Blaze
The approach to Horde encampment was swift and without challenge. None of the Horde's scouting forces had survived the last few days of the attack, and the swarms of the rat men lay thick as a carpet in some places, all naked and faces contorted in terror. Other places tbey lay wearing woefully inadequate armor with arrows peircing through their shields. And it was only as the Alliance assault, their final assault, neared the Horde Encampment that any bodies of the fallen, unrecoverable due to the threat of the Horde's remaining warriors.
Nelysea Shadowwatcher, moved past the dead with no further thought as she prepared her blade to strike down each and every last remnant of these filthy animals. While thick tree cover still concealed both Nelysea and her squad, it also covered the Encampment. So when the first shouts followed by gunfire broke out, Nelysea could see nothing only hoping the pained cries that came alongside the agonized squeeks of the ratmen were those of the Horde and not her Kaldorei allies, she still needed them to draw the enemy's attention.
Nelysea was the second of her team to emerge from the underbrush and into the clearing surrounding the Horde encampment. Here rather than the cover of thick bushes, trees and life, there was only the rotting edifices of life too early brought about by druids, the remains of the Horde's logging venture, and abandoned defensive positions left to be put between the bows and guns of the Horde and Nelysea's battleplate. Far too little cover the Death Knight decided as her armor cracked as a mighty blow nearly pierced the magic plate a streak of green striking her and bouncing off the force of the impact knocking her to her knee.
She cursed the spellcaster tracking the bolt's course only to find the barrel of a swiftly reloading gun. As Nelysea shouted brandeshing her runeblade and renewing her charge, dodgingboth flame and arrow the Worgen druid Nikki shifted forms placing the bulk of her bow bear body between the Death Knight as the non-stop fire of the frantic enemy. However the gun which the Death Knight most feared never fired again, as its owner sighted his weapon instead another gunshot cracked, and a bullet traveled down the length of the gun barrel punching through about halfway through and veering up into the eye of the rat gunman ruining the weapon and killing its user all at once.
Behind Nelysea the Dwarf Krumann leapt from his cover shouting to his companions while trying to line up another shot, the still smiling Pandaren, Nara, preparing a spell while following behind. "Nythealaes, yeah Daft elf Bastard, stop wibbly wobbling and get in there, I can't keep em off you much longer!" The Dwarf shouted, seemingly at Nelysea.
"Clap it Dwarven bastard! I was calculating the best approach!" The Death Knight startled, when did this warrior armed with two swords and wearing mailed armor get behind her, hadn't he been busy shoving books into a bag when she had taken off from their campfire? With a frustrated sigh the Night Elf warrior darted forward zig-zagging erratically his movements causing gunfire, arrows and bolts both mundane and magical to miss him entirely, while those that came too close the Warrior's swords deflected with ease as he even began to press ahead of the roaring bear charge of Nikki.
The only moment where the Elf's movement stopped was when he braced, using both blades to gently catch a falling glass sphere that glowed with a green substance of some sort and with a spin threw the sphere aside where it then shattered a safe distance of several yards away where a cloud of gas that looked dangerously like blight covered a far too large area for Nelysea's liking.
But this lead to the Death Knight, Druid and Warrior only to press forward even more swiftly as Adventurers, Sentinels, and Wardens began to trickle in from all around the besieged Horde camp. However at this rate Nelysea was proud to conclude that her team would be the first to reach the Horde defenses.
No longer able to hold back, and with enemy warriors rushing towards them, the Horde predictably for simple living creatures, rushed forward to intercept the Alliance's warriors. Ratmen armed with crude shields and small cleavers and rusted spears squeeked war cries and ran forward while Orcs bellowed out their traditional cries before lumbering forward. Where the Rats moved swift, skittishly and with uncertainty the Orcs moved with purpose and strength. This lead the rats to following behind them seeking reassurance in the confidence, size and strength of the Orcs.
Too bad for them, they and the Orcs they followed were far from being up to the task. The first to meet the onrush of warriors was Nythealaes. The warrior never staying still, his blades a whir as they slipped past the shields and spears of the Skaven, each attack a throat slit, or a heart or eye pierced. And then the Night Elf was gone, carving through the Horde's new allied chaff.
But the Orcs left by Nythealaes were not spared, each Grunt he slipped past was exposed and soon a bullet or even several found their way into the Orcs. Even while moving to avoid counter fire Krumann was able to snap and aim his rifle firing with speed and precision to match the skill and movements of his Night Elven companion. The battle was maybe only minutes in since the calls had been made to march yet already the pair had killed over a dozen.
Then to Nelysea's disappointment Nikki beat her into the clash. Despite crossbow bolts and scroch marks covering her fur the Worgen Druid barreled into the Spears of the Skaven shifting forms just after the first spears broke into her flesh, the transformation taking and warping the spears with her pulling them out of the grasp of the Skaven even as a healing magic forced the blades tips out of her body. The Worgen's claw swiped the Skaven furiously, cutting into armor or finding bloody purchase against unarmed flesh. Nikki's assault was only stopped by the shaft of a Tauren's polearm, and in response Nikki leapt to a immense height suppoeted by magic winds and wings before shifting into a bear landing on the Tauren with all the weight and fury of a bear.
Distracted by Nikki's roaring savagry, few of the Skaven, and almost none of the Horde realized the thrat far behind the melee until too late. Nara was, of all things and much to Nelysea's distress, dancing and taking flirtatious poses while amassing arcane energies. Then with a cutsy pose the dozens of bolts of magical might the Pandaren had summoned but not yet unleashed flew, curving around her Alliance Allies and striking down Horde and Skaven all about Nikki, just in time for the Druid to clash paw to fist with a Horde Monk.
But these two pairs were nothing but merciful compared to Nelysea once she finally reached the Horde. The ground about her in the midst of the Horde warriors then burst into blighted corruption the power draining all who stood about her, some Skaven already weakened by days of fighting dropped dead at Nelysea's feet. But the Death Knight's runeblade hungered, and such an paltry offering was far from satisfying the needs of her Eternal Hunger, she needed them to die and suffer far more than she had already inflicted.
Already Nelysea had chosen her victims and now she moved to claim them. First was a Troll Adventurer a shaman or witch doctor of some sort. While the foe tried to use swift lighting to defend himself the Death knight lobbed off his jaw before following with a blade through the heart. In retaliation a Orc Grunt tried to bring a hammer down on Nelysea but she sidestepped the attack grabbing his skull before burying her runeblade into the Orc's neck.
Then acting quickly she sent a burst of unholy energy as Death's coil claimed the last of Nelysea's intended victims a final Orc Grunt who had been preparing what looked like some form of short range gun to shoot her point blank. The moderate moment of novelty with the odd short range gun was then gone as the Skaven either continued to strike her armor uselessly, or gave into their fear fleeing like the cowards they and all living things were.
Nelysea thrust her runeblade into the ground while a cruel smile spread across her lips. Death magic spread from the Death Knight stabbing into the bodies of the Knight's three victims. The Troll corpse began to twist fingers extending, spine twisting and collapsing, flesh sloshing off the bone and needed tendons as the newly created Ghoul began stand claws already swiping at those nearest to it. The Orcs stood to their feet with jerky movements as their flesh began to liquify falling off their bones in chunks their tendons and fascia dissolving and skin becoming as useless as wet tissue. Swiftly two skeleton warriors wearing the armor of their former life were all that stood waiting for their master's command.
"Kill them all!" She ordered with a cruel smile. At last satisfaction.
Trugtold sat with team, they were on edge needing to relax. The Night Elf attacks had been repetitive and were now clearly starting to wear into them, and the absurd demands of that damned Skaven inventor was far from helping anyone. Trugtold kept the madrat's creation to himself, no need for that impossible work of insanity's existence to drain the team's moral any further.
"So, come on what was he making in there? Is it some sort of stupid Goblin gun, or is it like Lili is claiming that they're building some sort of bomb?" Grevo asked.
"Enemies!" The shout was soon echoed by others and followed by the sounds of gunfire.
Immediately Trugtold jumped to his place at the defenses, crossbow testing against the earthen barricade while Grevo was preparing his rifle while standing atop his lizard. Lili meanwhile began chanting using her power to call upon her Imp minion the demon manifesting just beyond the barrier.
Out from the treeline came twelve sentinels, a armored Dreanei with a crystalline crossbow, two Worgen, and a human gunman and a Dwarf Warrior shouting while holding a pair of axes. The Sentinels loosed numbers of arrows with their typical unnerving accuracy each coming too close to their targets for comfort if not striking with perfect accuracy. The rats and scarce few other Horde who could fire back at the sentinels were far less accurate and against the few logs and the Druids spawning spontaneous bushes and saplings the Sentinels were well covered against the return fire.
Trugtold's first shot was deflected by the Dwarf who seemed to be in a bloodlust filled state even rushinf ahead of the Worgen. The Alliance combatants closed with the Horde's defensive line and one of the Skaven's team operated 'ratling' guns was brought up spraying spurts of gunfire which kept the Alliance's soldiers back. However the Dwarf paid the weapon no heed even as green glowing rounds tore through his armor, each strike nearly brining his forward momentum to a stop. Yet the bearded warrior pressed forward even as the Skaven gun unloaded fourty more rounds into him. Then with a scream the Skaven working thr weapon died, a crystal tipped bolt striking their weapon's generator which proceeded to explode the shrapnel catching both rats shredding their flesh into a reddened mush.
Meanwhile Bloodied, but not yet dead the Dwarf continued shouting while pressing forward, one of the Night Elves clearly a healing Druid now channeling power to heal the Dwarf. And with the Druid stepping forward, for the first time this engagement Grevo's rifle barked, the druid's head exploding as a green tinted round peirced their skull. With the Night Elf dead the Dwarf stumbled forward only some of his wounds sealed by their magic and his heavy armor rent open, Trugtold almost felt as though he was putting the Dwarf out of their misery by putting a crossbow bolt through one of the gaps in the Dwarf's armor.
It was then with laughter that Lili called forth her dark powers and a unnatural shadow spread over the Kaldorei, and while the Night Elves became more difficult to see, what Trugtold could see was their bodies begin to wither and weaken, just in time for Suske's lightning to catch them all dropping four Night Elves in a single strike. And as the carnage and horror of battle played out, Skrrit Wormthief huddled near Trugtold, his backpack of equipment loudly clanking with each nervous shift of the rat's weight as he held a pistol looking over the barricade but never gathering the courage to shoot or even draw the sword at his side.
"Do you have something useful you can do?" Trugtold roared at the Skaven making him jump in place.
"Y-Yes I-I have a..." The Rat was cut off as a roar spread across the Horde lines. Starting to their right a thin wave consisting of the Horde's remaining Grunts and warriors and the Skaven's own fighters rushed forward to meet the enemy in melee.
"Ancestors damn their idiocy! Its the Kaldorei, they don't understand Honor!" Trugtold shouted standing up and drawing his own axe.
Trugtold then turned to his team and the Skaven Engineer among them. "If you have anything of use then use it now! Suske Grimtotem follow me, we need to stall! Grevo Shiftcrook, Lili Halgar, if you fail to cover us even if I die, I'm killing you."
"Seriously what is with all the threats?" Grevo groaned followes by a light hearted chuckle.
"Looks like someone is scaaared~" Lili sing-songed in mockery before nodding grimly. Behind the Undead woman the Skaven removed his backpack and seemed to be assembling a odd rail steucture on the side of his backpack while also unpacking a tube he looked set on attaching to the rails.
Trugtold then looked out over the skirmish watching Skaven and Grunts dying at the hands of Alliance Adventurers. "Damn it all. Suske, the Worgens."
And with that Trugtold and Suske crossed the barricade and rushed forward. The first of the Worgen kept disappearing and reappearing knives in its paws. His clearly rogue nature marked him both as a threat that could potentially slip past the defenses and kill someone important, but also as a coward who if Trugtold wasn't swift enough would slip away hiding until his knives could cause the most harm.
The Second, she was a warrior, a massive two handed hammer weilded with ease in one hand, and a massive shield covering the entire left side of the warrior. If not killed she would be the one to force open the gap the Alliance's soldiers would use to get into the inner workshops of the Horde's camp. That Worgen would also have to die, or else this flank would fail.
The Worgen Rogue was nearly caught by surprise by Trugtold and Suske's charge. Only in the last second did the Worgen duck, dodging the axe swing Trugtold unleashed in hopes to decapitate the Worgen. So Trugtold had to stop his axe mid swing before bringing the weapon shaft forward trying to strike the stomach of the Worgen who skipped back away from the improvised thrust.
However this opened the Worgen to Suske as the earth beneath his feet began to tremble sending the Worgen stumbling just before a rock launched by Suske's staff kocked the Wogen onto its back. This allowed Trugtold to make his move, the Orc's axe comong down in a powerful overhead swing. The Worgen attempted to roll away to dodge, but it was too late as the Orc's axe craved deep into and through the Worgen's bicep and then broke through the Worgen's ribcage and into the Gilnean's heart and lungs.
Freed from his first opponent Trugtold was now rounding on the Worgen Warrior who was smashing the skull of a Orc Grunt, her shield deflecting the rounds fired by Grevo's rifle. "Suske, I need you to create an opening so I can carve into her, pull her shield aside."
"DEATH KNIGHT!" The scream rolled out from left flank and Trugtold froze. Did they have anything left which could challenge a Death Knight. The Skaven's horrendous Rat Ogres, the two Ogres from the Dunemauls, and even the shredders, all of them had been gradually picked off over the last couple days. Without those as support the Death Knight might as well have been unstoppable with how much their forces had been whittled down.
Trugtold shook his head. There was no way his team would survive this Death Knight, half of them would certainly die against it. "Suske, we need to keep fighting through, Lili Grevo move up we are leaving! Ignore the left flank! Skrrit use that damn weapon already or ditch it!" Trugtold shouted back to his
"I-I'm ready-set Fire-Shooting!" The Skaven Engineer shouted hefting his backpack with the metal rails pointing to where the Alliance troops were. Then the weapon fired, a trail of green smoke marking the path of the the rocket launched by the Warlock-Engineer. The rocket first traveled straight for the Alliance troops before arching up and then veering far to the left before falling down into the battle on the left flank.
With the rocket's impact on the left flank a small green mushroom cloud formed and Trugtold could feel a soft brushing from the concussive force of the explosion passing over him. From the left flank soon the cries of dying Skaven and screams of wounded Night Elves rose in a crescendo of agony. The whole battle came to an abrupt stop as the shockwave and cries spread and everyone watched as stone and wood now tinged with a fel green glow slowly fell bit by bit from the sky while the green mushroom cloud slowly faded away. For a moment Trugtold hoped that the rocket had struck the Death Knight, but he decided against it. His team needed to press through and escape.
"Keep pressing forward!... Hey... holy shit." Trugtold was taking command but stopped. The main workshop's hanger slowly was sliding open, before the door could even open all the way a mechanical arm lined with buzzsaws swept the door open as the mad Skaven's new machine rolled out and into the battlefield.
"See-Behold the Doom-Shredder!" Ikit Claw shouted in triumph as the weapon rolled out from the workshop, five crew frantically working the machines' controls.
Nelysea pulled herself up off the ground surveying the carnage about her in the aftermath of the explosion. She had been slaughtering the Trolls, Orcs, and Skaven who had been foolish enough to face her and her recently summoned undead minions. But then some sort of green streek came down from the sky, out of instinct rather than conscience thought she grabbed her ghoul and used it as a shield between herself and the attack.
And then the next thing she knew, her armor was damaged and broken at points, her body felt pain for thr first time in years, and the more she looked at herself the more grievous wounds she found, yet all of them were slowly sealing. The Death Knight then spread her awareness from there, littering what was once her field of battle were Skaven, Horde and Alliance bodies almost all of them dead. Those who were not killed were collecting themselves or already fighting once again.
At Nelysea's side, Nikki was present channelling her druidic magic healing the Death Knight's wounds, meanwhile both Nara and Krumann were standing watch over her. As Nelysea moved her armor creaked and she released a involuntary breath. "Nelysea, thank the Gods!" Nikki gasped as the Death Knight came to.
"About time, We still need yah lass. Nythealaes is still over der and I'm almost certain the daft idiot's either missing a foot or got a bum leg. If we can find the bastard again. Also..." Nelysea had no time for the Dwarf and whatever attitude he wanted to have. She had sworn to kill all these damned Rats, and she wouldn't stop until she completed that oath, and now she was well and damned motivated to make sure they all died agonizing deaths.
"How long was I out?" The Death Knight demanded while raising to her feet.
Nikki was swift to answer. "Not yet a minute, but you were almost dead. I've been healing you this entire time, my bear form was able to weather the blast, but every..."
The Druid was cut short as screeching metal rolled over the unusually quiet battlefield, the source of the sound obvious as everyone turned their eyes to the Horde's central workshop. The building's oversized metal doors were fighting against their own size and weight trying to open up and revealing the interior of the workshop which was concealed by a void of darkness until a green glow illuminated the darkness and a arm covered in saws wrapped around one of the doors before pushing it open.
The machine broke free of the workshop with the sound of rending metal and rolled out into the field of battle on four oversized wood and metal wheels. "See-Behold the Doom-Shredder!" Shouted a heavily armored Rat who emerged behind the machine. A rat that Nelysea quickly recognized as their target the Skaven Warlord who was coordinating the rats fighting alongside the Horde.
The rat raised his polearm high into the air aiming at the freakish contraption rolling onto the field. "Now, Doom-Shredder, activate the Dooom-Emitter!" The rat ordered with a loud skreech.
With nervous glances between themselves the crew of theachine began pulling levers and flipping oversized switches. Metal covers concealed the crew while a metal rod raised a large sphere above the machine. As this machine stopped and shifted Night Elf Sentinels and Worgen rushed forward seeking to pass the machien and kill the vile rat behind it. Even Nelysea wanted to join them but Krumann stopped her and Nikki with Nara's help as the Mage looked on at the device with a look akin to dread.
Then the weapon activated, a sphere of sickly green light and bolts of dark green fel energy spread from the sphere atop the mechanical monstrosity. Those caught in the green aura expanding from the sphere swiftly began wither, their life draining from them. The bolts of green energy if they struck a victim their bodies swiftly began to warp, those not fortunate enough to be reduced to quickly dying lumps of flesh were mutated into nearly unrecognizable monstrosities whose pain in their own existence lead them to screeching in agony and attacking wildly striking out each other with jutting bones, newly grown tentacles, or oversized claws.
"By the Gods." Krumann gasped, and even Nelysea had to agree with the horrific display before her. All while the madrat behind the machine laughed manically while his aids and Goblin allies were trying to lead him away from the horrific sight.
Next to the group and catching Nelysea by surprise Nythealaes groaned and spoke up. "Thank Elune my foot was hurt so I decided to limp back here."
Krumann smiled but didn't look back to Nythealaes. "Right, definitely not that yeah wet yer panties seeing tat thing and ran back 'ere."
Nikki spoke up while trembling. "Wh-what do we do?" But as the druid spoke the golden glowing tubes leading to the metallic sphere began to glow red and the machine sputtered and soon began to smoke before the weapon stopped. Beneath it the shredder body began to swivel keeping its saw arm and the cannon on it's other side at the ready.
Krumann sighed but instead Nara was the one to answer. "We have to attack it while the weapon is overheating, those tubes are the weak point."
Krumann nodded. "I'll take them out, but I need you all to distract it."
"J-Just don't let that thing fire again alright?" Nikki stated before shifting into her bear form and rushing towards the massive war machine.
"Awww damn it." Nythealaes then shouted before downing several potions at once and running after her.
However Nelysea knew the weapon was just the start, and made her own plan while running behind the pair. Nikki's claws tore into the wood at the base of the machine as she was the first to reach it. Meanwhile the construct's cannon fired wildly it's poorly aimed shot traveling over Krumann and Nara's heads and striking a tree before detonating and destroying the tree in its entirety.
Next Nythealaes, slowed by his injuries neared the machine which then attempted to whip its massive saw arm down causing the warrior to roll to the side dodging the attack. Nelysea stopped her run the spinning blade of the arm's buzzsaws coming just inches from her chest. The machine then began to sweep its arm across the ground seeking to carve or crush Nythealaes. But the Night Elf downed another health potion and burst into a sprint, not away from the sweep of the arm but to it before leaping and barely scrambling atop the arm and narrowly avoiding the spinning blades.
The Elf Warrior did not run up the arm or any other legendary feat. Rather as the arm flailed and pulled back he held on for his life. As the cannon fired another shot, this ine missing by an wider margin than the first, and the attempt to crush Nikki by rotating the tires failing, the machine stopped. The crew flipped their switches and their protective covers raised cutting them off from the outside world once again.
Nelysea recognized what was about to come and began pumping her legs, running for her terget faster. Nikki began screaming back Krumann and Nara and dread filled the Alliance Adventurer team while the Sentinels closest to the machine broke away no longer firing arrows into the machine's armor wishing to escape the aura of death and mutation that was soon to come.
Acting swiftly Krumann fired a round that ricocheted off the metal monstrosity as he missed his target. A green aura of death enveloped both Nikki amd Nythealaes, both fearing either imminent death, or mutation into a mindless, agony ridden monstrosity.
"By the light do something!" Nikki screamed shifting back into her Worgen self trying to flee in terror.
"I've got it!" Nara shouted in reply just before time seemed to distort for the Pandaren mage, she prepared several barrages of arcane bolts while using magical guidance to focus on each of the tubes filled with liquid Azerite. Then she bagan to channel, five, seven, twenty, forty, forty-one, her head pulsed as she downed the last of her mana potions pushing her mana supply well beyond her limits. With a scream Nara released her spell, the distortion of time no longer in effect as fifty arcane bolts flew into the Horde's monstrous machine many missing her intended targets and simply peppering the machine in her power, while still a good number found their destinations colliding with the Azerite tubes and exploding into brilliant light.
As smoke and small flames came from the Doom-Emitter and the aura of green death slowly receded, Nara collapsed to her knees, blood leaking from the Pandaren's nose and from where she bit her lip preparing the spell. "See... I... Got. It." Nara then collapsed to the ground her energy spent.
Inside the Horde's warmachine small warning bells began to sound and the crew covers pulled back allowing the pilots to better see the battlefield. Spotting Nikki running away one of the pilots acted before the others pulling back the machine's arm fully intent and focused on killing the fleeing the fleeing Alliance Adventurer even as the gun of the machine charged to fire at other still fleeing Sentinels who had chosen to break off deciding that their assault had been broken.
None of the crew were able to imagine that a Night Elf Warrior had both climbed atop their weapon's arm, and endured the Doom-Emitter to survive up until this moment. It was far too late for them all, when the loud impact of the fully armed warrior landing among the improvised cockpits alerted them of their oversight. Nythealaes refused to allow the Goblins and Skaven manning the weapon even the slightest chance to counter him, in the instant his feet hit the metal of the war machine's roof he already had decapitated his first victim, a half second later his first sword has started to slit the throat of a skaven while the second pierced a Goblin's heart. The last two victims scrambled to pull forth weapons to use but Nythealaes cut one of their faces open, and his final blow sent the second through it's command console.
While Nythealaes confirmed his kills liquid Azerite leaked over the striken war machine, and fires began to spread over it. The machine's own life would likely be counted in tens of seconds, so making a calculated and logical move, Nythealaes decided that rejoining Nikki in her flight from the weapon was perhaps the wisest course of action.
Nythealaes ran at a full sprint trying to catch up with Nikki as slowly portions of the machine began to explode. But soon Nythealaea was standing with Nikki and Krumann over the unconscious Nara. "Nara! What happened?" Nikki asked with a panicked tone.
Krumann stopped the Druid with a serious look and tone. "Lass needs rest, she overloaded herself saving you, best we can do is pull back while you keep her alive. She not in... well I don't think she'll die any time soon if we can get outa here soon. Milksop good job!"
Nythealaes nodded. "If i might inquire, are we withdrawing to our camp, or back to the Alliance battlelines? Also, it just occured to me. Where is Nelysea?"
He almost escaped her, but she was hot on his trail. The rat stood no chance of escaping her, he was too loud, and the Goblin with him was unintentionally leaving a trail. As so Nelysea gained on him, eventually catching the Rat who had stopped in a clearing. The Death Knight, runeblade drawn marched into clearing, her malice filled eyes locked on the armored Skaven. The Skaven stood with a halberd in hand while his other hand opened and closed showing the bladed claws in the Skaven's hands.
However he would stand no chance against her blade. She was all that would be needed to kill this rat, and nothing would slow her down or stop her.
"Oh Spirits damn it." A voice cried out in Orcish to Nelysea's right. Causing both her and her target to turn and find a Orc covered in blood and wounds along with a Undead Warlock, a Goblin gunman, and a tauren and another of the Skaven. All of their group looked tired and wounded, but now Nelysea was entirely outnumbered and if these Horde were competent slaying this Horde leader might be far more difficult than she expected.
The Orc at the other group's head then spoke again. "Come on, You don't want this Death Knight. We all fight you die." The Orc tried to reason.
"I'm familiar with death. And I'll burn this whole forest down if I have to in order to fulfill my oath." Nelysea responded. Yet no one yet moved, the standoff would be determined by whomever made the wrong move first. Meanwhile flames began to spread across the forest, a forest fire started in the battle was working itself into a raging inferno while all the combatants stared at one another.
Reviews:
Guest 1: Please, the moment Sylvanas lost the duel, you know Skaven are opening fire.
Guest 2: Well Titans are enslavers not creators, it seems very well that the Titan Forged are even themselves just made in the images of things that already existed then were exterminated by the Titans. The Old Ones of Fantasy while having some creative abilities and constructed the Geomantic web and debatably grew the Oak of Ages but they failed as sad as it is. The 40K Old Ones were pure morons yet still by some miracle still more self aware than the Emperor. Precursors, well just fuck Halo lore concerning them, Master Chief DIED along with the entire fucking universe in Halo 1 thanks to precursor lore and the sheer amounts of unbridled bullshit. But if you seperate their bullshit from the Flood, as a creator they're overall a fairly good concept then immediately ruined by Bungie's authors.
Best 'creators' Old Ones of Warhammer Fantasy or WoW's First Ones, the Fantasy First Ones established the Geomantic web and casually used all eight winds combined as one without ever creating Dhar, and established basically everything that's helped the Warhammer world hold on for as long as it has. Where the First Ones, well they more or less established the Entire WoW universe and sadly made Azeroth the center of all existence and apparently planted that innate knowledge into everyone's minds.
Dragon King of the West: "But but there's flaws and the magical equivalent of depleted Uranium rounds with magical mutation properties isn't nearly as good as basic bullets." An alliance member coping after the Paladin's head popped off before he could bubble, just imagine the absolute terror in sooo many respects knowing that the Goblins wouldn't need to improve skaven tech, but grant it stability and provide some alternatives to the Stormfiends although you know even stormfiends would be better and get far far more terrifying... wouldn't it be terrible if Ikit and Throt met for the first time before the end times, maybe even with a Goblin who will help them improve/speed up their weapons development project.
Ravenguard0009: Yeah the Adventurers have more or less transitioned to overglorified mercs, since Blizzard more or less dumped a good portion of what makes a RPG adventurer an adventurer and instead focused on "save this entire race from extinction by murdering a neat genocidal amout of another race". A lot of the "I lost the keys to my basic cabin. I'll give you a place to rest your head on your adventures if you help me find them." Is missing, and running decades of weekly RP games those moments typically have more moments where a player commects to their character than "save the world by kicking ass, and now it's over go away".
But the insults have a little bit of a double meaning, a knife is just that you can cut meat, vegetables etc, a dagger is just what you thrust in someone's back.
Franz also is more or less what the Alliance lacks overall. A leader who is committed to the cause but puts his narion first...rather than just expecting the citizens to suffer the consequences without question, and so he's mastered the political game. Anduin is a good leader and a great High King, but as a politician he's actually very weak, i mean just consider his Blizzard made in game court, a spy master, a Simp, some nobles whose entire legislative body is as useless as the Imperial Senate in Star Wars. Basically all "the greater good" (Hot Fuzz's Town Watch not Tau) types who even in their quests don't have anything to do with the general good of Stormwind, let alone of any of the individual other kingdoms. WoW basically plays their story like their in the "Golden age" of the Federation but with none of the socialist super tech and absurd military superiority that borders on the absurd or even Mary Sue... and that just means a lot more people have to die to keep up the delusion.
Part of why i both denounce Blizzard's old Gameplay is lore statement (a statement that if it was ever actually used by Blizzard then everyone would know where thr Dragon Isles were and already explored it all during Warcraft 3 since we fought and battled there) and also question the efficacy of the Azerothean guns, and their industrial capabilities. Because if a workshop can scratch build a tank in just a couple hours then a purpose built "average" sized factory should be able to pump out a dozen in the same timeframe. Because if the guns aren't as strong which could be anything from inferior metals, weaker powder (looking at you T-34 good gun shit ammo), or just overall stupid designs that would never work beyond flintlock Pistol ranges, ie 30 yards, (looking at you 60% of the guns in the game) all compounded by regeneration, some better armors, and magic enough you could consider most Azerothean warriors to have their own version of the Blessing of the Lady like in tabletop or TWW3 but the BotL like "magic" can't counter the sheer numbers of weapons that a single factory owning nation on Azeroth should be able to produce in a single weekend so besides likely inferior-to-salespitched-stats weaponry theres also likely some inconsistency in the Azerothean factories they probably can produce everything at the absurd rate the most rabid redit WoW fanboi will insist you accept or else he'll hire a coin assassin to kill you, but if the factories and workshops can't secure the materials and likely highly specialized parts and rare materials, then all production comes to a sudden halt like a CC build que when the player runs out of credits like the noob they are.
Fewer Reiksguard than that even sadly, but not much, and most of them only speak Reikspeil. While i don't think as much of it as most people I do still think your average Azerothean is smarter than a Imperial Citizen, and the Reiksguard haven't had the social mobility nor time to learn common yet. Günther also came from Altdorf so yeah he had access to better gear than say a Stirland or northern Captain.
Sadly Azhag is long dead, and if i remember the Crown's history it should either be in the hands of a Vampire right now, or with Arkhan the Black. Because to answer your other question everyone's favorite mad count is alive so pre-Blackfire pass, but Azhag's reign of terror was before Karl Franz's time only Wurzzag, Skarsnik, and Grimgore are alive at this time. While I'm tempted to use the Warhammer Online timeline I'm not, and instead going off two assumptions 1) the events of the portals would throw off all future events significantly and 2) the End Times were worse writing than the lowest points of Warcraft's last three expansions and have entire books barely worth using as emergency toilet paper, with only the 40K Gathering Storm books being worse because they compressed an entire End Times series worth of asspulls, contrivances and absolute disrespect for the setting into three books over half of which was dedicated to art and rules no one used.
Hakuryuu: "Respected", yes deeply respected...as a lunatic to match the King of the worst Allied race in the game.
yes it ONLY took months for the Lizardmen to decide to respond to Albion being invaded by one of the worst possible Daemons to invade...Albion which has routinely been implied to have been central to the Old Ones themselves in one way or another, and could have raised a new Chaos God. Months to respond to a place that's debatably both atop the laylines associated with Athol Loren and a central node of the Geomantic Web.
Yeah idk why the Azerotheans dont all just have magic farts with how absurdly low the bar is set for the great powers to uplift people to demigod status. "I was generally nice and fought like six basic mooks, so now i can throw planets and solo the Legion" "my Dad's name starts with the letter M, so i can break the 4th wall and kill all of Blizzard thus ending our worlds suffering for all eternity, but i wont because I'm a jerk." but it's blatantly obvious there are lots of people who aren't magic and more standard, if not outright weak compared to IRL people.
Thanquol is always destined to being ruin and destruction with victory.
pt2... thats why i lean into supply chain issues, you only whip put the museum pieces when you don't have enough guns and tanks, and you only PLAN on that when you never had enough to start with (IE Britain's entire defense plan for stopping a Nazi invasion if they should cross the Atlantic), or as with the more historical guns and cannons are for those who can afford it.
micelzod: Honestly the machine there and stuff the Alliance has seen not much problem there. It would worry imperial troops, but even they have seen and faced Arachnarock spiders and Giants. No giant robots, ao edge Alliance in that one...though the Sentinels, meh some of them have but the bulk haven't done much of anything other than fail to display the power they had in WC3.
Well i mean Egotistical asshole, plus two highly unstable and reactive mateirals... nah what's there to have a headache about.
BloodRedRoses11: Yeah the number of "magical nukes" ie Skarbrand summonings, Doomspheres, spells hitting regions the size real world France... There be a long list of reasons why I hate the End Times.
But Shaw vs the Brilliance of Thanquol is a match for the ages, there are no two other beings who are a smarter together than these two.
muhahahaha i made them worm their way into your mind. as for the fire, it is in the power of Basic Campfire melter of the Frozen Throne the burning power to surpass the legion.
JiggyliFAP: Well of course your lower Skaven would be easy to have change faiths...their about as loyal, intelligent and 'pure' as your typical Azerothean diety. "Muahaha behold my evil, 10,000 year plot to corrupt your GOD!" "But didn't we do an absolute purification ritual last week that broke all ties to all known evil forces ever, very specifically even calling you out by name?" "Twenty Thousand years of infecting her soooouuuuullll!" "This ritual which had her soul entirely reborn and caused millions of evil gods to spontaneously die." "Thirty...sigh...look dude I'm trying to spare her dignity, it took me like six hours to plan and implement this plan, your goddess is a evil cocksucker now who wants to turn you all into her slaves because i dangled a scratch and sniff in front of her, maybe if you tought her some basic stranger danger, or stopped her from inviting me to your go-kart and golf tournaments each weekend this wouldn't be so freaking easy."
But clan Pestilence is Nurgle adjacent and idk what BS AoS is trying to sprew now, but the clan (outside a few at the very top) all at least think they're worshipping the Horned Rat and the Horned Rat is also very specifically getting their souls. But again the Horned Rat has a few features that he shares with Be'lakor such as how he's siphoning off power from all four of the chaos gods, though unlike Be'lakor it's not via a direct means.
As for th next bit, Oh yeah no I did it purely from my memory of the items otherwise i might have gone a little more specific, tries to show like a "outdated version" vs the item in use now.
Meh weak sause, Tauren need to get on a Necromancer's level for out of body experiences. ;)
Such is the way of the Horde and Blizzard "goodness" "we're ok with genocide, but not genocides of the people we're actually fighting and dying against who hate everything our civilization is about and who once had a admiral try to exterminate us all, time to rebel!"
Oh i know they HAVE it, but do they ever USE it? And not this "well America has nukes why don't they use those?" stupidity but in a "We have cannons with plenty of ammo and powder, why are we sending our infantry to die instead?" Even back at the Lich King, the Orcs charged on wolves...then dismounted from atop wolves with fangs and claws, sure you could say that they were lead by a Saurfang so of course they had to do the most suically stupid thing possible but it just seems to be a bit of a ongoing trend in WoW to have very few people actually remain mounted and fight from atop their mounts, with the exception of flying mounts. Same with their "moshpit" stupidity in both cutscene and gameplay massive battles breaking down into 100 seperate 1v1 fights like its a shonen anime... and now for the mere implication that there's something other than 1v1 duels all the Shonen fans are throwing all their spirit guns, hail shenrons, and holy talk no jutsu handsigns my way.
Jumping to the assumption of Dead Adventurers. And thinking Ikit would claim credit rather than tantrums and assume sabotage.
Now I'm going to cut a lot of the talk about the reach of the winds through people and items a little on the short side before touching lightly on the rest of the fun speculations and adding some additional threads for thought for everyone. While the magic of the winds certainly is carried in everything on Mallus, they don't naturally draw the winds to them just by existing, the winds are drawn to and cause/amplify extremes, but just because someone is alive doesn't necessarily bring a never ending flow of Ghyran to them, though certainly the moment all Ghyran or any subsituting magic is flushed entirely from their body they're going to drop dead instantly.
But to draw the winds you need a locus of that wind. For example the corpse carts of Necromancers are made specifically to try and draw Shyish to them and to store it until they can convert it into Dhar. Thats also why they load up all those different items on their carts, and sadly all that effort still pales when put next to the "soul" of a Vampire. Since Vampires are soulless existences that instead replace their soul with a magical locus for Shyish drawing the purple wind to them like a magnet. More and more Mallus beings crossing over to Azeroth, or even Azerotheans who've spent time immersed in the Winds of Mallus certainly would accumulate a buildup of the magic from.the winds on Azeroth. But the "ill defined" ("because this author is a fucking hack", fuck you me i have a solid idea of what the barrier can and can not stop, "really then why..." bla bla bla your lying) barrier that stopped the Daemonkin Valkia clearly is meant to scale, aka the bigger and more purely magical the more resistance, and it thus far seems to have exceptions allowing certain Dragons to pass through. And for the second Book clearly between the priests and the Wizards of the Empire there are plenty of Loci (both as objects, rituals, and even as individuals) that were brought through but the Skaven...well their Skaven, their race ironically isn't well versed in that part of magic and instead just snort magic drugs instead.
The thing is, any attempt to spawn a World Tree would likely earn a incredibly swift and hostile response from Athel Loren, because well one the Emerald Dream isn't of Mallus and such a perverse thing manifesting is going to be even more awful and two Such a tree wouldn't be connected to Worldroots and instead would be acting as a sucker draining and weakening the Oak of Ages.
Thing about Hysh and sacred bathwater, it still needs to be directed and shaped, thats why it takes such ritual and focus from its practicioners and why Teclis is both wrong and or possibly right about priests. So the Night Elves probably wont be getting much help there, and well as we've learned in recent years Elune is apparently the Goddess of having no forethought and zero situational awareness...so expect her to not even realize the portals are a thing, or just pushing edgy edge "not"-queen into declaring war on Mallus for the crime of existing without realizing that without Mallus we don't have Sigmar having gay smex with a Dragon thus birthing all universes per 0.5 AoS lore (if fuckers can read between the in-between the lines and pull from bullshit sources such as a gay bar's existance in Britain to make certain characters gay, I can read the porno levels of "subtle" subtext between Sigmar and that Dragon while I'm glad that got retconned out GW still did it)
But now the real interesting bit is if the winds start flowing into Azeroth, which races or organizations would start creating or using Dhar, and which would have the best potential of using Qhaysh (high magic/all eight winds in one), or a lesser variation like with the Dragon Blooded of Cathay and their Feng Shi. Which for anyone reading this who doesn't quite get the importance of whats being asked, High Magic isn't "i can pick what spell i want" but is instead "i can cast the spell using all eight winds of magic (or four of them for Feng Shi) at once thus making the spell all the more powerful and all the more difficult both to counter and to use. Dhar also can use whichever wind you want or all eight, but Dhar is unstable since you're basically dealing with magic gamma radiation, examples include Warpstone being solidified Dhar, Daemons being theorized to be sentientasses of Dhar magic, and Dhar can literally overcharge and cause your spells or just you to explode as with what happened to Kemmler.
for the Gods bit and why everyone focuses on the light more...can you name the Gods Humanity worshipped before the Light, or even worship other than the Light without wiki? The Light demanded absolute obedience, and it got it, on Alt Dreanor it didn't get it and went full JihadConquistador on the Orcs. It doesn't tolerate the existence of ANY other Gods, particularly in its realm (again why I'm more intrigued with Elune since the Light hasn't tried offing her yet, but for another easy example, if they weren't necessary to defeat a mutual enemy, do you think a single light worshipper would have ever dared help the Titans?) On Mallus, they don't require world level threats to be willing to help other followers of other gods or even other Gods, and I'm talking Top of the totem pole to top of the totem pole. Volkmar has helped other Gods and other cults knowing the payoff won't be in his lifetime, no world ending crisis happening immediately...which is fairly ironic considering that that's the opposite of what SHOULD have been the cause of all nations failing in the end times (instead of deus ex bullshit "buy AoS because Warhammer Fantasy sucks just look at these books we wrote to prove the point, fuck you fans who think otherwise and just wish we could have released a full new model range faster than it takes you to raise a infant and send them to college")
But i definitely want to do some deep diving into the Cult of Taal and see if i can get a good idea as to the full scope of his miracles, because knowing the true badest Bitch Myrmidia and her miracles while i doubt Taal would be a combat powerhouse I'd love to see what he can do.
("come undead3, I am a moose and you may ride me into battle, but only if you swear yourself to Taal and give up simping for glowing pecks and loin cloths or armored women who step on you." A-A moose, is it truly true, a blessed Battle Moose of Taal, they said it was a dream that Taal wouldn't have such a glorious being under his command, yet so tall, so brown, so moosey... BUT NO, I've sworn to Simp, those nude abs, that breast armor and powerful metal boots stepping on my head, the golden glow! "But undead3, what about us?" The mythical War Geese!? Would you truly let me summon you, the hosers said it was all a lie, yet all your honking glory its beyond what I ever imagined. "Don't forget I Undead3!" Wildwing Flashblade! Leader of the Mighty Ducks from the 90s animated series? "Yes renounce your faith in Sigmar and Myrmidia and I shall become your companion!" No this can not be, this can not be of Taal, begone daemon, i shall never renouce those well oiled abs and my armor mommy!)
Sadly GW flip flops hard of Ulric (when they bother to remember the Empire has more than one God and that Sigmar isn't some lame God-Emperor) But it's best to bet that the Empire holds rhe Children of Ulric under suspicion but its a more or less open secret that the Cult of Ulric harbors some of their own while also being in charge of discerning between them, werewolves and Skinwolves.
deadliestfan: I hate that they're the "central figures of history" in WoW, but that they're the elite soldiers/Mercenaries they definitely should always be in demand and have times to shine. But looking at my frustrations at Genn, well again effectively nothing happens in WoW without a PC doing it, or triggering the cutscene/page of text/loading screen where its then stated it happens, with the exception of books, and since Blizzard has made it that people can't buy groceries without an adventurer, Genn hasn't done anything for his people in all that time. by that train of logic, om certain that stepping away from an Adventurer centric take of the world there HAS to be something Genn has done for his people, maybe stole...i mean gave a lollipop to a baby once.
but at the same time thats why I'm really enjoying the story for all its faults in Dragon Flight, things happen without the adventurers, but it also balances with Adventurers being central figures they're still the main combatants and explorers. but people can buy their own toilet paper without an murderhobo holding their hand...unless that murderhobo's name is Fyrakk he still wants to hold your hand...and burn it.
Yeah i can see now issues with mixing pure Dhar eith Azerite. Pure mixture of 1 to 8 of the winds of magic in a twisted corrupted state that is very debatably the natural state of all (warhammer) magic, and a Arcane material which responds to and amplifies a long list of very similar things that the various winds of magic also respond to... seriously Grizzek, Sylvanas and Anduin when they reported their feelings while holding Azerite, one that was obviously their Blizzard assigned stand out traits amplified, and two highly matches the influence the winds of magic hold over individuals. Not to mention Azerites influence on basic materials... I can not wait to explore the metaphysical implications of combining Azerite with anything other than Qhaysh, because while not polar opposites, the Winds of Magic certainly seem the least compatable with Arcane out of all six of the cosmic forces. Combining the mateiral that's responsible for about 30 to 50 percent of the reason Skaven tech is unreliable with Goblin tech and amplified by Azerite multiplied by Ikit...we all knew where this was going.
Certainly actually showing confidence and strength to a Skaven, particularly one of power, actually goes further than it would with real society.
Sadly Nelysea is a deathknight, and literally all I did was apply the basic waaaay too often ignored lore to a fairly average Night Elf concept. Seriously it's like someone saw what was done for one guy, and applied it to them all. "i wanna be batman" "ok kid so i shot your parents, now become a millionaire playboy and your good to go."
Yeah there was no way that sentiment wasn't coming up with Krumann and the personality and vague backstory idea i had for him.
As for the Insights, yes, although the example you used is like the first half of the whole spiel that Teclis had when he tried to denounce the human Gods and claim their priests were just spellcasters. To try and prove his point he demanded they call upon their God's miracles and he'd dispell them. He failed, he claimed that it was because the spells were to small and subtle that they escaped hos focus, the priests mocked him demanding he admit the power of the Gods was too much even for him to dispell. All of this is a drastically over simplified version of the events, and even GW has somewhat flipped-floppes on this event as they try to force the world to conform to the "current" tabeltop rules where "yes you can dispell miricles" "no you can't." "well now you can." "oh wait miricles are far too weak, no you can't."
But for the Light and their primacy and "everything is a Naaru" yeah, which is also part of why I'm enjoying the Incarnate plotline so far...I have mu fingers crossed that Blizzard doesn't pull their typical BS and have Vyranoth just throw away all of her old principles to "be on team good guy"... would MUCH rather have her have conflicting principles but still be a good guy. And while Iridikron's whole scheme, thanks to a certain quest in Lich King has some ending of ME3 vibes (Catalyst: "Its impossible for biological life and synthetic life to work together so thats why for Organic life's sake we routinely slaughter them." My first blind playthrough of the game where I united the geth and Quarions *insert Khaby Lame lifehacks expression/pose here* "BTW Catalyst, you were the one standing in the way of them getting along, so your whole experiment and assumption is just bad science.") the Leader of the Incarnates, their mission, they for fucking once, are a "main" villain who aren't trying to conquer, destroy, etc Azeroth and actually are operating off some "limited" yet still fairly intriguing and dangerous mission goals. which also lets face it, the vast majorty of villains who haven't been "were going to slaughter the world" or "were building up to slaughter the world" their whole society typically gets ended, not "oh we killed the king", full societal collapse, by one to five adventurers for some pocket lint and a copper.
Considering how little attention Genn seems to pay to his daughter... suggesting he views Anduin like his son is certainly a massive downgrade. She's supposed to be among the best Rogues in the world (Blizzard "Trust us guys she's like super competent and stuff, no we wont ever show that but it's like super true even her dad doesn't know.") and Genn still hasn't figured out that placing her under a spy master, she might be tought, wait for it, spy skills.
And yes that's exactly how Thanquol summoned Skarbrand the first time. And Skarbrand found the whole thing fucking hilarious so magicy, daemon bullshit, Thanquol holds the rights to auto summon Skarbrand at "any time" (almost certainly there's a element of a ritual needed) but anyone who knows Skarbrand, we know that's likely only ever going to be a one time thing.
As for the formations bit, I'd advise checking out Historia Militum's Myth-Busting Roman Battles - Here's what they really looked like and more importantly the part 2 Inside the Battle-Here's what it really looked like ; particularly for sword users or anyone without what DnD would call a reach weapon this is most likely how the front lines of any historical battle played out if the primary weapons of a or both armies were a hand weapon like a sword or axe. And you'll notice they talk about throwing things, and just how mobile the fighting should really be. Applying the principles from this video on a more skirmish focused and spread scale should be the more "realism applied to support lore" version of how most melee combatants should engage in WoW even outside the Empire's influence which these videos also should be how an Empire swordsman unit should fight. of course any pike, halberd or spear formation would be more akin to a "phalanx/spear wall" because "le gasp" they're using weapons that work best in massed bunched (suck on that chinese mythology no "guy with pointy stick kills hundreds by self"...wait no Guan Yu don't leave me!)
As for Rogers and the Class halls almost spot on, but again, its the early war and besides keeping most of them out of the war, i doubt either side is yet willing to press to have them take one aide or another and instead respects their neutrality...well except a certain Paladin, how dare followers of the light not simp for the correct side. But as you wrote those influences are going to quickly get harder and harder to ignore, especially with what's cooking on the side dishes of this story.