I’m supposed to be writing letters to lore characters, NPCs, etc… not other players. I KNOW you were another player, but you’ve become as important in my memory as any character Blizzard put in Silverpine Forest. I can’t leave without saying goodbye to you.

I really don’t expect that you’d remember me. I was a Forsaken warlock with purple boartails traveling through Silverpine with a Forsaken rogue who had a spiky mohawk. We were low level and a Son of Arugal had already killed me once. We were approaching the mine with all the worgen in it very cautiously, having just spent quite a bit of time killing the ones outside. I wasn’t convinced we could survive doing this quest. Neither was the rogue, to be honest. We were determined to make our way through the zone and get to Shadowfang Keep, though, because he’d told me that’s where the best robes I’d get for a while could drop.

I really didn’t want to go in the mine and be torn apart by worgen. I felt safer out in the open, where I could run, than cornered between a stone wall and a bunch of sharp teeth. I hadn’t learned to manage my demons yet and got nervous everytime I couldn’t see around the voidwalker.

Then you rode up. I couldn’t even see what your level was! The idea of someone being so much higher in level than us that it only showed as question marks was really impressive to me. And I didn’t know where that motorcycle came from, but it looked amazing!

You invited us to group up, and we went into the mine together. I just saw a bunch of dead worgen. I’ve been told they were alive for about half a second before you got to them. We looted the quest item, and you gave us each some supplies and escorted us back out of the mine, killing the worgen that had respawned. You asked if we’d be fine from there, told us good luck in the game, and rode off.

That was when I decided I wanted a motorcycle! I eventually got one. It was a couple of years later, on a different server and a different faction. But I got my motorcycle!

More importantly, you set an example for me. Because of you, I’ve helped just about everyone who has ever asked. I’ve flown across Northrend to help someone kill a quest mob because they had no one else to ask and were whispering strangers. I’ve helped new death knights tackle things in Hellfire Peninsula. I’ve held off other mobs in an area so a hunter could tame a pet.

My husband (the rogue) told me you were probably going back and doing low level quests for Loremaster. Because of the example you set, I’ve been mindful of anyone who is around who is the appropriate level for a zone when I go back to finish old quests.

A level 80 priest told me toward the end of Wrath that she remembered me because I’d given her the rest of the money for her first mount when she didn’t have enough. I don’t really remember that, but it sounds like something I’d do because there’s always been that voice in the back of my head when I see someone who needs help that says, “Remember the blood elf in Silverpine?”

I don’t know if you still play WoW. It has been a few years since you came roaring up out of nowhere and saved us. The mine changed in Cataclysm, along with the rest of the zone. There are still worgen in it. There are also a bunch of Forsaken NPCs, and the quest is pretty much a scripted event where one of the Deathguards saves you. You’re only ever in danger of dying in the story. You don’t fight the worgen anymore.

I half expected you to be there. It’s silly, I know. My husband and I rolled up new Forsaken to see the new quests with. I was a hunter and he was a priest. Part of me expected that, any second, a motorcycle would come speeding up to the mine with a blood elf paladin riding it.

One day I’ll forget about the Deathguard in Cataclysm and the only way I’ll be able to remember the mine is the way it was before. Of the two people who have saved me, you were the one who didn’t have to. You were the one who made an impact on how I played the game.

Thank you.

Al diel shala.

With great thanks,

The Purple-Haired Warlock