Precious and Soft

I debated with myself over where to put this post. I’ve been keeping things all bear all the time over here. My last few lore posts have been on Heavy Wool Bandage because… well, c’mon! When was the last time I healed something? (I threw a heal on myself last night, actually.) This is a topic that’s been turning over in my head for months, but I just kept looking at it as a Gilnean issue. That doesn’t exclude it from being inconspicuous bear business, though. If anything, if the story played out like this, bears could be a big part of it! In the first Northgate Rebellion, neither side had BEARS! And if you think bears can’t turn the tide in battle, you should probably just leave right now. Go read about Fabulor.

No, I don’t have screenshots for this post. A lot of what I might want screenshots for happens in Silverpine Forest. I don’t want to go roll another Forsaken and do the quests again just to get screenshots for a post Blizzard will probably get around to disproving someday. If you’re looking for pretty pictures, go read about Fabulor.

Quick history lesson - Genn Greymane wasn’t impressed with how Arthas’s daddy was handling things. Instead of marching through Captial City and stabbing him in the guts like SOME PEOPLE, he took all his marbles and went home to build a wall. The wall not only kept his marbles in Gilneas, but also kept all his people in.

It was a big wall.

Not all the people of Gilneas were happy about this. Even if some of them knew keeping your marbles at home was best, they still liked knowing they COULD go roll their marbles around somewhere else. And some people were just like, “Screw you! My marbles! I roll ‘em wherever I want to!”

Darius Crowley had a nice chunk of playground to roll his marbles around on, and wasn’t pleased at all about having Genn’s Big Wall running right through it. This may have something to do with how Crowley ended up leading the Northgate Rebellion and getting locked up in prison.

So, no big deal… right? I mean, Genn and Darry used to be BFFs. Genn actually kind of understood why a man might be upset about not being able to roll his marbles around all over his own land whenever he so chooses. Really, if it hadn’t been for the setting fires and looting, he might not have locked his buddy up in prison at all! (One could argue there would have been no fires and looting if the people of Gilneas had enjoyed uninterrupted Freedom of Marble Rolling, but it’s a little late for that.) King Oblivious Greymane was a bit surprised to find out the REBELS who had resorted to CIVIL WAR had been STOCKPILING WEAPONS, but only Lord Godfrey seemed personally wounded over Darry being let out of prison once the worgen overran the city.

Let’s face it… Godfrey was an asshat. His top hat was probably covered with light leather skinned from the ass of a worgen so that it, too, was an asshat.

Sure, there’s that tense moment when Godfrey shows up to tell Crowley and all the other half-feral dogpeople with sharp teeth and claws (plus the elven visitors) that they must, BY LAW, get up there and start fighting the good fight for Gilneas! But Genn reassures Crowley that he is not at all there to hand out orders as the king who took away everybody’s marble-rolling fun, but to ask as a friend and fellow dogperson if we could all form a pack and sniff butts… and maybe fight the good fight for Gilneas while we’re at it.

Godfrey flips his lid (again). Dogpeople are friends (maybe). Everyone wins. (Except Prince Liam, the Greymane family in general, and all the Gilnean citzens.)

This is old news, yes? KING Genn Greymane is the leader of the Gilnean people. Crowley’s less rebel, more ambassador. And in spite of the trolls and gnomes (mostly) going home, people are still hosting homeless allies in their cities.

Wait… trolls got the Echo Isles. Gnomes got to move back to what was previously their front porch, but not take back their city. Goblins can’t really go back to their island, but they did get all of Azshara. Gilneans get to camp on the side of the road or live in a tree within a tree on Nelfdrassil.

I didn’t say “Horde bias”. You did NOT hear me say that!

I’m kidding. Have you seen Varian Wrynn’s hair? Even Blood Elves don’t have hair that pretty! Obviously, Blizzard favors Alliance.

But what if the Northgate Rebellion hasn’t REALLY ended? Everybody’s been kind of busy. Gilneans have split into a bunch of different directions. Some of them are in Duskwood. Some are really busy doin’ what druids do. What happens if we let things settle down so they get some time to think about Gilneas?

The Gilneans were winning the fight for Gilneas when Liam jumped in front of Sylvanas’s arrow. Could they have kept winning? I’m not sure. Having played the story from both sides, each side had a few tricks up their sleeve the other side didn’t know about. But the Gilnean people didn’t even get to decide if they wanted to stay and fight or not. Genn decided not to risk any more lives after his son died and made the decision to pull everyone out.

Was it his decision to make? Yes! He’s the KING! It was his decision to make when Genn’s Big Wall went up, and it was his decision to make when everybody was told to hop on the next boat to Nelfville. But that doesn’t mean people are always okay with the decisions kings make. Our own world’s history would be very different if every time a king decided something people just said, “Hey… it’s his call. Sucks, but we gotta take it.”

Some people who weren’t happy about the wall might not be happy about having to retreat, either. Some people who were fine with the wall might not be happy about the retreat. And some people could still get ticked off if Ol’ King Genn doesn’t say, “Let’s head home now,” as soon as they think he should.

But who would lead another rebellion? Things are just fine between Genn and Crowley these days. In fact, while Genn does his king thing in the city, Crowley’s off acting as his representative and meeting with the Bloodfang worgen. And one does not simply walk into Silverpine and…

Hold on!

Really? CROWLEY is the one who met with them? Met with Ivar Bloodfang and convinced him to agree to an alliance between his pack and the Gilnean worgen? Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

While the Bloodfang worgen may have been Gilneans at one time, they don’t seem to care about that at all anymore. They care about their pack, and they do what their leader says. Crowley had no hope of getting any of the Bloodfang to help unless he could get Ivar to agree to it. It was an “all or nothing” deal. The Bloodfang may not be completely feral, but they’re closer to it than the Gilneans. They function much more like an actual pack. And Ivar had no love for Crowley, Greymane, or Gilneas when he agreed that an alliance might be necessary for his pack’s survival.

Ivar Bloodfang does not strike me as someone who would be at all impressed by meeting with a “representative” sent by someone’s leader. He seems much more like the kind of guy to send the representative back with just enough of his flesh hanging on to be able to deliver the message, “He said to meet him yourself next time,” before dropping dead.

Genn Greymane stands around in the city looking clean, respectable, and human. (Perhaps to avoid upsetting others. Tobias Mistmantle says in Duskwood that he’s stayed in his human form because the worgen form is very upsetting to the people of Darkshire, but down at Raven Hill the worgen are… worgen.) Crowley is running around in the woods, half beast, getting blood under his claws, and making deals with other worgen that may have at least slowed Sylvanas down.

I guess if you’re the kind of Gilnean who wants to assimilate into “Alliance culture” as easily as possible and trust that your leaders will know what’s best, you might be inclined to stand by Genn. If you’re itching for a chance to grab life by the marbles and create your own destiny, you might side with Crowley.

I wonder who Ivar Bloodfang would tell you the leader of the Gilnean worgen is.

Gilneas is a beautiful area. It would be a shame if all that work was put into it just for one side’s starting experience and a low level (but awesome!) quest chain for the other side. It seems like it would be difficult to address sending the Gilnean people home without taking on Sylvanas, though.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be about Sylvanas just yet. We might have to get through a second Gilnean civil war first.