The Queue: Eclipses in the World of Warcraft

Let’s talk about the moons of Azeroth and an eclipse in WoW.

Azeroth has two moons, the Mother and Blue Child. The Mother is the larger of the two, called the White Lady. The Night Elves worship this as Elune. Any celestial body that orbits another body and sits between a star will produce an eclipse. So it stands to reason that these two moons would, at a scientifically knowable rate, generate eclipses across Azeroth.

Eclipses are known in WoW, there’s priest and druid spells named after it, and there’s an event of alignment between the Moons known as the Embrance that happens once every 400 years. This would lead one to believe that Azeroth’s scholars know at least enough to be able to predict this event; which means an understanding of at minimum Newtonian physics and a heliocentric model of the solar system. If Azeroths’ civilizations follow our own development, as they often do, then the eclipses would have been recorded and understood as special events for a long time, eventually leading to their understanding.

A total eclipse is something unique though that happens because our Earth-moon is exactly the right size and distance away (most of the time) from the Earth that it can cover the entire Sun, leaving only the corona visible. There isn’t evidence that I can find which points to this being the case on Azeroth, however the lay definition of an eclipse “covering the sun” suggests that it probably would be represented in WoW as a total eclipse. We also see eclipse spell artwork which suggest this via the Baily’s Beads occurrence, which in itself tells us that there’s a lunar topography of some intensity on the Mother and Child.

This was a nice question, thanks. Once upon a time I used to publish science articles… thanks for letting me dive back in. That said, I am by no means an expert and haven’t kept up with my science writing, so someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong; but it’s also neat to see how far down the rabbit hole one can go and how much we can tell from just a little information given to us in WoW. It’s the reason why we need to keep exploring; if we can talk about the above in terms of Azeorth, there’s really nothing we can’t figure out in real life.

Paladin is probably going to be the easiest for you. I don’t want to call it a faceroll gameplay, because it’s certainly not anymore; but the healing abilities keep you moving pretty rapidly. If you really get into it I’ve found that the class allows you to go very fast when leveling, you’re going to be able to handle a ton of mobs as well as a hunter (if not better). The Paladin campaign is also top-notch. Can’t recommend it enough.

Rogue for me is all about the subtle elements that are going to force you to change your playstyle a bit. I’ve never found that leveling a rogue is as AoE-friendly or straight forward as other classes. But I like that, to be honest. A change is nice.

So Katie and I celebrated our five year anniversary this past week, and in doing so there was some reflection on what exactly we’re doing with our lives (as couples are often wont to do at notable times like this). And as usual, she was right — I’ve been playing WoW since 2004. Back when we were dating and I had a big (I was cool) 19″ CRT monitor. She never was able to get into it, but has been very supportive of this site and my time at The Other Site Which Shall Not Be Named.

But it did get me thinking; what’s kept me around?

I think a large part is all of you. I feel some level of obligation to keep covering the news and keep the community going because so many people love it. Without that I’m not sure I’d have a basic drive to keep on with the game.

The story advancing and the tales that are told are another major part of it for me, of course. I love getting lost in the lore and playing through the game without realizing I’ve spent the last four hours chasing down one big quest chain. The game play I can take or leave, it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not what keeps me here.

It’s the people, it’s the story, it’s the community. Sort of like a marriage; whatever we do and what happens, does, but it’s who you’re with that counts.