WAR!
One of the over-arching plot-lines in World of Warcraft is the appearance of the mysterious Silithid, a strange insectoid race with a history on Azeroth longer than most realize. During the course of the game, the entire server population is slowly gearing up for war with the invaders. These events culminated on the Eldre’Thalas server on Friday, when members of The Final Sanctum guild struck the gong and opened the gates of Ahn’Qiraj, spaking war with the Silithid.
The event was marked with an inauspicious start: the Eldre’Thalas server completely crashed. It was the first time - but not the last time - this would happen Friday night. As the event geared up and the war spread to other regions of the game, things seemed to become more stable and eventually the game resumed. The Silithid and Ahn’Qiraji army stormed over the Silithus, Un’Goro crater, and Tanaris regions of the world. Alliance and Horde players poured into southern Kalimdor to meet the threat, and for eight hours massive raid groups cut down hundreds of the Anubisath Warbringers as they stormed out of Ahn’Qiraj. In my less cynical moments I like to think that the world was rising to meet the threat. Unfortunately, I have to think that most people showed up just to say that they’d seen it happen.
For those who couldn’t make the event, I took lots of screenshots. Here’s my photo essay:
Luckily, I brought along some friends…
who took care of business.
No one called the ASPCA for this guy.
Don’t worry fellas, I got these guys.
If I’d had an angle grinder I’d have given this guy the pedicure from hell.
Elves and cows, working together for a better tomorrow.
The Alliance and Horde armies showed up after the killing was done.
This guy turned Gadgetzan into a graveyard.
In the end, the great irony was that after the Ahn’Qiraj had been defeated, all of that cooperation and goodwill vanished . The neutral city of Gadgetzan (the site of a major Ahn’Qiraj battle) turned into a massive Horde vs. Alliance battleground. When the dust settled, it turned out that the Ahn’Qiraj had been mind-controlling some members of both sides. Once enough people got stabbed in the back the resulting slaughter was unstoppable.
The gates of Ahn’Qiraj remain open. The brave hearted can now take the battle to the enemy.