Good storytelling in Warcraft

So I wrote post Bad storytelling in Warcraft, going into some detail what I think is wrong with how Blizzard tells many of its stories. That said I would like to talk about what I think looks like to be some of good story telling in World of Warcraft.

Few weeks ago we got Patch 4.2 Preview: A Legendary Engagement. This is a blog post about the new legendary Staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. This is a good story telling because we are seeing consequences to actions and consistency of characters.

First the consequences. From a story point of view one of the biggest let downs in Wrath of the Lich King was the Malygos story. As with our Troll friends huge wonderful build up(Much of which we have only gotten in the last few months well after it would have been its most timely) but that end with Malygos dying like a punk and only a few token mentions to his death. That death of one of the most powerful beings in Azeroth was little more than side note and short one at that.

So here we are almost three years later and story is moving again. The preview tells us that "Kalecgos, who champions reconciliation with other races; and Arygos a scion of Malygos who believes that his kind should withdraw from the world and forge a new path." Sadly with most stories blizzard tells we have no sapeance because we know that Kalecgos or Kalec is going to be the next Blue Aspect, but the fact that we are seeing the debate and process makes this wonderful.

The again most of the time as readers, and consumers of fictions can piece together a story, but even when we know the ending the journey is often more interesting and powerful than the destination. This also follows one of the most important rules of writing show don't tell. Sadly so often as players we only hear about things after they happen. Even huge events like the Cataclysm we didn't see it simply passed us by with us dealing with a new world.

At this point we know a lot about the Blue Dragon Flight. Through Books like "Day of the Dragon", "Night of the Dragon", "The Sunwell Trilogy", and "Dragons of Outland" Blue Dragons play key roles in all these books.

The other point I really like is the call back to Ahn'Qiraj. Both Arygos and Anachronos played there greatest role to date in Ahn'Qiraj. Arygos was one of Dragons trapped behind the Scarab Wall much like Caelestrasz who has already played a key role in the Cataclysm.

I would make special note of Anachronos heir to Nozdormu, and during the Ahn'Qiraj he helped restore the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, and take the battle back to Ahn'Qiraj. He is one of the most proactive Dragons currently in the game. So when he has a Dream that blue Dragons might be causing some doom and decides to do something about that worth taking note of.

The last call back I would like to talk about is the Two moons of Azeroth, the White Lady and the Blue Child. However since the Burning Crusade you have only been able to see one of the moons of Azeroth in the sky. The fact that blizzard is talking about the two moon and in fact featuring them makes me happy to no end. No matter how unstable two moon systems are.

If your are interested in seeing the first part of quest its in a video below. Or would like to find full quest text they can be seen here. When someone has made a video of the whole line I'll make sure to write a post about it.

73's