Tin Men

Tin Men: The Dehumanization of Humanity and Culture Through War is a political nonfiction novel written by Lavernius Jur after the ending of the Fourth War. It discusses the heavy consequences of the constant war efforts of the Alliance and the Horde on Azeroth, its environment, and its cultures. The novel harbors a fiercely anti-war sentiment and condemns the militaristic expansionist attitudes of the factions, the neglect on places culminated and left behind, sexual abuse within the military, the desensitization of violence, as well as the decline in morale, altruism, and hope with the rise of nationalism, violence, prejudice, profit, and xenophobia. Though it does harshly condemn the attitudes of both factions, it tends to lean more focus onto the Alliance.

Many major figureheads were interviewed to offer their viewpoints on the faction wars, such as Thrall, and Taran Zhu.

Summary
The novel opens with a foreward from Lavernius Jur himself, detailing his personal and political history upon Azeroth and his experience with both factions. After the foreward, an extensive history of the Alliance and Horde is given of how they evolved and what shaped them, lined wall to wall with citations and sources. Many parallels are drawn between the two factions and their people. Though it starts off as a hopeful and insightful retrospective, it slowly shifts to a downtrodden and melancholic condemnation of their fall from grace, the repetition of history and its flaws, and what the future might hold.

Afterwards, there is a detailed section listing the many stains upon the legacy of the Alliance, listing many failings in their long-winded history. Lord Aiden Perenolde had sold out his fellow men to the Orcish Horde and allowed them to pass to Lordaeron without a fight in order to spare Alterac, the state of martial law imposed onto the citizens of Gilneas by Genn Greymane, the rapid sexual abuse of orc women in the internment camps, a harsh-cutting interview with Thrall detailing the secret life of Aedelas Blackmoore and his sexual abuse of Taretha Foxton, the neglect of Westfall and the mistreatment of the Stonemasons leading to the rise of the Defias Brotherhood, Garithos and Alliance exploitation of the suffering high elves in the aftermath of the Sunwell's devastation, Daelin Proudmoore and his assault upon Orgrimmar, former archdruid Fandral Staghelm ordering the ethnic cleansing of trolls for claiming that kaldorei evolved from dark trolls, the purging of Camp Taurajo and the subsequent murder of its tauren civilians, the sabotage of a goblin mine and the deaths of its laborers at the hands of General Twinbraid, the murder of vulpera civilians at the hands of the Alliance during the Conquest of Zandalar war campaign, and others. Though not as extensive as the list of crimes and betrayals carried out at the hands of the Horde, it definitely did shed light on stains hidden upon the blue and gold flag.

Next was a hard look into the zones the factions had conscripted through their military expansion. Ashenvale, Azshara, and Stonetalon had suffered greatly because of the rampant expansion and deforestation before and during the reign of Garrosh Hellscream, shedding light on the damage done to the environment and the dwindling of natural resources. Sylvanas Windrunner and the actions of the Forsaken were equally and harshly condemned for environmental - near irreversible - damage and crimes against mortal decency. This led to a condemnation of the complacency of fellow Horde leadership, bowing its head and admonishing itself of responsibility. The Alliance itself was not without critique however, as light had been shed on the severe neglect Westfall, Duskwood, and Redridge had suffered because of the House of Nobles exploiting the power vacuum left in the absence of King Varian Wrynn. Even after the king's return, Westfall had still been egregiously neglected and still suffered from poverty, dwindling resources, and homelessness. This expanded farther out, as far as Pandaria where Shado-Pan leader Taran Zhu offered his perspective on the factions. The monk made it no secret that he harbored a grudge against the factions for bringing their foreign war to his lands, dividing its people, and scarring their land. Though the Vale of Eternal Blossoms had finally healed, the pandaren still believed their involvement with the Alliance and the Horde was a mistake that he wish they had never made.

The author turned a spotlight to the rise of nationalism and xenophobia within the factions, which rose at different intervals within. When Garrosh took the mantle of warchief, a rise in orcish supremacy and disdain for the "lesser" races had come as a result of what the author deemed "the Great Lie". The Great Lie is illusionist dogma perpetrated by Garrosh to promote the image of the orc supremacist, that the Horde was founded to be a single fist to wipe away those weaker than the orcs. Tons of evidence is shown to showcase this as what it is - delusional brainwashing to hide from a failure of the orcish people. The Orcish Horde had been founded to be an army for the Burning Legion, its sole use to purge the draenei and eventually be discarded. The warrior-shamanistic people had been deceived and led astray, and the Great Lie was pushed to hide from failure. Its believers would rather embrace the idea they were violent murderers than being victims that were deceived and betrayed, as the latter implies some sort of weakness or moral failing. The Alliance are also pointed a finger at, as a rise in nationalism came during the aftermath of the Third War. The blood elves withdrawing from the Alliance is painted as a betrayal by Alliance propaganda, with the double standard of Gilneas being pointed at in response by the author. Gnomes had also been discriminated against and ridiculed for years by the other races, with their noble sacrifice of defending Gnomeregan on their own in order to spare the Alliance men being downplayed and forgotten by the rest of the Alliance.