An old NPC in World of Warcraft has reappeared. He remembers you and is dissatisfied – whereas you should actually be angry.
Some NPCs in World of Warcraft remain memorable for years and decades. Not because they play a particularly important role, like Sylvanas, Anduin, or Thrall. But because one painfully remembers the quest tied to them. One of these NPCs is an Arcane Elemental that you first met in “The Burning Crusade.” He also remembers you – and that could drive you crazy.
What kind of NPC is this? We’re talking about “Khadgar’s Servant,” a wobbly Arcane Elemental that you’ve surely encountered multiple times in the game. He is always somehow found at the side of the great mage Khadgar and serves as his assistant – even in the Arcantine, an inn where new quests and interesting NPCs can be found every week.
When you take a quest in the Arcantine, Khadgar’s Servant appears and provides you with a portal so you can travel directly to the location of the respective quest. If you talk to him, he tells you a bit and says:
“I used to guide numerous heroes through the city of Shattrath. That was quite time-consuming, showing them the entire city.
It was always good to be freed from this task at the end.”
A statement that is likely to make at least one eyelid twitch for many a WoW veteran.
Which quest is he talking about? We’re talking about the quest “City of Light” in the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. After you arrive in Shattrath, Khadgar wants to show you the city first. However, he doesn’t do it himself – he is a busy man – but sends one of his Arcane Elementals with you. It also says: “Follow me, stranger. This shouldn’t take long.”
This turns out to be one of the biggest lies in World of Warcraft.
One of the most boring quests in all of WoW
The quest takes a good 10 minutes, during which you simply follow the Arcane Elemental and read his texts. He leads you through the entire city and tells you details about the political climate in the city, the refugees, and external threats. This may be interesting for lore fans – but those who have to do the quest a second time will be bored.
Especially bad: If you don’t follow the Elemental constantly and decide to go afk for a moment or simply forget to follow him immediately for a few seconds, he simply despawns and there is no quest completion. Then you have to go the entire route one more time. No wonder, then, that City of Light
is considered one of the 5 most annoying quests in all of World of Warcraft.
The result was that many had to take this quest multiple times, and it often took half an hour before one could finally continue with the story.
Consequently, it is likely to be quite amusing to meet Khadgar’s Servant again in the Arcantine and learn that the experience was just as tedious for him as it was for us as heroes of Azeroth.
Such little allusions to past encounters and quests can often be found in World of Warcraft. In Midnight, there was also an NPC hidden who had only one task for almost 20 years – and still hasn’t completed it.
