Blizzard has a very special job that only true story nerds can get. These are the tasks of the “Lorewalker” for World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft has developed a fairly complex lore over the years. After all, it has been around for about 14 years of the MMORPG and many more years of the original strategy titles. In addition, there are more than 20 novels, 10 comic series, and a film. Not to mention special cases like Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone.
Even though not everything is considered “canon”, meaning valid lore, it is an extremely large amount of material to keep track of.
This is exactly why Blizzard has its own team of 3 specialists: The Lorewalkers.
In an interview with Gameinformer, Sean Copeland from Blizzard talked about the job of the “Lorewalkers” and what difficulties they face in their daily work.
Feeling like a historian. The Lorewalker team describes their work as similar to that of a historian. There is a dedicated library at Blizzard’s headquarters with all the works and records related to Warcraft. Regularly, all works need to be sifted through to note even the smallest pieces of information.
Requests from developers. When new quests are developed, the team frequently receives inquiries. Has there been a similar quest? Does the story make sense in relation to the world? Does any aspect of the quest contradict the existing lore?
Lore seminars for Blizzard. Particularly entertaining is the fact that the Lorewalkers regularly hold small seminars on the history of Warcraft to refresh employees’ knowledge or to draw attention to specific details.
Pronunciation of fantasy languages. Sometimes, the Lorewalkers also receive particularly strange requests. Their records also include how fantasy languages are pronounced within World of Warcraft. For instance, during “Wrath of the Lich King”, a developer wanted to know how the following words are stressed:
“Ak’agthshi ma uhnish, ak’uq shg’cul vwahuhn” – this later became the battle cry of a servant of the Old Gods.
Errors are avoided. The value of the Lorewalkers is repeatedly demonstrated. For instance, the developers had designed the fight against Sinestra, a black dragon lady, for Cataclysm. Players were to receive help from a red dragon, and the developers chose the dragon Krasus – only to be informed by the Lorewalkers that he had already died in one of the books.
Community as a standard. Warcraft has a pretty fanatic community, with some players knowing every aspect of the game world inside and out. This is also the standard that Blizzard aims for. Because small mistakes would be immediately spotted by passionate fans and lead to embarrassing moments. Like a few years ago when the “Red Shirt Guy” pointed out to Blizzard that the dwarf Falstad was not dead. The developers had mistakenly assumed so.
Retcons are the last resort. Occasionally, it happens that Blizzard has to rewrite existing lore because otherwise it would contradict in some places. These “retcons” are usually the last resort when all else fails. To avoid this in the future, the “Warcraft Chronicles” have been published in recent years. These tell the story of the entire Warcraft universe in a cohesive manner and serve as the guideline for everything that will come next.
Would a job as a “Lorewalker at Blizzard” also be a dream job for you? Or is that a bit too nerdy?
