Shandris-feathermoon
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Know Your Lore: Warriors of Azeroth and beyond Part 1
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. Okay, this week, I'm going to do something massively nerdy and more than a little ridiculous. I'm going to rank the best warriors from across the World of Warcraft, according to my own subjective criteria for what 'best' means. It's not just who would win in a fight (that's in there, but it's not all of it) and unfortunately, some races are going to get shafted here just because they don't have as much representation. I'm trying to keep the list somewhat representative, but there are some races that just dominate it - orcs and humans get big representation, while other races like draenei just don't have an established lore warrior as of the time of this writing. I'm sure there are draenei warriors (I play one, even) but we tend to see paladins from the boys in blue. It's a sad lack. Some of these are kind of iffy because Blizzard does weird things sometimes - some of these characters have abilities you'll never see a warrior use in game - but none of them will be specifically mentioned members of another class. No demon hunters, paladins or rogues on this list. Sorry, Garona fans.
What if: Rage of the Kaldorei
If you saw the previous installments in this little fictive game Anne and I are playing, you know the score. You take an unlikely character from Warcraft lore (they have to be alive as of the time of the writing) and you speculate on how you could build an expansion pack around that person. I went first, so I got to pick Velen for myself and gave Anne Alexstrasza, and she retaliated by handing me Shandris Feathermoon. And if you know me, you know I happen to think Shandris is a heck of a character and I'd love to see her get used more. But how do we even conceive of an expansion with Shandris as the main antagonist? Note, I didn't say villain. Shandris Feathermoon has been through a lot over the past ten thousand years. A child when the Burning Legion first came to Azeroth, she lost her family and indeed her very home village to the Legion. Effectively 'adopted' by Tyrande, Shandris grew up with a bow in her hand, and following the Legion's defeat she became leader of the Sentinels, the Kaldorei military, when her erstwhile paramour Jarod Shadowsong, who had led the night elves in battle against the Legion, turned his back on their people and walked away. Not Shandris - she has spent the past ten thousand years defending the night elves of Kalimdor. And at present, Kalimdor has become a very hostile place for the night elves.
Know Your Lore: Shandris Feathermoon for Warchief
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. You read that right. Not Warchief of the Horde, no, not even on a drunken dare would I suggest that because Shandris is frankly too cool an underused character to be saddled with something that ridiculous. No, what I want is for the Alliance to create a Dux Bellorum, and I want the job to go to Shandris. There are other candidates, to be sure. But most of them are rulers of nations, and what we need is someone who can lead the combined military of the entire Alliance. Varian is a King, and needs to start ruling like one, frankly. Tyrande, as High Priestess of Elune, is similarly saddled with responsibilities to her people. The Council of Three Hammers is as yet too disjoined and contentious to even lead the dwarves fully, and so while Muradin could fill the position (as could Varian) he's busy. The gnomes are too focused on Gnomeregan and Gelbin Mekkatorque is not a warrior by nature. At this stage, with the losses of the Cataclysm and the looming war, I think it's fair to say that it's time for Shandris to step forward. She's been (in my opinion) criminally underused and kept for far too long in Tyrande's shadow. This is a woman with over ten thousand years of military experience, and it is long past time for someone with that kind of acumen to step forward and lead armies in the coming conflict.
Know Your Lore: What exactly is up with women in Warcraft lore?
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. Between Rossi, myself, and those who came before us, there have been a metric ton of Know Your Lore columns. If you're wondering exactly how many, I suggest you take a look at our lore guide for a categorized list of them all. Occasionally, I'll go back and look through the list just to see what we've missed and what needs to be filled in or updated from old columns. And I've been looking at that lore guide and going over the things in it, and I keep noticing one really particular thing about it. There are hardly any women on that list. There's a scant handful compared to all the other heroes and villains and history and everything else on it. And it's not that women don't exist in the Warcraft universe -- they're all over the place, honestly. It's that there is only a handful worth of them that have enough character development and story to warrant dedicating a column to them. To which I say wait a minute, what is up with that?
Tyrande Whisperwind leader story up on official site
The night elves have taken a beating in Cataclysm, even with their role in adding the worgen of Gilneas to the Alliance. The Horde has attacked them in Ashenvale, disasters have wiped out their settlements in Darkshore, Azshara is lost and Feralas in danger of being lost as well. What is Tyrande Whisperwind, high priestess of Elune and leader of the kaldorei, doing about all of this? Well, in Seeds of Faith, you'll get your chance to find out. Disaster after disaster besets the night elves. With news from all over their ancient lands coming back and the tides of war turning against them, can Tyrande afford to let her personal feelings overwhelm her leadership? And what of the fate of Shandris Feathermoon? These questions are answered in the short story by Valerie Waltrous, available now on the official site.
Know Your Lore: Stormrage and the Emerald Nightmare, part 2
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. The events of the novel Stormrage may not have happened in game, but they still have an effect on upcoming events. While the book was released much earlier this year, the events in the book hadn't really played out until now; they occur sometime after the defeat of the Lich King yet before Deathwing shatters the world in Cataclysm. Unfortunately, we will not directly see the events presented in Stormrage occur in World of Warcraft. Despite the lack of events regarding the resolution to the Emerald Nightmare storyline in game, things have been resolved -- to a point. On top of all of this, not only does the novel The Shattering by Christie Golden make several references to Stormrage, but certain events we see in the upcoming expansion also reference key elements to the novel. Yesterday, we began to delve into what exactly happened between Malfurion's time in the Emerald Dream and present day; read on for the conclusion of the story and its effects on the Azeroth the characters we play know and love. Please note: The following post is all about Stormrage and contains spoilers for the majority of the novel as well as the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you're planning on picking up the book, turn away now, lest ye be spoiled for eternity!
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Warriors in lore, part 2
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is about warriors, who hurl themselves into the fray, the very teeth of danger, armed with nothing more than the biggest weapons and armored with the absolutely heaviest armor we can find. Hey, we're not stupid -- we're just crazy. I decided to spend next week talking about protection in the beta in more detail, because between moving house this month and a bout of feeling sick, I haven't had time to push that last level to 85. I'd rather talk in depth about the spec after a few more runs, frankly, with as much improved itemization as I can get. I will say that as a level 84 warrior tanking his way through instances, threat seems wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it seems like Thunder Clap or Shockwave don't hit for peanuts, whereas on other pulls, I can glue things to myself. Part of it might simply be the shock of going from well-geared in ICC epics at 80 to poorly geared in quest greens and blues at 84, but I definitely think threat issues are pretty widespread for the class right now. Still, I'm going to reserve final judgment until 85. (Also, they went and dropped beta build 12942, but that doesn't seem to have many consequences for tank warriors.) So that means we go back to the lore. We had lots of votes for specific characters last time, so in an effort to give folks what they want, here are more famous or infamous warriors in the World of Warcraft. Rather than trying to hit both factions, this time we'll look at the notable warriors of the night elves. Feel free to suggest which race you'd like to see get the spotlight next; I'm leaning toward tauren or trolls, but I can be swayed.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the Night Elves, Part 1
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. While I had plenty of fun with Horde politics, I couldn't really cover the Horde side of the game without giving equal time to the Alliance half as well, so the next few weeks will be catching up on Alliance politics. Admittedly the Alliance hasn't had quite as tumultuous a time as the Horde, but there are still several factors coming into play that haven't previously been addressed. Varian Wrynn may make an ... exciting and explosive new leader, but the rest of the Alliance we see today is still fairly new as well. Today we'll be looking at the Alliance race with the largest impact on both the Alliance, and Azeroth both past and present day -- the night elves. While the events of the War of the Ancients and the Sundering are well known, the events surrounding the night elves' allegiance to the Alliance are still a little cloudy. Was it simply gratitude to the Alliance for their help during the Third War and the events at Hyjal that caused them to join? If so, why did they turn away from the Horde, when they were present at Hyjal as well? For the night elves, the answer boils down to this: It's all about the trees.
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.
