https://x.com/Portergauge/status/1985873351827734817
(can’t show the link, but it’s a snippet from the upcoming book)
So apparently instead of living with and being raised by Vereesa as has been the case up 'til now, they decided he stayed with the blood elves in Silvermoon, was personally trained by Lor’themar, and was friends with Liadrin.
Blizz heard you asking for Horde character representation and decided the best choice was to paint a bit of red onto a neutral Alliance-leaning character instead of just using Horde characters who already exist.
it doesn’t even make sense cause the very same book he brings up being raised by vereesa, so did they have joint custody of him? what did arator summer quel’thelas like some rich kid who gets his way by saying “do you know who my father is”
“My character is the son of one of the first human paladins and a hot elf ranger. He was raised by his aunt, who is Ranger General of the Silver Covenant, and his uncle who was a human archmage who ruled Dalaran but he was also raised by the Regent Lord of Quel’thalas and personal friends with the first Blood Knight. He’s a super cool half-elf paladin and he’s the child of Light and Shadow and he’s super cool because he has ties to both Horde and Alliance.”
It does feel this way. Why can’t they just write Horde characters? It’s getting to the point where it’s a question that really needs asked directly to them.
I wouldn’t classify him as Horde. Neutral now, maybe, if Silvermoon and Dalaran were both open to him and Lor’themar and Vereesa respectively stood in for Turalyon and Alleria. Neutrality somewhat unearned, since he’s only come by it through retcons to his (admittedly barebones) backstory, but I guess this tug-of-dads thing he’s got going on in Midnight wouldn’t work otherwise.
They do, that’s why they gave the Silver Covenant a whole town in Quel’thalas where they just insult blood elf players and there’s nothing you can do about it.
I know who she is. I was being tongue-in-cheek with how Golden is retconning Arator to have a bit of red on him when Salandria could be a far more fitting replacement for him
Oh hey, lookit that. Looks like they really are gonna pull another Calia with Arator. They gotta pretend to be inclusive to the Horde playerbase in some way I suppose. What better way than by gutting what’s left of our roster, never developing the dregs that’s left, and promoting “Neutral” characters into Horde leadership roles.
Perhaps he was raised as a child by Vereesa and Rhonin while he spent his teenager years under Lor’themar’s tutelage. The most likely answer is that we’re missing crucial details or that it got cut from the novel during a revision of some kind. (But we all know that Golden never bothered to look up basic character information)
The real question is this though: Why isn’t Arator a Mage-type or a Ranger-type character when he solely grew up around mages and rangers? Where did this wanting to become a paladin come from?
We all know that Salandria is going to be his love interest at one point.
What’s funny is Arator had fel eyes back in TBC, which got changed to blue halfway through Wrath, then back to green in the Windrunner comic. If Alleria hadn’t handwaved them as the same “natural” green as hers before they got Light-washed there’d actually be some grounding for a blood elf-adjacent Arator in the lore.
… really, the son of two Alliance diehards with blood elf sympathies owed to a cross-faction upbringing is far from an inconceivable irony – I even find it interesting – but it doesn’t inform his character. It’s a tassel he now wears to give him an in with blood elf content and mark him as chill with the Horde. That’s a backstory element that should have been apparent long before now.