Fairly new to WoW and looking for RP! (WRA-H/A)

Lore World's End Tavern: Role-play and Fan Fiction
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Hello there! TBH I’m not even sure if this is posted in the correct section of the forums. Hopefully this won’t be removed if not?

But anyway, as the title says, I’m pretty new to WoW, having just arrived from FFXIV and was wondering the best way to get into RP? I have TRP3 but I’m crap at approaching others on my own, especially when I feel like I’m not lore-knowledgable 100% yet (in fact, I know I’m not at all)

I browsed the forums in search of a “Looking for RP” section and didn’t see anything like that, as well as couldn’t find anything relating to RP Guilds about either except a few scattered about seemingly at random, though I could be completely missing them.

On the off chance these sections just don’t exist, is there any place in particular where I should look for RP? Whether a fan-made forum, discord server, or even just a popular hangout in-game?

Right now I have both Alliance & Horde on WRA, and a few Alliance on Moonguard, if that info helps at all.

((Also, waves Nice to meet you!))

P.S. Slight disclaimer, I played to level 50 like, jeez, 6-7 years ago maybe? So while I may not TECHNICALLY be new, I’ve not played since, and when I did it was for a span of only 2-3 weeks at most. Therefore, I am new as so much of the game seems to have changed!

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TL;DR: Walk-ups are super casual, so just have fun with your character’s personality! The major RP hubs are Orgrimmar, Silvermoon, and Stormwind. Guilds are best for plot, but finding the right one can be tricky. You can search wowpedia for lore, or just ask any lore or RP questions on this forum! We’re happy to help!

Hi! Welcome to Azeroth!

(I’m not going to lie, this is the first time I’ve seen someone come to WoW from FFXIV.)

This is the right forum to ask your question, so no worries :slight_smile:

Walk-Up RP is incredibly casual. Don’t expect long-term story arcs or permanent friends to pop up on the streets, but it’s a great place to explore your character in a relaxed setting. The bar for entry is very low. You’ve already got TRP3, so you’re ahead of the game. Don’t worry about knowing the lore. It rarely comes up explicitly. It’s implicit in your character’s backstory, and how that shapes their personality, but not typically explicitly discussed. Walk-up RP is mostly just exploring your character’s personality.

  • The major RP hubs are Orgrimmar, Silvermoon, and Stormwind. You’ll have to go there if you want walk-up RP.
  • Walking up is intimidating at first. The easiest thing is to find a character with a strong hook. Or… gimmick. Gimmicks aren’t my favorite thing, but for initiating a walk-up, they’re pretty useful! I’ve had clumsy characters, impish characters, and fortune tellers.
  • Look for events! Often time, people will advertise events in Trade or General Chat. These are public, and can give you pre-made hooks for RP.

Guilds are better for long-term RP, character development, and OOC friendships. Many advertise in Trade Chat. Others, you can see hanging out in major hubs to do recruiting. There are occasionally recruitment drives where many guilds gather to recruit. Additionally, the guild-finder allows you to limit guilds to RP-Focused guilds, so you can search there!

  • Be wary of new guilds. These tend to be volatile, and can be formed and then immediately forgotten. It isn’t always the case, but… It happens more often than not.
  • Larger guilds tend to be more stable, but they also tend to be more generic. You won’t find a guild of four-hundred “blood knight exiles”, but you’ll find dozens of large, “military” guilds.
  • The smaller, more niche guilds can be harder to find, but walk-up RP is the best way to run into them.

Once you establish a friend group, then you can reach out to them for long-term RP and plots!

As for lore, Wowpedia is the go-to wiki for World of Warcraft. Best thing to do to start is to search for your race and your class. To note, some race/class combinations have specific subclasses. For example…

  • Draenei Paladins are called “Vindicaars”. They are protectors of the Light, and worship the Naruu.
  • Tauren Paladins are “Sunwalkers”. They worship the Sun, founded because the druids put too much emphasis on the Moon, and they felt their people were out-of-balance.
  • Blood Elf Paladins are “Blood Knights”. They stole their holy magic from a kidnapped naruu, but now have redeemed themselves.
  • Zandalari Paladins draw their power from Rezan, the Loa of Kings.

Additionally, you can ask any lore or RP questions to this forum. There are many posters knowledgeable in all forms of Warcraft Lore, and are more familiar with navigating our lore sources. We are typically happy to help RPers with whatever questions they might need answered for their characters! For example, the other day, someone was asking about how to RP a Death Knight, and several posters gave their input and advice.

Lastly, one of the nuances of Warcraft RP is that it the lore has been… retconned and manipulated several times over the years. Additionally, it’s often not specific enough for what RPers need. So, typically, WoW RPers rely on an unwritten “lore by consensus.” In cases where the lore is contradictory or unspecified, we extrapolate from existing lore, and as a community, come up with some vague idea of what “truth” is. It’s not something about which a new RPer should worry, but it is something to keep in mind.

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

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This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for taking the time to respond. Sounds like I know where to look for recruiting guilds, as well as needing to brush up on my walk-up RP!

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Hi!

Falothorin covered a lot of it. And yes, walk-up RP is something that can happen, and is literally what it sounds like.

And while you don’t need to know all of the lore, it would probably help to know a few of the big points from the recent expansions. I’m not the best source on this, but this forum is full of people who answer these kinds of questions.

I’m mildly biased in this, in that I see that you’re a blood elf, and I’m a void elf. One thing I’ve noticed that some people don’t know is that both races (the Horde blood elf and the Alliance void elf) both speak Thalassian. This means they can have conversations with each other, which can lead to some interesting interactions in some non-typical settings. In a neutral city like Shattrath or Dalaran, for example.

I bring this up largely to say that RP doesn’t have to be limited to cities and such. Just have fun with it, eh? As a whole, people are fairly open to most attempts at role-play. No one’s going to jump down your throat because you don’t know which battle was fought and which battle was lost in some obscure campaign years ago. And if they do, well, you have my permission to just roll your eyes and suddenly find something else better to do.

We’re elves, darling, that’s our way.

Good luck!

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Welcome! The other two posters covered most of the details already. WoW lore is pretty lengthy, dense and full of retcons since it’s been written over two decades by enough people to choke a sarlac.

Your best place to start is probably just with the quests. With any race if you read the descriptions in their starting zone you’ll get a good feel for their immediate history and general situation and culture. That’s all stuff I’d say most characters should be reasonably expected to be at least vaguely familiar with.

Also in addition to WRA and MG there is the Emerald Dream server which, owing to it’s RPPVP roots, tends to be more event focused. Walk up is sparse but you do have weekly themed events with RPs based around casinos, academic education, kickfish (it’s soccer but - with a very unlucky fish), medical clinics - all sorts of stuff. In addition to, of course, RPPVP.

And on a personal note of advice I’d start your character as more of a lose concept. I usually start with just some personality traits, a gimmick and a vague goal and gradually build my character’s history and motivations as I get a better feel for them.

And don’t worry too much about character canon retcons if an idea isn’t working out. This is all for fun.

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This is a very good point. Additionally, the in-game time typically progresses at the same rate as real-life time. So… Burning Crusade launched in 2007, which means it’s events happened 12-13 years ago canonically as well.

I’ve got two levels of “summary” below. The first is “highlights”. I tried to keep all the big points to one sentence. The next is “details”, which still limits to just the big points, but elaborates more.

Highlights

Previous Expansions

Classic: Ragnaros summoned and defeated. Black Dragonflight defeated. Gurubashi defeated. Scourge attempt to invade, but are defeated in Naxxaramas.

Burning Crusade: Blood elves join Horde. Draenei join Alliance. Outland invaded. Illidan Stormrage, Lord of Outland, is defeated. Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, leader of the Blood Elves, betrays his people and tries to summon the Legion to Azeroth, but he’s stopped. The Sunwell is reignited.

Wrath of the Lich King: Northrend invaded. Nexus War ignites, resulting in death of Malygos. Ulduar is an Old God prison, but the Old God is defeated. The Lich King is defeated.

Cataclysm: Deathwing nearly destroys the world. Gilneans are afflicted with worgen curse. They join the Alliance. Bilgewater Goblins join the Horde. Ragnaros is permanently defeated in the Firelands. Troll empires try to band together, but are stopped. Deathwing is lasered to death by Thrall, and the Dragonflights lose their power.

Mists of Pandaria: Theramore is bombed. Dalaran is purged of Blood Elves. Pandaria is invaded by Horde and Alliance. The Sha are defeated. Garrosh Hellscream betrays the Horde, but is stopped in the Siege of Orgrimmar.

Warlords of Draenor: Garrosh Hellscream goes back in time to make the Iron Horde. The Iron Horde try to invade Azeroth, but are defeated. Gul’dan is sent to Azeroth.

Legion: The Burning Legion, the demon army, is summoned to Azeroth. King Varian Wrynn is killed, his son Anduin takes his place. Warchief Vol’jin is killed. Sylvanas Windrunner takes his place. Order Halls collect artifacts. Surumar is liberated from Legion control. Illidan is ressurected. The Legion invasion is stopped. The Legion is defeated after their homeworld, Argus, is summoned to Azeroth. Sargerus, the Legion’s leader, stabs Azeroth.

Battle for Azeroth: Azerite is the blood of the dying world. It’s a near omnipotent material. Sylvanas Windrunner uses Azerite to justify a war with the Alliance. She burns Teldrassil in the War of Thorns, committing a genocide upon the Night Elf people. The Fourth War starts with the Alliance retaliation against Lordaeron Keep, which Sylvanas destroys. Kul’tiras and Zandalar join the Alliance and Horde. Highlord Saurfang rebels against Sylvanas, and is killed. Sylvanas is displaced from Warchief. G’huun is defeated. Queen Azshara is defeated. N’zoth is freed, and then defeated.

Details

Previous Expansions

Vanilla

  1. The Horde and Alliance truce is active in-name only, the first sparks of war are starting again.
  2. The Dark Iron dwarves attempt to summon Ragnaros the Firelord, but they are stopped.
  3. The Horde and Alliance hinder the Black Dragonflight by defeating their active leaders: Onyxia and Neltharion.
  4. The Gurubashi trolls try to summon the Blood God Hakkar the Soulflayer, but are stopped.
  5. The Lich King attempts a first strike at Azeroth, but the invasion is stopped with the destruction of the floating citadel Naxxaramas.

Burning Crusade

  1. Blood elves join the Horde, Draenei crash in the Exodar and join the Alliance
  2. Opening of the Dark Portal allowed demonic invasions in from Outland, the homeworld of the orcs and ogres.
  3. Demonic invasions were under the command of Illidan Stormrage, the Lord of Outland. He was deemed “mad” and attacked.
  4. Kael’thas is defeated in the Tempest Keep (hijacked naruu fortress)
  5. Illidan defeated alongside the forces of Shattrath
  6. Zul’aman taps into dark loa magics, adventurers defeat them
  7. Kael’thas ressurected, tries to bring in Kil’jaeden (demon lord) through Sunwell.
  8. Shattered Sun Offensive (blood elves + draenei) defeat Kil’jaeden and reignite Sunwell

Wrath of the Lich King

  1. Arthas Menethil, Lich King and former Prince of Lordaeron, orders his undead army (the Scourge) to invade mainland Azeroth again. Horde and Alliance armies travel to Northrend.
  2. Nexus War occurs: Blue Dragonflight try to cut off arcane magic to mortal races. Mortal races band with Red Dragonflight, kill Malygos (Blue Dragon Aspect).
  3. Dwarves, Gnomes, and Humans are found to be descended from stone/steel constructs that were corrupted by the Old Gods’ curse of flesh, which turned their inorganic components to… flesh.
  4. Ulduar is discovered to be the prison of the Old God Yogg Saron. Yogg Saron is defeated.
  5. The Wrathgate: a unified force of Horde and Alliance band together to charge the Lich King. They are all betrayed by a Forsaken traitors, who also overthrew Undercity. Horde and Alliance band together to retake Undercity for the Horde.
  6. Arthas is defeated in Icecrown Citadel.

Cataclysm

  1. Deathwing wrecks the world.
  2. Garrosh Hellscream is made Warchief.
  3. Gilnean Wall is destroyed. Forsaken invade. Gilneas City is blighted, and the land becomes a stalemate battleground. Gilneans are infected en-masse by Worgen curse. They are calmed by the Night Elves and evacuated to Teldrassil.
  4. Bilgewater Cartel’s home island of Kezan is destroyed. The goblins are enslaved by Trade Prince Gallywix, but attacked by the Alliance and marooned. Gallywix tries to abandon all of them to die in volcanic fire, but he’s stopped. Thrall invites the Bilgewater goblins into the Horde and makes Gallywix, who enslaved and tried to murder his own people, their leader. Go Thrall.
  5. There’s an elemental uprising. Primarily, Ragnaros, Elemental Lord of Fiire, invades Mt. Hyjal to burn the World Tree. Cenarion Circle stops him by invading the Firelands.
  6. Uldum is discovered to be another Titan Facility. It has the “Reorigination Ray”, a device designed to destroy all life on Azeroth.
  7. Twilight Hammer, old god cultists, are defeated, along with their leader Cho’gall, in the Bastion of Twilight.
  8. Neltharion is stopped, again, in his lair in Blackrock Mountain.
  9. The Zandalari try to unite the remaining troll empires to conquer the world. The Amani and Gurubashi spearhead the effort, but are stopped by the Horde and Alliance.
  10. Heroes go back in time to retrieve the Dragon Soul. Deathwing initiates his Hour of Twilight, where he makes a final push to destroy the world. Thrall blasts him with the Dragon Soul, and the Dragon Aspects give up their power to stop him.

Mists of Pandaria

  1. Garrosh Hellscream orders the manabombing of Theramore, which destroys the port town. Jaina Proudmore responds by purging/murdering the blood elf forces in Dalaran.
  2. The Horde pursue a boat carrying Prince Anduin Wrynn. They catch the boat, but in the crossfire, unintentionally discover Pandaria: a continent hidden in mists for 10,000 years.
  3. Pandaria is plagued with the Sha: remnants of the Old God Y’Shraaj. They embody negative emotions and manifest as aberrations that attack people.
  4. The Horde and Alliance wage war across Pandaria, defeating the Sha along the way.
  5. The mantid are an insectoid people, minions of the Old Gods. They try to invade Pandaria, but are stopped.
  6. The Zandalari ressurect Lei Shen, the mogu Thunder King and former tyrant of Pandaria. The Horde and Alliance defeat him.
  7. Garrosh Hellscream invades the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and steals the Heart of Y’Shraaj to empower himself. He ejects all non-orc races from the Horde, excluding some goblins. The Horde and Alliance band together, lay siege to Orgrimmar, and defeat him. Vol’jin is made warchief.
  8. Garrosh Hellscream is put on trial for war crimes, but acquitted. A bronze dragon teleports him back in time to Draenor (now known as Outland). He betrays the bronze dragon and seeks his father.

Warlords of Draenor

  1. Draenor is the homeworld of the orcs and ogres. The draenei settled there before fleeing to Azeroth. Draenor was destroyed and became Outland.
  2. Garrosh is transported back prior to all this. He finds his father and they form the Iron Horde, an all-orcish Horde bent on conquering the cosmos.
  3. They try to invade Azeroth, immediately get pushed back by the Horde and Alliance. The Horde and Alliance invade the past-timeline (a.k.a “alternate universe”, or AU) Draenor.
  4. The Iron Horde is systematically dismantled.
  5. The Legion tries to conquer Draenor, but the Horde, Alliance, and Iron Horde band together to stop them. In the process, alternate timeline Gul’dan is sent to current-timeline Azeroth to bring the Burning Legion back.
Legion
  1. Alternate Gul’dan sieges the Tomb of Sargerus, using the former temple as a massive beacon to summon the Legion’s armies back to Azeroth. The staging ground is known as The Broken Shore. The Horde and Alliance band together to try to stop him, but fail. King Varian Wrynn is killed, Anduin Wrynn is made prince. Vol’jin is killed. Sylvanas Windrunner is made Warchief.
  2. Archmage Kadghar of the Kirin’tor initiates the search for the Pillars of Creation on the Broken Isles (of which the Broken Shore is a front on.)
  3. Rather than side with their factions, many adventurers congregate with those of their chosen profession in “Order Halls”. The Order Halls seek out weapons of legendary power. These are used to collect the Pillars of Creation.
  4. The Emerald Nightmare lashes out at the druidic sanctuary of Val’sharrah. Adventurers stop Nightmare Lord Xavius and his Old God corruption.
  5. Titanic Keeper Odyn enlists the aide of adventurers in invading the underworld realm of Helheim to stop the traitor keeper Helya. They are successful.
  6. The elven city of Surumar defects to join the Legion. Some dissenters rebel against Grand Magistrix Elesande. The Horde and Alliance send a unified force to lay seige upon Surumar. Elesande is defeated. Alternate Gul’dan is defeated. Illdan Stormrage is ressurected.
  7. The Pillars of Creation are collected. The Order Halls band together and lay seige upon the Broken Shore. They invade the Tomb of Sargerus and use the Pillars to block the Legion’s portal. Kil’jaeden is permanently defeated. Illidan Stormrage summons Argus, the Draenei homeworld and Legion high command, to Azeroth.
  8. Prophet Velen of the Draenei commissions an invasion vessel to be made. The Vindicaar is created, and spearheads the invasion of Argus. The armies of Azeroth join with the Army of the Light and defeat the Legion by destroying the corrupted Titan Argus.
  9. Sargerus, high lord of the Burning Legion and Fallen Titan, is briefly summoned and stabs his blade into Azeroth.
Battle for Azeroth
  1. Titans are living constellations, and basically gods. Before becoming sentient, they incubate at the core of planets. These Titan embryos are known as “World Souls”. Azeroth is one such planet. Sargerus’ blade wounds Azeroth’s world soul.
  2. Azerite is Azeroth’s blood. It bubbles to the surface and proves to be the most powerful and useful material ever. It is slightly prophetic, and can be used to make nearly indestructable tanks (save Anduin Wrynn’s sword), deadly weapons, and miracle cures.
  3. Several factions join with the Alliance and the Horde. The elves of Surumar, the Highmountain Tauren, and the mag’har orcs join the Horde. The void elves and Army of the light join the Alliance.
  4. The Horde collects starts to mine Azerite. They use it to construct weapons. Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner, via the command of Highlord Varok Saurfang, initiates an attack on night elf lands. This was known as the “War of Thorns”, and culminated in the Burning of Teldrassil, wherein Windrunner ordered the burning of a civillian populace and genocide of the Night Elves.
  5. The Alliance retaliate by invading Lordaeron, capital of the Forsaken and Sylvanas’ Fortress. Sylvanas blights the keep, nearly killing the Alliance leadership in the process.
  6. The Alliance seeks the aide of the Kul’tiran fleet, and the Horde seeks the aide of the Zandalari fleet. Both unite with their intended allies.
  7. The seals of Zandalar are broken, unleashing the psuedo-Old God G’huun from the Titan research facility Uldum. G’huun is defeated.
  8. Several night elves follow in High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind’s footsteps, undertaking the Night Warrior ritual. It was dangerous, but empowers them to retake Darkshore.
  9. The Alliance lay seige to Dazar’alor, Horde capital. They kill King Rastakhan before being retreating. His daughter Talanji is named Ruler of Zandalar.
  10. Jaina Proudmoore is named Lord Admiral of Kul’tiras, succeeding her mother Katherine.
  11. The remaining Horde and Alliance fleet are stranded in the Naga kingdom of Nazja’tar. They band together and defeat Queen Azshara of the naga. However, Queen Azshara manages to free the Old God N’zoth.
  12. King Mechagon, last king of the gnomes, tries to create a machine to turn every organic creature into a machine, but he is stopped by the Rustbolt Resistance with the help of the Alliance and the Horde.
  13. N’zoth’s forces invade, but he is defeated.

I hope some of that is a little helpful! Like Benedikt said, it’s pretty dense lore, so even the summaries are long.

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You guys are great, seriously! This is exactly what I was hoping for, especially the points on previous expansions as I’ve skipped a lot of that content doing to just having out-leveled it.

From the cinematic movies with BfA, luckily I was able to sort of piece together what was happening both current and past to form a basic enough understanding of the past lore. However I may re-visit these old xpacks and knock them out.

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I would definitely at least read up on the history of the race you play to help build your character. It will help with their history and what not. For example, my Character despises human because of Arthas and Garithos, and begrudgingly works with Demon Hunters and Warlocks when she has to.

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