Precious and Fragile Things

If nothing else I can at least say I got to see Lor'themar Theron flip a freaking bench into the fountain at Silvermoon. Of course the Dominance Offensive climax was incredible, and the two last parts of it started in Dalaran and then ended back in Pandaria with Garrosh doing something even I couldn't have predicted. I literally nearly started crying at the computer and had to log off to process what happened because it was the literary equivalent of a gut punch.

And all I can say is that the Horde is so fucked, and we kind of deserve it.

( Here there be spoilers. LOTS of spoilers. And kind of image-heavy. )

All things considered, I don't see how in the hell they're going to draw out waiting until the end of the expansion to take out Garrosh and name a new warchief. Too much has happened, and he's gone way too far now to turn back. The Alliance is going to retaliate, and it's going to be ugly (as it should be).

There's a blue post answering lore questions up! I've got some comments.

Q: Is there truly an Old God underneath the Tirisfal Glade?
A: Nope! There’s something incredibly unsettling there, but it’s not an Old God. It isn’t recommended to go digging through the Glades, though.

*casts a brief glance in Steadfast's direction for no particular reason*

The Whispering Forest is located in Tirisfal Glade, which is also the location of a pretty awesome Easter Egg in the game. My theory (and others) has been that these faerie dragons are healing the land from the Plague because surely something so lovely is good, right? What if this beautiful scene has another purpose, like strengthening a cage, keeping an evil force asleep, or is being carried out unaware of whatever evil might be sleeping underneath the glade? It does make one wonder, doesn't it?

Q: In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Maiev Shadowsong mentions the Night Elves wiping out various races in the past. Was this just bluster, or have they actually engaged in genocidal campaigns?

A: Maiev may not be the most balanced individual on Azeroth, but she does understand the value of intimidating her enemies. The night elves have never completely wiped out a species, though they have engaged in brutal and efficient campaigns of total war that have shattered their enemies’ civilizations, such as the War of the Satyr, in which they completely decimated any semblance of central leadership for the satyrs, forcing them to live in small sects to this day.

I can't help but let out a small, sarcastic comment of "But the Alliance are the good guys!" No, the Night Elves are xenophobic assholes who only really associate with other races out of survival and necessity rather than a true desire to live in peace. Over simplification, perhaps, but neither faction has any true goodie two-shoes.

Q: How did the blood elven fel eye glint become so widespread? The Warcraft Encyclopedia suggests that Rommath only taught the blood elves of Azeroth about how to siphon arcane magic, as most of the populace would likely be “horrified” if they knew the true extent of Kael’s dealings with Illidan.

A: The situation regarding blood elf eyes is, in fact, extremely similar to that of the green skin of orcs: just being around heavy use of fel magic turned the eyes of the blood elves green. You could be the most pious of priests or most outdoorsy of Farstriders, chances are, if you were a high elf in Quel’Thalas or Outland following the Third War, you were around fel energies, and your eyes would turn green. Like the orcs’ skin color, such an effect would take a very long time to wear off. Fel magic works a bit like radiation in this sense; it permeates the area and seeps into anything in the vicinity. Anything near a source of fel magic shows signs of slight corruption, it just so happens that high elves and orcs manifest it in a very visual way.

In other words, if you play a blood elf who is not a high elf (which makes you as being with the Alliance anyway) or a death knight, you have fel-green eyes. Unless you were some sort of elven John Travolta and lived part of your life in a bubble.

There is one thing I have a question about, and it's this response to a question about Cenarius getting along with orcs: "Despite no longer having warlocks in their ranks, the orcs of Thrall’s Horde still carried within them the unmistakable mark of the Burning Legion upon their very souls up until the moment that Grom Hellscream defeated Mannoroth."

This confuses me. Did he mean in reference to defeating the Burning Legion, or does he mean even now there's no warlocks in their ranks? From my understanding Thrall didn't outlaw warlocks the same way the Alliance did (and even now the Alliance has warlocks in their ranks too, just they practice in secret in the basement of the Slaughtered Lamb in Stormwind). They're still allowed to practice in Orgimmar, but he put them underground in the Cleft of Shadow out of sight and, presumably, out of mind. Are there no warlock NPCs with power in the Horde any longer? Doesn't seem likely given that you can see a warlock in the middle of Murder Row with one of his demons out in Silvermoon, and in Razor Hill and Stonard there's warlocks hanging out in the open with demons in full view.

Yeah, I'm probably misunderstanding what he meant.

Edit: Unrelated, but what the hell did I just read? I mean, I get it, just...wat. Also, my sarcastic response is, "Silly, Matt. She's a woman, We all know she couldn't rule, not unless she had a husband like big, strong Malfurion to steal her spotlight."

And on the subject of warchiefs for the Horde, while I love Baine Bloodhoof, I'd rather see Vol'jin be the new Warchief. I admit, I have loved Vol'jin ever since I played the troll opening quest-line and saw him essentially tell Garrosh in so many words, "If it weren't for Thrall, I'd kill you. As it is, when you fuck up, I'm going to be there to end you." Yes, fangirl, table of one here.

I'd say Sylvanas should be a contender, but Blizz fucked that up all to hell because, you know, we can't have any woman demonstrate a capability to wield power responsibly, can we? Especially not a Horde leader.

So a friend paid for the artist and WoW-Player SegoLily to make a couple of portraits for me of my role-play toons. First, I picked Wynfor, my worgen hunter, in his human form of course.



He's got a sort of playful grin, a hint at his love of mischief and teasing (something he's slowly gaining back after finding twu luv, awww). She managed to make him look older, like I wanted since he's in his thirties and has spent a lot of time outdoors getting the good old sun damage.

The second pick was a no-brainer for me. Folami. I wanted hers to be like a portrait that'd be hanging up in the Mournlight estate, and I have to say it came out so beautifully.



I'm so impressed with how lovely she turned out to be, and it's so nice to have an actual picture reference for her now. Given the length of her hair, this is post-Ulduar adventure, and she's once again whole in her mind and more sure of herself and her power.

Edit: She's wearing Black Embersilk Gown in case people were curious about the dress.

Just...wow, thanks to Seranthe of WrA and Segolily for the amazing artwork. I'm beyond touched and blown away tonight.

I really should start screenshotting chat more often.

While playing around on Wyrmrest Accord last night, I saw a hilarious conversation in guild chat. Now, for several days I've noticed a guild advertising in Trade chat. This guild is an RP guild for...ponies. As in My Little Pony. I've actually seen a "Fluttershai" speaking in Trade, though I couldn't tell for sure if she was part of this new RP movement or just a poorly named toon.

Anyway, since I'm in Outland with Aridhana (she's level 65 now) and I thoroughly hate Outland, I'm pushing hard to get through there, which means less time wandering to Stormwind for shenanigans. But apparently at least one member of the guild I joined there for RP purposes was in SW and encountered a male draenei who was neither male nor draenei but a female unicorn. Who was looking for Rainbow Dash. And was having actual roleplayers explaining the differences between male and female. Sex too. At least one of the people giving the explanation was a Vindicator.

Yeah.

I'm still giggling and still torn between feeling like I missed out on something and being glad, for once, I was hoofing it through Hellfire and Zangarmarsh.

When it comes to draenei lore, it looks like Blizzard formed only half of an idea and just ran with it. Draenei have been on Draenor/Outland for roughly 1,000 years (or only 200 depending on who you ask), but they initially left their home planet of Argus 25,000 years ago. That's 24,000 years of planet hopping for which there's pretty much zero information except that the Burning Legion continued to chase them through the cosmos. (In fact, the draenei are, at best, indirectly responsible for the orcs becoming corrupted by the Legion, turning them from relatively peaceful shamanic people into the blood thirsty, violent creatures we've come to know. There's also the fact that Draenor/Outland has been all but entirely destroyed at the hands of the Legion. And that's all I say lest I go into rant mode about the so-called heroic actions of the Alliance races. Ahem.)

Anyway, since first fleeing Argus 25,000 years ago, the draenei have had the same leader, Velen. In that time they've been through several different planets and at least one dimensional shift that brought them to Azeroth where they crashed landed and did some serious environmental damage. Though Blizzard hasn't outright said the draenei are immortal, all the evidence seems to suggest that of all the ways draenei can die, old age is not among them. In fact, the draenei (aside from Velen's long white beard) don't appear to age much at all after reaching adulthood. Even so, 25,000 years is a long time for one person to be in charge of your entire race, especially one that is having to constantly move from planet to planet and encountering new races and cultures along the way. During all that time, there's been no real significant changes to draenei culture itself (aside from the constant changes in real estate). Sure, we don't know much of anything that happened after Argus and before landing on Draenor/Outland, but we do at least know enough about Velen and the naaru to see that, spiritually and culturally speaking, the draenei are much the same as they ever were. They have at least learned shamanism, but that only happened after Nobundo became a Krokul/Broken (thus losing his connection the Light/naaru) and established a relationship with the elemental spirts of Draenor. So my theory is that, apart from the addition of shamanic practices to their repetoire, the draenei have remained virtually the same for over 25,000 years in spite of likely encoutering multiple new races and cultures in all that time.

It makes sense in some ways. If you arrive on a planet knowing you're going to have to leave at some point anyway to escape a relentless pursuer, why would you work to establish a relationship with the inhabitants of said planet? There's also the egotistical side-effect of being immortal. If you can live for pretty much forever, what knowledge could you possibly glean from a mortal race whose lives wink out of existence faster than you can blink? Plus, the draenei have the Na'aru, all powerful sentient beings of the Light who have told Velen the draenei will be part of their "Army of Light" in the coming battle against darkness. Perhaps draenei believed all those little races they encountered along the way were ultimately unimportant and that the naaru would save them and enlighten them. This, of course, raises some disturbing questions about why the draenei are worthy of saving from the Legion's corruption, but the naaru neither warned nor helped the orcs or the other possible planets the draenei fled. (As an aside: Does the naaru strike anyone else as suspicious? On the surface their motives seem pure, but I get almost a cult like vibe while reading about them. But that's not relevant here.) Finally, when you're always on the run and under threat from a powerful enemy, who has the time to truly explore new ideas and care about keeping more than just you're own people safe? What's happened now that the Legion has been put in its place?

( And here's where I stop theorycrafting and delve into rambling about my character ideas. )

So, Sam and I have been hanging out for private one-on-one RP in the seasonal Winter Chalet in Pocket D, which means I'm also peeking at player info, trying to decide how I want to do my own description for various toons when I stop being too lazy. The results have been interesting.

Description: Youngest daughter of a beautiful succubus,seduced by Osiris himself.[Name] was exiled as a child to the mortal world for diobeying her father.Condemed for eternity after exhibiting the traits of a succubus.She was chained about her neck enslaving her to the mortal world until a mortal would find her worthy for ownership.For thousands of years she hid from mortals in fear of the legend.She was hunted by mortals seeking the lore of this beast.It was said that whomever could capture her would control the fires of hell itself.

"Chained about her neck enslaving her to the mortal world until a mortal would find her worthy for ownership." Hmmm, wonder what sort of RP s/he's looking for?

This next bit of copy-paste was from the Local chat. The character in question had an interesting idea for a background. There was some apparent research or perhaps even real-life personal experience with the character concept, so there's nothing funny there. There is, however, one thing about doing accents in online role-play. I tend not to do them, or if I do, I do so sparingly or use an accent that's easy to figure out. When this popped up in my chat window, I spent a good minute or two parsing out what was being said.

[Local] [Name] nods. "'s been 'ard lately cos 's th' 'olidays an' everyone's celebratin' wit' frien's an' family an' it makes me think o' 'im. So, 'm in th' corner wit' Mikuru, bein' alone an' slightly bitter abou' it."

[Local] [Name]: Been 'avin' a 'ard time wit' tha' an' also been 'avin' a 'ard time adjustin' t' me treatmen'. 've not been th' nices' person t' be aroun' lately when th' shot kicks in.

I'm guessing the player was going for British Cockney based on some slang terms thrown in in other parts of the conversation. There's good ways to convey an accent. This was not one of them.

And finally, to wrap things up, we have a wonderful romantic tale of a mortician and a murder victim. Truly, an epic love story for all time. (Warnings for mentions of necrophilia.)

Description: There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about [Name]... most of the time. She comes from a normal family... sort of. Both parents are living... mostly. Her father is a famous mortician and scientist in Atlas. Her mother is a little more complicated. A young, unidentified murder victim who showed up on her father's slab one day. It was one-sided love at first sight. After autopsy, the whirlwind love affair began. Many science experiements and "private sessions" later. and her mother lived again! Well, as much as an undead zombie can live. So back to [Name]. She's a mostly normal, half-human half-zombie teenager with a habit of turning into a zombie at the strangest times...

I....got nothing.

Dear RP Friend,

Damnit, I'm supposed to be focusing on writing for Selene, not theory crafting about Folami and her backstory/future possible character development. Furthermore, I shouldn't be feeling a desire to start reading up on Lore as it relates to demons and their history with high elves.

Stop providing me with such fascinating unbelievably geeky conversation!

Grrr,

Jade

P.S.: I do, however, appreciate the distraction from this whole Sandusky/Paterno/PSU bullshit.

...why do I feel like there's going to be a huge-ass post coming about my theories and ideas, plus a good bit of philosophical rambling on the nature of good versus evil and what those terms actually mean.

Tonight is the night of my first free roleplay event as Bard. To say I'm anxious about how well this will play out is an understatement. I didn't get to do a lot of things I wanted to do due to stress plus my right shoulder flaring up the other day. However, the kiddo has no homework today which frees up some time that I can plan stuff.

Anyway, this is what I've posted to the forums to get everyone on the same page as to what's going on. If you're curious as to what's so special about the Whispering Forest, here is an explanation. I only hope it happens while we're there, though it's still a lovely place if it doesn't.

On the day of Steadfast's first annual* masquerade ball, the guild hall is bustling with activity. Heat emanates from the kitchen as every available cooking surface that's not dedicated to the preparation of the regular daily meals is used to create many of the seasonal feasts and treats for the party. Despite the head chef's occasional sniping at any staff unfortunate enough to get in his way, the general mood both in and out of the kitchen is positive. Everyone is eager for a night of tricks and treats, spooks and goblins...well, more goblins than usual.

Upstairs in the lab, an alchemist falls victim to the first prank of the day. Some devilish person has switched the labels on two rather important vials and instead of making a wart-removing tonic, the poor alchemist's beaker begins overflowing with dozens and dozens of tiny spiders which scuttle about the lab and out into the hall. Mixed in with the screams of those who are decidedly not fans of arachnids are howls of laughter from more than a few witnesses. No one takes responsibility for the prank, though quite a few admire the execution.

( Read more... )

I figure I better compile notes since I'm going to be out most of the day doing birthday stuff with Sam.

What Folami is doing:

• Going to Deatholme. She believes this is the best possible way to discover Kalavrin's--and subsequently Yarrow's--location. Her theory is that with everything that happened in Deatholme, the rituals involved (Yarrow has told her some of it), Solivar and Yarrow aren't the only ones to leave "pieces" of themselves behind. She knows Kalvarin's essence likely lurks on those grounds and if she can collect it or at least get in contact with it, she'll be able to get his attention. (A story is coming.)

• She also blames herself for Yarrow's abduction. After all, she was right freaking there in the Highlands! She was able to sense the strange energy when she took a few seconds to look a little deeper, something she's convinced herself she should have been doing all along instead of treating Hammerfall like a spa retreat where she got to be free of the horror for a few days. She should have been looking over her shoulder and because she wasn't, Yarrow might die.

( More bullet-points under here. )

Right, so is it just me or does anyone else get annoyed by this idea of "Light = Purity, therefore to wield it, you must be celibate"? I'm speaking purely in fantasy settings which, supposedly, has none of our religious dogma and/or trappings. Plus, as a feminist--hell, as a woman, I loath viewing sex as something that can stain a person and/or make them impure, and if you can't figure out why that pisses me off royally, have you even been reading this journal?

My paladin (Salih) is decidedly not celibate. He's not taking a warm body home every night, yet he'll be the first to say he's not dead. Hell, he's not even completely straight, and his vows did not preclude the opportunity to have a family. The reason he didn't take his vows years ago was because his wife-to-be was a Warlock and there was some tension in his family and silly notions about working with demons being a danger. (Yeah, about that...)

Leaving Azeroth and looking to the FFRPG campaign OLAD, I had Clotho. She was a white mage, an accomplished healer, and so damned good she refused to take a life. Ever. Yes, even that evil thing that nearly killed her and her unborn child. She chose forgiveness and turning the other cheek. (Her husband, however...)

And while she'd never publically admit it, she was incredibly kinky and had quite an, ahem, active sex life. She worried about many things, namely sharing a husband with other women and the family dynamic of that, but amazingly she never once considered being a naughty girl in the bedroom would ever impede her ability to wield holy magic.

If there is an established set of rules a "Light wielder" must adhere to in the setting, then by all means, play that angle. Yet, if there is no such rule established, can it hurt to, you know, expand the horizons a little, explore what it might be like if sex were just something people had if they wanted to and ignored if they didn't? That sex is only as dirty as you want it to be and it can be a healing, holy experience all its own?

Just saying.