WoW Wishlist

   Everyone has a wishlist with Christmas around the corner. I've posted my real ones (one realistic, one not so much) on my personal blog, but I thought, since it's easy to write about yourself and I need to post every day this month, I'd put one together here.

   So I've put together a WoW-relevant wishlist for today's NaBloPoMo.

Week in Pictures

Excuse the picture quality. My DSLR is more or less dead now thanks a broken gear in the lens, and it's going to cost more than I expected to fix or replace it. So instead, I've been using my 7MP compact digital camera lately, so there will be some differences in picture quality.

Stuck For a Post

   So! Hello! How are we all? How's WoW going for you? Yes, I am stuck for a post today, so I decided I'd just talk to you guys.

   What have you been up to lately? On and off WoW? Did you go to Blizzcon? Did you have nothing to do with it? I bought the virtual ticket, but, I'll be honest, I spent 5 minutes watching the stream before I got bored with it. I was spending time with Koruth, so I was busy doing stuff or sleeping while the panels were actually happening, so all the info I needed, really, was already up on MMO Champion the next morning. I've never been too interested in panels, Q&A and stuff anyways. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the time, effort and number of people that goes into making the game, it's just that I can't really appreciate the panels themselves. It's like comic books or manga. I'm incapable of looking at the pictures. I just want words! I get through them within half an hour - I read Death Note volume 1&2 in an hour. I did enjoy it, though.

   There's a cat café opening in London this year and they're stocking some of my necklaces. I sent them the products on Friday and they'll be up for sale on the website very soon. I'm quite excited. I've been stocked in a shop before - a little shop in Tokyo sold a few of my rings - but this is exciting because it's on a much larger scale. Though, Tokyo was an awesome opportunity, too! It's just that I'm used to making 93% of my sales (minus Etsy and Paypal/Direct Checkout fees), and now I'm only going to be making 60%, but at the same time, I am a very greedy little lady. But odds are, anything I sell with them I wouldn't have sold anyway, so I still end up making more money.

   Is everyone looking forward to Christmas, or are there a few Scrooges amongst us here? It's easily my favourite holiday. I don't care for any others. I'm not a partier, I'm not religious, so there's not much to interest me. Halloween bores me, Easter bores me, Valentine's day is nice but it's still quite dull. It's Christmas for me, also because my birthday is 2 weeks after Christmas day and 9 days after my boyfriend's birthday, so it's a short period of time jam-packed with exciting celebrations, and I always go out of my way to make it special for the whole family by buying special presents, decorations, food - last year I made a topiary tree out of Lindt Lindor and Ferrero Rocher. It's not much at the end of the day because we don't have lots of money, and, unlike my sister, I hate asking anyone for any. I try to make my money as honestly as possible. Plus Christmas has been even more exciting over the past two years because my shop keeps me busy - though I'd still appreciate more business. But not too much or I won't be able to breathe. I do it all myself, afterall - product making, product photography, pricing, listing, paying bills and fees, packaging, branding, shipping, customer service, SEO and advertising. So too much business will be a bad thing, and I have no one who has a steady enough hand, good enough eyesight and enough patience to help me make things. Though, I suppose, if things got a bit much I could also get my best friend involved over Christmas and pay her. She's unemployed at the moment (of course she has far more going for her than I do), we don't see eachother much, and she is genuinely interested in what I do, so I'm sure she'd appreciate it a little bit.

   How has everyone's jobs been going? Raids? Family? 

Thoughts on Warlords of Draenor

   Initially, I thought it was stupid. And in truth, I kind of still do. I really hate how they're taking a chunk of WoW lore - the best WoW lore - and are messing around with it. I get that it's an alternate history, but it's still messing around with things we know.

   But, looking past all this space/time travel nonsense, it could be a good expansion. I'm extremely excited about seeing Draenor as it used to be, that's perhaps the best part of it. But I really think that, regarding Durotan, Grom and so on, it's going to be a case of 'meet your heroes, get disappointed'. Which, in a way, is inevitable. We love Grom because of how he redeemed himself (and he was pretty badass) but he wasn't a hero until he killed Mannoroth. Durotan wasn't a hero until he rejected drinking the blood, and he died a martyr. If there is no blood of Mannoroth, which there won't be, odds are these guys are not going to be the characters we're expecting. But, that is to be expected. If they are all still heroes then I'll be disappointed.

   I like the Garrison idea, but I wonder, when they say that you can pick your zone, if that means that you can choose from any of Draenor's zones, or if they mean certain plots within your faction's zone only. I'm hoping it will be the former.

   I'm excited for the new character models - the Undead male looks good so far, so I'm excited to see the females, I just hope that the females have as much exposed bone as the males do, and they don't try to feminine them up too much. Dead is dead. Work is currently going on on the female Troll, and they have also said that they will be updating the Blood Elves and Draenei - I hope this is true, and not just a miscommunication. That will leave Goblins and Worgen as the oldest character models, but by comparison, they still look great, so that's hardly a problem.

   I'm loving the 'toys' tab as well, I wonder if they'll be accessible account-wide or not, but either way, I'd love to get it all out of my bags and bank (assuming you can destroy/consume them like mounts but still keep them in your toys tab). I like to keep a few toys in my bag for funsies, but they do eat up bag spaces. Also quest items will be nice to get rid of, but I don't feel it's as necessary as the toys tab, but at the same time it's not a game-breaking feature.

   I'm curious about this dragonfly mount that was mentioned briefly, but if it's going to be anything like the MoP release, it'll probably be a Digital Duluxe/Collector's Edition mount. Going by the art that was released, I believe it will be the dragonfly creature I showed on the blog the other day, as it has dragonfly wings, even if it does have a scorpid tail.

   And while it's not relevant to the expansion, I'm pleased to see that the Enchanted Fey Dragon will be a store mount. I am disappointed because it means it will be everywhere, but I'm not because I really want that mount regardless, and it's totally obtainable, so that's great.

   But back to the expansion: I'm completely torn. On one hand, I'm disappointed. I don't feel we have any business messing around with timeways, and regardless of whether the Aspects have lost their powers, I think it was a pretty brainless move to turn to us mortals for help with such  an effing delicate thing. Seriously. Maybe Nozdormu has already started going crazy and is using our involvement to get us to mess things up on purpose in the hopes that we can prevent all the shit that's happened in Azeroth's past.

   I also had hoped that this could be the last expansion - level 100, 10th anniversary and so on, with the perfect opportunity to just bring that mad Titan back. But this is a filler expansion if ever there was one, and I was convinced that MoP was a filler. It just feels like it's no longer moving forwards - it's not even standing still, it's just going backwards now. I hadn't noticed how much I had wanted WoW to end now, before the game is completely ruined, but it looks as though it's going to be destroyed before it ends. And it has to end, otherwise Sargeras will never actually be defeated, or be successful in his minor goal over Azeroth - although 'minor' isn't quite the case, since Azeroth has 'defeated' him in the past, it's also probably partly a pride thing now, with a personal beat with the world.

   On the other hand, however, like I said, I'd love to see what Draenor looked like before it was destroyed, and there are a few interesting features being added that I'm also excited about. I just hope that the garrisons don't require anything from raids. I realise that they've made raids accessible (too accessible, along with many, many other things), but I'm still unable to do them, and I can't be the only ones. Just because they're accessible doesn't mean people have the time or attention to dedicate, and neither does it mean that everyone will be good at them. Some people will be prone to mistakes and will bring teams of people down because of it.

   Still, I've said before that I thought Cata looked great, but I really didn't enjoy it, and that I thought MoP looked stupid but it turned out to be incredible. Only time will tell what I'll really think of this expansion, and what we'll all think. But, as always, we can prepare for lots of blog posts and forum threads from loads of haters complaining about how stupid it is, or what they don't like about it and why, or throwing around wild speculation and treating them as fact. I'll do my best to sit quietly and just wait. Although, I am concerned about the time frame. I find it highly unlikely that Blizzard is planning to release it next winter given that it's already Patch 5.4 and that they've confirmed there will be no 5.5 - they'll lose even more subs if there's no new content, and it's always bad late in the expansion because people get bored. So, logically, I think they're probably further along with making it than they're letting on, because if it was really that long, then they would have to make a 5.5 just to keep us interested. So if a 5.5 does end up coming out, then the expansion is a long way off. I think we could be waiting until the summer. Either way, we will be updated when they can give us a proper answer. Better they say nothing until they have a definitive answer than say "early spring - no, late spring - no, early summer - no, whoops, sorry, autumn it is!" It's better that than getting our hopes up. 

Blizzcon Recap - Day 1

   As all of you know, yesterday was the first of the two days of Blizzcon. If you were able to attend then I envy you greatly. For those of us that didn't, here's a recap of the WoW-based info released from Day One.

   Warlords of Draenor is the next WoW expansion.

   However, it has nothing to do with the Burning Legion, so, in essence, my speculation was more or less completely wrong. Blizzard have also said that they have 'many more expansions lined up' so the game will continue for years yet - though whether people are happy about this is a foggy subject. I know where I stand on it.

   It is, instead, travelling back in time and seeing Draenor before it was destroyed. This aspect I am excited about. The others, not so much. You will also reach level 100 - that's an extra 10 levels this expansion, rather than the recent 5 in the past two. Hopefully there will be enough content to keep this interesting, and hopefully keep levelling perhaps three characters still a bit fresh. It's inevitable, however, that we will find it tedious after a few run-throughs, and that's the danger of alts. So, as ever, prioritise well.

   New WoW Character Models are coming.

   They'll be released with the new expansion, but that raises questions: how long did it take Blizzard to work on 25% of them, which was when they shelved them a month ago? Did they lie and have been continuing work all this time, or had more than 25% done? Is it actually a quicker job than they've let on? Or do Blizzard count their percentages the same way your PC does when it's running an anti-virus scan? Either way, they are simply upgraded versions of the currently existing Vanilla races, and we're not likely to see any real changes in terms of design, meaning the Undeads' rot is still stupidly symmetrical, and male Orcs are still likely to be hunched while the females stand tall. Still, only the male Orc, Gnome and Dwarf are previewable at the moment.

   Other races have a few screenshots of the progress so far but they aren't officially previewable yet. I'm actually quite excited about the Undead so far, though they're still symmetrical, but the detail on the bone actually looks great. I'm excited to see the females, and Spinegrinder's future.

   You'll be able to boost a single character on your account straight to 90.

   I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is aimed more at new players - if they only just started playing then they'll have to wait for a long time before they can experience Warlords of Draenor, however it also seems to make many things redundant. It means they'll be able to get heirlooms easily with barely working (ie 1-80) for them, so any other characters they make can rocket to 90 as well and they won't experience the game, despite being first-time players; they won't understand their classes and will faceroll and try to raid immediately without knowing how anything works; they won't experience any of the past content which has had hundreds of hours of work gone into it by so many different developers and designers, and won't be able to appreciate the new content the way we will. However, for those of us who have played the game properly several times through, it does mean that we can raise a character that we've been meaning to level but can't be bothered again. I plan to race change my Worgen Rogue to Undead and boost her from 42 to 90.

   Player housing, to a degree, will be taking place with your own garrison.

   This appears more like a minigame in its arrangement, as if they've added an aspect of Warcraft to WoW - build your base and upgrade it over time. It's also got the SWTOR feature of having NPCs do quests for you - though I'm 100% certain that they cannot do actual quests in your place. The houses look delightlful, I think, when they're level 1, and by the time they're level 3 it's a bit too much. Of course upgrading your garrison will yield better rewards, but I have to wonder whether the rewards are worth it. I might just make it look pretty on an alt, assuming each character has its own garrison. Though all we've really seen so far is the Alliance's garrison in Shadowmoon Valley. The garrison will be movable, and you can, apparently, pick the zone you want it in, though whether that means actual zone, or just means plot within the same zone, or simply building plots in a single allocated area, I don't know. But apparently over the next expansions we'll be able to upgrade it further. This is a long-term project, clearly, and other players will be able to visit your 'home', but likely by invitation only.

   Dragonfly Mount

What does this mean? Does it mean Fey Dragon, or does it, more likely, mean this thing?

    There is a lot of other info, and you can find all of it on MMO Champion. I picked out the bits that I found most interesting. And anyway, here's the trailer for the new expansion. Enjoy.

Week In Pictures

Week In Screenshots

It's Not Working, Is It?

   Well, I was planning to sit down last night and write some blog posts for both of my blogs to fill out NaBloPoMo a little bit, but I ended up watching Koruth play GTA instead. I was planning on joining the IntPiPoMo by Admiring Azeroth, but I've not been on WoW all that much lately, and given that I didn't grab any shots over the past 5 days, and it being unlikely that I will in the next few days either, I'm not so sure it'll happen. I'll try, mind you, if I aim to take about 2-3 shots a day I should manage the 50 shots, but I'm not certain it'll happen soon. Still, I'll try.

   I've not been on WoW much lately. You know how it is with the late end of the expansion. I'm more interested in what the next expansion will be. Patch content only tends to keep me interested for a week or so. Once everyone else buggers off and the places are more empty, I tend to lose interest myself since I have no friends to play with, so I think I can be forgiven.

   Instead I've been focusing, as before, on prepping my shops for Christmas. I did get one very exciting sale the other day, which has made a huge dent in my Christmas financial crisis, so I'm dead chuffed about that, among other details. As it is, though, I just have to hope for more sales.

   I also really enjoyed the Hallow's End competition - don't worry, guys, I've bought the loot cards you each picked out and they are on their way! I was thinking about doing it again, this time for a couple of Landro's Gift cards, which can yield one of many different things, but I don't think it could be a Christmas/Winter Veil-specific story, because while there is an awful lot of creepy/haunted/disgusting things in WoW suitable for Hallow's End, there's not much in the way of jolly, gift-giving and happiness really. So it would either have to have a broader theme, or no theme at all. I don't know, I'll think on it. I have a month to decide, unless anyone else has any suggestions.

Entry 28 - Chiselgrip

7th Day of Summer

   I did indeed find safety to the east with the Orc and the Dwarves. They were happy to share food with me, especially when I told them what had happened to the north with the Dark Iron clan. The Dwarf in particular seemed pleased with the aid I gave his people, while the Orc just seemed happy to have new company. He told me that they were going to wage war upon the Blackrock clan who dwell within the mountain, and when I offered them aid, they told me they could cope. I was a little surprised, given the scale of things in the area against the Blackrock Clan, but they seem confident enough. They were quite helpful, too. When I told them I wanted to get to the ruins to the north, and I asked if it would be reachable, they told me about another camp to the east which was directly south of and only a short distance from the site. I told them I'd set out the next morning, and when I awoke, Ariok (the Orc) was already up and preparing to leave the camp. He wished to escort me since he was heading there too, and it was just as well he did. While I learned a bit of fighting from the Dwarves recently, I'm still not as skilled as I could be, and my minimal abilities would never have defended me from the Blackrock ambush that was waiting by the roadside.

   Before I even knew what was happening, Ariok was already on top of them, and he did a fast job of taking them out, but I couldn't help blaming myself. I hadn't even dismounted before it was over.

   Ariok told me that the Orcs that ambushed us were young and hotheaded, and saw a group of two travellers to be an easy target. "They were wrong," is all he said in regards to their actions, however, and we continued onwards.

   There were no further attacks, fortunately, and we made it to the next settlement by supper time.

   I must also add, as it was a great honour, that Eitrigg is here within Chiselgrip. He's a highly respectable Orc, and more of them should be like him. I was a little surprised to see him out here, as I had expected him to never leave Orgrimmar, given his position towards the Warchief, but it has made the Burning Steppes seem a safer place.

   I've only seen the ruins of Thaurissan from this settlement, but the ruined walls are quite low. The area seems expansive, and a rift has opened through it and, I'm told, is filled with fire imp Demons. I'm a little disappointed with the remains, but I'm still going to explore it tomorrow. It's quite accessible, and, other than the imps, I don't see any other threats.

-- Atherya Sunleaf              

WCC: Blizzcon Cake

   This week's WoW Crafting Challenge, like my last one, is more focused on current events within our own world. Last week I made the Hallow's End sweets, and despite having started about a week before the post went live, it ended up going up a day late as I finished one piece very last minute after a few failures.

   This week, given that Hallow's End and Halloween have now passed, I focused on Blizzcon. I am not going, due to money and my duties as a carer, but I did buy myself the virtual ticket as soon as it was available. This is the first time I've had any exposure to the convention so I'm quite excited, but I'm also relatively certain that I won't watch the majority of it. I really just want to watch the expansion reveal, the talent show, and the costumes, but I have to watch a few panels to get my money's worth.

   So, for my Blizzcon focus, I decided to make a cake to celebrate the convention. Also, cakes are easy, and I wanted something easier after the hell I went through with the last project.

   I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Don't get me wrong, it could have gone better; the fondant broke up here and there, but that did turn out to be a blessing in disguise, because trying to move the entire piece of hand cut fondant would have been a real nuisance, and when it broke into pieces it became more of a jigsaw and allowed me to place it easier.

   I admittedly cheated with the cake. I always do these days. I do know how to make a cake from scratch, it's hardly difficult, but what I struggle with is actually cooking it. I've played about with the oven temperature but no matter what I do I just can't get it to cook properly. I burn the edges and the middle doesn't cook, even if the temp is high, low, or in the middle. And if, by chance, it does cook, it won't leave the bloody tin! However, I tried a box mix once, Betty Crocker's Devil Food cake, and it worked a charm. I've used it about 5 more times since and it's been a success every time. For this cake I used another Betty Crocker mix, just a standard vanilla sponge cake so I could color it, and like the others, it worked just fine.

   The cake is vanilla, but coloured with ocean blue lustre dust. It took the entire little pot of colour to colour both box mixes (two were used because of the shape and size of the pan I was using), and it took an entire pot of ice blue lustre dust to colour the vanilla buttercream. I made that much myself, at least.

   It's got a layer of white buttercream inside, (which looks fake while I look at that picture! I suppose my camera is still on the blink) and is covered in blue buttercream frosting, and the 'Blizzcon' logo was cut from fondant. It was actually a lot of trouble. I made myself a birthday cake last year with a dinosaur fossil on it. I made the dinosaur from royal icing, which I piped onto parchment over the top of a printout, which I basically traced with the icing. I didn't think this through completely because I thought this cake would be the same, but I forgot that, with the dinosaur, I was putting icing on rather than taking it off, so that wasn't going to work. So I had to cut out the template and cut around it. Then I realised there was no way I could roll the icing flat with a perfectly level surface, so I decided I'd have to cut it backwards. So then I had to cover the template in clingfilm to keep the ink (it was dry but you can never be too sure) from getting onto the fondant, which I had to cut perfectly to shape. Once I'd done all that, which took a damn long time (if I'd have thought it through more I could have printed it backwards instead) I was finally able to start cutting. I used a sharp knife and started around the outside. Doing it backwards was complicated, but I managed well enough. I put it in the oven to dry it off (it can take a day or so to harden otherwise, so I preheated the oven, let it heat up, turned it off and let the dry heat remove the moisture from the fondant) and then peeled the backing off, and I was left with a smooth, level surface. I made the cake then, let it cool, iced it and then arranged the logo on top.

   It's a really simple looking cake, I know, but it tastes good, and has everything you need except perhaps a Blizzcon murloc. I really wish I'd thought of that sooner. Though, making a murloc out of fondant wouldn't be easy. Fondant's stickier than clay. I'm quite happy with the outcome to be honest. It could be better, it could be worse, but it ticks cake decorating off of the list!

Christmas Shop Promotions

   As you've probably noticed, I've tried not to be too personal on this blog. I don't talk about my life very often, though I am open about bits, and I don't talk about my business often either, except in passing, or I try to keep it that way, but, given that it's the beginning of November and Christmas is just around the corner (7 and a half weeks away, in fact), I thought I'd break that habit, just this once (or twice) and tell you, very briefly, but more closely, about my business.

   There is a website called Etsy, it's a marketplace where many, many people sell their handmade goods. And I am one of them.

   I actually have two shops, one for jewellery and one for plushes, but the plush shop is quite small and quite quiet, and is now made up primarily of Plush sewing PDF patterns (immediately available to download after purchase).

   My jewellery shop, Peaches and Pebbles, is my main shop, and I've had it on Etsy for two and a half years now, and it's done quite well as far as I'm concerned. All the jewellery is handmade by myself, and you certainly won't find it in any highstreet store - and if you do, then there's some copyright infringement going on. Every now and then I also announce discount codes on the shop's twitter and facebook, but they never last all that long.
   My second shop, Grumble Cave Monsters, focuses on plush toys, where I sell sewing patterns and, sometimes, some limited edition plushies. It's been open for about a year now. It does nowhere near as well as my jewellery but business has been picking up lately. Discounts don't come up quite as much in that shop because I simply forget.

   For you readers, however, the discount situation is different. I am offering you all two incentives, one of which is permanent, while the other is limited to between right now and the 10th of January 2014, and will return at a later date.

   First of all, I am offering you all 20% off in both of my shops, for good. Just use the code WYVERN20 at checkout. To do this, when you add something to your cart from either of my shops, there is a link on the 'basket' page beneath the payment options and above the 'checkout' button that says 'apply discount code'. Click this, and a small box will appear in its place. Type or paste the above code into it, then click 'apply' and the discount is automatically applied. This counts towards orders of any size, and to any destination, and you can use it whenever you go into my Etsy shop. Be warned, however, that this code will not work in other Etsy shops, only in Peaches and Pebbles and Grumble Cave Monsters.

   The second offer expires on the 10th of January, or until I run out of loot cards, whichever comes first, and is only usable on purchases of physical items - meaning that, if you only purchase a digital PDF plush pattern, you cannot get a loot card code. Also, unlike the above offer, this code does not go in the 'apply discount code' box. This one, instead, goes into the 'message/note to seller' text box which is visible in your basket beneath the added product. Quote the code (with or without spaces, it doesn't really matter, this isn't automatic, it's manually checked by me as I put the order together) 'WYVERN LOOT 13' and I'll add a free common, unscratched WoW loot card to your order. Don't expect anything too amazing, though - these loot cards consist of Slashdance, Sandbox Tiger, and Footsteps of Illidan, among other things, and are limited to one per order (note: not one per person, not one per product. One per transaction, only). This means that if you're buying a gift for someone else, you get a little something for yourself!

   I've added two screenshots below to show you where each discount goes, and you can use them both on the same order.

Apply the discount code

Apply the loot card request, and any other info you'd like, be it an adjustment, a thank you, or to tell me what you're having for dinner that night. Be warned: you may then be forced to share.

   My jewellery is girly - of course it is - and it's great for sisters, mothers, girlfriends, friends, or even yourself. Most of it is animal- or space-related, and I have got one or two cufflinks in there, too. Remember that the 20% off code is redeemable whenever you want, but the free loot card offer is only available until January 10th. It will return at a later date, however - to celebrate The Wyvern's Tail's first birthday, for example. I also ship from the UK, so it can take a couple of weeks to reach the US and other countries, and up to 4 weeks the closer it gets to Christmas, so either prepare for items to arrive late, or buy with plenty of time to spare. The sooner the better, really. Either way, the Christmas purchasing deadlines are displayed in the text boxes beneath my shops' banners.

   There are also sellers on Etsy who make game-themed products, including World of Warcraft, so if you want to check out some other sellers, go ahead. Every sale on Etsy means a lot to the seller. But be warned: my discount code will NOT work in any other shop, and neither will the free loot card code.

   Thanks for reading - please don't hate on me too much. We all have to do what we can to make money, right? We will be back to normal broadcasting shortly!

This offer is in no way affiliated with either Etsy, Blizzard, Cryptozoic, or Upper Deck. These loot cards were collected and purchased by myself specifically for the purpose of giving out to The Wyvern's Tail readers who purchase from my shop. Not all of these loot cards will be in English, but they are all redeemable on all realms and servers, EU, Oceanic and so on. Loot cards are also occasionally quite good cards for the trading card game itself. I do not take requests for specific loot cards, they will be given out at random. If you make 2 transactions with me, and quote the code in the message to seller box both times, I will try to make sure you get a different loot card each time, but Christmas is a very busy time for my shop, so I may not notice until packages have already been sent that you have ended up with two of the same loot cards. Loot cards will not be given out unless the appropriate code is stated in the message to seller box. None of the offers and discounts on this page are redeemable anywhere else than in PeachesandPebbles.etsy.com

Speculation Confirmed?

   Perhaps. I had written yesterday's speculation post a few days before hand, and had mentioned it in forums a few times before that, but a few hours ago I saw a screenshot on MMO-Champion, which I'm sure you've all seen, too, detailing the registration and copyrighting of the name "Warlords of Draenor" - these kinds of things have been seen before, and recently too, but they've either been fake or misunderstood. But given how soon Blizzcon is, and around the time MMO-Champion tends to get their information, I'd suggest it's real.

   So, so far, my speculation (though far from uncommon) seems to be correct. Of course, a huge part of my speculation revolves around the location, and Draenor doesn't necessarily mean 'Outland'. I could be right - it could be another fragment. Or I could be wrong, and it could simply be the same old Outland again. That won't be confirmed for a while yet, perhaps not until after Blizzcon. I've never been, and neither did I buy a virtual ticket in 2011, so I don't have a clue about what kind of information to expect even at the official reveal.

   What surprised me in the forums, though, was that not many people seemed to think I was onto anything. Most people seemed to think it was going to be underwater-focused with Azshara and Nzoth, but the way I see it, while Azshara is still out there, I think she could easily be in the next expansion alongside the Burning Legion, when you consider the nature and circumstance of her downfall. She had plans to become Sargeras' consort, so I think it's quite likely she'd be following his command. Though she is an important character, especially in WoW's history, I'm not convinced she deserves her own expansion. She's formidable, certainly, but not formidable enough, I believe. Either way, I do think we'll see her either in this expansion, or just before Sargeras is likely to reveal himself, whether that's in the next two years, of six years from now. I'm not convinced he'd be here too soon. Afterall, once Sargeras is dead, what is left for WoW? He's the big bad guy, the one trying to destroy the world, and the one who has been responsible for the majority of what has happened on Azeroth, excluding Deathwing, and, perhaps, Garrosh. Actually, when you think about it, no, he was responsible for Garrosh. If Grom's life hadn't gone as it had and been so influenced by Sargeras, Garrosh may have been completely different. But once Sargeras has been killed, I'm not convinced that the Alliance and the Horde will truly go back to being quite so aggressive towards eachother. I don't think hatreds and mistrust will die, certainly not, but after experiencing what is surely going to be near-annihilation in Sargeras' wake, I think the war between Horde and Alliance will be a little too petty to bother with anymore.

   I'm even more excited for Blizzcon now, to see more of what this expansion will be, because as interesting as Cataclysm was, and as much fun as MoP was, it will be nice to get back to some real WoW. The last two expansions haven't seemed very World of Warcrafty to me, but perhaps that's because I did more in Wrath of the Lich King than I did in Cata, and Deathwing's presence wasn't as obvious as the Lich King's and Illidan's was (if you overlook Azeroth's destruction and all that sort of stuff). Or perhaps that's just me, I don't know, you miss out on a lot of content and story when you don't raid! Regardless, I love the Demons and all that business, so I'm very excited. At this point in time, it looks like Burning Crusade m.II - the same Demonic goodness, with more ease (too much, perhaps?) of access.

How do you all feel about it?

Next Expansion Speculations - Yes, Another One of Those Posts

   Right, well, time for some speculation. I do love speculation. Blizzcon is just about a week away. This isn't my speculation. My speculation comes from the new expansion. There is thread upon thread and post upon post of speculation about the new expansion, and we will doubtlessly get some info on it during Blizzcon.

   I've lost my source - great start to speculation, eh? - but Blizz said in a blue post that we will need the help of Turalyon and Alleria for "what's coming next". Now, this was said in 2012 so around the early days of the Legendary questline. We saw no trace of either of them in Pandaria, and why the hell would we? They were lost in Draenor. But look again at what Wrathion showed us. I never did the legendary questline beyond reaching honoured with the Black Prince, but I don't think that the vision was clarified. If I'm wrong feel free to leave now.

   He said that we all need to work together to fight against what's coming. The way I see it, that's Sargeras. He's not finished with us, not by a long shot, and neither is he dead. And even if he was, the Demons are still out there. Sargeras is the one thing that we all absolutely have to work together to defeat. Being divided will doom Azeroth completely.

   Thinking back to Turalyon and Alleria, they were lost on Draenor while Nur'zhul was creating the portals that destroyed the planet. My theory is that, because the portals were all focused in the Outland we know, that the damage was concentrated in that area. In theory, there could well still be fragments of Draenor the size of, if not bigger than, Outland, and it's also possible, given the small extent of Outland, that Turalyon and Alleria are, in fact, elsewhere. I'm not sure how that would be - I've forgotten just exactly what happened, so I don't know how big of a possibility there is for them to have somehow gotten onto another part of the land that ended up elsewhere, but I think it's possible that that is the case.

   There's also the fact that Draenei, Goblins and Gnomes could well build a rocket - it wouldn't necessarily work, but they could crash it somewhere, as they always seem to. The problem is for the Horde, however. The Alliance are guaranteed to crash if Draenei are involved, but Nazgrim is dead, so I don't really know how the Horde would be guaranteed to crash. I'm kidding.

   Now, The Burning Legion have more or less taken over Outland, but that doesn't mean we have to go to Outland to encounter them again. They're trying to get onto Azeroth constantly, and it's entirely possible that they could find another way in. The only reason I believe it would be on another fragment of Draenor is simply from the mention of Turalyon and Alleria, neither of whom could possibly have a hand in Pandaria (and indeed didn't), and because of their correlation to The Burning Legion.

   I'm only about 80% on this. I'm quite certain that Demons are involved, and Sargeras will not be far behind, but I'm not willing to put money on everything I've said. Speculation is speculation, afterall, and there are a lot of other thoughts flying around. But I don't see why we would have an Emerald Dream expansion. The Nightmare has not been dealt with, but given that both Ysera and Malfurion are back and hanging out like nothing's wrong kind of implies that the situation can't be that bad. If it was, at least one of them would still be there, and we'd have to go get them, most likely. The only way I see the Emerald Dream as being a part of the next expansion is if it's needed to combat the Burning Legion, which is possible, though not necessarily likely. I don't know much about the Emerald Dream except that it's supposed to be Azeroth before the hands of War and Industry touched it, or something like that, a prestine world with wildlife but no established civilisations, everything balanced and in harmony. But I'm not 100%. I have a Druid but I don't play her.

   Whether I'm right or wrong, I'm still excited to hear about the next expansion. MoP was amazing, a really incredible expansion - but it wasn't World of Warcraft. There was no sign of the Cataclysm, and only a brief mention of the Sundering. It was as if the continent had been completely untouched by anything happening beyond the Mists, which was, of course, the point of the Mists, but it didn't feel like Azeroth. Nothing was familiar, none of the enemies (minus Garrosh and the appearance of an Old God's heart), none of the locations, none of the lore. The only familiar name was that of Chen Stormstout, and even then only if you'd played Warcraft 3, really. I really enjoyed playing it, but it didn't feel like World of Warcraft anymore. Yes, there was the whole Horde vs Alliance edge to it but even that felt vague. Patch 5.1 was more or less the only hint towards that, that I could see. Afterwards Garrosh kind of went his own way and Horde players were forced to turn on him.

   Do you agree? Disagree? What do you expect from the next expansion? I'm hoping for it to feel more like World of Warcraft, and that, to me, is Demons and Undead. There's little likeliness of a WotLK revival, which is fine, but given that Sargeras is still a real threat, a BC revival is definitely on the cards at some point, if not now then later.

NaBloPoMo

  Last year I participated in an event called NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. 'National' in this case refers to the US, but lots of bloggers outside of the US got involved, too, mostly because it was a way to encourage some of us to blog more frequently. The idea is that you post once a day. I don't believe there was any set subjects to blog about, at least not last year, but when I did it I noticed a real increase in traffic, and given that both of my Etsy shops are connected to that blog, it's always worth trying to increase traffic, in the hopes that some of them might take a look in my little shops.

   It went quite well last year, I felt, so I decided, when I was reminded about it two days ago, that I'd try it again. But this time, I thought I'd try it on both of my blogs, since I now have this one, too. It's going to be quite difficult, both to keep posting new content every day on two blogs, but also because I can talk about almost anything I want on A Blackbird's Epiphany, while I feel I'm more restricted here. I do occasionally talk about my life outside of WoW, but I don't feel I should because I have another blog for that. Still, sometimes I can't help letting it spill over, especially if I'm excusing myself for a lack of posting. But I'm going to do my best to keep the month's posts on this blog as relevant to WoW as I can, with a few exceptions. One such exception will be posted tomorrow :P

   I do a lot of crafting, and I have a passion for handmade products and shops, so my personal blog will be filled with product reviews, shop (other shops, not mine) features, random gift guides, crafty DIYs and Christmas preparation posts and so on. This one...well, we'll see what comes up! I hope I don't annoy you all...but at the same time, I have warned you, and if you're not interested then feel free to ignore me. I'll try not to bore you all!