In a world of magic where underwater breathing has never been easier⌠There are still diving suits for some reason.
I weep in Vashjâir.
Itâs not about ease of breathing. Itâs about not letting the Hydraxian Assassins Extinguish youâŚ
Same way the Arathi expedition got stuck. All their guys that could have teleported them back home died.
You might just not have a warlock or shaman around to grant you underwater breathing.
I think youâre conflating how common magic is in the daily life of the average person in the lore with the highly epic events in which The Player Character participates in.
Night elves were a distant myth to the people of Lakeshire as recently as Mists of Pandaria. A peasant can go their entire lives without ever encountering a mage, let alone an elf.
Honestly, I really like this monthâs items. They look great!
But it also reminds me how much I hate the absolutely small amount of Tenderâs you can get per month, especially with the rather predatory choice to only let you get more by buying deluxe editions of War Within.
Yeah, I want the mount and the dark diving set and Iâm probably not going to have enough for both and the deep hood/cloak etc.
I will not have enough by a longshot. Most of my savings went on the last months(the one weâre leaving) items.
I didnât bother with much this month, but I still only have 500.
I always remember how the people of Southshore was suspicious of Khadgar since mages was such a rare sight for them. And Southshore is right next door to Dalaran!
Not to mention that Khadgar had not met other races outside of high elves and the odd visiting dwarves before leaving Dalaran.
Gnomes didnât really understand how some magic worked even in tbc as one accuse a druid I believe it was? to use electric jumper cables to shock people back up.
The inter-connectivity between races and high magic is a lot less for the average person, even if it has improved greatly in the very recent years.
Honestly it makes perfect sense in Knaaks Azeroth, because he wrote the traversal of the Hillsbrad Foothills as taking weeks upon weeks to go through in its entirety but it stops making sense in Blizzardâs Azeroth where I can see the giant purple dome of the Ruins of Dalaran from Stromgarde. We were, and I cannot believe Iâm saying it, far too hard on Knaak and it cost us a coherently-constructed and paced world.
Dalaran is quite a varied place in The Last Guardian but it does check out, the Old Alliance really only ever was Dwarves, Humans, Gnomes and High Elves and only 2/4 of them have any real interest in the Arcane (Humans and High Elves) so they ended up being the predominant Dalarani population.
I still love the War of the Ancients novels, aswell as Day of the Dragon , which was one of three wow books that were actually translated into my own language, the other two being Lord of the Clans and The Last Guardian.
Tbh I wouldnât mind having Knaak back at writing some of the stuff.
Aside from the timetraveling shenanigans, which I disliked, the WotA-Trilogy made me fall in love with the Night Elves and especially all the characters that made up the Night Elves like Azshara, Xavius, Malfurion, Illidan, Tyrande, Maiev, Jarod, Shandris, Desdel and Kurâthalos!
The Thrall story is up, itâs also very dadcore.
Really liked it personally; its heavily character-focused but not in the same way that the last 6 years of WoW have been where the characters just ignore their environment and the setting as a whole. It respects where the Horde began, it respects where Thrall took them and it understands where it went when Thrall left but it doesnât beat down on Thrall about it and devalue his instrumental role in shaping the Horde and modern Orcish culture.
Whilst worldbuilding isnât the focus of the novel, the insight it gives us into Shamanism and how one should be a Shaman and what it entails (hint: not just making rock floats, but planting trees for every one chopped down, making sure the fields arenât overfarmed etc.) is really good in my opinion and I really enjoy that its looking at Orcs through the lense of their spirituality and sense of community as their defining strength instead of chest-beating, war and death - its something weâve not really had since Metzenâs departure and its nice to see it back again, to show that this isnât the Old Horde, itâs Thrallâs Horde, where spirituality is at the core of the choices they make.
The elaboration on the Orcish trials for adulthood and what they mean is also an enjoyable read, even when its seen through the lense of Thrall talking to his daughter Rehze and Iâm sure Orc RPers will be feasting with all the new worldbuilding tidbits it has given them.
Edit: Link to the story: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-gb/story/short-story/trials
I very much loved the read, and I am glad that lokâvadnod is remembered too.
honestly think this is why it was so good. weve only seen orcs as absolute meatheads the last few years because thats what blizzard has been portraying and using them as. this is the orc lore i was hoping to see come back. and it is fantastic shamanism lore to boot.
They apparently removed Jainaâs âelemental dysfunctionâ line from the PTR, meaning that the playerbase may have successfully memeâd it out of existence.
They also added some new dialogue for why the Earthen are interested in the Horde:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRj9dLAaEAApwCY?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRj9glwWQAAW3q4?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRj9i8DWEAEHM-A?format=jpg&name=large
Still not finalised (lower case âhordeâ) but at least gives some reasoning for why theyâre hanging out.
I know its just a statue, but perhaps its a hint to things to come aswell?
Iâd note this is specifically a new design for gorehowl.
Both the older designs
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/2/25/Gorehowl_TCG.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20110430132342
https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/1111961.jpg
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/5/56/The_Shattering_-_Thrall_and_Garrosh.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210313055841
and the old NetEase statue
https://storage.superpixel.com/article/382732/a549f258a833a5e5999ea8ab1fd8cd0b.jpeg@900xAUTO
didnât have the rune between blade and grip.
Itâs not merely a case of taking the old Gorehowl and putting a light in the blade to make it shiny.
It certainly could be a hint of things to come.
Though whether itâs just for a hearthstone expansion or WoW remains to be seen.