by JR Cook - 11 years ago     show comments

Welcome to the Dungeon Dossier! Every weekend, the Dossier dives a little deeper into the lore of World of Warcraft‘s dungeons. This week, read all about the fiery depths of Ragefire Chasm.

Ten years ago, when World of Warcraft first launched, something that was clear from the start was the sense that there was a whole world of dangers to explore. Instanced dungeons were (at the time) a unique expression in that kind of exploration, as it allowed a chunk of the world to exist strictly for the group of players that entered it together, so that they wouldn’t be competing with other players for mobs or bosses to kill.

Dungeons have been a staple of the series, and a feature so popular that when it was revealed that Mists of Pandaria wouldn’t add any new dungeons to the list in patch content, players really weren’t happy.

From a gameplay perspective, it’s clear why we go into dungeons: there are bosses in there, and they have loot. There might also be quests in there, which may have loot of their own or, at the very least, provide experience points for advancing if you’re not max-level. But something that may have been lost in the shuffle in this modern era of grinding through the LFD queue is the story reasons we’re going into these dungeons. That’s what the Dungeon Dossier is here for: tell you the reasons that the Horde, the Alliance, or other interested parties want you and some of your closest friends to walk into a dangerous place and eliminate the threats within.

Let’s start in Orgrimmar.

(Patch 1.1) Internal Threats

As something of a capstone for quests in Durotar, the original reason Thrall sent heroes of the Horde into the volcanic caves beneath Orgrimmar was because of the threat of warlock holdouts, the Burning and/or Searing Blade. Back in classic WoW, Thrall had a lot of reasons to want to eliminate warlock sects: mainly, these organizations still wanted to enjoy the Burning Legion kool-aid that had landed the Horde on Azeroth in the first place, and after Thrall and Grom Hellscream broke that curse, the Warchief really didn’t want to see Grom’s sacrifice be in vain.

A side objective in original Ragefire Chasm (RFC) was Magatha Grimtotem’s efforts to open up diplomacy with the troggs who had infested the caverns. What becomes evident once you get inside the instance (and find the mangled remains of a tauren emissary) is that the troggs aren’t interested: your new objective is to put down the boss trogg Oggleflint to try and contain the infestation.

What’s the significance of this instance in the greater narrative of the game?

The main thing that RFC did was carry forward the concept from Durotar that warlock sects were a problem (even if individual warlocks, as in the player characters, were A-OK), which is something that gets echoed in later zones as well; the spectre of the Horde’s demon-infused history is something that the Horde intends to fight at every turn, and this is an early instance example of the Horde doing just that.

In addition, one could argue that RFC was used as a stage to showcase troggs for the Horde. As a race that was new to the franchise with WoW, the troggs would end up having greater significance in Uldaman, but didn’t really show up in Horde questing elsewhere.

As another side note: having Magatha Grimtotem be the one who was pushing for diplomacy with the troggs is in line with her characterization elsewhere in classic WoW: namely, that her name gets dropped as one of the strongest supporters of admitting the Forsaken into Horde. From a narrative standpoint, Magatha’s repeated interests in trying to bring new elements into the Horde either means her later heel turn wasn’t planned or that it was totally planned. That’s a discussion for another time, though.

As a final note, the Alliance had no quests into RFC in the classic game, since it wasn’t feasible for low-level players to get through Orgrimmar. This was balanced by the Horde having no quests in Stormwind Stockade, which was similarly nestled within Stormwind.

(Patch 5.0) They Call This ‘Foreshadowing’…

Cataclysm tweaked the breadcrumbs into RFC slightly, since Garrosh became the Warchief and Magatha had been exiled, but overall the thrust was the same: eliminate the warlocks and troggs. When it came time for Mists of Pandaria, however, that’s when some big changes were put into place.

The new reason to dig into the place were reports that rogue shaman were building up their forces within the Chasm. These Dark Shaman were bending elementals to their control, summoning creatures in from the Firelands, and otherwise trying to innovate new ways to weaponize their magic in an effort to wipe out anyone who stood in their way.

What’s the significance to the greater narrative of the game?

The biggest thing that RFC ver. 5.0 does is introduce the concept of the ‘dark shaman’ so close to the Horde. It seeds the idea that these are weapons that Garrosh could use, which then becomes exactly what happens later on in the expansion.

It is notable, however, that this wasn’t content that was really strongly advertised; unlike the other high-profile remixes of the expansion (Scarlet Halls, Scarlet Monastery, and Scholomance), the new RFC wasn’t tuned for level 90, and didn’t have a heroic or challenge mode difficulty: it sat in the same low-level introductory slot that the original RFC took up, and ultimately only leveling players really saw it. It’s possible that it’s an artifact of something that Blizzard wanted to do in Cataclysm but never got around to (there are a lot of references to Cataclysm-era content, namely the Twilight’s Hammer and the Firelands), but the bottom line was that it was a hint that only leveling players would come across naturally.

Special Notes & Trivia

Ragefire Chasm has the distinction of being a set that’s actually been used a number of times; pieces of the place were used for the Secrets of Ragefire scenario (which, like RFC ver. 5.0, was a set-up for Siege of Orgrimmar) and in Siege of Orgrimmar itself for the final section of the raid’s second wing.

It’s also notable that the layout of the instance was mostly re-used as a questing area in Dragonblight in Wrath of the Lich King. If you go into the Maw of Neltharion area, you’ll notice that the layout has a lot in common with the original RFC.

That’s it for this week’s dossier. Come back next week for RFC’s opposite number, Stormwind Stockade.