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thuashdore · 7 years ago

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a super rough timeline that is here up until i write the detailed, nicer-looking timeline: warcraft edition

...because five expansions have passed since i wrote my original biography for beau, and people need to know what is going on.

my about section currently covers Vanilla WoW and The Burning Crusade. that’s the easy part out of the way. the following are events that have occurred that Beau has actively been involved in, in one way or another. brief descriptions only; the actual timeline (which is coming) will be a lot more detailed - mostly for those folks who are not in the Warcraft universe... but hey.

this is going to be a long read. you’ll probably see why it’s taking me a while to do the full version. the descriptions are, rightly so, memey. you’ve been warned.

there are also a few things in here that are purely explanation. again, for those who are NOT familiar with the Warcraft universe: i got you babe. <3

oh and for all of those who know Warcraft like the back of their hand: tl;dr the player character story line (paladin edition), but without faction-specific events. you’ll be surprised how many of those exist. <3

WRATH OF THE LICH KING - a.k.a. lets go kill the dead guy who made the undead guys and wants to end the world.

2nd scourge invasion and zombie infestation begins - Beau learns about the Argent Crusade (a happy group who all want to be friends together and forget about the red vs blue fight) and joins their ranks

Alliance + Horde (read: blue and red, respectively) declare war on the Lich King (glorified necromancer with a big sword), and all able-bodied individuals venture to Northrend (read: cold continent).

Naxxramas happens (tl;dr they kill a lot of dead people, including a cat and the Lich King’s best pal).

The Nexus War happens (tl;dr they kill a bunch of blue dragons - including the boss blue dragon) - Beau is involved largely due to her affiliations with the dragonflights; the Bronze in particular, though the Netherwing are involved too.

The Halls of Stone and Lightning are found and unveiled. Ulduar happens soon after (uh... titan’s constructs think we’re bad. we punch them and they realise the tentacle guy underneath ulduar is the real bad guy. the world nearly ends, but through the power of friendship and good punching we stop that from happening. some red-haired mage gives a speech about it).

THE CALL OF THE CRUSADE - including the Argent Tournament, the Trial of the Champion and the Trial of the Crusader/Grand Crusader (tl;dr the leader of the Argent Crusade - Tirion - thought it’d be good to decide who gets to go kill the Lich King by having us all fight each other, and whoever survived would go. a big bug was underneath us and we squished it).

Assault on Icecrown Citadel - including the Forge of Souls (cool music btw), the Pit of Saron (go save Red + Blue people) and the Halls of Reflection (we found his big sword and he got angry at us so we had to run). Beau probably did this with Jaina... though I mean she wouldn’t say no to either her or Sylvanas asking. Jaina makes the most sense to me however.

Icecrown Citadel (tl;dr it happens not long after the above and we go kill the Lich King and his friends and also his pet dragon... but he nearly kills us all first until Tirion takes our kill and Lich King’s dead dad resurrects us but in the good way).

Ruby Sanctum (tl;dr strange things happen with the dragons so we say we’ll take a look at it, and then...)

CATACLYSM - a.k.a. let’s go kill the angry black dragon who wants to end the world.

The Shattering / Elemental Unrest (the angry black dragon was cooking under the world for a long while and has now come out... so the world is on fire).

Beau spends most of her time with the Dragonflights again (given it directly involves them) and works on bringing peace to the elements... so involves going to the Throne of the Four Winds, Hyjal, Bastion of Twilight (and Blackwing Descent) and, of course, Firelands. One for each element (and also killing the bad dragons’ kids and wife!!).

The Hour of Twilight (read: the End of the World), which includes the End Time instance (basically “if you don’t stop bad dragon he’ll die anyway but so will everyone else so”) the Hour of Twilight (the Archbishop was the bad guy the whole time!!) and Dragon Soul (Green Orc Jesus gets the killing blow this time, but we do kill the bad dragon and a bunch of tentacle things - remember Ulduar? those, but Less).

MISTS OF PANDARIA - a.k.a. lets go meet the pandas who have been hiding for millenia and then kill the Orc who wants to end the world (but only for anyone that isn't an Orc just like him... JUST like him).

Lil Prequel here wow first time but Beau spends her time with the Dragonflights, who are now not immortal. I know I didn’t mention that before, but now it’s irrelevant - they’re not immortal now. Most people don’t get that. Or agree with it. But i’m just saying either way they’re Tired after the fight with their bad brother, immortal or not, so this is what she does for a bit.

Garrosh Hellscream, Big Orc Leader of the Horde, decides to bomb Theramore (cute city that did not deserve it). The first time that something like this has ever happened. Pretty much everyone is shocked except for the people who knew about it... which is a few people. Jaina Proudmoore (read: ruler of Theramore and someone you don’t want to piss off) is pissed off; very hurt and distraught by the destruction of her home. Red and Blue are at each other’s throats because of it.

Pandaria is discovered (read: the land covered in the mist?? yeah that one. it has pandas on it... and other things), and Beau travels there with, surprise, the Bronze Dragonflight.

Pandaria is a lot of Personal Growth for Beau, because of the Sha (read: bad emotions made manifest that feed off of people experiencing said negative emotions). she faces a lot of her innermost demons and is forced to conquer them in order to be able to properly help the people of Azeroth. there’ll be a big post on this someday, but for a good portion of the expansion she assists the Pandaren in dealing with the Sha presence.

Isle of Thunder is discovered, and the Throne of Thunder raid happens (tl;dr Lightning Man wants to rule the world; fails). Beau has limited involvement in the former (its primarily dominated by blood elves/reds and the Kirin Tor Offensive/blues), but is involved in the latter.

Then the Horde (specifically, the trolls - big boy troll leader Vol’jin) begins their revolution against their Warchief, Big Bad Orc Garrosh Hellscream. Beau assists with the rebels, as do the Alliance and most of the current Horde. Garrosh unleashes the Sha of Pride (read: worst one) and destroys the nicest place on Pandaria. Everyone is angry.

Siege of Orgrimmar (read: Horde capital city) happens - we kill Big Bad Garrosh’s friends but he somehow evades our kills, because player characters don’t get killing blows in this game until WoD. Vol’jin becomes the Warchief, and him and Varian (read: king of the blues) end the war! No more Alliance vs. Horde! For like two expansions!!!!

Garrosh is put on Trial... and escapes, with a Bronze Dragon (who’s actually an Infinite dragon... who are Bronze dragons that don’t agree with keeping to the destined timeways so they do what they like). they travel back in time, and we have to follow them.

WARLORDS OF DRAENOR - a.k.a. the expansion no one talks about... that ends with a bunch of guys wanting to end the world.

Prelude!!! Garrosh goes back in time, finds his dad, and they make a New Horde (the Iron Horde), and they make the current Dark Portal (read: big demon portal thing) bigger and more red, and plan to invade Azeroth! again! this has happened before!

Iron Horde invade Azeroth - we stop them, but also decide to go through the Portal to the ALTERNATIVE Draenor (read: it was this place called Outland... which is where we were in The Burning Crusade, but before Outland became Outland, it was Draenor. work with me please).

Khadgar (uh... powerful mage; little eccentric; looks old but is actually like 10 yrs older than Beau but got made to look old bc of magic; Father of the Institute for Fallout fans - but nicer than Father is) thinks it’s a good idea to free Gul’dan (green warlock; bad; smelly) because he’s the guy powering the portal. We’ll regret that later, but right now it does stop the Iron Horde from invading Azeroth.

Beau, being a Neutral(tm), spends most of her time with Khadgar in his tower. Assists with liberating Shattrath (read: important light city), helps find and kill Garrosh (but Green Jesus Thrall actually kills him) and also participates in Highmaul (kill a bunch of ogres) and Blackrock Foundry (kill the orc making the weapons for the Iron Horde). Khadgar also starts making a ring of immense power, to give us an edge. He also kills us a few times - accidentally.

The Iron Horde crumbles after killing Blackhand (weapon orc we killed in the Foundry) and Gul’dan (here comes the regret) makes the remaining orcs drink the green goop that comes from a big demon (Garrosh wanted to stop this, but we killed him so...). the orcs turn green just like they are in reality, but now we have to fight Demon Orcs... oh, and Gul’dan summons Archimonde (big demon overlord who’s one of Sargeras’ - leader of the demons - best friends).

Surprise surprise, now we go and kill Archimonde and all of the other people who are now a part of the Burning Legion (Sargeras’ army of demons and other races... but mostly demons). We manage, but Gul’dan is transported to Azeroth by Archimonde and he finds Illidan (uh... there’s no easy way to explain Illidan so we’ll just say he’s a big winged elf-demon man, but a kind of okay one???), who’s trapped in a crystal.

The end of Warlords is that we’re all friends, we have a cool powerful ring, and we’ve killed Archimonde - but... Gul’dan is free, has Illidan, and is going to summon all the demons to Azeroth.

LEGION - a.k.a. the demons, and Sargeras, really really want to end the world.

Prelude: I won’t lie, I honestly forget how we got back to Azeroth after traveling to an alternate timeline. Warlords was a fever dream to most people, but either way we did it... and when we get home there’s green fire everywhere and demons are upon every known orifice of Azeroth.

The whole of Azeroth fight the demons for a bit, because while there’s a lot it’s kind of like ��mm, we can handle this actually”

The Battle for Broken Shore happens, and as it turns out we underestimated how many demons were here. Alliance and Horde thought a “small squadron” would suffice... but no. The Literal Entire Legion is here and MORE are coming. Tirion who got the killing blow on Lich King dies. Vol’jin Warchief of the Horde dies. Varian king of the blues dies. It’s a huge mess and everyone has to retreat.

Dalaran (read: a floating magic city) is moved from where it is now (Northrend, and then Karazhan - a tower... we’ll leave it at that) is moved to the Broken Shore and we declare war against the Legion.

Beau is chosen by Tirion to succeed him as Highlord of the Silver Hand (basically, she’s in charge of the paladins and makes sure they eat their vegetables before battle). She gets shiny weapons because of this, that grow in power the more you feed them... not literally, but figuratively. Don’t ask.

We find the Pillars of Creation (read: titan artifacts) to help us fight Sargeras, and along the way we also liberate an ancient city and also push back the Emerald Nightmare (read: uh... corruption of the world? its bad, alright, so we kill it).

Oh, we also kill Gul’dan (and save Illidan!).

...but he’s already summoned his main hoe: Kil’jaeden (read: Archimonde’s best bro), so now we’ve got to go and defeat him too - preferably before he gets to Azeroth.

We take back the Broken Shore and infiltrate the Tomb of Sargeras (which is where the demons are coming from) and because we’ve got all the Pillars of Creation and the cool weapons we’re able to do it. Huzzah!

We do almost nearly die in space but Illidan uses a stone to teleport us to safety, however he also brings a demon-infested planet along with us.

We hate that at first, but Velen (read: the non-corrupted trio of the once Golden Trio: Archimonde, Kil’jaeden and Velen) decides we should end the Legion while we have the advantage, so makes us a little golden dingy spaceship to travel to the demon planet and... well, defeat and destroy the Legion.

We fight on Argus (read: the demon planet) for a long time and invade Antorus, the Burning Throne - the main operating hub for the Legion. We kill everyone there and fight a literal corrupt titan!! twice!! and then with the power of the non-corrupt titans, they’re able to bind Sargeras to his former seat on the pantheon (read: a literal stage with thrones on it, one for each Titan), which does end the reign of the Legion.

...Sargeras is pissed because he REALLY wanted Azeroth to die, so before he’s bound to his chair forever like a big baby he takes his flame sword and stabs Azeroth with it.

...oh this is also a good time to mention that Azeroth is actually alive and a Titan, but like... a not born one yet. Azeroth the planet is an egg for Azeroth, the titan. anyway.

We go back to Azeroth and the planet is bleeding, and Teams Red and Blue go crazy over whatever gunk is oozing out of the wound Sargeras’ sword has left behind. So they start fighting over it. Which brings us to...

BATTLE FOR AZEROTH - a.k.a. blizzard are telling us it’s a Red vs. Blue expansion when really it’ll end up being something like “the old gods want to end the world”.

this is where we are now. Red and Blue have a new leader on each side... and the whole Azerite (the name given to the gunk oozing out of the wound left by Sargeras’ flame sword) thing is pretty much causing each side to declare war. Beau, being neutral, is... worried, to say the least; she still doesn’t have a home of her own and being neutral during a faction war is... Difficult. she’s hoping her status as Highlord will help. her focus is mainly on providing aid to those who need it, and figuring out a way to mend Azeroth’s wounds and stop Her from getting too damaged.

...and that is all I can say, for now.

#long post.#timeline.#mmmmBOP #and this is the short version HAHAHAHAHA

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Meet the Final Fantasy 14 players who marry in the game

It all starts with a ritual called the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding, a special rite of passage for two individuals who wish to pledge to each other a lifetime of devotion in massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy 14.

Players venture to the Sanctum of the 12, where they are permitted to host a matrimonial service accessible to any in-game friends they’d like to invite. From stunning flower arrangements to special ceremonial chocobos, these in-game marriages often result in quite the party. So much so, that players sometimes seek to replicate them in real life – eternal bonding and all.

Final Fantasy 14 player marriage isn’t as uncommon as it may seem, and in fact it’s gone on for years. But it’s rare that two players who marry in the game go on to marry in real life. One player, named Andrea, intends to do just that. She met her real life fiancé in Final Fantasy 14, married him in the game, and now intends to get married in real life next year.

“He ended up helping me get some weekly clears and I remember picking on each other constantly about our performance and teaching each other,” Andrea remembers. “It got to the point we were doing everything together.” Eventually, they started making silly excuses to keep playing together long after everybody else logged off.

Six months later, Andrea told him she was going to be in town for E3 2017. They arranged a meetup ahead of time, and as they booked plans for LA, they decided to get married in Final Fantasy 14 – something all of their friends were already encouraging.

After a while, the in-game marriage – or Ceremony of Eternal Bonding – started to lead to some exploratory conversations. Andrea says it started to feel like they were officially dating. “It’s weird to feel that close to someone without having met them yet, but there’s a closeness that happens when you’re talking to someone on Discord for hours every single night for months that doesn’t happen with casual dating,” she says. “We didn’t have the option to grab coffee or meet for a quick lunch, so we did all of these activities together that require spending way more time with each other than quick dates.”

Andrea recalls times when the pair would talk until two in the morning, half-asleep, waiting for a dungeon to reappear so they could complete it together. Even after being on a call for eight hours straight, they would sit somewhere in the city of Ishgard and take cute screenshots together, hanging out with one another as if it were real life.

Then came the in-game marriage. “The ceremony made me weirdly emotional, like a total doofus, because it felt like a way I could tell everyone this was a thing I was proud of and happy about,” Andrea adds. “It was a way to share with friends that we considered ourselves to be dating at that point.”

Andrea says it felt slightly awkward telling friends they were going to give it a shot after only having met in person once. “But it felt right,” she explains. “When we finally met, it was like seeing someone I’d known for years. We instantly clicked. Our meeting at E3 2017 changed my entire life, and I’m so happy I got over my initial fear of jumping into this. I’ve moved on from feeling embarrassed or silly to thinking it’s super cool.”

Eventually, Andrea and her partner decided to one-up their in-game marriage. Andrea packed her things and booked a one-way flight from Mississippi to California. “It stunned my parents, but they love him now too and support it,” she says. A year later, the couple got engaged at Disneyland. They plan to marry in 2021, and Andrea already has some ideas for incorporating Final Fantasy 14 into their real-life wedding, including inviting in-game friends, ordering His & Her cakes, and playing tracks from the game’s soundtrack.

Andrea isn’t alone in finding real love in the virtual fantasy of Final Fantasy 14. Another player, who goes by the Reddit handle legenddairybard, actually married someone she married in the game. “Over time, we just started hanging out and playing the game more and I eventually gave him my phone number,” she explains.

“He was very kind, funny and supporting,” she tells me. “He asked me if I wanted to do the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding. I told him sure, it looks fun. Plus the rewards are really helpful.”

Legenddairybird remembers joking with friends who had never played the game about the whole situation. “I’m getting married Saturday, you should come,” she told them. “Needless to say, no one showed up.”

Six months later, legenddairybird flew cross-country to meet her in-game husband. “The first time meeting him, I had that feeling, and it grew even more when we got to hug each other for the first time,” she recalls. “I remember him shaking really badly, I thought he was going to faint.” They spent Christmas together that year, and met up again for Valentine’s Day, at which point the topic of real-life marriage came up.

Legenddairybird recalls her family’s excitement when she flew home and told them, although notes they initially had a different reaction when she suggested meeting up with him.

“At first, people looked at me like I was crazy,” she says. “It’s funny to look back at, but in hindsight I understand why they felt like that. I know there’s a stigma when you meet people you’ve been talking to online, especially with people making up personas. We don’t always quite know if people are who they say they are on the internet.” But after legenddairybird’s family and friends realised her Final Fantasy 14 love genuinely cared for her, they lightened up, and the pair got hitched – in real life this time – in October 2019.

“At first we thought, big wedding, both families, everyone there! We’ll have a Final Fantasy wedding with Moogles and Chocobo decorations everywhere and we’ll walk out to the Prelude!’ legenddairybird says. Instead, they went with a different approach.

“We kept it a secret from everyone for months,” she says. “The day was coming up and we had to sell a story so no-one suspected anything. We told his parents we were going to a music festival in the city and he needed the days off work.” They got married in a private ceremony with only a reverend in attendance, and had a cake that was half-vanilla, half-chocolate. “Our topper was the A Realm Reborn meteor, with bard and white mage soul crystals,” she says. “While it wasn’t exactly a Final Fantasy-themed wedding, I made us small badges to put on during the ceremony, since I was a bard and he was a white mage.”

“After the wedding, we told his parents we wanted to show them photos of the festival we went to,” legenddairybird jokes. “It was a photo of us holding a sign that said Just Married with a paopu fruit [from Kingdom Hearts] behind it, and their initial reaction was, ‘Wait, where’s the festival you said you were going to?’ “

After announcing their marriage, her husband’s dad asked, “… like, in the game, right?” However, legenddairybird quickly confirmed it was the real deal. “His parents both cried and told us how happy they were,” she says. “They were still initially upset because there wasn’t really a music festival,” she jokes.

This phenomenon is double-sided, however. Some couples have rekindled their real-life relationships in Final Fantasy 14 – or even replicated past video game marriages in the game. A Reddit user who goes by the handle “LollipopTechno” tells me when Final Fantasy 14 2.0 launched, she rebuilt her 2009 guild from Ragnarok Online with her real-life boyfriend in-game. Interestingly, that very guild was where they’d met. “I was browsing the market area of a city, window shopping, and I received a private message from someone, asking if I had a certain hat that was recently released in the game,” she explains. “I did not. But I offered to help him comb through the market to find someone with it.”

They found the hat, he thanked her, and they went their separate ways. However, they stayed in touch and eventually became friends. A few months later, LollipopTechno took a nine-hour trip up to California, where they spent their first few days together. “He refers to it as ‘trial by fire,’ ” she says. “We got some really bad food poisoning for a few days, thanks to some pizza we picked up right after he got me from the train station, so we both looked our absolute worst on day one. We did our best trying to take care of each other, and after I had finally recovered, I was like, yeah… I like this guy.” Two years later, they were living together.

Despite already having been married before – in Ragnarok Online – conversations about the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding in Final Fantasy 14 cropped up. “We redid the marriage just to get our actual anniversary dates on our rings, making them more special,” LollipopTechno says. They plan to get married in real life someday, but are in no rush at the moment. Weddings are complicated, according to LollipopTechno, and they prefer to keep things simple.

When we think of married couples renewing their vows, we often think of holiday hotspots, such as at a castle, a hotel or even at a ranch. But couples are finding the exotic locales of Final Fantasy 14 just as sweet a destination. Redditor sUnit_Alpha tells me after his wife fostered her own interest in Final Fantasy 14, the couple replicated their real-life marriage in its virtual world.

“It was similar in that our real wedding was also small, just close family and friends,” Alpha says. “In Final Fantasy 14 we didn’t have anyone attend because we don’t know anyone else who plays, so we kept it just her and me and focused on our love for each other. We always glamour our wedding rings onto our left hands with every single outfit to show our commitment.”

It’s lovely to see stories such as these, where people meet their partners-to-be in Final Fantasy 14, or reinforce an existing bond by spending time together in-game. And the developers of the game have taken notice. Naoki Yoshida, creative director of Final Fantasy 14, is well aware his game and other MMOs that came before it are capable of bringing people from all over the world together.

“Back when I was playing Ultima Online, I actually attended a wedding ceremony for two friends who had met in the game,” Yoshida tells Eurogamer.

“In Japan alone I have received reports about over 80 couples who met in the game getting married and have sent out many messages of congratulations.” In fact, Final Fantasy aficionados in Japan are now able to have officially licensed Ceremony of Eternal Bonding weddings. You even get a prop weapon for the reception.

“There is no real difference between people who hit it off when they meet through other hobbies such as surfing or snowboarding and then go on to get married, and those who meet and hit it off in online games,” Yoshida continues. “However, I often do think that something unique about meeting in online games is that because you cannot see the other person’s real face or appearance, you are not swayed by unnecessary information and can understand their inner values and intentions more directly, making it easier to make a mutual personal connection. Either way, I am always delighted when two people who have met in the world I created come together in this way.”

It’s an important detail to consider, especially in these troubling times. With most social gatherings deemed off-limits for the foreseeable future, virtual meetups are more important than ever. For some this amounts to an upsurge in wine parties on Zoom. For others, this means traversing boundless fantasy worlds together, exploring bottomless fonts of magic and mystery while overcoming divine adversaries against the will of destiny. And, if you’re so inclined afterwards – or during! – it means getting married.

Speaking of Final Fantasy 14’s Ceremony of Eternal Bonding, Yoshida says it’s a way for people to come together and pledge their bonds to one another “regardless of race or gender”.

“I am overjoyed to see it being used in this way and can only wish these two players every happiness in future!” he says. “I think it is great!”

“I don’t think there is anything particularly special in there, but the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding moves away from real world value systems, religious and educational perspectives, and was created with the idea that I wanted the intentions of the two people involved in the ceremony to be more free and more down to them,” Yoshida continues. “That it has been accepted by many different people from around the world makes me very happy as a game designer and I am very proud of it.”

Andrea, too, is proud of the ‘how we met’ story of her relationship. “I spent the longest time awkwardly confessing to friends how I met him and even lied to some about our story,” she says.

“If you’re talking to someone online, of course be safe about it,” she adds. “But for us, we realised that not physically meeting for six months wasn’t the big deal we originally thought it was. We spent hours talking to each other every single night up until that point because Final Fantasy 14 was part of our daily ritual. You learn about someone’s likes, dislikes, happy memories, trauma, childhood, career, everything, when you spend time together like that. We covered it all.

“It was such an incredible rollercoaster, and for a girl living in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi, it’s not often I run into someone I’m compatible with. I’m so lucky I found him. The best thing that ever happened to me also just happened to be waiting for me in my favourite game. I hope other people can find the courage to take the plunge and don’t be embarrassed about it.”

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/meet-the-final-fantasy-14-players-who-marry-in-the-game/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-the-final-fantasy-14-players-who-marry-in-the-game

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