-Excerpt from a journal of Mhere Stormseer

Wonder how many dwarves end up having this conversation with a human friend? I commented on how my parents are still in love after 50 years of marriage and raising four children between two clans. A human friend in the Explorer's League asked why, if that were true, do they argue all the time? Poor lad, you'd think he's spent enough time around dwarves to know the answer to that one. Says I: "Why, because they're in love!"

Love. Such a simple word for such a sea of different emotions. I've been thinking about my friends lately. This time of year makes me sentimental, I suppose. One thing about being this close with this many people from all over the place is you get to see so many shades of what you think is a simple concept.

Look at Jama. For all she's always talking about how she'll never be a proper tauren, she's about as straightforward and tauren as you can get in that area. She loves Baine. She loves her baby. Even when drawn away, she does her duty to Azeroth but her heart stays in Mulgore and all she really wants is to get back to them. And she loves Baine. She doesn't love the High Chieftain of the Tauren Nations. She loves Baine, who just so happens to be said Chieftain. I sincerely hope Magatha Grimtotem is still alive and remains alive for another long string of years because it must be her personal version of hell to see Jama have all the power and influence she craves so much when Jama has no desire to do anything with it. Especially when you only have to see the way Baine looks at her to know the man would rip the moon out of the sky and give it to her if she asked for it. But she'd never, because she already has everything she wants. And I think she's well earned that contentment, bless her.

Compare that to Rhaspidy and Camlin, who I will never truly understand. And I suppose I'm not expected to. Rhas once commented to me that there were times she and Cam still catch each other's eye and just look at each other for a moment like, "Who the hell are you?" In her opinion, that's why they've been together for so long. Who knows? I've seen them part ways for a while, take on other lovers, but they always come back to each other. What's between them seems too violent and strange and complicated to be called 'love'. Yet, they've been devoted to each other for more time than many have been alive and I've seen myself they're both willing to give their lives for each other's sake.

Then we have the newly appointed Baron Anmare and his wildling Baroness. Talk about a devoted couple. An old name meets new money, to start with. Ethan's family still thinks he married beneath him even after all this time and all Rowen has done. His family didn't want them to be together in the first place, then they lost their daughter and Rowen was infected with the worgan curse and from the Cataclysm on, Rowen gets dragged from one world wide disaster to another. And the man never budged. Never. Every time, he was right there asking what he could do to help. The Cenarion Circle loves him almost as much as Rowen does. He's finally granted a title the way his family craves and what does he do? He officially changes his name from his venerated family name to his wife's name. That Ethan's a rare one, he is, and believe me, Rowen never misses and opportunity to say so.

Swinging to the other side of the scale again, we have Feidra. By this point I don't think it's that the Forsaken are incapable of feeling emotions anymore. I think it's just easier for them to sink into that kind of apathy. I know Feidra is capable of love, even if someone couldn't tell it from a passing glance. We've had some uneasy moments, Feidra and I, but even though she has little faith in the Light anymore, I can't find it in my heart to judge her for it after all she's been through. Her and her daughter taken by the Scourge and her husband abandoning them both in the name of the Light. Yet, they've forged a sort of family between her daughter and her crazy rogue of a brother-in-law (If you're reading this, Orrin- and I wouldn't put it past you -that description is true to the letter and you damn well know it, so shut up.) all of them fixing the broken pieces of themselves between them. It's kind of beautiful.

I've had other dwarves say my family is the perfect example of a loving family and yet I could point to Zhai and Hahji and say the same thing. Perzha slid into being a wife and mother like a glove.

Which brings me around to the one who forever haunts me. Adraste. What can I even say about Adraste? Almost anyone would laugh at the very idea she's capable of love and I can't blame them. If she hadn't been at my side so much all these years, I would have laughed too. She literally stabbed her last real lover through the heart and didn't shed a tear.

But I was there. I saw that moment Loramus handed her that dagger and told her plain and simple that if it was going to be someone, he'd rather it be her. Then he told her, "Your colors are pure chaos. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." The look on her face...it was the closest to love as I've ever seen from her. And the look on her face when she rammed that knife home was the emptiest I've ever seen on her.

Which is why it's not an easy thing, being the only other person she might feel something like love for. She's said I'm more of a sister to her than her sister of birth, which is terrifying because I know what she's capable of and I don't want to think of what she'd be willing to do for my sake. What she might have already done for my sake.

Well, that went from fanciful to frightening in a few sentences, I think I'll take that as a sign to quit musing and get a drink.

Mhere Stormseer, Ironforge Ambassador and Explorer's League representative