Art of Persuasion
Anyone wanting information from their enemies does not always have to kill in World of Warcraft. Sometimes a little bit of modern torture is enough to extract the desired knowledge from the victim.
There is such a quest in Northrend in the Borean Tundra. The blue dragons are at war with all sorcerers and want to reclaim sole dominion over magic, and therefore take sorcerers captive and kill them. The Kirin Tor, as the leading mage elite of Azeroth, are not particularly convinced of this and want to prevent it.
To locate the whereabouts of the captured sorcerers, players abduct a follower of the blue dragons. The quest Art of Persuasion follows.
How convenient that you are here, hero.
You must understand that the code of conduct of the Kirin Tor does not tolerate our use of ‘extreme’ measures – even in times of despair like these.
However, as an outsider, you are not bound by such restrictions and could use any means to obtain information.
Do what you must. We must urgently find out where Lady Evanor is being held!
I will occupy myself with sorting these shelves in the meantime. Oh yes, and here, perhaps this old thing will help you…
Or simpler put: A Kirin Tor encourages you to torture the victim until it gives away its information because he himself cannot do it. The torture tool is a “neural injector.” According to the description, this inflicts “incredible pain on the target but leaves no lasting damage.”
For that alone, Blizzard faced a lot of criticism back then, because it was a torture quest with no other solution. Never before had you to actively torture someone.
But it got worse: Those who wanted to could continue to attack the victim even after it had already revealed the information. Again and again, one could use the neural injector and continue to torture for a long time past the mission objective, which was always “rewarded” with the victim’s responses:
- “Stop! Please…”
- “Nooooo! This torture is inhuman! You got what you wanted… why don’t you just kill me?”
- “You aren’t even asking questions anymore…”
- “You have shown me the true face of evil, [PlayerName]”
This makes Art of Persuasion definitely one of the darkest quest lines – even if many players miss this in haste through clicking the mission.
A cool detail: In Legion, the former quest giver Normantis has become a Rare mob, who tortures blue dragons in Azsuna – as revenge for what has been done to his dead comrades.
Raining arrows and killing from a distance? Sure! On the next page.
