Landing Day
The sun beat down on the deck of Wind's Redemption as the ship broke through the waves, the moment of no return was just moments away. So even if there was not the heat beating down on them everyone on the deck had a tense sweat. At the center of everyone's attention was Anduin, with but a few words, here and now he would be shaping the entire future of Azeroth.
And to aid him in these decisions the High King now had King Genn Greymane, Grand Admiral Jes-Tereth, General Hammond Clay at his side, but they weren't the only ones, Gelbin Mekkatorque alongside the Field Marshal Cogspark, and Knight-Captain Emmery, Calia Menethil, and leading the Paladin volunteers from the Knights of thr Silver Hand Justicar Julia Celeste also stood by though as she and her forces were there unofficially as they had all volunteered as individuals so as to still allow the Knights of the Silver hand as a whole to remain neutral longer, though that would likely soon change.
There then was Master Shapeshifter Lyara, and Angus Stonehammer Commander of the Ironforge Guard, and on the outskirt of the gathering looking lost and confused was Captain Günther who watched on with interest but a weak grasp on the ongoing situation. Only Volkmar stayed out of the gathering, he was traveling with the Alliance army only to observe King Anduin and judge the Alliance's military for the sake of Sigmar's Empire. His direct involvement with this moment would only serve to further muddle the situation taking place in Anduin's current military council, and that would in turn impact the young King's decisions.
"And do we have any way to verify this information?" Anduin asked while looking over the map and the markers General Hammond lay out on it.
"The missive states that Shaw holds this agent's information as fact, so I see no reason to doubt it's validity. There is a Horde Fleet hidden beneath the waves which could strike us from behind at any time if we continue north." The General of Stormwind's army stated with his own level of certainty.
"Sky-Admiral Rogers won't be able to assist the fleet if this is true, your majesty. It's risky but I suggest we detach our escort and..." Jes-tereth began but Anduin's raised hand cut her off.
"We can't besides the risk of our ships running into a patrol fleet, if any of the enemy slip past then we would be defenseless with everyone still embarked on the ships. We need a more impactful action if we are to deal with this." Anduin explained, the pressure of knowing how many hundreds of lives and their fates were his to decide at the moment.
"If I might make a suggestion." The high pitched voice of Gelbin Mekkatorque then broke in. "While it might be insignificant compared the naval might of the rest of the Alliance the Gnomeregan Navy might be able to do what what you need. Our Submarines should be able to strike them without getting detected until it's too late."
Anduin and the others turned to the Gnomish leader. "But Gelbin didn't you load valuable war materials into your submarines to try and keep them safe?"
"At this point in the war it is certainly a risky move, yes. But I think the success of your fleet and the lives of your men are worth the potential loss of a few war-machines. Of course I will also need to apologize but it is likely our weapons might be a little late in joining you on the battlefield." The Gnome leader reasoned.
Anduin looked again to his map for a hard long minute before coming to his decision. "How long would your submarines need to prepare?"
"We can move the excess men and materials to new ships within two hours. After that, well, so long as the bolts are secure and the screws tightened properly we can be on our way to attack well before they realize your target your majesty." On the outskirts of the exchange Günther watched on with confusion especially as Anduin looked slightly sad towards the Gnome.
"Geblin Mekkatorque will lead the submarines to launch a preemptive attack on the Horde's hidden fleet. In two hours I expect every ship to make full speed for Northtide's Beachhead until I give the order to change course. Now everyone move and we will win this week!" Anduin then loudly proclaimed. Swiftly every leader and deckhand who was nearby moved into motion and Volkmar hearing the commands pulled out his own provided copies of the map of the continent of Lordaeron inspecting them.
"Hmmm, quite the interesting move, an double feint. Lets see how these actions end, and how Anduin ends them." The Grand Theoginist muttered aloud while his escorts watched the ongoing events carefully while practicing occasional phrases in common.
"Excuse me, is this spot taken?" A deep breathy, dark voice with a aura of nievety asked, causing Volkmar to look up from the map. The man standing across from where Volkmar sat was wearing, what Volkmar had been unhelpfully told before, Judgement Armor and was a large fat man easily noted even through the armor. He had no helmet and the man's almost cone shaped bald head was sunburnt into a pinkish color in response to the man's exposed head clearly haveing been out in the sun far too often. His half lidded eyes glowed with a dim internal light which obscured his puples.
One of the Rieksguard stepped forward to check the stranger, attempting to practice his common as he did. "Are you spot?" The man asked clearly forgetting to include a necessary word for what he was trying to convey.
"No, I'm Patrick." The paladin stated with an annoyance in his voice.
Volkmar decided to intervene with a sigh. "Lass ihn vorbei, ich bezweifle, dass dieser Paladin böse Absichten hat. (Let him past, I doubt this Paladin has any ill intent.)" The Grand Theogonist stated in Riekspiel.
The guards then stepped away allowing the larger paladin to walk past where he sat on the deck next to Volkmar silently resting against the mast of the ship before slipping into unconsciousness and snoring while next to the older man who had been trying to read his map before the pin headed paladin had arrived.
"Of all the places on this ship, you chose here to take a nap?" Volkmar asked in a firm and slightly annoyed tone putting down his map.
"huh?" The Paladin started back awake having had already fallen asleep. "You asked something?"
"Why sleep here, why not anywhere else on the ship?" Volkmar rephrased his question to the pinheaded man.
"Oh, well I'm sleepy and it looked comfy here, also the boat rocking feels nice. Especially playing my belly for the instrument backdrop last night's choir, it all has me tuckered out." The Paladin stated with excited eager pitch.
"Your belly?" Volkmar responded with a air of disbelief.
"I play a reeeaaly mean belly. But also none of the other paladins seem to care to be around you people, so it seemed like a good place to catch a nap without them bothering me, or at least I then get to say hi." The sleepy looking paladin stated before yawning.
"Right." Volkmar responded, very well convinced that the truth was the man was likely to gopher for the other paladins and was just looking for an excuse to avoid having to do petty tasks.
"I mean its just so annoying. 'Patrick, Patrick the pure what was it like to hold the Ashbringer that one time?' 'Patrick, will you help us cleanse Silverpine Patrick?' 'Patrick, how many undead do you plan to kill?'" The Paladin ranted catching Volkmar by surprise.
"So your someone important among those of your vocation?" Volkmar asked.
"Vacation? Can we go on vaction instead? I mean everyone acts like I did something special or something and keep trying to ask me ummm, theme-a-poli-gomi-cal questions and other big words. I don't know why the Light chose me, my Mommy alway told me that bullies are bad, and to fight em, and that hurting people is bad but helping them when their hurt is good, and so is asking for help when you need it. Apparently when i asked for help the light answered, and so I could help more people, and so the Light liked that and kept helping me. Although now I've been bumping into bad guys who also have the light, so I don't know if the Light will be happy to help me as much because i keep beating them up. I also called a glowy rock person a dumb jerk because it said mean things about some people I was helping... I think, it used a lot of reeeeaally big words but it sounded like it was being a jerk. But because of that and some sword everyone else wont leave me alone and keep asking me questions." The Paladin answered with a tangent that caught Volkmar by suprise.
Volkmar had dealt with the simple minded before, but scarcely had he ever encountered one in the armor of a warrior priest, and never one as apparently famed as this Patrick the Pure was claiming to be. It was almost enough to be a bad joke, and certainly enough that Volkmar struggled not to laugh at the audacity.
"So you are a man of actions and not one for philosophy?" The Grand Theogonist asked with a slight smile.
"Well I dunno about philo-pi but if he's willing to help people and beat up badguys then I can like him." The simplistic man answered earning another slight grin from Volkmar. If anything this was at least entertaining.
In the center of Undercity, sat upon her throne Sylvanas watched as various aids and analysts swarmed over the map, some going so far as to adjust markers that were indicating individual vessels known the the Alliance fleet and what Horde intelligence thought their current formation was. And while the analysts worked messengers rushed in and out of the throneroom each bringing new swift updates, most of which were announcements of no change, while those featuring the Alliance fleet itself were numerous and reporting on even the slightest observation.
So it was with the unending routine, as each of the Alliance support fleets and garrisons moved roughly as she had anticipated that Sylvanas watched lazily as yet another runner burst into the throneroom immediately dropping to his knee before shouting a report that echoed throughout the room. "The Stormwind Third Fleet has resumed moving! Current course has them set for North Tide's landing."
All the analysts froze in place and even Sylvanas stopped as hear dead heart nearly beat in surprise. Swiftly the Forsaken Queen was on her feet her presence even from across the chamber looming over the messenger. "What?" Her question was soft enough that if anyone so much as breathed they might have missed it, yet the menace in that one word could have frozen a fire elemental.
"The Alliance Fleet is making north for North Tide's landing my queen, they should have already passed the entrance to the Gilnean harbors by this point." The Messenger answered, his words resolute though he himself trembled.
Before Sylvanas could demand more another runner burst into the chamber shouting his news without kneeling or waiting for permission. "Gallywix's ambush fleet has come under attack, the enemy struck them by suprise under the water!"
With this Sylvanas froze, her mind processing all the implications of what she has just been told. Gallywix had taken the utmost secrecy with the fleet they had amassed, yet the Alliance not only found out but were able to amush her own ambush fleet? What the hell was Anduin thinking the Silverpine forest would be next to useless for him, the Greymane wall would keep him out of Gilneas, and he couldn't hope to take Lordaeron from such a position... could he?
Another two messengers burst into the chamber.
"Speak!" The Banshee Queen ordered swiftly.
"My Queen! Blistrox complains of sabotage of his war equipment he claims his armies will not be able to move." The first reported, causing Sylvanas to growl at the blatant cowardess of the Skaven.
Then the second messenger spoke. "My Queen, the Crimson Post asks that their garrison be reinforced. They claim that unknown forces are approaching their position."
"Inform them that no reinforcement will be sent. Our forces are needed here to deal with the Alliance, however tell them that with our first opportunity I will be sending relief forces. We have not forgotten or abandoned them, but for now we will wait until we can confirm the Alliance's landing then..." Sylvanas began with a speech but another runner came into the chamber.
"The Alliance is attacking! Stromgarde's troops attack and are pushing for Gilneas!" However before Sylvanas could even dismiss this messenger another came rushing in.
"Alliance forces are attacking they push through the Western Plaguelands from Aerie Peak, their gryphon riders are sweeping aside anyone seeking to slow them down!" This fourth new messenger announced.
"Is this Anduin's plan, to try and overwhelm me with multiple attacks aimed to surround Lordaeron on all sides?" Sylvanas thought aloud to herself, before laughing off the notion. Even in the time of, and before, the Old Alliance of the kingdoms of man, to try and take Lordaeron from all sides without Gilneas' support was a fools errand. But that was the truth of it, Anduin was a young arrogant fool with a weak stomach and meek disposition. A fool so arrogant he would try to preach down to a war drunk Orc.
Swiftly the Warchief of the Horde moved to the table where each map displayed the arraying of forces between the Alliance and Horde. Anduin was now positioned to pincer attack Tristfal and complete the encirclement of Lordaeron City. But speed was the crux of such a plan was speed, if she could stop both Anduin's forces and stop the Wildhammers then the Alliance would be rendered impotent. They wouldn't be able to trap the Forsaken and decalitate the Horde's leadership so long as she could hold a opening.
Weak, timid Anduin using a easily countered tactic. "Send a message to Thanquol, his forces will secure the land passages into Tirisfal. We need Blistrox to bog down the Wildhammers, and have our Gilnean occupation and ambush forces send what they can up through Silverpine, we'll trap Anduin between our armies." Sylvanas could almost laugh, Anduin was always a passive child, so of course decisive action would scare him and he's now shower his hand rather than holding for the deciding moment.
Then another messenger burst in. "Worgen and Crucader rebels have resurfaced in Tirisfal. They have seized Cold Hearth Manor and Balnir Farmstead."
"Anduin you foolish boy, you played your hand too early!" Sylvanas roared, looking at the map. Truly the battle had begun, and orders were already being curried to field commanders to mobolize their troops. The Horde was almost guaranteed to win, but certainly the Alliance would refuse to die simply, and having avoided her trap, they could well escape leading to a longer and bloodier war.
It was a full day of reports as entire divisions and armies moved to counter their alliance counterparts. But once the busy work of giving command was done Sylvanas slumped onto her throne, every field commander who hadn't already been moving to counter Anduin's foolish attempt to encircle Lordaeron had received her orders and she eventually recieved their confirmations leaving their prepared camps and garrisons to eventually meet the enemy on the field. By the time Anduin's army finished unloading from their ships there would already be armies waiting for them. And by the time they fought through them, if they fought through them, the rebels in Tirisfal would likely be driven from their holes. Already Dwarves, Skaven, Stormgarde Footmen, and Forsaken Deathguard were locked in combat all across the land
Then a fresh messenger arrived in the throne room. "News on the changeof course forThe Alliance Third fleet. The ovservers now think they aim for Tirisfal. Estimates of their speed has them arriving in Tirisfal by next morning before sunrise." The messenger announced.
Sylvanas froze then glared. "How long ago did they change course?" A new mix of venom and panic in the Banshee Queen's voice.
The messenger looked to Sylvanas and his expression revealed his horror. Indeed if he could go paler than he naturally was he would have. "We sent the first messengers twelve hours ago my Queen, and we've sent two every two hours since, we even have been sending them by portal my queen."
Sylvanas shot up to her feet. "Recall what forces we can! Send Deathstalkers throughout Undercity! Test everyone and raise the alert for each werehouse in the city! Reconfirm everything that we've been told, where are the Alliance forces right now!?" It might just have been the Alliance fleet, or thr deception could have been far more extensive, but even knowing that an Alliance spy could have been in Undercity, the Banshee Queen had never thought they would have been so successful.
Ralf Limbug sighed as he climbed up the wooden watchtower where he joined his companions. Today was going to be another long, dull day of looking out over the ocean and being sidelined yet again. He had called out Captain Finetta one time for accepting bribery, wrote up a report to High Command and now he was perpetually stuck on outpost duty, simply because everyone viewed him as a liability. Sure the Captain had been stripped of her rank and given adequate punishment, but how was Ralf supposed to be sure her replacement was just as corrupt immediately shoving him out here on the coast?
The Alliance was attacking in all out war to the South, east glory could be earned, and instead he was stuck here likely to be locked perpetually as merely an acting sergeant. Which considering the rabble he was stuck with was yet another form of hell.
"Hey Ralf, hurry up we're wanting to get a game of Queen's gambit going and someone has to be manning those binoculars." One of the others shouted as the Forsaken crested the lip of the tower walking over to the mounted pair of heavy duty binoculars on the tower.
"You know I technically outrank all of you. I should be ordering you all." Ralf complained as he stepped up to the Binoculars putting them to his eyes.
"Yeah right, just because you're a brown nosed, rules stickler doesn't mean you're anything like an actually competent soldier, let alone someone worthy of respect. Bet when you wrote that letter to command you also were asking them to give Captain Finetta's job to you." One of the men griped and claimed, but Ralf ignored the ignorance of the others.
"Fucking Fel-spawned shit. Hey do we have any fog treatment for the Binoculars? There's a thick fog rolling in along the coast and I can't see anything." Ralf complained while asking the card playing trio of 'men under his command' who all just groaned.
"No, I'll go get some, you think command would have told us to bring some with us if a fucking fog was coming." One of the men then cast his cards aside and stood moving for the ladder while Ralf silently dismissed him more intent on watching the oncoming cloud of fog.
"Its been almost a decade since I've seen a fog this thick. Just fucking great, all the glory is miles to the south of us and we get to sit in some miserable damp fog." Ralf complained.
"Hey Jerry isn't it a little out of season for fog?" One of the remaining soldiers asked.
"Eh, not really Liam, Fog season is in two weeks and with that giant sword stabbed into the planet who knows what that might do to the weather."
"Hey shut it you two! I'm trying to focus. Fucking fog, I swear... wait... I think I see something, a sh, thats definitely a ship." Ralf stated as a obscured but swiftly moving shadow seemed to fade in and out of the Fog.
"Who the hell takes a boat out into fog that th..." Jerry began but was cut off by Liam.
"Shhhh, do you hear that?" The other soldier asked while slowly raising to his feet.
"Hear what?" Ralf asked still not pulling away from the binoculars, though now his hands were passing over his belt and straps, checking that each of his tools and weapons were ready to use at a moment's notice, and confirming by feel that each potion was in it's correct place.
"I dunno its sort of a thumping sound, like one of those goblin planes." As he said this Liam stuck his head out from the tower to search for the noise.
"Skreeee" Only to be met by a untimely death as a gryphon landed on the tower, dropping from above the tower's roof, claws extended to catch the exterior of the building but by misfortune catching Liam's neck and removing his head entirely.
Immediately the Gryphon was swinging from the structure balance lost and it's human rider, lance flailing in the air, struggled to try to both hold on and help steady his mount. As the Gryphon steadied itself, blood soaked talon reaching in to slash at the remaining occupants of the tower Ralf and Jerry were already prepared. Ralf with a shield and Axe in hand rushed the beast shield blocking the talon, axe warding off a vicious beak, and his head rolling aside to dodge a lance thrust from the gold armored human atop the creature's back.
Trying to strike back against the human earned Ralf a beak trust into his chest which nearly staggered him, and if he hadn't been locking his shield with the Gryphon's talon then it surely would have sliced him open. Ralf was loosing this fight, the creature alone was already enough that if it wasn't for it struggling to try and climb into the tower the thing would have already ripped him apart, but the warrior on the creature's back was also far more skilled than Ralf, and if not for his mount's predicament then he probably could have also already killed the Forsaken soldier.
"Jerry! HEELP!" Raul shouted back as he barely deflected a thrust of the rider's lance before leaning back to avoid the Gryphon's beak.
"I-I can't! THE WINCH I-IT'S JAMMED!" Jerry shouted back fighting with his crossbow trying to prepare the next shot, but some of the extra components had been dislodged when the Gyphon struck the tower jamming the winch of the crossbow.
Panic started to set in fot Ralf as he dropped onto his back dodging the Gryphon's talon and using his shield to block a lance thrust only for the Gryphon's beak to clamp about his leg. "No, no, no! Jerry!" Ralf then screamed as the beak began to drag him closer to the Gryphon and the edge of the tower.
And then a bolt lodged itself into the Gryphon's eye, causing the beast to screech in pain as it let go of Ralf thrashing it's head and fouling the intended killing blow its rider meant to end the Forsaken trooper in the Gryphon's lethal grasp. Acting swiftly Ralf threw himself forward, shield out and ramming into the Gryphon's head. The Forsaken pushed with all his might and soon felt the weight of Jerry throwing himself into the push that swiftly dislodged the Gryphon sending it and its rider tumbling to the ground beneath the tower where they impacted with a single muted yet powerful thud.
Ralf turned around falling onto his ass laughing in relief. "That was an amazing shot Jerry, how the hell did you fix..." Across the tower's short distance lay the evidence the Crossbow was a wreck, the inbuilt wench had been entirely pulled out, and next to the discarded weapon lay four fingers, Jerry's fingers that had been sheered off by the pressure needed to lock the weapon back into it's firing position.
Ralf then sighed. "Right, we... we'll get those fixed when we go back to Undercity. Jerry, you send up the signal flair, everyone needs to know the Alliance is coming, the rest of North shore needs to be warned. I'm going to climb down, and if they're alive, finish the job."
The other Forsaken nodded giving a three fingered salute to Ralf as he ran over to the flair launcher. Ralf meanwhile began to climb down the tower his ears eventually catching the same thumping sound that Liam had been mentioning. But it was distant. Absent mindedly the Forsaken then looked out onto North Coast and then froze, just as the whistling sound of the flair launcher went off.
Out over North Coast were no fewer than three Alliance Gunships all with parachuting warriors dropping from beneath them. Each parachute was marked with the symbol of a Helmed Lion with a number three on it's forehead. This was of Stormwind's Third Company, a unit of heavy infantry and knights known for their speed on the march, and durability in battle.
All across North Coast the smoldering remains of the Horde's other watch stations smoked as the Gunships floated past dropping their cargo of paratroopers. And further away Ralf could see the North Coast garrison in full retreat, sporadic Alliance cannon fire following them keeping the Forsaken's retreat motivated.
Ralf watched all of this, all while overhead a red glow illuminated the past standing watch tower, Ralf, and the bleeding corpse of the Gryphon laying atop its crumpled rider below. It wasn't until the nearest of the three Gunships unleashed a full broadside, all for guns unleashing a puff of smoke, that Ralf recognized the danger he was in. But by then it was too late.
Even as the shouting and panicked Forsaken climbed down the tower as quickly as he could the first shells impacted with the top of the tower, fire and concussive force turning the basic wooden structure into a shower of burning embers and splinters. While Ralf scrambled down the tower disintegrated about him, even as he reached for the next rung down the ladder the wood snaped and was sent flying away, and shortly after so too was Ralf who could only hope he would survive the fall, and that the Alliance was too busy to confirm if he was actually dead or just faking if he did happen to survive.
Medwin Ramsy waited with nervous energy, today was going to be his first combat jump, sure they had done a dozen practice jumps, but that was months ago and not into a real combat zone. Still the bay doors dropped open, the Knight-Captain dropped his arm shouting go three times, and Medwin and the rest of his unit began to shuffle forward jumping one after another.
And then Medwin's turn came, the Footman of the Alliance's Third Company leapt from his perfectly good Gunship and found himself falling to Azeroth. Once he had fallen for the time training told him to, he immediately pulled the chord of his chute deploying it, and for half a second panicking fearing that the Third Company's heavy armor would be too much for his parachute. But a second later the expected whiplash caused by the parachute slowing his fall impacted Medwin and he found himself now falling much more slowly back down to Azeroth.
Less than a minute later, still a minute of pure tension as Medwin was now vulnerable to not only any Horde attack, but even the whims of Azeroth's nature and elementals, and Medwin then struck the soft ground of North Coast. The Footman grunted in pain as he felt his foot twist and it took him several seconds to correct himself both from.his landing roll to avoid his own still falling parachute, but also to regain his footing. His ankle hurt, but as he tested his foot Medwin was sure that nothing was broken or hurt so bad as to need a healing potion, though a swig of a numbing agent certainly would be helpful.
So that's what Medwin did, pulling a small numbing potion from his pouch to take a small sip from. But as he did so the air in front of him shimmered and the Alliance footman's eyes widened in panic as he realized that standing before him was his death, a Forsaken Rogue looking for a easy kill. Then two arrows lodged themselves, one after another, into the Forssken's head knocking the attacker off balance and allowing Medwin to throw himself onto the Rogue. As his would be killer and Medwin struggled the Footman's savior, bow in one hand and sword in her other, appeared over both of them thursting the blade into the Forsaken's skull.
"You're such a baby Medwin needing mwedicwin right after a jump." Brook Melwing teased as she pulled her short sword from the Forsaken's skull, along with her two arrows testing each to make sure they were still serviceable.
"Shut up Brook, the ground is soft and I hit harder than I should've." Medwin replied.
"Well that's why you need to learn to be light on your feet you dumb brick." Brook teased springing on her heels making all of her plate armor bounce with the movement.
"Sorry for making you waste ammo."
"Don't be, both arrows are still servicable. Besides the main army should be relieving us soon, we just need to do some basic path finding and secure the beaches. Low ammo isn't going to be a issue. Just keep that hammer of yours in top shape ok?" Brook dismissed Medwin's apology with her usual pomp and cheer.
"Also I'm not a dumb brick, your just a freak." Medwin snapped back.
"You forgot to pull your chute cord in your first jump, your a dumb brick." Brook's grin seemed both to hold a malice that threatened to kill, and a light hearted joy that made even the dim lands of Lordaeron seem bright.
"I thought you said you'd let that go."
"I said I'd let it go when I found something funnier." The pair of Footmen both chuckled as cannon fire from above eachoed across the land.
Reviews:
Guest 1: Yes and no. WoW and consistent scale are about as close together as the earth's core and a non-earth orbit. I mean Deathwing's back in one boss battle makes him larger than the largest dragon to ever exist, galakrond, and from cutscene to cinematic, to gameplay...to gameplay the same vessel (not same class exact same ship) will have a different deck scale each time. More the features that the ships are supposed to possess and theorized crew sizes that aren't just "i use bigger number because game i play must be better" the scale of these vessels on average is probably going to be actually smaller than your typical ship of the line gallon but not by much, this would allow for all the features such as the bombing bay that also serves as a troop bay slash cargo hold, along with then likely equipment for cargo loading, the hanger bays slash stables, and the obviously needed guns and flight systems along with steering, crew quarters, the probable galley (unless Azerothean airships are expected to never be more than a day away from a supply base we have to assume they have a galley)
the size of such vessels can't be that small, but considering how little they actually are equipped with and how few paratroops or marines they carry (that a certain king didn't have twenty armed men supporting him when a living flaming rock slammed into his ship despite them knowingly going into active combat suggests once again small crew complements), then these ships also can't be that large either since a ship of the line with a full marine complement (which we know isn't the standard but again Varien was going into war, and the Europeans almost always bolstered the marine complements of ships on their way to war) well if the ships are actually larger than a man of war, then honestly they're just a disappointment both for how easily they're destroyed, and how few men and guns they can support for their matieral useage and area. in terms of estimated size/mass we could guess a Brig or maybe Junk for most Gunships with obvious exceptions as even modernly its hard to get true standarization among ships and the idea of a Gnome or Goblin building a "standardized" ship is as paradoxical as Ordered Chaos.
Guest 2: No.
Guest 3: They should... but Blizzard retconned so they only did that because "Sylvanas was making them evil but shes not evil but she is because she's a stupid woman, and like all woman she's just evil... except she isn't!... no we at Blizzard are certainly not sexist, racist or anything else of that type, and we certainly don't have thinly veiled attacks on real individuals in our writing." aka typical "actually everyone is a good guy and just wants Vegan puppies and almond milk ice cream" disregarding their own lore. No "we shall search for a cure to the hunger for flesh together" just instant "and everything is good if not for, 'blue woman bad'"
Guest 4: *Forsaken currently eating their P.O.W. soup, and Troll talking to their shrunken head of a decisicely non-troll origin* "Nahhhh, man we totally da good guys, the authors said we good except gor those darn warchiefs of our keep being evil. Can't have the players thinking their playing an anti-hero, or villanous protagonist we love Anduin and all things Alliance here."
Guest 5: Its all about the timing, even if Archeon himself were to go full invasion RIGHT NOW, Azeroth would be able to reasonably hold him off, but if the Everchosen were to have a few more friends on the other side, and the Horde and Alliance continue to be stupid AF following the BFA and the Jailers IQ infinity plan of being the dumbest thing ever, well it all gets easier for the Everchosen and the the forces of Azeroth lose their ability to hold him off...unless they take the threat seriously, but when is the last time they've taken a army thet beat once before in battle seriously?
Guest 6: Greater Daemon, a Balrog as they stand seeing how Tolkien died before he could implement the change that makes the Balrogs far fewer and far more powerful. But as it stands Balrogs are more equivalent to Harolds, with the exceptions being Durin's Bane and Gothmog, otherwise Balrogs real threat is the mix of their power and sheer numbers.
Ravenguard0009: Lol, you can see to which it is. A little worst than just that, chapter 2 of the very first book, this Gnome was a problem back then and a problem now.
And it's not funny coming from a Skaven, they're happy to demand others stand and die for them, then they don't have to. But the Alliance better make it count, because the amount of invested resources was sorta absurd... and yet nothing was lost somehow... -_-
BloodRedRoses11: ssshhhh , don't bring real world politics into this ;) Also Skaven and functional... are you sure about that?
Dragon King of the West: "But until I try then Azeroth won't know, and if Azeroth doesn't know, it can't be safe, we've understood everything we have ever faced till now, because brilliant men and women like me damn you voice in my head!" -Tillux's response to your statement.
ArcronDK: Sadly he's still plenty far off, but I'm planning for what i hope are some big payoffs when he does arrive. Because there are characters who I give a bad rep but whose themes, and abandoned story arcs and overall charaterization are actually good, just Blizzard shafted them for the sake of their own trash style of doing things, so on and so forth.
Hakuryuu: what's worse about those kings and rulers, is that modern media praises them indirectly by copy pasting their personalities and egos onto their heroes, everywhere from movies to videogames, then dial it up by going "anyone who thinks differently is oppressing you".
Blizzard just write themselves into corners. and Mengsk well that was his send off and that whole thing with the weapon was foreshadowed even in Wings of Liberty, but then all the asspulls in the third expansion are what killed that whole story. particularly the assoulls to save only to then immediately kill Nerud for example.
and Volkmar isn't impulsive, but he is passionate and driven, him going for Manfred's trap and basically being a completely mindless moron who thought he could solo a entire fucking country isn't who he is and is called out for how OOC it was for not juat him, but pretty much everone in the Empire, part of why even the wiki refuses to post that crap and just has the leadup. He is a man whose passion would have drawn people to him, instead of magically no one in the Empire liking him and thinking he's a dumb old grandpa who shouldn't be pope (almost like the authors had a personal grudge against his character...and a fucking hard on for gelt) but even then its not the Tyrande "I've known thse humans for all of one minute, they must be evil, kill all of them every last one." WC3's Night Elf intro provided us. She obviously learned better, and is a bit more prone to learning...only to reset when he character development goes to far and Blizzard has to think of a new character arc for her because you know writing based off character development takes more effort than hitting copy-paste and then letting an AI script generator...or unpaid intern, edit the copy pasted story.
yadda yadda yadda, insert my critques of Blizzard's 'snap to perfect' character development (i guarantee that Blizzard's writing for WoW, if applied to Starcraft the instant someone told James he had a drinking problem he'd have instantly become a prohabitionist) so of course Anduin has his approach ready to be instantly implemented because everything happens perfectly and instantly with no issues "whatsoever", "thats just good story telling" unlike that bad story Mushoku Tensi where it took how many volumes for Rudy to fix his problematic views on women and come to terms with the relationships he formed during that period of time? yeah such bad story writing no way that story will ever leave a mark on manga and anime... isn't that Right Isekai you all certainly never took any ideas or tropes from Musoku Tensi. But obviously not Blizzard writing in this fic, Anduin knows he's not a king meant for wartime (yet) but thats not going to stop him from trying to learn, and who better to learn from but the best he can get and first hand. which sadly it's BFA, despite Turalyon's ultra-Make. Alliance. Great. Again. attitude he's more or less held back in reserve by red tape (sorta bullshit) amd actual commitment to the Army of the Light and their needs as the War against the Legion technically is never/not currently over but the organization is moving to a more "peacetime" footing where they're able to live a lifestyle more akin to a reservist on Azeroth. Tyrande well is Tyrande and is doing Tyrande things at the moment...and Jaina is throwing her tantrum which will justify her single use deus ex bullshittium to more or less solo the city of Lordaeron (I'm more pissed that WoW went "oh she can do this at any time" then proceeded to never use it again despite having multiple times where such power would have been decisive for the Alliance)
I'm not going to follow the clear cut "good guys are good badguys are bad" Blizzard applied in Dragonflight to the Brotherhood...as the whole thing was dumb as fuck, like holy shit Blizzard was relying on fans not knowing who the VanCleefs were or what they did so they could do whatever they wanted and pretend that Vanessa is somehow a noble goodguy, while also simultaneously remembering the past boss battles who they were to get invested. The Brotherhood was founded for the simultaneous good of Westfall and to MURDER everyone in Stormwind... seriously "oh no my organization is going to attack Stormwind and steal all their money how evil, totally overahadows how i wanted to blow the whole fucking city up with everyone and all their money that could be used to make out people's lives better still inside"...so stupid. Now an uneasy truce like what was established in Legion is completely understandable, and so they're unlikely to be of any use to anyone, Alliance, Horde or otherwise until conflict is actually brought to the Continent of Azeroth.
JiggyliFAP: While human morality is varied for theology and philosophy the moral structure needs to hold consistency otherwise the ideal is nothing more than political ambition. Just saying you think "rhymes with grape" of women is a virtue, doesn't make it so, there even is a chemical, social, and biological physical evidence to show otherwise, thus the only time where competing moralities can thus stand apart is the long term, where the Light presents itself as the only positive morality despite long term evidence suggesting otherwise. The Light's greatest source of moral consistency is the dogma of the church of the Light which is built around the single lowerst denominator code you can find, even Karl Marx's communism (thanks to Engles, Marx was too trash even to be that good) has a more consistent moral system even if said system was "murder everyone who disagrees and stuff will magically happen as other people work for you". There is even a real world secular basis for finding and determining cults, ironically none of the Imperial Cults, and honestly the church of the light all do not meet the standard however the Church of the Light hits more of the points on the list, and particularly whatever Velen has going on hits more points than either of them.
Ummm, why the hell should there be a Light forged Warlock, thats like saying a Deathbound Life God. The Chaos Gods of Order in Warhammer make more sense, and they're very specially paradox beings, heck one further while the Warlocks are like Mages they have some strong cultist themes to them, putting them as a more of a mage-priest hybrid, in rough concept. So it's like saying a Lightforged is somehow going to become a disciple of the void. BUT the Light has clearly used Fel artifacts, has a Death being turned demon, turned Light Forged in their ranks.
Here's the thing with that. Can you claim the people of Azeroth are so protected or so experienced that they should be resistant to immune to chaos corruption? Because all a Void follower did was throw a rock and suddenly a Goddess of Life becomes a engine of Void destruction, so thus Azerotheans are now good at stopping corruption? Even in universe they put on these shows claiming how protected against corruption they are, despite all the evidence to the contrary, and having no actual system of checks in place.
also how dare you claim the Skaven can't rule the void, their ego is much bigger than that puny little not Skaven thing!
and the First Ones and the Eternals are seperate beings, you could even suspect the First Ones made the Titans. but the Etenrals and the Titans...well there's faaaar too much similarity there, they play similar roles, have similar appearances, and have a traitor moron among their group who thought he was saving us all by being a edgy moron.
and to souls, again I never said there not the ability for souls to be misplaced, i said there is a primacy. Also don't be so quick to kill Eekizz off, remember as you yourself in this mad rant pointed out, there is a physical element to the realm of Chaos in that material beings can go there, and in Tzeentch's case a little girl with her dog can solve his maze while battling evil muppets and getting sung to by David Bowie. (Yes Tzeentch's Labyrinth has a reference to the movie of the same name and it's fucking hilarious) Now if Eekizz is able to navigate the Maze is a whole other thing entirely, considering the type of people the Maze is designed to best. But Eekizz best boy can't be killed by some emotial Night Elf crazy woman, after all he's the greatest Gnome ever.
Andy Hates that Dwarf, yet forgot the Dwarf who is a Tomb King. Also I don't give much credence to the Helm of Domination, I mean it was originally meant just to be a tool of control working with Frostmourn, and if all the Lich King's power was just the Helm, then wouldn't the Burger king Crown be a tool so powerful it could instantly kill and raise entire worlds?... meh it's shadowlands the greatest warriors in all the Warcraft universe are actually now talentless losers because Shadowlands said so.
Yeah i never touched on the Dwarf souls, so you probably right on the money there.
Bretonnian Knights and Adventurers rushing through the portal acting like players and just grabbing whatever loot they can and trying to grind XP...all while both sides leadership are just facepalming.
Now the discussion hasn't gone from Azeroth to Mallus mainly because Azeroth is embroiled in their own civil war, and the big powers are either sealed, or obsessed with Azeroth not giving a F about the rest of... all of existence. But there are some good hints as to what the Void can do laid out in Drums of War.
Warhammer has established that the Avatars are corruptable, but the Gods themselves... not nearly as easily corruptable as those of Azeroth... though as your favorite Andy has stated, they can go mad... apparently... fucking End Times...
But the Chaos Dwarfs well they're GW being GW. They love for too often making things that are shown to be resistant fall to chaos while almost outright ignoring anyone else to such a point it looks like anyone else looks more resistant to your average tourist who can't be bothered to do a deep dive. (*cough* Ecclesiarchy from warhammer *cough*) And as for the Curse of Flesh thats more of a unknown everything presented shows that for individuals it was instantaneous, but to spread among the population, well technically it's still ongoing.
as for the rest of that argument i raise you the Beastmen and Skaven spell lists, the Origins of the Beastmen, and their ungoing curse upon humanity. the Warhammer world is built to be resistant on a fundamental level, and we comparitively see beings seldom undergo grand mutations despite immense immersion in corruptive forces. where Gods who should be dripping their respective cosmic force's influence switch from one to the other because "that time of the month", and very petty in respect to what these beings are, reasons. Lesser individuals, mortals fine who cares if they fall outside of the drama if the event, but Azeroth's GOD equivalent beings WoW fans hold as equals to the Chaos Gods are shown routinely to be powerless in the face of some named character, or as being instantly corrupted bypassing their own immersion into the force they represent and the "unbeatable, incorruptible" safeguards put in place. And it happens multiple times a year. If it was Malfurion, the King of Zandalar, etc. no issue, but its the Gods themselves proving to be more easily corrupted than your average mortal, again despite dripping with the essence of their cosmic force, and there's no real plan that was to corrupt them. which is sad when you contrast with Deathwing or the Primalists whose corruption actually took some time, matched with the contrast of their character and their given role. And again this is either showing that Life, Light, and Order are somehow actually the weakest forces out there unworthy of all the hype... or Blizzard's bad writing is taking a toll against the setting once again... which again before anyone gets defensive reading this have you actually read a Warhammer end times, or war of the Beast book those consolidate a lot of WoW's terrible writing and disregard for consequences going from "over the course of a year of story writing this has had a negative impact" to 'so i wrote this paragraph, and by the next paragraph it ruins the entire setting" but each has to be addressed both for the implications for their unicerses, by virtue of timeline i can get away with ignoring 80ish percent of the bullcrap from End Times. Because one of the crucial implications of the WoW Gods themselves being so easily corruptable, also ties to how sheepish and trusting the average Azerothean is. A setting where you can't trust your Gods and protectors to not join the enemy out to destroy you, and yet you give them cart blanch authority and your blind limitless trust because your ruler who was last week made a Fel slave, certainly cant be made a Void worshipper this week.
With magic Items and Warhammer its also just the case of game mechanics. Every suit of Chaos Armor and most their weapons are magical, every Grail Knight possessses a magical weapon in lore but tabletop gameplay, no magic. WoW has that annoying MMO paradox of pushing "magical super secial awesomesauce mega gear of 25 extra damage per basic attack"... then flipping and going "oh that that's worthless, but have you seen the super awesome mega badass super special mega magic gear of magic farts, it adds 0.000024% more fart damage every time you achieve a fart combo!" Where back in the Warhammer World, "does that sword of infinite screaming stop your brain from blowing out your skull when bullet goes through it? does the sword grant you the strength of a Giant? no...hmm ok i shoot you with cannon now." So the priorities obviously are in different places, though Azeroth certainly has more magical equipment and I'd say it's precisely because for whatever reason even as the magic os being used in the weapon, it's not drained, and there no need to maintain it. But at the same time, well a lot of that Gear isn't worthy of note, just like how Warhammer doesn't note the magic gear unless it's giving you a tabletop 1, which for scale they gave horses and humans S3, thats a pretty huge freaking range for strength right there a 0.5% increase isn't going to get you out of S3. which as a forever GM fail on Warhammer's part because anyone whose GM'd long enough knows that certain other effects can be far more important than a raw stat increase. But using the Warhammer Tabletop filter no magic weapon or equipment is worthy of note until its a mid to high rare, or debatably not until epic but that's pushing it.
Baam* "We do not explode in your face!" *distant explosion* "We explode in his face..." But here's the other thing, and since we bring up Andy, check out his RP, its in lore that the Wizards can change the impact of the flow of the winds, they're somewhat needed to keep the winds balanced in the Empire. Though if it ever gets to the point of hybrid babies that can do both...well blue wind infused Arcane mage fuck you, all arguments end he wins because reasons.
I still doubt it the pretty Empire's citizens between their relationship with Gods in general being more ""transactional"" rather than the subservience/political nature of worship to Azeroth Gods, but also because the Empire has been shown to be rather resistant to new Gods even when said Gods have been around longer than Sigmar and said Gods are highly beneficial and it would do the Empire good to have them. The folk of the Empire are superstitious, but not in the way Atheists use it to demean those who are religious, they're superstitious like how a veteran is, you wear a bullet and you don't get hit, check your shoulder on every nine count, etc, the superstitions that are actions and tricks that "work" despite no real evidence of how or why.
pt2...le sigh... so much. Shhhh, don't question Thanquol's gold certainly he will never run out, especially not at a time that would be dramatic/hilarious for him to do so. But actually the Skaven do have extensive spy networks, thus the open lie in the empire claiming ratmen don't exist, especially after one of the Rats assassinated the Emperor who more or less solo'd their entire race like a true badass. Now do the Skaven have the ability to shapeshift and have entire cities that are supposedly on high alert just ignore a member of a enemy race wearing enemy colors walking out in the open? no no they do not. But if you're talking next to a sewer vent in a Empire city, and your someone of note, you can guess a Skaven was there listening in. but legit most of their pre-end times successes have been do to espinage actions that are FAR TOO fucking weak in TWW.
Empyrean Society has not been destroyed according to Blizzard lore, as all WoW did is the same shit they do 99% of the time, kill the leader and expect phantom menace trope rules apply. These guys are just another example of why I think Chaos would be a LOT more effective on Azeroth than the other way around, there's just so many organizations that have been ignored who are actively engaging in bringing that corruptive shit to Azeroth, while a week of collecting Void Energy from a Arcane associated location is enough to corrupt a being whose spent millenniums basking directly in the power of the Light itself.
Shhhhh, don't spoil that fact for the Azerotheans, hell even the Mallus population thinks the stuff just randomly spawns at certain places. eitther because it randomly teleported itself there, or grew from some unnoticed dust particle or something. But newer Lore, a certain Dragon has made significant efforts towards making Warpstone as a branch of his whole thing of being pretty much the only guy outside the Skaven who knows how to make the stuff innert. If he had any success or gave up IDK.
Well our Gnome did have to take some of the Warp Dust for his own experiments. He's gotta know more and to know more he also has to have more to experiment with. which means he'll probably have to go through your threories at some point (rather than skipping the scientific process and just automatically having the correct solution before even trying... post WotLK Blizzard)
for the battle, well as people will blame me for complaining about the scale of Azeroth and "not using my imagination" (despite the zero fucking effort put in using forced perspective and similar illusions to make places seem larger) but for WoW's displayed styles of warfare to make sense, there has to be far more ways in and out of a region, particularly that a army can use. And "but they can fly" isnt a valid excuse if the other side can field it's own fliers and had AA guns/magic. I mean for fucks sake if Anduin did land in Gilneas, all Sylvanas would have to do is win a fleet battle and his army would be trapped, minimal troops to keep him contained and then crush him. and of course Saurfang's flank of Darkshore makes no sense based off the WoW map. So even a curtisy fortification of Northshore should have been more than enough. since all you need is to fortify the damn chokepoints, yet that concept keeps earning shock and suprised Pikachu faces all around.
Wanna try that claim again? While its later and End Times related, Volkmar is cleansed multiple times. Not to mention all the other cleansing that has been done. Maybe if the Light brings a Vampires or all the Forsaken back to life "cleansing" death from them or banishes the winds entirely then there'd be something.
Bugman and his disciples would disagree. Empire and Bretonnian drink is weak as well, entirely unworthy pretenders that they are. But I have yet to see a Dead man come back to life after just a sip, or a fine and fully healthy man with a famed tolerance for alcohol drop dead after starting his second cup. I was actually in the last story putting quite a bit of respect on WoW's alcohol when I name dropped what a Shandris was drinking and how much she had.
As for dating that will return to more prominence when we finally return to the Empire or the wider World though obviously they all use different calendars.
As to the tangent on food... yes Mana is internally generated, thus why Azerotheans can cast on Mallus, but there's also a clear need and presence of more condensed external sources that they use to bolster themselves, such as mana potions which are practically liquid mana. of course its like this so Blizzard can act like a hyper pretentious DnD elitist and go "well we have that but better" never actually looking into the system and thinking about how it would work both in meta or lore, and of course when implemented forcing everyone into a certain style of play irregardless of the theme. hint to any roleplayers out there, try something other than DnD other systems suit other settings and themes far better. But this ties back to the magic rant in that WoW's magic system is going to have weaknesses that are more or less ignored or handwaived since Azeroth, Argus, and Outland are all worlds seeped in natural mana from which a caster can with ease bolster his spells, how much more taxing or weaker are their spells when natural mana isn't present? How many more calories a day do they need to eat? To be able to do what before they could do without thinking about it on Azeroth? Would that then on Mallus make the thought of experimenting with the Winds a little more tempting?
ScruffinMcguffin: "ackchyually your magic is more like a stream and barely behaves like a wind at all. And whoever told you there were seven streams is a idiot since two of those streams are clearly the same stream." -a fat, balding pimple covered gnome currently adjusting his glasses