Alternate Warcraft III Aftermath

[Trill]

This is intended to be premise of an ORPG set right after TFT ends. I need people to point out inconsistencies with lore (note this completely ignores WoW).

Alliance
Consists of Humans, High Elves and Dwarves.
Stromgarde, reinforced by refugees of Lordaeron, is the main human realm. There's political unrest, as Stromgardians blame Lordaeroni for Arthas, Lordaeroni don't like not being the leaders, a newfound "Baron Menethil" (who is actually Aliden Perenolde) is claiming to be the rightful heir to King Terenas and leader of the Alliance, while followers of Lord Garithos are trying to sour relationships with non-human races. While this seems like most logical and interesting idea, it does devalue the role of Jaina, who was de-facto leader of Lordaeron survivors in Warcraft III.
Stormwind is still half-ruined after Second War and is not a major faction. Kul'tiras has lost a big fleet in war with Thrall and is dealing with Naga invasion, so doesn't involve itself. Gilneas is hiding behind wall. All these are correct lorewise, right?
Dwarves are busy fighting kobolds that got scared by something underground and are surging to the surface, plus the remnants of Bleeding Hollow clan hiding in the mountains, that got bolder after Legion invasion. Dark Iron didn't exist in Warcraft III times, right?
High Elves... here I'm in a bind. On one hand, a logical decision would to have them based on Quel'danas, as was original plan during WoW Alpha. On the other hand, that would have them clash with Blood Elves... and lead to a too big concentration of pink-skinned Elves in one region. On the other hand, I could have them be based in Theramore, as was original plan with humans, but that has its own problems - one of main Alliance cities basically in the middle of main Horde hub, no reason for Theramore to have a larger Elf population than human one, plus then High Elves would have to be led by Jaina, who is a human... eh.
Gnomes don't exist and I don't care they were mentioned even back in Warcraft II.

Horde
Consists of Orcs, Darkspear Trolls, Tauren and Stonemaul Ogres.
While in-universe Horde's situation is simple - it is establishingtheir rule over Kalimdor, facing massive armies of Centaur, warring with Razorfen, fending off scattered, but not destroyed Kul'tiran fleet, it has big problems from narrative point of view.
First of all, all their main factions sort of hang out in one place. As big as Barrens are, Dustwallow and Mulgore are still kinda close to Durotar and Echo Isles. What I really want to do is add Goblins and Forest Trolls back to the Horde. First of all, it would bring back Warcraft II flavour, second it would add strong foils to the overly honourable Horde, and Zul'jin would be a great foil to Thrall personally, and third, it would spread Horde around, giving it a hub in Lordaeron, and, I guess, Kezan. However, Horde has more races than other factions as it is.
Any thoughts on the matter are welcome.

Night Elves
I haven't gotten around to them yet. Suffice to say they are NOT part of the Alliance, and most likely are the only race in their own faction, although Dark Trolls, Furbolgs and Treants are potential candidates.

Forsaken
Forsaken are setting up their kingdom and cleaning up remnants of Burning Legion and Scourge. Kel'thusad is still in Lordaeron and is making big problems for them.
They also seek to establish ties with the Alliance, but have problems for understandable reasons.
One idea I have for them is to be basically Undead Alliance, consisting of undead Humans, Elves and Dwarves. The other idea is them allying with...

Blood Elves
Now, Blood Elves are in interesting place. Their personal aim is to reclaim Quel'thalas, they are battling Scourge and Amani there.
Their faction ties are a bit more difficult. There are two paths I see for them:
1) Forgive Alliance for Garithos (whom Alliance in general condemns) and join back - not to mention Kael'thas fancies Jaina and so may choose to join her faction. This solves High Elf problem nicely, but is least interesting idea.
2) Sylvanas joining her former people is what she would most certainly try to do, and now that Blood Elves are no strangers to allying with dark creatures, they might not see Forsaken as such abominations. Plus they would be united by their hatred of the Scourge. I am leaning towards this idea, forming a faction that consists of Undead Humans, Undead Elves, and Blood Elves. The only hiccups are that it seems too edgy and the aforementioned High Elf problem. Also I have no idea what the united faction would be called.

Two solutions to the High Elf problem that I see are:
1) Make Blood Elves' base in ruins of Dalaran, since they are returning to Lordaeron via Outland.
2) Make Blood Elves' main base in Outland proper, with new portal giving them access straight to Plaguelands.
In both those cases High Elves take over Quel'Danas.


Thoughts? Criticism? Corrections from lore standpoint?

 

[stein123]

So, this is ignoring totally WoW lore, right?

 

[Trill]

Yes. It completely ignores WoW. Its mostly intended to be accurate to Reign of Chaos and Warcraft II. Frozen Throne too, but parts of its lore were being made to fit WoW instead of organic development of lore, so I give myself permission to take some liberties with it, although I keep them to a minimum. Same goes for Warcraft I, because its lore has some discrepancies with later lore.

Doesn't mean I won't take an idea or a pointer from WoW, especially vanilla, and especially vanilla alpha, but only if it really actually fits the narrative.

 

[stein123]

Well, then:
- Garithos is dead for good
-Belves are part of the Illidaris in Outland
-Helves could relocate to Quel'Danil, the Elven Outpost located in the Wildhammer territory
-The Dark Iron exist as the third clan according to the WC3 lore and the old Dark Factions guides
-The Blackrock Clan is the one still hiding in Blackrock Mountain
-The centaur aren't that massive, i mean, they were a threat only to one tribe, the bloodhoof, and all the other tribes most fight each other.
-Thrall despises the Forest Trolls, like, since the tutorial mission, and wonders how they could be allowed to be in the Horde in the first place :s
-Undead humans, dwarves and elves, aren't just, like, just Undead?
-Also, Gnomes where a thing since WCII, they even have a building : /

 

[Trill]

-Yeah, Garithos is dead, but many Lordaeroni see him as a hero and start hating non-humans. This is partially fault of Alterac nobles who fan the hatred to draw people under their banners.
-Illidan took Frostmourne to the chest and may be dead. Outland is not safe what with Kil'jaeden being able to just materialize at Black Citadel. Blood Elves may be based in Outland in terms of starting location, but they still aim to return to Azeroth.
-Hm, didn't think about it. In fact I completely forgot about Wildhammers.
-I looked at Wowpedia, didn't find any sources mentioning Dark Iron Dwarfs predating WoW. RPG books (including the "Warcraft RPG" series) were written with WoW in mind, use WoW maps and designs. They are as much ignored as WoW is.
-Well, Blackrock clan is also found in Lordaeron. But re-checking on Bleeding Hollow I find that they did return to Draenor. Okay, I'll have to think of some new problems for Dwarfs.
-Hm, making Tauren less united and more of a threat to Bloodhoof and the Horde does seem more interesting than just Centaurs. Good point.
-Its more of a question if the Horde with its dwindled numbers - casualties of war with the Legion, orcs lost when crossing the sea to Kalimdor, etc - need the Forest Trolls. Thrall may dislike them, but he's also the kind of orc to put interests of the Horde above his own.
-Well, I was thinking giving them same classes and racial perks as living counterparts have (or dark versions thereof - e.g. Ranger -> Dark Ranger).
-Yes, I know, that's the only direct retcon of what I otherwise try to follow. I'll just pretend "gnome" is alternate name for "dwarf". I detest Warcraft Gnomes.