Say hello to Sespi Fizzlepop, goblin rogue.

Hi there

He’s the World of Warcraft character I’ve been playing for the past month in my latest excursion to the land of Azeroth. I’ve played WoW off and on since it first came out, sticking around for a couple months before getting bored and taking a break for a few years. In preparation for the new Panda expansion pack tomorrow, I decided to dive back into the game to see what’s changed since the last time I played – and the answer is: a lot. New races, new armies, new worlds, new zones; it’s been a blast to explore and see the new sights.

Well the other day I stumbled upon something that defines why I love World of Warcraft so much.

I found it in the small castle town of Hearthglen.

Join me after the jump for the full story!

I’ve written about this at length before, but the reason I love World of Warcraft so much is because the entire story is being told in real time alongside the players. Stretching all the way back to the first game, Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans, the story has been told step-by-step, game-by-game, with the players taking a real, active part in telling the tale. And now with this MMORPG, the story continues to progress and change, and we can be there to witness it first hand.

If Blizzard ever eventually makes Warcraft 4, it’s going to incorporate the stories, events and characters from World of Warcraft.

Compare this to another MMORPG like DC Universe Online. Sure you get to create your own superhero and fight alongside Superman and Batman, but the events in the game have zero impact on the comics. And, of course, the comics are where the real stories are being told. The game is just a side project.

Not so with Warcraft. With this franchise, the games are the main outlet for the story. And I love being a part of that ever-changing world.

Which brings me to back to Hearthglen.

If I lived here, I’d be home by now…and fighting dragons

Another thing I love about World of Warcraft is just exploring the great, big virtual world they’ve created. There are so many neat things to see and do. And I’d never even heard of Hearthglen before. But Sespi was up running some quests in the Western Plaguelands, a game zone I’d never been to before. He was just coming back from a little business elsewhere, and in picking my flight path, I decided to try this new place to see where it would take me. It was a little out of my way, but I figured I could handle whatever trouble I found when I landed.

Lo and behold, I discovered this idyllic, peaceful looking town bathed in white and silver and blue. Not only that, but there were Horde and Alliance characters working and training together! Orcs and humans, side-by-side!

What sorcery is this!?

What the heck was this place? Since when do the different armies work together?

I saw an available quest nearby, and the guy had me help train some of the cadets. He didn’t seem all that surprised to see me either. Then I noticed that all of the characters were wearing uniforms, and were marked with the group name: Argent Crusade.

What the heck was the Argent Crusade?

I could remember the Argent Dawn from the prior times I’d played World of Warcraft. But they were religious fanatics in red uniforms, and usually bad guys who would attack on sight. But this Argent Crusade seemed pretty alright.

I went exploring through the town and found the main castle. I made my way up to the meeting room for all the major characters, and there I found Highlord Tirion Fordring, another character I’d never heard of before.

The biggest of the cheeses

The guy looked very impressive, and he was wielding a very badass looking sword. Not only that, but he had his own voice actor! Every time I clicked on him and he said his lines, he wasn’t just the standard human voice, like most characters. Who was this Tirion Fordring to deserve his own voice actor? What the heck had I randomly stumbled across?

So I took a few Argent Crusade quests, and then when I signed out of the game, I went to look them up on WoWpedia or WoWWiki, take your pick. Imagine my surprise when I read about the awesome and extensive history of Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade.

Turns out, this Tirion guy was once the star of a short story written by one of the lead Warcraft writers. His story involves becoming friends with the orc Eitrigg, a very prominent orc character who I’d encountered several times before in prior games. He often appeared in Warchief Thrall’s own throne room. Well Tirion and Eitrigg are the best of friends, and had this extensive history together. But I knew nothing about it!

Not only that, but I discovered that when World of Warcraft first started, Tirion Fordring wasn’t the high commander of Hearthglen. In fact, back then, Hearthglen was a bad guy village. And Tirion was a hermit living out in a shack down by the river.

Living in a shack down by the river!

He was just an old dude who gave a few quests concerning his family, and had you check in on his son, who had joined the Scarlet Crusade. That’s all he was. If you never visited the Plaguelands, you’d never see him and you’d never do his handful of meager quests.

But then over time, and with the various WoW expansions, Tirion rose from being a hermit to once again being a champion Paladin! In fact, Tirion was the hero leading the charge against the Lich King in the finale of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion! And after he did that, he returned to the Western Plaguelands with his newly formed Argent Crusade, where they routed the bad guys out of Hearthglen and turned it into their own training camp.

And then one day, a simple little goblin rogue wandered into camp…

But there it is, what I love about World of Warcraft so much. The ongoing story is changing and evolving right before our eyes, with the players taking an active role. Somewhere there is a player who read the short story starring Tirion and Eitrigg, then met and quested with Tirion when he was a hermit living by the river and then went on to fight side-by-side with Tirion against the Lich King. I never got to do it, but somebody out there has.

And it’s just amazing to know that there is still so much in WoW that I have yet to see or discover. That I could just randomly pick a new flight plan on a whim and then discover this whole new corner of the world, filled with characters and adventures that existed without my even knowing about them.

World of Warcraft isn’t just a game with levels and bosses. It really is a living, breathing and ever-changing world. That’s pretty impressive for a video game.