[Campaign] Calia Menethil Campaign; The Legacy of the Menethils

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Campaign Idea: The Legacy of the Menethils

Prompt:

Hi all, I have finally got around to posting an idea I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a few years now. If I get any of the lore wrong or if you have any ideas to better this idea, I would love your input.

I've recently been trying to catch up with the lore as best I can as I’m not a WOW player nor do I have the money to purchase the novels, and I can help but be fascinated with Calia Menethil. She’s a character with a history of ties to important characters, she the hair apparent the defunct kingdom of Lordaeron and she has large spaces of unknown history. She’s pretty much left with no development for someone with such a legacy.

After a while an idea popped into my head, what if she took a more important part in the events of warcraft 3. So now I am going to attempt to write her a different story where her actions change the future of Azeroth.

Idea:

Word of the horrors of the Culling of Stratholme reach the capital city and Calia Menethil. Calia makes her way to her father to find the truth of the matter. Upon the arriving she interrupts Terenas in discussions with Uther and Jaina about the Culling and nature of Plague of Undeath used by the Cult of the Damned.

Outline of missions:

Interlude 1: Terenas, Calia, Uther, and Jaina discuss what to do next. Terenas reinstates the sliver hand, calls for Arthas’s return, and orders the annihilation of the Cult of the damned and a possible cure for the plague.

Chapter 1: Guiding Light; With knowledge of the Plague of Undeath spreading in the northern lands Terenas order the evacuation and screening of the remaining population in the northern lands while Using Hearthglen as a base of operation.

Objective: Defend citizenry from the undead as they make their way the Hearthglen docks.

Chapter 2: Hunting the Damned; Lunching coordinated attacks from Brill, Stranbrad, and Hearthglen; Calia, Jaina and Uther converge together burning the now-abandoned villages and destroying cult bases.

Objecive: Destroy undead bases and collect documents.

Chapter 3: Horrors of the Damned; Recovered documents point of to a long-abandoned mine as a point of major cult activities. With forces gathered Calia and Uther march into the darkness seeking to destroy the taint hidden within.

Objective: Kill all arch necromances, free prisoners and collect plague samples.

Interlude 2: Weeks pass after the purging of the cult of the damned from the northern lands when Calia receives word that her brother has returned home from Northrend and she make her way to the capital to greet him with their father.

Chapter 4: Battle for Lordaeron; after arriving in the capital just to witness the murder of her father. Calia is forced to hold the capital as her people flee through a portal to Dalaran and wait for Uther’s reinforcements.

Objective: led ambassadors to the portal, clear city of undead and defend for 20 minutes.

Chapter 5: Queen of Lordaeron; with the funeral of King Terenas and her coronation as the queen among the ruins of the capital, Calia marches west to fight unrest caused by the Arthas’s undead forces and banditry in the region while Uther is left to fortify Andorhal and the way southward.

Objective: Kill or bribe bandit leader, save 20 citizens and kill all undead forces.

Bonus Chapter: Fight as Uther’s forces against Arthas’s attack on Andorhal.

Objective: hold out as long you can. (you will lose)

Chapter 6: Saving the light; with word arriving of Andorhal falling under siege Calia rushing to Uther aid.

Objective: Destroy mysterious meat wagon, collect lumber to fix the bridge, Uther must not die.

Interlude 3: N/A

Chapter 7: Treading on hallowed ground; with word of Undead forces marching on Kingdom of Quel'Thalas Calia sends Uther to led forces in the defense of their old allies.

Objective: Find elven outposts, destroy undead base blocking the elf gate.

Chapter 8: Home of the High Elves; Marshaling both the rescued elven forces and his own, Uther seeks to break the siege of the Silvermoon city.

Objective: Destroy Undead and troll bases.

Chapter 9: Stealing of sunlight; with the breaking siege the elves are struck with an unseen betrayal as Elven portions of the cult of the damned take hold the of the sun well.

Objective: Destroy all enemies forces, heroes must not die

Interlude 4: Anasterian Sunstrider pledges what little support he can, and we see Calia visiting her family.

( Events of Dalaran Durning the path of damned; may change)

Chapter 10: Old Grudges; While visiting Dalaran about recent information on the plague, the city falls under siege by remnants of the Horde.

Objective: Empower defenses, Destroy Orc forces.

Chapter 11: The Dead Rise; Kel'Thuzad, using human sacrifices to raise the fallen orcs as undead and lesser demon flood from orcish demon gates.

Objective: Hold power nodes, secure artifacts and hold 45 minutes

Interlude 5: We watch as Antonidas destabilizes the enchantments in Dalaran causing the destruction of the city, the annihilation of the Scourge forces and the disrupting of Archimonde’s summoning. Unfortunately, it left a small fluctuating rift that lesser demon the periodically enter through.


Redone Factions:

While I love Warcraft 3 something always felt off about the layout of the factions.

So, taking inspiration from The Scourge of Lordaeron Enhanced by Teozamait I’ve decided to redo the factions that are encountered in this project

The Lordaeron Legions; The forces of Lordaeron focus on using advanced discipline, the Power of the light and supportive Magic to roll over their foes

Pos: Balanced cost to effect and powerful Upgrades

Neg: High food cost on casters and Slow to strengthen

High Elves; The forces of Quel'Thalas focus on using Mobility, Poison and Powerful and Stalling Magics to chip away at their enemies.

Pos: Versatile ranged units and Lots of magic abilities

Neg: Expensive units and Mana Heavy

Horde Remnants; The Orcish forces focus on Using powerful units and Empowering their units to pulverize all that stand against them.

Pos: Strong overall units

Neg: Expensive and few casters

Cult of the damned / Scourge; (may become sperate factions) The undead focus on using overwhelming numbers and necromantic powers to make them unrelenting

Pos: Cheap units, Self-resurrecting, Unit spawning upon death and Crippling magic

Neg: weak units, and few active offensive abilities


Progress:

Currently Building the factions on a melee map.

Campaign = 0%

The Lordaeron Legions = 80-90%

High Elves = 0%

Horde Remnants = 0%

Cult of the damned / Scourge = 0%

Items = 0%

 

[cleavinghammer]

Good ideas.

CotD could be focused on stealth and infiltration since they can't exactly operate openly.

 

[Zebreva]

I'd like for Calia to have a redone backstory, as you said, hers is practically insignificant as it currently is. In this one Calia becomes the person who not only stops the fall of her kingdom but also saves the entire world the second (?) invasion of the Burning Legion.

I'd change the title because as the story is laid out it doesn't have anything to do with the Menethil's legacy, maybe if the story had been about Calia's lost daughter? Perhaps something more about how this is an alternative to the darker timeline of the official Warcraft series?

I think the story works for what you're trying to accomplish! I just feel like the horde remnant faction is kinda thrown in at the end without much story build-up. And I think the hold-out timers need to be drastically reduced, very few I think will want to sit around in a base for 20 let alone 45 minutes.

I do like that Lordaeron drastically improves with upgrades, makes them strong in the late game like Protoss and have to be defensive at first.

 

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

I'd like for Calia to have a redone backstory, as you said, hers is practically insignificant as it currently is. In this one Calia becomes the person who not only stops the fall of her kingdom but also saves the entire world the second (?) invasion of the Burning Legion.

I'd change the title because as the story is laid out it doesn't have anything to do with the Menethil's legacy, maybe if the story had been about Calia's lost daughter? Perhaps something more about how this is an alternative to the darker timeline of the official Warcraft series?

I think the story works for what you're trying to accomplish! I just feel like the horde remnant faction is kinda thrown in at the end without much story build-up. And I think the hold-out timers need to be drastically reduced, very few I think will want to sit around in a base for 20 let alone 45 minutes.

I do like that Lordaeron drastically improves with upgrades, makes them strong in the late game like Protoss and has to be defensive at first.

Thanks for replying, I appreciate any input. In response your first point about the burning legion invasion. I plan to have it be stalled rather than prevented as they say "if there’s a will, theirs away"

In response to your second point, my choice of title was a reference to the Menethils having great roles in Lordaeron's history. (Terenas help with the Alliance of Lordaeron and Arthas betrayal) though I may change it to something like "A Menethil's legacy". In the case of Calia's daughter, I have been playing around ideas of how to introduce her and the father.

The problem is that the daughter Could only be 4-5 at the oldest and runs into my major problem with blizzard writing, how they fit into such much into a short time. The events of warcraft 1 to the Battle of Azeroth take roughly about 33-34 years, with Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne only taking 3-4 years. I plan to make a second campaign focused on Calia's family and the Consequences of the destruction of Dalaran and demons entering Azeroth

Your third point about the horde remnant faction is kind of thrown in is a good point. The idea was for the new events such as the purge of the CotD and Uther’s intervention of the siege of Silvermoon to leave the Scourge with inefficient numbers causing Arthas and Kel'Thuzad to Ally themselves with the orcs from the Blackrock & Roll, Too! mission with a plan to use them as fodder and to boost their strength by summing lesser Demons through the gate.

The timer is as of now mostly place holder. This is mostly just a base outline of the idea of the story I plan to edit this as I flush out the story. I scrapped the several ideas for game mechanics such as advanced Day/Night mechanics and Hero based Techtree like the General system from Command and Conqueror

That it’s as of now thanks again for the input.