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Know Your Lore: Oshu'gun
Oshu'gun, the largest known diamond in the universe, means many things to many people. To the ethereals of the Consortium, Oshu'gun means profit. To the Orcs of old, it was holy ground. To the Draenei and the Naaru, Oshu'gun is a transdimensional spaceship that was used to save a dying race from their doomed homeworld which had been overrun by demons. Sweet.We all know, or should know, the story of the Draenei by now. It's been beaten into our heads in many different ways in the World of Warcraft. If you don't know the story, let me sum it up for you: About 25,000 years ago, Velen, Archimonde, and Kil'jaeden were the top cats of a race called the Eredar. Sargeras approached them with promises of power and whatever else, with a hidden malicious intent. Archimonde and Kil'jaeden jumped on it, but Velen, being a prophet, had bad feelings about the arrangement. He and those loyal to him avoided falling into the grasp of the Destroyer of Worlds until a savior(...sort of) in the form of K'ure came along. K'ure explained the nature of the Naaru to the Prophet, and Velen gathered the Eredar loyal to him. They loaded up into a ship(later named Oshu'gun by the orcs) and escaped Argus, taking the name "draenei" meaning "exiled ones" in the language of the Eredar.They rocketed around space for awhile, all was good. Then they crashed on some random planet. That's okay though, it was a pretty cool planet so they decided to name it after themselves. They named it 'Draenor' which translates to "Exile's Refuge." It beats me how 'or' means 'refuge' but who am I to question galactic fantasy languages? When Oshu'gun crashed, the Naaru that dwelled within and powered the vessel were severely damaged or outright killed. K'ure was severely wounded and still dwells within the vessel, sitting on the brink between life and death. D'ore, the other Naaru involved in the crash, died on impact. He was relocated to the area now known as Auchindoun and buried there, the first to be buried in the area later known as the Auchenai Crypts.
M'uru is Missing: What it may mean for the future of Warcraft lore
We've known for a while thanks to screenshots and data from World of Raids that M'uru was the long-expected Dark Naaru boss of the Sunwell. As a lore fanatic and Blood Elf fan, I wondered how they'd explain his disappearance from Silvermoon and his reappearance at the Sunwell, so when tipster James let me know something was up in Silvermoon on the test server, I had to head out immediately and see for myself. He was right: M'uru is no longer in the not-so-secret chamber below the Paladin's guild headquarters in Farstrider Square in Silvermoon City, nor is Lady Liadrin, the founder and matriarch of the order. Instead, I found the Blood Elf Magisters who had formerly contained the Naaru kneeling or sitting on the floor, or standing in a woozy, stunned daze. Magister Astalor Bloodsworn was the only one who talked, cursing Kael'thas and his Felblood troops for stealing away M'uru, and saying that Lady Liadrin had gone to look for a new source of power for the order. And yes, she does show up elsewhere to claim that new source.
New Sunwell details from Swedish mag Level
Acacia sent a tip that Swedish magazine Level has released their annual WoW issue, and there are some juicy tidbits in there about patch 2.4, which as you probably know will feature the last expected instance before the next expansion, the Sunwell. Jeff Kaplan did the deed in an interview, and let us know that: Sunwell Isle will be off the north coast of Silvermoon. Magister's Terrace will be the 5-man instance, and the Sunwell Plateau will be the 25-man raid, designed to close off the Burning Crusade storyline (although Kaplan admits there are a few more stories in progress in case they need to delay Wrath at all) There will be quests outside the dungeons, too, and they will tell the story of Tempest Keep And with those quests, there will be a new faction, called the "Shattered Sun Offensive." Finally, the limit of daily quests will raise in 2.4, from 10 to a whopping 25 (which is all the quests in your log. Money money money!) There are a few more good story notes, but those are spoilers, so we'll put them after the break. If you don't want to know what you'll find in the Sunwell, don't click the link below. But if you're fine with hearing about it ahead of time, feel free to hit the link and move on.
Forum Post of the Day: Worst NPC names
We've talked about your favorite NPCs before, but I really like this idea by Benfea: what's the worst NPC name in the game? There are lots of votes for Nutral, the "neutral" flight master in Shattrath, and Haris Pilton probably takes second place for sure. Someone (an MVP!) said Captain Placeholder, but that's crazy talk-- Captain Placeholder is one of the best NPCs ever!Personally, I never liked the names of the auctioneers in Ironforge-- Redmuse confused me at first, and Lympkin sounds like some kind of disease. And Fandral Staghelm is not only a jerk of the highest order, but his name sounds dumb, too. Who names their kid Fandral?What's the worst NPC name you've seen in the game?
The Naaru's new fashion statement
World of Raids and MMO Champion both have lists of new gear on sale, come patch 2.3, in exchange for Badges of Justice from the heroic instances, and now Karazhan and Zul'Aman raid instances as well. That's exciting, of course, but let's stop and look at these pics of the new gear for a moment, shall we?Now, naturally, this gear is designed to fit with the general trollish theme of the patch, which lots of people are understandably excited about. The armor looks pretty good as armor goes, and it definitely brings some new visual design elements to the game that haven't been represented in any previous armor sets. But, let's stop and consider for a moment just where this armor is coming from. It looks like trollish Zul'Aman armor, but do we find it in Zul'Aman? No, it's up for sale by the only known Naaru retailer, G'eras. Does its method of acquisition have anything to do with Zul'Aman whatsoever? Well... it might if your guild has finished raiding Karazhan and gathers the heroic badges in Zul'Aman soon, then yes; but if you still focus mostly on Karazhan or heroic instances, then you might very well acquire some of these armor pieces without ever visiting those Amani trolls even once.What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is the appropriation of the Amani clothing design brand by the Shat'ari Naaru in Shattrath, copied illegally by G'eras, and put on sale with no proprietary settlement with trolls they are mimicking. Who knew that the Naaru could be capable of copyright infringement? If the trolls were down with that whole "I'll see you in court!" thing, their lawyers would be all over this right now.Seriously, why is a being of pure holy light selling trollish armor with skulls and tusks and voodoo dolls on it? -- or does nobody care?
Azeroth's bad guys aren't always that bad
Malygos is a new kind of antagonist for the Warcraft universe in that he's probably the enemy with the least actual evil we've seen so far, in sharp contrast to the Burning Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, and a host of others. As we've already noted, some players think he may actually be right: he wants to protect Azerothians from the magic they're dabbling in, for fear that they might end up bringing the Burning Legion back with it, except that he goes about "protecting" the people by waging war on them, which somehow eerily familiar.... Anyway, Malygos is just the latest example of an antagonist in WoW that we can almost sympathize with, a bad guy that isn't all that bad. Malygos' particular place at the other end of our attack buttons can be attributed mainly to his conflicting point of view rather than an evil and corrupted soul. His ultimate aim is still the greater good of all life -- he just believes (wrongfully, we hope) that he needs to destroy the minority of magic users in order to save the remaining majority of all other life on the world.
A'dal is prepared
Some of you longtime readers may remember a while back when we posted video of A'dal (the big floaty Naaru in Shattrath's center) getting the crap beat out of him. In fact, that was the post where I coined the Lord British Postulate, which stated that if anything existed as a live creature in an MMO, someone, somewhere would try to kill it. Why hasn't that caught on by now?But apparently A'dal is a pushover no more. When someone kited a Fel Reaver into Shattrath (that's the big tangle of lifeless metal in the upper left of the picture above), A'dal laid the smack down with a 114,952 hit. Naaru please! He ain't playin', son.A sharp increase in the strength of the Naaru, or just a sign that Blizzard really doesn't want anyone messing around with beings made of energy? You decide.
Letting things fall through the cracks
The World of Warcraft is a big place. We've got tons of stuff going on, from Highbourne elven ghosts run amok, to crazy furbolgs, to leperous gnomes, all the way to the Burning Legion, the Scourge, and the clash of Titans and the Old Gods themselves. Things are happening all around us, all the time.So it's not surprising that a few things can slip through the cracks. Last night, I was rolling through Nagrand with my rogue when I got a quest to kill an Ethereal near Oshu'gun. While I was wandering around near the mountain, I saw an opening inside, and decided to see what was in there. And inside, I found something very surprising: Kil'sorrow agents holding a Naaru captive. According to the lore, the mountain itself is actually a ship, and the Naaru inside, K'ure, was weakened in the ship's crash and trapped there for centuries. The trapped Naaru in Silvermoon City (who funnels power to Blood Elf Paladins everywhere) gets all the press, but K'ure and his predicament have gone virtually unnoticed by both players and NPCs.Likewise, did anyone notice that the Arrakoa are actually attempting to summon an Old God to Shadowmoon Valley? In the southern part of the zone, among the green pools, you can see the bird men focusing their energies on something that looks exactly like C'thun. Considering all the trouble the Old Gods had caused, you'd think that would get a lot more attention than it does (unless it's just that no one really believes the Arrakoa could really do it-- they haven't pulled it off so far).Is there anything else that's fallen through the cracks of everything happening in the world? I'd think we'd be concerned that the Burning Legion is using a trapped Naaru or that the Arrakoa are trying to raise one of the most powerful beings in the Universe, but with everything else going on, I guess it doesn't raise much of an alarm.
Around Azeroth: Oshu'gun from above
Reader Tom sends in this excellent view of Oshu'gun, in Nagrand, from above. Oshu'gun has a fascinating history -- a crashed Naaru ship inhabited by the the Naaru K'ure, it has been a sacred place to the area's Orcs in the past, as the spirits of their ancestors came to Oshu'gun to commune with K'ure. But at present, you will find Oshu'gun less welcoming, as it is teeming with minions of the Shadow Council. (For a full account of Oshu'gun's history, check WoWWiki.) Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
WoW Moviewatch: Prophet Velen is defeated!
Once the members of my guild hit 70, we decided to stage a raid to liberate the captive Naaru, M'uru, who is being ripped of his powers by the blood elves to grant the abilities of the light to their blood knights. We thought this was a noble endeavor, but now it seems that there is some speculation regarding the true intentions of the Naaru. Regardless, the revenge of the Horde was just around the corner. The Broken, from the Stormrage realm, have posted their victory over the leader of the Exodar, Prophet Velen. What surprised me was the near complete lack of resistance from the Alliance. Ah well, we had a few quiet raids on Undercity, too, so I suppose it's bound to happen anywhere. Beware, Broken...the Alliance shall retaliate!
Forum post of the day: Are the Naaru evil?
Quick, name the least evil (i.e. most "good") groups of beings in the current World of Warcraft universe. Naaru and/or Draenei, right? We've already talked about how the Draenei are almost too nice, and as for the Naaru, that just seems obvious. They're big glowy friends to all, who want nothing but happiness and the absence of the Burning Legion. There's been speculation that M'uru, the Naaru that the blood elves hold captive to power their Paladins, is faking it, but even that lie would be, presumably, for the reason of brining the blood elves closer to the light or helping them fight the Burning Legion.But Roam, of Bloodscalp, doesn't trust the big guys at all. From his post titled "Who else thinks the Naaru are probably evil:" Call me a sceptic, but I've played too many video games to EVER trust a unidentified and unquestioned holy force. The Naaru seem like good guys and all... but why? Why bother with us at all? They creep my out. Sound like windchimes and "make you feel safe"... ugh sounds like a fricking trap! And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense -- if this wasn't a Blizzard game. I agree with later posters that Blizz is just too generally straight-ahead with its story-telling to make the Naaru have been deceiving us. But hey, you never know; as a responder added, "I, as a general rule of thumb, never trust luminescent beings." Words to live by. What do you think? Are the Naaru benevolent creatures, or deceptive forces sent to destroy us?[thanks, Justin]
Is M'uru faking it?
We've already wondered if the Draenei are too good for their own good, and now there's a theory floating around about the other faction's new race: it could be that the Blood Elves are being fooled.Inside their capital city of Silvermoon, in the Court of the Sun, you can find a Naaru (ethereal being of Light, there's lots of them in Shattrath, too) being held captive by the Blood Elves. This is how they're using the Light (to become Paladins and generally wreck havoc with Warcraft's lore) for their own purposes, by holding the Naaru named M'uru captive and draining his power.But Naaru are pretty darned powerful (even Khadgar, if you talk to him, sounds impressed with what they've got), and so a few players, Arlia of Bloodscalp included, hypothesize that M'uru might not be completely on the level about being "captured." Maybe he's just playing possum-- though for what purpose we're not sure. It could be to study the Blood Elves, or to bring them to the Light eventually. Or there's the possibility that "M'uru" is not a Naaru at all, and the Blood Elves don't have exactly what they think they have.Though it's true we can't know for sure from the lore available now, a few players say that what we see is real: the Blood Elves used to be the High Elves, and are just "magic badasses," capable of draining whoever they want, especially a magical form like the Naaru. But it would be very interesting if this Blood Elf-Naaru relationship was not what it seems.
