World of Warcraft: Fan Fiction

I love the lore of Warcraft, it grabs you like no other novels I've read, simply because you can relate to it. Those few character names you remember or perhaps a location that you've been to during the long grind to 85. If for some reason you've not yet installed cataclysm or haven't been on to play since patch 4.0.1 then read The Shattering first. I was very luck to have pre-ordered my copy of the book and read it the moment it landed on my door mat, all I can say is that i cant wait for my brain to forget some of it so i can read it again.

The book is very well written and really sets the scene for the changes in the lore of World of Warcraft. I won't spoil the story for you in case you've not yet experienced it but i implore you to get online and experience it as soon as possible.

Hopefully we will see the next instalment of this novel soon as i am looking forward to seeing what happens next in this ever changing world that we are all involved in.

Well it certainly has been sometime since I last posted so I thought I would just drop a message in to say whats been going on.

Not long after my last post I lost interest in World of Warcraft mainly because it became some what of a daily grind and even the raids weren't keeping be that interested. Not long after Ice Crown Citadel was released I turned in my gaming cap and had a break. This tends to happen to me from time to time, WoW is a tremendous drain on your time and can still be even if you aren't actually really enjoying it too much. With that in mind I normally take a few months out to do something else and then come back when I get the urge again.

Well obviously the urge to come back for the imminent launch of the new expansion Cataclysm which encouraged me to return to the fray after a few months out. There were so many little things that were left undone so I thought it would be a great idea to get them finished off which I have indeed started working on.

The new expansion certainly gave me the lift that I needed and I've started reading the novels again and am very excited about Christie Golden's new book World of Warcraft: The Shattering: The Prelude to Cataclysm which according to Amazon is due to be released on October 26th.

So if you haven't pre-ordered the new book or the new expansion do so now as by December 7th the world will be paused for the shattering of Azeroth!

Yes finally I am the proud owner of this book and so far what a book. I am merely at Chapter 3 and I am already hooked, in fact I was hooked in the prologue. So why has it taken so long to get? I first decided not to be like the rest and sleep outside waterstones to ensure that I had my copy, instead I would just wait it out. Surely after the first month the rush would die down and once again I would be able to buy this book and no doubt for cheaper too.

In that seemingly logical approach I failed miserably. I seriously underestimated the volume of fans that wanted the be part of this novel, to absorb its lore and to be more immersed in the actually story line that is current in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The game itself has the whole story there for you to be part of however it is very easy to miss all the lore when you are focusing on levelling your character as there is a tendency, especially with add-ons such as Questhelper, to plough through rather than taking your time to read the quest log or listen to the conversations from the NPCs, I myself am guilty of all the above. So its taken me months to get my hands on this, I will admit I wasn’t desperate I knew it would be mine eventually, with thanks to the glorious Amazon.co.uk marketplace seller Paperbackshop for getting this to me despite the recent foot of snow that has fell across England.

As soon as I finish it I will be sure to post a review, however I’ve been rather naughty as I was a third of the way into Rise of the Horde which I have shelved to get this one read. /smack

A slightly off beat review on the SteelSeries Warcraft Mouse (also known as the WoW Mouse) today as I felt the need to share my views on this very different piece of hardware.

Firstly I suppose I should give a bit of background as to why I even wanted this device; I play a Paladin healer in WoW and have slowly evolved my healing from targeting then pressing a button to heal to using HealBot to manage my healing needs. I used that particular addon for over a year and found it to be perfect for my needs and wouldn't of considered not using it. However with the introduction of the WoW Mouse that has thrown it all out of the window; once installed the main idea would be to bind my new mouse buttons to functions within HealBot therefore allowing me a very easy and quick way to set up the things I want to be able to press during a raid.

Unfortunately I came across several problems, Healbot will only recognise the left, right, middle and two side buttons, the others it will not detect. I searched high and low on the internet to find an answer, one site advised that you set the profiling software (that comes with the mouse) to "in game mode" and ensure all the key binds are clear, then it will detect it. Now that is true if you use Warcraft's own interface to bind your keys however in this situation I am trying to use HealBot to bind them. So it was back to the drawing board to see what else I could do and after several hours of tinkering the only solution I could find was to stop using HealBot and find something else.

The removal of that addon did not come easy to me but I was desperate to get this mouse working so I decided to install Grid which I have seen many other healers use and another addon called Clique now this combination seemed to work for a while after getting it all setup however once again the dammed extra buttons wouldn't work.


Eventually I gave up and stuck with my new addons but just changed the way I did things, I ended up making macro's for all the spells I wanted to use on the mouse and putting them on my 1st and 2nd action bars. Then using the Mouse's software I programmed each button to the appropriate action bar button which also took some doing as I use Bartender so I had to use its own key binding options to bind the second bar to the buttons.

This took far too much time for my liking but I can honestly say that with some tinkering and patience you will get it to perform exactly how you want it to. I now have all my key's (except one and that was due to an unfortuante accident with Divine Intervention in the middle of Halls of Reflection which I will never live down) bound to spells and to be honest I am a bit more effiecient now at healing as well.

The reason that I feel better know than before is mainly due to the fact I had to make macros for all my spells which intern lead to me programming the macros to cast other spells prior to the heals such as: casting Divine Illumination before Holy Light allows be to conserve more mana, casting Divine Favor before Holy Shock ensures that I get a critical hit and therefore an instant Flash of Light.

Here are the macros that I use for my mouse:
Beacon of Light
 #showtooltip Beacon of Light
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Beacon of Light

Flash of Light
#showtooltip Flash of Light
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIFrameErrors:Clear()
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Flash of Light

Holy Light
 #showtooltip Holy Light
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use Divine Illumination
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIFrameErrors:Clear()
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Holy Light

Holy Shock
#showtooltip Holy Shock
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use Divine Favor
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIFrameErrors:Clear()
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Holy Shock

Hand of Sacrifice
 #showtooltip Hand of Sacrifice
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Hand of Sacrifice

Hand of Salvation
#showtooltip Hand of Salvation
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Hand of Salvation

Judgement of Light
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/cast [harm]Judgement of Light

Lay on Hands
 #showtooltip Lay on Hands
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Lay on Hands

Sacred Shield
 #showtooltip Sacred Shield2
/cast [target=mouseover] [ ] [target=player] Sacred Shield

I am sure there are still some bits that I could add to the macros to make them even better but I took the stance of getting to know them first as I have never written any before and then I will add/amend later on. If anyone has any advice please feel free to comment.

So all in all an expensive piece of kit that will leave you wanting more on first impressions but given sometime and a lot of reading and hard work you will get everything you want out of this device.

Well what an instance! My first thoughts when I heard that blizzard were creating 3 new instances for us to play in where "Well that's another 3 to add to my daily grind, joy." However I have been pleasantly (if not a little frustratingly) surprised by what I've encountered!

I've played both a healing and DPS role so far and I can certainly say that the mobs are tough as nails (in Heroic mode) and certainly keep you on your toes if you're a healer let alone anything else. The first boss is Forgemaster Garfrost, an interesting fellow that has a facination with lobbing saronite bolders at you and you team mates. Not only that he has a nasty Permafrost debuff that ticks every 2/3 seconds and increasingly does more and more damage to you and your team. The first time I encountered this I was healing and didn't realise that the boulders are what you have to use to get out of line of site to let the stacking debuff drop off. I wondered why I was having to use my biggest heals almost constantly to keep people up. Took about 4 attempts to get this mother down but we did and out mage got a nice shiny dagger.

The next boss was also a pain in the backside and I've yet to manage to down him even though the theory is easy, Krick and Ick (an obvious take from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome's Master Blaster). His abilities remind me a lot of Naxx except of course the bombs that he chases you with. Is actually a really fun fight and once everyone is more familiar it will be easy to complete. Think back to Violet Hold and a couple of the mobs there, namely Xevozz and Zuramat who I remember being fairly challenging at the beginning as well as Utgarde Pinnacle and Skadi the Ruthless which I still have known pugs to wipe on before now.

So the new instances are certainly getting everyone up to speed on the challenges that lay in weight for us ahead and the difficulty that no doubt will get harder as we venture into the Icecrown Citadel which I have scheduled for Tuesday so lets hope I've got my head around these new instances by then! All in all I think that the best way to handle any new instance/raid like this is just to do some research, get on wowwiki.com and youtube.com and read/watch till you are sure of what is going to happen.

The group of instances are called the Frozen Halls and the main wiki pages is: http://www.wowwiki.com/Frozen_Halls

Good Luck!

His green eyes watched tentatively as the heather that grew up through the cracks withered and decayed within seconds of being encircled by the haze, nothing could survive the plague not even the hardiest of men could confront the silent murderer. Lancar pulled on his father’s arm, “come father we must hurry. Please father!” Kastra was already several meters away from Lucas by now her only focus was to flee with her son who clung to her for dear life, Valeran was far from oblivious to his surroundings even for a boy his age he knew that something was amiss. Villagers were dashing helplessly for the main gate many had fallen and were being trampled by those that were still carrying themselves on both feet, Kastra clung to Valeran as she darted in between the maddened people of Durnholde her slender body was easily suited to sliding in between dithering folk. As the crowd thickened her pace slowed, she could here shouting from up ahead, “move to one side or be struck down, flee for your lives!” The voice was unfamiliar but was laced with confidence, no not confidence – arrogance. Instantly she assumed that the voices were of the egotistical Imperial Guard from the city of Stromguard, they had been becoming frequent visitors of the villages and towns recently attempting to prove their worth to the other forces of the Alliance, yet she could still see nothing but the desperate people in front of her.


“To one side I say!” Shouted a middle aged bearded man who stood beneath the main gate, “I shall not tell you again peasants. To one SIDE!” His rage and impatience took the better of him. His gloved hand rose swiftly, crackling with energy, before his conscious mind could comprehend what he was doing the air around him lost every bit of warmth from it, the air itself moved towards the oncoming mob of fleeing villagers with a force comparable only to gods. The unsuspecting villagers who were attempting to escape with their lives were hurled backwards, some fell and were pushed into the oncoming legs of those behind and others were launched into the air several meters from the ground. The force was so great that many were not even aware of what were happening let alone still conscious upon the time they returned to the ground and were able to place themselves in the realm of living.

A silence followed the mage’s actions; his comrades simply stood in awe of the magic’s that had been unleashed before their very eyes. Clad from head to toe in purple and gold the soldiers that lay by the mage’s side where hefty in comparison to him, clearly warriors sent to protect the man, not that it seemed he required it. As the last of the villagers stumbled and fell from the front of the gate the mage and his protectors began to walk forward toward the rabble of undead filth that were madly ripping the everything possible apart. Many town’s folk had decided to remain, scared of being caught up in the mob and trampled to death or too weak to move, they laid helplessly watching as these monsters destroyed everything they held dear, for the moment the undead seemed to be ignoring the majority of those that laid await in their homes, doorways and ditches. Those that were not engaged in battle with the mounted soldiers of Durnholde had spotted the mage and his comrades and began to make their way to see to it that they did not interfere; skeletons wielding savage blades, ghouls with fleshing handing from their bones and giests whom crawled sadistically across the floor toward them.

“I am Lord Beltane of Dalaran, high Magi of the Kirin’Tor,” the mage said boastfully to those that eagerly made their way toward him and their ultimate demise. “You and your master shall perish for the intrusion you have made on the living and the destruction you have wrought upon these lands. Mark my words that by the end of this day you shall rue the day that you crawled out of your graves!” The mage grew angry at the sound of his own words and as consequence the power within him had surged, his eyes had begun to glow a subtle blue and his body had begun to produce a blue aura. He begun to raise his hands towards the foul creatures that were now close enough to see the dried blood on their appendages, with dedication he uttered several words of power and nothing shy of missiles of lights spat from his hands towards his enemy. One by one they began to fall, body parts flying off in all directions, bodies collapsing to the, floor yet more came, trampling over their dead comrades, more came.

Title: Bringing the Light
Author: Solitarium
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5481823
Genre: Fan Fiction
Rating: 8/10

So far I've read the first chapter and I must say that the author Solitarium has done a great job. The first part is inticing and makes me want to keep on reading, in fact I've been hooked for the last two days.
So far the story has lead us down a sweet path showing us the tale of a simple family of baker who are at the unfortunate hand of the Scourge. We've witnessed their retreat to Lordaeron and the beginnings of the betrayal of Arthas and their retreat to the Scarlet Monastery. I can't wait for the next chapter to see what else lies in store for them all.

The part that particularly sticks in my mind is the description of the battle and the foot of the Scarlet Monastery, a fantastic and realistic chapter that kept me hooked the whole way through. I particularly liked the references to the World of Warcraft abilities that are present in game yet so often not used in fiction in the correct way.

A great read and I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good WoW story.

The sound reverberated throughout the village, a familiar sound, yet one that people had heard of far too often of late. It was if time stood still for those in earshot of the almighty tone emanating from the distant bell tower, the denizens of Durnhold Keep quietly paused their life not sure of their next move. The courtyard was silent; the only noise to be heard was that of the shuffling of horses in the nearby stable and the clucking and pecking of chickens. Kastra stood perfectly still, it had not been the first time that week that the warning bell had sounded and she knew in her heart that I was unlikely to be the last. The bell struck its sound once again yet this time the villagers did not pause, they ran with fear in their eyes to seek shelter in their homes. She took a deep breath trying her hardest not to let the fear take her, casting her eyes down to her hand where she grasped the digits of a young blonde boy.

"Mummy, is it time?"

"Yes, Valeran it is. Now run, be brave for mummy."

Together the pair dashed through the courtyard toward their small house in the upper North East quadrant of Durnhold, countless other people ran and screamed with fear, their children barely clinging to the parent’s tattered clothes. These children had seen far too much dismay already in their brief existences yet they were hardened by it and seemed calmer than their terrified parents. As they turned the corner to face the stairs beyond the marketplace they saw two familiar figures running in their direction, it was clear that the tall human male with a rugged beard was shouting something but the din was so intense that Kastra could not hear a word. They continued forward until at last they were in earshot.

“Kastra you must go the other way! The Scourge are attacking the North wall, we must head to the South gate and pray to the light that the Soldier’s hold them back.”

She stood for a moment contemplating his words before flinging her free arm around his masculine shoulders, “I’m just glad to find you Lucas.” His beard tickled her face but she did not care, her one fear was being separated from her husband, being stranded and alone with no one to turn to. They had been married happily for seven long years, then the scourge came and their lives became turmoil. They had originally lived in Andorhal, a beautiful village north of Hillsbrad that had fallen to the Scourge a year or so back. Against their will the family had been forced to move south along with several hundred other refuges yet thanks to Lucas they had acquired a good home within the walls of Durnhold Keep. It has not been easy trying to find a decent home during the chaos that ensued after Andorhal fell, with hundreds of people attempting to all find shelter it was only a matter of days before fighting amongst themselves broke out. Thankfully Lucas was a fairly rich man, at least he was before his lands were ravaged by the un-dead filth that now roamed the lands where he used to fell trees, so he had managed to bribe his way into a good home. It was certainly not worth what he ended up paying for it but it didn’t matter he had to have somewhere to raise his family and at the time Durnhold offered the most protection.

“Daddy, daddy why are the bad men here again?” Valeran looked up at his father with such inquisitive eyes desperately trying to rationalise the events in his mind. At the age of only 5 the child was well advanced beyond his years, nothing slipped past him and Lucas had no doubt his son would go on to do great deeds.

“They are not men,” barked another young voice from behind the Lucas’ legs, “they are vile creatures of death nothing more.” The confident young man step from behind his father’s shadow and walked up to his baby brother, his face was already worn with constant struggle yet there was something about the boy that everybody could sense yet no one knew what it was. Valeran loved his elder brother dearly, they would spend countless hours together, fishing, hunting and riding, it was the perfect brotherly bond. Lancar reached deep into his hip sack and pulled from it a tatty woollen creature which seemed to of been sowed back together more times than it would of preferred. The elder brother gently handed it to Valeran, “hear I took him from the house before we left, I thought you would need him.”


Without the children’s knowledge the parents had been watching the brief but touching scene unfold even though in their hearts they knew that time was of the essence. “Come boys we must hurry,” Kastra said softly as she bent down and picked Valeran up to her hip. The boy clung hard to his mother but more so to his favourite toy brought to him by his brother, ‘Murlee’ as it was known had been in Valeran’s possession ever since his was a baby and even though it had seen its own fair share of war it had never left the boys side.

As the family began to move together through the cobbled streets their ears were assaulted by a deafening crash of stone and metal. The sound came from behind, with all her heart Kastra did not look back, she didn’t want to watch her fate confront her instead she increased her pace to get as far away as possible. Lucas however could not help but stop and turn to see the devastation that chased him, everything along the northern wall had collapsed, an almighty cloud of dust bowled its way towards them. It wasn’t the dust that scared Lucas; it was what he could just make out that followed in its wake, an unnatural green smog that seemed to permeate everything it touched and steal the very essence of life from anything living.

So this is to be the beginning, the middle and no doubt will form part of the close. I've been contemplating writing a blog  for sometime as Warcraft has become a serious hobby of mine of the past 5 years or so that I've been playing. So bearing that in mind it is about time that I gave something back to the community rather than just the addition of my character amungst the millions of others.

So what turned me to Fan Fiction? Well its the lure of actually being able to almost role play my character without having the confines of day to day play within the game. I've done plenty of role of play in the past, as a youth I spent many hours role playing with fellow Star Trek fans and loved every moment of it. Since that obsession was more focused on action and interaction between people I feel that now it is more about telling a story that I have in my mind that just reacting to someone else.

With that said I'm looking forward to beginning my epic tale even though I don't have the traditional beginning, middle and end in mind, I know the route I want to take the characters and I am going to expand on the story day to day. I hope that in time as people come across the story that they too feel that they want to join in and play out stories within my tale or even fully interact with my story. By the end of this project I hope to have some of true significance to share with the community and be proud of.