that explains why she’s so god damn cool
damn right
Also the implication behind it is that mage dynasties are a thing, with prominent families spending their couple centuries amassing power and passing it on to their heirs to further their amassed wealth and knowledge and marrying magically potent suitors to create the perfect heir like Aegwynn did with Nielas Aran. Mage marriages were driven by politics over love.
Before Third War when Kirin Tor was the dominant magical power in the north, they used to train and install mages in all the noble (and royal) courts of the northern kingdoms to steer their politics to stop the nobles trying to body each other. With the court wizards living longer than some dynasties, they were sometimes considered to be the real power in a noble’s court with a single mage overseeing several generations of a noble bloodline.
They never had a reach in the south though because the Conjurer-Lords of Stormwind (the title of Stormwind Archmages which is pretty damn cool if you ask me) held so much power in the south they + Medivh blocked Kirin Tor’s reach.
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A lore tidbit is that Scourge mind control is not direct puppeteering the way priest mind control works - it can be if the controller exerts the influence that way, but it isn’t by default.
Instead it seems to manifest as a ‘mind wall’ that prevents the subject from knowingly opposing their master, while otherwise retaining their own minds, personalities, instincts, etc. We can see this in the old DK startzone, where characters like Koltira and Thassarian retain significant personality and yet seem utterly unable to even contemplate the possibility of turning on the Scourge. The WotLK trailer where Arthas inspires the undead to ‘cheer’ for him is another example - I don’t think he puppeteered them into doing that.
Why is this important? Because it means Scourge RP has a lot more potential than you think it does.
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Another tidbit: contrary to popular belief, some degree of link between cause and effect exists when it comes to WoW physics.
The weapons of the mogu were said to be large, unwieldy and impractical, used for intimidation more than anything else. This suggests that mass and weight does at least have some meaning in the setting, again, contrary to popular belief.
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To be honest, it always did. “It’s a fantasy setting” was always a weird example, when there was nothing to really suggest that the setting’s rules countered that. It’s just that many races are so physically strong that to them it might seem effortless.
Still, even for all the mogu’s might, they wielded weapons far too heavy because they thought their sheer presence would intimidate their slaves by wielding terrifying weapons. They fell because they fought the more agile - and more importantly - fearless monks.
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Same with orcish weapons. I believe the Doomhammer was described by Lothar as being so big, it would require three humans to lift, and that is likely he meant grizzled soldiers and not commoners. This means that, as depicted by artwork, orcs have to be VERY strong to wield it in one hand as a human would use a smaller warhammer. It also means that the canon Farseer that has the weapon is unlikely to be of a smaller race like dwarves and scrawnier races like jungle trolls, but bulkier ones like orc, tauren or potentially draenei simply due to size and weight alone.
Blizzard is about as good at numbers as Games Workshop, I see.
The record for an overhead lift is 263 kilograms. Now, Lothar didn’t talk about overhead lifts, just lift at all, but I imagine the humans Lothar refers to are not expert strongmen either, so let’s say 150kg is the limit instead.
That would mean Doomhammer weighs 450kg. I have a hard time seeing it.
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I believe the way it was phrased in the book is that it was a guess on his part, but overall emphasised that the Doomhammer is a very big weapon that not anyone could dream of using effectively, especially not a human soldier.
Edit: Tony Swatton of Man at Arms made a wieldable Doomhammer from metal, but it was of course hollow. He estimated that if it was a full block of metal, it would be 250-300 lbs. Which means 136 kilograms at most. And this is a human scale weapon meant for two hands, not a hulking orcish weapon made of solid stone, which I’d wager would way a lot more, likely exceeding 263 kilograms.
It doesn’t sound like a very effective weapon. If it’s so heavy a human can’t lift it, an orc might be able to, but using it in battle is another thing.
Like imagine you’re at the gym. You might be able to lift a 20kg weight with some exertion but without trouble otherwise. Now put that 20kg weight at the end of a stick and suddenly it becomes quite a bother. Now try fencing with that stick.
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Indeed. It goes to show that as you said, mass and weight do have implications for combat style depending on the weapon. The in game cinematics the Doomhammer is in has shown sweeping strikes that would leave its user vulnerable to a quick stab. And though it isn’t canon to the main WoW universe, when Orgrim used the Doomhammer against another orc who tried to go past him to chase down Draka in the movie, a single swing knocked that orc off his feet and several feet back. It’s a slow weapon, but very heavy impact. Easier to avoid, but almost a guaranteed kill if you’re hit.
Lore tidbit: Margrave Sin’dane lead a rebellion against the House of Rituals’ previous Margrave and took over. She did not believe him a capable leader due to previous defeats on his part. Interacting with the Intriguing Ancient Relic from the weekly quest One Lich’s Trash from the Professor creates a hologram of Sin’dane which says the following:
"Greetings… …you to keep this message private. As you should also know by now, the battle against… …did not go in our favor.
How is Maldraxxus to stand when our forces have been routed once again? The Margrave has lost his mind, no longer will I… …refuse to follow the lead of… …and that is what has led me to this choice.
We must end the foolishness of the Margrave, join with… …and with your pledge of loyalty… …we shall end this threat!"
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Despite not being strict canon, I’m admittedly referring to the Warcraft movie orcs in terms of combat style and physical ability. They didn’t reinvent the races for the flick afaik… with the exception of “purple teeth” quel’dorei possibly up for debate. https://i.imgur.com/1zLVfy7.png
Way I see it; Lothar got it right. Orcs are stupid strong when compared to humans, so humans have to fight smarter. Most of the melee kills on orcs in that movie are down the result of capitalizing on speed and agility, rather than standing still and trying to overpower a foe much larger and stronger. Orcs - by comparison - usually floor slow humans in one blow.
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This one is just a small little connection I only made yesterday, but I thought it was kinda neat.
In pandaren myth, there were originally five suns until Zao Sunseeker shot four of them down.
On the Wandering Isle you can find the Temple of Five Dawns.
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you can’t post nsfw material like that without warning
I miss MoP dungeons so much. Imagine my surprise after getting an alternate Lorewalker boss fight after months of the yaungol story; it blew my tiny mind.
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I can end it there tbh.
I miss MoP DK…
In canon material with orcs pitted against humans (Lord of the Clans), orcs are faster than humans so just assuming they’ll be slow brutes is going to get the human killed as well. Thrall could sprint across the courtyard of Durnholde and seize Sergeant before the guards could intercept him, yet a single orc charging through the guards was cut down by their numbers. Overwhelming numbers, focusing on single orc at a time instead of splitting off into several 1v1s is how normie humans managed to kill orcs effectively.
Or in other words, fight smarter.
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I missed playing MoP entirely beyond questing. And I still miss it.
Man, out of all expansions to miss. That sucks.
Missing out and then coming back for WoD? That really couldn’t be worse.
I missed most of WoD too. Cata through to WoD was the time where I didn’t play much beyond questing and realising I had no friends in game to talk to anymore.
ANYWAY LORE TIDBITS.