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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: The other kind of hybrids
by Max Warner 
May 10th 2010 at 8:00AM
Two examples of well-received hybrids are Garona Halforcen and Rexxar. Garona, originally created as a half-human, half-orc hybrid, has in recent times been retconned into a half-orc, half-draenei -- still a popular character among those that know of her. Rexxar, the half-ogre, half-orc Champion of the Horde, has been a popular character since his creation in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne's orc bonus campaign.
However, hybrids can also be targets of immense hatred from the fan base. Rhonin, while not a hybrid himself, is often accused of being a "Mary Sue" by fans, with one of the most popular reasons being that he is married to a high elf, Veressa Windrunner. His twin sons, by extension, have been poorly received. There was some anger when it was revealed that the first Guardian of Tirisfal was Alodi, a half-elf.
But among all the disputed hybrids, none is more controversial than Med'an. The son of the aforementioned Garona Halforcen and Medivh, last Guardian of the original Council of Tirisfal, Med'an is quarter-orc, quarter-draenei and half-human. This apparently gives him the natural aptitude to not only be a mage, but a shaman and paladin as well. Not only this, but he becomes a new Guardian of Tirisfal, which drives some to say that he "ruins the point" of Warcraft III. Regardless of your opinions on the character, the controversy created by Med'an has few rivals within Warcraft's history.
In addition to hybrid characters, some races are alleged by some to be hybrids. The drakonid, humanoid dragons, are said in some places to be half-dragon. The same goes for harpies and other races.
What are your feelings about hybrids? Should drakonid be the next playable race, or should Deathwing just eliminate them all in Cataclysm? Or are you somewhere in between?
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Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
ash May 10th 2010 1:51PM
I think the lore is kind of iffy on what exactly Drakonids are. I always thought they were dragonkin myself but there is talk of their hybrid status in possible explanations to their origins. I think the issue has been mostly brought up in the context of possible new player races. Hapries have also been brought up in that context as well.
Grovinofdarkhour May 10th 2010 2:02PM
Nobody's into mixin' it up with the Tauren?
Sad, sad Tauren.
Origional_Der May 10th 2010 3:11PM
Hybridity in WoW is interesting. After all, nothing can be considered pure. At some point in time there has to be hybridity. It’s more realistic than the boring normal racial boundaries... I’d love to see more of them...
It’s a tad sad that they’re really outcasts from the beginning never truly fitting in either society the parents come from. And I agree with some other comments that they shouldn’t be made to be God like... that’s plain boring.. GIVE ME CHARACTERS WITH FAULTS!!! ... or mutations :D
Possum May 10th 2010 4:45PM
The reason nobody likes half elves? It's the extra specialness combined with the outcast tag they get which makes them a favourite character for angsty teenagers. And nobody likes angsty teenagers.
Hurbster May 10th 2010 4:56PM
Blame that emo Tanis Halfelven, I do.
Nagaina May 10th 2010 10:08PM
Well, there's the other thing that irks the crap out of me: what logically consistent in-game reason would make a half-elf an outcast? I mean, really, let's think about it: as I said earlier, the humans and the high elves have *thousands of years of intertwined history and cultural exchange,* including a whole fricking magical city where they spent centuries canoodling over the magical theory textbooks. The first Guardian of Tirisfal was a half-elf. One of the major cultural heroines of the Quel'dorei, Alleria Windrunner, gave birth to a half-elf son with her human husband/lover. Love them or hate them, Rhonin and Vereesa Windrunner have a pair of half-elf kids, and both run major, important organizations among their respective cultures. If you want to add the RPG books into the mix, Stormwind's half-elf population is quite simply gigantic and you can extrapolate that Lordaeron's half-elf population could easily have been similar, especially given their proximity to Quel'Thalas. The heir to the throne of Quel'Thalas, Kael'thas Sunstrider, was pretty openly pining after the human princess of Kul Tiras, Jaina Proudmoore, and apparently did not feel there was any political or cultural issues that might have impaired their relationship had she chosen him.
*The half-elves are woeful outcasts meme makes not one damned lick of sense in the actual context of Warcraft lore.* And so, in my stories, the prejudice does not exist -- because their is no rational support for it. In Dragonlance, from whence came Mr. Knaak, it does to some extent: even the friendliest of the elven nations, the Qualinesti, don't like humans much. In Tolkien, it makes even more explicit sense, because an elf who chooses mortality to live with a human spouse passes forever away from their people when they die and their half-elven children will eventually have to choose the fate of their own souls, as well. It seems like the 'half-elves as outcasts' thing exists more as a result of generic fantasy element inertia than for any good, well-supported reason.
icepyro May 10th 2010 5:24PM
I'm with others who state that it's not the hybrid that is the problem, but rather when said hybrid gets all the awesome and none of the terribad. It's especially bad when they breed so that the offspring gets even more concentrated awesomeness.
I don't know much about Medan, but just because he is part pot luck doesn't necessarily mean he should be good at mage or shaman or paladin because his parts are (and it's even worse when you replace those "or"s with "and"s). Ultimately, the only way that they can fix him is for him to disappear and come back as someone else hiding his identity until he proves to be a worthwhile character. Or for him to start producing flaws like bloodlust/heroism (he is orc/dranei shaman) kinda taking over and he does something completely stupid or any flaw aside from "being clumsy" is welcome.
SeraphimKitten May 10th 2010 6:07PM
I think you're a little off base with the comment that the reason people dislike Rhonin is because he married an elf. I'm pretty sure absolutely no one cares about that. And even if someone was irked by it, the things about Rhonin that bother everyone are far too numerous to list, but it won't stop me from trying!
The War of the Ancients books by Knaak take a great story about a man who blinds himself, tears apart demons, and then uses their blades to wreak havoc. While changing Tyrande into a giggling schoolgirl and Illidan into a dress-wearing carebear already got on people's nerves, the inclusion of Rhonin into that story-line was like painting a huge target on his back. "Hey guys, I just ruined three extremely popular characters -- also, instead of having them be the main characters of their own stories, here's a guy named Rhonin that you already dislike, he's now the main character." Rhonin steps in, and suddenly they forget to include the Warglaives of Azzinoth, Tyrande liberating the Frostsabers, and a dozen other events that are so incredibly awesome they define the war of the ancients.
And it's not just there. While the idea that a character that awful is sleeping with a Windrunner sister could rub someone the wrong way, it seems like when you put Rhonin somewhere the original plot just forgets. I go to Dalaran Crater and I see Archmage Runweaver and it made me happy. He was heir to Dalaran, he's supposed to be in charge. Except then I got to Dalaran, and I was expecting to run into my good old Runeweaver friend, leading the charge against the blue dra-what? Rhonin? AGAIN? Why is there no plot explaining how Rhonin magically stole Dalaran from it's rightful leaders? Why did this happen?
So, as you can see, hybrids have nothing to do with why people don't like Rhonin. Richard A Knaak and WoW's use of Rhonin is why people hate Rhonin.
On the topic of half-breeds, though, the Theramore half-elf who later goes to Darnassus always seemed kind of sad. I wish they'd go into her back story. And someone said Garona wasn't mentioned in game. She's playable in Warcraft 1, and WoW has lore references to her everywhere, including Yogg-saron showing you the moment where she kills King Llane. That's all old Garona, though. I don't think they talk about the new Garona. I'm afraid to read the comics because Garona was such a nice character and it doesn't sound like they're treating her respectfully.
HeartOfTheSwarmBeta Aug 17th 2010 10:38PM
"I think you're a little off base with the comment that the reason people dislike Rhonin is because he married an elf. I'm pretty sure absolutely no one cares about that"
Really? Because I see it brought up in almost every discussion about Rhonin's Mary Sue-ness.
deepred May 10th 2010 6:17PM
I can never enter a discussion about racial hybrids without mentioning Finnall Goldensword. Apart from Shandris Feathermoon, she's about the only other female warrior in Warcraft lore that I know of, if I'm not much mistaken.
HeartOfTheSwarmBeta Aug 17th 2010 10:36PM
I believe Metzen declared her non-Canon, though it was more like "Not everything in the RPGs are canon. She's probably not going to be canon unless we can think of a really kick-ass use for her"
Otto von Ultima May 10th 2010 7:08PM
It seems somewhat incredible to me that there aren't _more_ hybrids running around. Alright, from a gameplay perspective it makes sense to keep things simple and have defined races. In reality though, Azeroth must be the most racist planet in the Twisting Nether - individuals from one race seem incapable of finding members of another appealing enough to fall in love with.
I'd be all over a Draenei. Hell, who am I kidding, I'd chase Dryad tale given half a chance.
Otto von Ultima May 10th 2010 7:09PM
*tail
sigh, edit button?
RomanVS01 May 10th 2010 7:19PM
Well thank the light that Med'an will never have a child,he's too ugly to even be attractive,too op,and DEFINETELY can't have children otherwise i will cry and my tear's will feed the Celestial Steed even more.
Terrant May 10th 2010 10:14PM
Hybrids just seem to be adding complication for complication's sake. When you create a character with fantastic parentage, it seems like there isn't a limit. "You're a human? Well, my parents are a high elf and a human!" "Oh yeah? Well, my grandparents are a human, a high elf, a gnome, and a dwarf!" "Oh yeah? Well, my great-grandparents are a human, a high elf, a gnome, a dwarf, a forest troll, an ogre, a furbolg, and a murloc!"
In many, if not most, cases, bad RPers use racial heritage to: 1) have an excuse to monologue at length about their own past, or 2) have an excuse to explain their acquisition of knowledge, languages, skills, and powers that no mere single race character could possibly wield. In both cases, it tends to leads to dull RP filled with self-important expository monologues.
Bluriel May 12th 2010 11:13AM
I never considered Rhonin a "Mary Sue"... more of a "Harry Potter" if you ask me . Khadgar seems more likely to be accused of being "too perfect" - but I kind of like him too much as well...