Friday, May 23, 2008

18. Shrines, Monnorath's Spear, and Tongs

Text for the Stardancer's "Off the Beaten Path" Audio segment [ Epic Dolls #37 ]

PLACES TO SEE

ASHENVALE
In my opinion, probably one of the more picturesque and beautiful zones in the Azeroth world is Ashenvale. The ethereal use of colors and the prehistoric tree line makes the whole zone very mystical. You probably knew this, but the Ashenvale’s design inspiration comes from a real place…the [ Sequoia National Forest ] located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. So, to extend the Off the Beaten Path to the real world, the Sequoias are worth visiting at least once in your life time.

Ashenvale is worth visiting while in Azeroth…and here’s some places to see while you are there.

Shrine of Aessina
This area has changed slightly for Alliance. In Western Ashenvale, West and slightly North of the Shrine of Aessina, there are two families who reside in what used to be an abandoned House …the night elves, Edunes, and the humans Dundaire. Of Particular interest to me was Elenna Edunne, the huntress who wanders about with her tallstrider pet named Goodie. Yay for tallstriders.

While you are in this area, farther south of the Edune House and west (way behind the Shrine of Aessina) is a hunter camp outpost with a hunter and pet trainer as well as a leatherworking supplier, Harlown Darkweave. The supplier sells the pattern for the Herbalist gloves. Sorry, this is Alliance only and Horde need to be careful of the wandering Forest Protector.
DEMON FALL CANYON
What isn’t just for Horde anymore is the in the southern most area of Ashenvale, south of the road between Warsong Lumber Camps and Splintertree post, it’s Felfire Hill. There are two rather fascinating things to see here. On the left path once you have entered the Hill, is the named demon Gorgannon who circles the giant floating Mannorath’s broken spear.

Also in Felfire Hill is a monument with an inscription written by Thrall, who dedicates the structure to Grommash Hellscream, Chieftan of the Warsong Clan.nt.
QUESTS

SCYTHE OF ELUNE
I received an email that asked me to mention the fascinating quest, The Scythe of Elune.

This is a rather long quest chain that requires you to travel all over. Unfortunately, this quest is for Alliance only, but the story is really fascinating and explains how and why there are the Worgen (wolf-men) in the world. The quest begins with Sentinel Melyria Frostshadow, at Forest Song in Ashenvale. I really don’t want to give much away about this entire quest as the story is rather involved.

Role Playing Tips
LORE

I usually use the lore as a basic understanding of the world and structure of the society for the world. As I never played any of the prior Warcraft games, War of the Ancient books, the lore synopsis at the main WoW site, and information such as what Illidarian presents are invaluable in gaining an understanding of the history and story of Warcraft. This is especially true if you enjoy role-playing.

However, players and role-players alike come to MMOs to have a good time and be creative. So, I think it is important to have fun and not get stressed out about not knowing enough lore. Don’t let that interfere with creating or enjoying your character in role-play. You can always amend your character’s history the more you learn through the quests and lore segments.

Even Blizzard bends its own world’s lore from time to time to fit the new things they add to the game. If a character can create a gnomish battle chicken then maybe there is some room to bend the lore slightly to make the role-playing experience more fun.

In my character Stardancer’s (alliance side) story, I wanted her history to fit more into my own mystical interests. I expanded her history to include little known information about the dryads, the children of Cenarius. Since they had the torso of night elves, I merged this information to include the possibility that night elves could become dryads or evolve into them to become additions to Cenarius’ children. In Star’s story, her mother performed a selfless act during the war and would have died. However, she was granted rebirth as a forest sister and lived as one of the caretaker dryads in Stonetalon Peak. To me, this made a reason for Star to travel to Stonetalon often to visit her mother there. As the many hundreds of years passed, her mother’s memory of her slowly faded and she became increasingly attuned to her new role as a caretaker…a dryad.

I am of the opinion that certain aspects of the world can be receptive to your interpretation and in some instances this interpretation can encompass a guild theme. On [ Epic Dolls number 35 ], Leala talked about a guild named the Dread Pirates. They reminded me of a role-playing guild on ER called “Grey Tiger Tong” lead by TaiJing and Kennia. This guild has a cross faction emphasis. This means there is an continuation of the guild on the Horde side as a part of the same guild. I don’t think I could better describe this guild than he does…

Taijing writes,
“In the back alleys, darkened corners of taverns, the back offices of public officials, even the inner sanctums of the church, some say that the Grey Tiger Tong is more than meets the eye. To the casual observer, the Tong is simply a merchants' civic organization dedicated to improving their communities through successful local businesses, such as the Gray Tiger Shipping & Freight Company in Stormwind and the Savage Coast Fishmonger Company in Booty Bay.

There are, however, whispers that the Tong conceals a vast, shadowy business syndicate that deals in smuggled goods, protection rackets, gambling, loan sharking, even hired hits. Cynics are sure that a large part of their success in the business world is due to their willingness to use graft, extortion, blackmail, and force, even brutal force ...”
That’s the description of the guild. However, in their further comments we are reminded that the guild theme of the Tong though mysterious is neutral in nature and not evil.

Such a great idea!
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