Category Archives: Roleplay & Lore

Kalithe and the Two Tribes

The other day, my Death Knight did a little bit of questing in Scholazar Basin. I figured it could be worthwhile opening up the Frenzyheart/Oracle dailies while I still got experience for it. The trouble is, I’m a gorloc lover at heart so I always feel terrible doing any quests that sabotage the cute little things. As for Kalithe, well, I suppose that deep down she feels the same way, but sometimes she just goes into a kind of brainless blood lust, usually brought on by following orders. In her own words..

It all started with this silly woman telling me to go and get her the remains of some big cat. So, naturally, I found the big kitty and killed it. That was the beginning, see, suddenly these raccoon guys started shouting at me. Apparently I stole their kill or something, so then they told that me I had to be their new slave. Bit of a jump, to be honest, I was only following orders after all, but hey ho that’s unlife for you. Sometimes you get abandoned for a couple of years, and sometimes the guys sending you on quests don’t actually know best. I was curious about the raccoon men so I headed over to see what all the fuss was about.

Well these.. “Frenzyheart”, as they call themselves, are actually insane, and I would know. Nuts. First, they told me to go and poke some little monkeys in order to basically piss off the matriarch to bring her out into the open and kill her. I was a little iffy about that one but a kill is a kill. Then they had me killing a load of giant, flying insects. And next, they made me chase chickens around the place with a net! Chickens!! This is animal cruelty I swear, if I weren’t so against the organisation and perhaps cared a little more, I’d probably have contacted D.E.H.T.A about all of this.. But then again these raccoon men were still paying me.

After that craziness, I was told to ride a crocolisk over to the Mistwhisper village, or “big-tongue shrine” as they called it. I will admit, it was pretty damn cool riding a crocolisk around Scholazar Basin! But then they had me hunt a few of these gorlocs and sabotage their shrine.. This was the point where I really started to have my doubts about these raccoons, I mean.. poking baby monkeys is one thing, pushing it, but a thing nevertheless, but killing semi-intelligent and innocent beings? Highly uncool. But the thing is, once I get going I find it hard to stop – must be a side effect of losing my soul for a time.

Once that little morality issue was passed, I rode back to the Frenzyheart village to speak with the High Shaman and he wanted me to capture a gorloc for him so that he can.. hmm.. “make it tell him things”. Very dubious by this point, I came across an injured “big-tongue” just a little way away and just as I was about to pick the little guy up a crocolisk attacked. They might be cool to ride around on, but if you aren’t a particularly powerful creature they can be deadly. So I killed it. I tried to claim it as self defence but the raccoons still kicked me out. Oh well. The gorloc seemed to take pity on me as he led me back to their village. Well, being offered a place rather than told I’m their slave is a much better deal, so whilst I felt a bit uneasy collecting “shinies” for their shrine, they also had me killing big snakes which was much more within my comfort zone. For the record, they tried to get me to make peace with the High Shaman, they aren’t particularly fond of the hatred between the two groups, however he pretty much knocked me off the cliff. Lucky I was with Sparkles at the time so I didn’t fall too far, but the Frenzyheart tribe are seriously crazy.

See, then I started feeling bad. The gorlocs started getting angry that the “big dumb puppy-men” messed with their shrine, and um.. well.. *shifts a little* you already know that story. But I was able to make up for it by killing a bunch of the raccoons and steal back their treasure.. and by just not telling them that I had a hand in the events. The Oracle gorlocs are a peaceful tribe, but I simply can’t see that ending well.

Anyway, the next thing that happened really made me hunger for vengeance. I’ve never been so sad and angry… scratch that, I can’t really remember my entire life, and I’m quite often sad and angry. So I was very sad and very angry. I can understand a little cruelty, but torment really hits me, I can’t stand for that. See, the ‘Rainspeakers’ simply wanted me to go and tell the ‘Mosswalkers’, another tribe of gorlocs in the Basin, that they hadn’t visited the shrine in a while. Fair enough. But when we got there, me and Moodle, such a sight.. the undead had completely ravaged their village and were tormenting and disrespecting the near-dead gorlocs all over the place! I was distraught. You can imagine the state Moodle was in, even though he had suspected as much before we arrived, he hadn’t expected it to be the undead. I killed as many of the scourge as I could, and I tried to save the Mosswalkers, but most of them died right there, thinking that it was their fault for not visiting the shrine enough. Have you ever seen a Death Knight cry? That broke me. I had to get vengeance. This is exactly the kind of thing that absolutely sickens me.

Moodle, the wisest gorloc I have had the pleasure of meeting, told me that their leader probably resides within the fallen pillar but that he needed to go back and tell the High-Oracle what had happened. That was fine by me. Altruis the lich was tough, and he spoke big, but I managed to take him down on my own. There are times when vengeance is much sweeter when dealt by your own hand. One day I will return to the Oracle tribe, but in the meantime I have unfinished business with the Frenzyheart raccoons.

Seithir’s Dream

This is a little something I wrote a while ago, thought I’d post it. Admittedly, it was never really going anywhere, but hopefully one day I’ll stick an ending on it. Go easy on me!

In the pale twilight she waited, but for what she was unsure, she was just aware that whatever it was, it was desperately important. Her bright, chestnut hair fluttered in the breeze as she stared into the distance, watching the birds dance through the sky. The glow of her green eyes pierced the horizon.

Every evening she would sit here, in Eversong Woods, watching the sun set, waiting for the night to fall waiting for something to happen. It never did.

The moment the sky would turn to purple, she would mount her Ram, Cern, and start heading back towards the lustrous Silvermoon City.

“Back again are we, Miss Seithir?” The heady Innkeeper shouted over the din of the bar noise.

The young Blood Elf girl simply rolled her eyes and sat in the corner, shortly after a glass of pinoit appearing in front of her. This was the regular order of her day. She had no time for these drunks and maniacs, she had a dream to chase and she wasn’t about to stop until she’d caught it full pelt.

Once upon a time, this bar, this city in fact, was fairly strictly full of Blood Elves. No Alliance would enter any more, no Horde could enter without losing their heads. These days, the races of the Horde seemed to quite happily mix, or at least, attempt to, with the Blood Elves of Silvermoon City. Seithir watched as a red haired Troll hit on a curly haired, blonde Blood Elf just across from her. She found this amusing, they always received the same answer. Smack. “Sorry t’ bother ye..”

Earth Day Recycling: This Is How I Roll

Zelmaru had an idea, to recycle an old post for Earth Day. Now, I don’t really do or think about Earth Day at all, I only knew it was Earth Day because of the pretty logo Google has today. Even so, I do have a post I’d like to recycle because I had a lot of fun writing it back when I was levelling my Warlock, when she was still a female Undead called Hadlo, rather than the Blood Elf called Jaedia that she is today. Only difference is that this time I’m sticking it under the ‘RP’ category rather than ‘alts’.

OHAIThe name’s Jhuutom, aka Felly the Felguard, aka You Idiot, aka Gordon Ramsay (don’t ask). Fae was feeling rather tired today, so we let her sleep *ahem, hides Nightmare Potion..*

Anyway! I decided to take my warlock for a walk, you may know her as Hadlo, though I do not care too much for the names of lesser beings. As per usual, I was the one doing all of the work while she just used her.. erm.. “damage over time”. Useless. I tell you, by the time she’s cast a Shadow Bolt, I’ve already killed the damn creatures! She could really use some more haste. So, once we’d found a piece of elemental scrap for some odd amulet thing, which she said she needed to do to aid Fae, hell if I care, we took a Windrider back down to the Borean Tundra.

I reminded her that there was a lot of haste on the Nexus gear, you know, that nice stuff from the quests. So, remembering we hadn’t done those yet, we popped over to the Amber Ledge to speak to a few mages and torture a few cultists, after all, who doesn’t love a good evening of torture? On the way, Hadlo thought it would be funny to chain up a cultist and mock him for a while…

Hadlo's pet cultistYou’ll notice that I am uninterested and take no part in this whatsoever. Bloody nuisance bag of bones… She spent so long laughing at this, that she didn’t happen to notice the Alliance warlock and druid hovering around, yes that’s right, she got us killed. Laugh it up. You’ll regret it later.

After they’d buggered off, we made our way over to Coldara island. A place full of whimsical blue dragons and giant magical trees… OF DEATH! I had such a great time running around murdering stuff, and she didn’t even get me killed this time, like that time with that debuff from the spore poison… Ah never mind, but it’s a wonder I still let her claim that I’m her demon. Ha! But hey ho, shit happens, as long as I get to murder stuff without 24 Death Knights and a Ret Paladin grouping up to kill me for Freddy, my lovely, cuddly axe, then I can deal with the rest.

Hadlo also likes to claim that she’s all weak and feeble, in order to get help from her “friends”. Come on, we all know the warlocks don’t have friends, that’s why they’re so close with the darkness, it’s the only thing that really “understands” them *snigger*. Moreover, she knows, deep down, that I could have soloed the place. The blue flight and a few overenthusiastic trees are no match for me. Though these apparent friends came, and they helped, perhaps they’re not so bad, I mean, I guess it gave me a break from doing all of the work for a little while. As such, we got her some more haste gear, perhaps she might actually help me out with some of these quests now.. *more snigger* as if.

Hopefully, Fae will be back next time.. Once the effects of the err.. good night’s sleep has worn off. Until then, suffer well.

Begging

Beggars, we all hate ‘em right? People who, I’d assume, have level 80s (an old friend in TBC said he used to do this.. people would give him money to shut him up..), create a level 1, and run around the main city asking each and every person, “Just 1g plx, I need it.” How many times have you opened up a trade window, typed in 100g, not clicked trade and gone AFK, just to see their squirmy little reactions? No, I’ve never done that but it sounds hilarious!

Apparently on RP servers, the beggars are a little more original. I might have even caved for this guy!

The walk

The talk

Result!

I believe the “old war veteran’s” next outcry was, “21G! I’M RICH! YES!” Then the other guy got naked and asked, “Spare a coin for an old war criminal?” Some people just manage to put a smile on your face. :)

Roleplay: Getting Started

Jaedi's current RP set, level 40.

A couple of nights back I was hanging around Dustwallow Marsh on Jaedi, my rogue on Argent Dawn. I was finishing off a few quests, glancing at guild chat and I noticed a couple of people were sharing their FlagRSP descriptions, how they want it to relate to their backstory and characters’ personality, and giving each other feedback. In that moment, Jaedi the Snobby Thief was born.

Some of you might read this and scoff, I can think of at least 3 of you who might, but ever since I started playing WoW 3 and a half years ago, and found out about the different types of servers (when I first started, I didn’t understand what ‘PvP’ and ‘PvE’ meant, I’d participated in a little by email story telling style roleplay in my teenage years so I knew what RP was, but nobody had really explained the different types of servers and what they’re individually like to me) I wanted to try roleplay in World of Warcraft. The creation of Single Abstract Noun on Argent Dawn (RP) has given me the perfect opportunity to try it.

The first place I started, really, was chatting to the guys in guild who were already on RP servers, getting a few tips. The first I received was about FlagRSP, a mod enabling you to add a small character description, available for others with the same mod to see, allocating a few physical details about your character and perhaps hinting to a part of their personality, without forcing ideas on people too much.

Next, I delved into a few blogs I know of. I’ll admit, in the past I’ve been pretty awful at reading RP related posts, but God damnit I’m going through archives now. Initially, I’m reading the ‘beginners guide to RP’ type posts, because I guess that’s all I really need to know, just to pick up a few tips from people who have been roleplaying for a while. A few I’ve found, which you should read and love if you haven’t already. Okay, some aren’t posts so much as archives I found interesting:

And I know some of these might sound a tad dodgy but they aren’t, I’ve read them all and don’t worry, I won’t be attempting any kind of relationship RP, or ERP, so there is none of that here. I am in a relationship in the real world and although RP is only acting, it would still feel wrong. This includes flirting. I respect people who do embark upon roleplaying relationships between characters, heck, I understand entirely. It is one depth my characters will never have though, not while I’m acting them.

The next place I will look into is creating my character. I threw together a few words while I was half asleep the other night, which I will be going over and improving (I’m a bit of a perfectionist at times, I’m never happy with my own ideas). She has a vague backstory, a small character description plopped into FlagRSP, and I’m thinking of taking her down the Thief route rather than Assassin, as I do love Pickpocketing and Lockpicking! I’m also eyeing up some pieces of gear I’d like to get hold of later on when she’s higher level, which I will take note of, and I will be playing with it in WoW Model Viewer.

The roleplay aspect of WoW is entirely new to me, and it’s giving me a new focus on the game at present. I’m enjoying just the idea so much that I’ve even given Fae, my main, a vague personality, who happens to be on a PvP server, born and bred, so she might never even get a chance to use it. The next task is to actually get involved in a little RP, throw my character out there and see how people respond, I think that is the fun part of it, creating a character and seeing how others react to her and how a story can develop. Squee!

Jaedi comes to the realisation that this guy looks a lot like Brian Blessed.

How Not To RP

You may have realised by now that Argent Dawn is in fact an RP server. The first time I entered Silvermoon City, there were people slowly walking around like NPCs, talking to each other in Thalassian, it really does feel like another world entirely coming from a PvP server.

The other night, I believe it was Friday, we ventured into Silvermoon to check out the RP surroundings. It was funny! Of course, we stood around messing about, giggling away, and a rogue pops up and joins in. I felt a little sorry for him, he seemed to be making a genuine attempt to RP with us and was met with Sith’s remarks. If I’m honest, I think he was laughing at us.

There are the right ways to RP, and the wrong ways to RP, and I believe I’ve picked up a few tips:

  • (( )) = Out of character.
  • Don’t use smileys, and remember that if you bump into somebody your character hasn’t come across before, they wouldn’t know their name.
  • FlagRSP (RP mod) shouldn’t be used for back story, just things you can visibly see looking at a character, the aesthetics.
  • And stay away from de voodoo ‘mon’.

The things people do at crazy hours of the morning, eh? ;)

Sunday Link Love

I can’t possibly link love all of the awesome bloggers I’ve come across this week, but a very dear friend of mine has come over to the dark side. Not only has he enrolled in Single Abstract Noun but he’s caved in and started his own blog. Go over and say hello to Zalduun at Blessing of Fish!

Skinning, is it Right?

Keristrasza: “Come, Lord of Magic, and recover your precious consort….”
Keristrasza: “…what remains of her!”
Malygos: “Saragosa! What has become of you?”
Malygos: “Keristrasza! You’ve bested my consort… and now YOU shall take her place!”
*both dragons despawn*

Fae took a sad walk back to the mages of Coldarra island and told them the terrible news. They asked her if she can go into the Nexus and free the corrupted spirit of Keristrasza.

So, she gathered together a group of 5 heros, ran through the Nexus with them killing an array of strange creatures and then they finally found Keristrasza. Sighing, she broke the red dragon free of her icy tomb. Leaping around to keep themselves warm, they defeated her corrupted self and freed her spirit, when the rest of the party saw the following message:
Fae receives loot [Arctic Fur]. “Score!” Fae yelled with delight, the rest of the party didn’t quite agree, and shook their heads in shame.

“I suppose we’ll have to take back her body to the Wyrmrest Temple for a proper burial SKINLESS now..” The shield bearing warrior glared at Fae, clearly unamused by her disrespect.

Dranosh Saurfang (the Younger)

“The son is the father.” – Farseer Corhuk.

Dranosh Saurfang, the son of Varok Saurfag, also sometimes known as Saurfang the Younger. His name, ‘Dranosh’, means ‘Heart of Draenor’ in Orcish. Although his mother is not known, she is mentioned in Icecrown. His father says that he made a promise to his mother before she died, that he would leave Outland alone and leave Dranosh untainted.

We first meet him in Nagrand near the Sunspring Post, set out to seek revenge after a Murkblood raid on his home. However, it doesn’t go so well and he gains severe injuries, as well as being only one of a handful of survivors. He decides to go through the Dark Portal to find his father and follow in his footsteps.

Upon meeting his father in Northrend, he is given one of the highest tasks, his father knowing he was the only one who could keep a level head, that he was worthy enough, so he also gave him his armour. This task was to head to the Wrathgate for battle. He sadly fell to Frostmourne just before Putress betrays them, releasing his plague.

Of course, having fallen to Frostmourne, his soul is taken by the Lich King, and he becomes Deathbringer Saurfang. Guarding the Citadel from any champions who may seek to enter. After the Gunship battle, depending on your faction you will meet with differing introductions and endings to the fight, needless to say, the final result, for either faction, was possibly the saddest moment in WoW. The father carrying his son’s body for burial.

Varok Saurfang (the Elder)

“I am Saurfang. Brother of Broxigar. You know me to be the Supreme Commander of the Might of Kalimdor. An orc – a true orc warrior – wishes for one thing: To die in the glory of battle against a hated enemy. Some of you have fought in battles. Peace has been with us for many years. Many years we sat idle but many years we battled. In those years – where strife the land and Legion and Scourge sacked our homes, killed our families – these insects dwelled beneath us. Beneath our homes – waiting. Waiting to crush the life from our little ones. To slay all in their path. This they do for their god. And for our gods? We defend. We stand. We show that as one. United. We destroy. Their god will fall. To die today, on this field of battle, is to die an orcish death. To die today is to die for our little ones. Our old ones. Our… loved ones. Would any of you deny yourselves such a death? Such an honor?”- addressing the Might of Kalimdor during the Second War of the Shifting Sands.

High Overlord Saurfang serves as the Supreme Commander of the Horde. He is the brother of Broxigar, who died trying to stop Sargeras, and was the only known creature to wound the Dark Titan. He is also one of the orcs who drank from the blood of Manneroc.

He is currently found helping the Horde forces in Icecrown Citadel, though has previously stood in Orgrimmar, and was Supreme Commander during the Second War of the Shifting Sands.

Along with Garrosh Hellscream, Varok Saurfang is one of Thrall’s most trusted advisors. When news of the Wrathgate tragedy reached Thrall, it was Varok who reminded him that it is his duty to lead his people.

A few facts you should remember about this particular orc:

  • Every night before he goes to bed, Sargeras checks under his bed for Saurfang.
  • Archavon is Saurfang’s Pet Rock
  • Saurfang does not have to wait for Arthas to come in CoS timed. The prince will run like hell.
  • The real reason the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor split is because that was the day Saurfang cut his very first birthday cake. Afterwards, Saurfang decided that Thrall should cut the cake instead.
  • Saurfang once killed 53,297 zombies with a single cleave attack.

A Hint of Lore – The Legendary Season – Thunderfury

thunderaan

I’ve always been curious about the lore behind certain legendary weapons, and as such have been meaning to find out. From a non-lore interested player’s perspective, a legendary weapon is just something much more interesting to obtain than usual. I thought I would start finding out for myself and share my findings. Starting with Thunderfury, the second legendary added to the game, the first being Sulfuros, the Hand of Ragnaros.

Thunderaan, Prince of Air, was defeated by Ragnaros the Fire Lord during the Elemental Sundering. His essence was forced into a talisman of elemental binding and then shattered into two fragments, each given to Ragnoros’ lieutenants, Baron Geddon and Garr. After much time had passed the two halves found their way to one of Thunderaan’s followers, Demitrian, who crafted a sword to contain his master. This was Thunderfury, the remains of Prince Thunderaan’s essence.

Thunderfury itself is a 1handed sword, which these days can be obtained by any class, even those who can’t equip it. The quest starts after obtaining one of the Bindings of the Windseeker, which are of course the two talisman fragments kept by Baron and Garr.

To complete the quest you need both halves of the bindings, the Essence of the Fire Lord which is a drop from Ragnaros if you have the quest, and 10 Elementium Bars, which are very expensive and difficult to obtain. They require a book of smelting and ore, which can only be found in Blackwing Lair. Thunderfury

Once you hand in the above to Demitrian in Silithus, he summons Thunderaan himself. You must defeat Thunderaan, back at 60 it required a 40 man raid, though Dan got his bindings a few weeks back and we 2 manned him easily enough at 80, though he still has a lot of health. When defeated, he drops the Dormant Wind Kissed Blade, which you hand in to Demitrian and he then crafts Thunderfury for you.

Thunderfury is basically a sword crafted from the Prince of Air’s own sword, and his essence. Whenever you attack with Thunderfury, you unleash the power of Thunderaan.