[Spoilers] Shadowlands Prequel Novel "Shadows Rising" Due in July

[BaumanKing]

It really baffles me why Roux chose Turalyon as one of protagonists. The guy is an epitome of Mighty Whitey, which should be a racist trope for her. He is the leader of a faction of enlightened races, almost entirely made up of draenei. While he doesn't strike up a romance with any of draenic women, he still carries out the trope of an exotic wife in his Alleria. He isn't a racist, but he is a racist character.

[THEORACLE64]

No Golden? No Golden?!!?! oh wow, they are listening.

[Skildar]

Sylvanas did save them from getting wrecked. In fact, the only reason they're in the Horde at all is because Sylvanas vouched for them and helped secure their lands for them, since Thrall didn't believe they could pull their weight. Something he was right about, given that despite their Sunwell being back and the Forsaken bringing them out of the fire she still had to put an ultimatum to them to have them stand on their own feet or get wrecked by zombies before they actually put troops up against Arthas, the guy in the process of taking over the world at the time. This despite the fact that when Sylvanas was in need and reached out to them back when she first took over the Forsaken they told her to go fuck herself.

As for her disdain for the tauren, while she did think Baine was a treacherous hippie, she didn't actively strive to fuck them over any more than she tried to fuck over anyone else. Hell, even when it went into active rebellion she didn't gas their sorry asses, as welcome as it'd be.

It was a kingdom on the decline which just lost its head during BC and barely got back its main source of power at the end of the expansion. Since that point, they've been present on the front lines every expansion and each time their land is mentionned in a book, it is still filled with brainless undead monsters... At some point either Lor'themar should put its resources into restoring its kingdom or participate in wars in which they can upset the balance into their favor, plunder and loot!

[Donatello Trumpi]

They had one job; hire William King again.

Instead we got someone who does edgy teen and pre-teen novels.

Reading his wiki, with all his warhammer and warhammer 40k novels, he really would have been the perfect fit for wows lore when it was at its peak.

[omeomorfismo]

It really baffles me why Roux chose Turalyon as one of protagonists. The guy is an epitome of Mighty Whitey, which should be a racist trope for her. He is the leader of a faction of enlightened races, almost entirely made up of draenei. While he doesn't strike up a romance with any of draenic women, he still carries out the trope of an exotic wife in his Alleria. He isn't a racist, but he is a racist character.

actually he is racist. his entire moment in w2 was becoming super sayan because orcs arent azerothians

[Zandalariprelate]

They could at least tie them in better, if calia had more of presance in bfa it would at least make more sense to those who didn't read the books

While I agree Blizzard should put important lore tidbits in the game. This book seem to be a story to give a final closure to the playable factions before SL while building up a bit Bwonsamdi.

[Raugnaut]

I hope the Dungeon doesn't entail rescuing Bwonsamdi.
He's the damn loa of Death.

Hell, he should kill Nathanos and Sira just by looking at them wrong

Despite the fact that Bwonsamdi is an enjoyable character, and one of the few good things about BfA, Loas are NOT all powerful. I would put them at the lvl of a greater named Demon, like Magtheridon.

Bwonsamdi is more of a caretaker, shepherd, and landlord of the dead then a ruler of the dead. Keep in mind that Bwonsamdi was definitely weaker then Rezan, and without the demigod adventurer's help in Nazmir, likely would have had a rough time fighting off that grand matron of the blood trolls by himself.

Sira and Nathanos probably are on a bit of that Jailer juice anyhow.

[Darkeon]

She mains Alliance. This comes as a shock and as a surprise. This would never influence the direction of her writting - it has never happened in the past with previous writters.

[Cherry123]

She mains Alliance. This comes as a shock and as a surprise. This would never influence the direction of her writting - it has never happened in the past with previous writters.

60% Talanji and Zappy
20% Horde "Ah shit, here we go again"
15% Genius Sylvanas
4.9%Turalyon and Alleria
0.1% Alliance

[FrostHate]

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but this snippet about Talanji being poisoned looks awfully similar to Game of Thrones and the episode where some literal who tried to poison Daenerys. Zekhan is, basically, Jorah :

[Wangming]

High End Pve is far better in Wow, but story, design, graphics, etc are better in FFXIV.

Yes. Or PVP in general. FFXIV doesn't do any kind of world pvp. Although it would be hard to do it without faction. I'm not saying it does everything better than WoW, but what it does better, it does miles better. And the story is key. We don't have as much agency as we do in SWTOR, and not all cutscenes are voiced, but the storytelling gets better with each update, and 99.99% of it happens in the game. What we have are totally inconcequential short stories available for free on the official website. Dalamud didn't crash into Eorzea in a novel. The Ul'dah banquett didn't occur in a novel. Papalymo didn't die in a Novel.

Make no mistake. This novel actually sounds good. But I'm against the practice of leaving out major plot developments from the game. Hell, the burning of Teldrassil isn't in the game anymore. We just go straight to Lordareon as if that were the beginning of the war.

[Mehrunes]

And with that, i like this author already. They clearly have a sense of humour, which puts them well above most of the posters in this thread spewing their passive aggressive sarcasm or defeatist memes.

Given how sarcasm is a form of humor, making your remark inherently meaningless why don't you stop hiding behind this senseless facade and just say what you actually mean, i.e. people daring to make posts that you don't like and what a total travesty it is? Or given how there have been times when you've made the same kind of holier-than-thou post bemoaning the content of a given thread - particularly when it was people criticizing the given piece of lore - only for you then to share the same sentiment because it's somehow OK when you do it, simply posters you don't like posting anything?

[matrix123mko]

60% Talanji and Zappy
20% Horde "Ah shit, here we go again"
15% Genius Sylvanas
4.9%Turalyon and Alleria
0.1% Alliance

And all you guess from one excerpt? I love that.

33% Zappy and Talanji fanservice
33% Nathanos and set up his redemption arc
33% Alleria and Turalyon set up to make us fight the Light
0,5% Shadowlands mysteries with Bwonsamdi
0,5% Factions

[Mehrunes]

She also wrote "Traveler: The Shining Blade", so maybe she can contain her political views in check.

Huh, I completely missed that the third Traveler book has been released.

[matrix123mko]

Make no mistake. This novel actually sounds good. But I'm against the practice of leaving out major plot developments from the game. Hell, the burning of Teldrassil isn't in the game anymore. We just go straight to Lordareon as if that were the beginning of the war.

The good thing is that books leave more space for worldbuilding and good dialogue. There is also possibility to develop characters by their internal dialogue.

However, it is annoying that a) you need to find book to have full picture of game story b) to European shops books arrive after first patch of next expansion.

[Mehrunes]

I'm so glad a plot to assassinate the loa of death is left exclusively to a novel and we will have no way to experience any of this just buy buying a game and paying the subscribtion.

At least this finally ends the debate of the 2020 release of Shadowlands. There is no way they would release the lead-in novel in mid July, if the game release came only in 2021.

I mean, Bwonsamdi is already confirmed for SL's dungeon. Maybe some of that will be mentioned in the questline leading up to it. I mean, don't hold your breath by any means, I'm just saying there's a potential hook to cover some of that in-game.

[Varodoc]

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but this snippet about Talanji being poisoned looks awfully similar to Game of Thrones and the episode where some literal who tried to poison Daenerys. Zekhan is, basically, Jorah :

I don't see it to be honest. But if Zekhan is Jorah then the poor meme guy is about to die in the Scourge Invasion pre-patch of Shadowlands.

[Mehrunes]

You have a good deal more optimism about that than I can muster. I can see the counterargument now: "book blurbs aren't canon, and it was the Horde that betrayed Sylvanas because she's the Warchief, etc. etc."

Why would facts demand optimism from you? We already know that the Warchief can abandon their position whenever they like. And we've known that since before Cata. And the idea that thinking or even stating a specific thing about the Horde, especially if it comes from its authoritarian dictator with unlimited power constitutes betrayal doesn't make even linguistic sense because words still mean things.

[matrix123mko]

Huh, I completely missed that the third Traveler book has been released.

I think Traveller writers need to be good to keep the children interested. Also, they need to stay true to the universe or their books would stop being Warcraft advertisement.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean, Bwonsamdi is already confirmed for SL's dungeon. Maybe some of that will be mentioned in the questline leading up to it. I mean, don't hold your breath by any means, I'm just saying there's a potential hook to cover some of that in-game.

Will he be boss or we will help him?

[Mehrunes]

So not interested in that Novel, I am relatively neutral to Talanji, but all the other main characters this novel is about I just don't like.

Wonder if it will end up in a public library, because I won't waste a dime for wow books anymore.

Why wouldn't you like Saurfang's scion?

its pretty clear isnt it? sylvanas keeps calling on the chit that she helped the blood elves and vouched for them towards the horde, yet turns about and is absolutely bitchy to the race that helped her in the same process, yet she wants special treatment from LT for the ONE help.

That ONE help saved Quel'Thalas by Lor'themar's own admission. Also, what Sylvanas has done wass not as much calling in any chits as informing him of the natural consequences of Lor'themar refusing the Horde's call to war, which he openly pondered right in front of Sylvanas after she returned from Orgrimmar to convey it to him. Also, when has Sylvanas been absolutely bitchy to the Tauren?

she was disdainful of the tauren even before Lordaeron, as clearly pointed out in Before the Storm. She helped the blood elves, that doesnt mean she saved them from existance. Trust me, if a major faction comes across a blood elf in the wild and the blood elf wants to join the answer would be "no or yes". however if a major faction came across some undead dude the answer would have a third option "no, yes, kill with fire".

Weirdly enough when Alliance came upon the Blood Elves their option of choice was "pretend to engage in diplomatic talks while sabotaging their defenses and invading their territory". And she wasn't disdainful of Tauren in BtS. Her thoughts about them was that they are the race of the Horde that have the least in common with her, next to Pandaren. That's all. Also, Sylvanas thinking things about Tauren and Sylvanas being a bitch towards the Tauren are two vastly different things. You moved the goalposts to another city there.