Lore Watch Podcast

Joe, Matt, and Eric sat down this week to discuss the dragons of World of Warcraft, starting with their origins as proto-dragons, and all the way up through more modern politics. With many thanks for the great questions, we start off with proto-dragons: why do they call themselves that? Seems like they might call themselves "dragons" and come up with something new for those long-armed fellows. But then, this leads into the next question, because the past of the proto-dragons was described largely with Malygos as the narrator. This was written by Richard Knaak, so there's a lengthy bit of discussion on his turn at the writer's desk. But then, Alexstrasza winds up being the leader of the Dragonflights. So, what happened there?

Then, speaking of diplomacy and jockeying for power, how are Lordaeron and Gilneas doing now? Calia is on the new Forsaken council, and Genn has sort of retired and let Tess lead the way, so how are the relations there going to shake out as we move forward into the future?

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
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This week Joe and Eric were joined by Liz, and it was a great opportunity to begin discussing the abundance of Loa we've had in Midnight so far. Our cohosts discussed some of the ins and outs of becoming a Loa, and talked about what they thought they might be the Loa of one day, since none of them were nepo babied into the situation. After that they moved into Harandar and its relationship to the Emerald Dream, and how that figures in to the Rift of Aln and the World Soul.

Then, they wrapped up with a discussion on revamped zones, and which ones we'd like to see in the future. While Northrend is in the offing, our hosts have some ideas on other zones they'd like to see updated. Personally, I'm rooting for the Exodar.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We love answering your questions, especially when it lets us don our tinfoil hat. Our first question this week was relatively straightforward: If you were to run a WoW TTRPG for a Horde campaign and an Alliance campaign, what would it be? With three hosts, there were six varied answers. We move from there to conflict among the Titans, and why some all-powerful beings might clash. Speaking of all-powerful, then we talk about the counterplay of the Light and the Void -- and the Naaru. Part of it is how the two forces interact, based on some of the earlier vignettes from the first few expansions of WoW. And how do all those forces relate to another magic force we've seen coursing inherently through all creatures through a few different expansions: Anima?

It is a tin foil hat good time on this week's Lore Watch.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week our usual crew of Joe, Matt, and Eric was joined by Liz to discuss William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. This 1984 novel was foundational to the cyberpunk genre in many ways, from establishing the grittiness of the setting all the way down to shaping the way this genre looks and feels across different types of media. The crew discuss themes through Neuromancer which are also inherent through a lot of cyberpunk media now, like the idea of what makes a person, and whether an AI could ever have personhood. They also discuss how older tech can affect our modern reading of futuristic media -- if you've never seen a payphone, you probably have no idea how eerie a bank of them ringing all at once would be, but then Gibson would have no way of knowing where payphone tech ended up today.

It's a great conversation on a foundational work of sci-fi, and if you haven't picked it up, Joe has some suggestions as to where to get it online while still benefitting your local book store.
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We thank our listeners and patrons for giving us another round of great questions, which we summarily answered and used as a diving board directly into the deep end of tin foil hat theories and speculation. First, who was the elf Xal'atath is currently using for a body? While we do have a pithy answer to this identity courtesy of a particular quest line, there's also a broader lore implication in terms of who this poor erstwhile High Elf once was. Another listener wanted to know what kind of humanoid form Azeroth will have, and specifically suggests it may be a Troll. Trolls were one of the progenitor races of Azeroth, so is it possible they were formed in her likeness? This leads us into a discussion of the races of Azeroth and how they may have evolved over the centuries -- and who may have been pressing a thumb on that evolutionary scale.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).
If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.