Wait… WAIT, the Blackrock Mountain didn’t exist before the Dark Iron’s settled the Steppes?!
Maybe they’ll (all together) reclaim Grim Batol and make that the new capital city? It has the Wildhammer gryphon symbols while sharing architectural styles of Ironforge and Shadowforge.
The Blackrock Mountain is only around 260 years old. It was created at the end of the War of the Three Hammers, when the Dark Iron summoned Ragnaros and turned half of the Redridge Mountains into the Burning Steppes, the Searing Gorge and probably the Badlands.
This is what I want for the dwarves, tbh. A final effort between the clans, but mostly Dark Iron and Wildhammer, to cleanse Grim Batol together and finally truly put the past behind them.
Oh yeah. Headcanon: this volcanic event was the cataclysm of its time with thick smoke blotting out the sun from the wetlands to Stranglethorn, crops failing and people choking. A migration of displaced dwarves messed things up further and massive instability shook the eastern kingdoms for over a decade.
You’d think Stormwind would be more hostile to Dark Iron dwarves for ruining half of Redridge.
And practicing slavery of humans until… well they still are, I guess.
Lordaeron’s capital was built with the aid of elven architects which is why it has(d) rounded towers and domes, previously unseen in human lands. The same applies to much greater extent to Dalaran.
Typical human architectural sensibilities are firmly utilitarian, practical and dare I say basic. Rectangles, triangles and squares stacked high. The elves, for their part, had to adjust techniques to local sensibilities since humans normally do not prop up structurally unsound fancy arches and slim spires with excessive arcane magic just to look good.
Human castles having rounded towers is a different matter, adopted from dwarven bunkers built taller. Without input from their allies, the human buildings would have largely kept to a vrykul style with longhouses and other designs not fading from memory until more robust stone structures took their place.
It’s not that humans do not innovate but rather that they take what is best, make it theirs and claim that since it is, it was all along. Kind of like “all that is good is Roman and all that is Roman is good”.
As an aside, dwarves actually invented gunpowder (although basic knowledge of alchemy saw it discovered all over pretty much at the same time) but as we know, goblins had freakin’ laser beams centuries before that. Fireworks existed prior to this as well, mostly by way of magic.
Magic generally slows scientific discovery, creating shortcuts in physics, medicine and more.
Reflective of the human cultural ethos of progress, exploration, expansion and being the most populous race arguably in the world their architecture means they can build settlements with ease and speed. Compared to the overly whimsical, artistic elves, deeply pious trolls who prefer to build on sites approved by the Loa or the Orcs who don’t build settlements but build fortresses - or camps. Both wildly different to one another.
Dwarves and Gnomes, while highly practical build things far slower with a ponderous mind, making sure they want to build something permanent before actually committing, which is why most Pan-Alliance structures are usually human based due to the speed and versatility.
Goblins are the only race known to build quicker (Town in a Box) but their settlements are notoriously prone to just bursting into flames, much like anything else a Goblin makes.
We know per The Last Guardian that magical affinity is genetic with Aegwynn choosing Nielas Aran as the father of her child in order to cross two powerful bloodlines to create the most powerful possible heir for her power – Medivh.
We also know that someone who isn’t born with a natural talent for magic can become a powerful mage through sheer hard work and perseverance alone in the form of Khadgar who is noted as being particularly mediocre and unremarkable where his magical affinity was concerned. He represents the power curve for the average mage in the setting who has reached the height of their skill through hard work and never taking a short cut.
So with that lore dump out of the way, my most recent headcanon is this:
All human mages born with a natural magical affinity is a descendant of the original 100 human mages one way or another. Go back far enough and somewhere in the last 3000 years (that’s 150 generations, or 75 if we take into consideration the average 200 year lifespan of a human mage), all of these mages share a common ancestor among the original 100, making them very distantly related.
Or for a scale of reference anchored in Earth, about the same time from now as to the late bronze age (ie about the same time as the Trojan War allegedly). Which sounds like an amazingly long time for a essentially same human people to keep accurate records of who their bloodlines trace from.
Also theoretically at that point any human alive on Azeroth could be distantly related to one of those mages. Charlemagne is after all a distant ancestor of all Europeans now, and that was “only” 1300~ years ago.
That’s the point. It sounds impressive to say “I’m a descendant of one of the original 100 mages” until you realise that so is everyone.
it only becomes impressive if you somehow manage to trace the specific individual mage from whom you’re descended through some kind of blood ritual or something.
Quite a few Nightborne are struck by a wanderlust rivaling that of the Pandaren.
After millenia stuck beneath the arcane barrier above Suramar, some of them can barely contain themselves at the prospect of a world to explore; one almost entirely unlike the one they knew during their pre-Sundering empire.
To say nothing of all the kinds of food now available to them. I can just imagine a Nightborne chef having the time of their life experiencing new spices and ingredients, and introducing them “back home” now and then.
Each and every family we see in Azeroth is a lot bigger than we get to see in game. That’s all. That’s the only headcanon I have for you today, thread.
It makes no sense for the families of noble and royal dynasties to be limited to, generally, the patriarch / matriarch of the family and one or two children. There are still Fordrings, Ellerians, even the odd Dathrohan and Perenoldes, but none of these characters are prominent to feature in the story. Tiffin’s father, whatever he might be named, is still alive. Not so well, though. He’s old, past his eightieth year, and growing increasingly frail after Anduin’s disappearance and forcible conversion, being that Anduin is his sole remaining link to Tiffin and resembles her in appearance.
Thank you.
I hated the idea of loosing the Menethil’s, Proudmoore’s, Hellscreams, Wrynns, Trollbanes etc etc due to Blizzards lack of commitment on expanding the story past x characters(or just building upon the a proper world).
Also Malfurion and Illidan have some cousin’s named Stormrage running about.
There is also that Warden Whisperwind from War3, who is deffo a cousin/niece to Tyrande.
Dynasties remain hugely important as we see with different ruling families across Azeroth. It’s just that the writing focuses on the immediate relations and heirs. For all the talk of free will, the old hierarchies of the world are deeply entrenched and few think to change it.
Partially, this is due to constant belligerence of neighbours and random nonsense invading, demanding oligarchic power at the least to coordinate the armies of the world as far as most are concerned. Then there’s the fact that Stormwind’s nobles actively turned organized labour into criminals and rebels.
Some gnomes yet mourn the death of technocratic meritocracy.
What Gnomes? Mekkatorque is still a chosen leader of Gnomeregan Gnomes.
I suppose for the Mechagnomes, he is equal to a king?
Elections have been overdue for years and he’s now styled king with Erazmin as obvious successor.
And Baron Perenolde, a death knight, clearly indicating that at least some of the Perenoldes were considered / remained loyal enough to the Alliance for them to retain some of their dynastic titles.
Mekkatorque has been calling himself King of Gnomes for years now and as part of the questline to unlock Mechagnomes as an allied race, the states of Mechagon and Gnomeregan are united and Gelbin is chosen as king of an united gnomish race.
Gnomes and mechagnomes. Today is a joyous occasion many centuries in the making! The reunification of Gnomeregan and Mechagon! Just as the citizens of Mechagon thrive from the union of flesh and steel, so too will our union bring us success and prosperity! At the behest of Prince Erazmin, it is my privilege to announce the ruler of an undivided gnomekind–Gelbin Mekkatorque, King of the Gnomes!
And some of the Junker gnomes of Mechagon fear a loss of political / societal status as the cost for gnomish unification. Being born into wealth and political power matters little in a meritocratic society.
To be fair, it is said he only reigned as High Tinker for so long because of his people’s faith in him.
The unification day of Gnomeregan and Mechagon was the final nail in the coffin of anything resembling a democratic system.
My broader point here is that hypocrisy is stronger than ideals and that Azeroth’s people will be dragged along by the whims of aristocrats forever, knowing nothing better and learning nothing from the cost of the ambitions of the few.
Headcanon:
SI:7, infamously incompetent though it may be, is working diligently to keep the truth about Anduin under wraps. It’s believed that the public at large would respond rather poorly to the king’s corruption and possible death to say nothing of the state of the Alliance should it be known that the High King supreme commander is fallen to the enemy.
At war with reality, they silence chatty adventurers on the regular and prepare sweeping contingencies in the event of the Horde learning the Alliance’s weakness and striking first, as they do, to end the critically weakened foe with their current military superiority. They regard Lor’themar as acting Warchief, not believing for a second that the Horde council is actually an equal ruling body and that he will certainly press the advantage.
Turalyon as regent is regarded a stabilising influence but unreliable since he’s been among aliens and demons for many lifetimes and imbued with Light, no longer quite human. Deference to him is a necessary evil but measures are taken to arrange for a replacement if he proves unstable.
They’re not nearly as on top of things as they want to believe, of course.
The naga could also be the reason why they don’t. With an enemy capable of attacking from below and boarding ships with zero warning, the Kaldorei have been roundly beaten on the sea for too long to bother. They stay on land or ride flying beasts, and only use ships when necessary.