If you want a good multi-racial fantasy I still insist on Malazan: Book of the Fallen. x
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Erevien, this is going to sound terrifying, but everything is adapted from our own history. Humans write fiction, it shows humans in it. The fact you pin pointy ears on them, or a tail, does not change that fact.
Canât remember what Greek philosopher said, that if oxen could sculpt, they would sculpt their Gods to look like oxen.
Its the same with literature. You know as well as I do that every race in WoW is a mixture of RL cultural influences and traits.
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If I wanted humans as main representation of tropes, I would switch to sci-fi. Because spoilers.
That genre is almost always about our real world advancing into deep space. Halo, Star Trek, even star wars to some degree, Star Gate. But fantasy?
Apart from the Shannahra chronicles I canât remember any real world related fantasy. Itâs always an entire different place.
The chances of human being there should be minimal in a total alien place.
Honestly, if you wanna avoid humans inserting themselves into their own literature and games, you are gonna have to avoid everything. You are playing a race inspired by meso-American humans within a certain time period.
You are as much of a copy paste with your Zandalari as I am with my human paladin. The only difference is you have tusks.
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Warcraft was never an âout thereâ fantasy and humans have always been relatively central. It never really broke new ground, it wasnât the first to try and test âorcs arent just evilâ and it certainly wont be the last.
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And only 3 limbs per hand and foot. And blue-green skin. And glowing eyes. Weird hair. An alien language that makes no sense. A height above 2 meters. Srsly. They are nothing alike apart from being a humanoid standing on 2 legs. Orcs and Draenei differ further.
Sorry mate. Cosmetics aside, thatâs a human. And Orc and Draenei are also a mixture of IRL cultural traits.
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But it was? Tolkien and warhammer all did the "orcs are just evil."thing.
I respectfully disagree.
You are allowed to, its called denial.
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TIL Orcs donât have Mongolian and Japanese influences and Draenei donât have Jewish influences
Orcs and Draenei are as alien as it gets regarding culture. Or tell me any human people actually living in Crystal cities and shooting laser cannons. Iâll wait.
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Being alien isnât just having cool aesthetics. If thatâs your mark, itâs a very shallow one.
Orcs are divided into tribes which squabble and were united into a singular entity called the Horde which started wars of conquest to expand territory, which very much resembles Temujinâs formation of the Mongol Horde. Also, blademasters are inspired by Japanese Samurai legends
Draenei are the chosen people, exiled for keeping true to their faith, much like what happened with the Israelites, and are on a divine mission.
If those 2 examples arenât obvious, I dunno what are.
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But me no understand, mongols werenât green wtf
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They are if theyâre ill.
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Erevienâs world is crashing down around him. For the first time in his life, he realizes that every race is human potential.
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Mongols werenât green and wakandans donât have tusk, what now?
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Spoilers: other races are written by humans too in Warcraft, and are given our values too.
But I didnât know we had a flying magical city in real life, thatâs pretty cool. Or I never learned of the existence of a legendary fleet that could teleport thanks to a necklace. Or again I was not aware that the king of England was able to magically heal his entire army by just raising his hand. Thatâs pretty cool, not going to lie.
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So what are murlocs based on then? And gnolls?
Checkmate rustplate.
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Humans too. Alas.
There is no such thing as âWakandasâ.
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