Oh yeah, certainly - never is it a good idea to push it heavily on others. Put simply I am an advocate of Lore-Bending; some people GREATLY despise the concept but I always say if you can make it work within the confines of the lore, give or take some new corners? Go for it. So long as you’re not a…
…Void-wielding, public vampyr that’s officially endorsed by something. You know the types; I don’t need to elaborate further.
Noice.
One of the main problems with lore abiding roleplay is that it often requires players to have an encyclopaedic understanding of lore and exactly where it comes from.
Which usually just results in arguments about what is and isn’t lore.
Warcraft’s biggest problem with lore is it has no Bible.
The lore constantly contradicts itself, too. So, technically, no matter what you choose to play, you’re doing it incorrectly.
Yeah the lore is constantly changing and retconning. There are no rules, the stakes don’t matter. Don’t even try to restrict it.
I’m all for people playing their characters in a way that makes them happy. If your ‘universe’ and mine don’t match up to the point where we both have to break character to RP, we don’t need to rp together. Super simple, there’s a whole realm of other people.
My biggest thing is if you’re into lore-bending, you don’t get to decide in any way/shape/form how others chose to do so. And I see a LOT of that. As I said above, gatekeeping is gatekeeping no matter who it’s coming from and lore-followers AND lore-benders are guilty of it. I have opinions, sure, but I don’t use them as a way to dictate ‘Nobody should ever do this because I don’t like it!’ Nobody else should be either.
One thing I’m loving lately is those who have created stories within the lines of what is set in stone and then been creative with the rest. Many guilds/characters have done just that and provided they aren’t mixing in other fandoms, I’ve seen quite a few concepts like that lately that I love. And it works because the fact is, there’s a lot in-game that is never ‘set-in-stone.’
Mine’s a ‘4th Gen’ (this character and I only use the term to identify when he was raised, as he’s obviously not one of the allied races) Some would say I go too lore bendy with him, but we do have the example of Sir Zeliek, who also uses the Light. In addition, Sally Whitemane, as a player champion in Legion, retains her power of Consecration.
My character is a half elf, raised on the human side. Was a Paladin in the Order of the Silver Hand until the founding of the Argent Dawn. he died in some fanon conflict between the Argent Crusade and the remnants of the Scourge in the Plaguewood, some time while everyone else was busy fighting in the 4th War.
Yes, I fanon here. I find it inconceivable that the Lich King raises every single DK. I’m pretty sure that he has necromancers able to do the rite, and my character was raised as such, taken right under the nose of the Cult of the Damned so at least he wasn’t raised as a ghoul. And the ritual was done very quickly after he had died. If a skilled Paladin or Priest had gotten to him first, he would have been resurrectable instead.
As such I play him as retaining much more of his humanity and former emotions than typical. Death has touched him less than most. He retains his former faith and convictions, though has had to adapt to an extreme amount of willpower to be able to utilize the Light and it is not as strong as it used to be within him. It DOES cause excruciating pain to use- but it is possible. (And that is canon that the Light causes excruciating pain to undead wielders- some choose to anyway.) I play him with a battle of two selves- always striving to be the Paladin he used to be. But yet, he does suffer from the hunger that is common to all Death Knights (and yes, it was confirmed that the ‘4th gen’ do have the hunger, but to what extent is not known.) With his more Paladin internal nature this is a constant source of turmoil within him. Once the deed has been done, he wanders into the Cathedral for prayers, meditation, and absolution of his sins and then the cycle repeats… over… and over… and over again…
But he has built up a home, a family. He has a ‘life’ more than he did when he was living. He cares deeply for people- though can have a very bloodthirsty streak if anyone hurts one of his own…
Noticing a common thing with people complaining that lore was changed so it doesn’t matter. But most of the time, lore didn’t change. It evolved. As we learn more and uncover more lands, it is natural that we learn new truths. (Yes, I do know some things were flat-out retconned, but that isn’t the majority.) It is just like when people discovered the Earth was, in fact, round.
I’ve noticed this the past few days because I’ve been trying to deep-dive into what all supposedly ‘changed’ and I’m finding it isn’t nearly as much as people claim. 
I think a lot of people just filled in blanks to a point where they locked themselves in only ‘one set possible way’ with their characters, so when the lore evolved, they were frustrated. 
It’s why I keep mine flexible. Much like with the current universe, we don’t control fact and fiction in a setting we didn’t create, we just exist in it.
I came to the conclusion long ago that if Blizz does not respect the lore why should I?
I mostly nowadays operate in what is plausible within the lore. Some of my stuff I write and characters I rp can be a bit head canon I’ll admit. But I do not mind if people do not desire to rp with me for that reason. After all, its their 15 bucks not mine.
We had a person rping the Princess of Stormwind, but she spoke like a 2013 Highschool chick.
To me at least. These types of characters merely amuse me more then anything.
As for me, the toon I am using for this post is a Forsaken Wraith with serious Nazgul aesthetics. Who was murdered by a Kaldorei for being a mage during the end of the Third War, and whom’s indomitable will kept him from the Shadowlands.
Years later, he joined the Forsaken and became quite the distinguished officer. From Northrend, to Gilneas, to the Broken Shore, and the climatic Burning of Teldrassil. He led the men of the 115th Regiment of the Deathguard, nicknamed ‘Elf-bane’ due to the fury they showed the Sentinels at the battles of The Highlands and Gilneas City during the Gilneas Campaign.
Sometimes I think that “lore” is just a shackle that other people want to use to control your character.
I can’t say that I am into the “Princess of Stormwind”.
But if someone is using the elements of the game in a way that applies the tenets of drama and storytelling, if they build something interesting and interactive in that way, I say good on them.
Using the necessity of lore to insist that people make boring characters, perpetual blank slates of no more interest than a 2012 wowwiki page, is frustrating to say the least.
Lore says I should be a Night Elf in the streets of Stormwind extolling the sorrow of a lost home and staring at flowers in the garden district.
I say that I can be an unwilling gate guardian watching over mind-bending deathless creatures captured within magic by Elune’s Grace from the battles of Silithus. I can be a Night Elf maneuvered into the role by political machination over my distant relation to resented Highborn families.
And though the character’s mother was supposed to bear the yoke, her demise at the battle of Darkshore left only my character to serve the ruthless wills of the Priestesses.
I don’t have to make a bland or lifeless character in the service of lore. I can use whats in the game to craft a character with some depth and dimension.
And so can you.
But don’t do a “princess of Stormwind”
Lore is a subjective guideline.
As Roleplayers, the #1 Law that applies to us all is “Creative Liberty” so you can roleplay whatever you might want; Be it Goku ready to fight in the Azeroth Tournament or the bastard child of Arthas & Jaina - It doesn’t matter how outlandish it is, Creative Liberty grants you the power to do it.
On the flip side, it takes 2 to Roleplay, so if your concept doesn’t have anyone acknowledging it, it has no power here.
Canon Lore is the safety net that lets us all operate on the same page; It’s the common ground that lets us branch out from a solid foundation. There is no downside in respecting established canon lore.
A little late to responding to this.
Some lore indeed has evolved. Alas, I would disagree that the majority of evolutions aren’t flat out retcons. There are somethings I would agree have simply changed to fit a more modern narrative, but it’s often even those things are tied to something which has been previously retconned.
Additionally, Blizzard has shown many times their inability to recall their own lore, and when questioned often find themselves in the awkward position of not knowing their own story. As much as I wish it was deliberate evolution of a story, it is clear by their reactions and their inability to respond properly to their community, retcons are made out of ease to make something make sense, rather than out of coherent storytelling.
I think walkup RP is pretty full of people who have no interest in adhering to the lore in any fashion, which is really unfortunate, but you can always just ignore them. I don’t think it is as big of an issue horde side, but it is a really big issue alliance side in my experience. I think it is easier to find a guild like that though, especially if you avoid generic dark mercenary guild #44098. Check out the warcraft conquest discord, and shop around on the forums and in the guild finder.
I think the main issue is a general lack of worldbuilding. Don’t get me wrong, WoW has LOTS of lore, but the lore tends to be character interactions and major events along a confusing timeline that gets more convoluted every expansion. We don’t really have any indication as to how the magic systems in the game specifically work, we don’t really know how powerful it is reasonable for an “average” person/adventurer to be, so that gives bad roleplayers and powergamers a lot of wiggle room.
Also, in some cases it isn’t even their fault, because what little there is isn’t really explained in game. There is no way to understand the timeline in game, there isn’t really any small-scale worldbuilding in game that is useful for roleplayers. In order to understand the lore and adhere to it perfectly, you have to do a ridiculous amount of research, in order to understand the lore and adhere to it ‘for the most part’ you still have to do a ton of research.
And while I think most wow roleplayers have probably been playing the game for a pretty long time at this point, if you are a new player, trying to understand the lore is even more disastrous because you are unceremoniously spat out out into stormwind after a starting island that doesn’t explain anything about your race or your faction.
That being said there were still tons of people like that long before the new starting island was added, so I think it’s just bad roleplayers who don’t really care about the lore in a lot of cases.
Runs on in and frantically waves their arms at their guild name
Going to shamelessly promote my guild 
Most of our RP is fairly lore abiding but we aren’t going to be insanely strict either. Some of us, (like me) run on looney toons saturday morning cartoon logic so we got a lot of silly things happening but it still works within the lore. Like, who says a mecha duck can’t be a Loa??? Because that’s what this mecha gnome behind me with a knife to my back says and this statement is not at all made under duress.
We’re also totally not a cult.
Anyway, when it comes to lore abiding RP I run with canon Juspion and non-canon Juspion.
Canon Juspion will follow the lore.
Yet for context, Juspion is not a monk IC or a Lightforged Draenei (i just want pink hair) and in a guild event, he became void corrupted and he’s a bit crazy and dabbles in shadow and time magic now. Why I don’t play him as a shadow priest (and soon to be warlock), well cloth gear is ugly and I like playing as a monk.
Yet, for some people, that is lore breaking. To me, it’s not at all, like the shadow corruption came organically from an RP event and it was extremely funny. Yet that’s how I roll with it, because I’m a monk and I can roll.
Non-canon Juspion, this is basically, if I’m out and about and someone’s idk Master Chief Halo Guy Jedi approaches me and wants to RP selling me Arby’s. This to me, is lore breaking because there is no Arby’s on Azeroth. Yet I’ll totally RP with them and just roll with it and have fun. Yet, I won’t really consider it canon to my character because I’m more a fried chicken kinda person.
I also don’t play often enough so I likely won’t run into Halo Guy again and don’t have to worry about following up on the chain of Arby franchises I promise to open on the moon.
Light save the Queen!