World of Warcraft™

So, it's generally pretty common knowledge that Stormwind is here to stay, at the very least as far as World of Warcraft is concerned. There's one huge problem with Stormwind though, and that is that it sucks and feels detached from not only human lore, but from lore as a whole. Lordaeron is unlikely to be back in human hands anytime soon, so what can we do to make it so that people celebrate Stormwind instead of loathing it because it's not Lordaeron? Here are some ideas.

1. Rename it "Azeroth."

Stormwind is, in Warcraft, kind of a crappy name. It's named for a windy valley and that's really all that it symbolizes. All the other nations sound like they have names that either literally mean something, or sound like they mean something.

"Lordaeron" was a combination of Dwarven, Thalassian, and Common to have a name that means "Land of the peaceful people." Not only is that literal translation meaningful, but it's also symbolic of the unification that Lordaeron and its Alliance represented (the unification of the Humans, Dwarves, and High Elves.")

Stromgarde also has a pretty symbolic name harkening back to Stromgarde's origins, when it was the Empire of Arathor with its capital of Strom. They serve to guard its location and legacy, evident from its name.

Stormwind is a windy valley.

Changing its name back to Azeroth not only emphasizes that it's an amalgamation of ALL of humanity, regardless of origin, on the world of Azeroth. (more on that later.) It also harkens back to humanities ancient roots, with the root word "Azotha," which could be interpreted as it bringing humanity together again. (which fits, as the kingdom was founded by the heirs of King Thoradin.)

Plus, it just sounds cooler. It's a name that makes you want to ask about the story behind it, not just go "Huh." like Stormwind does.

2. Give it some relevant historical background.

We know a fair amount about the politics and history of the Human nations on the Lordaeron continent. These kingdoms were formed after the dissolution of the Arathi empire, and there were some border disputes, and not everyone was friendly with one another, which means that there may have been some wars over territory or resources. Six kingdoms in total were formed out of only a few zones.

We know next to nothing about the history of Stormwind. What we do know provides some interesting hooks though. We know that it's the most distant human kingdom from Strom, and that it was formed by Thoradin's heirs and their loyalists. Why are they so far south? What enticed them to even head in that direction instead of going and living in Lordaeron with the rest of the nobility? How did they get across Khaz Modan?

And that's to say nothing about what roles they played in international relations. We know that they didn't exist in a political vacuum, and that there were ocean routes between Stormwind and the Lordaeron continent. We also know that it had very friendly relations with Lordaeron in the years leading up to the First War, apparently due to shared cultures and the friendliness between the Wrynns and the Menethils. How did this come to be? What was Stormwind's image in the eyes of the rest of humanity at the time? Was it respectful or dismissive?

We know that Khadgar gave a pretty good description of what Stormwind looked like to someone who has lived their lives in Lordaeron in The Last Guardian, and he was apparently awestruck by its sheer size (apparently it's the only city on Azeroth where you can be in a position where there's nothing but city as far as the eye can see) and he also seemed to apply sort of a reverent, regal view to it, saying that it even appeared to literally "glitter" in the sunlight.

We also know that Stormwind was considered very strong by the other human kingdoms. People in Lordaeron scoffed when they heard that it had fallen, and when everyone began to realize that it had indeed fallen to the Horde, everyone got really worried really fast.

How did Stormwind come to earn this military respect? Was there a massive war where Stormwind just wrecked anyone who opposed it? Why did Stormwind even have such a tremendously powerful military? Is it as strong today as it was before the First War? How did it get the population to support such a powerful economy and military if only a handful of humans went to settle it after the collapse of Arathor? Did it have a high rate of immigration? Do these factors continue to define it today?

All sorts of unanswered questions, which would likely make Stormwind far more interesting and hook into lots of rich Stormwind history if they were answered.

3. Immigration and multiculturalism

One of the things that defines Stormwind in its current iteration is that it's the last remaining human kingdom that hasn't been either destroyed or attacked by zombies/dragons/naga/ogres/syndicate/neutrality. It's literally all that's left. It's "the last bastion of human power in the world." This needs to be shown and emphasized.

I've heard and supported the notion of replacing the park with a refugee district to emphasize that Stormwind now represents the sum total of humanities combined districts. Embassies and the like should be added, representing each human kingdom (as well as loyalists from Dalaran in the Mage Quarter) where you can go to read or learn about the histories and thematics of those kingdoms. I think that it should go even further though. Let's see some cultural mingling going on within the Kingdom's borders.

Stormwind farmers in Westfall arguing with Gilnean farmers over proper farming techniques ("In Gilneas, we were one with the land and gave it the reverence it deserved!" "Yeah, well in Stormwind we use shovels and pitchforks like the rest of the sane world, now get digging.")

Lordaeroni and Gilneans traveling through Duskwood and having panic attacks because they keep flashing back to invasions of the Scourge and Worgen.

Kul Tirasians working in Stormwind's harbor, arguing with ship captains whether or not to name ships Tirasian style or Lordaeroni style.

A Stormwind Knight and a Stromgarde Knight in Redridge having an honorable contest to see who can kill more Orcs.

Dalaran mages arguing with other humans on the merits of Dalaran's neutrality, or discussing magical theory with Stormwind mages in the Mage Tower.

Lordaeron clerics and Gilnean clerics discussing the merits of their different interpretation of the Holy Light in the Cathedral.

These are things that I want to see from Stormwind. Make it the amalgamation of human lore that it's supposed to represent. As long as each nation's lore is confined to particular, non-Alliance territory the more Alliance players (and more to the point, human players) are going to feel like they have no lore to call their own. Make Stormwind a place that you can be proud of and a place that you WANT to fight to defend regardless of which particular facet of human lore you like best.

4. Expansionism; it's a good thing.

Stormwind is too small. Yes, I realize that this part of the outline might be difficult to justify by gameplay standards but as Stormwind's population continues to increase (likely at an accelerated rate on account of most of humanities population being concentrated there now) then its borders should as well. There's no reason why the kingdom's borders should remain so static and its settlements all remain small hamlets.

As more and more people are born and as more and more people emigrate to Stormwind, we should see people settling the frontier. Moonbrook should get as big as Andorhal, as it serves the same purpose that Andorhal did (the breadbasket of a massive human kingdom.) Stormwind's vaunted military power should be used to completely expel the Horde from the Blasted Lands, Swamp of Sorrows, and Stranglethorn Vale.

Courageous pioneers seeking new opportunities and greater glory should settle these formerly hostile regions in an attempt to tame them. Nethergarde Keep could expand as more people move into the area to become the "Stratholme" of Stormwind.

As these regions get more and more settled, you start to see some of the more distant regions try to secede from Stormwind (but not the Alliance.) Players may be asked to pick a side, or these places may even be allowed to split off, creating a new continent with several different human nations inhabiting it. The possibilities in this scenario are endless (although not possible without some pretty massive overhauls to gameplay, I admit) but it would make Stormwind look to the part of the powerhouse that it's portrayed as in lore, and the development of such a storyline would have a good amount of interesting lore I think.

5. Stuff needs to happen in Stormwind.

This is a pretty big factor in making Stormwind endearing. Compared to Lordaeron, Stormwind appears to be almost completely irrelevant in Warcraft lore. For Warcraft 2 and 3, almost all the lore attention was on Lordaeron. Why? Because that's where things were happening. The invasion of the Horde in Warcraft 2 and the attack of the Scourge and the corruption of Lordaeron's prince were the focal points of the lore in there respective areas. Heck, in Warcraft 3 there were two important points on Azeroth: Lordaeron and northern Kalimdor. Everywhere else was either cursory to those places or completely irrelevant.

Even in World of Warcraft, this has been a problem. Wrath of the Lich King and now, Cataclysm have both had the human storyline emphasize Lordaeron rather than places that are actually still in Human possession. I don't have much a problem with it in WotLK but it was a serious problem in Cataclysm.

Stormwind, as a kingdom, has appeared to be mostly passive, with much of the most important things in Azerothian history to have passed it by completely with it barely noticing. This is a problem that's even more apparent in World of Warcraft, where the most that's happened to Stormwind that's exclusive to Stormwind is bandits and Blackrock Renegades. Hardly particularly compelling stuff when you look at the comparitive storyline of Lordaeron, involving corruption, a demonic invasion, tragedy, a zombie apocalypse, and now endless conflict as humanity futiley tries to rebuild.

Anything that actually has happened to Stormwind since the First War, like the expansion launch events (Dark Portal opening, Zombie infestation, elemental invasion) are all events that affected the entire world, not just Stormwind, and hence any impact that's had on it is cheapened as a result. We don't see things like the invasion of the Nightmare or the Scourge invasion have any impact on Stormwind's development because they happened to everyone at the same time.

What we've got here is Stormwind being affected by too many "world" events but not enough local events.

So what I'd like to see is something that happens in Stormwind that's of a similar magnitude to the Scourge invasion of Lordaeron or the First War (in that it affects the entire world in a very overt sense) but localized to the region. I think that whatever is going in with Karazhan that's corrupting Duskwood could be a great factor to start this. It's a scary, intimidating threat that's spreading out and corrupting the Kingdom. It could be due to Old God influence, or Legion influence, or whatever, so long as it's something super important that has a major impact on the world at large, and represents an extremely dire threat to Stormwind.

Heck, when the Legion inevitably invades again I want ground zero to be somewhere in Stormwind or near Stormwind, because the bottom line is that the human storyline is at its most compelling when they're fighting against abysmally terrible odds in their own homelands, regardless of whether or not they end up succeeding in combatting the threat (Warcraft 2) or failing (Warcraft 3.)

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I think that all of these things need to happen in some way, shape, or form for Stormwind to become the endearing kingdom that Blizzard wants us to view it as. Otherwise, it'll always feel like a hand-me-down kingdom, and people will continue to pine for Lordaeron.