a nip and a tuck
One alteration I'm definitely making to the Ashbringer storyline as written, regardless of what else I end up doing with it: the person who tells Darion Mograine that his father is still around in some form is not Zabra Hexx, but Fairbanks.
The reasons:
- I rather like the dialogue at Light's Hope Chapel, in vanilla WoW, wherein Eligor Dawnbringer states that the Scarlet Crusade leaders "manipulated a grieving child to try to recover [Ashbringer]". That can pretty much only refer to Darion's effort. If the one who'd set all those events in motion were Fairbanks, who was last seen alive as a prisoner of the Scarlet Crusade, I could see an "'accidentally' spill just enough info in front of him and then let him believe he's escaped" type scenario. Zabra, not so much.
- In vanilla WoW, Fairbanks is around as a Forsaken. I could see him either being so in this scenario, or having been kept alive but infected (Horrible Experimentation optional) by the Scarlets. Either way, he does appear to Darion in the comic as well, admittedly in a vision, but still suggesting he lingers in some form. And if there's anyone who can claim a "connection through the Light" with Alexandros, my money would be on his long-time spiritual advisor rather than some dude he met only once.
...though actually, to avoid the whole mess with Darion talking about how he was never able to touch the Light WHILE HAVING A GODDAMNED LIGHT-GIVEN VISION, maybe Fairbanks should just be the one to bring up the topic of "so I heard the Scarlets think the Ashbringer is in Naxxramas" and bring in Zabra as an Argent Dawn member who helps with all the spirit/vision stuff?
The reasons:
- I rather like the dialogue at Light's Hope Chapel, in vanilla WoW, wherein Eligor Dawnbringer states that the Scarlet Crusade leaders "manipulated a grieving child to try to recover [Ashbringer]". That can pretty much only refer to Darion's effort. If the one who'd set all those events in motion were Fairbanks, who was last seen alive as a prisoner of the Scarlet Crusade, I could see an "'accidentally' spill just enough info in front of him and then let him believe he's escaped" type scenario. Zabra, not so much.
- In vanilla WoW, Fairbanks is around as a Forsaken. I could see him either being so in this scenario, or having been kept alive but infected (Horrible Experimentation optional) by the Scarlets. Either way, he does appear to Darion in the comic as well, admittedly in a vision, but still suggesting he lingers in some form. And if there's anyone who can claim a "connection through the Light" with Alexandros, my money would be on his long-time spiritual advisor rather than some dude he met only once.
...though actually, to avoid the whole mess with Darion talking about how he was never able to touch the Light WHILE HAVING A GODDAMNED LIGHT-GIVEN VISION, maybe Fairbanks should just be the one to bring up the topic of "so I heard the Scarlets think the Ashbringer is in Naxxramas" and bring in Zabra as an Argent Dawn member who helps with all the spirit/vision stuff?