live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
This week Joe is joined by our writer Eric O'Dea to discuss Blood Ties, the newest WoW novel. The events of Blood Ties happen between the end of The War Within but just before Midnight -- basically when we are right now. As such, there will be spoilers for both Blood Ties and a little bit of what we know happens in Midnight.
Joe and Eric point out various details they found particularly effective, and things they wished we had more of in other contexts. A fun little dinner party with lots of expository dialogue is a treat, for instance. But there's a lot of ground to cover, and Eric and Joe have a lot to say!
Subscribe to Lore Watch in your podcast player for more video game lore:
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6556539150cd070012089193
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lore-watch-podcast/id1023224738
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1CIJRbwbEVQfCg8r94HCwO
Visit us at https://blizzardwatch.com for the latest news on Blizzard games, and don't forget to subscribe on Patreon to support our efforts! https://www.patreon.com/blizzardwatch
Discord: https://discord.gg/MY9p4d7t8U
Bluesky: @blizzardwatch.com
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:10
Hello and welcome to Lore Watch table free form discussion butler in your favorite media. I'm your host Joe Perez,
0:15
one of several Laura focused folks from Blizzard Watch and I've got a special guest today since Matt is unable to be
0:22
with us. Uh I've got Eric. Eric, tell people who you are and well why you they
0:27
should listen to you. Besides, you know, you like you like story, you know. I do like the story. I've been playing
0:33
World of Warcraft for decades. Um always was sort of surface level in interested
0:38
and aware of the story going on. But just in the last couple years, um
0:43
started to really get into it. Started to listen to lore watch. I started to write for Blizzard Watch and get into
0:50
some tinfoil hat theories of my own after reading you guys forever. So, um,
0:55
you know, haven't read all however many novels there are at this point. Dozen them. Yeah, I haven't haven't read them
1:00
all. Haven't gone back to too many, but I did read um the, uh, one before
1:05
Dragonfly with the, you know, Dragon Heavy. Um, and I did read Blood Ties.
1:10
Um, trying to keep up with the story going forward to be, you know, as into it as I can. And that's what we're going to be
1:16
talking about today, friends. Uh, we're going to be talking about the Blood Ties novel. Uh, if you're listening to this,
1:22
it means you probably are a Patreon subscriber and you're listening it on the Tuesday that the long maintenance is
1:28
happening for the pre- midnight patch. And I figured what better time to get that stuff out there uh than to do it in
1:35
advance of uh well to get this novel in there in that exact. So spoilers will be
1:41
there. Uh we're this is your one warning. So if you're a we're going to read the book, maybe come back later and
1:47
you can hear our thoughts on it. I do highly recommend reading it. Uh, and also as a little bit of a warning, at
1:54
the end of this, we're going to be talking about how this will be a primer for some of the things coming at
2:00
midnight or things that we know are coming in midnight. Uh, so there will be some minor spoilers for that as well.
2:07
But without further ado, let's get started. Uh this is the latest novel in
2:13
the Warcraft series that tries to advance the story and it is written by Christy Golden uh who is an absolutely
2:21
phenomenal writer and if you've read any of her books before you know pretty much
2:26
exactly what you're going to get into. This tends to focus around the relationship uh between uh Yaria
2:34
Windrunner uh our our our wonderful uh boy scout uh Talion and uh their son
2:43
Erritor and the relationship that they have and its complications.
2:49
One of the things that I think is really good about this novel and one of the things that I think Christie really excels at is that sort of interpersonal
2:56
writing and basically character studies, if that makes sense. I don't know how
3:02
you feel about it, Eric, but I thought that this really did focus in on not
3:07
just them, but like them moving through the world and how their relationship with each other sort of intertwines with
3:14
the relationship of those around them. Yeah, I agree. It really was like exploring the relationship between the
3:19
three of them because it is I mean awkward. Um every every time that they seem like
3:25
they got on a good footing together, one of them would say or do something and the other two would kind of look at each
3:31
other and and and they're still trying to figure out how to be a family, you know. Um they've been around for a
3:37
really long time. Artor was seeking them out for a while and now that they're spending time together, they're trying
3:42
to figure out like like who they are and whether they can have normal relationships. And so it read a little
3:49
bit like, you know, a World of Warcraft campaign with lots of quests. Like they're going to different parts of Azeroth to accomplish different things,
3:57
but in the meantime, there's a lot of exposition. There's a lot of seeing, you know, we learn things that happened a
4:03
long time ago. We see them interact with each other and develop and kind of understand where they're coming from in
4:08
a way that you don't get with like two or three quest text paragraphs. Yeah. And and the framing of it is
4:15
interesting too because it's not just them sitting down and having like a family discussion or talking about what
4:23
they want or or you know uh or I went to Outland looking for you and I couldn't find you and I thought you were dead mom
4:29
and dad and why don't why don't you like like each other anymore and all these other crazy things. No, it was framed in
4:36
the line of duty and service which I think really fits these characters well.
4:41
Um, so the the setup for the novel, it opens up with uh just out in Suramar
4:48
where uh Felhold is. And Felhold is a place that we've assaulted. If you've
4:53
done Legion at all, uh you are very familiar with this. If you've done Legion remix recently, you've probably
4:59
done a few things that have led you to Fel Soul Hold. It was a demon stronghold and hold out point with a soul engine
5:06
that they were using to essentially feed the invasion uh into the broken Isles.
5:12
Well, in uh here, this is years have passed. Uh the land around is starting
5:19
to heal. Druids of the Senarian circle have been coming to Suramar to help heal the land just as they've been doing
5:25
elsewhere in the world. Uh we've seen the effect if you've actually traveled through the game world at all. Um, and
5:31
it it's repeated here. Uh, and these youths uh are playing essentially a
5:37
prank going into Fel Soul Hold, which is, and I'm going to air quote, harmless. Uh, shenanigans ensue. One of
5:46
the the kids plays it off as if it's a prank for the other ones. Uh, but we get our first sort of uh, foreshadowing that
5:53
there's something more vicious or sinister laying under the surface. these kids thinking that they're going to get
5:59
in trouble wind up going back home uh and tell their parents essentially uh
6:05
that there was they saw fell energy that they saw the green light that they they they definitely saw something and that
6:12
there was you know that's really what happened and then you know it's not our we didn't do anything it's it's really what happened. Um, this winds up making
6:19
its way all the way up to uh, first Arcanis uh, Thorissa and Lothar as uh,
6:26
they are often spending time together. Uh, and it sort of goes from there. Now,
6:33
I liked this setup. It was maybe a little, for my opinion, over like
6:40
heavy-handed overshadowing. I don't know how you felt about it, but I did like the idea that Suramar is healing because
6:46
it's something we haven't really heard about or seen in game or hasn't really been discussed at all since we've left
6:52
the Broken Isles. Yeah, I I feel the same way that, you know, opening on Fel Soul Hold and the
6:58
kids creeping through. It's like, you know, opening in the haunted house when the movie is about the haunted house and it's like, okay, this isn't going to be
7:04
nothing. This isn't just going to be like these characters aren't the main characters. Like, something's going to
7:09
happen. Um, but yeah, it was cool to hear changes, these little details in
7:15
the world that we don't see patch to patch or expansion to expansion where it's been years since, you know, the
7:22
Legion was fought off and Fel Soul Hold hasn't been the home of demons and the
7:28
druids of Senarian Circle are working to reclaim the land. And so just the little
7:33
details of, you know, blasted rocks that actually have flowers and grasses growing on them, like the the the world
7:40
like you you don't see that if you fly there right now in retail, but just
7:45
knowing that these things happen. It's like a cool detail. It's like, oh, that's that's awesome that that would happen. And and and it gives more of a
7:52
idea of a living world to, you know, all of Azeroth, too. Yeah. And I think that's really significant. And we we talk about how
7:58
the game world does change and update occasionally. Uh, and usually it's during major patches and expansions. And
8:06
with us just being through Legion Remix, we kind of understand maybe a little bit
8:11
of why this is the setup now and why Legion Remix was the choice before moving into Midnight as a you should
8:18
revisit these quest lines. Um so from here it moves to uh from that fell hold
8:25
setup it moves to Erator at light light's hope uh chapel where the paladin
8:32
order hall is uh mending armor of one of his uh of his former uh knight that he
8:39
was a vassel to that he was the squire to uh I cannot remember Lord Winthrop I
8:45
believe it was uh with Lord Winthrop's current essentially squire or at least
8:50
hopeful to be swire. Um, and this kid is sitting here in awe of hammering out and
8:56
mending arbor. Um, it goes through Er's thought process and some of his internal
9:01
dialogue about how he's dissatisfied with essentially the silver hand because
9:08
like many of us as players have been sort of complaining about for a very long time. The Paladin order is very
9:14
rigid and very black and white in its way of thinking for most things now.
9:21
Yes, the silverhand allowed a uh nathresm to be part of uh the paladin
9:28
order hall being redeemed in the light lethraxian. Uh but other than that, they're pretty I I don't want to call
9:35
them fantasy races cuz they're really not. But they're like they look at things like, oh, the undead are or the
9:42
scourge are undead. They just they're they're not natural. or uh even Terellion struggled with this and we
9:47
know this with Ayria and her her void powers which this will come back later where the void is evil. It's always
9:52
evil. absolutely evil will consume everything to oh wait my my betro is not
9:58
actually consumed by uh void and dying and Er is sort of the one who is framed
10:05
here of seeing the good in everybody in every aspect of the world but he's
10:11
frustrated because he's not advancing in the silver hand because he's not adhering essentially to their strict
10:17
rules or doing it exactly as they feel he should. He's a rule breaker. He stretches the rules because he does and
10:25
it's something we've talked about here on the show a lot believe that paladins at their core should be helping people
10:33
rules be damned. And I really liked that characterization of him because he is
10:39
one of the younger uh heroes in the same way that Lady Leandrin is. Uh she's old
10:46
but not quite as old as some of the others as far as names we've known have existed. and Er being sort of that young
10:53
upstart that is bringing fresh ideas and fresh perspective to something that's become stdy I thought was a really nice
11:00
touch and characterization for him that I don't think we've seen in game yet. I believe we do see it in Midnight. Yeah,
11:06
I think that he's a good representation of almost the generational change and
11:12
like the the Silverhand is a good example of doing things the old way and the old way of looking at like you said
11:18
black and white and it's not the second war anymore. There's so much that's
11:24
changed. There's so many new uh allies and and changing ways to use powers that
11:31
we've discovered. And um Narator is kind of just, you know, making friends and
11:38
and helping people. I think at one point he uh he's listening to the oath of the paladins and he's kind of like for some
11:46
of the points he's like, "Yeah, not so much." And then it's the one about like helping people. He's like, "That's what it's all about." And so he he does bend
11:53
the rules, but it's not even, you know, a a rogue upstart comes along and bends the rules that everybody else considers
11:59
to be the rules. He's sort of just playing fast and loose because he's trying to get things done. He's trying
12:05
to help people and he he almost considers himself to be, you know, this is the way we need to do things now if
12:10
we want to make a difference at all or else we're going to get left behind. We're going to lose. You know, these are big conflicts and if we don't use every
12:17
weapon in our arsenal and if you think some of the things that we could use our weapons are actually, you know, too evil
12:23
to be picked up, you know, then, you know, we're not going to we're not going to do well. So, I I I I do like that
12:30
it's established kind of early on that he's a bit of a a rule breaker, but he's he's okay with it and he thinks in his
12:36
mind that he's doing the right thing. Yeah. And I think that's it's a really important part of that character because
12:41
this is something that will echo throughout the rest of the story and is very important. Um, and from here we see
12:48
that he's essentially not getting the the recognition that he wants. And then
12:53
Lady Leandrin shows up and Lady Leandrin has a bond with uh with Eratri that uh
12:59
maybe others don't really recognize. We find later on and and I'm just going to
13:04
kind of jump just a little bit ahead. We find out that actually has a home in
13:09
Silver Moon City, which I don't think has ever been discussed before, which means that he's around the blood elves
13:16
and former high elves quite a bit, which I think is absolutely fascinating. Um
13:21
but that is his sort of heritage right that was where his family served years
13:26
and years and years ago uh or eons ago before everything happened where and and
13:32
him sort of returning there or or having a home there is significant which means
13:38
Leand coming up to him and talking with him is not abnormal. like she is a
13:43
knight of the silver hand, but this now indicates that they probably have more discussions and more interactions than
13:50
we have seen or would have thought of. And it will also come into play again that mild spoiler at the opening
13:57
sequence of Midnight because you realize that this is part of the reason why
14:02
Erator cares so much about the blood elves in particular. He he knows them.
14:08
He he they're his people in as much as all the elves are. Uh so he's he's
14:14
connected to them in a way that I don't think is really broadcast in game. And Lady Leand sees his frustration, calls
14:20
it out. They sit and drink some uh sun-kissed wine. I I can't remember the exact name of the sun wine. Um and she
14:27
tells him, "You can't just sit here waiting for them to give you a mission.
14:33
You need to go out into the world and accomplish those deeds. I know this is something you believe in. You need to do
14:40
it and I have this exact perfect thing for you. Uh and so we find out here that
14:47
uh Lady Thorissa and and Lothar have reached out uh to the blood knights in
14:53
particular, which they never really explained why, but I think it has to do
14:58
with the fact that they are paladin elves more than anything else. Uh, and the blood elves and the elves of Suramar
15:06
understand each other and a level that other races generally don't. Other
15:12
heritages don't really uh get. Maybe the orcs would be the next closest because they understand sort of that addiction
15:18
to energy, that addiction to power, how crippling it can be, and then seeking redemption right there. So she goes,
15:26
"They're asking for us to go and investigate these reports that there's been demonic activity in Felsho Hold,
15:31
but my knights I think would potentially be bored with this." And she says it,
15:36
not that she actually thinks they're going to be bored with it, but she goes, "I think you could do this on your own. I think you're more than and perfectly
15:43
capable of going and scouting." And it's her way of trying to bring him out of this sort of funky's in. And I really
15:51
like this because again it highlights the importance of that relationship with
15:57
Artor and Leandrin and the blood elves which again was a very nice touch.
16:02
Yeah, I think that having Leaddin kind of play this role and rec like see a little bit of herself in Artor is a nice
16:09
touch where Artor you know being part elf doesn't fit in in Stormmy doesn't
16:15
feel like he belongs in Stormwind. being part human doesn't feel like he exactly belongs in Silver Moon. Being, you know,
16:21
not in love with the Silverhand, he's not exactly at home there either. So, he doesn't really he's like one of those
16:26
wanderer characters who kind of bops from place to place because he never really finds a place he belongs. And you
16:32
can see a little bit of that in Leaddin from going from like being a priest to a paladin and and f and having the um all
16:39
of the, you know, high elves sort of uh maybe look down on the way that they got
16:45
their power and things like that. Um so I think she definitely recognized that
16:50
this is just what he needed and even though maybe she could have taken care had somebody else do it that she kind of
16:55
like lined it up perfectly and said, "Oh, I can I can hand this off and have it really work out for him." which is
17:01
good and that again it gives that framing right it gives that sort of that that groundwork to build off of. From
17:09
here we shift perspectives and we go back to Surar and here we have a a
17:15
dinner an evening a party between uh old friends, new friends uh frenemies if you
17:21
would. Terellion is is here with Yari having dinner with Theosissa and
17:26
Lothamar. And Yria and Lothamar were very close at one point in time before
17:32
Lothamar uh joined the horde and before
17:37
almost blew up the Sunwell with her void. Um and there's still tension
17:42
there. It's there's a a familiarity that they have with each other. She has fondness for the memories of their
17:48
youth, but again, there's this this separation. And Theorissa doesn't really
17:54
seem to care about faction divides, which I think is fantastic. She's one of the newest Horde leaders to really enter
18:00
into it. And she doesn't care about I don't care that you're alliance. we are
18:06
having relations and it would be better for the world if we did this more often where and and she says this line here
18:11
while they're having dinner that really stuck out to me and is something I've been screaming from the rooftops for
18:16
probably years is maybe we should have dinner more often instead of just having
18:22
conversations and meeting like this to discuss strategy and it's like yes thank you because one of the things we never
18:29
see in game are the quiet moments between crisis and those exist
18:35
And we get to experience some of them at a lower level. But these highranking characters, these characters that are so
18:41
important to the story that are entire leaders of a of a heritage or faction, they generally don't get to have their
18:48
quiet moments uh explored or experienced. And she said the quiet part out loud,
18:55
like why don't we do this more often? Uh which was I thought a really interesting
19:00
touch. I don't know how you felt about that one. Yeah, I mean you can only have so many quests in World of Warcraft be,
19:05
you know, have a dinner party and just listen to the characters catch up because you're you're your character is
19:11
sort of a character but not really. So you don't get, you know, you can pick dialogue options from a drop down and
19:18
maybe they'll influence the conversation. And I really love the stay a while and listen options that we've
19:23
gotten in the last couple expansions where, you know, it's optional. you can fly off to do the next thing or once the
19:29
action has calmed down you can hear you know sometimes those go on for two or three minutes it's not just a couple of
19:34
extra lines. Um but just those those extra interactions that are not okay
19:42
well that was good and the enemy's defeated so see you at next crisis. um
19:48
to actually be able to share like who the who these people are with each other um is always something that you know you
19:56
wish you could have more of in the game but there's only so much room for it. Yeah. Uh then we also get a first
20:01
glimpse of something we've know has always been there but we get to see how it simmerred and we've experienced it if
20:08
you've done the war within. There are these moments between and that are
20:15
fraught with tension, right? They the void and light are opposing forces in a
20:22
lot of ways. Um, and they haven't really spent a whole lot of time in each
20:28
other's orbit, at least in terms of the war within uh, up to that point, but they have fondness for each other. They
20:34
still care about each other. And we find out here that they they just figured out how to like touch each other without
20:40
exploding each other. Like they can hold they can hold hands without burning each other finally.
20:45
Um but we also find out some little tiny bits of information. One, they've never married. And I thought that was
20:52
absolutely fascinating because everybody who talks about the lore,
20:58
everybody who talks about the story, talks about the characters have always referred to them as husband and wife.
21:04
when in truth they've never had a marriage. They've never they've never
21:10
sanctified it. They've just been a couple. And I think that is really
21:15
fascinating that it and it becomes a driving point for these characters that
21:21
I think is also really interesting. And I'm sorry, I'm probably going to say that a lot because again, Chrissy Golden
21:28
does such good character introspection. It is phenomenal. Uh but you get to hear
21:35
all that turmoil, all that strife and it starts with just the simple question of literally uh Theresa and Loam are asking
21:43
how do you keep a marriage happy for so long? You guys have been doing it for a thousand years. And that's when all this
21:49
cascades uh and I thought that was really fascinating. And then in in these moments as they're having sort of this
21:55
awkward uh internal discussion about uh you know putting on the brave face uh they talk
22:03
about you know what's going on with Suramar and everything else. Uh they start talking a little bit about the
22:09
reports that they were getting as far as the uh fell activity and then Artor
22:15
walks in on this dinner conversation. Uh and we get this awkward the good family
22:21
reunion. Aria jumps up, embraces him. Uh, Tallian is very happy to see him, but then also kind of like is scolding
22:27
him a little cuz he's not following protocol and that also becomes a a a key
22:33
point that we'll get to later. We don't have a lot of time to recount everything. So, I'll kind of speed along a little unless there's anything you
22:39
want to add to that. No, I I I agree that uh there after a thousand years,
22:44
they don't even have like a label for each other. It's not like they're always calling each other like my companion or they just kind of settled into yeah
22:51
we're we're we're near each other and that's fascinating cuz we don't have a we don't have an
22:57
analog like we in the real world don't live for anywhere near that long so we don't have time to settle into uh well
23:04
maybe we'll get married someday but there's not time cuz we're always chasing the next thing. So, it's trying
23:10
to wrap your mind around hundreds of years of, hey, maybe we should get married after the next Oh, nope. Look,
23:16
more more fell hounds. Mhm. Mhm. So, from here, they they sort
23:22
of is going to go on this mission, and he's going to go and he's going to investigate the festival hold, and his
23:28
parents are going to tag along with him. They wind up going into the the hold. They see that the land out in the
23:33
outskirts is starting to repair itself. They make note of it. Uh they wind up going in and they wind up digging their
23:39
way through uh to a central location where they discover that the soul engine
23:44
is online again. Uh Felold, which they thought was absolutely destroyed in the
23:50
invasion uh the Legion invasion, is up and running again and actually has souls
23:56
in it. They find a couple bodies uh laying in the an alco off to the side.
24:02
one of which is a you one of the youths from earlier that had tried to carve a
24:08
protection rune on his hand uh and failed miserably uh that we then now get
24:14
that payoff that well if he's dead something happened right we we get that
24:19
little bit of more pushing it towards uh they come back and start to or they're going to come back and report uh but
24:26
then they start noticing that I believe it's here where they find the the the encampment not too far way they start
24:33
looking for I believe it's paths or they start looking for trails that lead to uh
24:40
just basically around felh hold to see where those two bodies may have come from and they discover an encampment
24:46
that has been completely not necessarily ravaged but there are signs of conflict
24:52
here there are overturned food or overturned tables and chairs food that's been left to burn on fires and not a
25:00
soul to be seen they wind up Going inside, they discover a uh a large tent
25:06
that was probably for a large family. They open up a chest as they hear some banging in it, thinking that it's going
25:12
to be like an emperor, a demon that got captured. And inside they find a uh nightborn woman uh with her child. They
25:20
find that Felbats had come and and scooped away all of the the folks here. Uh and then they're besieged by Felbats
25:27
shortly thereafter. Fighting ensues. Uh there's the family drama of them all
25:33
being worried for each other. One might die, the other one might die. Uh and you see sort of another new tension building
25:39
which I don't think people have considered before. A lot of times we look at the heroes as I don't want to
25:45
say infallible but in combat they are monolith. Here we get a little bit more of that internal character building
25:51
where you know Er is almost falling to his death so freaks out and figures out
25:56
how to save him. Yari is gonna potentially fall to great injury. Arertor freaks out and figures out how
26:02
to save her. And all of this is happening in the middle of combat where
26:07
they're more worried about each other than maybe they are necessarily about the fight at hand. And it almost costs
26:13
them at several different turns. something that then Terellion scolds essentially both of them for after the
26:19
combat is done, which I liked this characterization as well because again it takes that that sort of monolithic
26:27
uh persona and makes it human or at least humanoid. Yeah. At the dinner party, you get a
26:32
little bit of okay, this family is awkward because they don't know how to talk to each other or talk about big
26:37
things or make small talk or anything. And then as soon as they get into combat, they're like way too concerned with what each other is doing and
26:44
protecting and Yria like can't stop making sure that Artor is okay and like
26:49
not sure if he can handle himself. So it's like a comedy of errors that just goes into another gear and switches
26:55
scenes but just keeps going. So from here they take uh Mavara, the
27:01
the last survivor and her child back to Lady uh the the first arcanist and
27:06
Lothamar. They report back. Uh the first arcanist gets her set up at her personal
27:11
estate with the dusk uh watch uh which is their essential city guard, their
27:16
security forces, uh going and and and watching over her. Uh where again the
27:23
you get little snippets of things that don't feel right. Uh her baby is just every time she's holding the child ever
27:30
ma the child is wailing and screaming and crying and inconsolable. The minute the child goes to anybody else,
27:38
perfectly calm, calms down, restful. So again, that little foreshadowing that
27:45
that little that little bit that something's off. Uh, and then we wind up getting all these moments where now we
27:51
go back to Lady uh the the first Arcanist. We go back to uh Loamar and we
27:57
go back to Terrellian and Erator sitting down and talking where now they're
28:03
looking to start hunting. They want to go and find what the demon is that is,
28:09
you know, doing this. They want to track it down. What demon could possibly be reactivating so hold? So, they're going
28:15
to go off and do this while uh the first Arcanist and Lithar are setting up
28:20
forces here locally in Suramar to set up a perimeter and scour the area and keep
28:26
the citizens safe, bring in refugees and do what they can to keep everybody uh safe and secure. This is the vehicle for
28:34
which a lot of the aerator uh sort of personality building comes into play
28:40
because you need to be able to hunt a demon or track and you need to be able
28:46
to fight a demon. And while Terion and Yria are both accomplished fighters and
28:51
hunters, this is something that is maybe a little bit outside of their normal
28:58
comfort zone. It's a singular foe or at least that's what this is presented as. And they're not used to hunting singular
29:04
foes. They're used to like larger military action or you know larger conflicts. Even with hunting Zealot,
29:11
while Zotath is this one gigantic monolithic enemy, she's still hunting
29:18
everything else in between and working her way up the food chain. There's not necessarily a food chain for her to work
29:23
up here, but they are going to join. And this is where takes him on essentially a
29:28
world's tour which some interesting stops along the way. The first one is
29:35
like well if we're going to hunt a demon maybe we should reach out to some friends of mine. Uh and this is where
29:42
we're really good at hunting demons. And he goes really cuz you haven't been on Azeroth for a very long time. things
29:49
have changed and there are other people that are very like thumb on the pulse of what current demon demonic activity on
29:56
Azeroth looks like. I need you to trust me. And so they go and they talk with
30:01
well demon hunters because who else are you going to ask to go speak with? And I
30:06
thought this was really neat, too, uh, because it was presented in such a way that he was trying to hide it from his
30:13
father, knowing how his father would react, because Terellion does not care for demon hunters. They literally
30:19
consume demons and keep them inside of them at bay. This is a bad thing. He's fought enough of them that have gone off
30:24
the deep end. Also, don't forget Terellion went toe-to-toe with Illan,
30:29
and people forget about that. Uh, and he lived to tell the tale, which not very
30:35
many people get to do. Uh, so he freaks out when he finds out that they're going
30:41
to go talk with the uh the the demon hunters. Uh, and then Erat has to calm
30:46
him down and talk with him and be like, "Yes, this is something they deal with every single day, that darkness inside
30:51
of them, you know, like mother had to do." And like she's got under control. thought it was a nice sobering moment
30:56
because then you see Terrilian start to like put that bias aside a little bit
31:01
and start like, "Oh, okay. Well, wait a minute. I don't hate Yaria. Like, I was scared by her for a little while. Okay,
31:08
maybe maybe I can see where this is coming from. Maybe maybe it's not as black and white as I thought." And I and
31:14
and this is like the first like dent in the armor, I think. And I thought it was a really nice touch. Yeah, we get like
31:21
another layer of Artor here because he, you know, bends the rules and doesn't
31:27
feel like he fits in, but another part of his personality and his character is that he knows people and he's made
31:33
friends everywhere he goes. And so when something comes up that they need to track a demon, he's like, "Yeah, I I got
31:40
someone for that. I I have an idea. I know who he could ask and you're not going to like it." And then he assumes that Tallion's going to freak out and he
31:46
tells him and then Terallion does exactly what Artor thinks he's going to do. And he's like all Sam the eagle and
31:52
he's like is nothing sacred. How could you think of allying with these people? And and
31:58
uh Artor is just kind of like okay well you know gives an examp and finally he's just kind of like what if what if I told
32:04
you they were my friends and I trust them and he's like well all right fine. like he's not happy about it, but he agrees to it. But it's it's the first
32:10
instance of like, all right, well, it's it's, you know, it's it's like in the
32:16
real world would say it's 2026, get with the program. Like, come on. Things aren't done the way they have been forever. The world is different. But
32:23
like literally, the world is different. Like these someone with a demon inside of them would not have worked with Paladins maybe 20, 30 years ago in game.
32:31
But there's different fa there's different factions. There's evolving alliances. And Arator does have friends
32:37
who are demon hunters, like good friends. And so it's not like he's like, "Oh, well, it's a big risk." He's like,
32:43
"I absolutely know that they will help us. Let's go." And that's exactly what they go. They're going to go see Kane
32:48
Sunfury, uh, which is the leader of the demon hunters, the Ilidari, who is not
32:55
the player character champion, even though technically they the player character is the uh the leader of the
33:01
the faction. Uh, which again, nice touch. Uh, but they go in and it they're
33:08
met with exactly the type of disdain you would think for a Paladin. Not Er, mind
33:14
you. Uh, he's greeted warmly. Yari is greeted warmly. Tell they're a little bit cold, too, because again, Paladin
33:21
Light probably doesn't like them. They know they they know there's going to be tension there. They bring them in and
33:27
there's this big bravado show from Karen Sanfury and the rest of the uh the demon
33:32
hunters and to which you kind of find out that they're playing a prank on
33:38
Terallion, specifically Terallion. You get this point where they're they're like essentially talking down to all of
33:45
them except for Yria. And like you're getting to this point where Terelion's reaching for the light and then Karen
33:52
like gets everybody to do like the demon hunter salute and everything else and then starts laughing because he's like I
33:59
got you. And then you see all the tension drain from Trion with this this familiarity this warmth that between
34:05
Artor and and and Sunfury. And he's like I was reaching for the light. He's like
34:11
oh I know I knew I I was pushing it. I was pushing the boundary. And it's like that too was very much a good moment
34:17
with Kairen Sunfury because like he's another one that we haven't really gotten a whole lot of his personality
34:23
aside from like the Legion Demon Hunter uh orderh hall or the Legion Demon Hunter Order Hall questing and starting
34:30
experience and he's another one that I would like to see more of because he's another younger leader and it was really
34:36
just fascinating. Um I I I I don't know how you felt about that.
34:41
Yeah, I thought it was hilarious. like I some parts of the novel I was kind of reading I was like okay this is this is
34:47
foreshadowing for this I did not see this coming and so when he you know they started to burst out laughing and
34:53
whatever and then Terellion didn't appreciate it and all the demon hunters in Kane Sunfury didn't care like they
35:00
were just like that was fun what do you need so at this point they they have a
35:06
conversation they're informed of a particular artifact that one of the demon hunters has they'll allow them to
35:12
attune the energies uh in the demonic engine, the soul engine to find what the
35:18
demon is and figure out who it is. And they go on this side adventure to essentially discover uh where this demon
35:25
hunter is. They wind up going to Outlands and Shatter City. And we have another characterization moment here
35:32
between Hilaria and Terellion that I think is really important. They they accomplish their goals. They get the
35:38
artifact that they need. But one of the interesting things is there's two points of tension because don't forget and
35:45
terion went through the dark portal. They went to outland and there are two
35:52
established bases that each of them is responsible for. You have honor hold and
35:58
hellfire peninsula which terion and the sons of lothar uh founded where spent a
36:04
good chunk of his time when we dealt with. Uh and then you have stronghold uh
36:09
down over near Aendum which I thought was very fascinating as well. And you realize that both of them have been
36:16
avoiding it for a thousand years. Essentially to them it's been a thousand years and there's all these questions
36:23
and doubt uh in particular at first with Yria because they're going to ya
36:28
stronghold first and are these people there? She didn't want it to be named
36:33
after her. are my friends still alive? And then she gets there and there's a
36:38
very touching moment where this young elven girl who she remembered from when
36:44
she first got there essentially uh grew up to be a member of the military who
36:50
grew up to be a person stationed at a stronghold. And you have this thing like
36:56
she made a lasting impact on this person so that they grew up and wanted to be a
37:02
hero and do good. And it was this really nice touching moment where for us it was
37:08
heartwarming and for Laria it was grounding because at the core of Valyria's conflict is that she feels she
37:14
has to be alone. Even before she became a void elf, even before she became the
37:20
student of Locust Walker, she's done almost everything by herself minus the
37:26
time she spent at war with Terellion. She left her family to go fight the Horde. Uh, and she did most of that
37:34
essentially by herself. Her sisters stayed home. Uh, her family stayed home.
37:39
And she's spent a lot of her time solo hunting. And you get that from the war within where she's
37:47
a a very solitary person, but this is a very sobering moment for her. And I thought that was a really nice touch as
37:53
well. Yeah. First of all, the game's been going on long enough that people we encountered or the characters
37:58
encountered as children are now grown up and they have their own careers and they've chosen a class. We see it with
38:03
Candria from we we bring around as an orphan and now she's a a blood knight and you get someone who, you know, ran
38:10
into Ayria back when, you know, we were playing the Warcraft games and now she's
38:15
here. Um, and there's also a moment where Yria asks after someone at the stronghold and everyone's kind of like,
38:22
"Ooh." and that person fell in combat like decades ago. Um, and everybody
38:28
assumed that she would know that. And it's kind of like that, you know, she has to keep her distance. She can't she
38:34
has to be on the hunt. She has to be on her own. She can't even like keep updated with people that she's known or
38:41
else she won't be, you know, always tracking. And you get that those little moments like when when we get her
38:47
thoughts. Sometimes her thoughts are like as she sits there like enjoying a drink and and catching up, she wonders
38:53
what Zalat is doing because she's planning for the next thing. Like that's just a yria. She's has to be focused on
38:59
the next thing. Um, and I thought that was another cool moment to kind of show how she's just insulated herself from
39:05
being part of almost society. And then we have another moment later on where
39:12
they're getting they've accomplished their goal. They've gotten they've helped with a hunt to uh essentially free up the Fang. Uh the demon hunter
39:19
has given them this this artifact that'll allow them to track uh their quarry and they need to go back through
39:26
the dark portal. But Er says, "When is the last time you really stopped? We've
39:32
been going for 3 days at this point. I am exhausted. We are filthy. We can It
39:39
will keep a night. A night won't make a few scant hours won't make that big of a
39:44
difference. We can rest at we're going to be no good to anybody if we if we are
39:52
out of our gourds. And so he arranges for them to essentially go to honor
39:57
hold. And while he's doing that, they go and actually see the dark portal. And
40:03
this is also another really interesting moment because for us the dark portal is this huge thing and it was this huge
40:11
monstrous thing and for them they're looking at it and I thought it was interesting the way that it was
40:17
described as this thing weathered by time a a construction of just stone
40:24
slowly being broken down. And they started deconstructing it as like, yes, the the hooded figures that flank either
40:31
side of it have pits of of fell uh that were meant to be, you know, like eyes
40:36
underneath the hooded uh a dragon crest the top of it uh trying to give you this
40:41
scale. But then Trion says something that I think is really interesting. He's like, it just seems small now. the
40:47
enormity of it at the time being a gateway from an invasion both ways uh
40:54
from the Horde to Azeroth and from the Azeroth pushing back the Horde. It it
41:00
sort of lost its menace, I think, for lack of a better term. I don't know how you would describe it.
41:06
I think doesn't one of them throw a rock at it and like take off a nose from one of the statues on it like
41:11
Yeah. Yeah. Like a piece crumbles off after they they knock it with a stone. Yeah. like thinking about them charging
41:16
through it decades ago and spending a thousand years crisscrossing the
41:21
universe fighting stuff and then finding themselves back there looking up at it going
41:27
man like it's it's so it's such a weird moment but it's also a a good moment too
41:33
because they start reflecting on it and they start reflecting on where they've come from and where they're headed to
41:39
and then they wind up going back to honor hold uh they wind up going back to the end they see their friends. Uh,
41:46
Athor brings his friends in. Uh there's this big touching moment between all of
41:51
them and then Alyia and and Terellion get to have a quiet evening together to
41:57
reflect on their journey, how they came together and reminisce about how their
42:03
relationship started, which I think is also really important because if you've been alive and together and fighting for
42:11
a thousand years, reminding yourself of where you came from and and what grounds you and what what relationships matter
42:17
is really important. Uh they wind up trying they they get they wind up going back to Felhole. They
42:24
attune this artifact to the demonic demon's energy. They wind up tracking down the demon. They take a swing at it
42:31
essentially. Uh realizing too late that this demon is able to mask itself as other people and in this particular
42:38
cases mask itself as uh one of the dusk watch I believe when they when this happens uh before disappearing. I think
42:46
it was the captain of the um before essentially escaping them. The artifact
42:51
is a oneshot. Once it's located the demon and done its duty, it can never be attuned to that demonic energy again.
42:58
And so now they're they they know the name of the demon because the demon essentially taunted them and they're
43:05
left without a means to track it. So what do they do? Er again has a plan.
43:11
What is his plan, you might ask? going to other allies. In this particular case, another set of people that know
43:18
way too much about demons, warlocks, they go to the the void or I think it's
43:24
the void scar or is it the felcar? I can't remember. Felcar dread scar. Dread scar. Thank you. I can't too many
43:30
names in this dang game. But they go to the dreadcar and they reach out to uh
43:36
again's friends, people that he's worked with. And Terellion is again vehemently
43:42
against this idea uh warlocks are evil and all this other stuff. And at this
43:47
point Yria has left them and gone off to hunt on her own while they make their way through Silver Moon City and make uh
43:54
get contacts with them in uh through Artor in Murder Row. uh and they wind up
43:59
going to the Dread Scar where again Terellion is challenged in his
44:05
perceptions uh because he is met from a by a particular warlock. And I'll let
44:10
you talk about this if you want to, but I thought this was a really fascinating uh interaction because this character I
44:16
thought was one that most people didn't realize had a connection with the Paladin Order.
44:22
Yeah. So, if I recall correctly, it's uh Forsaken who has a brother in the
44:29
Paladin Order who has just disowned her, has just, you know, if you if you go up
44:35
and ask about her, he says like, "Nope, she was killed in the, you know, one of
44:41
the early early parts of the Warcraft story." And um yeah, that's the end of it. And so, you know, Artor has made
44:49
friends with this person in in Silver Moon. It's another like like they just did this like Areritor's like I've got a
44:55
solution but you're not going to like it and Terellion's like we already did that and Artor's like it's I got another one
45:01
for you and it's it goes exactly the same and I thought you know sometimes when two things happen in a story and
45:07
it's the same thing. It's like okay we just did this. I thought it was great that he immediately is like, "Well, okay, now we have a new problem that we
45:13
can't track this demon, but I do know someone who can help us, that you're not
45:19
going to be happy that I'm friends with, and you're not going to be happy that we go to um and they and they go right into Silver Moon and do that." And
45:25
Terellion's like, "I really really don't want to do this. Like, I already did it once. I'm not going to do it a second time." But like Artor has to convince
45:31
him and has to be again. It has to be like, "Do you trust me? Like, I am I'm friends with these people. These are my
45:36
allies. They've helped me. they will help me again. I help them. Like, let's get this done. And of course, Yria is
45:43
just like, "Well, I should be on my own." And she's gone. Like, that's just what she does.
45:48
Yeah. And and the names of the people, by the way, are Jebbeca uh Shadowbreaker, who is uh part of the
45:53
Council of the Black Harvest, Master of Demonologist, and uh you can find them in the order hall for the Warlocks. And
46:00
then the paladin that she is related to is Lord Grayson's shadowbreaker who you
46:05
can also find in light's hope chapel. Um we find out here too that uh and this is
46:12
a sobering moment again for Terellion. Jebeca when she was uh brought back from
46:17
uh death into unlife as part of the scourge and then eventually broke free uh and became forsaken. She went to go
46:25
talk with her brother. Uh, and he just considers her dead and completely disowned her. And this sort of breaks
46:33
Terellion a little bit. He's like, he even apologizes to her that, you know,
46:38
he's, I'm sorry that you had to go through that or feel that. And little by
46:43
little, you're seeing Trilion's perspective start to like chip away, which I think is is really fascinating.
46:48
And so they interesting. If it wasn't with Artor, he might not have had that chipping away
46:55
happen, but Artor is definitely like having an effect on his armor. Have Artor is definitely trying to get him to
47:01
come along to like the modern way of thinking and and things like that. So, if you had just walked up to Terellion
47:07
at Lights Hope and given him the story, he might have scoffed or he might not have been as receptive. But, uh, he's
47:13
he's he has to kind of question his own beliefs and his his his uh his worldview
47:20
being like following Arator around and seeing how he interacts with people. Yeah. And we're going to move a little bit quickly here because we're running
47:26
out of time and I want to kind of get to the crescendo cuz the credential happens shortly here after. So we the council of
47:33
the black harvest uh agrees to help and Jbeca and them begin a summoning ritual
47:39
to summon this demon after discovering everything they can about him uh or them
47:44
which is uh that they are a silent portion of any big large scale invasion
47:51
where they show up, do their work in the shadows uh corrupt people of high import
47:57
areas to essentially promise them power in order to get them to uh betray their
48:03
own people, set up soul engines, and bring the Legion in that way. And so
48:10
they now know what essentially the the goal is of this demon, which is a large scale invasion. And they try to summon
48:17
it uh and bind it so that they can discover even more of its plan. In this moment, uh, we get this large scale
48:25
encounter, all these demons flooding through, uh, and Terellion loses control in the light. Uh, his fear, his, uh,
48:35
idea of being abandoned by his wife, uh, or or pseudo wife and having this sort
48:42
of contentual rel contentious relationship with his son right now, and wanting to keep his son safe because we
48:47
find out here that Er is the target. Er's always been the target of this demon from the very beginning. He loses
48:54
it. He just completely envelops like he calls the light into him, gives himself completely over to the light. The light
49:02
destroys this demon. Uh and then he almost destroys all the other warlocks
49:07
because again that paladin mentality, that deep-seated mistrust of all these things. And I thought it was an
49:13
interesting point because one of the things we talk about here on the show is that the light doesn't have a will of
49:19
its own. I don't know that that's necessarily true anymore. And I've been positing for a while that the light has
49:26
a little bit of an agenda. It is not just a purely neutral cosmic force. And
49:31
I think we see that here a little. We see this uh you know complete loss of
49:38
control and and this willingness to use the the light to use essentially as a
49:44
vessel to scourge or or scour anything that seems as unclean I think is the
49:50
term that he used when he was completely consumed by the light uh from this world. And it takes Ayria showing up uh
49:59
and basically dodging through a portal to save their uh Arator from their
50:05
ridiculous peril and then talk to down. They think that their mission is successful. They wind up going back to
50:13
uh Surar. They uh go ahead and give uh their report back and then it turns into
50:22
a wedding scene which is an interesting transition. And again, I'm skipping over some bits here. Uh, where Terellion and
50:28
Yaria is like, "Let's get married. Let's just do it." Uh, and Artor is going to be the master of ceremonies.
50:36
They get everything planned. Yria, uh, Verissa shows up to Yria. Uh, a bunch of
50:42
their old friends. Khadgar shows up to be the best man for for Trion, which of course he does. sons of Lothar, uh, the
50:49
other remaining sons of Lothar essentially show up, which is absolutely great to see them still alive and
50:54
kicking from where they are. Um, and then, as everything must, a chaotic
51:00
thing breaks out as a demonic invasion pops off in the middle of this wedding because they didn't actually kill the demon. He's still alive. uh and they
51:09
need to go and and and and get him and and kill him, which I think it was such
51:15
a we knew it was going to happen, but it was just really funny to see it happen. Yeah. I I never try to do too much like
51:22
metagaming when I'm reading a novel to think like, okay, now now we're in the exposition and I'm just reading this
51:29
they're finally getting married and they're going to, you know, have this and then there's going to be a chapter about like what maybe they're parting
51:34
ways. And I'm looking and I'm like, I don't know. I'm only like 78% of the way through this book. I think that I think
51:40
that something else is going to happen. And then it does. And if and it's it just goes all the chaos. Of course, the demon wasn't destroyed. And of course,
51:47
he's targeting them. And of course, the gathering of all these important people is too much of a target to resist for
51:53
him. And so, yeah, things things go off the rails. So, they repel this particular part of the invasion. The guests wind up being
52:00
safe. And this is where we get the scene of this demon transforming into the various different people. Uh he shows
52:06
himself as the dusquatch captain. He shows himself as uh Movara.
52:12
Uh and like all the pieces, this is your payoff for confirmation of everything that's happened up to this point. They
52:18
wind up going on the hunt. They're not in their armor at this point. And they start uh yria bamps forward. Uh cuz
52:26
winds up getting taken. Uh uh Terellion is charging forward with her. They're
52:31
going to fell soul hold. They're going to they get their son back and destroy the the the soul engine and kill this
52:37
demon once and for all. They get there. Yria freaks out because they see a bunch of demonic bodies strewn around the
52:44
battlefield outside of Fel hold. Uh ya is like, "Oh, Artor did this. Arrator absolutely did this." and bamps off,
52:51
leaving Terellion behind as he uh starts moving forward or charging forward, only to be greeted by Erator, who then they
52:57
have a discussion about how their mother bounced off again and uh or his mother bounced off again and they have to go
53:03
get her because she's just going right into a trap. And then other things ensue where each of them has been separated,
53:10
which is part of the demonic plan where you find out that this Artor is not actually, but it happens to be uh the
53:17
male succubi. uh I can't remember what the name of it is off the top of my head. Um had taken on his form uh and is
53:24
trying to bait Terelion. Uh then you see who finds Eratri being shackled to the
53:31
the top of the cavern where the soul engine is only to find out that it is not uh the uh but it is the demon in
53:39
disguise, the one that they've been hunting. And then wakes up in the c where they're holding all of the
53:44
prisoners that they've uh captured and have been feeding one by one to the soul engine. Uh they break out, the big fight
53:52
ensues. Uh there's this moment where uh all the family's fighting and this is
53:58
one of the things that I thought was interesting. Yia and Terellion are so in sense at this point that they're not
54:04
fighting in concert anymore. They're unleashing all of their power. But what happens when void and light meet? They
54:12
cancel each other out and make each other weaker. And Er in this moment realizes it because he's his father's
54:19
words that he's been scolding him and and lecturing him this entire trip comes
54:24
flooding back to him. And he realizes that his parents are essentially not moving in concert, making their effects
54:31
weaker because each of their abilities on their own would be laying this demon to death's door. And then he eventually
54:39
just calls the light upon himself, draws it all in, and sort of explodes this
54:46
demon into nothingness. We get the calm down, we get the the aftermath, we get the the debriefing that happens after.
54:53
Uh, and then we get the family discussion immediately after this where Er tells his parents to figure this out
54:58
because he's going crazy trying to figure out what's going on. and that we have this big emotional moment where
55:05
Ayria looks at herself, looks at how disheveled she is, uh, and winds up
55:10
essentially not breaking up with Trion, but is like, I I can't do this right
55:17
now. I need to go because emotions are not something Yari is good at. Hunting, yes. Fighting a war, yes. Being a ranger
55:24
general, yes. Dealing with emotions other than a love for her son, not so much. Uh she gives uh Trilion back this
55:32
ring after Trilion says that he you know he knows what he wants. He wants to be with her forever. That they'll figure
55:38
out the what's happening between the the light and the void between them and they'll make it work just like they did
55:43
that. Uh they can be a family. They can be the the parents that Erin needs.
55:48
Terrilion at this point has completely shifted his perspective on things. And
55:54
in a lot of ways, we get sort of an idea of what Erator's title is meant to mean,
56:00
why the light gave him that title of redeemer. Because in this moment, we start to see the redemption of Telion
56:07
only to be broken as Olio leaves completely shattering him, which I think is part of that redemption arc because
56:13
it allows him to actually feel for the first time in a thousand years uh what
56:19
really is inside of him instead of masking it and dancing around it and pretending everything is okay. He has to
56:25
deal with it now. He has to deal with the fact that the world is not like he views it. Uh that the people that he
56:31
thought are evil are not necessarily evil. that they're not the end of of things for him and that, you know, maybe
56:37
it is time for his his perspective on life to change. And I thought this was a
56:42
incredibly powerful moment for this character. And I thought it was really good to highlight a lot of the internal
56:48
struggle that Yria is still going through, not because of the void, but because of her own inner despair that
56:54
essentially she's been dealing with since Lith died. Yeah, I think that the ring itself is a
56:59
good like it was a really it was really well done. The ring that Terellion gives Ayria is a dark stone with diamonds
57:06
around it. Like how he protects her, how he how he like encircles her with light. And when she gives it back to him, she's
57:12
kind of like, I can't be trapped by this. This isn't going to work for me. So, it's I I thought that was a nice
57:18
detail, but but yeah, I it was a an outcome that I wasn't really expecting. Like when the wedding was happening, I
57:24
was like, "Okay, this makes sense that if they introduce that they haven't been married that they'll get married by the end." And then, you know, things go off
57:32
the rails, but then they have to figure it out. And Arator is like, "Let's let's go. Are you gonna be with each other or
57:37
not?" I was surprised that that she walked away. Me, too. But also, it kind of makes
57:43
sense with what we know is coming in Midnight. And uh we before we get into that, because we only have a few minutes
57:48
left, I the end the end of it is essentially we get our Aldderon scene if you're a Star Wars fan. We get the um
57:56
the the resistance. we get the the the uh the hope essentially moment where um
58:02
or not Aldderon, excuse me. Um we get that moment where like they're receiving their medals and in this case Erore is
58:08
receiving his highest honor the golden thorn uh for stopping an invasion for
58:15
showing opening up the order's eyes a little bit. It's even mentioned in the speech of making allies, un unlikely
58:22
allies or uncommon allies, uh, and showing sort of that strength of working
58:27
together, that cooperiveness, that that healing moment. And again, you start to see that that that maybe
58:34
being the redeemer is partially redeeming the silver hand and returning it to what it should have been because
58:41
again, the founder of the silver hand was Alonza's fowl. W as follow is now a
58:46
a sc a forsaken priest. He's been raised from the dead. Um so how could the
58:52
founder of the silverhand be considered an enemy and it's forcing them to sort of re-evaluate some of and this sets up
58:59
a lot of the stuff at midnight that we know is coming. Uh one of which and again this is a big spoiler maybe is
59:05
that at some point in time we need to punch. Um she loses herself to the void.
59:10
She's consumed by despair. uh she is lashing out and the outcome of
59:16
that we we're not going to talk about because we don't we don't know what the story outcome of that is. But it makes sense because in this moment as she
59:23
leaves she's by herself, she's alone. She feels isolated even though it's a
59:30
choice she's making in this moment. Um she thinks she's doing the right thing, but that despair is what allows that
59:36
sort of that consumption of the void to sort of happen. Um, and I think that's a
59:41
really interesting setup for that. And it's an interesting setup for a theme
59:47
like this whole book is a setup for the themes of midnight. Uh, the opening sequence where you're chasing uh, Zalat
59:54
and fighting off the void invasion uh, to keep the Sunwell safe. the interaction between Talion and Erator.
1:00:01
You can see here in this moment that Terellion still has growing to do because he's more concerned about
1:00:07
fighting the void than he is about necessarily saving civilians. And he's
1:00:12
scolding Artor still in this moment when Er is running off to save the civilians and doing what he needs to do. And so
1:00:20
he's not completely shifted yet, but he's getting there. Um, and it sets up the despair of Valyria and why she would
1:00:26
be consumed by void, why she would fall to uh, and it sets up again the importance because we know we're going to Windrunner Spire at some point and
1:00:33
why some of that stuff is going to be uh, playing into uh, this, right? It's
1:00:41
it's interesting. It's an interesting setup. And the best bits about it were
1:00:46
the interactions. And I will say this, I love Chrissy Golden, but I didn't really
1:00:51
care for the the battle scenes. They were great and detailed, but they weren't as important. They weren't as
1:00:57
all inspiring and consuming, and they weren't really what was setting everything up. It It's the the moments
1:01:04
after and the moments before that were doing all of that heavy lifting and really setting up the story of Midnight
1:01:10
for some very interesting turns. Yeah, we know that romping around with Artor
1:01:15
is not just like a quest chain in one of the zones. That's like a whole chapter of the campaign. Like we we go to the
1:01:22
different zones, but then our time with Arritor is going to be important. And I feel like I have a much richer picture
1:01:29
of him not being too much in the game and not you're not getting too much of his backstory. I feel like this really
1:01:35
fills it in. So, I'm really glad that I read this novel. And the same with Yria, knowing that she's going to have
1:01:40
troubles to control her relationship with Void, which, you know, is not surprising given that she's been close
1:01:46
to that line uh for a long time. Um this this fills in a lot of like exactly
1:01:52
what's going through her mind to make her maybe less stable than she could be. Yeah. And I think also some of the
1:01:58
interesting things is it it talks it sets up a little bit of the severity of the light as well because they retalk
1:02:05
the Zara stuff. They ret talk about uh being light forged and how the and the
1:02:10
the idea of Telion losing that control and becoming like this uh scourging
1:02:15
power this the scouring power on the face of Azeroth because we know we're going to be fighting members of the army
1:02:22
of light at some point. Uh we know that we're going to be fighting Lithraxian trying to keep him uh from destroying
1:02:29
Nexus Point Zenus. Uh we know that there's a place called the blinding veil
1:02:36
uh where there is the light blossom trinity I the light hunter uh light
1:02:41
warden rua where it is we're going to be facing the void and the light here we
1:02:48
are essentially beating both of these things whether to protect the other or
1:02:54
to protect itself from the other because again it it's this delicate hit balance
1:03:01
between these cosmic forces and with us and we know that we're going to be fighting a void consumed Naru at some
1:03:08
point as well. I think we're going to be I think for we're going to be punching Lura if I remember correctly.
1:03:13
I think that's right. I can't wait for the cosmology reveals and what we find out at midnight because you know we're
1:03:20
in a trilogy that ends with the last Titan. We've got to find out how a lot of the universe works and the forces and
1:03:26
things like that. And I have to say when Terellion had the light take the wheel and just called and was like light do
1:03:33
whatever like you need to save Athor do whatever you want. I thought I really thought that was a paladin cooldown. I
1:03:38
thought that I would that I play a paladin a little bit but I didn't know all the cool down. I thought that was like in the novel is going to appear one
1:03:45
of the offensive cooldowns maybe from a spec that I don't play that much and it was not. It was something completely
1:03:51
different that we haven't seen. And the light took over and annihilated the demon and then didn't give up control
1:03:58
and identified other threats. And like like you were saying, like we think of these cosmic forces as being forces, but
1:04:05
the light has an agenda. The light wants something. The light wanted to continue to destroy things that it identified as
1:04:12
bad, meaning the other warlocks that were there. And so does that mean all
1:04:17
the cosmic forces are have an agenda? Is the light different? Like what are we going to find out about that going
1:04:23
forward? And how is that going to affect all of their relationships with it? I
1:04:28
feel like Terion started off this novel with thinking of the light almost like a
1:04:34
religion like we do what the light wants us. We draw on it. We do these things. And then Arator is using it more like a
1:04:40
tool. Like this is a force that we can use. We can use it for our own things. we can, you know, skirt the rules a
1:04:46
little bit and Artor's kind of and Terellion's kind of coming around to that. And does that mean that we'll find
1:04:52
out more about like exactly what these things are, what the Naru are, what the
1:04:58
balance is, like do we are we going to find things out that make us do these
1:05:03
actions that we know and and fight off the army of the light and stuff like that? Like what I I can't wait to find out what we what we find out. Yeah,
1:05:10
things things are getting more complicated, but also a lot of stuff is being revealed and I think that is absolutely fascinating. But I think
1:05:16
we're going to call it there, friends. Uh I do want to remind you that Blizzard Watch is made possible due to generous contributions at
1:05:21
patreon.com/bizzardwatch. Your continued support means this podcasting community is able to thrive
1:05:26
and grow. Blizzard watch supporters enjoy exclusive benefits like early access to the podcast, a better chance of having your question answered on our
1:05:32
podcast or the Q&A site experience. If you are interested in uh reading these
1:05:38
books, we do have a comprehensive list of the chronological order in which to read them uh or at least as best as we
1:05:44
can get it on the website. Please be sure to uh you know
1:05:49
go and peruse them and and and you can get your order in. It's not strictly necessary, but it is uh useful if you're
1:05:56
looking to catch up. Um, and if you have questions for this or any of our podcasts or if you have questions about the book or or anything like that,
1:06:02
please be sure to send those into podcastwatch.com. Specify the show that it is for in the subject line as well as any special
1:06:08
pronunciation of your name. Uh, if you are want to head up on Discord, we have the Q and Podcast questions channel.
1:06:13
Same rules apply. You can set them there. If you are a Patreon subscriber, as a way of saying thank you for helping us keep the lights on, we have the
1:06:20
Patreon Q and podcast questions channel, which we tend to look there first. Uh, and yeah, just send us some questions.
1:06:27
Let rattle our brains. Please go ahead and do so. Um, but I think we're called
1:06:32
there. I do want to thank you, Eric, for joining me on this journey and filling in on such short notice. Uh, I would
1:06:39
love to do another one of these with you as well because uh I think we're going to get some questions about this book
1:06:44
from our friends at home. Right. Right. Friends at home. Uh, and I'd love to have you on for that as well. But thank
1:06:49
you very much for joining me today, my friend. Yeah, no problem. It was fun. And thank you all at home. We'll see you next
1:06:55
week.