PREAMBLE
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This essay first requires, I believe, a preamble which briefly covers a topic which merits its own paper. When Classic was announced, one of the many thoughts that began to whirl around in my mind was how much easier the game would be with the knowledge I have now. For instance, I would know I needed to train new spells before I called a friend to ask why I kept dying to mobs at level eight (those pesky worgs outside Silverpine!). The next thought I had was about some fantastical idea where Blizzard blended a handful of amenities from Retail with the experience of Classic. Like heirloom gear and dual talent specialization.
If you are a purist about Classic, and that idea makes you taste vomit in your mouth, that is okay. Maintaining the sanctity of Classic is a noble quest, but it is also okay for a girl to dream, right? As someone who struggled through Classic, I vividly remembered many of the hardships I had during the game. While I was elated at the news, I could not help dust off memories I had since buried of running up the entirety of Stonetalon Peaks every time I died or having soul shards occupy precious bag space. Purchasing new spells, on the other hand, I could not wait to do.
Fast forward to now. COVID-19 hit, and Blizzard mercifully deployed the Winds of Wisdom buff to all characters on Retail to boost their experience gained by 100%. It was a difficult time for this because I had recently experienced a renaissance on Classic. I played for the first time in months, joined a guild, ran some dungeons, and got some incredible loot to the point of absurdity. However, I could not pass up an opportunity like this to level the required races to complete my collection of heritage armor. I had had my eye on the tauren totems for some time.
I had a taste for the now antiquated gameplay of Classic but was “forced” to play Retail. I really wanted those totems. Every moment I spent leveling in Retail made me yearn for Classic. This is the mind frame that helped give birth to this essay.
The second thing that prompted me to write this was an experience. In fact, you will read that word often in the coming paragraphs. If it feels overused, it is not. Questing in the Ghostlands is nothing less than an experience. Also, given its prominence in Warcraft, no other word would do.
Lastly, the theme of nostalgia rears its head frequently here, and I cannot exactly say I am not a nostalgia junkie when it comes to Warcraft. In 2016 I purchased the Toycom Series 1 Prince Arthas action figure and I recently discovered my original Wrath of the Lich King launch ceremony poster in a pile of my old belongings at my parents’ house and nearly wet myself. I am not exactly sure what readers will make of this information, but I wanted to get it out now before someone reads this post (and certainly many more to follow) and accuse me of liking things because of purely sentimental reasons. That is one hundred percent true.
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The Ghostlands
When my tauren warrior, Gurakhar, hit level 20, I stopped to think about what place next to level. It is peculiar how even though most zones scale to your character level, some players ‘keep to the old ways.’ They were better anyway. For some reason, a memory popped into my mind of trying to fly through the Ghostlands and not being able to on my main character. How odd. I opened my map and hovered my mouse over the zone in the Eastern Kingdoms. The Ghostlands. I had not been there since I was a boy.
The Ghostlands is a zone lost to time. Unaffected by the Cataclysm, this area wreaks of the Burning Crusade. And before you say something snide like, ‘duh, it’s literally from the Burning Crusade,’ I am speaking about something a little different (and perhaps esoteric). Blood elves are an absolutely iconic piece of the Burning Crusade, but I’m not flooded with nostalgia every time I log into mine. Perhaps it is the frequency with which we experience blood elves versus how much we experience the Ghostlands.
This is what I meant by ‘perhaps esoteric.’ If you’re someone who always levels your characters through the Ghostlands, then maybe the magic has warn off (or maybe it hasn’t. What am I, a witch doctor?). There is a different mind frame to be enjoyed from the forgotten in Warcraft. The Ghostlands is a zone I never experienced much, but the time I did spend there was almost exclusively in ’07-’09. My memories of this place forever anchored to the Burning Crusade.
And how could they not be? The Ghostlands has, in my opinion, some of the most iconic music in all of Warcraft. The very ambiance brings to life a land that once belonged to a magical kingdom ravaged by undeath. I often say to friends of mine (Okay, I’m lying, I don’t have any friends, but I talk to myself about this a lot) that Diablo II’s music is melodic perfection when it comes to capturing the essence of a video game. The Ghostlands, however, rival even the fabled Diablo II. There is an isle, Shalandis Isle, with a rendition of the Darnassiun tune that I had never heard before and it is amazing. The tune is only heard when on the isle, and as someone who returned to the Ghostlands to enjoy something old to break away from the monotony of the new, it was an overwhelming joy. I sat in front of my computer, late at night, my headphones wrapped around my ears and closed my eyes for the full experience. I truly could not believe there was a song I had not heard before in-game. As I listened to the fake waves crash upon the grassy shores and the rhythmic, ancestral tones of the Darnassiun tune, I experienced an old love again.
I do not wish to dive too deeply into the sensations and experiences felt by Warcraft’s music - that merits its own essay. But I do wish to highlight the music specific to the Ghostlands as a point of interest as to why this zone holds its own with the best of them. When I quiet my mind, and play the song on YouTube, I can see Gurakhar standing there. The Night Elf battle plans are clutched tightly in his grasp and he mournfully eyes the slain elves as I imagine many of the peaceful Tauren in World of Warcraft would do. What was it Faramir said in the Lord of the Rings movie? “War will make corpses of us all.”
If the ambiance of the Ghostlands does not show you how immune this area was to the Cataclysm, then some of the gameplay might. The Ghostlands still has much of the awful questing style that carries players all over the map. It is a nightmare. At least it was without all the accoutrements afforded to players now. The heirloom mount made quick work of running back and forth from places like Tranquillen and Windrunner Spire. I was able to experience the old gameplay mechanic on easy mode. I felt like a little kid helping my mother in the kitchen: none of the hard work, all the benefits. Even something as simple as Windrunner Spire evoked memories of a time long past. The idea of Sylvanas’s home before she became the Banshee Queen hearkens back to a time before World of Warcraft. I was still intermittently playing Warcraft III during the Burning Crusade. Though the nostalgia does not stop here. The Deatholme Acolytes in Windrunner Spire still have the Demon Skin buff!
There are two other absolute relics in terms of gameplay in the Ghostlands though, and I genuinely hope they never change. First, there are certain quest mobs that are not marked as needing to be just killed or killed and looted. Now, this is not something that only happens in the Ghostlands, but the fact it does reinforces its nostalgia. Sure, there are still markings on the map for the areas where the foes are, but the idea I needed to read my quest log to find information was a real treat. Second, there were quest items that not only took up bag space, but also were not enshrined in the white border signifying a special quest item. Again, not confined to the Ghostlands, but a treasure, nonetheless. I killed so many spiders before I realized I was compiling their crunchy legs.
I do not think this elation at old gameplay mechanics means I should be playing Classic instead. It more so speaks to the novelty of these experiences in Retail. If I wanted to play Classic, I would. I will readily admit that I would not stick my nose up at special Classic server that included only heirloom gear and dual talent specialization. Call me a dirty casual, I do not care.
Another piece of the Ghostlands that put me back in an old world was Deatholme. Anything that contains the old Scourge, Arthas’s Scourge, immediately takes me back. It is like seeing professional sports players in throwback uniforms. The Scourge as the shadowy and ever-present threat to Azeroth was something that gave the world an air of mystery. Unfortunately, mystery in Azeroth is just another thing that deserves its own essay, so, I will have to stop here. But running around to quest dialogue that implied the undead could advance made me wonder as I had before the Cataclysm: what’s going on in Northrend?
The Scourge threat, like Windrunner Spire, is something too that necessitates memories of Warcraft III and its events. The player cannot help but be thrust back into the old storylines that helped shape Azeroth and Outland. The real pièce de résistance in Warcraft III references in the Ghostlands, unequivocally, is the Dead Scar. The zone feature is a reference to multiple missions in the Undead campaign throughout the old RTS game. The implication that the Scourge’s blight so deeply polluted the earth was something that set the stage for Wrath of the Lich King masterfully. Furthermore, the nuance (if you can call the Dead Scar ‘nuanced’) of weaving storyline elements from both games so well set the stage for Blizzard’s world building capabilities.
So much of what players had previously seen in Azeroth had been created for World of Warcraft. For instance, what we knew of Stonetalon Peak from Warcraft III was that it was arid, and harpies roamed the skies. Blizzard had a lot of room to create something on its own so long as it included these two elements. So too could they create the Ghostlands as they saw fit so long as it included ruined elven structures, the undead, and forests. Yet the addition of the Dead Scar brought the two games together in a way that crafted a living world.
The Ghostlands is a zone that I hope never changes. Players get to experience a taste of both Classic and Retail, of Wacraft III and World of Warcraft. It is a zone that, at least for the author, reminds me of what makes these games so special. If this is a zone that you frequently quest in, then I hope you cherish it every time, or, at the very least, slow down the next time you are questing for the full experience. If it is not a spot you normally traverse on your quest to the top, then I highly recommend it. Dawdle amongst the cobwebs, explore the cavernous Amani Catacombs, listen to the haunting melodies of the decayed forest, fear the Scourge, and enjoy the experience of the Ghostlands.
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