Illidan
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Know Your Lore: Kael'thas Sunstrider
The second fellow in this week's Know Your Lore is one of the most influential figures in the Burning Crusade expansion. An entire zone, Netherstorm, is twisted around his plans and his personality. The blood elves practically worship him as a god and the draenei see him as their most bitter foe. And yet, no one knows quite what he's up to in his suspiciously pink floating ship. So quick, before someone kills him, meet ... Who: Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider. What: Blood elf. Yes! Finally! Someone who has stayed one race without being turned into a fish/corrupted by demons/etc.! History: Kael'thas Sunstrider is the last of a dynasty of high elf kings that date back to Dath'Remar Sunstrider, the old leader of the Highborne. As a young man, he studied magic in Dalaran and became an accomplished mage. While in Dalaran, he met a human mage named Jaina Proudmoore and fell for her, even though she was a teenager and he was an ... immortal-type guy, so probably pretty old. But she decided that her studies were more important, and didn't respond when he courted her. Then Jaina started seeing Prince Arthas, and Kael'thas was devastated. Wow, Jaina kind of got around. I guess that's what comes from being one of the few female characters in an RPG. She's single now, though, unless you believe those rumors about her and Thrall. Anyway, Kael was studying in Dalaran when Arthas went nutzo. Arthas marched his army of undead into Quel'Thalas and defiled the Sunwell, killing many blood elves and sickening more. Kael's father was among the dead. He hastened back to Quel'Thalas from Dalaran and took command of the remaining high elves. The bitter Kael renamed them the Sin'dorei, or blood elves, in honor of the dead. He and his troops joined the Alliance to fight against the Scourge.
The Caverns of Time... of the future!
Kermras of Khadgar wonders what I'm sure a lot of players have: what exactly is behind that boat in the Caverns of Time? Along with Escape from Durnholde, the Black Morass, and the currently unfinished Mount Hyjal instances in there, there's also a huge pirate-looking ship in there, with a portal that is "perhaps" (according to Drysc) going to be a future instance. Yup, one word. That's all he gave us.Fortunately for you, we're better at speculation than that. The Keepers of Time in front of the portal say the ship is a "Kaldorei vessel," which points directly to the Night Elves. Now, the Night Elves are not exactly a seagoing civilization, but there is one time in which lots of them perished at sea, and that's during the War of the Ancients and the ensuing fight over the Well of Eternity. I'll let Elizabeth give you the details in one of her great Know Your Lore features, but suffice it to say that Malfurion Stormrage (the greatest druid ever and Illidan's brother) stormed the old continent of Kalimdor to fight against the insane Aszhara and close the Well for good. In the process, the Well of Eternity was destroyed, Illidan did some evil stuff and escaped away, and lots of elves drowned (in fact, some of them became the Naga, and the Well itself became what we know of as the Maelstrom). So while we're not sure exactly what event the portal revolves around, it very well could be somewhere in there-- either fighting alongside Malfurion, helping Illidan escape (so we can fight him in the Black Temple), or helping the Kaldorei find their way out of the war to their current stomping grounds.Still other guesses from players (about this and other upcoming instances in CoT) have to do with Illidan's treachery (any of it), the Theramore invasion fleet, or even a visit to the past of the Deadmines (lots of players want to see a pirate instance, I guess). Of course, there's always the chance that the Instance is just a placeholder, and that the boat is a red herring. Either way, Blizz has made it clear that the CoT is going to see a lot more action, wherever (and whenever) it takes place.
Play it again, Illidan
I'd seen the opening cinematic of the Burning Crusade about 20 or 30 times (including in hilarious Gnome form), but after finally installing and repatching the expansion yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised when Illidan's voice spoke to me from beyond the portal, and the intro movie played out in fullscreen, high-resolution glory. By the time "You are not prepared!" showed up again, I was ready for some Warcraft.And just in case you want to see it one more time, Drysc offers the following tip on the forums: Whether or not the movie shows up is controlled by a small file in the WTF folder (in your World of Warcraft install) on your computer called config.wtf. Just open that file up in Wordpad (or your text editor of choice. Change the "SET movie" line in there from "0" to "1", save the file, and you're ready to watch it all again whenever you start up the game.Of course, if you're as cool as me, and you bought the Collector's Edition, you can also find the cinematic (along with lots of extras) on the included DVD-- in fact, it's the first thing you see when you put it in. But it's good to know that if you need to watch the movie in its computery glory, you can.
Know Your Lore: Illidan
It has come to our attention that there are quite a few people out there who don't know anything about the Warcraft universe. Considering that the Burning Crusade expansion is chock-full of major lore characters, this is somewhat disturbing. While it's definitely not necessary to play the previous Warcraft games to enjoy WoW, this is an online roleplaying game set in a particular universe, and understanding a little bit of the history behind the game can make your time in Azeroth more enjoyable. Sure, it's not exactly The Wheel Of Time in complexity, but there's some cool stuff going on in the world that you can only "get" if you know who's who. With that in mind, the new Know Your Lore feature will present quick and dirty biographies of some of the most famous names in Azeroth. Our inaugural article showcases someone you've definitely heard of, and will be hearing much more from in the near future -- Illidan Stormrage, the ultimate boss of the Burning Crusade expansion.
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Do we HAVE to kill Illidan?
While roaming around the blood elf starting area in the middle of the night, I got into a discussion with some other neophyte elves about Illidan. Basically, we didn't want to kill him. See, Kael'Thas is rumored to have gone insane, and Vashj was never too good in the first place, but Illidan ... well, what Illidan says in the Burning Crusade introduction is pretty accurate. He was locked up for thousands of years for being reckless, was nearly killed trying to kill the totally evil Arthas, and then when he finally gets to Outland and is able to relax, millions of warriors invade his country from Azeroth to look for his loot. He doesn't seem to pose much of a threat to Azeroth, so why is it so important that we metaphorically and literally break into his house and rummage through his stuff? Illidan's admittedly many mistakes (creating a new Well of Eternity, consuming Gul'Dan's skull, dealing with Kil'Jaeden) were made out of recklessness and selfishness, not outright "Yay, let's destroy the world!" evil. There have been quite a few forum posts on the same subject. My fellow blood elves suggested that we be given the opportunity to ally with Illidan and his crew. To join them, you would have to forsake your allegiance, your homeland and your faction. You could still communicate with your old friends, but you wouldn't be able to group with them. You'd have different profession recipes, quests, towns, and maybe even different talent options. One even suggested that we could be double agents - we could still hang out in Orgrimmar or Ironforge, but have a chance to be detected and permanently cast out and maybe even lose some items. The instances could change too. Instead of fighting Illidan in the Black Temple, you could defend him from Kil'Jaeden's minions. And who says we have to preserve the timeline in the Caverns of Time? That's boring. Let's see what happens if Archimonde wins the battle of Hyjal and Thrall dies as a kid! Of course, that isn't going to happen. World of Warcraft is a pretty static world and you don't have many real character development options. The one big one we do have - the ability to go to war with factions - has caused enough complaints (see: Bloodsail pirates angry about goblin questgivers) and this isn't the Elder Scrolls series. Still, it's fun to speculate about. Then again, maybe Illidan is right, and we're just not prepared.
WoW Moviewatch: The Burning Crusade opening cinematic
After premiering in spectacular cam-o-vision on YouTube, and then officially premiering on Spike's VGA Awards last night, Blizzard has released The Burning Crusade opening cinematic to the masses. Head on over to the World of Warcraft site to view the cinematic in either Flash or DivX. The short preview starts with a voice over that lore-fiends will quickly come to understand as Illidan's. To say that he's a little upset to have been imprisoned for 10,000 years, then exiled, and then have us show up on his doorstep expecting cookies and eggnog is a gross understatement. We're taken across the Blasted Lands to the Dark Portal before fading out and coming up on a Draenei Paladin, preparing for what lies ahead. That scene then cuts to a Blood Elf lovingly playing with a Mana Wyrm, before she consumes its arcane energies. What follows is a quick succession of battle scenes featuring the Draenei paladin, what appears to be the Orc from the original WoW cinematic, the Blood Elf, a human mage (who wonderfully sheeps his opponent), and an undead warlock who apparently has no love for the gurgly little Murlocs. Finally, we come to Illidan, who leaps up from his Hamlet-like pondering of a skull and shows us his full glorious self before admonishing us with a loud and gravelly, "You are not prepared!" This is a fantastic cinematic, and only makes me long for a full animated World of Warcraft movie, and makes the month-and-two-days we have left to wait for the expansion to hit stores seem like an eternity.
WoW Moviewatch: Maiev Shadowsong lives!
No idea who Maiev Shadowsong is? Well, I'm happy to refresh your memory -- Maiev was a priestess of Elune who was chosen to safekeep Illidan in his prison after the War of the Ancients. After Illidan was freed by Tyrande (who hoped he would aid in fight against the Burning Legion during the Third War), Maiev became obsessed with recapturing Illidan and bringing him to justice. And by all accounts, Miaev is said to have died pursuing Illidan past the dark portal -- and yet here we find her, imprisoned in Shadowmoon Valley.
The Making of Illidan
If you were at E3 this year, you may have noticed the Illidan of which I refer - a nine foot tall sculpture that brought the character to life in a world away from Azeroth. And now you can see, step by step, the process involved in creating this Illidan. There's not a lot of reading, but plenty of great pictures to check out.
