I started working on the Pilgrim’s Bounty with my Cooking Profession at 1. Dang awesome and I ended up with a mass of buff foods to boot. Woot!

Nice way to end a WoW dry spell of 4 days. Now begins my schedule change and an unpredictable playing schedule.

Well that’s it for now thanks for listening and come again soon.

If I don’t talk to you before, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Isn’t life like that, feast or famine. Well in this case it’s Pilgrim’s Bounty. Made good progress this afternoon on this new achievement. Thanks DOTH sisters who helped me get the dungeon acchievement. I got myself killed 3 times but everyone was supportive of my noobishness and I’m Thankful .

I spent part of the day Saturday just exploring Outland. What an odd place.

Happy Aniversary WoW. Thank you for the pretty pet. With this cutie I earned the achievement, Plenty of Pets, for obtaining my 10th companion pet.

I hadn’t been able to play in the last 4 days till today and I don’t like that. I see my game time diminishing due to IRL demands and a change in my work schedule. /QQ

My S O is in the process of changing his lifestyle and is much more present as a part of the family. This is great, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that he is not a gamer. His being present means spending more time together (good) and less free time gaming for me (not so good).

My gaming time usually consists of about 3 hours a morning 2 to 3x’s a week and occassionally one long evening of about 5 hours. Family time permitting I may or may not also get one all day session on the weekend.

Now I know that sounds like a lot of time and maybe I just play like a noob, but I still have not been able to get one toon to 80 in almost a year and a half. My sister’s boyfriend Bathazario (sorry if I butcherd your name I’ll edit later) says he’s been playing only since May and is at 77. I’m at 70. FML. He thinks his progression is slow and that most people should be able to level to 80 in 6 months or so. WTF.

I have, for nearly 2 years now, worked from home but that is changing this Monday when I have to go into the office for a minimum of 3 months. Since it is a 30 min commute and of course there will now be showering, make up, hair, lunch packing, breakfast eating and driving to fill my morning (no more working in my jammies and showering during lunch break for more morning WoW time) I will be losing a good chunk of my weekly play time. /sad panda face.

I feel like I’m falling farther and farther behind. I know this is sounding like a big QQ fest but I’m really trying to see the whole picture. Where I’ve been what is changing and what I can do to maximize what time I do have.

I know part of the reason I’ve been slow to progress is I pretty much just solo. I’ve gotten a hand with the odd quest or two but I don’t know the mechanics of grouping and am terrified to look not only look like the noob I am but a damn stupid one at that. My self esteem is too closely connected to my sense of competence to be able to detach long enough to learn.

I’m in a very supportive guild now DOTH = Daughters of the Horde. I’m looking to change my play style and learn new skills that will keep leveling fun and steady.

That’s it for now. Thanks for visiting and. Come again soon.

Capitulo I: Mitos

A Guerra dos Anciões
10.000 anos antes de Warcraft I

O uso despreocupado da magia pelos Highborne enviou ondulações de energia que espiralou para fora do Well of the Eternity e no Grande Além Escuro. As ondulações fluindo energia eram sentidas por mentes estrangeiras terríveis. Sargeras – o Grande Inimigo de toda a vida, o Destruidor de Mundos – sentia as ondulações potentes e foi atraído ao seu distante local de origem. Espiando o mundo primordial de Azeroth e sentindo as energias ilimitadas do Well of the Eternity, Sargeras foi consumido por uma fome insaciável. O grande deus escuro do Sem nome Nulo resolveu destruir o mundo de fledgling e reivindicar suas energias para si.

Sargeras juntou a vasta Burning Legion e começou a viajar para o mundo que não desconfia ser Azeroth. A Legião é feita por um milhão de demônios gritantes, rasgando todos os cantos distantes do universo, e os demônios tiveram fome para conquistá-lo. Os tenentes de Sargeras, Archimonde o Defiler e Mannoroth o Destructor, prepararam seus minions infernal para atacar.

A Rainha Azshara, subjugada pelo êxtase terrível de sua magia, virou uma vítima de Sargeras de poder inegável e concordou em lhe conceder entrada para o seu mundo. Até mesmo seus serventes Highborne se entregaram para a corrupção inevitável da magia e começaram a adorar Sargeras como o deus. Mostraram a sua submissão à Legião, os Highborne ajudaram sua rainha abrindo um vasto, portal dentro das profundezas do Well of the Eternity.

Uma vez que todas as suas preparações tinham sido feitas, Sargeras começou a invasão catastrófica de Azeroth. Os guerreiros-demônio da Burning Legion fizeram uma tempestade no mundo pelo Well of the Eternity e pôs assédio para as cidades dormentes dos Night Elfs. Conduzido por Archimonde e Mannoroth, a Legião enxameou em cima das terras de Kalimdor, deixando só cinzas e tristeza em seu caminho. Os bruxos demônio evocaram os infernals para queimar, que chegavam em meteoros infernais e se chocavam nos pináculos graciosos dos templos de Kalimdor. Umas faixas de queimar, assassino de bloodletting conhecidos como o Doomguard marcharam pelos campos de Kalimdor, enquanto matavam todo o mundo em seu caminho. Pacotes de felhounds selvagem, endiabrado saquearam a zona rural sem oposição. Embora os guerreiros de Kaldorei valentes se apressassem para defender sua pátria antiga, eles foram forçados a dar chão, lentamente polegada por polegada, antes do ataque de fúria da Legião.

Malfurion Stormrage saiu para achar ajuda para as pessoas cercadas. Stormrage cujo próprio irmão, Illidan, praticou as magias dos Highborne, e era enraivecido pela corrupção crescente entre a classe alta. Illidan se convence a abandonar a obsessão perigosa dele, Malfurion teve a idéia de achar Cenarius e reunir uma força de resistência. A sacerdotisa jovem e bonita, Tyrande, concordou em acompanhar os irmãos pelo nome de Elune. Embora Malfurion e Illidan compartilhassem um amor pela sacerdotisa idealista, o coração de Tyrande pertenceu só a Malfurion. Illidan ficou ressintido ao ver seu irmão engatar um romance com Tyrande, mas soube que a preocupação dele não era nada comparada à dor do hábito mágico dele.

Illidan que tinha crescido dependente de magia está autorizando energias, ele lutou para se manter controlado com a fome opressiva para pegar um pouco mais da energia do Well uma vez mais. Porém, com o apoio paciente de Tyrande, ele pôde se conter e ajudar seu irmão a achar o demigod recluso, Cenarius. Cenarius que vive dentro do Moonglades sagrado do Monte distante Hyjal concordou em ajudar os Night Elfs achando os dragões antigos e recrutando-os para ajudá-los. Os dragões, conduzidos pelo grande leviatã vermelho, Alexstrasza, concordaram em enviar para seus vôos poderosos e matar os demônios e os mestres infernais.

Cenarius chamava os espíritos das florestas encantadas, e reunia um exército de homens-árvore antigos e os conduziu contra a Legião em uma agressão terrestre ousada. Como os aliados dos Night Elfs convergiram no templo de Azshara e o Well of the Eternity, todos saíram e a guerra estourou. Apesar da força do newfound aliada, Malfurion e os seus colegas perceberam que a Legião não poderia ser derrotada só por força marcial.

Com a batalha titânica enfureceu a cidade da capital de Azshara e seu redor, a rainha delusional esperou por antecipação a chegada de Sargeras. O senhor da Legião estava se preparando para atravessar o Well of the Eternity e entrar no mundo saqueado. Com sua sombra impossivelmente enorme o puxou para mais perto da superfície furiosa do Well, Azshara juntou o seu mais poderoso dos seguidores de Highborne. Só unindo as suas magias em uma pessoa focalizada eles poderiam criar um portal grande o bastante para Sargeras entrar.

Como a batalha se enfureceu pelos campos ardentes de Kalimdor, uma volta terrível de eventos se desdobrou. Foram perdidos os detalhes do evento para cronometrar, mas é conhecido que Neltharion, o Aspecto de Dragão da Terra, foi furioso durante um ponto crítico contra a Legião Ardente. Ele começou a dividir separadamente como chama e raiva estourou da pele escura dele. Se renomeando Deathwing, o dragão ardente se virou contra seus cinco irmãos dragões voadores do campo de batalha.

A traição súbita de Deathwing era tão destrutiva que o cinco dragonflights nunca se recuperaram verdadeiramente. Feridos e chocados, Alexstrasza e os outros dragões nobres foram forçados a abandonar seus aliados mortais. Malfurion e seus companheiros, agora foram desesperadamente excedidos em número, restando apenas o ataque dos sobreviventes.

Malfurion se convenceu que o Well of the Eternity era a ligação umbilical dos demônios para o mundo físico, insistiu que devesse ser destruído. Os companheiros dele, sabendo que o Well era a fonte da sua imortalidade e poderes, ficaram horrorizado pela idéia precipitada. Tyrande viu a sabedoria da teoria de Malfurion, ela assim convenceu os todos a atacar violentamente o templo de Azshara e achar um modo de fechar para Cenarius e seus camaradas o Well para o bem.

Ler Mais Tópicos e Capítulos

Last week, we focused on the history of the Tauren, the largest of the Horde’s races, and speculated on their possibly titanic origins. This week we’re going to look at the smallest of the Alliance races – the Gnomes – and speculate on their titantic origins, and what those origins mean for the race. Gnomes are the oft-misaligned hated race of the alliance, endless streams of short jokes and threats of gnome punting littering the net. Nobody likes the gnomes, it seems – unless of course you are a gnome player, and if you’re a gnome player, then you’re weird. At the original release of World of Warcraft very little was known about this odd, tiny, frenetic little race of tinkers and mechanics, but the release of Wrath of the Lich King cleared up a lot of the mystery of where the gnomes came from, and why they are here.

Not all of it, but a lot of it. This week, expect small amounts of speculation that are clearly labeled, and a whole lot of Warcraft history. Please be patient with me, as the timeline involving the Titans arrival, the Old Gods arrival, and everything that happened in between is currently in flux – game lore is contradicting existing lore, and it makes everything…iffy.

WARNING – THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING:  Wrath of the Lich King,  and events that take place in the raid zone of Ulduar. If you don’t wish to be spoiled on any of the above material, I would not recommend clicking to read further!

If, however, you’re interested in the little frenetic tinkering gnomes, READ ON!

Begin At The Beginning

Once upon a time, as these things begin, there was absolutely nothing. To this nothing came the Titans, a group of extremely powerful magic creatures otherwise known as The Makers, The Travelers, or the Great Ones, and possibly more names lost to time. These creatures were akin to gods; metallic giants that traveled across the cosmos to bring order to worlds that had none. A creator race, they seemed to exist for nothing more than finding a planet, quietly putting life on it, throwing a few checks and balances in to keep things neat and tidy, and moving on to find yet another planet. The group of titans responsible for the creation of life, worlds and order was known as the Pantheon, the high council of titans. Several different titans ruled on the council:

Aman’Thul, Highfather of the Pantheon – Ruler of the Pantheon and consort to Eonar, Aman’Thul is the oldest and wisest of his race. As leader of the titans, Aman’Thul is responsible for the creation of all worlds, including Azeroth.

Eonar, Patron of All Life, or Life-Bringer – Eonar was consort to Aman’Thul and represents the embodiment of all life. Her specialties are nature, healing, and life.

Norgannon, Lore-Keeper and Master-Magician – As his name implies, Norgannon was the master of the arcane magic, knowledge, mysteries and secrets.

Golganneth, The Thunderer – Golganneth is the son of Aman’Thul and Eonar. His specialties are the skies and the seas.

Khaz’goroth, Shaper and Forger of the World – Khaz’goroth is a shaper of mountains and canyons, his specialty being the earth.

Sargeras (Sargeras) – Oh yes. This guy? He was a titan. Actually he was the greatest warrior the titans had. At the time of Azeroth’s discovery however, he uh…wasn’t. Sargeras was primarily responsible for getting rid of the nasty demons and bad things that were native to the Twisting Nether, so that the evil would not contaminate the careful order the Titans had put into place. Needless to say, this Did Not Go According To Plan. His name is crossed out for a reason.

Aggramar – Well, you win some and you lose some. Aggramar was Sargeras’s lieutenant, so when Sargeras went all ‘Say Burning Legion sounds like an amazing idea I should probably trademark that’, Aggramar stepped up to take his place. Now HE is the warrior, and HE is the one fighting against the demons and things that are now led joyfully by his former commander. …fun job, huh?

The Seed Races of Azeroth

Right. So the Titans came together and decided to make a new planet full of life and order and all things pleasant, and they created Azeroth, the world your little level three gnome is currently poking rabbits with a stick on. Makes the whole thing seem a little small, doesn’t it? The Pantheon worked carefully, placing several races on the planet to help with the protection of order on the world – according to some statues scattered around Uldaman the original five races of the world were trolls, earthen, tauren, mountain giants, and sea giants.

If one is to look closely at the races, one can probably guess who created what, with the assistance of Eonar to bring them to life. Golganneth was more than likely responsible for the sea giants, Khaz’goroth for the earthen and possibly the mountain giants as well. As I theorized in tauren history last week, I believe that Eonar was directly responsible for their creation. As for the trolls…well, it still hasn’t been established just who made the trolls. Just due to his name, I would pin it on Aman’Thul himself, as the prefix or postfix of ‘aman’ is often used in troll lore, legends, and naming, suggesting a link between the two. Norgannon infused the world with magic, pulling directly from the Great Dark Beyond and possibly creating the Well of Eternity, though this is unconfirmed and just my speculation.

There is really a lot more to be said about the Titans and what happened, but this is a history of the Gnomes, so we’re going to skip the details and stick to what is applicable to them.

So the Titans of the Pantheon created Azeroth and planted among it the ‘seed races’ – the originators of life on Azeroth, and in a Titan fashion were generally pretty pleased with the way things were going, and took off to go make a new planet.

The Old Gods and the Elemental Lords

Unfortunately, Azeroth wasn’t about to be left alone to its own devices. Perhaps drawn by the power of the Well of Eternity, perhaps drawn by the general niftyness of the new races of the planet (Tauren are pretty cool, after all), beings known as the Old Gods came to Azeroth. The Old Gods were as much creatures of chaos and destruction as the Titans were of order and creation – and they slowly worked their way across Azeroth, their deeds carried out by armies of elementals that were led by four lieutenants:

Ragnaros the Firelord – Lieutenant of the Fire Elementals

Therazane the Stonemother – Lieutenant of the Earth Elementals

Al’Akir the Windlord – Lieutenant of the Air Elementals

Neptulon the Tidehunter – Lieutenant of the Water Elementals

It should be noted that the Elemental Lords were not originally corrupt – the Old Gods spoke to them and warped them to their will. Players may note that at least ONE Elemental Lord could be considered ‘evil’ – Ragnaros – but it’s really not that he’s evil. Elemental lords naturally progress towards disorder, moving readily to a state of chaos if left on their own and warring with each other. It’s a natural thing. The Old Gods played upon this tendency towards chaos to use the Elemental Lords in their path towards wreaking absolute havoc on Azeroth.

Lore speaks of the Old Gods being on a mission to ‘facilitate assimilation’, and of the Old Gods presence as being an infection. It’s almost as if the Old Gods were seeping into the world and permeating it like a disease – and the two instances of Old Gods that we’ve seen show them as great beasts, with giant tentacles that stretch far further below the earth than just the small parts that they show players in battle.

To summarize – the Old Gods came to Azeroth to claim it for their own as a world where chaos and disorder would reign, with the Elemental Lords wreaking havoc across the world at the Old Gods bidding.

The Curse Of The Flesh

During this time, the Old Gods tampered with titanic creations in several different ways. Obviously the Elemental Lords were a very direct force with which to sow chaos – but the Old Gods had other tactics as well. The Curse of the Flesh, mentioned for the first time in Wrath of the Lich King, was an infection, a plague of sorts that was cast on the metal and stone creations of the titans. This curse or disease caused the metal and stone to soften, the logical mechanics of gears and calculations to loosen, and the creation itself to weaken considerably, making them immediately susceptible to the Old Gods influence. One cannot influence a mind of stone, of metal – but of flesh, it is almost too easy. Oh it’d take time, lots of time for the Curse to fully take effect, but eventually the immortality granted of being rock or metal would be stripped away, and the only thing left behind a squishy pink flesh bag that would be way, way too easy to kill.

Alternatively, to coerce into working for your cause.

Among the titans creations affected were the earthen, creatures of rock and stone, and the mechagnomes – the super smart little inventor assistants of Mimir. These creatures, instead of remaining unchanged throughout the course of history, evolved into something new, something…fleshy.

Ew.

ANYWAY! The Titans sensed something was up with their little Azeroth, and came back to find the place in utter chaos – Old Gods and Elemental Lords and curses and all kinds of unpleasantness going on. The Titans were to say the least not terribly pleased with what happened, and there was a great, huge, gigantic, horrific battle in which the Titans sought to slay the Old Gods.

But upon closer examination, they realized that this curse that the Old Gods had cast on their creations, the effects of the Old Gods themselves, tied the things too far into Azeroth. If the Titans destroyed the Old Gods, they’d be destroying Azeroth as well. And the Titans really, really didn’t want to do that. So as an alternative, they simply imprisoned the Old Gods deep beneath the earth for all eternity. Way, way deep down. Nope, nobody is ever going to find these guys under that rug we swept them under, no sir.

Ulduar and the Titanic Watchers

More than a little annoyed at the failure of the seed races to defend and maintain the order they’d put in place, they took measures to re-create those seed races that had lost too many members to the Curse, and to keep an eye on the little planet, as they wouldn’t really tolerate a second mistake from it. The Pantheon also stuck a few minor titans on Azeroth to keep an eye on things, generally speaking. These minor titans were the Watchers that were scattered all over Azeroth. Some ruins known to house Watchers are Uldaman and Ulduar – Uldum is also a suspected titanic stronghold. There are others to be sure, spread across Azeroth and as yet undiscovered. Ulduar, located in the Storm Peaks of Northrend, is a massive complex spanning a huge chunk of the zone. The Watchers associated with Ulduar are as follows:

Freya – A daughter of the titans and a protector of all living things on Azeroth.

Hodir – Hodir lent his guidance to the frost giants of the storm peaks. It is speculated that he was the creator of the frost giants, as the Sons of Hodir reference him as a father.

Thorim – Thorim was the guardian of Ulduar and the Terrace of the Makers, the areas immediately surrounding the stronghold. He was both warrior and negotiator, and lived primarily IN THE MOUNTAINS.

Loken – Loken was named the supreme protector of Azeroth by the Pantheon. Basically he was a warrior much like his brother, Thorim, and led the storm and earth giants.

Tyr – Little to nothing is known of Tyr, simply that he was there. His current status and location is a mystery, although there has been some speculation that he may have left to another titan base, possibly Uldum. There’s no real answer though, so Tyr remains an interesting puzzle yet to be figured out.

Mimir – Mimir resided at the Temple of Invention in the Terrace of the Makers. Mimir is probably the Watcher called Mimiron in the raid instance Ulduar, but that hasn’t been confirmed – however, the fact that Mimir was in the Temple of Invention, and the way that Mimiron goes on and on about his marvelous creations leads me to believe that they are one and the same. Mimir was responsible for creation of a different kind – not the seeds of life that Freya cultivated, but the development of technology and ideas. It’s never directly stated in official lore, but the assumption that I leap to is that Mimir needed assistants to help with all the inventing and keeping track of what gadget went where, so he created miniature versions of himself to help himself out. These were the mechagnomes that still wander the Terrace of the Maker today.

Mimir is really our focus here in regards to gnomes.

The Pantheon also set up a planetary fail-safe protection that would send them a message in the event that Azeroth was under distress again.

And then they left again, fairly certain that THIS time the world would be okay.

So Azeroth was safe once more, the seed races merrily doing their own thing,  the titanic creations working at keeping everything neat, tidy, and most importantly in order.

But the Curse of the Flesh remained upon the world, unable to be removed, and worked its way through the creatures of Azeroth, affecting each in a different fashion.

More to come tomorrow as we continue with the History of the Gnomes!

The history and early origins of the tauren are still largely a mystery – but there is enough information available out there to answer a few basic questions surrounding the quiet and peaceful race.

1. Aren’t the night elves the ones that are supposed to be the first druids?

Yes and no. The Night Elves are the first recorded students of Cenarius, but I like to think that’s in a large part due to the fact that the night elves are much, much better at record keeping. The tauren race is old, older than the night elves by a very large period of time, and it’s possible that the time period in which Cenarius trained the tauren in druidism took place before the night elves even existed. In which case, of course the night elves would say they were the first students – Cenarius never taught the tauren in any of the night elf history because he did so before night elf history even began.

2. So the tauren are pretty much good guys, right?

Yeah, pretty much. They were placed on the earth to protect it, not to destroy it – and any wars or battles that they waged were done out of defense, or because it was part of their ‘programming’, if you want to call it that. They’re a deeply shamanistic society, connected to the earth and nature in ways that most races can’t really begin to understand. The only real recorded ‘failings’ they had in that aspect were vague tales of the Old Gods influence.

3. Then why the HECK did the Tauren join the Horde?!

Much like any other alliance, it was partially a matter of convenience, partially a matter of timing. Had the Alliance shown up before the tauren met with the Horde, they may have joined the Alliance forces instead. But circumstances had Thrall and his Horde show up at just the right time, and Thrall, being a good sort, helped the tauren fight the centaur and lent his aid to the nomadic people. There’s also the fact that they’ve got at least a little in common – the orcs were shaman to begin with, way back in time on Draenor, and the tauren could sense this and warmed to it. Perhaps they saw that the trolls had allied with the orcs as well, and given the history of that violent race, for them to turn around and ally with anyone was a big deal – so there must have been something about the orcs that the tauren wanted to see more of.

4. Okay so if the tauren are such goody two shoes that have the best interests of Azeroth at heart, why exactly are they working with the Forsaken?

There’s an old saying that goes ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer’. The tauren are more than likely well aware that the Forsaken are up to something, and they’re keeping them close by to keep an eye on them. Well…some of the tauren. See, the tauren have their own factions and tribes within their race, and while some have good intentions, others are…flawed. It is surprising to note however that even the ‘bad’ tauren (the Grimtotem), are allowed representation in Thunder Bluff, and are treated with the same respect as any other tauren.

The Grimtotem have their own plans with the Forsaken, although the span and breadth of these plans are currently unknown. I’m hoping we’ll see more of this situation addressed soon – the tauren, much like the orcs, are experiencing a mild period of civil upset, though nowhere near as violent as the orcs tend to be. There are factions of tauren that are growing tired of being peaceful, and tired of other races encroaching on lands that should rightfully be theirs, and they are quietly working to do something about it.

The other theory I came up with that’s a little more out there is this: the tauren have a large amount of respect for the spirits and for their dead. The Forsaken are undead, and not allowed the final rest that all other living creatures are. This is fascinating to the tauren, and also more than a little saddening – the Forsaken are spirits that were never let go, doomed to roam the earth and never truly alive. So perhaps the tauren are keeping them close by because in a way, they feel sorry for the Forsaken and their tragic fate.

5. So that’s it? There’s no ulterior motives, no massive struggles for power, no corruption by higher beings, no big explosions?

Yep! I’m afraid that as a whole the tauren are a little dull in terms of blowing up planets or consorting with demons. They may have started out as instruments of the titans, but they developed their own lives outside of that – however for the most part the tauren have avoided the mass amounts of strife that plague the other races.

And that’s it for Tauren History week – stay tuned for more RP Tips and Tricks this weekend, and a new Character Focus – this time I’ll be taking on the winner of the Alliance’s Biggest Jerkface Of All Time award, King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind.

As always, keep reading -  next week I’m going from the largest Horde race to the smallest Alliance race. It’s the origins of the Gnomes, on Shades of Grey!

I finally made level 60 this evening on WoW.  I was able to enjoy Burning Crusade content for the first time 2 nights ago, and absolutely loved it. The artwork for Outlands is amazing, and it feels vast.  It feels like it is in another dimension, and I have definitely left Azeroth.  There are so many dungeons, raids, and quests I have not taken part in on the “Old World” content.  This is a little depressing in a way, because I am still constantly trudging along in order to reach level 80 where I have friends and co-workers waiting on me and my healing power and I may never see this content.  That is until I come back through with an Alt.

I have not been playing much on the consoles due to 2 factors.  We have so many shows to watch on our DVR if the TV is on, we are trying to catch up on all the shows that have recorded recently.  The other reason is I pay for my subscription for WoW and do not have the time that I did once for gaming.  This leads me to devote the time that I have towards WoW due to the money that I am paying.  There are so many good games out there right now that I want to play, Borderlands, Dragon Age, and the one that I know I am going to have to make time for is the re-release of God of War and II.  God of War II was the game that ALMOST made go repurchase a PS2 again, because I was slow on the PS3 train, making mine non-backwards compatible.  I will never understand why any console company would make their leading console unable to play prior games.

Bom continuando a história.

Capitulo I: Mitos

O Mundo despertando e o Well of the Eternity

Dez mil anos antes dos orcs e humanos colidirem em sua Primeira Guerra, o mundo de Azeroth era um só continente volumoso, cercado pelo mar. Aquele grande continente, conhecido como Kalimdor, albergou vários raças e criaturas discrepantes, que competiam pela sobrevivência entre os elementos selvagens do mundo que dispertava. Ao centro do continente escuro estava um lago misterioso de energias incandescentes. O lago que seria chamado depois o Well of the Eternity, era o verdadeiro coração da magia do mundo e poder natural. Tirando suas energias da Grande Escuridão infinita além do mundo, os Bem agiram como uma fonte mística, que envia suas energias potentes pelo mundo para nutrir a vida em todas suas formas maravilhosas.

A tempos, uma tribo primitiva e cautelosa de humanoids noturno fez seus alicerces às extremidades do lago encantado. O feral, humanoids nômade, puxado pelo Well de energias estranhas, casas cruas construídas em suas costas tranqüilas. Com o passar do tempo, o poder do Well cósmico afetou a tribo, fazendo-os forte, sábio, e virtualmente imortais. A tribo adotou o nome Kaldorei que significa “as crianças das estrelas” na língua nativa deles. Celebrar a sociedade deles brotando, eles construíram grandes estruturas e templos ao redor da periferia do lago.

O Kaldorei, ou Night Elfs como eles seriam conhecidos depois, adoravam a deusa da lua, Elune, e acreditavam que ela dormia dentro das profundezas do Well vislumbrando durante as horas de luz do dia. Os padres dos Nights-Elfs e videntes estudaram o Well com uma curiosidade insaciável, dirigido para examinar seus segredos e poder não contados. Como sua sociedade cresceu, os Night Elfs exploraram a largura de Kalimdor e encontraram seu outro habitante. As únicas criaturas que lhes deram folga eram os dragões antigos e poderosos. As grandes bestas serpentinas eram freqüentemente reclusas, mas eles fizeram muito para salvaguardar as terras de conhecidas ameaças em potencial. Os Night Elfs descobriram que os dragões se ficaram como os protetores do mundo – e de acordo com eles os segredos deles era melhor sozinhos.

A tempos, a curiosidade dos Night Elfs os levou a se encontrar e ajudar várias entidades poderosas, nada menos de que Cenarius, um demigod poderoso do forestlands primordial. A magnitude com que Cenarius se apaixonado pelos Night Elfs inquisitivos e muitas vezes gastando tempo com o mundo natural. O Kaldorei tranqüilo desenvolveu uma empatia forte pelas florestas vivas de Kalimdor e se divertiu com equilíbrio harmonioso da natureza.

Como a idade aparentemente infinita, a civilização dos Night Elfs ampliou seu território e cultura. Seus templos, estradas, e habitações foram espalhados pelo continente escuro. Azshara, a rainha bonita e talentosa dos Nights Elfs, construiu um imenso, maravilhoso palácio na costa do Well onde morou serventes favorecidos dentro de seus corredores adereçados. Os serventes dela quem ela chamava de Quel’dorei ou “Highborne”, a amaram loucamente por todo seu reinado e se acreditava que mais que o resto dos seus irmãos. Embora a Rainha Azshara fosse amada igualmente por todas as pessoas, os Highborne foram invejados secretamente e repugnados pelo resto dos Night Elfs.

Compartilhando da curiosidade dos padres para com o Well of the Eternity, Azshara ordenou os Highborne examinarem seus segredos e revelar seu verdadeiro propósito no mundo. Os Highborne se enterram nos seus trabalhos e estudaram o Well incessantemente. A tempos eles desenvolveram a habilidade de manipular e controlar o Well e suas energias cósmicas. Como suas experiências progrediram, os Highborne acharam que eles pudessem usar os poderes descobertos para ou criar ou destruir ao seu lazer. Os Highborne descuidados tinham tropeçado em uma magia primitiva e tinham se decidido dedicar-se a seu domínio. Embora eles concordassem que aquela magia era perigosa dê controlar e isso era irresponsabilidade, Azshara e os Highborne dela começaram a praticar os seus feitiços despreocupadamente. Cenarius e muitos estudantes dos Night Elfs advertiram sobre a calamidade que seria o resultado de brincar com as artes claramente voláteis da magia. Mesmo assim, Azshara e os seguidores dela continuaram obstinadamente ampliando os poderes e germinando-os.

Como seus poderes cresceram, uma mudança distinta veio a acontecer com Azshara e os Highborne. A classe alta, arrogante e indiferente ficou crescentemente calosa e cruel com os Night Elfs da mesma categoria deles. Uma escuridão, pensando, mortalha ocultada Azshara está uma vez encantada e bela. Ela começou a se retirar de seus assuntos amorosos e se recusou interagir com qualquer um, menos com os padres de Highborne confiados dela.

Um estudante jovem nomeado Malfurion Stormrage que tinha gastado muito de seu tempo estudando as artes primitivas de druidismo começou a suspeitar que um poder terrível estivesse corrompendo os Highborne e a rainha amada deles. Embora ele não pudesse conceber o mal que estava por vir, ele soube que as vidas dos Night Elfs seriam mudadas logo e para sempre. . .

Ler Mais Tópicos e Capítulos

I’ve decided to do a new feature, once a week covering one character in Warcraft, their history, back story, motives and where they are today. Some weeks you’ll see the big names – major players in the story of WoW, and others you’ll see NPCs that I thought were particularly interesting. To kick it all off, I’ve decided to start with one of the mostly hotly debated characters in Warcraft at the moment – Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom.

WARNING – THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and possibly Cataclysm. Also included are the Warcraft comics and novels. If you don’t wish to be spoiled on any of the above material, I would not recommend clicking to read further!

Son of Hellscream, Son of Draenor, Son of Nagrand

Garrosh Hellscream is the son of Grom Hellscream – former chieftain of the Warsong clan and a major player in Warcraft lore. As a reminder from Orc History part 2, Grom Hellscream was the first of the orcs to drink the Blood of Mannoroth – the first to willingly fall under the Burning Legion’s control, the first to succumb to the bloodlust that drove the orcs to serve the demons and slaughter the draenei.

At some point prior to the blood pact with Mannoroth, a virulent plague known as the “red pox” spread throughout all of the orc clans, affecting many. An orc woman by the name of Geyah, wife of the deceased chieftain of the Frostwolf clan, Garad, established a quarantined settlement for the sick in Nagrand. This settlement included orcs from many clans and children of several chieftains, including a young orc known as Garrosh Hellscream.

There are no accounts that I can find of Garrosh’s mother, but due to the fact that he was ill with the pox, I think it can be safely assumed that his mother probably died of the disease when Garrosh was quite young.

The settlement was given a wide berth by the orc clans, as none of the clans wished to spread the effects of the pox any further. So the settlement was not included in the Horde that was formed, and none of the inhabitants participated in the blood pact with Mannoroth. Geyah watched, disgusted, as the brown skin of the original orcs was tainted a sickly green due to the corruption, and the once-green lands died. Despite this, Geyah and the others that remained in the village remained mag’har, orcish for “uncorrupted”.

Garrosh, young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, grew up within the settlement named Garadar after Geyah’s beloved husband, and largely ignorant of the events happening in the rest of Outland. He also spent the large portion of his childhood sick with the pox, just like every other orc living in the settlement.

The pox itself must have been one hell of a disease. Accounts describe victims as being ridden with angry red pustules, coughing up blood and bile. Ewww. It was also an incredibly tenacious disease. Years later, when the humans returned to Draenor to continue battling the orc clans, the orcs of Garadar were still riddled with the stuff.

So one day, Kargath Bladefist, Chieftain of the Shattered Hand, came to Garadar in the hopes of recruiting warriors for the war efforts – his forces had been decimated at Hellfire Citadel by the humans, and they needed all the able-bodied soldiers they could get. Greatmother Geyah was quick to point out that nobody in Garadar could be considered able-bodied by any stretch of the imagination. Kargath wanted to argue with her, but a young Garrosh approached, wanting to know if the presence of the chieftain meant something terrible had happened to his father, all the while coughing up blood and generally being really, really sick. Geyah told him to go back to his hut and turned to Kargath, asking him if these were the warriors he wanted fighting for him.

Kargath, disgusted, declined this offer and vented his frustration at the village, shouting at them, calling them less than orcs, useless weaklings that were fit only to die, and bade them all to do the Horde a favor and do so as quickly as possible. Garrosh was left with Geyah, and when he asked her if Kargath had brought news of his father, all Geyah could do was shake her head and reassure the boy that the lack of information surely meant his father was alive.

Sometime later in Garrosh’s life, he shook off the effects of the pox, as did the rest of the village. Aided by another chieftain’s child, Jorin Deadeye of the Bleeding Hollow clan, he became one of the chiefs of the little cluster of cast-offs, now calling themselves the Mag’har clan, with Geyah as matriarch over them all. They lived in relative peace in Nagrand for many, many years, peace that was occasionally interrupted by skirmishes with the Murkblood tribe, a group of broken draenei that also inhabited the area.

The only news Garrosh had ever heard of his father was what he had been told – that Grom Hellscream, mighty chieftain of the Warsong Clan, was the first to drink the blood of the demon that had tainted their entire race. That he did so willingly, damning himself to serve under the demon, and setting an example for the clans that followed to do the same. This information haunted Garrosh – was he of the same blood as his father? Was he fated to repeat the mistakes his father had made, was he destined to lead his little ragtag clan of orcs to downfall as his father had?

These worries plagued and consumed him. Years later, as Geyah’s health began failing, his worries deepened. If Geyah died, undoubtedly he would be expected to step into place as leader of the Mag’har, and he had convinced himself this was a task he was doomed to fail at spectacularly. He had no idea where his father had gone or what his father had done after that – no idea that Grom had gone through the portal to Azeroth, and found himself unable to return after the portal’s closure.

When players first reach Nagrand in The Burning Crusade expansion, they are introduced to Garrosh in Garadar – an orc that appears to be nothing more than a sullen, sulky child with serious daddy issues. Over the course of the quests in the zone, reputation among the Mag’har gradually rises. When all these quests are complete, Garrosh tells the player that the Greatmother would like to speak with them. Geyah sends the player on a series of errands – errands that involve eventually freeing the restless and angry spirits of the orc ancestors that inhabit Nagrand. Once completed, the player returns to Geyah and tells her of their success. She the then asks the player to go to Garrosh and tell him of what they’ve done, to perhaps lift his spirits.

What happens next is a bone of contention among many, and one of the key moments in time that players begin to hate this little guy. Instead of lauding the player for their success and cheering up, the player’s news only seems to drag Garrosh down further. The quest text is as follows:

You are an honorable <player race> . You have done much for the Mag’har. No one could ever deny your service to my people. Alas, the time of the Mag’har is at an end. You have shown me, more than anything, that I am unfit to lead these people. My cursed blood runs too deep. I will not… I cannot become the second Hellscream to damn the orcs.

Please, return to the Greatmother and tell her what I have told you. I am too ashamed to see her… to look into her eyes.

A lot of people found themselves really annoyed with Garrosh. I have to admit that I was one of them, at that point in the game’s release. I think most of this is because his back story hadn’t been fully fleshed out at that point. But put yourself in his shoes for a moment.

Here you are, just a kid with a dead mom, and your dad sends you off to live someplace really, really far away because you’re sick. You never hear anything from your dad again, not directly anyway. So you’ve got a dead mom, and a dad who supposedly sent you off for your own good and health, but didn’t take the time to check in and make sure you were all right. So questions start filtering through your mind – did dear old Dad leave me behind because I was ‘sick’, or because he didn’t want me around? Was I ‘sick’, or was I worthless in his eyes? Did he ever care at all? And despite all this, you long to see dad again, because he’s the only family you’ve got. You’re sick, desperately sick, and unable to do what is instinct to you – fight- instead having to lie in a bed and take orders from an orc woman you don’t really know all that well because she’s from a different clan altogether.

But daddy never shows up. Instead you get to hear what dad thought was way better than taking care of you – drinking demon’s blood and merrily leading the entirety of your race into life of demonic servitude, riddled with bloodlust and tainted with demonic influence.

Right. That’s going to make you feel real good about yourself. So you continue on, trying your best to help your people, the ones that didn’t drink the demon’s blood. The ones that praise themselves for being untainted – the ones that took their name from the word meaning uncorrupted. The ones that looked upon those people your father led as being if nothing else, incredibly stupid for making a blood pact with a demon of all things. And those people look to you for leadership, but why would they bother when you’re the son of the person that was responsible for that which they despise so much?

One day, the matriarch of your village gets sick. Really sick. And suddenly you’re placed in a position where you may very well have to lead these people in her stead. But how can you even begin to hope that they would follow you, or that you would make a good leader for them? And then, out of nowhere, comes an upstart from another planet, who not only decides to spend their time helping your people, but does so with ease.

If the little guy from another world can do so much for your people in such a short period of time with seemingly little to no effort on their part, how could you ever, ever expect that you’d live up to your people’s expectations of you?

And so Garrosh tells the player to go back to Geyah, and the player has a nice conversation with her after telling her that Garrosh doesn’t seem to want to be a leader at all. During the course of this conversation it is revealed that Greatmother Geyah is none other than the Grandmother of Thrall. You know, your Warchief. She asks the player to go to Thrall, tell him of her existence and ask him to come to Garadar, as she is by now too weak to travel, but desperately wants to see her grandchild.

Warchief Thrall makes his appearance, and the two talk – and Greatmother Geyah asks of the great heroes of the past – including Grom Hellscream.

Well here’s the deal. Daddy did some bad things, and then Daddy? Got stranded in Azeroth, and over the course of time died with honor in combat with the demon that had enslaved the orcs for so long, freeing all of them from the blood pact at last. So Daddy wasn’t up to nothing, Daddy actually did some good things.

Daddy also killed a demigod, but we won’t mention that bit.

Thrall tells Geyah this, and she tells him of Garrosh – that Garrosh is convinced that he’s doomed to his father’s failure. Thrall leaves to go tell Garrosh what really happened to Grom – better yet, to show him.

One of the best parts of this entire epic questline is the point where Thrall shows Garrosh what happened to his father. Teeny tiny Thrall, Grom, and Mannoroth npcs re-enact the scene from Warcraft III, in which Grom kills Mannoroth and frees the orcs once and for all. The scene includes all the original voice files. Neat!

After this little scene has played out, Garrosh is thunderstruck. For him, this is not just a revelation – this is redemption for the shadow he had lived the entirety of his life under. He was not of a useless bloodline – he was of one of the greatest bloodlines of all, and his father was a hero. For the first time ever, he was finally proud of his heritage, and who he was. He thanked Thrall profusely for this information, his life now on a new and better track.

…sort of.

Son of…Azeroth? No thank you.

The Garrosh Hellscream of The Burning Crusade was a sad excuse of an orc, depressed and beaten, until Thrall showed up and gave him hope again. But Garrosh has changed, since then. Let’s look at what happened after The Burning Crusade.

One of the last things Greatmother Geyah says to the player in that epic questline is that it was all right that Garrosh couldn’t or wouldn’t step up as leader, because the player’s accomplishments have lifted the Mag’thar’s spirits so much that they are willing to fight for themselves as a united clan. So they don’t really need Garrosh hanging around. Grom Hellscream was more than a hero to the Horde, he was also one of Thrall’s closest friends and nearly a brother to the Warchief. So Thrall decided to bring Garrosh back with him to Azeroth as an advisor, and to take him under his wing a bit, perhaps. Show him a little more of the world out there.

This is where things get a little weird. See, Garrosh went back with Thrall because he was grateful to him for what he’d done. Maybe a small case of hero-worship to the orc that delivered him from what he had thought was a destiny of betrayal and screwups. The hero-worship was not to last, however. Some time after arriving back in Orgrimmar, Warchief Thrall was called to a peace summit with the newly found and restored king of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn. Wrynn had been on his way to what was supposed to have been the first peace summit between the orcs and humans, orchestrated by Jaina Proudmoore, but the Defias, manipulated by Onyxia, had detained the king, and it had been quite some time before anyone knew what had happened to him.

Once King Wrynn was restored, Varian’s  young son Anduin, suggested that the peace summit be scheduled once more. Varian, who had spent part of his time kidnapped by an orc shaman named Rehgar Earthfury, was forced during that time to participate in gladiatorial combat as a member of Earthfury’s team. Needless to say, orcs were not his favorite type of people, especially considering the fact that his father had been slain before his eyes by a half-orc assassin when he was just a child. Anduin was much more open-minded than his father, and pleaded with him to at least speak to Warchief Thrall, and set some measure of peace into place because that’s what kings were supposed to do. Varian couldn’t very well argue with his son’s logic, and so he agreed.

Jaina contacted Thrall, who was in the middle of speaking to both of his advisors – Garrosh, and a shaman by the name of Rehgar Earthfury. You know, the gladiator guy? After watching Broll and King Wrynn escape, he realized he’d both made enough money off of them to retire, and that his heart simply wasn’t in it anymore, and went to the Warchief to offer his services.

The timeline here is a little fuzzy, because it was presented in the Warcraft comics series. From the comics, one gets the impression that Wrynn wasn’t imprisoned with the orcs for more than a season of fighting – maybe a year, if that. But the amount of sheer distrust Wrynn holds for the orcs almost suggests that he was held for far longer. The other thing that’s confusing is that Wrynn seems to be awfully angry about his imprisonment, but during the course of the comics almost seems to enjoy his time with the gladiators – his team members, a druid named Broll Bearmantle and a blood elf named Valeera Sanguinar both became not only teammates, but fast friends and some of his closest allies during that time. King Wrynn was never beaten, never treated poorly, and so his bitterness seems a little awkward and misplaced.

But that’s really King Wrynn’s story, which I’ll go into next week as he’s just as hotly contested a character as Garrosh. Back to Garrosh!

Garrosh in the comics is a changed orc. No longer grateful for Warchief Thrall’s revelations, he is instead furious that Thrall would suggest that the orcs try and make peace with the humans. He would prefer that the orcs take Kalimdor – all of Kalimdor for their own, and has a passionate hatred for the Alliance.

Wait, what?

This is the first major problem I have with Garrosh Hellscream, and it’s something that just hasn’t been defined or justified. Garrosh hates the Alliance, but he had little to no knowledge of them prior to the events of The Burning Crusade. When the humans invaded Draenor the first time around, Garrosh simply wasn’t involved – he was too sick to fight against them. So where is all this hatred for the human race coming from? His father wasn’t even really involved with the humans so much – he was one of the few clans that managed to escape the internment camps that the humans had set up for the orcs in the Eastern Kingdoms, and he helped Thrall free the other orcs. But this is all history that Garrosh simply wasn’t around for.

Now Warchief Thrall, despite leading the orcs out of the internment camps and across the seas to freedom was still not the most popular leader, and perhaps his popularity was declining, especially since he insisted on hanging out with that human chick, Jaina Proudmoore. Not to mention he didn’t even have an heir – so what would happen if he died? Who would become Warchief? These restless mutterings amongst the orcs in Orgrimmar and elsewhere may have reached Hellscream’s ears, and he simply decided that popular opinion and keeping his clan happy was the way to go. The easy way out, as it were. And top it all off, Thrall treated Garrosh like a child – but Garrosh was older than the Warchief by several years at least. Being treated like a child by someone who’s years younger than you is downright insulting.

But this still doesn’t explain his fierce hatred for all things human, or the Alliance itself.

What I suggest is that perhaps the apple didn’t fall quite as far from the tree as Garrosh had previously thought. Perhaps his bloodline, a bloodline of some of the fiercest orc warriors in existence, flows a little more dominantly through his veins than even he realized. Garrosh in Garadar was a weak excuse for an orc, thinking his bloodline a tainted one and that he was destined to lead the Mag’har to their eventual destruction. Thrall showed up and showed him that even Grom had chosen a different path. The path of the hero. Grom Hellscream was one of the most lauded heroes of the Horde at that time – heck they still have a holiday to remember him and others. There’s a giant freaking monument dedicated to the guy.

So perhaps that got Garrosh Hellscream to thinking – here was his father, a Big Damn Hero, and here was Garrosh, a…well, an advisor to the guy who was the current Big Damn Hero. No longer did Garrosh have to worry about being under the shadow of his father’s poor decisions – instead, he had to contend with living up to his father’s monstrously good reputation. And here was Warchief Thrall – certainly a mighty Warchief, but curiously discontent with fighting and establishing dominance the good old-fashioned orc way – using words instead of fists. What was up with that? The rest of the orcs certainly didn’t seem particularly happy with Thrall’s decisions.

So maybe Garrosh decided that the best way to be a Big Damn Hero just like his father was to take the orcs and lead them the way they wanted to be led. Not by words, but by actions. Not by diplomatic talks, but by decisive actions and displays of dominance. The kind of display that is natural to an orc. Perhaps he was bitter about being taken from the Mag’har and placed instead in what in his eyes was a lesser role. Here he was, confident and ready to lead, and it turned out the Mag’har didn’t even need him anymore.

Regardless, Garrosh grew more and more frustrated with Thrall’s actions – the talks of peace, of cooperation were not the ways of the orc, and he didn’t like the way Thrall was leading. Rehgar on the other hand was content to follow Thrall’s path, having gained an understanding of Thrall’s wisdom over the years that Garrosh simply hadn’t been exposed to.

Thrall brought Garrosh and Rehgar with him to the peace talks. Rehgar for his wisdom, and Garrosh, to perhaps show him that the humans weren’t really all that bad, and that peace was really much more effective than violence. The talks commenced, and Thrall and Wrynn found themselves with a bit more in common than they’d thought – both were trained as gladiators and fought in gladiatorial combat, although Thrall’s experiences were a hell of a lot more violent and terrible than Wrynn’s. The summit was cut short as Wrynn received news of scourge attacks on Southshore and Goldshire, and Thrall and Wrynn agreed to continue the talks another time.

Unfortunately it was not to be. Suddenly a group of attackers arrived on the scene, made up of people both Horde and Alliance. These people were members of a cult obsessed with bringing an Old God back to life – and they didn’t want any interference from either side, so they staged the attack in the hopes that it would stir up conflict between the two. The Horde members attacked Wrynn, and the Alliance members attacked Thrall, Garrosh and Rehgar, leading both sides to believe this was a calculated attack by the other to take them out while they were vulnerable.

Wrynn was furious – not only was he attacked by members of the Horde, but one of the orcs sent to attack him was none other than the very half-orc that had killed his father – Garona, an assassin who had spent her time lying low ever since she’d murdered King Wyrnn’s dear old dad. Garona was not under her own control, she was being manipulated by the leader of the cult and had been sent there specifically to trigger an outburst between the Alliance and Horde, and also? To die. See it turns out her son, born after she’d murdered old King Wrynn was the subject of a prophecy, and the cult was really interested in that. But they couldn’t do anything to the son without taking out the mother first, and so they used her for this particular task, thinking that it was an awfully good way to kill two birds with one stone.

Garona was left frozen in place by the cult leader to die as the cultists flew off. Garrosh moved in to kill Garona, but was stopped by Jaina and accused flat-out by Wrynn of trying to kill Garona before she could implicate Thrall as the very person who’d sent her to murder both him and his son in the first place. Garrosh, incensed, leapt to attack King Wrynn but was stopped by Thrall and ordered to sit the hell down and chill out while the Warchief tried to figure out what had just happened.

Garrosh thought Wrynn had arranged the whole thing, accusing him of bringing the supposed ‘peace’ summit into play only to get the Warchief to a place where he’d be unarmed and unable to fight back. Varian was convinced that Garona was an agent of Thrall’s. They were at an impasse,  and Wrynn stayed behind to interrogate Garona as the Warchief, disappointed, left with his advisors. Jaina apologized to Thrall for the whole mess, insisting that they could try again at another point, but Thrall said it was unlikely that the peace talks would resume anytime soon. The three left to find that Stormwind was not alone. Even Orgrimmar and the surrounding areas were being targeted by the Scourge, which pointed at a likely move by the Lich King to advance and destroy Azeroth once and for all.

Wrath of the Lich King, Wrath of Stormwind’s King

Incensed, Garrosh viewed the whole peace summit incident as a disaster.  The orcs lost face and a it was a prime example of the Warchief’s weakness and inability to lead. But the Lich King posed a larger threat, and Garrosh insisted that the Horde’s armies be taken immediately to Northrend under his command to fight the Scourge on their own turf. Thrall disagreed, favoring a more cautious approach – he wanted to send an advance scouting party to the frozen continent before committing the troops there, and he also wanted to meet up with Jaina to see what the Alliance planned to do and whether or not the Horde and Alliance could work together on this. Garrosh accused Thrall outright of being a weakling in front of half of Orgrimmar, and Thrall responded the only way he could – by baiting Garrosh into challenging him before Hellscream was really ready to fight. Thrall told Garrosh that while the humans were no threat, the Lich King definitely was, and that he was not about to walk blindly into the Lich King’s hands – nor was he about the make the same mistakes as Garrosh’s father.

Oh snap.

Garrosh and Thrall duked it out in the Valley of Honor, and Garrosh…won. Won? Well, he knocked Thrall to the ground, and definitely had the upper hand. But Garrosh’s victory was interrupted by an all out attack by the Lich King’s forces on Orgrimmar, and Thrall told Garrosh they would finish things another time.

Finish things? Finish things? Didn’t Garrosh just lay the smackdown on Warchief Thrall? Doesn’t that mean he’s supposed to be the new Warchief of the Horde? Nope.

Instead, Thrall agreed to send Garrosh to Northrend, naming him overlord of the Warsong Offensive – the main army of the Horde Expedition in Northrend. Along with Garrosh, he sent High Overlord Saurfang as chief advisor to keep an eye on Hellscream. Saurfang warned Thrall against sending Hellscream north with so many under his command, fearing a resurgence of the bloodlust that had dominated the Horde for so long prior to the death of Mannoroth, but the Warchief’s stance was firm. Garrosh would be sent north, Saurfang with him. The two set up camp at Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra, leading the troops and spending the majority of their time pissing each other off.

Players first making their way to the Borean Tundra are sent to speak to Garrosh, and receive two very different responses depending on whether or not they have completed the questline involving Thrall coming to Nagrand in the Burning Crusade. If you have completed the quest, you get the following text:

Do not think that I have forgotten what you did for my people in Nagrand. Hellscream never forgets.
For that I am indebted to you and it is why I give you this chance now: run. Leave this place and never look back.
Return to your home and say a prayer for the dying.

If the player has not completed the events to help out Garrosh in Nagrand, they instead receive the following greeting:

A hero of the Horde, eh?
<Garrosh sniffs at the air around you.>
Fear…
<Garrosh spits.>
You won’t last long.

Such a charmer, isn’t he?

Garrosh was given the leadership he so desperately craved, but what kind of leadership was it really? An attack force of warriors to be sure, but despite the title of Overlord, he still answered to the Warchief just like anyone else. Not only that but Saurfang had been sent along to baby-sit him. These actions only spurred Garrosh further into his resentment and fury at Thrall.

Warchief Thrall, along with Overlord Hellscream, were called to the Violet Citadel in Dalaran by Rhonin of the Kirin Tor. It seemed the Scourge wasn’t the only problem in Northrend. A dwarf named Brann Bronzebeard had led an expedition into the temple of Ulduar and discovered something incredibly disturbing – Ulduar and the titans within it were corrupted by something just as deadly as the Lich King’s forces – the stirrings of an Old God. Yogg-Saron had awakened, and his influence had already tainted the titans living within Ulduar’s walls. Obviously, this was a force that needed to be reckoned with before Yogg-Saron got out of control.

Thrall and Garrosh arrived – just in time to see Rhonin speaking with King Varian Wrynn about the same subject. Wrynn was already pissed off at the Horde for their involvement in the events surrounding the Wrathgate – events which killed his advisor, best friend, and the man who had watched over his kingdom and his son in his absence, Bolvar Fordragon. Bolvar was like a brother to King Wrynn – and as the attack at the Wrathgate was a direct result of the Forsaken, Wrynn blamed the Horde for Bolvar’s death, despite Thrall’s efforts to explain that the Forsaken that had developed the lethal plague that killed Bolvar were not under the Horde’s jurisdiction, but a rogue group under the influence of the Burning Legion.

Garrosh caught sight of Wrynn, Wrynn caught sight of Garrosh, and the two exchanged heated words that quickly escalated to blows, both clearly intent on killing each other. Rhonin interrupted the fight and told the two leaders that they had lost much, but they stood to lose much more if they did not work together. King Wrynn, still incensed and grieving for the man he thought of as a brother, told Rhonin that the partnership at the Wrathgate had killed more of the Alliance’s men than the Scourge – and said he was done dealing with the Horde, and as far as he was concerned he would be perfectly happy letting the Old God take them all. Garrosh, infuriated, told Thrall that a true Warchief would never partner with cowards. Thrall had no response other than that Garrosh had disappointed him.

And so Rhonin and the Kirin Tor were left to their own devices to come up with some other way to fight the Old God in Ulduar. The Horde and Alliance leaders would have nothing to do with it – and nothing to do with each other.

This attitude continued as Highlord Tiron Fordring, Supreme Commander of the Argent Crusade, came up with a plan – a tournament, held within Icecrown’s peaks, in which combatants would be pitted against each other in order to test their mettle and prove whether or not they were capable of surviving an assault upon Icecrown Citadel. Garrosh thought the whole idea utterly absurd – what was the point, he argued, of beating each other with blunted sticks? It was a waste of time. Thrall told Garrosh they were guests and as such they should be on their best behavior, not wanting a repeat of what occurred at Violet Citadel.  Garrosh replied that it was simply a show of strength – and that his only regret was that he hadn’t killed Wrynn before Rhonin’s interference.

The Crusader’s Coliseum was host to the ‘games’ that Tirion asked the Horde and Alliance forces to play – pitting worthy combatants against some of the fiercest creatures that Icecrown and the surrounding areas could offer. Thrall, Garrosh, King Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore were asked to come and observe the battles. Perhaps Tirion thought that this would bring the two sides closer together. Unfortunately, he was wrong – a gnome warlock, asked to summon a doomguard for the combatants to fight, mistakenly summoned a demon lord instead. The demon killed the gnome and turned on the combatants below.

Garrosh, observing all of this, made the logical leap – that Varian had arranged this and deliberately brought in one of his own warlocks to summon the demon lord and attempt to decimate the Horde forces. Howling for vengeance, he demanded that the next battle be between Horde and Alliance, and not against the Crusade’s champions as previously planned. Tirion allowed it – but mourned the loss of the warriors that fell in the battle.

And this is where we leave Garrosh Hellscream in World of Warcraft, for now. An angry, bitter son of an orc hero who was at one time a remarkable leader, chafing under the peaceful intentions of Warchief Thrall and wanting nothing more than to prove his own worth. There are several issues surrounding Garrosh that are currently unresolved – the largest being the fight that Thrall and Garrosh had just before the Scourge invasion, the one in which Garrosh quickly gained the upper hand.

As for Thrall, he had the best intentions at heart for Garrosh and wanted nothing more than to take care of his best friend’s son and try to teach him the ways of the new Horde. But he soon had more than he could handle, and is it any wonder? Garrosh is from one of the older clans in orc history – a proud one, and his father was not only a fierce warrior, but a natural leader.

In the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, several sites have leaked spoilers stating that Garrosh Hellscream is to be the new Warchief of the Horde, as Thrall has interests elsewhere. This has cause a gigantic rift in Horde players – some are ecstatic that the hand-holding Alliance and Horde that skipped merrily along and worked together during the Burning Crusade are once again going to be at each other’s throats. Others – the vocal majority – are insisting that the moment Hellscream takes over, they are paying their money and faction switching just so they can kill the little upstart. King Varian Wrynn caused the same kind of uproar when he returned among Alliance players – but more and more players have slowly gotten used to the King, even coming to admire him. Is the same fate in store for Garrosh Hellscream?

Or is Garrosh Hellscream a, as so many people put it, total and complete jerk?

Stranger in A Strange Land

I like to think that Garrosh isn’t really a jerk – he’s just out of place, and out of his depth. In my previous posts, Orc History part 1 and 2 and the summary afterwards, I pointed out that the orcish race of Draenor was at best a primitive society, a society in which fists and fighting spoke much more of prowess and strength than talking and negotiation. Garrosh Hellscream was a part of this society, and had been raised in the ways of the orcs of Draenor. When Thrall plucked him from the primitive clan of the Mag’har and brought him back to Azeroth’s Horde, it was only natural that Garrosh was uneasy and out of place. The ideals of leadership that Thrall touted were based largely around the concept of honor – a concept he’d been taught by a human. Garrosh had no such teacher, and was not around for the internment camps, did not experience the thrill of liberation at the hands of one green-skinned blue-eyed orc, and simply could not fathom Thrall’s way of thinking. It was complete and utter culture shock, and as Garrosh learned more of Thrall’s ways, and the ways of the Horde of Azeroth, the less he understood.

Then there’s the matter of who Garrosh is – the son of Grom Hellscream. His bloodline is one of fierce warriors and leaders, not one of diplomats and advisors. It’s in Garrosh’s blood to lead, but it’s impossible for him to do so while under Thrall’s watchful eye. Or rather, it’s impossible for him to do so in a manner that he views as proper. The ways of leadership among the Mag’har and earlier orcs were a stark contrast to Thrall’s gentle nature, and Thrall had an altogether different idea of what leadership meant.

While Thrall could’ve taught Garrosh his way of leadership in time, there was very little time to be had. The attacks by the Scourge were sudden, swift, and unpredicted – exactly as the Lich King wanted. The fact that Garrosh was stuck in the middle of all of this and chafing at having to be an advisor to someone younger than him was merely icing on the cake. I doubt the Lich King knew of Garrosh, but I’m sure he does by now. What better way to weaken those forces fighting against you, than by deliberately sowing the seeds of contention between them? It’s a very Lich King move – and I’m sure he’s watching the antics between the Alliance and Horde and laughing.

Warchief Thrall has a mission of peace and diplomacy between the orcs and the other races of Azeroth. It’s a noble cause, but it’s a cause that’s very human in nature. Thrall was raised by humans – some of whom were cruel, some of which treated him kindly. This gave him the kind of outlook no other orc on Azeroth could truly understand. Is it any wonder that the orcs of Orgrimmar are beginning to consider the possibility that he isn’t a fit leader for them? They only know the experiences they went through – cruel treatment at the hands of humans, and then rescue by one of their kind. Of course they aren’t going to be disposed to diplomatic relations. These are the same creatures that defeated them, shamed them, and stuck them all in camps when they were at their weakest.

Enter Garrosh Hellscream – a throwback to an earlier time, a time when glory and victory were all that mattered to an orc, a time before the interference of humans and the other races of the Alliance. Naturally the powerful and promising orc is going to look better when placed in comparison with Thrall. Thrall’s got too many new and foreign ideas, whereas Garrosh? Garrosh knows what it means to be an orc.

There is an old saying, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink’. Thrall has tried his hardest to show his people a new way of thinking, a new way of living – but perhaps his people simply aren’t ready to follow that path. It’s something to consider, and it explains much of why Garrosh could be chosen as a leader over Thrall.

Either way, Cataclysm is shaping up to be a complete departure from everything the World of Warcraft players have ever known – and Blizzard seems to be setting things up to put the war back in Warcraft. Whether you love him or hate him, Garrosh is here to stay, but I hope this look into Garrosh’s background and history at least gives something more to consider.

Yes, I am not kidding. Blizzard, it seems is very seriously contemplating to boost their already fat wallets with another enhancement of gamers experience or ‘how to get more $$$ out of you’. 

You won’t need to level up and hunt down a mount to get an animal companion in Blizzard Entertainment’s latest in-game business venture. The newly opened “World of Warcraft” Pet Store accepts real money for critters and even includes a charitable angle tied to its $10 price tags.

 ”Today we’re pleased to introduce the Pet Store for ‘World of Warcraft,’ a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth,” Blizzard announced this week. “Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil’ K.T. and the Pandaren Monk.”

Each pet currently runs $10, and the Pandaren Monk comes with an extra holiday marketing pitch, thanks to its ties to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

“For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life,” Blizzard stated.

The pets are listed in the Blizzard Store under the “Collectibles” tab and will each be available exclusively there, not through other questing or adventuring means. They do not, however, appear to have any in-battle use, so don’t buy one expecting it to unleash Panda kung-fu action on your rival guilds.

What kind of pet do you want to see offered through the “World of Warcraft” Pet Store? Do think your “WoW” character could use an animal companion? Share your comments on our blog.

You know, I’ve looked and I’ve looked online just about everywhere, but I have yet to find a map of pre-Sundering Azeroth – what the continents looked like before the Sundering that split them into the continents of Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Northrend that we know today.

I can talk till I’m blue in the face about how Azeroth used to be nothing BUT Kalimdor, but it’s easier to show what it looked like – please note, the following is a VERY rough map, and not officially sanctioned by Blizzard. It is more than likely that the land mass was larger than what I’ve depicted here, and the territorial borders were placed there in the interests of speculation and theory more than anything.

Click for a larger image.

What you can see from this is that #1 – Zin-Azshari? Was HUGE. It covered a VERY large portion of Kalimdor. Think of New York City, and then triple or quadruple it. The Highborne concentrated closer to the Well of Eternity (the blue portion in the center), and Suramar bordered it on the far side. I’ll go more into Suramar and what exactly you could find there in the next Night Elf History post – but for now, think of it as the religious capital of the kaldorei.

The red areas are leftovers from the war between the trolls and the aqir – the aqir being the descendants of what are now known as the Nerubians to the north, and the Qiraji to the south.

The green areas are two distinct areas of green, and I may tweak with those at a later point when I go further into troll history – the lighter green is what is left of the Amani empire, which used to cover much of the area now taken by the kaldorei. The Amani empire split into several smaller tribes that are scattered along the northwest of the Eastern Kingdoms. While the Shatterspear trolls of northern Darkshore are attributed as Gurubashi in origin, I theorize they are actually an offshoot of what was once an Amani tribe, as the Gurubashi were primarily located in the south, and nowhere NEAR where the Shatterspear are currently located. I’ve also theorized that the Sandfury down south in Tanaris were originally Amani in origin.

Really what I’m looking at and what lore seems to suggest is that the Amani tribe started out in the northern forests and jungles, fairly concentrated in the center, but once the kaldorei developed, they pushed the Amani Empire back on BOTH sides – not just to the eastern coasts, but the western coasts as well. The majority of what was left of the Amani on the western coasts were killed when the Sundering occured, but there were still a few straggling tribes that we see today here and there on present-day Kalimdor.

The darker green is the Gurubashi empire – or what’s left of that. You can see it’s still fairly massive, and even post-sundering the Gurubashi covered much of the southern portion of the Eastern Kingdoms. The southern troll tribes all split from the Gurubashi originally.

Regardless! None of this is fact, really I made the majority of it up, but as I can’t seem to find a ‘real’ map anywhere, I thought I’d throw one together for the purposes of demonstrating just how large pre-Sundering Kalimdor was.

If anyone manages to hunt down an actual map of pre-Sundering Kalimdor, I’d love to see it!

Edit: After a quick question thrown at the Queue over on wow.com, it’s come to my attention that there isn’t a map, apparently. How sad. It’s also come to my attention while working on the Night Elf History posts (now complete!) that man I made a lot of little mistakes here and there. I will probably be tweaking and reposting this map as time goes on and I gather more information on what goes where.

In the interests of keeping things tidy, I am also considering putting together a companion map of Draenor, pre world-explodey-terrible-bad-boom. If I do, I’ll post it as well, of course. Keep an eye on the blog for more Lore History, more conclusions, more RP Tips and in-depth looks at characters in Warcraft lore!

This week’s lore history focus is on one of the most complex races in Warcraft History – the Night Elves. The night elves are allied with the Alliance, all that is good and noble and pure in the land of Azeroth. But a deeper look into night elf history uncovers far less good intentions and noble behavior than one would be led to believe…

The history of the night elves is long, complicated, and spans over sixteen thousand years. That’s a whole lot of history to cover, so for today I’m going to focus on one of the more irritating points of contention in night elf history.  Where exactly did the night elves come from in the first place?

To answer this we have to go back to the beginning of Azeroth, when the world contained only one continent – Kalimdor.

The Well of Eternity

Once Upon A Time, there was a planet called Azeroth. And on this planet was a continent – a single one, named Kalimdor. Kalimdor was home to several races of beings, but the one we’re going to focus on for the moment is the troll.

The troll? Wait – wasn’t this supposed to be an article about the origins of night elves?

Well, yes and no. There are many, many theories on how the night elves, and the elves themselves began – none confirmed, although the one most strongly hinted at is the one we’re going to look at today. So, to continue:

On this continent of Kalimdor, there was a really, really interesting lake. Nobody honestly knew where the lake had come from – some sources imply that the Titans put it there to begin with to assist in the creation of life on Azeroth. This lake, the Well of Eternity, was fueled by energy from the Great Dark Beyond. The Great Dark Beyond is that space between worlds, the first of everything when there was nothing, and the source of creation for worlds. In layman’s terms, outer space, only magical outer space. The Well of Eternity acted as a mystical fount, spewing its energies across the world and generating and nourishing life in all its forms.

One of the more interesting forms of life that developed on Kalimdor were the trolls – a primitive, somewhat brutal race of beings that included several tribes. The first tribe from which all other tribes originated was the Zandalar, but over time, two distinct troll empires developed – the Amani Empire of the middle lands, and the Gurubashi Empire of the southern jungles. Ancient texts speak of a small faction of trolls that broke off from the Amani Empire, founding their own colony in the heart of Kalimdor.

There, these trolls discovered the Well of Eternity – and a transformation occurred, spurred by the magical energies and raw power of the Well itself. Legends suggest that these trolls were the first night elves, although these legends have never been proven in one way or another.

According to night elf history, a group of nocturnal, feral, nomadic humanoids lived in heart of Kalimdor, and were considered the greatest tribe in the land. At some point, they were drawn to the power of the Well, and gave it the name we call it by – the Well of Eternity. They settled near this well and adopted the name ‘kaldorei’, meaning “Children of the Stars” in their native tongue. After living peacefully near the well for ages, they grew in power and wisdom, soon outstripping the other races of Azeroth and creating an empire of their own. These kaldorei would later be known as the night elves.

The kaldorei worshipped the moon goddess, Elune – night elf history states that they worshipped her before they discovered the Well of Eternity, and the reason they settled there was because they had decided this was Elune’s home – that she lived in the waters during the day, and emerged at night. This is why the kaldorei settled there in the first place – why choose to be anywhere but the arms of your benevolent goddess? Elune is one of the few true ‘deities’ in the world of Azeroth, and one of the most powerful. She is credited for protecting all things living, and allowing them the chance to grown and thrive. Wherever she found violence, she would cast her calming influence, so that peace might be given another chance to thrive.

You’ll notice an awfully large discrepancy between troll and night elf history. While troll legend doesn’t out and out state that the night elves were troll in origin, night elf history neglects to mention the trolls at all – which is entirely expected of the night elf race, for reasons that will be looked at a bit later.

It has been argued back and forth as to which theory is correct, and die-hard night elf players will cling to the kaldorei theory, while die-hard troll players cling gleefully to the theory that night elves were trolls all along. I like to subscribe to a different theory altogether. I like to think that both sides were right, in their own way, and offer up a theory of my own. Please note, this theory is nothing more than speculation.

Here we have a group of trolls, a group of ‘feral, nomadic humanoids’ that split from the Amani Empire and founded their own colony in the heart of Kalimdor. But why did they split from the Amani Empire, when the Amani were one of the two major founding empires of troll society as we know it today? Perhaps because they’d heard the call of something higher than themselves – something that spoke to them of peace, of healing, of the joy to be found in shadows and whispers of the dark. These tentative whispers bade them leave the violent tenets of Amani society and seek something better for themselves, a life of peace and understanding, harmony with nature and the life contained within it. And so the trolls left, seeking the source of the voice, and settled in the heart of Azeroth.

Elune’s whole shtick as far as being a demigod was calming the violent and promoting peace and life. The Amani were a particularly brutal tribe of trolls – so it would stand to reason that all the battles, bloodshed, and infighting would capture the deity’s attentions. Elune herself has never been seen in physical form, although hallucinations and visions always show her appearing as a night elf – long, pale hair, eyes of pure moonlight, and bathed in a radiant luminescence reminiscent of the moon. In real world mythology and religion, gods are wont to shape their followers in their own image – it stands to reason that the trolls, finally making their way to the Well of Eternity, discovered Elune herself. Elune, being the benevolent deity that she is, shaped the trolls into creatures of her own image, in reward for leaving the ways of violence and seeking a higher, peaceful path – and also to differentiate her followers from the brutish trolls. This is how the night elves were born – not of evolution, but of sheer magic, which suits the night elf mythos nicely.

This fits neatly between both troll and night elf history – and as both races are prone to bouts of self-importance, it stands to reason neither would be willing to bend as far as creation theories go. The trolls would continue assuming the night elves were merely weaker cousins of the mighty troll empire, and the night elves…

Well, the night elves weren’t about to link themselves with savage brutes. They were far, far better than that.

The kaldorei went forth and multiplied and, save for a few uneasy skirmishes with the trolls, lived in relative peace alongside the Well of Eternity, expanding their small tribe into what would become the greatest city of them all – Zin’Azshari, the Glory of Azshara. The Well of Eternity continued to entrance and imbue them with its arcane energy and magics…but as with all creatures, whether they be from Draenor or Azeroth, it pulsed with the one thing that would eventually be the downfall of their great civilization: Power.

More to come in the next Lore History post: History of the Night Elves – Azshara’s Got Some Mighty Tracts of Land

There are many Warcraft players out there that claim that orcs are evil, terrible creatures and that the Horde are obviously the Bad Guys of WoW. But in looking at this brief repost of orcish history, is this really the case? Let’s look a little more closely at some of the more common refrains sung by players with this idealogy in mind:

1. The orcs killed all the draenei!

They did. Absolutely, without a doubt, they senselessly murdered and attempted to hunt an entire race to extinction. But they were under the influence of one of the most powerful demon lords in history, and under the influence of the Blood of Mannoroth. This doesn’t absolve them of their sins, but it does shed some light into why they chose to do what they did – the original lead in this play, Ner’zhul, was convinced that the draenei were out to get them. And he’d been told so by a vision of his dead wife – who was he to know that this vision was nothing more than a lie?

2. The orcs knew what they were doing when they drank that blood! They did it on purpose!

Well…yes and no. They knew the Blood of Mannoroth would give them power, which is why Gul’dan urged everyone to drink it.  There were a few orcs that were wary enough of its influence to avoid the Blood altogether. Ner’zhul tried to warn everyone that this would be an incredibly bad thing to do, but on one side, the orcs had an incredibly powerful sorcerer with the words of the Great One backing him up saying this would be peachy-keen, on the other they had a former Warchief, stripped of his powers by the Great One he’d been lauding for so long because he’d dared turn his back on the Great One’s words.

To put it in more modern terms – you have a terribly popular group of people, led by one person and his terribly popular  sidekick. The sidekick does something that gets himself shunned from the group, and immediately turns around and starts badmouthing Mr. Popular. Are you going to believe the sidekick, or are you going to assume the only reason sidekick is badmouthing is because he got the shaft in the first place?

3. The orcs invaded Azeroth just to kill all the humans!

Of course they did. And they were instructed to do so by a human that was possessed by the spirit of arguably one of the most powerful beings in the universe. But this was all at the behest of Gul’dan, who was without doubt one of the most selfish, power-hungry orcs out there – and he was doing it as a means to an end. He didn’t care about the humans or whether they lived or died, what he cared about was the Tomb of Sargeras, and the body contained within that would make him a god. If he had to kill a boatload of weak looking pink-skinned twerps that were standing in his way? So be it.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

While it can be argued that the orcs should have known better, what has to be looked at is this: The orcs were originally a very quiet, spiritual people that were highly attuned with the spirits. They had their own religion and society, a society that was primitive at best. Power was something that was key to moving up in the world, and most orcs had the same base craving for power that all beings did – they just weren’t smart enough to realize they were being led astray.

Had the world remained untampered, had the draenei never landed on the planet, the orcs would most likely be quietly continuing just as they’d began – a quiet race of creatures with a penchant for shamanism and communion with the spirits that would never have thought about senselessly murdering an entire race of beings. With no demon vendettas to guide them, they’d have no reason to leave the simple path they’d carved out for themselves.

It could be argued that the only thing the orcs are all-out guilty of is simply not being terribly bright.

While the orcs are commonly thought of as the Bad Guys of Warcraft, and were probably written as being so at first, the orc race has evolved into something much more complex. A group of…well, not Good Guys, but just guys that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The development of the orc’s origins has transformed them from being a simple bloodthirsty group of savages into a relatable group of beings. Beings that have their own heroes and villains in spades.

Stay tuned for more Warcraft lore and analysis – the orcs are just the beginning! Next week, I’ll touch on the origins of one of the so-called Good Guys – the night elves, and boy is that one going to wear my typing fingers out!

Kadim kadim zamanlarda daha Titanlar Azeroth’a gelip düzen vermeye başlamadan önce tabiat güçleri ile doğrudan temasta oldukları düşünülen Eski Tanrılar Azeroth’un hakimleri idi. O çağlarda Azeroth’da yaşayan canlılar arasında bu Tanrılara inanan ve tapınanlar vardı ve Eski Tanrılar Azeroth’u bir tiranlık şeklinde yönetiyorlardı. Eski Tanrılar’ın kökenleri ve doğaları hakkında neredeyse hiçbir şey bilinmemektedir.

Titanlar Azeroth’a geldiklerinde, Eski Tanrılara tapınanlar, Eski Tanrıların komutanları ile Titanlar arasında şiddetli bir savaş yaşandı. Bu savaşın ne kadar sürdüğü konusunda kimsenin bir bilgisi yoktur ama efsaneler bunun çağlar boyunca sürdüğünü anlatmaktadır. Bu uzun ve zorlu savaştan Titanlar galip çıktı ve efsanelere göre Eski Tanrılar ve SavaşEfendileri, Titanlar tarafından gezegenin/evrenin derinliklerinde bir boyuta hapsedildi. Bazı yorumlara göre bu bir hapis değildi, Eski Tanrılar ve SavaşEfendileri Titanlar tarafından uyutulmuştu.

Eski Tanrı’ların sayısı konusunda çeşitli kaynaklar farklı rakamlar vermektedir. World of Warcraft resmi sitesindeki tarihçeye göre 5 adet Eski Tanrı Titanlar tarafından hapsedilmiştir. Richard A. Knaak’ın “Kadimler Savaşı – War of the Ancients” üçlemesine göre o çağlarda yaşamakta olan 3 adet Eski Tanrı mevcuttur.

Eski Tanrılar hakkında genel kabul gören görüş 5 adet Eski Tanrı’nın olduğu ve bunlardan bir tanesinin Titanlarla yapılan savaş sırasında öldürüldüğüdür. İddialara göre öldürülen Eski Tanrı’nın kalıntıları Kalimdor kıtasında Darkshore şehrindeki Master’s Glaive bölgesindedir. Bahsi geçen kalıntının kafatasının üzerinde Titanlardan birine ait olduğuna inanılan büyük bir kılıç saplıdır. Diğer Eski Tanrılar yenilmiş ve üç tanesi güçlerinden arındırılmıştır ancak hala ölümlülerin kavrayabileceğinden çok daha fazla güce sahip oldukları düşünülmektedir. Beşinci Eski Tanrı ise halen Silithus olarak bilinen bölgede yenilmiş ancak yokedilmemiştir.

Her ne kadar Eski Tanrılar hapsedilmiş/zayıflatılmış olsa da yaydıkları kötü enerjinin halen Azeroth’a ulaşabildiği düşünülmektedir. Bu enerji yüzünden hala bazılarının Eski Tanrılara inanmaya devam ettikleri ve Titanların düzenine kötülük yapmak için çalıştıklarına inanılmaktadır.

WoW içerisinde tanımlanabilmiş iki adet Eski tanrı mevcuttur. Eğer sizler de benim gibi WoW’la Burning Crusade eklenti paketinden sonra tanıştıysanız bu Eski Tanrıları oyun içerisinde henüz görmemiş olabilirsiniz. Tanımlanabilen Eski Tanrıların şu ana dek oyun içerisinde görülebileni C’Thun’dur ve Ahn’Qiraj’da bir Boss’tur. Efsanelere göre Titanlarla yapılan savaşta Silithus bölgesinde düşen ancak yokolmayan Eski Tanrı C’Thun’dur. Çağlar boyunca saklandığı yerden dünyayı izlemiş, Leyjon’un gelişini görmüş ve kendi geleceği ile ilgili planlar yapmıştır. Kadim çağlarda böceksi yaratıklar olan Silithidleri kendisine bağlamış ve onlar arasından kendi avatarlarını çıkarmıştır. Silithidlere bahşettiği güçler sayesinde Silithidler Orklar Azeroth’a gelmeden 16.000 yıl önce bir imparatorluk bile kurmuşlardır.

Tanımlandığı düşünülen ve Wrath of the Lich King ekentisi ile daha da netleşmesi beklenen diğer Eski Tanrı Yogg-Saron’dur. İddialara göre Warcraft III’de Arthas’ın Northrend kıtasında yeraltı geçitlerinden birinde rastladığı “Unutulmuş Olan – Forgotten One” isimli yaratık bu eski Tanrı’nın ya kendisi ya da Avatarıdır. Bu Eski Tanrı’ya kuzey kıtasındaki Nerubian halkının tapındığı düşünülmektedir. Bu Eski Tanrı ile ilgil detaylar WotLK oyunu ilerledikçe ve detaylar oyuncular tarafından ortaya çıkarıldıkça belirginleşecektir.

Eski Tanrılar konusu Warcraft evreninin en çetrefilli konularından biridir. Bu konuya tam olarak hakim olabilmek kaynaklar arasındaki bilgi farkları yüzünden şimdilik mümkün görünmemektedir. Warcraft dünyasının kadim tarihi de aslında gerçek dünyamızın kadim tarihi gibi muğlak ve kesin olmayan bilgilerle doludur ve belki de özellikle Blizzard tarafından bu konuda kesin ve net bir açıklama yapılmamaktadır.

My warrior at level 6 and again at level 51. They grow up so fast!

Part 12 of the Summer of Warcraft series.

Well, it’s been a fun ride, but the leaves are changing and summer is officially over. And so is my romp through Azeroth. A few observations on the game as I leave it for now:

- Massively online gaming has a long way to go to attract a mainstream audience. Warcraft is the most mainstream of the MMOs, and it is has very little content for those who would use the platform as a social experience. I have seen flashes of community during my time in the world, such as happy hours at the inn and a wedding at the Stormwind cathedral, but those moments are few and far between. They should be constant, but they are largely missing in the older areas of the game. Allowing players to customize their appearance, as they can in Second Life, and allowing players to sell their own customized wares (not just those already built into the job systems of the game and not just shirt emblems) would go very far toward doing that. That should be something players should be able to do right from the start, encouraging self-identity and community formation.

- The guilds need help. There needs to be a systematic way for new players to find and easily apply to guilds IN GAME. The short-lived New Horizons guild of which I am still a member helped a lot of new players get a foothold in the game early on, but they found me. I never would have known how to find them until much later. And much of the guild management tasks handled by guilds through their own web sites and databases should be built right into the game itself. Guild leaders should not have to work a second full time job just to organize instance runs and distribute loot.

- Many of my previous gripes are being addressed in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, including a complete overhaul of the old continents that encourage older players to come back and explore or, better yet, re-roll a character and join the noobs in progressing through the game. I also like that Blizzard is going to attempt to give the player permanent results for completed quests, giving the player a sense that he or she is leaving a mark on the world as the story progresses.

- When you install the Cartographer plugin, you discover very quickly that Azeroth is really pretty small.  The entire area of the older continents could fit into the county I live in with plenty of room to spare. In real life, the continents would be the size of a large town.

Hello, everybody!  Before I get into my review of the movie Year One, I just want to let you know where I’ve been for the last couple months.  I found my way into the World of Warcraft and have been battling the forces of the Scourge and the Bich King to save Azeroth.  I’ve managed to get my main character, a Night Elf Druid named Nagaira to level 59 and my Death Knight named DameNagaira to level 62, but I’ve gotten a bit burned out on it… Azeroth will have to find another hero to save them for a while… lol.  Mags has even gotten into it, but she plays like a girl.  Her idea of playing WoW is to ride boats, trams and flights and to camp out in the inns.   She cries about having to kill the tigers, lions, wolves, killer bunnies… and she doesn’t like to read the quest info, so basically, she never levels and everything can kill her.  So, I made a Death Knight for her that we can share.  I’ll level her, and she can run around where she wants without worry of death and resurrection… and finding her body, which can be a long, painstaking process because she likes to jump off cliffs, boats and buildings I couldn’t figure out how to res with the spirit healer until a couple weeks ago.  

But… I’m back to reading and trying to make up for lost time.  I’ve finished 3 books and am almost done with two more while away.  I’ll get the reviews written up for them soon.

So, now for Year One…

Year One is the result of a question posed by writer and director Harold Ramis:  How would a person with modern-day sensibilities and consciousness get along in a biblical-times society?  Particularly with the post-Christianity questioning and shifting ethics that is prevalent in many urbanites today.  The resulting cultural shock of the “enlightened chosen one,” Zed (played by Jack Black), and his side-kick friend, Oh (played by Michael Cera), as they find themselves thrust out of their caveman-village after Zed eats the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is hilarious.  In the span of 30 minutes or so, Zed and Oh witness the first fratricide when the meet Cain and Abel returning from their sacrifice, meet Lillith, the first lesbian, get sold into slavery, happen upon Abraham (played by Hank Azaria) as he’s about to sacrifice Isaac, get circumcised, travel to Sodom, join the city’s guard… only to end up as slaves, again.  Yet through it all, Zed continues to insist he’s been chosen by God or “the gods” (he’s not sure which, just sure He or they aren’t female,) and Oh rolls his eyes and plays ”Sancho Panza” to Zed’s “Don Quixote.”

This movie has a good mix of a fabulous cast who have great chemistry together, irreverent and iconoclastic humor, smart writing and pop-culture references (at one point, Oh chants, “Yes, we can!” and I nearly fell off my chair with laughter.) 

There were several surprises when I watched the behind-the-scenes segment on the DVD.  I was shocked when I found out that Oliver Platt had played the effeminent, pedophiliac high priest.  I never even recognized him!      I also hadn’t recognized Harold Ramis in the role of Adam, nor had I realized Isaac was played by the same actor who played McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).  In Year One,  Mintz-Plasse has long head-banger-like hair and is sans glasses, and Isaac, his character, is a kinda Heeb-wigger gangsta-wannabe (“I can see why his dad wanted to kill him,” Zed says at one point.)  Also a cast surprise was David Cross as Cain.  The whole time I watched the movie I kept trying to place the actor, and was convinced he was one of the Geico Cavemen, only to find out he played the only part of the Chipmunk movie I liked:  Uncle Ian.  I am still not completely convinced he didn’t play a Caveman.

One of my FAVORITE parts of Year One wasn’t even in the movie.  In the special features section of the DVD is a fantastic little 2 minute video called “Leeroy Jenkins:  The Gates of Sodom.”  It’s a Year One’s take on the now immortalized WoW raid.  They even address the two raging factions (seriously, there ARE people bitter and angry at each other over this!):  At the end of the clip, did Leeroy Jenkins huff “At least I AIN’T chicken” or did he brag ”At least I HAVE chicken?”  (Of course Isaac plays Leeroy… he did a Leeroy move in the movie, too, that got Zed and Oh in trouble while he ran off yelling, “Peace out, SUCKAS!”)

Things I could’ve lived without… they do go a bit far with the poop and pee jokes, but those are the same scenes that my 15 and 17 year olds repeat again and again… and again.  Also, there are sexual references and innuendos throughout the movie (they spend half of it in Sodom, you know, so you might find yourself barraged with uncomfortable questions by younger children… “Why is that girl eating a banana like that?  Why does that boy like watching her?  What does she mean, she likes to have sex with girls?  What is sodomy and why is it the best thing?”) and, at one point, Cain cajoles Oh’s desire to save himself for the girl he loves by saying, “What transpires within the confines of the walls of Sodom, stays within the confines of the walls of Sodom.”

Oh, a little funny side thought here…  Michael Cera played Paulie Bleeker, the hapless, accidental father-to-be to Ellen Page’s Juno in the award-winning 2007 film Juno, and in Year One, his character Oh’s love interest, Eema, is played by British actress Juno Temple.  Just thought that was neat.

Lors de la Blizzcon, Blizzard la société organisatrice du salon a présenté Cataclysm, la 3^e extension de son célèbre MMO : World of Warcraft. Et cette extension n’est pas des moindres : le monde d’Azeroth ne sera plus jamais le même ! Le monde d’Azeroth c’est-à-dire tout les territoires de World of Warcraft classic (ou WoW Vanilia) vont être refait !

Et puisque une vidéo vaux mieux qu’on long discours, je vous laisse regarder la vidéo de présentation !