#Sholazar

[warcraft-positivity]

Day #284 of things I love about WoW:

Sholazar Basin. All of the Wrath zones are honestly super nostalgic for me, but Sholazar was my comfort zone. I loved its vibes so much, I'd AFK there for hours or just fly around lazily while listening to the music and talking to friends.

[viridianreverie]

"Freya then wandered the world, searching for areas where the Well of Eternity’s energies had coalesced. These regions created optimal conditions for the development of new flora and fauna. Freya shaped immense enclaves of nature at these places of power. She molded life of astounding diversity, seeding it around the world. The sites where Freya had done her work were located at the polar extremes of the world. They included regions that would later become known as Un’Goro Crater, Sholazar Basin, and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms."

-World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1

[wowscenery]

[azerothtravel]

Weird Ride, Sholazar Basin, November 24, 2008.

[wwo0w]

[golden-routes]

Titanium Ore Farming Guide

[kaelthas-dickrider]

yay i found a rainbow

[tagnoob]

First Flight in Northrend

First Flight in Northrend

Irondam, my Death Knight, was getting towards the end of the quests in Grizzly Hill when he ticked over to level 77, the magic moment when flight becomes available in Wrath of the Lich King. The classic comes to classic That makes Wrath different from Burning Crusade, and was probably a self-conscious move by Blizzard when they realized that, having given everybody flight as an option at the end…

[circuswallaby]

My Earthen ladies!

Eostre is a very ancient tender from Sholazar Basin who's fiesty and fun loving! She goes dormant for a few thousand years here and there no big deal. It's her beauty "sleep".

Djarfr is remnants of Loken's betrayal in Storm Peaks, and found herself a member of the Frostborn clan upon her exile from Ulduar. She does not get beauty "sleep" and has many cracks along her form from past battles.

[mylordshesacactus]

Chapter 21: Bombshell

In which Tyrande's team draws close to their prey in Sholazar--while meanwhile, in Lordaeron, Jaina finally learns the truth.

“Beverly.” Jaina’s hollow voice rasped from disuse. “Why are you on High Command’s payroll as an assassin?”

Silence.

It took a few moments for her to register what she was seeing—and several more for her conscious mind to accept it as possible, let alone real.

For the first time Jaina could remember, Beverly Hale had gone perfectly still.

[darkelfguy]

Return to the world of Azeroth....in Morrowind, for today we're showcasing World of Morrocraft's beta release for the continent of Northrend!

A project two years in the making, World of Morrocraft aims to bring the realms of Azeroth to the game-world of Morrowind, largely using Morrowind assets to provide a new interpretation on the classic locations and environments found in World of Warcraft.

Tel Shadow's ambitious personal project, this beta release includes a mostly exterior complete continent of Northrend, covering the regional zones of the Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Crystalsong Forest, Icecrown, Storm Peaks, Sholazar Basin, and Lake Wintergrasp.

But this release is still exteriors only, no NPCs or enemies have been included yet, though NPCing and creatures might be included in the next update along with the zones Zul'Drak and Howling Fjord.

As a note, it needs to be emphasized that this is an interpretation of Northrend, not a 1:1 remaking of Northrend from World of Warcraft. Some things are different, like the city of Dalaran isn't floating in this version (due to performance issues), so keep in mind it won't look exactly the same (nor could it while primarily using Morrowind assets).

But either way, this is a really impressive project, with tons of verticality, and while there's not much gameplay just yet, the landscapes are a visual delight that manages to capture some of that nostalgic MMO magic!

[airs-headspace]

SEA SLUGS IN THE GAME KASDFOIDHFO I'M AAAAAAAAAAAAA YELLING SO MUCH SHOLAZAR BASIN HERE I COME--

[autumnslance]

Hey Aeryn, any suggestions on making playing NG+ fun? I thought about making an original story on how my character gets the Crystals of Light. She goes unconscious after escaping the Praetorium and I thought it be a good way to do the ideas I want to write without messing up the lore. Have you done anything like this?

I usually use NG+ chapters to either help out a pal who's going through that story the first time, or to re-familiarize with lore, or see changes to the game, like in the revamps to the lvl 50 MSQ instances and for the changes to the Dragonsong War part of the HW patches when they added Duty Support.

The nice part about NG+ is it breaks the story into chapters. I sometimes think those chapter breaks need revision (especially in ARR). But it may be an interesting way to approach NG+, with the idea of an alternate storyline.

The closest I've come to anything like that was actually back in WoW on one of my alts, when I took some quests and lore of the Grizzly Hills and Sholazar Basin and made a story for my late-middle-aged human hunter alt (mom of my priest main, deciding to go back out and adventure instead of retiring). That's a far more alt-friendly-and-expected game, so she was probably my 5th or 6th character through those zones and so I decided to do something different.

It mostly is apparent if one is familiar with the Northrend zones in WoW, though that OC did this during Cataclysm, a later expansion than that continent's introduction. I just used the existing lore elements to write a story that made sense for her, and didn't really worry about "messing up" lore cuz it was her story, by and for me, and I didn't really care what other folks thought of it* or how it fit into some grander interconnected RP scheme. It was a story I wanted to tell. So I did.

If interested, it's been reloaded on an alt blog under the "Northern Hunt" tag; 10 shortish entries. It's one of those I really ought to clean up and put on Ao3 one of these days, honestly.

--

*The server blogging website we used to post on is long gone, but I recall folks seemed to like it OK. It was posted to the alt Tumblr by request, as I recall.

[wowscenery]

[azerothtravel]

Hemet's Got It, Sholazar Basin, November 24, 2008.

[findmeinshattrath]

When The Last Titan drops...

and we go back to Northrend, I wonder what the new capital will be for the expansion. I doubt they'll go with Dalaran again, so operating on the assumption that we'll be using an existing location, I think that the likely options will be...

Grizzlemaw - now ruled over by Furbolgs that are finally purified

Zul'Drak/Gundrak - Could easily see surviving Drakkari finally banding together to rebuild, and maybe opening up to the other factions to ensure survival/out of desperation. I like to think it would be a coalition of living and undead trolls

Wintergrasp - Finally find some greater use for it

Moa'ki Harbor - According to Exploring Northrend, the largest Tuskarr settlement since losing Kaskala

Kaskala - Finally reclaimed

Pal'ea - According to Exploring Northrend, has been reclaimed by the Tuskarr and is currently expanding

Isle of Conquest

Strand of the Ancients

Azjol-Nerub - Not too sure about this one considering what's going on in tWW, but I feel like it's a fair possibility

Coldarra/the Nexus

Crystalsong Forest - Unlikely, but I could see them rebuilding in the Highborne Ruins, especially if they go with a Dalaran connection and the elven factions. Doubt it though, considering the expansion before this will be so Elf-focused

Didn't consider any Storm Peaks locations, considering that it seems we'll be fighting the Titans who will be based out of Ulduar, or Icecrown locations, considering I doubt that anybody would choose that. Sholazar also has Titan connections and also no locations that seem like they would fit for a capital city.