Going from 70 to 80 in The War Within forced me to roleplay more than I ever have in WoW

I have always quietly roleplayed in World of Warcraft, but this expansion almost demands RP.

I have one level 80 character and am working on leveling three more, including an Earthen Warrior, because of course I’m leveling an Earthen Warrior. I had a very weird experience when the expansion launched — I got bad medical news and didn’t get started for a few days. But when I finally managed to get into the game, I realized that I wasn’t reacting to the story beats and big moments as Matt, that somewhat nerdy lore obsessed Human person.

I was reacting as Scythias, my level 70 (and now 80) Night Elf Warrior.

Khaz Algar feels like a breathing world (and made my character breathe with it)

All of the stay awhile and listen moments this expansion gave me a chance to more thoroughly see characters’ stories, which allowed me to imagine how Scythias felt about it all. The NPCs talked to us, and the tone was less like they were pointing a weapon and more like they were recruiting an old friend. There was respect there. Alleria even remembered my role in saving her life. That moment felt like two friends sitting together and reminiscing, which changed something in how I perceived the story.

It felt like at last I had the room to breathe and actually play my character.

My actions in the past were acknowledged. I was treated like a person. When I got to witness moments between others, it felt like I was there because I was supposed to be there. It became possible for me to imagine how my character would take these moments, how they would affect her. Moira and Magni have an emotional conversation about the past in front of Scythias? Well, I did just fight alongside them in the Ringing Deeps, and I did kill Moria’s husband that one time, so I definitely have some history with the family.

The last time I felt this strongly about my character and their reactions to the story in World of Warcraft, I was playing a Draenei going through Warlords of Draenor. And unlike that time, instead of feeling like my character was done — that the story for him had ended, that he’d accomplished what he set out to do and would retire to the Garrison — Scythias felt like she was finally coming out from the emotional armor of pain and detachment she’d put on to protect herself since Battle for Azeroth. Each zone and story she took part in reinforced this.

Going on this adventure let me find my character’s voice

The Isle of Dorn itself, the surface area of Khaz Algar, was utterly swamped with story. So much so that I was level 76 before I even thought about leaving it and 77 before I had exhausted it. It’s a story about a long broken society finally coming back together, about loss and grief and forgetting yourself as loss etches itself into you like acid. Scythias understood that on a visceral level, and it became very hard for me to detach myself. I wasn’t playing these quests as myself anymore; I was playing them as her.

It started me thinking about how The War Within played differently for me.

Scythias has been my main since Legion, and as a result, she’s been through some stuff. During Legion, she was amazed at all the history of her people on display and then disappointed when her new Nightborne friends seemed to abandon her to join the Horde. She felt uncomfortable with the Void Elves, but still helped them join the Alliance.

Battle for Azeroth broke her. She didn’t care about Teldrassil itself, but the people who died on it destroyed her, and for a while I actually switched to playing a Blood Death Knight instead. But I decided Scythias wasn’t the type to retire, and we eventually ran through the expansion on a kill all the Horde tear. I still played Horde characters, but when I played Scythias I knew she was nowhere near the forgiveness Anduin kept pushing, and I fully embraced Tyrande’s shift to the Night Warrior. I even ran around with the same all black eyes.

In Shadowlands, new customizations let me add burn scars to her face, a visible mark of her attempt to save people from the flames of Teldrassil. That expansion let her work through the worst of her anger, and she was no longer reflexively hated Horde NPCs. But it was easy to keep what she thought and felt aside from what I thought and felt. I could still play Horde characters and enjoy them, whereas she was at best grudgingly willing to work with them.

Even in Dragonflight, where the story included heavy elements of reconciliation and a new World Tree born out of the sacrifice of those that died on Teldrassil, Scythias wasn’t really all there. She’d gotten past the anger, as much as any Warrior does — Rage is our central mechanic, so it’s always sort of there — but she’d replaced it with a kind of detachment. Helping the Dragonflights and the birth of Amirdrassil were events that helped her to a degree, but she was still angry and still hadn’t really forgiven anyone. Why would she? Nobody had apologized.

I wasn’t expecting The War Within to change that. But it did. This expansion has given Scythias grounded moments to understand, to give her something she could care about again.

Letting go of the past is easier when you see others do it

This all came together for me in Azj-Kahet, because the stories of several characters dovetail there. We see Anduin’s loss and inability to trust himself, Alleria’s rage and near-suicidal drive to bring pain to those who brought it to her and her friends. But we also see the Nerubians as people, not just spider monsters to stomp on. It all coalesced and let me imagine Scythias working out her own issues.

One of my favorite phrases, which I said out loud often while playing, was I just hit things. When Faerin Lothar and Anduin were waxing philosophical about the Light, any time I felt like Scythias was getting itchy about the discussion I heard her voice in my head saying that’s great, but is there going to be something to hit soon? And since there almost always was, I could literally feel her relief when we the talking part ended and the killing things with giant swords and lightning part began. When Xal’atath and Alleria discuss the nature of mortal life and the path of mayhem we as players have carved through gods and demons and the  land of death itself, part of Scythias was listening, but another part of her was very much waiting for the hitting things to start again.

This expansion helped me realize that she’s never going back to the excited, bubbly person she was in Legion, and that’s okay. She isn’t that person anymore, and she’s also not the one who kills Horde for fun (so her period of War Mode and PVP has essentially ended) or to quiet the screaming in her head either. She’s someone who deals with her emotions in tangible terms. She’s not a deep thinker, she doesn’t really care about the very same lore that I was practically freaking out for during this expansion. She hits things, and she’s comfortable with that.

This expansion’s story is the best, most engaging, and easiest to use as a roleplaying experience. It actually beats out Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor, my previous favorites, and I am so excited to see where we go from here.