Candy

((OOC: Don't feel like RPing today, just updating that I'm making 550 XP per candy bucket and should be able to hit 10-20 of them. :) - also conscript of the horde - Crossroads Conscription))

Temptations

((It's been awhile since I played my pacifist char and now I'm presented with a dilemna. I have a refer a friend account i'm using to level a normal alt or two and level my wife's chars. Do I use this to "cheat" leveling up for my pacifist. It would make every precious quest triple the experience and make the process a lot easier....hrm...))

Fire, fire, fire!

The fire festival has been fun and rewarding! I bought a spirit of summer with my fire blossoms today. It's adorable!

All these flames have not convinced me to get the foul Fire totem tho! I have spoken with both Kranal and Telf and told them I would not be pursuing training in the destructive fire magics.

I also finally got the "bad news": I've been conscripted to join the Horde war effort. I seriously considered hiding from my duty, but my family honor is already strained by my pacifism. So I showed up and had my first taste of the war. I stuck to my vow of pacifism, though. I used my healing powers to help save the lives of my fellow Horde from the vicious Alliance onslaught. We were victorious in this battle and the veterans were kind to me despite my lack of experience. I was torn apart by the violence, but was glad I could do my part to help relieve some of the suffering.

Moriori

((I did WSG for the first time on this toon and we won. I felt a bit silly after joining the group when someone pointed out that I was nearly naked...I hadn't really thought about it until then. After the battle I bought some stam and healing gear off the AH since as a pacifist, you don't get nearly as much gear!))

Silvermoon City

Silvermoon City is massive! The architecture is amazing and everything is magical.
Arcane machines patrol the city and keep the peace. The Blood Elves use magic for just about everything. One of their instructors sent me to discipline his students by transforming them into pigs! I'm still smiling.

The craftsmen have told me I can learn a second profession. I've become quite adept at cultivating herbs now. I'm not sure what else I should do. I'm considering learning how to use these herbs to make potent potions to heal people, but then again, I do like the idea of digging into earth in search of rare gems and ores. That is the kind of profession that sounds relaxing and fun. I've recently learned of a new profession that teaches one how to cut those gems into powerful magical gems. This intrigues me, too. But then I'd have to give up cultivating herbs, so many choices!

Moriori

Fire Festival

The festival has detoured me from my journey to Silvermoon for the moment. I enjoyed the torch tossing immensely. In fact, by completing it my trainers felt I'd reached a new level in my shaman training. I'm not entirely sure how throwing and catching a torch relates to my shaman ways but I'm am very glad for the new totem. It is called stoneclaw and does the wonderful task of distracting things that would otherwise try to hurt me without hurting the thing trying to hurt me! In this dangerous world I feel this will be a wonderful tool. As usual, I turned down more training in hurting others. I'm beginning to not care about the looks of disappointment from my trainers.

On to collect more Burning Blossoms! I do hope I can get enough to get the neat trinkets!

Moriori

New things

With the arrival of the Lunar Festival and the wonderful transportation magic, I've decided to forsake my training for a little while and do some traveling. I've seen some interesting places and met some interesting people. I met my first human. He smiled at and then proceeded to kill the other person on the boat. I ran and hid in fear.

I also met my first night elf. A very strong hunter who was standing around moonglade shooting any horde he could find. Fortunately, a priest strong enough to fight him showed up and gave me enough time to teleport out of there.

What a crazy world I live in. I may not be strong enough to travel much further.

I must say that the forsaken are generally not pleasant people! Even more so than the orcs and trolls and my own hunt obsessed people, they wanted me to kill and destroy and maim! It seemed to start so nicely too! Pick some herbs, pick some pumpkins, deliver a letter; then it got ugly! The Apothecary wanted the herbs to unleash a new plague, the other Apothecary took the pumpkins, laced them with something then told me to feed it to a captured human and even the guy I delivered the letter for attacked me when I returned for my reward!

I do not like it there! I'm hoping the Blood Elves will be more pleasant. I'm heading there now.

Moriori




((OOC:
I contemplated completing the laced pumpkin quest based on "not knowing" the outcome, but I figured even someone as naive to the ways of the world as my character would be able to figure out it wasn't going to be good.))

Lament

I ran into an orc shaman in Thunder Bluff. Orcs may be small but they seem to be very strong. We talked briefly about my dilemma. He said he had a simple solution! I was eager to hear it. He told me that the orc shaman trainers were quite willing to train Tauren and they had different expectations.
I was excited at this news until he told me the next part: instead of killing Bristleback, they were required to kill felstalkers and take their hooves!
The idea of killing a poor creature then ripping its hooves off churned my stomach. The orc saw my reaction and then told me that I don't understand. Felstalkers are evil demonic creatures; some sort of demon dog. He said I shouldn't have any problem killing something evil.
I'd never seen anything like this so the Orc found a Warlock and had him show me the creature. Even the warlock agreed that they were evil creatures and that it was only by his powers that he was able to keep it in check. I tried to look into the creature's eyes, but soon found out it didn't have any. The Warlock explained that it could sense creatures with it's stalks, but didn't really need to, since he controlled its every action. Something about it chilled me to the bone, but still the more watched it the more I realized that I could never kill one and then chop it up to remove the hooves.

Saddened, I returned to Camp Narache to find my father there talking to Seer Ravenfeather. He was enraged that I'd been sitting on this task for days now. He personally escorted me out to the Bristleback encampment and told me in no uncertain terms to not return until I had completed Ravenfeather's task.

I spent the night watching the Bristleback shaman perform their strange rituals while brooding.

In the morning, I was awoken by the sound of clashing metal. I rubbed my groggy eyes and saw that a warrior was down in the camp killing the Bristlebacks, but he had taken on too many and was near death. I could not stand by and watch him die so I healed him, but instead of continuing to flee, he turned, stood his ground and killed the shaman that had been chasing him. He was about to kill more when I yelled out to him to stop.

I told him I'm a pacifist. I could not stand by and watch him die, but I would not help him slaughter the Bristleback. He was puzzled and asked me why I was out here then. The way he looked at me, made me think he thought I was betraying my people. I quickly explained my dilemma. He laughed at me, then searched the bodies of the shaman he killed. "Is this the salve you are looking for?" It was. I took it and bid him farewell.

I walked back to Camp Narache with great shame. I knew he was going to kill those shaman. I could have run away after healing him, but I didn't. I stayed. A part of was hoping he would do my dirty work for me. Their blood was on my hands. I would gain the protector, but at what cost?

By the time I got back to Camp Narache, I had resolved to NEVER let myself be compromised like that again. I could not justify killing by simply helping someone else do it.

Moriori

((OOC:
As those of you who play may have figured out already, yes, I orchestrated this - a little meta gaming never killed anyone, right? I have actually been agonizing about how to justify playing a shaman pacifist and still get the most important thing about being a shaman: totems, since all the totem quests involve killing something. The first justification was easy. Killing the corrupted elementals, is actually a cleansing of the elements that are out of balance in nature - although it will be difficult for the water totem since I am not training any offensive spells except lvl 1 earth shock for the interrupt and lvl 1 frost shock for the speed debuff. I am healing the elements by removing the sickness, much as you take antibiotics to kill the bad bacteria.

However, killing the Bristleback or Felstalkers was a whole 'nother ball game. If I justified killing the Felstalkers on the basis of them being evil, then being a pacifist would be no challenge, because there is an abundance of evil creatures in this game. Even if I limited it to only "demons". The Bristleback are sentient creatures and just outright killing them would be wrong.

So, being a long time Role Player, I spent a few days considering the options. Trying to eke out how my character would really feel about this. I decided this would be the point where his pacifism was put to the test and he comes to the epiphany that he must not just not kill things himself but he must not help others do the same or he would just be a hypocrite.

So, yes, I logged on for several days and waited until a non-healer was in the Bristleback encampment doing the kill quests. He probably didn't really need saving, but it worked for the situational role playing and he probably does think I'm a kook for doing the pacifist thing. :)
))

Frustration

I have been agonizing over getting my earth totem the last couple of days. I know that earth is the protector (my father says earth is our strength). I was so happy when Seer Ravenfeather said I as ready to start my training for totems. Totems are one of the defining traditions of a shaman. However, the first thing she told me I had to do was get the ritual salve from the bristleback near camp narache!

I spent many hours searching their crude tents hoping to find one unguarded. Alas, my efforts were in vain. The salve is so important to their shamans that they always keep it on them. And none of them would speak with me at all. Why do I have to kill to get the protector?

I am so frustrated at this point. I don't know what I am going to do.

Moriori

Fateful encounter.

I met Peacewalker today! It was exciting to talk to someone who believes like I do!
I have shunned my given name for a name of my own choosing. I have decided on Moriori after a distant tribe that practices Pacifism as a community. I also decided to take Herbalism. I enjoy the idea of caring for the herbs and pruning them just right so they give us their medicine over and over.

The further I get in my training the more I become nervous about what my parents will think. I turned down my first training today, since I refuse to carry a weapon, it seems silly to even learn Rockbiter for it will only tempt me to succumb to the hate and maybe use it if I have it.

Moriori

((OOC (Out of Character):
I've decided to pick up the mantle of pacifist as a challenge. I'm not doing this for religious or philosophical reasons or to make a statement to Blizzard. I just think this will be one of the most challenging ways to play WoW and an opportunity to actually role play within WoW without it feeling contrived.

I want to explore pacifism as it would truly be in the world of Azeroth. The interesting thing is that according to Blizz Lore, the Tauren are a natively pacifist people, but it would appear that heritage has been lost.

So in some ways, my goals are somewhat different than Noor or Lintilla. I don't care as much about perfect 1's on my weapon skills - although I'll probably maintain that unless I get a misclick, but since my character is also vegetarian he won't be picking up fishing and therefore a fishing pole to completely prevent it. I'll be carrying a shield as a symbol of my devotion to protecting others.

I will be maintaining the concept that grouping and letting others do my killing is cheating. It's pretty easy to level up a "standard" resto character that way. For my character it is a moral dilemma. How does he maintain is moral compass in a world embroiled in war. Especially a world at war with "demonic" forces. At first I thought of making a "crusader" character that only kills demons, but that would be way to easy even on a pvp server. I'll blog shortly on how my character reacts to this 'evil'.))

What a beautiful world.

I was born into a culture obsessed with the Hunt, but even from a early age I knew it was not in me. I could not even stomach the taste of meat. In my calfling years, I found myself staying behind and helping others instead of going out on Hunts. My life was idyllic.

But now my parents have insisted that I take up the mantle of tradition. Our family is a long line of shamans. Both my parents harness the elments to fight the war effort. My mother calls on them to bring forth lightning and my father uses them to strike swiftly like a storm.

I have already decided in my heart that I cannot kill another creature. I am already shunned for disdaining that hunt. I have not told the yet that I have chosen to be like my uncle and follow the path of healing. It is a true ancient shamanistic path, but one that is so unpopular, but I cannot use my power to harm and I so love the idea of healing and helping others. I hope they understand me.

Cheif Hawkwind's mother is a very pleasant person. We chatted for sometime at the well. I am already running into trouble for my views. The Cheif sent me off to seak Seer Graytongue, who asked me to kill the Bristleback! I know my people don't like them but I refuse to become a murderer. I will seek more work in Bloodhoof village since it seems there is no more to do here in Red Cloud Mesa besides killing. I still can't believe they asked me to kill the beautiful plainstriders there.