While in some cases, like Malfurion giving you ride through Val´Sharah, it´s convenience (because how else would he give you exposition), I don´t see how druids speaking in their forms while sitting is gameplay convenience, yet it happens all the time.
So, question is, if we have tons of examples of something from the game, but one contradicting mention from a book, what should we follow? That one mention, or repeating pattern among druids where they speak in their various forms?
Besides, wolf/chihuahua mouths also should not be able to form words, but worgen talk all the time (and they are essentially druidic form).
Can be argued over and over, but if a dumb warrior can use enchanting, one of the schools of Arcane, to empower his sword\armour - then what is the point of following book lore (or any other written piece of information) in the first place, when we have base raw mechanics?’
Because Blizzard is to lazy to keep adding “You hear Druid X voice in your head, communicating telepathicly with you as his animalform cannot create words”?
Anyways my Druid can’t talk in animalform, but I won’t stop others from doing it anyways
I genuinely like this bit of lore as it shows the Light imbuing paladins beyond mortal limitations and actively justifying their superpowered feats and ability to weild big freakin’ anime weapons!
We know that a dying, explicitly delusional non-druid had an opinion on druidic forms. Potentially Ferryn is one of those druids who can’t speak in his animal forms.
It doesn’t contradict existing lore for a character to be wrong or narrowminded.
…Except when they do actually speak in their forms.
Such as the druid stuck as a sea lion in Dalaran, legion.
Or Zen’kiki.
True, it doesn’t make anatomical sense that a cat/bear can speak, but neither does it make sense that you’re actually a person but then you are a cat/bear.
Magic.
Blizzard’s inconsistency regarding druids ability to speak in forms is quite infamous.
What conclusion we can draw from this inconsistency is that some druids can speak in their animal forms, and some can not. In my headcanon this is because some might be more in harmony with the animal spirit, because that might be their focus, or they have had years of practice, or the animal spirit gives a lot of freedom to the druid, in the ‘mental’ space.
Which is funnily enough exactly what Loreology said way-back-when. It doesn’t seem to solely be about straight up “druid power” either since Broll can’t seem to speak in druid form and he’s meant to be pretty decent, while noviceboy Zenkiki can.
Ruling: “Druids (in general) cannot speak in their animal forms. There may/may not be exceptions to the rule.
adding on to this
you have moonkins, furbolgs, gnolls and quilboar
they can speak and they don’t exactly have optimal mouths to form words
point is: anatomy is largely ignored by fantasy, if druids can’t speak with cat mouths how can tiny bear people speak or large feathered bird monsters with beaks.
The Zandalari showcase their power and position with the clothes and armor they wear.
“The ultimate symbol of power amongst the Zandalari is the garb they wear in battle, and the tribe acknowledges station and power through what the Zandalari wear. The Zandalar prize what they wear as a symbol of accomplishment. One doesn’t need to be able to see what one wears to be able to sense what emanates from it - power transcends sight”
It’s safe to say that the Druids of the Pack couldn’t actually talk in their forms, since the only piece of media that references them (Curse of the Worgen) has them only communicate in growls and such.