cairne
Latest
WoW Archivist: 11 moments from WoW's history that should become scenarios
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Next year is WoW's tenth anniversary. It's hard to believe, but it's true! If the typical timeline holds, the next expansion will release a few months prior to that anniversary. You have to believe Blizzard wants to pull out all the stops for this milestone. What better way to celebrate ten years of WoW than by crafting scenarios to relive the best moments? It's possible that Blizzard is planning a time-based expansion centered around the Bronze Dragonflight. The Keepers of Time could send us on missions, much like the Caverns of Time dungeons of expansions past. Only instead of lore moments from the distant past, they could be moments from WoW's own history, including events driven by the community and removed content that players may not have been able to experience. Here are 11 examples that I would love to see. 1. The Blood Plague What: The Alliance seizes a rare opportunity Where: Original Orgrimmar When: Patch 1.7 As WoW Archivist previously covered, the Corrupted Blood plague began when players used "creative game mechanics" to export a boss ability into the general population. The unstoppable and highly contagious plague debuff devastated cities around the world as thousands of players and NPCs alike succumbed to it. The resulting chaos became an excellent model for how real-world diseases could spread. This scenario would take place at the height of the plague and have different versions for Alliance and Horde. Alliance players would accompany NPCs on a strike into Orgrimmar. They would take advantage of the deadly outbreak to make an attempt on Thrall's life. Horde players would defend the city and their Warchief while trying to contain the plague. Why Orgrimmar? Due to the time frame, Blizzard could reintroduce the original version of the city.
Baine Bloodhoof stomps his way into WoW TCG's War of the Ancients
As one of the featured races in the upcoming WoW TCG Timewalkers block, the tauren received the powerful Tribe keyword, which lets them activate each others' powers when they come into play. But they can't protect the timeways alone -- they need a chieftain to lead the charge and protect them. Enter Baine, Son of Cairne, the epic tauren ally in the upcoming War of the Ancients set that Cryptozoic sent us to preview. Baine comes packing the powerful War Stomp keyword, knocking out a hero or ally when he swings, and further damaging them when they exhaust. His high health pool and Protector keyword will let him protect your weaker allies to keep their Tribe powers rolling in the late game. We previewed the ultra-rare extended art version of the Malorne the White Stag master hero card last week, and Cryptozoic has begun their own official previews of War of the Ancients, which features playable lore characters as heroes for the first time in a standard WoW TCG set. Play as Malfurion, Queen Azshara, Broxigar the Red, and more heroes from every era of Warcraft history as you protect the timeways of the Caverns of Time with the Timewalkers faction. Timewalkers: War of the Ancients releases October 2nd.
My own private faction bias
There's a lot of talk about faction bias in the game among the designers and even in terms of the playerbase. Some realms have heavy faction representation issues; some players would never, ever play a member of the opposite faction; and so on. Around this time last year, I transferred my main (a character who had been Alliance since his creation) to the Horde to raid with a guild that ended up being an excellent home for me and a great place to raid. I stayed with that guild up until we'd completed heroic Dragon Soul, but recently I transferred to a new guild. And one of the biggest reasons I moved back had nothing to do with either guild (both are fine guilds) or the people in them. My Horde guild was full of people I enjoyed raiding with, cracking wise, doing old content, even making occasional forays into PvP. No, in addition to feeling burned out and needing to raid less, the main reason I transferred back was related to the faction concept in WoW. Frankly, I wish WoW didn't have factions -- at least, not the big Horde/Alliance split. Because it's made my game playing experience less fun over the years.
Know Your Lore: 5 remarkable relationships from Warcraft lore
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Last week, we talked about the orcs' history and culture before the dawn of the Horde period. Now, if you've read Christie Golden's Rise of the Horde (and if not, you should), then you know the outline of what came next. We're going to talk about that more next week, but this week, I wanted to touch upon something else. What's interesting to me is how the story of the Horde's creation, which is certainly a grand and sweeping tale of betrayals, madness, and ultimately despair, is also a story of how two orcs met, fell in love, and pledged to each other despite the chaos of the dawning nightmare of Gul'dan's Horde. In light of Nyorloth's post discussing favorite relationships in Warcraft lore, it's hard not to think about Draka, daughter of Zuura and Kelkar, and Durotan, son of Geyah and Garad. Their lives would be spent as witnesses to the end of one way of life and the birth of a darker, more terrible chapter than their people had ever known. This got me thinking about my favorite relationships in the game. These aren't all romantic ones. There are friendships, familial relationships, even enmity. Hating someone still counts as a relationship, after all, if you relate to one another.
Know Your Lore: Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. He befriends those who might be his enemies, yet he is unafraid to strike down those who harm his people, his students, even his allies. Elderly, he has but recently become a druid; his meteoric rise to the rank of Archdruid is a testament to his strength of character and his sincere desire to achieve balance in all things. A childhood friend of Cairne Bloodhoof, in that worthy's death, he has become the Old Bull of his people, even as Cairne's son Baine has taken the role of leader. Today, while Baine rules, it is Hamuul Runetotem who is the heart of the shu'halo, the tauren people. And he does not like what he is seeing. Stevie Nix - Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us Hamuul shook his head as if to clear it. "We existed in a time before the coming of the orcs, if you'll remember. Your father may have owed a debt to Thrall for all he did for our people, but this is a new Horde. I have heard whispers of other tauren. Some are wondering if this Horde is really something we should be a part of anymore." He snorted. "The Horde has done much and we owe much to it, but you must admit that their sentiments are not completely without merit." source Hammul does not pretend to perfection, and while he is wise, he admits to all the shocks that flesh is heir to and all the emotion a shu'halo can face dealing with the chaos of the world while attempting to honor the Earthmother.
Baine Bloodhoof leader short story now available
The tauren have witnessed great change within their own society and culture with the coming of the cataclysm, from political upheaval and great sadness to unbearable loss. With the death of Cairne Bloodhoof, the tauren people turned to his son, Baine, with reverence and hope that he would lead in his father's footsteps and be as great a high chieftain. With the ascension of Garrosh Hellscream to warchief and the bonds that held the orcs and the tauren together stretching thinner, Baine must work through his troubles and the troubles of the tauren people and help hold the Horde together. Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us by Stevie Nix (not Stevie Nicks) begins with Durotar in dire straights. The goblins, now fully members of the Horde, have gummed up the Southfury river and made the water undrinkable. Garrosh has come to Mulgore to work with the tauren to begin water shipments to Durotar of fresh, clean water. Attacks on these water caravans, now frequent, pose a huge threat to the survivability of Orgrimmar. Hamuul Runetotem does not let his emotions get in the way as he confides in Baine that his love for Garrosh is lax. Baine insists that despite Garrosh's foolishness, the tauren are to remain as members of the Horde, just as his father had wanted. Check out the full story, Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us, for some intriguing and action-packed new lore about our favorite tauren's son and his rise to chieftain.
Know Your Lore: Interbellum part 7 -- Rexxar saves the Horde
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. And now at last, our series detailing the years between Warcraft III and World of Warcraft ends, as it must, with the story of the greatest warrior the New Horde has ever seen. After the supposed peace proposal led to a trap that might have captured Thrall had Rexxar not insisted he take the Warchief's place, Thrall decided that the usual paths of protocol could not be trusted. He had to contact Jaina Proudmoore directly. Rexxar would go directly to Theramore Island to meet with Jaina and discover what was behind these attacks. If Rexxar thought that Thrall's strange attachment to the human woman whose forces had seemingly tried to kill him six or seven times by this point was odd, he still went.
WoW Moviewatch: The Fall of Cairne
Depending on how much you know about Horde lore, you may believe that Cairne was killed in cold blood by the evil despot Garrosh. Or you may believe the up-and-coming Garrosh was cruelly betrayed by a Horde member and framed for the murder of the gentle tauren leader. This video sheds some interesting light on The Fall of Cairne. It sticks relatively close to the lore of the game, and it does a good job of presenting "the other side of the story." There are two things that hold back my unmitigated love of this video. First, the vocals seem a little tinny in places. This is a challenge a lot of dialogue-driven movies have, since it can be hard to get audio compression just right. Second, the storyline feels a little decompressed; there are a few reaction and framing shots that could be a little shorter. I adore this choice of topic, though, and I hope to see Captlightning keep going. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Love is in the Air event plagued by bugs
While Love is in the Air on the calendar, the air is full of grumbles in game as people discover that not only has the holiday changed on them, but a lot of bugs and anachronisms have popped up. Among the most dire: Quests for the faction leader gifts currently point to faction leaders who died in the Cataclysm, including Cairne and Magni. The dailies and main quest chain currently do not function for level 81-85 characters, leaving anyone who has a new 85 or just didn't get around to doing the quests in previous years unable to finish their achievements. It's hard or impossible to buy certain special vendor items due to errors that show up when you click on them. Apothecary Hummel is sometimes not showing up in the LFD tool for level 81-85 characters. Blizzard is aware of these bugs, and blue poster Nephadne has posted a list of FAQs on the customer service forums that address many of the changes and bugs, including workarounds for the latter two issues listed above. She's also assured everyone that these bugs will be fixed either with hotfixes or when patch 4.0.6 drops. Read on after the break for the full text of Nephandra's FAQ.
Know Your Lore: Baine, son of Cairne, chief of the Bloodhoof tauren
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The son is not the father, but the son does not try to be. Baine, son of Cairne, now leads the tauren of Mulgore from Thunder Bluff. While we take no praise away from the old bull, now is the time to acknowledge the new, to celebrate the spirit and strength of Baine. Growing to adulthood in the shadow of so great a figure, Baine has grown from a callow youth to a steady leader and finally to the shu'halo who planned and executed the deliverance of his people from Magatha and her Grimtotem. It was Baine who defeated the rebel tribe of Grimtotems and yet showed mercy when his father's ultimate murderer came under his judgment. It was Baine who chose to forgo revenge for Garrosh Hellscream's role in his people's loss, in his own bereavement. He could have challenged Garrosh, and without any elder crones to poison the orc warchief's weapon, he most likely could have crushed Hellscream under his furious hooves. He chose not to. He chose his people's benefit, and the benefit of the Horde they are the heart and soul of, over the vengeance he could have sought. He chose others over himself. Baine Bloodhoof learned his lessons at his father's side, yes. But do not take away from him his stepping out from such a great shadow. It was Baine who in the hour of greatest need stepped forth into An'she's light, saved his people, saved his father's dream, and preserved bonds of fellowship that would not have been hard to tear asunder. Let us celebrate the life of Baine of the Bloodhoof tauren.
Know Your Lore: Cairne Bloodhoof
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. All hail the father of the tauren nation: Cairne of the Bloodhoof, who brought his people from The Barrens to Mulgore, whose alliance with the young orc shaman Thrall led his people into the Horde, wise guide and visionary who saw the way for his people to live free of constant war with the centaur. Powerful in war, wise in his restraint, at one with the spirits of the land and the ancestors of the shu'halo. Beloved chieftain. Today, one of your many sons and daughters salutes you. We have indeed spoken of you before. But it moots us to revisit you, brave and wizened as you are, for the future comes and those of us who have seen it already know what mourning is. Great have you been in war and in peace. Were it not for you, we would never have found our home in Thunder Bluff, would never have joined the Horde, would never have fought beside the mortal races against Archimonde and his defiling army of demons. When we were on the edge of destruction, and the centaurs hurled waves of bodies against us, you fought for us. Brave one, we will always remember you, first among us, best among us. Ish-ne-alo por-ah -- may the Earthmother smile upon you. Let us tell tales of the life of Cairne.
The Shattering plot summary: Thrall
Christie Golden's The Shattering, followup to The New York Times best-selling Arthas, is thankfully just as good (if not better) than its predecessor. We've given you a spoiler-free review, and now it's time to dive into the meat and potatoes, the spoilery goodness contained within the crunchy hardcover shell. The Shattering covers a lot of ground, but you should know ahead of time that the main players in this story are orcs, tauren, humans and dwarves. The other races are mentioned only in passing or have very minor roles, but that's OK. There's a lot here to love, and we finally have clarification on some rumors that we've heard second- and third-hand for a year now. Rather than going in full chronological order, I've instead divided the summary by character, so you can follow each of their particular storylines. Today's summary is for Thrall. Remember, this summary is full of spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want the book spoiled!
WoW Insider reviews The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm by Christie Golden
The Warcraft universe has incredibly rich lore supporting it, and it's natural that, like many IPs, it would expand outside of the game world. Warcraft novels have historically been hit or miss, largely due to the strengths and weaknesses of the various commissioned authors who write them. Some novels feature out-of-place characters invented by the author specifically for those particular stories; some struggle with the characterization of beloved characters. But there have been some bright spots: Rise of the Horde was a fantastic look into the birth of the Horde on Draenor, and Arthas: Rise of the Lich King provided insight into the man who would become the Lich King. These books have something in common besides their IP: Christie Golden wrote them. In Arthas, she gave Blizzard its first The New York Times-bestselling novel. Now, her latest offering is the Warcraft universe's newest novel, a tie-in to the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. We present to you our review of The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm.
World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary mosaic finally complete
It looks like the fans followed through, after all, and we finally get to see the Battlecry mosaic much sooner than I'd previously thought. The completed mosaic reveals a truly awesome piece of art by Wei Wang depicting all the current faction leaders. By awesome I mean truly mind-blowing, and Blizzard has high resolution versions of both the mosaic and the actual painting available for download in different versions. The full mosaic, for example, can be viewed in all its 14400 x 6150 pixel glory. Arguably the best version is the dual screen wallpaper which shows the most detail, although there are also much smaller versions for mobile phones. The Battlecry mosaic is comprised of 20,000 player-submitted pictures called out by Blizzard as part of the World of Warcraft 5th Anniversary celebration. Each section of the multi-part mosaic unlocked various content over the past few months, which included sneak peeks at conceptual art and even a piece of the game's musical score. The final artwork is arguably the best and coolest rendition of all the faction leaders so far, including a dual-wielding Magni Bronzebeard in armor that's significantly different from what he's wearing in-game, which may or may not hint at a possible model change come Cataclysm. Congratulations to all the fans who contributed to the mosaic!
Ask a Faction Leader: Cairne Bloodhoof
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Prophet Velen, leader of the draenei, and he shed light on several key issues, including city construction, elven ingrates, natural history, and compromising positions. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with esteemed tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof. Our first reader question: Dear Cairne, Yesterday I was distressed to see a Tauren riding a Hawkstrider. Although I'm not much of a D.E.H.T.A. sympathizer, I think It's a bit cruel to be asking a poor beast like that to be heaving a 2 ton Minotaur up and around Azeroth. What really disturbed me though, is that later in the day, as I was walking through Dalaran, I saw the same Tauren sitting on his mount (hawkstrider) for about 30 minutes. Anyway, just thought I should bring it to your attention. Jabijin, Troll Rogue, Mannoroth Cairne responds: Your concern for the native wildlife of Azeroth is heartening, young rogue. I, too, was worried for the health and safety of the hawkstriders when our blood elf allies originally began instructing us on how to ride them.
Patch 3.3 PTR: New Tauren skins found
Handclaw of the Scrolls of Lore Forums has uncovered something very intriguing in the Patch 3.3 PTR data files: New Tauren skins. Specifically, it looks like tribal war paint covering the face, arms, and chest, taking the form of bleeding wings on the chest. There's red, white, and blue color versions for both males and females. There's quite a few Tauren fans on the WoW.com staff, and we've been having quite a few conversations about the new Tauren lore and their place in Cataclysm, so you can bet this new discovery has us all atwitter. What could it mean though? There's a few possibilities.
15 Minutes of Fame: Kara to Illidan in six weeks
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Are server firsts worth pushing for – really pushing for, as in four hours a night, five times a week, for a month and a half? For Havoc-A of Cairne, time had no bearing as they raced from Karazhan to Illidan a mere six weeks after forming their guild. They pushed through the content so quickly that some members were still sporting blues when they first met Illidan. The team racked up a list of server firsts during its ascent: first Illidan kill, first off-hand Warglaive (maybe a server first Legendary), first Zul'Aman bear mount, and Alliance firsts for Azgalor, Archimonde and last half of Black Temple bosses.Now that the guild has had time to come down from the high, we wondered, do they think it was all worth it? Signs point to yes: the guild's GM, Meliadoul, is still waxing rhapsodic over the team's accomplishments, the bonds formed and the pride that carried them forward as a group. 15 Minutes of Fame visited with Meliadoul to find out the root of Havoc's need for speed.
Breakfast Topic: Finding motivation to level or grind
Arrowd of the US Cairne server has a question: How do you keep leveling without getting bored, abandoning a character, or rerolling? She says that she's had around 14 characters, and she's never managed to stick with one past about level 45. She always gets bored, and she wonders if there is a way to avoid it. Now as I've mentioned before, I've leveled a lot of characters myself, and have a few 70s, but even I can sometimes get a little bit tired of the grind, and sometimes even I need to make up goals to keep myself focused. Sometimes I even need it for my level 70s if I'm running low on gold or raiding supplies. In that way, I can definitely feel where she's coming from, but I do (usually) manage to keep myself motivated. Sometimes, for me, the Motivation is pretty simple. For example, on that Shaman I'm leveling, what keeps me going is the prospect of getting some sweet Dual Wield action going. I'm actually having a lot of fun with her, so I don't need to focus on it too hard, but the idea of imagining her with 2 axes enchanted with Windfury is a mental picture that is too awesome to put into words. I mean, we're talking cover of a Dragonforce album awesome. So now I turn the question over to the rest of you. Whether it be leveling on a lowbie or grinding on a 70, how do you keep yourself motivation when the going gets tough and you get tired out? Is it the promise of a new skill? A new piece of gear? What keeps you charged up and logged in?
Arcane Brilliance: Leveling your Mage, 1-20
Every Saturday, Arcane Brilliance freezes you in place, then Blinks behind a pillar and turns Invisible. You can look for Arcane Brilliance if you want to, but I can tell you that's a bad idea. You see, while you're looking, Arcane Brilliance is positioning itself behind you, cooking up a giant Pyroblast and aiming it up your tailpipe. You really only have a few options here. You can a.) cry, b.) curl into the fetal position and wait for the sweet embrace of death, or c.) distract Arcane Brilliance by quickly yelling "Spell damage is more important that spell hit rating, discuss!" and then log out while Arcane Brilliance is busy posting on the forums about what you just said. I'd go with c.), personally. Works every time.Recently, I discovered that there seem to be leveling guides on this site for just about every class but Mages, so it's time I stepped up to the plate. The problem is, Mage was my very first class, on my very first character, on my very first foray into the World of Warcraft, which took place approximately forever ago. Ok, so it's only been about two-and-a-half years, but in WoW years, that's the rough equivalent of a million kajillion years ago. My memories of those first few levels are fuzzy at best, and I can condense what I remember learning into two statements: "Murlocs are evil," and "The only way out of Undercity is to use my Hearthstone." One of those statements eventually stopped being true for me, and the other one is "Murlocs are evil." Needless to say, I didn't feel entirely qualified to write a leveling guide for the first few levels of Magecraft.To rectify the situation, I decided to roll a brand new Mage, so that I could experience those first few levels all over again. To ensure that the experience was as pure as I could make it, I created my Mage on a new server--the newest actually--Cairne. I knew nobody on that server, and had no alts there, so this Mage, a Human female I named Niwt, would be an entirely virgin Mage. I had never played an Alliance Mage before, and never leveled any character in the Human starting area, so the quests would be new to me, and the landscape foreign. I disabled all of my mods and dove in.It was horrible.I learned a lot though, or remembered learning a lot, depending on how you look at it. After the break, more text!
Know Your Lore: The Grimtotems
This has been one of the most-requested Know Your Lore subjects over the months we've had this feature, but I've held off because until recently there just wasn't that much information about the Grimtotems. With the new Dustwallow Marsh content in 2.4 and the revelations in the WoW comic book, it's finally time to explore one of the most mysterious factions in the game -- Magatha Grimtotem and her tribe of tauren outcasts. Who: The Grimtotem Clan. What: 1,430 members of a powerful Tauren clan. History: Way, way back before Cairne Bloodhoof met Thrall and created a new tauren homeland in Mulgore, the tauren were organized into clans, each with their own leader. The Grimtotem were NOT one of these clans. Instead, the Grimtotem name passed down through generations of survival in other clans, until the Tauren were unified under Cairne. Then the Grimtotem banded together as, basically, an opposition party, defined by their distrust of Cairne's alliance with the orcs and trolls.
