Warcraft - Day of the Dragon

I don't think I have reviewed a book since I was eight. Still, I was never one to back down from a challenge and we do need to cover at least a few warcraft novels in order to talk about any of the world of warcraft expansions. So let's start with Day of the Dragon.

A bit of background: the book was first published in 2001, a year before warcraft III came out. So, I'm not going to hold lore introduced in WoW against it (if anything, I'm going to hold it against WoW). However, I am expecting the book to be compatible with warcraft III, since that was fairly far along in production at the time. Day of the Dragon was written by Richard A. Knaak, the first in a long series of warcraft material written by him. Knaak's a bit of a controversial figure to many fans of warcraft lore, as his grasp on warcraft lore is seen as rather questionable by some. And right in the first paragraph, we get to see why.

Chapter One

“War.

It had once seemed to some of the Kirin Tor, the magical conclave that ruled the small nation of Dalaran,

that the world of Azeroth had never known anything but constant bloodshed. There had been the trolls,

before the forming of the Alliance of Lordaeron, and when at last humanity had dealt with that foul

menace, the first wave of orcs had descended upon the lands”

The war against the trolls, commonly known as the troll wars, was a long and bloody war against the forest trolls of Zul'Aman, and was where man and elf first allied. However, far more pressing is the fact that the troll wars were ancient. They took place back when humanity still a single nation. At the very least, this puts it several hundred years in the past (the official timeline that came out later put it at 2800 years before warcraft 1). Having several hundred years since your last war can hardly be considered constant bloodshed. Then again, our narrator seems to have a problem with scale, as his casualty assessment for the first and second war is in the hundreds. Considering an entire human kingdom got destroyed and the war covered 1/4^th of the planet, tens of thousands of dead seems much more likely.

Anyway, let's dive into the plot. We start off in the grand council of the Kirin Tor, where the council of six, the ruling body of Dalaran, is discussing recent events. Apparently Deathwing, a powerful omnicidal black dragon, has survived an incident where he was thought dead, and has been attacking red dragons. The red dragons are slaves to the dragonmaw clan, one of the few surviving orc clans, who control the red dragons through the hold they have on Alexstrasza, the queen of the red dragonflight.

The council decides to send a mage called Rhonin, our protagonist, to keep track of the dragonmaw orcs. Apparently, none of them like Rhonin, they consider him incompetent and hope that he dies. But they're still sending him anyway, since he's the only mage that's available. Yes, because its not like you have an entire city of mages at your disposal or anything. Wait, you do. What, was the entire city of Dalaran busy? The agent only needs to look through a magic ring, so its not like only the most powerful mage would do. However, Krasus, one of the councillors, apparently has a secret plot. Rather than telling Rhonin his job is to spy on the dragonmaw like the council had discussed, he tells him his job is to free the dragonqueen.

We also get a second plot thread, related to the human kingdom of Alterac. During the second war, its king, lord Perenolde, switched sides and joined the horde. However, the armies of Lordaeron, the most powerful of the seven human kingdoms, were expecting this and quickly managed to overthrow the Alterac government without too many civilian casualties. However, now that the war is over, the other nations are bickering over what to do with the traitorous kingdom. King Terenas of Lordaeron wants to put a new king on the throne who would be loyal to him. Danath Trollbane of Stromgarde wants to annex half of Alterac's former holdings as war reparations. Genn Greymane of Gilneas is supporting a distant relative of Perenolde in the hopes of spreading his own influence. As someone who actually likes complicated politics in fantasy, I absolutely love this plot. However, it does raise a question in regards to world of warcraft:

What happened to Stromgarde and Alterac?

In the book, the two human nations are implied to still be pretty powerful. However, the next time we see them, in world of warcraft, the two nations have crumbled, having lost most of their holdings, including the capitals. Yet we never see anything to suggest that the armies of the scourge or the burning crusade struck against the nations. So how did they get this heavily damaged?

Chapter Two

In chapter two, we meet our second protagonist, Vereesa Windrunner, a high elven ranger assigned to escort Rhonin to the docks of Hasic, from where he'll take the boat to Khaz Modan. Vereesa takes an instant dislike to Rhonin because he made her wait for three days to gather supplies. Initially, I was kind of confused why an elven ranger was needed, for a simple journey through friendly territory, but the book does eventually clear this up. Apparently, the orcs still control Khaz Modan and regularly send out dragon riders.

Hold on, I thought that the second war was over. How can the war be over if Khaz Modan is still under enemy control? Khaz Modan is the homeland of the dwarves and the gnomes, both of whom are members of the alliance. Hell, we later see that the alliance is actively laying siege to the orcish stronghold of Dun Algaz. So what was with all the crap in the beginning about the constant bloodshed finally being over?

All chapters consist of multiple parts, each following a different set of characters. In this chapter, the second part introduces us to Lord Prestor. He was a small-time noble within the kingdom of Alterac, whose domain got destroyed by a marauding dragon during the second war. After that, he moved to Lordaeron and quickly become one of the king's closest confidantes, advising him on the Alterac situation. For the services Prestor has rendered, and because he is so well-liked, King Terenas is planning on appointing Prestor as the new king of Alterac, hoping that the charm of the young lad will win over the other kings. However, not all is as it seems, as Prestor is actually a forged identity. Using powerful magics, Prestor has been subtly influencing the court of Lordaeron. He is attended by a group of goblin servants, whose presence is a hint towards his true identity.

Chapter Three

In chapter three, Rhonin and Vereesa have encountered one of the afore-mentioned dragon riders. Rhonin can temporarily stop the dragon using a spell that causes great itching, but its not exactly a permanent solution. However, before he can try another spell, three gryphon riders show up to attack the dragon, giving him and Vereesa the opportunity to run. Hold on, why aren't you assisting the Gryphon riders? One use of the itchy spell and the grypon riders get an easy kill. However, within seconds of running from the dragon, they run into a group of paladins of the silver hand.

The second part of this chapter features Krasus meeting with a mysterious cloaked figure. We learn that Krasus is apparently counting on Rhonin to die during the mission, that Krasus is a fake name, his real name being Korialstrasz and that he doesn't have the support of a group he thought would support him.

Chapter Four

The paladins, led by lord Duncan Sentarus, have taken Vereesa and Rhonin to their stronghold, being complete and utter dicks to rhonin in the process. Apparently, paladins believe that mages are actually damned souls. Hold on, didn't the knights of the silver hand in Warcraft III work with Jaina Proudmoore, a powerful archmage? The books also seems to think that knight and paladin are synonymous, which is not the case in the warcraft universe, where a paladin is a knight with priest training (or a priest with knight training). The chapter ends with a mysterious explosion, destroying part of the stronghold and engulfing Rhonin.

The second part of this chapter features Nekros Skullcrusher, the former chieftain of the dragonmaw clan, having had to give up his position due to the loss of one of his legs. Now, he is the warden of Alexstrasza. The new chieftain of the dragonmaw, Zuluhed, gave Nekros a powerful magical medallion called the demon soul. Since Nekros has some experience as a warlock, he was able to manipulate the mysterious medallion, using its power to summon a fire golem and restrain Alexstrasza. Zuluhed is referred to as a shaman, which contradicts lore rather severely, as the fact that orcs of the horde lost access to shamanism due to their use of warlock magic was a rather big plotpoint in the cancelled lord of the clans (and subsequently the backstory for warcraft III). For some reason, the book also keeps referring to the clan as Dragonmaw clan, rather than The Dragonmaw clan. It looks really silly. Finally, the book reveals that the goblins still serve the orcish horde, making the idea that the second war is over even sillier.

Chapter five

We start with the knights of the silver hand trying to hunt down and capture the missing Rhonin, suspecting him of having caused the explosion. It's at this point that Vereesa's thoughts reveal that, as an elf, she too knows so arcane magic. So why are the knights treating her well, when they apparently hate mages enough that them killing Rhonin on sight is a legitimate danger? And this is not the only time this happens either. Throughout the book, every single character seems to hate wizards with a passion, yet is incredibly nice to Vereesa.

Suddenly, Rhonin reappears in the camp during a strong wind, sleeping on one of the bedrolls. The second part starts with him re-awakening. He briefly thinks back to his previous mission, which was the reason why all the councillors hate him. During the mission, he used a powerful attack spell, but the rest of his squad were idiots, jumping in front of him as he unleashed the spell. You'd think that “Don't stand in front of the mage” would be part of basic Kirin Tor training. We also see that there was an elven ranger in the group who hated Rhonin for no good reason. You know, that's really a running theme in this book. We haven't seen a single character that has met Rhonin that doesn't hate him, though Vereesa is slowly turning around. However, it still feels very forced. Speaking of forced, about every two paragraphs we get a mention of how hot Vereesa and Rhonin think the other is (Despite Rhonin being established in the first chapter as having a broken nose and a permanently raised eyebrow), after which they dismiss the thought. It's about as subtle as a lightning bolt to the face and just as necessary.

Anyway, our last thought of the chapter is that Rhonin suspects he was saved by a dragon, a fact which he decides to keep for himself.

Chapter six

We start this chapter with a meeting between King Genn Greymane of Gilneas, King Terenas Menethil of Lordaeron, Lord Admiral Daelin Proudmoore of Kul Tiras, Lord Thoras Trollbane of Stromgarde and Lord Prestor. This scene is great, probably my favourite in the entire book, as it plays well into the established characterisation for these people. We also see Lord Prestor's method for manipulating people, which is actually rather interesting. He approaches all the monarchs individually, making all sorts of promises, but erases their memories afterwards. The monarchs remember that they were happy with his ideas, but not that what exactly they were. In addition to creating goodwill for himself, he's also been seeding distrust against the mages of Dalaran, as he's afraid they might find out his identity.

Part two has the mages of Dalaran, pissed that they weren't invited to the meeting. At first, they just think that the other kingdoms have turned their distrust against the kirin tor now that the orcs have been defeated, because they have noticed that, as mages, the kirin tor are different. Yes, they apparently believe it took the other human kingdoms 2800 years to notice that the magical city of Dalaran, home of the magocratic council of six, founded after the original human kingdom of Arathor asked the high elves to teach them magic, has mages! Luckily, the actual answer is a lot saner, namely that Prestor has been manipulating everyone, but still a couple of minus points for such a ridiculous idea. Our chapter ends with Krasus, after a probing spell, discovering that Prestor is actually Deathwing.

Chapter seven

And we rejoin our main characters, having finally reached the city of Hasic. Apparently, two dragons attacked the city, but luckily, the patrol of gryphon riders from chapter three, led by Falstad Wildhammer, were close and stopped the beasts. For those of you less nerdy than I; Falstad is the thane (king) of the wildhammer clan of dwarves. Yes, apparently the king randomly patrols foreign countries. Hasic has however been heavily damaged, and the ship that was supposed to bring Rhonin to Khaz Modan has been destroyed.

Time for some good news, bad news. The good news is that Vereesa and Lord Duncan Sentarus have agreed to assist Rhonin in finding an alternative way to reach Khaz Modan. The bad news is that all the ships in the city have been destroyed, as the dragons centred their attacks on the docks. However, Rhonin gets an idea: Ask the gryphon riders for help. However, he didn't count on the fact that everyone in the universe hates him, which includes the wildhammer, who despise mages now. Hold on, weren't the wildhammers close allies with the high elves of Silvermoon? A society that was entirely centred around magic? And now one of the dwarves is ready to snap his spine in two just for having dared to ask for a ride. However, just as everyone hates Rhonin for no damn reason, everyone absolutely loves Vereesa. When she asks for a ride, Falstad gives in and agrees to bring the three to Khaz Modan. Apparently the thane of the Wildhammer clan has absolutely nothing better to do than play taxi for pretty ladies.

Chapter eight

We rejoin Nekros, who has heard from a goblin named Kryll that there is a plan to free Alexstrasza. However, Nekros thinks that the alliance will attack through overwhelming force, something which not even the demon soul would be able to hold off. Because of this, he sends his best dragon-rider, Torgus, out to scout for the enemy army and intercept any of their scouts.

Meanwhile, the gryphon riders have almost reached Khaz Modan, when they are intercepted by Torgus and another dragonrider. For some reason, Rhonin tells his gryphon rider that they can't waste any time, insisting that he be brought to Khaz Modan instantly. Dude, your job is not on a narrow time-table. Wasting a few minutes by killing a dragon is not going to do anything to stop your mission. Hell, killing dragons actually makes your mission easier. And as we've seen in chapter three, you have a spell that could stun each dragon for a while, giving the gryphon riders an easy kill. However, unlike our protagonist, Duncan actually proves himself helpful, killing one of the dragons at the cost of his own life.

Chapter nine

However, the other, significantly bigger, dragon is still a threat, and the battle is not going well. Rhonin's gryphon gets killed, and he falls towards his doom. However, suddenly deathwing shows up, grabbing Rhonin to safe him. Deathwing then takes a couple of minutes to properly beat up (but not kill) the other dragon, after which he flies off. Vereesa and Falstad than decide to pursue Deathwing. Hold on, what happened to the third gryphon rider?

Meanwhile, Krasus is still looking for allies against deathwing, teleporting himself to Northrend. This is the home of Malygos, last and greatest of the blue dragons, having become slightly mad after Deathwing killed the rest of his kin. We also learn that Krasus is actually a very powerful red dragon and his meeting in the third chapter with a representative of the green dragonflight. However, Malygos proves unwilling to commit to battle, merely saying that he will consider it.

Chapter ten

Rhonin wakes up next to Deathwing, who's back in his human form, and the two have a surprisingly civil conversation. Deathwing may actually be the only person in the book to actually be friendly towards Rhonin. Deathwing tries to convince Rhonin that he's on his side, by telling a story how ancient elves (the first canon mention of night elves, though no one knew it when the book came out) brought demons to Azeroth, and how the dragons united against the invading demons. However, it cost them dearly, and caused animosity between the five flights. Deathwing claims he is now helping Rhonin to make amends, by helping free Alexstrasza.

In the second part, we rejoin Vereesa and Falstad. Vereesa suddenly remembers a story about hill dwarves, who had once thrived throughout Khaz Modan, but fled when the orcs arrived. Wait, hill dwarves? Dwarves have been established as living in Khaz Modan since warcraft II, but those dwarves were members of the alliance and joined in the battle against the orcish horde, so they obviously can't be the hill dwarves that are described here. I had never even heard of these guys before I read this book, so what the hell?

Anyway, the two stumble upon Kryll the goblin, who says he saw a large dragon and a mage who fits Rhonin's description, from a distance. He even calls the mage arrogant. Man, even people who have never spoken to Rhonin hate him. Considering the fact that its later established that only one out of five goblin factions joined the horde and the others are neutral traders, this paragraph makes our protagonists look like horrible dicks for threatening and insulting the goblin merely because of his race.

Chapter Eleven

Okay, the first sentence of this chapter is weird.

“Nekros fingered the Demon Soul”

Either the demon soul is now a musical instrument, or this is really, really disturbing. The first part of the chapter has the heavily injured Torgus returning, reporting to Nekros about deathwing. Nekros concludes that Deathwing must have allied with the humans and that the humans are planning on assaulting Grim Batol. In response, he prepares to evacuate the base.

Meanwhile, Deathwing has handed Rhonin a magical amulet that will guide him. However, deathwing's amulet is not giving him a lot of freedom in his approach to Grim Batol, the headquarters of the Dragonmaw. It does prove itself pretty helpful, even providing food. If not for the fact that Deathwing was named, well, Deathwing, Rhonin would probably have fully believed his good intentions. May I suggest renaming yourself to Fluffywing the Cuddler, oh dark lord? When Rhonin gets worried about having to walk the entire way, his ride arrives: A goblin zeppelin.

Hearing Rhonin describe this thing, its like he's never seen technology before. Wait a minute! Earlier, we get remarks about the hill dwarves, rather than the bronzebeard dwarves, living throughout Khaz Modan. The fact that the alliance claims they're at peace now, despite the fact that the horde still controls all of khaz modan suggests that none of the alliance factions make their home in Khaz Modan. Plus, there were earlier remarks that explosives and flying machines were solely the domain of goblins. All of this would suggest that the writer wasn't even aware that bronzebeard dwarves or gnomes existed. What the hell?

Chapter Twelve

This time, Krasus goed to the bronze dragonflight, teleporting himself towards the caverns of time. Nozdormu is unwilling to join Krasus, more concerned with cataloguing and researching the past than he is in the future. In the end, Nozdormu sends Krasus away by simply erasing the fact that Krasus travelled to the caverns from history. I personally really dislike the way the bronze dragonflight has been handled, not just here, but in all warcraft media, as they have been given complete freedom to manipulate the timeline. It's ridiculously overpowered, and makes any conflict that would affect them completely ridiculous. If they can easily change history and predict any outcome of a change, how would anyone ever stand a threat against them? And yet we keep seeing the bronze dragonflight participate in wars and not instantly winning them.

Anyway, Krasus' only hope now is to contact the green dragonflight. To do this, he uses a powerful sleeping poison. There's a really brief story about how he used three drops of the liquid a century ago to defeat a creature called Manta, who was apparently just as powerful as deathwing.

...Wait, if you still have an entire bottle full of that stuff, why do you need the help of the aspects to defeat Deathwing?

Anyway, for our second part, we go back to Vereesa and Falstad, trying to track down Rhonin. Vereesa suspects that he may be heading for Grim Batol, and has asked the goblin to lead them there. However the goblin proves traitorous, leading them into a troll trap.

Chapter Thirteen

Rhonin arrives near Grim Batol. During the trip, the goblins had tried to kill him, but Deathwing interceded, taking control of Rhonin to stop them. Finally, when Rhonin had landed, he again took control to destroy the zeppelin. Hey, Fluffywing, here's a hint for you: If you want Rhonin to trust you, don't take possession of him to kill insubordinate subordinates.

Meanwhile, Fluffywing the Cuddler is busy doing politics in Lordaeron, planning his marriage with Terenas' jailbait daughter. As he discusses this with the king, two wizards of the kirin tor confront him, pretending to want to learn more about lord Prestor. While they don't learn anything, Deathwing is able to listen in on their conversation, becoming interested in Krasus.

Chapter Fourteen

Krasus tries to get help from the last of the great dragon aspects: Ysera, the dreamer, mistress of the green dragonflight. Unlike the other aspects, she's still interested in the mortal world and agrees to at least consider helping out. We also learn an important fact: The Demon Soul has somehow weakened the aspects.

Meanwhile, Rhonin has entered Grim Batol, sneaking through the halls to reach Alexstrasza.

Chapter fifteen

We rejoin Vereesa and Falstad, who have been captured by trolls. We get a few more mentions of the troll wars, again making it sound like they were at most a few years in the past. And even if we would assume that this is a different set of troll wars, there is a line that states that, before the troll wars, troll cannibalism was only a rumour, which makes no sense if the conflict with the trolls dates back as far as has been established.

Luckily for our heroes, they are saved by a group of hill dwarves. Of course the dwarves all start hitting on Vereesa, as every single male in the book does. More interesting is that they insult Falstad, apparently not having the best relation with the wildhammer dwarves. The hill dwarven leader, named Rom, reveals that there are only three-hundred hill dwarves left in Khaz Modan. Hope the hill dwarves enjoy extinction by inbreeding!

Anyway, Vereesa mentions to the dwarves that she and Falstad are going to Grim Batol, and Rom and six other warriors decide to join her. We also get a mention of dwarven ladies having beards, which are apparently a sign of beauty in dwarven society. Hold on, if dwarves find beards so important for beauty that having a beard is the standard, why do all the dwarves keep hitting on Vereesa? Is there something the book forgot to tell us?

In the second part, Krasus is visiting some sort of magical pool he had discovered, which gives him a vision of a captured Rhonin. Krasus reveals that his plan was just for Rhonin to spook Nekros, hoping that the orcs would flee from Grim Batol. However, he does feel kind of sorry for allowing the human mage to die, so he contacts an agent of his: Rom.

Chapter Sixteen

We start this chapter with Rhonin being tortured by Nekros. It seems Krasus' plan worked, and Nekros is convinced that there is a small alliance army skulking around Grim Batol, so he plans to evacuate Grim Batol and join Zuluhed at Dun Algaz. We also see that Kryll is secretly a servant of deathwing, having taken Rhonin's medaillon as to not make Nekros suspect that anything.

Meanwhile, Vereesa's group is approaching Grim Batol through a secret underground entrance. They have to wait for an hour for the sun to go down, and Rom sneaks off, claiming to be checking for trolls. However, Vereesa overhears him speaking to Krasus through an amulet, interrupting them. With a little convincing from Krasus (not revealing he's a dragon), he manages to convince Vereesa to trust him, and she agrees to be led by the amulet.

Chapter Seventeen

Kryll is ranting at Rhonin about his secret plan to kill deathwing, using a piece of Deathwing's scale and the Demon Soul. The entire sequence is only there to reveal the fact that the crystal at the heart of Rhonin's amulet is actually one of deathwing's scales.

Meanwhile, Vereesa and Falstad have managed to enter the halls of Grim Batol.

Chapter Eighteen

Nekros is still busy evacuating Grim Batol, already having sent all his remaining dragon riders to Dun Algaz, but there has been a complication. The last of Alexstrasza's consorts has fallen ill. Without a male, there is no breeding program and Nekros fears Zuluhed will kill him.

Hold on a minute. Throughout the book, at least two orc-mounted red dragons have been described as male (for some reason the book felt it necessary to point out which dragons were male), so it's not like you didn't have any males available. Sure, they're Alexstrasza's kids, which makes it gross to use them to breed with her, but the detrimental effects of inbreeding won't be that bad for a few generations. Since you can use the same male for several years, it will be decades before it becomes problematic, allowing you to search for more males.

Vereesa and Falstad have found Rhonin, but have encountered the fire golem. None of their attacks work against the golem, as he's apparently immune to all normal weapons. This raises yet another question: Why is Rhonin the only one in the group to ever use spells? Falstad, as a wildhammer gryphon rider, is a shaman wielding a magical hammer. Vereesa, as an elven ranger, is well-trained in natural magic, as well as having some arcane training. Even Duncan, as a paladin, should have had holy spells. Yet, every encounter, Rhonin is the only one to use any magic. Sure, he's probably the most powerful mage in the group, but you'd think they'd at least try in such a situation.

Meanwhile, Deathwing and Korialstrasz are both heading towards Grim Batol. Deathwing is seeking to kill the dragonqueen as she is being transported, Korialstrasz is seeking to free her. Korialstrasz has a bit of an internal monologue about his life while he's flying, revealing that he had volunteered to be the agent amongst the most promising and diverse mortal race: Humanity. Okay, I'll give you promising, but diverse? Humans may be divided between seven kingdoms, but the only one amongst those who really stands out is Dalaran and even then its only slightly. Meanwhile the elves are divided between druidic tree-dwellers, magic addicts and legions of undersea snake-people.

Chapter Nineteen

As our heroic trio reaches the top of the mountain that houses Grim Batol, the final confrontation starts. Before the two dragons can arrive, the mountain dwarves strike, emerging from underground to attack the dragonmaw caravan. As the dwarves engage the orcs, Korialstrasz emerges from the sky, intent on freeing his queen. However, he isn't fast enough, and Nekros simply uses the demon soul to constrict him. When Deathwing also emerges from the sky, Nekros uses the artifact again, but Deathwing doesn't even react to it. To everyone's surprise, Deathwing doesn't go after Alexstrasza, but starts grabbing orcish carts, which they were using to transport red dragon eggs, flying off with them. It seems that Deathwing is interested in raising his own cadre of red dragons. With Korialstrasz down, the dragon has no choice but to reveal his true identity to Rhonin, hoping that the mage will still be able to free Alexstraza.

Chapter Twenty

Nekros has used the power of the demon soul to send Tyran, the sick consort, after Deathwing. Deathwing says that he's giving the red dragons mastery over the earth by using them as his stormtroopers, but Tyran counters that Deathwing's plans will probably kill the red dragonflight, just as they killed deathwing's own flight. Wait, what? When did that happen? We see plenty of black dragons throughout the games, even in warcraft III.

Anyway, the other great dragon aspects have now also arrived, though they are still in their humanoid forms, hiding away from the battle. They reveal some of the backstory of the demon soul. Deathwing was the one who originally made the disc during the war of the ancients (the first demon invasion), convincing the other aspects to lend their power to the disc. However, unbeknownst to them, deathwing had never actually given up his own power, leaving him more powerful than the other three combined. Because of this, the demon soul has no power over black dragons. It's been mentioned earlier in the book that the disc was used against the demons, absorbing their power as well, which is probably where the other spellcasting capabilities come from. However, the other aspects banded together with their remaining power, somehow preventing deathwing himself from ever wielding the demon soul. However, in turn, they could not wield it either. With Tyran dying, Krasus is the only great male red dragon left, so he can't risk his life to wield it either, lest the red dragonflight go extinct. Which means that the only chance for the world lies in Rhonin.

With that, the three dragon aspects turn into their draconic form, attacking Deathwing. Krasus carries Rhonin to Nekros, who engages him in battle. Nekros, despite years of trying, was never able to fully tap into the power of the demon soul, so the fight isn't completely one-sided, but Nekros still manages to drive Krasus back, until Vereesa and Falstad arrive to assist. In the struggle, the demon soul gets lost. With the demon soul out of his reach, Nekros loses his control over Alexstrasza, and she breaks free, taking a second to eat him, before she joins the other aspects in the battle against deathwing, who are being sorely outmatched. However, in the midst of battle, Rhonin stumbles upon the demon soul.

Chapter Twenty-one

With neither the force nor the cunning of the aspects putting any dents into Deathwing's adamantium armour, time has come for desperate measures. So, Rhonin just decides to smash the Demon soul with a piece of rock. Of course, it doesn't work. The soul is covered in protective spells made by deathwing, to prevent anyone else from damaging the soul. However, rhonin realises that he does have one item that could destroy the soul: Deathwing's scale, found at the heart of the amulet he had given Rhonin. Scratching open the surface of the disk, its power leaks out, restoring the strength of the other four aspects, who are now easily able to fend off deathwing, who flees.

With the aid of Krasus, Vereesa, Rhonin and Falstad, the hill dwarves manage to defeat the dragonmaw orcs, forcing them to surrender. Well, the battle is over, so its epilogue time. The hill dwarves retake the fortress of Grim Batol. Vereesa and Krasus visit each of the human kingdoms to bring rapport of what had happened. The dragonmaw are imprisoned in internment camps. Krasus takes a leave from the council of six for a while, wanting to stay with Alexstrasza. So, I guess that covers everythi...

Hold on a minute. So what happened to Alterac?

Conclusion

I must say that I really liked the main plot for this book. It was well-paced, had good action, tied in well with warcraft II and the dragon aspects were pretty cool. However, the biggest problem with this book lies in the details, which are absolutely botched. I have no idea how someone could gain enough background information on the warcraft universe to write the political stuff, but not know that there are dwarves and gnomes from Khaz Modan in the alliance. While that's the biggest, there's a lot of other mistakes in there. Our main characters also feel rather shallow, especially Falstad, who never gets any characterisation beyond being a dwarf. And, as I said, the whole “everyone hates Rhonin, but loves Vereesa for no damn reason” gets really obvious as a while.

As an aside, there's also another issue with this book, though it doesn't lie in the book itself. For some reason, all official timelines that have been published have had this book take place after the Warcraft II expansion: Beyond the Dark Portal. However, the book is very obviously supposed to bridge warcraft II and its expansion, explaining how the dragonmaw clan got captured, how the conflicts within the alliance caused it to fall apart and why the orcish clans needed a new source of dragons.

Up next: A return to the RPG

World of Warcraft - More Magic & Mayhem

First of all, sorry for being late with the review. I'd say that I was too busy with legitimate things like work and study, but actually I was just watching digimon and playing/modding Skyrim in my free time. Anyway, on to the next RPG book: More Magic & Mayhem. Yes, a sequel to magic & mayhem, a book with horrid magic but great mayhem. Let's see whether this book is better or worse.

Chapter One: Spell Slingers and Gear Grinders

We start our book off with the introduction of new classes.

Core Classes

Inscriber: A new path for the arcanist, giving him access to some of the runic magic you may remember from the previous book. However, there is an important distinction given between Inscribers and Runemasters, with Inscribers just being specialised mages, while runemasters follow their own unique path. It's a pretty interesting distinction, though I'm still missing any references to the scourge rune magic.

Witch Doctor: A new path for the healer, specialising in alchemical brews and voodoo. They actually get some pretty interesting mechanics for making brews, and I really like their execution.

Runemaster: This book gives us a lot more depth on the backstory for runes than the original magic&mayhem did, with runes being recreations of natural ley patterns. I really like the explanation, as it is the perfect explanation for how runic magic can be considered more natural than other arcane magic.

Prestige Classes

Argent Dawn Templar: Using ancient teachings of the light, the argent dawn has unlocked many secrets. In return for the sacrifice of old paladin and priest powers, the templar gains new abilities to aid in battle against all forms of evil, rather than just demons and undead. While the concept is interesting, I do still have issues with this class for one simple reason: Why does the Argent Dawn have access to this class? The argent dawn consists of a bunch of paladins and priests living in a small church of the holy light in scourge-occupied territory. Where in the world did they (and only they) get these ancient secrets of the light, if the church they occupy used to belong to the kingdom of Lordaeron? And why would the argent dawn, which exists solely to fight the demons and scourge, need warriors specialised in fighting all forms evil rather than just those two?

Enchanter: Like the trade skill in world of warcraft, the enchanter specialises in creating magical items. The enchanter doesn't really seem like a fun class to play with, but it could come in handy for NPCs.

Ley Walker: Arcane magic in the warcraft universe relies on so-called ley lines, energy patterns that originate from the well of eternity (and presumably the sunwell). The ley walkers are those who study these lines more closely, allowing them to manipulate them directly. However, the entire article makes one really annoying mistake, by mentioning that all magic is dependent on the ley lines, rather than just arcane magic. Because of this, its suddenly the tauren and the night elves, both races that don't practice arcane magic, that have the most ley walkers. Still, the class looks fun to play with.

Steam Warrior: The only class in the book that focuses on the mayhem part of the title. Steam warriors pilot giant suits of mechanical armour into battle. The class looks awesome and the description works fine, though there is a weird mention of how odd it is that trolls take well to the life of a steamwarrior. Since it is indeed odd (the trolls being the least technologically inclined playable race, even less so than the lift-building tauren), I would really like some elaboration on that point.

Feats

The book adds feats that can roughly be divided into four groups: Alchemy feats, tech feats, rune enhancement feats and a couple of normal spell feats. The alchemy feats are really boring, as are most of the rune and tech feats. However, there are a few nice ones in there, like the one that allows you to create a rune that doesn't immediately take effect or the spellbreaker feat, which allows you to destroy spell slots along with health when you attack. Overall, a pretty decent selection.

Chapter two: Enchantments, runes and Brews

We get our new crafting mechanisms this chapter.

Alchemy

Alchemy is available to those who have taken the journeyman alchemist feat, allowing them to make draughts, philters and oils, as well as perform transmutations. It's a nice way to combine the alchemy system from world of warcraft with the d20 rules. I don't really like how they combined it with herbalism though, which only serves to automatically lower the costs of alchemy (but never by more than half). However, pretty much all the alchemy recipes from world of warcraft have been given stats here, so thats a very big plus.

Enchantments

Simply an update to the world of warcraft mechanics to work in the d20 system, which works well enough.

The runic art

Gives us details on the casting of runes. It's a bit of a retread of the original magic&mayhem, but we're at least given some interesting new lore. Oh, and we get regular arcane magic being called supreme hubris, because it dares make use of non-natural arcane patterns. Considering that the “natural” arcane patterns were created by the titans and they made Malygos, aspect of magic, I highly doubt they would have minded. Still, runecasting is very well-done, fits the setting and looks like it'd be a lot of fun to play with.

Rune patterns

Just a listing of new rune patterns. It also has a few pictures to make us see what two of the rune families look like. They look really cool, making me wish they had included pictures for all 11 rune families. Also, it fixed the mark of the werewolf from magic & mayhem, renaming it to mark of the worgen. Mark of the badger still induces great rage though.

Chapter three: Power Overwhelming

And we get our regular spells, including a few new spell types imported from world of warcraft: blessing, seals and totems. I'm fine with the former two, but instant totem placement always felt more like a game mechanism in world of warcraft, rather than how the spell actually works. I always assumed that characters were carrying the actual totems.

The normal spell-list includes a lot of the spells from world of warcraft and warcraft III that hadn't gotten rules yet.

Chapter Four: So shiny!

Time for new magic items!

Amongst the new magic head items are phylacteries. As a name choice, thats kind of confusing, since phylactery in fantasy usually refers to the place where a lich stores his soul. I didn't even know it had another meaning, but apparently they're small black boxes filled with Torah prayers worn on the forehead during morning prayers. Judaism doesn't exist in the warcraft universe, so I'm guessing that they're filled with prayers from another sort of holy book. But... what holy book? The description says the only established phylactery, the phylactery of faithfulness, is commonly used by both the knights of the silver hand and the night elves and is spreading in use amongst the horde. However, those three groups have completely different religions, none of which are established as having a holy book.

Overall, the magic items are pretty damn good and there is a lot of them, with over 60 pages dedicated to this chapter. There are some minor lore errors in the book, but not that many. The only one that is really notable is the description of bloodstone ore, which doesn't fit with the description given in world of warcraft at all.

Chapter Five: Things that go boom in the night

Like in the original Magic & Mayhem, the book really isn't good at mixing the two aspects, focusing mostly on magic. Only now, at page 163 out of a 200 page book do we finally get some focus on technology. Which is a shame, since its usually the best part.

Remember how the RPG keeps calling arcane magic evil and destructive even though the backstory for the games prove it can actually be used safely? Well, this chapter is nothing like that. According to this chapter, all magic is evil and destructive. It also has a number of weird statements like technology being easier to master than magic (could be true for arcane magic, but definitely not for divine magic), all magic requiring sacrifice and technology being more reliable than magic.

Next comes a description of the uses of magic in the world, giving descriptions for the alliance, the horde and the goblins. Oddly enough, the viewpoints of the high elves and the forsaken are never mentioned. Still, its a nice and simple explanation.

Tech-mods

Tech-mods are technological weapon/armor enhancements. They're limited by the fact that they need electricity to work and power sources aren't exactly reliable. The tech-mods themselves are actually pretty cool, including good old classics like chainsaws (called Chatter blades) and silent guns, but also includes fun stuff like boring bullets, which drill into armor.

Steam Armor

Battle rules for your own private goblin shredder armor! I really like the way this operates, with critical hits being capable of destroying steam armor equipment. I find the steam armor weapon and armor lists a bit on the short side, though the equipment list is cool. Not really sure I like the idea of armour-repairing miniature robots though. Seems a bit too high-tech.

Technological Devices

And to cap it off, we get a list of cool technological devices. My favourite has to be the chaos chicken, just for the idea of sending a legion of grenade-laying chickens at an enemy outpost.

Conclusion

The book was actually a lot better than I expected. Magic dominated the book, but it was well-written with far fewer lore contradictions than earlier books. I could see much of these things being added to world of warcraft. The only thing that I was missing in this book was adequate pictures. Sure, we got a few good illustrations, but not even a complete overview of the new weapons, like is usual in these D20 books. Still, the book gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

edit: Almost forgot to add. Next review is Day of the Dragon, the first of the warcraft novels by Richard A. Knaak.

World of Warcraft - Core Rules

We've already covered the entire first edition of the warcraft RPG. It had some good ideas, but it was mostly dominated by bad research, stupid retcons and sloppy editing. However, the last books that came out were surprisingly good. Which is why I am actually looking forward to reading the 2^nd edition. Let's start with the core book.

Introduction

General

The book starts of with an introduction, explaining the contents of the book, a breakdown of new concepts and some basic lore. Of note is that the game imports a few new mechanics from Arcana Unearthed, so the gameplay is a bit different from what DnD players are used to.

And right off, the RPG starts with something that pleases me. In the sidebar that explains why they started making a second edition, this line is included:

“The end result is a game that faithfully honors the core concepts presented in the original Warcraft RPG and comes a bit closer to the vision of the Warcraft universe as developed by Blizzard.”

This line gives me hope that this edition will actually be faithful to the warcraft games, and will ignore the dumb retcons from the previous edition.

This book is absolutely huge, at nearly 400 pages. This is mostly so it can stand on its own (unlike the first edition, you don't need to also own the dungeons and dragons core rules). In the introduction, we are given the ten steps to creating a character. The explanations actually tie really well into the warcraft universe. Of special note is that a character's background must include a bit on what they did in the third war.

History and peoples

BAM! Right in the first paragraph of the first lore-oriented part of the book, it clears up one of my critiques of both the first edition and world of warcraft, explaining that demons are still spread around the world, though not in any great numbers. This is grea... *reads ahead* And then it mentions that this book takes place after lands of conflict, putting it in continuity with the first edition. Damn.

Next comes a timeline. While it does contain some mistakes (most significant being that it says the horde allied with the jungle trolls during the second war, rather than the forest trolls), its overall very decent. There's also a retcon that's actually good, explaining that the campaigns of the frozen throne took place over several years, which explains why Orgrimmar and Theramore were already so well established in the last campaign.

Next, it goes on to explain the relations between the factions. It explains that the alliance has essentially split into two factions now, one on kalimdor, one in the eastern kingdoms. The conflict between the night elves and the high elves has escalated even further, with the high elves actively plotting to take control of night elf lands. It also implies that the eastern kingdoms are in a much worse state than seen in world of warcraft, with the remains of the old horde posing a major threat to Khaz Modan and Azeroth. Because of this, Jaina Proudmoore is considered the de-facto leader of the alliance. Since this is actually a logical continuation from warcraft III (and because Jaina is my favourite character), I really like these changes.

I do have to bring up the editing again though, as the book contains a lot of minor errors. Mulgore is said to be south of Durotar (rather than south-west), the trolls are said to have not settled a land of their own (rather than living in the echo isles until they were driven out) and of course the mistakes in the timeline mentioned earlier. There's even some spelling errors scattered around. It's not quite as bad as in the first edition, just really distracting.

World of warcraft

This part explains the basics of the world of azeroth. One of the first things brought up is the city of stormwind, a section which still includes the ridiculously high population count from lands of conflict. It also claims that stormwind is 'the last of the great human cities', which is utterly false, as both Gilneas City and Boralus still stand.

The chapter also has some of the same issues as lands of conflict, including using world of warcraft in-game maps. Those maps are built to the scale of the game, not the scale of the world in the backstory. It's highly unlikely that Teldrassil is actually the same size as Durotar. There's also a lot of regions without an explanation. Winterspring, Feralas, Un'goro, the Arathi Highlands and Silithus aren't named on the map. Oddly enough, Grim Batol and Mount Hyjal do have entries, despite not being accessible in world of warcraft.

One positive thing I do have to say is about Ratchet, as it is again portrayed as a massive metropolis, rather than the lacklustre representation it got in world of warcraft. Though it also claims that the venture company is in charge of ratchet, which is patently false (the venture company are actually enemies of ratchet). However, the city listings in general are still lacking, as a ton of notable cities have been omitted. Thunder Bluff, Nighthaven and Darnassus are left out entirely, despite the latter two probably being the biggest cities on the continent.

The maps are also really confusing. In some cases (Quel'thalas, Kul Tiras and Mount Hyjal), the section describes a region that isn't named or shown on the map. In the case of Lordamere lake, both the description and the map are patently wrong, actually describing Darrowmere lake.

Cosmology

The first entry in this chapter is regarding the elemental plane, where it claims that the old gods are imprisoned in the elemental realm, which contradicts world of warcraft, where the old gods are imprisoned beneath Azeroth and the elemental lords were banished to the elemental realm. The descriptions also go into a lot of detail, much more than is necessary for an introduction. There are even explanations of how the different planes affect the rules of the game, despite the actual rules not having been explained yet. I can only imagine how confusing this must be to people who have no experience with RPGs.

Part One: Heroes

This chapter gives us the various races, classes and feats to make our character with. The races included in this book are: Ironforge Dwarf, High Elf, Night Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Human, Orc, Tauren, Jungle Troll and Forsaken undead. It's certainly a better selection of races than the warcraft RPG had, giving us all of the World of Warcraft races, as well as high elves and goblins. I'd personally have included ogres as well, but that's a minor complaint.

What's not a minor complaint is the issue of balance. In order to maintain a bit of balance, the playable races must be about equally strong. In the first edition, this was done by giving level adjustments, which would have races with stronger traits level like they were a much higher level character. Here, however, all the races are balanced without level adjustments, which can get sort of silly, as a Tauren is now just as strong as a forsaken. Instead, some races can take levels in their own race (don't ask me how that is supposed to work) to use their natural advantages. At least, that's what it says in the first paragraph. In the second paragraph, racial levels are suddenly all about cultural heritage and becoming in-tune with your natural spirit. Which makes a bit more sense from a story progression standpoint, but doesn't really make a lot of sense from any other standpoint. Do Tauren not realise that they are humongous and strong if they haven't studied their cultural heritage? Don't they notice their own muscles? It gets especially weird when creatures that have been transformed into other creatures cannot take racial levels in their new race, because members of the race are infused with this knowledge at birth, thus it cannot be learned by new members. If they are infused with the knowledge from birth, why do they have to take levels in it?

Dwarf, Ironforge: And right away we run into a big problem with the RPG. The ability adjustments make no damn sense. Dwarves get the same ability adjustments they did in dungeons and dragons and the first edition: +2 stamina and -2 charisma. The stamina makes sense, as dwarves are tough little buggers. But the charisma really doesn't. Warcraft dwarves are hearty fellows, always up for a good laugh. Many of them travel the world, interacting with all sorts of people. Wouldn't -2 agility make a lot more sense?

On a more positive note, someone on the writing staff noticed that archaeology was not a religion, and the dwarves are back to worshipping the light.

Remember back in the first edition, when I said it made no sense for the dwarves to get bonuses against giants? Well, they get them again, this time in the form of their racial levels. In addition, they get the ability to turn to stone, resistance against magic and some strength bonuses, as well as bonus weapon skills.

Elf, high: Why does the high elf entry have the picture of a blood elf? Also, this entire entry pretty much consists of dissing the high elves for their use of arcane magic. It also mentions that the naga are the sworn enemies of elvenkind, which is stupid considering elves have only known about them for four years, and the naga have allied with all elven races on at least one occasion since then. There's also a line that I just can't figure out:

“Most of the high elves have placed themselves under a self-imposed exile, ashamed of the damage that they have wrought upon the world of Lordaeron with their abuse of arcane magic.”

First of all, the planet is called Azeroth. Lordaeron is a continent. Second of all; what damage? I honestly don't have any clue what they're talking about here. Third of all; what abuse? The high elves used their magic mostly to improve the quality of their lives and defend themselves.

The entry also mentions that the philosophy of the holy light doesn't penetrate far into elven society, which is weird, considering that the priest unit in warcraft III was a high elf.

The high elves get +2 intellect and -2 stamina. The former makes sense, but the latter doesn't. Why not use -2 charisma? You made the entire rest of the article about the elves being dicks, so that would make sense.

The racial levels for High elves make a bit more sense, gaining agility and some abilities to enhance their spells.

Elf, Night: The article keeps using the words 'honorable and just' to describe the night elves. This is the same race, mind you, that attacked the orcs without warning because they weren't aware someone laid claim to the forest and put a man in solitary confinement for 10000 years, before banishing him for doing exactly what he was told to do.

The homeland of the night elves is also mentioned as Teldrassil, with no mention of Nighthaven at all. Even in world of warcraft, the night elves still had a significant population in ashenvale, darkshore and moonglade, but this section speaks as if Teldrassil was their only home.

Night elves get +2 spirit, -2 intelligence. The spirit makes sense, but the intelligence doesn't. In every other medium, night elves appear to be about as intelligent as humans.

Night elf racial levels give them the ability to blend into the shadows, give greater agility and give them resistance against the elements and arcane magic. The first one is a natural ability, so it doesn't really make sense that they have to learn how to do that. The second one does make sense. However, the third one outright contradicts lore, where the night elves gave up their resistance to the elements at the end of warcraft III.

Gnome: The gnome entry is actually pretty decent, though I think they should have gotten a larger strength penalty than a mere -2.

Goblin: Again, a decent entry, though with the same problem as the gnomes.

Human: The article claims that stormwind is the only powerful human nation left standing. Considering Kul Tiras is still intact, that's a utterly false. Then again, everyone apparently loves ignoring Kul Tiras.

Orc: Wait, sometimes women can be as tall as men? Truly, this is a remarkable fact not true for any other race. I mean, what an alien concept. Can you even imagine what would happen if human women could be as tall as men? Okay, it's a small line, but it's really weird that they felt the need to point it out.

Also, the article claims that Thrall “destroyed the legacy of Grom Hellscream”. I'd like to point out that Thrall lives in a palace called Grommash Hold, with a large statue dedicated to Grom's greatest victory right in front of it. He also declared a national 'Yay, Grom!' holiday. He must be really, really bad at destroying legacies.

Tauren: The entry claims joining the horde has led to more conflict for the tauren, which has led to a greater need for warriors and healers. Last I checked, the tauren were constantly raided by the centaur before joining the horde. In fact, the reason they joined the horde is because Thrall gave them a safe haven. Or has that been ignored as well? The article states that the Tauren joined the horde because they shared a similar spiritual vision. It also states that the tauren have changed attitudes to become much more contemplating and silent because of all the killing they had to do because of their alliance with the horde. Considering that the horde hasn't really started any major military offensives since the third war, and the fact that the centaur were constantly raiding the tauren before they joined the horde, I can't really imagine that the amount of killing they had to do has gone up.

Tauren get +2 strength, -2 agility. The attributes they chose make a lot of sense, but the size of the bonus really doesn't. +2 strength means that the average tauren is as strong as the average forsaken. Also, they're medium-sized creatures, despite being pretty damn big in artwork.

The racial levels for the tauren give them additional strength, spirit, a charging ability and greater resistance against scary stuff. With the exception of the strength, those do kind of make sense as racial levels.

Troll: Aside from the racial levels, I'm actually fine with the troll article. The racial levels have the usual oddness of having to learn natural abilities, like their enhanced healing. I was fine with that in Warcraft III because it was needed for balance reasons (plus, any RTS game already requires a few dozen other suspensions of disbelief), but in a more story-oriented environment like an RPG, it seems incredibly weird, because there is no real way to roleplay it.

Undead, Forsaken: Why are the forsaken their own species anyway? They're a bunch of random undead that rebelled from the scourge, so shouldn't they have the same species? In that case, this entry should probably be called Undead, Zombie.

The article brings up that Sylvanas allied herself with ogres (it was more like mind control, but I'll let that slide), however, like world of warcraft, it completely ignores any of the other groups that were used by Sylvanas.

The normal abilities of the forsaken are pretty decent. However, what the hell is going in with their racial levels? In the beginning, it was explained that racial levels were gained by a deep understanding of your race's history and culture. The entirety of forsaken society is only three years old! How the hell is it that the forsaken have racial levels, but the humans don't? Even if we use the other explanation (racial levels just representing natural advantages that got left out due to balance), it doesn't really make sense due to the nature of the abilities. The forsaken get natural armor (because undead flesh is more resistant to swords, I guess), further increased strength (a forsaken with all racial levels is stronger than a tauren with all racial levels. Must be all that muscle that... erm... has rotted away), gain a slam attack (Yes, undeath gives you the ability slam people. Normal humans can't do that!) and increased HP (okay, that actually makes sense).

Classes

The world of warcraft RPG presents us with 8 core classes: The arcanist, the barbarian, the healer, the paladin, the rogue, the scout, the tinker and the warrior. While these are pretty good choices for core classes, I do have issues with the paladin as a core class. Lorewise, they are knights who received additional priest training, so they should really be a prestige class.

Arcanist: Thank god they got rid of the nonsensical distinction between wizards and sorcerers. The arcanist is basically a catch-all term for users of arcane magic. Within this class, players can choose one of three paths: mage, necromancer and warlock (I assume more paths are added in later books). There are still a few weird remnants from dungeons and dragons, like all arcanists needing spellbooks and mages having familiars, but overall, its a pretty big improvement over the first edition.

Barbarian: Barbarian class Smash! The statistics of the barbarian class are just copied from the Dungeons and Dragons class, but it fits the setting.

Healer: The return of the dumb class idea! Wait, did they actually have this class make sense? Holy hell, they did. Like the arcanist, the healer is a catch-all term, compromising three paths: druid, priest and shaman.

I do still have some minor quibbles though, mostly in the way it handles alignment. To be more specific: An evil druid cannot cast the same spells as a good druid, which doesn't make any sense lore-wise. They also made all shamans non-lawful and most priests good, neither of which makes much sense in-universe (orc shamans act as community leaders, while troll priests practice human sacrifice). I'd have preferred if your powers were dependent on the entity from which you draw them (turning the three paths into Ancient guardians, Holy Light and Spirits). Also, the name is still silly.

Paladi... Erm... Hunter? The hell? These guys didn't get mentioned as a new class in the introduction. Seriously, who was the editor for this? Let's see... Ellen P. Kiley. She also did the editing for Lands of Conflict, alliance&horde compendium, magic&mayhem and Shadows&light. The editing in those books wasn't exactly spot-on either, but this is just terrible.

Though, while we're talking about the paladin, I have a similar complaint about hunters: They should not be a core class. They're really just scouts who have specialised in animals (and scouts are already nature-oriented). Having both scouts and hunters as core classes is extremely redundant. It's also unclear where exactly a hunter's power comes from. They clearly possess magical abilities, like summoning poisons out of thin air. My guess would be that the powers are druidic in nature, but that explanation doesn't fit with forsaken and high elf hunters (those two races aren't allowed to enter night elf territory, where the cenarion circle resides).

Paladin: Aside from paladin being a core class, the paladin code of conduct really doesn't translate well from Dungeons and dragons to warcraft. Since paladins gain their powers in the same way that priests do, it seems weird for the paladins to have a code of conduct, but not priests.

Rogue: The statistics of the rogue class are just copied from the Dungeons and Dragons class, but it fits the setting.

Scout: No real complaints.

Tinker: As always, the use of technology in the RPG is quite good, and this class is no exception.

Warrior: Exactly the same as the fighter from dungeons and dragons, though that does fit the setting.

Prestige Classes

Eight prestige classes are included in this book: Archmage of the Kirin Tor, Assassin, Beastmaster, Berserker, Duelist, Elven Ranger, Fel-sworn, Gladiator, Infiltrator and Mounted Warrior. Most of these classes were already seen in the first edition, and little has changed about them. The berserker and archmage are both from dungeons and dragons and fit the setting well. However, there is one new prestige class: The fel-sworn. These are people who have absorbed significant amounts of fel energy, even giving them a demon-like appearance. They actually fit lore pretty well.

Description

We're skipping the feat and skill chapters, since those are fine. The description chapter gives instructions how to set up the backstory of your character. It also gives us updated information on the factions

The alliance:

The alliance in this RPG book is a really odd and self-contradicting mixture of the alliance from the first edition and the alliance of world of warcraft. It acknowledges world of warcraft's idea of the lands of Stormwind mostly being intact and thriving, but it still has Theramore City as its capital and Jaina Proudmoore as the leader of the alliance. It does uphold the grand tradition of ignoring Kul Tiras though, which gets mentioned all of once in the entire book.

The horde:While the tauren lore is actually handled well here, the trolls were not so lucky. Their homeland is now a small group of islands south-east of Kalimdor, which makes their backstory in warcraft III (where Thrall stumbled across them while travelling from Lordaeron to Durotar) pretty much impossible.

Independent:

This line:

“Although the Alliance and Horde encompass most of Azeroth’s sentient races”

No, they don't. There are dozens of sentient species outside either the horde or alliance. And, even for some races that are in the horde and alliance, there are large portions of that race outside the factions.

Faiths

The RPG flat-out says that the dwarves are just studying the titans, not worshipping them. So why does it still count as a faith? Also, druidism is no longer listed separately, instead being grouped together under shamanism, which is something I have to disagree with. Shamans work with elements and the spirits of dead mortals. Druids work with the spirit of nature, the emerald dream and the ancient guardians. The two are close, but definitely distinct. However, I am really glad the RPG got rid of the stupid, stupid idea that the gods of azeroth never interfere.

Holy Light:

Are you freaking kidding me? The RPG again states that the dwarves have abandoned the light to pursue the study of their creators. How are these two incompatible? However, I do like the description of the holy light.

Shamanism and Nature Worship:

This quote about Elune:

“It is her power that sheltered the world in the early days and her guidance that kept the night elves from falling into magic addiction like the high elves.”

High elves are descendants of the highborne, ancient night elves who were addicted to arcane magic. So yes, night elves did get addicted to arcane magic.

Mystery of the makers

Wait, the dwarves of Kalimdor want to move their entire race to Kalimdor to study Bael Modan? Isn't Uldaman, which is located in the eastern kingdoms, a much larger and more important titan facility? Aside from that, *insert usual complaints regarding archaeology being a religion here*.

Burning legion

This quote:

“Once the Third War began, however, everyone saw the demons’ true nature”

Weren't there daemons assisting the horde in the first war? You'd think that the slaughter of thousands of innocents would be a good hint to the demons' true nature.

Scourge

The lich king has Lordaeron under his command? Dude, I read Lands of Conflict. The lich king controls all of two regions.

Equipment

I honestly really like this entire chapter. It contains all of the items that I would associate with the warcraft universe, as well as most weapons from dungeons and dragons (though it could have used a few more illustrations). The uses of coinage are pretty clever (alliance only accepts officially minted coins, while the horde and goblins accept gold or silver in any form) and the use of technology, as always, is a lot of fun.

Playing the game

Just the basic rules of dungeons and dragons.

Magic

This chapter contains tons of errors (the well of eternity being responsible for all three wars, modern use of magic still being as dangerous as that of the higborne, Xavius being an ancient guardian, etc.), but it still isn't nearly as bad as the original magic chapter. Arcane magic is presented as corrupting, but not as quasi-demonic, while divine magic is portrayed as gentle, but there are still some evil sources. It's not a good chapter, certainly, but it's still miles better than anything seen in the first edition.

The spell list is also pretty good, fitting both the Warcraft RTS games and World of Warcraft. There's still a couple of issues (avatar being a general war domain spell when it was suggested that only dwarves could do it), but all of these are minor.

Campaigns

This chapter includes some instructions for game masters, as well as some new playing elements. Most of this was already covered in the first book, so I'll just talk about some of the new rules. Oh, and some of the sillier mistakes: Arthas fell to the addiction of arcane magic (even though he was a paladin), Mulgore borders Durotar on the south (It's to the south-west, and there is a pretty big region separating them) and the alliance is opposed to cremation (King Terenas in warcraft III was cremated).

Hero Points: Specially awarded points that you get for doing heroic stuff and allow you to perform the impossible. They're a pretty interesting concept, though I'm not sure I'd like playing with them.

Community Rules: Rules for building communities and playing with them. It honestly looks really cool to me, though it might require some house rules (as the resource system is a bit lacking).

Conclusion

This book kind of disappointed me. It was still a massive improvement over the first edition core rules, but there were still a ton of major errors. What was weirdest to me was the number of problems that were almost fixed (archeology being a religion and arcane magic being pure evil), but where the later chapters went back to the incredibly stupid explanation. However, there was still an attempt, which is something I can appreciate, and there was a lot of good stuff in the book as well, though there were a lot of minor errors that an editor should have spotted. Still it was a big improvement over the first core rules and I give the book a 5.5 out of 10.

Starcraft II - Wings of Liberty

Blizzard is easily one of the most well-known companies in the game industry. However, they don't actually produce all that many games, with a total of only four releases in the last decade, spread over Blizzard's three active franchises: Warcraft III and World of Warcraft for the warcraft franchise, Starcraft II for the starcraft franchise and, released just this month, Diablo III for the diablo franchise. We've already talked quite a bit about the warcraft franchise, but today I wanted to look at a different franchise: Starcraft. More specifically, I wanted to take a look at starcraft II. But first, an introduction for those not familiar with starcraft.

Starcraft

After the smashing success of warcraft II in 1995, Blizzard wanted to make a quick buck by quickly churning out another RTS. Within five months, the game was in the final stages of design, and blizzard presented it at E3 1996. This is what they came up with:

If you have ever played Warcraft II, you should instantly spot the problem with this game: it's a blatant rehash. They don't even try to hide it. I can't even say that it has improved graphics (if anything, it looks worse). Needless to say, the fans were not amused, and jokes about 'orcs in space' became a fairly common phenomenon amongst the gaming crowd.

Luckily, blizzard decided to step up their game and make starcraft more distinct, upgrading the old warcraft II engine to allow for new unit abilities, as well as giving the game three distinct races, rather than the carbon-copied orcs and humans from warcraft II. First of the races is the Terrans, a group of humans whose ancestors were exiled from earth during a communist revolution and whose greatest strength lies in tactics. Second are the zerg, a swarm of constantly evolving monstrosities, whose primary advantage lies in their great numbers. Third are the protoss, an ancient empire of psychic aliens who have great strength and psychic capabilities, but small numbers.

And thus, a gaming classic was born. With highly balanced and compelling gameplay, as well as great music, a fantastic backstory and high-quality cinematics, starcraft became a massive hit, popular up to this very day. I'm also still a very big fan, despite the fact that the game is incredibly dated at this point. For me, it is mostly becaouse of the incredibly epic story of starcraft, which has awesome civilisations, a great backstory, high stakes and interesting characters.

That said, starcraft isn't exactly perfect. A big limitation is the fact that you can only select 12 units at once, which, with armies of up to 400, can get very annoying (especially considering the poor pathing often requires you to give multiple movement commands to the same group of units). The story itself isn't perfect either. Most of the actual missions are very generic, a couple of important turning points happen off-screen with no explanation given in-game. Still, the story is epic and helped make the game as much of a success as it became.

And because of that success, a sequel went into production. Starcraft: Ghost was planned to be a shooter game following the adventures of Nova, a powerful Terran psychic assassin. The game was in production for a few years, and there were apparently even some demos, but it was never finished due to quality concerns. Instead, the starcraft universe received a metric ton of novels. Some of the books were meant as simple explorations of the universe, a few others filled in holes in the story from the original game, but most of the books were meant to set up a sequel: Starcraft II.

Starcraft 2 – Wings of Liberty

Wings of Liberty was designed to be the first story in a three-part epic, focusing on the Terrans, while the two planned expansions will serve to tell the story of the zerg and protoss. Wings of Liberty is the story of James Raynor, one of the main characters from the previous game, now organising a group of rebels to overthrow the Dominion, an oppressive government that rose to power in the first game.

Let's start with a positive: starcraft 2's campaign is mechanically nearly perfect. The missions are varied and interesting. There is a wide array of units and tactics that can be used in each mission. The different difficulties are very well-executed. Allowing the player to upgrade units and hire mercenaries using credits adds actually makes it worthwhile to play the optional missions, even if you're not that interested in the story. The upgrades and research options themselves are also very well-designed, each giving interesting new tactical options, rather than just some boring passive bonuses. So yeah, as a game, starcraft 2 is freaking awesome. But how does it hold up as a story?

Let's start with some of the game mechanics. The whole research and development thing I mentioned simply doesn't fit into the story of the game at all. Raynor is a rebel, with only a single ship under his command. His science team consists of a single person, who is implied to not be very good at his job. Yet, somehow, this guy is able to devise countless new technologies, mastering short-range teleportation, zerg mind control and a deluge of other advancements. The technologies themselves don't make a lot of sense either. The science vessel was a unit from starcraft 1, built simply as a scientific research ship. So why do I need to study zerg DNA to discover how to make it? And, despite the fact that you are supposed to have developed these things yourself, you can also see enemy terrans making use of the exact same upgrades. Sure, you can just ignore these things storywise as just being a game mechanic, but why should I have to? This problem is so damn easy to fix. Rather than recovering zerg specimens and protoss relics and making discoveries based off of that, why not find Confederate and Kel-Morian (two other factions of Terran) research files and pierce together their research? It would make it believable that it can be done by a small team, it would explain why you and the terran dominion (who have taken over the old confederate research facilities and are allied with the Kel-Morian combine) are using the same technology and, since most missions already include human outposts or former human outposts, would be easy to integrate. You'd have to shuffle around the research trees a bit, but that's all. Is this a very minor complaint? Yes. But I'm building up to something.

Now, we let's take a look at a few missions. One of the first mission arcs involves the colony of Agria, who you have to help evacuate due to a large zerg invasion. In the next mission, it turns out the colonists have been infested by the zerg, and the infestation has been spreading. However, the infested are sensitive to the local sunlight, so can only emerge at night, giving us a nice zombie survival mission. However, in the original starcraft, as well as in the books, infestation wasn't actually contagious. A few missions later, Ariel Hanson is able to invent a cure for the infestation in Jim Raynor's laboratory. This cure is apparently highly effective, and able to cure people on a massive scale. And yet, we never see it again after this mission. The entire campaign of starcraft 2 revolves around assembling an ancient artifact that is capable of de-infesting people, and even this super-powerful artifact isn't capable of fully curing someone. But why would you need that if you already have a far more effective cure at your disposal? Both problems could have been spotted with only a few seconds of thought, and fixed by simply stating that this is a different kind of infestation (a change which would require only two or three changed lines of dialogue).

In 'the great train robbery', Raynor hears of the dominion finding something valuable in the ruins of Tarsonis. He is planning to rob the supply trains to obtain this valuable item. The mission mechanic here is that you need to destroy eight enemy trains, and not letting more than three trains escape. From a gameplay perspective, this is fun and exciting. From a story perspective, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Again, the solution is fairly simple. Have Raynor not hear of one particular valuable item, but just that the dominion is excavating an old military base on Tarsonis for materiel. The discovery of the valuable item could just be a surprise. With only a few changed lines of dialogue, you have again made the story make a bit more sense.

Now we look at a big one: The Tal'darim. These are a fanatical group of protoss that pop up in several missions as enemies. They were actually introduced in the expanded universe, in a series of books called the 'dark templar saga' (which I higly recommend to starcraft fans). The problem with them? They're never given ANY explanation in-game. Because of this, Raynor looks pretty damn evil for constantly invading their planets and stealing their religious artefacts in order to make a quick buck. Hell, from the dialogue, it becomes pretty clear that Raynor honestly doesn't know a damn thing about the Tal'darim, which makes any of his actions against them morally disgusting. Again, the fix is a fairly simple one. In a couple of missions, you're following the legendary protoss dark templar Zeratul, an old ally of Raynor. Since the Tal'darim absolutely hate the dark templar, you could have had Zeratul encounter a group of them, which would give both the players and Raynor some exposition about them, as well as justifying his actions against the Tal'darim.

Speaking of the Tal'darim hating the dark templars, have you ever looked at their unit selection? Yeah, that's right, they use dark templar units. True, they're not actually utilizing the dark templars themselves, but they are using dark templar technology, like the stalker and the void ray. Unlike the above example, this isn't really a big deal, but, again, easily fixable. During a portion of the beta, the void ray was actually a high templar unit called the warp ray. Since that model and the slightly different mechanics were finished, you could very easily replace the void ray. The other dark templar unit, the stalker, is a bit harder. However, its role as a ranged unit can be filled by a few other protoss units, so you could just leave it out entirely. Alternatively, you could edit the model of the immortal in order to recreate the dragoon, a unit which filled the stalker role back in starcraft 1.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every single mission in the game contains head-scratching moments that could easily be fixed, if only a second more thought had been given to it. They spent months refining the gameplay of the multiplayer game, but obviously didn't spend nearly as much time refining the story of the campaign. However, this doesn't mean the story is bad per se. It's just not nearly as good as it could have been

However, that isn't my only major gripe with starcraft II. The other one is with the dialogue. Every single sentence in the game is a cliché. While I usually don't mind a few stupid, stereotypical lines in my games, this games goes so far over the top that it almost becomes a parody, despite the story actually being fairly serious.

So what's my final view on starcraft II's campaign? Well, I really enjoyed the gameplay. The overall story was decent, if a bit bland. However, the details do take me completely out of the game. So is it good? Yes. Is it as good as the first one? Not even close. So, for the final score, the game gets a 7/10. When next we meet one another, we will return to the roots of this blog and take another look at the warcraft RPG.