Dumb Thought : Adventurers, Weapons and Taxes

Wyrmrest Accord
1

Given the news out of 'Murica over the past few years, this has been percolating in my head for a while now.

Do Adventurers have to declare their weapons? Do we have our bags and banks inspected for contraband and dangerous items? Do we have to pay taxes along with the rest of our peoples?

I can just imagine a Death Knight dreading going into Stormwind not because of the strain of their Eternal Hunger or the terrified looks of the children as they pass, but the paperwork they have to fill out just to get past the main gate.

Living Saronite Runeblade imbued with Scourge Death-Magic, and plate armor made of Titan-Steel, Saronite and elemental motes. The Guards won’t let you pass until you sign forms releasing the Alliance military from all legal responsibility if you are attacked, or attack anyone else, and you have to sign that you’ve both read and understood a form on the prohibition of ‘Dark Magic’ being used in a public space for any reason.

Having to pay additional taxes based upon the net worth of your equipment, both what you’re using and what you have stored in your bank(s). The stables charging premiums for the care and feeding of strange and exotic mounts. The Sapient mounts like Drakes requiring significantly better treatment and requiring rooms at the inns, access to what interests them (libraries, drama plays, etc).

All of this has to add up.

In universe, I imagine players running around with Hazard Level 3 or higher weapons (purple or higher quality) have to either surrender them to the Guards while entering Stormwind or other high-value areas, or have to fill out a staggering amount of paperwork and be vetted by a certain rank of Alliance/Horde military command. Actually maintaining control of said weapons, armor and trinkets might even become difficult in times of crisis if the Horde/Alliance military decides somebody else might be able to use it better than you.

I love the concept that adventurers who try to avoid paying these taxes and dodge the fuzz tend to find themselves on a wanted poster because of the staggering amount of wealth that Adventurers produce. We’re effectively the ‘work horses’ of our respective factions, bringing home staggering amounts of resources, gold and ancient relics to bulk up the economy, and yet we’re also incredibly lethal entities that can topple entire armies in our underwear for fun, so just frog-marching us into prison if we don’t pay up also becomes problematic.

How often do adventurers get scammed by desperate civilians eager to get a slice of that wealth, and then are prevented from going on a rampage to punish the offending civilians?

How expansive is the Black Market’s reach within our Mega-Factions? Is there a network of smugglers and counterfeiters who take an exorbitant amount of gold and favours to forge paperwork to allow Adventurers to just walk in and out of the city without dealing with nosy Guards asking why the eye-covered sword on your back is whispering directly into their brains and making the childrens’ eyes bleeding black blood.

And of course … what happens to the stuff we vendor? Does a Fossilized Egg have specific value to anyone but a collector or mage studying uncommon magic? What good is a sun-bleached plate helmet have any value outside of scrap? And the amount of time, effort and additional metal you’d need to either refurbish it or make something else out it seems to suggest either a Smith makes bog-all money, or a suit of armor is fiendishly expensive if a battered and useless helmet costs several gold to buy as scrap, when Garrosh was flipping his lid about a few hundred gold.

((Incidentally, I think that was revealed to be a type, it being a couple of hundred thousand gold that Silvermoon owed Orgrimmar at the time.))

And what, by all the Gods, does a fistful of scavenged animal parts warrant a pouch’s worth of silver and copper coins? Was the famine so bad that we were literally grinding everything that was even remotely edible into mince and sausage meat to keep protein on the menu?

There’s so much stuff that seems to be going on off-screen that could add a huge impetus to us trying to advance our Faction or Mega-Faction without being “I hate these people I want their city to burn!” levels of nonsense.

3 Likes
2

There’s the famous George R.R. Martin quote where he asks what Aragorn’s tax policy was after he was crowned king.

I wouldn’t be the first to say that the Warcraft universe is pretty shallow. But I do think it’s our responsibility as roleplayers to try and consider these kinds of questions.

1 Like
3

I mean, tax nonsense aside (one of the reason Adventurer Guilds are common in my campaigns is that it A) provides a stable and government-controlled method of hiring adventurers B) allows those who are leading the nation to keep tabs on the motivations and abilities of powerful individuals and groups C) provides a stable, if heavily taxed, method of adventurers selling their loot, ensuring said loot goes to safe traders and craftsfolk and D) allows the adventurers to have access to stable housing, medical aid and legal counsel … whereas free-lance adventurers have to make do with whatever aid they can find, are constantly being harassed by the guards and the army, have to haggle and barter to sell their goods on their own and without the Guild looming behind them and have to risk getting involved in political and religious intrigue that could set them against their leaders without them knowing about it), when we consider the exotic nature of Adventurer armaments and equipment, there’s a lot of stuff in game that doesn’t make sense.

You couldn’t just fly into a capital city. Either you come in on gryphon/wyvern mounts flying in sanctioned routes, or you’re about to meet a wing of very angry Orc Grunts or Human Knights on very large and aggressive flying mounts about to make your day very unpleasant because you tried to just fly over the fortifications to get to the Auction House … bypassing all the guards meant to keep order and check for contraband.

Players literally have access to terrifying items. Living saronite weapons and armor, Sha-infused relics and legendary items of power unfathomable to most people on Azeroth, Titanic guns capable of shooting super-heated plasma or Demon-haunted daggers that whisper of warm, wet murder to any hands that touch them. These are not things conductive to a happy, peaceful life in a large city, especially in trying times of refugees crowding the streets, food shortages that have been going on for years and world-ending threats conga-lining their way across Azeroth. If the Guards can’t control who brings what into the cities they protect, they can damn well make certain they track down who has what and what their business is within the city, including how long they intend to stay.

I think that’d be one of the fun things to explore in WoW. In the Horde, especially amongst the Kalimdor Horde, such things are probably a lot less terrifying. Powerful weapons and deadly relics are part and parcel of the Orcish and Troll histories, the Tauren are generally less inclined to hold onto such items in the first place, the Sin’dorei and Shal’dorei would more likely consider such objects fascinating and try to study them, the Forsaken are literally going “…You literally cannot make our Unlives any worse, go nuts.” and the Goblins? They’d probably try to make copies and knock-offs and sell them as ‘genuine imitations’ of the weapon to other Adventurers.

Alliance, however, we’re heading into rocky territory. Far more ordered and bureaucratic than the Horde, I could see the Humans of Stormwind and Gilneas being very much “You have a T-27a/HI8 weapon. Either sign the forms, put it in the vault or figure out a way to get it to stop screaming for souls if you want to enter the city.” to Adventurers. Dwarves would probably get offended that your powerful weapons and armor aren’t Dwarven made, and if they are, why in the bloody hells did you make it out of that? Gnomes would probably pull it apart to study it and give you back something more technologically advanced after they’ve put it back together … and wildly impractical as a result. Kaldorei are probably going “I remember when people first discovered this ore!”, and the Draenei probably consider everything not made on Argus caveman-tier equipment.

1 Like
4

What the heck is the king spending my auction house fees on if he need to levy taxes too

3 Likes
5

I mean, steam tanks, air-ships, heavily armored war-fleets, weapons and armor for the troops, support and aid to famine-stricken regions, paying for mercenaries, those magical items and monetary rewards we get for completing quests, repairing infrastructure and old equipment to keep producing weapons and armor for the armed forces, alms for the poor, the list goes on.

I honestly would love a plot-line in the Dragon Isles that three years of adventurers not going out and murder-hoboing actually finished any flicker of war between the Alliance and Horde because without the taxation gathered from them, there wasn’t enough money to keep the economies afloat and the soldiers paid, so everyone had to step back from a war footing and focus on internal affairs to keep their nations from collapsing into failed states.

We ended war on Azeroth by refusing to go in to work for three years. Who’d’a’thunk it?

2 Likes
6

I feel like, at this point, surely adventurers are following local laws out of politeness only, right? We have brought down multiple governments and installed selected authority figures to our liking, what’s to stop us from doing it to our own save budget constraints?

An expansion pack where we were the big bad, that’s the ticket.

2 Likes
7

We’d have some pretty baller loot tables.

And yet still only drop things for someone’s off spec.

2 Likes
8

This is a great idea! I’ll get the team on it right away!

9

My thoughts about all that loot junk we get like eyes, fur scraps and garbage armour is that they are magical reagents and scrap metal. Game mechanically we don’t need eye of newt and hair of dog to cast spells, but in some settings mages need reagents to cast complex spells.
And scrap metal? That’s worth a lot of money irl.

Just imagining murder hobos in certain parts of the cities having to take off thier weapons and armour because of it’s magical side-effects before they can enter certain establishments. Or put them in magical quarantined areas so their taint doesn’t make people grow tentcles and the children don’t start sacrificing themselves to the old gods. :sweat_smile:

ALSO along these lines, do you think there’s a lot of descrimination against DKs? “No Death Knights allowed” signs on shops and signs directing DKs to use the side enterance and so on… Jim Crow-like laws.

10

Let’s not use this as comparable to whatever fantasy discrimination against zombies in a video game

11

It bears thinking about even if it’s not palpable. Especially considering the Blizz made all the indigenous/non-white folks animals. I wasn’t trying to be funny or trite.

Anyway, I wasn’t trying to derail/drag down the topic.

–

Also Part 2: Back on Topic
I think considering the amount of people who died not just in the wars but in the atrocities and sheer destruction from multiple extinction events, both factions should have been at a stalemate years ago due to lack of canon fodder. WHERE are they getting all these extra soldiers? Are they vat-growing them? Conjuring them from alternate dimensions? Transmogrifying them from sheep (lol)?
And not only that, WHERE are they getting all the food to feed people? Civilians and soldiers! I know that during WW1, the Germans highly propagandized their civilians and soliders. Telling the civilians they had to go hungry because all their best food was going to feed the soldiers; and the soldiers were told they were starving so that their families back home weren’t suffering. When in truth, both parties were malnurshied and starving.
Granted azeroth has a huge amount of arcanists that can conjur food, but you can’t survive on magicked cinnamon rolls. :sweat_smile:

12

I try to stay away from posting real life things on these forums, so I will just say real life world history proves there is a never a shortage of people to fight wars.

1 Like
13

I don’t think comparing fantasy video game lore to real life racism is necessary but that’s just me

14

Fair enough, but we often use fantasy/scifi/horror to explore real life issues… I know that wasn’t Blizzards intention though.

ANYWAY… how about that weather! Crazy huh? :sweat_smile:

1 Like
15

To me, there’s three warcraft universes that exist together and separately.

You have the universe presented in cinematics like the Saurfang series and even the movie. It’s still magical and fantasy but it’s a little more down to earth and slightly more serious. Only a few selective individuals will possess rare and power weapons and armor and control magic which can move mountains. Essentially the main characters.

Then you have the in game setting which is more like a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s got its seriousness but it’s more like a WWE soap opera and you just embrace your inner 5 year old and go with it. In this setting it’s again only the most important lore characters that will have amazing weapons, armour and magic.

Finally you have the video game setting where everyone has fantastic weapons, armors and magic.

All three are valid but obviously clash with one another.

With that in mind, I imagine the more serious cinematic setting may have rules and taxes around weapons and gear. Yet if you’re Anduin Lothar or Thrall, you are likely exempt from it because you’re some important dude or the Warchief.

Maybe lesser known champions get exemptions but maybe only in their homeland as opposed to a faraway allied city.

I also imagine settlements regardless of video game setting or super serious cinematics are all operating on wild west logic.

2 Likes
16

Thought provoking and detailed question as ever, Gentarn :smiley:

To be honest I disagree regarding weapons though. In Medieval England for example, every man was expected to carry a weapon in wartime, though this was limited in peacetime, usually to a seaxe knife and/or a bow and arrow. Nobles were allowed to carry any old weapon at any old time.

Azeroth is full of warlike societies, by necessity at this point. I can imagine the lesser of two evils being that every citizen is ready for war in the event of a sudden attack (I mean, in the last two expansions alone Stormwind was set on fire by Zul and attacked by the Scourge). I feel as if keeping the people in a constant state of readiness would be more valuable than restricting their weapons access on the off-chance that a drunkard starts swinging his greatsword in an argument. In their psyche, I suspect that’s what the heavily armed guards are for.

Additionally, to keep zoning in on Stormwind specifically, the government isn’t exactly as “in charge” as it would like to be, I think, so they’ve got bigger priorities. Stormwind projects its military power far and wide, and has even rebuilt Stromgarde from basically nothing… but domestically, they’re not actually that impressive. There’s a lot of problems in Stormwind that desperately need a resolution. As best as we know, Westfall is still a half-abandoned mess full of discontented homeless people that the government has done very little to help. Duskwood is an absolute mess - with Darkshire’s own local government nearly wiping out their entire town in Legion, and Raven Hill still probably totally abandoned. The place is totally haunted, they haven’t even exorcised Sir Thomas Bates yet :stuck_out_tongue: Even Redridge likely still experiences problems with Gnolls and Blackrocks now and again. In short, Stormwind has a lot of domestic issues, and I would imagine if the government hasn’t fixed these HUGE local problems, they likely don’t have the time or energy to enforce weapons registration programs.

I use the Alliance as an example because I think the Horde’s even more obvious. I mean, are you going to go up to your local Warsong Orc and ask him to register his replica gorehowl? I’m not :sob: Certain Horde races have such a warlike history and context that I don’t think they’d even consider weapons restriction. Chiefly I think the orcs (who still run big ol Orgrimmar) and the Forsaken (who just are generally okay with murder anyway so why restrict it?) Given the Tauren’s and Darkspear’s long history fighting for survival I can’t imagine they’ve done much with it either. The Elves might ban weapons, but they probably just conceal them with magic anyway, the chads.

Anyway, point is I think weapons registration/restriction/declaration is the least of the worries of these factions in a world that has been plagued by almost nonstop war for decades.

As for taxes, I don’t know if they’re smart enough to scale it based on income or if they measure that, but yeah I suspect that every citizen of every nation pays at least a flat rate of taxation. That goes to the “racial government” (heck that’s a cringe phrase but I don’t know what else to call it) who send a certain percentage, maybe 20% to the Alliance/Horde as a whole for allocation to factionwide military or projects.

1 Like
17

Which elves are the chad elves.

18

My elfs weapon is a bat with spikes on it. The spikes are orc teeth. She pays taxes only to Elune. The taxes are orc souls sent directly into the maw

2 Likes
19

My old orc guild would hop the boat over to Teldrassil to pee in the moonwells, so this is probably also valid.

20

There’s evidence things poop in WoW, but no evidence they pee.