another hello

Hi everyone! Sorry this isn't another fantastic update in the way of progress on this little project, but rest assured lots has been made. No, this is another intro post! I figured that since there's two of us running this thing, that all of you fine readers would be wondering a teeny bit about the other half of this alt-y duo. What I lack in sheer number of characters and intimate knowledge, I make up for in... sentimental value towards the few that I have.

Or, of course, I could be completely mistaken about that interest part, but here I go anyway.

I've been playing World of Warcraft since July 2005, technically. Two friends of mine from high school had been badgering me about this game they'd been playing a beta for; they showed me a bit of it, and to be honest all I remember is a bunch of undead dancing in a graveyard. Not too impressive for a first view, eh? My view of MMORPGs had also been a bit tainted by Star Wars Galaxies; my brother had gotten me into that and both of us ended up absolutely hating it. (That's probably because it was terrible, but come on... it had so much potential!) After a bunch of cajoling and badgering and eventually the promise that I could play the game free of charge for two weeks, I finally gave in and told myself I would try this game.

When I started my 14-day trial of World of Warcraft, I was immediately granted an advantage over Altoholic here: I knew about the difference between the Horde and the Alliance, thanks to a lengthy history of WarCraft games under my belt. :) I was then informed that my friends had created Alliance characters, so I followed them over to the supposed side of right and good.

My first character ever was the Human female Paladin, Hannia (pronounced han-EE-yah) , pictured in her current state at your left. Like a lot of people who play humans, I tried to make her look as much like myself as possible, including the mail armor and giant two-handed hammer. Can't go using this game as wish fulfillment, now can we?

I played Hannia for hours a day every day during that two week period, and eventually got her to level 15, thanks to the help of my friends. The downside to all this playing? I wasn't learning anything. I had no idea what the difference between my three talent trees were, much less which one I should have picked. I never ran instances, and the only guild I joined was full of IRL friends who knew just as little about the game as I did.

So, after my two-week trial period ended, I stopped playing Hannia. I was busy getting ready to move to a new college, and I promised myself that once I moved there I would continue playing her.

As you can probably guess, that didn't happen. Oh, yes, I bought the game, of course. After installing it on my computer, I sat at the login screen and remembered my old days with WarCraft II and how much I loved those little green orcs. "Screw Hannia and her whole stupid Alliance," I thought to myself. "Especially those snooty Night Elves. For Zul'jin!" Okay, I didn't really say that last part, but I think you get the gist.

The next character I made was one whom I attach tons of sentimental value to, the first character I could really call my own. A teal-skinned, white-haired Troll Hunter by the name of Tobah; I really truly cherished him. I soloed almost effortlessly with him, thanks to my tiger pal Sherekhan (oh aren't I so clever). He was my first character to venture into the fearsome lands of Warsong Gulch, the rewards of which were the title of Scout and a newfound sense of confidence. My first real guild was with Tobah, and he eventually became an officer there.

But, why do I talk about him in the past tense? I deleted Tobah about six months ago. I still don't know why I did it; he was just sitting there, innocently, at Freewind Post, waiting for me to quest with him again. I only have one picture of him, too, from his younger and more carefree days in The Barrens.

Ah, Tobah, you are missed.

About three months before Tobah's demise, however, I began a new character. I wanted to start a new class, one that I would actively research and seek out help on how to play. After thinking long and hard about it, I decided on Shaman. The perfect mix of offense and defense that would allow me to be super duper useful, and super duper versatile. Plus, it was the Horde-only class at the time, and I wanted to show my pride in my faction!

Enter: Zebgorai. Dare I say, my favorite character out of all the World of Warcraft characters I've created. Along with a good friend Militate, the Forsaken Mage, Zeb conquered most of Kalimdor and a small part of the Eastern Kingdoms with his constant shouts of "BAD TEENGS COMIN" and the ever-popular /train. I learned how to spec myself, even respeccing myself twice as the time came. I learned how to properly run instances, and learned my roles in them and how to shift between them. I even learned how to make macros! I concentrated all of my energy on this new baby of mine and his flaming red mullet.


Oh, Zeb. He really is my special little guy. Despite having another character (she's next!) who outlevels him, I can't let him go. He's my baby.

I met Altoholic here after almost a year and a half away from the Alliance, and was convinced to create another character on the Light side. Since I had grown so used to the class, I made a female Draenei Shaman, named Mirin. She is currently my highest level character, and boy are we having a blast! I specced her for healing and really enjoy being able to protect myself as well.

If you can't tell by now, I love Shamans. This is exactly why, at first, I was a little wary of Altoholic's project. Well, that, and because the proposal for it took place during a late-night phone call: "Oh man I just woke up and I have this awesome idea!" "But I'm already good at being a Shaman," I told myself. "Why spread myself too thin? I'd much rather focus on being this jack-0f-all-trades character than start a bunch of new classes I have no idea about."

But, the good news was this: Our alts were going to be on the Horde! Hooray! A gleeful, glorious return to Lagrimmar was in store for me. After much discussion and thought (read: about ten minutes worth of text message conversation while I was at work), we picked a new server and voilà, here we are!

So, I'm excited to be playing these new characters, but a little wary of playing new classes when I know so little beyond the Shaman... and a bit intimidated of the fact that Altoholic knows almost everything there is to know! Also, I put a ton of effort into their names and appearances, so this had better work out! ;)