The Queue: Come topside, sweetheart

Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A feature for all of Blizzard’s games! Have a question for the Blizzard Watch staff? Leave it in the comments!

I tried very hard to answer every question that was given to me today, but unfortunately column restraints meant I couldn’t get to all of them. I didn’t actually discover this until I’d finished answering literally all of them — apparently the Queue doesn’t like it when you answer a good twenty questions at once. But hey — it’s my last Queue column for a while. I had to try, right? So let’s get to those questions y’all have.

I’m going to assume that it’s “vulpera” until I’m told otherwise — which I might be at some point here, who knows? But typically speaking, when a noun ends with a vowel, I prefer to simply use the noun in both plural and singular capacity. That’s just me in terms of flavor for made-up words however, and not really based on any standard grammatical rule set.

I am floating in a weird space between “everything is fine” and “oh god I am going to work with xyz,” xyz being the name of one employee or another at said company. It’s…uh…well, it’s a strange kind of trip, isn’t it? And in the meantime, I keep getting reminded just how long I’ve been working this particular job — did you know it’s almost been a decade? It would be a decade in February. When I first started working here on the other site I didn’t really expect that said journey would end up with this kind of destination, even for a short stint. I keep going back to when I got my first paycheck from the other site — my dad took the paycheck, scanned it, and printed out a photo of it for me, because he said it was important. “You’re a writer now.”

I think he’d be very proud of me right now, too.

Also I’m doing a very poor job of trying not to tear up while I’m writing here, THANK YOU RED.

Never, I hope! My job has nothing to do with writing lore, so those of you worried that I’m going to write some sort of horrible fate for one character or another can breathe a sigh of relief. That’s still firmly in the hands of the story department and the creative development team. But I mean, if you want some kind of arbitrary punching bag for lore stuff you don’t like, then I guess go ahead with your bad selves and blame me? I won’t really bother responding to it, since it isn’t applicable in the least, but if it makes you feel better, well…okay?

You know, we don’t really have an answer to that? I’d always kind of looked at it as a stylized version of a shield draped in furs with the appropriate amount of spikes/axes/sharp things attached to it. Alternatively, it may be an amalgam of all of the different clan symbols put together, since the Horde was originally a unification of clans.

I suspect so — I think they might pass through the Shadowlands to recuperate, then hit up the Emerald Dream once they’re well enough to rest for a while before being completely “reborn” as it were. I don’t think we pulled Aviana from the Shadowlands, for instance — I think we pulled her from where she was slumbering away in the Emerald Dream. But I could be wrong. Ardenweald seems like an excellent place for Wild Gods/Loa/Ancients/etc to go when they pass on, you know? At least all the art we’ve seen seems to imply it’s a very wild magic kind of place. We’ll find out more when Shadowlands is out!

Warrior and Rogue make a fantastic team together that can tear through things with expediency. You could also double up on Hunters and play with some pretty cool pets while you’re at it. I know a lot of people suggest a tank and healer combination, but not everyone wants to play a healer! However, going with one of those classes that can do multiple roles, like Monk, or Paladin — well, you can wander around swiftly kicking butt, but you also have the healer option in your pocket just in case you want a quick dungeon queue, you know?

Considering the Val’kyr involved with the Horde are currently bound to Sylvanas, I think it’s safe to say that Voss no longer has that capability. I’m actually kind of wondering what this means for the future of the Forsaken as a whole. Right now, the starting zone consists of Forsaken being raised by Val’kyr that Sylvanas obtained. So does this mean that production factory has stopped? How are they going to create new Forsaken now — or are they going to? I suspect we’ll see these questions beginning to be addressed Soon™, given that we’re about to deal with an expansion all about the afterlife.

Not all of it, but it was definitely a verdant kind of landscape prior to the Sundering. I’m sure the northern reaches were still cold-ish, and the southern parts were warmer and more jungle-fied. When we think of the Emerald Dream as a reflection of the ancient version of Azeroth, well…it’s all green, and growing, and wild and teeming with nature. I expect Kalimdor was much the same, although there were of course variations in landscape dependent on things like altitude, latitude, longitude, that sort of thing. Where’s the equator on Azeroth? Is it where we think it is? These are all questions that haven’t quite been answered yet — and they probably won’t be as long as we’ve got more map space to fill out with potential new expansions and potential new land masses.

Of COURSE I’m going to miss all of you! Let’s be real here — I would not have been in the position to get this job without my current job, and my current job would not have been possible without all of you guys. In a very real way, you guys have gotten me to where I am, and there is absolutely no way in the world I will ever, ever forget that. I will probably continue lurking in one aspect or another, reading the Queue and your comments and listening to the podcasts that go on, regardless of whether or not I can participate. I’ll still be here, just…on silent mode for a little while. And of course you’re welcome to follow me on Twitter, where I will continue making the occasional bouts of mad observations or commentary on this and that, and retweeting things that are funny or strange.

I’ve been told there is an office corgi. I am very excited to meet him or her, and give them the pats they most certainly deserve on a daily basis.

There are varying reports that suggest that the Citadel was already there before the Lich King arrived, and other reports that suggest it was constructed after. I think the best explanation is that the icy “rooms” and halls were there when the Lich King landed on the icy spire of the Frozen Throne, and the saronite supports and other constructed pieces were put together after the Lich King’s arrival. He landed on an icy mountain that happened to be perfect for building on to — plenty of open spaces and pockets where enough reinforcement would create a dread citadel that his mother would be proud of.

Wait, not proud of. Probably horrified about. But you get the picture.

Okay, I think I’ve procrastinated long enough, and I think I’ve answered every single last question I possibly could — or at least enough to make all of you happy, I hope. Please leave a lot of questions in the comments for tomorrow’s Queue writer — don’t forget, without questions to answer, it’s very hard to write this column! As for me, don’t really consider this a goodbye, just think of it as a “see you later.” I’ll be back, I promise! Be good to each other while I’m gone, be kind, be curious, and above all, be yourselves — the best possible selves you can be. That’s really all I can ask. I’ll miss you guys.

That’s it for today’s Queue — if you have any questions you’d like to see answered, be sure to leave them in the comments below!