Before I finish and post my review of Stormrage, by Richard Knaak, I figured I should clarify my feelings on the author himself. There are a lot of people who believe that I hate the man and his writing, that I'll avoid anything he writes or scoff at anything he says, and that I wish he'd never had any involvement with Warcraft lore.
All of this, quite simply, is untrue. Granted, while I'm not a fan of his, I far from hate him and wish to set the record straight about my feelings. Be warned, though, I don't enjoy what he's done to Warcraft lore, so there will be a healthy dose of ranting and bias in this post. Regardless, I feel this needs to be clarified for my readers.
Firstly, I'll say that I've never met Richard Knaak. I know little to nothing about him as a person outside of what can be gleaned from various interviews across the internet. Indeed, while I knew of his writing when I was heavily in the Dragonlance setting, I had never read one of his books until the Warcraft: War of the Ancients trilogy. My opinions are based solely on his Warcraft works, of which I believe I've read all (Day of the Dragon, the War of the Ancients Trilogy, the Sunwell Trilogy, Night of the Dragon, the Legends anthologies, and Stormrage).
Finally, the man has sold more novels that I could even hope to write at this point. He's also reached a level of status among his fans that many people only dream of achieving. He has his supporters, and I respect that there are those out there who enjoy his work despite the fact that I'm not generally one of them.
Release Your Hate
As I said, I do not hate Richard Knaak. But, as mentioned above, I dislike what he does to Warcraft lore.
"But, Thar! What does he do to Warcraft lore?"
He weakens it, plain and simple. Almost every story that Knaak's told in this setting has taken the focus away from the traditional heroes and has instead given it to one of his own creations. He has lessened the importance of characters created by the Creative Development staff at Blizzard and instead shifted the importance to his own custom characters. Indeed, he has often artificially increased his own characters' importance by tying them to pre-established people in lore, thus giving his people notoriety without them actually "earning it." This weakens the overall setting by creating a confusion among those who read his works.
The best example, and most offending story, is the War of the Ancients Trilogy. This tale, originally told in the Warcraft III manual, was the signature tale of the night elven race. It was their signature story. There were already heroes and villains, a conflict, an overbearing danger, and an epic resolution. And while the first version of the tale was merely told over a handful of paragraphs, it was still a complete story. Anyone who chose to play a night elf wanted to know more. Anyone who enjoyed the night elf campaign in Warcraft III became intrigued at the savage history of these beings who "looked like elves, but taller. And far more savage." (-Grom Hellscream). The War of the Ancients trilogy should have been a landmark tale that defined who the night elves were, for better or for worse, and further defined the heroes we got to know in Warcraft III.
But instead of a tale about Malfurion and Illidan Stormrage, Tyrande Whisperwind, Azshara, and the Burning Legion, we got a tale about ... a human mage, a shapeshifting dragon, and an aging orc going back in time? Indeed, this human mage—whom we already knew as Rhonin—was even said to go as far as become a mentor to Illidan Stormrage. Illidan Stormrage, one of the most pivotal characters in night elven history, was made second fiddle to a human mage who didn't even belong in that era of the timeline.
And what about Broxigar? Oh, Broxigar is definitely a cool character, but did he really need to be made the singular most important orc in all of history?
"But, Thar! He's not! He just saved the world once!"
Well, let's see exactly what deeds are placed upon Broxigar's broad shoulders, shall we? Not only was he given an axe crafted by the demigod Cenarius, but he also used this axe to actually injure Sargeras. Certainly, it was a papercut of an injury, but that does not lessen the fact that this was the most important "papercut" in the history of the world. For you see, this injury forced Sargeras to pause and look down before stepping through the Well of Eternity portal into Azeroth. And, indeed, it was this extra bit of time that allowed Malfurion and Illidan to collapse the portal. Understand what this means: Broxigar is the reason why Sargeras never stepped through. Thus, it was Broxigar who saved Azeroth from Sargeras and the Burning Legion.
But that's not all, folks, no. Not only did Broxigar injure the Lord of the Burning Legion. Not only was he responsible for stopping the great fallen titan from entering the world, but it was also strongly suggested that Broxigar's battle prowess was noticed by the demons. Could he have been remembered by none other than Kil'jaeden? Could the demon lord have chosen to corrupt the orcs because of Brox's demonstration of strength thousands of years ago?
Yes, guys and gals, Broxigar may also be the reason why the orcs were corrupted on Draenor in the first place...
It's important to note at this time that Broxigar was never mentioned anywhere in lore prior to the War of the Ancients trilogy. He is distinctly a child of that series, a character given so much importance that he overshadows the deeds performed by the heroes who already existed in lore.
Now, I could go on about how Krasus has appeared in almost every Knaak story, making him one of the singular most important dragons in history. I could tell you about how Krasus is not only intimately tied to Alexstrazsa, Aspect of the Red Dragonflight, but is nearly on a first name basis with all the Aspects. But, you know, Knaak's specialty is dragons, and it is known that he had a hand in the development of that lore in this setting. So I'll leave that one be, for now. Dragons are what gave Knaak his start. Those are his stories to tell.
Still doesn't mean that I like seeing Krasus in every story with Knaak's name on it, though.
Let it Flow Through You
Aside from my issue with the rather Mary Sue-ish characters Knaak tends to create, I also take issue with the distinct feeling that he really doesn't know this setting as well as many fans I know. Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I believe that, if you're going to work in a shared universe, you need to know that universe inside and out. Read the interview that WoW.com did back around BlizzCon 2009. I'm not just referring to his awkward claim that he invented tauren death knights, I'm referring to the simple fact that Blizzard had to inform him that death knights existed in the first place.
To quote from that interview:
"I honestly believe I'm the one who gave them the idea for Tauren Death Knights. As I recall, I told them I wanted to bring Trag back as an undead warrior type, and they said, "The only real undead warrior types we have are Death Knights," and I said that a Death Knight would be cool! And they started sending me illustrations and sketches of Tauren Death Knights, and I'm like, oh wow! And well, I can't say for sure, but I was definitely thinking this up pretty early on, and now they (Tauren Deathknights) are in game. If somebody else came up with the concept before me, I hadn't heard about it, so I certainly feel I was in there very close to the beginning, and now he's in there telling people he's going to join them in the final assault on Icecrown."
Really? They had to tell him about an aspect of this setting that has existed for about eight years? An aspect that was one of the central focuses of Warcraft III and its expansion? Had death knights been obscure, then I could understand it. But the death knight version of Arthas is on the cover to The Frozen Throne expansion. Even Level 60-era World of Warcraft has a plethora of references to death knights. Twice have we ventured into Naxxramas, where there's an entire wing of the undead buggers!
Strike Him Down...
As a fan of Warcraft long before World of Warcraft's release, I want to know more about the characters I came to know and love. I can stand learning about Rhonin and Krasus in their own stories, but to see these people invade and take over in stories where they just don't belong is why I roll my eyes at most of what Knaak writes. I cannot shake the feeling that he's better suited to writing good roleplay arcs moreso than official lore (although he tends to break a few of the best practices found in roleplay as well).
Knaak just doesn't bother to use what's there. He transformed Malfurion, Illidan, and Tyrande into shallow versions of their former selves for War of the Ancients. He gives importance to entirely new characters without helping to define characters that already exist. He changes events to favor his own creations while leaving pre-existing lore on the vine to wither and fade. Don't get me started on the whole demon hunter conundrum...
As someone with permission to write official lore, he needs to become intimately familiar with the pre-existing characters. He needs to stop creating new people and handing them the reigns to everyone's salvation and instead re-focus on characters that could actually use further definition. This is why I don't mind reading Knaak's characterizations of the dragon Aspects. They're his characters to write. He is the definitive author when it comes to the dragonflights as far as I'm concerned.
But he needs to stop getting his dragons and humans in my night elf stories. Tell a night elf story with night elves, not with Krasus and Rhonin.
Conclusion
I will say this much, however. Stormrage is a much better book than many of his previous. Most of my primary complaints, so far, have been addressed. There are still examples, however, but it feels like he's done a lot more homework this go-around. No longer do I feel as if I'm reading a generic fantasy tale with Warcraft-like elements. Now I actually feel like I'm reading a story set on Azeroth. And, for this, I have to pay my respects for Knaak's work on Stormrage.
He needs to keep it up and refine his understanding of the world. If he can continue to do this for future works, he may gain back a few more fans and actually help strengthen this game's lore. Honestly? I want what's best for the setting, and when people develop a negative attitude towards lore because of something Knaak writes, it just makes me appreciate his work less.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 1:42AM
