The Negotiation: Moving Past Mass Atrocities.

 Anduin Wrynn is the new, young, High King of the Alliance. Anduin's unique life story is important here. At the age of only seven, he-just like his father Varian-was thrust into the position of King. While he had a regent, the knight of Lordaeron Bolvar Fordragon, Anduin was forced to learn how to lead at this young age thanks to the machinations of Lady Katrana Prestor. With the help of a hero of the Alliance (the player character of WoW), Anduin was able to uncover the mystery behind his father's disappearance and Lady Prestor's identity. It turned out, she was the black dragon Onyxia: and that she was the one who had kidnapped Varian. Who, it turned out, was alive although not quite well.  Able to step back a little, Anduin was nevertheless a political force to be reckoned with on the world stage: and not one who necessarily toed the Alliance line. More than once, he intervened with attempts to make peace between the Alliance and Horde. He also developed an affinity for wielding the cosmic powers of Light and Shadow. Most of his attempts at peace were short-lived: but, each was better than the last.

Anduin was even unafraid to oppose Varian: and not without merit on occasion. When the disappearance of King Magni Bronzebeard in Ironforge led to a dwarven civil war: Varian came with elite Alliance assassins to kill Moira Thaurissan, who had taken over Ironforge. The trouble was that Moira was King Magni's only child: and dwarven society misogynist enough that it was an open question whether she or her uncle Muradin had the better claim to the throne. Falstad Wildhammer meanwhile believed that neither was fit for the throne, and sought it for himself. Anduin saw a different solution: King Magni after all was not technically dead, just unable to rule.  And so, he stopped his father from killing Moira Thaurissan. He then proposed that the dwarves install a council in which all three tribes had a voice: which would govern the day to day affairs of the dwarves. Ironforge would be open to all dwarves, and the seat of dwarven power. All the dwarven leaders, and Varian, saw the wisdom in this proposal. Emboldened by his success with the dwarves, Anduin attempted to end another war without bloodshed: but this didn't go so well. In fact it went massively not well and [spoiler alert!] got Varian killed. But, Anduin learned from his mistakes: guided by the draenei prophet and leader, Velen. At the same time, Velen also took his magical training to the next level: well, next several levels actually. Anduin at age 20 talking to Saurfang is not only a gifted priest, but a canny leader and seasoned diplomat. Still, he has the idealism of the young. Saurfang could not be more different.

Varok Saurfang is a contradiction. Like all orcs, he believes that a glorious death in battle is what will imbue his life with meaning. However, he struggles with PTSD. He is one of a dying breed: veterans of the first Orc invasion of Azeroth. For perspective: that means he's almost as old as Anduin's grandfather. Indeed, it is partially his PTSD which has caused him to be where he is right now talking to an Alliance High King. When the Warchief set fire to Teldrassil he heard the screams of the Night Elves: and remembered the screams of draenei children he and his fellow orcs killed in Shattrath City thirty five years ago. He snapped, refusing to strike down the Night Elf leader Malfurion Stormrage. The Warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner, branded him a traitor: and let him be captured at the Battle for Lordaeron. This was how he first encountered King Anduin: as his prisoner. But after Saurfang revealed that he wanted to lead a rebellion against Sylvanas: King Anduin let him go. So, Saurfang stands in this tower speaking to a man he owes a debt to. He is also a father who has lost his son, and indeed who believes his son superior to himself: for his son Dran'osh died with honor in battle opposing a threat to the entire world. Not dissimilar from how Varian Wrynn came to view his own son, after they were reunited. Anduin sees in Saurfang more than a little of his father. This surrogate father-son relationship is what makes their deeply vulnerable conversation possible.

Anduin poses a question to Saurfang. If we overthrow Sylvanas, he asks, what kind of Warchief will you be? Saurfang does not answer the question. Instead he offers to Anduin his own self-loathing. This is not simply because Saurfang is depressed: this is a calculated move. In order to overcome the past and move the Horde towards it's highest ideals: the past must be faced and dealt with. The fact that the Path of Glory on which the orcs walked in order to invade Azeroth was paved with the bones of the draenei they had slaughtered: this must be put out in the open. This is not an apology. You can't apologize to someone for invading their kingdom and murdering their grandfather: which is precisely what the First Horde did. You can however face what you have done and take responsibility for it, in front of a representative of your former enemy. Anduin responds to Saurfang in kind: for the Alliance is not innocent either. Again though, this is calculated. Anduin decides to admit specifically to the abandonment of Quel'thalas. Arthas, having picked up Frostmourne and leading the Scourge was nevertheless not the Lich King yet when he invaded the elven kingdom. He was, technically speaking, the King of Lordaeron: even if the still living citizens of that Kingdom no longer acknowledged him as their sovereign. This means that the Alliance of Lordaeron is in fact responsible for the invasion: and thus Prince Kael'thas was justified in joining the Horde.  Now, this is the first time in the entire game that any character from the Horde has taken responsibility for the first invasion, or any character from the Alliance has taken responsibility for Arthas. Indeed, other characters prior to this had explicitly disavowed responsibility for these particular events: blaming the Burning Legion for both crimes. But now as Anduin and Saurfang stand here: the Legion has been defeated, if not totally eradicated.

Anduin is positioning himself as a new kind of King: setting out to topple old assumptions about what it means to be a leader and even what it means to be a man. He tried to be a Warrior-King like his father: that lasted for all of five seconds at the Battle for Lordaeron. Realizing that he was not helping by trying to wield a sword poorly: Anduin set it down and healed his comrades instead. Not only did this save crucial lives, it also improved morale: and the Alliance was able to win the day. But the people of Stormwind still need a warrior-leader: someone who can stand on the front lines where the troops can see them. Luckily, on Kul Tiras Anduin found someone who could do just that: Taelia Fordragon, daughter of his old regent Bolvar. She has a warrior's heart, like Varian and unlike Anduin. Alongside her mount Galeheart, she has become a formidable force for law and order on the docks in Kul Tiras' capital Boralus. She is able and willing to solve problems with force, when that is what the problem requires. This is not however the traditional role for a Queen of Stormwind. It will take the people of that Kingdom some time to adjust to their new rulers, but they will. Anduin has already proven that his powers and approach are effective enough to warrant a break with tradition. 

Varok Saurfang can't do this. He is too old to successfully complete the process of redefining what it means to be an orc or a member of the Horde. But he can start that process with his death. His own death, and no one else's.  He does not tell Anduin this, but it is clearly what he is thinking about. The Horde has a tradition called Mak'gora: a ritual combat to the death. Any leader of a member race can challenge the Warchief to Mak'gora. But, everyone knows that Sylvanas will cheat because the whole reason they are here is that she has no honor. If Sylvanas cheats, Saurfang will certainly die. He will probably die even if she doesn't.  So the way to make his death meaningful is to expose how little Sylvanas cares for her own people: the Forsaken, and those of various other races who have also remained loyal to her. He can do that by preying on her arrogance, by embarrassing her in front of a crowd. She'll need to defend her actions, and in doing so she will mock those loyal to her. Saurfang can leave an example to follow so compelling that others will be able to do the work of redefining the Horde.

Others, like the young troll who idolizes Saurfang: Zekhan. Others, like the old Warchief Thrall: who has in the past few years been forced to face his own mistakes, and his own flaws as a leader. Others, like Lor'themar Theron: the Regent Lord of Quel'thalas, who betrayed his longtime ally Sylvanas to stand with Saurfang. Others like Thalyssra, the leader of the Nightbourne elves who recently joined the Horde.  Most especially, others like Baine Bloodhoof:the High Chieftain of the Tauren people, whose father Cairne helped establish the current Horde back at the time of the Third War. Whether the mantle of Warchief passes to Thrall or Baine, Saurfang's example will be their guide. That means they cannot go back to the way things were. They will be held to the standard that Saurfang held himself to. Because, you know, spoiler alert: Saurfang does indeed die.

Anduin and Saurfang cannot erase the atrocities committed. But they can agree on two important things: Azeroth is their home, and that the future is not determined by the past. Now this is opposed to Sylvanas: who sees the notion of "home" as irrelevant, and who is letting her past dictate her future. She has refused to grow beyond the suffering that Arthas inflicted on her, and so she is letting Arthas define her: even though Arthas is long gone. She reveals in a cutscene that she despises her fellow Forsaken for finding new places for themselves in the Horde and reasons for continuing to exist. She destroyed the Undercity, the home that the Forsaken had constructed in the sewers under Lordaeron's palace. She refuses to die, but refuses to live: a trap many of us, myself included, have fallen into as well. But it's important to swerve away from that and grow beyond your trauma: because then your pain becomes something you can use. Saurfang's empathy for those who have suffered is born from his guilt about the atrocities that he committed. His empathy is also the very quality that makes him so beloved among the Horde. Anduin's profound love for others is born from his personal suffering: and his love for others is the source of his immense power as a priest.

Anduin is not the first Wrynn that Varok Saurfang has inspired by accident. The Lich King killed and raised Varok's son Dran'osh. The heroes of the Horde (the player characters) went with Saurfang to destroy him and take home his body. His bravery, after all, merited a proper funeral. Muradin Bronzebeard tried to block the way. Until, that is, King Varian showed up. Now Varian usually, understandably enough, hated orcs. But Varian instead bid Muradin to stand down and "let a grieving father pass".  As a father recently reunited with his son, Varian could suddenly empathize with Varok Saurfang. He could see him not as an orc, but as a father. Having come back to Stormwind to find that Anduin had ruled capably in his absence, Varian understood for the first time how terrible it would be to lose his son. He could project his feelings for Anduin onto Saurfang, erasing the racial emnity between them for one moment. Furthermore, Varian could compare Dran'osh Saurfang to his own father: both were leaders who stared death in the face with pride and defiance. He could understand for the first time how his father felt as they stared death in the face: how he felt love, not hatred, in his final moments. So he could let go of his own hatred of orcs, because his father had not died hating them. He could instead honor his father by following his example. Which, when the Burning Legion returned to Azeroth, he did. Indeed Varian did not simply die with defiance and with love in his heart for others, but like Dran'osh Saurfang, willingly embraced such a death.

So, as Anduin and Saurfang stand in this tower confronting the ghosts of the past: they are honoring Varian by following his example. Indeed, they are taking his example and applying it on a greater scale. He confronted and overcame his own personal trauma, his own personal fears and hatreds. Saurfang and Anduin are dealing with mass traumas here. It is not enough to confront them on a personal scale, they must do so on a mass scale. It is necessary to defeat Sylvanas that they confront both the legacy of the First Horde, and the legacy of Arthas: both the atrocities committed by the Horde, and those committed by the Alliance. The atrocity of action, and the atrocity of apathy. Sylvanas after all, is not simply an individual: she represents an ideology.  She believes hope is a weakness, home is a lie, relationships are tools. She has not overcome her trauma, and is trying to drag others down with her. She was created from Arthas' invasion of Quel'thalas, and she represents a continuation of the First Horde's legacy. To stop her, Saurfang and Anduin must commit to overcoming these atrocities.

There is a reason we use the word "atrocity".  It is because these are actions you cannot apologize for or compensate: they involve loss of life on such a grand scale, or inhumane actions that cannot be justified by reason. It is tempting to think that you can, but in doing so you would devalue human life and human dignity. There can be no reparation. There can however be a confrontation, and an acceptance. No human society after all is entirely innocent of atrocities: the scale, nature and frequency might vary but all societies have had their darkest hours. We cannot justify abuse, but we can understand it: we can empathize with those who have hurt us. This is our greatest gift as human beings, although it is one we do not use as often as we should. I can look at the man who assaulted me and understand that he was just as much a victim of the Patriarchal system as I was. I can understand that he acted not out of malice but out of desperation, having been told that sex was the way to get the validation that his mother and his peers were not giving him. I also knew then as I do now that his satisfaction would have been short-lived and hollow if I had given in. So too, I can look at a homophobe and see, not as monster, but a person who has doubts about his or her gender and sexuality just as I do. I can oppose that person because they are dealing with their problems in an unhealthy way rather than because I hate them. And only by doing this can we move past these traumas. 

What we need in order to have this conversation, is three things. 1) to recognize that we have experiences in common which transcend the boundaries of identity. 2) to recognize that we share a home: earth. and 3) to recognize that the future is not determined by the past.  We need to be willing to share deeply with each other: to share not only the things we're proud of but the things we are ashamed of or afraid of.  We need to be willing to take responsibility for both our actions and our failures to act. We need to have this conversation, or the sins of our past will continue to haunt us because we will continue to be traumatized by them: both those who committed the atrocities and those who they were committed against. Only by taking responsibility can we move beyond the trauma.  This simple short film from a video game shows us what that conversation about the atrocities in our past looks like. It is an amazing example of what is possible in games, when developers have the courage to actually tackle a complicated theme like "how do we move past mass atrocities?" It is a perfect example too of why we need media despite all it's problems. We need these models, these test-runs, these myths.

Tirion Fordring-Writing Neutral Characters

World of Warcraft is a game defined by factions with different philosophies, and various reasons for existing. It is a world in constant turmoil, with different people all struggling to get what they want or need. There are the two player factions, the Horde and the Alliance. There are others too. There was one character who was almost universally revered by all living things. He wasn't some kind of superhero, or all-powerful overlord. He was a simple old man. Tirion Fordring.

Well, perhaps not so simple. Tirion was a man, committed first and foremost to principles. His principles were hardly unusual, they were the standard teachings of the Church of the Light (a fictional religion followed by the humans in Warcraft).  He was a paladin, a warrior of the church, so this makes sense. But the Church was a part of human society, and human society was firmly connected to the Alliance. It was the humans after all who had first been threatened by the invading orcs.  Indeed it was in the wars against the orcs that the first human paladins came to be. But in the aftermath of the two wars against the orcs, a decision was made that did not sit well with some in the church. The defeated orcs were put into internment camps, which later devolved into outright slavery. The humans were increasingly brutal and savage to their captives. Tirion was one of those who was dissatisfied. When he saw an orc named Eitrigg who was about to be executed for participating in a rebellion, he intervened and saved the orc's life: risking his own. Lord Uther, the leader of the paladin order, ostracized him and conducted a ritual to try to cut him off from the Light. The Alliance leaders also considered his actions criminal. Tirion fled his manor, Mardenholde, and barely escaped with his life. He hid in the mountains south of Quel'thalas, perhaps with the help of the elves or the trolls, for many years.

Even though this area was dangerous, he braved it: so he could be near his son Thaelan. As he watched Thaelan however, he began to realize something was wrong with the Scarlet Crusade: an Alliance organization founded amid the third war (the events of Warcraft III) of which Thaelan was a high-ranking member. In particular he began to notice that there was something disturbing about the relationship between Thaelan and his superior in the organization: High Inquisitor Isilien. Isilien seemed to increasingly control Thaelan, and was forcing him to commit acts that were increasingly brutal. Eventually he learned that the Argent Dawn had hired a team of adventurers (the players of World of Warcraft), to help them deal with the Scourge forces that remained in what was now called the Plaguelands. He left clues to where he was hiding, hoping one of them would find him. It was time to confront Isilien and find out what was really going on in the Scarlet Crusade. One of the adventurers found him, and agreed to go with him to confront High Inquisitor Isilien.  They confronted the Inquisitor and Thaelan at a tower near Mardenholde. In the ensuing argument, Thaelan started to rebel against Isilien. Rather than see Thaelan be turned against him, Isilien pushed him from the tower killing him.  Tirion went into a rage and killed Isilien. In his rage, he reconnected to the Light despite Lord Uther's ritual.

The Scarlet Crusade had enemies: and taking out the High Inquisitor was a blow to them. Darion Mograine, leader of the Argent Dawn, was one enemy of the Scarlet Crusade.  He had once been a high-ranking member of the organization himself: in fact at the very highest rank. His father, Alexandros Mograine, was the founder. But Darion, because he was so close to the top, had seen what was wrong much more easily. He had seen it take hold of his own brother and lead him to betraying their father. It was evil, insidious, and not from the world of Azeroth: it was the Legion. The Legion which had created the Scourge: the enemy that the Scarlet Crusade had been created to fight. Now Tirion and Darion were kindred spirits: having both lost loved ones to the evil that was eating the Crusade. Somehow Darion found Lord Uther's armor, and now he gave it to Tirion as a way to show that all was forgiven. Darion was subsequently killed.

In his absence, Tirion was the obvious choice to lead the Argent Dawn. In the mean time, the elves of Quel'thalas had joined the Horde: having been insulted and abandoned in their time of need by the Alliance. Many elves had been members of the Argent Dawn before this decision, and Tirion decided to let them stay. But more than that, members of the Scourge were starting to free themselves from the Lich King's control: and they had banded together as the Forsaken, and also joined the Horde because the Alliance wanted to kill them all. Some of these were priests, and they learned how to wield the Light despite their undead state. These were people that Tirion and the others had known in life: who were committed to fighting the Scourge now more than ever thanks to their treatment at the Lich King's hands. Tirion made the controversial choice to let them into the Argent Dawn. The Argent Dawn was no longer an Alliance organization. Furthermore, even the most distrustful among them could see the point in working with the Horde as well as the Alliance to take down the Lich King.  After all, the Horde had reason to hate the Lich King as well. Tirion signed a pact with the leaders of the Horde recognizing the Forsaken's right to the land. He promised he would not aid Alliance forces that were attempting to claim the area. This made sense, the Forsaken were citizens of the former Lordaeron just like Tirion was. It was in his interest to recognize their right to the land so that they would recognize his right to Mardenholde. Which they did. With that however, Tirion had made the Argent Dawn officially a neutral player on the political stage. Darion Mograine had hired mercenaries regardless of race: but Tirion would accept full members from both factions. He later renamed the group to the "Argent Crusade".

Thus the stage was set for Tirion to take a peculiar place in the Warcraft story: a place set above the faction conflict, and blurring the line between character and force of nature. You see, Darion was killed, but death in Warcraft is not always the end of a person's story.  Under the control of the Lich King, Darion Mograine assaulted the last stronghold of the Argent Dawn: Light's Hope Chapel. However, having become a paladin after the end of the Third War: Darion lacked essential knowledge of this place. It was here that the Paladins of the Silver Hand had once been invested, before an ancient artifact. It was this artifact, called the Altar of Ancient Kings, which had so far kept the Scourge at bay. Now, the Death Knights of the Ebon Blade, tried to assault it. They failed. The weapon that Darion wielded, the Ashbringer, responded to the power inside the Altar. It turned on him, and without it he could not fight well. He halted the assault, and knelt before Tirion. An image of the Lich King appeared, to cast a very real spell that might have ended it all. However, the Lich King was distracted and in that moment of distraction: Darion was free to act completely on his own. He seized his chance and threw the Ashbringer to Tirion. Tirion channeled the power of the Altar through his body and into the blade: purifying it and making it a weapon of the Light. This was a feat which had been thought impossible, the Altar was not designed to be used by humans or even elves. It had been designed for the Titanforged, the creatures created from stone and metal by the Titans.  But in a crucial way, Tirion had become like them: his motives were pure, and his will was iron. Tirion had no wish to destroy Darion, they were friends and kindred spirits. Darion had valuable skills and knowledge, passed down to him by his father. It was hardly his fault he'd been pressed into the service of the Scourge. The powers of the death knights were valuable too, Tirion had fought against them in the First and Second wars. So, when Darion declared his intention to destroy the Lich King, Tirion accepted him as a partner.

The assault on the Lich King took place soon after. Here Tirion played a crucial role: breaking Frostmourne with the purified Ashbringer. And so, it was done. The Lich King was defeated, and the Scourge destroyed. But there was no turning back for Tirion. He could not simply return to the Alliance, as if nothing had happened. Now he stood between two factions on the brink of war, between two leaders whose hearts boiled with hatred for each other.

And in this position, Tirion could exert a unique power on both the Alliance and the Horde. He represented a constant reminder of what the two factions shared: even after the defeat of their common enemy. Not enough of an influence to stop the two factions from going to war, or even to stop atrocities from being committed in that war. But enough of an influence so that the factions could make peace when the need arose.  So that, for the first time in Azeroth's history, a war criminal could be tried in court rather than simply hunted down and slaughtered. So that the cycle of reprisal and aggression could be ended, even if it was doomed to begin anew immediately. Tirion didn't have to do anything in particular to make this happen, except continue to be present and run the Argent Crusade. This was not the first neutral faction: indeed there were many in the world. But none of them were lead by someone so revered by the leaders of both factions. Tirion exerted this influence because of his dedication to his own principles above loyalty to any faction or nation: changing the world not by using force or strong language, but simply by refusing to change his behavior to fit popular notions of propriety. We typically think of neutral characters as being weak-willed or uninterested, perhaps mercenary types. But Tirion represents a different kind of neutral character, a kind of character who can have a profound influence on the plot of a story: a character who is principled and engaged with the world in a meaningful way, but marching to the beat of a different drummer.

Turalyon & Alleria: Growing Apart Together

It started as so many romances do, with a war. Alleria Windrunner, Ranger General of Quel'thalas answered the call from the Kingdom's human allies to provide troops to fight the Horde. Turalyon was the youngest member of the brand new Order of the Silver Hand. In the First War, the Alliance  had been badly beaten by the Horde: the city of Stormwind had been burned, and the survivors fled north to Lordaeron. The government in exile of Stormwind, was technically headed by seven year old Varian Wrynn. In reality though, it was the knight Anduin Lothar who had shouldered the burden of leadership and he was determined to get revenge. So, he started another war.

This is how Turalyon met Lothar, and Lothar took an interest in the young paladin. Turalyon reminded him of himself when he was younger and less experienced: so Lothar figured that with a little experience he could make a good successor. Lothar had no sons, or at least none that he knew of. The first war with the Horde had distracted him from finding a wife, not that he was the sort of man who would have ever settled down with a single woman. In that way, Turalyon was different. The other way that Turalyon was different was his commitment to the Church of the Light's doctrine. One of the doctrines of the church, was that the Light shone on all creatures. Turalyon reasoned, that ought to include orcs. They might be political opponents, but why should the Light take sides in a war between mere mortals? His doubts made him unable to use the Light well, at least in an offensive manner. Unlike many of the other soldiers, Turalyon couldn't bring himself to hate the orcs although he would acknowledge they were distasteful and strange.

Alleria was the first to learn to hate the orcs. Partway through the war, they snuck around the Alliance army and struck a deal with the age-old enemy of the elves, the Amani trolls. They killed her father and brother, and many other elves. They broke one of the Runestones which kept Quel'thalas safe. Although this event caused King Anasterian to give Alleria more troops, it was hardly enough to make up for the harm they had caused. She slaughtered hundreds of orcs and trolls by herself, and pushed the rest into traps laid by her sister Sylvanas and the Rangers. When she could find no more enemies, she finally allowed herself to grieve. In her misery she wandered without thought, and her body took her to Turalyon's tent. He cared for her, and shared in her pain. That was when she truly started to notice him: his calm demeanor, his caring heart, and his good looks.

Not long after, Lothar and Turalyon were fighting side-by-side. Lothar faced off against none other than the Warchief, the leader, of the Horde: the one they called Blackhand. He was big and strong and a good fighter, and he overwhelmed Lothar. He struck Lothar down and broke his massive sword as if it were a twig. Turalyon had just finished healing a comrade, and turned to see his friend dead. It was at that moment that he realized: it wasn't necessary to hate the enemy, it was enough to love his comrades. The Light came to the aid of the paladins because they loved the Alliance, not because they hated the Horde. He flew into a rage, and the Light came to him as it never had before. Wings like an eagle's made of golden light appeared on his back and turned his brown eyes golden, and with Lothar's broken blade he struck down Blackhand. The Horde lines collapsed, and the Alliance army routed them. Those who surrendered, they put in internment camps. Those who did not surrender remained hunted. The whole of the Alliance army saw Turalyon's fury, including Alleria. Alleria looked on it with joy. Turalyon formed the Sons of Lothar, a group dedicated to exacting revenge for Lothar's death. Alleria volunteered, so did Kurdran Wildhammer, Lord Danath Trollbane, and Khadgar the wizard. They made preparations to go through the Dark Portal to the world of the orcs.

Meanwhile, Alleria finally confessed her feelings to Turalyon. She had realized on that night when she went to him for comfort, that he was utterly awestruck by her. This was not surprising of course. Like all elves she was beautiful, graceful, and had the wisdom of a long life. But when he replied she learned that it was not simply those qualities which had attracted his attention. She had shown up to support the Alliance, even when the rest of her people were reluctant. That showed commitment and generosity that were unusual for her kind. He valued those qualities far more than an elf would have. It was not long before they no longer had words to express their desire for each other. Not long before Turalyon gave himself to her, and she carried a half-elven child in her womb. It was also not long before they needed to leave to go through the Dark Portal. They waited until the child was born, knowing that the homeland of the orcs was no place for a child. They named her son Arator, and left him in the care of Alleria's sister Vereesa. Then they went through the portal and were greeted with a world on the brink of death. The only thing to do was jump through one of the other portals and hope it didn't lead to a Legion prison planet. Alleria and Turalyon watched as Draenor exploded on the other side of the portal. But the Draenor they were standing on remained. They had found an alternate timeline.

Alleria and Turalyon received a visit from X'era, the Prime Naaru. She told them of her plan to destroy the Burning Legion and they agreed to help her. Turalyon even agreed to become Lightforged through a holy ritual. This would grant him even greater power, power he would need in order to command the older and abler Draenei (fantasy race of blue goat people, no nobody knows what Blizzard were smoking). That was why X'era had chosen him, he had the ability to command well.  Alleria did not agree to become Lightforged, preferring to rely on her bow and her own skills. This was fine, her skills never failed her. She was perfectly able to support Turalyon and the Army of the Light as they became known. She certainly had no trouble taking down the demons that made up the Burning Legion. From their own perspective, Turalyon and Alleria fought the Legion for a thousand years (time-travel shenanigans happened). Turalyon's transformation into a Lightforged made him as immortal as his wife, able to be killed with weapons but not by old age. They began to stop counting the years.

Then Alleria had some encounters with the void, an enemy of the Light or so it was claimed. X'era got mad at her, imposing penalties on her as she began to experiment with the void. Alleria did not understand why, and X'era's explanations made no sense. Turalyon didn't quite know why either, but he trusted X'era's judgement more than Alleria did. Things came to a head when Alleria used void powers under the instruction of an ethereal.  X'era locked her in the ship's prison. Turalyon however, did not get mad at her and begged X'era for her release. His practical command instincts kicked in, and prevented him from being as blind as X'era. He saw the use of these powers, the ways in which they covered the weaknesses of the Light. He supported Alleria in her quest to learn more about the void, even as he cautioned her to be careful of her sanity. Eventually Alleria learned how to anchor herself so that the void could not take over her mind: her love for her son Arator allowed her to see what visions were real and which were fake. Even though he could no longer touch her without agonizing pain, Turalyon still loved her. She did grow in her void powers, eventually absorbing the power of a dying Naaru which had gone dark in it's torment. Yet even as she heard the whispers of the void, her heart remained true to her shining husband and beloved son. She saw Arator again, when the heroes of Azeroth finally came to defeat the Legion once and for all. He challenged her decision to leave him, but was willing to reconnect with her. He had grown into a great paladin, with the help of the Highlord of the Silver Hand (the paladin player). Together, Turalyon and Alleria led the charge to defeat the Legion: and Alleria started to fight to keep the void in check as well.

Together, they rejoined the Alliance: as the leaders of two different racial factions. Turalyon leads his fellow Lightforged, even though they are mostly draenei while he is a human. He has largely left behind the man he was during the Second War, and identifies himself more strongly with these people now: besides which they need his leadership, he's the only leader they have ever known. Alleria leads a group of Thalassian elves dissatisfied with the current leadership and their peoples' superstitions about the void. Alleria's reputation allows them to be brought into the Alliance, which otherwise would not have accepted them as members because of their connection to a Horde society. The idea of this power couple ever divorcing is ludicrous: it's not even clear that divorce is possible under the laws of the Alliance. Yet they have grown apart. They have taken their own paths towards different destinies: becoming father and mother to different nations, and embracing what seem to be opposing cosmic forces.

This is not something I ever remember seeing in a story before. Indeed it is an idea that our society still finds very hard to accept: the idea that a woman and a man can have totally distinct passions and still be happily married. The idea that you can sacrifice your own comfort or pleasure, to allow someone you love to pursue their passion when you don't share that passion. Turalyon is content with the Light, and his relationship to it. Yet he sacrifices the pleasure of physical intimacy, no small thing, for her advancement. He does not share her interest in the void, but he loves her. What does that mean? it means he wants her to succeed: regardless of her chosen path. It means he puts her happiness over his own, regardless of what she defines as happiness. That is what love is.

Indeed the lore and mechanics of the game question the very dichotomy our culture likes to set up in these cases. We ask the woman in a marriage to sacrifice for her man: to move to better accommodate his job, to cut her hours to provide childcare while he spends the time advancing himself, to see to the household's food even when he's the one who drives by the store on the way home. Yet, society in no way advances a woman who does this. Quite aside from feminists getting angry at her (which is a whole different topic), this woman doesn't really receive the honor she should get from her husband or society at large. If a man does the same thing, society is even harsher: ostracizing and bullying him endlessly. But for Turalyon, his sacrifice is actively empowering. His will to sacrifice for those he loves, whether Alleria, the Alliance, his son, or the Lightforged, is what enables him to use the Light in the first place. X'era's disagreement notwithstanding, for Turalyon supporting Alleria is as much a part of his chosen path as fighting the Legion. Love leads people to be willing to sacrifice for each other. There is nothing wrong with that. One might even say, that's the point. People who are willing to make sacrifices out of love should be advanced by society. Otherwise we have a society that teaches people not to love.

Illidan Stormrage- The Antiheroic Christ

Despite the several commentators who have questioned whether it is possible for video games to have anti-heroes: Illidan Stormrage is a textbook example. He is also a textbook Messiah. His work is genuinely the salvation of everyone who lives on Azeroth, from the greatest threat to their existence: the Burning Legion. His body is literally broken, twisted, a tool for subjugating demons. He has been rejected by society, suffering with relatively little complaint the mistreatment of his own brother and sister-in-law. He has been betrayed by his erstwhile followers: Kael'thas, Lady Vashj, and Akama. Yet he presses on in his salvific quest. The reader expects a vindication and a heroic death.

But in what way is he an anti-hero? The man has never heard of consent. He takes what he needs without asking, without consideration for how people feel. He does what he knows needs to be done, assuming that everyone is out to stop him. He is self-centered in his understanding of how others think. He believes that everyone is either with him or has no other purpose than to oppose him. The things he asks for are not things anyone would easily give up, that is true. However, there are very few things a person will not give up to ensure the safety of their loved ones, and that is the prize that awaits at the end of Illidan's work. Yet, he won't tell anyone how he plans to stop the Legion. Quite the contrary, he leads everyone to believe it is impossible. They think he is Don Quixote, and so of course they refuse when he asks for things they care about.  This toxic masculinity doesn't help him in his quest: in fact it gets him killed.

By the players of World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade. You enter the Black Temple, Illidan's base of operations on Outland, and you slaughter him for his shiny weapons. You are there with people you have no reason to question, on orders from your superiors. And besides, surely there is someone better to use the powerful artifact weapons he wields? After all, Illidan is crazy and working with the Legion after all right? The constricted nature of video game narratives is a useful tool in the hands of Blizzard developers for this story. The story they are telling you, the player, isn't wrong: it's simply not the entire story with all the details put in. The crucial detail here is that Kael'thas and Lady Vashj are indeed working with the Legion, but not on behalf of Illidan.

It is not incorrect that Illidan has in fact abused Akama's trust. Akama, who is goading you to kill him. The Legion uses machines that run on souls, and Illidan has stolen one of them. These powerful machines are necessary for creating and maintaining portals to and from worlds. Illidan can use these portals to strike at the Legion's strongholds, and to steal the Sargerite Keystone: which can take him to the Legion's home. Illidan then goes to the burial ground of Akama's people, a place called Auchindoun, and takes their souls for the machine. Now, Akama's people are the draenei: refugees from the Legion. They have fought the Legion for thousands of years, and experienced the Legion's cruelty firsthand many times. As a shaman, Akama has the ability to talk with the spirits. Illidan, working with Akama, could have asked if they were willing to give up their existence in order to fight the Legion. He might well have been able to talk them into doing so. 

If the machine processes an unwilling soul, the experience is painful. If the soul is willing however, the pain is less or perhaps even nonexistent. The power of souls is known and used not just by the Legion, but also by the good guys: the Titans, and their mortal followers. The machines of the Titans seem to function in exactly the same way as the machines of the Legion. Nor does this fact seem to be unknown. The paladins back on Azeroth know this is the case, because they use such a machine. They also use a burial ground as their source of power: but in one respect what they are doing is different. They are willing to have their souls used as a source of energy. Illidan, older and far more well versed in magic than they are, ought to know this as well. So, we cannot excuse his actions by saying he was unaware of the available alternative. Furthermore, if Illidan had asked for Akama's help and the draenei had been allowed to consent: then Akama would have had no reason to spring Illidan's nemesis Maiev out of jail. Because Illidan assumes that the draenei would not consent, he both tortures thousands of people and gets himself killed unnecessarily. Yet, as he falls he turns over onto his back with his arms spread out. The camera then flips to show him lying on the ground, his body making the unmistakable shape of a cross. His body is imprisoned hanging in a cruciform position as well. Make no mistake, Illidan is a Christ figure.

Now, Warcraft just like any other fantasy story reflects our world. It reflects and comments on the socio-political context in which it takes place. We thus cannot fail to read in Illidan a damning indictment of the modern Evangelical Church. But, not one that is created out of any malice towards the Church. Look up any video of former WoW developer Chris Metzen. He usually has a cross around his neck. No, this is what we would call constructive criticism. That is, the critic intends to improve the thing being criticized by pointing out it's flaws in a respectful manner so that they can be corrected. Much like Neil Gaiman's tongue-in-cheek depiction of the multiple Christs at Easter's tea party in American Gods, writing Illidan as an antiheroic Christ figure is a comment about the way that some churches' selective overlooking of some scripture passages characterizes Christ as bizarrely entitled and arrogant: thus encouraging a toxic masculinity. Illidan is the Christ of the Evangelical churches.

The irony is, he recognizes his flaw in everyone except himself. His nemesis Maiev is no better than he is, taking without asking because she knows it's the right thing to do. He hates her for it.  He complains about Kael'thas taking power without asking. Likewise the Prime Naaru X'era. A Prime Naaru is a crystalline creature, they seem to have the power level of an archangel in this universe. What makes a Naaru "prime" is her ability to create other Naaru, which also gives her greater intelligence and an explicitly female gender. X'era is no better than Illidan, she takes without asking and tries to make her plan happen without asking if everyone is okay with it. She tries to force Illidan to give up his demonic powers. He doesn't want to, he suspects she wants to control him (which is true). He ends up killing her over it. But this is a character that brags about forcing the hand of fate. He is hypocritical and arrogant.

Yet this final confrontation with X'era, or perhaps the amalgamation of all his confrontations with people he has wronged, seems to have changed Illidan. The very next thing he says, shows that he no longer believes himself to be the sole savior of the world. He explicitly denies the truth of X'era's prophecy that there is a single savior. He says that we are the only ones who can save ourselves, and we have everything we need already.

A daring thing to say when a man is trying to chop you in half, as High Exarch Turalyon is (more on him later).  But he's right. The Prophet Velen confirms what he says, that their faith and their strength are more than enough. Illidan is content to be one among many: and indeed even follows the High Exarch's orders. The last time we see him in the game, he is not sacrificing himself for the good of others. He is a warrior, staying behind to take a crack at the enemy he has been tracking all this time: the titan Sargeras. His cruciform appearance is gone: instead we see him with his blades unsheathed. If he's about to go down, it will be fighting.  The death of a warrior, not a Messiah. He also admits to his brother and to Tyrande, as well as to the player, the mistakes he has made along the way. He leaves it up to them to defend the world. He is no longer a Christ figure, but he is a better man. When we consider satire, it is usual to first try the hypothesis that it is satirizing the most powerful people of the time and place when it was written. Thus, it seems reasonable to read Illidan's story arc as a satire of the Evangelical churches, since they are the most politically and culturally powerful Christian organization in America (Blizzard's lead developers are all American). This matches up, Evangelicals do actually present a bizarrely arrogant and demanding version of Christ in their interpretations of scripture due to their selective reading and cultural filter.

Or at least, they did. To some extent the vision of Christ in the Evangelical churches is still a representation of what would outside of that context be called "toxic masculinity".  But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the way in which change is occurring. Blizzard has a bizarre habit of predicting current events in their stories: and this is one of those moments. In June this year, the Southern Baptist Convention (the Southern Baptists being the biggest of the Evangelical churches), acknowledged that they had treated women unfairly over the past century and half. They admitted they had protected perpetrators of sexual abuse, and that they had encouraged behaviors that led to rape. They recognized that women should be allowed to have leadership roles in the church, and that they should work on discerning which roles those should be with the input of women from the community. That is, the men realized that they could not do the salvific work that is the church's duty on their own. They needed the help of the women. They needed to be content to be one of two. Life imitates Art.

Tohsaka and Tyrande-Writing badass women

You know the woman, the hardened stone-faced one who dresses like a man and likes "boy things".  The one who never has an emotion that isn't anger. The badass woman.  Except, there's a problem isn't there? yes, there is. She may be a great character, funny, interesting, exciting. There's nothing actually wrong with this character. But...is this a woman? Can a person who shows no vulnerability, who dresses and acts in a way that is stereotypically masculine, really be called a woman? She is female, that is determined by biology. However, a female need not be a woman. Now, are there people who are really like this female character? yes, of course. But are they women? debatable. A real life person, should be allowed to define themself: but a fictional character needs to be defined appropriately by their author.  This type of character really should be written as transgender or third-gender, this is the 21st Century and we can say those words in public. 

Readers, for better or for worse, look up to fictional characters. What message are you sending to your reader? Are you sending a message to a reader that affirms their gender identity? Or are you telling girls that the only way to get respect is to be masculine? Are you telling women who usually would show their feelings, dress and act in a stereotypically feminine way, that they are not strong? Are you sending the message that femininity is weak? if so, you are not writing a feminist text. A feminist text affirms femininity, not just female characters. Now, am I saying that you should never write a female character who is "one of the guys".  No, of course not. Those characters can be very good: they can be interesting and funny and cool.  Just apply a little thought to what the character's gender identity actually is. But, what if you do want a badass woman. How do you write someone who is badass, and a woman?

Tyrande Whisperwind, leader of the night elf civilization in the Warcraft mythos provides an excellent example. She is, without question, a badass. She rides a sabertooth tiger, uses a magic bow, and commands a ghost eagle. She is an effective combatant, using both her weapons and her magic to do damage to the enemy and make her allies stronger. However, it is important that we first meet her alongside her husband Malfurion Stormrage and while playing as his twin brother Illidan. One of the biggest problems with the usual stereotype of the "badass woman" is that she has no emotional expression. Usually this is because she is isolated from others. She generally has no family or friends, nobody that she is truly close to. Tyrande isn't isolated at all, quite the opposite. She is the motherly leader of a whole society, with a small but important and complicated family. Malfurion and Illidan have grown apart over the years, but they are in some ways so much alike: and Tyrande's presence helps to highlight that fact. They are both arrogant in their own ways, and both so convinced of their own rightness that they are both blind to each others' perfectly valid points. 

Tyrande is notably selfless, lacking the arrogance and need to be correct that her husband and brother-in-law both display. If this were a typical fantasy, we would expect Malfurion to be the leader with a grandiose title. But Warcraft is not a typical fantasy.  This society is gynarchal, that is it privileges women. Women make up the clergy, who control the elite military units (which are thus, all-female) and in addition are more likely to be given positions of political leadership. But this is not the only reason that Tyrande is the leader. Tyrande emerges as the de facto leader of the night elves, or Kaldorei as they call themselves, during the War of the Ancients. This war overthrew the previous government, led by Queen Azhara and the Highbourne because they collaborated with an invading army. 

True, she was the high priestess in the Sisterhood of Elune: the main religious organization in this society. However, that is not the only reason that she becomes the de facto leader of the Kaldorei rebellion. Her intrinsic talents justify her leadership position: something that is very important when writing any leader. Tyrande's intrinsic talent is her ability to see the big picture, and stay focused on it. This is an important trait for a leader, obviously. Of course, Tyrande has flaws: she is xenophobic to the point of paranoia, and blindly utilitarian.  The festering trauma of Queen Azhara's betrayal causes Tyrande to distrust anyone or anything that resembles the Highbourne even slightly: without giving consideration to how the situation might be different. This extends to being willing to execute her own brother-in-law. Even though Malfurion convinces her to spare him, she values him only insofar as he is useful to her despite being an actual family member. 

However, because of this story of the War of the Ancients, Tyrande's flaws are sympathetic. We understand why she acts the way she does, even if we wouldn't agree with her actions. She is someone we can criticize and yet profoundly respect. She has worked hard to not only achieve victory for her people, but to subsequently create a mostly harmonious civilization. Tyrande has no title, even though she does the job of being a Queen. This puts her as not just a leader, but a specific kind: embodied by the real life George Washington and the mythical Cincinnatus. While this type of character is hardly unusual in fantasy settings, what is unusual is that this character is a woman. 

Tyrande puts her own pride aside to join the Alliance of Lordaeron: and forms a great professional relationship with the human King Varian Wrynn. While some of her people look down on the humans, elves being so long lived see them as childish, but Tyrande notably does not. Of course, she challenges him: but her challenges come only from a genuine desire to help him make the best decision possible for the Alliance. She isn't constantly pushing her people's agenda, or trying to steal the spotlight the way some other leaders in the game do. Her ability to always see the full context of someone's actions, means she is respected-one might even say revered-across all of Azeroth regardless of faction: one of only a few mortal characters to have that distinction. A truly strong and heroic woman.

On the surface, Rin Tohsaka the protagonist of Fate: Stay Night, could not be more different. She seems like a fairly traditional Japanese high school girl, living in a fairly traditional Japanese town. The story seems to be set in the 1980s, amid Japan's explosive but uneven economic growth, since there are electric heaters and televisions but no desktop computers or cell phones. But, Rin Tohsaka has a secret. She is a mage, indeed her family are famous as mages. A mage, is a person who can summon and control spiritual beings known as Servants.  The central conflict of the story, is the Holy Grail War. Yes, the words "servant" and "holy grail" actually appear in the Japanese text: and yes, Japanese is one of those languages that doesn't distinguish 'r' from 'l'. I can only guess that the writers intended for the voice actors to want to murder them. 

Speaking of murder, that is what this Holy Grail War is about. It is about killing other mages and their Servants. Seven mages are chosen to summon seven powerful Servants: only one can claim the Grail. While it is possible to knock a mage out of the tournament by making them lose their Servant, this is prohibitively difficult. What this does, is set up a story that questions the very notion of heroism.  The Servants are all heroes of the past from around the world, but despite their talk of honor and heroism: what they are doing is little more than a glorified bloodsport. Rin herself is inexperienced, and makes some rookie mistakes. However, even over the course of a few episodes she grows to the point where she initiates another mage into the tournament. Rin is a strong character, and endowed by the writers with some traits usually associated with male characters: such as a sense of honor and duty. She grows into the trope of the samurai warrior: placing duty to family before personal preference, and honor above all else. By "honor" I mean that Rin follows a code of ethics for fighting, it's not made totally clear whether this is a personal code or something taught to her by her absent father. 

But at no point is she coded as unfeminine. She wears a dress, a red dress in fact. She flirts with male characters. The high pitched Japanese voice acting helps a lot in her characterization, by never letting her be seen as masculine even as she acts aggressively. The writers can let her be a little bit masculine as she grows from schoolgirl to commander, but they feel no need to present her as unsexed. There are several scenes where she is carried by her Servant, recalling the romantic ending sequences of old Hollywood movies: but hilariously recast as a vehicle for some indulgence in kung fu movie physics. There is sexiness in this anime, it's about high school after all and emerging sexuality is thus a part of it. But, there are none of the upskirt or cleavage shots that have become standard for the genre. Characters flirt through words, and posture. 

The show uses the honorifics of ordinary Japanese language to characterize the different girls. While I don't know precisely what these words mean: it's easy to get the feeling for them by listening to the tone of voice. Rin speaks softly but with purpose, she never speaks unless she needs to and never says more than that she means to. She speaks to everyone with respect, but reserves deference for the teachers.  Emiya, the naive quiet boy with a special gift for fixing electrical appliances, speaks in a way that shows his lack of confidence. Emiya's adopted sister runs around calling everyone "senpai" which anyone who has been on the internet knows is a bit extreme: indicating that she is trying too hard to be liked. These three main characters all have a strong sense of duty, but to different things. Emiya feels a duty to help those in need, because he was orphaned as a child and brought up by a stranger. His sister feels a duty to her household, to keep it clean and pretty and in accordance with tradition. Rin feels a duty to bring glory to her family, and succeed where her father did not. To highlight this, the show gives them a perfect foil: an incompetent adult. 

She isn't grossly negligent like some of the adults in 90s YA novels: but she is absent-minded and thus irresponsible. She isn't their parent either, which takes the edge off somewhat: she's the daughter of the absentee landlord for Emiya and his sister's house, and one of the teachers. As such, she has privilege: and she exercises it by refusing to be responsible for herself, or others. She doesn't cook her own dinner or breakfast, and she doesn't really try to keep the kids from going out when the city issues a warning. Her lack of a sense of duty to those who are under her care (since she is the only adult present), makes the childrens' sense of duty more obvious. Privilege, what is supposed to be the reward for doing your duty: is blinding her to her real duty. Rin on the other hand, having lost the privilege that her family once clearly had (the house she lives in is large and ornate, obviously a manor house of some kind), has a strong sense of duty to the only thing her family has left: their name. Emiya, forced to depend on the generosity of strangers for most of his life, has a strong sense of duty to help society in any way he can. His sister simply wants other people to like her, and being dutiful helps her accomplish that. This story is one of recovering the most important aspects of the past that is about to disappear, and holding onto them while going towards the future. It is about being a samurai, and a modern woman: about being a hero, in a corrupting and degrading world. A story for our times, and a story for the ages.

Here there be no Monsters: The turn of the milennium, & the mothers of the MOBA.

It is the spring of 2003, and the nascent internet is buzzing with news of an expansion to the already famous Warcraft III, from Blizzard Entertainment. The Warcraft games are real-time strategy games with a high fantasy setting. The gameplay is similar to Go, where the aim is to out-think your enemy and control areas of the map. You are given different sets of abilities to work with in order to accomplish this task. The Warcraft games were particularly famous for their ability to use these mechanics to tell a story, grabbing the attention of RPG fans as well as strategy game fans, and Warcraft III was widely considered their best entry in the franchise yet. But the poster for this expansion to Warcraft III was not simply being talked about on Blizzard's official forums, or on the websites dedicated to gaming.

No, it was being talked about in AoL chatrooms, MySpace, Neopets and Club Penguin: the parts of the internet inhabited in the early naughts by teen and preteen girls. It wasn't the Warcraft name or the Blizzard logo which had grabbed the attention of these girls: it was the face in the center of the poster. The smouldering green eyes set against tanned skin and framed by long blond locks, the smirking mouth framed by a hint of stubble. For many girl gamers seeing Arthas Menethil for the first time, was like what male gamers experienced when they first saw Cortana (the AI in the shape of a beautiful woman from Halo).  It was a revelation.

Games could offer more than simply a way to waste a few hours, a video game character was someone you could fall in love with the same way that you fell in love with movie characters.  It started of course with girls who were sisters, cousins and next-door-neighbors of avid gamers. Nobody reposts faster than a teenage girl, and before long Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne had reached a far wider audience than any game of it's kind before. It was the kind of audience that video game companies could only dream of: the kind of audience that only card games had ever reached before. But this was not a card game, it was not a game which appealed to children but which adults would leave behind.  It was a game for adults, and it was challenging. But the girls who bought it were motivated to overcome the challenges, or find the cheats, because of the other things the game offered.

Prince Arthas Menethil is not a character you would expect a game, let alone a strategy game, to do justice to. The game struck the tricky balance between fairy tale and reality, between the fantasy hero and modern-day military commander. Of course, fans of the other Warcraft games were unsurprised about this: Blizzard was always able to strike this balance well. But the girls who picked up the game had no knowledge of those other games, and they were shocked. The trick was the relationship between Arthas and his girlfriend Jaina. Their dialog was witty, flirty, and realistic: in that it used language which real people would actually use. They might be a Prince and Princess in a fantastic world trying to solve a zombie plague, but they talked like your mom and dad. MySpace exploded with fanart, much of which can still be found on tumblr and Deviantart.

Jaina was not simply a Princess to be rescued, in fact she was more likely to do the rescuing. She was more than capable of handling herself even in the chaotic situations that inexperienced players frequently got themselves into. She had a distinctive character that was related to, but did not depend on Arthas. Her identity as a mage set her apart from him, and she drove the story independently of him. She was also actually useful in gameplay, unlike so many female video-game sidekicks (this was mere months after Goldeneye's infamously useless Natalya).  Her mage abilities synchronized well with Arthas' paladin spells, so that the two fought together in a natural way when they had to face the enemy themselves. The game set them up as a perfect pair, a King and Queen in all but name.

Does one need spoiler warnings for games that are over a decade old? well, spoilers ahead. This being a Blizzard game of course, the perfection cannot last. At the climax of the story, Jaina must choose to follow her lover in killing innocent people or abandon him and face a hopeless future alone. She chooses the latter.  Acting on the words of the mysterious Prophet, Jaina gathers up the survivors of the zombie plague and sails into the unknown. Jaina could have considered the plight of Lordaeron to be no longer be her problem, after Arthas' betrayal. Instead, she takes up the responsibilities of Queen, without any of the perks. Here was a woman that a girl could look up to, a woman she could wish to become. In 2003, that was virtually unknown in the gaming world. There were women in games, but none of them were role models. But this game was far from done amazing it's new audience.

The campaign continues and Arthas continues to become evil after taking possession of a cursed sword. Playing the game is a devastating experience, because you aren't simply watching Arthas destroy everything he loves. No, you are Arthas as he destroys everything he loves. It is a great example of a story that could really only be told in a game, because it's emotional weight comes from the player feeling the same way about Lordaeron that Arthas does. The transition from hero to villain is not sudden, it is gradual and insidious: you can't pinpoint the moment that it happens. Even to this day fans of the series still debate whether Arthas was right to kill the citizens of Strathholme, or not. Although they were innocent, they were cursed to a fate worse than death: undeath. The undead in this world, you see, are also enslaved to the will of the Lich King. Was Arthas showing compassion, or was he murdering them?  Was he using his power to save them, or was it an abuse of his position as Prince? it is genuinely difficult to say.

But there is no difference in how the fans feel about this moment: it is horrifying. And you, you the player, are doing it. You are cutting down innocent confused people, and every time you do it it hurts: no matter how many times you play the game. People like to say that dictators who turn on their own people are monsters: but that is to say that they are not people, not humans. It is a pitiful attempt at equating humanity to goodness. Warcraft III, unusually for a game at this time, confronts the player with the darkness in their own soul. It confronts you with the fact that if you were faced with the same choice as Arthas, you would have done as he did. Even if you believe Arthas is saving the people, you know he is damning himself. In most stories, this is where Arthas would die: either a noble hero sacrificing himself for the good of his people, or a tragic hero overcome by his attachment to his country.

Remember, this is 2003: two years into the Iraq war.  The country was gripped with a fever of blind patriotism. Prince Arthas' zeal was something everyone could identify with, even those who opposed the war were worried about the country's safety. And like Prince Arthas, we were all willing to sacrifice some people for the good of the many. But because we carried out this action in a fictional world, we could be a step removed from it: and understand just how horrifying it really is.
To make matters worse, the story doesn't end with Strathholme. No, Arthas goes on to betray his friend and pick up a cursed sword of evil. Frostmourne is still an icon in gaming, not simply because of it's excellent visual design but because of this story. Frostmourne is a weapon of death, and it turns whomever wields it into a grim reaper.

We've seen the grim reaper before in games of course, but never one quite so terrifying or so human. Slowly, the golden locks turn white and the once glowing skin pallid. The green eyes no longer smoulder with life, and the attractive smirk becomes a grimace. Arthas transforms before our eyes into a mockery of himself, as he destroys the Kingdom he once protected. They can't show the downfall of Lordaeron in the game, not truly: instead they show it in the person of Arthas. His former friend and mentor Uther might call Arthas a monster, but the player knows the devastating truth is that Arthas is still very much a human. There is no escape from that truth for us.  It is not simply a Lovecraftian "the monster is us" message. The message is: there are no monsters.

There are simply people who have different agendas, and people can easily jump between them. The undead Scourge is without a doubt evil, but it is not as monstrous as it first appears. That reaction is a product of our inherent bias, and it's wrong. With Arthas leading it, the Scourge becomes as human as the defenders of Lordaeron. It's evil cannot be dismissed or downplayed, it must be dealt with directly.

Enter, the Banshee Queen. After destroying Lordaeron, Arthas turns on Quel'thalas, the elven kingdom. Like you would expect from an elven kingdom, it is hidden and it protects a fountain of magical power: which Arthas needs in order to resurrect the necromancer Kel'thuzad, and summon the demon Archimonde into the world. During the invasion of Quel'thalas, Arthas captures Ranger General Sylvanas Windrunner who is in charge of the defense. She begs for a quick death, but he instead tortures her and then rips out her soul turning her into a banshee. In addition to being extremely painful, this also gives her additional powers. However, other forces are at work in the world and the Lich King's ability to enslave the undead weakens. Sylvanas and some other of the stronger undead are able to free themselves from the Lich King's control. She realizes this, and gathers them up into a fighting force: which she takes to the ruins of Lordaeron.

Now, Sylvanas is a rape victim. The rape is metaphorical rather than literal, this is a game directed at teenagers after all, but there is no question that's what it is. She behaves and talks like a rape victim. She is someone that a woman can look up to, because she is an example of how to deal with trauma in a healthy way: gather up other people who have experienced the same trauma, and forge a new path together. Sylvanas and the Forsaken, as they call themselves, cannot ever escape their trauma. They are literally walking corpses.

What they can do, is transcend it: that is, they do not have to let it define them. Indeed, they need to. They need to, because the humans who are still around do define them by their physicality (most of them, anyhow).  They cannot allow these people to define their nascent society, otherwise it will never work. But it is the older and wiser elves who recognize them for what they represent: the best chance for the Scourge to be beaten. They are, after all, former members of the Scourge: they know how the enemy operates and have information about it's weaknesses. The practical elves decide to ally with the Forsaken: giving their new nation the legitimacy it needs. As I mentioned, elves are long-lived: and thus, patient. Sylvanas is no exception. Although she thirsts for revenge, she does not rush it. She works intelligently and methodically. First she turns the demons against one another, then she finds out the secret to the plague of undeath. This tells her what can harm the Scourge. Then she crafts her poisoned arrow. Then she shoots it at Arthas, and he is paralyzed. Only the arrival of the necromancer Kel'thuzad foils Sylvanas' plan.

Sylvanas isn't simply an anti-hero: that is, a hero who uses morally questionable methods and doesn't model virtue.  Sylvanas' existence questions one of the pillars of fantasy: the notion of the monster.  She is reviled for what she is: but at the same time she is loved for who she is. The players of Warcraft games have been divided over this character since her very first appearance. She is a smart and competent leader with an unerring eye for talent and the confidence to go against convention. Her decision to train and promote the human Nathanos Marris proved to be crucial for the Alliance's victory in the Second War.  At the same time, Sylvanas is not a kind or generous person and she has no real right to even exist. Her methods can be both morally questionable and truly horrifying. Especially because she is female, her lack of empathy can be shocking and repulsive. It is this last thing which is so revolutionary about Sylvanas for female gamers (or indeed women in general). Her presence gives us permission to not pretend that we care, when really we don't.

Women are particularly vulnerable to emotional manipulation in our culture because we are taught to pretend that we care.  Again it's this issue of pushing the burden to create and maintain relationships onto women. Obviously, emulating Sylvanas completely would be bad. But this too is unusual in fiction: a leader that people want to follow, who they would never want to be. While there is a vocal portion of the fanbase that hates this character, and not without good reason: there are also legions of loyal fans. Although she is definitely a sexually appealing character: sex appeal only serves to pique interest, it cannot sustain that interest. People love her because she is an effective and experienced leader, who values talent over anything else. People hate her because she does not validate them and she acts in a way that is contradictory to their morality.  She doesn't have honor and doesn't subscribe to an ideology. Some people find that monstrous, others find it inspiring.

This ambivalence is unusual in video games. Most of the time the vast majority of a game's fanbase feels one way or another about a character: they love the character, or hate them, think they are good or bad. Then again, most video games do not attempt to tackle questions like "what is humanity?" That is the question however that a character like Sylvanas presents us with, by her very existence. Is she human? at first blush one tends to think the answer is no. But then, if you play as a blood elf in World of Warcraft you can find a locket in a tower which you learn once belonged to Sylvanas. If you bring it to her, she sings a lament for her home and it's one of the most beautiful songs in a game that is well known for it's beautiful music. She might tell everyone else she feels nothing, she might even believe that herself: but you know better. She has a heart, and she does feel. That's why she bothered to free others from the control of the Scourge.  That's why she raises new Forsaken, despite the pain of that existence. She has, in truth, found joy in even these circumstances. Being strong enough and wise enough to find the good in life despite it's horrors is something we can all admire and emulate.

Warcraft as a mythos has plenty of standout characters, male and female, which I could spend a lot of time talking about. Most intriguing however, is that these characters did not simply become foundational to the MMORPG World of Warcraft. No, these characters inspired the creation of an entirely new gaming phenomenon: the MOBA. It's a simple enough type of game: defend your base and take down the enemy's. You have regular units, called creeps for the way that they move slowly forward until annihilated, and hero units which are controlled by players and have special abilities. This is based off of the general structure of Warcraft III, because Defense of the Ancients (or DoTA as it has become known), was originally a custom map for Warcraft III. This is extremely important in the history of gaming because for the first time we have a game genre which was built around having strong and capable female characters. The archetypes represented by Jaina, Sylvanas, and other female characters in the game shaped the entire genre from it's inception.

This is a game genre that could very easily have never featured female characters, look at the (probably) all-male cast of Team Fortress 2. Games are, by necessity, bound to traditions. Gaming is an industry, not yet a true art form: and therefore it is all about what will sell. Most companies prefer to play it safe, and stick with what they know will work. That is why most games have generic white male protagonists and tell the same sexist, racist, homophobic stories over and over again. So, establishing good traditions at the foundations of genres is key.

But more than simply having strong female protagonists, the MOBA genre is also defined by Warcraft III's central message: there are no monsters. This is inherently an anti-prejudicial message: without the need to resort to display of visual diversity that could very easily end up being seen as condescending, rather than affirming. If there are no monsters, no bogeymen, then there are only stark economic and social realities. There is only the reality of economic exploitation and the loss of supremacy. There is only the reality of tyranny oversees and at home, and the slow creation of the inevitable enemy of that tyranny: the terrorist. There is only the reality of eager technocrats rushing to play God. This way of understanding the world can be seen in games like League of Legends through the lore and character concepts. Better than any survey of political beliefs, these games prove what the majority of people believe: the truth is something to be confronted, not avoided. There are no monsters, only people who act on their own agendas.