Fun fact. Miles is actually from Brooklyn. He actually bonds with Captain America over the fact at one point. Nothing real major just thought it was neat.
That said, I am very tired of being from Fantasy Africa. Or Space Africa. Or another dimension where the humans are [not white]. I am perfectly fine with not having an explanation of the different human appearances outside of “Old God corrupting iron vrykul with the Curse of Flesh weirdly”.
I mean - we have any idea that isn’t why somebody would name their kid Kel’Thuzad?
I was talking about this with a friend, at the moment it’s very lazily done.
There are enough new cosmetic options for Humans you could redesign every NPC in Stormwind and they would all look unique.
But from what i’ve seen all they did was make a bunch of NPCs black with the same hairstyle. I hope they put more detail into this.
Yikes
You realize WoW humans are robots made of rocks and metal that became humans via a tentacle shadow monster curse, right?
Yikes
Exactly. Copper Stormforged became Brown Humans, Obsidian Stormforged became Black Humans, etc, same as how Iron/Steel Stormforged became White Humans.
I would be down with retconning BfA so it never happened.
I look at this way. Stormwind right now is so damn EMPTY… They’ve proven that they could create a bustling, “Living” city with Boralus, with families and shopkeepers and people walking the roads.
There is absolutely NO reason to change existing NPCs when they could just add 3 times as many NEW NPCs and make Stormwind feel as alive as they have with Boralus.
Especially compared to Kul Tiras which feels so alive.
I don’t think it’s so much of a retcon as much as it is now having access to the assets to bring characters into an appearance that they might had originally intended them to look like.
There were darker color skins accessible in Classic that sort’ve tanned out when the HD models came in, for example. Now that they have the appropriate skin tone and facial structure choices, they can make a character appear more true to form.
I, personally, am awaiting a return of Weapon Master Woo Ping.
So where is the Diversity for Blood Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes?
Good talk.
Cool, but kinda irrelevant to naming conventions. When names stick out, they become points of curiosity and possibly lore. Example: Khadgar’s name is dwarven. That speaks of a connection outside the human race that was, at the time, not the norm.
See, I agree with that. Same with dwarves/gnomes. It gets a little iffier with belves/helves but that can be a case of “dark purple highborne became darker brown elves” and whatnot, since the whole people went from purple/blue to pink anyway. No harm in adding brown to it.
Humans definitely don’t have to be from other places initially. The lore already says they came from the Vrykul exiles that settled in the north end of EK (Arathi, I think). But why not come up with lore as to why some humans have Pandarian-style names, or names reminiscent of Zandali (i.e. Akashinga, Marjani)? We had Kurzen’s group making use of troll magic, so why not the human who dwelt in that region taking on troll-like names? (Those named characters were/are from Stranglethorn Vale, on that note.)
Why do people settle for less lore and story when there could be more? There could be a rich tapestry of humanity for Azeroth, but people seem fine with:
Because people are excited to finally be able to make someone that looks like them in a game they love.
I’m willing to settle for “because that’s how it works” if it means people get something like that.
Including the vendors in Teldrassil.
Inb4 someone googles teldrassil vendors and copy pastes them.
Call me greedy, but I’d like both. It’s not like we’re getting buckets of lore from races like Vulpera to fill the whole race (species?) lore gap.
“Hey what’s your deal?”
“I’m a fox in a desert and I do stuff to not die in a desert.”
“Works for me. Let’s team up.”
But I’m getting a bit off track.
Who cares? So they changed the race of some guards and some less visited shops? Heck even if they changed the auctioneers will the average player really care? Most likely not. Those NPCs are there to provide a service, I doubt the average player cares about them beyond that.
Also, it’s not like they’re pulling a Suramar where they rewrote both WC3 and WotA lore to revive an entire city.
Pale skin and red eyes is due to extensive death…followed by Necromantic magic exposure!
100% behind this. We need our six specific types for each cosmic energy type.
You mean Kel? Of the Strahnbrad Thuzads?
Does it though?
Night Elf Druid - Life.
Night/Blood Death Knight - Death.
Felblood Elf/Blood Elf - Disorder.
High Elf - Order.
Void Elf - Void.
New Blood Elf - Light.
Night Elves: Life
Dark Rangers/Wardens: Death
Nightborne: Arcane
Illidari: Fel
Void Elves: Void
Blood/High Elves: Light
Maybe I am a bit pollyanna on the subject, but I am fine with changing the skin tones and features of named NPCs with no story. I am also fine with changing very minor NPCs with a bit of story.
It don’t see it as “erasure” or something. To me, it brings to mind the movie: “Pleasantville”. Where enlightenment and understanding made the world colorful, even when some people resisted it.
But will they put new colored humans in Orgrimmar for the sake of diversity?
Nature - Night Elves
Fel - Blood Elves
Arcane - Nightborne
Shadow - Void Elves
Light - High Elves
Necromancy - San’layn