Lore Watch Podcast

One of the most interesting things about World of Warcraft: Forever is the possibility for new story development, and that's how we got tangled up in the question of an NPC named Shadowsong in the beta. Is it one of those Shadowsongs? Probably not. (It's a common name.) But could we see new stories about what Maiev or Jared are up to at the beginning of World of Warcraft? Maybe, and that&#...

Xal'atath is the subject of the first bit of another Lore Watch Podcast. Frequent listener Daikaiju had the astute observation that Xal'atath seemed upset that the Watcher didn't pay attention to her baiting, which she's always done to throw her enemies off. That could be because Xal'atath is a literal child -- at least, mentally. Is that why she didn't just use Sargeras&#3...

Do you remember back in vanilla WoW , when we were tasked with things like bringing a guard his lunch, or trying to find some guy's wife who was taking a while to get back, and now we're spitting in the face of god and saving the soul of the world? If you miss stories like the former, how on earth would we de-escalate from the current all-encompassing world-ending conflict to just hanging...

World of Warcraft: Forever is the hottest title in Blizzard's catalogue, so of course we're diving in to some of the lore of Forever in this first post-BlizzCon episode. We start with a question on the war between the Alliance and the Horde, which makes for a great excuse to recap a lot of the conflict through the whole Warcraft series. From the moment the Dark Portal opened, Orcs and Huma...

With the new  Lanterns  show, Joe and Matt wanted to discuss the lore of  The Green Lantern , though without spoiling the plot of the new show. They start off discussing the comic in its place in comics history and its parallels to the Flash. The core of the conversation discusses Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart, three of the more iconic Lanterns. The show centers on Hal a...

Lore Watch this week is all about what might be next for  World of Warcraft  which is quite apropos since we're waiting on BlizzCon. First is the predictions for what we might see in  The Last Titan  and beyond. The Arathi and Avaloren is one possibility, and Matt, Joe, and Eric explore how that could come to pass, either as a tentpole for the next expansion, or just a part of...

This week's Lore Watch kicks off with a question based on a  datamined spoiler  which will be revealed as we come to toward the end of patch 12.1, as we finally uncover the goal Xal'atath has been working toward since before she was besties with a nameless Shadow Priest ( Mitch ). As usual, her now-revealed motivations may have a knock-on effect on certain aspects of both far-ranging lor...

Anduin Wrynn's kingship — and distinct lack thereof — is the first topic this week on the Lore Watch Podcast. He's been off either having adventures or healing from those adventures for nearly his entire reign, so what could happen for Anduin to truly embrace his throne as a ruler? Joe, Matt, and Eric run down the series of events that led him here, and conjecture about his future. Then, we talk G...

The very forces that underpin the  World of Warcraft  universe itself are the topic of this week's Lore Watch Podcast. We're all familiar with mana, from the earliest days of playing the first Mage that got absolutely destroyed by troggs outside Anvilmar. Anima is its newer, redder... cousin? How do these two things interact with each other?  Are  they related? Joe, Eric, and M...

Doom 's gore-fueled Hell was one of those games Tipper Gore woke up in cold sweats dreaming about in the 90s when they were all about censoring things for the good of the children. The story of  Doom  was initially a bit light on the ground (of Mars), being mostly just a vehicle for good ol fashioned wanton violence. But there have been so many entries in the series that now that  D...

Lore Watch Podcast starts off with a dive into the lore of the Midsummer Fire Festival, particularly since so much was added over the past few years. How has this little event about a melting ice stone grown to reflect the culture of fire and summer in the different races? Then, we go back to the Shadowlands for the rest of the podcast. We start with actually getting there. If we were the only Maw...

Looking back and knowing what we do about Harandar and the deep roots of the World Trees, do we owe Fandral an apology in hindsight? Matt and Joe have a lot of lore to back up their answer, which is like 20 minutes worth of "lol, no." A stopped clock may be right twice a day, but it's still broken, and Fandral Staghelm didn't just ask us humbly for Morrowgrain. All bets are off when you try to re-...

In  World of Warcraft , we've come across several shattered worlds, in varying degrees of obliteration. From Outland to K'aresh, these worlds have been corrupted with various forces, were shredded into near-oblivion, and some looked as though they may have some kind of shot at redemption against all odds. But what about their world souls? How does each world soul relate to the creation of the...

Lore Watch kicks off with a discussion from  Diablo 4  this week, which breaks the seal on the  Lord of Hatred  spoilers. This question concerns the Chekov's Gun that was Neyrelle's lopped off arm. Matt and Joe discuss the possibility that Neyrelle isn't truly, fully dead, as through the lens of that arm, which apparently washed up on shore in Skovos, despite being cut off in a...

The lore of the games from Remedy and how the two series  Alan Wake  and  Control  are linked is the topic of this week's Lore Watch Podcast. Both games are about events that shift from what the main characters know to be true, into something which couldn't possibly be true, if what they already knew to be true was real. Both games have a sense of wrongness and eerieness —&nbsp...

The Loa of death Bwonsamdi is the first topic in this week's Lore Watch Podcast. Bwonsamdi was everywhere in  Battle for Azeroth , even being a major driver of events in that expansion. But now that we have a whole Troll area packed with Loa in  Midnight , he hasn't joined the party yet. Why? He seems like a party kind of guy. And where is he, if he isn't here, and what is he up to? Then...

This week we take a deep dive — pun obviously intended — into the lore and psychology of Azshara, the ruler of the Naga on Azeroth. But first, we have a lighthearted question from a listener, asking for the lore justification against being able to Skyride on the sad little ghost gryphon when you're dead. I agree. This feels extra bad. Clearly there must be a lore reason why we can't. Then we turn...

We start off Lore Watch this week wishing Mephisto a Happy Father's Day -- but are there any other fathers among the evils of  Diablo ? Then, we pivot to  World of Warcraft  and another set of world-shaking entities. We saw what happened when we killed a Titan and kicked off  Shadowlands , but what happens when a world soul dies? Do they just get to hang out in Ardenweald forev...

This week, our hosts Matthew Rossi and Joe Perez are tackling the absolutely massive universe of Warhammer 40,000. It's so massive that they can only scratch the surface of it in the time they have, so this is a great primer of one big facet of the setting -- The God-Emperor of Man. They cover a bit of the Horus Heresy, all the way up to the current events happening in the universe. Who is the God...

In this  Diablo 4  spoiler-laden lorefest, Joe and Matt discuss the end of the campaign from  Lord of Hatred  and where it may lead next. The link between Lilith and Mephisto and us was a core element in  Lord of Hatred , and we're discussing the nature of that link, and what that knife had to do with it, anyway. And speaking of that knife, where is Lilith now? Come to thi...

Diablo 4  lore junkies are in for a treat this week as Matt and Joe run down a spoiler-filled recap and analysis of the story of the latest expansion,  Lord of Hatred . Did I mention that it's spoiler filled? Because  it's truly spoiler filled . From the shocking death in the opening cinematic Blizzard posted to the official YouTube channel, to the shocking death toward the end of t...

Astalor Bloodsworn is the character at the center of the  Midnight  expansion's Prey feature, but this isn't the first time we've seen him. Matt, Joe, and Eric discuss his history, which dates back to the release of  The Burning Crusade  20 years ago. They're answering listener questions this week, and the next topics diverge from that pretty wildly, examining how the  WoW...

We lead off the week with the history of the most important lore figure of all time to  World of Warcraft : Millhouse Manastorm. From his incredibly auspicious beginnings to his even more auspicious middle, and the implausibly auspiciouser current machinations, Matt and Joe showcase this crucial figure in lore. What's after that is clearly less important, but eh, our listeners had some questi...

A lot of our travels as Lorewalkers seem to revolve around what events are happening in  World of Warcraft , and Childrens' Week is no exception. As we cart these vulnerable children around to various areas of incredible peril, it re-showed us several spots around Azeroth that made us say, "oh yeah, what was up with that?" Our frequent listener and question-asked scribbleigh asked us several...

If you could choose a high king for the Alliance, who would you choose? Because who...  is  the high king of the Alliance right now, anyway? That's the first question on the docket this week. Joe, Matt, and Eric also discussed the races they'd like to see again, or more in-depth. 'Member Yrel, you guys? Then, to close it out: as a massive, glowing font of power, was The Sunwell just alwa...