Ultimate Quest: Chapter Two - Western Plaguelands

Upon entering the Western Plaguelands from the Hinterlands, as we did, you are immediately struck by its beauty. Although the zone’s quests and villains largely center on the undead (primarily the pure-evil Scourge), the landscape is thriving: greening trees, blooming gardens, and not a single plagued bear/wolf/etc in sight (for now). This initial impression illustrates what will be the zone’s greatest strength as the Western Plaguelands show us a world moving on from war.

You battle to retake Andorhal from what is left of the Scourge, even as a third of it has already been reclaimed and rebuilt. You help a contingent of druids scrub the remnants of disease from the wildlife and the soil. You work with a soldier to begin his new life at a lumber mill. You root out corruption from within a burgeoning city, no longer a bastion for the Scarlet Crusade’s holy war. Even a minor confrontation with the Scourge near the end of the zone shows how desperate the undead army has become, as they now scrabble around in distant caves and lose their control of all but a handful of holdings.

Yet as much as adventure here shows triumph and renewal, it also shows more complicated truths about post-war reconstruction in a war-torn land.

Early on, you encounter a military camp hosting a handful of farmers, refugees who have come to this land on the promise that this once embattled landscape is now free from the Lich King and his undead armies and ready for cultivation. The reality is much different, however. The Scourge are broken, true, but Andorhal is now torn between two nations: the first, of course, is Stormwind, eager to reclaim these once-human lands and re-establish their military presence in the north. The second, however, is the Forsaken, a race of undead who once owned these very lands - before the Scourge War, when they were still counted among the living.

The sergeant overseeing these farmers is encouraging, believing Andorhal to be “returned” to human hands before long. And indeed, Andorhal is under construction, boasting shining new watch towers over the healing landscape. Only the buildings are empty, and the houses are boarded up.

Through a bit of dialogue and a lot of environmental storytelling, you can piece together what happened: Stormwind’s army moved to claim the town for the kingdom only to find Scourge still rattling its walls. Worse, Lordaeron’s Forsaken appeared to have had the same idea. But their king expects news of reconstruction and progress. So they build out some houses, an inn, a forge, and send word: “Send in the populace, we are ready to rebuild. The enemy remains, but they are weak. No match for our knights. We’ll have this land cleaned out within the week.”

Peace, it turns out, is not so simple, especially when there is more than one victor with more than one idea about what should happen with the lands of those who lost the war.

Pretty heady stuff for an MMORPG, let alone a mid-campaign World of Warcraft zone.

So this is all immediately fascinating, and it only gets better. Eventually, the Scourge are completely destroyed in Andorhal, and the two armies withdraw to consider their options. But then those farmers we mentioned earlier come to retake the city themselves, igniting a battle between the two armies that does not end in Stormwind’s favor. The Forsaken take the city, and the humans are forced to withdraw.

Incredibly, all of this takes place within the same zone as it shifts and turns around you as you adventure through it. The Scourge are nowhere to be found when you return to Andorhal later, and, after the final moments of the battle, it is left a smoking ruin overrun by the Forsaken’s val’kyr. It’s impressive, especially given how early on in World of Warcraft’s career this ultimately is. The Western Plaguelands were clearly the beneficiary of a great deal of budget after Wrath of the Lich King.

Sadly, for all the good it does with theming and environmental storytelling, the Western Plagueland’s completely mishandles characters.

Take the death knights: Andorhal centers on a pair of death knights, Thassarian and Koltira, who stand around in armor way cooler than yours so you know they’re important. They even have a sweet moment together, agreeing to keep the peace until they can finish mulling over their options. But for all of this, no work is done to actually invest you in their arcs. They come out of nowhere, have a dramatic moment, then fade into the background until you’re ready to collect your next quest.

As for our farmers, they adopt a lumbering undead horror named Gory. While the game plays this as cute and touching, it falls flat. This is a creature that represents everything these people have ever suffered against, but by the time you find them, they’ve already decided to make nice with it. There is no struggle to overcome their hatred, and so their is no triumph when they accept the abomination as their own.

Later, a wizard named Bisp betrays the Argent Crusade in Hearthglen, that aforementioned bastion now standing as a beacon of hope. Why he betrays the crusade, his own comrades, is left a mystery. Worse, while his betrayal is meant to be shocking, it happens so quickly and without any foreshadowing that it struggles to make any impact at all.

Cataclysmic Emptiness…

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

Hearthglen, once a bastion for the extremist Scarlet Crusade, now belongs to its converse, the valiant Argent Crusade. But this ultimately amounts to a bit of recoloring and swapping one set of NPCs for another. The town feels no more alive and lived-in than it did before.

Later, you visit a farm still suffering from the Scourge plague and delve into a house to recover an old farmer’s heirlooms. Sadly, the farmhouse is entirely empty, except for a few broken crates, showing no hint of a previous life. Which would be fine, if not for the perfectly, oddly-preserved book of poems and a hand painting that are perfectly preserved, waiting to be looted for a quest.

Bottle Syndrome…

…wherein we note World of Warcraft’s on-going struggle for zones and questlines to have any impact outside of themselves.

The other factions populating the area seem strangely unconcerned with the strife in Andorhal. Worse, it is easy to complete their adventures after you finish Andorhal’s arc, which can have a deleterious effect on what is otherwise a perfect climax to the region’s story. (Ian had this experience his first time through the zone on a separate character.)

Despite this, there is a strong sense of awareness between Chillwind Camp, the Withering Haunt, and Andorhal. What you do in one eventually impacts the other. Eventually, you deliver word of Andorhal’s loss to the sergeant at Chillwind Camp, ending the zone where it began (at least in our playthrough).

Of course, Andorhal itself evolves as everything progresses, a fact that is only evident through exploration - which only adds to its ambient world-building. Things change regardless of where you put your attention - a brave development choice.

For the Alliance!…

…wherein we note whether the greater races and factions of the universe add anything to the zone’s experience, if they appear at all.

Finding the Argent Crusade teaming up with Cenarion Circle - men of war uniting with people who focus on growth and healing - is a satisfying find. The arrival of the Kalimdor-based (read: from other side of the world) druid circle gives Azeroth’s characters an internal awareness of each other often missed in virtual worlds of this scope.

Along these lines, it is cool to see a draenei working with the Argent Crusade. Consider his journey: he landed here on the Exodar from another planet, fought through the Burning Crusade to defend his people, and has now devoted himself to the cause of reconstruction.

Sadly, although we followed the sign posts as dwarves, there is effectively dwarf presence here, nor any connection to any larger dwarven plot. Such is dwarfdom. At least we’re not gnomes.

Basilisk Urethras

We killed a bunch of bears to feed some farmers; a pretty relatable need
We had to cleanse a bunch of plagued animals, but doing so alongside the inept druid-in-training, Zen Kiki, gave the quests a bit of flavor

Tough Crowd

A joke about healing spells never missing breaks the fourth wall in a not-very-clever way
Picking bad apples that turned into “Pome Wraiths” made me laugh. Ian was less impressed by the wraiths actually balancing apples on their heads during combat.

Patch Notes

Towns would update only just outside their area, meaning you could see rapid and major shifts in the landscape within the span of only a minute if you turned around too quickly
Later, you kill a big spider in a mine, which is filled with terrified workers - nice. Except about half of the workers didn’t seem to be playing the appropriate animation and were going about their normal business. Whoops.

Although plagued by character problems (sure, pun intended), the Western Plaguelands nevertheless demonstrated an incredible sense of forward movement with its storytelling that allowed for actual consequences and resolution, moving through its own character arc of devastation and reconstruction. It also asked complicated questions about the post-war politics of peace. It even gave a few answers, although those answers weren’t as heroic and triumphant as video game players might like. Which is really all for the better.

Versus Tirisfal Glades

The Glades started interesting conversations then left in the middle of its sentence. It resolved conflicts suddenly and without pathos. As strong as Tirisfal Glades is, Western Plaguelands actually answers most of the questions it asks, even as those answers are unsettling.

Conclusion

We've done it. And now we know:

Western Plaguelands is the best World of Warcraft zone.

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