Hello everyone!
Last week we began the story of Verok Dino SAURFANG where we talked about the formation
of the horde, the invasion of azeroth, his time dealing with the ghosts of the past and
of course the massive lost he faced while in Northrend.
Garrosh hellscream became warchief of the Horde and although at first it seemed like
he took Saurfang's lessons to heart, he changed rather quickly with Mists of Pandaria.
Where he first tossed Krom'gar off a cliff for bombing innocents, children even and forsakening
his honor, with mists he seems to have forgotten about all of that as he drops a mana bomb
on Theramore and even uses his dark shaman to twist the elements.
Elements still healing from the events of the cataclysm and slowly but surely the horde
realised that something had to be done.
As we went further through Pandaria, Vol'jin figured out that Garrosh was planning to use
the powers of Mogu to shape flesh and build warriors.
Playing god and making monsters, this is not what the horde is about the troll believes,
but speaking out has the other orcs slice his throat.
He would spend some time healing and recovering to eventually return and lead the darkspear
rebellion, the Horde rising up against their warchief and while some orcs like Nazgrim
believed that the will of the warchief was absolute, other orcs did not agree.
Thrall himself even came back to deal with the mess he had left behind.
After Vol'jin's return, he teams up with Saurfang to infiltrate Orgrimmar while the
rest of the forces quickly follow.
At the gates they're stopped by Kor'Kron troops, but Nazgrim is kind enough to send
them away and let them in, he of course has a lot of respect for thrall and saurfang but
is still unwilling to break his oath to the warchief.
We're forced to take Nazgrim down as we siege Orgrimmar and in the rough hewn passage,
on the way to the paragons of the klaxxi, we meet up with Saurfang who's been kicking
some serious bug butt.
"Ah, more of Vol'jin's revolutionaries.
You've made it.
Have you foudn thrall?
I am badly hurt, he insisted on going ahead alone.
Tell me, how goes the battle up above?
What of Nazgrim?
Speak to me!
Ah, Nazgrim.
A great leader and a fine warrior.
He valued his oath to the warchief more than his life.
I tried to tell him.
To tell him that Hellscream betrayed us, cast aside a warchief's responsibility to his
own people.
But Nazgrim....to loyal...to proud.
Damn Hellscream, his ambition tore our horde apart.
Go on.
Find Thrall.
Finish this.
I will live."
Like he promised Garrosh in Northrend, he helped out with bringing the warchief down
that tried to lead the Horde down a dark path once again.
His vision is not what they believe the Horde is about, Vol'jin is appointed as the new
warchief, but instead of executing Garrosh, they decide to place him on trial in Pandaria.
For this there had to be a defender and an accuser, Tyrande Whisperwind was appointed
as the accuser while the Horde planned to have Baine Bloodhoof as his defender.
Of course, Baine couldn't believe his ears.
Garrosh had killed his father, how could he be his defender, but even Saurfang agreed
that he was the right choice,
"MAke them listen, came a voice that had hitherto been quiet.
It was deep, strong despite age, and a sharp thread of pain ran through it.
"There is no challenge in flinging a list of atrocities at Garrosh';s head.
Said Saurfang.
The test will be who can make the judge and jury truly listen.
To hear you speak for calm consideration when all know how you suffer – only you can do
that, bain bloodhoof.
And so it was that Baine accepted this very difficult job and during the trial they showed
visions related to Garrosh, visions from witnesses who knew him in life.
Saurfang himself was questioned and at first Tyrande plans to show the vision of his sons
death at the wrathgate, but Baine protests not wanting the old veteran to relive that
pain.
Even Taran Zhu agrees that Varok is a respected war hero and has undergone great loss, but
he does not see how that has a bearing on the interactions with Garrosh.
The Lich King is not on trial here.
Color rose in Tyrande's cheeks.
I withdraw my request and offer apologies to the witness if it disturbed him.
Instead she went for the vision of Garrosh and Saurfang talking with eachother in Northrend,
the veteran warning the hot head that if he would take the Horde down a dark path once
again, he would personally take him out.
Baine gets to quest him and asks if saurfang believes that garrosh did take them down that
dark path.
The orc does, which is why he took up arms against him but surprisingly he does not want
to see garrosh executed.
"Garrosh was not always as you see him now.
He was, as I have said, reckless and impulsive.
But I once would never have doubted his loyalty to the Horde.
And even now, I do not doubt his loyalty to his people.
But his crimes must be adressed.
I vowed to kill him, and I woul dstill uphold that cow.
But I would nut surrender him to others for execution.
I would challenge him myself, in the mak'gora."
"Do you think he deserves a second chance?"
"If he defeated me – yes.
That is the way of the orcs – the true way.
Honor."
Baine could berely believe what he was hearing.
"I do not wish to misunderstand you, so forgive my repition.
You do not want Garrosh executed by the court, but rather wish to challenge him in honorable
combat.
And if he won that combat, you would see him forgiven?"
"He would near to earn his reputation back, given that he has ripped it to shreds and
trampled it into the angry earth, Saurfang snapped.
But yet.
If he were a victory, then he should have that chance.
He had honor, once.
He could learn it again."
Baine could barely refrain from letting out a shout of delight.
This, he understood.
This, he could supported, and moreover, it was fair.
He thought of his father, dying in the mak'gora, and how Cairne would have approved, and knew
in his heart he was on the proper track.
Despite his anger toward Garrosh, Baine was in truth doing the right thing.
He gave Tyrande a triumphant look and announced, I have no futher questions.
And to his surprised pleasure, neither did Tyrande.
In the end the trial itself didn't matter much for the fate of Garrosh considering that
the bronze dragon kairozdormu helped him escape and took him back in time to an alternate
reality.
He and wrathion had come up with the plan to have Garrosh lead a new horde, a horde
that could support us against the coming legion threat, but things didn't go exactly as
planned.
Garrosh murdered Kairoz as soon as they arrived, made contact with the alternate version of
his father and together they formed the Iron Horde.
One that refused the demon blood offered by Gul'Dan, but also one still very keen on
invading azeroth with the dark portal turning red.
Alliance and Horde were called to battle once more and ventured through the dark portal.
Garrosh would indeed find his end in Mak'Gora, not with Saurfang but with Thrall, while Varok's
roll during the expansion was to show up in the horde Garrison and offer a variaty of
quests for the general.
For a small time they could even ask the legendary orc to join them on patrol, but that was a
bug and quickly hotfixed out of fear that High Overlord Saurfang would cleave the Garrison
in half.
Interesting to note that we do see alternate variations of characters like Durotan, Grommash
and Orgrim, but no alternate version for Saurfang.
Guess they wanted to give us a chance of actually winning the war against the Iron Horde which
we did do of course.
We dismantled the Iron Horde and took away Grommash' power which Gul'dan used to
his advantage as he offered the demon blood once again.
This time some of the orcs did accept, they even managed to summon Archimonde into the
world and in his final moments, Archimonde sends Gul'dan over to our reality to kick
off another invasion from the Legion.
At the tomb of Sargeras he opened up a massive rift for the Legion to come through and once
more alliance and horde had to team up and deal with the demonic threat.
Sylvanas Windrunner and Varian Wrynn lead the charge, but things didn't exactly work
out.
It was a deathtrap waiting to be sprung, the Horde was overwhelmed, Vol'jin mortally
wounded and they were forced to retreat.
The Alliance down below saw the Horde abandon them and were forced to do the same, but Gul'dan
wasn't about to let his pray run away unharmed.
Varian sacrificed himself so that the rest of them could escape while Vol'jin's wounds
ultimately took his life as well.
Back in Orgrimmar, Saurfang now warchief of the orcs and commander of the city's defenses
lets heroes in to witness the final moments
of their warchief.
"Whispers, sylvanas, you must be warchief"
While some would have loved to see an orc like Saurfang become the warchief, it's
the name Sylvanas that the spirits whisper to Vol'jin.
Under her leadership the Horde moves out to claim vengeance for his death, stop the legion
threat and of course Saurfang is right there with them.
He was present defending against the Legion invasion of the Northern Barrens but Eitrigg
notices that Saurfang is not the same since our loss at the Broken Shore.
Though he led well and slew many, he has taken our defeat hard.
Eitrigg fears that he's determined to return to the broken shore and asks warriors to go
and speak with him in Dalaran.
"Ah, I'll wager Eitrigg sent you.
His concern is noble, but unnecessary."
"Death is our likely end on those shores.
You know this, yet I can see the determination in your eyes.
Perhaps you have honor to regain there as well."
Saurfang is indeed very angry, but does not chase his own death.
He wants to to regain a bit of honor and slay the demons still drunk on their victory.
We join him on his spare mount, but the Legion is not defenseless and shoots us out of the
sky.
"ROAR Make them pay champion!
Make them paaaaaaay "
Don't worry though, it will take a bit more to kill someone like Saurfang as our journey
takes us the very halls of valor where we meet up with Odyn and work on our order hall
and claiming mighty artifacts to use in the war against the Legion.
Master Smith Helgar is kind enough to help us with empowering the artifact, but the valarjar
is in need of inspiration.
He's looking for an axe whose forms has seen a truly astounding amount of battle,
wielded by one of the world's most powerful warriors.
Both weapon and owner forged together in the crucible of war.
We need to find this hero and convince him to come to the halls of valor, one name immediatly
comes to mind...Varok Saurfang and his Arcanite Reaper...
You are one of the greatest warriors the Horde has ever fielded.
Your Arcanite Reaper is feared by all of your foes.
I do not do what I do for praise.
I'm here to save Azeroth and the Horde.
I sense you have a purpose here.
What do you want?
We tell him of Helgar's requests and saurfang is honored that we think so highly of him.
It's true, he has seen no small amount of battle but so have we!
It's time to see how far we've come as we get the oppertunity to duel him ourselves.
In the circle of glory the legendary orc shows us just what an honorable, experienced, mighty
orc can do.
A weapon is only as good as its wielder as once upon a time Broxigar showed with the
axe of cenarius and while Saurfang's weapon was not forged with the help of a wildgod,
it's still very impressive.
After winning the duel, Helgar inspects both wielder and weapon together.
The scratches on the blade, the wear of the haft tell of battle stresses and where it
hits most often.
See how easily you balance the heft.
The comfort of your grip shows years of experience.
While that cannot be forged, he can improve a new weapon in the right places so its wearer
strikes more true and lives to earn those years.
It shows that even the valarjar can learn from the younger races as we earned the right
to wield the Arcanite Bladebreaker.
"Arcanite reaper hooooooooo"
With our mighty artifacts we stood against the might of the Legion, even went to the
world of Argus and stopped Sargeras from destroying our world.
He was able to leave us with a little parting gift, a massive blade now rests within Silithus
and the world of Azeroth is wounded.
BAMMMMM "Warchief...if I may offer a few words."
Proceed "It is with both pain and pride that we
gather here today.
Pain for many brave heroes of the Horde fell against a terrible foe.
And pride, for against all odds, we have vanquished the Legion.
We bled.
Now, we heal.
We mourned.
Now, we celebrate!
FOr the Horde!
For the Horde!"
"Pam pam pam pam pam pam, Warchief!
A moment of your time?"
"Ugh" "Hmm no doubt Gallywix wants to push his
latest money grubbing scheme."
"Rats scurry about their business."
"And get eaten if they're not careful" "Whisper whisper whisper whisper"
We're out.
"Hmmm what is the rat up to?"
"IT does keep sending more goblins to silithus" "COUGH COUGH Nothing good has ever come
out of silithus."
Oeee so sparkly, so pretty!
"This will change everything."
"heheheh I told ya.'
"And the alliance knows nothing of this?"
"Don't worry warchief, I got people on it"
Hiho hiho off to work we go...EAGLE!
And that's pretty much where we're at when it comes to Saurfang's story.
He remembers the days of leading the forces in silithus during clasic and does not believe
it's a good idea to go back there.
The horde moves out to mine Azerite, the crystalised blood of the titan spirit inside the world
and despite Galywix telling his warchief not too worry about it, the Alliance still discovers
that the Horde is going after Azerite and they move into silithus as well.
Only time will tell what the story is going to bring next, but I do want to talk a little
bit about we know and speculate on what might come so if you don't want any spoilers then
this would be the time to turn off the video.
For those interested, at the last blizzcon they handed out a short preview of the upcoming
novel called before the storm:
'Sylvanas Windrunner, former ranger-general of Silvermoon, the Dark Lady of the Forsaken
and present warchief of the mighty Horde, had resented being told to come to Orgrimmar,
like a dog that needed to perform all its tricks.
She had wanted to return to the Undercity.
She missed its shadows, its dampness, its restful quietude.
Rest in peace, she thought grimly, and had to smother a smile.
It faded almost at once as she continued pacing impatiently in the small chamber behind the
warchief's throne in Grommash Hold.
A few years ago, Garrosh Hellscream had pushed to have a massive celebration in Orgrimmar
to commemorate the end of the Northrend campaign.
He wasn't warchief - not then.
There had been a parade of every veteran who wished to participate, their path strewn with
imported pine boughs, and a gigantic feast awaited them at the end of the route.
Awards had been distributed, and the inns of the city flung open without limits to those
who had fought for the Horde.
It had been extravagant, and expensive, and Sylvanas initially had no intention of following
in the footsteps of Hellscream in not just this situation, but in any.
He had been arrogant, brutal, impulsive.
Sylvanas had loathed him and had secretly conspired-unsuccessfully, regrettably-to kill
him even after he had been arrested and charged with war crimes.
His decision to attack Theramore with a devastating mana bomb had the softer races wrestlin with
their consciences.
The only thing that had troubled Sylvanas about it had been the orc's timing.
When at last, inevitably, Garrosh had been killed, Sylvanas was pleased, though she still
harbored regrets that she had not been the one to take his life.
Varok Saurfang, the leader of the orcs, and Bain Bloodhoof, chieftain of the tauren, had
borne no love for Garrosh either.
But they had pushed Sylvanas to make an appearance and at least some kind of gesture to mark
the end of this war.
Brave members of this Horde you lead fought and died to make sure the Legion did not destroy
this world, as it had so many others, the young bull had intoned.
He had been but one step away from openly rebuking her.
Sylvanas recalled Saurfan'gs thinly-veiled... warning?
Threat?
You are the leader of all the Horde-orcs, tauren, trolls, blood elves, goblins-as well
as the Forsaken.
You must never forget that, or else they might
What I will not forget, orc, she thought, ire rising in her anew, are those words.
So Sylvanas has no problem with the tactics used by Garrosh, more so with the timing of
it all and while Saurfang reminds her that she now leads more then just her forsaken.
She is the warchief and should be there for all while at the same time her Forsaken, resurrected
with free will, feel like she left them without leaving someone behind to care for them.
In response a new organisation has formed called the desolate council, one that does
not agree with the banshee queens plans of trying to stay alive for ever.
They don't know what exactly it is that they do want then, all they know is that a
new faction has risen up, the disadvantage of giving them free will.
2 sides both wanting more from her, while she herself still see's the forsaken as
her people, not the entirety of the Horde.
All the same, she must keep up appearance as she needs the brave fighters of the Horde
for anoter battle.
The one she and nathanos have both longed for, Stormwind.
That's where the preview ends and it's my hope that the story will revolve around
Syvanas starting out at the point where she didn't even want to be warchief to begin
with but she'll make use of the situation and use the horde as she pleases.
She doesn't see all the races as her people, but perhaps events in the story will teach
her more about what it means to be for the horde and not just go with her old motivation
of staying alive.
That's just a hope though, like I said the story hasn't been revealed yet.
Another bit of information that we learned from blizzcon and a couple of interviews is
that Teldrassil is going to be burned down by the Horde leading into the siege of lordaeron,
that sexy battle for azeroth cinematic that we have , follows the burning of the night
elves home.
We also have 2 pictures of that event.
First a blue one, Teldrassil still stands and we see, presumably, Sylvanas, Nathanos
and Saurfang with an unknown elf on the ground.
Weapons, a bit of flame in the forefront presumably a battle that took place here and the elf
is not looking to good considering what's pierced in their back.
The next picture has Sylvanas standing by herself, the elf now leaning and gazing upon
the destruction.
The fire in the front is gone, the tree is now ablaze while Saurfang and Nathanos no
longer stand by their warchiefs side, possibly set sail with one of the ships.
It's anyone's guess really what went down here.
We don't know who the elf is, why they're burning down Teldrassil, how they managed
to do so, what kind of battle took place here, all of that is pretty much unknown.
It is interesting that an orc like Saurfang is present in this critical moment since we
know that he is loyal to the warchief, loyal to the horde but up to a certain point.
When he believes that someone tries to take the Horde down that dark part of their past,
he won't follow for ever like Nazgrim did.
He is capable and willing to pick up arms if it's in the best interest for the Horde
and yet here he stands.
Did he try to stop this moment from ever happening?
Is there some sort of scheme being set up to make it look like the Horde did it.
Is someone trying to manipulate events to have the alliance and horde in all out conflict
so that they can profit from it.
Fast forward to the moment of the siege of Lordaeron where once again Saurfang stands
with the Horde.
CINEMATIC: "Our is a cycle of hatred.
Alliances forged and broken.
We have payed the price for sharing this world and we have forgotten what makes us strong."
P amm pammm pam pammmm "Close ranks HUA advance as one.
Lordaeron will be ours!
My king, we have her cornered."
Pew pew pew pew, shoot arrows.
"Keep fireing!"
Advance the troops, shields up, pew pew pew Move in the siege tower, fire at their gates,
make that tauren scream Ow snap there's Saurfang, you better run.
You better run now ow wait we have arrows.
Shoot him down!
There's sylvanas, no just aim a little to the left dumbs dumbs.
Ow snap she's angry now.
Pew pew pew, EXPLOSION, bye siege tower.
What?
Is she carrying this raid?
Ooooow all those arrows but hell yea she is the banshee queen with a banshee scream making
all the fanboys cream.
"FOR THE HOOOOOORDE" ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR Here comes saurfang with
his tiny cute flag, zappy boy zapping as he does and a tauren charging through the ranks.
But the alliance aint giving up.
"Push forward" Bam, bam ow snap saurfang again.
Anduin goes down, look at that pretty face.
Even Greymane is zapped by zappy boy and now Anduin goes SMASH.
The orc veteran is brought to his knees, but Sylvanas is able to rally the troops and in
their massive charge out of the city, Anduin and Saurfang end up in battle.
The son of the king that told Muradin to step down is knocked off his feet, Greymane pushes
Saurfang away and Anduin calls on the light to heal the troops and continue the battle.
Lordaeron will fall to the alliance and that's pretty much what we know right now.
Again we see Saurfang stand with his warchief, this legendary honorable orc, respected on
both sides is fighting at her side.
I really, really hope that there's going to be a lot of character development and a
solid reasoning.
Azerite is what re-ignites the alliance and horde conflict with of course events from
the past fueling characters their motivations while at this point in time we have a warchief
that doesn't really care about the other races of the horde, see's the forsaken as
her bullwark against the infinite and didn't even cheer with the other leaders.
What could motivate someone like Saurfang to not join a rebellion like he did during
Mists of Pandaria which is why I hope there's going to be a lot of intrigue and betrayel.
Perhaps Gallywix see's his moment to make even more profit.
Perhaps Greymane uses the oppertunity to get his vengenace which backfires.
BUT WAIT THERE'S EVEN MORE, all of this was written before alpha was released and
with it we learn a couple of juicy tidbits here and there about what Saurfang is doing.
Keep in mind that this is either datamined or alpha information so it's not set in
stone.
it appears that that Saurfang, Nathanos and Sylvanas are indeed on their way through felwood,
into darkshore preparing to squeeze malfurion from both sides.
I couldn't find more details on the burning of teldrassil itself, but at the siege of
lordaeron we have alliance and horde going at it.
Sylvanas has an azerite machine, a war machine which appears to be against Saurfang's way
of battle.
Honor means nothing to a corpse, Saurfang.
You have the luxury of underestimating death, but it is something with which I am intimately
familiar.
Maybe you don't care if your people die so long as it is honorable, but to me, this Horde
is worth saving.
Anyone who disagrees does not deserve to stand among us.
So die your warrior's death, High Overlord Saurfang.
It means little to me.
Perhaps I will raise your broken body to serve me once more.
Or perhaps you will have a chance to say hello to your son.
Again we're only working with tidbits here but it appers that Sylvanas will do anything,
anything it takes to hold the line against the Alliance, change the way or warfare and
secure the cotinent for the Horde.
Saurfang is defeated, demanding an honorable death.
Anduin remembers how his father told him that Varok Saurfang resprented what was best of
the Horde.
Its sense of honor, he admired the orc for it and so does Anduin.
There is no honor in slaying him in that moment, despite Saurfang thinking that's not for
an alliance king to decide, but he's captured all the same and taken to the stockades.
The boy king wants his people to treat Saurfang with the respect he is due and when he returns,
they'll speak of honor and actions.
When you you return...we will see the veteran warrior replies as I assume the alliance goes
further with the battle, try to go after Sylvanas and while they do win the siege of lordaeron,
they fail in taking the warchief as we can see on the alpha testing.
Sylvanas is in grommash hold where she sends out heroes to find a vessel containing important
information that was en route for bladefist bay.
The ship has never arrived and her scours report that it was seized by the alliance
and taken to Stormwind.
Together with Nathanos, Rokhan, Thallysra and Lasan Skyhorn we fly into Stormwind to
infiltrate the stockades and extract the prisoners.
They are Prophet Zul and Princes Talanji of the Zandalari tribe, but we also discover
that Saurfang is alive and imprisoned, An ingame cinematic is supposed to play out,
one that's not available quite yet, but Saurfang isn't coming with us.
He'll buy as as much time as he can to complete our mission as he tells the guards to take
him to their boy king as he would have words with him.
During our escape from the city, Thalyssra believes that the alliance troops were waiting
for us and that we've been compromised, but that's the last we hear of Saurfang
for the moment.
It's difficult to try and piece together what exactly is happening here since we're
missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle.
For the moment to me it seems like Saurfang did not agree with his warchief's way of
warfare which landed him in prison.
To speak of honor and actions, I'd imagine that's what their conversation is going
to be about and from Anduin's history we know that he was often the voice of reason
when it came to peace negotiations between the Alliance and the Horde.
Will he and Saurfang be a bridge between the factions, maybe, I just can't imagine someone
like Saurfang joining team Alliance unless there's something really really bad going
on within the horde, my hope is that at some point voices of reason have to rise up again
considering the faction war is not the only threat we face within Battle for Azeroth.
I'm sure as more things are datamined and more stuff is revealed during the alpha/beta,
we'll get a clearer picture on what's going on and where they want to take him.
For now though this is where we're at with his story.
An orc who has seen many battles, had to deal with the shadows of the past, has lost many
things so very dear to him yet always tries to maintain honor and stand for what it means
to be part of the Horde.
"Honor young heroes, no matter how dire the battle, never forsake it."
As always ladies and gentleman thank you very much for watching everyone!
Subscribe if you like my videos, leave a like if you enjoyed this one aaand until next time
guys....see ya!
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