Lore Watch Podcast

Some of our favorite games are old and getting older now, while still staying fairly playable. Games ranging from Skyrimto Stardew Valley have enjoyed a long lifespan, in part because of the fans creating and maintaining mods. While some of them are the sort of quality-of-life mods WoW fans are familiar with, some add entire swaths of maps and story to games, breathing new -- if not canonical -- life into these older games.

This week the team looks at some of these mods, giving examples from some of our favorite games, and discussing how their implementation can tap a new audience. We talk tertiary media, both fanworks and stuff produced by the game studio to help tell stories in ways their specific game may not do as effectively. And of course, we wouldn't be us if we didn't take a second to dunk on Dante, the OG Gary Stu fanwriter.
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We love listener questions and go out of our way to answer them no matter the topic, so sometimes the topics we cover range far and wide. This week, we start off with a question on Kingdoms of Amalur before jumping into our usual lore arena, World of Warcraft. The listener notes they're over 150 hours into the game and still aren't finished, so maybe the two IPs can live in harmony, even if the question itself -- about Alyn and the Re-Reckoning questline -- still went over my head even with an explanation.

I'm much more at home with the next question, about using raids in WoW as a vehicle for narrative. We were not jazzed about the plot in the raid in patch 12.1.5 -- to put it mildly -- and part of the reason was how that story played out in the raid. We discuss when and where the story has been conveyed effectively, and when it hasn't, through raids through WoW's history. Plus, how could you use a raid to tell a story effectively? Then, speaking of raids, we come to a question about the nature of Titans and World Souls, and how the two interact. That's right, it's time for another round of our 17th favorite game show, "What is Aman'thul's Frickin Deal, Anyway?"

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Immediately after experiencing the story for World of Warcraft patch 12.1.5, Liz started yelling in work chat that she wanted to be on Lore Watch so she could yell about it there. So, as you may imagine, there are very heavy spoilers in this podcast for the campaign and raid in patch 12.1.5 -- though unless you're living under a rock you've likely heard the thoroughly negative buzz around this set of story beats. As the smoke clears, why does this set of story beats fall flat for us? What led us here? Heck, what happened?

The Loremasters start by running down the events of the campaign, then discuss some of the things that could have been done differently to make the story as it is more effective, by comparing it to other events of the past. And of course, we have some suggestions for what could have happened other than what did. Like, you know, anything else.
And because we're us, the crew wants to offer Lor'themar their most sincere Snickers bar.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most interesting things about World of Warcraft: Forever is the possibility for new story development, and that's how we got tangled up in the question of an NPC named Shadowsong in the beta. Is it one of those Shadowsongs? Probably not. (It's a common name.) But could we see new stories about what Maiev or Jared are up to at the beginning of World of Warcraft? Maybe, and that's what makes this new offshoot of Classic so exciting for us lore nerds.

Also this question may have broken Matt, and the episode isn't really long enough to put him back together again, particularly since we move straight into trying to fit Hearthstone lore into the larger Warcraft canon. We're sorry about that.

And then we wind our way back to that old favorite topic: the interplay of Light and Void that has been at the heart of the Worldsoul Saga so far. Void Elf Paladins? Forsaken Paladins? Night Elf Paladins? There are many paths to the Light (and the Void).

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for people who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Xal'atath is the subject of the first bit of another Lore Watch Podcast. Frequent listener Daikaiju had the astute observation that Xal'atath seemed upset that the Watcher didn't pay attention to her baiting, which she's always done to throw her enemies off. That could be because Xal'atath is a literal child -- at least, mentally. Is that why she didn't just use Sargeras's sword to the center of Azeroth as a slide instead of trying to corrupt the Sunwell and use it as a portal? Probably not, as the Loremasters discuss. There's also a question about the nature of the Titans and the Pantheon we saw in Shadowlands, the latter of which were some kind of construct. Were the Titans constructed or shaped in a similar way?

In between we have a Diablo question, wondering what the deal is with the angels. They were all over the place in Diablo 3, but in Diablo 4, they're nowhere to be found except paintings and memories. So with all this suffering and demons running around every which way, where are the angels now? Did they stop being reincarnated after the corruption of the Crystal Arch? Our Loremasters have the answers, and it's because the angels in Diablo, as usual, don't really act the way we think of angels in the Christian tradition.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.