Pavonum

Pavonum was a Blizzard employee who worked the morning shift on US World of Warcraft Customer Service Forum. His avatar was an owlbeast native to the Hinterlands. Pavonum was known for being verbose, using signatures from foreign languages (often Latin or French), and enjoying tea. His penchant for disassembling ill-considered arguments, as well as decimating attempts at deception with piercing facts and vicious rhetoric, inspired the term "Pavowned" for any occasion where would-be pretenders were swept away in a deluge of words, statistics, and collective disdain from regulars.

While he was known for dismissing the veracity of hearsay — he often quipped, "They say rumour flies, but it rarely flies straight," when faced with unlikely claims from still more unreliable sources — Pavonum has purportedly left Blizzard Entertainment to continue his pursuit of knowledge outside the harsh realm of customer service. Though he is still thought to reside in Southern California, there are whispers that he looks northward, to the grey and misty climes of Seattle, for a career in the culinary field. His passion for literature and language remains unabated, but, professionally, the kitchen's cramped, sweltering heat and wafting aromas call to him. No fried Moonkin will appear on his menu.

Legend has it that Pavonum, for some time after leaving his official capacity on the Customer Service Forum, posted sporadically on his play account as Umbrae of Trollbane. Perhaps surprisingly, no one noticed the similarities between the writing styles used by Pavonum and Umbrae, despite the fact that he made almost no effort to disguise his unique brand of eloquence.

His post history may be found here, for reference: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/search.html?characterId=31681222460&sid=1.

Last post
Pavonum's last post was on December 28, 2007. These were his final words on the Customer Service Forum:

Good afternoon, ladies and gents! This time of year offers an invaluable opportunity to look back at the preceding months and reflect on what we've learned, how we've changed, how we've overcome the obstacles that have arisen in our path; to reminisce, as it were, and remember. :)

I'd like to remember the Customer Service Forum, and the good times we've all had here over the past year: the friends that we've made, the "pwnage" we've enjoyed together, the entertaining proclamations of innocence we've seen either vaulted or razed by the guiding influence of truth; it's important that we cherish the very human connection this forum provides, as a sanctuary from the vitriol — oh, how I love that word — so prevalent elsewhere on these hallowed boards. I can honestly say that I know some of you players, and vice versa, better than I do many of the people I see daily, and it's truly been an honour interacting with you these past few months, sharing joys, sorrows, and moonkindances.

I have so many fond memories from the past year — the player who wanted the contact information for "vitriol," whom they imagined to be an Account Admin representative; the innumerable threads on the existence of the Mature Language Filter, in which I had a chance to spread my linguistic wings and engage in a truly fascinating discussion of the propriety of everyday speech; the joys of our respective Christmases, expressed just a couple days ago — that I struggle to recall them all in detail. All I can say for certain is that I'm proud to have served as a moderator here for the past year-and-a-half, and I look forward to seeing this forum community — both "blues" and regulars alike — continue to develop over the years. The camaraderie I see here on a daily basis, besmirched though it sometimes is by infighting, is truly inspirational.

I remember before the creation of this forum; those were dark times indeed, a benighted age in which players had a general distrust of Game Masters, who were inscrutable, unknown figures cloaked in mystery and the threat of a banhammer; now we have a conduit through which actual communication is possible, not merely about in-game issues but about life as a whole, the game we all love to play, and even our favourite baked goods. And, rather than being a void bereft of in-game help, the forums are now a hub of information about the game and issues therein.

Thanks for a spectacular year, folks; it's been a pleasure. What would you like to remember about the year of 2007? Do let me know. :)

You are my poetry amidst the prose.

Photograph
Behold, the only known photograph of the elusive Pavonum:

Moonkin

From the following thread: