The Alliance gathered just outside of Brill, their numbers small compared to the Titanic army following after them. Yet they appeared as a spanning army before the defenses of Brill, the Alliance's Third Company were resting, their mortal flesh had been pushed to their limits, but it wouldn't take more than hours before their well trained physiques, combined with the rejuvenating powers of various potions and that of the Light, had them ready to match upon the town. And for all the spite that Kersti held for that spineless Headman, it was obvious these Alliance wouldn't spare even the stones of Brill from their blades. She was standing in what was certainly the final hours of Brill, and their only hope of making it out alive, was an insane Gnomish inventor who was following the plan of a delusional Rat, while a spineless coward manipulated everything Kersti hated personified into fighting in their defense.
"Du'nah know what dis was all about Kersti, but I think'n dat there be lots of bad juju to this work dat far Headman have you doin'." Lo'jie stated while stepping foot into the mad gnome's lab for the first time, Bathol following closely behind. The Orc mage scanning everything carefully as he entered.
"What do you think you are doing? defiling the sanitary conditions of my lab?" Said Gnome loudly complained coming out from his backroom with a bag of Warp dust in hand. Both Bathol and Lo'jie looked over to Professor Tillux with a mixture of surprise and disappointment.
"Umm, Headman said we had some sort of specialist we needed to help with tunneling out of Brill." Bathol answered sheepishly.
"Well go away you're interrupting my research!" The obsessive Gnome growled, holding his bag of Warp dust possessively.
However Kersti had no time for the Gnome's antics. "Shut up, I was here with the Headman you lunatic now where is Kester?"
However Tillux didn't answer, instead Kersti noticed as her pet spider Precious reared up to hiss, and a shimmer appeared behind Lo'jie just before the Forsaken Rogue appeared with his knives against the Troll woman's throat. "Here. Now what do you think you're doing Kersti? I seem to remember the Headman not including this lot in the operation."
"Kester, things have changed, we're no longer in the back-lines, we're the front lines of the battle. The damned Vampires seem to think they can buy us time, but the Headman needs us to evacuate the Professor and his work, and help with our benefactor's mad plan to tunnel out of the city and behind Alliance lines." The undead Huntress stated her voice calm and even, only the slightest shimmer of the feeling of concern for her friend's safety she might have felt when she was alive flowing through her. Which of course Kersti knew meant that with her dulled heart, this was when her old living self would have been in an incoherent panic. She had long ago written it off as a benefit of being dead.
"How the hell are we supposed to do this?" The other undead demanded with a glare.
"We're supposed to be modifying some Dark Iron drills and some extra equipment is being rushed from Lordaeron it's going to be close, but if we have any..." Kersti began but a loud exclamation from the Professor stopped her.
"Ah so that's why your Brutish friend said that they were looking for an expert. Well I have tinkered with the Dark Iron's equipment before in the past, but I am neither an expert in tunnel construction nor a full mechanicist as my expertise lays with the Arcane. But if we're just trying to jurryrig some drills I should suffice!" Even as the Professor spoke Bathol glared at the Gnome.
"I'm not a brute you know, I'm a scholar of the Arcane myself." The Orc clearly had his pride stepped on while the Gnome laughed dismissively.
"Yes finger waving and superstition. I'm talking about real study, I'm breaking down the unique magical properties of an entire world. A whole new Cosmic force to be added to the lists which can challenge our previous assumptions about the very nature of the universe, one that reflects elements of all the others. Now if you can name even a single worthwhile theorem I might consider educating you on proper magic. But for now, where is this drill?" Even Kersti felt almost insulted on Bathol's behalf, and for his part the Orcish adventurer looked mortified, clenching his fists.
Kersti though stepped in to prevent the Gnome from pushing Bathol's nerves any further. "They're coming soon, the Drills are being brought in from outside of Brill. While the Skaven have already delivered some of their... mining supplies at Thanquol's command any serious tunneling efforts will have to wait for the Dark Iron's drilling devices to arrive. The Vampires have volunteered to fight to buy you as much time as you need to get the drills working for us."
Professor Tillux frowned in thought. "Fine, then we'll spend now getting everything possible to be moved ready. Come Brute, if you're even a ounce more intelligent than your half naked, superstition filled kin you should be able to properly follow instructions. All of these materials are vital for securing Azeroth's dominance over the magics of Mallus and you should view them all as if the Horde itself depends on them. And it probably does if my theory about the sapient-non-sentience of the Magical Induction Stream is correct!"
Bathol groaned, but soon everyone set to work assisting the Gnome in preparing his lab both for the work that is to come and for their own separate evacuation. The Headman had decided that moving their operation to the Scarlet Monastery would be the safest bet for the near future, though Kersti wondered what would prevent the Alliance from attacking there as well.
Medwin sighed in relief as the order came down for the Footmen of the third company to settle down to rest. They now were overlooking the Horde's town of Brill, the central command for every one of their forces in the region. However reaching this point had been exhausting, the Horde had harried them for every step of progress they had made and the town was sure to be filled with desperate Forsaken and their allies all waiting for the chance to try and kill noble Alliance soldiers.
However with the order to stop and rest Medwin and Brook wouldn't have to fight them while tired, a few hours rest and they should be able to try and seize the town. But there was more to the battle than just that, the Horde had pulled back into the town more than expected and this left the outer most buildings vulnerable, so if the Third Company's rogues and knights could press in now and secure those buildings that would make the future battle far easier. At least that was the idea that was stated, but Medwin questioned if the Horde hadn't already booby trapped the outer buildings.
After all this was the Horde's last stronghold before Lordaeron City. Why wouldn't they put up fierce resistance here? But Medwin Ramsy was a good Alliance Footman, and his manual didn't have a section for questioning a battle plan, let alone without a suggestion of his own for an alternative. It did have one about blindly obeying giant magical hands on the sky, but he always took that as a metaphor, but whenever he talked to the older veterans about it they'd instead talk about cannons, half-Orc Half Dreanai Half-Human Half-Demons, and some woman named Mary. So he always avoided thinking about that part of the manual.
So instead while others slept or started some basic campfires to cook their meals with Medwin watched as all the Third Company's Knights gathered, each of them resplendent in their armor and each of them on their steeds a near match for the mighty blow of a charging Tauren warrior. Behind the Knights a much smaller gathering of Rogues assembled, the Third Company disliked Rogues both as a matter of honor and simply because Rogues went against the Third Company's style. A good hunter or priest was always welcome to don their heavy armor but the barely armored, and prone to cowering away Rogues never mixed well with the company.
As such while there were enough Knights drawn from across all the Third to form a full cavalry formation soon to barrel into Brill and take the first holdings of the town, there were barely a dozen Rogues who would be following behind the Knights. Separately there were a number of Paladins who had also recently joined the Third on the front lines. Silver Hands and Argent Crusaders had rushed to join them, and among them a figure of fame, though whoever this famed bald, sunburned Paladin was he seemed to be holding up the invasion of the town as he seemed to refuse to invade the town and alongside him a group of odd armored knights with yet another balding man who also was arguing against attacking Brill. But as neither were in the chain of command, the Third was going to commence their first assault and any priest or paladin willing to join them was free to come along.
Nearly half of the Paladins, a full twenty elected to remain behind with the two bald men, while twenty more joined the Third's Knights along with eight fresh priests of the Light. They then formed themselves ready to barrel into the city and into what Medwin prayed was their glory and success.
Haddihl waited with patience that only the dead could possess, his shield and blade were tucked so tightly against him that if not for his breastplate they would be inside his ribcage, and beside him several other Grave Guard waited in similar states. His Master had correctly assumed that the living would come to rest just in sight of the Town, their warriors exhausted but their pride and morale both soaring. So they would make an attack with their best and freshest troops. This apparently had meant that instead of marching on the town with proper support the Alliance fools instead elected to send their cavalry ahead of their forces, Haddihl had seen the living perform this same tactic several times, twice when he was among those who drew breath and foolishly prayed to God's thinking they could keep his soul safe or would not carelessly rain destruction down upon his people.
Now these living would learn the folly of this plan in the face of those who needed neither sinew nor courageous heart to draw strength. The sound of Hooves alerted the Wight to the presence of the enemy and what he must do just at the same moment he felt his Master's will demand he take action. Thus the pile of tightly packed metal and bone pressed into a narrow alleyway between two buildings shifted, changing from simple bone, plate and steel into the Wight champion of his master. At Haddihl's side more Grave Guard rose, these armed with great blades that thirsted for the living just the same as his own sword.
The first of the enemy Knights rushed past Haddihl blind to the trap they had foolishly entered, for the battle cry he and his warriors bellowed was that of the grave, silent. Soon Haddihl and his were upon the Knights, his chosen foe a woman in armored robes holding a staff, likely a priestess of some sort. Meanwhile the steed of the Knight ahead of her found its neck cut into by the mighty great wight blade of Haddihl's own Grave Guard compatriots. The Horse's armor held surprisingly well, but the unholy metal still found flesh, and the Wight Blade's power still severed the bonds of life, body and spirit.
Haddihl was not so successful with his target. The woman noticed him in the last moment and screaming in surprise struck his helm with her staff while her steed reared back to stop itself from trampling and potentially falling over the corpse of its ally and the still living rider before it. Instead the clever beast kicked forcing Haddihl to use his shield to block the multitude of hoof strikes it landed against him. But while the Priestess clearly prayed to her God for aid, Haddihl's Master felt no such generosity for these foes as to allow that prayer to be answered.
Master Aleksandr's bats descended upon the riders now further disrupting their cohesion. As planned Haddihl's attack slowed the flow of the enemy riders and created a gap between the lead riders and the rest of their force, a gap perfect for Vampires like Master Aleksandr to exploit. And as the bats descended from above, and the Master and his new Vampiric sires burst into the gap, jumping upon confused enemy riders from behind, the last of the Grave Guard closed off these enemies escape path, attacking the rear of riders and ensuring their deaths.
Still as doomed as they were these living foolishly attacked with all the energy and vigor they had. The Priestess attempted to continue her prayer but small caws and a fanged mouth biting at her kept her from evoking her God's will. And her steed was so pressed in due to the tight space of the town streets and its own kind could do next to nothing to stop Haddihl's attack. The Wight Blade lashed at the woman's thigh the blow drawing blood and causing her to scream in pain, yet either by faith, will or luck her life and body remained as one, even as a stream of red blood flowed down her leg and to the dirt below.
A golden glow took the woman and while her blood remained, the wound, and thus the bleeding ceased to exist. Haddihl had of course seen divine healing before, but never had he been so frustrated by it to have it happen right after he struck a foe who somehow survived his blade. As such the Undead Champion roared, now the sound of death, chilling yet filled with the heat of battle rolled from non-existent lungs and spoken by a non-existent tongue.
He thrust his blade, only for her staff to frustrate his efforts to end her life. Behind the Priestess one of these heavily armored warriors, one who glowed with some form of power, struck down a fellow Wight of the Grave Guard before turning his attention to Haddihl. The Champion of his Master now only had one chance to strike down the Priestess before this magically equipped knight dared to intervene.
Haddihl primed his blade, ready for a singular thrust. Even if the cursed steel could not cut the Priestess' life short, a crushed windpipe and bleeding neck certainly would. And so with the cold determination of the dead Haddihl thrust his blade only for the magic knight to leap forward blocking his killing strike and allowing the priestess to sink back into the mass of the enemy. The living were fools, struggling every second to save off that which was inevitable and for these ones, the end was now.
But while Haddihl was wrathfully frustrated with his enemy none of this was conveyed as her silently matched his blade and shield with the two sworded skills of his foe who wreathed his swords in some form of divine light. While blades clashed and the battle raged Haddihl in some deep pocket rejoiced, the thrill of combat stirring his soul and calling for him to kill and practice skills that lay locked away for centuries until his first master had called for him to serve. Yet ancient swordsmanship, even finely honed was still only one art of combat among many and Haddihl was frustratingly finding this foe pushing him back, and with a strange sweep of his sword tips the knight pulled Haddihl's shield up and out of the Wight's grasp.
Swiftly, with centuries of practice and practiced skill Haddihl brought his lone blade into a two handed grip but he knew that against this opponent without his shield he lacked the skill he needed to win. Haddihl blocked the first strike from his enemy but his sight caught the following blade, the second strike that would knock his blade out of position allowing the first to remove his head from its shoulders. Yet that second strike would not come. Ethereal hands of the disembodied dead grasped at the Knight foe of Haddihl slowing the strike just as the first of the self styled Shuk'tar Eredar, or the Dreanei Vampires, Tarei stepped forward using her size and unnatural strength and speed to throw the magic knight away.
While the Grave Guard and Haddihl were tools ensuring the deaths of these Alliance warriors, the truth was that their main executioners were to be the Shuk'tar Eredar. A task these newborns delighted in as they rampaged fangs eagerly seeking throats so they could gorge their new appetites while using corrupted blades, maces and instruments of war to shatter and cut open their weak mortal victims. And most among all them was Tarei herself, whose pleasure was derived from her devotion to her creator, and whose desire to bring destruction to everything her former culture valued knew no equal among her kin.
Haddihl collected his shield with the calm of one with no fear of the grave while his Master's spawn gleefully led several of her own and a host of spirits into the ranks of these armored Knights each of them ending the lives of their victims well before any healing magics could be used to save them. Haddihl now only needed keep any of the enemy from escaping past himself while Tarei broke the armor of her foes and rent their flesh, only those who were closest to the Priests and those divine warriors were able to resist the might of the Shuk'tar. However against the numbers of his Master's forces and against the might of creatures whose existence was beyond this mortal world. As new to their existence the Shuk'tar were the natural loyalty of fledgelings and might of the Vampire along with Tarei's leadership and Aleksandr's Command they were simply an undeniable reality as much a certaincy as that of death.
And Haddihl could soon hear the reality settle upon them, the certainty of death, and the terror of a foe whose might no God could protect them from, particularly as the corpses of the most recent dead rose. Spirits who hadn't had a body in centuries finally given a form stumbled clumsley to their feet, wildly swinging arms at what had once been the allies of their former flesh. Friends begged for mercy from ears that could not comprehend the speech of the living fools.
And as Haddihl watched Tarei loomed over the Priestess while draining the blood from a still struggling mortal. Her eyes and the Priestess' locked before Tarei let the rest of her victim's blood go to waste pouring by the liter onto the ground. The Priestess seemed to both pray and beg at the same time while looking to Tarei a beam of light coming from the Priestess' staff searing the Vampire's flesh as she slowly closed for the kill. "In virtute Sanctae Lucis mundabitur Memento unde venis, populus tuus puerum Lucis amisit! Iusseram salvere te. (By the power of the Holy Light be cleansed. Remember where you come from, your people lost child of the Light! Let me save you.)"
Tarei then broke the Priestess' staff glaring into the woman's eyes while her freshly gorged flesh healed before the woman's eyes. "Memini populum meum, omnia quae pro luce egerunt. Omnis mundus tetigit tetigit, et eventus. Ego autem veniens ad illos deinde, quod valde dolendum etsi pro vobis, et non erit socius meus donum tecum, ut moriatur, adhuc contentus in phantasiis, cogitabat mea dente est dolor potius quam liberatio. (I remember my people, all that they've done for the light. Every world they've touched, and the results. I will be coming for them next, unfortunately though for you, I won't be sharing my gift with you, so you may die still content in your delusions, thinking my fang is pain rather than liberation.)"
"Non poteris eas delere pariter: ne forte multiplicentur contra te bestiae terrae. (You shall not have your way dark one!)" The Priestess then shouted as a wave of light emerged from her body the force shattering the closest Wight and banishing those corpses of the most recently deceased that were only just raising in service to Haddihl's masters. But Tarei and the Shuk'tar held their ground the power of the light rolling off of their flesh like water against stone.
"Quis lento et dolore? Tunc permittit hoc tardum et molestum! (You want slow and painful? Then lets make this slow and painful!)" Tarei roared and lunged at the Priestess, the holy woman's screams of pain joining the chorus of her remaining allies.
Back where the Third Company has set camp the sounds of battle met Medwin's ears and confused he, Brook and several others stood ready as one of the Rogues rushed back to the camp looking pale and panicked even as he began reporting back to the pair of bald men. Confused Medwin and all the other Footmen looked among each other a silent vote volunteering 'the bravest cock' Medwin to go find out what was going on from those above them. With a sigh the Footman picked himself up and trudged over to where the leadership, the two bald men, and the Rogue were all speaking to one another.
"Ahh, I knew something bad would happen. Umm, wait... what did they do again?" The larger of the two men, the Bald Paladin stated while the others just sighed.
"What your scouts describe are certainly the Vampire Legions of Sylvania. It seems one of their own has taken up residence in Brill and now stands against you." The other bald man, one with a large bushy mustache and wearing some odd armor with a green eagle on his chest, announced to the officers around him.
"We need to press into Brill and before Anduin and the main army fully disembark. They need to save their forces for the coming siege of Lordaeron. How are we going about taking the town? We don't have the ammunition to try and force them down from range." One of the officers stated, his golden emblems shining in the firelight while dark clouds threatened a looming downpour of rain.
"What is the Alliance's plans for Brill?" The mustachioed bald man asked.
"We're to dismantle it while using what we can to serve as a main camp for coordinating our siege of the city." Another officer answered.
"We need to match now on the town, before they take the fight to us." Yet another of the officers said.
"But if you move in like before you're going to just be overwhelmed." One of the Silver Hand paladins stated in retort.
Now the first Officer turned to answer the Paladin's statement. "But we, by our honor can't use you as bait against the enemy, and thanks to Brill's design our options for multiple routes of attack limit us to a frontal assault that will allow the enemy to escape Brill and circle around us destroying us piece by piece, or to spread ourselves thin and unable to support one another which will invite them to make a breakthrough. There can only be warriors left in Brill, we allowed the Horde plenty of time to evacuate and it's more than obvious they've changed their command. Some Skaven named Thanquol was supposed to be leading the defense here, instead we have these Vampires. Either the Horde fed us false information or what we have is out of date. either way, they clearly have prepared for us."
After this the gathering broke down into a series of smaller debates among the Paladins and Officers of the Third as they tried to decide on what to do about Brill. Meanwhile the mustachioed Bald Man stared at the town of Brill before turning back to everyone gathered. "Why preserve the town?" The man asked.
"What?" One of the Paladins asked, a venomous tone in her voice.
The Older looking man just shrugged. "You're not even keeping the town, it's just a staging point. And Vampires have no particular resistance to fire."
At this many of the officers and the Paladins looked among one another. Medwin could tell several of the officers might have possibly been harboring the idea themselves, however the Paladins mostly looked against the idea. The female Paladin from before even promptly stating. "We're here to spread the Light back into Tirisfal not bring ruin and destruction."
Now the first Officer spoke once more. "And if we don't do something then we could end up stalling the entire invasion. The entire Alliance is dependent on the momentum we set here. If Brill holds until Anduin brings the entirety of the Alliance military down upon it, that just allows the Horde to better prepare for the Siege of Lordaeron and that will cause further loss of life."
"But if we burn Brill how many innocents might still be trapped in the city?" A Priest of the Light asked stepping forward.
"Innocents? They're the Forsaken, and they've had plenty of time to evacuate, that town is full of nothing but warriors and monsters. Sir Volkmar's suggestion should be considered. Now what would it take for us to start to safely burn Brill?" The Captain of the Third Company asked and Medwin felt himself compelled to give an answer.
"Well we have plenty of oil and my team has a few good archers. If we have a few mages as well we could set up a few distinct fires and maybe direct it's spread across the town." Medwin provided earning the stare of everyone assembled.
"Who is this?" One of the Paladins asked and the Captain walked over to Medwin looking over the Footman.
"This looks to be one of Johnathan's Footmen. I'd say you have a good suggestion, I'm sorry about your Knight Captain." As the Company Captain Spoke, Medwin froze. Their Knight Captain was among those who went in and died? Medwin hadn't seen the man among these officers, but didn't think that he had died.
"I... I didn't know. Thank you sir." Medwin answered still somewhat in shock from the news.
"That's it, we'll burn Brill. The Alliance has neither the time nor resources to spare for us to get caught up here. Footman, tell your unit to prepare. Everyone else spread the news, we will advance on Brill and burn out any resistance within the hour." While the Bald Paladin frowned in deep thought and the others looked like they wanted to protest, Medwin and the rest of the Third Company set to work.
"Yes-yes, killed plenty of Man-things!" Thanquol cheered while at his side the Headman and Executor Zygand both frowned in disgust. In a twist Aleksandr also frowned in a similar fashion.
"Nay, stave off your cheering rat. Whilst my fledgelings have scored a great blow to the foe, they now do not prepare for a second attack, nor spread for a siege. And I hear not the wails of loss and despair from their camp. Nay they intend to steal victory by trickery this day." Aleksandr stated which caused the Skaven to gasp in an exaggerated manner.
"Trick-theiving Thanquol's victory from him? Stop them, Stop them now! Attack-attack!" Thanquol ordered pointing towards the Alliance's camp.
Aleksandr would have dismissed the Rat, or outright killed it, if not for the fact that he was already preparing to attack. And thankfully unprompted it seemed Executor Zygand was also giving the orders to do much the same. Whatever trick these Alliance mortals thought they had to win, it meant nothing in the face of a sudden counter attack.
Now all that was needed was for Aleksandr to reign in his beloved spawn and refocus their might. While the Shuk'tar and Tarei were certainly powerful even as fledgling Vampires, their control left much to be desired, indeed Aleksandr feared he would, even if they were accepted, see plenty of their kind end up joining the Vargheists.
"What are you waiting for, go-go! Secure my es...my victory!" The ever pestilent Rat barked in order, making Aleksandr's lips curl in disgust. He was the father of the Shuk'tar Eredar, a true visionary among vampires who understood the dream to transend mortality to go beyond humanity to see all things serving an eternal Empire, and yet this thing that could barely breathe without evoking the disdain of others dained to try and order him? He had far greater politics to address within the Night Court at Manfred's summons, and this thing thought it's petty worries equal to any of that? These fraudulent Undead, pretending as though they and the living were one and the same dared to try and look down upon his grand visage all while begging him to save them from petty mortal concerns. War was the playground of the Undead, ruled over by the Vampire, each enemy an eventual ally or slave, every battle a feast to drink, every night of war was a new opportunity to rise to greater heights! And every war a new kingdom to forge, and these fools dared to fear it to pretend that something as petty as mere defeat was a final end?
Aleksandr hissed and flexed his clawed hand before grabbing his sword. "Tarei, to me. We shall soon meet the enemy head on. If you wish for victory though mine dear Executor Zygand you should send your forces to flank thine enemy now, least your vaunted tunnels are made useless before they can even be made of use." Yes now was the time for war, the time to feast upon battle and for armies to rise.
Reviews:
Guest: I'm sorry to say but you are clearly wrong on the best forgemasters, after all the Nords can put so much magic into a fork that Reanu Keeves can one shot God himself, just ask the Spiffing Brit. so clearly your Tolkien elves should just give up because nothing they ever make will beat a Fork made by Nords who bash together some rocks.
hint you obviously missed the question i was answering. also why yes the Elven gear is amazing that's why every member of thr fellowship has Mithril armor and a legendary god sword and not just Frodo whose gear originated from treasure stores and vaults, or a legendary king of a legendary blood line whose elven ancestry rivaled a god of evil. As a Gondorian soldier on the front line, I'm glad they have such abundant and in mass production gear unlike those lazy dwarven made weapons which are actually possible to attain and you don't have to be a isakai protagonist with god cheats that turns every elf woman in a planet distance away from you into a mindless horndog in order to get anything more than what they the litteral elites chosen for a presumed suicide mission had received and were granted from the treasuries and museums of the Elves sustained by magic, rather than actual skill at the forge since they received a lessened gift from the Myar of that since he gave it all to some unimportant bearded race with no skills in forge craft (ignoring that they could even shape a stone that may or may bot have been a similarion) that he himself literally made.
Guest 2: 1) racism, the empire is fairly flexible and open minded all things considered BUT they're still not just a expy of an idealized version of Britain/America as a fantasy state. 2) Legal actions to try and set up protection for the WoW gnomes... and how are they going to learn of Glimdwarrow a place that only one race in all of Mallus knows the location of, and are far from keen on sharing the location of, plus they're far more likely to just rob a WoW Gnome or stab him in tbe back than seek their help, their fucking Gnomes man.
Guest 3: Yeah, and Karl name dropped who in this chapter. Basically its the actual Pope equivalent of the Warhammer world, this chicks cult has as many followers as there are people in Cathay and the military forces at are nominally part of the cult actually exceed the entite military might of the Empire... sadly the bulk of these military forces are too caught up fighting each other over the claims of which country their goddess took mortal form in and thus which nation is actually holy ground amd which isn't... which even warhammer fem-pope doesn't give two shits about, she just wants them all to unite to stop the coming end times or gonout kicking ass and taking names. and their goddess, her holy texts might as well be "how to civilization for dummies" and "an abridged sun tsu's art of war, now US army proofed"... and the Eatallians and tillians are still fucking it up.
Guest 4: On a fundamental level I want to say Ainor Warhammer Gods, but the state of existence of the Warhammer Gods brings them back to about equal. but certainly the Ainor are the more straightforward influential and world shaping.
Guest 5: Sí y gracias. Entonces, raza contra raza, se lo daría a los Reinos Ogros, han estado en todas partes y han hecho/comido de todo, mientras que los Vrykul son una raza en declive e independientemente no son tan impresionantes en comparación con otras razas de WoW. Hombres Bestia vs Saytrs De hecho, se lo daría a Saytrs. Sus más inteligentes, con mayores reservas de magia, y a pesar de no tener números, están coordinados... además los Dioses del Caos no los odian sin motivo alguno.
Guest 6: Or as food. As for the Harpies sadly that's a little harder to say thanks to Blizzard. Harpies are Night Elf friends now since reasons.
BloodRedRoses11: Well If the rumors were to be believed Amazon almost got the rights to Warhammer's entire IP, which would have doomed it to being extremely lazy, woke, and entirely self destructive.
And having once had insights into the inner workings of Amazon including some of the names and faces of the people behind one of the biggest technology (program) sales in human history... id say I have a bit of insight into the callousness of that company. Well lets just say that Amazon legitimately doesn't care about their products or the harm their products can cause, particularly to an IP or someone else's image. Legit Jeff probably cares more about image, and the good of people than his company does, and he's a IRL Lex Luthor. insight that I used to have into Amazon also warned me about a virus epidemic used as a excuse to conduct social experiments before a certain outbreak happened in a certain wet market.
But the above possible course is based in Rumor, could well be that all the rumor is that there was a typo in the contract that has no legal impact on anything.
As for the Broken Anduin... yeah, nah I'm ultra mocking this because everyone keeps telling me about the mental fortitude of the people of Azeroth, and how the Light basically gives you perfect therapy so you're always at your mental best... And then we see this the Pinnacle of the Light's human followers and the guy even the Dreanei think is WoW Jesus, and still clearly in touch with the light, and he can't handle the fact that he, not of his own will even, did a couple bad things... fucker did you legit think you won the Last War against the Horde via legitimate means, with SI:7 being at all involved? that's like asking... anyone, to think the overthrowing of a loved by the people south American government that was hurting stock investments of the CIA director, and the rebels had US provided guns and Marine support, was somehow a natural and legitimate uprising and in no way the result of a CIA director wanting to protect his personal profit margins. You young king, your hands were already filthy, now you just have to look at it.
Also its showing that Cryduin would have never learned from Star Trek's The Kobayashi Maru test, he would have eventually broken his spirit doing the test over and over again. Which is fucking stupid because that's clearly Blizzard trying to trash one of their better post WC3 characters. And FYI for anyone who doesn't know, the Kobayashi Maru test is an impossible mission, you either violate Federation Moral Code and/or Law, or you get destroyed, or you start a war...again violating Federation Laws. The test is to teach you that there are scenarios where you can not possibly do the right thing... which makes it horrific when in TNG the Federation had done away with the test entirely showing once again the arrogant worldview that Roddenberry and the Studio had adopted for Trek, even Kirk in his refusal of no-win scenarios technically adhered to the spirit of the test by cheating to win the test, because he still won in a way that violates Federation rules, just not the ones relevant to the test parameters.
Dragon King of the West: Yeah and there is a distinction but its hard to see, especially from the POV of the common Azerothean, especially since the Vlads bloodline don't lay out their entire back story, plan, and a continent list of weaknesses in a book in the middle of easy to access room like the main dining room. But of all the Undead in Mallus the Wights would be the most similar to the Forsaken, and yet also are very distinct. Their Wight Blades in particular being an item that would be terrifying even on Azeroth... thankfully Wights and Wight Blades are a rarity. And the Wights almost universally choose to be the servants of the Vampires, though there are cases of Independent Wight Kings, and of course famed Wights that serve Necromancers instead of Vampires.
IDK if there's much change in AoS, usually i want to first read the codex, then explore wikis and books, but haven't had the money to get the codex to know what's become of the Wights since Warhammer got replaced by a substandard copy that as of these last couple years apparently is able to stand on its own two feet finally.
But for the Forsaken Wights certainly must seem to a dark parody of themselves being everything they are, yet willingly existing on the other side of being from them... poor souls if they discover what, if anything is going on in the heads of the basic skeletons and zombies.
OscuroSignore-51: Shhhh, I'm trying to infiltrate the Undead, can't have them know I'm a fucking breather.
And we can not know what the Alliance's wider reaction to the Daemons will be as sadly they and the portals don't seem to mesh well, as not a single one has managed to get past, and even Valkia was (not yet in the timeline by this chapter, but in the previous book) rejected by the portals. But certainly all the people of Azeroth have seen is lesser Daemons and these were Azeroth's best who witnessed them, so not a good ground for judgement, just like Skarbrand would sadly not be a good ground for judgement as he is Skarbrand and sort of a big deal... now if GW had only made Kugath and Nikari a big deal like they should have.
JiggyliFAP: TLDR... ;)
But Chaos corrupts on all levels, the curse of Flesh while "impressive" as far as replacing a product with a cheap chinese knockoff can be, it's still well within the abilities of Chaos to perform, but here's the problem when judging Chaos vs say the Old Gods, the Old Gods are a active threat (i know sounds weird when everyone on Azeroth is as fucking passive as can be and can't get their own groceries without an adventurer holding their hand) but the Chaos Gods don't give a fuck. even if they are as I assume and seperate to some degree from their WH40K selves and then assuming that Mallus is the ONLY planet in the Warhammer Fantasy setting they are active on and the Old Ones never fucked up before or after their whatever they were trying to achieve on Mallus, the Chaos Gods don't have to try to win, they just need to wait, and make sure they win more than the other three. Everything else is just their servants or the natural influence of the Winds of Magic as tainted by Dhar. Hell Nagash turned immortal Daemon-like beings into Undead avatars of his will, and Nagash is a fucking human who got clowned on by a brat king and some rats, ans further clowned on by a half nude, oiled up perfect hunk of sexy barbarian. thanks to GW Riekland and certain elf island obsession people seem to forget just how powerful all the other Gods on Mallus are, and that even dead Gods can exhibit as much power over their world while being dead as the Old Gods can do while imprisoned.
Naaru count, unless you're gonna want to say that a certain leader of the Burning Legion is "just in his Fel Phase" because at almost every level the Naaru have been presented to us as the equals of the Titans, and Void Lords. Which its Blizzard if its a bad overused trope, you'd best believe they're going to beat it like a dead horse, just like GW and their excessive use of "he's a member of the church so of course he's daemon possessed and totally aligned with Chaos, they're the organization that is supposed to stop this exact thing so that naturally makes them the easiest targets and the most like to never ever notice something is off" ... which surely Blizzard hasn't done that exact... oh hey church of the Light notice your leader seems kinda voidish there.
name anyone else whose brought their god to stand among them in Warhammer Fantasy. that was one of the big setting rules was that Gods are too big for our petty existence, hell there's a huge controversy over Myrmidia because the rule and how she got around it, and yet the Horned Rat outright broke that rule and nothing happened to him, none of the other Gods even noticed/had a chance to do anything about it.
Except the machine of death would have to have a pull, rather than being more like a bowl at the bottom of a pool waiting for the stones to drop then breaking the moment someone drops a bigger than average soul...a soul so big and powerful a 20 man raid party killed it. So that suction power of the machine of death may as well be the amount of suction exhibited from the thrust port of a F-15 going full speed for all its worth, especially since WoW souls somehow still naturally fail to go where they're supposed to and we've seen unwilling and undeserving souls gracefully float down to be judged, hell DBZ King Yama's line was more chaotic.
And still missed a point, Vamp counts undead are all controlled and puppeted directly by them, the Wights are in turn more like willing slaves, at worst the Lich King could steal authority directly over some of the Vampire's undead but his power is also shown to not be global, and well the guy currently on the throne... fucking sucks at his job. If it was Arthas maybe there'd be a good point, but even Arthas needed intermediary controllers and various rulers to command and control his slaves... guys he had had slaughtered by murder hobos per his "brilliant" plan of replacing his best and brightest with some mindless murder hobos... what sort of grudge does Blizzard have against the Lich King, it feels like they hate him, they made Arthas a moron and his replacement... well dude never thought to buy a shirt in how many years?
There may be a plot he is enacting, but there's the thing. I've mainly been staying on the grounds of mortals... which I'm using definitions seperate from the One that Alexstrasza uses... because apparently she doesn't understand the meaning of most the words she uses, constantly doing the opposite of what she says, and clearly not understanding what defines the word Mortal... or moral... or natural... or yeah she really needs to go to kindergarten sometime I think she's overdue for starting basic education.
check that map again, generally i think driving a tank off a waterfall is a bad idea. and if you read the stories for the whole war, either the Horde has flying tanks or can teleport past or through the stupid wall of Wisps, or he got his heavy duty equipment to move around violating neutral territories... or there's paths that players wouldn't see on their gameplay maps and they should stop trying to tell me that gameplay is fact, because you don't send an army without supplies through a region that if scaled to the claims about a certain mountain should be hundreds of miles without some freaking supplies... but well it is Saurfang the man whose tactical brilliance amounts to going "charge headlong at the enemy on the other side of that river"... so maybe that's exactly what he did and 90% of his mean died of exposure or starvation before ever reaching the other side of Felwood...or just him telling them to die because his obsession with honor duels and fighting the dumbest possible way to the point of being outright dishonorable and insulting.
Again, they still wouldn't have that outside magic, they would then find themselves running out before they expect, or because they're Horde and Alliance, and capable of drawing on outside magic almost without thought, and loving to cast those bigger and better spells, makes sense that then they would struggle on a place that isn't overflowing in the stuff like Azeroth, and Dreanor and pretty much every one of the planets visited by the Titans and/or Dreanei. But that weakness, also comes with new challenges and other possibilities to explore and exploit... problem is the people in the Horde and Alliance who think there is a risk in snorting Felstone and want them not to snort the green magic dust, like that Prude Jaina who thinks that there might be something evil about it.and that they might have to actually listen to someone else rather than blindly barge into whatever and wherever they want and do whatever they want, like their the Federation or a Bethesda protagonist after mods.
I silently chalked it to Anduin or just the Alliance in general. Sort of a historical precedent was that most diplomats while getting paid by their masters would live off the generosity of their hosts, and this usually took the form of an Allowance that they had while in the kingdom.
Oh there's no doubt that the Skaven are all at each others throats, but credit is due to the Rogues of WoW. While there seems to be a wild variation in them from blatant and borderline more obvious than a 40K Kommando, to full on the best players ever controlling Agent 47, they should be able to make the whole thing either mysterious enough to trigger a full on paranoia attack, or so blatant that no skaven would ever believe the other Skaven actually tried using such a insultingly stupid minion.
Shame upon you, now you must either kill yourself or declare your rivalry and defeat him! Wage war!
It was a long battle, but the difference is well centralized warfighting, versus field command... and well even for modern warfare where the president can talk in your ear and see what you see in real time, leaving command of the field situation to the Pentagon and the White House has always been a terrible situation. But we can assume the high leadership of Azeroth were either in the field themselves or of the extremes of either so arrogant and distant or smart enough to not try to micromanage the troops.
Skipping down to the next part, there is a major farm aligned with the Scarlett Crucade, and Blizzard has shown they got most their supplies from outside their organization either from foreign donors, or via terroris...i mean peaceful donations from survivor towns all across the continent. Also there the fact of the question involving how much the Scourge and Forsaken have poisoned the land.
Hakuryuu: Plausible but the Scarlet Crusade weren't stating her, but another Undead, which is what made the whole thing even dumber, but if they hadn't been already by this point the Crusade were just a strawman expy of anyone Blizzard doesn't like. Like im certain that if not already then by next expansion Pirate Software's head will be made out to be a Scarlet Crusader for all the truth bombs he's been dropping about Blizzard and other studios over the last couple of years showing how internal politics and bad understanding of economics is at the core of why Blizzard and these other studios are failing. Such as how putting a permanent 60% discount to any game sold in Brazil will actually increase sales and cut down on piracy significantly and yet Blizzard instead just increased prices there, because Brazil between cost of living and taxes on video games including a import tax for downloaded videogames off steam make actually buying the games prohibitively costly for them and so most of the piracy a studio will face comes from Brazil.
'Being human'... looks at the massive blue man old enough to have shaken hands with Saladin, baldwin and King Richard... well considering what Alexstrasza says is "mortal" and "immortal" makes perfect sense. Problem is that Blizzard has vested interest in bending over backwards to make his prophecies, not necessarily his visions, but the prophecies themselves, true. also you best respect Velen's authoratay, otherwise a bunch of WoW players looking like 'that which has no life' will have Ssnipperwolf Dox you then hire coin assassins to run you over with their mobility scooters while stabbing you with their insulin pens. But if you do continue I do have some of Sigmar's Holy toilet water to anoint you with, and i promised Neptunia that if i like one of her games and give her cookies rather than praising goddess Iris Heart for stepping on me she may accept the quest to save you from Blizzard fanboys... maybe... if she's not too lazy.
And for understanding war, one of the few best hints is to find that one thing that doesn't exist. Because the E-4 mafia is a lie, a myth, we never hid in broom closets and warehouses pretending to work while actually sleeping. we we're never given shaddy as fuck orders by our NCOs to acquire materials, or to do certain tasks in a way the military would not approve of. and we certainly weren't dwelling in a place where god himself couldn't find us, listening for signs that there was some job that they actually wanted us to do other than cheating our way through all the tasks of the week so we could have a week long nap. Once you learn the ways of these nonexistent E-4s, and then learn the face of combat, combined with basic tactics then you know the face of war. Blizzard is full of criminally overworked people whose true motto is "work harder slaves, death to all thought" they can never know the truth of the E-4 and thus all war is to them, is another task, another chore with some flavor text on the side, they will never find a way to actually cheat their way into a victory, despite all the DBZ paced power creep, instead its all pure plot bullshit.
ScruffinMcguffin: Never, you pointy ear lover freaks need to learn your place. After all there is only one race that is truly good and wholesome on all levels, made victims by rampant Orc attacks, dolphin rapes, and even Elf and space elf arrogance, not to mention the blue space hippies. #Humanityfirst
the AOS gods being survivors of the universe blowing up and becoming a worthless pile of shit made via gay dragon sex... yup makes sense... too bad the AOS Gods are just shitty attempts to nostalgia bait on characters from better writing, and the whole concept of Gods being survivors of the last universe was EXCLUSIVE to a single elf goddess, who stated that it was exclusive to ONLY the elven Gods and all others were fake, aka the bitch who ruined all of Warhammer by litterly setting up the Elves to fail and backstabbing her own side and without her the End Times Chaos forces were so lackluster the Warhammer world would have won, OH and the universe after that she created she blew it up by looking at it meaning that theory was bullshit Elf God being off their rocker from the start... but its the End Times and the writing of the era of the War of the Beast in GW, so writing on the level of talentlessness that makes the final raid cutscene of WoW for Amirdrassil look like competent writing. never mind all the competent writing taking place after and before, End Times writing, the worst writing in Warhammer, somehow defines all of Warhammer.
And rather than allow Black Library to fix that shit, they left it, like Cawl has somehow become tolerable rather than an insulting ONLY named character to all the Admech... and he's a freaking Heretek who sided with Horus...and they actually made him into something tolerable and actually well written... still pretty insulting that he's the only Admech named character on tabletop. But AoS hasn't done shit to fix the End Times other than go "No see they're in AoS now and somehow so much cooler, never mind everything before none of their last lore matters"... CA has done more to fix the End Times books than Black Library.
Ravenguard0009: Other bit is that everyone forgets that the WW2 style paradrops were extreme high risk, moderate reward scenarios and all but abandoned by modern militaries, now its all precision drops usually the halo jump style forward observers and helicopter deployments. which ironically both of which could easily be simulated by WoW or really most fantasy settings with flying creatures/vessels but WoW has very decisively avoided those tactics at best leaving those sort of deployments to adventurer parties... which considering that the US uses those tactics with eighteen year old athletic alcoholics or as they sometimes like to spontaneously remind you "marines" you'd think WoW wouldn't leave those to the special forces/PMC equivalents of their world... but here we are.
Franz is just a awesome dude, proving that silver spoons don't always lead to entitled champagne Marxists who unknowingly and un-ironically quote Germany's funny mustache guy, but sometime it can lead to Chads to get out there and get shit done. "Oh a poor area striken with crime? lets make the biggest supporters of crime there compete to raise the quality of life, causing them to cut their support of the gangs and build even royal buildings for the state essentially for free for us. oh big bad ork coming, well time to beat his skull in with a fucking hammer, oh giant spider and goblin army, hold my ale."
MasterofNonebut1: Its really hard because the Forsaken are themselves pretty shady when it comes to the types of undead they use and what they're willing to tolerate as a whole fluctuates so dramatically. Like i remember when the Forsaken were cool with and routinely made mindless Undead, before we went friendship rays where people when turning undead just switched loyalties like a tan soldier getting thrown into a bucket of green paint, and then suddenly they were ALL aghast over the mere idea, including the worst perpetrators in making mindless undead.
deadliestfan: Well the DAOT humans did more or less almost exterminate all of humanity in their own hubris, and are responsible for destroying most of the DAOT tech themselves. We don't have the Eldar, Orks or Imperium to shift the blame on that one. Which is part of why I don't really like the Gnomes approach to science, to them Cecil B. Heimerdinger of LoL would be not conservative science, but out right Anti-scince... and well the results speak for themselves and Piltover was dealing with far less dangerous, less prone to misuse, and less prone to catastrophic failure technology.
In Warhammer Fantasy all wizards are capable of Empath powers, the winds themselves are drawn to and comprise certain emotions, and there's plenty of bleedover from empathic powers to telepathic, heck even X-Men had to go into a long thing differentiating the two abilities just to explain why a powerful Empath couldn't do the same things as Xavior or Jean Gray. But that makes it very possible for psychic type powers to display thanks to the Winds of Magic.
Yes SI:7 was deliberately making sure the information Sylvanas was getting was either out of date, or only arriving when they wanted.
And no not Pan's Labyrinth, the film Labyrinth with David Bowie as the Goblin King and Jennifer Connelly as the main girl who with her dog goes into a impossible magical labyrinth to save her baby brother from getting turned into a goblin. film had the guy behind the muppets doing a lot of very cleaver puppeteering making the entire labyrinth seem as whimsical as Wonderland, but as threatening as Mordor or the Mines of Moria. the reference is first in the 2008 chaos codex the Guardian of the maze accuses the girl and her black dog of cheating to pass all nine hundred and ninty-nine of the guardian of the maze's riddles, which is a direct reference to a early scene in the movie where the main girl 'cheats' to get past a impossible riddle, the results are different but the scenarios are similar.
I have no respect for the "tactical and strategic skills" of Azerothean leadership, and overall of their actual military capabilities, but there are fields where they by one virtue or another are far ahead of Mallus, this is one of them. though id say the distance would be shorter for Sylvanas unless were talking specifically from Nuln to Altdorf. Even the Azerothean "military"strengths are more in the realm of citizen's militia, either due to the absolutely shit discipline of their elite troops (an advanced rifle is useless if you use it as a fucking baseball bat at sports events and never clean or maintain the damned thing) or the legitimately impressive and exceptional capabilities of their civilian and paramilitary organizations... usually both.
which before i jump to the Scarlett Crucade I had a bit of a logic process that I figured I'd write down real fast. From what evidence I've seen, which there isn't much, but the Alliance and Horde practice a military arrangement that is a sort of disgusting hybridization if the modern US and Rome's... disgusting from the histographer side of me, not necessarily in concept. basically they rely on small forces to hold and garrison the "zones" each force in total being a small army by the Empire's standards based off what we see in game, in cutscenes, and short stories, but so spread out that they may as well be constantly undermanned. and then they seem to centalize the main armies around the cities where then in times of war they disperse them to the garrisons and have the reinforced garrison forces fight while the main armies then more or less have massive staring contests that then are interrupted by the pathetic villain of the week... i mean major threat to all life on Azeroth... or they actually go at it in some major battle that then is interrupted by a more successful villain of the week. ... and why the historgrapher in me finds it disgusting, modern US militaries station themselves outside the cities, typically on major logistical routes to keep the necessary food and supplies coming in, and Roman Legions were perpetually on the march as to prevent them from draining a local areas resources too severely since each legion was a small city's worth of people not even counting the camp slaves and hanger ons... these armies just sit in the cities directly... but again that's a histography gripe that can be applied to a shit ton of fantasy armies. in concept the arrangement works, but it also would keep the vast majority of battles very small in scale, especially if they break up the city armies too much to reinforce ALL the garrisons more heavily because they aren't willing to risk losing territory even if it means winning the major battle (if it even happens)... a very "fight not to loose" mentality, which Sylvanas seems to keep waffling on.
As for the Scarlet Crucade I more or less think that has to be it. Likely its some guy whose "always existed" but Blizzard has yet to make up whose been big on funding them since the start, either going to be a token racist or a sunk cost fallacy/zealot type
Orcbane: Well since everyone takes Lizardmen lore as Gospel even much of GW. Not really, they made Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves, so to improve they'd just make yet another race.