The Queue: Ravens and writing desks
@Shadesogrey
Welcome to The Queue, the Q&A column for all things Blizzard related. If you have a question for the Queue, leave a comment and you may see it answered tomorrow!
Have I mentioned how much I like Khadgar’s writing setup? I mean it’s in the middle of a swampy mushroom and sentient-fungi-riddled nightmare, but the desk itself is awfully nice.
@Anne, how did you get started writing? I wrote guest articles for *that* other site years ago but haven’t written anything since. I have ideas for stories but when I go to start typing I draw a blank or start doubting myself until I’m stressed out and have to step away from my desk.
I have a lot of stuff floating around in my head, and one day I just decided to start writing it all down. That’s really about the extent of it — I didn’t really take any special writing classes (unless AP English counts). I did have a blog before I started writing here, mind you, and maybe that’s a good place to start if you’re just wanting to hammer things out. Blogs are easy enough to set up.
Here’s the thing, though, and this is important: don’t write for other people. Don’t worry about whether or not people read your stuff, don’t worry about what other people think about your stuff, just get it out of your head and on the page. Nothing is perfect the first time it’s written, that’s what revisions are for. And trust me, the majority of my stuff goes through a ton of revisions before I’m remotely happy with it.
Writing is a skill just like any other skill out there, anyone can do it, but you have to practice and you have to dedicate yourself if you want to be any good at it.
Q for the Q: It’s been a long, long time since I did pre-Cataclysm Darkshore (probably not since my first toon) and I’ve recently returned there because those quests offer a pretty sweet black leather set. I know there were always various interesting sea monster carcasses on the beach and that the giant turtles had a kind of howdah on their backs…but did they always have a Pandarian style of architecture? Or has that been retconned in?
They always looked kind of like that! Even pre-Cataclysm. If you take a closer look at them, they actually resemble the tops of night elf towers and structures as well. The people that worked on pandaren buildings may have taken a few design queues from those old turtles, who knows?
But for the life of me I just can’t seem to get a grip on Gorgrond or the Botani. Why is all the plant life riled up? Are there, like a couple of plant sub-factions fighting each other? What’s this got to do with the big giant stompy ancient looking things I kept running into in that zone? Or the two world bosses there?
There are two types of ancient beings on Draenor — the Breakers and the Primals. The Breakers include the Magnaron, the rock giants, and they shape the rocks and land masses. The Primals include the Genesaur, immense plant-creatures that are pretty much gung-ho about covering everything with plant life. These two factions have been at war since the Age of Colossals, a period of history that was pretty much named after the two factions and the way they went after each other. The Age of Colossals ended long ago, replaced by the Age of Order, but the colossal giants still fight to this day — obviously the Breakers would like the world to be rocky desert, much like northern Gorgrond, while the Primals would like a lush tropical paradise as seen in other Gorgrond regions.
The Botani are one of those Primal factions, and they consider the Genesaur as godlike creatures. They, just like the rest of the Primals, are keenly interested in seeing the whole world overgrown with plant life. As far as the Botani and the rest of the Primals are concerned, mortals like us are nothing more than fertilizer waiting to be digested. Since the Iron Horde decided to “side with” (more accurately, use) the Breakers in their plans, the Primals have ramped up efforts to bring the Breakers down — and take down any orcs they happen to see as well.
We actually do know where the orcs came from. According to the WoW Magazine (which is canon) they’re descended from ogres.
Sort of. Keep in mind the article was written by “Brann Bronzebeard,” which means that some of his theories might be true, others might be wild tales he thought up over one too many tankards of ale. It’s an iffy topic.
Q4tQ: Are there any monuments (I think that’s what they’re called. Statues?) that are casually obtainable to display on the pedestals in your garrison
Sure! The one for collecting Apexis Crystals can be gathered pretty casually — you won’t get it very quickly, but if you pop on to do a daily or two every now and again you’ll get it eventually. Similarly, the crafting monument isn’t so hard to get, because it counts items you create from mission rewards as a crafted piece. I actually have the crafted one and got it completely by accident.
Q4tQ: about Azeroth’s other moon “The Blue Child”, did the stories about it say whether it’s male or female?
I don’t think it’s ever been assigned a gender — it’s just the Blue Child.
QftQ: If you’ve ever had a particularly difficult time getting into a class, did you just decide not to play that class, or was there a way you convinced yourself to play/like it?
I didn’t bother playing it. Why would I want to pay money to play something I didn’t really like to play? It just seems kind of silly to me. I do, sometimes, go back after a new expansion has come out and try the class again just to see if class changes have somehow transformed it into a class I can enjoy, but most of the time if I don’t like something, I just won’t bother with it.
That’s it for Sunday’s edition of the Queue — be sure to leave plenty of questions in the comments for Monday!
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