Ily Reviews The War Within Max-Level Campaign and Side Stories

What better way for you to spend today’s 8 hour maintenance than with ME reading about LORE? Welcome back! This post encompasses my review of the TWW Max-Level campaign and side stories. If you need a refresher on how I liked the level-up story, you can find that post here.

Without further ado, let’s dive back into the Coreway!

Max-Level Campaign

Chapter 1 starts with our fleets arriving after the events of the level up. If any of you played Mists of Pandaria, you’ll remember that our fleets arrived in the first major patch, 5.1, 2 months after the start of the story. In this expansion, we were at this point before the end of the .0 patch. This is a common theme you’ll see me address as a very positive feature of this campaign: we are moving faster through a lot of mundane shit and actually going somewhere with the story. Wild!

Many characters return on our boats. Highlights for me included the Krasarang Wilds characters showing up with new models (Dezco! Lyalia!) and other NPC’s reminding us that they exist.

This chapter also has one of my favorite lines of turn-in text in the entire game, where Moira Thaurissan is shocked to learn the player character can do interior design and sentences us to redoing her room layout when we get back. Instantly iconic text.

Chapter 2 is where we get really interesting. This chapter has a heartwarming story about bringing out new stormrooks, Thrall gets to be around a bit, and we break the edicts.

And then a giant Titanic Construct attacks the Isle!

This is exactly how the Titans should be depicted in wow: a highly curious, experimental, not morally sound faction of godlike beings. This chapter should really start getting your gears turning about the Titans. We’ll have a blog post later about all the Titans’ major fuck-ups, but when you think about it, have any of their testing facilities/experiments ever seemed ethical? The G’huun experiment is uh…bad, they have modules around the planet that can instantly reset it (read: exterminate all life on it) at a moment’s notice, and they do not like it when you step out of order.

The mere act of the Earthen symbolically breaking free of their edicts and branching out merits a bigass construct attacking the entire Isle. Now imagine if you ever actually questioned them. Eek!

Chapter 3 continues our trend of getting progressively more interesting, with one of the most genuinely enticing lore decisions they’ve made in many years. We all watched the former Nerubian queen get stabbed by Ansurek in the pre-expansion animation, assuming she died. She didn’t!

Neferess is alive, but not well, in Azj-Kahet. Because Ansurek was wildly spiteful, she volunteered her mom to be the first experiment for ascension. Genuinely wild of her tbh. Y’tekhi understandably wants to get Neferess back to the Weaver, but Xal shows up to reveal the dark secret of ascension: instant mind control button! This is supremely scary. Even though we’ve dealt with a good chunk of Azj-Kahet in 11.0, there are still many alive ascended nerubians, all ready to be instantly MC’d by Xal’atath. One thrilling escape later, we give our report to Alleria. This chapter also has some excellent Lillian Voss characterization, further solidifying how fucking back we are. “Everything else before [true death] is workable,” says Lillian of the mind controlled Y’tekhi, demonstrating the core belief of the Forsaken that unless you’re super actually dead, you’ve still got shit to do. Lovely!

Chapter 4 is the first section that is actually less interesting storywise, but does still lend a few more interested parties to the table. You may remember Goldie from the Cinderbrew Meadery and the fact that she’s with the Venture Co., one of the most notorious habitat destroyers on Azeroth. These goblins seemed more than likely to be pursuing similar interests, making me think they’re also Venture Co. aligned. The story doesn’t go anywhere in this campaign chapter, but given Gazlowe’s appearance and many hints, I anticipate Goblin content in 11.1. Who better to make a return than the Venture Co., last fought in the Motherlode BFA dungeon? (Prepare for its inevitable return to the M+ pool!)

We assemble some machines to fight with us and proceed to chapter 5. I unfortunately have to point out an error to start: a scout runs in and shouts to Alleria: “ranger general!”

*buzzer noise* INCORRECT!

Alleria has never been the ranger general!!! Sylvanas succeeded her as a ranger captain under their mother, and eventually became the ranger general of Quel’Thalas. Their youngest sister, Vereesa, became the ranger general of the Silver Covenant. Alleria left home before she earned the title.

I do need whoever has been confusing their Windrunners to figure it out pls. These characters are a bit too big to be goofing around. Alleria was never the ranger general, and later in this chapter, is using various Sylvanas attacks. Huh? Y’all please just go on Warcraft Wiki before you program the Windrunners. (Fun fact: there was also an encrypted NPC named ‘Vareesa’ in the PTR previously. Please spell her name right guys!)

It's ok though because the actual campaign chapter slays. We immediately take to the field against the Nerubians, staging a major incursion into Hallowfall. Along the way, we see our various allies from Khaz Algar fighting alongside us and each other. I want to take a second to once again emphasize: this is where we were in the final patch of the last three expansions. 8.3, 9.2, and 10.2 were about our united forces teaming up to beat the bad guys, along with cameos, snarky one-liners, and egregiously overdone cinematics (yeah, that portals cinematic from 10.2 is in fact that bad).

By the end of the .0 game, we have progressed as much in our struggle as previous expansions ended at. I cannot overstate how welcome a change this is. Not only does it give room for the story to actually go places and tell a story, it leaves a whole lot more possibilities for the writers. Instead of something like Shadowlands, where the entire expansion’s flow was clear from 9.0, we genuinely actually don’t know where the War Within is going to end. Sure, the next patch is probably Goblins, but for why? Where? With who?

This battle is actually pretty cool. Alleria once again goes beast mode and then shares a touching moment with Turalyon where she reaffirms that she’ll always find him (threat). We move quickly into Xal’atath’s vicinity at the Priory where she’s…sucking the magic out of Beledar. Didn’t even think of this as a possibility while I played the zone tbh, but yep, perfectly logical thing to do, idk why I didn’t predict that. In one of my favorite cinematics in the game, ever, we manage to actually score a hit on the antagonists.

Most recent WoW expansions involve the villains constantly getting away, outplaying or outsmarting us, or just twirling their mustache until we then fight them in the final raid and everything abruptly ends. There’s been very little back-and-forth, very little moments where either we took a step toward victory or the villains did. The War Within has done an excellent job at showing us an actual changing board: Xal’atath was the clear winner of the base game, we are the clear winners of the max-level campaign.

Xal’atath, expecting Alleria to still be blinded by rage and try to kill her, arrogantly monologues at Alleria about how she can’t die. Alleria calls her bluff and sends an arrow right after the Dark Heart, smacking it right in the glass part, letting loose a ton of stored magic. Surprise: out jumps KHADGAR? Old man transmuted himself into pure arcane energy, hid in the artifact, and waited for us to let him out. Genuinely badass. He still ticks out to a DoT, but Beledar shifts back to the Light.

AND THEN ANDUIN DOES SOMETHING! ON CAMERA! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS! PERIOD!!!

One expansion after our first on-screen kiss, we get our first on-screen, in canon resurrection. Anduin brings Khadgar back to life, the animation is awesome, his theme plays, and it just slays. 10/10, zero notes.

Even better than the quest itself are the stay awhile and listens. Firstly, remember Queen Neferess? Ansurek sent her up to the battle in Hallowfall, but we non-lethal hit her so she would still live. Our allies with the Severed Threads returned her to the Weaver, where we find out that Arak’nai earned her title as the widow because SHE IS NEFERESS’ WIFE?????????????????????? In yet another actually fucking amazing writing choice that I didn’t predict, the former queen and our ally the Weaver are my lesbian spider icons. A phenomenal scene plays where Arak’nai welcomes Neferess home and hopes for her eventual recovery. Chills. Goosebumps. 10/10. As if keeping her alive wasn’t exciting enough, they decided to give her an actually compelling character connection.

Side note: I can’t believe how obvious this reveal was in hindsight. Why is someone named “The Weaver” actually known as widow Arak’nai? We learn in Azj-kahet that the traditional Nerubian marriage ends with the wife eating her husband (feminism). Wouldn’t all female Nerubians be widows, implicitly? Then why does she get a special title? Well, we found out, and genuinely I can’t believe none of us got this. Iconic. Zero notes. They genuinely got my ass again, this is like the third time in one post.

Stay awhiles involving our heroes play out. Anduin is doing amazing, with the dialogue further laying a path for him to move far, far out of his father’s shadow and actually be his own person. I thirst for this to all end with Anduin renouncing the throne of Stormwind, it’s what he deserves. My son doesn’t want to be in charge or wield a sword, he wants to heal people and hang out with Wrathion.

The max-level campaign was basically excellent and tied with 5.1 for some of the best questing ever put in WoW. 10/10, zero notes.

Isle of Dorn Side Stories

Sojourner quests in this zone go absolutely fucking insane. I want to highlight two chains in particular, but I was thoroughly impressed by this entire zone’s side quests.

The “Merrix and Steelvein” chapter has yet another absolutely unhinged twist that wasn’t on my bingo card. The hero is investigating illegal smuggling into Dornogal (illegal per the edicts, as it were), likely led by Steelvein, a notorious smuggler. We report it to Councilward Merrix, who we’ve interacted with in the Isle storyline, and go on to see that the ‘illegal’ goods make life way easier for the Earthen while causing zero harm-they just go against the trade regulations set in place. Surely the Councilward would bring Steelvein to justice if needed, right?

Sike, he is Steelvein.

During a super theater-kid quest, we give Merrix his costume change to become Steelvein while he informs us of how Steelvein came to be. Using his leverage as a Councilward, Merrix is able to move with a certain finesse that standard citizens can’t. He felt his programming split in two: Merrix to care for those under the edicts, Steelvein to watch over the Unbound. He felt strongly that betraying either group of Earthen would fail his programming. This quest made Merrix by far my favorite Earthen in a cast stacked with slays.

The other questline is “Remember Me, Earthen,” at Mourning Rise, which surpassed Veritistrasz for the saddest quest in the game. An Earthen nears the end of his life and begins showing symptoms of what we would refer to as Dementia. We help his assistant prepare for his shutdown and, in a heartbreaking series of events, watch his symptoms play out in real time, finding a rare moment of clarity for him to shutdown peacefully. He leaves a statue of himself in the sea, a favorite spot of his, and we leave it as a monument. Absolutely phenomenal pathos storytelling here.

The actual political intrigue and actual emotional punches are what I love about this expansion’s side stories. All of the zones have questlines that add several layers to what’s already there and really flesh out the continent of Khaz Algar. I haven’t felt so attached to a continent since Pandaria. 10/10, zero notes.

Sojourner of the Ringing Deeps

MOIRA! The Ringing Deeps is our weakest sojourner zone, which is not an insult. It’s mostly pretty routine maintenance quests scattered around the zone with a few exceptions, which I’ll highlight.

Kobolds have begun to arrive in Gundargaz with Skitter eager to help them settle in. Kobold storytime is hysterical. It’s very cool to see that, unlike previous expansions, the story for these races doesn’t just end during the zone with “yay we live together now!” We have to actually help them move to a new city and figure out what they do next. The War Within does an excellent job of keeping us grounded in reality without doing too much handwaving.

The main event is Moira’s pursuit of Fearbreaker, her father Magni’s hammer. Fearbreaker remained in storage until Magni used it against N’Zoth, then lost it when Dalaran fell. Not only is this quest just more free Moira screentime, Magni demonstrates he has fully overcome his 2 decades of misogyny. Ally! When Moira reclaims the hammer, Magni says “nah” and declares her the rightful wielder. She proceeds to walk it through a field of enemies and absolutely fry them.

It was very cool to see even more of how the machinery of the Deeps works, as well as helping out a few folks who are a bit out of the woodwork. There’s a very nice short quest where an Earthen wants to go above ground to pursue his dreams and his lifelong companion runs after him to accompany him. The Earthen just have some of the best writing for a race ever. 8/10, lots of good stuff, a bit more mundane here and there.

Sojourner of Hallowfall

We are SO back. Hallowfall floors me once again! What a surprise! I honestly don’t know where to start, there’s so much to choose from. Quick shout out to the questline surrounding the last mage of the Arathi and his portals. Not quite as insane as the other ones, but still very good. Was not expecting him to get assassinated.

In one of the most endearing character quests ever added, we cook a meal with General Steelstrike and her family. Not only do we get to hang out with them at home and see General Steelstrike’s iconic cooking garb, they all have gossip text at the dinner table. Absolutely unreal. I can’t tell you the last time this much detail was consistently put into every level of questing. It’s almost like they want me to engage with their world! In the immortal words of General Steelstrike, “why do they say a pinch of salt? Why not a handful? More ingredients has to be better.”

WHO THE FUCK IS THE PECULIAR FISH SOMEONE TELL ME NOW! It’s ok guys, the definitely not creepy fish gives us a definitely not unsettling quest chain where he gets taken home by a definitely not terrifying kraken. This is the spooky vibe I was missing. I love when WoW adds unsettling stuff like this just for the hell of it. No idea who the squids are affiliated with, no idea why they’re in Hallowfall. The fish looks very N’Zothian and we’ve obviously seen undersea beasts aligned with him before, but that feels too simple. Or, they’re serving as a marker that he isn’t actually gone? Please? @ God?

Lastly, we investigate the events that caused the Priory dungeon. This quest is extremely concerning. We meet Baron Braunpyke, who lost his brother, and try to help him move through his grief. It seems the Arathi don’t have the best understanding of how grief works, which is understandable given their situation, and our efforts fail regardless. Things take a turn when he ventures back into the Priory and we uncover a schism forming. If you thought the resurrection of Calia Menethil as a Lightforged Undead was concerning, wait until you hear about mass Light resurrections.

Prioress Murrpray (horrid name) harnesses Beledar’s Light to resurrect the other Braunpyke as a Lightforged Undead and pontificates over how she will “subjugate” Khaz Algar under her forces. Eek! Amazing how quickly we turn imperialist when we’re aligned with the Light (Xe’ra tease). This questline adds some very interesting context to both the Priory dungeon and the Arathi Empire back home.

As a side note, I want everyone to start hazarding guesses as to the identity of the Arathi Emperor. I am currently dying on the hill of the emperor being Turalyon sent back in time.

10/10, Hallowfall is insane.

Sojourner of Azj-Kahet

We’ve arrived at our final zone and it does not disappoint with the side quest material. Of highest interest, more quests with Orweyna and the Haranir. We learn a lot more about how the Black Blood is harvested, the Unseeming, and the Haranir’s presence. I still want more about those roots, now, but this was a good start. The Unseeming is another pocket realm that we shift to when we’re around the Black Blood for too long. Spooky! Also, if it wasn’t abundantly clear, the Black Blood is extremely bad and very concerning. Those Old Gods ran so deep that killing them miles above the core of the planet still caused their blood to soak deep into the earth.

We learn so, so much about the Nerubians during this side quest set. In one of my favorite comedic side quests, we help a Nerubian female find her lost husband. She then fulfills the traditional Nerubian marriage custom of eating him. I wish we didn’t have to “avenge” him afterwards-god forbid women have hobbies-but this was still a giggle nonetheless.

As you move through the zone, you come across multiple shadecasters. A few of these include Neferess’ thoughts about Azjol-Nerub, including why she didn’t move her forces north to help their sister kingdom. It boils down to “not my circus, not my monkeys, and y’all are gonna get killed,” which is a perfectly reasonable response. My favorite shadecaster is from Anub’arak himself, appealing to Azj-Kahet for aid, showing us how he reached out before the War of the Spider. I’m grateful he wasn’t forced back another time, as his story is finished, but it is perfectly appropriate to reference him and very appreciated.

The Nerubian culture is extremely rich. When they say their evolution is a sacred cultural pillar, they mean it, demonstrating to us that ascension involves giving up what makes you a Nerubian. This added detail makes Xal’atath’s mind control of the Nerubians feel even more personal. We see that Ansurek begins forcefully ascending citizens when she becomes her most unhinged, an absolutely horrifying recourse to her losing a battle in Hallowfall.

Guiding us throughout these escapades are the Severed Threads, staunch keepers of culture and tradition, but not to a detriment. Sometimes, characters who defend tradition can become overzealous and antagonistic in their resistance to change. But every Nerubian we work with does a great job of differentiating between what it means to be a protector of tradition vs. an active resistor of change. The conspirators all assess very carefully if Ansurek has crossed points of no return before making their choice to rebel, a very interesting way of depicting an uprising.

That’s definitely one of the flavors I enjoyed in Azj-Kahet: they’ve already told the story of a corrupt ruler and a rebellion, but this time it was predominantly told as a quiet movement that hid in the shadows. For example, in Suramar, Thalyssra went public with her dissent and was violently thrown out of the city. In Mists, Vol’jin’s questions led to the Kor’kron attempting to assassinate him, while Lor’themar and Sylvanas also openly opposed Garrosh. Compare that to Azj-Kahet, where the conspiracy remains hidden until we pop up at Ansurek’s doorstep. Surprise! Multiple of your closest advisors were conspiring to dethrone you!

Excellent worldbuilding, great callbacks, great forward-moving story too. 9/10.

The max-level campaign and side stories total a 47/50, even better than the level-up story, and the highest score I’ve given wow in a long time. I was thoroughly impressed with this portion of TWW storytelling and cannot wait to see what comes next.

Which zone was your favorite for side quests? Which character is your favorite so far in the max level story? Let me know on Twitter, and see you next time!

-Ily