The OverAchiever: The silver coins of the Dalaran fountain

Welcome back, folks. We return this week to the next installment of our miniseries on the Dalaran fountain's magic coins. Getting all of the coins will grant you A Penny For Your Thoughts, Silver in the City, and There's Gold in That There Fountain, with the completion of all three granting The Coin Master and one more notch toward Accomplished Angler.
It's really in the set of silver coins that you get a sense for just how dangerous this fountain can actually be. Most of the people who tossed coins into it never saw their wishes come true. Of those who did, most probably wished they never had. Why is this fountain's existence even tolerated by Dalaran's municipal services? Is it considered an historical artifact or something?
EDIT: This guide is now finished! You can find the full series here:
- The OverAchiever: Dalaran's magic fountain
- The OverAchiever: The silver coins of the Dalaran fountain
- The OverAchiever: The gold coins of the Dalaran fountain
Silver in the City
There are 15 silver coins in the fountain. Like the copper coins we've already discussed, you don't get anything special for fishing these up, but several contain some interesting commentary from WoW lore figures.
- Aegwynn's Silver Coin Aegwynn is a more important WoW lore figure than I think many realize, and it's long been rumored that she'd been in the game since beta under an assumed name. Two popular picks for this theory were Pained, the night elf NPC with the odd name keeping Jaina Proudmoore company in the Theramore tower, and Tabetha, the mysterious mage out in the middle of Dustwallow Marsh. However, it looks like both theories have since been jossed now that Aegwynn is officially dead within the lore. She now lies under Morgan's Plot behind Karazhan in Deadwind Pass. There's a chance that her son Medivh (see below) is buried next to her, but no one really knows. Oh, and Medivh's dad? He's not far away ... sort of.
- Alleria's Silver Coin This, along with Anasterian Sunstrider's coin below, is the definition of "Be careful what you wish for." Alleria, like Danath Trollbane (whose coin we discussed the other week), can be seen in statue form within the main gates of Stormwind, but her whereabouts are currently unknown.
- Antonidas' Silver Coin This is an only slightly altered version of the famous Serenity Prayer. Antonidas, once the leader of the Kirin Tor, not only trained Jaina Proudmoore but was also the guy who figured out that the invading orcs had been under demonic influence. Unfortunately, he was one of the many magi to die in Arthas' invasion of Dalaran. You can see a memorial to him in the northwestern section of the city.
- Arcanist Doan's Silver Coin You've probably killed this guy a million times; he's the end boss of the Scarlet Monastery library, and before heirlooms, he was the source of many a leveling caster's robes, shoulders, and weapons. The Abbendis referenced here is High General Brigitte Abbendis, who you'll run into a few times over the course of Wrath of the Lich King questing.
- Fandral Staghelm's Silver Coin I am hard-pressed to pick any time over the course of WoW's history when Fandral Staghelm was anything other than severely disliked by players, and I always liked this coin for the humanizing facet it added to his character. His son, Valstann, died horribly during the War of the Shifting Sands, and you can argue that the night elves' immortality only served to prolong Fandral's agony. However, these days Fandral is decidedly less immortal. Have fun with that health pool of his on heroic!
- High Tinker Mekkatorque's Silver Coin Oh, gnomes. But the gnomish racial leader raises a perfectly legitimate question: How does the fountain work, and who the hell built or magicked it into existence? Wowhead commenters raise another perfectly legitimate question: Given the fountain's somewhat frightening track record with respecting to not granting wishes or granting them in the most horrible way possible, why on earth would you ever want to build another one?
- Khadgar's Silver Coin Yet another member of the tragic Alliance Expedition who never returned home. However, Khadgar's staying busy in Shattrath, and there's still a bit of cheer here; he has to have been back to Dalaran at least once since the city was rebuilt, or else this coin wouldn't be here.
- King Anasterian Sunstrider's Silver Coin This is yet another coin that serves as a reminder of the fountain's oft-disturbing means of granting wishes, but it's also interesting in its little hint concerning Kael'thas' priorities. Anasterian's son was a very high-ranking member of the Kirin Tor at the time that Antonidas was heading the organization, and he was also attracted to the human Jaina Proudmoore (you get a neat little peek at this in the pre-Naxxramas short story "Road to Damnation" in a bit of dialogue toward the end of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and then a much bigger dose of it in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King). Presumably, Anasterian was worried about Kael's attention to his own kingdom. You can catch a very quick look at a ghostly version of Anasterian within the game toward the end of the Quel'dalar quest line.
- King Terenas Menethil's Silver Coin I just realized that Terenas (along with Antonidas and Anasterian, above) is the third person among the silver coins to have died by Arthas' hand. Scary. Anyway, there are actually three places where you'll find Terenas -- or more accurately, a remnant of him -- in WoW, despite his death during the events of Warcraft III. The first and creepiest is in the Lordaeron throne room (above what's now Undercity), where the bloodstain from Terenas' execution is still visible to the side of the throne. Reportedly, you can also hear the sound of the scene from the pertinent cinematic if you turn your ambient sound up. The next antechamber before the entrances to the elevators contains a tomb with an inscription to Terenas, which players observe had to have been written by a Forsaken. The third is during the Lich King encounter in Icecrown Citadel: You can see -- and will have to rescue -- Terenas if you're ported into Frostmourne, and once you manage to get Arthas to 10% and he insta-kills the raid, it's Terenas who pulls your chestnuts out of the fire. I also have to say that Terenas' narration (by Earl Boen) over the Wrath trailer is a beautiful bit of understatement too often missing in video games.
- King Varian Wrynn's Silver Coin Why wasn't this guy a gold coin, you ask? Well, until relatively recently, he was missing and presumed dead by just about everyone. It wasn't until Wrath that he made a return to the game as anything other than the subject of a really cool quest (The Missing Diplomat, now relegated to history), so maybe he didn't merit a spot among the major lore figures at the time. Unfortunately for Varian, this is yet another coin seemingly shepherded by the Malice Fairy; his wife would later die in the Stormwind riots instigated by the nascent Defias movement.
- Maiev Shadowsong's Silver Coin So succinct. So perfect. Wait a minute -- where is Maeiv these days, anyway? At least you can see her brother during one the game's funniest quests in Mount Hyjal.
- Medivh's Silver Coin Medivh's ultimate fate is, as far as I'm aware, currently unknown. While supposedly dead by Khadgar's hand in the first Warcraft game, he later resurfaces in Warcraft III to convince the Alliance and Horde to band together against Archimonde. After this, he more or less vanishes from the universe, although you can play chess against a cheating, ghostly form of him in Karazhan, and he makes an appearance in the comics to his son, Med'an. Oh, and you can travel back in time to see him as he opens the Dark Portal. Some people think he's a raven endlessly circling Karazhan. I sat at the tower for a while a few months back to get screenshots for this Shifting post and never saw anything like that, so I'm not so sure. Possibly I was just in the wrong place. The comics apparently claim that he's laid to rest in the Morgan's Plot cemetery next to his mother, Aegwynn, but if that's the case, there's still no confirmation within the game that Medivh is dead at all.
- Muradin Bronzebeard's Silver Coin Eh. This sort of came true. Horde players may not be up to speed on this guy is. He was instrumental to Arthas' training as a paladin and later accompanied him to Northrend, only to lose his memory when Arthas took Frostmourne. He can be found these days as the Bronzebeard representative in Ironforge, seeing as to how Brann is still off getting himself into all sorts of archaeological trouble and Magni is ... somewhat indisposed.
- Prince Magni Bronzebeard's Silver Coin Possibly the cruelest coin of all if you factor in the pre-Cataclysm events that left Magni nothing more than a very large paperweight.
- A Peasant's Silver Coin This coin still confuses me. Thoughts?
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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Achievements, The Overachiever






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
thedoctor2031 Jul 21st 2011 4:09PM
I believe Muradin was already in northrend when Arthas found him according to WC3. Very interesting to see how this fountain seems to make the opposite of peoples' wishes come true.
DonNochay Jul 21st 2011 4:41PM
I'm not so certain that it explicitly makes the OPPOSITE happen, but rather, tends to skew what the real, original, intended meaning of the wish was.
neoterous Jul 22nd 2011 1:30AM
Kinda like the monkey's paw (google it)
Ji Jul 21st 2011 4:25PM
The silver coin refers to the fact that NPC's (especially lower ranking npcs, like, say, peasants (or, for meta-reference, the peasants is WC3)) do the same task over and over.
So if one of these poor individuals was tasked with throwing a silver coin into a fountain, he would probably do it until something happened to him that made him unable to do so.
Apple Jul 21st 2011 4:50PM
This makes the most sense to me.
Among the copper coins (not part of the set for some reason, which is why you missed it) is the Footman, who is jealous of the Peasant's simple, less dangerous work. On the flipside (ha!) this silver coin pokes fun at the way Peasants will do the same job until told to stop.
Siaperas Jul 22nd 2011 2:57PM
It's also a wink at the voice emotes of the peasant units. For those not in the know, every Blizzard RTS included "annoyed" emotes if you repeatedly clicked on them. The Peasant unit would sometimes say, "Wait, what?" if you clicked on it a few times.
Jaq Jul 21st 2011 4:42PM
It is worth mentioning that I started fishing for the coins in the Dal fountain with a fishing level of around 360.
I got all the coin achievements and still hadn't maxed fishing. Such a brutal grind.
briker Jul 21st 2011 6:05PM
This...so much, this.
Angus Jul 21st 2011 4:46PM
What's confusing about the peasant's coin? He already threw in a copper one...
:)
Revynn Jul 21st 2011 4:58PM
The worst part of changing mains is doing this sort of garbage for a second time.
VioletArrows Jul 22nd 2011 3:24AM
I think I would actually give in for a service to transfer all of my achievements, mounts, titles, reputations, skills, and professions to an equal level character. I have several achievements, grinds, and holidays that I will NEVER do again no matter what, but it sucks having to leave the rewards I got from them.
ZephyrSP Jul 21st 2011 5:11PM
What ever happened to that Mountain O Mounts on the Argent Tournament that was supposed to come in that series? Was it covered in one of the others? I don't recall seeing it.
Tsaavik Jul 21st 2011 5:40PM
There is a fourth time you get to see (and hear) King Terenas's spirit. The first room/battle/boss of the "Halls of Reflection" instance.
Tayler Jul 21st 2011 7:10PM
that's not terenas, that's uther the lightbringer
Drakkenfyre Jul 21st 2011 5:36PM
Pain in the ass Achievement.
Not only is it totally random, but you will keep missing the fountain again, and again. You need to stand in the middle of the fountain, and about 10 feet back, then you will get most of your casts, with an occasional "Did not land in water".
If you are levelling up your Fishing, you can vendor off all the greys at the trainer right there. And when need be, just step forward, get training, then step back.
You will occasionally land on the edge of the fountain water, and the water here is considered the sewer water, and shares the sewer water loot table. If you are on the quest that has you fishing in the sewers, you can pull up the item right here.
And the goldfish, the damned goldfish. Once you get to the point where you aren't getting too many junk catches anymore, you will start getting goldfish almost non-stop. That is the only thing on the loot table other than coins. If you are too high a level for it to be useul, or don't have a pet that can eat fish, you will be vendoring hundreds of these damn things.
And the coins will repeat themselves multiple times. You will eventually get to the point where you need only one or two, and get the same damn coin 4 times.
Ben Jul 21st 2011 5:57PM
Make a macro that does /cast fishing over and over, or whatever it is. Its slightly annoying, because you will get an error message every time you case, but on the plus side it will make it so that you always get a successful cast off.
Drakkenfyre Jul 21st 2011 10:31PM
I would be VERY careful making macros to spam.
When you had to spam /chicken almost 100 times to get the hidden quest "Cluck!", people would use macros to do it. And if someone reported them, Blizzard took it as spamming. Even tho it was to get a quest. Even tho you weren't meaning to spam other players. They actioned players for doing that.
And especially after this big thing with the player named Swifty getting banned, if someone (i.e. GM) sees you spamming a macro, even tho it doesn't produce a text line, and even tho you are legitimately using it, I wouldn't want to provoke an overly-caution GM.
Drakkenfyre Jul 21st 2011 5:45PM
Oh, and I absolutely love the comments on Wowhead about Onyxia's coin.
Quoted from the page:
(Inscription on the coin: "Listen, little wishing fountain. You'll give me all your power if you know what's good for you.")
" "up yours bitch!""
Drakkenfyre Jul 21st 2011 5:54PM
Eh, I forgot the comment section removes brackets.
The comment in reply to Onyxia's coin was
(Fountain throws coin back at her) "up yours bitch!"
freebeatfly Jul 21st 2011 6:05PM
When are you gonna tackle the new Firelands achievements? I mean the old coin ones from Dalaran are interesting too but many have that already....