Eurogamer BlizzCon 2018 Interview - Sylvanas' Story and the Wrath Gate

Blizzard Posted 2018/11/12 at 8:55 AM by Squishei

Eurogamer

Click here to see Eurogamer's full Interview!

Highlights from the interview with Alex Afrasiabi

When Blizzard gets a player base that's divided in their support for a character, they feel like they're doing their job. If it's one sided, it's not as interesting.

The goal with Sylvanas was to have players that would still support her, despite the actions she has committed.

The Wrath Gate, the Blight and the Forsaken were all under Sylvanas' orders as well. Sylvanas' plans have escalated right now.

Here is the direct quote:

"I've heard these discussions on the internet about 'she's going off the rails', but is she? I've been writing Sylvanas personally since 2006, and this is pretty much - the Wrathgate and the Blight and the Forsaken - in character. Those were all under Sylvanas' orders. What we're seeing now is an escalation of the plans Sylvanas has, clearly, and we're in the middle of that."

Chronicle

Like most good lies, Sylvanas Windrunner's account of the rebellion in the Undercity contained some truth. Grand Apothecary Putress truly had attempted to overthrow her, and Varimathras truly was trying to claim the Forsaken in the name of the Burning Legion.

But the plague had been created at her direction. Sylvanas was willing to take vengeance against the Lich King at any cost, even by making a weapon as deadly as the plague. Whether she was aware that Putress and Varimathras were planning to use the concoction remained a mystery. Rumors persisted that she knew about the attack at the Wrath Gate beforehand, and her denials did not assuage the doubts of her detractors.

Player Choice:

The choice to side or betray Sylvanas is important as some of the player base is still excited about following her.

In Tides of Vengeance, quest lines will offer this choice to players.

Quests after the choice will follow the side you pick.

Sylvanas' Future:

"Sylvanas' destiny is to be found out and discussed by the player base, but it would be dismissive to think she'll just go down as another raid boss, because she's a little bit more than that.

"Does that mean you will not fight her?" he added. "Not necessarily true either. The reality is you can fight her every day of the week in Grommash Hold, in a raid, right now. But I do think there's a lot more to Sylvanas' story that hasn't been told yet."

Click here to see the Original Storyline.

Click here to see details on the Player Choice during the Questline.

1…3 45

Comment by SebraniSylvanas' character arc was my favorite up until right now. Everyone is acting totally out of character and doing things that make no sense: Turalyon, Alleria, Saurfang, Tyrande. It feels like Ion & Alex never even played Warcraft games because these characters are unrecognizableComment by DrahkenSounds like they have Michael Chu writing Sylvanas now. "It's a common misconception, but Sylvanas was always the one behind the Wrathgate."Comment by JoshmaulSounds like they have Michael Chu writing Sylvanas now. "It's a common misconception, but Sylvanas was always the one behind the Wrathgate."Comment by ChaoslanceTo all of you saying that's the retconn... no it's not. In the article is even a freakin' line from Chronicles 3 allowing existence of Alex's statement without retconning anything. She ordered the Wrathgate AND got backstabbed by Varimathras. It's not that hard to understand.

EDIT: Of course unless she worked with the Legion all the time, she was appointed as the Warchief by Sargeras/KJ as a backup plan to finish the job if the main plan failed and what we see now is fighting the greater war against the Void and we are being stopped by the Alliance.Comment by MightylorddkSounds like they have Michael Chu writing Sylvanas now. "It's a common misconception, but Sylvanas was always the one behind the Wrathgate."Comment by SergioRossiIt seems there's 2 many f@pfans among both Blizzard team and players. Sadly...Comment by ZakkaruJesus enough with this Sylvanas crap. I'm so sick and tired about her at this point that I really wish she could die next patch. In fact I believe he should've died back in WotLK. At least she could've have a nice wrap up, but now? She is just grotesque.Comment by OswaldovzkiIt is weird how people were fan of Sylvanas and now they hate her. There is nothing new in her actions. I fight for the Horde, but she is leading the Forsaken, she is their Queen, she can't lead the living. With this in mind, one question still remains: who/what whispered to you, Vol'jin?Comment by AkarlI was really pleased to see this comment "Quests after the choice will follow the side you pick". It's nice to see some choice driven storyline enter the game again. Feels like it's been a while. This was one of the things I found enjoyable about games like Skyrim. More of this please Blizz.Comment by Zeejir...
"Oh but she's done so much for the Horde" She tried to enslave a potential ally and risked alienating the Valajar from the Horde. She killed Forsaken citizens, including loyal ones who did not try to run away from her. Because they had hope. She blew up a city of only civilians because of hope, got the Horde involved into a war that wouldn't have happened on the premise that someday they would have war again, blew up the Undercity after killing Horde soldiers with Blight, leaving Silvermoon effectively exposed and alone, and eventually brought war to Zandalar resulting in the death of their king.

"Oh, but the old gods fear her." Nope. !. The old gods have undead cultists. 2. the void can be used to perform necromancy, like the Shadowmoon clan does. 3. The tidesages have risen undead in their ranks. 4. All of Nazmir. 5.The void feeds on Alleria's negative emotions, and so the only possible shred of evidence people have for this comes from one line in the comic, which only happens after she sees Sylvanas in her banshee form.

"Oh, but I don't like the traitor Saurfang" Literally didn't betray anyone. A Good War shows that while conflicted over killing Malfurion, the choice is taken from him by Elune / Tyrande, and he's frozen in place. In Lordaeron, as opposed to suicide by Alliance he decides to keep fighting to defend the Horde despite what happened, because the Horde's worth protecting. Then Sylvanas kills their own people and says "oh, what, you don't like the Horde, I'm protecting it" literally minutes after she just wiped out the Horde's front lines. So he stays behind and fights the Alliance, protecting the throne room from their advance. When captured, he guides us to the Zandalari prisoners and wishes us victory. Meanwhile, in Battle for Lordaeron, A Good War, and in Before the Storm, Sylvanas muses on killing him.
"it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. You had it backwards. It's better to live on your feets than to die on your knees" So he stays behind and fights the alliance, protecting the throne room from thier advance
"Oh, but I want to be the villain." Villains don't have a long shelf life in WoW if you haven't noticed. Also, it doesn't make sense that you who defended the planet time, and time, and time again, would want to side suddenly and unquestioningly with the plot of "start a war, wipe out all life, and then raise it"

"Oh, but now we have a choice to side with her, yay!" We never got a choice to not be there as she burns Teldrassil to ashes. We never got a choice to disagree with her "let's kill Malfurion despite being a druid, or a loyal follower of Illidan, or someone who remembers allying with Malfurion in Firelands and Val'sharah"
We rebelled against Garrosh for far less, remember? Sylvanas is equally as racist, she just hides it far better because that is a personality trait of hers. If everything you've seen so far isn't screaming at you that Sylvanas dies this expansion, then I feel genuinely sorry for you.
Comment by shugarcloud- In the patch 3.3.0, you were battling barbarians while riding a winged Appaloosa, yet in the very next scene, my dear, you're clearly atop a winged Arabian. Please do explain it.

- Ah, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that, Sylvanas did it.

- I see, all right, yes, but in patch 4.3.4

- Sylvanas.Comment by Zombby

Turalyon spends his time as the boss of the warfront mindlessly yelling about how evil and awful the Shadow is and how the Light will prevail.

You know, the same Shadow that his WIFE is a mistress of. My main was a forsaken rogue till late legion and I always was a huge fan of Sylvanas. As far as I remember MMO-champion transcription post about Wrathgate from early Wotlk beta the Putriss part of dialog was originally named after Sylvanas, it was changed almost the last moment, because the player base got angry. Also there is one part that didn't get changed where Arthas calls Sylvanas by name through she is missing there. So Yes the original concept of Wrath gate was on Sylvanas order.Thing is, she's not.. evil, strictly.

She wants to conquer death, by any means necessary.That she did wrathgate was established in the Chronicles Book, wasn't it?Comment by gamecatcatOkay when the writer in blizzard don't even know what they are writing , we should be fearful for what is to come i think. "The Wrath Gate, the Blight and the Forsaken were all under Sylvanas' orders as well. Sylvanas' plans have escalated right now. " Nope sorry it was not , it was Putress and Varimathras. If you do retcon Afrasiabi it would be nice to say it to the player first thanks ^^ Or i don't know , can Blizzard give us someone who don't butchered the lore of the Horde? Because seriously it's worse each time he say somethingComment by vindurzaWell nice, Horde is Blizzard favorite kid as usual. Emo kids everywhere,Comment by GalenTheGreySounds like they have Michael Chu writing Sylvanas now. "It's a common misconception, but Sylvanas was always the one behind the Wrathgate."Comment by wowriorThe mental gymnastics here. How can she be 'divisive' and yet with every new info and RETCON revealed, shows her to be fully evil ?

I mean what is interesting and exciting about ANOTHER evil character ? She is Garrosh 2.0 PLUS Lich King 2.0 but since it is basicly copy-paste, that doesn't make her unique, that ruins her actual INTERESTING character before all that !@#$.

I mean we kill dungeon bosses that are more interesting than Sylvanas at this point.Comment by Searinoxhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd7hkYXztV8

This is nobbel comment on the case.Comment by Jevnakerwhat the flying dalaran is wrong with the retcon department sorry mean lore department for wow these days. retconing left right center and behind.

1…3 45