So as players we have access to whatever knowledge about the setting we want, but the average human or orc probably doesn’t have a shelf full of the Chronicle books and richard knaak novels at home. What doesn’t your character know? Have they heard of the Titans or the Void Lords? What about basic history? Do they know what Azerite is, and what a certain bearded rockman has to say about what we should be doing with it?
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Sarestha tends not to know much about anything that doesn’t align with her ideology - which can loosely be described as the preservation of free-will among the Forsaken, and the restoration of Lordaeron. Some of this is due to simply not knowing or caring, some of it deliberate ignorance.
For example, Sarestha tends to deliberately ignore the Silithus wound. She knows it exists. She has a vague idea that its a big problem. But it doesn’t align with her political understanding of the world, and so she focuses on what she knows - war and fighting for an ideologically driven ‘just cause’.
It’s been quite fun to play a character with a limited world view though. She knows Lordaeron’s history backwards, but has only a cursory knowledge of other Azeroth history - for example, she knows little about the War of the Ancients other than that it was a demon invasion and Queen Azshara accidentally blew up the world. She knows little about the intricacies of troll culture when it comes to the Loa, she knows next to nothing about the Titans, and the history of Draenor largely escapes her. She puts all her energy into her own people and cause, caring about everything only just enough to attempt to foster a genuine sense of unity in the Horde. And even that’s only because she saw how Garrosh tore it apart, and how that ended for them.
Atos bases his plays off of current events, but they’re almost always stitched together through second-hand retellings of what happened. In some cases were very little was known at all, the result would be a complete amalgam of a script, thus why the Hellsqueal series is so inaccurate to the books.
It’s also how I get away with cheating on show length. -cough-
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Since Ursuola was a hermit until Siege of Orgrimmar (when her character was created), she’s only heard of the events of Wrath, Cataclysm, and most of MoP through hearsay and secondhand explanations. The first time she saw a worgen was a, uhh, interesting experience.
My Forsaken DK, Istvan, tends to refer to a lot of things as “breather business”. Any events on Kalimdor prior to the recent Sylvanas led nonsense there, the entirety of MoP and/or Pandaria, that business out on Draenor or Argus… he might have some vague notions about it here and there from widespread gossip and the like, but by and large, it just isn’t worth bothering to learn about. Only dead lives matter. XD
Altielle absolutely refuses to believe elves are decendents of trolls.
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Isalenna, my Warlock, being one of my most intelligent and educated characters happens to know quite a few things - that doesn’t mean there aren’t holes in her knowledge. She’s aware that certain factions are working to deal with the problem of the sword, though she considers it a secondary problem right now. She’s -not- aware just what Azerite is, either - it started appearing right after Azeroth got Shiskabab’d by Sargeras, right? Well, if it were localized around the wound, blood wouldn’t be a bad theory.
She’s not aware that’s what it is, though. She knows it started cropping up around the same time all over the world - as far as she can tell, it’s probably some strange magical anomaly with the sword interacting with the arcane energies native to Azeroth. She’d have a panic attack if she realized that, no, that’s the planet actually bleeding to death, lol.
As for the Titans, she understands the basics of who and what they are, I’m not sure about the Void Lords. She might be aware of their concepts, but that’d only be because she’s a Void Elf herself and she’s pretty sure -something- has to be behind it all, right?
What makes Juspion fun is that he’s actually pretty knowledgeable when it comes to Draenei technology, specifically around Argunite, Arkonite, Azerite and all these aight crystals. Which has lead him to further studying the Titans and maybe knowing a thing or two about their influence on life. It’s why he’s with Picks and Pints, he’s heard of Brann and Magni’s exploits in Titan ruins and is hoping he can further learn more about the Titans, the world souls of Azeroth and whether Argunite and Azerite are one and the same and if Azerite could be used to restore the Draenei I mean Azeroth to glory.
Otherwise he’s fairly indifferent regarding the history of Azeroth, yet this might change now that the Legion has been defeated. Juspion has traveled to so many worlds, it’s was almost better to not know the history of a planet or it’s people because it would be destroyed soon enough. No point getting attached or connected. Yet perhaps that outlook might change but for now he’s pretty willfully ignorant on things like the War of the Ancients, the history of Lordaeron and whatever. He shared a planet with orcs for how many years? and he couldn’t tell you the name of a clan or that there was a difference between orcs and ogres.
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That’s one of my favourite rabbit holes to explore!
Kait had the privilege of getting a decent education even before she went off to learn about the Light so she knows a fair bit about the history of the human kingdoms and the world in general. She believed in the wisdom and expertise of her teachers and doubted little. But-- there’s always a but-- she had the misfortune to meet a paladin of the Scarlet Crusade once upon a time and learned to question everything.
She now knows that history is written by the victors, that soldiers mostly just follow orders, and even the blessed Light can be used for ill. She knows the limits of her own knowledge.
For example, all she knows about Azerite is that it’s bad news. If the rumours of it being the planet’s blood are true? That’s bad-- planets shouldn’t be bleeding! If it’s just some weird and powerful new mineral? Also probably bad!
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What Tam doesn’t know could fill a warehouse.
She’s never HAD to learn about the world outside of her little bubble of wealth and privilege, and even when that bubble was shattered, she spent more time concerned with day to day survival. Ancient history, magical theory, the nuances of international politics, military science, etc- have never been priorities for her.
Not only is she uninformed about a lot of things, she’s also misinformed. In general, if it’s related to magic, she’s inclined to believe the first thing she hears. She also operates under the assumption that many unfounded conspiracy theories and urban legends are indeed truth.
What she knows/believes is also dictated by a large degree by how she already feels about something. She’s far more likely to accept facts that reinforce her preexisting beliefs than those that shatter her worldview.
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Love this question! Anyway.
- Most of Keyás’ knowledge comes from books, because he wasn’t old enough to register most events - he came to be in Cata but the process of fully realising him wasn’t linear, including the time I needed to get into the story (of WoW and the expacs) at large.
Since I’ve played for so long, and did so many things with him, I’m playing it off as that he’s aware of the elven history, and just feels an all encompassing amazement whenever he comes across something of ancient highborne origin. Like those statues, he would wonder “who was that man? that ranger?”
- Now, my warlock on the other hand…
Is old af and has had enough time to read all the books forever. He’s also been eyewitness to historical events, though he’s not all-knowing as he’s knowledgeable the most and best on events he was present at. He’s aware of the fact that books are (likely) skewed in favour of the author.
This isn’t in any way special, given that he’s a (dead) elf, but it gave me an idea the other day, that he should totally do a guided tour around Quel’thalas or what remains of Tirisfal,
“Oh that place, I liked it better back before…”
“Really? I was there when it happened!”
I’d have him rag on gentrification just for the hell of it.