Heard you all talking about An’she!
Let me just say that we do a in character Story Circle on WrA that has been going since 2009. My Tauren shaman often tells the Eyes of the Earthmother story from the book (With proper credit) as that has a lot more detail and is well written and folks love it. People do care about Tauren lore and about An’she. On my server and in game I have seen people repeatedly talk about Tauren as being among their favorite race.
The Mists of Dawn story that can be found on Elder Rise speaks of An’she and his sister Mu’sha (Elune). That story was in vanilla so mention of him has been all the way back to the beginning of WoW. When Blizz gave Paladins and Priests to the Tauren and tied them to An’she, that was an excellent bit of world building.
In Mists of Pandaria, the Tauren tribe that the Horde encounter is the Dawnchaser Tribe, a tribe notable for their Sunwalkers and their Sunwalker Chieftain Dezco. I am not sure how much An’she is mentioned but the influence is there.
In WoD, Sunwalker Dezco can appear in the Garrison Tavrens and is looking into the Arakkoa and their worship of the sun. So we actually do have a different group worshipping a sun in the setting.
Sadly Legion gave us the Paladin Order hall and a lot of homogenization of the lore. It honestly started in Mists when small details, like NPC voice lines. Although I saw for that, the order hall I felt was worse and that was criticized as well.
Aponi Brightmane, when clicked on, can says the following lines though;
“Walk always in the Sun.” and “An’she’s warmth guide you.”
Even though Highmountain don’t mention An’she very much nor do they have Sunwalkers, there is a zone in Highmountain called the Fields of An’she. However, I have found that the questing experience doesn’t talk or show Highmountain druids at all.
But let’s get to Dragonflight. Baine’s quest in the Ohn’aharan Plains, in which Tauren can receive the heavily requested totem weapon, was a great new addition to lore and I felt well handed. Talking to the NPCs adds great world building, such as the Tauren nursery rhyme about the Centaur. That gave me chills. An’she is not mentioned though which is understandable.
However, Aponi Brightmane can be found in Teerakai and in her texts mentions her belief that An’she has smiled upon the Maruuk Centaur. While I was interacting with her she also said the line about An’she warmth.
So An’she has had a presence as a mythological figure since Vanilla and is mentioned when relevant, Mu’sha aka Elune has had a much larger presence in the game. It make sense since Night Elves have been pretty upfront in the story for the past few expansions. This is what people have been trying to say; give us more An’she and world building for the Tauren. They have gotten some but not as much as other races.
Blizz has not always handled the Tauren and their lore, especially when we consider they are heavily influenced by Native American Nations. Like other races, such as Gnomes, Tauren have not gotten a lot of attention. This could be for a number of reasons.
Rather than ignore the Tauren and their lore or world build that it was wrong, it would be better if Blizz gave proper and respectful representation.
So Shadowlands didn’t really treat the Tauren or Baine very well. I am convinced that Baine suffered from cut content so he just. In that Broker book, which is another point of view book, says the Tauren are stupid, their religion is wrong, and that they were really high and thought they were speaking to their ancestors. I say that was horribly wrong to do, both to the players and given the actual peoples the race’s culture is based off of. Thankfully it is still that “point of view” sort of thing and we do not have to take it as lore fact.
To continue this, as some have suggested, would be a continuous of that thread and such a terrible move. Showing that An’she is real and that Tauren religion is right about stuff would not take away from any other lore I can think of. Elune is still Elune, the Kaldorei are still her favorite children, the Light can still be the light, and the sun, An’she; the brother of Mu’sha, is still the source of light based power for the Tauren Sunwalkers. Similar to how the Zandalari Prelates had Rezan.
A very good question. I would say it is because of the writing of Baine as a character and how Shadowlands treated the Tauren. For the most part, anuway.
Lastly, I would like to add that the lack of worldbuilding or terrible writing of a character or race, should not be reason to deny any further writing or worldbuilding.