Oo00ooo0ooOo
That sounds cool. I am a fan of Warcrafts Dragons and their Dragon lore. I am looking forward to it. (I would have liked to have known the cheerful Malygos, before Deathwing annihilated his flight, and sent him in to a downward spiral. RIP)
When I read this, I thought :
“Oh, this is neat. They are doubling down on making Lorthemar a sort of Warrior-Poet. Maybe he will be reformatted in to one of the chief Scribes among the Horde.”
I am a fan of language, and the nuance of words, and etymology. I like learning how words came to be, and the subtle differences in language. So, I was thrilled that a major Character is being cast in the light of “the written word guy”.
I guess I dont have that… instinct… that others have, where they find things to be offended.
Well, what do you know.
The Night Elves were not wiped out. The Night Elves still exist. The Dev Team is still using them in the lore going forward. And they are in Ashenvale.
That should please the NEFPAs out there.
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Don’t worry, NEFPA (I) have successfully taken offense at the relatively free movement of the Horde throughout the night elf territory.
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I didn’t have an opinion on Lor’themar helping Zekhan in that regard but now this is my new headcanon. Thank you.
We actually don’t know if it’s night elf territory after the Fourth War. The translated page just showed that Rexxar and Zekhan are seeking to avoid conflict by avoiding the roads, which A Good War and Elegy showed that the sentinels would use for their patrols. After all Ashenvale could end up being contested, likes it been throughout WoW’s lifetime and prematurely thinking otherwise is just bound to set yourself up for anger, if the book shows that it’s contested.
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They seem to be mirroring every zones normal politics. Like in the Barrens Northwatch Hold inexplicably exists still. So I expect that Ashenvale will be business as usual.
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The Zekhan issue is a false alarm. According to someone on Twitter who claimed to be German, Lor’themar did not teach Zekhan how to read and write. He taught him to read and write in flowery script.
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Another German came forward saying it could be interpreted either way too 
Guess we’ll see in 3 days 
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Dude the Trolls are the earliest civilization on Azeroth and all Darkspear trolls would thereby grow up learning Zandali (speaking and writing, what with the tablets and scrolls they have for knowledge, and possibly multiple dialects therein), Orcish (because Orgrimmar), and given he’s a Shaman possibly some Taur-ahe given Troll/Tauren relations.
There is zero narrative justification for why an adult Troll Shaman would not be literate.
And this idea that Trolls are incapable of flowery language is also cringe and tedious.
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I don’t know about that. He is not exactly a grizzled veteran, when we first meet him on the parapets of Undercity.
He is a young soldier. His father has been killed. We don’t know the level of education he may have had. Or what sort of privileges people assume are universal, but that he may have never enjoyed.
I guess if it were Rokhan learning how to read and write from Lorthemar, I might agree that it is a bit nonsensical and wrong. But Zekhan is young, and a bit of a buffoon. It makes sense that he needs to learn a thing or two.
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This almost feels like a troll post, deliberately stripping context for controversy. By ‘black’ Ion clearly meant ‘morally black’, as in they want the destruction of the world at the pedipalps of an Old God. Not that any of the other talk about the morals of BFA made any damn sense, but it did here.
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I know what he meant, and I forgot to put that in the post. That’s not the point. It was a bad way to say that. Looking back, the way I brought it up was inappropriate, so I got rid of it. I apologize.
Add to that, Azeroth is a medivalesque place. The majority of people are illiterate.
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We don’t know the literacy rate of any of Azeroth’s nations.
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The tribes split a long time ago, there’s been plenty of time for language and writing to evolve differently amongst all of them. They originate from the Zandalari who have been a greater part of the upper class in Troll society, being the primary record keepers and scholars, and looked down upon the other tribes partly because of their intelligence. I assume reading and writing isn’t as important for other tribes. Regardless, Lor’themar teaching Zekhan the basics of writing is ridiculous because there’s no reason that it has to be him who does it. This situation is also kind of a problem partly because Blizzard hasn’t gone into the issue of language within the Horde, such as having to teach everyone the primary language (which I assume is Orcish) and how much of the Horde knows Common since presumably it’s the most well known language on Azeroth and is the most likely language to be used in communicating between races and factions.
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Canonically all the Trolls speak Zandali in a way that is mutually understandable, so well, no
But yeah language construction in WoW doesn’t make any sense.
In an ideal world:
- Zandali is the common language for all the Zandalarian races (ie Tortollan, Sethrak, and Vulpera to communicate with each other)
- There is “High” Zandali = Zandalarian Zandali vs “Low” Zandali = Regional Zandali
- this could be a fun area to explore narratively in the same way la RAE “manages” the Spanish language internationally (with national specific branches keeping track of national/regional dialects thereby) with a lot of modern resistance from national-language groups who consider prescriptivist obedience to the RAE to be a vestige of colonialism
- Farraki Zandali is a dialect derived from Gurubashi Zandali, as per their history
- Zandali as word should be both the name of the language and the autonym for the Trolls, the same way the Spanish speak Spanish, Arabs speak Arabic, Greeks speak Greek, etc
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Oh, come now. It is a common, basic, low level joke. What the kids call, a “meme”. Nothing to get too worked up over.
It seems likely a slip of the tongue. But with the recent lawsuits, one can’t be blamed for asking if it were more a Freudian Slip :
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Anyone want to remind people that Zekhan is a young adult? He’s practically a kid compared to everyone around him. Cursewords is right, some y’all are way too quick to be offended.
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??? Most young adults are literate. What??
Why would the oldest civilization on Azeroth with the oldest language on Azeroth wherein they are rightly proud of this fact not have literacy as basic childhood obligation?
What about the religious scrolls? Military orders? Voodoo encantations? How does this make sense.
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Because…like in real life…not everyone is literate?
Like…that’s a thing you know that exists.
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Why would a formally trained shaman of the Horde, who as a darkspear was probably trained within Gurubashi shamanistic/voodoo/shadow hunter type tradition, who was selected to be ambassador to Zandalar, not be literate?
Why would it make sense for a civilization as beautiful and complex as the Troll Nations to not have “flowery language” either?
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Ability to speak doesn’t mean someone can read or write. It doesnt mean Zekhan is dumb. It probably was never important at the time and he is just kid.
I really think y’all just overblowing this. It might just be a problem with the translation. Let’s wait than until we have the actual copies before we start acting offended is all.
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