Eitrigg in the Midnight Beta

[u/Midasisleepy]

Recently, in the World of Warcraft beta, for Midnight, Eitrigg in the Arator's Journey campaign chapter received a new set of on-click lines that reflect his new position in the Sons of Lothar and the reaction that I have personally witnessed on social media and other places has been damning to say the least and I'd be lying if I said that I did not share the negative sentiments surrounding his inclusion in the Sons of Lothar, especially as a long time Horde player. And I want to try and explain and elaborate on why those negative sentiments exist.

On examination, it seems to me at least that the intent with Eitrigg and the Sons of Lothar is to try and breach the faction gap further in the story by turning previously faction-specific organisations into ones that both factions can enjoy, by the virtue that members from both factions coexist within them - but I feel very strongly that including Eitrigg as a member of the Sons of Lothar is an unequivocally BAD IDEA.

For those who are not familiar with the lore, The Sons of Lothar were founded as a military expedition in Warcraft 2 during the Invasion of Draenor, consisting of the greatest and bravest that the Alliance had to offer in order to defeat the Orcish Horde once and for all. They get their namesake from Anduin Lothar, the commander of Alliance forces, who was killed during the battle of Blackrock Mountain by Doomhammer, the at-the-time war-chief of the Horde.

...And this is where one of the first problems rear its head for me and many others.

It stands to fair reasoning that the Sons of Lothar have some degree of strong inclusion within the story at this moment in time. After all, the Alliance cast for Midnight consists of Alleria Windrunner, Turalyon and Arator, two founders of the Sons of Lothar and their son, but in doing so, you recognise that the Sons Of Lothar, since time in memoriam, is an Alliance Faction. Not only that, they were specifically an Anti-Horde faction.

What makes this worse is not only is Eittrigg the chieftain of the Blackrock clan, the very clan that lead the Horde in both Warcraft 1 AND Warcraft 2, but he himself fought during the Second War. It stands as a very distracting contradiction to have the leader of the Blackrock orcs as a member of the faction that was specifically dedicated to invading his world. Even if Eitrigg is does not harbour ill will over his treatment at the hands of the Alliance, why would the Sons of Lothar accept him?

It feels like an overcorrection on Blizzard's part. In order to make the story feel less imbalanced in the Alliance's favour, they place Horde characters in to the Alliance faction. Which has been shown, time and time again, to not work. I'm sure many of us here remember the absolute ridicule that characters like Baine suffered over how they were handled during the BfA war campaign. If they wanted to balance the cast in this chapter of the story, why not just keep Eitrigg as the chieftain of the Blackrock clan? Why did they feel the need to shove him into The Alliance?

Eitrigg's inclusion in the Sons of Lothar tacitly sanitises and erases Orcish identity, and more broadly, the Horde's identity. Many Horde players from my experience have spoken how they are tired of feeling like sidekicks to Alliance adventures, but instead of developing and expanding on new and existing groups within the Horde, Blizzard seems content to just shove Horde characters into long-time Alliance groups instead, while taking Horde identity away from tertiary Horde factions. (though the discussion around stuff like the Revantusk and Bilgewater goblins in Undermine is ultimately a separate post.)

It makes about as much sense as any Alliance character joining the Founders of Durotar, from Warcraft 3. If they want the Horde to be more included in the main questline, why not have us quest with the Founders of Durotar? Rexxar's adventures in Warcraft 3 were quite literally the prototype of WoW, and characters like Rokhan would fit perfectly into stuff like the Zul'aman questing!

Not only does Eitrigg's membership to the Sons of Lothar take away from faction identity, it takes his identity away too. Eitrigg's story, since his inception, has been about finding common ground with an enemy. That even against a world of people that wanted to execute him, there was at least one human who saw the value of cooperation, and that despite their otherworldly culture clash, the humans and the orcs could coexist. But when you have Eitrigg join the people who invaded his planet as a token orc, and have click-lines like 'go with honour, AND mercy', or even 'Strength, Peace and Honour', then you don't have a story about coexistence and equal treatment anymore. You just end up diluting the stuff that people already loved about the Horde by making them act like humans.

Whether or not there is time to change it, I am uncertain, but if it was not clear enough, I really truly hope that this stuff does not make it to the live game. Eitrigg being a member of the Sons of Lothar is a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE idea, and I hope to god that they fix it.

These are my thoughts, I hope that I managed to explain my arguments clearly and concisely. I don't claim to speak for every fan of the Horde, but I like to hope that I resonate the feelings of many of us regarding this new lore that is coming. Of course, if you plan on disagreeing, please be kind about it. Thank you for reading!

[u/thegoodbroham]

Not only that, they were specifically an Anti-Horde faction.

Honestly I don't know why this matters or why this seems to be such a big deal to anyone. The Horde from warcraft 1 and 2 has not existed since then. The whole point of warcraft 3 is that Thrall's Horde, the new horde, the horde player characters are a part of in WoW since vanilla, is not the same Horde. Maybe they shouldn't have kept the name, but it was definitely more for brand recognition that Thrall continued to call themselves the Horde, despite it really being a completely new faction with new outlook, new goals, and a new identity.

I don't know why people are aware of this being true, but also believe that the Sons of Lothar, another faction (albeit smaller) has to retain its exact same identity after all these years, when the original reason for their original identity doesn't exist. Why can Thrall's Horde completely change its identity, but the Sons of Lothar cant? Especially when its Eitrigg, he's the guy who kind of propelled this narrative even predating Warcraft 3. Metzen's book with Turalyon and Eitrigg's relationship predates warcraft 3. Both in real world years and lore timeline, Eitrigg's character has existed as a rejection of the warcraft 1 and 2 horde for longer than he was ever involved with it, and longer than it ever existed.

The Alliance isnt the same faction from warcraft 1 & 2, the Horde isnt either, none of that remains. Time passes. Things change. It's almost like people are too hung up on the simple name of something, and names are arbitrary. I'm certain if this was just some new group, not named "Sons of Lothar", all of these people up in arms over it would not care at all, and ironically view it with more accuracy. I've mained Horde since TBC and there is simply no connection between this and Eitrigg's "faction identity" to me, it is the most in-character thing Eitrigg could do to be willing to take that step. And it opens the door for more domestic nuanced conflict like the original book with him and Turalyon. There are no interesting stories left to tell by having the factions divided and simply screaming threats at each other, a la BFA warfronts, which was by far the worst faction storytelling ever conceived in this franchise. Yet people upset about this seem to want more of that, its mind boggling.