So Tauren lore is very… under devleoped and it got me thinking. In lore rarely, a Tauren Chieftain gets reincarnated. But the one most important Tauren to ever exist, didn’t. He just stayed in Ardenweald. Don’t get me wrong he belongs in Ardenweald, but why didn’t he reincarnate?
He was the leader of the Tauren during the War of the Ancients, THE Tauren, and a Chieftain he hits every mark for those lore says can be reincarnated. He’s a prime candidate for reincarnation, and is a missed opportunity, or at least a great story on why he chose the stay with the Hunt instad.
Yes, we need tauren lore but reincarnation isn’t really a tauren thing, or even a Night Elf or troll thing tbh. Wild Gods/Loa get ‘reincarnated’ but they’re spiritual beings, not important mortals (well, a couple Loa are but neither here no there for the sake of conversation). Tauren often speak with the ancestors, as do orcs, but the ancestors are not brought back as physical beings.
So I think simply put, its not a practice among the various tauren peoples to revere an individual so much they are deified. Additionally, its just not something the Earth Mother, An’she, or Mu’sha do. Not that we’ve ever really seen them much in game other than being referenced (which is another whole conversation too) but they’re just not into the making deities out of mortals game either like some troll Loa.
Sort of tangentially related to more Tauren in the narrative, I think they should’ve had DKs get Trag Highmountain (from the Death Knight comic) as one of the Horsemen instead of Trollbane or Whitemane. Two Alliance reps and two Horde reps for the Horsemen. He’s present in Acherus, but only as a background NPC that just hangs out.
If you can find a copy of the comic, I’d highly recommend reading it. I thought it was a pretty good story.
And yet, we have not seen it re-introduced once in the past 20 some years. Not Cairne, Ulan, or Torok. Personally, Im completely fine with them essentially forgetting about it as mere game play mechanic or working similar to a shaman’s anhk where its merely a preparatory and rare ability for combat. Veneration is the preferable path with tauren who pass on otherwise.
If you really want some tauren back from the dead, I can put a good work in with Helcular for you. I’m sure he can figure out something.
I feel that an immortal afterlife doing what you loce the most is a better pricilege than reincarnating, losing memories and dying again.
The honest reason he didnt reincarnate is because that lore bit is forgotten, but in game you could just headcanon that his spirit so in tune with nature and hunting just was too perfect for ardenweald for them to pass up the oportunity.
I mean Paladins do not have a mass rez that works in combat. And yet Paladins in WC3 do. And some abilties from WC3 heroes went to classes that those heroes do not represent. Starfall, the ultimate of the Priestess of the Moon went to Druids. Is Tyrande a druid? Can Fire Mages spawn a timed life Phoenix pet? Banish, an ability the Blood Mages had went to Warlocks while Flamestrike went to Mages. Likewise Reincarnate went to Shamans in WoW (Ankh).
That’s not true, we saw it in wrath where those forgot what northern taruens were called. Anyhow their chieftains reincarnates and fights after he was dead.
He doesnt though. He resurrects all the fallen braves already dead around him after you free him from his prison, blood lusts, and then pummels a crypt lord to death. At no point does he die and bounce back.
But it is not what you initially described. Tauren reincarnation, even as described in the WC3 manual states:
“The tauren chieftains hold such sacred bonds with their Earthmother that they can actually be reincarnated after they die in combat. Though this ability is very rare, it makes the wise, benevolent chieftains a dangerous foe to threaten.”
They dont begin a new reincarnation cycle like they’re the Avatar or something as you initially described popping back from Ardenweald, or able to be brought back into the real world like a Wild God or Loa. They may rise again from battle, like the anhk we already have for shaman, but they don’t get to live in perpetuity. They die as any other mortal, often times peacefully and just chillin’ ready to be with the Earth Mother.
There is so much they could do with Tauren lore. Connections between “the Earth Mother” and “the World Soul” is only one potential storyline out of many.
But Blizzard has never cared and probably never will.
