World of Warcraft®

Though the loss of life and limb was great, the ocular fortitude of our judges allowed them to see the job through: the winners of the 2010 Global Writing Contest have been chosen. Many judges were felled by the 18 million words that made up this year's competition, but whilst their souls are now forfeit to the contest's patron deity, C'Thun, their sacrifices were not in vain. Behold, the victors!

Winner:

• "Silver Hand, Ebon Blade" by Raphael Ahad

Finalists (In Alphabetical Order):

• "Defiant" by Corwin D. Riddle
• "Entombed" by Saif Ansari
• "Fresh" by Meghan O'Hara
• "In the Blood" by Celine Taillefer
• "Loose Ends" by Pedram Javidpour
• "Memories of the Future" by Michael D. O'Reilly
• "The Wicked and the Righteous" by Marika Kermode

Honorable Mentions:

• "ATLAS Rising: Shootout on the Supercarriers" by David Tsai
• "Jackson's Farewell" by Roderick Leeuwenhart
• "The Maker's Burden" by Walter Handloser
• "Returning Gnome" by Richard Powell
• "Spectre of the Past" by Craig E. Stalbaum
• "The Case of the Scrivener's Seal" by Michelle Millar

The winner of the 2010 Global Writing Contest will be invited to visit Blizzard Entertainment's headquarters to meet and eat with Chris Metzen and the rest of the creative development team. He will also receive his choice of a Frostmourne sword or Diablo III barbarian statue. The seven finalists will each receive signed copies of the Diablo Archive, StarCraft Archive, Warcraft Archive, and Warcraft: War of the Ancients Archivebooks.

The winning entry, along with excerpts from the finalists, can now be found on the contest website.

See you next year, fellow vision enthusiasts! Keep those quills a-penning!