In World of Warcraft, the expansion Warlords of Draenor is upcoming. The namesake Warlords, all potential raid bosses, are exclusively Orcs. Is there an Orc overkill looming? Are we feeding into World of Orccraft?
Attention: This article contains spoilers about the raid content in Warlords of Draenor. Read on at your own risk.
“When in doubt, add trolls”, fans have speculated for years that this must have been a creed in Blizzard’s raid design. Whenever there was no pressing idea, a troll instance was simply added. Whether it was Zul’Gurub, Zul’Aman, or the Throne of Thunder, not to mention the 5-man instances – somehow over the years, it often came down to trolls.
Now it seems that in Warlords of Draenor, everything revolves around Orcs. All Warlords are Orcs, and they are guaranteed to appear as raid bosses in WoD. Anyone who knows Blizzard knows: The Green-skinned Brown-skinned will also be present in the instances.
World of Orccraft? – Oh please, every Orc is different.
In an interview, World of Warcraft’s lead designer Tom Chilton addresses the fans’ concerns and reassures them that it won’t just be about Orcs. For example, the first instance, Highmaul, is more of an ogre raid. In the end, players will have the opportunity to face Mar’gok, the High King of the Ogres. They will play a significant role in Draenor anyway.
And what about the Orcs? Blizzard is making efforts with the “Lords of War” comic series to clarify to players that not every Orc is just an Orc. With the series, players will get the chance to see the story from the perspective of the Orcs and Ogres.
And what about the final boss, don’t we already know him well enough?
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Backgrounds on Warlords of Draenor Lore [/quote_box_right]
Chilton also has quite a bit to say about the final boss of the last raid, Grommash Hellscream. He is a real veteran, players remember him from the strategy titles. Chilton does not see his narrative potential as exhausted: “Grommash is a central figure in World of Warcraft, he was built up as a character even in the strategy titles. We have seen his bloodthirsty, demon-tainted side. And we have experienced him quite differently when he first slew Mannoroth. Now we are discovering another possible side to Grommash: What if he had united the Orc clans and set out to conquer a world?”
