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A bit later than promised, but IRL got in the way. Due to image hosting issues, I won’t be talking about my knitting projects yet. Instead, today’s post will be about storytelling.
As most know I am a big fan of books. I love reading a hardcover copy in bed or curled up in my fave chair, especially if said book also contains lovely illustrations. But I also love reading fanfics on my tablet, expanding on existing universes of various fandoms. Audio books never appealed to me, due to having my own voices and such for characters. It would seriously break the immersion for me. The exception would be fairy tales. I loved the audio tapes (yes I am that old) that accompanied the fairy tale books I would listen to as a kid. I can still recall the sound of the bell that would indicate when to flip the page.
With my rediscovered love for knitting, it’s hard to focus on anything beyond said knitting. I can talk fine with people while knitting and can listen to music without screwing up. Watching TV while knitting results in barely glancing at the screen, which makes it impossible to catch up on my TV shows, not wanting to miss out on anything that’s happening on the screen. So how to combine the knitting sessions with storytelling?
Audio dramas.
How did I end up there? Well…last year Blizzard published an audio drama that’s a prequel to the World of Warcraft: Legion expansion. Each chapter is 25-40 minutes, which made it hard to “watch” it in one go so I never got around to check them out until recently. It took some time getting used to a guy telling the story, doing most of the voices. But the sound effects and music made it interesting to listen to. Available on Spotify (and YouTube), so easy to boot up my phone and plug in a headset. Perfect for knitting. The next bunch of paragraphs will go into some detail on the 2 audio dramas Blizzard has published.
The Tomb of Sargeras audio drama takes place before the mini-cinematic with Khadgar warning Varian and Anduin about the Burning Legion and before the ingame scenario where we as a player storm the Tomb with Varian and company. It tells the story of Gul’dan (from the Draenor timeline) reaching the Tomb of Sargeras on the Broken Shore with the help of Kil’jaeden, intending to find a way for the Legion to reach Azeroth. Meanwhile Khadgar is doing his best to find Gul’dan to prevent said invasion. I found the interaction between Khadgar and Gul’dan to be quite interesting. I never really was a fan of Gul’dan, but seeing his side of the story did make him evolve from the boring 2D villain to something more.
A Thousand Years of War is the 2nd audio drama, which focusses on the story of Turalyon (ermaged!) and Alleria after the Second War and the expedition to Draenor. Having been missing ever since, many lore fans have been waiting 12 years for news on this duo. The audio drama is basically addition/prequel to Patch 7.3, explaining how both heroes ended up on Argus with the Army of the Light.
What I especially liked about this story is how it went into some detail on how the Twisting Nether works, the struggles between the light and void and how dangerous the Burning Legion truly is. Both Turalyon and Alleria get plenty character growth. I love their love and trust for each other, but also for their son, whom have only seen glimpses of in the TBC expansion as a grown man. I admit, I am a huge Turalyon fangirl ever since I read Tides of Darkness, so I might be biased. I may have squee-ed when he made his appearance in 7.3. Alleria has always been far less interesting, despite being one of the Windrunner sisters. This audio drama changed my mind tho, as it gives her so much character growth.
So yes, if I you are up to date with WoW: Legion, it might be worth checking these out. If you can stand audio dramas that is. That reminds me I still got 3 WoW novels to read…
Trying out these audio dramas makes me want to check out more. It’s surprisingly hard to find interesting ones. Most of this stuff are podcasts or basic audio books, but I really want the whole experience with sound effects and music. I know there are various official Doctor Who ones out there, with voices from the actual actors. The only free ones I managed to find so far are about pre-reboot Doctors, which I never saw episodes of (not available legally here). I want the ones of the 9th, 10th and 11th Doctors :(
Audio dramas won’t replace my regular books, but it’s an interesting variation to check out at times, especially when knitting. In a future post I will go into detail about digital/web storytelling. A small spoiler: there are various pretty cool web versions out there!
~*~Maru~*~
