This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
Exclusive Advance Excerpt from Sylvanas Novel
Live
Posted
2022/03/22 at 5:00 PM
by
Paryah
In advance of the release of
Sylvanas
, the upcoming novel by Christie Golden, Blizzard has sent us an exclusive excerpt to whet our appetites. The novel, detailing the life of the Ranger General, Banshee Queen, War Chief, and erstwhile renegade, Sylvanas Windrunner, is due to be released in a week, on March 29th.
Love her or hate her, Sylvanas has affected all of our World of Warcraft lives, and now we can learn about hers as she tells her tale to the imprisoned Anduin Wrynn. This excerpt takes place around or during the events of Shadowlands Patch 9.0 as Sylvanas attempts to woo the young King of Stormwind to her point of view.
NOTE: As Sylvanas works to secure the loyalty/partnership of Anduin Wrynn, she shares previously untold stories of her history and personal journey. In this interlude to the main story, Anduin questions the true motives behind Sylvanas’ promise of “no more lies”
INTERLUDE
Anduin had listened without interrupting. Sylvanas had not thought in detail about her childhood in years. She was surprised at how clear some of her memories were, even now. It stirred within her the old, familiar combination of pain and then anger. But somehow, now that a solution, a rectification of all that had gone so horribly, cruelly wrong in her life, was so close at hand, the memories did not hurt—or anger—her as much. She had let go of many things, walking this path, and perhaps this weight was some of it.
She fell silent, unwilling as of yet to revisit the moments where the tight-knit fabric of family, friends, and a future full of hope began to unravel, and the silence between them was long. Anduin broke it by moving the tray forward with a scraping sound, nudging it with one armored finger until it was partway out of the circle.
“Why do you tell me this?” he asked quietly.
“You did not know it,” Sylvanas said.
“Did you hope to play on my sympathy? Did you think your story of a strong, loving, present family would move me somehow?”
Of course she had. She’d all but told him that was what she intended.
His face was hard, his expression flat, and she could hear his anger simmering beneath his words as he got to his feet.
“I’m certain your various spies have ferreted out all the details about my childhood, but let me remind you, just in case there are any gaps in your knowledge,” Anduin said. “When I was an infant, my mother was killed by a bloodthirsty mob. People she was standing up for. I imagine you know what a stone, thrown with angry force, can do to a skull.”
Sylvanas did. She remained silent.
“You remember how hard your mother drove you. I don’t remember mine at all. My father saw it happen. It . . . broke him. He could barely stand to look at me as I grew up. I have no warm, wise conversations with him during my childhood to look back on. Then he vanished when I was ten, and I suddenly became the king of Stormwind. You?” he scoffed. “At that age, you still were using a child’s bow.”
He was calm, but also angry and he was hurt. Anduin was right. She had been fully informed of almost every moment of Anduin’s brief life thus far, but it had always been comprised of cold facts. Sylvanas knew what else he would say, and abruptly wished he would not say it.
“Varian returned full of anger. It took us a long time to reconcile. But we did. We did,” he repeated, more softly, as if to himself. “And then . . . the Broken Shore. But you know about that.”
“I do,” Sylvanas said, not rising to the bait.
“Your life,” Anduin said, quietly, “was filled with riches. Riches I’ve never known. Your world was one of safety and certainty. Of harmless pranks and easy forgiveness. You knew both of your parents. You had sisters and a brother. Your youth was filled with grace and laughter, beauty and love and support, and friendship. And yes—I know that world is no more—for any of us. But at least, you had the chance to taste it before it was gone.”
Sylvanas rose now, too. “Do not envy me, Little Lion. You have lost much, certainly. But it is nothing compared with what I have lost.”
“Is it nothing compared with what the night elves lost? Or should I say, what you took from them?”
And there it was: the burning of Teldrassil. Sylvanas knew he would throw it at her but had not expected he would do so just yet. “I did what I did for a reason. For the greatest reason of all.” Her voice rose before she could properly guard its cadence.
“You became a
butcher
, Sylvanas, slaughtering innocents, all in the name of self-righteous lies!”
It was not the petulant cry of a child, but the just fury of what the world would see as a good man. She could not rely on his empathy, not yet. She wondered if Anduin had chosen the word butcher deliberately, but even now, after all that had been done to him, she did not think him that cruel.
They stared at each other for a long minute. Sylvanas tamped down her anger. “I will speak of that in due time. But perhaps you will feel better when I tell you all that happened after Alleria left Quel’Thalas. You might not envy me quite as much then.”
She sank down onto the stone again, indicating that he sit as well. He made no move to do so. “Stand if you must, then, but I will be here for a time, and . . .” Sylvanas couldn’t resist a hint of smugness. “You do not appear to be going anywhere soon.”
If you enjoyed this and want to read more, pick up a copy of
Sylvanas
by Christie Golden
on March 29th, 2022. Stay tuned to Wowhead for much more coming up after the release of the book.
Get Wowhead
Premium
$2
A Month
Enjoy an ad-free experience, unlock premium features, & support the site!
Show 62 Comments
Hide 62 Comments
Sign In to Post a Comment
1
2
3
4
Comment by
Charlayne
on 2022-03-24T00:19:36-05:00
Why wasn't this in game again?
Money
There's not time in-game to do all the story. We get some of it, but I have heard so many people say there are too many cut-scenes, too much bla, bla, bla and not enough killing the big monster. More raids, more M+ and PvP. Better graphics, more characters, neat transmog and mounts. Lots demands from the players and fans. Story is not top on probably 60% of the players, they do the other stuff.
It's not going to satisfy everyone, no matter what. If they put this whole thing in, it would be hours of stuff. Do I want to know what happened, oh yeah. I play a night elf druid, and I can tell you that went right through me and I cried. The anger, confusion were horrible and I was absorbed so much into my character that it was hard. So, yeah, I want the explanation. I'm also buying the book, partially because it's lore (or the stuff around the lore), but also because I consider Christie a friend and I'm interested in how her work goes together. I'm also an author, reading for both content and style is something I do with every book I read.
As for money? I checked the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller list for July 27, 2020, two weeks after "Shadow's Rising" by Madeleine Roux came out. It listed as 15th that week with 7701 sales. At 27.00, the take is $207,932. She didn't get that much, though. Only counting the numbers of hardback sales (not e-book), I'm being generous with 15% royalty (most are 10% or even 7%). Her part of the $207,932 is $31,189. Nice take, except you have to figure in an agent fee (they sell the manuscript to the publisher). So their 15% is out of the existing $31,189. That leaves her $26,510. Her taxes where she lives on that amount would have been another $4,434, which leaves her with $22,074. Want to know what a week at 8 hours a day gets you with that? $450.00 a week. That's poverty level wages. And, probably, she worked longer than 8 hours a day. That's writing, first edits, second, even third edits, plus galley reviews, and such.
The rest of it, $176,743 doesn't go to Blizzard. They probably get 40%, which would be $70,697.00. Del Rey, who did the publishing gets 60% (that goes for editors, printing, advertising, and covers).
And I would be surprised if they sold more than 175,000 - 200,000 copies total over the life of the release. I had to know how this works because I'm an independent author and I have to figure the cut that my sellers get when I sell a book. Needless to say, without a Blizzard or Del Rey backing me for advertising, I don't sell that much.
So Blizz isn't making that much off of the books. With everything else they do, the books aren't really a big part, it's for the fans who want to read more of what's going around.
You don't have to spend your money for it, no one's twisting your arm. Go to the library and borrow it if you feel the need to know. And not knowing won't effect your game play.
Comment by
warrior
on 2022-03-25T13:04:22-05:00
Why wasn't this in game again?
This is one of those things that has been making me really cranky about WoW lore for a while now. Original WoW was mostly contained to post-WarCraft lore + in-game lore. You could understand most everything from in-game entries, and the world made sense in-world. At some point Blizzard started offloading a lot of world-building to outside content, specifically books. That's just obnoxious. Books should be at best a supplement, not replace stories. As a thought experiment I like to imagine what other games would look like if as much of the meat of the primary story was told through the games. How about The Witcher, except all you get is a "TL;DR" version and a bunch of sandboxy monster battles, and all the major developments are told in a book? Assassin's Creed, but you don't get any backstory of the Assassins, you're just a dude killing people, here's a cinematic with a random person you've never met. What? More? Read the books!
1
2
3
4
Post a Comment
You are not logged in. Please
log in
or
register an account
to add your comment.
Previous Post
Next Post