Jaina Proudmoore was quickly becoming a woman that Captain Günther was learning to dislike. Not only did she casually toss about magic like some evil wizard, but she also seemed to think that he was a native of Marienburg pretending he had the stomach for rolling seas. And she was demanding that he walk with the balance to keep pace with her damnable magic shoes; he was certain there was magic in her shoes, as humanity was never meant to walk on Manann's oceans as naturally as she walked across the deck of this ship.
But there was one other name Günther damned even more than Jaina Proudmoore's, and that was the bastard mercenary who got him into this situation. Somehow Eike Brunner has gotten involved in the battle at Mordheim and ended up on Azeroth, and from there began selling his services to anyone willing to pay. The Merc gained a reputation due to a mixture of talent and ignorance, and eventually word spread around Stormwind, and Günther was obligated by duty and honor to check on a fellow citizen of the Empire. That check-up led to the Captain learning of Jaina Proudmoore's journey back to Kul Tiras to bring them back into the Alliance and the possible other portal also on the Island.
"Damned duty." The Imperial Captain groaned, bending over to vomit off the side of the ship.
"Again?" Seconds later, a golden, soothing light touched Günther, calming his stomach and relieving his disorientation. Behind the captain, the sounds of hooves against wood clapped as the Draenei priestess, Avenah, walked over to put a hand on Günther, soothing his rebellious stomach further.
"You know you didn't have to come along. Wasn't Volkmar preparing to return to the Empire?" The priestess of the Church of the Holy Light asked while bringing the Empire Captain back to the middle of the ship.
"And let some unscrupulous mercenary be the first contact between the Empire and this Kul Tiras? I don't know much, but it's clear the Emperor will want to be informed of what happens when we arrive and of this other portal Jaina's been mentioning." With his reply, Günther sat while praying the ship would not rock so fiercely anymore.
"What? Do you not trust the Alliance after everything you've seen? I wore a freaking dress in your Empire. Why can't you show the Alliance the goodwill to think we have relations with one of our own allies well in hand? Relyea Redcap grumbled from where she lay on the deck, her Worgen form one of red and white fur with bright blue eyes as she lay atop her folded arms watching Günther and Avenah with her tail wagging lazily behind her.
Before an answer could come, the mercenary Eike Brunner appeared, his various daggers, pistols, and grenades still strapped to his chest while his armor was left discarded for the time being. Next to the mercenary Silandel Lividbrook, a void elf warlock, walked while shying away from Günther's glare. She was something Günther had to routinely remind himself was not a servant of the dark powers but rather, as they explained it, a cursed elf with Daemon-like familiars that weren't actually Daemons. Günther had heard rumors of wizard familiars before, but he hadn't expected them to be like this.
"Land Ho!" A voice cried from the crows nest above, causing the assorted adventurers, Stormwind Footmen, and Imperials to run to the front of the ship, eyes squinting at the horizon. But it would be another ten minutes before the mountains and hilltops of upcoming Kul Tiras came into sight.
From behind them, the captain announced that he would inform Lady Jaina, leaving everyone to either set to their eager work or to wait as the ship closed the distance towards the harbors of Kul Tiras. As the ship sailed, Eike looked up to the sky. "Sun's looking a little low; will it stay up long enough for us to reach port?" The mercenary asked.
At his side, Relyea shook her head. "Nah, Kul Tiras is on a similar longitude, and we have some pretty similar day cycles from what I've been told. The sun's probably going to set just before we reach the harbor, and by the time we make port and get off the ship, it'll probably be well into the night. They'll probably expect us to sleep on the ship and head out right before sunrise." With this, Eike groaned while walking back onto the ship while Günther sat down, readying himself for the final leg of the voyage before he could finally find himself on solid ground again, no longer having to fear waves any worse than what might be found on the river Reik and allowing him to return to his realm of expertise, solid land.
Silvermoon City was a hub of constant activity. It was now the center for all of the Horde's activities in the Eastern Kingdoms; any Alliance attack, any Horde offensive, each day's encampment, or troop movement was either reported to, coordinated by, supplied from, or countered by the city and its people.
Meanwhile the city was also in the midst of a massive construction project constructing a canal and harbor that would connect from the portal to the North Sea. While work on the harbor and canal went on, Rommath was building an entire structure meant to establish a limit on the portal's growth and also to try and pry the rift open more so the Horde could hopefully take advantage of the oceans of Mallus.
Rommath was even now providing Sylvanas a tour of the construct that would envelop the entire harbor. But the Warchief of the Horde couldn't concern herself with the artistry or the magecraft behind the construct; she needed to know when it would work. "This is all good, Rommath, but is it functional?"
The sin'dorei Grand Magister sighed as he was cut off in the midst of trying to explain the functional properties of his portal control construct. "Partially, the limiters are in place; however, the matrix for the shielding spells will need to be complete before we can engrave the runes to force the portal open more than it is open now."
Sylvanas scowled when Rommath wasn't looking at her. His work was perhaps the best in the world, but this was almost unacceptable. She needed the portal open now, in order to try and start her additional schemes, explore and secure the portal's other side on Mallus, start trade with the other kingdoms on Mallus, and counter the schemes of her own 'co-conspirators.' Her goal was to liberate Azeroth, the Horde, and herself and change the doomed course of this world.
"How is the portal now?" Sylvanas asked.
"Still small, at the current rate of expansion, I think the portal will be large enough for a goblin by late tomorrow and a Tauren two days from there." Rommath explained calmly while Sylvanas seethed at the news.
"What do you need to accelerate the process?" The Warchief demanded, looking out at the vast construction taking place.
"It's not an issue of manpower or supplies; this work requires the very best and is time-consuming to make sure each part is done with no possible errors. Even the Guardian would take significant time establishing a portal structure like this. This actually far surpasses the Dark Portal in many ways." Rommath stated with an air of superiority. "Additionally, these portals are still an unknown factor; what's creating them and how our world and Mallus have been connected are entirely unknown factors. For example, while the Dark Portal requires both sides' active participation to create it, it was primarily built from Draenor to Azeroth. Like someone throwing a rope, our side merely caught and anchored the magical connection that Gul'dan first threw out from Draenor. However, no one has been revealed either casting or catching the tether between our worlds, and unlike the Dark Portal and the immense power that was displayed in its creation, alerting every mage and spellcaster on Azeroth of its creation, these portals have been subtle and slowly eating away at the boundaries between our worlds. Like something that was cast or prepared long, long ago before anyone could have noticed, and we are only now seeing the results, or maybe this is an unintended consequence of the Dark Portal and its misuse."
Sylvanas held back from silencing the Grand Magister; while she cared not for such unpractical details, she certainly needed Rommath's favor, and these little details could still be of use to her in the future for how little she cared for the academic curiosity of it all. It did hint at a puppet master, one perhaps outside her scope of vision. Before she could ask Rommath for what could be serviceable information about the portals, such as if he had any clue as to when they might have first started to form, even as an invisible and incomplete magic tether activity in the harbor grabbed the Warchief's attention.
With a pulsing green light, suddenly the portal erupted into activity. And in an instant it grew in size, surpassing a galleon and consuming set-aside building materials, launching them through to Mallus, where they either fell to the ground or back through the portal before launching themselves at distant workers or destroying nearby construction projects. While the portal sat ominously open, its green light glaring upon Sylvanas as if the portal was challenging her.
Rommath was already shouting orders, checking the pillars of the dome he had built to contain and control the portal. While Sylvanas watched the portal while slowly walking around it. The portal was to a beach; a tide was slowly coming in, and likely the portal would soon enough connect the waters of Mallus to the open, unfilled canal being built to the North Sea. Though it all would certainly be at a trickle compared to the amount of water that would be needed to fill the artificial harbor and canal. Further around, Sylvanas could see cacti and a sparse few palm trees before the land seemed to give way to desert. Though one thing she noted was that the land looked like it may have been an island, and looking back out to sea, she could see a faint distant trace of land where a brown haze of a sandstorm could just be made out.
"The portal's secure, and the limiters are secure and in effect. If they hadn't been, the portal would have been three times as large as it is now." Rommath stated hurriedly while running back to Sylvanas.
"I thought it wouldn't be large enough for even a Goblin until tomorrow?" Sylvanas asked, her eyes focused on the portal between worlds.
"Something forced this one open. I'm going to contact my observers at the other portal sites to see if they noticed anything at theirs." But even as Rommath spoke, Sylvanas's focus was grabbed by one thing shining brightly during the other world's day. So much that it seemed to outshine the sun. A single green moon that seemed to have a grinning skull for a face leering down upon her, its green light burning like a lantern upon the portal. The fat, too-close moon also seemed to bear an engraving, a single rune, one that Sylvanas did not know, yet seemed to carry nothing less than jealousy and contempt.
She knew that she had to stand defiant; even if some god of this other world held contempt for her, was jealous of her being, her own spite and power would be more than its equal. She was the warchief of the Horde; she wouldn't stop until every human princeling who dared think themselves her better was made to kneel at her feet and all of Azeroth was liberated from the cruelty of those who dared think they could judge souls with heartless impunity in the afterlife.
"Prepare an exploration team; I want to know where on Mallus this is. Also prepare me a Zeppelin, the fastest available. I don't have much time and much to do." Sylvanas shouted her orders down to the work crews, letting Rommath and every member of the Horde know that now the portal was open for use and they needed to capitalize on every second they had to secure the other side and to utilize this advantage to its utmost.
Rommath stepped up next to Sylvanas. "With the two portals, I could possibly use a spell to find out the location on the map of Mallus within the next day since our allies were generous enough to provide us with a map. But what do you need a Zeppelin for on Mallus?"
Sylvanas shrugged. "I was told of an easy ally we could call upon from Mallus, if only the conditions were right, and now they are. We also need to prepare for further developments; the Empire seems to be at the gates of Mulgore. If the Alliance starts making new allies on Mallus, we will need to keep the advantage."
Alya Von Carstien sat back on the couch provided for her. These past few days had been rather eventful and certainly to her benefit. True that Grand Theogonist and those of Stormwind who supported him were proving to be a persistent pain in her side. But no matter how much mistrust for the undead they stirred and how much they brayed for their war to grow out of the control of Stromwind's handsome little King. In the end, those who were either reasonable, wanting to keep their list of enemies as short as possible, and those deluded fools who thought that spiritual surrender was a cheap price to pay for a moment's peace certainly outnumbered these war hawks, and with a little work, she could easily turn them against one another.
The thought of returning to Mannfred as the Vampress who defeated Volkmar, who drove those blasted mortal cults away from Stormwind, priming the city-state to become the Night Court's proxy, was too delicious. Then they could finally rule over the Empire. And who knew? Perhaps Azeroth would follow soon after? She could picture it now, Anduin as her cute little thrall eager to give her his blood while all of Stormwind was her fiefdom for her hard work and brilliant scheming.
"Now, Lady Von Carstien, is it true there are other vampires in your world? If we are to coexist, we surely will need an open and honest dialogue with one another." The Stomwindi nobleman prompted several of his friends and political allies, sycophants one and all, nodding along as he spoke.
Alya set aside the coffee she was drinking, the drink barely tolerable with a small dose of blood from one of her thralls added into the mixture. "Indeed, and that's why we must hurry to make this peace and our friendship a reality as soon as possible. The Empire, for example, is infested with vampires from the Lahmian sisterhood. Unlike the philosophy of the Von Carstein family founder, the Lahmians are nothing more than tyrannical and cowardly girls unworthy of even being thought of as true women. Where anyone under the protection of the Von Carstiens need only pay their tax and we protect and guide them, keeping war and nightmares at bay, the Lahmians instead hide behind men, sending unknowing slaves to fight and die for goals that serve no good purpose for the living. Vlad intended for us to be stewards of the living, our endless life and power to keep their worst and most routine mistakes from happening over and over again while our power holds the world's myriad threats away."
"That sounds like some reasonable logic from people who should be friends of the Alliance. Not something anyone from the Horde's murderous rabble would say. The Vampires of Sylvania are reasonable people despite the claims of the warmongers! One of the nobles had to interrupt shouting his 'revelation' to the assembly. Alya had to bite back a sneer; lessers should know both not to upstage those who are clearly their betters and that they shouldn't think aloud without permission.
Alya was about to use a backhanded compliment to silence the noble while still keeping up her charade of being willing to tolerate and cooperate with these scum as if they were her equals. However, before she could speak, the sounds of muffled voices, the clanging of metal, and eventually a pounding at the door stopped the discussion. Seconds later one of the nobles unlocked the door as a butler came rushing in out of breath. "Sir, I'm... Sir, the manor is under attack. A mob is invading, led by Adventurers. I think it's the militants faction; they have already penetrated the manor gates and are in the halls. You must flee."
Even as the butler finished his sentence, armored figures stepped into the doorframe behind him. The first, which dominated the door, was a pale Elf who wore thick armor plates and carried a aura of frozen death while their sword glowed with magic runes. The butler's blood slowly froze into the evil-looking elf's blade, her arm casually outstretched as the weapon had forced its way through the old mortal's back and out his chest.
Alya had to sigh; now she had to make good on her earlier claims. Mortals were short-sighted and foolish that way, questioning her intents if she didn't immediately take to their own personal defense, despite the obvious reality that one, a hundred, or a thousand mortals dying didn't matter so long as the mortals under her as a whole survived since they could eventually breed replacements. But they were always so selfish and like children, thinking she had to take care of their own personal needs. Of course she doubted she could match this elf, but that's what servants were for. "Abram!"
Let them see the power of a lich against this world's elves and despair in their own inferiority. The elf looked at her while slowly pulling her blade from the butler's back. Behind the elf, a dwarf sighed while slapping his palm to his face, and a walking black-and-white bear-woman in Cathayan garb gasped before shouting at her companion. "Nelysea! That man was almost certainly innocent! We're supposed to be killing the bad people; that's literally everyone else in this room."
The Night Elf didn't look back as she answered. "And he's part of everyone else, unless you want to be included with my victims." These 'adventurers' were still there, Abram's spell not happening.
"Abram!" Alya roared, but the expected spell still never occurred, and the Vampress turned to glare at the lich, except he wasn't there; instead, the side door was open, and the nobles of the room were only just starting to think of moving for it. The bastard had abandoned her; she would have to punish him once she caught him.
Red armor moved past and in front of Alya. Henrietta drew her own sword, which glowed with magic power, as the other Vampress opened with her challenge to the Death Knight. "I've been interested in seeing the martial might of a Death Knight after I first heard of your orders. I am Henrietta of the Drakenhof Templars, worthy recipient of the Von Carstein name, Lady Alya's champion. Is thine sword worthy?"
With powerful strides forward, the Death Knight and the Blood Knight clashed, allowing Alya to swiftly push past the now-dueling pair. Her hidden sword lashing out and cutting a shallow gouge out of the Dwarf's armor as well as through the Dwarf's cheap axe while her claw lashed out for the bear-woman-thing. Only for her claw to be met by another as some sort of wolf-tiger hybrid forced her hand away as lances of magic struck her in the face, and yet another elf, this one lithe and blue-skinned, appeared, his twin blades stabbing into the small gaps of her armor and then finishing by thrusting into and creating a hole in her throat.
With a hiss, Alya called upon her own dark powers to heal the wounds, her body reforming itself even as she and these so-called 'adventurers' clashed. The swordmaster elf pressed on Alya while the dwarf ran back away while working on unstrapping a handgun from his back. Meanwhile the tiger tried biting and clawing at Alya's back even as the other started chanting for some spell. Alya assessed the issue and chose her course; she allowed the elf to stab her back as she turned, backhanding the tiger and throwing her sword, which flew faster than a mortal eye could track and stabbed deep into the bear-woman's thigh.
Roaring with mild pain as the swords tore away at her back flesh, Alya lunged for the bear woman, only for the tiger to somehow change, transforming into a bear itself that pushed Alya through a wall. But at this point she had made a good enough showing, and the nobles had mostly filed out of the room. Perhaps now would be the best time for her to disappear.
However, someone grabbed the Vampress from behind, evading her unnatural senses, and then she felt a mixture of powers strike her at once. A burning Holy Light that seeded her flesh, while she could feel a compulsion press into her mind as she was forced to look up and back. Then the one holding her let go, and Alya could see that she was now in the middle of a crowd; most of them were nothing more than peasants, while others looked like lesser priests and lightly equipped militiamen.
At the center, though, were two figures. The first wore the familiar armor of the Reiksguard. the other, despite the makeup, illusion, and Alya's weakening focus, she could still recognize through the hate in her eyes and the subtle fang in her spiteful grin. "Tar...Tar—" Alya tried to gasp out the other vampire's hateful name, but her mouth was closed by her opposite's powerful grip as she lifted her.
Tarei and Alya didn't need words to speak; magic easily conveyed everything without either needing to utter a breath. 'Hello sister. I've come to see you dead, for Aleksandr's sake.'
Alya's blood started to flow, her rage making it burn in her veins. How dare Aleksandr's abomination think of her as a sister! How dare it think itself worthy of taking her life! She was a true Von Carstein, a member of Mannfred's Night Court, his messenger! She was greater than this wretch could ever be!
'Oh, and since they'll benefit greatly from this...' The vampiric abomination smiled, hiding its unworthy fangs. 'For the Horde.' And then the worthless thing slammed her into the ground, its other hand molesting her neck while grabbing at her necklace. Did it think to rob her? Was it so stupid as to think a worthless pearl necklace was important to her?
"Let go of me, you wretch!" But Alya was silenced, magically her tongue restrained, preventing her from forming words. Then Tarei's fist struck Alya's face while her other pulled away, holding her now broken pearl necklace high into the air.
As her vision began to fade, neck broken and certain to take time to mend itself, she could hear Tarei shouting to the crowd. "Behold! She is a Horde spy! These vampires are servants of Sylvanas! Parade this deceiver before Stormwind Keep! Let everyone see the folly of trusting the undead or thinking peace is possible. We must stand united against them and demand an invasion of Sylvania!"
Despite the pain, Alya pondered what lunacy could be driving Tarei to even demand such actions. So Alya turned her broken neck to look up at the defilement of the purity of the Von Carstein bloodline. There she stood with her arm in the air, holding Alya's pearl necklace high, but hanging off it was a magical device, something the Azerotheans used for some sort of scrying for communication, and etched into the crystal and colored in red was the runic symbol of the Horde.
"Halt! State your intentions!" A row of mounted soldiers demanded their lances leveled at the assembled crew who had left the ship.
"I am Jaina Proudmoore. I am here for an audience with Lord Admiral Katherine Proudmoore. I bring representatives from the Alliance and the Empire of Man with me." Jaina Proudmoore explained calmly despite the spear tip less than inches from her face.
"Oh, we'll take you to Katherine, alright. You're to answer for your crimes against Kul Tiras. And don't think making up some nonsense nation is sparing your friends here either. They in on whatever conspiracy you've been plotting?" The lead soldier stated while Günther blinked in surprise as a fresh line of lances were leveled with his head.
"As you wish. But this man is a representative of the Empire of Man; just check with the Alliance." Jaina responded while Günther leaned away from the blade point in his face.
"We'll let the admiral decide that." The officer then stated before riding ahead as Jaina and the rest were now being escorted through the streets of Kul Tiras. "Clear the way; dangerous prisoners coming through!"
Despite the early hour with the sun not quite yet shining, crowds soon gathered around, and soon shouting could be heard. "It's the daughter of the sea; she's come to kill us all!" One voice cried out as a man went into a panic, running away at the mere sight of Jaina Proudmoore.
"Eh, I didn't know your boss lady was that scary. Back in Mordheim she seemed rather noble." Eike Brunner snarked to Silandel and Relyea while walking with the Alliance adventurers a fair distance behind Jaina and Günther.
"Eh, this is the first time I've ever seen or heard of her getting this sort of reception. Fuck these guys; they might as well be Horde for how they're treating us. At least the walking stick up the ass up there arrested us after we killed some scumbags." Relyea joked back, but as Günther looked back in quiet and immeasurable concern, Avenah was already silencing her companion with a glare.
"What?" In response to Relyea's question, Silandel bumped the other woman walking past her up to Jaina.
"The city guard is as professional as ever. They were my father's pride. And now they see me as a criminal. I'll endure what I must... for the Alliance." Jaina muttered, a layer of pain in her voice.
However, before Günther could question what that meant, the commotion increased as they neared the city keep, which a nearby sign informed the Empire Captain was named Proudmoore Keep. And swiftly each of the Alliance and Empire representatives were rushed into the main courtyard just as the sun began to light and warm the city. And then, after but minutes of waiting in the courtyard, the Keep's doors opened, and two finely dressed women stepped out. One elderly and gaunt with a commanding presence, the other a fine, plump woman of clear aristocratic bearing, a fine woman by Günther's appraisal, though with enough to tell him that she was certainly too old to be courted.
Once she had taken her place standing at the center of the courtyard's stairs looking down upon them all, the elder woman, whom Günther now assumed was Lord Admiral Katherine, spoke. "So my wayward daughter returns to the kingdom she betrayed, dragging a menagerie of ne'er-do-wells with her. Why?"
The woman's disdain struck Günthor shortly after by the revelation of what was said. He had some sense that Jaina was on bad terms with her home country, but treason? And this was her mother? But why wasn't her father the Lord Admiral? Were women somehow lucky upon the seas here rather than routinely spited by Manann and his unrequited lusts? However, the conversation stayed away from those topics for now as Jaina spoke. "I have come to ask Kul Tiras for aid on behalf of the Alliance and to help open negotiations with the Empire of Man."
The noblewoman next to Katherine scoffed and stepped forward. "The Alliance? Ha! Where were they when we begged for their help? When our sons and fathers, and brothers and daughters, were slaughtered at Theramor?" The noblewoman almost sounded like she was weeping as she spoke.
"Don't blame the Alliance for my mistake." Jaina stated coldly while Günther balked at the realization. If Jaina was considered a traitor, she must have either failed at something that cost these people Theramor and fled or, worse, actively gave this Theramor over to their enemies.
"So you admit it? You admit you were responsible for the deaths of our men!" The woman pressed a new venom in her voice.
Meanwhile, next to Günther, the light seemed to drain from Jaina. "I was." And the crowd burst into murmurs while Jaina stepped forward. "But I will do anything in my power to ease the suffering of Kul Tiras." The Alliance woman proclaimed while Günther continued to question what was happening; a traitor was always guilty of treason; betrayal was a hallmark of Chaos, or so he had always heard from his tutors, sergeants, and the priests of Sigmar.
The noblewoman stepped back. "Katherine... You must enforce our laws. The punishment for treason is death." Meanwhile the Lord Admiral looked down upon Günther and Jaina imperiously while not paying any heed to the others assembled.
The Lord Admiral then walked towards Jaina. "Do you accept the judgment of your homeland?" Günther could feel the cold steel of the assembled soldiers of Kul Tiras press closer to him.
"I—I'm not part of this judgment, right?" The captain could feel a cold panic in his stomach; this wasn't at all what he had expected; he hadn't even considered that he was escorting a known traitor back to her homeland.
"I accept your judgment... mother." Gunther's mind raced, by noble and he supposed what may be royal right Katherine could pardon or lessen Jaina's sentence, but still, what about himself? Would they be so spiteful as to execute him for association? Günther had heard of nobles in the Empire, from all across the Old World, who certainly would, but were these people like that?
Katherine ran her hand across Jaina's chest, and for a second, Günther held hope that perhaps a mother's love was something more than royal duty, that absurd and against good reason as it was, Jaina would be spared, and he would thus be far from any ill will himself. But then the old woman snatched some pendant from Jaina's neck, making Günther question just how brazen and foolish this Jaina woman was. "You are no daughter of mine." And then the Lord Admiral turned to walk away. "Do with them as you will. They are nothing to me."
As Katherine left, the noblewoman smirked. "Lock them up; they are guilty of treason and conspiracy against Kul Tiras." At this the guards started to push Günther.
"Wait! Wait! I'm here on behalf of Volkmar the Grim, Grand Theogonist of the Empire of Man! You can't do this!" Günther shouted as the men began to pull at him, already disarming him and locking him in chains.
"And shut that liar up; we have no need of useless prattle coming from a man seeking to deceive us." As the noblewoman spoke, Günther felt a metal rod strike his skull, and his vision blurred, then something that smelled was put before him, and the world turned dark as sleep overcame him.
Towards the back and out of notice, drawn back into the crowds by Eike, Avenah, Relyea, and Silandel watched on in horror. "Yeah, take that traitorous bitch and let's see 'er hang! Death to liars!" Eike shouted while slowly stepping back, pulling at Silandel and Avenah's sleeves. "Time to go."
The quartet slowly broke away from the main crowd, which was now watching and jeering as Jaina and Günther were being dragged away in irons. Yet they remained mostly inconspicuous, or at least as inconspicuous as a brightly dressed man, a void elf, a Draenei, and a Gilnean in Kul Tiras could be as the mercenary boldly walked in the direction he had noted an inn at on their way through the town streets. The confidence in Eike's walk seemingly easing people's initial suspicions.
However, Avenah struggled to process what she had witnessed. "They can't do this! Jaina's a hero of the Alliance. She—she..."
"Shhhh. It's alright." Relyea assured her friend, rubbing the priestess' back as they walked.
"Eh, my line of work, one man's hero, is a hundred other men's villain." The mercenary stated calmly while walking up to the inn doors, where he noted and tried to read the sign before pouting and pointing to it.
Silandel sighed. "It's a price listing; I can cover us for now." The Void Elf explained with some mild frustration.
"Well, that sounds great. Let's get a room." As Eike spoke, they all headed in, and after several minutes they had two rooms purchased for the week, and the quartet swiftly moved up to them.
Once inside, Silandel glared at Eike. "You're just fine letting your paymaster die like this?"
Besides, Silandel Relyea began to growl, shifting to her Worgen form. "Günther was right: men like you are scum."
"No, men like me aren't behind bars. And I really want this extra money; this whole thing with your world and the Alliance and the Horde is really looking bad for my future prospects back home. I might as well make up bogus stories about these adventures and try selling the books for all the good this experience has done me. But damn, this is so outlandish it's not even going to be entertaining. That author, Felix, his stories at least give you that kernel that maybe, just maybe, it would be possible despite the fact you know it's all a load." Eike announced while dropping onto a nearby bed.
"Then why didn't you help them?" Avenah nearly shouted at the brightly dressed Imperial.
"Because we were outnumbered and surrounded. But now we have time to prepare. So, who here has experience pulling a jailbreak? Because I have no clue what to do from here."
AN: Merry Christmas yea filthy aimals, and happy new year.
Reviews:
Guest 1: how Blizzard retconned Thrall genuinely pisses me off. He went from a well intended leader stuck with a overall bad situation, to a self righteous asshole whose entirely to blame for Garrosh's actions and partially responsible for Sylvanas. Because he CHOSE to make the Horde occupy land that was barren and worthless so as to make them suffer for actions he himself, a young adult, never even took part in, but had the balls to assume every other orc past and future was guilty for. He guaranteed the Horde would HAVE to raid the Night Elves territory for resources in the future for their own survival, and I mean that's the original game narrative going into WoW was that the entirety of the Orc-Night Elf conflict was that the Orcs desperately needed everything they were fighting the elves for because rather than living in the claimed and entirely farmable and actually quite good Barrens the Orcs lived in a worthless wasteland even Warhammer Orks would find difficult to try and stay in. And now thanks to Blizzard and their shallow strawmaning and self righteous moral grandstanding it's all Thrall's fault... Also doesn't help that Blizzard doesn't know what a war crime is and Garrosh genuinely didn't commit any until after landing on Pandaria and Jaina's a hypocritical little wannabe war criminal herself... But she's who Thrall views as one of his best friends so it makes sense.
Guest 2:so to make sure you get a fair explanation I'll assume you know minimal of either race, but also give you the abridged and snarky version for both. So the Warcraft Ogres are a de-evolution of a de-evolution of a Kaiju race meant to keep balance in the planet that would later be named Draenor, and since WoW is all about Light supremacy, that's apparently the only name the planet would get because fuck if the Ogres and Orcs were there first and were certainly developed enough to have a name for the planet, the Draenei came and "pacifisted" so well with their weapons that they got to rename the entire world after themselves. But fyi Orcs are the chiwawa offspring to the Ogre's Siberian Husky.
But since plot is merciless to you if you're not from the Light or worshipping Anduin, (and alliance fanboys reading this notice that the Night Elves don't do either and they also get the shit end of every deal) So the Ogres despite developing a Empire that was certainly "not" a lazy copy paste of the Romans, got their shit kicked in by the Dreanai for daring to ask these people to pay back taxes for the land they crashed their space RV on and been squatting on for the last couple years. And they got their shit kicked so bad they developed genetic brain damage and ended up being made the slaves of the Orcs. Then the Orcs invaded Azeroth thanks to being tricked and sort of possessed and certainly corrupted by demons. And now the Ogres are barely scraping by living off the Horde's scraps, if Blizzard can be bothered to remember they exist. They spent some time as bandits on Azeroth between the first two wars and Warcraft 3's great war, and were slowly spread across most the planet by various bandits, pirates, and other renegades willing to tolerate them in exchange for their crude strength and intimidation factor, also helps that some Ogres have the stupid gene skip them by mistake allowing them to be quite brilliant, enough so to see into the future and realize that Blizzard planned to retcon Thrall into a hypocritical moronic ass and thus reject his offer to join the horde, but typically those ones then get into HP Lovecraft and decide that multi-eyed tentacle gods are cool.
Generally they are very tall with their average tallest being 12 feet tall, plenty strong being about twice as strong as a Tauren... And as dumb as that one evil Highschool bully is... In the heads of Hollywood writers who can't seem to let go of their time in Highschool. But by cooperating with the Horde they generally make up for most their shortcomings and form some generally solid communities and can be relatively peaceful...so long as you're not a metaphorical Roman to their metaphorical Vandal.
As for the Warhammer Ogres they are the brainchild of some very desperate Old Ones who were seeing the clock ticking down on their doomsday clock, and they needed that final ultimate weapon to fight chaos. They needed something strong, resistant to corruption, able to survive anywhere, eating anything, and obedient. They succeeded in all these things... But forgot one crucial detail, they forgot to install a brain into their hotrod of Chaos destruction. The Ogre's of Warhammer were perfect, to such an extent that like a Hippo they have no natural predators and began to lay waste to their local ecosystem, including laying waste to the Sky-Titans devastating them so badly their inbred descendants with perpetual retardation are now known as the Giants and are still far too few and far in-between. As the Ogres spread looking for food and new land for their ever expanding numbers, the Dragon Emperor of Cathay said "fuck you" to the simple and good Ogres and dropped a space nuke on them so overpowered it punched a hole through the planet. A sentient hole called the great maw, which made the hungry Ogre survivors even hungrier, infecting them all with its never ending hunger... And lucky for the Ogres they were made to survive off a diet or rocks or even diamonds if they had to. Starving, dramatically few in number compared to before the great maw's explosive arrival, and while wiser still not that bright, the Ogres turned to being bandits or Mercenaries in order to find their next meal and have spread across the world looking for someone exotic and new to eat.
Warhammer Ogres stand in the realm of 9 to 10 feet tall, and are about as wide around, with a terrifying muscle to fat ratio when you see how much fat they have and realize that most of them are more muscle than fat. They can eat any Daemon and by doing so permanently kill the Daemon, something that usually requires having the Daemon's true name, or a high end magical weapon even for a lesser daemon.
The Warhammer Ogres as a society are independently better off than the WoW ogres. GW hates their fans, not any in universe and meta thing that doesn't worship what they worship unlike Blizzard. Culture and Unity on face value goes to the Warhammer Ogres, but the WoW Ogres have a green skinned sugar mama in the Horde whose willing to substitute their culture for them and give them something to rally around. Warhammer Ogres while their culture certainly has a hierarchy and many unifying factors, they'll fight each other, split into factions, and generally work for anyone so long as they get food or pay by doing so and few if any of them really care for any high minded ideals, why waste that time when they could be getting food, getting weapons to get food with, or getting coin that they can use to get food and weapons with. As for military again the Horde sugar mama comes into play, without the Horde the Ogres of WoW stand little real chance with their basic wooden clubs vs the wooden clubs with metal spikes and worse yet, guns of the Warhammer Ogres. But the WoW Ogres have so much in terms of tech such as sharpened metal rod, and even better gun given to them by the Horde, still thanks to Blizzard the Warhammer Ogres have a distinct advantage in numbers and a slight edge in average intelligence.
Guest 3: getting a little confusing there, do you mean the Necron's World Engine built and used by the Necron and destroyed by one of the only cool space Marines out there? Also the Gnomes have no industrial capability, that's the Dwarves of Ironforge the Gnomes are a species of entitled college students and college professors who throw a tantrum when their newest security robot is outsmarted by a crayon eater in a cardboard box. And then it's still very unlikely that the Gnomes or DwarVes can outproduce the Empire. Break Bulk's monopoly sure, and whole the Ratios look good for the Alliance, it's the unspoken part that's the issue, that "well then why not produce enough tanks, why not have a full air fleet and arm every soldier with a gun that renders any and all use of metal object on a stick a pointless waste of time? The invisible production cap of Azeroth, which my theory is that they rely too much on mcguffin materials like magic rocks to produce their weapons and vehicles, but this is a huge problem when the question is scale. The ratio for Skaven tech to Skaven is abysmal, but they Skaven thanks to scale can have Rattling guns, Lightning Cannons and Rate Ogres and other such nonsense in almost every single conflict where Azeroth a Siege Tank, Dire Troll, etc. is a once in a blue moon even if the writers remember it exists type weapon/unit. Meaning that it would be possible to break the not actually existing (altdorf exists after all) Nuln Monopoly on gun production.
ravenguard0009:also the "extra space" with the Empire and the perception of safety can allow the Alliance to rebuild stuff they haven't even bothered with even trying to restore since the fall of Lordearon, despite how vital it would be to restore.
As for Gotrek and Felix they're already in the shadowlands fighting the Jailer, Blizzard Devs are trying to figure out how the Jailer Raid boss has already been defeated before the release of the expansion was even announced.
As for Anduin and Mallus, he wants to control the escalation with Mallus since the Vampires and Skaven were complete blindsides of the Alliance and the Beastmen were able to attack an Imperial army in the core of Imperial territory, and then Cathay was something entirely unexpected and still unreadable. Plus his nightmares. Anduin has reason to be cautious.
Hopefully this chapter answered that Question. I had been planning on this for a while actually. And she's not that high ranking outside the fact of racial privilege due to being a Draenei and being default favored by the Naaru.
Well the first war was "Vlad's fault" and they still almost succeeded. And the second was all "Konrad's fault" and the third well Mannfred's never going to make the same mistakes twice and is "so much smarter now".
Problem with Gelt and our beloved Iron Dragon is that not only do we have the family politics to consider and then Felt is prone to asking for forgiveness rather than permission... Something that's extremely frowned upon by the Cathayans especially in context of the Dragons.
Antonio ranza: There's still more lore reasons why the pair can't... Man end times really fucked with best couple's usability in just God awful ways.
micelzod: The Alliance aren't stupid, just ignorant and too used to Villains making their weakness a glowing easy to hit, obvious point that effectively auto kills them rather than other RPG villains where you need to get the right items and situation etc, just to stand a chance the villains in most WoW stories do all that heavy lifting for the Alliance... Or someone else where you then question why they didn't just do it themselves since they can instant kill a full eighty man raid without even channeling a spell. Give the Alliance a chance to be smart, and give someone other than the same freaking "were perfect good guys, ignore the war crimes we do because we're good guys" characters some screen time and the Alliance gets smarter and a lot more interesting. what you don't like Anduin mimicking his bio-dad in an attempt to mimic Daddy Saurfang's obsession with suicide?
Hakuryuu: well besides the fact this is the second time you've read this scene, just with the POV altered. But yeah for Shaw canon lead up to the Blood War was the showing that there is no Horde counter to SI:7 that his agency holds absolute power, but here outside unknowns and snap decisions broke that power and put some casualties and failures under his belt that didn't require the plotting of multiple Gods of Multiple pantheons to achieve.
But Hakuryuu people die when they are killed! ;P Alliance (and Alliance players) hasn't realized how much grief Blizzard has saved Azeroth by not treating it as a living world, because the Horde would either be entirely wiped out, or bitter and desperate with everyone willing to do anything to get out from under the Alliance boot heel. Since the "new Alliance" is pretty much just the old Alliance minus it's elves and Kill Tiras, plus the elves that were a heartless global super power by themselves. And that later would gain a interstellar hyper-power into their ranks, and regain Kul Tiras... While a bunch of desperate weaklings would keep flocking to the Horde. That's a recipe for much, much worse wars or much much lamer than what the 4th war turned out to be.
Amanwithhobbies:They've already gotten a taste of of it. But really they Skaven are stuck with such choke points that it would take, by Azeroth's stupid standards, faaaaar too long for the Skaven to gather the numbers, so they might as well prep for a short almost instant 1 million years since they can't just already instantly have such numbers on Azeroth all teleported in a instant.
OscuroSignore-51: I wouldn't go that far. But if you apply living world logic to Azeroth and think of just how important Engineering Institutions and higher education is presented with every magic whatever being a "college of" or "school of" then Azeroth's scientific community has actually been destroyed and never allowed to recover. And this is because I'm reality Azeroth is a world in decline it's suffering in the same way most people mock the Imperium from Warhammer 40K, yet it gets praised for their current accomplishments where the Imperium is looked down on. But Azeroth's barely reclaimed some things that otherwise would have been entirely lost, had to give up territory to mindless beasts, and then give up territory to cult born mutants, and scraped by with just avoiding total annihilation by the hands of other worldly demons. The lack of any respite for Azeroth is also telling. If it wasn't a MMO by Shadowlands the Horde would have been entirely broken with no leadership, no internal trust, and too few numbers to effectively do anything since they let mass suicide obsessed idiots march their troops in line formation with melee weapons into fantasy machine gun nests. While the Alliance would be on the verge of cracking under the pressure as they've gone through countless genocides, nuclear bombings, and non-stop war all with pitiful numbers to start with. I mean the total human population on Azeroth has to be comparable to the Empire of Man, or the Old World in general, and the Empire of Man is the second or third most populus nation of humans after Cathy's confirmed number 1 and Ind's as of yet unconfirmed position on the scale. Azeroth desperately needs something to ease the pressure so they can recover.
Shadowmam234:The mysteries of what shall come continue to abound but this story has now passed to the "siege of Mulgore" period and hopefully "soonish" will pass into "post Mulgore".
MadFrog2000: At times I Hate my obsession with detail... I'm even watching old let's plays of Kul Tiras' storyline just to try and make sure I'm not missing a line of dialogue or lore detail so I can use it all for the further evils I intend.
deadliestfan:forgive me for keeping this short but is doing weird things to your reviews so they dropped off my timeline. But the problem is more with Blizzard's writing. Like ironically the Kul Tiras campaign really shows the combination of bad writing, subpart acting and strawmaning that happens namely to try and present the "perfect" alliance. I mean Jaina honestly comes across as sociopathic and far, FAR from actually sympathetic for the losses of Kul Tiras with the exception one line, and even then everything else written and on the quest text, she's more doing everything because she has to rather than because she cares about Kul Tiras. And so it's clear that anyone who could have presented the Alliance as having diversity of thoughts and opinions instead they're all Anduin foot lickers because the writers can't stand the idea of the Alliance not being perfect... And in their mind a boss surrounded by a bunch of yes men is perfection. Thus why people like Rogers get sidelined in what should be their moment in favor of people who have no stake in what's happening rehashing story arcs they already went through. Which emphasis that's a Blizzard problem, which reflects poorly on the Alliance but isn't directly the Alliance's problem... What is directly the Alliance's problem is just how few named characters exist, there's more named characters in Vampire Coast, than there are among the Stormwind nobles, and Stormwind is more or less the capital of the Alliance with the "lesser" states more or less blindly following what Stormwind says with little input.
As for Anduin, it's hard trying to balance what should be his personality, with a living world take of the Azeroth. But I think I'm general on the political side I've got him in a good spot. Problem is the influence of his suicide daddy and how his actual daddy died that eventually completely ruins his character when it's finally time for him to have his mettle tested and his leadership really put to the test.