So this came up in a different topic and I found the different points of view very fascinating. Perhaps this could be a fun topic to discuss rather go back into old debates about who has it worse or who is the latest h!tler or traitor?
I am sure we are all familiar with the enthusiastic fans on the Horde side proudly saying “For the Horde!” In public or in chat.
Rarely will you find a similar outburst from the Alliance. Why?
I think at its core it comes down to individuality.
Blizzard has been trying. Oh good god they have been trying to make Alliance seem as iconic or important to Alliance players but it fails flat each and everytime.
There is something natural when a Dwarf shouts “For Khaz Modan!” or a Night Elf shouting “For Elune!” or some elvish nonesense.
When playing Alliance as various races I always had that individuality no matter where I quested especially in older content. With each race having their own architecture, deep complex past and loads of new stories to discover in newer expansions. I never felt my race being overshadowed by the Humans and their Alliance even when in newer expansions I am forced to interact with them more often.
Playing as Horde I never flet that individuality unless I was playing a Blood Elf or Forsaken. And even then somethings just felt odd and you have to suspend your immersion… as much as you could have for WoW. For example a Tauren leveling in Lordaeron where the Forsaken ask you to do things a Tauren or Blood Elf might find… concerning.
Meanwhile in Kalimdor unlike the Alliance you are pushed so quickly out of your starting zone into the Orcish Horde warmachine that there is no time to develop or interact with your Character race’s culture or background. This was also an issue in vanilla where most of the Horde was pushed into the barrens for most of their early game where the Orcish Horde was an ever present aspect.
Meanwhile there was enough content for Night Elves, Dwarves/Gnomes and Humans to carry them all the way to level 40ish without ever interacting with the larger faction they belong to.
Even in later expansions you had chances to visit completely race specific forts representing one race with all their race specific questlines despite the heavy presence of Human Alliance in major quest hubs.
Perhaps this is why in my opinion that the Horde for Horde players is much important than their race’s individuality or accuracy. And why Night Elves yelling “For the Alliance!” rather than “For Elune/Teldrassil!” in battle for Darkshore doesnt feel right but Tyrande acting independent feels absolutely right.
Anyway that was my long 2cents.
What do you guys think? Did I not give the Horde enough of a chance or am I unto something here?
I never felt factional unity on Alliance. My character’s race was the thing that came to the forefront. On my Horde characters, it was quite the opposite in that faction came before race.
Granted this isn’t based off of the plot, but from the playerbase itself. The game portrays the Alliance as one unit, although the Horde feels like a mix of both (with Blood Elves and Forsaken feeling like they’re not expressing that feeling of unity as much within the Horde).
I would say Race identity should always come before faction as it is a more essential part of your character… and this /is/ a MMORPG after all.
In the past I would agree there was much better cultural representation for the Alliance. More recently something I personally have found alarming is the willingness of the dev team to destroy alliance cultural hubs for the sake of the (usually horde focused) story. Of course the gnomes never even had an inhabitable city from vanilla on, Then Gilneas fell. Then the Kaldorei lands were ransacked. That is a full half of the alliance that is in a displaced refugee status and exacerbates the feeling that we are being forcefully funneled into Stormwind.
When i started playing wow 8 years ago and i had little knowledge of the lore, my first character was a forsaken warrior.
Then i decided to create a generic human paladin because wc3 that became my first max level character, then i switched main to a nelf dk
i really liked the identity of the nelf, or the alliance in general.
the aesthetics and races and most importantly the lore characters attracted me the most.
And then cata hit, i created this noble worgen and i enjoyed the worgen start experience and leveling in the zones and is the character that i played the most.
While i was leveling i liked the rogue fantasy and it changed my perspective, i was no longer a generic paladin, just a mercenary doing any kind of stuff being for money or self interest,one of my goals as a player was just to get revenge.
So that became the worgen identity,and so was mine.
i never felt like humans have taken the narrative maybe because i actually liked those human characters.
yes, i do feel identified more with gilneans than the actual alliance.
but i do respect the alliance as allies, i really enjoy the bond between the kaldorei and worgens, and i really like that the lore characters that i like are actually in the alliance, because that is where my loyalty lies.
Maybe it would be nice if stormwind gets taken out of the spotlight for a while or get rid of the high king title.
but is not like i don’t care about the alliance.
Why do you think High King was being talked about when Varian came back in game , OP? Blizzard has been trying to re-create faction pride the only way they know how, by copying the Horde.
Unfortunately, they made the amateur mistake of tying human ethnocentrism into “alliance pride.”
Definitely Race. The Sindorei are my in game people.
That MAY change with the introduction of the Zandalari and possibly Vulpera.
When WC 3 was current, I almost always played the Human Alliance because of the Blood Elves. Their language sounded cool. The Spell Breakers looked awesome. I identified with the Blood Elves in many ways.
When WoW was released, I was bummed because Blood Elves weren’t playable. So I settled for a Troll Rogue. But when they became Playable in BC, I was stoked.
I am Blood Elf fan first - I play what ever Faction they happen to be in. During WC 3 I played Alliance heavy, but in WoW, Horde.
My race doesn’t really have a real identity in my opinion. Also, Tartheod is a void elf, but he’s also a warrior with no magical ability. In my head canon, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and isn’t allowed in silvermoon anymore. He’s basically Kill On Sight with the horde, so he’s loyal to the alliance only because they’ll protect him, but really just wants the fighting to stop.
My paladin is a human, but his main motivation is peace as well.
In short, my two main characters aren’t worried about race as much as they are the horde and alliance getting along.
I have a problem. I can’t not be lawful good. Sigh.
Race. Well, more like Nation, but race and nation are almost always used interchangeably in fantasy. Thanks, Tolkien.
The Horde and Alliance, as they exist now, are hard to like. They’re huge, unwieldy umbrella organizations without any clearly defined ideology or cultural commonality.
i still hope next expansion deals with race identity, like this one is faction and last one was class. we are already seeing a little bit of it with heritage questlines, now they just need to go all the way.
we could have racial campaigns and the race equivalent to class order halls for every race
While Race matters most to me when selecting my characters, all the races I like are Horde (or Horde adjacent) anyway.
Trolls have always been second to Blood Elves in my mind. The Darkspear are cool, and the Zandalari are rapidly approaching the Blood Elves for my affections. And if Vulpera become playable…
I would like it if Blizzard gave the Alliance a race I found interesting. The only playable race I can stomach on the Alliance are the Void Elves, and I don’t see any new ones on the horizon.
High Elves - I would like them, but Ion said “the Horde is waiting for you”, which means “much later, when we need subs”.
Maybe if Vulpera are neutral, but that doesn’t seem likely.
Nathrezim? Ethereals?
There just isn’t much in the Alliance I find appealing, race wise.
The Stormwind Humans are a bit bulky for me. A skinny Kultiran Human model would be awesome - But the playable Kultirans seem to only have the “bulkier” option.
This is just my perspective on things from a RP standpoint.
You can’t chose your race or the counter you are born in. You can chose what to do with your life though. Personally, I choose to be a guardian of the natural world’s balance and beauty.
That’s why I identify first as druid and then as an elf or citizen of the Alliance.
I believe that for druids, class comes first in most cases.
On another related note, I feel like they could add a druidic language so we could freely communicate between factions.
I’ve always RPed as a Kul Tiran and viewed the Alliance as too weak-willed to do what needs to be done… So identified with Kul Tiras first and foremost. Race was never all that important - unless you were not one of the “right” races.
for some reason I used to think Kul’tiras was a rather mixed-race nation, though founded by humans. In Warcraft 3 the kul’tiran npc factions were always a mix of humans, dwarves and high elves wearing their colors.
It just made sense to me that a seafaring nation would quickly gather lots of travelers of many nations on its shores!
It would still be predominantly Human, but I always figured there’d be a minority population of Dwarves, Gnomes and High Elves.
Especially Gnomes (with their Submarines) and High Elves (with their Destroyers) given that they built and sailed their own vessels as part of the Alliance fleets which were led by Kul Tiras during the Second War.
In BFA they did keep the part where there was a significant Gnome population in Tiragarde Sound at least. We’re gonna find out more about what happened to them in the coming patches and the Mechagnomes become part of the story
I identify, first and foremost, as human. Then, I identify as an Arathor human. I couldn’t care less for stormwind, but my character considers herself to be a child of the old empire, heralding from Alterac. The Alliance is nice and all, but I’d prefer the seven kingdoms to reform. The other races can hang out too, I guess.
![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")