Favourite lore character?

Entirely unrelated picture

An interesting question was posed to me by a guildie the other day: What’s my favourite WoW lore character?

After thinking for a few minutes I realised that, actually, this was a really tough cookie. I mean there’s a few of the more obvious and popular candidates – I’ve always been a Bolvar fan, and actually Kil’jaeden is pretty awesome – but I wouldn’t say they were my favourites. They’re certainly not the kind of folks I’d deliberately go and see for a little bit of RP if I was nearby.

So then I started thinking about the story arcs I like the most, because maybe my favourite character would be featured in my favourite plot, right? Well, there’s the Ahn’Qiraj story which I’ve always liked despite my deep seated hatred of Silithid quests (especially those ones in Un’Goro, although I think questing in Silithus for Loremaster softened me up a bit), and I also like the whole Ragnaros / Black Dragonflight war which is going on in the Blackrock Mountain. Alternatively we have the Arthas storyline, which is probably one of the most detailed and promoted stories in WoW, and it’s a fantastic example of how even the best heroes can turn to evil. Maybe even the Ashbringer tale. But I don’t think any of these would be my favourite ever.

Next I tried thinking along themes. For example, you could probably assume my favourite character would be a Warlock, but after thinking through all the notable ones, I don’t think so. Nor can I think of any other classes who have well-known heroes that I really like – Tirion Fordring frankly lost my respect after the Crusader’s Coliseum, Uther has never meant a great deal to me, the Windrunner sisters don’t appeal (although Sylvanas is pretty cool) and Medivh was a candidate, but just doesn’t quite hit the spot.

Then I went through various bosses of raids and instances, considering their stories and backgrounds. One which stood out was the Hydraxian Waterlords and their battle with the Firelord. Additionally we have Hakkar and the trolls, C’thun (and Old Gods in general), Moroes (I do love that guy), VanCleef and the Masons, or even Kel’thuzad… But I just don’t think of them as awesome lore characters.

Finally, I had to give up. The answer is that I just don’t know who my favourite lore character is! There are so many fantastic plots, intricacies, twists and facets to WoW lore that nobody, for me right now at least, can truly be considered number one.

What about you, dear reader? Do you have a favourite character, and if so, why? Or if not, why not?

Vel.

Worgen Theory

Picture by Seraies

So the other day I was reading this post about Worgen speculation by Tharion over at Lorecrafted. In the post, he discusses the possible links between Druids and the Worgen, and the various places they could have come from – another world, the past, or, most intriguingly, the future. After reading, I felt I could take the idea further, and so I’ve put my own little hypothesis together.

The current theory as endorsed by Blizzard is that the Worgen originally came about due to a Druidic order who specifically focused on wolves. Just as we have Druids of the Talon who shift into birds and Druids of the Claw who shift into bears, there was once (we presume they no longer really exist) a sect of Druids who shifted into wolves or worgs.

Now, suppose this Order was somehow different to the others, or was changed in some way to give them a heightened awareness of the arcane. Maybe they were closer to the Elven Mages of that time, or were affected by the Legion’s magic somehow when they were testing the waters before the Sundering, so to speak. Whatever the cause, they then could have had a vision of the very distant future.

In this future, the Burning Legion has invaded Azeroth. The mortal races are either being wiped out or already extinct, and the world is generally on the edge of destruction. Perhaps the defeat of the Titan watcher inside Ulduar, Algalon, has meant that the Titans haven’t been alerted to this.

The Druids realise this can’t be allowed to happen, and set about finding a way to stop the invasion. They make some sort of pact with the Bronze Dragonflight, perhaps with the aid of Ysera, the Green Dragonflight Aspect who is close to the Druids, and get transported into the future.

Patriotism

Reading this post on WoW.com got me thinking about the whole idea of Alliance vs Horde in WoW, and how important it actually is, lore-wise. It’s amazing how much the significance varies as you progress through the game and how the events taking place dictate how far we are from all killing each other.

Prior to World of Warcraft, the RPG games were based mainly around the Orcs vs Humans and the Second and Third Wars. When you start out in WoW however, all you really know is that the war is being fought in far-off lands and you need to help out your people by dealing with the problems closer to home. For example, the Defias Brotherhood, who have partially taken control of the Human lands due in the absence of the army, or the cultists stirring up trouble in Durotar. You spend a lot of time clearing out mines and caves, gathering food, running errands for citizens and delivering messages.

As you progress, you gradually experience more of the world and you interact with other factions and races. You begin to realise that the war has affected all walks of life, from cities being empty of soldiers to deserted buildings and a lack of supplies. You also start to get into small skirmishes with the opposition – for example, while progressing through Ashenvale (which is very war-orientated in places) you might come across Warsong Gulch and taste real battle, or you might experience a Crossroads raid.

Thrall and the Guardians of Tirisfal

Welcome back to der Hexenmeister, where we have another lore related post. Today, Veliaf expresses his outrage at one of the speculations about the new expansion.

Let’s get right into this while I still have my angry face on. One of the potential changes for Cataclysm listed by MMO-Champion is as follows:

“Malfurion Stormrage will be returning to Azeroth to aid in the creation of the new Guardian of Tirisfal – Thrall!”

Now, where to begin with my reasons for thinking this is absolute rubbish? I guess first up we can look at the Guardians of Tirisfal and examine their history in more detail, and then I’ll dissect the rest of the above statement.

The Warlocks of WoW

In fairness to myself, there are actually very few notable Warlocks in WoW lore. The most famous ones are usually famous for something else, like taking tree hugging too far, but just happen to be Warlocks too. Nevertheless, onwards we go to examine the few Warlocks who have left a considerable impression on the world.

1. Kil’jaeden

HISTORY:

As we saw yesterday, many of the Eredar Mages became Warlocks once they were corrupted by Sargeras. Obviously, the more powerful the Mage, the more powerful the Warlock they became, and Kil’jaeden, one of the original three Eredar leaders, became perhaps the most powerful of them all. Ranked second only to Sargeras in the Burning Legion (although he has essentially taken over since Sargeras was banished), Kil’jaeden’s official role is to recruit new minions for the Legion and plan strategies and infiltration. He is responsible for the creation of the original Lich King, Ner’zhul, which involved a lot of shenanigans to do with torturing the Shaman’s soul (we Warlocks are good with souls) and also for originally inciting the bloodlust of the Orcs, in part by using his powers to appear to them as one of their ancestors.

DEEDS:

To further prove his Warlock strength, he then went and enslaved the entire race of Dreadlords. Yeah, you know how we get one minor demon at a time for five minutes and it costs us a soul shard? He’s so powerful that he can control an entire race of demons more powerful than we can even defeat by ourselves (think Mal’Ganis from the CoT – pictured below – or Balnazzar from the original instance), let alone summon or enslave. The Dreadlords, or Nathrezim, now serve as Kil’jaeden’s henchmen, and while he was recently summoned by Kael’thas Sunstrider at the Sunwell, we fought him off and banished him back into the Nether, where he is currently plotting once again…

Mal'Ganis, a Dreadlord, in the Caverns of Time: Stratholme

Warlocks: A brief history

Looking back over my previous posts, it’s actually been far too long since I wrote about something specifically to do with Warlocks, and for a supposedly Warlock-related blog, that’s no good at all. Today then, I’m going to discuss the history of Warlocks. Let’s find out how we got to where we are today…

The word ‘Warlock’ probably originally comes from the Old English word ‘wǣrloga‘, which means ‘oath-breaker’ or ‘deceiver’, which is pretty appropriate I think. It may also come from the Old Norse word  ‘varð-lokkur’ meaning ‘caller of spirits’. Interestingly, another (very archaic) meaning of the word can be ‘a demon’.

In WoW, Warlocks began way back, approximately 25000 years ago, with the Burning Legion, or more accurately Sargeras (the fallen Titan). When he became corrupted and wished to amass an army, he first went to the Eredar, who he was attracted to by their innate magical affinity. In fact, it is believed that they were the first race ever to discover magic, aside from the Titans of course. Regardless, they were a noble race of peaceful beings who lived on the planet Argus, and they were led by three people – Kil’jaeden, Archimonde and Velen.

The Burning Legion in Shadowmoon Valley

Thoughts about Cataclysm

In light of the newest Cataclysm speculation / news that WoW.com has reported on (see their posts here and here for the original sources), and because I didn’t have a particular post planned for today, I’m going to dissect the recent ‘findings’ by going through the notes they’ve made, and get more and more excitable as we go on.

At this time I would like to note that these ‘patch notes’ have NOT been confirmed and are based upon the original post at MMO-Champion, but for the purposes of this post I’m going to take them as granted. Also, when this was written I had only read the summary at WoW.com, and not the original post, which goes into more detail. The following is a summation of my thoughts based upon WoW.com’s summary.

Cataclysm speculation

Now that the news from yesterday has been out for about a day, I think it’d be a bit silly to keep hiding things behind breaks, as everyone should have heard the name of the new expansion, Cataclysm, at the very least. So you’ve been warned; from now on, I won’t be concealing or announcing any spoilers I mention.