The Story So Far

Deathwing is dead and the world has little time to rejoice. Starvation and homelessness plagues the land as the resources of the world dwindled in breaths of flame. The horde takes Theramore to claim the newly fertile Southern Barrens for their own. The aggression between the factions builds up. With no distractions, the alliance and horde have nothing to deter them from attacking the other.

Then a strange land, never seen before in recorded history shows itself. The magical force hiding it for millenia halts abruptly. Resource starved, both factions race to this new luscious land vying for dominance there. Obviously a land with so much untapped potential could bring a huge advantage to whomever could lay claim. The factions arrive and lay into each other, ignoring the warnings given by the native Pandaren. The warnings that continued aggression would only bring doom at the hand of the terrible Sha, beings that only grow stronger with hate and anger. Beings that lay dormant for countless ages as the Pandaren had already mastered peace through love of food and brewing.

This isn't the only thing to appear from the mist however. A great sea turtle, bearing another set of Pandaren upon it, appears. But these aren't the same docile Pandaren located upon the continent. These Pandaren are strong, adventurous types. As they interact with the horde and alliance they make a personal decision on whom to take sides with in the pursuit of adventure.

So we arrive. We arrive in an untainted land. Free from the conflicts of ages past. A land serene and rich in beauty. This is how we made our first contact:



This is merely the beginning. If you think there's nothing to offer in Pandaria you'd be sorely mistaken. Even if you've experienced the beta and leveled to 90 doing every quest you possibly could. It's still only the beginning.

There's a lot of talk already about the cinematic of course. That's to be expected. However there seems to be people that still don't get it. They don't get even what just happened only within the cinematic. The Horde and Alliance arrive, already fighting it out even before anyone makes landfall. Comment about the spear sharpening if you will, but why not have both a spear and a dagger and not just the dagger? Continuing on, you don't just see an orc and a human fighting. It's the small scale, the foreshadowing. Then Chen interrupts. Not just to have a part in the fight for the heck of it. Just as Chen redirects the attacks of the orc and the human, he redirects their aggression for each other upon himself, and then nullifies it. Just like that, the conflict ends and we are shown  a small glimpse of the land ahead of us, unexplored and full of adventure.

Now many of us know the Sha area driving part of the story. That's why Chen and the Pandaren act like they do. The Sha are part of the driving force of our adventures in 5.0. They make their presence known in big ways (see header image). We respond to this threat and put it down. I know that's not very descriptive but you want to experience this story as you play, not have it told to you. Anyway, even that is short term. The Sha are merely a chapter in the book of Mists of Pandaria. Beyond that things will pick up. The skirmishes we experience through Pandaria will escalate to full out war. This has been stated since Blizzcon, yet people just dismiss that it ever happened.

I'm going to assume people that end up here are the kind of people that go to news sites and know about Theramore. Perhaps not the specifics, just that something happened there. When 5.0 hits on the 28th I want you to remember the full scale of the story as Theramore is the stepping point. Theramore, not peaceful Pandaren, set the tone of the expansion.

Maybe people won't get it until they experience the Theramore Scenario. Maybe people won't get it until 5.1. Some might require the whole thing through 5.3 or whatever the last content patch is. Some people might never get it, and well I truly feel sorry for them. My point is, there's a lot more there than just "lol pandas" and it gets rather distressing that people who take to forums can't read comments/posts by the very people who own the forums. It's okay not to like the story because of the story. It's not okay to be purposefully ignorant of facts.

There is a wondrous story that will be unraveled before us. Do not dismiss the chance to enjoy it for no reason.