dwarves
Latest
Cataclysm Zone Review: Dun Morogh
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Editor's Note: This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. Read at your own risk! The upheaval in the snowy lands of Dun Morogh has been more political than geological, but there's quite a fair amount of new material for those rolling a brand new dwarf or gnome in Cataclysm. Starting Zones Coldridge Valley and New Tinkertown The dwarven starting zone hasn't changed much physically, but the troggs are more aggressive now, so there's no time for placid mail delivery quests. But there's always time for beer! Eventually, you kill a troublemaking fire elemental that seems to quell the threat here, but an untimely cave-in forces you to forego the tunnel and take an airlift to Kharanos instead. (Alas, this detour bodes ill for the popularity of the famous Dwarven Demolition Team.)
WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue
Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic, Byron the Tauren Rogue! I apologize for the lateness, everyone! It won't happen again. This is the beginning of the end of Byron. I won't spoil anything, but the story of our brave tauren rogue will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. There's lots more in store, though, so don't go far! Also, I know that Ironforge guards are all male in game, but hey -- I'm progressive like that. Check out the full version right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page. You can also see all the previous pages in the gallery below. %Gallery-77825%
Exclusive Rift dev diary unveils the lives and times of Dwarves
They may be short and extraordinarily hairy, but across all fantasy realms, Dwarves have built a reputation as a hardworking race, masters of both ale and craftsmanship. In Rift: Planes of Telara, the Dwarves are a fallen race, even though it was by their hands that the great cities were built. In this exclusive dev diary, Trion Worlds lays out the foundation for the stocky, proud race from the beginning of time up to the start of the game's events. Hit the jump to discover how Rift's dwarves aren't just a stereotype, but a rich and complex people to whom the world owes a great debt.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the dwarves, part one
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. Last week we covered the gnomes, who much like the night elves have a history that spans centuries, but unlike the night elves, much of this history is unknown. Also unlike the night elves, the gnomes don't appear to have much going for them in the way of future conflicts. Today we're going to talk about the close friends of the gnomes -- the dwarves -- who are decidedly far more important than any have given them credit for to date. To summarize their origins: Way back in Azeroth's history, the Titans created a race of guardians called "earthen" to help protect and watch over the planet. There were a few different "types" of earthen originally created. The first type was prone to a "matrix destabilization" when in high-stress situations, and a nasty thing called the Curse of Flesh. This destabilization in conjunction with the curse led to the creation of the troggs. Yes, the same troggs that are currently plaguing the gnomes and Gnomeregan. These first earthen were sealed away in vaults all over the world including locations such as Bael Modan. Apparently the Titans seem to have this thing for locking bad things under the earth. The second round of earthen creations were just fine, and left as they were. Except that they weren't "just fine." These earthen were also susceptible to the Curse of Flesh, much like the gnomes were, and it worked on them oh-so-subtly. Over a gigantic chunk of time, they degraded into what we know today as the dwarves of the lower continents. As for Northrend, according to the Tribunal of the Ages, the Titans created the Forge of Wills to make yet another series of earthen, these designed to avoid the Curse of Flesh altogether. This is why you see earthen up in Northrend today.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the gnomes
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. WARNING: The following post contains small spoilers for Wrath of the Lich King. Players who are still playing through the expansion and wish to avoid spoilers may want to avoid this post. In addition, theories behind the new Cataclysm race/class combinations will be discussed. Last time on Alliance politics we looked at the night elves, who have had arguably the largest impact on Azeroth of any race currently living, and a lengthy history, as their current leader has been in power for approximately 10,000 years. The night elves have an extensive amount of history to back up their current political stance, but today we're going to look at a race that doesn't really have a lot of history to speak of (or at least they didn't until the launch of Wrath of the Lich King): the gnomes. The gnomish race has been relatively low profile in World of Warcraft and in the Alliance in general. Friendly to everyone, regardless of faction, the gnomes are quite happy to teach engineering to anyone who will listen. They generally avoid conflict where they can and honestly the main reason they joined the Alliance wasn't due to their beliefs or any strong feelings, it was due to circumstances at the time. Let's take a quick look at the background of the gnomes and how the events in Wrath could potentially affect future political entanglements.
A look at Brell's Rest from EverQuest: Underfoot
The focus of the next EverQuest expansion Underfoot is the Plane of Underfoot and its cavernous areas, which the god Brell Serilis created and filled with inhabitants. An update on the EverQuest Players website has given us an early look at one zone from the new expansion, "Brell's Rest". Apparently, the most devout followers of Brell are brought to Brell's Rest upon their demise. Since a healthy mix of races pay homage to the Duke of Below, this means that the area is home to quite a few different factions, including dwarves, gnomes, gnolls and kobolds. While the dwarves and gnomes tend to live a peaceful life in the Shining City section of Brell's Rest, the gnolls and kobolds have traditionally enjoyed ripping each other apart for all eternity. However, in recent times the gnolls have begun to withdraw from their beloved skirmishes, whispering about "The Destroyer" and "The Undying One". That's all we're going to find out for now, but it sounds like an interesting quest-line to look into when the expansion is released. The zone is also said to feature an arena for some good old-fashioned warrior games. Along with this chunk of lore, the EverQuest Players site had a handful of Brell's Rest screenshots to show off. We've put them all together for easy viewing in the gallery below.%Gallery-73586%
All the World's a Stage: Cataclysm's new race/class combinations
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.As you know, the new race and class combinations coming up in the Cataclysm will open a whole new set of doors to people who want an alternative character choice that goes against the grain of their typical racial customs, to one degree or another. With the exception of a couple combinations that feel as though they should have been there from the beginning (such as blood elf warriors, which need no discussion here), each new possibility presents roleplayers with an opportunity to play an outcast of sorts, a character who has made a significant break from the traditions his or her race usually represent.The lore behind each combination is not yet fully clear. We know tauren paladins will probably worship the sun and call themselves "Sunwalkers" for instance, but not much more than that. Some things are clear, though, and there's a lot to get the imagination going for those roleplayers who yearn to play something a little different.
The Queue: Dragon Slave!
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert, erroneously described by Alex Ziebart as "universally adored" on this site (whisper the phrase "I hate Tauren cat form" in Turtlehead's direction and run) is your hostess today.Mmmm...my favorite kind of Queue, the kind with a tank question. Actually, there were two good tank questions from the previous Queue, but the one asked by Gatorforest is something I'd like to address in a separate article. Additionally, two of the questions you'll see here wound up requiring fairly involved answers, so there are a few more questions I'd like to take a crack at sometime later this weekend if I get the time.And because it's Friday:Charlie asks...How many Queue columns does it take for one to finally reach the front of the line?The readers or the writers? I don't know about the former, but for us, it depends on the outcome of the previous day's in-staff gladiatorial match. Much like Mary Sues in the now-classic Pirate Monkey comic, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Actually, I'm just using this as an excuse to quote the following:Professor Flitwick: Wait, she said she's both Dumbledore's and Snape's daughter. How is that possible?Dumbledore: Ehh, remember that Christmas party where we all got really drunk?
DC Series 6 figures feature Sylvanas and Bronzebeard
We only just posted about the DC Unlimited Premium series 2 figures, and here comes another set that's getting announced way earlier than it's getting released. The series 6 set isn't actually due out until March of next year (seriously, what's with all of the early announce dates on these things?), but it does have some of the most-wanted lore figures in the game depicted in action figure form. Magni Bronzebeard, Sylvanas Windrunner, and goblin tinker Gibzz Sparklighter are all making appearances, as you can see over on DC's page.I think they look pretty darn good, though I'm still not sold on actually buying one. We'll likely see them on the floor at BlizzCon, so if you want to get a closer look, be sure to poke around the DC booth there. And even if you're not going, we'll be sure to take pics for you.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Looking to the future
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.This week I have a special request: I want any questions you might have about potential future expansions. Any questions at all are welcome, but I'm on a speculation kick recently, so next week's column will probably focus on the future and then we'lll be back to our regular deal after that. So no matter whether you think the Maelstrom could be next or something else entirely, ask!Mark asked..."Any chance that the Vrykul will be a playable race in a future expansion?"
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Scribe
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the thirty-sixth in a series of roleplaying guides about how to roleplay various aspects of the lore and gaming elements of WoW. What is inscription anyways? I mean, we all know that it's the newest profession, added in Wrath of the Lich King, and it lets you make these "glyphs" which allow you to modify or improve your various class abilities in interesting ways. In gaming terms all that makes perfect sense, but when it comes to telling a story with your character, there are a lot of details missing. Technically, a glyph is a character or symbol, like a heiroglyph or a pictograph, which we can see to a certain extent when we click on the glyph and put it into our in-game glyph interface -- it looks pretty cool with all those circles and lines and stuff. But what does it really mean? Are you pasting these symbols into a book of some sort? Are they getting magically tattooed onto your skin somewhere? And where did inscription come from to begin with? Has it been around in Azeroth all along somehow, or was it some sort of ancient knowledge only discovered recently, around the time in the Warcraft lore when the Wrath of the Lich King begins? If it was discovered, then who discovered it and how? How exactly does a scribe learn these glyphs? Does he or she pore over ancient tomes that haven't been read in thousands of years, trying to decipher ancient texts? Or is the art and magic of it more in the artistic calligraphy of it rather than any difficulty in discovering or interpreting the symbols themselves? There are far more questions than answers when it comes to roleplaying a scribe, and to a large extent each roleplayer is free to choose his or her own approach. What follows is the just one suggestion as to how you might work out a plausible solution -- please feel free to read it and improve upon it in whatever way you like.
The Daily Grind: What race would you add to Free Realms?
Humans and Pixies -- or faeries if you like -- of both genders are currently available in SOE's upcoming Free Realms. Some of us have already jokingly suggested what we'd want in future races, but it seemed like a reasonable enough question to ask those interested in playing the game what they would want to see.Certainly there are all sorts of other things that could be added to Free Realms, most of them being new jobs. And while those are without a doubt coming, we'll leave that topic for another day and another grind.So what's it gonna be dear Massively readers? More fantasy ala Dwarves and Elves, or would you rather race karts, raise pets, cook food and fight Robgoblins (yes, that is what they're called) as a robotic penguin person? Speaking of Robgoblins, there's always playing as baddies like them or trolls and such, too!So many choices.
Several new crafting instance screenshots for Lord of the Rings Online
The new crafting instances are certainly a big part of the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online Volume 2, Book 7 update, which is why Turbine has released several new screens showing off the content. We're fairly certain that we're not missing the point when we get excited about shiny, pretty swords and images of a Dwarf mining with a mighty pick axe.That's normal, right? We're not entirely certain, but it seems like the kind of thing a balanced person would get all hot and bothered over. In any case, you can find plenty of sweetly sized images to salivate over (or is that still just us?) in our gallery just below. Enjoy!%Gallery-46767%
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Miner
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the twenty-eighth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class (or profession!) well, without embarrassing yourself. Mining is one of the strangest professions in the World of Warcraft. This may seem counterintuitive in the face of such odd professions as alchemy, and more particularly, engineering. But when you think of it, mining is equally strange in its own way.Mining in the World of Earthiness is by and large a capitalist venture, where the people getting rich off of the various precious metals in the world are never ever the same people who actually go out and dig the stuff out of the ground. No, the rich people find other people do to the actual digging for them, and then compel those diggers to hand over the fruits of their hard work for a mere fraction of the work's actual value. Furthermore, precious metals here on Earth are not simply lying about at the surface for anyone with a pickaxe to come along and collect -- otherwise those metals wouldn't be precious anymore. Mining on Azeroth is more like collecting interesting seashells than it is anything similar to what humans do on Earth. Below, we will find a few ideas about why in the world only the very greatest adventurers with the best training can go around picking up shiny ore nodes sticking up out of the ground, as well as what it might mean to your character to do so.
The Digital Continuum: Beyond Warhammer Online patch 1.2
Warhammer Online players are in the midst of the Bitter Rivals live event, plus another big new patch. I'm going to guess that it probably took a lot of development muscle to get the Black Guard, Knight of the Blazing Sun, Slayer and Choppa in a fun, playable shape. Not to mention the improvements to open RvR, Scenarios, PvE and general quality of life fixes.I have no doubt that the east coast developer has the next several patches planned out to some degree. Nonetheless, Mythic, Warhammer Online and its community are at a development crossroads -- and so today I'm going to explore a few possibilities.
Getting back to basics with LotRO's new player experience
We appreciate a developer who goes back to earlier content and improves upon it. And to that end, our appreciation of those who go back to the very beginning knows no bounds. That's why we're quite pleased with Turbine for rolling out their "New Player Experience" changes with the free Volume II: Book 7 update to Lord of the Rings Online.If you'd like to know exactly what all the changes are going to be about then take a look at this developer diary focusing on the Dwarf and Elf starting zones. Much of the changes are quality of life stuff, like reducing travel times and removing all newbie instances to avoid any load screens. Turbine's also added quest rewards for specific races and classes, and even tossed in dyes as rewards to alleviate the tedium of seeing equipment clones running all over the place.These changes (and others) are all great improvements. With the new quest tracking system coming at the same time, Lord of the Rings Online is shaping up to be an all-around friendlier MMO experience.
LotRO Volume II: Book 7 concept art depicts Elven beauty
The newest concept art to hit from the Volume II: Book 7: Leaves of Lórien update for Lord of the Rings Online features an astonishingly beautiful Galadriel's Court. Does it surprise anyone else that elves are all about visually stunning architecture? While the Dwarves are primarily concerned with size and how much gold was involved, the Elves seem to focus on making everything curvy and elegant. It's like an M.C. Escher drawing, only with leaves and vines instead of doors and stairs.There's plenty more beautiful concept are that's previously come out of Turbine, and we highly encourage you browse through them if you haven't yet. Trust us, it's worth the few minutes you'll spend massaging your eye muscles enough to stop them from popping those precious peepers back into their sockets. Additionally, we've got the first screens from the Volume II: Book 7 update as well.%Gallery-46767%%Gallery-18340%
The Digital Continuum: My only problem with Free Realms
I love Free Realms, so don't get me wrong when I say I've finally found a problem with it. What's that problem, you (hypothetically) ask? It's full of regular people and faeries, and what manly guy wants that?No, sir, not me. There's certainly nothing wrong with a man who prefers to flutter about on dainty wings, or a man who just wants to be a 'Regular Joe' -- but what of the rest who just want to express their inner macho man? I think we need some representation!That's why I've done all the creative footwork for Sony Online Entertainment and thought up a bunch of great concepts for manly races to add into Free Realms. That way, when hairy manly men log into the game after a hard day of sweating and lifting heavy things, they'll feel right at home.
Who's the boss (in Ulduar)?
All this talk of 3.1 we've been seeing lately is fantastic! Class and talent changes everywhere, dual-spec announcements (see? I told you!), it's all great stuff. For me, though, the big draw of 3.1 is -- read my lips -- one new dungeon! I know, I know, raids is raids, but I'm getting pretty tired of Naxx, and I want a nice long raid to sink my teeth into. New strats to learn! Setting a course through uncharted territory! Wiping because we don't know the fight yet! I'm just so excited. Of course, the one thing we haven't found out about Ulduar yet is who the heck we're killing for their purples! Being a reasonable man who reads his quest text, though, I've been able to divine the identities of a few personalities we're likely to encounter. The Ulduar screenshots from beta, with their diverse wings and amazing architecture, also hint to these same folks. They'll be involved, and I'll put good gold on it. Who's ready to rumble?
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be an Alliance Rogue
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the twenty-fourth 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. Many of the most famous rogues outside of the Warcraft setting have been nuanced and exciting characters. Bilbo Baggins, the Prince of Persia, and James Bond, could all be reimagined as rogues if they had existed in Azeroth instead of their own settings. As an Alliance rogue, you have a certain amount of freedom to borrow from other settings, or from the real world, since the Alliance races tend to be more similar to heroes of other stories we've heard before. To a certain extent, Blizzard has already based its Alliance rogue guilds on stories from other settings, and left some aspects of these institutions rather vague. There is certainly enough room for roleplayers to fill in a bit of the blanks with their own creative inspiration. The only danger is that it could be easy to overdo it and descending into Mary-Sueism: one ought to feel free to reach for a bit of the flavor of James Bond, for instance, without ever believing your character is the single best secret agent Stormwind could ever have.
