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The Queue: Spite
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. 100% out of spite, editor-approved. Fletcher asked: In 4.2 we see Malfurion getting all buddy-buddy with Thrall and playing Yoda to Thrall's Skywalker. We see druids who think the night elves should be actually taking the fight to the Horde in Ashenvale turned into disposable mooks for Ragnaros. Is there any bloody chance we'll ever actually see the Night Elves kick butt and take names like they did in WC3?
Know Your Lore: The Eternals part one -- the Ancients
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. With Cataclysm coming up and the beta now up and running comes plenty of new information about what we'll be seeing in Cataclysm. One of the highly anticipated zones is Hyjal, where players will work with the Guardians of Hyjal to retake the mountainous peaks where Nordrassil has begun to grow anew. Parts of these quests involve the Eternals of Azeroth -- characters we've only seen in novels or game manuals, but never been exposed to in World of Warcraft. Today we'll be looking at some of the major players in the Eternal lineup, and how they relate to World of Warcraft. WARNING: Some of the descriptions and Eternals in this post are taken from Cataclysm content. While I will avoid spoiling any Cataclysm quest lines or events, there will be screenshots -- if you'd rather avoid all Cataclysm content altogether you may want to skip this post. To begin, we have to define what exactly an Eternal is as far as Azeroth is concerned. Eternals are the immortal, divine beings of Azeroth who wield godlike powers and are generally either revered or worshipped by the mortal races in one way or another. There are many different kinds of Eternals out there oddly enough -- the Titans, the Elemental Lords (who have been covered in great detail by Matthew Rossi), the Loa spirits, the Old Gods, and the Ancients. Today we're going to look at the Ancients -- Eternals worshipped mostly by night elf society as deities. The big Eternal in night elf society is of course Elune, but what about the other Eternals in the night elf pantheon? Let's take a look.
Know Your Lore: Azshara
Queen Azshara might be one of the best-hidden characters in WoW lore. Her time of action came long before Warcraft I, she's never been seen in any of the games, and the only reference to her lies in the nearly abandoned wasteland that used to be her palace -- Azshara. But she's still out there, and one of these days Blizzard's going to run out of ideas and make that underwater instance that everyone but warlocks is dreading, and we'll have to fight her. And her tentacles. So on that future day, between the endless chain pulls of level 92 elite murlocs, you can read this and know who you're getting ready to wipe to. And by the way, the censored picture is from an official Warcraft RPG manual. Apparently octupi don't like wearing tops, even while posing for portraits. The pic links to the uncensored image. Who: Queen Azshara of the Kal'dorei, Empress of Nazjatar, the Light of Lights, Vision of Perfection, Glory of Our People, Daughter of the Moon, Flower of Life ... and it goes on like this. As you might have guessed, Azshara was not lacking in the ego department. What: Formerly a night elf, now a naga-like thing. History: Thousands and thousands of years before Medivh opened the Dark Portal and let in hundreds of arguments about whether the Horde is really evil, the most advanced civilization on Azeroth was that of the Kal'dorei, or night elves. They were split into two social classes: the common Kal'dorei, and the elite, magic-using Highborne, or Quel'dorei. The Kal'dorei were deeply jealous of the Quel'dorei, envying their social status and magical powers. But the one uniting factor between the Kal'dorei and Quel'dorei was their love of their queen, Azshara.
Know Your Lore: Maiev Shadowsong
Last week, Matthew wrote about Uther Lightbringer, a good man who abhorred vengeance in all its forms and worked relentlessly for justice and peace. Screw that! Today, we'll be covering someone who adored vengeance in all its forms and worked relentlessly to throw someone in jail for several thousand years. Meet Maiev Shadowsong, Illidan's original creepy fangirl stalker. Who: Maiev Shadowsong. What: Rather tall night elf. History: Maiev and her brother, Jarod Shadowsong, both fought in the resistance against the Burning Legion during the War of the Ancients. She bore a grudge against Tyrande Whisperwind for being elected homecoming queen High Priestess instead of her. When Tyrande disappeared, Maiev took over the office and served well. After Tyrande helped Malfurion Stormrage destroy the Well of Eternity and lead the elves to Kalimdor, she returned as High Priestess and chose Maiev as her second-in-command. Of COURSE having a second-in-command who hates you is a wonderful idea! In Kalimdor, the night elf leaders formed a party to explore the new land of Mount Hyjal. On a mountaintop, they discovered a new Well of Eternity, with Illidan Stormrage standing beside it saying "Dude, I don't know how that got there. I was just fishing for Deviates!" The elven leadership hurried to capture Illidan for creating the new well, but he figured he might as well resist arrest, since a life sentence for immortal beings is like fifty billion years long. Illidan's counterattack killed many of the night elves and put Maiev's brother Jarod in a coma, along with Dath'remar Sunstrider (the ancestor of Illidan's future Best Pal Ever Kael'Thas Sunstrider.) The elves managed to capture Illidan, and Malfurion sentenced him to imprisonment in a barrow den underneath the earth. Malfurion also decided that Maiev needed a new job besides hating his girlfriend, and made her the head of the Watchers and Illidan's personal jailor.
Run over by the Succubus
Ah, to be young again. Arawn of L2Lock pointed out this poor kid on the forums, who got caught by his parents checking out the "you know what" of the Warlock Succubus pet, "and then it made this sound like uhh uhh uuhhhhh whiip whippp" ("I think warlocks will know what I mean"), and now the poor guy's banned from playing WoW.Oh, the post itself is so funny, I don't even know what to add. I haven't heard of it happening in a long time, but way back when the game first came out I remember hearing about kids who rolled female Night Elves just to watch them dance, and I think all of us who played Tomb Raider know exactly what this kid is up to. Yes, I mean you-- Lara Croft didn't have to stand facing the corner for five minutes just so the camera could zoom in that one time. And even Blizzard knows what's going on here.Still, this seems like a good kid (if nothing else, the experience has gotten him interested in correct pronunciation). You might try telling your parents you're rerolling something like an Orc, buddy-- the uglier the better. Otherwise, wait a few years, and all will become clear. The entire post preserved after the jump.
Killing off the Horde and their heroes
Ketsumei of Bleeding Hollow makes a pretty good point on the forums: we're killing off Horde heroes, and Alliance are getting a pass. Actually, the Horde heroes point isn't quite a valid one-- yes, we've taken down Kael'thas, Rend Blackhand, and eventually Zul'jin, but we've also killed off Emperor Thaurissian, the Architect of Stormwind (many, many times), and Mekgineer Thermaplugg, not to mention that eventually we'll be killing the number one figure in Alliance lore, Arthas himself. Oh, and some lady named Katrana Prestor, usually found sitting on the left hand of the throne in Stormwind, has been killed as well. But it's true that more instances, especially raid instances, are featuring the deaths of Horde races rather than Alliance races. Especially in the endgame, we're fighting Trolls, Orcs and Blood Elves, not Humans and Draenei.So what's with the imbalance? This Horde-heavy enemies list is actually a very recent thing-- Scarlet Monastery is full of Humans, as are the Deadmines, and BRD is full of Dwarves. But as we've headed to Outland, the Burning Legion seems to have a thing for recruiting Blood Elves and Orcs, and Zul'Aman will bring about the death of many, many Trolls. Far many more Horde cries of death are being heard lately, and that's just racist.There's only one thing for it-- as players suggest, we should be allowed to kill a corrupted Malfurion Stormrage in the Emerald Dream expansion. No arguing now-- let's say he's gone insane from fighting the Nightmare and he's got to be put down. We need an instance full of Night Elves to kill over and over again. Oh, and while we're at it, let's have Arthas bring Uther back as a Scourge, and kill him, too! And what's the King of Stormwind up to-- isn't time he died, too?
Brush up on your etiquette for BlizzCon
Blizzcon is only three weeks away, and so right now might be the best time to start brushing up on your BlizzCon Etiquette-- Adriss from Skywall has written up this very helpful tongue-in-cheek guide to make sure you don't commit any faux pas at Blizzard's gigantic get-together.For instance, did you know that you should always ask permission before punting any gnomes you see? And also, I was sorry to read that Night Elves will not be permitted to dance at the convention-- apparently there will be children there. Pretty funny.Have any other tips for not stepping on any toes? My only suggestions would be to stay away from any shoulder-related comments when around Orcs, and by all means, do not feed the CMs. They subside just fine on their normal diet of forum trolls and customer tears.[ via WorldofWar.net ]
WoW Moviewatch: So that's where that dance came from!
We've all seen the videos of different dances. We've had ones where they all dance together, ones where the original source is cited. We've even seen video of a guy dancing like a Night Elf Female. Now we have another dance movie. There's one thing about this one that sets it apart, however. This is the first one I've seen that does a really good job of putting the dances side-by-side with their inspirations. As Bowzerblack on the WoW LJ said: "I didn't know that about ogres!" All I can say is that I didn't either. And yes, I know it's the Boomkin dance too, but you don't see a lot of (completely-bare) topless Boomkins running about. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing.Previously, on MovieWatch...[via the WoW LJ community]
I have portals, I know things
The other day I was helping a guildie with their mage as they reached 20. Thus began the long journey to collect teleportation training from around Azeroth. Something he said along the way stuck with me though. He mentioned that he hardly sees people asking for portals to Darnassus now. I thought about it, and would have to agree. I seem to sell as many ports to Darnassus as I sell to the Exodar. The cities are so closely linked, it's fairly easy to hop on a boat and be anywhere on Kalimdor that you need to be. Why then the great level difference in the training? The portal to Darnassus still remains a spell you can train in at level 50, while the portal to the Exodar is a level 40 spell. This goes for the teleport spells as well, since the level for Darnassus is 30, while all the others are available at level 20. So in essence, all that bouncing around the continent starts ten levels sooner. I imagine that initially the portal to Darnassus was level 50 because it represents a greater magical achievement. You are now transporting a group across the ocean. Does the Exodar require less skill to use? You are still transporting people across the Great Sea. Wouldn't it in fact require more skill, seeing as how we have had a longer history with the Night Elves than we have with the Draenei? I am thinking that the developers might want to take a look at the level requirements for the portals. The initial level requirements seemed to support the lore. The training, as it stands currently, does not. A possible explanation is that Night Elves shun arcane magic. However, they do accept the portal trainer within their city, so this argument doesn't seem to work for me. If they let that first mage in there to create the portals in the first place, why would it be more difficult for other mages to do so? Is there some sort of other explanation that I'm missing as to why there is such a level discrepancy with both the teleport and the portal spells to Darnassus?
The Caverns of Time... of the future!
Kermras of Khadgar wonders what I'm sure a lot of players have: what exactly is behind that boat in the Caverns of Time? Along with Escape from Durnholde, the Black Morass, and the currently unfinished Mount Hyjal instances in there, there's also a huge pirate-looking ship in there, with a portal that is "perhaps" (according to Drysc) going to be a future instance. Yup, one word. That's all he gave us.Fortunately for you, we're better at speculation than that. The Keepers of Time in front of the portal say the ship is a "Kaldorei vessel," which points directly to the Night Elves. Now, the Night Elves are not exactly a seagoing civilization, but there is one time in which lots of them perished at sea, and that's during the War of the Ancients and the ensuing fight over the Well of Eternity. I'll let Elizabeth give you the details in one of her great Know Your Lore features, but suffice it to say that Malfurion Stormrage (the greatest druid ever and Illidan's brother) stormed the old continent of Kalimdor to fight against the insane Aszhara and close the Well for good. In the process, the Well of Eternity was destroyed, Illidan did some evil stuff and escaped away, and lots of elves drowned (in fact, some of them became the Naga, and the Well itself became what we know of as the Maelstrom). So while we're not sure exactly what event the portal revolves around, it very well could be somewhere in there-- either fighting alongside Malfurion, helping Illidan escape (so we can fight him in the Black Temple), or helping the Kaldorei find their way out of the war to their current stomping grounds.Still other guesses from players (about this and other upcoming instances in CoT) have to do with Illidan's treachery (any of it), the Theramore invasion fleet, or even a visit to the past of the Deadmines (lots of players want to see a pirate instance, I guess). Of course, there's always the chance that the Instance is just a placeholder, and that the boat is a red herring. Either way, Blizz has made it clear that the CoT is going to see a lot more action, wherever (and whenever) it takes place.
Body images in World of Warcraft
I know, I know, I mentioned the WoW Ladies just yesterday, but they talk about such interesting stuff over there. Today it's body images in WoW-- one of them, Tsuraibara, saw someone on the EU forums calling human female characters fat "couch potatoes," and couldn't believe what she heard.Personally, I'm with Tsuraibara-- I find the human females pretty darn attractive. I'm even one of those guys that plays a human female priest just so I can watch that holy body do its shadowy casting thing all day. Of course, I have a male gnome warrior, too, just because I love the look of a tiny bundle of doom charging Horde in PVP. Although I have to disagree with Tsuraibara about the Tauren females-- she plays two, and I don't think there's any way I could ever stand to look at one of those enough to get her past level 10. Elsewhere in the thread, someone sings the praises of Dwarf females, and I have to admit, while they're not classically attractive, the emotes especially make it seem like Dwarf females might be fun to hang out with. UD females are another matter entirely, though...Now, we're no Guild Wars-- I once attended a conference where a professor of game studies couldn't believe how those women ever made it out of a battle with so little armor on. But at the same time, this ain't no text adventure, either-- WoW's graphics are cohesive and defined enough to make judgements on what the "models" look like. Have you judged your characters or other characters' looks? Is it wrong to do so? And the other question brought up in the thread is interesting, too-- is it only the female characters that are judged? Or are male Night Elves and Orcs getting checked out, too?
