arthas-menethil
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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.
One Shots: The Lich King calls
The day many World of Warcraft players have looked forward to has finally arrived. Today marks the launch of Blizzard's newest expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King. As the darkness of night marched across the globe last night, so too did the midnight release parties. The blackness of Arthas' presence could be felt as players spawned their first Death Knights in a floating necropolis near Light's Hope Chapel, and bent their frozen hearts to do his bidding. Then, of course, there were the folks who rolled DKs named "rofflewaffle" and proceeded to annoy others mercilessly. Too bad you can't kill your own faction, eh?If you are one of the 11 million worldwide players currently stomping around in Northrend, or Arthas' necropolis, we want to see your screenshots! There's lots of stories to be told, lots to do and see, so send us your tales and images. It's easy - just email them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and a description - server, guild and other details welcome too! We'll post your screenshots of this new land up for everyone to see and give you the credit. %Gallery-9798%
Wrath Installation Gallery
Data Blitz, a local gaming store, pulled off a 7-11 here in the Philippines and our Guild Master was able to procure a copy of Wrath a full day ahead of when it is scheduled to launch. Doesn't matter, really, what with Death Knights running amok in Europe already. I borrowed the installation DVD -- thank goodness we're over the age of multiple CDs -- and installed Wrath on my own machine. Note: I only included screens with distinct images. The story progresses even with the same image (only the text changes), so I didn't include all of those. You'll be able to read through the entire story pretty soon yourselves, anyway.You can install Wrath of the Lich King even before the official launch of the game, as well as upgrade your account to a Wrath account. Even after upgrading, your account will still be tagged as a Burning Crusade account. That should change by midnight (or now, if you live in Europe). You'll still be able to play the game normally, but until Blizzard decides to open up Northrend, at least in the US, it'll just be like playing The Burning Crusade. The installation features the story of Arthas Menethil, presumably to work up players into wanting to go to Northrend and kick some Lich King butt. Because, you know, Arthas is kind of a jerk. %Gallery-36733%
Anti-Aliased: Mourning Frostmourne, part 2
This leads us to the most noble road of all -- simply not putting the sword into the game. If the players kill Arthas, the sword needs to go somewhere that isn't the hands of the player community. Another NPC perhaps, back into the ice, or to simply never leave the corpse of the Lich King.This seems like it's a poor solution at first glance, but truly this is the best solution of all. Frostmourne is not the Twin Blades of Azzinoth that Illidan carries -- it is something more. Leaving exactly what Frostmourne does in the dark actually gives it more credibility and more power than defining it inside of the game would. What you don't know is spookier and more interesting than what you do know. It's the usual "the grass is greener" concept, except now it's being applied to a blade that has the power to consume your soul.When you neglect to define exactly how powerful the blade is, you also never truly disappoint the player. Sure, there are those who probably would wish the blade was included in the game. But if you, the player, don't know exactly what the sword does, then the magic that it provides will never die. You can keep thinking and keep speculating to your heart's content. If the sword is included and everything about it is revealed, then there is a strong possibility that players would not be happy with it. Something about the sword would not please them, something about the stats would be off, or something about the penalty would cause players to cry foul and tug on the skirt of Mother Blizzard until it was changed to be in their favor. "Adding Frostmourne to the game would shatter the icy sword." Adding Frostmourne to the game would shatter the icy sword. In truth, it would no longer be Frostmourne. It would be Item ID #103821, or whatever variable is assigned to it. The magic would die, and it would no longer be an infamous symbol of hate and malice -- it would just be another bunch of pixels on the screen, carried around by yet another jerk who wouldn't be worthy of its name.We all keep telling ourselves we play this game to level, to earn achievements, to make new friends. Certainly, all of that is true and then some. But we would be lying to ourselves if we said there wasn't some magic, some great mysteriousness to the main figures of the story. Something that kept us coming back in the state of suspense, of wanting to know more. So, my question to you is, "Why shatter the magic now?"If you live in the greater Pittsburgh area and feel like meeting Colin, he'll be attending tomorrow night's Wrath of the Lich King Midnight Launch at the GameStop in the Oakland district on Forbes Avenue at 10 PM, just outside of the University of Pittsburgh campus. If you need directions, here it is on Google Maps! Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who treasures lore as much as he treasures loot. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane roommates. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.
Anti-Aliased: Mourning Frostmourne
The word on everyone's lips this month is "Arthas" as we're approaching the release of the Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion pack for World of Warcraft. Ok, so now that the boring introductory sentence is out of the way, let's talk about what is on everyone's minds -- Frostmourne.When you think of Northrend, when you think of Arthas, and when you think of the possible "phat purple lewtz" that could drop off of Arthas's cold, icy corpse, you pretty much automagically think of Frostmourne. But is letting Frostmourne in as a droppable item a good idea? Should its dark legacy continue at the side of a player, or should it be flown away somewhere, never to be mentioned again until it strikes another NPC of the World of Warcraft?
Anti-Aliased: Killing the auctioneers is a perfect reason to go to Northrend
Going to Northrend has always been something that bugged me. It's a land that's literally a boat trip away, and no one's set foot on it or even mentioned it since Arthas went bonkers and started living up there. Even the groups that should have been concerned about it, like the Argent Dawn or the Knights of the Silver Hand, didn't really go out of their way to even give thought to the icy land to the north. No, no, we were more concerned with running through a giant portal just so we could bonk Kil'jaeden on the head and make Illidan whine more about how life doesn't work out for him.So my thoughts were as follows: "What could Arthas possibly do to make everyone simultaneously angry and want to journey to Northrend?"I don't know why I never thought of the answer before. What could be possibly more annoying than giving the power to grief the NPCs to the lowlifes of World of Warcraft? Arthas, you cunning, cunning man.
Anti-Aliased: Killing the auctioneers is a perfect reason to go to Northrend pt. 2
But, while some players used the event as a way to grief others, other players began to take a stand against it. Heroes pulled out their swords, turned on their sense undead, and began vigils in the cities to keep them functioning the way they should. By doing something as simple as "playing along" with the event, the cities could be kept in their standard working order, letting business be conducted as usual.When players didn't work together -- when they were more concerned with complaining about how bad the event was and how they couldn't do anything -- the result was catastrophic. I dropped by Stormwind one night to find all of the NPCs dead, bodies literally covering the streets, and only about 4 Alliance players attempting to make a stand against 30+ zombified players. The bankers were turned, the auctioneers were turned, the guards were even turned. Stormwind had literally fallen to the plague. The Argent Healers had retreated, and now no one was left in the town square but me and my horseman's sword.So my guild was sick of it, and they didn't want to see it happen anymore. We all got together in Elwynn Forest, made a 35 man raid group (which ended up becoming 55 once more people heard what we were going to do.) Our guild mistress made a bold speech, everyone cheered, and then we mounted up and rode straight into Stormwind. With arrows flying and exorcises filling the air, we took back the city, posted priests and paladins to keep watch for the infected ones, and turned the Cathedral of Light into a refuge shelter for lowbies who needed aid and assistance.Many in the Alliance kept up what we had started by particpating in a new channel called the ArgentDefense, and Stormwind began to function again. Complaints about how "no one could do anything" began to dwindle, because people had stood up and done something. Griefers got tired of griefing because they would either get killed much too quickly or find themselves being cleansed of the plague before they could turn by groups of priests. Even roleplaying, which was amazingly sparse on my RPPvP server, was more popular as people openly roleplayed the defense of the city streets. Amazingly enough, there was a way out of this "bad game design" by, gasp, embracing it. "Most importantly though, people have an amazing experience to share with others, even those who may not play the game." If this event was something you could "opt-out" of, or avoid, I don't think it would have anywhere near the same impact. Stories, like this one above, wouldn't have occured at all. Instead, people would have just looted their loot, sold what they wanted, and gone on with the constant improvement of themselves. This event would have gone mostly unnoticed, perhaps applauded by a few people, but it would have found itself forgotten in the history books of WoW lore freaks.Now people have a reason to really hate Arthas and the scourge. People have a reason to journey to Northrend and deliver the fight to the doorstep of Icecrown Glacier. Most importantly though, people have an amazing experience to share with others, even those who may not play the game. All because a few people stood up for themselves and did something to fight back when everyone else said "it was impossible to do anything." Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who likes to fight against impossible odds. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane roommates. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.
Prince Menethil's steed and the empty grave
The chaos of the plague has most everyone's attention right now, but the world event potentially brought something a little less easily noticed as well. Just off the road to the Scarlet Monastery, there's an old grave that appears to have recently been dug up. As far as I can tell, it has appeared on servers on either the 19th or 20th or October. It's possible it went in with patch 3.0.2, but if that's the case then nobody noticed it until a couple of days ago. I find that unlikely. Either way, if it did crop up on the 20th, that means it predates the plague by a few days, and may have actually been the kickoff of the whole thing.So what is this grave? According to the gravestone, Prince Arthas Menethil's steed was buried here. The horse, named Invincible (which was apparently a lie), seems to have been dug up recently. By the Scourge, or by someone else? Probably the Scourge, but anything can happen. It's fantasy after all. Drunken Dwarves might have dug it up on accident thinking it was the skeletal remains of a Titan or some nonsense.I look forward to seeing what comes out of this, because the words on the gravestone don't give much away. It's very short and sweet, telling you what's there and little more. I guess that makes sense, It's a gravestone/memorial and I doubt the Scourge would spraypaint "ARTHUS WUZ HERR" across the stone. If you want to see what's engraved upon it, just take a look behind the link below.[ Thanks for the tip, Joseph! ]
Ask a Beta Tester: More on leveling, Alliance lore, and starting zone RP
"Ask a Beta Tester" took a short break during patch 3.02 madness, but we're back!DM7000 asks...What happened with the glyphs that turned (Druids) into a polar bear or a lynx?This is a question I asked constantly in the beta for about a week. As much as I was excited about the talent changes and new skills, I was even more excited about form customization, because I hate Tauren cat form. I love my class dearly, but all of the form models have basically been unchanged since the original game went live, which is very hard for those of us forced to live with the unadulterated suck of Tauren cat form. It's kind of a bitter pill to swallow wandering the beautifully rendered landscapes of Northrend and seeing the quantum leap of Blizzard's artistic touch while using an ancient, low-polygon model like Tauren cat form. I found out that Glyph of the Red Lynx (and other Druid-form glyphs) hadn't actually gone live, which was a devastating blow to those of us with Tauren cat form. The glyphs exist in the game files, but none are trainable or discoverable; the developers apparently came to the decision that forcing Druids to use a glyph slot to customize their forms wasn't a great idea, and they're leaning toward the idea of patching in the ability to get the hell out of Tauren cat form using the barbershop. Frankly I think most Druids would agree that's a much better option, especially if they have to use Tauren cat form. Or see it. Or occupy the same game with it.
Ask a Beta Tester: Dalaran coins, environment effects, and AoE tanking
I ran into two common questions last night on the Dalaran coin post, so I thought I'd start off by answering those here. I apologize if we haven't yet gotten to everyone's questions; most of them, like Gurluas' question concerning The Missing Diplomat and the high elves in Northrend, we're just not 100% sure of the answer to yet, but I'll keep trying. Keyra asks...Just curious...the gold coins all have "Use: Throw this coin back into the Dalaran fountain", yet I've seen people commenting (as well as the author) that they'll carry the coin in their packs. What happens when/if you throw the coin back in?When you toss a gold coin back into the fountain, you gain the "Lucky" buff for 2 minutes, increasing your chance to fish up any and all coins from the fountain (rather than fishing hooks or goldfish). You don't have to toss them back in if you don't want to, in which case they'll just occupy a bag slot like anything else, or you can sell them to a vendor (not for much). But most people throw the coin/s back in because fishing the coin up is enough to give you the Achievement for getting it. Particular coins would be carried solely for personal or sentimental reasons, i.e. I can definitely appreciate the irony and RP value of grimly hunting Arthas down like a dog while carrying a symbol of Sylvanas' wasted hopes.Rexigar asks...Question though, do we have to keep the coins for the achievement or does it count when we throw it back in?It counts as of the moment you've fished it up. No matter what you do with it afterwards, the Achievement's yours. The same mechanic is true of everything else; once the game "knows" you've done something and an Achievement's gained, nothing can take it away.
The funny, morbid, and sad coins of the Dalaran fountain
Level up fishing so you can fish in the Dalaran fountain. I'm serious. This completely nonsensible and illogical statement is brought to you by the 53 tiny lore moments you'll get if you'll just sit yourself down somewhere and level up fishing. Yes, it's boring having to fish up dozens of useless fish to get to the good stuff in Outland and Northrend. Yes, you could be farming up gold or materials that will help you level in Wrath. I don't care. Go fish.You see, while you'll be fishing up a lot of equally useless fish in the Dalaran fountain, you'll also get coins. No, not in the sense that you'll be fishing up ingame money, but you'll fish up coins tossed into the fountain of this very old city by 53 people, many of whom will be known to you if you've played the game for any length of time. Some of them, perhaps most of them, are funny. Some are serious. Some are heartbreaking. I admit to a touch of being a lore geek, and it was wonderful being allowed a peek into the irreverent or hopeful or sad heads of Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall, or Stalvan Mistmantle. It is idiosyncratic little touches like this that make WoW hopelessly fun to play, and it is my fondest wish that whatever person at Blizzard who thought this up is pulled off whatever they're doing right now and chained to a desk until they come up with more stuff like this.So, if you don't do anything else with your time between patch 3.02 hitting and Wrath going live...level up fishing so you can fish in the Dalaran fountain. But don't read any further if you're not interested in Wrath spoilers, because there are a few here...
Christie Golden drops more info about Arthas
BlizzPlanet has a nice tidbit from Christie Golden about her upcoming novel about Arthas Menethil (better known as half of the Lich King, that bad guy we're going to be spending a lot of time with in the expansion). The book is due out next year (so odds are that we'll be approaching the end of the story by the time it hits store shelves), but it'll offer a look at the bad guy way before he started being bad -- the book starts with Arthas as a 10-year-old Prince, and covers everything between there to his little meltdown we witnessed in Warcraft III. The romance with Jaina is supposed to get some good coverage as well, so the book should be a good read.And there are some bonuses for close readers as well -- we'll have seen some scenes before (including one between Arthas and Muradin in Beyond the Dark Portal), but of course, in this book, they'll be from Arthas' perspective. Arthas is undoubtedly the villian of the next ten levels in WoW (they even named the thing after him), but it's really exciting to have a villian with such an interesting and twisted past behind him.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Portals, pandaren, and Jaina Proudmoore
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.Let's get this party started with Lionheart's question...What is that barred off instance looking portal thing in Stormwind, by Old Town? Were the gates once open?There are actually two of these in Stormwind. Neither of them were ever open, they're relics of unfinished projects. One is a closed off little guarded island in the Canals. That one was going to be the Stormwind Vault, probably a dungeon like Arcatraz or the upcoming Violet Hold in Dalaran. Probably.There's also the barred off one at the end of the Canals, right down the way from that one. This is probably the one you're referring to, I'm going to guess? I don't think we've gotten a real answer on this was supposed to be, but it was probably going to be the portal to player housing. They actually did start work on player housing at one point, but never got far. There are relics of it in the game files. Half completed houses/structures, things like that. They all use the Stormwind motif for their appearance, and they would have to put it somewhere. Through this portal is a safe bet.thinice asked...Jaina Proudmoore and Arthas. Any chance they'll hook up against in the future? What are the details of their history together?
Wrath cinematic trailer unveiled
Is there anything left to be said? The Wrath of the Lich King cinematic was unveiled to the public earlier today on Blizzard's sites... and it's freaking awesome. The trailer features Arthas, the Lich King, trudging the icy plains of Northrend with the echoing narration of the late King Terenas Menethil, his father. Haunting music, a chilling narrative, and imagery that shows the frightening power of the Lich King is all packed into the short trailer, which can be downloaded in hi-resolution for Macs and PCs. "The truest victory, my son," King Terenas says, "is stirring the hearts of your people." I can tell you right off that this cinematic stirred my heart... and sent a shiver down my spine. Check out the full version over at the Wrath site now.Update: Our friends over at Big Download now have the trailer in downloadable form, so if you want to preserve it on your hard drive for future generations (or just to watch it a lot more), you can do so.
Christie Golden working on an Arthas book, Legends story, and a secret project
Author Christie Golden, who's written a few Warcraft books for Blizzard in the past, has started up a blog, and her first post is full of fun info for fans of the expanded universe. First, she's going to be doing a novel about none other than the Lich King himself, Arthas Menethil. She's been chatting with Metzen about the book, and she says she's excited to tell the story of how "good people slide down that terrible, slippery slope to becoming monsters." Sounds about right to us.She's also working on a short story to be featured in Toykopop's Warcraft Legends series, based around Winter's Veil and called "I Got What Yule Need." Cute. We'll assume Goblins will be involved somehow. And finally, she's working on a third secret project -- it's not clear that it has to do with Blizzard (Golden writes her own fiction, as well as fiction for a few other properties), but why else would it be so secret, right? If we had to guess, we'd probably say a retelling or connection story for the Diablo stories -- if we do see the announcement of a new Diablo game at WWI, time would be ripe for Blizzard to catch players up on the lore of that setting as well.[via Blizzplanet]
Father's Day in Azeroth: A salute to the fathers of Warcraft lore
So it's Father's Day, the time when we all pay homage to the fathers or father figures in our lives, and thank them for all that they do. While we can't say for sure if they celebrate Father's Day in Azeroth, too, there's a lot of people in Azeroth and Outland who have reason to think back on their dads today. Many dads of Azeroth have affected their children's lives or been affected by them. The ramifications of the interactions of these fathers and children have then in turn affected the lore and story of Warcraft in ways great and small. Therefore, in honor of the holiday, let's look at 10 famous and not-so-famous dads of Warcraft lore (listed in no particular order).
Changes to old Azeroth coming in the next expansion
In the last expansion, all we did was walk through a portal and find a new world -- the old one was left pretty much unchanged overall. But in this coming expansion, Blizzard has made it pretty clear that almost nothing is off limits -- Northrend is getting added to Azeroth, and we're not traveling across space to get there. And considering that Arthas' story echoes throughout almost all of the old world (and that the whole thing is named after him), things are definitely going to change once Northrend appears on the world map.So we've put together a gallery of just what will be different about the old world after the Wrath of the Lich King comes upon us. To be fair, some are set in stone (we know for sure that Naxxaramas is exiting stage left for a bigger part later), and some are little more than speculation (Uther played a huge part in Arthas' life, so his tomb seems like a good stage for an event at some point), but odds are that by the time we've all reached level 80, all of these places in Old Azeroth will look very different.%Gallery-25018%
Know Your Lore: Brann Bronzebeard
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Elizabeth Wachowski and Alex Ziebart bring you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Oh yeah, and it's late this week. Blame it on the severe dehydration. Or Alex, you can blame him too, if you want.Continuing the Wrath preparation train, this week's Know Your Lore will take a look at one of the three Bronzebeard brothers. Not the King one or the dead one, but the eccentric, probably-should-be-dead one. The one and only Brann Bronzebeard, explorer extraordinaire.Brann Bronzebeard is the very definition of a Jack of all Trades. He's an explorer, a linguist, a warrior, an archaeologist, et cetera, et cetera. He is the premier member of the Explorer's League, and while the guild was founded under an edict by Magni, Brann was one of its founding members.
Why is Kael a bad guy?
Lore-wise, I can't say I understand the direction they've taken with a number of characters from classic Warcraft games in BC, but I suppose that's the reason that the term "lorelol" was coined in the first place. Mike Schramm's pointed out that the canon can probably take the abuse, but there's one character in particular whose upcoming story arc kind of appalls me.If you're trying to stay unspoiled for patch 2.4 -- why are you reading WoW Insider anyway? -- I'll slap the rest behind a cut.
The Missing Diplomat might be found in Northrend
We've talked quite a bit about Sylvanas and her history with Arthas in the past, but let's not forget that there is another woman Arthas has a nice long history with on the opposite faction: Jaina Proudmoore. Jaina's biggest moment in WoW is probably the Missing Diplomat quest-- after a long goose chase to find out where the lost King of Stormwind is, all you do is end up finding the man who betrayed him, and then Jaina thanks you and wishes you farewell. Wha? Players have always though the quest ended a little too quick, and Blizzard has admitted that they plan to continue the storyline at a later day.As in, during the next expansion. When a player asks what happened to Jaina and the Missing Diplomat, Drysc mysteriously says "Northrend holds many secrets, and many answers." So it's a good guess that we'll find out at least another piece of the puzzle to where the Lost King of Stormwind has gone.And it's also a pretty good guess that Jaina will be there, somehow. Despite the fact that she's pretty much the strongest leader the Alliance has, she's also pretty buddy-buddy with Thrall, and she's got that history with Arthas-- they were friends (and possibly romantically linked) before he went all power-crazy and possessed. There's no question that some of the answers we uncover in Northrend, whatever they may be, will involve Jaina Proudmoore.
