Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAsk a Lore Nerd: Portals, pandaren, and Jaina Proudmoore
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 21st 2008 at 8:00PM
Let's get this party started with Lionheart's question...
What is that barred off instance looking portal thing in Stormwind, by Old Town? Were the gates once open?
There are actually two of these in Stormwind. Neither of them were ever open, they're relics of unfinished projects. One is a closed off little guarded island in the Canals. That one was going to be the Stormwind Vault, probably a dungeon like Arcatraz or the upcoming Violet Hold in Dalaran. Probably.
There's also the barred off one at the end of the Canals, right down the way from that one. This is probably the one you're referring to, I'm going to guess? I don't think we've gotten a real answer on this was supposed to be, but it was probably going to be the portal to player housing. They actually did start work on player housing at one point, but never got far. There are relics of it in the game files. Half completed houses/structures, things like that. They all use the Stormwind motif for their appearance, and they would have to put it somewhere. Through this portal is a safe bet.
thinice asked...
Jaina Proudmoore and Arthas. Any chance they'll hook up against in the future? What are the details of their history together?
...get back together? Good gosh I hope not. That's be messed up! I guess nothing is impossible, but I sincerely doubt this.
As for their history, it's not a very long or involved one. Essentially, Jaina is the daughter of Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, who was buddies with King Terenas of Lordaeron. Arthas was the Prince of Lordaeron. Jaina also wiggled her way into an apprenticeship under Archmage Antonidas, ruler of Dalaran. So the two of them we the shining stars of their kingdoms, and being in that sort of position just sort of led them to eachother.
Think of it as a Hollywood relationship. Two huge stars, common household names. Attractive, popular, probably pretty cool people. They're definitely going to hook up given the opportunity. And again like Hollywood relationships, everyone in the world knew about their fling pretty much immediately, or as fast as word travels. Their friends bugged them about it, their parents probably immediately tried to talk them into marrying eachother for political and social reasons, all eyes were on them. That sucks! So nothing major really came out of it. They had feelings for eachother, but they ultimately went and did their own thing. Having everyone watching your relationship really makes the whole thing hard.
Sean Riley asked...
Sports! RAAAR! Are orcs good at them? What SPORTS are played in Azeroth? What do the various races do to play SPORTS! (RARR!)
Do you count the arena as a sport? If so, there's that! Especially in Orcish culture. Beyond that, we don't really know. We can assume kids (and some adults) play some sports or games, because kids are kids and they'll always come up with something, and Leatherworkers can craft Heavy Leather Balls. I assume that the first person to make one of these made them to play a game, not not just to toss around waiting for their raid to start.
I sincerely doubt Azeroth has anything like sports leagues outside of what the Goblins pay people for, like the Arena. Competitive sports for entertainment is good for morale during war, but not when said war is on the brink of engulfing your entire world. People fit to play sports competitively are probably on the various fronts and battlefields.
I was going to embed the Sports! clip from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! here to counter your Powerthirst reference, but I somehow feel it would be inappropriate.
IanC asked...
I don't "get" how there can be Forsaken Death Knights. Surely a Forsaken DK is just a human or high elf (or blood elf now of course) DK, overall, right?
They're more rotten. It's easier to accept something that still resembles what they should be. A guy with cold, pale skin walking up to me would be freaky, but tolerable if I was told he's super cool. If a guy missing hunks of flesh and his jaw walked up to me, I would probably vomit on my shoes.
Plus, in the case of the Death Knights we'll be playing in Wrath, a Forsaken Death Knight very well could have been a member of the Forsaken before (s)he became a Death Knight. The Death Knights of Acherus are mostly people who were cut down by the Scourge in the Plaguelands. A Forsaken could easily get gibbed, be pulled back into the fold of the Scourge, and then be released -again- under the proper circumstances.
Skone asked...
I remember the Panderans in Warcraft 3. I know they have their own place in Azeroth named Pandaria. Where is this place? I also know they have a hiding place in Stonetalon Mountains. Where is that, too?
Pandaren are largely a joke. Samwise Didier's nickname is 'Panda' and his alter ego reflects that. For fun, he started including them as easter eggs in the Warcraft games. There was a strong, positive fan reaction because Warcraft fans are nuts, so Chris Metzen wrote them into Warcraft. Again, a light hearted and silly thing. So do they exist in lore? Yeah, I guess they do. Will we ever know where Pandaria is, or their other settlements? No, probably not.
They use a line like "nobody has ever seen Pandaria but the Pandarens" when describing it. It's a pretty good "out." They don't need to show it to you and they probably don't want to, either. It's a nod to the fans. I don't think we'll see them in WoW, I don't think we'll ever know the location of Pandaria, but we'll see a few of them as easter eggs in Warcraft 4 or whatever.
Ask a Lore Nerd is here to answer all of your questions about the lore and story of the Warcraft universe. From the religions of the universe to the 'evils' of Azeroth, everything is fair game. If you want more in-depth answers to some of your questions, you may find what you're looking for in Know Your Lore or the WoW Insider Directory.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Death Knight, Ask a Lore Nerd
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Joker Sep 22nd 2008 3:03AM
Well, my view on the subject is that the idea is that with Kil'Jaeden beaten the legion is effectively being pushed off of Outland. The idea is that the Naaru are likely going to take the time to rebuild, and during the patch apparently there will be an event where the scourge attacks. This might be part of the impetus for the march north. Not to mention that the Lich King isn't exactly a being of sweetness and light, his existence can pose a great threat as well. The events in Outland were important, primarily for the Burning Legion fights, currently they've been defeated, and eyes turn north towards a persistent foe.
Durante Sep 21st 2008 9:27PM
While I agree with the article that we'll probably never see Pandaria in the game and Panderans won't have any significant presence in WoW, but I'd be a little surprised considering the creature's history at Blizzard if some day we don't see one sitting silently in a pub somewhere enjoying a pint.
Sean Riley Sep 21st 2008 9:27PM
I'm just glad you caught the reference, Alex.
Now my next challenge is working out the rules for a playable sport in WoW that isn't just a battleground or arena. Hmm.
Sean Riley Sep 21st 2008 9:30PM
Oh, as a side note? Yes, ever since seeing the Powerthirst parody, I've wanted to make a dwarf/gnome alchemist team in Ironforge who sell their potions in that shouty style.
"Dodging!" "RARR!" "You'll be good at it!"
Bakuryu Sep 21st 2008 11:44PM
...Please do...
Ametrine Sep 22nd 2008 8:53AM
I would love you forever for that if you did.
shumanfu Sep 21st 2008 9:53PM
I would re-subscribe if there were pandas in the game.
Ugkul Sep 21st 2008 10:04PM
I would expect to see Pandaren used as a last ditch effort to rescue the game at some stage in the future. ;)
Besides fighting pandas are already in World of Kungfu, so the whole 'no harm allowed to be done to them' thing seems to be bullshit.
http://www.worldofkungfu.com/
(look under Media)
Palladiamorsdeus Sep 21st 2008 11:41PM
Capture the flag, king of the hill, and capture the the king of the hill. Also known as BGs. I consider those sports!
Sean Riley Sep 22nd 2008 3:50AM
The game considers them warzones. Doesn't count. :)
Mind you, if they brought in Battleball as a battleground, I would be ALL over it.
Shadown Sep 22nd 2008 12:25AM
I can't believe you referenced that needlessly obtuse, brain tumor "Tim and Eric's Awesome Show". I'm not sorry for saying this, but those guys are not funny.
They try to do something new and it was okay for a while, if creepy, but after the first couple of episodes where I couldn't stomach another half-hearted laugh and prey these two weren't about to molest a choir boy.
I don't watch [Adult Swim] to feel creeped out by people with vaguely homosexual/cannibalistic feelings for one another. I'm not interested, and without any strong comedy, it is just another show to skip over and go to Comedy Central. I know there are others who find this show naggingly irritating and wishing it would've died at episode 3.
Please. Never reference that failure again.
Gengaru Sep 22nd 2008 2:09AM
Correction. There is lore on Pandarens. From the sources I have read, Pandaria is supposedly off the coast west of Feralas and they used to reside in Ashenvale and such, but chose to move south because of the reckless Night Elves at the time of the War of the Ancients. They also had many conflicts with the Tauren on their way down south to Feralas. Aside from their history, there is much lore on their culture, warrior types, heroes(not just Chen either) architecture and such. Anyone seen the Burning Crusade secret alpha pictures of the Pandaren Warrior? :)
Commenter Sep 22nd 2008 2:40AM
Leather Ball is a sport, at least among the Twilight Cultists in Terrokar Forest.
If you do the "Speak to Private Weeks" questline in Terrokar, and go talk to the twilight cultists in their camp southwest of Tuurem, some of them offer to go throw around a Leather Ball with you, practicing for the Leather Ball League. Shame we never get to see it.
ionesco Sep 22nd 2008 5:54AM
I can't remember if i asked this before:
Why do gnome NPCs say 'Daylight's burning!' when you click them sometimes? A reference to Gnomeregan and the skin-melting toxins? Or maybe they were so long underground that now daylight burns? Just seems an odd thing to say.
Chris Anthony Sep 22nd 2008 10:10AM
If you didn't ask about "Daylight's burning!", someone has recently.
The gnomes don't mean it in a "your star burns" sense. "Daylight's burning" is an old saying that's roughly equivalent to "clock's a-tickin'" - it means "why are you wasting time talking to me when both of us could be doing something useful?". The essential metaphor is the relationship of the sun to a fire or candle; once it burns out, no useful work can get done, so get the useful work done while the sun's out and leave the talking for the evening.
Tenchan Sep 22nd 2008 2:45AM
If anything, I'd expect Jugger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugger
bumble Sep 22nd 2008 3:09AM
I'm quite sure that the canal prison in stormwind had it's swirly instance portal removed and only the big one in the wall remains.
Kirtan Sep 22nd 2008 4:57AM
I do hope that we get to see JainaxArthas stuff, but probably not until Icecrown Citadel patch comes, you know, as including her into the Boss event
and beside, since the unfortunate fate befell poor Bolvar Fordragon, who else would be qualified enough to lead Alliance forces at Wrath Gate and beyond, since Varian is still at home, mending the damage that Onyxia's corruption caused?
but I must complain to that Hollywood presentation on their relationship:
1st of all, they didn't actually broke up, nor was it because of the people putting the pressure on them to marry
they just came to conclusion that, since she's a mage and had lot of studying left to do; and he was a prince and keeping the orcs that have still been hinding aground his kingdom in check, they would be far to busy so they decided to put their romance life on hold until there would be an appropriate time, but they remained good friends, partly still in love (which can be seen throughout Warcraft 3 human campain)
and lets not forget the moment for the battle of Icecrown Glacial:
Arthas: "So, Kael, still mad at me for stealing Jaina from you?"
Nana Sep 22nd 2008 7:26AM
Well, first they friended each other and then he went evil, so I guess the point is essentially moot about where their relationship was going.
And Jaina can't lead the Alliance in Northrend because she's got to keep Varian Wrynn from being a douchebag and killing Thrall (and probably the Alliance too) in a fit of RAAAGE.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that cutscene text.
Kirtan Sep 22nd 2008 11:15AM
Trust me, we were all there.
But there's something that bothers me.
in the Battle for Wrath gate, where Virmathras' betrayal happens, there were 2 losses: Bolvar from Alliance and Sarufang the Younger for Horde.
What ticks me off, is that Alliance looses the most important figure to humans, right next to Varian. Like he said it himself, he was like a brother to him, he raised his son Anduin while he was missing and kept the spirit of of his people up, despite Onyxia's corruption.
Now for the Horde, they lost the young Sarufang, son of Overlord Sarufang. When speaking to him, he say that he is proud that his son died in battle, after all, that's what orcs are all about.
Alliance lost 1 of the biggest an important characters, while Horde barely got a scratch.
And as for Lick King raid encounter, I'm pretty sure that many other connected to his past selves will want a piece of him (speculated, but not confirmed: Mal'Ganis, Muradin, Jaina, Varian, Thrall, Sylvannas, etc)