Surprised? I know I am. Out of the two factions, I certainly knew this one was going to be the harder choice. A good portion of the decision making process was more about elimination than support. King Varian has certainly come around (a lot) since Cataclysm. He’s become a much better leader, but he just isn’t quite there for me. I also have zero connection to Velen. I never have, and I fully expect that to change in Draenor. For now though, he’s out. Tyrande I’m a fan of, but she’s never overwhelmed me all that much either -in part because her husband gets pretty much all the attention.
Without elaborating on the others any further the question is “why Moira?” To be honest, I always hated her. From the moment you got sent into BRD to save her pompous rump from Thaurissan only to have her say “no, I’m staying” (or if you aggro’d the fight right you could outright kill her), she made me eyetwitch. When Magni became one with the mountain and she snuck her way into power I was even more irate with her. Any time I went past the council for any reason, I wanted to stab her. Badly.
But the fallout from that is where things begin to change. She made genuine effort to integrate the Dark Iron Clan into the mainstream dwarves, though it didn’t necessarily go all that smoothly. However she learned something in all of it because she recognized what the other Clan leaders were doing and why and made similar sacrifice. Despite her past, Moira starts to show the Queen Regent title is starting to become more than just that. Blood In The Snow is where she takes her next big step.
If you haven’t done the scenario yet, I apologize in advance if you continue to read the spoilers ahead. Still, you can’t tell her story without it. Varian needs more help against the Horde and gets handed a nugget in that the Zandalari are going to help the Frostmane Trolls and attack Ironforge. So thinking he can warn them and offer aid, they’ll provide the support he needs in return. Only, there’s a hiccup. The dwarves don’t trust each other for a second and one’s not going to offer to help fend off the attack and leave the others in charge. Or that’s how it seems until Moira defies her male counterparts and offers the aid of the Dark Iron Dwarves and herself in order to defend the city. After they successfully stop the Trolls the king tells Moira the others should be ashamed for not aiding and that she should be proud. In a moment that is truly genuine she responds that she doesn’t want to shame anyone. She was simply trying to protect the city and prove herself loyal as well. Sure enough, the other two prety much hang their heads like scolded siblings even though no one suggested as much and the three Clans are pretty much unified now.
That’s right. The one dwarf that nobody, including myself, wanted in power was the one to truly and genuinely unify the three hammers. You really have to stop and think about it for a moment and realize the character transformation and growth of this woman (especially in a game that gets slagged for not having any dominant female characters). Granted, it wouldn’t matter if it was a woman or man, the task itself is daunting. At one point you’re in love with some crazy bastard down in Blackrock Mountain (sorry, but I’ll always consider Thaurissan as loopy), then you’re an iron fist over your entire race to the point people actually hate you, and now they genuinely love you and adore you for doing what a true leader is supposed to. So in the end, there really couldn’t be any other choice.
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I love the fact that she makes her own fate so to say. And yes, just like you I didn’t like her much before. But I have always been impressed by her strenght and her strong will, even since that first time I tried to save her from BRD.
I suppose now I can applaud her strength in the beginning. At the time I was just like, “no, the princess is not in another damn castle. It’s you, let’s go.”
I began to be fond of Moira when I read “The Shattering”. She might be my favorite Alliance leader, too.
The Shattering was definitely the start of her transition. Even at the start of that, she’s not someone to be fond of.
Indeed, not. It was the change I saw in her over the course of that story that began to endear her to me.
It was one of many reasons The Shattering was such a great book. I might have to go back and read it. I should try and read Vol’jin again first.
I dont know her at all, we may have seen her so many times.. i have not read any of World of Warcrft books nor im a lore nerd or anything. but learning it from you guys makes me want to read more… Thanks for sharing it.
For what it’s worth, you can always get some info from WoWpedia. It’s more up to date than WoWWiki is and I’m pretty sure it’s done by several people who used to work on the Wiki.
ah good call! I will add a logo on my side widget for that site as well. Seems worth to have it. Thanks JD.
I do what I can. 🙂