Skyreach Manuals: Life Cycle of the Primals

The Primals are some of the most curious creatures of Draenor. In many ways they’re so very different from all the other forms of life on our world, and in many ways they’re also very similar. Some say the Primals are mimicking other life forms, as is often said to be the case with mandragoras and hydras, and some say they were deliberately designed in a similar way. One of the most common theories about the Primals is that they’re a Titanic creation gone haywire. The Breakers are commonly believed to be the Titanic creations, but some argue that so were the Primals. The best proof of that theory are ancient artifacts related to the Primals sometimes found in forgotten Titanic vaults. Whichever the case, the Primals are a faction of creatures with very distinct life cycle, clearly tying them all together.

Finding his place

Well, well, I haven’t written on this myself for a while now. Partially because there wasn’t much happening. Actually, now that I think of it, there were things happening. Not all of them I can recall at moment’s notice, such is my memory at my age, but most recently I decided I needed to exert some more direct control over this rift. I mean, I now have some interest in the Draenor I could find on the other side and the exit suddenly drifting away from it would be most unfortunate. So against my better judgment, I decided to use the services of an ethereal I knew, Shazaad, to find a way to control the rift better.

Game Design Exercise: Farahlon

Recently, we were told in a developer interview that Farahlon may never come, or at least not in Warlords of Draenor (which lowers the possibility of it ever appearing by itself). Not only that, it was also suggested it might be retconned to have been Ashran all along, which is a total disaster from lore perspective. Although it has been since reported the retcon will not happen, the thought that it was even a possibility remains frightening. And you know I’d love to see Farahlon in-game, so the news was rather shocking to me. I thought, if they don’t see a place for it in game, I’ll show them how to do it – I’ll design Farahlon myself, basing it on the way rest of WoD is designed. (Also, usually when I get to making something, Blizzard then announces they’re doing it, so that helped too)

This world is festering

The moment I stepped out of that portal I knew this world was wrong. Corruption and death everywhere. All I could… sense was destruction. A foul energy that was the essence of rage and hatred. There is no word for the sensation in your limited animal languages. Call it… a smell. This energy… this fel… it smells of death, of rot, of sulphur and trees consumed by fire and turned to ashes. It smells worse than the Breakers ever did. My people always saw the Breakers as their greatest enemies but they were wrong. This is worse. All I saw when I looked out into what Blademoon Commune’s lands have become was dark, twisted rock and lava the color of decay everywhere. It was as if my worst nightmares materialized.

Not quite a valley

So I was on a magically grown boat, swimming away from the only way back to my reality, in the companionship of a botanus who insisted he owes me his life and must repay this debt. I understand why we had to be so quick about escaping it, but the last thing I wanted was being stuck on Draenor of the past. Of a different past, no less. The more I heard about what’s happening out there, the more I was sure this wasn’t the Draenor of my childhood. Somehow, this universe’s Shattered Hand is not a real clan, but a group of masochists and former ogre slaves. Let’s not even mention the Ogre Empire – which was long gone when I hatched, and yet here seems to still exist (albeit in a collapsing state). The fall of the Ogre Empire only happened with the rise of the Talon Kings, and Terokk. Could this mean that in this universe Terokk was never the religious and political figure he was in our reality?

Not quite home

As you may or may not know, I sent Riktal through my dimensional rift recently, and she returned with information on some kind of version of Draenor on the other side. The information she relayed to me did not, however, make much sense considering what I knew about the planet from my own youth. She appeared in a place called “Frostfire Ridge”, which as far as I’m aware, never existed on Draenor, but appeared to have some elements of Blade’s Edge Mountains, pulled out and stretched, with random lands put in-between to fill out the gaps. What I learned looked like someone wanted to just redesign Draenor according to his own whims, established past be damned. If that is all indeed Kairozdormu’s meddling, it’s going far beyond what I would ever expect possible of him.

Frostfire Ridge

Recently, Krasha reactivated some kind of magical rift he once had in his basement. I am told he used this to get into some other timeline that he then couldn’t get out of. Naturally, I doubted at least a large part of the story he told us, as did everyone else. Would you believe if your absent-minded employer told you a story about how he saved an alternate timeline and personally healed Jaina Proudmoore from a poison inflicted on her by Kel’thuzad himself? It sounds like a pretty tall story… until you get to realize it’s all true. Or at least it’s mostly true, as I recently had the chance to experience this alternate timeline, albeit from a completely different angle.