Lore Has Been Sundered! Part II

With the announcement of Cataclysm, there is a lot of misinformation floating about regarding what parts of lore Blizzard is "loreloling." But the truth is that much of the new lore that has people up in arms is actually very well established.

Part I of this article covered night elf mages and why their introduction to the game isn't as large a story SNAFU as many people believe.

Part II: Awrooooooooo! Were-have I Already Done This Gag? The Worgen.

So I'll admit that my personal predictions / beliefs about the worgen were off. I didn't think Blizzard would go with the shapeshifting race due to their previously stated desire to give every race a distinct silhouette. However, Cataclysm is re-introducing Gilneas to Azeroth's geography, and with it are coming the shapechanging worgen.

Strangely, there doesn't seem to be that much controversy over the addition of worgen themselves (most people that I've spoken to, me included—yes, I speak to myself sometimes—think they're cool). The lore controversy seems to revolve around the idea that worgen can become death knights.

"But Thar! If Cataclysm happens after the events of Acherus, then there CAN'T BE worgen death knights!"

Well, yes, if you're assuming a linear timeline, which World of Warcraft does not exactly have.

"But Thar! ... wut?"

I've explained this a few times before in other places, but I'm not sure how in-depth I've explained it here. You see, World of Warcraft's plot progresses in a hybrid fashion. Huge world events happen on a static timeline and happen for everyone. The best examples are the opening of the Dark Portal and the plague event prior to Wrath of the Lich King.

The "smaller" events (and I use the term loosely) happen on an individual basis per each player's personal quest progression. In other words, if you're a level 1 draenei, then the game's plot explicitly states that you JUST woke up one month or so after the Exodar crash, despite what other players in the world are experiencing.  To you, Illidan Stormrage is still alive atop the Black Temple, and Kael'thas hasn't had his setback.

Because of this parallel progression structure, the precise timing of certain events is unclear, and many things are "pancaked" on top of each other. So, for example, the events of Acherus (the death knight starter quest) happens before the events of Outland. This is because death knights start at level 55, and they're expected to experience the events of Outland after they defect from the Scourge. This is further reinforced by the Lich King's claim that the Ebon Blade defected "months ago" when you encounter him atop Naxxanar in the Borean Tundra (a part of the Alliance side quest dealing with Thassarian and his sister).

In other words, even though you may have been leveling your level 58 death knight at the same time you were leveling your level 71 main character, those two timelines were occurring months apart per the world lore.

Is it starting to make sense yet?

No? Okay, so how about this: the non-wretched version of Kael'thas is still the final encounter in Tempest Keep. But Kael'thas is also the final encounter in Magister's Terrace. Are there two Kael'thas's out and about?  No. It's the same Kael'thas, just in different points of the plot progression. The events of Quel'Danas and the Sunwell Plateau happen after the events of Tempest Keep.

Alright, with THAT out of the way, we can now once again look at how the worgen fit into this timeline.  You see, since the worgen will be starting at level 1, then they will experience all the revised 1-60 content and storyline that the other races / classes experience. This means that Gilnean worgen are retroactively added back into the timeline. And because of this, Gilnean worgen CAN, theoretically, have been on Acherus.

Not good enough?

Alright alright, so I'll give you the easy way out: the Wolfcult.

Yes, in Northrend right now, barring any parallel personal progression plot mumbo-jumbo, we have shapeshifting worgen allied with the Scourge. Indeed, we have the Shade of Arugal once again commanding his children. If we have Scourge allied shapeshifting worgen... then we can have worgen death knights.

Simple, eh?

Granted, Cataclysm will bring about its own anachronisms, I think. But I'll wait until we have more information to tackle those concerns. Until then, just understand that there is no exact timeline of detailed events for World of Warcraft until Blizzard chooses to canonize the events in another medium (books, comics, manga, etc).

Makes keeping up with lore kinda exciting, doesn't it?

*grins*

Discussion: Alliance Aggression?

So, this question popped up over my guild's Ventrilo channel last night. The topic actually began from a Twitter discussion regarding Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream.

Where are the explicit examples of in-character, in-lore, unprovoked Alliance aggression against the Horde? Where are the explicit examples of the same, but from the Horde against the Alliance?

I'm looking for actual conflict here, not empty bravado. Deeds, not words.

Not counting the PvP zones like Wintergrasp or other nods to game mechanics, I'm trying to gather hard data on actual attacks from one faction to another.

I know of a few (Alliance side Broken Front, for example), but I'm looking for others. So, my dear readership, care to help me out? Give me a list of specific bloody encounters in this war.

Respond in comments, please.

Lore Has Been Sundered! Part I

The Cataclysm information has left a lot of us Warcraft lore junkies scrambling to get as much information as possible, and because of this current state of uncertainty and confusion, we can see misinformation start to rear its ugly head once again.

Most of this has to do with the addition of the worgen and the race / class combinations. This article will do its best to settle some of the ongoing disputes.  Yes, I touched upon some of this stuff in recent pre-Cataclysm articles and even in a few podcasts, but now's my chance to focus in deeply on some of the biggest misunderstandings.

This article will come in two parts.

Part I: Ishnu'allakhazam! Night Elf Mages

Surprisingly, this race / class combination seems to be creating more of a stir amongst the lore community than the addition of the worgen. It seems people are more willing to accept something largely "new" over something that, on the surface, seems to contradict what's already in place.

Simply put: night elf mages are more justified by lore than the blood elf transition to the Horde that happened in Burning Crusade (which was a pretty big controversy itself).

"But, Thar! Night elves HATE the arcane! How can they allow mages?"

As far as we know, the night elves were some of the FIRST mages. In fact, it was their close proximity to the original Well of Eternity (and, thus, arcane magic) that became the foundation of their race and their civilization. Night elves were saturated with it, using it in everyday life.

That whole "druidic" thing? It didn't happen until after the War of the Ancients; until after the Sundering. It was a replacement to the arcane, in fact.  So, yes, night elf mages go back at least 10,000 years in Warcraft history.

"Oh, right... But, Thar! The night elf highborne we all exiled! They all became high elves!"

No, they did not actually. Yes, most of the ones of which we were aware were exiled by Malfurion and left across the sea to settle in the Eastern Kingdoms and lay the foundations for Quel'thalas. Yes, all of these exiled highborne eventually changed, becoming smaller, lighter of skin, and less nocturnal. And, yes, these beings of the Sunwell became known as 'High Elves.' Oh, and, yeah, many high elves became 'blood elves,' too.

However, some highborne, like the Shen'dralar Ancients in Eldre'thalas (you'll know it better as Dire Maul) were far from the magical storm that their kin unleased upon Ashenvale. Thus, they never knew of the exile and exodus. These Eldre'thalassian highborne continued to live in their city, dealing with their issues entirely of their own (*cough*Immol'thar*cough*).

And let's not forget the version of Naxxramas that existed prior to Wrath of the Lich King, shall we? That version of Naxxramas has pieces of Atiesh within; a staff that was being hunted by many, including a highborne mage named Tarsis Kir-Moldir.

"Okay okay... But, Thar! The night elves hate the arcane NOW, don't they? Why would they accept mages BACK after all the world-exploding they caused?"

Maybe because the world's exploding again (or rather, will be)? And this time it's not the fault of the highborne?  Also, if you've been privy to the conversation in the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus, you'll see that there's not a whole lot of acceptance happening:

Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Sentinel, I would speak with your High Priestess.
Sentinel Stillbough says: You must wait for an audience.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Must I? I doubt Tyrande has more pressing business.
Sentinel Stillbough says: You show some nerve coming to Teldrassil, Highborne. Your kind are unwelcome here. We have not forgotten the War of the Ancients or the minds behind it.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: The lure of power is great. Mistakes were made.
Sentinel Stillbough says: And we would not see those mistakes repeated. Return to your exile.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: I will not return until I am heard. There is too much at stake. There is a change on the wind, and we cannot ignore it. I have traveled from the dust and ruin of the past to come to an accord. The time may soon come when the kal'dorei require the knowledge and skill we have to offer. I will wait, Sentinel... but I will have my audience.

Archmage Mordent Evenshade looks over at the moonwell with a sigh.
Sentinel Stillbough says: Take your gaze off the moonwell, exile. The power within is not yours to wield.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Calm yourself, Sentinel. I do not seek to use it. I am merely... remembering.
Sentinel Stillbough says: Recalling your treachery?
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: Enough. I have been apart from this for centuries. The well within this temple may be a pale spectre of the Well of Eternity, but it still holds the same... beauty. Purity.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: I had forgotten.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: I do not believe admiration and wistful thoughts are against the societal norm.
Sentinel Stillbough says: Watch yourself, Highborne.
Archmage Mordent Evenshade says: You were the one who challenged me for merely looking. I still await my audience with Tyrande.
Sentinel Stillbough says: In good time.

Indeed, very little acceptance at all...

I'll admit, if the highborne return to night elf culture ultimately "unfettered," then I'll be disappointed. The reintegration should be a painful one for both sides, as it's a part of their culture left abandoned for 10,000 years. That's a long time to generate misinformation and distrust, and such things rarely go away easily.

However, it should be important to note that, of all the night elves currently alive, it is Tyrande Whisperwind who stands as the highborne's best chance to be accepted again. Why is this?

During the Third War, it was Tyrande who believed that her mate's imprisoned brother, Illidan Stormrage, could help them fight back the encroaching invasion. It was Tyrande who also slaughtered the Watchers and Wardens who guarded Illidan in the prison.  Many people forget this little fact.

Tyrande killed her own people to free someone whom she believed could help against the greater cause.

Who can say that she wouldn't do such a thing again? It shows that Tyrande Whisperwind is a leader willing to do what she believes is right and best for the situation at hand, and it's entirely possible that the highborne's return to night elf society is such a situation.

When you take in all the of the above—the history of the night elves, the fact that there are still original highborne still around, and Tyrande's past characteristic of going against the narrow views of those around her in order to do what was necessary—then night elf mages have a pretty solid footing in already existing lore.

Blizzard's not just pulling this out of thin air.



 

LoreCrafted Anniversary Refresh!

Can you believe that it's been over one year since I launched LoreCrafted last September? This site went up on September 1, 2008, and while it's been a stuttery road since then, this little lore blog has maintained its presence.

Well, to honor that one year anniversary, I've redesigned the look to be a bit cleaner, a bit tighter, and hopefully a bit more aesthetically pleasing for those of you who visit the site itself. In addition to the visual redesign, I've also moved the site over to Squarespace.com to hopefully avoid some of the downtime caused by having an article or two linked by such places as WoW.com.

So far, I'm really happy with the change. However, there are still some rough edges here and there because of it. The post migration was quite smooth, but I'm using this opportunity to go back and reformat some of the older posts to match more recent ones. So if you see older posts resurrected on your RSS feed... that's why.

And about that RSS feed; hopefully Feedburner picked up on the domain swap and new RSS address without any troubles. If not, the new feed is located here.

With all that said, I have two-part article ready to go up tomorrow regarding the big news from BlizzCon regarding Cataclysm. Yeah, I'm a tad bit late to that party, but I figured I'd let the hooplah die down a bit before I tackled the lore implications of this new expansion.

Thank you for sticking with me here for this long, my dear readers. I couldn't have made it this far without you. Your readership is greatly appreciated.

*bows*

Twisted! In the Nether! No...it's not what you think...

Whoa hey! Get your minds out of the gutter! It's not like that at all!

I'm happy to announce that this Thursday, September 3rd at 9:30pm PST I'll be live on the Twisted Nether Blogcast!

What is the Twisted Nether Blogcast, you ask? Well, it's the official podcast of Blog Azeroth, the rather awesome Warcraft blogging community that helped me get my start about a year ago (oh yeah, the one year anniversary redesign for LoreCrafted is coming soon!). Needless to say, I'm a bit excited and a bit nervous.

But if you're curious to hear me babble about lore, BlizzCon, or whatever other questions they decide to throw at my head, please come on over and join us for the show! I'm sure I'll make a fool of myself! it'll be a blast!