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After twenty-eight years of war between the Empire and Republic, the Emperor sent an offer of peace between the two sides.  The war going badly for the Republic, the offer was too promising to turn down.  Little did they know that it was a ruse.  High-ranking Sith Lord, Darth Andral was placed in command of a force to catch the Republic by surprise and take the capital planet of Coruscant.  Malgus was given the privilege of leading the attack on the Jedi Temple.  Not pleased to have a rival, Lord Andraas, accompanying the small strike team of Sith, Malgus was all too happy to be the one given the honor of destroying the center of the Jedi order.  Accompanied only by his wife Eleena, Malgus walked right in the front door of the Jedi Temple, killing any guards that stood in his way.  Upon entering, Malgus and Eleena were confronted by a the small force of Jedi in the Temple, most of the Jedi were on Alderaan for the peace negotiations.  The Jedi surrounded the two, only seeing the shuttle filled with Sith warriors flying straight towards them only as it was about to come crashing through the door.  Everyone in the main hall area fled, all except Malgus and Eleena and a single Jedi, Master Zallow.  Instead of run from the shuttle as it rammed through the door and skidding to a halt behind Malgus, Zallow took his eyes from him.  No fear, Malgus approved and nodded to him in a show of respect.

The Sith forces coming from the wrecked shuttle, the Jedi returning from their positions of safety from the crash, the two sides seemed evenly matched.  The Sith, however, had the advantages of surprise and a Mandalorian bounty hunter whom was silently taking out Jedi forces in the Temple even before the shuttle’s crash.  Malgus had reason enough to want to kill Zallow.  He was Jedi, killing him would be a boom to his reputation within the Sith heirachy.  Seeing Zallow force push Eleena into a wall before she took a blaster shot to the chest was enough to send his rage to boiling.  Sith derive their power from emotion, and he used the rage inside him to make him only more stronger, faster and think more clearly as he directed his hate towards Zallow.  The Jedi fought well. but Malgus knew patience would eventually lead Zallow to make a mistake.  Growing confident after a strike which knocked Malgus’ respirator loose, Zallow attempted to finish him off but only found Malgus’ lightsaber driving through him.  “It’s all going to burn,” Malgus told him as he pulled his weapon free, the Jedi’s last thought being, “I’ve failed,” while Imperial forces sacked the crown jewel of the Republic.  Eleena survived, only because Malgus fought the Empire policy of treating aliens in their first-class facilities.  The seeds of Malgus’ disdain for the Empire were being sown. Read more…

The Star Wars universe is surely one of the most iconic of American culture.  Practically everyone has at least some kind of reference of the films’ classic imagery.  Whether it be glowing light swords, evil guys in black samuri-looking helmets. a tiny green man using something called “the Force,” we all know at least something about the Star Wars universe. The problem is, most people’s understanding ends there.  In truth, the galaxy started by George Lucas and expanded by fans is a world arguably as in-depth as Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

Whenever you read something about Star Wars lore, there is always the mention of some year that makes no sense at all to you.  What the hell do years like 3667 BBY really mean?  Just like we have our modern calender years divided by major events, BC and AD the line made around the time of Christ, the Star Wars universe does much the same thing.  Sometimes there is a reference to BTC/ATC, using the Before/After the Treaty of Coruscant that we will be picking up right after when playing The Old Republic.  This, however, is the exception.  Most often, you will see years in terms of BBY/ABY, or Before/After the Battle of Yavin, the end battle at the end of Episode IV where Luke Skywalker destroys the first Death Star.  Now that you have an idea of what a Star Wars year is, it is time to get into some of the history of the galaxy we will be playing in The Old Republic.  Read more…

This week we take a closer look at the lore and legend behind the Draenei race and the collision that brought them to Azeroth.

If you have a suggestion for an upcoming episode of Lands of Lore, send an e-mail to eulixe@rawrcast.com or tweet me at @Eulixe!

See, I haven’t deserted you like Stomp and Haf. Ladies and Gentleladies your weekly dose of Lands of Lore awaits each week here on Rawrcast.com or BindonEquip.com during Stomp and Haf’s break. If you are interested in a full video version of the segment let me know and I’ll get on it, although I think I need to work out a way to improve the quality.

Hope you’re all doing fantastically good!

Eulixe

World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm by Christie Golden has perhaps the longest name of any WoW novel to date, and definitely the largest amount of colons. The Shattering tells the story of the events leading up to “the shattering,” the event where Deathwing emerges from Deepholm and causes mass destruction across Azeroth. This is the first time a WoW novel has been released to advance the story in preparation for an expansion (namely Cataclysm), and seeing the events of The Shattering occurring in parallel with in-game events is quite exciting.

The Shattering is the first of three novels describing the events of the Cataclysm. We learn about the politics of the Alliance and the Horde leading up to Cataclysm and how the Twilight’s Hammer cult and other evil organizations seek to cause havoc in preparation for Deathwing’s arrival. The story alternates between Horde and Alliance events, intertwining them at times when the events happen to overlap. Read more…

Hello Rawrcast Listeners and readers, Eulixe here bringing you another episode of Lands Of Lore.

As you might of been able to tell from listening to the show, the audio on the last few episodes of LoL has been a little.. OK, OK, a complete shambles.

For what ever reason, my computer decided to start exporting things in a weird way. Everything is sorted now though, and things should resume as normal. As for the episodes affected, I’ll be uploading them right here on Rawrcast so you can check them out.

I thought reviewing World of Warcraft books would be easy but I was wrong. I have started 3 of them and put them down because they just rehash the story already told in-game. To me, they are lacking originality needed to keep a reader interested.  I chalk it up to the game developers putting so many stories in-game that it is hard for an author to come up with something original set in that world without having to change the Lore.  So what is a gamer to do other than find something similar to read? Fantasy seems to be the answer to this quest!

So with that in mind, I was asked to come up with a list of fantasy books that I thought would appeal to WoW gamer.  This was perfect timing as I just attended a SciFi/Fantasy conference this weekend and was lucky enough to meet a ton of authors.  I was really impressed with how popular Fantasy is becoming again.  Creatively, I think this is the most diverse genre as basically the rules are whatever the authors mind can create.   There are some great creative minds out there so the options are limitless. Read more…

Whenever you have a universe as big as Warcraft, retcons and inconsistency are inevitable. There are so many things going on written by so many people in many places. To me, Icecrown as a zone and as a raid instance was the epitome of this unfinished, chaotic mess of storytelling.

Lets start out with my initial expectations of what I thought I was going to see when I first arrived in Icecrown. Back when Arthas was racing Illidan to the Frozen Throne (so that Arthas could “save” Ner’zhul and Illidan could kill him) during the last events of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, as well as the Arthas novel and other sources of lore, Illidan and his allies had arrived in Icecrown well before Arthas and were sieging the Citadel. They had built up considerable defenses, and Arthas arrived by exploring the underground tunnels of Azjol-Nerub.
Read more…