I know this a VERY late post but I don’t see any threads about it. Like this is probably one of the best lore additions to WoW for the non-troll/elf races this expact. It managed to cover human/dwarf and tauren lore. The following being highlights:
The idea that its thanks to the Earthen Ring that various traditions have spread between the people of Azeroth. The humans were apperently the ones who created the maypole dance.
according to this story, this is the first time the Wildhammers saw(although it seem not tamed) the gryphons.
the firebloosom tradition seem to have independently evolved between both the taurens/dwarves.
desolance used to be called Mashan’she and while this is old lore, I am glad Blizzard has not forgotten Duskwood was called Brightwood back in Warcraft 1.
The humans of Strom and beyond clearly had a reverence for fire. I think if someone wanted to make the lore foundation for human shaman that would be the best place to use. Heck, it would also make it distinct from the Kul Tiran shaman who focus on water.
Clearly the night elves and taurens had friendly enough relations that they would allow the taurens to complete their pilgrimage unharmed.
Speaking of relationship, I love how this deepens the human/dwarf one considering before it felt like the dwarves were only friends with the humans due to the events of the Second War. Now they truly did have friendly relationships in the past.
The funny thing is, given that humans used to live in the northern Redridge Mountains (something the flying quest over BRM briefly mentions), it’s possible that Stormwind didn’t take sides in the dwarves’ civil war and remained on good terms with all three clans up until the Dark Irons wrecked the region with their summoning and then vanished into BRM, since it’s indicated that the destruction caused by Ragnaros was what drove the humans out of the new Burning Steppes rather than the Dark Irons being hostile to Stormwind beforehand.
The first half of the War of the Three Hammers - which led to the Wildhammers’ and Dark Irons’ banishment from Ironforge - didn’t seem marked by the latter resorting to the sorts of dark magics, sinister tactics and generally destructive recklessness that the second half did, so the Dark Irons might have continued to have cordial relations with the humans when they were both living in the Redridge Mountains.
It’d kind of be in keeping with dwarves (and gnomes, for that matter) being particularly averse to dragging other races into what they consider internal political matters for all three warring clans to have remained generally friendly with the humans and elves in spite of their own continuing conflict.
It is honestly stuff that this is understandable why Blizzard didn’t give it any attention when developing the game, but it would have been interesting to learn about in either vanilla, Cata or any expansion afterwards, particularly through things like gossip text with Moira’s faction of Dark Irons after they joined the Alliance in Cata, random doodads around the map via a side quest or something or even archaeology. Given that the ruins of Thaurissan can be explored in the Burning Steppes.
I think I mentioned something else like this in a different thread about missed opportunities for interesting world building. Oh right, it was about the human settlements in Northrend prior to the scourges creation and how we find out that Ner’zhul did not in fact destroy all of them as the WC3 manual claimed he did during Wrath of the Lich King. And if they had any contact with the humans that stayed in what would become Lordaeron. Or why they would go back to Northrend after being exiled there thanks to King Ymiron wanting to do his best Pharaoh from Exodas impression. Although it is unlikely that by that point humans remembered that they were mutate Vrykul babies that were tiny in comparison. Given how big the revelation was during Wrath.
Makes one wonder if any of those villages knew about the 1st Legion. Wintergarde Village was only recently destroyed when we arrive in Northrend during Wrath. As Arthas ordered Kel’thuzad to destroy the village in response to the Alliance and Horde forces sieging the Wrathgate. And said village is right between the Forgotten Coast and Frostmourne Cavern. And clearly several generations lived there given that the size of the villages mausoleum is huge. Which is an actual plot point.
They’ve touched on human shaman/druids since chronicle where its mentioned the closest descendants of the vrykul still practiced as they migrated.
The vrykul themself being an even greater hint towards the capability of human spirituality beyond “the light”.
The thing with human shamans that they could/should highlight is how humans becoming mages, manipulating the arcane/leylines… would have made the elements mad. Early humans were basically cultivating an orcish type spiritual connection with the elements… then they weren’t. Kind of similar to the loa lore going on now, they could easily write in the elements and their trust in humans as being of similar fragility. Not that that would discount human shamanism forever, but put more emphasis in developing why a human shaman is just as much of a status symbol as a human knight of the silver hand and how the relationship between a human and the elements isn’t a birthright, the elements don’t view humans as a race they need to aid, but a race of individuals that still needs to earn (regain) their respect and trust.
Personally I’d like to see humans and undead get shamanism at the same time. I think it would help develop the connection with the elements by having a story involving characters in life and undeath from the same race.
I agree that humans should be able to be shamans. It’s clearly a part of their history and of some cultures today, even if they don’t use the word “shaman” itself.
I’m actually at the point though that the world feels multicultural enough that all races should be able be all classes, except maybe hero classes I guess. Like we know in lore there’s a night elf Paladin, a Kul Tiran Paladin and a void elf Paladin. We have increasingly “shared” capitals - hell even Silvermoon has orcs and vulpera labelled as Silvermoon City Residents. There’s enough cultural interplay at this point for the more culturally specific classes to share their teachings, so to speak, with the wider world. Might as well open up the floodgates.
Anyway in the meantime at least we can have human shamans if we want to be really tall and slightly overweight lmao
I am not convinced it would. We haven’t really seen any indication that mages elemental magic actually angers the elements. Which makes sense, it doesn’t enslave or really harm elements. The elements turned on Orcs on Draenor because of the damaging nature of Fel magic as they turned to Warlocks.
I don’t think the issue with humans giving up on developing a form of shamanism was the elements rejecting them.
The explanation for this is probably just more simple. External influence.
Humans had, at best, developed a basic shamanism. If they had gotten any power from it, it was not much. Along comes the Elves with a fully developed magic system. The cultural impact is going to be significant. And, beyond the culture, it would then draw any human interested in understanding elements to mage elemental magic.
It is certainly possible for humans do become shaman, but interaction with elves moved the culture away from it.
For the most part, I agree. But, I do feel like there are certain combinations that feel like they shouldn’t be able to happen. But they are more the exceptions than the rule.
Really, I think the majority of the limitations are a product of developmental resources. It is not a coincidence that the most limited classes are the ones with the most resources needed to make them happen. DH need all new animations. Paladins have the chargers. Druids have forms. Shaman have totems.
It really depends on how they’d write the humans as their empire expanded. But given that they went the route of developing empires and they have never really been shown to be caring/understanding of nature on the level of night elves, I think it could be assumed that it was largely a non factor for them. Similar to the orcs cutting down ashenvale.
The apexis are fairly similar in the sense that they turned to arcane, light and shadow magic, consequently the primals then began to expand the evergrowth into Arak to oppose them. Its not necessarily an “arcane bad” belief from the elements, but if a race is attempting to learn/develop a connection with nature based magic, and then they turn to stop caring about it / not considering it… the elements may view that as a complete dismissal towards their existence.
The fact that humans never really developed their understanding points to how the light and arcane completely overshadowed the elements in their spiritual teachings / beliefs. Maybe the elements didn’t feel betrayed, but humans definitely forgot about them, which is something the story should highlight if they are to ever show a human picking up a connection to the elements.
This is why I love Kul Tiras and their Tidesages. Which is the in universe justification for Kul Tiran Shamans. As the light is a minority religion in Kul Tiras, seemingly limited to Drustvar. Meanwhile the Tidemother is the dominate religion. With the Tidesages focusing more on Water and Air elements to ensure save passage for their ships.
Part of me does like how there is some mystery behind who the Tidemother is. Do they actually exist? Was it always Azshara or was she hijacking the religion from someone else? Is the Tidemother Elune? I mean Elune and water elementals have had several connections over the years. Cata, Legion (via Mu’sha) and BFA all have examples of this. Not to mention the real life connection between the moon and the tides. Or is the Tidemother an ocean based Wild God? Like those we see in Vashj’ir or the one from Wrath that makes us take a leap of faith?
My personal theory is that the Tidemother is Elune and worshiping her through the tides is just another way of doing so.
The following are the examples of an Elune / Mu’sha & Water connection
The Eyes of the Earth Mother short story from the Folks & Fairy Tales of Azeroth says that Mu’sha bonded with the Water and Air elementals, while An’she did the same for Earth and Fire. Tidesages use both water and air spells. We see a lot of examples of Tidesages using water based spells. As for wind, Galecaller Faye in Shrine of the Storm uses wind based spells. Even saying, “Winds, protect me!” during the encounter.
The quest https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Power_Over_the_Tides from Cata has you calm down water elemental spirits using an Orb of Elune.
The Azerite essence https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Tablet_of_the_Balancing_Tides states that the “whispers of Elune and Neptulon play on the tides”.
In Legion, Ebonhorn asks you to collect certain items to help preform a ritual that will allow you to experience Huln Highmountains memories during the War of the Ancients. One of these is called ‘Tears of Mu’sha’ which is guarded by Water Elementals.
Shrine of the Storms has murals showing various tidesages, one of which is a tidesage blessing a ship under a full moon.
The White Lady is a moon of Azeroth that is linked to Elune, most famously seen at the end of Val’sharah questing where the White Lady moves in front of the sun causing a solar eclipse. Tendrils of moonlight then embrace a Nightmare corrupted Ysera, purifies her spirit and pulls her into the sky.
Plus it would be in character for Azshara to try and hijack a religion centered around Elune, even if those who practice it are not aware of it directly.
However there are other evidence that suggests otherwise when it comes to the identity of the Tidemother. It is rare that we get mysteries like this in ‘modern WoW’.
Honestly I do hope we get more connections between Elune and Water Elementals in the future. Maybe even expand that to the Air Elementals given their connection via Tauren Mythology and seemingly, the Tidesages.
One thing I like about the Midsummer revamp is that it shows holidays can be used for cultural worldbuilding instead of just seasonal gameplay.
If Blizzard ever introduces Human Shamans, I’d rather see them build toward it through stories like this, pilgrimages, old frontier traditions, and learning from other cultures, than just flip the race/class switch.
It makes the world feel like it’s actually evolving.
We kinda had that with Hallows End. Where it was a celebration of the Forsaken breaking free from the Lich King. Although for Alliance it was just ‘kek holloween kek’. Until Blizzard tied it to the Harvest Witches from Gilneas in patch 4.2. Then they added additional lore retroactively.
I honestly hope Lunar Festival gets a revamp soon. Out of the holidays it is the one that hasn’t really had anything added to it over the years. I mean we got no new elders during MoP, Legion and BFA (I mention these ones specifically as it seems to be a holiday only on Azeroth)
Hallows End tying the Alliance side to Gilnean Harvest Witches was especially neat to me. I wish Blizzard would develop that tradition further instead of leaving it as a small piece of Cataclysm-era lore.
Holiday updates seem like the perfect place to revisit cultural ideas that may never receive a full expansion storyline.
Agreed on Lunar Festival. It feels like one of the best opportunities to show how different cultures remember their ancestors instead of treating every elder as part of one interchangeable tradition.
Pandaren, kaldorei, tauren, orcs and the various human kingdoms could all approach it differently.
I’m generally not a fan of opening every class to every race, especially Shamans, although that ship arguably sailed once when Goblins became Shamans.
A core part of Shamanism is living in balance with the environment, and Goblins already stretch that concept significantly. From a lore perspective, referencing the Lord of the Clans novel, the first wolf shamans were capable of terraforming their surroundings with shamanistic magic to make the land more fertile and support growing populations. However, they chose not to, because altering nature on that scale would have violated their beliefs and their duty to maintain balance.
Why does this matter? Historically, human societies have not operated that way. A medieval-style human kingdom would clear forests, reshape land, and exploit natural resources if it benefited their people. That mindset is fundamentally different from the philosophy traditionally associated with Shamans. Again, Goblins are already the major exception to this rule.
That said, I could see humans using certain aspects of shamanistic magic without becoming full-fledged Shamans, similar to how Dwarves can still tap into some elemental traditions. Kul Tirans are another example, as they are tidesages who focused on the sea, wind, arcane and maritime traditions rather than the broader elemental balance that defines classic Shamanism.
Again, not a fan of all races all classes, it takes away from class lore. Shamans should only be for nomadic races, where they have a decent population that doesn’t build/live in cities or transform everything into farmland.
While I may see some foundation for the taurens having some good feelings about the night elves, I see the Night Elves to be too much of the Jerk Vulcan mode to return that grace.
At heart, the Taurens are nice people. The Night Elves have way too much Troll in them to reciprocate.