#world of warcraft novel

[knightphobeus]

Tides of War Review

I drove across country and finished this book, so if I'm a bit more critical about it, blame it on the drive. Lucky me, the travel was not too bad...

I am still not playing the game. I am too involved in all other MMOs and again, I tried. Failed.

Basic: 3.5/5 I mostly do this only on the two-thirds, with the actual build up to the event that starts off the Mists of Pandaria expansion. However, like the other story, I have a few issues with parts in the story, and I swear I blame it on the amount of period romance/isekai/regen (?) stories I read.

The Best: The change of Jaina's attitude before, during, and after the destruction of Theramore is well-done. The worry of the various members of the Horde at Garrosh's attitude, and the changes made that quickly get everyone against him, but also not willing or able to leave the Horde or speak out against him is fun.

While I didn't like a lot of what Jaina did before the destruction, she was a great character.

The Meh: Anything to do with the Blue Dragons. I swear the story has been working on making any dangerous creatures suddenly become "owo sowwy". I heard that this was pretty consistent for the Blue Dragons but still!

Throwing in the Earthen Ring, who DON'T get a warning about Garrosh using "very dangerous and upsets the balance" lava golems, moving giant f-you mastadon-centaur-things that I forgot the name to a DIFFERENT CLIMATE, somehow controlling one to multiple KRAKEN, *AND* dropping the mana bomb enhanced through a magical stolen weapon on a city on the same continent...no, that doesn't get a vision. Jaina deciding to cause mass damage with an unscheduled tidal wave? *HOW DARE?* Enough to get Thrall to go and "talk" to her.

The Bad: Early stuff with Jaina and her thoughts on love was just...I can't, and again, I watch and read A LOT of Isekai/Regen/"I'm the villain and now everyone loves me" stuff. Jaina/Kalecgos was so shoehorned in, please stop.

I think the main issue with early Jaina is that for someone who a) left and survived leaving Arthas, b) founded Theramore with at least two hostiles (her father and the Horde), and c) a world-class mage even before having added mana to her....she comes across as even more sweet and innocent on things. Again, this is possibly because I read too many comics/watch too much anime, but freakin' some of the girls from those stories are better at this.

Thrall and Kalecgos having to "talk" Jaina out of this. I'm sorry, if Thrall and Jaina ever speak again, he'd better have started with "I was wrong about..."

(the list is all Garrosh, just Garrosh.)

I get the reason for it, however we are talking about a woman who, in the course of a few weeks, manages to go to everyone, tell them "hey, bad things, can you help me destroy these people?" and the only ones close enough to get her to calm down and have, like, a cup of tea or something was Varian and Anduin? No one else thought "we should probably try to get powerful lady who is now very, very upset some...thing? Anything? Help?"

Again, Anduin and Varian were the two who were like "Ok, that's not good," but tried something. Kalecgos went and sulked, and then rocks up to 'talk'? No, Kalec doesn't get lover status just 'cause he knows magic 'intimately'.

I might be salty about this book. The last part was great, the build-up and fight between the Horde and the Alliance was interesting to read about, reading the parts with Baine and even the Horde parts were neat. However, making Jaina the 'soft one' because she wanted peace is...annoying, and again, I blame this on the stuff I watch.

Freakin' Sypha from Castlevania is 'soft' and she'll happily throw magic at you.

Anyway, it's somewhat better than Wolfheart because it's a bit more focused, but if there was no love story then I'd be a bit happier.

Next up (at one point): Vol'jin - Shadow of the Horde.

[wrathion]

forever and always bitter about how anduin got magically cured from his arthasfication in shadowlands ... i mean yeah the mental issues & trauma are there (somehow...shoutout to tww) but i mean physically!!

what if he lost his heartbeat and it didn't come back after his boss fight. no matter what he does his pulse isn't there, he doesn't know how he's standing and that's scary. what is he now? is he alive? is he dead? will he age? or will he rot on his own two feet like a forsaken? if that's the case, how much time does he have left? is he a ticking time bomb or will he be here long after his other shorter-life-span friends & adopted family die (assuming he even manages to make it that far)

granted, his mawsworn design in shadowlands was more a visual shorthand to the players that he was Evil Now than anything, he was just as alive as before, just possessed. he could seemingly be swapped between his original looking self and mawsworn self in the kyrestria cutscene? but i digress, the pale skin & hair? the blank eyes? Surely something had to have gone wrong with the amount of time he was stuck like that

[cocolacola]

akama's phone

[eluviannaa]

🥀 After all, one must have hobbies.

Dark Desires and Daggerwork

Canto VII Collegium isn’t just a hallowed institution for the dark magics—it’s also a place where passions flare as hot as Guldan’s nether... ambitions.

When Ambrose Flameheart, a dramatic fire mage with cheekbones sharp enough to slice through shadoweave, is forced to work alongside Mourvalis Gravewither, a brooding warlock with a penchant for shirtless ritual sacrifices, sparks fly.

Literally—they accidentally ignite a summoning circle.

Enter Mourvalis Gravewither, a vision of dramatic chaos—shirtless (as usual), his long raven hair flowing behind him despite the complete absence of any discernable source of wind, and carrying a suspiciously ornate dagger dripping with blood. A lot of it.

He stalks into the chamber, voice pitched for maximum theatrical effect.

“Flameheart! Still pretending precision is more important than power, I see.”

Ambrose doesn't need to look up to know Mourvalis is giving that insufferable smirk, the one that would be so satisfying to slap off his face.

He arches a brow, voice bone-dry as he continues stirring the cauldron. “Hmm... Gravewither. Still confusing power with pointless shirtlessness, I see.”

This story brought to you by workshopping puns with warlock friends and being asked, oddly more than once, if Elu writes romance novels.

(And somehow, this became a terribly involved proof of concept.)

🥀 Project Tumblr here

[serhiasilverdawn]

Another tawdry tale in the Steamy Romance Novel line up :p

[blue-eyed-banshee]

If Sylvanas could go back and change one thing without affecting the entire timeline, what would it be?

She would definitely try to prevent Lirath's death at the hand of the orcs during the second war as well as her parents' deaths.

She would likely try and change Vereesa's mind in training Lirath to fight as well as her mistake in turning Anduin into a tool to be used by Zovaal.

[aratheon]

Demons aren't indigenous on aratheon, or even in the same realm, but come from their own realms. While not all demons have the same goal, there are a few who seek to conquer Aratheon. W/ @heroforge-official  you can create #dndminis for tabletop RPG games like D&D @dndwizards & Pathfinder - @officialpaizo   

[albi-mander]

Oh Warcraft backed itself into a fucking corner with Tess Greymane lmao. The most natural way I can see to follow her father's story up would be to have Tess unapologetically and enthusiastically embrace worgen-hood, but they can't do that bc it's like, two degrees outside of the Marketable Mainstream Feminism Comfort Zone lmao.

They'd need to write a non-villainous female character making a possibly unwise self-motivated decision in her own narrative. And, even more dauntingly, they would need to commit to making a female character a werewolf. Not even in a "oh there's an alternate reality where that happened" sort of way, they'd have to go all in. So, yeah, it's not gonna happen lol but GOD it would go so hard...

Like, in Genn's story, becoming a worgen is a consequence caused by his egotism, isolationism, and inflexibility in the face of dual crises both within his country and without. He HAS to seek help if he wants to avoid losing his sanity on top of his kingdom and his son. It's a brand he'll carry for the rest of his life, a mark of his failings as a leader.

Imagine following that shit up with his daughter actively pursuing becoming a worgen, not because she sees it as something she needs in order to understand her people or because she's been drinking the werewolf cult kool-aid, but because she thinks it'd be cool. It'd give her an edge. She'd look good with fur and fangs. There's a way to do it without losing her sanity now—sure, it's risky, but so is anything worth doing.

Besides, you gotta adapt if you want to survive, right? She's been rolling with the punches her entire adult life, the least she could do is get herself some claws so she can hit back harder. The only major downside for her is that dad won't get it, but he doesn't get a lot of things so that's not exactly anything new.

Imagine the father-daughter drama. The queer subtext. The furry shenanigans. The possibilities are endless. All it needs is a lesbian romance and it's fucking perfect.

[inuhimesblog]

Found this little gem of a read doing the relaxing quest during the 'romance' holiday in W.O.W and I had to share. I just about died laughing. Good thing i play an undead. I guess there's hope for me yet to find love.

[lasnevadaslaborunion]

It frightens and discourages me how pervasive "tribal" stereotypes and imagery are in the fantasy and adventure genres.

It's all over the place in classic literature. Crack open a Jules Verne novel and you're likely to find caricatures of brown people and cultures, even when the characters are sympathetic to the plight of the colonized peoples - incidentally, this is the biggest reason I can't recommend 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to everyone, despite Captain Nemo being one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

You can't escape it in modern cinema, either. You'll see white heroes venturing bravely into jungles and tombs to steal from natives who don't know how to use their resources "properly." You'll see them strung up in traps, riddled with sleeping darts, forced to flee and fight their way out. Hell, Pirates of the Caribbean, a remarkably inclusive franchise in many other ways, had an extended sequence of the white heroes escaping from a cannibal civilization in the second film.

And when fantasy RPGs want a humanoid enemy, the "bloodthirsty natives" are the first stock trope they jump to. World of Warcraft is one of the most egregious examples, with the trolls - blatant racist caricatures with faux-voodoo beliefs, cannibalistic diets, Jamaican accents, and a history of being killed in droves by (white) elves and humans - being raided and slaughtered in nearly every expansion.

It doesn't matter how vibrant and distinctive the real-world indigenous, Polynesian, Caribbean, and African cultures are. It doesn't matter how much potential these real civilizations offer for complex and sympathetic characterization. Anything that doesn't make sense to the white western mind is shoved under the same "savage" umbrella. They're different. They're strange. They're scary. They have to be escaped, subjugated, eliminated, ogled at from the safety of a museum.

Modern writers, directors, and developers don't even seem to realize how horrifying it is to present the indigenous inhabitants of a place as "obstacles" for non-native protagonists to overcome. "It's not racist," they say, "because these people aren't really people, you see." And if you dare to point out anything that hurts or offends you as a descendant of the bastardized culture, you're accused of being the real racist: "These aren't humans! They're monsters! Are you saying that these real societies are just like those disgusting monsters?"

No, they're not monsters. But you chose to design them as monsters, just as invaders have done for hundreds of years. Why would you do that? Why can you recognize any other caricature as evil and cruel, but not this?

This is how deep colonialism runs.

[knightphobeus]

Shadow of the Horde Review

During another cross-country trip, I finished the book! Unlike some of the others, after a bit I would turn to this book to find out more and more of what would happen to the characters within.

No that didn't make me want to play the game. EVER.

Basic: 4.5/5. After reading these, I'd definitely put the other two books down at least a half point. While slow to begin, the author does a good job of building characters in the world to where even if you don't know their full story, you want to see them succeed and everyone get out of the dangers.

The Best: Vol'jin and his relations with everyone, including the Zandalari character Khal'ak and a human named Tyrathan. Vol'jin learning and his growth through the story makes for a wonderful journey before the end, and is one that makes me enjoy seeing his recovery, his friendships, and how he faces the temptation of power from the Zandalari as they arrive on the shores of Pandaria.

The Meh: The beginning, retelling a plot point to explain Vol'jin's "death" in-game, didn't make much sense. Granted, it was written from a limited third person perspective, so it's understandable. The beginning was also very slow in establishing things, but I'm kind of glad it took it's time.

The Bad: Really, I want to say that unless you're like me, and wandering through the books, or have some passing knowledge of things, you may get to where you aren't able to get into the story. Some of the stuff about the Shado-Pan does make me wonder about things, but the history does make it so it's understandable where some of the ideas come from. Still, how Taran Zhu handles things also makes me kinda hope other stories will make me like him a bit more.

Despite the bad, I found that even without knowing more of Vol'jin's past or abilities, I enjoyed his character and that of the others. Michael Stackpole did a great job of adding in someone to make things a bit more balanced, and after the last two, I kinda want more than just this one. Between Baine and Vol'jin, those two are near my favorite, if they weren't held back by...

*points at Blizzard and Activision again*

Well, next up...:Warcrimes

[characterrevolvingdoors]

I still love this one

So I finished Wolfheart on Audible...

And this interaction popped into my brain:

-Varian and Garrosh fighting in the middle of the war for Ashenvale- Varian: Pray to your spirits Garrosh: I will...you need a proper guide into the afterlife Rain: -in a tree above them- WILL YOU TWO FUCK ALREADY?! ELUNE'S TITS I'VE SEEN LESS SEXUAL TENSION IN GOLDSHIRE!

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Lambert returns to the bar and tries again. Another part of Architect!Bert and Barman!skel. Part 1.

CW: mutism, Lam-butt is cringe.

Lambert had a late conference call with a contractor in Japan the following evening and grabbed a pot of noodles from the takeaway on his way home. He told himself it was easier than going out of his way for his usual dinner at this time of night, and the bar would be crowded by drunks anyway, and his reluctance to go was absolutely nothing to do with making a tit out of himself in front of the new barman. The noodles ended up cold and in the bin, and his mind wandered away from the schematics on his desk to the mental schematics of a broad shouldered, scarred hunk of hotness.

Fixations weren't anything new. Lambert was used to them. From the six months in secondary school when he had become obsessed with jazz music to the point Vesemir caught him planning to shoplift a saxophone, to the year he raided religiously on World of Warcraft every night to the detriment of his social life. His brain craved dopamine and latched onto anything that could provide it. Eskel was a big, handsome shot of it; novel, interesting. Like a fucking laser pen to a tomcat. It would pass.

Lambert’s next two trips to the bar went much the same as the first, but without the foot-in-mouth moment of being an absolute prick to someone who definitely didn’t deserve it. Lambert watched Eskel work, desperate to talk, but too worried about being a dick again to open his stupid mouth. Aiden ribbed him for it out of Eskel’s earshot, muttering something about steak and thirst, or—an attempt at wit and humour that left Lambert scowling, his skin prickling with a deep awareness of being in Eskel’s presence. He couldn’t explain it. It was more than the pleasant hum caused by a good saxophone solo.

There was an irritating air of mystery around Eskel. That was it. Lambert could see the intelligence and character lurking behind his eyes, like a lion napping in the sun, fierce and sharp but happy to bask lazily as the antelope gallivanted around it. The sun. Yeah, those eyes, not quite the piercing white yellow of the sun, more a deep, honey-gold that reminded Lambert of the foil packets that came with expensive coffee; the kind that made you feel warm and comfortable on your cushioned window seat while it poured with rain outside. And Lambert would have sworn blind he could hear Eskel humming sometimes; a low, soft rumble carrying a familiar tune, but barely audible beneath the bass of the bar’s music system.

Even while he was at work, Lambert’s mind kept drifting to Eskel. During one particularly laborious meeting, he ended up sketching a quick outline of Eskel’s face at the corner of his designs before he even realised what was happening. He scrunched it up, threw it in the bin, only to extract it for his portfolio before he left for the bar that night. It was a good likeness and—just shut the fuck up and stop judging him, alright?

Eskel was working that night, of course, and greeted Lambert with a wave of the hand. Lambert’s whiskey was on the bar before his arse found the stool, and he cleared his throat. “Hey, Eskel, I… uh. I think we started off on the wrong foot. I’m… what I said, that wasn’t… that wasn’t… cricket.”

There were those glittering eyes again. Glittering. Yeah, that was amusement. Lambert hid his scowl with a swig of whiskey and prodded the beer mat in front of him. His mac and cheese arrived within fifteen minutes, the bacon still sizzling on the surface, and he tried again. “This is weird for me, alright? Sal and I, we used to chat shit all night. He was a blockhead, but he was good company. He knew stuff, you know? Kind of stuff you only learn—” Lambert waved his hand vaguely at the door, “—out there.”

Eskel’s gaze dropped briefly, and Lambert was worried he’d managed to upset him, for real this time. When Eskel looked up, he tilted his head in apology. Lambert chewed on the inside of his cheek, which seemed to prompt a flash of inspiration. He leaned down from the stool, arse cheek balancing precariously on the edge, and yanked his notebook free. “How about writing? You can write, ye—? You know, forget I just asked that.” Lambert felt his ears warm, but Eskel didn’t seem to be offended. The same soft shine, the head tilt. He reached for the pencil that Lambert had placed beside the pad, and wrote two words, ‘Sounds good.’

Lambert grinned. “I’m… uh, Lambert. I shoulda introduced myself earlier, but… you already knew my dinner order, most interesting thing about me, really—the dinner part.”

Eskel looked thoughtful before he plucked up the pencil again and scratched a question. ‘What’re the drawings for?’

“Boring shit,” Lambert murmured, nudging the tightly bound scrolls with his toe. “I’m an architect. Residential. You know, houses, flats.” Of course, he fucking knew what residential meant. Lambert felt the heat under his collar again and took another fortifying sip of whiskey.

‘Can I see?’

“You want to see a bunch of angles and pencil scratches?”

‘Yes. Don’t have to if you’re shy.’

“I’m not fucking—all right, move the bowl—”

Lambert stooped down to snatch up the first scroll he came to and then hesitated… his passion project was a mere inch to the left. And that was the most impressive, wasn’t it? Eskel didn’t need to know that no business in their right mind would fund something so extravagant for the poorest in society. It was an easy flex. Lambert tugged the scroll free and unfurled it on the bar. He weighted the edges down with his bowl and half-drunk tumbler of whiskey and glanced up at Eskel for his reaction.

Usually, people puffed their cheeks out in confusion at the architectural scribbles and mumbled some vague comment of appreciation. But Eskel examined it for a long moment, head tilting to and fro. When he picked up the pencil, Lambert held his breath as if awaiting the verdict of a shareholder, and—

‘Reminds me of the KAEC.’

Lambert’s jaw metaphorically hit the bar. “You know about the KAEC?”

‘I’ve been there.’

The KAEC—or King Abdullah Economic City—was an architect’s paradise. A complete flop, of course. With a target population of two million by 2035, it was currently a ghost town of just seven thousand. But it was meant to be one of five sustainable mega cities built in Saudi Arabia, aimed at placing the country in the top ten investment destinations. It was the kind of sprawling vision that could manifest when money was no issue, with some of the most cutting-edge structural designs and engineering in the business. It had been Lambert’s dream to go and visit, but the company kept him busy, and he used his holiday to go look after the old man, you know. He’d get there, eventually… “Really?” Lambert croaked.

‘Yeah. About 10 years ago.’

“Why—? How—? What did it look like?”

‘Big.’

Eskel didn’t smile with his mouth, but the way his eyes shone like that, Lambert knew he was being grinned at. Lambert huffed and folded his arms across his chest, his own eyes narrowed.

Eskel wrote again, ‘Sorry. It was quite something—‘ he tore the page off to start another, ‘—I’ll bring some photos next shift’.

Lambert’s lips quirked in one corner. The first glimmer of a smile. “Sounds good. You know, I think I’ll treat myself to a dessert. One of those tall, chocolate-y fuckers that’ll give me early onset diabetes.”

‘One tall chocolate fucker coming up.’

Turned out that Eskel couldn’t only make a good mac and cheese, pour a good Godfather, but he could also make an absolutely cracking sundae

[untildawnss]

until dawn characters and gaming

ashley

has a switch and a DS, still plays nintendogs regularly, checks on her animal crossing island every day.

beth

plays sims like her life depends on it and has all the DLCs, additional content and mods you can imagine. has played every legend of zelda and super mario game.

chris

plays just about everything, has a PC, playstation, switch, x box and gamecube. plays animal crossing with ashley, hannah and sam. plays world of warcraft with josh. has chaos mods for a few games. plays stardew valley with the date everyone and polyamory mods.

emily

cooking mama, that's it.

hannah

has weekly animal crossing session with ashley, hannah and chris. redecorates her island every two days or so. also plays a lot of visual novel games.

jess

plays idle mobile games. spends too much money on them.

josh

plays world of warcraft with chris. has definitely played every iteration of the anno games. plays runescape.

matt

not really a gamer. will play minecraft or terraria once in a while.

mike

has bought one fifa game and hated it. sometimes plays age of empires or call of duty.

sam

so good at mario kart. definitely plays wii sports resort. very into hidden object and mystery games.

[serhiasilverdawn]

Another installment in the Steamy Romance series, "Prisoners of Love" is the tale of long-suffering couple Dalliah the Doomsayer and Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates as they attempt to endure each other whilst imprisoned within The Arcatraz.

[blue-eyed-banshee]

Rebloging because I am still salty and mad at Blizzard that they old gave us ONE vision into the happy times in her life.

I would have loved it if the horde player found a stained robe that had once belonged to Kael'thas, and the stain would be towards the bottom of said robes.

Referencing to when a clumsy Sylvanas spilled wine on his robes at a party that she supported her little brother at. She ultimately got banned from Saltiril's vineyard for spiking the punch bowl with woundwood.

There are a lot of things from the Sylvanas novel they could have referenced!

Vereesa's love for melon juice as a child, How each sister got their own unique outfit to the rememberence.

Or even Lirath's death!

Sylvanas cradding him as he died and sang lament of the highborne to him as she cried.

Why would you pass this up blizzard? You only gave us ONE VISION into her past at the Spire.

They should at least put new items that reference her parents! Lireesa's child bow or even something from Verath!