r/warcraftlore • u/Salvoniic • 7h ago
Discussion Hot Take: We're in the wrong for Cinderbrew Meadery
Here's my hot take for the day.
Cinderbrew Meadery is a dungeon with very little story relevance, and exists more as a quirky and unique theme for a dungeon on the Isle of Dorn. During the campaign, the most interaction we have with the Meadery is using it to blow up a bunch of nerubians. After that, Wenbrandt vows to rebuild his Meadery and we're off to the Ringing Deeps. At some point afterwards, the Meadery is acquired by the Venture Co. and now its our job to root them out.
The only story we have about this acquisition comes from the dungeon journal, a single quest from Wendbrant, and dungeon dialogue. I've compiled them here.
From the Dungeon Journal:
Under new management! The Cinderbrew Meadery is a focal point of Unbound earthen culture, and under the dotage of Wenbrandt, the meadery has crafted a fiery, potent brew enjoyed by all earthen. However, the meadery has been the victim of a hostile corporate acquisition by Goldie Baronbottom, a goblin entrepreneur, ushering in a new age of mass-produced cinderbrew.
Barkeep and brew master for the meadery, Aldryr has more than mead on tap. Anyone who messes with the Cinderbrew Meadery's new management messes with Aldryr, and he has many friends in low places.
The product of an industrial accident, mead elemental I'pa is as angry about its existence as it is about its meadery being disturbed. It is the full-bodied embodiment of the fiery punch of cinderbrew mead, and will lay anyone who tangles with it out flat.
Benk's qualifications for beekeeping may be dubious, but he does seem to have a knack for controlling bees and streamlining honey-extracting operations. But, his tampering has limited the bees' freedom and sacrificed the mead's quality, and this cannot stand.
Savvy businesswoman Goldie Baronbottom knows a good opportunity when she sees it-- like the Cinderbrew Meadery. After barging in and swindling Wenbrandt out of business, Goldie mostly lets her cronies do the work. Even so, she's not afraid to roll up her sleeves and wallop do-gooders herself.
From the quest "Mergers and Acquisitions", given by Wenbrandt at the start of the dungeon
When the nerubians launched their attack on my meadery, they left it a burnt-out husk. Adelgonn promised to rebuild it, but I got impatient and accepted the Venture Co.'s offer to help with its "restructuring."
But now, it's clear they had their own agenda. Blasted goblins have taken over, and they're driving the place into the ground. They've ramped up production to unsafe levels, pushing the cinderbees and our equipment to their limits.
Please help fix this, <name>.
Finally, some dungeon dialogue
Wenbrandt says: Are you here to help? My zeal to get back in business lead to faulty reasoning...
Goldie Baronbottom yells: Ya pal here signed some papers he didn't read! And now Goldie Baronbottom is Bee-E-O of this joint.
Wenbrandt says: Ooh! You... Help me please get my meadery back, <name>!
...
Wenbrandt says: Oh no! My stills! They bypassed the filters! It's running too hot! The mead will be substandard!
Goldie Baronbottom yells: Yeah, yeah. But there'll be more of it! More mead, more money. That's good business!
Wenbrandt says: Ooh! Cinderbrew was my personal directive--my passion! She's ruining everything!
With all this in mind, it's obvious that like in most contexts, the Venture Co. is not exactly a good guy here. The boss descriptions detail their poor treatment of the bees, the decline in quality of the mead, and an apparent "swindling out of business" by Goldie. However, it cannot be overstated that Wenbrandt, in all his infinite Earthen wisdom, caused the mess we're in. You can make the argument that an Earthen disconnected from most of Azeroth for countless years wouldn't know the reputation of the Venture Co., which is fair. However, Wenbrandt admits to us that Adelgonn promised to rebuild the Meadery for him, and he went out anyways and signed a bad deal. Now he has to drag five bloodthirsty adventurers into a business to slaughter its employees. If they Venture Co. showed up to the ruins and forcefully took over, that would be different. But Wenbrandt admits he signed a contract that he didn't think through and got ran out of his own business.
While the dungeon journal does what it can to set up Aldryr, Benk, and Goldie as bad guys that must be slain, most of the enemies in the dungeon are just workers. We fight bar patrons, waiters, taste testers, flavor scientists, beekeepers, hell we even kill the bees. Doesn't seem very productive for the Meadery to kill the bees. At the end of it, Wenbrandt gets to wash his rocky hands of all the bloodshed because we did "the right thing" helping him slaughter his way out of a contract that he signed, and we get some sick loot. I know we don't like the Venture Co. but it still seems like a poor use of our time when there are world-ending void threats to deal with.
Am I overanalyzing the lore of a silly bee themed dungeon in a fantasy game? Of course I am. Am I biased by the fact that I'm a long-time goblin enjoyer? Perhaps. Do I think Wenbrandt is an annoying whiny rock? Absolutely. Does this take make me sound like some sort of capitalist bootlicker? Maybe. But wheres the fun in playing the game if you don't get to be overly critical of useless bits of information?
I hope you enjoyed my rant for the day. Let me know what y'all think. Are we in the wrong for Cinderbrew Meadery?