Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
Written on: 10月 06, 2019
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Title : Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
link : Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
Anyway, a while back, I did a 'monster review' segment for the human and orc units of Warcraft III, and I had wanted to have it go up before the release of the Warcraft III Reforged remake. Turns out this second part, focusing on Night Elves and Undead units, got mis-uploaded, and I am not even sure where the neutrals-and-campaign-heroes segment disappeared off to. Oh well!
A third one will go up hopefully soon where I talk about the neutral creeps, neutral heroes and campaign units -- it's real hard to find gifs of them! If we ever get proper gifs and models for all of the Reforged models, we'll talk about those, too!
I don't tend to really have much to say about the siege machines, but I do admit that the Night Elves' Ballistae and Glaive Throwers to look quite pretty with those wings that spread apart. I'm pretty sure that it's kind of impractical and defeats the whole purpose of a ballista's regular design, but it's a fantasy ballista made by forest elves, it doesn't need to be realistic. In the Frozen Throne expansion, the night elves' ballista are the ones that see the smallest visual change, basically swapping their projectiles from arrows into giant glaives. Which I've always thought to be cooler anyway.
"Ah, the great outdoors!"
Again, this is my first exposure to a 'Dryad', so it didn't strike me strange that instead of a nature spirit that takes the shape of a woman draped in leaves, Warcraft's Dryads are instead centaur women. Sure, they have night elven upper bodies instead of human ones, and a deer's lower body instead of a horse's, but it doesn't change the fact that they give us a pretty unconventional look for a Dryad. One that's honestly arguably a bit more boring? Again, it fits with a lot of the given lore regarding the night elves' patron demigod Cenarius (the dryads are 'true' children of Cenarius; the centaurs are 'foul' children of Cenarius) and I can't fault the Warcraft creative team for that. They look pretty neat, and are the first of the many non-elven allies of the elves that help to fight intruders to the forests. They launch poison-tipped spears, and, for reasons that I've never really put too much thought off, Dryads are completely immune to magic while being able to remove buffs from allies and enemies.
"The sleeper has awakened."
The first male night elf is the Druid of the Claw. Basically, in Warcraft III, all dude night elves are druids, and one variant of them is the Druid of the Claw, a muscular purple-skinned man with huge beards that are able to transform into bears. A good chunk of the Druid units' gameplay depends on picking when to run around as a spellcaster or to turn into a bear and just be a walking tank. The Druid of the Claw is pretty cool, and the jack-of-all-trades vibe that it has, I think, informs a lot of the flavour of Warcraft's druids in general. Druids of the Claw can heal allies, can roar to buff allies, and can turn into bears to soak up damage. It's not particularly super-good at any of them, but it's pretty decent at all of them. Design-wise... I do really like their druid form, I think, although that might just be due to young me thinking that their giant chunky Wolverine-claw gauntlets to be the coolest thing ever.
Added in the Frozen Throne expansion are the Mountain Giants, who are giants with very friendly faces made out of stone that descended from the mountains to help out the night elves. I'm not going to describe every unit's abilities, and Frozen Throne units have a bit more elaborate things going on. It's, after all, a 'reviewing monsters', not 'describe the Warcraft III unit'. And Mountain Giants are.... I've always found it pretty neat that they look absolutely friendly, and I feel like they made an extra effort to do so. The trope of a gentle giant is always something that's fun to play on, and I really absolutely love the feature that these Mountain Giants can be ordered to rip up trees and use them a siege clubs. That has always been a cool thing, I find.
"Ready to fly!"
Created in the Ancient of Winds are the Hippogriffs, which... aren't strictly the horse-gryphon hybrid they're traditionally portrayed as. With a raven's beak and huge deer antlers, plus having a far, far more agitated, feral look to it than the Human Alliance's Gryphon Riders, I've always appreciated how much these Hippogryphs are basically designed after the Night Elf aesthetic. Interestingly, you only train the Hippogryph beasts in your buildings, and to get the 'Hippogryph Rider' unit, you have to basically bond each Hippogryph and combine them with an Archer unit. Perhaps it's more on the impractical side, but I've always loved that this is a nice showcase of the flavour of the night elves being so in-tune with nature and its beings. Also, I've always thought that the Hippogryph Riders have some of the game's funnier flavour lines.
"By the great winds, I come."
The other male night elf druid is way more boring, just being bearded dudes in cloaks -- something that basically made them less-cool versions of main characters Malfurion and Medivh. The Druids of the Talon's totem animal is the storm-crow, although unlike the versatile Druid of the Claw, the Druids of the Talon's spells (Cyclone and Faerie Fire) are more to slow down and harass more than to be tanky or supportive. Not much to really say here, it's a neat little addition to the night elven army that no other unit really covers, and it helps to diversify the actual night elves, but the druids of the talon have always been the more boring units, I feel.
"Warriors of the night, assemble!"
The 'boss' of all these night elven ranger-women is one of the original three night elven heroes, the Priestess of the Moon. Basically it's a souped-up version of the Huntress and the Archer unit, yeah? Only the hero version rides a white tiger (sorry, Frostsaber) and uses a glowing bow. These priestesses are basically super-powerful warrior women that channel the power of their moon goddess Elune, and basically empower every single shot with the power of Elune. They also have magic, indestructible (no, really) owl buddies they use to scout. Their ultimate ability, Starfall, calls down pillars of light from the stars themselves. I've always found the design of the Priestesses of the Moon to be mundane but pretty cool, albeit in perhaps not the most interesting way.
"At last... we shall have revenge!"
Otherwise known as Illidan Stormrage's "I am blind, not deaf" class. Illidan uses a unique model, especially after his mutation, but it's kind of clear from early on that they really wanted to make an anti-hero unit among the otherwise pretty vanilla 'save the forests, we are the elves' units. The Demon Hunter... well, they're basically every martial artist trope and angsty anti-hero trope ratcheted up to eleven, particularly when you consider their main representative, Illidan Stormrage. And I say that with the most loving respect, because Illidan is one of my faovurite characters in Warcraft III and still is after all these years and character arcs through WoW. There's a bit in every one of us that can empathize with a world that hates you and forces you to be emo and listen to Linkin Park.
The Demon Hunters themselves are pretty cool, being half-naked night elven monks that jump around with tattoos all over their chest, swinging around those impractical-but-awesome war-glaives as they cut down the enemy. Oh, did I mention that they blind themselves so that they can receive some Daredevil-esque sight-beyond-sight just to hunt down demons? Because that's the greater anti-hero cause. They debase themselves and ignore thousands of years of tradition just to get more power in the service of greater good. And considering that they use demonic magic and their ultimate ability turns them into a big, shadowy winged demon... maybe their detractors have a point? But they look so freaking cool and Malfurion's such a dork, you can't help but side with Illidan.
The expansion added an extra hero, the Warden. And the Waden's design is very, very cool. An armored woman with a cape ending with blades, and swinging around a giant ring-blade? Badass. Maiev Shadowsong? Might be a bit thick in the head, but also badass. The actual Warden character design, though, is a bit more... eclectic, I feel. Sure, not all of Warcraft's characters have to be a one-on-one comparison with other fantasy media, I agree. but the Warden's abilities have always been a bit confusing to me. She can throw daggers around and can poison her blades. Sure. But she can also teleport short distances? And her ultimate is summoning an 'Avatar of Vengeance', a mighty shadowy specter that also uses nearby corpses to spawn shadowy outlines of night elven warriors clubbing people with Wisps? I dunno. Perhaps for a unique character like Maiev it's a bit easier to swallow... but I've never really understood what the connection between badass warrior-knights guarding ancient prisons are, especially with the abilities the game assigned to them. Still a cool design for a knight-lady, though!
__________________________________________
"The damned stand ready."
And we're already in the undead faction, the fourth playable faction in Warcraft III's campaign and multiplayer. The basic worker unit for the undead are actually human acolytes, these dudes in hooded robes that are actually technically not undead. Just members of an insidious cult that have infiltrated human kingdoms. The Acolytes themselves just sort of cast summoning spells, whether it be teleporting gold from a haunted gold mine to their storage, or summoning the ritual circles to create the undead's buildings. I don't have much to say here, the Acolytes are just neat-looking cultist dudes. In a very action-heavy game like Warcraft, you really don't get a whole ton of RP chances, which is where these society-infiltrating acolytes would function best narratively.
One interesting thing, of course, is that the Acolytes belong to the Cult of the Damned, a psychotic sect that believes that undeath is eternal life, so all Acolytes are very, very eager and happy to, when you want them to, jump into a Sacrificial Pit and turn themselves into Shades, which are disembodied, shadowy wraiths that can't attack... but can see everything and anything, and are invisible to most enemy units. I do really like the idea that there is a type of undead creature that is completely harmless from a combat standpoint, but invaluable in war as a source of intel.
"Must feed."
And here we are, the definitive look of what a 'ghoul' is in my head, a feral, cannibalistic skeleton. Not any other ghoul from any other fantasy franchise. Hell, not even the upright, shambling zombies-with-claws from Worldof Warcraft. Warcraft III's ghoul is basically what I first think of when I imagine a ghoul. Sure, it's a skeletal, rotting undead, but the face is still unmistakably a human... until it opens its mouth and it hangs down lower with teeth far longer than most living creatures. And it's got gigantic claws longer than its arms. And, of course, there is the animation, which shows this creature running on all fours, and just swaying its head and arms around in a manner that's... not quite human. I do like the fact that it's not merely a skeleton, but it's also not mutated beyond recognition that it's a human skeleton either. I'm not sure what really draws me to this Ghoul that none other version of the monster (even Warcraft's own creative teams!) quite managed to make me like as much.
"Let my cries chill the living."
"The pact is sealed."
"The ancient evil survives!"
"The night beckons!"
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Title : Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
link : Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
Anyway, a while back, I did a 'monster review' segment for the human and orc units of Warcraft III, and I had wanted to have it go up before the release of the Warcraft III Reforged remake. Turns out this second part, focusing on Night Elves and Undead units, got mis-uploaded, and I am not even sure where the neutrals-and-campaign-heroes segment disappeared off to. Oh well!A third one will go up hopefully soon where I talk about the neutral creeps, neutral heroes and campaign units -- it's real hard to find gifs of them! If we ever get proper gifs and models for all of the Reforged models, we'll talk about those, too!
The Night Elven Sentinels
Wisp
I've sort of taken it for granted because Warcraft III is one of the first big fantasy franchise that I've stepped into, so for the most part I learned about Warcraft's versions of elves and undead and demons first before I touched D&D or Tolkien or Warhammer or Elder Scrolls or any other fantasy fiction, so I've never noticed and have basically taken for granted that, sure, the elves have Wisps. It's not until later on that I realize that Warcraft's Wisps are basically their adaptation of the mythological will-o-wisps, and how weird that they're basically the Night Elven forces' version of the human peasants or the orc peons.
Warcraft III's manual goes back and forth on whether the Wisps are simply just ghosts of night elves or some sort of more primal nature spirit that just flit about and help out the tree-hugging night elves, but later lore suggests the former more than the latter. They do add a sense of mystique to the elves for sure, being cute little glowing balls of light that, when you click on them and see their portraits, reveal that they actually have an elf face within. The Wisps actually are basically the basis of a lot of the Night Elves' unique mechanics -- they harvest gold and lumber without moving or consuming trees, but in exchange, when they build 'Ancients', their version of buildings, the Wisp spirit would be consumed to create an Ancient. Very weird, and, again, the fact that these ghosts end up basically being Warcraft's version of will-o-wisps is always interesting.
I've sort of taken it for granted because Warcraft III is one of the first big fantasy franchise that I've stepped into, so for the most part I learned about Warcraft's versions of elves and undead and demons first before I touched D&D or Tolkien or Warhammer or Elder Scrolls or any other fantasy fiction, so I've never noticed and have basically taken for granted that, sure, the elves have Wisps. It's not until later on that I realize that Warcraft's Wisps are basically their adaptation of the mythological will-o-wisps, and how weird that they're basically the Night Elven forces' version of the human peasants or the orc peons.
Warcraft III's manual goes back and forth on whether the Wisps are simply just ghosts of night elves or some sort of more primal nature spirit that just flit about and help out the tree-hugging night elves, but later lore suggests the former more than the latter. They do add a sense of mystique to the elves for sure, being cute little glowing balls of light that, when you click on them and see their portraits, reveal that they actually have an elf face within. The Wisps actually are basically the basis of a lot of the Night Elves' unique mechanics -- they harvest gold and lumber without moving or consuming trees, but in exchange, when they build 'Ancients', their version of buildings, the Wisp spirit would be consumed to create an Ancient. Very weird, and, again, the fact that these ghosts end up basically being Warcraft's version of will-o-wisps is always interesting.
Archer
"I stand ready."
Despite being the 'night elf' army, perhaps a more accurate term would basically be the 'Sentinels'. Warcraft III's Night Elf side features some night elf units, sure, like the basic Archer here, but ultimately their whole vibe is that the Night Elves, unlike the far more arcane-magic-bound and civilization-leaning High Elves of the Alliance, are so in-tune with nature that they are able to utilize its mighty creatures and get nature itself to fight for them. The Archers themselves aren't anything to write home about, but it's worth noting that all night elf women are able to Shadowmeld in the night, basically becoming invisible in the trees. There's a significant attempt to make the night elf have a lot more exotic abilities, and in the campaign, there is a significant divide between the female night elves (who are all warriors who have stayed awake for 10 thousand years) and male night elves (who all apparently went to slumber for druid business for 10 thousand years)... something that with World of Warcraft's many retcons have been sort of handwaved aside.
"I stand ready."
Despite being the 'night elf' army, perhaps a more accurate term would basically be the 'Sentinels'. Warcraft III's Night Elf side features some night elf units, sure, like the basic Archer here, but ultimately their whole vibe is that the Night Elves, unlike the far more arcane-magic-bound and civilization-leaning High Elves of the Alliance, are so in-tune with nature that they are able to utilize its mighty creatures and get nature itself to fight for them. The Archers themselves aren't anything to write home about, but it's worth noting that all night elf women are able to Shadowmeld in the night, basically becoming invisible in the trees. There's a significant attempt to make the night elf have a lot more exotic abilities, and in the campaign, there is a significant divide between the female night elves (who are all warriors who have stayed awake for 10 thousand years) and male night elves (who all apparently went to slumber for druid business for 10 thousand years)... something that with World of Warcraft's many retcons have been sort of handwaved aside.
Huntress
"Goddess, light my path."
Significantly cooler are the Huntress units, who are night elf ladies that ride around on giant panthers (sorry, Nightsabers) and toss around giant glaives at the enemy. They're slightly more close-range than the Archers, but a feature of the Night Elf side is that a lot of their early units are ranged. The Huntress, being a night elf woman, is also able to Shadowmeld at night. So is the nightsaber! It's a magic beast, it, too, can become invisible.
Significantly cooler are the Huntress units, who are night elf ladies that ride around on giant panthers (sorry, Nightsabers) and toss around giant glaives at the enemy. They're slightly more close-range than the Archers, but a feature of the Night Elf side is that a lot of their early units are ranged. The Huntress, being a night elf woman, is also able to Shadowmeld at night. So is the nightsaber! It's a magic beast, it, too, can become invisible.
Ballista (Reign of Chaos)/Glaive Thrower (Frozen Throne)
Dryad
Again, this is my first exposure to a 'Dryad', so it didn't strike me strange that instead of a nature spirit that takes the shape of a woman draped in leaves, Warcraft's Dryads are instead centaur women. Sure, they have night elven upper bodies instead of human ones, and a deer's lower body instead of a horse's, but it doesn't change the fact that they give us a pretty unconventional look for a Dryad. One that's honestly arguably a bit more boring? Again, it fits with a lot of the given lore regarding the night elves' patron demigod Cenarius (the dryads are 'true' children of Cenarius; the centaurs are 'foul' children of Cenarius) and I can't fault the Warcraft creative team for that. They look pretty neat, and are the first of the many non-elven allies of the elves that help to fight intruders to the forests. They launch poison-tipped spears, and, for reasons that I've never really put too much thought off, Dryads are completely immune to magic while being able to remove buffs from allies and enemies.
Druid of the Claw
The first male night elf is the Druid of the Claw. Basically, in Warcraft III, all dude night elves are druids, and one variant of them is the Druid of the Claw, a muscular purple-skinned man with huge beards that are able to transform into bears. A good chunk of the Druid units' gameplay depends on picking when to run around as a spellcaster or to turn into a bear and just be a walking tank. The Druid of the Claw is pretty cool, and the jack-of-all-trades vibe that it has, I think, informs a lot of the flavour of Warcraft's druids in general. Druids of the Claw can heal allies, can roar to buff allies, and can turn into bears to soak up damage. It's not particularly super-good at any of them, but it's pretty decent at all of them. Design-wise... I do really like their druid form, I think, although that might just be due to young me thinking that their giant chunky Wolverine-claw gauntlets to be the coolest thing ever.
Mountain Giant (Frozen Throne)
Hippogryph/Hippogryph Rider
Created in the Ancient of Winds are the Hippogriffs, which... aren't strictly the horse-gryphon hybrid they're traditionally portrayed as. With a raven's beak and huge deer antlers, plus having a far, far more agitated, feral look to it than the Human Alliance's Gryphon Riders, I've always appreciated how much these Hippogryphs are basically designed after the Night Elf aesthetic. Interestingly, you only train the Hippogryph beasts in your buildings, and to get the 'Hippogryph Rider' unit, you have to basically bond each Hippogryph and combine them with an Archer unit. Perhaps it's more on the impractical side, but I've always loved that this is a nice showcase of the flavour of the night elves being so in-tune with nature and its beings. Also, I've always thought that the Hippogryph Riders have some of the game's funnier flavour lines.
Druid of the Talon
The other male night elf druid is way more boring, just being bearded dudes in cloaks -- something that basically made them less-cool versions of main characters Malfurion and Medivh. The Druids of the Talon's totem animal is the storm-crow, although unlike the versatile Druid of the Claw, the Druids of the Talon's spells (Cyclone and Faerie Fire) are more to slow down and harass more than to be tanky or supportive. Not much to really say here, it's a neat little addition to the night elven army that no other unit really covers, and it helps to diversify the actual night elves, but the druids of the talon have always been the more boring units, I feel.
Faerie Dragon (Frozen Throne)
My favourite creature in the Warcraft franchise! And considering that my styles tend to lean more towards the creepy or the buggy, I'm actually surprised to find that I still love the Faerie Dragon a lot to this day. Sure, I would later learn that Dungeons and Dragons would precede Warcraft's Faerie Dragons by years, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for these. They don't really deviate much, being chameleons with butterfly wings that resemble dragons, but I really do think that their bizarre, cyan-orange-and-bright-pink colour scheme is what made them really pop out as a design. Their fun, purring voices and their eclectic abilities involving magic made them instantly a favourite of mine.
My favourite creature in the Warcraft franchise! And considering that my styles tend to lean more towards the creepy or the buggy, I'm actually surprised to find that I still love the Faerie Dragon a lot to this day. Sure, I would later learn that Dungeons and Dragons would precede Warcraft's Faerie Dragons by years, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for these. They don't really deviate much, being chameleons with butterfly wings that resemble dragons, but I really do think that their bizarre, cyan-orange-and-bright-pink colour scheme is what made them really pop out as a design. Their fun, purring voices and their eclectic abilities involving magic made them instantly a favourite of mine.
Chimaera
And here we go for the 'big unit' of the Night Elven side, and unlike the Gryphon Riders or the Tauren warriors, the Chimaera of the Night Elves are far more impressive. Whatever the justification was, and however World of Warcraft and Reforged would modify the look, it's clear that the original intent was to have the night elves hang around with two-headed dragons. Everyone would say that the Chimaera are actually mammals of sort instead of reptilian like dragons, but look at that model. It's clearly a dragon, yeah? A two-headed dragon? I really do like their dark purple colour scheme, and I do like that they do look... less reptilian, with beards and fur and feathers all over. Granted, being raised on Asian culture I've never thought of dragons to be always strictly reptilian, but still. Anyway, these guys also breathe acid, which allows them to really melt down buildings.
Priestess of the Moon & Owl Scout
The 'boss' of all these night elven ranger-women is one of the original three night elven heroes, the Priestess of the Moon. Basically it's a souped-up version of the Huntress and the Archer unit, yeah? Only the hero version rides a white tiger (sorry, Frostsaber) and uses a glowing bow. These priestesses are basically super-powerful warrior women that channel the power of their moon goddess Elune, and basically empower every single shot with the power of Elune. They also have magic, indestructible (no, really) owl buddies they use to scout. Their ultimate ability, Starfall, calls down pillars of light from the stars themselves. I've always found the design of the Priestesses of the Moon to be mundane but pretty cool, albeit in perhaps not the most interesting way.
Keeper of the Grove & Treant
"I must safeguard this land."
The Keepers of the Grove are the male versions of the Dryads, the favoured sons of the demigod Cenarius (who himself uses a modified Keeper of the Grove model). And, again, there's a bit of unfortunate gender-role thing where all the female Dryads are generic goon minions while the male Keepers of the Grove are these mighty nature-gods that can turn the forest itself into armies of Treants, summon entangling roots and healing rains. The Keepers of the Grove always looked regal and cool, albeit I've never really liked how their face and hair ended up looking. Always loved their attack animation, though, with their right hand turning into a giant bark-covered claw that trails vines behind them. The Keepers are basically, well, deer-centaurs like the dryads, only they are also master druids that can manipulate nature and the forests themselves. The Dryads and the Keepers are sort of treated in-universe as basically being super-duper close to nature, even moreso than the night elves. That's neat, I suppose.
As an aside, I really do love the little Treants that the Keepers summon. The Night Elven buildings are all Ancients, these giant trees with ancient faces that look like wise protectors of nature. Keepers just turn trees into lesser Treants... and they're like these just angry, surly trees with the perfect grumpy, dying old-man faces and giant claw-arms and they just look so thuggish. I've never quite realized that it's the factor among Warcraft's Treants that I find so charming, but that communicates the Treants' role as disposable summoned minions a lot.
Demon Hunter
Otherwise known as Illidan Stormrage's "I am blind, not deaf" class. Illidan uses a unique model, especially after his mutation, but it's kind of clear from early on that they really wanted to make an anti-hero unit among the otherwise pretty vanilla 'save the forests, we are the elves' units. The Demon Hunter... well, they're basically every martial artist trope and angsty anti-hero trope ratcheted up to eleven, particularly when you consider their main representative, Illidan Stormrage. And I say that with the most loving respect, because Illidan is one of my faovurite characters in Warcraft III and still is after all these years and character arcs through WoW. There's a bit in every one of us that can empathize with a world that hates you and forces you to be emo and listen to Linkin Park.
The Demon Hunters themselves are pretty cool, being half-naked night elven monks that jump around with tattoos all over their chest, swinging around those impractical-but-awesome war-glaives as they cut down the enemy. Oh, did I mention that they blind themselves so that they can receive some Daredevil-esque sight-beyond-sight just to hunt down demons? Because that's the greater anti-hero cause. They debase themselves and ignore thousands of years of tradition just to get more power in the service of greater good. And considering that they use demonic magic and their ultimate ability turns them into a big, shadowy winged demon... maybe their detractors have a point? But they look so freaking cool and Malfurion's such a dork, you can't help but side with Illidan.
Warden, Avatar of Vengeance & Spirit of Vengeance (Frozen Throne)
"My prey is near."
__________________________________________
Undead Scourge
Acolyte/Shade
And we're already in the undead faction, the fourth playable faction in Warcraft III's campaign and multiplayer. The basic worker unit for the undead are actually human acolytes, these dudes in hooded robes that are actually technically not undead. Just members of an insidious cult that have infiltrated human kingdoms. The Acolytes themselves just sort of cast summoning spells, whether it be teleporting gold from a haunted gold mine to their storage, or summoning the ritual circles to create the undead's buildings. I don't have much to say here, the Acolytes are just neat-looking cultist dudes. In a very action-heavy game like Warcraft, you really don't get a whole ton of RP chances, which is where these society-infiltrating acolytes would function best narratively.
One interesting thing, of course, is that the Acolytes belong to the Cult of the Damned, a psychotic sect that believes that undeath is eternal life, so all Acolytes are very, very eager and happy to, when you want them to, jump into a Sacrificial Pit and turn themselves into Shades, which are disembodied, shadowy wraiths that can't attack... but can see everything and anything, and are invisible to most enemy units. I do really like the idea that there is a type of undead creature that is completely harmless from a combat standpoint, but invaluable in war as a source of intel.
Ghoul
And here we are, the definitive look of what a 'ghoul' is in my head, a feral, cannibalistic skeleton. Not any other ghoul from any other fantasy franchise. Hell, not even the upright, shambling zombies-with-claws from Worldof Warcraft. Warcraft III's ghoul is basically what I first think of when I imagine a ghoul. Sure, it's a skeletal, rotting undead, but the face is still unmistakably a human... until it opens its mouth and it hangs down lower with teeth far longer than most living creatures. And it's got gigantic claws longer than its arms. And, of course, there is the animation, which shows this creature running on all fours, and just swaying its head and arms around in a manner that's... not quite human. I do like the fact that it's not merely a skeleton, but it's also not mutated beyond recognition that it's a human skeleton either. I'm not sure what really draws me to this Ghoul that none other version of the monster (even Warcraft's own creative teams!) quite managed to make me like as much.
Crypt Fiend
"The sleeper awakens."
The basic ranged enemy in the undead forces' group is... man, it's so weird, huh? You'd expect an 'undead force' to be mostly comprised of skeletons, mummies, vampires, ghosts... the sort of traditional fantasy fare. But no, the second unit you can train is the Crypt Fiend, which aren't just giant spider-people. They are undead giant spider-people. The Nerubians are the first people that the Lich King subjugated, and in addition to stealing their ziggurats, the LIch King also repurposed their mummified dead. There's a vaguely Egyptian vibe to a lot of the Nerubian architecture, and it extends to how they bury their dead... by wrapping them up with what I assume is their spiderweb. I love bug monsters and the Crypt Fiend is no exception! Also, interestingly, the Crypt Fiends fight by throwing bolas around, which... makes sense for a race of spiders, I suppose, but still doesn't make it any less exotically cool .
The basic ranged enemy in the undead forces' group is... man, it's so weird, huh? You'd expect an 'undead force' to be mostly comprised of skeletons, mummies, vampires, ghosts... the sort of traditional fantasy fare. But no, the second unit you can train is the Crypt Fiend, which aren't just giant spider-people. They are undead giant spider-people. The Nerubians are the first people that the Lich King subjugated, and in addition to stealing their ziggurats, the LIch King also repurposed their mummified dead. There's a vaguely Egyptian vibe to a lot of the Nerubian architecture, and it extends to how they bury their dead... by wrapping them up with what I assume is their spiderweb. I love bug monsters and the Crypt Fiend is no exception! Also, interestingly, the Crypt Fiends fight by throwing bolas around, which... makes sense for a race of spiders, I suppose, but still doesn't make it any less exotically cool .
Gargoyle
And then we have the gargoyles, which are basically Man-Bat from DC comics, only made out of stone and with a pretty nasty-looking bat face. I actually don't have a whole ton to say about the Gargoyles. They're cool giant bat-monsters with really long legs, and they can turn into immobile, towering statues to regenerate their health. That's kind of a cool feature. I've always found it pretty neat that the 'undead' banner basically encompasses a pretty large variety of enemies. Of course, it does make sense from a campaign-making viewpoint because the undead becomes the enemy three times out of four, and so you want the greatest visual difference between the undead monsters you face as opposed to just "orc", "spellcaster orc" and "orc on a wolf".
Abomination
"Us hear and ready."
Another one that I count among my favourite Warcraft monster designs is the Abomination! The concept of this dude is pretty basic. An undead monster that's an adaptation of Flesh Golems and Frankenstein's Monster? Pretty simple. The fact that the Abomination is built in a Slaughterhouse, however, with a very distinctive look and probably one of my hands-down favourite buildings design-wise in Warcraft III, and just how creepy he looks... He's a big, burly and bulky dude because he's stitched together from many corpses. But he's also fat, and his huge belly is open with the bones and viscera inside pouring out. The Abomination has mismatched arms, too, one holding a cleaver and the other holding a meathook on a chain, and it's not until World of Warcraft's more detailed models that made me realize that he's got a tiny, skinny arm sprouting out of his left shoulder. I do really like that between the more spindly-looking skeletons of the undead army we have the Abominations as one of the more common sights. In addition to being pretty tanky, the Abominatinos have the very flavourful effect of spreading plague gas onto any living thing in its way, which... makes sense, y'know? And sure, Warcraft's art style does lean more towards more whimsical and funny, and the Abomination is pretty funny-looking... but taken straight, the concept of the Abomination is pretty damn spooky.
Meat Wagon
I think this might be my favourite siege machine? I mean, the Glaive Throwers, Demolishors and both gnomish tanks are cool and all, but the first time I saw the Meat Wagon I went 'what the fuck' and looking at it now, a couple of decades later, I sometimes still think 'what the fuck'. Looking less like a catapult or a chariot and more like a bunch of crap just glued together, the Meat Wagon runs on a bunch of rollers with spikes on it, a bunch of clearly insect-inspired moving 'mandibles', a coffin sitting where a driver's seat should be and a catapult on the back. And, of course, the Meat Wagon churns up bodies, stores up bodies for later use by your troops (ghouls and abominations can eat them; necromancers can raise them) and, of course, when it attacks, the animation has Meta Wagons launch bodies at buildings. Which, apparently, is a tactic that is even used in the past, so it's not even all that ridiculous. Very, very cool.
Obsidian Statue (Frozen Throne)/Destroyer (Frozen Throne)
The final unit from the Slaughterhouse is... actually one that I'm the most indifferent about in the Warcraft III game. And I'm not sure why. I guess I just didn't feel like the Obsidian Statue was particularly thematic for the undead part? It's basically an 'elite' version of the Gargoyle, a cursed statue monster that was infused with the Lich King's power. In its basic state, the Obsidian Statue, it's basically a statue that hovers around on a block of coffin, and offers a more supportive role, healing mana or health depending on what you need. Research enough, and the statue breaks free from its perch and becomes a floating monster-sphynx thing, the Destroyer (Obsidian Destroyer in some materials) and flies around and is basically the undead's anti-mage unit, consuming other units' mana and using it to attack. And... it's a bunch of things bundled into one, y'know? And that's not to mention that they have a weird, nondescript kobold-esque toothy grimace that's kinda sorta bat-like but not really. Out of the many revisions done to Warcraft III units, when the Obsidian Statues are redesigned for World of Warcraft, turning them into Anubis-faced Sphynxes based on Egyptian mythology and giving them their own lore is perhaps one of the better changes.
Necromancer, Skeletal Warrior & Skeletal Mage (Frozen Throne)
"The shadows beckon."
Training in the Temple of the Damned, the Necromancers are technically still living humans, although with their glowing eyes and their association with the undead, they might as well as not be. And... they're nothing to really write home about, just robed figures with giant beards and a goat-skull-hat, but they do look like evil wizards! The lore is that all the Necromancres are former members of the magic city of Dalaran who sought dark magic and eventually followed Kel'thuzad into joining the Lich King... but there are so many of these guys that WoW would later establish that they actually train new necromancers in like, undead academies and stuff. As their name implies, Necromancers basically make use of corpses to raise skeletal warriors to basically swarm the enemy. In addition, they can buff their mooks with Unholy Frenzy and use Cripple to, well, cripple foes, but for the most part you're just going to want to spam skellies.
The Skeletal Warriors only last for a while and they're basically your generic skeleton-holding-a-sword-and-shield enemy, but they're neat. The Skeletal Mage is added as an optional thing Necromancers can raise in Frozen Throne, and... they're cool! They're undead skeleton mages, and they have glowing green flames like Ghost Rider and a neat little head-brace thing. I like them. Flavour-wise, I think the Necromancer is my favourite, and while I know it's kind of impractical I did wish that more undead units were actually able of raising the dead.
Banshee
Noted to in-universe be created by the dead female elves when, in the campaign, Arthas razed the golden elven city of Quel'thalas, the Banshees are a bit more of a... disruption tool. They're not as tanky as the Abomination, they don't swarm as well as Necromancers, and they are neither cheap nor easy to control. Their spells are pretty interesting, though, jumping from Anti-Magic Shell (makes your allies immune to magic), Curse (makes the enemy miss some of their attacks), and their most impractical but awesome ability... Possession. While other, generic, non-Banshee ghosts certainly exist in this fantasy world, the Banshee is the basic one that the playable undead unit has access too and I do really like that out of the many characteristics often attributed to ghosts, the Banshee gets to use the Possession from a gameplay format. Of course, this takes some time and the enemy might probably be aware of what you're trying to do, but possess just the right units and you might suddenly really turn the tide against your enemy.
Frost Wyrm
The crown reason for me really wanting to 'main' undead when playing Warcraft III? They've got dragons baybeee! I'm pretty sure that while the 'ice and death' vibe of Northrend is inspired in no small part by the still-just-a-novel Song of Fire and Ice, Warcraft had skeletal ice-breathing undead dragons first, and when Song of Fire and Ice novels were adapted into the Game of Thrones TV show, someone got it in their mind to basically extrapolate the same thing. And hey, the Frost Wyrms are pretty cool! Sure, the models in Warcraft III do cheat a lot by giving it a lot of tattered leather wings and spikes so you only see the main spine, head and wings, hiding the legs so the model doesn't get too cumbersome. But man, I really, really find the Frost Wyrms cool for the simple reason that they are fucking undead ice-breathing dragons. You don't actually see it in the Warcraft III game and it won't be until WoW that they actually follow up on this, but I really, really love the idea that the ancient dragons used Northrend as their gravesite, and it ends up allowing the Lich King and the undead army free dead bodies that also happen to be dragons.
Death Knight
And here we go with the final leg of what we'll be covering today, the undead heroes. Maybe at some point we'll do the Naga, the Demons and the generic monsters, but I have some real trouble looking up good gifs for them. Oh well. The Death Knight is the main face of the Undead side, mostly because it's the model used to represent Arthas Menethil, the fallen prince who becomes the main character of the undead side. The Death Knight are ex-paladins (or other assorted defenders of humanity) that got corrupted and got turned into mounted knights wielding cursed runeblades and riding skeletal warhorses. Very, very cool even though it's a pretty simple and not the most derivative design... but like the Demon Hunter above, the simple vibe of the cool evil anti-hero is enough to make the Death Knight be one of the most memorable heroes and it even became one of the classes in WoW.
I also really like the fact that from a playability standpoint, the Death Knight is basically the reverse of everything that a Paladin can do. It can harm living things and heal fellow undead. Instead of buffing his allies, the Death Knight can consume them for health. And while their ultimate abilities both involve raising the dead, the Paladin will permanently resurrect their allies, while the Death Knight summons dark, shadowy specters of both ally and enemy, using them as temporary meat-shields.
Lich
This Franchise is definitely where I learned about the term 'lich', because for the longest time I thought they just mis-spelled 'leech' and was wondering why the hell a leech is adapted into a skeleton wizard with a nice dress. The Liches of the undead Scourge have a heavy quasi-egyptian vibe that the undead Scourge (and the Nerubians they subjugated) adapts somewhat. While the main lich you control in the campaign, Kel'Thuzad, was a human reborn into a Lich, in the game manual they were noted and presumably conceptualized as former orc warlocks that were twisted into a new form... which is probably why the liches have these massive tusks that are clearly not found in human anatomy. Pretty neat design all around, and while they're not present in the Warcraft III model, later depictions of liches would tend to associate them with chains. They're not actually bound to the Lich King and are actually just straight-up evil and happy to be evil, so I guess it's just a fashion statement.
Dreadlord & Infernal
And the Dreadlords! Members of the Nathrezim race, when I first saw them I thought 'oh, cool, vampire monsters'. And from that portrait and the general bat-monster vibe of the Dreadlord, it's not hard to see why I made that connection, yeah? Giant bat wings, huge, reagl-looking armour... and, sure, the Dreadlord has huge big fuck-off claws and weird cloven feet and horns, but maybe it's just a more demonic version of a vampire. Vampires are undead, right? The thing is, as you play through the campaign you realize that the Dreadlords aren't undead in the strictest sense. They're actually demons from hell the Twisting Nether, and the demons are basically the 'bigger evil' against the undead in the original Reign of Chaos storyline. I'll try to not get too bogged down with details, but the Dreadlords are basically an advance squad that arrived on Azeroth to sow chaos with locals and make the undead scourge in order to serve as their minions and shock-troopers, while the undead themselves scheme to rid themselves of the demons.
In the game itself, the Dreadlords are pretty neat, using a variety of vampire-inspired spells (Carrion Swarm, Sleep, Vampiric Aura) and its ultimate is summoning a mighty Infernal... my favourite monster design from Warcraft III. Giant golems with Ghost Rider heads, covered in green flame, and they have giant chunky arms and legs with claws. Not the most elaborate design, but the sheer chunkiness and just how cool the Infernal's silhouette looks had always made me prefer this version of the Infernal compared to any other reimaginations from WoW.
Noteworthy that the in-game campaigns go through Dreadlords at an alarming rate, although they give all the unique dreadlords different skills and abilities. I thought that was a nice touch.
Crypt Lord & Carrion Beetles (Frozen Throne)
"From the depths I come."
And closing off the night elves and the undead races, we get the Crypt Lord, and I was kind of baffled that one of the heroes isn't a skeleton person or a vampire or any sort of traditional undead... but a giant beetle. A giant pharaoh beetle that also happens to be undead, but you wouldn't know that the Crypt Lords are anything but just giant bugs if you didn't read into the lore. I still find it really, really awesome that the Nerubians are a race of spider-people, but their 'kings' are actually giant beetle-monsters whose bodies are laid out sort of like centaurs. I really love the little disconnect between the Crypt Lord's abdomen-and-legs, while the thorax and head are sort of connected on what I could only describe as the equivavlent to someone's waist? And then you get to the character portrait and realize that the Crypt Lord has a face under that and it's not just a bug face -- it's a human-esque bug face. And, of course, I'm a fan of all the pharaoh-esque regalia that are clearly growths, right? Anyway, giant undead beetle that summons swarms of smaller beetles to fight for him. What's not to love?
That's the article Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves
That's it for the article Reviewing Monsters: Warcraft III, Undead & Night Elves this time, hopefully can be useful for all of you. okay, see you in another article post.
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