World of Warcraft Elegy and A Good War Thoughts

At first I thought these two novellas would be exclusive to Battle for Azeroth Collector's Edition. Therefore I was extremely happy to find out that they became digitally available completely for free on Blizzard's website. Yes the Collector's Edition version of the novellas come in brilliantly designed books with exclusive artwork and illustrations. However I can't afford that edition so yay for free legit downloads! 

Despite my passion for Warcraft lore, I am deeply upset that I won't be able to participate in this limited timed event, War of the Thorns aka The Burning of Teldrassil. I watched videos of the quests and cutscenes but I know it can never be the same as personally being a part of it. So these novellas provided me with some much needed context.

Elegy is written by Christie Golden and has around 88 pages depicting the Alliance side of the story. Whereas A Good War is written by Robert Brooks and has around 87 pages depicting the Horde side of the story. As a Horde player I wanted to be done with the Alliance side first and read the Horde side last so I'll start by sharing my thoughts about Elegy first.

Elegy focuses more on the emotional side of the war. We don't have any context as to why anything happens so we only follow the Alliance on the defensive trying to at first push away the Horde forces, whereas towards the end only to buy time for the civillians to be evacuated before the Horde reaches Darnassus. We read at length about the genocide and civillian deaths after Sylvanas orders the burning of Teldrassil and the desparate attemps of everyone from the Alliance to save as many civillian lives as they can to the point of most known heroes being ready to give their lives to achieve it. Meanwhile on the Horde side we are quite disconnected from everything that happens AFTER this order is given. 

Therefore Elegy's last 20 pages or so were extremely hard for me to read and I will proudly admit that I almost shed some tears. Christie Golden did an excellent job of describing the horrors in gruesome and terrifying details. It is not an easy read and it'll be even harder if you are a dedicated Alliance player so brace yourselves. 

A Good War focuses more on the tactical side of the battle. We gain a lot of insight into the twisted mind of Sylvanas and the brilliant strategic mind of The High Overlord Varok Saurfang. Therefore this novella gives the reader tons of context about this war; what the Horde wanted to achieve, what their end game/final goal was, how they wanted to achieve it and of course most importantly the reason behind the burning of Teldrassil.

Sylvanas' foresights are jaw dropping since she has a special talent for thinking about things that noone wants to think about. What can be done to avoid a war between Alliance and Horde not in 5 years but in 50-100 years from now? A war that can end nations, destroy generations and make races go extinct because let's face it, both sides aren't aware of the true potential of Azerite yet and what kind of an impact it'll have on weaponry and warfare. Horde is rightfully worried that future Azerite weapons can spiral out of control and create chaos between the two factions dooming the future generations in an unending war that noone can win. This is still a reality even without the existence of Azerite weapons. 

Therefore the other faction must be kept in check and controlled as much as possible in order to secure a better future for upcoming generations. War is inevitable and it will erupt in the future. The idea is to make it erupt now while both factions are still licking their wounds after defeating The Burning Legion before one faction gains enough advantage to wipe out the other. In simplest terms it's a war to ensure survival. 

This foresight of Sylvanas, coupled with the magnificent strategic battle tactics and war experience of Saurfang, the Horde comes up with a brilliant plan that may have very well worked. Until Sylvanas ordered the burning of Teldrassil. But why did she do it? A Good War also explains it. Is it a valid reason? For her yes but for the entire Horde hell no... She is mad and I don't want her to be my Warchief. 

The initial plan was supposed to leave the Alliance broken and in conflict among themselves while trying to take advantage of the inexperience in leadership from Anduin. Take Darnassus and Teldrassil hostage, have the Night Elves pressure Anduin to help them get it back. Meanwhile have the highly emotional drama queen Genn Greymane pressure Anduin to save Gilneas before Darnassus, because why should anyone ever dare save another city before Greymane's Gilneas right? He is already a ticking bomb and attacked us in Stormheim while totally unprovoked. So let's use this to our advantage! Put Anduin in such an impossible spot that he simply has to piss off someone powerful. However what Sylvanas managed to achieve was the exact opposite. She made them unite against us even stronger.

I feel deep sympathy and sadness for Saurfang though. Because he made a choice to save Malfurion after dealing a shameful blow to him behind his back instead of claiming his dishonourable kill which prompted Sylvanas to push for more drastic measures. Thus we had to say goodbye to Teldrassil. Like everything Saurfang had to live with wasn't enough, in addition to his regrets and guilt over the atrocities he committed during the Bloodcurse, now he has a genocide on his conscience as well. The Old Soldier cinematic made even more sense now than it already did before.

As Saurfang says in the novella; "You have damned the Horde for a thousand generations. All of us. And for what? For what?" The answer is "nothing" my dear Saurfang. Absolutely nothing. So thank you Sylvanas, for nothing.