Heroines of Warcraft: They Came Before Edition

In honor of Women’s History month, beginning March 8th, we’ll be running a series of editorials surveying the lore and history surrounding some of Azeroth’s most notable heroines and figures.

In honor of Women’s History month, beginning March 8th, we’ll be running a series of editorials surveying the lore and history surrounding some of Azeroth’s most notable heroines and figures.

EONAR, THE LIFE-BINDER

“No one knows when or why the first titan awoke, but legends hold that his name was Aman’Thul” – World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1, 19

One of the earliest notable female figures in Azeroth’s history comes from a time before history was even known on Azeroth; possibly before even Azeroth itself. Hailing from the race of celestial wanderers, the Titans, Eonar is the only confirmed female titan. While there are some in-game and fan theories suggesting that Azeroth too may be a female, Eonar was at least the first.

Awakened by Aman’Thul, the Highfather, Eonar would become his bronze-skinned consort. She carried an alabaster staff through the cosmos as she stood vigilant as the protector of life, nature, and healing in the universe. She often kept from the field of battle, preferring a supporting role in the great Titan Pantheon. If brought to fight, she remained a fierce force who would confuse and disperse her enemies before engaging them. She stood in opposition to the dark Titan Sargeras, and aided the Pantheon in combating him until her ultimate demise at his hand.

Eonar also spent a great deal of time establishing the titanforged which would one day nurture Azeroth, in addition to empowering the naturally-occurring life which Azeroth itself created, namely, the dragons. While Eonar was defeated, her essence and gifts lived on in the populations of Azeroth. She is worshiped where her memory remains, including both the great red and green Dragonflights, which tasked themselves with combating chaos and destruction, while maintaining nature, healing, and life, within the world.

Some hypothesize a connection between Eonar and Elune, as well as the Tauren’s Earthmother, as all three share many common threads of beliefs and traits; however, at this time, we have no formal notes from Blizzard about how these entities are connected.

ALEXSTRASZA, THE LIFE-BINDER & DRAGONQUEEN

“The nurturing and ever-merciful Freya called upon her creator, Eonar, to empower the proto-dragon Alexstrasza. Known thereafter as the Life-Binder…” World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1, 46

While the Titans would eventually come to create the titanforged to safeguard Azeroth, the planet had already gone about creating its own species of life, one of these were the dragons. While the Pantheon created the Keepers (better known for their appearance in-game in Ulduar) to safeguard the planet and the mechanization they had set in motion, there was nothing let to govern Azeroth’s native entities. Over time, one dragon came to overtake them all and tore about Kalimdor destroying and consuming everything in its path. His name was Galakrond. The Keepers came to decide that they would empower the smartest of the nascent species and help to take the great beast down. These would come to be known as the Dragon Aspects, of which Alexstrasza was one. The Keeper Freya had been created by Eonar and it was she who infused Alexstrasza and her dragonflight with guardianship of all life on Azeroth.

In-game, the Life-Binder can be found in many areas, including atop the Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight, and in the Dragon Soul raid. No longer content to step aside and watch the world in its suffering, she brought the Dragon Aspects and their flights together in order to actively defend against evils which would harm life on her beloved planet. Even in light of sacrificing her power to save the world from Deathwing, her fallen brother Neltharion, back in Cataclysm, the Dragon Mother remains the most powerful, if not the eldest dragon alive today. She is also one of the last remaining of the original Dragon Aspects.

YSERA, THE DREAMER

“Freya also beseeched Eonar to bless Alexstrasza’s younger sister, the proto-dragon Ysera, with natures influence. Ysera was charged with keeping watch over the flowering wilds of Azeroth from within the Emerald Dream.” – World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1, 46

While Alexstrasza’s charge was to guard the life of the world, Ysera was in charge of its dream, the Emerald Dream, a place which held the original blueprint for Azeroth’s ordering by the Titans. All creatures would visit the Dream in their rest, but it was Ysera’s domain to watch over. Like her older sister, she would be a part of all lives on Azeroth, and would also take up arms to protect it. She fought alongside her siblings in protecting Azeroth, titanforged and native creatures alike. Ysera spent a great deal of time asleep in order to defend the Emerald Dream, waking only so often when situations were dire enough to warrant it. As a result, in-game, we bore witness to Ysera’s active role in Cataclysm throughout Mount Hyjal, as well as in the Dragon Soul raid, where she used the latent power of Eonar which made her an Aspect of the green dragonflight, in order to help stop Neltharion.

While tragedy befell her this expansion during the campaign in Val’sharah, her spirit lives on in the Emerald Dream and wanders through its purified fields, no longer a creature of both worlds.

Do you have any favourite female characters from the dawn of the world of Azeroth? Let us know in the comments below, or join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord!


Images © Blizzard Entertainment

Famine & Flood: The State of World of Warcraft

Whether you’re raiding, PVPing, or pet battling, Legion offers a lot to do. But is it too much?

Whether you’re raiding, PVPing, or pet battling, Legion offers a lot to do. But is it too much? If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a long time, you’ve experienced the content ebbs and flows of Blizzard’s patches. With Legion’s most recent Patch 7.1.5 drop, it’s hard not to feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of content flowing in.

Warlords of Draenor was not a great expansion for content releases. Much of the content originally planned was either scrapped or drastically changed in order to meet ever condensed release schedules. It’s predecessor Mists of Pandaria however boasted a great start to the expansion, dropping content patches like hotcakes. Unfortunately for MoP, content stretched to a famine after the release of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, a patch which left players wanting for over a year before Warlords finally dropped.

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So far Legion appears to be following a similar release schedule to MoP. From the outset of Legion’s release, there has been a steady flow of content for players to indulge in… perhaps a little too much content. For hardcore players, at the release of the expansion, it was nearly impossible to even consider focusing on anything but your main character. Between world quests, reputation grinds, and professions, there was a near overwhelming amount of things to keep oneself occupied. As raids opened up, arena seasons started, and new storylines were released, Blizzard has kept the river flowing. While the content may not necessarily be up to your speed, the fact remains that there is a lot to do.

Might there just be a little too much going on? While Blizzard has made efforts to try and help alts and new players catch up to current content levels, it can at times feel like there’s too much to do. However, it might just be in how you look at things. In past expansions, at max level, you pretty much logged in just for raids, dailies, or even your daily dungeon and that was it. Now for many players there is a greater variety of things to do. World quests have given a breath of fresh air to the old daily structure, allowing the freedom to not log in every day with only a minor loss to progression, as emissaries last for up to three days. Weekly events and micro holidays help players interact with the world in new ways, and change up the face of the game. Even if you don’t like what’s going on this week, usually something will be coming along soon to carry you away.

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In looking at how much Legion has to offer, it is hard not to draw parallels to MoP. We were fanned with content during Mists, and we were left with a drought in the end. Had Blizzard have paced their content releases a bit more steadily throughout Mists, the content drought would not have lasted nearly as long and might have left people feeling better about the expansion when transitioning into Warlords (which was effectively another drought). It is not surprising then that many fear that Blizzard’s content releases may run out of steam before the next expansion drops, leaving us caught in the content desert as we wait for new things to do.

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While an inter-expansion lull is always expected, one would hope that Blizzard has learned a thing or two about helping ease the transition. While the time between expansions is often a good time to catch up on things you might have let slide (pet battles, Brawler’s Guild, or transmog collections), these are often not the things which keep people subscribed. Legion doesn’t appear to be singing its final swan song anytime soon, and it’s current content trajectory appears to be solid. While players may feel a little overwhelmed with what’s currently on their plates, and the impending menu Blizzard has in store, we can hope that our Warcraft overlords have learned proper content pacing techniques. Not too fast, not too slow, but just right: the Goldilocks schedule. Something we’ll hopefully get to see after our coming trip to Argus.

How do you feel about Blizzard’s content releases so far in Legion? Do you think things are happening too fast? Are you bored already? How did you handle past expansion droughts? Let us know below, or join in the conversation on social media!

5 IPs That Should Be MMOs

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Recently, The Elder Scrolls made its transition from single-player campaign to a full MMO experience but there are plenty other franchises could be successful online communities. 

Continue reading “5 IPs That Should Be MMOs”

Blizzard Releases The Emerald Nightmare

Today marks the unlocking of the first raid to hit the Broken Isles since Legion‘s launch back on August 30th. Normal and Heroic difficulties of the seven boss raid are available to raid teams as of today. Mythic and LFR: Wing 1, will open up next Tuesday. For a full breakdown of all the reasons we’re heading into the Emerald Nightmare today, check out Blizzard’s Raid Preview: 7 Eerie Reasons to Enter the Emerald Nightmare on the official website. If you’ve been itching to take down Xavius since finishing Val’Sharah, you’ll finally get the opportunity.

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Also included in this week’s unlocks for World of Warcraft are world bosses and Mythic + 5-man dungeons. In addition to loot, the world bosses will help players earn new artifact appearances via Unleashed Monstrosities, and may even drop hidden artifact appearances for some classes. Additionally, if you’ve been looking for a little more prestige and difficulty out of your 5-man experiences, you can start collecting Mythic Keystones to make your runs just a little more involved. A full preview of the system was also offered on the official website just last week. Some dungeon modifiers include increasing health and damage by bosses (Tyrannical), constant player-damage (Decay), and an all-time tank favorite where tanks generate less threat (Skittish). Various achievements will be rewarded according to Keystone use and progress, in addition to the improved loot the reward system includes.

Finally, for those who run to the beat of a different World of Warcraft drum, today also marks the start of Legion‘s first PVP season. Are you going to start raiding today? Let us know in the comments, or talk to us on Twitter and Facebook.

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