Questions for those who RP/fan fiction/backstory with hunter

[Quiv]

Hey all, if this is the wrong forum, my apologies. Seemed to fit. I did a search and did not find other thread so if this is a duplicate, again my apologies.

I dont RP ingame, but I have created some hunters and devised some backstories, and toyed with the idea of writing fan fiction. However, I am running into 3 hurdles, and I am curious how you guys handle it. I want my story to stay consistent with the lore of wow. I dont want general cop outs to get around loopholes, but at the same time I dont wanna be anal about it. Anyway, here are my hurdles, its kinda long.

FIRST HURDLE:
How do you resolve your post-cataclysm character going back in time for Outland/Northrend, specifically worgen/goblin?

When I started Jozeff, my worgen hunter, I was going to chronicle his life from simple Gilnean man to seasoned hunter. Now in game, you go from zone to zone leveling, but in the story, I portrayed this as traveling the land, adventuring and helping others in the Alliance as needed. Instead of leveling up and gaining xp, he gained life experience and built up character. However, when I get to outland and northrend, I run into a problem with my worgen worrying about Illidan and Arthas. I know Blizz has acknowledged this loophole, but I am curious how you guys deal with it in your fiction lore and back stories specifically?


SECOND HURDLE:
Related to first hurdle, how do you guys explain your post-cataclsym characters having pets unique to outland/northrend?

For example, my worgen has Ironjaw, the bicolor wolf. Ironjaw was killed WAY back in BC for his pelt, he couldn't possibly be alive for my worgen. How do you guys explain things like this?


THIRD HURDLE:
In your backstory/fan fiction, how do you handle your hunter controlling 25 pets?

This one isnt as big a hurdle for me, I first intended to approach it the way Dar from Beastermaster movies did, having 3 or 4 "close" pets for the story. In game, 25 pets is about 1/3 what we need (dowant.jpg) but in a story atmosphere, having a stable of 25 beasts is more akin to a zoo than a master of beasts.

[Magli]

The first and second hurdle could be handwaved away as your character going on a couple of deep immersion missions for the Bronze Dragonflight. Kind of like the Caverns of Time instances, only much longer. One of your rewards for the missions could then be the opportunity to bring some of those dead spawns back to the present with you.

(Or your Ironjaw could be a spawn of the original Ironjaw grown to adulthood, similar to how you pick up the black panther kitten in the 4.1 troll questline.)

Third hurdle I'd probably handle the way you do--pick 3-5 "core" pets that you RP with, and treat the rest as OOC when you have to use them. I kind of do that myself--I've run with an "all white pets" theme for years, but the only pet family that brings the physical damage debuff (ravager) doesn't have any white members, and often that's the missing debuff in our 10-man raids. So I bite my tongue, pull the ravager out of the stable, and pretend it isn't really happening....

[Quiv]

Time Travel certainly is an option, and has been a staple reality on WoW lore for years.

However I would be afraid it would run thin quickly. If I do several characters with backstory, always having them being sent back in time by the Bronze flight would get cliche quickly. It is a good alternative to do at least once though, thanks for the idea.

The idea about bringing back a spawn of Ironjaw is something I hadn't considered. That actually has a nice twist to it. I could go places with that.

[Magli]

Happy to help!

Yeah, it'd get old fast if you have to repeat it for multiple characters, but I can't really think of another way to get Goblins or Worgen through those zones and keep their adventures in character.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Personally, I think for the purpose of story, you can skip those zones altogether. Just remember, RP style character progression is in no way linear to the way you actually play and progress through the game.

My RP blood elf hunter, for example, has never actually been to Outlands or Northrend in her story. I never got her high enough in game for those zones either, but if I did, any pets she would have from there would be strictly OOC.

Northrend could be easy to pull off RP wise as well. For newer characters, they would be visiting it post LK era so it would be a different feel, RP wise.

Just felt it worth mentioning that RP opens up a great many more options than just following how a character levels in game.

[Ket Shi]

Feel free to either ignore the Northrend and Outland chapters of his story, or have him come anyways -- just not deal with the Lich King or Illidan's threats. You can just give vague generalities or have him accomplish more neutral tasks there, like "helping the Alliance expedition in Terokkar" or "cleaning up undead in Borean Tundra". The timeline is currently ambiguous, and it doesn't hurt to keep your backstory that way, either.

Now, savvy hunters know that Ironjaw can only come from one named spawn in Terokkar, but that doesn't mean that's the story you have to stick to. One could have picked him up anywhere there's wolves. Just because, say, the red mastiff I have is a Scarlet Tracking Hound, doesn't mean I have to make a story about kidnapping from from the Scarlet Monastery. I could have found him as a stray, or bought him, or raised him from a pup.

[Quiv]

Thanks for the ideas. I was wanting to stay consistent with the WoW world as much as possible, but I suppose its entirely possible for there to be more than one bycolor wolf in the whole universe lol. good point.

Just felt it worth mentioning that RP opens up a great many more options than just following how a character levels in game.

I am not trying to intentionally thick, but I am curious if you could expound on a couple examples of "great many more options"?

Again I dont RP personally, but I know writing stories and role playing are kindred in spirit and kind, so I figure theres definitely more I can learn.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Great many more options as in you don't have to stick to everything that you see in game. The lore for WoW is very vast, and so long as you stick within it, you can do almost anything you want with your character.

The only issue I have with their lore currently is their setup for worgen death knights as I'm trying to write a story for one and the timelines don't quite match up. Everything that happens in the DK starting zone happens during the WotLK time frame, but sentient worgen aren't seen in SW until Cata, which is where the DK starting zone dumps you after you complete it.

But I digress...there are a lot of pathway options to take with a character. It can be something as simple as your hunter is a local farm kid that has learned how to shoot a gun/bow and runs around with the family pet to being a member of the local militia and traveling around the world for wherever you get stationed (Outlands and Northrend come to mind here). You could be going to Outlands and Northrend as part of a clean up crew to make sure that everything is going smoothly and things are staying quieted down.

As I said before, there is also always the route of them never touching Outlands or Northrend in their lifespan (to date). Honestly, it's whatever you can think of without breaking the lore, and preferably without being a Mary Sue.