Two Very Different 'Warcraft' Deaths

This post features spoilers for the events of "Forsaken Kingdom," the latest campaign for Warcraft III: Reforged, as well as the current patch for World of Warcraft, 12.1.5, "The Promise of Tomorrow."

People die in Warcraft all the time. It's part of the cycle of the conflict that has driven the series from the very beginnings, from Orcs and Humans all the way up to the Alliance and Horde. But death, especially in World of Warcraft, has come to be presented in its storytelling in a very different way recently—a contrast made all the more starkly by Blizzard themselves in recent months, thanks to a leap back into the past alongside the game's current storytelling moment.

During Blizzcon, the studio announced—and released—Forsaken Kingdom, a brand-new campaign, the first for the remade RTS in decades, following the independent undead liberated from Arthas Menethil's scourge armies through the eyes of Garek Bandarion, a former knight of Lordaeron who watched his kingdom fall to Arthas' treachery as he navigated his place among the titular Forsaken. The campaign was part of a broader promotion for another major announcement at the con, World of Warcraft: Forever, a new iteration of the MMO that took audiences back to a reimagined vanilla setting, with new twists and tweaks across all of Azeroth—an announcement that largely overshadowed contemporary World of Warcraft, or "Retail" as it's known, and its presence at the show.

Retail WoW has been in a bit of a rough spot for the past few months. After the successful launch of Midnight, the middle chapter of the "World Soul Saga" that ties together three of the latest expansions for the game, earlier this year, the player base has grown discontent with its patch cycle, with broader frustrations about its approach to gearing, raiding, and the current pace of the narrative—the patch content thus far has focused on a side story surrounding the Amani Trolls, and "Troll Patches" have a history in World of Warcraft as not being particularly well-loved—bubbling to the fore.

Forsaken Kingdom, the impending launch of WoW: Forever in a few weeks, and the state of Midnight have all coalesced into a perceived branching path for the franchise—either a return to the form of the classic RTS games and early World of Warcraft, or the malaise of another low point in sentiment for the modern game. But that was thrown into the starkest of reliefs this week when the latest patch for WoW turned the knife on one of its most prominent characters of late.

And suffice to say, players were not pleased.