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Ask a Faction Leader: Cairne Bloodhoof
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Prophet Velen, leader of the draenei, and he shed light on several key issues, including city construction, elven ingrates, natural history, and compromising positions. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with esteemed tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof. Our first reader question: Dear Cairne, Yesterday I was distressed to see a Tauren riding a Hawkstrider. Although I'm not much of a D.E.H.T.A. sympathizer, I think It's a bit cruel to be asking a poor beast like that to be heaving a 2 ton Minotaur up and around Azeroth. What really disturbed me though, is that later in the day, as I was walking through Dalaran, I saw the same Tauren sitting on his mount (hawkstrider) for about 30 minutes. Anyway, just thought I should bring it to your attention. Jabijin, Troll Rogue, Mannoroth Cairne responds: Your concern for the native wildlife of Azeroth is heartening, young rogue. I, too, was worried for the health and safety of the hawkstriders when our blood elf allies originally began instructing us on how to ride them.
All the World's a Stage: We don't need no narration
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. Throughout my career as a roleplaying columnist on WoW.com, I've been talking about roleplaying as a way to tell stories, but last week a comment by Zombie, as well as those made by a few others on the same topic, caused me to think about roleplay stories in a new way. Perhaps what we roleplayers do isn't actually storytelling so much as it is character development through interesting and somewhat disjointed anecdotes. There's really no beginning, middle, or end to a roleplayed character in WoW. Instead, what you get is a mishmash of events and experiences, which you may then string together into a story in your mind if you like. But even if you don't, you can see that most of us don't really expect for a narrative to develop from a clear beginning, through various plot developments, and finally lead into an exciting climax. There is something else roleplayers want to get out of their experience, even if many of us have trouble articulating exactly what it is.
Ask a Faction Leader: Prophet Velen
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Garrosh Hellscream, leader of the Horde's Warsong Offensive, and he shed light on several key issues, including moral dilemmas, basic campfires, faction changes, draenei donk, and the merits of getting eaten by sharks. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with venerable draenei leader Prophet Velen. Dear Velen, Being a prophet, you are probably aware of forthcoming cataclysm. With Thunder Bluff built on 4 mesas, I am worried about safety of the city and its citizens. Since you guys possess some kind of expertise in crashing things (specifically capital cities) I was wondering if you could lend some advice for case it gets struck down. Best Regards, Baine Bloodhoof Velen replies: Ah, it's good to see Horde leaders initiating a rapport. While I'm certainly not an architect or artificer -- trades better left to younger and stronger draenei -- I have been around for quite a while, so I can give some advice regarding the construction of your city.
Patch 3.3 PTR: The fate of Bolvar Fordragon
Before we go any further, I want to warn you now that there are massive spoilers behind this cut for the Icecrown raid dungeon, including the fight with the Lich King himself. Seriously, they are massive. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't click through to the rest of this article. I am warning you now. Just don't.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a disposable villain
Today, All the World's a Stage continues with steps 7 and 8 of a series on "how to be evil: bringing the bad guy back into your fantasy roleplaying," complete with ideas, methods, warnings, and practical examples. Be sure not to miss steps 1-3 and steps 4-6 on the path to evil! So, you want to be evil? It's not as easy as it seems. Perhaps you've watched a lot of movies or TV shows in which the bad guy has amazing powers, threatens human civilization, and nearly destroys the universe in his quest for domination. Perhaps you were playing Warcraft and saw characters like Arthas and Archimonde wrecking things up pretty bad and said to yourself, "I wanna be just like them when I grow up!" You open up your copy of World of Warcraft and find that you can't play a Lich King or Eredar Overlord, so you just click on the "forsaken" or "draenei" options as the next best things available. "Yup! I'm all ready to go!" you say to yourself. Everyone is just gonna love my idea about being an immortal demigod out to destroy the universe! But it turns out no one believes you're actually the Lich Prince instead of just another forsaken dude. And people just roll their eyes whenever you reveal your draenei's secret eredar affiliation. A lot of people want to play a raid boss, but the fact remains, you're just not. You're a generic adventurer like everyone else. That doesn't mean you can't be bad... it just means can't be 20 feet tall and out whole cities with a flick of your hand. Once you start thinking practically, about doing something with what you've actually got, then you can start getting somewhere. One of the most practical tools you can have for playing a bad guy is the disposable low-level character. Keeping your villain at a low level means you don't need to hesitate when he's been defeated, you can roleplay his glorious death and delete him. Your friends save the day -- you save a lot of leveling time. How is it done? Read on.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be possessed
Today, All the World's a Stage continues a series on "how to be evil," bringing the bad guy back into your fantasy roleplaying, complete with ideas, methods, warnings, and practical examples. Be sure to check out steps 1-3 on the path to evil here.It's been said that the secret to writing a good story is not having a really interesting hero, but rather an interesting villain. The hero himself is defined by the villain in many ways, just as a sports team becomes famous only once they've defeated the last year's champions, or a runner breaks the world record for speed, a hero needs someone to test himself against, a great obstacle for him to overcome or destroy. If the villain is interesting, then the hero will be interesting too.It is natural, then, for a roleplayer to want to test his own heroes or those of his friends against some obstacles as well. Many of us sit down with the intention of creating a really interesting challenge for our guildmates to overcome – but in our creative endeavor we must remember that danger lurks behind every corner, and creating a villain in itself is a task with significant obstacles to overcome. In fact, one might say that the greatest enemy of such a roleplayer is none other than his own self, the ghost of cliché lurking just outside his field of creative vision.
Ask a Faction Leader: Garrosh Hellscream
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Horde and Alliance leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Genn Greymane, King of Gilneas and leader of the Worgen, and he shed some light on several key issues, such as how hot Vereesa Windrunner is, why losing the Blood Elves was no big loss, and how to treat mental illness in the undead. This week, we've got incredibly popular Orc leader and captain of the Horde's Warsong Offensive, Garrosh Hellscream. Sitting in with him is Overlord Varok Saurfang, right hand of Warchief Thrall. Our first reader question: Dear Garrosh, There is a growing number of Horde members who believe "a basic campfire" would make a better Warchief than you. What's your response? Thank you, Brakkas
Lichborne: The future of Death Knight lore in Cataclysm
With Patch 3.2 now live, and Death Knights probably the most extensively changed class, at least in terms of the Frost and Unholy trees, we've all been waited with bated breath to see exactly how things are shaking down. The answer from my point of view, is simply that life goes on. Death Knight tanks are still tanking, Death Knight DPSers are still DPSing. Anecdotally, I've been having great success and have been churning out respectable DPS as Unholy on a few heroic dungeon marathons since the path dropped, and while I definitely miss Unholy Blight, I've adjusted to tanking without it too. We may need a few more weeks and a few more parses to see where things truly sit, but I stand by most of what I've written on the subject lately. We could use a few tweaks (I'm still wondering if we'll see a Scourge Strike buff before Cataclysm, but I'm hopeful), but we'll be fine. That said, since we'll still be waiting a few weeks, I thought it might be fun to do some speculation about the next expansion. And I don't mean new talents, new levels, new skills, that sort of thing. What I've been thinking about lately is the lore.
Ask a Faction Leader: Genn Greymane
WoW.com is likely the luckiest news outlet out there, as we've stumbled upon an unprecedented opportunity -- the faction leaders of the Horde and Alliance have agreed to give us an audience and let us ask them questions about whatever we'd like. To take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, we're letting our readers send in questions to ask the leaders -- whether they're looking for advice, seeking answers to lore questions that've stymied them, or need a great idea for a gift for that special someone. This week's leader, in honor of the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, is King Genn Greymane, ruler of Gilneas and leader of the playable Worgen faction. Greymane has taken time out of his very busy day to let us have a word with him in Greymane Manor on the coast of the besieged Gilnean Peninsula. Our first reader question: Dear King Greymane, My friend Spookydark has been acting a bit strange lately. When he's not chasing the undercity mail master around, he's either digging down various insignificant items or running aimlessly in circles. He also spends a great deal of time shaving, and when we tried to confront him about his behaviour a week ago, he bit my guildmaster and ran away for 3 days. Is this something to be concerned about, or is it simply a phase he's going through? Yours sincerely Kilran P.S. Do houses in Gilneas have stairs in them?
Know Your Lore: A second look at Maiev Shadowsong
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Alex Ziebart brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? Leave a comment below! As I mentioned previously, Maiev Shadowsong is one of my favorite characters in all of Warcraft lore. When I said that, the statement was quickly met with the cries of people calling her all sorts of unpleasant names. And you know what? That's the beauty of the character. Sometimes, not all good characters are people you would sit down and have a beer with. In fact, some of them are downright nasty people. I wouldn't go that far with Maiev, but I think it's okay that she's not a peaches and sunshine sort of character, especially considering what's been done to her.Yes, Know Your Lore has covered Maiev before, but now it's my turn. Elizabeth and I have pretty substantial differences of opinion on the Warden, so I don't think you'll mind too much.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Of Nerubians, Dwarves and Titans
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition. I'm going to get this out of the way right off the bat since I know I'll get a dozen people asking again this week: Yes, Know Your Lore will be coming back, it is not gone forever. I promise. I will pinkie swear on it, even. Come on, who wants to pinkie swear? Anybody? Anybody?Aler asked..."On the topic of the Nerubians and the Qiraji, is there any relation in the lore between the two? Or are two insect civilizations coincidental?"There's absolutely a relation between the two. They hold a common ancestry. Both the Qiraji and the Nerubians are offshoots of an even more ancient race, the Aqir. Way back when Azeroth was still very primal, and Trolls were the top dogs. There were three major players in the world: The Amani Trolls, the Gurubashi Trolls, and the Aqir. They warred for thousands of years. Thousands. It was a war of attrition on the grandest scale possible, and all involved more or less broke under the weight of their losses.
