[1.Local]: Garrosh Goulash

The lessons of Wrathgate
"This comment gets it," notes blogger Matt Rossi, "and should be in [1. Local]." Simply put: we agree.

DragonFireKai: The thing people need to remember about Varian when they say that he should look beyond the past and give peace a chance is that he did look beyond his past and gave peace a chance -- not once, not twice, but thrice. The whole kidnapped-and-turned-into-a-gladiator-by-bloodthirsty-orcs thing? He was on his way to a peace summit with the Horde when it happened. Jaina convinced him to attempt to set up another conference with the Horde. Thrall showed up, brought Garrosh (who was his usual rabid self), and Thrall also brought Rehgar Earthfury, the bloodthirsty orc who had kidnapped Wrynn and forced him fight in Dire Maul. Real smart, Thrall, real smart. Why didn't Wrynn remember to have a necromancer raise Blackmoore so Thrall could get the same feeling?

And to make things worse, the Twilight's Hammer cult decided to use that opportunity to attempt to kill Wrynn, using a mind-controlled orc. That orc was Garona Halforcen, the same orc who stabbed Wrynn's father through the heart before his eyes as a child. That looks real bad for the Horde there. But Wrynn decides to take the high road, and rather than declare war on the horde, he focuses the Alliance's efforts against the Scourge, forsaking true peace in favor of detente. But the Forsaken strike, dealing a crushing blow to the war effort, killing thousands of Alliance soldiers in Howling Fjord, and thousands more at the Wrathgate, including Bolvar Fordragon.

Even so, Wrynn decides to make a surgical strike on the Undercity. In the Undercity, he's presented with the full extent of the machinations of the Horde, and who does he find standing in the Undercity's throne room, fresh after this discovery? Thrall, with a small army behind him. Yeah, that looks real good for the Horde. Especially since dreadlords don't leave corpses, so he can't know that they just finished off Varimathras.

The true irony of the situation is that Varian Wrynn was long the most moderate of the Alliance leaders. After the defeat of the Horde in the second war, the accepted plan was to execute every last orc on Azeroth. No survivors. Wrynn convinced the alliance leadership to simply contain the orc in internment camps. King Terenas wanted to kill them all, King Greymane wanted to kill them all, Lord Proudmoore never stopped wanting to kill them all, Magni agreed after the siege of Ironforge, King Sunstrider wanted to kill them all.

The lone dissenting voice was that of King Wrynn, the man who had lost more to the orcs than any other, convinced the Alliance to let the orc live. And yet, the actions and inactions of the Horde since then has been enough to convince the most tolerant of the lords of the Alliance that they are a threat to the survival of the Alliance greater than Yogg-Saron. Not all of it is the Horde's fault directly -- but a large amount of it is.

Readers on writing
Look what's happened to our Two Bosses Enter fantasy boss deathmatch series -- it's become a great place to read and write fictional scenarios involving figures from WoW lore. Over this season of Two Bosses, comments supporting various winning scenarios have evolved to mini-stories of their own. We highlight some of the (not necessarily technically best yet) most interesting submissions along with the results of each week's cage match in One Boss Leaves. It appears that like readers and writers alike are taking it all with a spirit of generous collaboration.

Baldagrim: Pollux, thank you for an honest review. I appreciate it for it is hard to get someone to review honestly. All your points were valid and I was happy to read them. Mis-tense and comma usage are two of my biggest faults as a writer. Proofreading is a necessary skill I have to majorly polish. Dialogue, I've been told by every reviewer, is my strength, whereas character/environment details is not (I don't know how much detail is enough).

I liked adding Laveras (thinking about making him a Horde alt). The idea of romance is one I try to embrace in all my stories. I was afraid Laveras and her relationship would hold down the story, which was sadly true. But it leads to another notion I enjoy adding, which is self-sacrifice for someone you care about whether it is money, time, material goods, and even life, which it was in this instance.

Despite my story being complicated and not getting down to solely the fight, I like the style I've grown into, for it displays the feeling and heart of life. After all, one of their rules was "Don't neglect story," and I never will. I may not get article inclusion, which was a goal that I no longer strive for. Reading your review made me remember why I love writing for it is all about the story and not the recognition it gains.

Thank you again, Pollux, for your wonderful review.

On being the nice guy
Oh, and hey – that being nice thing? Not a fluke. WoW.com's Allison Robert caught plenty of it on this thread, noting "It's nice to see that Azeroth has good people in addition to trolls and ninjas."

Nick: I love stories like these. One I will always remember that a friend told me, is that his friend one time had given a new player around 200g to finish helping him get his epic mount (ground). The person praised and praised and promised one day he would pay him back. They ended up losing touch, and about a year later he gets an in-game mail from that same new player. The mail said how the newbie never forgot what my friend's friend did for him, and told him he would pay him back one day. The contents of the mail, besides the letter, was a couple Nether Vortex (BC days) and 5,000g.

bep4815: I have a good friend on WoW who is a warrior like me. He pretty much taught me the ropes of the class, still does to this day, and we became good friends. We were in a couple of guilds together, raided a lot together ... all that good stuff.

Then one day, his brother logged on his toon and told the guild that he had a heart attack at the age of 19. Luckily, he survived it, but it took a great toll on his body and he was unable to work for a while. Since WoW was one of the few forms of entertainment he could do at the time but (he) couldn't afford it due to not working, I bought a game card for him.

Even though we're pretty much on the other side of the world from each other, I still wanted to do something for a good friend of mine.

Frank: Last year, during Winter Veil, I dressed up in my red Santa Suit, changed my Elekk into a reindeer, wrapped up some Frostweave Bags, and rode to Northshire Abbey and gave presents to the lowbies there. It was harder than I thought it would be, because they didn't know how to communicate with in-game chat yet, but eventually I gave all my gifts away. It was fun getting in-game smile emotes from people. : )

He made Rossi snort soda
Matt Rossi had more than one comment nomination for [1.Local] this week. "Especially the last comment in the thread amused me to no end," he noted, adding "Hangk and KJP made me snort soda."

KJP: And he'll transition between fight phases by having an add appear, throw a cape on his shoulders, and start escorting him out of the room -- only to have him suddenly throw off the cape and re-engage.