Ultimate Quest: Chapter Four - Silverpine Forest

Welcome back to the Ultimate Quest, where I play through every zone in World of Warcraft to determine, through an exacting and rigorous science, which quest is truly the greatest of them all!

Hot on the heels of Tirisfal Glades, so lacking in satisfying answers, comes Silverpine Forest, which answers even less. What it does do, however, is ask some very interesting questions. This week, we rejoin Professor Ammiel, (undead) gentleman and scholar, as he searches Silverpine Forest for a good skin cream.

The second act of Silverpine Forest begins as you ride alongside the Banshee Queen, Sylvanas Windrunner, as she details the history of the Forsaken. As the story concludes and you turn down the road to the Sepulcher, Sylvanas reveals what is next for her people.

Sylvanas: The people who called this land their home in life, do so in death as well.

Sylvanas: But the Alliance does not recognize our rights. They claim this land is their own while attempting to invalidate the claims of the founders of this kingdom.

Sylvanas: I will never allow it... Never!

Sylvanas: Lordaeron belongs to the Forsaken - always and forever.

An earlier sequence brings Garrosh Hellscream, Warchief of the Horde, to Silverpine to speak directly with Sylvanas. She shows him the power of her new val'kyr (a prize from the previous expansion in the game's timeline, Wrath of the Lich King) by raising dozens of beings from the dead. Garrosh is horrified.

Garrosh: What you have done here, Sylvanas... It goes against the laws of nature. Disgusting is the only word I have to describe it.

Sylvanas: Warchief, without these new Forsaken, my people would die out... Our hold upon Gilneas and northern Lordaeron would crumble.

Garrosh: Have you given any thought to what this means, Sylvanas?

Garrosh: What is the difference between you and the Lich King now?

Sylvanas: Isn't it obvious, Warchief? I serve the Horde.

Notice how Sylvanas first attempts to explain her behavior by reminding her Warchief that this is how undead reproduce. Yet, remembering her audience, she quickly abandons that argument for the military one. She is creating soldiers for Garrosh's war, to prosecute the Horde's will in a land half a world away from its seat of power.

In these moments, World of Warcraft asks: if the undead are sentient beings, do they not also have rights - to hold property, to self-determination, and to reproduce? Where Tirisfal Glades asked the question, "Are we people? Should we exist?", Silverpine Forest takes that answer for granted, and steps it further. "We are people. So how do we continue?"

But of course, Sylvanas Windrunner knows the answer, and so she takes her people to war.

The story of Silverpine Forest is centered around a Gilnean insurgency, spilling out of the Forsaken invasion and occupation of Gilneas, a human kingdom just south of Undercity. It is a war prosecuted by Sylvanas for one very clear reason, regardless of the lip service she pays to Garrosh Hellscream about securing Lordaeron "for the Horde": the Forsaken are fighting for sovereignty.

But the true theme of Silverpine Forest is revealed through a series of sequences with the Gilnean worgen (read: werewolves) that establish their own side to the story. They are defending their land while struggling with a lycanthropic curse that, in a clever twist, makes them immune to undeath at the same time it dooms them to a lifetime of staggering haircut bills.

So who is in the right?

The Battle of Gilneas is not about good and evil but Us versus Them. It is about the Other, and the nuance established by Silverpine Forest's sequences presents a fascinating answer to the questions of who should win this struggle. The answer is both - and neither. And although the Forsaken ultimately end the conflict, they do so at great cost.

An early struggle to renew honor for a band of orcish sailors becomes tragic when they are later decimated by the worgen. What begins as a mission to reinforce the Forsaken position in Gilneas ends in retreat. And the entire conflict is ultimately resolved through the use of a hostage - the Gilnean leader's daughter. It is a military victory only in the sense that a military strike captured the woman. No clean victory, then.

But there is wisdom to be gained in this.

When you first meet the Wardogs, orcish sailors sent to support the conflict, they are scattered around a Forsaken town, defeated, dishonored, and drunk. And the quest is not to win their battles for them, but create space for them to achieve their own victory - by finding them supplies, destroying their booze, and rescuing the wounded.

Later, you team up with a trio of (now undead) Gilnean noblemen, each with their own tragic backstory. You learn, mostly through incidental dialogue, that their leader, Lord Godfrey, was a fervently loyal man in life who felt betrayed when his king, Genn Greymane, fell victim to the worgen curse. Rather than serve such a creature, he took his own life. As an undead, he aids you against your quest to decimate the worgen but is clearly rattled by his new existence. His eventual betrayal (and murder) of Sylvanas is necessary to fulfill a boss requirement in the restructured multiplayer dungeon, Shadowfang Keep, but it's also justified by the story.

Some of these moments are undercut, however. A quest to destroy a shield protecting a coven of wizards, so they can be raised into undeath, falls apart. Why would these mages, who so hate the Forsaken, immediately want to serve Sylvanas in undeath? (It raises another unsettling question about what Sylvanas is really doing.)

An orcish ambassador, left by Garrosh to keep a not-so-sympathetic eye on Sylvanas' dealings, becomes entirely sympathetic to her in the end, furious and evidently dismayed at her death. Yet this transition happens entirely off-screen. The last time you heard him speak, he seemed eager to put the Banshee Queen in her place. Allowing him to grow into a sympathetic ally is a wonderful development that generates sympathy for the Forsaken, and it is a crime to not see that happen.

But Sylvanas is the true center of this story. When she has Lorna Crowley in her hands and realizes the woman is not worgen - susceptible, in other words, to undeath - she stays in exchange for an armistice. Darius accepts, and the two leaders part without further conflict. It is a moment of great restraint and honor for Sylvanas, motivated by the wisdom to know when a war isn't worth the cost anymore. Note, too, her lines as she crosses that battlefield to deliver the ultimatum:

Sylvanas: Look at them, Ammiel. They scurry like rats, veering headlong to their doom. Surely Crowley and [his army, the] Bloodfang can see the futility in this!

Sylvanas: To the Graymane Wall! We will force their hand.

There is an undercurrent of pity in her lines here, as she witnesses the fighting. Married to her resolution to protect Lorna Crowley, you can see a sliver of realization beneath her determination - the worgen, as dangerous and adversarial as they are, as people too.

And so the storyline for Silverpine Forest concludes. Though they part in anger and hate, there is a sense that Sylvanas Windrunner and Darius Crowley have begun to answer some of these questions for themselves. The war ends, not in victory, but acceptance. There is, first and foremost, recognition that the cost of the war for Us may be too high - but also a tiny break in the dark clouds of northern Lordaeron where both undead and worgen have begun to see past the veil of Other.

Cataclysmic Emptiness…

… wherein we note classic Azeroth’s propensity to be enormous but empty, even in the wake of the Cataclysm expansion’s restructuring.

Silverpine Forest is an incredible zone, filled with details both large and small. The quests never direct you to those seams in the level design that reveal the farce of a video game world.

Loading World...

... wherein we observe some of the more subtle, effective, and not-so effective means at world-building for the zone and the greater world through this place's environment and characters.

While hunting for worgen insurgents, Belmont coats his weapon in wolfsbane oil - a simple, missable moment, but all the better for it.

The city of Dalaran was wizarded away for Wrath of the Lich King; a short sequence in and around the crater left by its absence is understated but fascinating.

Gilneas is an incredibly rich region deserving of its own study, with architectural designs that connect the dot from Stormwind to Undercity, a transition from the bleached, angular stonework of Stormwind to the gabled, gothic architecture of northern Lordaeron. The city itself feels like a real place with real things happening inside.

Factions both internal and external to the region deepen its impact on the wider world - the wardogs eventually rally to fight and are, of course, there on Horde orders in the first place; Gilneans appear as both worgen insurgents and simple refugees; the Alliance navy shows up to the fight, and you tangle with their 7th Legion.

Tale as Old as Time...

... wherein we observe some of the more stereotypical and amusing aspects of Azeroth.

If you, as a fan of later World of Warcraft games, are confused by my mention of Sylvanas' death, don't fret. She is resurrected almost immediately.

Basilisk Urethras

We are asked, as always, to retrieve animal organs to aid in "alchemy" - but there is a clever twist in that inconsistent drop rates for the loot is explained by the need for "clean" organs. The diseased wolves and bears in the region, though healing, are not yet whole.

Obligatory Pop Culture References

Undoubtedly present, but I lost most of my notes for this write-up and have none to report now.

Patch Notes

Belmont teleports to Godfrey’s corpse
Val’kyr in two places at once after cut-scenes
Hard to maneuver with the Godrey trio

Silverpine Forest broadens the World of Warcraft in general and deepens the story of its undead heroes in particular. Though there are missteps (the orc ambassador's quick turn, the Dalaran mage's questionable loyalties, more quests to develop a Plague without explaining what the Plague even is), there are also incredible victories.

So let's see how we do.

V. Tirisfal Glades

Tirisfal Glades setup many of the themes Silverpine Forest explores, and we cannot praise the latter for the giant shoulders of the former. Yet not enough groundwork was laid for Tirisfal Glades' inconsistencies to read as intentional or problematic in a thoughtful way; instead, they read as oversights in the writing and design. The hypocrisy of the Horde and the Alliance in Silverpine Forest, on the other hand, invokes a critical analysis of the moral stance of the actors in a way that (usually) reads as criticism of war and the dehumanization of the Other, vice lazy writing.

Silverpine Forest is better than Tirisfal Glades.

V. Eastern Plaguelands

The Eastern Plaguelands is a terrific examination of the banality of living with a tragedy that no one else cares to remember, but it's themes are too understated and too-often confused to stand up to careful scrutiny. Silverpine Forest's greatest crimes, on the other hand, are not dire enough to confuse its message.

Silverpine Forest is better than the Eastern Plaguelands.

V. Western Plaguelands

On the topic of theming and quest design, Silverpine Forest and the Western Plaguelands are both incredible stories that are challenged by Cataclysm-era tropes and outdated, awkward cut-scenes and quest structures. Yet, the Western Plaguelands too often falls into "Kill X things because just do it" trap, while many of Silverpine Forest's quests reinforce its themes within its structure - such as a sequence to destroy, by fire, a Gilnean village. Furthermore, Silverpine Forest nails incredible character moments, backed (perhaps unfairly) by the appearance of major characters with more established histories. Yet even in the vacuum of the region as it stands, care is taken to develop and explain character motivations and developments within the story presented. Unfortunately, the Western Plaguelands leans too heavily on background knowledge of obscure characters to sell its bigger character moments.

Silverpine Forest is better than the Western Plaguelands.

Conclusion

A stunning victory for Professor Ammiel, who sets his sights on Hillsbrad Foothills for his next adventure. But we shall leave that for another day, and reflect on our newfound insight and knowledge that, as it stands, Silverpine Forest is the best zone in World of Warcraft.

Complete Rankings