For the Record
Hi, everyone. Brief quasi-announcement-disclaimer from Averry.
When information about patch 5.4 and the Siege of Orgrimmar raid started coming out last week, I debated making a post to get a few points on record. Then, a few days ago, some of the PTR sound files went public…including voice clips of Garrosh in which, on a couple occasions, he refers to having a “destiny.” That pretty much settled it, so here I am.
I don’t think it will come as much of a surprise that, while I’ve had several plotlines in mind for the blog for quite a while, I’ve had to play many of those ideas fairly close to the vest until learning more about what Blizzard has in store for us. After all, there isn’t much sense in committing myself to a story in which Major Player X has a long-term role, only to find out that Major Player X is being killed off. (Well, other than you-know-who. But you see my point.)
For quite a while, I’ve had a fairly clear idea of where I’d like the blog’s story to go, provided that Blizzard’s eventual storyline proves compatible. Now, we’re starting to get a better idea of what’s going to happen, and based on what we’re seeing…yikes. Seriously, Blizzard couldn’t be helping me more here – and my saying that isn’t even a spoiler, because patch 5.4 is turning out to mesh with my own plans in ways that won’t even be terribly obvious until much further down the line. Garrosh mentioning having a “destiny” is just the tip of the serendipitous iceberg as far as details conspiring to fall into place. At this point, for all intents and purposes, all the major plotlines for the blog are set (other than a few cosmetic details here and there); there’s still room for me to incorporate new ideas for stand-alone posts and mini-arcs, but as far as major stories go, everything you’ll be seeing over the next several months will be what I’ve been wanting to do for…well…quite a while.
(Just to give you an idea of how pathological I am, in fact: I’ve already written about half of what will be the very, very last post.)
(Well, sort of. You’ll see.)
At any rate…I suppose, more than anything, that I just wanted to get on record that seriously, this is what I’ve had in mind all along, and not me concocting ways to work around Blizzard’s story. This way, those of you who care about such things can eventually share in my reaction of “Holy crap, could they be cooperating any more?” once you see how the pieces (I hope) fit together.
And, on that note, I have work to do. Thanks as always for reading, for commenting, and for turning a blind eye to the many and sundry typos (mostly).
Be seeing you,
Averry
Beautiful. I love the blog, so it’s nice to see how things are coming together for you. Also, your cliffhangers? EVIL. In the very best way.
*grins evilly and bites tongue*
(I’ll admit, I’m going to be disappointed if people don’t have at least a low-grade freak-out when they see a cliffhanger that’s coming up semi-soonish.)
(Maybe two.)
(I know, I know, evil.)
I can confirm that so very many of Averry’s plans and “OMG wouldn’t it be AWESOME if Blizzard goes in this direction so that we can do THIS” speculating has been terrifyingly accurate. I’ve been helping Averry plan this blog since the very beginning (it started as a joke in guild chat about Garrosh writing epic verse and I said, “OMG you have to write this as a blog”), and sometimes even I wonder if Averry doesn’t secretly work for Blizzard, or if maybe Blizzard is reading his mind and stealing his ideas. It is CREEPY.
So I feel like Averry’s desire to say, “Hey guys, I’m not just copying Blizzard here, I’ve had this stuff planned for almost a year, if I do say so myself” is completely justified. Because seriously… if you guys only knew!
Your reaction to the Garrosh voice files was especially priceless. “omg, that’s…that’s… HOW DO YOU DO THIS?”
Also, on the topic of my prognostication track record… I’ve been studying narrative for a long, long time.
I’m secretly hoping that the mount drop from Garrosh on heroic is Mortimer.
awesome, i am so looking forward to seeing whats coming
You’re going to find a way to take the SoO story and make it even worse (in a good way) arent you.
Any story worth telling is worth making ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING. #ThingsILearnedFromJoss
Looking forward to seeing what you have in store.
Honestly, I’ve gotten to the point in game where I’ve kind of lost track of which is ‘official’ lore and which is the blog. Partly though because I play alliance so I don’t have a lot of horde reference points in game anyway. Mostly though because this story telling is awesome 🙂
Same here! I actually think I like this lore better than the official lore.
Well see, that’s an argument for rolling a baby Horde alt and checking out some of the Horde side of the story, just for context and reference points. Plus, how can you turn down the chance to actually meet Dontrag and Utvoch?
I keep trying to level horde alts and I either get a. creeped out by the Foresaken start zone, or 2. get distracted by Blizzard putting out a new patch. Slow down the content patches already….
My baby orc warlock got to lvl 13, that’s the current record.
I will say, if you can ever get past the initial Forsaken zone, the questing in both Silverpine and Hillsbrad is terrific.
Yeah I’ve heard that which is why I keep trying, but I get stuck before I reach Brill. The whole ethics of the Forsaken is very well done, but not entirely my cup of tea.
Kudos to you, I think you’re doing an excellent job. Making me actually kinda like Garrosh…coming from a Pro-Varian fangirl that’s like FORBIDDEN. LOL.
But, I love reading the intricate lore of warcraft via the books and these blogs made it more fun. Thanks!
Funny thing is, contrary to how it must seem at times, I don’t set out to be a Garrosh apologist at all. I just want him to make sense…which is something Blizzard has done an (ahem) uneven job with. (I’m not nearly as conversant with the Alliance side, but I get the sense that they’ve been comparably spotty in characterizing Varian.) I don’t set out to make people think Garrosh is some great guy; I just want them to be able to look at him and think, “Okay, I still think he’s wrong…but I can see how he got here.”
That, and I love taking black or white, and undercutting it into some shade of gray.
They’ve done a pretty good job with Varian, and if you really dig into it you can see where Garrosh is coming from as well. People just tend to ignore stuff like that because a lot of other people are ignoring it too.
There’s really been nothing saying that either of them would be different from they way they are currently, they’ve just had chances to change over time, and certain events have proven very influential on them.
Varian’s debatable, I think, but I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt, since there’s a lot of Alliance content I haven’t seen. With Garrosh, though, I’d have to disagree. I don’t think Garrosh’s motivations have ever been made clear beyond “LOL he’s a dick (except when he’s not).” There’s really no accounting for how the same guy who was outraged by Krom’gar’s antics, for instance, ends up dropping a mana bomb on Theramore. In “Tides of War,” Baine even explicitly made this point…and there was never a hint of a suggestion offered for an answer.
I suppose you can dig through things and concoct explanations…but I feel like establishing motivations is much like establishing how key plot points fit together: that’s the writer’s job. Maybe be *can* piece it together for ourselves, but we shouldn’t have to.
I find it hard to piece together the in game story lines at times, and I do read the quest text, plus any other books/scrolls lying around. I can only imagine how much of it is whizzing past the people who don’t even do that much.
Re Varian Wrynn vs Garrosh Hellscream for motivation etc, I think the two intro trailers to MoP are good indicators of how the two characters are fleshed out. Varian sends Alliance players off to find his son. Garrosh’s speech talks about painting the new continent red. You can get where Varian is coming from, I have no clue why Garrosh would want to go out to a new continent and start killing people, it’s kind of senseless. there’s not enough explicit information on why the Warchief would be do that.
A lot of the change in Varian is to do with Anduin, that’s my take. H’es trying to become a better father to win back his son’s trust. That’s what ‘A Little Patience’ was about in part, keeping his promise to Anduin not to shed blood on holy ground.
So looking forward to …well, everything!