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Know Your Lore: The furbolg
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 honestly expected these guys to be playable by now. This shouldn't be taken as any sort of slam or slight on worgen ... I'm very eager to see what Blizzard dishes up for our new canine PCs. But if you've played WoW for a while, you've probably run into the furbolg in Ashenvale or Felwood or Winterspring. Dating back to the time before the coming of the titans, the furbolg rank alongside trolls and tauren as native-born to Azeroth itself, with an oral tradition that dates back countless millennia. Not created by alien visitors, conquered by old gods or changed by magical pools, the furbolg have inhabited the forests since before there were three continents. Survivors of the Sundering, even to this day the furbolg live in the wooded areas of Northrend and Kalimdor, honoring the eternal bear spirits of Ursoc and Ursol. Furbolg have long been cordial, if not actually allied to, the kaldorei (night elves) who share their forest home. Furbolg are, as you might expect from humanoid bears, powerful physically. But they're also gifted seers and shaman and clearly even understand the druidic arts to some extent. While the Stillpine who inhabit Azuremyst Isle have forged an alliance with the draenei and the ones in Felwood and Ashenvale were once friends to the night elves, it's worth mentioning that the furbolg have no real animosity toward the Horde, either; they simply haven't had that much contact with them aside from a faint respect for the tauren. However, recently the scattered furbolg tribes on both Kalimdor and Northrend have come on hard times. The furbolgs of Ashenvale and Felwood have been in many cases twisted by the corruption of the Burning Legion, which left scars on their forest homes and in their very spirit, while in the ancestral furbolg home of Grizzlemaw, the corruptive force of a primeval terror has tainted even the very bear god the furbolg honor.
All the World's a Stage: How Cataclysm will help roleplaying
I've never been convinced that roleplay is actually dying. Sure, you can go to any of the official forums for roleplay realms and find at least three threads about how roleplaying is dead as a doornail and that server sucks. (That thread is only slightly less common than complaint threads about how Blizzard doesn't support their naming policy.) Even here at WoW.com, you'll see the occasional commenter lament the untimely death of escapism and roleplay. But all that being said, I'm still pretty sure there are people out there strapping on their in character personas, and doing their very best to spin some fun story lines. They're getting their creative juices and taking on the roles of their characters. I couldn't tell you how many people are still out there, but I can say I've never been unable to find some kind of RP. But I will admit: it's getting a bit more sparse. Of course, raiders and guilds have the same problem. We're between expansions. The burnout blues are setting in. We're struggling to keep the game fun and fresh. We're trying to stay engaged. But, still. It feels like there's fewer roleplayers out there, and thus, story lines are getting harder to find. I hold out hope. Cataclysm can help us. And here's how.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the humans, part three
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. To date, we've covered the beginnings of human politics, from the forming of the Arathor Empire and the original Alliance to the dissolution of the Alliance of Lordaeron and the evolution of the Alliance we know today. Along the way we've discussed Jaina Proudmoore and her progress from a young girl of Kul Tiras to the leader of Theramore, and the growth and subsequent kidnapping of King Varian Wrynn. Varian's story is far from over with the death of Onyxia however, and his influence on the Alliance is an interesting matter in and of itself. When last we left King Wrynn, he'd just finished rescuing his son from the clutches of the black dragon Onyxia, who'd spent the majority of Varian's reign disguised as Lady Katrana Prestor and subsequently running Stormwind into the ground. Fresh from the victory over Onyxia, Jaina chose this moment to suggest that Varian resume the peace summit that he'd been on the way to when he'd been kidnapped -- an idea that didn't really appeal to the King at all. Once again, Prince Anduin stepped up and persuaded his father that it would be an excellent idea, and Varian reluctantly agreed to it.
Know Your Lore: Ogres, Gronn, and the Giants of Draenor
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. Azeroth is hardly the only world with giants. Draenor the Red World had giants of its own. Today we know little of these lost beings. We know that they left behind massive bones used in the construction of the Grombolar, or Temples of the Damned (Grombolar means Giant's Bones in Orcish) and that the orcs clearly knew them well enough to have a word for them in orcish. Not only is the Grombolar named for them, but one of the Horde's great figures, Grommash Hellscream, is as well. His name means Giant's Heart in orcish. However, even after Ner'zhul's destructive portrals tore Draenor into the shattered Outland we know of today (and it's fair to note that the entirety of Outland, massive though it is, makes up just a fragment of Draenor and there may well be whole other pieces of that world floating in the Twisting Nether for us to discover) there are giants in that land. Indeed, even their name is similar to that of the beings the orcs called Grom. I'm talking about the grim colossi of Blade's Edge, the monstrous and malevolent gronn. Furthermore, the gronn apparently gave rise to the less monstrous but still enormous ogres, who crossed the Dark Portal alongside the orcs of the Horde and made homes for themselves all over Azeroth. You can find ogre clans in Feralas, the Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, Deadwind Pass... pretty much anywhere there's a hole in the ground big enough, the ogres will throw up a mound. What then, are the origins and history of these brutes? What do we know about them, their relationship to each other, and their homeworld of Draenor?
All the World's a Stage: 4 ways you know you've jumped the shark
I recently revisited an old roleplay stomping ground. It's a vampire game, so it's not the kind of thing in which one expects high fiction. The vampire genre tends to be good gothic goofy fun. It's a "darker" kind of roleplay, which generally just means that people keep straight faces and focus on telling stories of personal angst and misery. I won't go so far as to say it's serious business, but it's pretty close to it. Which is why I was totally shocked to find out that the collected vampire organization was getting ready for its big national pajama party. No, really. Now, I'm not quite saying that Nero's playing his fiddle, but that struck me as pretty silly. Folks took this big pajama party pretty seriously, though. Ancient, elder vampires were seriously discussing footies. Now, I'm pretty sure it was all in the pursuit of fun, but it sounded to me like Fonzie was starting his engine, and getting ready to jump that shark. This kind of thing isn't unusual. Another roleplay game -- a standard sword and magic game -- went belly up when Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise showed up. Sometimes, roleplaying campaigns just run out of steam. It's not anyone's fault, really. The best ideas have been used, the characters have grown up, and the stories have run their course. And then, after the best part of the campaign has been achieved, things start getting a little silly. Here's how to tell you may be jumping the shark.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the humans, part two
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. So far, we've talked about human politics and the first Alliance -- the Alliance of Lordaeron, formed by King Terenas and Anduin Lothar after the fall of Stormwind and King Llane. When we left off, King Varian Wrynn had blissfully taken both the throne and a new wife who had given him a fine, healthy son. He was a staunch supporter of the Alliance of Lordaeron, having had King Terenas to look up to as a father figure and a mentor after the death of King Llane. Stormwind had been rebuilt through the efforts of the people of the kingdom, notably the Stonemasons, led by Edwin VanCleef. Varian was in love, the kingdom was happy, and prosperity blessed the land. Of course this means that all hell was about to break loose. This is Warcraft, after all. Varian wasn't the only one that held power within Stormwind's walls -- there was also the House of Nobles, the governing body of Stormwind under the King. It was the House of Nobles that originally contracted the Stonemasons and agreed upon a sum of gold to be paid after their work had been completed. Ordinarily this arrangement would've gone well, but there was a wrench that had been thrown in the works back when Varian was crowned king. Her name was Katrana Prestor.
Know Your Lore: The Vrykul
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. They are giants sleeping in the earth. They are the children of Azeroth's formation, creations of the Titans, cursed by the malevolent power of the primordial Old Gods to decay from their once nigh immortal forms of iron and stone. They are the subjects of Ymirion, he who turned away from his gods the Titans themselves in the face of his people's degradation. And most of all, they are the forerunners of humanity in the Warcraft setting. The origins of the vrykul we see throughout Northrend are relatively simple, and yet remarkably complicated for that. Each Vrykul now alive is either a semi constructed being made in the creation forges of Ulduar (when you enter Ulduar's Halls of Lightning you can even see an army of Iron Vrykul waiting to be 'awakened' as it were) or is descended from one so created in the distant past, when the Titan Watchers were set to guard the defeated Yogg-Saron in his prison city of Ulduar itself after the discover of the Curse of Flesh. Alongside the Aesir and Vanir giants (including giants like the Sons of Hodir) and the various Earthen and Mechagnomes, the vrykul served the Watchers of Ulduar for untold millennia until the Prime Designate Loken succumbed to corruption and became a slave of Yogg-Saron.
All the World's a Stage: Maintaining your barriers
In-game romances are a staple of escapist persistent roleplaying. Any time you're talking about a group of roleplayers who maintain their persona on a long term basis over weeks, months, or years and enjoy any kind of freeform creative environment, you're also talking about someone who engages in the love story. There's just something about the framework of a love story that brings out some awesome roleplay. It's great. But it can also turn into a nightmare fairly quickly. When you spend hours and hours each week roleplaying side-by-side with another person, you get awfully attached to that other person. And even if you never engage in ERP and keep away from intimate scenes, you're still pretending to be in love. That's just begging for trouble to creep into the roleplay. Trouble that could quickly lead you to a visit to the Drama Mamas. Consider that science hints we think of our characters the same way we think of ourselves. Assuming you're not using your roleplay as a chance to meet someone in real life, then you should absolutely set up, maintain, and enforce some barriers between your romantic roleplay and your real life. Romantic stories can be very rewarding, but these barriers are essential to keeping trouble out of both your real life and your roleplay.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the humans, 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. Over the past several weeks we've looked at the political situation of the Alliance races: night elves, gnomes, dwarves and draenei. This leaves just one race to take a look at, and while it's been around and active for the shortest amount of time in history, it's easily got the largest amount of conflict of any of the Alliance races in game. Without it, the Alliance wouldn't exist in the first place. That's right, this week we're covering the backbone of the Alliance, the human race -- and there is a lot of ground to cover. Wrath of the Lich King contained several reveals in regard to the history of the Alliance races, but perhaps the most surprising was a neat and tidy explanation for the existence of the humans of Azeroth. While other races have either been around since the dawn of Azeroth or were constructed by the titans, the humans have a unique explanation for their presence that was briefly explained in a quest line in Howling Fjord.
Know Your Lore: And the rest -- The elements, part six
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 rest, you might ask? Who is left after you covered fire, earth, water and air? Well, that's where things get tricky. In the World of Warcraft, things are never as simple as they might appear, and there are plenty of elementals that either mix up their elements or otherwise don't conform to the standard way of doing things. The two major groups of non-standard elementals are mixed elementals (also known as elemental conglomerates; we discussed them before briefly) and revenants, minor elemental entities that may or may not be connected to the undead. It really depends on when they appear ... In Warcraft III, for instance, revenants were pretty unambiguously connected to undeath, but the issue has become clouded with their return in Wrath of the Lich King. There are also elemental-affiliated beings such as Flamewakers, Hydras and Core Hounds, beings infused with an elemental essence yet still seemingly flesh and blood to some degree.
All the World's a Stage: Throwing a bachelor party in Azeroth
Not only is one of your intrepid WoW.com staff getting married this weekend, but another has been hosting a bachelor party for a friend. Now, this was a fairly low-key afternoon kind of thing, where we cluttered around a grill, drank beer, and ate steak. However, that friend of mine is obviously a World of Warcraft player, and he has a history of roleplaying. (Much, much history of roleplay.) So, of course, we made a few jokes about how we could have held this bachelor party off in Azeroth. It got me to thinking about the idea of roleplaying bachelor parties in WoW. Certainly people get married, and certainly there are marital traditions. If a character's getting married, and it's time for a bachelor party or a bacholerette party, how would the characters throw it? How could I roleplay through it? There are no doubt many different traditions for different races, but I'd like to believe the bachelor and bachelorette parties are fairly universal.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the Draenei
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. Well, after last weeks extensive look into dwarven politics we're closing in on finishing off the Alliance. So far we've seen the night elves, the gnomes, and the dwarves – today we'll take a brief look at the Alliance race that hasn't had much to say since Burning Crusade: the Draenei. Luckily Matthew Rossi has already written up an excellent post on the history of the draenei and their otherworldly origins. This post explains the corruption of the eredar at the hands of Sargeras, and the lone faction of eredar that escaped to become what we know as the draenei today. It's only been a couple of years at best from a timeline standpoint since the blue-skinned aliens made a smashing debut on Azeroth, yet they've been largely absent from the war efforts in Northrend -- what's left for the draenei, and what does their future with the Alliance hold? The draenei race is quite possibly the most peaceful race the Alliance has on their side. While the other races of the Alliance are prone to conflicts and struggles over petty disagreements, the draenei only seem to strike out in defense. Their arrival on Azeroth wasn't pretty -- they ended up tearing up the landscape over on Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isles. While they were of course concerned about their fellow survivors, they were just as concerned with what they'd done to the land and the creatures on it -- as a society concerned with not only the Light of the naaru, but the elements of shamanism, the last thing they wanted to do was wreak havoc on a new world, especially since they'd just left a dying world behind.
Know Your Lore: My power is discombobulatingly devastating! -- The elements, part five
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. Yes, it was an in-joke. Nevertheless, it can be fairly said that Thunderaan, prince of the air, is more than a bag of hot air and Mike Tyson quotes, and that the air elementals serving under Al'Akir the Windlord are more than just masters of wind and gale. Thunderaan himself was so powerful that it took Ragnaros and his two lieutenants Geddon and Garr to subdue and nearly destroy him, and even then the elemental lord of fire could not wholly consume the windseeker. And while each of the other elemental lords counts Al'Akir as the weakest among them, the lord of the air can counter by pointing out that they rarely if ever can lay an aggressive hand to him secure in his fortress of the Skywall. But it's not just elemental lords and princes that boast affiliation with the element of air. Any warrior who leveled in classic WoW can probably regale you with tales of the Cyclonian, and air elementals can be found on the rampage in Silithus, as well as bound into service in Northrend by the servants of the very titans themselves (although it's an open question as to who Ionar truly serves, Loken or Yogg-Saron himself). Air elementals tend to disdain rather than directly antagonize their fellows, trusting to their higher mobility to immunize themselves from reprisal.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the dwarves, part two
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. The dwarves of Azeroth have had a somewhat rocky start politically speaking -- the War of the Three Hammers caused a rift between the three major dwarf clans that looked as though it would never be repaired. However, current events as well as revelations regarding new class combinations suggest that the dwarves may not remain as fractured as they've been in World of Warcraft's history. When we left off last time, it was to an introduction of the woman pictured above -- Princess Moira Bronzebeard, daughter of King Magni. Why is she so important, you may ask -- well Moira's been in the clutches of Emperor Dagran Thaurissan, leader of the Dark Iron clan since World of Warcraft's launch. How'd she get there? Why isn't she dead? What's Magni doing about all of this? Let's take a closer look at Moira and her role in what could possibly be upcoming conflicts.
All the World's a Stage: Ending your character
One of the hardest lessons for any roleplayer is understanding when the story is finished. The tale's been told, the game is over, and it's time to quietly move forward. Maybe you're just tired of the character, or maybe you've achieved ultimate power, been reunited with your lover, found the secret of your father's death, and had scores of babies. Whatever the circumstances, you're basically getting the hint that it's time to move on from a character. Not every roleplay style encourages a character to end. If you're in a troupe who practices immersion roleplay, using your character as an escapist release, then you may never need to walk away from your character. For that matter, it's fair to say that World of Warcraft itself discourages rerolling -- after all, there's always more levels, more gear, more adventures. If you are a raider, then your character may play a vital role in your guild's raid composition. That certainly gives you a pretty good reason to not drop the character story. But, in terms of pure roleplay, there are some pretty clear and obvious signs that it's time for you to put down the character. If you find yourself getting emotionally invested in the character, to such a degree that you're losing sleep or that your health is being affected, then it's clearly time for you to start a new character. If you are having trouble finding new story ideas and new directions, then maybe a change of pace is just what the doctor ordered.
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.
All the World's A Stage: Common name conventions
Anne Stickney is subbing for a very busy Michael Gray. Anne enjoys roleplay and was delighted to fill in. This has nothing to do with any grand schemes involving Mr. Gray or the eventual theft of his puppy. Promise. One of the questions I'm asked most often in regards to roleplaying has nothing to do with lore, or story development, or character concept. Instead, it revolves around one of the first things you do when you create a new character -- naming it. RP servers run a little differently than your typical PvE or PvP server, and have their own set of unique guidelines for naming in addition to the policies that already exist. These additional naming guidelines are: Non-Medieval/Fantasy Character Names This category includes: Any Non-Medieval or Non-Fantasy names (i.e. Slipnslide, Robotman, Technotron). All normal naming rules (which can be found at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20368). If a player is found to have such a name, he/she may: Be assigned a randomly generated name Be given the appropriate additional penalty if the name violates standard naming rules. Generally speaking, most people playing on an RP server will report a name that does not fall under these guidelines -- and if a case is made, your name can be changed. So how do you create a name that fits? Luckily, all of the races in World of Warcraft have a few particular naming conventions -- traits are common to the NPCs already existing in game. Today we're going to go over these conventions and suggest some ideas and resources you can use to get a name that is unique, and won't get you reported.
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.
All the World's a Stage: Odd man out
Robin Torres is subbing for a very busy Michael Gray. Please ignore the muffled sounds coming from the other room, as it is just my pet ... hedgehog ... yeah. And pay no mind to that mostly used roll of duct tape. I was just making some plumbing repairs. When trying to become a better RPer for the For Gnomeregan! project, I went through and studied many recent All the World's a Stage columns. But I have to admit, I didn't even glance at the "You can't be a vampire" article because, well, I figured it was just vampire RP bashing. (The Twilight photo was a bit of a deterrent as well.) I read it last night, however, and discovered it was actually about how to discourage someone who is derailing your group's roleplay by playing a far-out character. This week, we're going to look at the other side of the coin, and offer suggestions for the person who wants to play that challenging character who doesn't quite fit in.
For Gnomeregan! Obstacles
For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on US Shadow Council roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are: no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in-game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on US Shadow Council-A. For Gnomeregan! Excuse me. Peenk runs off and returns a few moments later. I have suffered a setback. I beleeve I have food poisoneeng. It could be a disease that doesn't affect the night elves or I could actuallee have been poisoned by one of the manee who do not want me heere. But I'm prettee sure it's my improper preparation of Kaldorei Spider Kabobs. ... I'll be right back.
