The title of this alone is undoubtedly going to get me some sharp looks and narrowed eyes, but I get enough of those already, so whatever. I don’t care. Nevertheless, I’ll preface this by saying it isn’t what you think; I’m not writing in defense of the Twilight’s Hammer, Deathwing, their goals, their motives, or the end of the world. I think by this point even the deepest of Twilight’s Hammer sleeper agents have revealed themselves, because their final goal, the Hour of Twilight – the end of Azeroth – is at hand. The chips are all down, we know who the bad guys are and who the good guys are, and everyone’s going all in. If you’re getting the impression that I’m trying to hard to convince you that I’m on your side, it’s because previous events have left me with little faith left in the wisdom and judgment of the masses.

But that’s another story.

I’m writing this to reflect. On what, you ask? Everything. My life. The lives of my family, friends. The life of Azeroth itself. Who I am to myself, who I am to others, and perhaps more importantly, who I’m not. There are some who would say this is a frivolous use of time in such a critical moment. “Azeroth needs saving,” they’d say, “and you’re sitting here daydreaming about the past instead of doing something important.” Those people are wrong. It’s not their fault; it’s a difference in life experiences. Most people don’t see the end up close. Most people don’t venture into the darkness and constantly wonder if they’ll ever come out again. Those that do know that these moments are important; perhaps even more important, in some ways, than stopping the end that sometimes follows.

The Hour of Twilight is a special case, one that I think many overlook the significance of. While personal flirtations with death can often be cause for equally personal reflection and growth, this is a global matter. As such, we have to examine not only ourselves, but everything, everyone, around us, because after the smoke clears, it may all be gone. This is why the Hour of Twilight is important, and why Deathwing may be doing more harm than good to his ultimate goal by initiating it. Because you see, when the world is about to end and everything we know may disappear before the next daybreak, we have to ask ourselves: Who are we really? When there’s nothing left to stop you, no more excuses to be anything, anyone but who you truly are, who will you be?

Not everyone has a good answer to this. There are those who will rise to the occasion, devoting their entire beings to pushing back the apocalypse; the heroes we hear about in stories and memorialize in songs and statues. Many of them will die in the process. There are those who will panic, and those who will watch, unbreathing and helpless, hoping and praying that a miracle will happen. There are those who will give in to their fear and despair and embrace anarchy, killing and looting and doing whatever else they feel like because they feel it no longer matters. The end of the world, the end of everything we know, is the truest test of who we really are. The closer we come to that end, the closer we come to really being in touch with that. The closer we come, the more clearly we see the limits of this world, and ourselves, and the sooner we can break those limits.

This is why Deathwing’s plan is, ultimately, an enormous gamble; should he fail – and I’m confident he will – then he has not only failed in his mission, but made us stronger in the process, because in pushing us so close to the edge of oblivion, he will have forced us to the realization that we can push back. As with Arthas before him, he will have condemned future allies of the Old Gods, and indeed anyone else who would threaten Azeroth, by driving her heroes to perform feats that defy description, to render things once thought impossible mere obstacles, and to surpass the limits of our own mortality. That which does not kill us, after all, only makes us stronger. Indeed, if Deathwing fails, he will have ultimately done more harm to his cause than good by preparing us for the trials to come.

That’s why I’m writing this, and why I’m looking forward to the final moments of the Hour of Twilight with great anticipation. Ask yourself sometime what you’d do in those last moments. What kind of person would you be? Will you succumb to your final limitations, or resist them? I know not everyone has it in them to be a hero, but think about it for a while, and if nothing else, try not to be one of the anarchists, because if the world doesn’t actually end, you’re going to spend a lot of time in a jail cell wishing it had.
–
Hinote Kirase is an experienced warlock and officer in the Order of the Rose. Her first draft of this was written in the blood of a twilight drake. You can guess what kind of person she’ll be.

The Twilight’s Hammer is not a new enemy. Originally an invading orc clan in the Second War, it came under the sway of the eldritch abominations long buried under the surface by the Titans, and quickly grew in the shadows. The insane doomsday cult took both Alliance and Horde by surprise in the wake of Deathwing’s return, claiming vast swaths of territory and quickly fortifying their positions with summoned elementium bulwarks. Their early victories; however, quickly crumbled as the defenders of Azeroth reacted and pushed back.

Nefarian, also known as Blackwing, and Onyxia, two of Deathwing’s dead spawn that had been reanimated as rotten abominations by the Aspect of Death, have been destroyed for good in Blackwing Descent, along with a host of Nefarian’s twisted experiments and abominations. The monstrously mutated two-headed ogre Cho’gall, the official leader of the Twilight’s Hammer, was also defeated and killed in a daring battle at the Twilight Citadel, and the upper echelons of his twisted cult died with him. Even Al’akir, the Elemental Lord of air who had sided with Deathwing and Ragnaros in trying to usher the end of the world as we know it, had his own plane of existence invaded through a breach in the skies of Uldum, and was then defeated. A similar fate awaits Ragnaros.

But the fight is not over yet. Even as adventurers and heroes pour into the Firelands, defeating the minions of Ragnaros and working their way towards the Firelord himself, the fight against the Twilight’s Hammer and its minions in Azeroth continues. Their forces have been ousted out of their fortresses in Azeroth and beyond, with a sizable operation in Deepholm having been soundly defeated early in the conflict by combined efforts of both factions’ champions. With the renewed heroic efforts in Hyjal and the Molten Front, the Twilight Highlands are quickly becoming the last cultist refuge in Azeroth.

With the fall of the former cultist bulwarks of Twilight Citadel and Grim Batol, along with the death of its most powerful servants in the Eastern Kingdoms, the Twilights have mostly retreated into the open fields of the Highlands, and even there we have taken the upper hand. Alliance leadership in the area is cautiously optimistic about its progress fighting the cultists, and has been gradually shifting its main combat forces towards supporting the Wildhammer dwarf clans in their fight against the Horde-aligned Dragonmaw orcs. Adventurers have been tasked with keeping a close eye on Twilight activity, hunting down remaining cultists and elemental invaders in the area. The Twilight’s Hammer is an insidious and elusive enemy, but it seems they are finally on the path to defeat.

With Ragnaros’ end coming, Alliance strategists speculate that only Deathwing and his closest (and most powerful) minions remain on Azeroth. This is a very similar situation to what happened to the Lich King last year, cornered by the Argent Crusade in Icecrown Citadel, surrounded by his last surviving lieutenants. The battle for Icecrown Citadel was brutal, but the Lich King eventually fell to Tirion Fordring and his intrepid champions. The corrupted Aspect will soon face the same destiny as Arthas Menethil. We do not yet know where Deathwing will make his last stand, or how he will be defeated, but one thing is certain: he cannot hide forever.

Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle, a classical bayonet design

Blacksmiths all over Azeroth have been reported a substantial increase in bayonet sales in the past few weeks. Gunsmiths and engineers have also seen a similar increase in requests for mounting blades and spikes on the end of blunderbusses, shotguns, muskets and rifles of all kinds.

Johann Goodiron, head of the Ironmongers blacksmithing guild and former sharpshooter in the Alliance Expedition in Northrend , postulates that rangers, marksmen and other ranged combatants without magical aptitude are adapting to an evolving, more vicious and shorter- ranged battlefield. “In the past”, says Mr. Goodiron, “we could get around with a backup sword or axe or two, depending on your style and race. More recently, practical rangers and hunters started carrying bigger, more powerful staffs and spears to finish off or at least keep enemies away.”

“But things have changed lately”, continues the retired soldier, who was forced along with his wife and young daughter out of their farm home in Redridge by an orcish attack. “Our enemies are tougher and faster now, you can’t count on having the time to put your gun away and pull out your backup weapon. When you see a raging orc berserker or Twilight’s hammer cultist running your way with murder in his eyes, you want to have something ready for them right now.”

A quick survey in the goblin city of Booty Bay reveals that even members of the Horde have started to consider bayonets to be more than just a decorative element in their guns. In an environment increasingly less friendly to ranged combatants, close-up offensive power is now more important than ever. And the easiest way to get that extra power seems to be a good, trusty bayonet.

Others have embraced deeper changes to their technique. Bow users, not having the option to use their weapons as spears when the need arises, have started practicing reflex shots, pulling and releasing the string before a possible assailant can strike. The graceful Sentinels of Darnassus, for example, have been training to dodge attacks while putting their legendary aim to work. “Breaking the habit of trying to move away is a difficult task,” One of the Sentinels in training told the Bloomin’ Paper, “but when you are facing an enemy that’s closing in faster than you can escape, standing up to it is sometimes the only option.”

Even some traditional gun-wielders have started to modify their practices. Daera Brightspear, who has trained scores of young marksdwarves and is often credited as one of the creators of the widely-used defensive technique known as the scatter shot, has started to drill her pupils into not only the use of bayonets and point-blank shots, but also on how to turn a heavy musket into a deadly head-cracking device. “We hafta change our ways. Back then, we got attacked, we jes’ moved outta tha way an’ put ourselves at range again.”, she comments, watching a class of her students locked in a furious but highly educative brawl, hitting each other with their practice rifles. “Nowadays, if a foe is tryin’ ta hit ye with a big weapon, ye gotta show ‘em yer packin’ somethin’ jes’ as big, more sophisticated an’ far more deadly than they are. Make ‘em regret lookin’ at ye funny!”

The Stormwind shipyards, hard at work.

Even the most cursory glance at Stormwind Harbor reveals something the population at large has so far ignored. The war against the Horde is not being fought only on the bloody battlefields of Kalimdor and Lordaeron, but also at sea. The Forsaken assault on Gilneas was spearheaded by undead destroyers dredged up from wrecks from the First and Second Wars, bloodthirsty troll destroyers and orcish juggernauts prowl the high seas, and pirates scour the shores, causing untold damage as they loot and pillage coastal areas. More recently, the catastrophic battle in Vashj’ir, where both Alliance and Horde forces came under brutal attack by the Naga, was fought extremely close to the shores of Elwynn and Westfall.

The Alliance is not unaware of those threats. In fact, it has been mobilizing against them. The Stormwind shipyards have been commissioned to build a record number of warships to take the naval battle back to the Horde. Armories have been working day and night, casting high-caliber naval cannons and ammunition for both the fleet and coastal emplacements. There are even rumors of new and improved airships being designed by gnomish and dwarven engineers, with the automomy to operate for long periods of time on the Great Sea by without needing to be resupplied.

When asked by the Bloomin’ Paper, Grand Admiral Jes-Tereth was categorical: “for our land operations to be successfull, we must not allow the Horde superiority at sea”. Besides fighting the Horde in the high seas, the Alliance fleet plays a vital role of supporting human and dwarven forces in the Twilight Highlands, as well as providing reinforcements to our forces in Kalimdor, such as the newly-relocated Feathemoon Stronghold and the Alliance forces fighting in the southern Barrens. “We have transported an immense amount of war material and troops from Stormwind and Ironforge over to combat zones in the past few months”, the Grand Admiral continued, “and we have sunken or crippled an equally large amount of Horde and pirate vessels as well. We are trying to make sure that wherever our troops find themselves, they’ll know the fleet will have their backs”.

The island city of Theramore, ruled by Archmage Jaina Proudmoore, plays an important role in the Alliance naval strategy. From its heavily fortified position in Dustwallow Marsh, Theramore has been the launching point for multiple successful Alliance forays into Horde territory, including the construction of a direct road through the swamp and into the Barrens, and the reinforcement of Northwatch hold, on the Merchant Coast, south of Ratchet. With Proudmoore’s help, the Alliance is on the offensive against the bulk of the Horde in Kalimdor, in Ashenvale and the Barrens, threatening even their spiritual, military and political home of Durotar.

So, while you or your loved ones clash against the orcs, trolls, undead and their ilk in bloody battlefields all over Azeroth, or when you simply look to the sea… remember the brave sailors and marines of the Alliance fleets, toiling and fighting hard to assure our troops can prevail. They are, more often than not, unsung heroes whose greatest contributions happen before and after the fighting itself, as they navigate and fight their way around the Cape of Stranglethorn, the Vir’naal Delta and the Maelstrom, protecting the Alliance’s interests all over Azeroth.

Hi guys! I’m totally excited to tell you about this new crazy thing!

So, earlier this month I was totally at a business conference with Pizmo at the Stormspire! You remember those ethereal Consortium guys, all bandages with energy inside? They’ve totally just been chilling in Outland, maybe because moving in on goblin business markets is tough or something. I dunno! But they have come up with a couple new services that are totally unlike anything the gobbos can give us! One is transmogrification, which I can discuss in a later post! The other, though, is…

I totally eavesdropped on their business meetings so I could give you all the skinny!

• First off, it’s totally not cheap to use. If you want to get your very own Void Storage unit, it’s gonna cost you 1000G! And if you want to put anything in it, it’s another 100G per item on top of that! And, if you want to get anything out of it, it’s another 100G! So make sure that whatever you put in there, you really don’t want to touch for a long time, or ever!
• All your items have to be soulbound, fully repaired, and not-unique! The first two should be totally self explanatory. The last one, though, is a doozy! In general, unique items are things rewarded from quests and not purchased or picked off a dead baddie! Many holiday items are considered to be unique, too! There are tons of exceptions to this rule, though, so the best thing to do is to look at the tag or whatever (you know, where it says “Made in Kezan” or something?) and see if it actually says “Unique” on it. You’ll be surprised at what you find!
• The item does not have to pump up your vital statistics! So, while Void Storage is most useful for storing armor or whatever, I could totally deposit a Hallowed Wand in there with no trouble! Tabards are totally fine too! Well, most tabards, at least!
• The item can’t stack! So if you were planning on stuffing your Hallow’s End candy or Chaos Orbs or whatever in there, you can forget it!
• Even though Old Crafty and Old Ironjaw totally fit the above requirements, I couldn’t put them in storage. FISH DISCRIMINATION, I SAY!!

Keep in mind, you guys, that all this is totally a work in progress! If you’re unhappy with the current implementation, then you can totally write a letter to the ethereals here! I know I am – the “Unique” thing and the costs are totally uncool, in my opinion! With any luck, they’ll totally take this feedback and tweak the whole void storage thing to maximize its awesomeness!!

* * * * *

Our hired cameramage has just sent us freshly-developed pictures from the Rose Ball ’11, so this will be an Extra edition of the Bloomin’ Paper, in special glossy paper and full-color images all over!

As a note: our photographer had just arrived from Outlands and had no idea of who was who at the ball, so if you didn’t show up in any of the pictures, rest assured it wasn’t personal. Also, he was forced to wear earphones throughout most of the event, meaning that if you tried to say something and was ignored, it also also completely not personal.

Anyway, flip the page and enjoy some of the highlights from the event!

(Click on the pictures to see a slightly bigger version!)

UPDATE #1!

The Order of the Rose would like to thank all who attended! It was your presence that made the Rose Ball the success it was!

Events:

Storytelling!
Tell original stories for the delight of the Rose Ball attendees! With a theme to be announced at the time of the event, let’s see how good you guys are at making up stories on the spot!

Pet Show!
Think your pet is awesome enough to impress our judges? Let your scaly, furry, feathery friends strut their stuff at the Rose Pet Show II!
From your trusty steed to pet pug, all are welcome!

Fishing Contest!
20 minutes to fish up as much as you can from the delta right next to Mar’at. All rods/equipment/enchants are okay. Rarity of the fish determines the points they are worth, whoever has the most points wins a fabulous prize! Runners-up will also receive a trophy of some kind!

Dueling Tournament!
A perennial favorite, warriors from all across Azeroth come to test their mettle against the finest each faction has to offer! Do you have what it takes to stand at the end and wave your banner of choice?
(Medical assistance will be provided in case of missing spleens or other combat injuries.)

Larkspur Girls Concert!
The lovely buskers of Stormwind serenade party goers with an extra special live concert!

Riddles!
A battle of wits and cunning, put your intelligence to the test!

Quiz Show!
How much do you know about your world? Prove it!

Fireworks!
What ball isn’t complete without an explosive farewell?

Lottery!
The big “Thank you!” from all the Rose members for attending our party.
First prize this year is the Vial of the Sands!

* * * * *

Note to attendees: the Rose Ball is being recorded for posterity! If you see an Order of the Rose member carrying a Gnomecorder or a Super Snapper FX and /pointing at you, remember to look fancy and say “cheese”! A selection of the best pictures and/or footage will be made available to the public following the Ball!

by Neutronimity @ Wowhead

Hi guys! It’s been about 3 weeks since we started fighting on Hyjal! At first it seems pretty straightforward, but then you have to pick factions to help! And gathering all those Marks of the World Tree takes a REALLY long time! It’d be nice to know when you are FINALLY going to get that sweet item you’ve been eyeing since forever. Well, never fear! Whether you are nearly done or just starting, this handy-dandy guide is for YOU!

Getting started
First off, you have to have been to Hyjal before. They aren’t just going to let any schmuck off the street go to the Firelands, you know! Make sure you’ve helped out to the point that you’ve helped regrow the vegetation in the burned area! If you’ve gotten that done, then you’ll see a posting on the Call to Arms board titled, Guardians of Hyjal: Firelands Invasion! Accept the call and get your patootey to Hyjal!

Day 1
I totally don’t want to spoil anything for you, so I won’t tell you what happens in detail! But I CAN tell you that you will be helping clear the way to the Firelands! You will start receiving Marks when you rescue some druids out in the field (6), and then you will get some more when you help Malfurion with a very special ritual (10)!

You will then have a couple daily quests available to you – Rage Against The Flames (1 Mark) and then one of 5 different quests that has you helping animals or getting in touch with nature! (Depending on the quest, you may be able to work toward a couple achievements today, by helping animals get revenge on the Firelands invaders and by gathering lots of birds really fast.) Each of these 5 quests actually has two parts – the second part requires summoning some big bad guy and then kicking his butt! (If you can kick his butt without getting hit by his special attack, you will make progress toward another achievement!) The animal helping and butt-kicking together reward 3 Marks, for a total of 4 Marks from the dailies at first.

Good news – with the 16 Marks you had before plus the 4 Marks you just got from dailies, you are now ready to help Malfurion open the way to the Firelands! After a brief aside with tragic consequences that I’m totally not even going to tell you about, you will follow Malfurion through his portal and beat off bad guys for a bit. The reward for your efforts? 15 Marks and more daily quests! Yaaaaay! And as if THAT weren’t enough, there’s totally a troll ready to sell you stuff – plate tanking boots, a caster necklace, an AGI ring, and a STR DPS necklace! Plus, there are tons of people to have a Fireside Chat with if you are into achievements.

Anyway! There at the Molten Front, every day you will be healing burn victims (2 Marks), fighting fire elementals (2 Marks), killing some other kind of Firelands baddie (2 Marks), and either growing stranglevines or closing portals with a wisp (2 Marks). That’s 8 Marks you will earn every day in the Molten Front! Plus, if you like achievements, you can go kill a Molten Behemoth without getting hit by his special attack, and you can go kill spiders until they pull you to the top of their mountain!

You’re not quite done with your first day yet, though! Go back through the portal and you will get the Protectors of Hyjal quest. You get to go to Sethira’s Roost with some druids and some celebrity you’ve probably worked with before, and then kick some fiery butt! TOTALLY FUN. And worth 2 marks! There are also a couple achievements to get here – there is one for waving at famous people, winning a duel while you have all your helpers, and killing special monsters that are only around every so often.

Thus, at the end of your first day, you should have 25 marks, even after spending 20 of them! That’s pretty great! You will have also made progress on at least two achievements and probably many more! Awesome!

Days 2-9
Just keep going back and working on the daily quests! If you did everything you are supposed to do on Day 1 and you are diligent with your daily quests, you will get to choose a faction on Day 10!

Day 10
Now is the day where you have to choose a faction! Exciting! But how the heck do you know which to open? Truth is, it doesn’t matter TOO much because each will give you the same number of Marks and neither opens a vendor! But, there are a couple compelling reasons for each!

Choose Druids of the Talon if you…

• like achievements. You will have 3 more people to talk to for Fireside Chat (as opposed to the Wardens’ one), be able to become a Master of the Molten Flow, and begin bombing runs to administer Death From Above! The last one in particular will take many days to complete, as you don’t always get to go bombing and when you do, there’s only one fire elemental dude around, so the sooner you start, the better.
• love Anren and Tholo. Seriously, how cute are they?
• you hate spiders and do not want to see them. The Wardens have you killing them every day.

If you choose the Druids, keep an eye out for Anren Shadowseeker while you are fighting the Flamewakers. Escort him to safety for 5 Marks, and then he’ll have a quest for you to do each day! Yay!

Choose the Shadow Wardens if…

• you like the feel of secret missions!
• you hate platforming – you have to do lots of jumping for the Druids.
• hate spiders or Druids of the Flame so much that you want to kill them every day!
• want quests that are a little easier and go a little quicker.

If you choose the Wardens, look for an acorn on the ground after killing a Druid of the Flame. Take this back to the main camp, and then you’ll get to help take care of a little crimson lashling each day! Cute!

Whatever you choose, you will get 11 more Marks per day, for a total of 25 Marks per day! Yay! And at the end of Day 10, you should have 17 Marks left over.

Days 11-15
Enjoy your new quests, but don’t neglect the old ones! You want to make sure you are getting your 25 Marks per day!

Day 16
Today, you get to unlock the faction that you didn’t already unlock! Yay! If you have been keeping up with all your dailies, you ought to be able to unlock the next faction without having to begin your first faction’s quests. This is super important – you can’t quest for both the Druids AND the Wardens on the same day! If you complete your faction quests before you open the next one today, you won’t get to see the new content until tomorrow.

Everything else you need to know was covered on Day 10! You’ll get to complete the other special quest for 5 more Marks and another daily, bringing your new daily total to 26 Marks per day! You will also get to talk to the last person or people for Fireside Chat! Yay! At the end of this day, if you followed my instructions, you should have 23 Marks. If you messed up and did all the dailies before opening the new faction, you should have 17 Marks.

Days 17-19
Keep doing your dailies! Remember, though, that you only get to quest for one faction – it doesn’t matter which, though, so just pick your favorite!

Day 20 (or 21 if you messed up on Day 16)
Now is the REALLY EXCITING choice!! You get to unlock a vendor with cool stuff and more quests! But how on earth do you know which to unlock first? By reading this guide, duh! Here’s the skinny on each of them!

Additional Armaments

• Itamz: STR DPS ring, AGI trinket, INT mail boots, INT plate gloves, cloth gloves, INT leather belt, INT plate belt, STR DPS belt, STR tanking plate bracers.
• Recipes: Tons of weapons for blacksmiths, a gun and a “scope” for engineers
• No vanity items
• New dailies: Living Obsidium worth 2 Marks and either The Bigger They Are or Bye Bye Burdy, depending on if you help the Druids or the Wardens. This means…
• 30 marks per day, which means the next stage unlocks on Day 24 (or 25 if you messed up on Day 16 ).

Calling the Ancients

• Itamz: 2 STR relics, 2 STR tanking rings, 1 INT ring, AGI mail boots, AGI leather gloves, STR DPS trinket
• Recipes: Gem bag for tailors, Inscription & Mining bags for leatherworkers
• Vanity items: Bear Cub pet & Mylune’s Call
• New daily: Strike at the Heart, worth 3 Marks per day. As a result of this daily, you will have…
• New achievement: Ready for Raiding II
• 29 Marks per day, meaning the next stage will unlock on Day 25 (whether or not you messed up Day 16).

Filling the Moonwell

• Itamz: AGI ring, STR DPS ring, INT relic, AGI relic, INT trinket, tanking trinket, Off-hand
• Vanity Items: Crimson Lasher pet and a Mushroom chair
• Free killer buff food: 90 Stam/90 another stat and restores 120K health/mana over 5 seconds. WHAT.
• One-time quest: Into the Depths, which furthers the Leyara storyline. By completing this, you will get 15 Marks and…
• Achievement: Legacy of Leyara

• Short questline that rewards no marks but completes the Leyara story. In addition, you get Leyara’s Locket which turns you into a Druid of the Flame for 5 minutes.
• No new dailies, but the 15 mark head start means you’ll unlock the next stage on Day 25 (whether or not you messed up Day 16).

Day 24 or 25 (depending on your choices)
Unlock another vendor! Everything you need to know is listed above! But you are probably wondering when you’re going to get to that last guy, right?

• If you unlocked the armorer first, it’ll be day 28! (If you messed up Day 16, then choose the Moonwell to finish on Day 28; otherwise it’ll be Day 29 for you.)
• If you unlocked the Ancients first, it’ll be day 28 if you then choose the Armorer, or day 29 if you choose the Moonwell.
• If you unlocked the Moonwell first, it’ll be day 29!

Upon unlocking your 3rd vendor, be it Day 28 or 29, you will complete The Molten Front Offensive and receiving your Flameward Hippogryph!! TOTALLY EXCITING! Enjoy your flamey birdy!

Enslaved murlocs in the Red Reaches

There is a tragedy happening on shores across the world.

No matter what race you might be, there is one thing we all have in common. A desire to be free. From Night Elf to Forsaken, none among us wish to be enslaved to another’s will and we have fought back many a would be conqueror in order to preserve our freedom. Yet as you read this the murlocs of the Red Reaches and Greengill coast still live in chains, made to work for their scaly naga overlords.

It pains this writer to imagine what life must be like for the youngest of the murlocs. Baby tadpoles fresh from the water forced to join their parents as soon as they have legs, never understanding what it is like to swim free from the chains of servitude. That is a fate no child should suffer.

There are many of us who whom have had little interaction with murlocs that did not result to the use of weapons and destructive magic, and most would say that the enslavement of murlocs is none of their concern. Murlocs are dumb and delicious at the best of times- downright dangerous at the worst.

More often that not they are used as food and armor, whole communities destroyed at a whim. Little is thought of it, after all they are just murlocs. But murlocs have clans and families. Murlocs care for their tadpoles and trade within their villages. Some even use clams as currency. They work with coral, shell, and stone to create wondrous things like statues and tapestries, and many clans worship a being known as the Deep Mother. (No word yet if this is fatty snake queen Azshara.)

Now, you the reader might be saying to yourself “Sure, this is bad but… what can I do? I’m just one humanoid!” Well it only takes one person standing up to start a reaction. Why, even the smallest effort helps! Here is a small list of things an individual can do to help the plight of the murloc.

1. Refuse to use any murloc products. Soups, soaps, comestic products made from murloc slime, pickled murloc eyeballs, scales, It isn’t hard to find substitutes for these things.

2. Talk to friends. You can spread the word about murloc injustice and maybe get them to consider changing their everyday lifestyle.

3. Inform yourself. Find out what companies exploit murlocs and boycott their products!

4. Fund mercenary teams to free enslaved murlocs instead of murdering them for Westfall Stew!

These are just a few simple things you can do to make the world a better place for this developing race. Together, we can show the murlocs a better tomorrow. And in the end my dear reader, isn’t that what we all want for ourselves?