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Admiral Joeslop posted:The only time I remember Deathwing showing up in Cataclysm besides the raid were the times he would appear in a random zone and kill every player in it while taunting them. That's an example of an excellent interaction. It's infrequent enough to not be annoying, memorable and gets over Deathwing as a threat. There should be tonnes of stuff like this dotted over the expansion but Deathwing is just absent for the rest of it.
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Aug 17, 2022 16:25
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Natural 20 posted:That's an example of an excellent interaction. It's infrequent enough to not be annoying, memorable and gets over Deathwing as a threat. Because there was an achievement and because Deathwing only torched smallish areas and not entire zones, ot was possible to never meet him. So people would announce in the zone chat when he appeared. Queue at best dozens of players racing to the scene to die in the lingering flames.
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Aug 17, 2022 16:40
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Valiantman posted:Because there was an achievement and because Deathwing only torched smallish areas and not entire zones, ot was possible to never meet him. Hilariously I got that acheivement without dying because I was using the transit system at the time.
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Aug 17, 2022 16:43
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Valiantman posted:Because there was an achievement and because Deathwing only torched smallish areas and not entire zones, ot was possible to never meet him. Relevant.
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Aug 17, 2022 16:48
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Tenebrais posted:Isidora discovers her true identity but by that point they've both started to genuinely love each other so now she has to fight against Onyxia's plans to take over Stormwind while also not letting her get found out I mean, sounds like a great RomCom premise.
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Aug 17, 2022 17:16
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Cythereal posted:So, this amused me. Onyxia as Katrana Prestor and Nefarian as Victor Nefarius both managed decently normal-looking human guises. While we've never seen official art of Daval Prestor, we have seen Deathwing in a human guise once in WoW: I didn't see the giant Iron jaw until the He-Man post.  Isidora is next on the list of people to be corrupted. You know, I do at least have to commend WoW for how many characters have been offed or had their status quo completely upended.
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Aug 17, 2022 18:24
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Darth TNT posted:You know, I do at least have to commend WoW for how many characters have been offed or had their status quo completely upended. Multiple times for some characters, even. 
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Aug 17, 2022 18:34
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Regalingualius posted:and for a small chain of comedy quests of three guys claiming that they totally kicked his rear end in increasingly ridiculous ways. Those quests were great. "I'm gonna punch that dragon in the face!" I remember getting the achievement too. I was in Arathi at the time and suddenly there was fire and a dead Worgen wondering what the hell just happened.
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Aug 17, 2022 18:45
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Fun fact: once the final raid came out, Deathwing stopped appearing over random zones to torch them as he'd been doing all expansion. However, dying in either of the two raid fights against him would also grant you the achievement, as it was technically only for being killed by Deathwing, and not specific to his Random Zone Mass Murders. Although I personally made the assumption that his human guise was a touch more subtle before Cataclysm; it had been a while since he showed up and despite still being a terrible maniacal supervillain in his early appearances, his Cataclysm showing makes Early Deathwing look positively sane by comparison. If you were introduced to him via Cataclysm, it would be very difficult to imagine Deathwing pulling any of the things he did in the early novels. BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Aug 17, 2022 |
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Aug 17, 2022 19:12
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Way back when I was a kid I thought Deathwing was really cool.  But it was long before wow was even considered. Tenebrais posted:Isidora discovers her true identity but by that point they've both started to genuinely love each other so now she has to fight against Onyxia's plans to take over Stormwind while also not letting her get found out Poil fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Aug 17, 2022 |
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Aug 17, 2022 19:21
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Retconning the Hookah was the beginning of the end for this franchise.
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Aug 17, 2022 19:50
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PurpleXVI posted:Oh poo poo, now you did it. I'm convinced I've seen this EXACT design somewhere... I was thinking more Baron Ünderbheit  Also probably better written than Deathwing though.
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Aug 17, 2022 21:16
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This guy was my first thought
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Aug 17, 2022 22:00
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Draga posted:Those quests were great. "I'm gonna punch that dragon in the face!" Then he returned to being basically non-existent for the rest of the expansion.
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Aug 17, 2022 22:56
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Jack-Off Lantern posted:There's a Dragon named Sinestra. I dunno, they could just be left handed?
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Aug 18, 2022 00:22
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She also later went by Sintharia, for some reason… which is weird because she kept on openly flaunting that she was a black dragon.
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Aug 18, 2022 07:56
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Admiral Joeslop posted:The only time I remember Deathwing showing up in Cataclysm besides the raid were the times he would appear in a random zone and kill every player in it while taunting them. I much preferred the Wrath of the Lich King example of this, in which the Lich King showed up in quest cutscenes as you progressed closer to his seat of power, even showing up as early as level 62 in Borean Tundra, IIRC.
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Aug 18, 2022 08:14
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Regalingualius posted:She also later went by Sintharia, for some reason… which is weird because she kept on openly flaunting that she was a black dragon. Maybe she wanted people to stop asking if she was a Yellow Lantern.
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Aug 18, 2022 09:58
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RelentlessImp posted:I much preferred the Wrath of the Lich King example of this, in which the Lich King showed up in quest cutscenes as you progressed closer to his seat of power, even showing up as early as level 62 in Borean Tundra, IIRC. The issue some people claimed is that he was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain because he showed up, lost and said "I'll get you next time Gadget" before running off. I don't really agree but that was the general opinion back in the day.
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Aug 18, 2022 10:19
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Natural 20 posted:The issue some people claimed is that he was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain because he showed up, lost and said "I'll get you next time Gadget" before running off. I mean that's how all their villains are. Show up, taunt, leave.
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Aug 18, 2022 10:30
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Tales from Another Timeline: The Penitent The celebration in Dalaran was greater even than the triumph celebrating the fall of the Lich King, he thought. Varian Wrynn-Turan, King of Stormwind, made his way through the crowds with purpose. The combined might of the League, the Forsaken, Quel'thalas, the Sentinels, Zandalar, and the great orders as well. One of those orders was the group Varian sought, and they stood out in a crowd. Almost universally, they wore armor of black saronite and had pale skin, eyes illuminated by blue corpse-fire. Most of the Knights of the Ebon Blade added only small touches of personality to their armor: splashes of secondary color along the edges of their armor, embroidered designs added to the blue sword on a black field of their heraldry. Many had white hair, their native color leached by death and the magic that had reanimated them. The death knights. Varian's first instinct had been to doubt and reject their emissaries, back when the Lich King was still held as the greatest threat to Azeroth. Varian's wife and uncle stilled his hand, and the Knights had proven their worth and trustworthiness many times over the years. Trustworthiness, that is, until the news came from Embershire, not long after the Legion's invasion had begun. Finally, he found them. Four of the Ebon Blade, separate from all the others. The Four Horsemen, they were called. Highlord Finnall Goldensword, the half-elf, her armor and cloak edged in white. Inquisitor Sally Whitemane, the former Scarlet Crusader, trimmed with purple. Naisha the Huntress, the night elf associate of the Wardens, highlighted in green. And then the last. She was different than he remembered, and a few moments passed at a distance before he understood the difference. All of Varian's life, Isidora Turan had walked with a cane or staff to support her shattered leg. In death, the revenant king no longer had such weakness. Standing tall and upright for the first time Varian had ever seen her, Isidora felt almost a giantess for all that she was still shorter than her adopted son. Her armor, like that of the other Horsemen, was black, but Isidora has chosen to trim hers in red. The long black tabard displaying the sword of the Ebon Blade featured, in hers, the rampant lion of Stormwind and the dragonhawk of House Turan. A long bow of more of the black metal, saronite, hung across her back with a quiver full of arrows made from the same material. On one hip, a one-handed sword rested in its scabbard. Isidora's eyes were alert and aware, a far cry from the mist-stricken invalid Varian remembered. The Horsemen broke ranks as Varian approached, and Isidora stepped forth. After an uneasy moment, she reached out her hand. "You look well, my son." The former King of Stormwind declared. "I know Taria never liked me calling you that, but it's a pleasure to see you grown up at last." Varian hesitated only for a moment before shaking his adopted mother's hand. "Mother is doing well." Varian replied, forcing a steadiness into his voice that he did not completely feel. "She's still in Stormwind, doting on little Anduin. I assume you've heard about my uncle." Isidora nodded, and a flicker of pain flashed across her face. "Sally told me. The ritual that awoke me cured my brain of the mists, but I don't have many clear memories from after the Second War. I'm still catching up on everything that's happened. Just this morning I learned that Deathwing had come back and made a mess of things." "You didn't even know about the Legion?" Varian accused the fallen king quietly, firmly. "You let them raise you as one of them and didn't even know?" "What would you have had me do?" Isidora asked, looking straight at Varian with her burning eyes. "Rest in my grave while Azeroth burned?" "You were dead!" Varian suddenly shouted. "We buried you! There's a statue of you in Stormwind! And you just... crawled out of your grave because the undead said Azeroth needed you?!" "I did." Isidora replied evenly. "It's the nature of the Horsemen, Varian. We aren't like other death knights. The Codex's spells that created us are different. The enchantment requires... a certain confluence of souls and wills, to sustain and empower. We need a zealot," Isidora inclined her head towards Whitemane - "Someone so righteous, so fervent in their belief that what they did was necessary that death struggles to hold them. We need a wrathful," - Naisha - "Someone with a passion and a will to fight that does not let them rest. We need a dutiful," - Finnall - "Someone whose sense of duty and responsibility to others keeps them from accepting death." "And you?" Varian asked, making an effort to bring his voice down. "I am the penitent." Isidora answered. "My guilt and regret were such that I welcomed death, but I also knew that my work was not yet finished. I am the conscience of our little assembly, you might say. I am the feeling that there is a wrong that must be redressed and set right. I made many, many mistakes in life, my son. Thirty years a libertine wastrel, an embarrassment to family and country. When Stormwind needed me, I was the warlord who carved through the orc hordes in blood and fire. When we shattered Blackrock Hold and purged the Steppes, it was my choice to give all the orc dead to the burning heart of the mountain. No mass graves, no fuss, only the reclamation of fire and earth. A blood sacrifice that further empowered Ragnaros below, I didn't know at the time but lead to just how costly that battle was down the road. Then, well, Katrana happened. And I didn't think to look at the financial records when the whole Defias mess began after the reconstruction of the outer towns and the prisoner of war facilities for the orcs." "I may be a good military strategist," The fallen king continued, "And a very good shot with my bow. I know how to lead during war, and I have an affinity for bare-knuckle diplomacy. But I was not a good ruler of Stormwind, or a good parent to you. The funny thing about all that is, a bronze dragon actually tried to warn me about most of it. I didn't really believe her, and almost threw her off Stormwind Keep. A failure of imagination on my part, in hindsight. Varian, that Stormwind stands as strong as it does today is on you, and Tiffin, and Taria, and Anduin before his death, and Khadgar and all the others. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, Varian. All I ask is that you don't mourn for me." Thoughts raced through Varian's head while emotions welled up from a deeper place. For all the fury of that emotional cauldron, though, there was only one answer the King of Stormwind could make to the woman who had adopted him as a teenager and set him on this path in life. The clang of steel crashing into saronite rang throughout Dalaran as Varian hugged his adopted mother.
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Aug 18, 2022 14:01
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I like that short story.  Out of curiosity, which of the Horsemen is Isidora? The red trim to her armor suggests War, but WoW tradition colors may be different. Traditionally War is Red, Famine Black, Pestilence Green or White, and Death White or Pale.
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Aug 18, 2022 14:57
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achtungnight posted:I like that short story. Isidora is War, yes. The original, evil incarnation of the Horsemen used the colors to mark which element they hit you with: red is fire, black/purple is shadow, green is poison, white is holy. The heroic Legion incarnation of the Horsemen, which this short story is based on, don't use any particular color signifiers.
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Aug 18, 2022 15:01
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Ah, they’re based on a WoW boss team I’m not familiar with. That makes sense.
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Aug 18, 2022 15:09
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achtungnight posted:Ah, they’re based on a WoW boss team I’m not familiar with. That makes sense. The original Four Horsemen were a boss in vanilla WoW's final 40-man raid, Naxxramas. In Legion, the death knight class story revolved around creating a new, heroic Four Horsemen. Isidora explained in the short story what makes the Horsemen special: they're created via a very special ritual, not the normal spells to raise a death knight, and the four of them are bound together as a group that greatly enhances all of their abilities. The trick, though, is that creating the Horsemen requires a very specific matrix of personalities and souls to create a stable group, which again Isidora explained. The original Four Horsemen consisted of a traitor fallen paladin, an actual paladin whose body is controlled by the Scourge even though his mind and soul are free, an assassin, and a bloodthirsty warrior. The second group consisted of a fallen king who wanted to continue protecting his people in death, a fanatical inquisitor of the Light, a general who went to his death serving a cause he knew was wrong, and an already-death knight seeking atonement. Sally Whitemane here is one of the canon second group, and I decided that in Isidora's timeline her story in broad strokes would still have happened. Then there's Isidora. Naisha is a character from Warcraft 3, and Finnall Goldensword is a probably non-canon character from the tabletop RPG books I'll briefly talk about in Warcraft 3.
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Aug 18, 2022 15:25
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Cythereal posted:tabletop RPG books I'll briefly talk about in Warcraft 3. Oh HELL yes. I've always wondered about those because the small bits I've come across makes them seem like terrible non-canon heaped upon non-canon offerings.
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Aug 18, 2022 17:50
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Natural 20 posted:The issue some people claimed is that he was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain because he showed up, lost and said "I'll get you next time Gadget" before running off. I mean at least he had a reason for doing that. It was a stupid reason but a reason nonetheless, about which Cythereal will surely eventually talk because jfc Arthas.
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Aug 18, 2022 17:59
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life_source posted:Oh HELL yes. I've always wondered about those because the small bits I've come across makes them seem like terrible non-canon heaped upon non-canon offerings. In broad strokes, the content from the RPG is non-canon, but every once in a while, they'll pluck something from them to add to the proper series canon. In fact, one of Admiral Proudmoore's children that we met in Battle for Azeroth is just such an example; had only ever been mentioned in the RPG, and was considered by most to be non-canon... until he showed up in WoW.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:13
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life_source posted:Oh HELL yes. I've always wondered about those because the small bits I've come across makes them seem like terrible non-canon heaped upon non-canon offerings. The big thing is that the RPG was made after WC3, but before the design of the world in WoW was finalized, and the RPG has a very different idea of what the setting looks like, where the heroes are likely to be, and what role they'll play in the world than WoW ended up having. The faction divide wasn't assumed to be a thing at all - you were fully expected to have heroes who once would have killed each other without a second thought now forced to work together.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:20
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The whole Katrana-Onyxia thing is really hilarious to me because I played WoW back in the day and had absolutely no idea it was a thing. I played for a year or so in the early days of the game, and the extent of my knowledge of this character was "big black dragon what lays eggs and lives in a cave". I remember her being notorious because for a long time nobody could figure out how to kill her (she was one of the first big endgame raid bosses, I think?), but the only motivation I ever knew of for why we were fighting her was big dragon with big numbers what is here and probably has loot. I suspect my ignorance of this plotline was at least partially due to playing Horde (the friends who convinced me to join the game were already established on that side so I didn't really get a choice), but even then, I suspect this wasn't all that unusual an experience. Given what I've seen from this thread, I think the game was probably a better experience for having paid only tangential attention to the lore.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:28
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Cythereal posted:The big thing is that the RPG was made after WC3, but before the design of the world in WoW was finalized, and the RPG has a very different idea of what the setting looks like, where the heroes are likely to be, and what role they'll play in the world than WoW ended up having. The faction divide wasn't assumed to be a thing at all - you were fully expected to have heroes who once would have killed each other without a second thought now forced to work together. Alas for what could have been...
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Aug 18, 2022 23:30
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On Alliance, there was a whole public event at the end of a long questline where she was exposed as a dragon in the throne room… which had the knock-on effect of spoiling just about everyone if you spent any significant amount of time in Stormwind.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:36
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Yes. Like I said, I will talk about her in more detail in Beyond the Dark Portal.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:38
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life_source posted:Oh HELL yes. I've always wondered about those because the small bits I've come across makes them seem like terrible non-canon heaped upon non-canon offerings. If you don't want to wait, Kurieg did a writeup for the Fatal and Friends thread a few years back. It does have spoilers for the rest of the series, mind.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:53
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I loved all the sideways lore in that little short story! The league? The Zanadalari? Amazing.
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Aug 19, 2022 00:48
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SirPhoebos posted:Retconning the Hookah was the beginning of the end for this franchise.  Deathwing would have / should have have been an amazing Smaug knockoff
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Aug 19, 2022 04:46
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Dragon Lore was its own brand of crazy thanks to that cancelled game even *before* the Dragonflights/Aspects thing got written in.
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Aug 19, 2022 05:02
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Good news about days when I'm struggling with crippling depression: they put me in a mood to write and to hell with 'the next update will be delayed.' Alliance 4: Way of the Huojin   There is something I would like to ask you, miss Wavestrider. While miss Perenolde is belowdecks. Oh? Your comment at Southshore, that you 'don't hate' miss Perenolde. Was that remark meant at face value, or were you intimating a romantic attraction to miss Perenolde? Do we really need to have this conversation, sunshine? The two of you are in operational command of this region. I feel the question is pertinent. We've both gone against the wishes of our home societies to take part in this war. Both our rulers have chosen to remain in isolation. There's a kindred of sorts there I wasn't expecting to find with non-pandaren, and I do count Azélie as a friend. As I'm sure you've noticed, we enjoy teasing one another. Yes, affectionate teasing that is often perceived as flirtation. No, sunshine, I am not romantically or sexually attracted to Lieutenant Perenolde. Humans look like they'd break in half from a strong breeze, and I intend to go home when this war is over. I'm not about to stick my hand in a princess. You surprise me. More of this Huojin philosophy? Common sense, more like. In any event, you believe this foundry will be able to improve our ships? Silvermoon's shipwrights are in a league of their own, but dwarves know cannons better, humans are adept at modifying vessels in the field, and the gnomes have a few ideas. These foundries will serve as workshops where all the members of the Alliance can collaborate and improve upon one another's work. Interesting.  I just got off the farcaster with Lord Proudmoore. One of these islands should be home to the base that's been launching these raids. We'll need more forces to go after a fully fledged Horde naval base, sir. Agreed. Find us a good harbor where we can establish a forward camp. Thought and action as one, but not impatience or haste, I believe you said? Now you're getting it, twiggy! This will do. Let's get to work, people. Oil deposit to the north. We can begin drilling at your discretion. Lumber harvesting is proceeding. Wavestrider to base. We've encountered and sunk a Horde warship. Probably the first of many. Your orders are to survey our coast, Xiulan, not get carried away. I still can't get peasants to repair ships even when brought as close to shore as I can. It's a shame, I end up losing a number of ships in this mission because they get ground down by attrition.  We have a new facility up and running, miss Perenolde. We can make ample use of the basic refining apparati available on rigs and at our shipyards, but a dedicated refinery will result in a significant reduction in wastage. Good thinking! Get a tanker out and start drilling as soon as possible. Already underway, ma'am. You're turning into quite the go-getter, Niamh. One tries. Blood, gold, and oil. Such are the veins of Azeroth. Getting philosophical on us again out there? I am happy with little beyond a wind at my back and an open horizon before me. War has a more epicurean appetite. ...Are you sure she's speaking Common, ma'am? As a matter of fact she is not, Niamh. This little toy of the Kirin Tor's that lets us communicate remotely includes a translation function. Tell me, is there a reason the elves didn't equip these ships with the biggest guns available right from the start? Ugh. It's not a question of size, it's a question of propellant and metallurgy. The harder you use a cannon, the quicker it wears out and the greater the risk of an accident. Niamh, these ships may not last long enough for that to become an issue. What the boss wants, the boss gets. grumble grumble short-lived monkeys grumble grumble In less short-sighted news, we now have proper quarters for the soldiery. I doubt Xiulan's going to be able to clean out the Horde on her own. We'll need to make ready an invasion. AAAAAHHHHHH! Xiulan, we just had a Horde landing party attack our base. They landed on the southern shore of the peninsula. Casualties? Niamh's going to need a new skirt and set of drawers. Find and destroy that transport! Yes, sir!  Enemy transport located and sunk, sir. Okay, what's with you only calling me 'sir' when I'm giving you direct orders like this? Why can't you be like this all the time? Kiss my rear end. Sir. I'd rather not. I don't like getting hair in my mouth. Horde oil rig destroyed. Between this and the location of the transport, I'd wager the Horde base is to the southeast. You have permission to engage. We're mustering a landing force back here.   We've kicked over the hornet's nest! Horde base located! How's it looking? We've taken losses, but the Horde is even worse off.  Wavestrider, what's your status? We're shelling the Horde docks now. Transports shouldn't encounter any resistance. Good. Make ready, soldiers! The fleet's done their job, and now it's our turn!The goon who pointed to the Alliance transports as WW2 ships was right on the money. Those are Landing Ships, Tank.  Be advised, there's a substantial troll presence here. We are under fire from shore batteries.  Good work, fluffy. We'll take it from here. Unlike in Horde 4, there's a lot of resistance here. I win, but the fight is so fast-paced I didn't get any good screenshots of it. I'm seriously considering turning the game speed down, the land battle felt too fast to control well.   Was that as messy as it looked from here? Yes, Xiulan. Yes it was. But the reinforcements have landed. We'll clean it up from here.   Niamh, send word to Lordaeron. The Horde base at Zul'dare has been destroyed. Lordaeron's southern border should be secure from naval attack. Right away, ma'am! Victory, but a lot of people won't be going home today. Do you think it was worth it?
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Aug 20, 2022 22:25
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Gray Eminence With nothing else urgent to discuss, I think now is a fine time to discuss the human nation that, though mentioned in the manuals for Warcraft 2 and 3, would never actually appear in Warcraft until World of Warcraft's third expansion. Today's subject, Gilneas.  The official coat of arms of Gilneas in the WoW era. The black rune in the center was on their flag in the WC2 manual, and dialogue in-game confirms that wolves, lanterns, and roses all historically feature prominently as symbols of Gilneas. To the south of Lordaeron lies a peninsula of towering mountains, dark forests, and misty valleys, ringed by treacherous reefs and currents. This foreboding land was colonized by outcasts of the proto-Lordaeron tribe, driven from the fertile plains and hills of Lordaeron into a land about which little was known but much was feared. The religious figures of the proto-Lordaeronians warned of a dark presence in those forests and mountains, and when the outcasts made their way into the peninsula they found not only monsters but the ruins of an ancient civilization that predated humanity. Most of the outcasts gave these ruins a wide berth, and built homes for themselves in the mist-shrouded moors and valleys of their new home. In time, this peninsula came to called Gilneas, and a large city grew up on the shores of a vast, sheltered bay. When the empire of Arathor fell, Gilneas chose to break away from Lordaeron as well and become an independent kingdom. Though not as fertile as the hills of Lordaeron or the plains of Arathor, Gilneas had immense mineral resources, and forests perfect for heavy construction, while the mountains and reefs made formidable deterrents to outsiders. The people of Gilneas guarded their independence fiercely, and ever since the fall of Arathor, Gilneas stood alone and inviolate.  The actual flag of Gilneas. What if anything it represents, we do not know. Culturally, Gilneas developed along rather different lines from the other human nations. Gilneans were regarded by other humans as backwards, superstitious, and stubborn beyond belief. Perhaps this attitude grew out of a desire to preserve their independence: we know that Lordaeron made repeated efforts to add Gilneas to their own kingdom over the centuries, via diplomatic pressure and at least one outright military invasion. Between their rugged geography permitting very few approaches by land or sea, their natural resources allowing Gilneas to equip its soldiers very well, and a strong martial tradition in the kingdom, Gilneas repulsed all of these attacks. Even the faith of the Holy Light made only limited inroads in Gilneas, where it was seen as the religion of the nobility. The peasants, by and large, clung to a worship of nature and local spirits - as did, it was whispered, many noble families in secret. Witches lurked on the edges of Gilnean society, wielding magic of healing and nature beyond the Light's capabilities. What the witches of Gilneas did not advertise was that their lore and magic were developed from study of the pre-human ruins that dotted the dark places of Gilneas. We already know that Gilneas was not seriously involved in the Second War. Reigning king Genn Greymane refused to compromise his kingdom's independence by joining the Alliance and vowed that Gilneas was strong enough to crush any Horde attack. However, Gilneas did in fact go on to play a small role in the Second War off-camera from the games. Small numbers of Gilnean volunteers joined the Alliance with Greymane's blessing, and Greymane did authorize shipments of resources to their embattled neighbors. The Horde also mounted a few small attacks into Gilneas during the war, all of which were ruthlessly crushed. Gilnean policy towards the Horde was to take no prisoners, and rumors circulated in Lordaeron that Gilnean witches performed bizarre rituals on the mass graves of the war in Gilnean territory, apparently meant to keep the war dead from rising again. At the end of the Second War, Genn Greymane recalled the volunteer brigades home and Gilneas returned to isolation, an isolation cemented by Greymane ordering the construction of a vast wall across Gilneas' northern border.  As for the Third War? Gilneas stopped the Scourge cold. Gilneas is the only nation in Warcraft known to have defeated the Undead Scourge in open battle and completely repulsed the Scourge invasion of Gilneas after the fall of Lordaeron and Quel'thalas. The cost of this victory, though, was immense. The outlying regions of Gilneas were devastated, and the Gilneans turned aside any and all refugees from the other kingdoms, fearing that they might carry the taint of the undead or contaminated supplies. The Gilnean military was likewise gutted, and soon a new problem became apparent. A significant part of Gilneas' victory against the Scourge came from King Greymane authorizing the use of a secret weapon: a magical ritual that imbued men with the strength and ferocity of wolves. These werewolves, known to Warcraft as 'worgen,' were immune to the taint of undeath and could not be raised as undead. Only after the Scourge retreated from Gilneas did Greymane realize that Gilneas had a new problem: the worgen were running rampant, beyond the military's ability to control. At the same time, the rulers of the northern regions mounted a rebellion against King Greymane and a Scourge-born disease devastated Gilneas' croplands, sparking fears of an apocalyptic famine. And yet, Gilneas endured. The rebellion was contained, magic was developed that could free the minds of the worgen, and the witches of Gilneas emerged from the shadows to heal the land and allow Gilneas' farmlands to prosper again. Though the situation was dire, for a time things looked to be under control for Gilneas. Then Deathwing happened.  King Genn Greymane himself ultimately succumbed to the worgen curse, and is the last of the WC2-era rulers of any nation or clan, Horde or Alliance, to remain on his throne. Deathwing's assault on Azeroth in the Cataclysm expansion for WoW lead to massive earthquakes in Gilneas, toppling mountains, drowning coastal lands, and breaking open oceanic reefs. Gilneas, still reeling from all the above disasters, rose to this one as well, and recovered their wits and organization just in time to face yet another crisis, one made possible by the Cataclysm tearing open Gilneas' natural defenses and shattering Greymane's Wall: the Horde. At the command of Warchief Garrosh Hellscream, the Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner and her Forsaken launched a full-scale invasion of Gilneas. Hellscream desired Gilneas' resources for the Horde and intended to test Windrunner's competence and loyalty. Windrunner eagerly complied, expecting an easy victory over an irrelevant backwater that was probably disorganized and demoralized. Gilneas, Windrunner felt, was ripe for the plucking. Instead the Forsaken plunged into fantasy Vietnam, but with more werewolves. Though the Forsaken outnumbered, outgunned, outmagiced, and outteched the already battered Gilneans, the Gilneans' knowledge of the land and fondness for ambushes and hit and run tactics - and quite massive stockpiles of guns, cannons, and explosives - turned what the Forsaken had expected to be a short, easy war into a bloodbath. Even when Sylvanas Windrunner personally killed King Genn Greymane's son and heir, crown prince Liam Greymane, the Gilneans only got angrier. When an impatient Garrosh Hellscream ordered an all-out assault of Gilneas by the entire Horde, the Gilneans brought down a Horde helicarrier. The Gilneans had finally begun to receive reinforcements of their own - the mysterious night elves. As it turned out, the mysterious ruins of Gilneas had in fact been night elf ruins. A dangerously extreme fringe sect of druids, the Druids of the Pack, had called upon forces they could not control during the Burning Legion's first invasion of Azeroth. After the war, the Druids of the Pack were interred in barrows beneath an uninhabited mountainous region, too dangerous to remain free. Though asleep, it was the latent energies of these slumbering druids and their patron, a dreaded wolf god known as Goldrinn, that gave rise to the magic of the Gilnean witches and, ultimately, the worgen. With the help of the night elves, the Gilneans might very well have won but for Windrunner unleashing a barrage of terrible weapons of mass destruction, a magical biochemical weapon that infected and scoured the land of life, raising non-worgen as undead. It was this weapon that finally, at long last, broke Gilneas. King Genn Greymane accepted the night elves' offer of sanctuary and found himself pledging the shattered remnants of his kingdom and people to the Alliance... but not before vowing to his ancestors and the land itself that he would one day return home.  Most of the Gilnean civilians settled in the night elves' capital city of Teldrassil. And, uh, were in the city when this happened along with - according to an official short story - about 90% of the night elf race. Genn Greymane tends to be called an unreasonable, belligerent, hateful, grudge-holding shithead for being angry about what happened to his kingdom and people, most of all his son. He's one of the more controversial characters in WoW, and some people really love to hate him. One last note. Gilneas, as depicted in WoW, has some actual character to it, and that character is strongly based on Victorian Britain. Gilneans have pronounced cockney accents, and everyone has top hats and bowler hats. However, while I was making this lore update, a couple of British goons suggested to me that Gilneas is probably a much better ringer for Scotland than England. The geography, the subjugation by a foreign power at the end of a long period of independence, the druidic stuff, and being geographically isolated in a relatively harsh landscape. Or perhaps Ireland, another goon suggested. All the really obvious pop culture Scottish and Irish identifiers like clans and bad accents and woad tattoos, were already assigned to the dwarves. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 21, 2022 |
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Aug 20, 2022 22:25
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To confirm, Boats in Warcraft 2 cannot be repaired, with the exception of Transports, which can beach themselves and come within reach of the peasants' tools.
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Aug 20, 2022 23:35
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