Yup, that’s why 20th century UK radio shows gave them Irish/Scottish readers when doing Tolkien readings
A more subtle effect of the Troubles
Ergo why the ethnic codficiation motif exists
They are not, call it a retcon or whatever but the Stormwind humans are not suppose to just be european/westerners:
I think, in some ways we’re frankly viewing this as a bit of a retcon. Like, we’re not going to change existing named, established characters and make them look different. But, walking around Stormwind, walking around other parts of the world, you will see guards and random civilians that have these looks as if they’ve been there all along. Because frankly I think we see this as correcting an oversight on our part over the years, as well as just trying to improve representation more broadly. We are custodians of a fantasy universe and a world that we built, and we don’t want to not do the right thing because we feel shackled to a decision that was made creatively in a different era that was fifteen-plus years ago.
Not that it matters, Blizzard had always had asian/black npc even in Vanilla, even though it never had the customization options we have now.
Second, there is no lore stating that the skin pigmentation of the humans/other titan forged are due to their ancestor titanforged being made from different material.
To be abundantly clear with this point:
WoW’s entire premise attracts racists players
That’s the reality
There’s no avoiding it
We can make WoW as X-friendly as possible for every social category, but realistically speaking, the entire game is an exercise in Western self-examination of racism across history lmao
If you want to stop such, you’d have to abolish the factions entirely
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And I told you that absolutely doesn’t matter.
Because no matter how Blizzard implements that concept, it will embolden the very groups you despise. You know it would. You’ve literally dealt with racists harassing you and using WoW imagery in their racism.
You know precisely what would happen if Blizzard went down the road you consider to be ‘okay’ for them to go down, all so the Alliance can get the villain bat, when there are plenty of other ways for them to be villain batted that don’t involve taking the Alliance down racist/fascist paths.
You cannot have it both ways. Either you are opposed to Blizzard emboldening the racists/fascists or you’re not. There’s no middle ground. It either gets stamped out to the best of its ability given the context of the universe where the game is set, or it is allowed to breed and grow. Because racism/fascism is like a stubborn weed. If you don’t tear it out at the root, it will grow back again and again, and if you allow that weed to grow because it’s ‘okay if it happens in a specific way but not others’ then it’s going to spread and infest everything, which is precisely what racism has done in the real world…
And as you know, the real world is still trying to tear out the weeds that they allowed to grow, with little success.
The former was a cultural claim, the latter a phenotypic claim
But the fact you read “European and Anglo American” and assume Whiteness is yet another piece of evidence as to your general tendencies.
Yet.
And making different kingdoms different phenotypes would be a mistake.
Cope.
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That is kind of the issue. In WoW lore, European themed lighter skinned folks are the genesis of modern humans. Humans of color need special explanation to exist beyond that? It is a bit late in the game to insert something so potentially calamitous.
It does seem to be a particular sort of person’s fantasy - instead of the evolution of light skinned people descending from dark skinned people who migrated north (as you pointed out), Warcraft has become lighter skinned people moving south, with the conundrum being how Blizzard explains why they can have varied appearances. Sort of backwards of reality.
That has not been stated as the case though.
Maybe if we had tales of older lost human kingdoms in the Eastern Kingdoms that got destroyed, and fled to Stormwind long ago - that would make it so a current Stormwind Human Player could really feel like he is of Stormwind. Sort of like the Lordaeronians. But we do not have that in the history. Even then, people would want further lore about the lost kingdoms. It is a lot of time spent working backwards for an older franchise that is better spent moving the ball forward.
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And I told you it does, but here we are.
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It’s simply the desire of certain players, and noticeably usually Alliance Mains, to want Black & Brown Humans to come from somewhere other than the Eastern Kingdoms
As separate entirely, another history, separate from everything we know
It’s banal and transparent.
Notice nobody is even wanting to acknowledge Europe is culturally diverse so as to worldbuild, especially considering different historical periods, but they’re DESPERATE to want Black Humans to be from Anywhere Else.
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No, it hasn’t, not officially. People have just made that assumption basing it off of how we know humans evolved and where they migrated from.
We know us real world humans all originally came from what is now Africa, and as humans spread out they adapted over the centuries to their new environments.
Therefor it should not be controversial for people to suggest the same thing happens in WoW, but in reverse. That humans originally started as white, but then evolved as they spread out and adapted to their new environments, with humans who live in tropical/desert regions having darker skin thanks to increased melanin in their bodies, a natural evolution to protect them from the rays of the sun.
Not that it ultimately matters, because in the time period that Azeroth is currently set in, humans have been sailing the oceans, exploring various islands and regions of the continents, settling in various regions of Azeroth and mingling, much like we did in the real world. So now there are black humans that come from the Eastern Kingdoms. No amount of claims that ‘Black humans all come from Tel’abim’ will ever make sense. But that doesn’t change that humans can and likely did evolve over the centuries to adapt to their environment.
So again, head canon. Nice arguement.
Oh please, we know the two go hand in hand in your particular dislike, that the western influence of it is due to how certain western media has portayed the middle ages as this hyper white society even though there were black and sometimes even asian people living in Europe.
People don’t evolve over centuries. Retroactive effects of environmental conditions onto gene selection takes millions of years.
The nature of the worldbuilding does not allow for this. It would be a trainwreck to even VAGUELY affirm Black Humans come from Elsewhere.
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Science doesn’t support your argument, as the earliest form of human that can be considered our ‘evolutionary ancestor’ isn’t even a million years old. Sapiens (I can’t use the four letter word that normally gets used before that one on these forums for obvious reasons), the first of the humanoid tribes that would eventually become the race we are today, are only 750,000 years old at most.
And we have absolutely no idea how long it took for the natural evolution to take place, although the oldest humanoid remains found outside of what was Africa date back to 210,000 years at the earliest, but it varies depending on location. The oldest human remains found in China date back to only 120,000 years at most.
What we know for a fact is that the last of the other humanoid evolutionary tribes other than Sapiens, from which we evolve from, all died out around the 40,000 to 10,000 year mark. Humans in the region of Gibraltar can still be found to have Neanderthal genes in their DNA, as the Neanderthals of that region didn’t die out until 29,000 years ago, and the New Guinea Denisovans didn’t die out until 15,000 years ago.
With that knowledge in hand, I don’t think its unreasonable for a race forcefully altered by magic to evolve just a bit faster.
Point blank, do you support or do you reject the idea that Non-White Humans should come from Elsewhere Than Eastern Kingdoms?
Edit:
Oh I know whose alt that probably was
Hey Lore
People mention Europe and it’s rich culture and some automatically assume whiteness
Meanwhile the Moors are like Am I a joke to you?
I believe that humans in Azeroth evolved based on the climates they lived in/near. This is what science supports, so I believe this is also what happened to Humans on Azeroth.
This does not exclude black or dark skinned humans from living in, or coming from, the Eastern Kingdoms.
Does that answer your question? Or would you prefer a different answer?
These seem all great ideas to be honest. Particularly cool regarding Dalaran, as it always felt to have some flair to the theme you mention.
And sorry if I circle back to my initial point but: would it really be that harmful to add physical differentiation alongside these?
After all, and sticking to your European analogy, several of those segments would also display distinct physical differences.
For starters, going by our RL Andalusian/Spaniard people would be very different from the Germanic/Victorian ones.
Just to jump back, thats my headcanon. IDK where the weirdos get Roman from. Have they read what Thoradin and that whole line was about?
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Even without going into Islamic history of Southern Europe, there is a breadth of cultural diversity of Europe especially when considering historical periods.
Each Kingdom of the Humans should be a different region/historical period of Europe
That would be incredibly complex
The last sultan of the Nasrid Dysnasty had blonde hair and blue eyes according to written record lmao
There’s a Spanish-made portrait of him making him brown haired and brown eyed and brownish but alas
Multiple sources describe him as light, blonde, and blue eyed
Because even though he was a “Moorish sultan”, a good half of his ancestors were Visigoth nobility.
Yes, it would be a trainwreck
The history of Rome is that 3 Tribes settled into 7 Hills that were early Kingdoms
Parallel Alterac/Lordain/Strom and the 7 kingdoms
Especially as they were led by a magic wolf into Rome/Strom
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The Roman thing is headcanon. I’ve seen some roleplayers associate the Arathorian Empire with the Roman Empire due to its size and how it ‘broke apart’ and eventually collapsed.
No evidence to back that up of course, but then again roleplayers love to fill in holes with their own headcanon to make things make sense. I’m guilty of it myself.
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Boabdil?
Several centuries of mixing would obviously have an effect on everyone involved.
That doesn’t mean that both in the past, and in the present, we don’t have distinct features that differentiate people from Germany and Spain. Even if differences have grown insignificant over time.
Distinct features aren’t something that should be carved in stone and define each and every character from said collective.
We can have dominant features, and still have the mixed heritage that explains why not everyone sports the same look.