Hey guys im in the process of trying to decide what race to make my warrior, and im new to the horde as a whole so im not sure much about the races lore.
I’m between mag har and zandalari troll. basically what my questions are is are these races known to wear plate armor? most times I see them they are wearing little to no armor at all, and if thats the case I would feel weird playing one decked out in the transmogs I like to wear.
Also Ik the zandalari trolls are similar to the ancient Aztecs but I have no clue what inspired the orcs in wow. part of me thinks vikings maybe? but I also dont think that would be true due to the vrykul being the viking inspired race in wow. what do you guys think?
I would say the original Orcs were more akin to the Mongolian Horde in its early days. Various tribes would meet and share and trade, they had a shared culture and values, they valued strength and martial prowess.
The introduction of the Legion in the MU and Garrosh in the AU changed them into something other than that.
As far as full plate - it might not be popular, but it is a thing. The Maghar adopted alot of bulky designs from Garrosh and Blackfuse. Doomhammer had a full set and Thrall wore it on occasion.
As far as the Trolls wearing full plate - that seems fine too. While many other Trolls run around in rags, Zandalari do wear alot of finery. A big bulky Plate suit seems fine by me on a Zandalari.
It never occurred to me they were based off the mongolians that makes alot of sense actually. are there any trolls you are aware of in the lore that wore plate armor?
Well Bloodlord Mandokir wears Troll-Styled plate. He comes to mind first.
ZA and ZG have some Troll styled plate. It is a thing. Should check out those dungeons for Mog ideas.
Rawani Kanae is a Zandalari Paladin so I assume she wears plate. She is the first boss for the Alliance in BoD. She replaces the Dark Iron that the Horde faces.
It’s only a problem if you insist o making it one. Armor adapts to the race of the character wearing it You are fully justified in wearing plate no matter what race of warrior you are.
Zandalari trolls are a CIVILISED Empire, not primitive bamboo tribesmen.
It is a drop from Island Expeditions. One of the rare cosmetic items. It drops in the Gilnean themed one, Havenswood, from the Feral Worgen - I believe. I am not sure how the drops work on IEs.
I tried to grind the hat for a brief moment - but that got old fast. So I bought it from the AH, instead. I spent near 200,000 gold when they first were released and were super rare. They are probably significantly cheaper by now.
Thats the price of buying clothes at Retail instead of waiting for clearance.
Trolls and orcs are tribal people and that reflects in their appearance. Of course they’re not typically going to roll up looking like they just left a meeting of the round table in Camelot but some do wear plate. Saurfang who is probably the second most prominent orc warrior, second only to Grom Hellscream, rocked the Might tier set for many years.
Both races seem to value mobility over protection. And Trolls (darkspear and zandalari) come from swampy and tropical jungle regions where being in full plate would probably make you feel like a baked potato. Gotta let the family jewels breathe.
But culturally, when you think of human warriors, you think of Lothar and the knights of the human kingdoms. These guys walking around in full shining plate with swords and big shields. In contrast, when you think of orcs, you picture people like Garrosh and Grom Hellscream, charging into battle in little more than leather pants and maybe a stylish shoulder pad or two. Or trolls clad in armor fashioned from wood and bone.
But that doesn’t mean you gotta dress your warrior that way. Maybe your orc commissioned a custom set of plate armor from blood elf or forsaken smiths.
good points. is there one you would rec me choosing? one you think would fit the bill im wanting more? coming from alliance side i love my plate armor looks and wanna feel comfortable wearing them on my new race
The Zandalari trolls however have progressed far beyond tribalism. They build large cyclopean scale cities… they’re not mucking about in grass huts. They have elaborate developed clothing and fashion sense. They’re not your Darkspear Echo Isle trolls.
As I said earlier, both Trolls and Orcs have some evidence of full plate wear. Just styled for them. Orgrim Doomhammer wore plate and Thrall wears that same plate gear once in a while.
A Maghar Orc would probably have a more “conventional” look in plate. More familiar for an Alliance player. A Troll in Plate would be more… it would look more unconventional.
Personally I love playing Trolls and have no interest in playing Orcs. Thats just me. But many people like Orcs, and you said you do. So I will say the Orcs do have a more conventional/familiar feel for Alliance folk. Like shoes.
For orcs, it depends on the clan. The Warsong are the only clan that is Mongolian in inspiration. Bleeding Hallow are more vague in inspiration and just seem to be a unspecific jungle dwelling people. Who wear little to no armor.
The orc clan that would be known for wearing plate would be the Blackrock Clan, they have been characterized by heavy armor since the beginning. Thrall pre-cata wore Doomhammer’s armor set, which was full plate.
Burning Blade might be known to wear armor as well.
Trolls plate is less common, but not unheard of. Wearing scaled plate that aesthetically resembles snake or dinosaur scales. Or in the case of the Zandalari, wearing gold plate.
Right, but they still also live in tropical jungles, swamps, and a desert. Look at all of the Zandalar themed armors and even the plate is designed with their environment in mind.
Despite what you see in many characters, yes there’s quite a few with plate or at least mail armor. The thing is, is that characters in lore are not restricted in the same way we are in-game, and while you could weather mail, leather, or even cloth as a warrior you probably wouldn’t want to beyond for roleplay.
Orcs aren’t inspired by one particular people, and have many influences for various different aspects about them. I would say they are most influenced by warhammer and tolkien.
Make the character you want; thematically, WoW is very clearly at a point where Azeroth is fairly “globalized” in many ways. While we could always use more racial lore and flavour, I like that the game does recognize that individuals are, well, individuals. There is nothing wrong in your character adventuring out, adopting different customs, or armour styles to be better suited to whatever they are doing.
FWIW, Zandalari look amazing in plate armour. If I were you, I’d roll a Zandalari Prelate, and Maghar Warrior to get the best of both.
![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")