Project Lore

Maybe they’re just bitter about being killed by the plague. Or they could still be holding a grudge against the Lich King and his Scourge legions. Perhaps they just love torturing people with their creepy, oozing concoctions. Whatever it is, apothecaries and all the messed up lore surrounding them gives me the chills. Now, I’ll cheer on my Horde comrades any day, but these witch doctor guys only seem to remain allegiant out of convenience. Within the first few levels of rolling a Horde character, toons are tasked with completing numerous quests for these macabre NPCs. As a Forsaken starting out in the eerie green haze of Tirisfal Glades, you’ll be asked to turn a captured mountaineer into a ghoul, cause the flesh to rot off a Scarlet Zealot, and, of course, contribute to the spread of a new plague. How’s that for payback to those nasty humans who condemned you to undead life? And that’s all just in the starting area. At least if you roll undead, you have some good motivation for causing all this mayhem – revenge. What about the rest of us unsuspecting Horde toons? Many of us aren’t even aware of the Dark Lady’s ulterior motives to wipe out all civilization. But when members of the Royal Apothecary Society are offering sweet gear in exchange for our deeds, it’s not hard to lure us into poisoning the occasional captured human. Or two. Even when the reward is quite satisfying, I can’t help but feel tainted. So it’s not hard to see why I wasn’t sad to leave my old home of the Undercity and put some distance between my rogue blood elf, Locomomo, and Master Apothecary Faranell’s dungeon of bubbling vials and experiments gone awry. I dinged level 58 and got the hell out of there. But lo and behold, the Forsaken have brought their grudges with them to Outland, and then again to Northrend. Where will the madness end? These Royal Apothecary dingbats still weird me out. But I guess it’s the greedy, sneaky rogue in me that just can’t help but complete even the darkest of quests in exchange for upgraded gear. I’m in Howling Fjord, and working toward earning a nice Featherweight Claymore simply by contributing to a new plague specifically targeting the giant vrykuls.  I’m also helping Plaguebringer Tillinghast create a new and more sinister plague that will infect humanoids and creatures alike. I can’t wait to see how that one turns out. At least “Hacksaw” Jenny seems to understand. All this plague business has ruined her prospects for finding bones suitable for her own questionable uses. So she’s asked me to go collect some from reanimated skeletons on Shield Hill, and is paying me handsomely for it. This is the last time I'll work with these hooligans. Honest.

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I was around during the initial Scourge Invasion.  In fact, I was still playing WoW hours upon hours a day, many of them spent in raids, instances or just farming for gold.  Yet, I never really joined in on the fun of the Scourge Invasion.  I checked it out, but you wouldn't find me there day in and day out, in an attempt to stop the Necropoli from taking over.  I can't recall my reasoning, but it probably had something to do with the fact that I already had the Argent Dawn reputation that I needed for Naxxaramas.  This time around, I have been all over the invasion. This year's invasion started off with the infamous plague that turned so many of Azeroth's heroes into minions for the Scourge.  The Horde and Alliance put aside their differences, got together, and rid the lands of the threat in only a few days time.  But the plague was only an attempt by the Lich King to weaken Azeroth before sending out his Necropoli and Undead fodder. I enjoyed the plague for all that it was worth, and the continuation into the Scourge Invasion is partially what sucked me into the re-hashed event.  Invasion 2.0 is not all that different from the original pre-Naxxaramas event, if I remember correctly.  We have the areas under attack by the Necropoli, Necrotic Shards, Shadow of Dooms, Undead weapon enchants, and extra bosses in select instances. Only a few things have been added, namely rewards for participating.  Rather than receiving superior gear for our efforts, players can now select from almost Karazhan-quality gear that bump up one's Undead slaughtering capabilities.  We even have a few trinkets that summon an Argent Dawn agent or abilities to our side.  On the content side of things, players can still tackle the new Karazhan boss, Tenris Mirkblood, who seems to be the only thing remaining from the plague days gone by.  Not to mention, the only thing I have found that could really link the two events. This Rogue and Priest combo will be continuing the purging of the Undead from the Plaguelands until the event ends.  I am mainly doing it so I can try out Solidsamm's new spec, but I tend to be a sucker for summonable buddies.  So if you see a purple skull appear on your map (and are on Magtheridon), I will likely be in their base, killing their mans.  To bad the Argent Dawn reputation has been replaced by the Argent Crusade in Wrath of the Lich King and will be useless. Sadly, I haven't seen many other people partaking in the Scourge Invasion, is it just too old hat for you?  Or are you burned out from the plague - as the Lich King intended?

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Remember that small issue Blizzard had with Zul'Gurub a few years ago? You know the one I am talking about. It revolved around one of Hakkar The Soulflayer's abillities, Corrupted Blood. The ability was harmless to most high level players, causing a direct hit of 875-1125 shadow damage plus 200 damage a second after that. It wasn't until someone managed to hearth to a major city with the debuff that the problems started. To lower level players and players not paying attention, the DOT could easily kill them, while spreading further.

Many servers were absolutely destroyed by the bug, with Blizzard running around to try and repair the damage. After the mess was finally cleaned up, the academics that focus on video games and/or contagious diseases became interested in the topic. Numerous academic outlets, including the Center for Disease Control (CDC), requested the data with hopes of using it as a model for real world research. A devastating bug in a video game may turn out to be good after all.

I am shocked and dismayed that so few people have put that little issue together with the current World Event going on in World of Warcraft. To me the events occurring now are clearly designed based on the accidental Corrupted Blood plague. For those of you who may not have noticed, various places in Azeroth have been delivered a package by someone, Booty Bay is considered to be the first. The packages began arriving hours after the Argent Dawn setup posts in all the major cities, warning all the citizens that the Lich King was coming. Oh, and said packages corrupt those around them with You're Infected!

There are slight differences between the Corrupted Blood issue and the Lich King World Event though. Those differences are easily attributed to that fact that the designers did this event on purpose. The You're Infected! debuff does no damage, it will simply turn you into an undead zombie should the timer run out. Getting hit by the zombie ability Mangle, will reduce your timer by a full minute, so mind those who hunger for brains. As of press time, most of the continent of Kalimdor on my server has been whipped clean of NPCs, cities and mobs.

I believe that Blizzard Poster Kisirani's statements lead credibility to my thoughts. When a poster said that the plague was to easy to avoid – Argent Healers, Priests, Paladins and Shamans can dispell it – Kisirani quipped “It certainly does seem containable, doesn't it? :)” Seems like a dead reference to how “easy” it should have been to contain Corrupted Blood. On the flip side, the crates have been appearing in more locations, as well as an introduction infected critters, such as roaches.  Making it easier for the zombies to lay waste to Azeroth.

So what are you guys doing? Plundering your homelands while having fun conversing with the opposing faction through zombie chat or are you defending your castle? Perhaps you are trying to find out exactly who is behind this mess? Or are you still stuck on farming those Hallow's End items?

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