Breakfast Topic: Transformed by the blood
by David Fulkerson 
Aug 29th 2010 at 8:00AM
Spoiler alert: This post contains fairly heavy lore spoilers for the Cataclysm expansion. If that's not your thing, you should stop reading now.
In Cataclysm, during the quests in Silverpine Forest, Horde players learn that human refugees from Hillsbrad have fled to Fenris Keep, and our glorious Banshee Queen Sylvanas sends us with a loyal val'kyr to kill and raise the poor humans as Forsaken, to bolster their forces in Silverpine. Using the new on-the-go questing feature, Sylvanas informs players to find and convert the human leaders inside their keep.
This is when things get a little hairy, as the keep is guarded by elite worgen guards. Battling through, the players find themselves arriving at the middle of a meeting between the big names of Southshore and Lord Darius Crowley.
Darius makes an offer to the humans: They can fight the Forsaken as humans and when they die, they will be reborn as their enemy -- or they can drink his blood and turn into a worgen, who are immune to val'kyr necromancy, and serve him.
The humans aren't excited to be either of the two, but they decide fur is better than rot. Right before players' eyes, we see them drink a shot of Darius' blood and transform into worgen. Through quest text, we are led to believe that every human in Lordaeron was given the same offer, and the vast majority, if not all, accepted.
This is a pretty big deal, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more talk on it. The worgen have a stable way to produce more worgen, other than normal procreation (if that works). If this works for all worgen, could we see some extremist/fringe worgen groups akin to the Forsaken, who want to see all humans cursed like they are? A few vials in a few kegs next Brewfest could cause immense havoc. Mage water suddenly looks delicious for your run-of-the-mill human.
What do you, dear readers, think of this? Will it work with all worgen? Or will this ability be misused by the worgen? Next patch, will we see a red "plague" canister model in Gilneas, complete with a Royal Blood Society (to use against the Horde, of course)?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
siimmart Aug 29th 2010 8:05AM
Oh my! Fascinating! It's my first time hearing this! Whoa, this is heavy!
...Wait, how does Mr. Crowley generate so much blood for all to drink/ put into a huge canister and have a blood society from it? Guess he fist-cleaves himself to bleed gallons!
Trever Aug 29th 2010 8:09AM
Hes gotta be anemic by 4.1.
siimmart Aug 29th 2010 8:09AM
It certainly would bring more depth to lore, for some worgen to lose sanity and starting to curse all humans!
Schadenfreude Aug 29th 2010 11:07AM
Things are going to get a little bit...
*sunglasses*
...hairy.
YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
leonardocelso Aug 29th 2010 11:31AM
^^^^
So full of win
Elmouth Aug 29th 2010 2:29PM
Is it just me or the plate gloves in the pic look like cloth....
shadcroly Aug 29th 2010 4:04PM
I don't think it would matter how much blood Darious has if every Worgen's blood was capable of causing the transformation like that. In truth, I dunno how many people would be involved in that extremist group, since those that are Worgen were turned against their will (and we do know that Krennan is looking for a cure), or chose to willingly become one to escape being able to be reanimated by the Val'kyr.
Although that would make a very interesting conversation between Genn and Varian... Genn alerting him that the Worgen Curse makes them immune to the Val'kyr reanimation, I wonder if Varian would actually consider becoming cursed, since all Humans becoming Worgen would destroy Sylvanas's plan to make more Forsaken from dead humans.
Vodkamartini Aug 29th 2010 5:56PM
TO: Master Mathias Shaw, SI-7
FROM: Red Eyes
RE: Fullmoon in Silverpine
This is a transcript of a meeting between Lord Darius Crowley (admitted worgen beast) and healthy townsfolk in a rural village of the Kingdom of Lorderon discussing a "plan" to counter the rot.
My colleagues are concerned, to say the least, on the vile nature of this discussion. Shortly afterward we rounded up the witnesses from this sinister event and had them confess. I must add the village and its inhabitants failed the stand in the cleansing fire test.
I have operatives in place should you decide to move after reading this. Light be with you.
RE
PS Please reply with the price of silver in the auction houses and inquire if Lord Bellmount or Dr. Vanheavensing have any tips on this new development. And please, no more garlic.
XXX TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS XXX
LORD DARIUS CROWLEY (in human form): Citizens of Lorderon! Lend me your ears!
PEASANT ELDER: Huh what?
PUMPKIN FARMER: (Raising hoe menacingly) I don't care who you are or what horse you rode on Sir Knight, no one's cutting me bloody ears off you sick bloke!
DRESSMAKER: Yes, what would a good knight need with a lady's ears? Surely I've had men nibble at mine for a tickle-
LDC PRIEST ESCORT (NOTE: LOCAL MINISTER): No, no no! Goodfolk, listen to what our lord has to say, for it concerns you all!
PEASANT ELDER: Wha? The Lord has spoken?
PRIEST: Yes! He said-
COBBLER: How would a fat stranger of the cloth know what concerns me and my sister? Have you been peering in our homes while me and my wife sleep, you big brother?
PEASANT ELDER: Simple! For he is God, our brother's keeper!
PRIEST: No, no!
FARMER: Our lord's keeping what?
PRIEST: Ladies and gentlemen, please-
FARMER: I pay my taxes! I want to know what my government keeps!
DRESSMAKER: Well I imagine they keep our monies. Look at our lord's fine armor and fat horse ...
FARMER: Nay I say! These fops keep more than gold, they keep information on every one of us, ready to blackmail us!
COBBLER: Our ... personal ... lives? Everything my wi- er, sis and I have done?
FARMER: Do not dismiss me for a simple farmer, for I'm well read! I've sat and listened to Dwarf Bick and Gnome Chompsky on the evils of governments!
LDC: Silence, fool and list-
FARMER: Aye, did you hear that? He's infringing on my freedom of speech! Naked tyranny on display! Uppity big government types!
LDC: WILL ... YOU ... SHUT ... (lifts head in agony) ARROOOOOO!!!!!!
(LDC TURNS INTO A FURRY BEAST, AND THE CROWD IS SILENCED IN SHOCK)
FARMER: See, these politicians from Stormwind show us their true faces, wolves they are!
PRIEST: Now citizens of Lor-
COBBLER: FOR LIGHT'S SAKE SHUT THE FRAK UP AND SMITE THAT ABOMINATION BROTHER!
PEASANT ELDER: Sonny, watch your tongue when you speak to a man of the cloth and his dog!
PRIEST: Tis not my dog but my lord who stands before you! Cursed, yea, but blessed in our righteous battle against the undead scourge! Drop thy weapons and listen for what he has to say, for his condition could be the salvation for us all!
DRESSMAKER: How can he tell us father? The dog runs up to me panting and barking and I can't tell if he's hungry, happy, scared or ready to relieve himself!
PRIEST: He can talk because (also transforms into a worgen) I can too!
(COLLECTIVE GASP)
DRESSMAKER: You mean all these years I was confessing my sins to a dog? I could have sat at home and talked to Fifi, saved me the trouble. He's not even fetching!
LDC: (Growling) FOR THE LAST TIME, SILENCE! I tell you now, the evil from the ruins of Lorderon are poised to eliminate the inhabitants of this town and raise the slaughtered as forsaken undead! Only by drinking of my blood, my cursed worgen blood, can one retain their soul in death, for they cannot do their foul magics on one of us!
DRESSMAKER: But I don't want to die to begin with!
(PRIEST PUTS HAIRY PAW TO HIS FACE)
COBBLER: So you're giving us a choice I presume?
LDC: (sighs) Aye, not an easy one at that, villager. Either risk dying and rising repeatedly as one of the unholy hordes we battle with day and night ... or cope living with this curse, as I have. But it can be done!
COBBLER: Well, I mean, how is it?
LDC: How is what?
COBBLER: Life as this worgen! I mean, will I be marking my home? Will I need to walk myself out of the house? Will I find myself rubbing against my sister's leg?
DRESSMAKER: As if you didn't already you horny bas-
COBBLER: (SHH)
DRESSMAKER: (Silently measuring the space between LDC's "thumb" and forefinger on his paw and the length of his foot, giving a look of being impressed) I had questions too! Do you shed? Be a hassle to clean my dresses in the summertime. Just the thought makes me itchy. And will I need to augment brassieres to cover six or more teats?
LDC: Please, these are all frivolous questions, misconceptions and stereotypes! I only offer a way to avoid the damnation of undeath-
FARMER: And instead ask us to be under your Alpha male superiority complex?
(PRIEST RESTRAINS LDC, WHO GROWLS)
FARMER: He's angry because I tell you all the truth, that we'll all be stomped under the government's jackboo- er, furry footed thugs of oppression!
COBBLER: I'm also concerned m'lord, about my business.
LDC: Going out of business is a bigger concern than your very soul? What exactly do you do?
COBBLER: I cobble, sir.
LDC: (Dumbfounded) I rode here wearing boots, as did the Father-
COBBLER: But you're not wearing them now. Look at your legs, your hairy, bent legs and bloated paws. No way is my sister going to fit in her size threes after changing into your shape! Even I was liberal on the leather! They'd bust at the seams or give her a bloody unholy case of the corns! We'll all be going barefoot like trolls - and I'll be out of business! At least if we were to be undead, all I'd have to do is cut the front of the shoe off.
FARMER: See, big government thinking they know what's right for the small businessmen! Are you going to tell me you dogfolk still eat pumpkin and not beef?
DRESSMAKER: It is Silverpine and not Stranglethorn; too cold for open toes! But all that fur -- do your women still shave their legs?
COBBLER: Do Worgen eat leather clothes absentmindedly? I could recover my losses on chewed slippers or shoes ...
LDC: Enough! I shall return three nights time for your answer!
COBBLER: That's how long sir?
PRIEST: Er, what?
COBBLER: Three knights time, I mean one might give you the time of day, another will be a few minutes off and the other might tell you to piss off-
PEASANT ELDER: Fellows, my eyesight is poor even for an old man's; can one see the pocket watches of the nights to tell?
LDC: (Facepalm) Enough, we ride!
FARMER: Aye, forget them, I'm going to ride to see people we can trust in these dark times, true believers of small government, individual rights, traditional values and who don't get their snouts into personal issues!
DRESSMAKER: Who's that?
FARMER: The Scarlet Crusaders!
XXX END TRANSCRIPT XXX
(FOLLOWUP: OPERATIVE LEFT HIDING POSITION AFTER LDC'S DEPARTURE AND MADE CONTACT WITH FARMER. DESPITE LATER, TORTUROUS DELAYS BY SUBJECT, FARMER CONFESSED TO TRANSGRESSIONS AND WAS GIVEN SWIFT ABSOLUTION OF SINS BY INQUISITOR GUILLOTINE. DRESSMAKER ONLY INHABITANT TEMPORARILY SPARED ON REQUEST OF THE CARDINAL AND SENT TO HIS QUARTERS FOR PERSONAL INQUIRY.)
pancakes Aug 30th 2010 2:18AM
Whatever happen to [1. Local]? It's comments like Vodkamartini's that make me demand they bring it back. I tip my hat.
Zahira Aug 30th 2010 5:07PM
"Wait, how does Mr. Crowley generate so much blood for all to drink"
I'm going to guess that Quintin Tarantino advised Blizz on how much blood a worgen holds at any given time, so they think it's about 50 gallons.
Heather Aug 31st 2010 12:36AM
I
Ken Aug 30th 2010 12:00PM
It's a brilliant piece of story telling (for those who take the time to read quest text, especially) and even though I don't really like the direction Sylvanas is leading the Forsaken, I can't help but applaud the conflict Blizzard is building into the storylines of the factions. Of the six races in each faction come Cataclysm, at least two faction leaders are easily reviled, even by members of their own faction. The potential there, compared to how likable or at least sympathetic the leaders were in Vanilla, just makes me even more interested in watching the story play out.
Qot Aug 29th 2010 9:49AM
Any safe port in a storm, I would guess.
Let's be honest: you wake up as a zombie one day. Based on their dealings with the Scourge and Forsaken, your family hates you (and you may hate yourself). Since you're dead, all your possessions are gone. The guards will attack you if you try and return, assuming that you're a spy. You could either (A) kill yourself to get permanently dead, (B) return home and get yourself killed or (C) head to Undercity, where you'll find a sympathetic ear from people in the same predicament as yourself, people who won't judge you and a chance at a new second life.
Some will choose A, some will choose B, some will choose C. Crowley is probably fear-mongering the worst case scenario ("you'll come back under the control of Sylvanas and eat your children!") to convince everyone to go furry.
Qot Aug 29th 2010 9:50AM
Gah. I mis-clicked. This was supposed to go to Jormund's post. Apologies, Ken.
NielsdeJONG Aug 29th 2010 6:47PM
Qot
Are you serieus?!
Sylvanas threatened to kill Darius his daughter, then raise her as a forsaken, and thus force her to serve her.
By the looks of it, there is hardly that much free will involved. More likely the Banshee queen has some sort of control over her subjects now, which wouldn't surprise me after seeing the stunts she pulls off.
She hates arthas for cursing her this way, but without a though curses others in exactly the same way?
Sorry to say this Sylvanas fans, but I have to agree with Garrosh on this one: What a Beatch!!!!
Also, you make the forsaken sound as victims. If that was so they wouldn't go out of their way to genocide the people of Hillsbrad!
Propaganda? These people almost got slaughtered by the forsaken... :/
Dreyja Aug 29th 2010 10:19PM
... a agree to all that is said above.
Any bad stuff that has happened to them so far doesn't justify most of the horrors they've perpetrated.
Cure4Living Aug 30th 2010 3:19AM
Well it's always been my opinion that the forsaken started out angry at Arthas but powerless to do anything about it (i.e. forsaken aren't quite the military force that the Death Knights are). This anger toward Arthas and the inability to do anything about it turned inward and outward (you know the whole death to the living thing).
Now that Arthas is dead they're still filled with hate and spite. You know some zombies just want to see the world burn...
So its understandable why they're evil, not that its justifiable really. But hey that's story telling and I think they did a pretty good job with the forsaken (ignoring the whole why they're even still part of the horde issue).
pancakes Aug 30th 2010 6:42AM
This argument happening here is exactly why I'm liking where parts of Cata's storyline seems to be heading. Everyone has their own agenda, and there's a compelling counter argument for every argument. There's no black & white morality, to quote a cliché.
Jormund Fenris Aug 29th 2010 8:30AM
I hope it get's explained why the humans would fight with Sylvanas once turned, unless they're just mindless slaves. THEN I'd like it explained why the Horde hasn't annihilated Sylvanas' forces, no matter what kind of advantage they bring to the Horde, I doubt most of the other soldiers would look kindly towards that.
Jack Miles Aug 29th 2010 10:46AM
I was thinking about that. When the Forsaken first came back, they decided to dedicate their entire lives to wiping out the scourge, even though some of them had never been servants of them before regaining their free will. Now that Sylvanas is ressing them and not the scourge, it's possible they'll feel the same resentment towards her and there'll be a civil war.
Could see undead as an Alliance race come Warcraft 4.