WoW: Missing you Lorewalker Cho!
I don’t know what a weird mood I was in when I turned on the PC to work and suddenly had the feeling that I was missing a very specific character from WoW – and with it a game concept from Mists of Pandaria, which I think should be in World of Warcraft still has no equal. I speak of the Pandaren Cho, a Lorewalker who preserved the tales of Pandaria and showed many a hero what their ancestors were like.
Cho, a humble, inquisitive pandare blessed with a seemingly endless patience, has often accompanied our heroes on their way across Pandaria, giving the players insights into the background of the conflicts and always having a kind and wise word on his lips. Those who hadn’t had enough of him after the leveling stage could seek Lorewalker Scrolls across Pandaria to watch animated history lessons at Cho’s Theater in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
Because so many WoW players in Dragonflight, among other things, on the “Sit and Listen” NPC Veritistrasz at the Ruby Lifepool responding extremely positively, I ask myself: Blizzard, why have you never continued the Lorewalker concept?
Sure, Cho is just a feature of an expansion…
The developers and designers at Blizzard often and gladly take the explanation that they have designed a special feature only for the zeitgeist of a specific extension. It will probably be the same with Cho. In the land of Pandaria, where the people are so deeply connected to their ancestors and their stories, it only makes sense to introduce a character that brings that past and the values of each civilization closer to the player.
But just because Cho is so curious and wants to learn more about the strangers who have suddenly washed up on the beaches of Pandaria as part of quests, shouldn’t he also try to quench this thirst for knowledge beyond the borders of his own country? It would have been relatively easy to let Lorewalker Cho wander through the following expansions as well. Because he has a special interest in the works of the titans, at least that’s what he lets on his garrison quest shut down. But… he was only a brief visitor to Draenor. A short namedrop of a character that many players have grown fond of in Pandaria.
Cho in strange worlds
He could have found out more about the Mag’har’s motivations in Warlords of Draenor, in Legion he would have delved deeply into the Burning Legion (instead of just being a simple NPC in the Monk Order Hall), in Battle for Azeroth he would be up met the legendary seafaring nation of the Kul Tirans. But no, instead he stays in Pandaria. It would certainly have been exciting for him if he had learned more about the afterlife in Shadowlands.
Of course we would have always accompanied him and it might have been a little easier for us to understand one or the other story twist along the way. Especially in Legion and in Battle for Azeroth, when storylines and WoW historical events branched out, Cho could have been a golden means of keeping us players up to date without playing all classes or both factions. What wasted potential!
Cho taught us a lot of the story just by listening. This is a great concept for lore fans and should be revisited.
Source: Blizzard
Cho in the Dragon Islands?
Now that we’re in the Dragonflight era, the Dragon Isles would be a perfect way to make Cho reappear. Because he is said to have a connection to the dragon swarms. As part of the Horde quest Family tree in the Jade Forest Cho’s ancestors can be seen, five in number. One of them wears the Tabard of the Keepers of Time, and Pandaria herself is about the Timeless Isle with it Bronze Dragonflight linked (Kairozdormu and stuff). Some fans go even further and speculate that the other ancestors could be assigned to certain classes based on their clothing. Were Cho’s ancestors even dragons? And does that make Cho a dragon himself?
When asked in 2012 about the tabard of the Keepers of Time and the fan assumption that Cho could be an agent of Nozdormu, the developers mysteriously replied: “Time will tell ;-)” (below Miscellaneous the second question). So is there more to Cho and the Lorewalkers than the folks at Blizzard are letting us know…or did the mystery go up in smoke when another team tackled World of Warcraft storytelling and worldbuilding (buy now ) has set? After all, the interview is ten years old and we look in vain for meaningful content with Cho.
Anyway: It would be great if someone at Blizzard would revisit “old” secondary characters and see if they could be incorporated back into new expansions. That’s what happened time and time again with Hemet Nesingwary, and that’s how it should be with a Lorewalker as interesting and relevant to lore as Cho, don’t you think? On the way there would then be a kind of narrator who keeps the overview for us. I think that makes a lot of sense given all the story chaos that came after Mists of Pandaria.
Reference-www.buffed.de
