400 Days in Quel'thalas 章1
"QIFIROA, SIN'DOREI! D'BAAR ASHL'MEDO AL'DRASSILDU, TEL'KAR SIN'SCOTHAR!"
(English): "Attention, Children of the Blood! Here is our Grand Magister and Commander, Tel'kar Sin'scothar!"
Blood Elf troops and civilians at the parade crowd SilvermoonCity's Court of the Sun cheering and chanting and singing
Why Quel'thalas?
Right after we finished our first project in Azeroth, people started spamming us. Quel'thalas. Why not go to Quel'thalas?
Because nobody knows anything about Quel'thalas. So we were fascinated by what we learned about it and tried for two years to get in, but couldn't; because the Silver Covenant won't let anybody in, they won't even let you have any contact whatsoever with the Blood Elves. Blood elves do not want anyone to corrupt their absolutely pure homogenus society that is ruled absolutely by their dictator, Telkar Sin'scothar, but they have a nasty reputation for their treatment of visitors they do let in. The biggest obstacle for anyone trying to get into Quel'thalas isn't even the Blood Elves, it's their biggest enemy, the Silver Covenant, a militant defector group that controls and keeps closed all possible access points, and do whatever it takes to keep everyone else separated from the blood elves.
We eventually got so frustrated we ended saying, well, we should at least go to the Rouje Front and put our foot in blood elf territory and at least see a little piece of Quel'thalas. The Rouje Front is the demilitarized zone between Azeroth and the small territory occupided by the Blood Elves on Dalaran Island. This is the confrontation point, the ends of the earth as some call it. Here, hatred seethes from the ground and resonates through the air accross the border between the Blood Elves and the Silver Covenant-led coalition of faction forces from all over Azeroth- Alliance, Horde, tribal, foreign- everyone.
History- Why everyone hates Blood Elves so much
Why does everyone hate the blood elves so mugh?
Well, after the 4th war, when Lick King Arthas was defeated, the blood elves had a revolution that changed their country into a brutal dictatorship. They cut all ties, and trade with the rest of Azeroth and remained secluded until they started the 5th war by invading Undercity and Dalaran.
The 5th War, was mainly the blood elves' attempt to take over Dalaran and eastern Lordaeron- the Plaguelands as the Horde calls it; and to take control of Dalaran. Right after the revolution that turned Quel'thalas from a constitutional monarchy into an absolute totalitarian dictatorship, Tyndistor Sinscothar, the first dictator, ordered the construction of a new Sunwell, and for that they needed a massive army of laborers and thousands the times of manpower available from blood elves assigned to work on the Sunwell. So Sin'scothar ordered the blood elf forces to take some equipment and kidnap workers from the apothecarium in Undercity- the Forsaken capital. So their death knights stormed their way into the city, mowed down thousands of undead Forsaken citizens; stole tons of equipment, kidnapped the apothecaries and alchemists and ported everything back to Quel'thalas, and created the new plague of undeath or the PuD-2 virus. That incident triggered the 5th war, and the blood elves and Forsaken fought over control of eastern Lordaeron. The blood elves threw the PuD-2 virus, turning millions of enemy troops into undead slaves and brought them back and forced them to work.
The Alliance and Horde backed the Forsaken and pushed the blood elves back to their own borders, while the Silver Covenant drove them out of Dalaran, but before they could successfuly push them off the island, the ceasefire was signed. The Blood Elves were allowed to keep the tip of Dalaran Island, have their own islands chained to it, have the Sunreaver Sanctuary- or what was left of it, and keep a 6X6 block section in the municaplity of Shemainus, 25 miles south east of the Capitol Fortress.
Dalaran Islands, then and now
Since the end of the 4th War, Dalaran has grown from a small floating island fortress into this widespread chain of floating islands. The main island, Dalaran Island, is now the size of Vancouver Island, with the capital fortress- the original city right in the center on top of a small mountain. There are now over 100 floating islands, big and small, hooked to Dalaran by chains made of enchanted eternium. The Blood Elves have their own island, that's Quel'Ilos, off to the side, hooked via chain and bridge off the north side of the main island, and they occupy an area of 900 blocks on the northern tip of Dalaran Island, that area being Quel'Ulanos. Surrounding the Ulanos district, is a three mile wide strip of open fields, minefields, booby traps, fences and barriers, and separating all that from the surrounding Kirin Tor area is a five block strip of old buildings that have been filled with cement and explosives. That section is called Blockade Bar, followed by a huge wall obscuring everything from KT citizens living on the island. Their separate island, Ilos, is hooked to their turf here, and connected via a bridge.
The Sunreavers' Sanctuary, is the Blood Elve's embassy in Dalaran and is only accessible to them via airship to their own platform on the backside of the Sanctuary, and only tiny little red pod-like aircraft are allowed to fly a certain path at a certain speed between the Sanctuary and their airfield on Ilos Island. There was a tunnel from Ulanos to the Sanctuary, but the Silver Covenant demolished it out of distrust for the Blood Elves.
All factions exercise air patrols around the blood elves' island and turf, making sure the podcraft are keeping in line with flight paths the KT has assigned them.
Every part of the blood elves' occupied area is within range of these gigantic energy cannons that can blast the hell out of anything, and the blood elves have a major buttload of cannons and heavy artillery on their own island and light weapons on their occupied part of Dalaran Island. The Rouge Front, the dmz separating Ulanos district from the rest of Dalaran Island is loaded with weapons pointing both ways.
Artillery of all kinds from all the factions in Azeroth from furbolg tribes to the mighty alliance and horde to the Steamwheedle Cartel and even foreign countries have provided weapons and a massive defence force. On top of that, you got foreign tanks and guns, and fighter craft waiting at the airfields behind the Rouge Front from. So from ctapults to massive heavy power staffs and spires, to tanks, cannons, and of course the blood elves have just as much artillery and a hell of alot more troops up here as at the dmz on the Lordaerus continent, their land border with the rest of Azeroth.
Blood Elves have dragonhawk fliers patrolling the airspace over their turf, escorting, or being escorted by flying mounts or fighter aircrafts of the Silver Covenant, Kirin Tor, Alliance and horde in the air surrounding all these islands.
And even up here, the blood elves have littered the Rouje Front with so many mines, that they even built invasion tunnels, digging their way through Dalaran Island to the underbelly of the capital fortress, where in less than a day, 500,000 blood elf troops could get into the core city and storm Violet Citadel, and the head centers of the Alliance and Horde. Now the Alliance intelligence agency SI:7, and seismic survey companies from around the world have detected a large number of these tunnels, and officials say there may even be more.
In the Rouje Front, a highway extends all the way through the farmland and demilitarized zone up to the border between KT and blood elf turf. Here, there are a small number of buildings where Azerothians and blood elves monitor the area and watch three huts that sit right on the border itself. Half of each hut is in Dalaran, the other half is in blood elf territory, but the KT call it Quel'thalas as well. These huts replace the original building where the ceasefire agreement ending the 5th War was signed.
And this hate-saturated blood-chilling cold-war scene has been going on for more than a century, and all it takes to kick-start the next war is throw a bottle in a blood elf's direction, and they will go on an all out blitz attack that will trigger the devastating war.
Rouje Front - Dalaran's DMZ
Getting to the Rouje Front isn't easy. It's a 5 hour drive from the air station, and you have to go through like 15 checkpoints, then you stop at a building that's just called 'Unified Square' and go through a Silver Covenant indoctrination session, where they tell you,
"Don't point, don't look at them, don't take pictures, no gestures of any sort. Don't do anything, we're only gonna be here for like 5 minutes..."
"We're at Observation Tower Ijala, the last stop before going to the joint border security zone. This is the only place where tourists and civilians can get a good look over at the Blood Elves' territory over there, and you can see they've terraformed it quite a bit. The soil and plants are completely alien here. Over there is Pow Bridge, it's where the Blood Elves and the Kirin Tor exchanged prisoners after the ceasefire was signed. And beyond the canal below it is Ulanos, which is blood elf territory. This place is almost kind of like a show park, but just beyond the huge fence, you can see observation towers, and there you can see their cannons and missiles in the distance. If those things launch, it will only be a second before this spot is blown to kingdom come.
In the distance, the blood elves have their observation tower, equipped with binoculars and telescopes so they can see us real nice. Over there is the display where people can put up signs, messages, pictures. Mostly it's messages of peace from local civilians, a lot of it is from people around Azeroth who went on a pilgrimmage here just so they could put up a sign or something, and all this is put up on high walls and billboards along Blockade Bar and on billboards by crews in the KT's side of the Rouge Front.
Even blood elf refugees, defectors and outborns have sucked up the courage and come all the way out here against total fear just to write a message, of peace, or an insult, or some anti-Sin'scothar slogan in Thalassian writing on the walls or any visible surface. The Blood Elf guards on the other side have powerful telescopes so they see everything."
You get off the bus and look around, and the guards are like, 'There's some Blood Elves. Now get back on the bus!' The guards like to get you good and scared.
The "Grenzübergang" - Checkpoint Marien's Skorn
"We're at the Grenzubergang now. This is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. They got about about a million Blood Elf troops just a hundred yards from here ready to storm their way here."
The Grenzübergang is the famous title of the entire checkpoint area. The name stems from the formal title Grenzübergang Marien's Skorn-Cillion or GMSC for short. On the Dalaran side of the border, is Checkpoint Marien's Skorn- named after a Vrykul warrior-princess who led the Vrykul defences in Northrend, and on the other side of the demarcation line, is 'Trasnola Terroaine Cillion' which just means 'Confrontation Point' in Thalassian. That was supposed to be their border control building. No one really knows what the Blood Elves use it for now.
50 years after the 5th War, the Blood Elves were engaged in a peace process with Dalaran. The peace process would have allowed for some trade and travel, and this place right here was supposed to become the border crossing. On both sides, huge border control stations and inspection centers were constructed, and the 'Peaceway', the huge highway that runs through everything was built so that traffic going both ways would come through here. But then before the border could be opened up, Tyndistor Sin'scothar died and was succeeded by his son who reverted back to a war-like stance.
They let you into one of the treaty huts, and the hut is half in Dalaran, half in blood elf territory. They set it up so they could have talks, but its the only place in Azeroth where you can set foot in blood elf turf. This is as close as pretty much everybody will get to getting in any blood elf territory. And tourists are all spooked and amazed and mystified with wide open eyes and aghast remarks saying 'That's Quel'thalas!' or 'I see BLOOD ELVES!'
*chuckles* It's almost as if blood elves were just the topic of legend and when they see them literally face to face through a bulletproof window, they go apeshit, it's hilarious.
Troops of all factions are on duty here. You got Kirin Tor special forces, Alliance, Horde, Cenarion Circle, Silver Covenant, Ebon Blade, Argent Crusade, a few Forsaken, Wyrmrest Accord, Vrykuls from all over Northrend, then you got lesser tribes, furbolgs, murlocs, gnolls, even Sporeggar,
and if you know your history, you will be amazed at how the Na'aru and Kirin Tor united all of Azeroth and got everybody on the 'fuck the blood elves' bandwagon. And it's because everybody knows that the Blood Elves want to destroy the entire country. They have a plague of undeath, they have weapons of mass destruction, they have the firepower to obliterate Azeroth a thousand times over. On top of the domestic coalition, the Kirin Tor diplomats have forged alliances with dozens of other countries including Maple World, Roika, and even Ivalice, which has more firepower than Quel'thalas and is what's keeping them from blowing us all to hell. And foreign troops are also stationed here on the Rouje Front and here at MarienSkworn ready to fight under the KT banner.
The border here is marked by three buildings called treaty huts. The larger one in the middle is the Green Hut, where the actual truce was signed, and then you got the two smaller ones on both sides. All three huts sit right on the border. So they let us in to look around. Five guards, and a death knight were covering the door opposite the one we came in. They were ready to attack if the blood elves tried to force their way in here.
"So that rainbow elementium bar outside is the border?"
"Yes. Don't point sir. These blood elf guards outside are all on their periods at this time and any gesture make just might set them off or at least make one of them shit his pants."
As we were walking around the room of the Treaty Hut, I was thinking, we HAVE to get into Quel'thalas.
Propaganda translation: " If the enemies so much as dare to invade the great land of Quel'thalas even a millimeter, our Red Guards, Sin'Death Army and Spirit Warrior armies will smite the aggressors mercilessly!"