A Simple Conversation

| 2009 | Tharion Greyseer posted under LoreCrafted, Walking with Bronze | 12 Comments

1 Jul

It takes little more than a simple spark to start a wildfire…

Tahu Sagewind says: I wonder. Hamuul has guided us well, and I’ve learned so much from him. The legends say that our people were druids when time began…

Aponi Brightmane says: I hear the “but” in your voice…

Tahu Sagewind says: …but what Hamuul teaches is what the elves know. The night elves. They put such stock in their moon goddess, as creatures of the night.

Aponi Brightmane says: Do you think his teachings are wrong?

Tahu Sagewind says: No! No, nothing like that. He is an elder for good reason, sister. Mu’sha is one of the Earthmother’s eyes, and she watches over us. That isn’t sinister.  But we’re nothing if not people who strive for balance. Our warriors fight only when there is need. Our hunters take only what the tribes require to live, and use all they can when they do. The shaman stand as guide and mediator to the elemental spirits. And while we, as druids, are guardians of nature, I wonder if we’ve overlooked a key aspect of balance in all things.

What you just read is but a small snippet from a conversation happening on the 3.2 PTR in Thunderbluff (assuming the 3.2 PTRs are up when you read this, it’s most likely happening right now).  This story was covered not too long ago on WoW.com, and it sparked a flurry of discussions about the future of tauren druids.

Will they change tauren druids?  What’s with this “imbalance” of which they speak? Tahu’s obviously lamenting a bit about the derivative use of the moon-oriented teachings that come from the night elves, so are we going to eventually see sun-based powers in the future? Does this mean that tauren druids will eventually wield the Light? Wait, that means we’ll have tauren paladins and priests!

HOLY COW, A TAUREN PRIEST!

*ahem* Sorry… couldn’t resist.

Let’s back up a bit and explore this, shall we? First we have the claim that the tauren were the first druids. This, believe it or not, isn’t new information. It’s been a part of Warcraft since WoW’s release, as far as I remember. The basic lore states that the tauren were taught druidism by Cenarius, but that they fell away from it over time. Tauren druids these days are taught by the night elves, who began their druidic teachings with Malfurion Stormrage and have continued ever since.  For the tauren, Hamuul Runetotem is said to be the first tauren druid in about 20 generations.

But what Tahu is suggesting is that perhaps the more ancient tauren druids wielded more than just the current moon-influenced abilities. Perhaps there’s another side to the balance, another part of the Earthmother.  And since Elune, the moon, is largely considered to be the same as Mu’sha, and since Mu’sha is considered one of the eyes of the Earthmother, perhaps this balance comes with the inclusion of An’she, the sun and the other eye of the Earthmother? This is from which a lot of the current speculation sparks.

This seems likely, as druids are protectors of nature. Their ties to night or day should be irrelevant. It would only make sense to flavor night elves as being nocturnal druids and tauren as being daylight druids, yes?

Indeed, but I personally think that’s about as far as it will go. The tauren, up until recently, have been lacking largely in lore. Only the gnomes stood with them in terms of their lack of background. Because of this, I’m all in favor of fleshing out and expanding the background of tauren druids to detach themselves from night elven culture. It seems only right to give them their own identity.

But do I forsee the addition of Light-wielding tauren in the near future? No. That not only stretches the lore of the world a bit far (as the Light isn’t necessarily the embodiment of the sun… the Light’s embodiment is already found in the naaru), but it also breaks Blizzard’s game mechanics a bit.

No, sorry, I don’t believe we’ll see playable holy cows outside of creative roleplay.

That said, I DO think that Blizzard can tighten up the history of the tauren a bit. Since we clearly see tauren constellations in Ulduar and tauren statues in Uldaman, we know that the tauren are somehow tied to the titans. So perhaps the tauren are the chosen children of Eonar, the Lifebinder. She was the titan responsible for life, and there are many who speculate that Eonar actually IS the Earthmother’s true identity.

Perhaps tauren druids predate even Cenarius’s teachings? Perhaps they truly were the originals, getting their powers from the blessing of Eonar herself. But perhaps with the departure of the Pantheon the druids began to waver and forget. Perhaps it was Cenarius who tried to keep the teachings current. But perhaps… just perhaps Cenarius showed his favortism to his mother’s children, the night elves. And thus the tauren druid vanished from Azeroth until recently.

But, hey, it’s all just speculation sparked from a simple conversation. Your thoughts?

A Midsummer Night’s RP Writing Contest

| 2009 | Tharion Greyseer posted under Author Blogs, Fan Fiction, LoreCrafted, Seeing Grey | 8 Comments

23 Jun

To honor the beginning of summer here in our hemisphere and to celebrate the Fire Festival in World of Warcraft, a few of us “Story bloggers” would like to announce the A Midsummer Night’s RP Writing Contest! LoreCrafted, WTT:RP, and Too Many Annas have all chipped in to bring you this short writing contest for some great little prizes. Running from June 23, 2009 to July 6, 2009, this contest is meant to spark the creativity of all you roleplayers, writers, and lore buffs out there!

So what’s this contest about? It’s simple, actually. All you have to do to enter is write a 500-1000 word entry describing an in-character reaction to, or a participation in, a quest or lore event found in World of Warcraft. No, the quest / event isn’t required to be a part of the Fire Festival.  It can be anything found in WoW around which you feel you can craft a suitably creative bit of fiction.

When you’re satisifed with your short, email it to midsummerwriting@gmail.com within the posted dates, and those of us here will dive into judging and choosing the winners!

What kind of prizes can you win? Well, we’re still sorting through the mountains of Warcraft novels, comics, loot cards, and other assorted bits and pieces, but rest assured that whatever we have will be suitable for such a story oriented contest! We’ll post more details shortly once we’re certain what we have at our disposal.

So fire up those word processors, pens, pencils, or quills, folks! We look forward to seeing what you can come up with!

We Will Feed Them a Diet of Steel!

| 2009 | Tharion Greyseer posted under LoreCrafted, Story Reviews | 1 Comment

18 Jun

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE RECENTLY RELEASED ISSUE #20 OF THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT MONTHLY COMIC

Will we now? Will we really? Well, it can’t be as bad as this diet of horrific dialogue we’ve been feeding them through the World of Warcraft monthly comic, can it?

Writing

I really hate to be this harsh, but can we PLEASE get someone aside from Walter Simonson on this book? The writing has reached a new low, and the only reason I’m still reading this is because of my responsibilities to this site and the setting’s lore.

Look, you’ve switched artists three times already, meaning we’re on our fourth artist on this book. Can we not switch writers, too? This is truly getting painful.

How about a brief appetizer of some of the choice lines found within the pages? Each of these lines are isolated phrases taken during bits and pieces throughout this issue:

Varian Wrynn: Then we will feed them a diet of steel! For soon, we take this war to the Lich King’s frozen shore!

Jaina Proudmoore: Come closer that I may embrace you! NOW! An icy coffer to sheathe the fortress of death…! …And freeze the Lich King’s necropolis to match his icy heart! Now, FIRE! STRIKE!! Shatter armaments! Break the ramparts! Crack the stony shell!

Valeera (speaking as her literal inner demon): You, Meryl, glow with arcane power! But the boy…is INCANDESCENT!

At least the demon didn’t say Med’an was flourescent…

*sighs*

Truly, we need a better writer on this book. This is just getting embarrassing.

Art

As mentioned above, we have another artist on this book. This time it’s Pop Mhan. I’ll say this much, the art is better. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s an improvement. Mhan uses what I consider to be a more traditional “comic-booky” style, eschewing the overly exaggerated proportions of Bowden and bringing things back into the realm of realism.

Granted, I do miss the pseudo manga-style of Lullabi from the first run, but I was getting tired of the ridiculous proportions seen in the recent issues.

However, my initial irritation still stands. I’d like to see consistent art on this book, instead of a switching off of artists every 5 or so issues. While the character designs are strong enough that we know who’s who in each and every issue, it becomes tiresome to see a different version of Varian, Jaina, Thrall, Garrosh, and Aegwynn each change.

Consistency and quality help build a readership in a comic. The World of Warcraft monthly severely needs both. Mhan? I like him so far, let’s see if he stays or if we continue playing musical chairs with the artists.

Story Summary

Aside from the climax of the Lich King’s invasion of Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and Theramore that began last issue, there is really only one major plot point that we see in Issue #20. Valeera Sanguinar releases her inner demon (literally, she actually has a dreadlord within her… which I guess I may have missed in a previous issue? *shrugs*) and fights Cho’gall, who’s mutating further and further due to Old God influence.

Med’an recovers both himself and Meryl, and helps the demon-possessed Valeera escape Cho’gall’s attack. Shortly thereafter, we discover that Meryl has faced Valeera’s demon in the past, assumingly before he became a disembodied mental passenger for the young blood elf. The issue ends with the dreadlord eyeing Med’an’s magically infused body as a potential new host. Creepy.

Oh, and some dark shadowy figure snuck into Theramore during the aftermath of the Lich King’s attack and freed Garona.

Overall

In all honesty, it pains me to see certain aspects of this book improve while also watching other aspects dwindle. I severely dislike belittling the writing so harshly due to Simonson’s legendary past in the industry, but I swear that I cannot see the draw of his work. This comic is just … pitiful … when it comes to dialogue.

Diet of Steel? It’s given me indigestion…