The Queue: Anne's Story Hour
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today!
It's Sunday, the day of rest and apparently of rambling on about stories in my head, and as such I'll go ahead and indulge the few people that asked the question below. Don't worry, I've also got plenty of other far more pertinent questions to answer as well!
Ligkvaern asked:
I made an account just to ask this, damn you! ...What happens in Kharazhan, in your head?
robertjamesftw also commented:
Anne. ANNE. You may NOT tease us with hints about your head-canon and/or the stories you create in there and not share them! C'mon! Give!!
I can take a hint. Please note -- none of this is actually what's going to happen in the next expansion. I have no idea what's coming in the next expansion. This is just stuff I made up in my head that seemed to make sense given what we already know. Okay? Moving on, and continuing from where I left off on Wednesday:
When we arrive in Karazhan, the tower is in chaos -- full of spirits of those dead and even of those who are still very much alive, and scenes that play out around us from past, present and future in a manner reminiscent of what was described in The Last Guardian. The scenes are as follows:
Aegwynn and the Dragon Hunt: Just as Khadgar viewed this scene in Last Guardian, we get to view it as well -- Aegwynn, Guardian of Tirisfal facing off against the Avatar of Sargeras and defeating him.
Medivh's Awakening: We witness the moment when Medivh's powers awoke, much to his father Aran's dismay. Aran's spirit still lingers in the halls of Karazhan, his untimely demise chaining him to the tower in a manner nobody could have predicted.
All Realities, All Dimensions Are Open To Me: We see the arrival of Prince Malchezzar -- who is not, as previously assumed, a member of the Burning Legion from somewhere in Outland. In fact, he's from Draenor. That alternate-universe planet we just left. You know how he mysteriously had Gorehowl in his possession? Yeah, that wasn't the Gorehowl Thrall passed to Garrosh, that was the weapon Grommash Hellscream carried in the Warlords alternate-universe. Malchezzar was sent back from there to begin a chain reaction of events that would end with our arrival in alternate Draenor. Why? Well, the final vision might clear that up.
The Death of Medivh: In our wandering through the tower, we stumble at last upon that fateful day in which Khadgar, Garona and Anduin Lothar confronted Medivh, discovered his possession by Sargeras, and ultimately beheaded him. Except we see what really happened. That moment in which Medivh grasped Khadgar, aged him prematurely, drained his powers? Yeah, that wasn't a draining spell. That was Sargeras preparing his next vessel. When Medivh was beheaded, the spirit of Sargeras left Medivh's body and passed on to Khadgar, who at that point was far too weak to resist or even notice the transfer. Exhausted and drained, Sargeras' spirit slept, dormant -- much in the same way he did during Medivh's childhood. As he grew stronger, Khadgar began to regain his lost youth, bit by bit, until the right opportunity presented itself, and the dark spirit that lived on within him could fully awaken.
Which is when we come to the unsettling conclusion and moment of truth: Khadgar isn't Khadgar anymore. Exactly when he changed sides is a mystery, but the certainty of the matter is this: the Avatar of Sargeras is walking the world anew, and unless we do something, and do something quickly, our world is in far more danger than it's ever been before. The Legion set upon our world while we were away, distracted by the delights of Draenor -- just as Sargeras planned all along.
Did I mention I think about this stuff a lot? I think about this stuff a lot.
I could go on, but this is the Queue, and not Anne's Story Hour (despite the title), so let's move on to some Warcraft questions that apply to things that are really going on, shall we?
Armenius asked:
Same question, (Editor's note: "If two worgens have a baby together, does the child bear the worgen curse? ") but with undead. /popcorn
Forsaken cannot reproduce. They're, you know ... dead. Un-dead, but regardless, this is why Sylvanas was so concerned about the fate of the Forsaken at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. The only way to create more undead is to raise more undead, and the only creature she knew of that was capable of doing so was the Lich King. Turns out the val'kyr are also capable of doing so, and cut a deal with Sylvanas in the short story Edge of Night.
Arcuballis commented:
You forget that out of those 25 followers, several are working in profession buildings. And if you don't have a barracks is just 20! It would honestly help a lot if the followers who are Working didn't count towards the 20/25 followers.
You know what, you're right -- I did forget about the ones working at buildings. This is because I don't assign my followers to my buildings on a regular basis. I just assign them in the morning, pick up all my work orders, and then take them out of the building and send them on missions for the remainder of the day. You won't be able to do that in 6.1 -- and when I think about it that way, it would be nice if they either upped the cap to 25 followers (30 with the Barracks), or simply didn't count followers working in buildings as being on active duty.
jmsecc asked:
so how are we going to get Follower Weaponry and Armor Set tokens? has this been revealed?
You'll still be able to obtain Weapon and Armor set tokens from follower missions -- presumably they will also still be available as random bonuses with War Mill work orders, but that hasn't been confirmed. Keep in mind you'll also be able to turn in extra scrap metal at the War Mill for follower upgrade items as well. Don't worry, you're still going to have plenty of ways to get upgrades for your followers.
Twowolves asked:
Do you think we'll get more bodyguards or the option to upgrade a cool follower to bodyguard status?
They would have to make a fairly concerted effort to make that happen. The bodyguards aren't just bodyguards, they have their own reputation bars and mini quest chains. In order to create a new bodyguard, they would either have to find a way to apply that reputation bar to any follower upon activation of the bodyguard trait and create quests for every possible follower in the game -- which would be an incredibly lengthy process -- or simply create a new follower and design it with the bodyguard trait from the ground up.
The latter is far, far more likely, but even then -- it takes time, and it's up to Blizzard whether or not they'd want to put the time in for something that is, admittedly, a fairly minor NPC that would only be useful to whatever percentage of players that have and use the correct building and bodyguards on a regular basis.
In other words, at this point it seems like it would be too little gain for a lot of effort that could be better applied elsewhere.
Jefaar asked:
Q4TQ: I have all the Stable mounts and I'm considering replacing it with another garrison building. Are there more mounts coming in 6.1 or beyond that we know about?
So far, there have been no new mounts added or datamined in patch 6.1. I can't tell you about anything beyond 6.1 because we know nothing about it. I can say that unlike the bodyguard system, adding a new mount would probably be a slightly easier process, particularly if they used the same round of dailies as the ones currently implemented for the first round of captured mounts. Just throw another creature in there to be captured, send people out to capture it, and have them grind out the dailies same as last time. However, they'd still have to figure out which mount to add, and come up with a suitable model for it. So again, it's a matter of time vs. payoff.
minstrel commented:
"Either that or Lantresor, because he's cool."
Actually, I think he's probably feeling quite hot, toiling away in your mine (because, let's face it...you have him working in your mine).
For shame! Lantresor is one of my favorites from Burning Crusade. So much so that I used my first Hearthstone Pro card on the guy, without realizing it would erase one of his existing traits. He is no longer a miner, but he's pretty good at Hearthstone. Secretly I'm kind of hoping that Harrison Jones has the mining trait, so I can shove him in my mine and forever assign him to dig up artifacts in revenge for everything he ever said or made me do in Uldum.
That's it for the Queue -- be sure to leave plenty of questions for Monday -- but not for me. I'll be back next weekend!
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
