I sort of feel like it is a big shame that the Drakthyr did not really reclaim the area as a home despite the fact we theoretically cleared most the threats out during 10.0.7… They have what amounts to a small ethnic district of Valdrakken the Aspects permitted them, but there is an entire island of their own they could be working to restore and make into a home. Perhaps reclaim the name it used to have—The Reach.
It is about the only thing that Neltharion left them that is worth keeping.
While I wouldnt have minded it ultimately would have meant Blizzard spends resources to create a new phased area of a zone that is still current content and have to populate it with things/NPC showing it was reclaimed.
Resources they could instead, oh I don’t know, spend on two Alliance capitals instead?
They chose the Neither of the Above response.
Last I checked Gilneas is still the racial capital of the Worgens and even though the Horde are allowed in Bel’ameth it is also considered the new night elf capital.
And I do like both of those got love, 100%. But it feels like neutral races always get kinda shafted in this department. The Earthen lucked out their city is also the expansion hub, but the Drakthyr it feels like sorta got drowned out by the dragons. And the poor Panderan… well…
…yeah.
Pandaren having a massive racial capital city goes against their lore and thematics, honestly.
The Dracthyr don’t really need a city either, they’re not a typical race nor are they really populous enough to need one.
It makes sense that they’d have their own enclave within Valdrakken and not much else.
Neltharion made enough of them to build an army suitable to be the main force of the Aspects, so presumably there are quite a few of them.
Arguably as many of them as, say, surviving blood elves.
Let’s be honest, Blizz has never stuck to that 90% statistic.
That’s kinda my point, they’re a race of genetically engineered super soldiers that were just woken up from a hibernative state not even a year ago.
I don’t imagine they’d be all too concerned with trying to create their own separate society and to build their own city when they’ve already been given their own enclave among all the other Draconic species.
That is why I feel like they would be best served reclaiming the Reach. It was the only home they ever knew. It isn’t really a city in the sense of say Gilneas, but it would serve as housing and a base of operations for them as a people to begin finding their footing as their own people.
What’s stopping them from doing that in Valdrakken?
There really isn’t any point in settling the Reach and trying to build something there when everything they need is already provided in Valdrakken.
It’s kinda the main capital and hub for all Dragons and draconic beings.
Do the Dracthyr want to distance themselves from the other draconic species? It doesn’t really seem like it.
If they did, you might have a point in them wanting to create their own separate space.
But they’ve given no indication that’s what they want, so why would they self-segregate on an island away from everyone else where they need to build everything from scratch?
Especially when… like… there’s an already established city that welcomes them right around the corner?
Like I alluded to before, I doubt this race of draconic super soldiers cares about weird nation-state ideology that would tell them that they need their own city or nation to be considered their own valid people.
Technically the racial “capital” of all the playable pandaren is the Wandering Isle. Too bad unless you are a pandaren monk you can’t go back.
Nothing, but don’t underestimate the draw of the familiar and the self-possessed.
Valdrakken isn’t their home, it’s the apartment they rented for work, The Reach is home. It’s where they grew up.
Some will want to leave, the reality of their creation and how they were regarded by Deathwing driving them away. For some of those that leave they will find comfort amongst the dragons while others will travel and explore the world they were created to protect.
Some will want to stay, for some it will be a desire to prove the others wrong about Deathwing and for some to prove to Deathwing they aren’t just weapons. Then there are those who won’t feel comfortable around races that don’t resemble them. As demonstrated by the frequent creation of race specific sections of cities, racism is fairly common in the Warcraft universe.
I mean, as I keep saying:
Why would they feel the need that they need their own ‘home’ to be considered their own people? Why are we assuming that they work off nation-state ideology? Why are we assuming they even care about the concept of a home exclusive to them?
There’s no special Drakonid city, there’s no city specific to only Dragonspawn, this concept doesn’t seem to matter to these Draconic species. They have no problem living in and among other Draconic species because they all regard each other as kin in some form.
I mean, they literally look exactly like the other people in Valdrakken.
They all have the same traits.
Why wouldn’t they be comfortable with other Draconic races?
Why would they even have that weird racialized pressure on them?
Not even sure that’s entirely true tbh.
Wouldn’t the existence of things like a ‘Dwarven District,’ a Troll/Goblin/Tauren enclave in Orgrimmar, a Gnomish enclave in Ironforge kinda prove against this? This kinda proves that there’s massive ethnic variety within these cities that entire sections of the cities have become largely made-up of these peoples. Races that move into these cities would simply have a tendency to want to live alongside other people that have cultural similarity to them.
Racism specifically within Warcraft’s universe is hardly ever really touched on within the races that share factional alignment. We’ve barely ever seen any racial hatred between things like Dwarves and Humans or Humans and Night Elves. Hardly ever seen racism between Tauren and Trolls or Orcs and Undead.
I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t seem to be a ‘common thing’ in the Warcraft universe, at least among races that share a faction.
Why would building their own city prove anything to anyone?
As I said, nation-state ideology like this doesn’t seem to really exist among the Draconic species, they don’t seem to care.
‘Oh, we need our own city and nation to be considered our own people’ doesn’t seem to exist among Dragons.
And really, that makes perfect sense because why would they care about things like that anyway.
Different groups with a long history of working together.
The Dracthyr don’t have that history. In many ways they don’t have a history at all.
Too us they look similar. How often is such a statement made about people in the real world?
That’s a passive form of racism. They aren’t part of the whole they have a spot they are expected to reside in.
Most of it is passive. Shunning, isolation into specific groups/locations… not being invited to participate, being ignored.
Also, the Forsaken are shunned hard for most of Warcraft’s history.
This is a form of racism.
All of X people display a preference for or against Y is a form of racism.
Because they want to? They are not a monolith. None of us are.
If you want blatant, hammer to face levels, racism in the modern WoW you can look at Bain and the Centaur, or any Centaur material… However, a lot/most of the racism in WoW is passive. Most of it is about normalizing the ideals of a racial monolith and keeping the races in their places.
In the real world we have similar forms of Passive Racism. You see it in the creation of “People of X” sections within the cities. Some of it is going to come from within the “People of X” but a lot of it is because of the other “Peoples of…” who push against each other and exacerbate the differences between each other engaging in overt and passive hostilities that push everyone into their little corners.
In communities where this passive and overt hostility isn’t present, we have a more diverse distribution of people as none are slotted into “People of…” blocks and stereo types. They are instead respected as the individuals they are.
Yet we also see High Elves and other race in places like SW and they don’t have their own districts.
I think the existence of a ‘Dwarven District’ isn’t meant to depict the Dwarves as being segregated but simply having their own enclave within the city that they built by moving there en-masse and living near others similar to themselves.
I feel like you’re writing this off mostly through assumption and nothing we see explicitly.
They don’t seem to want to.
I said this earlier, if it was depicted like they had any desire to do this, then sure.
But they’ve given no indication of that.
The argument was initially that they should be wanting to build their own nation or city in the Reach, my argument has been that it makes perfect sense that they wouldn’t want to do that.
My point is, why would they feel a need to self-segregate because of that?
Their closest kin and historical ties are to the citizens and people living in Valdrakken.
I also just think that it kinda goes against the ‘playable dragon’ fantasy if they were to focus on the Dracthyr as wanting to build their own nation because… just because? Like, they have no real reason to.
Again, weird nation-state values don’t seem to matter to them.
What do you mean?
I think it’s racist to assume that everyone should be held to a standard of nation-state ideology even when it’s alien to them.
We’ve been given 0 indication that nation-state ideology exists among the Draconic species or is a concept that they hold. Seems like a concept that’s familiar among the mortal races, but not among the dragons or Dracthyr.
These are also like… fantasy dragons?
Building their own nations with cities and all that isn’t really something that fits within that fantasy.
Not really sure how that’s ‘racist’ but alright.
Huh…
Say, you could almost sort of see that blatantly in places like Stormwind where there’s a variety of different races everywhere. 
If the only evidence, you’ll accept is blatant just let me know.
Alright, ignore everything else I said, I guess?
If we’re working off of assumptive evidence than I gave plenty examples as to why I disagreed with your assessment:
So…
The only thing I explicitly took as being too assumptive was this:
Which you never provided any actual evidence for either explicit or non-explicit.
So, I’m forced to fill-in the blank in assuming your evidence was only that certain races don’t always appear all the time in every city or quest (I guess?).
Because really, I have no other basis to go off of with this and we’ve never been shown that any race has been ‘shunned’ or ‘isolated’ by the other races within its faction…
At least no playable race, or in most modern cases.
We’ve also been given 0 indication that the Dracthyr have any consolidated desire to build their own nation or city, so if that’s what you’re referring to that would be entirely assumptive with 0 evidence to back it, explicit or non-explicit.
But just for you to know in the future:
Yes, blatant evidence is usually the standard.
Assumptive argument can be done given evidence which might lead one to assume a particular conclusion, but that doesn’t necessarily make it true or not.
Speaking towards “dwarven racism” i dont think Ive ever seen an instance in this game where humanity has treated the bearded manlets as anything short(heh) of close allies.Especially when compared to more “exotic” allies like night elves and draenei.
Compared to the elven alienage in dragon age for example, dwarves are basically given their own place in a human city.
Its less of a “stay here and only here or else” and more of a “you will always be welcomed here”.
By this standard most real-world racism wouldn’t even qualify.
Dragon Age, loved the first two games, went with the “hammer to the face” approach to showing racism.
In my experience most people aren’t so obvious or blunt in their racism.
What are you even talking about?
We’re talking about a fictional universe here that doesn’t operate by real-world standards.
We’re arguing a fictional universe wherein the only things that exist within it are the things that are shown to be in it by the writers.
How do I know something exists in real life? I simply see it or listen to what other people have seen.
I don’t have to go off pieces of written media that was produced by a specific group of people who know everything about the world to know what does or doesn’t exist within the real world.
Real life isn’t a setting that was written by someone with a particular vision of how the world works or what exists within that world.
You don’t argue ‘canon’ or ‘non-canon’ IRL because it isn’t a piece of story media to be debated like we’re doing with WoW.
These two things aren’t even remotely comparable.