All of those legion artifacts seem like god weapons we as players shouldn’t really role play with.
But id like to. at least for my shadowpriest. That being said how do you guys work it into your rp/background?
Personally I pretty much never used the artifact appearances when the weapons were relevant, let alone now; personally never cared for any of them aesthetically, at least enough to keep.
The most common tactics I’ve seen from others include claiming them to be replicas of the weapons in question or being entirely unrelated and merely sharing certain aesthetics with the weapon in question. Either seem rather satisfactory; a famous weapon, especially one that is highly recognizable, is bound to have imitations, while others are like to have common aesthetic traits depending on various factors. I’ve never seen anyone try to claim that their character wielded any of the actual artifacts, for the record.
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interesting.
Do they also just not incorperate the class halls in there backstory?
In my RP, I don’t even acknowledge that the mog appearance is an artifact appearance. Too much trouble.
I use them a lot because they look amazing. I use them on my Vulpera, my druid, my demon hunter, and my warlock.
I don’t say “they’re just weapons that looks like the Fangs of Ashamane!” I’m just like, “they’re some really fancy lookin’ daggers.” Thus far, no one has ever said in RP, “Is that the Fangs of Ashamane?!” Or even acknowledged the weapons.
Most people treat the character avatar’s OOC/game content as entirely independent from the RP character’s IC background. Or, they might loosely reference their OOC content, but very, very rarely is it literally interpreted.
I’ve done both. For example, Falothorin has ICly barely left Silvermoon/Stormwind, but his avatar has leveled throughout several zones. However, my druid leveled in Darkshore, so I said he helped run supplies in the battle against the Shatterspear.
In the case of Legion artifacts… Very, very few people would say their character is the IC-wielder of any artifact. They might say they were active in their Order Hall during the Legion invasion, but very few people would say their character was as important as the Order Hall Champions that wielded the weapon.
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thank you both for the assistance =D
I’ve had characters that have weapons that are visual replicas of famous weapons, but they never actually wielded the famous weapon itself.
I have several characters who are skilled blacksmiths in-character. One of them is a Warsong Orc who considers his (deliberately imperfect) replica of Gorehowl to be his greatest work, and it is his weapon of choice in combat.
Another is a Human Death Knight who saw an artist’s drawing of Thunderfury, and basically nerded out wanting to make a replica of it. He enlisted his mage of a father to help recreate the electric visual effect. He went so far as to make two, and gave them to another family member, my rogue. Said rogue doesn’t use them anymore, but has them on display in his house in Stormwind.
I basically ignore all of them save for the fact that one of them is a Windrunner family heirloom and that Drahliana is looking forward to ending a Windrunner with it.
Just throwing this out there - the names of artifact alternate appearances, combined with some creative exposition, could serve as decent stand-ins.
For example, a shadow priest character is highly unlikely to wield the actual Xal’atath blade. It is more possible for that character to wield a “Blade of the Black Empire” that contains the soul of some mysterious entity. Similarly, that character could have a dagger named “Embrace of the Old Gods” that makes whoever carries it hear whispers from the Void, or one named “Twisted Reflection”/“Vision of Madness” that slowly corrupts the wielder’s mind and makes them think they’re experiencing contact from the Void/old gods/etc.
Something else to consider is that character perception of objects plays a role, as well. By that, meaning “as in what they’ve convinced themselves of being true”. A paladin could fancy themselves to be the next Ashbringer when in reality they just have an enchanted sword and have been lucky in combat.
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Sure they can. Xal’atath is a pan dimensional being. There’s nothing saying that it can’t have multiple manifestations including one that was wielded by the Champion until it’s essence was drained by Khadgar and Magni to stifle the Sword of Sargearas.
If Michael Moorcock can bring enough incarnations of the Eternal Champion together for a game of bridge (bonus points as to who can name all four), we can allow this as a character story.
I have no idea why this made me giggle for a few minutes.
Thoughts of the other paladins behind him, weighing the pros and cons of telling him? Then wondering who has to actually tell him. Would he react violently? I mean, he already convinced himself he’s the Ashbringer, and was he really just lucky? Maybe there’s something to it?
The existential crisis they have and struggle with faith while not-Ashbringer is laying waste to the undead.
Heh.
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Well, the Light does work through conviction, right?
I have to disagree. Spanning realities/dimensions does not equate to having multiple manifestations in the Warcraft universe, as established by the Burning Legion. It spanned multiple realities/dimensions as well, and we didn’t end up with an X number of Mannoroths, for example.
Not saying that they couldn’t have something like Xal’atath, or even have whatever entity trapped in the blade be so deranged that it believes itself to actually be Xal’atath, but to have the actual dagger that is used to null Sargeras’ sword and would later fall into the hands of Sylvanas, Azshara, and eventually Wrathion in order to cut open a gash in the husk of N’zoth seems a little farfetched.
That being said, there is a gap between Legion and its discovery by Kojo in Stormsong Valley where the possessed dagger is unaccounted for.
Of course, who am I to tell other people what they can and cannot do? If I RP’d, a major deal-breaker would be someone claiming they had any significant impact upon lore (including taking temporary ownership of a lore item) - particularly if that item appears to all players as a consequence of the story of the game, itself.
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As someone that always wanted to keep the artifact appearance for my Brewmaster (because it has cool animations), seeing that the idea of being a just a replica, or an imitation being accepted makes me happy.
It makes sense that my Kultiran brewmaster made a stick to look like Fu Zan, it has a massive keg, he can put beer there!
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I always wondered about this myself. I don’t really do any RP’ing, but I have a sort of idea of my character’s fantasy background, so it doesn’t really matter what happens with artifacts or whatnot because I’m not actually RP’ing with anyone. Even if I did, it’d be something more personal, like a D&D campaign setting, rather than a great big world with hundreds of thousands of players who all have the same quests and whatnot in the game.
Going through all the artifact stuff in Legion felt like a really cool and personal part of the story, so I’d be kind of hard-pressed to just think of my characters as just wielding copy-cat weapons. Plus, from the personal fantasy kind of perspective, it could wind up making for some very funny scenarios come Shadowlands, since there’s a potential for say… the Ret Pally that got Ashbringer and then basically got it depleted and whatnot to meet Tirion Fordring in the Shadowlands again…
Tirion: Ah yes… Trissiel, I’d love to hear about how the forces of Azeroth achieved victory against the Burning Legion. Wait… where is Ashbringer? I thought I gave it to you.
Trissiel: So… funny story about defeating the Legion…
Tirion: No matter, I’m sure it was a great victory for the Silver Hand, which will surely stand as a beacon of hope and peace for Azeroth’s future. As Highlord I’m sure it hasn’t been easy keeping the ancient order together…
Trissiel, trying to remember the last time they physically visited the order hall: Right… So, there was a bit of disagreement about whether or not… Teldrassil should… exist.
Tirion: Alright. Well, the Kyrian are a beacon of light and justice in the Shadowlands and probably the perfect place to start getting things back on track.
Trissiel: Ooh, well… I was gonna go chill with the vampires, actually.
Tirion: stares with religious intent
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the owners of the artifacts are the nameless adventurers in lore that aren’t the players. Using the appearances are fine, just you don’t own the weapons yourself.
Unless of course you’re in a group ok with it but public RP? gonna get a lot of yelling done.
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Hopefully no one yells, though they might opt to not RP with someone who is RPing as the owner of the weapon, depending on personal preference and how the character is depicted.
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That’s the thing: no one rps as the weapon owners. And no one should since that claims you’re more important than any of the other rpers.
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I’ve seen it happen a few times. Very, very seldom. Like, once or twice in the last 4 years.
It’s their right to RP what they want to, and its our right to RP with whom we want.
Those people were likely ignored or told off by people. It’s like claiming you’re engaged to a lore character
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I have no idea. I didn’t RP with them.
I’m just saying I hope that no one gets told off or yelled at for RPing as the IC owner of an artifact. If someone else were to disagree with that, the appropriate response is to just not RP with them, rather than chew them out.
I’m sure it’s happened, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.