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Know Your Lore: The Troll Wars
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 past is prologue. Melodramatic, perhaps, but it bears stating. The world of Azeroth, known to us for the three most recent wars, has in fact seen many -- the War of the Ancients, the War of the Shifting Sands, the war between the ancient troll empires and the aqir. One of these wars went far to set the stage for the First and Second Wars by creating, in effect, three of the major players in those conflicts. Without the Troll Wars, there would today be no Silvermoon, no human nations (and thus no Forsaken), and the troll nation of Zul'Aman would rule all of northern Lordaeron, perhaps all the way south to Khaz Modan. The Troll Wars were named by their victors. To the trolls of Zul'Aman, they never really ended. Pushed back by the elves of Quel'Thalas and their human allies, the once-great northern troll empire receded but never actually died. Technically, even after repeated raids by outsiders, the Amani still hold onto their ancestral home. But all around it, the direct descendants (barely two elven generations) of their conquerors hold the Ghostlands, forests scarred by the Scourge during the Third War. War seems to never leave the gates of the troll kingdoms. However, to be fair, it's not as if the trolls are shy about warring on others, either.
Free realm transfers announced
Blizzard poster Turrit announced yesterday that free realm transfers are being made available to address faction imbalance and overpopulation issues on the following PvE realms: Aggramar (Alliance only) Area 52 (Horde only) Blackhand Hellscream Stormrage (Alliance only) Thrall (Horde only) Undermine Destination realm: Drak'thul The free transfer period will run from Tuesday, May 25 (today) to Tuesday, June 1 at 11:00 a.m. PDT. However, Turrit did make a point of mentioning that Blizzard has a transfer goal in mind, and if it's reached, they may shut the free transfers down early. If you're on any of the affected realms and have been considering a transfer, this might be a good chance to save yourself $25. To my surprise, it turns out Drak'thul was actually a PvP realm until very recently, and after a quick look at WoW Progress's list of U.S. realms, I have to agree it looks like the server needs some love. While it's possible the page hasn't been updated, it's apparent that the Drak'thul's raiders are struggling -- and there's some rather illuminating commentary in this thread (I'll grant I can't verify the accuracy) on how some of the server's troubles may have gotten their start. Two things come to mind: Blizzard's observations a year ago concerning only PvP realms being low-pop, and: what's happening on Cho'gall. Interesting. The full announcement is past the cut.
WoW Moviewatch: Why you should never eat a brownie
Okay, I need help with this one. Waus from Trollbane sent Why you should never eat a brownie in to us. As the story goes, Waus was eating a brownie when he suffered from a collapsed lung. While in the hospital recuperating, he was inspired to create this machinima. I don't know what to make of this video, so I'm curious what the legion of Moviewatchers think about it.The video's short and fast-paced. Basically, an evil Draenei snags a dangerous brownie and tricks a Night Elf into eating it. The voice acting is subtitled, but I'm pretty sure the Japanese dialogue does not match up with the subtitles. Obviously, after the Night Elf eats the brownie, she suffers dire consequences.I feel almost ashamed to admit it, but the video made me laugh. It's just so over the top that it got giggles from me. The Blood Elf voice was worth a chuckle, and the whole thing is just so absurd it hit my funny bone. The animation isn't fancy, but I don't think that was supposed to be the point anyway. So, I don't know. It made me laugh, like I said, but what do you think of it?If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on MoviewatchEDIT: By the way, Waus is a "he." The pronoun monster bit me.
More free character transfers open for the EU
A new batch of fre realm transfers have opened up for European servers, which is always a good thing. A lot of these transfers are ones we've seen before though, so hopefully this time around these options will be more successful than they may have been previously. We also have a whole load of transfers opening up to EU-Magtheridon specifically for the Alliance, so they're continuing to try and repair the faction imbalance there. Right now, we're looking at... Horde players on EU-Magtheridon may transfer to Haomarush, Tarren Mill, Trollbane, Zenedar, and Silvermoon. Alliance players may transfer to EU-Magtheridon from Aerie Peak, Aggramar, Alonsus, Aszune, Azjol-Nerub, Bronze Dragonflight, Bronzebeard, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Khadgar, Kul Tiras, Runetotem, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, and Turalyon. Check behind the cut below for the rest of the current free character transfers.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Shared tongues and other oddities
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.I fulfilled my dork quota in last week's Ask a Lore Nerd, so this week I'll ramble a bit less, and answer some more of the simpler questions we've seen recently. With that said, let's get started with Chris's question...Why is Gorehowl just an epic weapon? It was claimed to be wielded by Grommosh Hellscream and if so shouldn't the weapon be legendary?
WoW Moviewatch: Trollbane 2 trailer
Today's pick is a trailer for Trollbane 2 by DTB Productions who, of course, brought us Trollbane. The filmmaker is asking for feedback on his Warcraft Movies profile, so if you'd like to have an impact on his film, I'm sure he'd appreciate your thoughts. My first thought is: fix the grammar, dude! The tenses are so tortured in the setup titles that it's hard to tell if this isn't a time-travel movie -- or will it might have been?My second comment is that the machinima looks incredibly slick. This is going to be a very high quality, well-produced movie when it's finished. However, shiny polish does not necessarily equal a good film. My main concern with this trailer is that I have no idea what this movie is going to be about. From the titles toward the end -- new outfits, places, and powers -- it sounds like this is a trailer for a new video game, not a movie. I can tell that there's going to be action and gore and female Troll behinds (or was that a Blood Elf?) but other than that? No clue. I don't even know who the heroes and villains are. A trailer is supposed to make me want to see a film. (Sometimes with Hollywood films, the trailer is actually better than the full length film. Wanted, I'm looking at you!) However, slick production values by themselves aren't enough to draw me into a movie if I don't know why else I'm watching it.[Via Warcraftmovies.com]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Moviewatch Smackdown: Trollbane
We all know that I've been more than a little harsh on certain genres of WoW videos. Unless it's a storyline machinima or music video, you're not likely to see it on Moviewatch. However, I'm open to a little experimentation, so I bring you Moviewatch Smackdown. Today, I'm going to pit multiple genres against each other in a battle to the death.Our first movie, Trollbane, is an action flick, but not in the hardcore sense. We previously wrote about DTB's beginning effort, Assassine, which some felt followed too typical of a storyline. This time, he's back with a story that's not too heavy on the dialogue, instead focusing on the battle. While the editing was good, the voice acting left something to be desired and the sound levels were a bit off. He seems to improve his skills with each new attempt, though![Via Warcraftmovies.com]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Server crashes plague Ruin battlegroup and others
It seems to be an unfortunate reality of WoW, if not MMORPGs in general: When a new patch goes live, more often than not, it's going to be a bit rocky on the servers for a while. Patch 2.4.2 is no exception, Many servers are having trouble staying up, including most of the Ruin Battlegroup, which according to a few our tipsters has been having more than its share of trouble lately. Blue Poster Vrakthis has assured posters on the Customer Service Forum that the Realm issues are being looked into, but so far, there does not seem to be a solid reason for the downtime other than, hey, it's patch day! EDIT: It has now been confirmed that the downtimes were intentional for the purpose of emergency maintenance. The downtime should be minimal. As of the time of this writing, the following servers are down:
More transfers for North America
Transfers from some impacted North American servers to four brand-new realms began at noon PST today, and will run "until 11PM, Friday, January 19 or until such a time that the destination realms have received adequate transfers to them." From Eyonix: In the event that a realm meets our transfer goals before the scheduled end date the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience. You can begin a free character move here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html Destination: - Arathor, PvE - Pacific Skywall Silvermoon Moonrunner Suramar Bronzebeard Destination: - Trollbane, PvE - Eastern Eldre'Thalas Zul'jin Elune Khadgar Doomhammer Destination: - Madoran, PvE - Central Malygos Aggramar Khaz Modan Hellscream Alexstrasza Destination: - Farstriders, RP - Central Earthen Ring Kirin Tor Cenarion Circle Blackwater Raiders I do have a character on Doomhammer, so I might transfer just for the hell of it. New servers are fun. However, one sour note for the transfer bonanza: Cloudbeard of the guild Tide writes that a lot of people, including most of his guild, are stuck in the free transfer queue, and Blizz hasn't said much beyond that they're "working on a resolution." So maybe look out; but on the other hand, Eyonix urges you to transfer ASAP. What have your transfer experiences been like?
