sunwell-trilogy
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Know Your Lore: Anveena Teague and the Sunwell
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. Those who travel to Sunwell Plateau may have seen her -- the inexplicable human girl trapped in a bubble above the Sunwell itself, even as demons channel dark energies below. Her story is a sad one, one of the more poignant tales in Warcraft's history, but it's by and large unknown to many who play. Which is kind of a pity, when you think about it -- Anveena Teague is one of those clear in-game representations of when written material and game content collide with little success. Despite her story being told in the manga series The Sunwell Trilogy, that story never really made it into the game in any capacity. It also means that every time myself, one of my guildmates, or simply random people that follow me over on Twitter head into Sunwell Plateau, I'm asked who that girl the bubble is, where she came from, and why she's there. And since we have yet to address Anveena's full story in Know Your Lore, I thought it was high time she was featured in a column of her own. So we're taking a break from Pandaria this week, and instead turning our attention back in time to the days of Lordaeron's fall, the days when draconic intervention was a far more common occurrence, the days when the Scourge marched en masse over the land, to a quiet little hamlet known as Tarren Mill.
Cryptozoic interviews Micky Neilson, James Waugh
Cryptozoic Entertainment recently began digital distribution of Blizzard's manga titles, as announced last month. This month, the company interviewed two of the big names behind the manga and its development. Micky Neilson, publishing team lead for Blizzard, and James Waugh, senior story developer for Blizzard, should be familiar to those that have read the manga, comics, and various Warcraft stories available. Most recently, they teamed up to write the five-issue comic series Curse of the Worgen, a look into the background and origins of the worgen in Warcraft. The Q&A itself delves into the behind-the-scenes of manga development; how stories are created and who develops those stories, the purpose of the manga series and how it incorporates into the overall canon lore of World of Warcraft. And for those wondering, the question of whether or not the manga series is official canon is addressed as well. The only minor disappointment with the interview is that the future of the Blizzard manga titles isn't really addressed. Whether or not any brand new titles will be published in the future wasn't touched upon, leaving the fate of the manga as a solid question mark. Regardless, the sheer enthusiasm of Neilson and Waugh during the interview is a nice reminder that those behind the story really do cherish the properties they're working with. Check out the full interview on Cryptozoic's website.
Cryptozoic Entertainment now carrying all Blizzard manga
Cryptozoic Entertainment, publisher of the WoW Trading Card Game, is taking a step into the world of digital comics -- publishing and snapping up the Warcraft and Starcraft manga series along the way -- by offering the manga exclusively for its comics reader app, available for the iPad, iPhone and iPhone touch. But that's not all! To celebrate the exclusive release of the manga on the Cryptozoic Comics reader, for a limited time, you can download Warcraft: Legends Vol. 1 through Cryptozoic's website. Legends Vol. 1 is the start of the popular anthology series. Each issue features short stories that highlight uncommon moments in lore and the adventures of everyday characters like the ones we play. Along with Legends Vol. 1, Cryptozoic is carrying World of Warcraft: Death Knight, Warcraft: Legends Vol. 2, and Dragon Hunt, the first book in the Sunwell trilogy. If you're looking for background into Thassarian and Koltira Deathweaver, Warcraft: Death Knight is absolutely worth picking up, and if you're looking for more information about Kalecgos, Anveena and the Sunwell, the Sunwell trilogy is definitely for you. Though selection is limited to a few titles at this time, Cryptozoic will be carrying all Blizzard manga titles in the future, so keep an eye on its website and the app for future releases. The Cryptozoic comics app is available at no charge through the Apple store, and manga titles are priced at $5.99 per 150-page book. Check after the break for the full press release, and go pick up your free manga while you can -- the offer ends June 2!
BlizzCon 2010: WoW Insider interviews author Richard A. Knaak
Not only did we get an interview with Christie Golden here at BlizzCon 2010, we also met up with Richard A. Knaak, author of the World of Warcraft novel Stormrage. Richard sat down with us for a few questions about his work on Stormrage, his work with Blizzard, and his views on the often vocal fan reactions, both positive and negative. WoW Insider: Richard, thank you for joining us, it's great to meet you! Obviously you did Stormrage earlier this year -- how closely did you work with Blizzard on the book? Richard A. Knaak: Everything was back and forth with them. I've been very fortunate from the beginning to work with a group of really fantastic people and I've been able to immerse myself in the game. Mick Neilson, who's the publishing lead right now and Evelyn the lore mistress, between those two especially every one of my questions would be answered quickly and efficiently, with a lot of graphics in case there was something that wasn't visible for me to see on the game. They sent you screenshots? I get lots of screenshots -- I see lots of things you won't be able to see for awhile! There's other people like James who works with Mick, he's one of the top publishing people too. And of course Chris [Metzen] has been there from the beginning -- he basically grew up reading my Dragonlance work, that's fantastic to me. Everyone's been great at Blizzard.
Manga Review: Shadow Wing Vol. I -- Dragons of Outland
The Dragons of Outland is the first volume of the Shadow Wing series, a sequel of sorts to the tremendously popular Sunwell Trilogy. Written by Richard Knaak and illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim, it follows the further adventures of the paladin Jorad Mace, and the blue dragon Tyrygosa, or "Tyri" in her elven form, as they travel through the Dark Portal and into Outland. Jorad and Tyri were last seen at the end of the Sunwell Trilogy, saying goodbye to Anveena and Kalecgos as they parted and went their separate ways. Jorad was being given a ride back to confront Arthas by Tyrygosa, who intended to drop him off and then report back to Malygos with the events surrounding Anveena and the Sunwell. The beginning of Dragons of Outland tells a different story however; apparently Jorad was unable to defeat Arthas (no small surprise), and rejoined the paladins of the Silver Hand in an effort to redeem himself from previous transgressions. Tyrygosa ... well it's never really stated whether or not she made it back to Malygos. Instead, she joined the high elf contingent of the army and traveled through the Dark Portal with everyone else, intent on something strange she sensed on the other side.
New Warcraft manga previews available
Warcraft: Shadow Wing, Vol. 1: Dragons of Outland, the new Warcraft manga written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim, now has a preview available online at BlizzPlanet.com. Shadow Wing follows the continuing story of Jorad Mace and the blue dragon Tyrygosa, who parted ways with Kalecgos and Anveena at the end of the Sunwell Trilogy. Jorad and Tyri meet up in Outland -- and hopefully the manga explains what the two have been doing out on Celestial Ridge all this time, and how Tyri's research eventually ties in to Malygos' efforts up in Northrend. In addition, there is also a preview available for Warcraft: Mage, the second in the series of class-based books that began with Warcraft: Death Knight. Unlike Death Knight, which detailed the untold story of Thassarian, Warcraft: Mage seems to be taking a different route and telling the story of a character as yet unseen in World of Warcraft. Aodhan is a young man who comes from a lineage of paladins and warriors, but finds himself drawn to an entirely different path. While training to become a mage in Dalaran, Aodhan and the rest of the city abruptly find themselves under siege by Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight. Warcraft: Mage is also written by Richard A. Knaak and illustrated by Ryo Kawakami, who has also done work for the Warcraft: Legends series. While the manga novels still aren't available for pre-order, it looks like both novels will be released on June 1, 2010, from TOKYOPOP, and will be available at bookstores across the country.
Breakfast Topic: Reading rainbow
While World of Warcraft has one heck of an audience, the story involving it doesn't limit itself to just playing the game. There's a ton of books, comics, manga and RPG source guides out there with yet another ton of information. Some of this we see reflected in game, some of it is merely implied, and some of it we just don't see at all. I'm currently working my way through Stormrage, but I've read pretty much everything out there in the Warcraft universe -- and trust me, it's a lot of material. It got me thinking, though, particularly with what's contained in Stormrage and in other books as well: Just how many people actually read the books and other assorted reading material? Do you go out and buy a novel when it's released? Or do you prefer to just wait for the story to show up in game? So it's time for a Breakfast Topic poll! %Poll-42473%
BlizzCon 2009: Wow.com interviews Richard Knaak
On the second day of BlizzCon 2009, I got the chance to sit down with Richard Knaak, best selling author of countless novels, including many in the Warcraft universe, such as the War of the Ancients Trilogy, Day of the Dragon, and Night of Dragon. His upcoming projects include the Stormrage novel, as well as the Dragons of Outland manga trilogy. We talked about all this and more, and you can read our conversation below.So of course, the big thing on everyone's mind is the new Stormrage book. How's it coming along? Is it near completion?It's near completion, we're in the editing process, getting the OKs from Blizzard. You can find an excerpt in the latest volume of the Legends Manga, along with a story I wrote, sort of a Prologue that ties in with the book.Can you give us a sneak preview of what to expect lore-wise?You know Blizzard likes to keep these secret, so I am going to be very limited in what I can talk about. It is Malfurion. It is about the Nightmare. And it is very current. That's the three biggest things I can say about it right off the bat. You'll see characters you know from the game and obviously from other books, and places you know from the game, and it's very current, very relevant. Of course, that's about all I can say. You know Blizzard, they love their secrets!
BlizzCon 2009: Tokyopop creates stories about the little guys
While wandering about the floor at BlizzCon, I stopped over at the TokyoPop Manga booth and spoke a bit with editor Troy Lewter, who we've talked to before.. Currently, the big series they write for the world of Azeroth is the Warcraft Legends series, which is on its 4th volume with a 5th due out next month.Talking with Troy and other members of the Tokyopop team at the booth, what I was most struck with was the passion for the work and the universes of Blizzard's games that they display, and, perhaps more importantly, to the art and stories they tell.Troy laid out three important concepts that they follow in creating the mangas: Telling a solid story, focusing on a few characters, and cross-pollinating with other forms of media.In telling a solid story, the aim is to create the story such that you don't need to rely on the Warcraft world and characters, per se. In short, even if the story wasn't about Thrall or Varian or the Scarlet Crusade or anything else, you could still connect with the characters themselves.
Read Warcraft: Legends for free until March 17th
March 17th marks the release of Volume 3 of the Warcraft: Legends manga series, and Tokyopop is offering a pretty slick deal to build some hype around it. As of March 6th, Tokyopop has started putting the entire series thus far online to read for free, one chapter per day This will last through the 17th when the last chapter of Volume 2 is posted. They will not be putting new chapters up on the weekend, so despite the fact that we were a bit slow to notice this campaign of theirs (sorry!), you haven't missed anything yet. The first chapter is still the only chapter currently available, and another will be going up sometime tomorrow.If you're not familiar with this series, Warcraft: Legends is a series that brings multiple stories from many different authors and artists. It's not one solid story arc like The Sunwell Trilogy (for example), but a number of different stories about the denizens of Azeroth. Each chapter in a volume is a different story, though some of the stories span multiple volumes. Some of them are epic tales that tie into the more famous Azerothian figures (Lich King/Scourge, Richard Knaak's characters), and some of them are just about random Azerothian adventurers getting their adventurin' on. If you don't like one of the stories, odds are that you'll like one of the others.
[UPDATED] Tokyopop Warcraft Manga out today
Not to be confused with the World of Warcraft comics from DC Comics and Wildstorm Studios, Warcraft: Legends from Tokyopop hits the stands today. The four part graphic novel series is a compilation of stories featuring the talents of Richard Knaak and Jae Hwan-Kim -- the creative team behind the Sunwell Trilogy manga -- as well as other tales from Mike Wellman, Dan Jolley, Carlos Olivares, Troy Lewter, and Brian Yang. [UPDATE: Although Tokyopop's site says that the item is available now, clicking on the 'Buy Now' option leads to an Amazon page that says the title will be released on August 12.]Each graphic novel will contain several stories told in parts across different volumes. Knaak and Kim bring an interesting twist to the saga of Trag Highmountain, a character introduced in Warcraft: Shadows of Ice, who returns as an Undead. Other tales include How to Win Friends and Influence People, about an odd Gnome engineer named Lazlo Grindwidget; and An Honest Trade, about Nori Blackfinger, a master weaponsmith who might have sold his wares to the wrong sort. A preview of the comic can be viewed at Tokyopop's site.
Warcraft comic book free to read online
The Warcraft universe is constantly expanding. Trading card games, sound tracks and board games abound. It seems we can't get enough of Azeroth online or off. Blizzard has tried to meet this growing demand is by creating a series of fiction novels and comic books. One of those endeavors is a Korean manga title, Dragon Hunt, the first novel in the Sunwell Trilogy that was published last year.Now, our friends over at the WoW Europe official site have made Dragon Hunt available to read online for free! Every week they are putting up a new chapter. So far there are three chapters to read and I already can't get enough. Head on over, check it out and tell us what you think.
New WoW Manga
For those of you out there who are serious lore-junkies like myself, the WoW mangas are like giving a sip of water to a man dying of thirst. There is a little information in them, but it is surrounded by the mediocre writing. I read the first book of the Sunwell Trilogy with a mix of eagerness and distaste, because the story was interesting and there was some character development, but the writing style wasn't really what I expected or wanted.Well, mediocre or not, I have no choice but to pick up this new one, because I have a problem. Well, they say that admission is the first step and I'm addicted to WoW lore, so that's why I'll be buying the next book in the Sunwell Trilogy.
