Hey fellow gamers and Blizzard lore specialists.
So I am a large fan of Tauren and while ive been playing the game on and off I have a large appreciation for the Tauren as a ingame race. In technical RPG terms of them being mostly Neutral Good race.
Going over Chronicles I was hoping to get some real definitive events that could add to my old guilds lore or maybe help reinforce the lore as before as I stated there has been little in the way of backstory outside of what we got via Thunder Bluff on Elders Rise or via stories told by NPC’s.
As I was saying, going over the timeline this is what I could find.
100,000 - 16,000 BDP (Before Dark Portal): Indeterminate timeline but assumed after the fall of the black empire that Tauren was one of the naturally formed sentient races to rise from the titans reforging of the world. Meet Cenarius after Papa Apa’ro sleeps with Mu’sha (aka Elune). learn druidism
15,000 - 12,000 BDP: Yaungol the original form of the Tauren leave their lands as trolls begin to expand into their hunting territories. they head south become slaves to mogu, lose druidism. Rebel with pandarens. become angry and splinter. Some become Tauren, some become Taunka. keep in contact when…
10,000 BDP: War of the Ancients. Huln Highmountain saves on of Eche’ro, get the blessing of horns. not much known of Tauren but Highmountain kicking butt in the war of the ancients. Great sundering all the tribes cut off from one another.
9,999 - 1,101 BDP: VIRTUALLY NOTHING! they are not involved in the war of the saytr. pretty much just farts in the wind at this point.
1,100 BDP - 20 ADP (After Dark Portal): Tauren worship in Desolace which was called Mashan’she at the time. Grassy plains yadda yadda. Tauren think they hear earth mother, turns out it was Therazanes daughter. she evil and kills all life in desolace and mates with Cenarius kid. creates centaur and for the next 1,000 years centaurs hunt down Tauren to the point of extinction until green jesus arrives to save them. from then on they are part of the horde (yay!)
Personal Opinion:
My own personal gripe with this was that the first guild I joined whose lore I helped keep track of now all of a sudden has to be fully retconned (especially since the timeline squish of the events of the game).
Questions:
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If tauren were migrating around Kalimdor after the sundering, why would they not help during the Saytr wars when at that point event the Night elves were like “Crap we need druids…”?
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Were there any tribes that tried to fight back against the centaurs? or was it just a massive clean sweep across the land and could not be stopped.
Conclusion:
While I understand you want to keep to the canon or just VERY simplified idea of Tauren are good and peaceful. it does not offer up in the way of interesting or complicated storytelling that really adds to the game.
For new roleplayers joining into Tauren RP its very broad brush style with very little room to experiment outside of the lore that is firmly established as being dull and docile. apart from yaungol who we can’t actually play as, or taunka.
I hope this quick overview of the timeline can open most players eyes to the very very very basic idea of what to know of tauren history. if you plan to work within the confines of lore, besure to study up to help you make it more lore friendly.
