When World of Warcraft Classic goes live in summer 2019, newcomers will get to know and love the most popular MMO of all time from a completely new perspective. To help you pass the wait, we’ll be bringing you some highlights over the next few months. Today, you’ll get to know Sylvanas from her Alliance side, as the Banshee Queen was originally a pretty Night Elf!
As we told you in our Nathanos Blightcaller special in World of Warcraft Classic, all of the major characters in the game universe had standard player models at the time. Sylvanas Windrunner, for example, who is currently causing quite a stir as a warchief in Battle for Azeroth, did not receive an adequate model update until the Cataclysm expansion (see image above).
While many of you may already know her, here’s her profile in a nutshell: Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, also known as the “Dark Princess” and “Banshee Queen,” is currently the Warchief of the Horde and supreme ruler of the Forsaken, one of the most powerful undead factions on Azeroth. During his lifetime, Sylvanas was the Ranger General of Silvermoon City, whose leadership and warrior skills were second to none. During the Third War, she valiantly defended Quel’Thalas against a Scourge invasion led by the Death Knight Arthas Menethil. Ultimately, however, Sylvanas fell in battle. Instead of granting the Ranger General a quick death, Arthas ripped her soul from her body and transformed her into a Banshee, a cunning and vengeful agent of the Lich King.
When WoW Classic was released in 2005, there were no decent high elf models – apart from a few unattractive blood elves like those in Azshara. For Sylvanas, the developers made a virtue out of necessity and quickly resorted to a female night elf model. And we would like to draw your attention to another detail: The proper names of important personalities were not initially Germanized. At that time, Sylvanas still bore the more resonant “surname” Windrunner and not Windrunner. The Banshee Queen’s special relationship with her champion, Nathanos Blightcaller (Lightcaller) , was further documented through a quest that was cut in with Cataclysm. Here is the text:
“It pleases me to see the battle-hardened join our cause. Our band grows larger and stronger every day. Perhaps you are ready to prove your mettle? One of the first of my heroes was Nathanos, now known as the Fire Caller. There are few in our ranks who show more determination and zeal. Look for him in the eastern plaguelands. He resides in the settlement of Marri and occasionally roams the decimated wastelands, slaying any Scourge and Alliance scum he can track down.”
In the image gallery below, you’ll find the quest, screenshots featuring the “old” Sylvanas, and a nice official wallpaper featuring Dreadlord Varimathras as an advisor in 1600 resolution. We are curious which model of Sylvanas will appear in the WoW Classic Reboot!
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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