shekinah-the-second

[shekinah-the-second]

Slytherin baybeh!

The Van der Linde Gang - Hogwarts Houses

Gryffindor: Dutch van der Linde, Karen Jones, Javier Escuella, Sean Macguire, Uncle, Jack Marston, Bill Williamson.

Hufflepuff: Arthur Morgan, John Marston, Susan Grimshaw, Molly O'Shea, Charles Smith, Kieran Duffy, Orville Swanson, Simon Pearson.

Ravenclaw: Mary-Beth Gaskill, Lenny Summers, Leopold Strauss, Abigail Roberts.

Slytherin: Sadie Adler, Josiah Trelawny, Micah Bell, Tilly Jackson, Hosea Matthews.

This was fun!

Which house are you in? I'm a proud Slytherin 🐍

[shekinah-the-second]

I think I’ve found a new interest.

[shekinah-the-second]

My wife still hasn’t played Stardew Valley. Penny will be forever alone.

[shekinah-the-second]

Wife is playing Pokemon Legends, and I’m watching True Grit with friends. Life is, indeed, good.

[shekinah-the-second]

It doesn’t matter how many rainbows you put on your products. I’m not going to buy your shitty food or merchandise, and I’m not going to fall for your appeal to be all-inclusive.

[shekinah-the-second]

Tfw when you forget about dragon ascendants in WoW while writing about them.

[shekinah-the-second]

The Nerubian empire being in a tundra always made me wonder why Blizzard chose such a weird place for spider people. In the unlikely event that spiders do end up living in the tundra, it likely wouldn't be for very long. Spiders are more likely to survive in forests, where they would hibernate in the winter, or in the case of some species, simply die and while the next generation of spiderkin mature and head off to eat ALL the insects. Spiders like warmer climates best, because that's where the food is most likely to be. In WoW's case? You bet your ass there's insects in warm places.

Logically, Silithus would be where the Nerubians should be. It's warm, there's no shortage of food, and look at that, they think they have an empire. Ohhh, child.

Logic isn't the only reason I think of Silithus when I think of the Nerubian empire. When I hear Abub'arak--or read it, I guess--one name comes to mind: Anubis, god of the afterlife. I don't know if Blizzard meant to invoke this when they created Anub'arak, and heaven knows that there are more blatant images of Anubis in the Ahn'Qiraj raids, but it still springs to mind. It doesn't help that the Nerubian empire uses powerful colors in their empire when we go to Azjol-Nerub. Black, blues, greens, and most striking to me, purple. (And no, I cannot show you an image, mostly because the screenshots I've taken of the dungeon are focused more on my character than on the architecture. Sorry!)

Now, purple doesn't just pop out at me because it's my favorite color. It's also because, in WoW, it's invocative of shadow magic, which we've seen primarily in Twilight's Hammer, who fucking love Silithus. Their robes are a dark violet, dark enough to the point where I wonder if some of them died from heat exhaustion, and the crystals around Silithus are a rusty purple-ish hue. The parallel of a spider empire and an insectoid one are not lost on me either, and that's something I believe Blizzard intended (though whether or not they were successful with this intention is up to the reader).

Now, as much as I love Wrath of the Lich King, I do think that with the Nerubian Empire and its remainders, few that they were, should not have been in Northrend. We already had the Scourge, an old god, more trolls, dragons, and proto-humans. Not every expansion needs to have ALL THE LORE crammed in, as too much on one's plate can lead to people not wanting to eat at all (which is a common complaint I hear about Cataclysm, that there was way too much going on). If it were me, I would have the Nerubian Empire, or what remained of it, in Silithus. Instead of night elf buildings in the area, there would be Nerubian. There would be a constant war, ever shifting with the sands, between the Qiraji and the Nerubians. The night elves, in my humble opinion, would be wise enough to stay out of that, but would still monitor it. After all, the victor could and probably would be their next enemy. Hell, even the dragons would probably stay out of it, though they would watch from the skies.

Back to Anub'arak now. In Wrath, he's undead. He's been dead for a long time, and Ner'zhul decided to raise him from death and force him and his minions into servitude. The ones who are alive despise the Scourge and see Anub'arak as a traitor. The undead ones, well, they probably don't really think. Except for Anub'arak himself, since he's actually able to speak and not just hiss and skitter and kill. Northrend is rife with undeath, but it's not as commonly seen in Silithus. Yes, there are the ghosts of sentinels and druids, but those are more spirits who have unfinished business. That is not to say, however, that something cannot be undead in Silithus.

Enter Moam.

This thing is not undead, but what it is is a living statue. It was built by Emperor Vek'lor as a Destroyer that would put all others to shame. Apparently he succeeded, too, because this guy's a boss in the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. The reason I bring this up, though, is because it started out as a statue, something that was inanimate and not alive in the slightest. But C'thun gave it life, and it became a living statue. To me, that isn't all that different from giving a corpse life. I'm not talking a fresh corpse, such as someone who is dead for ten minutes tops. I'm talking dead-dead. Like, mummy dead. Not being able to be revived even as a miracle dead. You get the idea, I'm sure. With this in mind, this would work for an undead Nerubian and his minions to once again rise from the depths of the sands, or hell, just remain underground and be forced into servitude of their enemies. Well, the leader of their enemies, I guess. But I still like idea of at least one Qiraji being a dick about it and having the Nerubian "servants" do the menial work. And Anub'arak? Oh yes, you can be damned sure there would be hell for him to pay.

Now, theoretically, this could go on for some time. Let's say the Qiraji were more vindictive about it, and they end up torturing some Nerubians to death (again). C'thun could bring them back to "life," but I don't think he would do this forever. C'thun, remember, is using the Qiraji, and their bullshit would probably not interest him. Why should he fix their toys if they're just going to keep breaking them? He doesn't care about their petty egos. He wants the world. Let's say Anub'arak does die again, and the Qiraji ask C'thun once again for him to be raised. C'thun does so, but he also brings back Anub'arak's intelligence. No longer is this beast a mindless slave. Oh, and he remembers the humiliating defeat, as well as the tortures from his previous lives. He ain't here to do the clean-up anymore, unless it means cleaning the Ruins of Ahn'qiraj of all this insectoid filth.

Now, imagine this in-game. It would be big, I think, because Silithus was pretty huge when the questline and raids were released. Imagine walking into the Ruins, and doing it as normal, with the possible hints here and there that there's something going on at the temple that was not meant to. Of course, this piques the interest of the player, and probably their characters as well. RP-wise, this has a lot of potential. Going into the Temple, it's an entirely different scene. It's all-out war between the Nerubians and the Qiraji. You could potentially pick a side, with a Qiraji quest-giver on one side of the entrance, and a Nerubian one on the other. Choosing one over the other would lead you to be Neutral with the side you choose, and Hated with the side you're against. You could also choose not to accept either quest, but this would make the raid harder, as you'd have Qiraji AND Nerubians coming after you (whether or not the loot would effect this, I don't know; loot in vanilla WoW was random as all hell, and any kind of increase in drops were practically negligent).

The quest you choose would lead to a cutscene, which would be a convenient way to load the raid so you would fight the appropriate bosses. The cutscene would basically be the NPC talking about war and them and rewards and blah blah, you're clearly evil, but so are they, so give me shinies. The camera would pan through the temple, showing Qiraji and Nerubians fighting to the death, and showing the appropriate bosses where they would be, whether they were Qiraji or Nerubian. If the raid leader did not choose a quest, however, the raid would be presented as thus: there would still be fighting amongst Nerubians and Qiraji, but once aggro'd, both would attack the raid. The bosses would all likely have scenes. For example, Prophet Skeram and a Nerubian prophet. They would be bickering and hissing at each other, both wanting to stop the raid as it enters, but wanting to do so for Qiraji/Nerubian. Each boss would have a different loot table, but only one would be fought (no, we are not doing Twin Emperor fights for every raid boss, that is suicide). Depending on which one is aggro'd, the other would fuck off, basically saying something along the lines of "I hope it hurts for you as much as it has me" or maybe "I'll enjoy watching this." I dunno, I'm not good at boss one-liners.

The Prophet Skeram/The Prophet... Thoth'ax? (Look, I'm trying here, okay?) Silithid Royalty/Nerubian Miners Battleguard Sartura/Silkcloak Obzor Fankriss the Undying/Lykho'sedat the Patient Viscidus (seriously, though, fuck that thing, go frost or go home, I guess) Princess Huhuran/The Silver Bones Twin Emperors/Anub'arak Ouro/Scorpio? C'thun

I'm not going to go through every boss encounter with painstaking detail (although if there is interest in it, I'll definitely come up with attacks and strategies!). This is just a basic idea of what players and characters are going to end up facing. Either way ends up leading to C'thun, but once C'thun is down, in comes the quest giver, crawling in and skittering up to the party. He thanks you, for whatever that's worth, and you get rep boost (in addition to the reputation you have gained and lost from killing one side instead of the other), but something unsaid also happens. A quartermaster is present in the entrance of the dungeon, next to the questgiver, when entered a second time. Of course, vanilla wasn't known for giving out tons of reputation, it was all about the grind, you get to see what wears are being sold to you that you can get in exchange for what drops from mobs and bosses. Of course, this would be gated by reputation, with the best loot being available at Exalted, but starting at Neutral, you can get food/drink and potions that would give you a minor boost on some fights (+10 shadow resistance, for example, or a bonus to HP). For the Neutral goodies, it would require "shells" that drop from trash mobs. Starting at Friendly, you'll need drops from bosses, because that's when you start getting the good stuff. Weapons, armor, rings, trinkets. Relics and totems, too, because druids and shamans need love, too. Maybe off-hands as well, but I don't remember off-hands being used prominently in vanilla.

As always, I would love to hear feedback!

Moam image courtesy of Wowpedia.

[shekinah-the-second]

So, I've been mulling around a hard reboot for WoW for a while now, and I seriously think it needs to happen. While doing so, and waiting for Blizzard to get back to me regarding my account because HOTS is actually fun and free-ish, I've been thinking about rewrites for the lore charactes in WoW.

I'll be going through major lore characters, examining them, and coming up with what I think is a good idea of what could be done for them in a hard reboot. Who knows, maybe some of you will agree, maybe you won't. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and I love hearing input and other ideas.

All that being said, I guess I'll start with a character that I utterly despise.

Okay, so the Lifebinder in WoW is supposed to the Big Good. She cares for all life, especially her children, she was kidnapped and enslaved while her consort fucked around in Dalaran playing with humans and elves, and honestly, she does absolutely nothing to show for it. She stays in Dragonblight for the entirety of Wrath, only bothers to do something about the Lich King when we have the big cutscene in Dragonblight, and her goddamn emo tantrum in Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects permanently soured me on her character. All this in mind, I do not think she is a good character, in the sense of being well-written. In the morality sense? Well...

I honestly think Alexstrasza would make a decent villain. Not in the "I've suffered, now I'm evil" sense, because holy shit is that lazy. My idea for villainous dragons is a bit more complex, and something that I guess I should talk about here.

The lore for Warcraft dragons is actually not bad. They all started as primordial/proto-drakes, and the Aspects as we know them are the evolved forms of such drakes, with their offspring resembling their current appearances as opposed to their previous ones. I know this is going to sound redundant, but it needs to be said: dragons are incredibly old. They are not only one of the oldest surviving species on Azeroth, but the Aspects themselves were alive when all dragons were unevolved. They are well fucking over 10,000 years old, maybe even older than 50,000, and they're intelligent to boot. Living for so long is not something that we humans can ever dream of, much less get a grasp on. But we also know that some dragons actually enjoy living among mortals. I already mentioned Krasus, but Alexstrasza doesn't seem to mind either. In fact, many of the red, green, and even black dragonflight have lived among humans, elves, and even other races (although in the case of black dragons, it wasn't always for fun). So, judging dragons on a human level and seeing them as being able to think in human terms is not all that far-fetched to me.

Now, think about living for 50,000-ish years. Really, think about it. Think about how long you've lived, think about everything you've witnessed, the lives you've seen lost, and what that would do to your moral compass. It wouldn't do anything good, and no matter how you look at life, it would eventually wear on you. I think this would be true for even dragons, and that it would be the eventual fate of dragons unless they died by other means before hitting that mark. And if I were a dragon who lived that long, I would either want to evolve again to be something greater, or ascend to a higher plane of existance just so I could see something, anything, that isn't the monotony of Azeroth.

This brings me to my idea of Alexstrasza and other dragons "ascending" to what they believe to be a higher plane of existence. In their system, it really would be an ascendence. They would shed their "Azerothian" identity and become anew. They would take on different names, different titles, and of course, different appearances. They would no longer be aspects, as that title would go to their next in-line of their choosing, and yes, they would know full well what would come of passing that on. Do you really think dragons that old would care about their offspring's future tribulations? Even Alexstrasza wouldn't. Ascension would also mean shedding emotions, draconian logic, and more or less trying to escape the confines of Azeroth. Alexstrasza in particular would no longer be the warm mother who is ready to embrace her child, who weeps at the loss of life. Her physical form would be comatose, and her soul would be screaming in anguish because no matter what she does, she cannot ascend. She's trapped, and there is nothing in the world she hates more.

Fighting a dragon who failed to ascend definitely sounds better to me than yet another Onyxia fight, or whatever other undead/resurrected dragons Blizzard decides to give us. It would also serve as a reminder to dragons that they are not perfect creatures, and that mortals have it better off for having shorter life spans, and less responsibility. A humbled dragon is easier to deal with than a smug one.

[shekinah-the-second]

In 1714, a Norwegian captain and an English captain had a 14-hour long ship-fight. Afterwards, both ships were severely damaged, and the Norwegian captain was running out of ammo. He sent an envoy to the English ship, asking if he could borrow some of their ammo. They said no.

[shekinah-the-second]

The Galar legendary birds are probably the ones most likely to wear the same clothes every day.

[shekinah-the-second]

Notification:

About Sailor Moon Crystal Eternal: Shit, we forgot that existed. Um, give us a few months.

[shekinah-the-second]

That feeling when you have a spam message, no followers, and only three blogs you follow that are actually active.

[shekinah-the-second]

Dinner

Lamech's approach to eating, contrary to his state of undeath, was more based in taste and social benefit than it was anything to do with enjoyment. He would eat curry, kimchi, and whatever his sister would buy for him, since she knew his tastes.

But, for his own purposes, there was nothing to be had in a bowl, box, or restaurant plate.

No, those needs belonged to his sister, whose culinary library could encompass the enirety of Azeroth, and in Lamech's less grumpy moments, he could confess that seeing Bellalinde happy brought him his own level of joy.

Recently, Bell had taken up interest in cooking old kaldorei dishes and other recipes she had acquired on the Broken Isles, but she also found interest in pandaren cooking in Dalaran. Lamech had agreed to come along with her for the evening; she had spotted a noodle shop that advertised different flavors, including spicy.

He didn't have to look for very long when a voice called out to him, "Mush'al!"

"You're late." He said it before he turned around, arms crossed, already knowing who it was.

Bellalinde looked at the clock on the wall. "I'm sorry. I got caught up in some things."

"It's six. What could have possibly kept you so late?"

"I had to rush a tailoring order. Where are we sitting?"

Lamech sighed and led her to their table. He had no intention of abandoning Bell to her own devices, fearful that she might never return to him, lured away by false promises relating to Illidan Stormrage, the Betrayer. He and Joab had promised each other that they wouldn't let her fall victim to another one of his schemes, and she was naive enough to believe that she could redeem him. Just a little girl who needed looking after, that was how Lamech still saw her. How could he not?

He saw her sit down at the booth and almost sat next to her, to protect her from anyone who might try to snatch her away, but thought better of it. Instead, Lamech took his seat across from Bell as she looked over her menu.

"I think I'll have the golden dragon noodles," Bellalinde announced before studying the menu again. "Are you getting the spicy mushan noodles?"

"I guess." Lamech set the menu down. "It's the only thing that looks good at all."

Bellalinde chuckled. A basket of mushrooms was set down for them before their meals came, from which Bell immediately plucked one and ate it before making a face.

"You still don't like mushrooms?" Lamech asked her. He remembered trying to get her to try one when she was only a toddler, with no success.  They had wound up everywhere: her hair, clothes, on the floor, in-between her toes... everywhere except inside her mouth. It was then and there where she decided that when she grew up, she would never eat anything that had mushrooms in it. It had made Lamech laugh at the time.

Now, he wished he could give anything to go back to those times, before the Lich King, before the attack.

Their steaming bowls had arrived as Lamech finished the thought. Bell tasted her thankfully mushroom-free noodles, her expression neutral. "They use golden carp in this," she noted. "A bit blander than I would have liked."

Lamech shrugged and looked down at his bowl. Chunks of mushan meat married with the noodles and green peppers. He saw a fork enter and pluck some of his food out; Bellalinde had stolen some, once again reminding him of the past.

"Oh, yours is much better. So much flavor, don't you think?"

Lamech took a bite. It WAS tasty, even to him. While he usually put liberal amounts of salt and pepper in his food to taste, he felt no need to add any to this dish. The soy sauce and peppers gave it the saltiness and spice that he needed to taste his food.

"It's hearty," he said in agreement.

"Do you think I could make it for you? The noodles? It shouldn't be hard. Mushan ribs, noodles, green peppers, soy sauce... I should probably use cornstarch to dry the meat so it's easier to fry. What do you think, Lamech?"

I want to cook for you when I grow up, Mushi! Bellalinde had said so long ago. And she would never, ever add mushrooms to his meals.

"I would like that very much, little one."

[shekinah-the-second]

Kanto GEM Figure Sets released by the Pokemon Center

[shekinah-the-second]

Gotham Azeroth needs a hero an anti-hero.

[shekinah-the-second]

Me waiting for a future ghost eeveelution.

[shekinah-the-second]

Sleeping Eeveelution Plushes from the Pokemon Center