Bit awkward to do these quests sometimes

The image is of Wrathion and Anduin from World of Warcraft. It's a commission done by @riotbones for @ClaretAsh. The image is a 'poster' style piece, depicting several different images. At the top is Wrathion in profile. He's in shadow, being lit by a Titan prison level with his chest. Around his head are planets - in the front is Azeroth, then Argus, then a planet being devoured by void right at the back. Interestingly, around his neck are two rings on a necklace chain. In the foreground is Anduin in his current TWW/Midnight appearance. His head is haloed in light, and in his left hand, he holds Wrathion's ruby necklace. His pose is reminiscent of the 'sacred heart' devotion. His cloak flares out, and under it, it depicts two scenes. The first is Anduin and Wrathion as boys in Pandaria reading a large tome together. Beneath is a darker image of Wrathion in front of Ny'alotha, looking worriedly over his shoulder at Anduin, holding Shalamayne, surrounded by Alliance banners and war. Golden cracks run between them, as if Azeroth herself was breaking apart... ...You know I'm getting this printed as a poster! :3c

🔸 Convergence of threads. 🔸

(Commission by the brilliant @riotbones.bsky.social ✨)

#Warcraft #wranduin

Presented without context

Half the motivation came from me asking "what would a Haranir Priest even look like?" and I figured Shaladrassil being tied to Light *and* Void was an easy tie-in.

But also I wanted to make a hot old man, and he hair highlights make for a very nice salt and pepper look lol

Shocked to say that Harandar side quests inspired me to make a Haranir character, so here's Etelak.

He was one of the protectors of Shaladrassil's roots, and helped fight off the Lightbloom infestation... but he might not have been as unaffected by its corruption as he let on.

These "Aln'haran Tears" in the Rift of Aln are fascinating, I can't tell if they're supposed to be portals to the Dream or just manifestations of the Rootways.

I feel like I'd appreciate the "we still have to do the little things while the world ends" vibes if that wasn't the premise of basically the entire zone lmao

I'm really glad I saved this questline for last on my Sojourner of Eversong playthrough, because other than the Aradis and Necromancer quests, the rest of this zone is just so incredibly boring and lame lmao

It was nice to get *something* engaging, with future story set-up.

The implication that some Blood Elves might still consider working with the naga was also nice, plus the acknowledgement that the naga are still addicted to magic.

The quests even imply that the Blood Elves themselves are also still addicted, which I wish applied elsewhere lol

The Naga quests are definitely the most intriguing part of Eversong's side quests for me, the naga are shipping mana into the depths for *something*.

Bringing back the Daggerspine from vanilla Arathi Highlands was a neat surprise, and I'm interested to see where this goes.

I *finally* got the dialogue for the Lightblinded Vanguard before their fight. It only slightly explains why they turn evil, but better than nothing lol

It's a shame that Turalyon getting a clear "I choose my family over the Light" moment ended up bugging out so severely.

Funniest part is that Anduin and Tess are both explicitly *not* interested in each other lol, and Tess being the Queen of Gilneas makes the politics of their leadership basically impossible.

But I don't think the actual political intrigue is really what interests these people.

I have a lot of critiques of how Tess’ story has been handled, but I am at least grateful that it has been *her* story, and not the tradwife LARP that people project onto her for the sake of making Anduin straight lmao

Please let Anduin be free from this kind of WoW player.

Some people have such a way with words

It's shown really well across Zul'Aman's settlements too, how their structures are built in the bones of their old ruins.

They simply don't have the ancient knowledge or numbers to do what they did before, thanks to colonization. It's a wonderfully tragic bit of worldbuilding.

There's an underrated aspect to looking at Zul'Aman's ancient structures from the ground, and just how *massive* they are.

It's such a great way of visual storytelling -- the Amani literally living in the spectre of their past glory. I can't wait to see more of it in Atal'Utek.

Without high elves for contrast, and without their edge and their trauma, the blood elves don't have anything tho distinguish them from generic elves. And when you look at Midnight, well...

Their Horde allies could have given them *something* to make them stand out, but Midnight wasn't interested.

That was kind of the *point*, the 'typical' high elves still had their own subversion of being exiles from their own culture, and inherently assimilated with humans rather than isolated from them like typical fantasy.

And it played an important role in making the edgy groups unique, but alas lol

Insane gnome name

Like, would *I* ever want to just do generic human RP and nothing else? No lol, I love all the weird tech and the ways that they clash with the more fantasy-based cultures, it's what makes the factions fun.

But some people definitely do, and they *can* be obtrusive in public spaces.

There's a certain level of suspended disbelief you have to have to allow fantasy-level Stormwind exist alongside Undermine.

I *love* all the grime and tech that goblins and gnomes have, but sometimes having smartphones pop up when you're trying to do regular human RP can be aggravating.

I do think the one thing I can understand at least is like... time and place, sometimes. WoW *is* a huge mess of contradictory anachronisms, but they also work nicely in their bubbles.

The times when they interact are supposed to be jarringly *weird* and fun, not necessarily casual occurrences.

Disc Priest!

Keeping Porter in stasis until I can be 100% sure my curse won't lead to Mekkatorque sacrificing himself in TLT

Invested in my Dark Ranger in Legion? The Forsaken get gutted by BfA and Sylvanas is totally excised from the faction.

Invested in my Mage in Dragonflight? Dalaran BLOWS UP and the high elves are essentially dissolved lmao

I swear my RP focus is just a beacon for bad luck.

I want to say that I'm going to invest in my Gnome characters going forward to avoid having all my RP trampled upon by the main story, but I don't want to jinx it 😭

I'm just going to wait until TLT, to know if I'm clear on getting playable Tinkers or not lmao

Cannot recommend Rama enough for all your reference sheet, 3D model, and generally cool character artwork. He's SO good at it, and so communicative with getting every detail just right.

Oh hey, I know that girl!

Commissions Open! Just a couple spots left ;D

Commission Info on my pinned post!

Usually I wait until the end of season just so I can cheese it with gear, but it really doesn't even need more than Champion gear this time around

Rewards are nice at least, and the pet reward is cute too.