Zarhym revealed the Destruction of Theramore will chronologically happen before the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and fuels up the war between the Horde and the Alliance.
Considering Christie Golden’s upcoming novel is based on Jaina Proudmoore as a central figure, and that Chris Metzen hinted, at San Diego Comic Con, there would be life-changing events for Jaina — we’ll likely experience some of the events that lead to Theramore’s destruction both in-game and via the novel.
It’s undetermined if Theramore will be destroyed in patch 4.3, 4.3.x or via pre-Mists of Pandaria launch World Event patch.
Attacking Theramore is the best strategy Garrosh the schemer can think of in his effort to wipe the Alliance off the face of Kalimdor. It is the Alliance’s main and direct supply port geographically considering how far Teldrassil is from Stormwind.
However, the repercussions here will be far more than meets the eye.
1. What’s Baine Bloodhoof’s reaction to the destruction of Theramore?
As you may have read in the pages of World of Warcraft: The Shattering, when the Grimtotem coup Thunderbluff it was Jaina Proudmoore and Prince Anduin who indirectly supported Baine’s cause to retake Thunderbluff from the Grimtotem with untraceable resources.
Of course, it wasn’t cool that later Theramore supported the very Alliance invasion into the Barrens and the attempt to enter Mulgore, yet I’d imagine Baine wouldn’t be happy with Garrosh for dishonoring his debt with Jaina so.
2. What’s Thrall’s reactions going to be when he learns Jaina’s life might have been in jeopardy, and all he worked for so long has been shattered?
I seriously don’t see Thrall supporting Garrosh on this one. Thrall will be furious against Garrosh. Thrall lost Taretha, Grom, Drek’Thar and Cairne. His best friends. Drek’Thar is alive, but his aging and recent visions of the Shattering have affected his mind.
Attempting against the life of Jaina is something Thrall won’t ever forgive. Will Thrall be cornered to take a drastic decision? As Jaina sacrificed her father Admiral Proudmoore, could Thrall sacrifice the life of his best friend’s son? Ain’t that an interesting one?
Zarhym: Because chronology matters? Other than stating that Mists of Pandaria will focus much more on the fight between the Horde and the Alliance, we haven’t detailed any specific story elements of that fight. The attack on Theramore is an event which will take place prior to the release of the new expansion to aggressively advance the war between the factions following Deathwing’s death, further highlighting what Garrosh’s motivations are in contrast to Varian’s.
Garrosh wants the Horde to control all of Kalimdor. His attacks thus far have been toward that end, but Theramore remains a major port town and supply line for the Alliance. It’s an obvious strategic move for a power-hungry and prideful ruler such as Garrosh to seize Theramore. If you don’t think there will be repercussions for that in an expansion largely based on the fight between the Horde and Alliance in post-Cataclysm Azeroth, you’re probably focusing way too much on being unable to draw direct and equivalent plays for dominance and time in the limelight between the Horde and Alliance — and calling “foul” on our part for not making sure every release under the Warcraft name has linear, equal advancement for two vastly different factions.
This is honestly an odd and difficult conversation to have about Theramore right now. It’d be like reading Lord of the Rings up to the point where Gandalf gets trapped atop Orthanc, stopping there, hearing from someone that he later falls to his death fighting a balrog, then complaining that his character could’ve been developed so much better before the story ended. — source
Ok this post was as hard to decipher as the prophecies of Delphi, but lets give it a try.
Zarhym’s comments on Gandalf seem to me a rather direct symbol for Jaina(though I can’t imagine her wearing white) and the fact that she/Theramore has a role to play between its destruction and the current events.
Alternatively of course you could see it a misunderstanding of our part and it refers to the Alliance as a whole. Without intending to whitewash Garrosh, there still might be an move of the Alliance preceding Theramore’s destruction which convinced him and/or the majority of the Horde to take this rather drastic step despite the debt of honour Baine owes Jaina.
Of course there is the part of Garrosh intending to take full control of Kalimdor for the Horde in contrast to Varian’s goals. What are Varian’s goals? One definition could be defending the Alliance against Horde aggression, the more edged one being dismantling of the Horde no matter what. If the latter is the case this might reflect in the upcoming epic quest Blizzard has promised us intending to make Varian the true leader of the Alliance and thus the real equal to Garrosh.
There is a lot in the dark right now and I hope Blizzard won’t fail to deliver!
It’s hard to figure out a few pieces of the puzzle we haven’t seen yet.
1. World of Warcraft: The Shattering – Garrosh vs Cairne. Magatha deceives Garrosh poisoning Gorehowl instead of blessing it for the duel against Cairne. Cairne dies poisoned. Grimtotem coups Thunderbluff and take control. A Grimtotem traitor warns Baine to flee. Baine seeks help from Jaina. Jaina borrows him gold to take Thunderbluff back.
2. World of Warcraft: Wolfheart — Cataclysm happens. Time later, Varian attends the Alliance Summit at Darnassus for a consensus whether to accept the Gilnean Worgen into the Alliance. Garrosh is at the front line of the Ashenvale invasion and strategically assaults several key points of Ashenvale,
3. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm — As a result of Garrosh’s invasion to Ashenvale, we see in Cataclysm the Alliance troops using Theramore as a port to mobilize into the Barrens, and Stonetalon Mountains.
There is a nebulous few events (missing pieces of the puzzle) that happens in between # 3 and the destruction of Theramore.
The Jaina book written by Christie Golden will be on sale next year — hopefully it clears up what’s going on.
I guess theramore will fall and christie’s book (can’t wait for it!) will follow Jaina on what she’ll do until she can rebuild theramore, or move to another town (isn’t her family in kul tiras?)
If the alliance loses theramore it’ll be a BIG hit. BUT since this is not real life and it’s a story and blizz is pointing that it’ll be just a bump in the road, things will get better for the alliance, I believe it’ll be all for the better.
I mean, we all loved how cata changed our world. We should be eager for more changes, I remember the NUMBER ONE thing people complained about in vanilla was that The world never changed. You did a quest in a town and 5 years later, the npc is still there trying to rebuild the damn house.
Changes are good sometimes