~*~ Author's Notes ~*~
Most of these were notes that appeared at the beginning of various chapters. I compiled them here to make it easier on anyone reading from the beginning.
1. The last thing I need to be writing about is WoW fanboy out-of-touch-with-reality tripe, abomination to good writers everywhere, and spiting in the face of pulizer-prize material.
2. I don't own World of Warcraft. This story begins in the early part of the Burning Crusade era.
3. MC's physical description is not given initially (because the first chapters are written almost first-person and people don't think of themselves in terms of descriptions) and so I write a quick summary here: Dark blue hair, braided. Smallish lips, pinkish. Light purple skin. No facial markings; no moon markings on the animal forms. Silver eyes that gradually turn amber. Smaller shifted forms because she is a teen aged Night Elf and they are smaller than the adult version. I assume their forms would grow as they did.
4. Not all of the characters that appear here are mine, and some names have been changed to protect the shameless. If you own any of these characters feel free to track me down; you know which server we lived on. There's still a spot in Desolance I can't pass without going back to those days.
5. Reviews are nice: What is your reaction to the chapter? Did you feel emotions and what were they? Did you feel the descriptions were too vague or too purple? Is my OC becoming a Mary Sue? Do you have specific questions I didn't realize I had posed and would like answers latter on? And of course spelling, grammatical errors (in quotes if possible so I can track it easier).
6.. Retcons are noted at the beginning of any chapter they appear in, as well as deviations from established in-game lore. See next note, however.
7. Blizzard whores their lore and game rules so I am apt to do the some once in a great while. Example: Tyrande is a priestess whose primary fighting tool is a giant striped cat and an elven longbow and has the ability to cast Druid-class-only Starfall. Ya-rly! This leaves me open to be quite creative in what I can let a character get away with if circumstances present themselves.
8. I removed the epilogue because I feel it ruined the story for a great many who otherwise did not want to find out certain PLOT SPOILERS that way. Fortunately I left out 90% of what happened in the first place and only hit the high notes so the entire story (including the climatic finish) were not ruined.
9. Added: Sep 1 to reflect the Aug 28 patch: All Druid forms mentioned in this story are the ORIGINAL Druid forms. Bears with closed mouths = awesome. Jewelry on a jungle cat = tacky. I decided to name the MCs travel form from day one (the only named mob in the game who has that skin) because I knew they would change druid forms someday and I would not want to go into chapters already written (posted or otherwise) and explain that 'travel form' means a leopard and not whatever they replaced it with in-game. Original forms means that all bears and cats of tauren and night elf races look the same within their race, the only variations being tattoos, size, age, and wear and tear. All travel forms, tree forms and special-ed mutated seal forms look the same (Shout out to anyone who ever did that pain in the arse quest back in Vanilla for a form you never used!) and are also the original forms. Hoof and Horn Lodge no. 1 was not accepting new initiates at the time this story was written and did not open their doors to new members until the end of Cata. Therefore there is a lore reason (by that I mean excuse!) for me not to go back and change her forms to the newer ones. There are pictures online of the original forms if you need a reference.
So here goes!
*ahem*
~*~ Prologue in Note Form~*~
Cause I suck at writing good dramatic prologues
(see "Ghosts of the Past" as example, lol)
Prince Kael'thas has just stepped threw the Dark Portal. He is not as yet evil, and he loves his people as much as his people love him.
Silvermoon is still half a wastelands and not all of the quel'dorie have decided which side they are on, that of the sin'dorie or that of the Alliance.
The sin'dorie are honored guests in Horde territory but as of yet have not proven themselves to the Warchief that they have severed all ties to their former allies in Stormwind.
Also that little problem of Darkhan Drathnir still lording it over the Scourge of the Ghostlands from his fortress of Deathknell…
The Draenie have not yet crashed on Azurmyst Isles (yes, that early in BC).
The Blood Nights and ( ^ ) Alliance Shamans do not exist yet.
Zul'aman is still a (10 man level 70) hotspot of troll activity that once against threatens a crippled Quel'dorie people.
It's a well-known fact that the Banshee Queen we hate to love from before has become OOC in Cata. In lue of that I have a surprise in store for her fans at the end. She appears in one section of this story as the old Sylvanas that existed in Vanilla, BC and LK; I'm pretending the Cata Sylvannas is a technical glitch that exists in the computer system of the Lore Department at Blizz and once they get the virus (Plauge?) out then all will return to normal.
Anduin Wryn still rules Stormwind with Lady Prestor at his side.
Malfurion Stormrage lies in the Emerald Dream.
Paladin's can and will bubble-hearth.
Druids and shamans still find talking to vendors and drinking potions in their animal forms somewhat difficult and have opted to only try doing these activities while in human form.
As a general rule Druids do not fight each other on the battlefield. This unspoken rule applies to every Druid.
Fandaral Staghelm still resides in Darnassus, corruption as yet unknown and still in control of the Night Elf Druids and in turn has political control of half of Darnassus. He and Tyrande make it no secret that they each wish the other a swift death and are willing to pay if someone could do it without inciting riots.
