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The Queue: Time
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today is one part serious, one part silly. Brace yourselves. antiganon asked: Did anyone else have a Queue to log in to the battle.net app on Sunday night?
Know Your Lore: Warlords, timelines, and the Bronze Dragonflight
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. Many of the questions that have had players mystified since Warlords of Draenor was introduced last year at BlizzCon surrounded Draenor itself. How did it appear? Why is it different? Why don't the events that occur on Draenor have any kind of bearing on what's going on with Azeroth? If Draenor is an alternate Draenor, is there an alternate Azeroth as well? Does this mean there are duplicate lore characters? Will we see two Thralls, two Velens, two versions of Garrosh? And as the year has slowly marched on, that question has been answered in bits and pieces, but never with enough clarity to really set people's minds at ease. When the Warlords of Draenor beta was released, it became immediately clear to anyone that knew the history of Warcraft that this Draenor, the one on which we are going to be building garrisons, amassing armies, and defeating the Iron Horde, is not and never was the Draenor we were already familiar with. It's an entirely different planet. We've been using the term "alternate universe" in reference to Draenor because seems the best term to encompass the concept of this strange world. With the release of the short story Hellscream, it has finally been made clear just what is going on with Draenor -- and it has nothing to do with Garrosh's trip, and everything to do with the Bronze Dragonflight. Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains several spoilers for Warlords of Draenor as well as the short story Hellscream.
Know Your Lore: Wrathion's duty
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. Wrathion is one of those unique and entertaining characters who appeared out of nowhere and managed a staggering degree of complexity in just a few short years in game. Although he was not introduced by name until the tail end of Cataclysm, his origins began when the expansion revamped level 1-60 content and consequentially introduced a bizarre and touching origin story in the Badlands. It wasn't until the legendary quest chain for rogues that we got a real look at Wrathion, newly hatched and remarkably intelligent for his age. Once his tasks for rogues were over at the end of the expansion, Wrathion departed -- and then promptly showed up again in Mists of Pandaria, in a far more extensive role that stretched the length of the expansion, and beyond. But one thing has always been incredibly unclear -- exactly what Wrathion is up to, and why he is doing what he's doing. He's given us a reasonable enough answer, but can we really trust the last remaining member of a dragonflight known for lies, deceit, and evil, even if he is supposedly uncorrupted? Please note: The following column contains spoilers for War Crimes. If you're mid-book, or have yet to read it, you might want to come back when you're finished with it.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Timelines, timeways, and Karazhan
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. What is time, in Warcraft? Is it a straightforward line, or a tapestry of events that can be changed or altered with a simple pluck of a thread? While the bronze dragonflight may be masters of the various pathways of time, we mortal players are most definitely not. We've been sent through the pathways of the Caverns of Time on more than one occasion, but always at the behest of the bronze flight, to complete the tasks they have set and keep the timelines pristine. But this mysterious maze of time wasn't left unexplored prior to our travels through Tanaris. Obviously the bronze dragonflight has been up to a great deal over the thousands of years that it has existed -- Nozdormu's long absence predated even our first journeys through the Caverns of Time. And for one player in the next expansion, time had absolutely nothing to do with the dragonflights, and much more to do with the mysterious home of his enigmatic master, Medivh. So how does it all weave together? More importantly, when is time travel not really time travel at all, as the developers seemed to be so insistent on saying at BlizzCon? Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition. The following contains a small amount of speculation on datamined material. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Twists in time
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. Two weeks ago, we looked briefly at the Timewalkers and the strange goings-on on the Timeless Isle. Since then, players that have been dutifully completing Kairoz's weekly quests have reached the end of the mysterious visions Kairoz has been trying to pinpoint -- with some disturbing results and implications. In fact, the whole mad journey has been a steady trickle of unanswered questions and dizzying scenarios that might or might not be true. Or perhaps they're all true, just in different versions of reality. And that's the bronze dragonflight in a nutshell. It's a headache-inducing puzzle of events that might have been, have been, never been, and may have meant to be but hadn't, that can't quite be untangled. Led by Nozdormu, the bronze dragonflight's missive has always been to protect and observe the pathways of time. The Titans gifted Nozdormu with the knowledge of when and how he would die as a warning, a lesson -- that no matter how powerful Nozdormu might think he was, he, just like any mortal, would have to answer to time eventually. This was meant to keep the Timeless One in check, an effective plan. But did it really work? Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on how it happened. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore. Please note: This post contains spoilers for events on the Timeless Isle.
Know Your Lore: The curious case of the Timeless Isle
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. Its existence is an enigma that even the wisest of pandaren have yet to unravel. A place of great reverence for the pandaren, many warriors and aspiring leaders once traveled to this remote isle to test their mettle against the great Celestials themselves. Yet at some point, some moment in history, the Timeless Isle vanished. And as history continued to wind on in Pandaria, the Isle would reappear from time to time -- long enough to perhaps be noticed, but never quite long enough to allow more than a few unfortunate adventurers upon its shores before blinking out into history once more. Until now. The Timeless Isle represents a curiosity both to the pandaren, who are glad to see the Isle back again and stable -- for now -- and to the Bronze Dragonflight and their allies, the Timewalkers. To many players, the Timeless Isle simply represents a fun way to pass a few hours, killing rare spawns, picking up enticing Bind-on-Account item tokens for alts, and of course gathering tons of Timeless Coins to turn in for other rare rewards. But there's something ... different about the Timeless Isle. It's a puzzle, one that has yet to be fully solved. And of all the questions I have about this odd island in the middle of nowhere, the one that stands out at the front of my mind is quite simply -- why now?
Know Your Lore: The fascinating implications of the WoW TCG
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 Cataclysm expansion set out to do what prior expansions tried to do, and improve upon it in a significant way -- significantly inject lore into gameplay. And to some degree it worked; players found themselves working their way through zones both new and old by taking part in an interactive story. In between, we had short stories and novels that tied directly into that gameplay, weaving each part of the Warcraft franchise together into a solid storytelling tool. But it also had its flaws. Storytelling in zones was fantastic upon first playthrough, repetitive upon repeated play. The story of Cataclysm was so widespread that it didn't seem to have the kind of dramatic impact it was intended to have. And Cataclysm introduced so many loose threads of story that trying to pick a clear resolution out of the tale was difficult, to say the very least. And then we have the ending, signifying the dawning of the "Age of Mortals" with no clear definition as to what that really meant. We've got a little more definition now, and it's from an incredibly unlikely source, the last part of the franchise that didn't seem to have any significant lore tie-ins at all: the WoW Trading Card Game. Please note: Today's Know Your Lore contains some minor spoilers for Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War. If you're looking to avoid all spoilers, you may want to come back when you're done with the book!
Turn your gnome into Chromie with transmogrification
For those of you who don't know, there is a subreddit for transmogrification. Though the community is relatively small, it's a wonderful place to go if you want to show off your latest transmog or ask for help with an outfit that isn't quite coming together. I like to visit this particular subreddit quite often, and earlier this year, there was one amazing outfit that I just couldn't get out of my head. The outfit was put together by Hedgewocket on Lightbringer (EU) and is a close replica of the outfit worn by Chromie. Chromie is, of course, the best NPC in the game lovable bronze dragon who frequently takes on the form of a female gnome. Anyway, when I first saw Hedgewocket's transmog, I knew right away that I'd have to feature it on WoW Insider one day. Fortunately for you (because I know you all love Chromie), that day is today.
Know Your Lore: Cataclysm for Dummies, Act II
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. So, Act I of our Cataclysm for Dummies guide went over the basics of Cataclysm -- how it came to be, just who that Deathwing guy is, anyway, and why he's so annoyed with the world in general. We also found out why we're going to all those new level 80 to 85 zones and, more importantly, why we're wandering around in three different raids in three completely different locations around the world. If you made it through the basics, congratulations! You're caught up through patch 4.0. But we're in patch 4.3, aren't we? And you've probably still got questions. Questions like: What's up with the troll dungeons -- didn't we kill those guys already? And why did we have to go fight Ragnaros again? Why is Thrall friendly as all get-out with the Dragon Aspects? Why do we have to do all this silly time travel? The good news is, by the time you're done reading this guide, you'll totally understand what Cataclysm is all about. Please note: There are spoilers here for the novel Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects. If you're still planning on reading it, you may want to do so before you hit this recap.
Breakfast Topic: What happened to the mouse?
TV Tropes is justifiably known as one of the most dangerous sinkholes on the internet, and recently I spent hours winding my way through the entry on What Happened to the Mouse? For the uninitiated, the trope concerns secondary or minor characters and plot lines that go unresolved. Some better-known examples include the remaining dinosaur embryos in Jurassic Park, Saruman's fate in the film version of The Return of the King, and what happened to the Libyans in Back to the Future. Probably the most famous unresolved story line in the history of WoW was that of The Missing Diplomat, which for years was an iconic Alliance quest in pursuit of the missing Stormwind king. You ended up in Dustwallow Marsh with Jaina Proudmoore's thanks for having tracked down one of the conspirators, and then ... silence. Until Wrath of the Lich King, players wondered what on earth had happened to King Wrynn. Blizzard seems to be wrapping up a few stories that had been eluding players for a while (most recently, where Maeiv Shadowsong went after the battle with Illidan), but others remain. I have two personal favorites: The quest that Chromie gives you in Dragonblight that strongly hints at something weird going on with Nozdormu (admittedly, Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects sort of addresses this), and a question cryptically answered by Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi in the first round of Ask CDev concerning the ultimate fate of Frostmourne. Is there any mouse-like storyline or quest thread you'd still like to see finished in game?
Know Your Lore: The Wyrmrest Accord and the order of the world
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 dragonflights may have been created at the same time, but for the thousands of years they've existed on Azeroth, they've hardly been friendly with one another. It started with the Black Dragonflight and Neltharion's betrayal during the War of the Ancients. In the moment that Neltharion took the name Deathwing, in the moments thereafter during which he destroyed nearly all of the Blue Dragonflight with the Demon Soul -- in those moments, the dragonflights were introduced to a new concept: deception. It was unthinkable that any dragon would deliberately seek to harm another, and yet it happened. The fallout was immediate. Malygos, driven mad by the betrayal of one of his closest friends and the loss of his flight, fled to Northrend. In his madness, he split the Nexus from the rest of the land, separating Coldarra from the rest of the Borean Tundra. And then he stayed there, alone in his despair and insanity, refusing all visitors in his grief. The Blue Dragonflight crumpled, held up only by those who stood and tried their best to hold together the shattered remnants of the flight.
WoW Insider reviews Christie Golden's Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
Just under 10 years ago, on Oct. 1, 2001, a novel was released as a new addition to the Warcraft universe that would change the history and lore of the games forever. Lord of the Clans outlined the history and childhood of a young orc named Thrall. Son of Durotan and Draka, the former slave would break free from his imprisonment at the hands of Aedelas Blackmoore, step forward to unite the shattered and lethargic clans of the orcs, and lead the Horde in a manner that none that had played the original Warcraft games could possibly comprehend at that point in time. Almost a year later, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released, and that orc's journey from the beleaguered, Scourge-ridden lands of the Eastern Kingdoms to the dusty and barren shores of Kalimdor was told in a tale that captured the hearts of players. No longer simply a character in a novel, Thrall's travels and ultimate triumph, united with the night elves and humans at the peaks of Mount Hyjal and working as one to defeat Archimonde, would forever seal his place as true Warchief of the Horde. It is only appropriate then that the latest novel written for the Warcraft franchise, detailing the further journeys of Thrall, be undertaken by the woman who started it all -- Christie Golden. Not just an author with a host of Warcraft novels under her belt, Golden is the voice of the former Warchief, the author who gave him a life of his own. Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects continues the journey that Thrall began nearly 10 years ago -- and what a journey it is.
New quests on the PTR point to legendary weapon's origin
More news, in the form of a few quests datamined from the PTR, has cropped up about the legendary staff that will be available this expansion. While we've talked about the possible links between the staff and the upcoming War of the Ancients raid, nothing had been confirmed. However, the quests seem to be pointing to something a little different. In the quest A Legendary Engagement, players are sent to the Caverns of Time to speak to Anachronos. Anachronos is the acting "leader" of the Bronze Dragonflight in Nozdormu's absence; we first encountered him way back during the quest line to open the gates to Ahn'Qiraj. Oddly enough, it seems as though Anachronos requires your presence immediately -- something that's more than a little strange for a reclusive bronze dragon.
New Caverns of Time instance coming in Cataclysm
The recent Twitter dev chat confirmed what is fast becoming a tradition: We will be getting a new Caverns of Time instance with the upcoming expansion. It's certainly not something I have much trouble with. The Caverns of Time are an excellent tool for looking back and understanding old pieces of the story that brought us to the current world as it is. Unfortunately, the devs were not willing to drop any hints as to the exact nature of the new instance, but we can, of course, make our own guesses. The original questioner suggests War of the Ancients as a possible destination. In a way, that might be an interesting battle. It would, if nothing else, give us some insight into the character of Malfurion Stormrage, who promises to be a key figure in the expansion. That said, Rhonin, Broxigar, and Krasus have already traveled back in time to deal with the War of the Ancients, and you'd have to think that if you keep shoveling more time travelers back there, something's bound to give.
Ask a Faction Leader: Chromie
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Vol'Jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls, and he shed light on several key issues, including voodoo proximity, detachable extremities, and residential communities, and free zeppelin rides for three. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Anachronos, interim leader of the Bronze Dragonflight. Our first reader ques-- Anachronos responds: A TERRIBLE AND COSTLY MISTAKE YOU HAVE MADE. IT IS NOT MY TIME TO GIVE AN INTERVIEW, MORTALS! He just ... despawned. Okay. Uh, well, in that case, let's see ... Soridormi is busy dealing with the Infinites in the Caverns of Time, so ... I guess the task falls to Chronormu, better known to adventurers as Chromie -- ambassador for the Bronze Dragonflight. Our first reader question ...
One Boss Leaves: Chrono-Lord Epoch stops Prince Taldaram
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Welcome to Round Two of the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Prince Taldaram claimed he would drink no blood before his time – and thus, he ran dry in last week's Thunderdome matchup with Chrono-Lord Epoch. The Chrono-Lord held off the Prince by a margin of nearly 10% of the popular vote, and pulling out a victory that could truly be characterized as "just in time."Clydtsdk-Rivendare called the fight: Five words to stop you: Can't do that while stunned.In all seriousness, it depends. If this were in game, Taldaram would have a massive edge, what with the life drain. However, in theory, CLE is able to travel in time; thus, if he makes a mistake in combat, he could correct it. Lemme give a short roundup.
That woman is a man, man
Chromie, the little champion of the Bronze Dragonflight, is quite possibly one of the most polarizing figures in World of Warcraft. You love her or you hate her. She's either adorably awesome, or irritatingly stupid. I, for one, hate her because I had to do her quests in Andorhal before they completely redesigned that part of the zone to suck less. My girlfriend thinks Chromie is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There's something you should know, though. Chromie is a man. Well, probably.How can I make such outlandish accusations? Well, have you run Caverns of Time: The Culling of Stratholme? At the very end, you'll see that Chromie's Dragon form sports a pretty thick beard. More importantly than that, Chromie's Draconic name is Chronormu. Following the naming scheme of the Bronze Dragonflight, names ending with -ormu are male, and -ormi are female. The exceptions being those ending with -os (male) and -a (female) which are general dragon naming schemes. Were Chromie indeed a female, her name would be Chronormi and not Chronormu.Chromie is a man. A man, or a woman who had very cruel parents.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Fallout
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 apologize for the grim picture accompanying today's column, but I found it fitting. You know, even if it does have an artificial grain filter thrown over it to make it extra creepy. Chernobyl is creepy enough as it is without the filter, but I happened to like this particular shot. It's relevant, too! I promise!Sal asked..."Why don't the level 80 gnomes take back their home and clean up the toxic in it? We're able to run through at level 24 or so and clear the place, but a bunch of level 80's can't?"
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.
Hi Arthas! Want some help slaughtering the innocent?
A guildmate of mine was healing a Culling of Stratholme run last night and finally broached a question that seems to have occurred to everyone who's helped Arthas take his utilitarian moral perspective on the road: "Why are we helping this guy?"It's a question that people used to ask about Black Morass a lot too (indeed, the first boss, Chrono Lord Deja, will ask you that himself), but Black Morass was a little more cut-and-dried. Medivh unquestionably cost many lives in bringing the first Horde through his portal, but if the orcs never set foot in Azeroth, then the world would have fallen to the Legion. The Bronze Dragonflight is unusually blunt about the cause-and-effect; war breaks out among the human kingdoms, the Alliance never occurs, the new Horde is not present at Hyjal to defend against Archimonde's forces -- indeed, the Legion may very well have swept the world without Hyjal ever occurring. So, despite the destruction wrought by the first Horde's entry into Azeroth (and you could argue, because of it), Medivh must succeed in opening the portal.I'm not sure it's quite that straightforward with "Old Strat" -- and questions about whether it is prompt some thought-provoking questions concerning Azeroth's past, present, and future.
