I really wish pandaren’s holy magic originated from Chi’ji and Niuzao.
For their dailiy hard work and brutal conditions under the ruthless overseers, aswell as being on the reciving end of the dense cudgel and cracking whip, Peons are treated with bacon scraps from the local farms as payment for their service, surely such a treat is worth all that torment!
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I think it’s fine that they are separate and the pandaren have both.
What matters is that they do not get the sunwalker treatment.
Vol’Jin said the name whispered was Windrunner.
There are 3 Windrunners, I’m going to bet we got the wrong one.
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Come to think of it, if it was void-related, Alleria would’ve made a lot more sense…
Headcanon:
Most high elves died out when Arthas struck but those who survived the battle long enough to escape are likely very dangerous combatants. So while few in number, the remaining blood elves are likely a formidable force to be reckoned with.
Edit: And I guess that applies to existing high elves who were there but decided to remain blue.
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The apparent prospect of losing the greater war in BfA with the nightmarish loss of Kalimdor and disaster at Undercity followed by constant attrition against a ruthless foe with no regard for civilian life leaves a fair few Alliance questioning their leadership. The Blues need a victory soon for the sake of morale. It’s not quite a situation of revolutionary fervour but a general ennui toward continued conflict is creeping in. Drafting the peasantry to fill ranks is further harming public opinion and the farming economy supporting the army. Rations are becoming bland, harming troop morale of a thinly stretched army as a result.
The wider implications of this aren’t readily apparent but various movements are reinvigorated and borne from the discontent. Banditry is on the rise as some grow desperate and various nobles and people of wealth hoard their means and influence instead of contributing so as to save themselves if things go bad.
The Horde on the other hand is a relentless wrecking ball, free from prior restrictions and restraint in regard to acceptable measures under Forsaken dominance. A humbling loss may yet stagger the momentum but continuous savagery and eagerness to cross previously unacceptable lines as honourable pretense drops leaves the Reds as extremely driven and even the grumblers tend toward at least accepting the moral cost of victory.
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You should just read the post made by my boy @Telaryn
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Mag’har priests have been a thing well before the Lightbound and Ner’zhul’s reigniting of the dark star.
Where shaman revered the terrestrial realm of earth, wind, water and sky, the priests revered the celestial realm of stars, moons and celestial bodies. The first priests of the Orcs who took their studies a bit too far reached beyond the realms they could see and this is how they encountered the void. This is when the practice was banned and priests became secondary to shaman from this point onwards, becoming largely relegated to niche duties such as charting stars rather than using their magic for the clans they served.
This is also how Orc priests may have discovered holy magic without realising it was the same magic the draenei tap into. As they channeled celestial powers and focussed on the ethereal powers of the stars they unknowingly drew on holy magic in a way not too dissimilar from how Night Elves do, but without Elune as a proxy. This is also why their holy magic is weaker overall and could never make up for the paranoia the Orcs came to associate with Priests due to the fact that when they drew the Void this magic was a lot stronger than anything else they accomplished.
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Ankhs, the tools carried by shamans to raise themselves from death work as follows:
They are tools that, in a way, bind spirits to this realm, leaving them with the choice to reawaken their body by re-entering it after it has been healed, or pass on to the other side.
An ankh can however be augmented to bind the spirit forcefully, and used by dark shamans to bind nearby spirits, and rip them into this realm without their consent, allowing the dark shaman to then enslave them to their will.
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Arranged marriages are a thing in Pandaren culture (canon) but it is primarily common with richer families. While not rare for the average family, it is not seen as the default to the same degree, and marriages out of love is what most go for.
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The higher levels of Sunfury Spire consist of vast libraries with corridors of offices around them.
Blood trolls have a matriarchal society because they consider bearing offspring extremely important and have a big focus on expanding their numbers and reach, this is why one of their titles is ma’da, too.
This also means that bearing a lot of offspring is considered a good thing, and would be very much promoted
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Trolls are just another titan construct turned into flesh, not Azeroth’s vaunted native species. The heart of their civilization is made of titan tech pyramids like Uldum, actually designed to contain the Old Gods & Pals like Mythrax and G’huun and just like the Blackrock orcs, the Zandalari still bear the marks of their elemental construct origins as stoney scales about the shoulders.
They needn’t be constructs of the likes of Aggramar but rather awakened by Azeroth itself as a sort of reflexive response, beginning as primitive entities much like the Gronn of Draenor before slowly becoming fleshy over the ages, growing individual agency and treating the beasts of Freya’s garden as Wild Gods. “Loa” as such is probably shorthand for some elaborate long lost titan designation just like how dark trolls learned of Elune via titan rubble.
Almost everything is a titan cargo cult as their creations gain self awareness and falsely attribute the sufficiently advanced technology of the Makers as aspects of the divine.
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To complement this the underground of the Sunfury Spire has a massive labyrinthine prison/containment complex that sprawls under Silvermoon where everything from SCP-tier entities to political dissidents and experimentation take place.
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The Lightforged Draenei joining the Alliance are cosplayers.
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Some of my personal “Gnome” headcanon that I employ regularly in roleplay:
• The fall of Gnomeregan was so devastating in terms of population because a series of failed evacuations preceded the Gnomes turning to that infamous irradiated solution.
• Gnomeregan suffered a series of power failures, which rendered escape to the surface difficult as doors and consoles didn’t work.
• Some Gnomes actually suffer from a form of PTSD that particularly focuses on underground environments and claustrophobic spaces due to Gnomeregan.
• Gnomes are acutely aware that most of their “best” designs are made in concert with Dwarves, who simplify their overengineered ideas into something workable on a massed scale.
• Meritocratic society can be very exclusionary. Gnomes who aren’t great engineers are viewed poorly and ostracized socially. It can also impact their career chances.
• The Gnomish equivalent of a Marshall in terms of military rank is a Mekgineer. This has been largely retired as a rank because of Themaplugg.
• Officers in the Gnomish military are typically poor leaders, this is because they gain positions thanks to their engineering ability, not their tactical prowess or leadership qualities.
• Gnomish dissidents exist. Not everyone agrees with Mekkatorque; some Gnomes believe it’s been too long since the Tinker’s Court voted on a new leader.
• The lack of a Gnomish historiography is due largely to a preoccupation with “progress”. Some believe that the Bronzebeard fascination with the Titans is archaic.
• Gnomes share a great affinity with the Bronzebeard Dwarves but they do not see Dark Irons or Wildhammer Dwarves in the same light. The presence of Dark Iron Dwarves in Gnomeregan causes a great level of distrust.
• Gnomes are reliant on Humans and Dwarves for their agrarian needs, given that they don’t put a great emphasis on farming.
• The Gnomish tendency towards overt optimism is a reflex given the relative hopelessness they sometimes find themselves in.
• Gnomish fertility rates are incredibly low due to the irradiation of Gnomeregan. This is why the race has struggled to regain pre-WoW population levels.
• Leprosy in Gnomes can cause psychological issues and brain damage, even when surface symptoms aren’t obvious.
I probably got more tbh, but I can’t think of it atm.
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Love it in 10 letters.
That there’s a point to this faction war.
Also that the reason there’s such a clear difference between MU and Iron Horde Blademasters is that the heavy industrialisation of Draenor under Grommash lead the Burning Blade clan down a more fiery, hard-hitting route that polluted their traditions.
WC3 and WoD Blademasters are night and day, it always irritated me.
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Given the Wandering Isle Pandaren tendency to destroy knowledge that is not applicable to their present, their society was locked in cycles of stagnation and reinvention, reiterating lost ideas and philosophies every other generation as it all stood on living memory, never truly progressing for centuries.
More than a few incidents have occured where both Tushui and Houjin have been apprehended and punished for trying to burn the books of their allies. Especially Houjin as inaction is immoral and they’d “help” their friends by liberating them from old, “useless” thinking.
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