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All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Paladin
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the fourteenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. You might say that paladins are the guardians at the gates of hell -- they fight evil wherever it penetrates into their world and they take the fight to the evil's source in the hope of quenching it forever. Although they focus on guarding their people from undead and demonic forces on the rise, paladins actually stand against evil everywhere, including the evil in their own hearts.Being a paladin means that you have a relationship of some sort with the Holy Light, that mysterious force of goodness and faith that flows to some degree within all living beings with positive intentions. Most paladins (and many priests) believe that when you do something that you believe to be good, the power of the Light increases in you and your connection to the rest of creation is strengthened, whereas doing something evil (such as acts of greed, despair, or vengeance) will darken the universe and weaken your connection to it. Whether this belief system is a religion or a philosophy is open to interpretation, and seems to depend in some part upon which race you are.There are three sorts of paladins in World of Warcraft, aligned with the humans, the draenei, and the blood elves. All of these share certain similarities, but each has its own differences as well.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a gnome
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the fifth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. Gnomes are probably the easiest race to roleplay in World of Warcraft. They have a strong (and mostly accurate) stereotype that people just get instantly, and there's a childlike "blank-slate" quality about them that means that they don't have to have complicated backstories. In fact, you could define the gnomes as a race without a history to speak of. They are so very curious and inquisitive that they ask questions about everything, that they try to unravel any mysteries they encounter, and consider their personal life stories to be of little account. They've written tomes upon tomes on the inner workings of multi-polar data transfer relays and eletro-magnified parallel power circuits, but it never really occurred to them that they should write down the history of their species. They are a people always looking into the future, and whatever passes beyond the infinitely precious present becomes lost to them in the unseen reaches of the past -- out of sight, out of mind. That's not to say they have no memory -- they make use of their superb memories in carefully constructing their world-renown masterpieces of technological craftsmanship! Rather, it would be better to say that their minds only serve up memories relevant to the inquiry at hand. So if the orcs paved through azeroth a while back and destroyed everything in their path, well that was bad and all but it was a long time ago and who wants to hold a grudge? If the monstrous troggs came from the bowels of the earth and destroyed their cherished technological city of Gnomeregan... well, they'd love to get it back, but it's no reason to be unkind or uncheerful!
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a human
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the first in a series of roleplaying guides on every race in WoW, in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well without embarrassing yourself. I know, you're thinking "wait a minute, I'm already a human, aren't I? Isn't roleplaying a human in WoW just like being a human in real life -- plus some sword and sorcery, minus some boring office jobs and unpleasant bodily functions?" The answer is no, it's not so simple -- there's a bit of history and culture at work in Azerothian human society that all roleplayers of human characters need to be aware of. Otherwise, it's easy to fall into the trap of inconsistency with the Warcraft lore and the roleplaying that everyone else is trying to do within it.Suppose for example that you say "Hi! My name is Walter and I was raised on a farm. Now I've come to Stormwind to have adventures and become a hero!" You may find the never-seen-danger-before style of new hero interesting to roleplay, but it would be very unlikely to find such a human in the actual Warcraft lore: ever since the orcs first came through the portal 30 years or so prior to the setting of our game, every human nation has suffered terribly as the human race barely survived 3 huge waves of devastating warfare, with some whole nations of humans completely wiped out. No human growing up in that time would have been untouched by the conflict -- and if you want to roleplay a human, you ought to know about it.Similar issues exist for all the available player races in WoW; there are certain details about your race's history that you need to know in order to roleplay well. So today we will provide you with the basic knowledge you need to be a human. We'll leave the in-depth lore to other columns, though -- today is just a basic roleplayer's primer on one race, with other races to follow in the future.
Know Your Lore: Anduin Lothar
I'll admit it -- I've been slack in profiling Alliance heroes for Know Your Lore. That is because heroes, in general, are boring. Complex, shades-of-gray characters have always been more enticing for me, so I tend to scoff at goody-two-shoes like Malfurion and Uther. But with the AV boycotts, battle cry arguments, and general put-uponness of the Alliance lately, you guys could really use a self-esteem boost. So today we present a true war hero of the Alliance: Anduin Lothar, the man who defeated the Old Horde. (Kind of.) (Not really.) Who: Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, the Last of the Arathi. What: Human warrior/knight/fighter, which strikes me as three names for the same thing. History: We don't know too much about Lothar's parents, other than that they were direct descendants of Thoradin, the founder of the Arathi nation. And actually, we don't know too much about Thoradin, either, although since he founded Stromgarde we can safely say that most players who went through Arathi Highlands pre-2.3 would like to spit on his grave. Whoever Lothar's parents were, they didn't seem to be very interested in him, because they let him spend his childhood running around in the court of Azeroth with his friends Llane Wrynn (prince of Azeroth and future assassinee) and Medivh (demon-possessed kid and future swarthy dress-wearer.) The three got into many unnamed hijinks in their youth, but when they came of age, they went their separate ways. Medivh fainted and fell into a coma for years, Llane took up more duties in the royal court, and Lothar joined the army.
Refighting the Second War
The WoW general forums have been on a bit of a nostalgia kick lately. First, someone posted old maps of Azeroth from WC1 and 2 for discussion. Now, Aest of Twisting Nether asks, "If somehow, the Horde and Alliance broke out into all out war, who would be left standing?" He also mentions that the Burning Legion, the Illidari and the Scourge have all taken a holiday, so they can't interfere. Of course, the first time this happened, the humans banded together and took down the orcs after losing Stormwind. But like Aest mentions, things are different now. The Horde has been on a consistent upswing since the Second War, and is strong and united under the leadership of Thrall, whereas the Alliance has lost High Elves and have a very divided high command. Sure, the Blood Elves and the Forsaken are in the Horde less for "Yay, Horde" and more for "Let's get revenge on our enemies", but that works okay, especially since the Forsaken are in the weapons of mass destruction business.
