Military guilds are a fishy business. Very often they may feel like some sort of job. It is true though that the simplest approach to roleplay is adventuring and fighting and a big attractor is being able to show others what you can do (sometimes to a fault). That said, perhaps a mercenary group of sorts might work, purpose of being there obvious ($$$).
Sera is right though that although a regular event about having fun is a good starting point, community as it is cannot thrive while being fractured.
On the Lordaeron server I think Role Playing pretty much got forced out and killed. I recently took a long month or two break after being banned on the forums because honestly the players there were just super nasty - with the exception of maybe a three role player base between myself and two others who frequently did anything (five tops). We had about twenty people total interested on that server but they all came up with the same relative answer to why they never chimed in or did anything (see below).
"I don't care to get involved with a small community until it becomes larger because there's no point in role playing otherwise"
Meaning: They were too lazy to help the community grow and wanted to basically just get thrown in with fifty people and get red-carpet treatment. Another major issue is that the randoms were pretty rude towards role players overall, the moderators shafted a few of us several times (in game and on the forums), and there simply aren't many role players outside Lordaeron who are in compliance with normal-gain servers. A good example was the argument a few moderators, myself, and Sera ended up having. The group on Lordaeron was small / is small / growing smaller but we supported the idea of growing stronger while enjoying the task of building up in terms of player design (PVP/PVE) and in role playing (getting stronger as you role play and level up etc) - they didn't support it and outright insulted people over things and started the whole "I'll mute you if you disagree" stuff, so it likely pushed some newcomers away.
So in the end if you want a tl;dr version...
- Lordaeron RP is pretty much dead in the water, blame the poor general community/game moderators/forum moderators.
I'll eventually play again but **** got extremely irritating when I got hammered down by so many people both staff and community wise, so I've been focused on other things. Maybe I'll see some of the old community around when I get back officially!
[Edit] - Do note I've found some amazing role players on there who honestly I've found to be awesome people. As a level sixty or so I went through the WOTLK regions with a level 70-77 night elf, all role played in the same party so no power grinding crap can happen. I've had amazing times on there, but they seem dead in the water now.
There seems to be a new RP guild building up in Lordaeron post Nostalrius shutdown called Legacy of the Order. I haven't got any detailed info but they seem to be aiming at roleplayers in general.
Whose their leader? Maybe I'll finally come back if there's some new blood. Long as it ain't people who'll literally ignore you unless you're "on their level" of role play (the elitist type).
There seems to be a new RP guild building up in Lordaeron post Nostalrius shutdown called Legacy of the Order. I haven't got any detailed info but they seem to be aiming at roleplayers in general.
Oh man, this is one of the few things I missed in old Lordaeron. I remember back in 2011 when Lord 1.0 was just about the launch and RP enthusiasts were already organizing a guild (I believe it was called "Shield of Light"). I think it was the very first legitimately successful RP guild in Molten/Warmane so it was special. There was so much optimism; it's like beginning a new adventure. I feel grateful that I was able to experience what the community at its prime had to offer.
Why not just join everyone together into one guild or group on a server and roleplay that way. I see a solid at least 25+ people coming, or has the drama really been that bad since 2013?