Worst case: We add yet another race that will never get any lore development after introduction (and even if they did, it will be taken away from another race without any lore devilment.)
Best case: They don’t do that.
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So Worst case was the choice, full tilt of “Manari guilt”, to the point of changing his name.
I hope people remember that next time we fight the Primalists, Lightbound, Scarlet Crusade, Old God cultists, Titan Watchers…
Well our ‘worst case’ has come to pass, and it’s… eh. It is what it is. I’m conflicted.
I felt like the conversation was so vague between Velen and Arzaal that it didn’t give us much of a glimpse on why we should allow them to repent as members of the Alliance. Shouldn’t their penance be to languish on their broken world (THAT THEY RUINED) and help Hatuun? (if anything?)
Not only are they not being forgiven, but what is stopping the average Joe’nei (or Night Elf, or Orc or anyone really?) from just killing a Man’ari on sight as soon as they step into any major city? Why would the Draenei even TRUST a Man’ari to even be around them? Ata’mal crystal or not.
I know it’s a video game, at the end of the day. But, realistically I feel like a LOT of the Draenei civilians would be side-eyeing the crap out of Velen for allowing demons to walk freely in their midst, and what a slap in the face for the Broken as well.
Story wise it’s bungus but the vain player in me can’t help but love how SLICK the Eredar customizations look. I know the latter is the real reason any of this gets implemented.
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Other then the fact that they are canonically immortal and would just come back eventually anyway? prob just velens say so
Well, without the titan Argus to allow them to regenerate on the planet proper, they’d just be aimlessly regenerated in the Nether, far far away. I think that’d be good enough for Joe’nei Blow’nei who has lived to see them raze countless worlds and butchering everyone they know and love.
I liked it for what it was. It allows the man’ari who really didn’t have much of a choice in joining the legion to try and forge a new path/life for themselves
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Although I think the story itself was lacking any sort of follow-up which I hope to see in the future, I did love revisiting Argus. I love how it feels so desolate and full of sorrow. One of my very first characters since I started playing WoW was a Draenei so the tooltips for the items that Gaal carries give me a lot of feels. (I wish we could see Argus pre-destruction!)
Plus, I can’t deny how great the Man’ari look. It’d be cool if they added some unique dialogue to Draenei NPCs if you show up in the Exodar with the Man’ari skin. (Similar to how Void Elves get in the Church of the Holy Light)
Edit: I forgot to add my favourite part, a GLIMMER of hope for Krokul someday.
I am glad to see the customizations explained through remnants and former members of the Legion. Any other explanation would have rung hollow. People want red Draenei but they also want to go all the way with back story.
So that is good.
Velen is a pretty solid guy. You could say he was doing it for his survival and the survival of his people, but helping the Blood Elves when they were going through a hard time is along those lines. Maybe that prepared him for even grater and more personal acts of reconciliation.
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Yeah, I think for what it was it was ‘fine’, I think it just lacked follow-up to make it feel less clunky. Which is why I hope they explore it a bit more later on, perhaps in the Draenei heritage story.
WoW kind of struggles with story-telling in that regard, because the word of a character representative (in this case, Velen) is the word of the people which as we know, is a pretty unrealistic take. Although, I know that’s easier said than done in the confines of a game like Warcraft.
I do like Velen as a character though, and I’m glad they gave him a measured approach to the situation that felt realistic to his continued portrayal. Allowing the Man’ari to repent instead of killing them on sight is truly ‘taking the high road’ which feels true to his established nature so I’ll give them that. They were smart to balance it against Velen’s betrayal of Hatuun.
At the end of the day though, I am glad to see these kinds of implementations into the game and I do genuinely hope they continue to do it for other racial off-shoots because it gives a fun variety and nuance to the setting.
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I think realistically, no; there isn’t anything stopping someone from just knifing a man’ari in the street should they enter any kind of civilization outside of the Exodar. The solution to that should be as simple as never adding them to other cities, period. And you’d ignore players that show up in them because of game mechanics that draw people to town facilities.
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On moon guard people been pretty receptive of the new customizations. On a out of character level anyway
Other than that, ignoring man’ari players in stormwind because that’s where everything important is and where everyone RPs sounds aweful to me
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I mean ignoring people going in there for OOC reasons. Nobody in their right mind is going to hunt down a hidden barbershop to change their skin color back to blue so they can go to Stormwind and list their stack of pristine bear asses.
IC, they probably shouldn’t be in Stormwind period. You’d probably be doing yourself a favor by refusing to RP with them.
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Yeah, you’ll get the folks who don’t want to RP with a Man’ari character outright, or will have characters who are hostile toward Man’ari characters. Which is fine, to each their own.
I have the benefit of not being an RP’er, so it doesn’t bother me what people want to do in the main cities or not. I’m just curious now about the implications (if any) that will be for future storytelling surrounding Man’ari, as well as other racial offshoots that were deemed ‘irredeemable’ in the past. It opens a lot of doors of possibility.
This made me laugh way more than it should have.
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It’s been a ton of fun actually. So far my character has run into Draenei supporters who want the man’ari to properly integrate someday and people who were outright hostile. Which is to be expected, but it’s been a blast so far nonetheless
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RPwise, Kaioon considers the man’ari presence on Azeroth a stay of execution. They’re here by the grace of the prophet, so he will not be the one to break his peace.
They will eventually slip up at whatever little game they’re playing at and the executions will begin. Internally he’s considering taking the trials of the light and joining the Lightforged.
This has been a shot in the arm for Draenei roleplay. I said earlier their story effectively concluded in Legion. They needed a new chapter and this is as good a start as any.
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This is a nice way of looking at it. I haven’t seen the draenei RP community anywhere near this passionate in ages, whether they like the Man’ari customizations or not.
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It’s definitely got everyone who loves the Draenei, especially me who’s been playing one since BC, excited and engaged
I honestly haven’t seen the Draenei community this engaged in a really long time and it’s honestly nice to see
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I’m right there with you! It’s pure chaos at the moment, but I’m happy people are invested again. It is funny seeing a 10:1 ratio of red to blue draenei, but things’ll calm down in a few weeks.
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Right now it’s more or less taken over Stormwind. In the coming weeks the shine will come off the new toy, things will settle a little and there should be some decent RP.
This character has been a draenei warrior since the very first evening of The Burning Crusade launch. I haven’t seen this much draenei RP activity since maybe Argus was announced.
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