Petoholics Anonymous

Tauren paladins: More thoughts on Cataclysm

// September 18th, 2009 // 15 Comments » // Non-hunters, Roleplay

Better late than never, am I right?

So over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had time to think about all I’ve heard about the next expansion. No, I don’t have any juicy new rumors to leak out to everyone. All I have are my opinions on the new content.

One that seems to have caused the most controversy is the new race/class combinations. Now gnome priests and dwarf shamans don’t seem to be that outrageous to a good number of people…but the very mention of “tauren paladins” seem to make everyone foam at the mouth. They cry out “lore rape” and that Blizzard has gone too far and whip themselves up into a frenzy.

I’d have to disagree. It makes perfect sense to me. Here’s my reasoning.

One thing people have pointed out is that taurens have never been paladins, hence the lore rape. But Blizzard isn’t going back and changing the lore to say “Hey, we found this rogue group of tauren paladins in Tanaris and they’ve come to join the Horde.” No, what’s happening here is that tauren culture is evolving. Think about it. After being isolated for who knows how many centuries on Azeroth (with only the centaur to interact with, and fight for that matter), in the last five years or so they have allied themselves with 4 other races and have found their possible ancestors (the Taunka) in Northrend. Any interaction with a new race and culture is bound to change anyone’s views on life.

I’m not saying that the tauren have turned their backs on what they’ve always believed in. They are not the type of people to do that. Nor are they like the blood elves, stealing Naaru for their own purposes. But they are a people always seeking balance, like the balance of nature. Now the taurens worship the Earth Mother, who they see as the creator of everything, including them. She is considered a sort of universal consciousness, a multi-faceted gem whose sides represent different elements or parts of nature. She is also seen in the sky. From Wowwiki:

The sun (An’she) and moon (Mu’sha) are her eyes.

Mu’sha, the moon, is often associated with the tauren druids (Moonglade, moonkin, the night elf druids worshipping Elune, etc.). An’she on the other hand seems to be missing from the various tauren classes. The aspect of the sun is missing from tauren culture. Don’t believe me? If you have a Horde character, travel to Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff and look for Tahu Sagewind and Aponi Brightmane. If you don’t have a Horde character, here is the conversation they have (P.S. the An Injured Colleague quests leads you to this pair as well):

Aponi Brightmane says: I see that thoughtful frown, Tahu.
Tahu Sagewind says: Sorry, sister. It’s nothing to worry about.
Aponi Brightmane says: But something is on your mind, right?
Tahu Sagewind says: I’m thinking about the front to the north. The one you’re so eager to return to.
Aponi Brightmane says: What about it?
Tahu Sagewind says: I know I’m counseling patience, Aponi, but I don’t like remaining here any more than you do. Times are bleak, and failing to act only makes me worry that my idle hand may have been the one to turn the tide.
Aponi Brightmane says: Talk to me, Tahu. Something. Anything! I’m going stir-crazy.
Tahu Sagewind laughs softly.
Tahu Sagewind says: All right, Aponi. I’ve enough on my mind to share. Have you ever spoken to the elves of Moonglade?
Aponi Brightmane says: Not much.
Tahu Sagewind says: The elves speak of a moon goddess, did you know? They put great stock in the light given by the moon.
Aponi Brightmane says: Like Mu’sha.
Tahu Sagewind says: Just like her. The parallels I’ve heard are interesting. And it’s no secret all druids, Shu’halo and elf alike, can call upon Mu’sha’s light.
Aponi Brightmane says: Where are you going with this?
Tahu Sagewind says: I wonder. Hamuul has guided us well, and I’ve learned so much from him. The legends say that our people were druids when time began…
Aponi Brightmane says: I hear the “but” in your voice…
Tahu Sagewind says: …but what Hamuul teaches is what the elves know. The night elves. They put such stock in their moon goddess, as creatures of the night.
Aponi Brightmane says: Do you think his teachings are wrong?
Tahu Sagewind says: No! No, nothing like that. He is an elder for good reason, sister. Mu’sha is one of the Earthmother’s eyes, and she watches over us. That isn’t sinister.
Tahu Sagewind says: But we’re nothing if not people who strive for balance. Our warriors fight only when there is need. Our hunters take only what the tribes require to live, and use all they can when they do. The shaman stand as guide and mediator to the elemental spirits.
Tahu Sagewind says: And while we, as druids, are guardians of nature, I wonder if we’ve overlooked a key aspect of balance in all things.
Aponi Brightmane says: So are you going to bring this up to the elder?
Tahu Sagewind says: No, no. No need for him to trouble about a student’s idle philosophizing while he entertains a friend.
Aponi Brightmane says: I suppose so. It’s not silly, though, what you said.
Tahu Sagewind says: Well, it isn’t exactly a new thought, sister.

During this conversation, Tahu summons images of first the moon, then the sun, overlaping them in an eclipse. I believe he has a very valid point. An’she has been overlooked and it’s time to change that. As he says, it’s not a new thought and has probably been in the back of some taurens minds for a long time. And now that the tauren have seen and fought beside the blood elf paladins, why not incorporate that into their lives in their own way?

I’ve heard some argue that paladins use holy energy, which makes a lot of people think of churches and crosses. I’m not going to delve into a religious debate but let’s just say that “holy” is a matter of perception. Taurens believe that the world around them is sacred, and part of that world is the sun. Why would that aspect not give them “holy” power in the form of light? Isn’t that what paladins really are, warriors of the Light?

So as you can see, in my mind tauren paladins are certainly not a stretch, but merely a progression of culture and ideas coming to life. I’d say that it’s about time that they’ve discovered that there was a imbalance in their lives.

There is no dragon mode

// September 17th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Guides, Non-hunters, Roleplay

Or How to Roleplay a Dragon

Anyone who’s had any experience roleplaying in WoW have seen them. As labeled by my guild, they are the werewolf vampire dragon blood elf shaman warlocks who always seem to be hanging around in Silvermoon or Goldshire in skimpy outfits.

Sadly, it’s these people who give the real roleplayers a bad name, which in turn frustrates us. Because not only do we have to deal with these people, but also the RP griefers, the god moders, and the out-in-the-open ERPs. (I have no problem with erotic roleplayers in general but for pete sake, keep it to whispers. There are little children playing this game too.)

Having said that, I should tell you that I roleplay Saraku as a dragon. As mentioned above, this is generally a big no-no. However, I seemed to have pulled it off successfully, at least according to the people I have asked.

The biggest rule to remember when roleplaying in WoW is: Keep within the confines of the game. Let me go into more detail of how I did it with Saraku.

He’s a netherdrake.

Netherdrakes are seen most often in the game as mounts, working in close association with adventurers to fly them to remote places. It’s gotten to the point where it’s not even unusual to see them. They are not above getting down and dirty to get the job done. I’m not saying that other dragons are uppity, but in general they are more worried about the larger picture. I believe it’s still possible to roleplay another type of dragon but if I had to choose one that would make the most sense as an adventurer, it would be netherdrakes.

He’s not a dragon of uber pwnage.

When Saraku is in human form, he’s confined to the same restrictions that any other player character would be. He can’t breathe fire or tear a man apart with his bare hands or shoot lasers from his eyes. For fighting purposes, he is just another blood elf. He can be bruised, beaten, slashed, and killed just like anyone else of his class and level.

Saraku is also a young dragon who’s very naive. Having been raised as a slave, with all his needs taken care of by his slavers, all he really needed to know was how to fly them around when needed. Once he became Niqora’s charge, she took over feeding and taking care of him. In dragon form, he wouldn’t even know how to hunt, much less how to fight anything.

He can’t change on a whim.

At this point, he can’t change in while in Azeroth at all. To neatly explain away why, I decided that he needs certain energies in order to be a dragon. In this case, he needs either the nether energies in the Outlands, or the auroras in Northrend. Of course once Cataclysm comes out, I’ll most likely have to find a reason for him to now be able to fly in Azeroth.

He also can’t change into a dragon to rip things to shreds. For one thing, the change between the two forms leaves him vulnerable so it would not be a good idea to shift in the middle of a fight. Also, by the time he got to the Outlands, his blood elf form was stronger and more experienced at fighting than his dragon form. At this point in his life, he is comfortable in the blood elf skin and will probably not attempt to change back for a while.

He has a reason to be in humanoid form.

Why take the form of a less powerful species when you can just scorch your enemies in one pass? Saraku has two reasons. For one, he greatly admires Niqora, who freed him from slavery in Shadowmoon Valley. She has been the only real friend he has had, and his inspiration to see what it’s like to be a humanoid. In addition, he became intensely curious about life as a humanoid and what Azeroth was like. He has a wanderlust just as she does and since the only way he could see Azeroth was to become a humanoid…well, the result is obvious.

More recently, he has also thought of returning to his birthplace in the Netherwing Ledge and freeing some of his kind who are still slaves there. He could not accomplish this as a dragon, as I doubt the Dragonmaw orc disguise would work that well. Hence just another reason to be a blood elf.

He’s no one important.

There are other dragons in the game who can change into humanoids so Saraku is not an unusual case. And he is not the Commander of the Netherwing flight, or the bastard son of Alexstrasza and the Lich King (I don’t know how that would be possible even, nevermind make him a netherdrake). In essence, he’s merely another adventurer on a mission to help fix some problems in the world. He has realized, through Niqora and his own work, that you don’t have to be someone special to make a difference.

I did research before creating him.

You don’t have to be a lore nerd in order to come up with a decent background for your character but you do have to know something about where they come from. For example, when deciding his name, I did some searching and discovered that netherdrakes often end their names in “-aku” or “-us”. After some playing around with different letters and sounds, I came up with Saraku, which I think rolls nicely off the tongue and sounds natural. If I had went with a red dragon-type name, the character wouldn’t have made any sense.

I have to admit that I’m not the one who came up with the basic idea in the first place. While I was playing Niqo, I would imagine Saraku’s personality and the conversations the two of them would have as they flew around the Outlands. I had wanted to roleplay him in dragon form as a companion of Niqo’s (like how I roleplay with my pets) but I never seemed to find the opportunity to. Then one day a guild mate mentioned how an alt they had rolled was a nether drake in disguise and I said “BRILLIANT!” and then asked if I could steal the idea for Saraku.

I do love playing him though. He’s so naive and literal minded that I can usually make my guildmates laugh with his antics. So far I’ve had no one grieve me over the fact that he’s a dragon. So I’m assuming that I’ve successfully created a character that side-steps the whole “werewolf vampire dragon blood elf shaman warlocks” taboo.

And no, he does not turn back into a dragon to do the nasty. Anyone on a RP server will know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, read this from Rotten Apples (NSFW).

Does anyone have any comments/tips/rants about this post? Please post them, I want to hear your views.

Ticalos and Valraen

// August 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Roleplay

There’s a pyschotic creep after Valraen and having no one else to go to, she turns to the death knight Ticalos, a mysterious and dangerous man that she’s only met once briefly. But things are not as simple as they seem as the pair begin to realize that someone is trying to use them as pawns in a much bigger game.

This is an ongoing roleplay between Ticalos and my warlock bank alt, Valraen. The posts have been posted from emails between Tic and me. The post with (T) beside them are written by Tic, the ones with (V) beside them have been written by myself. All credit goes to Tic for coming up with the amusing titles.

To keep track of new posts, watch Ticalos’s blog or follow me on Twitter and watch for the #Ticalos tweets.

1. A Night at the Auction House (T)
2. The North (T)
3. Valraen’s Plight (V)
4. Message Delivered (T)
5. Ticalos the Protector? (V)
6. A gift for Valraen (T)
7. A gift unwelcomed (V)
8. Alms for the…poor? (T)
9. How dare he! (V)
10. Deliberate Hostilities (T)
11. The Fiend (V)
12. Doing things her own way (V)
13. The Hunter becomes the Hunted (T)
14. Shacking Up? (T)
15. Soap Opera or How did I manage to be in the bath with a Death Knight in the room? (V)
16. Hand me a towel (T)
17. A Fireside Chat (V)
18. Fight or Flight or…A Rose by any other name is still a Feather (T)
19. Lullaby and Goodnight…. (V)
20. Promises in the Dark (T)
21. To Sleep Per Chance to… (V)
22. Ride out…or..I’ll be really surprised if you wear this (T)
23. Dressing for the Part… or…..Wow, she actually wore it!!! (V)

Happy [insert country] Day!

// July 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Hunters and Pets, Non-hunters, Roleplay

So today is Independence Day for you yanks and a couple days ago it was Canada Day for us canucks so I hope there is/was lots of celebrating wherever you are. For the people who are outside of those two countries…it’s the weekend! Celebrate anyways!

Now let’s see…the biggest news would be that my little pally Saraku isn’t so little anymore; he’s level 44 as we speak. That not only makes him my highest level non-hunter, but also my second highest character in the entire game. O.O The next two highest characters are Machalor back on Hydraxis and Anuniaq on Wyrmrest Accord, both at level 40.

That does not mean that I am abandoning my hunters by any means. I still love them all. It just means that I really enjoy playing Saraku. I’ve tried playing pallies before so I’m not sure why I like my dragonling so much. Maybe it’s the huge amount of appeal that I have in his RP character.

Poor Niqora is now riding around on her red drake because RP-wise, Saraku is running around Stranglethorn so he can’t be there to fly her around Northrend. Her hubby Mysthowl has also gone missing in Icecrown so she’s in pretty low spirits at the moment. However that’s not stopping her from being a hair width away from getting her Crusader title (yes, she already is a Exalted Champion of the Horde). Doing the Champion dailies today should be enough.

Niqo has 60 emblems to spend but I’m saving them up to get her the Cryptstalker chestpiece, which will be a real nice upgrade from her blue chestpiece. You know what the scary thing is? BeImba says that Niqo is ready to take on Ulduar. O.o

Heart-wish: Niqora and Blacky’s tale

// February 27th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Hunters and Pets, Roleplay

It’s kind of amusing when people come to me to ask what pet they should tame with their hunter. Sure, there are theories about game mechanics that say this or that and there are some hunters I know who switch out pets frequently. But I’m a firm believer in the phrase “you play what you feel is right”. So when I wrote the following story, I tried to capture what a true bond between a hunter and her companion can feel like. Enjoy.

The air was thick with moisture from the recently departed rain. It formed dewdrops on the leaves of the bush Niqora was shrouded in, drops that fell to mingle with her black fur. Her breathing was slow and quiet, her will carefully controlling what her lungs took in and out. Every one of her muscles was taunt in anticipation and ached so, but she dared not move in case her quarry would hear her motions. She would be patient, she was always patient.

Her body may have been still but her thoughts danced around her head as always. She was thinking of the black worg that had accompanied her for so many seasons. She cared dearly for him, as a hunter should for any of her pets. Indeed they were true friends, but Niqora had always felt a restlessness, a tug at her heart that had eventually led her here to Feralas. The worg did not complain when she had left him in the capable hands of the local stablemaster and wandered out under the gigantic trees that dwarfed even the tall Shu’halo. He knew that his friend needed to seek out her heart-wish. Even though she had not spoken a word to him about it, he knew in the way only an animal could. He would not worry for her safety as he usually did, but instead focus his attention on cracking the marrow from the large juicy bone the stablemaster had presented him.

(more…)