#deathknell

[dobodleaday]

12.12.25 Introducing one of my favorite books of 2025 The Traitor and the Wretch.

Thank you to anyone who checks out the book or the zine! Please support the creators who brought this lovely work to life!

Writer: Jasmine Walls @mythjae-blog

Illustrator: Rowan MacColl @skulkingfoxes

Cover Artist: Amy Phillips

Download zine here: https://dobodleaday.itch.io/tatwzine

[tastytofusoup]

Vanilla WoW (2004) ↠ Deathknell

[nightfaeded]

here's the first part of a fictionalization of the classic deathknell experience for a priest named ephras! very fun to write ngl

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The first thing Ephras was aware of was how cold he was. It was a bitter, biting cold, seeming to emanate from within, from inside his very bones. The next thing was that he was incredibly thirsty. His throat, his tongue, his lips, were parched and gritty like sand.

The next thing he noticed was that he wasn’t breathing.

He tried to thrash his diaphragm to open his lungs, but nothing happened. He tried again and again to no avail. Just as he began to whimper in fear of suffocating — how could he whimper without breathing, he wondered in the back of his mind — he realized he wasn’t suffocating. He hadn’t breathed in minutes and yet there was no burning in his chest, no ache in his head. Aches elsewhere, certainly. But not from lack of air.

“Wha’s’at?” Ephras heard an echoing voice ask nearby. There was a shuffling of feet and cloth that grew closer and closer. Ephras opened his eyes just as the man bent over him. By dim candlelight, he saw the grave stare of glowing yellow eyes embedded in cracked, pale flesh. 

Ephras screamed, trying to crawl away from where he lay only to back into a stony corner. But the scream sounded far away, as if it wasn’t coming from his own throat. He closed his mouth shut soon after, though — his jaw was already sore and aching. 

“You’re awake,” said the monster. “And one of those. Stop moving, you’ll pull a limb. Haven’t even oiled your joints yet.”

“What are you!” shouted Ephras.

The yellow orbs in the monster’s eyes rolled. “Well, my name is Mordo, thank you for asking. And I’m the caretaker. And you are…?”

Ephras hesitated. He was still groggy, but for some reason he felt that had this Mordo creature been unreasonably cheery, he would have trusted him less. The cynical honesty in his voice disarmed Ephras. “I’m Ephras,” he said. “Ephras Harkwell. Where…am I?”

“Crypt in Deathknell. In Tirisfal, Lordaeron. You remember Lordaeron?” 

“Lordaeron…yes. That’s where I’m from. Tirisfal, too. I’ve never heard of ‘Deathknell.’”

Mordo bent down and fetched a bottle with a piped tip. “Let me oil your damn jaw. You’re grinding the nubs to dust. I’ll tell you more while I do.”

Ephras understood nothing, but acquiesced. Mordo commenced some wet operation on his jaw joints as he spoke. “I don’t know what Deathknell used to be called, I’m not from here. Had some other name before the Scourge, I imagine. You remember the Scourge, and the plague? Shut up, just nod. There you go, you’ve got sense in your noggin. Remember getting sick at some point?”

Ephras’ brain felt nearly out-of-body; it was hard to remember anything through the fog. He had been a priest at a farming village near Lordaeron City, tending to the sick and faithful. There had been some kind of outbreak, a pandemic. He tried his best, but he could only hide the pustules under his robes, not the coughing that had rattled his chest. One day…he fell down… He nodded at Mordo.

“Well, you died.”

Ephras jerked his head towards Mordo. “Dammit, boy. Keep your head straight for me.” Mordo grabbed his head with hard, bony — very bony — fingers and put him back in position. “You died, but not for long. Lich King had a hold of you, boy. You were his slave for several years, until somebody put you down, or sommat like that. But by our Dark Lady, you’re free from his grasp now. Say, ‘Thank you, Dark Lady.’”

Ephras had no idea what he was talking about, but he felt completely at Mordo’s mercy right now. “‘Thank you, Dark Lady,’” he said. His jaw felt better, somehow. He rolled his mouth a bit, and it felt even better. 

Mordo nodded and moved down to Ephras’ elbows with the bottle. “And now you’re here. A walking corpse. How about that for a wake-up surprise.” He bent one of Ephras’ arms up towards his face as he worked, and Ephras saw that his hand was just bloodless tendons and bones.

“By the Light,” Ephras said. “I’m an abomination.”

“Nay,” said Mordo. “Those fellas’re quite a bit bigger than you. Made of several fellas stitched together. Don’t look at me like that, Lich King made ‘em that way. They’re alright. Why, I know a fella named Gordo — no relation —”

“What do I do now?” Ephras asked, flexing his fingers.

Mordo sighed. “Well, whatever, really. New lease on life — or really, unlife — and all that. But you are in the Dark Lady’s debt. So I’d serve her as best you can, like she was your Queen of Lordaeron. Which is gone, by the way. We’ve got the Undercity under the ruins, now.” Mordo tilted his head. “I suppose you’d serve the Horde, too. Those strange fellas in Kalimdor the Dark Lady has thrown our lot in with. Orcs, and trolls, and Tauren…alright folks. We got a few in Undercity.”

“Orcs? The green men invading from the other world?”

“Yes, that’s right. They’re alright now, quite a bit less bloodthirsty. Trolls, I’m sure you’ve heard of them, but the Horde’s got a special tribe of them, or sommat. Tauren are big bull people from Kalimdor, you’ve probably never heard of them. Spiritual lot, those folk, all three. But they fight for what’s right, I reckon.”

How could anything be right anymore? The world Ephras had known, the beautiful kingdom of Lordaeron, was apparently gone. He didn’t recognize his own body, and his mind felt weak and distant. He closed his eyes and reached for the Light. 

“Praying, boy?”

Ephras said nothing, focusing on trying to kindle whatever flickering flame he could grasp, his hands wrapped around it for warmth, blowing on embers without the breath of life. But it was so faint he could barely feel it. He wearily opened his eyes again. 

“Hm,” muttered Mordo without Ephras needing to say a word. “Yes, I’ve heard that’s a problem. There’s a cleric in town, at the chapel, named Duesten. He can lead you aright. While you’re there, speak with Shadow Priest Sarvis for some work.” He patted Ephras on the back. Evidently Mordo had finished oiling Ephras’ bones while he was soul-searching. “Now get up and get out of here. I’ve got more bodies to tend to.”

[rockaroadrolla]

Forgot to post this last night

[ruins-mourner]

Anyway top 5 wow starting zones:

Honourable mentions: Teldrassil, cause I think it was the first place I saw during the 10 day free trial back in wrath after making a night elf rogue, not my fave but it holds a special place and feeling in my heart. Also Elwynn Forest because forest pretty and the music is really nice. Also its size and layout just feels really adventurous but familiar, like the woods I used to play in at summer camp. Additionally, on the last day of previous-said free trial, I was on a mage and got right to the gates of Stormwind and was so excited to see the big city, and then my neighbourhood’s power went out. It came back on shortly after but I was like 8 so by the time it came back on my mom said it was bedtime :(

5: Dun Morogh, I’m a sucker for snowy landscapes, especially snowy and piney mountains. I think dwarven architecture is super underrated as well so that and its expansiveness and again, the music always just makes me want to spend time there. Coldridge Valley was also one of the first places I saw and quested in

4: Tirisfal Glades, might’ve been the second place I checked out, and as a lover of everything spooky it was just so cool to little me to play as the “zombies”. Also atmospherically both classic and cata versions of the zones are very powerful, and surprisingly cozy and familial. As I got older I figured out why that was after learning more about the forsaken and they are one of my fave races now and I supremely wish for them to get their home back

3: Azuremyst Isle, this could be interchangeable with number 2, but there’s just something so alluring and underrated about Azuremyst and Bloodmyst, but I’m gonna use Azuremyst as the spot-holder. Back during the wrath 10 day free trial, you couldn’t play as draenei or blood elves if you didn’t have burning crusade (I didn’t have any version of the game at the time) so I was so curious about these races and when I got cata for christmas the year or so after, the first characters I made were blood elves and draenei. I fell in love with their zones and in the context of the draenei’s, again, the music is pristine and just the survivors’ feel and the draenei themselves being new to the land just resonated and still resonates with me all these years later. Too bad it just doesn’t get the love that Quel’thalas does

2: Eversong Woods babey! Again, one of the first characters I properly made after actually owning the game, and as someone who was already a lover of all things fire and elves and magic, these spoke to me on such a level beyond anything I’ve seen in any game up to this. My blood elf ocs are still some of the most lore-rich warcraft ocs of mine, and although I think Azuremyst is underrated, I definitely do not think Eversong is overrated. It still holds up likewise nowadays and I usually go to Silvermoon when I need to use the auction house or teleport to Undercity still. Sidenote- Eversong and the Ghostlands, especially Fairbreeze Village and Tranquillien are some of the most comfiest and inspiring towns to me? Fairbreeze being more of the comfy and Tranquillien just being so damn interesting to baby me wondering why it’s all ruined and why the forsaken are there, and that was one of entry-ways into wow lore

1: You bet your ass it’s Mulgore! As a long time tauren main (since the end of bfa highmountain tauren) Mulgore was again one of the first zones saw during wrath, but also one of the ones I spent the most time in (mostly as a ghost learning the death mechanics of wow but we) I fell in love with the tauren and as a New Yorker, seeing the rolling plains and mesas and stuff was so cool to me, that now those landscapes are still some of my favourites to this day. There’s just a feeling of home to Mulgore and Thunder Bluff is of course my favourite capital city, and even if it’s out of the way, I like to just exist there and in the surrounding plains. Camp Narache and Bloodhoof village will always hold special places in my heart, and the music of the areas never fails to calm me down

[pixelsinmyveins]

Deathknell WIP

[forgottenflower]

Visiting the singing forest.

-Located in Deathknell

[sayurinitta]

Starting an undead warlock in WoW Classic