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A hidden blade? The elven riddle on the wall of the WoW: Forever Podcast

· by Davina Asaria

Watch episode 6 of the WoW: Forever Podcast closely and you'll see a small black letter board on the shelf behind Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield. Nobody mentions it during the show, but it isn't decoration. In white letters it says:

SHEN'SERRAR LEZAL MELOR'NA ADALA FAL

That's not English. It's elven, written like Darnassian, the language of the night elves. Within an hour of the episode going live there was a thread about it on the official forums.

What players think it says

Nobody has a final translation yet, but parts of it are familiar:

  • Serrar is the second half of Quel'Serrar, the famous sword from the original game, and is usually read as "blade".
  • Shen is read as "hidden" or "concealed", which would make Shen'serrar something like "the hidden blade".
  • Melor'na adala fal looks a lot like existing night elf phrases about a light that shows the way.
  • Lezal is new. Nobody knows yet if it's a verb, a place or a name.

Put together, the most popular reading is "The hidden blade is our guiding light". Treat that as a guess, not a fact: Blizzard hasn't said a word about it.

Why Onyxia comes up

Quel'Serrar was a quest sword for warriors and paladins. It started with a book in Dire Maul and ended in Onyxia's Lair, where the blade had to be reforged in the dragon's fire. Onyxia is one of the three raids at the launch of WoW: Forever, so a "hidden blade" in her lair would fit nicely.

The forum thread has other ideas too. Some think of a light themed dagger, because a hidden blade sounds small. Others point at Shalamayne, a night elven sword that players have never been able to get. And a few just want Ashbringer back. Secret hunters are already on it, but until the servers open there's not much they can test.

What this means for Legends of Azeroth

Nothing to do yet, but keep your eyes open after launch. Blizzard has said there are well buried secrets in WoW: Forever, and this board looks like the first public hint. If anyone in the guild finds a strange book, an odd NPC or a weapon nobody can explain, post it on the forum. Launch is on Wednesday November 4 at 23:00 GMT, which is midnight CET in the night from Wednesday to Thursday.

Source: Blizzard, The WoW: Forever Podcast episode 6, and the World of Warcraft: Forever forums.