World Of Warcraft Paid Homage To Its South Park Episode With An Actual Slayer Of The Lifeless Sword
"South Park" has satirized our colorful reality for over two decades. The hit Comedy Central series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone is heading into its 26th season and is showing no signs of slowing down following a $900 million deal with Viacom CBS which led to several new movies in the franchise being announced for Paramount+ (via Bloomberg).
Among the most famous episodes of the long-running series is Season 10, Episode 8 ("Make Love Not Warcraft"). This episode sees Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman (all voiced by Parker and Stone) become addicted to online gaming, specifically the MMORPG "World of Warcraft," and devolve into obese homebodies as a result. Memorably, Randy Marsh (Trey Parker) also finds himself hopelessly enthralled with the game in the episode, much to the chagrin of Stan. As it turns out, Blizzard took the ribbing from "South Park" relatively well, as "World of Warcraft" actually features a weapon that references the episode in question.
The Slayer of the Lifeless sword came out after the famous episode was released
According to Engadget, "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" was first temporarily added to "World of Warcraft" during the beta for "The Burning Crusade" expansion back in 2006. The item's inventory caption read: "Finely crafted to Salzman's specification."
As per the lore of the "South Park" episode that it is referencing, the legendary weapon was made by an accountant at Blizzard named Salzman and hidden away on a flash drive because it was thought to be too powerful for any player to wield. However, a more permanent addition became available within "The Wrath of the Lich King" expansion, which even looked like the sword from the Comedy Central series, though with a different name: "Slayer of the Lifeless" (via Wowpedia). It also references the iconic episode, with its item's inventory description reading: "Foretold by Salzman." Interestingly, both blades' models originate from a sword called "The Hungering Cold," which was available in the original "World of Warcraft" (per Wowpedia).
Though "Slayer of the Lifeless" is not the unstoppable force that it was in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's series, as Blizzard must maintain balance in their MMORPG, the fact that it is included is a pretty cool deep cut for fans. Of course, it should come as no surprise that the creators of "South Park" are such big fans of gaming as they've worked with developers to make games since then and have several episodes focused around the medium (via Game Informer). Still, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" remains the most famous gaming-related episode of "South Park."