarren river before night's end. They intend to take Darkshore." The Sentinel responded.
"Thankyou. Wait outside I shall have another mission for you soon." Malfurion sent the Kaldorei woman away, allowing himself to consider the situation in full.
The Horde's actions, and the vision. The details started to come together, the Sentinels fleet and much of their field army had been sent south to counter what had appeared to be a Horde attempt to seize Silithus, where most of the Azerite was currently being mined. Combined with Shandris taking her forces to Mallus had left the Night Elves' realm with a depleated army. Then whatever happened with the Portal now something was attacking the summit of Mount Hyjal which demanded immediate action from the Circle and any immediately available forces.
Velen had been attacked and still was in bed rest recovering as well, meaning the Draenei would likely be slow to answer calls for aid, though they would certainly come and come before anyone else who could help would arrive. All the while the Horde's army marched through Ashenvale with far too few of the noble Kaldorei to oppose them.
Obviously this wasn't a coincidence. Instead it had to be a masterfully crafted plot. These invaders, the portal, everything to create an opening for attack, and now even Malfurion didn't know where he should be, his people needed him, yet his duty to the Wild Gods was absolute. Thus Malfurion decided.
The Arch-Druid emerged from his home, a small crowd already gathered ranging from city guards, Sentinels, concerned civilians, Druids, and Priestesses. "We evacuate the City now, get everyone you can through a portal or on a ship away from here, we also will evacuate the Dark Shore, Felwood, and I order a immediate evacuation of Ashenvale if it isn't already happening!" The Arch-druid's voice boomed over the crowd, many swiftly but calmly moving to obey, while others waited for further instructions.
"You fly to Exodar and warn the Draenei we will need them immediately." Malfurion ordered pointing to a random city guard, he nodded and immediately took off at a run.
"Eriadnar, take a portal immediately to Stormwind, Tyrande must be warned, get Stormwind's people to rally to our cause, call for adventurers. We will need Champions willing to fight for us if we are to survive." Immediately the Sentinel took off to obey.
Then Malfurion sighed. If this was a plot by Sylvanas then she had indeed trapped him, there was no way which the Arch-Druid could allow these invaders to defile Mount Hyjal, the Banshee Queen would know exactly where to find him if she chose to try and hunt him down. So instead he'd have to make her his prey even while he defended his home, his people, the world's most sacred summit.
Shandris cursed the foe yet again. Attacking the Skaven in a meaningful way was seeming more and more pointless. While the Empire's Cannons had initially realped a horrific toll, leveling entire sections of Mordheim the weapons now sat silenced thanks to a reckless charge made by the Undead whose leader got into range to cast a grand and terrible spell which destroyed many of the weapons. Meanwhile the Undead and her own forces had now engaged in a complex battle seperate from the siege of Mordheim. While Reiklander gunned down Skeletons and held against Zombies who came in constant waves, the Sentinals rushed through Druid formed thickets dueling with swarms of bats, ghosts, and horrific undead hounds.
But it was the Portal and Mordheim which was most important. She could still see Rats pushing new war equipment and ranks of heavily armored warriors marching across into Azeroth. At the demolished North wall nude madmen used sticks, clubs, hammers and nearly everything between to fight the Skaven in a near unceasing melee. Meanwhile only the West Wall of the City held any remaining hope for the Night Elves to regain a solid foothold in the city, as Blight like gas and Undead had driven her warriors from the Eastern wall at a bloody cost.
The only remaining resistance to the Skaven's occupation that Shandris knew remained in the city was the Island in the center of the River where the Sister's of Sigmar somehow still held out despite bombardments from the Ratmen. Shandris considered moving her Ancients closer to the city to try bombarding the Skaven with boulders, but reminded herself that such a plan would kill the last of her Ancients, the last time she had tried a hail of sharpened stones, green glass Globes, and green flamethrowers had met the ancients killing many.
A silver lining though was how easily the Empire's Ambassador had taken command of their army, and effectively, and was coordinating with the Night Elf Geneal effectively as well. While the Empire's troops held the Undead and helped pin the Skaven, Shandris was freed to try to flank the enemy, pick off leaders, and disrupt the foe as much as possible. However both foes seemed to be aware, and either were able to counter her efforts to marginal success, or for some reason seemed to simply not care.
Shandris reconsidered the City, analyzing every possibility she could see. Despite their foolishness and a multitude of openings that the Night Elves had already used against them, the Skaven had little to nothing that Shandris could use to establish a firm foothold in the city.
The Elf returned her eyes to the River and her ears raised. It was risky, she certainly knew that, but the Sisters of Sigmar still held a solid foothold in the city. If she could use them and their island she could easily find her troops pushing through the command center of the Skaven and hopefully into the portal itself. Or she could be going on record as the fool who wasted time and lives on a insane gambit, but these were desperate times and she wouldn't fail her people.
"Quickly get me Emmanuelle and prepare what remains of our Hippogryphs." The General ordered, a Sentinel snapped a salute before running to obey.
Minutes later Emmanuelle Nacht and Irma both stood before the General, both looking rather upset for being summoned away from their own warcamp.
"I have a plan to hopefully retake the City, We should be able to launch it in a day once everything is in place. But I need help, particularly in figuring out how to work with these Sisters of Sigmar." The General explained earning a raised eyebrow from the Ambassador.
Saurfang finally brought the Horde's army to Falfarren river and as the Orc High Overlord feared the Kaldorei had destroyed the bridges across the river. But none of the enemy could be seen, almost certainly the Night Elves were on the other side waiting for his next moves. Frustratingly Saurfang had specific orders though, honor in glorious combat at this point would have to be put aside, spare the lives of his warriors from honorable death, only making sacrifices to help speed the Horde's armies to Darkshore.
"Have the vanguard and Scouts swim across the river, cut down suitable trees to make makeshift bridges, and bring up the catapults to counter-fire." Saurfang ordered his army, preparing to cross the River, Falfarren was not deep, and it wasn't very wide, but under Sylvanas orders having his army try to swim across under enemy fire, while honorable, was certainly a waste of lives.
The next order he delivered was difficult for the High Overlord, but certainly would serve the Horde best. "Send mages upstream with full bodyguard, dam the River so it diverts into the Elves' territory."
"Yes Lord Saurfang." Those closest responded immediately taking off to deliver his orders. It took only moments, but those Grunts closest to the River swiftly dove into the Water, only those wearing armor too heavy to swim in stopping long enough to strip off the too heavy armor before diving in. Meanwhile Catapults slowly came up, and Saurfang could see soldiers and workers moving upstream.
Even before the Scouts and Vanguard were half way across the river sparce arrows, arcane spells, and raining starfire came upon his warriors. The resistance was sparce and with some of the magics cast even the source was entirely invisible to Saurfang and the Horde observers on the other side of the River, but still far more determined and feirce than Sylvanas had told him they would be.
Saurfang watched as the first Grunts and scouts made it across the river only to be shot down, or have Druids in wild form, or even Treants emerge to attack them. Acting quickly the High Overlord called upon his contingent of Nightborne Warpcasters, assigning the few Spellbreakers under his command and several Grunts to serve as bodyguards. The Warpcasters needed only to dialate time to allow his men to cross the river more quickly, the bridges that his Grunts were crudely making would make it easier for the casters to focus their dilation. After that the Overlord didn't know, just hoping that his men could force their way through.
Then Sylvanas appeared at Saurfang's side. "This is taking too long, I'm going mage hunting, my Rangers and I will mark targets for your artillery." And with that Sylvanas joined the battle.
"Get me mages, were going to enchant the artillery with fire, once we do stagger the counter fire, first artillery fired to light op where the attack comes from, follow up hits the Kaldorei before they can scurry away." Immediately the Horde artillery masters moved to obey, sending runners to collect mages from across the battlefront.
As the army moved according to the High Overlord, Saurfang was allowed a moment for his mind to ponder. Clearly the Night Elves would take to the defense, but even after everything could these Skaven really do anything which would divert Night Elf defenders to the summit of Mount Hyjal? Even if Sylvanas 'had a plan to open the way' he had doubted they'd even get through. He had heard warriors on the other side didn't fight with a ounce of Orcish Honor.
Saurfang looked over to the Skaven messenger who had told him and his army about the mana-bomb and the Skaven's subsequent invasion of the Alliance portal, Sylvanas 'plan' in action most certainly. Still the nervous creature looked terrified of its own allies, constantly rubbing his hands together and hyperactively looking around, how could such cowards even be worthy to be considered as Horde material. And then there was the dead Orc Hunter and the Ratman he was carrying and the cryptic message he died with. No now wasn't the time for any doubts, battle wasn't the place for them, he'd address his doubts later.
Lord Saurfang instead walked over to the Skaven. "Do you need anything?" The Orc asked while the battle raged before them.
"N-Yes-yes Food-food. Great-Swift Messenger like me is constantly needing to eat to stay Swift-fast." The creature replied in its crude Orcish, which earned a slighr sneer from Saurfang. Still he grabbed some of his bread to feed the rat, who shoveled the bread into its mouth greedily.
"I was told, your people's army intends to meet us at Astranaar. Do you know how theh plan to reach us in time to join the battles to come?" Saurfang asked the food guzziling creature, who with a mouth still stuffed with bread, choking slightly on the food it was still trying to ingest, just shrugged its shoulders shaking its head in denial.
Saurfang scowled lightly and turned back to watch the battle unfolding before him, the first makeshift bridge being brought up to try and cross the river.
Maiev Shadowsong walked the shore of the Isle of the Watchers meditating on the prisoners and the duties her organization kept. While she was opposed by her people's leaders Maiev still knew that the Kaldorei were destined for a return to greatness, now that the legion and all the main ourside threats were dealt with the only things holding the Kaldorei back were the Alliance and the Horde. She bore no hate for her Alliance allies, but the facts were evident, it was only the lasting echoes of her brother's cowardess in allowing Tyrande and Malfurion to assume absolute authority and the couple's soft hearted natures that blinded the Kaldorei to their destiny.
That weakness was born of Illidan's treachery, the wound he left on Malfurion's heart, on Tyrande's sympathies, made them soft rather than helping them develop the calluses needed to rule the Kaldorei as true rulers rather than acting as spiritual guides supporting those unworthy.
But Illidan was gone, out of her reach, for now, he certain to return. The bastard had a tendency of coming back. But freed from him, The Warden was also freed to now think of what was next to come. She certainly had no hatred of Tyrande or Malfurion, however perhaps now was the time for her to try and exert greater influence over the Kaldorei and help guide them towards a more independent and stronger path. Certainly she couldn't hope to try to usurp the couple of their rule, even she respected and perhaps maybe admired them, just enough, such that she'd not even entertain the thought.
However the Kaldorei were meant to be ruled by a Triumphant after the war of the Ancients, and instead of taking up his duty, Jarod Shadowsong exiled himself and ran away. If she could usurp and take up her brother's abandoned post, maybe she could provide the balance the people needed, someone more grounded on Azeroth rather than serving at the whims of the Gods. Maiev loved Elune and served the Goddess faithfully, but certainly her time as Warden and brought her and her past as a senior priestess had come into conflict several times. Her duty as a Warden winning each time, something that Malfurion and Tyrande seemed to fail at always putting even the Gods of other faiths before the Kaldorei at times something she was certain was true.
"Warden! Warden Maiev!" One of the Warden Vigilants ran up to the Warden leader.
"Report." Short, to the point, and leaving no room for bluster, Maiev wouldn't tolerate excess, not with the panicked look on her subordinate's face.
"We recieved a messenger from Malfurion Stormwind, the Horde marches on Darnassus, the Sentinels are too spread out and will not be able to reach the warfront in time. They say that the Draenei might also be too late as well. A-and Mount Hyjal has also come under attack!" There was no doubt, only the Legion somehow reforming or Illidan's return could be more dire...this even could be Illidan's fault!
"Is Malfurion calling for aid?" A simple question but now Maiev needed more insight.
"The messenger said that Malfurion is going to Mount Hyjal, but the Horde marches through Ashenvale too few reinforcements will arrive in time to stop them. But the messenger claims that Malfurion has Arcane magic users working to open a portal we can use to bring sufficient forces to Ashenvale to hopefully hold the Horde long enough for reinforcements." As the Vigilant finished her report Maiev scowled. She'd have to rely on magic, the detestable blight on the world, yet again. But if she didn't there was no knowing what those savage lesser creatures in the Horde would do to the good Kaldorei people.
"Tell the messenger we accept and march to our homeland's defense. Prepare every warrior we can, ensure everyone is wearing full armor and is prepared for war. Every watcher under us is also to be fully equipped and prepared. We only will leave those necessary for keeping the prisoners secure behind." As she spoke, Maiev was already moving swiftly towards the Warden Encampments on the Isle.
Ikit grinned, the digging machine and slaves were making much better time than he had expected, no his entire army was performing adequately for once. The Man-Thing army was on the verge of collapse, though their puny numbers, even with the weird health magic, had meant that their defeat by the vastly superior Skaven had of course only been a matter of time, and using Ikit's brilliant weapon designs of course.
Already Ikit had some of the Slaves working on a Warren both for his workshop and to house the Skaven army, leaving them exposed was proving increasingly dangerous as now Harpies with feathered wings, and even tiny dragons and scaley yet small dragon ogres and even lizardmen like creatures joined the still increasing ranks of the Elf-things, Cow-things and tree-things who were rapidly becoming far more of a pain than the Man-thing ranks had initially been.
And while these forces continued to amass, the damn blue Dead-thing was being useless, instead choosing to hide in the tunnels, complaining about sunlight. Many of Ikit's soldiers had never before experienced so much sunlight yet they were out fighting like they should. But, Ikit saw the weaknesses of these enemies. All of them were 'Natural' using primitive weapons, magic, or claws, horns and fists. Thus Ikit was pleased to see that Thanqual hadn't denied him, nor stolen from his demanded Ratling Guns, and now a full stockpile had arrived. However he did notice that the Jezzails he had demanded came in dramatically lower quantities than he had order, and he'd need those for the next part of his plan.
Still Ikit took joy watching three of the Ratling guns he designed preparing to fire into the man-thing ranks. He hoped the one in the back wirh the Glowing sword would get hit in the head, surely that would entertain him even more.
Anduin, several paladins, and a mixture of Stormwind Footmen and the Reiksguard Knights aiding them still held their line firm. Now Druids of the Circle, Harpies of Aviana, Ancient Defender Treants, and even the Green Dragonflight had started to mass in Hyjal's defense. More Anduin had been told by the druids that the Dryads were massing with even more Treants and woodland creatures preparing to join the battle decisively.
Still those members of the Army of the Stormwind who could still stand were quickly reaching their braking point, at this line alone, there were no more footmen to help hold the line, instead the Knights and Footmen found themselves being braced by Paladins and adventurers as the Skaven threw themselves bodily into the defenders line.
While many basic forms of formation fighting were familiar to the Footmen of Stormwind the Reiksguard and the Empire Captain at their side providing examples and offering slight suggestions and motivation had helped the Stormwind soldiers perform better in the still relatively unfamiliar form of warfare. Anduin had to admit, typically his men only needed to brace against a handful of foes, or one or two larger creatures, never before had they had to endure a headlong push of so many bodies, holding back the foe from simply pushing them over with their mass and constant forward press, all while still fighting.
But interestingly these Rieklanders clearly found the idea of dedicated healing outstanding and even while facing what was to be an eventual defeat of their lines by these Skaven, were in higher spirits than he had seen of them on Mallus. Though many of them seemed oddly unnerved as the light healed them, muttering odd prayers each time it happened.
Again Anduin called the light to bless these men before shouting encouragement to them all. The Worgen Relyea behind them howling in excitement as Avenah added her own prayers while Aursuun steeled himself for a coming tide of near nakid rats armed with sticks and clubs rushing towards them with deranged warcries.
Anduin readied himself, mentally reciting prayers and ready to support his men. They only needed to hold the front for a few more minutes and then Stormwind could retire from the field.
With that thought passing through his mind reality, and the Skaven in particular decided to spite the High King. With rapid cracks, round after round of green bullets began to tear through the skaven ranks, some shots even passing through as many as seven of the Skaven before punching through the armor of the Footmen or slamming into and cracking the armor of the Reikland Knights and knocking them off their feet.
Avenah quickly put a blessing over the men meant to protect them yet the cruel green rounds continued unhindered. It took only a few seconds but two rounds clipped Aursuun nearly knocking the Draenei down and clearly wounding him, one grazed Relyea earning a pained yelp, and another hit Anduin himself in the shin, nearly penetrating his armor and certainly causing a break in the bone beneath.
Taking a moment to heal himself and watching his portion of the line quickly collapsing under the gunfire, Anduin knew now was their only chance to retreat. Even as he shouted the words Anduin could see the gunfire lessen and the Skaven begin to rush over the corpses of their fallen towards the broken lines. However as the men ran Anduin realized they were still too slow and would be overtaken by the skaven behind them. And then a wall of thorn covered vines erupted from the ground and lashing out at the Skaven, tearing flesh and killing several of the Ratmen.
As vines errupted from the ground between the slaves and their intended pret Ikit Claw allowed himself a well earned mad cackle. He had stolen the report meant for the Grey Seer that Thanqual had killed, reading the whole thing for himself. He knew that for the other Grey Seer, Ikit was supposed to be used as bait to lure out Malfurion.
The Grey Seer had been given a full account of what to look for, and suggestions from the Horde-slave leader Sylvanas on how to counter the Night Elf-thing. Of course many of those suggestions were irrelevant, besides superior Skaven weaponry provided by the GREATEST Skaven Tinker-rat would ensure that no matter what Malfurion would die.
But to be prudent, and not too obvious with his superiority, Ikit would withdraw into the tunnels to motivate the work crews to dig faster. After all best to show Skaven superiority to Sylvanas than kill Malfurion too quickly, and if Ikit happened to be far away if anything went wrong then that was a lucky coincidence.
As more makeshift bridges were laid across the river, Orc Grunts, Blood Elven Swordsmen, Troll Headhunters, and Tauren Braves all raced across the bridges their movements warped by time dilation so a run of thirty seconds only took each roughly three second. Combined with the Spellbreakers this dramatically reduced how many of Saurfang's soldiers were struck by Night Elven attacks while crossing the river.
The Horde's numbers quickly began to dominate over the Night Elves even some of the Grunts were and the Deathguard were bravely crossing the river, either by swimming or walking through it, to open up more fronts against the Kaldorei. The Horde were already pressing the Night Elves back, though much of their army was still bottlenecked at the river. Saurfang then decided he'd best serve pushing the Horde forward from the front. The High Overlord thus charged across the river himself his axe ready.
As the High Overlord's feet touched the Kaldorei side of the river, which he noted the waters were lower than when the battle began, a cry rose from the Night Elven lines. Then the Night Elven offensive increased, the arrows going from a steady trickle to a hail as multiple Night Elven warriors, with Wardens at their lead charged from the shadows. As this happened vines, bushes and a rain of thorns stuck the Horde as Druids joined the sudden onslaught of the Wardens.
Saurfang rushed for the front, stopping to block a sudden Umbra Crescent flying towards him. The Weapon bounced toward the ground but never touched as Maiev appeared in a blink, grabbing the weapon and swinging it up at the Orc High Overlord. Saurfang was forced to block more and more attacks as the Warden leader brought blow after blow against him, all while occasionally tossing knives from beneath her cloak.
The pair continued to fight, Maiev's savage onslaught preventing the High Overlord from being able to do anything buck defend himself and make counter strikes, each of which was either deflected or outright dodged by the Warden. None of Saurfang's wide powerful axe strokes even hoped to land on Maiev, while all of his short, swift thrusts and jabs did very little to the heavily armored Warden.
Still the Horde's numbers grew, Falfarren river turned into little more than a stream that the Horde's combatants could simply wade through as only a Goblin would feel the need to swim across the stream. The Horde army charged on mass to cross the river their surge of numbers well beyond the power of the antlered Druid, Saurfang suspected it to be Broll but could not get a good look at the druid while fighting Maiev, to hold back.
Then as the High Overlord and the Warden battled, a trickle of water began to pool at their feet, the soil quickly becoming soft and muddy and the Night Elves began to faulter between the Horde's numbers and the growing instability of their footing. Yet still the Elves held stubbornly only giving ground to then viciously lash out against the Horde again.
Still the Horde pressed forward, Sylvanas and her Dark Rangers intently pressing forward, clearly targeting Broll and the druids, yet more and more the Night Elves allies, Dryads in numbers Saurfang hadn't seen in years, and Treants rose to defend the Kaldorei. What exactly had Sylvanas or the Skaven done to motivate such force against them?
Even as the battle raged and the Horde pressed forward. The Night Elf lines faultering, a route soon coming Saurfang could sense from his enemies. Fires then began to suddenly spread from behind the Night Elven lines, then ghosts, spirits the like of which Saurfang had never seen with vague and ill defined forms attacked the rear of the Night Elves, only the Druids and Dryads showing any ability to cause the spirits harm. With quickly growing fires behind them as well as undead ghosts, and the Horde pressing in with the diverted Falfarren river turning their ground into muddy swampland difficult to sustain the Night Elves mobility advantage in darting to and from combat. The Kaldorei leaders called the battle, the Night Elves only leaving rear guards as the army surrendered the battle to the Horde, now likely falling back to Astranaar.
Saurfang smirked, while making the ground muddy using the river had made closing with the Night Elven archers harder for the Horde, the old veteran had seen enough of the Night Elves in battle to know that for their style of warfare they needed to move far more than the Horde's warriors would need to move to get into battle, tiring the Night Elves well before the numerically superior Horde. It was then Saurfang's good fortune that the Kaldorei army had chosen to use warriors who needed to draw even closer to the Horde's Warriors than normal to fight, meaning they had to run even more through the soft mud.
But for now, Saurfang had to meet the vanguard of the Horde's newest Allies. A encounter that based off the Messenger Saurfang was sure he wouldn't enjoy.