Rheastrasza and Sacrifice

Content Note: This post discusses imprisonment, forced impregnation, and forced experimentation. 

This past weekend I had the honor and privilege of being a guest on Apple Cider Mage and Tzufit's podcast Justice Points, a show that takes a look at social justice and feminist issues inside World of Warcraft.  Our episode tackled the subject of mothers and motherhood in Azeroth with topics ranging from how motherhood is portrayed to the conspicuous absence of mothers in game and lore in general.  I had an absolute blast and am rather pleased with how the episode turned out, but there was one character I wanted to touch on who we simply didn't have time to cover.  However, instead of looking at her in terms of motherhood and mothers in Azeroth, this post will center around questions of ethics, consent, and what is meant by sacrifice.

Rhea

While questing through Badlands in either faction, you come across a Cataclysm era quest arc involving a goblin named Rhea.  At first she seems like any other goblin: passionate about her research and eager to uncover the secrets of the black dragonflight's procreation and source of their old god corruption.  She asks for the player's help in the task of stealing wild black dragon eggs and whelpling corpses.  In the larger picture of in-game quests, her request is par for the course.  Go kill stuff and bring back its body part/corpse/poo, or go here and steal some object from the enemy.  However, if we look at the quest on its own merits, it quickly turns macabre in that you're stealing what are essentially infants and killing toddlers to collect their bodies for a third party to experiment on.  Then, once you turn in the corpses Rhea hints at the fact she is no ordinary goblin, but doesn't yet reveal her true identity.  She removes the magical veil concealing the presence of Nyondra, a black dragon mother and we enter a whole new level of horror.

Nyxondra is being held against her will. She is hidden from her brood, right in the middle of their breeding grounds. She lays eggs, but they will be taken away before she can see them hatch.

Cruel? Perhaps... but not nearly as cruel as the treatment that their dragonflight showed my mistress.

Show me that I can trust you, <name>. Take Nyxondra's eggs, and bring them here. You will need to beat Nyxondra into submission before you can take them.

Rhea's mistress is, you will later learn, Alexstrasza the head of the red dragonflight and (now former) Aspect of Life on Azeroth.   That Alexstrasza would order another dragon held captive against her will and allow her eggs to be stolen, experimented upon, and ultimately destroyed in the process is particularly disturbing considering Alexstrasza's own history of forced captivity and breeding during the Second War.  In case it's not enough that you're asked to be complicit in the imprisonment and experimentation of Nyondra, Rhea specifically tells you that in order to earn her trust you must beat Nyxondra into submission and steal her eggs.  The reason for this cruelty and horror is revealed after you hand over the three eggs you literally beat Nyxondra into giving you when Rhea turns into the red dragon Rheastrasza and finally explains the purpose of her experiments.

Rhea says: Deathwing's madness overcomes him, and we, the red dragonflight, must take this opportunity to steal his black dragons from beneath him. We will remake the black dragons as they are intended to be: the warders of the earth.

If you're not familiar with the lore, once upon a time Deathwing was Neltharion the Earth-Warder, Aspect of the black dragonflight.  Many thousands of years ago, Nelthraion was driven mad by an old god and turned against the other dragonflights during the War of the Ancients.  Neltharion became Deathwing and was eventually imprisoned within Azeroth, but not before his madness spread to the other members of the black dragonflight.   After his escape caused the Cataclysm, it appears Alexstrasza asked Rheastrasza to find a means of cleansing the black dragonflight of their corruption by any means necessary.

Alexstrasza's and, by extension, Rheastrasza's motivations are clearly good.  They wish to purify the black dragonflight and restore the order to the dragonflights taken away by an old god's corruption.  After all, even before Deathwing nearly destroyed Azeroth and upset the balance of the elements, other black dragons like his daughter Onyxia had proven dangerous to the world.  There was no guarantee that even with Deathwing's death that the black dragonflight would cease to pose a threat.  However, the question of the ends justifying the means and whether or not sinking to the same tactics of your enemy makes you any better must be asked.  Furthermore, how do we trust this isn't partly revenge or that Alexstrasza wouldn't go so far again under less dire circumstances?  Given that we must bloody our hands to even be entrusted with this knowledge, what other horrors might the red dragonflight--the ones we're told are the good guys--be involved in that we don't know about?  Finally, whose to say that even free from madness the black dragonflight themselves will view this cruelty as necessary and not a betrayal?

With the aid of Titan technology, you manage to clear away old god corruption from one of Nyxondra's eggs.  More questing that requires the deaths of other black dragons follow under the guise of protecting the eggs Rheastrasza has stolen until finally she asks you to kill Nyxondra.

My greatest regret is the treatment that we - no, I - gave to Nyxondra. I forced her to lay eggs, then I performed experiments on them. Over, and over, and over again.

Even as a mother myself, I can only imagine her sorrow.

No... I mustn't be weak. Our work is, after all, for the benefit of future generations of black dragons. Her sacrifice was necessary.

She circles the Ruins of Kargath, northwest of New Kargath, insane with fury. Please, heroes... put her out of her misery.

The line "Her sacrifice was necessary," is curious.  It is, of course, open to interpretation, but to say someone has made a sacrifice implies a choice was made on the part of the one doing the sacrifice.  Nyxondra, as was already established, was imprisoned and experimented upon against her will.  She never consented to have her body used and her children and killed "over, and over, and over again."  Nyxondra's "sacrifice" was chosen for her by Rheastrasza (and also Alexstrasza), and already supposedly insane due to old god corruption, Rheastrasza's experiments have driven her further into insanity and requires she be euthanized like a sick animal.  Given that Nyxondra doesn't simply lie down and accept her fate, we can surmise she doesn't wish to die and the decision to end her life comes from Rheastrasza.

As I said it's open to interpretation and it could be argued that Rheastrasza meant Nyxondra herself was the sacrifice made for the greater good of the black dragonflight (and Azeroth as a whole).  Either way Nyxondra is still a victim stripped of her consent and bodily autonomy, much like Alexstrasza was in the Second War.  We don't know how many children Nyxondra lost only that, like Alexstrasza, it was many.

So, if Nyxondra didn't make necessary sacrifices, who did?

In the end, it's Rheastrasza who makes conscious sacrifices fully informed of the consequences.  First, her ethics and moral high ground are sacrificed when she imprisons a dragon against her will and then kills many, many children in the name of ultimately curing an entire flight.  Lastly, she sacrifices her life and one of her own eggs to protect Nyxondra's purified egg (which unbeknownst to the player and to Deathwing has been moved to a safer location outside of the Badlands).

It's not clear whether or not Rheastrasza knew she would die.  She certainly knew it was a possibility and the letter she leaves for the player makes it clear she accepted this risk unlike her captive.  Yet, I'm left to wonder if she accepted death not out of a noble sacrifice, but because she felt it might make erase the evil of her actions.  Also, with her death dies the knowledge this cruel experiment existed apart from Alexstrasza and that of the players and the gnome scientist Dr. Hieronymus Blam.  If I were to propose a more sinister theory, perhaps Alexstrasza wanted her to die to help keep the experiments a secret.  We don't know if it was common knowledge among the red dragonflight or other dragonflights.  Certainly all of them would agree ridding the black dragons of their madness is a worthy goal, but I can't imagine Ysera or Kalecgos going along with Nyxondra's torture and then death.  The player, of course, knows as does Dr. Hieronymus Blam, but by forcing us to bloody our hands so severely before explaining the plan to us might have been a bid to buy our silence as well.  If we're to believe ourselves heroes at the end of the day, we'll ultimately have to believe every terrible act we do in the midst of war/potential apocalypse was for the best.

Was it worth it?

Rheastrasza isn't around to know whether or not her and Alexstrasza's plan worked.  The egg Rheastrasza cleansed is Wraithion's and right now the jury is out as to whether or not he's all that different from his father.  The end of the legendary cloak quest certainly makes me think otherwise and leaves the question of just how much of Deathwing's evil was the madness of old gods and how much was his own personality.  Then again, given that Wraithion "escapes" from the red dragonflight to forge his own path, we have to wonder if he knows the truth of his birth and what became of his mother.  If so, he might well be out for revenge and this has in turn motivated him to, like his late half-sister Onyxia, try to influence Azerothian politics in his favor.

Or maybe, like Rheastrasza, he sees a larger picture and feels his manipulation and lies are for the greater good and will ultimately save Azeroth from itself when the next great evil is visited upon us.  How far he'll go to achieve his goals isn't clear, but with Rheastrasza and Alexstrasza defining what sacrifices are necessary and setting the tone, there is the potential for greater evil and horror in our futures.

Continuing the Conversation About Lack of Women in WoW

Note: This post and the previous post are meant to coincide with conversations I'm having on Twitter and more of a means for me to try to vent my frustrations and organize my thoughts in ways I can't with a 140-character limit. Other content will be forthcoming as I get used to blogging again.

Look, I know there'll be women in Warlords of Draenor because we know neither draenei or orcs of old were single gender societies.  I know we'll likely see some of their stories, but what I can't overlook is that in the first bits of promotional information delivered to me via the livestream and the website, the information that's supposed to get me pumped and eager to play the new expansion, is made up of men.  First impressions are important and as first impressions go, this one left me concerned rather than excited.

Here's what I saw when I went to the website for Warlords of Draenor (as of November 20, 2013):

Still not sure they aren't going to be a boyband.

And then as I scroll down to read about the legendary characters I'll get to play alongside, this is what I'm shown:

The great Sleeve Shortage of Draenor was a real problem.

Do you see a trend here?  If you check out the new character models, the only options are limited to male previews so far, though there is some concept art of the female models available.  As I've pointed out, I knew even at seven years old that seeing myself in a game was important to me for reasons I didn't always know or understand, and it's disheartening to see a game in which I can play any gender without penalty and still see the story be mostly about men.

There is a woman featured as part of the artwork on the website, one we've been told by Dave Kosak on Twitter is a draenei named Yrel (pronounced "Yee-rell").  From what little is available about her so far, I do actually have good hopes for her story, both as a woman and as a fan of draenei lore (shhh, don't tell my blood elf characters).  Well, aside from comparing her to Joan of Arc because, uh, we know how well that story turned out for the real Joan of Arc and I don't think the end of Joan's life is the imagery they meant to invoke.

When companies create ad campaigns--and make no mistake, this whole website, the trailer, and all the information at Blizzcon is an ad campaign meant to inform us and encourage us to hand over our monies--they do so with an audience in mind.  In this case, it's very clear the audience Blizzard is aiming for doesn't include me as I'm not a man who does manly things.  This might not be such a big deal if we were talking about a product specifically designed for men, or if WoW's player base was exclusively male or the overwhelming majority was male.  It's not, and in fact nearly half of all gamers are women, to say nothing of the multitude of women players I know and interact with whenever I log into the game.

I can't help but see the website, read the information, and think maybe Blizzard is a little out of touch with their player base.  If their desire is to energize the whole player base and not just a portion, wouldn't it behoove them to include more women?  And when it comes to the sorts of women I want to see, I don't just mean women who are instant bad asses (Just add sword!), but women who are, well, people with complex histories and motivations.  You know, like a lot of the male characters we've had, strong yet vulnerable and capable of overcoming tremendous odds.

Finally, just a little side note here.  I've seen so many people react defensively, even angrily at the suggestion that WoW isn't being inclusive and that there is a real problem with their seeming lack of desire to make women more pertinent to the overall lore of Azeroth.  I want to know why?  What harm is done by asking questions?  What harm is there in requesting Blizzard take our concerns and wishes into consideration?  Why, instead of listening or simply ignoring what is being said, must people loudly proclaim there is no problem and tell those of us participating in this discussion to shut up?  If there's really no problem, or Blizzard ultimately sees no problem, then the game will carry on as it is with no changes.  If the developers agree with the criticism and aim to be more inclusive, it can only benefit the game and encourage more people to play as they'll feel like they have a part in the story, which ultimately means more money and a longer lifespan for WoW.

My posts here and on Twitter are totally voluntary on your part to read, and you can choose to agree a little or not at all.  How does what I and others say interfere with your ability to both play and enjoy the game in any shape or form?  What, exactly, are you afraid is going to happen?

When do I get to see myself?

In 1988 the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released.  I was seven years old and hyped when my parents finally purchased it for me because for the first time I got to choose which character to play as and one of my choices was Princess Peach.  I vividly remember sitting down to play and noticing right off the bat that something was wrong.  You see, each character you chose had a strength and unique ability.  Luigi could jump further than Mario, Toadstool could pull plants out of the ground faster, and Princess Peach could hover in the air for extended periods of time.  However, in terms of physical strength, Princess Peach was the weakest so it took her the longest to pull/pick up items from the ground.  For the sake of game balance, it made sense on the surface, but I remember thinking even at seven years old that the only reason Peach was considered the weakest was because she was a girl.

At the time I remember thinking, "But she's bigger than Toadstool, and she's been kidnapped a lot.  Shouldn't she maybe have learned to defend herself at least a little?"  I always thought of myself as a tough girl back then (still do) so I thought other girls could be tough, especially girls in video games where there were magical items to make you stronger or give you extra powers.  It felt so unfair to me and I know I stopped playing the game for a time because there were levels where it just wasn't good to use Peach because of her weakness, and I was utterly disheartened.  All the boys at school talked about video games and how awesome they were, and I agreed, but I couldn't quite put into words then the disconnect I felt with them, and apart from Super Mario Bros. 3, I mostly distanced myself from video games after that because I was getting the message it wasn't for me.  Even in a game when I could choose a character that was like me, a girl, I was at a disadvantage.

I'd like to say that twenty-five years later, it's better--and it is--but sometimes I feel like I'm still having the same conversations I wasn't able to have at seven.  Times have changed and I can go into a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect and choose to play a female character without suffering any sort of penalty in terms of abilities or story (apart from maybe who I can romance in the first Dragon Age), and I certainly can play a female of any race in World of Warcraft without penalty.  Yet, it's when I look at the NPCs who are shaping the story in which I'm a participant that I start to feel that disconnect again.

At Blizzcon when the Warlords of Draenor expansion was announced, I was excited.  I get to see the characters I loved in Rise of the Horde, and I get to see them without the taint of fel corruption.  Yet, the more I looked at the information given, and then the time I spent on the website, I saw right away that gee, there's a lot of men listed, many of whom we already know at least in one timeline, but where are all the women?  We've been told there's a new woman on the scene, a draenei named Yrel who we're told will be a bad ass, and I'm eager to see her, but I wondered about the established characters we have who should by all rights be taking part in this next chapter.

It niggled at me, bugging me even amid the jokes of "Hot Orc Dads" and the "Orc Boyband."  Then I read Chris Metzen's (possibly off-the cuff) statement that "The honeymoon's over. [Warlords] is a boy's trip," when asked about Aggra's participation.  And while I firmly believe in my heart of hearts Metzen didn't intend to be exclusionary, he was exclusionary in this bit of casual sexism.  Yet again I'm told, "This is a boy's hobby in which we tolerate your presence."

So as I do, I voice concern over Twitter and immediately I'm accused of participating in "gender wars," whatever those are.  Also that I'm not giving them enough time, that I should wait and see, never mind that when the beta launches, the main course of the story will be set and about all that can really be altered is the dialogue if we're being honest as any attempt to put in a different character (with a different model and animations) will take additional time and stall launch.  As if the game isn't nine years old with a history of disappearing women, or using them to make the men look like rational, well thought out leaders.  I'm told I want to control the story, that I should quit playing if it makes me angry (which, angry?  No, disheartened, disappointed, and annoyed, yes, but anger means I step away and say nothing, even though anger would be a valid response to feeling left out yet again).  Never mind that I love the story, the characters, and the game itself, one that I spend several hours per week on playing with friends or solo.  I'm told this is Blizzard's creation and that they have all the say in it, or that I must want to put in token characters into the story (because asking for Jaina, Tyrande, Aggra, etc. is asking for a token character?).  We'll kindly ignore that in the past Blizzard has reacted positively to such feedback and altered what they could to be less offensive/more inclusive, and that their creation is something they'd like me to keep paying for so it's in their best interest to listen to such criticism when it's coming from a good chunk of their player base.  In short, I'm told in every which way but directly to just shut up and accept this.

But I can't just shut up and let it be because inside of me I remember being seven years old and all the ways in which I was disappointed with my favorite game franchise.  Then I get further upset to see that twenty-five years later I still apparently have to make a case for my right to not only to participate, but to see people like me on my game screen.  Even beyond that, as someone who loves the written word and stories, it's kind of galling to see how a well developed character is seemingly dropped once she's paired off with a male, doubly so after she becomes a mother.  It's saddening to watch solid character development given to someone like Lor'themar (who I adore and have loved to see come to the fore this expansion) only to watch Tyrande given lessons in patience by Varian Wrynn of all people.

I don't expect perfection, and there will always be screw ups in terms of representation because, as of yet, the developers have yet to become infallible beings incapable of making mistakes.  In spite of insinuations otherwise, I don't want to be the one to tell the story and I don't want creative control, I just want to feel like I'm part of this community and not a visitor whose simply allowed the privilege of playing in a boy's domain, and I'm not even getting into the lack of queer representation or people of color.

I could sit here and link to articles about how under representation in various forms of media hurts us, or that recent studies have shown television shows with a diverse cast in terms of gender and ethnicity are getting higher ratings (and it would make sense that sort of success could easily be seized upon by video games).  I could tell you that children's self-esteem goes down the more TV they watch, unless that child is white and male and the reason for this is that white male characters make up the majority of lead roles in children's programming.  (And if it has that strong of an effect on children, how do you think it colors adults' perceptions of the world and ourselves?)  I could talk about how in 2011 women only made up 33% of roles in the top 100 grossing films (PDF) and how that number becomes depressingly lower when you focus only on women of color.  I could tell you these are all reasons I think we need to see more women in Warlords of Draenor, that we need to see them in the artwork and to be told more than one woman will play a role in the story to come, but the fact of the matter is I never get that far.  I never get to tell people this because the moment I start to talk about this, I'm drowned out by those who like the status quo or seem somehow threatened by the mere suggestion that something they love isn't perfect or inclusive.  I'm ignored in favor of being called too angry, too emotional, or of wasting my energy on something as insignificant as a video game when there are real problems in the world as if I can't care for both at the same time.  I'm ignored because it's not "[female character's] time" or it's "too soon" to have this talk, but no one seems to be able to tell me when the right time is.

Twenty-five years later, in the year two thousand and thirteen, and I'm still waiting to see myself in the games I love to play.

My Traumatic Event is Not Your Fucking Punchline

This post contains descriptions of sexual assault and rape and I am applying massive Trigger Warnings for this reason.  Also, comments will be turned off for this as I will not entertain any sort of debate or discussion on this matter.  Do not contact me privately if your intention is to play Devil's Advocate or to try and convince me rape "jokes" are totally funny and I'm being unreasonable/overly sensitive, etc.  You will be blocked and ignored.

Tonight, during a Twitter Raid event, someone (who did apologize after I called them out, hence why they remain unnamed) said, "And Rageface leaps on you and rapes your face."  This turned my already borderline mood sour and even though the person apologized and no one spoke up to say anything sarcastic, it reminded me of something I wrote last year after I left a guild over the GM making some heinous rape jokes and then telling me not to "start shit" when I made an effort to point out she was being an asshole.  (Yes, she, and the others joining in the jokes were also women.  Internalized sexism and misogyny is a hell of a drug.)  I'm quoting myself and re-posting here because sometimes I think people need to know what it is they're doing when they make rape jokes.

I want to talk about how rape jokes aren’t funny, and drop a whole bunch of links about how jokes like that empower rapists, make them think it’s no big deal.  I want to quote every feminist and/or survivor who’s ever talked about rape more eloquently than I ever could.
Instead I’m sitting here shaking remembering what it was like to sit on that couch in a so-called friend’s apartment.  To feel someone’s hands on my body and my stomach is churning because I really don’t want to be there, but I’m too scared to say no (I never said yes either).   

Instead I’m remembering being cornered in the hallway at school and forced to endure having my breasts touched when I didn’t want them to be.  I remember the boy who threatened to stab me because I was going to kick him for touching me in the park.  I’m seeing someone’s penis I didn’t ask to see, and it’s erect though I’m too young to understand what that means only to have the realization dawn on me years later when I’m sexually active for the first time.   

He was aroused and wanted me to touch it.  

These were all separate instances.  And someone—more than one someone out there thinks each of them are funny.  The reasons I want to go into the bathroom right now and puke and cry are someone’s punchline.

Yes, these are incidents from my life.  What's sad is that too many other women reading this have lived through similar or worse experiences.  One in six of us have in the United States.  And we must live each and every day in a culture that likes to pretend rape isn't a big deal, or that actively encourages and empowers rapists by allowing seemingly innocuous statements slip under the radar day after day after day.

You don't rape bosses in raid.  You aren't raped by that mob that caused you to wipe.  The only thing that is akin to rape or even like rape is rape.  You're trivializing heinous acts perpetuated by real-life monsters and are normalizing such behavior by treating it like it's no big deal.

There is nothing funny about rape.  Nothing.  If you're making rape jokes and people are laughing, one of them might be a rapist and he thinks you're on his side. You're telling him it's okay for him to rape.  It may be the last thing you're hoping to accomplish with your jokes, but that's what you're doing.

Words have power whether or not I proclaim they do/ do not.  Language isn't as benign as some like to say, and even if you disagree that there's no such thing as a funny rape joke, you can hopefully agree that if someone says those statements make them uncomfortable the decent thing to do is to shut the fuck up, apologize, and find different subject/more appropriate and accurate metaphor.

A Little Update

Change is still coming, but as February is always a rough month for me, I've been slow about getting there.

I have a life! Somewhere.

After taking a weekend off from the game to binge on a bit of Dragon Age: Origins/Awakenings and Dragon Age II, I went back into the game with renewed energy.  First up, I finished out the first part of Wraithion's legendary questing and am now in the process of collecting 6,000 valor points.  As I doubt I will hit the valor cap each week, it will probably take me a little more than the minimum six weeks to accomplish this part of the quest.  However, this is still progress where there was nothing before.

Other accomplishments include getting my hunter to level 90, which also netted me the Quintessential Quintet achievement and made me question the sanity of trying to keep up with this many alts in Mists of Pandaria, an expansion that is not very alt-friendly.

The day after hitting 90, I spent a bit of time on him tracking down a couple of rare tames that had caught my eye: Hexapos and Portent.  Portent I was thinking would take some time to get the color I wanted (purple), but lo and behold, I lucked out the first time I found him, and only within 10 minutes of telling guildies I was hunting him down.  (I can feel the envy from some of you all the way over here.  To quote the Sha of Anger: "Yes, feed me your rage!"  If it comforts you, know that on my main, I don't have near this much luck.)

Named Bruiser because he's purple, like a bruise.

I named him Flappy.

After the excitement of a taking a newly minted 90 through heroics in mostly greens, I switched back to my main to join some guild members in my first ever challenge mode dungeon.  We managed to get bronze on Scarlet Monastery, and then went on to do...not so well on Scarlet Halls.  However, for being new to this whole challenge mode thing, we did really well and we learned quite a lot about what we'll need to do for next time.

Speaking of my guild, we're still looking for a DPS to round out our raid team.  If you're interested and are Horde-side on Wyrmrest Accord/are willing to transfer to a new home if things work out, check out the website to review the application process.  I'll go ahead and vouch for the guild leaders/raid leaders and say the whole guild is filled with some pretty impressive folks  Also, our Mumble conversations never fail to leave me in stitches, which can be a good or bad thing when we're raiding our running heroics/challenge modes.

Here in a bit, I'm going to start work on a post all about 5.2, which drops today.  As my main is a Warlock, you know I'm going to have quite a bit to talk about after I try things out tonight.

Change is Coming

No, I haven't forgotten about this blog, nor do I want to abandon it.  Real life swallowed me whole after the holidays, and then I've had some changes in-game in the form of a couple of guild try outs (one Alliance side that failed and one Horde side that, so far, is working out).

First and foremost, I've joined with Enigma, a new guild on Wyrmrest Accord and, if everything works out, I will be raiding with them in the coming weeks.  The raid team is still being formed, but we've been running LFRs as a group as well as heroics and other activities.  I have to say it's nice to log into the game and see an active guild chat and even more exciting to hop on Mumble and speaking with some pretty awesome people.

In January I leveled my fourth 90, and it wasn't the Hunter (who, as of this writing, is sitting at level 87 and should ding 90 within the next week).  Back in January a friend needed a gnome mage for one of the Winter Veil achievements, so I offered to roll one for her.  After it was done I thought, "Oh what the heck, she looks cute and this could be fun."  So I purchased some heirlooms and, twenty-five days later, she dinged 90.  Yes, she, like all my toons, has a backstory and could be used for role-play if the occasion ever presents itself.  For now I'm enjoying the simplicity that is Arcane.

On the lore front, I've joined a book club of sorts called Warcraft Well Read.  Each month we're picking a Warcraft book to read through.  For January it was Rise of the Horde, a book that left me with a lot to say and which I'll be talking about soon.  This month we're covering Well of Eternity, the first book in the War of the Ancients trilogy.  There'll be more about that later as well.

As for the blog, I'm brainstorming with some ideas for what I want to do.  Now that I might actually be raiding again and role-playing, look for quite a few posts about lore and raiding.  Intermixed with that will be the occasional rant and some posts related to feminism.  One of the ideas I have is theme days, i.e. "Warlock Wednesdays" or "Sunday Afternoon Lore."  I'm not quite sure how I'll do that since real life might not offer me the time to be able to write for this several days per week.

Another idea I've had is possibly trying my hand at Livestreaming.  Currently, this isn't feasible, or at least not something I could do consistently.  My boyfriend and I are gradually getting together a wish list for a new desktop computer for me, but that will take time and will, of course, require money.  However, I hope to be able to accomplish this within the next six months, or to at least have the majority of the components assembled.  From there, we'll see.  Maybe I'll be able to make WoW into something more than just a hobby.

Ultimately, my original vision for this blog hasn't changed, it's simply evolving and gaining a few new layers.  So, stay tuned and maybe this place will become awesome.