Meet Charrdd, my newest alt in Warcraft.
Charrdd is a Tauren Druid, level 6 at the moment, and currently running errands in Bloodhoof Village. I chose a Druid, for one simple reason; shapeshifting. Druids get to change into various forms, inclusing, bear, cat, seal, moonkin, cheetah to name some. It’s one of the most versatile classes in the game, and sure to always have a spot in a raid or instance for it’s ability to tank or heal.
So why am I mentioning, let alone devoting a blog post to a shape shifting cow? Well, because I can, of course. I’m also planning on updating his progress, chronicling his adventures, and getting him leveled to 80 as well.
I’ve not forgotten my hunter Kharisi, my Death Knight Khonstantine, or my other alts. They’ll still be played, and interesting things will be written about them in the future. However, I wanted to take some time and do something a bit different in the game. There are many things I missed in the original game that I want to do. Many places I’ve never explored. It’s time to go back to the old world, pick up the old quests and do something new.
And with the nitwits being a bit quiet, it’s also something interesting to write about. So say hello to Charrdd, and if you see him in game, be sure to give a wave.
Scott Colbert 
you really ought to come run an Alliance character on Shu’halo so we could play together now that I have my own guild.
I’ll do that! I want to do the alliance side simply for the lore. Which character is on that server?
I played a Tauren druid when I was in the EU beta years ago, I just love the Tauren lore and Hunting quest chains. Normally I gravitate to dwarves or evil, but in the Warcraft world the Tauren won my heart.
You’re right Lewis, the Taurens have some of the best lore in the game-next to the orcs. Thunder Bluff is also one of my favorite cities. My only problem is they move so damn slow! I’ve gotten spoiled by the hunters aspect of the cheetah.
And as for alliance characters, it will be a dwarven hunter with a nice big gun.
Well, by now you know that the character is Jordansin, a shortening of Jordan Sinclair, the Bane Shepherd who takes no prisoners.
Aspect of the cheetah is great. Before Cansolean got his mount, he was using aspect of the cheetah to run with his bear. My mount had a hard time keeping up with him. It’s a cool aspect.
It’s a very cool aspect, and I’m g;ad it’s not getting nerfed in the upcoming patch. I’m happy to be a prt of Bane Shepherd, and those I met last night seem like good people. My only concern is adjusting to a non RP/PVE server. So, we’ll see how that goes.
I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s up with the “special rendition” mission in Northrend? I thought that was a nice piece of putting something topical in the game, though I’m not sure of their stance on it, since they have the “good” wizards ask you to torture a “bad” wizard, with no penalty for doing so, or incentive NOT to do it (that I could see).
KP,
There’s been a lot of discussion on this topic in my guild. Much of it rather interesting and well thought out, http://www.myextralife.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=16969&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=torture .
As some said in that thread, there have been other quests with similar themes; the apothecarians poisoning the farmers for one. I don’t think Blizzard consciously made a torture quest with any current events in mind. I do think, they’re showing a far darker side of Azeroth than we’ve seen before.
You’re right Kim, there is no incentive NOT to, and there are some in my guild who simply refused the quest; but I think it’s really interesting that it’s creating this kind of response.
well, the apothecaries were Horde, so it didn’t seem as pointed. You also poison the dude’s dog and prisoners, which is worse than the “neural” thingy that doesn’t cause permanent damage.
One of the things I do find interesting is how, once you play through a given storyline on both Alliance and Horde sides, you see that the message of the plot is essentially anti-war: every quest boils down to some variation on “Hello, ___, those darned _____s are killing my crops and driving off my livestock! Go kill X number of them!” and from the other side, “Oh, those farmers moved in and destroyed our hunting grounds and when we went over to ask them to stop, they attacked us! Go kill X number of them!” So war between horde and alliance boils down to a misunderstanding or greed. That is, UNTIL you meet some of the demons and bugs in outland – those things that fight both horde and alliance and seem dedicated to destruction, disease, and chaos for their own sakes. Or so it seems to me.
I always took the apothecaries to be a 3rd side. Dealing with whoever had the best deal for them at the time. If you’ve played through the wrathgate quest (or even watched the video I posted a few days ago) Horde and Alliance are fighting together until Putress shows up with the poison you had helped create in the earlier DragonBlight quests. Both sides are able to do the questline, which seems to my mind, the apothecaries are working them both. It adds another layer to the simple Us vs Them of the Old World and Burning Crusade content.
ok, then the undermining of the Horde = evil, Alliance = good occurs even earlier than I thought. Which is fine. Either way, it’s undermined to get at some more fundamental idea of evil – that it is simple chaos and destruction for their own sakes, and other things we label “Evil” are really more like “inconvenient” or “deletrious.”
as someone pointed out to me elsewhere, the one thing that runs against this is aesthetics: as with disney kid movies, Horde are very deliberately drawn to look as ugly as possible.
I think the point, and I could be wrong, is that neither side is totally good or totally evil. Neither is free of sin, so to speak. Add in the apothecary and scourge and you have a great conflict.
I do think that until the Blood Elves came along in the BC expansion, the Horde did indeed have some ugly-sterotypical characters.
I’d argue against the Horde being drawn to look as ugly as possible, they could be far worse and come across as more cute and cartoony than anything else, particularly if you compare art direction for the Horde races from Warcraft 3 with World of Warcraft.
It’s more a coincidence from the lore that the horde initially lacked any “pretty” races, and as for Disney kid movies there have been just as many cartoons where they highlight the importance of what lies within rather than appearance, using characters that are as “ugly” as the Horde. Take the character designs and plots for Gargoyles for instance.
I do like the grey viewpoint of both Alliance and Horde it’s an interesting approach especially when outside threats come along, but sometimes when I was playing I just wanted to be an unrepentantly evil character and indulge the dark side.