War stories : Return to Ogrimmar

It seemed like a lifetime ago she set foot in the city. She was barely of age when she joined the warriors of the Horde. She remembered it well, her first mission was to the other side of the world, the siege of Zul'Aman. How long was that ago? Three, or four years, and now she was back, but back to what?

She walked through the gate-buildings an looked out over the Valley of Strength. In the middle was a big pile of rubble, still smouldering of the fire it was destroyed by. She didn't remember the bank of Ogrimmar to be that big, so much had changed. She walked on, some of her people where scurrying along, but not many Orcs where around.

She had seen destruction before, and death of course. In the Zul'Aman campaign she didn't see much of the front, but after that, she was stationed at the Wrath Gate. She was their the day Arthas confronted the combined might of The Horde and the Alliance. She was their the day that the Forsaken betrayed The Horde, and she barely survived that ordeal.

Ogrimmar looked like it was completely sacked. The Alliance swarm had not shown much mercy to the Orcs who tried to defend their homes.She already knew what she was going to see, but still she walked through the valley towards the drag, towards her birthplace, towards where her family used to live.

There was some screaming coming from the Valley of Spirits, where the Trolls used to live. She heard reports the Trolls took back their islands a few years ago, and that most of them relocated there,  maybe the heart of The Horde would now be relocated there with her new Warchief. She didn't know if she was still part of The Horde, time would tell. A few Blood Elf guards halted her.

She had met Blood Elfs before, at Zul'Aman. They seemed a little fragile, but where not afraid to lead the battles fought, and now they where here in Ogrimmar, the remnants of the Regent's Army who fought in the rebellion against Garrosh, the deposed war chief. She gave her credentials to the guards.

They where written in the Sindorei-language, which she knew enough off to know what the letters said. This one has not fought for Garrosh, but also not against, she was not here when that all happened. She was on a ship, sailing from Northrend to Kalimdor when the Alliance and the Rebels defeated Garrosh. Why where they still called rebels?

Her batallion was stationed at Wyrmrest Temple after Deathwing assaulted the Dragons. They were there to guard, and to rebuild. She had worked with some dwarves there to secure the surroundings, and then the news came that a new Island was found, and that old wounds where torn open. They all had one more evening of comradery, the Orcs, Dwarves, Trolls, Draenai. Even the Gnomes where having fun, but the next day we all would be enemies again.

The guards let her continue into the Drag. It was completely ravaged and burned out. Everything had to be rebuild. All the houses, all the stores, everything gone. The Alliance really sacked this place. She headed towards the Valley of Honor, one of the places the Alliance didn't breached she heard. Maybe it was better there.

She was not sure if Garrosh was making the right decisions, but he was the Warchief, he should be followed. Like Thrall before him, the Orcs went where their Warchief went, no questions asked. But although Wyrmrest was far from the new Island, rumours started dripping in. The biggest shock was news that the Troll leader was openly revolting against his Warchief, and that both the noble Tauren and the Blood Elves seemed to join Vol'Jin, was this the end of the Horde?

Skirmishes broke out between the different races around Wyrmrest, and she and her kin seemed to be standing alone. One night a big brawl ended with several deaths, and the Horde commanders decided that it was best for the Orcs to leave. She was put on a ship towards Ogrimmar, under command of a Blood Elf Regiment. Or was that as prisoner?

She looked out over the Valley of Honor. It was always crowded there, but now there where tents everywhere. The stench of people packed up to close to each other was overwhelming. Near the gate was a tent where medics where doing their job, while dead orcs where still being taken away. A little bit further, children where playing in the water, while Orc warriors sat around campfires.

She looked back to the gate, a number of Tauren Warriors stood guard, both to keep people out and in. So, this is what her people were now, refugees in their own city.

WoD: Wait..what now?

I have been pointed out that my postwriting was down again...  and there is a simple reason for that, too much information which is actually no infarmation at all.  I have several unfinished posts now, something that has not happened before.

Normally I start writing, and I have a post, now I have several starts (including a RP-story even) but no endings. And I figured out why, every post is connected to each other (well, except the RP- story then). So, lets start with something..  the news that WoD heroics will be more heroic again maybe?  Time for a confession:

I liked the TBC-heroic concept.

Think about it. Before you could run heroics, you had to do the normals. You needed to be revered with the dungeon-faction to actually do the heroic version, which meant you had to run the dungeon several times before doing the heroic version, so everyone who could do it, actually knew what was going on.

Now the whole rep-thing was tiresome, but back then they didn't do in Ilvl-gating. The problem with Ilvl-gating is that you can 'fake' your Ilvl, especially if you are a Plate-user. Every item in your bags which you can equip counts towards your Ilvl, so a 522-coth belt would count higher as a 450-platebelt for a plate-user...  seems odd, but that's how it is.

Maybe they should include the MagT-idea again, no doing heroic dungeons, before you do the normal one, and you have to have a certain Ilv.

And there seems to be another little problem, the length of heroics, Shadow Labs Heroic anyone?

I liked Shadow Lab heroics....  I loathed magister terrace though..

A common thing I read and hear that no one wants that again, because it takes to much time...so, don't do them I would say. This idea that everyone seems to have, that even the most casual player who can only play 2 hours a week should be able to do the same as a hardcore player who plays 20 hours a week is ridiculous.

Oh wait, they actually can...  just not in the same time period. In my opinion normal dungeons and LFR's should be short and quick, for the casuals with not much time. Heroics/Flex etcetera for people with more time. I want more longer BRD-kinda dungeons to explore, which take time to do...

Oh, and I see Mythical dungeons coming, heroics scaled up in a later patch, so we cannot steamroll them.

Sssh... they are listening.

Well, well, well, the NSA is listening into us?  Panic, no, run, stop...STOP

Apart from the fact that this was already known, what did you expect?

I think of myself as a reasonable person who does not go into panic mode easily, so the moment all that snowden-stuff started to pour out, I was like...meh, what did you expect?

And now the snowden-files leaked that the NSA is in World of Warcraft.. so what?

I never really understood all the Rukus about this. The only thing that changed is that there is evidence now, it's like everyone just had their eyes closed for years, and is now starting to see. I don't get that, I already suspected for years that everything on the internet is being watched, and with suspecting, I mean 99% sure.

I can see that it might be a problem...  actually I can't. There is no way I will start to freak out because some dude somewhere in the US, or for that matter the Netherlands knows what I did last saturday on the web  (hint, it was probably killing internet dragons), I have enough other things in my head, so I don't want to start worrying about that, have fun with that knowledge.. as if that guy..or girl...  would remember that...

...and if they did, well, they can't say it, can't they...  and every time I see a news message about the NSA spying on Merkel, or the BBC, be sure that your government either knows about it, or is also spying on the US.

And for the NSA-employees that are assigned to play this World of Warcraft game in search of potential hazards to the United States of America or her Allies, have fun...  and what is your progress by the way... on raids, not on finding terrorists...