T w e n t y S i d e d

I did quite a bit this past week, but I’m not sure how much is worth documenting. I guess we’ll find out. Anyone who missed out on the many comments on last week’s Fallout TV series post, make sure you follow up; unless you want to miss spoilers. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had deleted my Destruction Warlock that was somewhere around halfway through Battle for Azeroth in Worlds of Warcraft, due to difficulty in following the storyline properly. I switched to my Draenei Hunter Mystilatre and chose to level up in Warlords of Draenor. And I have to say, I have had a much better experience this time around. Lots of images in this one, at least toward the end.

OK. This time around I’ll actually get into the Warlords of Draenor lore and explain what’s going on. Although I will still be leaving off important tangents and a lot of “well, ACTUALLY…” explanations. The most important thing you need to know is The Burning Legion. If the existing universe is ordered substance, the inverse is chaos and The Void. Fel Magic/Void Energy comes from The Void, and beings that have fallen to/been corrupted by these energies use and even live in The Void. Some of these beings are, TL;DR; corrupted gods, god-like beings, and demi-gods. As an organized force bent on destruction and chaos, they are The Burning Legion. The Burning Legion once attacked, corrupted, and destroyed a planet called Argus. That was the home planet of the Draenei race. The Draenei were servents of “The Light,” the mystical counterpart to Chaos. There are god-like beings/demi-gods that exist IN The Light called Naaru. The Burning Legion wanted to destroy the Naaru, and were quite successful. With the aid of some Naaru, many Draenei escaped Argus in a crystal-like dimensional ship and crashed on a planet they named Draenor. There were already sentient races on Draenor; most notably, the Orcs. However, the Draenei and Orcs co-existed on the planet peaceably…until The Burning Legion found them again. This time The Burning Legion corrupted the Orcs, who began warring against the Draenei. The orcs also opened a dimensional portal to the planet Azeroth for reasons I’m not going to get into. The Orcs invaded Azeroth, leading to the game Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans. And once again, the remnants of the Draenei, following their leader Prophet Velen, separately escaped to Azeroth on a dimensional ship called The Exodar. There is an entire sub-plot in all of that involving the Blood Elves, but that brings in the entire Blood Elf lore, so we’re skipping that.

In the Warcraft RTS games, several factions from both what we know of as the Alliance and the Horde returned through the Dark Portal between Draenor and Azeroth to investigate and battle The Burning Legion; in an attempt to keep the Legion from directly attacking Azeroth. This comes to fruition in World of Warcraft‘s second expansion, appropriately named The Burning Crusade. We learn in this story that Draenor has been ripped apart by the Fel Energies of the void. The inhabitants clinging to the remaining islands of crust call the planet “Outland.” The players battle through the zones of Outland defeating the forces and various leaders of The Burning Legion. Along the way Alliance and Horde players will reconnect with heroes of the RTS games. Of significant note, Horde Warchief Thrall meets the son of Grommash “Grom” Hellscream. Grom was the first orc to drink the tainted blood of the Legion pit-lord Mannoroth, thus binding the Orc race to the Legion. Grom was ALSO instrumental in rejecting, with Thrall’s help, the curse of the Fel Bloodlust that resulted. Grom defeated Mannoroth single-handedly, freeing his people of the curse…but also perishing in the fel flames that burst from Mannoroth’s dying body. Grom’s son, Garrosh, is recruited by Thrall and eventually taken with him back to Azeroth. While in Outland, Thrall was also introduced to the forgotten Shamanic ways of the Orcs. At the end of the expansion, Thrall resigns as Warchief to study Shamanism and names Garrosh as the new Warchief…against, it must be noted, the advice of just about everyone.

So, throughout the events of Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, Garrosh becomes increasingly hostile and cruel. While demanding his forces stay true to highest ideals of the Horde; honor and loyalty, he increasingly displays none himself. NOTE: I should say here that this a pastiche of many years of events and narrative. You will actually find a decent amount of disagreement on how Garrosh was portrayed throughout this period. The last straw occurs in Mists of Pandaria; a land of calm and control by necessity. When the emotional energy that imbues the very fabric of Pandaria is pushed to the boiling point as hostilities between the newly-arrived Alliance and Horde erupt on the island nation, those most prone to extreme emotions are caught in a feedback cycle. Garrosh Hellscream, already teetering on the edge of apocalyptic intent eventually faces the combined forces of all of the various faction leaders in the game, many named faction heroes, and the player character (of course.) When the Pandarans intervene before Garrosh is killed in vengeance, thus stopping the cycle, Garrosh is put on trial in Pandaria. A time-viewing McGuffin is used in the trial to view past events. On the last day of Garrosh’s trial, outside forces attack, the McGuffin is broken, creating a portal through time, and Garrosh escapes. He returns to Draenor around the time The Burning Legion corrupted the Orcs. Garrosh prevents this, captures the Legion’s agents, and takes command of the Orcs of Draenor and begins to form “The Iron Horde” to take over Draenor and return to conquer Azeroth. That is where the story of Warlords of Draenor begins.

Having completed the introduction and the home Alliance zone, Shadowmoon Valley, we last saw the young Draenei Yrel after she joined us in fighting off the Iron Horde’s invasion as a Paladin trainee. The player next moves on to Gorgrond to learn the plans of the Blackrock clan, who seem to be the engineers of the Iron Horde. The player is also introduced to Outposts, an extension of your Garrison where you can build one of two resource buildings per zone. Of note, to get EVERYTHING in the game you can possibly get, you will have to replace whatever you build with the other option eventually. Not a fan of this, as there are resources located throughout the zone that can only be accessed using the special abilities of one building or the other, not both. This is one of those mechanics that works fine when the expansion is new and is the only max level content available. It’s just a hassle when you’re covering old ground. While the zone ends with an assault on the Blackrock orcs using an artifact of The Light, you can see a massive Foundry and Shipyard that is beyond your ability at the moment.

You move on to Talador, which contains the spiritual home of the Draenei; Auchindoun, and the great port of Shattrath City. We establish an outpost for our Garrison in the Northeast of Talador. After getting the Outpost going we reconnect with Yrel, now in full plate armor and bearing the weapon of a Vindicator. As in Shadowmoon Valley, the final goal is to stop the Iron Horde first as they attempt to take control of Auchindoun and capture the souls of the deceased that dwell there, and finally to stop the subsequent invasion of Shattrath City through the port. In this final Battle for Shattrath, Archmage Khadgar and Vindicator Maraad, along with the Orc Chieftain Durotar (father of Thrall, that’s a whole story,) the player and Yrel, lead the defense against the orc Blackhand’s invasion. The defending forces push the Iron Horde back to their ships, which are preparing massive cannons that could still reduce Shattrath to rubble. Durotar, Yrel, and Maraad attack Blackhand on his ship while the player and Khadgar take control of a second, aiming the cannon at Blackhand’s ship. From there,

After successfully defending Talador, the player can visit the Spires of Arak and build an outpost here; same options and rules. The story here is of less significance to the overall narrative, although it once again ends with a scenario battle like the other zones. You then travel to Nagrand, the final storyline before reaching end-game story elements for the expansion…although it should be noted you will start seeing Patch 6.1 content in Nagrand. As usual this probably flowed a bit better at the time, but it’s not TOO hard to navigate. Oh, and I should probably mention, although I THINK I brought it up at the time: I am NOT doing this through Chromie-time. I just took the quest for Warlords of Draenor from the Adventure/Hero’s Call board. Pretty sure I mentioned that. Well, one advantage of not doing Chromie-time is that you can OVER-LEVEL. Essentially, right toward the end of Talador, I pretty much started one-hitting everything, because I reached five levels over the zone’s level rating. And from what I understand, I SHOULD be able to do all Warlords of Draenor dungeon content, and possibly Raid content as well. Updates to come.

Toward the end of Nagrand we are sent to join VINDICATOR Yrel, complete with new armor and a shield. Not only has she completed her Paladin training, she has been allowed to join the elite forces of the Vindicators, the most accomplished defenders of the Draenei people. She brings to us the mission of Nagrand: defeating Garrosh Hellscream. Joining us will be Thrall, who has been working in Frostfire Ridge. The Garrosh fight is unfortunately scripted; I actually got him to 1 HP quickly. At which point he stuns the player and Yrel and prepares to beat them to death. Thrall challenges Garrosh to ritual combat, Mak’gora. From that point we just watch as Thrall and Garrosh fight. Garrosh screams about his abandonment issues and claims everything is Thrall’s fault; Thrall responds that Garrosh chose his own path, pretty standard stuff. Unfortunately, Garrosh is still half-supernatural, easily overwhelms Thrall and starts bragging about his power. At this point Thrall technically breaks the rules, as Mak’gora is supposed to be a challenge of strength and weapons…no magic. But of course, a major element of the entire story is the encapsulation of Hellscream’s REJECTION of Orc tradition and embracing of the Fel Orc goals even while turning down the Fel influence; against Thrall’s return to the values of the Orc clans that predated the arrival of The Burning Legion. That is to say, Thrall calls on the elements and spanks Hellscream thoroughly. Um, to death, in fact.

Before moving on, I also want to point out that at the beginning of the expansion, I was the SAME HEIGHT as Vindicator Yrel. But as any WoW player knows, hero rank is displayed vertically:

Unfortunately for the good guys, this is only half the battle. Garrosh Hellscream’s Iron Horde leadership may be defeated, but honestly they had already lost control of most of the Iron Horde. Remember those Burning Legion agents that Garrosh had imprisoned before the player arrives in Draenor? Yeah…about that. The player freed them as part of stopping the original Iron Horde invasion of Azeroth at the beginning of the expansion, and they’ve taken over the Iron Horde. And undoubtedly have contacted The Burning Legion as well. So you might say, we’ve only done the EASY part. From here, the player is supposed to go do some dungeons and raids and build their Garrison up to Level Three in order to engage in Patch 6.3 content: the return to the Tanaan Jungle, the zone where the Dark Portal is that we arrived through. And of course, finding out what the REALLY bad guys have been up to. Once my Garrison reached Level Three, I was notified Alliance Human King Varian Wrynn has arrived to start the next phase of the war. And next to him is EXARCH Yrel:

Exarchs are essentially the leadership council of the Draenei. It’s so touching to see our little space goat all grown up. The first few steps of the 6.3 Patch content is to establish a shipyard, which first involves rescuing an Orc shipwright from those Iron Horde docks we saw in Gorgrond. And this place is just some of the most amazing art Blizzard’s artists have done…I don’t think it was exceeded until Battle for Azeroth.

I am currently working on Shipyard and Garrison content, just for fun mostly. I will likely try some WoD dungeons this coming week. But also, I’ve started a new project to document, since it’s been a topic of discussion:

Probably one of the most recognizable “beginning” screens in video game history. I considered doing a “pacifist” play-through, but it’s been long enough since I last played, I had no confidence in myself. So this is a pretty straightforward, 100% or close to it, small arms–>energy weapons–>power armor build. As proof of concept, I have successfully killed twenty rats:

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

Paige Francis He/him