On the PTR right now, M’uru the Naaru is missing from Silvermoon City, and Lady Liadrin – the leader of the blood elf paladins – has gone on an important errand. And now I see where she went. This conversation is currently playing in Shattrath every now and then:
General Tiras’Alan: Why do you suffer the presence of this despicable Lady Liadrin? She and her followers distort the Light and make a mockery of all we stand for!
A’dal: Patience, general. The Light embraces all who enter Shattrath in good faith.
A’dal: You are welcome in Shattrath, Lady Liadrin. We have long awaited your arrival.
Lady Liadrin: Thankyou for allowing me to speak, A’dal. I know many of your followers despise me and my knights for our treatment of M’uru.
Liadrin: When he was given to us by ‘Prince’ Kael’thas, we believed his power would help us lead our people into a new age.
Liadrin: I’ve come to realize our path was a false one. We were betrayed by the man we called our prince. In his lust for power, he sent the felblood to attack us, and spirit M’uru away to the Sunwell.
A’dal: Both our peoples have suffered greatly at the hands of Kael’thas and his agents, Lady Liadrin. Your people were not the authors of their own fate, but they will die if they do not change.
A’dal: M’uru accepted his role in this long ago, knowing full well what would happen to him. Will you accept your own?
Liadrin: I… I don’t understand. You– and M’uru– knew all along that this would occur?
A’dal: It wasn’t I who foretold it, but Velen of the Draenei:
A’dal: ‘Silvery moon, washed in blood,’
A’dal: ‘Led astray into the night, armed with sword of broken Light.’
A’dal: ‘Broken, then betrayed by one, standing there bestride the sun.’
A’dal: ‘At darkest hour, redemption comes, in knightly lady sworn to blood.’
Liadrin: I see it clearly now. I renounce my loyalties to House Sunstrider and its false prince.
Liadrin: I pledge the blades of my Blood Knights to the defeat of Kil’jaeden and the restoration of Silvermoon.
Liadrin: We will fight beside you, A’dal.
A’dal: The Shattered Sun Offensive will surely benefit from the addition of your knights, Lady Liadrin.
A’dal: The battle for the Sunwell is but the first step on your new path, Lady Liadrin. Shattrath is open to you and all who follow you.
This is really interesting, not just for the lore aspects of the conversation, but the changes in the metaplot it represents. I don’t think the game world has ever changed so much in WoW; content has often been added (the Cenarion hub fighting against the Silithids; the Argent Dawn quest hub fighting against Naxxramas, etc) but this change is much more of an alteration to existing content that we’ve seen before.
I’m really enjoying the plotline of 2.4: the Shattered Sun Offensive draws together previously-warring people – the draenei and blood elves – and acknowledges that they have common enemies in the Burning Legion and in Kael’thas. It’s unusual to have a significant chunk of new content that opens for a short time and then closes – the AQ40 and Naxxramas openings are the only past events that qualify, and the amount of closed content was relatively limited. This time around there are plenty of dailies that are only available while your server is working through the reclamation of the Isle of Quel’danas, and each phase of target-specific dailies closes and becomes unavailable once that target has been achieved. It’s a new step for WoW, and I have to say I like it. The world feels a lot more interesting and dynamic this way.
Dynamic content: I think that’s the Holy Grail of game design. It was one of the huge selling points (at least to me) of both Asheron’s Call II and Horizons.
Unfortunately, in one case the dynamic never really materialized; in the other, it was both buggy and very, very time-consuming (think of the worst collection quest you’ve ever experienced in WoW, and multiply that by, oh, 10,000).
If anyone can get it right, I think Blizzard can, because they will be immune to the QQing about “I never got a chance to participate.”
While I’m one who believes all content should be available to everyone who pays the same fee to play, I also understand why this simply will not work in today’s world. So I remain a very dedicated, but very casual player.
The whole ‘dynamic world’ is very familiar to me as a long-time pen-and-paper gamer. However, that doesn’t have the limitations of an MMO, because one can always go back and play a game set two months in the gameworld’s past; that doesn’t work in an MMO. I think it’s a really fine line between keeping the storyline moving enough to engross people, while giving everyone a chance to participate and avoiding giving the feeling of ‘if you weren’t here from the start, it’s too late’. If anyone can walk that line, I agree that Blizzard can.
I love the advancement in story. I always wondered how a Naaru of such power would let himself get caught, yes I doubt he would have if he didn’t want to. Hence my belief they had a reason to let their power go to the Blood Elves.
Lady Liadrin has the potential to be one of my favorate characters along Tirion Fordring.