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The QueueJan 29, 2025 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: Where are the Elders of Pandaria?

flying serpent kick

The Lunar Festival has begun so it’s time for my annual gripe: where the heck are the Elders of Pandaria? The Pandaren literally have spirits of their ancestors as regular residents on the island and yet none of them give us lucky red envelopes. This oversight still bugs me, and seeing that Khaz Algar was getting Elders kinda angered me.

Fortunately they did a fantastic job with the new Elders. They recognized the fact that actual spirit Elders of the three NPC races made no sense and instead turned it into a way of instructing residents of the past — one of the Earthen Archivists was even pretending to be an Elder for immersion. Kudos to the development team for not just mindlessly adding spirit Elders to the zones but finding a way to expand on the holiday. Now if they could just turn their attention to the southern continent …

While I cruise around everywhere but Pandaria collecting Coins of Ancestry for the cool new mount let’s answer some questions!


HIGH DENSITY WAFFLE ASKS A BIRD QUESTION

Do you have a favorite type of parrot?

The late lamented Carolina parakeet! Sadly extinct for over a hundred years, it was the only variety of parrot native to the Southeast US and one of only three with a range within the continental United States. Forget dinosaurs, I want extinct birds resurrected from DNA. Great Auks, Dodos, Passenger Pigeon — the list of avian species that have disappeared in the past 500 years is disheartening.


ENO KEEPS THE ANIMAL QUESTIONS GOING

What animal deserves a zodiac representation?

You didn’t specify which zodiac, so I’m going to give a universal answer: the Heron. The best of birds, there is little mythological representation of the Heron outside of connections to Bennu in Egyptian mythology and some tales among the various Native American cultures. It really deserves a greater role — maybe not equal to eagles, but definitely more than roosters.

If we’re talking just the chinese zodiac, I’m going to go with the Red Panda. It can replace the rat.


MUSEDMOOSE IRONICALLY DOESN’T ASK A QUESTION ABOUT ANIMALS

What are you playing in the new Diablo IV season?

Of course, the actual gaming question I can’t give a good answer to as I’m not playing this season of Diablo 4. To be honest, the Diablo franchise has always had a tough time keeping my interest between major content updates. I think it’s great that players get to enjoy the challenges of each season since they’re free updates, but there’s only so many demons I’m willing to slaughter before getting bored with the game loop.

Maybe you should ask this question again so that tomorrow’s writer can give a better answer!


SPEEDLANCER ASKED A QUESTION IN OUR DISCORD

Q for Anyone, Anywhere: When’s the last time you did some Wish List Pruning?

I actually prune pretty frequently. Wish lists to me are almost as bad as backlogs — even if I don’t own the game or book it still takes up mental “to-do” space in my brain. That said, one of the ways I’m able to let my Steam backlog not bother me as much is the fact that it’s so long (I’ve gotten a lot of games I never intended to play as part of Humble Bundles); perhaps I should overload my wish list until it’s no longer a concern?

Of course, I feel that would just turn into me buying more games than I should during sales. I’ll stick with short and curated.


MAGECOOKIES WANTED TO SAVE EVERYONE TIME WITH SOME PROACTIVE ARTIFACT DESTRUCTION

I wonder what would have happened to Xal’atath, while in knife form tossed her into the lava of Molten Core. Would she be released or destroyed as the knife melted.

The lame answer is: whatever the writer wanted. Both scenarios make sense in the context of what we know about the knife so if the goal is to get rid of Xal a fiery lava death isn’t out of the question.

The real concern with intelligent items that communicate with their possessor is whether or not you’d even be able to try. They have a tendency to be strong-willed and able to direct the actions of the owner in the interest of self-preservation. Although I’m now imagining Xal trying to prevent getting tossed into Molten Core like she’s Janet in The Good Place.


ROXXII ENGINEERS AN EXCELLENT QUESTION

Q4TQ: Are professions a part of your headcanon for your characters? Prior to this expansion mine weren’t but now they feel like a part of who they are.

For the most part, no. Part of the issue for me is that in the real world professions require constant skill upkeep to be effective; you can’t be an expert blacksmith when you’re on the road fighting dragons ten months out of the year. Granted a character could have been a blacksmith that took up adventuring because of Reasons so it makes sense from a back story perspective that I took it as one of my professions — but it also doesn’t prevent me from switching to something more useful to coincide with my current activities.

Plus I find Engineering just so useful that my three main Hunters all have it but it could strain credulity for them to all have it as part of their back story.


RAPID-FIRE RED RESPONSES

Q4TQ: what’s your favorite Greek myth?

Q4TQ: would you go on a walkabout, and find out what it’s all about?

Q4TQ:what’s your favorite dinosaur or roman emperor?

  • I’ve always been a big fan of the hero Diomedes, but outside attacking not one but two opposing gods during the Trojan War he doesn’t get much attention. I would’ve loved for him to get his own Agamemnon or Aeneid-style story but if there was one it’s no longer extant.
  • Sure why not.
  • I’ve always been a big fan of triceratops. And Trajan, the first Emperor born outside of modern-day Italy. Fuse them together and you have the Trajanatops.

RED ALSO ASKS A QUESTION THAT REQUIRES A LENGTHIER RESPONSE

How’s your progress in Metaphor? Thoughts on the game so far?

I’ve been progressing slowly as other things keep getting in my way. I’ve gotten through the Grand Cathedral dungeon and am almost at the next part of the story (I think I’m two days away from Serious Old Religious Dude making his pronouncement).

I’m enjoying it so far although it’s not quite grabbed me like the Persona games have. To be fair, though, it took awhile for those to grab me as well so I’m reserving judgement. Perhaps once I’ve unlocked more NPC friends I’ll feel more involved, but while the gameplay is great the story is still kinda iffy to me. I’m sure there will be numerous twists and surprises as it progresses, but for now it just feels thin as a premise.

Gallica is fantastic though and the game is worth it just for her.


ARTHONOS ASKS A QUESTION THAT RIPS OPEN MY BODY TO EXPOSE MY SOUL FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE

Favorite Pokemon?

Axew, followed by Psyduck. No more questions.

That’s all the space for questions today! Hopefully you’ll have a wonderful Year of the Wood Snake — maybe we’ll finally get Elders of Pandaria before it comes around again in 60 years! Be sure to ask plenty of questions, and have a great day!

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