You're a naive level 5 human, questing in Elwynn. You decide to cross the river to satiate your explorer's heart. The sky darkens slowly, the music starts being creepy as f. You start thinking "Wait what's going on?" Then you see it. A level ?? (Skull) wolf. You never saw a level ?? mob so you start feeling nervous. The wolf aggros from very far away... Sure it can't be that bad... Holy s...! It hits you for almost your entire lifebar! You start to panic and run for your life, swimming across the river again, safe from the wolf. You return to the safety of Elwynn, now knowing that there are some things that should not be messed with, and knowing true fear in your heart. Some time later, you reach level 20 in Redridge Mountains , and get directed to Duskwood once again. You cross the bridge, the music starts being creepy again... Then the sky slowly darkens again... You see the wolf again... It was level 20. You now know you're a big boy , and it's finally time. Time to face your fears and grow up. You venture into the darkness.

Good video. Quick correction, though: Mor'Ladim was originally a level 35 elite, same as Stitches, not level 30. He was nerfed twice, being downleved to 30 during TBC, and eventually to 25 with the release of Cataclysm. This means that even for players that stuck to the standard Elwynn>Westfall>Redridge>Duskwood route -dungeons included-, and chose to 100% the zones not leaving any quests behind, Mor'Ladim would still out-level you by 3-5 levels by the time you were otherwise finished in Duskwood. Since he patrolled the graveyard around Morbent Fel's house, where you would spend a good amount of time dealing with multiple other quests, he would often aggro onto unsuspecting players from a good distance away. Chances are that the first few times you ran into him, you'd see him as a skull-level elite. He was an absolute menace. So much so that many players chose to return to Duskwood when they were already well within their Stranglethorn and/or Arathi quest progression only to take revenge on Mor'Ladim. He had ganked me, my friends, and many other players too many times to just get away unscathed because of a level gap. It wasn't just about completing a quest at that point. This was personal.

Fun Fact; Morbent Fell was one of the random names given to the Lich hero in Warcraft 3. It implies that the Lich King had something to do with Darkshire's corruption.

Really captured my experience with Duskwood the first time. I crossed the river from Elwynn to Duskwood, got rekt by a wolf, and then once I got there proper met Stitches on the road and got destroyed. Old Duskwood had such great atmosphere. A+ design all around.

I'd like to see vanilla Darkshore next! Was always one of my most favorite areas in vanilla, seeing as a started as a Night Elf.

Would like to see more videos like this one. Some suggestions: Vanilla Redridge Mountains and why it's so fun! Vanilla Barrens and why it's so fondly remembered Vanilla Stranglethorn Vale and why it's so infamous Hell maybe eventually cover every zone and dungeon. I think every Vanilla area is insanely iconic and memorable.

Cool zone, but the running... My God, the running!

Stitches walking along the road brings a new level of fear in hardcore classic. I lost two characters because of him. The first died to stitches himself. The second died because I ran away from the big guy, right into the worgen ( I was only lvl 20). Good times.

my new favorite wow YT channel. nice work bro!

Duskwood is amazing, it's kept in a permanent state of Halloween, I always played that zone at that time of the year.. Redridge mountain is nice too, its where you go for fishing and R&R

6:14 “Suspiciously scarce bodyparts” bahahahaa

I subscribed as soon as the Nick Rochefort clip popped up. Great work my friend!

Indeed on the best zones. I never skip it.

This zone's storytelling, while rough around the edges, is an ambitious example of the kind of storytelling that WoW made possible and the narratives that were to come. It's such a product of its time and a shame Blizzard felt the need to "update" it in Cataclysm. My favorite thing is to enter the zone as a level 20 paladin with Verigan's Fist, exorcism, and seal of command in tow, and crush the undead.

i remember wanting to uncover every area of the map so headed inside the big crater thing, as i got further down the path i saw this massive heck off dragon render in, out of no where, and i nearly pee'd myself as i slowly backed away from it.

I don’t know if this was true, but originally you needed a torch to see anything in duskwood, if you didn’t it would be to dark to travel. If that were true, would have been so cool if they kept that detail in.

im SO happy you're continuing this series! Fantastic work and im excited to see more :)

If I recall correctly Morgan Ladimore offed himself after he realized what he'd done. The whole being raised from the grave to haunt Raven Hill Cemetery was either just the corruption of the land, Morbent Fel's doing or some combination thereof. I remember that bit explicitly because it was referenced in a preview for a WoW machinima a long, long time ago about a veteran from Arathi returning from war to a ruined Stromgarde and family slain. "The fate of Ladimore", was the quote, referencing Morgan's madness and eventual self-destruction, and the machinima itself, I think, was called _Return_. I never actually saw the full machinima itself, though, just the preview.

Banger

I love your Videos dude, keep up the great work!

As a fan of both modern WoW and classic, I thoroughly enjoy comparing the two and observing how the game's narrative has evolved over the years. It's fascinating to witness the changes in storytelling, character development, and world-building that Blizzard has brought to the table. Classic WoW's narrative had a raw and gritty edge that retail WoW has unfortunately lost. Good video, keep the series going

Brilliant video!

2:00 Yes, happened to me within a few days of playing, maybe the same day way back over 10 years ago..

Can't wait the next zone, great job again!

Finally thank you brother😊

I died in duskwood in HC I hate this zone.

Another solid outing great job brother

Awesome video!

ngl I did not know a lot of this lore. I knew Morbent Fell was the one responsible for making Duskwood all dark, but that was kind of it. I just thought the worgen were random mobs dropped in the zone and not related to the Night Elves, and I didn't know Darkshire was Grand Hamlet. I thought they just forgot Grand Hamlet from WC1 existed and didn't put it in WoW.

And… i wanna play classic again now

If C is in front of either E, I or Y it's pronounced as S. It's not the "skyth", it's the scythe. On a less petty note, great vid, love me some vanilla nostalgia!

10/10 thumbnail

Liked just for the Scuffed Realtor reference. Great video nonetheless.

how the fuck do u not have at least 100k subs, if you just started out a few years ago youre gonna be huge in the future

Rogue gankers on cemetery, since it was one of the few spots in game where you could farm Grave Moss. Also - Horde PvP raids, since Duskwood was the fastest way to get to the Stormwind.

EIGHTEENTH!!!

2:07 I'm way too UBER for the likes of this place...

I'll be honest, this was when wow stopped being fun PVE wise for me. the incredible experience that Northshire to Deadmines story was just TOO good.