Perhaps Blizzard will make us a Warcraft IV yet – but for now they’ve resolved to fill WoW’s Warlords of Draenor expansion with fan service.
You’ll remember Papa Hellscream from Warcraft II’s Beyond the Dark Portal campaign. Thanks to the intervention of his son Garrosh, he’ll now be one of Draenor’s titular warlords and, it is rumoured, one of its final raid bosses. Here’s his story.
Draenor finds Grommash chieftain of the Warsong clan – the outfit he’s already led to the point of annihilation once. His recklessness, in Blizzard’s words, would have cost him everything – if it weren’t for his “iron will”.
Grommash’s tale begins like a conventional revenge story, but takes a turn for the genuinely surprising and unpleasant. It also provides the unusual sight of an emaciated orc.
Hopefully we’ll see more of that imperial ogre pride in Draenor. The Warsong tribe are based in the fertile grasslands of Nagrand – a western zone that also serves as the seat of the ogre empire.
Draenor’s plot will see Grommash approached by a mysterious stranger, who saves him from the orcish scheme that tied his horde to the Burning Legion in the existing WoW timeline. In the place of his demon masters, Grommash unites the Iron Horde with an eye to conquer outposts in Talador, Shadowmoon Valley and Frostfire Ridge.
That’s the scenario level 90 players enter into. Do you think it’ll make for a compelling plotline?