If anyone had any questions, they are solved.

[A Black Falcon]

In great depth.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/

[Dark Jaguar]

You should have at least put WoW in the title :D.

Anyway, once again I'm reminded of how similar the WW "before history" story is to Silmarillion. Of course, it's rather obvious what the story of the game is based off of :D.

I'm still reading it, but it's nice to see a bunch of extra info I hadn't seen before. I had sorta assumed the hatred between high elves and trolls was because the trolls were yet another offshoot of that race that had been twisted by some dark source or something. It would seem they aren't related to the elves at all though. Eh, it's an interesting read anyway.

[A Black Falcon]

The Nagas are the race that used to be Elves and were twisted. Making the Trolls that too would be kind of dumb, I think... :)

And yes, it obviously did take some inspiration from LOTR. But all fantasy does so that's okay. What it's got to do is have some originality and a good story, and they do a great job of both.

[Dark Jaguar]

So were the high elves. I was thinking sort of that the trolls would be to the high elves what the naga were to the... eh it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, a few things that I interpretted differently before. Now Medivh isn't responsible for his own actions any more, for instance :D. He was... posessed, yeah that's the ticket. To be honest, I'm not sure I like that version of it...

Another thing. At the end of Frozen Throne, it is clear, VERY clear in fact, that Arthas way more than "beat Illidan to it", he FOUGHT AND KILLED HIM. This telling makes it seem like Arthas just beat him to the place, fused with the Lich King, and Illidan ran away.

[A Black Falcon]

There are multiple kinds of trolls, remember, DJ -- Forest Trolls in Azeroth, Jungle Trolls in the islands, and probably more kinds... Ice Trolls? They are widespread and diverse, more than just a offshoot race probably would be.

And the 'Medivh was somewhat posessed' thing isn't new here, it was in the WC3 backstory too, I believe...

[alien space marine]

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah.... okay yeah that's what "Now we are one!" meant ;). Ya see, Blizzard loves fusion.

I have a feeling whenever "Ner'thas" or "Ar'zul" talks he's going to have that whole two voice thing going that Japan always uses for fused beings.

One thing, why did they decide to ressurect Illidan? I mean, the history doesn't even MENTION that climactic battle that just reeked of decisiveness.

[A Black Falcon]

When they merge they don't have to merge their names, just use one or the other... whichever they prefer, really. I think that's how it'll go here. :)

Of course the Scourge still hold what were Azeroth and Quel'Thelas. It's not like the mortal races recaptured them... the whole northern half of that continent is lost to the Alliance for what could be a long time. Humanity now just has Azeroth and the new country in Kalimdor...

That brings up a complaint of mine. Humans and Orcs. In the end of WC3 it actually looked like they weren't going to be quite as hostile... some fighting sure but it looked good. Then they changed it and made them enemies again, despite the fact that orcs are supposed to not be evil anymore... too bad. I mean, despite what happens at the end of the orc campaigns in TFT there is still some level of cooperation... but then in WoW it seems like humans and orcs are made intractible enemies through how they don't really let the two sides do much interaction other than fighting. I guess all I can hope for is story events in WoW...

Oh, and I probably should know this, but I'm wondering if as humans you can choose to start in either Azeroth or Kalimdor or if you always start in Azeroth...

Oh yeah, and I wonder what's going to happen to the last remnants of the High Elves (if any are even left) or Blood Elves...

On a somewhat related note, you say that Warcraft clearly took Tolkein as influence, but is that bad? And anyway, as I said, they didn't just take it straight, they added a lot of unique elements. Like, for instance, how the "Dark" Elves are actually more good than the "High" ones...

[Dark Jaguar]

From what I understand, each and every high elf became a blood elf. To be honest, I'd think there would at least be a few of them that would go off by themselves, unknown to the blood elves...

Indeed, the history doesn't really state why the humans and orcs are fighting. I could see it better if "alliance" side had the orcs too, but then there wouldn't be much for the horde side of things any more... Best I can figure, this decision was made not for the story's sake but for the sake of the gameplay. They really wanted two sides battling each other. A lot of these MMORPGs tend to just have a free for all. FFXI attempted to make a more "friendly rivalry" between 3 nations. COH and WOW however want full scale war.

So, they will likely come up with reasoning later on. Here's how I see it. While the peace managed to be maintained at first after the admiral's attack and defeat, namely between Thrall and Jaina, tensions rose among the populaces until they simply had an enmity towards each other, sorta like how those two kingdoms of dwarves grew apart until they couldn't really stand each other. How that escalated into war is a bit of a mystery though... I imagine all it would take is some misleading attacks from some group... Maybe a demon took the form of Thrall and attacked Jaina to steal.... the sacred jewel... :D

Eh, anyway it's all kinda weird, but yes I am sure that the story will take many twists and turns. These sorts of games tend to have a lot of events and such...

I bet the fused being will call himself Arthas if they don't mix it, because that's who's body he is in.

[A Black Falcon]

So, they will likely come up with reasoning later on. Here's how I see it. While the peace managed to be maintained at first after the admiral's attack and defeat, namely between Thrall and Jaina, tensions rose among the populaces until they simply had an enmity towards each other, sorta like how those two kingdoms of dwarves grew apart until they couldn't really stand each other. How that escalated into war is a bit of a mystery though... I imagine all it would take is some misleading attacks from some group... Maybe a demon took the form of Thrall and attacked Jaina to steal.... the sacred jewel...

But given WC3 and TFT, that just seems implausible... others going around their authority or in other cities or something, sure. I'm sure that a lot of orcs and humans still detest eachother. But Thrall and Jaina seem pretty sensible... and they are in control in Kalimdor of their respective forces, which is why I don't like this. As well as the fact that I was hoping that the orcs and humans could try to live in relative peace... oh well.

From what I understand, each and every high elf became a blood elf. To be honest, I'd think there would at least be a few of them that would go off by themselves, unknown to the blood elves...

Yeah, I'd assume a few High Elves are hiding somewhere, but most became Blood Elves. And then the Blood Elves joined with Illidan and were scattered and decimated when he went down, and were exiled from the Alliance, so ... what now? How many are left? Where are they? Can they be saved or is the entire High Elven race doomed to follow their ancient forbears and become like the Nagas?

I bet the fused being will call himself Arthas if they don't mix it, because that's who's body he is in.

Yes, I'd assume so. I was just reading one of the last Star Wars: New Jedi Order books and there's a somewhat similar situation with Tahiri... but no one else here knows what I'm talking about.

[Dark Jaguar]

I was thinking the archons from Starcraft myself :D.

Ya know, with the graphical tools they've released for those with the right software to actually add custom character models and such to WC3 custom scenarios, I'd say the scenario builder they have now is about as powerful as anyone could want outside of letting people actually change the core gameplay and graphics engines. Not owning the animation studio software that those codecs Blizzard released requires, I'll be waiting for others to make custom characters and such for their campaigns to see just how much freedom it allows.

[Weltall]

You should have at least put WoW in the title

Yeah, you fooled me into almost giving a damn. :(

[A Black Falcon]

Warcraft has a great story. Read it anyway. Good quality fantasy storytelling. :)