Filed under: Arts and Crafts

Ragnaros and Deathwing in Minecraft? Yeah, that's pretty cool ... but how about all of freaking Kalimdor in Minecraft? Last night on reddit, RamsesA (Rumsey on the Minecraft forums) showed off his to-scale map of Kalimdor rendered entirely in Minecraft blocks. According to Rumsey, the recreation took him a total of two weeks to complete, from the moment of inspiration to the completion of the project.

This wasn't all done with the base tools available in Minecraft, however. Rumsey needed to use mods for Minecraft that allowed him to build beyond the native height limit of 128 blocks. The continent was not created block by block by hand, either. Rumsey developed custom software to use in mapping out his recreation. Still, this is damn cool. Faulting him for using these tools is like faulting someone for separating their LEGOs using this thing or one of these instead of their teeth.

In collaboration with the Cursecraft project, Rumsey does hope to recreate all of the World of Warcraft in Minecraft one day, including instances and raids. Kalimdor is only the beginning of this architectural endeavor.

We've included a few sampler images of his Kalimdor recreation in the gallery below, but you can view all of them over in his Minecraft forum thread. The limited block options available makes some of the coloration a little abstract at times, but that's nothing a custom texture pack couldn't fix.

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Mother of sweet things! I saw this on Reddit's /r/wow community a few days ago and realized that I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to my own forum signatures (which is apparently the whole purpose of the project). Thovald, the player responsible for the video, wrote that he did it in 3D Studio Max and didn't actually change the female troll model itself. The big difference is an increased polygon count for the robes and (I would assume) the graphics of the fire spell being cast. It reminded me more than a bit of the perennial favorite Blind, and it's all the more amazing that Thovald is apparently self-taught.

We know that Blizzard is working on an update for character models, but it's pretty cool to see what players can do with them in the meantime. They might be old, but as Thovald noted, they're still a surprisingly expressive bunch.

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The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Imagine for a moment that you are, right now, a human of the same age that you are, but living in Azeroth. Depending how old you are, you either lived through or were born into the aftermath of three of the most devastating wars your world has ever seen. Keeping in mind the trouble with timelines, every human alive in the Warcraft setting has endured loss and hardship on a scale almost unimaginable; many were driven from their homes by invading monsters or demons from other worlds, or were forced to flee in advance of legions of walking corpses that relentlessly tried to kill them and dogged their steps all the way to safety.

The humans who congregate today in centers like Stormwind and Theramore have survived when vast numbers of their people died. Only the former high elves have lost more of their kind. The fact that humanity manages to remain a force to be reckoned with despite the loss of almost all of its former northern domains in the Eastern Kingdoms, the deaths of uncounted numbers of their people and the usurpation of their inheritance is a testament to their origin as a seed race of the Titan's first arrival on Azeroth. Indeed, much like their dwarven cousins (for now humans and dwarves truly know they share a common origin, as do their gnomish relations), humans harbor a stony resolve in the face of adversity that could crush or corrupt another people.

Let us look at humanity's most recent travails.

We return today with the final portion of our interview with Zac, the gifted writer behind Travels through Azeroth and Outland. Today, we've asked about narrative difficulties, the dark parts of Azeroth's development, "fridge horror," and whether player characters are ultimately a good or bad thing for the world.

You can find the first portions of our interview here:

• Travels through Azeroth and Outland: Forsaken narrators, MMO storytelling, and why the draenei are scary.
• Zac's notes on racial characterization.

I've been pretty vocal in the past about my intense love for Travels through Azeroth and Outland. It's a five-year, player-penned travelogue that takes readers on an expansive journey through every zone in the pre-Cataclysm game. Over the years, it's attracted a lot of attention due to the incredible quality of its writing and storytelling. Not only does it have its own TV Tropes entry, but even Blizzard's taken notice, and we've gotten the opportunity to interview its writer.

Even if you're not a roleplayer or all that interested in WoW's lore, Travels has an unsettling capacity to get you thinking about the deeper implications of the game's quests and become absorbed in the narrator's observations. It is, quite simply, one of the best pieces of fan fiction I've ever read and a hugely addictive story. If you haven't read it, please do. You will never see the game the same way again.

But, as with all good things, Travels has reached its end. While Zac, its author, plans to post some story cues related to the Cataclysm expansion on his travelogue's forums, he's wrapped up the main storyline, and our beloved narrator -- a Forsaken named Destron Allicant -- is riding off into the sunset. I was lucky enough to talk extensively with Zac about what spurred the travelogue, how he sees the various Azerothian races, and good versus evil in Blizzard's universe.

Blizzard has updated the comic contest gallery with more leftovers from the community comic contest. You can check out the full gallery at the Blizzard community site. If you go through the gallery, you'll see some familiar art styles from some of the bigger WoW comic artists out there. Plus, the comic that Blizzard linked in the blue post put a smile on my face. Oh, Chimaeron, you are hilarious.

Still in the mood for more WoW comics? WoW Insider has got you covered (as usual) with Amanda Miller's weekly Sunday Morning Funnies and, of course, our very own weekly webcomic by Kelly Aarons. Blizzard knows that there are a lot of WoW comic creators out there and, from their continued support and contests for comic creators, definitely like showing off what the community has to offer.

More World of Warcraft Comics

We have some tasty leftovers from our community comic contest to share. This comic was submitted by Shannon Fowler (Amyiss). Check out the full gallery here.

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I've always been a huge fan of game art in all its forms -- the walls of my house are literally covered in framed game posters, instruction booklets, and fan art. That, in part, is why I was so glad to see Blizzard update its Trading Card Game art gallery today with 10 new pieces of art.

Whether you play the card game or not, the (now) 40-piece WoW TCG gallery is definitely worth taking a look at. This update includes Booty Bay denizen Landro Longshot, a gnome impaling an orc, and (ever a fan favorite) scantily clad women holding weapons.

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.

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Blizzard and Epic Weapons' weaponsmithing fan art contest tasked talented WoW enthusiasts with crafting and building life-size replicas of their favorite World of Warcraft weapons. Categories included Best Dagger, Best Mace, Best Sword, Best Ranged, and Best of the Rest. The entries are phenomenal, but that's a given for how talented the WoW playerbase is.

Civilization Fanatics forum-goer Maze has designed a map pack for the recently released Civilization 5 that looks very familiar, and for good reason: the map mimics that of classic World of Warcraft, with the two main continents and the Maelstrom in the center.

The map is actually very accurate, with precisely placed bodies of water and coastlines and small details like purple creep in Silithus. There are also details like Thoradin's Wall and the Deeprun Tram pointed out.

Maze has created two versions of the map, with differing sizes for faster- or slower-paced games. Even if you aren't a fan of the game and don't plan on playing it, the graphics and attention to detail are pretty awesome. Check out some shots of the map in our gallery below.

The BlizzCon costume contest took place yesterday afternoon with roughly 90 entries (give or take a few, depending on how you count group efforts). We did have a screenshot of one entrant in black that was unfortunately too dark to include, but this is an otherwise comprehensive gallery of all contest entrants, the five finalists and winner. There were a number of extraordinary costumes this year, and we highly recommend giving them a look. However, I think Jay Mohr was correct in observing that it's only a matter of time before someone's going to topple over on digitigrade stilts. Please, folks -- it's okay to suffer for your art, but it's not okay to break your ankles over it!

The five finalists (you'll find them toward the end of the gallery) portrayed Ysera, the female monk from Diablo III, Jaina Proudmoore, the female witch doctor from Diablo III, and Illidan Stormrage. The eventual winner was Christina Estrada as the female monk.

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BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!

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From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.

Among the ranks of in-game item collectors (would a goblin call those players "acquisitionists"?), you'll find plenty of hardcore vanity pet fans. You'll find mount collectors. You'll find those poor, inventory-challenged souls who collect armor and dungeon sets.

And then there is this collector, who's managed to collect all three -- and sweeps it together with a uniquely stylish twist.

Meet Michelle, aka Drrum of Stormrage (US-A). If you were to ask vanity pet connoisseur Brian of WarcraftPets (aka Breanni, immortalized as Dalaran's cutie-pie pet supplies vendor and previously profiled here on 15 Minutes of Fame) for the name of a player who exemplifies the spirit of in-game collecting, Drrum's name pops out without a moment's hesitation. Once you take a look at the incredible gallery below, featuring Drrum with her pets (augmented with Papa Hummel's Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits), wearing coordinating armor and clothing sets and posing in appropriate locales -- well, there's no doubt you'll want to join us after the break to hear how Drrum puts all these collections together.

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page.

Mario, we know and love you best as our favorite plumber -- but don't think we haven't figured out that you're sneaking around out there as a druid, too. So what would happen if you tucked the beloved characters of Mario into the World of Warcraft? The result is David Stonecipher's "WoW Meets the Mushroom Kingdom" art series. Stonecipher's drawn up his own vision of how the Mario universe's most famous characters would look inside Azeroth.

Mario as a druid? Bowser as a warrior? Try all 10 classes on for size. "I did something a little different with these pieces this time," Stonecipher wrote us. "I've created a video that shows each artwork be created from blank canvas to finished completion. This allows people to get a look at how the art is created in various stages."

See more of Stonecipher's video game character mashups at GameArtOnline.com, or click past the break to see the other five WoW classes in Part 2 of the WoW/Mushroom Kingdom series.

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page.

Artist Christina Marie's WoW-themed work is nothing if not saturated -- saturated with color, saturated with game references, saturated with humor. It's the kind of stuff you can toss onto your desktop and then promptly lose vast chunks of time peering and snorting in bemused delight at the details scattered across these works. (Because I whipped up the Christina Marie art gallery, below, in just minutes. Without any linking or idle chatter in the WoW.com newsroom. You believe that, right? Right?) Her talent for twisting elements together (elements of art, elements of the game ... you name it) earned her a nod from Blizzard itself with inclusion in its 2011 holiday fan art calendar (as was our own Kelly Aarons). World of WarCrafts visited with Christina Marie to find out where the deluge of color and inspiration comes from.

This World of WarCrafts has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

With the fabulous legion of blood elves dominating the Horde population, players are powerless to resist the appeal of the Sin'dorei. Even Alliance players find themselves watching their Orbs of the Sin'dorei, waiting impatiently for Fabulous Time to come off cooldown. My gift to you is your very own Orb of the Sin'dorei for personal use: leather blood elf ears. These babies are easily worn with a blonde wig -- for those of you who are not naturally fabulous -- or on a headband.

Follow us after the break for a step-by-step how-to gallery that shows you how to create your own fabulous leather blood elf ears!