After years of tension within the Hearthstone community, players will finally get to decide which faction is superior: Horde or Alliance.

On Tuesday morning, Blizzard Entertainment announced that the upcoming Hearthstone expansion will be titled Fractured in Alterac Valley and will go live on December 7.

In an official post on the game's site, the development team outlined what players can expect when they get their hands on 135 brand new cards, the return of Hero Cards, a new keyword and a never before seen type of card called objectives.

Hero Cards

Making a triumphant return are Hero Cards that allow players to transform their champions into new ones with powerful effects that can turn the tide of combat. According to the development team, each class will receive one and all have a battlecry effect.

Lightforged Cariel and Wildheart Guff were revealed for the Paladin and Druid classes, respectively, and allow players to begin theorycrafting decks and archetypes that could shape future metas.

Keyword

Fractured in Alterac Valley features a keyword that acts similarly to Overkill but rewards a bit more precision. Honorable Kill provides bonuses to cards/players for destroying units with the exact amount of lethal damage on your turn. In the example of Gnome Private above, attacking into a 1/1 minion will cause her attack to jump by two moments later. However, if that 1/1 sacrifises themself into Gnome Private, her attack will stay as is. Presumably, Gnome Private's attack can continue to grow as the development team did not specifc as to whether Honorable Kill is a one-time effect.

Card type

Objectives act as spells on the battlefield that can allow a player to take back control of the board or help snowball their lead to victory. Lasting only three turns, it's paramount for the player to make the most of their objective in order to prevent a waste of mana for little to no payoff.

Picking your side

As part of the announcement, the Hearthstone development team is letting players get their hands on two Factured in Alterac Valley golden legendary cards after they download patch 21.8 which is out now. However, in order to do so, a key decision must be made. Upon logging in, players will be asked to select either Vanndar Stormpike of the Alliance or Drek'Thar from the Horde to add to their collection. 

After the expansion goes live on December 7, players will receive a special line of quests that players will need to complete for their free golden legendary to become a diamond one.

In order to keep things fair, the development team will grant players a free golden copy of the legendary minion you chose not to select during pre-release.

The full contents of patch 21.8, which includes a myraid of buffs, nerfs, and reworks to cards and champions across numerous game modes can be found here.