 World Builder
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Texas, USA
Posts: 32,567
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Part 2
Quote:
The Alliance assault on Forsaken holdings in northern EK is BRUTAL, they do not spare any Forsaken they capture. They're destroyed regardless of whether they're combatants or not, either due to being seen as evil or out of a sense of mercy/pity. Non-Forsaken are imprisoned and carted deep within Alliance territory, divided up between Stockades, The Dark Irons prisons in Shadowforge, or given over to the Lightforged to be... 'purified'.
Meanwhile, the Night elves and Velen's draenei are FLOORED by this news. They Were Not Consulted. Beyond a recall of Worgen from nelf territories months prior in preparation for the meeting with Calia, they hadn't received much communications with EK at all and had still been gathering Azerite and carting it to Silithus. Are they at war with the Horde now? Why? Things have been running smoothly since the end of MoP where they *Allowed* the Horde to keep Azshara and access to the eastern bits of Ashenvale.
Some nelfs are onboard with the conflict and others are concerned.
Mostly, Tyrande is pissed she wasn't consulted by this gaggle of humans about a war that affects the whole Alliance WHILE THE WORLD IS DYING and is upset the dwarves and gnomes just... went along with them.
Anduin IS sorry about this, he ACKNOWLEDGES it was a jerk move but he didn't want to give the Kalimdor horde any heads up even if he was certain Baine and Saurfang wouldn't or couldn't get to Sylv in time. He also didn't want to make it look like Baine or Saurfang sold out the Forsaken by giving any warning at all, since that would make THEIR position harder at negotiations afterwards.
Sylv is dumbfounded. She never knew Anduin had it in him, but in a meeting with the remaining Desolate council going over the forces arrayed against them... she sees all her short term decisions over the years... preparing their Blight-Plague and securing the Forsaken in EK by killing folks in Hillsbrad and such, brutally invading Gilneas and trampling Ambermill despite its neutrality, strongarming Lor'themar... and realizes how each one has blown up in her face to leave her isolated.
She's not beaten yet though, and she's not going to make this easy for the Alliance. After they stomp Hillsbrad in traditional warfare, she's switches to full on Guerilla tactics, her experience as a ranger and against the scourge on full display here as she makes the alliance bleed for every inch, openly blighting areas as she loses them, having banshees and val'kyr free feral scourge or direct them towards the Alliance, squirreling up in Alterac (Frostwolves sit out the fight until the alliance goes after them for harboring Forsaken refugees, then they join in), the worst abominations they can manage, even remnants of the Syndicate hired on as infiltrators and mercenaries.
It's not enough.
The Alliance is still winning, just more slowly, Anduin hasn't even resorted to bringing out the Vindicaar yet, it's a symbol of victory over the Legion, he doesn't want to use it in a conflict like this. But he can't afford to slow down, he doesn't want to give the Kalimdor Horde time to react, or the blood elves time to move south.
Instead, Anduin brings up the Alliance Navy to pincer attack at Gilneas, they smash through the Forsaken's ships allowing the Alliance forces to take the peninsula, then circle around all of Silverpine from reclaimed Gilneas and into Tirisfal by boat, and lay siege to Undercity. The Alliance's navy is in tatters from Legion already, and cutting through the Forsaken has weakened it more, but they're entrenched by Scarlet Monastery and victory seems inevitable.
Back In Kalimdor, the Horde is trying to figure out what to do. Do they need to prepare for attacks from the Night elves? Do they need to help the Forsaken? Do they keep carting Azerite to Silithus? Do they leave them to die? What happens to them if the Alliance wins in Lordaeron?
Baine is paralyzed by indecision. This isn't what he thought Anduin was talking about, he'd never expected the Alliance to take the offensive like this, but the stories of the brutality in the Alliance's assault, and Sylvanas's scorched earth tactics have him more than concerned.
The Average alliance soldier has no idea that there's plans to push for peace with the Kalimdor Horde, and so Saurfang's spies (goblin, shattered hand, Forsaken who report to HIM, and reports from Sylv's core forces) all say the same thing, there's talk among the Alliance of doing the same to the orcs, or enslaving them, or converting them, *and* of just leaving them be... but the latter are easily the smallest number among alliance soldiers and their eerie zeal.
Rumors fly in the Horde, there's questions of whether it's honorable to just leave the Forsaken since they're such dishonorable troublemakers. Talk of the Alliance steamrolling anyone with azerite and taking it for themselves spreads (Anduin DID have the military taking it off Mob races too... Horde fights quillboar and centaur that have stockpiled it but they've been more chill since Cata-ended when most of the wild gods revived and desolace cleared up, while the Alliance is on the warpath). There's small dissent among the belfs, bolstering Velf numbers as some think about rejoining the Alliance while others don't want to be alone on the continent if the Alliance wipes the Forsaken. Others are put off by the Alliance's zeal, and even Liadrin has mixed feelings...
It's this, more than anything else, that cause the Nightborne and Highmountain to more firmly ally with the Horde as reports come in of mob races caught between the Alliance and the Forsaken being crushed, with the few survivors captured and put in camps to keep them 'out of the way' or prepare them for serving in the now firmly alliance territories... Gnoll and Kobold labor rebuilding in Gilneas, Stromgarde razing troll villages, Ogres mounds demolished, etc...
Ultimately, it's Saurfang who pushes the Horde to action. He doesn't like the Forsaken. He remembers when he unjustly massacred humans and draenei, he wants nothing more than to sit this war out rather than defend people he doesn't like from people who have every right to hate his guts... but if they don't help the Forsaken who are Still Part Of The Horde, then they might not just lose their personal honor, they could lose their freedom under the Alliance's rule.
The Horde's never had a particularly strong navy, and it was hit hard by the Legion. There's no way they'd traditionally make it to Tirisfal in time to relieve the Forsaken, instead a small elite force gets to the Nightborne territories and are ported directly to UC, surprising the Alliance with their support of the Forsaken.
Sylvanas is honestly surprised the rest of the Horde came to help her even with a small force, but the situation is still unwinnable, most forsaken outside of UC are broken and scattered, either in hiding, or fleeing east into the plaguelands and trying to reach Belf territory. Undercity is hard to lay siege to due to being subterranean, but the upper walls are being bombarded by siege weaponry from humans and lightforged, dwarves are tunneling in and velfs are tearing apart the wards that prevent them from simply porting in. Blight's the only thing buying them any breathing room and between Lightforged and Frost mages clearing it, along with gnome/dwarvish gas masks it's not as effective as it used to be. It won't be long before the remnants of the Horde inside are overwhelmed.
Baine attempts to negotiate, Gilneas is reclaimed and the Alliance is obviously the preeminent power in Lordaeron now, if Anduin lets them evacuate they can stop this here. Anduin is sympathetic to Baine but the Forsaken's scorched earth tactics and the Lightforged's fervor have his forces too zealous. He honestly doesn't believe he can stop what he started... Sylvanas needs to die and the Forsaken need to be 'put to rest', then they can talk about "conditions" for the Kalimdor Horde.
Baine is disillusioned and unsettled by the implications of Anduin's words as he returns to the UC forces, they try and open portals to evacuate but the Lightforged and Velfs are disrupting magic to prevent more Horde forces from getting in or out.
Out of desperation, Sylvanas releases demons the apothecaries had captured and been vivisecting during Legion to devise better ways to kill them... and sets them loose on the Alliance. Saurfang is understandably pissed at this decision but it gives the belfs and nightborne an opening to sabotage the Vindicaar, which has been hovering at the edge of the battlefield, porting troops around and delivering siege weapons, but not firing directly... yet.
The alliance forces go into full force, the sight of orcs and undead alongside demons bringing back too many unpleasant memories, Turalyon pressures Anduin into using the Vindicar to end this quickly and save lives... and Anduin relents. The vindicar bombards undercity, annihilating many defenders in blasts of light and leveling its walls, caving in large chunks of the city.
Saurfang is captured by the Alliance while buying time for the retreat. Though the sewer tunnel had been collapsed early on to prevent the alliance from using it, the Horde forces have goblins, ogres, and drogbar break through it and and they flee to the west into the hills over Deathknell. There, Sylv reveals she's been rebuilding a downed Scourge necropolis, and they use some Azerite to help finish it so they can use it to fly out to sea where the Alliance can't pursue yet.
Here things begin to snowball, the sabotage on the Vindicar damages it, but the draenei have learned from Exodar and other losses, and the ship doesn't go down, it's still able to fly though more slowly and can still teleport things. It can't fire for now... but it can be repaired in time.
More pressing though, the collapse of areas inside the Undercity causes volatile chemicals to mix with the Azerite stockpile, what's left of the city explodes, spreading blight, other contagions and all sorts of experiments all across Tirisfal.
Thinking this was INTENTIONAL on Sylvanas's part, the Alliance are ever more convinced that the Horde are a danger. They used demons and all manner of diseases and chemicals in warfare, and the other horde leaders are clearly under Sylvanas influence. They must be defeated and brought into the Light.
The Night Elves, who had been apprehensive about the war, are horrified by the degree of the Forsaken's destruction and convinced sylvanas squandered Azerite to destroy her own city to hurt the Alliance out of mere spite, and become much supportive, though still focused on healing the world and unhappy that the EK alliance started things without consulting them.
The Blood Elves, Nightborne, and Forsaken are all concerned about the Lightforged's zeal, and their willingness to use the Vindicaar in warfare, they know it's only a matter of time before it's repaired since it didn't crash. Isolated in EK, the Blood elves prepare for war while watching out for Velf saboteurs... or light-zealots among their own ranks.
The Kalimdor Horde is whipped into a frenzy, still unsure whether it was right to help the Forsaken after the mess in Lordaeron, but horrified at the destruction and relentlessness of the Alliance.
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06-23-2020, 08:43 PM
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