What's happening in the Whispering Forest?
by Kelly Aarons 
Jul 19th 2011 at 2:00PM
Every now and then, an Easter Egg is found in game. Blizzard loves its pop culture references, secret nooks and crannies, and everything in between. Recently, this popped up: a secret grove, hidden in the Whispering Forest of Western Tirisfal.
While it's unknown when they spawn (I've heard every six hours or so, but I'm not sure), a troupe of faerie dragons slowly flies to this mushroom ring and begins to sing.
Tendrils of golden light flow and meet in the center of the circle, while ethereal music notes float all around. A beautiful little piece of music accompanies all of this, lasting about two and a half minutes. The infected animals of the Whispering Forest even come around to witness the performance. After they're done, the dragons leave and despawn.
While it's unknown when they spawn (I've heard every six hours or so, but I'm not sure), a troupe of faerie dragons slowly flies to this mushroom ring and begins to sing.
Tendrils of golden light flow and meet in the center of the circle, while ethereal music notes float all around. A beautiful little piece of music accompanies all of this, lasting about two and a half minutes. The infected animals of the Whispering Forest even come around to witness the performance. After they're done, the dragons leave and despawn.
I visited the grove around 11:15 p.m. server time, and I didn't see anything. I went there with a fellow guild member, and the two of us ended up poking around and exploring the area. There's a large lake nearby with some fishing gear, and the skeleton of what I presume to be a dwarf with a large dagger in his back. In the lake itself is a crashed plane, assumed to be gnomish in design. The only mobs/animals that inhabit the Whispering Forest are rats, bats, and Tirisfal bucks, doe and fawn, all hideously infected with the plague. The deer are all level 80-81.
What does all of this mean? What is a druidic faerie ring doing in Western Tirisfal, the supposed original landing place of the high elves -- remember, the one they left because they started going insane? Not only that, but remember that they might have gone insane because it's the supposed resting site of an Old God. Does it have something to do with the Emerald Dream? The next patch? The next expansion? Or is Blizzard just screwing with our heads?
Whatever the reason for the ring is unknown. For now, it's something fun and truly beautiful to behold, providing you have the patience to wait for it. So grab a drink, sit back, and wait; just don't go fishing in the meantime.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
shadcroly Jul 19th 2011 2:03PM
Maybe they're trying to breath life back into Tirisfal?
WindSong Jul 19th 2011 2:58PM
I saw this happening last night. My fiancee and I waited from the time he spotted 1 sprite darter till the event took place. All told it was about 2 hours. The darters appeared about every 15 minutes till there were 7 of them, about 30-40 minutes later they flew up to the fairy ring and started channeling.
If you look at the spell animation, it is an AOE healing spell, combined with what looks like the proc from a heartsong enchant; I would like to think that the little guys are doing something to heal Trisfal. Any event with music that pretty can't be evil!
Just over the ridge to the west is the Forsaken starting area...coincidence?
cloudhopper013 Jul 19th 2011 3:15PM
... I THINK NOT!
Jack Spicer Jul 19th 2011 8:19PM
Wait till Slyvannas hears of this!
Straz Jul 19th 2011 2:06PM
That is neat I had no clue about this!
Rioriel Jul 19th 2011 2:07PM
On the lastest All Things Azeroth podcast, Skolnick (of Warcraft Less Travelled) talks about the area in some detail. Have a peek and send him some hits: http://warcraftlesstraveled.com
pullmyfinger999 Jul 20th 2011 10:12AM
Indeed, props to Skolnick for breaking this last week.
Ominous Jul 19th 2011 2:07PM
Please post again, if you ever discover that has a schedule. It would be nice to go and have a look (without having to camp the spot, for ages).
Thanks for sharing!
Bernie Roscoe Jul 19th 2011 2:24PM
Yes, please do! I can't recall a more interesting Easter Egg than this, even better than the developer lake in Southern Kalimdor.
Ilmyrn Jul 19th 2011 2:26PM
Pretty sure it's tied to the same mechanic that determines when Onyxia Deep Breaths.
Kittens Jul 19th 2011 3:35PM
After seeing this mentioned in yesterday's 'The Daily Quest' column here, I went to investigate around the web and take a look myself.
According to the blogs that posted this and wohead, this seems to be on a spawn timer of about 6 hours, probably starting to count after they fey-drunk darters have sung.
I flew over there at midnight last night, and was incredibly lucky, as the darters were there and started singing withing 30 seconds of my arrival! :)
I went there again today because I wanted to show some friends, and saw the first darter spawn at 13.45h. It then took exactly 3,5 hours for all the darters to appear and to start singing. A new darter pops up every ten minutes or so, until there are seven. And then.. you wait ;)
I've also seen reports of them starting to sing 10-15 minutes after they have all spawned, so I am guessing it could be anywhere in a 70-210 minute period.
Kittens Jul 19th 2011 3:39PM
(Ugh.. excuse the typos.. *wowhead* *the* *within* ... I can spell, I swear. Also.. longingly awaiting the new comment system that hopefully has an edit option..!)
Ata Jul 19th 2011 2:11PM
I found this too, I didn't know that the faerie dragons were going toward that ring though, Id have stayed to witness this. It's -really- worth it to fly around mountainous areas on the maps, they're not all just blobs of boring mountains, that's where a lot of the hidden things have sprouted.
Now I want to fish in the lake and see if some rare rogue mob tries to gank me.
Twinflame Jul 19th 2011 2:13PM
Correction: there's an elite bear down towards Silverpine. Absolutely massive, and will attack if you get close to it. Level's in the 80s, so it can totally kill lower-level toons that are exploring for fun.
I found this out by dying.
cloudhopper013 Jul 19th 2011 2:51PM
Yea, he's enormous and for some reason creepy. I mean, the fact that a single, lone, unique, lumbering, almost mutant monstrosity of a bear lurks up in the mountains of tirisfal waiting for its next meal is... Eerie, to say the least. It's somehow magnified by his slow walking speed and how he lies down to sleep every couple of minutes.
But how did you get up there as a lowbie? Last time I checked the devs corrected the most used entrance to Tirisfal Fields around the time The Shattering hit.
evets25 Jul 19th 2011 3:31PM
Don't mind him, he's just the welcome bear. http://www.wowwiki.com/Welcome_Bear
cloudhopper013 Jul 19th 2011 5:15PM
Except he's not.
Tri Jul 20th 2011 5:26AM
The phenomona of welcome bears was even funnier in the Burning Crusade beta, when the Fel Reavers started out looking as bears ;) (but as mean as the fel reavers of today!)
turnthatdial Jul 19th 2011 2:14PM
One of my friends and I have been camping the hell out of that spot in our spare time, trying to establish some kind of pattern. It's got both of us stumped because there is no discernible time pattern (we have theorized every 4 hours, but our evidence is inconclusive, as we don't get to be there as often as we'd like :P), and like was mentioned in the article, that's supposedly the site of an Old God/lieutenant thereof! It's truly fascinating.
The music is just gorgeous and enchanting. :3
Eregos ftw! Jul 19th 2011 2:14PM
Woah. That's actually very very cool! Sometimes, I think Blizzard doesn't care about our opinions, but then I see beautiful pieces like this, and I lose that instantly. This is just amazing! I hope it's a feature in another patch.
And, I would love to see more involvement with the Faeries in WoW.