This article is a Blizzard April Fools joke. Its content is not part of official Warcraft lore, but represents one of Blizzard's jokes.
On April 1st, 2004, Blizzard announced an April Fool's Joke that two-headed ogres would be a playable race in WoW.[1] They claimed that the two-headed ogre would comprise of two players, one controlling each head. The ogre's name would be a combination of the two player names, the example being JonnyBob. The players would have a separate "body" channel where they could discuss things amongst themselves, but whenever each player spoke it would appear as if coming from the two-headed ogre character as a single entity. One player would control the left half of the ogre and another would control the right, meaning the players would have to cooperate to succeed in the game. Whenever one player was logged off, its head would appear asleep.
After the impracticality of this play model was analyzed by the community, and once they realized the timing of the joke, fans laughed this off as another of Blizzard's silly (but quite creative) pranks.
Two-headed Ogres
- For factual information on two-headed ogres, see Ogre#Two-headed ogres.
Choosing the Two-headed Player Race
By selecting the Two-headed Ogre race, you are selflessly choosing to share your existence in World of Warcraft with another player. That is, you are staking claim to one half of the Ogre whole. As a Two-headed Ogre, you will have control of one head and one arm at all times. Your other half will be controlled by a second player automatically and permanently paired with you upon character creation. Each player residing in the Ogre body will be free to choose his or her own character class at creation, so for example, it is possible to have a Two-headed Ogre who is half Mage and half Warrior. It is also possible to have two halves of the same character class, depending on the random pairing. Two-headed Ogres serve the Horde, and in keeping with the theme of their inherent duality, their starting zone will be located near the Crossroads, which resides in the Barrens region of Kalimdor. The classes available to Two-headed Ogres are: Mage, Warrior, Priest, Druid, and Warlock. Sharing a single body with another player can produce an mutually enlightening, symbiotic relationship or a constricting, insanely frustrating experience depending on the player you are randomly matched with. Good luck to you!
Inter-Ogre Communication
Good communication is the foundation of a functional relationship with your second head
When the bond between two players is forged within a single Ogre body, that bond is permanent for better or worse. You and your second head will naturally be spending a lot of time together, and you may find one of your biggest challenges to be learning to cooperate and coexist with your lifelong soul mate. While you have full and absolute control of your head and its associated arm, both players will have simultaneous control of equipment and inventory management, both legs, and character locomotion. This can make it somewhat difficult to travel anywhere in particular if that particular destination at all differs in the mind of either player. Thus, good communication and well-defined roles are essential to the successful Two-headed Ogre. To facilitate this communication, each Two-headed Ogre will get its own [/body] channel so that both heads can better make personal decisions and confer privately about things like what quest to do next, what monster to target, and what direction to move in.
Double the Heads Means Double the Fun
If both players are logged in at the same time, they are automatically added to the same party. While both heads share the same hit-point bar, each has a separate bar for mana, rage, etc., depending on class. Due to their girth and compact sturdiness, the total HP for a Two-headed Ogre is a combination of the HP values for each character class; when one head levels up, its additional HP are simply added to the Ogres total HP. The heads level up independently, so if one half of the Ogre is adventuring online more than the other, its likely that that head could move far ahead of the other head in level. When attacked by a monster, the body as a whole takes damage, and when the shared HP are depleted, both heads die. It is possible, however, for each head to receive individual buffs and debuffs. In addition to the standard abilities toolbar, each Two-headed Ogre player will have a secondary toolbar showing the spells/abilities of his or her other half. While one head cannot use the spells/abilities of the other, seeing this secondary toolbar allows the players to observe each other's usage habits and make suggestions. Clicking on any of the icons on this secondary toolbar will automatically spam the [/body] channel with a tip to use that particular spell or ability. The player of the other head can then weigh this suggestion and act appropriately. When one player is offline, that players head appears slumped and sleeping. The offline head will automatically do the /snore emote into the [/body] channel periodically. Also, your Two-headed Ogre will walk with a limp, as if the whole side of the body controlled by the offline head is asleep.
Naming conventions
We know what you were thinking... but sorry, if one head dies, you both die.
Each player will be given the opportunity to uniquely name his or her half of the Two-headed Ogre at character creation. However, outside of inter-Ogre communications, the world at large will see your character by a single name. This full name will be the combination of your Ogre's two uniquely named heads. For example, if one particular Ogre's left head is named "Jonny" while the right head is named "Bob," the full name of the Two-headed Ogre and the name attached to communications with the outside world will be "JonnyBob." Since both heads speak with this single name, there is no way for other players to know which of the heads within one body is speaking. Thus, it is important to discuss these external communications internally first to avoid appearing schizophrenic.
Two-headed Ogre Origins
The Two-headed Ogres of Azeroth are a Horde-born byproduct of the Second War. Created as mutations of natural Ogres by Gul'dan, the massive Two-headed Ogres of the Horde quickly became known (and feared) for their ability to do a large amount of physical and magical damage in a short amount of time. Like the Orcs, Ogres originally entered Azeroth from Draenor, bringing with them a strong sense of tribal loyalty as well as a natural inclination toward one-upmanship. With the addition a second personality within one body, these traits were compounded in the two-headed variety of Ogre: they're fiercely loyal to the Horde, and they're fiercely competitive with themselves, with one head always trying to outdo the other.