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Know Your Lore: Un'Goro and Sholazar, petri dishes of the Titans
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. There are two hidden bastions of life in its wildest, farthest variety on Azeroth. One lies far to the north on the continent known as Northrend. The other is far to the south amid the deserts of southern Kalimdor. Each lies surrounded by Titan complexes and the ruined remains of the same (Azjol-Nerub and Ulduar in Northrend, Ahn'Quiraj and Uldum in Kalimdor), and each is protected by powerful constructs keeping them inviolate. Indeed, only in these two places do the creations of the Titans freely act to preserve the equilibrium of the environment. In Un'Goro and Sholazar, life on Azeroth was developed. These were the experimental controls, the crucibles, the drawing boards, and the scrap heaps for all life. If the Emerald Dream serves as a kind of blueprint for the way Azeroth was intended to unfold without the interference of the Burning Legion or the Old Gods, then Un'Goro and Sholazar are the last places left where that blueprint is being followed. Linked not only by a common purpose but also by a massive Waygate, these regions have come under heavy attack from the servants of the Old Gods as well as the mindless hordes of the Scourge, testing their defense to the utmost.
Breakfast Topic: Exploring the World of Warcraft
One of the things which kept me in Azeroth -- at least long enough for the addictive side of the game to set in -- was the promise of exploration. I originally rolled a human mage and still remember at level five, being taken all the way from Elwynn Forest to Darnassus. Bear in mind though, this was back before The Burning Crusade when being Alliance meant traveling from the Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor took a good forty minutes if you didn't have the flight paths or a mount. You had to get the tram to Ironforge then run the gauntlet of death to Menethil, catch the boat to Theramore, get another to Auberdine and then fly or get another boat to Teldrassil. The whole trip really showed me how big the world was, as well as teaching me all about threat and my ability to aggro everything in a three-zone radius.So when I rolled my druid, the day before the expansion hit, I was determined to see as much as this beautifully crafted world as I could. Yes, I essentially had a death wish. I was exploring Outland with an honour guard of my guildies at level 10 (and hearthed in Shattrath), I ran through the Arathi Highlands at level thirty, swam through Un'Goro Crater in my forties and was pushing the boundaries of Shattrath by my fifties.However along the way I found some amazing places: the crystal filled cave at Marshal's Refuge, the boughs where the Dragons of Nightmare can occasionally be found, the first time you run into Azuregos in Azshara, the Twin Colossals of Feralas -- well the eastern one at any rate. Then when I got my flying mount I really started exploring properly.Nagrand alone is full of nooks and crannies and I adore the beauty of Crystalsong Forest.So come on, readers, I want to know if you've explored all the hidden places of Azeroth and Outland. Do you have any favourites? You do? Great, be sure to tell us about them in the comments box.
Are we being teased about the next expansion?
So there's been a feeling in the air lately that some of the blues have been in a bit of a teasing mood. Sure, that's not neccessarily new, but what is interesting is what exactly they may be teasing us about. For example, here's a recent post in which one Sulmus of Aerie Peak asks for the Greymane Wall to be opened. Zarhym soon jumps in to say that they would be "out of their mind" to open the wall... then follows up with random ellipses. To top it all off, Bornakk and Crygil jump in with silly punctuation of their own. Now when Alex and I were discussing this the other day, Alex insisted that they were basically admitting that the Greymane wall would be opened, likely in conjunction with the next expansion. He says it's already in the planning stages, and the blues are just waving the knowledge tantalizingly out of sight because they're not allowed to officially announce it yet. Now, at first I wasn't really on board with it, but then I noticed another post Zarhym commented in.
The Queue: Missing out
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Before we get started today, I just wanted to take a moment and mention that I'm working on a Special Edition (super special!) of The Queue focusing on Dual Specs. It won't interrupt our regular daily doses of The Queue, it'll come seperately. It might take me awhile to piece it together because people have asked a lot of Dual Spec questions, but it's coming! Slowly but surely.jam asked...What happened to the new instance that was supposed to be in Un'Goro crater, accessible only by through the Waygate in Sholazar Basin?
Ask a Lore Nerd: Cenarius, C'Thun, and the Titans
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. Last week on Ask a Lore Nerd, I answered a question about sports. In short, does Azeroth have sports? I, foolishly, looked at it in a pretty narrow way. I was thinking baseball, basketball, things like that. However, it was quickly pointed out that not all sports are things like those. That's very true! Azeroth definitely has things like hunting, racing, fishing and the arena circuit. There's also a reference to Battle Ball but who knows what that is. So there's that! And with that out of the way...XvampyrexrisingX asked...My friend and I have been arguing recently over the death of the demigod Cenarius. I was hoping for some clarification. I (a diehard Nelf) say that Cenarius was only protecting the forest the orcs were cutting, while she (a Nelf turned Hordie) says that Cenarius attacked the Orcs for no reason and their only choice was to kill him. Which one of us gets the bragging rights?
Gamespy's hands on with Wrath of the Lich King
Gamespy has lifted their press embargo, and there's lots of new Wrath of the Lich King info up. They apparently did a long hands-on with the expansion, and lots of new zone and gameplay info has come out. The area is apparently much bigger than Outland There is an aerial gondola, a huge sea battle, and apparently an archeological expedition where you'll be able to fly planes All five Dragonflights appear in Dragonblight, a huge graveyard for dragons There's "a sister area to Un'goro," which means tropical rainforests. There are also lots of different areas within larger zones. Worgen and the sons of Arugal are back, and the Scarlet Crusade is now called the Scarlet Onslaught. And one quest is based on a mission from Warcraft III. Death Knight can turn dead teammates into ghouls -- "plenty of fun in the Arenas" There are "vehicle" quests, where players drive a vehicle (planes, trucks, or even dragons) around to accomplish tasks Unfortunately, the Gamespy folks aren't raiders, so there's not much information about the new instances and raids in Northrend (in this piece anyway -- we've got more dungeons and raids info coming out). But just the mentions of some of this stuff -- the different vehicle quests (maybe Grand Theft Azeroth is realer than we thought) -- is enough to get us excited.
/silly: Time for Plan B
Sometimes we, as players, do some incredibly silly things. Even after, say, 45-50 levels of dealing with the character, learning the tricks of the trade and the ways of your class, we can still make mistakes which may or may not lead to our certain doom. In the case of our poor Tauren friend in this week's comic, that certain doom is very, very certain and all together rather doomish. Clicking on the big florescent green "Click Here" symbol will reveal this doomed fate to you, but don't say I didn't warn you: There will be doom involved.Speaking of doomed fate, somewhere just beyond this sentence there is likely a link that says (more...) and clicking on it will more then likely provide you this elusive "more" they keep promising all over the Internet. Go ahead, click it. You will see.
New graveyards in 2.2.2
Hot on the heels of tomorrow's expected 2.2 release, Neth has posted the short-but-sweet 2.2.2 patch notes, which include Brewfest and Hallow's End, featuring lots of new seasonal rewards and quests. As we've said before, the fact that both of these holidays are coming up quick means we can't be more than one or two weeks away from this patch's release.And the other interesting feature of this patch is the addition of quite a few new graveyards all over Old Azeroth. Southern Barrens, Western Plaguelands, Alterac Mountains, Searing Gorge and the Badlands are all getting extra graveyards (there's no indication whether they're Horde or Alliance specific or otherwise), and Tanaris, Winterspring, Stonetalon and Un'Goro are all getting two.Wow. That should significantly speed things up in Un'Goro, Tanaris, and the Southern Barrens especially, since I have less-than-fond memories of super-long corpse runs there. Badlands, too, was pretty maddening, and while the long corpse run wasn't the only reason most players aren't big fans of Uldaman, it was definitely a reason for that. This is no doubt part of Blizzard's aim to speed up levels 1-60 for players. This alone, of course, doesn't exactly make me want to go back and run another alt through (only new content would do that), but at least when we do run another alt through, it'll be a little easier.
Best RP quest chains pre-Outlands
So you leveled your main into the late 50s and are ready to jump into the time-sucking goodness that is the Outlands. But before you head in, you want to experience any good pre-BC quest chains you may have missed. One player on the official forums is in this exact situation and wants to know: what quest chain should she do that has good XP and an interesting storyline before heading into the Burning Crusade content?Many players have chimed in so far with their fondly remembered misadventures. Tirion Fordring's Redemption chain out of the Eastern Plaguelands gets many recommendations. As does the Marauders of Darrowshire chain in which you have to find a little girl ghost's missing dolly and along the way relive a critical moment in the history of the lands.You can also summon a helicopter out of Azshara, get killed on purpose out of Un'goro and learn the history of the Moonkin which takes you to the same area where you can quest for a mechanical yeti. But there is one quest that is getting the most enthusiastic recommendations.
Around Azeroth: Wish you were here
Ah, the mighty devilsaur. I'm sure we've all been in the same position as reader RaydenUni of Destromath. Venturing into the beautiful Un'goro Crater, perhaps you're distracted by the scenery or some nasty creature attempting to bite you, and before you know it a massive devilsaur has quietly come up behind you. Soon enough you're a corpse and he's looking for his next snack. Visit scenic Un'Goro! Wish you were here!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Death by elevator
Don't lie now. Darksavior on Norgannon does a humility check: raise your hand if you've been killed by the Undercity elevator.*Raises hand.* For some reason, my characters are particularly suicidal. Or maybe just accident prone.And it's not just UC-- Azeroth is filled with crazy death contraptions. Have you died jumping off the Zepplin, or falling down off of Thunder Bluff (or that elevator)? I died once by walking off the top of one of those plateaus in Thousand Needles, and once by falling into Un'Goro crater. I even died in the Gnomeregan elevator, and a friend and I jumped off of the Stonewrought Dam just for fun (although that time, I think we lived because we fell in the water). I'm pretty sure that, way back on the first time I ever played this game, I even died (maybe even for the first time) by jumping off that tall tower in the Night Elf starting area.And Outland is no exception-- have you jumped off of Outland yet? I have. I don't think the elevator in the Mechanar has killed anyone, but there are a few good drops in Nagrand, and the drop off of Hellfire Citadel is trouble. And if you didn't finally buy your flying mount at 70, fly up as high as you could, and unsummon it just to see if you could summon it again on the way back down, you're a better man than I am. What other ignoble deaths have you suffered from-- or should I say strangely enjoyed?
Around Azeroth: Entering Un'Goro
Ah, I love the sight of Un'Goro Crater in the morning. Don't you? Reader Cory says he doesn't usually take screenshots, but this particular view of Un'Goro struck him as picturesque. And I've got to agree -- this first sight of the interior of the crater, coming down the path from Tanaris, never fails to impress. Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.
Around Azeroth: Un'Goro base jumping
Reader Paul sends in this charming shot showing off the beauty of the mysterious jungle landscape of Un'Goro crater. And, of course, the short-lived thrill of leaping in from the cliffs of Tanaris. Sure, it's faster than walking around, but walking usually has the lesser repair bill. Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
Around Azeroth: Racing with Devilsaurs
Macdaddy of Rexxar sends in this shot of the wily Devilsaur roaming about Un'goro crater. Can a Gnome outrun a Devilsaur? Perhaps so -- after all, why would the Devilsaur be motivated by such a tiny snack?Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
