I have been slowly (slowly) meandering my way across Azeroth inbetweeen work and NaNoWriMo and other things, and yesterday I wound up in Darkshore, specifically, the ruins of Auberdine.
The whole town is recognizable, but completely wrecked. Familiar NPCs lie dead on the ground, the flight master and her hippogryphs among them. Bridges and buildings are smashed and this super depressing music plays and among the wreckage are these level 15-ish elementals drifting around, and my first thought upon seeing this scene was “REVENGE” and I had this sudden urge to go around and kill. all. the. elementals. for doing this to this town that was so much a part of my WoW past.
But I restrained the urge, because then I thought… that’s silly, right? It’s just a game… right?
So I sort of paused there in the middle of the destroyed town while I went AFK for a moment, and when I came back I wasn’t alone. There was another level 80 Night Elf Hunter there staring at me. She /greeted me, so I /saluted.
Then she turned around, and promptly began destroying every single blasted elemental in the town.
So I joined her.
It felt good.
I got goosebumps reading this. That’s totally something I would do. I haven’t been able to explore much, but I’m feeling that each one of my 80s, upon arriving in a ravaged area for the first time is going to have the same blood-thirst to seek revenge on everything around.
Deathwing better watch the hell out.
I felt exactly that way when I saw the burnt tress in Northshire. That dragon has got a big smack in the face coming.
I had the same feeling when I logged into Mulgore and the first few quests showed the destruction of the sweetest, gentlest starting zone… It may be a game, but the quests and haunting music genuinely made me feel *sad* =(
The quests, the music, and the visuals really bring upon an emotional reaction. Blizzard out did themselves with this expansion and I really feel apart of the game more so than ever before.
Guess we all feel like that – I did the escort quest to get the stranded Archeologist out of the inn and was, shall we say, somewhat enthusiastic in my clearing of the route. As for the mess that was Loch Modan: that raises a particular level of ire in my Scottish soul…
As a fellow night elf, I approve. I would have done the same thing.
If you felt this way about Darkshore, wait until you see Southshore.
Well now, that is interesting I did that whole thing without a second thought- to Southshore as well (one of my favorite questing areas in the game).
I’m leveling a Gnome Priestess through Kalimdor, and got the same feeling. All of Darkshore up until Remtravel felt like one sucker punch after another, cementing why I want to kill Deathwing. The zone is a triumph of “show, don’t tell” for character motivation.
First I have to apologize to anyone on Blade’s Edge-US who was questing in that area the other night. I slaughtered Elementals left and right, then I wend down the shore to the twilight Camp and then set Purrfect, my cat who has been with me since the beginning, to aggressive and let him run amok.
It felt good.
My “Deathwing is gonna pay” moment came the first moment I logged onto my NE warrior Kalenedral and went to look at the Park, where she and her best friend rented a house. There was nothing but a great big crater left. The entire district was just … gone.
If there had been any cultists or elementals (or pretty much anything else) standing in front of Kal at that moment, she would have beaten it into a smear on the cobblestones.
When I took another character (my NE hunter Tadrith) through Southshore on an exploring trip later, I almost wanted to cry. I don’t think I can ever look at the Forsaken the same way again. I supose this is one price to pay for playing (and RP’ing) on both sides, though right now my heart is leaning much more for the Alliance. Between the Forsaken becoming ‘the new Scourge’ and all the changes Garrosh is making, the only Horde race I’m still comfortable playing now is the Tauren.
Darkshore and Auberdine are bad, but for a Dwarf like me the destruction of the Loch and Stonewrought Dam are sickening. I was also upset about Southshore and Scutters and I went on a bit of a rampage in there. I play on a PVP realm where is has been pretty much all out war for a long time. The general rule is to let lowbies alone….but from now on ..any “undead” I see will be “dead-dead” pretty fast
I understand the sentiment, and I’m sure I’ll run into more than a few places like that as I see more of the brave new world post-Cataclysm. But I also experienced an inversion of the moment you described.
A big part of my main’s backstory is that he was born and raised in Andorhal, and visiting that city now, as it’s being reclaimed from the Scourge, in the midst of a Western Plaguelands that has actually started coming back to life… well, over at TVTropes that is what they call a crowning moment of heartwarming.
Hmm, some sad sights I have seen:
-Camp Taurajo. My dwarf /cheered a level 80 orc who was diligently killing all the human looters and pillagers. I so wish I could shoot them, but they’re considered ‘friendly’.
-Stonetalon Peak. Was kinda like the night elf’s idea of a resort town. Now filled with tentacles, destroyed buildings, corpses, and Tainted Sentinels that cannot be helped and must be put down like rabid dogs. Then the stupid Horde attacks the survivors who dared to venture south. Seriously, where else were they to go?
-Astranaar. Had to stop by there to reach a mailbox. It is unbelievably infuriating to see the beautiful village being treated like London was in WWII. I didn’t try shooting down the bastards who were pummeling the place from the safety of their wyverns, because I knew that I’d wind up spending the rest of the day just shooting at them.
-Stonewrought Dam. I’ve placed my hearthstone at the Farstrider’s Lodge, since it’s such a fitting home for a hunter. Only downside is the lack of a mailbox (have to fly to Thelsamar), and being reminded on a daily basis what happened to that beautiful dam.
I have yet to see Southshore; part of me doesn’t want to know, while another part demands that no foul deed go unnoticed nor unpunished. I’d better not see any QQ about big, mean Alliance players destroying any and all Forsaken that they find in Hillsbrad Foothills. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
I normally play horde but every now ant then I get the urge to be a closet alliance… So i rolled a nelfy drood (PINK KITTYS) ands one i hit lvl 11ish I headed to darkshore… Now Ive really never interacted with the npcs there, mostly just running past to catch a boat trying not to aggro too many guards… but its still odd when you can place a name to someones suffering, even if its just a game. I had to inspect each corpse… a moment of silence for each one.. then I got on my horde mage and slaughtered more night elves than what probably realistically existed just leveling through azshara and ashenvale without any pause… And im not sure what upsets me more…
I did EXACTLY as you said over there. Almost got tears in my eyes…
And right after that I went to the new town at north and did ALL the quests over there.
*__*