the-pale
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Know Your Lore: The Pale
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. When the draenei first came to Azeroth, they landed in spectacular fashion, tearing up an island off the coast of Kalimdor. New draenei players are taken on a journey through the wreckage and the mess, picking up the pieces and dealing with the unique effects the crash had on both flora and fauna. Several years later, and it seems the draenei are still doing clean-up work -- although that may be more due to Azuremyst being perpetually stuck in the past for mechanics purposes, rather than story content. Why bring this up? Because it's not the first time the draenei have shattered a world. On Draenor, the new inhabitants of the planet landed in similar fashion, tearing up a great chunk of Draenor's landscape in Nagrand. Both times, the incidents were due to faulty ships -- and both times, the surrounding region was affected. But while Azeroth's torn landscape and blood-tinged skies were obvious demarcations of narrowly-avoided disaster, the landing of the Genedar was viewed as something different entirely to the natives of the world. To the orcs, it was unknown -- and then thought, perhaps, to be a gift from the ancestors. They couldn't be further from the truth. Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains several spoilers for Warlords of Draenor. If you are avoiding spoilers while you are leveling, come back when you've finished Nagrand.
Draenor bestiary updated with the creatures of Nagrand
The bestiary for Warlords of Draenor has been updated with a new entry focusing on creatures primarily found in Nagrand. Most players won't be seeing Nagrand until level 98 or 99, but the entries still make for a pretty interesting read, considering most of the creatures involved are encountered in other areas of Draenor as well. Because of this, you won't really be running into too much in the way of spoiler content. Four different creatures are highlighted in this installment, from the familiar clefthoof to the not so familiar saberon. Most interesting perhaps are the Pale, emaciated creatures that are encountered all over Draenor, but concentrated most heavily in Nagrand. Players will recognize the Pale on sight, as they are some of the first enemies encountered in both Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon Valley. I don't know what I was expecting in regards to their back story, but what's presented in the bestiary is a pretty creepy, interesting history with some pretty cool implications. Check out Blizzard's official post for all the new creatures -- and while you're there, you might want to see if there are any earlier installments you may have missed along the way.
