Don't forget Southshore.

Two wrongs don't make a right. I was appalled when I (with my horde characters) discovered what the horde had done in Ashenvale. Disgusted, actually. And when I log on my Ally characters (which doesn't happen a lot these days) I am ashamed for the reckless and unprovoked attack on the Tauren - and that wasn't just Camp Taurajo, as the article pointed out.

I guess the Tauren get a lot of attention because, again as the article highlighted, they have had so much heartache and loss at once. And also because they are probably the most peaceful, non-aggressive of all races in Azeroth.

Because the main faction Taurens have never done anything to anyone, ever. They are the most peace loving race in the game (excluding the grimtotems and the various outlaw Tauren). You cant say that about any of the other races.

because tauren are awesome, cute and fluffy. that's why.

Well at least in Taurajo's part it was pretty much unprovoked-this was a peaceful Tauren settlement deep in established Horde land. Ashenvale has always been contested between the Night Elves and Orcs, so that's more of just an escalation in the conflict.
Southshore too though I think was fairly unprovoked, at least for the level and brutality it ended up facing. Players may have warred there for years but I'm having trouble remembering any outright fighting between the Humans and Forsaken, it was mostly subversive tactics.

"You cant say that about any of the other races"

Gnomes, Night elves, Draenei and Dwarves say hi. For all the crap humans get, the Alliance is filled with, for the vast majority, very peaceful races.

What about the gnomes? And the draenei? I wouldn't call a tauren more peace loving than a gnome

This article is focused on how terrible Taurajo was because it's about the Southern Barrens, written from the Horde's perspective. I'm sure next week's article will offer a good counterbalance since we get a view from the Alliance-side. It's not trying to say one side's right or wrong, it's just saying what happened.

Trying to stay out of the factional argument, but here's my take on it:

Ashenvale has always been about the intrusion of the horde into the ancestral lands of the night elves. Since Durotar is devoid of all resources, and northern barrens isn't much better, Ashenvale becomes the best possible target once the repairs of Orgrimmar begin.

Camp Taurajo was probably supposed to be a "drive em back into Mulgore so we can claim Barrens" action by the Theramore military. The razing of the village was intentional, the number of casualties on the Tauren side was probably not.

The Forsaken are pretty much running things their way right now. Sylvanas has pretty much told Garrosh that she's not listening. The blight bombs were never supposed to be used again following the events of Wraithgate.

*HOWEVER*

Considering that the Forsaken are currently in combat with the Worgen, and neither side really has any form of readily available reinforcements (for the forsaken, the closest allies are the bloodelves up north, and pretty much all of the alliance are south of them) the destruction of South Shore can be seen as a defensive move. By eliminating a port in which alliance troops can be moved into hillsbrad, the Forsaken can move most of their forces to engage the worgen.

@mejari
Night elves?? Peaceful? Really? When first encountering another race (this is in wc3, btw) the first thing they did was attack. There was no diplomacy or peace involved at all.

Not to mention goig firther back with how NE's treated illidan and then firther back how Azshara acted. And she was worshipped by her people!

I will agree on draenai and Gnomes, though.

Night Elves can't possibly described as peaceful, they're murderous, racist xenophobes.
Gnomes and Draenei are pretty unconfrontational though. Like the Tauren, they're only in the war at all because their friends asked them for help.

"Gnomes, Night elves, Draenei and Dwarves say hi"

Gnomes, you mean that race currently embroiled in a civil war over their homeland?

Night elves, a generally xenophobic race that was in the past responsible for the War of the Ancients and more recently initiated hostilities with the orcs?

Draenei I might be willing to grant you, other than that whole Eredar thing, or the whole leading the Burning Legion in a wild goose chase across the cosmos, resulting in numerous worlds and civilizations being wiped out.

Dwarves, now that's just silly. Look at the War of the Three Hammers. More recently, there was that riot in Ironforge that was covered in the new short story on the official site.

What it comes down to isn't "the alliance sucks" or "the horde sucks", it's "war sucks."

Which is a good sentiment to reach in the real world, but an oddly inappropriate one in the world of warcraft.

Playing through the Tarren Mill quests, it does appear that the southshore/tarren mill war was an actual IC thing now. So I honestly can't blame anyone for burning a place that solely existed to butcher innocent young Forsaken PC's.

A couple of other things.

Tauren are actually that peaceful as the Quillboars and Centaur will more than gladly attest. They're pretty much the Orcs without the demon blood. They're hunters and warriors and will cut you if you cross them.

Gnomes, excluding their role as the chief servants of the Old Gods and general vileness, are pretty peaceful. But they are vile gnomes and don't get a pass.

The Night Elves, on the other hand, are the single worst race on Azeroth. They're warlike , xenophobic and undeservedly arrogant with a history of atrocity after atrocity and stupid decision after stupid decision to the point that nearly every terrible thing that has happened, short of the fall of the Eredar and maaaaaaaaaybe the Cataclysm, can be traced back to them.

Why would anyone in the Horde be upset about Ashenvale? Why have we been fighting in Warsong Gulch for 5 years? What is it we WANT to happen in Ashenvale?

/boggle

Yes. This.

They've been fighting over the trees for a decade now. The Orcs for access to lumber so they can make rooves and doors to stop the gruntlings dying of pneumonia in the winter and the Night elves to...frolic or something.

What did people expect to happen when the horde finally got the upper hand, with their clear stated intention to engage in forestry?

"Gnomes, you mean that race currently embroiled in a civil war over their homeland?"

That's your argument that gnomes are less peaceful than Tauren. In that case, Grimtotems. Nuff said.

"Night elves, a generally xenophobic race that was in the past responsible for the War of the Ancients and more recently initiated hostilities with the orcs?"

Agreed, Night Elves aren't particularly peaceful. Especially if you read up on the lore surrounding what they did to the Troll empires.

"Draenei I might be willing to grant you, other than that whole Eredar thing, or the whole leading the Burning Legion in a wild goose chase across the cosmos, resulting in numerous worlds and civilizations being wiped out."

Draenei are specifically the ones who didn't want to join the Burning Legion. After 10,000 years with the Light shoved down their throats I don't think they'd be warlike if they could avoid it!

"Dwarves, now that's just silly. Look at the War of the Three Hammers. More recently, there was that riot in Ironforge that was covered in the new short story on the official site."

Yup, agreed here too.

I'd say that orcs, trolls, Forsaken, worgen (note, NOT Gilneans as a whole, just worgen) and night elves are fairly warlike - either due to an enjoyment of battle, or xenophobia. As in they'll outright attack you because you're there and they don't like you. Death Knights of any race generally fit here too.

I'd say that humans, goblins, blood elves, dwarfs are warlike on issues - if you attack their lands they'll retaliate and then some. If they want your stuff and you're not an ally then look out too. In the dwarfs' case, they like a good brawl in fun, but not necessarily in malice which is why they got put here and not in the paragraph above.

I'd say that gnomes, draenei and tauren generally just want to be left the hell alone, but if you cross them watch out.

This is a generalisation though. There are humans who are xenophobic bastards who believe that all members of the Horde should be wiped from Azeroth, and there are orcs (say, Thrall?) who just want to live in harmony with everyone. I'm sure there are some Forsaken who want the whole world to be bunnies and flowers too.

Night Elves are the race that I think is most misunderstood. They are not as nice as most Alliance players like to think that they are. I've played several races and classes on both sides. Modern Night Elves care about nature, they want to live in peace with the world as a whole (the Highborne may be a different story). But they do not have the moral high ground that humans took at the end of WC2 - if the Night Elves had been part of the Alliance, they would have wanted the Orcs wiped out I'm sure.

@Jenks
i am a hardcore horde player, but, i play tauren cause their lifestyle and values are ones i think are noble, this is why i dislike the bombing in ashenvale, Krom'gar bombed a School in essence, with your druids, regardless of faction ya don't kill kids, its just wrong... it would have been better imo to attack the Nightelves there and avoid that "School". its caused a lot of issues, thanks again Krom... you stupid orc...

@Sarah (And hoping that this reply makes it into the right conversation thread)

The problem I and many other people have with the Draenei is that they are so apathetic about the problems they've caused; and I'm not talking about the whole Draenei/Eredar split.

When they refused to join up with the Burning Legion, the exiled Draenei went on the run knowing specifically that they would be the Legion's prime target until they were exterminated. They ran, safeguarding their own immortality at the cost of thousands of fledgling races. They encountered different races and peoples, but they did absolutely NOTHING to warn or protect them about the Legion, and when the Legion caught up with them they just ran and left their current new friends in the path of destruction.

Not once did they try and raise an army to fight the Legion. Not once did they try to protect any of the races they encountered. They acted irresponsibly and are DIRECTLY responsible for the genocide of billions. They never marked a line in the sand and made their defence there, but rather they blundered around until a collection of races were involved in a war they were responsible for and joined in pretty much at the last moment when they were sure there were enough warm bodies between the Legion and their precious lives.

If a Draenei speaks to you of sacrifice, remember that sacrifice was the lives of billions not of Draenei blood. In their cowardice, they murdered billions more than any race of the Horde.