Blog Azeroth: Headcanon

This week Akabeko offered up this topic for the Blog Azeroth weekly topic:

Canon refers to the actual events and characters that exist in a fictional world. Headcanon refers to any situations or characters that are imagined by fans of said fictional world. Sometimes they are silly, like the fact that Garrosh's favorite treat is lemon squares. Sometimes they are serious, like positing that tauren store grief in the lungs. For my writing, I've come up with a lot of headcanon. Got a theory about a torrid romance between your favorite auctioneer and the patrolling guard? Given any thought to where mounts and pets go when they aren't summoned? Do you know how your characters do their laundry, or what Baine Bloodhoof does in his free time? What are your headcanons, and where did you get the idea?

A bit of warning before you continue. There will be a bit about Pandaria in this post. Specifically one of the lower level dungeons. So if your trying to prevent yourself from learning anything about what's to come. I suggest you leave now and come back after you've finished exploring though Mists on your own. 

Mogolympics - Wrestling, Archery, and Javelin

The Javelin winners have recently been announced so I figured it was time to post about my outfits again. As of this writing I'm currently tied for second in overall medals with the entrant from Darkspeare.

Wrestling

I wasn't too surprised to learn that I didn't win any medals for this event because my look is definitely more death knight than wrestler. But I still think Tyledres look pretty good. I think part of my problem was choosing to use my death knight as a model since she has a very strong personality in my mind. She's very set in what she'll wear, so if there's not enough skulls, bones, and dark colors she's going to refuse. None of which is really conductive to a good wrestling look. I started building this look with the belt and than moved to the weapon. I know I wasn't thinking wrestling but death knight especially when I choose this sword. It reminds me of a polearm and has runes on it which felt very appropriate for a death knight. Since I had the sword I went looking for some legs that would pick up some of the purple. I loved the way the Replica Soulforge Legplates matched the purple color without being all about the purple. I than choose the breastplate because it continued the silver and seemed to be part of it with the use of the belt. A shirt underneath to match the black of the legs and cover up exposed skin. The shoulders, gloves, feet, and helm all share the same color as the belt. To finish the look I added a cloak that has more of the purple color along with the blue and some black.

Head: Greathelm of the Scourge champion

Shoulders: Necrotic Boneplate Pauldrons

Chest: Battlemaster's Breastplate

Shirt: Stylish Black Shirt

Back: Periwinkle Cloak

Gloves: Bladebreaker Gauntlets

Waist: Demonbone Waistguard

Legs: Replica Soulforge Legplates

Feet: Boots of the Underdweller

Sword: Blackblade of Shahram

Archery

I was pretty excited when I saw that I had placed third in archery earning a total of two medals. When I created this outfit I started with my Worgen and thought how Worgen are wild and furious creatures. I thought a Worgen hunter would be a lady close to nature, using the fur, leather, and other items to live out in nature far from contact with others. I don't really feel that hunter tier really captures what how I think about my hunter but shaman tier captures it perfectly. I'm not real fond of trying to find good boots to go with Worgen legs and I really liked how she looked in a skirt so I started with the Rippling Flesh Kilt and found a belt to go with it. Than I started looking at chestpieces. The Cuttlefish Scale Breastplate seemed perfect since it was sparse with fur trim and looked like it had a necklace. I was really please with the look when I tried it on my human and realized that it looked really different since there's a black undershirt that had matched my Worgen's fur so well that I hadn't realized it was there. My next stop was to look at shoulders and I really wanted to reintroduce the green glow that was found on the bottom of her skirt but also blended in well with what I had already put together. The Demon Stalker Shoulderguards matched color well and had the green glow but I don't think it quite has the right tone for what I wanted. I than choose gloves and realized that the original bow I had picked out didn't quite match. So I went back to look though bows and felt that the Cataclysmic Gladiator's Longbow was a good fit.



Shoulders: Demon Stalker Shoulderguards
Chest: Cuttlefish Scale Breastplate
Hands: Grips of Fierce Pronouncements
Waist: Guardian Chain Girdle
Legs: Rippling Flesh Kilt
Weapon: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Longbow

Javelin

My Javelin entry I have some mixed feelings about. I loved it when I first created it but after I submitted it and have spent more time considering it I think there are some things I would definitely fix. Ah well, maybe someday I'll come back and give it another attempt. I started with the Black Ice polearm since it's a very pretty and completely unique model. I felt that it was very strong in color and while I wanted to use blues I also wanted to introduce other colors that would work well with the polearm. I felt that the Replica Feralheart Kilt did just that. I didn't want to pair it with the Feralheart chestpiece and after some searching I thought that the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic matched the blue very well and still had a druid look to it. I added the shoulders and belt based on the kilt since it has some green in it. and choose a blue headress that allowed for the hair to still show. The things I'd change for sure would be the shoulders, weapon, and helm. When I choose the shoulders I was thinking I wanted to pick up more of the green from the kilt but they just don't seem to work. I'd also pick a different polearm and helm since their blue just doesn't match the same hue of blue as the rest of the outfit.

Head: Whisperwind Headdress
Shoulders: Valorous Dreamwalker Spaulders
Chest: Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic
Hands: Master Thief's Gloves
Waist: Belt of Potent Chanting
Legs: Replica Feralheart Kilt
Feet: Sandstalker Ankleguards
Weapon: Black Ice

Future

2/3's of the way though the Mogolympics! Only Equestrian, Free-Style, and Fencing left. I'm pretty excited to see what others have done for Free-style. I also think that would be a very difficult event for judging since there's going to be no specific theme that they're looking for. I also want to make some predictions about how my last three events are going to do based on what I've observed from the event so far. My fencing entry is going to be at the bottom of the pack. I like it but I don't think it will be any judges favorite. Equestrian and Free-style are harder for me to figure out though. Equestrian will either do really well or be a total flop. I'd like to think it'll do well but that's because I really love the outfit. Free-style I think should do fairly well too but again it's because I'm really happy with what I came up with. The fun thing will be seeing if I'm on the mark or way off. It's all going to depend on how well it stacks up to what others have come up with and that scares me because there's been some really amazing stuff so far.

Future Plans

Why this pic?
 Because it's one of the few where she's almost looking at me

School started today and I'm tired. During break I always forget just how much energy learning can take. Although there's also running all over campus trying to track down the guy who has the parking permits, pay off bills, find classrooms, check in with my adviser and others stuff. Than I went grocery shopping since I've decided I'd rather just eat a turkey sandwich every day instead of making sure I have money for lunch. Choosing to be a commuter instead of living on campus is much more difficult than I thought.

But what does this have to do with World of Warcraft? Not much, really, other than to cut down the time that I'll be spending online. In hindsight it's probably not the best time to consider establishing a blog. But that's ok. I'm started, I'm enjoying my rambling, and darn if I'm going to stop :)

Instead it means I'm going to have to start planning what it is I want to talk about and accomplish ahead of time. Or, in other words, a more specific plan for what I want to do here. I'm a big one for making plans. I have plans for making a frost and claws banner for this site. I have an idea of what I want and have even started building my banner. I have the words arranged perfectly, I just have to make the graphics. But I don't think I'll be getting to that before the weekend. I also want to start making plans for what I'm going to be posting during the week. I like the idea of just sitting down and writing about what I'm doing but when I'm not going to be able to play I'd still like to post something. And there's Tues and Thur where I'm thinking I'm not going to have much time for anything.

Here's a little about what I'm considering. Tuesday and Thursday I'd like to have a post prepared ahead of time that I can have set to publish in the morning. I think I'd like for these posts to either be about some transmogging that I'm working on or about something interesting I've seen around Azeroth. When I made my post the other day I was really impressed with the location my druid was at when she got the Explorer title and thought it would have been a really pretty screenshot without the achievement in it. I'd like to go back and retake a screenshot there and I'd like to find other places to take nice screenshots. Maybe a kind of photography thing. I don't necessarily feel like they have to be my screenshots but would love seeing what others have but that's a thought for another day. I also think I'd like to have Wednesday be a day to post about the Blog Azeroth topic of the week or something else that I want to talk about. That leaves Friday though Monday open to anything and everything.

I'd also like to keep changing certain things on the site to try to come up with something that makes me happier. But the first change I want to make is to have a banner. So much to do and so little time. Anyway tomorrow I should be posting about the outfits from the last week of transmogolympics. Although I still have to decide what I'm doing for Thursday.

Am I wrong?

Been busy for a bit pushing Arita the last few quests to get Loremaster. I've been pretty excited about working towards that achievement and I've made no secret about what I was doing but something happened that makes me not as excited to finally be done. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about it since I'm afraid I might rant about it but I'm hoping it'll help me clear my thoughts.

Mogolympics - More Catch-up Cycling through Discus

The Mogolympics has been going on for almost two weeks now and almost half of the outfits have already been revealed. Currently they've announced the results for Cycling, Hammer Throw, Discus, Wrestling, and Archery. It's a pretty tight competition and I'm really proud to say that I've managed to snag a silver in discus and a bronze in archery. Two medals is pretty extraordinary.

So without further ado I present:

Cycling

When I started creating outfits I knew I wanted to make sure and use both a male and female goblin since I was representing the Bilgewater Cartel. After some consideration I thought that a male goblin would be the perfect choice for my cycling entry. While I don't ride a motorcycle myself, I do have some members of my family that do and the biggest thought I had while building this outfit was protection. After all you never know when you'll be attacking by a wild turkey (since that's my brother's story and not mine I'll leave it at that). So when I began to build this outfit I started with the chest piece and looked for something that I felt looked leather jacket and also that it'd protect as well. I loved the piece I chose but since it was sleeveless I added a shirt to the outfit as well. Than using the colors from the chest I kept going from there while keeping an eye out for stuff that felt motorcycle to me. The helm is something I was 100% sold on because of the horns but it was also one of the few helms that covered the whole head that also worked well in my color palette.

Helm: Raging Berserker's Helm
Shoulder: Merciless Gladiator's Linked Spaulders
Chest: Warmonger's Chestpiece
Shirt: Rustic Workman's Shirt
Gloves: Replica Beastmaster's Gloves
Waist: Scarlet Belt
Legs: Dragonstrike Leggings
Feet: Flamescale Boots

Hammer Throw

I had a lot of difficulty with this event because I'm not overly fond of the 2H mace models.  I started and stopped on a few and tried different races as well. But when I saw this mace on my rogue the colors grabbed my attention. The mace was the same green as my Night Elf's hair while having a red glow while my rogue's skin had a red tinge to it. So I started building from there. I figured since it had to be an end-game transmog I would have to work with plate since I can't think of any 2H maces that aren't strength weapons. Since I was working with a Night Elf I figured she would be a warrior and I love the idea of putting my warrior in a skirt. The off-set piece from paladin tier 10 picked up the greens from the mace but also added in some browns and didn't overwhelm the mace. I picked up on the browns from the skirt in the warrior chestpiece and I loved the shoulders with this outfit because it adds in some more of the glow from the weapon. I'm actually really happy with this look but I think that the look is better on a model that doesn't have such red coloring.

Helm: Faceplate of the Impenetrable
Shoulders: Conqueror's Siegebreaker Shoulderplates
Chest: Catacysmic Chestguard
Gloves: Gauntlets of Rising Anger
Waist: Hardened Obsidium Belt
Legs: Corrupted Silverplate Leggings
Feet: Ironstriders of Urgency
Weapon: Saronite Mindcrusher

Discus

My first medal winning transmog! This shaman look managed to tie for silver!
I really struggled with my discus entry. I was originally very set on the idea of making a plate look and I originally started with the blue and gold shield. As time was ticking by I switched to the dark grey shield since I felt it presented more versatility for colors than the blue and gold one but I still wasn't coming up with anything that was making me happy. So I decided to switch and give working in plate a try. I was originally set on using Herod's Shoulder since it's one of my favorite pieces of armor but the red and gold weren't playing well with the dark grey. Finally I threw it out decided since I wasn't using my favorite shoulders I'd use one of my favorite chest models. This model comes in several colors and I attempted to build a set in grey and red before trying in the blue and grey. At first I still wasn't very happy with my look but decided I'd finish this one before starting again since I was running low on time. Browsing though shoulders I felt that the Skyshatter shoulderpads were the only option that would hit all the colors I wanted but it was when I was cruising though the mace models that I finally realized I had something awesome. The mace was in her hand and it all just seemed to click as perfect.

Shoulders: Skyshatter Shoulderpads
Chest: Dark Iron Mail
Gloves: Renegade Gauntlets
Waist: Wrathful Gladiator's Waistguard of Triumph
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt
Main Hand: Crystal Spire of Karabor
Off Hand: Husk Shield

Mogolympics - Playing Catchup with the Flagbearer

Over at Amateur Azerothian, the Mogolympics are in full swing with 4 of the events already posted. One of the things I've wanted to do was provide a bit of insight into what I was thinking when I made these outfits. So I'd like to start with my flagbearer.

When I first heard of this event I was really nervous about entering since I hadn't really done much more than read blogs. I hadn't even commented before. But I really wanted to give this a try so after a bunch of internal waffling I submitted a comment asking to participate. Than to keep myself distracted I decided I'd make a practice outfit for a flagbearer. Since I saw Sporeggar already had a Representative and I considered that one of the hardest tabards to design around I thought I'd try and design around a tabard that I thought would be just as difficult. I picked Bilgewater Cartel since I didn't think the orange color and the patchwork nature of it would be easy to work with.

I grabbed my lvl 20 goblin mage Wizzleboom to be a model and began looking to see what I could find.  I decided since I was on my mage to just stick with cloth and see what I could do with it and that I didn't want a skirt or dress since that would tuck the end of the tabard in.  After staring at the tabard for a bit I decided to see what legs were available that would match the color of the explosion around the bomb and the Elegant Leggings were a great fit. The boots were more difficult. I found that on a goblin most of the regular boots would cover up too much of the lighter color of the pants and the shoes just didn't match the colors well. I was ready to pull hair until I reached the end and saw the S.B.R.B. Prototype I shoes which my mage was actually wearing. I grabbed a belt and tunic I felt went pretty well and than started browsing though the shoulders and didn't get very far when I saw the Time Lord's Mantle. I didn't think anything could be more perfect. The colors matched and the spinning gears seemed very goblin. After grabbing some gloves and bracers I was feeling pretty happy with my results and felt confident that I'd be able to come up with outfits for the different events.

Having felt that enough time had passed that I might have a faction I went to check and see where I'd been assigned.  So I was a bit shocked when I returned to see this as my reply:

Thanks for signing up! The Bilgewater Cartel are offering a substantial amount of black market gold to do them proud. 

REALLY!!! Guess I was going to be making better time on my outfits than I thought :)

For those who might be wondering this is what Wizzleboom is sporting in her mug shot:
Shoulder: Time Lord's Mantle
Chest: Valorous Kirin Tor Tunic
Tabard: Bilgewater Cartel Tabard
Wrist: Bracers of Unconquered Power
Gloves: Gossamer Gloves
Waist: Wise man's Belt
Legs: Elegant Leggings
Feet: S.B.R.B Prototype I
Off-hand: Thermotastic Egg Timer
Sword: Peacekeeper Blade (I don't actually think a mage can use this sword in a transmog though. When I was going though items I knew a mage could use a sword but I wasn't sure if there was any that were end-game but I also wasn't thinking about how most spell power weapons are main-hand only while this sword could be used in either hand so a mage most likely wouldn't be able to use it for mogging.)

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Flavours of WoW

Over on Blog Azeroth this weeks Shared topic is from Cymre at Bubbles of Mischief and states:

It would not be uncommon to hear about the initial release of World of Warcraft as Vanilla or Classic. In terms of ice cream or gelato (which is my preference), Vanilla was once considered the most popular flavour of it's time. So if Vanilla represents Classic Wow, what flavours could represent the following expansions?

The first stop on our culinary tour is the Burning Crusade. When I think of BC I remember going though the portal for the first time and being overwhelmed by the sights. Playing though the zones the world seemed bright and colorful, as well as the armor. It seemed like and exciting place and that a lot had changed from the original game and things could only keep getting better.

Next up is Wrath. Even though I've started playing in BC, I consider myself a wrath baby.  Why? Because I spent all of my time in BC leveling, getting my first level 70 the week before Wrath was released.  It was during Wrath that I feel I went from a completely lost and confused newb to merely being lost and confused.  But it was also during Wrath that I got to experience end game and content while it was current.  When I think of Northrend, I think of it with fondness, and yes, even nostalgia. I think Wrath has a darker flavor than BC and vanilla making it a chocolate flavor. But I don't think chocolate quite explains all the little pieces that make up Wrath, instead I think it's Rocky Road since it has just this little bit extra to make it special.


I think Cata is a step away from Wrath and closer to Classic. Cata took the old world and redefined it. Making it something new and exciting. That's why I think Cata is Dulce de Leche Caramel. 

Pandara is the most difficult to describe since I'm not looking back at it but instead anticipating it. That's why I think Pandara is something I haven't tried but it's something I can't wait to be digging into soon.

Going for Loremaster

Even though my death knight Tyledres is my main I still have a special spot for Arita. I think some of it is that she is my first toon and one of the few that was never deleted. Another reason is just that the amount of time I've spent on her I've managed to accumulate quite a few achievements. While I know that in Mists there will be account-wide achievements there a few things I really want to accomplish on my druid since she's been wanting them for some time. One of those things is Loremaster.

I'm confident that I'll be able to have this achievement done before the end of the week since I only have 2 zones left - Netherstorm and Blade's Edge. It's also been nice to spend some quality time on my druid. We visited zones that we've never been in before, returned to places where we leveled to see how they've changed, and just spent some time out and about in the world.

But trying to get all the quests done is also slowly driving me insane. That's a lot of quests and Arita did most of her leveling though Outlands and Northrend though dungeons. So I just wanted to share a few things that have helped me and that make things easier.

Self-Intro

The first step is always the most difficult.

I've been contemplating writing a blog for some time now but I've been worried about things such as what I'd write, would I have anything to say, and would I even be worth reading. But I'm deciding to attempt to make some changes in my life and one of those things is to stop worrying and start doing.  I've enter in the Mogolympics contest at Amateur Azerothian and the Faction Pride contest at Neri Approves. I've also worked up the courage to join in to the Laid Back Dungeons  and the Laid Back Raids and it's been great and I've gotten to meet some really nice people and I've found that I want to try and share my thoughts about Wow as well.