wow Battle for Azeroth Faction Epilogues in Visions of N'Zoth

[Stan 5,240]

The story of Battle for Azeroth comes to an end with faction epilogues in Visions of N'Zoth. In this article, we look at both in more detail. Spoiler alert!

Alliance Epilogue

The Alliance epilogue ends with King Anduin signing a treaty with the Horde. He is convinced of changes within the Horde now that the faction has no warchief, but for everything that had transpired, Tyrande does not want to sign the treaty unless it is "written in the Banshee's blood." She wants revenge for Teldrassil and is convinced that the Horde can strike at any time. Anduin, on the other hand, thinks that the Horde will not start a war any time soon, but even Genn Greymane is skeptical about that and tells him that no scrap of parchment will hold the Horde back should they decide to declare war.

It is interesting to see that Tyrande turned her back on Anduin, exactly as Sylvanas wanted in "A Good War" before she attacked Stormwind. It is also a good time to speculate about Anduin's lies three lies and if this wasn't one of them.

Transcript

Quote

Anduin Wrynn: The armistice is signed. At long last, the Fourth War is over.

Tyrande Whisperwind: No. Not while the Black Moon still cries out for vengeance. Not until the Horde has answered for its treachery.

Anduin Wrynn: Further bloodshed will not bring back the fallen. We must renew our hope and forge a future for those who survived.

Tyrande Whisperwind: And when the next warchief musters an army, will hope save you if it is Stormwind that burns?

Anduin Wrynn: I know it's difficult to trust, but there are signs of change within the Horde.

Anduin Wrynn: In place of a warchief, there is now a council led by Baine, Thrall, and the others. I believe they can--

Tyrande Whisperwind: Your faith is naive, lion son. I will sign no treaty unless it is written in the Banshee's blood!

Genn Greymane: There is truth in her words, Anduin.

Genn Greymane: Peace may be on the table today, but soon enough the Horde will sound their drums and march for war.

Genn Greymane: When that day comes, no scrap of parchment will hold them back.

Anduin Wrynn: The path to peace will not be easy, and not all will choose to walk it.

Anduin Wrynn: But this is the only way to build a better future. I believe it will work, Genn.

Anduin Wrynn: It has to.

Alliance Epilogue Cutscene

Horde Epilogue

We see notable Horde characters gather and talk about the future of the faction. They decide the Horde should be led by a council instead of a warchief in a time of peace. Due to what happened with Garrosh and Sylvanas, they want new voices to join the lead. Note that goblins are now led by Gazlowe instead of Gallywix.

Transcript

Quote

Lor'themar Theron: The Alliance has sent word. They have agreed to the armistice. This bitter war is finally over.

Baine Bloodhoof: At last we can begin to heal our wounded Earth Mother... and the wounded Horde as well.

Lor'themar Theron: One question remains. Who will serve as warchief? Perhaps, you, Thrall, would--

Thrall: No, I told Saurfang I would not lead the Horde again.

Thrall: But perhaps the question is not who should become warchief... but whether there should be one at all.

Lor'themar Theron: Though the Horde has changed through the years--for good or ill--we have always looked to a warchief to guide us forward.

Baine Bloodhoof: That legacy must end. The war nearly cost us everything. There is no place for a warchief in a time of peace.

Thrall: it is true--the Horde has changed. Our ranks have grown, and new voices have stepped forth to lead.

Thrall: This is what makes us strong. All of us, building a new future--together.

Horde Epilogue Cutscene

[darkgreenwax 412]

So in BFA with the whole side story of Saurfang and Sylvanas, I thought for sure Alliance was going to have Genn and Tyrande remove themselves ominously from Alliance. I figured this expansion was going to focus initially on faction conflict, but later evolve into conflict within factions on both sides. I feel like they had a great narrative chance to take this game in a new direction, but it seems like they played it way too safe here. Not only did they play it safe, it still turned off many fans/players anyway.

I'm hoping Shadowlands has something refreshing narratively but I am not holding my breath. ?️

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

Deal with it lore-fans. WoW is a dying game. Faction bullshit is not helpful in making the community stable. They need to enable crossfaction (I dont understand why they dont in shadowlands (but afaik blizzard is a bunch of retards nowadays (see BFA, wc3r and their behavior in general)).

It is a simple math. Some alliance players right now even have problems to find m+ groups. If you dont do anything else, you will quit at one point of not being able to play. Meanwhile horde m+ flourishes still in comparison to alliance (correct me if I am wrong, but thats my general picture I got from my friendlist). 

So why not enable at least dungeons for cross faction. There is already cross faction in PvP (ashran, bgs). There is literal 0 disadvantage to anyone. If you are a lore-*filtered* who thinks WoW is real and cries in his bed if something is not "realistic" in regards to WoW-lore-history, you might as well just dont queue with other factions races and wait longer in queue *filtered*.

[darkgreenwax 412]

18 minutes ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

Deal with it lore-fans. WoW is a dying game. Faction bullshit is not helpful in making the community stable. They need to enable crossfaction (I dont understand why they dont in shadowlands (but afaik blizzard is a bunch of retards nowadays (see BFA, wc3r and their behavior in general)).

It is a simple math. Some alliance players right now even have problems to find m+ groups. If you dont do anything else, you will quit at one point of not being able to play. Meanwhile horde m+ flourishes still in comparison to alliance (correct me if I am wrong, but thats my general picture I got from my friendlist). 

So why not enable at least dungeons for cross faction. There is already cross faction in PvP (ashran, bgs). There is literal 0 disadvantage to anyone. If you are a lore-*filtered* who thinks WoW is real and cries in his bed if something is not "realistic" in regards to WoW-lore-history, you might as well just dont queue with other factions races and wait longer in queue *filtered*.

 

cross-faction gameplay and good story-telling don't have to be exclusive to one another. no need for hostility towards people who appreciate story-telling in their games.

[Starym 3,800]

5 hours ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

Deal with it lore-fans. WoW is a dying game. Faction bullshit is not helpful in making the community stable. They need to enable crossfaction (I dont understand why they dont in shadowlands (but afaik blizzard is a bunch of retards nowadays (see BFA, wc3r and their behavior in general)).

It is a simple math. Some alliance players right now even have problems to find m+ groups. If you dont do anything else, you will quit at one point of not being able to play. Meanwhile horde m+ flourishes still in comparison to alliance (correct me if I am wrong, but thats my general picture I got from my friendlist). 

So why not enable at least dungeons for cross faction. There is already cross faction in PvP (ashran, bgs). There is literal 0 disadvantage to anyone. If you are a lore-*filtered* who thinks WoW is real and cries in his bed if something is not "realistic" in regards to WoW-lore-history, you might as well just dont queue with other factions races and wait longer in queue *filtered*.

Your valid points about cross-faction are completely ruined by your un-needed and unwarranted childish rage towards "lore-*insert insult here*", especially since one has nothing to do with the other. Blizzard CLEARLY don't care about the lore whatsoever so that's really not the reason they're not doing cross-faction. I have no earthly idea why they aren't doing it but lore ain't it.

The sooner you (and the huge amount of people like you) learn that insulting other groups of players is literally making your points, harder/impossible to get across, maybe we'll actually see the changes you're talking about, as they're actually good ideas.

[Monlyth 75]

8 hours ago, TyZone said:

So in BFA with the whole side story of Saurfang and Sylvanas, I thought for sure Alliance was going to have Genn and Tyrande remove themselves ominously from Alliance. I figured this expansion was going to focus initially on faction conflict, but later evolve into conflict within factions on both sides. I feel like they had a great narrative chance to take this game in a new direction, but it seems like they played it way too safe here. Not only did they play it safe, it still turned off many fans/players anyway.

I'm hoping Shadowlands has something refreshing narratively but I am not holding my breath. ?️

Yeah, I'm tired of the Horde always being the center of attention. The Alliance just seems to passively react to them most of the time; most of their internal conflict boils down to "We should unite with the Horde" versus "We should kill the Horde". Quite stale.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Monlyth

[SiscotheKid 12]

I feel like if anything is introduced that is global cross-faction, it should be similar to War Mode in that players should have to opt-in to do it. There could be various reasons for and against it, but amongst everything it would be better if it weren't forced on all players. 

on the topic of whether it should occur or not, my opinion is that now would be the time to do so, or in the near future... I only wonder how things would be shared between the two factions, and whether or not this would work with old world content. 

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

3 hours ago, SiscotheKid said:

I feel like if anything is introduced that is global cross-faction, it should be similar to War Mode in that players should have to opt-in to do it. There could be various reasons for and against it, but amongst everything it would be better if it weren't forced on all players. 

on the topic of whether it should occur or not, my opinion is that now would be the time to do so, or in the near future... I only wonder how things would be shared between the two factions, and whether or not this would work with old world content. 

Absolutely. So everyone should be happy theoretically. Players who don't want their immersion ruined can stay away from cross-faction. And players who just want to play a game and have limited time can queue crossfaction (every content should be possible for it - I don't even mind having cross faction in PvP or Arena). 

3 hours ago, Monlyth said:

Yeah, I'm tired of the Horde always being the center of attention. The Alliance just seems to passively react to them most of the time; most of their internal conflict boils down to "We should unite with the Horde" versus "We should kill the Horde". Quite stale.

  Yes because it is boring and it did not fit. We came from "defeating" Sargeras and his burning legion to killing a fat fak pirate who has never grown above 4 feet in freehold.

9 hours ago, TyZone said:

 

cross-faction gameplay and good story-telling don't have to be exclusive to one another. no need for hostility towards people who appreciate story-telling in their games.

There is no hostility against the ones who like good story. Everybody prefers good story over bad story obviously. I dont appreciate the ones who dont see the big picture. Merged queues crossfaction is good for everyone except this small portion of players. The exact portion of players who still love blizzards noodle for releasing allied races (reskin of same *filtered*) and praise them for adding furries and robot-gnomes to the game. Yet they are fanatics about good story ?

4 hours ago, Starym said:

Your valid points about cross-faction are completely ruined by your un-needed and unwarranted childish rage towards "lore-*insert insult here*", especially since one has nothing to do with the other. Blizzard CLEARLY don't care about the lore whatsoever so that's really not the reason they're not doing cross-faction. I have no earthly idea why they aren't doing it but lore ain't it.

The sooner you (and the huge amount of people like you) learn that insulting other groups of players is literally making your points, harder/impossible to get across, maybe we'll actually see the changes you're talking about, as they're actually good ideas.

It has exactly to do with them. They are always in the forums and crying about how bad it would be and ruin immersion in a comic-graphic game *filtered*. And no points are ruined by some insult. 

[Starym 3,800]

Ah so you have no interest in actually getting things done and are just whining about things and people you don't like. Ok, carry on.

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

51 minutes ago, Starym said:

Ah so you have no interest in actually getting things done and are just whining about things and people you don't like. Ok, carry on.

Do you collect brain aneurysms or how can someone read that into what I wrote? 

[Starym 3,800]

"And no points are ruined by some insult." That means that you care more about insulting someone than actually getting things done. You don't care why the "lore people" think what they do, you insult them immediately making them care about your arguments even less, you make people that actually agree with you on the issue (like me) not want to associate with you in any way whatsoever and the only thing you're actually doing is getting the same raging insulting people like yourself even MORE on your side aka improving the chances of what you want happening by 0%.

It's basically exactly what's happening with 70% of all discussions in the world, no one cares about the other side's argument, they just yell their own as loud as possible as their echo chamber pushes them on. Seriously, think about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

[Miharu92 0]

Where i can get that quest? Thanks

Edited February 2, 2020 by Miharu92

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

18 minutes ago, Starym said:

"And no points are ruined by some insult." That means that you care more about insulting someone than actually getting things done. You don't care why the "lore people" think what they do, you insult them immediately making them care about your arguments even less, you make people that actually agree with you on the issue (like me) not want to associate with you in any way whatsoever and the only thing you're actually doing is getting the same raging insulting people like yourself even MORE on your side aka improving the chances of what you want happening by 0%.

It's basically exactly what's happening with 70% of all discussions in the world, no one cares about the other side's argument, they just yell their own as loud as possible as their echo chamber pushes them on. Seriously, think about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

I agree with your general statement but I dont agree with the premise of dialogue that you set. I am still not raging in any form and never will for a computer game. I just pick harsher words because I am not from US like you (correct me if I am wrong). Nobody needs to be offended by them, it is their own fault for being offended.

And still I am not saying I don'T care what lore people think. I prefer good story over bad story too. But if they are too retarded to see the big picture I won't agree with what they want.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players who raid mythic dictate how the game develops. That is bad for the big picture.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players with 2800ranking -||-.

This can go on forever. It is way more important that the game I might wanna play in the future (when it improved) does not kill its playerbase. And a extremly big factor of killing playerbase is dead community. Thats why one-sided faction servers continually decrease the disadvantaged faction. Thats why mythic on alliance is rotting away. Thats why m+ queue on alliance side is horrible in comparison to horde m+ queues. The list goes on. Its harmful for the game. Its way more harmful for the hundred thousand players that play the game than it is harmful to do a change and make 100 immersion players mad.

[Sisren 1]

40 minutes ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

I agree with your general statement but I dont agree with the premise of dialogue that you set. I am still not raging in any form and never will for a computer game. I just pick harsher words because I am not from US like you (correct me if I am wrong). Nobody needs to be offended by them, it is their own fault for being offended.

And still I am not saying I don'T care what lore people think. I prefer good story over bad story too. But if they are too retarded to see the big picture I won't agree with what they want.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players who raid mythic dictate how the game develops. That is bad for the big picture.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players with 2800ranking -||-.

This can go on forever. It is way more important that the game I might wanna play in the future (when it improved) does not kill its playerbase. And a extremly big factor of killing playerbase is dead community. Thats why one-sided faction servers continually decrease the disadvantaged faction. Thats why mythic on alliance is rotting away. Thats why m+ queue on alliance side is horrible in comparison to horde m+ queues. The list goes on. Its harmful for the game. Its way more harmful for the hundred thousand players that play the game than it is harmful to do a change and make 100 immersion players mad.

What you are doing is basically exactly the same as when politicians ride a potential bill by adding stipulations that have nothing to do with the bill's intent in order to satisfy their own personal agendas.

Cross faction would not ruin immersion. In fact, at his point in WoW's story it would make perfect sense.

What you are doing is mixing together your legitimate good idea about cross faction queues with unecessary and toxic -personal- rage against people you don't want to play with in 'your' game, and trying to pass it off as if the two things are connected.

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

1 hour ago, Sisren said:

What you are doing is basically exactly the same as when politicians ride a potential bill by adding stipulations that have nothing to do with the bill's intent in order to satisfy their own personal agendas.

Cross faction would not ruin immersion. In fact, at his point in WoW's story it would make perfect sense.

What you are doing is mixing together your legitimate good idea about cross faction queues with unecessary and toxic -personal- rage against people you don't want to play with in 'your' game, and trying to pass it off as if the two things are connected.

"toxic", "personal- rage against people you don't want to play with in 'your' game". ???

What is wrong with you? You allege me of stuff because you are offended and disagree with my views. That is the only thing in this conversation that is "toxic". How can you be offended so easily it is ridicilous. You are probably the same kind of people that dont want *filtered*edit: n-word (autofiltered) ) to be said just because some people are offended.

It is all subjective. I could not give less fucks if the tank in my raid is a dwarf or a orc. Literally dont care at all. But the ones who were/are against it have the loudest voice in the forums. And that is probably what blizzard reads (if even). Maybe they have a different view und except dropping player numbers if cross-faction would be enabled. 

From my perspective cross-faction is good. It has 0 disadvantages for me. And from what I know from friends, they feel the same.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Amateurpeeweeeeh

[Badadada 184]

16 hours ago, TyZone said:

So in BFA with the whole side story of Saurfang and Sylvanas, I thought for sure Alliance was going to have Genn and Tyrande remove themselves ominously from Alliance. I figured this expansion was going to focus initially on faction conflict, but later evolve into conflict within factions on both sides. I feel like they had a great narrative chance to take this game in a new direction, but it seems like they played it way too safe here. Not only did they play it safe, it still turned off many fans/players anyway.

I'm hoping Shadowlands has something refreshing narratively but I am not holding my breath. ?️

That's what I thought, I believed there is no way it could end anyway else than factions splitting, but I must also say that for an expansion centered around a 4th War it wasn't bad or ruining the Warcraft universe at all. It was fine - including this finale - setting up a lot of future conflict. The problem was that most of the story-related content was moved from dungeons and raids into solo-scenarios that feel closed off from the world.

But for a popular video-game series, Warcraft still has one of the better written lores at the moment (after they sorted out the cycle ranging from Cataclysm to Warlords), it's just the gameplay makes it difficult to process it.

[Arcling 898]

6 hours ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

There is no hostility against the ones who like good story. Everybody prefers good story over bad story obviously. I dont appreciate the ones who dont see the big picture. Merged queues crossfaction is good for everyone except this small portion of players. The exact portion of players who still love blizzards noodle for releasing allied races (reskin of same *filtered*) and praise them for adding furries and robot-gnomes to the game. Yet they are fanatics about good story ?

 

From what I've seen, Mechagnomes aren't very popular or praised, although there are plenty of Vulpera to kill now, so at least they are rather widely played. I also support faction merging for queues. PvP could have been what it was for the most time - some skirmishes between those refusing to lay down arms, doesn't have to affect lore. I would go even further, for example some sort of automated, "hidden" groups for world PvP. Making hostile groups in one shard from both factions could make things even, so faction with higher numbers would no longer have any advantage, if they can be attacked by some members of their own (would truly show how many people are there for actual PvP, rather than resource bonus, which I think should have been removed).

As for cutscenes, some of them do feel pretty rushed. It certainly would help if there was some smaller patch after it, with some story content.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Arcling

[Starym 3,800]

14 hours ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

I agree with your general statement but I dont agree with the premise of dialogue that you set. I am still not raging in any form and never will for a computer game. I just pick harsher words because I am not from US like you (correct me if I am wrong). Nobody needs to be offended by them, it is their own fault for being offended.

And still I am not saying I don'T care what lore people think. I prefer good story over bad story too. But if they are too retarded to see the big picture I won't agree with what they want.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players who raid mythic dictate how the game develops. That is bad for the big picture.
Imagine if the 0,5% of players with 2800ranking -||-.

This can go on forever. It is way more important that the game I might wanna play in the future (when it improved) does not kill its playerbase. And a extremly big factor of killing playerbase is dead community. Thats why one-sided faction servers continually decrease the disadvantaged faction. Thats why mythic on alliance is rotting away. Thats why m+ queue on alliance side is horrible in comparison to horde m+ queues. The list goes on. Its harmful for the game. Its way more harmful for the hundred thousand players that play the game than it is harmful to do a change and make 100 immersion players mad.

I am correcting you, you are wrong. But REALLY nice showcase of you assuming things that have nothing to do with reality. People from the US can't handle harsh words? If you're referring to PC and SJW nonsense, believe me it's FAR more spread than just the US.

I'm not one of the sensitive people that get hurt by words, I've used far worse. My point is there was no need to use it here. No one was disagreeing with you, the "lore people" weren't here nor were they the topic. You randomly pulled out a grudge of yours that has nothing to do with your actual argument and ruined it. I'm all for calling out people for being stupid when they say stupid *filtered*, but pre-emptively whining about a group that DEFINITELY doesn't even think what you think they do is just... wait for it... retarded.

[dartbodman 64]

They should have done a more rendered cutscene... Tyrande playing the night elf bounce idle while making serious war talk is just.... wrong.

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

8 hours ago, Starym said:

I am correcting you, you are wrong. But REALLY nice showcase of you assuming things that have nothing to do with reality. People from the US can't handle harsh words? If you're referring to PC and SJW nonsense, believe me it's FAR more spread than just the US.

I'm not one of the sensitive people that get hurt by words, I've used far worse. My point is there was no need to use it here. No one was disagreeing with you, the "lore people" weren't here nor were they the topic. You randomly pulled out a grudge of yours that has nothing to do with your actual argument and ruined it. I'm all for calling out people for being stupid when they say stupid *filtered*, but pre-emptively whining about a group that DEFINITELY doesn't even think what you think they do is just... wait for it... retarded.

How can I be wrong if I am absolutely right? ?
Sure but the US is leader in those pushing mental-illness agenda. And since you react like them because someones saying a bad word, I assumed you are from there.

And there are other forums than this one (more retarded ones in general (looking at you mmo-c and official forums). The "lore people" there are disagreeing with me. They also disagree with you saying what you said. Because they are the ones who so heavily are in favor of no cross-faction and killing the playerbase. They scream the loudest (again this is my subjective view, so you saying no they dont, means nothing in regard to that subjective view). They scream the loudest the same as the 1% of mythic raiders who want the best gear only for them. Imagine if they get what they want. It leads to unhappy community. The same way dying community leads to an increase of ceasing community member number.

[Starym 3,800]

3 hours ago, Amateurpeeweeeeh said:

How can I be wrong if I am absolutely right? ?
Sure but the US is leader in those pushing mental-illness agenda. And since you react like them because someones saying a bad word, I assumed you are from there.

And there are other forums than this one (more retarded ones in general (looking at you mmo-c and official forums). The "lore people" there are disagreeing with me. They also disagree with you saying what you said. Because they are the ones who so heavily are in favor of no cross-faction and killing the playerbase. They scream the loudest (again this is my subjective view, so you saying no they dont, means nothing in regard to that subjective view). They scream the loudest the same as the 1% of mythic raiders who want the best gear only for them. Imagine if they get what they want. It leads to unhappy community. The same way dying community leads to an increase of ceasing community member number.

See again, this post of yours was borderline good. Not too many insults, actual facts in there, the recognition of your (and my) subjectivity. My entire point (which comes from YEARS of wanting to scream "you *filtered* idiot" at people) is that there is a way to discuss issues with people who are flat out WRONG and actually getting something more than "well, this guy's a moron" out of it. It doesn't even matter if you manage to convince that specific person (in your case the lore crazy people), but the instant you start acting like you did (insults at someone that isn't even here, generalizations about a group of people enjoying the game) everyone in the thread just stops reading what you have to say, even the people who might agree with you and add to your point.

The other weird thing that happens when you actually talk to people like you would in real life if that you at least understand where the hell they're coming from and what their reasons are. Their reasons may be retarded still, but at least you understand them.

You can still be as pissed as you like and stand your ground and believe in what you believe, but ALSO talk to humans normally, only resorting to calling them idiots when you run out of all other options (which is what I do).

[Amateurpeeweeeeh 37]

50 minutes ago, Starym said:

See again, this post of yours was borderline good. Not too many insults, actual facts in there, the recognition of your (and my) subjectivity. My entire point (which comes from YEARS of wanting to scream "you *filtered* idiot" at people) is that there is a way to discuss issues with people who are flat out WRONG and actually getting something more than "well, this guy's a moron" out of it. It doesn't even matter if you manage to convince that specific person (in your case the lore crazy people), but the instant you start acting like you did (insults at someone that isn't even here, generalizations about a group of people enjoying the game) everyone in the thread just stops reading what you have to say, even the people who might agree with you and add to your point.

The other weird thing that happens when you actually talk to people like you would in real life if that you at least understand where the hell they're coming from and what their reasons are. Their reasons may be retarded still, but at least you understand them.

You can still be as pissed as you like and stand your ground and believe in what you believe, but ALSO talk to humans normally, only resorting to calling them idiots when you run out of all other options (which is what I do).

And like in every other post you made so far in this thread you assume im raging or pissed off or angry or mad just because you don't agree with the way I write or articulate myself. Neither is that mature nor is that a better ground for discussion.

TL;DR whole thread:

I blame lore fans for being an annoying loud voice everywhere in forums and being opposing wind for cross-faction and thus have a big part of killing their own game (also reducing game quality by making developers split up and generating two story-lines for different factions).
Feel free to blame me for being toxic.

Since I also get reported by a lot of forum users for saying mean words I will no longer engage in this forum (I think that is better for everyone). ❄️

[Kurosu 58]

BFA = Besties From Azeroth

[Oberyn 5]

I quit WoW after being in beta all the way to finishing up all of Cataclysm. Didn't like how MoP looked and some life changes didn't allow me the time. 

Funny enough, I came back to it November 2018'ish because I liked how BfA appeared to be going back to the root horde/alliance conflict. (And I built a new PC and kinda missed it.) I'm not a huge lore junkie but I've appreciated most of the story beats. However every xpac seemed to follow the same kinda sh/t. Conflict at first, then a team up to take out whatever big bad was threatening all of existence, blah blah blah. From reading up on what I missed in MoP, WoD, Legion, and playing some of that content so far but not a lot, that basic storyline ran through those, too. And now here we are and it's another repeat. The ideas above about some faction breakoffs within both the alliance and horde are swell and would be a fresh change. 

Not sure what Blizzard has in store for Shadowlands but I've learned to not get too invested in the story and just enjoy the buttload of content I've not only missed all those years but still have left to do.

Cross-faction gameplay makes perfect sense and even does so from a story standpoint at this juncture. I'm all in on that idea. Shorter queues and more M+ groups don't hurt anyone. Bring it on.