The (moral) choices we make

WoW Insider has an interesting discussion about the appeal of the Horde.

To me, the Horde just seemed like the more interesting faction of the two. Not only pretty much everyone wants to kill them, they also struggle with themselves. Take Thrall and Grommash Hellscream, for example. Their stories present very interesting questions. Can you stay honorable when your enemies have no honor and your own people are all too ready to be ruled by their instincts? Can you turn a life of violence into something positive and not lose yourself in the process?

To me, whether someone thinks of themselves as moral is a moot point if they have never been tempted. You can truly be moral only after you've successfully resisted the worst in you. The Alliance are in general raised to believe that they are moral, honorable and just. But in their day-to-day lives, those morals are never put to the test. And when they are, the results can be disastrous. Can one forgive dragons who were unable to save your son? Can one stick to your promise to pay the craftsmen who built a city for you, even if you couldn't really afford it? Can one recognize a common threat instead of clinging to old hatreds? Can you admit that your way might not be the best way to deal with an overwhelming threat, and that your end may not justify all your methods?

Sylvanas Windrunner is also one of the more interesting characters in WoW. Can you cope with a situation where unspeakable evil was done to you? Can you overcome your bitterness, self-hatred and not lash out at everything? Can you still appreciate the beautiful things in life, even if those things never will be yours to enjoy ever again? I like to think that Blizzard is exploring these same things. For example, one of the lowbie Blood Elf quests ends up with the player delivering a memento from the past to Sylvanas. Although she claims she doesn't care about things like that anymore, she still feels for the Highborne.

I've tried to explore the same aspects with my characters as well. My first character was a Forsaken priest who tried to cling to his humanity through all the hatred and evil he witnessed. Shalkis, on the other hand, is trying to balance her desire to do good with her violent nature. She may be megalomaniacal, scheming, bipolar, violent and sadistic. But evil? No. If the common good requires slaughtering a city full of her own kind worshipping a long-lost god, she'll be knee-deep in the dead. If someone needs some children rescued from the Arakkoa, she'll be happy to help. If the common good requires her to set aside her prejudices and smash Scourge together with humans, dwarves, gnomes and night elves, she will. If the best chance for peace includes joining forces with glowing thingamajics, a human mage, snobby elves and buffoonish squidfaces, she will do it with a smile on her face.

Beyond the Dark Portal Novel

Apparently the novel version of Tides of Darkness was fairly good, since there's a sequel in the works. The new novel will follow the plot of the Warcraft 2 expansion, including Grom Hellscream's antics at Azeroth and the shattering of Draenor. Too bad Tides of Darkness isn't available as an ebook (hint hint)..

Finally, a canonical source for Warcraft 2

WoW Insider reports that Warcraft 2 is being turned into a novel. While the events are familiar to many Warcraft fans via the games themselves, there was always a slight problem when using the games as a lore source.

Unlike in Starcraft and Warcraft 3, the human and orc campaigns in both Warcraft 1 and 2 not only intersect, they sometimes directly contradict each other. For example, the orc campaign in Warcraft 2 ends with the Horde sieging Lordaeron and killing King Terenas Menethil II long before his son could even lift a sword. Of course, the canonical ending for the Second War was the Alliance one, where Anduin Lothar is slain at the base of Blackrock Mountain and Turalyon leads the troops to victory.

Turning the events into a novel brings needed consistency to a phase in the history of Azeroth that direly needed it.

Now, if someone would just turn it into an e-book..

Theory of Magic on Azeroth

Here's my theory on the source of magic and how the Well of Eternity, Sunwell and the Eye of Dalaran fit into it:

All magic on Azeroth originated from the Twisting Nether. When the Titans arrived, they created the Well of Eternity to speed up the terraforming of Azeroth. Norgannon, being the cataloguer of magic, was probably responsible for it's creation. Using the Well of Eternity as a conduit to the raw power of the Twisting Nether, they amplified their own powers, kicked the Old Gods around, shaped seas and mountains, made things grow and so on. The Titans finish their work and teach/modify five dragons on how to use the Well of Eternity. They leave the dragons to guard it, pack up and leave.

Note that at this point, magic only exists near the Well of Eternity, in the Five Aspects and nowhere else.

An unnamed troll tribe wanders near the Well and mutates into Night Elves. They begin to dabble on magic. This dabbling catches the attention of Cenarius, who becomes their mentor. The ancient Night Elf civilization is born. Despite Cenarius' warnings, they continue to dabble with magic and build the magical city of Zin'Ashari around the Well. They catch the attention of Sargeras.

Having lived in the Twisting Nether for ages, Sargeras and the rest of the Burning Legion have started to consider it their turf, and don't like the Night Elves siphoning "their" energy. The Burning Legion convinces Xavius, Azshara & co to shut down the spells distributing magic to the rest of the Night Elf civilization. This accomplishes two things. First, there's more magic to be used for enlargening the portal, and it stops the Night Elves from stealing "their" magic. Felhounds are dispatched to leech magic back from any beings that contain it. However, these events alert Malfurion, Illidan and Cenarius. After some fighting, the Highborne and the Burning Legion forces that already arrived get beaten back, the Well implodes and scatters large amounts of magic energy around the world. However, Illidan did have time to scoop up a few vials of concentrated magical energy from the Well before the implosion. A few of these vials are used to create the new Well of Eternity, an another conduit to the Twisting Nether. One vial is used by the Highborne to create the Sunwell in newly found Quel'Thalas.

The implosion of the Well created the current conditions where magic can be wielded all around Azeroth. The ambient magic can be accounted for the natural mana regeneration of the mages of various races. In addition, experienced mages can tap directly into the Twisting Nether (Evocation) whenever they need more power. This is both tiring and dangerous, though. Because the Burning Legion is continously looking for thieves stealing "their" energy, long-term conduits need to be shielded. Otherwise the Burning Legion will track them down and kill or enslave the spellcaster.

Fast-forward a few thousand years. Forest trolls keep attacking the High Elves, and they have to enlist the help of the humans. Dalaran is founded, and yet another conduit, the Eye of Dalaran, is created to power the spells around the city. While magic can be wielded anywhere, it is much easier to use it in the vicinity of established conduits, because there's more ambient energy around. In addition, the output of the conduit can be increased when necessary for large spells. Having lived in a magic-saturated environment for generations, the High Elves get used to it, just like their Highborne precedessors got used to living near the Well of Eternity.

Fast-forward a few more hundred years. Horde invades and steals the runestones protecting Quel'Thalas from detection. The demon-controlled Horde ultimately fails in it's task, but Quel'Thalas is nevertheless exposed and becomes known to the Burning Legion. Ner'zhul orders Grom & co to steal the Eye of Dalaran. He uses this conduit to power his portal spells, but lacks the know-how to keep them stable. After failing to create stable portals, Ner'zhul escapes from the doomed Draenor and is captured by the Burning Legion. He is turned into the Lich King and is sent to Azeroth.

Fast-forward a few years. Dar'khan screws things up and severs the connection the Sunwell has to the Twisting Nether. Nevertheless, enough magic remains in the Sunwell for Arthas to reanimate Kel'Thuzad. Kel'Thuzad summons Archimonde, who immediately punishes the mages of Dalaran for "wielding our fire as their own". Now that both the Eye of Dalaran and the Sunwell are out of commission, the only remaining conduit on Azeroth is the Well of Eternity under Nordrassil. The Burning Legion travels to Kalimdor.

Archimonde ultimately fails and the Burning Legion is unable to both shut down the remaining "leak" and to reclaim the magical energies still remaining on Azeroth.

Meanwhile, the High Elves are in serious withdrawal and are having difficulties adjusting to the normal levels of ambient magic. Kael'thas finds Illidan, who instructs him on how to tap into magic-saturated demons themselves. Rommath is sent back to Azeroth to instruct the remaining Blood Elves and brings along the Naaru captured from the Tempest Keep. Armed with both the knowledge originated from Illidan and the Naaru, the Blood Elves rebuild Silvermoon using their new magical energies. The big green floating stones found around the city are captured demons used to power the gravity-defying architecture of the Blood Elves.

Warcraft Encyclopedia

Blizzard has recently released their official Warcraft Encyclopedia. While it is nowhere near as comprehensive as the WoW Wiki, it does seem to be written in-character. Because of this, it is unlikely to contain major spoilers to in-game quests or events. However, this also restricts the scope of the Encyclopedia severely. On the other hand, the Encyclopedia authors do have one major advantage over the more numerous WoW Wiki authors. It is much easier for them to get clarifications to unsolved issues from Chris Metzen or any other Blizzard employees responsible for the lore. WoWWiki staff will have to rely on in-game sources, books, the roleplaying game, interviews or even mere speculation.