The unreliable narrator is a brilliant trope. But it’s also dangerous when relied on.
The easiest gaming example is to bring up the Elder Scrolls, and how they went from using the trope as a narrative and thematic tool, to using it as a crutch that allows them to retcon anything they want and gaslight us into thinking it was “just as planned”.
WoW’s devolution is like The Elder Scroll’s but at high speed.
I do not think that is a fair comparison. TES is meant to have very complicated metaphysics and a world full of biased people. You really expect Imperials, who forced the High Elves in with some crazy ancient doomsday genocide machine, would have an accurate, fair view of their culture? Also large gaps in time are depicted where things can change.
And the majority of the time, things Blizzard is now trying to write off as “unreliable narrator” are things that we are seeing, visually, with our eyeballs. Elder Scrolls has some of that, but for the most part they do that with things that aren’t depicted at all, just talked or wrote about after the fact.
It began that way Aurirel, but the series has really gone off the deep end lately with the constant “watering down” of the lore in favor of creating a more grounded fantasy world. But that’s another story thats not relevent here.
Point is, never use the unreliable narrator as a writing crutch. See WoW begin to do that is just a sign of things to come for me.
Lore: This guy from Cyrodiil describes his homeland, in detail, as a jungle! So does every single npc in Morrowind.
Bethesda: Wait, no Cyrodiil is generic medieval europe, that guy was just stupid and didnt bother looking out the window. All the npcs who told you that are lying or stupid.
Thats the level we’re at with that series, and it’s absolutely destroyed any sense of worldbuilding for me. To see it happen here too is just depressing.
Remember: the unreliable narrator is a powerful trope. Use it wisely.
IMO the main problem here is that the whole “PoV” / “unreliable narrator” thing looks just like an excuse in WoW.
That’s not how “unreliable narrator” works, I’d say.
For example I’ll use The Elder Scrolls 3, which is built around that idea. After finishing all the quest lines there (except the golden sword and the pilgrimage) I can say that:
None of those perspectives cancels any events or makes the historical periods impossible. It can affect the tone, the suggested scope, or put in question the things that other side considers to be truth, but that’s it.
In WoW, we have contradictions and the stories where using one PoV makes the events of another one impossible, etc., e.g. sudden Suramar reveal where W3 does not fit the Legion explanation and vice versa, or “but Illidan had another intentions”, the way Sylvanas story was handled with her motivations and behavior, even a few contradictions between 9.0 and 9.1 exist, etc.
So, IMO it could’ve been a tool, but here it’s just an excuse for ignoring inconvenient for the current narrative parts of the lore.
gl hf
Didn’t they establish in ESO that Talos changed it to have always been temperate?
That doesn;t explain why every npc you ask about Cyrodiil in Morowind says it’s a jungle and described their culture in a completely different way. Or why a book written by a resident of Cyrodiil describes it as such.
It’s a retcon. A sloppy one. Todd Howard saw LOTR and decided to change the entire lore of one of the most important places in Tamriel.
Edit: Chronorabbit brings up a good point of how ES used to use the trope RIGHT. WoW could learn a lot from Morrowind.
They actually established it in Oblivion through a book.
Yay Kirkbride’s insanely weird metaphysics. ‘Become the godhead, reshape reality as you wish’.
The Silmarillion was just the perspective of the Valar!
splashes in puddle of diarrhea
Now I can finally tell my Super Elf and Megamelkor story! Nyack ha ha!
No trader was present in Maraad’s story.
The assumption is the draenei would have talked to orcs/races they traded with in Draenor and possibly learned a thing or two about the various warlords/important people on Draenor.
The assumption is disproven because there are no living witnesses in Maraud’s story.
No one alive saw what Durotan had allegedly done.
Edit: Nevermind that the AR orcs don’t have bloodlust, lmao.
There was, Durotan himself. Considering he was wearing the skin of his wolf why wouldn’t he tell others of his story as a cautionary tale?
Seems like one more ammo to prove racials are not canon/universally applicable. Especially considering the Durotan Maraad was talking about was MU Durotan.
You only have part of a point. A lot of this “alternate accounts” stuff is Tolkien working the ideas he had for the story before it was published into the story itself.
What Blizzard is doing is the equivalent of Tolkien suddenly turning around and making a new version of the Hobbit after the original book was published and put on sale… then selling the new version as canon and disregarding the old one. Except the new book says that elf king Thranduril is the protagonist, Bilbo is now commander of the Orc armies replacing Bolg, the Shire is an Orc slave camp, Gollum is the master of Laketown and Smaug an innocent lizard killed in his sleep.
He never tells the player.
Why would he tell randos?
Don’t bother answering, he wouldn’t. Maraad was just being racist and trying to paint even the goodboi Frostwolves as evil.
One of my favorite things about Shadow of War as, despite not being canon, they still put in some effort into making things fit with the movies by having the protagonist fail to actually defeat Sauron (rather than just delay him) in a reflection of the fallacy of total power the rings represent. It was not Spooky Gravewalker New Ring of Power Mind Controller that brought an end to Sauron, it was the genuine friendship and dedication of two hobbits and the bravery of a single warrior.
They players are NOT always privy to everything that happens to characters. Like for example Jaina never told us what she did when she left Dalaran.
Also, the entire point of that story was no every orc was evil.
The players gain the title ‘of the Frostwolves’ by attaining exalted reputation with them. If Durotan won’t tell you the story of his helmet that, as you say, is an important cautionary tale, he wouldn’t tell a random trader.
Maraad was racist.
One, it could simply be the opportunity to mention it was never present(you were busy with a war). Of course, it could also just be Geyah who told the story. I assume she knew what happened/figured it out.
Also, Maraad was simply telling a story he hear. A story, that as far as we know is correct. That is not being racist.