RP guide to Azeroth races
by Allison Robert 
Jan 18th 2009 at 11:00AM
Even if you're not a roleplayer, the guides are fascinating. They're well-written, thoroughly researched, and a supremely entertaining (and sometimes funny) guide to the mindset of each race. The guides also give some background into how each race arrived at the perspective that it did, and points out that there are several race combinations (notably Tauren/Gnome and Troll/Draenei) who really know very little about each other, and must rely on the often-biased opinions of their faction colleagues. And even beyond that, it keeps digging into the shifting nature of politics within each faction: why are the Forsaken and the Blood Elves on shakier ideological territory with each other now? Why are the Night Elves so standoffish with the Alliance as a whole, and why do the Humans in particular react badly?
I honestly can't say enough good things about these guides. No, they're not official lore, and there's necessarily some conjecture based on game mechanics and vague ingame hints concerning what's going on, but they seem pretty damn accurate to me. If you're in any way interested in Warcraft's lore, or in understanding why certain things in the game work the way they do, the full list of guides is here.
If you're interested in roleplaying your race and class in-game, check out our own series of guides, All The World's A Stage.
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Lore, RP, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
dreadpiraterose Jan 18th 2009 11:11AM
Thanks for linking this. I'm still debating an alt on an RP realm, and this just may seal the deal.
- Kelly
The Convention Fans Blog
http://conventionfans.today.com
Holgar Jan 18th 2009 11:40AM
I really found these guides to be kinda offbeat. I would have loved to have had a few of the lore refrences and the night elf that implied that blood elves are immortal was a bit disconcerting. Also the implication that the Night elves had no contact with the trolls before Warcraft three. And the dwarves being highly anti arcane.....They don't USE it much, they seem to try and cap dangerous magic, but I don't see them kicking all the gnome mages out of Ironforge.
Going to read all of them but I'm highly unimpressed so far the only thing that struck me as DEAD on was night elves treatment of Gnomes.
Other than that I think whoever designed these needs to go learn their lore and if you think they are that good you do to Allison.....
Why?
Because they seem to have no knowledge of ANY previous contact between the trolls and humans simply grouping them with the orcs as guys "humans have been finghting since the third war."
Any nerd work his loremaster achivment can tell you about the Troll wars....hes named TROLLBANE for a reason people.
Holgar Jan 18th 2009 11:46AM
Ok seriously I think for every three things the guide gets rightish, it gets one thats iffy and one thats wrong or based off the wrong idea.
Sorry Allison an ok guide but WAY to many holes.............
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 1:27PM
Hi Holgar,
I do actually discuss the troll wars on the site, and in retrospect, I should probably have kept them in mind a bit more, especially with the blood elves. But remember: The trolls who they fought in the troll wars are not the trolls who are fighting in the horde. Forest trolls are not jungle trolls. It influences their opinion, plays off it, but is not the major factor for them.
I don't think my treatment of the opinion of trolls was that bad. It's a plausible take.
Gurluas Jan 18th 2009 11:50AM
We just need one for high elves now...since thats what i roleplay
ZuWhowho Jan 18th 2009 12:13PM
Out of intrest, you do that as a Blood elf right?
It baffles me why a high elf would be in the horde. I'm wondering what the motivation is for your elf.
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 1:28PM
Staggeringly, you're kind of in luck. This week's theme is "Non-PC races". So the high elves will probably get a look.
Elmo Jan 18th 2009 3:03PM
I wish they would make some form changing things like the Belf orb from MrT. last as long as their cooldown this would make RP'ing an other race possible.
Marco Polaris Jan 18th 2009 12:42PM
*snort*
To all the people who will be complaining about some of the blogger's ideas of the races - of course you're not going to like everything. We build ideas from the lore based on how we interpret a lot of things, and most people ultimately interpret things differently, no matter how we go about it. Unless the case in point is flat-out contrary to something officially said on the website or a book - which might happen - don't call it out as "clearly" breaking terms with the game.
Tirrimas Jan 18th 2009 1:25PM
Anyone who says Blood Elves appreciate and honor Hunters has never asked for directions to the Hunter trainer in Silvermoon City.
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 1:35PM
Hah! No, I hadn't done so before. Interesting. I'd imagined their thinking on hunters and thought British aristocracy, that soldier seems to be thinking backwoods hicks.
Amaxe Jan 18th 2009 1:40PM
Stay clear of the hunter who says your toon has a "purty mouth"
http://www.lyricsondemand.com/g/goodiestevelyrics/nedbeattyhadthehardestpartlyrics.html (Sung to the tune of "Waiting is the Hardest Part")
Thorie Jan 18th 2009 1:38PM
Wait, you mean horde players actually Roleplay as Orcs, Undeads, Taurens or Trolls?
This truely is a fascinating guide!
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 8:41PM
We actually did a piece on the RP statistics of race numbers, Thorie. Turns out trolls are there in slightly _higher_ numbers than non-RP realms. Unexpected, right?
Dwarves, meanwhile... yeah. They're not as popular. They're the least popular RP race, it seems.
But the differences in all cases are a few percentage points.
Kylenne Jan 18th 2009 2:14PM
I've come across that series in the past and I'm still not impressed by it. As others have said, the lore is shaky at best, a lot their assumptions are head-scratchy and in some cases outright contradicted by stuff in WoW, and there's way too much bias in them for my taste. (I really shouldn't know which races you like or hate based on reading an article on them.) The Blood Elf guide was particularly headdesky IMO, despite some of the good points in it. I like the WoW Insider guides far better for the most part, despite some of the errors in them. They've got a neutral tone and freely admit they're just one person's interpretation or best guess.
That's the problem with trying to write an RP guide, frankly. There are a lot of things that don't necessarily have lore we can point to, so we end up having to fanwank a lot of stuff. There isn't anything wrong with that, by any means; part of the fun of RP for me is thinking about what informs my characters' opinions and behavior. But please examine the lore, and make sure your interpretations make sense in light of it. (Note: reading an article or two on WoW Wiki is not "examining the lore", btw. It's a good starting point, but that's all.)
My advice is really just study the lore, talk to other RPers, and take articles like those with a huge grain of salt. Remember that a lot of things are subjective, and the most important thing is whether or not your characters make sense WRT lore by your own measure.
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 2:23PM
Actually, I find myself agreeing with 90% of this comment, and I wrote the guides. Take with a grain of salt, use your common sense.
Jess Q. Jan 18th 2009 3:39PM
I have to agree with some of the comments here, my biggest beef with the article was the obvious derision the writer felt toward Blood Elves (as that's the section I read). It's fine to dislike BEs, but if you're writing a guide about anything like that I think you need to put aside your racist feelings (well, fake-racist feelings) and try to sympathize with the race.
It was pretty clear, especially early on, that the writer felt no love for the BEs, couldn't care less about their point of view and looked down on them quite a bit. I once heard a great actor (I forget who) say that the reason he played villains well is because he realized that no one believes they're in the wrong. Even the most evil person believes what they do is the right thing, or else how could they live with themselves? So no matter how despicable you believe the race/person is, you have to realize that that race/person has, at the very least, rationalized their behavior so that they can live with themselves and wake up every day without being suicidal with guilt. You have to see things from their point of view.
That said, the writer made it sound as if the Blood Elves straight up hate everyone, even their allies. I disagree, simply because you can't base an entire race's perceptions on a few emotes by NPCs or some quest text. Certainly it's very important to pay attention to that stuff, but I look at it this way: I'm an American, but I absolutely love Britain and Europe and "European" ideas. I drive a Mini Cooper in a city where I see almost nothing but raised trucks and Hummers (Phoenix). (And yes, people try to tease me about it, but it's my dream car so the joke's on them.) I'm 25 and don't even own a credit card in a place where people get into debt up to their necks trying to afford things they don't have the money for. A big chunk of my culture is all about blind faith in a corrupt government and unquestioning patriotism due to ignorance, fear, tradition or because it's just easier to hate something than it is to try and understand it, easier to fight than to make peace with a culture, etc.
Do I feel that way? No way. But a lot of people in this country probably do. But we're all Americans, whether we agree or not.
So if the Blood Elf race is the same way (which by the way, I see a lot of parallels between America and the Blood Elf culture), that doesn't necessarily mean ALL Blood Elves feel the same way about things. There are always going to be people/BEs with different feelings than the norm.
As one of those annoying people who has a million Horde-side alts that are all BEs (and nearly as many Alliance-side alts that are all Draenei), I like to think that each character is unique and has their own opinions about their allied races depending on their past experiences. I'm not well-read in the lore at all, but I think I get the basic gist, but I think it's most important that each character has their own identity within a culture.
I think that my BE Hunter would probably like going to Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff and would prefer the Orcs, Trolls and Tauren and their naturalistic ways because Silvermoon and other BEs would be too stuffy. My Mage is sheltered and stays in Silvermoon because she hasn't formed her own opinions on the other races yet, and my Warlock is snotty, rebellious and stuck-up brat just like you'd expect, and she likes being evil because she's avenging her family and is a little crazy. And my SPriest is a loner who spends most of her time in the Undercity because she tries her best to follow the Cult of Shadow.
But they're all Blood Elves, and they're not automatically evil just because they're Horde. Hell, in general I don't see the Horde as evil. I see the humans as being one of the most despicable races of all because that's how I've read the lore and I don't just accept that they're "good" because they're human. My first character was human when I was under the impression that Horde = evil, but as soon as I read more about things, I realized I didn't really agree with what the humans did.
My point is, it's much more fun to see the point of view of every race and then decide who you want to play and how you're going to RP. I think the Horde are largely misunderstood by Alliance-side players. Things are not as cut-and-dry as Alliance = good, Horde = evil.
Sean Riley Jan 18th 2009 4:05PM
I do urge you to read at least one more of the Horde articles, particularly the Tauren, Orc or Troll files. I don't think the Horde are evil. I think the undead are pretty darn evil for the most part (this despite my main being one, and he's a good guy) and the blood elves... yes, well, I do think they're a conniving, backstabbing bunch of politicians... for the most part.
But it should be noted that yes, in all cases of these files, they're stereotypes. I never stated that clearly enough, but yes, they are. The idea is to use them as a leaping off point for your own characters, deviating as makes sense.
Jess Q. Jan 18th 2009 5:08PM
I'm trying to reply to Riley here but I don't ever understand this commenting system...
I wanted to make clear too that I wasn't trying to be insulting, I thought it was well-written and a good guide, I was just kind of surprised at all the animosity toward my BE buddies. ;)
I will have to read the other Horde guides you wrote. And I agree the Forsaken are pretty evil. That's what makes them fun.
gearwhizz Jan 18th 2009 8:32PM
I'm always surprised by the degree to which opinions differ about warlocks and mages. To the majority of people the differences would seem minimal. Mages have more of a controlling social structure that may reassure people but I think a person would revile / admire all arcane magic users in equal measure.
I'm not suggesting that fel magic isn't corrupting (or less corrupting than arcane magic) but I would expect at least a few years or even decades before the well-intentioned dabbler in dark arts began cackling and slaughtering the human(oid) race. The assumption that learning Shadow Bolt involves signing up with the Burning Legion and becoming an enemy to your faction is both incredibly limiting role-play wise and counter to pretty much the whole game experience. I prefer to sum up warlocks with a quote from Batman, you either die a hero or live to see yourself become a villain.
With Night Elves regarding the Draenei their is no mention of their (kind of) relationship from the past. Eradar were part of the force that came through the Well of Eternity 10,000 years ago so some living elves will remember the time that beings looking very much like Draenei slaughtered their people, almost destroyed their civilisation and then broke their world.
It was said SI:7 rogues would be feared in a gestapo type way, I put forward they could also be cool in a James Bond / FBI type way.
Finally we come to humans regarding Forsaken as basically hated abominations. I think many humans would be feeling an incredible amount of guilt towards the Forsaken. The Alliance was set up for mutual protection. When Lordaeron fell it was because the Alliance failed to protect it and because of that failing the Forsaken now exist with the agonies of undeath. The fact that one of the most respected factions, the Argent Dawn, has accepted Forsaken amongst their ranks should be given the human a cause to rethink their relationship with the undead.