Reflections From The Pond

Posts Tagged ‘lore’

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, when I had just started playing WoW and was taking my first stumbling steps out of Northrend Abbey into Elwynn Forest I remember meeting a weird-looking player in Goldshire whose name tag above his head was not green or blue but yellow. He spoke unintelligible things and challenged a lot of us lowbie players there to duels.

My son, the resident WoW expert due to his having played way much longer than me, told me that it was a Horde player and his nametag being yellow meant that I could attack him if I wanted to. He recommended me not to because if I were to attack, the Horde would retaliate and I’d be dead.

Later on, I learned that not attacking Horde only protected me from being killed if I were in the Alliance starter zones, and that encountering any Horde outside those areas was likely to be associated with one or many corpse runs. Playing on a pvp server but sucking at pvp ftl.

Sometimes you saw Hordes amassing at Thorium Point, a 40-man raid assembling to go for Molten Core or Blackwing Lair, and as a little Alliance rogue you quickly rode away.

The Horde was truly alien. You could emote at them but you could not speak with them, and it was not until Outland opened up and Shattrah became the new central town that you actually saw Horde on a regular basis and for longer than the usual few seconds that was my estimated lifespan when meeting them out in the great wilderness.

On a normal server the Horde are even more remote. You know they are out there, but as you not normally are flagged for pvp you don’t really see them. When I transferred from my original pvp server to Aerie Peak it took me a long time to realise that half of the players outside Karazhan using the summoning stone were actually Horde, so conditioned was I to interpret blue or green name tags as friendly and only react when I saw a red tag.

It’s the same in Dalaran. The Horde are there but you don’t really see them and you don’t interact with them at all.

You do Wintergrasp battles against them, you do the other bg’s and fight the Horde, perhaps you gather up to kill the Horde leaders for that black bear and the achievement, but apart from that, they might as well be thin air or insubstantial ghosts or not even there, so little do they affect your actual everyday game play.

My son played a gnome mage on the same pvp server I started on, and one of his friends played a Horde char of some class or other. Sometimes they’d meet up in the wilderness with headsets on so they could communicate and go slaughter boars or help each other with quests in that area and just play a little together. Being on a pvp server, it was generally a pain when they ran into some other player who often would attack whomeever was of the opposing faction, sometimes despite the hurried attempts to explain that this was a friend and not to be killed, please!

Seems friendships across the faction barrier were destined to be hard to maintain.

And then I read something in a post by Sudiin over at (Gnome) Tank for Life which intrigued me. He was talking about alts and how Blizzard seems to go out of their way to encourage people to create and play alts, and he speculated a bit about the future in asking:

With people running out of new avatars to play will they finally break down the Horde-Alliance social barrier?

Now, as readers of this blog probably can guess, I think that would be wonderful.

I know there are a lot of old bad blood between the two factions, but if Horde and Alliance already can co-exist in the cities and even fight battles together (Veteran of the Wrathgate anyone?) I see no reason why we should not work on bringing this peaceful co-existence out in the world.

Even before Shattrah and Dalaran, the druids of both factions managed to co-exist peacefully and share Moonglade, why should the other classes and other races not be capable of this?

I know it would take a lot to turn the other cheek, to decide to if not forget then at least forgive old wrongs and grievances, to make that conscious effort to start anew with a peaceful and patient mind. But would it not be worth the effort?

And while the faction leaders negotiated and signed this peace treaty, and would be expected to make their best effort to keep it, there would still be contested areas where battles and skirmishes would be fought, like in Alterac Valley and Arathi Basin, – maybe this way you would find out if it’s really true that the Horde always pwn Alliance in bg’s.

And there would still be disgruntled faction members out in the wild who would fight this peace and attack what used to be enemies on sight, world pvp would not go away just because a new and fragile peace treaty exists.

Think of the possibilities it would open up!

You could learn the languages of the Horde and go visit their cities as a tourist and you’d (probably) be safe as long as you didn’t wander into the really dark alleys.

You could run dungeons and raids with Horde that were friendly to Alliance, or possibly friends that play Horde.

You could try out all the quests Horde-side, all of Alliance could help out and perhaps finally Mankrik could stop looking for his wife.

Making the Horde and Alliance green to each other would not be necessary; they could still be yellow to each other (on pvp servers) and thus attackable. But if you worked hard you would gain rep with the Horde factions, going from neutral to friendly to finally Exalted and then you would be green to everyone, friends with everyone.

Friends with everyone – wouldn’t that be awesome?

Yesterday after a fast ICC and TOC we went to Sartharions Lair deep under the Wyrmrest Temple to get yet another Twilight Drake for a guildie.

It was not the first Sarth 3D kill I’ve been in on – I got the Twilight Vanquisher title on one of my very first raids with Adrenaline 3 months ago – but it was still a special one because this was the first time I would be allowed to roll on the mount. Because it is such a rare mount and a result of a group effort you need to have been present at at least 2/3 raids during the last three months to be eligible to roll for it, and my three month anniversary with Adrenaline had rolled by just a few days ago.

This time the RL’s decided we were going to zerg it, so four of us healers swapped to our pewpew specs and outfits, leaving only two healers to deal with keeping people alive.

After a few tests we went for it and poor Sartharion went down like a snowman in hell. He did manage to splatter the tank and a few of us around him at the end, but he was so low on hp that the remaining raiders finished him off without even breaking a sweat.

And when it was time to roll for the mount I rolled highest of all eligible members and won it!

Larúe got herself a beautiful twilight dragon!

The twilight dragons are not part of any of the usual Dragonflights - Malygos’ blue ones, Alexstrasza’s red ones, Ysera’s green ones, Nozdormu’s bronze ones or Deathwing’s black ones – but seems to be the result of a breeding program by Deathwing’s consort Sinestra in Grim Batol.

With the discovery of the twilight egg nests withing the Obsidian Sanctum, guarded by Deathwing’s henchman Sartharion, it is now suspected that Sinestra did not act alone but that Deathwing himself was involved in this breeding of twilight dragons, and that he has far-reaching plans of plunging Azeroth into a new Cataclysmic twilight…

A long time ago, the Frostwolf clan of orcs were exiled to a hidden valley deep in the heart of the Alterac Mountains by Gul’dan, the most powerful warlock ever to exist and the real leader of the Horde for a long time, for refusing to embrace the curse of Bloodlust by drinking the blood of Mannoroth the destructor.

Most of the other orc clans drank and were corrupted, becoming part of the Burning Legion, the vast army of various corrupted races that seek to scour the world of all life and undo the work of the Titans. The Burning Legion has tried to invade and destroy Azeroth a number of times, but have always been defeated.

With hindsight, refusing to drink was a smart move by the Frostwolf clan and its leader Durotan.

Many centuries later, when Thrall reunited all the orc clans, the Frostwolves under the leadership of the shaman Drek’Thar chose to remain in the valley.

In recent years, the a dwarven expedition protected by a guard under command of General Vanndar Stormpike of the Stormpike Clan, a dwarven clan who also live in the Alterac Mountains, have entered the valley and set up residence in the north part to mine for natural resources and search for ancient titan relics.

Despite the dwarves peaceful intent, this has sparked an intense conflict with the territorial Frostwolves, who have woved to drive the intruders from their land.

As I was writing my last post, the one about my HealBot setup, I decided to get me some nice screenshots and double check all my settings by getting some live action. So I took my shaman and entered Alterac Valley, 40 man raid in the snowy mountains.

Was the first time for her in AV apparently, since she discovered a whole lot of places in the usual Galvangar-Drek zerg.

I counted on my preoccupation with testing my healing addon and screenshotting being less noticeable in a 40 man setting than in a 10 or 15.

What I had not counted on was how much fun I would find bg’ing! Or rather, that I would re-discover the fun of bg’ing!

It was so exciting, stopping in the Field of Strife and throw heals on those fighting there until they were at full health again and killed the hordes.

Or running in dropping the tremor totem at Galv or Drek to counter any horde there trying to fear us out, finding who was tanking Galv and throwing Earth Shield and Riptide on her/him and then Chain Heal away.

Or capping a tower and staying in it to defend, my totems giving a cosy tea-lighty feeling in the cramped top room, and when the hordes came to assault actually manage to keep me and the few other heroic defenders alive until the tower was ours and started burning.

The bg’s I found most fun were the ones that were not a straight zerg, but rather when you actually had to do some real pvp.

The feeling of seeing someone close to death being at full health in a matter of seconds despite their being beaten on by nasty hordes is wonderful, and it’s amazing how long it takes sometimes before opposing players realise that the reason the alliance noobs are not dying is because there is a shaman healing them up all the time. And even when they do realise it, the survivability of a mail-clad, shield-wearing shaman cleansing posions and diseases and throwing heals and totems around is actually rather good, way better than I had expected :-)

There was one bg in particular, one that started with us, the Alliance, having less than five groups in the raid when the portcullis opened and the battle commenced. The bg semmed pretty ordinary though, Galv went down, so did Iceblood and Tower Point, and I stopped at the Frostwolf Graveyard to help defend it, and when it was taken and firmly ours I rode on towards Drek.

But there was a lot of Horde at Frostwolf Keep, and they killed us all off! And they had attacked the Frostwolf graveyard so we all respawned at Dun Baldar!

And then the epic fight started – the Horde had advanced and we fought them on the road just before the pass towards Dun Baldar, and they were sneaking up from under the bridge as well. They pressed on, slowly advancing on us and attacking grave yards, mines and bunkers, which we retook and then they attacked again.

It was a real battle feel to it, we were doing our best to hold out, but were ever so slowly pushed back, and when the Horde took our mine as well and kept it we were running out of supplies, and after a 37 minute long fight the Horde won.

It was fun and intense and pulse-racing and sweaty, and even though we lost it was a hell of a battle!

 I had already gotten the Damage Control achievement, which requires 300 000 heal/damage, but in this bg I threw out a stunning 1 465 889 heals!

I ran totally out of mana twice at least, I used a few of my Crazy Alchemist Potions and I popped my trusted Mana Tide totem on every cooldown, and when that failed I ran around doing nothing til my mana started filling up enough for me to pop heals again.

I can’t remember the last time I ran out of mana on a PvE raid!

Sorted on healing done you see that I am at the top of Alliance heals!

(Also, interestingly, the top three healers in this intense bg are shamans. Is it Chain Heal ftw maybe? :-))

I’m glad I decided to finally write that HealBot setup post, and I am glad I took the time to go to AV to screenshot, because I haven’t had so much fun in WoW for a long time!

No, seriously, why can’t a gnome be a druid?

There is one immediate and profound question -- what size bear would she be?

But apart from that, is there something inherent that prohibits a gnome from studying hard and learning the tricks and become a shapeshifting druid or is it plain old discrimination?

Tauren and Night Elves are the only races that can become druids, but although both are very old races as opposed to the younger race of the gnomes, there does not seem to be any physical or  spiritual criteria for becoming a druid, only the racial one. And if Night Elves can become druids, why can’t Blood Elves? After all, they share the same heritage.

Maybe it’s something taught?

The druids learned their ways from Cenarius, the son of Elune, the Moon Godess and Malorne, the White Stag. Cenarius was brought up by Ysera, the Green Dragon Aspect and Protector of the Emerald Dream and he taught the druids to be the keepers of the world, to heal and nurture it and to keep the delicate balance of nature. The druids’ powers come from nature itself and their affinity with nature is strong enough to let them change their shapes.

Now, the druids do not rely on Nature exclusively, because some of their offensive abilities like Moonfire and Starfire actually uses Arcane powers, but the absolute majority of the spells at their disposal are of the Nature school (or the Physical variety when they are in Cat or Bear form).

Is it maybe so that gnomes can’t use Nature spells at all, maybe it is impossible for them to learn how to tap into the forces of Nature and shift into a tiny teddy bear?

Well, actually none of the classes available to the gnomes (Warlocks, Mages, Warriors and Rogues) uses Nature damage spells of any kind (Rogues’ poisons are Nature damage I believe, but that is something applied from without), and if you are to believe Gearmaster Mechazod the gnomes were originally created by “The Grand Architect”, a Titan keeper from within the halls of fabled Ulduar.

According to the Gearmaster, life is “a condition that eventually befalls all of the creations of the Titans!” 

In other words, the gnomes supposedly started out as robots of some kind, and, over thousands of years, slowly turned into fleshy beings!

(The Gearmaster is busy reverting this condition in the quest The Mechagnomes in Borean Tundra atm, go there and help Fizzcrank stop him!)

So, given the gnomes’ possible un-natural creation, born from cogwheels and metal and tinkering and far from the lush green forests of the Emerald Dream, maybe they are barred from tapping into the energies of Nature and thus truly unable to become druids.

(Although it would not be too unreasonable to assume that during their long historical transformation from fleshless to fleshy they would have approached the natural ways somewhat, and that it would not be impossible for a determined gnome to go the whole way and totally embrace Nature, would it?)

But what about the other races? Hunters use Nature spells, Shamans use Nature spells, and you can find Hunters or Shamans of every race there is, except gnomes (edit: or humans or undeads). So it seems all most other races can tap into Nature powers, why can’t they become druids then? Is Blizzard oppressing us?

I say we should start up a rebellion! Let’s all join in the People’s Front of the Emerald Dream and fight Blizzard for our right to be druids!

Even if we can’t be druids we can have the right to be!

Now some people wished upon a silver coin instead of a copper coin in the Eventide fountain in Dalaran.

I don’t know if the wish’s chance of being granted is in any way related to the value of the coin, but if it is these pepole should have a slightly larger chance of getting their dream come true. But did they? Let’s find out…

A long time ago, a little human girl named Aegwynn was trained in the arts of magic. She was talented and skilled and was eventually named a Guardian of Tirisfal, a single mortal champion given vast magical powers by the Council of Tirisfal (an order formed by mages to protect Azeroth from the demonic corruption of magic) to fight the Burning Legion and other demons whenever they appeared.

Aegwynn battled and defeated the Lord of the Legion, the Dark Titan Sargeras. This next to impossible success made her grow arrogant and cocky, and she felt she did not need to heed the wishes of the council but instead chose to defend Azeroth as she saw fit and also chose her own successor as a Guardian. What she did not know was that Sargeras, as his physical form was destroyed, had let his spirit find a way into her mind and hide there.

Aegwynn chose Nielas Aran, a powerful mage, to father a child with her, and she named her child Medivh. Medivh succedeed Aegwynn as Guardian. However, the hitherto dormant spirit of Sargeras had passed into Medivh at his birth and slowly began to possess him, eventually opening the Dark Portal in the Black Morass (nowadays known as the Blasted Lands) to let invading orc armies through.

Aegwynn warned King Llane and the Alliance about Medivh and his orc invasions, and as a result of this warning she had to watch her son (or what was left of him) die as the Alliance succeded in driving the orcs away.

Allegedly, Aegwyn is still alive under an assumed name (those anti-aging spells she got as a Guardian apparently works wonders), and serves as chamberlain and advisor to  Lady Jaina, the ruler of Theramore. I can only assume she is at another location at the moment, because the only people accompanying Jaina in her tower in Theramore are Pained, a night elf, and Archmage Tervosh, a human male.

Anyways, sometimes during her more than 500 years of life and frequent visits to Dalaran she wished upon a coin in the fountain there. Somehow I doubt “books” was the word she originally intended to say there…

Wish granted? Do mages ever get their heads out from their…books? Guess not.

Antonidas was a former leader of the Kirin Tor.

When the Scourge, led by Kel’thuzad, the necromancer, and Prince Arthas came to Dalaran to claim the Book of Medivh, the last surviving spellbook of Medivh, Antonidas defended the city. After a long and heinous battle the city was defeated and Prince Arthas led his undead troops into Dalaran and the Violet Hold.

The spellbook was used to summon the demon lord Archimonde and Dalaran was destroyed shortly after Antonidas’ death.

When the city was rebuilt the Kirin Tor put up a memorial to him in the northwest corner.

Antonidas was also one of those who wished upon a coin in his home city, a wish very resemblant to the Serenity Prayer. Wish granted? Well, I think he stood a good chance of that.

Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm is a nightelf druid currently residing in Darnassus. He is more than 9000 years old and was leading the night elf armies in the so-called War of the Shifting Sands, the fight against the invasion of Silitus by the Qiraji, the children of C’Thun, one of the Old Gods. Despite overwhelming odds against him, he held fast against the Qiraji and thus they devised a cunning plan.

Fandral’s son, Valstann Staghelm, was captured and taken by the Qiraji General to the front line of the battle, where he was brutally executed, directly in front of Fandral. Fandral’s spirit was broken and Silithus was soon overrun by the Qirajii.

In one of Fandral’s visits to Dalaran he made a wish upon a coin. I can really feel his desire to forget that war and everything that it entailed, but I think it is one war he will never be able to leave behind.

Khadgar was the apprentice of Medivh and a commander of the Alliance Expedition to the orc homeworld of Draenor (Outland). High General Turalyon, a human paladin, and Ranger-Captain Alleria Windrunner, were also part of this expedition, as were their son Arator.

On Draenor, the demonic shaman Ner’zhul was planning to open more Dark Portals to find other worlds to invade and plunder. The magic energies that were unleashed by these portals ripped Draenor apart and the destruction threatened to spread to Azeroth. The Alliance Expedition managed to close the Dark Portal and shield Azeroth when Draenor exploded, but the Expedition members were trapped on the Draenor side.

Khadgar is now residing in Shattrah City, and Arator in Honor Hold, but the whereabouts of Turalyon and Alleria are unknown. Rumour has it they were last seen entering a portal to escape the destruction of Draenor, which seems to have a grain of truth in it given what Khadgar wished for on his coin. Wish granted? I sure hope so.

Terenas Menethil II was the last king of Lordaeron and the father of Arthas. Terenas was one of the greatest monarch in human history and had great hopes of uniting all Alliance races, hopes that his son Arthas was to carry to even greater heights. But things did not turn out the way Terenas had hoped for, and his death at his own son’s hands ended the Menethil Dynasty and ushered in Arthas as the Lich King. Terenas ashes lie interred in the throne room of Lordaeron, the old capital above what is now known as Undercity.

This is one coin wish that I definitely know did not come true.

Maiev Shadowsong was a young priestess of Elune who rose in the ranks of the Sisterhood and became second only to Tyrande Whisperwind, High Priestess of the Moon. She was present when the night elf survivors of the War of the Ancients found a second Well of Eternity, an immense source of arcane magic, upon Mount Hyjal’s summit. The Well was created by Illidan Stormrage, a night elf by birth, a demon by association.

The elves dared not destroy this Well, since their destroying the first Well at the end of the War of the Ancients had resulted in the sundering of the vast original landmass of the world into two seprate continents, Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. However, knowing that this Well would be the source of unfathomable power, the elves captured and sealed Illidan in a vast underground prison and Maiev was appointed Illidan’s eternal jailor.

Despite this, Tyrande was the one to set Illidan free many thousands of years later, thinking him to be the perfect weapon against the invasion of Ashenvale by the Burning Legion.

Illidan helped defeat the Burning Legion but was banished from the elven lands after that. Maiev tracked him across the lands of Kalimdor and through many adventures and misfortunes and eventually ended up in Draenor, where she finally managed to catch and imprison Illidan again. I am guessing this happened just after the time when she visited Dalaran and made a wish upon a coin there.

However, as her party was travelling back to their base an ambush by naga and blood elves set Illidan free once more.

Maiev is now found imprisoned herself, in a cage Shadowmoon Valley.

Coin wish granted? Yes, at least she knows where Illidan is now…

Muradin Bronzebeard is the brother of the Magni Bronzebeard, king of Ironforge, and of Brann Bronzebeard, renowned explorer. Muradin served as liaison between Lordaeron and Khaz Modan in the Second War. During this time he became friends with Prince Arthas and the two of them had many adventures together.

Muradin often went to Northrend as he was a founding member of the dwarven Explorer’s Guild, and he was searching Northrend for the fated runeblade Frostmourne. During his last expedition to Northrend Muradin met Arthas again, who tricked him into leading him to Frostmourne. When the ice imprisoning the blade shattered it impaled Muradin, and Arthas left him for dead.

However, Muradin survived but suffered from amnesia. He was found by the Frostborn clan in Storm Peaks, and when he saved them from a giant frostwyrm they made him their king and gave him the name Yorg Stormheart.

In one of his many travels to Northrend he visited Dalaran and made a coin wish in the fountain. Now, the Holy Light is a philosophy, the followers of which seek to make the world a better place by being true to their own emotions, but sadly enough did not Muradin’s wish come true.

Tossing silver coins into the Eventide fountain is not a pastime for nobility alone, even peasants find the time and opportunity to wish upon a coin, and again, and again, and again… Wish granted? The answer is in the wish itself, isn’t it, and it’s no.

To be continued…

Last night was Raid Night in AT.

We usually go with two 10-man teams, and last night I went to see Malygos while the other team went for Naxxramas. (They did a full clear btw, all wings and all bosses in 10-man Naxxramas cleared in less than four hours which gave them quite a few shiny new achievements! Gratz to them all!)

Malygos the Spellweaver is the Aspect of the Blue Dragon, master of the blue dragonflight and the guardian of magic and hidden arcanum.

A long time ago, during the War of the Ancients, the five Dragon Aspects came up with a strategy to defend the world from the coming invasion of the Burning Legion. Neltharion, the Black Dragon Aspect, persuaded the others to contribute a part their power into making a weapon, the Dragon Soul, to destroy the demon armies.

All the dragonflights joined in the last battle, where the Ancients had perished and only night elves were still alive to fight the demons. However, what nobody knew was that Neltharion had been driven mad by whispers from the Old Gods and he chose that fight to reveal himself as Deathwing, the leader of the black dragonflight, and he had corrupted the Dragon Soul into a Demon Soul, which he used to destroy both demons and night elves.

The other Dragon Aspects tried to stop Deathwing, but when Malygos’ blue dragonflight attempted to wrest the Demon Soul from him they were all engulfed in the magic of the Demon Soul and every single one of the blue dragons perished.

Malygos was the only one to survive, although horribly injured and horribly alone. He went half mad with grief and secluded himself in his lair in Northrend

Ten thousand years later, in the Second War, the leader of the red dragonflight, Alexstrasza, was kidnapped by orcs under the lead of Deathwing and held captive in Grim Batol. Her consort Krasus convinced Malygos to aid him in freeing Alexstrasza by promising that she would use her powers to grant Malygos a new dragonflight.

Malygos eventually agreed to help out and together with Rhonin and Vareesa and an assorted crew of adventurers they managed to defeat Deathwing.

Following their victory, Rhonin destroyed the Demon Soul and all its magic and power was returned to the four remaining Dragon Aspects.

Malygos returned to his lair in Northrend, where his blue brood now grows slowly but steadily, their slain siblings avenged.

This seems like a happy ending, doesn’t it?

I feel really sorry for Malygos, my heart goes out to him and I can’t imagine the horror he must have experienced seeing all of his children die at the hands of his former trusted and beloved brother-in-arms and ally, leaving him all crippled and utterly alone.

So what happened? Why are we fighting him now?

Well, it seems that with the increasing number of mortal spellcasters, recklessly running around loose in Azeroth and Northrend, Malygos fears that one of them will grow sufficiently in power to be able to bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth again, thus risking another annihilation of his dragonflight children.

So Malygos has decided to wage war on all magic-users. And that means us.

To this end, the Blue Dragon has begun to divert the energy from the world’s ley lines into his lair in the Nexus, which leads to rifts opening in the fabric of magic.

Malygos’ actions have not gone unnoticed by the mortal races, and the Kirin Tor’s transferring of Dalaran to Northrend was partly a response to this (the other reason Artha’s atrocities of course).

Alexstrasza and her red dragonflight, preservers of life, has allied themselves with the Kirin Tor to defend the mortals.

Anyone who has quested in Borean Tundra and Coldarra has probably already met Malygos.

A random drop from any Coldarra Spellbinder starts a quest chain that ends with helping Keristrasza slay Malygos’ consort Saragosa and initiate an attack on Malygos himself.

So how did our attempt on Malygos go?

Well, the Spellweaver is still alive and kicking, but it was a fun fight, one of the best in WotLK in my opinion,  and we had a distinct and improving learning curve throughout the night.  

The intrepid raiders gathering up for a palatable
Fish Feast at the portal under the starry sky.

It was my first visit to this place, and it started out good – no trash to clear, just a nice clicky-thingy to get the huge blue dragon to stop circling and come down to us.

I had done some reading up on the fight, so I had a slight idea of what to expect, but I am more of a hands-on person, learning by doing.

So we learnt by doing.

Starting out with three healers we worked our way through the fight, figuring out how to deal with the dragon (tank on the rim, tail and the rest of the raid in the center, nestled among my totems), how to deal with the Power Sparks ( death-gripping and rooting them in between us in the middle, making us all stand in that crackling electric double-damage buff).

After a few tries it was evident that we would manage with two healers and the third priest went the shadowy way.

The biggest difficulties for me as a resto shaman was my lack of instant heals during the Vortex.

Experimenting a little, I found that if everyone was at full health when the Vortex started, a Healing Stream totem popped, a Riptide on the lowest health ones as soon as the cd was up, an Earth Shield on a squishie and Chain Heal spam as soon as we landed as enough to keep us all going – and of course my fellow healer’s Renews, frisbees, Circle of Healings in the air and a Prayer of Healing as soon as we touched down again.

I sometimes used a Mad Alchemist’s Potion in the Vortex to snag me some simultaneous health and mana to be able to save my heals for others, but if the first phase went on for just a tad too long I would find myself go oom at the middle of phase two.

So after a little more experimenting, I found that it was a good idea to save the potion-chugging for the little breather we got between phase one and two, when Malygos took to the air but before him and his adds started pelting us with nasty things.

This break was excellent for downing a Nightmare Potion, which in combination with my Mercurial Alchemist Stone made me regain around 8 k health and 8 k mana for the duration of the “channeling”.

Oh, and by the way, if you are not absolutely absolutely sure that you will not have to move, do not , I repeat DO NOT chug a leftover Dreamless Sleep Potion that you find in your bags when you run out of other mana potions.

Unlike the Nightmare Potion, the Dreamless Sleep Potion actually makes you sleep for a full 12 seconds, and this is not possible to click down or dispell! And being asleep outside of a pink protective bubblegum bubble when them arcane barrages and smelly breaths start coming your way is no fun.

Why I tell you this? No particular reason, no particular reason at all…*whistles*…

After a few tries we nailed the second phase as well, and then the ground fell out from under us.

We fell down through the stars and debris and onto the red dragons coming to our aid below us, and we had new spells and new abilites and another dimension to move around in.

It was beautiful, and fun, and very very tricky.

Sadly, this night all of our attempts at dragon-back fighting ended something like this:

Even though I have done the Oculus and Ace’s High occasionally, and lots of daily and other quests involving dragon-back riding, it was very tricky to move together, to coordinate our moves in 3-D, while at the same time using the new dragon spells correctly, and to see who was taking damage.

We left the old Blue Dragon still circling about his lair, but we will return another day, and eventually we will emerge victoriously!

The last penny in the achievement a Penny For Your Thoughts is Vareesa’s Copper Coin.

Now, there is no character named Vareesa in the entire WoW universe as far as I’ve been able to ascertain. There is, however, an elf named Vereesa Windrunner.

I am guessing they are the same person, and that the confusion in spelling is similar to that of King Arthur’s wife Guinevere for example , whose name I have seen spelled Gwenhyfar or some other variety with about the same pronounciation.

So, Vereesa tossed that coin into the fountain and made her wish. “Asto’re da shan’re. Turus Fulo Il’amare. A’Talah Adore. Isera’duna…”

Do you understand what she says and what she wished for? I didn’t, I don’t speak elf, but a little detectiving and trial and erroring has made me come up with a far-flung and rather tentative guess.

Some background information on Vereesa first:

Vereesa Windrunner is a High Elf who used to live with her prominent family at the Windrunner Spire in the beautiful forests of Ouel’thalas in northern Eastern Kingdoms. Nearly all of her family were killed by orcs in the Second War or in Prince Artha’s invasion of Quel’thalas.

Her sister Sylvanas was the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, military leader of all high elven forces. She was murdered by Arthas and as a petty revenge raised as an undead to serve him. Sylvanas eventually rebelled against Arthas and managed to tear free of his control. She gathered other undeads  and powerful allies around her and named her new force the Forsaken.

Vereesa had another sister, Alleria, who was the head scout of the Alliance Expedition to Draenor (Outland) and she was believed to be dead when the portal was destroyed. She was not found when the Dark Portal was opened again and her whereabouts are still unknown.

 Vereesa herself was also a ranger, and she was assigned a simple mission to escort a human mage called Rhonin safely to his ship. The mission soon turned astray and eventually they ended up in Grim Batol, where they defeated the orcs and the Black Dragonflight and freed the Red Dragon Queen Alexstrasza.

Vereesa was appointed Alliance Ambassador by King Terenas Menethil II, last king of Lordaeron and father of Arthas. Vereesa and Rhonin toured the Alliance forces, reminding them that there were many dangerous forces still at large in the world and  that they would have to face these threats sooner or later.

During this time, Vereesa and Rhonin fell in love. They were married and had twins, Galdarin and Giramar.

Vereesa is now the leader of the Silver Covenant, a militant faction of the Kirin Tor.  

So what did Vereesa say, when she tossed that coin into the fountain?

Well, although her native High Elf tongue is Thalassian, I doubt she still speaks that as it is the language of the Blood Elves now, enemies of the Alliance and the Kirin Tor. I think she spoke the words in Darnassian, the tongue of the Night Elves.

At WoWwiki.com there was a suggestion that her wish was “I wish for my honor. I will make peace, and the people will survive. Orcs are…” , and on WoWhead there were some suggestions as to what certain words meant in the comments.

Now, if you are a Night Elf you can turn on your Darnassian language filter and everything you say will be turned into Darnassian. Other Night Elves will understand you but people who don’t know Darnassian (ie, every other race) won’t. The in-game translator is not a real translator, it merely makes words look like Darnassian based upon the number of letters in the word, so the translated words are not really translated.

But since I don’t know any Darnassian-speaking people out of game, the in-game translator was all I had to work with. I logged onto my druid Joaquime and turned on her Darnassian translator, partied up with a borrowed a human from my husband’s account and started talking. Too bad I couldn’t do it the easy way, speak Vereesa’s wish with the human and listen in my druids Darnassian, I had to have my druid speak the words and see how they looked to the human.

“Asto’re da shan’re. Turus Fulo Il’amare. A’Talah Adore. Isera’duna…”

Using the in-game translator, honor did actually come out as adore, but so did elven and grace.  Peace was translated into turus, and I guess it is close enough to turos. People, however, came out as ethala and survive as mush’al. Orc got turned into ash and green (as in greenskins) became thera.

I tried other words and quickly found a match, love came out as fulo, but a few tries later I found that so did ever, free and pain.

I found that goodbye was turned into asto’re, and so was restful.

On wowwiki you can find that adore is assumed to mean be with you, as in Elune adore – Elune watch over you, or Elune be with you, and on the same page you can find that talah means survival and shan means honor.

Now, the translator also translates name, and I found the following matches:

Sylvanas – Il’amare

Terenas – Shan’re

Silvermoon – Isera’duna

(Translate names? Well, many names have diminutives and comes in different versions in different languages, and if you have read the Appendices to Tolkien’s work you know he translated all the names as well, so I thought why not here in WoW as well?)

So, from this complete mish-mash of known translations and in-game guessworks and odd forms of the words I tried, I came up with a wish that rang true to me.

Vereesa has has been through hell and back, almost all of her family and close ones have died horribly or painfully. Her old way of living is gone and her homelands are wasted. Still, she has dared to love again and has a husband and children, and even though she is a fighter, living in perilous times, I think she wishes for peace , both for herself and for those who have died.

Asto’re da shan’re. Goodbye/rest well honoured Terenas.

Turos Fulo Il’amare. Peace for my beloved Sylvanas.

A’Talah Adore. Let us all live [through these times].  (survival be with us)

Isera’duna. Silvermoon… (I guess words failed her here as sadness and sorrow and horror overcome her)

 
I probably don’t have a single word right here, but that’s ok, and as long as noone proves me wrong I am gonna keep believing that she wished for peace.

with a plaque commemorating  Archbishop Alonsus Faol.

Apparently he is not buried in the cathedral though but rather in Tirisfal Glades, in the cemetery called Faol’s Rest outside Scarlet Monastery.
 
Sometime during his busy days he found himself in Dalaran tossing a coin into the Eventide Fountain and making a wish.  The Three Virtues he wished for were respect, tenacity and compassion.

Wish granted? I’d like to think so.

Attumen the Huntsman was also in Dalaran once and made a  coin wish. Anyone who has ever done Karazhan and seen his skeletal undead steed Midnight can surely understand his wish for the bliss of a well-padded saddle.

Wish granted? Well if Attumen was too cheap to buy himself a softer saddle for his tender behind, he can only blame himself.
 

Dornaa is a Draenei orphan who turns up during Childrens Week, when she is dragged all over Azeroth and Outland by Alliance players doing the childrens week quests. Apparently she sometime even got into Dalaran, where she tossed a coin into the fountain and made a truly heartfelt wish!
 
It has been suggested that she actually got her wish granted in a way because a pile of magnataur doody may have been the secret weapon used by Grand Apothecary Putress in the battle at Wrathgate, almost choking Arthas with the stench.

Nowadays, Elling Trias, Master of Cheese,

is the owner of the Trias cheese shop in Stormwind which he runs with his wife Elaine (Mistress of Cheese) and son Ben (Apprentice of Cheese), but besides his cheesy business he appears to have many contacts still with his former employers as he is involved in many alliance questlines,  for alliance rogues in particular.

Sometime in his early career he was in Dalaran tossing a coin into the fountain and making a wish.

Wish granted? If his life’s true passion involves cheese in any way, I’d say he got it.
 

Genn Greymane was the leader of Gilneas, a human nation south of Silverpine. He believed in the true superiority of Gilneas and was not interested in taking part in the affairs of the Alliance nor the Horde. Thus he built the Greymane Wall to keep Gilneas isolated.

Damn the orcs, damn the Alliance, and damn you! The last thing Gilneas needs is sponges from other nations drawing from our resources, Dalaran wizards meddling with our affairs, and someone else’s enemies killing our soldiers! Gilneas is its own nation and it always will be.

Despite this he found himself in Dalaran at one point, but even though he popped a coin into the fountain he didn’t deign to make a wish.

Krasus is the name the red dragon Korialstrasz  uses when in his high elven guise, and nowadays he resides on top of Wyrmrest Temple with his queen Alexstrasza.

Once upon a time he made a wish at the Eventide Fountain and chucked a coin into it.

Grim Batol is a fortress located in the mountains in eastern Wetlands. During one of the wars, it was the main center for the Horde’s dragon breeding program and Alexstrasza (Krasus wife) was held captive here and forced to breed Red Dragons that the orcs used as mounts. Eventually she was freed by and band of heroes led by the mage Rhonin and destroyed every orc she could find.

Apparently there is still something sinister at Grim Batol, the place is guarded by dragons and there is a huge iron door that is locked.

So did Krasus get his wish granted? I’d say yes, no more are red dragons being held captive there.

Although Landro Longshot was passing through Dalaran once in his life and  wished upon a coin in the fountain there, he can now be found in Booty Bay where he redeems loot from the trading card game. He is also a playable card in that very same game, and apparently one of the few cards whose outcome depends on a coin flip or dice roll.

Wish granted? No, he obviously didn’t get his coin back since I just fished it out of the fountain! (But maybe I can get a wish granted if I bring him his coin back, maybe he would give me the coveted Fishing Chair!)

 
Murky is both an achievement and a pet. The Murky murloc is usually standing around in Ironforge but, like so many others, he has apparently been in Dalaran sometime before, where he too made a wish upon a coin. I suppose that the Northrend icy seas is a real cold shock to a little murloc used to the mellow waters of California, but usually cold water makes people the opposite of sleepy…

Wish granted? Not yet, but in time maybe the increasing population of Northrend and the increase in air pollution etc that comes with it will cause some greenhouse effect and raise the temperature of the waters. Not sure  if a murloc would live long enough to notice this though.

Once upon a time a young soldier named Private Marcus Jonathan happened to be in Dalaran and he took the opportunity to make a wish and toss a coin in the beautiful marbled Eventide fountain, with a  wish that seems to have come straight from the heart. Now, many years later, the young soldier is a scarred veteran known as General Marcus Jonathan, High Commander of Stormwind Defense.

And I’d say that’s a definite yes, he got his wish granted.

Squire Rowe is also part of the illustrious crowd that has wished upon a coin in the Dalaran fountain. Back before the King came back to Stormwind you talked to Squire Rowe on the quest Stormwind Rendezvous to get Marshal Windsor to come forward so you could escort him to the Stormwind Keep, where he exposed Lady Katrana Prestor for the black scheming dragon she was, namely Onyxia.

Well, if that is the kind of action he wants no wonder he feels Stormwind is a bit dull at the moment.

Cersei Dusksinger whom he wishes to meet again is a Blood Elf  in Stonard, the Swamp of Sorrows, who seems to be pretty full of herself and the other residents of Stonard seems to be rather scared of her and whispers behind her back. She is perfecting a weapon to use against the Draenai and she offers a quest for Horde players to assist her in this. In this quest she specifically refers to feeding a stupid human caged by the Lost Ones in the swamp as “a waste”.

So is the Squire’s wish granted? Not yet, he is still in Stormwind and judging by what I have seen of the Cersei he wants to meet up with, he might be better off staying put.

The last copper coin found in the fountain is a rather special one, and it merits a post of its own, so

To be continued…

So who were all these people tossing coins into the Dalaran Fountain that we fish up nowadays? What did they wish for? Did they get their wishes granted? And how is it possible to catch a coin with a fishing hook?

There is an anonymous Footman who sacrifices a coin and hopes he gets to lug around wood like his cousin instead of fighting in the wars.

Well, footmen fight and peasants lumber. Wish granted? No idea.

Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver, the former leader of the Kirin Tor is found outside the crater where Dalaran used to be in Soutshore, chucks a copper coin in the fountain and wishes for happiness and acceptance for his daughter, who feels so out of place there.

Now, his daughter is Catelyn, who ran off to be a pirate in Booty Bay. She is involved in a quest chain there ending with the perpetually bugged Curse of the Tides, and in one of these quests she says:

“My FATHER sent you? I’d have thought that old codger would have given up on me by now. It wasn’t really his fault I ran off, he just shouldn’t have expected I’d be willing to live a boring life, reading over musty books and associating with grey-haired, stiff-backed, stuffy mages!”

She seems happy and accepted in Booty Bay, so I’d say his wish seems to have been granted, although maybe not really in the way he hoped for. Bet he is wishing he used a silver coin instead! ;P

Danath Trollbane, Militia Commander of Stromgarde, Tactical Advisor to General Turalyon, Force Commander of the Alliance Expedition that marched into the orc homeworld of Draenor (also known as Outland).

He has a statue in the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind, still saying he is presumably deceased, although he was found to be very much alive when the Dark Portal was opened again.

Apparently he was in Dalaran at some point of his life, tossing in a coin and hoping for a troll to die, right… NOW! Well, trolls get killed and die a lot in this game don’t they, and judging by his last name alone I’d say he got his wish granted.

Eitrigg used to be an old hermit orc. Once upon a time, long ago, he encountered and battled Tirion Fordring, one of the Alliance top honchos, but after Tirion had been knocked senseless by a collapsing tower, Eitrigg tied him to his horse’s saddle and sent him on home, thus saving his life. After some lenghty and convoluted turns of events this resulted in Tirion being stripped of his titles and exiled when he returned the favor.

Tirion is nowadays Supreme Commander of the Argent Crusade and Eitrigg is working for him and can be found in Zul’Drak.

Eitrigg’s wish as he tossed his coin was that Tirion’s quest here in Northrend should end with success, or failing that he may die honorably in battle. Given that Tirion’s quest is to defeat the Lich King, he seems to have his work cut out for him.

Falstad Wildhammer (also known as Falstad Dragonreaver), High Thane of the Wildhammer Clan which he presides over in Aerie Peak tossed a coin and wished that he would end up in another book eventually.

This is a bit of an odd wish, since the only book he seems to have been in so far is The Day of the Dragon, a book about World of Warcraft, and I wonder how Falstad knew he was in that. Is he comfortable knowing he is just a figment of someone’s imagination.

So will his wish be granted? Only time will tell…

Father Inigo Montoya’s wish for his coin is to have his father back…

Straigtforward wish it may seem but apparently Inigo was involved with the Argent Dawn, and when Kel’Thuzad was defeated in Naxxramas, his phylactery was given to Inigo who was supposed to give it to the Argent Dawn. However, the AD never got the phylactery and it thus seems that Inigo was working for someone else.

In Northrend, in the quest An End and A Beginning, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon says to the lich you are fighting:

You dedicated your whole life to fighting the Scourge. You saw what they did to our beloved Lordaeron. The Lich King took everything from you!

So how, then, did Father Inigo Montoy, bastion of virtue for the Argent Dawn, become the embodiment of that which he hated most?

This would seem to indicate that Arthas himself raised Father Inigo Montoya and turned him into a lich. The quest item you use seems to verify this.

So no wonder the poor man wishes he had his “father” back. (But how did he manage to sneak into Dalaran and get that coin into the fountain after he was raised as a lich?). Will he get his wish granted? Don’t think so.

Kryll is a goblin in the same book Falstad Wildhammer was in but it seems Kryll is not a game NPC. Somehow he still managed to get into Dalaran and toss a coin. In the book, the Day of the Dragon, he is portrayed as a skilled alchemist and engineer, whose main interestes were experimentation and mayhem, preferably both at the same time. Wish granted? No.

Molok is another character from that book, a gryphon rider under the command of Falstad. I am guessing the lass he wants to ride with in his coin wish is Vereesa Windrunner. Falstad took Rhonin, the current leader of the Kirin Tor, and his wife Vereesa from Aerie Peak to Khaz Modan and Molok was riding with Rhonin. They were attacked by dragon riders from the Dragonmaw clan, and after a long and heroic fight Molok died when he got knocked off his gryphon. Wish granted? No.

There is actually a rare ogre in Arathi Higlands known as Molok the Crusher but I don’t think it was him tossing that coin.

Princess Calia Menethil is the sister of Arthas, and she was betrothed and then married to Lord Daval Prestor, who really is the evil dragon Deathwing, formerly known as Neltharion. The coin of hers must have been tossed before their betrothal. Wish granted? Yes, but probably not with the results she was hoping for as her handsome fiancee turned out to be an old scheming dragon.

Salandria is a Blood Elf orphan who gets to see daylight only during Children’s Week. She lives in the orphanage in Shattrah but somehow during her excursions that week she has managed to toss a coin into the Eventide Fountain.

She seems to be a determined young belf, when she gets a Toy Dragon she tells us that she plans to own one someday. The guards at the Caverns of Time initially attack her but ceases when Zaladormo says she will not be punished for things she might do or fail to do in the future.

Wish granted? I’d be willing to bet a lot on that she gets what she wants (for a time at least).

Stalvan Mistmantle is familiar for anyone whe has levelled an alliance char from the long quest chain The Legend of Stalvan. Stalvan was a school teacher in Moonbrook, Westfall, who fell in love with one of his students. The object of his desire was betrothed to another man, and she seems to have flaunted for him and compared him to an old uncle. Stalvan massacred her and her entire family for this, and then fled to his house outside Darkshire.

I am guessing he went to Dalaran before he went all mad and butchered those people, as his coin wish seems to have been meant for someone alive. Wish granted? Well, he obviously didn’t get whatever he wanted to “hasten the unevitable fate of two people in love”, but he might have gotten his wish of ruin to everyone as the city was destroyed.

Archmage Vargoth was one of the mages who founded the village of Kirin’Var in Netherstorm, and anyone who have been questing there must have encountered the long quest chain he is involved in.

Vargoth was locked up in the tower in Kirin’Var for a long time where he had lots of time to paraphrase, as is noticed by him saying things like “Plenty of room at the cursed Violet Tower”, “Any time of year, you can find me here” “Some scried to remember, some scried to forget”, “And still their voices are calling from far away, waking me up in the middle of the night” (Hotel Netherstorm, anyone?), and now he’s in a secret chamber in Dalaran, accessible only for those that have mastered the Higher Learning achievement and read the Schools of Arcane Magic – Mastery.

I do hope he gets his coin wish granted, but its not looking too good atm because Captain Sanders is still in the tavern in Old Hillsbrad Foothills, where it appears he has been sampling a lot of wine himself.

To be continued…