World of Warcraft - Lore & Storyline discussion [SPOILERS] - Page 603

Leviathon · 07/02/10, 4:22 PM

So in the Worgen starting zone you actually do find out the history of the Worgen. Malfurion was around at the time of the Druids of the Scythe and actually banned the form since he knew they couldn't control it.

Faded Journal - Item - World of Warcraft

Day 1

"A druid's gift is his freedom to embrace and explore all facets of nature."

Malfurion so often spoke these words, I was once foolish enough to believe that he truly lived by them. Yet while my shan'do spouted this freedom, he disgraced me and my fellow druids of the pack by banning our form. I can still recall with great clarity his angry tirades whenever he discovered us practicing in secret.

"The pack form cannot be controlled. It will consume you, and endanger us all."

The ignorance with which Malfurion passed judgment on us is infuriating. Does he not realize that the spirit of the wolf ancient, Goldrinn, is by nature's grace within me and my pack brethren? We did not choose it. It chose us. To shun it would be to turn our backs on nature itself.

It only pains me that at a time like this, when our race is threatened by war with the vile satyr, Malfurion rejects us -- the very druids who could turn the tide of battle in his favor.

It matters little now. Today my brethren and I will depart from night elf society forever to begin life anew in the wild. We will show our shan'do's beliefs to be wrong and prove that Goldrinn's spirit can in fact be controlled.

Day 7

Six nights have come and gone since we carved out our new homes in the heart of the forest. Our pack leader, Renthel, has taken charge over the community, and under his wise leadership I have at last found true freedom.

Each night we practice our form at the roots of a fallen tree where we have placed Goldrinn's fang. A thing of beauty it is... merely being in its presence seems to empower me. At times I wonder if the wolf ancient left this remnant of himself on the world as a gift to those who pursue his form.

These nightly sessions have filled me with renewed confidence in my ability to harness Goldrinn's spirit. Although Malfurion so often spoke of its dangers, even now we are proving him to be wrong.

Day 12

There was an argument tonight. A seasoned druid named Thaldrus laid claim to leadership of the pack over Renthel, and both druids settled the dispute in pack form. They circled one another for what seemed an eternity, mouths foaming and fangs bared, until Thaldrus lunged at Renthel and pinned him to the ground.

Renthel honorably accepted his defeat and relinquished his leadership with no further violence. If only Malfurion could have witnessed the dignity with which Thaldrus and Renthel acted on this eve.

Day 23

Something strange has been happening of late. My brothers spend more and more time in pack form throughout the day. Many of them claim that it is a necessity to mastering the form, yet I feel that is not the sole reason.

An urge, primal in origin, grows inside of me. It is a desire that I can only sufficiently sate when I take on the pack form. I fear that the others feel it too.

Day 28

Tonight, under the two moons, we ventured through the wild in pack form and felled three stags. So famished were my brethren and I that we simply ripped into the creatures, clawing and biting at each other while we feasted. Euphoria washed over me as I sank my teeth into the stag's raw flesh. Even if I had been without an appetite, gorging on the creature would have satisfied me.

Day 38

First time out of pack form in seven nights. Live as a wolf like others, from one night to next. Pack leader Thaldrus says night elf bodies are weak. All trust him. All follow him. If he saw me now, he would kill me.

Goldrinn's spirit consuming us. Fighting it feels just as wrong as giving in.

Day 42

Still taste pack leader Thaldrus' blood in my mouth.

Cannot recall details. Only remember Thaldrus taking Goldrinn's fang from fallen tree. Caught him dragging it into his den and--

<This part of the page is illegible due to blood stains>

Took two nights for Thaldrus to come out. We were waiting. Fangs and claws and rage. Tore him apart. Fur and flesh everywhere. Only gnawed bones afterward.

No leader now.

Day 52

Much has come to pass of late, and I feel that at last I have regained a portion of my sanity. Five nights ago, I left my den to discover that the other pack members were gathered around something, or as I soon discovered, someone. A night elf whose scent I recognized as Ralaar Fangfire, a druid of Malfurion's ilk.

As one we encircled him, yet the intruder held his ground. I smelled not a hint of fear on him, despite the fact that he remained in night elf form. His arrogance was quite infuriating.

Three of my enraged brothers charged Ralaar, and the newcomer took on the pack form and bested the challengers with little effort... yet he did not kill them.
In that instant I became aware of a difference between him and us. We had become savages... scarred, lean, and disheveled. Ralaar, however, was powerful, majestic, and still rife with Goldrinn's essence.

When no others dared challenge him, Ralaar took on his night elf form and spoke. In a tirade that reminded me of Malfurion, he berated us for becoming mindless animals and squandering what he referred to as the purity of Goldrinn's essence. Yet unlike my former shan'do, Ralaar also promised to teach us the true path to harnessing the wolf ancient's spirit. I sensed tremendous rage in his voice, tempered by a self control that I had somehow lost in recent weeks.

One by one we all left our pack forms. I can only guess that my brethren, like I, felt a strange affinity to this newcomer, as if he were a messenger of Goldrinn himself.

Ralaar has since begun teaching us as he had promised, though he no longer answers to his given name.

Rather, he now refers to himself simply as Alpha Prime.
-Gaedrin Moonfang, Druid of the Pack

Leguaran · 07/02/10, 4:31 PM

I have trouble understanding and following the Worgen history. Worgen at first was simply a druidic form? A form hard to control and easy to give into its instincts?

Leviathon · 07/02/10, 4:35 PM

Originally Posted by Leguaran

I have trouble understanding and following the Worgen history. Worgen at first was simply a druidic form? A form hard to control and easy to give into its instincts?

Basically all Worgen you see are cursed beings who have become feral.

Leguaran · 07/02/10, 4:41 PM

I think that part I understand. As far as current/GilneanWorgen go, I've thought of them as cursed beings with that feral side. But what I was getting at was really the first few worgen. So, those first Worgen were druids exploring a form that was "forbidden" to them and were eventually overcome by it? And following this, other people they came in contact with (fighting?) were also cursed with the worgen form/feral fury?

Aditu · 07/02/10, 4:49 PM

Originally Posted by Mr. Crow

A madness took me when I considered the possibility of Bolvar becoming the new Forsaken leader, but that's just too ridiculous to be even remotely possible.

There's no such thing as ridiculous when it comes to a storyline. Comic books are the prime example of this. Sylvannas going Rogue and the Forsaken and scourge being united under the Lich King Bolvar in a future expansion pack is the kind of sensational story arc that would keep long term wow players interested. I think Sylvannas becoming a villain of sorts is a definite possibility and a horde Civil war would be the perfect premise for bringing Thrall back or solidifying the leadership potential of Garrosh.

Personally, I find this kind of intrigue developing into a solid sub-plot far more interesting than another attempt by an Old God in influencing Azeroth. Plus, I think faction leaders have been tragically dormant for all of WoW, so developing their personalities and characters further is definitely needed to expand the Warcraft universe. My main fear is that Garrosh, Sylvannas, Varian or whoever are created in such a way as to be entirely one dimensional. Sylvannas going evil is an interesting twist, but only if her dark ambitions are counter weighted by other acts of good and benevolence and she becomes a tragic leader. Big name WoW villains have an unfortunate history of being unquestionably bad at the time of their demise and thats made their characters fairly uninteresting.

Leviathon · 07/02/10, 6:23 PM

Originally Posted by Leguaran

I think that part I understand. As far as current/GilneanWorgen go, I've thought of them as cursed beings with that feral side. But what I was getting at was really the first few worgen. So, those first Worgen were druids exploring a form that was "forbidden" to them and were eventually overcome by it? And following this, other people they came in contact with (fighting?) were also cursed with the worgen form/feral fury?

The Worgen curse basically spreads when you are bitten. In Gilneas for example your character first gets bitten when you go to help someone and they start transforming and bite you in the process. After that the bite gets worse and worse as you go through the city (growing hair etc.) until it eventually consumes you at the end of the 1-5 experience at the Cathedral.

Ukerric · 07/03/10, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Leguaran

So, those first Worgen were druids exploring a form that was "forbidden" to them and were eventually overcome by it? And following this, other people they came in contact with (fighting?) were also cursed with the worgen form/feral fury?

That's the new retconned lore, yes.

Pre-cata: Worgen were extradimensional/outerplanar beings, invoked as help against the scourge. With a curse spreading around once they crossed over. A few arcane mages (the best known being Arugal, but he got the idea from another) could invoke them, and the Scythe of Elune could not only invoke, but control them - at least partially.

Now: Worgen are a druidic experiment that turned wrong.

If you go a few dozen pages back, you'll see my thoughts on the necessity of... that. I acknowledge retcons when you put yourself at an impasse and have to fix things. Retconning because you're too lazy to work with the materials you already have...

Blayze · 07/03/10, 1:51 PM

No reason they can't be both.

Step 1: Druids of the Scythe become Worgen. Events of Journal play out.
Step 2: Naptime for the Worgen-Druids. They enter the Emerald Dream.
Step 3: They either go insane and fight the Green Dragonflight, or fight against the Nightmare, thus the "Lords of the Emerald Flame".

Leviathon · 07/03/10, 2:12 PM

Originally Posted by Ukerric

That's the new retconned lore, yes.

Pre-cata: Worgen were extradimensional/outerplanar beings, invoked as help against the scourge. With a curse spreading around once they crossed over. A few arcane mages (the best known being Arugal, but he got the idea from another) could invoke them, and the Scythe of Elune could not only invoke, but control them - at least partially.

Now: Worgen are a druidic experiment that turned wrong.

If you go a few dozen pages back, you'll see my thoughts on the necessity of... that. I acknowledge retcons when you put yourself at an impasse and have to fix things. Retconning because you're too lazy to work with the materials you already have...

The Emerald Dream would look like another dimension (since it is) to a human mage who doesn't know what the Emerald Dream is.

Blayze · 07/03/10, 7:08 PM

On another dragon-related note, I stumbled across a screenshot of post-Cataclysm Garrosh today.

"While there, a wise old war hero told me something that I would carry with me forever..."

Assuming it shouldn't just be "that I will carry with me", it got me thinking about possible Bronze Dragonflight involvement in Garrosh's change from whiner in TBC to psychotic idiot in Wrath to awesome in Cataclysm. Perhaps this is Garrosh from the future, sent back in time to set right what once went wrong.

Vaccine · 07/03/10, 7:47 PM

It's an obvious reference to Saurfang in my opinion.

Also, what a beefcake! One arm dangling an Orc in full plate armour over a bridge.

Monocle · 07/03/10, 7:53 PM

MMO Champion has a picture of the new and improved Nef up. Looks like we will be able to easily tell them apart with the model being brown and dusky looking compared to Ony's purple. It is probably just me, but Nef's looks a lot more self aware then Ony does, maybe because he has a pupil in his eye.

Leviathon · 07/03/10, 8:18 PM

Originally Posted by Monocle

MMO Champion has a picture of the new and improved Nef up. Looks like we will be able to easily tell them apart with the model being brown and dusky looking compared to Ony's purple. It is probably just me, but Nef's looks a lot more self aware then Ony does, maybe because he has a pupil in his eye.

Nefarian is more just a zombie while Onyxia is just 1 giant stitched together dragon.

Enova · 07/03/10, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by Blayze

On another dragon-related note, I stumbled across a screenshot of post-Cataclysm Garrosh today.

"While there, a wise old war hero told me something that I would carry with me forever..."

Assuming it shouldn't just be "that I will carry with me", it got me thinking about possible Bronze Dragonflight involvement in Garrosh's change from whiner in TBC to psychotic idiot in Wrath to awesome in Cataclysm. Perhaps this is Garrosh from the future, sent back in time to set right what once went wrong.

Well, I'm missing the context of the scene, but I think I like the new Garrosh so far... It's an improvement over WotLK, and certainly over TBC. But we don't talk about Nagrand anymore...

Blunt overlords are fine as far as heightening the conflict goes. But they have to be impressive in order for us to give a damn about them...

Between Varian allowing Saurfang to claim his son's body, and Garrosh dangling another orc over a cliff during a monologue... well, let's just say there are interesting times ahead of us...

Blayze · 07/04/10, 5:33 AM

Originally Posted by Vaccine

It's an obvious reference to Saurfang in my opinion.

Also, what a beefcake! One arm dangling an Orc in full plate armour over a bridge.

Yeah, almost certainly a reference to Saurfang. The thing is, though, Garrosh's wording is what's making me think -- he's talking about the lesson he learned, true, but he's talking about himself in the past tense.

"...that I would carry with me forever..."

Either it's a simple writing error (I can see Metzen's character notes talking about characters in the past tense like that) or there's some reason for Garrosh to refer to himself in the past tense.