There is no place like Home – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth is

What does ‘home’ mean in your book? Do you have a particular home in Azeroth – a place you feel you belong, that you know like the back of your hand, or that you feel more comfortable in than anywhere else? Would this be different for different characters or different factions, or is there just a place that really resonates with you? Do you think Cataclysm will prompt you to find new and different turf, or will you be heading back there first thing to see what might have changed? If it is destroyed, how do you think that will affect your experience of the game, or your characters’ lives? Or do you think the whole idea of having a home doesn’t even really apply to a game?

suggested by Sionel of Eight Paws.

This topic really resonated with me for two reasons. First of all, I spent my childhood moving around from place to place, country to country and for much of my life, I never had a clear place that I called home. Besides that I recently faction changed my Priest from the Alliance to the Horde. The places that I had always called “home” before in game, are suddenly rather unfriendly. The Dwarves of Loch Modan for example, don’t seem to want a Bloodelf moving in next door even though I’m sure my presence would send the house prices shooting up. Yet, whilst I was Alliance, I had always imagined that when I came to leave the game, my Priest would log for one last time on the shores of the Loch. I had my eye on one of those little houses cut into the earth with baskets of flowers sitting on the porch. Perhaps a table in the garden so I could sit and sip my honeymint tea watching the world go by as the sun went down.

Now as Horde, I’m struggling to find a new “home” for her. I’m drawn towards two rather different places but I’m not sure why. The first is Brill.

I’ve always liked graveyards and that’s certainly one thing the Forsaken do well, add in the fact that every day is Hallows End here and it’s certainly somewhere that my Priest enjoys spending time. I’ve always imagined all the Forsaken zones to be peaceful and quiet. To quote from Emily Dickinson‘s “Because I could not stop for Death“, that’s how I see the Undead.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

Time has less of a meaning, things get done at a slower pace. The only sounds are the whispering of ancient bones and the wind whistling through twisted trees. I wouldn’t recommend eating at the Inn though, Brill is definitely a bring your own picnic basket type of place.

The muted colours, heavy sky and broken down buildings contrast starkly with the other contender for her “home”, Eversong Woods.

Although perhaps underneath, they aren’t that different at all. In both, there is something rotten, it’s just that in the case of Brill, they don’t bother disguising the smell of rot. Eversong Woods on the other hand, has gilded the lily but underneath it still festers. I’m drawn to the bright colours though, the reds, pinks and golden hues of the trees which look as if someone painted them on. There is a façade about the place, it’s like the Bloodelf finger nails, always painted no matter how much blood, guts and ooze we cover our hands in. Style over substance, beauty is only skin deep as my mother always said.

Just like Deathwing, I intend viewing the Cataclysm as a new beginning. If the sky falls in on Brill or Eversong Woods, my heart wouldn’t break. In a sense, both places probably deserve it.