I wrote this recently during a period of str ess and think-block. As I wanted to make a documentary-like story of blood elves in World of Warcraft, and I had writer's block, I used the same format as in the Nation al Geographic Explorer documentary Inside North Korea.

Citation:

Yost Peter, dir. Inside North Korea.

Perfs. Lisa Ling, Brian Green, Col. John W Towers.

National Geographic, 2006.

.com/watch?v=QQXfMMHV8FM

Can be found on Youtube and Google Video.

I made this fanfic about blood elves parallel to Inside NK as a means expressing my imagination in the face of stress-induced think block.

Story starts following the "++++++++++"

Enjoy!

Inside Quel'thalas

Dir. Mara 65.

Kerning Metro TeleVision (KMTV) Films. 2001. (aired Nov. 15,2001 19:00)

INSIDE QUEL'THALAS: LIFE IN THE SECLUDED BLOOD ELF KINGDOM

Mysterious. Terrifying. Quel'thalas is the most isolated nation on the planet. Tel'kar Sin'scothar, the King and Grand Magister, rules as a god-king with an iron fist. He controls Azeroth's second largest army, and has enriched arcane fuel for weapons of mass destruction. Now, we will venture into Quel'thalas with a man on a mission. We will find a world of fear, paranoia, religious zeal, and absolute conformity, full of suspicious minders, and unimaginable horrors that many risk their lives to escape; as we try to capture the real story of life inside Quel'thalas.

THE SECLUDED LAND

July. The Zul'Ankarian Mountains. The border Quel'thalas and Lordaeron. This 541km long mountain range is the second largest mountain chain in Azeroth after the Hyjalian Range in Kalimdor.

The Zul'Ankarian Mountains, also known as the Thalassian-Lordaeron Mountains is best known for itheir role as an impregnable wall of rock separating Quel'thalas off from the rest of the Lordaerus Continent. Until the 5th War, a narrow network of roads and tunnels connected the Blood Elf Kingdom to the Eastern Kingdoms, and have since been demolished.

Conditions are exteremely treacherous if not lethal. The Zul'Ankarian Mountains rise as high as 90,000 feet, with Mt. Anestarian rising as high as 130,000 feet into the sky. Average winter temperatures are -110*C, and summer temperatures hover around -40. These peaks rise into the upper sky, scraping the Avalon Jet Stream, a current of icy air flowing at over 1200 miles an hour. Winds deflected from the Avalon Jet Stream flow downard into the valleys and gaps at over 800 miles per hour, with a windchill of over -minus 175*C. Here blizzards blow with greater force than hurricane winds, shotblasting every exposed surface with ice and snow turned shrapnel. Any living thing is shredded alive in seconds.

Every summer when weather conditions are calmer the numerous armies of Blood Elves will attempt to trek accross the Zul'Ankarians, heavily armored, buffed, and armed. Thousands of Blood Elves die from the cold or lack of oxygen. Those who survive long enough are killed off by Azeroth's coalition forces determined to not let them get through.

Despite Nature's ongoing icy wrath, the Zul'Ankarian Mountains have become the heaviest militarized borderland in Azeroth or any other country in the world. The Alliance and Horde platoons of troops of all classes are on constant alert for threats from the north.

"All good here..."
"Let's move on!"

This joint team of rogues, and soldiers, under command of the Forsaken, is responsible for stalking the region and conducting reconnaisance, suerveillance, and to sound the alarm, and to shoot and kill any Blood Elves they see.

Behind mounds of snow, chasms, geyesrs of liquid methane, trees, 40-foot fences of barbed wire, bricks, mesh, and cement, Quel'thalas has an army of 4 million Blood Elves, all likely to have level 80 or higher skills and abilities constantly battling the weather and attempting to breach the 541 mile long barrier and stretch of fortifications. They control a stockpile of mana-radiation bombs and arcane bombs that wreak more destruction than nuclear weapons. On the southern side, an army of Forsaken troops wait for the order from their Banshee Queen to attack. The undead army have at their disposal a large stockpile of bio and chemical weapons specially designed for use against Blood Elves.

In Dalaran, the Blood Elves occupy a section of the main island, and it is separated by a heavily fenced and fortified demilitarized zone called the Rouje Front. Silver Covenant-lead coalition forces are constantly on alert.

The two vast armies are growing in the Rouje Front and in the Zul'Ankarian Mountains, in a race to be more numerous and heavily armed than the other. In the Rouje Front, at the center line where the fences are, several factions from around Azeroth have troops stationed here, including the Alliance and the Horde. A history of peace between the two since the fall of Lich King Arthas Menethil has allowed for cooperation and partnership between Alliance and Horde troops along this border. Together, they have 750,000 troops along the border. The Argent Crusade is also present with another 125,000 troops watching the Forsaken. Troops from foreign countries including Maple World and Roika are also stationed here as part of this peace-keeping coalition, dedicated to deter either the Blood Elves or Undead from fighting. The Kerning City Police SWAT force has twenty five teams stationed here. The coalition force patrols the fortifications along the border, keeping away troops from either army. All are on the south side of the fences and barriers marking the border.

What makes this place so dangerous is the uncertainty of what lies on the other side of the divide.

Quel'thalas is one of the most secretive kingdoms on the planet. Despite it is just a province of Azeroth, it acts as a separate nation. It is regarded as an information black hole. But we know some basic facts: Quel'thalas is roughly the size of Alaska. It has 875 million Blood Elves, a sparkling capital: Silvermoon City, and is completely controlled by the Sin'scothar dynasty. Tel'kar Sin'scother is an absolute dictator. He is worshipped in a personality cult that is more extreme than in Henesys, or any other place in history.

Blood Elf refugee Cqynn 'Bucky,' Salore former worker in the blood elf media prior to fleeing, has an extensive knowledge on Tel'kar Sin'scothar.

"No one questions the Sin'scothar dynasty. They are absolute in every way. Their word is law. Tel'kar is the state. Questioning his motives or ability to rule will get you killed."

Every blood elf is trained from birth to worship and love the Sin'scothars. No outside sources of information are allowed. News- scrolls, radio, and TV are controlled by the regime. There is no ranged communication, mobile communication devices- magical or electronic- have been banned. And many blood elves don't even know their brethren have been on Outland.

'Bucky' defected from Quel'thalas.

[translated from Thalassian] "...there's no actual freedom. it's a kingdom run on tyranny, dictatorship, and religion. I don't think anyone can understand Quel'thalas, until they experience it."

Quel'thalas is known as a hermit kingdom because of its extreme isolation from the rest of Azeroth and the entire world.

But up in the floating city of Dalaran, one man is literally planning to bring light to the darkness of Quel'thalas. High elf eye doctor and priest Quinn Olsan travels Azeroth setting up clinics for people in war-torn and impoverished areas. Revered by the Cenarion Circle and Kirin Tor for his work, Olsan trains local healers and medics in cheap and effective treatments that don't require heal spells. Quel'thalas may be his biggest challenge yet.

Thousands of mana-less blood elves and undead blood elf slaves go blind due to exposure to arcane radiation- which disrupts vitamin distribution to their eyes. Mana-less elves are a new generation whom have evolved genes that allow their bodies to function without having to consume arcane energy and self-produced mana. However the arcane radiation poisons them and blindness is one of the many arcane-induced health problems they suffer. Undead slaves- elves or captured humans, etc are also harmed by the arcane radiation and nearly all go blind within their first two years. Maintenance by Blood Elf apothecaries is expensive and costly. A lack of care, or even attention is the main cause of this.

"..Blood Elves neglect their mana-less brethren, and refuse to treat them or provide them with elixirs that could protect them from arcane radiation. It's very rare that a mana-less elf, hell even more rare for an undead slave, is to be treated. And they're not all. There is a large number of outborns- blood elves born outside the kingdom to refugee parents. Their genetics are based on if the parents' bodies detect arcane or not, and if the parents convieved and beared a child outside, then that child will be a mana-less blood elf. Many outborns are kidnapped and brought back, and the danger of arcane rays is just a fraction of the problems they face when brought back here. Then there's a number of people- elves, humans, dwarves, maybe tauren, orcs, gnomes, dreni, who have been kidnapped and brought back to be used as slaves. Some are killed and risen into undead, regardless, they all face a likelihood of blindness."

Doctors and healers have conducted research on the matter, and have confirmed that arcane-induced blindness is temporary up to five years of exposure. Within that time limit when one is removed from arcane rays, he/she will be able to see again within 48 hours. After five years, they may face permanent blindness. The arcane radiation affects the lens, the component in the eyeball affected the most by arcane radiation. Arcane rays and vitamin defecits will cause bubbles to form in the lens, permanently obscuring vision.

Olsan plans to give his patients specially enchanted flexi-glass lens that will not require vitamins to function. The few nutrients will be distributed to the rods and cones in the back of the eyeball- nerves that convert light and color into bio-electrical signals for the brain.

Olsan plans to go to Quel'thalas and do more than 5000 surgeries in less than a month. His mission is purely humanitarian. He plans to transplant new artificial lens into the eyes of the blind, and restore their eyesight.

What the Blood Elves don't know is that our camera crew and journalists are going with him. I'm Mara 65, a reporter for KMTV. Our camera crew and Adventure Librarians are posing as members of Quinn Olsan's medical team. We're going to document his work and show the world what life is like in Quel'thalas.

The Blood Elf kingdom is the most secluded and dangerous territory in Azeroth. Adventure Librarians from Ellinia and a KMTV film crew are posing as high elf priest Quinn Olsan's medical team as the revered high elf of the Kirin Tor embarkes on an epic quest to do more than 5000 eye surgeries on Blood Elves who have lost their vision..

This meeting in a Dalaran hotel room will be the last time any of us can talk in private.

Mara: "So there will be a Blood Elf minder travelling with us the entire time from here to Silvermoon?"

Olsan: "From here to Silvermoon, and back to Dalaran, yes."

Blood Elf minders will meet us in Dalaran and monitor every step until the trip is over. Olsan knows that our Roikan cameraman, Aarne and I will be watched very carefully.

"Do you think Aarne and I will be followed?"

"Yes, without a doubt. They will be watching you all hours of the day. And take note, the red guards will have their weapons at the ready. Do as I say, and remain calm at all times, and no harm will come to you."

Our cameras, electronic devices will be fried by the arcane radiation in Quel'thalas. All we can use to record images, video and audio is with mana powered crystals. But Olsan is concerned and wants them hidden or buried in the bottom of our suitcases.

We meet with the Blood Elf minders in the Sunreavers' Sanctum, the Blood Elves' 'embassy'. They check our luggage. Olsan is fluent in Thalassian as well as English. The minder, Alore, tells us that everything is fine. After we are checked out, and given strange-tasting arcane-proof elixirs, we are good to go. Four other Blood Elves are keeping their eye on us from a distance, even when we come to Krasus Landing; the airport.

Every one of us is on edge as we wait for our flight.

The flight is not scheduled, but specially arranged. There are no scheduled flights between Dalaran and Silvermoon, only when the Sun Reavers (Quel'thalas' Blood Elf world representatives), or the higher- ups at home request transport, or when supplies are needed.

The Blood Elves have a fleet of 45 arcane-powered air ships that resemble large obscure hover planes- the only aircraft in Azeroth that can brave the below-freezing violent winds of Northrend, and the radiation of the new Sunwell, and arco-magnetic barriers over Quel'thalas itself.

After nearly sixteen hours in the air, we sneak pictures as we approach Quel'thalas. The land is covered with a canopy of gold and silver trees, as well as altered common species of coniferous and decidious trees, giving the canopy a sparkling mix of colors. The grass ranges from blue to green to purple to even black and white. Because of the arco-magnetic sheild, part of the massive climate-control system, incoming sunlight is filtered, the filtered light reflecting off of the molecules in the air, making the sky look pink. The weather is also controlled my massive climate control stations which draw water from the ocean and convert it to vapour that will eventually form clouds and produce rain.

Behind the arco-magnetic sheild, the world is almost entirely different. The air is richer in oxygen here- up to 70% of the air in Quel'thalas is oxygen gas- Blood Elves require nearly four times as much oxygen as humans.

The rest of the 30% is nitrogen, fluorine, xenon, neon, and helium. Blood Elves exhale elemental fluorine, which is highly toxic. The volumes of this gas exhaled by Blood Elves is more than enough to cause ignition of non arco-enchanted organic materials...such as our clothes, hair, and even skin. Flourine poisioning can induce abdominal pain, diarrhea, swallowing difficulty, hypersalivation (drooling), nausea, vomiting, headaches, muscle weakness, spasms, seizures, and even organ failure. Blood Elves are immune to flourine, but anyone else in Quel'thalas, even mana-less elves must take a prescribed elixir to protect their bodies from the toxic gas.

Fortunately it is absorbed as an essential nutrient by the dense vegetation in Quel'thalas. Blood Elves can adapt their breathing to various other atmosphric conditions and air mixes, changing what they inhale and ex-hale, but the atmosphere here in Quel'thalas benefits them the most.

Our minder, Alore tells us to keep two vials on each of us at all times- once containing the arcane proof, the other containing an organic compound that will break down the elemental flourine as we inhale it. He says it's a precaution although the risk of actually getting flourine poison is minimal.

When we arrive in Quel'thalas, we will find out for sure. We will be at risk of becoming seriously ill from arcane radiation, elemental fluorine, and various other naturally occuring chemical compounds in Quel'thalas. Back in Dalaran, we were warned by an officer of the Silver Covenant, an enemy watch group of the Blood Elves, that they may choose not to treat us if we fall ill. Or that they may deny us these medicine if they choose so. Our safety is best ensured by our polite, positive, unquestioning demeanour.