Once again, It's time for the
Harvest Festival, where the Alliance and the Horde make long treks to the shrines of their revered but deeply flawed heroes, Uther Lightbringer and Grom Hellscream. After fighting their way through demons and Scourge, the rank and file lay tributes at the monuments, and return to their capital city to receive the grand reward of ... a book? A book of
really bad poetry? And a food-summoning horn? Pathetic. Here, how about I save some silver, stay here in Ironforge, and just get a drunken dwarf to recite some free verse at me? (Thanks to
Boz of <Dark Revelation> on Arygos for the pic!)
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Sep 28th 2009 at 10:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sir7 Sep 28th 2009 10:06AM
There once was a man from Nantucket. So forth.
Gnosh Sep 28th 2009 10:06AM
Those tribute items are persistent for a number of hours, from what I can tell. I can't believe I haven't seen them spelling out URLs yet. "Hellscream buy gold, you think you better than hellscream???!!??? you buy gold now!"
Deadly. Off. Topic. Sep 28th 2009 12:41PM
Please don't give them any ideas, it's sick enough seeing those f***ing url made out of dead level 1 warlocks in SW.
CaryEverett Sep 28th 2009 10:07AM
You know, I did the Harvest Festival quest on Hordeside this year.
I went out to Grom Hellscream's grave... And, as I took the flight path out to Ashenvale, as I flew over the trees, and landed at Splintertree Post... as I mounted up, and rode through the forest, and into Demon's Fall, to pay tribute to Grom...
All I could think about, was how all this was going to be gone in the Cataclysm. The Old World, that I've known now for 5 years, so much of it is going to be changed, gone forever...
...and I actually cried.
Anesthesia Sep 28th 2009 10:12AM
I always thought this was kinda moving, especially as there is no real reward for doing it.
Dazaras Sep 28th 2009 11:49AM
Uther's dead body > Varian
Why can't we resurrect him?
Deadly. Off. Topic. Sep 28th 2009 10:37AM
It was pretty awesome walking into Uther's tomb and seeing how many people actually went there - though you have to wonder who thought there might be an achievement out of it from those who just liked going.
Gimmlette Sep 28th 2009 3:00PM
I did it again this year even though I really don't need any reputation points. As I rode up to Uther's tomb, there were 4 people there just standing around. The area in front of the monument was pretty well covered. I took a screenshot and compared that to one I took last year. Last year's tributes were much less. I'm thinking the timing of the holiday to coincide with Brewfest meant people running to do Brewfest saw this table with a guy who had a quest that turns out to be pretty easy for level 55 up.
I like going to the Harvest Festival to stock up on pet food and have recommended to guild hunters they do the same.
And to CaryEverett, that is a sobering thought. Next year, all this will have changed. I don't know how much Western Plaguelands will be affected by the Cataclysm and we might still have reasonably easy access to Uther's tomb, but it will be completely different for the horde. I'm taking a lot of screenshots of the areas I know will be affected just because I want to remember them from when I roamed them.
Tigron Sep 28th 2009 10:56AM
I was going to say this for yesterday's Breakfast Topic, but I misswed that so I'll say it here.
Sure, there's not much to do for this holiday. And you know what? THAT'S FINE. You take ten minutes out of your day to fly there and back, and it's over. Done. Finito. There's something really satisfying to only have one task to do per year, as opposed to racing rams for days trying to earn enough tokens for a silly dance outfit. I would be really sad if they turned this into yet another grind week.
As for the reward... well, what did you expect? When (or should I say if) you go to church on Sundays, do you expect them to give you a hundred dollars for putting a nickel in their tray? This is about a small show of unconditional respect, which is I hope what Anesthesia was getting at. Not everything we do has to have a big reward.
"But I had to fight off hordes of Undead and Demons to get there!" Well, who says you have to? Just ride past them in the mount you get at - what is it these days? Oh yeah - level 20. As far as I know, WPL and Ashenvale aren't instances. Chances are the mobs will turn around before they get to your destination.
P.S. It's obvious how Hellscream is "deeply flawed," but how do you figure that for Uther?
Tigron Sep 28th 2009 10:58AM
misswed = missed. I hate it when that happens.
impurezero Sep 28th 2009 11:51AM
Yeah, from a lore perspective, it was a neat little quest. Especially when I realized that all the other tributes were individually laid down by other players. That was pretty cool.
bob Sep 28th 2009 10:57AM
How, exactly, is Uther "deeply flawed?"
Dazaras Sep 28th 2009 11:46AM
That's what I want to know.
Matchu Sep 28th 2009 11:02AM
To the people who don't grasp Uther's flaw, I suggest playing Warcraft 3. Apart from it being epic in itself, it sets a lot of the lore up for our current WoW.
eric_barbaric Sep 28th 2009 11:39AM
I played Warcraft 3, and other than not slapping Arthas around and bringing him to his senses, I don't see what flaw Uther had.
Dazaras Sep 28th 2009 11:46AM
All that he does in WCIII is get betrayed by Arthas and killed. Is that a flaw now?
Adamanthis Sep 28th 2009 11:52AM
Uther tried to stop Arthas from the beginning, standing up to him with increasing resolve at every step of the way as Arthas became more and more evil. He was the voice of reason and of right, from his early admonitions to his final death speech.
I suppose you could consider his failure to stop Arthas and save Lordaeron a character flaw, but I think that's a bit unfair.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Sep 28th 2009 12:07PM
His character flaw was that he was born human and not orc. (Note sarcasm)
Uther's only real flaw is what most story characters have: Is NOT to kill THE SOB before he becomes too powerful to contain.
Muse Sep 28th 2009 1:04PM
Pretty much the idea that
a) he really should've spotted Arthas turning to the dark side a lot sooner. The signs were there, and Lightbringer was in a good position (both as paladin, and as someone Arthas trusted) to do something about it.
b) he should've listened to Arthas when he said Stratholme had to be 'purged' instead of going against him at that crucial point. (Except then maybe Lightbringer might've turned dark as well from the horror of his deed... and up to that point in history, Paladins had never encountered a disease that they couldn't cleanse, so in his mind, killing people was rather far down on the list of available options)
c) the bastard could've put up more of a fight and defeated Arthas and spared the rest of us the trouble.
Basically, Uther's flaw was being a good person and a paladin of the light.
Aside from which, I'm on the Lightbringer realm, so it's neat to once a year have a quest that explains our name-sake.
ash Sep 28th 2009 2:12PM
Seriously, though, compared to Grom Hellscream, Uther's "flaws" are pretty minuscule. Which is kind of ironic because it makes Hellscream's "redemption" more meaningful. I think there was a point to this but I forgot. Maybe something about how Hellscream's cycle of disgrace and redemption seem more complete (if somewhat troublesome) while Uther's has yet to be completed. Perhaps when Arthas has been defeated we can all come back to this shrine next year with a greater sense of closure.
Anyone for CoT:Strat?