The Part Where I Make Things Up

Okay, so yesterday, we talked about the controversy sweeping the WoW nation, the whole "OMG Goblins and Worgen" business. We pretty much talked facts and facts alone, and trust me when I say it took a lot of willpower for me to do lot, and not start talking excitedly about what this could mean and what could happen. Well, since I was so good yesterday, today is my reward- where I get to make up a scenario that would be lore-relevant and likely as to why Gilneas might have become a Worgen nation. If you don't buy into all this theorizing, or you don't play WoW? Just think of it as a neat story. I am primarily a fiction writer, after all.

Okay, so we start off with Gilneas... it's near the beginning of the Third War, and they've shut themselves off from the rest of the world. They're a very self-sufficient nation, and unbeleaguered by the Horde or Scourge, they're doing just fine on their own. They no longer have access to the finer goods as might be crafted by the other nations, but in their minds, it's a small price to pay to not have to deal with petty politics and war- and make no mistakes, the politics of Azeroth are often very petty indeed.

But one day, just coincedentally... wandering Worgen happen upon the untouched lands of Gilneas. The nation is surronded by the tall Greymane wall, and left very lightly guarded, for what would they need to guard it from...? Worgen, lest it be forgotten, are vicious, but quite intelligent- they wear primitive clothes, travel in packs, display surprising cunning, and some even wear primitive weapons, and speak Common/Orcish (depending on your faction- both sides can understand them when they speak). And to them, this wall is initially merely an intriguing oddity, but after a little investigation, they find a way in. Here, I can't even guess how, I just don't have enough information to work with- hole in the wall, gap in the wall, climb over the wall, maybe swim AROUND the wall... something. It's sort of the classic horror situation- you create this nearly impenetrable fortress, but when chance has it that something slips through the one flaw in the design, it suddenly becomes your cage- just as it kept the bad out, it keeps you in, and you can't escape.

The Worgen move into the woods of Gilneas, upsetting the wildlife, but not having any significant encounters for a while, until they run into a hunter travelling through the woods. And again, now we come across one of the mysteries of this situation- we know that Worgen can turn people into other Worgen, but we have no idea how that works. Magical curse, disease, do they actually cast some magic, how does it work? I'm going to just call it the Curse for now, but this is one field that we would really need to learn more about. They give the hunter the Curse (which, of course, would take time to kick in), and he runs home scared and a little injured. He's got a fever, he's ranting about these huge wolf-men, and so the doctors decide he was attacked by a wolf, and his injury got infected. Not at all a rare condition, though certainly a dangerous one. And for a little while, life goes on.

Finally, the hunter's fever passes, and he feels okay again. He gets up, and prepares to go out for a day's work. But something is different. He feels... different. Enough cheesy exposition- he's turned into a Worgen, and pretty quickly falls into the Worgen line of behavior, attacking people. Only this time, it's not some guy in the woods getting attacked, it's lots of people, right in the middle of town. And just like an outbreak of the plague, the Curse spreads, quickly and efficiently. These people know nothing of the Worgen, have no experience with fighting them or their Curse, and thus are defenseless against it. And one by one, people turn into Worgen. And after that... ten by ten, and more.

The Gilneans are panicked. This Curse is consuming their country, this epidemic threatening their very humanity. At the beginning, they refuse to contact the outside because, as ever, they think they can handle it themselves. But later, they refuse to contact the outside because they're afraid of what would happen. How does one stop a plague? Quarantine, and wait for everyone infected to die. And they don't want that to be them. They want to stop its spread... they want to cure the infected. And they cannot stand to just kill the Cursed. It's not like these creatures are just bloodthirsty monsters- they were once their neighbors, their friends, their family. They can't just kill them. They need to cure them. And so the quest for a cure begins.

Medicine proves its failures early on, having absolutely no effect on the rampaging Curse. A very small percentage of people are shown to be immune to the Curse, and so they are studied, and determined to all have some inherent magic resistance. As it a magic problem, the mages are called in, and after numerous spectacular failures, they sadly admit that they are beaten. And so the nation is faced with no cure, no way out, and no hope. And in this most desparate hour, the priests and paladins of the Holy Light join together, and lift their hands to the skies, praying for an answer, praying for help. Praying for some way to cure it all.

And miraculously, their prayers are answered, in a way. As the Curse spread, early on, Gilneas realized how dangerous the Curse could be were it to spread to any outsiders... and also, how some outsiders might take advantage of their country's weakened state. So in response, they placed hidden sentries on the Greymane Wall- skilled rogues who could watch and guard without being seen, for Gilneas did not want to even indicate that anything had changed. They had used no guards in the past, and a sudden heavy presence on the wall would be a red flag to the rest of the world. And one day, a Night Elf woman began beating on the gate, demanding entry, and claiming that she knew about their wolf-man problem, and that she could help. The sentries were alarmed, and captured the woman, and let her inside, escorting her to the new head of state (ironically, the stubborn monarch Genn Greymane was naturally resistant to the Curse, so the Worgen simply killed him).

She introduced herself as Velinde Starsong....

(To be continued in another post. Damn, I am really getting carried away. The next post will be the last time I rave about this, I promise.)