Lessons in Lore - Temple of the Jade Serpent

This morning I'll take a look at the first dungeon in Mists of Pandaria. You can jump into this dungeon via the dungeon finder as soon as you're 85, but to have a better understanding of what's going on you should quest through the Jade Forest until you've completed a group of quests that take place in a non dungeon instance of the temple. You should also finish the quests leading up to and including the climactic event that takes places at the Serpent's Head. Please be aware that there will be spoilers for these events and others in the dungeon in the post below.

Temple Courtyard

The Temple of the Jade Serpent rests on the eastern side of the Jade Forest, overlooking the coast. The temple is a monument to the last emperor of Pandaria's triumph over the Sha of Doubt thousands of years ago. At some point while questing in the zone, you'll be tasked to deliver a shipment of jade to the center of the forest where a group of Pandaren are hard at work building a statue of Yu'Lon, the Jade Serpent. Then you'll get the opportunity to go inside the temple before anything has gone wrong. Inside is a huge library, the Waters of Everseeing, and a large courtyard where the guardians of the temple train. You'll also meet Yu'Lon herself, and she explains that the statue being built is meant for her to pass into when she dies, and a new celestial guardian will be born.

Upon leaving the temple, however, events take place that alter the course of Yu'Lon and all of the Pandaren in the Temple of the Jade Serpent. The Horde and the Alliance go to war near the jade statue, and their anger and hate draws the Sha of Doubt up out of the ground, destroying the statue in the process. Together with Lorewalker Cho, you push the Sha back, but this is just the beginning of problems as the Sha and its minions proceed to invade the temple and corrupt its inhabitants. This is where we start when we enter the dungeon for the first time.

Sha of Doubt makes its first appearance.

Wise Mari
When you first met Wise Mari he was a simple waterspeaker plagued by mischievous water sprites. He spent most of his time gaining insight and knowledge from the Waters of Everseeing. Now he is hostile, driven to distrust and suspicion under the influence of the Sha. By attacking him you're able to force the Sha out, and he eventually calms down.

Lorewalker Stonestep
As you enter the library, you'll notice that the Sha have infested the many books and scrolls scattered about the place. You'll have to face down corrupted versions of characters from Pandaren stories and lore as you make your way down to the bottom where Lorewalker Stonestep is waiting. Once there you will have to battle Sha who have personified one of two stories. In the Trial of the Yaungol, you will have to fight against the manifestations of Strife and Peril. If you get the Champion of the Five Suns you will have to shoot the suns out of the sky before they possess Zao Sunseeker. Once defeated, the library returns to some sense of order, and Lorewalker Stonestep sends you on to the courtyard. On the way there, you see many of the temple guardians have been slain.

Liu Flameheart
Once the most devoted of the temple priestesses, Liu is now consumed with uncertainty as to the future of the jade serpent. With the statue destroyed, what will happen to the spirit of Yu'Lon? She fiercely protects the heart of the temple from anyone who might intrude. Including you. As you attack her, she continually calls upon her training to fight paw and foot. Eventually she will even call upon the spirit of Yu'Lon to defend her, and you must defeat the image of the jade serpent to finally break her out of her trance and open the doors to the cause the suffering and pain within the temple.

Sha of Doubt
Being trapped underneath the temple for thousands of years has caused the Sha of Doubt to obsess over Yu'Lon and corrupting her influence on the Pandaren people. With the battle of the Horde and Alliance giving it enough strength to break free it used this opportunity to strike at its obsession. Now its up to you to defeat the Sha and drive it back from the temple. Upon defeating it, you save the temple from its corrupting influence for now, but can the Sha ever truly be defeated? 

Yu'Lon

What is worth fighting for?
To echo a phrase used in the Mists of Pandaria trailer, I've decided to use the last part of each of these posts to summarize why we as characters fight the monsters in each dungeon. For the Temple of the Jade Serpent, it's fairly straight forward. The war between the Alliance and Horde has freed the long trapped Sha of Doubt from the ground where it was imprisoned long ago. The Sha then seized this opportunity to attack the home of the Jade Serpent Yu'Lon, corrupting its inhabitants. It's up to us to free the temple from the influence and doubt of the Sha; to clean up the mess that the Horde and the Alliance have made by bringing their war to this land. 

Cataclysm Postmortem

With a lot to look forward to in Mists of Pandaria, I'm going to take a moment to hit the highlights of World of Warcraft's fourth expansion. These observations all come from a fairly casual perspective. I've participated in Raid Finder, but the majority of my time was spent leading 10 person raids with my guild. We formed at the end of Wrath, so Cataclysm is our first expansion together as a guild, and my first expansion as a guild leader. I think we've done well, and again, I'm really looking forward to hitting the shores of Pandaria in the near future. In the mean time, here is how I felt the Cataclysm shook out.

Raiding
The expansion started out tough. Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight were not the nice, happy, introductory raids to Cataclysm like Naxxramas 2.0 was for Wrath of the Lich King. There were some nerfs eventually, but overall, it was hard for a new raiding guild to get started. Firelands proved just as tough, if not more so. That is until they nerfed it. Even with the lower health and damage, Ragnaros was a ridiculously hard fight due to the amount of things happening, and you know, the fire everywhere. Dragon Soul was the first raid of the expansion that felt properly tuned to me. What I mean by properly tuned is that the average raid group makes steady progress throughout the raid, without hitting any enormous roadblocks that couldn't be over come with gear or practice. While that could be said about any encounter, I never felt hopeless against a boss in Dragon Soul, only that we just needed some more time and effort. It's a little more complicated by the introduction of Raid Finder, which allowed us to see and try versions of the fights before we attempted them in 10 person raids.

Speaking of Raid Finder, I think it's a great idea. At one point, playing WoW was not something I could do with my wife, and I only had scant moments where I got to play for any length of time. Raid Finder is perfect for the people without enough time to commit to a guild and weekly raid schedules. It's a good learning tool for those that do run with guild groups, but I learned early on not to get to worked up about gear from Raid Finder. There were too many people wheeling and dealing with the drops to make it worth it.  This is something being addressed in Mists of Pandaria and the way that loot will work in Raid and Dungeon Finder, so that people can't game the system.

80 to 85
I've posted before what I thought about the 5 levels we were given in Cataclysm. It seemed like it wasn't quite enough, but part of that might have been from the leveling zones we were given. Most people zipped around on flying mounts and went from quest hub to quest hub in a linear fashion which made leveling a breeze. Not that it's all that hard to begin with. Because so much of the expansion focused on the revamped 1 to 60 experience, I think the end game levelers rightfully felt that they were given the short end of the stick. With Mists of Pandaria, we again have only 5 levels to work on, but these will now be focused on one continent that we'll have to travel by foot for those 5 levels. While this may slow people down a bit, I believe it will also make the leveling experience more rewarding.

Lore
I used to be a pretty big lore junky. I still am, to an extent, but I haven't kept up with it like I used to. Wrath of the Lich King had one of the best story lines to date as it dealt with some of the major players from the Warcraft RTS games and pitted us against one of the main characters from those games. A lot of us have been playing WoW for the sole purpose of taking down Arthas, the Lich King, and in Wrath, we were given that chance. Cataclysm also brought back a character from the history books. But unlike Arthas, I don't think Deathwing instilled as much intrigue in players because he was not heavily featured in previous games. Still, it was a lot of fun to see the world affected and changed due to his reawakening, even if it did create a sort of skewed timeline with Outland and Northrend.

Each of the new zones and raids fit well with the story. Unlike places like Ulduar (which was still awesome) and Trial of the Crusader, the Cataclysm raids didn't seem to be shoehorned in to fill time until we fought the real bad guy. And even though I'm not a horde player, I enjoyed the Thrall story line. Thrall is a favorite character of mine from the RTS games and the WoW Novels. His journey and the fate of the dragon aspects concludes a long standing storyline for the WoW universe. I'm looking forward to what's in store for Thrall, even as the focus switches to Garrosh, The Horde, and Varian Wrynn.

Final Thoughts
Cataclysm was a blast. We concluded some more long standing story lines withing the universe. Blizzard perfected the tuning of raids, and introduced a whole new way to raid in the process. Leveling wasn't as dynamic as it could have been, but things are looking hopeful for the future. More than anything, I'm ready to put the destruction of the world behind us, and move on to newly discovered lands.

Lessons in Lore: The Vortex Pinnacle

The Vortex Pinnacle resides in the Skywall, the elemental plane of air. Fortunately for you, the only trick to getting there is being able to fly above the zone of Uldum. The instance itself is in the skies in the Southeastern portion of the zone. 

In Uldum you will come across the city of Orsis while helping the Ramkahen. Orsis was attacked by wind elementals, servants of Al'akir, who has aligned himself and his armies with Deathwing. Orsis is now left in ruins, but you are able to help out some of the buried citizens in the sand and report back to the Ramkahen on what happened. You also learn that the air elementals took at least one prisoner, and it's up to you to go to the Vortex Pinnacle and save him. 

Essentially, the Vortex Pinnacle is just a staging ground for the armies of Al'akir to attack the citizens of Uldum. Thankfully you and your flying mount can take the fight to the army's doorstep and take out some high ranking officials before you eventually make it to the Throne of Four Winds to take on Al'akir himself. 

The lore is very sparse on the bosses of the dungeon. The first boss, Grand Vizier Ertan is a standard sentry, telling you that you're not welcome in the Skywall.  The last boss, Asaad, Caliph of the Zephyrs seems to be a high ranking member of the elementals calling on Al'akir's aid during the fight.  The title, Caliph, is an old title of Islamic leaders, and translates as successor. This fits with the Arabic theme that Blizzard has gone with for the denizens of the Skywall.  Asaad is classified as a Djinni or Djinn, which are akin to genies. The middle boss of the dungeon is a dragon named Altairus. Altair means the flying one, or bird of prey in Arabic. Altairus drops Reins of the Dragon of the North Wind and starts the fight facing North.  It makes sense that Al'akir would have flying creatures in his armies, as well as the many elementals. 

Vortex Pinnacle introduces us to the Skwall, the armies of Al'akir, and the danger the pose to the land of Uldum and the rest of the world.  When you go in to the instance, take some time to look around. It's actually quite beautiful. 

Lessons in Lore: The Stonecore

Blizzard actually gives us a fair bit of lore information on The Stonecore, which you can read at the official site here.  The information was released as a build up to the Cataclysm expansion to introduce people to the kinds of things they should be getting excited about as the release date got closer. Here's a quick summary before we expand on it a little.

The Stonecore is the heart of Deepholm, the elemental plane of earth.  Before Deathwing was corrupted by the Old Gods, he was the Earthwarder, the Dragon aspect of earth, alongside the likes of Malygos and Alexstrasza. So Deepholm and Deathwing are well connected. Sometime before the start of World of Warcraft, Deathwing suffered a defeat at the hands of the other aspects. They presumed him dead, but in reality he had just retreated to the Stonecore, where he rested, regained his strength, and spread his influence throughout Azeroth via the Twilight's Hammer Cultists.

When he got better, Deathwing took off like a dragon out of Deepholm and broke into the mortal plane of Azeroth where he proceeded to burn everything he could set his eyes on. In the process he destroyed what we know as the World Pillar, a significant piece of planet supporting architecture that you'll spend the majority of your time questing in Deepholm to repair.

With Deathwing now gone, the Twilight's Hammer Cultists regard the place of his recovery as sacred. They will protect it with their lives, and use it to perform dark rituals in service to their lord and the Old Gods.

When you first enter the Stonecore, you'll be tasked with chasing down a Twilight cultist who is transporting some important documents. If you've quested in Deepholm at all, you'll recognize the carrier as Millhouse Manastorm. Millhouse was first seen back in The Burning Crusade as part of the final boss battle in the Arcatraz.  He was a prisoner there that when released, assists you in defeating the final boss. We don't really learn how Millhouse got involved with the Twilight's Hammer cultists, but he's here now, and it's up to you to stop him. After chasing him for awhile, Millhouse decides to put a stop to your shenanigans and begins to cast the spell Impending Doooooooooom! Fortunately, you never find out what exactly the spell does because Millhouse gets eaten by Corborus before he can finish casting the spell.

Corborus is a gyreworm, similar to the many other stone worms you see throughout Deepholm.  After eating Millhouse, it's up to you to stop the worm from eating you and your party as another snack.

Your next encounter is with Slabhide, a stone drake who, under the control of the cult, tries to keep you from getting closer to the inner sanctum of the Stonecore.  Not much else is known about the drake, but you have to vanquish him to move further into the dungeon.

Ozruk is a stone giant, and is a child of Therazane, the Stonemother. She tells you that he did not return from the Stonecore when she called to him. She believes him to be under the power of the dark magics of the cult and requests that you return him to the earth. You do what you have to do and open the way to the World's Heart at the center of the Stonecore.

And in that heart is High Priestess Azil, who along with her hundreds of followers,  is preparing a ritual of some dark origin.  After putting a stop to that, you may want to take a look around the room behind her altar.  This is the very place that Deathwing lay before he burst into the world above.  If you recall the opening cinematic of Cataclysm, it shows the cultists reinforcing Deathwing's armor plating before he takes off.  This is the place where that happened.  And thanks to you, it's now out of the hands of the cultists. For now.

Lessons in Lore: Throne of the Tides

The Throne of the Tides is located in Vashj'ir. More specifically in the Abyssal Maw within a large, hard to miss, whirlpool. It's important to note that while the instance is available immediately at level 80 you don't have a lore reason to go there until you've completed the entirety of Vashj'ir. So much of this post will be a spoiler for what you experience while questing in that zone. If you have quested in that zone, hopefully this will sum up what you experienced and fill in anything you may have missed. Again, spoilers for Vashj'ir if you have not completed the zone.

If you get the quest from your major city to Vashj'ir, you'll be put on a boat and shipped off over seas to get there.  But it doesn't take long before you're attacked by a giant squid. That's Ozumat. Remember him, you'll be seeing him again.  Lost at sea, you're rescued by the Earthen Ring, specifically by a shaman named Erunak Stonespeaker.  He'll set you and your buddies straight, teach you to breath and walk under water, and put you on the path to go through the rest of the zone. After a few more quests, you'll be attacked by a force of Naga and get the general idea that the Naga are after something here and are building an army and taking prisoners to accomplish that something.

A little later on, Erunak will have you go on a sort of vision quest in which you act out events that happened sometime in the past as a Naga Battlemaiden under the command of Lady Naz'Jar. Lady Naz'Jar and her battlemaidens are fighting against the Vry'kul who have taken up residence in the ruined city of Vashj'ir. It is here that you begin to learn of the Naga's intentions. After taking back the city of Vashj'ir, the Naga intend to mount an attack upon Neptulon, Elemental Lord of the Water. This is where things get interesting.

Neptulon is one of the four elemental lords, along with Ragnaros, Therazane, and Al'akir, all of which make appearances in Cataclysm. We know that Ragnaros and Al'Akir have sided with Deathwing, whereas Therazane becomes friendly with players during the events in Deepholm. It is well known that the Naga were once Night Elves who were drowned after the events of the Sundering 10,000 years ago, including Queen Azshara herself, and it was speculated that Neptulon, under the Old Gods influence had initiated that transformation.  But with the events of Cataclysm and Vashj'ir, it seems more apparent that the Naga were transformed directly by the Old Gods, and now they seek to overthrow Neptulon and take his place as rulers of the water.

So all of this culminates in an epic battle where you, Erunak, and Alliance and Horde forces face off against the Naga as they attempt to destroy Neptulon.  The Naga, with the aid of faceless ones and Ozumat (the squid who shipwrecked you) are able to push Neptulon down to the Throne of Tides through the Abyssal Maw.  Erunak is captured and taken down there as well.  Lady Naz'jar, who spearheaded the Naga attack on Neptulon now has him imprisoned in his own throne room, and it's up to you to free him and make sure the realm of water stays under control of the elements and not the Naga.

So now we finally have an understanding of what all of these people are doing within the Throne of the Tides.

Lady Naz'Jar is the first boss, and was the one who organized the Naga attack upon Vashj'ir and Neptulon.  While she wasn't able to destroy him, she was able to push him back to the Throne of the Tides. Thankfully you'll be able to get rid of her before she's able to cause further damage.

Commander Ulthok, The Festering Prince is a faceless one, which further seems to implicate the Old Gods and the Naga are in cahoots. He appears after you get rid of Lady Naz'Jar, attempting to stop you from getting any further than you already have.

You find Erunak Stonespeaker within, but he's being mind controlled by Mindbender Ghur'sha, who also happens to be attached to Erunak's head. Your goal here is to rescue Erunak and hopefully not have to kill him in order to get rid of Ghur'sha.

With Lady Naz'Jar defeated, Erunak rescued, and all other obstacles removed, your last task is to rescue Neptulon who has been weakened and trapped in the throne room.  It's important that you free him because the Naga's pet squid, Ozumat, is out to finish the job he started at the Abyssal Maw.  With a little help from Neptulon, you should be able to get rid of Ozumat and ensure that Neptulon remembers what you did for him when the time comes to fight Ragnaros in Patch 4.1.

I wish that I had been able to finish Vashj'ir before I did Throne of the Tides for the first time. The design seems a bit wonky in that you can easily finish Vashj'ir and out level the instance before you even know about it, or have the quests for it.  And it's a shame too, since the way the story of Vashj'ir culminates in a huge battle and a dungeon where you assist the Tidehunter in a fight against a giant squid is pretty epic. When I went in for the first time, I had no idea who Naz'JarVasj'ir.

Lessons in Lore: Blackrock Caverns

Cataclysm is officially underway, and with new zones, new quests, new dungeons, and a plethora of other new things, it's not hard to get lost in the shuffle of what is actually happening with the lore.  Case in point, while questing in Hyjal, you'll meet a familiar gnome who has a problem. It's related to Hyjal, but he sends you all the way over to the other side of the world. In a mole machine no less. Blackrock Caverns is one of the new 5-person dungeons for levels 80-81.  Let's take a look inside.

The gnome who you meet in Hyjal is none other than Finkle Einhorn. If you've ever been to Upper Blackrock Spire and fought The Beast, killed him, and skinned him, you'll remember finding Finkle inside. Thanks to his trusty lava suit, he survived the belly of the Beast and now he's assisting the Guardians of Hyjal in investigating Ragnaros' return to Azeroth. Apparently Finkle's an expert on the matter due to his previous exploits.  Of course, we could have told him we saw Ragnaros and Deathwing having a little heart to heart as we flew into the zone for the first time.  Regardless, Finkle informs you that the Twilight's Hammer Cultists are moving elementals between Hyjal and Blackrock Caverns.  Along with Finkle's bodyguard, Raz Skullcrusher, you hop in the mole machine and show up on the doorstep of the instance.

Blackrock Caverns is physically located near the entrance to Blackrock Spire. Upon entering, you'll start the quest chain with Finkle and Raz that involves you chasing a crazed Orc throughout the instance.  Rather than regurgitate the quest line to you, let's take a look at the bosses of the dungeon and see what exactly they're up to, and how it relates to what is going on in Hyjal.

Rom'ogg Bonecrusher

Bonecrusher is the first boss of the instance. He's an Ogre Lord working for the Twilight's Hammer Cult under the leadership of Cho'gall. When you reach him, he's torturing and interrogating Raz, presumably to find out what he's doing in the Blackrock Caverns. Once defeated, Raz is released, but he's not quite the same Raz.

Corla, Herald of Twilight

Next you'll come upon Corla draining the energy from a Nether Drake into other cultists.  She is a high ranking member of the Twilight's Hammer Cult, using her abilities to take that drained energy and turn regular cult members into drakonids. She's not afraid to die, for death is what all of the cultists are devoted to. But to save Raz and to prevent the cultists from becoming drakonids, die she must. 

Karsh Steelbender

Like all good armies, the cult is in need of armor and weapons.  Karsh Steelbender is the resident evil blacksmith making the necessary equipment. He also happens to be in your way as you chase after Raz. 

Beauty

Beauty is most likely the mate of The Beast from Blackrock Spire.  She also happens to have a litter of puppies named Lucky, Spot, and Buster after the dogs of 101 Dalmations. No matter how cute you think they are, Finkle doesn't think leaving her or her litter alive is good for anyone, so you'll have to take care of Beauty just like you took care of The Beast.

Ascendant Lord Obsidius

Lord Obsidius is the last boss of Blackrock Caverns, and introduces us to a new class of enemy, the Elemental Ascendant.  These elementals appear to have originally been Twilight Cultists who through a ritual or draining of power from other elementals, have ascended to a new form.  Obsidius appears to be the one in charge of all of the operations within Blackrock caverns, orchestrating the transport of elementals, armor, equipment, and the transformation of cultists into drakonids.  Obsidius claims he cannot die, so it's possible we will see him later on, perhaps in the Twilight Highlands. or at least he will not be the last Elemental Ascendant we see. 

Taking it all in at once, Blackrock caverns appears to be a staging ground for the Twilight's Hammer Cultists to supply troops, equipment, and magically created monsters to the battle for Hyjal to fight against the druids there.  Thankfully, with Finkle and Raz's help, you're able to cause quite a lot of damage to their operations, and hopefully swing the battle in the Guardians of Hyjal's favor.

A Closer Look at Icecrown Citadel - Lower Spire

Lord Marrowgar

Lord Marrowgar is the first line of defense against those that would seek to enter Icecrown Citadel and attempt to assault the spire upon which sits the frozen throne. He is the only known Bone Wraith in existence and is an undead construct similar to abominations. What is he constructed from? I'm glad you asked.

The Lich King and the scourge have killed a lot of people in the last few years. Most of them were probably raised as ghouls or skeletons and thrown right back at us among the hordes of undead already attacking, but some of them, quite a few of them actually, were reserved, and the bones of those adventurers were used to create what we know as Lord Marrowgar.

That's really it. He's a collection of bones pieced and held together by the power of the Lich King, and when you make him angry, he yells BONESTORM! and spins around a lot. This leads me to believe he's made up of mostly warrior bones, and maybe a few frost mages in there too.

As far as bosses go, Marrowgar is pretty light weight. Seems the Lich King needs to make his guardians a little stronger, but the king does have other responsibilities. That's why he's got scourge like Professor Putricide on the payroll. But more about him later.

Lady Deathwhisper

Yes, you're eyes are not telling you wrong. It's a she-lich. The only one we've encountered so far, too. Lady Deathwhisper is the Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned which is somewhat surprising since the cult has been around for some time, but this is the first we've seen of Lady Deathwhisper. Within Icecrown, Deathwhisper stands in the Oratory of the Damned behind the spire, preaching the will of the Lich King to the cult members that gather there.

The Cult of the Damned, for those that may not know or recall, is a large group of living (not dead or undead) races that have devoted themselves to the service of the Lich King. It was through this cult that the Lich King first exerted his influence in the world many years ago. Kel'thuzad was on of the founding members before he was killed and raised as a lich, and it was through the cult that the plague was brought to Lordaeron. It appears that Lady Deathwhisper's role has been to oversee the operation and to preach the message of the cult to the uninitiated. We don't know anything about her prior life, who she was before she was a lich, or how she came to be the overseer.

When you happen upon her, you can hear her extol the virtues of death and service to the Lich King. She's somewhat of a zealot herself, proclaiming even upon her death that it is all in accordance with the Master's plan.

Gunship Battle


There's no actual boss to talk about here, but that's not to say there isn't a lot of lore to talk about. For one, you have two very strong lore figures in the captains of the horde and alliance gunships, as well as the entire storyline leading up to the Horde vs. Alliance standoff in Icecrown to begin with.

Muradin Bronzebeard is the captain of the Alliance ship, the Skybreaker. Muradin is brother to Brann and Magni Bronzebeard. You remember Brann as the explorer from Halls of Stone and Ulduar (Evasive Action! EVASIVE ACTION!), and Magni is the King of the dwarves over in Ironforge. Muradin is the middle child and was the liaison between the dwarves of Khaz Modan and Lordaeron. It was through this connection that he met a young Arthas Menethil and helped to train him as he was growing up. Later on, Arthas would betray Muradin's friendship when he took up Frostmourne and seemingly killed Muradin.

Muradin survived however, and found his way to the Frosthold in the Storm Peaks where, his memory lost to him, he joined and became king of the Frostborn Dwarves. Through a series of quests in the Storm Peaks, we the players reunite Muradin with his brothers and he gets his memories back, and first on his list of things to do is to take down Arthas who had since become the Lich King. Thus we see Muradin take a central role in Icecrown as he seeks to end the reign of Arthas that started when they had found Frostmourne.

On the Horde ship, Orgrim's hammer, High Overlord Varok Saurfang leads his forces. Saurfang has been a fixture in the Horde since early WoW, serving a s a quest turn in for Nefarion's head and backing the rule of Thrall over the new horde. He is a veteran of the first, second, and third wars on Azeroth, and a legend in his own right. He lead the Horde forces in Ahn'Qiraj, and served as an advisor to Garrosh Hellscream in the push into Northrend.

Saurfang's son, Dranosh, also fought in Northrend at the Wrathgate. It was there that the Lich King took the soul of Saurfang Jr. And it is for this reason that the assault on the citadel is very personal for Saurfang Sr. In fact, the battle directly after the gunship battle is against Deathbringer Saurfang, the broken spirit of Dranosh, now in service to the Lich King. As the Alliance, we get to see a scene play out after the fight where Saurfang comes to reclaim the body of his son. It's a touching moment (until Jaina mucks it up), but I imagine it's even more dramatic Horde side, as Saurfang has to issue orders to attack his own son, even if his spirit is no longer whole.

So two heroes of their respective factions, both with personal vendetta's against the Lich King, as well as a mandate from their superiors to attack the citadel. The question stands out, why aren't they working together?

The tension between the Horde and Alliance has always been tenuous, but with the events of the Wrathgate, the hostilities throughout Northrend, and the unwillingness to compromise shown by their respective leaders, both sides feel that they are more entitled to the defeat of Arthas, and rather than join forces, they fight each other on their way to defeat the Lich King. It's a matter of pride, and an unwillingness to trust the other side, but be what it may, this is how things have transpired. It's interesting to me that Tirion and the Knights of the Ebon Blade have managed to band together in the Ashen Verdict, yet while they spear head the attack on Icecrown, the Horde and Alliance trivialize that union with their squabbles.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out as we reach the end of the Wrath of the Lich King and what it means for the hostilities between the factions.

Deathbringer Saurfang


Saurfang is the Lich King's most powerful Death Knight. He's also one of the more recent acquisitions of the Lich King, which leads me to believe he's not powerful because of his service to the Lich King, but because of the strength of the soul from which this death knight was made. So let's take a look at how Deathbringer Saurfang came to be.

Dranosh Saurfang is the son of Overlord Saurfang (who we talked about on the boat). His mother is unknown. Our first encounter with Saurfang the Younger is in Nagrand where he is one of the soul survivors of a war party made of young orcs on a mission of revenge against the Murkblood Broken. The broken had decimated Sunspring Post, and young Saurfang's band did not fare well when they confronted them. Through a few quests, you assist him in his revenge, and when you finish, Saurfang Jr. declares that he cannot return hom, and that he must walk the earth, for he feels he has a greater destiny.

Fast forward to Northrend. Saurfang the Elder and Grom Hellscream are leading the Warsong Offensive in the frozen wastes. Saurfang the younger is stationed at the Wrathgate. In a role similar to that of Bolvar Fordragon on the Alliance side, Saurfang Jr. leads the charge for the horde against the gate. The Lich King emerges and kills Saurfang the Younger, drawing his soul into the cursed blade Frostmourne. Before much else happens, Putrice busts out a plague on both the scourge and the alliance and horde forces, sending the Lich King packing back to Icecrown.

We don't see it, but it becomes apparent that the scourge were able to grab the body of Saurfang Jr. before they retreated as when we encounter him in Icecrown, he is alive as an undead orc Death Knight can be. But before Icecrown, there is one more glimpse of Saurfang. In the fight with Yogg-Saron, players encounter three visions. One of these visions incorporates the Lich King torturing the souls of those he has killed. One of them, the immolated champion, has not yet been broken, but the other, the turned champion, has been broken, and is in fact Saurfang Jr.

So a sad tale for one who once saw he had a great destiny. His soul captured and tortured, he was raised once more to fight both the Horde and Alliance as the breach the upper spire of Icecrown Citadel. Upon his death, the Alliance sees Saurfang the Elder approach for the body of his son. King Varian sees fit to allow this, over Muradin's objections. We're all so proud of him.

In the Horde version, Saurfang is there at the beginning of the fight, stating that he is there to claim the body of his son, who died at the wrathgate. He then reveals Saurfang the Younger's first name, Dranosh, which means Heart of Draenor.

A Closer Look at Icecrown Citadel

We've been in Icecrown Citadel since it opened up. We did really well on the Lower Spire, and after a few close calls, we seem to have mastered the Festergut fight. But we cannot get Rotface down. It's reminiscent of Yogg-Saron in that it feels like we're banging our heads against a wall and not getting anywhere. A lot of fights you can see your progress as you get closer and closer and finally win. But his fight. This fight just feels messy.

Anyway, while we're working on that, I think it would be nice to get back to some lore posts, and since we're working on Icecrown, let's delve into the lore behind it, and the bosses inside.

ICECROWN CITADEL
Icecrown Citadel sits on Icecrown Glacier in the area of the world known as Icecrown. That's fairly easy to follow. Icecrown itself was just a cold spot at the top of the world until Kil'jaeden decided it would be a good place to toss the tormented soul of Ner'zhul, now the newly minted Lich King. Of course, being a soul, he had no means of getting around, and was stuck where he was on the Frozen Throne.

Still, being the Lich King, he was able to call forth the people of the world that would dedicate themselves to him and help establish the scourge, and eventually Arthas Menethil overcame a lot of obstacles to join with Ner'zhul, finally giving a body to the Lich King. With Arthas on the throne, and an army of scourge at his command, the rebuilding of Icecrown began. Using the hardened blood of some old god (hey, he's old, he doesn't need it anymore), Arthas and the scourge proceeded to erect a mighty fortress around the frozen throne and throughout the area of Icecrown. The saronite ramparts and gates now permeate the zone. It is said that these structures even reach deep under the ground around Icecrown.

So Icecrown Citadel is a giant fortress built around the spire that the frozen throne sits upon. But like many castles and fortresses, it houses a great deal of other things. There is a lecture hall where Lady Deathwhisper preaches the virtues of the Cult of the Damned. The Plagueworks is where Professor Putricide commits diabolical biological experiments. The San'layn are ruled by their Blood-Queen from the Crimson Halls, and there is even a prison where a sleeping green dragon is tormented. And of course, at the top of the spire, resides the Lich King on his frozen throne.

Some of these bosses have more back story to them than others, which is typical. Marrowgar is pretty much your every day skeleton guardian, but Deathbringer Saurfang has a long sad path to his position in the citadel. Over the next few days, I'll explore the lore behind each boss and speculate a little about their purpose in guarding the Lich King's domain.

Getting Ready for Icecrown

Patch 3.3 is on the PTR. I'm really looking forward to it all once it hits the live servers. I don't have time to play around on the test realm, but I do keep up with the reports coming from the various data mining sites and people that actually do spend time on there. It's exciting!

Veritas is at a place right now where we're farming normal Coliseum runs for emblems and gear, and still trying to take people through Ulduar as well. I led a team of newer people through last Friday and we got all the way to Thorim and knocked him down. Tonight we're going back for Iron Council, and the rest of the keepers. We may even get to Vezax if we have the time, but I'm not sure if we'll get hung up on Mimiron or not. We'll see!

Eventually we're going to tackle some more hard mode Ulduar and heroic coliseum, but it's tough to fit that into the schedule alongside normal runs of both raids. It's my job to organize everyone, and it's getting a lot harder with more people getting up to raid ready status, but somehow I'm managing, and I think most people are satisfied so far.

So with current content pretty well in hand, we should be ready to step into Icecrown on the first weekend of it's release! I'm especially looking forward to the three new dungeons with the epic quest line. I've stayed more or less spoiler free, but I have seen a few things that look like they'll be very cool. I'm ready to see the culmination of our efforts and quests in Northrend, let alone everything from way back in Warcraft III.

I read a blog called Lorecrafted, and the blogger over there has some really cool ideas about what we could be seeing as we face off against the Lich King himself. I'm in agreement that the Burning Legion, specifically Mal'ganis, has to play a role in it somehow. There's been a lot of hints in the quests in Icecrown that he's not gone for good, and it makes sense that we would need some sort of outside help to take down the Lich King.

Even though I'm excited about everything to come, I'm still hoping for a month or more of time to get more people in the guild geared and ready for Icecrown. There's a good possibility we could have two teams ready for Icecrown soon after it's release. I'll have to see how quickly we can get our second team into regular Ulduar.

Lessons in Lore - Yogg-Saron

The Lucid Dream. The Monster in your Nightmares. The Fiend with a Thousand Faces.

The Old God of Death.

That's him in all his tentacled glory. Yogg-Saron is indeed an Old God and one of the ancient beings responsible for the curse of flesh which afflicted the Titan creations and gives us the races we know today. The Titans themselves could not destroy the old gods without destroying the world of Azeroth, so instead, they imprisoned them. Ulduar is the prison of Yogg-Saron. That is it's purpose, and that's why we've come here to begin with. Because the prisoner has gotten loose.

That's really about all of the history we have for old Yoggy. Of course, we know there's lots of stuff currently going on. For one, Yogg-Saron is free, but has not physically moved himself out of Ulduar. I'm not really sure how he could without legs... although I guess he could move around on his tentacles. He's been doing a lot of work through the watchers that he's corrupted however. I started with Loken, who was the chief jailer. Loken then was used as a pawn to capture and corrupt the remaining keepers, and even uses us, the players, in his scheme to get Thorim. What he needs all of the keepers for is unclear, other than to get rid of the people that could prevent him from completely breaking free.

By the time we get to Ulduar, we've already encountered much of the old god throughout Northrend. In the Grizzly Hills we see Vordrassil, the world tree of Northrend is destroyed and laying in pieces. Thousands of years ago the ancient druids planted this tree to be the first world tree, but the roots went to deep and entered the domain of Yogg-Saron, corrupting the tree, and prompting the Druids to destroy it. This tells me that Yogg-Saron has some domain over the deep places of the earth and this is further reinforced by the whispers you can here when entering the mines of Icecrown.

The faceless ones seem to be at the command of Yogg-Saron, and also come from the deep places of the earth as seen in the dialogue with the Nerubians. And then to top it all off, we have SARONite. The Tuskarr call it the Black Blood of Yogg-Saron, and it is believe that it is an actual by-product produced by the old god. Saronite, the metal has very magic resistant properties, especially holy magic, and thus was chosen specifically by Arthas, the Lich King, to construct the many gates and towers throughout Icecrown, and the armor and weapons that are used by the Scourge. But prolonged exposure to Saronite has maddening effects. Miners forced to excavate Saronite in Icecrown can be seen leaping to their deaths and mumbling in an insane matter. Who knows what effect all the Saronite will have on the scourge?

The only other confirmed old god was C'thun, who was locked up inside An-Qiraj until relatively recently. He was killed, but there are rumors that while his body was destroyed, his presence remained, and now the Twilight Cultists have descended up on the ruins in an attempt to resurrect him. So now, even though Yogg-Saron has been defeated, and the keepers of Ulduar liberated, can we be sure that he is completely dead? Or will his presence somehow remain, manifested throughout Icecrown via the saronite deposits. And just what is the connection between the Old God of Death, and the Lich King?

During the fight with Yogg-Saron, some people must enter his mind and witness three different visions. These seem to be visions of events that Yogg-Saron was present at. Or at least it makes sense that he would have been if he has the memories of the events.

The first event is the creation of the Demon Soul by the five dragon flights during the War of the Ancients. Ultimately, this was done by Neltharion and was a catalyst for his corruption into Deathwing. So was Yogg-Saron the old god behind Deathwing's creation? Perhaps the death of Yogg-Saron is a precursor to the reemergence of Deathwing coming in the Cataclysm.

The next event is Garona Halforcen's assassination of King Llane. This was ultimately the reason that the humans lost the war against the invading orcish hordes during the first war. Without their leader to guide them, the humans fell apart. We know now that Garona was being controlled by the Twilight Cultists when the assassination occurred. And the cultists are worshipers of the old gods. So again, Yogg-Saron is telling us of his involvements of these events.

The final scene is not one that we are familiar with from history, and seems as if it may have occurred much more recently. The Lich King stands before an immolated champion and a prisoner, torturing the champion and trying to break him to his will. Who is the champion, and who the prisoner? Some say it may be Bolvar and Saurfang the younger. Others speculate the Lich King refers to Arthas, whom he broke when he joined with the Lich King. Yogg-Saron's involvement in this vision is more vague. Is he in league with the Lich-King? Or opposed to him. As Yogg states, "He will learn... no King lives forever, only death is eternal!"

There's still a lot of mystery surrounding Yogg-Saron, and I hope that we get a few more insights into what happened at Ulduar down the road. Perhaps a connection will be made when we go to Icecrown. Or during the cataclysm with Deathwing.

Lessons in Lore - General Vezax

There's not a lot we know about this guy. The one thing we do know is that he's a General, and he is a Faceless One. The fact that he is a general seems irrelevant, however it may be worth mentioning that another General served an old god as well. That was General Rajaax who served C'thun in Ahn'Qiraj. The names are actually very similar as well.

Faceless ones are ancient evil beings in the service of Yogg-Saron. They were first encountered in Azjol-Nerub by the Nerubians, who dug too deep while fighting the scourge, and contributed to the near extinction of the nerubianswhen they were confronted from two sides by the enemy. There are many locales around Icecrown where we find evidence of the faceless ones, including in the mines and underneath Icecrown citadel. The name faceless one comes from the indistinguishable looks of the monsters. Though they resemble elephants, there's really know evidence of eyes or ears or mouths. Just a lot of appendages.

General Vezax looks more bug like than elephant like and has massive claws for hands, as well as a somewhat discernible face. There is no explanation for this, but he does seem to command the faceless ones that surround him.

The only other tidbit of information is more recent, and comes from a blue post in the forums, which is kind of abnormal from a lore standpoint. However, it has been suggested that General Vezax is in reality the corrupted form of the Watcher Tyr, who we have no current knowledge of his whereabouts. All of the other watchers showed up in Ulduar, so it would make sense that Tyr would as well. But there is a difference noted in that all of the temples of the watchers were destroyed or violated, except for Tyr's Temple of Order, which is simply vacated.

So is General Vezax the corrupted form of the Watcher Tyr? Being that close to Yogg-Saron's prison is bound to have it's consequences. But there is another room that isn't explored on the Ulduar map, opposite of Hodir's room. We may never know. What do you think?



Just one more boss left to do. The old god himself. Stay tuned!

Lessons in Lore - Hodir and Freya

Hodir is a watcher of Ulduar, just like Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron. He had resided in the Temple of Winter in the Storm Peaks, but by the time we get there, he is gone, his servants are dead and the place smells of sulfur. This would indicate that Fire Giants, the mortal enemies of the Ice Giants, had something to do with Hodir's disappearance. The only known Fire giants exist as bosses in various instances/raids. Ignis is a Fire Giant. Whether they were actually involved is not known. What is known is that Hodir is now in Ulduar, under the control of Yogg-Saron, via Loken who betrayed all of the watchers. Hodir is found in the Halls of Winter in Ulduar.

Prior to that, Hodir had been a guardian over the Ice Giants, who themselves had taken on the name "Sons of Hodir" to identify with their patron. The Sons of Hodir play heavily into the Thorim quest line as I mentioned before, so it's interesting to me that the Sons of Hodir seem to have more connections to Thorim in game than Hodir.

There has been some speculation that Hodir is the inspiration for Greatfather Winter of the dwarves and Winter's Veil.. He makes mention to the "Veil of Winter" when you request his help against Yogg-Saron.

Other than that, there's not much else to say about him, which is surprising since there's a whole faction named for him in the game.



Freya

Freya is the last watcher of Ulduar. She is known mostly for being in tune with nature, and watcher of all things living. Our first encounter is with her is actually the Avatar of Freya, an aspect of Freya that she separated from herself and left in charge of watching over the life in Sholozar Basin. We interact with the Avatar via several quests in the basin centered around repelling the scourge that are spilling into the basin from Icecrown.

Freya had resided in the Temple of Life in Storm Peaks. Currently all life there is dead, including the plants. There is evidence of a battle that took place there between Freya and a being of similar size. I assume this to be Loken, but it could have been any of the beings within Loken and Yogg-Saron's control.

Within Ulduar, Freya is found in the Conservatory of Life with her three guardians. The area is still lush and vibrant, despite it's watcher being corrupted. However, all of the animals and plant life are now hostile towards players.

The last thing I'll say about Freya is that she is referred to as a "Daughter of the Titans." There is some speculation on whether or not the watchers are actually Titans. Is the daughter of a Titan, a Titan? Maybe, but it could just be a title instead of an actual family link. I maintain that the watchers are not actual Titans, but creations of the Titans for specific purposes. There is a quest in Storm Peaks that implies the watchers are Titans though, so there is that to consider.

Lessons in Lore - Thorim and Razorscale

Anyone who has quested in the Storm Peaks should be familiar with the story of Thorim, his wife, Loken, the Sons of Hodir, and Veranus. You, the player, actually have a hand in getting Thorim from where he is at the Temple of Storms, into Ulduar under the control of Loken and Yogg-Saron. Need a refresher? Allow me to paraphrase. Beware that if you have not done the quest chain, the following is a spoiler.

The quest chain starts from a Goblin in K3 about the large blue women (aka the Hyldnir) who took the Goblin men prisoner. You go off to save them and in the process get involved with the Vry'kul ladies and their war with the Sons of Hodir. Disguised as a big blue woman yourself, you proceed to take part in their games to see who will be the champion and rule by Thorim's side.

After jumping around on the backs of dragons flying around the Temple of Storms, you prove yourself and end up in front of Thorim himself. Oddly enough he seems a bit coo coo. At first he thinks your his wife, Sif, but then recognizes you for the in disguise that you are. Through a short conversation you find out what has happened.

Thorim was originally one of the chief watchers over Ulduar, the Terrace of the Makers, and the races of frost. Loken, Thorim's brother, killed Sif, Thorim's wife, and blamed it on Amgrim, the king of the Frost Giants. Thorim, in his rage, through his hammer at Arngrim, killing him, but before Arngim died, he was able to put a rune on the hammer, preventing anyone, including Thorim, from using it. Thorim then retreated to the Temple of Storms in a stupor of despair.

Taking your arrival as a sign, Thorim wakes from his stupor and begins to plot against the real villain, Loken. First you mend the relationship with the Sons of Hodir and Thorim by working for them some. In return you manage to get Thorim his armor and hammer back from the spirit of Arngrim. Once things are all patched up with them, you then set out to get Thorim his epic mount back. This is Veranus, the brood mother of the local proto-drakes who Thorim had released into the wild before he went into his stupor.

Armor, check, hammer, check, proto-drake mount, check. Okay! Off you and Thorim go to Loken's throne at the Temple of Wisdom. Thorim and Loken exchange some trash talk and a little fisticuffs, but Loken cheats and a strange tentacle gasps Thorim and Veranus. Thorim and his drake are taken off to Ulduar. Loken laughs at you and reveals that he was the blue woman inside the mine who got you started on this whole quest chain to begin with. In thanks, he doesn't kill you.

Loken has Ignis fuse some metal plates onto Veranus, creating Razorscale. Razorscale flies around Razorscale's Aerie in Ulduar, causing problems for some of the Explorer's League members who are there. A sad end to a noble beast.

Thorim resides in the Halls of Lightning where he is still plagued by visions of Sif, his long dead wife, presumably thanks to Yogg-Saron.

A lot of the mythology of Thor lines up with Thorim. They both had wives named Sif, were betrayed by their brothers and had named hammers. Apparently Thor was defeated by a Jormungar as well, and we see one of these when we enter the arena where Thorim is standing in the Halls of Lightning.

A Closer Look at Ulduar - Ignis, Kologarn, and the Assembly of Iron

Ignis the Furnace Master

Ignis is a Titan creation. As per his title, he is in charge of forging weapons and armies in his Colossal Forge. Prior to being influenced by Loken and Yogg-Saron, it is not clear what he was creating, but it seems reasonable to assume he had a hand in building much of the Titan structures and objects that exist today.

Now that he is corrupted though, Ignis has been commissioned to do a few other things. The most notable of which are Kologarn, and the iron plating on Razorscale. And you may not have realized it, but all throughout Northrend you've been fighting against Ignis' handy work, the iron dwarf armies. Once created, these armies of iron constructions are organized and sent out by the three ruling generals of the Assembly of Iron.

Ignis has a fascination with fire and things burning. He repeatedly refers to the Maker's Fire, which is the large pit of flame that can be seen behind him and is the forge where he molds all of his creations. He has many examples of his craft standing around his work area and can call them to life at will. In addition to this, Ignis seems to be very keen on recycling, muttering often that he will use the bones of adventurers as kindling, and the rest as scrap for the scrapheap.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention the large cauldron that Ignis keeps on his belt. I don't know what it's for, other than dunking adventurers in. It has earned Ignis the name, Crotch Pocket, due to the placement of the cauldron, and the achievement associated with being put in it, [Hot Pocket].

Kologarn

Kolo was created by Ignis for one purpose, and one purpose only. To guard the shattered walkway to the inner chamber of Ulduar where Yogg-Saron is imprisoned. So in relation to the other beings in Ulduar, Kologarn is a recent addition to the group. He is a giant stone man with extremely large arms to swat away any intruders who approach him.

What we see of Kologarn is just his upper body, but he does in fact have feet and is standing up when we fight him. If you've ever had the misfortune of running off the edge of the platform, you'd be able to see the feet, though you'd be dead from the fall. Here's a piece of advice, if you do fall, don't look up.

When defeated, Kologarn becomes a bridge for the shattered section of the walkway, allowing access to the rest of Ulduar. Poor planning by Loken if you ask me. It would have been more formidable to just leave a broken bridge with no way to get across rather than a large ambidextrous giant with delusions of grandeur.

Assembly of Iron

Three generals make up the Iron Council: Steelbreaker, the iron giant; Runemaster Molgeim, an iron Vrykul, and Stormcaller Brundir. the iron Dwarf general. These three generals are orchestrating the iron armies that plague Northrend under the influence of Yogg-Saron.

Other than that, we don't know much about them individually. However, their placement within Ulduar is worth noting, and the treasure of information that they hold. Defeating the assembly on hard mode will drop the [Archivum Data Disc]. This can then be used to access the Archivum Console behind where the Assembly of Iron is meeting. It starts the quest to reach Algalon the Observer, so we'll talk about that later, but you now know that the Iron Council is guarding the key to keeping Azeroth safe from destruction!

Argent Confessor Paletress

For those of you that have been doing Argent Tournament dailies, you may have noticed the NPC, Argent Confessor Paletress, in the Argent Crusade tent. She stands off in the corner and gives a sermon to people sitting on the benches.

I had just finished up dailies on Salthier and sat down on a bench while I was chatting on my guild channel or something when she started her sermon. I had heard it before, but I read the whole thing and caught something at the end that I had not before. She invites people who have heard her sermon to speak with her behind the "confessional screen" when she is done. Curious, I went behind the screen where she was standing.

After a few moments, the Stormwind Champion NPC got up and came behind the screen to talk with her. Not wanting to intrude, I went into cat form and stealthed. Their conversation was very interesting. Basically the Champion says, "Jousting is silly, we should be assaulting Icecrown!" and the Confessor says that all attempts have been futile so far, and that the tournament is actually a means to an end in which they will select a chosen few to take on the Lich King.

After that he gave her the human thumbs up, "Sounds fine!" and went and sat down. She returned to her position outside the confessional screen and presumably prepared to sermonize again. I left after that.

Apparently any one of the NPC's sitting there can get up and talk to her when she goes behind the screen. I don't know if it's in sequence or if it's random. The full text of the sermon and each confession is in the wow wiki article linked above. Some of them are silly, but the human and orc ones are fairly meaningful.

More than anything, this gave me answers to some things I've been thinking of in terms of Elionene's reason to do Argent Tournament dailies. She is a hunter, and seeks the hunt. She does not play games. She has been at the forefront of all the battles in Northrend and intends to take on Arthas, so she thinks the Crusade a little loony for throwing a big jousting tourney in the cold north. These confessions give a lot of insight for reasons that would allow her to participate knowing that the ends will justify the means in a sense.

Anyway, in case you didn't know about the confessions, now you do. I thought it was pretty cool.

Lessons in Lore - Mimiron and His Inventions

Mimiron is a brilliant inventor. His form is that of a mechanical gnome, though larger than normal gnomes. He is responsible for most of the mechanical creations in Ulduar and throughout Azeroth. Prior to his corruption by Yogg-Saron, Mimiron was a keeper of Ulduar and watched over the prison from his Temple of Invention in the Storm Peaks. The temple is now in disarray, with many of the mechanical beings there destroyed or malfunctioning. This is likely due to Loken's interference, and ultimately controlled by the Old God within Ulduar. Before his corruption, Mimiron created all sorts of things. Afterward he has worked solely on machines built for war.

Miimiron is currently located in the Spark of Imagination, a large workshop of sorts deep within the mountains behind Ulduar. In order to access it, adventurers must ride the LMS Mark II, a large tram created by Mimiron. Within the workshop, Mimiron is putting the final touches on his latest war machine. the V-07-TR-0N. No, I'm not kidding, that's what it's called.

V-07-TR-0N consists of 3 different machines. The base is battle tank called the Leviathan MKII and is similar to the Flame Leviathan that guards Ulduar's front gates. The body of the machine is the VX-001, an anti-personnel assault cannon that resembles two arms. The head of the machine is the Aerial Command Unit.

From quests in the Borean Tundra, it is speculated that gnomes were once mechanical beings created by a titan called "The Grand Architect" and that they evolved into beings of flesh through a natural process. Mmiron is not a titan, just a being empowered by them, so it is not known if he played a part in the creation of the race of gnomes. But it seems likely he did.



Flame Leviathan


The Flame Leviathan was created by Mimiron to defend the outer gates of Ulduar, or perhaps to dissuade and protect treasure hunters from what is in side. However, with the prisoner now free, it is an obstacle that must be overcome if anyone is to get inside and free the keepers and put Yogg-Saron back in his place. The large tank is powered by four orbital towers that increase it's power when active. The four towers correspond the the four watchers within Ulduar.

XT-002 Deconstructor


XT resides in the scrapyard of Ulduar, and is presumably in charge of the dismantling of Mimiron's experiment's that have not worked. This is speculation based on his name, and his ability to pound the ground with his two large arms, deconstructing anything in between. Unlike the Flame Leviathan which is wholly a machine with standard programming, XT has been given the ability of self awareness. He considers himself the child of Mimiron, his creator, and thus talks and behaves as a young boy. He imagines the adventurers he comes across as his toys. He's bad about breaking them. And he's prone to throwing tantrums.

It's not clear what Mimiron had created before being influenced by Yogg-Saron, but logically it would seem that XT-002, and the Flame Leviathan have more basic purposes, and were created before the release of the Old God. The V-07-TR-0N however appears to be a new invention, it's sole purpose being destruction, and most likely made after Mimiron's primary directives where corrupted.

Lessons in Lore - Auriaya

Auriaya


Auriaya is the Ulduar Archavist. Although, I'm not entirely sure what she is archiving. I haven't seen any books or anything, though the Titans tended to store things on discs anyway. She is called the Crazy Cat Lady because of her two cat adds that patrol the central area of the Antechamber in Ulduar with her, as well as the third cat that spawns during the boss fight.

She is a Titan construct, so it would stand to reason that she was created for the singular purpose of being the Archavist and keeping tabs on the information stored in Ulduar. Her patrol just happens to be around where Yogg-Saron is imprisoned, so it wouldn't surprise me if she was one of the first beings to succumb to Yogg's corruption. When offing a raid member, she will exclaim, "The secret dies with you!" My best guess is that the secret is Yogg-Saron breaking free of his prison.

Auriaya is similar in both name and model to Ironaya who you may remember seeing in Uldaman. Their names are both metals. Aureo is Latin for gold, and Iron is...well, it's Iron. Ironaya also guarded a chamber of sorts with treasures, further supporting these construct's roles as guardians and lore keepers. They are further connected through [Ironaya's Discarded Mantle] which drops from Auriaya. Hunter loot, naturally. I suppose at one time, Ironaya resided in Ulduar, and was later placed in Uldaman before the Titan's left Azeroth.

There are two other bosses that share the same model, the Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan, and the Maiden of Grief in Halls of Stone. The Maiden of Grief appears to be just another Titan construct in a Titan instance, though the Halls of Stone is yet another stronghold of Titan lore as evidenced by the quest line involving Brann Bronzebeard that takes place there, further associating these types of constructs with Archives. The Maiden of Virtue on the other hand makes less sense in terms of game lore. We don't know why she is in Kara, or if she was there before Medivh had left. The one interesting point of note, is that upon defeat, the Maiden of Virtue says, "Death comes. Will your conscience be clear?" which some people have now taken to be foreshadowing of the coming of the death god, Yogg-Saron.

And the cats? Well, if you were a lonely old archivist stuck in a prison guarding a brooding brain with a million maws, you'd probably want something soft and cuddly to keep you company too.