Straight Outta Azeroth: An Introduction
One Dwarf's story, across twenty years of virtual time and space.
When I made the decision to begin writing about one of the most significant periods of my existence thus far, little thought was given to the order in which that would take place. As a neurodivergent person, it is common for me to inhabit many timelines and headspaces simultaneously. That, however, does not make for good storytelling, and this adventure demands a very particular narrative as accompaniment.
When I first began this writing project, life was a fair deal simpler than it now is. So much has changed in such a short space of time, it now seems sensible to incorporate those new elements into this overarching timeline. That left only one missing piece, and that was to resubscribe to the MMO that I’d left in 2018 to concentrate on a real life quest to convince other people to publish my written work.
I got the Achievement for my first poetry pamphlet back in November 2022, just after World of Warcraft’s 18th birthday. I resubscribed to the game in late September 2023, and I’ve been playing ever since. There needed to be an Epilogue where my OC (original character) was able to find peace, and I was able to stand alongside her with the same sense of achievement. That happened a few weeks ago.
That’s when I knew I was ready to start telling the story of what this game means to me and how it quite literally saved my life.
We’ll use this space in the following months to post a selection of fictional works, plus lyrical and conventional poetry, telling a story that began back in March 2005, when my youngest was born. They drew me the picture below of my character and her bear companion just before I left the game, thinking it would be for good. There’s someone I also have to thank for making me consider a return: Barbara Kirbyshaw, who with Darren Beaney were responsible for publishing my debut pamphlet, Flammable Solid.
On the night of what was a reasonably disastrous real life launch, Barbara and I sat in a pub and had a pre-match drink. She asked me: what one thing could you write about easily without thinking too hard about it? I could have picked Science Fiction, the world of 007 (which I have fanfic written for) or many of my niche musical interests, but my brain decided it would be World of Warcraft I would fixate on for many months.
At that point, I knew the reason, but couldn’t reconcile the emotional damage that exposing those memories to the light would cause. So I trusted the process and wrote whilst assessing where the conversations too me. In the last year, my writing style has altered significantly as a result of interaction with other poets and a supportive and encouraging mentor. In March, I knew it was time to start the manuscript.
The ‘old’ content is now edited to my current standard, and we are ready to begin our journey. However, there is some stuff many of you will need to know first.
It’s almost impossible to distil two decades of the game into a sensible, understandable primer, but this video does a decent job of showing you a) what it all looks like and b) what the basic experience entails. Then, knowing what it is that I fell in love with, it is time to go back when stuff looked a lot more basic than it does now. Classic Warcraft (or Vanilla as I will refer to it as) was just that: you, a character and 60 levels to work through. This is the start of our adventure.
World of Warcraft was released on November 23rd, 2004.
I begin playing in March 2005. My son was five. My youngest had been born four months after the game launches, and as a bunch of RL friends at the time are playing…
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A bitter cold in driving snow a single Dwarf stands Stoic bear companion at their arm one day he will be me except that they are running up the road from Kharanos to Ironforge off to learn another skill perhaps we will try Cookery today before they fly to Menethil to quest A Night Elf Druid sprints fluid leap shape-shifting into inky black cat form one day a bloke from Wolverhampton will spend three full nights a week grinding mats to manufacture cloaks sold upon the Alliance Auction House which will in time turn him into a self-made gold leathered millionaire An Undead Warlock summons their next minion a terrifying Fel Green Infernal one night a week this Swedish dentist spends an evening with her friends running dungeons for the gold to buy reagents she requires that eventually are used to summon her own class specific mount A Tauren stands upon Thunder Bluff sprinkling his blessing to the winds in time he will become my son mightiest of warriors playing this game he grew up watching upon my knee gathering the skills required until he learned to play himself and joined a Raiding Guild Decades have passed since so many banded together mortal races covering each creed and colour a game that redefined the genre where people married lived and died as red or blue two factions of a World that still remains like it or not alive within my veins...
If you have any comments on the work, I’d love to hear them <3