As was pointed out yesterday, quite a few old faces are returning in Wrath of the Lich King. The Scarlet Crusade, The Venture Company, Arugal, etc. Most of them make sense in the context of the events in Northrend, but on the other hand, a couple of them might be inspired by pure fan service. That's totally okay, don't get me wrong. I loves me some fan service. If simple worgen love is what brought back Arugal, I most certainly will not complain.

Let's pretend for a moment that we could bring back any lore character for Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard just walks up to you and says, "Hey, who do you want to see in Wrath?" They can be dead or alive, a major character or a minor NPC, whatever you want. If you could do that, who would it be?

My choice would be Justinius the Harbinger. Bring him to Northrend to kick in the Wrath Gate guarding Icecrown with his tauren friend Melgromm Highmountain. If you don't know who Justinius is, he's the super-awesome Draenei Paladin fighting the Burning Legion at the Stairs of Destiny, just beyond the Dark Portal. He looks quite awesome in his Judgement Armor, plus he's an all around cool guy. Just go watch him in action for a few minutes. He doesn't take crap from any demon.

Like the Dragonblight, we've learned a little more about the Grizzly Hills in the last few days. A few old friends make a comeback in this zone, and I'm willing to say here and now that it's going to be awesome. Read on to see what we know!

• The Grizzly Hills will be a low to mid 70s zone. The setting is very much like a redwood forest, Warcraftified.
• Home of the Grizzlemaw Furbolgs, one of the largest furbolg tribes in Azeroth. The furbolgs seem to be under attack on a few fronts. The first front being...
• The Venture Co. This organization, founded by a bunch of jerk goblins, is working endlessly to clearcut the great Grizzly Hills forest. Second, the furbolgs are also having trouble with...
• Corruption from the Old Gods. Or maybe just one Old God, we're not sure. I would be willing to guess this is the Old God in Azjol-Nerub.

In today's Know Your Lore, we're going to take a look at something that has been requested by a few readers(and a blogger). It's not a very well known topic, it comes from a quest line tucked away in the far corners of Ashenvale that sends you running all over the world as if you had absolutely nothing better to do with your time, much like any other quest line in Kalimdor. Regardless of the annoyance of the quest line, it is probably one of the more intriguing side stories in the Warcraft universe.

It begins shortly after the destruction of the World Tree. Archimonde was gone, but a great number of demons remained. Like the Scourge, the Legion doesn't simply stop when you tear the head from the beast. Priestess and Sentinel Velinde Starsong was the Night Elf in charge of leading the forces of the Kaldorei in these regions, assaulting the Legion and pushing them back as far as they could. This held up well for quite some time, pushing the demonic hordes as far back as the borders of Felwood. Unfortunately, the Night Elves were only level 20-something at that point, and the mobs in Felwood are like level 50, so things stopped going so well.

In all seriousness, the Kaldoreian advance was slowing more and more as they pressed into Felwood, their numbers being utterly decimated. Velinde grew desperate as so many of the Night Elves fell to the Legion, and called out to her final hope: The goddess Elune. She begged the goddess for strength and power, the ability to avenge her fallen comrades.

Each week Arcane Brilliance endeavors to deliver a brief glimpse into the flame and sheep-filled (and sometimes flaming sheep-filled) world of Mages. Today we focus on the younger students of sorcery, those of us still growing into our robes and pointy-hats, because we here at Arcane Brilliance hold firmly to the motto that even the tiniest ball of flame is important, and still a freaking ball of flame.

So for some reason, be it temporary insanity, an unhealthy obsession with dresses, or just an irrepressible urge to be completely awesome, you've rolled Mage.

You've fried a few raptors, frozen a couple of furbolgs, completed a few quests, and probably died horribly at the hands of a Rogue or two, or maybe after stubbing your toe on a rock, I don't know, Mages don't get a lot of hit points. You're ready to step beyond the first zone and out into the wide world beyond. You hike up your robes so you don't trip over them and cross the bridge into The Barrens, where you discover that there are a lot of other people doing quests, and killing raptors, and asking inane questions like "where i find mankrik wife?" and "wat is stolen silver at?" and "Who would win if Chuck Norris fought Santa?"

Frankly, I think the answer to that last one is "nobody." If those two fight, we all lose.

After some low-grade emotional scarring your psyche will never truly recover from, you'll learn to tune most of it out. Once your mind learns to filter the madness that flows through that chat channel, you'll see that certain questions are not inane, and may actually be important. Most of these will be variations of the same thing: "Looking for group, Wailing Caverns."

Following some brief negotiation, you may find your new Mage in a party of five, deep within an instanced dungeon, losing loot rolls to a Warlock. You will level at high speeds, and find gear in a hue that is decidedly bluer than you may be used to.

After the jump: I'll spotlight two low level instances that are perfect for Mages, the best caster loot that drops therein, and the bosses you need to hunt down to get it.