Welp, I did not play WoW past the first expansion nor make it to Outland. Thus, I was unaware that The Broken Isles were quest zones there! I feel better now about stumping for it, knowing there are at least maps/that stuff.
Plus, the timeline differences allow for the most fun to be had in Canon Deviation. It seems that an Alt Dimension Gul'dan causes another Legion Invasion through the Tomb? That seems like something we should work to address.
I had forgotten about the Nightborne too! Considering I only know about them from a wiki its not surprising that I forgot about them.
So now armed with the Wowpedia entry in addition to my long foggy memories of The Frozen Throne, I will make a second refinement to my pitch.
A think you maybe overstating the distance a bit, since the merchant coast in this is considered to go from its canonical area in the barens all the way to Theramore Isle, which is quite a trip, by no means would we be able to easily keep an eye on anything, even discounting how the people on the merchant coast still do not like the horde a lot. We'd be rather isolated. IMO the thing that makes less attractive is the risk of getting caught up in the shattered hand nonsense.
Yeah, I'm probably over playing how close it is. But geographically it is still the area right outside the Core Orcish territories. Its next door by water, and through the Barren by land. Given that the Barrens is contested Territory its technically the closest territory, which is mostly what I mean. Like being exiled from England to hang in the Netherlands.
Fundamentally you have failed to convince me that there's anything for us to do or gain there in any reasonable time period, then we come out of our isolated cocoon to discover the planet is on fire again.
TLDR The isles have the least guaranteed, worst to no teachers, the knowledge we're likely to get goes what our character just decided on, doesn't seem to add anything to his character development (I guess I confirmed for myself that Gul'dan was a monster yaaay?) and traps us in projects that either are completely worthless or will takes ages to have something come to fruition, whilst trapping us away from the outside world for potentially bugger all.
You raise alot of good points here, and I have absolutely no disagreements when it comes to Gul'dan being a monster. However, I'd argue that seeing that in character gives a good strong obviously wicked/selfish archtype in which to add to Grok's growth. FelDad is becoming more shades of Grey, so it is good to stare into the Abyss a bit to remind yourself how cool Light is. But most importantly, I do believe that you overstate how much time any trip to the Broken Isles would take. They are literally on the way to Lorderon, so at the least a stop and dungeon crawl would not be a huge diversion.
Also I'm going to put off all my original rebuttals to focus back in on the fact that Canon says right now another invasion is brewing there. I did not know this, and that makes my references to facing down the Legacy of Gul'dan a bit more on the nose and less literary then I originally meant. Plus, for anyone who wishes to do diplomacy there is a fully undiscovered faction there we can try to make friendly to the Horde in the Nightborne city of Suramar. And thats the best possible in to Void/Shadow magic in the World right now that I can think of.
So in essence, my pitch for the shortest possible trip to The Broken Isles is as follows. To pitch it to you Wombat specifically, hopefully I can give it a bit more structure by making it part of the trip to The Plaguelands, a smaller sub arc. The bigger one will follow, and naturally take alot of things for granted because I'm just enjoying theorycrafting.
Shortest possible trip.
Take boat to The Plaguelands, stopping on the way. Arrive at the Broken Shores region/Tomb of Sargaras. In WoW timeline this area is generally a mostly contestest ruined area of an ancient City. Poke around, see if we can find Stormreavers, the Tomb Entrance, or Stumble across an Entrance to Suramar.
While I won't be torn up if we find no living orcs, even a small warband or two worth would likely want a ride off that rock. And they could provide us with some intel, even if its enough that makes us decide to leave and come back when much more powerful. Wouldn't mind that, but now that I am aware there is a chance Gul'dan can pop out of there I really do want to go kill him.
Apparently there are also native Tauren tribes in a connected region, so it could be worth it to make contact with them. There are also Vyrkul, the proto-humans as the Titans would have them. Apparently their Valahalla and their Hell is around here too. So that could be cool to at least see if we can make contact. Along with that, apparently there is a still active Druid sect in the place where the original world tree was? That might be one of the better places we could find to learn Druidism at least, or at least make contact/be friendly.
Im aware that most other places have easier ways to learn lore/self-actualize, but I would also prefer a mini-arc before Grok arrives amid bigger fish. I think a bit of time being by himself would let him make a better showing to whatever other organization/warfront is approached next. Plus, I do not want a years long bogging down either. But any boat trip across the ocean takes months anyway, and I still have some issues with remaining "nearby" in Kalimdor.
A Longer Pitch
Anything longer then a stop-over would involve some sort of home-base. As its no guarantee that we will discover Suramar and no guarantee of Orcish presence it would be best to prepare for roughing it ourselves. I believe I implied in an earlier post that it would likely be easier to get Burning Blade resources here then in a more 'hot' zone. At best, this can be a chance to relieve some refugee pressures of Orgrimmar and lay the foundations of an Orcish settlement. At worse, we can have a small cadre of allies camping out in the ruins. Either way, its a time to do some good relationship building with our close friends. I think we could likely get all our little circle outside of the Troll Noble to come, at least if we ensure we go to Lorderon after.
With that in mind, a longer arc would involve one main thing no other location can offer.
Boats.
That's right folks, one of the area's abutting the Broken Shores is called Azsuna. Besides being a place the delightful Queen Azshara raised to the ground in a fit of pique, it is also a nice natural forest region now. So, putting aside any grand questions of raiding the Tomb of Sargaras, or diplomancing Suramar, or Finding Helheim we can at least do our part to start a nice little set of clan outposts. One for lumber milling, one for boat building/port. We stick around long enough to get things stable, can move on to meet with other factions or adventure in other regions with a budding power base. We can then return as needed/ in between arcs, and maybe have the Tomb as a long running dungeon?
I don't know, but I just like the idea of a centrally located slowly evolving base. And there are apparently a ton of goodies here that would take awhile to digest properly. So why not start now?
EDIT:
@Doomed Wombat : There would be Elunic stuff there. Azshara worship mostly started after they got kicked to the bottom of the sea, even if she had a personality cult ahead of time. So likely we can find both!
who knows what you might find in a cave...like say the lair of a dragon who currently is not home.
