Hiordis and her First 10 Levels...Memoirs of a noob

When I first played World of Warcraft, it was because I got talking to a friend from work. She had a level 60 resto dru (this is pre BC). She told me about being a druid, about how she could turn into a bear, or a cat, and could harness the power of the moon to do her arcane bidding. And she told me that she could ride a giant tiger. I was hooked. She was why I rolled a druid.
I sat at the character creation screen. It asked me for a name. One of the hardest things in WoW sometimes is to come up with a name. I flipped through my copies of Tolkien books looking for a good Elven name. I searched through norse names. In the end, I settled on Hiordis, which I found out meant "warrior mother" or something like it. I didn't like the Night Elf hair colours, nor the hair cuts at the time. I'm still not crazy about the choices at the character creation screen, however I'm thrilled with the choices in the barber shop. Still, WTB MOAR COLOURS! I went with white and a functional short cut that came just above the shoulders. I was set. I had a name, I had a character. I was set to conquer Azeroth.

As all Night Elves, I started my journey in Teldrassil, killing helpless harmless pigs and cats threatening to overrun the forest. This was fine, til I found the cave in the North part of the newbie zone.Those damned spiders in the cave were scary, Especially when they respawned on top of me. Green Hairy Venom spewing beasts! Yikes!
I didn't have enough bag space for all my quest items, and I didn't know that I should sell all those broken fangs and ruined pelts for money so I can buy things like "refreshing spring water". I hated that cave in Teldrassil, and I still hate the green tarantula skin.
I remember killing grelkin, and finding they dropped money. OMG! Some of these things are dropping 3 copper at a time. I'm just going to kill these things til I'm rich!
I don't know why I didn't level til 10 with all the grelkin I killed. Probably because I was doing it wrong. It did seem like that it took forever to get those 4 lint balls or whatever it is that dryad wanted me to get from them for my quest.

It sure seemed like it was a lot of running to get from the big tree, to the cave, back to the moonwell, going to get all the lilies. Back into the cave (OMG not the spiders again). I wasn't exposed to any mmorpgs prior to WoW, and in retrospect, it really showed. I would get grey items like "mouldy mail boots" and keep them in my bag in hopes I could equip them, and wonder why I was told "You can not equip that item".

I should mention that I remember buying white gear from the vendors because they had more armor. I didn't know what Stamina, or intellect was, nor what use they were to me. But the whites looked neat and they got me more armor. Yay. Just what a newb caster needs..more armor for when Iam being chewed on by mobs because newb caster couldn't afford to train entangling roots because all the money was spent on vendor sold whites with no stats. Not to mention I wouldn't know how to use roots anyway. Moonfire spam? Yes puhlease!

Those furbolgs in Starbreeze village were really vicious. And when you didn't yet realize that there was a "pat" that could sneak up on you while you were being chewed on by his friends, then it could indeed be a scary place. (I didn't learn what a patrol was until a BC dungeon, and even then I had to ask who Pat was. /facepalm)

I learned tailoring and skinning as professions. I didn't level any tailoring skills til I was in my low teens because I didn't know how to work professions. I don't know how I figured skinning out on my own. Possibly because of the bright red text saying "YOU NEED A SKINNING KNIFE. HOP ON THE SHORT BUS AND GO GET ONE! And would you mind licking the windows clean while you do that? Thanks!" that would show up every time I right clicked on a dead animal with "skinnable" written under its corpse name.
Don't get me started on how long it took to figure out you have to train to get past 75 skill. Duskwood seems right

When I turned 10 I went to Moonglade and got the quest to use the moondust on the moonstone to summon the moonkin to go back to moonglade to get my moonbear form.
Except when I was in Moonglade, I didn't know how to get back home. I swam across the lake. I went all the way down to the bottom of the barrow den, and got lost. I found the flight path* on the other side of moonglade that didn't connect with anything. What a stupid place to put a fp btw. Across the lake? come on! I found the furbolg tunnel. Those nasty timbermaw! Nasty! Furbolg!
So I was a level 10, trying to get back to Auberdine so I could continue my ascent into end game. I saw a walking bear. I thought "thats cool". Then he ran towards me, growling. Then I was dead.
I thought...this time, i'll wait for him to pass, and sneak around him. (I didn't know that I'd have an aggro range the size of Azshara). I got up to the tunnel this time before he killed me. I didn't learn til much later that the tunnel would be chock full of Nasty! Furbolgs! anyway.


I don't remember where the graveyard in Moonglade was/is (seriously, who dies in Moonglade, except for once a year when you have to kill that stupid big dog), but I know I got stuck in the mountains a few times trying to get back to my corpse. Mountaineering in Vanilla Wow was not impossible, but it took practice and thought and a mount. I was a level 10 wisp with about 3 hours of /played time. I think after the 4th time I was butchered by those Nasty! Furbolg! I just hearthed. I still want to get to that troll village some time before the cataclysm. /sigh
*Note: I didn't discover the free flight path to Ru'uthe'er'ra'an'n Village until I was about twenty something.
I didn't get my bear form until I was 13.
I remember meeting Fandral Staghelm. I thought, "Hey cool, he has the same name as my server".
What a douche. He's all "I'm so important. I pace back and forth in my tree fort. And you aren't allowed in my tree fort! Go bring me some dirt! I'm a jerk" Blah blah blah. If horde are ever raiding Darnassus, I go and /cheer while I watch them kill that guy. But don't even think about gettin close to Velen or Bronzebeard! Man I don't like Fandral Staghelm.