by Magistrate - 9 years ago     show comments

Welcome to the Dungeon Dossier! Every weekend, the Dossier dives a little deeper into the lore of World of Warcraft‘s dungeons. This week, unravel the undulating, undead-infested labyrinth known as Razorfen Downs!

Recently updated with 6.0, Razorfen Downs is a twisting maze of gargantuan briars, grizzly spiders, mindless undead, and bloodthirsty Quillboar. The dungeon has numerous claims to fame, including capital city and burial grounds of the Quillboar, as well as deathbed of the Ancient Agamaggan, who is revered as something of a god among the hearty boar people.

The undead are the main element of Razorfen Downs’ story. Agamaggan, an immense boar who fought in the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, was said to have brambles that grew from his back. Razorfen Downs became his resting place, and it inherited that same quality: briars choke out the sky and clog its twisting defiles. Quilboar also bury their dead here in droves. The combination of the seclusion and defense of the briars, as well as the plentiful bodies and strategic location of the Downs, has made it the perfect incursion point for the Scourge.

Razorfen Downs has two main antagonists: Death Speaker Blackthorn, a Quilboar who leads the Death’s Head cult, and Amnennar the Coldbringer, a Scourge lich.

The Death’s Head cult (previously known as a tribe) is essentially the organizational hierarchy for Quilboar. A spiritual and religious order, its leaders are known as speakers, prophets, and crones, and the sect employs powers of shamanism, geomancy, and (I would assume) something of the necromantic. They fervently await the return of Agamaggan and, if I’m allowed to speculate, this may be part of the reason they allow themselves to be controlled by Amnennar. A lich that can raise the dead and conceivably do something for their dead demi-god.

Amnennar participated in the Third War during the Battle of Mount Hyjal, and he was sent to Razorfen to build a force to conquer Kalimdor. From the new rendition of the dungeon which has Blackthorn “reviving” the lich, it seems that the old version of the dungeon is viewed as the lich having been defeated. The new version of the dungeon could then conceivably take place in the present. I’m not sure what this means in terms of the Scourge, then–I’ll admit here that I’m confused since the Scourge are linked to the Lich King and the Lich King is dormant in Bolvar Fordragon. Amnennar seems to be acting on his own to carry out the Lich King’s old orders.

Accordingly to a powerful lich, heroes jump neck-deep into undead minions, including ghosts, skeletons, and more. They also face off against Death’s Head cultists. Even the briars are on the offensive in the latest rendition of the dungeon–they will literally throw clumsy heroes around that happen to slip into their ravines. A new addition to the tapestry, the Arachnomancers (everything seems to be “-mancer”-able these days) add their deadly experiments to the mix, including the pustule-laden Aarux.

In their stand against the undead legions of Amnennar, heroes enlist the aid of the Red Dragonflight’s Koristrasza, who guides them with quests and also aids in the final confrontation against both Blackthorn and Amnenar. The Red Dragonflight, as the flight representing life and its various powers and struggles, has a vested interest in combating the Scourge, an unnatural perversion of (from the flight’s point of view) the natural order of things.

From a narrative standpoint, there doesn’t seem to be any strong story motives or elements like greed, pride, etc. Razorfen Downs is more about milieu than character. Evil lich arises, fight his minions, make red dragon happy.

The Dungeon Dossier runs every weekend covering a new dungeon’s lore in detail. Tune in next week as we continue with Razorfen Kraul!

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