The Queue: Howl at the nonexistent moon

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

So many amazing people have performed Blue Moon over the years. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Ella Fitzgerald, the list goes on and on. It's a simple song that's been everywhere. I decided to go with The Marcels for the embed, but it was a tough choice.

Melfina the Blue asked...

"What happened to Azeroth's second moon? It used to be there, where did it go?"

It's a mystery. It used to be represented in-game, then it disappeared for the Burning Crusade. I don't think they've ever given a reason. One theory is that it was due to a graphical error that Blizzard deemed not important enough to fix, but as far as I know that's just somebody's wild guess.

The world may never know where poor Blue Child has gone. Maybe we just haven't seen it because it only comes around once in a blue moon.

JB asked...

"What happened to Byron the Tauren Rogue?"

Byron was missing last week because (shock and awe) many of WoW.com's contributors have other jobs and responsibilities beyond this here blog. Kelly was just swamped at her day job, so the comic had to pause temporarily. It'll be back today.

Taub asked...

"I just finished the Arthas book and really wish I had read it before WotLK came out to better understand the back story. Any recommendations for what other WoW novels to read to catch up on the Cataclysm lore?"

You can probably safely wait for the Cataclysm novel(s). At BlizzCon 2009 Christie Golden let us know that she's writing lead-in novels for Cataclysm, just like she did for Wrath of the Lich King. They're some of the books I'm most looking forward to this year. Pretty excited! They're tentatively slated for an August release.

Niallus asked...

"I recently realized on the Armory that my characters had achieved a new feat of strength: Emblematic. You gain it by earning any variety of emblem. Is this a foreshadowing of Blizzard's total removal of the Emblem system in Cataclysm? Or is it more likely that it's being put in place because we will be "upgrading" to a new system? Like in BC we had Badges, but Wrath we had Emblems."

I don't really know but I'm going to guess it's the latter option there. Maybe we'll be looting Insignias in Cataclysm. Insignia of Fire, Insignia of Earth, Insignia of... you know, whatever. I highly doubt they're completely throwing away the loot system. Making changes/improvements to it? Sure. Throwing it out? Probably not.

cartmensfoe asked...

"Do you think that Blizzard will severely change some of your favorite zones? Which zones are your current favorites and what would you like to see changed? I would love to have the Badlands be more Alliance friendly. Instead of having a few out of the way quests, put in a small Alliance camp or at least a flight path."

I'm actually incredibly nervous about the changes coming to the Plaguelands. Both the Western and Eastern Plaguelands are my favorite old world zones by a significant margin, I spend as much time in those zones as possible on my various alts. It's where my first character ever hit 60, and I spent hours and hours exploring every little nook and cranny. If you've never just gone and explored that zone, do it.

I could write an entire sightseeing guide to those zones. There's dozens of hidden away little quests. For example: Did you know that the four farms that house the cauldron quests in WPL each have their own hidden quests, or quest chains in some cases? If you just ran to the farm, tapped the cauldron and then ran away, you've missed a bunch of awesome quests. There's hidden quests all over the place. You don't get that sort of exploratory experience in many other zones, certainly not in Wrath of the Lich King. It all feels pretty bland and sterile in comparison. Not to mention WPL and EPL have those cool weather effects that are completely absent from Northrend. The zones are already pretty bleak, but then when it starts to rain... the effect is wonderful. Dark, but wonderful. Moody.

I'll be very sad if Blizzard kills the feel of these two zones. Obviously things will change, we already know that they will, but I want the dark beauty of them to stay, along with the heavy rewards for people willing to look around a little rather than simply go from Point A to Point B.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!