Project Lore

Long-time readers will know that I'm not a big fan of tabards. Most are bright, ugly, and cover up all that neat armor that you spent so much time earning in dungeons. Not to mention, there are ostensibly better ways of showing your guild pride (such as regaling the denizens of Trade Chat with tales of your l33tness or posting embarrassing videos of your raid leader yelling to Youtube).

So tabards suck. But what about sexy, fashionable overcloaks? Now, that's an idea worth backing!

What little we know about these new vanity items (data-mined by MMO-Champion from the latest build of 3.3.3) indicates that they're currently attached to Pre-Cataclysm events. Specifically, those that we already know something about, like the reclamation of Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles.

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Oh, data-mining always brings such wonderful news! The artifacts of code and unfinished content often give you a fair idea as to what's coming in the near future and, considering where we're at right now, that means getting the goods on pre-expansion events.

At this point, most of you have already read about the new Ruby Sanctum raid dungeon and how that plays into the lore leading up to rebirth of Deathwing, but if we dial things back a notch we find that even the smaller, somewhat forgotten factions will have their role to play in what's to come.

You may recall a little piece that iTZKooPA wrote a couple of weeks ago. It's also something that we discussed on the podcast, wondering why Blizzard didn't give any of the "assault on Northrend" roles to existing faction leaders instead of brand new characters whose importance to the game would likely begin and end with the questline they're associated with.

I think we spoke a little too soon, as both High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque and Vol'Jin will be getting their due in an upcoming patch, starting with the reclamation of their respective homelands!

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Some of the content in this post may be considered spoilers to those who have not leveled to 80. A lot of players ask questions like "how was Gnomeregan taken over by a bunch of level 40 troggs and why can't level 80 players clean it out?" or "the Exodar crash has been a few months ago for a couple years now. Why doesn't this change?" One of the reasons the world doesn't change is that Blizzard wants a "static MMO world" to a large extent where they have developed content that they still want to be accessible to players as they spent a large amount of resources developing it. Players also largely don't want to see content disappear. The disappearance of the Onyxia key quest chain in order to progress the story was controversial. The second answer to questions like this is that as far as lore goes, "level" is not a direct measure of power. It is unclear if Kel'Thuzad could best Ragnaros mano-a-mano. Lore-wise, cleaning out Gnomeregan is not as simple as a level 80 mage walking in and spamming Arcane Explosion. Gnomeregan has some additional radiation issues, but generally you can't just use levels to compare say Edwin VanCleef to Jammal'an the Prophet. The 8 "well-developed" capital cities have lots to do and there seems to always be some corner to explore, yet Sen'jin and Gnomeregan are extremely static and boring. Orgrimmar and Stormwind were attacked by the Scourge prior to the Horde and Alliance's invasion of Northrend, and all the capital cities usually have something going on with the world events. Sen'jin and Gnomeregan are left out completely. I wonder why they can't phase the Sen'jin and Orgimmar areas after you do the starting quests and maybe some "construction" quests like with the Argent Crusade in Icecrown which progress you through a series of phases. Some of my favorite content in the game has to be the aftermath of the Wrathgate incident. The phasing of Orgrimmar and the Undercity were fantastic, shocking, and memorable. Somehow I can't imagine why they can't do something with Sen'jin and other undeveloped areas. I think it degrades some of the "troll identity" in the Horde to not have a home city and having to slaughter trolls all the time. I smiled to myself when I completed Exalted Champion of Silvermoon and was able to choose "Bladebourne of Silvermoon" as a title. This is one of the reasons I have problems playing as a troll. Trolls and Gnomes were not even included in the original WoW cinematic and their inclusion in recent content always feels like "token representation". Vol'jin didn't even go into the Undercity during the attack on Varimathras and I really wanted him to bust out some voodoo. I hope that perhaps in the next expansion they flesh out Sen'jin and Gnomeregan, maybe through phasing, and give people a reason to visit them when they are at max level. I don't often go to Silvermoon City or Thunder Bluff, but I never go to Sen'jin. Is it worth it to build these cities up, or do you think the excuse of trolls largely being absorbed to Orgrimmar and gnomes into Ironforge valid enough to leave them as is?

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