rp-guide
Latest
All the World's a Stage: Sound bites and one liners for worgen and goblins
One of the most endearing emotes in World of Warcraft is the /silly. In this classic command, you order your character to tell a brief, audible joke. Everyone around you can hear it, of course. But the fine voice acting of /silly and /flirt are some of the most sought-after content of each expansion. Some are racy and risque, but all of the emotes speak to fundamental concepts about each race. The goblin voices, for example, talk a lot about crime and money. That's not by accident. In any kind of roleplaying, sound bites and one liners both tend to be a big deal. They evoke memories and define characters. They help frame action into a resounding "heck yeah!" kind of moment. Comic book heroes are known for their quips. Stand up comedians make fine art of the one sentence joke. It is, in a word, some good stuff. To help encourage folks to prepare their own worgen and goblin one liners, I thought I'd spend some time going through some examples. I'll drop the line or quote, share where I got it from, and why I think it reflects on the worgen and goblin. Don't worry; I promise to avoid Metallica and Linkin Park lyrics. Then, let's play in the comments and create a bunch more.
Know Your Lore TFH edition: The Deathwing Conspiracy
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. If you remember Anne's excellent Elune is a naaru post from a few months back, then you'll know how this works. If not, then I'll explain. Basically, what follows is a huge post full of supposition and speculation that takes established lore (including some new lore from Cataclysm) and uses it as a framework to support a contention that is not currently stated by Blizzard. It's probably not what's actually going on, but like that guy you know who won't shut up about the grays, we're going to ride the crazy rocket all the way to violent crash landing town. (I promise you the Yogg-Saron post is coming, but in writing it, I ended up going down these roads for a bit.) Deathwing. The destroyer, Blackwing Greatfather to the gronn of Outland, Xaxas to the night elves, formerly Neltharion the Earthwarder and still referred to among some of the earth elementals. The Dark One. Neltharion the Betrayer, Blood's Shadow, self-proclaimed Aspect of Death. The Unmaker of Worlds. Many are his titles, earned in acts of rampage and devastation from the time of the War of Ancients (when he used the Demon Soul to annihilate the Blue Dragonflight) right up to the Second War, when he helped the orcs make off with magical artifacts for Ner'zhul. Soon, the fury of Deathwing will be the focus of an entire story arc with the release of the Cataclysm expansion. One of his titles, however, interested me. Deathwing now claims the mantle of death itself, which is interesting considering his relationship to the Old Gods, who as we know have a death god already. Furthermore, Deathwing now calls himself the Unmaker of Worlds. Now, we could just dismiss this as the typical grandiosity of a being whose pride and arrogance matches his power, but when you really start to think about it, it sounds much less like a boast and more like simple fact. Deathwing has indeed unmade a world. The preparations for this Cataclysm go back much further than we'd expected and have already borne stark fruit.
All the World's a Stage: Starting roleplay as a goblin in Cataclysm
The nice thing about roleplaying in Cataclysm is that the starting experiences for goblin and worgen really guide you to the roleplay. This week, we're going to be focused on the dozen or so character hooks presented in the goblin starting area. and next week we'll examine the worgen starting area. Obviously, since this information is based on the beta, things could change at any time. Additionally, if you don't want spoilers, you might want to skip this article. Lastly, this is based on a surface reading of the events in the starting area. Later lore will lead to different interpretations of events, I'm sure. You begin life as a goblin searching out your own fame and fortune. You've recently been granted a promotion in the Bilgewater Cartel, and now work with an executive assistant named Sassy Hardwrench. There's even a pair of hardbodied "assistants" who're eager to help out named Candy Cane and Chip Endale. Considering how Candy and Chip are dressed, though, I suspect they're mostly lingering around as decoration. With three characters inimately involved with your character from the word "go," your goblin will have dozens of valuable conflicts available for regular roleplay. What was your experience with Sassy really like? (Obviously, there's as in-game answer to that question, but you should take liberties to represent your unique character.) Were you a bigger fan of Candy or Chip? We can presume the average goblin at your middle-management level all have similar assistants, so it's not like you're building a Mary Sue empire by writing out your own tea of assistants.
Know Your Lore: History of the Shen'dralar
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's been plenty of chatter regarding the upcoming expansion, and both Rossi and myself have been doing our best to fill in the background on lore figures and races that will play some kind of part in it. One of the questions I find myself asked a lot in regards to Cataclysm is how the new race/class combinations will fall into play lore-wise once the expansion launches. The answer to that question is easier than you'd think -- most lore for these new race and class combinations already exists in one form or another in game. Over the next few weeks I'll be giving you some background and history into each class and race, and how these combinations make sense in the face of existing lore, as well as speculation on possible conflicts we might see in the future with regards to these choices. Please note, the following post may contain spoilers for the Cataclysm expansion -- if you'd rather avoid all discussion or speculation regarding Cataclysm, it'd be advised to steer away now. Today we'll be discussing one of the most baffling of the new announcements -- night elf mages. Although the original announcement left some (including myself) horribly confused, later revelations made the choice perfectly logical. While they've been addressed briefly in the post regarding elven evolution, we're going to take a closer look at the Shen'dralar -- the Highborne that make their home in Dire Maul.
Know Your Lore: The Old Gods part two -- C'Thun
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 Old Gods, both ones we know as of right now and ones we can speculate upon come the Cataclysm. This week, we turn an unblinking gaze upon the master of unblinking gazes, the Old God that has arguably the most direct impact upon all of Azeroth. Not only did it indirectly create the nerubians and directly altered the qiraji into their modern form, not only did it battle a Titan to a standstill, but its connection to the Twilight's Hammer and their demented leader Cho'gall means that even during the upcoming Cataclysm, the consequences of its actions are unfolding. Most interestingly, this Old God did not even have a name until its own creations gave it one.
All the World's a Stage: You keep me coming back
I've never been able to completely walk away from any of my characters. Everyone of my WoW characters are indexed in my heart and soul. I played City of Heroes before WoW, and I recently went back around to Paragon City to check in on those kids. (They're fine, thanks.) Previous to City of Heroes, I was an Albion in Dark Age of Camelot, and I recently spent some time with a fan-fic (character fic?) of that character. I still have all the character sheets for every tabletop character I've ever played. I bring this back because I spent last night at a LARP. Yes, yes, a vampire LARP. There was just as many Linkin Park lyrics and awkward Livejournal posts as you might imagine. I spent a good hour talking about Edward and Jacob. (I wish I were kidding.) But, I'd been having this urge to revisit the old character, so I figured one evening didn't hurt. And it didn't. It didn't hurt at all. It was actually a relatively decent time. But it did inspire me to get home and quickly login to WoW so that I could roll around on my favorite roleplay server. It's admittedly been a little while since I've truly gotten my roleplay on, and I dove in last night with a ferocity I've not experienced for a while. I don't know. No matter how many times I've walked away from roleplay for a little while, I always come back around to it. Never been able to shake it.
Know Your Lore: The Eternals part three -- the Titans
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 Eternals of Azeroth are by and large fairly well known by the mortal races -- the Ancients of the night elves were a strong presence in the War of the Ancients, and the trolls worked intimately with their Loa gods. But there are still Eternals out there that are by and large unknown quantities in the universe -- vague historical records have been made, but the mortal races are mostly in the dark as to who these Eternals really are, and what their purpose is in the world. Of all of the Eternals, the ones that remain the biggest mystery are the Titans, specifically the Pantheon of titans that were responsible for Azeroth's creation as we know it today. While the dwarves have uncovered a lot of information recently, there are still large chunks of time seemingly out of order or unaccounted for. There are a few different timelines, and varying opinions on what exactly occurred in each timeline -- so writing about the Titans and the creation of the world is an exercise in careful speculation. Today we'll be looking at the Pantheon -- the titan high council -- who they were, what roles they played in Azeroth, and where they are today, as well as taking a look at the creation of Azeroth.
Spiritual Guidance: Of lore, the forsaken and shadow priests
In addition to being the author of Wednesday's shadow priest edition of Spiritual Guidance, Fox Van Allen is an accomplished songwriter. After Dawn Moore refused to use Power Infusion on him during a lengthy raid encounter, Fox wrote the song In the Air Tonight. He mailed Dawn front-row tickets to his first concert performance, and as he reached the chorus, a bright spotlight engulfed Dawn. She cried in shame. It was awesome. Regular readers of Spiritual Guidance know that over the last month, I've been putting together a leveling guide for aspiring shadow priests. In the last installment, I made a seemingly innocuous comment about shadow priests' being able to take the talent Shadowform at level 40: We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively. I was literally describing the game mechanics; staying in Shadowform requires you to give up the spells in the holy tab. One of our commenters, aramis, used the line as a launching pad for an interesting comment that addressed a very basic question for us shadow priests: What the heck are shadow priests supposed to be, anyway? I won't reprint the entire comment here, but it's definitely worth reading. The gist of it can be understood by reading just the first few sentences: Mr. V-A, we don't FORSAKE the light as Shadow Priests. On the contrary, we embrace it ... We accept the light as the balance of ourselves. Life is about balance: pleasure and pain; good and evil; life and death; light and shadow. Is aramis right? Follow me past the break as we explore a little bit of shadow priest lore, dip our toes into the cold waters of shadow priest roleplay, and try to solve an identity crisis that most of you probably don't even realize exists.
Know Your Lore: The Old Gods
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. Before the night elves' grand civilization covered the land of Kalimdor, before the troll empire fought the aqir, before the arrival of the titans, they ruled Azeroth. Throughout the cosmos and even on alien worlds, their presence can be felt. Implacable, corruptive, powerful, creators of madness and strife, even in defeat they may never truly be defeated. They exist on many worlds and in many forms, and wherever they exist, chaos, insanity and destruction always follow. They are the ultimate manifestations of the cthonic, the primordial forces of madness that underpin sane, static reality. They are the Old Gods. And nothing can stop them. Harbinger Skyriss - The Arcatraz It is a small matter to control the mind of the weak... for I bear allegiance to powers untouched by time, unmoved by fate. No force on this world or beyond harbors the strength to bend our knee... not even the mighty Legion! source Please note, there will be spoilers for Cataclysm in this post.
Insider Trader: Alchemy in Cataclysm
So, alchemy in Cataclysm is starting to look pretty damned good. (Granted, all of the trade skills are looking good in Cataclysm, but I'm writing about alchemy this week.) Alchemy is one of the most stable crafts between expansions, though. You have your standard potions -- intellect, damage, healing, mana, health, stuff like that -- as well as your alchemist-only items like alchemist's stones. Things get a little more exciting in Cataclysm, though. One of the most interesting potions I've seen so far is the Potion of Deephome. On use, it teleports the user to Deephome. It's a pretty neat effect, but it definitely makes me curious about Deephome. The dungeon finder tool is incredibly effective for teleporting players inside dungeons, so I don't see why your acerage alchemist would have to use the potion. Still, for sheer flavor, it's fun to see potions doing more than just buffing stats. I think that's a nice little side effect that's been a long time coming.
All the World's a Stage: Effectively roleplaying grief
We've talked a bit about character endings. Death is a fact of life and is thus a fact of roleplay. We're in a war story, after all, and it is somewhat inevitable that some characters will pass away. Someone may decide to end his character himself or he may have his character taken away from him. No matter exactly how it comes to the conclusion, many characters will experience death in their lives. It therefore falls on us to roleplay out that grief. Your character is undergoing a significant experience. It may just be an acquaintance who's passed away peacefully or it could be as meaningful as a lover being cut down before their time. Your character will have emotions and thoughts, and you want the chance to express them. There are tricks to it, of course. You want the chance to roleplay this life changing event without being obnoxious. Sure, you could fall on your knees in the middle of Ironforge and gnash your teeth and moan in misery. If you feel like beating your chest and back with a whip for everyone to see is the best expression of your character's angst, don't let me stop you. But at least a few other players will likely not respond with the gravitas and seriousness you'd like. Let's review some methods for getting your grief out for all to see, without being obnoxious about it.
Know Your Lore: The Eternals part two -- the Loa gods of the trolls
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 took a brief look at the Eternals known as Ancients -- immortal beings that were worshiped largely by the night elves, though other races also paid their respects to these ancient beings. This week we'll be moving from the demigods of the night elves to the gods, demigods and Loa of the trolls. The pantheon of Loa is vast and largely undefined, though we've seen glimpses of gods here and there, and will see at least one more of them during the Echo Isles event that will be coming sometime before Cataclysm's release. Some of the Loa gods referenced in today's article originate from the Warcraft role-playing games, and should not be taken as full-on canon as a result, however there are several other Loa that are featured in game. To begin, the Loa are essentially primal gods, with each god representing a different animal or domain. Where the Ancients covered various types of creatures, the Loa cover various aspects of creatures -- there's a very subtle different between the two. The Loa tend to be a little darker, and some could be called "evil." In order to make this a bit more organized, I'll be sorting the Loa according to tribe.
Know Your Lore: The aqir and their descent, part 2 -- Nerubians
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. We covered the ancient aqir and their qiraji descendants last week. What we didn't really cover was the group of arthropods who headed north, enslaved the Ulduar region's tol'vir and founded ancient Azjol'Nerub. From the time of their expulsion from the central part of the ancient supercontinent of Kalimdor by the Gurubashi and Amani trolls, to their defeat and subordination of those tol'vir, and up to their recent near-total destruction by the Scourge during the War of the Spider, the aqir offshoot calling themselves nerubians have existed apart from their southerly kind. While the qiraji serve C'thun, the nerubians seem wary of the Old Gods and their Faceless Ones, even when gripped by the Lich King's undeath. Furthermore, while many nerubians ended up in the service of the Lich King, forcibly resurrected by him, it's telling that the nerubians were immune to the plague of undeath and waged a war against him for over a decade, only losing when they found themselves trapped between the servants of the Old Gods and the dreadlords that at the time served as the Lich King's advisors and jailors. Their immunity to the plague did not confer immunity to undeath when directly raised, and so Anub'arak, last king of the nerubians, ended up a slave like much of the rest of his race. As of the pre-Cataclysm world, nerubian undead can be found in the plaguelands serving alongside the Cult of the Damned as well as in Northrend itself, while the battered and hateful remnants of the empire of the nerubians are so desperate that they'll accept help from the races of the Alliance and Horde.
Insider Trader: Engineering your Cataclysm
While a lot of news has already been circulating about crafting in Cataclysm, there wasn't much information out there for engineers. Boubouille updated MMO-Champion today about that situation, saying the lack of data is probably because the items aren't flagged as being for engineering. However, the master of data mining was able to pull together some basic information about engineering in Cataclysm, giving us a tantalizing hint of what the future's going to be like for the mad machinists. Of course, the staple engineering item ever since the Burning Crusade have been helmets and goggles. The quality of these items were so exceptional that you could see enterprising engineers wearing them deep into each expansion. The goggles possess fantastic stats customized to the engineer's specific raid role and they're darn styling, too. What's not to love? Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades Plate gear for melee.DPS Specialized Bio-Optic Killshades Plate gear for holy pallies Deadly Bio-Optic Killshades Mail goggles for physical DPS Energized Bio-Optic Killshades Spell mail for shamans Agile Bio-Optic Killshades Leather physical DPS Camoflauge Bio-Optic Killshades Leather for spell users Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades Cloth spell gear Now, granted, there's not a lot of differentiation between "healer" and "damage dealer" for spell users. However, if Blizzard created a different item for every particular spec, the whole situation could get far too unwieldy. And since the killshades will probably be first-tier gear, then it's good enough for those first couple of raids. Of course, we're still in Cataclysm's beta, so anything could change.
All the World's a Stage: What's a good story?
You hear that a lot. "It was a good story." It's usually in conjunction with screwing someone over. It's like the period at the end of a sentence that really, really sucked, but it's totally okay because "it was a good story." And while it might sound like I'm being a little sarcastic, isn't it the whole point of roleplaying? We're trying to create and share good stories. The problem is, it's all relative. It's up to your personal tastes and styles to determine what's a good story, and what's not. But, let's frame this up a bit more, to make sure we're all on the same page. Let's say you're playing with a moderated troupe. They're rare nowadays, but I do see them from time to time. A moderated troupe is when you trust one or more players to be Gamemasters, basically guiding the story along, portraying NPCs, and helping to decide what happens in the game. In the old pen-and-paper days, this person would have been called a game master. During the course of your gnome's busy career, he found himself forced to help an undead warrior cross a river. Nothing big or fancy, but it was still something the gnome had to do. (I don't know how this situation could come about, but stay with me here.) Later, the gnome finds himself summoned before Varian Wrynn. Of course, the new king of Stormwind has more than a little angst about the horde, and decides your gnome should be executed. Is that a good story? Let's set up some criteria to determine it.
Know Your Lore: The Eternals part one -- the Ancients
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. With Cataclysm coming up and the beta now up and running comes plenty of new information about what we'll be seeing in Cataclysm. One of the highly anticipated zones is Hyjal, where players will work with the Guardians of Hyjal to retake the mountainous peaks where Nordrassil has begun to grow anew. Parts of these quests involve the Eternals of Azeroth -- characters we've only seen in novels or game manuals, but never been exposed to in World of Warcraft. Today we'll be looking at some of the major players in the Eternal lineup, and how they relate to World of Warcraft. WARNING: Some of the descriptions and Eternals in this post are taken from Cataclysm content. While I will avoid spoiling any Cataclysm quest lines or events, there will be screenshots -- if you'd rather avoid all Cataclysm content altogether you may want to skip this post. To begin, we have to define what exactly an Eternal is as far as Azeroth is concerned. Eternals are the immortal, divine beings of Azeroth who wield godlike powers and are generally either revered or worshipped by the mortal races in one way or another. There are many different kinds of Eternals out there oddly enough -- the Titans, the Elemental Lords (who have been covered in great detail by Matthew Rossi), the Loa spirits, the Old Gods, and the Ancients. Today we're going to look at the Ancients -- Eternals worshipped mostly by night elf society as deities. The big Eternal in night elf society is of course Elune, but what about the other Eternals in the night elf pantheon? Let's take a look.
Know Your Lore: The Aqir and their descent, part 1
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. We talked this week about the tol'vir and the new backstory for them revealed last week. It occurred to me afterward that for a lot of this story, we're casually throwing around names -- silithid, aqir, qiraji, nerubian -- and not bothering to really explain exactly what these things are or what they were doing enslaving ancient titan constructs. So for this installment of KYL, we're going to cover the ancient history of these arthropod-like entities: who they are, where they come from and why their actions left ripples that reach down the eons to affect the present day. It all began with the war between the titans and the Old Gods. (This is often the case.) Despite their elemental lieutenants and enormous power, the Old Gods that infested Azeroth were eventually defeated and imprisoned within the planet. It's claimed the titans couldn't kill the Old Gods without doing irreparable damage to their work on Azeroth, and perhaps that's even true. But whatever is true in that case, one thing is indisputable and that is once the Old Gods were dealt with, the titans began to shape Azeroth to their liking. They created the dragonflights to monitor and control the evolution of their creation. In the land today know as Silithus, a titan and an Old God met in furious combat. In the end, both fell. The titan's name is lost to us; the Old God we know today as C'thun.
Know Your Lore: Ahn'Qiraj, Uldum and the Tol'Vir
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 week saw a monumental post on the story forum that answered a variety of World of Warcraft lore questions. One of the questions asked got an answer that blew the metaphorical doors off of a long, puzzling situation. (There will be a lot of Cataclysm spoilers in this post. Be warned.) Bornakk - Ask CDev #1 Answers - Round 1 Quote: Q: What happened to all of the Scourge's Obsidian Destroyers? A: The entities known as obsidian destroyers are actually enslaved titan constructs that were once called the tol'vir. The tol'vir were created to maintain titan lore repositories and titan machinery surrounding the titan cities of Ulduar and Uldum. Not long after the troll empires divided the insectoid kingdom of the aqir, the aqir that travelled north discovered and overthrew the tol'vir society in Northrend. These aqir would eventually become the race we know as the nerubians today, having adapted the tol'vir's architecture for their own purposes. Similarly, the aqir that travelled south ransacked and overthrew a titan research station near Uldum, renaming themselves the qiraji and calling their new home Ahn'Qiraj. Although the Scourge would eventually consume the nerubian empire and throw its few remaining tol'vir slaves into the front lines, it's possible that more tol'vir still exist in the hidden titan city of Uldum or deep within the remnants of Azjol-Nerub. source Now, this is huge. It answered for folks who played Warcraft III why a unit they associated with the Scourge was in AQ. It gave us an idea of what the tol'vir first mentioned at BlizzCon '09 would look like and what they were. The implications are staggering. If you've been wondering (like, frankly, I had been) why the pictures of Uldum coming out looked so much like Anh'Qiraj, now you know. Uldum looks like AQ because both Uldum and AQ were build by the titans, not the old gods or their aqir/qiraji/nerubian servants. It also explains why the nerubian take on architecture derived so decisively from the qiraji model. Both the nerubians and qiraji found and enslaved tol'vir, but the nerubians didn't get their hands on an actual titan built facility the way the qiraji did. Now, we can see that the architecture of Ulduar and Uldum are vastly different. There are similarities, to be sure, but Uldum/AQ definitely have their own aesthetic. Did the Northrend tol'vir have their own style as well, and that's why nerubian art and construction looks so different from their qiraji cousins? It probably contributed, to be sure. I'm actually ridiculously hopeful that a full-fledged Azjol-Nerub zone will be introduced in Cataclysm the way the Isle of Quel'Danas was at the end of Burning Crusade now.
Know Your Lore: Current Alliance politics -- the humans, part four
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. All right, you guys have read through almost everything there is to see with regards to the current political situation of the human race. The first three articles covered the history of the Alliance -- both old and new -- and the struggles of Varian Wrynn and his life as the "leader," so to speak, of the human race. The word leader is used in quotation marks because, to be perfectly honest, Varian wasn't much of a leader; he was brooding, depressed, not really willing to see anything that was going on around him, and the Council of Nobles was pretty much running the show. The only "real" leader available to Alliance humans at the outset of World of Warcraft was Jaina Proudmoore, the leader of Theramore, who wasn't really much of a leader either. This was largely due to her somewhat unpopular beliefs that orcs were capable of peace and her attempts to work towards some sort of peaceful agreement between the orcs and humans of Kalimdor. So here we have the human race, largely left to its own devices -- but they seemed to be doing, if not amazingly well, at least OK for the most part. It's Varian's return and the events of Wrath that directly affect what's going on headed into Cataclysm.
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.
