Long time no see

I recently met an old acquintance of mine, a human called Seiken. He has now joined an organization dat has risen from de ashes. De Shining Strand.

De Strand was known for deir war wit de Second Gurubashi Empire and deir war against de Forsaken. De strain of fightin' a war on two fronts was too much for dem dat time.

Dere had been some attacks against Forsaken positions at Bulwark, and my sources in Stormwind said dat propaganda pamphlets blaming de Forsaken for attackin' supply convoys. I personally had inspected de situation and actually found de Forsaken guarding de caravans, and de Scarlet Crusade attackin' dem.

And now de Shinin' Strand has reformed. De Plaguelands are relatively calm. De Necropolises are gone, and former enemies have joined together to strike back at de Scourge. Argent Dawn. De Brotherhood of Light. Even members of de Scarlet Crusade.

Dis could ruin everyting. If de Forsaken strike back at dese.. agitators, we could have a new full-blown war in Hillsbrad. It could strech back to de Plaguelands, distruptin' de important work dere. I had to find out wat de Strand was plannin'.

Durin' our leetle incursion into Goldshire, I had spotted an old acquaintance wearin' de Shining Strand tabard. Seiken Trollbane. Because we had worked together before in de Shadowsun organization, I contacted de human warlock Melnerag to see whether a meetin' could be arranged. He said dat him and Trollbane were not on friendly terms, but he would try.



Today I got a reply. Trollbane would meet us at a house near de lumber mills of Elwynn Forest. I arrived early, to check for ambushes. Some time later Melnerag arrived, wit one of his eyes gouged out. Apparently someone decided to take de tale of Kilrogg Deadeye a bit too literally. He did not say who gouged his eye out, and I dinna care dat much.

Finally, Trollbane arrived. He was wearin' full armor, but had taken 'is helmet off. Not good. I had decided to dress less threateningly dan usual, and now I seemed relatively underdressed for de occassion. Even Melnerag was wearin' armor.

I voiced my concerns and explained de situation, but he was bein' evasive. I could see and [i]smell[/i] dat he was uncomfortable under all dat metal on a hot summer day, but he still dinna make any attempts to switch to more comfortable clothin'. And.. I smelled sometin' else. Not a human but.. an elf.



I asked Trollbane to invite his companions inside, but he feigned ignorance. Dis was a trap. He was merely playin' time to allow de cage's door to gradually swing shut. But was de trap for me or Melnerag? I had leetle time to tink, wen de smell of an elf became stronger. A simple scrying spell on Trollbane revealed de truth. Dere was an elf nearby, strengthenin' him. Now dat de jig was up, de elf revealed himself. He was accompanied by an another human, both dressed in de Strand's colors. Suddenly, de odder human made an attempt to grab Melnerag, but de warlock apparently had anticipated dis. De elf turned into a bear and knocked de human over. Seiken drew his sword and lunged at Melnerag. But de small house was not a good place for fightin'. Seiken swung wildly, hittin' mostly thin air or de furniture. On one swing, he nearly hit me, so I had to create a barrier to protect me. Dis was between Seiken and Melnerag, not me.

Predictably, Seiken was no match for Melnerag. De warlock toyed around wit him, until Trollbane collapsed on de bottom floor of de buildin', exhausted. Poor foolish Trollbane. I had arrived wit a perfectly reasonable proposition, and he gets all agitated over some feud. We walked outside, where de elf had already subdued de warrior. De meetin' was obviously over, but I'd need to move somewhere else before someone came to see what de ruckus was..

Ouch. I woke up wit my face in de dirt and my own blood fillin' my mouth. My head ached like I was hit by..

Seiken.. Seiken! Dat treacherous fool. Fine. If he really wants to play dese old games.. Behind a tree, I opened my backpack and took out my combat clothes. I disliked de color of my new robes, but de enchantments on de fabric were undeniably useful. I attached my bracers, my cloak and my shoulderpads. I welcomed de familiar coolness of my gloves. Finally, I lowered de mask on my face.

Seiken. He was dere, outside de building, talkin' wit de elf like nothin' had happened. My hands tingled in anticipation. De first frostbolt smashed harmlessly to de back of his head, makin' him to turn. Just in time to see de bigger bolt headin' towards 'im. I could hear de metal of 'is breastplate makin' a disagreeable sound. He attempted to charge me, but it was cut short by de ice caressin' his feet. He almost lost balance, but recovered enough to see de final frostbolt fly towards 'im. He lurched over, 'is feet still held still by de ice. Surprisingly, de elf dinna like dis at all. He too charged me wit no success. It was time to forget havin' fun and to take a breather. And *cough* to bandage my wounds. I ran towards de river. De forests of Duskwood would provide enough cover. I used my whistle, and Windclaw ran towards me. Seiken was up again, and still had learnt nothin'. Right when he attempted to strike me, his feet were again imprisoned by ice. He could not catch me on foot. De elf followed me to de river, but realized dat he was headin' towards a trap. He wisely turned around and returned to de mill.

Mill. Melnerag.. Fortunately he had seen 'is chance, and had already fled. We met at a safer place. After a small discussion about his.. condition, he gave me a letter dat he had acquired from de Strand. Seiken had unknowingly revealed much of de Strand's plan, but dis letter revealed deir next target. Bold and utterly foolish one it was, wit no hope of success. My associates would be very interested in dis knowledge. Very interested indeed. After discussin' proper responses to dis incident, we left. Dere was much to do..

Bolvar down by Taiga Clan

On the heels of our recent victory against the gnome king, the Taiga Clan sought out a more difficult target. And they did find him. Congratulations.

Roleplaying combat and wounds

I recently spotted several interesting articles about roleplaying combat. Of course, I chipped in on the effects of various types of magic damage in World of Warcraft.

Here's what I wrote:
One thing about iron and steel is that they conduct heat quite well. While your plate mail may absorb the physical impact of a fireball, it does nothing against the heat. That particular piece of armor will warm up and burn your undergarments/flesh inside. If a warrior loses to a fire mage, his armor may be unharmed, but the person inside is quite crispy.

Frost works a bit differently, but the principle is the same. A frostbolt is basically a projectile of superchilled ice. The heat from the armor and the victim is transferred to the projectile, melting the frostbolt and chilling the victim.

One particular quirk about freezing objects is that they become quite brittle at low temperatures. Many of you have probably seen demonstrations where liquid nitrogen is used to freeze and then shatter previously strong objects. If a frost mage uses Frost Nova or procs Frostbite, the next blow could be quite fatal.

Arcane damage is somewhat trickier. Instead of emulating natural forces, Arcane is pure energy. Combat applications of Arcane would probably shape it to become antimatter. Inside an Arcane Missile bolt, there's a tiny grain of antimatter. When it hits anything made of normal matter, the two cancel each other out and both are turned into pure energy. Thus, Arcane both annihilates a piece of the victim completely and releases energy around the impact point. This energy gets translated into heat and burns the surrounding flesh. If you want a sample of the effect, you can look at the ending cinematic of Warcraft 3. Wisps surround Archimonde and begin disinterating him. Finally, they all strike him at once, and the resulting burst of energy scorches the landscape around Nordrassil.

Most nature damage in this game is in the form of poisons and acid, but druids do have the Wrath spell. Personally, I would assume that a Wrath bolt ignores armor completely, moving through it like it was never there. When it hits flesh, the effect could be like a spread of a tumor. The cells' growth goes uncontrolled, and the results would resemble a benign tumor. The "cancer" cells would also require nutrients and oxygen. Eventually, the victim's body can no longer supply enough oxygen, causing the victim to pass out and die unless the tumors are cut out. Someone killed with Wrath would be a gruesome sight indeed.

Shadow damage is a special case. It has a both physical and a mental component. A priest's Mind Blast spell, for example, attacks the victim's mind directly. In mundane terms, I would assume that this attack is in the form of very disturbing images and thoughts, designed to agitate the victim and drive him into a shock. Doing an autopsy on a victim of Mind Blast would probably reveal that he died of bursted blood vessels in the brain and the heart, as well as lack of oxygen caused by hyperventilation. Also, his heart would have gone into "overdrive", pumping so rapidly that the thrusts lacked strength to push blood around his veins. Similarly, Shadow Word: Pain fools the body into thinking that it's in great pain, causing it to overreact.

The physical component of Shadow would be somewhat akin to acid. The victim's armor and flesh would be dissolved by an impact of a Shadowbolt, for example. The effects of Warlock curses would be akin to a malignant tumors, corrupting healthy cells and spreading all over the victim's body. Healing a cursed victim can not be done via surgery, it would require magic or letting the body's natural defenses work their course.

Pest control

Today, we did sometin' quite extraordinary. We did de Alliance a favor. We cleansed two immoral places and doin' wat dey could not do demselves.

First we set up positions outside Goldshire. Our scouts reported dat discraceful behaviour was takin' place, in de full view of de locals. Den we cleansed de town. Some spitted, some cheered. Den de Alliance Watch came to clean up de bodies. Satisfied dat our job was done, we set out to our next target.

Tinkertown. I dunna know why de dwarves got so upset. De gnomes have been tryin' to kill demselves before, we were just helpin' dem out. Disappointed at dis response, we only killed High Tinker Mekkatorque, de one responsible for de near-genocide.

Mind controlling for fun and..

Well, mostly for fun. A priest catches a rank 14 warrior botting in Western Plaguelands and decides to have some fun.

PvE vs RP vs PvP

PvE vs RP is once again a hot topic. And as usual, it didn' t take long for the "discussion" to descend to personal insults. RP Nazis vs l33tkiddie epicfarmers. Flamewars such as this always create a morbid interest in me. It's like a car crash. It's awful, but you can't help looking at it. In this particular flamewar, top Alliance PvE guilds started taking potshots at each other. Finally, the whole thing was spiced with intra-guild drama, courtesy of Crimson Gauntlet.

Personally, I think that RP, PvE and PvP should be balanced on RP/PvP servers. If you want to do all of them, then you go to an RP/PvP server. If you just want RP and PvE, then you go to an RP server. If you want PvE and PvP, then you go to a PvP server. And if you only want to PvE without anyone whining about lack of RP or getting ganked, then PvE servers are for you.

The trouble is that the optimal balance varies between each player. Some like RPing all the time, spending days in your capital of choice. Some frequent the battlegrounds or gan.. practice World PvP. And some enjoy a nice raid. If you start telling other people what their personal RP/PvP/PvE balance should be, then you get problems such as this flamewar.

Fortunately, liberal use of satire can help.

..aand we're in business

So, this is a blog about Shalkis, a World of Warcraft character. She is a troll mage, playing on EU Defias Brotherhood.

I posted my backlog of stories as a starter. While those stories were completely in-character, this blog will also contain both in-character and out-of-character rantings and random thoughts about WoW as well.