Future's Dawn
Sylvanas walked down the halls of Grommash Hold her eyes tracking every movement as various individuals reacted to her sudden presence. To the sides Goblins either gave dutiful bows or made signs indicating tribute or begging for coin. Beside them the Skaven all either prostrated themselves before the obviously superior Banshee Queen, or darted to avoid her gaze. Orcs saluted their Warchief, as did the few Tauren present. The Elven Sin'dorei and Shal'dorei races both nodded their heads respectfully to the former Ranger-General, while Trolls nodded out of respect for what she had done for Princess of the Zandalari Empire the spiritual center of their people.
Still others remained entirely irreverant. Further down the hall four Vampires stood in the darkness, at their head Tarei, a draenei turned vampire, barely afforded Sylvanas a glance before loudly continuing her conversation with the others about establishment of a new tax in what she arrogantly assumed would be the Von Carstein's new territories om Azeroth. Elsewhere a Ogre of the Stonemaul Clan blatantly ignored her presence while one of the fat Mallus oaf Ogres noisily ate a leg of a creature she couldn't place, both Ogres were negotiating prices for some unknown venture. Lastly there was the Goblin Alyzz Kneecord and her human 'not-slave', ehile Alyzz looked too shoked to respond to Sylvanas presence properly the human's eyes glared at her from behind its metal mask.
The last to show none of the due respect to the Warchief of the Horde was Baine Bloodhoof standing just outside the meeting chamber clearly waiting for her arrival, every ounce of his disgust for Sylvanas evident in his posture, even if his face was one of pure neutrality.
"Good morning Baine." Sylvanas began trying to keep their interaction positive and cordial.
"The council is waiting for you." Baine stated in a flat tone with a scowl now spreading on his face. And with that the High Chieftain of the Tauren opened the door to the council chamber where the Warchief's throne waited in the center of the assembled leaders of most the Horde's states, kingdoms, and tribes.
As Sylavas walked in all conversation between the assembly died out as they turned and watched her walk to the throne. Then the Banshee Queen dropped into the throne spreading out casually with a small smirk. Still even as she exherted her power over the room Sylvanas assessed all those assembled. Even if she was Warchief she was not truly an absolute ruler, something she could recognize unlike that fool Garrosh.
To her furthest right stood the Skaven Plaguelord Blistrox his retainers from his Pestilent Brotherhood forming a buffer between the disgusting smelling rat and anyone else in the room. Next stood the Skaven Greyseer Thanquol whom apparently was one of the few present forces keeping the Skaven from infighting and scheming against eachother, though he did so mostly by hypocritically involving himself in every scheme and internal fight of the Skaven and twisting the event to his own benefit.
Next was the madrat inventer Ikit Claw whom had assisted the Horde during the War of the Thorns which sparked the current war. While still lacking, the amount of technological progress he had made by studying Gnomish tech was impressive. But most concerning was his current relationship with the other two council members currently at his side.
Throt the Unclean was a newer arrival among the Skaven, and when Sylanas had first heard his name she had assumed another one of their plague priests had arrived. Instead this three armed rat was some sort of flesh shaper and his creations certainly reminded her of the scourge's Abominations. Still the monsters and tamed rats his 'Clan Moulder' brought were certainly an asset to the war effort. Apparently initially he and Ikit were almost dead set on fighting one another. But now the pair were virtually inseparable as they worked on some mysterious project together, a project that Jastor had decided to fund.
And right behind the pair of rats the Goblin trade prince of the Bilgewater Cartel watched them with an appraiser's eye, and a gleem of absolute greed. Sylvanas certainly didn't care what the goblin's sales pitch claimed about the project the two Skaven were working on, so long as he didn't divert financing from the war effort for whatever product they were making for him to sell. Still the rats and the Goblins were at least forming a mutually beneficial relationship, which hopefully would help impress upon the Skaven and their 'Under Empire' the power of the Horde.
Every time she looked into the eyes of their leaders Sylvanas knew that the rat's mutual fear of her power and ambition to become her were the only things that kept them behaving as her own absolute sycophants. While the Skaven desired to appease her and hoped to one day replace her she could use them to force her will upon the rest of the council, either by vote, or by the rats screeching their mindless support of her statements echoing her words until all dissenters found their own statements lost in the cacophony.
After the disgusting rats, was the Goblins, a whole other type of rat. While Jastor had taken interest in the work of Ikit and Throt, other Goblins had stepped up, even before the Skaven had become a prominent force for holding the Horde's gains, and now there were several mercenaries who stood among the Horde council. First among these was Monte Gazlowe, while far too moral for a Goblin by Sylvanas' estimation. He and his mercenaries favored the Horde and Monte possessed a ability rare among the Gnomes and Goblins. While the Goblins and Gnomes prided themselves in their technologies, they seldom used the technology practically or in sufficient quantities to make a significant difference outside special occasions or their own territories, Monte however seemed to grant entire warfronts a technological edge over any foe the Horde faced.
After Monte who stood by silently, there was Hobart Grapplehammer who was still tinkering with a invention. She had only brought him up into the council to try and offset and intimidate the Skaven Ikit Claw as Hobart was a true genius and his wonder weapon designs seemed to promise to be a decisive tip in the war's balance.
Then there was the just arriving Alyzz Kneecord who represented not Goblin mercenaries but rather all the Mallus mercenary and volunteer forces the Horde had acquired. If Sylvanas had one complaint it was the goblin's constant companion, otherwise she was easily awed and bowed by Sylvanas presence and she would likely go to great effort just to please the Warchief, but that damned Cathayan seemed to keep Alyzz back making the girl take a much more balanced stance
Then after the Goblins was the mixed representation of the Horde's combined units and mercenaries as represented now by Magatha Grimmtotem with her banished tribe of Tauren and their mercenaries as well as Overlord Agmar representing the Kor'kron in Sourfang's place after the Orc had gone and gotten himself captured by the Alliance. Neither had much outstanding about them being her most silent yet reliable supporters, the only times they spoke up was either when their respective groups were too endangered by a council decision or if they thought they had a better suggestion than what anyone else was proposing. Otherwise they generally voted how she wanted, and their forces either provided a solid quantity of experienced warriors or represented a elite force that could directly challenge the most powerful of the Alliance.
Then the Forsaken stood by next to the elites of the Horde. Lillian Voss, Nathanos Blightcaller, Master Apothecary Faranell, the Dark Ranger Velonara, and Sira Moonwarden all represented the Forsaken and were unfortunately all pieces that she needed to balance and control Nathanos fortunately was absolutely loyal and blindly followed her every directive. However Master Apothecary Faranell however wanted to acquire deceased priests from the Skaven so as to acquire their skills in natural disease development to add to the reputare of the Royal Apothecary Society, even if the action enraged the Skaven or endanged an entire warfront. Likewise Lilian Voss was a loose cannon who Velonara seemed to be shielding from the controls and punishments her Queen intended to use to reign in Lilian. Lastly Sira was new and driven by spite for her former people and while willing to obey Sylvanas her drive took her beyond what was acceptable and often caused negative backlash against the Banshee Queen. Still Sylvanas had plans for her which should help bring more peoples into the Horde's umbrella.
Almost entirely neutral among her council was Ji Firepaw and the Huojin Pandarenz they were dedicated to the Horde, but questioned everything as part of their philosophy. Thus they were difficult to control but often when given a proper excuse would eagerly go into whatever decision the Warchief claimed.
Just as neutral, technically moreso were the Vampires of the Von Carstein bloodline. She allowed them into previous meetings despite their faction clearly being on the fence with the Horde and even sending a representative to the Alliance to see if they could potentially side with them instead. However Tarei had personally taken care of that problem, and now the Vampires were all a matter of convincing them to commit to a initiative and appealing to their egos. They were a powerful support, but they certainly played political games and were willing to side against her just to gain concessions.
Newest to the Horde was certainly Geya'rah, the leader of the newly arrived Mag'har Orcs whose numbers and technology should easily sway the war to the favor of the Horde. She clearly respected Sylvanas position and was willing to follow the banshee queen's lead, even though Eitrigg was certainly pushing her towards caution and making her own decisions, which many of which were not what Sylvanas wanted despite the wisdom of such decisions.
After the Mag'har Orcs stood Lor'Themar Theron and, too close to his side for Sylvanas liking, Thalyssara seemed to glow beside the grizzled Blood Elf. The elves were loyal to the Horde and Sylvanas as the Warchief, even choosing to put their faith in her. But that didn't make their loyalty absolute and Sylvanas was certain that they were secretly assisting her enemies anong the council.
The first of these enemies being Rokhan. The Datkspear trolls in the past had openly chosen to rebel against the Horde and seemed convinced that they reserved the right to revolt whenever they felt like it. A right to commit treason as they felt, which in reality meant that they would turn on her the moment Rokhan thought it would be beneficial to gis tribe. Fortunately the trolls had no reason to think their tribes had anything to gain by betraying her, particularly after with the closer relations she was now making with the Zandalari.
That left the most rebellious of the Horde. Baine was openly opposed to Sylvanas and routinely saught to spite her efforts. And with Mayla Highmountain captured Jale Rivermane was someone who deffered to Baine rather than pushing out on her own initiative. While Mayla had been difficult to manage she had at least been far more convinced of the righteous cause of the Horde, and willing to work with Sylvanas for the betterment of all.
After Sylvanas finished sweeping the room assessing the assembled lords, chieftains, and bosses in a instant and forming her approach to the Horde council today based on those who were here. So she took on a confident smile, closed her eyes and began to feign sympathy.
"Today we remember all those who died to bring us to where we stand today. Our victory is only possible because their actions and our dedication to completing their legacy. The Alliance dared to unleash their most violent, malicious and cruel against us, but they have failed. We should have a opening we can now use to further our victory pushing closer to the final defeat of the Alliance." The Warchief began, the Skaven and Vampires mostly ignored her statement, while others of the Horde had mixed reactions to her statement.
"Lor'Themar, with the recent breaking of the siege of Mulgore. I never recieved a report of what had happened in the Stonetalon Mountains. Could you summerize here?" While not a punishment, this show should grab the attention of those less committed to outright victory.
Lir'Themar immediately stepped forward and rightened his posture ready to give a formal report. "While we found and destroyed the Kal'dorei camp, but by the time we struck their fliers had all already taken to the sky and were heading to strike your own forces. They were all being lead by a Druid who had prevented me from taking to the skies until it was too late."
As Sylvanas had expected but this was about a show of authority, and it paid off in unexpected ways. "We-we were attacked by all the blue elf-things they sent lot-all of their warriors against our warrens but we win-slaightered! Should have brought-begged for clan Skryr brilliant-strong warriors!"
And in an instant all the Skaven were clamoring to prove themselves as s better than their rivals and somehow trying to best Lor'Themar's past performance. Already the Skaven were pledging what they thought were cleaverly small amounts of fighters to renewed offensives, each already far more in quantity than what she had on those fronts already.
"You act like a single victory is deciding this entire war. But aren't you sending your champions to Zandalar looking to add their power to your own because the Alliance fleets are overwhelming your own at sea?" A Vampire woman at Tarei's side stated with clear dismissal in her voice.
But fortunately Ji Firepaw felt the need to also speak up out of turn. "Every strike to either create an opening or to batter away at a foe's body is a step towards victory. Each successfully parry or strike should be a point of pride against such an expert opponent."
"Indeed, and with the war in the current stage we need to celebrate every victory." Sylvanas supported the Pandaren's statement with a calm enthusiasm.
"You call what happened to the Tauren in Mulgore a victory? Dey lost so much, an entire nation in ruins and unable to contribute to the war effort. Dat shouldn't be praise worthy. We should be trying to emd the war not obsessing over victory." Rokhan spoke up in protest his clenched fist waving through the air as he spoke.
"That is a defeatest attitude Rokhan, while a early end to the war is desirable, we need to stay positive for the sake of our peoples and we should push for the best end of the war for our nations, rather than surrendering to the Alliance and letting them take even more from us than what they've already taken." Lor'Themar admonished his fellow leader taking a more moderate approach than what Sylvanas could while the Skaven and Von Carsteins were both present.
Now Baine stepped forward. "Enough, Sylvanas what is your plan now?" The High Chieftain asked Sylvanas his gaze fixed on her fiercely in clear challenge.
"We're trying to either secure the Arathi Highlands, or allow the Skaven to secure a passage into Khaz Modan that we can use to invade Ironforge or Gnomeregan. Otherwise we need a increase in our fleet's might so we can cut off the Alliance from their holdings on Kalimdor so we can secure the continent and the Hyjal portal to prevent any other attacks like what was done against your people." Sylvanas explained calmly and simply.
Baine's eyes narrowed and Sylvanas internally sighed knowing how this would impact her authority but she needed to maintain the image of a good leader for her own Horde followers. "We failed you Baine, that invasion should have never gotten past Ashenvale, yet we focused too much on harming the enemy rather than protecting what is precious to the Horde, something intend to not allow to happen again." A platitude really, but it seemed sufficient to at least stop Baine from pressing his criticism further.
"Now lets discuss how we will prepare our forces for for the coming month." And with that the meeting proceeded as normal.
Mathias Shaw swiftly walked through the halls of the Stormwind Castle, as the Highest Ranking offical of Stormwind in Anduin's inner circle he needed to be the one to meet with this dragon. Typically when dragons appeared like this it was important, and they couldn't afford to snub one of the noble dragonflights. So he rushed into the throneroom eyes peeled for signs if whichever dragon had come.
"So Adventurer, can you explain what your friend means when he says I have Big Mommy energy? Is she saying it's because I'm large, or is she trying to imply something else?" Shaw paled as he looked over to witness the Red Dragon Aspect Alexstrasza in her human guise speaking with a small group of adventurers.
Immediately Mathias rushed over to the Red Dragon before bowing. "Lady Alexstrasza, Dragonqueen, welcome to Stormwind Castle. Unfortunately Anduin is away, so how might I try to be of service for you today." It was formal and certainly a little more than necessary, but Mathias knew that the Dragons either were acting for truly important reasons, or were simply self important thinking their cauae was of vital importance to the world.
"I came with a warning that should be of vital importance to the Alliance. Make sure the warning reaches Anduin immediately. Otherwise I fear what might come." The Red Dragon Aspect's warning certainly was cryptic, but it was more or less what Mathias expected, even as the Adventurers backed away, feeling that the events were far above their pay.
"I can get your message to him, or if you need I can start you on your journey to catch up with him. Otherwise it would be best to inform me so I might start preparing us if it's a emergency, and I can send word to Turalyon and our commanders." A formal offer like this would be best laying out a few simple options that would give Alexstrasza a chance to think and a feeling of control.
The Dragon Aspect wasted no time. "Where is Anduin, I should impress upon him thr severity of what has happened."
"He's currently on Mallus, on route to the Empire's capital city of Altdorf." As Mathias spoke Alexstrasza paled and then clenched her first lightly punching a nearby wall, with her strength restrained so as to only shake the structure just enough that Shaw could see a faint falling of dust only because he knew where to look when the dust fell.
"Damn it, I'm too late." The Dragon muttered just loud enough for Mathias to hear. And that statement certainly grabbed the spymaster's interest, and set off the alarms of his paranoia.
"Too late for what?" Shaw demanded with a hard edge to his voice.
"I can not yet pass through the portals some force rejects me. But Anduin needs be warned a new portal has been made." The Dragon proclaimed stunning Mathias.
"How? none of my spies had informed me that anyone started trying to open any of the other portals!" Mathias gaped in disbelieving shock, trying to mentally reevaluate the trustworthyness of his spies and informants.
"And you wouldn't have heard of this one from your spies. This is a new one forcefully created by the Old Gods forces, they summoned some twisted Naga from beyond our world." As the Dragon spoke Mathias relaxed his paranoid mind and instead began analyzing everything told to him by the Dragon.
"It was a twisted creature filled with Void and Fel energies in such quantities the dragons present thought her body would tear itself apart. Instead Naga from Nazjatar attacked foiling out attempts to purge the monstrosity and the forces of the Bronze and Blue Dragonflights found themselves unable to close the portal. Instead they took post to monitor the portal from a safe distance." As Alexstrasza finished Mathias conclused that the Dragon's decisions were likely the same as what he would make.
"So you think the Old Gods are responsible for, or at least taking advantage of these new portals to empower themselves?" The Spymaster summarized, and across from him the Queen of Life nodded to show that she agreed with his assessment.
"And we think that someone from the other side, a powerful spellcaster is helping them, someone who might even be a match for the aspects. Kalecgos has already set on investing the portal, but whatever is on the otherside, whatever is keeping us from passing through the portal has him concerned, and so he's already called for Dalaran's support in investigating this newest portal." New possibilities and new threats were already being analyzed, categorized or dismissed in Shaw's mind as Alexstrasza spoke.
"But who would be this powerful yet foolish enough to take to aiding servants of the Void?" Mathias questioned aloud which earned a shrug from the Dragon Queen.
"Perhaps this is the other world's equivalent of Queen Azshara, or Gul'dan. Either way they facilitated the grifting of power to the Old God's forces, and have endangered both worlds." As the Red Aspect spoke both she and Shaw began to walk deeper into the Stormwind castle and to one of the many private strategy rooms where a large map of the world was laid out along with some simple peices meant to indicate Alliance, Horde and various other forces on the world stage.
"I will alert Turalyon, likely the Naaru should be informed of this development as well. Do you think the Old Gods are planning to attack us?" While not the best at strategy, Mathias held a good grasp of it which helped when it came to devising schemes and plots for his spies to enact.
In response Alexstrasza sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "The ways of the Old Gods are never clear to me, they attack through means that are unusual and I suspect that even if they were to get free we wouldn't know their next plan until it was too late. And with the mysteries of these portals, there's still so much unknown that I doubt any of my dragons could even hope to guess what was about to happen."
"I'll send word to Anduin, a full report with everything you told me, if there is anything more please tell me to include it. I'll also have my spies see if the Horde is aware of what is going on and if they'll be willing to host a ceasefire until the threat is gone." Mathias stated while Alexstrasza just scowled.
"The slavers have yet to fully redeem themselves, I am almost certain that they haven't learned of this yet." While Alexstrasza seemed distrusting of the Horde, Mathias simply saw the difficulty. If the Horde couldn't be convinced of what had taken place then it could well become a reality where the Alliance was trapped between both saving the world, and beating back the Horde at the same time.
"They still need to be informed, and I think it will mean more coming from a dragon than from one of my spies." Mathias reasoned.
"I'll find a dragon to send, but don't expect much of the Horde, they have embraced the people of the other world. They will certainly resist such notions such as assuming such dark forces are something they should have to fight." She was being dismissive but at least the Dragon was relenting to his suggestions. So Mathias then went to the board and grabbed several pieces that symbolized the Dragonflights.
But before the Spymaster could begin giving his suggestion to the Red Dragon Aspect the door to the room burst open. "Sir we found her!"
Alexstrasza slowly relaxed from her combat pose and Mathias slowly replaced his hidden knife while contemplating if he should replace his aid. "Oh... oh sorry sir. But you insisted that I inform you the moment we find her."
"And?" The woman took an extra moment to collect herself while Mathias waited as patiently as he could.
"Tess Graymane arrived at Everlook in winterspring and got into contact with Alliance forces. She's looking for transport back to Stormwind and is currently offering refuge to a guest." His aid explained.
"Good give her whatever she needs to get back." With his order the aid saluted and she immediately left the room, leaving Shaw and the Dragon Queen alone once again
"Now if I may make a suggestion."
Reviews:
Guest: They've unfortunately not nearly the force that the Horde needs, their dwelling might be somewhere the Horde could use, but in terms of power, numbers and positioning, the Horde's not in a point where they could seriously consider the Gnomes and their wonderfully pointed hats.
rollynolly: Settra does not serve, he rules! ...But there are Tomb King characters who would have diffrent views on the war, and so we likely could see intervention if the war drags out longer than it cannonically did.
Ironwall: Honestly I'd say yes, BUT were just as likely to see the Old Gods or even the Legion remnants jumping on the opportunities created by the Chaos Gods, thus far I've presented the ability of each world's divine to directly interfere with the other side as restrained due to wibbly wobbly bullshit (fuck you me, it's good writing!) but thats also the subtext plot since both sides are looking for a way to bypass the limitations set up by the portals and finally get their chance to go full ham.
JiggyliFAP: Soo long...forgive me if i miss some of your statements or oversimplified some.
For the light, thats also again why i don't like it. the church of the light, if it wasn't for "we are designed good guys so thus we must good" They're doctrine is so bad that there would be no real motivation for anyone to do anything more than put a new flag on their Gobller bio each month and bam "perfectly virtuous light follower" (which ironically today i started reading Adventur of a Undead Lich who became a Paladin and it goes over a very similar issue as the MC tries to push his virtue forward)
On that deadliestfan bit, you'd have to ask him his interpretation but thats about how I'd judge it, but the Druidic and Shamanistic means of healing in gameplay has more HoT/DoT heals and more lore ties to potion making.
Generally non-mage teleporters/portals are somewhat to severely more limited...but poor mages still are told to suck it because everyone and their mom has free teleportation in game for bullshit reasons that make no economic, lore, or magic mechanical sense.
I said 70-90% based off the damage we saw in the video and the sunken vessels blocking some of the locations. There's a lot of small factors thar tie to a dock's serviceability. but they were made to support a city and the Alliance directly turned to those docks to support a war effort (and then did a suprised Pikachu face when their enemy committed the unforgivable crime of trying to bomb their war fleet that was docked in active Alliance territory)
As for Stormwind part of the "problem" there is the whole "stretching" thing. Personally i could actually buy that Stormwind only has the five peirs, but then in the shores around the city in towns there are plenty of other docks half as large (France more or less did this during their naval height) and it seems like they get most of their city supplies via land routes instead, yet those supplies still have similar containers to the ones used by ships.
Again reasons why Sylvanas would be intrigued by the very diffrent style and use of souls from Mallus. The technique overall is better, but you certainly don't get nearly as many interesting characters.
More I'd argue WoW humans are borderline psychologically conditioned to be hyper complacent. Again if the Legion was at all even the dimmest shadow of what the hype claimed their power to be, everyone in the world should have a dead family member and a dead best friend... yet the peasents only cared that their king died, and somehow found a tree catching fire by impossible means (Teldrassil was a inside job) more horrific than something that should have killed half the people they know. But such extraordinary complacency can be equated to stupidity, because such people will never strive to improve and instead sit around waiting for handouts, its the same reason why i call the Civilians in Star Trek "evolved" sheeple unworthy of being called human.
I think, if i remember at the moment, the Demonhunter the demon they eat also presents a level of risk, the more powerful= the more likely its to kill you when it hits that lower intestine.
Its not that long ago the Legion did all that shit and Fel-fire was everywhere. Hell the world still refuses to get over Nazis and focus on real threats and the vast majority of people who ever even saw a Nazi are dead. While "Alliance ultra mega supersuper goodguys who can do no wrong" that "do no wrong" doesn't seem to apply to a lot of BS, including casually hiring adventures to butcher people for petty reasons...or genocide cats "to balance nature" (the Japanese story of the Wolves and the Deer comes to mind) The Warlocks likely post Legion have some acceptance and extended tolerance from the state...but any veteran or civilian probably is at risk of a PTSD episode the moment a warlock summons a demon or starts throwing green deathballs around...in which case...better keep them hidden and have the gov do a whole showy "we protect you from evil magic" (basically the very thing the Spanish inquisition did of putting on big massive show trials and burning effigies of "witches" all while smuggling the people out and then jailing the local lords for corruption)
Now I'll always critique WoW for the biplane bs since they went full 'WW1 but better", yet refused to give a "why we still prefer melee" but I can assume Blizzard's staff and intelligence are not on speaking terms especially since Blizzard has openly placed ESG score over fans and product and simultaneously failed at ESG. But seriously that "common tech" is universe breaking to the point I couldn't take the Legion or Baldy seriously as threats even when factoring in their "tell don't ever EVER show" hyped powers.
I honestly doubt she'd be jealous, after all as you said she's rich and successful. And this might just be my history major speaking, but based off history's powerful women...she might instead despise them, but I'd have to check the minutiae of her personality.
Hakuryuu: Well Jes's view on Mallus is still the Alliance on high view, and from what i can tell, she seems to be one to overestimate the Horde, but not to the point of making her needlessly cautious.
Id actually argue against the speed of news traveling in Azeroth, not that it's slow, but that it travels at the speed of plot convince. Which is hyper convinent for some people (looking at Arthas).
Dragon King of the West: Such are the mysteries to be learned.
micelzod: Its a hit to be sure but, one thing to note is that the Empire of Man in terms of actual manpower presented in the stories, besides jumping to fantasy numbers often, usually sits on a average thats more comparable to the forces the Ottoman Empire used to field on their rise to their height. Where they lost 15K men to a battle, and another 6k to a single explosion and somehow still refused to call it a pyrrhic victory, and just rolled out another army just as large the very next year. But the losses are something to analyze and use to judge the tactics and overall situation by.
Anduin's action isn't wrong...the timing is rather inconvenient though. Leaving the nation to negotiate is often a thing leadeds have to do, but fleeing just before a defeat where you put all your political stock in a city not falling for example... thats a whole other sign. Best bet is that with the timing Anduin's chosen he probably was trying to capitalize on a high moment of the siege to make the Empire see him and the war in a more positive light and get them to invest themselves mentally or emotionally before the end of the siege... orrr he was just following Volkmar jumping at the first opportunity assuming the Empire would jump at the chance to follow other humans once they saw the virtue of the Alliance High King.
Ravenguard0009: The world seems to think that K/D ratios are somehow a lot more important than they really are. At the end of the day, he who holds and KEEPS the field is the winner. With the numbers of the Skaven, and the Vampires joining in, the Horde can afford to throw away troops to guarantee that they take and hold those vital points. Thats part of why, despite the T-34s made during WW2 being so absolutely shit, the worst tank of the war no questions asked, they still were useful, despite being more of a logical supply drain because of how shit they were, because with the Soviets on the offense, even if it was a wrecked junk in the middle of the field that couldn't turn it's turret, see, and had it's crew intentionally welded into the tank so they couldn't even climb out, the T-34 won because it was on the field and the Germans weren't having taken their still functioning equipment and left.
But getting the Empire or any kingdom really to commit to a war, for unknown future "maybe" benefits is a pretty hard sell, even at the best of times. So Anduin certainly has his work cut out for him.
Though as you touched on, the idea of exporting their conflicts away to Azeroth has to have its own level of appeal to the Empire.
TheJackinati: So either "strip" or "light it up"...fun for Anduin either way.
Axccel: except, that the Horde and Alliance have shared the world for 20 years now, without wars of extermination taking place between them, and honestly they accepted the Night Elves despite the Night Elves being the people who directly wronged Alliance members, and who went full genocidal "you must die for our quest to save the world" early on. The Alliance also accepted the Draenei, who as far as they could tell just a couple years ago were leading ALL those genocide attempts you mentioned, and before that also were serving blindfold "you are not prepared" jackass. but hey sex appeal means moraly good right?
But NONE of that plays into why the Alliance wins but never, actually did shit. For one if morality equalled victory... well i can go down a whole list of "bad" IP by that statement, and show that they can easily work with that where Blizzard routinely fucks it up. Iron Kingdoms has a goodguy nation who is so goodguy that the follwers of the light are nothing but vile demons in comparison (at least early on) yet Iron Kingdoms does just about EVERYTHING Blizzard does in WoW but better. The setting is sadly niche enough that you can't really write a well thought out crossover though, they aren't there with missiles and fighter bombers, but they aren't guys who discovered gunpowder last week. They instead run off of pre-WW1 tech, magic, and actually thought it out very well (unlike WoW having fucking guided missiles, and ICBMs but still thinking that a sharpened rock and war paint is somehow going to hold up)
But as JiggyliFAP above instead rambles. The Blizzard writers wrote themselves into a truly unescapable hole, the Alliance has more manpower, more tech, far more industrial capacity, more food, more docks for ships, more ships, more rulers, better rulers, cultural domination world wide, and such narrative focus its basically "the Alliance and Horde side characters vs the threat of the week...which did we mention how that threat is self defeating and retarded and incapable of ever winning. because they can't but remember you are not prepared..."
OscuroSignore-51: Well being a loaded king does help ... also helps when you have entire nations willing to gaslight people for you. But ironically i think that Anduin's such a good guy who hates to make friends angry he'll piss off his new mallus friends...by trying to keep from pissing them off.
AN1: Thank you for reading, more will be coming in Gate of the Elder Gods: Tides of Fate which will cover the war for Lorderon, and the events leading up to the current moment and beyond.
AN2: I have decided to honor some of my past rants and ramblings by including a little section here to basically rip into power scalers. In particular those who refuse to recognize the "rule of cool" and try to use such moments to justify absolute retardation. A very clear example of this is those who try to measure the speed of the characters in One Piece and Naruto using "lasers" to display how fast these characters are as they move at multiples of the speed of light...with background leaves falling at relative pace with their FTL speeds...meaning the Naruto World and One Piece worlds are both dead lifeless rocks because they both had a fall season shown as existing at least once, and that many tons and that much surface area or leaves falling at beyond light speed...those planets no longer have a atmosphere.
"but why are you using such realism" well strawman who doesn't exist, because the power scalers, and "feats" measuerers use such realism as their baseline. Rule of cool is cool, BUT it doesn't make a setting any more powerful and undermines a setting instead, particularly if you try to use power scaling but actually apply physics universally rather than in select "I get big number in this category thus I am better". And while feat scaling would be "better" they still measure based off this incrediblely flawed basis.
And to show how rule of cool undermines the power of settings I'll show you the Custodes in Warhammer 40K warriors who are somehow worth 100 to 1000 space marines, yet they're in multiples beat by a rando nude World Eater, and routinely beat one on one by vastly inferior foes such as basic aspect warriors nearly killing the God Emperor, entirely breaking the illusion of their power, skill, and ability.
Now I wouldn't just rant and "this is bad" without something to either patch the issue, or replace it. So what I usually use in conjunction with such power scaling, is realistic reinterpreting basically going "ok while limiting breaches of physics to the minimum possible, is this feat possible?" which going back to the biggest offense from One Piece where "Zoro can go 18 times the speed of light by backflip dodging light speed lasers fired by death robots..." so can we make that feat not break physics? well yes easily, because without lower the time scale, these "lasers" are going from the same speed as a star wars blaster bolt (63-97 MPH) to just breaching the sound barrier and at 63-97 MPH Zoro doesn't even need to break the sound barrier to backflip over the "laser".
Next is my other tool, power usage, a great example of this is a video by Graced Gnome Dimentio vs Bill Cipher where both beings are close in powers, and Bill has more powers, but Dimentio wins through the manifestation and useage of his powers. You could claim the WoW wild gods are 1000 more powerful than the chaos gods, but that's not going to mean Jack because the Chaos Gods vastly use their powers more effectively than the Wild Gods do and the ways the Chaos Gods manifest their powers does far more with vastly far less than the wild gods waste...which is ironic considering how wasteful the chaos gods are. (there's a reason the Wild Gods are always on power cooldown or respawn timer...worst Dota teammates ever)