The Infinite Dragonflight

Okay.

I think it is safe to infer that the Infinite Dragonflight was created by the Old Gods and they are part of their plan to escape, in some form or another. They are almost certainly corrupted bronze dragons.

What do we know?

1) The Old Gods have been trying to bust out of Azeroth since at least the War of the Ancients. They got Deathwing to create the Demon Soul, and manipulated things so that it fell in to Malfurion Stormrage's hands, blowing up the portal and eventually the world in the Sundering. Azshara also created the Naga (herself included) in a pact with the Old God.
2) The Old Gods have been constantly manipulating events to get things that they want. Some people theorize that Deathwing was the real conspirator behind the destruction of Draenor, as a test run for the Cataclysm, which is supposed to do what the Sundering didn't do. They are always driving people mad.
3) The Old God C'Thun made war with the Brood of Nozdormu in both Wars of the Shifting Sands, along with the night elves in the first and the rest of Azeroth in the second.
4) Even the bronze dragonflight does not know the origins of infinite dragonflight or what their purpose is.

Now the infinite dragonflight has no clear explanation of their origin, but we get some hints.

In Wrath of the Lich King, Chromie, Ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight, sends players on a quest to take a powerful artifact to the Bronze Dragonshrine in order to divine the true identity of the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight. Instead of the leader being revealed, players reveal Nozdormu himself. While this is shrugged off as merely being interesting by Chromie, it blatantly suggests that Nozdormu himself is responsible for the Infinite Dragonflight.

It is unknown at this time whether Norzdormu is the leader, and it is also unknown what, if anything, would lead him to this fate. Why would an Aspect suddenly go from carefully guarding the events and happenings of time, to trying to disrupt them? Why, he’d have to be…mad.
(shades of grey)

Finally, we know that Nozdormu is away on some kind of quest and that's why we don't see him in the Caverns of Time. In the War of the Ancients trilogy, Krasus tells us that Nozdormu knows how he will meet his demise, and he check out what he says to Krasus in Day of the Dragon:

Nozdormu knows he's going to do something bad. Perhaps he will be corrupted like Neltharion and do some crazy stuff like disrupt timelines. We also know that you have to save a bronze dragon from the Infinite Corruptor in order to get your bronze drake mount.

Where have we seen them show up?

Now. Let all of that marinate in your brain for a moment and consider when players have to intervene to stop the Infinite Dragonflight from altering the flow of time.

• Escape from Durnholde. They are attempting to stop Thrall from escaping his internment camp.
• Opening of the Dark Portal. The infinite are trying to stop Medivh from opening the Dark Portal, allowing the Orcish Horde to enter Azeroth and begin the First War.
• Culling of Stratholme. Interfering with a turning point in Arthas's journey to Northrend to become the Lich King.

Why would the Old Gods want to interfere with each of these events? Think about their results. Thrall escapes from Durnholde, and later becomes the leader of the New Horde. The New Horde which arose out of the ashes of the Orcish Horde. The Orcish Horde came to Azeroth through the Dark Portal. This is the same New Horde that was heavily involved in the second War of the Shifting Sands, which vanquished C'thun. C'thun who was imprisoned by the Bronze Dragonflight. Coincidence? I think not.

Especially when you consider the repeated references to some specific plan, or to a master, or to ensuing choas, which the Old Gods love.

Aeonus in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• The time has come to shatter this clockwork universe forever! Let us no longer be slaves of the hourglass! I warn you: those who do not embrace the greater path shall become victims of its passing! (It is worth noting that this quote was partially stolen from Medivh...)
• No one can stop us! No one!
• One less obstacle in our way!
• We will triumph.. It is only a matter...of time.

Temporus, in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• My death means ... little.

Chrono Lord Deja, in Opening of the Dark Portal:

• Time ... is on our side.

Epoch Hunter, in Escape from Durnholde:

• Ah, there you are. I had hoped to accomplish this with a bit of subtlety, but I suppose direct confrontation was inevitable. Your future, Thrall, must not come to pass and so...you and your troublesome friends must die!
• Thrall will remain a slave. Taretha will die. You have failed.
• No!...The master... will not... be pleased.

Infinite Corruptor

• How dare you interfere with our work here!
• My work here is finished.

And the Culling of Stratholme. Why would the Old Gods want to thwart Arthas? Easy. Stratholme was a turning point for Arthas on his road to becoming the new Lich King. Remember that the old Lich King was drawing him there because the power of the Frozen Throne was severely waning. The infinite dragonflight simply attempts to kill him, rather than turn him from his path. So with Arthas dead, and the old one's power waning, the Scourge may be defeated much more easily as time goes on. There is no new Scourge invasion to draw the combined military might of Azeroth to Northrend on a counteroffensive. Why is this important? No one discovers the Secrets of Ulduar.

And even if they did, only the Alliance would be able to do anything about it, seeing as how the Infinites would have tripped up the New Horde's formation.

What does this mean?

This is interesting for several reasons:

Old God Synergy

It implies that the OGs are working together, at least in some minimal capacity. Previously we had not heard of this. C'thun was the problem of the Bronzes, yet by killing Arthas, you are aiding Yogg-Saron. Perhaps they work together, perhaps they do not. It seems reasonable for them to understand situations where what is good for one of them is also good for all of them. If no one discovers the Secrets of Ulduar, no one kills Yogg. More Old Gods executing sinister plans to divide and menace the mortals of Azeroth is better than less. Once they regain control, who knows who friendly they will be to each other.

Thrall is a threat.

There is a strong interest in Thrall. This may not mean anything in terms of the way the Infinite see things, but for us, notice that they tried to stop the Dark Portal only after we saw Thrall to safety. Failing at that point, they had to go earlier. They would like to avoid altering the timeline too much to avoid unexpected results, so they play as conservative as they can.

This confirms (if this theory is correct) that Thrall is going to be a major figure in the defense of Azeroth against the Old Gods, as was recently discussed at Blizzcon.

Thrall is one of the few orcs out there who have blue eyes -- a sign of great destiny, much as golden eyes and antlers signify the same among night elves. It's been assumed all these years that Thrall's destiny lay in leading the Horde ... but what if that's not actually the case at all? What if Thrall is part of something much, much larger than this? In response to a question regarding whether or not we would be taking out some of the other dragon Aspects in the same way we took out Malygos, Metzen responded that future patches would introduce story development in which the dragon family would have to get involved, that there would be a big battle, and that "they [the Aspects] will perform the function for which they were created." The specific question posed was "How will the [dragon] family and Thrall pull this [Deathwing's defeat] off?"

Then Metzen gave us another seriously interesting hook. He asked, "What aspect is missing from the family?" After some silence, he responded with Deathwing, the Earth Aspect. Earth -- and the family of Aspects is broken and has been broken ever since Deathwing's betrayal during the Sundering. The implication here is that someone needs to step up and take the place of the Earth Warder ... and who better to do this than a shaman who is possibly more powerful than any living creature on Azeroth? Or as Metzen put it, "Perhaps that's a way our boy Thrall can distinguish himself, down the line, in helping to bring the family back together for the big win."

Thrall is also currently in Draenor learning to fix the broken elements. They got broken thanks to the efforts of Deathwing, according to a fairly sound theory I've run across. Even if it isn't true, now Deathwing is trying to do something similar here on Azeroth, and what Thrall is learning from what happened to Draenor's shattering will help him fix Azeroth. The inference here is clear. Thrall is a problem they tried to fix in the Caverns of Time twice. That means they couldn't defeat him in the future. Thrall, I guess, has not nearly exhausted his badass potential.

War of the Ancients Planned CoT instance

The Old Gods were responsible for the Demon Soul, which destroyed the portal summoning Sargeras, causing the Sundering. The Old Gods wanted to escape their prisons beneath the Earth, yet only C'thun seems to have been able to do it. That says to me the Sundering didn't quite go the way they planned. Or maybe they wanted the Demon Soul to be used for something else. We don't know. It may be like Mount Hyjal, where we don't even see the Infinite Dragonflight. But I wouldn't bet on that.

Nozdormu

With this guy we get some interesting stuff. He knows he's going to be a problem for the other dragons later in life. He also cannot avoid this. But he also knows. Perhaps that gift/curse of knowledge means that he will be able to act in some way, some sacrificial way, to prevent the looming crises. Especially because Chris Metzen said it was badass. And as we all know, everything badass in time travel involves knowledge of the future and going back in time to influence things in the future that prevent/cause your own death. And I don't know if he has fallen victim to the Old God whispers, but Neltharion did, and some speculate that Malygos did too, thanks to Yogg, after he regained his sanity. But maybe the Infinite Dragonflight has some hidden purpose we're unware of.

We Have Bigger Problems Than Deathwing

I've been thinking about Deathwing. Certainly, he is a fearsome enemy. I can feel that he's coming, the Kirin Tor agree with me. But something else is happening. Allow me to meander a bit. For some reason, I found myself thinking of Velen. It's hard to know how to feel about him. He redeemed us at the Sunwell, but...let's just say Sin'dorei and Dranei have not gotten along so well. Knowing his history, leading the draenei from world to world fleeing the Legion, and how they ended up here. But, together we defeated Ki'jaeden. So, why are the draenei still here? Especially if they serve the Alliance.

Then I heard of Velen's prophecy. That Azeroth would be the stage for the coming battle of Light vs. the Darkness. And I wondered what is so special about Azeroth.


(Similarly to how Ilidan was the poster child of Burning Crusade and Outland was the new continent, but really the story was ultimately about the Legion trying to make a third invasion of Azeroth. The creative development team is a notorious bunch of foreshadowers. Lots of questlines and dialogue bits that don't make sense or go anywhere until 2 years later.)

Deathwing is a problem, but then I think of the problems we've already overcome. We defeated the Burning Legion yet again at the Sunwell, and now we've all but bested the Scourge, the runaway zeppelin of the Legion. Those were the major threats to Azeroth as a whole. Then whats the only thing left now: The Old Gods.

The Titans see something in us. They know that Azeroth will be the stage for the final war against Sargeras and the Legion. That's why Algalon was so astounded at our defeat of him. There is something uniquely resilient about Azeroth. Draenor was all but shattered by the forces that settled there. Other worlds Algalon himself has snuffed out without batting an eyelash, and that's probably nothing compared those the Legion has conquered and annihilated. Defeating Loken in the Halls of Lightning was what called Algalon to the planet. This was considered to be the sign that Azeroth wasn't working, and it was time to turn Azeroth off and turn it back on again. But we managed to stop this unfathomably powerful being. So Algalon was surprised. Something about this world was outside of their calculations, claims Algalon, something makes Azeroth special, and the Titans aren't sure what it is.

Think about the Legion and the Scourge, both of which were checked by us mere mortal Azerothians, the Legion, led by the great enemy of the Titans, Sargeras. We know (from Know Your Lore) that the Old Gods viewed the Old Gods as a problem, but they were unsure of whether they should destroy the life Azeroth to kill them. That says something is special about Azeroth, and the people here. There was a baby in that bathwater. And now, that's why Algalon returns to consult with his masters. He's told them that they've created something worth keeping here, and that's why the war is coming here.

That's where Deathwing and the Old Gods come in. Deathwing, terrible and awesome as his power might be, is really just their servant. All of his evil is due to their corruption, and they've been scheming to get out of their prisons for unfathomably many centuries now. We have bigger problems than Deathwing. The Old Gods are just using him as a pawn (more on this later). I can't see how it would be otherwise.

The Titans are interested in us now- they saw what we did with the previous evils, and they want to know how we'll handle this one that has been a conundrum for them thus far. They want to see how things play out on this little planet that could. So many worlds have been destroyed or corrupted- maybe here they finally got their experiment right. We, the denizens of this planet, just won't seem to die, even after we fell victim to the Curse of Flesh. And if we Azerothians prove our mettle yet again against this enemy that the Titans didn't quite know what do with, the great battle will begin. That's what Velen's prophecy meant- the Titans are coming back to make war with Sargeras and the Legion. Let's hope we're all alive to see it.

A note: Start updating WoWpedia. WoWWiki sucks now.

Maybe you have been noticing in the past few months that WoWiki has been featuring more and more ads, which in some cases have become quite obtrusive on the reading experience there. The obnoxious kind that play videos that eat up memory and CPU, and the kind that abruptly stretch out or otherwise cover up the stuff you want to look at. You know, the stuff that's not ads. Finally Wikia forced them to take on a really ugly skin, apparently, which, while not being completely unreadable, looked awful.

So they migrated all the pages over to a new site WoWpedia.org, which is hosted by Curse and has no ads. It's exact same information, it works, but far less annoying to read. So let's all edit that instead. Also, their layout is just a little better than the old one which is nice. They really want people to radically update WoWpedia.org because WoWwiki had a lot of outdated or incomplete information (which is just a necessary consequence of the fact that all editing of individual pages was by nature ad hoc). Particularly they point out class pages and specs.

You can also migrate your user account page by following the directions here. Then you can edit away. Look here to read the welcome to WoWpedia.com, for more information about it.

Something Dreadful This Way Comes

In the last post , I mentioned the disturbances around Azeroth- unusual earthquakes, fires, droughts, storms. Also, some sort of massive shift in the power of the ley lines, which seems to have strengthened my spellcasting, and others. I was just falling asleep last night after giving some divination lessons in the Sanctuary. Some of the energies of the repeated spell-casting demonstrations must have remained latent within me, because just as I was about go under, I was had a vision of the Destroyer.

It was too terrible, and vivid, to write off as simply a dream. This could only be some kind of warning about Deathwing.

Naturally, as I was in Dalaran, I consulted with my Kirin Tor brothers and sisters. I spoke much with the archmage Rhonin, and the mage Krasus, whom I’d heard had dealt directly with the black dragonflight. Krasus himself being a red dragon, was particularly concerned about it. They told me much of the history of his evil, and we talked at length on the subject of what the meaning of the images could mean.

Deathwing used to be Neltharion, Aspect of Earth, until the whispers of the Old Gods drove him insane. It was when his body became overwhelmed by the power of the Demon Soul- the one that destroyed the first Well of Eternity- that it began to erupt with lava and fire, the essence of which he was formerly the steward of in Azeroth. So he had had goblin fashion metallic plates and hammered them in to his very bone to hold his body together. (They also told me that what I saw was confusing to them. They’d thought that the plates on his body had already been applied over 10,000 years ago in the time of the War of the Ancients, which incidentally, the two had been there for, by goblins. But those in the vision did not look like goblins. Who were they?) This is what I was seeing, they said. As they do so he slams into the walls of his cavern, oddly causing the earth to shake and break. And he finally makes the world break when he emerges to reign fire.

And they told me the stories of the twilight dragon flight in Grim Batol, which I’d already faced in the Ruby Sanctum. It was indeed a brazen attack and a massacre in that place. Halion, the Twilight Dragon in command that we defeated, called himself the Herald of the Deathwing.

And his words:

Pain. Agony. My hatred burns through the cavernous deeps. The world heaves with my torment. Its wretched kingdoms quake beneath my rage. But at last the whole of Azeroth will break, and all will burn beneath the shadow of my wings.

To me he seems...vengeful, full of spite. Unsurprising, but still...I do not quite understand where his hatred comes from. From what they told me, all of his pain and agony and torment physically are of his own doing. But then, he is corrupted by the Old Gods. Tormented by them in his mind, long before he inflicted this pain on himself, perhaps. I almost pity him. I can’t say that I know what that is like. And now he wants to take out his fate on the rest of us. I sense this time of peace after the Lich King’s fall will be over very soon.

Odd...in that way he is much like our newly old foe, Arthas, wanting the world to suffer because he did. Yet, in some way, I fear this more. Arthas wanted something in particular from us. He had a story to tell us. He wanted us to understand him, and wanted our pity, twisted though his methods and ruminations were. He asked the spirit of his father “Is it over?” just before he took his last breath. In moments of reflection, I sometimes believe that Arthas wanted to be defeated. From his words and his appearance, all I can tell is that Deathwing simply wishes to live up to his long-held title of Destroyer. And make no mistake- he has the power to do it.

All three of us, sitting here floating above the world, sensed the unmistakably ominous portents of recent events and my vision. All we were able to figure out was that none of this was good.

The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm

Something is happening. Thrall has sensed a disturbing change in the elements...there have been strange earthquakes, not severe ones, but worrisome. They're occuring everywhere. The Horde, and the Alliance, we're butting heads more than ever. And I can sense that the ley-lines are being disturbed. Many casters, and indeed even many non-casters, have felt radical shifts in the amount of power they're able to summon. What power I am able to summon with my own casting has increased dramatically, seemingly coinciding with these other disturbances, and without any effort on my part. Interesting. The wars in the north are over, but the peace feels...I don't know...precarious?

When I was in Shattrath Voren'thal taught me, when in doubt, start scrying.

(I went out to Barnes and Noble the other day, not actually knowing when the lastest Loremaster must-have, The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm was going to drop, but remembering it being sometime in October. Turns out I was one day early, and they had copies in the back which were not even available on the shelves yet, and they got me one.

We, including both Barnes and Noble, are awesome. I got a 36-page headstart. One thing I'm going to do is probably exactly two weeks I'm going to update Wowwiki with the plot, as I have been meaning to do with other novels. Two weeks is the general blackout time for new novels so as to give people a chance to actually read the book. But there's a woeful poverty of lore in the articles. They usually feature only the plot synopsis on the back.

I wrote most of the article for Stormrage. That was an interesting book. More on that later.

Anyway, I am currently reading The Shattering. Pretty awesome so far. Won't spoil anything at least until I finish it, but lets just sat in the first few chapters they are getting into some stuff that I really would like to know about, and talk about...so yeah.)

A Hero Will Rise.

There's been some talk about what, if any a new hero class should be. There won't be one added in Cataclysm. But, I am feeling the new class vibe for whatever the next expansion will be. I have a theory or two on what the story of that expansion will actually be. I'll get into that later.

I think Blizzard does a reasonably good job of propping the classes up with a good amount of lore. The introductory Death Knight experience as part of the Scourge and all the way to the Battle for Light's Hope was fucking awesome. (What is that artifact under Light's Hope, anyway?) I didn't even really enjoy the death knight class all that much, because I started off as unholy, and at that time there were just too many damn buttons to press for unholy. But I figured that was the most magic-based and my character was supposed to be a high-elf, the sister of Luqa, while she was alive. So I abandoned it and later returned to spec frost, which is a lot of fun. But I digress.

Whatever hero class Blizzard adds, there will be some strong narrative focus on them to support their addition to the game. In the current 3 expansion, our antagonists represent pretty much all the major threats to Azeroth there are. The Burning Legion invading, we dealth with some aftermath on Draenor, prevented. The Scourge we thwarted after they attacked. Cataclysm, we will have to survive a radically world-changing event, which is so grand in scale, the consequences will never be the same. But notice that each time an expansion drops, they've had to up the ante. First it was on some other world, with the possibility of spreading to ours. Then we had to excise the evil from the world that threatened to cause trouble. Now the trouble is happening whether we like it or not, shit is going down and we have to deal with it. You could conceivably imagine that some people would not have even noticed that Kil'Jaeden's summoning in BC or even the war with the Scourge were even happening. Cataclysm affects everybody.


The best bet for the next hero class will be the one which is most equipped from a lore standpoint. How can we best equip players to handle a ridiculously epicly awesome world shattering threat? Guardian.

Since we already have a tanking and physical (mostly) DPS class, we should get a magical and healing class that uses purely arcane magic to heal and shield (as opposed to nature or holy magic). But what is a Guardian?

Guardians of Tirisfal were a succession of immensely powerful mortal champions who were imbued with the power of the world's greatest mages, The Council of Tirisfal, to secretly combat the Burning Legion's incursions into Azeroth. Worked for about 1000 years, but then it turned out that the last, and greatest one, sort of was part of the Burning Legion. So they disbanded. But now that [insanely powerful evil] is threatening to [do something to terrible], its up to the players yet again to put in some work and stop [whoever].

My guess is that the Burning Legion is going to make a return as the next major enemy. I think this for a lot of reasons I won't go into now, but Sargeras himself, or an avatar, might show up. The specific purpose of the Guardians were to defeat the Legion. Aegwynn herself actually killed an avatar of Sargeras in battle, although he ended up having the last laugh. But even if the Legion doesn't return, they're still powerful and cool stronly lore-based class.

Who will train them? Aegwynn is dead, but as we have seen many times in the Warcraft universe, that should hardly present a problem for her to return. In fact, Medivh, her son and successor as Guardian, was killed, and then she resurrected him. He hasn't been seen in his human form since the end of the Second War in Warcraft III. But he can and does morph into a raven from time to time. Outside of his former home at the tower of Karazhan in Deadwind pass, it is said that a raven can be seen sometimes, endlessly circling the tower's upper reaches. There is also Medivh's son with Garona, Med'an, who has been made into a Guardian by the New Council of Tirisfal, about which I know very little. I'll be getting on that soon. All of these people are possibilities.

What would be really cool is if Medivh himself were involved in the training. The same pep talk that you get from Arthas at the opening of the Death Knight intro, we could get one from Medivh. The introduction could involve, like the Battle of Light's Hope, a massive event with a bunch of Guardians saving Azeroth from something. I'm envisioning a massive number of Guardian players in Dalaran or Crystalsong, perhaps defending Azeroth from a slew of portals being opened up into the Nether, and through them flowing hordes of demons that are in dire need of some slaying, and finally another Avatar of Sargeras. Or perhaps some great battle higher up over the planet itself.

And this expansion's final boss will culminate in a raid instance where the heroes of Azeroth, some of whom will be badass Guardians enter the Twisting Nether to defeat not just another avatar, but Sargeras himself, with the help of the Titans.

You could also have the option to convert one of your characters into a Guardian, and take abilities as a Guardian based on your previous class, since the New Order of Tirisfal, or Medivh, or whoever, wants an army with very diverse strengths.

See? The game stuff is flowing straight out the story (off the top of my head) :). But the possibilities are endless.

Forsaken: Forgive and Forget

I don't know how the story goes once Cataclysm comes out. As I have said, I don't have key to the beta. That's probably a good thing. You know. For my life and stuff.

But what if I was dead and stuff? I'd love Sylvanas even more than I already do. Probably the hawttest dead chick around, these days. Also, good with a bow. But I've heard and read, and I'm sure its the same for all you other people without beta keys, little tidbits of the kind of stuff we can expect story wise in Cataclysm, and one of those most tantalizing bits is not only interfaction conflict but some delicious intrafaction conflict.

After this, if you haven't played through a lot of Wrath of the Lich King, it is SAFE: Spoilers Are Fucking Everywhere.

Apparently, Garrosh Hellscream, the new Warchief, doesn't get along with Sylvanas all that well. Something about a Val'kyr, some name-calling or something. I don't know. It's easy to see how they wouldn't, even without knowing the exact events that go down. There is the fact that Garrosh is a pretty bull-headed jerk and he didn't even drink the Blood of Mannoroth. Sylvanas is an independent type of woman, sort of the Beyonce of incidentally-necrophilia-related-fantasy-inducing ranger elves. Strong enough to flip off the first Lich King and claim some of his kingdom as her own, and then go toe-to-toe with the second one. There is also the fact that nobody really likes the Forsaken in the first place, unholy by-products of demonic machinations they are. They smell pretty awful as well. Yep. That's pretty much it.

What?

Omg, I knew you were going to bring this up. Yes, I know, then there was that whole Wrathgate thing. Again with this? Fine. So the Forsaken betrayed the Alliance and the Horde at a pivotal moment, nay, the very inception of their siege on Icecrown, destroying the Scourge and the living alike with their New Plague which they'd been clandestinely developing for years to unleash vengeance on an unsuspecting world, whether the victims actually perpetrated it or not. Big deal. How long are you going to keep throwing that in their faces? Bolvar didn't actually die, you know. And most of the people there ran away screaming, not dead, so....yeah. No big deal.

Playing Dumb

Yeah, its tough to get over that. But I, and my character, a blood elf mage, actually do believe that Sylvanas and the Forsaken as a whole had no intention of betraying the Kor'kron and the 7th Legion at the Wrathgate.

Why do I believe that? Well, notice what I said. I didn't say Sylvanas did not know the New Plague was being developed. I didn't say that she did not know that its purpose was to lay waste to the Scourge and to the living alike. I didn't say that Sylvanas and the Forsaken had no intention of betraying their allies in this war. I didn't say that they had no intention of eradicating or enslaving every other race and lording over Azeroth.

As far as the statements of the last paragraph are concerned, its almost impossible to play as Horde through any set of Forsaken given or related quests and not run into the development of the New Plague. Remember a Forsaken telling you to test the latest formulas of something or other on unsuspecting mobs or prisoners? Remember some Apothecary telling you gather worm bladders, or some shit, giving you something to take to some other Apothecary? The "New Plague" article on Wowwiki linked above lists fully 7 quest chains which make some direct reference to the development of a new plague. And you help test it on the living at least as often as the undead. Doing nearly anything for the Hand of Vengeance in Howling Fjord and especially Dragonblight means you were directly involved in the finalization and perfection of the New Plague's formula. As far as we Horde players go, who among us can really claim ignorance? Check out this quest text:

Executor Dahlia, The Battle of Hillsbrad:

"I am under direct command of Varimathras. We are to quell
the human infestation until our apothecaries can develop the
new plague."

"Quelling the human infestation"? The people you kill in this quest are not Scourge, nor are they even Scarlet Crusade. They're just some humans. Also, that Varimathras is the Varimathras who was working with Putress.

Apothecary Renferrel, A Recipe for Death:

"Arthas's numbers are overwhelming. But with a New Plague we could eradicate both the Scourge Army and the Human infestation once and for all."

Again with this "Human infestation," which he goes so far as to distinguish from the Scourge.

Apothecary Lydon, Elixir of Pain:

"I look out my grimy window and long for the day when our New Plague brings this world the death it deserves."

The New Plague is not just to kill the Scourge. It's to bring death to "this world". As in, Azeroth.

Apothecary Renferrel, Journey to Hillsbrad Foothills:

"The Royal Apothecary Society is under extreme pressure from the Dark Lady to develop a New Plague."

And here is evidence that it goes all the way to the top, to the Dark Lady herself. If you've read Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, there is a scene where you can see that she directly oversees the Royal Apothecary Society's activities when they test it successfully on the living.

Keep in mind, this is several years before Wrath of the Lich King even started. You might argue that all these references the NPCs make might be only in reference to the coming Scourge War in Northrend, and the Humans which are encroaching upon what the Forsaken believe are their lands, or the Scarlet Crusade. That's quite an equivocal statement, fit for the Azeroth United Nations World Summit. Anyone who has dealt with the Forsaken for anything more than one or two quests at a time knew about the Plague, and what they intended to do with it. If Putress was treacherous, it was only because the rest of us were complacent, or didn't read the quests (which you did, right?) Give me a break. We all knew.

Pointing Fingers, Dead Puppies

And are you really going to tell me that you and I, some random Horde adventurers, knew about the plans of the Forsaken to rain death over Azeroth with the New Plague and Sylvanas didn't? Come on. Clearly she was biding her time, waiting for the right moment to pounce and take Azeroth, or at least a very large portion of it for herself. No one has ever denied that the Forsaken have always been looking out for #1. It's just that Putress and Varimathras jumped the gun on her. What Sylvanas is trying to do, when she claims innocence in all this, is make puppy dog eyes at the rest of the Horde.

Note that when you deliver Saurfang's armor to his father after the Wrathgate, Sylvanas is found kneeling in front of Thrall. Does Sylvanas seem like the type to kneel in front of anyone? Seems a bit obsequious for her. And notice what she says to Thrall as she has fled to Orgrimmar from the coup,

Lady Sylvanas Windrunner says: Lady Proudmoore, the Warchief
speaks the truth. This subterfuge was set in motion by Varimathras and Grand Apothecary Putress. It was not the Horde's doing.

See? It was their fault, not hers. Really, she has been digging her own grave the whole time (see what I did there?).

But so were the rest of us. If Varimathras and Putress were treacherous, then the rest of us, including the other Forsaken, were complacent. So that if you think of the Wrathgate as the precipitating cause for the coming hot war with the Alliance (as opposed to the previous cold one), none of us can really point fingers. My character, Ambassador Luqa stands up at the Azeroth United Nations and uses some expert doublespeak here: No one can blame anyone because we are all guilty.

The complacent culpability of the Horde is evidenced by the internal Horde political response, which was predictably too-little-too-late. Instead of the abominations guarding the city, there are now Kor'kron Overseers. Of course, this was after they've won the battle and the rebellion put down, when there is a relatively small chance of more Forsaken starting shit after the decisive victories in the Battle for the Undercity.

You might argue that Sylvanas could have been in on the Wrathgate plan and some kind of dispute broke out beforehand which resulted in Putress and Varimathras betraying her. I'm not sure I believe that. One the one hand, it doesn't seem like such a brilliant military tactician as herself would choose the beginning of the siege on Icecrown to pull the rug out from under it, and Sylvanas might be tricky to deal with, but she is pragmatic if nothing else. On the other hand, she did try to solo the Lich King in the Halls of Reflection. Still though. Trying to figure out how to point the finger at her, or the Forsaken, is pointless. It was either all of our failure or it was none of ours.

Let Bygones Be Bygones

In a sense, playing as a member of the Horde, and as a Blood Elf in particular, I have to believe this. It is a very convenient way of thinking about things for a few reasons. Let me speak in character for a minute here.

First of all, in a twisted sort of way, it's actually good that the Wrathgate happened the way that it did. If Sylvanas really cannot be trusted, then we all got lucky at the Wrathgate (except those who died). The lesser traitors were exposed and elminated before they did something that could really have broken the combined war effort against the Scourge, even though they came damn close. More importantly, Sylvanas was beat to the punch; to save her own ass, now, she has to get in line.

To put it back in terms of the coming war, King Wrynn and the Alliance, they don't place the blame on the Forsaken or Sylvanas, either. They place it on the Horde as a whole. That's with them only having a hint at what we were confronted with repeatedly. So what good does it do us? It will only fracture and divide us at a time when we need to unite and put our collective boot snugly up the Alliance's haughty, self-important ass.

Like it or not, the Forsaken are an indispensible military ally. No one can say Sylvanas doesn't know what's what when it comes to the battlefield, and her people who weren't killed in the rebellion are fanatically loyal to her. They advanced through southern Northrend all the way to Venomspite on their own, fueled pretty much by pure hatred. The Undercity and its surrounding territory is a key vanguard and stronghold for the Horde on the Eastern Kingdoms. They have held their own against the rest of the Alliance and the Scarlet Crusade and the Scourge since they took Lordaeron City from the Scourge. With the Scourge threat largely neutralized, they're only going to get stronger.

And as a Sin'dorei, there is a strong cultural and political tie as well. It isn't just the "enemy of my enemy" thing. Forsaken aid at Tranquilien in the Ghostlands was key to helping us defend ourselves from the Scourge, the Amani, and to integrate ourselves into the Horde. We should not forget that. With the Undercity sitting south of Silvermoon, they are a buffer between the elves and the humans, dwarves, and gnomes that haven't had the cojones to try to step to them yet.

The rest of the Horde, surely we can identify with them being an outcast, demonized, suffering and/or severely threatened people. Maybe we can't all get along, but we can at least get where they're coming from. The Forsaken may not be the nicest looking, or smelling, or nicest in general, but they are useful.

Oh, Sylvanas. What Will We Do With You?

Here is the dilemma, though. It's clear that the Forsaken cannot be completely trusted, yet it is also clear that we cannot leave them to our own devices. We'd lose a key ally first, and second, we risk adding another faction to the list of Horde enemies. A strong one, at that. We should not forget how important they are and have been, or they will not see the need to remain our allies. Yet we can't make it clear to them that we need them that badly, or they will not see they should follow the agenda of the Horde. They are a double-edged sword, and a cumbersome one to wield at that. Garrosh could be the best Warchief to walk that tightrope. He doesn't take shit off nobody, except for maybe Saurfang. Yet he may desire total victory enough to admit that he needs Sylvanas.

Or he could be the worst. Many people are as distrustful of the foaming-at-the-mouth new Warchief as they are the calculating, cold-on-the-inside-and-outside Sylvanas. We might see two camps within the Horde rising. Especially because it will be interesting to see how the Sin'dorei-Forsaken alliance plays out in the future, particularly because of the geographical split with Silvermoon and the Undercity on the east of the Great Sea, and Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, and the Echo Isles on the west.

It will be interesting, to say the least. I don't know what will happen, cause I still don't have a beta key. All I can say, is that once Cataclysm drops, shit is going down, and not just geologically.

Bolvar Fordragon, We Hardly Knew Ye

It occurred to me that although the ending to Wrath of the Lich King was not very surprising for the most part, there was one thing that actually was a surprise. Spoilers are absolutely everywhere in this post.

Bolvar Fordragon, is the new Lich King, the self-styled Jailor of the Damned. There are a few reasons you couldn’t be blamed for saying WTF? during this cutscene.

Merely a Setback

But wait. Fordragon died at the Wrathgate. Right? I mean, he did watch Saurfang the Younger get roflpwned by Frostmourne, then he did get betrayed by Grand Apothecary Putress and some of the Forsaken with the New Plague, which almost killed even the Lich King himself, and then, wasn’t his body, even if it did survive the battle and the plague by some sort of miracle, incinerated by the fire breath of the Red Dragonflight?

Well, yes.

But, you see, it turns out that that was all merely a setback (Scroll down to the Warcraft series list of instances after that link. It’s huge.) Now, there is no good in-game explanation offered as to why the hell Bolvar would still be alive after dying at least two deaths. This is not to mention the horrific torture that he suffered at the hands of the Lich King after they recovered him from the battlefield in order to pimp him out for the Scourge. I do believe, though, that this is a perfectly plausible outcome, and I will tell you why. If you accept that the cutscene of the Wrathgate only shows him falling, not necessarily dying.

Fordragon was a paladin. Although he might have made a misstep or two as regent of Stormwind while Varian was on his little excursion, he did a reasonably a good job for guy who did not intend to be the king. He is supposed to be quite an upstanding, honorable paladin. Wowwiki says that he was “as stalwart and loyal of a soldier as they come.” When King Wrynn returned, Fordragon became the commander of the 7th Legion forces, one of the most elite Alliance units, at the Wrathgate, where they faced the Lich King in battle. You don’t hand that command to just any random dude.

I think it’s a fair to say that this was a very disciplined and honorable champion of the Light. This explains why he would be able to survive the Lich King's tortures. As far as discipline goes, we know Dranosh Saurfang rushed forward impetuously and got schooled while Bolvar stayed back. As far as his holiness and honor goes, Tirion Fordring is apparently good friends with him. They refer to each other in very familiar terms- “brother,” “old friend.” If you’re BFF with Tirion and you’re a paladin, you’re probably a pretty good one. So he can withstand all the torture, fair enough.

Eternal Flames

Even Tirion was surprised to see him alive, but here’s my theory on that. Putress and the Forsaken rebels (we could argue about whether they were rebels or not, I know) unleashed the New Plague killing the Scourge and the living alike. The Red Dragonflight, guardians of life as they were, were understandably uncool about this happening right in their own backyard, so they handled it by breathing fire and burning away every trace of it.

Now, let’s consider that for a moment. These dragons are the guardians and protectors of life, and I think it reasonable to assume that their fire breath has some life-giving properties (which of course come and go at the will of the writers). Especially because, after the Wrath gate, the zone that you are then phased into shows that the area where the battle took place, which was previously frozen wasteland, is now suddenly growing wildflowers and plants everywhere. Alexstrasza, Queen of the Dragons, the Life-Binder, is sitting right in the middle of it. So their fire breath burns, but it is also the fire of life.

And then, when you actually see Bolvar at the Frozen Throne, he is scorched, but the flames are perpetually crackling and burning. Without consuming him, or at least consuming him very slowly. Hmm. Something that burns without being consumed. That sounds a lot like the Burning Bush from the Bible, which was a holy place, and arguably touched on the theme of purity and holiness. Fire is a process that many believed and is often thematically understood to be a purifying one, but the bush and the ground on which it stood were perfectly pure and holy. Therefore, the fire, the process of purification, continued on eternally without consuming the bush. I forget when I heard this in the few times that I went to church, the point is, I think its fair to say that although it may not be a direct reference to the Bible, it is certainly analogous and thematically referential. It’s not a stretch to think of the fire of life as also having purifying properties as well. That is in fact, what the dragons used it for- to purify the land of the unholy New Plague.

Bolvar was a champion of the Light, who battled evil with all his might and did not waver or falter. He was a holy and righteous man. My guess is that the powerful magic of the dragon’s breath would probably have simply overwhelmed and destroyed some random dude or chick. But Bolvar, due to his spiritual, mental, and physical fortitude and purity brought on by his service to the Light became something of a burning bush for the Light, and for life itself.

Now what?

As we all have seen, there must always be a Lich King- Terenas Menethil’s creepy last words before his spirit vapored off to…wherever. Without something to control them, the Scourge would devour Azeroth whole. So Bolvar makes one last sacrifice, donning the Helm of Domination, insisting that he is screwed anyway and Tirion and his champions still have something to live for. Now he will be the Jailor of the Damned, keeping the Scourge in check. But the Scourge is evil and demonic in origin, and so is the armor that allows you to control them. In fact, Frostmourne to some extent controlled Arthas. So why should we believe that Bolvar will be any better than Arthas? Why should we believe now that the Scourge will be any less of a threat?

You might have wondered why I focused specifically on the burning bush reference and the fire imagery. Think about it: A pure, holy man who takes the burden of the sum of so much evil onto his own body for the rest of eternity, who sacrifices himself to singlehandedly rid the world of it? Who does that sound like? The answer is Jesus (Not like, the answer is Jesus. The answer to my rhetorical question. Happened to be Jesus.).

Look at the imagery of the old Lich King versus the new, particularly his eyes. Check out this video from WCIII, where Arthas dons the Helm of Domination for the first time.



Skip to 2:00, and we see that what signifies his transformation is that his eyes glow an icy blue.

And in the awesomely epic opening cinematic for Wrath of the Lich King, showing his reawakening.



At 0:25, we see the first thing that happens is his eyes lighting up, frosty and blue once again. And when Arthas dies in the final cinematic, the first thing we see is that signature glow fading as he returns to his mortal self once again just before taking his final breaths.




Compare that to the end of the cinematic, when Bolvar takes the Helm on, his eyes explode with the same orange fire that is burning his body, at 3:15. And, if you look at the Northrend loading screens for Cataclysm, there is a strong focus on how his body is permeated by this fire. Just after the cinematic is over, you can see that the fire is not extinguished by the ice of the Frozen Throne, even as it encases him. His pose is on the loading screen is one of, I don’t know, tenacious lamentation? Is that how you would say it? Like, life sucks for me, look at how much I got screwed over, but I have no choice, it’s the right thing do.

All this points to the fact that whereas Arthas eventually became the epitome of the evil he had set out to destroy, this will not be the case with Bolvar. Arthas did a lot of things that made the other Knights of the Silver Hand and his closest friends question how righteous and just of a person he really was. To some extent, it was Arthas’s personal flaws, namely his hubris and brashness, and his poor understanding of the ways of Light that made him so corruptible, not just the demonic magic of the armor. Arthas started this war to lure the champion’s of Azeroth into corruption as a reflection of his own journey, and what does he say to you when he finally attempts to deliver his final master stroke?

The Lich King yells: No question remains unanswered. No doubts linger. You are Azeroth's greatest champions! You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught, your unbridled fury... Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder.

So it seems, the way I interpret this comment, that Arthas is implicitly admitting that it was not righteousness that drove him. In a way, he’s been trying to prove to the world that they were just as corruptible as him. Seems that Arthas is at least somewhat jaded and cynical about this whole Scourge thing and that makes sense given all that horrors that he endured- and perpetrated. But is that how a true holy warrior thinks?

That is what the all the visuals of fire inside of Bolvar’s body is alluding to, and the burning flames in his eyes represent. Arthas went through the motions of serving the Light because it was his duty, but he made it evident on a number of occasions that he was always cold-hearted and proud. There has never been anything to suggest that Bolvar was not a paragon of humility and compassion (perhaps because he just wasn’t that important of a character before now), including his final act of sacrifice. He’s a burning bush and Jesus allusion combined into one noble sufferer- and I think that his holiness and perpetual purificiation will be what allows him to serve as the Jailor of the Damned, and resist the temptation to bring about yet another attempt at unholy dominion over Azeroth. Because check this out:

The Lich King says: The breaking of this one has been taxing. The atrocities that I have committed upon his soul. He has resisted for so long, but he will bow down before his king soon.
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon says: NEVER! I... I will never... serve... you.
The Lich King says: In the end you will all serve me.


Ironically, Bolvar ascended to the Frozen Throne by fighting the Scourge like Arthas did. And yet there is double irony: Arthas proved Bolvar was the perfect candidate for King by trying to make him his minion. Bitter and evil as Arthas was, he completely failed to corrupt Bolvar, despite doing his damnedest. That’s a good sign.

The Real Question

But is Bolvar up to the task? Frostmourne has been destroyed. If you’ve forgotten (and I don’t see how you could have), it was forged along with the rest of the Helm of Domination and the Plate of the Damned by the Nathrezim for the purpose of creating and controlling the Scourge. Frostmourne was a powerful and integral part of that, and when Ashbringer destroyed Frostmourne, the Lich King was severely weakened. It’s like losing a set bonus. Seems important that they stay together. Can we assume that the new Lich King will have the same amount of control over the Scourge that the old ones did? That is not clear to me. The first Lich King, Ner’zhul, was not immune to losing control; that’s how we got the Forsaken. So it will be interesting see how well he can do from the Frozen Throne. Does he have the strength of will to make up for Frostmourne’s absence? Does anybody?

Speaking of strength of will, and the Forsaken, what will happen if he does lose control? The spirits of Terenas and Uther the Lightbringer suggest that this is a bad thing. But is it necessarily? I personally have the feeling that mindless Scourge would spend so much time aimlessly making trouble they’d be fairly easy to contain, though the more sentient and purely evil members, perhaps not. And when Ner’zhul lost control, some of the mindless regained their free will, and it freed Sylvanas, who is pretty hawt for a dead elf chick. We also know that the Val’kyr actually join the Forsaken after Arthas dies. Uther and Terenas were stuck inside Frostmourne for much longer than I was, so they would know better, but really last time it wasn’t all bad. Those who aren’t Forskaen, including Bolvar, might think differently. But might Bolvar also purposely release control over some of the Scourge, if he believes they would regain their will and do something good? Or might he lead the unholy legion of the Scourge to some cause of righteousness?

Only time will tell how this Jailor of the Damned thing will play out. We can be sure from the ominous ending of the final cinematic that we haven’t seen the last of Bolvar, and the devs have confirmed we haven’t even seen the last of Ner’zhul yet. They are saying that’s going to be a good one. But I’m excited: A tortured Jesus figure charged with keeping an unholy undead army in check with the use of demonic armor and magic? There’s no way this won’t be good.

The Evils of Faction

I don't have a beta key, but I read obsessively about Cataclysm to know that, at least at this point, Garrosh is not well-liked. Let me preface everything I am saying by saying that I spend far and away more time as a Horde mage than I do as an Alliance anything, and I'm also an Ambassador to the Horde, so I like to think I know a little something about Horde politics. Or at least, my character does. I as a player spend a lot of time pondering over it, in any case. To tell the truth, as things stand now, I don't particularly like him myself. Generally, from now on, when I say "I", I mean "Luqa, the Blood Elf."

Of Blood and Honor.

Let's talk about the old Warchief. Thrall is not without his criticisms, but I've always had a great admiration for him. If you've read Lord of the Clans, you know what rags-to-riches story he is. Thrall was pretty much the lowest of the low. He grew up as a slave gladiator in the orcish internment camps following the Second War, treated like shit, and thinking that he deserved it. I didn't even realize this until I read the book that thrall is actually a synonym in English for slave (vocabulary expansion win; I thought it was just some made up name like every one else in every fantasy name ever). Thrall, with the help of others, reconnected to his orcish heritage then liberated and united a broken people, who were already fugitives from a shattered world. Then, he took them across the Great Sea and forged an entirely new home for them, while garnering allies in the Sin'dorei, the Forsaken, the Tauren, and the Darkspear Trolls, all the while leading the New Horde to defend Azeroth from some of its recent threats. That's not such a bad resume. Also, he basically goes around calling himself "Slave". How fucking badass is that?

What I respect most about him was insistence that the New Horde not be the Old Horde, that they were not the blindly warlike and bloodraging beasts of some decades ago (although its arguable whether they were really that, if you ask me). The Alliance was not some great foe that needed to be cleaved and smashed at every opportunity, nor was anyone else. Sometimes you have to work with them, like with Jaina, or the War of the Shifting Sands, or the reinvasion of the Draenor. And how could anyone with a brain judge otherwise? Azeroth is a tough place to live. Someone's always trying to enslave you, corrupt you, or just plain murder the shit out of you. You can't go around destroying and raping and pillaging constantly. Thrall is a smart guy, and each of the Horde races has enough problems without going off and creating new ones for their own sake.

Garrosh Whoscream?
Now look at Garrosh. He's warmongering, bloodthirsty, hot-tempered, and brash. He was appointed the Overlord of the Warsong Offensive (at the end of Wrath of the Lich King). And how did he get there? Well, first he was chieftain of the dwindling, ailing Warsong clan, in Nagrand, and he reconnected with their now Azerothian counterparts through Thrall. Thrall brought him back as a personal advisor for no clear practical reason of which I am aware. Then, he has the nerve to give Thrall lip about how he intends to handle the Scourge threat, which leads to an out-and-out duel, rudely interrupted by the Scourge attack on Orgrimmar. Then he appoints him the Overlord. Like, of the Warsong Offensive. To defeat the Scourge. As in, the single greatest threat to Azeroth remaining as far as they know.

So this guy, Garrosh, he comes out of nowhere and rocketed straight to the top of New Horde leadership, talking all this shit about who everyone should be and what everyone is doing, and meanwhile he is probably the least experienced warrior and leader of nearly all of his new peers. Where do you get your stones, buddy?

Actually, I can see where his stones are coming from. He thought that he was the last of a dying breed of worthless, dishonorable curs, and that we next in line to shame his family. His father was, after all, Grom Hellscream, the first to drink the blood of Manneroth. But then he learned, through my (or any player's) help, that actually not Grom had been the one to finally kill Mannoroth and free the orcs from their corruption. He went from depressed wretch to a newly empowered alpha male foaming at the mouth pack leader type. It's got to feel great to realize that you are worth something, and now he wants to do something with himself.

Broken Front, Broken Leaders

From what I've seen in Wrath of the Lich King, he is a strong leader, but not a particularly wise one. There is the famous conversation in Warsong Hold at the opening of Wrath of the Lich King, where Garrosh is talking a big game, how they should be killing the Scourge and the Alliance, and he oversteps his bounds, and Saurfang has to take him down a peg. He insists on making war with the Alliance, turning Northrend into the theater for a two-front campaign. He is openly insulting to Varian and even neutral people like Tirion, and disdainful of any attempts to do things other than his way. And look at who the people are he puts in power. Conqueror Krenna, who completely abandons the war against the Scourge in favor of mucking about with the Alliance, so much so that I (or you) had to actually depose her and put her far more sensible sister in power. Korm Blackscar, who commands the Orgrim's Hammer, is clearly more interested in fighting the Alliance than the actual Scourge based on the dailies he gives.

The Broken Front in Icecrown is a quintessential example. In front of Mord'rethar: The Death Gate, the Horde waited til the Alliance were engaging the Scourge and the Hored attacked from behind, pretty much ensuring that the only people not defeated there were the Scourge. Now Garrosh did not directly order nor know about this, and neither did Korm, but Thrall would have been furious, and would never allow such a supremely stupid and brash attack. Under Garrosh, we have so much leadership that just refuses to acknowledges what's at stake for their own personal vendettas and desire to make war. This culminates in the Gunship battle in Icecrown itself. It just never stops with these people does it?

What Garrosh Doesn't Get

I was pretty annoyed by this. And I was thinking, do I really want Garrosh as my warchief? Until last night, when I remembered that I read somewhere (unfortunately I cannot remember where, I've been scouring the internets all day for the long forgotten URL) that Garrosh doesn't really understand what Azeroth is about. I didn't really understand that statement at the time, but then I started thinking about the politics of the Horde, and who its constituent races are. You've got the Orcs, who are essentially a bunch of refugees that have undergone some serious breaks with their heritage in the past few decades, and are trying to carve out a new home for themselves against the wishes of many of the other peoples of Azeroth. You've got the Forsaken, who are just as abhorred as their former peers the Scourge, and, some might argue, rightly so. They are quite proactive about it, but they really just want to have a place for themselves, too. The same goes for the Darkspears, outcasts from their home, and just recently able to take it back. Then there are the Tauren, who share their shamanistic connection with the land and tribal society with the orcs and trolls, but not much else. Finally, you have the Blood Elves, whose ancestors were in the Alliance, another outcast people who has turned toward the dark side in order to ensure their survival and and find a place for themselves.

The Horde is really an alliance of convenience between peoples who need allies to survive, between peoples who do not necessarily want to conquer Azeroth for themselves so much as find some way to live in it. Garrosh does not understand this. He knows only of the deeds of the Orcish Horde, and even of that, he knows very little. So he goes for what is easy to understand: Blood and Thunder.

The silver lining to this for me is twofold. One, you've got King Wrynn on the other side running the Alliance who is just as hot-tempered and brash (mutual foils, anyone?). He wants to go on the offensive against the Horde, and he's going to be doing it. It's going to be good to have a Warchief who is game for this. The best defense is a good offense, as they say. And I think the Horde is a faction that, culturally, and societally, is quite disparate and pulling in different directions- especially the Forsaken who are always trying to do their own thing. A strong leader in time when the Horde is under threat will be invaluable for demanding unity and direction at a time when it is most necessary. I also think that he can spend some time here and learn about the people of Azeroth, even though he has not shown much interest in that.

And now there is no supposed enemy that he has to begrudgingly ally with, except for maybe, as he sees it, the Forsaken. But still, I worry about Garrosh's judgment. It says in the Art of War, if your enemy has a choleric temper, inflame him. Garrosh is quite strong, but its clear what his weaknesses are. By all means, I'm willing to get behind him in a fight where the enemies are clear, and the decisions are black and white. But experience tells me that things in Cataclysm will not be that way, and in general they rarely are, so that's not the measure of a truly good Warchief.

The best Warchief, like Thrall, excels when the situation is the opposite.

The Lich King's Defeat: How Surprising was the Surprise Ending?

Recently, I killed the Lich King. I read on a forum somewhere that whatever guild killed Arthas for their first time, gave points to Blizzard for the "twist ending." At first I agreed, Wrath of the Lich King was an exemplary piece of storytelling I thought. A lot of people I talked to in-game seemed to believe that, yes, this twist ending was, in fact, fucking awesome.

But then I wondered. Was that really a surprise ending?

First, let's look at what happened. You came in through the Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, battled your way north through the Dragonblight and/or Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, and Icecrown, you discovered the secrets of Ulduar, and you've fought your way into Icecrown, through the Lower Spire, the Plagueworks, the Crimson and Frostwing Halls. Now you're DPSing/Tanking/Healing, dodging defiles, killing Val'kyrs, and not getting blown up by Vile Spirits long enough for the Lich King to finally kneel down and you see the debuff pass on your screen (if you don't have scrolling combat text on, you're insane), and then you die. Here's what you get to watch.

The Lich King's Gambit: It Was His Plan All Along.

The Lich King casts Fury of Frostmourne, killing all players at once.
The Lich King yells: No question remains unanswered. No doubts linger. You are Azeroth's greatest champions! You overcame every challenge I laid before you. My mightiest servants have fallen before your relentless onslaught, your unbridled fury... Is it truly righteousness that drives you? I wonder.
The Lich King yells: You trained them well, Fordring. You delivered the greatest fighting force this world has ever known... right into my hands -- exactly as I intended. You shall be rewarded for your unwitting sacrifice.
The Lich King begins to cast a resurrection spell.
The Lich King yells: Watch now as I raise them from the dead to become masters of the Scourge. They will shroud this world in chaos and destruction. Azeroth's fall will come at their hands -- and you will be the first to die.
The Lich King laughs.
The Lich King yells: I delight in the irony.
(from wowwiki)

So! It turns out, after all that hard work trying to defeat him, it turns out every rotting zombie you cleaved, every Coldflame you dodged, and the Argent Tournamet, all of it, every thing that you did, including stepping on to the Frozen Throne and nearly killing the Lich King himself, it was his plan all along.

It's true: in order to defeat the Lich King, you have to pretty badass in game. Even now, with Hellscream's Warsong/Strength of Wrynn buff, there are still players who have not defeated him, and if you ask me, he is the hardest boss in the game, far and away harder than anything else in Icecrown Citadel. So, it turns out, that all those challenges were set before us to test our mettle, so that when the time came (and it did), he would raise us up into his most powerful and horrific weapon yet, ensuring that Azeroth fell completely. All of your efforts, they were almost all for nothing, because you were just a pawn in the greater game. Shocking and unexpected, right?

Wrong.

He Told Us His Plan Repeatedly.

Let's go back to the very first thing anybody ever heard not just from Arthas, but about Wrath of the Lich King at all. The very first trailer that was unveiled at Blizzcon, way back in 2007. It is narrated by Arthas himself. And what does he say?

"It's begun. Young heroes...I was once like you. You have come to this place seeking to bring judgement upon the damned. You will venture deep into forgotten lands. You will see wonders beyond imagining. But be warned. The land itself will rise up against you. Long forgotten terrors will smother your courage. Sacrifice everything as the final darkness falls...in the end, all that awaits you is death. Only then will you understand - you've been following in my footsteps all along. So come then, you heroes! Come in all your power and glory! For in the final hour, all must serve the one... true... king. "
(wowwiki again)

We've been following in his footsteps - just as the trailer shows a paladin being overwhelmed by Scourge, and rising up as- surprise- a death knight. Now originally, I just took this as him planning to kill us and raise us as Scourge. Pretty standard procedure.

But think of all the other times you encounter Arthas personally. In Drak'Tharon Keep, in Zul'Drak, where he says:

The Lich King says: As for you...
The Lich King says: I spare your insignificant life as a reward for this amusing betrayal. There may yet be a shred of potential in you.
The Lich King says: Be warned...
The Lich King says: When next we meet I shall require much more to justify your life.
(wowwiki).

He shows up several times in Icecrown, after you defeat the Vrykul Overlord Balargarde we get:

The Lich King yells: You have bested one of my finest, but your efforts are for naught.
The Lich King yells: The frozen heart of Icecrown awaits....

and then even at the Argent Tournament where he literally just waltzes into the middle of it, and instead of Fury of Frostmourning everyone, like he could have done in the Halls of Reflection later on (Do you really think a wall of ice would stop the Lich King? Really?), and smashes the floor for you to fight the Nerubian king again. So here we have multiple times where the Lich is actually inviting us, not so subtly in several cases, to best his greatest champions. And we consistently defeat them.

And then, think about all the times where you were doing something, and the Lich King just Death Gated to wherever you were, proclaimed he knew what your plan was the whole time- and then let you go on doing whatever it is you were doing. Surely, you must represent a serious threat to his regime. Yet he lets that threat continue to exist. WTF?

That's when it dawned on me that the Lich King could have swallowed up pretty much all of Azeroth at any time he wanted. He's got a gigantic army that knows no fear, pain, or remorse, that can only get stronger the you longer you fight it. Also, given the infighting between the factions, namely the Horde and Alliance, who were stupid enough to fight even within Icecrown itself, he was clearly fighting a group of opponents insistent on weakening themselves even as he loomed over them. We, the people of Azeroth, were really no match for the full wrath of the Lich King.

The real shocking thing to me is that after all those obvious signals that he was only luring us in to enslave us when he could have annihilated the world at any time (which I do remember wondering about as I quested) we completely ignored that. Indeed, the whole time he was hoping that we would own the shit out of every single challenge he placed in front of us, and we did. This whole show was for Arthas' vanity (see what Chris Metzen had to say about it even before WotLK came out).

I Delight in the Irony.

There's a few levels of some delicious irony here.

The first bit is the I mentioned above about following in Arthas's footsteps. Really, we almost did exactly what he did- by trying to destroy the Scourge, and vanquish evil, we proved ourselves to be great champions, but nearly became the very evil we were fighting. This is also a bit of poetic justice, or maybe poetic vengeance, for Arthas. The fate that he suffered trying to defend his people, he now attempts to inflict on us. There is a second layer of irony there, we nearly end up just like him by trying to destroy him, even though we were fully aware of what happened to him and that he planned to do it to us. That stroke of evil genius actually gives me chills. But, as it said on the Wrath of the Lich box when you first buy the game: If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

There is a another bit of irony in the way that the Lich King actually falls. Fortunately, you or another player managed to free Terenas Menethil from Frostmourne, and the Lich King did not count on this. Tirion calls on the Light to free him, breaks free from his icy prison, shatters Frostmourne releasing the trapped spirits inside it, who incapacitate Arthas. Then Terenas resurrects the raid to take advantage of his vulnerable state, and you finally kill him.

But how did Arthas get into being the Lich King in the first place? He, despite all warnings and good judgment, thought that he was the only one who knew best how to save Lordaeron. So he purged Stratholme, and later he took up Frostmourne ignoring his friends and supernatural warnings. Arthas was the picture of hubris before he took up Frostmourne, and he thought that he would be in control. But in the end, Frostmourne controlled him.

And when you defeat him, Terenas and the other spirits turn against him after being released from Frostmourne. When the Lich King harvests your soul into the sword, you actually end up defending Terenas, and helping him. Those spirits being released are what weaken him long enough for you to deliver the final blow.

The true surprise for me was that I don't think Arthas fully understood what Frostmourne really was, ever. If he had never played this gambit of trying test the world greatest champions for what essentially was his own amusement, he would have simply squashed us like insects underfoot, and washed over the world with Scourge the way he intended to. Especially when you consider that he intended to enslave Tirion and forced him to watch the whole process out of spite, but underestimated Tirion's and the Light's power, allowing Tirion to escape. Which allowed Terenas and the spirits to escape. Arhas mistakenly thought he was the absolute master of all these forces, and that everything was under control. That's what cost him his victory, just like last time. Really, he engineered his own defeat.

And once again, it was Arthas's own hubris and overconfidence in his powers that led to his fall. Finally, it is ironic then, that that was how he got to be the Lich King in the first place.

ICC: Icecrown Citadel Confusion

So I find the narrative of the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter confused. If I am making sense of the first four bosses of ICC, the Ashen Verdict made the initial ground assault on the Citadel, gaining a foothold. From there, a “group of adventurers” is able to defeat Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper, where they ascend to the Rampart of Skulls to find that the Skybreaker and Orgimm’s Hammer have air dropped troops onto the Citadel, and naturally begun fighting idiotically at the worst possible time. The Horde and Alliance push their way to their respective ships, where they take off towards Deathbringer’s Rise to gain entrance to the Upper Spire.

Here is the confusing part. Along the way they encounter the opposing faction, and engage in battle. Both sides claim to have defeated each other and moved on to defeat Saurfang. If you read the dialogue from the Deathbringer encounter, it isn’t possible that both accounts are completely true. In one Saurfang shows up first and the Horde defeats him. Muradin does not appear. The Rise is manned by Horde personnel. In the other, Muradin shows up first, the Alliance defeats him and Saurfang shows up after Deathbringer is dead. Alliance personnel man the Rise.

Now, I get that there can be conflicting accounts of the same event. I think this is a fun way to implement the acting out of the narrative. The problem with the Gunship and Deathbringer part of the story is that since one account precludes the other, its hard for me to imagine a situation where both sides could think they got there first and had no help from the other faction, and both claimed the same spot.

Working together or even tolerating each other sounds really unlikely considering they were just attempting to kill each other, even as the Scourge was trying to kill them both. The only way I can really see this happening is to say that somehow, neither side ever really stopped fighting with each other. The "victory" in the Gunship battle was just a momentary lull in the fighting, and the other side retaliated. They continuously skirmish over Deathbringer’s Rise after Deathbringer is defeated. The “group of adventurers” took it upon themselves to not bother with the Horde vs Alliance nonsense and take out Deathbringer. This makes sense, given the pettiness of the fighting they’d been doing.

But this still doesn’t explain how the characters would experience things in such a way that both sides claimed they were the only ones fighting Deathbringer. I don’t see any explanation.

Oh wait!

The Gunship battle, if I am interpreting things correctly, is put there as the result of the Wrathgate when the Forsaken betrayed the Horde and the Alliance. King Varian Wrynn would not forgive the Forsaken (though it is not clear to what extent the Forsaken as a whole were innocent in the whole affair) and declared war on the Horde during the Battle of the Undercity. The two factions had already seen rising tensions and skirmishes, particularly in Grizzly Hills.

By the time they reached Icecrown Citadel, they were in open war. See the quests in Icecrown that involve Mordre'thar: The Death Gate. But the problem is, the war effort against the Scourge is severely hampered by this pointless conflict, for obvious reasons. On each gunship you have Argent Crusade representatives telling them to cut the crap and focus on the Scourge. Thassarian and Koltira, Ebon Blade questgivers, are pissed about it too.

This is part of the motivation behind the Argent Tournament - to get the two factions to work together, because if they don't, they cannot defeat the Scourge. It works partially, but the relations devolve back into bickering and fighting on the Rampart of Skulls, leading to my current question.

Archaeology Requests

Blue Posters at the WoW forums have asked for suggestions for things to uncover with the new secondary Archaeology profession. Here were my suggestions.

1. The Quel’dorei Exodus to Eastern Kingdoms
-What was it like when they first got there, and how did they survive?
-The founding of Quel’Thalas and of Silvermoon
-Early Thalassian Society

2. Early Human Civilization
-History of the Arathorian Empire
-Pre-Arathorian Tribes
-How did a group of what were essentially weakling Vrykul exiles get to and carve out a place on an entirely new continent?
-The Troll Wars
-History of the Seven Kingdoms. The ruins of Stromgarde and Alterac are just begging to be dug up. Specifically, what led to their breakup? What was were the differences in culture between them? How did they get along politically?

3. What happened to Turalyon and Alleria?

4. Old Night Elven Civilization
-Life before the War of the Ancients and the Sundering
-Battles of the War of the Ancients. Maybe even something from Rhonin and Krasus’s visit courtesy of Nozdormu?
-The differences in culture between the Highborne and the other elves. -Life just after the Sundering.
-Magical Highborne artifacts, locations.

5. Draenei Journey
-Remnants of life on Argus, or other worlds.
-Arrival on Draenor
-Early relationship with planet, and its denizens, especially orcs.

6. Orcish culture before the Blood of Mannoroth

7. Old Gods
-What was the world like when the Old Gods ran it?
-Battle with the Titans
-Who besides the people we’ve heard about have come into contact with influence or relics of the Old Gods?
-What other peoples in times past besides the Twilight Cult have worshipped the Old Gods? How did they shape things from beneath the Earth in times no one even remembers.
-How did the effects of the Curse of Flesh play out in different populations as years passed?
-What’s the deal with Hakkar the Soulflayer? Is he an Old God or what?

8. Lost Races and civilizations. There must be some.

9. Dragons
-The Dragonblight already looks like its ready to burst with dragon history.
-If dragons are immortal, why do they have a graveyard? Or alternatively, what dragons’ remains are there?
-What is the purpose and historical significance of the dragonshrines?

10. The Order of Tirisfal
-The Order has existed for millenia and been of enormous importance to Azeroth’s resistance to Legion invasions, and in one very notable case, responsible for it. Yet we know very little about any Guardians except for the last two or three. What kinds of things did the Guardians and the Order get up to?
-Was the secrecy of the Order ever compromised?

What Outland was like.

One thing I have not really been able to discern in terms of the story of Burning Crusade, or at least not have come up with a satisfactorily coherent explanation.

My question: Why were the players interested in stopping Illidan in Outland? Illidan was not serving the Burning Legion, if I understand correctly. I understand that originally the Legion re-invaded Azeroth from the Dark Portal, which prompted a counteroffensive into Hellfire Peninsula. I am not clear, however, on why the player ends up fighting in the Black Temple, and TK, and SSC.

The best answer I can come up with after perusing various sources is that there is a continuing chain of "enemy-of-my-enemy" style interactions. After entering the Dark Portal on the side of Horde or Alliance, you encounter various factions which are dealing with problems that can generally be classed into a few sets of problems: The Legion and their minions, Illidari forces, the Black Dragonflight, or the general environmental hostility of Draenor.

By working with many different factions, you end up signing up with the Scryers/Aldor, and you also end up in Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm, both of which are largely dealing with Illidari and Legion problems. Basically you got introduced to the S/A because you knew a guy who knew a guy who thought you were a pretty good guy to have on their side. And up until that point, for whatever reason, the Illidari forces were hostile to you, and they'd been making war on Shattrath, and harassing the H/A.

This is interesting to me, because looking back on it, it felt very organic. You just kind of ended up fighting them. You came to Outland for the Legion, you stayed for the Illidari.

What I don't really get is why I as Luqa should have cared. I guess it's sort of like, when you end up taking a job that you never really pictured yourself having, just because you started off at one place, then heard about another, then you had another connection from some other place. You find yourself as the Systems Administrator at Random Startup with a Cutesy Name one day. Likewise, I found myself CCing Naga in Black Temple one day, trying to conquer BT. It was a fight that I wanted to win, but losing it (as I actually did since I never had time during BC to actually get farther than Gorefiend (I still don't get why Gorefiend was even chilling there with Illidan)) was not really of any consequence to my character.

I mention this because the big difference for me is that in WotLK, playing a Blood Elf as my primary character, it really felt like almost every quest and raid and heroic was a crusade for me. I play my main character as a person who lost her memory as a result of the Scourge invasion, but has been dedicated to rebuilding her people and creating a home for them in Silvermoon and in the Horde. I should be quite impetuous, then, to take on the Lich King, and I was, and I finally downed him a couple months ago, and it was fucking epic.

Outland for me was a fight, but not my fight. Now I'm wondering which it will be in Cataclysm- will Luqa feel personally invested in the conflicts that occur, or it will it just be something to occupy herself?