Are orcs and trolls mammals? What about night elves?

Tauren are, obviously. And humans/gnomes/dwarf are, surely.

Forsaken used to be mammals.

I take it back about dwarfs… didn’t they spring from the mountains or something like that?

Thoughts? This seriously kept me awake last night. :confused:

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Interesting question. I don’t know the old lore well enough. I know in Tolkien’s world Dwarves were made from different stuff.

One would assume orcs were mammals but now that you mention it, I’m not so sure trolls are. Troll’s blood, something mystic about it?

And gnomes probably aren’t either. I don’t know what exactly they are made of?

According to the lore, trolls, night elves, and tauren would be mammals.
Dwarves are descended from the earthen, gnomes from mechagnomes, and humans from vrykul. So dwarves and gnomes are not mammals and humans may not be depending on whether vrykul are considered such.

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There are orc children, so they have to be mammals.

There are fish children. Not factual!

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Orcs came from rock giants, but along the way they came from ogres. And I know ogres are animals, but don’t know if they are mammals.

Presumably trolls are,
And therefore so are night elves, as they are just animals mutated by the well of eternity.

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I’m not a biologist but I believe on Earth “mammal” is defined mostly by a species’ modern characteristics, not by what it evolved from. Mammals all evolved from non-mammals, after all. Mammals generally have hair, are born live rather than from eggs, and give breast milk. There are a few exceptions like the platypus.

By that definition I think every playable race in Classic is a mammal, except Forsaken.

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Yes, they all are.

None of the playable races lay eggs, all females have human-esque permanently enlarged mammary glands, and can interbreed. Case and point Garona, and other lore based half breeds.

All troll based evolutions appear to be mammals with the exception of harpies which lay eggs and are evidently a mammal-avian type hybrid species. Naga may be up to debate as well if they are cold blooded, but even then they clearly too have mammary glands for producing milk. I feel like there are instances of cold blooded mammals – I just can’t think of any. There are some mammals with instances of having scales so that isn’t as notable. Same with having no legs (i.e. whales).

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Well, it’s an interesting question. However, it’s a nearly pointless one. All the main races have hair and give birth to live young. By definition they are all mammals. (Minus Forsaken, but they were prior to undeath)

Even if you point out that the curse of flesh. changing metal and stone to flesh, created the race. I’d point out, that evolution on our planet still classifies us as mammals despite likely coming from none mammal creatures.

Trolls and Elves are in the same family tree and though not stated, it is likely the trolls were some form of wild material, or Guardians before the curse of flesh as well.

Tauren also descended from an unknow bull guardian or wild god. Centaurs from Cenarius.

Even the Mogu were stone. It’s simply not a valid classification on Azeroth.

Orcs evolved from Ogres, Ogres from the Ogron, Ogron from Gronn, Gronn from Larger Gronn and those from a single Stone Gaurdian creature that was shattered fighting the Overgrowth or whatever.

Again, Mammals by our standards but strange classification in this lore.

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All the races save Undead are mammals as far as I can tell. All the females have breasts, and since the primary definition of a mammal that differentiates them from other types is that they can make milk for their young, then yes, they are mammals.

Undead are not anything any longer.

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Yes, they are all mammals, even the Forsaken, who are just cursed humans. Even the “current era” dwarves are mammals, who give live birth (Dagran is an infant) and feed babies with mammary milk. This is like 7th grade biology stuff, are you not that old yet? :joy:

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Blizzard is wrong. Every race is descended from the troll master race except orcs cause they aliens

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Just because blizz puts mams on basically all creatures doesn’t mean they are all mammals.

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Elune had something to do with the creation of Night elves, atleast that is one of the many theories…

Then we can argue on what Elune is… i woudent be supriced if she is needed to stop a certain old one

You and me, baby, ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel…

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Whales actually do have remanent bones where their legs would be.

So human males aren’t mammals since they cannot give milk to young?

(I’m joking)

Warcraft lore says night elves were a tribe of trolls who were different mentally, enlightened or whatever, and moved to the shores of the well of eternity and the magic spilling out of it allowed them to evolve their physical forms to match their mental state.

Most other troll tribes were preoccupied with eating each other or killing bugs.

Troggs are actually the oldest “intelligent” race in Azeroth from what I could find, as they were a failed titan experiment.

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-"Originally, the people that would become known as night elves were a tribe of dark trolls who migrated to the heart of ancient Kalimdor) and settled upon the shores of the Well of Eternity. The energies of the Well transformed their bodies, elevating their stature and granting the trolls great intelligence and virtual immortality. It was then that the tribe’s mystics first began worshipping the moon goddess, “Elune”, whom they believed slumbered in the Well’s depths during daylight hours.

The night elf goddess Elune was said to be disappointed in the Wild God Goldrinn feral insistence. It was his unwillingness to tame his savagery and bloodlust that overshadowed his noble heart. When Elune’s great moonlight illuminated the dark during the full moons, it was as if her eyes glared down upon him in judgement. His anger at her conviction caused Goldrinn to become even more bloodthirsty and indomitable than ever."

That is alot more to it, but it is my understnading that Elune, had a finger in creating the guiding them to what they later became, some even argues, she might be a titan, that watched over the well, since its creation when the old ones was first cast out by the titans

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Orcs and trolls have body hair and I’ve never seen an orc hatchery so it’s safe to assume they are mammals.

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