In the dark forest of Drustvar lurk many eerie secrets. It is a spooky place in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth!
Blizzard demonstrates with the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth that they can still create a dark atmosphere. On the Alliance’s side, this is especially evident in the dark forest of Drustvar. We have taken an intense look at it over the past few days on the beta server.
Witch Cults and Inquisitors in Drustvar
Basically, a veil of fear hangs over all of Drustvar. Almost every village has been cursed or already wiped out by the witches of the Heartbane Circle. The various curses manifest classically and remind of typical adventures from pen & paper stories – but each time they have a very dark touch.
In Fallhaven, the first stop on our journey, time has stopped, at least for the villagers. They stand frozen, caught in their activities. Families are having dinner, a sausage vendor is promoting his goods, the village chief is posting something on the notice board. However, the animals of the land are not frozen. This causes crows to peck at the residents’ faces while wolves prey on the defenseless.
Further to the east, in the Butcher’s Harbor, another curse exists. Here, the workers have been turned into pigs. Only a single man has retained his human form: the butcher. Driven by the curse, he thinks of nothing else but to slaughter the piglets one by one and also the enchanted townspeople.
Does that sound macabre? It is. Drustvar is brimming with creepy, ghastly disgust that often plays out only in the mind.
Inspiration from Film and Game Worlds
It is evident in many places where Blizzard has drawn inspiration. The strange wicker men, constructs of the witches made from willow, bones, and flesh, are inspired by numerous horror films (such as recently “The Ritual”), while the founding of a new order of the Inquisition has a flair reminiscent of the game series Dragon Age.
Such allusions can be found many times. Even “Tiny Tina” from Borderlands 2 makes an appearance in the form of the little girl “Anneke Lehmann”, whom we must help at a “great tea party”. For her, we have to collect her stuffed animals and also a dead cat – all guests of the tea party. She constantly speaks in eerie rhymes and apart from her, it seems no one else lives in the village.
Drustvar Brings Mysteries Back to Warcraft
As a role-playing fan, I am particularly pleased that the game world has gained much more than just a new zone with Drustvar. Witchcraft in Warcraft has been expanded with a classic yet new element.
Witchcraft is no longer just “fel magic, demons, and green fire”, but now also strange fetishes, curses over entire villages, rituals of blood, bones, and willow – but even more: It is unexplained. It is mysterious.
Especially the recent expansions have illuminated many eerie and creepy aspects far too precisely and dissected them into their mathematics and details. This feeling is at least still missing, and it gives Drustvar and the Heartbane Circle a charm that I already find myself longing for.
What do you think of the first impressions from Drustvar?
Further impressions from the beta can be found here:
