Know Your Rogue Lore: Edwin VanCleef

The average player will first encounter Edwin VanCleef in Deadmines (at least if they are Alliance, Horde players may miss him all together.) His significance is easily lost as much of the detail of his lore is only touched on with in the game. What WOULD be known is that he is the leader of the Defias Brotherhood , a rag tag band of cut throats who are out to over throw Stromwind. It is his MOTIVATION for this that is frequently lost to players and it why VanCleef feels his cause is just that makes him SUCH an interesting figure.

Sources outside World of Warcraft the Video game will tell you that Edwin VanCleef started out his life the son of a Stonemason who learned every trick of the trade at this father's knee, but in addition to that Edwin had a gift with creating hidden rooms and mechanical devices as well as a childhood friendship with one Mathias Shaw. It was from Shaw that Edwin learned all there was to know about the rogue craft showing a natural aptitude for it. Deciding that a life of crime was more lucrative than a life of hard labor working for his father he used these gifts to become one of the most wanted Criminals in Stromwind. But then came the invasion of the Horde and the destruction of Stormwind.

When the call went out for Stonemasons and artisans after the Second War to help rebuild VanCleef was one of the FIRST to volunteer. He is credited with being the major architect behind the majority of the grander buildings in Stormwind, most notably Stormwind Cathedral.

Now while the rebuilding was taking place King Varian was away helping to round up the last of the Orcs from the Second War and place them in Interment camps. King Llane had been murdered during the war so Varian needed to meet with the other monarchs and strengthen ties, in addition to this he and his young wife had just had their first child, Anduin, named after the recently killed Sir Anduin Lothar another Father figure in Varian's life. (Now I know you are asking, what does Varian lore have to do with VanCleef? Bare with me, it had a BIG impact.)

With Varian off overseeing clean up efforts he left the rebuilding project in the hands of the Nobles of Stormwind. They were to make sure the project was handled in a speedy fashion but most importantly they were to see that the workers got PAID. Unfortunately through means both of the usual greedy kind as well as the more sinister work of a Lady Katrana Prestor while the work DID get done the PAYMENTS never materialized. Apparently while the King was away the Nobles decided to raise the taxes to "pay for the repairs" but then never bothered to pass the money along.

The King and his young family return to find Stormwind on the verge of a Riot. When he attempts to discover WHY the payments never took place and make things right, pandemonium breaks loose and in the confusion his young queen Tiffin is killed. Devastated at this final loss after so many Varian falls into a depression (fed by Lady Prestor) and basically is nothing more than a figure head for the next 10 years.

VanCleef and the REST of the Stonemasons, artisans and workers who the Nobles have cheated are tossed out, accused of killing the queen and disrupting the stability of the nation. With his means of making a legitimate living now removed, as well as being cheated out of what is rightfully his VanCleef swears revenge. Gathering up those others who will follow him he begins to lay a foundation of a completely different kind. The Defias Brotherhood is born.

VanCleef is an interesting character because he gets back to that idea of the "noble thief". He really feels he is "righting a wrong" a "Robin Hood" if you will. And it is really for this reason that I think he was chosen as the Alliance Rogue Armor set. The fact that his organization is all about "Over throwing the government" has lead a lot of people to really question this choice. But really he is all about "vengeance to settle the score" at least in his mind and in Lore. Even the quest givers who ultimately ask for his death are saddened that it has come to that point.

Couple of other interesting things of note with VanCleef. His Armor that he is wearing in Deadmines is the Madcap's set along with his classic Red Defias mask.

Getting Personal

I am going to do something COMPLETELY out of character for me but it is just such a neat thing I have to share.

Today is the Ninth day of the Ninth month of Two-Thousand Nine and my second born son is turning 9 years old. Now our family is not a huge "Birthday Party" kind of family. Particularly because we have so MANY birthdays in September it would just get to overwhelming. But something like this just calls for something special. So tonight we are having a party with all the grandparents. (When you already have a family of six adding four more makes for a good size get together.) It is a school night so we can't go TO late.There will be cake (cup cakes really since all my son really cares about is the frosting) and Pizza, which is one of his favorite meals.

Just a few years ago the very idea of doing something like this would have never accrued to me because my son has Moderate/Sever Autism and could not stand to be in the same room with anyone else while they ate. Ten people? Are you Crazy? He has worked SO hard and accomplished SO much these past years and I am SO proud of my bright boy. Now he sits at the table with us at meal times, trades plates with his brother's like you would expect from ANY boy. Sure he still has his particularities and routines which CAN NOT be changed, but over all I could not be more pleased to be facing this day. Even if it DOES mean that on only the second day of school I am deep cleaning the house in order to have company rather than sticking my feet up and playing WoW.

So Happy Birthday My Little Man! And for all of you wondering...yeah, don't expect to see me much today if at all.

Rep: Lower City

Last week I mentioned how Shattrah City is the home of the Refugees of Outlands...well Lower City is the REPUTATION of those refugees. Located in the lower most portion of Shattrah , Lower City is actually the outer band and it is here where players will locate the majority of the trainers, vendors, battlemasters, etc.

The largest population of these refugees visually in this area is made up by the Arakkoa or "Bird People". If you are serious about getting this reputation to exalted the best thing you can do before doing ANY other quests that give Lower City Rep is pick up The Outcast's Plight from Vekax. (He is one of the Bird men who that pats up and down the ramps in the Tree house located at the North End of Shattrah.) This will open up a repeatable quest for 30 Arakkoa Feathers which can be done until you reach Honored. These feathers are NOT soul bound so they CAN be purchased off the Auction house or easily farmed.

Once you have reached Honored pick up your heroic key from Nakodu because there are only two options available to you. Quests and Dungeons. While you will find quests for Lower City, there are not many (only 59) and some are seasonal. Others are only occasionally available, and some are faction specific. This means that the MAJORITY of your reputation will have to be obtained in dungeons. Specifically within the Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labyrinth. Crypts will only give you rep while on Heroic mode after you are honored but Sethekk and Shadow Lab will give rep on both normal AND heroic. Your BEST bet will actually be finding runs for Heroic Sethekk Halls with individuals who are farming Anzu for the mount if you are not level 80 yet.

For those who ARE level 80 and reasonably geared out (with the new system something that is VERY easy to do.) I doubt you would find it difficult to solo Sethekk Halls, even Shadow Labyrinth should be doable if for nothing more than all the trash mobs.

Happy Grinding~

Winner's guilt

For the first time in a long while Daraia got two upgrades last night.

One was the cloak Drape of the Deadly Foe which I had given up all hope of EVER getting my hands on from Nax 25 off Kel'Thuzad. The other was Golem-Shard Sticker from Deconstructor out of Ulduar 25.

My problem was I felt guilty (still do) due to our other guild rogue being there for the run. When the dagger dropped I put in need and won...but then thought, "hey, I already GOT the cloak from KT earlier."
At that point I was informed I was under NO circumstances to give it up, I had earned it and just deal with it. Am I the ONLY person who deals with Winners guilt? Even the other rogue was laughing at me...As much as I enjoy any new toys I get my thoughts are constantly "who could use this item MORE?"

Lets be honest though, there ARE exceptions. Tier pieces....then it seems the ugly green eyed monster comes out....THOSE I want with a passion. Go figure. Still no T-8 pants, so I am running around with a mix of Tier 7.5 and 8.5 because I lose to much dps if I switch out my 7.5 shoulders for Tier 9 ones. But at the rate I am going I will have the Tier 9 Pants before I EVER get the Tier 8.5. That is what ended up happening with my Tier 7.5 Helm...Never DID get that. Ended up with the Pickled baby Helm instead....man do I hate that thing. I will be VERY happy to replace it with the Bird Helm.

But yes, it was nice to finally use some of my points last night towards gear for Daraia's Main spec rather than for off spec gear or as the majority of my points have been spent....on my alt Merla.

Know Your Rogue Lore: Garona Halforcen

Since I spoke about her in the introduction to this series I decided it would be best to start with Garona Halforcen. The average "World of Warcraft" player will have absolutely NO idea who this individual is though her actions have GREATLY effected the entire environment we play in.

For most players whose experience is only "in game" the first time they may see this name would be on a book from Dire Maul called "Garona: A study in Stealth and Treachery". This "Rogue only quest" resulted in a trinket which pre-BC was considered one of the best outside of raiding. Players may also have seen the name from Malyfous Darkhammer, a Dark Iron Dwarf craftsman located in Everlook in Winterspring. In his catalog of gear quests is one Breastplate of Bloodthirst which he claims was originally crafted for "legendary Assassin Garona Halforcen" interestingly enough the stats on the chest piece are more druid focused than Rogue.

In Karazhan, The Curator drops her Signet Ring. For those who have read the book "The Last Guardian" by Jeff Grubb this will make sense as Garona spent much of that book in Karazhan as a guest of Medivh.

Most recently in game Garona has been seen again by those players who have participated in the Yogg-Saron fight in Ulduar. Here players witness the assassination of King Lane by her in a "memory". As a result Yogg drops Kingsbane (the dagger supposedly used to kill Lane) and Garona's Guise, Garona's helmet. In addition to this the Horde armor set for Tier 9 is called Garona's Battlegear.

So who IS this woman that she should be SO influential that an armor set is named after her? That information is contained almost exclusively in the written literature provided by Blizzard. In the Last Guardian Garona is introduced as a half orc/half human who was "bred" at the orders of Gul'dan. She was raised amongst her father's people and had no contact with her mother who we are left to believe died soon after her birth. Reviled for being "ugly and deformed", smaller than the other orc children, Gul'dan also placed many subversive spells on her making her especially vulnerable to mind control.

Garona was smart, she was agile and she used these to survive and eventually become an asset to the Shadow Council. Due to her mixed blood she was accepted by no clan and held no loyalty to one which allowed her to work as an ambassador, spy and messenger with more ease. As a young woman she was forced through the Dark Portal from the broken Draenor, the only world she had ever known on to Azeroth.

Soon after her arrival she encountered Medivh who allowed her to return to Gul'dan with a message. Eventually she became a Emissary between the Orcs and humans staying at Karazhan where she and Medivh's Apprentice Khadgar would spend hours arguing about the merits of both races. Medivh helped Garona to feel "more human" and allowed her to think for her self for the first time in her life this brought her to question her loyalties. It was Garona and Khadgar who first suspected that Medivh may have been responsible for the appearance of the Orcs on Azeroth and took these suspicions to Anduin Lothar, Medivh's and King Lane's long time friend.

During the search to confront Medivh Garona had a vision in which she discovered she would be responsible for the assassination of King Lane. This devastated her as she considered the King one of her few true friends. Khadgar forced her to snap out of it and continue to focus on the task before them but Garona (perhaps in an attempt to have herself killed and then prevent her vision from coming to pass) attacked Medivh, causing him to place all HIS doubts and fears into her mind. By the time Medivh was eventually defeated Garona had disappeared.

Later Garona appeared at Court and became a trusted adviser to King Lane helping him to understand how the Orcs thought, organized and fought. However due to the repeated "games" played with her mind both by Gul'dan and Medivh Garona was never able to completely regain control of herself. When the order came from the Shadow Council to kill Lane, while it upset her greatly she could not prevent herself from following through on the order. King Varian who witnessed the assassination remarked in the comic series that while killing Lane Garona had tears streaming down her face and he couldn't to this day understand why.

After Lane's assassination Garona was captured by Orgrim Doomhammer and tortured almost to death until she revealed the location of the remaining Shadow Council. After this Garona disappeared from Blizzards written works until Volume three of World of Warcraft the Comic. It is this series that has done the most to rework Garona's history as well as give us new insights into what all has been happening to the half orc these past few years. Through the comics we discover that Garona was actually pregnant with Medivh's child at the time of King Lane's assassination.

Garona has spent the years in hiding attempting to protect her son from individuals who are interested in him due to his mixed heritage. (Garona it is discovered is actually half Orc-half Draenai, while Medivh was human giving the boy 1/3 of each this allows him a unique control and interest in three schools of magic, arcane, shamanic and holy.) In the comic it is clear that Garona's vulnerability to mind control is still there which has directly effected the relations of the Horde and Alliance as her appearance at a peace conference caused Varian to believe the Horde were attempting to assassination him as they had his father and lead Garrosh Hellscream to the same conclusion regarding the Alliance.

There is much speculation as to what role if any Garona may play in the up coming Cataclysm expansion. Some of this was brought about by Chris Metzen in 2007 when he stated he would like to introduce her as a love interest for Thrall. This was later heightened with the reintroduction of her in Wrath to players who would not be familiar with her from the written literature.

Over all Garona is a fascinating character well worth all the attention. Like many rogues she has spent the majority of her life alone even when surrounded by others. Her friends, TRUE friends are few but she cares for them deeply. Despite all that she has gone through Garona continues to fight for what she cares about and attempts to over come those things over which she has no control.

Know your Rogue Lore.

I had a rather distressing conversation today with another rogue. They just could NOT understand why the Alliance tier 9 gear was named after a "puny low level boss", further more why the Horde gear was called "Garona". After scraping myself off the floor I proceeded to bore the poor chap to tears with WHY these two were SO important to Rogue lore. As a result of this I have decided that since school will soon be beginning again and the all my little minions will be out of the house for at least the morning. I will be starting a new series on Thursdays called "Know your Rogue Lore".

The plan is to cover all of the Rogues of note as well as some of the more obscure ones. In addition to this I want to cover the Rogue organizations that we find scattered through out Azeroth perhaps even those in Draenor. We rogues are a sneaky lot, for many of us hiding in the shadows is what we do best, so finding out about these individuals takes a little more time than the average player may have to invest. However I truly believe knowing a little more detail about the world around us can make the roles we play rather fulfilling, plus sometimes is can answer the question as to WHY that ring you got in Karazhan might have come to be there.

Where does all this "lore stuff" come from anyway? Well besides the games created by Blizzard there are also Novels, short stories and Magna which Blizzard has commissioned authors and artist to make to expand or fill some of the "holes" in the World of Warcraft Universe. At times these "books" may even change or redirect previously understood lore for reasons of clarity.

One of the greatest figures in Rogue Lore, Garona Halforcen under went just such a "clarification" in the past year because her time line just didn't make sense. How could she BE a half orc/half human? She couldn't because humans weren't on Draenor yet, but she COULD be a half orc/half Draenei who just happened to LOOK more like a half orc/half human. Having HER not know the truth about her origins made it flow a little more smoothly. Things like this do not ALWAYS happen with such ease but it is an example of the type of detailed attention that Blizzard gives to the world we like to wander around in.

Every race on Azeroth has rogues scattered about their society save those of the Hoof baring kind. While Tauren and Draenei may CLAIM it is because the way of the rogue is just "to foreign a concept to their noble kind" we all know the truth....It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to stealth when one is naturally large and has hooves. Some of these rogues we never see, but only the results of their work in the game. Lets take the time to step out of it and get a deeper understanding as to this society of which we are a part.

If you have any particular rogue lore information you would like me to cover sooner rather than later please feel free to let me know.

Rep: The Aldor and The Scryers

In the Northwest Corner of Terokkar Forest lays the City of Shattrah. Once the capital city of the Draenai on Draenor it is now a city divided. Many factions call it home and players can spend a great deal of time working to learn all of its nooks and crannies. However two main factions stand at polar opposites in this city and no one can be friendly with both. The Aldor and The Scryers.

With the introduction of the Wrath of the Lich King the importance of these two factions has been greatly diminished. At one point players often agonized over which faction to support based upon shoulder enchants, trade recipes, as well as quest rewards. Today, the major factor which seems to impact individuals is the height of the rises and character race. I want to bring one more element in to the mix: ease of reputation grinding. Now until you have completed the quest City of Light and determined which faction you wish to support you can wander at will on both rises.

The Aldor - Located on the highest tier in Shattrah are the Aldor, an order of Draenai who serve the Naaru. If you are a Draenai player you will start out automatically friendly with this faction. All others (save Bloodelves who are hated) will begin at neutral. The rise is rather spread out so it may take you a bit to locate everything.
Adyen the Lightwarden located almost in the center of Aldor rise has two repeatable quests which can be done until Honored, at level 68 two more will open up, for a total of four. The first two quests involve turning in Marks of Kil'jaeden which drop off the low level demons found in Negrand and Terokkar Forest. These can be turned in groups of 10 for 250 rep or or individually for 25. (If you are a human do it individually to take advantage of the human racial, all others do the by 10.) It will take you about 240 Marks to get you to Honored. At Level 68 you can begin turning in Marks of Sargeras which come from the higher level demons, some great places to farm these are Death's Door and the Forge Camps in Blade's Edge Mountains or Near the gate on the Isle of Quel'Danas.

Once you have reached Honored if you haven't also reached level 68 you may want to start turning in any Fel Armaments you have gotten to Ishanah the High Priestess of the Aldor located just inside the main temple. These can actually be turned in at any time and will give you Holy Dust which is used to purchase the various shoulder enchants. Fel Armaments give 350 Rep per turn in. A nice place to farm Armaments is Twilight Ridge in Nagrand.

The Scryers - Located on the opposite side of Shattrath on a lower rise are the Scryers. This is the direction that most individuals will go when it comes to choosing between the two of these factions. Why? If you miss the elevator the fall GENERALLY won't kill you. In addition to that, it is just a MUCH easier faction to grind and, well lets be honest here...their rise is just a whole lot more attractive.

So who are these skinny guys anyway? The Scryers are a bunch of Bloodelves who USE to work for Illidan and Kael'thas but who realized that their leaders were just plain crazy and when they were sent to attack Shattrath instead defected to the Naaru. Understandably The Aldor don't trust them a bit and the Scryers really don't have any use for the Aldor either. But they both play nice because the Naaru say they have to.

Just as the Aldor, the Scryers have a similar reputation building system. Bloodelf players automatically will start off friendly, Draeni players hated, all others neutral. Magistrix Fyalenn will take Firewing Signets until players hit honored, these can be easily farmed in either Terokkar Forest or Netherstorm off of the low level Firewings. Once you reach level 68 you can start turning in Sunfury Signets. These drop off the Sunfurys which can be located in Netherstorm, Shadowmoon Valley, or my personal favorite the Isle of Quel'Danas. What makes this easier than Aldor is that the Firewings and Sunfurys ALSO drop the Arcane Tomes which can be turned in at any time for reputation to Voren'thal the Seer.

Of course you can always purchase these items on the Auction House if wish but why waste the money?

Now all I have mentioned so far is the turn in repeatable quests, there are also faction SPECIFIC quests you can do that will gain you reputation as well. Most find it best if reputation grinding is the goal to focus on getting to honored FIRST before working on these quests. Again the Scryers come out ahead in this area in that they have 49 faction specific quests verse Aldor's 46. Just to reiterate, there is no right or wrong faction here, it all comes down to personal preference but you can not have both on the same character though you CAN change factions, at this point in time it really is not worth the bother.

Happy Grinding!