You’re a mean one, Mr. Greench.
You really are quite trite.
You’re as angry as a murloc,
You’re as snotty as Mr. Smite.
Mr. Greench.

You’re like Houndmaster Loksey
With an infected dog bite.

You’re a monster, Mr. Greench.
Your heart is rather cold.
You’re covered in Eck residue,
Your brain’s as empty as a kobold.
Mr. Greench.

I wouldn’t touch you, even if given
thirty-nine-and-a-half in gold.

You’re a vile one, Mr. Greench.
You have termites in your teeth.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of the Lurker beneath.
Mr. Greench.

Given the choice between the two of you
I’d take the Lurker beneath.

You’re a foul one, Mr. Greench.
You’re as smelly as some murlocs.
You’re as lost as a washed-up mage.
You’re the trinket that never procs.
Mr. Greench.

The three words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote:
Lock, stock, shock!

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CYNRA, AIREE.NET ANCHOR: Just an hour ago, citizens of Azeroth discovered that many of the items being sold in the Champions’ Hall had experienced an unexpected end of season sale: full Merciless Gladiator sets for priests and warlocks, as well as a number of trinkets, rings, and other pieces of armor were being handed out for free.

Now, droves of people rush to the Champions’ Hall, each with their hands open in order to take part in this bounteous event.

A news conference is now getting underway.  It appears that newly returned King Varian Wrynn, son of the late king Llane Wryn, is addressing reporters.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KING VARIAN WRYNN, STORMWIND: … experiencing an unexpected surge in populace this evening due to this mishap.  We’re not sure why this has happened, but we’re attempting to cope with the situation.

We’re concerned this evening in helping ensure the safety of our citizens.  We’re asking all people to avoid lingering in the Champions’ Hall when they go to get their items.  It’s very easy to injure someone in the large press of bodies there and it’s best if you acquire what you came for and then promptly leave.  Furthermore, the casting of spells while within the Champions’ Hall is frowned on and will be dealt with harsh repercussions; as stated before, safety is our largest concern.

Now I’m going to ask your indulgence for a second on another unrelated — somewhat related but technically unrelated issue.  We noticed after learning of the events transpiring in the Champions’ Hall that some people are using various forms of communication to trick people in our community into believing that items are also being given out in Shattrath, the Caverns of Time, and even Area 52.

We are receiving some information that some people may be trying to exploit this situation.  Make no mistake about it, anyone who attempts to exploit this will be treated harshly.  We are not going to play around with people who make falsehoods or imply the possibility of other free items.

We give fair warning.  We expect people to behave respectfully toward the citizens of this community, and those people who imply this will be treated with all of the severity that we have in our court system.

Thank you.

CYNRA: The authorities in Stormwind trying to maintain the peace during this unexpected rush of people.  It’s been promised that people who fail to adhere to the rules outlined by King Wrynn will be dealt with harshly.

This is a picture of the scene earlier this evening, just before Wrynn made his announcement.  As you can see, the numbers within the Champions’ Hall is shockingly high.  So far, fortunately, it appears that no one has been injured despite the numbers present there.

We want to go back out to Stormwind now.  Airee.net’s Csilla Kovács is currently at the scene.  Csilla, update us on what you’re seeing out there at the Champions’ Hall this evening.

CSILLA KOVÁCS, AIREE.NET CORRESPONDENT: Miss Cyn, ya’ve got it ’bout right.  There’s a whole mess o’ people here, an’ it ain’t jes’ the one tha’ can wear them gear tha’s here.  Got us some fellahs who’ve been tellin’ us tha’ other’n seein’ more bodies’n they’ve ever seen afore at this here Hall o’ Champions, they’re seein’ a lot more priests’n should be here.  Y’should look here at this here chart they’ve made showin’ the number o’ priests is increasin’.

They’s sayin’ there’s an equal number o’ warlock t’ be found, but with the number o’ people here, it ain’t easy t’ see it myself, y’know?  ‘Cause there’s so many people here!

All ’round here there’s people fightin’ an’ shovin’ an’ sayin’ they wants t’ get t’ them vendors who’ve got themselves so loot t’ be shared.  Sad t’ be said, but ain’t everyone here listenin’ t’ wha’ mister King Wrynn, sir, said earlier, ’cause it’s hard t’ see the vendors at all, much less t’ be talkin’ t’ them.  Even now ya can hear the shouts o’ them fellahs as they push t’ get closer while those at the fellah hisself stay right put.

We’ve learned some o’ wha’ has happened in the press conference ya jes’ heard.  The biggest question, though, tha’ ain’t answered at this point is why this all is happenin’.

I tried t’ talk t’ one o’ them fellahs tha’ started this whole mess earlier when I spoke with tha’ Captain Dirgehammer fellah, but it didn’t do me no good.  Fellah didn’t say a single word t’ me, though he did try t’ shove a whole lot o’ stuffs into my hand.  By the time I’d been push out o’ the way by some really mean-like fellahs, I’d had in my hands some Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves, Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood, Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings, Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle, an’ Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robes.  Tried t’ tell mister Dirgehammer tha’ I had me the whole lot already from fightin’, but he ain’t a fellah t’ take no fer an answer.

Even worse, though, is the fackt tha’ there’re rumors them Horde fellahs is gettin’ the same sort of treatment this evenin’ in the Orgrimmar.  Supposedly them fellahs in the Hall o’ Legends is havin’ themselves a hard time, too, as their vendors is givin’ out armor fer free as well. It’s ‘nough t’ make this here gel’s head turn, right it does!

This is Csilla Kovács, still standin’ ’round here in Stormwind, ‘course.  Back t’ ya, miss Cyn.

CYNRA: Thank you, Csilla.  It appears the events on the Champions’ Hall wll continue through the night until the vendors there complete their business.  It’s been suggested that the people standing there be forcibly removed, but that suggestion was discarded for fear of rioting.

It is interesting to note that while the excitement generated in the Champions’ Hall proceeds , the attacks on the newly restored Stormwind Harbor continue unabated.  The Scourge’s efforts are almost entirely disregarded, with only a small handful of brave soldiers faring against the waves frost wyrms that continue their assalt in the defenders’ absence.  This has given some speculation that the events that have occured in Stormwind this evening are not an example of the genorostiy of the vendors in the Champions’ Hall but instead part of some nefarious plot concocted by the Lich King, former prince Arthas Menethil.  We will see in upcoming days what will when entail.

This is Cynra of Airee.net signing off.

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We wanted to inform our players regarding today’s extended maintenance. We experienced an error that resulted in players being unable to retrieve in-game mail from the last 15 days. Once the error was discovered, we brought down the realms immediately and began working to address this problem, and have been doing so for the duration of the day. Our decision was to enable players to continue playing World of Warcraft before the opening of Wrath of the Lich King. Work would continue on addressing issues with the in-game mail while the realms were up. This is the plan that is currently in motion.

The process from this point forward will be twofold:

1. All items that were in a mail will be sent to characters in one or more messages depending on the amount of items the character had in the mail system.
2. Gold from auction house sales or sent through mail will be sent in a separate mail.

We are working to resolve this issue, and we will keep our players informed throughout this process. In the meantime, please do not create an in-game ticket or contact phone support for this issue – multiple mails will be sent returning your items and gold automatically. We greatly appreciate your patience during this time.

While I understand and appreciate the effort made by the staff of Blizzard in trying to rectify this problem — especially before the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion — I really do feel that Blizzard had dropped the ball again in keeping people informed of their efforts and why the extended maintenance had occurred.  This lack of information was compounded by the fact that the official forums are typically down during the weekly scheduled maintenance.  As a result, a further disconnect resulted in which the last word heard by Blizzard was that the servers were expected to be up two hours after their final in-game notice.

That message was posted nearly seven hours ago.

In an attempt to help alleviate this problem, Blizzard decided to make select forums read-only so that information could be shared with the World of Warcraft community.  In “Select Forums Read-Only,” Zarhym further stated:

To improve accessibility, select forums on the official World of Warcraft forums will be temporarily switched over to read-only mode. While we would like to make every effort to ensure the forums allow the community to interact with each other, the current situation does not allow players to communicate with each other, or allow Blizzard to relay information to the community. Thus, some forums will be available as read-only to allow us to share information with the public. We hope that we can keep this to a minimum and revert the forums to full functionality as soon as possible.

A little slow perhaps, but a feature like this in the future would help relay reliable information to the company’s consumers rather than having to rely on what limited information in shared on the game’s “Breaking News” box.  In fact, I’d love to see this become a staple policy each Tuesday when maintenance is performed.

Here’s hoping that your servers¹ are up soon!

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In between bouts of cursing at the server’s damnable reticence and goading on the significant other in his fight against the Scourge², I started thinking about how this really was a wonderful way of preparing for the expansion.  This Thursday Wrath of the Lich King will become available to World of Warcraft players and features the next phase of the campaign against the forces of the Scourge.  The events that we will see in upcoming months were precipitated years ago in the Warcraft III game and its expansion.  Now is a wonderful opportunity to review the history of those games in order to have a better understanding of what will happen in Wrath of the Lich King.

In particular, I’ve been looking forward to the Reign of Chaos campaign “The Culling.”  Prior to this campaign, Arthas Menethil has realized that the Scourge are spreading the plague through infected grain carried in caravans that are being delivered to various towns, cities, and settlements throughout the Lordaeron kingdom.  Following this discovery, the young prince is reuinited with Uther the Lightbringer, his mentor, and their forces make their way to Stratholme.  When Arthas learns that the grain has already arrived in the city and has been disseminated to the populace, he orders Uther to take his forces and purge the city of its inhabitants — both living and undead.  Uther refuses and, maddened by this seeming betrayal by his closest friend, Arthas disbands disbands the Knights of the Silver Hand and undertakes the gruesome task himself.

In the Wrath of the Lich King, players will be able to exprience this pivotal event from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos in the Caverns of Time instance The Culling of Stratholme.  Players will watch the exchange between Arthas, Uther, and Jaina, and then be tasked to help the Prince in preventing Mal’Ganis from acquiring more slaves of the Scourge in the people’s death.  They’ll fight through waves of undead, make their way through the city, and then take on the mastermind behind the corruption of Stratholme, the nathrezim Mal’Ganis.

And this is just one example of where the lore of the previous games will collide with the future expansion!

Want to bone up on your lore for Wrath of the Lich King?  Consider perusing the following links:

• Blizzard’s “Death Knight Lore,”
• The story “Rise of the Lich King,”
• “Know Your Lore: Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King” at WoW Insider
• Articles tagged as Lore on WotLKWiki, and of course
• WoWWiki’s Wrath of the Lich King article, which spawns multiple links to other related topics.

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FigurePrints are one-of-a-kind, custom statues of your World of Warcraft® characters created using high-tech 3D color printing machines. Our artists pull your character from the virtual world and bring it to life.

Status are printed, relying on equipment capable of taking three-dimensional models from the computer and then created layer by layer.  People who have worked in any of several technology industries — particularly those that deal heavily with prototypes — may be familiar with the equipment.  I’ve personally seen machines like that twice and was fascinated by the shapes the evolved as each layer was carefully and precisely added with machine efficiency.

FigurePrints are unique in that you can’t just place an order to acquire one.  Due to the popularity of the company’s service and the limited amount that its eleven employees are capable of producing each much¹, customers are chosen by lottery each month from a pool of interested individuals.  Out of the pool of potentially over 25,000, up to 1,400 win the right to have their characters immortalized through the FigurePrints process.

Original prints were met with an underwhelming success, as many customers complained about the dull appearance of their characters or even paint entirely missing from the models in splotches.²   This appears to have been somewhat rectified over the past year, though this increase in quality — or the number of statues that were sent back due to defects or damage — has resulted in a thirty dollar increase from the original price tag, resulting in a 130USD price tag.

When I learned of FigurePrints over a year ago, I quickly jumped on the bandwagon with many other World of Warcraft players and eagerly waited for the email that would announce that I was selected to create my characters on their site.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  After reading about the many problems people had had with their company³, seeing the price increase, and then still not having received an email, my interest in having one waned.  Compounded with the fact that I rarely check the email I signed up with due to the overwhelming amount of spam that has inundated it in recent months, I was rarely reminded of the fact that I had once expressed interest in having one created.

Until I received this in my mail last month:

I find my interest piqued again.  The best part of having finally received this email is that I get to play with their website and see the possible results of my efforts  And, despite having acquired all of Tiers 4 and 5 for a handful of my characters, I find that I’m outfitting them in their normal, everyday outfits because that’s what really suits them.  In other words, there’s not an epic — and, in most cases, not even a rare — to be found on my girls.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

I have a few more that I would like to test, but the Armory is being finicky and I can’t properly view the gear that the characters are wearing.  So, at the moment, I’m left trying to consider if I want to spend the money for my girls⁴ or if I’ll just spend my time playing with the creator.  The overwhelming word has been that these statues aren’t worth it, but I’m having fun imagining what it would be like to have a miniature Eszti on my desk!

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The decision was the only viable one left to me, since I’d forsaken Holy for Discipline with the perky priestess and couldn’t condone having a Holy priest again since the class didn’t appeal to my playstyle.  Having two Discipline priests seemed sillier than my earlier decision to have not one but two healing priests, even though their specs and intended functions originally set them apart.  This was a big step for me, since I hadn’t played a Shadow-specced priest beyond thirty since those naive pre-The Burning Crusade days.  It’s surprisingly been a lot more fun that I recall and the new changes that have occurred since¹ make the return to Shadow much more intriguing.

Like many people, I finally settled on a 5/0/56 raiding build that seems to be very popular at the moment.  It’s worked very well for me thus far, though I am trying to decide on how much benefit there is to be gained from Improved Shadowform.  In a way, it seems more like an improved version of Fade rather than an actual viable talent to acquire, and those remaining two points might be better spent on talents like Improved Power Word: Fortitude or picking up two points in Improved Inner Fire for when Rahel reaches 71 and the spell increases Spell Power in addition to Armor.  I go back and forth on the issue, since I don’t know if I could train myself to use Fade enough to make the talent worthwhile, but can see the benefit of it in raid scenarios where splash damage tends to run rampant.

I’ve been letting the matter mull in my head while I work on yet another alt, my draenei warrior and former Vindicator Teca e’Veritas.  She had managed to reach the vaulted status of 50 prior to Patch 3.0.2, though I had managed to work up the gumption to play her a handful of times in recent months.  However, the changes that made soloing as a Protection warrior more viable intrigued me and I took the opportunity to gleefully return to the Protection tree from my prior Fury build.  She’s currently 0/0/43 and I’m floored by how much fun I’ve been having playing a Protection warrior.  When I had first begin leveling Teca, I had attempted to do so using some horrible Fury-Protection hybrid that I’m almost ashamed to admit that I test, but as fun as it was to gather up a bunch of enemies, I found it frustrating to spend a singnificant amount of time trying to wear them down.  Post-Echoes of Doom, however, it’s been beyond enjoyable to multi-tank targets for quests; I gleefully round up a group and tear into the with surprising ease.

I think that I’ll enjoy leveling my warrior prior to the expansion.

Regarding Politics

Today we held our elections within the United States, including the presidential elections.  The results are out and there’s a lot to be said regarding the changes, but I’ll borrow a bit from the “Autobiography of Mark Twain” in saying:

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

That said, I’m certain that for many of you your servers’ global channels were full of posts regarding today’s elections — just as they were on the Feathermoon US roleplaying server today and in previous weeks.  While some of the discussion was actually quite interesting and engaging, most of it was just mindless babble from unwashed masses that really served little purpose other than incite others.²  I, for one, am glad that the elections are over because it might mean that Trade and General can return to some semblence of normalcy.

There were, however a number of noteworthy quotes that I managed to capture this evening just before the results were announced!

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In the months before the first expansion was released, the world of Azeroth came under attack by Scourge forces under the command of Kel’Thuzad. Giant necropoleis hovered overhead as waves of undead assaulted the lands⁵ below. Some of these creatures would manage to find their way into capital cities, harassing the local populace and implacably moving forward in an effort to take out the city’s leader in a single blow.

The Scourge Invasion was finally repelled by the combined forces of the Horde, Alliance, and Argent Dawn.

The world event was beautifully enacted in such a way that completely blows my mind away. First off, it was clearly a world event of epic proportions. While the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort attempted to allow everyone to get involved by turning in needed supplies, most of the action was far away in Silithus, not easily accessible by most inexperienced players. The Scourge Invasion, however, was everywhere you turned; whether outside of Stormwind, inside the Undercity, or leveling in the Plaguelands, the Scourge was certain to have a presence. Questing for the invasion began as low as level 6, though most of the content was limited to those near to the then-current level cap.

I stand by those words.  The Scourge invasions — both before and its current incarnation — exemplify characteristics of the game I find so appealing.  I’ve had so much fun within the last week, even as others have railed against Blizzard and their zombie infestation.

I’m enamored.

I may have mentioned before that I used to be a staff member of one of the larger Ultima Online free servers.  While I focused primarily on answering pages and beautifying the world, I did help organize a number of world events during my tenure.  The current incarnation of the Scourge Invasion is exactly like something I would have loved to plan, organize, and implement.  Whether players like it or loathe it, they’re involved and they’re vocal about it.  People are reacting in a way that is very appealing — I was getting tired of hearing cries to further nerf paladins.¹

I love the disarray caused by the world event.  From what I can discern, it’s intentional. The invading Scourge should be disrupting people’s lives; it underlines the concern that the Lich King has turned his focus back to Kalimdor and Azeroth, and that his efforts could have lasting effects on the world.  Everyone is involved in this fight, whether it’s by participating in defending his home or by being swept up by the undead and mindlessly following other converted individuals.  People can’t avoid this because Arthas’s reach is just that far.

I found that the people who had the most fun in this event were the ones who were willing to adapt, temporarily shelve their goals, and get involved rather than lament how Blizzard has ruined their game.  Honestly, it’s an event that won’t persist beyond a week — does it warrant people claiming that they’re going to cancel their accounts or that Blizzard

In general, I had fun this week playing the perky priestess and allowing her to interact with others during the Scourge Invasion.  At the time of the first invasion she was still dutifully training and focusing on other goals; this time, she’s thrown herself headlong into the fray and is helping as she can in true Csilla fashion.  Last night a friend and I were stoically defending Stormwind from attack, clearing the Trade and Cathedral Districts of zombie infestations and curing people of their diseases.  It was ridiculously fun and people either joined us or threw themselves at our defenses.

Csilla eventually faltered when a wave of nearly twenty zombies overwhelmed her and I finally got to experience my first taste as a zombie.²  At that point, I went onto the offensive and gleefully slaughtered the very people that I had hoped to protect.  I focused on players at the current level cap since I didn’t want to disrupt people who were unable to defend themselves, but my friend and I³ cleared the area that we had until that moment been defending.  Once we died, however, we returned to our posts and cleaned up the mess that we had created.

The evening was especially overwhelming for poor miss Csilla, who kept hearing the insidious whispers of a malignant spirit as she fought the Scourge infestation.  Much like the letters that were lootable from the Scourge both now and then, this little effort really is wonderful.  For a young woman not yet confident in her abilities⁴, the whispers of an unfriendly spirit can be rather disheartening.

This Week on Airee.Net

I have a few projects that I’ve been working on since Friday.  There was a post regarding how to tackle the Scourge Invasion as a roleplayer, but with the final wave of zombies supposedly ending today that might be a bit moot now.  I may post it regardless.  I also acquired The Eye of Shadow which, coupled with The Eye of Divinity, will allow me to complete the pre-The Burning Crusade priest quest Balance of Light and Shadow.  I plan on recording this and eventually posting the final movie on this site, but I may put that off until after the world event ends.  It’ll be a wonderful precursor to Wrath of the Lich.  Expect the movie to be chock full of mindless Cynra commentary and effusive babble.

I’ve been told that I’m good at providing that.

Finally, I’ve been working on a series of articles regarding the post-Patch 3.0.2 Discipline tree and what I’ve learned since adopting a new spec for raiding.  In particular, I’ll look at the spells, implementation, builds, and gearing, but I’m still trying to get everything written down — especially before November arrives and I hopefully begin NaNoWriMo.  However, I am curious to hear what other people would like to see in a guide: what do you wish to learn about the Discipline tree?

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Though I’ve been raiding with the Badgers for about a year now, I’ve only been a member for perhaps a third of that time.  I joined with them shortly after they organized raids for Gruul’s Lair, originally on my kal’dorei and more recently on the perky priestess.  Our performance has been nothing less than stellar: within a handful of month we’d managed to place Gruul on farm status, enter Serpentshrine Cavern, slay Lady Vashj, battle Kael’thas, and clear Hyjal Summit.  I’m extremely proud that I’m a member of my guild and look forward to our future success in the Sunwell and beyond when we take on the forces of the Scourge in Wrath of the Lich King.

Even more surprising, however, has been our casual stance towards raiding.  While we don’t consider ourselves casual raiders, we do maintain a rather casual raiding schedule.  Beyond extranneous raids such as Zul’Aman and the occasional Karazhan badge run, we raid just one evening a night for five hours.  Guilds that have been raiding simultaneously with us — or even longer — have failed to make as much progress as we have even given a more rigorous raiding schedule.  To me, that indicates that we have some damned fine players in our raid and that our leadership has been extremely effective.

Of course, we Badgers do have our quirks.

Regarding the actual raid itself, I was quite impressed with my performance this evening.  Despite the lack of a raid-wide heal like Chain Heal or Circle of Healing, I was third overall on the healing meters.  This is in addition to all of the additional benefits of the Discipline tree, such as damage mitigation and absorption as well as buffs to spell damage.  I would have expected my standings on the meter to be much lower due to the decreased healing power of the tree.  Coupled with what I feel is an exceedingly low overheal value given my tendency to heal regardless of health missing in order to acquire both a full stack of Grace and Divine Aegis, I’m pretty proud of myself and how I’ve handled the transition from Holy-Discipline hybrid to full Discipline.

The spell of the evening was clearly Penance, which comprised of nearly 30% of my effective healing.  This is definitely a good thing since I think it’s the spell in my arsenal that has the highest Health Per Mana ratio.  I’m still trying to decide if Flash Heal is the way to go — contrary to pre-Patch 2.0.3 downranking of other spells — or if I should be using it less.  I was also extremely shocked to see that I somehow managed to get a Greater Heal this evening that hit for 14,925; with Divine Aegis, that meant that my target was instantly encased in a bubble that would have absorbed nearly 5,000 points worth of damage!

Furthermore, I clearly excelled in situations where single-target healing was needed while those fights that involved extensive splash damage I tended to falter.  And falter a lot.  In particular, I think that I’ll need to try to see if my healing assignments can be changed in future weeks.  There were a number of fights where I was assigned to raid heal which seemed rather silly.¹  With the lack of a raid-wide heal, I was forced to heal each raid member individually while the individuals tanking were not benefiting from my damage reduction buffs.

I think that I still need further practice with my build in order to be even more effective!  In particular, I’m having to reconsider how I gear myself and what spells are most beneficial.

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While the novels can entail any universe — even one of your own devising! — many fellow bloggers have contemplated writing stories specific to the World of Warcraft environment.  Others have elected to write, but not about World of Warcraft.  Vonya at The Egotistical Priest wrote in “NaNoWriMo” claiming that she’d managed to drag both Hannelore and Bre of Gun Lovin’ Dwarf Chick into the project.  She went one step further to create a World of Warcraft community on the official site called World of Wordcraft.  Matticus of World of Matticus wrote “7 Cliche’d Ideas to Jump Start Your WoW Related NaNoWriMo.”  At Bringin’ the Wood, Jive explains more about NaNoWriMo in “We interrupt this WoW-ing for RL!“  And this morning Megan of Out of Mana announced her interest in writing this year in “Readers, Riters.”¹

I’m sincerely considering attempting to do NaNoWriMo this year.  I have tried so once before, but a family emergency halfway through the month made it difficult to complete.  Like many other bloggers, I’m interested in penning a story regarding World of Warcraft, specifically about one of my many characters.  As an amateur writer and a roleplayer, the idea of finally getting my stories written down² appeals to me a lot.  In particular, there are two ideas in my head that would work admirably for NaNoWriMo:

• The story of the undead mage Cili, but before she was Forsaken.  The novel would follow the final adventure of Mariska Stormborne as she meets an eclectic group of characters, attempts to reconcile her devotion to the Alliance with the “new” Alliance that has evolved following the fight at Hyjal Summit, and crashes headlong into a new amorous pursuit that may be a bit more serious than she had originally hoped.
• Or, I could follow the adventures of independent contractor and blade for hire Tzigane Thistledown³, a young gnome rogue.  Unfortunately, Tzigane’s prowess with lockpicking leaves something to be desired and she’s captured while performing a task for one of her occasional employers.  This technophobe and her dwarven ally — a man with more muscles than grey matter between his ears — are coerced into performing a task for the Stormwind guards that leads them into the heart of Horde territory and might cost them their lives.

At the moment, despite the appeal of roleplaying Tzigane again after disregarding her for so many years, I’m leaning more towards writing Cili’s story.  The story is more or less complete, in that the main body of events occurred during a tabletop roleplaying sessions almost three years ago.  On the other hand, I know how Tzigane’s story would start and how it ends, but everything in between is fluff for now.  A whole lot of things occur, but at the moment I have no clue.  Furthermore, Tzigane’s story revolves around her quick wit and occasional brash attitude to progress, while I feel that Cili’s is a little more deeper.  At least that’s how I’ve always visualized it in my head — it may be an entirely different matter when if I were to start penning it.

My only concern is that I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to pursuing any type of creative endeavor.  I reread constantly, correct, change, and rarely progress as much as I’d like due to my obsession with getting everything just right.  In this, the definite deadline of NaNoWriMo could be both a blessing and a curse: while I’d be forced to write regardless of its unpolished nature due to the impending conclusion of the month, I very well might explode before then.

I think that I’ll get together my notes from that roleplaying session and plan things out.  I might also post a short story or two just to get the creative juices flowing a bit before November.  Any preparation that I can get done ahead of time to help ease the process would make success that much more likeky!

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The Eye of Divinity.  I have it.  My epic quest — an ordeal that has persisted for almost four years now — will soon come to its natural conclusion.  Benediction shall be mine!

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