sharedhorizons

[sharedhorizons]

Shared Horizons: Azeroth Revisited (Day 3)

Empowering dragons and defending dreams

Now within the Emerald Dream, Korathalosa and I have been tackling the main story quests and side quests to assist the Dream Wardens in fighting against the Primalists and Fyrakk.

Fyrakk is the primal dragon intent on corrupting Amirdrassil, the newly growing World Tree of the night elves, and twisting it to his own designs. He intends to burn down the tree and reforge it in his own image using the Shadowflame. We teamed up with Vyranoth, an ice-aspected Primal Incarnate, and sister to Fyrakk -- hopefully she can help us stop him.

I know that much of the story takes place in the Dragonflight raids and not just the main story quests, but we cannot get into it through the raid finder. Blizzard pushes people into the current storyline, which is The War Within, so we may not be able to get into the Vault of the Incarnates raid.

During our week apart, Kora had wandered into Azeroth proper and had to come back to the Dream. However, she didn't know you can return to the Dream from the main city in the Dragon Isles. Trying to get back, she overshot the major portal in the Isles and I had to guide her to the well-marked portal on the map, such is the returning newbie she is.

We assisted Merithra and Ysera, the elder dragons of the Green Dragonflight, with the defense of the Eye of Ysera against Primalist forces.

Kora, as a new amateur dragon pilot, also had trouble flying her dragon at the end of the mission and landing at the eye. She repeatedly missed and couldn't get purchase. At one point she even fell to her death by trying to land but hit one of the "holes" in the architecture.

"I'm totally going to protect the dream. I keep falling through holes. I'm totally the champion who is going to defend the dream!" said Korathalosa, cheering on her own death. "I'm not going to kill you --Kitten will kill you."

In hopes that I could solve her dragonflying issues, I had her install an addon called HandyNotes that would show her Dragon Glyphs, and we set off to pick them up in the Dragon Isles. The first, of course, was right in the Seat of the Aspects at the top of the pinnacle of the tower. Altogether she obtained nineteen glyphs during our run around the Isles.

I didn't know this, but apparently, she had filled her entire vigor bar and unlocked Second Wind -- an ability that helps restore vigor. Something we discovered at the end of our session when I went to help her fill up her dragonflight tree. However, it was already completely unlocked.

So really this was more about helping her learn a bit more about piloting and keeping vigor through practice. Although she didn't have Second Wind on her action bar, which would have helped give her vigor on demand, which she was running out of constantly. It can provide at least three vigor quickly with a cooldown of 2 minutes to restore a point to its own pool (up to three).

Even though she didn't actually need the glyphs for unlocking dragonriding talents, it was quite a tour of the Isles and I think she got some good practice flying her dragon. Especially because several of the glyphs were hard to reach. One we had to give up on because it was on a nearly impossible cliff.

I am going to take Helleblume back and get it myself.

We're still not quite sure about how her dragon was fully loaded already. She did buy a dragon from the cash shop, or maybe now Blizzard gives dragonflight empowerment when people purchase The War Within to skip the whole process during leveling? I'm not sure, I haven't followed along with the most recent quality of life improvements.

"Tonight has been about you empowering my dragonflight. My dragon flying has been underpowered for a bit. I really appreciate that. Thank you." -- Korathalosa

[sharedhorizons]

Shared Horizons: Azeroth Revisited (Day 2)

New Roots, old dreams

Today, Korathalosa and I returned to Azeroth with the intent to make our way into the Emerald Dream and visit the sapling world tree Amirdrassil, "Crown of Harmony," though calling such a giant thing a sapling feels almost absurd. It's massive.

We also picked professions, despite both being level 70 and solidly into Dragonflight content at this point. Korathalosa chose blacksmithing and mining as her in-game professions. I had originally chosen the same two professions the previous week, so I switched to engineering to complement her choices. This enabled me to craft some mining equipment for her using my engineering skills.

Kora mentioned that one of her character goals is acquiring one-handed katanas. The appearance modifications only apply to one-handed swords, and while the best options seemed to come from dungeon drops, hardly accessible, they were also craftable. Blacksmithing would give her the most direct path to creating katanas for herself.

"It could be a fun thing to work towards," she said. "I don't know, katanas are just fun."

We headed into the Emerald Dream to face Fyrakk, who was threatening the new world tree with his growing army of druids of the flame and Primalist forces.

"This place feels like home," she said softly. "It's been a long time."

She mentioned that losing Teldrassil had broken her heart. The great tree was destroyed during the War of the Thorns, the event that preceded the Battle for Azeroth expansion's release. This devastation was much of why Kora couldn't bear playing the game for so long. She felt like Blizzard had created a masterpiece with the World Tree, only to destroy it for narrative shock value. However, by providing access to the old world through Chromie's Timewalking, Blizzard made it possible to revisit that lost beauty to make it accessible again.

The playerbase reaction to Teldrassil's burning was overwhelmingly negative, especially among Alliance players and night elf enthusiasts who felt a profound sense of loss. Those of us who played Horde primarily had more mixed reactions as suddenly Sylvanas, a major character, had become an outright villain. Despite her undead nature, this seemed completely out of character. After all, she was essentially nuking a major city.

Now, with Amirdrassil, Kora hoped to see what Blizzard planned for the future of elvenkind in Warcraft, something to look forward to after such devastating storyline events. Although after six years of storytelling.

"This is Amirdrassil, the future of the elven homeland. It's as beautiful as I'd hoped it would be." —Korathalosa

[sharedhorizons]

Shared Horizons: Azeroth Revisited (Day 1)

A rogue, a warrior, and the stories we reclaim

I’ve restarted World of Warcraft with an old college friend who recently returned to Azeroth after a long hiatus. Every Monday evening, we log in together -- she as a brand‑new adventurer, me as her stalwart protector. Her original goal: to revisit Teldrassil, the great World Tree of the night elves, and rekindle memories of that tranquil glade.

Rather than simply recount our quests, I’m using this travelogue to capture our shared experience: the laughter when things go sideways, the strategic planning before each dungeon, and the moments of genuine wonder when familiar landscapes reveal new details. (Dragonflight‑expansion spoilers ahead.)

I thought that I’d tell everyone about both of us and who we are to a little extent. I’m going to use our character names as a context in the game. Since identity is important it will serve to anonymize her a little, although it’s a bit obvious to many who I am.

She plays a draenei subtlety rogue named Korathalosa -- short for “Korathalosa Sher.” Named after her first D&D character when we were in college and this name, sometimes Kora, continues to be a moniker in games for her.

Kora plays her rogue like a newbie, which is fine; although I often have to remind her to apply her poisons at the beginning of our two- or three-hour sessions or dungeons.

I’m Helleblume, a void elf protection warrior. I stepped out of my usual “fonts” naming scheme (I have an entire flower‑‘blume’ lineup) to call her Helleblume. She serves as the fortress to Kora’s flashing blades, maintaining threat while she strikes from the flanks. Although the truth is sometimes I can do a lot more damage than she does.

The accelerated leveling of the game meant that we went through core Azeroth rather quickly and we also played through Mists of Panderia before getting into Dragonflight. This is where we are now in our gameplay.

With accelerated leveling, we blasted through core Azeroth and even played through Mists of Pandaria before diving into Dragonflight. Here’s where we are now: today we helped Kalecgos activate the Azure Oathstone and teamed up with Alexstrasza to ignite the Mother Oathstone in Tyrhold. These monuments symbolize the bond between the dragons and the Titan Keepers, powers that lay dormant since the Cataclysm, which the Aspects are striving to reclaim. As always, nothing goes quite as planned.

The Primalist Incarnates, the earlier incarnations of protodragons pre-dating the Dragon Aspects like Alexstraza, intend to lay waste to everyone, so we need to do something about that. Of course, Kora wants to go see the idyllic Emerald Dream.

So, we’re currently aligned on headed there and stop the Incarnates from burning that down and the newly growing world tree there.

"I still can't get over you slaughtering an entire army at once. I still am taken aback over you killing an entire army for me. Kitten destroyer of armies. I am perpetually impressed by your skill and grace." -- Korathalosa.