Sharing the Land - Quest - Classic World of Warcraft (wowhead.com)
He was in classic as noted by the comments on that quest.
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Yes, I remember seeing him in the Tauren starting zone ages ago. Prior to Cata. I feel like it was Vanilla, but it could have been added after. He was around, though.
He was not the leader of the Tauren, of course. His father was. But he was “in game.” So I don’t give up on the young Bull just yet. I hope they can do something fun with him.
However, sending pieces of his anatomy to a teenager who happens to lead the enemy Faction does get in the way of any attempts at Baine fandom… like what?….
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The chance for a faction war is dubious at worse, super far off in the future at best. And even then, Baine has had good relations with other Alliance members, namely Jaina. Hell, even Matthias helped him escape.
In Tides of War he did lead his forces against Northwatch. The way I see Baine’s relation is in the same vein as how he sees the non-Naukud centaurs. He isn’t simply going to go on a war path just because both sides have had bad blood in the past.
Like it or not, short of the Alliance going over the edge I dont see Baine going on any war path against the Alliance.
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As oppose to giving up a Bronzebeard family heirloom to Baine? I understand why you’re less enthralled by the entire thing(wasn’t exactly fond of Fearbreaker going to Baine and ultimately being used to save Garrosh) but the closeness of Anduin/Baine have always just been a feature. They are effectively childhood friends.
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Um, yeah.
There is a marked difference between giving an item and giving a body part. I would not think that needed further explanation.
Anduin : “here is this Dwarven heirloom bestowed to me - a Human princling.”
Baine : “ here take pieces of me!”
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I don’t think there is, in the sense of what it represents. Which is giving something priceless to symbolize your friendship.
Anduin: here, take this priceless dwarven heirloom, that was just given to me btw, not because I was a human prince but because Magni considered me close enough to be an adoptive son.
Baine: here take this horn, don’t worry it grows back(considering Baine didn’t change his looks I assume this is the case)
Bull horns don’t grow back so unless Blizzard decides otherwise, Baine effectively Van Gogh’d himself for Anduin, which is hella creepy to think about.
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I mean, current Baine seems to have a full set of horns so I assume it does until otherwise stated.
If Baine was portrayed as being a half-insane painter who gives all his friends, er, special gifts in his off-time, that would actually make him vastly more interesting.
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As long as Baine is lopping off body parts to garner favor, if Baine donated some Prime Beef cuts for Lorthemar’s wedding, at least he might be a “Horde Bro”
But no, he only lops off body parts for the Alliance.
Baine’s apotemnophilia is of course Alliance biased.
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Is it me, or does this feel a little strange when they have gone out of their way to tell us in interviews not to try to link them to existing Centaur? I understand that as an MMO, WoW can’t give much attention to things outside of it’s current ‘new’ areas. But I really just don’t think this does anything meaningful for Tauren. It’s Centaur whose existence in the setting is still -super- weird to try and reconcile on a deeper level.
What does this do for the existing world and the things Tauren are actually tied to, y’know? Some cameos of old characters is nice though.
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You’re probably right, but that means Horde players are never really going to embrace him the way Alliance players do.
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To be honest, I feel it’s more nuanced. You have players on both sides who like Baine, players on both sides who dislike him, and players on both sides who are indifferent. It’s just the loudest voices are creating an impression. Though I must confess I generally have that impression when it comes people discussing any character in a fandom.
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Yeah, I admit I’m oversimplifying. But I do think there’s enough of a trend to generalize, while acknowledging that faction fans aren’t a monolith.
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I disagree. I have my own impression. Others also have their own independent impressions. And we discuss.
Perhaps if you mean by “the loudest voice creating the impression”… you mean the actual Lore Benders at Blizzard… Yes, their voices are loudest, because they write the stuff.
But if you mean some loud fans write the narrative we opine on… no. There is a narrative there that we can speak on. It is not some fan fed impression. It is quite literally there.
Anyone can read about Baine lopping off pieces of his anatomy in order to send his bits to the Alliance. Anyone can read that Baine declared his slain tribes people legitimate military targets. The blasted Blizzard narrative gives that impression.
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Two-foot.
In retrospect, I should have been more clear. My “loudest voices are creating an impression” comment was more centered around the concept of the generalized concept/belief of Horde players universally dislike Baine. I get that no one here was making that assumption, it’s just it’s a concept I see thrown out more that I feel I should.
So my bad in that regard.
I’ll admit those are part of the reason that Baine isn’t one of my favorite characters, though I like the guy well enough. Hopefully this quest chain is a sign of things getting better in that Baine front.
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Truth has been spat.
Boss fight initiated.
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This has always been the music I heard in my head whenever I saw the ol’ “Why do I hear boss music” meme.
What a jam.
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I figure what the devs meant is for players not to try to find links between the centaur, not that the NPCs in-universe can’t be written to make those assumptions.
As for things tauren are supposed to be tied to, that’s generally superceded by other races having vastly more important (or marketable) ties to the same content. The race is effectively starting from ground 0; they’ve just never been that important or impactful outside of their friendship with the horde.
Baine’s PTSD from being a kidnapping and almost-murder-victim of centaur might be one of the only meaningful setting ties he has.
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