Orc Quest; or, A Critical Examination of Agency Through in Interactive Fiction (Warcraft)

[Valerian]

Ah, so the Argus Wake have gotten a ton of milage out of cursing Grok's name, because he keeps blocking every initiative they've made. But now they work for him and its like that meme about morale changing when you have Darth Vader on your side instead of as an opponent.

One thing I am looking forward to is a more informed Grok getting better at spotting manipulation from his subordinates. As all of these different insidious faction within his Horde compete to guide him down their preferred path. And for him to win them over via accomplishments, charisma and honorable actions. Sure, many will scoff at his adherence to honor, but if it keeps gaining outsized results, more than a few will be swayed and that will force them to look in the mirror and perhaps grow themselves.

 

[rx915]

No doubt they did indeed discuss such things, if off screen. It was already a 10k long chapter, there was no real reason to write out 'oh huh yea weird you've got a dragon where did you get that' etc. But you may certainly imagine him making such remarks.

Click to shrink...

Then for the Argus warlocks and Haorumush it was pretty much follow my son he's in charge?

 

[Thanatosra]

I kinda want to do the badlands next turn the option is still there, two dragons, more orcs to recruit, bran bronzebeard, dark irons whats not their to do

 

[rx915]

There's a lot to do. Which is the problem.

 

[Nevill]

You'll see this a bit in the next chapter but Dathrohan is strengthening his international coalition and bringing in people from other kingdoms etc.

Click to shrink...

I kinda want to start making visits to our neighbours to establish relations, but I have no idea who's who. If there are good candidates that makes sense for us to know, let us know of the options. I still can't get over the idea of getting ranged troops with handheld cannons (now that we have Gilnean tech and are establishing industry), so I was thinking of maybe getting some expertise from dwarves.

Knowing they couldn't do much with this they tried to play Grok and Haomarush off against eachother,

Click to shrink...

What for? Grok was doing what they were meant to do but better, taking over Alterac directly. Grok was of the Burning Blade, same as them. Why did they try to sabotage us?

they went over to the Demongate and tried to use some of the research they had planned like the Searing Collars on demons and the Fel animals. This sort of worked and they would have stayed there building up forces and trying to get the Legion to reinforce them, while maybe infiltrating Grok's warband with demon supporters

Click to shrink...

...to what purpose? Okay, so they infiltrate us with demon supporters, Galtak Ered'nash, cool. They have demons on call. What's the end goal there?
Did they have a personal stake in controlling Alterac?

 

[rx915]

I kinda want to start making visits to our neighbours to establish relations, but I have no idea who's who. If there are good candidates that makes sense for us to know, let us know of the options. I still can't get over the idea of getting ranged troops with handheld cannons (now that we have Gilnean tech and are establishing industry), so I was thinking of maybe getting some expertise from dwarves.

Click to shrink...

Kul Tiras would do when Grok did help them.

There are others but I'd have to explain more in depth.

 

[Thanatosra]

I kinda want to start making visits to our neighbours to establish relations, but I have no idea who's who. If there are good candidates that makes sense for us to know, let us know of the options. I still can't get over the idea of getting ranged troops with handheld cannons (now that we have Gilnean tech and are establishing industry), so I was thinking of maybe getting some expertise from dwarves.


What for? Grok was doing what they were meant to do but better, taking over Alterac directly. Grok was of the Burning Blade, same as them. Why did they try to sabotage us?

...to what purpose? Okay, so they infiltrate us with demon supporters, Galtak Ered'nash, cool. They have demons on call. What's the end goal there?
Did they have a personal stake in controlling Alterac?

Click to shrink...

Their purpose is to help the burning legion invade azaeoth nothing much else I would bet and in the legion and it's supporters there are few friends and many rivals
edit : also they most likely wanted us not to do all we did because for any secret plot the syndiate was most likely better cause they were a group of bandits and not a kingdom so not as likely to care what stuff they were doing

 

[FractiousDay]

making visits to our neighbours to establish relations, but I have no idea who's who

Click to shrink...

I can do an infopost or describe stuff in narration, but this is also something I would expect readers who are more familiar with the games/setting to opine on. There are of course many people whom you might want to speak to, and I don't even mind combining that with particular actions in the area. If grok could credibly encounter someone then he can go talk to them. Something more extensive would require an action, eg if you want to do a diplomatic mission, but there's all sorts of people hanging about in Anderson for exmaple just from the assembling forces in the area.

What for? Grok was doing what they were meant to do but better, taking over Alterac directly. Grok was of the Burning Blade, same as them. Why did they try to sabotage us?

Click to shrink...

to what purpose? Okay, so they infiltrate us with demon supporters, Galtak Ered'nash, cool. They have demons on call. What's the end goal there?
Did they have a personal stake in controlling Alterac?

Click to shrink...

I referred to it a while ago in the chapter they popped up in, but I'm not going to find it currently, so I'll just exposit

They tried to influence the Demonsword, and found that that clan were aggressive disciplined and unsupportive of demon summoning. Then they tried to play Haomarush and Grok against each other to create space for them to acquire more influence for themselves, which was why when they turned up they were lying about Haomarush being insane.

Yes, both the Demonsword and Grok's lot were nominally their allies but fundamentally Nagaz and co were not a trusting bunch who wanted to cooperate. The Shadow Council and its minions are not a collegiate bunch, they're grasping, avaricious, cruel, treacherous and cowardly, generally speaking. The Legion are fine with this as they don't want their agents to get too powerful or united.

The Argus Wake sought power because they could, they want power and greater influence, they want to control things. They don't necessarily have a personal stake in Alterac, but they've been there years and they've put in a lot of investment into work there. It's not necessarily rational, but it is from their perspective and with their history.

 

[Thanatosra]

okay for neigbours we have lordaron aka the scarlet crusade leader/head of state is apprenetly calia menthial sister of the lich king arthas and daugther of the last king of lordaroen Terenas menethial who was killed by arthas but is really lead by saidan datheron who out of character we know is the corpse puppeted by the dreadlord balnazar who was thought to of been banished at the end of the third war their goal is revenge on arthas and nurzhel for their betrayal.

theirs Stromgarde which atm seems to be just a vassel state to the scarlets and its where we got our ogres and some of our orcs from, they are currently lead by galen trollbane a treacherous prick who out of character we know killed his father for power

theres kul'tiras who we helped out this turn and they are one of the two most anti orc nations with stormwind being the other. their leader atm if nothing changed is katherine proudmore who lost her son during the first war against the orcs and her husband to the orcs after the third and doesn't talk to her daugther cause she allied with the orcs to stop the legion during the third war and didn't save her father from being killed. they seem currently open to talks so better try to at least eeze up relations with them

then further south theirs kaz moden aka the bronzebeard dwarves (I don't have much on the wildhammer so if anyone knows much let me know)
their main goals are the with prince bran bronzebeard finding out the truth about the origin of their species and the past while his brother magni the king most likely will soon start hiring people to rescue his daugther who was kidnapped by the emperor of the dark iron dwarves and eventally fell in love with him (which is honestly the only way I see the whole dwarves comming together is if the emperor dies and moria takes over like cannon with ragnaros being told to piss of) and also likely dark horde attacks and revenge on arthas for killing his brother (his brother isn't dead but no one knows that atm)

stormwind, ah stormwind, its getting torn apart by the defies brotherhood a group that weren't paid, their king is a puppet under the control of onyxia the black dragon sister of netherian (the puppet master of the dark horde) their goals are most likely dealing with the deifies and dark horde (cause while siblings both think their own schemes are most likely

then up north you have quel'thulus and zul aman. lets start with zul aman which is lead by zul'jin who allied with the horde during the wars againsit the alliance but felt betrayed when orgrim doomhammer the second warchief left the siege of quel'thlus to attack lordareon capital city, his goals is capturing quel'thulus which is built on holy ground I think and most likely brutually killing the elves.

now the elves their main problem is arthas killed like 90% of their population and then like half left to go to dreanor with illidan, their main goal atm is recovering land lost to the scourge and just being able to surive till prince kael'thus (their leader who refuses to call himself king cause his father should be remembered as the last one but is currently lead by lothamar theron the regent lord) returns and also they would want a cure for the withered (this is what happens to a elf when they cant consume magic anymore they become a feral thing looking for magic to drain)

we already helped out gilneas and they will most likely be recovering
these are the main nations I can think of

edit: and while they don't count as neigbours I don't think they will most likely have some effect on us (cause we have trolls) the nation of zanadalar aka the zandalari trolls, they are the largest and strongest of the troll tribes, their current goal atm seems to be reinforcing their right of ruler ship over the smaller and weaker tribes (though how much that can be done with zul'jin and whoever is in charge of the mess that is zul'gurub and its hakar followers their and the frost trolls up in northrend with their war against the lichking)

 

[Valerian]

I'd rate the quel'dorei as the most fucked demographic in Azeroth. Though the Draenei probably take that mantle when they show up in Burning Crusade.

So we start with that 90% death rate to the Scourge. Then we add all the elves that died during the war after that. So Kael'thas' contingent under Lord Garithos, who kept sending them on difficult missions without greater Alliance support.

Then we have the Outlands campaign, where the newly christened Blood Elves took even more losses following Illidan to unseat Pitlord Magtheriden. With the final battle being a failed campaign to destroy the Icecrown Glacier in Northrend and slay Arthas and the Lich King.

Those were not low casualty battles.

Finally we have the withering turning a random selection of elves every month into crackhead junkie versions of themselves that are pretty much feral and need to be put down.

The fact that the remainder in Queltha'las can still maintain the border from Zul'Amon aggression and slowly rebuild their capital says a lot about how determined the survivors are.

 

[rx915]

Everytime I reread the makgora that was like a work of shonen art.

It's like rewatching the early episodes of bleach in the soul society arc.

Grok gets a deep wound from Hauromash and then he just powers up and shonens his way to victory.

Like dayum.

 

[Thanatosra]

I'd rate the quel'dorei as the most fucked demographic in Azeroth. Thought the Draenei probably take that mantle when they show up in Burning Crusade.

So we start with that 90% death rate to the Scourge. Then we add all the elves that died during the war after that. So Kael'thas' contingent under Lord Garithos, who kept sending them on difficult missions without greater Alliance support.

Then we have the Outlands campaign, where the newly christened Blood Elves took even more losses following Illidan to unseat Pitlord Magtheriden. With the final battle being a failed campaign to destroy the Icecrown Glacier in Northrend and slay Arthas and the Lich King.

Those were not low casualty battles.

Finally we have the withering turning a random selection of elves every month into crackhead junkie versions of themselves that are pretty much feral and need to be put down.

The fact that the remainder in Queltha'las can still maintain the border from Zul'Amon aggression and slowly rebuild their capital says a lot about how determined the survivors are.

Click to shrink...

kaels plan to save his race - get involved in more brutal death matches for someone who clearly is not mentally well

 

[rx915]

kaels plan to save his race - get involved in more brutal death matches for someone who clearly is not mentally well

Click to shrink...

Alas poor Kael. We knew him in Frozen Throne but he became a raid boss just like many others.

He didn't have much of a choice when Garithos screwed him over the utter chad (joke on the meme).

He needed a new patron and got Illidan. His loss against Arthas was where it went wrong though it didn't mean it had to be that way while it was back to licking their wounds.......

 

[Kir the Wizard]

I'd rate the quel'dorei as the most fucked demographic in Azeroth. Thought the Draenei probably take that mantle when they show up in Burning Crusade.

Click to shrink...

And then they will somehow be able to have multiple factions in various kingdoms fighting over whether to support the Sindorei ideology or stick with the Alliance.

It also says a lot about the sheer numbers of the elves.

 

[Valerian]

And then they will somehow be able to have multiple factions in various kingdoms fighting over whether to support the Sindorei ideology or stick with the Alliance.

It also says a lot about the sheer numbers of the elves.

Click to shrink...

Not sure about the numbers part. Its more that Alliance elves have outsized influence for their numbers due to age, expertise and often being founding members of various influential factions. And the ones who survived are hardcore experts in combat and diplomacy.

 

[Thanatosra]

I always assumed the alliance elves were only in the hundred while the blood elves had maybe around 800 thousand in this game numbers so in total less then a million and if we assume slivermoon had like 10 million people cause if they only had 10 percent survive thats still a million people might not sound like much when compared to france during the 1300 that had like 20 million but elves live longer so are likely to be less furtile then humans.

Also its not like the amani trolls have a large population either like I cant see them reaching a million

 

[Kir the Wizard]

Dalaran alone had enough elves to:
1) Field armies of remnants of them after the Legion's conquest
2) Have enough elves for Garithos to persecute
3) Then survive to make two competing factions inside a rebuilt Dalaran (neither faction interacting with Kael or the Regency before Dalaran's re-bubbling)

Elves are often depicted as a "barely clinging to life" species in modern fantasy, but there are no actual brakes on the development of Quel'dorei in Warcraft. They age roughly at the same rate as humans until reaching their prime (see Valeera Sanguinar). Guess they don't spend those long lives of theirs just studying...

Now, the Kaldorei had the whole problem of "the majority of men sleeping for thousands of years" for traditional procreation, but mayhaps they had other means.

 

[Valerian]

Dalaran alone had enough elves to:
1) Field armies of remnants of them after the Legion's conquest
2) Have enough elves for Garithos to persecute
3) Then survive to make two competing factions inside a rebuilt Dalaran (neither faction interacting with Kael or the Regency before Dalaran's re-bubbling)

Elves are often depicted as a "barely clinging to life" species in modern fantasy, but there are no actual brakes on the development of Quel'dorei in Warcraft. They age roughly at the same rate as humans until reaching their prime (see Valeera Sanguinar). Guess they don't spend those long lives of theirs just studying...

Now, the Kaldorei had the whole problem of "the majority of men sleeping for thousands of years" for traditional procreation, but mayhaps they had other means.

Click to shrink...

IMO, the Kaldorei just had few if any kids over the last ten thousand years. Living in harmony with nature and being immortal made growing their population a negligent concern.

The bulk of their population remembers the War of the Ancients.


As for the Quel'dorei, they were one of four factions birthed from the nobility of the old Night Elf empire. (The others being the Satyrs, Naga and the Nightborn). So they were a fraction of a fraction of the original population.

So yeah, they weren't immortal and proceeded to have tons of children. And other than the admittedly hardcore Troll Wars, lived in relative peace on their peninsular nation.

And yeah, they are pretty randy. With the forced end of their isolation a whole new race of half-elves (still only in the upper hundreds to low thousands) are reaching adulthood as more worldly Quel'dorei married a bunch of humans and had kids.

Half-elves weren't really a thing prior to the Second War.

 

[Thanatosra]

lived in relative peace on their peninsular nation.

Click to shrink...

the land they lived on was super modified to have everything the high elves now blood elves could ever want whats the need for war outside outside of the every now and again when the trolls make a bit of noise like the horde and arthas are likely two of the only times slivermoon itself had been attacked itself

 

[Rolen von Keng]

Tbh I don't think Alterac is a good place for us to settle down on. Once we fully pacify it would be too peaceful, and we'll be surrounded on all sides by humans.

I'm thinking if we settle in Northrend with the assistance of the dwarves and the forging expertise of the Blackrock Clan we could make something more true to ourselves there.

 

[rx915]

Tbh I don't think Alterac is a good place for us to settle down on. Once we fully pacify it would be too peaceful, and we'll be surrounded on all sides by humans.

I'm thinking if we settle in Northrend with the assistance of the dwarves and the forging expertise of the Blackrock Clan we could make something more true to ourselves there.

Click to shrink...

That place is like not an ideal place to settle now even before the Lich King came.

I can see a future enclave but right now Alterac can do as a location besides blackrock mountain once it's absorbed despite the issues later regarding what's beneath it.

 

[Kir the Wizard]

Half-elves weren't really a thing prior to the Second War.

Click to shrink...

They very much were, in Dalaran. Heck, the first Guardian of Tirisfal was one.

Tbh I don't think Alterac is a good place for us to settle down on. Once we fully pacify it would be too peaceful, and we'll be surrounded on all sides by humans.

Click to shrink...

Currently we're in Alterac (and Silverpine) as the Constables of the Scarlet Crusade of Lordaeron. Something a lot of "Warchief Grok'mash" orcs prefer to ignore, but we're very much inside the Alliance now. As for future expansion ideas, I say expeditions into islands, and maybe Northrend. The Burning Steppes are not particularly valuable, outside of being "the place where Rend managed to hold out post-Second War, and which allowed Nefarian to have meatshields between himself and Ragnaros". It's also a place of inherent conflict vs dwarven claims, as after Ragnaros's hold is broken the question of succession will immediately arise, especially if the Bronzebeard-Thaurissian union happens.

 

[Thanatosra]

northrend is not a good spot cause 1 theirs a lot of hostile factions outside of the scourge and yes we might be able to diplo them but their still hostile to outsiders which means a lot of work to get them to open up (theirs the vurkural, the ice trolls, the nerubian yes all are weaker then their top power but doesn't change their hostile to outsiders views) and also we need a base thats not gonna be a war zone and northrend will be for a while
2 theres the prison to yogg saron and its courpption being near a old god prison is never a good idea if you know better

3- no real allies so we would have to start again in a hostile land with no help

 

[Rolen von Keng]

theirs the vurkural, the ice trolls, the nerubian yes all are weaker then their top power but doesn't change their hostile to outsiders view

Click to shrink...

Isn't that what we want though? A righteous war that helps all on Azeroth? Additionally, if we're based on Northrend we can keep an eye on the Lich King incase he ever rises up again.

Besides, its not always going to be a warzone if we build it closer to the coast.

 

[rx915]

I'd rather go dig deeper in Alterac and form an underground city than go to Northrend.