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All the World's a Stage: So you want to be an Alliance Warrior
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the twelfth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. From the way that warriors are available to nearly every race in the game as a sort of default fighter person, you'd think that they would be the fallback choice for any number of different sort of characters you might imagine. Any sort of regular shmuck could be a warrior right? You just gotta pick up some sort of weapon and start swinging it around at an enemy, yes?No. Even though the Warrior class is available to almost every race in the game, every race has its own tradition of what it means to be a warrior -- it's not just a farmer with a pitchfork running around and trying to kill things. Warriors go through extensive training, learn to wield a wide variety of weapons, and train themselves in staying upright and charging about even while wearing all kinds of heavy metal on their bodies.So today we'll look into some of the ways that the races of the Alliance understand what it means to be a warrior, and see which heroes your character might look up to, as well as the archetypes these heroes represent.
Warcraft Outsiders hosts WoW Insider
The folks at the relatively new Warcraft Outsiders podcast were kind enough to invite me on their show the other day, and I proceeded to make a mess of things -- one of the hosts got sick, I stayed long after they tried to get rid of me, and I just generally stomped all over any plans they had to do their own show. The results are now up on their page -- the good news is that John, Michelle, Kyle and I did have a lot of fun, and we got some good discussion in about the Honor non-wipe, what few addons I swear by, and what's up with Varian Wrynn's return to Azeroth (he's actually wearing Anduin Lothar's belt -- shows you how much attention I pay to the lore stuff, so pay no attention to all the mistakes I make on that part).It was definitely a good time, and hopefully the show will be as fun to listen to as it was to record. The Outsiders will also have our good friend and colleague BRK on next week, and they do a nice job. Of course, if you only listen to one WoW podcast, you should make it the WoW Insider Show, but if you've got some extra room in your iPod, check them out (they also do a podcast on videogames in general) and see what you think.Thanks to everybody over there for having me on, especially since, with our names, we should be swordfighting in a warehouse or something (Outsiders/Insider -- get it? I totally didn't realize until the very end).
Know Your Lore: Anduin Lothar
I'll admit it -- I've been slack in profiling Alliance heroes for Know Your Lore. That is because heroes, in general, are boring. Complex, shades-of-gray characters have always been more enticing for me, so I tend to scoff at goody-two-shoes like Malfurion and Uther. But with the AV boycotts, battle cry arguments, and general put-uponness of the Alliance lately, you guys could really use a self-esteem boost. So today we present a true war hero of the Alliance: Anduin Lothar, the man who defeated the Old Horde. (Kind of.) (Not really.) Who: Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, the Last of the Arathi. What: Human warrior/knight/fighter, which strikes me as three names for the same thing. History: We don't know too much about Lothar's parents, other than that they were direct descendants of Thoradin, the founder of the Arathi nation. And actually, we don't know too much about Thoradin, either, although since he founded Stromgarde we can safely say that most players who went through Arathi Highlands pre-2.3 would like to spit on his grave. Whoever Lothar's parents were, they didn't seem to be very interested in him, because they let him spend his childhood running around in the court of Azeroth with his friends Llane Wrynn (prince of Azeroth and future assassinee) and Medivh (demon-possessed kid and future swarthy dress-wearer.) The three got into many unnamed hijinks in their youth, but when they came of age, they went their separate ways. Medivh fainted and fell into a coma for years, Llane took up more duties in the royal court, and Lothar joined the army.
