Musings.

Heh, long time no update. Before I start, to the people who actually read this, why? Which posts do you enjoy, the ramblings entries about myself, those about WoW, or the completely random ones, like this one?

Imagine if the future could be seen. Not clearly, just coming events. Imagine a time line of small, insignificant events that are yet to come. Now imagine someone was going to, say, die three weeks from now. They'd know it, of course. And of course, when the day came, they would die. Now imagine that time line didn't really show the future, but everyone was certain it did. Would said person still die on the day listed? Think about it. They'd be so adamant that it was going to happen, they'd ensure it did subconsciously. Either that, or some crazy psycho would haul off and kill them.
Different example. A book is scheduled to be a best seller. The insight into the future is real, of course it will be. If it's not, everyone will still rush out and buy it because it's so "good".
And when the "end of the world" thing comes up, you just know someone's going to push a big red button and blow the planet into tiny chunks.
Moral of this rambling hypotheses is to be wary of prophecy, it's more than likely manipulation.

This is the product of a mostly sleepless night. Why I didn't sleep, I don't know. I wish I did, but I don't. It's now after six in the morning, so it's not even worth trying to sleep some more. The next part however, is something I've been thinking about for a fair while, and finally feel motivated to write.

All signs point to the next WoW expansion being the Maelmstrom, and as such, I have a few thoughts as to what we may see.

The first, and most obvious, is Queen Azshara. Queen Azshara was Queen of the Night Elves before the Great Cataclysm (Sundering). and was corrupted by an Old God, and twisted into a Naga. Since there is no evidence at all that Yogg-Saron's, or C'thun's influence spreads as far as the land now known as Azshara, I think it's safe to infer that it was a third, aquatic based Old God. With an Old God in the equation, of course Neptulon, Elemental Lord of water comes into play. Neptulon's minions include the Kraken, which is where things get interesting. To date, there are four Kraken in game, with a fifth being added in patch 3.2.
Starting with the oldest, we have Tethyr, who is part of a quest in Dustwallow Marsh. I'm sure you remember it, a lot of running, visiting Nat Pagle, then using cannons to kill the huge beast.
Next is The Lurker Below, one of the bosses in SSC. Being in SSC means it's under control of Lady Vashj, who was Azshara's cheif handmaiden back in the day, and the original contact between Naga and the other races.
Next we'll take a quick look at the newest, the North Sea Kraken. It's being summoned by the Kvaldir to attack the Argent Crusade. The Kvaldir are an aquatic Vyrkul type race, living in mist on coastlines and islands. Not much there.
The second to last, Oacha'noa, is revered as "Goddess of the Depths" by the Tuskarr. Involved in a quest chain in Dragonblight.
Last, but definitely not least, Leviroth. Leviroth was imprisoned by Azshara five hundred years ago, but is being set free. For a quest, you're given a trident blessed with the power to slay it by Azshara.

To recap, we have one Kraken under Naga command, one destroyed with the help of the Naga, one celebrated by the Tuskarr, one under Kvaldir command, and one renegade.

There's also the ancient, giant Kraken, which have appeared twice thus far in Lore. Once to destroy the Gurubashi empire, and the other during Rhonin's travels through time. These Kraken are said to be invincible, and massive.

Like I said, it gets interesting. Rather than ramble about it, I'll outline my thoughts clearly.
The Kraken are primarily Neptulon's minions.
There are at least two types of Kraken.
They are summoned (from the Elemental Plane?) to Azeroth.
The Kvaldir are either minions, or worshipers of Neptulon.
The Kraken are not all "evil".
They can be controlled by force, coercion, or loyalty of a sort.
Azshara, and the Naga, are willing to destroy, or use Kraken as it suits them.
Azshara is at odds with Neptulon, and by association, possibly the Old God(s).

The Naga being at odds with Neptulon is further shown by Skar'this the Heretic in H Slave Pens. He is imprisoned, and refers to Neptulon as the one true god.

Considering how recent most of the lore outlined above is, I doubt it will be retconned for a new expansion. So will we two of the Big Bads warring with one another? Or will it be more akin to Kael'Thas and Illidian, a behind the scenes power struggle? Personally I think an all out war would be more fun to play in, especially with a mercenary type "reputation" system similar to that in Grizzly Hills. Kill one of Azshara's minions, and Neptulon's will be neutral towards you, and vice versa. Or, I could simply be reading much too far into all of this. But really, why make is so pointed that Leviroth is bad, to the point where you're given an item by a Naga, which has been blessed by Azshara specifically to be able to kill it, if it's not important?

Any thoughts on this? If so, please share. Aspects of lore like this, and the speculation which goes with it interest me greatly.

3.2 PvE

Emblems are being homogenized into a two tier system similar to that in TBC. All older content, heroics through to 25 Ulduar, will drop Emblems of Conquest. In a way, it's a good thing, in another, it's not. It means that slow levelers and alts will be able to gear up faster. Guilds still farming launch content will be able to catch up. And, of course, getting a decent Heroic group will be possible. All this will benefit the community as a whole, better gear for everyone means less carrying, less failure, and less time spent in a run. Inversely, even people who can't get their shit together enough to down a Naxx boss will be wearing at least two pieces of tier 8, and plenty of equivalent gear. Which means, every man and his dog will be trying to PuG the Coliseum. Overall, a good change. The only thing missing, is the ability to trade Emblems of Heroism/Valor for Conquest, since they'll more or less be defunct.

As for loot in the Coliseum, I think it's safe to assume that the 10 and 25 man iterations will both drop tier 9 and equivalent, with the 25 man dropping more. Which of course, means the Heroic's will drop tier 9.5, balancing the difference between running a 10 and a 25 man raid, without upsetting the "hardcore" raiders by making it truly even.

Overall, it will balance things nicely, even with the inherent problems. Maybe the problems will sort themselves out early on in the patch, only time will tell.

Shit! Nothing makes sense, so I wont think about it. I'll go with the ignorance.


I seem to have a habit of saying, writing, or thinking, that I feel like writing and never doing it. So I'm going to write. The above quote is a song lyric, and I love it. It pretty much sums up how I feel about a lot of things lately. Cookie for whoever can tell me the next four words of the song. Without cheating. I honestly can't think of any words. I'll come back to this later.

Today, I came to a number of conclusions.
I've become so good at disguising my emotions from others, I can't always distinguish them myself. One emotion has been represented as another, and as such, has confused me, and those around me a great deal. I woke up happy today, not just thinking I was happy, but truley happy, for the first time in over a week. This is a very, very good thing.
Subconsciously, I expect to be disappointed and hurt by people close to me. I realized yesterday that I've been pushing the person I care most about away from me, which is the last thing I want to do. Why? Because almost every time I've been hurt or disappointed by someone, it's started with a complete breakdown of communication. Which, due to circumstances out of our control, has happened between us. My subconscious has been trying to "warn" me, and it's made my life hell lately. With any luck, waking up happy today means the ordeal is over.
I seem to run towards my fears, instead of away. I beckon that which I dread. Pushing people away from fear of losing them. Promising to never let anyone hurt them, then hurting them myself. I'm a hypocrite. Subconsciously, I'm screwing my life up. Subconsciously, I can't accept the fact that things are going well for a change.
I'll admit, I'm not a great person. I'm a rather confused person, but that's not a valid excuse for being a bad person. But I can work on that. Right now, I'm content with being a happy person again.

After that little essay on myself, I'm asking myself "WHY SO SERIOUS-UH?!". So the plan is to entertain you with a number of statements which may or may be strung together to form a coherent piece of text.
While lurking Youtube for background noise, I came across an AMV (lolnerd) I quite like. Once the song finished, a comment caught my eye, saying the song is a cover by the Misfits. I've seen the name countless times, but never actually listened to their music. I've been listening to it for almost half an hour now. It feels familiar, but I don't recall ever listening to them.
I want to watch Gunslinger Girl after seeing the AMV. Ugh, will have to steal it from my friend again.
I have no sweet chili sauce. My noodles aren't as flavourful as usual. Coincidence? I think not.
A Misfits song was used in the Serenity Now funeral gank video. That's why it's familiar.
At this point in time, I'm writing a blog.
I beleive I'm out of things to write about after reading the previous statement.

I joined a new guild on WoW. Oddly enough, a friend from neither guild seems to be taking it the worst. His guild was the first to invite me to join, way back when struggled through Heroics trying to get geared for Naxx. I impressed the loyalty I feel for Praetorian upon him, and he understood. Between then and now, I can remember being invited to two other raiding guilds. The first guild I went into Naxx with, and the one I joined. I'm sure there's more, but those three are the only ones that stand out. Originally, I declined due to loyalty. But over time, I've come to realise that Praetorian will never give me what I want from the game. So, although I will always consider Praetorian to be "my guild", I've moved Belasta into a different one. My former guildmates understand the move, and support it. Which does surprise me to be honest, since I talked about it with two other officers, and the GM, before making the decision and ninja /gquitting. The one person that was online at the time, mentioned it to one of the aforementioned officers, was told the reasoning, and instantly sent me a whisper of support. The friend however, whispered me and bombarded me with questions, hinting not so subtlety that I was welcome to join his guild.
So I suppose the question is, why didn't I join his guild, or the other one? Well, the other one is much easier to explain, so that can be first. Quite simple really, they no longer exist. Too many leaders, and no real leadership or something such. As for my friends guild, running Naxx, OS, and EoE for the next few months really doesn't appeal to me. I could do that without leaving Praetorian, and with the same chance of success. While I feel intense loyalty to my friend, I don't feel so strongly about his guild. Not nearly strongly enough to progress through an instance that bores me. So I joined AAL, a guild which is doing the content I want to be able to run. So that's that.

My level 50 priest fully cleared Molten Core. And leeched 360exp in the process. /win.

Lastly, I'm going to copy/paste a brilliant piece of writing before it's lost.

"Contrary, every guild that is fanatically pushing progression has a goal they want to reach. Unless they're deluded, that goal wont be to match Ensidia, or any other world class guild. EF is the first goal they could come to."

Maelstrom Expansion

For over ten millennium I have waited, growing in power, massing an army. I have witnessed the birth of mortals, the rise and fall of nations, and the death of Gods. I have sent emissaries to the surface, only to be betrayed in favour of one who caused my downfall. But it matters not. My people are wreaking havoc on the world, creating destruction wherever they go. Our power is greater than anyone could imagine. Soon, I will have my revenge. I will see this entire world sink beneath the water's of the Maelstrom! My dream will be realised and the world will be cleansed of lesser beings! And I will rise as Queen, ruler of the world! The time of the Naga has arrived!

Queen Azshara, World of Warcraft: Rise of the Naga opening cinematic.

Opening event: Rhonin is kidnapped by the Naga at Azshara's orders, while battalions of Naga attack coastal towns/cities at random. Players are able to pick up daily quests to kill the attacking Naga, and also one which involves finding Rhonin. The quest to save Rhonin will require us to kill (named) Naga commanders in specified locations and loot an item from each of them. When all items have been collected, we combine them to form "Encrypted Orders" or some such, and then need to find someone who can decrypt and translate them for us. We read the orders and receive the next part of the quest, which sends us into a raid instance (probably a new one, a preview of the start of one of the release instances) where we need to kill a boss in order to free Rhonin. We then have to escape via teleportation. Rhonin rewards us, and the way into the Maelstrom is revealed.

Yeah, I want to be fighting Queen Azshara in the Maelstrom come 4.3 :)

The Life, Universe, and Everything!

I've been thinking about making this post for a while now, but never really been able to put my thoughts into words. But I'm going to try, and hopefully, succeed.

. So what does it all mean? Why am I hear? What's the purpose of my life? The Ultimate Question. Who has never, in their life, thought about it? Well maybe the answer is not as elusive as it seems. Maybe, I have it figured out.
. A lot of people think we're born with a purpose, we're destined to do something specific with our lives. But I think this is wrong. I think we're simply born, no purpose, no destiny, just the miracle of life. If we were born with a purpose, nothing would simply happen, everything would be an orchestration, a facade of freedom. Our entire life, we'd be a puppet, some higher being or purpose guiding our entire lives. But we can think independently, we're able to question what we do, and why. Which would make it rather hard to control us if we chose to fight our destiny.
. Some people think we all share a purpose. But what would happen to society if we did? If everyone's purpose was to, say, wage war. Everyone would simply be killing each other, society would cease to exist, and eventually, so would humanity. Human's as a whole cannot function without diversity. No society can. Even Ants, one of the most mindless creatures on the planet have soldiers and workers.
. I believe we all create our own purpose for living. We simply live until we find something to make our passion. Be it a career, family, knowledge, or simply enjoying one's self. People devote their entire life to finding meaning in it, without ever realising it's become their purpose. Some people may never realise what their purpose has become, or even create one. But lucky people do. They find something, and make it their passion, their life's work, their legacy. I haven't found mine yet, but hopefully, I will one day.

Yeah, I watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a few days ago, for those wondering about the title. And yes, I have far too much time to think. Far, far too much time.

Again, random.

All said and done, my birthday was fun. Everything worked out how it was meant to, which is good. The house is now empty, I can hear myself think, and I'm going to make a coffee so I don't fall asleep.

I want to clear EoE sometime this week too, I'm sick of not having my Champion of the Frozen Wastes title. After that, I'm going to start trying to get my Red Proto-Drake.