The World of Warcraft: Forever survey leak you might have heard of from some content creators this past week included variations of the same Runemaster class concept: Rune Knight, Runesmith, and even Metalborn. The developers sent this survey as part of an A/B test.
Those keywords resonated with me when I picked up a quest at level 30 in the City of Dalaran. I think I stumbled upon a breadcrumb to one of those Survey “Leak” class concepts. Spoilers ahead.
The quest takes you to the Scarlet Monastery to retrieve a book named “The Lost Magic of the Runemasters” from Arcanist Doan. I mean, dude. This is literally the only quest in the City of Dalaran, except for the annoying “Donate Wool” quest, and the developer chose that book in particular.
It is through breadcrumb dialogue or quests like this that sometimes the developers hint at things to come that are in development. For example, before Night Elf mages were introduced into the game, there was a peculiar dialogue added in the game shortly before the Cataclysm expansion. Months later, a patch introduced Night Elf mages.
The City of Dalaran quest “Past Due” seriously triggered my “spider-sense” vibes because if the team wants to make a new classes for a game set in the 2004 era, they have to do research and pitch ideas. Back in 2003, before there was even a World of Warcraft (2004) beta, Chris Metzen, Bob Fitch and other Blizzard developers cooperated with White Wolf Publishing to develop a series of d20 Sword and Sorcery Warcraft RPG books. These weren’t canon, but shh… technically they were, as much of the content introduced in the books was integrated into the World of Warcraft video game. Or we can say they were integrated into the books from the game lore that was already in development.
The Runemaster was introduced in the RPG books as a core class developed by Bob Fitch. He described it as a monk-like arcane spellcaster who scribes runes on his own body to increase his combat potential. A mystic who sees the power and importance of ley lines. The runemaster seeks to become one with the land, but not in the fashion of druids.
Titans are the creators of rune magic. Dwarves learned from the Titans, but as time passed, they forgot their heritage. Tauren in Kalimdor rediscovered the power of runes, and when Jaina’s Alliance Expedition arrived in Kalimdor, dwarves and tauren shared notes on the subject.
If you have the Warcraft RPG Books, you can read about the Runemaster in Warcraft RPG: Magic & Mayhem (Page 33), Warcraft RPG: Shadows & Light (Page 15) for Epic Runemaster, and Warcraft RPG: More Magic & Mayhem (Page 10).
If you haven’t heard about the New Classes Survey for World of Warcraft: Forever, watch one of the content creators who brought it up: Bellular.
