#Battle for Azeroth content

[groundrunner100]

Say what you want about Blizzard, but DAMN.

These DLC are bitching fire.

[cosmererambles]

I guess she wasn't told of Anduin's little stunt with reunited families huh

Yeah it was called Before the Storm Lillian you should read it.

[sunreaved]

“ people are scared. they need a leader. and right now, like it or not, they’re looking to you. so go on. lead us. ” from lor

;𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 — @regentlord

Leadership was not a foreign concept to Aethas — though he supposed it hadn't been to Lor'themar either. But leading a faction and leading a nation were not the same beast. Aethas had hoped (at best) Lor'themar would empathize with having a title you didn't want thrust upon you, but there was little in their history of exchanges that would suggest that sentiment would bloom to fruition.

❝ The legacy is stained. Kael'thas wanted the crown buried with him. ❞ Had they even given him a burial? Had they been able to look past what he had become to honor who he had been? Aethas realized then, he had never asked. There was a distinct separation between Kael'thas as his father, and Kael'thas as the crown prince. Then of course, whatever had been left of him that had been put down like a rabid dog. Aethas had not been a blissfully ignorant child through all that transpired. He had fully understood the happenings, and watched from afar as his father descended into madness.

This was not supposed to be an option. Neither of his parents had wanted it for him and thus never prepared him for even the possibility. Aethas had not expected the word of his heritage to spread as quickly as it did and leave their kingdom in uncertainty, yet again, of their future leadership. Despite the mar that Kael'thas had left on the Sunstrider name, many had come out in favor of continuing the monarchy — but Lor'themar was not without his backing either.

The problem then lied with the fact that Lor'themar didn't want it... and neither did Aethas. ❝ I am not a King. I was not raised to be a King. You did not believe me even worth your time to speak to and now you want to answer to me. ❞ Rommath as well had made his thoughts on the matter (and on Aethas himself) more than clear in the past.

There was a lingering thought in the back of Aethas' mind that Lor'themar was only pushing it to rid himself of a position he'd never wanted, so he could return to the life he so dearly missed. As frustrating as it was, he couldn't even fault him for it. By rights alone, this was far more Aethas' responsibility than it had ever been Lor'themar's, and he would not have found himself surprised if the former ranger felt embittered by Aethas having kept quiet about his claim to the throne all this time.

❝ ... This is not what Kael'thas wanted. ... Though I admit, I do not know if that matters to you, ... or should even matter to me. ❞

[strongheartmaid]

Blizzard making with the nightmare fuel. Because I always wanted to see what a merge of Turalyon and Anduin looked like. Sure. Lovely. Gods.

It started with Anduin on the throne then the High Exarch phased in and we get that abomination.

[ecosystem-administrator]

the road to Horizon

I was watching a video recapping someone's journey through FFXIV and it made me think back on the start of my own, so I have some thoughts to ramble here, on my departure from Azeroth and arrival into Eorzea. From the perspective of a WoW refugee who arrived before the big waves of exodus, who left before all the bad news broke at Blizzard.

I don't talk about it much. At first it was because I was still grieving what I'd left, adjusting to the new normal I'd found for myself and trying not to be that person who compares everything to their only other experience in the genre; then, it was because the news had broken about all the things broken in Blizzard behind the scenes, and suddenly it no longer felt cool to have ever enjoyed what they were doing. But I started playing WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, and I continued to play until somewhere in the patch cycles of Battle For Azeroth. 2009-2019, a full decade of investment in the lore, of anticipation and disappointment, of theorycrafting my way around plotholes so I could keep enjoying the things that were enjoyable.

At some point, there was a news announcement coming, and I found myself anxious, dreading the possibility that the plot would focus on some of the characters I'd come to like, and in doing so wreck the stories I'd been building in my head. I had to stop and replay that moment for myself: I was dreading my favorite characters getting spotlight time, because I was afraid of what the writers would do to them. This is, I had to finally admit to myself, no way to live. I had reached my limit. My trust was broken, years of disappointment having finally dismantled my hope. I had to walk away. I wouldn't uninstall, not yet - but I would instead try out that beautiful Final Fantasy game my fiancee and some of her friends had started playing. I had watched over her shoulder one time a good while back as a tiny pink cupcake of a girl drank a goblet of poisoned wine, and at the time I had envied the power of the scene on display. Perhaps starting fresh with a new story would help ease the grief of finally stepping away from a decade of giving my heart to a game that was simply no longer giving back.

It takes time to adjust to a new game, of course. New controls, new abilities, what do you mean crafters are classes just like combat classes, wait what's the difference between a class and a job, how do I know whether I'm where I'm supposed to be, what do you mean dungeons aren't optional content, etc. I stumbled my way through the start of ARR, increasingly enthused to be learning a whole new set of lore but still anxious about how new I was. In FFXIV, we call new players 'sprouts' and tend to them; but I hadn't yet learned that mindset. I had to be told not to remove the sprout icon that flagged me as new and learning, because to me it looked like a 'kick me' sign on my back, a bright waving flag that said "Fresh Meat". That's what it would have been, where I had come from. I didn't know any better yet.

I made my way out of Gridania, around the capitals, through the baby dungeons, back to Ul'dah to get my invitation to the Scions, doing my best to absorb new lore, new controls, and new attitudes simultaneously. So it wasn't until I was leaving Ul'dah and headed out into Western Thanalan toward the Scions, on foot because I hadn't unlocked mounts yet, because I hadn't yet gotten the Horizon aetheryte, that I suddenly had a series of revelations.

I couldn't see player levels just by looking at them. I would have to click on a player and examine them in order to identify what level they were. Conversely, no one could see my level unless they went to that effort. They couldn't tell at a glance if I was overleveled or underleveled, if I was out of place in a zone or where I was meant to be.

The plot I had been through so far had gradually converged on this point in a way that suggested the story was melding with the starting storylines from the other two cities. In WoW, there are overarching plotlines for zones sometimes, but the presence of a Main Plot is a very recent development. Players rarely take the same path from starting zone to max level; but here, we were all walking the same road.

There were no factions. We were all walking the same road, and this was what struck me the hardest. From level 1 to level 70 (at the time I started lmao), every single player around me was somewhere on the same plotline. No one was a threat. There was no world PvP. I would never be ganked, griefed, have to wait for critical NPCs to respawn after max-level players from the other faction had come in and killed them.

Me, to me, at level 15 as the light began to dawn:

This is really how it felt, after all those years of WoW. The road to Horizon was the place where I finally realized I wasn't a soldier anymore, an erstwhile mercenary trying to dodge getting drafted back into a forever war. Of course there were still enemies, but all of the enemies were NPCs. I didn't have to worry about enemy PCs coming in raids, about staying out of their way or deciding to stand and fight. There were no such thing as enemy PCs. The war was, finally, over.

And so I trod onward lighter, still on foot until someone saw fit to give me a chocobo, my faction tabard abandoned in the dust of Thanalan, only an adventurer at last.

[modkatisbacc]

Character Info for the WoW x Ninjago AU!!!

Cole: Half-Human Half-Dwarf. (Yes it's because Dwarves... Earth...and also because of Magni, and me comparing DR!Cole to Magni Every time I turn around) Lou is human, Lilly is a Dwarf (Aaaand maybe a bit more than that) He is a Shaman, joined the Earthen Ring pretty young, since they realized "Oh hey this is Lilly's son!" Therazane took one look at him after Lilly died and said "Yep, gotta watch this one." (The Elemental Lords are A Tiny Bit Different in this AU, but not too different.) Sent by Therazane back up to Azeroth (He found his way into Deepholm when he ran away from home.) to train under Wu. Cole also has a Earth Elemental that just pops up whenever it wants to. Mostly just keeps an eye on him and makes sure he's alive. Said Earth Elemental normally hangs around Lou, as Therazane doesn't believe he can protect himself. He is 15 in the beginning of this story, and The Oldest (TM) until he isn't.

Kai: Kultiran Human Fire Mage/Warrior Multiclass A Blacksmith, up until the day his sister was taken by a roaming band of Scourge *A squad that is detatched from the others, and operates under Different Orders, not controlled by the Lich King* on the command of Garmadon, the Earth Warder. After this, he becomes desperate to get Nya back, which Ragnaros takes advantage of. Ragnaros, knowing that Kai may not respond positively seeing a fire elemental just showing up randomly, sends a bounty hunter after him, with strict instructions, in which 'don't let him know what you are, and don't hurt him, I NEED him.' the Bounty Hunter was unprepared for Kai trying to attack him on sight. When Kai arrives in the Firelands, extremely confused, yet mostly unharmed, Ragnaros spins a tale against Neptulon, as he knows that he is the one who has his sister, Nya. Ragnaros also hangs information about their parents over Kai's head, and how they betrayed Azeroth, leading to Kai's Early resentment over the two. He is soon sent to Wu, he is sent to Wu because Ragnaros knows he will not harm him, and he wants Kai to become more powerful- and Wudormu can do just that. He is 14 in the beginning.

Jay: A Human boy who lived peacefully in the Sea of Sand *Also known as Tanaris* with his parents until Al'Akir noticed his presence. Al'Akir took great interest in his blooming connection with lightning. Jay is a Shaman/Monk/Rogue Multiclass *The only Shaman move he really has is Lightning itself, and he uses it in the other two classes moves.* When Al'Akir noticed that Jay wasn't really willing to just up and leave his parents alone in the middle of the desert. He wasn't really worried about their safety, per say, as he knew from a young age that the Bronze were keeping an eye on them from their home that was east of them, he was just content on staying with his parents. Seeing this, Al'Akir sent his minions to kidnap Ed and Edna, trapping them in Uldum. With Jay willing to do anything to make sure his parents are safe, he agrees to do whatever Al'Akir wants him to do. He sends him to Wu as a spy, much like Kai, as he knows he is gathering the other elemental champions. He doesn't want to mess up and get his parents killed, so he's a LOT more standoffish and awkward in the beginning than in canon (dont worry though the Real Jay will shine in soon!) He is the youngest of the four, being 13 when the story begins.

Zane: He is a ????????? Neptulon wasn't very sure what he was when he found Zane. Zane is a Frost Mage/Rogue Multiclass. Neptulon could sense he had a great ice power within him, and he looked *Very* Human, but something was off with him, like someone was hiding something- from everyone including Zane. Zane was wandering around in Northrend, helping protect villages from the scourge. One day, the Lich King himself *Not Arthas in this AU* shows up in a battle- and Zane, worried that he will attack the civilans, goes after him alone. Now of course he couldn't take him on, especially by himself. He ends up getting thrown off a cliff into the ocean. A Water Elemental finds Zane, who is very hurt, though confused on why he had not drowned yet. When he wakes up, he is in Vash'jr, in Neptulon's domain. After he recovers, Neptulon gives him a choice on whether to go back to Northrend, or to follow him. Zane, feeling a strange connection to the elementals decides to stay. He makes quick friends with Nya as well. He is sent to Wu for training, and is 14(????) when the story begins.

Nya: When the Scourge kidnapped her, she was quickly rescued by a few water elementals. Thankfully, the Scourge group weren't trained very well and took no time to run off. Nya is a Frost Mage/Warrior Multiclass. She follows the elementals back to Vash'jr, wanting to learn more about Why she was kidnapped, and why they saved her. Neptulon decides to train her against naga and teaches her more about controlling water straight away, though since it requires her to Go With The Flow, she tends to stick with being a Samarai of sorts. She is sent to Wu, but does not make it there at first. She finds a thread on Garmadon and the Scourge and she takes off to learn Why she was taken. Neptulon allowed her to find her own way, knowing it will take her back to Wu anyway. She is 13 in the start.

[siennablaze219]

((Content warning, graphic violence))

@daily-writing-challenge

(Events from the beginning of Battle For Azeroth, trying to take this week to flesh out pieces about Mirri’s family history)

Lyanna and Rastien were lounging by the pond near their home in Ashenvale, the stars in the sky were bright as they laid upon a blanket and shared a bottle of Dalaran Red that Mirri had brought home to them on her last visit home. They had little to do in the moment, Sentinel Tyl’inithia had come by earlier in the day to pick up all the sabers of rideable age and size, fully trained or not, to take with them down into Feralas. She had made the request for mounts in person a few days prior to give them time to prepare, “I know that you are attached to all your furred children, but skirmishes are being waged and we need replacement mounts for when the Horde cut them out from under our Sentinels. You both served on the battlefields long ago and know this to be true.” She was right, neither of them wished to see the sabers they raised go into battle, but that was what the beasts were bred for.

Had Mirri been home every one of the big cats would have been fully trained and off to the riding instructors already, but her decision to stay among the humans had left them without a trainer so they had taken longer this season than in others past. “We will care for them you know that.” The sentinel had assured them. She had even taken all but one of their sires, it was the same as when the sundering came and the Horde began to work more into Ashenvale, they had a couple promising young males in the yearling cubs that were too small to carry a rider yet and those remained to replace the big males Tyl’inithia had led away earlier.

With heavy hearts they wished their young sabers safe steps and long life in a blessing, then made their way to the pond to relax and not think about their children moving into battle. Blessed as they were to know that Mirri would not be one of their riders, nor Tysha as since Mirri had found her, the ex-Sentinel spy was staying far from any chance at fighting, so at least their blood was safe even if the beasts they gave their hearts to, were not.

The wine looked blood red in the darkened night while the moon rested and the darkness of her new face held its place in the sky without even a hint of its light. Lyanna shuddered softly as her glass held just a finger’s width of the liquid, looking to the cut crystal that remained that showed deep red in every facet as true as if the glass was still filled. Peering into the carnelian liquid, she swirled it around, about to say something to her mate but her head turned, distracted as her ears shifted back towards their home slightly, a sound having caught her attention.

Rastien had always been quicker to action than Lyanna and she spoke as she rose, “The sabers.” Sprinting out across the grasses with Lyanna left to follow in her wake, the scent that came after would be one she had never forgotten though she had wished to. Fire, and fur… “The stables.”

Catching up with Rastien would be impossible, her mate’s stride had always been longer than her own, so she called to the Light of Elune and asked for a blessing that would hasten her steps, if only for a moment or three. Rastien, ever the one to react to threat with action rather than thought, had already called the power of Elune’s darkest embrace wrapping it around her making her barely able to be tracked through the long shadows of the trees from what little light the sky offered. Her right hand dropped and she called to the darkness, ready to act the instant she could find the source of the danger. Her voice rang hollow in this form, “They are burning the stables.”

Lyanna did not need to ask who ‘they’ were, the Horde had been running sorties further and further north through the lands for a few weeks now. They had hoped that they would be sidetracked, or the foolishness of more bloodshed would be ceased, but they had been arrogant in those thoughts it seemed. Each had each lived over ten thousand years and never had a foe just decided to go around a home, or give up just because two ancient elves raised nightsabers in the woods.

As they broke into the clearing, shadow and light once again joining together in the team they had become long ago, standing an arms distance apart so each could act independently they surveyed the scene. From inside the stables the sabers were screaming, one mother darted into the forest with a cub, she must have been able to break free from her pen, but the other four and the other six cubs were nowhere to be seen. The cries raised into the night sky, sound dancing with the smoke of the orange of the flames, both equally calling forth tears from Lyanna’s eyes.

A scream of outrage sounded from Rastien’s throat and her head swiveled to an orc with a torch that was behind the barn, reaching out a shadow cloaked arm she clenched her fist and the mohawked woman fell to her knees dropping the offending flame into the black of the night’s grass. Even that flame did not add color back into the scene, everything around them was a mix of the intensity of the bright fire, the black of the shadows of Elune’s darkest face and the ashen grey of them when they chanced to meet together in a bloodless dance of chaos amongst the tides of the shrieks from within the death of the ancient building.

Knowing they must clear the threat before they could even try and asses the damage, Lyanna called to Elune seeking the blessing of the Goddess that they, and their children, had worshipped for their entire lives. Light came to her call and she stepped forward seeking battle, on one side an orc closed, on the other a troll, wary of the living shadow that was Lyanna’s mate, they moved in. The orc held an axe, and the troll a halberd, trying to trap her between them as she was unarmed. With an exhale Lyanna released the power she held and light exploded forward as a star from her lithe form, the divinity of her gift rocketing outwards, maring the depth of the night around her. First to react were the eyes of her foes, having to close in reaction to the explosion of the power she had unleashed, and then their bodies began to burn much as the barn they had torched before they both toppled to the ground.

Rastien knew the gift of her mate, and how she could be blinded by it, so she sprinted to the side, letting the shadows cover her movement through the knee high grasses that surrounded where they lived. Once she was in the embrace of the forest to the side of the barns, and the flash of Lyanna’s star bright spell had faded, her lip curled back in a snarl and with a small flick of her fingers she began to strike the other ten horde members in the party that had come to their home, each one becoming wracked with pain as her anger was released within their bodies. Shadows held her dear and even as they looked about, they did not target her, instead focusing upon her mate who had left the duo she faced lying in the dirt as she stepped back, creating more space between her and the horde.

The fighters recovered quickly, speaking in Orcish, which both of the women had learned from a troll they had saved once, “I thought the buildings were empty except the beasts, you said you searched the house.” A tauren woman yelled, “I will have your head for this Mugla!” Her hand gestured forward and a fire elemental burst into existence much like a phoenix, its heat and glow making the rest of the raiding party step clear to give it room as it broke towards Lyanna, scorching the ground and drawing its hand along the side of the burning stables in a lover’s caress.

“Fel take you,” was all Lyanna had time to get out before the elemental closed. She cursed softly and began to use her anger to first pull from the sky a burst of holy fire, once that had taken hold of the elemental she drew bolts of light from the air which slammed into the chest of the being but it did not stop, it raced forward boosted by the energy of the flames the buildings had become. Screams of the sabers continued to fill the air, but there was no time to act to save them, they had engaged their enemy and would need to see them all handled before caring for their family.

Seeing the danger her mate was in, yet too far to help her Rastien called out with the hoot of an owl, an old trick they had used when scouting before they had retired. Lyanna’s head swung towards her for just a moment, then she began to move in Rastien’s direction. As did the horde members that had followed distance behind the elemental. *”Perfect.”* Rastien thought, a sneer drawing her top lip up as she looked to the shaman that had called the elemental, words pulled to Mirri’s birth mother’s tongue, ancient words, dark words and the mind of the tauren was twisted and became trapped within itself as Rastien took control of the woman’s body. Using the form she claimed, the shadow priestess called lightning to the orc’s hands then loosed it.

A laugh from a troll rang out between the buildings as the magic lit the air next to him. “Now you are in for it bitch.” He called as he continued to run towards Lyanna, but the bolt struck the elemental first, which faded beneath the ferocity of it, and Lyanna’s magics, then doubled back to hit him square in the chest, enough to kill him the instant it blackened his breastplate. The light continued to streak on, hitting an orc and a tauren woman before it faded into the night.

Focused as she was, Rastien did not notice as a rogue appeared from behind her and struck the back of her shadow wrapped head. Lyanna noticed, pain shooting through her skull from the bond they had made long ago when the battlefields were their home. Stumbling as she saw Rastien sway forward, her hand shot out towards her partner and she called the shadow user’s body to her own and laid her healing touch upon the bleeding that had begun there.

These moments were just enough for the last five horde that had been advancing to close on the two women, twelve against two had never been odds the priestesses, even in their fighting prime, should have attempted to handle, but anger had taken them down this path and nothing was going to stop them now but the raiders that had come to the land seeking to destroy what they loved most next to their children and each other, their sabers.

The healing had Rastien renewed enough that she straightened, her eyes in the shadows she wore glowed with a depth of fury and hatred that none of her kin except Lyanna had ever seen in her expression before. Her hands moved lightning fast and pain showed on the face of attacker after attacker, then with a scream into the night she summoned a beast of pure void that skittered across the ground and began to feast on the life essence of a troll that was closest to the two women.

Lyanna took a deep breath and called to Elune softly, a prayer first and then she stepped back to back with her mate. Her hands moved in a calmer, gentle pattern, weaving the light again and again, calling forth holy fire, upon the foes she could see, then drawing light within before expanding outwards within, felling another orc.

There were too many and as they fought the shaman walked forth, she growled out a word between flat teeth and the very earth beneath the Kaldorei womens’ feet trembled, pitching Rastien forward upon the spear of a troll. The serrated edges lodged in between Rastien’s ribs and stuck true as they were meant to, holding the shadow user impaled as blood as black as night bubbled up from between her lips. The tip had pierced a lung and breathing now was more like drowning in her own life’s essence.

Feeling the pain within herself as well as seeing her mate lurch forward, Lyanna unleashed a blood curdling cry. For over three thousand years they had been as one, mating, fighting, loving and raising their children together, never apart until his moment when it felt like the entire sea could fill the space between them as Rastien’s body lost contact with her own. Throwing her hands out to the sides, she screamed Elune’s name and Light began to fill the circle of horde fighters in the shape of Lyanna, the very ground that had trembled under them a moment before shifted from the dark of night to the light of day as she called forth in her faith. Gold eyes shone with the intensity of the sun itself and she loosed a word of power, pouring all that light from her into an attack that felled four of the fighters that had closed on them and burned the troll whose spear was still impaled within Rastien, Lyanna’s own lover shielding the troll from the agonizing power of the light the woman called.

The tauren shaman held back, she did not need to close to use her power, turning from the glory and destruction Lyanna brought upon her raiding party. It was not until the glow faded that she turned to see what had remained. The elf had managed to wrap her arms around Rastien’s middle then shove them both forward on the troll’s spear so they died as they had lived, in the embrace of their Elune blessed love. Of the twelve of the shaman’s party she had left with, only three remained, herself, the troll, and the rogue that had ambushed Rastien in the forest who had been holding himself back, waiting for an exposed back to strike. Ten good fighters dead, and for what? She shook her head, this conflict was pointless, she did not understand this call to war, but her warchief called and Baine had answered. Lowering to the ground, laying a hand on the tauren woman that she had struck down with her own lightning when under the shadow priest’s control. “Be at peace daughter, your father and I loved you well, may we meet again in battle soon.” Tears picked up the dance of the flames that rose in the sky from the barns as they rolled down her face.

[angryaurikhori]

Having finished Dawntrail's msq yesterday, I figured I'd toss my review into the ring. I was hyped for the expansion for sure, but I kept my expectations low due to witnessing two back-to-back overhyped WoW expansions that were incredibly bad - in story, gameplay, and overarching expansion systems. Needless to say, I've been burned before in the mmo expansion circuit because of Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands - and quite badly by the latter two - but my overall feelings regarding Dawntrail are highly positive. I've put my deeper thoughts below the cut, as they'll be pretty spoilery. And quite long, as I'll be comparing and contrasting FFXIV and WoW's approach to expansions, characterization, and how they handle launches.

A lot of people would say that the story drags, but I love some good world building. I honestly really enjoyed the "back to basics" approach that the first half of expansion's story took - going around to meet the different people of Tural and learning about their cultures. It took me back to the early days of ARR where you're just a guy doing what they can to help people, and as a WoW refugee to FFXIV, an approach I definitely prefer over being THE Hero who often got sidelined in the big moments so Jaina/Anduin/Thrall could do their thing. Only this time, we're the ones doing the mentoring instead of the Scions/our Job Trainer being the mentor to us. True, we only had a few moments of actual mentoring, but there were plenty of "silent talking" moments that you can opt to fill in with giving Wuk Lamat advice.

There was only one true hiccup to my enjoyment of the Rite of Succession half of the expansion, and I'm sure it's also on everyone else's list of hated moments this expansion - Wuk Lamat's kidnapping. I get it's supposed to establish that Wuk Lamat's still a bit too trusting and naive to rule Tural, that Bakool Ja Ja is a true threat to the Rite, and give us some bonding time with Koana, but this section dragged on far too long. And it had two stealth follow segments in a row! TWO! Granted, they're a bit easier now with the big "DO NOT APPROACH" aura compared to how they worked in Endwalker, but it's still my least favorite gameplay mechanic.

The zone and dungeon designs were gorgeous, and the music team 100% hit it out of the park again. Out of all the early story areas, I think that the lower portion of Yak'Tel has to be my favorite, as well as Skydeep Cenote being my favorite dungeon. The music in that dungeon is appropriately haunting, given that it's a mass grave for all the failed Blessed Siblings that never had a chance to live. Speaking of...

I did not expect to enjoy Bakool Ja Ja's character as much as I did. He was introduced as a bully, willing to do whatever it took to be crowned Tulliyolal's new leader. Then the Mamool Ja storyline happened in lower Yak'Tel and my view of him did a complete 180. He was a guy who shouldered the hopes and expectations of his people due to the circumstances of his birth, but carried all the guilt of being the one to survive while other Blessed Siblings did not. Having a sympathetic antagonist is nothing new for FFXIV, but he never truly was a villain at heart. Seeing his growth as the msq went on was wonderful. I hope we get to interact more with him as a friend instead of an antagonist with patch content.

Going back to my earlier point of being sidelined so the Big Name characters can do their thing, it does happen in Dawntrail, but not in a way that felt overly egregious to me? It's entirely possible it didn't bother me as much because we were there to see Lamaty'i's growth first-hand versus needing to track down and spend real money on outside media to read about how Character A went from a normal person to certified Grade A Badass, which was the case more often than not between WoW expansions. I mean, I was floored when I first started playing and they kept the "next expansion preview" quests in-game versus an event that runs for about two weeks and is gone forever once time's up, so there's also that to consider.

As for the two "main" big bads of the expansion, I have mixed feelings. Zalool Ja was a far cry from the Saturday Morning Cartoon villains of WoW or the ARR days and I found him actually far more compelling than the other villain who I'll get into later.

[jerek]

I have a personal theory about how part of why Wrathion is so "grown up" is bc of him being spliced with the titan thing and it also giving him way too much knowledge for a newborn to have. Like, I truly believe that dragon eggs aren't at all sentient before they hatch but Wrathion does think they are since he was, but it's all bc of all the knowledge in him and no one around to correct him about it. And since no other dragon took care of him properly as a child, all he has to go on is the adults around him and try to mimic them and guess the rest of how he works, and by extension all other dragons. This theory would also explain his "childish" outbursts, bc despite all his knowledge, he IS still a child that wasn't trained by a parental figure to properly convey his emotions in a healthy way. I honestly cant be annoyed by his behavior, i just feel extreme heartache for this poor soul. It's just such a fucked up existence and there's no one around to give him guidance. idk maybe its all in my head or maybe I'm not conveying my thoughts well but I can only see Wrathion as an insanely tragic character.

Love u for all these paragraphs ♥️♥️♥️

For real though! There's a stage in fetal development where like, you can roughly estimate when they start to feel pain as we know it. But then the baby comes out and it's still... a baby, you know? Basically a human-shaped caterpillar.

There's even a difference in dragons between whelplings and whelps: whelps like Lillistrasza can talk but still sound like grade schoolers, while whelplings (at least the battle pet whelplings) only squawk.

I've always thought of Wrathion's circumstances as not only a crisis bad enough to warrant CPS intervention (if CPS existed in his world, lmao) but also an indictment of Azeroth's (individualist) culture specifically.

It's sort of like how, on the internet, as soon as you graduate from sensory videos and Cocomelon you're expected to manage your own intake of content and keep your cool if you see something you didn't want to. There's tons of videos on YouTube making fun of 5 year olds' tantrums in games like Minecraft and Fortnite.

Wrathion happened to hear the red dragons plotting to kill him if he didn't obey. They might not have known he could hear them, but they knew he'd been reassembled by a titan artifact, belonging to the race that gave them greater intellect and completely changed their anatomy.

So he escaped: and then who does the red flight send but Mostrasz, with nothing but contempt for the mortal rogues who've been sheltering Wrathion all this time. Who eventually tries to kill Wrathion for being too difficult to control (or at least, Wrathion sees Mostrasz' violence as an attempt on his own life.) Just like Fahradion eventually does, too.

At least Fahrad has the excuse of being driven mad.

The question is: can anyone convince him to accept guidance, or even just care, before the end-point of his own individualist streak, where he looks back and realizes how deeply he was neglected? Is that something anyone but himself can solve at this point? Is anyone on Azeroth, raised with Azerothian values, capable of getting through to him without patronizing him?

We've seen a lot of people try, starting with Anduin but especially now in Dragonflight. I wouldn't be surprised if Ebyssian has the best shot out of all the canon characters... but that's what OCs are for too!! 🤪

[corvusalbus93]

The Little Things

While in Frostfire Ridge, Cordana is on edge and refuses to take a break. Khadgar wants her to be able to relax more often in general, and tries to give her some well-meant advice.

-

Cordana took a deep breath, her throat burning from the cold air, and she shifted her shoulders so her cloak would fully conceal her armour. Frostfire Ridge was certainly living up to its name. The land was almost entirely covered in deep snow, though whether this was year around the nighelf could not say, while lava flowed from several volcanos across the land, its glow visible day and night.

The Warden glanced over her shoulder to the village; a few playing children and the orcs standing guard paid her no attention, nor perceived her as a threat. As a matter of fact the Frostwolves had invited Khadgar and her to join them for whatever it was the orcs here considered dinner. Cordana still wasn’t entirely comfortable among their kind, no matter the timeline, even if these orcs hadn’t invaded her world. Despite the Archmage by her side, she felt decidedly more vulnerable here than among the draenei.

Khadgar, of course, had accepted the invitation without a second thought. They were here to make allies.

It surprised the Warden how comfortable he seemed among the orcs, considering what she knew of his past, but perhaps his sense of pragmatism was greater than any resentment she would have expected him to have. Perhaps it had been his time in Outland too, years of living in Shattrath among fellow survivors, making him so open-minded.

Speaking of the Archmage.

Since the small feast was still being prepared, they were passing time, Cordana by studying the surrounding area, making notes of escape routes, chokepoints and possible paths enemy forces would take to attack the village. Khadgar meanwhile was building a little snowman.

It boggled her how careless he seemed at times.

Oh, he usually took their mission here very seriously, and he was focused in battle, but when it came to his own life, he was actually quite reckless, much to her dismay. He was not making her job any easier, and more often than not in more danger than necessary. Perhaps his skills had made him overconfident, and she was starting to suspect that he overestimated the abilities of at least some of Azeroth’s champions, considering the missions he was sending them on recently. Hopefully, this wouldn’t come back to bite them.

She watched him shape the snowman’s head, giving it far more attention than the body. That he chose to spend his time like this...

From what Cordana knew about him, he’d been less than twenty years old, when a spell had robbed the Archmage of his youth and he fought in what the humans called the First War. Young by his people’s standards, even younger by Kaldorei.

And he’d continued to fight, been stranded on Outland, never knowing if he would ever see home again. Now, so briefly after finding his way back to Azeroth, he had once more led people through the portal, if to an alternative version of the Draenor he’d seen. Many on Azeroth had considered this a suicide mission.

Perhaps that was why he enjoyed such frivolous activities, when time permitted and the opportunity presented itself. Maybe this was his way of getting respite.

He seemed to be enjoying himself; he was looking content despite the cold, though his exposed ears had turned a pale red. Cordana examined his robes and wondered how well they protected him from the cold. At least it should shield him from the wind.

It was at this point he noticed her eyes lingering on him, and he gave her a smile.

“I don’t suppose you care to join me?”

Cordana shook her head “Someone has to keep us safe. The Frostwolves may be allies, but the Iron Horde is determined to vanquish them. And even if there is no large scale assault while we’re here, there could always be raiders trying their luck.”

“Dutiful as ever, but I’m sure even you are allowed to take breaks.”

“Something I could do more often, if you just stayed at the Garrison once in a while,” she reminded him with a meaningful look.

The Archmage sighed. “I assure you, I am quite capable of protecting myself, regardless of what you or the other Watchers think.” He made a hand motion and from beyond a hill, a small glowing orb floated upwards. One of his own magical sentries. With another motion the orb descended, once more disappearing in the snow and Khadgar smiled. “So, you can relax a little.”

“Sentries or not, I have my duties. Besides, there isn’t exactly anything worthwhile I could be doing here.”

“Is enjoying yourself for once not worthwhile?” Khadgar studied her carefully for a moment. “I’m starting to worry you don’t know how to have a little fun once in a while.” He looked behind them, were a few of the orc children were playing together, some sparing with sticks, while others were throwing snowballs at each other.

As soon as Khadgar’s eyes wandered back to her, she made sure to give him a ‘don’t you dare’-look, as she could see that mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes again. “Indulgence for its own sake is a dangerous thing,” the Warden remarked.

“Overindulgence, certainly. Still, between all the conflicts we must face in life, personal or worlds-encompassing, I think it is important to enjoy the little moments. Find a balance.”

“Have you ever been to Pandaria, Archmage? I think you would like it there.” She hadn’t been herself, but she had met a few pandaren, heard them speak about their philosophies and sometimes lingered to listen. Balance appeared to be a core concept, if perhaps not quite like Khadgar meant it.

“I hadn’t had the chance yet, but one day I would very much like to visit its realms. If what I’ve heard is true they have an unbroken literary tradition that reaches back to before the Kaldorei Empire.” He sounded downright excited by the prospect.

Cordana smiled. “In that case, it’s good I’m here to keep you alive until then.”

“And after that?”

“The next assignment. Our watch is eternal.”

Khadgar frowned. “Nothing else? Not even a break?” There was something akin to pity in his eyes that caught the Warden a little off guard. “Do you really want for nothing else in life?”

Despite herself, Cordana found herself hesitating, if only for a moment. “Someone has to take on these burdens, to keep the people safe. Is that not why you continue the fight? Why you led Azeroth’s forces into another world yet again.”

The Archmage chuckled. “You got me there. Still, even I find a moment of respite every now and then. We all need time to breathe once in a while, something I too forget occasionally and need to remind myself of.”

“Even in a place like this?”

Somewhat sheepishly Khadgar rubbed the back of his neck, snow trickling from his glove. “Well, admittedly I was coming up with a spell that might help us track Gul’dan, while I was building my little friend here.”

“Of course.”

“Doesn’t invalidate any of my advice,” he hastily added. “Just shows I’m terrible at taking my own.”

“Your words are appreciated, but I don’t need anything besides my duty. I’m quite fulfilled,” Cordana assured him, hoping to end this inquiry. But he seemed unconvinced.

“If you say so.”

“With all due respect, Archmage, you don’t know me.”

“Not for a lack of trying.” There was a pause until Khadgar spoke again, clearly choosing his words carefully. “Look; I lost more than just my youthful appearance, when facing my mentor, and I spent nearly twenty years trapped on Outland. There are things I will never get to experience in life. So, I’d like to tell you what I once told a dear, old friend many years ago. Don’t throw away the time you’re given, make the most of it and the chances you have. In your case, find something that gives you joy, no matter how small or trivial. Or silly. Those things can end up meaning the most to us.”

Khadgar rose to his feet, giving her a clear view of the snowman. He’d shaped the head like a Warden’s helmet, and before Cordana could comment, the Archmage snapped his fingers, causing ice to spring forth from the helmet, taking the shape of a pony tail, while more grew from its shoulders to make a cloak.

From the corner of her eyes Cordana saw him give her another smile, looking at her expectantly. Was that meant to be her? The Warden wasn’t sure what to say now, and part of her was pondering his words. She had to admit, he had a point, but there was a time and place. And it was neither here nor now.

After this mission? No, Maiev would assign her another task; such was the life of a Warden. She could only hope that it wouldn’t be guard duty in the Vault of the Watchers again, no matter how prestigious it was. Despite the headaches the Archmage was routinely giving her, Cordana quite liked being out in the field and it had been her first real chance to get to know the Alliance her people had joined years ago. She had missed so much, while stationed in that remote prison.

Cordana stiffened. She shouldn’t have such preferences; she was one of the Watchers, a Warden, a weapon for justice...but a weapon could dull or break after too much use. The idea of taking just a little bit of time off after this, if they survived, was suddenly very tempting.

Her eyes glanced at Khadgar, still waiting for a reaction. No, she couldn’t allow him to make her waver. So, she straightened up and simply turned around, heading back to the village.

“Come, we should join the Frostwolves before we are missed.”

She had barely managed three steps, when something cold hit the back of her helmet, freezing water running down her neck moments later. Cordana spun around and glared at the Archmage. Had he used magic to strike her?

No, his gloves were white, and she could see where he’d gathered snow. As he walked past her, Khadgar grinned, not mischievously, but warmly.

“The little things, Cordana.”

-

First in a short series about Khadgar and Cordana on Draenor. We only had tiny bits and pieces in game, and I really wanted to expand on both them and her eventual corruption through the orb of dominion.

I also try to write it in a way that it works whether you ship them or not.

Entire series on AO3

And the pictures that kinda inspired me.

[mousterian-writes]

🚨My Official Expansion Rankings🚨

Stone Cold Locks of the Century...of the Week:

And by that I really just like these because they are relevant to my writing interests.

I'd be interested on seeing everyone else's expansion rankings (after your done throwing bricks)

Vanilla/Classic - Questing is fulfilling and the world is never richer than it is in this expansion. The classes feel flexible even if they have severe restrictions. It has flaws (the pvp ranking grind), but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Also, has Naxxramas which is the best raid of all time

MOP - In my opinion the best ‘story’ driven expansion. Pandaria is awesome and well realized and has one of my favorite raids, the Throne of Thunder. 

Cata- Probably the most controversial placement. But Cata is interesting to me because it signifies a change in the status quo for the world. Has some really interesting questing zones with Stonetalon and Hillsbrad. I think all of the ‘Lordaeron’ zones were fairly strong, including the worgen starting zone. I also love Uldum, I think all the Harrison Jones stuff is very fun. Does have issues, I think it marks the beginning of the ‘casualification’ of the game for good or for ill. I only seriously raided during the Dragon Soul, and never really did Firelands but I know it is a popular raid.  

Wrath - Save your bricks for later. Wrath is nice. I dislike the nexus war plot and I hate that we kill Malygos. Has Ulduar and overall a great expansion soundtrack. I would consider this the first 'story' driven expansion, however the way it is implemented is weak. I feel like you really only get the impression that you are at total war with the Scourge for the introductory quests in Borean Tundra and when you are questing in Zul'Drak. I'm excluding Icecrown because it sucks except for the two quest lines that don't suck (more on those later). No one quests in Icecrown since its end game content and most of that is spent doing dailies and getting stuff for raid night. Trust me, I'm a loremaster. Anyway. If we are fighting the lich king everything should work towards that goal and it doesn't always feel that way. Ulduar is *kind of* a non sequitur. The Tournament is goofy and bad even if for some reason I like doing all of those dailies. The Nexus war is a blink and you miss it thing even though its KIND OF a huge deal.

-----------

Honorable Mention

Warlords - Really? Well, this one is more of a conceptual Like. I did not play much WoD at all & I saw it as a cynical cash grab that they coincided with the movie’s release. Also, the premise is contrived and stupid. But, I really liked the lore about the ordering of Draenor and the struggle between the titan creatures and the botanie. I also think it is interesting that they have a whole other ‘element’ (spirit) on Draenor that they do not have on Azeroth. So there are some ideas that I like to incorporate into the background of my AU. 

----------------------

Stuff I don’t care about for whatever reason

BFA - Home Tree Burning? Interesting. Loyalist/Rebel? Also interesting. Class Warfare- gettin' spicy. Drustvar having 16th century witch trials but also accepting aid from my worgen death knight?  ......no. Blizzard also has no idea what to do with Jaina post MoP. Would have been more interesting if they focused more on the Azeroth part of Battle for Azeroth and treated it like a new Cata. But no. They didn't do that.

TBC - I’ve quested through here a million times. I played it back in the day and it was okay. But after no lifeing Classic and going to TBC it just has a brutal grind. Feels like it has very little lore that ties into later events. I do like the Kirin Var quests and Sabellian's quests, they are actually some of my favorites in the game. But, overall a boring expac. Hate all the raids except Kara (and I don’t even like that one that much) which should have been a raid in vanilla. I will say it has some very satisfying questing loops, so if you like efficiency it is not that bad. 

Legion - You may now throw bricks at me. I think I just hate fun. Which whatever. I don’t like the artifacts. I hate that the whole thing was able to start because of Draenor. I think its really funny that the high mountain Tauren and the Shal'dori join the Horde and then the Horde turn around and burn down home tree.

Dragonflight / Slands - The amount of bending over backwards, lore wise, is crazy. Sorry to all my mutual who exclusively write SL fics. And then on Dragonflight- the time of the dragon ended.

[artyloreviews]

Going Back in World of Warcraft

I sat down and played a lot of WoW recently; felt I could write my time off as a business expense, if I wrote something about it. Because I happened to play both Shadowlands, Vanilla, and WotLK in a very short time-frame and I feel like I have something to say on it design-wise, which people might find interesting. Some notes on sandbox MMOs and private servers to boot.

I’ve gotten back into playing World of Warcraft, because of a recent conversation I had with someone playing the game’s latest expansion – Dragonflight. This quickly spiralled into the familiar entrapment of me levelling yet another Human Paladin up to the level cap, gearing up for what is essentially the most recent tier of content and experiencing all that I had missed since over the course of roughly a week. My legitimate personal experience with the game extends from the beginning of Cataclysm, until somewhere around the release of Uldir in Battle for Azeroth. This for most people would be enough to discredit everything I have to say about the game, as I happen to have been around for what is universally agreed upon and is essentially numerically quantifiable as the downfall of World of Warcraft, missing those golden years from late Vanilla up to the end of Wrath of the Lich King. The other fragment of original sin, which I carry with me into this is that I am also of the vocal minority that liked Cataclysm and have only grown fonder of it as the years have passed.

Outside of my legitimate experience, however, I have over said decade, almost pathologically, revisited every expansion from Vanilla to Shadowlands on almost every private server with a respectable playerbase, including some that barely had people in them to drive the auction house. When it was current, I couldn’t have possibly played during Vanilla WoW, as at the time, I would have been at the kindergarten, learning how to write with a crayon shoved up my nose. As such, the only way I could have played Vanilla WoW was at some point past its heyday. While not necessarily a unique position, it is an interesting one nonetheless.

While I do not have any strictly long term credentials that identify me as a hardcore WoW player, like a collective sum of achievement points, rare items, mounts, etc;  I have raided through most of the raid tiers released for the game with tier-appropriate gear at least on Normal difficulty, acquired currently unobtainable items such as Corrupted Ashbringer, fished up a Sea Turtle, farmed Ashes in The Burning Crusade, got Glory of the Firelands Raider and Flametalon of Alysrazor on now essentially defunct Cataclysm servers. All this, essentially never on the same character, but always a character that is named the same, looks the same, plays the same – carbon copies of the same character in a lineage that spreads across a wild multiverse of every state World of Warcraft has ever been released in. I may not be the best at WoW, but I have put in a lot of time in WoW; enough so to where I imagine, I could pass as, if nothing else, a slightly above average player. Not casual enough to only ever fill the DPS ranks of LFR, but not hardcore enough to be in a guild pushing raids on Mythic.

I am by no means a “old WoW” purist as this might suggest, although I do have an appreciation for Vanilla in terms of it, in 2004, containing, at its core, most of the fundamental mechanics of WoW, which over the years have essentially been immutable. The moment-to-moment experience of leaving Northshire Abbey, walking to Goldshire, picking up Fishing, First-Aid and Cooking, walking through the gates of Stormwind for the first time as the music swells, just to deliver a package and pick up Engineering and Mining from the Dwarven Quarters – it’s all essentially second nature to me after a decade or so of constant reiteration.

I’d go as far as to say that those initial ten to fifteen levels, which railroad you through this arc of you just spawning into the world as a recruit, up to you entering your faction’s capital city, is essentially a vertical slice of what the next several hundred hours of the game are going to be – the one thing that has remained consistently true regardless of which expansion you are playing. Going from modern WoW back to Vanilla felt wholesome, in the sense of it essentially stripping away all that sense of rush that comes along with modern WoW, that baggage that came from years of game knowledge becoming not necessarily irrelevant, but just reduced in its scope.

Something I didn’t realise I missed in modern WoW was the random mob drops of essentially “trash items”. Gray items currently are unanimously considered junk by most players - something you can’t even equip or sell on the auction house, where at one point you might have found upgrades for you character or something more exciting if luck was on your side. This change in something as inconsequential as random trash, items that exist for the sole purpose of you getting some variety and not just looting raw gold, has devolved to the point of having addons automatically sell any item of that quality upon opening up a vendor, which essentially turns all of these items into “inconvenient gold”.

The Fargodeep Mine is essentially the first part of the Elwynn Forest, where you can see this, that also happens to have all the trappings of World of Warcraft in one place. It has aggressive mobs, who will for the first time take the initiative on attacking you, meaning that hypothetically, if you are underprepared, you might lose out to attrition, going too deep and not being able to come out without dying at least once. In old WoW, kobolds just happen to drop mining and herbalism reagents, linen cloth, food items and other reagents, various qualities of gear from Poor to Uncommon, and there are also at least two chests with a high chance of uncommon gear – some upgrades, others vendor trash or auction-worthy. In essence, it is a microcosm that is essentially self-sustaining in those early journeyman levels of your class any profession. The mining nodes and kobold drops enable you to sustain and level up Mining, Blacksmithing, and Engineering. The uncommon item drops enable you to practice Enchanting. The linen allows you to level up Tailoring and First Aid. The random herb drops allow you to contribute in a small part to Alchemy. Herbalism, Skinning and Leatherworking do not directly benefit from Fargodeep Mine, but its surroundings, which you need to pass through on your way to the mine, hold the boars and herb gathering nodes for you to get started in those professions as well, if not even more convenient due to their proximity to Goldshire.

It ultimately becomes a place that will be sought after by more than one player, a cornucopia of resources that you can intentionally go out into the world and farm until you’ve not only satisfied your own quota, but also those of others. I usually choose Engineering and Mining as my starting professions, which early on requires the murder of Kobolds for Linen Cloth, which is also required for, in my case, First-Aid, but is also required by others as a Tailoring reagent.

In later expansions, I have the vivid memory of making a lot of my gold by selling low-level crafting reagents, which I spent the time gathering as I was levelling, because I realised there was an underserviced niche, where the effort required by a player to go back to a zone, which may be a decade older than the latest tier of content is seen as inefficient by most people, who would prefer the convenience of just purchasing those reagents from the auction house. Me, deliberately making the inefficient decision to not rush through the ageing content in order to to reach max level as fast as possible, something often done by almost all seasoned players, who have ultimately experienced that content when it was relevant, but have since moved on, results in an economical niche to service what essentially amounts to someone going from level one to level fifty in a profession, which for me might be my afternoon collecting the ore and reagents out in the world, but for the client at the end of the line amounts to essentially a minute of staring at a progress bar, before those resources are never needed again.

Modern WoW eventually reached a point where resources such as Copper and Tin become an accidental by-product of the miniscule time spent by players in Elwynn Forest and Westfall, as their addons give them an optimised route, which ignores everything but the essentials in terms of experience points and nothing more.

Going through the same process in Vanilla on the other hand feels like you could be “that guy”. The guy who may not have reached level cap or participated in the latest tier of raiding content or reached Gladiator in PvP, but you are THE guy providing the entire server with these low-level reagents in bulk. You are “THE guy who sells Copper and Tin, so that everyone else don’t have to”. And this service you provide to the rest of the realm is essentially you coming up with your own freelance profession, which might end up with you profiting more than if you were to engage in the oversupplied market for the latest tier’s reagents.

Copper and Tin are never required in any high-level crafting recipes and they become irrelevant essentially as soon as the experience points of the zone dry up. This essentially means that players never have a reason to go back to old zones, making everything but the latest hub city and its associated zones empty and lifeless. In Shadowlands at the end of the expansion, the only zones that actually had any players in them were Zereth Mortis and Oribos. The original four zones and The Maw were essentially made irrelevant within the same expansion. Only players who were levelling and a dedicated few madmen, who are willing to collect the various ores from those zones, who engage in the lucrative profession of “old content farmer” are paid dividends for taking the time to gather one or all five of the different ores, so that some blacksmith across the realm can make some ingots for items that will already be inferior to common dungeon gear.

The delineation between what is levelling content and what is the current tier of content is not as clear cut as it is in modern WoW, since in Vanilla, those zones in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor were essentially all there was to the world – i.e., the current tier was the whole world. Yes, there is a functional difference between being in Elwynn Forest – a level 1 to 10 zone, and Burning Steppes – a level 50 to 59 zone, but travelling from one to another for their unique reagents isn’t as much of a physical and mental leap as going from farming Progenium Ore in Zereth Mortis, Shadowlands to farming Copper in Elwynn Forest, Vanilla, since you’re not just travelling from one zone to the next, you’re travelling back through roughly eighteen years of content.

What WoW has never really done is give you a good reason to go back to old zones, since the new content is always carved out into some new chunk of landmass, making the old zones irrelevant. Even during the Legion expansion, when the Paladin class hall was essentially put underneath an already existing zone - Light’s Hope chapel, in the middle of Eastern Plaguelands - a zone that at the time was introduced six expansions ago and briefly refurbished three expansions ago. Yet its location was essentially irrelevant, as nothing in it or in the expansion required you to interact with anything outside of Light’s Hope chapel’s basement. You can’t even hypothesise how players riding or flying there was somehow passively giving old zones new relevance, since most players just teleported there from the latest hub city and teleported back in a much similar fashion.

World of Warcraft isn’t actually a persistent world anymore; probably never has been. I’m more of the opinion that these roleplaying mechanics, statistics and everything alongside them was pure happenstance. It is spottily documented that The Burning Crusade expansion was essentially in development as Vanilla WoW was coming out. Fundamentally, the design from WoW’s inception was to abandon the existing zones in Azeroth and go to Outland. These abandonment issues were for all intents and purposes, planned from the very start.

I could go on, fantasising about how it could be a different game where these more sandbox elements were the at the forefront, where new expansions would not only introduce new zones, but refine and more importantly redefine the purpose of the existing zones for the current state of the game. These aren’t necessarily new observations either, as “theme park” MMO has been essentially synonymous with World of Warcraft, as where this exact concept of a “sandbox” MMO has been realised in other games like Runescape, EVE Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Black Desert Online.

Does this mean that I don’t enjoy WoW as it currently is? No, certainly not. There is however a sort of disappointment, which only ever seems to deepen as old and new get farther apart. I think it would be comical of me to suggest that Cataclysm is essentially the golden middle point between the old and the new, but I think it is at least something like that. The reason why so many players yearn to re-experience the good old days and why so many private servers have popped up over the years for essentially every expansion ever released, is because everyone has their own idea of where that golden middle is. What’s really important, I believe, is that the player has the choice to engage in that, if they so wish and I think that it is commendable that World of Warcraft is seeing some of that in the Classic re-releases.

I am however aware that as we get farther away from the days of Ultima Online, Everquest, and I suppose MUDs, the more prohibitive it will be for newer and younger players to experience that type of game, or at the very least – see the appeal in it.

Ultimately it is the players acting against that core design philosophy of always moving forward, that breeds the disappointment and the nostalgia that people have about old WoW. It’s not just mechanics or raid difficulty, it’s people starting to feel themselves and their values left behind by the times. I think it’s essentially foolish to think that WoW shouldn’t move forward, but I can also understand the desire for the old content to also be cared for in some way, instead of just being irrelevant and left to gather dust.

If a friend were to come up to you and express the desire to play WoW, would you immediately hand them the .wtf file set to the realmlist of a server running your favourite expansion, or would you hesitate and let them play the latest one and let them find out for themselves? Ultimately nowadays the question is starting to shift from “Do you want to play WoW?” to “When do you want to play WoW?”. The answer will likely continue to be either 2004, 2008 or the current year, regardless. And despite this natural design of retiring old content and moving on to greener pastures with every new expansion and everyone rushing through the old zones to get to the new, going back is ironically all that players seemingly want to do.

[swampgallows]

sorry isnt Anduin an adult? Like a grown ass man? Am I missing something? (im really new to the fandom)

i had a detailed post but the new post editor that is forced onto asks ate half of it, so im typing this a second time.

anduin is an adult man now, though still a young adult (somewhere in the 20-25 year range), but a LOT of porn was made of him explicitly as a teenager. in mists of pandaria, anduin is 15 years old, acts like a child, is treated like a child, and has a friendship with another child (a baby dragon named Wrathion that appears as a teenage boy) that becomes a major plot point. a lot of people responded by shipping them ("wranduin")—which is fine, i personally think it's cute in a puppylove kind of way—but many responded by making porn with emphasis on them being underage, aka child porn (cp). wrathion is "two in dragon years", so he's younger than anduin and technically not even a teenager, but that's a whole can of worms for a different post.

until battle for azeroth when anduin grew up and wrathion began to take on a more adult appearance, the majority of "wranduin" content was of them as teenagers or even skewed toward children.

for reference, here are anduin and wrathion's teenage and adult models, respectively:

and here is a cursory google search for "wranduin":

other popular anduin ships during pandaria included garrosh (who is VERY MUCH an adult), usually the racist trope of a huge dark-skinned villain "corrupting" a thin blonde white boy (wrathion was not exempt from this), and incest with his own father, king varian wrynn, in case youre filling out some kind of 'reasons to torch humanity' bingo.

even in the present day where anduin is an adult, porn of him with saurfang or sylvanas focuses on portraying anduin as the "little lion" or "young king" being dominated or "corrupted" by a significantly older and more powerful character. not saying that that's cp necessarily, but also waving the magical "anduin's 18" wand doesn't automatically absolve all the predatory implications of infantilizing him. this uncomfortable trend started as far back as vanilla (yes, vanilla, when anduin was ~10 years old. bolvar isnt his biological father and onyxia/lady prestor had most of stormwind under mind control; you do the math. people are disgusting). so yeah as one of the few recurring young characters in wow, anduin has been the subject of cp for a long time. he's an adult now, but most of the people making porn of him back in pandaria were adults back then too.

[sesshy380]

Still super early, and sleep still evades me.

I'm bored. Have some pics of the Sesshy that inspired my username :D (who was originally inspired by Sesshomaru from Inuyasha lol) (When I fixate on a blorbo, I fixate hard lol)

(Below image is from Lich King era)

(The character screen image is from Battle for Azeroth era)

The below pic of Sesshy was created by the talented @brsoule (I've been looking for an excuse to share this lol) (Also she is an amazing WoW fic author! I love her Grim and Ana!)

I miss playing my Dreanei Shaman, but WoW just hasn't been the same the past few expansions. The community I remember is pretty much dead. The game itself is focused on endgame raiding and Mythic plus. I prefer the story and the leveling experience. If you can't tell by the character screen image, I'm what's known as an altoholic. Each and every character I made had their own story. I never really roleplayed with any, but I did enjoy using emotes and having fun running content with friends. My friends list is now full of 'Last online X years ago'.

I've hopped across a few different MMO's, but still haven't found what I miss. I enjoy connecting with people online. Anxiety makes it difficult to connect with people for extended periods of time on a physical level, but online I open up. Anxiety still holds me back from trying new things at first (new things scary!), but after thinking about it (and prepping myself to do it), I usually find it's not so bad. My brain just gets intimidated.

Look at me ramble (yes, I am a rambler if you don't already know that by now lol). No idea where I'm going with any of this. I guess just wanted to share a part of me 🤷

[one-winged-dreams]

Anyway, I never did the Kul Tiran recruitment questline because fuck you, I'm not doing ALL THAT Battle for Azeroth content. But the recent patch made it so that you can just do it immediately without grinding so I was like SURE! WHY NOT?

Anyway, the questline is about Jaina wanting to gift Anduin a Kul Tiran ship to reforge the bond between them and the Alliance. And at some point, you get to NAME the ship. As in, you get to choose from like 5 names.

Blizzard was apparently targetting ME SPECIFICALLY because one of those options was 'the Lionheart' and I screamed out loud irl (real).

Cool, clearly I won't cry any more than I-

[asharinhun]

Sharyssa adjusted the hood of her cloak as she took a seat on a bench near the bazaar. Her ragged outfit was out of place in the pristine city of Suramar, but she couldn't care less. For the first time in forever, it felt good to be back.

The nightborne let out a content sigh, watching the people come and go. Most were fellow elves, but she was relieved to see a mix of other races walking around the stalls as well. A lot has changed over the two years since her last visit.

While the city was no longer her home, she was expected to show up from time to time to visit her little sister Alyth'Rea. It was a promise, one Shar didn't keep... couldn't keep. Not after after the accident in Dalaran. She had to disappear, had to be alone to put her pieces together again.

Leaving a letter to Rea and another to her uncle Eoloran were all her goodbyes. Sharyssa felt guilty over not notifying anyone else, but at the time she was too upset to give it more thought. Her uncle could explain on the off-chance someone would come looking for her. She was too shaken.

The memory of the event itself made the young arcanist frown, right hand raised to clutch the stump of her left shoulder subconsciously. The incident shouldn't have happened in the first place... yet here she was, bearing its marks for life.

She was preparing to hold her weekly seminar on ward theory for the students at the Kirin Tor when she felt it happen in the next room. Apparently three apprentices had been given permission to use a strong focusing crystal for their final project before officially stepping among the ranks of their fellow magi. The instructor who was supposed to watch over them wasn't there, and they've decided to start anyway.

All three were caught up in the blast before Sharyssa had a chance to try to contain it. She acted out of instinct, not even considering her power might be insufficient for the task. It was a close call, and only because she tapped into the blast itself to fuel the barrier... a decision she kept questioning ever since.

It linked her to the feedback loop directly, giving the nightborne no chance to pull out anymore. Her left arm was gone by the time it was finally over, her shoudler and the left side of her chest covered in arcane scarring.

Over two years have passed since then, and she was missing for most of that time, until now. She could hardly blame Rea for her reaction. Shar herself would have been a lot more upset if it was her little sister who vanished from the surface of Azeroth, leaving only a brief letter. A statement that had more truth than anyone would guess... but she was back now, if not whole, but on the mend mentally too.

Still, the reunion went better than she dared to hope. After Alyth'rea was done chewing her out while battling her tears, they've spent most of the day catching up with a promise that Rea would accompany her back to Dalaran and spend the night too. Sharyssa couldn't blame her and happily agreed. At least their mother was out for the day, a small mercy. That was a can of mana wyrms she didn't want to open yet.

That's how Shar found herself wandering around the bazaar in the city, looking for potentially useful materials for the schematic in her possession to pass the time. Alyth'Rea had one last meeting for the day before they could go to Dalaran. Sharyssa stood as she spotted the approaching figure of her sister and Lysse, Rea's bodyguard.

The arcanist couldn't help a smile as she met them halfway even as the wind caught the empty left sleeve of her robe. Soon, that would change too.