"What you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar." — Cormac McCarthy
Even when Paul went offline for the night and returned online the following day, he still thought about Marko and Polo to some degree.
Many players would be in for a rude awakening regarding being in the Queen's army within the Kingsfall zone.
Once the campaign started and you began ranking up, it was completely different than the previous weeks before the war officially started.
Friendly relations with NPCs and showing respect were important throughout Harbinger's Call. A central theme was that the players were not particularly important within the world, especially toward the start.
It was the quintessential story of rags to riches; in the situation the day before, even if Marko and Polo had been elf players, they would have been mainly treated the same way as commoner elves with private ranks.