WoW Insider's Weekly Webcomic: Safe Passage
by Kelly Aarons 
Jan 25th 2011 at 2:00PM
Open hostilities are the name of the game today. We all know Enarrai is a part of the Alliance, but there's no need to stereotype people. You won't get anywhere with that kind of attitude.
Check out the full comic right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page. You can also see all the previous pages in the gallery below.
Filed under: WoW Insider's Weekly Comic
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
matt561 Jan 25th 2011 7:16AM
Yeesh you burn down one camp and everyone gets all made at you....
Hob Jan 25th 2011 3:34PM
Burning down Camp Taurajo is just the most recent atrocity.
Personally, I'd be more upset about how the night elves just sat back and did nothing while the tauren - their ancient allies, who were taught by Cenarius and fought with them during the War of the Ancients - were being driven to extinction by the centaur.
Synchronizor Jan 25th 2011 4:57PM
As far as I know, Knaak's War of the Ancients Trilogy, released in 2004 & 2005, were the first lore sources to establish the participation of other mortal races, such as the Tauren, in the War. The events of WC3 were written based on earlier accounts of the War, in which only the dragons and forest demigods & elementals allied with the Kaldorei to fight the Burning Legion.
CLASSIFIED Jan 25th 2011 5:08PM
@Hob
I'd hardly call what happened at Taurajo an 'atrocity'. An atrocity would involve the killing of non-combatants. The Alliance gave time for the civilians and young to get out of there. Therefore, Taurajo was just another battle in a war the Tauren willingly partake in.
Groth Jan 25th 2011 5:42PM
@ Classified: The Alliance see the side where they tried to open up a hole for the Tauren to flee through. The Horde see the side where children and craftspeople were cut down brutally. (The Horde never actually know that the escape route was deliberate either, you need to play an ally to find that out.)
Just because the Alliance commander didn't MEAN for all of the innocents to be killed doesn't mean it didn't happen at the hands of humans, and that it wasn't an atrocity.
Kunikenwad! Jan 25th 2011 2:08PM
I believe this needs to be said:
Mess with the bull. Get the horns.
Dreyja Jan 25th 2011 2:09PM
I forget who called it last week but they thought it would be survivors from the Southern Barrens attack. They were so right. Very cool.
This is a very interesting twist. I don't blame them for being cranky. I hate what happened to Taurajo. :(
Jaina, WHERE ARE YOU!?
Darthregis Jan 25th 2011 2:18PM
Yeah, it's weird going by the ruins of Camp T and thinking, "Geez...I trained with some of these people."
RetPallyJil Jan 25th 2011 4:48PM
Aw, poor Hordies :c
Go check out Southshore, you crybabies.
Amaxe Jan 25th 2011 5:22PM
Jaina seems to be twiddling her thumbs worried about deserters and defias.
Very disappointing on the part of Blizzard
Dreyja Jan 25th 2011 5:58PM
P.S. I'm saying this as an ALLIANCE player. I still think Taurajo is crappy. It's nothing on the list of crap that SOME parts of the Horde have pulled (*cough*FORSAKEN*cough*) but it's still really crappy.
The decided LACK of Jaina in all this is very demoralizing. And yes, she's been my hero so far with no apologies for her ideals.
quasarsglow Jan 25th 2011 2:28PM
REMEBER THE TAURAJO!
Kunikenwad! Jan 25th 2011 2:30PM
@quasarsglow
REMEMBER THE "M"!
just joshin' :D
quasarsglow Jan 25th 2011 3:52PM
*headdesk*
Accipeter Jan 25th 2011 2:28PM
Brrr! That sent a shiver down my spine. I'm so glad the tauren let them pass. Their hostility is so very understandable, though there have been atrocities on both sides, of course. Good on the tauren for holding their fire and allowing reason to prevail. Many would not have done the same.
Great job, Kelly! You do have quite a talent for graphic storytelling.
Tyler Jan 25th 2011 2:41PM
Hmmm... Not sure I fully agree with the stance on the Tauren here. I don't believe they'd act like that after the help Jaina gave them.
Kunikenwad! Jan 25th 2011 3:09PM
Jaina != Night Elves
The Tauren are angry and looking for someone to lash out against. The Alliance burned Taurajo to the ground simply because *IT WAS THERE.* Now, whether that's the truth of the situation is irrelevent; the Tauren were massacred and want vengeance. A lone night elf prowling about the Barrens is a good enough target as any.
Let's face it ... Taurajo was fairly innocent here. There was nothing of importance going on there, other than beating back the quillboar (who need to be driven from the land, as we can pretty much all agree). Why was it targeted for destruction? The survivors want to know, they want to get revenge, they want to stop being victims and start dishin' damage to any Alliance they see. I think their reaction fits the situation perfectly.
Synchronizor Jan 25th 2011 3:44PM
Taurajo was razed by humans trying to establish a supply route for the besieged Night Elves to the north. It was unfortunate, but this is war.
In addition, during the attack, the Alliance leadership deliberately left gaps in their lines to allow civilians the chance to escape, and actively hunted down and punished Alliance troops who attempted to loot the remains of the settlement.
Finally, while I don't like to point fingers, but the Horde started this latest conflict in Kalimdor with Garrosh's whole "The entire continent rightfully belongs to us" campaign.
Amaxe Jan 25th 2011 5:27PM
From dialogue with Hawthorne:
"Taurajo was admittedly what you might call a 'soft target,' primarily a hunters' camp. Still, it had been used to recruit, equip, and train Horde infantry for many years. "
"Nonetheless, during the assault, I instructed my men to leave a gap open in our lines...
Why did you do that?
Taurajo had a significant civilian population. I wanted to ensure that they could escape the fighting, and many did, finding refuge in the north.
There are some, even in Alliance High Command, who argued that I let an opportunity slip away. That I should've taken hostages. But I don't see the value in those sort of terror-tactics.
Hear me out, : I want this war to end someday. It won't ever stop if we butcher or imprison civilians.
I just pray that there are those on the other side who see things as I do. "
Groth Jan 25th 2011 6:02PM
"It was unfortunate, but this is war. " Wow. Just... wow. I'm going to try to avoid various common internet memes, but war is not an excuse or validation for atrocities or the deliberate killing of civilians.
If you're attacked by a vastly superior force, you're unarmed, uneducated in the ways of fighting, are you going to run TOWARDS the enemy where there are gaps in their lines? I doubt I would! Retreats very rarely involve breaking through enemy lines.
Looting tends to be discouraged by most armies, and looters tend to be court-martialed (so executed prior to modern times).
The Hawthorne Dialogue is something that most Horde are ignorant of- and NPCs would certainly never have any idea that the man who orchestrated the destruction of their simple hunting camp, and killing of innocents and children was in fact trying to minimise casualties. The road to hell is paved with good intentions after all.
Regarding the Kalimdor belongs to us idea, the Night Elves regard themselves as the custodians of all forests. Other than the Night Elves, which Alliance race makes their primary home in Kalimdor? And Teldrassil, not actually on the same island. So in terms of who 'owns' the continent, I'd go with Orcs, Tauren and Trolls. None of which are found in the Horde ofc.