Your mission: caption this action shot I found deep within my screenshot folder!

(Clicky for a larger version)

I am hesitant to say that one particular faction won or lost a particular event. The brief Forsaken Civil war was ended in no small part by the Alliance’s invasion and subsequent killing of Putress. The Horde did get to put down Varimathras and eliminated a significant chunk of the traitors members of the Royal Apothecary. On the Alliance side, we get to how blood thirsty Wrynn is after his stint as a slave-gladiator; Horde wise we see how an insurgency grew underneath Thrall’s nose. This is not an ideal situation for a warchief. But did the Horde really emerge stronger?

I don’t think they did. True, the Alliance lost Bolvar and according to my horde sources, the Forsaken were not blamed for Putress’ insurgency; however, the horde has taken a hit in terms of their Apothecary and it has show how Thrall and Sylvannus were duped. This event provides more evidence for Garrosh’s rise to power within the Horde–an event that may end up fracturing the horde if certain rumors are true. While the Horde reclaimed the Undercity, it was the Alliance who got to kill Putress. And the Horde have to address the fact that one of their capitals was retaken due to Alliance “help.”

I would say the event was a wash. Neither side won or lost. In fact, what we witnessed was some fracturing among the horde races. This fracturing may continue in Cataclysm. Please share your opinions with us! Who “won” Wrathgate/Undercity?

Accents are a fantastic way of communicating a character’s history and personality without telegraphing this information. They are by no means the only way of doing this; however, they are a popular method of RP on the server. Hell, there are even mods that will change your speech patterns in certain channels.

A couple of pointers on accents:

1) Stay consistent.
Remember Kevin Costner in Robin Hood? He could not maintain his English accent scene to scene. Try to stay consistent with your character’s accent when you RP. You may make changes to the accent–for instance, Bricu’s “You” turned into “Yeh”–and this is acceptable as long as it fits the characters overall voice.

2) Research
Anna researched Aely’s accent before RPing with her. I know of one character/Guild Leader who watches Trainspotting on a semi-regular basis to keep his accent fresh (I suspect he also reads some Irvine Welsh too).

One should also research what is the common accent within the context of ones regular RPers. Of course accents can vary between regions (Bricu, Aely and Tarq, while similar, have major differences in their speaking patters), there should be some consistency between all of them.

3) Be prepared to say it OOCly
Be ready to translate what you wrote in an OOC Channels. Reading all of your apostrophes and creatively spelled words does help develop your character’s voice; however, just as in real life, sometimes an accent makes communication difficult. Just accept the fact that some folks will not be able to read what you’re writing as easily as others.

Those are my Three Rules. I’m always looking for more ideas for improving accents–so share your ideas!