Blathering about Azeroth

WoW.com has now confirmed several of the rumors regarding story and lore in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion.  If nothing happens to change things, the game for Horde roleplayers may change drastically.  (Note: Spoilers after the break, read at your own risk.)

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It is confirmed that Garrosh will be taking over the control of the Horde, and that, furthermore, he will kick all races but the orcs and tauren from the center of Orgrimmar, under the philosophy that only they are strong enough to protect it.

As the majority of “good aligned” horde characters I know have had a sour taste in their mouth from Garrosh for a long time (my elderly tauren would like to put him over her knee and “give him a whippin’”), this means that there will be a lot of characters who will outright rebel against this new leader, or at the very least be very uncomfortable with accepting him being in charge.  Pushing all but the tauren and orcs out of Orgrimmar will likely create a schism among the Horde, separating the loyalists from the traitorous rebels and pitting character against character.

Something like this…makes my roleplaying chops just about drool. It’s a big change to the storyline, one that will leave none of my characters unaffected. Rayen, as leader of a guild that, up to this point has been almost entirely pacifist – a boarding house offering a safe sanctuary away from war – will likely find herself offering a refuge of another sort: a sanctuary for the rebels and a base of operations for working with other rebel groups.  Meadhbh, never entirely loyal to Horde or Alliance, will find her presence even less welcome.  My orcs will find themselves torn between warchief and the honor of doing what is right.

More and more over recent weeks, I have come to the realization that it is entirely possible that not all of my characters will survive the Cataclysm to come.  At the very least, they cannot survive it unchanged.