It was times like this Ovistine wished she had a shield like her mother's. There were so many people, and she could only toss out her Light-focused shields so often--though a great deal more often than eight years ago, that was for certain. Still, a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other--she could see the appeal in that.

Two hands landed on her shoulders, and Ovistine didn't even have time to turn around before someone yelled, "Ovi--disperse!" at her.

And the hell of it was, she knew how.

She and the priest behind her vanished into shadowsmoke, and when the axe cut through both their bodies, she barely even winced at it.

She was busy.

It wasn't a flood of memories, no sudden rush--it was as if she'd had a lock of hair in her field of vision, something that she hadn't even noticed until she'd brushed it away. And now she could see everything: her family, her friends, Valinar--Light damn it, I still don't know what we are to one another--her abilities, the way it felt to be filled up with the Light--

The dispersion wore off, and Ovistine stayed in shadows. She sent a purple line of chaos into the next man to raise a weapon to her, and he fell unconscious along with a group of people clustered around him. It was enough to get the attention of this part of the room, and when Ovistine levitated, braids twirling, they shrank back a step.

"You're done," she growled out. "You want to leave. You want to get out of here and be somewhere safe."

It was enough for the five people still left standing, anyway, and as they pushed their way out, they took others with them. Ovistine spared a glance over her shoulder, grinning back at Aldras Hale. He looked wary--and weary, for that matter--but he also looked, despite himself, impressed.

"Still think my grasp on Chaos is limited, Aldras?"

Hale smirked at her. "I'm glad I was here to remind you how to use it."

"Aye, well--" She drew herself back out of shadow, and--

--and. And she couldn't remember why she was so damned proud of herself for showing off like that; she couldn't remember why Hale, in particular, made her want to prove she could flay minds like nobody's business. She remembered what had just happened, what she'd done here--Muradin's beard, she could scare that many at once?--but not why it had meant so much to her.

Her mother was pushing the rest of the people out of the Cathedral now, though; there was a bit of motion, and Nancie wasn't one to let momentum turn against her. Ovistine shielded her again and pressed in at her mother's back, staff up in guard position. Hammer and shield, she thought, damn, that'd be grand just now.

She'd worry about her memories later.

Ovistine sighed at the loud pounding on her front door. It was a little too easy to guess who the fist belonged to, but she supposed she'd put her mother off long enough. She swung the door open just as Nancie had raised her fist again; the two dwarves blinked at each other for a few seconds.

"Mum," Ovistine said, nodding.

"Lass." Nancie stood back, dropping her hand back to her side and clearing her throat. She didn't look much different, Ovistine thought--no new wrinkles, hair still up in its customary bun to hold it out of the way, still in the same fighting condition she'd been in last Ovistine had seen her. Her armor was a little different, and she wore a red tabard with two white mugs on it, the same sort of tabard Ovistine had seen on the other members of the Boomstick Gang. Ovistine had two such tabards--one red, one black--but hadn't been comfortable putting them on again just yet.

"Were you on your way somewhere?" Ovistine asked. She nodded at Nancie's armor. "Full gear, eh?"

"On me way back frae somewhere," Nancie admitted. "Jes' came frae th' tournament grounds. Still a lot o' folks what needs t' get shite off their backs before they can help Fordring an' company at th' Citadel. Still got a need fer folks t' keep th' peace."

Ovistine blinked at her mother. "An' that's you? Keeping the peace between us and the orcs?"

"Mostly," Nancie grumbled. "But--I didnae come t' talk about me. Wondered how ye were doin'."

"Well..." Ovistine sighed. "No closer to getting my memories back." Nancie winced and nodded. "But I have a little more incentive now, so I'm working on it."

"Aye--aye, that's good. We're all--me an' yer Da an' th' elf--we're all hopin' ye can find a way t' set things right."

"I wondered if I could talk to you about that."

"Which bit?"

"The--well." Ovistine glanced back at her door; nothing inside that wouldn't keep. "Have a walk with me?"

"Aye, o' course."

Some parts of Stormwind were much as Ovistine remembered them--the Dwarven District, for one, where her future self had apparently kept her flat, and the Library, and the Cathedral itself. Other parts were different; she didn't remember so many warships and steam tanks in the harbor, and the Park was full of elves--mostly druids, she'd learned. Agness had taken Ovistine to a knitting night at a bar in the Mage Quarter that Ovistine had no memory of at all, and for all there seemed to be a bit of a break between the shadow-users Agness was a part of and the arcane-types, it was easygoing enough.

As she and Nancie approached the bridge to Cathedral Square, things seemed anything but easy. A crowd was gathering near the courthouse; Nancie tensed and slid her shield off her back, leaving her axe at her side for now.

"What's all this?" Ovistine murmured.

"Dunno." Nancie was moving toward the courthouse, and Ovistine followed. Leave it to her mum to walk into danger every time, not away. Well, damn if Ovistine wasn't keeping up; maybe eight years ago she'd been too young, but Nancie wasn't trying to hold her back this time, and with all the things she'd learned about her powers in the last few weeks, no one could say she wasn't strong enough.

Four guards stood on the courthouse steps; Ovistine glanced at Nancie to see if her mum recognized any of them. "Babes," Nancie muttered. "An' not enough o' 'em, neither..."

There were whispers through the crowd, and Ovistine caught snatches of words that meant nothing to her. Plaguefather. Trial. Uthas...

"Feck," Nancie growled. She glanced at Ovistine. "Lass--this could be bad."

"Who's Uthas? Do I know him?"

Nancie's frown deepened. "Aye. Ye've traveled with 'im once or twice."

"Did he do what they're saying?"

"I used t' ask ye that. Ye never said." Nancie growled low under her breath. "Never understood why ye went workin' wi' th' so-called Ebon Blade, neither, but ye're me daughter. I stand by ye."

"I'm standing by you now," Ovistine said. She set her shoulders and lifted her chin. "If there's trouble, you'll have the Light backing your shield."

"Always do," Nancie said with a grin, but she grimaced at Ovistine's look of determination. "There's nowt I can say t' get ye t' go back home, is there?"

"Not a thing."

"A'right. Ye keep close, then."

"Aye, Mum."

Two men came out of the courthouse, and Nancie tensed all over again. "Feck." Her hand was on her axe now, and Ovistine heard her whispering out a prayer for strength, for the Light to shield her. Ovistine frowned. If it was just the two of them, then this Uthas was likely being released, and if he was innocent, why was her mother getting charged up for battle?

The crowd was sensing it too, now, and Ovistine forced herself to focus. The calm center of her was easier to find these days, as if years of discipline and training were as much a part of her as her braids, something that even eight years of memory loss couldn't steal from her. She was glad for that now.

The pardon was read, and as soon as Nancie heard In the name of King Varian Wrynn and Stormwind, so it is judged, she nodded. Ovistine had heard a lot of things about King Wrynn lately, but so far as her mother was concerned, it was clear that Wrynn had earned even deeper fealty in these last eight years--Wrynn's name was enough to seal a matter for Nancie, no matter what it might be.

The rest of the crowd was not so readily eased.

The first rocks flew and hit nothing, but by the time they'd landed, there were others. People were shouting, pushing, throwing anything they could get their hands on. Ovistine put up shields as quickly as she could, blocking people off from one another, protecting the innocent if she was able, but there were so many, so much anger, so many curses and shouts.

There was a crash of glass, and Ovistine whipped her head around to see what had happened. She could smell it before she saw it--smoke, and if there was smoke, then--

"Mum--Mum! There's fire--"

But looking around, she was beginning to see more than just that first plume of smoke. Her eyes went wide; riots, fire--Makers, what had Stormwind turned into while she'd been gone?

The grip on her braids jerked her out of her thoughts, and she sent a burst of holy magic into whoever it might have been--but it didn't shake the grip loose. She yelled as she got hauled off her feet, out of the crowd, and when she finally managed to get free and turn around, she glared at her mother. "I was helping--"

"Aye, an' we'll help a damn sight more if we get t' higher ground--"

Another crash of glass, but this time louder; Ovistine and Nancie both looked toward the Cathedral. One of the front windows had been smashed in, and Ovistine gasped out loud. Before Nancie could stop her, she was off and running, and Nancie could do nothing but keep up.

"Lass, no--"

"They're my friends--they'll be trapped--"

"Son of a fecking trogg--"

Up the stairs, then, past the crowd, Nancie's shield shoving through people and pushing them aside. The inside of the Cathedral blazed with light, mostly of the holy variety, but there were torches here, too, torches and furious people holding them. The paladins had already gathered into clusters, protecting the priests and--God help them all, the wee ones, the altar boys and girls were being guarded, too, the mob being too mindless by now to notice if children were getting caught in this. Ovistine rushed over to a group of paladins that were beginning to look overwhelmed, and Nancie joined her.

The lead paladin--someone Ovistine didn't recognize, damn it--swung her shield around, facing Nancie. "You," she snarled. "Come to help the rioters?"

"Ye want t' yell at me or ye want t' help people?" Nancie shot back.

"Still wearing red, Lighthammer? The more things change--"

"Shut yer feckin' trap and--"

The rock came in too high for Ovistine to see where it'd come from, and the lead paladin hadn't managed to get her helm on yet; the rock took her in the side of the head, and she went down. The torches were coming closer and closer, and Ovistine froze for just a moment as she realized just how many fecking banners and carpets and things you could bloody set on fire there were here--

She got a hand on Nancie's shoulder and squeezed, in spite of the fact that Nancie couldn't feel it through the plate. Her quick prayer for strength and fortitude was a little easier to notice, and Nancie drew herself up, shield at the ready.

"For me love an' me lass," Nancie muttered--Ovistine had never heard her mother's battle prayers before, but she knew what she was hearing all the same, "may th' Makers watch o'er me an' th' Light guide me."

For my parents, for my friends, the ones I know and the ones I don't, Ovistine thought, gathering all her power together and holding it close, holding it at the ready, and for the elf I'll go to when this is all over.

She pushed the first pulses of Light into her mother and prayed.

Romance seems to be the driving plot behind a lot of characters -- or if not the driving one, certainly one that lasts through other major plot elements. I think it might actually be more unusual for characters in my circle to be single than attached.

Which makes me wonder, and inspired a set of five questions to be posed to any characters interested in answering them:

1. If you're attached, how did it happen? (If not, are you interested in dating?)
2. Have you been "lucky in love" in the past?
3. What's the number-one thing you need from a potential mate?
4. Is there friction in your relationship? Big, small, none at all?  (If you're not in a relationship, how much friction would you like?)
5. Do your friends and family like the person you're dating?  (If you're not dating anyone, how important is your friends' and family's approval?)

Of my four "major" characters -- Ovistine, Teuthida, Nancie, and Agness -- two are in relationships and two are, um, uh, HEY LOOK A MURLOC KILL IT KILL IT!

Ovistine

1. If you're attached, how did it happen? (If not, are you interested in dating?)
   I'm, uh... I mean, I wouldn't... well, if someone asked me out for a drink, see, I'd... I mean, only if it were a drink an' that's it. Right? It's not that I'm not interested, I just... I wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. By which I mean someone twice my height, with pink skin an' purple hair, who carries fromping big axes. Not that I know if he'd be upset, but best not to chance it, aye? (Cf. fromping big axes.)
    
2. Have you been "lucky in love" in the past?
   I've not ever brought a lad home for the holidays, so I think that answers that. Um, unless you count last Pilgrim's Bounty. But that would be the first, so!
    
3. What's the number-one thing you need from a potential mate?
   A nice, bushy beard, preferably with braids in it. Oh, um, or someone patient an' kind an' thoughtful. With nice ears.
    
4. Is there friction in your relationship? Big, small, none at all? (If you're not in a relationship, how much friction would you like?)
   *grumbling* Not the kind I'd like. *pause* Assuming that's even... I mean, how would you... *blushes deep fuschia* Let's just say "no" an' leave it there.
    
5. Do your friends and family like the person you're dating? (If you're not dating anyone, how important is your friends' and family's approval?)
   Well, it's important, aye! An' everyone likes Valinar. I mean, theoretically, if... they seem to like... what research facility is this survey with, again?

Teuthida

1. If you're attached, how did it happen? (If not, are you interested in dating?)
   Valyrie has been my closest friend since we were tiny! Since before our horns grew in! How did we... "hook up"? Um... I am having a fishing pole, yes? And Valyrie sometimes gives me shiny baubles for the fishes... and for me...
    
2. Has your character been "lucky in love" in the past?
   Oh, I am very lucky all the time!
    
3. What's the number-one thing you need from a potential mate?
   Well. Good bonking skills, and perhaps willingness to head-butt me if I am pouting? Or, no, no, wait! A sense of ADVENTURE! Yes yes! Also willingness to eat pies for three weeks if I am beset with an urge to bake.
    
4. Is there friction in your relationship? Big, small, none at all? (If you're not in a relationship, how much friction would you like?)
   Friction? This is... oh, fightings! Well, so long as they do not hurt themselves by head-butting giant fire elementals. ...too often. I suppose it is friction when I am head-butted for pouting, yes? That is fine too.
    
5. Do your friends and family like the person you're dating? (If you're not dating anyone, how important is your friends' and family's approval?)
   Oh, it would be very important for Valyrie to like anyone else who came to live with us! It would really not work even a little if only I were fond of them, or only Valyrie.
    

Agness

1. If you're attached, how did it happen? (If not, are you interested in dating?)
   Well, Vaelen asked a friend of his to ask me if I would go walking along the canals with him if he asked, and of course I said yes. Then we went steady, got pinned, got engaged, he gave me a pretty ring, and then there was that thing that happened over Winter Veil two years ago and we got married very, very quickly. He was kind of insistent. I just thought the Red Winter Clothes were cute...
    
2. Have you been "lucky in love" in the past?
   Vaelen is all the past there is, so I feel very, very lucky!
    
3. What's the number-one thing you need from a potential mate?
   Hmm... I can't decide between niceness, righteousness, or a desire to smite Scourge.
    
4. Is there friction in your relationship? Big, small, none at all? (If you're not in a relationship, how much friction would you like?)
    Um, well--hey! Bizpit! Felwool is not for eating!--I might have to cut this a little short. Anything else?
    
5. Do your friends and family like the person you're dating? (If you're not dating anyone, how important is your friends' and family's approval?)
   Unfortunately, both my parents were killed in the Third War, so I don't really have much family left. But Trisia likes him, and my friends like him.
    

Nancie

1. If you're attached, how did it happen? (If not, are you interested in dating?)
   Once upon a time, there was a gryphon rider who was verra earnest, but didnae fly so good. But it turned out he had a knack fer tinkerin', an so one day at th' Forge, he an' a young lass turned soldier noticed each other o'er a fiery blaze. Wasnae nearly th' hottest thing goin' on tha' day, if ye ken me meaning! *chuckle*
    
2. Have you been "lucky in love" in the past?
   A lady ne'er kisses an' tells. I suppose a few lads may 'ave carried a bit o' a torch fer me now an' again...
    
3. What's the number-one thing you need from a potential mate?
   'E jes' needs t' stand by me, an' Geoffar's done tha' fer many years now.
    
4. Is there friction in your relationship? Big, small, none at all? (If you're not in a relationship, how much friction would you like?)
   Pffft! Ain't a marriage a'tall if there's no' a row now an' then. Anyway, nowt serious ever came o' it. He loves me an' I love 'im an' thass that.
    
5. Do your friends and family like the person you're dating? (If you're not dating anyone, how important is your friends' and family's approval?)
   Mum an' Da were a bit surprised I fell fer a Wildhammer, but th' lad's perfectly keen on Ironforge as well, though we've moved about a bit. Obviously th' bit loves 'er da greatly. An' ol' Brandur kin keep 'is advice to hisself, thanks. Jes' 'cause I've 'ad months where I didnae get th' kind o' home-leave I'da liked... anyway, aye, everyone loves Geoffar.
    

So at the moment I feel like I've got two choices:

* Retcon, retcon, retcon: Write out the Wrathgate story as I've always wanted to have it happen, and accept the fact that it fails several continuity checks. Rework anything I've written that contradicts it, and start RPing the Lighthammers as they'd be after the Wrathgate right now.

* Move the timeline: Wrathgate has happened, the Lighthammers made it through okay, and shift the Lighthammer events from Wrathgate to the opening of Icecrown Citadel.

Much as I loved the idea of setting it at Wrathgate, I think the continuity problems are going to bother me too much to do it there and then, and I think the major events of the Lighthammer storyline can be picked up and moved. Which means I should probably go ahead and let them both get their Wrathgate achievement, and this time around, stop dragging my heels.

Recapping the quest text for Pilgrim's Bounty:

Won't you celebrate Pilgrim's Bounty with us, <name>? It's a time for reflecting on your journeys and your good fortune, sharing plentiful food and stories with friends.

Teuthida is grateful to have such strong and generous and wonderful friends -- with particular /hugs and /squees to Alishe, Alonora, Prydion, Israia, and of course Valyrie, who is a bit puzzled at the many, many pies Teu has been baking, but not so puzzled she won't eat them! The one thing that's giving Teu pause these days is that she's been feeling like her "job" -- and adventuring really has become a job for her -- keeps her away from Valyrie and Shattrath a lot more than she'd like. She misses spending time at home, at the orphanage, and she especially misses getting to sing and read to the tiny baby draenei. You may be hearing a loud ticking sound these days if you're standing too close to Teu, and it ain't a gyrochromaton.

Nancie finally got in touch with Ovistine and demanded requested Ovistine join her, Geoffar, Brandur, and the Ironhammer parents in Ironforge for Pilgrim's Bounty. Nancie is grateful that her family is still in one piece -- her father, a retired mountaineer, still spends a lot of time fishing at Loch Modan, and her mother's still working at the forge, turning out battle hammers, blades, and making the occasional pair of mithril spurs. Her brother has a good job training paladins at the Mystic Ward. Ovistine is, more or less, safe. Nancie and Geoffar have a hard, struggling job out at Wintergarde, but they're managing. (And this is where I apologize for being slightly out of phase -- ha! -- with most people, because Wrathgate still hasn't happened for the Lighthammers. Sigh.)

Ovistine has returned from Darnassus, and this year she's incredibly grateful that, despite all the trials and tribulations the Boomsticks have been going through, they've got Homrend back and things look safer now than they have for a while. She's trying to focus on that, and not the way it feels to be cut off from the Light, because that's something she just can't deal with right now. She is also grateful for a certain elf, whom she's planning to invite to Pilgrim's Bounty with the Ironhammers. ("An' may the Light have mercy on his ears.")

Agness is grateful for her wonderful husband, her warm, comfy house in Northshire ("Kobold-Free For 13 days!"), her yarn stash, her new friends at the Shadoweave Knitting Circle, and the fact that Bizpit seems to have been too preoccupied with sulking lately to show up very often or chew on much of her yarn. She's not sure where little demons go for Pilgrim's Bounty, but hopefully he'll stay out of trouble.

When Vaelen poked his head into Agness's crafting room, there was a squeak and a faint puff of smoke. He waved a hand in front of his face; brimstone. Drat. He really ought to consecrate the whole house again. "Agness?"

"Yes, yes, what is it?" Agness hopped to her feet, a few balls of yarn tumbling to the floor as she stood. She drew him out of the room and closed the door behind them. "Is something wrong?"

"Is that imp bothering you again?"

"Er--no," Agness said, eyes darting back to her crafting room's door. "What is it, sweetheart?"

"Oh! Yes. Nancie Lighthammer is on the buzzbox."

"Nancie? Really?" Agness blinked. "It's been a while since I heard from her. Or Ovi..." She stretched up on tiptoe to give Vaelen a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks."

Vaelen beamed at her, and as she disappeared down the stairs, he frowned at the crafting room door one more time. A nice, strong, righteous consecration; maybe that'd get rid of the imp infestation once and for all.

Downstairs, Agness picked up the buzzbox receiver and held the transmitter to her lips. "Yes, this is Agness. Nancie?"

"'Ey, lass. How's things?"

"Not too bad." Oi. If there was another paladin Agness really didn't want to talk to about her recent... troubles... it was Nancie Lighthammer. Nancie was a fine teacher, but not exactly the most understanding Light-user in the history of the Cathedral. "What's going on?"

"Well, I were wonderin' if ye'd heard frae th' wee one. Th' elf says she didnae come home a few nights ago, an'--"

"The what?" Agness coughed loudly. "The--are we talking about Valinar? He said what?"

"Ach, no' like tha'! Ol' Longears jes' went over t' her flat in th' Dwarven District, aye? T' check if she were doing a'right. She--" Nancie paused, and Agness heard a distinct harrumph in the background. "Anyway, heard she's 'ad a rough go o' it th' last week or so. Wanted t' know if ye'd heard anywhat."

"I haven't, no," Agness said, cradling her face in her palm. "But... I've been busy myself, lately, to be honest. I can go check on her..."

"Aye, I'd appreciate it," Nancie said firmly. "Ye tell 'er her da an' I are thinkin' o' her, an' we'll hope t' see 'er fer Pilgrim's Bounty."

"Of course, ma'am."

The buzzbox clicked off, and Agness put the receiver away. From upstairs, there was a thud, and then a horrible screeching sound, and Agness winced as some dust shook free from the ceiling. He's consecrating again, Agness though. Bizpit is really going to hate that.

Teuthida (L80, raiding main): 62 days, 20 at L80.
Ovistine (L75, RP main, main up until late in BC): 67 days
Nancie (L80, current favorite for soloing): 19 days, 1 day at L80.

(A small note: I was deeply relieved to see that Ovistine's /played still outnumbers Teu's. I can still hang onto the idea that Ovi is my main if her /played total is higher, right? Right?)

This doesn't take into account my original main, my other half-dozen alts, or any other characters I've played up to 20-ish and deleted. All told, that's more than 3552 hours, and a little under half a year spent doing nothing but playing World of Warcraft since December 26, 2004. And if anything, I'm more interested in playing than ever -- lately I've been really interested in crafting, getting some of my alts up to 450 in their respective professions and mining a ton of Saronite for Valinar's blacksmith, Vaelen. I have also been doing some crazy things, mostly involving RP gear ("Today's project: soloing the Slave Pens for a drop off Quagmirran."). Nancie's treks into Scholo and Strat are over for now (exalted with the Dawn!), so it looks like I'm back to leveling and dailies.

Having something a little different to do can really energize me, and I think that's important to keeping the game fresh for me. I don't mind the bank space I'm using for Nancie's RP gear, or the time I spent in Scholo and Strat trying to grind rep (omgwow SO MUCH RUNECLOTH). I am not quite prepared to go hunting Alliance rep with her, but I know when I'm bored of leveling and dailies again, I have other goals. Ovistine needs to go tromping across the world so I can pick up her Explorer achievements. Nancie will probably want to pick up the rest of her Lightforge set and finish converting it into Soulforge. Someday Agness will finish leveling up her Inscription. Having become a heck of a lot more interested in the Scarlet Crusade and the Argent Dawn of late, I want to go replay those starting DK levels (and I have just the DK character in mind with which to do it).

I should really make a list.

Teuthida: Unchanged, IC and OOC.

Agness: IC, still struggling with what to say about her shadow powers, and still avoiding thinking about the fact that she isn't as strong in the holy arts as she used to be. OOC, 76 and momentarily on hold as the Boomstick RP picks up.

Nancie: IC, still in flux as I work on the Wrathgate story. OOC, dinged 80, has an epic flappy, maxed out her mining and jewelcrafting, working on her Argent Dawn/Crusade rep (well over halfway through revered with both), and is collecting RP gear like crazy. She's got a set of "Wrynnforge" (it's Lightforge recolored in blue and gold), and I've got an eye out for a set of Moutaineer's Garb (you have to assemble it in pieces, mostly from AH drops), as well as giving a look around for the kind of armor she wears in her nightmares. Working on it! I really like the idea of being able to have visuals for the Nancie biography. (Yes, I'm working on that. No, I'm not on schedule. No, I don't care.)

Ovistine: IC and OOC: SHE'S BACK! \o/ The main of my heart has returned (and made me wish I'd registered twirlybraids.com instead, or in addition). IC, Ovistine has gotten her arse out of the library and taken on a role in the search for her good friend Homrend, recently killed by a mysterious group of Dark Irons and unable to resurrect because his spirit's been trapped by Hakkar (who always did bear a grudge). She knows there's a bargain that's going to have to be made to save him, and she knows what she's going to have to give up, but it's not going to stop her.

OOC, Ovistine is out of her rut, having pushed past 73 as well as getting one of those nice Cold Weather Flying Tomes. She's now 75 and I'm able to be very choosy with her quests, avoiding awful things with pitiful drop rates in favor of quests that are of more interest, both to me and to her.

I had actually been pondering the things brought up by this post on WTT:RP: what quests would Ovi do for real, and which am I doing because she's 75 and Disc/Holy and boy howdy I do not want to have to kill 93 bears for their asses, I'd rather just take a necklace to the dudes on the hill?

Ovistine is actually the first character in a while who's had an opinion about quests, and I think that's got a lot to do with how she got where she is. The short version: because Teu was my raiding main, she got pushed to 80 first, and that left Ovi constantly having to explain her absences. Eventually, I decided she'd taken up a research position at the Cathedral of Light and has been working on the Scourge problem as well as looking into these Ebon Blade death knights Varian Wrynn seems so determined to support. That left me with a much more thoughtful, much more curious dwarf than I'd started with -- so thoughtful and curious that she's beginning to think more seriously about archaeology and where the dwarves came from. The Explorers' League holds a lot more appeal for her now than it ever used to, and she's been distracted from her main goal (find Homrend. find him now) a couple of times by information about the Titans and an old battered journal of Brann Bronzebeard's that she found in Thor Modan. Where Nancie spent the last couple of levels in Icecrown fighting Scourge, Ovistine is likely to level up in Storm Peaks looking for evidence of the Titans.

(And at some point I really need to start writing and posting Wrathgate, and begging my RP crew's forgiveness for what will probably be an abrupt "WTF" moment for Ovistine; the main reason I'm not doing it right now is because the Search for Homrend/Dark Iron Chaos storyline is moving so fast that I'd really rather not put something else into the mix. Also I'm procrastinating. Again. >_>)

• Dwarf paladins. Okay, I understand that Uther was The First Paladin, and that in spite of the fact that, say, draenei clearly had paladins (Vindicators) long before they ran into the Alliance, it's generally accepted that dwarves did not.  Fine.  I'm working with that (and it's got some neat twists that will add to my story in the long run) -- but it's annoying that canon kind of shoehorns people into either having characters who were "battle clerics"/"battle medics"/"something that looks like a paladin and quacks like a paladin, but is not, in fact, a paladin" -- or having them forced into being relatively young characters.
   
• Dwarves and the Light in general. Canon differs on the Light and its relationship to paladins.  The RPG sourcebooks all treat WoW paladins as classic D&D paladins, who lose their powers if they do bad things.  This is more or less backed up by Of Blood and Honor, although it's made clear that the Light can be giveth, and the Light can be taketh away -- sort of, unless emergencies arise.  Frankly, dwarves in general are less "follow the Light blindly even though you can't see it, touch it, smell it, or swing a pickaxe at it", and I'm not at all sure how a dwarf paladin is going to react when she recognizes she's done something immoral.  (Well, I know how mine is going to react...)  Dwarves and religion are sort of hard to pin together at all, although I've seen some lovely things from dwarf RPers who touch on the connection to the Makers and Order for Holy powers/connection to Chaos for Shadow powers.  For younger dwarves, of course, this gets easier: a dwarf raised around humans is perfectly well likely to have some influence from her peers...
   
• Magni Bronzebeard and the War of the Three Hammers.  We have an approximate date for the War itself, but how long has Magni been king?  How old is Magni?  Dwarf lore, why are you so difficult to pin down?  (Actually, I suspect it really isn't dwarf lore in particular that's hard to pin down, it's just what I'm looking at right now.)  While I'm at it, I can't tell precisely how long the Explorer's League/Guild has been going, and what the hell happened to the rest of Muradin's expedition after Arthas grabbed Frostmourne?  Did they all end up with Baelgun, and did Arthas kill all of them?
   
• Dwarf ages.  I've seen some suggestions that dwarves reach adulthood at 40 and are more long-lived than humans.  Okay, I can't deal with the idea of an infancy that lasts four years at all (let alone the thousands of years it could conceivably last for elves), so I'm going with the ElfQuest school of thought here: they age to young adulthood rapidly and just stay there for a really, really long time.  I am more or less scuttling the "adulthood at 40" concept.  (Maybe that's when they start being able to vote.)
   
• Dwarves and written language. I took one look at this page on WoWWiki and more or less thought "Oh, screw that."  Look, I can put up with the idea that the humans introduced the dwarves to the Light -- maybe (although since it really does seem like different races have different relationships to the Light that lead to similar skills and abilities, I don't see why the dwarves can't just have had those different relationships from the beginning).  I can put up with the idea that, before there were humans and before there was the Alliance, there were no dwarf paladins.
   
  But the idea that the dwarves had no written language before the humans came around can bite me right in my dwarf-shaped rear end.  Excuse me, humans, but you do not get credit for everything in the damn world.  Let me guess: the dwarves didn't have fire before they met the humans, either.  Or wheels.  What's next, we find out humans introduced the dwarves to boomsticks?  And beer.  Humans definitely introduced the dwarves to beer.
   

  Obviously, everyone has their pet class/race/etc., and humans and orcs were certainly the focus of the Warcraft world for many, many years.  It makes sense that their history is richer and deeper than everyone else's.  But why make a race as unflaggingly cool as the dwarves and then say "Oh, hey, everything the dwarves did?  It's really just because humans did it for them."  And written language?  Come on.  How do you have a race as advanced as the various types of dwarves and still say they've got no written language?
   

When it comes to canon-compliancy, I really enjoy the mental exercise of figuring out how my character could have fit into times and places without breaking obvious canon.  On the other hand, Warcraft spans so many things -- the first three games, the novels, the comic books, the RPG books.  I'm sure the tabletop game adds things, and I shudder to think how much I'm missing by not playing the collectible card game (to say nothing of rocket chickens.  God, I want a rocket chicken).  But how much is definitive canon and how much is only sort of canon?  Is it like the Star Wars movies, where only what shows up on screen is really canon and the rest, while pretty neat, isn't confining on Lucas's need to make movies in the future?  Is it like Star Trek, where the show and movies are canon, and sometimes what happens in the books can influence and later affect canon -- but only sometimes?

I dunno.  I've seen people who go both ways on this.  I've seen people who think if you don't stick to every piece of canon, including in the RPG sourcebooks, you're basically playing a vampire catgirl in Goldshire.  I've also seen people who don't feel constrained by the limitations the game puts on them (not every draenei RP backstory puts the draenei in question on board the Exodar when it crashed).  There's also the fact that canon doesn't always comply with itself -- there are plenty of resources that say the Scarlet Crusade is a bunch of racist pricks who wouldn't piss on a non-human if they were on fire and they sure won't let 'em into their secret club (hint: We Like Red), but if that's the case, why do they have statues built to great Scarlet Crusade non-human heroes?  And how old is Anduinn Wrynn now?

I wish there were easier answers for all of this!  I would love a complete, detailed timeline marking down the birth and death of every major and minor character, plus when various things were built, when wars happened, and so on.  We'll probably never get that, because honestly, it's not easy for Blizzard to keep up with their own history.  Which probably says something about how hard it is for the rest of us.  It irks me to think I'm probably going to have to tack a note onto stories that says "By the way, I went with this canon, and not this canon, and also, dwarves are not in diapers for four years."  But I probably will.

Not so clear-cut these days! With new alts being rolled all the time, events that are brand-new to one character are things I did four or five years ago with one of mine. How do you deal with a character who's just found out that the Scarlet Crusade is being run by demons? "Oh, I've known that for years." "...*splutter* You could have told me before I went in there." Or is the news new to you again every time you hear it?

The more interesting question I'm thinking about right now is whether it's feasible to juggle a timeline somewhat -- could a character of mine level up to 60, 70, even 80, without ever tackling some of the quests that should come up at 30, 40, 50? In RP/IC, could I get a character out to the Argent Tournament before she finishes the Wrathgate storyline?

Even WoW itself does some bending, folding, spindling, and mutilating to give people the opportunity to do the same quests without necessarily being at the same point in the story. Take Drakuru -- if you've done his Grizzly Hills/Drak'Tharon Keep quests, you get one quest when you see him in Zul'Drak. If you haven't, you get a different one. Either way, though, you have the same goals, and people questing together can definitely work together on them.

As NaNo approaches and I hammer down some of the details in Nancie's life, I find myself pondering what order she might have taken things in. There are some quests she probably would have avoided at all costs when she was supposed to do them, but that would make perfect sense for her character now. But it's a pretty twisty timeline, the likes of which might get me a visit from the Office of Temporal Affairs, and I'm hesitant to go for it if it seems too jarring. The fact that my character could have skipped past things, that they'd make sense for her now in a way they wouldn't have then, doesn't necessarily mean it makes good game-and-RP sense to put the timeline in a weird and unexpected order.