Blanchy

Ever since I saw that Blanchy was an available mount in Shadowlands, I resolved to get her for my mage (Illume, who is Human and All Horse All the Time) and Floramel (who is also Human but generally speaking digs things that smack of demonic, which the Ghost of Blanchy does).  Finally knocked out a few days to get it done. Yes, days.

This particular task takes six days in total (it’s time gated) and it’s helpful to have an addon like SilverDragon to alert you, because when she appears, she does take off.

I won’t do a complete “howto” on this, but let me reiterate some stuff from the guide on WoWHead.

1. Blanchy is in Rivendreth, at 63.13 43.11.
2. Yes, she spawns right in the river, and then proceeds to run up the river away from the waterfall that she spawns next to.
3. She takes off like crazy, so be mounted and ready to roll.  I chose a flying mount and that served me well.
4. Once you catch her, she stops running and stays there for five minutes.  I consider it good form to let others in the area know she’s there.
5. I don’t have good records on this, but it appears that she spawned at 21:29 every night (server time) for me. Your mileage may vary.

About the six things:

• First up are 8 handfuls of Oats. You gather those around Westfall. Saldean’s farm is a good place to look.
• The next item is a Grooming Brush which you buy from Snickersnee in Darkhaven.  While you’re there, grab the Empty Water Bucket nearby as you will need it.
• Next item: Sturdy Horseshoes are found around the area on the roads.  For some reason I thought I needed nine. You only need four, logically. Durr. Best to have them on hand before you start this process.
• Bucket of Clean Water – use the empty bucket from earlier and go to either Ardenweald or Bastion and find some clean water – not muddy – to fill the bucket. Then you can give that to Blanchy.
• Comfortable Saddle Blankey – Ta’tru sells this for some variable currency. Most if not all of the currencies (i.e. Aethreal Meat) are available on the AH for a trivial amount of gold. Save yourself some trouble; go to the AH the day before, get the things you need to buy the blankey, and buy it then so you have it waiting next day.
• Dreadhollow Apples are available from Mims and there are no tricks to this one. Just buy the apples and have them ready, as that will seal the deal.

So I have a nice red horsey and am done with this particular camp fest.  And at last we have some closure to the tragic story of this poor beast. I’ll try to take better care of her than the previous owners.

Fly, my pretties!

Here we are, in only the first content patch for Shadowlands, and I have flying in Shadowlands. How is this possible?

Turns out all you need to do is to get to Renown of 44 or higher with your covenant, and then finish up the 9.1 quest line through the point of freeing the Primus, about which I will say no more in case we have Spoiler-Sensitive^tm people reading.

Besides this, we also get a couple of other boons in 9.1.

1. Along the way we get to kill The Eye so it isn’t stalking us in The Maw.
2. We also complete a quest that gives us the means to mount up (but not fly) in The Maw.

Not being a raider or PvPer or whatever, I have to say there’s precious little else other than additional padding for my covenant.

A note of caution for the 9.1 quests, especially assaults in The Maw.  Be informed. At least two of the quests I needed to do were bugged, and it wasn’t until I researched them via a combination of Reddit and WoWHead that I figured out that (1) for one, I needed to go to Stormwind, go into War Mode, go back to the quest, and then I could complete it.  And (2) only Elite mobs were suitable to feed Kevin.  Yes, Kevin. No, I won’t tell you who Kevin is.  But you need to feed him.

I am somewhat put out that the “optimum” covenant for BM Hunters shifted from Ardenweald to Bastion. I’ve got 45 levels of covenant love here, what am I supposed to do, start over? Eff that.

The whole Sylvanas … thing.  I’m just not going there.  I’m in the “Fry her, fry her now, and then fry whatever’s left” school.  I haven’t forgotten Teldrassil, and neither should  you.

Hard Times in Bastion

Bastion bothers me.

A friend of mine on Twitter noticed this first, but I’ve seen it, too.  There’s something like a place that makes you shed your identity and turn into a person identical to all of the other people around you of the same gender a bit unnerving. And the words used by these people remind me of a, of a … well, this.

And then there’s this.

Here we have one of the cult members (circled, to the far right) “shedding his memories” (all the other circles).  You can see that this blue dude is actually in past life a Tauren, and his memories of his past are deemed “burdens”.

They should have named it “definitely not a cult land”.

Now, a certain major lore character that you saw in one of the animated shorts (not spoiling it) has started a counter cultural movement, and I have to say, while they’re being portrayed as the baddies, I’m kinda rooting for them.

It may be pretty here, but it’s just horrible.

Qua Taelia

If you’re Alliance, you’ve met Taelia, agent of Kul Tiras, Fury warrior par excellence, and giver of some of the best stinkeye I’ve ever seen in-game.

 

Lady Ashvane almost went up in smoke just from the glare

 

 

There is a big spoiler near the end of the main arc in this the initial stage of the expansion, so I won’t ruin it if you prefer to stay … unruined.  Turn thy virgin eyes aside, and come back after you find out … well, you’ll know.

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They gone?  Man, what a pain.  But here we are.

Anyway, as you may at this point know, Taelia’s full name is Taelia Fordragon, daughter of Bolvar Fordragon, who was last seen atop the Frozen Throne in Northrend.

Blizzwatch has already had a shot at what that means for purposes of her upcoming lore – i.e. she thinks daddy’s dead, nobody’s told her, this can only end in tears, that sort of thing.

But from the moment I saw her and Anduin Wrynn in the room together, I knew: this has to happen.

Anyone know who did this?

Yes, I know that Flynn’s carrying a torch for her.

I also get that Flynn is the Jack Sparrow in the Jack Sparrow / Elizabeth / Whelp sammich, and I think that Anduin is the Whelp in this case.

 

Yes, Blizz does tend to borrow from others and embellish, why do you ask.

Anyway.

1. Anduin’s gonna need a queen.
2. A Fordragon would be a fabulous choice.
3. It would unite Lorderon and Stormwind once and for all, with a side of Kul Tiras.
4. He’s a priest, she’s a warrior (maybe she can spec change to tank).
5. 

   Come here, little king. Want some candy?

   Jaina’s a bit old for him (back off, cougar lady).

6. Moira would be just wrong. Shadow and Holy? G’wan.

You see where I’m headed here?

Now, it’s possible, with the whole Bolvar the Lich King thingy going on, that Taelia will Go Dark at some point.

I figure we have a 50/50 chance of that, and a 50/50 chance of Anduin going dark. And I just can’t really get into the whole king-going-dark-for-the-dozenth-time thing again, so it’s possible that, if Jaina doesn’t grow a mustache to twirl, that Taelia will be taken from us, go rogue and go after Daddy Dearest or something weird like that.  The sort of thing that happens every other day in Warcraft.

But I hope not. We’re running out of good lore characters, and we need some interesting ones to take their place. But I’m worried because Taelia’s model is just basically a player character model with little to know real upgrades, making it appear that she’s not going to last the expansion out.

Anyway.

I have shipped Anduin Wrynn and Taelia Fordagon, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Thanks for attending my TED talk.

 

Ephemerality

There’s a questline in Krokuun where you take down the big bad in Nath’raxas Hold, and right after you do that, there’s an awesome cut scene.

After that, there’s this awesome cut scene. I’ll put in a break to keep from spoiling it for anyone.

Xe’ra should learn the meaning of "consent"

Why so Handsy?

You may have seen the  cinematic that deals with “The Fate of Xe’ra”.  Here’s a link if you want to watch. Note it contains spoilers for the Argus campaign, which you may wish to experience in pristine purity of the pure. In which case, close this article now and come back when you have been pristinely enlightened purely.

We’ll wait until you leave …

Okay, here we go.

 

Look! Up in the Sky!

After Kil’jaeden is defeated, Illidan uses a magic crystal to open a portal between the worlds so that they (and, presumably, we) could get back home. But, what’s that saying? A door swings both ways, I blieve?  While we could see Azeroth from over Argus … we can see Argus from here!

Initially, only those that brought down KJ in raid could see it, but this Tuesday, they opened the final wing of The Tomb to use LFR-ers (uh, “Raid Finder”, they say over at Blizz).  And on that magical day, Argus appeared everywhere.  Except for Northrend!Dalaran.

Be warned! Lots of pics and a video below!

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The old capitals had a good view.

But, sadly, Exodar missed out again.

Kaz Modan …

… and Kalimdor …

Sometimes it showed in the most unusual and interesting ways …

And while I couldn’t see it from Northrend!Dalaran, other places in Northrend had a good view.

Even Pandaria had a good view, now that the mists have cleared.

And, in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the cinematic that explains this little bit of fel candy in our skies.

So that explains that

Perhaps you’ve seen the skies above the Black Temple and wondered, “why can I see Azeroth up there in the sky?”

Spoiler alert … this is the end cinematic from the Sargeras fight. Don’t watch it if you don’t want spoilers.

Awkward

So, apparently when you go to do the Exodar scenario, in the final battle with Rakeesh, two of your class hall peeps show up.  In this case it was an Orc warlock and a demon.

Sometimes doing the right thing involves very strange bedfellows.

Somebody I Used to Know

Really not sure how many famous Hunters there are out there, but I can count the ones I know on  one hand.  There’s Sylvanas, who now works for the opposition party, there’s her sister Alleria, missing in action, there’s Rexxar, who we’ve met recently on Draenor, there’s Flintlocke, who’s more associated with the engineering arm of the world these days.  I’m sure there are others, but when reading the annals of our history, it’s those priests and paladins and mages that hog all the glory, apparently.

You might say the Lodge of the Hidden Path was well-named.

That being said, we’re tasked with filling our ranks with famous members of our chosen profession, which means a Hunter Road Trip or two.

Well, Rexxar wasn’t actually that far away.  Just over the hill from the Lodge, in fact.  I’m not saying that he was being obvious or anything, but if your goal is to go Native and live off the land, camping out in you’re parent’s back yard is hardly “roughing it”.  I’m sure the Lodge just nodded and smiled so as to humor him.

Hilaire, on the other hand, is one of those outright obscure cases that really did get a bit off the beaten path. I guess someone thinks she’s famous, but that someone is probably from The Broken Isles.  Not much about her ever made it down Dun Morough way.

I can’t say I am surprised. You really can’t hold a high standard up to an organization that is putting me in charge of things.  It has the tangy scent of desperation about it.