Project Lore

I had been putting off starting on the Hodir quests for several weeks in favor of working toward becoming an exalted champion with all my Horde factions, but soon realized that was a mistake. To up my raiding game, I really need those shoulder enchants that come with exalted status with the Sons of Hodir! So, I've switched up my daily routine mid-tournament and opted to follow what I've found to be a somewhat... dirtier path.

In the past I've lamented over the goopy, gooey, poopy (literally) quests that seem to plague Azeroth. On the surface, the Sons of Hodir quests are nothing like that. The initial quest chain actually is a ton of fun, all the way up to jumping from dragon to dragon, killing riders along the way as you fly the long way up to Thorim, atop the Temple of Storms.

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Mythology, folk lore, legends, all words to describe ancient stories.  These tall tales were created to explain the unexplainable, scare children, hail fallen heroes and even to just entertain.  Every civilization has them, from perhaps the best known - of the Western world - stories of Ancient Greece to the Samurai, onto the homegrown tales of Native Americans.  And to me, every single myth is captivating, no matter how similar they may be.

While much of the Warcraft lore is based on more recent, or original, stories, Wrath of the Lich King added an entire race dedicated to a civilization that has been plundered by the video game industry, Norse mythology.  Final Fantasy, Tales of Symphonia, Odin Sphere, Too Human, Viking: Battle for Asgard, and even earlier parts of WoW (World Tree as well) have lifted from stories of the long dead viking culture.  Players can see the Norse influence on WoW all over Northrend, from Howling Fjord, The Storm Peaks and the final zone of Icecrown.  No matter what soil you step on, there is a good chance that the Vrykul, or their Undead version, the Val'kyr, have made it their home. If you want more than mobs based on oversized vikings, then the Sons of Hodir/Thorim quest line is for you.  Without spoiling the experience, allow me to whet your appetite a bit.  The quest line is one of the longest currently in WoW and contains some of the best lore, that has its own twists on the ancient story.  For better or for worse, the lengthy chain is not required for anything too substantial, unlike the exhausting Onyxia chain, meaning many players may have dropped the line, or skipped over it entirely.  Not all of the 40+ quests are worth the time, but the culmination of the events your toon has taken part in are something that should not be missed.  Plus, it gives you a reason to tackle Halls of Lightning, other than helping out a guild mate. I am no Norse expert, but there are many obvious references to their deep tales.  Here is the basic, spoiler free, tip of the iceberg information for the adventure:

• Dun Niffelem - Niflheim is one of two places that existed before the known world.  It is intensely cold and likely the basis for Dun Niffelem's name.
• Thorim - Thorim, the protagonist of our long quest line, is based upon the God of Lightning, Thor.  Lending credence to these claims is that the name of Thorim's wife, Sif, is the same name as Thor's beloved.
• Loken - Loken is based on the tricky bastard known as Loki, and in this telling, happens to be Thorim's brother.  Constantly up to shenanigans in Norse mythology, Loken follows his basis well, upsetting Thorim so much as to send him into a deep depression.  His acts are the start of our quest.

Believe it or not, this is actually the third time I have touched upon this quest line.  I revisited it for my favorite area in all of Northrend, an area that was created by Thorim's butterfingers.  There is plenty more to the quest than what we touched on here, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't tackled the full line.  Anybody who hasn't finished the line should avoid visiting the comments section until they do so - but feel free to leave a comment if you have the willpower to skip reading everyone else's thoughts.  If you enjoy lore in general, then this is one quest chain you should not miss.  It has everything, love, betrayal, deceit and epic battles.  It makes me want to dig up some more books, anyone know a good Norse mythology collection?  Preferably one that isn't incredibly difficult to grasp.  I recently read the Divine Comedy, so I need a break for the difficult stuff!

Probably worth noting that Thorim is actually a Titan, while Loken is a Dark Titan serving the Old God Yogg-Saron.  Not exactly a spoiler, more of a setup for Ulduar.

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In today's less than stellar economy efficiency is a valued trait.  During the holiday weekend I managed to check off two goals on my "WoW To Do List" while nearly completing a third.  One did earn me an actual Achievement - not that I really care - but the other was done entirely for monetary DPS benefits.  Who needs an achievement when you can get this? This weekend I finally polished my Kalu'ak reputation grind for the cute penguin and ever-so-helpful epic fishing pole.  You can never have too many purpalz.  Kalu'ak is actually quite an easy faction to grind for, I just didn't bother to clean it up until the other week.  You can get to Revered just by dispatching the quests for the starting zones of Northrend.  Past that, there are three dailies to complete that all reward 500 reputation, Planning for the Future, Preparing for the Worst, The Way to His Heart....  Totaling 1,500 reputation per day. Each of these quests are incredibly quick to finish, and on an interesting note, you don't actually have to kill anything to complete them.  You can kill stuff to make it a bit easier (you evil bastard), but that is not the goal.  For Solidsamm, it was actually more efficient to avoid confrontations, sapping all mobs in the vicinity.  Of course there is a catch.  You waste a ton of time flying (nearly 15 minutes) and boating (most of your waiting is blown sitting at docks) to each quest giver.  I am not exaggerating either.  I used this time to brush my teeth, feed my pets, do my taxes, things of that nature. Next up was my main goal, Sons of Hodir.  After weeks spent grinding out their collection of dailies, I turned in my last stack of Relics of Ulduar to ding Exalted and snag my epic shoulder enchant.  Go, go, DPS. The relief consumed me.  No longer will I have to fight over Revenants, only to have my Smoldering Scrap ninjaed from me, or my Ice Essence fly in the opposite direction I was expecting.  Gone will be the days of Forefather hunting and scrambling for the few Vicious Oils scattered between the worms.  Solidsamm won't have to bother with competing for the few Kaskala Supplies or stealing babies anymore either.  Now he will fill his day with corpses, documents, banners and killing.  The cycle continues. Oh and that third thing I almost completed;  Only three badges from my Mirror of Truthiness.  How'd this weekend treat you?  My Valentine's Day was great, although I failed at scoring my own cupid and was a candy short of Be Mine! Anyone have better luck at the Fool for Love meta-Achievement?

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Snow, what a wonderful way for water to return to the earth.  Snow, in all its forms, makes everything more beautiful.  Formerly gnarled and bare trees take on a new luster when they are covered in a few inches of snow.  Better yet, when the trees are encased in slowly melting ice, giving them an eye-closing glow.  How I miss the Northeast sometimes...so I go to Northrend. Perhaps now you may understand why the frozen tundra of Storm Peaks is home to my favorite area in the game.  I can actually narrow it down far further than that though.  I do enjoy Storm Peaks as a whole, but the area surrounding the destruction caused by Thorim "misplacing" his hammer, and now Blowing Hodir's Horn, struck me more than anything.  I distinctly remember saying "Wow, this is awesome" into Ventrilo when I ventured into the area during my opening Sons of Hodir quests.  It took me close to 30 minutes to finish what should have been a 5 minute quest.  That is how entranced I was by the frozen war scene. I can get even more granular though.  The shot you see below is currently my favorite bit of art presented in World of Warcraft.  While the overall mayhem that was caught in time by Thorim's butterfingers is incredibly awesome, the moment captured here encapsulates the battle perfectly. The Forefather lays waste to the Dwarves directly in front of him.  Little does he know that a pair of their brothers in arms take the opportunity to flank him from his left.  In the flanking party we can see one dwarf in mid-leap, dagger at the ready.  The second is crouched as he prepares his footing for his jump from his bear's haunches to the unsuspecting forefather.  We will never know if the collection of ants managed to topple the massive spider. The frozen struggle, its surrounding lore and the overall presentation of Thunderfall just does it for me.  Since Wrath of the Lich King launched I have been unable to find an area that captivates me so much, from a broad spectrum and then at a microscopic level.  Also, the amount of clouds, honor and mining I get in Thunderfall doesn't hurt. What is your favorite area and why?

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Solidsamm Working On His Sons of Hodir Rep

The Sons of Hodir is one of those factions that almost all end game players are in the process of grinding or have already tackled. If your goal in Wrath of the Lich King is to melt faces in end game raids, dominate heroics, or PvP your heart out at level 80, then your only option for a shoulder enchant is this faction of frost giants. Shoulder enchants are not the only reason to get moving on your Sons reputation though. Like other Wrath factions the group offers a wide range of purchasable items, including the multi-person Reins of the Grand Ice Mammoth. Oh, and for those of you struggling with your gold income, the daily quests offered by the Sons of Hodir will fill your coffers quickly and easily.

The faction has money, loot, lore and needed end game enchantments (the Honored version of the enchants are as good as the Exalted Aldor/Scryer enchants), so you may be wondering how to go about the task of grinding to exalted. First things first, you need to get to neutral with them before you can begin any dailies. To do this you must run a series of quest chains, a total of 26 quests, that ends with your character becoming neutral. The first chain starts at K3 in Storm Peaks with the quest They Took Our Men. If you are still leveling fear not, for the initial 16 quest chain is accessible to level 77 and higher.

After becoming fast friends with Lok'lira the Crone and her sisters at Brunnhildar Village, you will be tasked with finding yourself a mount to continue in the Hyldsmeet event. With harness in hand your are set to begin your second quest line. This series is half as long, only comprising of eight rather quick and easy goals and leads you to the mightily depressed Thorim. While performing your last task in the line for Thorim, Mending Fences, you will receive Slag Covered Metal. The shiny blue object will start your third and final chain, comprising of a pair of easy quests that will get you to Neutral with the Sons of Hodir (for all non-Humans).

Now you can begin your long, hard grind to Exalted. The rest of the way will mainly be completed through various daily quests that open up depending on your reputation level. Friendly offers us a total of five quests (although Wrath launched with four):

• Hodir's Tribute (recently added) – Something to do with all those Relics.
• Everfrost/Remember Everfrost! - These chips are hard to spot on the snowy grounds of Storm Peaks.
• Polishing the Helm – An easy collection quest.
• Blowing Hodir's Horn – An easy kill quest (party to make it even faster).
• Hot and Cold – Annoying collection quest due to the spawn rate of the hot metal and ability for other players to ninja loot it from you.

All of the above quests, with the exception of Everfrost turn-ins, net you 250 rep per completion. You need to first locate an Everfrost Chip before you can begin the quest, then the repeatable version opens up. Both quests reward you with some gold and 350 rep. Neither of the turn-ins are marked as daily, so you can turn them in as often as you please. After you work your way to Honored, two new dailies reveal themselves.

• Spy Hunter – A very easy kill quest.
• Thrusting Hodir's Spear – Vehicle-based quest that is quite awesome. Worth getting to Honored to partake in this daily.

Lucky for us, the reputation gains are bumped up on the Honored quests. You now receive 350 and 500 reputation respectively. We have one final quest added upon becoming Revered, Feeding Arngrim. Another collection quest, kinda, but a bit more interesting than Polishing the Helm. However, no rep bump here as it only rewards 350 rep. The good thing is that all of the quests are completable till Exalted, meaning by the time you hit Revered you can earn 2550 rep a day. That calculation assumes you only do the turn-ins once per day. Removing them from the equation, you can go from Revered to Exalted in 11 days.

This guide originally closed with a recap on the lore surrounding the Sons of Hodir and how you become friendly with them. I decided to remove it so I don't spoil anyone's fun. I will just say that the chains introduce you to a lot of Norse mythology, and that the plot continues after you open up the Sons of Hodir faction.

Personally, I think that Blizzard gave the Sons of Hodir the only shoulder enchants in the game for a reason.  The designers probably felt that a quest chain lasting some 40 quests (if you continue the story line) warrants a good amount of attention.  By giving the sought after enchants to them, they ensure that many players will go through more than half of the quests.  At that point I was very interested in where the plot was taking me lorewise and will continue on to its culmination.

How many of you have already completed the rep grind? Did you do it before or after the Relic quest was added. If before, how pissed were you over the extra time spent? Hopefully you didn't vendor all your Relics and made a killing by selling them off!

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It certainly didn't take me long before I found some noteworthy quests in Storm Peaks. I went about doing the first round of SP quests after heading into K3 to initiate my Sons of Hodir questline. At first I was just trying to get a feel for the land with the opening quests, but as it turned out, one of them is the first tasks for the Sons. Only 24 more quests to go...before I am neutral.

If there is one thing the Goblin race is known for it is their love of technology. Often the more dangerous the technological “advances” the better. With that I strolled, no, actually, I flew over a minefield without realizing it before being blasted out of the sky by a pair of AA guns. I then turned into a gnomish pinball as I was blasted from land mine to land mine before finally landing in a relative safe zone. I guess stacking that stamina a few levels ago was a smart move. Once landed, Disarm Trap made the quest trivial for me.

As I watched myself being launched from location to explosive location I couldn't help but laugh at Solidsamm's misfortune. He didn't get the worst of it though, turns out Jeer Sparksocket left his buddy in the middle of the field with no intentions of saving him! Perhaps he should go for the aptly named Mine Sweeper achievement.

That one was all fun and games, then next quest I participated in had me a little emo. If you haven't figured it out by now I am an animal lover. I have four fluffy ferrets, nearly a dozen finned friends, a pinchy crayfish, a trove of snails and a girlfriend (until she reads that). So when I was tasked with collecting some animal meat from the local mammoths by way of explosion, I balked.

I know it's just a game, but I have a soft spot for the wooly beasts for some reason. The catch is that like any self-respecting action junkie I love explosions. My soft spot for things that go boom lead me to toss a U.D.E.D. (ideas on the acronym?) at the first modified elephant I saw.  I regretted it as soon as the animation started. With that I quietly picked up the pieces – already did the damage might as well make his death worth something! - and logged off for the evening. With a tear in my eye.

Despite my tyrantical treatment of the mammoth, I would argue that it is more humane than previous methods. Mr. Mammoth had a quick demise by way of goblin engineering.  Had I done it my way he would have suffered multiple stables wounds from my rusty daggers, not to mention a belly full of poison during a 10-20 second struggle for his life. To top it off, he would have only dropped one piece of meet, forcing me to hunt down his family members! How is that for a justification D.E.H.T.A?

How many of you fancy the wildlife of Azeroth enough to say no to these types of quests? I am sure many of you have picked up the achievement, but I bet it was just for the points. Or do you have more of a soft spot for the evil humanoid types?

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Well it has come down to this, the final level. I am fairly certain that I am going to be the last player at ProjectLore to hit level 80, but in all fairness, they play the game for a job. I write about the game for my job. My original goal was to hit the level before the holidays, enabling me to get some raiding in before the new year. Then it was to have it done before my birthday, which was yesterday (Thanks for the awesome weekend Lesley). I guess all those trolls are right, I do fail in an epic manner. New goal equals this week!

I may not have hit 80, but over the weekend I busted into my final stretch to immortalizing SolidSamm as one of the millions of toons to hit the level cap. After watching my second to last ding go off, I quietly logged out of the game and pondered his immediate future. On recommendations from friends and guildies, the little rogue will skip out on all of the quests for the lower zones, heading straight to Storm Peaks and Icecrown to finish out the experience bar.

Many of you may be wondering why a level 79 character hasn't already been in these zones, and that is a legitimate question. Being a hardcore PvEer, I have been tackling every quest I have come across, interesting or not. No ? has gone unanswered as of level 79. Due to this incessant questing, I spent most of my time in the lowbie zones – Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak – going wherever those NPCs lead me. With 80 coming in just a few hours and my guild waiting for me to join the raiding ranks, I am abandoning Dragonblight and delaying my personal quest to complete all of Northrend's quests, in favor of starting my Sons of Hodir questline for the shoulder enchant.

Don't worry though, my escapades won't stop me from reporting on any fun quests that I came across. Icecrown's many phasing quests are supposed to be awesome and I will be running through them in short order. On top of that, I do plan on returning to questing between my reputation farming, heroic runs and raiding.  Those of you in my boat, how do you plan on heading to 80?  Do you have any special celebrations for when you join the ranks of the raiding elite?

Before I go, I have to mention Blizzard's newest WoW product, the The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. When I originally heard about the book, I figured it was another cash grab by Activision-Blizzard, but after previewing the first chapter, they had me sold. Hopefully some of our thoughts on the cinematic are confirmed.

P.S. Amazon is offering a nice discount on the book right now.

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