Its become clear over the past few expansions that the popular trope of “Humanity is Special” is a key part of the Alliance identity. Like it or not, the exhalation of humanity and its exceptionalism is a key facet of the Alliance identity now. Don’t play a human character or bend the knee at their exceptionalism? Tough luck, Alliance Faction Pride is not for you.
“Humanity is Special” is perhaps the most basic and easiest trope to write for. As a species, we as humanity is rather a rather shallow yet egoistical species. We can’t help but be unable to fathom a universe without us. In February 14 1990, Carl Sagan coined a photo from the Voyager 1 space probe as "The Pale Blue Dot. The entirety of the human race compiled as a mere dot one a photograph of the planet Earth. In the world of fiction, we as a species seems determined to deny the fact that we just aren’t that special and prove ourselves too exceptional as a species to fade out into the dark.
In the realm of TvTropes, the trope of the trope of “most writers are human” rings most resoundingly. We as a species cannot accept that humanity is not “special.” If we as a species are not special, how can we explain ourselves in a world where other races have a clear advantage in specific niches? Does this regal us to a pathetic comic book universe where metahumans (aka, humans with clear author favoritism and fiat) are the only subspecies worthy of recognition?
This bothers me as someone who has struggled to identity “what is Alliance pride?” I don’t play human characters. I don’t care for most “alliance virtues.” Hell, in most role-playing universes, Druids are straight up incompatible “lawful Stupid overdrive.”. What is “faction pride” for someone who does not play a human paladin? Why should I care for Lorderon or the Eastern Kingdoms in general? I picked the class and racial combo not just because it was the only option for night elves, but because leveling in Kalimdor seemed more interesting than leveling in “not medieval England variant #294763.”
However, Its rather apparent that I am an aberration in Blizzard eyes. As someone who plays a racial and class combo that is “blue,” I am supposed to identity with the WC2 faction identity of humanity first. Lorderon, Dues Vult!!11! or whatever is popular those days. I am supposed to care what Anduin or Jaina feels over the the views or beliefs of Tyrande, Malfurion, over even our blessed goddess Maiev, my racial leaders. I am also expected to accept whatever character assassinations Blizzards decides to put forward to force their belief into the overall narrative.
How pathetic is “alliance pride” that we need to rely on the fact that the player is human to manufacture “faction pride?” I recall a college class of public speaking commenting on Ethnocentrism. The class warned of the dangers of relying on racial pride so much that your speech boils down to racial supremacy. This summons up the uncomfortable truth that “human exceptionalism” is derived from an older trope known as “Mighty Whitey.”
“Mighty Whitey” is a common trope in 18th and 19th century adventure fiction, when Europeans were visiting and documenting vast swathes of the world for the first time. Not only does the usual protagonist learns the way of the tribe, but he (it is almost always a male protagonist) but he usually ends up with the Chieftains daughter. Mighty Whitey pops up as the result of creative types trying to appeal to as broad a cross-section of society as possible to get their cash back. Just remove the skin coloration or cultural implications, throw in some pointed ears and some uncomfortable cultural implication and we’ve got ourselves a quick and easy method to manufacture “faction pride.”
Like it or not, much of “Alliance pride” is focused on an old idea of racial supremacy. I don’t think it is intentional, but a result of a blatant lack of interest of the developers to explore anything that isn’t one of the two commonly proposed Horde story lines that we’ve seem pushed forward. Regardless of the unfortunate implications, Blizzard has set a racist standard with the Alliance story. Humanity first, everyone else is a subhuman standard that will always play second fiddle to the OG human storyline.
So, non-humans of the Alliance. Do you care for the values of your human masters? Or do you have a more “human” approach to a multi-racial problem that seemingly only revolves around Stormwind?
Sources:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreSpecial
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey