Hello everyone!
Last time we talked about the story of Feralas, a zone that I apperantly butcher with my pronounciation
but all the same, you wanted our exploration to contunie into thousand needles.
The cataclysm rocked the world hard and changed many locations, it will be hard to find a
better example then right here within the thousand needles.
The way it looked way back when is hard to say since they didn’t really give it a description
in the chronicles and all we really have to go on is a description from the warcraft rpg.
These are in general not considered to be canon, not part of the official lore but still....this
is what it says:
Before the great Sundering, the region of Thousand Needles was a river canyon, the spires
of sandstone shaped from years of rushing water.
Water flowed to the sea from a large lake to the east, fed by an underground tributary.
Then came the demons and the destruction that threw the entire world into upheaval.
The canyon was thrust above the water table; the eastern lake dried into a vast salt flat
and Thousand Needles became a sandy gorge.
The long canyon stands as a natural divide between central and southern Kalimdor.
The realm gets its name from the dozens of giant, cylindrical columns of sandstone that
rise from the bottom of the canyon like a forest.
Bridges have been constructed atop many of the spires, connecting pathways across the
canyon from one side of the surrounding mountains to the other.
To the east of Thousand Needles, the canyon opens into a large, dry lakebed.
This dried-out salt flat is actually below sea level.
At its center stands an alkaline lake with ten times the salt of any ocean.
The sere region is so hot, dry and salty that few creatures venture here.
Lizards, scorpions, vultures, and birds of prey are not uncommon and neither are centaur
war bands.
The spire bridges allow travelers to traverse the canyon without running into the barbaric
centaur who patrol the canyon floor.
The bridges are not entirely safe, however, as birds of prey will attack the unwary.
Larger birds have even sabotaged the bridges from time to time.
There is very little of interest in this land, unless someone has a passion for salt or sandstone...
or oil.
Or one of the greatest trinkets that classic world of Warcraft had to offer.
When I think back to the thousand needles during classic, not a lot of the story stands
out.
There was however the carrot on a stick that would always make me visit the area.
I mean, come on, who can resist like a 3% mount speed increase...
At the Mirage Raceway we found Pozzik a goblin affiliated with the bilgewater cartel and
a rocket car enthusiast.
He has a long-standing rivalry with gnome engineer fizzle brassbolts over which is superior:
goblin or gnomish engineering.
In an attempt to prove the superiority of their respective race, pozzik and fizzle built
the mirage raceway on the shimmering flats in thousand needles, and both build rocket
cars and enlisted teams to drive them.
A competition between goblins and gnomes while the carrot on a stick was rewarded to adventurers
brave enough to confront Gahz’rilla.
That wasn’t as easy as it is today though.
You couldn’t just click on the gong to make the beastie spawn, you needed the mallet of
zul’farak.
Obtaining it took you all the way to the hinterlands not to mention you needed a group to get the
quest done, but that trinket was more then worth it.
You could also go for the speedy racer goggles as your reward, but I don’t recall anyone
going for that reward.
With the water rushing into thousand needles, they not only lost their racetrack, but also
some of their loved ones.
Now they’ve taken to life on top of the water with their beautiful Fizzle and Pozzik’s
Speedbarge.
A culmination of goblin and gnomish ingenuity.
Having these two opposite races spend so much time together on a small living space sometimes
causes a bit of trouble but nothing the brute squad can’t handle.
Even our traveler, on route to Gadgetztan made a stop here.
He describes it as a cross between a city-size ship and an artificial island, with its own
set of docks on either side and a warren of buildings – or perhaps machines – built
atop it.
Aram thought the Speedbarge was surrounded by more boats than he’d ever seen in any
one place – including Stormwind Harbor.
That was not by accident as they arrived in the middle of the annual fizzle and pozzik’s
speedbarge boat race, sponsored byyyy MEGA.
The mechanical engineers’ guild of Azeroth.
The time for engineers to shine and show off their incredible speedboats, while grabbing
a drink in the bar and listen to the soothing tones of the ever smileing daisy.
With the water connecting thousand needles to the high seas opened the way for the southsea
pirates lead by Tony Two-Tusk to come in and cause a bit of trouble.
He has build a pirate empire out of nothing and the treasures lost to the bottem of the
sea are his to be claimed.
Or atleast that’s what the troll pirate thinks.
We have something to say about that as we gather the material to make our own boat,
repel the attacking pirates and make way to their headquarters.
Getting to Tony isn’t going to be easy as he has a whole lot of ogre guards.
Perhaps by recovering their sunken treasure and bribing the ogres, our trip into the admiral’s
den might be a little bit less lethal.
Who cares if their treasure is actually fake, the ogres will never be able to tell the difference.
Treasure be a pirate’s best friend, but it isn’t enough to save Tony’s life.
The troll is tricky though as his spirit is now haunting us and will do so till the end
of our days.
Anoying us every step we take, we have no other choice but to bring him back to life.
His girl Ajamon Ghostcaller might be able to help us with that.
Not because she particularly likes him or anything.
She has plenty of spirits to keep her company.
She just doesn’t want him to get out of paying his alimony, besides, there’s also
the baby he had with her sister that needs taking care of.
Tony the sly dog has some unfinished business and we gather the stuff she needs to bring
him back.
The heart of Evil Dolly, Seadog Fajardo’s Lungs and Lilly Landlubber’s Liver.
Normally we would need lots of other things, stuff from his family, but that’s only herself
and her sister’s boy...Tony aint worth that so instead we gather a whole bunch of carcasses
from the animals that drowned with the flooding.
A bit of nostalgia for the many creatures we used to kill while questing in thousand
needles.
The last step is to slay someone with the big mojo in Tony’s presence.
No, its not going to be her.
We set our eyes on Mad Magus Tirth, a name that might sound familiar to those who have
watched my master piece on the story of the angry chicken.
He used to hang around at the race track, enjoying the booze a little bit too much,
foolishly believing that he was powerful enough to stop the waters rushing in with the cataclysm.
He still does, blaming his apprentice Plucky Johnson for his incessant clucking, constantly
cursing him into a chicken.
Finally his mighty mojo will be put to good use as we bring Tony Two-Tusk back to life.
No longer does his spirit haunt us.
He jumps right back into the world of the living expecting to have a date with Ajamon
but she's a’ready sorted.
Hard at work at summoning up a date for later.
Tony Two-Tusk would later on join the race our traveler was observing and remember that
the traveler book takes place after the cataclysm.
Horde and Alliance, goblins and gnomes might be able to get somewhat along with eachother
on the boat but that’s not to say they don’t have their conflicts.
Where these days we’re fighting over a resource known as Azerite, right here in thousand needles
it’s oil that’s the real power source they desire.
Just one problem, with all the water the major source of oil is now in the hands of the Centaur.
Negotiations are taking place to see who gets the right from Khan Blizh to pump out that
liquid gold.
Both sides offer way more gold then the other could ever muster, both sides are probably
lying to the centaur and both sides decide to just take it further and offer fake gold
in the form of pyrite ore chunks.
A move that the centaur can’t really appreciate, they might be savage but they’re not stupid
and we’re no longer welcome.
No problem at all, we’ll just set up our pumping operations anyways.
Just try to stop us from destroying the land and stealing what we need.
Silly Centaur, how dare you say no to the heroes of the alliance and the horde.
One of the final stories that I want to cover for the zone today is all about Magatha Grimtotem
and her Grimtotem Tribe.
The grimtotems have always been on the more hostile side amongst the taurens with their
leader Magatha disagreeing with Cairne and the direction he was taking the tauren.
When I mentioned Cairne’s fate, some of you wondered why he didn’t kick out Magatha
before it was too late, but Cairne always believed in the idea of keeping your friends
close but your enemies closer.
But he did not see the real threat magatha posed, the lengths she would go to wrestle
control from the tauren.
It was around the time just before the cataclysm where Warchief Thrall handed over leadership
of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream.
Many disagreed with this decision, including Cairne and Garrosh himself, but Thrall had
made up his mind and saw something in the son of Grommash.
As he went on his journey to Outland to learn more about what was happening to the world,
discover more about the coming of the cataclysm and become a better shaman, Garrosh took charge.
New incursions took place into ashenvale which enraged the alliance.
Tensions between the factions flared, and open war seemed inevitable.
Some of the horide’s members welcomed these bold and aggresive maneuvers, but cairne did
not.
The elder tauren did everything he could to reason with the acting warchief and prevent
bloodshed.
In cairne’s eyes, garrosh was leading the horde down a dangerous path, one that would
inevitably destroy it.
Garrosh did not listen to his wisdom, and so cairne spoke the only language the orc
would understand.
He challeneged garrosh to a mak’gora, a ritualistic duel.
Before a crowd of onlookers, the tauren and the orc fought for the future of the horde
itself.
As was custom, a shaman was allowed to bless their weapons.
Magatha saw her oppertunity and secrely coated garrosh’s legendary axe gorehowl with poison.
On one side stood the promise of a peaceful future.
On the other, the promise of blood and conquest.
It was blood and conquest that won that day.
Cairne fought bravely, even had the advantage until one single hit and the poison did the
rest.
The tauren who had lived his life with honor, died betrayed.
After the duel, magatha led a coup in thunder bluff and seized the city.
Yet her victory was short-lived.
Cairne’s son baine was warned and survived their surprise attack.
No aid for Magatha would come from the warchief as Garrosh was pissed.
He was furious that she had poisoned his blade.
It had tarnished his victory in the makgora and called into question whether he was truly
a better fighter than cairne.
He left her to her fate and with the aid of Theramore, Baine launched a counterattack
that deposed magatha.
He had every right to execute his foe, but he stayed his hand.
He looked to his father’s teachings for guidance, and he decided that walking the
path of honor and compassion was the mark of a true leader.
In the end, he exiled magatha and those that remained at her side, far from thunderbluff.
In the case of Magatha it appears she made her way to Darkcloud Pinnacle, a grimtotem
stronghold in thousand needles.
The grimtotems have been fighting with the forces at freewind post for quite a while
now and moved in her with their attack when the waters rushed in.
It’s almost as if they knew what was going to happen.
Attacking them at their weakest moment...
No more...
The grimtotem have struck them for the last time.
Since they cannot be taught the error of their ways, we will destroy them like beasts.
May the earth mother forgive us.
With each step taken a new grimtotem brave shows up to fight us, but step by step we
retake the area, on the ground bodies linked to quests of the past.
Magistrix Elosai was a blood elf exiled for her studies to find a cure for the blood elves’magical
addiction.
She believed that with our aid she might succeed, tried different methods to halt her addiction
but instead ended up not curing it but actually accelerating it.
She became a wretched.
All those years of research... and for nothing!
Perhaps they were right, perhaps this is something they must learn to live with.
If only she knew that the blood elves would regain access to the sunwell, not that it
matters much now as her corpse is on the ground, still holding on to the vial that she drank
from.
The broken body of Lorekeeper Montarr, a reagent vendor in classic, now lies in a pool of his
own blood.
A trail of droplets leads back to the inn where Cliffwatcher Longhorn reveals that he
has been with the grimtotem taurens since the beginning.
This despite offering quests for classic heroes that did seem to help out Freewind post.
The horn of the traitor is taken, allowing us to command the spirit of the cliffwalker
to fight for us, a small bit of vengeance for Montarr.
In the present we deal with the grimtotem by burning their weapons and taking on their
most formiddable leaders while also comming across something rather interesting, a rattle
of bones.
This is a part of shu’halo ancient myth.
It is always connected with the writ of history and the drums of war.
They are supposed to be powerful tauren artifacts; gifts from the earth mother if the tales are
to be believed.
As we pick it up, the windserpent Arikara shows up, urging us to follow.
Believed to be a creature of vengeance, we’ve dealt with Arikara before during classic.
With the aid of Magatha we made sure that it posed no threat to cairne, but now it seems
like these two have a much closer connection as she uses the beast to communicate with
us.
With the writ of history and the drums of war in our possession, we’re complimented
on being able to follow simple clues.
The old crown has one more challenge to ssee if we’re worthy and has a small request
of killing her nephw Arnak along the way since he has become something of an embarrassment
to the family.
The chief of chiefs has many grimtotems to fight at his side, btu goes down all the same.
In the cave we rescue the captive bride Lakota Windsong who’s been captured by Arnak twice
now.
She asks us if we killed him, too which she shaman looks sad for just a moment, but is
still very happy to be free once more.
Now for that challenge from Magatha, a fight with Arikara and the spirits of some elders.
Upon its defeat she gives us our next clue on where to track her down, she’s been taken
prisoner by the twilights hammer.
These are the people all for bringing about the end of the world.
They saw the coming of Deathwing as a great thing, teamed up with his forces and while
Magatha is not exactly sure where they’ve taken her, we can be certain that a mighty
shaman like herself in the hands of the twilight hammer is not good for anyone.
Our search begins at Highperch where we run into Pao’ka Swiftmountain.
He used to be an escort quest as he tried to study the wyvern and got a little too close,
lost after being chased away from their nests but these days he’s alot more in charge
trying to protect the creatures from the twilights’s hammer.
We save the little ones and murder the filthy twilight trappers.
The alpha male Heartrazor is cut free and even kind enough to give us a ride to the
man in charge the one that needs to be removed to stop their trapping operations.
While we’re busy saving the local wildlife, Lakota came by.
She told Pao’ka to tell us to meet her east at the twilight bullwark.
That must be where they’re holding magatha.
Not just her either, more prisoners are held here for wahtever dark pursoses these cultists
might have in mind.
We free them while gathering up a disguise.
Making our trips into the twilight camp a whole lot safer and a lot easier to take care
of theirs since now we can simply distracts them and murder them from behind.
For magathas chains we’ll need a special code from a device near the codemaster, with
it we finally set the elder crone free.
“magatha quote”
She’s not exactly a good guy, still very arrogant and rude, working on her own dark
schemes but at this very moment the twilight hammer is a much larger threat.
They’ve summoned a monstrosity known as Animus.
At its core is an artifact called the doomstone.
One of its properties is an ability to absorb a great deal of energy, fead by two bound
elementals which we release.
With the doomstone the cultists are trying to set off an explosion by overloading the
stone and amplifying its power through the elemental.
If they succeed, the rest of thousand needles and much of the surrounding lands will be
obliterated.
This musn’t happen, can not happen.
By brekaing through its defensive shield and fighting through the gathered elemental powers,
we stop Animus before their catastrophic plans can succeed.
For rendering her faithful service, Magatha grants us our life and holds on to the doomstone...just
for safekeeping of course.
At the time we had no idea what this meant.
Was magatha going to come back and destroy us?
Is she in charge of the twilights hammer now?
Nobody knew, not until the expansion known as Legion.
Heroes rose up to form order halls and defend the world of Azeroth against another invasion
from the Legion.
Shamans gathered at the Maelstrom where suprisingly, magatha dared to show up to ask for their
aid.
“I am Magatha of the Grimtotem tribe, and I will be heard!”
Her people, the Grimtotem have come under attack by the demons.
She has lost a few possessions that are dear to her, and she wants our help.
If we grant it, she will offer her services against the Legion so despite our history,
together we travel back to the Darkcloud Pinnacle where we find the
the Grimtotem Tauren fighting for their lives.
While we go about freeing her people from their cages and killing a whole bunch of demons
along the way, we also focus on getting back the Doomstone which was taken from Magatha.
This artifact of power belongs in her hands, not theirs so we take on doomsayer Baelresh
and reclaim it.
“You want the Doomstone, Shaman?
Come, take it!”
While we work on this, Magatha makes sure to get her Windserpent Arikara back.
Now we’re not handing over this powerful artifact so easily.
It’s much safer in Nobundo’s hands at the order hall and since the crone refuses
to leave its side, she’s welcome to make us a portal back to the Maelstrom or else
we’ll simply leave alone with it.
Our adventures with Magatha would continue on during Legion with her eventually becoming
a follower for the order hall, but for now...this is the major story of Thousand Needles.
A very dry land that was flooded by water, engolved in conflict, a beautiful location
for goblin and gnomes to figure out who’s engineering is the best as they race on land
and water.
By all means let me know where you’d like to take this adventure next, let me know in
a comment down below which zone you’d like to see covered next.
For now thank you very much for watching everyone!
Subscribe fi you like my videos, leave a like if you enjoyed this one....aaaand until next
time guys!
See ya.