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Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: The haunting refrain of the Mists of Pandaria
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. This column had a different subject earlier today. I was going to talk about the Warchief situation leading into patch 5.4, as we'll be playing through that content on Tuesday. But as I was gathering screenshots of relevant questlines and information on my Alliance alt, I flew absently into the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and happened upon the above scene, coming to a full stop and simply sitting there as I took it all in. Refugees. Hundreds of them, happily filing into the Vale just after the gates were opened and talking excitedly about the golden valley that was certain to be a verdant new homeland for those that had suffered at the hands of the yaungol and Zandalari in Kun-Lai. And it hit me like a particularly vicious kick to the gut. It's been so long since I unlocked the Vale and leveled through that content last year that I'd forgotten this idyllic little scene, before all the chaos erupts. You, the player, are the hero of all of these pandaren -- you are the one who fought back the yaungol, the Zandalari, and offered these people a glimmer of hope. You're the person that single-handedly convinced the August Celestials to open the gates of the Vale and offer refuge to those that had lost their homes in Kun-Lai. And you're the one that allowed what's going to happen in patch 5.4. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on how it happened. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore. Please note: There are some spoilers for patch 5.4 content in this post.
Know Your Lore: Alea iacta est
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. This is it. This is the moment beyond which we cannot return. For both the Alliance and those members of the Horde in open revolt, there is now no longer any path but forward, and that path leads through Orgrimmar's iron walls, past her legions of defenders, and must inevitably lead all to the iron throne of Garrosh Hellscream in his subterranean fortress below Orgrimmar itself. The Warchief has declared his intent to lure the armies of the world to make open war against him on his terms, on ground he controls, and within a week that intent will have become reality. The die has been cast. For some, this is the culmination of a desired confrontation. Both Vol'jin and Jaina Proudmoore fall into this category - both want the Warchief removed and some measure of revenge for personal slights and injuries. Vol'jin's grudge is of longer standing, and his desire for retribution stems from an attempt to have him assassinated, but Jaina seeks redress of a loss of an entire city in the bombing of Theramore, the loss of an apprentice, of friends and colleagues and the last refuge of a refugee people. For others, like Thrall and Varok Saurfang, this is a conflict of brother against brother and they seek to avoid it even as they suspect that it cannot be avoided. Still others, like Lor'themar Theron and Varian Wrynn, were brought to this point reluctantly and only act now in the best interests of their people. Some reluctant, others eager, but in the end it all comes down to this - two full scale armies invading the most fortified, heaviest defended place on the planet Azeroth. The war that Hellscream began has finally found its way back to Orgrimmar.
Know Your Lore: The mysterious disappearance of Varian Wrynn
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. As a leader of the kingdom of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn's track record leaves much to be desired. Swayed by tragedy and the sneaky, manipulative claws of a particularly clever black dragon, Varian was completely out of the picture in vanilla, at which point the surrounding human territories began a decline from which they have yet to fully recover. Varian returned in Wrath, and promptly began the campaign to wipe out the Lich King, sending his best soldiers north. While the campaign in Northrend was successful, we also saw the beginnings of the clashes between Varian and the Horde -- clashes that would continue in Cataclysm, and ramp up with alarming speed in Mists of Pandaria. Or ... that's what we thought we'd see. In truth, Varian's spent much more of this expansion absent than he has being a driving force for the Alliance. Where has Varian been, and what has he been doing?
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 3
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 will be spoilers for patch 5.4 in this post Part one covered the Horde, and part two covered the humans, dwarves, night elves and worgen of the Alliance. But what about the gnomes, draenei, and neutral factions? What about the pandaren, so new to both Horde and Alliance? How could these figures react to the new status quo (whatever it will be) and will they be a force to stabilize relations between the Alliance and the Horde, or will they make the situation more volatile? Both the draenei and the gnomes have an outsider's perspective in their own way - the gnomes missed the entirety of the Third War due to problems at home (problems they are still attempting to fix) and while the draenei have experienced much suffering at the hands of the orcish Horde they are dedicated to the Prophet Velen's vision of the mortal races coming together to oppose the Burning Legion. Although both races sent observers to Pandaria during Varian Wrynn's Operation: Shieldwall, their leadership has not been very involved in this latest struggle with the other faction. Individual members of these races have, but not the groups as a whole. So what, then, is their perspective after the siege of Orgrimmar?
Know Your Lore: The life and legacy of Lei Shen
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. Once upon a time, somewhere in the dawn of Azeroth's history, before the Sundering split the world in two, there was a race of warlords called the mogu. Violent and cruel, the mogu fought relentlessly against everything -- including each other. That is, until one day when one mogu sought out the history and secrets of his people's past, discovering that they were creatures of far more potential, far more purpose than any had realized. It was a secret long forgotten, and the mighty Lei Shen not only uncovered it, but brought that secret back to his people. For untold years after Lei Shen emerged from the depths of the Isle of Thunder, the mogu reigned supreme on Pandaria. They captured and enslaved the weaker races, forcing them into servitude. It was not until after the death of Lei Shen that the pandaren race finally rose up with the hozen, the jinyu, and even the grummles to disrupt and reduce the armies of the mogu to rubble, taking the continent of Pandaria back as their own and ruling in peace. In the waning hours of Lei Shen's inevitable downfall at the hands of Azeroth's heroes, we'll soon be leaving these relics of ages past behind, and instead focusing on the future of our world. But the history of the mogu, the history of Lei Shen is not a tale we should soon forget.
Burdens of Shaohao tops rich list of out-of-game WoW storytelling
Lorehounds are still licking their lips after a heaping serving of The Burdens of Shaohao, the six-part animated series released earlier this month that's earned resounding praise from players and lore fans alike. "The sweeping tale of the last emperor of Pandaria was unlike anything we'd ever seen before from Blizzard -- a stunning, gorgeous piece of animated, narrative storytelling featuring artwork by Laurel Austin," wrote Anne Stickney in our recent interview with the series' creators. "While we've seen narrative tales in the form of cinematic-style storytelling, this is the first time we've seen anything of this nature." It's not the only new storytelling tool Blizzard has recently introduced. In recent months, we've seen the announcement for a WoW children's book and the cryptic website Project Blackstone, a viral advertising campaign for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. These storytelling experiments come on top of an established collection of official and fan-created out-of-game lore resources that includes novels, graphic novels and comics, webpage resources, leader short stories, and more. (Where to start? We'll show you how to pick your way through chronologically.) Are you a fan of the many out-of-game story resources for World of Warcraft? Do you enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the world you play in, or do you prefer to absorb the story of Azeroth inside the game itself?
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 2 - Alliance
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 will be spoilers for patch 5.4 in this post If you remember last week's column, you know the basic premise of this series: covering the ways that the Horde and Alliance, post Hellscream's downfall, can mess things up and prevent an era of peace from coming about. On paper, things look to be about as promising in terms of Horde/Alliance relationships as they have been since the Third War - both the surviving Horde factions and those of the Alliance were united in an uneasy truce by their shared rage towards Garrosh, both worked together in the Barrens and in the invasion of Orgrimmar. If what we've gleaned from data-miners is true, then there will be a new Warchief appointed, with Varian Wrynn allowing it and withdrawing the Alliance from Orgrimmar. This doesn't, however, really deal with the issues that caused the war between the Alliance and Horde this time around. The Horde, in need of vital resources, invaded and conquered Azshara, pushed deep into Ashenvale, besieged Gilneas and used plague weapons to drive its populace into exile and totally annihilated the Alliance presence in Alterac. These situations haven't changed, and further, there are other problems among the peoples of the Alliance. So let's explore each of the nations of the Alliance and how they might react, or what they have on their plates to occupy them following the fall of Orgrimmar.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The Dark Below
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. I see them! A million worlds glittering in their perfection! One above all others! We have fallen, we must rebuild the final Titan! Do not forget. Wrathion may have just finished chowing down on the heart of the Thunder King when he rattled off that strange speech about this bizarre "final Titan," but what he said seemed to indicate there is far more going on in Pandaria than we'd thought. Or, on the other hand, there is far more going on in Azeroth than we thought. Things that must be taken care of, things so urgent that Wrathion is attempting to set the war between Alliance and Horde on fast-forward so that we can skip that part and simply jump to what he thinks is the important stuff. Earlier this week, Blizzard appeared to be trademarking something called The Dark Below, and many have speculated that it's the name of the next WoW expansion, largely because of the existence of Ozumat and his title, Fiend of the Dark Below. The trademark was later revealed as a possible hoax -- and later still, revealed to be a trademark in Europe. So is it WoW? If it is a WoW trademark, what could possibly be in an expansion with that title? I have absolutely no idea. But that makes for some excellent Tinfoil Hat speculation, so why don't we look at what could potentially be lurking in The Dark Below? Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on how it happened. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 1 - Horde
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. Things are about to get much worse. - Deathbringer Saurfang On the surface of things, it seems like we may be about to turn the corner. Garrosh Hellscream's True Horde is about to face its enemies and the Warchief has alienated so many of his former allies that the Horde itself has erupted in civil war. But once we start thinking about the aftermath, it all starts to seem a little murkier. After all, even though we know that there will apparently be a new warchief appointed after the fall of Hellscream, that won't immediately fix the tensions that led to the Horde making war on itself. Hellscream's former supporters won't just vanish - with the vast majority of orcs behind him, Hellscream's legacy is bound to continue and any new warchief is going to have to face those orcs who took up arms for the True Horde and come up with a way to re-integrate them into the Horde as a whole. Meanwhile, it's likely that those who supported the Darkspear Rebellion are going to want to see substantial changes made to the way the Horde functions - the orcish ideals of Lok'tar Ogar, of unquestioning loyalty to the warchief are by necessity broken now. The Horde of the future is a Horde that has survived a mutiny, has seen a leader deposed - it cannot be bound by tight-knit expectations of loyalty and honor. The blood elves and forsaken, tauren and goblins and trolls who had a hand in making the new warchief possible will have demands, and they're not all going to be possible to meet. Meanwhile, the Alliance will have found itself in the position of kingmaker for its enemy. What does the future hold for Alliance/Horde relations? Will the Alliance forget the past several years of Horde aggression or will it demand concessions from its weakened enemy? And if Varian Wrynn doesn't take advantage of this moment to reclaim Azshara and Ashenvale, or Gilneas, what backlash will he have to face from within his own faction? Thanks in no small part to the threat of the Horde, Wrynn has found himself rising to the position of war-leader for the Alliance as a whole. But can he maintain that position with a much less threatening Horde, especially if he doesn't move to take advantage of its weakness? Let's look at potential threats to any return to stability. This week, we'll discuss the forces at play within the Horde.
Know Your Lore: Garrosh Hellscream and the nature of villany
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. Garrosh Hellscream has been a controversial figure ever since he took the reins of Warchief in Cataclysm, but never quite as contentious as he is now. Presented as the final boss of this expansion, Garrosh's actions have spun wildly out of control, his thirst for and abuse of power quickly turning him from a potentially good Warchief to a monster whose iron grip over the Horde has only served to splinter and fracture the individual races that compose it, rather than bringing them together. Although ... technically, Garrosh has brought the Horde together. The disparate races are working together with a sort of fierce, single-minded unity that we haven't exactly seen before. Rather than each race working individually on their own tasks, with their own motives for doing so, they have banded together with one purpose in mind, a goal that they all share: Getting Garrosh out. In a way, Garrosh has been just as good for the Horde as he has bad. But does Garrosh Hellscream work as an end game villain? Yes and no.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Where do the Tauren come from?
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 talked about the tauren peoples, the shu'halo, the taunka and the yaungol. We can't rule out that there are or were others at some point - there may have been a tauren people in the Eastern Kingdoms until the spread of humanity, for instance, and there may well be tauren on some hidden or lost landmass somewhere else on Azeroth. But we talked about the ones we know about last week. This week, we're going to speculate. (We've done this before, but I wanted to come at it again.) There won't be a definitive theory at the end - this is purely looking at the few things we do know and then playing what if with the ideas. For starters, tauren are the most physically powerful mortals native to Azeroth, rivaled only by the ogres who are themselves both invaders from another world and the descendents of the massive, ruthless gronn of Outland. There's no direct evidence for any such descent for the tauren. Indeed, the tauren appear to be very old, having existed (according to Brann Bronzebeard, anyway) before the arrival of the Titans. We have to take that cautiously because the Tribunal of Ages implies that the Titans created Azeroth, and returned later to find it infested with the Old Gods and their minions such as the Elemental Lords. If that is so, then the tauren cannot predate the creation of Azeroth and thus cannot actually predate the Titans. However, they certainly could predate the return of the Titans. It seems likely that they, and the trolls, are therefore the result of the natural evolution of the Azeroth project, and as such, not directly created by the Titans. (Technically, if the Titans created Azeroth, then those races would be indirectly the creations of the Titans and their ongoing evolutionary experiment, as embodied by their appointing of the five dragon aspects.) So let us therefore speculate as to where the Tauren may have come from.
Know Your Lore: The future of the Alliance
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 Siege of Orgrimmar is almost upon us, and the Alliance stands strong, ready to dive in and put an end to Warchief Hellscream's reign. Along the way, they've picked up some entirely unconventional allies in Vol'jin's group of rebels, who are also insistent upon getting Garrosh out. But when the dust settles and all is said and done, if and when the Alliance prove their military superiority, take out Hellscream, and are declared the ultimate victor of what has been a very messy, bloody war, what happens next? Does the Alliance simply go home and wait for the world to rise up with yet another threat? Do they at last attempt some kind of tentative peace treaty with Vol'jin and his group of rebels? Will Varian Wrynn take a moment of clear victory and use it to crush what remains of the Horde? Will the Alliance leave a military presence in Orgrimmar, to carefully watch and make certain events like this don't come to pass again? What does the future for the Alliance hold, once Orgrimmar has been taken down?
Know Your Lore: The tauren peoples of Azeroth
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. As of right now, there are three known sub-families of tauren humanoids on Azeroth: The shu'halo of Kalimdor, who believe in the provenance of the Earthmother and the sun and moon, An'she and Mu'sha. The taunka of Northrend, who have grown to seek dominance over the elements via extortion and compulsion of the elemental spirits. The yaungol of Pandaria, who are even more extreme in their dominant approach, viewing fire as both the weapon by which they will conquer the land and a source of mystical strength. What's interesting to me about all three of these known offshoots of the tauren people is their diversity of beliefs as well as their physical differences from one another. Both yaungol and taunka have marked physical differences from the tauren of Kalimdor. Are any of these people similar to their pre-Sundering ancestors, or have all three groups diverged? More interestingly, despite there being no current record of the Titans having anything to do with the origin of the tauren, there are definitely tauren represented in the visual art of the Ulduar complex. Why? At present we have no reason not to believe that the tauren are not native to Azeroth. Therefore, we have questions to ask. This particular KYL is dedicated to asking those questions, and speculating on what the answers might be.
Know Your Lore: The color of magic
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. .@yuvalaziza Both priests and paladins can wield the Holy Light. However, not all wield it through the same means (e.g., Elune, An'she). :) - Sean Copeland (@Loreology) July 22, 2013 Earlier this week, Blizzard Historian Sean Copeland was answering questions on Twitter when the above answer came up. People were upset about it because the answer, while seemingly pretty simplistic, seemed to devalue the importance of Elune and the unique nature of night elf philosophy and religion. Magic, in all its forms and function in Warcraft, is one of those tricky subjects to understand -- almost as tricky as trying to wrap one's brain around the cosmos of the Warcraft universe. These types of questions get asked a lot, however. And while not everything regarding magic in Warcraft has been fully defined, we can definitely take a look at these different schools of magic and how they relate to one another on Azeroth.
Know Your Lore: Worlds lost, worlds unknown
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 worlds we have not yet visited. Realms we have not seen, do not know. Some are demon-haunted nightmares, still others lost to our understanding, destroyed. The Burning Legion has been thwarted twice on Azeroth, but make no mistake - they have yet to bring their full power to bear, seeking instead to seize the world's unique magical energies for their own use. The dead world Xerrath demonstrates that the Legion has in the past destroyed entire worlds merely as a show of force to cow others into submission and slavery. What's worse is, there are races that were wiped out by them, but others who proved their worth were instead made into servants and slaves to the Legion - and Azeroth has balked their advance twice, putting us squarely in the strong enough to make good slaves category. Yet, too, there are worlds beyond even the Legion's control, worlds dominated by the vast hosts that the Old Gods and their servants such as the Prophet Skerram, worlds like K'aresh (home of the Ethereals), worlds shaped by the Titans, and worlds that yet sleep in their infancy, unaware of the struggle between ancient inimical forces. Azeroth was one such world not too long ago. The destruction of K'aresh by Dimensius the All-Devouring proves that there are forces, hungry and ravening, that serve no masters and have destruction on their mind completely unrelated to the Legion or the Old Gods. We know barely a fragment of the vast cosmos. Let us explore what little we do know.
Know Your Lore: The mysterious motives of Wrathion
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. Wrathion made his debut in the Cataclysm expansion -- not as a raid boss, but as a clever ally to rogues looking for legendary weapons. His words seemed genuine and sincere, although his actions revealed a vicious streak that players would be wise to avoid. Yet his origins go back even further, to a small quest chain in the Badlands in which Wrathion is born to a mother who is captive of the red dragonflight, his egg later tampered with and then hidden for safe-keeping. He's only two years old, give or take a few months. Yet Wrathion is far, far more clever than one would expect for someone of his young age. And given his actions in Cataclysm, and later in Mists of Pandaria, one thing remains perfectly clear: This is not your typical dragon. But what exactly is Wrathion after? What, exactly, is the purpose of his scheming, and perhaps most importantly -- should we be worried? Please note: There are some small spoilers for patch 5.4 content in this post.
Know Your Lore: A hostile universe
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. Sometimes, it may look like we've cleaned house on all possible threats. The Lich King is dead, leaving the Scourge in disarray, the Legion was driven off, Deathwing is dead and the Aspects are out of a job. With the fall of Garrosh Hellscream's 'True Horde' on the horizon, we'll have dealt with the Sha and put paid to the legacy of yet another Old God. We're good, right? Of course not. It would be silly to think that. Some of those threats I just mentioned are still, in fact, lurking around the corner. And there's plenty of other squamous monstrosities and terrible dangers lurking out there, ready to step up and take center stage and force not so reluctant adventurers to get their swords, spells or other implements of destruction ready. Azeroth, as has been pointed out, is a tiny oasis surrounded by perils. So let's take some time and look at just what remains out there to potentially kill us, or enslave us, or eat our souls, or some variation of same. Who's left? Not all of these contenders have been hostile to us so far, but past neutrality or even friendliness is no guarantee of the future. Also, these are in no particular order - it's not a top ten list, it's a however many occur to me list.
Know Your Lore: The peculiar puzzle of Sunwalker Dezco
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. As a follower of An'she, Sunwalker Dezco represents the first really major tauren paladin lore figure we've had -- while Aponi Brightmane had a minor role in the creation of the Sunwalkers, she never really had any story beyond the snippets we saw at the end of Wrath. Sunwalker Dezco is the leader of the Dawnchaser tribe, which is an apt name, given the peculiar journey that has brought him to Pandaria. The tale Dezco tells is a simple one. The tauren received strange dreams of a valley that was golden with blossoms and filled with the hope of peace. At the behest of Baine Bloodhoof, Dezco, his wife Leza and the rest of the Dawnchaser tribe set sail in uncharted waters to search for the source of these mysterious dreams. Although all had had the dreams, it was Leza alone who had visions strong enough to guide them all. And that's really where Dezco's story begins -- on the open seas, sailing into unknown territory, his beloved wife at his side along with his friends and his family. Please note: There is some speculation in this post, as well as spoilers for patch 5.4 content. Reader beware!
Know Your Lore: Why I love rambling on about Warcraft Lore
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. Yesterday, on the podcast, we were asked a question about WoW lore and why we seem to know a lot about it. Well, it is my job as the writer of this column (and Anne's, too) to talk about these things, but the fact remains, we enjoy the Warcraft setting and its lore. Finding out that the Watcher Tyr lost his hand fighting Galakrond or speculating that N'Zoth has a sunken city somewhere underneath Vashj'ir are fun. Thinking about the setting and its quirks - like the Dungeon Journal's stating that the Twin Consorts are rumored to be the only two female mogu in existence, for example - is kind of like playing a vast game of K'Nex with the story. The Warcraft setting started off with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and has grown with games, novels, comics, and of course World of Warcraft and its many expansions. The MMO has greatly expanded the game's lore as it has produced new content - we've seen Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria, journeyed to elemental planes of air, fire and earth, discovered the threat of the old gods and seen the Burning Legion in action (going so far as to directly confront Kil'jaeden himself) and a great many of the setting's most iconic characters - Ragnaros, C'thun, Nefarian, Garrosh Hellscream, Saurfang, Bolvar Fordragon - these were all first seen in World of Warcraft. As the game has continued, the lore has only gotten deeper. For that matter, the game has taken characters I didn't care for at all, like Vereesa Windrunner, and elevated them in my eyes to being interesting, even fascinating.
Know Your Lore: The point of Pandaria
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. "It's just possible that the curious race we're going to meet in this mystic land, may just teach us a thing or two about who we are, and why we fight." -- Chris Metzen, BlizzCon 2011 When Mists of Pandaria was introduced, there were plenty of people that were skeptical about the expansion -- many questioned the introduction of the pandaren as a playable race, questioning whether or not an expansion featuring fuzzy talking pandas could ever be taken seriously. Yet although the pandaren can be quite friendly and agreeable, the overall theme of Mists has been remarkably dark. I'd almost consider it darker than any prior, if only for one reason: the message in this expansion hits far closer to home than any other. While Burning Crusade, Wrath, and Cataclysm all highlighted major enemies that sought to end the world, each through their own means, Mists took a step back from the grand bellowing villains and their evil schemes. And instead, it chose to shift the focus to us -- Alliance and Horde, players and NPCs alike. Yet on the brink of patch 5.4, presumably the last raid of this expansion, what lessons can we take away from Pandaria? What has it taught us, that couldn't be taught by fighting another world-threatening NPC? What was the point of Pandaria? Please note that today's Know Your Lore contains some spoilers for patch 5.4 content. If you're avoiding spoilers, turning away now would be advised!
