Project Lore

Our new listeners out there know that we've been struggling to come up with a name for Project Lore's official audio podcast.  We've currently recorded an entire trilogy of shows - impressive, I know - but the best title we've been able to come up with is the Dave Edition.  It was a hit with at least one fan, our current maximum.  Now we are asking, neigh begging, our fans to help us create the perfect moniker.  And this time we are offering rewards phat loot.

Tokyopop, makers of the World of Warcraft manga, my most beloved surprise of 2009, has donated three prize packs that will be awarded to the best names.  The winners will be chosen at the discretion of Project Lore's contributors, and a vote from Tokyopop will break any tie.  Ideas must be submitted as comments to this post.  Leave your real e-mail address or we'll have no way of contacting you should you win.  If you have submitted ideas on previous posts, please resubmit them for further consideration.  You are allowed to submit more than one entry, and more than once.  Feel free to explain the reasoning behind your submission as well.

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After falling in love with the stories from Warcraft Legends: Volumes 1, 2 & 3, I decided to become a first adopter to the latest installment, Warcraft Legends: Volume 4.  The new manga from Tokyopop didn't have the same fanfare as its predecessor, but to be entirely honest, it didn't need it either.  Not only does that package contain the conclusion to Trag Highmountain's struggle against the Lich King, but Dan Jolley and Christie Golden return to pen a pair of excellent stories. Fate: I've been pretty critical of Knaak's novels in the past, however the short stories he creates for the mangas are entertaining and more spirited.  Sure, Trag may have been a Yoda clone back in The Sunwell Trilogy, but the Tauren has come into his own in his undead state.  Fate, the culmination to the four-part mini-series, happens to be the best of the quartet, even though its short and to the point. Knaak's ability to articulate Trag's desperation and his need for revenge in only a handful of pages is an impressive show of a cohesive and clear direction.  The 300 (among other movies) reference did not get by me either. Bloodsail Buccaneer: There is no point beating around the bush on this one.  Dan Jolley's epic tale, relative to the rest of stories in Legends, of the Bloodsail pirates is easily the best of the bunch.  The tale spans a whopping 62 pages, that enables Jolley to craft some of the deepest character development I've seen outside of the novels.  Bloodsail Buccaneer is a tale about three boys who are kidnapped and forced to work for, and later alongside, the band of pirates and their undead Captain Jerias Bloodvein.  What makes this story so grand isn't only its length and detail, or even the stellar art (best of the edition as well), but the blend of a known storyline with unknown characters.  The boys are a trio from Westfall who were at the wrong place, at the wrong time.  Eventually they are tied up, forced to pillage and plunder for the Stranglethorn Vale band, and are even sent off to seek the Captain's revenge against Edwin VanCleef. Yes, the story culminates in an epic raid on the Deadmines.  Apparently I can't get enough of the craftsman. Blood Runs Thicker: It's almost as if newcomer Tim Beedle read Jolley's story and realized how awesome the blending of unknown and known lore is.  Beedle's contribution to Volume 4 follows the odd traveling group known to all as the Darkmoon Faire.  The adventure focuses upon a newcomer to the group, the freakishly strong Kerri, and her troubles with the law.  By the end of the piece we see just how far the performers of "The Greatest Show In Azeroth" will go to protect one another.  Thebackstory puts a whole new light upon Silas Darkmoon's crew.  In short, don't piss them off.  Everyone's favorite buffer, Sayge, makes an appearance too.  As much as I enjoyed the story, Kawakami's art wasn't detailed enough for my liking.  Many panes felt rather empty. A Warrior Made--Part 1:  I know Golden has been writing fantasy for quite some time, but I can't help but think I have seen her grow within the Warcraft universe.  Initially I disliked her dialogue, but she made up for stale or bland conversations with terrific characters (see Fala).  A Warrior Made--Part 1 fixes the dialogue problems while setting the stage for another manga mini-series.  The tale takes place before the corruption of orcs, a time frame we rarely see, and revolves around a weak newborn female's struggle to be accepted by the Frostwolf clan.  It's another mix of known and unknown lore, but like Knaak's tales, the introduction lore to the mother of Thrall looks like it will be spread across a series of very short tales.  Part 2 will be published with three other stories in Warcraft Legends: Volume 5 in September. Volume 4 definitely had a reoccurring theme, blending new information into previously known lore, and it worked.  Well.  I don't think that all of the manga should focus on addingbackstory , but it was certainly refreshing to see some of these "everyday" characters play a part in the grand storylines that we players have always wanted to influence.  As for the mini-series stories, I really feel that the authors should make the parts far longer.  I may have enjoyed the tales from Knaak and Golden, but they seemed to finish just as they were getting started.  Overall, Volume 4 offers the best quartet of stories, including the best of all volumes, in Warcraft Legends.  On the strength ofJolley's story I will certainly be picking up his manga, Warcraft: Death Knight, and of course, Volume 5. To Tokyopop: The "behind the scenes" information is much more appreciated than a subset of literature from that other series you produce.

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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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