Game Design Exercise: Farahlon Side Stories

I know it’s been some time since I’ve done this, but most of that time, I had better stuff to write. As in, in-character pieces about events actually happening in the Tower of Krasha. We got some new people involved in my particular circle, and I concentrated on that for the time being. But now, I return with the piece I promised two weeks ago, side stories of Farahlon. Most of these you won’t even get a breadcrumb for and you’ll have to stumble upon the right NPC in the wild. Doing these stories is not essential to your story or game progression, but they reward with some cool bits, including lore, battle pets and followers.

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)

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.