The Queue: Existential Seagull

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that today’s header image is one I tacked to the end of my last queue — if so I commend you for your observational skills and/or stalking behavior.

I saw a lot of gulls last week on my annual summer trip to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Like most of the rest of the country it was pretty hot but not unbearably so; I was still able to do my normal resting and recreationing even if I read a lot more books than typical.

Of course all things good or bad must come to an end, so I’m back in the grind of things (the annual temptation to send in my work resignation from a beach chair was once again suppressed). While I sit here and ponder my next trip let’s answer some questions!

To be honest there isn’t a lot I need to get done; obviously there’s going to be a lot of cleanup to churn through with the implementation of Warbands (currency to consolidate, etc). I do have one level 64 toon I want to get to 70 but with the xp nerf that should be pretty quick.

Radiant Echoes event starts the following week and I’m unsure about how much time I’m going to spend on running them; it’s really going to depend on how much FOMO grips me for the collectibles.

After that it’s just a case of waiting for the ReMists toons to transfer over to live so I can complete the one heritage armor unlock I haven’t done yet — Blood Elf Paladin.

Speaking of BElf Pallies …

I have! I’m still planning on starting the expansion with my Dwarf Hunter (it just feels right with the whole Earthen thing going on), but I enjoyed playing my BElf Pally in ReMists so I may level her second while waiting for the ability to play Earthen. Too soon to say for sure, though, but when looking at my list of main characters for the expansion a Paladin made the cut for the first time since Legion.

As mentioned at the top I read a lot last week — 12 works in total! I deliberately stuck with shorter novels and novellas though, so it’s arguable I read fewer pages than I would have if I had read just two of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives books.

Here’s the full list of titles:

• Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
• Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, translated by Eric Ozawa
• What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
• Left for Dead by Jane Casey
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
• Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, translated by Alison Watts
• What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts

All of these books were excellent, but I’d have to say What You Are Looking For is in the Library was probably my favorite. A collection of vignettes centered around a community center library in Tokyo, it’s wholesome and a little inspiring. I had borrowed the book from an online library to read, but I picked it up on Kindle in case I want to read it again.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. I’ll beat this drum until I die: this is the best book I’ve ever read (yes, even above Lord of the Rings) and I love everything about it. A humorous time travel/Victorian mystery-romance novel, To Say Nothing of the Dog is just so much fun and I’ve read it a half-dozen times — and frankly it’s probably time for me to read it again.

While the Worldsoul Saga is being framed as a trilogy, I actually view it as four-part series, with Dragonflight being the first part — so we can use that as an example of what we might expect. We completed the story of the Dragon Isles over the course of the expansion, but left a couple major adversaries for the future: Iridikron and Xal’atath. Similarly, I expect TWW to finish the story of Khaz Algar in the normal expansion-ending manner, but with a couple major threads loose going into Midnight. The main reason for thinking this is that the three announced titles take place in disparate regions (although I’m sure they haven’t revealed everything about the geography of Midnight or Last Titan yet); if we were told that Khaz Algar was a full-sized continent that would be slowly unlocked over the course of the Saga I would think that the expansions would not stand on their own. Since we’re globetrotting, though, I’m thinking each chapter will be mostly self-contained.

As Soeroah correctly points out, a recolor has been datamined that’s associated with the Trading Post. Since September is the typical month for Pirate-themed equipment it may be as soon as 6 weeks. If not then it’s hard to predict as it could show up at any time, but I’d be surprised if we weren’t able to get it before the return of a Plunderstorm-style event in the future.

I’m a sucker for mysteries with a visual cue and minimal commentary — things like the lone headstone on the island with the Stormwind Lighthouse, or the giant building on the Stormwind Docks that inexplicably appeared one day. Granted nothing ever really became of them (although iirc the Lighthouse grave mystery was solved in Exploring Azeroth) but seeing stuff like that really gets my gears turning.

The biggest tease for me in World of Warcraft was the door to Uldum before the Cataclysm. It wasn’t just the fact that the associated quest chain ended with a cliffhanger; it was that hole in the door that suggested something big and dangerous may have escaped. Sadly it never amounted to anything.

That’s all the time we have for today; unfortunately this queue was haunted and I had to cut a picture and some links to get it to even publish! Stay cool (or warm if it’s winter by you), be good to each other, and be sure to leave plenty of questions for Matt tomorrow!