Sounds like that one faction in Shadowlands forgot the name
Really, no. Cause Stormwind had that LONG before Worgens.
And Worgens never had a monopoly on Dark, spooky forests full of monsters.
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I’d hardly call Duskwood the aesthetic of Stormwind.
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It’s a Territory of Stormwind as much as Drustvar is of Kul Tiras.
More so, even that seeing as Drustvar is it’s own Providence, seperate from that of Boralus and Stormsong while Duskwood is part of the Stormwind Kingdom.
I’m not referring to Kul Tiras though. You said that Stormwind had that aesthetic for longer. But Stormwind’s aesthetic, as a whole, isn’t gothic horror. The Worgen’s is. All of Gilneas is classic gothic horror.
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But It existed as a part of Stormwind, thus it was a part of Stormwind First.
And while YOU weren’t reffering to Kul Tiras, the OP was, to which I was originally responding.
Just say you’re a Wrynn fanboy and go. LMAO
The issue with Varian being Goldrinn’s favored was that the Worgen existed. Who were made from his essence of rage so why was some Human picked to be his champion?
In response to this I am just going to quote Radomir because it is the best answer:
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No, I’m just not a fan of Hypocrisy.
So, one Human is a Problem but Other Humans are not…
And that Worgen, at the time, were mindless killers, lost to their bloodlust and Goldrinn didn’t much care for them anyway. He saw them as victims of their own hubris.
But he’s wrong. Duskwood is part of Stormwind, so it was one part of Stormwind’s aesthetic first. Just because they took that and gave it to Gilneas (and defined it by ONLY this one asthetic) doesn’t change that fact.
Worgen aren’t Humans. They are Worgen. Their souls are in Worgen form, when they die they are in Worgen form. That isn’t a Human.
And we know Worgen were not mindless killers then. Please. In Northrend we see the Wolf Cult and those people had complete control of their worgen form and could shift when they wanted. That is the case with the Wolf Cult in Gilneas as well. So your point is moot there.
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Varian’s connection with Goldrinn was a thing a couple of years before the worgen even became playable. It’s highly likely he came first, plot-developmentally speaking.
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His arc with Goldrinn came out in comics that were released in like 2009, which was a year before Cata, which means they likely were planning on adding Worgen already. So the plot point doesn’t make sense and screams “Human Potential” if you ask me. Especially since we knew Worgen were a thing and some weren’t mindless before they did that arc.
They just wanted to make a Wrynn extra cool by tying him to the Wolf God because the Wrynns have to be badass with their potential.
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At the time of Varian, yes they were. The Wolf Cult came much later, and they were still entrenched in their bloodlust while in Worgen form. The Wolf Cult in Gilneas were caught up in Alpha’s grip and very few of them had the wherewithall.
Nope, his comic started in 2007 (he picks up the name in December), and the “Beast Within” issue was released March 19th, 2008. WotLK wouldn’t launch until 8 months later in November.
Not saying it’s good, but the Varian - Lo’gosh connection most likely came way before they settled on a Cata alliance race. I think they struggled on deciding what to do with options back then, but that part might be my faulty memory.
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Oh nice. Thanks for point that out. I hate it.
The whole plot point of him becoming Goldrinn’s favored just screams special snowflake syndrome and they only did it because he is a Wrynn. I really hate them, they are such narrative blackholes with all their potential. Once they knew worgen were going to be a thing they should have had that go to one of them instead of Varian.
Instead we get Varian leading the worgen as their “pack leader” through the forests of Ashenvale taking on the Orcs better than the Night Elves who have lived there for thousands of years could… 
Human Potential at it’s finest.
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If it makes you feel better, I remember horde players hating it back then too for similar reasons. 
If I had to pull a guess out of my rear, since they were basically going for an alliance Thrall thing, it could have been him adopting a horde term as his name, much the same way Thrall’s identified by, well, the human word for slave. Except if it’s true, the comparison ends there since Lo’gosh was a venerated figure among orcs, trolls and tauren whereas calling someone a slave is clearly not respectful. I believe in one of the comics, Varian gets tutored on Lo’gosh’s mythology by Hamuul.
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I don’t know, Varian having that Goldrinn juice was a very good hook point for the Worgen being accepted in the Alliance, and the Genn x Varian bromance that i like.
It seems some worgen wanted the worgen thing to be entirely separate from all the lore that supports it, the connection to goldrinn, the connection to night elves, just feel strange, everything has some root, and every piece of lore has root in something else.
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Not really. During the summit at least half of the Alliance was fine with the Gilneans joining from what I remember, Varian got butthurt and stormed off after saying no he doesn’t agree, but like at that point he wasn’t High King. He didn’t have the final say in who the Alliance allows in, realistically he should have been outvoted, but you know Blizzard gotta make sure the Wrynns run the show.
The mutual respect between Genn and Varian was cool though.
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From what I uderstood, the approval of everyone in the alliance was necessary, so Varian not accepting them was enough.
In the end, Varian being a chosen of Golfrinn didn’t give him any special powers that turned the tide of battles or anything like that, he was basically just a worgen without transformation.
The heritage quest was particularly bewildering.
Blizz basically took everything interesting you could do with a British themed fantasy faction and handed it to the Kul Tirans. So all Gilneans really have going for outside of tophats is the werewolf thing. Why you’d want to downplay that is beyond me.
They sort of still have a more distinctly Victorian vibe but frankly I don’t know how you’d do those themes in WoW in general and particularly with the Alliance. Industrialization seems to be something some nations just don’t get into because magic works just fine. And I doubt Blizz is going to get into the extreme poverty, child labor, plagues, serial killers and other grim topics that make up a Victorian theme.
I mean hell the worgen have claws and there’s not even one Jack the Ripper character. Granted I guess mutilated sex workers might be a bit much for a T rating but you could just elude to it.
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Still part of the Kingdom of Kul Tiras
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