Azeroth 2015 (republished pictures from 2015)

Some might find it strange, but unlike the two previous years, I was not in Italy at the beginning of May for the Battle for Vilegis. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I wanted to. But when I was supposed to be dealing with the preparation for Italy, my dad died, and I was in no condition to deal with anything. By the time I got better with the help of friends, it was too late. But it wasn’t too late to go to the World of Warcraft world, to Azeroth.

I had seen some of the pictures from previous years and had wanted to go there before, but as mentioned earlier, it coincided with the B4V. Additionally, when I learned that one of the people who stood by me during the worst moments of this year was somehow involved in the organisation of Azeroth, the decision was made. Don’t get me wrong; I wanted to go anyway; It just gave me an option to give something back.

Because Azeroth was scheduled for an extended weekend, I assumed people would play from Friday to Sunday. Not everyone thought the same, and many players didn’t arrive until Friday evening. So it happened mainly on Saturday and most of Sunday, so I missed part of Sunday afternoon, as I already had to be elsewhere.

So, my report is missing the ending, which is sad but true. The play was in a beautiful, rugged setting, and everyone immensely enjoyed the colourful (and black-and-white for the pandas) costumes.

I admit that when I arrived, I knew nothing of the local story, and to this day, I have a minimal idea what the World of Warcraft that the larp is inspired by looks like today. I played WoW for the first four months after it launched, and I’ve already forgotten most of the lore and have no idea what happened in the ten years since I stopped playing it. I certainly don’t remember any Blood Elves or Pandas, and that gave the players more options on how to sell the LARP to me, and they did well.

I liked the game and gradually started to understand the story. I’ll probably revisit this world again, not in its online form, but in the LARP form.