Undying Gamer

Azeroth was alive the whole time. We were too busy leveling to notice. I'll show you what you missed, and what WoW Forever brings back.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

There's a dreadlord standing right next to Sylvanas in the Undercity. We walked past him for years.

His name is Varimathras. After the Third War, he and his two brothers, Balnazzar and Detheroc, ruled what was left of Lordaeron for the Burning Legion.

Then Sylvanas came for them.

Varimathras fell first. He begged for his life and offered to help her hunt down his own brothers. She took the deal.

She tore Detheroc apart. Then she ordered Varimathras to kill Balnazzar himself. Balnazzar faked his death, and went on to run the Scarlet Crusade for years disguised as its Grand Crusader. (Yes, the same one who later raised the Headless Horseman.)

Varimathras got his reward: the spot right next to her throne.

Then Wrath came out. While the Horde was off fighting the Lich King in Northrend, he took the Undercity in a coup and tried to kill her. Sylvanas escaped, came back with Thrall and the whole Horde, and finished him herself.

For four years, every quest we turned in to him, we were handing to a traitor.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@Starstrider42 @Warcraft We’d love to, but the apothecaries can’t promise what a week of Undercity air does to a cow.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Fellow undead, be warned if you just rolled a paladin. There is no paladin trainer in Orgrimmar.

Horde paladins train in Deathknell, Brill, Bandarion Keep and the War Quarter in Undercity. That's it.

If you're planning to quest in Kalimdor, plan your trips home too. You're about to learn the zeppelin schedule by heart.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Blizzard hid a Legend of Zelda quest chain in vanilla WoW, and no quest ever sent you there.

You found a wrecked raft by a pond in Un'Goro. At the bottom of the pond was a pack with a map, a compass and a key.

The raft belonged to a gnome in a green hood who had lost his memory. He thought he was "named after someone important."

The first quest was "It's a Secret to Everybody."
The last one was "It's Dangerous to Go Alone."
The reward was a boomerang.

His name is Linken.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@Taco_Pupp @Warcraft Good catch, you're right. There's one trainer in Thunder Bluff. Kalimdor just got a lot friendlier for undead paladins.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@ChristianW529 Renault was jealous of his younger brother Darion and wanted his father’s recognition.

Balnazzar, disguised as Saidan Dathrohan, exploited that resentment and promised him command of the Scarlet Monastery.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Highlord Mograine could burn legions of the Scourge with holy fire before he even drew Ashbringer.
At Stratholme, the paladin fought until the bodies of the undead piled over his fallen companion, Fairbanks, who survived beneath them by pretending to be dead.

Renault watched from a distance.
Fairbanks had called for him to help his father, but the son stayed back while Mograine fought on. When the fighting finally stopped, the Highlord began calling for his companion, trying to find him among the corpses.

Renault took up Ashbringer then. With his father’s back turned, he drove the holy sword through his heart.
Fairbanks heard Mograine’s disbelief from beneath the dead: “What have you done, Renault? Why would you do this?”

The betrayal corrupted the paladin and his blade. Kel’Thuzad raised Mograine as a death knight and set him among the Four Horsemen guarding Naxxramas, still carrying the weapon his son had used to murder him.

When an adventurer recovered Ashbringer and brought it into Scarlet Monastery, the crusaders knelt before its bearer.
Renault offered them command of his soldiers, calling for a new purge of the impure.

Mograine’s armored spirit appeared at the chapel doors and walked toward his son. He accused Renault of trying to bury the murder beneath a carefully planned cover-up, but Kel’Thuzad’s chains no longer held him.

“I come to serve justice. I AM ASHBRINGER.”

Renault begged him for forgiveness.

Mograine struck his son dead before answering, “You are forgiven.”

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@introman17 @Warcraft Same here, undead paladin! Been enjoying it a lot so far. How are you finding it?

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

My undead is back in Tirisfal, enjoying non-life once again.

What did you roll in WoW Forever? Your usual main, or something new?

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@Elishabenabuya @Warcraft Same. Tirisfal just feels like home at this point

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@Ramleh160564 @Warcraft Good choice. How’s the leveling been so far?

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@GlowingSporeBat @Warcraft The Dark Lady has some rather unconventional paladins in her service now

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Ras Frostwhisper was a human mage from Stromgarde who willingly gave his life to become one of the undying.
In Stratholme, he pledged his soul to the Lich King and stood inside a pentagram with a dagger at his throat.

He smiled as he drew the blade across his neck, cutting from ear to ear.
His body collapsed within the markings, and the Lich King stood over him and raised him as a lich.

Ras had performed his own sacrifice.

He went on to rule over Scholomance, the school of necromancy beneath Caer Darrow. While its cultists trained others to serve the Scourge, the skeletal sorcerer guarded their school in the Lich King’s name.

Above those crypts, Caer Darrow’s ghosts remained among the ruins of their town. One of them, Magistrate Marduke, sought Ras’s death, and his instructions required the lich to become human before he was slain.

To accomplish that, Marduke needed something Ras had possessed while alive.
A keepsake survived in ruined Stromgarde, carrying a connection to the mage before his willing sacrifice.
Taken to the pentagram in Stratholme, it drew his soul to itself.
The same soul he had pledged to the Lich King could now be bound to mortal flesh again.

The keepsake was carried into Scholomance.
Whoever used it would have to endure Ras’s blows until the ritual was complete, staying close to the lich while the magic worked against him.

When it took hold, Ras cried out, “THIS CANNOT BE!!”

The skeletal sorcerer became a human man again.

Marduke’s order was to kill him then, in that restored body, and bring back his human head.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@WowMario @Warcraft Una maravilla indeed, just 4 minutes is a gift.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Penny Arcade named World of Warcraft its 2004 Game of the Year.

Less than two months after launch, they took the award back.

The servers couldn't hold everyone. On the busiest realms the login queue could run for hours, and realms kept going down at peak time.

Penny Arcade's verdict: the award was "now withheld."

Blizzard handed out free days of game time, and the company's president, Mike Morhaime, wrote players an apology.

Six months later Penny Arcade gave the award back. They couldn't stop playing.

Hats off where it's due. Twenty-two years later, Blizzard pulled off an incredible launch.

This time nobody's taking anything back.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@SolidorSunwell @Warcraft Man, thank you. That genuinely means a lot, especially coming from another lore nerd. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the stories I want to cover.

And don’t worry, there’s always Stranglethorn. We can settle our faction differences there

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@Slaani87 Not even close

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@toranoshi22 @Warcraft Close! In vanilla the Missing Diplomat ended with Jaina in Theramore and never mentioned Varian. The Alcaz quests came a few years later, and all you did was fly over the island on a gryphon. He'd been long gone from that cell.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

For more than a year after launch, the missing King of Stormwind was actually in the game. Almost nobody found him.

King Varian Wrynn stood in dank water in a cell under Alcaz Island, off the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. To reach him you got past elite naga and hydras, then dove through an underwater tunnel. In the beta, a Horde player made it down there and killed him. He dropped nothing and respawned in under a minute.

In 2006 Blizzard removed him, and an elite naga took his place.

In WoW Forever, Alcaz Prison is a dungeon. Blizzard's description: "Now, its doors finally open."

Somebody go check that cell.

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@StilvollJan They really did a masterclass of a launch

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

Can confirm. I was expecting hours of queues and instead got straight into Tirisfal with my friends. Still can’t quite believe how smoothly it went.

And after all these years, hearing that music again, seeing Deathknell full of players…

I genuinely felt like I was back in 2004.

The greatest video game ever made is back.

What a feeling.

[Quiet Corners | WoW Forever @QuietCornerWoW]

The server and infrastructure teams, really all of the teams, at WoW Forever deserve every ounce of praise for this launch experience. I anticipated at MOST 2 hours of queues. I did not anticipate literal minutes and then instant logs.

This is Blizzard best launch and probably the best MMO launch or online game launch of any game I’ve ever experienced. Absolutely floored with how this went. Got to play with my two best friends and the ONLY slight hiccup was figuring out how to ensure we were on the same layer but that was a quick fix.

One point of feedback, later on relogging the leveling area did feel a slight bare even though I know there are millions of people playing. Definitely helped with questing but I think they can scale back some of the layering a bit. This is not even a grievance just an observation.

Every company needs to study this launch. This is how you do it. Okay hung out with the wife, going back to leveling. I’m so happy this exists

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@mountainkinggav What a feeling

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@ClaytonStone @mountainkinggav The greatest videogame ever made is back.

Good job guys!

[Undying Gamer @UndyingGamerWoW]

@StilvollJan @Warcraft Two Forsaken paladins. The Scarlet Crusade is going to have a very confusing day.