World of Warcrafthas been no stranger to new product announcements in the last couple of weeks. Recently,World of Warcraftrevealed the location of the next entry in theExploring Azerothbook series: the frozen continent of Northrend.
Exploring Azeroth: Northrendis being written by Alex Acks, award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. They have written for Blizzard in the past, with theStarcraft IIshort stories,One People, One Purposeand another found in theNature of the Beastcomic series. However,Exploring Azeroth: Northrendis their first timewriting forWorld of Warcraft.
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The book itself will explore the northern continent of Northrend,subject of theWrath of the Lich Kingexpansion. Like its predecessors,Exploring Azeroth: Northrendwill be narrated by belovedWarcraftcharacters–this time, readers will have the “expert guidance of Clan Bronzebeard” to rely on. Considering Muradin and Brann Bronzebeard have strong narrative ties to Northrend, it is more than likely they will be the main narrators, but it is possible their elder brother, Magni, could appear as well.
The firstExploring Azerothbook, written by author Christie Golden, examined the Eastern Kingdoms, and it was widely considered to be a delightful lore dive into the original continent ofWarcraft. However,Exploring Azeroth: Kalimdorwas not well-received. The tome, written by Blizzard’s historian supervisor Sean Copeland, was full of historical errors and inconsistencies in characterization. What’s worse, the book relied heavily on outdated, racist stereotypes that enraged and disappointed many fans.
Many fans are upsetWorld of Warcraftis releasing anotherExploring Azerothbook without addressing the problems with the previous one. A number of readers are hesitant to buy another when the previous one was so problematic, and they wantExploring Azeroth: Kalimdorto be revised before they put money down onExploring Azeroth: Northrend.
That said, mostWorld of Warcraftfans are glad to seeExploring Azeroth: Northrendis being written by someone outside of Blizzard. Alex Acks is a relative newcomer to writing for Blizzard, but they are a long-time fan ofWorld of Warcraft, and their writing history is as interesting as it is acclaimed. Many hope Acks will giveNorthrend the treatment and development it deserves.
It hasn’t been lost toWorld of Warcraftfans thatExploring Azeroth: Northrendis scheduled to release on October 18th of this year. Many wonder if the release will correspond withWrath of the Lich King Classic, which was recently announced for a late 2022 launch. Players will have to wait and see if the atlas’ release date is a hint as to the impendingClassicexpansion or ifExploring Azeroth: Northrendwill be delayed as its predecessor was.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC.
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