Posts with tag world-of-warcraft-lore

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

The Sin'dorei have been a presence in WoW since The Burning Crusade -- and surprisingly enough, as members of the Horde rather than members of the Alliance. This turnaround in events was largely due to the treatment of the blood elves by the Alliance during Warcraft III. Kael'thas Sunstrider watched as his people were slaughtered by the Scourge, and set out to lend a helping hand to his supposed allies, hoping that they would lend a hand in return. However, he was sent to help Garithos, a man who was -- let's face it -- incredibly racist.

And in the face of that not-quite-blatant racism, Kael'thas turned to the only people offering any sort of real alliance; the naga. While Vashj and company helped Kael'thas far more than any of his supposed Alliance allies, Garithos was happy to find an excuse to condemn the leader of the sin'dorei, and had him imprisoned in Dalaran for his supposed treasonous actions. It was this waterfall effect that eventually led to the sin'dorei's withdrawal from the Alliance, and into the arms of the Horde.

Which makes the events of patch 5.1 all the more ironically interesting ... because it's happening all over again, but wearing a slightly different face.

Please note: This Know Your Lore contains spoilers for Tides of War as well as patch 5.1 content from both Operation: Shieldwall and the Dominance Offensive. If you have yet to complete these stories, you may want to veer away.

By and large, we didn't really have to worry too much about expansion storyline and how it related to roleplay in Cataclysm, or even Wrath and Burning Crusade. The most complex quandary for a roleplayer to consider in those days was a matter of who, exactly, killed the final boss of the expansion, and when that final boss died. Who dealt the final blow to Arthas? When exactly did he die?

But in Mists of Pandaria, the story has taken a far more personal turn. Rather than the simple question of end bosses, roleplayers are presented with a multitude of emotional situations. And on top of that, there has been plenty of political movement from both Alliance and Horde. Instead of being a character acting on his own, roleplayers are now far more intimately involved with the inner workings of their respective factions, for better or for worse.

How does one incorporate lore into roleplay, when the lore turns personal?

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Okay, not everything is good. As much of a fan as I am of World of Warcraft and the story of the game, there have been times I've been kind of disappointed in something, or felt like we could have seen more than we did. One example I have is the Dragon Soul raid, but not for the reasons I see around the web. I'll go into what I mean in this very article.

What I'm talking about this time isn't necessarily bad stuff, as much as it is things I wish had happened, or had happened more. I'm not numbering them because I don't think of them in a particular best to worst scheme, they're just places where I felt like more could have been done with the story as it was presented to us.

Trying to pick out five favorite lore moments from WoW is almost an impossible task. The problem with WoW lore is that there is simply so much of it out there that most people will get lost trying to follow it all. While yes, it's an engaging and very rich story, it's the sort of complex tapestry that will make you dizzy if you stare at it for too long.

The other problem, of course, is that picking only five from the giant list of lore that we've witnessed in WoW means that there are countless other moments that are going to be ignored, and I hate that. But for my list, my personal list, you'll find very few of those giant, epic, sweeping battles that everyone would automatically call a pinnacle. I tend to like the more personal stuff.

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

If you happened to miss the first two parts of our year-end countdown, I'd suggest going back and reading over both part one and part two before continuing on with the final four developments featured today. I love the lore in Mists of Pandaria, and it's mainly because everything is so completely new that it is almost impossible to predict what's going to happen next. This doesn't stop Matthew Rossi and myself from coming up with any number of crazy theories, but it does make it harder to see where the story is going to go next.

That's actually a pretty good thing. Without that continual introduction of new material, the story, and the game itself, would get pretty old and stale. And while the rest of the top ten for 2012 offered plenty of points where Blizzard could improve on existing methods of storytelling, the top four are a little more absent of criticism. It's because there are points, in Mists, where success has been achieved to a point where it's hard to say something needs work.

That doesn't mean that I'm not critical, however.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

One might assume that a priest is a benevolent servant of the Light, or Elune, or An'she, or whatever deity they happen to follow. Consumed with the Light's grace, a priest seeks to heal, drawn to the task by an innate need to heal and mend. For a priest, the world is a place full of lost, suffering souls waiting to be mended and healed, the gratitude of those mended being all that a priest needs. Humble, polite, quiet, the priest is a creature of benevolence and purity, an example for all those lost souls to follow.

One would be quite wrong in that assumption.

Priests are just as complex, perhaps even more so than every other class on Azeroth. While some are drawn to healing like a moth to a flame, there are others drawn to the darker side. A priest can harm just as well as heal -- in fact, they may be more deadly than even those dark practitioners of fel magics. For what makes for suffering more than a creature who knows quite intimately, inside and out, the inner workings of organs and mind?

Priests are terribly interesting creatures, and make for even more interesting roleplay.

Last week we talked about wild speculation. But since then, Anne and I each talked about our characters and the way they view the Warchief of the Horde, Garrosh Hellscream, and that got me thinking about the perspective we as players have versus the perspective the characters in the game have. It's easy for me as a player to be uncomfortable with things that my character would not be, and vice versa, because as a player I have access to sources of information no one in the world of Azeroth does.

Garrosh Hellscream has intelligence reports. Varian Wrynn has spies. But neither of them can go to a bookstore and pick up Tides of War and get to read scenes from inside their opposite number's war councils. Neither of them can go play a character inside the opposite faction. Players of the game have the ability to achieve a much broader perspective than anyone within that setting, and draw parallels to a real world history none of these characters can be aware of. Garrosh Hellscream doesn't know he's fictional. And frankly I wouldn't recommend telling him, dude has a temper.

The lore of the game, the story, is always predicated upon the fact that the people within that story act according to their own motivations, and none of them are omniscient. We know that Garona didn't want to kill Llane Wrynn but that Shadow Council conditioning and torture, combined with what she saw within Karazhan, left her convinced she had no choice. We know that, but Varian Wrynn doesn't know that. He only knows that an orc that his father trusted cut out his father's heart. He knows that because he saw it, and it's easy for us to know that not all orcs are like that. Try and imagine it from his perspective, and you understand why he believes what he believes. The same goes for Jaina, or Arthas, or any of the big names of the Warcraft setting - they're limited to their own perspective. They can't know what we know.

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

In part one of our look back at 2012's best lore developments, we looked at the various aspects introduced to better introduce lore to those that had only a passing interest in it. While the Lorewalkers, print media and instance developments were also tremendously appealing to those that already have a handle on Warcraft lore, they also served as a method of getting the lore out to those that weren't really interested in the minutiae of mogu and mantid.

And that's honestly pretty important. There are plenty of players that play the game simply to play it, not paying attention to why they are playing at all. By implementing subtle elements that introduce the lore in an unobtrusive fashion, the developers have quietly found a way to make sure that regardless of how or why you play the game, you still have some sort of basic understanding of what is going on. Cataclysm had a story, but it was so complex that it was difficult even for those with a strong grasp of lore to puzzle out exactly what was going on and why we were doing what we were doing.

But the fun doesn't stop there -- and today's picks are those that are slightly less unobtrusive in regards to lore and story.

You want evil? Forget the warriors of the world, scoff at the rogues and give the mages of Azeroth a collective raspberry. Let's face it, nothing is as seductive as embracing the powers of darkness, harnessing fel energies and twisting them at your whim. Nothing is as addictive as the sweet thrill of control, and warlocks are all about control.

You want danger? How about following a path that leads to ultimate corruption for the majority of those that choose to tread it? How about harnessing demonic entities, never knowing whether they will serve you, or turn on you -- crushing your body into a fine mist, your bones to dust? How about having your very soul hang in balance between control and chaos, ready to teeter either way at a moment's notice?

The life of a warlock is incredibly interesting, and far from what any would call remotely sane.

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

We've had some clues about patch 5.2, and we know that we're getting a new raid zone, with an advancement of the mogu/Zandalari storyline. Now, I'm really looking forward to Thunder Isle and to hopefully finding out some of the story behind the mogu 'return', the fate of Zandalar Isle, and to seeing the fallout from the Divine Bell incident. We already know a few things, which I won't mention here (yes, there will be spoilers for patch 5.2 in this article) but what we don't yet know is far more interesting to me than what we do know.

For starters, just how does the Thunder King intend to reclaim his lost empire? Why did he share the means to return him from death with the Zandalari? Why have the mogu suddenly returned to using magic after having lost the ability for generations? Why are there Korune suddenly challenging Sha magic in Kun-Lai Summit? (You'll remember we speculated on the Sha being tied to the mogu this year and now here they are, channeling mogu power) There's a lot we don't know about patch 5.2, and beyond it.

So let's talk about that. What's really going on, and once we face down the Thunder King, where do we go from there?

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

2012 was a bit of an odd year for World of Warcraft. While yes, we did see the successful launch of Mists of Pandaria, that didn't happen until September. Prior to that? There was a whole lot of nothing in game. Patch 4.3 came out in November of 2011, which meant that players had nothing new or exciting to look at for nine months -- an astonishingly long period of time. So why bother doing a top 10 lore developments for 2012, you may ask?

Because the moment Mists of Pandaria hit live servers, we were inundated with so many different lore developments, changes and tweaks that there is more than enough material for this list. Oddly enough, although we definitely spent far more time this year entrenched in Cataclysm, it already feels like there's been more time spent in Pandaria overall. And the changes made to lore development between Cataclysm and Mists are something we should pay attention to, because they spell the beginnings of a very bright future for further Warcraft lore.

A hero... that's what you once were. You stood boldly against the Shadow and purchased another dawn for the world... with your life.

The death knight class was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King as the first, and to date only, hero class. Former minions and soldiers of the Lich King, these warriors of darkness have now risen against their dark master and obtained their own freedom, of sorts. But the path to acceptance is much more difficult for a death knight than any other class in the game. After all, you were a tool of darkness at its finest, when you were "born."

This makes death knights a really unique opportunity for roleplay, because they essentially have two lives -- the life before they died, and the life after. It's that reconciliation between the two that offers the most fascinating moments for roleplay. How does a person come to terms with the fact that they were turned from hero to butcher in what should have been their final moment of saving grace?

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

In light of the news of Patch 5.2, let's take a look at who the Thunder King is. Lei Shen was the first ruler of the mogu, the first to unite his people. In a very real sense he was the first Emperor of what is today Pandaria. He cleverly united the mogu people not merely through force of arms or even powerful magic, but through motivation. He learned the lessons of strength by studying the mantid, and applied the lessons he learned to his own people.

It has been written that when the great Lei Shen first looked upon the lands of the mantid, he did not feel fear, but inspiration.

As he began to unify his people under a single banner and subjugate the other races of Pandaria, he knew that the mantid would never succumb to his authority. They spoke his language, the language of strength. He commanded his slaves to construct the Serpent's Spine, a magnificent wall that spanned the length of the empire.

It would take many generations to build. But Lei Shen knew how to motivate his subjects. Fear. Fear of the mantid moved mountains, raised armies, secured his empire, and built his wall.

The Thunder King, from Dark Heart of the Mogu

Before he could apply the lessons of the mantid, however, Lei Shen would first need to rise to power, which he did with the aid of an ancient lost artifact. This artifact allowed Lei Shen to annihilate his rivals and cement his power over the mogu, and the Thunder King is said to have built the Mogu'shan Vaults to contain this weapon.

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

The August Celestials are comparable to the Ancients of Kalimdor and Northrend. (Whether or not the Ancients reach into the Eastern Kingdoms is debatable - I haven't seen any there, but that doesn't mean they can't get there.) They serve as the four pillars of Pandaria, sustaining the lands under their protection from the four temples that bear their names. Xuen the White Tiger to the north in Kun-Lai Summit, the powerful Niuzao the Black Ox to the west in the Townlong Steppes, Chi-Ji the Red Crane from the Krasarang Wilds to the south, and Yu'lon the Jade Serpent from her temple in the Jade Forest. Since before the time of Shaohao the last Pandaren Emperor, these four have advised and aided the peoples of Pandaria, protecting the land from the malign influences of the Sha, the rapacious expansion of the mantid, and the cruel oppression of the mogu. It's fair to speculate on whether or not the pandaren, jinyu and hozen could have hoped to have freed themselves without the August Celestials.

Yet these four spirits and their temples, while powerful influences on the culture and life of the lands of Pandaria, are not omnipresent parental figures. They do not shepherd their followers, but encourage them. They won't stand idly by and allow them to be destroyed, but neither will they control their lives.

Vanilla WoW may not have seemed full of story to most, but it was jam-packed with plot elements, although they were hidden from all but those who paid the closest attention to what was going on around them. Most lore in the game was simply introduced with quest text -- there were no cut scenes, there was no phasing, there were none of the innovations we currently have today in regards to the implementation of lore in gameplay.

If you missed them, I recommend going back and reading through the summaries of early days of vanilla lore. There are two versions of Act I, one for Alliance and one for Horde. Act II applies to both sides of the faction fence as the story began to merge for both sides. Please note that these are summaries of the lore that existed in game -- later novels, comics, and other material adjusted what actually happened in the scope of the game universe, and some of those novels and comics are now the official canon version of these events. I've pointed out where these changes occurred.

The end of vanilla was marked with the return of foes long thought dead and gone, and the ominous stirrings of a portal to another world.