The Queue: Let’s do this

Friday has snuck up on me again, and that means it’s time for another Queue. So let’s follow along with the headline and do this.

Once you’ve joined a Covenant, you’ll need to hit Renown 44 to unlock flying — and the time it takes to get there is extremely varied. Many activities grant Renown, particularly if you’re well below the current Renown cap (currently 66). You’ll get Renown for every chapter of your Covenant campaign quest you complete, for every time you gather Anima for the Covenant, for completing the weekly Shaping Fate quest in Korthia (once you unlock Korthia).

And up until you’re caught up to the current cap, you can get additional Renown from practically any activity. Doing Callings in any zone gives Renown. Doing weekly dungeon quests gives Renown. Running any dungeon or raid gives Renown. Killing the World Boss gives Renown. It’s not guaranteed that these activities will give you Renown every time, but they can, and they seem to be more likely to the further behind you are.

So how long will it take you to catch up is hard to say. I find that Renown drops like candy at low levels, so I think you’ll catch up quickly. Just work through the Covenant quest and do whatever other activities you feel like doing — you’ll get there faster than you might think.

A couple of weeks is probably a reasonable guess, but it just depends on how much you play.

It’s quite impossible to understand the logic of the Brokers. Ve’nari doesn’t seem to mind mounts, but perhaps in general they have some stigma against riding on animals, constructs, undead, or whatever else we might be riding on today. There are mounts in Tazavesh, but they’re just flying discs. Maybe if you went up on the Disc of the Flying Red Cloud they wouldn’t force you to dismount — that would be something familiar. But most of the things we ride around every day are just weird.

I think the fact that Teldrassil was so horrible makes us wish for the intervention of the gods. But the gods don’t always intervene to make things right. The gods aren’t even necessarily omnipotent to know they need to intervene. They may not be powerful enough to intervene in every scenario. And I think gods are more interesting that way — not a reliable presence just waiting to solve all of our problems, but a fickle attention that may or may not help, may or may not even hear our cries. You’d never have a story to tell if the gods were 100% reliable — it’s more interesting if they aren’t.

And for the most part, the gods of Warcraft are hands off… excepting the Old Gods, who occasionally rear their heads when they try to kill us all. The others remain mysterious, and we’ve seen Elune do very little to date… but with the horror of Teldrassil, we hoped. We hoped she would fix things. Now we know now that Elune intended the souls of her people to arrive in the sanctuary of Ardenweald. She hadn’t planned to intervene even if she could have. Knowing this has removed some of the mystery around Elune, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Some things are best when shrouded in mystery, best when we don’t know for certain. Now we know Elune was watching, but wanted this to happen. I don’t feel particularly comforted.

(1) Only when it would be especially dramatic to do so. You couldn’t just do it because you wanted to. It would have to be dramatic.

(2) Presumably it’s still ours. We made it back during Wrath, and haven’t canonically given it away despite the fact that we’ve wielded artifacts of legend since. Perhaps it is just canonically sitting in a bank vault somewhere, where players have forgotten it.

(3) Kingsmourne. You know that if it were a fight between Kingsmourne and Shadowmourne it would be a dramatic enough moment that Kingsmourne would break in half and it would be two against one. Shadowmourne doesn’t stand a chance against a pair of mourneblades.

Yes. Yes you do.

And that’s all for questions today.

Remember to pet your dogs, and tell your loved ones and friends that you care about them. Last weekend my friend Rades passed away unexpectedly, and I don’t think I ever told him how glad I was that we were friends, how he always made me smile, and how much I appreciated him. The last time we talked, he was giving me advice on D&D (good advice, always), and that was several weeks ago. None of us know how much time we have with others, so say what you have to say when you have a chance.

Don’t consider this a somber note, but a hopeful one. Life is tough, and we need to enjoy it while we’re all here together. So have a good Friday and a good weekend to follow. So play some games, watch some good TV (I can recommend Ted Lasso), and enjoy what there is to enjoy. I’m glad you’re all here, even when I only usually stop by on Fridays. I hope you’re all having a good day — or as good a day as possible — and I look forward to seeing you again next week.