Zekhan was made the ambassador of the Horde for Zandalar. No matter what anyone thinks of this, we can work with it. This means his duty should be the interaction with the Zandalari and looking out for the Hordes interests.
That’s a very important position to have.
So why did Blizzard decide to send him on a tour trough all of Kalimdor, leaving him potentially for a long time far away from Zandalar and his obligations? Yes, learning about the world makes sense, but he was given an important task. This is basic world building. Are the story tellers really that clueless? Looking at Sean Copeland’s failure I guess they are.
I understand they want to build up a character that was well received by the community. Isn’t this a strange way to do so? It’s basically ignoring the world and basic settings once more, even though it makes no sense.
Rexxar traveling through Kalimdor makes sense. Zekhan had a job to do. What is your take on this?
honestly makes no sense to make a newbie the ambassador of the horde heck ambassadors in rl are often crusty oldmen or crazy cat ladies it’s almost like blizz wanted to cash in on this meme character’s popularity without giving much though to how stupid it come of as
I do kinda hate how Zekhan so casually normalises the position of a shaman. Apparently it doesn’t come with respect, responsibility, and the gravitas of someone who talks to the dead and throws lightning around,. It’s something some young country boy does. It’s not really a career, it’s what you pick on the character creation screen. Now, ambassador is the achievement you work for! That’s a vocation!
It seems Lor’themar quickly taught him everything he needs to know about words and writings so as a Horde ambassador for Zandalar, Zekhan was already very prepared and good to go later
probably you think I’m joking now, but technically I’m not…Blood Elves are very good teachers on every matter they have an interest on, and they are very fast learners themselves too.
Some random examples: upon joining the Horde, all the Blood Elves learned the Orcish language extremely fast. They learned how to create their own order of Paladins very fast (in comparison to the Silver Hand of Humans and Dwarves). They learned to be Demon Hunters very fast (in comparison to the Night Elf ones at least). The ones who followed Alleria and Magister Umbric learned to control the Void and its whispers very fast as well. Finally, when the Nightborne joined the Horde, the Blood Elves taught them a lot of stuff too, not only about magic but also on politics and about basically everything in the rest of the world too. These are just a few examples but there are a lot more, of course.
As a result it’s not difficult to believe that Lor’themar did not just teach Zekhan words and the way to use them correctly but Lor’themar is also the stepping stone Zekhan used to be able to become an Horde ambassador very quickly, after all. Let’s not forget that Lor’themar is also a poet himself so he definitely is among the best teachers a person can ever have…
there is more to being an ambassador then knowing how to read and write well you have to understand the people your interacting with and mr meme does not which is brutally clear in the book it would be one thing if he was simply the ambassador of the dark spears or something but his suppose to be representing the horde as a whole that means that if he offends anyone that makes the horde look bad
Anyway, it’s better that the Horde send in Zandalar a Darkspear Troll that has studied with a Elf teacher, rather than Blood Elf ambassadors themselves right? (like the ones who are in Orgrimmar in Grommash Hold for example).
To send Blood Elf diplomats could be a problem and result in some tensions (even if they are cultured Zandalari, you never know how they could react around Elves, hostilities could still be present)
Therefore it’s better to send a Troll indoctrinated by an Elf instead…
It’s be more realistic, if the constituent races each had their embassies, with each other rather than acting like the Horde is a blob the Zandalari are outside of.
Yes, all the races have likely their own embassies with each others, even back then when the Horde had a single Warchief and was therefore more like a proper Empire. For example back then in BC the Horde sent an ambassador for each Horde race in Silvermoon while the Blood Elf one shows them the whole city while waiting for Lor’themar (and it seems like they are still waiting to this day )
Still, as you can see in game, the one of the Darkspear (Tatai) was kind of troublesome, with a bit of bias against Elves as he was making inappropriate remarks about Silvermoon being “too big” for nothing, or explicitly saying the Blood Elves were looking at him in a bad way (not sure if he did something bad against them in the past though, it’s kind of implied in his dialogue).
Still, the Blood Elf ambassador overlooked the behaviour of Tatai because the other Horde ambassadors put him back into his place. It’s better not to risk something like that with the Zandalari though, and just send a cultured Darkspear Troll is the best option for the whole Horde, rather than Elves, even if allied ones.
There’s also no deny some races are better at diplomacy than others, though. Surely for the Horde, Blood Elves would be among the best about diplomacy, I think, as they recently recruited even the Nightborne, although the rude behaviour of Tyrande helped a lot with that… for the Alliance it would be Humans, but the Humans have also screwed up quite a lot of times at this point of the story, actually, as there are quite a few Horde races that were pushed into the Horde exactly because of the behaviour of some Human characters, sometimes even multiple times…
It could lead to some interesting interactions to see how different people of diplomatic inclination handle these situations. I most certainly don’t think that having an overtly idealistic child soldier, who also happens to be a shaman, as the single representative of the entire Horde, for an ambassador is a good idea on any level. (Then again neither was bringing Baine along and they did it anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
That’s why embassies often have even dozens of people there.
The context in which the decision was taken made sense. It happened in « Shadows Rising », Talanji threatened to cut ties with the Horde if they didn’t want to help her get her revenge on Jaina for killing Rastakhan. Zekhan saved her life by chance (he spilt a wine cup that was filled with poison destined to Talanji) right when the members of the Council of the Horde were looking for someone that both Talanji and them could trust. It’s in the wake of that incident that the decision to make Zekhan the Horde’s ambassador in Zandalar was first made.
Talanji goes through a lot in this novel, she reminds me of Daenerys in Mereen when she was fighting against the Sons of the Harpy. Zekhan, though still clumsy and not the best in his domain, has been someone she could rely on during this ordeal and the way he defended Zandalar in the names of both Talanji and the Horde justify his current position well enough in my opinion.
I like that Madeleine Roux didn’t suddenly turn Zekhan into an almighty hero because he was popular among the players, his development makes sense. It’s not another Pelagos type of situation.
Easy to do something quickly when you’re basically just copying something that already exists. And by the way, High Elves had already been in contact with Orcs before the Sin’dorei joined the Horde, makes sense to me that they already knew the language without being fluent.
I’m pretty sure it was harder for Blood Elves at first because they were still struggling from their mana deprived condition and needed to adapt to fel. I’ll take any source you have backing up your argument.
We don’t know how time passes on Telogrus so it’s hard to tell how fast they really learned. Let’s not forget that the most important lessons they learn are taught by the Locus Walker though, without whom Alleria would have died long ago.
Also, since there are no green eyes for the Void Elves, can we really say that the Sin’dorei who arrived in Telogrus after the incident with Durzan learn fast?
Pretty sure the teachings went both ways when it came to magic, and I have my reservations concerning what the Nightborne have learned from the Sin’dorei on the political side. They seemed pretty confused to me during BFA.
I guess the Nightborne learned archeology from the Sin’dorei, who simply copied the dwarves on that too (because that’s the level of racial development in the WoW universe).
Zekhan was put in that position because the Horde needed a mole in Zandalar while Talanji was sulking in her pyramid. Nothing to do with Zekhan’s prowess or what someone taught him.
He is in the summary of the book « Exploring Kalimdor » :
Join famed hunter Rexxar, his animal companions, and Horde Ambassador Zekhan as they make the perilous journey across the lush and vivid reaches of Kalimdor to learn the secrets of the realm. Leave no stone unturned and no tracks unfollowed as Rexxar and Zekhan reveal lore, insights, equipment, and breathtaking landscapes from the ramparts of Orgrimmar to the golden plains of Mulgore to the wilds of Un’Goro Crater―and share one final kindness with a friend along the way.
But the Blood Elves now talk Orcish fluidly. And they just took a few years for learning it, meanwhile the majority of the Alliance races who almost came in contact with the Orcs, still can’t. That denotes a high intelligence of the race especially because they learned to talk in Orcish in such a short time, meanwhile for example I’m not english and still after almost thirty years, I can’t talk in English perfectly at all…
Exactly because it was a harder process, it’s remarkable that they learned to control it and become Demon Hunters in only a few years…
They do…it’s just that, I think their eyes change from green to blue because of the big usage of Void energy in their zone and abilities they use…Blood Elves in general are like magical sponges and change eyes according to the magic they are around…
Well, I guess everyone was confused by Sylvanas during BFA, so…since Blizzard keeps putting Warchiefs that actually betray the Horde at every turn anyway…at least now they have a Council so something changed…
Not exactly a copy because the Blood Elves mainly dig for power now, to find powerful magical artifacts that can help them…they could easily dig for knowledge just like the Dwarves do if they wanted, but the Sin’dorei have other priorities now…like survival…so they need all the powers they can get their hands on…
Yeah I guess that’s the main reason. Still, if he turns out to be a smart and efficient Horde ambassador in the future, we know now Lor’themar certainly will have played an important part for him to be good in that role…
You don’t need to answer if you don’t want to, but do you live in an English speaking country or within a community regrouping people from various countries? Blood Elves very frequently end up sharing space with Orcs and other Horde races who speak this language fluently as well. I don’t think that the Sin’dorei who never leave Quel’thalas can speak that language fluently, even if they do for gameplay purposes.
I still think that they took as much time as most Kaldorei Demon Hunters, but it was harder for them. The fact that some still managed to do it is remarkable indeed (yes I’m very proud of my Sin’dorei demon hunters )
Quel’dorei Void Elves shouldn’t be able to keep their natural blue eyes without Void tint if that was really how it worked.
My comment on archeology was mostly a pun though, I hate how Blizzard chose to make Sin’dorei evil archeologists only for the sake of good/evil rivalry between the Horde and Alliance.
I’d see that as a missed opportunity for the character development of Zekhan, and the intelligence of the Zandalari, to credit Lor’themar for his accomplishments. Trolls don’t need their strange descendants to be clever
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