The Forsaken Revolution (Full Essay)

Part of the Revolutionary Themes in Art topic

          The Forsaken Revolution in World of Warcraft (WoW) is the most realistic, organic, and enduring political movement I have ever seen within a fictional universe. If one ignores the fantastical elements of WoW's magical setting, the revolution plays out in a very realistic manner and is highly comparable to historical examples of revolutionary struggle. Within this movement, the primary actors have very real motivations and goals, which develop further as the series unfolds. Numerous WoW fans have come to strongly identify with the fictional plight of the Forsaken, as it broadly reflects many real life issues such as political oppression, collective trauma, and efforts to build solidarity among the downtrodden masses of the world.

            The revolutionary spirit of the Forsaken is embodied within their hardened leader, Sylvanas Windrunner. Being a victim of war, torture, and undeath, Sylvanas took a uncompromising stance against all oppressors. Under her guidance, the Forsaken undead launched a daring civil war against their former overlord, the tyrannical Lich King. After achieving victory and establishing the Forsaken as a great power, Sylvanas continued to push for an end to the hegemony of other dominant powers. The most prescient of these powers was the human-led Alliance, which had proven to be extremely xenophobic and had a history of committing genocidal acts. Once it became clear that these longstanding kingdoms were an existential threat to the Forsaken and numerous other races, Sylvanas joined the orcish-led Horde and pressed for a more militant stance against the Alliance.

            Since the Horde was a large organization that was primarily made up of various tribal civilizations, the undead Forsaken stood out both culturally and ideologically. Although the Horde had engaged in many conflicts with the Alliance, a growing number of influential Horde leaders began to favor peaceful coexistence with their former adversary. This mindset conflicted with the hardliners like Sylvanas, who recognized that the inherent nature of the Alliance would cause it take advantage of any form of capitulation. Sylvanas' revolutionary attitude won over many fans among the player base and turned her into a legendary icon of resistance to oppression. Consequently, Sylvanas also earned much animosity among the reactionary players, who were backed by the toxic developers at Blizard Entertainment. The conflicts sparked by Sylvanas, both fictional and in real life, are a testament to the power that cultural icons can inspire in ordinary people.

Sylvanas' Rebellion against the Lich King

            The Forsaken Revolution has its roots in a mass extermination event that followed the invasion of the undead Scourge. The Scourge was a malevolent force of necromancers intent on purging the entire world of the living. To this end, they used biological warfare in the form of a virulent plague. The plague infected the food supplies of many major settlements and turned the inhabitants into undead creatures. However, full conquest of the lands of Lordaeron would ultimately be achieved by the necromancers' exploitation of the corruption within human society. The most significant turning point in the conflict was the defection of Arthas Menethil, son of the ruling monarch, to the ranks of the Scourge army.

            Arthas' betrayal is seen by his adoring fans as one of the greatest tragedies in all of fantasy. He was a blond-haired, blue-eyed paladin dedicated to the "Holy Light" of the dominant religion. Typically in fantasy, this kind of archetype would be the great hero who saves the land from a dark menace. The early writers for the Warcraft series turned this idea on its head. Arthas became a fallen champion who embraced the darkness and joined the Scourge out of weakness. His lust for power and violent tendencies made him an easy target for recruitment. Throughout the story, Arthas' darker personality traits gradually grow stronger and eventually overcome his humanity. From a narrative standpoint, this was a radical departure from the common story formula. From a historical standpoint, this development made complete sense.

            Because of the reactionary views of early fantasy authors like J. R. R. Tolken, fictional stories have long promoted an idealized image of monarchs. Plotlines often revolve around a character from a royal bloodline whose ascent to the throne brings unity and prosperity. In reality, the monarchs were mostly power-hungry and tyrannical despots who relied on an invented "divine right to rule" in order to legitimize their position in society. In a brilliant subversion of the common fantasy trope, Arthas projected all of the aesthetics and rhetoric of the benevolent prince, but also displayed a more malevolent side at many points in his story. Like a true royal, Arthas frequently deceived his subjects, used his close friends as disposable pawns, and was quick to turn to violent extermination as a solution to many problems.

            The character of Arthas is written and performed masterfully throughout the Warcraft series. In the beginning, he has a warm and caring demeanor. His biggest faults appear to be that of pride and hot-headedness. During a conflict with a an orcish warlord, his more violent side is exposed when he angrily demands a mass slaughter of the orcs in retaliation for the murder of several human settlers. Although Arthas' friends quickly talk him out of this course of action, his belligerent attitude remains prevalent as the story progresses. It is only after Arthas purges an entire human city to stop the undead plague from spreading that his friends finally abandon his cause and petition the king for an intervention.

            Many Warcraft players saw this moment as the main turning point for Arthas. From there, the Lich King slowly corrupted the mind of the young prince, facilitating his dark transformation. Among fans of Arthas, the influence of the Lich King was constantly used as an explanation for Arthas' evil behavior. However, to anyone who understood the basic psychology of abusers, Arthas was completely in character and acting of his own free will. Such individuals often maintain a thin veneer of respectability in order to cover up a darker nature.

            Arthas never fundamentally changed. When he defected to the Scourge and forced a holocaust upon the residents of Lordaeron, all he did was change colors. What Arthas had proved willing to do to the orcish race as a human paladin, he instead did against his fellow humans as an undead death knight. Arthas still saw himself as the rightful king of Lordaeron, only the undead were now his subjects, necromancers were his pawns, and humans became the enemy to exterminate. Power and a sense of entitlement had always been the driving force behind Arthas' actions.

            Sylvanas Windrunner would later become a major impediment to Arthas' ambitions. After conquering most of Lordaeron, the Scourge invaded the lands of the high elves to the northeast. In this heavily forested region, Arthas faced off against Sylvanas, leader of the elven army. Sylvanas was the exact opposite of Arthas in nearly every manner. Rather than being a privileged princeling, Sylvanas was a skilled ranger general with many years of experience. While Arthas relied on the brute force of his vast undead army to achieve victories, Sylvanas used intelligent tactics and guile. As the Scourge army advanced through the elven lands, Sylvanas engaged in a number of asymmetrical tactics. Hit and run attacks wore down the invading undead through attrition. Strategic destruction of infrastructure slowed the Scourge army's advance considerably, allowing the elves to regroup.

            Above all, Sylvanas was a true hero with selfless motivations. Whereas Arthas sold out his people for more power, Sylvanas fought to defend her homeland. In one of the most chilling lines of the story, Uther Lightbringer, Arthas' old friend and mentor, told his former pupil that he hoped "a special hell" awaited Arthas in the afterlife. Arthas coldly responded that it was possible that he would never know, since he "planned to live forever" as king of the undead. Sylvanas had no such aspirations, and would eventually die in a heroic last stand against the Scourge.

            The death of Sylvanas could have been a satisfying end to a valiant warrior. Unfortunately, Arthas was vexed by the trouble Sylvanas caused for his army and declined to let her rest in dignity. In an act of petty sadism, Arthas punished Sylvanas by raising her as an undead soldier to serve in his army. Unlike most other undead, Sylvanas was given enough self-awareness to be conscious of her actions while she was a minion of the Scourge. In this state, she was forced to fight her own people and take part in their mass genocide. Later lore revealed that Sylvanas' body was tortured when not being used as a weapon. A special coffin was made for her in-between campaigns and Arthas had kept a vial of her blood as a trophy.

            The tragic tale of Sylvanas is often read as a conspicuous allegory for the trauma that is suffered under abuse in the real world, sometimes even being compared to sexual assault. Many players could sympathize with this kind of trauma and relate well to the character. Likewise, Arthas was the perfect representation of a typical abuser. His actions were clearly not driven by his cold and calculating undead nature, since his cruel treatment of Sylvanas did not confer any tactical advantage to the Scourge. Instead, it displayed a very personal hatred towards the woman who dared to defy Arthas' will. Whether as a human or undead, Arthas had always projected a sense of entitlement and a strongly antisocial personality.

            Although many such tragedies take place during the Scourge's rampage, the story is balanced out by moments of great triumph. During an attack on Northrend, the continent where the Lich King is based, Arthas started to lose control over his undead army. Ironically, because Arthas gave Sylvanas a high level of consciousness, she was able to easily break free from the Lich King's control. She used this opportunity to restore the will of many of the other undead and subsequently lead a rebellion against the Scourge. Much like before, Sylvanas' forces were outnumbered by the Scourge, forcing her to rely on her cunning to defeat the enemy. With the help of some mind manipulation magic, she formed a broad alliance between liberated undead, human remnants, bandits, and primitive beast folk. Together, this motley crew created a free land under the title of the Forsaken.

            Arthas meanwhile was forced to flee to Northrend. There, he merged with the Lich King to gain full control over the remaining Scourge. Sylvanas promised vengeance against her tormentor, but wisely recognized the need to consolidate the Forsaken Revolution before launching an invasion against the main Scourge stronghold. Under Sylvanas' leadership, the Forsaken grew into a powerful force that prided itself on its hard-won self-determination.

            The victory of Sylvanas and her Forsaken comrades is easy for people of any background to appreciate. As a historian, I found that their struggle closely mirrored the liberation wars of colonized nations. Arthas was akin to the genocidal colonial administrators of the same era. In this vein, Sylvanas was like the heroic anti-colonial leaders of old, engaged in a righteous struggle to liberate her people at all costs. While some may characterize Sylvanas' methods as harsh, everything she did was out of practical necessity. It is also worth noting that, after achieving independence, Sylvanas relied heavily on her credentials as a liberator to maintain popular support. In a world dominated by feudal monarchies, Sylvanas stood out as a leader that rose to her position through her skill and bravery.

Sylvanas' Rebellion against the Alliance

            Upon achieving independence from the Scourge, the Forsaken immediately sought to strengthen their tenuous position by seeking allies. Sylvanas first attempted to reunite Lordaeron with the Alliance, a coalition of wealthy human-led kingdoms. Several Forsaken representatives travelled to the Alliance lands to establish contact with their old allies. In response, the representatives were dismembered and shipped back to Sylvanas in boxes. Despite Lordaeron having close ties to the other human kingdoms, their current state of undeath made them unholy abominations in the eyes of their former kin. Worse still, the Alliance promptly began to enact plans to conquer Lordaeron and exterminate the Forsaken.

            In desperation, Sylvanas turned to the Horde, a confederation of tribal civilizations. With great hesitation, the Horde leaders admitted the Forsaken into their organization. Despite the massive cultural differences between the Forsaken and the other Horde members, they all shared a status as outcasts and were seen as enemies by the powerful human-led Alliance. The Horde, which had migrated to the western continent of Kalimdor several years prior, had little presence within the Eastern Kingdoms before the Forsaken had joined their alliance. Thus, the Horde benefited from having a strong foothold in the east, and the Forsaken now had a deterrent against invasion through their membership within the Horde.

            At this point in the Warcraft story, Blizzard Entertainment had released its massively popular multiplayer game, World of Warcraft (WoW). This was a hugely important event, as it brought in millions of players into the Warcraft universe to be major participants in the story. Roleplaying was one of the chief components of WoW's gameplay, which allowed players to shape the world around them through their interactions with the virtual environment and each other. Many players quickly developed strong feelings towards the in-universe factions, races, and  major non-player lore characters. Across the valleys of the city of Orgrimmar, the orcish High Warchief Thrall Doomhammer presided over the Horde. Atop grand thrones in Stormwind, the Alliance kings ruled over their vast holdings. And, of course, within the bowls of the Undercity in Lordaeron, Sylvanas plotted her next move.

            The divergent ideologies of the two competing alliances greatly affected the composition of players within each group. As a collection of outcasts, the Horde was more likely to attract marginalized peoples from around the world. The Alliance, with its domineering mindset and puristic aesthetics, drew in a crowd of self-righteous and privileged peoples. Horde players viewed the Alliance as an oppressive entity that had to be combated in order to keep their own lands safe. The Alliance players saw themselves as unequivocally being on the side of good, and saw the races of the Horde as an evil to be vanquished.

            The noticeable political split between the Horde and Alliance players was an incredible development that is rarely seen in multiplayer games. Entire player-made guilds were formed based on loyalty to the Horde or Alliance. Behavioral differences among individual players of both alliances could also be regularly observed. In earlier iterations of WoW, Horde players were more likely to be collectivist and team-oriented. Alliance players tended to be more independently-minded and motivated by self-interest. On player-versus-player battlegrounds, where the conditions are fairly equal, the Alliance players were infamous for their poor performance against their Horde counterparts. This discrepancy was often attributed to the Alliance players' lack of teamwork and obsession with personal scores. Horde players operated better in groups during these events.

            Over time, a fierce rivalry formed between players of the two alliances. In the open world, Horde players constantly clashed with Alliance players. Raids would be performed against each other's settlements. These attacks yielded no benefit to the players or their respective factions, save for the sense of fulfilment it brought the combatants. Online forums flooded with political screeds and posts of support for either the Horde or Alliance.

            Many of Blizzard's competitors in the video gaming industry desperately tried to replicate the same level of enthusiasm within their own multiplayer games, but failed to capture the essence of WoW's in-depth faction system. The systems developed by most other multiplayer games lacked any relatable material or ideological conflicts, and the differences between their competing factions usually amounted to mere aesthetic choices. The Horde/Alliance dynamic represented a very realistic conflict over differing political philosophies, cultural mores, division of resources, and security concerns. The Horde was mostly comprised of primitive clans that relied on their races' brutish strength and shamanistic magics. The Alliance was a coalition of wealthy and technologically-advanced kingdoms.

            The Horde was in the process of developing a more centralized feudal system under their orcish high warchief. Meanwhile, the Alliance was in a transition to a more capitalistic society. This led the Alliance to launch aggressive incursions into disputed lands, which were often followed by increasingly organized reprisals from the Horde. At the start of the WoW series, engagements were limited to the occasional skirmish rather than an open war. Since the events of the original Warcraft games, an uneasy truce had reigned between the two alliances.

            Among the leadership of the Horde, some strongly promoted peace, while others took a more militant stance against the Alliance. The most radical militant leader was Sylvanas, who viewed the Alliance as an oppressive force that was, fundamentally, little different than the Scourge. Both the Alliance and the Scourge had a history of committing genocide, were ruled by self-interested monarchs, and sought to dominate the entire world. Under its capitalist evolution, an imperial core was emerging within the Alliance heartlands. Hunger for land, resources, and vassals motivated the Alliance to subjugate less developed societies. Sylvanas had recognized the Horde as the only real obstacle in the Alliance's path.

            On the side of the Alliance, the human leaders and their allies positioned themselves as the "good" and "pure" societies that "followed the Holy Light". The Horde was presented as a force of evil, with past animosity and wars against the Horde used to justify contemporary Alliance conquests. In some cases, the Alliance kingdoms funded archeological expeditions that found "proof" that their races were superior to that of the Horde. Discoveries were also used to prove that the Alliance races had "ancestral" claims to disputed territories. At the player-versus-player battleground of Alterac Valley, the native orcish clan is being pushed back by a dwarven "expeditionary" force, which claims ownership over the area. One of the Alliance commander's battle cries calls for the Alliance participants to "drive the heathens" from "their" lands.

            As a victim of genocide herself, Sylvanas had no qualms about meeting these provocations with force. Over time, she developed a harsh reputation as an uncompromising leader who was willing to use any advantage at her disposal to destroy the Alliance. Player attitudes regarding Sylvanas became highly polarized. To those who already strongly sympathized with Sylvanas, she came to embody the spirit of resistance and revolutionary action. She alone took a principled stand against oppressors, while many of the other Horde leaders balked in the face of growing Alliance aggression. Sylvanas surged in popularity, becoming a fan favorite. No other character came even close to matching her level of emotional appeal.

            Predictably, Sylvanas' status as revolutionary figure drew a wave of hatred from reactionary players. Polemics against Sylvanas raged over her manipulative political ploys, "dishonorable" battlefield tactics, and accusations of her only caring about personal power. Interestingly, their rhetoric mirrored the chauvinistic Western views of Third World liberation leaders. Sexism also played a role, with many of Sylvanas' detractors producing heavily gender-specific insults. The same crowd that romanticized the fall of Arthas denigrated the woman that Arthas had brutally tortured and killed. While Arthas' litany of crimes were forgivable in the eyes of his fans, Sylvanas had committed the ultimate sin of challenging the corruption and unjust system forced on the world by the Alliance.

Sylvanas' Rebellion against Horde Pacifism

            Further into the WoW timeline, there were a number of jarring changes to the universe that were implemented by the writers at Blizzard Entertainment. These changes were meant to bring about an ideological rebalance to the faction system. Under the organic flow of early WoW, the Horde had won a number of moral victories against their Alliance rivals. The peoples of the Horde had started to abandon their warlike ways and embraced shamanistic pacifism. The clan system was abolished and the formerly nomadic races of the Horde established several bustling permanent cities. Their civilizations represented a new model of peaceful development that starkly contrasted with the imperialistic Alliance. Since most of the world was still tribal, many other civilizations could have been expected to follow the Horde's example.

            In a way, this societal evolution was very similar to the immediate post-colonial period in our own timeline. As the control of the old colonial powers waned, the newly independent states leaned towards a model of development that did not allow foreign exploitation of their resources, worked to achieve self-reliance, and promoted equality among all nations. The strong solidarity that built up between peoples within the Global South greatly worried the governments of the Global North, whose economies had become reliant on draining the underdeveloped countries through unequal exchange. The powerful Alliance kingdoms in WoW faced a similar threat to their hegemony. The resurgent civilizations of the Horde seemed increasingly like the protagonists of the story, while the supposed virtues of the Alliance were heavily questioned. It was clear that the New Horde was winning the war over hearts and minds.

            Then, like the belligerent US superpower, Blizzard used its creative control to dismember the Horde and bring chaos to the developing world. Factions within the Horde were forced to embrace ideological extremes. The more pacifistic Horde leaders started to favor a complete capitulation to the Alliance. The militant leaders pushed for a total war with the Alliance. Thrall Doomhammer, the wise high chieftain of the Horde, resigned his position to join a neutral third party and would become largely irrelevant due to his growing passivity. The new warchief, Garrosh Hellscream, slowly transformed from an intelligent, yet hot-headed young warrior into a bloodthirsty maniac. Sylvanas' character was written to be more cold, calculating, and tyrannical. All of these changes served the purpose of granting some credibility to the Alliance's worldview.

            To understand this massive shift in the narrative, it must be noted that Blizzard itself had been undergoing a period of rapid moral decay. Sexism grew within the company, creating a "frat boy" atmosphere that stood out even among the infamously toxic gaming industry. Corruption within the company inevitably was reflected in a corruption of the world that they had built. The chauvinistic Western views regarding the Horde and Alliance prevailed, as did the extreme sexism directed towards Sylvanas.

            The greatest changes occurred within the Horde. Garrosh became a brutal dictator over the orcish people. The capital of Orgrimmar was turned into a violent military state. An "orc supremacy" was promoted, which alienated the other races of the Horde. Up to this point, the organic and peaceful development of the Horde had broken with the common stereotypes regarding fantasy races such as orcs, trolls, undead, and other beast folk. Instead of being inherently evil, they were complex beings who had many positive aspects. With the drastic and forced revisions by Blizzard, the Horde suddenly fit in well with the Alliance players' distorted view of the world.

            By the time Garrosh had become high warchief, the Horde and Alliance were in a state of open war. Despite being one of the militant Horde leaders, Garrosh constantly lectured Sylvanas on her lack of "honor" on the battlefield. A number of innovative, yet questionable weapons were used by the Forsaken to greatly tip the odds of the conflict in their favor. The Forsaken apothecaries had developed a new plague that was used for flushing out enemies. With the Lich King having been defeated, former Scourge necromancers had joined the ranks of the Forsaken, enabling Sylvanas to raise the dead in order to replenish her armies.

            Ethical questions were raised, with Garrosh even accusing Sylvanas of imitating the Lich King. An indignant Sylvanas pointed out that the plague could be used tactically in controlled doses and that newly risen undead were given freedom of choice under the Forsaken. More importantly, failure to raise prospective recruits would have doomed the Forsaken to a slow death by attrition. Their previous efforts were reliant on freeing undead from the Lich King's armies, which were now gone. With the Horde engaged in an all-out war against the Alliance, the Forsaken were vital for maintaining an eastern front. This argument did little to sway Garrosh, who like many orcish warriors, continued to obsess over the nebulous concept of "honor".

            Cracks were more clearly beginning to form within the Horde leadership. Sylvanas defiantly continued to use her unconventional tactics. Regardless of the morality of their actions, it was noteworthy that the Forsaken had been fighting a defensive war for survival since they had first formed their faction. Every countermeasure they took was against the backdrop of an entire continent full of kingdoms that would settle for nothing less than the extermination of their entire race. In terms of effectiveness, the new plague and mass recruitment allowed the Forsaken to secure large areas of land, greatly expanding the Horde's territorial holdings in the Eastern Kingdoms. Meanwhile, on Kalimdor, the orcish-lead armies suffered frequent defeats due to their failure to account for the underhanded tactics of the Alliance.

            What could have been an interesting contrast between the orcs' stubborn traditionalism and the Forsaken pragmatism was upended by the inconsistent story development from Blizzard's writers. Garrosh sunk deeper and deeper into cartoon villainy. Even after chastising Sylvanas' lack of "honor", Garrosh ordered the wholescale destruction of a major Alliance city. It became clear at this point that his character was being set up to be the next main antagonist of the series. Every WoW expansion followed a common formula were a new "great evil" was introduced and the Horde and Alliance were forced to team up or at least declare a truce until the threat was neutralized. Positioning Garrosh as the main villain marked the first time that a leader from one of the two alliances would serve as the antagonist for both sides.

            This unexpected twist delivered another political victory to the Alliance, as it greatly tarnished the Horde's image. The war between the Alliance and the Horde soon ended, with the former gaining a significant amount of influence over the latter. The schism within the Horde leadership became centered around a severely weakened militant wing, led by Sylvanas, and the more prominent pacifist wing led by the new orc leader, Saurfang. Under the Horde pacifists, "honor" increasingly resembled a complete submission to Alliance interests. The Horde schism was reflected within the player base, with many Horde players supporting Sylvanas and others supporting Saurfang.

            In the background, Blizzard had carefully engineered this split in loyalty. Their efforts to reshape the world was eerily similar to the divide and conquer tactics used by the US against the Third World. During the Cold War, the US covertly stoked political strife by empowering political extremists, waging proxy wars, and installing docile puppet governments that enriched the Global North at the expense of the Global South. The revolutionary optimism of the 1960s and early 1970s gave way to the resubmission to the former colonial powers in the late 1970s and 1980s. Garrosh was much like the kind of violent dictator employed by the US, used to spark regional division and delegitimize the philosophy of self-determination and Southern solidarity. Once Garrosh had served his purpose, he was disposed of and replaced with a more agreeable leader.

            Blizzard wanted to reassert the Alliance as the dominant group, and with the power of the pen, they fulfilled this desire. However, the Forsaken under Sylvanas remained stubbornly resistant. Even with all of Blizzard's creative control, there were limits to what they could do to Sylvanas' character. Her massive fanbase had rallied to the Forsaken cause and countered the toxic WoW fans. Sylvanas was very well entrenched at this point. Just as in the past, she thrived in difficult situations. Asymmetrical tactics had earned her numerous victories against the Scourge, the Alliance, and even the very company that had created her character.

Sylvanas' Rebellion against Blizard Entertainment

            Blizzard Entertainment desperately wished to rid themselves of troublesome Sylvanas, but were terrified of angering her dedicated fanbase. For a time, it was speculated that Sylvanas would receive the "Garrosh treatment" and be forced to become the next main villain. A series of new lore events gave credence to this prediction. After the death of High Warchief Vol'jin, Sylvanas was named as his successor and took control of the Horde. With Sylvanas in charge, tensions once again grew between the Horde and Alliance. Eventually, another war broke out. As per usual, Sylvanas resorted to brutal, yet effective tactics.

            A pre-emptive Horde attack was launched on Teldrassil, the largest Alliance city on Kalimdor. The destruction wrought on the civilian population was excessive, amounting to an act of genocide. It was a significant escalation of violence that seemed to put Sylvanas on a destructive path similar to that of the late Garrosh. Once again, the narrative was being carefully constructed to demonize the Horde and vindicate the Alliance. All Blizzard had to do was gradually introduce shocking new crimes by Sylvanas in order to systematically destroy her moral credibility.

            Unfortunately for Blizzard, their plan was fundamentally flawed. For all of the changes they forced upon the factions and characters, the writers could not overcome the core elements that shaped the Warcraft universe. For one thing, the Alliance was objectively worse than the Horde if viewed through a historical lens. When compared to the real world, the Alliance most closely represented the European colonial powers. Both had engaged in numerous genocides, extreme exploitation, and had brutally crushed the self-determination of countless nations.

            The Horde, at its worst, was dictatorial and warlike. Of course, these more negative traits would consistently only surface in response to Alliance aggression. When allowed to develop without interference, the Horde had been proven that it favored peaceful coexistence and progressivism. Furthermore, if Sylvanas had managed to take the Horde in a new direction that mirrored the callousness of the Alliance, this deed would not absolve the Alliance itself of its numerous sins. The best that Blizzard could do in this situation would be to drag the Horde down to the Alliance's level. Nonetheless, even in this scenario, the Horde would still maintain the moral high ground due to the simple fact that the system forced on the world by the Alliance remained the true source of global strife.

            The burning of Teldrassil, while a horrific war crime, was committed out of vengeance. From the very beginning, the Alliance had always made the extermination of the Forsaken their ultimate goal. If Sylvanas were to realign her strategy to pursue an extermination of the Alliance races, both parties would be equally guilty of genocidal intent. However, only one of these parties, the Alliance, would be guilty of initiating hostilities. The deterioration of Forsaken revolutionary integrity was the result of their prolonged state of siege under a belligerent opponent. By having declared a holy war of extermination, the Alliance had already hit rock bottom in terms of political morality. There was no way for the Forsaken to ever match this same level of depravity.

            Another issue was that there were many important lore moments from earlier in the series that simply could not be rewritten. We had seen the true corruption of the Alliance when we followed Arthas Menethil's harrowing tale. The Alliance had been wrong then, and it would never be right unless it radically changed as an organization. Absolving the Alliance of its wrongdoings would be tantamount to pardoning Arthas, the man who least deserved redemption. The origin of the Forsaken could not be changed either. Forever, they would be victims of the Alliance's cruelty; stalwart survivors in a permanent state of defensive warfare.

            Standing as a testament to both Alliance cruelty and Forsaken endurance was the Dark Lady Sylvanas herself. Above all, Blizzard could not erase the heroism, sacrifice, and incredible strength that made Sylvanas who she was. This was the character who inspired millions of Warcraft fans, brought to light the very real effects of trauma, and reminded many survivors that they were not alone in the world. Sylvanas was a fictional character brought to life by a caring community. Those who valued each other, who saw virtue in fighting for one's right to exist, had transformed Sylvanas into a legend. This powerful synthesis of progressive ideals, embodied within a single character, made Sylvanas virtually impossible for Blizzard to destroy.

            Unsurprisingly, Blizzard's assault upon Sylvanas coincided with a series of sexual misconduct lawsuits that had been levied against the company. Due to Blizzard's incredible neglect of its female employees' safety, the toxic workplace environment remained unaddressed and a deluge of harassment and assault cases were reported. To the player base, these developments were a grim reflection of the sexist contempt for women that Blizzard displayed towards Sylvanas. The fed-up employees, like Sylvanas, fought against oppressive conditions. In the virtual World of Warcraft, progressive players channeled their beliefs through their Forsaken champion, Sylvanas Windrunner. Blizzard likewise tried to normalize its toxicity by relentlessly promoting the Alliance.

            An intense standoff ensued. In the end, pressure from Sylvanas' large fanbase forced Blizzard to abandon any plan to kill off their beloved character. Instead, Sylvanas entered into more of a semi-evil phase, followed by a redemption arc. Part of this arc involved cutting Sylvanas off from the Horde, which brought an end to the Forsaken Revolution once and for all. A puppet ruler was installed within the Undercity. The political divide within the Horde was closed by the pacifist leaders, which greatly advantaged the Alliance. Neither the Sylvanas fans nor her detractors were satisfied by this conclusion. Nonetheless, the fact that Blizzard was forced to compromise on the issue was indicative of the enormous amount of influence that Sylvanas had obtained throughout her epic struggle.

Sylvanas' Legacy

            From the beginning of the Forsaken Revolution to the end, Sylvanas grew as an icon of resistance to oppression. Her story and exploits inspired numerous real-life fans. Anyone who had suffered abuse, backed radical liberation, or sympathized with the downtrodden came to form a strong connection to the character. In the multiplayer setting of WoW, players reproduced the revolutionary spirit of Sylvanas' faction through their interactions in-game. Outside of the game, fans created loving fan art and cosplay of Sylvanas.

            True to their nature, the reactionary players and developers at Blizzard did everything in their power to suppress the progressivism that Sylvanas fans promoted. With the Alliance as a proxy, they pushed back against the Forsaken Revolution. Unhinged tirades against Sylvanas were circulated in online forums. Toxic players attacked the Horde in the same manner that First World Western chauvinists denigrate the aspirations of Third World liberation movements. Ultimately, Blizzard's creative control decided the outcome of the revolution, but the players themselves carried on its legacy.

            The Forsaken Revolution imparted a lasting sense of hope upon the gaming community. Despite an underwhelming sendoff, Sylvanas will always be remembered as a strong and courageous figure who overcame incredible odds and triumphed in the face of adversity. She was a true champion of the oppressed who fought for liberation and self-determination. Numerous historical figures have engaged in similar heroic struggles. Many suffered defeats or became martyrs, yet still serve as revolutionary icons in the present day. Through their efforts, they demonstrated that a better world is possible to those who are willing to fight against oppression.