Did those Sentinel’s of the New Moon ever pop up, and did they get an explaination?
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There’s a ton of new emotes, especially lean and sit emotes, in the files on PTR apparently? (Porter has been posting through them on Twitter)
Give. Devs. Now. Give Now. Gib.
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I have to say. As the player of a character who’s supposed to be unreasonably idealistic in-universe, the 10.2 finale feels like Lintian found a genie lamp, and her three wishes were:
- I wish our people got a replacement Teldrassil.
- I wish our leaders, and especially Tyrande, embraced change and put aside their isolationism and xenophobia.
- I wish everyone was friends.
And then the genie bent space, time, and common sense to make it happen.
All of this is what she wished for, in-universe, but I never meant her to actually have these wishes fulfilled, and within the span of a single expansion at that, and in a way that overwrites so much established characterization. It feels very, very weird.
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Got it, so we can blame in-universe Lintian for everything bad happening in the game from now on!
Obviously she wished for the Jailer to do his 324D chess and burn Teldrassil.
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I think it’s just too cheap. In philosophy when one gives a bad explanation, often it’s said that you made your explanation descend from above. The system you have created cannot account for your explanation, thus you need to drop it from the sky.
And Dragonflight feels the same way about peace: rather than actual resolution, it’s just characters suddenly being at peace with one another. And it’s not satisfying, there is no build-up to this.
And I believe the lore wasn’t like this a while ago. The other day I played an old video about the World of Warcraft lore of old - specifically, Nobbel’s video on Varian Wrynn’s background. And there you can see how many times they prepared the conflict that would play out in Cataclysm…
Other than the previous cycle of hatred, you had:
- Varian Wrynn having a personal reason to hate the Horde (gladiator arc)
- Failed negotiations during WotLK at Theramore, sabotaged by the Twilight’s Hammer.
- The Wrathgate and death of Bolvar, where the Alliance blamed the Forsaken.
- The entire tension between the Horde and the Alliance between the tournament and ICC.
- Before the Sundering, the Twilight’s Hammer disguised itself as Horde members and murdered sentinels in Ashenvale. The attempt to restore peace failed because the Hammer sent more assassins to the peace meeting and only then Cairne challanged Garrosh to a duel, because he also believed this was Garrosh’s doing.
- Then things went south quickly, with Garrosh having free reign and the Alliance hating the Horde for the above crimes.
It was a crescendo that kept going for two expansions. And even then, despite the conflict, the actual war would play out in the third expansion, Mist of Pandaria. You kept thinking: no, no, what are you doing!
Whereas from Legion onwards you see most characters going: “well, the Alliance and the Horde aren’t doing their thing? No worries, we’ll do our own factions with blackjack and hookers” and then all of a sudden, these characters in the next expansion are at each other’s throat. Just… Why?
There was no satisfying build up, no crescendo, and the characters learned nothing from their successful cooperation. We get just a short story in which Sylvanas goes: “uh war? yeah, it is happening that we want it or not, we have to dismantle the Alliance on Kalimdor” = which is the exact same reasoning Jaina did in MOP, but was disregarded by the Alliance. The writing was so bad, gosh.
Before, building up narratives was made through expansions through many clues. BFA’s faction conflict, like DF’s resolution of old hatreds, instead feels cheap.
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That’s the key difference here.
During the Varian/Garrosh arc (Wrath, Cataclysm, MoP), we were angry at the characters for acting differently from how we would, with our knowledge, yet consistently with their established characterization. The writers set up the situation, wrote the characters true to their natures, and watched the dominoes fall.
During the Teldrassil trilogy (BfA, Shadowlands, Dragonflight), we were angry at the writers for setting up a contrived premise and an equally contrived resolution.
Ah well. At least it has a resolution now.
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Now we’re almost at the level of the Wrath era Arthas model.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/f/f9/Arthas_in_Stratholme.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091126000845
Life goals fulfilled. Tea time?
Probably. I was at a loss at first what to do with her now that the writers have fulfilled what I imagined as her very long-term goals that she would never achieve in RP.
I thought of retiring her, but even as I was writing about my indecision, my brain thought up some possible future plot hooks based on her other unfulfilled aspirations. With Dawntrail on the horizon, though, I’m content to let Lintian rest for a while once Amirdrassil emerges on Azeroth IC with the last LFR wing.
Endwalker spoilers (kinda)
"If you would do something for me — help save your tree. See this tale to a triumphant conclusion, and with elation in your hearts, bid the final curtain fall.
Only then may it rise again and a new tale begin — with new parts for all to play.
Tell me, have you been to the ruins sunken by the Sundering? Or the treasure islands of the South Seas? The fabled Titan vaults of Ulduar? The sacred Isle of Dorn of the earthen exiles? What about Gilneas, still coveted by its people? Do you know aught of its present state of affairs?
I thought not. Even of your little Azeroth, you know precious little. The true identity of Elune, for instance.
All of which is to say: expand your horizons. Go forth and seek discovery. Some of the civilizations in lands yet unknown will surprise you."
I think the upcoming 3 patches might give us a lot to do in terms of RP opportunities. It´s something I´ve noticed in Shadowlands and has been true for Dragonflight: The minor patches/side stories of majors ones, have the tendency to give us a lot we can work with.
Let´s look at 9.2.5. In this patch, we got 2 important updates: Forsaken got Lordaeron back and we got to see san´layn leading Scourge in assault on Quel´Thalas. Not only did this patch further stories of two playable races, but it gave us info on current situation in the Scourge.
Then there are heritage questlines in DF. As much as one has to ponder the logic of Defias and Scarlet Crusade still existing in such large numbers as they had during those questlines, it gave us something to work with for possible future stories where DMs no longer have to provide explanation (for example) for why are there still any Scarlets left. Even orc heritage provided us with some info, specifically continuing presence of Warsong Clan in Ashenvale, which can serve as justification for more aggro night elf characters to keep on fighting.
And then there´s 10.2.5, with Amirdrassil zone update and Gilneas restoration. Who knows, maybe 10.2.7 and whatever the final patch is, will give us a plot hooks that can provide us RPers with great content.
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Finding out that apparently Elisande in 10.2 just nopes out of the canon and becomes a solo timewanderer or something?
On the one hand, she’s cool, I’m glad she’s getting another chance, and her doing it in a timey-wimey way is proper for her spellset.
On the other hand it feels kinda…idk, cheap? weird? random? I’m not gonna criticise it too much as this stage I guess
Plottwist, the genie was Gaunter O’Dimm-like:
Lintian: "Wha-- What’s happening? I feel as though… as though… a hot iron’s pierced my chest.
Falls to her knees while a bald man comes walking down from the skies.
Genie: "Sorry to have kept you waiting. So glad to see everyone’s made it. How do you feel, Lintian? A little … less troubled, lighter on the heart?
Lintian: “Genie. What do you want?”
Genie: “What do you mean “what”? Your soul.”
Lintian: “You forget. The pact states you can take it only once you’ve fulfilled three wishes and–…”
Genie: And we stand together on the Moon. Well, what do you know?
With an epic handgesture, the genie blows away the sand to reveal a crescent moon driven into the stone floor upon which they were standing.
Lintian: "What–? No. We… had a pact. gestures up. The Moon is there! THERE! Not…here…
Genie: Holding a contract. “I gave you what you wished for. Here on the moon, our contract you fulfill.”
Lintian: “You… censored. You cheated me.”
Genie: “I -never- cheat.”
The scene ends with genie walking ominously towards Lintian.
( And that was the story of how Lintian saved the Night Elf race with her three wishes, at the cost of her own soul.)
If you have enough command of the timey-wimey magic to retcon your own death you probably have a leg up in the bronze dragonflight’s employment prospects.
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Knowing O’dim, even if you were specifically saying “I want us to stand on the physical moon” while pointing at it, the dude would have found out a crashed meteorite that’s an unassuming rock but is indeed made of the moon and claim “I win.”
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And for one of these (the Scarlets, in particular), an explanation is given, so, quite good on that front, honestly. To me, what I like the most about these is that it’s not definitive when one of these groups dies out, the way they’re described. The Scarlet Crusade is described throughout the quest as having as many revivals as there are people in need of extreme violence, a cause to die for, and old veterans of this cause in particular to gain members.
Though this explanation, even if they wipe out this group of the Scarlet Crusade in Gilneas, there is plenty of breathing room in roleplay thanks to it.
Let’s say that next patch, they wipe out this incantation of the Scarlet Crusade, defeating their new stronghold and taking their likely stolen arsenals back for the parties involved in slaying them. Had any other explanation been given, that would be it. No more Scarlet Crusade through canon lore until further notice beyond conjecture; but now, there is a canon character saying that something like that is common, it’s just that them being that powerful and daring enough to attack Lordaeron directly is both unheard of and pretty damn bold (even if it ended how it did for them).
It’s refreshing, in a way. They’re providing enough padding to these storylines to the point where a victory or climax in the story wouldn’t end with said minor faction being utterly obliterated from any future storylines in an organic way, rather than just reviving them every five minutes like Sally Whitemane’s constant canon respawning powers.
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Who?
(googles)
Oh, huh.
I could write a snarky response to this dialogue, but I’d rather not derail the thread by roleplaying along. Let’s keep it on topic.
Damn, I thought you’d have played witcher 3 
But yes, back to the topic.
And on said topic, I really need to do those quests, because on their own, the cinematics of both Tyr and Elisande look lik a whole lot of nothing-burger, and the latter’s just confusing as heck to me.
Reminds me of Orikan just cheezing his way in the trial to select the correct dialogue to avoid consequences.
Danuser’s legacy.
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why’d NA have to go and wake me up today
bros i was sleeping peacefully