Interview: Thornroot #16

Firewire: I always start with three personal questions. Would you share your afk age, gender and home country with us?

Thornroot: 18/Male/England-UK if you want to be less specific.

Firewire: Is there a story behind your character's name?

Thornroot: Uh, not really - it's an invention from when I moved this character over to Argent Dawn. On my original server he was called Dannelor (his first name) but that was taken over here, so I thought I'd use his surname instead. In-character, like most elf names, it's linked to some kind of family history or mythology, but I've not properly thought up what yet. Might do one day.

Firewire: Why did you switch servers?

Thornroot: I moved over in late Cataclysm, because the RP community on Steamwheedle Cartel (the old server) felt a lot like it was dying. A bunch of mates and I all made the jump together. It had got to a point where we had all these ideas for projects and events but there simply weren't enough people around to get them off the ground, so we decided to seek out greener, more active pastures.

Firewire: Did you guys find what you were looking for on AD? Did the server give you the possiblities you needed to do your projects?

Thornroot: Definitely! With resources like the Argent Archives and a more active realm forum I've been able to branch out a bit, hosting the odd community event, expand my guild (we're still small, but concept wise it's a lot more detailed than it was back then), get involved with other players more, that kind of thing. I'm about to launch a guild coalition project called the Starhost with a handful of night elf guilds on the server, which I would never have been able to do back on SWC.

Firewire: What will this project, Starhost, be about? (or is it to early to tell?)

Thornroot: It's a loosely structured warhost coalition of night elf & Kalimdor based guilds. Lorewise night elves have a good history of banding together en mass when faced with big threats like the Legion or the qiraji, and I wanted to see if we could show what that might look like in our community. Especially with Legion on the horizon, which I am well excited for! There's a forum thread for it and an AA page if anybody wants to do any further reading.

Firewire: What things from Legion make you excited for it?

Thornroot: New zones with plenty of pretty elf themes, duh. And more Emerald Dream/Nightmare stuff, which'll give me plenty to write about in my druid guide, and the return of demon hunters - which I'm looking at with a bit of trepidation, because I don't know how they'll be handled lorewise, but either way, there's going to be something there for the Guardians to play with! And the whole thing about big lore characters potentially dying is really exciting. Shakes things up a bit. I'll put my hands up and say I hope Malfurion dies. That'll be fun.

Firewire: Could you tell me a bit about the role the Argent Archives has for you and your role playing? How do you use it? What does it achieve, etc.

Thornroot: Sure. I use the Archives to document conceptual stuff around my guild - I've come up with a series of rituals/traditions that the Guardians continue, for example, and put them up there if people want to know what they are, or do them themselves, or get into the history of my characters, or just for general writing. It's really great to be able to write sides of your character that might not often come up in role play but still have them easily accessible by your guildmates.

Firewire: Would the death of Malfurion influence your guild lorewise?

Thornroot: On its own maybe not, it really depends how everything around him changes as well; what kind of line the Cenarion Circle takes, who takes leadership there, how Tyrande and Darnassus reacts, that sort of thing. For Thornroot and the Guardians it might mean getting a lot more freedom to get involved in conflict openly and 'legally', if, say, the Cenarion Circle get a more active leader. In the context of wider night elf society, and the Guardians' standing there, it'd be interesting to see what role they take. Malfurion dying could either kick the night elves into modernising faster (Highborne, Alliance, demon hunters, etc.) in which case they'd be staunchly against that, or it could effect a rejection of modern changes and a retreat to conservative principles, which the Guardians would absolutely welcome. Might even get them out of Ashenvale and into Darnassus taking a more public role.

Firewire: Could you tell us a little bit about Thornroot? Who is he? Where does he come from? What does he want to achive?

Thornroot: Dannelor Thornroot - affectionately dubbed by Queteron as the 'Mad Druid of Ashenvale' - is these days something like a radical religious fundamentalist leader, really. Born shortly after the Sundering during the days when kaldorei society was being massively overhauled, he adopted all those kinds of revolutionary ideals about druidism and ecocentricity and the Balance and since then his history has been one of progressive radicalisation; He grew more and more convinced that the druidic/Elune-based ideology of the Night Elves that came about in the wake of the Sundering was the best way forward, and when he sees it challenged - by the Highborne, the orcs, integration with the Alliance - his instinct is to fight it. 'Balance before all,' is the Guardians' tagline these days. In a nutshell what he wants is for the night elves to go back to their pre-WC3 days. That's impossible, I know, but it's really interesting to explore.

Firewire: How would Thronroot treat Firewire if he would meet her IC?

Thornroot: He's ... a bit of an angry racist to be honest. Likely he'd lump her with all the other environmentally degradating goblins with their rampant consumerism and callous disregard for nature.

Firewire: Would you share your favorite story you played in WoW RP with us?

Thornroot: Tough question. I have to say the plotline the Guardians are on now, actually it's a story orchestrated by Yeneira, one of my guild mates, centered around her family's collective skeleton-in-the-closet (in the form of a sister who was a demon hunter). I can't tell you how it ends, because it hasn't yet, and I'm not in charge so I don't know any spoilers, but the role play we've had so far has been some of the most in-depth and interesting stuff we've ever done. The writing has been amazing, I really love the concept, some of the DMed events we've had in Barrow Dens and dreams and druidic rituals have been great, and I can't wait to see how it finishes.

Firewire: Warlords of Draenor goes for one of the weakest expansions as Blizzard lost about half of its subscriptions in a couple of months. How do you think about the situation RP on AD is currently in? Is it influenced in anyway by the subscription loss?

Thornroot: Yeh, tack that last comment on the end of there. WRT to WoD - When WoD was really in full swing, before Tanaan and the wind down to Legion, it was basically awful for us because we couldn't really find a good reason to go to Draenor, and even then actually RPing on the continent was nearly impossible. As for how sub drops have had an impact, I think there has been a decrease in the number of very big guilds, but not so much that the scene is completely dead, and nowhere near like it was on Steamwheedle Cartel when I left.

Firewire: Can you think of things you learned for your afk life through playing WoW and/or doing RP?

Thornroot: It's hard to pinpoint exactly what things come from where, whether my RP changes because of real life developments or real life changes because of things I've learnt while RPing, but one tangible thing is my confidence in leading things, or offering opinions, feeling confident that I have something to offer. That feeling that started with lore & role play in WoW has really made an impact on me outside of RP, which is great. I'm not worried of speaking my piece or offering an opinion if I feel I have something worth saying.

Firewire: Three short questions: Your favorite place to be in WoW, your favorite tavern and your favorite NPC?

Thornroot: Favourite place: Grizzly Hills, Grizzlemaw specifically. The tree within the bigger tree and all the furbolg houses and the lights in the air is such an amazing image

Favourite tavern; the Pig & Whistle in Stormwind has a ... special place in my heart, because of what it was like on Steamwheedle Cartel, but the tone is different on AD so I don't really know. Otherwise I love the dwarven inns.

Favourite NPC is a hard one. Fandral before they made him mad, maybe? Lorna Crowley. Maiev. Wrathion. Kelsey Steelspark. There's too many characters that I like.

Firewire: Is there anything else you want to add or to share? Any shout outs?

Thornroot: I'll give a big thank you to my guildies who sit so politely while pretending to listen to my crackpot theories about how night elves do this or that or whatever other thing. Shout out to Queteron for always making me laugh and his efforts to save my soul from atheism (they haven't worked). Apologies to Boush for not having an 'Enraged Thornroot' moment here, I'm sure there'll be one coming soon. Aaand that's about it! And you, for inviting me over and being a good interviewer, and Acrona for being so patient and amazing with us last night at the Snapshot event! So very helpful.

Firewire: Hey thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for your time and this interview.