Modern day heroes and growing older

Those of you, those precious few, that read my blog most probably have realised I am a wow lore aficionado. With a tiny obsession with Arthas. Granted, I am not as knowledgeable or imaginative as others, like Lorecrafted, but I am into it enough to provide myself a role-playing background to my involvement with the game.

World of Warcraft, is definitely not much of a role-players game. Or at least I do not feel like it is. Here we are in an epic turmoil, ready for the battle of our lives (or...this patch anyway), among heroes and villains of the past, yielding powerful artefacts... and we talk about talent specs, encounter logs, recruitment applications and various other mundane aspects using a language known as... leet.

Not very epic, I know. Add to that the ever-present teenagers that ruin the game of us mature (sic!), 'academic' players with their naive approach to the game (the correct vernacular term being "they act as noobs")... well the feeling of immersion goes out of the window...

Buuut...

We are still here, playing, filtering the people we hang out with on-line, trying to carve our ways into this colourful shared virtual environment. Why? Case we escape from our realities more often than not. Because after we stop thinking how moronic this 13year-old-tank-that-went-afk-to-have-lunch-cause-his-mother-yelled-at-him is, we start adoring our toons, admiring how heroic they look as they fly through the forests of Grizzly Hills, towards Icecrown, ready to do their part for peace, victory, judgement and honour.

Our toons have become our modern day heroes. No more Spiderman, Batman, James Bond or whatever we thought was cool when we were young. Or toons our our own personal heroes. Things are not 'awesome' any more... They are 'imba'...

P.S. And yes, it gets worse as we grow older... We have a saying in Ancient Greek... Τίμα το γήρας, ού γάρ έρχεται μόνον, meaning... fear old age, for it never comes alone (but along with its nasty side effects)...

It's begun...

This post is essentialy continuation of the previous one. Between them I was fortunate to read Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by C. Golden, going through the most important aspects of Arthas' personality. And that spinned-off this post, essentially completing the previous one... Forgive the repetitive pattern here, its here for a reason.


It's begun...

These are the words that start the Wrath of the Lich King era. These are also the words that end Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by C. Golden. Fitting. The book presents the life of Arthas from his 9th year, where he meets Varian, admires Terenas and begins his training With Uther, the Lightbringer and Muradin. It goes all the way to the moment where the death Knight Arthas lifts the helm of Ner'zhul's armor and wears it, fusing himself with the entity of the Lich King. However...

Two parts of the book, the very first and the very last present us that internal battle between what Arthas was, what he was temporarily become and what he will be. To put a few words to it... there is no more Arthas. There is no more Ner'zhul. Just the Lich King...

In-game we encounter numerous times Matthias Lehner, allegedly the avatar of Arthas' youth. I am afraid this is merely a vessel for us, to find in-game what happen to the last prince of Lordaeron. Tirion even tries to make sure there is no bit of him left by examining what appears to be Arthas' stored heart after a covert mission we participate into.

Nope, no happy ends here.




We are about to unleash a fierce attack to Icecrown Citadel. Jaina, once his great love, Sylvannas, product of one of his most gruesome acts, Varian, reminecent of his happy youth, High Lord Saurfang, victim of his latest acts and Darion, once his servant, now his enemy... are about to assist us bringing him down.


I am not sure how each one approaches this encounter. For me, being such a fan of the Plaguelands, of Scholomance and Stratholme, of the Ashbringer and the Silver Hand, Arthas is the ultimate villain. Ultimate by the fact that he is so complex. From the moment he sees his horse, Invincible, being born, to the very moment where in his dreams he trusts Frostmourne to the young boy Arthas and the old Ner'Zul... Arthas is a collection of emotions. Great expectations, commitment, love, courage, strength, eagerness, betrayal, happiness, despair, desire, resolve, indifference, hatred, vengeance...

I find it sad that many will enter Icecrown Citadel for the next tier of loot. For the next hardcore challenge. I find it sad that many people are unaware of the story of Arthas. That many have not played Frozen Throne, even just to see who he is. Because ultimately Arthas, with his emotional complexity is much more real than many characters of Azeroth.

And for that, he deserves juctice...

Icecrown attack, imminent

Its been a while since I posted, simply because there has not been much progress on my part in game. I completed What a Long, Strange Trip it's been, got my violet drake, got a few upgrades, some off the AH and some from looting. But its been quiet, with no new kills. We are kinda stuck on Northrend Beasts in hard mode, not aided much from a rather unstable roster due to various in-game and real life reasons. Nonetheless, we have been there before and we are going back with a vengeance this week as well.

Tiny spoilers below...

But the big news are on another front. Patch 3.3, or at least its first version, is on the PTR. Blizzard is introducing a very interesting collection of 5-man challenges. New quest lines, historical weapons, lore figures add to the mix of what appears to be an involving adventure in 5-man instances. And its been a while since we had one of those.



Icecrown Citadel starts with a 5-player dungeon, consisting of three wings in the citadel's foundation. Players will assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating, commando style and through the back-door, the citadel, while the Lich King focuses on the attack of the Argent Crusade and the Ebon Blade. Their purpose, simple. To weaken the Citadel's defences. Kind of like a Dirty Dozen type of thing, only with... well, like half the dirtbags. Interestingly, we have to complete one wing to get to the other. Adds flavour, I can't complain. Normal and Hardmodes are available with each wing being on a separate lockout timer. Rewards for those interested will probably be between 219-232 item level.


The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection are the three wings, where we will meet some... interesting foes. The reports say we will encounter... Frostmourne, as we enter what appears to be the Lich King's private chambers. Falric and Marwyn, captains of Arthas Menethil in the past, now commanders of the Lich King, as well as the true prince of darkness...no wait, that is Ozzy... I mean the Lich King, the true prince of Patch 3.3, await for us.

Waaait a second... If we encounter the Lich King in a 5-man... who do we encounter in the Icecrown Citadel raid? And, while we fight him... what happens to Jana and Sylvanas?

I am not sure what will happen, not I have been monitoring the reports, the blogs and the general information sources. All I know is that we are weeks before what I consider the pinnacle of the lore already laid down. The rest that will follow are somewhat new things. Since Arthas became what he is now, the epitome of a fallen not-so-lawful 'good' person (kind of like Anakin becoming Darth Vader), to the chaotic evil being he is, I knew he would die, one what or the other from out blade. I can even say I have been playing in WoTLK for that very thing. To finally meet and kill that `old friend'. Redemption never looked plausible for me. Of course I may be mistaken, but I think the probability is pretty slim...

For me this encounter will be the end of a wonderful journey, along the path of life of Arthas Menethil, ever since I met him Frozen Throne. What is to follow when he is dead? Well, dunno, he is already dead in a sense :p. All I know is that once he is out of the way, there will be lots of new villains to get hooked upon. And I plan to do so...