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  • Know Your Lore: The Green Dragonflight

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    03.10.2010

    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. Each flight of dragons is vouchsafed with an aspect of creation itself to supervise. The five Dragon Aspects were granted their powers and dominion over Azeroth's life, magic, earth, time and more by the Titans who created them from the massive proto-dragon Galakrond in long vanished times past. In the past few KYL's we've covered Alexstrasza's Red Dragonflight, Deathwing's Black Dragonflight and its offshoot the Netherwing, and deceased Malygos' Blue Dragonflight. This time we look at what might be the strangest dragons of them all. The servants of Ysera, the dragons of the Emerald Dream, the Green Dragonflight. In order to truly understand the green dragons, one would have to be able to understand the dream they all dream, but who can do that? How can one tell the dreamers from the dream? Easy. The dreamers are great honking green dragons that will kill you. It's relatively simple. If you doubt their power or their resolve, go to the Temple of Atal'Hakkar and ask the Atali, trapped in a complex smashed into the water by the fury and might of Ysera herself. Even when they themselves fall victim to corruption, the green dragons are fearsome opponents. While Alexstrasza and her brood concern themselves with life and living things, Ysera is effectively the shepherd of what Dylan Thomas called 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' - effectively, that which makes life itself possible. This is also what often gets them in trouble with old gods, blasphemous troll deities of bloodlust, and the loathsome Scourge and its malefic master. (I have been waiting to use 'malefic' in a sentence for so long now.)

  • Ask a Faction Leader: Master Mathias Shaw

    by 
    Michael Sacco
    Michael Sacco
    03.09.2010

    WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the forsaken, and she shed light on several key issues, including undieting, hunter training, building this city, and bouncing idly. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Master Mathias Shaw, leader of Stormwind's SI:7, covert agents of the crown. Our first reader question... Hello Mathias, Can you describe the feeling you got when you found out that you couldn't beat your granny? Verenor, Warlock - Defias Brotherhood Mathias responds: Gahaha, that's what I like to see! Pullin' no punches, right from the get-go. Hard-hittin' questions.

  • All the World's a Stage: Name your sin

    by 
    Michael Gray
    Michael Gray
    03.07.2010

    Last week, we talked about ways to add flaws to your roleplay character. These flaws have the benefit of providing realistic depth and humanity to characters which might otherwise feel too "perfect" for believability. (Well, as believable as a magic-wielding orc would be.) The idea is that the depth and development creates a more full, well-rounded personality. Believability isn't the only benefit. Perhaps even more importantly, the depth provides you additional rules and guidance for deciding how your character might act in a given situation. DeathPaladin brought up the interesting Deadly Sin system from White Wolf's World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying game. Now, the World of Darkness games obviously have a lot of mechanical systems involved with the sins (and Virtues as well, actually), but that's part of their whole gothic-fantastic nature. (The games used to be called gothic-punk, but White Wolf later ditched that description.) These games are probably best known for their vampires, but White Wolf's systems span all kinds of different monsters. This Sin idea is replicated across many of them. While there's many different examples of methods for fleshing out your character, I actually really like the Deadly Sin game. Applying an archetypical behavior and flaw to your character gives you a "roleplay button" to spam whenever you feel like you're torn on your character's proper reactions. Let's take a look behind the jump and see how we could use the Seven Deadly Sins in the context of our World of Warcraft. (For the record, the Seven Sins we're going with are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.)

  • Breakfast Topic: Loremaster for a day

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    03.07.2010

    It's been a pretty alright time to be a lore nerd the past few days. Not only have we had some intriguing spoilers about the new goings on with the gnomes and the trolls, but we've had a look at the Ruby Sanctum, and with it had some hints of whats to come with the Cataclysm. Of course, at the same time, there's frustrations as well. Having had a chance to peek at Stormrage, I can tell you I'm not completely thrilled with the way they chose to advance certain portions of the lore there. I generally give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt on lore and retcons, but there's some stuff in there I just did not like. That brings me to a thought. Let's say Chris "God" Metzen comes up to you on the street. He doesn't need a reason, he's Chris Metzen. He's awesome. And he says to you, he says, "Hey, I heard you like WoW lore. So I'm going to let you make a choice. You take any existing lore thread, and you tell me how to change. I can retcon whatever you want, or I can just make it go forward any way you want. You name it, I'll do it."

  • Know Your Lore: The Netherwing

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    03.06.2010

    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. In Azeroth's history, there's a distinct path that dragon evolution follows. First, there are the proto-drakes of Northrend. From these drakes came the other drakes of lower Azeroth, and the five flights that were developed to watch over the world; red, blue, green, bronze and black. The more the game is played out and the longer the story runs, the more we learn about the dragons -- why they're around, what their purpose is on Azeroth. Today, we're going to focus on one of the new flights of dragons, one that didn't see its creation on Azeroth, and instead finds its origins on the planet of Draenor: The Netherwing. The genesis of the Netherwing is an odd story, some of which was explained in the article covering the Black Dragonflight last week. Deathwing the Destroyer, the by-now insane leader of the black flight had made a deal with Teron Gorefiend shortly after the orcs were defeated in the Second War. Gorefiend had been ordered by Ner'zhul to go to Azeroth and retrieve several artifacts of power that Ner'zhul needed to open dimensional gateways to other worlds. By doing this, Ner'zhul hoped to escape Draenor, and the influence of the Burning Legion, for good -- and take his people to another land in which they could begin to rebuild after the staggering losses from the wars, and the orcs corruption. The gist of Deathwing's deal was this -- Deathwing and his black drakes would help Gorefiend find the artifacts he was looking for. In exchange, Deathwing wanted access to the Dark Portal so that he, some of his drakes, and some cargo he had could be transported to Draenor. They would continue assisting the orcs on the other side of the portal as long as the orcs left the drakes, and the cargo, alone. While Gorefiend wasn't sure he trusted Deathwing's motives entirely, the addition of drakes to their fighting forces would make things much, much easier -- and so he agreed.

  • Know Your Lore: The Blue Dragonflight

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    03.03.2010

    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 past few KYL's have been focusing on dragonflights, and this one's no different. This week, we cover the Blue Dragonflight, Azeroth's masters of magic. Before we do, though, we should go back and link my Red Dragonflight post and Anne's Black Dragonflight one, because a lot of the same ground is about to be covered. In some ways, the blue dragons are the ones players may be most familiar with. From Azuregos wandering about Azshara to Sapphiron in Naxxramas and Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel, with appearances by Kalecgos in the Sunwell, Arygos in Ahn'Qiraj, and of course two 5 man instances and a raid in Coldarra, players have plenty of opportunity to run into a member of the Blue Dragonflight. The Blue Dragonflight has been involved in many of the important events of Azeroth's history despite suffering unimaginably from those events. From the War of the Ancients and the Sundering to the Third War and to the present with the Nexus War, blue dragons have attempted to hold to their ancient charge to shepherd the world's magics no matter what it costs them. And it has cost them very, very dearly. For thousands of years, the blue dragons were almost extinct, nearly wiped out by Deathwing and the Dragon Soul. Their leader and father, Malygos the Aspect of Magic, was driven mad by the loss of so many of his children and the betrayal of his best friend and most trusted confidant, Neltharion.

  • Two Bosses Enter: Readers push Black Knight through; Garfrost aims for Devourer

    by 
    Lisa Poisso
    Lisa Poisso
    03.03.2010

    Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! The very first match of the ICC-5/ToC-5 season of Two Bosses Enter started off in knots, with Thunderdome spectators surging in to break a split decision in the judges' box. As it turns out, 'twas only a flesh wound for the Black Knight, who smashed competitor Bronjahm with 61.7% of the spectators' approval. Things weren't quite so clear in the judges' box, however, as all four judges found their feet tempted by the undeniable groove of the Godfather of Souls. Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in the next battle of the season: the Devourer of Souls versus Forgemaster Garfrost. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.

  • All the World's a Stage: Realistic touches to an unrealistic person

    by 
    Michael Gray
    Michael Gray
    02.28.2010

    The great challenge of World of Warcraft roleplay is that, at its very nature, you're playing a fantastic character. The most mundane character concept is still capable of dropping immense damage and going toe-to-toe (alongside some friends) with some of the Lich King's most powerful minions. Then, on the opposite side, you could be playing an extra-dimensional alien beholden to the fundamental powers of Light, walking around the planet while attempting to revitalize the very meaning of Good and Right. All player characters in WoW are fantasy beings, who have seen and done things about which mere mortals can only dream. So why is this a challenge? Because this fantastic situation can make it very difficult to make your character believable. A successful character is not only interesting and fun, but also someone with whom the audience and players can empathize. If your character is so far outside mortal ken, they will no longer be accessible and believable, but instead wander unhappily into the Twilight-like realm of the "Mary Sue." Let's take a look behind the jump and explore how to make your character a little more realistic.

  • Know Your Lore: The Black Dragonflight

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    02.27.2010

    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 history of Azeroth, as well as its origins, is often confusing and lacking in solid information. However, there are a few facts that are well known – once upon a time somewhere in the universe, there were great creatures known as the Titans. The Titans were an odd race of beings that were obsessed with creating order out of chaos. They traveled from world to world, setting things up so that life would progress in an orderly, structured fashion. Sort of like those people you can hire to organize your kitchens and closets. Enter Azeroth. The Titans came to Azeroth and muddled with it, creating order out of the races that existed on it and tidying everything up, but there was a larger problem that took some intensive cleaning. Ancient creatures known as the Old Gods decided they'd really like to take over the nice chunk of rock -- and where the Titans were concerned with creating order and structure, the Old Gods wanted just the opposite. The Old Gods wanted chaos and destruction where the Titans wanted order and structure, and there was a great war between the two. In the end the Titans prevailed, but they discovered something that was more than a little disturbing – they couldn't simply kill the Old Gods. The Old Gods had integrated themselves too deeply into Azeroth, and destroying the Old Gods meant destroying Azeroth itself. This presented a problem, but the Titans had a solution that they decided would work – they imprisoned the Old Gods deep beneath the earth, leaving them there to rot. After all of this, the Titans decided to put in some safeguards to make sure the planet would remain running smoothly, orderly, and without any grabby tentacled interference from below.

  • Two Bosses Enter: The ICC-ToC Season

    by 
    Lisa Poisso
    Lisa Poisso
    02.24.2010

    Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Welcome, welcome, please take your seats ... We're so glad to see you back in the stands at the Two Bosses Thunderdome! The judges have already taken their seats, down in the covered box -- that's right, the one with the red awning. They imported that monstrosity from Silvermoon, you know. The Consortium was in an uproar when they found out the tournament directors had ordered directly from the Sin'dorei. All that brocade ... Such a shame it'll inevitably be marred with the blood and gore of the gladiators. Oh, yes, the judges will get more than their fill of the messy glory; you didn't think those are their best robes, did you? How positively droll of you to assume -- Oh look, here's Dr. Dealgood now, come along to introduce the judges' panel. Ladies and gentlemen, gnomes and ghouls, welcome to a brand new season inside the Thunderdome ... Where Two Bosses Enter, but only One Boss Leaves! We present for your bloodthirsty pleasure fresh foes from the inner reaches of the five-man instances of Icecrown Citadel, along with seasoned gladiators from the Trial of the Champion. These ferocious combatants will be evaluated by the distinguished panel of judges you see before you, just beneath the blood-red awning in the box below. Let's meet them now.

  • Know Your Lore: The Red Dragonflight

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    02.23.2010

    Before all dragons, there was Galakrond. From him came all the dragon aspects, and his size was greater than that of the five aspects combined. Dragonkind is descended from this massive beast. This includes the red dragons. Each dragonflight dates back to the departure of the Titans from Azeroth, following the completion of their work to reorder it to their liking. The Titans are, if you strip all the cosmic power and grandeur away, meddlers. They go from world to world and change those worlds to their liking, whether or not the current inhabitants want them to, and Azeroth is no exception. When the Titans arrived, they found the world a seething battleground for raging elementals who fought for the amusement of ancient unfathomable entities called today by the sobriquet 'The Old Gods'. Entities like C'thun and Yogg-Saron are an example of the true lords of Azeroth. The quoted text at the bottom of this page gives you an idea of how the Titans wrested control of Azeroth away from them and sealed them in prisons beneath the planet's surface. With the elementals banished to other planes and the Old Gods trapped, the Titans then rearranged Azeroth to their liking. However, since the Titans re-ordering of the world is imposed, they require shepherds to maintain it. While the Titanic Watchers of Ulduar were set to maintain Yogg-Saron's prison, they were not entrusted with the maintenance of the world itself, possibly because they were not of it. From Galakrond's offspring, known today as proto-dragons, the Titans shaped flights of dragons to the vital (to them, at least) task of preserving their hard-fought order. Black, Blue, Green, and Bronze were each given dominion over a key aspect of the Titan's new world. And to Alexstrasza, the Red Dragonqueen, was given control over Life itself. This was the birth of the Red Dragonflight, perhaps the most beneficent grounp of enormous fire breathing reptiles one could hope to encounter. They are dragons, however, so don't take them for granted.

  • Know Your Lore: Lore 101, part 1

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    02.22.2010

    One of the most frequent questions I'm asked as someone that's entirely too interested in Warcraft story and lore, is where to go to get story information. How, exactly, do you find all of these story elements when they are literally scattered across several different games, comics, manga and novels? How do you know what should be taken as official lore, and what to throw away as mere speculation? Where, exactly, does someone just starting out with World of Warcraft find story information when they've got no idea where that story actually starts? It's a difficult question to answer, and you'll see why later in the article. The Warcraft storyline is made up of several different parts, spanning several different games, and the time line is continually changing and developing as these games are released. Here's a brief list of places you can go to get started:

  • All the World's a Stage: Forming a roleplay troupe

    by 
    Michael Gray
    Michael Gray
    02.21.2010

    One of the more common subjects in World of Warcraft writing is "How to form a raid group." Alternatives include, "How to find a raid group," "Does your raid group steal the covers at night?" and "Raid Leaders and the Ghouls that Love Them." Heck, there's so much hullabaloo about how to find a compatible guild that I'm waiting for Match.com: the WoW edition. But you don't see a lot getting written about getting together with roleplay troupes. I think part of the reason for that is that most folks consider roleplay to be either spontaneous events or the province of individual expression. They don't tend to consider roleplay as something that's organized as a group or guided by a general plan. However, as many folks with pen-and-paper tabletop games will tell you, roleplay often works best when you have a theme and a group of people who all buy into that theme. You don't necessarily need to get a brand new guild together in order to form a troupe. It could be something as simple as a small group of five people who want to play out a particular story. Also, a pre-scheduled "bar night" in your faction's capital can be considered part of a troupe, especially if you set up certain ground rules about how things "work" in that tavern. We've talked before about how to find your own roleplay, but that's not entirely the same thing as starting a new group. Let's jump behind the cut and talk about how to form a roleplay troupe.

  • Know Your Lore: Bolvar Fordragon

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    02.20.2010

    WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Players still leveling or playing through this expansion may want to veer away, especially if you want to avoid Icecrown Citadel spoilers. I'll throw another message in before we get to the really huge stuff, just in case! The above image is a little special to me, as it is a screenshot of the first moment I saw Bolvar Fordragon in action, taken January 19th, 2005. I was playing with a friend, and we saw an odd procession in Stormwind headed to the throne room -- upon arriving, a level 60 told us that we probably ought to stand back. Being what I thought was a resourceful player, I hid behind one of the guards, counting on them to protect me. Needless to say, Onyxia appeared, the guards turned into dragonkin, and I had a split second of sheer panic before I got a "6 Minutes until release" message. But this article isn't about my untimely death and subsequent 'when someone says stay far away, stay far, far away' lesson. This is about the man under that pile of dragonkin, who we observed in awe as he fought and killed the entire pack of elites single-handed -- Bolvar Fordragon. Bolvar in that moment became one of my favorite characters in the game, and I didn't even know who he was. It didn't matter.

  • Two Bosses Enter: Eregos wreaks havoc to claim season title

    by 
    Lisa Poisso
    Lisa Poisso
    02.17.2010

    Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Ladies and gentlemen, gnomes and ghouls ... We have our season champion: Ley-Guardian Eregos of The Oculus! In the hotly contested finals of the Wrath Original Five-Man season, Eregos tipped the scales to triumph over Anub'Arak, 48% to 42.6%. Such was the confusion that spectators hardly knew which way to look, with nearly 10% of them throwing up their hands to declare the death match a tie. In fact, the Ley-Guardian's time inside the Two Bosses Thunderdome was anything but routine.

  • Ask a Faction Leader: Sylvanas Windrunner

    by 
    Michael Sacco
    Michael Sacco
    02.16.2010

    WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Chromie, ambassador for the Bronze Dragonflight, and he shed light on several key issues, including gender identity, dwarven futures, Mary Sues, and going back to the future. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the forsaken. Our first reader question... Dear Sylvanas, There have been rumors that your elder sister Alleria had a son with the Alliance paladin Turaylon. How do you respond to this? Sincerely, Wylendrin of Blackwater Raiders Sylvanas responds: With the opportunity to ask me anything, of course the blood elf paladin asks me tabloid questions.

  • All the World's a Stage: How you can be a vampire

    by 
    Michael Gray
    Michael Gray
    02.14.2010

    Last week's All the World's a Stage was focused on the idea that not every character concept is appropriate to every group. The fundamental notion I was trying to convey is that each group has their own normative behaviors, themes, and characters. There's not necessarily anything fundamentally substandard about playing a vampire. Rather, many roleplay groups won't have space or stories available for someone who is playing one of the blood-sucking undead. That being said, there was enough discussion about being a vampire that I wanted to take some time and review how you can go about exploring that character concept in the World of Warcraft. Azeroth isn't necessarily home to huge vampire organizations or angsty teens exploring puberty, but there are still plenty of opportunities to try out the ideas without breaking WoW genre.

  • Know Your Lore: The Lich King

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    02.14.2010

    WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for the novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, and the final battle with the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel. They're all pretty much contained on Page 2, and I'll give you another warning later just in case you forget about it. Most players are, by this point in Wrath of the Lich King, more than familiar with Arthas Menethil and his fall from supposed grace into the arms of the Lich King. Players may be slightly less familiar with Ner'zhul, the orc shaman who originally took on the mantle of the Lich King, but we've got an article for that. This article on the other hand, isn't so much about Ner'zhul, or Arthas, as it is about the Lich King -- the position that Arthas, and Ner'zhul before him, had foisted upon them. What exactly is the Lich King? What is its purpose, and why does it exist? To answer these questions, we have to go very, very far back into Azeroth's history. Azeroth was created by a group of creatures known as the Titans, a group of almost god-like giants that roam from world to world for a very distinct purpose -- to create and make order. There are a lot of conflicting stories surrounding the Titans, their origins, and the creation of Azeroth -- however, one story stands out above all others; the story of the corruption of Sargeras, champion of the Titans.

  • Two Bosses Enter: Anub, Eregos meet in finale; search for judges

    by 
    Lisa Poisso
    Lisa Poisso
    02.10.2010

    Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. We're moving from the quarter-finals into the semi-finals of the Original Five-Man Wrath of the Lich King season. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Anub'Arak scuttled King Ymiron and his longboats last week, 60.8% to 35.9%, to advance to this week's season finale of the Original Wrath Five-Man season of Two Bosses Enter. In the highly anticipated finals, Anub'Arak will burrow into the Thunderdome to face the dreaded Ley-Guardian Eregos. If you've never participated in a Two Boss Enters match before, please be sure to read the Thunderdome ground rules before casting your vote. Visit the comments first to get as broad a view of the match as possible before deciding whose pennant you'll be waving in the stands. But first: We're taking a new angle inside the Thunderdome for upcoming seasons of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves. Each match will be decided by a distinguished panel of judges -- and you're invited to sit on the panel! Details after the break.

  • All the World's a Stage: You can't be a vampire

    by 
    Michael Gray
    Michael Gray
    02.07.2010

    It's not my goal to discuss whether or not there are actually vampires in WoW. The Crimson Halls certainly seems to support the idea that the Cullen-crowd can get their bite on in Azeroth, maybe even cuddled up against the vampire LARPers. But even with the Sanlayn rocking the vampire thing in Northrend, there still aren't any playable vampires in WoW. (Blood death knights are arguably similar, but they still don't sprout fangs and lay the nom down on unsuspecting victims.) Yet, people still yearn to play vampires. It happens. And I don't actually mind people playing these type of characters in the free-form style roleplay you see in Goldshire and Silvermoon, because that tends to be the sort of place where anything goes. And I'll admit. In a former life I've LARPed a vampire. But in troupe-style roleplay, there are usually particular character conventions. A roleplay guild focused on defending Ashenvale from the encroaching Horde, for example, would have some trouble accepting a Draenei Shaman who is actually roleplaying an apologetic ex-Eredar making amends for his crimes. It falls on the leaders of these troupes and guilds, therefore, to talk to the person playing an outside-the-box character. You don't want to just leave your junior vampire going down a bad track, leaving him without folks with whom to roleplay. Even worse, it can lead to backbiting, disruption in the troupe, and other negative things. Roleplay groups are fragile enough -- don't leave a wingman hanging, when you can help them with the trouble. Take a look behind the jump, and let's see how you can help bring an Edward Cullen back into Azeroth, while still making everyone as happy as possible.