Back in the day I played a banshee who was in possession of a tauren body (who would frequently fight over control of said body) and they were Sylvanas’ right hand tauren in the RAS who helped develop the Wrathgate plague and chased another tauren (a love interest) over the roofs of booty bay and he smashed her legs to dust so she had to get two mechanical legs and for the longest time her TRP title was “Ghost in the Moochine”
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Thank you so much, yall for opening a discussion!
Honestly, I personally believed that San’layn’s could most likely be just a form of dark fallen, and like any sort of character, nothing is truly black and white. Lots of evil, lots of good, lots of in between, which I believed could create some amazing stories. I remember when playing dragons was considered ‘‘Cringe’’, yet now that dragonflight is out, everyone’s playing one.
So I guess you are right in saying that maybe things have changed.
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I’ve been mulling this over in my head for a while, and I think that we’re living the direct consequences of being the “lore abiding” RP server.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the lore as a boundary for my writing. I consider myself “lore abiding”. But anyone honest is forced to acknowledge that, especially in a lore like WoW’s (which has been notoriously imprecise at times) a large part of what we call the “lore” is interpretation. And some of it has been flat out wrong.
Dragons are a great example of this. Both “extremes” of the dragon RP spectrum are, in my opinion, headcanon. The godmod extreme has always claimed that Dragons are 5 billion times stronger than everyone else, despite the fact that we have quests here and there where we’ve gotta slay 8 drakes or whatever. They might be formidable but they’re not unassailable, or even radically more powerful than a skilled Paladin, Priest, Mage, etc. I reject the notion that playing a dragon automatically makes you OP. On the other extreme, the idea that Dragons mask their identities and never reveal what they are, is also a headcanon. In fact the only notable dragon that actively concealed his true nature was Korialstrasz, or Archmage Krasus of Dalaran. And even then I wonder how much given that a district of the city is called “Krasus’ landing” lol. Despite this, over the years people have dug very firmly into these stereotypes and insisted that to view it any other way is lorebreaking.
That’s just one example, we see it with San’layn, Death Knights, Demon Hunters, and much much more. There’s a puritanical form of “lore-keeping” that is actually based on subjective interpretation, not objective, codified lore. I think this thinking dominated our server in its early years, and what we’re starting to react to now. Instead of being used as guidelines to establish commonality, lore has sometimes been used as a weapon to vanquish dissent, and that doesn’t lend itself to a positive community. I even wonder, frankly, if it’s part of the reason WRA is feeling the RP decline more sharply than MG is. Now we’re starting to open our minds a bit to wiggle room within the lore, and on balance I think that’s a very, very good thing.
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I’m so lore-adherent that I refuse to believe that Dracthyr exist.
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I’m about to pull the trigger on writing up a Darkfallen character because I want to take advantage of the insane drip we got from the Venthyr. I also collect Night Lords 40k minis so this course was charted long ago.
I will say this. I have never seen a roleplaying community as puritanical about lore constraints as people are with WoW. Things which are entirely precedented by lore, but not one of the literal class/race combos presented by mechanics, always generate a little flak. You have to be a human Paladin or a gnome mage or an orc warrior because being a blademaster or a necromancer or a blood mage is too different. Or something. So tiring.
If WoW lore had better bones, I would understand more. But this whole thing is a mess and people weirdly try to “respect it” more than Blizzard respects it
I like when people do something different. Vampires are a crucial part of a comprehensive fantasy world to me and it’d be a shame if we have to shut that out because we’re all so busy being regular dudes. Bring on the goofy subclasses imo.
I know I’m ranting at this point but I feel the same way about half-races. We know it’s possible biologically, and everyone’s mingling in Dalaran and Valdrakken and wherever else, but we assume it’s almost UNHEARD OF for a human to finesse a night elf or an orc? Come on. So lame.
Race and class are not what make me interested in a character. I have seen actual full-blown dragon RPers with moving character concepts, and human paladins that have nothing going on at all.
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If you were a vampyr between two pieces of bread, you’d be a sandwich’layn
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