This is why Jedi's lore videos are the best. They're not some copy of a copy about stuff lore nerds already knew, they're ACTUAL deep dives into something only people who are insane (i.e. read quest test lol) would even have the chance of figuring out. Another amazing one!
As some one who reads every quest but never played a rogue in Vanilla... I never knew the connections with all of this. I just assumed the undead at the tower in Westfall were connected to Dusk Wood but I never found a quest for it. Thank you for putting this together. One of my favorites from you so far. I really enjoy your content.
There is a very important part you missed out on this deep dive, the quest chain to save Yenniku on the Horde side. This chain involves helping a troll witch doctor in saving the soul of a Darkspear troll called Yenniku who was poisoned and controlled by Zanzil, in this quest we require to gather singing crystals from basilisks not unlike the crystals gathered for Crank and in fact there's plenty of crystallized miners around the cave inhabited by basilisks. We are told there crystals are magical and can help us channel the power of an artifact called "The Mind's Eye" to retrieve Yenniku's soul from his body. In the end you manage to find Yenniku and trap his soul in the Mind's Eye, return him to the witch doctor and set his soul free even if his body is gone. This is very in line with old voodoo folklore of zombies, while the popular depiction of zombies is the living dead the old folklore depicts zombies as brainless slaves controlled by voodoo magic through a long process of rituals. The involvement of the singing crystals points at some sort of magic being involved, whether Crank knows about their magical properties or how to use it is left untold. It's very cool how the Alliance gets to see the side of the poison being used to build an army while the Horde gets the learn more about its witch doctor and voodoo origins.
That makes so much sense with the “playing both sides” interpretation of Crank Fizzlebub, he wants the poison *and* the crystals, literally feeding you poison & selling you the cure
Wow you are literally the ONLY person I've ever heard mention this, at ALL, especially on TH-cam lol. I mean, as you say in the beginning, this tiny little story thread is not only spread across continents, but class quests and factions. At times I would have figured I was the only person who even had heard about this, if it wasn't for the fact parts of it were pointed out to me by others like a decade ago haha.
@@Jediwarlock thanks! Same to you! Honestly your content is freaking awesome btw, you so often cover stuff that nobody else does at all. Like the furbolg gate in azshara or the crystal in dark shore! Way cooler to dive into these obscure but honestly super important and interesting topics. Part of me feels these mysteries were so much cooler back in the day, because there wasn't literal gods running around everywhere. So it makes these small mysteries so awesome! Kind of reminds me of things like the half done search for Varian quest lines, that just sort of end randomly in dusk wallow, with Varian originally being in Alkaz. Or the original Uldum gate stuff that just never comes up again. It was all so much cooler when little ends like that mattered. Oh gosh I know I'm ranting in my comment, but then there was all the worgen stuff between dusk wood and silver pine. With that leading into the scythe of elune, as well as the Dark Riders which just disappeared. All this potentially being tangentially involved with the defias.
oh wow after nearly 20 years you've enlightened me on connecting two major plot points. As a rogue main, I've always wondered why the Drones stood out so much in the region as unique NPC's. It was right there in front of me, but I never thought of connecting the dots. Very cool!
Wow! I was always wondering what's up with the undead in the Westfall, though I assumed they were somehow connected to Duskwood (Duskwood having a dark necromantic theme and all). Amazing video!
I love that Zanzil uses the Alpha era model which itself uses a lot of animations either based on or directly taken from the WC3 Forest/Frost/Shadow troll model. Just with a Jungle Troll skin. Oddly these models are not used for actual Forest Trolls until early Burning Crusade where they were used for the lesser amani forces OUTSIDE Zul Aman in Ghostlands and Eversong, before that the in game forest trolls are all just green Jungle trolls. Then mid Burning Crusade Zul Aman came out and the brief era of the Forest Trolls using the model and skeleton from the Alpha ended!
I discovered your channel today. I am at work right now and can't stop watching your lore videos. You have a very soothing voice! I think I found another go to channel to put on before bed :D
You’ve helped clear up some of the mysteries of one of my favorite races, the Goblins! They were one of the best parts of Cataclysm for me along with the elemental planes of existence and their rivalry between themselves and the gnomes makes for fascinating ancillary plot lines to the main races of the story. I love how goblins and gnomes each have radically different takes on technological use. The Venture Co.’s ubiquitous presence throughout the entirety of the world in far-flung locales was always something I wanted to know more about.
I just did the horde rogue quest in SoD for the first time. My only vanilla rogue was a dwarf and I didn’t remember any of that questline. There is so much tied together in WoW. The Cata storyline for Silverpine and Hillsbrad actually upped the ante for part of the Forsaken trying to kill everyone.
@@Jediwarlock very much. I played at launch (and actually in Stress Test the September before) and I came back in Feb after 10 years away. Started Classic in September but then was going back to school and disk have time to play. Y guild started a SoD guild but then almost no one has played it. I’ve been enjoying it a lot and have less desire to do Classic when I can do this. Filled my adventure log on retail and then back to SoD heh
Masterful. The thing that is most impressive to me is the possibility that this connection may not have been planned by the big devs, but by the smaller guys making these quests. I like to think they talk to each other and come up with these things despite their bosses.
Yes! I love the grassroots-level stories that build on each other to play out over multiple level ranges/zones :) Others that come to mind are the Stormwind nobles and Onyxia holding up the movement of troops in human lands and the Scythe of Elune that covers zones from Ashenvale all the way to Duskwood! :o
Jediwarlock always makes the best and most original WoW lore videos our there. As said by other commentators, most other lore content makers are just reposting standard info you can get from Wowwiki or the Chronicle books. This is truly unique and always a delight to watch.
after hours and hours of lore videos by different creators, one could easily be mistaken to think they've learnt all there is to know about the wow story so far, but this was all completely new info to me amazing especially after all these years of the game being out 10/10 vid
Jediwarlock: "The land of Azeroth is one of adventure and countless mysteries." Also Jediwarlock: So much I didn't know. This was essentially a small scale Scourge threat. Mind domination taking over the world is a returning threat.
This was really exciting and funny and even a bit creepy! I got goosebumps!🎉 I never would've guessed that there is more to the Deadmines than the giant ship of destruction being build! Maybe those poor miners whose union cards we need were experimented on with Zanzil's poison. I mean their friend thinks they died during a cave in. Even the dwarf's brother died. The deadmines are truly a dangerous and scary place! Thank you, JediWarlock! 🎉 💚
I love your videos on stuff like this. Anything lesser known in Terokkar to look at? It's my favourite zone! Or perhaps the off-screen death of Fenris Wolfbrother and what happened to his clan between BtDP and TBC?
Thanks so much! Ooh, I'd love to investigate Terokkar sometime! I'll add it to my list ;) I am less familiar with WC1/2 lore but I could always see what I can find :)
@Jediwarlock Beyond the Dark Portal is my favourite Era of WoW lore. The first generation Death Knights and the orc clans deemed too uncontrollable to go to Azeroth are my two favourite subjects. Terokkar nearly certainly has something, especially with the MU Arakkoa, but Fenris and the Thunderlord would be a good story as well - so much was added retroactively, and yet still they seemingly just disappeared in universe.
@@Jediwarlock It's so very si.ple and oldschool (literally a player model compatible slight upscale of the geometry built into the alpha bandit model) but it's unattainable.
I think Crank Fizzlebubs quest chain is an open and shut case. Kravel Koalbeard is the one that sends you to Crank in the first place, in search for "something to addle wits" to drug the gnome pit crew. Crank suggests Zanzils poison and asks you to go get it. The followup quest "Zanzil's Mixture and a Fool's Stout" is the conclusion of the cryptic mentioning of Crank finding a use for the poison. Suggesting Crank is opportunistically getting in (late) on the action of supplying the Defias/Venture Co with the small amount we got for him, especially since the Venture Co already seems deep into their own operation, seems like a stretch to me.
It appears it was a bit of a retcon that he was allowed to return in the new ZG as he is still considered a "Humanoid" and not an undead (so I'm thinking he was not reanimated). I found it interesting that they brought him back, but he is a pretty significant figure in the Stranglethorn lore so I guess it makes sense! :)
Do you think that there is a relation between the mixture of Zanzil and the plague in warcraft III that came over Lordaeron? I think that one was created by Ner'zhul, but it sounds familiar because it also transforms humanoids into undead.
There are definitely some parallels! I thought about this a lot after reading your comment and I think they are ultimately different. The Plague created by the Scourge/dreadlords of the Legion is magical in nature, while Zanzil's poison is derived from a mix of jungle plants. It is interesting how similar they are though! :)
@@Jediwarlock Oh, yes, indeed. I've read Arthas, Rise of the Lich King now. The book confirms that the Scourge's corn plague is magical. :) The aim of the plague was to weaken Azeroth, in order to prepare a demonic invasion (which happens later on with Archimonde).
This plot thread who have been much more interesting to revisit during the human Heritage quest instead of the drakefire amulet one.... Since Marshall Windsor was used and discarded AGAIN in the end and this conspiracy would reveal a great threat at hand than just a corrupt noble and evil bandits.
Ok so, in lore, Zanzil did not die in vanilla. He actualy returned to the Gurubashi under the request of Jin'Do, after Hakkar had been defeated in vanilla. Zanzil in lore died in Zul'Gurub many years after the fall of Hakkar, and the Defias. Besides this fact... I always thought it was a bit dumb how Zanzil was just a random troll in some small ruins in vanilla. Like he was obviously to important to be just there in the open. /shrug.
JW - I like these videos and I appreciate the work you put into them. About 10 years ago there was a teen who was making a lot of WoW lore videos. Pretty well written it seemed, almost too good. Here he was simply taking stuff from a wow website and reading it into a microphone word for word. I think Kakio called him out on it and poof he was gone. I'm not accusing JW of this - I'm just saying it won't be too long before someone sets up an AI to do it.
This is why Jedi's lore videos are the best. They're not some copy of a copy about stuff lore nerds already knew, they're ACTUAL deep dives into something only people who are insane (i.e. read quest test lol) would even have the chance of figuring out.
Another amazing one!
Thank you so much! That means a lot and I appreciate it. :)
One of us! One of us! One of us!!! He's awesome.
Opening the box in the tower gives you a "Touch of Zanzil" curse so conection is even more obvious.
Indeed! That's one thing I had skipped over but I do remember that from doing the questline :)
That was the one that kills you after 7 days right?
@@Bowko123 Yea and makes you move slow.
As some one who reads every quest but never played a rogue in Vanilla... I never knew the connections with all of this. I just assumed the undead at the tower in Westfall were connected to Dusk Wood but I never found a quest for it. Thank you for putting this together. One of my favorites from you so far. I really enjoy your content.
Thanks so much! I'm glad I was able to put the pieces together and share them with you all :)
There is a very important part you missed out on this deep dive, the quest chain to save Yenniku on the Horde side.
This chain involves helping a troll witch doctor in saving the soul of a Darkspear troll called Yenniku who was poisoned and controlled by Zanzil, in this quest we require to gather singing crystals from basilisks not unlike the crystals gathered for Crank and in fact there's plenty of crystallized miners around the cave inhabited by basilisks. We are told there crystals are magical and can help us channel the power of an artifact called "The Mind's Eye" to retrieve Yenniku's soul from his body. In the end you manage to find Yenniku and trap his soul in the Mind's Eye, return him to the witch doctor and set his soul free even if his body is gone.
This is very in line with old voodoo folklore of zombies, while the popular depiction of zombies is the living dead the old folklore depicts zombies as brainless slaves controlled by voodoo magic through a long process of rituals. The involvement of the singing crystals points at some sort of magic being involved, whether Crank knows about their magical properties or how to use it is left untold.
It's very cool how the Alliance gets to see the side of the poison being used to build an army while the Horde gets the learn more about its witch doctor and voodoo origins.
Yeah!!! The eastern plague lands zombie troll quests
Ooh, I love those details! I had forgotten about that part on the Horde side... great comment! :D
That makes so much sense with the “playing both sides” interpretation of Crank Fizzlebub, he wants the poison *and* the crystals, literally feeding you poison & selling you the cure
Wow you are literally the ONLY person I've ever heard mention this, at ALL, especially on TH-cam lol. I mean, as you say in the beginning, this tiny little story thread is not only spread across continents, but class quests and factions. At times I would have figured I was the only person who even had heard about this, if it wasn't for the fact parts of it were pointed out to me by others like a decade ago haha.
Haha, I'm glad there are others who have at least found some of the pieces of this puzzle! :)
@@Jediwarlock thanks! Same to you! Honestly your content is freaking awesome btw, you so often cover stuff that nobody else does at all. Like the furbolg gate in azshara or the crystal in dark shore!
Way cooler to dive into these obscure but honestly super important and interesting topics. Part of me feels these mysteries were so much cooler back in the day, because there wasn't literal gods running around everywhere. So it makes these small mysteries so awesome!
Kind of reminds me of things like the half done search for Varian quest lines, that just sort of end randomly in dusk wallow, with Varian originally being in Alkaz. Or the original Uldum gate stuff that just never comes up again. It was all so much cooler when little ends like that mattered.
Oh gosh I know I'm ranting in my comment, but then there was all the worgen stuff between dusk wood and silver pine. With that leading into the scythe of elune, as well as the Dark Riders which just disappeared. All this potentially being tangentially involved with the defias.
oh wow after nearly 20 years you've enlightened me on connecting two major plot points. As a rogue main, I've always wondered why the Drones stood out so much in the region as unique NPC's. It was right there in front of me, but I never thought of connecting the dots.
Very cool!
Haha, that's awesome! Glad I could illuminate that for you :D
Wow! I was always wondering what's up with the undead in the Westfall, though I assumed they were somehow connected to Duskwood (Duskwood having a dark necromantic theme and all). Amazing video!
Thanks so much! :)
I love that Zanzil uses the Alpha era model which itself uses a lot of animations either based on or directly taken from the WC3 Forest/Frost/Shadow troll model. Just with a Jungle Troll skin. Oddly these models are not used for actual Forest Trolls until early Burning Crusade where they were used for the lesser amani forces OUTSIDE Zul Aman in Ghostlands and Eversong, before that the in game forest trolls are all just green Jungle trolls. Then mid Burning Crusade Zul Aman came out and the brief era of the Forest Trolls using the model and skeleton from the Alpha ended!
Yes, very interesting! I like those details ;)
oh wow, im quite familiar with all the parts in this but never pieced it together. it instantly clicked the second I saw this video pop in my sub box!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching :)
I discovered your channel today. I am at work right now and can't stop watching your lore videos. You have a very soothing voice!
I think I found another go to channel to put on before bed :D
Haha, I'm so glad you found the channel! :) New uploads are every Friday around midday ;)
You’ve helped clear up some of the mysteries of one of my favorite races, the Goblins! They were one of the best parts of Cataclysm for me along with the elemental planes of existence and their rivalry between themselves and the gnomes makes for fascinating ancillary plot lines to the main races of the story. I love how goblins and gnomes each have radically different takes on technological use. The Venture Co.’s ubiquitous presence throughout the entirety of the world in far-flung locales was always something I wanted to know more about.
I'm glad I helped you out with this! :)
I just did the horde rogue quest in SoD for the first time. My only vanilla rogue was a dwarf and I didn’t remember any of that questline. There is so much tied together in WoW. The Cata storyline for Silverpine and Hillsbrad actually upped the ante for part of the Forsaken trying to kill everyone.
Yeah! They go a little wild with their New Plagues after the Wrathgate in Wrath of the Lich King... hope you're enjoying SoD! :D
@@Jediwarlock very much. I played at launch (and actually in Stress Test the September before) and I came back in Feb after 10 years away. Started Classic in September but then was going back to school and disk have time to play. Y guild started a SoD guild but then almost no one has played it. I’ve been enjoying it a lot and have less desire to do Classic when I can do this. Filled my adventure log on retail and then back to SoD heh
Masterful. The thing that is most impressive to me is the possibility that this connection may not have been planned by the big devs, but by the smaller guys making these quests. I like to think they talk to each other and come up with these things despite their bosses.
Yes! I love the grassroots-level stories that build on each other to play out over multiple level ranges/zones :) Others that come to mind are the Stormwind nobles and Onyxia holding up the movement of troops in human lands and the Scythe of Elune that covers zones from Ashenvale all the way to Duskwood! :o
Jediwarlock always makes the best and most original WoW lore videos our there. As said by other commentators, most other lore content makers are just reposting standard info you can get from Wowwiki or the Chronicle books. This is truly unique and always a delight to watch.
Platinum wow also does deep dives.
However, a lot of his videos are shallow dives.
Thank you so much! :) I had a blast researching/investigating this one!
On very rare occasions you find gems on this platform
Rejoice for you are a gem, friend.
Thank you! :)
I love that your videos give actual new information and lore. Keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks for tuning in! More adventures on the way! :D
Nice video, glad you're feeling better and can't wait for the next one.
More on the way soon! :D
Great info helping tie in the nooks and crannies we may not have seen for this whole Defias plan.
Thank you! :)
after hours and hours of lore videos by different creators, one could easily be mistaken to think they've learnt all there is to know about the wow story so far, but this was all completely new info to me
amazing especially after all these years of the game being out
10/10 vid
Thank you so much! :D
Wow what a good vid man I can't believe how research and time you put into these!
Thanks so much! Brawl on!
That was an really interesting take and the video was very well made.
Kudos to you, Mr Jediwarlock
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed this one :)
Interesting! I always thought the Zanzil debuff from the rogue quest was rather odd and wondered if this was the connection.
Always happy to see a JediWarlock video! Keep up the great work my man :)
Thank you! :) More adventures on the way!
That was great! I never would have pieces all of that together
Thanks so much! :)
I love how questlines in Vanilla intertwine and create a hidden narrative
It's peak! :D
Jediwarlock: "The land of Azeroth is one of adventure and countless mysteries."
Also Jediwarlock:
So much I didn't know. This was essentially a small scale Scourge threat. Mind domination taking over the world is a returning threat.
Indeed! And haha, still counting! :D
This was really exciting and funny and even a bit creepy! I got goosebumps!🎉
I never would've guessed that there is more to the Deadmines than the giant ship of destruction being build!
Maybe those poor miners whose union cards we need were experimented on with Zanzil's poison. I mean their friend thinks they died during a cave in. Even the dwarf's brother died. The deadmines are truly a dangerous and scary place!
Thank you, JediWarlock! 🎉 💚
You are very welcome! I like that idea about the dwarf miners... I considered them as well... who knows if they were involved? ;)
This feels like something out of a WC 3 level, early wow kept the spirit for sure.
Yeah! :D
5:04 Should have said Green Hills, go all out.
XD I was considering it!!
This was great, Ty!
You are very welcome! :)
Best video so far!
Aw, thank you so much! :) I appreciate that!
Finally someone who noticed it, too! I told my dad about it back when we played together and he called me a lunatic 😂
Haha, I'm glad I could put some of those pieces together for you all :D
I love your videos on stuff like this. Anything lesser known in Terokkar to look at? It's my favourite zone! Or perhaps the off-screen death of Fenris Wolfbrother and what happened to his clan between BtDP and TBC?
Thanks so much! Ooh, I'd love to investigate Terokkar sometime! I'll add it to my list ;) I am less familiar with WC1/2 lore but I could always see what I can find :)
@Jediwarlock Beyond the Dark Portal is my favourite Era of WoW lore. The first generation Death Knights and the orc clans deemed too uncontrollable to go to Azeroth are my two favourite subjects. Terokkar nearly certainly has something, especially with the MU Arakkoa, but Fenris and the Thunderlord would be a good story as well - so much was added retroactively, and yet still they seemingly just disappeared in universe.
Pog more classic focused lore!
And more on the way :D
1:23 I have never found any playable version of the troll on the right's shoulders there.
I think it would be super cool to have as an item!
@@Jediwarlock It's so very si.ple and oldschool (literally a player model compatible slight upscale of the geometry built into the alpha bandit model) but it's unattainable.
Wake up way too early in the morning, be pissed, see jedi warlock video, day saved! ❤
Aw, I'm glad I could help out your day!
i remember the first time i did the rogue class quest and saw Zanzil and i was like ive heard this name before
Haha, it's all connected! :D
I think Crank Fizzlebubs quest chain is an open and shut case.
Kravel Koalbeard is the one that sends you to Crank in the first place, in search for "something to addle wits" to drug the gnome pit crew. Crank suggests Zanzils poison and asks you to go get it. The followup quest "Zanzil's Mixture and a Fool's Stout" is the conclusion of the cryptic mentioning of Crank finding a use for the poison.
Suggesting Crank is opportunistically getting in (late) on the action of supplying the Defias/Venture Co with the small amount we got for him, especially since the Venture Co already seems deep into their own operation, seems like a stretch to me.
I like your thoughts! I can definitely see your point of view :)
@@Jediwarlock I'm a smug armchair naysayer. But I do like your videos 😘
BROOOO THIS IS DEEP REALLY THANK U! VERY RICH IN ESSENCE OF LOOOOOREEE
Glad you enjoyed it! :D
How does Zanzil in the Zul'Gurub rework tie into this?
I would imagine some retcon happened or was he reanimated?
It appears it was a bit of a retcon that he was allowed to return in the new ZG as he is still considered a "Humanoid" and not an undead (so I'm thinking he was not reanimated). I found it interesting that they brought him back, but he is a pretty significant figure in the Stranglethorn lore so I guess it makes sense! :)
Do you think that there is a relation between the mixture of Zanzil and the plague in warcraft III that came over Lordaeron? I think that one was created by Ner'zhul, but it sounds familiar because it also transforms humanoids into undead.
There are definitely some parallels! I thought about this a lot after reading your comment and I think they are ultimately different. The Plague created by the Scourge/dreadlords of the Legion is magical in nature, while Zanzil's poison is derived from a mix of jungle plants. It is interesting how similar they are though! :)
@@Jediwarlock Oh, yes, indeed. I've read Arthas, Rise of the Lich King now. The book confirms that the Scourge's corn plague is magical. :) The aim of the plague was to weaken Azeroth, in order to prepare a demonic invasion (which happens later on with Archimonde).
Da Jailor did it
I don't think this was mentioned, but I wonder if the undead in the non-instanced part of the Deadmines are related to this
Ooh, interesting point!! :D
Very nice
Thanks! :D
This story continues in Cataclysm.
Oh yes, I did hear about that! Interesting how they brought Zanzil back in the new ZG :)
I love me a good deep dive
I'm glad to hear that!! :)
This plot thread who have been much more interesting to revisit during the human Heritage quest instead of the drakefire amulet one.... Since Marshall Windsor was used and discarded AGAIN in the end and this conspiracy would reveal a great threat at hand than just a corrupt noble and evil bandits.
Interesting idea!!
😮 what is this!
:o
Hi Jedi!
I believe you!
Thanks! :)
Maybe not the strongest evidence but Crank Fizzlebub also happens to dress purelyin red which reminds me of the the red bandanas of the Defias.
Ooh very interesting! :D
Zanzil teams up with someone in the zul gurub dungeon
Yes! I hear there is more lore to his story in Cataclysm where he is eventually defeated again. :)
The Ruins of Aboraz was merely a set back :)
hey, you should tackle who REALLY summoned Arikara and who was it's REAL target
Ooh yes the Arikara quests... I may have to revisit those soon! :D
very cool
Thank you! :)
technically you aren't supposed to even fight klaven
you're supposed to sap him and loot his chest
makes the lore even more hidden
Haha, I didn't realize that! Very cool :)
Was the poison not sold to Kravel Coalbeard, for making Fool's Stout, and committing some serious betting fraud.
I believe it was! I left that part out of the story but yes, he definitely used the poison as well! :D
More like this. Me like.
Thank you! :) More on the way.
This video is NSFWestfall.
Better watch out! :o
yes?
Yes
Ok so, in lore, Zanzil did not die in vanilla. He actualy returned to the Gurubashi under the request of Jin'Do, after Hakkar had been defeated in vanilla. Zanzil in lore died in Zul'Gurub many years after the fall of Hakkar, and the Defias.
Besides this fact... I always thought it was a bit dumb how Zanzil was just a random troll in some small ruins in vanilla. Like he was obviously to important to be just there in the open. /shrug.
Good detail! I usually don't talk about the lore past Classic/Wrath but I do find it interesting they brought him back in ZG in the update :)
This script screams AI
I actually write and voice all my scripts on my own :)
JW - I like these videos and I appreciate the work you put into them.
About 10 years ago there was a teen who was making a lot of WoW lore videos. Pretty well written it seemed, almost too good. Here he was simply taking stuff from a wow website and reading it into a microphone word for word. I think Kakio called him out on it and poof he was gone.
I'm not accusing JW of this - I'm just saying it won't be too long before someone sets up an AI to do it.