Let Haranir, not just designated villain Haranir but even Orweyna, be stupid, arrogant, cruel, short sighted, condescending, impetuous, and petty.
The issue that contributes to them being the mary sue race that they are is that they are constantly implied to be smarter, wiser, and less petty than the dumb ignorant surface dwelling races with their oh so petty conflicts in the face of what really matters™
Which, they didn’t accidentally do this with Dracthyr or Earthen (mostly). So I don’t know why it is such a struggle with Haranir.
Even Orweyna and Hagar’s latest revelation reveal only went to show the Haranir’s ineptitude:
People of the same races in Warcraft have significant history of fighting each other. The Dwarves had the War of the Three Hammers. Dragons fought each other, whether it was against the Incarnates or in the Nexus War. Azshara was gleeful to see the Legion kill other Night Elves because she considered them lowborn scum.
That Elves and Trolls have a literally prehistoric common ancestry is insignificant and irrelevant to overcoming harm they have done to each other, and no more useful a notion than saying that Satyr, Naga, and Night Elves should all be one big happy family.
The reveal of shared lineage bringing peace is pretty un-salvagable. Elves have been exiling and killing elves. Trolls famously war with each other. Did the Gurubashi just not realize they were related to the darkspear?
The first thing Zul Jan does after this revelation is fold like 50 trolls (Vilebranch?) into the dirt.
I swear to Azeroth, if this ancestry reveal ends up being another Dreadlord play after Enemy Infiltration literally confirmed they had an agent within the forces of Life, I’m tapping out! lol
The Harranir suddenly show up, then this ancestry reveal, then the Curse of Ulatek… all while we’re supposed to be stopping Xal’atath? That’s an awful lot of "coincidences."
If this is intentional foreshadowing, I’ll happily eat my conspiracy board. If not, I’d still love to see the Harranir make mistakes instead of being flawless guides.
Did you play 12.0.7? The Haranir didn’t want to reveal Ula’tek originally. They don’t even know who she is. Orweyna discovered the whole history with Zul’jan after she took him to the Den of Echoes in the hopes that learning more about Amani history would calm him down. Unfortunately Orweyna didn’t know Zul’jan is a real nasty piece of work.
Orweyna didn’t know what Trolls were, but absolutely knew what Ula’tek was:
Not all of the visions in this place were clear to us. Some of them were… strange.
One in particular seemed to revolve around an unfamiliar people: a people that we learned are the Amani trolls.
Orweyna says: They sought the most powerful presence they could find… and pulled.
Orweyna says: And summoned a creature from a place none should disturb: the Rift of Aln.
First, if you address something I say, you reply to me so that I get the notification. You don’t talk behind my back.
Secondly, Zul’jan is a piece of who deserves to be gutted like a pig, same as Garrosh, and thankfully that’s what will happen. And the Haranir are here to stay and they are objectively the good guys, while Zul’jan is objectively the evil supervillain who must die.
I thought the Haranir were already characterized as kind of being losers. They’ve been sitting underground in the dark for longer then recorded history, worshipping a Goddess who was already gone by the time they got there, afraid to come up and see why some of roots they devote themselves too start burning or become corrupted. If they’re implied to be “smarter, wiser, less petty”, I’d say it’s because they haven’t had as many screw ups because they haven’t ever done anything.
You have no interest in being a man either, since you’re too scared to ping someone when you reply to them and you have to talk behind someone’s back like a sissy.
I think, apologies to Amani fans, the interest in the Amani is generally “meh”.
But that doesn’t really matter since each patch will really be about some Alliance hero. This one will certainly continue the Alleria/Arator/Turalyon story. Where it is set is pretty much a minor sidelight.
Hagar says: The final mural holds our most sacred memory – and our most ancient shame.
Orweyna says: I have seen nothing to shame us.
Hagar says: You have not yet seen the journey to its end.
Hagar says: Aln'hara's song was just an echo.
Hagar says: The goddess was gone when they arrived.
I feel like the reveal did just that. The Haranir are isolationists stepping into the larger stage. Orwenya is nice, but naive. She’s mostly met us, the people who spend all our time saving everyone’s asses from their dumb mistakes. Now she’s seeing why we have to.
And even more so, the way Blizzard did it, made the playerbase think the Haranir are a progenitor to the Trolls. The Haranir perspective is that they are the main ingredient everyone diverged from. It’s obvious if you really look at the quests that this is not true, but cinematic cutscenes are a powerful medium so people lost their damn minds (and I don’t really blame them). The senior quest developer had to come out and reassure us it was just the Haranir perspective and not absolute truth. Even though the quest ends with Orwenya saying the echo process can leave out details.
Naive hippies bumble their way into international conflicts almost as old as their entire civilization. They’re also vaguely nightmare coded with those quills and thorny garb so… beware the eyes of green.
if the side writers had their way the minor characters would execute orweyna methinks and it would make sense. as usual its the main campaign causing the problems.
how else did they run a secret society for years? you telling me they never beat up a snitch? but probably some campaign writer who writes void elves and arators avengers says she has to be there and not get hung.
just my theory tho
Uh huh uh huh. I can see you’re having a Zul’Jan moment. Just sit down and remember all humans are related and you won’t be angry at the writers anymore. Or anyone on Earth who disagrees with you. We’re one big family!
See how dumb that sounds? That’s what the Haranir did. And it was even dumber when some of the people there can point to the other side and say “they literally ate our dead.”
The Haranir are the story equivalent of that dumb naive hippie character many of us have known. Or if you haven’t known, surely seen in media. Sure, overall they’ll end up not being evil. They are a playable race. But they are dumb as hell. Orweyna literally just sent Zul’Jan off to start all the trouble of the next raid patch with her naivete. She just can’t understand why he feels how he does. She’s literally a dumb new person in the game who doesn’t understand the old events of the game. And because of it she’s causing everyone problems.
who deserves to be gutted like a pig, same as Garrosh, and thankfully that’s what will happen. 
And the Haranir are here to stay and they are objectively the good guys, while Zul’jan is objectively the evil supervillain who must die.