Gwyn: The Constant

A few years ago, when I was first really getting into WoW (though, at that time, I'd been playing for at least a year already), I had a problem with pets. Oh, I had a few, namely Shiota the bear, who was the first pet I'd ever tamed and the only one who'd stayed with me. The problem was more that nothing was clicking. Even Shiota kept feeling like I should just stick her in the stables forever and never look at her again.

A quick trip to google later, and I found out about Petopia for the first time. I ended up spending hours just searching through the site, looking at all the pets and trying to decide what I wanted. There was a ravager that caught my eye, namely because it was located where I'd been leveling and I figured I might as well try it.

And, after quite a few knock-backs and annoying deaths, I finally tamed one. I named it Lorcan (the name was to be reused several times until, finally, it stuck), and went on my way.

But Lorcan made a lot of rather... odd noises, and I couldn't stand looking at the way he walked. So I said goodbye and pulled Shiota back out, frustrated again.

Petopia had been helpful before, so I went back. I'd tried every pet you could get in the Draenei starting areas, and nothing was working. I, once again, looked through almost everything, until a little link on the side caught my eye.

"Rare & Special Pets"

Now, I never wanted a special snowflake pet. But nothing I could find easily was working, so maybe something that was harder to get to would. So, I clicked the link, then followed it to "Pets with Unusual Looks".

And there he was, finally. After so much searching for the perfect pet, I'd finally found him.

The Ghost Saber. Spawned from stupid little statues, which can be harder to find than anything so simple ever should be, which may not even spawn the cat at all.

Those statues were located in Darkshore. I was not.

So I took the trip, though it ended up being a shorter one than many I took at lower levels later for pets. I got there, checked Petopia again, and rejoiced. I was finally there, I was level nineteen, so I could get it, and wow were there a lot of naga there.

I died so many times before I reached a statue. I didn't have a pet with me, the nagas were a level or two higher than me, and I got very frustrated very quickly.

Eventually, I got to a statue. And, to my surprise, a cat spawned! At level 21.

Sure, I'd managed to up myself a level, but I still wasn't high enough to tame it. I sighed, killed it, leveled, got the thing that lets you summon one, and went back to hunting statues.

Luck must have been on my side that day, because it only took me five more before I got my cat. This time it spawned at level 19, though I'd reached level 21 and would've been fine no matter what. His tame wasn't as hard as I was afraid it would be, though he came close to killing me for a second, and soon enough he shrunk down and I had my cat.

I hearthed, because I wanted out of there, even though my cat certainly could've used the levels, and sat in The Exodar, wondering what I was even going to name it.

A quick tab out and a trip to babynames.com had me my answer. I searched for names that meant cat, and was irritated by the lack of anything I deemed decent. I searched fierce, as I had for Lorcan, and hit the back button in anger. I stared at the cat, trying to think of things that described him. He was ghostly, but that got me nothing. He just... was. He had this calmness about him. And he was white, I guessed.

Searching for names that meant white, surprisingly, got me my answer.

Gwyn: Welsh, meaning fair, white, or blessed.

It fit so perfectly, without me even meaning to use it. He was all of those things, though I couldn't have known that yet. More than anything, he was a calmness that hadn't existed before on Dona. She'd always been anger, rage, fury; a hurricane of emotions, all of which were negative. But Gwyn, he kept her sane and good. He kept her from making stupid mistakes and from dangerous chances.

And he's continued to do that. Dona's had other pets since, all of whom she loves, but if we could only have one pet for the rest of our time in the game, it would be Gwyn. She would take him over Absino, her Loque, over Lorcan, her devilsaur, over Kairos or Gezzie or Cwrw or anyone. He's special to her, and to me.

Because of Gwyn, I ended up joining the Petopia forums, where I made many friends and, ultimately, became a better hunter and a better player overall. One of those friend, Veph (who also has a pet blog here), has a very special pet named Skorn.

Gwyn is my Skorn, always and forever.

He's surprisingly photogenic, even though I'm not very good at taking screenshots. So here's a slew of pictures!