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Ask a Lore Nerd: You're how old?
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, WoW Insider's newest weekly feature column. Have a question about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe? Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!We have no reason to delay, so let's get right into the meat of things!Jere asks: I might be wrong on location, but why is there a member of the Argent Dawn stationed in Dun Morogh just southeast of IF?Answer: Unfortunately, we have no idea. Father Gavin might just be an emissary or representative from the Argent Dawn to Dun Morogh, but he has no quests or dialogue attached to him. It's possible he'll be used for something in the future, but it seems unlikely. He simply exists. Nothing more.
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 all race Death Knights make sense from a lore standpoint
It seems like one of the biggest problems a lot of people have with Death Knights is the fact that they can be all races. Me, I say: Why not? The lore really isn't as bad as you might think. Sure, some of the retcons can get a little annoying, but despite the fact that non-Paladin races will get to be Death Knights, I don't think you really consider it a retcon, but rather an evolution in an ever-evolving story that opens up a lot of great story ideas and RP opportunities, and I'm really looking forward to it.
WoW Moviewatch: Succession teaser
Today's Moviewatch is a mystery that we're looking to solve. Pinkhair, a well-known 3D WoW machinimator that often helps others with their projects, has released a teaser for his upcoming movie, Succession. The film is due in Summer 2008, but the problem is that we have no clue what it's about!Pinkhair's work on this teaser was so good that many WCM commenters accused him of stealing scenes from a Blizzard cinematic trailer. However, he released a picture of his Arthas model to reassure them that the talent was all his. We'll just have to wait and see if the movie is worth it, as the clip is way too short to tell us anything.[Via Warcraftmovies.com]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
[1.Local]: The week from a reader's point of view
[1.Local] serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous.The excitement of the all the new Wrath of the Lich King buzz this week must have gone to some readers' heads, making them testier than usual. This week saw several squabbles in post comments, from mild differences of opinion to outright controversial debate. News about the shape of raid instances to come brought out plenty of opinions both for and against the new raid sizes. Should Arthas be 10-mannable? With even well known raiding guilds such as Death and Taxes burning out and moving on, are raiding applications still necessary in this day and age? The comments got hot and heavy in a post that sparked plenty of discussion about racism in Arena team names. Readers also seemed of two minds at the efforts of top-tanked 5v5 Arena team M L H, who've turned out to be prolific points-sellers. But commenters pulled together in a post advising one reader whose system seems to have slowed to a crawl. And reader Kershner wrapped it all up on a chilled note for the weekend with a great macro to help us kick back and enjoy some fishing.Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one, silly!) and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.
Server crashes plague Ruin battlegroup and others
It seems to be an unfortunate reality of WoW, if not MMORPGs in general: When a new patch goes live, more often than not, it's going to be a bit rocky on the servers for a while. Patch 2.4.2 is no exception, Many servers are having trouble staying up, including most of the Ruin Battlegroup, which according to a few our tipsters has been having more than its share of trouble lately. Blue Poster Vrakthis has assured posters on the Customer Service Forum that the Realm issues are being looked into, but so far, there does not seem to be a solid reason for the downtime other than, hey, it's patch day! EDIT: It has now been confirmed that the downtimes were intentional for the purpose of emergency maintenance. The downtime should be minimal. As of the time of this writing, the following servers are down:
The best of WoW Insider: May 6-13, 2008
It was a hell of a week in the World of Warcraft. Not only did we get a flood of information about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but Blizzard announced that they are in fact having another BlizzCon this year -- and as you can see from the picture above, last year's was just plain awesome. For info about BlizzCon and everything else WoW, count on Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider. News The Death Knight class revealedBlizzard drops the goods on the game's first Hero Class. More Death Knight news and clarificationsClearing up players' questions and concerns about what the Death Knight is for. Is it really OK for Arthas to be 10-mannable?The game's baddest bad guy (mortal, anyway) is going to be able to be taken down by 10 players. Are we really that powerful? More Wrath of the Lich King impressions and informationLots more news about the new zones in Northrend and what we'll find up there. Blizzard cracks down on Arena win tradingCheaters never win... trade. At least not anymore. Features Around Azeroth: Grand Theft AzerothOur daily screenshot column mixes up Liberty City and the World of Warcraft with wacky results. Arcane Brilliance: Level 70 checklistThings to do for Mages at the highest level in the game. Scattered Shots: Why certain pet families are popularWhy do some Hunters choose bears and others go for boars? Find out here. Spiritual Guidance: 30 If statements that priests should adhere toYou might be a priest if... most of your Showbiz pizza tickets came from Whack-a-mole. Guildwatch: Going too farYou don't have to be in a guild full of drama to love our scandalous weekly column about how mean people are to each other in game, but it helps.
All things Wrath of the Lich King
Over the past week, particularly in the last few days, the crisp Internet air has been abuzz with news from the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Fear you're out of the loop? Here's a quick round-up of all the information being released, along with analysis and opinion. Don't forget to keep checking back, as this page will be updated as information becomes available:Dungeons and raids An analysis on Arthas as a ten-manned event, including its impact on the 25-man raiding structure, as well an exploration of its consistency with the lore. Did you know that all expansion raids will have a 10-man setting, as well as a 25-man? Read through some of our initial impressions on the 10-man raiding set-up. We also wrote up a concise overview of the ins and outs of dungeons post-expansion, including a new token system, similar to [Badge of Justice]. The Nexus has been announced on the official site as one of the new dungeons. The WoW Insider Show discusses 10-manning Arthas. Zones, factions, and relevant lore Alex has written an excellent overview of the Grizzly Hills, a soon-to-be zone for low to mid-seventies. With old factions reappearing, along with other surprises, it's definitely something to look forward to! If news of the Dragonblight has intrigued you, you'll be pleased to know that more information has been made available. While we're brushing up on our lore and learning about new areas and factions, Alex thought it fitting to illuminate the lore behind Azjol-Nerub, as the Nerubians will have their own role in the expansion. Alex asks us about lore figures we'd like to see in the expansion. %Gallery-20386%
Is it really OK for Arthas to be 10-mannable?
So one of the most exciting announcements from the recent flurry of news about WoTLK, at least from my point of view, is the that there will be 10-man and 25-man versions of every raid. Think about that for a moment. Yeah, that's right. That means that you and 9 other friends will be able to scale the heights of Icecrown Glacier and topple Arthas himself from his frigid throne. This has more than a few people worried.
Overview of the Dragonblight
I've examined the Dragonblight before when Blizzard first gave us the preview of the zone, but some other news about the region has come into the spotlight in the last few days. I'm sure you've noticed, the Wrath news is everywhere, especially here on WoW Insider. Below I have a little breakdown of what we know so far. The Dragonblight is both the beginning and the end of the dragon life cycle. The Titans granted the Dragonflights their powers here, and this is also where dragons go to die. This zone contains a shrine for each of the Flights which surround Wyrmrest Temple. These shrines are under siege by the Scourge. Alexstrasza herself is lending a hand in recruiting for the war effort in the Dragonblight. The Scourge has been twisting the remains of fallen dragons into Frost Wyrms and potentially other monstrosities. The Scarlet Crusade returns in this zone, renamed the Scarlet Onslaught.
Behind the scenes with the men who brought you Sunwell
The Blizzard team has learned a lot from their experience with The Burning Crusade, and in a recent interview posted on their official page, producer J. Allen Brack and art director Chris Robinson lay out exactly which of these lessons they're following through on for the new Sunwell Plateau instances and Wrath of the Lich King further down the road. They talk about how Sunwell is really the pinnacle of the Blood Elf design style and how players will see many design parallels with their starting zone.As for WotLK, one of the cooler design changes they mentioned is more closely integrating the main story-arc into the leveling experience. Brack mentions how with WotLK, Arthas will play a more visible role in the lives of players, even well before they ever reach the level 80 cap. Similarly, he also discusses how the element of snow in the expansion is being used as much as a story-telling device as an aesthetic one, trying to get players to feel the isolation and despair inherent in the Northrend zone. It's pretty fascinating, as both Brack and Robinson are more forthcoming than usual, perhaps because it's an in-house interview.
The Infinite Dragonflight in Stratholme
We hit on this one with Mount Hyjal before, but Ironcog brings up an interesting point: why exactly are we going to be mucking around in the old city of Stratholme via the Caverns of Time? In Escape from Durnholde, we're obviously trying to make sure Thrall gets out of the prison camp, and the Infinite Dragonflight is fighting to stop us and ruin history. Same deal in the Black Morass -- the Infinite Dragonflight is trying to keep Medivh from opening the Dark Portal. But in Hyjal, the dragonflight is nowhere to be seen, and we're basically just time tourists. You'd think the Bronze Dragonflight would want us to stay out of there.Of course, we don't exactly know what's happening in the Stratholme of the past -- maybe the Infinite Dragonflight is causing problems there that we need to stop (or, even better, maybe we'll get to see an as-yet-unknown reason why a Paladin of the Silver Hand, headstrong as he might have been, decided to slaughter an entire town even before he was under Frostmourne's corruption -- maybe there's more to Arthas than we saw in Warcraft III).But hopefully the Infinite Dragonflight storyline will be continued in some way -- mucking about in time isn't exactly safe, so there should be good reasons the Bronze Dragonflight sends us back to these past events. Watching history firsthand is fun and all, but the lore of the Bronze Dragons falls apart completely if they just start opening up theme parks in the past.
Know Your Lore: The Silver Hand
As we continue down the road to Wrath of the Lich King, we get more and more information about what factions we'll be coming across. The Taunka, the Tuskarr, the Scarlet Onslaught, things like that. The one that seems to have gotten the most people excited is our beloved Silver Hand. The inclusion of the Silver Hand has even sparked a great amount of debate on the official Wrath forums, yammering for or against the Horde being welcome in the Order. Because of all of this, I've decided we'll take a little look at the Silver Hand this week!Contrary to what most people believe/know, the Order of the Silver Hand was not founded exclusively by Uther the Lightbringer. At the time, Uther was actually still an apprentice. His teacher, Archbishop Alonsus Faol, was the true founder of the Order, though Uther was at his side, naturally.
Frostmourne goes for $20k
So yes, Frostmourne is a sweet sword, and yeah these real-life replicas are great (like a couple of thousand dollars great). But $20,000? That's how much the winning bidder put up in the Weaponmasters auction to get a limited edition low number sword, a gaggle of extra goodies, and of course the real reason someone would spend five figures on a collectible: membership in the Arthas' Army of Disciples club. That's a lot of cash.Blizzplanet has a list of all the bidders (for public humiliation purposes?) -- the "winner's" (if you can call someone out $20k a winner) name was Xeophonix, apparently from Italy. Only the first two bidders went all out -- there's one more $20k bid, and then it drops to $12k, $5k, and then on down from there to the much more reasonable bids around $500. But grats to Xeophonix -- hope the $20,000 sword is worth it. And watch your back -- we don't know exactly how you kill a Lich King, but if Weaponmasters didn't quite get Arthas' sword away from him for good, you might have an angry Menethil/Ner'zhul showing up at your door.[Via MMO Champion]
Know Your Lore: The Sunwell
The upcoming patch, patch 2.4, now known as The Fury of the Sunwell, revolves around... well, the Sunwell! I guess there's something in there about a huge demon by the name of Kil'jaeden, but I'm sure he's not important. Like my previous installments of Know Your Lore, I'll give a little bit of background information on our subject, so you understand the foundation of it. This bit isn't quite as exciting as my last installment or two, but this took a lot more research, and a lot more piecing together half-told bits of story from multiple authors. It's a bit like playing Connect the Dots, but instead of getting a flower or a sailboat, I get Richard Knaak flipping me off. Sorry it's so dry, but on with the show!A little over 10,000 years ago, the Night Elves lived under the rule of Queen Azshara and the upper class of society, the Highborne. Their culture was rich in magic and the arcane, very different from the down to earth, nature-centric society of the Night Elves today. Queen Azshara and her Highborne were extremely hedonistic, using the nearby Well of Eternity for personal power and gain. At some point during all of this, Azshara heard a dark whisper, promising power beyond her imagination.Does this sound familiar? Yes, Sargeras was up to his old tricks again. Like he lured Kil'jaeden and Archimonde to the Legion's cause, he did the same with Queen Azshara. Whereas Kil'jaeden and Archimonde seemed to have needed a little trickery from the Destroyer, Azshara was far more welcoming. She was pretty okay with hanging out with demons, and rather enjoyed the whole fire and brimstone thing.
Forum Post of the Day: How did your undead die?
Yeah yeah, lolRP, but even though I'd never seriously do an emote with my character (though I do enjoy /coughing at inappropriate times), I do kind of enjoy thinking of what my characters did before I started playing them in the game. As I've said before, my Orc Shaman was actually a prisoner in Durnholde Keep along with Thrall (and though I've tried to find him among the Orcs down there, I don't look too hard -- wouldn't want to cause a paradox).But for my Undead Rogue, I've never thought about this questions: What did he die of? Whether it was choking on a gnome, one too many enchantments (never knew those could kill you), or the old standby of, y'know, cancer, every Undead character out there used to have a life (and now they just play WoW, ha!). So how'd your Undead lose theirs?I'd like to think mine was something poetic, like his family was murdered by roving noblemen, and he arose from the afterlife and became a backstabbing rogue to avenge his lost ones. But it's probably more pathetic: like most of the Forsaken, he probably just got trampled underneath the onset of the Scourge. Of course, that'll make an appointment with Arthas more interesting...
All the World's a Stage: There's something about Mary Sue
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening, (though it was delayed somewhat this time by technical difficulties).Mary Sue is extremely unpopular with roleplayers. She comes along pretending to be the only daughter of Illidan and Tyrande's one-night stand, secretly spirited away and raised by furlbogs until she underwent a mysterious transformation that turned her into a human, seduced Arthas away from Jaina, and learned from him more than you will ever know about how to be a Death (i.e. Retribution) Paladin. In fact, Mary Sue isn't just one person -- she is a demon-spirit possessing all those characters in roleplaying and fan-fiction, both male and female, who rely on clichés, melodrama, and/or supposed intimate relationships with one or more characters in the original story to such a degree that they actually try to upstage those characters, their fellow roleplayers, and indeed, the entirety of the original lore. Other roleplayers often see this sort of thing and get frustrated out of their minds.And yet there's something about Mary Sue: she keeps reappearing all over the place, from seductive blood elf hunters who claim to be Thrall's secret lover, to angst-ridden human warlocks who insist that they are the half-demon offspring of Kil'Jaeden. What is it that continually attracts people to these ideas, couched in phrases like "tragic past" and "missing one eye" and "emits a deep sorrow that makes you want to cry?" The answer is darker, more disturbing, than you can possibly imagine.
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.
Lore concerns in the 2.4 raids
All right, let's put this issue to rest once and for all. Seems like every time Blizzard releases a new patch, we get someone saying "you're killing the lore!" on the forums, and complaining that Blizzard is killing off all the figures we know and love around the Warcraft universe. And apparently patch 2.4 is going to be no different.So let's have the final word on this right now: Blizzard has tons of people to kill off, and even if they started running out of people, they've created enough heroes since WoW started (an all-Saurfang instance, anyone?) that they'd be fine on lore for at least the next decade of expansion. There. Now when it is discovered (and it hasn't been discovered as of this writing yet) that we're killing Arthas off in the next expansion, no one needs to raise a fit. Besides, I kind of like that Blizzard is starting to put out some hits on heroes we know and love. I'd rather mix it up with famous Warcraft faces than kick around some nobodies just so the almightly Lore gets protected.But I do have to agree with Vorith's other point: it might be kind of nice to do something with these NPCs besides kill them. I think he forgets that Maiev played a nice role in the Illidan fight, and that we've already been told we're going to interact with Arthas a lot outside of the actual raid, but yeah, the raid boss killing us might make for a nice change.
Blizzard cinematic artists nominated for VES awards
Blizzard's cinematic team deserves as many awards as they can get, in this writer's humble opinion. Even back in the Starcraft days, when graphics were 2D and it was all sprites and jumpy animation, the cinematics were exquisite. And now they've been nominated for yet another award-- Blizzard says their team has been nominated to receive honors from the Visual Effects Society's 6th Annual Awards for the Burning Crusade's cinematic seen above. And I don't disagree-- even more than a year (and a few runs through ten levels of Outland) after it's come out, Illidan's growl still rocks.And man oh man I can't wait for the Wrath cinematic. As fun as it was to see Blood Elves, Draenei, and Illidan and the Skull of Gul'dan, seeing Arthas in cinematic form again is going to be even more awesome.
