The Queue: Atlantis in Azeroth?

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is taking this edition of the Queue under the sea, minus the singing and dancing crab. Unless Ghostcrawler shows up and is feeling musical.

I have always been obsessed with Atlantis. From Plato's Timaeus and Critias to Strabo, to Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis, the Antediluvian World and Lewis Spence's The History of Atlantis I've devoured books about the place. Mind you, I have my own weird snobberies, I don't like Edgar Cayce's version and I don't actually believe the place was a real place. Still, I wrote my latest book about Atlantis because the place has always fascinated me on a mythical, literate and fantastic level.

Considering all the disasters and lost empires in Warcraft I've always been disappointed that we never actually got an Atlantis. The closest we got was the Broken Isles/Tomb of Sargeras, an ancient night elf ruin that was used by Aegwyn to contain the remains of the avatar of Sargeras she destroyed. Vashj'ir had some potential for Atlantean resonance, but so far WoW has avoided really playing with the trope, and it is a shame. But I would say that. I have always been obsessed with Atlantis.

And now, like a city sinking let us dive into the questions.

Yakutat asks:
QFTQ - what is the background for Mogu'shan Palace? My first time through i didn't realize it was actually located in the Vale (i didn't open the vale until lvl 90). Going though it on alts, i'm confused on what exactly is going on. The goldern lotus dailies seem to be intent on keeping the Mogu out of the Vale, but apparently they have a huge stronghold there that is literally under our noses? And completely cut off from the outside?

There will be some spoilers for patch 5.4 in this answer.

Okay, first off - the Mogu'shan Palace was just as deserted as the Shrines, the Golden Pagoda, and the other structures in the Vale until the mogu started infiltrating the Vale through the hidden passages we collapsed in the start of the Golden Lotus quests. However, there are many, many more hidden passages into the Vale, and the mogu know them because the mogu made the Vale for the Titans, back when they were all constructs like the earthen and vrykul inside Ulduar.

Indeed, Mogu'shan Palace and the waters of the Vale that collect at the foot of the Palace are all part of a vast complex that extends deep underground in the Vale, including the chamber where a group of goblin mercenaries found the Dark Heart of Pandaria guarded by Norushen. If you go onto the PTR you can see that there's newly revealed entraces, originally below the surface of the water of the lake at the base of the palace, that lead down into the complex of tunnels. This is where the first couple of bosses in the Siege of Orgrimmar section set in the Vale of Eternal Sorrows will be taking place. In fact, when you descend into the treasure room of the Palace to fight the Saurok leader Gekkan, you use the same tunnels the mogu used to get inside in the first place.

KyleEllis2 asks:
QFTQ: First time question asker here! I have really gotten into the Alliance story through MOP after playing mostly Horde since vanilla. Anduin has really started to grow on me as a character, do you think that he will start to play a much larger part in the story as it progresses? For example, if the next expansion is about the Legion do you think Anduin could play an impacting role or will he be sidelined.With his closeness with the Draenei and Velen, I think their relationship could play a key role in the fight againt the legion. Thoughts?

Considering the bromance between Anduin and Wrathion in 5.2/5.3, I'd be amazed if we didn't see more of both of them in the future. Now, whenever the Legion does finally come back, assuming Anduin doesn't just spend the entire expansion talking about how they're probably basically good inside, then I agree he'll probably play an important role in helping us fight them. And if the Anduin train gets us more Velen and the draenei then I will hop right on board and ride.

That being said, the kid really needs to never again run off to fight an orc twice the size of most tauren with no neck to speak of, an army of sha-infested orc blademasters, and a powerful artifact without any backup except for an incredibly exasperated werewolf. That was BS, Anduin.

MicahWalton asks:
Is there any way to still get the Elder Charm of good fortune instead of the newer ones? I just came back to the game and can't find anyway to get them. I have looked everywhere, but the information is wrong or says you can't. That doesn't seem right though.

Yeah, they're still available from the various chests on the Isle of Thunder, in the Troves of the Thunder King scenario chests, and from the loot bags from the Sunreavers or Kirin Tor for completing the dailies on the island for the day.

A whole lot of you did a very long comment thread about the pronunciation of potato and tomato which isn't useful at all to me writing this, so thanks for that, Alex

Seriously, guys. Come on. Just for that, I'm going to talk about Suramar.

Suramar was a night elf city located on the shores of the Well of Eternity. It was the birthplace of the Stormrage brothers and Tyrande (pronounced Ty-ran-duh and I'll brook no argument) Whisperwind, and in addition to its great library Izal-Shurah and the great Temple of the Moon, it held numerous arcane and religious academies. It was a city of learning, and as such, it was heavily contested by the Burning Legion and the Kaldorei during the War of Ancients. In the end, due to the implosion of the Well, Suramar ended up on the bottom of the ocean as the Maelstrom opened up and the continent of Kalimdor was rent asunder.

However, Suramar was not allowed to rest quietly. When the avatar of Sargeras came through into Azeroth to confront Aegwyn, the Guardian of Tirisfal, his physical form was slain so that he could infest Aegwyn herself. Unawares, she took the enormous corpse of the slain demon lord (so far as she knew, it was his true body) and used her vast power as Guardian to raise Suramar from the ocean floor, placing Sargeras' body in the city's lost Temple of the Moon. (Whether or not Aegwyn knew the origins of these ruins is an open question.) Later, after having learned from the dying mind of Medivh the location of the Tomb of Sargeras, Gul'dan raised it again and led the clans loyal to him into its abandoned halls.

He died there. But his memories of the ruin were passed down along with his demonically empowered skull, and so Illidan Stormrage in time found his way back home to Suramar, and the Eye of Sargeras, which he took from the ruins while using its power to bury Maiev Shadowsong's Wardens. He would later use the Eye to attempt to destroy the Lich King... and if not for the intervention of Malfurion and his allies, it would have worked. The Eye was more than powerful enough to destroy Northrend and the Lich King along with it.

Hey, like I said, I've always wished Warcraft would do its own version of Atlantis.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!