Lore Watch Podcast

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...

This week, Joe, Matt, and special guest Liz Harper read the newly released  Diablo  novel  The Lost Horadrim  by Matthew Kirby, and are here to share their thoughts. This is where I'd make a joke about that new book smell, but it's  Diablo  so I don't want to think about smelling anything. In terms of time, the book is set between the events of  Diablo 3  an...

Is  Midnight  the Elf-centric team-up expansion of our dreams, or what? That's the listener question which serves as our jumping off point this week. And our cohosts conclude: Yes, mostly! Indeed,  Midnight  is the elf-o-rama we've always wanted -- nay, deserved. Matt, Joe, and Eric point out some of their shared elf-y foibles (must we always have a singular, vulnerable font of...

This week's Lore Watch Podcast takes us back in the day, with a couple questions that ask about lore from the vanilla days. We start off talking arcs. The Alliance has a great arc involving the Defias in their initial starting zone, which evolves to involve Lady Prestor in the middle levels, all the way up to Onyxia at cap. The Lore Watch crew discuss the various threads of the Horde narrative tha...

Comic book artist Sam Kieth passed away earlier this month as a result of Lewy Body dementia, so our Lore Watch Podcast team wanted to take an episode to talk about his impact on the genre and pop culture as a whole. Both Sam Kieth's art style and plotlines shaped comics as we moved into a more grimdark take on the old heroes. Sam's comic  The Maxx  put him on the map, and his collaborat...

Joe, Matt, and Eric sat down this week to discuss the dragons of  World of Warcraft , starting with their origins as proto-dragons, and all the way up through more modern politics. With many thanks for the great questions, we start off with proto-dragons: why do they call themselves that? Seems like they might call themselves "dragons" and come up with something new for those long-armed fello...

This week Joe and Eric were joined by Liz, and it was a great opportunity to begin discussing the abundance of Loa we've had in  Midnight  so far. Our cohosts discussed some of the ins and outs of becoming a Loa, and talked about what they thought they might be the Loa of one day, since none of them were nepo babied into the situation. After that they moved into Harandar and its relation...

We love answering your questions, especially when it lets us don our tinfoil hat. Our first question this week was relatively straightforward: If you were to run a  WoW  TTRPG for a Horde campaign and an Alliance campaign, what would it be? With three hosts, there were six varied answers. We move from there to conflict among the Titans, and why some all-powerful beings might clash. Speak...

This week our usual crew of Joe, Matt, and Eric was joined by Liz to discuss William Gibson's novel  Neuromancer . This 1984 novel was foundational to the cyberpunk genre in many ways, from establishing the grittiness of the setting all the way down to shaping the way this genre looks and feels across different types of media. The crew discuss themes through  Neuromancer  which are...

We thank our listeners and patrons for giving us another round of great questions, which we summarily answered and used as a diving board directly into the deep end of tin foil hat theories and speculation. First, who was the elf Xal'atath is currently using for a body? While we do have a pithy answer to this identity courtesy of a particular quest line, there's also a broader lore implication in...

Our readers dutifully sent in questions, and our three hosts -- Joe, Matt, and Eric -- gave them all the answers they could want, and more. They start off with a discussion on the music of  WoW , spurred by the inclusion of Player Housing decor, and how Taurens all got drums. It evolves from there, to discuss how the themes present within in-game music mirror real life music characteristics....

Our listeners had a lot of questions for the Lore Watch crew this week, and they all center on  Midnight , specifically the role of the Void and Old Gods. Is there another forgotten Old God waiting in the wings? Will all the Old Gods come back to wreak havoc during The Last Titan? Perhaps most tantalizingly in light of the events to come, with all this Void power at her command, what exactly...

As we make our way into the  Midnight  prepatch and beyond, Matt, Joe, and Eric take the opportunity to recap the lore of  The War Within . In case you missed it -- or maybe missed some of the signs leading up to it, or through it -- we have the story. It starts with a literal bang, and the destruction of Dalaran. The implications of that, from how it affects the plot all the way to...

This week Joe is joined by our writer Eric O'Dea to discuss  Blood Ties , the newest  WoW  novel. The events of  Blood Ties happen between the end of The War Within but just before  Midnight  -- basically when we are right now. As such,  there will be spoilers for both  Blood Ties  and a little bit of what we know happens in  Midnight . Joe and Eri...

This week Joe and Matt are answering another listener question, this time concerning Paladins, and how they serve as an intersection between the divine Light, and the Titans who shaped Azeroth. As you might imagine, the answer will span the cosmos, and go completely off the rails in the process. Paladins in particular serve as a mash-up between some Light power and Titanic power -- does that mean...