Vandel was breathing hard, his lungs burning from the strain of exhaustion and the smoldering sulfuric air where the smoke from the forest and his village hung heavy in the air. His vision was blurry, stricken with tears, ash, and blood, not his own.
He remembered it all. It had been a regular morning at his abode since the birth of his son Khariel.
He had awakened early in the morning, tenderly kissing his loudly snoring wife on the forehead before passing by his son's room to...
2025-02-22 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Under the dense canopy of Ashenvale was a camp; its primary defenses took the form of Life, War, and Lore.
Their venerable forms, older than many mortal races, had awakened from their slumber to fight and defend the wild once more. With them were treants, standing guard or merged with the virgin nature. Or rather, what remained unsullied.
Night elves, dryads, fairy dragons, and more mingled among themselves where living wood buildings were grown, and tents were built to house al...
2025-02-18 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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"-overseen by her daughter. It's Tyrande's ultimatum and, to a lesser extent, mine. I have no wish to fight the night elves. The furbolgs have been allies of them for ten millennia. We may have our differences, but… I won't fight them for you if you trespass in Ashenvale. The opposite. Outside of that, you can wait until she decides." I finished my long-winded explanation of what the ancient priestess had demanded.
My audience wasn't a fan of what I recited from the tense silence I ...
2025-02-15 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Tyrande Whisperwind, High Priestess of Elune, was no mere elven woman; she had seen much and experienced even more. Yet those ten long millennia–the Long Vigil as it came to be known–proved of little value when the time came.
The Burning Legion has returned with them, shambling corpses and undead abominations, corrupting and killing the flora, fauna, and every inhabitant of Ashenvale. She had known of it; she had known of their impending arrival for a few short years now.
A ...
2025-02-11 20:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The sun was rising on the Barren, the arid plain and hills merging to the ancient forest of Ashenvale where it had set for millennia untold, now a wasteland of death and destruction.
Upon the lowest point between three hills was a small canyon. It had only been days since it was a lush grove tauntingly laid the skeletal, headless remains of the leading pit lord of the demonic host, having enslaved the Warsong clan once more.
It had been a night since their defeat and this demon'...
2025-02-08 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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All around was chaos and death. The smell of smog, gunpowder, blood, burned flesh, and exposed entrails with piss and excrement was thick in the air, but the profane stank of Fel overpowered them.
My ears were constantly ringing with the deafening echoes of explosions from artillery–magic or otherwise–and the resulting shockwave and tremor shaking the earth and air—things. My inhumanly acute senses picked them up with utmost clarity from the kilometers away.
But it was ha...
2025-02-04 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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I always wanted to see humans again. Medivh hardly counted and made for a poor example of a first impression of a species I once belonged to.
Even if they were, strictly speaking, two different species, the humans of Earth were in no way the same as the humans here beyond appearance and general behavior. Probably. You couldn't easily put sapient species into neat little boxes, but as a rule of thumb, there were consensuses. But you can expect traits for each species; an elf doesn't see...
2025-02-01 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The defense of the mind was a strange art. Or arts, since there weren't singular ones. It wasn't because they were incomprehensible, quite the contrary, even if they were obscure and not directly worded as such in most cases.
In almost every case, it involved a form of way of thought, an item, bodily enhancement, or mana control–internal and external–since, ultimately, mind fuckery was magical in nature.
It was willpower and imagination when the above failed or were absent,...
2025-01-28 20:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Cloaked under a veil of masterfully crafted magic, a tall, muscular, cloven creature of blue skin stood frowning, a pair of baleful green eyes glowing darkly. Two fingers, ending in dark claws, massaged a sharp chin from which two smooth, fleshy tentacles grew.
"Mannoroth failed then. Disappointing, very disappointing. I will personally oversee his punishment once this pitiful world is consumed." The demonic being said, lacing his every word with displeasure, sadistic anticipation, and...
2025-01-25 20:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Pain.
Everything in my body was made of pain as I stood upon the root of my armor, which had dug into the ground. I was facing the blackened skeletal remains of Mannoroth, half of his weapon impaled in me while the remaining part was flung elsewhere.
The paw I used to stab him was dangling limply with multiple fractures and deep burns, the metallic claws snapped or bent the wrong way, and my armor of bark and bone was scorched and cracked but otherwise relatively intact on the d...
2025-01-21 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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"So I'm indeed late…" I mumbled with a clicking growl, what my nose, the spirits, and my magic senses screamed for the past hour, having painted a graphic picture while I flew there as fast as I could. My enhanced hearing from my bat form added to the whole.
It wasn't a pretty sight from the safety of the sky. The devastated area was relatively small; the number of hectares shouldn't go beyond the single digits even with the new growth counted. But the violence and destruction on suc...
2025-01-14 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Grommash 'Grom' Hellscream glowered at the oddly satisfied troll witch doctor after hearing him explain what the strange tauren shapeshifter shaman wanted from the Warsong—a male tauren who wasn't part of the tribe the Warchief had saved.
The bull had been crystal clear on the matter.
When this point was made, the orc warlord lost all interest. His hope turned to irritation, and only the witch doctor's insistence on discussion saved the non-Bloodhoof's fate from being immedia...
2025-01-11 20:00:13 +0000 UTC
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I stared down at the night elf, a midget of a man compared to me, his head full of long, luscious cyan hair barely reaching my haunches at its highest.
Quite the flagrant difference in size, and that wasn't going in weight where the difference was a double-digit multiple. He was quite literally a twig.
My eyes then trailed toward the caravan he was with. My attention focused on a muscular female elf–a sentinel even if not in service–and her cub, the smell of the two first e...
2025-01-07 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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After informing Ferli and Tanrir of what the Timbermaw would have to prepare for… that is, a massive increase in movement and preparing themselves to hunker down, I was back in the air.
Finding Ursol next was quick, and while doing so, I continued to take in the magnificent sight of Undrassil and Hollowmaw as a whole, with the surrounding cavity and caverns.
It was one and the same; Hollowmaw stretched across it all. Its three-dimensional nature magnified its usable space, wh...
2025-01-04 18:56:01 +0000 UTC
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I glared down at the grass, my muscles relaxed yet ready to flex at any moment. A rumbling growl escaped my throat. One that I couldn't quite contain, though I didn't try to. The clattering of my rudimentary biological armor composed of my bones and plants did not help either.
It was a natural reaction to what was happening below: demonic energies were swirling. I wasn't just looking at the grass. I didn't need to see through solid matter to know what was going on.
The magical w...
2024-12-31 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A creature carved seemingly from golden bronze walked decisively upon the pearly white sand of a timeless desert. Thousands of polished metallic scales on her body shone under the constellations of the Great Dark Beyond, bathing the Caverns of Time in eternal crepuscular light.
She was a reptilian behemoth. Her armored body stood proudly on four thick legs ending in massive black manicured claws, complemented by a spiky, club-like tail and a large pair of leathery wings. A similarly re...
2024-12-28 19:00:09 +0000 UTC
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"Honored Shaman… is it enough? Please take more if you wish! It would be the greatest of honor!" Placing a barrel down, I looked at the plump middle-aged female furbolg–she was one of our beekeepers–in front of me.
She was a bit of a nervous wreck. Was I that intimidating? I suppose so, but it wasn't the fear of a prey she was showing. It resulted from my actions and who I was. She didn't want to disappoint me. Silly, but it was what it was. And there were the usual pheromones I...
2024-12-24 17:12:07 +0000 UTC
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I have never seen centaurs in nearly three weeks of being in the Stonetalon Mountains.
It wasn't as surprising as it might sound. I wasn't looking for them, and this environment wasn't particularly suitable for the half-horses.
It was mountainous, so it meant relatively little flat, stable ground for them to move, hunt, and live. Many areas were simply inaccessible due to their cumbersome four-legged lower halves. They weren't goats.
And they were always on the move,...
2024-12-19 17:59:54 +0000 UTC
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I braced my paws to protect my snout and absorbed the lightning bolts thrown my way by one of the cackling bird women in the sky. My metallic claws served as parabolic rods while my hide mitigated most of the damage, for it was magically resistant due to the mana suffusing it, even if it was pretty weak.
But considering the bark from my living backpack, the fur, thick skin with layers of fat and muscle below, along with my weight and the fact that I stood on the ground, the amps neede...
2024-12-17 19:54:39 +0000 UTC
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Walking in the shadow of the kodo with a tree trunk behind, I ignored its nervousness in my presence as I sucked on an iron nugget like it was a lollipop. In the first few weeks, it had been bizarre to see stones as worthwhile 'food' the first few months as an ursa totemic, but instincts were instincts, and I needed mineral supplements primarily for my claws and, to a lesser extent, bones, and teeth.
My diet, while rich in many things, from meats to roots and, most importantly, honey I...
2024-12-12 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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I hate heat.
That was my first realization after a few days in the windy, hot, and dry environment of the Stonetalon Mountains. It was an admittedly evident point, given several of my characteristics: a body unfit for thermal dispersion, layered with thick fat and muscle covered in a dense coat of insulating fur. It didn't need to be an impossibly hot desert to leave me panting like a dog halfway to the afterlife.
Bears on Earth–besides, I think one or two species–weren't kn...
2024-12-09 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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I stared incredulously at the masterfully crafted bracelet Ursol made for me in person, resting in my paws.
The clear recollection of what happened changed little about how… giddy? Yes, something like that was what I felt, along with managing to meet him and reveal a hint of the future.
I was a bit in a euphoric daze. I hadn't felt this good in far too long; it was the most crucial step, and I succeeded!
Meeting and convincing the Bear of Wisdom: the simple fact that ...
2024-12-05 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Deep within the temperate pine forest of Grizzly Hills, a massive predatory creature of legend awakened. Its piercing golden eyes contrasted sharply with its bluish fur, glowing softly in the dimly lit den.
A most unusual den for a most unusual bear; books and parchment were neatly stored in the carved stone wall of the cavern. Gemstones served as light sources while curated pelts and hides of various beasts covered the ground.
Wooden pillars, totems, and sculptures of bears re...
2024-12-04 20:00:06 +0000 UTC
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My bones, structure, and muscles shifted smoothly from bat to furbolg as I landed on a thick branch. The claws of my paws and feet granted me stable support while I healed the damage they caused to the bark.
"That was fun." I cracked my neck with a sigh, and it had been tortu-playing; yes, playing with the cubs was always a pleasant experience, and while they whined a lot, if they came back for more. That meant I didn't traumatize them all that much. All in particular concerning Softja...
2024-12-03 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The sensation one had when flying was difficult to describe.
It was freedom, absolute in a three-dimensional space, and while I wouldn't say it was above and beyond what I had expected, it wasn't that far off. The closest thing I could compare it to was swimming, which made for a good but unsatisfactory example. It just wasn't the same. It was incredible.
It was awesome!
The sensation of falling, yet not of the wind brushing against my fur and membranous wings as they bea...
2024-12-02 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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This would be regularly updated.
2024-12-02 00:05:01 +0000 UTC
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I was at the village border. The world was of peace and silence beyond the unordered yet melodious orchestra of the wild. In front of me stood a massive, hollowed-out yet living tree.
It was bathed by the shy moonlight of Ursoc's Might, putting into evidence the two totems guarding its entrance, two bear sculptures covered in runes and flowering vegetation. And they were more than decorative; they exuded a relaxing presence.
Passing by them, I parted the vines and saw three sham...
2024-12-02 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Rhythmically tapping my claws on the only table in our house, I struggled to keep the saliva in my mouth; unlike a human mouth, a muzzle and its dentition were hardly ideal for keeping saliva from flowing.
Still, I endured the smell of honeyed salmon, tauntingly feasted on by the little shits that were my siblings, which served only as a distraction. The last gulp of the glowing water in an empty glass bottle did little to alleviate my hunger.
I was growing tired of this water; ...
2024-12-01 21:00:05 +0000 UTC
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"-and that's how you carve the rune Vark for justice. Any questions, young cub?" I nodded to the words of Shaman Urtaine, a young brown-furred male furbolg and my current teacher for runes and glyphs, in this case, the Ursine runes.
Oakpaw couldn't do all of my education despite being my principal tutor. He was very knowledgeable in many subjects but wasn't knowledgeable or proficient in everything, nor did he have infinite time to tend to me. So, I was passed along from one shaman to ...
2024-12-01 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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I stood gazing at my prey–a deer–and, subsequently, the family dinner. Then, I began dragging it out of the water, where I wrestled and killed it.
Tracking it had been an uncomplicated matter. It was the beginning of the mating season, and young adult bucks such as this one tended to forgo any measure of safety. The hunt had not been much harder; I pursued my prey till the river, bit its neck hard, and shook it.
Unclenching my jaw, I licked the warm blood clean off my chops...
2024-11-30 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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