World of Warcraft™

This is a short post. It seems to me, that for a vast amount of the game, characters factions are either run by humans or orcs or are humans or orcs.

We have ten races, and for the most part the orcs on the horde have more screen time than anyone all the other horde races. The same for humans with and the alliance Garrosh has had more screen time in wrath alone than Vol'jin had form classic to now, to say nothing of the blood elf leadership.

I mean, Vol'jin has a love interst that seems to be a powerful female character, who could bring for the lack of a better more women character in the for front of the game and not be some ditz.

The story is about orcs and humans. The rest of us are either supporting cast, or props.

For example, draenei are props. There's not much known about them, because they're not much too'em. They're something good and pure you push over pee on to show the audience how big and mean you are before your thrilling and totally unfounded redemption story arc.

Dwarves and gnomes are supporting cast. Sidekicks. On The Horde, Trolls, tauren and goblins(to a far lesser degree) fill this role. They are the And Friends of Orcs/Humans And Friends.

Night Elves are damsels in distress. They can't ever seem to hold their own, always waiting on rescue. Be it from time-travelers or god-powered-humans, someone always shows up to help these bunglers. It's pretty much a full time job for everyone.

Forsaken are not a race, they're a condition. As affected humans and pretenders to the throne of Lordearon they hog a bit more screen time than most. But it's alright, since they're technically human. The Blood Elves act as sidekick to the Forsaken, when not using the draenei prop.

Not pictured/no role: Worgen.

Night Elves are needed when the dev team need to reshape the geography of Azeroth.

Pretty much.

Humans and Orcs will take center stage more than ever is the feeling I get, sadly.

The problem comes with the contrast between the RTS games.

Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was a simple concept, but it provided the thematic foundation for the franchise.

In Warcraft II, Blizzard introduced Trolls, High Elves, Goblins, Dwarvesk Gnomes and Dragons into the lore but did so as ancillary races. That was fine...for an RTS game.

In Warcraft III, Blizzard blew out the gates and introduced most of the races we see in WoW today, minus a few exceptions like the Vrykul. They also introduced two new races to play as, both who introduced their own new ancillary races such as Nathrezim, Pit Lords, Dryads, etc.

So is World of Warcraft, going back to the core themes of all the RTS games, about Orcs vs Humans?

NO!

World of Warcraft continues the thematic trend of Warcraft III. The main races are: Humans, Night Elves, Orcs and Forsaken(since we can't play as Scourge).

The Humans have as their ancillary races: Dwarves and Gnomes.

The Night Elves have: Worgen and Draenei.

The Orcs have: Trolls, Tauren and Goblins.

The Forsaken have: Blood Elves.

If you look at it like this, most races are complimented by their secondary partners.

Night Elves are tall and lean, and generally worship Nature and Elune(light). So who do they have as their big, bulky allies? Draenei. Night Elves are savage, but what ancillary race can tear right into their enemies? Worgen.

Humans are balanced. But if they want a burly, rough-and-ready fighter? Dwarves. If they want something that has a lot of intelligence and perseverance? Gnomes.

Orcs are tough and strong, but what if they want someone bigger and stronger? Tauren. And if the Orcs want someone cunning and highly agile? Trolls. And someone with high intellect? Goblins.

Forsaken are insidious, but essentially medieval humans with a love for dark science. What do the Forsaken do when they need a magical expert, or someone with a lot of agility and cunning? They go to a Blood Elf.


Looking at it that way(and considering all those races geographically live with/around their respective buddies on the same continents), you see that the only "main race" lacking is the Forsaken. They're the only ones who don't have "big, strong" types. They used abominations in vanilla, but can't anymore. They're at a disadvantage, which Sylvanas makes up for by being the biggest female dog in the world.

But you know what? I would not be surprised if eventually Blizzard introduced a Eastern Kingdoms Horde race that was big and burly and buddies with the Forsaken/ or Blood Elves. Dragon-men, anyone? Some Outland race? Or something new all together?

My post is a bit long, but I wanted to add something else.

When you look at what I described as the main races and their ancillary races, you'll notice one thing: The ancillary races boast traits that are similar to the major race they are with.


Take Humans for example. Humans are known for having Knights for warriors and Mages for casters. This means you could paint humans as the race that values strength of arms as well as intellect above all else.

Dwarves are hardy fighters and Gnomes center their entire culture around intellectual advancement.

Look at the other races I mentioned. Same thing. Night Elves worship nature and Elune. Draenei worship the Light, and Worgen are a byproduct of nature.

And so on.

Drael, while true, the leader attention goes to Humans and Orcs, and everything else is a side story.

Not bad, but rather boring when Humans are as bland as they are.

And of course, the decision to make SW and Org the "main hubs" didn't help matters, as it makes things feel more dominated by those two races than they actually are.

02/21/2012 10:50 AMPosted by Galwen

Drael, while true, the leader attention goes to Humans and Orcs, and everything else is a side story.

While this is true, you also have to look at the fact that the Night Elves and Forsaken leaders get a lot more attention than other racial leaders as well. You know how much Sylvanas has done this expansion. And people may complain about Malfurion playing neutral while Tyrande does nothing, but Tyrande has done a lot in the books since Stormrage was released and Malfurion did have quite a large presence in this expansion.

02/21/2012 10:50 AMPosted by Galwen

And of course, the decision to make SW and Org the "main hubs" didn't help matters, as it makes things feel more dominated by those two races than they actually are.

That was just done for Cataclysm. Nothing says Blizzard won't eventually go back and update Darnassus and the Undercity, or something, and make them the hubs for a future expansion.


Though in MoP the main hubs are going to be on Pandaria to encourage world pvp.

I think it all depends where you want to pull your lore from. WarCraft and WarCraft II, as an above poster stated, were pretty dominated by the Orc vs Human theme. In the lore timeline this is when Orcs poured through the Dark Portal and invaded, game wise, the Humans were the ones to fight back. Lore wise however, other races joined in the fight, they just weren't represented in the games.

If you turn to the books, there is a fair mix, but I believe the majority is pretty Night Elf dominated.

World of WarCraft is Horde vs Alliance, each of which are made of a group of races. If you want to take into account player to race ratio, then the game is Human vs Blood Elf. Lore wise however, I believe each race has done their fair share of work both against the opposite faction and against the Evil of the Year.

The perception of Orc vs Human I think just derives from past experiences with the older RTS games.

02/21/2012 10:34 AMPosted by Draelik

Night Elves are savage

Since when?

02/21/2012 12:24 PMPosted by Donahue

Night Elves are savage

Since when?

Back when they were cool.

02/21/2012 12:43 PMPosted by Kenjan

Back when they were cool.

WC3? Yes I know.

Not really sure if 'savage' would be the proper terminology for them during that time though, but nowadays they're more described as refined, elegant, sensual, pleasing, and human.

And it's never going to go away.

02/21/2012 12:52 PMPosted by Donahue

And it's never going to go away.

There's still hope!

At least one zone in MoP (The Valley of the Four Winds, iirc) features a Night Elf quest hub/camp, ostensibly opposite a Darkspear hub/camp.

If they can resist the urge to go all druid-y peace and love on the local wildlife, inhabitants or enemies du jour, we might get to see them crack some skulls, Horde or otherwise.

And if they do go all druid-y peace and love, well at least it'll be Alliance-only druid-y peace and love.

I guess.

I mean it's really hard for me NOT to expect Night Elves to be super goody good, purple humanized, flower children like they've been since Knaak got a hold of them. (And the Trolls easily being more savage, badass, and refreshing whereas people are rather sick of Night Elves at this point.)

And this is really just me trying to hold back my cynicism at this point...

And if they do go all druid-y peace and love, well at least it'll be Alliance-only druid-y peace and love.

The Night Elves already do have Alliance-y Druid-y peace stuff too in more than some of their questing, they just don't fight the Horde and care more about healing the land. (Which is really REALLY boring... Druidism isn't just about healing and regrowing everything and being all about White/Green peacenik tendencies.)

WC3? Yes I know.

Not really sure if 'savage' would be the proper terminology for them during that time though, but nowadays they're more described as refined, elegant, sensual, pleasing, and human.

And it's never going to go away.

The sentinel army is still likened to Amazon warriors.

They hail Elune, the Moon goddess who is associated with combat and requires her disciples to have martial training.

Druids may seem like intellects, but at the end of the day they still turn into savage beasts.

Night Elves are good guys, but they certainly have a savage edge to them.

Forsaken are insidious, but essentially medieval humans with a love for dark science.

This is false. They are thematically an amalgamation of various "monster" races, as well as personifications of disease and death. They're anti-humans, not humans.

02/21/2012 04:27 PMPosted by Vyrin

Forsaken are insidious, but essentially medieval humans with a love for dark science.

This is false. They are thematically an amalgamation of various "monster" races, as well as personifications of disease and death. They're anti-humans, not humans.

they are more closely realated to the humans in early expressionist films, both in their telsaesk scifi things, the meat shop labs, and the lack of right angles in their buildings and structures. along with the mad scientist/alchemist moffit and the cult style society.

also wouldnt almost everyone not in the alliance be anti-human?

02/21/2012 04:20 PMPosted by Draelik

Night Elves are good guys, but they certainly have a savage edge to them.

My only minor beef with your assessment is that it isn't reflected all that well during questing. Draenei don't really do that much to help the Night Elves and the Worgen lose a lot of their original culture in favor of an older one that adds nothing new to the Alliance.

Hell, you see Gnomes and Tauren help the Night Elves a lot more than you see Draenei.

I don't have a problem with these races being allies towards the Night Elves, so long as these races can actually keep a hold of their culture and offer a compelling story on their own without the aid of a certain "main" race, but in the case of Draenei it's almost nearly void due to their alienation, and for the Worgen it's basically dashed away any distinct identity they could have had within the respective faction they were meant to cast a different light on. (A much more grey shade of light, if you will.)