grom-hellscream
Latest
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.
One Shots: Cliffwalking in Ashenvale
Today's One Shots is of an area that many Alliance may not have seen in World of Warcraft, but many Horde have. This particular area in Ashenvale is (from what we can tell through the haze) Demon Fall Canyon, which Horde players should recognize. Demon Fall Canyon is the location where the Harvest Festival quest "Honoring a Hero" sends you. Once there, you will find a monument to Grom Hellscream, considered to be one of the Horde's greatest heroes. Of course, if you don't want to go through all the demons to get to the monument, you can, as our reader Dan appears to have found out while running around on his Gnome, cliffwalk to the location a couple of different ways. Do you have any areas you've found by cliffwalking around your world? Any interesting screenshots from areas that are off the beaten path? How about bizarre graphic glitches that make you laugh? If you've got any of those -- or just lovely areas, interesting people, or the like -- send them our way! Add in a quick blurb on what we're seeing, what game it came from, and who you are then toss it to us at oneshots@massively.com! Without your shots, we're going to have to start using these Barbie Horse Adventures screens I got from the staff, and trust me, you really don't want that....%Gallery-9798%
RP Spotlight: Impermanent death
Mystic Chicanery's Nibuca says she isn't really a roleplayer, but nonetheless has made an interesting observation with big implications for roleplayers. "If Azeroth were real," she asks, "what would be the cultural implications of an impermanent death?"We all know that death is a one-way journey in reality: death's permanence affects everything we do in this world -- all our laws, customs, and moral values. Yet in Azeroth it is not so: the main consequence of dying is a tedious and expensive "corpse run" for your ghost to retrieve your body. If this sort of impermanent death were a reality on Earth as it is in Azeroth, then everything about our world would be changed. As Nibuca points out, people would take risks with their lives much more lightly, execution would no longer be the ultimate punishment, and doctors might sometimes find it easier to let their patients die and then resurrect them, rather than deal with the mess of curing their sicknesses.Roleplayers have to be somewhat careful not to let impermanent death and other such necessities of computer gaming become realities from their characters' point of view. After all, if the rules of Azerothian reality were the same as the rules we have in the game -- where death never lasts and good gear is the ultimate goal -- then there is really nothing of importance at stake for any of the characters in the Warcraft stories, least of all yours. That kind of world would effectively be just a game, whether it was real for its inhabitants or not. Can you imagine how real life would be different if death were impermanent like it is in the game? Would such game-world realities enhance our own real world, or reduce it to trivial meaninglessness?
Putting an end to the myth of the legendary axe
We're having a lootful Friday around here, so I just want to take a quick second to address something that's been going around ye olde internets for the past few weeks.Grom Hellscream does not have a legendary axe.Contrary to popular belief, Grom Hellscream's axe does actually drop in the game, and no, it ain't orange. In fact, the name heard to this point -- Grom'ogh, Edge of Hellscream -- isn't even the moniker of the in-game weapon. Instead, our buddy Grom carried around Gorehowl, a regular old epic axe of pretty decent statistics.Anyway, just a little bit more loot info for you on a Friday evening. The controversy has been settled, the true identity of the axe revealed, yada yada. Now be sure to let my pally and my shammy roll on it.
