Reminiscing and Raging about WoW

Preface: I started to write this quite awhile before BfA was released! Please keep that in mind as you read.




This Kaldorei Druid is crying inside.
It's not fair.
I've been playing WoW to distract myself from the pain of my loss and now I have new pains.
I know I'm too empathetic, I know I take things too seriously, care too much, love too hard, but this is fiction, damnit! Does that matter?
I've been playing this game for so long, being involved in the story, the lore, the characters, all of it. I've never been, and probably never will be, a Warcraft lore pro, but what I adore most of what I know of the lore.
The newest Warbringers short, Sylvanas, hurt. Like, actually, physically.
Why?
Teldrassil has [had?!] always felt like home to me.
Once upon a time, in the days of the Burning Crusade, I was a total newb-ass druid, wandering Ashenvale's lush forests and dying multiple times to enemies at my level. It was back in the days of three lengthy talent trees, and the ability - nay, encouragement - to invest points in all three trees. Generally, people would wait until they'd reached a certain point in the tree before investing in the others. Not me! I put points in each one almost equally. I'd cast Moonfire, then pop into cat form and do some awful melee DPS. Gear was hard to come by and more often than not, made for a different spec, so I wore a bit for casters and some for melee, whatever I could find. There were no heirlooms, and this was only my second character (my first, a Draenei Mage, was also low-level), so even if there had been, I wouldn't have had them. You had no mount until level 40, people! Travel form was your friend, as was cat form.

Since writing this, I've been playing a horde Druid a lot. I hate her. I guess it's a love/hate relationship but mostly hate. I pity female Tauren but not enough to feel a connection with them. I'm probably going to end up deleting her when the Zandalari allied race is released, but for now, she's my only 120 Horde. We're on Mal'Ganis, which is a realm I really don't like, but it does seem to have gotten better with the creation of War Mode.

I'm still reminiscing about the days of old. I'm still hurt as hell over Teldrassil. I still hate Sylvanas, and when I play as Horde, my goal is to undermine her subtly until I can strike the final blow.

The first character I leveled to 120 was my Alliance Demon Hunter, Kivanya - Dragonblight, and today I've spent [too] many hours playing her. She's so fun and even though her gear (until today) was way worse than Tuwahi's, she's always felt much stronger and harder to kill, and seems to do more damage than balance spec, too.

"Never Forget, Never Surrender"

That brings me to my next point.
I saw this post on Wowhead today that led me to write this tweet: https://twitter.com/StormbornRage/status/1044836608787329025
A new model for Tyrande...
I'll admit I wasn't anticipating anything good, but this has really made me feel crappy. I feel like, if this is the direction they're going with her, they're working towards a similar arc to what they gave Sylvanas, with her home being taken from her and becoming hellbent on vengeance. I want Tyrande to keep the faith, because this is Elune we're talking about! While writing a comment on the wowhead (see here) I did some light research and double-checked the name of the instance (End Time) where we fight the Echo of Tyrande, and listened to her emotes and sound clips from the fight. There's one clip that's especially poignant now because I'm worried it's what will happen or already is happening (or has happened already?) to Tyrande. Losing faith, losing touch with "the light", Elune's guidance. Ugh. It's breaking my heart.

If you haven't already, read Elegy (and I guess read A Good War while you're at it). I don't care if you don't like reading, this is necessary! (And they're FREE!)
It's heartbreaking and earth-shattering and just so damn painful, but it has put everything into perspective for me. Everything I did in-game added up, and in true Warcraft fashion, the graphics of the game mingled with my imagination and the writing, somehow combining to illustrate something less outside, in the World, and more inside me.

So um, yeah. This is my brain right now: tired and full of WoW. I haven't been writing enough so this is a release for some pent-up stuff, too.

Take care, folx.

For the Alliance! Lok'tar ogar!

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