Healing the Land
By falconesse | March 1, 2010
First off, let me preface this with a big ol’ warning: for those of you on Cataclysm blackout, now is the time to flee! Look over there! The World’s Laziest Kitteh! (Blame Gharr for the cute.)
Now, we know that the world of Azeroth that, for some of us, we could probably traverse in our sleep or while alt-tabbed without running off of cliffs or into walls, is going to be going through some major changes. One of the ones that was mentioned in the devchat last week caught Lansiron’s eye:
Q. With the Lich King defeated, in Cataclysm, will the Plaguelands be green and beautiful again?
A. Western Plaguelands will finally be free of the plague in Cataclysm. It’s hard for the Scourge to survive without their beloved Lich King. I guess this means we need to rename the zone?
Yep, that’s right, all you Northerners! If your character was born west of the Thondoril River, the ancestral homes you once might have thought lost forever could possibly be restored!
Now, we don’t have a lot of information here, like, if the Western Plaguelands are restored, why not the Eastern Plaguelands as well? Will Andorhal be rebuilt? What happens to the Scourge in Scholomance?
However, I think even the start of a cleansing becomes a pretty major theme for RP.
Have you started thinking about what the healing of the Plaguelands will mean for your characters? Where are they now, in terms of those blighted lands — do they still hope for a cleansing, and maybe even work towards one? Have they given up on those dreams completely? If they’ve given up, what happens when the lands are green again?
What about Forsaken characters? If the lands can be revived, will the news make your deaders take heart, or will it fill them with a new kind of dread? I’ve seen Forsaken who revel in their undead states and others who only want it to end. Those who search for a way to live again, and those who have accepted what they are. Might the cleansing and healing of the Plaugelands hold answers for any of those?
I’m not sure what this will mean to Davien. She’s long since been resigned to her Forsaken state. She doesn’t want to become human again. But she won’t pass up an opportunity to learn how it happened, if she can study it.
Threnn’s story here will, I think, depend largely on Bricu’s. He’s said before that reclaiming Lordaeron and the North is off his agenda, and has been for a while. While Lordaeron will probably still be under Forsaken control, and Stratholme’s still off to the east, I’ll be curious to see whether this will make Bricu rethink his position at all.
Most likely, I’ll be ficcing out something for one of Threnn’s good friends, whose family lived on the western banks of the river, and who hasn’t been back to the North for many years.
What RP opportunities do you see for your characters?
4 Comments
Anna on March 1, 2010 at 5:20 pm.
This has actually given me a sort of a writing deadline for Aely. One of the things that she’s been rattling about but hasn’t actually ever DONE is go back and find out what happened to her home and the town where she grew up.
Once Arthas dies, she’s going back, mostly for the closure of actually knowing what happened to them, but also partially to say “this is over”. The writing of this is already in process, but it means I have a definite deadline for getting this finished!
Like Bricu, she doesn’t really seek to rebuild Lordaeron – she’s pretty well convinced that Lordaeron isn’t coming back. The land itself might, but the culture and the people are so scattered now that it’s more a history than it is a living thing that needs “rebuilding” in her mind.
Whether that changes as the plagued-parts of the world go away remains to be seen.
Rashona on March 1, 2010 at 9:15 pm.
Hell, Rashona will be ecstatic about this (well, after she recovers from the actual *cataclysm* part of Cataclysm, she will be) – a long-term goal of hers has been to see the Plaguelands turn around. She’s a patient cow – the occasional plant that’s GREEN and not orange would be quite enough for a start. I can see WP becoming her level-85 default place-to-be, the way Storm Peaks is currently. She’ll be doing SOMETHING to preserve/maintain/improve the land there, that’s for sure.
Bricu on March 2, 2010 at 5:26 pm.
I’m not at all certain as to what Bricu would do. He moved on from Lordaeron a while ago, having it buried it after a Stratholme run. If the plaguelands are “Back to being Lordaeron” there is a chance that Bricu would jump on that bandwagon. It is definitely something that Bricu would have to talk to Threnn and Tarq about.
Sorcha on March 2, 2010 at 7:35 pm.
It’s interesting how a group’s “background” RP affects what parts of the upcoming expansion they are focused on. So you folks, with all the Lordaeron history so many of you carry around, are looking at the restoration of WP. Other people I know, playing in night elf guilds, are a lot more focused on the upcoming devastation in Kalimdor, and figuring out how that will affect their characters.
My one human character is from the deep hills of Alterac, and she has always cried when she has to go to the Plaguelands. I suspect she’ll still cry, but for different reasons now.