Earthen Lore Stay Awhile & Listen in The War Within Alpha
19.04.2024 - 07:09
/ wowhead.com
/ Can I (I)
During the War Within alpha, we encounter the Earthen of Khaz Algar, and can learn some interesting details about them if we stay awhile and listen.
Speaker of the Earthen
Dagran, or Dagran Thaurissan II, is the son of Moira Thaurissan and the heir to the Dark Iron throne. Up until recently, we've known him mostly as a baby, but during the War Within alpha, we get to spend time with young Dagran. Early on, Dagran meets a Speaker Brinthe, and learns a considerable amount of interesting information about the Earthen of Khaz Algar.
Dagran: Can I ask you another question, Speaker Brinthe?
Brinthe: Yes, small one. My current directive is to answer your questions.
Dagran: Fantastic! I'm much obliged. Hm. Where to start?
Dagran: How long has Dornogal been here?
Brinthe: Unknown. Our archive would contain that information, but as I said, it is non-functioning.
Dagran: I should be writin' this down. I'm standin' here with a livin' relic! ...no offense.
Dagran: Can you give me a rough estimate?
Brinthe: The Archive's last access date was approximately five thousand years ago.
Brinthe: But Dornogal itself has been here much longer, since before the Sundering that we believe damaged our machines.
Brinthe: Unfortunately, our memories from that time have been overwritten.
Dagran: Overwritten? Ye mean in the archive? Or… your memory personally?
Brinthe: An earthen's memories are erased upon recharging. Hence, the need to upload our memory gems to the Archive with each charge cycle.
Brinthe: I'm not offended. But we are unfortunately in decline. Without a way to recharge, we will eventually all enter stasis.
Dagran: When will tha' happen?
Brinthe: Sooner for some than others. In the next ten centuries, we will all cease to function.
Dagran: I'm… sorry to hear tha'.
Brinthe: Do not worry. We Machine Speakers are working hard to reinitiate the machines.
Dagran: I hope it works, Speaker. Truly.
According to the Speaker, the Earthen of Khaz Algar do not know how long their main city, Dornogal, has been in Khaz Algar, and do not have memories that stretch back further than about five thousand years. This has to do with how the Earthen maintain their memories and themselves — Earthen don't «die», but they do need recharging. During the recharging process, they usually upload their memories into an Archive — but their Archive was catastrophically damaged by an event that they believe was the Sundering.
Because of this, the Earthen have not been able to archive their memories — forcing them to overwrite memories instead. The Earthen also are unable to recharge, which will eventually result in their stasis. Some are closer to this than others — but all of them will stop working within the next thousand years.
Luckily for