Every New Beginning…

…comes from some other beginning’s end. ( – Seneca. Or Semisonic. Whichever…)

The account has expired, and I’m done with World of Warcraft for the foreseeable future. Having done everything I needed to do on my “mains” last night, I was actually in the process of going around and double-checking my lesser-played alts today for any rogue items in their mailboxes when I was kicked off of the server.

So wait, you’re coming back, right? When?

I’ve hesitated to say for certain one way or another because I don’t want to make any guarantees. At best I want to give myself a few months to get things sorted out. If needs be I’ll wait until Cataclysm and see how things are looking then. Let’s just give it the ol’ Blizzard “Soon“™

What about the blog?

As I said, I will keep blogging. Probably in more than one place, because apparently I’m an addict like that (or a masochist, take your pick.)

I’ve thought about it for a bit and although I initially figured I’d just keep blogging here, I think I’d rather leave Aspect of the Hare “as is”. That way, people who want to continue linking to me for guides and the like can do so without worrying about people having to wade through non-WoW stuff. Plus, if/when I come back, I can just jump right back in to a ready-to-go WoW-themed blog.

What I’m probably going to do is set up a couple of subdomains here and then when they’re all set I’ll make another post linking you all to them. Gimme a couple days and I’ll get back to you!

Also, if you have a LiveJournal account and want to read my somewhat less-structured and more non-sequitor rambles I don’t mind if you friend me over there, either.

Commissions?

Will continue, send ’em my way! I’d like to think the fabled “Sitemeter Avatar Contest” will continue in some fashion also, though we’ll have to wait and see how things go once I get my “New Blog” all set up.

And now, roll credits:

Thank you…

…to BRK and Lassirra, without whom I would never have started blogging. Your blogs were inspirations that got me excited about the WoW-o-sphere and taught me how to play a hunter in the first place.

…to the WoW Twitterati for giving me one epic chatroom to rant, laugh, cry, and joke in, to bounce ideas off of, and inspire me to do crazy things like draw pictures or write books. I’ll still be around, don’t worry.

…to my guild, Order of the Rose, for being made of at least ten types of awesome. For dragging me around to their alt runs when I was an undergeared nub and then tossing me head first into their 25mans and hard modes, for passing gear and weapons to me, and for pulling together special raids just for me so I could get my Champion of the Frozen Wastes title– on not one, but two characters. For not just “letting” me raid as Beast Mastery, but for flat-out encouraging and challenging me to do so. Every outcast, non-flavor-of-the-month player should be so lucky.

…to my guild in Burning Crusade, the now-defunct but never-forgotten Entelechy. This is going to sound dorky and cheesy to the Nth Degree, but ya know what, I’m gonna say it anyway: you guys are some of the best friends I’ve ever had. I love that a good number of us have kept in touch outside of the game, via our forum or our nightly AIM chats, which is awesome because I know a lot of us have quit playing. I think back to the best memories I have of this game– Karazhan, countless Heroic Mech runs, opening all the graves in Zul’Farrak when we were all level 45, marching in on the Caelestis Templares’ cathedral twenty-strong– and I wasn’t doing it alone, but with you guys. May there always be Five Seconds to Evocate on Curator and may “Thundercats, Ho!” always ring through the hall before Shade of Aran.

…to Blizzard, for, well, making the game to begin with. I’ve been a BlizzHead since StarCraft stole my heart away in 1999, and it’s you guys and Nintendo more than anybody that have instilled a love of gaming in my soul. Being a citizen of Azeroth these past three years has been an honor and privilege. You guys are masters of making living, breathing worlds and characters. I was trying to emulate that solid real-ness when I was writing my book and inventing my own fictional world and characters, and if I was even half as successful as you with it, then I think I’m good. And if my book ever ends up published and with even a modicum of success then I’ll owe you a grateful hat tip.

…and finally, to my readers, for being the best readers that any blogger could ever hope for. It’s been almost three years of blogging and I can count the number of truly negative comments that I’ve received on one hand. And it’s because you guys are all amazing and mature and here to contribute to this little community. I have read every single comment ever posted here– every single one– and I wish I could go through and name names one by one and thank you all individually but it would take too long. Suffice to say if you have ever commented here I consider you a friend. Thank you for making me a part of your lives. I really didn’t deserve it.

If you’re going to follow me along to the rest of my blogging adventures, then I very much look forward to seeing you there. If not, it’s been a pleasure and I can only hope that something I said at some point made you smile or made you think. And I hope to see you again should I return.

Before I logged off of my characters last night, I tried to make sure I logged off appropriately. Tawbree, for example, is astride her new Epic Fiery Horse cause I did in fact manage to hit level 40. Tamaryn is in tree form, dancing away, with both trinkets activated and all of her HoTs ticking on herself.

And Tawyn pulled out Tux, her very first pet ever, and went on a little road trip. She went to Teldrassil, where it all began; she went to Azshara and explored the entire thing– including even more things I’d never seen before!– and then… then, she went home.

Bestial Wrath’d right before I logged out. That way she’ll be Bestial Wrath’d out there in Pixel-Land until I come back, and if I don’t come back, she’ll be Bestial Wrath’d until the servers go down.

I thought it was a nice touch.

Long past were the days when Medivh’s tower was much of a threat and adventurers flocked to the pass to donate their skills to the cause, but the few Violet Eye delegates that were holding out there did see the occasional visitor.

Archmage Alturus was on a first name basis with a few of these visitors, the night elf Tawyn being one of them.

“Back again, are you?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“Ayep,” Tawyn replied tersely as she dismounted.

“What keeps drawing you here, really?” The Archmage was genuinely curious. “The time is past that we really needed you…”

Tawyn blinked. He may as well have asked her why fish swam and why birds flew. “Maybe it’s the ley lines under the place. I dunno. You don’t ask the gulls why they return to the sea.” She shrugged.

“Fair enough,” the mage replied. “And we could always use good scouts, I suppose. You never know if something new might pop up in there.”

“Good. I’m goin’ in.”

“Alone?”

“I’m never alone.”

It was then that Archmage Alturus saw the big gray owl with yellow eyes perched nearby in the shadows. As if in response, he took wing now and alighted on Tawyn’s shoulder as she opened the front gate. She stood there a moment, gazing inside, her eyes clouded a bit as if distracted. “We aren’t getting any younger I suppose, are we, Tux?” she murmured.

Tux hooted something in response and then the hunter and her owl went inside.

70 thoughts on “Every New Beginning…”

  1. I have read and enjoyed your blog for sometime, but I fail at commenting, but at least I managed to do one before you left.

    Best of luck out there in the non-WoW world, my dear. 🙂

  2. I will miss you…and all my thoughts are with you as you begin to embark on another wonderful adventure….

    May the hunter sprit be with you always.

    /hug

    Shadow

  3. A very moving post! Good luck on your writing! If you ever want a beta reader, just drop me an email, I’m pretty good with typos and grammar. And I will follow your Linux and fish blogs if you post them lol.

  4. Good luck in Real Life Pike. Your blog was one of the very first I ever read, and I was following you for nearly two years now.
    Here I learn how to play a hunter, and through your passion for this class I discovered how fun it was.

    Today I play the way I want to play, I’m in a good raiding guild, I’m fighting Arthas, I learned and enjoy playing my three specs, but the major thing is that after 2 years since I create my hunter Nefernet, my first ever character, I still play her with passion, I still have fun in game. And I think that’s because of people like you who initiated such a great community of bloggers all around the world. I don’t know if the game would have me involved so much without the people, people in game of course, guildies, but also bloggers like you and so many other great people.

    You may stop playing, life goes on. But with this blog, you built something in people hearts. I wish you enjoy your life, I wish you success and happiness, you deserve it deeply.

    Bye Pike. Thanks. Just thanks.

  5. I feel kind of guilty for not being able to be apart of your blogging world for as long as lost of people out there, but for the time I was you had played such an amazing and inspirational role in my life.

    I’ve been reading your blogs since you posted your tips and tricks on Driud Healing, and since then you have left Me in aww on how amazing the WOW community is outside the game.

    Pike you have opened my mind even more then it was before to the possibilities and opportunities that life has layed out for Me.

    Thank you for every word you had said Pike, thank you oh so much.

  6. I’m a bit late posting here, had one of those weeks where I really couldn’t bring myself to read through my reader, thanks for having such a great blog. You were one of the people who inspired me to write about whatever the hell I felt like, and I appreciate that, blogging wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun without that feeling of, “It’s my blog, my readers can love me or leave me.” Of course the ones I do have I love to bits and it’s for them that I post the odd funny YouTube video and stuff.

    Hope to see you back here some day, if not, enjoy life 🙂

  7. aww man Pike. I haven’t visited your blog in a while now probably because I’ve actually quit wow for some time now too. It was getting in the way of school work but perhaps, like you, I will return someday. Probably to check out Cataclysm. In the meantime I have Dragon Age and Mass Effect to keep me company until Halo Reach comes out. Congratz on quitting (I suppose) and thank you for blogging about random huntery stuff. I always enjoyed reading your material.

  8. Dang, I read that you had gone in Gnomeaggedon’s farewell. I will greatly miss your insights and entries. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

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