Interview

((Feel free to add more questions to this!))

"Okay, who the hell are you, actually?"

My real name's Brad, and I live in Phoenix. I'm currently 26.

"Okay, so what's the deal with Unda Vosari?"

Several years ago, Wizards of the Coast came out with Stormwrack, a sourcebook based on adventures on the sea. I liked it, but I was hoping it'd be more of a setting. With the exception of the old AD&D books, there wasn't a complete setting for Dungeons & Dragons, so I sat down and began working. Eventually, I had a few scribbled maps done in Paint, some notes whipped up in Notepad and the inspiration of Sid Meier's Pirates but very little else. I went through some more sourcebooks and brainstormed a bit more, and came up with the idea of a 'fluid setting' that changed and evolved.

"So how'd it turn into the story?"

I laid the groundwork down for the D&D setting that would become Unda Vosari. Several minor villains, several major ones and the option to either be a random pirate and not go after the villains, or join a crew and go after them, or form a crew and try to take over. As it turned out, the various concepts were fairly 'just' so I used the idea from Pirates to rescue a family, and created Vincent and the 'core' storyline.

Vincent was the main character of the story, but at the same time, he was only an NPC meant to guide the characters. We had a large group of people and a very defined setting, but some of the players wanted something else and left. Adapting, as a DM must often do, I wrote in a quest to return a character to her homeland for burial after passing up the opportunity to become true, vile pirates; Literal scourges of the seas, as it was. From there, we ended up introducing religion in the form of the Holy Lands, and gave more of a history to the world.

After the story led the characters through a bit of history and religion, we got back into the main story - Vincent and his quest to rescue his family, and make a profit in the meantime (he is a pirate, after all). We had done a lot of things in the game up until that point, and naturally, everything has an effect. Without giving too many spoilers away, the Vigil was responsible for creating a VERY vile villain, and for starting a VERY important war. There was more than enough to start a huge story based on those adventures.

"So what happens in Unda Vosari?"

Go read it!

"Alright, so how'd this affect Warcraft?"

I lost my internet for a while, and turned the Unda Vosari game into a story while offline. At the same time, I'd found logs (thanks to the WOW Addon Chatlog) of my WOW conversations, and began turning that into a story (which is still being written). However, there wasn't a lot of room for creativity in WOW that I had in writing, so I only used the logs as a basis.

While writing Unda Vosari, I had an idea for The Isles of Steam that would be a steampunk setting (based loosely off of Eberron). The isles would actually be surrounded by mists and smog, but that evolved in my warped, fuzzy little brain into a seperate series of isles in an entirely different realm, independant of Unda Vosari. I'd spent a lot of time playing WOW and creating a LOT of really awesome stories, and I wanted to give the Unda Vosari crew a chance to get in on that.

I grabbed copies of all the Warcraft RPG books and decided the mists that were formerly the Isles of Steam would essentially be one-way portals from Unda Vosari into Azeroth. Getting back would require something called the Proximity Generator, the idea of which was taken from another D&D suppliment, Beyond Countless Doorways, and the only person who had one was Dashade, who used it to travel back and forth from Azeroth to Venomheart (a place to roleplay without all the other players of Warcraft). Once the crew got there, Dashade would happen to be there, they could chase the Baron and, with Dash's help, return to Unda Vosari.

Things I've since used in Warcraft (the entire Horde-side Rebellion, the Fel-taint Dashade has and other, less noticeable storylines) have a direct influence from the trip the crew of the Vigil made to Azeroth, despite the fact the game hasn't been played. Events are going to happen, so I can easily adapt either side of the story to the other.

"So what's in store for Warcraft?"

This is gonna be fun. Dash's Fel-taint is going to be cured and a very unforeseen romance is going to blossom. The Vigil Ones are going to branch out into more aggressive forms of negotiation, and many of the characters currently in the Rebellion are going to be given more responsibility. Troops are going to be places, raids are going to occur and the Rebellion will slowly become a force to be reckoned with.

"So what's in store for Unda Vosari?"

Again, this is gonna be fun. After the interlude/prologue/epilogue that is the Vigil's trip through Azeroth, they're going to return to find their actions with Veln and Dagriz have had a major impact. The Burning Legion's also going to take notice that there's a new realm to conquer, and various factions on Azeroth are going to find a way to get to Azeroth. Likewise, there's going to be a large upheaval in Unda Vosari's political status, and the world's going to take a darker turn, if only to allow the light to shine brighter. Several NPCs from Warcraft are going to take part in it, and a new series of events are going to literally reshape Unda Vosari.

"Are there going to be cross-overs?"

Tons. The Rebellion of the Horde, fearing the backlash of the obviously more aggressive and powerful war-mongers of the Horde, and the Rebellion of the Guilds, running out of locations to call home, are going to head to Unda Vosari, at least temporarily, and the crew of the Vigil are going to be able to travel to Azeroth to gather tools and troops for the upcoming battles.

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