[Art & Warcraft Stuff] February 2025

[jordangreywolf]

Pandarian New Year Red Snapper ... So Tasty!
Okay, obscure 1980s movie reference. Anyway, an illustration for a recipe article, ostensibly for celebrating the "Pandarian New Year."



Cheddar-Ale Potage with Wildhammer Mushroom Salad
In the background, a depiction of the Hinterlands in winter.



Stir-Fry Noodles
This was a rare instance where I actually timed myself and got the thing done in one sitting, as I was running out of time before deadline. In this case, the picture took 50 minutes to complete.



Pokapooka Poached-Egg Pepper Pot
Another recipe article illustration, this recipe based on shakshuka, but transplanting it to Vol'dun for a "Warcraft-ization" of the concept. I was asked to imagine what the vulpera might call it, and with the fact that it had poached eggs and peppers in it, and thinking of a certain silly vulpera sing-songing about Dolly and Dot, and thought some equally silly alliteration would be in order. So pick a peppery pot of poached pokapooka, pronto!


Grilled Highmountain Salmon
Grilled Highmountain salmon on a cedar plank, with a sketchy depiction of Highmountain (Broken Isles) in the background, doodled for another recipe article.

Comments

[tuftears]

MMm, so much delicious looking food. I'd probably go for the stir-fry noodles, the poached-egg pepper pot, and the salmon.

[jordangreywolf]

I'd probably for it all, but that's just because I'm hungry. XD The stir-fry noodles were a particular challenge, as I was trying to get a hint of their translucence. I didn't quite manage it, but at least, IMHO, they look edible, so I'll settle for that. :)

[rowyn]

Oh, those look tasty! :9 I love the little critter reaching for the poached eggs pepper pot!

[jordangreywolf]

The critter in this case is a vulpera, pretty much an anthropomorphic fennec-fox race (species?) added to Warcraft on the Horde side. (Why exactly they joined the Horde and didn't go in quasi-neutral like the Pandaren, I'm not sure -- other than a need to balance "one side gets one race, and the other side gets another.") It would give me a great opportunity to play Reynard the Bard (and I even "rolled up" one for that purpose and gave him the most foppish outfit I could, and a guitar slung over his back to stand in for a lute), but ... eh, he just doesn't really fit in with the Horde, I don't think.

Thanks to certain toys and shenanigans, there are a few people who will run around playing vulpera on Alliance side, but it's a hassle to do and is largely restricted to people with extra-disposable incomes who can afford to pay double subscriptions to "multi-box" and have two characters online at once, and run scripts.

Needlessly Long Explanation:
Basically, there are "toys" that will let you take on the appearance of some particular race that's not normally playable, or to look like a semi-random race on the opposite faction, but it has a limited duration and an even longer "cool-down" before you can do it again, because we can't let people have TOO much fun. However, there are also various abilities that can be used to copy another character's appearance, even if that character's appearance at this moment is an ILLUSION caused by another toy, and is about to expire. In effect, firing off this ability "resets the timer" on the new character.

So, let's say you go to a roleplay bazaar and, oh look, there are some giant talking birds (arakkoa) selling wares by the wayside! One of the birds will be chatty, while the other one basically just stands there in the background. Every 30 minutes or so, suddenly both characters appear to be channeling spells, their appearances fluctuate a bit as they "trade" appearances, and then they're back to normal. An automated script seems to be the toy of choice (though I suppose some sort of mod is required to accomplish this) to make sure this goes off with perfect timing. The only hitch is that if there's any kind of internet glitch (e.g., you lose your connection), you might get booted off and miss your refresh, and a lot of these illusory "toy" effects are dispelled, so you sign back in and you're stuck with the cooldown before you can get it going again.

Basically, it's one of those things that's "technically possible," but pretty much requires sitting around in one place the whole time (moving around complicates things), and a lot of trouble beyond what the typical RPer would be willing to put up with, so it remains pretty rare and novel when I run into it.

But, honestly, if they put the option to play any number of "vanity" races/species in the WoW shop for a one-time charge (even if there are no special abilities, no new starting zone, limited costume options, or whatever other technical limitations), I would probably be tempted, if Gwendel were still into the RP.