The most underrated lore character(s) in Wrath of the Lich King

Lore Story Forum
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You remember Wilfred Fizzlebang. You likely remember Bridenbrad. And you DEFINITELY remember Bolvar and Dranosh, even if you weren’t playing back then, you at least know who these two are.

But there is a forgotten character, well two, whose deaths are just as tragic as the above. They’re names: Emmy Malin and Ta’zinni.

The one you recognize probably depends on the faction you play.

These characters were captured by the blue dragonflight and forced to do its bidding with threats of their families being harmed. They were also secretly sabotaging the work of Malygos.

They both are required to be killed and looted for items needed to destroy the Ley Lines in Dragonblight. Depending on your faction, will you be able to understand the last words on of them has, involving their regret and apology to a member of their family. Also faction-based is a letter they drop which starts a quest. Their family members you may recognize.

Emmy Malin is a human female who goes by the title of captain. Her father is Archmage Malin. In classic, he has a quest chain that leads you to Arathi Highlands to asist
Apprentice Kryten and Skuerto in collecting items for Archmage Trelane. What makes Emmy’s death especially tragic is that she was presumably very young (15-19) based on fact she still calls her father “Daddy”. Unfairly taken when she had her whole life ahead of her. And YOU were the one who killed her.

Meanwhile, Ta’zinni is a male troll who goes by the title of lieutenant. His sister is Deino, a mage trainer in Sen’jin Village. In his letter, he tells her to protect her kids. This death is tragic in a different way. If you played in Orc or Troll mage back then, you probably interacted with her several times to learn new spells. You might even be considered her student. The spells you learned from her could well be the very spells you used to kill her brother a couple years later (in-game).

However, don’t feel too bad, because you didn’t know these facts when you killed them. And the quest NPCs seem to understand this too. (Well, at least the Alliance understands. The Horde is kind of condescending about it.) They never blame you for these deaths. Send the letters back to their respective family members, with information that you found the letter (but thankfully not that you killed them).

A few days later, you will receive a letter from the family member of your faction. They thank you for sending the letter back and promise to avenge their family members.
In Deino’s case, she will actually talk about Ta’zinni if you return to Sen’jin Village after completing the quest. Where she, once again promises to avenge her brother. Unfortunately, she was removed in patch 4.0, presumably lost to the Shattering.

Sorry for the essay. Who knew two throw away quest mobs would have so much to dissect?

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Pontius.

A throaway Forsaken quest giver in Vengeance Landing who gives a pretty interesting insight into how the undead rework their past life skills;

“Normal dogs won’t come anywhere near me nowadays. I was devastated when I found out… I used to love the beasts. Plaguehounds make for a fine substitute, however. They’re not quite as… easy on the eyes. But then again, neither am I!”

Of note though the newly under construction Brill has two presumably alive dogs, Xena and Hershey. I so dearly hope Pontius has heard the news. Though he does seem perfectly happy with his plague puppers;

“Did you hunt down some crows, boy? Good dog, good boy!”

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That sort of thing only had an impact on me a decade and a half ago. It’s a shame that this is overshadowed by just how terrible the Nexus War was overall. It was completely unnecessary to WOTLK’s storyline.

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Interesting. The forsaken that have been the peak of Warcraft’s story telling since the third game.

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I knew about both of these already. They were an interesting commentary on the horrors of war, way better than anything in BfA. Unfortunately, Wrath was also the expansion to introduce torture quests.

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isn’t there a tauren or taunka druid up in Storm Peaks who reveals he’s a millennia-old immortal, and exactly nothing has been done since with him?..

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I suppose it introduced the concept of you doing the torturing yourself, but torture quests existed well before then. Mostly it was a Forsaken joint though.

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…I blitz through torture quests with pretty much a shrug, but the quest in Searing Gorge where you steal the pillows of a bunch of Dark Iron Dwarf miners has always struck me as a low blow, excessively petty and mean-spirited.

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I mean quite a few quests are dodgey when you get right down to it.

Like that WQ in Dazar’Alor where you go to people’s Loa temples and smash their holy idols. Then kill them when this extraordinarily offensive action causes them to attack you.

I’m pretty sure that’s just a hate crime. But another Loa Priest puts you up to it so that’s just how they roll I guess.

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That’s Trolls for you. Even to this day I’m really not sure why those Loa priests send you to go prank some other Loa priests and when they get angry and attack you, you just murder them because they violated the NAP. Trolls just hardcore do not give a damn.