I am sure fellow RPers of various realms might agree. That lore is such a division on something that used to be morally and ethical simple.
All because Blizzard thought they needed to explain cosmetic options and push certain writers views.
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Spill the tea for those unaware and with a bucket of popcorn close at hand! Iâm curious.
Basically the Penitent lore is about Manâari (Demons) that want to ârepentâ for their sins and reconnect with their people.
Why was it added? Because people asked for Demon skins for Draenei for RP.
How did Blizzard execute it? In the most minimum way acceptable.
What has been expanded upon it since then? Nothing.
In short, in the lore the Penitent Demons among the Draenei are ONLY allowed under supervision of Vindicators on Azeroth at the Exodar (and only a chosen handful handpicked by the most trustworthy leader among them to not F things up for the others in behavior). The others all remain on Argus and help âreclaimâ it, whatever that means.
What do we have in Roleplay? Penitent Manâari left and right in Stormwind. Where they officially shouldnât be. Why does this divide the Draenei playerbase?
Many already disliked the addition of Penitents to begin with. That Blizzard hasnât expanded that lore with sense ever since Dragonflight Season 2, is a problem on top of that.
Right now, we are in a situation where (from an IC perspective), the Draenei people are increasingly facing a civil-war problem. Those that trusts the Prophet Velens word and get along with the Penitents in Stormwind, even defending them. And those that reject them entirely and view any Demon in the city (also rightfully) as a danger.
To give another comparison, we have a meme among us on the Draenei discord.
A picture of a Penitent saying âVelen said itâs okâ. Itâs basically our version of âsomehow, Palpatine returnedâ.
Ah, the effects of shallow single-film layer worldbuilding. I find roleplaying really exposes the errors and consequences of the lack of in-depth thinking precisely because of situations like this.
I honestly understand the higher numbers of players wanting to play Penitent though. Playable demons/demonic-adjacents ala tieflings feel like nowadays the âPopular Elf Choiceâ. I mean, Draenei in general (all types) are my third favourite for a reason next to Zandalari and Elves.
Honestly, for this occassion I can see it being difficult to find a general consensus unless a community effort is made. Not that any player is obliged to ofc, because this should be a problem Blizzard worldbuilding could solve!
Thatâs exactly what specifically players like me worries. That WoW becomes too much like DnD. And given the DnD WoW version that was announced, this could even become truth.
I getâcha.
But eh, whilst it is sad to see I do hope players will try to continue having fun with their characters. I do not know how it is being fully recieved over in the blues, but I imagine iâd still try to pull off a Penitent character with the limitations in mind.
No matter how lacking it really is.
Just feels like you could pull some cool plots like an Adventuring Penitent and a Vindicator/Draenei/LF watch person pair. Like a Draenei version of Tehd Shoemaker and his Illidari buddy.
Oh, they do for the most part, donât worry. But it is kind of weird at sometimes to have demons trying to live âa normal civil lifeâ.
My personal breaking point were Void Elves, and the Penitent didnât even raise my eyebrows anymore. After Death Knights, Werewolves, Night Elves reuniting with their mages, the continuing normalisation of Warlocks and Shadow Priests, Demon Hunters, Dark Irons, Dark Rangers in both factions, and the aforementioned Void Elves, the trend lines arenât exactly unclear, and the only question if when it breaks your personal suspension of disbelief.
This. ^
Having enjoyed a variety of Fantasy sub-genres, its kind of difficult for me to look at something and immediately yell and shout witch hunt. Which I guess really helps my perception on trying to look at the potential of things over trying to destroy it with all hate and malice.
Itâs the same with the Penitent. Though I guess I DO find it awkward to see them just roaming a capital freely I guess.
True, At this point I feel like raising Undead isnât a crime anymore and more like a âstyle choice of convenienceâ.
Like, in ESO if you raise undead as necromancer, the Guards WILL attack and likely even kill you. It is treated like a crime there. Same for stealing and harming NPCs.
WoW lacks that level of interactivity and consequences for dubious powers like Void, Fel, Undeath, etc.
My personal dislike with this is, that overused and boring ârepentantâ trope , which turns everyone into good⢠characters . 0 consequences for actions , 0 accountability .
WoW was different from other games at the start exactly because you had the ability to play shady and morally corrupt characters like the Undead and warlocks , and it allowed you to see the world from their point of view .
Now everyone is Marry Sue .
Here you add whole freaking demons and it turns out they are just misunderstood and good⢠. They did not have different world views and driving motives . They were just good people using green colored magics and everyone hated them for some reason . What a waste .
Btw it is incorrect to say they have not added anything since DF .
It is not much , but there is a quest line in Voidstorm about manari and paladin working together . On my warlock I had some additional dialog options to talk about that . I keep meaning to play this quest on a draenei , because the npcs were talking on the draenei language .
It is a neat little quest line , where they put extra effort for different classes / races . They should really do more like those . I was completely disappointed when i did Zulâaman on my blood elf and had ZERO specific interactions because of the race played . Youâd think en elf would have something to say when Zulâjan literally says he wants to conquer the whole Eversong , but nope .
Yeah, it honestly reminds me of the problems with Villains.
Especially in cinema. Every villain needs to have âa traumatic backstory as to why he or she is evilâ instead of âbeing evil just for the sake of being evilâ.
Regarding the Penitents specifically. I wasnât speaking of Draenei/Eredar as a whole.
To add on top of what Heramaar said, it has also just ruined demon transformation lore being this irreversable thing that thereâs no coming back from. It took something with high stakes and lowered them across the board.
Felorcs, felbloods, satyrs, Iâm sure other people can come up with more examples; who is to say they can now not be penitent?
Is Xavius redeemable?
and other such cursed questions made possible by this lore change
In the past I have suggested Penitant lore to take a bite out of Saarebas lore from Dragon age, could be a cool take on it, but even then it still has the problem of ok so demon transformations do not have to come with consequences now for ones psyche
After doing all the Voidstorm quest with the Draenei i camed to one conclusion:Draenei for the horde is preparing.
Tbh, if the Draenei were on the Horde side to begin with, my profile would likely be red, not blue.
I think one of the problems here is that Blizzard sometimes introduces morally complicated Draenei or Light-related storylines, but does not always give them enough follow-up afterwards. That can leave a lot of room for very different interpretations, especially in RP.
The Penitents are obviously their own case, but I think the broader issue is similar: a little more clarification in the lore could prevent a lot of unnecessary disagreement between players.
I have been thinking about this for a similar reason with War Chaplain Senn. Her situation is very different, of course, but her fate is also something I would really like to see addressed in future lore rather than simply left unresolved. I have a separate thread about her, so I will not derail this one with it.
Sometimes even one short quest, dialogue line or lore note can make a huge difference.
Feel free to edit it in as a cross-link into your comment.
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Were?I didnât sayd that,i sayd they will Split the draenei people and will make a part join the horde those who want to live without a naaru,just wait in the future and you will see.
Yes. And I said if that wouldâve been the case from the beginning, I would probably be a Horde player instead of Alliance.
It became the norm in modern writing because itâs objectively better, and the âevil because duh evilâ was lame and shallow. If you think this is a problem, it explains why you are actually the problem.