Category Archives: two minutes of lore

Feels Part Two: Let’s Talk About Arthas for Two Minutes

September 24, 2015 Pike 3 Comments

I had a great response on yesterday’s post, so thanks to all who read and commented! You know, there are definitely a lot of things in WoW that I get feely about. Blood elf stuff is up there, of course, and sometimes the in-game music hits me just the right way and brings me back.

But when it comes to the storyline for a single character, it’s really tough to beat Arthas.

In many ways, he reminds me of Anakin Skywalker (assuming you roll with the prequel stuff.) He’s brash and full of himself and makes some bad choices (that he thinks are right) and then becomes the Big Bad. The difference is that Darth Vader is ultimately redeemed, and Arthas is not. He is a tragic character with a tragic ending, and yet despite it all, you still feel for him.

Arthas is, in many ways, THE Big Bad of Warcraft. Oh sure, Illidan gets a lot of love and Sargeras is technically the Big Bad, but Arthas was the lovable boy next door who turned around and killed his dad and then rained death and destruction on both his people and the elves. Arthas hits closer to home, which makes him both scarier and more relatable, at the same time.

Will there ever be another villain quite like Arthas? Probably not, but who knows. He was a fantastic high point to a fantastic expansion. Well played, Blizzard!

lore, super serious search studies, two minutes of lore, Uncategorized, weapons

Let’s Talk About Felo’melorn For Two Minutes

August 8, 2015 Pike

You know what part of the upcoming expansion I’m most excited about?

I’ll tell you what: Felo’melorn.

I don’t even main a mage and this is the most exciting tidbit of WoW info I’ve heard in forever.

So lemme tell you guys about this weapon.

Felo’melorn

This weapon was originally wielded by a guy named Dath’remar Sunstrider, who was a Highborne night elf. He was kind of a weird night elf, though. For starters, the name “Sunstrider” was really strange for a night elf name. Also his hair was golden. Ever seen a night elf with gold hair? I didn’t think so!

The Highborne eventually got kicked out of Night Elf World for magic tomfoolery, and they ended up far away where they founded Quel’Thalas and became the high elves. Anyways, Dath’remar had a weapon called Felo’melorn, which is Thalassian for Flamestrike. This was handed down through his family to his grandson, Anasterian Sunstrider, and eventually ended up in the hands of his great-grandson, Kael’thas Sunstrider.

Reborn from the Ashes

See, during the Scourge Invasion in the Third War, Anasterian Sunstrider wielded this legendary artifact against Arthas in one-on-one battle, but unfortunately the blade could not withstand the might of Frostmourne, and it was sliced in half. Kael’thas took the two pieces, reforged the blade himself, and guess what? When he went to fight Arthas with it himself, the blade held. Felo’melorn was stronger when re-forged than it was originally… just like the elves themselves.

That’s the weapon that fire mages are gonna get in the expansion. That whole story and legacy of at least ten thousand years. And boy am I stoked that I’m leveling a blood elf fire mage right now.

So yeah. Have a fire mage? GET HYPED.

Not gonna lie, I’ve kind of been in love with this thing for a while. Just a little bit.

One Last Thing

Someone got to my blog via the search term “how long ago was it that kaelthas went to outland?” The correct answer is: lore-wise, it was about ten years ago. Specifically, it was 22 years after the First War. Hope that helps!

two minutes of lore

Let’s Talk About Kael’thas Sunstrider for Two Minutes

April 12, 2015 Pike 1 Comment

Kael gets a bit of a bad rap. Of course he was nuts by the time Tempest Keep (and Magisters’ Terrace) rolled around, and to tell the truth he was more than a little misguided by the end of WCIII: The Frozen Throne. But up until that point I maintain that he did nothing wrong.

So let’s talk about Kael. He was in Dalaran – and had been for several decades, at least – when Quel’Thalas (and his dad, King Anasterian) fell to the Scourge. He rushed to his homeland’s aid as soon as he was able to, and immediately set about fixing things. He destroyed the Sunwell, but only because the corrupted Sunwell – which had been tainted by Arthas’s act of tossing Kel’Thuzad’s skeleton in it – would corrupt and probably eventually kill the elves. He had no idea that destroying the Sunwell would cause another problem to arise – his race’s addiction to its arcane magic.

Kael, suffering from withdrawals. Look at that angry face.

Angry, sick, and upset, the elves turned to the Alliance, who they had been allied with previously during the Second War. Unfortunately the Alliance was not particularly interested in working with the elves. You can thank a racist buttlord named Garithos for getting that partiuclar ball rolling. He forced the newly-christened blood elves into what were essentially suicide missions in order to keep them out of his hair. You can imagine how frustrating this must have been to Kael, who was dealing with the fact that 90% of his populace had just been, you know, genocided. Every last soldier he had was important. The Alliance sending him on suicide missions wasn’t going to fly with him.

So when the Naga showed up and offered their aid, Kael reluctantly accepted.

The humans found out about this cooperation and weren’t particularly pleased, so Kael and the other blood elves were locked away in the dungeons of Dalaran. That is, until Lady Vashj came, once again, to the rescue. She was the one who explained to Kael exactly what the odd cravings his people were having for magic were, and she also told him that she knew a guy who could help.

That guy who could help? His name was Illidan. Now you readers have probably got the warning bells going off in your head, but remember what Kael’s state of mind was: Silvermoon was in ruins, remnant Scourge and the Amani trolls were taking advantage of this fact, and the Alliance was actively making things worse by throwing the few remaining blood elf lives away. What else was he gonna do?

So off he went to Outland to find Illidan. And that’s about when it all started to go south for poor Kael and company and he began his slow descent into madness. But you can’t blame the guy for trying. And hey, you gotta respect someone who can kill a level 100 with falling damage.

Now just drop the mount, damnit!

two minutes of lore

Let’s Talk About Grom Hellscream For Two Minutes

March 31, 2015 Pike 1 Comment

Grom is an orc who is really good at Drinking The Bad. And as you might have guessed, every time he drinks The Bad, everyone gets screwed over. He knows this, but he continues to drink The Bad whenever Thrall isn’t looking (because Thrall is, as we all know, infamously bad at choosing who should lead the Horde in his absence)

Orc campaign in Warcraft 3, in a nutshell

You would think that Grom could avoid this whole scenario by deciding to, you know, not drink The Bad. Unfortunately, do you know what happens when he doesn’t drink The Bad? We get an entire fecking expac where he’s the villain.

Poor Grom. Ruins everything if he drinks The Bad, and still ruins everything if he doesn’t. He went and passed that trait on to his son, too. Keep on doin’ your thing, Hellscream family! (Actually maybe not, it’s getting kind of old by this point.)

(Got something you want me to talk about for two minutes? Leave a comment or poke me on Twitter!)

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