Yodeling In the Passes

I wasn't planning on getting into the Season of Discovery servers when they opened.

If nothing else, I learned that my favorite Mage names --Cardwyn and Nevelanthana-- are never taken by someone else, so I shouldn't have to rush to get a toon created. I could create something different, I suppose, but for me playing a Mage is second nature*, so I knew I was going to go in that direction.

But the lure of playing is strong**, so...

Oh.

Okay, that's not too bad. I mean, I did choose the RP server, which was "High" and not "Full" like most of the other servers...

???

What is this, Gorak's Guide come to life?

This went on for over 1/2 hour, where I lost track of time. (I told my questing buddy last night it was 1/2 hour, but honestly that's the absolute minimum time I could think of. It might have been closer to an hour for all I know.)

It looked worse when I started running around.

I see that people go naked even in the starting
area. Oh well.

I quickly realized I wasn't getting anything done in the starting zones, so I decided to go collect a few flight points.

I did make a short stop in Goldshire, since Lava Lash is an RP server, and I was curious as to whether there was a crowd at the Lion's Pride Inn already. (Narrator: There wasn't.) So I set my Hearthstone to the Inn and took off for Stormwind.

While I don't have any screenshots of Stormwind, it was as you expect it would be: empty. 

It was then that I got it into my head to go to Ironforge and from there....

Well, it isn't a Hardcore server, so why not see how far I could get to Menethil Harbor?

While I ran through Dun Morogh, people were discussing the merits of leveling in Teldrassil versus Elwynn Forest. 

"Northshire is an absolute nuthouse," I commented. "I figured I'd rather visit Darnassus right now."

"Yeah," a Gnome added. "At our size, all those Night Elves look hawt."

Oookay...

I mean, I'm not going to dispute that, since I've not played a Gnome before, but it's not like we've not seen Night Elves before. 

My major contribution to the Gen Chat discussion was something much more mundane:

"LFM Ulduar"

"Ha"

"lol"

"wrong server"

***

I made a wrong turn in Dun Morogh and ended up taking the North Pass by mistake, so when I left the Pass I had to turn south to reach Thelsamar.

"Ding!" Okay, that was a bit late, but
you get the idea.

I was chased by spiders part of the way to the town, but I made it there before I died.

As you can see by the screenshot, there were far fewer people in Loch Modan than anywhere else that I'd been. That was not the same I could say about the Wetlands, which contained my goal of reaching Menethil Harbor:

Druids. LOTS of Druids.

Alas, the pass through Dun Algaz was not very safe for lone travelers. 

Shortly after I took that screenshot, I left another stretch of the pass only to get killed by Dragonmaw Orcs, who were camping in the hills above the path I was on.

It was then that I discovered that my graveyard I released to was waaaay back at Thelsamar, in Loch Modan.

I thought of having to run all the way back just to respawn and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, so I just hearthed back to Goldshire and logged from the Season of Discovery servers for the day.

Maybe I'll give it a try sometime later, when I put a few levels on me and have some silver to cover my repair bills.

*I want to give a shout-out to Vidyala, of the late blogs Pugging Pally and Manalicious, and the webcomic From Draenor with Love for being the person who taught me how to play a Mage in WoW. I don't think she even realized she did that until I mentioned it to her years later. 

**I know: "If if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a happy birthday." That's the G rated version of that saying, and no, I'm not going to put up the PG-13 version.

EtA: Forgot the links for Vid's blogs.