Friday, July 25, 2014

Claws of Shirvallah - Werecats as a Druid Talent

Apparently in the latest beta build, there's a new talent for Feral Druids (I assume only Feral) that changes one's cat-form into a Sabreon form (and one that changes depending on your race.) It allows you to cast your non-cat spells while in that form and increases Versatility by 5%.

The most interesting thing is that there seems to be a real lore justification for this which could play into the background of the Sabreon race. The talent, like some rare spells and passives, has a little quote. This one is from Hamuul Runetotem, which reads "Have we learned nothing from the Scythe of Elune?"

In case you weren't aware, the Scythe of Elune was linked to a group of druids that attempted to create a new animal form based on the Wolf god, Goldrinn. These "Druids of the Pack" couldn't really handle the way that wolf-form changed their personalities, and essentially became feral. The Scythe of Elune was created using one of Goldrinn's fangs, and the druids hoped to gain control over their form by submitting to the Scythe's will, but instead, it altered the form into a half-humanoid, half-wolf form.

Those druids were kept quarantined in the Emerald Dream until Archmage Arugal found some obscure reference to them in an old tome of magic. Arugal summoned the wolf-druids in order to fight the Scourge, but they brought with them a supposed curse, which began to infect the humans fighting alongside them. And that's why nearly all of Gilneas are now Worgen.

So the Claws of Shrvallah could very well be a Draenic version of the Scythe of Elune. What does that then mean? Are the Sabreon actually some native Draenor species - perhaps even Orcs - who learned druidism and fell into a similar trap as the druids of the pack, only they were overwhelmed by a cat god named Shirvallah?

The Sabreon already use the Worgen model skeleton, but it would have been fairly reasonable to assume that this was just because they often use that skeleton for beast-like humanoids (both the Saurok and Mantid used it in Mists.) But if this talent goes forward, it could suggest interesting things about the Sabreon, even if, so far, their presence in Draenor has been minimal.

EDIT: Some Googling has revealed that Shirvallah is one of the Troll Loa of Azeroth, and has shown up in-game before through adherents in Zul'gurub. Given that I'm 99% certain the Ancients worshipped by the Night Elves and the August Celestials in Pandaria are just subsets of the many animal gods worshipped by the Trolls, it makes perfect sense that a Loa could be the basis for a new druid form. But that does make one wonder about the Sabreon - though one must remember that the Orcs worshipped Goldrinn as well (though they called him Lo'gosh,) so it's possible that the Ancients/Celestials/Loa transcend the Great Dark Beyond to be worshipped on many distant planets.

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