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?

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