The shallowness of Human Lore in Warcraft--Why?

Lore Story Forum
1

Hi,

After getting myself more into the D&D lore (mainly due to the new film that sparked my curiosity), couldn’t help myself to start comparing the depth of the setting with WoW’s. Specially regarding Human story and background.

Why is it that Blizzard’s story writers handling of the race seems so…lacklustre?

I mean, going back for a second to D&D, there is an expanded universe that includes several active human segments with their cultures, languages, appearances, and story niche.
You have:

  • Calimites
  • Chondathans
  • Damarans
  • Illuskans
  • Mulan
  • Rashemi
  • Tethyrians

All of them with certain degree of uniqueness for players to toy with. All offering different angles of humanity, as well as the fantasy that accompanies them.

How is it that WoW, seems to have deliberately chosen NOT to expand on the race?

Why is it that the writers went with such lazy approach regarding the obvious distinct features that were included with the new customisation options?

With other races like trolls, tauren, dwarves, or elves, this served to introduce other race segments that made their respective stories far richer (see Zandalar, Blood elves vs High Elves, Dark Irons and the Council of Three Hammers, etc.)

Why did humans get the proverbial short stick here, and had these features handwaved as little more than a randomised skin palette?
I feel that distinct racial features like skin colour, should be expanded on, and taken as an opportunity to make the race lore richer.

Wouldn’t it be far better for their narrative depth to have an expanded take such as the one D&D gives theirs? As in:

Kingdom _______: Its history is defined by ________. Descendants of this kingdom have features such as _______. Some aspects of their culture include _____. Their garbs and clothing are ________.

And fill in the blanks for several ethnic groups (some blanks with a bit more information than just a few words, obviolusy).

This is something they did for Orc and dwarf clans, and with Tauren and troll tribes. And with all the elf branches.

It puzzles me, that despite the fact that WoW so obviously copies most of its IP from other franchises (D&D included), it seems to fail in this particular regard for this race. Which is one of the foundations of the game itself (as it happens with most fantasy settings).

Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire,… all expand on their human segments in a way that makes the race seem far more interesting and appealing.
Granted, some of them do so while demonising certain segments (Lord of the Rings), but in all, i think that the concept on itself has a lot of pros that far outweigh the cons.

I think that the Human Heritage questline versus the Orc one, exemplifies a lot of my issues with the human treatment in WoW.
Orc one being what i consider a far more enriching take on what the “racial heritage” should be about.

Human one had its nice bits, do not get me wrong. But it felt as yet another indicative that the current view on human lore is more about revisiting the experiences of a set of particular protagonists, rather than expanding on the context of the race itself.
Again, felt as: Humans = Stormwind = Wrynns.

Which isn’t wrong per se, just…underwhelming for me.

One point i’d like to clarify, is that i’m well aware of the particular background of the human race in WoW.
But i think that just as Dwarves did, Humans should outgrow their robotic ancestry and writers should expand on their differences beyond that of a corrupted amalgam of automatons with a randomised skin condition. I feel like the race would fare far better on its lore aspects by using those differences to expand on different segments of their kin.
Instead of taking for granted players acceptance that their population centres will have the demographics of our modern RL cities, but without any explanation other than the headcanon that “silver robots turned into white people, whereas copper ones turned brown or black”.

I don’t know, again, that feels…lazy…for me.

Don’t know. What do you guys think?

19 Likes
2

Speaking of, was it good? I haven’t watched it yet.

3

Pretty good to be honest.

As i said, it got me interested in the game itself.

Had the just amount of goofiness, and awesome. And a series of elements and familiarity around it that made me want to know more about the inner workings of the setting.
Sent me some vibes of the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy, but in the medieval fantasy settings that i like more.

4 Likes
4

Because depth requires commitment and commitment requires thinking about the plot in a serious capacity and Blizzard simply cannot be bothered to do any of the three

The entire span of western history at their disposal with dozens of literary movements and novels part of Western Canon and they choose… This.

7 Likes
5

No this is necessary lore, there is no epigenetics in WoW humans, it was all tentacle monster cursed robots

3 Likes
6

I will say…particularly for humans in mediums with full on separate species are treated as “races”, i think the ship has sailed.

They’ve effectively pigeonholed themselves out of using existing cultures unless they invent new groups of humans to play off of.

Me personally i’d be fine if they leaned in more on the former vrykul shtick as long as its unique and interesting.

Anythings better than being told my character is just from Fantasy Africa….

10 Likes
7

Phenotype diversity needs to remain Robots Of Different Materials but tbh the existing cultures are underdeveloped

Like as it stands:

  • Stormwind = Feudal Monarchy, the center of the Church of Light
  • Gilneas = Feudal Monarchy again
  • Strom = Feudal monarchy again
  • Kul Tiras = Quadrumvirate Maritime Statocracy
  • Dalaran = Magocratic Oligarchy
  • Alterac = RIP
  • Lordaeron = ??? God knows, could be a Republic

And then we also have

  • Elements of local democracy (eg mayors) of Stormwind
  • Elements of non separation of Church and State (eg Church officials with power in stormwind)
  • Vague German and Russian accents sometimes randomly??? (Eg Barovs)
  • Untapped potential for incorporating Druids into Gilnean governance
  • Untapped potential for deepening Church history (eg did the Church of Tides declare Schism with the Church of Light???)
  • Untapped potential for deepening Vrykul elements of some of the Kingdoms (especially Strom I think)
  • Untapped potential for having Lord Ravenholdt claim the Kingdom of Alterac and make it into a Republic maybe idk
16 Likes
8

I’ve been going off about this for years now because it’s incredibly frustrating. A lot of people tend to ignore the plight of humans since they show up a lot (Which they do) but they have no actual lore developments. It’s nameless Footmen, the Wrynns and Jaina. That’s pretty much it. There’s also what seems to be an effort to disconnect human’s lore from any kingdom that is not Stormwind. And then in return refuse to develop Stormwind or go into its backstory.

The human heritage armor questline was a prime example of this. You would think there would be things involving the other human Kingdoms since Orcs had involvement from their other Clans. Even ones who were hostile or pretty much killed off. Yet the human questline doesn’t even mention any of the other Kingdoms. They don’t even feature a single non-Stormwind human. Turalyon even as the Regent of Stormwind doesn’t even show up or get a mention either. The questline still has to tell you how great and good, Anduin is.

Not only is it all about Stormwind, but it doesn’t even advance Stormwind’s lore or flesh out its history. It’s just a Defias/Onyxia story we’ve already seen. Another random noble turning evil. Same old stuff. The thing that makes it extremely frustrating to me is it’s not hard to add intrigue. There’s just a refusal to do anything of note that doesn’t involve Anduin and telling you how amazing he is.

Even if it was to be focused on STormwind, it was a massive waste. We learned nothing of Stormwind’s founding, the Brotherhood of the Horse, Conjurors, Clerics of Northshire or it’s Pre First War stories.

24 Likes
9

It’s funny too because materially the People of Stormwind in the moment of the onset of the game were Stormwind locals + refugees/descendants of refugees of Strom, Lordaeron, Alterac, a handful of Kul Tirans, and an enclave of people from Dalaran

At the very least the Human heritage questline should’ve touched on Strom, Alterac, and Lordaeron

Edit:

We aren’t getting a Strom Allied Races, they use the same models, likewise Alterac and Lordaeron

Like c’mon lol

17 Likes
10

Humans were mostly wiped out. Lordaeron scourged. Strom self destructed. Alterac destroyed by humans. Gilneas experienced a werewolf appocalypse. Kul Tiras only recently unified after purging their squid population. Dalaran destroyed but somehow now a floating sky city.

Stormwind has been the last bastion of humanity and its always been a generic european feudal fantasy setting. Admittedly they could do a bit more with it, have knights to go with their feudal castle setting, as well as some refugees stories and how they have intergrated or assimilated into stormwind society, or how they haven’t and maybe enclaves for members of the old dead kingdoms to plot and scheme the overthrow of the wrynn hegemony.

3 Likes
11

I’d be perfectly fine with it just touching on Stromgarde, Alterac and Lordaeron when it comes to the other Kingdoms. I think that would have been fair enough. And there’s characters they could have used for them all.

Mathias Shaw for Stormwind

Turalyon for Lordaeron

Ravenholdt for Alterac

Danath Trollbane for Stromgarde

It would be great to include Dalaran as well if they’d stop being neutral but yeah. I would at least be satisfied with the rest.

Despite the other realms being destroyed and Stormwind being a generic mix of Western Europe, there’s still a lot of potential and ways to include the different groups. It’s very simple given the different human subfactions that exist or could exist.

Given that humans can’t reclaim Lordaeron and it’s a massive elephant in the room of the human story, i think they really need to marry the issues of Stormwind and Lordaeron together. There should be a massive emphasis on the fact that the people of Stormwind and Lordaeron are largely the same people now. They’ve been refugees in each other’s nations and how there’s been many marriages between the two groups. A large % of Stormwind citizens would be of a mixed heritage. Even how Stormwind was rebuilt in a similar layout to Stratholme. Granted this may be a gameplay thing but it could be an interesting story aspect.

But there can also still be some subfaction distinction for said groups. The Knights of the Silver Hand exist and largely serve as the “Lordaeron” themed human faction within Stormwind. Although i wouldn’t be opposed to a subfaction that included non-paladins for them as well to be represented. The same could be done for “Old” Stormwind. Restoring the Conjurors and the old Knighthood to represent them.

I’ve always thought a great way to give the different groups representation even in their refugee status is to simply have them form Enclaves in Stormwind’s realm. These groups could be helping settle and expand the frontier. If humans can’t retake Lordaeron, have them form a Lordaeron enclave in a place like Redridge. Turn Stonewatch castle into New Stratholme or New Andorhal. There’s plenty of room for this even in Westfall and Duskwood.

8 Likes
12

Specifically, those are human ethnicities of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, not of D&D as a whole (and humans all have the same racial statistics). They’ve also been there for decades, so what “expanded universe” are you talking about?

1 Like
13

I don’t mean to nitpick, but mayors existed in feudal societies I believe. But yes, wow’s humans desperately need more variety in their cultures! I’d love to see another group of human’s out that maybe the vrykul had taken to a different location instead of of the eastern kingdoms.

1 Like
14

Yes the Mayors within Anglosphere world was an appointed position of the local feudal lord until the 19th century but in other parts of Europe the equivalents (eg alcaldes in Spain) were often enough elected positions from among the local population albeit confirmed by the local royal court, or even in some periods there were two mayors, one elected and one appointed

No that would be a train wreck, especially if they’re made to be Black or Otherwise

It opens the door for more racist abuse of the lore and attacks on players of color

Less of a trainwreck if all the Other Humans are equally as diverse phenotypically

2 Likes
15

I have said it before and I’ll said it again, the generic nature is a feature. That the Stormwind humans are suppose to represent, well humans in general and not any specific ethnicity. That Blizzard designed it so that a person playing from any nation(or most of it at least) can feel themselves welcome or at least not turned off, that their culture is not represented.

Sure it has a facade of medieval flair, and even that is skin deep considering the city itself has steampunk/fantasy elements added to it.

2 Likes
16

Do you mean ethnicity? Because I don’t see how Stormwind represents anything other than the most surface level western Euro medieval when it comes to culture.

1 Like
17

That is my point, that it is not suppose to represent any particular nationality/culture and has only surface level euro medieval roots so that anyone in the world/or nearly anyone can projected themselves as a “human” in world of warcraft.

18

Almost like cities can be rebuilt. Shocking I know. Considering Stormwind was also rebuilt.

In Vanilla up to Wrath, Dalaran (the main city section) was under an arcane bubble while it was being rebuilt. When Malygos declared war on all magic uses that opposes him, Dalaran was moved to Northrend. I think one of the books mentions Dalaran being “under construction” as well as a minor thing. Think it was Night of the Dragon.

19

Zerde I remind you that the majority of the world population is not in Anglo America or Europe.

Be serious.

It’s not “generic”. It not “not any specific ethnicity”.

It is specifically a superficial, shallow representation of Western Europe specifically and Europe & Anglo America in general if we want to be generous.

The fact you consider a shallow dilution of “Muh West” to be generic (ie ethnically neutral) is ITSELF the problem at root for the devs lmao

11 Likes
20

And I am reminding you I specifically mentioned any Anglo american nature is skin deep.

And I don’t think it is. Stormwind is effectively suppose to represent any major modern metropolis with a diverse group of people living in it.

That is not suppose to be “western Europe” aside from again the very shallow depiction of medieval european architecture.