Sure it does. Gonk has more varied powers than Cenarius does, and was worshiped by the people who are far older than the night elves. There is a resurgence of Druidism in the Zandalari.
Nothing you said shows relevance to Blizzard’s opinion. And once again, the pattern was the same for the Taurens. Tauren fans believed that the Taurens studied Druidism before the Night Elves did. Taurens believed that Hamuul was the resurgence of Druidism among the Tauren. And so they believed Taurens were the first Druids.
And they were wrong, according to Blizzard.
They’ve set up a segue from which they can say, “Yeah, Cenarius was wrong.” That’s pretty relevant to a change in Blizzard’s opinion.
They set up segue from which they could have said Tauren were first.
And Blizzard did not choose to follow that segue, either.
No they didn’t. they never said that Tauren were druids once before. You stated that yourself. They were the MoP bison and they left Cenarius and became Tauren.
The Tauren objectively don’t know all facts of history.
Blizzard does, though. When asked about it, a blue poster, Nethaera, said the following:
- Yes, Malfurion as the first druid is in fact possible and true.
Keep in mind that like all history, it tends to be from the perspective of the writer. As far as the Tauren are concerned they were the first taught by Cenarius. This is a ‘truth’ they hold dear to them and is taught to the members of their society as evidenced by their scrolls.
The actuality is that they were not the first to be taught the druidic arts, but it was in fact the Night Elves.
The Tauren believe they were first. The Night Elves were the first.
And Blizzard has repeated this several times now:
In February 2013, fivish years before Zandalari were announced as a player race. How many before Gonk was even conceptualized?
You keep posting as though Blizzard doesn’t retcon its history.
You post as if Blizzard won’t put in history that Night Elves were the ones that got Gonk to teach the Zandalari Druidism.
They won’t.
Bookmark this post. I just bookmarked yours.
I don’t bookmark posts that will never be referred back to.
We’ll see.
My bet is no we won’t.
It’s also completely conceivable that Malfurion was the first that Cenarius Granted that Title to.
In all likelihood, Cenarius has been trying to teach many Races Druidism since the first races walked Azeroth. Malfurion’s probably the only the first one that Cenarius himself recognized as truly mastering his teachings.
That isn’t to say that those other races did not forget Cenarius’s teachings and continued to practice themselves in the mean time.
Very Possible that Gonk himself was taught by Cenarius and developed his own form of the Craft himself. But Cenarius never recognized him, the Zandalari or the Tauren as true Druids.
Unlikely. Gonk and Cenarius are both wild gods. Nature magic is intrinsic to both of their natures in the same way Malorne has immense druidic power despite pre-dating Cenarius for obvious reasons.
Then maybe they consider themselves rivals of sort? Like two masters of different schools of Druidism.
Not sure exactly how their particular styles differ exactly though.
That is more or less how I see it. Cenarius taught the Cenarion branch of druidism while Gonk taught the Raptari.
Darkspear druids learned from Gonk and then learned more from the night elves, so they are kind of a marriage of the two.
As for how they differ? Probably in the nuances of their gods’ teachings.
Cenarius is more of a balance druid. He’s a pure caster with direct familial ties to Elune. His teachings emphasize living in harmony with nature and emphasizes peacefulness and tranquility.
Gonk is more of a feral druid. He’s the only wild god that can freely shapeshift into different species which I find to be rather fascinating. His teachings emphasize coordination and cooperation a lot like Cenarius’ does, but more with the goal of making the pack stronger than simply seeing harmonious cooperation as an end in and of itself. Gonk is the Master of the Hunt and as such seems to focus more on the predatory, vicious side of nature.
Interestingly, they both also have a habit of pushing for the other wild gods of their respective pantheons to work together in times of conflict. Cenarius takes a more diplomatic approach and tries to appeal to the Ancient Guardians’ sensibilities while Gonk strong arms the other loa into doing what he needs them to do.
I really hope Gonk and his druidism gets fleshed out more. I’d love to see how many ways the two druidic traditions differ and how many ways they are similar.
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They could start by showing Gonk’s different forms, rather than have his tale say he can, but not actually ever show him doing so.
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Maybe he’s a Reverse Druid?
Raptor who can shapeshift into Troll form?
Wonder what Spec that is?