Salthier, A Day in the Life

Salthier looked down into his hands as he gripped the mace firmly. The handle was long and wrapped with tough leather for easy handling. The head was rectangular and glowed a feint green, probably imbued with the essence of nature by the Night Elves who had crafted the weapon. Spikes lined the handle right below the head, as deadly as they were decorative. It was a well crafted weapon, made even more unique in that it was only given to those who proved themselves worthy to the Cenarion Expedition by helping their fight against the Naga within the Coilfang Reservoir. It truly was the Earthwarden. It was a shame he would never swing it.

Long ago, Salthier had been knowledgeable of weapons, but now as a Druid he had know practical use for it, other than the magic it was created with. He would wear it with pride, a visible depiction of his rank and dedication to the cause of his people, but when it came to battle, the claw and the tooth would be his weapons. These things had never failed him as he bonded with the spirit and form of the bear and the cat.

Salthier left the calmness of Zangarmarsh in a flash of feathers and flew to the center of activity in Outland, Shattrath City. He set down in the heart of the Scryer tier and became himself once more, the mace easily visible on his back. He made his way to the inn and checked for any recent correspondence from home. Lal had sent him some spicy crawdad, his favorite, magically preserved so as to not spoil and be available to use while out adventuring. He chuckled as he read her note, chiding him for not taking his lunch with him that morning. Sadly he would not see her until later today, as the Shattered Sun kept her busy running around Outland. He had another letter too, this one from Elionene.

Elionene often sent letters to Salthier informing him of her efforts in Karazhan. Some time ago, after she had gained the favor of the druids as well, she had turned her attention to the assistance of the Kirin Tor. She had some sort of fascination about Medivh and his tower and sought to learn all she could. The wizards were impressed, and Veritas saw it fit to have her begin leading a team into the tower weekly. The letter he had received was about the tower, as most of the letters tended to be lately. It was attached to a package with some weapons and armor obtained from the tower. Most of it junk with which he could create enchanting materials from. After briefly looking through the items in the package, Salthier began to read the note.

Hello Uncle,

We continue to have success in our research of the Ivory Tower. We have not yet found a way to completely neutralize the spirits within as they return week after week, but we have started to master their tactics and send them fleeing faster each time. The Kirin Tor are quite impressed, and have seen fit to bestow on me the highest rank possible without actually being an actual mage. However, I think the wizards from Dalaran are starting to turn their eyes to other problems. Recently they have called more of their brothers and sisters back to the ruined city in the Hillsbrad Region. I have not been privy to what they are doing, but I have heard rumors of dragons and the northern lands. It almost appears that they are preparing for another battle. It saddens me to see them leave the area around Karazhan. They may think they have discovered all they can from the tower, but I continue to grow more namored with it. Medivh kept a large number of notes on so many things. He has a whole section devoted to Kaldorei culture. Much of it has been lost to age and vandalism, but there is still much to learn. How did he know so much of us when we had not even encountered the humans until more recently?

Even as they leave, they have promised to let me continue my research in the tower at least for now. I plan to make good on that. There is one room that we have not yet ventured into. It is an observatory of some sort, but within is a Nether Dragon. How he got there, I am unsure, but he guards the access. He also appears to have lost his mind, as most all things that have dwelt too long in Karazhan have. Perhaps Mordenai would know who he is. I will have to ask him when I am next in Shadowmoon Valley.

I'm sure you found the package that accompanied this letter. Do what you can to make those items more useful. Hopefully in my next letter I will be able to tell you what the wizards are so anxious about. My attention is still with the tower, but I can't say I'm not curious about these whispers.

Love,

Elionene

Salthier folded the letter and placed it in his pocket. Strange that she would mention rumors of dragons and the north. The druids themselves had been discussing strange feelings on the wind and in the earth coming from a northerly direction. None of them knew for certain what it mean, but it was certainly an omen of things to come. Salthier was ready for it.

He walked towards the center of the City of Light and took the portal to Stormwind. Leaving the mage quarter, he made his way for the Keep of Stormwind to meet with several other ambassadors. There was to be a meeting among the Alliance about these rumors. Adjusting to the new weight on his back, Salthier strode quickly into the keep, eager to personally volunteer himself to be one of the first to discover the true face of these rumors.

Lessons in Lore - Varian Wrynn

If you've not done the Onyxia key quest chain, or wish not to be spoiled on the events surrounding the return of the king to Stormwind, you may want to skip this post.

I think I've mentioned before that I'm reading the series of WoW comic books available from Wildstorm Comics. The focus of these books is on Varian Wrynn, the rightful king of Stormwind. If anyone has done The Missing Diplomat quest line, you know how the story starts. The Defias Brotherhood, those disgruntled city builders turned bandits, kidnapped an important Diplomat from Stormwind, and whisked him away to the Dustwallow Marsh, where there seems to be Naga and the Black Dragonflight involved. I haven't done this questline, although I want to and plan to with my gnome rogue soon. The gist of it is that the Diplomat was actually the king of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn, and he dissappeared after the kidnapping, from the kidnappers as well as everyone else.

With the king missing, Anduin, his young son, was made king. But being so young he needed an advisor. In comes Lady Katrana Prestor and Lord Bolvar Fordragon. Bolvar is sort of an acting king on Anduin's behalf and an all around good guy. Lady Katrana Prestor is actually tyring to manipulate things from behind the scenes as an advisor as well. Yes, Lady Katrana Prestor is actually that evil black dragon, Onyxia. But I digress, this is about the king.

This is also a little more about recent lore. The comic books start with a man (who we will learn later is Varian) being captured by an Orc Shaman somewhere in Durotar and put into the gladiator circuit to make money for the orc. Varian does not remember who he is. He is partnered with a Night Elf and a Blood Elf. Eventually, they make their escape from being gladiators and find their way to Dustwallow Marsh and Theramore, where Jaina Proudmoore, along with the help of Aegwynn, yes the mother of Medivh, help Varian remember who he is.

Now remembering everything, Varian and his friends rush off to the other continent to return to Stormwind where Lady Katrana Prestor, and an imposter King Varian are trying to pull the wool over Bolvar and Anduin's eyes. As the real King Varian heads to Stormwind from Menethil Harbor, they help the dwarves defend Thandol Span and also end up venturing to Blackrock Depths to free Marshal Windsor from the prison and the Dark Iron Dwarves. This is about as far as the comics have gotten. Obviously a lot more happens in the comics, but I don't want to give it all away. Go read them!

So the point of bringing all this up is that Varian Wrynn is basically just doing the Onyxia key quest chain. If you've done it, you know it starts by doing some quests in the Burning Steppes, which lead to freeing Marshal Windsor from Black Rock Depths, which leads to a huge revealing event in Stormwind, which leads to a raid on Onyxia in her cavern in Dustwallow. The comics treat all of this as if we, the adventurers, didn't have a part in it, but the King of Stormwind did. I feel a little used.

Anyway, with the new patch coming out in a week or two, the new and improved Stormwind Harbor will be open, and King Varian Wrynn will have returned. Hey, the King's back! The next comic comes out on the 15th, so I'm hoping that it details a little bit of what brings Varian from Ironforge to Stormwind. I'm curious to see what he'll look like and what he'll be doing once he is back, too. Will he send us to Northrend? And why? How does that relate to his return? I'm getting anxious for the next expansion!

Of Elves and Horses

It seems I'm finding it hard to write on Tuesdays since I don't have nearly as many interesting things to write about macros and addons as I do other things like lore and character development. It's not that there aren't macros and addons to write about, it's just I don't tend to think they're that exciting. I've got an idea for next week, but if I ever have trouble finding something to write about on a Tuesday maybe I'll substitute a light lore post instead.

In other news, Salthier achieved exalted status with Stormwind this last week, enabling me to get a Swift Brown Steed! This completes my goal of having him as an ambassador to Stormwind. It took a lot, and I mean a LOT, of rune cloth. Between Lal and I, we had about 700 pieces in our alt guild bank, and I bought about another 60 gold worth from the auction hall. I did do some of the quests in the starter areas, but I decided soon after that that I would prefer to spend gold rather than time working on the reputation. It all worked out in the end. Now I might look into getting exalted with all of the major cities to achieve the ambassador title that is coming with the expansion. While milling around Elwynn forest, I picked up a pet cat from the crazy cat lady, just so I could get a picture like this one.

Bogdan and Nadya didn't see much play this last week. I have a cool picture of them meeting the fire elemental on Azuremyst when Bogdan did his fire totem quest. I keep saying every week that I hope we play them more, and that's still true. The more I think about it, the more I really want to level my shaman up before the expansion comes out. I just have to convince Lal to want to play her mage! In a related note, we went to our local gamestop and pre-ordered two copies of Wrath of the Lich King. We're psyched.

Elionene got to go to Zul'aman last night, and we had a blast! We got the first two bosses down and almost made it to the third one before time, repairs, and respawns forced us to call the raid. Next week, Lal will be going, and we plan on taking down boss number 3 as well as hopefully getting one of the timed chests. It's a challenge, but we all really love it! There's talk of doing a two boss only run on Saturday for anyone who wants to go, since it resets every 3 days. I'd love to get in on this, but I'm not sure if we'll have the power to do it, unless everyone from last night wants to go again, but I don't think that's the case.

I'll leave you with this picture of Salthier, dead in Shadow Labyrinth. Before the third boss, Vorpil, is a room with patrolling mobs in the middle and mounds of skeletons on the sides. The skeletons can be pulled and AoE killed. I told my group that we'd be pulling the last two groups of skeletons together instead of seperately. Famous last words as we did kill them, but I bit it.