Yes.
That’s what happens here.
It’s so people can retcon the cows into being the first druids even though Tauren were only given druidism in WoW so that the Horde could have one in response to the Night Elves.
I’m sure if I look at both group’s architecture I can make an assumption based on real life cultures that doesn’t necessarily apply to WoW because it’s a fantasy world. But other people will make a big deal out of it.
I don’t understand? What defines a Druid? Is it not just a person who can draw upon Life magic, just as a Mage is a generic term for someone who’s pretty darn good at using Arcane?
Is this something not everyone is on board with?
I honestly don’t know, but I assume the WoW definition is probably being able to shapeshift.
You had the Gilnean Harvest Witches before they became Druids with the Worgen curse, but they weren’t what most people would call druids.
A Druid to me is someone who dedicates themselves to using Life magic primarily, rather than any of the other 5 fundamental forces or Elements. Which is to say…
Neither Tauren nor Night Elves were first? There’s probably no historical record of the first Druids on Azeroth, whatever species they were, and the first in the universe is looooong gone.
Again it’s going to have to come down to some official definition of a druid. Because there are other groups who have used life magic who COULD be considered druids.
But at least in my head, an official Druid in WoW is someone who is so advanced in life magic usage that they are able to shapeshift into one or more nature forms. Pretty sure it even says so under the Class description of a druid.
I want to point out at least in Warcraft that Blizzard doesnt denigrate the uses/the cultural significances of story telling as a medium for preserving history. Case in point, the lorewalker like Cho use verbal story telling to impart wisdom/history.
Having said that, Khadgar as someone who is more of an academic would probably prefer written records because like it or not oral tradition does have a tendency to end up being inaccurate/slowly shift as it keeps being recounted.
I mean this could also apply to the night elves. With the plucky village people being the good guys and the rich and hauty nobility/city dwellers as the antagonist.
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I’m sure such beings existed tens of thousands of years ago. Such abilities are kind of part of the standard set of abilities available to those who deal in Life magics. With the cosmology that exists, I don’t think you’re going to get away from the inevitability of Druid just being the name of a Life caster. I wouldn’t feel confident in saying anyone is the first such being, because I’m sure every primordial species on the planet simultaneously discovered such magics!
I mean, I feel like this is just devolving into people say that the definition of a Druid is “someone who learned Life magic from the school of Cenarius” such that the first Druids were obviously “those who first spoke to Cenarius.” That’s just a definition so tautologically useless and circular that I don’t get the point, it’s a weird and laughable conversation.
Unless this is some kind of veiled messed up NEFPA supremacy nonsense, because nobody on this forum can do anything but speak in dogwhistles.
Grummles were created by the Mogu. Specifically, Emperor Tian was responsible for creating them.
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“The magic of the pools expanded their minds and grew their bodies until they became one of the great ancient cultures of Pandaria.[7]”
IE the Jinyu also became smarter because they were near magic water.
This is a good point to bring up.
Oral history not being considered a ‘valid source’ is because of how it can be twisted over time from accurate to inaccurate. It’s like a game of telephone. You start with perfectly reasonable historical acts, but then as time marches on and the tales get passed down, details start to change.
Then thousands of years later, the tale being told looks nothing like what was originally stated in the first place. It’s also impossible to validate oral tradition stories without some form of written record or physical evidence.
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The definition for “Druid” gets brought up often because Blizz has gone on record saying Malfurion is THE first mortal druid on Azeroth.
However, there were people before Malfurion who did “druidic things”, Tauren and Trolls being the main ones.
So if Malurion is the first “mortal druid”, then that means there’s some vague qualification that the previous practitioners didn’t meet. And people argue over what those qualifications are.
I’ll also say that the reason it gets brought up in regards to Malurion so much is because, plainly, people want Tauren and/or Trolls to be the first druids.
They want Druidism to be less tightly connected to Night Elves.
An easy way to do that would be to legitimize the societies that practiced Druidism before Malfurion by allowing them to be “the first Druids”.
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The definition of “Druid” is important because it’s the name of the playable class, so giving Druids a strictly Nelf-centered definition (which has been the case historically) will likely result in Druid content being very largely dominated by the Nelf fantasy (which has also been the case historically), leaving other druidic traditions with worthless crumbs and no narrative relevance
Defining Druids as simply wielders of Life magic (with maybe a shared interest in “the cycle of life and death” as a loose spiritual motif whose cultural interpretation may differ greatly depending on the group) is definitely the way to go, because that way we’re actually leaving room for other traditions to be explored (since as you said there likely have been practitioners of Life magic since time immemorial), but that’s not what Druidism in WoW has been so far. It has been about learning stuff from Cenarion, growing flowers in enchanted forests, the Emerald Dream, and more generally… Nelves
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Trolls, tauren, the gilnean harvest witches, the kul’tiran druids, etc all get consumed by night elven Druidism and it makes world building difficult when your center an entire class around very specific race and don’t budge from it
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While this is true, there is also the following argument.
Before WoW even came out, Malfurion was stated to be the first druid, You should not take that away from lore to make druidism more widespread across other cultures.
I think “other cultures developed their form of druidism” and “Malfurion was the first druid” are both statements that could coexist.
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Expanding on the other Druidic beliefs and how they formed on their own, in no way shape or form takes away from Malfurion being the first druid.
The other races having their own unique takes and lore on it doesn’t take away from that. Only people I see making that arguement are mostly NE fans who don’t want the race expanded beyond the night elves
Define Druid. Only allowing Cenarius’ pupils to be called Druids is like saying that only Dalaran-educated Humans can be called Mages/Sorcerers/Wizards, or that only Orcs are allowed to be called Shaman.
Shaman = user of the Elements
Mage = user of Arcane
Warlock = user of Fel
Priest/Paladin = user of the Light
Druid = user of Life
So sick of NEFPAs, this is literally the dumbest position I’ve ever seen someone ever take on this forum, just to bolster their Nelf supremacy because they think they’re Nelves in real life.
Nah. Take it away from him.
Malfurion is already the world’s strongest, most special, most handsomest Druid and is on god-like levels of power.
The most important storybeat was that he was the first Night Elven druid in a culture that had largely shirked away from such practices.
He literally loses nothing by not being the very first mortal druid to ever exist.
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My guy, with trolls you don’t even need to go far. It’s actually wild to me that you’re pretending it takes any effort to figure out the very obvious afro-carribean-indigenous south american inspirations they’re based on. It’s shocking that you think it takes an in-depth examination here.
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Also, if I may: if Blizzard says Druids existed before Malfurion… then get rekt, NEFPAs, because they decide what is canon, not you. Night Elves didn’t discover Life magic, too bad, so sad, you lose.
Blizzard developed the lore on pre-historic Tauren Druids like well over a decade ago, the Night Elves lost their oh so special status long, long ago.
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