Secret Six

Back in January I made a post introducing the world to my WoW characters. So for today I present a follow up: A lot has happened to my three characters and they’ve even been joined by some new faces.
So here we go:

Rithendal

So what has been happening to Rithendal? Well, he made it to the Outlands, he’s built up an impressive array selection of pets and he’s ditched his bow for a blunderbuss. I’ve seen a lot of fantasy and I’ve never seen a Tolkien-esque elf with a gun so this change is fine by me.
In addition, he’s taken up wearing a mask that conceals the lower half of his face – call it a bit of roleplaying on my part. Now whilst WoW doesn’t have a lot of room for roleplay (when say compared to Bioware’s efforts) it doesn’t mean the player can’t put a bit of imagination into their character and forge an identity. So I’ve always imagined Roth to be the sullen/silent type so having him wearing a mask is a natural fit. Plus making him look a ninja is kinda cool.

Beldrath

Of the characters introduced in my previous post, Beldrath is the one who has changed the most. Most telling is his haircut: It occurred to me that Beldrath looked waaaaaaaay to similar to the characters that a friend of mine uses so I took it upon myself to give Beldrath longer hair and it being white. Also noteworthy is that Beldrath has joined a guild and taken up mail armor - thus making him completely different from before. Also pleasing is how his armor is all shades of blue.
Not much else I can really say though: The Blood Elf paladin is working a treat and it’s been good fun using this character. His professions, blacksmithing and mining, have been fun and it adds to the character: So far Beldrath is the only blacksmith in the guild so it kinda creates the idea he’s the physically strongest character in it.

Grimcrag

As mentioned in my last post, Grimcrag has been reincarnated as a shaman. So have things been different?
Weeeeeeellllllllllllllll not really: I’ve been killed a lot with near absurd frequency and many of the Dwarf quests (in and around Dun Morogh and Loch Modan) aren’t really that enjoyable. For this reason Grimcrag hasn’t been getting a lot of mileage – which is a shame because I enjoy the Warcraft Dwarves. It may sound contradictory but I do – but at the end of the day if you aren’t having fun then then would be a good time to stop.
For this reason, the character is still around – that is until I decide what to do with Grimcrag. Will I persevere? Or will he reincarnated as a Horde character? Only time will tell…..

Deathfist

And here comes the first of the newbies! Not for the first time, this is an experiment: I found myself developing a liking for the Trolls in Azeroth. I like their appearance, their tropical island setting (Echo Isles) and the fact they all speak in Rastafarian accents. So what the hell: I made up a Troll character. Special note must go the name: I didn’t put a lot of thought into it but much to my surprise it hadn’t been claimed! So yay me! (of course there are many more Deathfists on other servers but no matter…)
I did go with a druid first but that yielded little success –then I went with a warrior and things started looking up. I made it to level 12 and built up a decent enough skill in both mining and blacksmithing but Deathfist hasn’t done much since. This is due to the other characters reaping the attention (curse having multiple WoW characters!) but, again, I’m unwilling to delete him. Much like Grimcrag he may get used or he may reappear under a different name/race – it’s just depends on whether I decide.
But at the end of the day, I can conclude that yeah: Trolls are cool!

Naesandra

This character represents another experiment: Through playing WoW it’s fun to watch a character you create grow stronger and do things that ultimately inspires a sense of identity. Thus I wanted to make a character that starts off in the Alliance only to defect to the Horde – purely for the reasons of building a character history. Alas, it was only later that I was informed that races are purely restricted to allegiance. And when you make the change, a new race must be selected. For this reason one does not see any humans in the Horde.
Still, this was an interesting character to use: I went with a human mage and built them up to level 25. Funny thing is, whereas I previously had trouble with using human paladin, here I was having a far more enjoyable time with the human missions. Which goes to show that sometimes the right class can make a whole world of difference. Also, I went with a female character: Now I have mentioned that playing a character of a different gender to the player in a public playing field may come across as being dishonest. But here it was an opportunity to engage in one of the cornerstones of roleplay: playing a character that’s completely from yourself, the player (mind you when I did get to the Horde a friend was nothing short of perplexed to find me as a she-elf).
Using a mage has been interesting to say the least: It’s been fun but I’ve died so often it’s far from funny (why do all my characters die so easily?!) and I’ve burnt through so many healing potions it defies belief. But eventually when I hit level 25, I made the jump to the Horde – my human mage became a Blood elf and became the character displayed above (bypassing the, by now, tiresome Blood Elf starting quests was equally pleasing). Since then, Naesandra has been my soloist character: it’s who I use when no one else is around and it’s good fun (even if I die too easily). And, to add even more to the character history, she’s taken up Inscription – which has been most welcome in the guild.

Kholek

And here is the last of the new additions – and once again, it’s another experiment. Not willing to abandon the idea of an Alliance Paladin, I decided to create one of the Retribution variety. And, on the suggestion of a friend, a Draenei was selected for the race.
This character has had his moments. Compared to the Humans and the Dwarves, the Draenei have had the most enjoyable starting zone (Azuremyst Isle) and the opportunity to playing a different paladin to Beldrath has been interesting and fun. But I must confess: With the Draenei, I have the opposite problem to the Dwarves. Whereas the Dwarves are a great race with rubbish starting zones, I found the Draenei to be a boring race in fun starting zones. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something about the Draenei that doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it’s the idea of space aliens in a fantasy setting. Maybe it’s the idea of space aliens in a fantasy setting speaking in Russian accents. Maybe it’s the thought that many of the Draenei (in particular mine) look like Klingons. But no matter: Whatever issue I may have with the Draenei, I can say that I’ve had more success with this character than I have with any other Alliance character. So that’s worth something.

So this concludes this rather lengthy post – It has indeed been fun to see these characters develop and build their own history and personality. True much of it may exists in my head but, as anyone will tell you, when you invent a character you spend time with them and you watch them grow and they become part of you – and it’s no different in Azeroth.
So what more adventures await these six characters in WoW? Well, there’s only one way to find out……