More Jaina Thoughts

Or at least just this one small item.

In a previous post I said that even if Jaina dies I would continue on with the WoW story to see what happens in the end, just like I would continue to read a book if something happened in it that I didn't like.

However, when it comes to instances it's a different story. If Frozen Halls, the 5-man instance of Icecrown Citadel features the death of Jaina Proudmoore at the end of it then you can likely count me out. Sorry, but I'm not about to commit myself to seeing one of my favorite lore characters dying over and over again just in the name of getting new fat lootz. Blizzard and anyone else who has a problem with that can literally go fuck themselves for all I care.

Of course, this means that I won't be seeing the actual Icecrown raid any time soon if that happens, but I can live with that. I'll spend the rest of my WoW time, what I contribute anyway, doing dailys and getting gold to properly gear my goblin mage.

Personally though, I think I'm not the only one who loves Jaina Proudmoore so I doubt Frozen Halls will go over as popular as it's meant to be if we have to see her getting killed over and over again. Blizzard can't be that foolish...

Can they?

Icecrown Realestate

I reflect back to a time not so long ago, when a group of adventurers loyal to the Horde and to each other, who crawled up from the muck with each other, first set foot in the rank halls of the floating necropolis, Naxxaramus. Upon first inspection we saw that it was a real fixer upper if we had any notion of moving in, and people agreed with me on this for certain! There were spiders running rampant, walking abominations and things most unpleasant were romping across the floors and making much noise, but not nearly as much as the rambunctious crowd of Death Knights who seriously had no concept of manners! And to top all of that off was the horrid smell caused by entire hallways overgrowing with fungus and slime and all kinds of creepy crawly not niceness!



The current landlord and his pet frostwyrm were NOT taking care of business, and the people of Voodoo Reborn decided it was time for a change. We ousted that pesky lich and his stupid dragon without prejudice and made Naxxaramus a place where a rabbit could frolick freely in the throne room of Kel'Thuzad.

Lately some of us have been keeping an eye on the highly luxurious and world famous condominium site known only as Ulduar...or at least it used to be world famous. Now it's world infamous due to one very slimy and very unpleasent resident who thinks he owns the place. This...Yogg-saron character is famous for making those who try to stay in the condos of Ulduar completely bat-shit mad. Maybe that explains what happened to Jack Nicholson in "The Shining". Whichever, Yogg-saron certainly needs to go, and we're the ones to do it and make a formerly respectable Northrend getaway into a place even a rabbit could frolick freely.

Very recently however a new location for Northrend has been opened, a place that shall forever be known to the citizens of Azeroth: Icecrown Citadel. Now, you would have to be a complete idiot who has not crawled out of the tents of Durotar for the last six years to not know who the Lich King is, or who Arthas Menethil is. The guy takes an A for infamy. Kill his father, burn down his home nation, turn his people into undead, and then head north, become a king, and set up the newest in Northrend luxury resorts.

On maintaining said resort... Well...just look!



Lots of Frost, Blood, and Unholy stuff? Does that sound like a place like anyone would like to live? Seriously, the only people who would find this remotely welcoming are those Knights of the Ebon Blade jokers who already live in places like this. I suppose we really could not have expected much from an asshole like the Lich King?

Will we ever be able reclaim Icecrown Citadel and make it into something that's actually manageable? Who knows? It may be beyond saving or we might have to set it aside for a future project.

Eventually though, Icecrown Citadel, just like the other places before it, will be made into a safe haven for bunnies, and they will roam freely and without fear on The Frozen Throne.

Jaina, A Follow Up

As much as I would hate it and be pissed off at Blizzard if they decided to kill off Jaina Proudmoore (I honestly don't think they will, but they do have a record for screwing up so I can't help but hold my breath on it), I work under the philosophy that just because you may not like something that happens along the way you shouldn't stop reading the book until it's done.

I hated it when Eddard Stark met his end in A Game of Thrones and I thought the Red Wedding scene was gross and atrocious, but both were critical points to the whole story. Imagine what we sould have missed in the rest of the series if we stopped reading just because we hated those parts! If Jaina were to die though I can see no other reason than to get her out of the way and let the Horde and Alliance duke it out, at least not yet, and maybe that's not giving Blizzard enough credit. Even if she does go I'm not about to quit WoW, even though I think that they would have shot their own story in the foot.

I'll reserve judgement until the curtain has dropped.

That being said, Patch 3.3 with the Icecrown Citadel raids are starting to look FRICKIN' AWESOME!!! More to come on that, stay tuned.

The Fate of Jaina Proudmoore

What is going to happen in Icecrown when Jaina is reunited with what her former lover has become? That seems to be on the tongues of a lot of people lately, especially now that it actually has been confirmed she's going to be the Alliance guiding NPC through the Frozen Halls instances.

Honestly and trully, I'm kind of disturbed but not altogether surprised the number of people who would like to see her die in that instance. Their reasons slightly vary but when you cut down to the core you find that they all just want Jaina out of the way so she can't hold Varian Wrynn's war against the Horde back anymore.

So, in a nutshell, they call her "unrealistic" because she wants peace with the Horde, just like Thrall wants peace with the Alliance. People want her dead because that would help esculate their justification for more PvP in Cataclsym.

Does anyone else besides me find this to be slightly disturbing? Sorry, but if you want someone to die, even fictional characters, because they represent a peaceful stand while you on the other hand want an all out war is a sign of having a sick and evil mind, and I have little respect for you because of it. It's as simple as that.

Yet the speculations continue to roll. One idea I saw is that Jaina and Sylvanus cross paths during the confrentation with the Lich King, Jaina wants to try and save Arthas, Sylvanus wants to kill him, and so Sylvanus kills Jaina to get to Arthas. This would surely escalate the Horde/Alliance war to be sure, but I think it would amount to one of the worst and most tragic wastes of a great character that there has every been. I really would not put it past Blizzard to do this though. They already screwed the pooch by degrading the Lich King from one of the most epic villains of Warcraft lore down to a guy who merely shows up, makes threats, gets pwned by a pally, and then leaves. Bottom line is that I really don't have a lot of faith in Blizzard's story telling capabilities, so I worry about the fate of Jaina Proudmoore.

One Other Card...Bolfang

A very interesting article was presented at WoW Insider some time ago.

Someone had a thought about the fate of both Bolvar Fordragon and Saurfang the Younger.

As most everyone knows right now, these two did not meet with a happy ending during the events of the Wrathgate. Poor Saurfang got his soul sucked out by Frostmourne, and Bolvar died from the Forsaken plague cloud, and both were left there in front of the gate. Now, I had thought that all the greenery created by Alexstrasza had shielded both of their bodies, but that doesn't seem to be the case from some evidence given to us by none other than Yogg-Saron.

One of his memories is of the Lich King torturing an unknown individual. It is widely speculated that this being is an undead Bolvar, who is slowly and systematically being converted into Scourge. Now couple that with the fact that Arthas possesses the soul of Saurfang the Younger and put them together. The very first death knights were created by Gul'Dan during the second war between orcs and humans. He did it by taking the souls of dead orc warlocks and stuffing them into the bodies of slain Stormwind knights, creating guys like Teron Gorefiend and the others.

See the connection yet?

I consider the Scourge to be a nation of its own rights, one made up of undead mostly, but still a nation. It has a capitol in Icecrown, it has a king in Arthas, and it has its people. Most nations also have champions as well. Stormwind had Lord Lothar and Bolvar, Lordaeron had Uther the Lightbringer, etc.

I have a feeling that when Arthas opens the gates of Icecrown and pwns the living fuck out of the Argent Crusade (iterated on in my previous post), the Scourge forces are going to be led by their new champion.

Bolfang the Uber-DK, a possible new boss in Icecrown Citadel itself.

Scary.

Arthas and the Argent Tournament

So, the Argent Tournament and their new Coliseum, being built in the frigid north of Icecrown Glacier. A land once believed to be too cold for anything except the dead, but now it seems that is not the case. The Scourge no longer have total control over it, in fact I think they have severely been pushed back onto their heals, into Icecrown Citadel itself.

But they will be back. Oh yes, they will be back.

Arthas is proud if nothing else, and the Lich King is not going to take this lying down. For the time being, very little is being done by the Scourge to counter the Argent Crusade and their precious tourney, which has its purpose of being built on the Scourge's back yard as a sign of defiance against the Lich King and his minions. This is Tirion Fordring pulling down his shorts and mooning the entire Scourge.

Honestly, I can't say I appreciate it too much, to be honest. I know that Arthas needs to die very, very, very badly, but this whole thing just seems disrespectful to me. Seeing this from Arthas's perspective, this is a lot like how we would feel if Alliance came into Mulgore or Durator and built an outhouse in the middle of a burial ground. That shit just doesn't fly, dammit! A man's home is a man's home, no matter how evil he is!

But, for the time being, there really isn't much being done to counter it. The only counters the Scourge have put out are some Death Knight Commanders and Lieutenants in the Court of Bones, along with a bunch of skellies and gargoyles. These are signs that the Scourge is totally on the defensive right now, because all these guys are really fodder for players doing dailies, and are constantly being pwned. There's also the frostwyrm with a number of Cultist Bombers riding along, also fodder for a daily quest, and lastly there is the Black Knight, who really is a total bitch.

So what's left? Not much. The Scourge does not seem to be the world threatening powerhouse it used to be, and as much as he might want to, I don't think the Lich King really is in a position to do anything about it right now.

Chronilogically, the tournament started after the quest Tirion's Gambit, where the player, Tirion, and a number of Argent Crusader's go into the Cathedral of Darkness to try and get Arthas' Heart, and end up stabbing it instead. This really fucks up the Lich King, and right now I think he is in Icecrown Citadel, brooding about what happened, and biding his time.

Patch 3.2 is scheduled to unveil the completion of the Argent Tournament and opening the Coliseum for players, and we'll enjoy a few months of that before Patch 3.3 rolls around the corner, or Patch 3.4, or whichever one it is that finally opens Icecrown Citadel.

When that happens, the very worst of the Scourge is going to come pouring out with the Lich King most likely leading them. They are going to take Icecrown and possibly most of Northrend back from the Alliance and the Horde, and the Argent Crusade is going to be turned into the Argent Let's-get-the-fuck-out-of-here-before-we-get-eaten. When it's all over, there won't be enough left of the tourney grounds to sustain a campfire for one night. Basically we'll learn why this expansion was named "Wrath of the Lich King" because that's what he's going to be bringing.

And then we'll go from there, storming Icecrown Citadel itself, and taking on the Lich King.

I think we've got fun times in store for us. :)

Warmth, Life, Light

*From the Writings of Dakore, Shaman of the Horde*

I have always believed that the lives of mortals is driven primarily by three positive forces. The first of these is warmth, the second is life, and the third is light. If you take away any one of these things you lose something of what makes existence more tangible: without warmth there is cold, without life there is death, without light there is darkness.

Granted, not all of these things are required to exist, as our Forsaken allies have proven time and again. I look at Sylvanus and her followers and I do see, however, that they have come to hold a bit more warmth, liveliness, and illumination than the members of the Scourge. For this I at least recognize them as a people, and not just simple abominations that others would see them as.

To walk where mortal beings truly have no business being though is quite the experience. At least the cold, harsh heights of the Storm Peaks had life and light to them, and those rocky, snow ridden places had more warmth than what I am feeling now. Icecrown literally is a land of nothingness. It has no warmth, it has no life, it has no life. It is a place of perpetual death.

No wonder this is the bastian of the Lich King and the Scourge. No where else on Azeroth or Draenor can you find a place like this. I doubt you could find a place like Icecrown on many other worlds. There is nothing natural about it, not anymore. The ice is devoid of anything resembling life. If anything were living beneath it...well, one can hope.

Everyone once in a while though, a spark will emerge and give a dead land a flicker of life, light, and hope. I saw one such spark after we took Crusader's Pinnacle from the Scourge, making a new base of operations for the Argent Crusade. Highlord Fordring asked me to search in the northern parts of the glacier for one of his missing crusaders, named Bridenbrad. It took some time for me to find his tiny encampment tucked away into the hills, but eventually I found the human named Bridenbrad.

I often have to remind myself that when dealing with humans, dwarves, and draenei that not all of them are my enemies, members of the Alliance. Instead, the are part of the Argent, so I look upon them as allies, and thus I approached this lone human as such. He bid me keep away from his camp at first, and there I learned that he had been afflicted by the undead plague.

Such a terrible fate to befall a grand crusader against the Scourge, and a sign that the world does not know justice by letting him be turned to undeath. Not if I had a say in the matter. Luckily, Fordring was not about to let this go either.

The powers of renewal, life, and light, as he put it, would help to save Crusader Bridenbrand. We tried the warming powers of renewal first, and I ventured to the sacred groves of Moonglade. There I spoke to Keeper Romulos, who, after a favor was done for him in the dangerous nethers of the Emerald Dream, granted his boon for Bridenbrand. I took it back to the crusader and laid it upon him, and though he was renewed in strength, the plague still gripped him.

Next we tried my beloved Alexstraza, the Life Binder, to grant her boon, which she gladly gave, again after services rendered which I in turn were glad to give. Her boon was her own fiery breath, and with hope the burning essence of the Red Queen could purify Bridenbrand of his affliction. Sadly, it was not to be. The Scourge Plague is a stubborn contagion, I will give it that at least, unwilling to let go of its victims, even in the face of such power.

There was one final hope, and now I was travelling back to my old home of Outland to see the greatest bastion of light that could be had: A'dal of the Naaru.

He granted his boon, and I travelled back to Icecrown to give this final gift to the fallen crusader, only to find that I was too late. Bridenbrand gave his last breath to thank me for all I have done as I laid the given powers of light on him, and though the light entered his body it could not spare his life. As saddened as I might be by this outcome, my heart was lifted as A'dal himself appeared there in Northrend, and suddenly the surrounding dead, cold, and dark of Icecrown seemed brighter and more alive. I watched as he took up the spirit of Bridenbrand and kept him from turning into the undead, thus, even though he died, he was still saved.


I cannot feel remorse about what transpired here. Not now. I am grateful that there is still positive power to contend forces like the Scourge or the Burning Legion, paragons of nothingness. These negative influences still have force though and the world can still be covered by them.

We must stand strong against the night.

The Highlord and the Watcher

*From the writings of Dakore, Shaman of the Horde*

My first port of call in Icecrown is the now besieged Argent Crusade Outpost, the Argent Vanguard. There, for the first time, I met Tirion Fordring, Highlord of the Argent Crusade. He has been a friend to the Horde in the past, heard much of him from Eitrigg, and I know of him to be the few honorable humans to have lived.

Also there was a person known as the Ebon Watcher, and seeing him stand beside Tirion Fordring is like seeing ablolute darkness and complete light standing next to one another. I have seen a few death knights in my time, fought beside them even as many have rejoined the ranks of the Horde, and I can tell that this must be the mast of the Ebon Blade ranks. I hear Fordring call him by the name of Darion.

In that conversation was a debate. The Argent Crusade's advance through Icecrown has been halted at the doorstep by swift, powerful counterstrikes from the Scourge, aided by the nerubian spiders. I overheard this Darion urge the Highlord to set aside his sense of honor and fight the Scourge on their own terms. Ha! Allies they may be, but death knights all the same. I agree with Fordring. We cannot abandon who we are in this battle or any other.

But as I look out on the field of battle, the crusaders who fight and die against the scourge, I begin to have doubts, abut a lot of things.

Icecrown

*From the writings of Dakore, Shaman of the Horde*

Our final goal of Northrend, bastion of the Scourge and the Lich King.

I have never known a land that so adhered to the ideals of death: all the bleak darkness, the ice and cold, and undeath of this place.

This is truly a land of nothingness, just like its denizens and its evil master.