(Spoilers) Demon Hunter and Battle for Azeroth

[Vitharion 0]

Warning! The following text contains spoilers

 

Hello all!

At the beginning I would like to say hello because I am new here and it is basically my first topic and post :)

I wonder how far ahead in terms of lore, may be the fate of the Demon Hunters, and especially in the new expansion - Battle for Azeroth. 
Like the Elves who came to train under Illidan in the Black Temple, they had different motives for which they wanted to follow his path - avenge their loved ones who died in the war against the Legion, hatred for the Legion, etc. Of course their main motive was to protect Azeroth from the Burning Legion, no matter the costs.

As for the final cinematic itself, after defeating Argus the Unmeker - Illidan decides to stay with the Titans and keep the Sargeras prison forever. His goal, his mission and the mission of the entire Demon Hunters group he trained with was completed. Sargeras has been defeated (imprisoned), the Crusade of the Burning Legion is finally over.

The story of Illidan himself, let's call it "redemption", was presented in a very nice way, of course you can not resist the impression that Blizzard did everything to please Illidan's fans and to "whiten" him. Sure, they did it in part, but Illidan character remained the same, even the situation with Xe'ra where he rejected the possibility of accepting the power of Light and simply destroyed the Naaru, because he wanted to remain himself, as always.

Well, just the question now - what's next with the other Demon Hunters? Illidari as a faction is obviously neutral - because as we know it was created to fight the Legion, it had no connection with the Alliance or the Horde. Demon Hunters has done their job, they have defeated the Legion together, can say that their mission is also over. Of course, you can speculate that their goal has not changed, that they will continue to fight to defend Azeroth at all costs, and places or people they love, but it's hard to find any reason why they should belong to the Alliance or the Horde.

One of my considerations is that the Alliance or the Horde may simply need allies in the upcoming expansion - as would be the case with allied races, so theoretically here - they can reap the help of the Demon Hunters once again. But why the Demon Hunters would join a war that could only lead to greater damage to their beloved Azeroth?

In my opinion, there should be any explanation of the Demon Hunter situation, after the Antorus raid. We know that Illidan has left the crystal with messages for Malfurion, Tyrande, and Character Player. But there is no any information or message for "Demon Hunter Character Player" which could include further motifs of Illidari's existence etc.

I would like to know your opinion on this subject, what do you all think about it? :)

[Mendes 14]

Hallo, Dabira here :) 

I really think you are going for something here and yes it a good question, a tricky one. 

No there is not really a message for the demon hunter player from the crystal. But your main goal as you said is to protect Azeroth, but we have different Illiari that choose either Horde or Alliance. You also mention that they sought Illidan in the Black temple to become the legion end, but they still came as Night Elf or Blood Elf, which means their home still counts for them.

We don't really know what they should do not beside protect Azeroth, so they might go home. Just like a Soldier, they go out fight for their "world/country" but come home and still be a war, tho I can be political, civil war or a third party (bad example but our world is not as doomed as Azeroth)

Also, there is still a lot of Demons out there, I would guess a big part of the Illiari stay on Argus to purge it from every demon. We also know Illidan told the Illidari and us to never stop looking until every world in the universe is purged from the might of the Legion. So a portion of the Illidari might go for a hunt across the stars. 

I could only guess, but some Illidary that legit has NOTHING at all to do, probably some of Illidan's most trusted Illidari, might come with him to imprison Sargeras. 

That might be some of them, but yeah... Where would the rest and how does it work with Bfa? Hmm?!?!

Do you have ideas? Maybe they just go back to the faction they came from... or now when they don't have a "leader" they go do their own stuff? 

 

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/29/2017 at 9:32 PM, Vitharion said:

I would like to know your opinion on this subject, what do you all think about it? :)

So, the Demon Hunters existed under Illidan with one ultimate goal, regardless of their reasons for it: the eradication of the Burning Legion. They wanted the demons that were part of the Burning Legion dead. This is not to say they want to kill every demon, that's not the case. The Illidari were perfectly happy to work with demons like the Shivarra, as long as it helped them in their fight against the Burning Legion. 

With Sargeras gone, the ultimate idea of the Legion kind of disappears with him. With no driving force to aim that tide of demons, they may or may not find their way to Azeroth once more. If they do, the Demon Hunters will no doubt stand against them once again.

For the current question and situation of the Battle for Azeroth, there is actually a fair reason to go along with it. Demon Hunters ultimately despise the Legion for what they did to their people and their homeland. They wanted revenge over the demons, but they also wanted to prevent them doing further damage (apart from Illidan who was completely obsessed with revenge towards the end of the expansion - bringing Argus to us). 

Demon Hunters don't necessarily throw away their faction. It's not that they care for the Alliance vs. Horde struggle, but they still care for their people. Illidan was the most far gone of any demon hunter, yet he still held love for Tyrande in his heart. No matter what happened, he still cared for her. Through her, he cared for his people, no matter how much they hated him. The same goes for a player Demon Hunter. For us to be where we are, we likely lost an incredibly important part of our family or friends or life due to the Burning Legion. We chose the path of the Demon Hunter specifically to avenge them and further protect others from that same fate. Would we really turn a blind eye to someone trying to kill an elf from our village just because they aren't a demon?

I can see BE DHs joining the Horde's fight simply to protect their people and then in turn fighting the void to protect their people, not the Horde itself. Same goes for NE.

[Mendes 14]

6 hours ago, Blainie said:

Would we really turn a blind eye to someone trying to kill an elf from our village just because they aren't a demon?

Do you think that we'll see them in the front fight in Bfa?

Like yes, they will go around dealing with whatever to save Azeroth and their families, villages and so on. But do you think they will be in the lead fight, the front fight against the Horde?

We didn't see the see any DH what so ever in the cinematic for Bfa 

What do you think? <3 

[Shikome 0]

I actually have a theory thats grounded in little more than speculation and random ideas that the events of Legion and the demons fall from power will lead to the Illidari and Demon Hunters as a whole merging with the Wardens, adding a third spec (lets call it Sacrifice spec for lack of other words).
The thought process behind this is the Illidari were long thought by the Wardens to be dangerous fel worshippers and Maiev didn't help there. Now we find out that the big boss man of the Illidari is going full blown Warden over Sargeras for all eternity, maybe differences will be put aside and something interesting could happen and give the class some much needed lore beyond 'Kill demons, protect the world'.

Again, this theory is grounded in nothing but a fanciful idea.

[Mendes 14]

6 hours ago, Shikome said:

Illidari and Demon Hunters as a whole merging with the Wardens

To be completely honest, I really like this idea. 

It would be a "simple" way of giving the rest of the Demon Hunters something to "live" for. It could lead to a lot, a place they belong, a "home". If you look at the Pandaren, Worgen or Goblins... They all got a place to be after their homes were destroyed. This could be the same ideal, I would love to see this. 

But I still have this weird feeling that Demons, DH and all that is gonna be forgotten this next exp. I know, I know... Bla blah blah we cannot and Blizzard won't. But I still have this stupid thought that now we saved at they are back a living. 

But in the meantime, all these ideas come to me, how they can be fighting with us and so on. I can't wait to see what is going to happen also to the specific DH player. Like you have somewhere to go, something that's yours as any other race, class, and type of player... but the DH is so new and fresh the only place they really can belong is that Fel hammer. 

I also heard some on Reddit talking about having faction classes. Even tho will not believe that blizzard would link you to one faction by picking a class. But the idea was good enough, having DHs on Alliance side and may Zandalarien blood-benders, necromancers or sand-trolls. A whole new way to look at.

But big mystery for sure.