Project Lore

The Novel Post is Project Lore’s review column for materials - books, manga, comics, card games, etc - of World of Warcraft’s Extended Universe.  As such the column’s posts may contain plot, character or other spoilers. Run Draenei, Run! Ignore the note above, I did my best to rid this post of spoiling material. I have never been big on manga (pronounced it incorrectly for over a decade), but I've come to love these compilations from Tokyopop.  Each and every episode has bowled me over with at least one epic story.   The upcoming Volume 5 continues, and closes, not one, but two storylines that were launched in Volume 4.  It also includes what equates to an opening for Richard Knaak's upcoming book, Stormrage.  Fear not though, Volume 5's quality stays on track with the previous installments, thanks to Blizzard's lore historian. Yes, the company has frakking historians. A Warrior Made - Part 2:  Christie Golden's tale of Thrall's mother really lost it for me at its closing.  Part 1 was a finely crafted look into the clan atmosphere of the Frostwolfs, and the Spartan like attitudes towards ill children.  Part 2 sees her continuing her quest, and then she has a very special Blossom moment and the chapter on Draka is closed.  We do see a little character development in the pages - a nod to where Thrall gets his cool determination - but even the connections to a pair illustrious characters didn't save the story for me.  A drag to start out with. Warrior: United:  Grace Randolph also returned to complete her two-part story.  Warrior: United sees us following the estranged twins Lieren and Loania as they attempt to save their other parental unit from the damnation.  It just so happens that their father has become trapped in Karazhan.  This little tidbit allows Randolph to bring the nostalgic entry raid from The Burning Crusade into the story.  You'll have to read it to find out if they move during Flame Wreath. Randolph and artist Erica Awano do a fantastic job at displaying the differences of the twins.  In both the art and the writing, we can see how the separate upbringings of the twins, one as a Dwarf, the other as a high elf, impacted their lives.  The environment even impact their skillsets, the dwarf-raised Lieren is well versed with a mace, while Loania is a mage in training.  Warrior: United was a little predictable for me, but the fantastic characters kept me interested. The First Guardian:  Louise Simonson, co-writer of the Wildstorm comic, dives deep into the past for this previously unknown story.  I am talking way back there.  We're talking before Warcraft 3, before Aegwynn.  It's elf old, not dragon old, but it's old enough that most people - myself included - couldn't place the story in the timeline accurately.  You'd have to be a heavy, heavy lore buff, one who reads the RPG manifests for fun, to place the tale of The First Guardian off the top of your head.  For the rest of us, Simonson writes a nice recap of Dalaran's history, and where we are in it, before the opening. As a seasoned comic scribe I expected Simonson to be able to deliver a fantastic story in the 50 or so pages she had.  She didn't disappoint.  The mage heavy tale, with a gnome (!), explains the early days of the Guardians of Tirisfal, and the groups constant struggle against demonic beings.  There's also that small problem of the tearing of the world by magical use.  Simonson used the plight of the world as a backdrop, setting up the main character, Alodi, as a Peter Parker type.  A great read, but the art isn't as detailed as I would have liked. A Cleansing Fire:  Evelyn Fredericksen, Creative Development Historian for Blizzard (seriously, that is her title) and nutty professor on the Wrath DVD, doesn't pen many stories for the universes she watches over.  When she does, you'd better stand up and take notice.  Evidence?  She crafted the original Naxxramas tale, and the short for Wrath Gate.  And now they roped her into a bit of story telling for the manga.  This story alone is worth the price of the collection. Fredericksen picks a character that we all know.  We all know him because he's the centerpiece of Hallow's End.  That's right, the main character is the rhyming Headless Horsemen.  But Fredericksen paints a new picture for us.  A Cleansing Fire isn't about the horsemen's love of pumpkins, but his fall from grace and his ultimate corruption from the horrors of war.  It's a captivating look into a character we just thought of as a loot pinata.  Like last edition, the best story is accompanied by the best art. Nightmares:  Richard Knaak is back in short form - where I enjoy him the most.  Glancing at the first page of Nightmares I noticed two things.  First off, the art looks like cartoons from my childhood (not a bad thing), and it's annoying me that I can't place which cartoon I am thinking of.  The second is that Knaak dropped the L word at the first chance he got.  I am starting to think that it's a private joke of his - "How many times can I say leviathan before Blizzard censors me?" To sum up the story, Nightmares is a shameless self promotion for Knaak's upcoming book.  I'll let that slide simply because the story was so engrossing.  As the title suggests, Knaak conjures up a trio of stories told through dream sequences.  Each of them touches an important city leader, Thrall, Jaina, and Magni Bronzebeard in ways unfathomable and highly disturbing.  Knaak takes old stories that we are familiar with and casts his own spell over them.  Changing them into dark, horrible What If...? series of tragic happenings.  Very entertaining. What the writers and artists pull off in such a small amount of space continues to impress me.  We've got stories from thousands of years ago, psychological warfare, battles from beyond the grave, cracked minds, the early horde and avenging hearts all rolled into one Volume.  I highly recommend that more people begin reading these tales.  They are relatively inexpensive, imaginative, and very quick reads. Something to do while your waiting for that 7:30 raid to start...at 8:30. Warcraft: Legends Volume 5 comes out on September 1.

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I'm late to the show with this one, I know.  Get over it, because I couldn't resist picking up The Ultimate Edition (because it's so Ultimate) of the manga after reading through the available four volumes of Warcraft: Legends.  After all, if the success of The Sunwell Trilogy allowed Blizzard/Tokyopop to make another series, it couldn't have been bad.  Right?  With high hopes (and a bad current book) I took a deep breath and purchased yet another piece of literature from scribe Richard Knaak and his first effort with artist Jae-Hwan Kim. Tokyopop's collection of all three mangas, Dragon Hunt, Shadows of Ice, Ghostlands, into a single hardcover edition made quite an impression on me.  The Ultimate Edition (is there a 'The Not-So-Ultimate Edition'?) binds all of the installments together in what is best described as a tome.  If I didn't know better the imposing size of collected works would have lead me to believe that a year long read was about to begin.  Tokyopop's craftsmanship doesn't stop at the physical construction and presentation of the literature either.  Included in the non-purist edition is a new, eight-page color prologue of the Sunwell's creation, a fantastic abridged history of WoW, an art gallery, developmental drawings and an afterword by the loremaster himself, Chris Metzen.  Ironically there is also an advertisement for the next manga trilogy from Knaak/Kim, Dragons Of Outland.  It'll be here in 2008...wait a minute. Spoilers Ahead! Dragon Hunt:  The first of the three partitions is the most boring, although it isn't a bad thing to be honest.  Like most of the manga (and literature) I have read, the opening of the Knaak's story is full of character introduction, development and backstory.  More than half of Dragon Hunt is dedicated to various introductions, some minor characters included, but the author slipped in subtle, yet important, details during the opening.  The front loading of characters distracted me from the story somewhat, but Knaak's writing style (and Kim's focused art) makes it hard to miss the really important points, like Tyrygosa's first appearance and the destruction of Tarren Mill.  The unorganized opening didn't instill high expectations for the rest of the trilogy. Shadows of Ice:  Thanks to the abrupt ending of Dragon Hunt, Shadows of Ice starts off with a bang.  With all of the main characters introduced, Knaak ramps up the action and creates a sense of urgency in book two.  We're shown dragon battles, betrayal, a Scourge officer (I guess they aren't entirely mindless), and enough action to allow Kim to show off his artistic prowess. Shadows of Ice is where we meet Trag Highmountain, the star of Knaak's Legends storyline, and his master that betrayed the betrayer, Baron Mordis.  The pair are the main antagonists of this section and drive the story forward in a few interesting ways.  If you're looking for action, this subset of the trilogy is the book you want to pour over.  The flip side is that Knaak's storyarc takes a backseat to the battle sequences. Ghostlands:  The entire first chapter of Ghostlands is dedicated to further character development.  It's taken some time but we are finally given details on Jorad Mace's past, which by a second hand account, details some aspects of the mysterious Borel and how the shadowed figure is tied to the storyarc.  Unfortunately Mace's story is fairly uninspired.  Up till now I had been waiting for something epic from him, but he ended up being a relatively underdeveloped main character.  Lor'themar and Sylvanas are given about the same development in the section and they are already known figures.  The aptly titled chapter, after all nothing is left around the old Sunwell, is a well-balanced combination of action and story telling.   The unusual cast of characters teaming up in the ending chapters to take on the empowered Dar'Khan was a nice touch.  The only real knock against Ghostlands is that Kim's art got a little to anime-y for me in some scenes, hardly a showstopping flub. I know I have beaten Knaak's work pretty badly in various lore-focused posts, but this time I will give him a pass.  The characters he created, Trag, Aveena, or fleshed out, Kalec, Tyri, Dar'Khan happen to be part of the best work he's done in the Warcraft universe.  I just wish he didn't tie it all back to Korialstrasz again.  At least we have a Rhonin-less adventure on our hands.  Last but not least was the (semi) non-combat pet of Aveena's, Raac.  As cheesy the wind serpent was, I loved the bastard. Spoilers Done. The tome's own elegance, if not for Knaak's best action and character work to date, is worthy of any lore nuts' shelf space.  And yes, the book is impressive enough to be put on your shelf.  Right next to that Frostmourne. If you are wonder about Dragons of Outland, the trilogy set during The Burning Crusade's timeframe, it is now scheduled for a Fall 2009 release.  Hopefully Wrath of the Lich King's manga (I'm assuming it is being planned) will be released in a more timely fashion.

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The literary form of anime isn't a hot topic in the greater WoWverse, if the number of comments left on the previous manga post are anything to go by.  I entirely understand that not everyone is going to want to purchase the collection of Warcraft inspired novels, let alone the higher priced manga titles, but we were talking free stuff! I for one took the opportunity that Tokyopop offered us and caught up on my manga.  Heck, I enjoyed them so much that I picked up Volume 2 to add to my collection even though the entire book is still available online.  You don't need to read the previous volumes to get into the manga - aside from the reoccurring Richard Knaak storyline - but I highly recommend it since they are very entertaining.  That trend only continues in Volume 3. Fiend: Numerous readers have pointed out in other Novel Posts that I don't particularly enjoy Knaak.  I am not going to deny that.  For that reason, you may expect me to badmouth the third Trag Highmountain tale, but for the first time in the series, Knaak's story is not the worst in a particular volume.  Unlike the previous two installments, Fiend moves the storyline along, rather than being focused on a single event.  Both Fallen and Fear previously hinged on one happening, causing Trag's story to barely move at all.  In conjunction with the progressing storyarc, Knaak unveils multiple sides to Trag, compassion, comradely and thanks, that we hadn't seen since the Lich King began speaking to the tauren. Crusader's Blood:  For me, this tale of the Scarlet Crusade's unabashed hatred for anything and everything undead takes the number one spot for the volume by far.  Dan Jolley, in Alan Moore fashion, presents the readers with multiple sides of the struggle, not the black and white discussions we are used to.  At the forefront is the plight of the Forsaken versus the blind faith of those who follow the Scarlet Crusade.  But amongst these ranks we are shown the morally gray side of things.  Do all undead, Scourge-bound or not, need to be vanquished?  Is the Scarlet Crusade infallible?  Does this taste rotten to you?  The best story of the bunch. I Got What Yule Need:  Christie Golden's tale of Winter Veil certainly seems oddly placed in a book that was released in mid-March.  Even money on the story originally being slated for Volume 2, which was released in November.  The story, and the art accompanying it, is meant to be a feel good holiday tale complete with Greatfather Winter, robots, big-eyed children and happy endings.  Scheduling issues ignored, Golden delivers an iconic children's story set in the Warcraft universe that could easily be mistaken for a Pixar pitch.  After all it offers entertainment for the whole family and I'll be damned if Fala isn't the cutest character ever. The Thrill Of The Hunt:  Most of the stories presented in the Legends series are based on unheard of adventurers like you and me.  Nameless people who are just living their day-to-day lives in Azeroth, doing their best to provide for their factions and friends.  This is not one of those stories.  Breaking from tradition, Troy Lewter was given permission to add some backstory to the best known - and dressed - hunter in all of Azeroth, Hemet Nesingwary.  The story starts off with Hemet calling out a traveler for a bogus tale, before he launches us into a flashback on the seedy underbelly of hunting, poaching.  Nesingwary's adventure is by no means an original piece of work, but who wouldn't want to read about the dwarf going Rambo on a group of cub hunting, elf killing poachers? Initially, I wasn't expecting much from the Legends spin-offs, but reading the three installments in quick succession have turned me towards the darkside.  The quick and dirty stories of unknown travelers, adventurers or plain citizens add a complexity to Warcraft that no other form of the universe, extended or otherwise, has previously attempted, let alone accomplished.  Consider me a guaranteed purchaser of Volumes 4 and 5.  I highly recommend that you give Legends a chance.  Again, they are free so what are you waiting for?

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The manga fans out there probably already own these bad boys, but for us layman, the release of the first two volumes for Warcraft: Legends probably passed us by.  I picked up the original publication during my shopping spree - no, not not that one - but have not had the proper time to digest it.  Fitting all the Warcraft lore in my pea-sized brain is becoming more and more difficult when companies like Tokyopop and Wildstorm are expanding the already massive universe at every opportunity.  But Tokyopop is making it a little easier on our wallets at least. Blizzard Entertainment's manga partner announced a new ploy to suck us in late last week.  In celebration of their upcoming release of Volume 3, the company is posting their previous works for FREE*.  A chapter will be posted each business day until March 17, the day Volume 3 launches at retail.  For those of you who may have missed the managa, or felt it to risky or expensive, you can now join me in reading the colorless stories for a limited time.  Here is the posting schedule as compiled by BlizzPlanet:

Warcraft: Legends Volume 1

• Friday, March 6: Fallen by Richard A. Knaak & Jae-Hwan Kim
• Monday, March 9: The Journey by Troy Lewter, Mike Wellman & Mi-Young No
• Tuesday, March 10: How to Win Friends by Carlos Olivares
• Wednesday, March 11: An Honest Trade by Troy Lewter & Nam Kim

Warcraft: Legends Volume 2

• Thursday, March 12: Fear by Richard A. Knaak & Jae-Hwan Kim
• Friday, March 13: Warrior: Divided by Grace Randolph & Erie
• Monday, March 16: Miles to Go by Dan Jolley & Elisa Kwon
• Tuesday, March 17: Family Values by Aaron Sparrow & In-Bae Kim

Although I have been interested in the Legends franchise since its inception, I never took the plunge until now.  Over the weekend I began reading Volume 1 so I could have it completed by the time Volume 2 begins going online later this week.  I would suggest that we all join the party and catch up on our Legends so we can have a nice book discussion later this month.  Shall I bring tea? For those still on the fence about the time sink, here's the lowdown.  Each volume of Legends adds further backstory to one of the characters from the graphic novel, The Sunwell Trilogy (written by Richard A. Knaak & illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim).  Outside those chapters, the stories generally focus on unknown characters partaking in their own adventures around Azeroth.  These works tend to focus on the daily lives of our toons, rather than fate of the universe type stuff. Tokyopop's stuff may not sound as exciting as exposing Arthas' childhood, but you'd be surprise how entertaining some of the stories can be.  They aren't all gold, but at the fantastic price of FREE*, can you really complain?  Yes, yes we can, their manga + comic reader is absolutely atrocious.  Unless you are an eagle or possess a gigantic monitor, prepare for eye strain.  I guess there is something to be said for owning the hard copy, outside of collector pride. *Internet connection required.

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