Kharins Quest

The Elders can be found in the strangest of places and this is particularly so of those who inhabit the dungeons across Azeroth.

While Where Are the Elders details the location of the Elders in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor ,  Newly Remembered Elders of the Cataclsym gives the location of those in 80+ areas and Honoring Our Elders covers the quests and achievements related to the Lunar Festival, here I will give the locations of the Elders in Northrend and the Dungons.

Elders of the Dungeons

Thirteen elders are found inside – sometimes near the entrance but often deep inside – instances across the continents of Azeroth. They can be accessed by the dungoeon finder at the appropriate level, by a pre-made group  or can be easily soloed by higher level toons.  The actual entry requirements to dungoens are lower than those required by the dungeon finder. Meeting stone no longer have  level requirements and with Cataclysm all dungeons (not just Northrend dungeons) have an in-game map with bosses marked to help you navigate your way around them.

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My level 81 dwarf paladin circled the deep water filled crater, with its fractured masonry, shattered beams and flame charred earth for the fourth time.  The golden question mark was clear as day but the Lunar Harbinger, Lunar Celebrants and Vendor, and the Stormwind Elder were nowhere to be seen – either improbably clinging to the sides of the devastated area or standing on protruding stone work  in the middle.  To be honest, I hadn’t really expected them to be there with the total destruction of the Park precinct following the Sundering but this was where my in-game quest finder was leading me.  I soon caught up with them, standing serenely outside the gates of Stormwind amidst a flurry of fireworks and lunar beams as if nothing untoward had happened.

In 2011 there have not been many changes to the Lunar Festival apart from the some drastic changes to the lands and maps of Azeroth, a change of location of a handful of Elders (see below) and the introduction of flight in the old kingdoms.  Flying (for those 60+ with the Cataclysm expansion who have paid for the training) certainly makes visiting some 75 elders across the major cities, selected dungeons, towns and hamlets of Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend much faster and easier, especially when essaying into hostile territory (flying high and then descending vertically makes visiting elders in most factional capitals and settlements almost safe and easy).

The Lunar Festival, clearly tied into the celebration of Chinese New Year both in content (fireworks, ancestral coins, red packets, festival foods and clothing) and timing.  It centres on journeys across the continents of Azeroth to pay respect to the Elders – past heroes of both factions.  Elders come from the ancient races indigenous to Azeroth including Night Elves, Dwarves (both of flesh and stone), Taurens and their ancestral cousins the Taunkai (though not Trolls, Gnomes or Goblins).  Unlike many traditional cultures, modern Western culture often puts much more emphasis on youth, new skills and knowledge, invention, progress and change than wisdom from the past.  Yet it does not hurt to be reminded what we owe to past generations and to wisdom that has been forgotten or perhaps unnecessarily dismissed.  To paraphrase an “elder”, the scientist and theologian Isaac Newton, “If we have seen further it is because we have stood on the shoulders of giants.”  I wonderr if you were to select 75 or more influential people in the history of Earth, who would they be and why?

Kharin’s guides Honoring our Elders and Lunar Firework Frenzy give information on the quests and achievements of this festival. This guide gives the location of the Elders of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and the Elders of the Horde and Alliance while Elders in Danger will give the locations for the Elders in Northrend and the Dungeons and Newly Remembered Elders of the Cataclsym gives the location of those in 80+ areas.  The locations have been presented on a map of each continent to help you work out your most efficient routes depending on your starting points, faction etc.

Be warned that since Cataclysm an 85 elite guard with ranged attack spawns once you get close to the elder in factional cities and towns (eg Brill, Sepulcher, Razor Hill etc).  This makes  Elders of the Easter Kingdoms and Elders of Kalimdor difficult to complete for toons 70 and less – though being able to fly (level 60 onwards) gives some advantage.  In these circumstances, speed is essential and can be enhanced by create a keybinding to  “interact on mouse over” (eg SHIFT- D) as well as creating and putting on the tool bar the following macro:

/tar elder
/script SetRaidTarget(”target”, 3)
/script SelectGossipAvailableQuest(1)
/script CompleteQuest()
/script GetQuestReward()

Once you are close enough to the elder to interact use the keybinding (eg SHIFT-D or whatever key you set up) to interact, click the macro, then click complete quest.  If you are not successful the first time, rezzing on top of the elder may help – just wait a few minutes so that the 85 elite guard has time to despawn.

Eastern Kingdoms

There are seventeen elders scattered across the Eastern Kingdoms.  While in some cases the areas and maps around them have been changed by the recent sundering, their locations remain virtually unchanged.  While difficlut due to the spawning of elite 85 guards at factional towns like Brill and Sepulcher, Elders of Eastern Kingdoms can be completed before flight becomes available at  level 60.

1. Elder Winterhoof (40, 73) is standing on the roof of the ruined goblin bank  –  enter the top room of the Booty Bay Inn, turn sharp left at the balcony and continue past the Horde flightpath.

2. Elder Starglade (53, 18) is standing just right of the second flight of stairs to the entrance of Zul Gurub, Northern Stranglethorn.  The elite trolls no longer patrol this area with the decommissioning of Zul Gurub.

3. Elder Bellowrage (54, 50) is standing in the crater in front of the Dark Portal in the south of the Blasted Lands.  (This area can be reached by all players 58+ through portals in the major factional cities.)

4. Elder Skychaser (57,47)is on the top of the Sentinel Tower, Sentinel Hill, Westfall.

5. Elder Stormbrow (40, 63) is standing by the pond at the back of the Smithy in Goldshire, Elwyn Forrest

6. Elder Rumblerock (70, 45) is on the south side of Dreadmaul Mountain (just below the main or top cave), Burning Steppes. The path to the top is on the west side of the Mountain.  (Note: some players have reported that Rumblerock was phased out to them until they completed all the quests from Flamecrest.)

7. Elder Dawnstrider (53, 24) is just below Flamecrest to the north of Thassarian Ruins in Burning Steppes.

8. Elder Ironband (21, 79) is outside Blackchar Cave just south of the Searing Gorge entrance into Black Mountain, in southwest corner of Searing Gorge.

9. Elder Goldwell (54, 50) is near the Inn in Kharanos, Dun Morogh.

10. Elder Silvervein (33, 47) is standing near the road near the graveyard and on the other side of the Flight Master in Thelsamar, Loch Modan.

11. Elder Highpeak (50, 48) is standing on a small hill just north of the Creeping Ruin in the central part of the Hinterlands.

12. Elder Moonstrike (51, 36) is standing on the walkway between the towers of Scholomance (she is not inside the instance), Western Plaguelands.   Either fly up to the walkway or enter the tower, turn right (not left into the instance) and then up the stairs to Elder.

13. Elder Windrun (36, 69) is inside Crown Guard Tower in the southeast of Eastern Plaguelands.

14. Elder Snowcrown (76, 55) is close the southern wall in Light’s Hope Chapel, Eastern Plaguelands.

15. Elder Meadowrun (64, 36) is some way in the Weeping Cave (65.3, 38.6) in northeast of Western Plaguelands.

16. Elder Graveborn (61, 53) is standing just inside the east gate and next to a plague wagon in the south of Brill, Tirisfal Glade.  There is an 85 elite deathguard  who spawns once you are detected  making it difficult for lower level alliance (ie < 60) to reach the elder though flight (60+) helps.

17. Elder Obsidian (45, 41) is standing in the middle of the cemetery in the Sepulcher, Silverpine Forest.

Kalimdor

There are twenty-one elders scattered across the Kalimdor.  While in most cases their locations remain unchanged, in most there are changes in the areas and maps around them and a couple elders have relocated to new settlements (notably the Elder of Auberdine and the Elder of Camp Taurajo).  For Alliance at least Elders of Kalimdor is virtually impossible to complete before getting flight.  While spawing of an elite 85 guard in The Crossroads and particularly the placement of Elder Runetotem next to Burok in Razor Hill can be overcome by speed in interacting with the elder, the extreme difficulty in getting into Mulgore without flight makes it  virtually impossible to achieve.

1. Elder Blade Leaf (57, 53) is standing in front of the herbalism/alchemy trainers’ hut in Dolanaar, Teldrassil.  You can either fly (it is now possible to fly directly from Darkshore despite some fatigue) or take a ship from Stormwind, ride through the red portal at Ruthven Village and then ride west from the Bank tree up the wide bridge/ramp through the Warrior’s Terrace, across the courtyard and out the gates.  Follow the road east to Dolanaar.

2.  Elder Starweave (50, 20) is standing close to the shore on the southern outskirts of Lor’Danel, northern Darkshore.  She is still called the Elder of Auberdine, which however was shattered with the recent Sundering.

3.  Elder Nightwind (38, 53) is standing  amongst ruins, just past where Winna’s Kitten (a green striped big cat), along a path to the north (right) of the road into Jadenaar in central Felwood.

4. Elder Riversong (36, 49) is standing in the Moon Shrine near the Flight Master on the northwestern edge of Astranaar, Ashenvale.

5.  Elder Brightspear (53, 57) is in front of one of the ruined buildings on the side of east side of the frozen Lake Kel’Teril, Winterspring.

6.  Elder Stonespire (60, 50) is standing on small hillock between the bank building and the armor and weapon shop in Evertook, Winterspring.

7.  Elder Skygleam (65, 79) is at the ruined Ravencrest monument, between the feet of the gigantic statue  – at the end of the upland peninsular in southern Ashvara.  If you need to run/ride there are two land bridges (just past the Southern Rocketway Terminus) that connect this area with the rest of Azshara.

8.  Elder Runetotem (54, 44) is standing within the walls close to the southern entrance, next to the flight master of Razor Hill, Durotar.  Not only will a 85 elite guard spawn but the elder is standing behind the Flight Master Burok and in the middle of the Wyverns who will attack any alliance character on sight.  However, if you rez right on top of the Elder and interact fast enough by using the macro detailed above, it is actually possible.

9.  Elder Moonwarden (49, 59) is standing behind the flightmaster within the walled area at the Horde village of the Crossroads, Northern Barrens.

10.  Elder Windtotem (68, 70) stands on a small hill just north of the bank and flightmaster and south of the engineer trainer in Ratchet, Northern Barrens.

11.  Elder Highmountain (41, 47) is standing on the southern outskirts of Vendetta Point which overlooks the impenetrable Great Gate built across the entrance into Mulgore from the Southern Barrens.  While he is still called the Elder of Camp Taurajo, he no longer stands within this now ruined settlement.

12.  Elder Bloodhoof (48, 53) is standing next to Ahab Wheathoof and just south of the bridge across Stone Bull Lake in the northern outskirts of Camp Bloodhoof, Mulgore.  Since Cataclysm, a impassable gate has been placed across the entrance into Mulgore making it impossible to run/ride there.  To reach Mulgore you need either fly (60+), take the Zeppelin from Orgrimmar to Thunderbluff or, possibly, get a warlock summons into the area.

13.  Elder at Skyseer (46, 51) of Freewind Post in central area of a Ten Thousand Needles.  It is now surrounded by water as well as being taken over by the Grimtotems following Cataclysm.   If you don’t have flight this post can still be acessed by a maze of walkways from Razorfen Downs or a ramp and 2 rope bridges on the southern side of Freewind post which can be reached by swimming.

14.  Elder Morningdew (77, 75) of Mirage Raceway is on the southern loading barge of the Fizzle and Pozzik’s Speed Barge, close to the site of the old raceway, Ten Thousand Needles.  There is both a ramp up on the southern side as well as a submerged hatchway at the back to up onto the barges (if you swim rather than fly there).

15.  Elder Dreamseer (51, 28) is standing close to the arena cage in centre of Gadgetzhan, Tanaris.

16.  Elder Ragetotem (36, 80) is outside the Ruins of Uldum, in the Valley of the Watchers, Tanaris.

17.  Elder Thunderhorn (50, 76) is standing on a small hill just north of the biggest hive entrance in the middle of the Slithering Scar, just south of Marshal’s Last Stand in southern Un’goro.

18.  Elder Bladesing (53, 36) is standing in the moonwell at Cenarion Hold, Silithus.

19.  Elder Primestone (30, 13) in among the elementals in Crystal Vale in the northwest of Silithus.

20. Elder Grimtotem (77, 38) is in the Lariss Pavilion (back entrance to Dire Maul) in eastern Feralas.

21. Elder Mistwalker (62, 32) is in the Maul (arena) in the Broken Commons, Dire Maul, Feralas.

Elders of the Horde

I Undercity – Elder Darkcore (66,38) is in the throne room in the upper city (the ruins of Lordaeron) – it’s the domed building past the open courtyards though it is possible to fly into the room and stay mounted.

II Orgrimmar – Elder Darkhorn (52, 60) is on the roof area next to the Flightmasters.   He can be reached by flying over his position and then descending.  Otherwise, you can run/walk through the front gate, keep going straight until you reach the entrance to the Drag.  There is a lift which will take you to the roof and, once reaching the roof, the Elder is close by the Flightmaster.

III Thunderbluff – Elder Wheathoof (72, 23) is in the Elder Rise, the edge of the mesa.  He is easy to reach by flying.  Otherwise take the north lift, turn left at the first building and go up the stairs, take the bridge across to the Elder Rise.  Wheathoof is on the left past the Lunar festival celebrants.  Of course mages, priests and paladins can jump off the rise once they have paid their respects.

Elders of the Alliance

i Darnassus – Elder Bladeswift (39, 32) is standing at the base of a tree in the Cenarion Enclave.  It is now actually possible to fly (through the fatigue) from Darkshore up the trunk of the tree into Teldrassil and Darnassus.  Otherwise, it would be necessary to take a ship from Stormwind, or walk/swim (may die a couple of times though it is possible for some classes to heal through fatigue) to Rutheven Village.  Then ride through the red portal into Darnassus, cross the bridge and ride to the left past the Bank tree, across the bridge to the Cenarion Enclave area.

ii Stormwind – Elder Hammershout (34, 50) is no longer in the destroyed Park precint.  He is just outside and to the east of the gates of Stormwind where the Pilgrim Bounty’s tables were set up.

iii Ironforge – Elder Bronzebeard (29, 17) is in the pool outside the Hall of Mysteries in the Mystic Ward which is on the left of the main entrance and the Commons.  It is possible to fly through the gates and continue flying all the way to the Elder.

Have fun and don’t forget to make meaningful connections with the “elders” (both past and lving) in you life.

Kharin

Other posts you may be interested in:

Lunar Festival

Newly Remembered Elders of the Cataclysm

Honoring Our Elders

Lunar Firework Frenzy

Elders in Danger

Other related posts:

Dangerous Love and Love is in the Air - Guides on Love is in the Air Festival - coming up in a few weeks!

Come One! Come All! Be Amazed at the Wonders of the Darkmoon Faire – the Darkmoon Faire starts the first Sunday of every month.

Kharin’s  Seasonsonl Guides

Explorer revisted

With the release of the third WOW expansion pack Cataclysm, Azeroth faces once again the wrath and malicious machinations of the Old Gods first through the Elemental Invasion precipitated by their Twilight Hammer dupes and servants and then again through the destructive power of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing (Neltharion) and the scheming of the Naga (transformed Highborne elves) and the ubiquitous Twilight Hammer.  The battle to save Azeroth from fate similar to Draenor now confronts its heroes – in fire scarred regions of Mount Hyjal (where Ragnaros rises anew), in the underwater world of Vashj’ir (where Naga conspire to destroy the Tidehunter Neptulon), in the deep elemental realm of Deepholm beneath the Maelstrom (where Deathwing’s rapid exit from his former hiding place has shattered the earth’s pillar) , the sandy wastes of ancient Uldum, on the high peaks of the Twilight Plateau and the battlefields of Tol Barad.

Global catastrophe and cataclysm is not a new thing in the lore and history of Azeroth.  Since its beginning Azeroth has been subject to a number of potential world destroying calamities. According to the lore, the newly formed Azeroth was initially shaped by the powerful Eternals or Titans who brought symmetry, order and structure to the world.  They build great cities and machines and constructed earthen, stone and mechanical servants to bring about their purposes.  Eventually, the “makers” or “creators” moved on to fashion other worlds, leaving Azeroth in charge of the Titanic Watchers and Keepers (like Thorim, Sif, Loken, Freya etc) and the Dragon Aspects (Neltharion, Malygos, Alexstrasza, Nozdormu, Ysera).  After the creators left, Azeroth was invaded by the powerful chaotic “Old Gods” (though older strands of the lore suggest they were present when the Titans first arrived in Azeroth).  These malevolent beings tore Azeroth apart, creating chaos and co-opting the indigenous elemental Lords of fire, wind, earth, and water to further their destructive will. Due to the influence of the Old Gods or “Whisperers”, “the curse of flesh” began to change the creations of the Titans.  The earthen and stone beings “devolved” into the dwarves and troggs while the mechanical became gnomes.  (The origin of the other indigenous Azerothian races is more mysterious though humans probably “devolved” from the vrkyl and night elves and trolls may be related).  The powerful and malicious Old Gods were subdued with the return of the Titans.  The creators realized that the only way to eradicate this “curse” and the maleficent Old Gods was to destroy all that they had made so they allowed the new races to remain and imprisoned the Old Gods beneath the surface of Azeroth where their power was curtailed but their influence continued to corrupt the unwary.  Meanwhile the Titans left Azeroth once again to continue their mission of shaping and ordering worlds and defeating the chaotic demonic powers of the Twisting Nether.

In more recent times, Azeroth has once again been subject to massive invasions and catastrophe.  In the War of the Ancients over ten thousand years before the present time, the almost overwhelming invasion of the fallen Titan Sageras’ innumerable demonic forces (the Burning Legion) swept into Kalimdor through the portal within the Eternity Well created by the deluded Highborne elves. When the Eternity Well imploded as Sageras himself tried to enter, most of the single ancient continent of Kalimdor sunk beneath the waves in the catastrophic Great Sundering leaving behind the swirling Maelstrom and the present day continents and islands surrounding it.  The threat of the Burning Legion seemed averted until, some nine thousand years later, mad Medivh (under Sageras’ control) opened of the Dark Portal to allow the savage, demon-corrupted Orcs to overrun and threaten the kingdoms of humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves until eventually repulsed in the First and Second Wars.  Kil’Jaeden, now the leader of the Burning Legion, once again attempted to subdue Azeroth through the seemingly unstoppable undead Scourge plague controlled by the Lich King and through demonic forces lead by Archimonde.  While Archmonde and the Burning Legion was defeated, the Lich King remained as a threat and unleashed the Zombie plague on the peoples of Azeroth before finally being defeated by an uneasy coalition between Horde, Alliance and the Knights of the Ebon Blade. As a result of the coming of the Burning Legion, the creation of the Dark Portal and of the Lich King, the fates of Azeroth and the shattered remnant planet of Draenor (Outlands) have become intrinsically linked

World shattering and life destroying catastrophes are not new phenomena in the fantasy genre (for example think of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the shattering of Arda in the Silmarillion, David Edding’s Belgariad series, Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series, Raymond E Feist’s Riftwar Saga, Ann MaCaffery’s Dragons of Pern series or Emily Rhodda’s Deltora series to name a few).  Such epic narratives, more often than not, draw on the myths, legends and stories of catastrophe and titanic conflict in our own world’s traditions.  This borrowing is clearly evident in Azerothian lore – with names, functions and events drawn from ancient Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Hindu traditions among others.

Many cultures’ origin narratives start with the gods bringing order and symmetry out of the initial chaos (e.g. Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Roman, Norse) followed by stories of a “fall” from a Golden Age of beauty, harmony and prosperity which is lost due to the overweening human pride and/or breaking of a divine prohibition or boundary with subsequent world destroying cataclysms. The ancient Greeks told of an overwhelming flood as well as the sinking of the land of Atlantis beneath the waves.  Greek, Hindus and Mayans retold stories of periodic catastrophes in which the world was destroyed and made anew.  In fact, stories of a cataclysmic flood from which just a handful of people survived are found among virtually all peoples and cultures of the earth.  The Hebrew tradition also narrated the creation of an ordered, perfect world, forever altered by angelic and human rebellion, a cataclysmic flood and foretells a fiery end to the present cosmos.  It differs from virtually all other traditions in positing an eternal, infinite, creator, who instead of imposing order on pre-existent chaotic forces, creates the ordered cosmos de novo by the power of his Word alone.  Thus, the Hebrews (and their Jewish and Christian inheritors) insist that God is the powerful spiritual reality outside of and unconfined by the material universe of time, space, matter and energy.  Unlike the Hindus, they saw this ultimate spiritual reality as personal with a keen, caring and enduring interest in humanity.  They also saw the physical universe (the heavens and the earth) as real and indeed good though a secondary, dependent and transient existence marred by the willful disorder of angelic and human agents. In other words, God created a good world for humans to care for and enjoy even though it has since been marred and life on earth is now difficult, dangerous and relatively short.  However, the journey doesn’t end there – and what we do here in this world determines what happens to us on a much greater undying adventure.

It was this Jewish-Christian tradition that has predominantly shaped Western civilization and it has been the prevalent world view in the West until recent times.  In the eighteenth century however, these ideas and beliefs were challenged and new narratives developed to explain the origins and nature of the world.   At the heart of this challenge was the increasing insistence that God should be excluded from explanations about the world (naturalism) and assertion that “the present is the key to the past” (the principle of uniformitarianism).  After the dust had settled between uniformitarian and catastrophic geologists, it became de rigueur that the earth’s crust had been formed slowly over long periods of time and all claims of catastrophic processes was ruled out of the court (of science).  The picture was of a stable, slowly changing, extremely ancient earth in which “catastrophes” occurred only in a small and local way (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms, the slow encroaching glaciers of the ice-age).  In recent decades, this comforting picture is under increasing threat as evidence long disregarded or dismissed, has become too convincing to ignore any longer.  Now ideas that were considered laughable a few decades ago  -  Continental Drift and plate tectonics; frequent and massive meteor strikes that have lead to mass extinctions; super-volcanoes; massive floods which can transform and scar a immense area (e.g. the Channelled Scablands) literally in hours; and rapid climate change (e.g. Global Warming) – are accepted by the majority of scientists.  Moreover, the potential for global catastrophe of human making (climate change, thermonuclear winter etc) is being increasingly accepted.  It seems that the earth does in fact have a more violent, catastrophic past with more rapid changes than previously admitted.

Of course, none of this equates to the mythic neo-pagan and fictional world of Azeroth where Titanic figures stride across the landscape, portals to other places and worlds are regularly made and “demonic”, elementals and ghostly forces are substantial enough to destroy with swords, guns and poisons as well as more arcane attacks.

It begs the question – what is the true history of our world and how does it impact on how we live our lives.  How did our world come into existence?  What is its nature and purpose and what will be its end?  Where do we humans fit in?  What are we here for? Is this world, this physical reality the product of eons of random occurrences and is all there is as claimed by secular materialists; or is it unreal, merely an illusion and distraction from an impersonal spiritual reality (as many Eastern sages have claimed)? Or just maybe it is the real creation of a loving, all-powerful, all-wise, infinite and eternal God who has not abandoned it to its own devices as he goes about more urgent business (as the deists thought), but who remains involved in this world and its people to extent of being incarnated among them and who continues to work towards it ultimate liberation? For in the end, the kind of world we live in and its ultimate fate makes a decisive difference to who we are, how we should live our lives and which way we should take through life’s journey.

Kharin