Questing: Arthas & The Scarlet Onslaught
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Monday, July 13, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: PvE, arthas, columns, dragonblight, forgotten coast, good quests, lore, lore progression, muradin, questing, questlines, revisted lore, scarlet onslaught
iTZKooPA on Monday, July 13, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: PvE, arthas, columns, dragonblight, forgotten coast, good quests, lore, lore progression, muradin, questing, questlines, revisted lore, scarlet onslaught 
Who Needs A Body?For reasons unknown I was meet with a good amount of playtime this weekend. Rather then ponder on my good fortunes I set out to plow through level 73 (accomplished) on my priest in an effort to have her join the raiding ranks before Cataclysm is released. With most of the quests in Dragonblight accomplished on my dagger lover I went about my business rushing through quests, burning down numerous mobs and getting ganked. Then I ran into Orik Trueheart and his eye-catching T2 (recolored) Paladin set.
Trueheart is a dwarf on a mission. He was sent to the Forgotten Shore in Dragonblight to free the souls of those that Arthas betrayed. In case you forgot, upon hearing that his father had ordered Arthas' troops returned to Lordaeron, the crown prince had the fleets boats burned to their frames. The actions have been retold numerous times, most recently in the novel, so the setup isn't exactly new. But we've always followed Arthas' journey into Frostmourne Cavern after that. Turns out that the men Arthas stranded on the chilly shores eventually died to the Scourge around them and were cursed to defend the landing forever. That's where Trueheart comes in.
Trueheart's questline, one that offers a whopping amount of quick, easy and local experience, has players once again leave their bodies to converse with the dead. After learning their plight, we realize that the souls have been trapped because they forgot how they came to be. Naturally it's up to us to release them. Upon finding a use for the unusual emblem residing in the snow we are graced with a scripted cinematic that brings numerous other names into play. If you haven't played Warcraft III or read Arthas' novel, then the line is a good place to witness Arthas' descent into madness.
This Random Emblem Caught Me Off Guard Until...Sick of reliving old lore and wishing Blizzard would introduce more original backstory? Stop crying and do it anyways. Upon completion of the Arthas nostalgia I was given the opportunity to crush some Scarlet Onslaught faces. Seeing as decimating the ranks of the Scarlet followers, Crusade or otherwise, is a favored pastime of mine, I couldn't say no. Zelig, Trueheart's "bra", and his compadres of the 7th Legion, sent me off to collect information, curb overpopulation and brush up on my reading comprehension. How could one pass up XP and nostalgic murder? Little did I know that my face melting would lead me back to ancient lore. The scripted culmination with Muradin in the Frostmourne Cavern is both new, and highly interesting. It also offers sick loot too boot.
I was privy to the information given in the cinematic, I just can't believe that I missed such a long questline the first time around. According to my buddy, the chain continues, becoming far more complex than a little Spock-style retconning. If it stay on the same level of awesomeness then I will definitely have more for you. Approaching a year from releases Wrath of the Lich King continues to impress me with its quest design, presentation and integration.
These Alliance restricted quests make me wonder, what the heck is the Horde revisting?
Reader Comments (16)
"These Alliance restricted quests make me wonder, what the heck is the Horde revisting?"
Nothing, I think.
...which is a damned shame!
Not much tbh. Just a bit of love loss between Thrall and Garosh other than the Tanuka and the new plague. Thats about it i think
The horde get some cool things. Like in Nagrand we make Garrosh realize that Gromm didn't doom all the orcs and etc. But that's Outlands.
In Wrath we get ummm, crap I can't think of it. Please another fellow horde jump in and save me!!
Oh wait we do help with the whole wrath gate thing. We create the plague that is used on the horde/alliance/scourge.... sorry about that.
@Alex Fugate
True, we had the "Hero of the Mag'har" questline in TBC while the Alliance didn't get such a special questline. Now in Wrath, it's the other way around.
However, iTZKooPA was asking if there was an equivalent Horde-only questline to the one he did. The Wrathgate (and subsequently the "Battle for the Undercity") event is not faction-restricted.
the orcs, and thus the horde, were pretty useless in The frozen throne (warcraft 3) so theres not a hell of alot we get to "relive". when we go to that particular beach, we kill a few ghosts, get a few supply crates and leave.
What the Horde got in Outland was pretty big, despite it not being as complex and amazing as what the Alliance get during this expansion.
But face it, the Alliance was MADE for this expansion. Orcs are actually from Draenor, forced here by demon blood. Tauren were just Nomads, Trolls just didn't have anything to do with anyone else before and after most of their exile, Undead, well, yeah, and the Blood Elves were pretty much just Alliance troops, if anything.
Basically, the enormous amount of lore should and does belong to the Alliance in this game. The Horde? We just force ourselves onto the shore and fight because Arthas would kill us if we don't. That's it, nothing special, no betrayal, no nothing.
I'm not saying they should make crap up, please don't have another Draenei incident, but in all honesty the Horde really has about nothing in this expansion. I've heard things from Alliance and holy crap is it fun. I've done EVERY northrend quest on my 80 Horde. Barely anything.
We meet some new people up there, collect supplies, and fight.
That's. It.
I'd also like to point out that the undead really shouldn't count as anything. They're just revengeful bastards, as anyone pretty much would be if some guy killed you, forced you to work for him, and you broke free and are now forced to wander as a dead corpse forever. If anything, it's not even remotely as complex and lore-tastic as the Alliance quests are.
Speaking of Wrath Gate, are you ever going to get to that yourself?
Be sure to check out all the lore based quests in Icecrown too. Theres one where you get to take control of Arthas, and fight Illidan.
even though im alliance, there is SOME lore for the horde side. if you go to Death's Rise(?)(after shadow vault) you can go to Onslaught Harbor and do a painfully long questline that ends w/ you killing the Admiral -something- Westwind, and he turns in to Mal'Ganis in the middle of the fight. so turns out Scarlet Crusaders have been deceived, and just used to take down Arthas so Mal'Ganis can have his revenge. please correct me if i'm wrong.
@Unholybane
Just did that two days ago on my rogue.. it was actually rather fun seeing as i got to tank it :) Granted me the mage and the druid were all in 7.5 and uld gear but w/e :P
The small amounts of lore we get is with the Death Knight Koltira (Deathweaver?) and the Taunka, other than that its DEATH TO THE ALLIANCE, which is stupid... if we kill them now Arthas raises their corpses and ghouls and uses them against us, whereas we can use the Alliance to slay Arthas, then when Varian isn't lookin Thrall's hammer "slips" and crushes his skull in... that way we still massacre the alliance.. but we dont need to worry about them being risen as the undead :)
lol im glad that alliance gets to have fun in Dragonblight. Im horde so it was a huge grind just like every other place in Northrend
What's the likelihood of The Forsaken (true name for the Undead) breaking away from The Horde & becoming the next Scourge...?
It would imply that The Horde would need a replacement Faction/Race, unless The Alliance 'lost' one of their native Races, too (Gnomes...?)...
How about the Goblins joining the Horde - give them a 'diminutive' Race, too...? LOL
... just my 2c...
horde dont need lore, thats for the alliance=P as one of the posts above said about the undead wanting revenge on Arthas, the orcs also want revenge on the humans, no?(ive never seen any lore or played warcraft so i dont know much lore so correct me of im wrong)Trolls and Tauren were just bored i guess and joined the horde for kicks, that and they needed help or else they would be killed by other ppl like centaur and stuff=) And blood elves.... just hate Arthas too?
@Justin
The Orcs don't want revenge on the humans, it's a two-way street. In short, it's nobody's fault really except the manipulating demons. Causing the Orcs to be completely barbaric, they lead them to Azeroth where they annihilated a crap ton of humans. Eventually they were pushed back, but stragglers were found. These stragglers were without a source of power now so they became docile, returning to what they were before to some extent. After escaping from the camps, thanks to Thrall, they attempted to leave the continent and make a life for themselves to just live in peace and get away from having to constantly battle the humans. They succeeded, but the humans followed them and continued to wage war, where they put up a fight to defend themselves. In the end, both were at fault technically, but you can't blame them as intellectual races all have flaws it seems.
Trolls were exiled and the Orcs saved them from, yep, "rampaging murlocs". As hilarious as that sounds, the murlocs CAN be dangerous in numbers, and depending on the species a single murloc could be deadly.
The Tauren helped the Orcs cross the Barrens and whatnot, not to mention helped them rediscover shamanism, so they became allies.
As for Blood Elves, they really had no other choice. First off, the Forsaken, or Undead, helped them, so naturally they'd send them to Thrall. Secondly, the Blood Elves are MOSTLY what remain of the high elves, a few elsewhere doing whatnot, including the Silver Covenant, and considering the humans did jack-s*** when they were in the Alliance armies, not to mention treated them like crap almost, I doubt the Blood Elves would want to join the Alliance. On top of that, the Night Elves would never allow it either.
The comment on Horde not needing Lore. Sure we do. We have an enormous, holy-crap amount of lore from our past, all races included, and it's almost about the same as Alliance. However, most of the lore revolving around the Horde is now gone or not around to keep the lore going. Draenor's done, trolls are basically done, centaur are done technically, Arthas is still there but like I said the Forsaken just want revenge, no real lore surrounding it except that most of them are people of Lordaeron (I'd assume). And Blood Elves. Well, we finished all their quests in the starter area, went to Outland, killed their king, and replenished the Sunwell. Unless Blizzard does something, they won't even GET a new king and their lore is basically come to a halt, making them just another unit in the Horde army.
Course Im no expert and Im typing this without looking up my facts, but Im pretty sure that's the jist of it. Feel free to correct me.