I love ghost stories, and one of the nice things about WoW is that Azeroth is full of them. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that one of the nice things for us is that Azeroth's full of them, because lore-wise it's hard to argue that the existence of any ghost is a happy occurrence. While I could (and probably should) turn this into a giant feature cataloging all the ghosts in the game, I have my personal favorites:

Caer Darrow

The inhabitants of Caer Darrow are my favorite ghosts, not least because you can't see them at all until you've done a bit of work on their behalf. The island seems utterly deserted barring the Sarkhoff couple...until you realize that it's not, and that there's an entire town full of people trapped on its "happiest day," going about its business, oblivious to how the world's moved on. That there's a ghostly vendor you can't otherwise talk to without a Spectral Essence is even better.

Karazhan and the surrounding zone

I'll admit; my first trip through Deadwind Pass as a level 40ish druid scared me. The first thing that greets you on your entrance to the zone from Duskwood is a corpse swinging from a tree and an Inferno-esque sign warning you to turn back. When you hit the level cap in Burning Crusade, more horrors greeted you in the southern end of the zone, between a 10-man raid full of local nobles trapped in some demon-fueled time surrounding the First War, to a cellar and village full of equally hostile ghosts. And then, of course, there was Karazhan's crypt and the superbly-creepy room of upside-down sinners. Is that still accessible?

Darrowshire

Pamela Redpath and the Battle of Darrowshire questline. 'Nuff said.

I know Cataclysm's going to change a lot of these zones, but I sincerely hope that their ghosts manage to stick around -- or that a few more spectral goodies are unearthed in the upheaval.

Tags: battle-of-darrowshire, caer-darrow, darrowshire, deadwind-pass, eastern-plaguelands, ghost, ghosts, ghosts-of-azeroth, kara, karazhan, karazhan-crypt, pamela-redpath, plaguelands, spectral-essence, upside-down-sinners, western-plaguelands

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore