Azeroth: The Silent War and the Illusion of Peace [Warcraft AU Worldbuilding]

[Kylia Quilor]

Spoiler: Spoiler

I should hold this back, since we're nearly at the end of what I've got written up from notes so far, been travelling for work-related reasons the last week, all that's left is an Informational post that's been edited a few times due to conversations had in the thread, though I do have most of the first Forsaken post written so we'll see. Regardless, since I'm terrible at sitting on completed work for long...

Lyria Skystrider: The so-called Dark Lady is not the former Ranger-General of Silvermoon. It is a vile banshee, a hollow shell of the woman who gave her life to defend us. Her very existence is a blasphemy and mockery of the real Sylvanas!
Ennis: We abandoned our friends who saved us in the Second War, and we were punished for our hubris. And instead of learning that lesson, we prepare for war against them and ally with undead and trolls and traitors! It is not too late, people of Silvermoon, to turn to the Light and-
Kath'mar: Your treasonous speech tells us all we need to know, Ennis. You would have us prostrate ourselves before Varian Wrynn and Daelin Proudmore and beg for them to share with us the scraps from their table!

While the three most important and influential factions in Quel'Thalas are the Blood Knights, Farstriders and Magisters, they are not the only ones, and the inexorable entropy of politics means that there will always be more factions forming, dissolving, dividing, combining and reforming. As long as you have three people around a table debating what to have for dinner, you have factions.

The faction that is the most on the outs with the leadership of Quel'Thalas would be a group known as Light Loyalists by some, and the Pure League by their own members. Led by a priest named Ennis, formerly the fifth-ranking official in the Thalassian Church of the Holy Light, and his wife Lyria Skystrider, the 'Pure League' represents the largest segment of those who still hold to the Church of the Holy Light, and serves as the most extreme organized opposition to the current course of the Kingdom. They are virulently against the Ghostlands Pact, decrying the Forsaken as hollow blasphemous shells and Sylvanas as a murderous Banshee (this led to an infamous incident last year where Vereesa nearly shot Ennis through the eye with an arrow, only prevented in doing so by Halduron jostling her elbow at the last minute), unabashedly in favor of rejoining the Alliance, and while they haven't gone so far as to suggest that the Blood Elves abandon the Arcane entirely, they certainly do suggest that the solution to the addiction problems their people face is to turn away from using arcane magic so much. Fel, of course, is also on their list of all the things their people are doing wrong as they 'stray from the path to the Light'

Ennis and Lyria are both now wanted for arrest, due to their violations of several recent laws restricting both press and speech, and have been in hiding in the city for the last nine months. In practice, however, by express (if quiet) order of the Regent Lord, as long as they don't start making big public speeches again, they have been left alone. Lor'themar's exact reasoning is unknown, and several Magisters have tried to go against his orders, but Rommath has held them in line, though he is reported to be exasperated by Lor'themar's choice as well.

The exact plans the Pure League has are unclear - they have continued to smuggle broadsheets throughout the kingdom, making their case to the people, and organized in smaller groups semi-covertly. There are accusations that they are spying for the Alliance, the Scarlet Crusade, the Hyjal Covenant (most people dismiss this rumor, but it persists) or the Kirin Tor, and there are also accusations delivered by hardline Magisters and Blood Knights (and their partisans) that the Pure League plans to become a terrorist group like the Defias Brotherhood in Stormwind, launching a violent campaign to force the Regent Lord to do things their way. The Pure League has denied both the accusations of spying and of plotting terrorism, but there are many in Silvermoon who are willing to believe the 'Light Loyalists' are disloyal.

As a group, the Pure League is small, due to their suppression and due to the fact that there just aren't a whole lot of Blood Elves who both love the Alliance and love the Light, but they do attract a small trickle of disaffected and dissatisfied Blood Elves.

While officially the Warlocks of Quel'Thalas are under the authority of the Magisters, two factions of Warlocks have started to rise up and organize around ideas about how best to use fel magic to advance the interests of their people. The Fireforged, led by Cersei Dusksinger and Keelen Sheets are the most extreme Warlocks in the public eye, advocating a hardline jingoistic stance - they advocate a brutal, scorched earth attack on the Amani Empire with summoned demons, and enslaving the surviving Amani trolls to make up for the losses in labor caused by 90% of their population being lost at the hands of Arthas. They are also the greatest proponents of using Wretched as slave labor. They haven't openly advocated for sating their people's magic addiction with fel energy, but in quiet discussions members of the Fireforged have suggested it, or so the rumors say.

One thing the Fireforged have been working on quite extensively of late is exposing animals to fel energies to make them controllable the same way demons are, with the goal to be the ability to quickly turn any animal into a powerful soldier for Quel'Thalas.

The Demonlore Binders, on the other hand, are a collection of warlocks who are focused merely on more pragmatic use of demons and of fel energy already at the Kingdom's disposal, rather than on more extreme methods or radical responses to the threats the Kingdom faces. Led by Nolric and Ryathen the Somber, these rather sober-minded warlocks are concerned about the threat the Burning Legion poses when they once again turn their eye to Azeroth, and advocate the study of demonology and of fel to know the enemy, and point out that, one of the most effective weapons against demons does appear to be fel magic, though they do acknowledge the risks of it's use, and have helped train new spellbreakers on how to combat fel magic safely and how to banish summoned demons (summoning demons for them to practice on as needed), to make it easier for Quel'Thalas to police their warlocks.

The Demonlore Binders, a name they did not choose for themselves, but seem to have stuck with for the moment, also advocate for continuing and expanding the use of summoned and bound demons in warfare, but only through careful management of the risky resource they represent, rather than the more reckless mass applications of the Fireforged.

Another group that loosely (and very nominally) falls under the Magister's leadership but operates somewhat independently is the Reliquary, which is notable for also being the only major faction within Quel'Thalas that is multiracial. While Blood Elves are dominant among the leadership and the majority of the membership, it being a Thalassian-founded organization, humans from Alterac and Lordaeron, undead from Lordaeron, and trolls from Jintha'alor can all be found within it. Tae'thelan Bloodwatcher is the founder of the Reliquary, and he continues to lead it. The Reliquary is both an archeological society, dedicated to the study of history (and especially magical history) and a magical study group - the Reliquary has served as a venue, beyond just the joint work being done in the ruins of Dalaran, for the mages and warlocks of the Ghostlands Pact to share information and ideas, experimental notes and the like. But it's primary focus is on the recovery of lost magical artifacts, for the use of the modern era. Tae'thelan has been quite vocal in his conviction that a long term solution to his people's hunger for magic can be found in the relics of the past. For now, the influence of the Reliquary is limited due to the newness of the organization and the limited success that it has. He has been primarily working alongside Revantusk witch doctors and priests in the Hinterlands to excavate old Amani ruins while respecting the tombs of dead troll ancestors, and overseeing work digging into the underlevels of Dalaran's ruins, some of which have still not been fully explored.

A new rising group that has started develop since the signing of the Treaty of Deatholme and the creation of the Ghostlands pact, and the increased trade and travel with Forsaken Lordaeron as a result is the still only loosely organized Church of Blessed Darkness, let by the former Holy Light priest, Kath'mar. Once an assistant deacon to the Bishop of Quel'Thalas, Kath'mar was nearly killed by the undead during their attack on the city, and when he tried to heal himself of his wounds so he could then go out and heal other wounded survivors, he found that the light failed him, his wounds only closing a little, and his leg still broken. Kath'mar crawled away from the wreckage alive, barely, with his faith as shattered as his leg. When he learned of the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow, and it's teachings, he found the meaning he lost when the Light abandoned him and his people. He found meaning in its teachings of self-actualization, self-control and exerting power on the world around you through your will. While he was not the only or even first person in Quel'Thalas to turn to the shadow heresies of Natalie Seline, he did manage to be the most compelling, converting many to his interpretations, walking among the sick and poor of the city, and helping many addicts who were dangerously close to becoming Wretched. Most of the other followers of shadow in the Kingdom have accepted his leadership, for now, and Kath'mar teaches the Blood Elves that the anger and bitterness and rage they feel, even still, is natural, and to be embraced. It of course, like the mana siphoning, must be done in balance. Kath'mar's influence in the city is growing, and he and his fellow shadow priests are attempting to develop, essentially, a shadow-using version of the Paladin, working with others in Lordaeron and Alterac.

Kath'mar hates the Alliance and the Scourge, but he spares the greatest of his ire for Ennis and Lyria Skystrider, and their Light Loyalists. He and his most zealous followers have conducted public burnings of Holy Light Scripture, and of any of the broadsheets or writings put out by 'Pure League' or any other Holy Light-following group, and some worry he may go beyond the book burnings to more aggressive actions. Already assaults of two priests of the Light that left their targets unconscious and badly bleeding have been connected to Kath'mar's followers, though Kath'mar could never be proven responsible and people like Aethas, Vereesa and Halduron have pressed Lor'themar to reign the rabble-rousing priest in, at least a little.

Thalassian Society, before and now, has a strong tendency to look down on merchants - those who make a living buying and selling from others, making nothing, and in the eyes of snobbish nobles and magisters, adding no value for all the money they extract. Of course, merchants will of course point out they serve as vital middlemen who bear substantive costs of their own to bring goods from one place to another, and link buyers and sellers. In the old days, when Quel'Thalas could meet almost all their material needs domestically, the power and influence of merchants was irrelevant. These days, the ships and sailors of Sunsail Anchorage are a vital link to essential goods from the outside world and their allies, and the merchants based there wield much greater influence than before. As of yet, the collective influence of the still mostly unorganized Sunsail Merchants is limited, but it is growing. Several major merchants have been developing strong links to the Magisters and the Church of Blessed Darkness, while a small handful of others are friendly with the Light Loyalists, and still more have been found sucking up to people in the Farstrider's orbit. It may be that the influence of the merchants is diluted and diverted by the other major factions, or they may be able to push for more collective action to advance trade and profit, in pursuit of whatever their vision for a better Quel'Thalas is. The one thing that does unify them is the need for more ships and more protection of their trade - the spokesperson for this effort is the recently shipless Captain Kelisendra, who lost her ship to 'pirates' everyone knows are based out of Kul Tiran territory. She has been seen all over Silvermoon lobbying people, including the Regent Lord himself, to step up warship construction and expand the use of convoys.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Spoiler: Spoiler

I honestly don't know how much anyone will be interested in this kind of ranting post here, but it does at least explore some of my thoughts about the Blood Elves and what happens with them in canon vs what I'm trying to do here, so it's here. I wrote it initially in quite a mood™ over the issue, as I sometimes am when I think about the Shattered Sun Offensive storyline, and as I edited it several times since, I've tried to tone down on the sheer bile and aggression of the post. How successful I've been may be subjective.

So, I have a lot of feelings about what Blizzard did to the Blood Elves. (Actually, I have lots of feelings about lots of things related to Warcraft, but...) Starting from their handling of Kael'thas, to the...everything of the Scryers, to the restoration of the Sunwell and the abandonment of the magic addiction plotline.

With Quel'Thalas done for now, and we're about to move on to the Forsaken Kingdom of Lordaeron, I'd like to take a minute to stop and talk about in more detail why I don't like the restoration of the Sunwell.

I don't know why Blizzard restored the Sunwell. I can think of a few reasons they abandoned the magic addiction plotline - fear more moral guardians causing issues for the "drug addiction" plot (or governments like the PRC clamping down on anything that smacked of drugs), belief that they couldn't deal with it well (not that this has ever stopped Blizzard biting off more than they can chew other times), or maybe Blizzard just decided they didn't want to deal with it. Those are understandable reasons to make that change.

But I don't like it.

When I played Frozen Throne, I loved the Blood Elves. They were bitter and grim and driven by hatred and vengeance and their hunger for magic. The situation they found themselves in was fascinating for me. I was really interested in the question of how does a society cope with a race-wide addiction? What does it do to your social institutions, your morals? Especially when the thing you're addicted to, if it is renewable at all, is renewable slowly, (i.e. in the way Trees are renewable) and so your whole society has to be geared to gathering this magic sustainably for your people. And when simply abandoning arcane magic may be an option (not that it's clear because vague writing), but the Blood Elves aren't willing to give up their heritage - and what quite literally made them who and what they are. And it's not as if most High Elves are jumping at the chance to abandon arcane magic (of course, what's happening with them and the addiction before the Sunwell is restored, hm? Riddle me that, Blizzard)

So I found that question fascinating, and of course, the sort of semi-vampiric vibe it gave them, along with the morally problematic aspects to it, made the Blood Elves my favorite in Frozen Throne (I was so annoyed I couldn't play random map games with just the Blood Elves and their swordsman/archer units instead of the full Alliance, though I always picked Blood Mage as my first hero when I played alliance on those random maps.)

I dislike - no, hate - pretty much everything to do with the Shattered Sun Offensive plotline, not just for what it did with Kael, and the Sunwell Trilogy (which I admit I haven't read) creating Anveena Teague is just... offensive to me, having read the summaries. (Like I said, haven't read it, so take a lot of grains of salt). But like, the Sunwell has a living manifestation all of a sudden (somehow?) but it's a... human? Not an elf? What the fuck is that? And then M'uru lets himself be captured so he can 'redeem' the Blood Elves with his sacrifice?

I'm sorry, but gfto of here with that thinly veiled Jesus reference, you glowing wind chime.

(And, as an aside, can I say that I really dislike that instead of at least giving us actual angels,or at least something along those lines Blizzard gave us glowing wind chimes instead? The Light getting a race representing it like that was a mistake to begin with, IMO, but at least don't give us... that? I may be alone in this, but I really don't like 'abstract' entities like the naaru being given major, present roles in a narrative)

The thing is, not only did the Sunwell get restored, but it got restored in a way that removed all agency from the Blood Elves. It's all Lady Liadrin begging for forgiveness and being framed as totally in the wrong, while M'uru chose to be captured because obviously no Blood Elf could ever capture a perfect naaru, and it's not the work of the Blood Elves themselves that create a new Sunwell, or find something to replace it with or anything like that - no, it's all M'uru and Anveena's sacrifice and Velen giving the Sunwell his blessing - it's not even the Scryers who get to lead the effort to save Quel'Danas, no it's the Scryers and the Aldor together and led by the Naaru because god forbid the Blood Elves get to take the lead in their own salvation!

And after that, the Blood Elves seem to have lost a lot of the moral complications, a lot of the things that made them fresh and unique, and they can't even mana siphon any more, even though even with the Sunwell that's a useful ability to have. Suddenly Sylvanas has to blackmail the Blood Elves into going to Northrend to fight the Lich King when I would have thought many of them would have jumped at the chance at revenge - and the TBC versions of them would have. In Cataclysm/MoP they're ready to seriously consider defecting from the Horde until Jaina's brilliant brainwave in Dalaran.

To my view, with the Sunwell restored, the Blood Elves are just High Elves with a fondness for red, and slightly more angsty brooding. That's an oversimplification, but... it's kind of true.

And, like I said, there was no agency - the Blood Elves didn't quest far and wide for some solution to their problem, they didn't recover some lost vial of the waters of the Well of Eternity, or tap into some other magical font. They didn't perform some ritual to recreate it, or make some profound sacrifice of something (or even someone) to solve their addiction. They were passive recipients of other actors, and then poof, Sunwell's back, problem resolved.

It was just... way too simple. Way too easy. Way too nice and tidy and everything's wrapped up in a bow, and I suppose we can take it as warning what will happen to the Forsaken once Calia takes over, what with her being a Naaru-made Lightforged Undead (whatever that is) who is clearly being primed by Blizzard to be the new Queen of the Forsaken because... reasons?

I mean, I suppose that's one way to get out of the Horde-Alliance conflict, Blizzard, by having the naaru homogenize everyone. I'm stunned the Light was allowed to be the bad guys for the Mag'har plotline in BfA, since given the pattern that happened to the Blood Elves and now is happening to the Forsaken, I suppose we should expect Light Trolls and Lightforged Orcs soon, right?

So yeah, none of that is happening. I mean, I've already said that Kael won't defect to the Burning Legion - and while he did capture M'uru, the circumstances are different (though they did also involve the Draenei under Velen leaving Outland in the Exodar), and there was no Garden of Gethsemane situation where M'uru decides, 'oh yea, totally gonna sacrifice myself for these Blood Elves' and just sits there and lets it happen. No, he was just captured. He's held in bindings, being tapped for magic and Light energy, and he very well may die/become a Void God in the end as a result. M'uru is not enjoying his captivity.

There will be a more, longer-term solution to the problem the Blood Elves face with their addiction, using a canon bit of lore, but even then, it won't be so neat and tidy, and it will not be able to just replace the Sunwell. The life of a Blood Elf will not be quite as many constant patch jobs to address their addiction, but they will have to do some patching from time to time, mana siphoning will remain essential to the Blood Elves and the solution will be reached through the agency of Blood Elves. They will not be just given something in a grand gesture of condescending magnaminty.

Because if a people are going to be saved, then they should have some goddamn agency in their own salvation. The Night Elves did, the Draenei did, the Humans did, hell, even the Orcs did. But somehow, out of all the people in the world, The Blood Elves don't get to have agency in their own salvation.

One reason this whole thing makes me so salty is the way I feel (whether or not this is true is a different discussion) that no other race has been so narratively misserved in the way that the Blood Elves were. Every race and faction has been narratively misserved, so I suppose my faves aren't special in that sense, but to me, there feels something specifically offensive about the way the Blood Elves are reduced to observers in their own stories most of the time. I'm sure there'd be plenty of disagreement with this take, but it doesn't improve my mood at all on the subject.

I'm not going to say that every part of my opinion on what happened with the Sunwell is rational or well thought out. I think there's a very good case to be made - as I've made it, albeit in abridged form - that it was narratively a poor choice that took away what made the Blood Elves unique and fresh, and I think that the Blood Elves have been criminally underused since (though, as someone else pointed out in a thread elsewhere I found while googling - it might well better to be underused than to be written terribly, like <insert your badly written/retconned/villain or Idiot ball carrying fave>.

But yeah, some of it just irrational resentment over my faves getting turned into (what I saw) as caricatures of themselves by bad writing in Vanilla and TBC while my least favorite character that isn't Arthas from FT (Maiev) got to make it through to TBC pretty much exactly the same as she was in FT. (Her actions in that cataclysm novel being later than TBC and not relevant to this specific discussion). The whole sunwell plot is thus part and parcel of everything I think TBC did wrong - which is a very long list that extends well beyond just the Blood Elves/Kale/Vashj/Illidan... and yet TBC is also my favorite expansion, so go figure. I also don't like the naaru, I don't like jesus-analogues, I don't like lazy and simple redemption - basically, the Sunwell Restoration/Shattered Sun Offensive storyline basically hits every narrative turn-off that I have, and I just have what any sane person would call an unreasonable amount of anger about it.

Tl;dr - nothing like the Shattered Sun Offensive storyline, or anything even close will be happening in this AU, and the Sunwell is dead and gone and never coming back. And I'm salty enough to be beef jerky.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Calia Menethil: I apologize for antagonizing Aliden, Sylvanas... there was a time when I'd have said he was less unpleasant than his father, but it seems that time has passed.
Sylvanas Windrunner: He is necessary, and at least he doesn't have his father's penchant for treachery. But I will not be bringing you to any future summits with him or with other Alteraci representatives. Your advice for how to deal with the living here in Lordaeron is helpful, but your views on the merits of Alterac withdrawing from Stromgarde are less so.
Calia: You keep me around because I speak my mind.
Sylvanas: I keep you around because you're one of the few people who hates your brother as much as I do.

The Kingdom of Lordaeron - one of the many successors of the Arathi Empire, and the most successful of them all. Inheriting the great fertile lands of the Eastweald, the rich resources of Silverpine Forest and the mineral deposits in the Tirisgarde Range, Lordaeron was blessed. It was the home of the most respected of clerics and theologians and philosophers of the Holy Light, and it enjoyed a close friendship with the mages of Dalaran.

Lordaeron was blessed with peace, too. While there were fights on the fringes against gnolls and scattered groupings of Forest Trolls, and even some skirmishes and battles with the Amani (the latter spared most of their ire for Quel'Thalas, however), Lordaeron did not fight many extended conflicts. Bandits were a concern, there were a few border skirmishes with Alterac and Gilneas, piracy is always a problem - but still. Unlike Gilneas and their constant conflicts with Kul Tiras, or Stromgarde and Alterac's endless back and forth warfare, or Stormwind's complex relationship with first the remnants of the Gurubashi Empire and then the reformed Gurubashi League, Lordaeron was a land of peace, their people not knowing true war.

The Menethil Dynasty was, overall, a wise and capable family - they had a few poor rulers, but until Arthas, none that anyone could call disastrous.

Of course, all this changed with the Second War. Having been swayed into ignoring the threats the Horde posed during the First War by distance and the machinations of Deathwing, King Terenas II listened to the fleeing refugees this time, and rallied his people, and his neighbors to a common defense. Lordaeron's armies made up a large portion of the Alliance's in almost every major battle, and Lordaeron itself would suffer after Alterac switched sides and Lordaeron City was laid to siege.

But despite Doomhammer's gamble, he failed. Alterac fell, his forces were pushed back to Blackrock Mountain and the Second War ended there. Lordaeron, like the rest of the Alliance, was victorious. But the entropy of victory, and disputes over the fate of the defeated orcs saw the Alliance splinter, with Gilneas, Quel'Thalas and Stromgarde departing. For a brief window, it seemed that even given that, peace had returned to the land. Alterac fell under the authority of the Kingdom, with Aliden Perrholde's political efforts to place himself on his family's throne soon giving way to banditry and terrorism. Then Stormwind would start to suffer the depredations of the Defias Brotherhood, and before Lordaeron truly had time to adapt to a post-war world, Thrall, the new Orcish Warchief had begun liberating the camps.

But the doom of Lordaeron was not the orcs, who soon departed the shores of the Eastern Kingdoms. Lordaeron fell from within - from the decay and corruption of the Cult of the Damned, and the treachery of Arthas Menethil, son and heir to Terenas.

Lordaeron fell, first the capital and the rest of the Kingdom soon with it - it was only the Burning Legion and their focus on Kalimdor that ultimately allowed any of the Kingdom's populace to survive, as the bulk of the Scourge and Arthas himself would find themselves dispatched to Kalimdor to support the Legion - and Arthas's return would soon find him forced to flee to Northrend as the Plaguelands Civil War opened and the Scourge was divided, and thus the Forsaken were born.

Sylavans Windrunner, upon her victory in the Capital and securing the Tirisfal Glades for her new, reborn kingdom, claimed the mantle of 'Forsaken' for her people. Her war to claim Lordaeron was not merely one of free-willed undead rallied to her banner of revenge against the Lich King who murdered them and used them and the outside world that scorned and abandoned them. At first, most of her followers were undead, yes, but some living - mostly those who had been reduced to little better than bandits anyway - and some of the men who had fought under Garithos's banner would join her. After all, Garithos had died bravely in battle against Balnazzar, and for some, being able to settle down and return home - or something like it - was more important than continuing the war in the name of Garithos. Others would flee, joining the Scarlet Crusade.

Sylavanas sent emissaries to all pockets of living she found find in Silverpine and Tirisfal, areas she'd managed to wrest control of, largely, during or immediately after her war with the Dreadlords, but she found little traction beyond those scattered, fringe groups that were that desperate. Pyrewood Village fell under her leadership after her Dark Rangers slaughtered the Worgen of Shadowfang Keep, and when she learned of the curse afflicting the people, she placed the town under nightly quarantine, to minimal resistance from the despairing locals.

It was not until she found Alonsus Foal that her efforts to reach out to the living - for reasons of practicality or sentiment, none truly know - made real progress. Foal, once the Archbishop of the Holy Light, had been slain by Arthas and risen as an undead mockery of himself, but once his will was his own, he'd found his way back to the Light, never once losing his faith.

Sylvanas found the dead human's continued faith strange and pathetic, and Foal found Sylvanas hollowed out by hate and rage - but Foal also could see the reality of the situation - Sylvanas had the forces to bring peace to the region, and she swore that her greatest desire was to see the Lich King defeated, and his forces driven from Lordaeron. Foal did not swear allegiance to her, but he did help her in two other ways.

For one, with the Scarlet Crusade growing increasingly radical with its interpretations of scripture and willing to slaughter any civilian that didn't obey ever more exacting demands as being a supporter of the undead, had begun alienating many outside their core holdings around Tyr's Hand, including those who had taken command at Hearthglen, under the leadership of Lord Raymond George. Others, such as those guarding - and holding hostage - a major farming town in the northwestern Tirisfal Glades - had no soldiers on their side, but were unhappy with their Scarlet-clad guardian nonetheless. Foal served as an emissary between Sylvanas and such disaffected groups - he did not force any to accept her protection, but he vouched for the fact that Sylvanas was not their enemy. Foal, despite being undead himself, had such a powerful presence in the Light that few were able to deny his genuine righteousness.

The other way Foal helped Sylvanas was with Calia Menethil. The older sister of Arthas, Calia had barely survived the fall of her Kingdom, escaping to the Hillsbrad Foothills, but in hiding, fearing that her brother would try to kill her as he had their father.

The exact details of the meeting between Foal, Calia and Sylvanas are unknown - not even Varimathras was included in the meeting - but in the end, a decision was reached. By the laws of Lordaeron, Arthas had removed himself from the succession by murdering his father. Legally, succession was Calia's, but Calia pronounced that she was not fit for rule, not having the temperament her people needed for the road ahead, and believing that the sins of her brother would loom over her if she tried to govern - and indeed, while many of the living and even some undead believed that she was blameless and good, remembering the fifty year rule of the good king Terenas, for many others, living and dead, the name of Menethil was ruined forever due to Arthas's crimes.

Calia would instead be given the title of Duchess, and be appointed Chancellor of the Fields and Farms, an old title from the earliest days of the Kingdom, someone whose job it was to hear the complaints of and speak for the farmers and peasants of the Kingdom. The title would be old, but her powers were new, far expanded from those of the antiquated office - Calia was given extensive domestic authority over the living in Lordaeron, in the name of Queen Sylvanas. The two have never been seen to publicly argue, though they have had disagreements - Sylvanas is less concerned about things that don't ultimately improve the military or security situation of the kingdom, and Calia, though she does hate her brother and wish to see him brought to justice (not revenge), she believes that Sylvanas has let herself get too hardened, and too obsessed with finishing things with the Lich King.

Calia being folded into the regime did much to stabilize Sylvanas with the living under her leadership, making them feel like they were truly as much Forsaken as her undead. The world was hostile, full of threats, but together they could band together against all who might harm them.

Sylvanas would soon take her more stable realm and invade the Western Plaguelands in force. Though her forces were outnumbered by the Scourge, she had the advantage of warriors who could think, cooperation (as tense as it was) with the newly formed Argent Dawn, and other priests and paladins of the Light who had accepted serving under Lordaeron's new banner, what few of those exist. Those advantages made her slow and steady advance across the southern part of the Plaguelands possible, but she ran up against the limits of them in the East, which was closer to Stratholme, and more firmly in the grip of the Scourge, with the terrain itself practically on the Lich King's side.

Even getting as far as she did was not a simple fight - Kel'thuzad may have been primarily focused on killing paladins and other skilled warriors for the purpose of raising them as death knights or the like, but he had other commanders to direct the war effort. But he no longer had the limitless armies the Scourge had once enjoyed, and while the Lich King did attempt to send reinforcements from Northrend to maintain this foothold in the Eastern Kingdoms, the trickle was only so much. Kel'thuzad could not expect any from Dar'Khan in the Ghostlands either - the elf would say he had the matter in hand, but his forces were tied down.

Just over three years ago, the Western Plaguelands were... not secured, but removed from the table as an active war zone as the Forsaken forces, joined by the Argent Dawn, reached the Thondroril River. Though even now, the Western Plaguelands continue to have scourge presence in the mountains, the region has grown into a somewhat secure part of Lordaeron - save for the parts that continue to be under the administration of the Argent Dawn, around Hearthglen, which they rule as an independent fiefdom.

With the Western Plaguelands secure enough, Sylvanas considered it time to punish Dar'Khan for his treachery. While she knew some of her people survived, she had believed they were hiding in the ruins of Silvermoon, too spent to do anything but defend themselves in an ever-shrinking territory. Instead, her Dark Rangers discovered that they had embraced powerful and dark magics to fight back, and had besieged Dar'Khan in his fortress. Though they did so without authorization, Velonara and her Dark Rangers dispatched Dar'Khan with the aid of the Thalassian forces, and Sylvanas arrived shortly after by giant bat, flying to Deathholme to meet with her once-friend Lor'themar, and to negotiate a pact. The Eastern Plaguelands and Kel'thuzad still lay between them, and both had reason to dislike the Alliance. And the Blood Elves also had the Amani to worry about.

The Ghostlands Pact was signed as a result of that meeting, and it opened up new options for the kingdom - even low in population as the elven kingdom was were, the magical resources Quel'Thalas possessed were able to help transform the situation on the ground in the Plaguelands for the Forsaken. It has also improved the economic outlook of many in the Kingdom - though Lordaeron still largely funds it's military efforts with direct payments in kind and economy by decree, money still plays a role in private exchange. Trade increased the quality of life especially for farmers and miners, who were able to sell their excess to a ready market in the form of Quel'Thalas, and a year later, to Alterac, when they joined the Pact. The expansion of the Pact also created space for Lordaeron to open trade with the rest of the world even more. Even the Alliance - with nominal peace comes nominal trade.

Sylvanas has remained disinterested with rule outside of things related to her war efforts, intelligence operations and the security of the realm, trusting her ministers, including Calia Menethil and the dreadlord Varimathras, to deal with the rest of government on her behalf. As a result, things domestically can be haphazard - the quality of life for many, living and dead, has increased under the influence of Calia, who has done everything she can to allow people the maximum freedom to live their lives as they see fit within the confines of the good of society. But equally, dissent of any sort is not tolerated, and crushed quickly and brutally, due to the influence of Varimthras and some of the others in the Queen's ministry.

Lordaeron has normalized relations with the outside world - if tense saber-rattling, spitting disdain and institutionalized bitterness can be described as normalized relations. Still, Lordaeron has embassies in every civilized capital on Azeroth's surface, save for Zul'Aman (due to being at war with the Amani Empire) and Zul'Drak (due to the Drakkari having no interest in foreign affairs with non-trolls outside of Northrend), though in several cases, the embassy and associated staff and guards are exclusively living, due to the hostility the undead would face in such cases - overrepresenting the living in the Foreign Service, proportionally speaking. Trade is matched with preparations for war, and the campaigns in the Plaguelands continue while the Forsaken provide additional forces to bolster their allies and they do the same for them.

The Royal Apothecary Society does its work in secret, doing the Light knows what in the depths of the Undercity and the mood in the air across Lordaeron is always one of grim bitter determination. For the undead, and many of the living, there is a mood of continuing on as much to spite the universe and all those that forsook them. It would be wrong to say that hatred is all that motivates the people of Lordaeron, but almost everyone left in that shattered, hollow shell of what was once a shining beacon for all humanity shares a common sense of bitterness and anger - how much they let that bitterness and anger dominate their minds can vary, but it is something that's virtually universal and has not dampened in the last few years.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

So, I was bored at work and I threw together this map, using a baseline the ones provided here by reddit user Searrard: Link



(click the thumbnail to see full size, note that it's large)

Link you can fully zoom in with

A couple things to bear in mind - every faction on this map has their own color, though given the limits of MS Paint, some of the colors are very similar. This is also a very rough map - for one, the actual geography of the Eastern kingdoms is less compressed than the one provided in WoW (no, Zul'Aman is not actually that big, for instance, and the Amani Empire has more stuff than just a giant city), and the Eastern Kingdoms, geographically, look closer to their-Pre WoW versions... somewhat. I have this mental image in my head combining what I like from both maps, but I have trouble articulating it, and certainly couldn't draw it or anything like that. For reference, here's my primary go-to pre-WoW map of the Eastern Kingdoms: DeviantArt Link (All credit to creator Kuusinen and the Warcraft Map Project)

The placement of Kul Tiras was meant to be more akin to it's WCII-era placement, as that makes a hell of a lot more sense (to me) than where WoW decided to shove it, same with Tol Barad, but accomadating for the much smaller size of Baradin Bay in WoW. Exactly where in the big green circle Kul Tiras and the two smaller islands are is an open question to me for now. Mechagon Isle is where it is right now in canon WoW, still, for the record.

Those solid circles of one faction's color within another faction's territory is meant to signify a tenuously held outpost or fortified holding, something that is either present entirely on sufferance or is under regular attack, and may even be captured and lost repeatedly over fairly short spans of time (as is especially the case with the Forsaken and Thalassian outposts in the Western Plaguelands, which exist to give a very tenuous land route linking Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas, but it's neither safe nor reliable for large scale movement)

Just because a nation has hold of a given territory does not mean that it's hold on that territory is very secure, as would be the case with Stormwind with much of it's territory (due to Defias Brotherhood and other small scale threats) and the Forsaken (in the section of the Western Plaguelands they hold, which are still a heavily militarized area) or Alterac (where Southshore would much rather not be ruled by the Perrenholdes, thank you very much). Those are just illustrative examples.

As a final note, this map does not represent a 100% finalized version of what the EK look like politically. It may be subject to some change in terms of where the various borders and such are, but it gets you the general idea, at least.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Varimathras: I once said you were becoming more and more like one of my brethren every day.
Sylvanas: I recall. I also recall telling you to watch what you said, Dreadlord.
Varimathras: True. But having had more time to observe you and your methods of rule, I must say that I was wrong to say it.
Sylvanas: And why would that be?
Varimathras: A Nathrezim takes pleasure and pride in their work, my Queen. When their enemies lie broken and beaten at their feet, a Nathrezim savors the moment. But there is little joy for you, in your successes.
Sylvanas: When Arthas lies broken at my feet and his Scourge wiped clean from this world, then you'll see joy from me, demon. No other enemy I have defeated is worth my joy.

To those outside the Pact, the term 'Forsaken' is often mistaken to be a racial or ethnic one, as it were, describing all free-willed undead who were turned by the Lich King's plague or the Scourge, and then broke free of his control.

This is not correct, and it is a source of great annoyance to many free willed undead who do not serve Sylvanas, and those among the living who do.

In truth, the term 'Forsaken' is a political label and identifier, describing anyone who still chooses to live in Lordaeron and live under the leadership of Sylvanas, the Dark Lady. Or the 'Bitch Queen of the Rotting Dead', if you listen to Varian Wrynn after he's had a few ales too many at a feast. It applies to the living and the undead who live within her realm and those who serve her outside of it. The rest of the world abandoned Lordaeron - the Alliance could have sent more to the Kingdom than what they did send to Garithos. The Light, in the eyes of most, abandoned the Kingdom to the Plague, to the Scourge. The Lich King ripped the heart out of the realm, and abandoned it to it's fate. The people of Lordaeron, in general, feel used and cast aside by the universe, as Sylvanas did herself. It has a tendency - though just a tendency - to produce people who are bitter, brooding and prefer to spend a great deal of time alone, reflecting.

But abandoned does not mean alone, and almost all minds, regardless of the bodies that hold them, crave companionship and fellowship, and that remains as true for the Forsaken as it does for anyone else.

To be an undead is a variable thing as well - before the Scourge, undead on a mass scale were uncommon, outside of the Farraki trolls. Some ghosts and revenants, sometimes a mad necromancer might arise and try to raise dead for one reason or another, but they were always defeated. Once in a while, a proper lich might arise.

But the Scourge created undead on a vast scale never before seen, and the weakening of the Lich King at the hands of Illidan and the Eye of Sargeras (not to mention his earlier forcing out of Frostmourne) created free-willed undead, not bound to a place or a family (like a ghost) or to some predefined directives (like a revenant) or a phylactery (like a lich). The nature of an undead can vary, and so too do the nature of the undead Forsaken.

Making generalities about the undead Forsaken is difficult, but some basic things can be said. All are preserved at the moment of their raising, by means of the Ichor of Undeath that sustains them. This Ichor, an ectoplasmic ooze that is magically created when most undead are raised, is especially common in the undead raised by the Lich King or by magic derived from his methods, and as such, Forsaken do not, under most circumstances, decay further. That is not to say that all Forsaken are well-preserved. Some are fortunate enough to have died in almost pristine condition and then to be raised soon after, these undead, like Sylvanas herself, almost look alive, and with the right makeup and lenses over their eyes, actually do look like they were living.

Without such methods, their skin always has a slight greyish look to it, their eyes glow slightly, and there is a bit of an unnatural air - most wild animals will not go near them, and people not used to being around undead will tend to feel as though they are a bit... wrong. It is possible though magic or practice for a skilled undead to reduce or even eliminate this tendency, by being even better at mimicking life, or using other ways to set those around them at ease. Such methods are generally only used by spies, however, as few undead Forsaken feel a desire to maintain such illusions when at home or among allies or friends - and most living in Lordaeron have managed to get past that discomfort feeling, or have moved out of the Kingdom, at this point.

Of course, it's hard to make universal generalizations.

For those undead unfortunate enough to have decayed, suffered significant damage before or while dying, or for whom their Ichor failed them (usually by virtue of being badly harmed and 'bleeding' out their Ichor without it being replaced quickly enough) will show signs of decay, missing skin, with exposed bones or tendons, sometimes with joints no longer working properly. They might be missing eyes or noses or tongues or even jaws, or have jaws that cannot work properly. There has been a rise in speech with fingers, a developing and complex language that can be 'spoken' with hand signs, though other undead will use magic to graft metal, wooden or bone jaws on themselves, or find magical ways to regrow their tongues (a painful process requiring extensive use of shadow magic).

Some undead take pride in looking like 'zombies' and 'ghouls' while others strive hard to be as well-preserved as possible. Those in the former camp have been known to deliberately bleed themselves if Ichor over several days until they achieve the desired look and replacing what they lost. Those in the latter will use magic, surgeries, alchemy, make up, wigs and other methods to achieve their desired outcomes.

Most undead forsaken fall somewhere between the extremes, and a state of resigned 'whatever' is common as well - for many, their body needs to function, but that's all.

Undead neither need to breathe, eat or sleep, but many do all three, either on instinct, or for a sense of comfort. Eating meat of any sort can allow a forsaken to slowly patch together injured flesh. Flesh of their own previous race works best, but doing so is tightly regulated under Lordaeron's new laws, usually only resorted to on the battlefield (if possible) and in very limited amounts. Of domesticated animals, testing by the Royal Apothecary Society has proved that pigs work best for former humans and elves - nowhere near as good as human or elf flesh (based as much on previous evidence from when in the Scourge than in more recent tests), but serviceable, in large enough quantities. Pig flesh is also often used to replace missing skin, sewn into gaps and then dyed to fit the color of one's skin. It needs to be replaced every now and then, however, and the demand for pig meat and pig skin for the purpose of healing means that the demand for pigs in the Kingdom is quite large - pig farmers have grown to do quite well for themselves, and pigs remain a common import for Lordaeron, with most of them coming from Alterac or Durotar.

Seafood of any kind is the least effective at healing an undead of any kind (save for undead murlocs), with clam meat being the worst of the worst. Oysters, once something of a reserved, high-class food item in the Kingdom, are now regarded as being a low-class food for the poorest of the living.

Eating things other than meat serves no survival purpose for an undead, but for those that retain some sense of taste, or enjoy the reminder of their past lives, they do eat. Mushrooms are grown extensively across the Kingdom, and mushroom bread - made with flour mixed with dried, powdered mushrooms - is a staple across the Kingdom, for both living and dead.

As with everything else, undead vary on their stances about their past lives - most can remember some or all of their previous lives, but there are those who forgot most or all of it as a result of the trauma of their deaths, their raising or something else that happened along the way. But even perfectly remembering their past lives doesn't mean they feel much desire to connect with it - a significant portion of undead Forsaken have desired clean breaks or mostly clean breaks with their former selves, picking new names, abandoning their pasts and embracing a new self going forward. Given the fact that it is far from uncommon for a Forsaken, dead or alive, to have lost their entire family during the Third War or the immediate aftermath, this divorce from their past is not hard to understand.

For those who do feel a strong connection to their past, many of them try to live their lives as much as they did before, though that is easier said than done. Still, they retain their names, try to maintain old friendships or even marriages, live where they did before if they can, and even do the same jobs. Again, the reality is that most undead find themselves between these extremes, though it is more and more common to find undead making a new life for themselves in absence of their previous ones.

This, of course, brings to the question of how much an undead really is their former self.

In the orthodox theology of the Church of the Holy Light, and the conventional views of Night Elves, orcs, ogres and Tauren, an undead is a shell of who their body once was. Not the former person, but something pretending to be them, a mockery, a mistake, or just their meat, without anything that really made the person who and what they were.

This... not true. To an extent.

Countless trees have been turned into paper to fuel the musings of philosophers on this subject over the millennia, going all the way back to the earliest Troll Empires, and on down to today, and the real answers are still unsettled. That an undead often retains the memory of who they were is not disputed. That they can often act much like their former self is also true. But there are usually discrepancies - proponents of claim the dead that an undead is someone else entirely will cite these discrepancies, while their opponents will say that people change, and dying and coming back is the kind of psychic trauma that will change almost anyone.

The official position of the Church of the Holy Light, and thus of the Alliance, is the Orthodox one, that an undead is a mockery, a shell, and certainly not the former person - certainly with no rights to previously held property. This has been used in the courts in member nations of the Alliance to refuse to hand over property that would normally belong to someone who is undead - either because it was theirs before, or they were the legal heirs to it. This has done nothing to ease tensions between Lordaeron and the nations of the Alliance, as one might expect.

Lordaeron, on the other hand, has said that, legally speaking, an undead is their former self. This doesn't mean they always get their previous property, if it even exists, but in theory, they are at least owed compensation if it cannot be returned to them in whole or in part. This process can be slow and complicated, but it does theoretically exist. Some will still renounce their previous claims, but this is not necessarily common.

Is an undead then, the same person, metaphysically speaking? The real answer is... it's unclear. The soul, the essence of the person they once were does appear to be in some form still attached to the undead, but there is a great deal of room for debate on that among theologians, mages and philosophers - even among demons, the nature of the soul, such as it is, is complicated, and there is no truly settled answer.

Another issue of dispute is emotions - though it is common belief among the uneducated that an undead feels no emotion (or, more ridiculously, only feels 'negative' emotions), this is untrue. An undead is capable of feeling the full range of living emotion, from anger to joy to despair to annoyance to sadness and everything in between. However, the experience of emotion is different - an undead feels a distance between themselves and their emotions, the emotions are muted, and some philosophers feel that an undead is merely feeling the ghost or memory of an emotion - this can be supported by examples of undead who lived especially emotionally stunted or limited lives (such as children or the like) not always being capable of experiencing emotion in the same way as undead that had more full lives.

Regardless of the 'freshness' of the emotion, undead can feel pretty much everything they did before. The tendency of the undead Forsaken to bitterness, anger, despair and hate is merely a function of the experiences that created them and their unlives since - and the social atmosphere that such attitudes have created. Happiness is not frowned on, but large displays of it are, being disruptive and seen as disrespectful to those who are not happy. People in Lordaeron rarely smile in public, celebrations are usually quiet and small, with only intimate friends, and shouts of joy are unheard of.

The last issue of dispute among philosophers is if undead are creatively sterile -the Light claims that it is so, but there are artists, writers, thinkers and creators among the undead Forsaken (and some will point out that innovative and creative strategies certainly were a factor in the Scourge's victories). Those who insist undead are sterile in the mind will point to the presence of the living in Lordaeron who they will ultimately source as anything innovative, or find reasons to say that the product is derivative or unoriginal, often with some merit - but equally, they are accused of merely seeking (or 'seeing') evidence that supports pre-existing biases.

To be an undead is to be a mess of contradictions - it is to be dead, but to live. It is to be dead, but move, be animate, and not (generally) decay. It is to be unchanging, and yet to change. It is to be themselves, and yet be someone and something new. It is to feel, and not feel. It exists in a space between and all it's own.

To be undead is, in other words, a liminal experience.

Is it any wonder that the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is so popular in Lordaeron, then?

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Alonsus Foal: I knew Natalie Seline, and I don't really think she'd find your interpretations of her ideas doctrinally sound.
Aelthalyste: Seline's writings may have served as the foundation for our practices, but she did not create Shadow from whole cloth. The search for the divine is one that mere mortals cannot complete - and there will always be disagreements, in that blind groping for truth.

The term 'Cult of the Forgotten Shadow' is something of a misnomer, and yet, it is the term that has stuck. The word 'cult' has implications of both size, and uniformity - cults are associated with small, secretive groups, operating within society but hidden from it. The word has subversive and malevolent connotations.

And yet, the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is none of those things. The Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is the largest religion in modern Lordaeron, and practiced openly by priests and priestesses across the land, occupying former churches and chapels of the Holy Light, or building new houses of worship where appropriate.

The Cult of the Forgotten Shadow - despite what more orthodox followers of the Light in Stormwind and Kul Tiras might say - is not a malevolent force. It is not the Light, and it does not have the same teachings as that faith, but the Forgotten Shadow is not the Lich King's Cult of the Damned with a new name (though some who were once followers of the Cult of the Damned in Arthas's Lordaeron have transferred their faith to Shadow and their loyalty to Sylvanas).

And it is not uniform. Though the Cult is a new faith, born in the aftermath of Sylvanas's capture of Lordaeron the city and the foundation of her new order on the Kingdom, it has a myriad of subgroups - in most cases, they are too nebulous and indistinct to be called sects - gathered around whatever teacher, priest or philosopher has a specific and idiosyncratic notion about Shadow that appeals to those who gather around them.

Because of the broadness of the term, and the newness of the Faith, it is difficult to actually say much that is true about the entire 'Cult'.

What can be said is this - the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is not the first religious teaching to center around 'Shadow' on Azeroth. That instead is true of the Trolls - Shadowpriests have a long history in Trollic civilization, dating back to even before the great Troll Empires themselves. While there are similarities between the Forgotten Shadow and the way the trolls think and teach of Shadow, the differences greatly outnumber those similarities.

Cosmologically, Shadow exists in a strange place, in the common understandings of the powers of the universe. Light and Void, Arcane and Fel, Nature and Death - the six pillars of magic in the view put forth by Quel'dorei philosophers long ago, the most basic underlying principles of the universe. Shadow is not among them - because instead, it exists between two.

There are numerous competing understandings of where Shadow came from, and what it is. In the eyes of the Forgotten Shadow, based on the writings of Natalie Seline, when Light and Void first met and clashed, the part of Light that touched Void was... changed. It was still Light, but no longer just the Light. It was not merely the creation and 'warmth' of the Light, but the entropy and 'coldness' of the Void, in one form, Light, but not.

It was more Light than Void, but the Light is a force that does not tolerate impurity or difference, and so it excised this 'tainted' part from itself, creating the distinct force known as Shadow, and it is this Shadow, this Forgotten Shadow, that blessed darkness, that the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow worships.

How true that cosmological view of things is is an open question that lacks a firm answer, but it appears to be at least to a degree true - shadow magic has some of the entropic and destructive capacities of the Void, the ability to remove, delete and 'uncreate. It draws on feelings of anger, bitterness and despair as much as on more 'positive' emotions. But it also soothes, and calms, and comforts. It can create, and it can heal.

Priests that follow Shadow are just as capable of all the same magic as Priests of Elune or the Holy Light - but their magic does bend itself easier to harming one's enemies, or inducing fear or terror in their foes.And likewise, while Shadow Priests harm their foes, it lacks the connotations of smiting or righteous wrath that the Light often has when it calls down the Light to attack. The energy with which its practictioners attack their foes is not cleansing the world of 'evil' or 'the wicked',

Because, Shadow does not Judge. Shadow does not demand certain actions from it's followers, or so say most followers of the Forgotten Shadow. Shadow accepts all, judges none. It does not prescribe or proscribe action, but urges it's followers to improve themselves, to be the best that they can become. To strive for control of themselves, and the world around them to the best of their own self.

The particulars differ from priest to priest, following to following and philosopher to theologian, but the commonalities all derive from those principles and origins.

It is difficult to discuss the theology of the Forgotten Shadow without direct comparison to the Church of the Holy Light - the Cult exists in direct conversation with and opposition to the Holy Light and the orthodox church, first from Seline's heretical writings and then from reinterpretations of the same like those offered the banshee Aelthalyste, one of the 'founders' of the Forgotten Shadow.

The Holy Light's most important virtues, are often called 'Respect', 'Tenacity' and 'Power'. In truth, veritable oceans of ink and forests of paper have been spent elaborating and expanding on what those three things mean, and the same is beginning to happen with the Forgotten Shadow - those three virtues remain important to most versions of the Cult, but they are rooted in the self and the individual, rather than in the common community.

And that, at it's core, is one of the biggest meaningful distinctions between the Holy Light and the Forgotten Shadow - the Holy Light is a communal faith, meant to be practiced and considered openly and together, existing specifically in the context of civilization and standing together with others.

The Forgotten Shadow, while practiced communally in small groups and congregations, is as much a religion of the self and the individual as anything else. It is a religion that is as focused on self-actualization and the realizing of your own power, as in the community as a whole. And yet, the Forgotten Shadow is also intensely aware that no one is alone, that everyone exists in a whole. As important as respecting your own power is respecting the power and wills of those around you.

The Forgotten Shadow is a religion of freedom - there is no crime under the Shadow except that which takes the choice from another. To murder someone is to take the choice to live from them - but to kill someone who attacks you or attacks one dear to you is not - they made the choice to fight, after all, taking that risk.

Of course, as with murder, there are many ways that one can justify an act in such a way as it is not theft of a choice, but choice, and the freedom of choice, and the access to choice are at the core of the morality preached by the Forgotten Shadow - though some variations, most notably the Church of Blessed Darkness in Quel'Thalas, have put very idiosyncratic twists on the idea of choice.

The Holy Light preaches serenity, peace, calm. It urges people to deny or resist their 'negative' emotions - anger, despair, hate, sorrow.1​ The Forgotten Shadow on the other hand, teaches that this is self-destructive. All emotion is felt, all emotion is right - it is your actions, not your thoughts, that matter. Understand and acknowledge your anger, feel it, use it, if need be, so some productive end.

The Forgotten Shadow claims that an obsession with serenity and calm leads to complacency - a sin for the Forgotten Shadow nearly as much as stealing choice. Complacency is the mother of inaction, the very inaction that led the people of Stormwind and Stromgarde and Ironforge to abandon the people of Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas to their fates. The same impulses that saw Gilneas build their wall and hide behind it, even when people desperate to survive fled to that realm, hoping against hope they could escape the Scourge.

Peace is a lie, for the world is in a perpetual state of conflict, one way or another, of one sort or another. All things are rooted in conflict, and violence is only one manifestation of that.

The Forgotten Shadow does not preach that one should be driven entirely by anger, bitterness and other such emotions - love and passion and hope are important for a fully rounded, fully realized life. In practice, many preachers focus more on anger and bitterness and sorrow, given the nature of their congregations. But it is still not meant to be practiced to the exclusion of all else.

For those that feel as though the Holy Light abandoned them, or failed them, the combination of similarity to and difference from the Church of the Holy Light they once knew is what draws them. Many of the prayers are repurposed ones from the Holy Light, many religious principles remain in common, even if altered, and the fact that the Shadow exists as a point of duality between Light and Void is seen as a mirroring of the duality of the undead existence of most of the Forsaken draws many of them to the Faith as well.

The Cult has not had official support from Queen Sylvanas - if she has any opinion on the faith, she has not made it known, but as an organization, she does acknowledge it's use and merits for serving both her people and the purposes of her fight against the forces of the Lich King. Certainly, many in her government, however, have seen the value in it. Varimathras has been notably not among them, rumored to have spoken of the Forgotten Shadow with little but scorn and disdain in private, though rumors also swirl that he has spoke admiringly of it, or at least considered it a good thing for the realm. Like in many cases with the dreadlord, it is nearly impossible to say where he actually stands.

The Forgotten Shadow's appeal to the angry, bitter and abandoned population of Lordaeron can be seen - and is seen, by some in the South, at least those who haven't consigned all the Forsaken to being merely 'evil' - as little more than a child lashing out in anger, taking the exact opposite of what they used to do just for the sake of being defiant and different.

And there is truth to that as well - as noted, the very similarities of the Forgotten Shadow to the Holy Light provides familiarity, while having teachings in direct opposition to the Holy Light appeals to those who feel angry at their former faiths.

Shadow, simply by it's existence, is a liminal thing, existing between two forces - Darkness and Light, Void and The Light. Shadow is transitory and changing, deepening and shrinking based on the light, but there will always be places between the two as long as both Light and Void exist, and those spaces, the Shadow will persevere - and in the spaces between life and death, the undead will continue.

Being a Forsaken, even a living one, is liminal, and being a follower of the Forgotten Shadow is often liminal as well, with the religion preaching many things in opposition to the teachings of the Holy Light, but rarely does it teach that those ideas should be taken to their furthest extent. It would be wrong to say that the Forgotten Shadow preaches "everything in moderation", but as far as inaccurate summaries go, it is... useful.

Regardless of the truth or merits of all these teachings, however, the Forgotten Shadow is popular across Lordaeron. It is diffuse, diverse and decentralized, but it is a fact of life for virtually everyone in the Kingdom. Tensions exist between those in Lordaeron who still hold to the Holy Light, and those who have turned to the Forgotten Shadow, but for now, most of those tensions are expressed in sermon and counter sermon, tract and counter tract, street preachers arguing and shouting, rather than fights. Unlike in Quel'Thalas, there have been only one public burnings of Holy Light texts and other relics, as this disturbance of the order of her realm was punished by Sylvanas and her enforcers, as were a few early harassments (and worse) of Holy Light followers after the integration of living and undead into one Kingdom. The Dark Lady has continued to make clear that as long as her subjects fight, stay loyal and do not disturb the order of Lordaeron, they may exist as they wish, live as they wish, worship as they wish.

How long that can prevent things from progressing as they have in Quel'Thalas, where the clashes between Holy Light and Forgotten Shadow have become increasingly common, if still mostly covert (in a sense), is an open question.

---

1: In practice, of course, the clergy of the Holy Light do not teach they every follower must always strive to be some emotionally-empty automaton, entirely driven by serenity and contentment, but the teachings themselves do have a strong emphasis on serenity and aversion to 'negative' emotions.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Stormwind Street Preacher: Do not be fooled by the flowery words of Calia Menethil, for she too has fallen sway to the corruption and seductive power of the Banshee Queen! Lordaeron is a land in chains, and an evil shadow is cast over the minds of all who travel there!
Yannick Allerton1​: I don't know about that, old man. I live there, and last I checked, my mind was shadow free.
Preacher: Back, foul servant of darkness! You will not taint these good people with-
Allerton: Some of these good people paid for passage on my ship to Lordaeron. Kindly get the fuck out of the way so they can get what they paid for.

Despite what some people in Stormwind and Kul Tiras - and to a lesser extent the rest of the nations of the Alliance - would like to believe, life in Lordaeron is not an enslavement, it is not some tyrannical hellhole where dark magic has bound the will of all the living there to the foul will of the Banshee Queen.

It would, however, be a lie to say that Lorderon is a pleasant place to live.

Though the Lich King's plague may have bene driven from the land, the effects that the Scourge had on the very soil continues to make farming in Lordaeron a difficult, intensive career, even more than it was before. Mushrooms grow easily, and pigs will eat almost anything, but much else can be difficult to grow in large amounts, and dragging a living from the soil can be a nightmare of labor.

Lordaeron is not a land of perpetual overcast darkness, but there does sometimes seem to be more darkness, more shadow than there was before. Night feels longer and days feel shorter - it has been measured, repeatedly, and days and nights hold the same lengths they always did, depending on the season. And yet, darkness does seem to be the common companion to all.

Of course, with all the shadow magic running around, and the distastes most undead Forsaken have for the sun, this perception has less to do with reality than with... well, perception.

Lordaeron is not a land where joy is celebrated, and it is a land where anger, bitterness and depression sink in and steep for long nights and long days, almost covering the whole land in a layer of negativity and sour emotions. Lordaeron was once a place where every night, the taverns would be full to bursting with people allowing themselves a small chance to relax after a long day's work. The taverns would be full of people drinking, people singing, people gambling and joviality galore.

Today, the remaining taverns still do a brisk business, but people drink alone as much with others. Even when people drink in groups, the conversation is quiet, the gambling lacks crowds of spectators and even the happiest people celebrate in small groups in private, rather than rubbing their glee in the faces of their neighbors.

Lordaeron was once a kingdom of power and glory, where the roads were made safe from brigands and bandits by well armed and well trained soldiers travelling along them, punishing those who broke the King's peace.

Today, the roads are (outside the Western Plaguelands) safe to travel because all the brigands and bandits are dead and there simply isn't enough valuable trade to sustain the rise of new ones, not yet.

But in a few ways, the changes have been good for the surviving population of Lordaeron, living and dead.

While Lordaeron was a pleasant place to live for most, before the Third War, it was a land defined by strict hierarchies of blood and title - while the lot of a peasant was not pure drudgery and toil, and most nobles cared for those below them, in line with the teachings of the Holy Light, there is a reason many rural peasants found the Cult of the Damned and it's promises of equality in undead appealing.

The peasants all loved Good King Terenas, but many hated the local lord they paid their taxes to, paid fees to for the use of his windmills and ovens and had to bow and scrape to when he passed by. Even the kind nobles were still blind to the way their elevated status could make even their most well intentioned of actions condescending, rude, unhelpful or counterproductive.

In the cities, the lot of a laborer was if anything worse - rarely did peasants starve, in Lordaeron, but in the cities, if a laborer could not find the work to make their daily wage...well, they could find themselves hoping the local Church-run soup kitchens didn't run out before they could get food.

Lordaeron was a land of feudal hierarchy with influential aristocracy that were not all as good, wise and kind as Terenas, who lorded their status over those below them, and who was not free from the abuses of power. It was a land where the upper echelons of the military were exclusively held by those with noble blood and noble title, where the commonborn footman could expect to be spent to hold the line while the noble-born cavalry got to cover themselves in glory...

This is of course, an oversimplification of hundreds of years of societal development. Mobility was not entirely absent - a brave soldier could be knighted and given a small holding, a commoner with talent could rise in the Royal Bureaucracy, to a point, and the wealthiest commoners could outright buy their way into a noble title. But Lordaeron was still a land where ability could only get you so far in terms of political power and social status, and only a tiny fraction of the common population would ever have a chance to rise above the status of their birth, as mages or priests or bureaucrats or especially successful merchants or bankers.

But all that aside, the Lordaeron of today is a land where ability is the only thing that will get you promoted. The Royal administration is dog eat dog, and the incompetent will find themselves quickly out of their depth if cronyism or nepotism somehow managed to finagle them into a job they couldn't do. The Royal Army does not suffer fools lightly and the bloody fights to hold the Western Plaguelands and hold the limited path through the Eastern Plaguelands and claim the whole region will get officers who did not earn their rank killed - often with some of their soldiers, but still.

The death of so many of the nobles of Lordaeron in the Third War meant that it was simple enough for Sylvanas to sweep what was left of the old feudal structure aside and implement much more direct rule of her realm. But Sylvanas, the Dark Lady, does not govern with a heavy hand. In some ways, one could say she barely governs at all.

Under Sylvanas's leadership, Lordaeron has one great purpose that it focuses on above all else - defeating the Lich King. Everything is subordinated to that... but as long as the Army and Navy are supplied, as long as there is good order in the realm facilitating the continued production of resources needed for the war effort, and as long as there is no resistance to the rule of Sylvanas... one may live their life as they see fit.

The Crown, under Sylvanas, cares little about how people live their daily lives, how they spend their money or how they live. As long as they are loyal - or at least quiescent - and pay their taxes (usually in kind), she doesn't care what her people do, largely. There is no one to bow and scrape to - she expects loyalty, but she does not expert servility, and though she will brook no argument from her subordinates when she has made up her mind, she has little interest in rubbing her position in the noses of those same subordinates.

But while the Crown does not really govern in many areas, and governs lightly in others, there are places where Sylvanas and her administration govern with great focus and enthusiasm. All of those areas ultimately relate to two things - war, and security.

Lordaeron is organized into military districts - one in the Western Plaguelands, three in the Tirisfal Glades, two in Silverpine and one more for the ruins of Dalaran, though it is something of an unusual case, being a place focused to magical research and development amongst all the members of the Ghostlands Pact (and the very classified work to permanently reopen the portal between Azeroth and Outland that Kel'thuzad first opened during the Third War).

Administration of these districts is run in a military fashion, with clear lines of command and fields of responsibility - the tax collection is an army of the Quartermaster Corps, public works such as roads and other state-managed construction (or mostly reconstruction, large parts of the Kingdom are still in ruins to one extent or another due to the fact that no one lives in those parts such that they need to be repaired) are made with military concerns in mind first and foremost - the ease of movement of soldiers and supplies, the ability of and towns to support themselves, the access to vital resources, that sort of thing.

Each district is run by a General appointed by Sylvanas - and technically, all the bureaucrats that serve under these generals are soldiers, though they are not expected to serve in the field except as a last result - but they are still expected to maintain the discipline of soldiers. These generals are given great latitude in how they administer their responsibilities. In Silverpine, for instance, the former bandits of the region have largely been brought into the fold, but have not entirely abandoned their old ways, running small scale smuggling operations on the side, and perhaps a little light extortion and skimming here and there. In and around Brill, on the other hand, the local General has a greater civilian focus, and finances further work beyond just the military concerns by making deals with local drugmakers and 'taxing' them to protect them from those who believe the drugs corrosive to the Lordaeron in some fashion.

That not all of that additional tax goes to civilian work in Brill barely needs to be said.

It is not that Lordaeron is run rampant with corrupt officials, and indeed, it would be accurate to say that would be wrong to say that Lordaeron is free of graft and corruption - it exists, but the opportunities for it are limited, and Sylvanas rarely bothers with the niceties of a trial when it is caught. Though she rarely bothers with the niceties of a trial in general. Lordaeron may not have the hierarchies and classes of the past, the people may have more de facto freedoms to live as they see fit, but the power of the Crown, when it chooses to exercise it, is practically limitless.

Calia Menethil does her best to moderate the harshness and monofocus of Sylvanas's regime where she can - she does her best to claw resources from the military to ensure that the people have better lives, pointing out the importance it can play for morale both at the front and at home. She pushes for education in not just the purely practical aspects needed to staff the bureaucracy and officer corps with men and women who can think, but for the enrichment of their lives or unlives. She is rarely anywhere near as successful as she'd like to be, but she'll take every win she can get, however minor. She couches everything she does - in debate with Sylvanas or most of the other leadership of the Kingdom - in long-term benefits for the war efforts, and she very much does burn to see the Scourge defeated and eventually the Lich King destroyed, but she doesn't want to see her people, living or dead, become merely residents in an armed camp.

Lordaeron is already more and more like an army with a country, and she hopes to arrest that process. Some day, the Lich King will be beaten, after all. The whole world is against him now, and the Scourge has been beaten enough now for people to know that it can be done.

Calia does not doubt eventual victory, and ironically for someone who might not live to see it, if it takes as long as some worry it might, she is concerned for what comes after.

If Lordaeron truly does become an Army with a country, a massive barracks and little more, then what happens when the war is over, and the Lich King defeated? The Horde struggled to find an identity for itself beyond just being an army after it united under Thrall, and Calia has been noted to pay close attention to all news (and intelligence reports) from Durotar about how the orcs there have struggled with the questions peace - or something close to it - brings.

After all, they might well provide an answer to the questions Calia is already asking.

---

1: Not a canon character. Just a generic living Forsaken who happens to be a shipowner transporting goods and people between Lordaeron and Stormwind, and points in between. Even in the Silent War, trade happens. I tried finding a suitable NPC from the game, but none really presented themselves.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Varimathras: The residents of Deathknell can handle an infestation of spiders on their own. I see no reason to dispatch any forces to deal with them.
Calia Menethil: Eventually, yes, but in the meantime, as long as the spiders nest in the mine there, the entire valley lacks its most valuable export to the rest of the Kingdom. And with all the gold that flows out of Lordaeron with every import... even one mine gone hurts us.
Varimathras: That would be a concern if the Queen took her taxes in gold, but she does not. You're far too concerned about every minor matter that comes before the realm, Duchess.
Calia Menethil: How is it that for a creature so long-lived, you're so very short sighted, Varimathras?

A naive new student of politics might say that when all the power lies in the hands of one person, then factionalism would be minimal in such a realm. A more learned student of politics knows that it is the opposite - the more centralized the power, the more divisive the factions around that one pole, all eagerly backbiting for a chance at the one source they all must share.

In truth, a true master knows that it varies far too much to make such grand, general statements about, but nonetheless, there is truth to that notion - in a land where there is one absolute ruler, everyone must lobby that single ruler to exercise power.

In practice, of course, no matter how absolute the ruler, they rely on others to make their will come true, and there are practical limits on what can be done. Only an idiot gives an order they know won't be obeyed, and Queen Sylvanas Windrunner, while many things, is not an idiot.

Still, though factionalism exists in the Kingdom, one could not say much about them is formalized. Sylvanas will brook no organized dissent in her Kingdom, and any factions that exist to lobby her and her government, are by their nature, informal and loose, gathered around figures of note rather than institutions or coherently shared ideological principles.

The three most important figures in the government of Lordaeron, aside from the Queen, are Grand Executor Mortuus, Calia Menethil and Varimathras, and each one serves as a centerpiece for a faction.

Mortuus leads what SI:7 calls The Queen's Men, a group of Forsaken - mostly undead, but some living - that are defined by a hyper-loyalty to Sylvanas. Most of them are undead who have been with her since the beginning, or nearly so, and notably, General Tyvar Nelcos is one of the major figures in this faction as well. Nelcos was an officer serving under Garithos who took Sylvanas's offer to serve her after the defeat of Balnazzar, and he has been a stern partisan of Sylvanas ever since.

Nathanos Blightcaller could be called a member of the Queen's Men as well, save for the fact that he is already so close to Sylvanas - though whether or not they are actually romantically involved remains unknown to the Kingdom, and remains a question of (very) quiet gossip - and the man's disdain for court politics. But he is emblematic of the faction - loyalty to Sylvanas above all else, and loyalty to her vision of Lordaeron.

The Queen's Men are focused most on defeating the Scourge here in the Eastern Kingdoms, and then on invading Northrend. Everything else is an unwelcome distraction. The threats posed by the Alliance are relevant only insofar as they represent a threat to those plans. They, more than any other group, really do seek to turn the Forsaken into an army with a country, and keep that in place forever.

The Queen's Men exist across all arms of the government, but are most concentrated in the Army and Navy, and the Royal Apothecary Society. The RAS is notable for being one of the non-military, non-security arm of her government that Sylvanas actively pays much attention to. It was previously led by an undead named Putress, but the man was burned 'alive' after he disobeyed direct orders from Sylvanas to not develop new strains of the Lich King's Plague. Putress appears to have believed that the solution to defeating the Lich King was to make a new, better plague and release it on the Alliance to turn them into Forsaken. Sylvanas forbade the plan, and Putress continued anyway, and was duly punished for it.

In his place there now sits Grand Apothecary Faranell, who is far more obedient to the Queen's desires, and has shown an innovative mind as he brews ever more powerful acids and poisonous gases for the Forsaken and their wars. He has also been at the forefront of designing protective gear for the Forsaken's living soldiers and for those of their allies, against said gases. It is for that latter concern that sometimes sees people casting Faranell as instead being one of Calia Menethil's partisans, but Faranell continues to view things through the military lens of the Queen's Men.

Speaking of Calia, the group that has coalesced around her is called, again by SI:7, The Menethilites, but like with the Queen's Men, the group lacks an official name because it's not a true organization. Calia would especially object to her name being given to the group of reformers and (to her mind) far-sighted individuals who gather around her. Calia has more than once had to defend herself from accusations (usually originating from Varimathras or those around him) that she is forming a subversive cabal to allow her to seize power someday. Sylvanas has not believed those accusations, given that they are unfounded, but it has forced Calia on the defensive more often than she'd like to be.

Regardless, these 'Menethilites' are those who, like Calia, are worried about the long-term trends of Sylvanas's single-minded focus on war against the Lich King. They fear that if the Forsaken remain forevermore an army first, then when victory comes (which they see as inevitable, given enough time), the Forsaken will either collapse entirely, or seek out a new war- and the logical target would be the Alliance.

Views on the Alliance among Calia's faction can vary. Calia herself can be said to have positive feelings, but negative thoughts towards the Alliance. Their failure to sufficiently help Lordaeron bothers her, but she knows most of the leaders of the Alliance personally, and believes them to largely be men and women of good conscience - which is what makes their hostility to Lordaeron and Sylvanas's regime all the more infuriating to Calia. Calia supports the Pact as a counterweight and deterrent, but has always advocated for no aggressive moves or actions against the Alliance, for as much diplomacy as possible, and for reconciliation as a long-term goal. Calia does not support kowtowing to or bending to them, however, and she does believe quite firmly that overall, Sylvanas does offer the best path forward for her people - that underneath the hatred and bitterness, there is far more to Sylvanas, and Calia believes she has seen it, from time to time. Calia wants to help Sylvanas become more akin to the woman she was, to remind her there is still more to existence than revenge. She believes that the woman Sylvanas could become is the leader Lordaeron needs now, and in the future.

Others in her faction are less friendly to the Alliance in theory, but agree with her more conciliatory approach for matters of expediency and reality - the Alliance has the resources to destroy the Pact in a war. It would be bloody, brutal and expensive, but if the Alliance was truly willing to spend it all, they could win, even with Alteraci guerilla tactics and Revantusk-sponsored treachery and Thalassian bound demons and Forsaken toxic gases. There are two solutions - the Queen's Men believe in making the cost so expensive that the Alliance will either not bother, or give up/fracture if they try it. Those around Calia, instead, favor a greater normalization of relations, more trade, more contacts, and trying to renew old ties between Lordaeron and Stormwind especially - Calia has played on her once childhood friendship with Varian more than once, though not to much success. She has done better with Jaina and Magni Bronzebeard, but only to a certain extent.

Domestically, Calia's faction is dedicated to expanding the role of the government to provide more for the people than the bare minimum needed for the war, trying to improve the quality of life of every Forsaken, and what could be called 'cultural' pursuits. Out of the money afforded Calia from the small part of the old Royal Estates she continues to own, Calia tries to finance art, music and theater, hoping to develop a strong common sense of identity for her people and something to stand for beyond hate and bitterness and war. They support infrastructure beyond just roads for moving troops and supplies, and continuing to give people as much freedom as possible to live their lives, but as a matter of deliberate policy rather than the benign neglect of Sylvanas.

Beyond Calia, leading members of this faction are Aelthalyste, who believes that the teachings of the Forgotten Shadow do much to help bring exactly the sort of meaning that the Forsaken need. She is more hardline on the Alliance than Calia, or even most of the others in the faction, but she does believe that coexistence is the best option. Aelthalyste has helped by using the Cult of Forgotten Shadow - or those parts of it that she controls, which is far from all of it - to create schools for children, to train former peasants and educate them in not just matters of governing interest, but in history and logic and of course, theology.

The banshee is joined in this by Mariella Ward, a devout priestess of the Light who was a member of the Scarlet Crusade, but grew increasingly concerned by their harsh ways and defected first to the Argent Dawn when they formed, and then to Lordaeron. Mariella is perhaps even more pro-Alliance than Calia, but like Calia, her favorable views to the Alliance are tempered by exasperation with the militant rhetoric of people like Daelin and Varian, and the anti-forsaken preaching of the Orthodox Holy Light priests of the south. Mariella and Aelthalyste do their best to keep the peace between the followers of Light and Shadow, and have enjoyed a fruitful not-quite-friendship founded on mutual respect, and theological and philosophical debate. Most people who overhear these debates, referencing obscure thinkers hundreds of years dead and arcane points of theological practice as they do, are quickly lost.

One of the oddest and newest people to gather around Calia is the Dark Ranger Velonara. Though she is as intensely loyal to Sylvanas as the other Dark Rangers, Velonara, perhaps by virtue of her regular partnership with Farstriders on joint missions, has started to think about the future for herself and her people, and thinks that while Calia is perhaps too soft, her views on the long-term needs of the Forsaken matter. Velonara is a Forsaken now, and forever, and she has begun to wonder what that really, truly means. It is that wondering that has seen her in Calia's orbit more, though she is probably the most militant member of Calia's little faction.

Varimathras, then, represents the third pillar of Forsaken Politics. What the Dreadlord actually thinks about anything is hard to say - he is rarely seen in public, and chooses his words carefully. His loyalty to Sylvanas appears to be secure, by either genuine loyalty or fear of retribution it is unclear, but his quiet presence scares many. Others, of course, find it no real concern - the Forsaken are more than half undead, the Blood Elves summon and bind demons freely, and they're working with trolls, so what's one Dreadlord?

Regardless, Varimathras is a constant focus of SI:7, and their agents have taken to calling those who gather around him the Demon's Own. This group is far more clear about the views than Varimathras himself, but there is some reason to believe he doesn't agree with all or even most of their ideas, and merely lets them rally around him for some other reason.

What is known about the Dreadlord's positions are this: He opposes Calia and her goals, and supports a very hardline, very strict stance against the Alliance. He agrees that as things are now, the Alliance would win in a conventional war with the Pact, but points to the many stresses on the Alliance as a reason such a war would not be so simple. He agrees that the focus must be the Lich King first, else he find a way to renew his control over the Forsaken (so far, it has not happened, but some worry). If nothing else, revenge is a useful tool.

Beyond that, there are theories. Some think that Varimathras is merely a craven opportunist who allied with Sylvanas because he had no choice, and if the Burning Legion returned to Azeroth, he might be craven again. Others believe he has a genuine respect for Sylvanas, and serves her out of curiosity as to where she will go. Some say he too might consider himself forsaken - Varimathras and his brothers Detheroc and Balnazzar were abandoned by the Legion, first in the invasion of Kalimdor and then the aftermath, and had the Legion not left them alone... well, his brothers would live and Varimathras would not have cast aside those who did the same for him.

Some believe that as Dreadlords are serial manipulators and liars, Varimathras is trying to use Sylvanas for his own ends, though those ends do not appear to be treacherous... yet.

Those who gather around Varimathras are those who, like the Queen's Men, support making the Forsaken an Army first, last and always, and some believe that the Burning Legion should serve as an organizational model to one extent or another. Notable among these is the Shadow Priest Sarvis, who leads a group of the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow who, in a way, holds demons up as thing to be admired. Demons are the ultimate act of self-actualization, order imposed on the chaos and entropy of fel and the Twisting Nether, maintained by their own Will to see themselves as distinct. While Sarvis does not agree with the goals of the Legion, nor all their methods, he does note that Demons do not lie, not 'truly', and that even in the case of their first invasion, they were more or less honest with Azshara and the Highborne. Demons give a choice, and it is the choice of mortals like Gul'dan or Azshara or others to take it. Sarvis would not advocate taking the offer of demons often, but when one's will is powerful enough, and one understands the deal firmly, it can be considered. Regardless, demons are to be admired for their will and determination, their cunning and their success - the Legion has consumed countless worlds, after all, success after success, with Azeroth one of their few stumbling blocks.

Others among Varimathras's faction believe that in the end, the Forsaken should extend their power over the world entire, once the Lich King is defeated. General Belmont, a prominent military commander and a key leader of Lordaeron's elite strike teams, believes as much - at the very least, he thinks that Sylvanas should order the Forsaken to commit further troops to Alterac and destroy the Kingdom of Stromgarde in a lightning campaign, presenting the Alliance with a fait accompli and a much more secure southern border set at the Thandol Strait.

Belmont and those around him think that when the Legion returns, if the Forsaken do not rule, the world may well be doomed - the Forsaken, living and dead, have become and are becoming the ultimate army, driven, determined, disciplined and unending. The undead cannot easily be defeated, and undead are far less likely (in theory) to be bent to the corruption of the Legion. As such, a world led by the Forsaken would be able to act in unison against the Legion - the Third War was only won by such unity, and had it happened much sooner...

Beyond that, many militant men and women around Belmont (and thus Varimathras) are driven by dreams of empire, power and revenge against the slights of a world that they believe (with some merit) hates them. Some undead elves in their ranks hate the Night Elves for their arrogance and isolation, for casting out their highborne forebears. Some among the Forsaken, living and dead, cannot forget that which they lost at the hands of the Orcs, and see them as savages worthy of death or enslavement, and of course, many burn with hatred for the Alliance that failed to save them, refused to acknowledge them, and plots to destroy them.

For these, future war is a means for conquest, and conquest is a means for revenge.

Last of the most prominent around Varimathras is Ilius, a member of the Deathstalkers, the elite spies and assassins of Lordaeron. Ilius's real name is unknown, as he publishes under that pseudonym many pamphlets promoting hardline stances against the Alliance, but unlike Belmont, he believes that the Forsaken must appeal to the downtrodden and oppressed of Stormwind especially. Ilius is much moved by the destruction of the old feudal order that came with the fall of Lordaeron, and he would seek to replicate it in Stormwind and Stromgarde and Kul Tiras, and even Gilneas.

It is suspected that Ilius serves as a link between the Defias Brotherhood and Lordaeron, among others, and some in SI:7 believe rumors that he or other Deathstalkers have been working on convincing members of the Brotherhood to embrace undeath as a means to make their fight against the House of Wrynn easier, to truly divorce themselves from the Stormwind they seek to destroy and help build a new future. Whether or not this is true or not, Ilius does appear to be an active agent of subversion within the Alliance - he has had the least success in tightly unitedTheramore and among the largely egalitarian Gnomes, but even in Ironforge there are some who find appeal in Ilius's notions of tearing it all down to rebuild society anew. Some Defias Brotherhood literature has been found to be quoting - without attribution, for now - some of Ilius's pamphlets, and Ilius himself has been cribbing from Defias ideas as well. What that will mean in the long term is a question that keeps Mathias Shaw and other leading officials of SI:7 up for many a late hour.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Aliden Perenolde: My father betrayed the Alliance, yes. He feared the Horde could not be defeated, he feared that Terenas would use the Alliance as a mechanism to do what the House of Menethil had long desired, the annexation of Alterac. But it was a betrayal nonetheless - and yet, when the war was won, Terenas's true colors were revealed! Deposing my treacherous father was justice, failing to hand Alterac back to the Alteraci was theft. The truest treachery was on the part of your Alliance!
Daelin Proudmoore: King Terenas is dead, yet you still stand against us, alongside demon-summoners and the undead, alongside trolls! Don't pretend this is about anything more your own petty aggrandizement, boy! You are as much a traitor at heart as your father ever was!
Aliden Perenolde: I will fight alongside anyone who will help me get what my people deserve, Lord Admiral Proudmoore! You can rail against our new order all you want, but if you aren't careful, one day I will see my people aiding in the sack of Boralus just as your marines aided in the sack of Alterac!

The Kingdom of Alterac was always the smallest of great Human Kingdoms, before the opening of the Dark Portal. Though the borders of all the realms - Stormwind, Gilneas, Lordaeron, Stromgarde, Kul Tiras, Dalaran and Alterac - would change many times over the centuries between the final end of the Arathi Empire and the formation of the Alliance, Alterac would never be able to outsize it's neighbors.

In the days of the Empire, Alterac served as a vital buffer march at one point, before the Tirisfal Glades were settled and claimed. Even after, it was essential to the Empire, a vital link in the trade north from the Arathi Highlands. It was a position that served the small Kingdom well, when it separated from the Empire, and Stromgarde replaced what was left of the Empire.

The Alteraci mountains allowed the Kingdom nearly impregnable defenses, against conventional warfare, once fortified. It allowed the Kingdom to control the roads with ease, enacting tolls from all those who wished to pass - and enabling bandits and brigands to prey on those who refused, but pressed on anyway. Alterac would war with Lordaeron more than once - sometimes as the aggressor, seeking the fertile lowlands of the Hillsbrad Foothills and the valuable port of Southshore. Sometimes, it would be the defender - the House of Menethil saw Alterac's orange a blight against their white on the map. Alterac prevented direct travel from the fertile lands of the Eastweald to the port of Southshore - at least without paying a toll.

The wars might see a small amount of territory change hands, but in the long run, the status quo would remain - Alterac claimed the mountain passes, and Lordaeron held the lowlands.

But Lordaeron was not the only one Alterac fought. Though the separation from the Empire as it became Stromgarde was peaceful, the process never did define where the border sat between the two realms, the mountains between them riddled with small valleys and passes that were of disputed ownership. Stromgarde and Alterac would fight no less than thirty-six wars for control of that border region, villages and valleys changing hands every generation or so. Some of the wars were little more than conflicts of manuever and deployment, and others were pitched, bloody battles between longtime enemies.

The last of those wars - not that any knew it at the time - had ended not three years before the Dark Portal was opened, and it had been, by the standards of such wars, particularly deadly, with several of King Aiden Perenolde's cousins dying in the conflict. The hard feelings Aiden and many of his nobles had for Stromgarde would contribute to what would later happen in the Second War.

When Stormwind fell, Aiden was concerned - but only to a point. The orcs would need to get past Ironforge, past Stromgarde to be a threat to his realm. And even if they could reach Alterac, his people were masters of defending their mountain passes - there would be no way to breach them. Stormwind fell because they were weak fools, as Stormwind always was - they'd only survived against the Gurubashi by aid of a powerful mage after all. Treachery had undermined Stormwind when Llane was killed.

Of course, when the refugees of Stormwind reached the north, and spread word of just how bad things truly were, Aiden was more concerned, but even still, ready to stand on the defensive alone - King Tereneas spoke of the need for unity, calling on all the Human Kingdoms to join together, but Aiden thought he could see where this was going - the united war effort would mean united command. And Lordaeron, as the largest and most powerful of the human realms, would naturally lead such a united effort.

But when Gilneas and Stromgarde and Kul Tiras and Dalaran had all signed on to this Alliance, when the dwarves of the Wildhammer clan signed on, when even the distant Elves of Quel'Thalas agreed to join, even if reluctantly and barely, Aiden could hardly say no, could he? Alterac's defenses were great, but against the united forces of all the rest of humanity? With elves and dwarves as well?

Aiden agreed, and Alterac joined the Alliance. For a time, Aiden, though reluctant, was willing to stay loyal. The fight against the orcs and their allies, however, would quickly turn sour in his mouth - many battles would be won, but at deadly cost, and many others would be lost. Alteraci soldiers were dying in foreign lands in the name of King Tereneas and to recover Stormwind. New taxes had to be levied to support the war, and Aiden saw that money going to the Alliance, which he saw becoming ever more a Lordaeron-led organization, with Terenas increasingly the dominant political figure holding it all together.

Aiden saw this, and believed it to be the Lordaeronic powergrab he'd always feared - in his mind, Tereneas was greedily grabbing power, rather than desperately trying to hold disparate allies together in the face of a war that his people seemed to be losing.

The final straw came when the Horde invaded Quel'Thalas - if the elves could be faced down by this threat, their defenses forced back all the way to their near-mythical capital, then the Horde truly was unbeatable. And if it was, then Alterac would burn with the rest of humanity when they won. And even if, against the impossible, the Alliance won, the cost would be Alterac, and Terenas would have his Kingdom.

Either way, Aiden believed, Alterac was doomed.

Unless Alterac had something to offer.

And with the critical mountain passes between the lands the Horde held in the southern portions of the continent of Lordaeron, and the capital city of the Kingdom of Lordaeron in the hands of Alterac, Aiden realized he did have something to offer.

Against the urgings of his son and daughter, both of whom advocated standing by the Alliance for now, Aiden made contact with the Horde, offering Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer passage through his Kingdom, and the aid of his warriors. He schemed to assassinate Uther the Lightbringer, and aided the Horde by sparking peasant uprisings in Lordaeron.

It was not until the orcs were advancing towards Lordaeron City when the truth of Aiden's treachery came to light, and the Alliance's response was harsh and brutal - the combined forces of all the other kingdoms fell on Alterac, taking the mountain passes and beseicging Alterac City - and unfortunately for the largely blameless civilians, the sack of the city was hard on them - the Alliance's soldiers were burning with hatred for the Alteraci betrayal, and by the time the Alliance generals managed to reign their men in, half the city was in ruins, and half of the rest was on fire. Tereneas expressed deepest regret, vowing to rebuild the city when the war was won and the threat over, while Thoras Trollbane and Daelin Proudmoore were known to have suggested the Alteraci got off easy. Either way, Aiden was taken prisoner, and Beve and Aliden Perenolde were left to try and scramble for their Kingdom back.

Aiden and Beve both quickly began making alliances with remaining Alteraci nobles, and reaching out to friends and relatives in other Kingdoms - their father's treachery was vile, and foul, yes, but Alterac as the land of the Perenolde's, and it was only just that it be returned to them. Between the final end of the Second War, and the opening of the Dark Portal, the Perenolde siblings had convinced more than a few that Alterac had suffered enough for Aiden's crimes. Aiden could be safely deposed and Beve, as the eldest child, raised to the throne.

Others had other ideas - Genn Greymane supported Isiden, a cousin of Aiden, who happened to the child of Genn's own cousin. Thoras Trollbane simply proposed dividing Alterac up between Lordaeron and Stromgade, and Tereneas himself had become convinced that Daval Prestor, a distant relative of Aiden, would make a better king for the strategically vital land.

Still, had it not been for Aiden's second treachery, perhaps Beve and Aliden would have succeeded in their cause - the rights of blood succession were powerful in the minds of the nobles of all the Kingdoms, and Beve was Aiden's rightful heir, by any measure.

But Aiden betrayed the Alliance again - he used what soldiers and men remained loyal to him and smuggled Medivh's spellbook into the hands of Ner'zhul's orcs as they attacked Azeroth seeking the artifacts the fallen Shaman sought. Aliden was the first to learn of this, confronting his father and berating him for his stupid, selfish short-sightedness. Aliden left his father unconscious and waiting for the forces of Stromgarde to arrest him. Aliden and Beve would continue to lobby for the return of their Kingdom, but Aliden in particular doubted that it would work now - he began gathering weapons, rejects from the Kirin Tor, and hedge wizards. He smuggled murderers out of jails, and found thieves to become his scouts, and many of the nobles loyal to him would slowly withdraw their funds and then themselves from public view, hiding away in the remote Uplands of Alterac, as the Syndicate was born.

For a brief, shining moment, as Lord Daval Prestor vanished, and Genn Greymane decided to cut his Kingdom off from the rest of the world, it seemed to Beve that she would be the only option - that Terenas would have to hand the crown back to her. Instead, Terenas did... nothing. Lordaeron's soldiers continued to occupy Alterac, while Terenas didn't annex it either. The orcs of the Frostwolf Clan were hidden somewhere in the mountains, and Grom Hellscream's Warsong were a threat across the entire south of the Lordaeron continent. And elements of the darkest remnants of the Horde, in the Blackrock Clan and their allies, were present here in the North as well.

No one really knows why Terenas did nothing about Alterac. Was he indecisive? Did he want to annex the Kingdom, but the time was not right? Did he not trust Beve and Aliden? Was it simply that there was too much to do, and Alterac fell to the bottom of his priorities?

It is impossible to say - no one who may have known what went through Terenas's mind on this matter still lives.

But as Terenas did nothing, Alterac began to burn.

It started with isolated attacks on supply convoys. With farmers who were too friendly with the occupation forces finding their homes and fields burned. Even 'loyal' Alteraci farmers found themselves extorted by bandits calling themselves the Syndicate. Beve and Aliden protested their ignorance, but by this point, even Beve had given up on a peaceful solution. The Syndicate would spread it's tendrils across Alterac, into Stromgarde and Lordaeron. As Synidcate raiders attacked patrols, and small outposts, officers well behind the battle lines, or nobles accepting of the new order would be found dead in their homes, daggers in their hearts. Soon, suspicion fell on the Perenolde siblings, but before they could be arrested, they vanished without a trace.

Beve and Aliden worked together - Aliden leading the Syndicate's soldiers as they grew harder edged and more brutal, and Beve leading a campaign of espionage and assassination across southern Lordaeron and in Alterac. Their terrorist campaign soon started to draw no distinction between those who merely wanted to be left alone, and those who actively colluded with the Alliance. You were with the Syndicate, or you were their enemy.

At first, the Alliance tried to be better - Terenas was a good man, whatever the Perenoldes might have thought, and he did his best to keep the soldiers in Alterac from matching the cruelties of the Synicate, from judging all civilians with the same brush. But as the Syndicate used the people of Alterac as cover as a hunter might use foliage, that became harder. Guerilla warfare takes a toll on everyone who fights it - the guerillas and the conventional army. Caught in the middle were the people of Alterac, desperate to keep their lives together in the face of an army that increasingly saw all Alteraci as the enemy if they did not denounce the very idea of an independent Alteraci identity, and an increasingly bloody-minded network of former nobles and soldiers who cared more about regaining their power than they did about the Alteraci people.

This state of affairs could have continued for a generation, or even more. Aliden and Beve were prepared for the long haul, and the Syndicate, though they might lose a camp or two to overwhelming Alliance forces, were able to continue, come back, and strike anew. Alliance soldiers would go to sleep, and wake up to find the dismembered corpses of their watchmen scattered around the camp, their commander's tongue ripped out, and their supplies poisoned. A patrol would be ambushed, and a few days later, their bodies would be brought into an Alliance fort in supply wagons that were supposed to be carrying food.

Alliance soldiers would respond by tracking down their enemies to some small village, demanding the Syndicate's men be turned over - but if the village gave any resistance, or simply didn't know, it became more and more common to simply burn the village - usually the people were taken out of it by force first, turned into refugees, but even that slowly became less common. The prisons overflowed with people who were merely suspected of knowing some detail about where the Syndicate's camps were, or who funded and supplied them.

Alterac bled and burned, and Terenas could do nothing to stop it. He would send in Paladins to arrest the most brutal of the Alliance's officers, but that only reduced morale among the occupying soldiers.

Whatever might have happened had things continued is unknown, because the Undead Scourge intervened - as the northlands of Lordaeron became consumed by plague and undead, some of the soldiers in Alterac were withdrawn. It is these hardened men and women that would form the core of the soldiers who stayed with Arthas when he decided to purge Stratholme. Not all of the soldiers who obeyed Arthas's orders in that doomed city had served in Alterac, but many did - slaughtering civilians who were or would be the enemy was old hat for them,or so it seemed. When faced with the horrors of the undead, massacring the people of Stratholme seemed a valid response to them.

But that withdrawal allowed the Syndicate to began acting in the open - Strahnbrad was occupied openly by the Syndicate's forces, and Beve and Aliden met face to face once more. But their time apart had changed them both - most importantly, Aliden no longer believed that the Crown should be Beve's - Aliden believed that he had been the one to fight while Beve schemed from the shadows, and he had earned the throne. Beve, of course, in turn saw her brother as a bloody-minded brute concerned more with slaughter than results, while her efforts at spying and assassinating key figures had done the lion's share of the work at destabilizing the Alliance occupation.

In truth, of course, it was both of them who had kept the Syndicate and the cause of Alteraci independence alive, but both knew the Alliance was the real threat for now. For a time, it seemed that the Alliance, with the undead seemingly defeated, would retake Strahnbrad and the Syndicate would need to melt away, back into the countryside.

Before that could happen, before the Alliance could regroup, Arthas returned - and killed Terenas. Though perhaps Arthas might have thought to take his "rightful" throne in some orderly fashion, all it did was lead to a complete collapse of Lordaeron practically overnight - soldiers across the Kingdom were without direction as the entire High Command was slaughtered in the Capital. Regional nobility would gather what forces they could around them, but they failed to coordinate as the Cult of the Damned reemerged and the Plague spread anew across the Kingdom.

The Syndicate didn't understand the cause or scope of the chaos at first, but nonetheless, they took advantage of it, falling on the remnants of the Alliance occupation and killing most. As Arthas advanced north to Quel'Thalas, a small detachment of the undead under the leadership of an older cousin of Aliden and Beve, a Baron named Arodan, a former paladin turned Death Knight, seduced to darkness before even Arthas (but nowhere near his might as a Death Knight). Arodan led the undead into Alterac, hoping to find his cousins, believing he could offer them both undeath and have them and their syndicate join the Scourge - it would secure essential passes that would allow an invasion of Hillbrade and eventually of Stromgarde.

Arodan was wrong, and the Syndicate fought back against Baron Arodan, Aliden being the one to eventually bright the Death Knight down - though the fight was not fair, with a dozen men surrounding the unholy warrior and striking together, never giving him a moment to make his own attacks - it is only by sheer chance that the final blow was Aliden's. Still, with the undead repelled - an act even Lordaeron in all it's power couldn't achieve, or so the Syndicate would proclaim, the people of Alterac, those who had survived the brutalities since the Second War, rallied to Aliden, and to the Syndicate, patriotism and the long, stubborn legacy of their people at the forefront of their minds.

It was there, in the ruins of Alterac City that Aliden and Beve experienced their final break. Officially, Aliden only took the crown over his sister by the acclaim of the people and soldiers of Alterac gathered there, spontaneously overcome with love for him for his 'heroism' in the 'War for Alteraci Independence'. While there was some genuine support for Aiden for being the warrior king the times seemed to demand, a lot of that 'spontaneous' support was very deliberately stoked and planted by Aliden and his partisans.

Beve, in public, accepted this, saying that her brother was the King Alterac needed, but in private, Beve was coldly furious. In the last two years, there have been at least a dozen attempts on Aliden's life, and Aliden knows that Beve was behind at least three of them, and suspects her for another three. More than once, Beve has found herself under attack from 'deserters'. They maintain appearances in public, and Beve's intelligence and assassination network, penetrating into Stromgarde, Stormwind and even Kul Tiras, is too vital to Alterac for Aliden to publicly accuse her - and Beve knows that, for now, the soldiers of Alterac are too loyal to Aliden for her to try to openly claim her rightful crown.

When Sylvanas approached Alterac to join the Pact she had signed with Quel'Thalas, Aliden and Beve were hesitant. Both had considered reaching back out to the Alliance, considering that the Alliance would need them more than they'd hate them, both had considered simply going it alone as they already had. But Sylvanas was able to sweeten the deal for them - long had the House of Perenholde craved the Hillsbrad Foothills, long had they sought to add Southshore to their Kingdom. While nominally Sylvanas had claimed Hillsbrad as part of her Forsaken Kingdom, the people there had been largely unwilling to see her their leader, and she saw little loss in handing the land over to Alterac, if it won her an ally and a buffer against Alliance efforts to jostle her elbow while she prepared for the true enemy in Northrend.

The offer was too much to turn down, and so in a joint attack, Alterac and Lordaeron, allies once again, but in truth, invaded the recalcitrant Hillsbrad Foothills and quickly defeated the local efforts to stop them. The conquest was aided by subversion from Beve's intelligence network undermining many efforts to resist and organize within Southshore, Tarren Mill and Hillsbrad, among others and the fact that at least Alterac wasn't the undead - with both sides invading, and with the truth of the Alliance not publicly revealed until later, some people surrendered to Alterac as a better alternative to the Forsaken.

Of course, by the time that was revealed, and the Forsaken handed over what they'd taken in the region to Alterac... well, by then, Alteraci soldiers were in the streets of the major cities, holding the forts of the region and it was a fait accompli.

This is not to say that the Hillsbradi accepted things easily across the board, and many are still loyal to the Alliance, or the idea of the Lordaeron they once had, if not the version that exists now. Some looked to Kul Tiras, or Stromgarde - and it was those latter people that attracted the eye of Galen Trollbane.

Aliden and Beve knew that Trollbane planned to invade, and were already preparing a campaign of harrying his columns, cutting his supplies, and terrorizing his soldiers. They had sent word to Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas - the Pact required them to provide aid, and though both didn't expect much from their 'allies', even the threat of their arrival might be enough once they weakened Stromgarde's armies.

Instead, of course, the Witherbark Trolls, seeking an escape from the Hinterlands, allied with the Ogres of the Boulderfist Tribe, and fell upon the gathering Stromic armies - the battle should have been won by the humans, easily, but surprise and overconfidence left them easy prey, gathered together. Galen escaped with but a fragment of his forces, and Aliden found himself all dressed up for war, and nowhere to go.

Rather than simply watch Stromgarde burn, Aliden decided that the House of Trollbane needed to pay for Thoros's desire to dismember Alterac, for the centuries of war between their two lands. Alterac had to grow to survive, and so he broke through Thoradin's wall - undermanned as it was now, it was easy - and quickly scattered the unready Witherbark and Boulderfist before him. Using the mountains to anchor his left flank, he led his forces on a bloody campaign - brilliant executed, but made far easier by the chaos of the fall of Stromgarde - all the way across the north, taking Northfold, Dabriye and even reaching Highguard Keep, the site where Orgrim Doomhammer had fallen during the liberation of the camp there - not that Aliden knew that at the time. The entire north of Stromgarde had fallen practically before the rest of the world could react.

There are reports that Sylvanas was furious at Aliden acting so prematurely, either at starting a new war, or simply doing it without the Forsaken there to claim their share of the spoils. But publicly, there was no breech between the members of the Pact, and the Forsaken sent some soldiers to help shore up the lines and Blood Elves sent some mages and Warlocks as well - while Alterac provided some of their own soldiers to the warfronts of their allies, their skill as skirmishers and ambushers without peer on this side of the Great Sea.

Regardless, any attempt to advance further into Stromgarde was brought to a sudden halt when Galen Trollbane, desperate and finally willing to swallow his pride, appealed to the Alliance for aid. Even Aliden was able to see that this was not the time for open war with the reborn Alliance now, and Sylvanas and Lor'themar made it clear that though the pact required mutual defense, they would not aid him in further aggression at this time. And so, the status quo now reigns in Stromgarde - Alterac commands the north, Stromgarde holds the immediate lands around Stromgarde City, and the Witherbark and Boulderfist exist in an uneasy state of alliance forced by circumstance, still around only because neither the Pact nor the Alliance can attack them without risking provoking the other.

Hillsbrad remains imperfectly annexed, and in the leadership, both Beve and Aliden plot to remove the need for the other, and eliminate the internal threat to their sole control of Alterac.

And the wheels of the world turn on, and the Silent War continues.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Beve Perenolde: Aliden, my poor dear benighted baby brother. You spent years waging a war of blood and terror, and that's all you understand.
Aliden Perenolde: And I suppose this is where you remind me of the story of luring more bears with honey than with vinegar? Don't make me laugh, dear sister - you sowed terror just as much as I ever did.
Beve Perenolde: Terror, like anything else, is a tool, one that must be weilded with skill and precision. It is a scalpel, to cut out the infection of treason and disloyalty - and you treat it as a hammer, to break the knees and skulls of your foes. The story I'd remind you of is the boy with an axe - everything looked like a tree. Unfortunately, the people of Hillsbrad aren't trees for you to fell.

The Kingdom of Alterac maintains pretensions that they are merely an expanded and reborn version of what they once were. Aliden Perenolde has restored the old Estates-General, representing the nobility and wealthy commoners of the realm, and rebuilt the old Royal Palace to exacting pre-sacking specifications.

The mountain passes remain a key source of the Kingdom's wealth and the defenses of their heartland, and in the valleys and slopes, people farm and mine and hunt and trap, they return to lives they once lived. The kingdom no longer burns, and the Alteraci no longer fear the Alliance's soldiers will come and take them in the night. And they no longer fear (though they admit this more quietly) that the Syndicate will decide it needs their crops or that they have been too compliant to the occupying authorities.

In truth, of course, the Kingdom of Alterac is nothing like what it was before, even in the mountainous heartlands of the Kingdom.

In those heartlands, life is largely peaceful. Rallied by renewed patriotism, and the light hand Aliden rules with now - a refreshing change to the harsh realities of the previous terrorism and occupation - the people of Alterac proper are loyal to the restored regime, largely. But the Kingdom's heartlands are not what they were. Alterac City has been largely rebuilt, though the newness of the construction, and the sometimes haphazard way it was done shows with glaring obviousness.

And of course, those very same heartlands are lacking in able-bodied young men and women.

Alterac was never the most populous of Kingdoms, and the events undergone since the sacking of Alterac City have done nothing to help that. The Syndicate itself was fairly small, as far as armies go, punching well above their size through terror and ambush, but now, a proper army is needed. Especially in light of the restive population of Hillsbrad and the front lines in Stromgarde, the army needs numbers more than ever. As a result, every able-bodied man and woman in the Alteraci Mountains, or nearly so, has been drafted into the Royal Army - most with only minimal coercion required, if that, but some are certainly far less willing to take up a spear, bow or sword in the name of Alterac.

Those that remain in to work in the Kingdom are - largely - the young, the infirm, the wounded, those not fit for service, the old. Some work is being done by refugees fleeing the conflict zone in Stromgarde - those who couldn't escape to lands still controlled by Galen Trollbane. These refugees are often given the least desirable jobs, but indirectly benefit from the light hand that Aliden continues to use in the mountains, finding it often easier to live in these mountains than anywhere else in the Kingdom.

Still, it's not fun to be Stromic in Alterac.

The Estates-General has been restored, but the nobles who retain their title are all loyal partisans of the restored order, and any commoners that have wealth enough to sit in the body are equally in the pocket of the Royal Family. The body is no longer even a theoretical check on the King's power, but a mere rubber stamp. Only the fact that Beve commands the loyalty of nearly half the body could even think to be a check on Aliden, but Beve hasn't challenged her brother so openly - yet.

Still, the heartlands are a peaceful and increasingly prosperous region - the lion's share of the tax revenue from the Hillsbrad Foothills go to Alterac proper, financing it's rebuilding and improvement. Roads are rebuilt and made better, mines are expanded, statues and monuments celebrating the glory of the restored Alterac abound.

Crossing out of the Mountains and into the Hillsbrad Foothills, of course, paints a far different image of the Kingdom.

The Hillsbrad Foothills are a region still under military occupation, with local governors appointed directly by Aliden, and the people expected to ask how high when told to jump. Alteraci Soldiers are seen in every city, and patrolling the roads regularly. Public order is quite secure, but dissent is everywhere.

Not everyone in Hillsbrad is an enemy of the new order, of course. Some were already suborned by Beve and her arm of the Syndicate, and others are willing to support the New Order because of the restoration of peace and trade that they have provided - the reopening of the Mountain passes through Alterac have been good for the economy. Some - even allowing for Alterac's alliance with Forsaken Lordaeron - at least think it better to be ruled by the living. Some are resigned to the fact that given the situation, sooner or later it would have been Alterac or Lordaeron ruling them.

Still, even counting those who have one reason or another to be willing to accept the new order - the craven, the resigned, the bribed, the renewed fanatic - much of the population of Hillsbrad is restive. The tax burdens on the region are not crushing, but they are extensive. The soldiers of Alterac are relatively well behaved, and at least less brutal than the Alliance soldiers in Alterac were by the end, but that is a low bar to clear. Failing to show proper deference quickly enough is punished, and those convicted of dissent or treason can expect harsh punishment. Execution is similarly brutal, harkening back to the harshest techniques that were largely abandoned when humanity converted to the Light. Gone is beheading or hanging, the simple and (when done right) quick and painless means of executing traitors and murderers.

Traitors are impaled, hung in gibbets or drawn and quartered. Ordinary criminals who merit the death penalty are treated similarly, at least. Thieves lose a hand, shopkeepers who try to defraud their customers a finger. It is a harsh, older sort of law, but it does work at keeping some level of order. Open resistance to Alterac is rare, but quiet dissent is everywhere. But that dissent is kept all the more quiet because of the network of informants that serve Beve, all over the Kingdom. Anyone could be in her employ, or seeking to get a reward by ratting out their neighbor.

Still, sometimes people do dissent openly. Small rebellions, refusal to pay taxes, espionage for the Alliance, quiet sabotage. The veterans of Alterac laugh at the pathetic efforts of the Hillsbradi - nothing compared to what they did in pursuit of their independence. Of course, the Alteraci's experience with waging guerilla warfare has done much to prevent the Hillsbradi from developing the same networks - still, there are reports that a resistance movement is slowly developing carefully segmented cells, and there have been a few patrols that went missing.

But nothing even close to the way things were in Alterac. For now, Hillsbrad is largely under control.

The cities of Hillsbrad and Southshore are bustling centers for the Kingdom - much of Lordaeron's navy was based out of Southshore, and while large parts of it were lost during the Third War, the rest was maintained well enough in the city, falling into the hands of Alterac when it was captured. Unfortunately for Alterac, with no naval tradition to speak of, they can't make much use of it - the sailors that did man them can largely, not be trusted without swords held to the necks of the families (which has been done in a few cases). With the help of Lordaeronic, Thalassian and Jintha'alorish experts, the Alteraci Navy is trying to develop some skills (in exchange for a few ships and other deals) but it is difficult, especially with it being hard to send out ships unless they can send out enough that the "mysteriously well-armed pirates" that ply Baradin bay decide it's not worth attacking them.

But despite that, business continues - ships out of Southshore sail for points further north, points further south, and even of course, across the sea. Aliden may think that the Orcs deserve slavery, and that the Tauren and other 'animals' of the Grand Confederation are worthy of little more than scorn, but to a merchant in Southshore, pigs raised in Durotar sell as well as pigs raised anywhere else. Iron and Copper and Tin extracted from underneath Kalimdor is just as good as anywhere else, largely, and orcish coins, uncommon as they are (but growing more common) are made of gold and silver and spend just as well.

Especially if you're a merchant who needs to make up enough money to pay the taxes that King Aliden demands.

Of course, all this trade is a ready way for the Alliance to slip spies into the Kingdom, and the customs agents across the southern cost of Hillsbrad watch carefully - Beve's intelligence network, while not as professional as SI:7, nor as powerful, is not to be underestimated, and the Pact in general is no slouch in maintaining it's security. Of course, some still slip through - and some are let through, specifically because they are known. The game of espionage is one that Beve has had to get very good at, and Mathias Shaw has been rumored to suggest to Varian that Beve Perenolde be assassinated - it wouldn't be hard to blame it on Aliden.

So far, Varian appears to have refused to allow it, either worried about reprisals if it fails, or perhaps remembering the friendship he once shared with Beve in the early days of the Second War, before Alterac's treachery. Or maybe just feeling like assassinating such a relative of a monarch is a bridge too far just yet. It's hard to say.

Regardless, the spies that do get through have begun to make tentative contact with Hillsbradi resistance cells, such as they are, and work is beginning to organize and arm them, to give them the same sort of aid that the Pact has been giving the Defias Brotherhood.

In occupied Stromgarde - though it is officially called the Northfold Marches now - things are much harder. Military law is enforced even more strictly, civilians are under a curfew to return to their homes within a few minutes of nightfall without written permission from a ranking officer, and punishments are harsher. Sabotage and espionage are equated with treason here. The soldiers serving in the Northfold Marches are generally either the most fanatical of the Alteraci Army, or the least willing conscripts - a Stromic soldier, a Witherbark Troll or a Boulderfist Ogre doesn't care how willing that man or woman in an Alteraci uniform is to die for Aliden Perenolde, he's the enemy and he'll die... and so they have to defend themselves. It is also a common belief among some of those fanatical soldiers that a soldier of Alterac isn't a true soldier of Alterac until he's killed a traitorous civilian - Aliden, for all his harshness, does not support this mentality, and has done what he can to root it out, but for now, keeping them in an area where such brutality is the most useful will do.

The Northfold Marches are in a perpetual state of Skirmish - officially the lines of truce in Stromgarde have been accepted by both Alterac and Stromgarde, though the wording of the treaty had to bend itself into all manner of shapes in order to accommodate Galen Trollbane's unwillingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of Alterac's existence (Stromgarde remains to this day the only member of the Alliance that lacks an Alteraci Embassy and has failed to open an Embassy in Alterac's capital) while still satisfying Alterac.

But despite that official status, the borders within Stromgarde remain the most actively fought over set of borders in the known world that isn't in the Plaguelands. Stromic and Alteraci forces regularly cross the borderlines and fight, and of course, both sides regularly attack the Boulderfist and Witherbark, keeping them off balance, but continuously forcing the two tribes to stay allied despite the tensions between them.

Of course, it doesn't matter where Stromic and Alteraci soldiers meet, when they meet - they fight regardless. Only a few soldiers die in these fights, both sides mindful of the need to prevent open warfare from coming again, and get, Aliden and Galen both secretly hope that the other will create some incident that can be an excuse for war. Galen wants his kingdom back and Alterac punished, and Aliden thinks that the city of Stromgarde will make a glorious jewel in the Empire he imagines for himself and his descendants. New Arathor sounds like a fitting name, doesn't it?