bloodhoof
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Baine Bloodhoof leader short story now available
The tauren have witnessed great change within their own society and culture with the coming of the cataclysm, from political upheaval and great sadness to unbearable loss. With the death of Cairne Bloodhoof, the tauren people turned to his son, Baine, with reverence and hope that he would lead in his father's footsteps and be as great a high chieftain. With the ascension of Garrosh Hellscream to warchief and the bonds that held the orcs and the tauren together stretching thinner, Baine must work through his troubles and the troubles of the tauren people and help hold the Horde together. Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us by Stevie Nix (not Stevie Nicks) begins with Durotar in dire straights. The goblins, now fully members of the Horde, have gummed up the Southfury river and made the water undrinkable. Garrosh has come to Mulgore to work with the tauren to begin water shipments to Durotar of fresh, clean water. Attacks on these water caravans, now frequent, pose a huge threat to the survivability of Orgrimmar. Hamuul Runetotem does not let his emotions get in the way as he confides in Baine that his love for Garrosh is lax. Baine insists that despite Garrosh's foolishness, the tauren are to remain as members of the Horde, just as his father had wanted. Check out the full story, Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us, for some intriguing and action-packed new lore about our favorite tauren's son and his rise to chieftain.
Know Your Lore: Baine, son of Cairne, chief of the Bloodhoof tauren
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 son is not the father, but the son does not try to be. Baine, son of Cairne, now leads the tauren of Mulgore from Thunder Bluff. While we take no praise away from the old bull, now is the time to acknowledge the new, to celebrate the spirit and strength of Baine. Growing to adulthood in the shadow of so great a figure, Baine has grown from a callow youth to a steady leader and finally to the shu'halo who planned and executed the deliverance of his people from Magatha and her Grimtotem. It was Baine who defeated the rebel tribe of Grimtotems and yet showed mercy when his father's ultimate murderer came under his judgment. It was Baine who chose to forgo revenge for Garrosh Hellscream's role in his people's loss, in his own bereavement. He could have challenged Garrosh, and without any elder crones to poison the orc warchief's weapon, he most likely could have crushed Hellscream under his furious hooves. He chose not to. He chose his people's benefit, and the benefit of the Horde they are the heart and soul of, over the vengeance he could have sought. He chose others over himself. Baine Bloodhoof learned his lessons at his father's side, yes. But do not take away from him his stepping out from such a great shadow. It was Baine who in the hour of greatest need stepped forth into An'she's light, saved his people, saved his father's dream, and preserved bonds of fellowship that would not have been hard to tear asunder. Let us celebrate the life of Baine of the Bloodhoof tauren.
Ask a Faction Leader: Cairne Bloodhoof
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Prophet Velen, leader of the draenei, and he shed light on several key issues, including city construction, elven ingrates, natural history, and compromising positions. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with esteemed tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof. Our first reader question: Dear Cairne, Yesterday I was distressed to see a Tauren riding a Hawkstrider. Although I'm not much of a D.E.H.T.A. sympathizer, I think It's a bit cruel to be asking a poor beast like that to be heaving a 2 ton Minotaur up and around Azeroth. What really disturbed me though, is that later in the day, as I was walking through Dalaran, I saw the same Tauren sitting on his mount (hawkstrider) for about 30 minutes. Anyway, just thought I should bring it to your attention. Jabijin, Troll Rogue, Mannoroth Cairne responds: Your concern for the native wildlife of Azeroth is heartening, young rogue. I, too, was worried for the health and safety of the hawkstriders when our blood elf allies originally began instructing us on how to ride them.
Plush Moonkin by Serthida of Bloodhoof
Put another entry into the catalog of cute WoW-related dolls, because this plush Moonkin, made by Serthida of Bloodhoof, definitely fits the bill. Unfortunately, Blizzard has only ever released a Murloc plush, but that didn't stop Serthida from putting this together. It looks amazing. She even wanted to put a voicebox in there that made the moonkin hoot when squeezed, but we're guessing she doesn't want to buy a whole case of them from China. She does, however, have mats (see what we did there?) for a second Alliance version -- she says as soon as she can figure out the antlers, she'll get it started.This one is just her personal project, so it's not for sale at all, and once again, we're guessing it's too much work for her to mass produce anyway. But since the Murloc toy was one of the best-selling items at BlizzCon last year, maybe we'll soon see some more official plush product for sale.Thanks, Xascha!
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a tauren
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the sixth 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. The first cultural influence you'll probably think of when you see the tauren and walk around in their villages is "Native American." That's fine as far as it goes, but you should remember that they're mainly based on the stereotypical image of what Native Americans are rather than their actual reality. I'm hardly an expert on Native Americans, however, so rather than try and speak for these differences, I'm just going to put the whole issue aside and take tauren as tauren rather than parallels to any human culture. Besides, aside from certain aspects of architecture, music, clothing, and mythology, the tauren are really their own species. They are quite general enough to remind us of all kinds of different cultures around the world, many of whom cherish the earth, revere their ancestors, and try to live in harmony with the world. Some people say that the tauren are the noblest and most peaceful of the races in World of Warcraft, but for most of their history, they have been at war with the vicious centaur -- though not by choice. The centaur have always been very hostile towards tauren, driving them out of their ancestral homelands, slaughtering them and even cannibalizing them whenever possible. In a way, the centaur seem like four-legged versions of the nastier trolls who never joined the Horde. When Thrall came to Kalimdor and encountered the tauren in the midst of their struggle against the centaur, it marked the beginning of one of the greatest changes in tauren history.
Giving players some more race variants
I have to agree with Michael on WoW LJ: it would be nice to have a little more variance in the types of races that we choose at character creation. Of course, due to lore reasons, all the trolls we create are Darkspear Trolls, and likewise, all of our Taurens are of the Bloodhoof variety. But it would be nice to have a few more options, especially since we now know that some of the "foreign" tribes and clans might have a member or two interested in joining the Horde.None of Michael's suggestions would really work -- the Taunka are almost a completely different race, the Forest Trolls can't be very happy that we've killed their leader, and neither the Dark Iron Dwarves or the Iron Dwarves are very friendly to either Horde or Alliance. But there are possible variants out there -- the Zanadalar tribe might have some members interested in joining the Horde, and certainly the Mag'har Orcs are friendly to players. Alliance doesn't have as many options come to mind, though all players are Bronzebeards, I believe, and surely the Stormpikes are Friendly by now.We've got new hairstyles coming in the next expansion, of course, but it would be nice to vary up the races a little bit, and have even different backgrounds within the race choices. RPers would love it for sure, and even for other players, it would give a little more meaning and power to playing through the various racial areas in the game.
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:
Select US Realm Maintenance Friday
You know the hardware upgrades mentioned on Thursday? Well, some of them are already becoming reality. Three US realms will be brought down at 4:00 AM PDT for a scant two hours in order to install short-term hardware upgrades. There's no detail on what exactly is being upgraded, or what precisely the upgrades are expected to accomplish - though all must hope for overall performance improvements. The lucky (or unlucky?) realms in question are Arthas, Bloodhoof, and Stormrage. The response to this upgrade seems mixed - many with the opinion that it's too little too late, and many more complaining that their servers need upgrades more urgently. However, what performance improvements even these servers will gain is still left to see.
