Essentially what the title says.
With the upcoming changes and updates with the character options, and in order to promote some additional diversification, Blizzard has decided to update Human NPCs across the main city to include the new skin tones and features that will be included into the game for players come SL.
Was curious regarding what people around here thought about it, from a story angle.
Do you think its lore breaking regarding the kingdom itself or irrelevant to its history?
Many of the new customizations are lore breaking, but then again… who cares?
They are a good thing and just because the lore hasn’t introduced let’s say black blood elves yet, doesn’t mean that those options should be denied from the player
Also, didn’t they just say that ALL npcs are getting new options ? (besides the ones that have unique appearances) I think that’s a good thing, and they could always introduce new lore supporting the new customization options.
Why do you think that its a good thing (from a story standpoint)?
By the way, talking about a very precise bit here: Stormwind humans being updated with those sort of skins.
Blizzard already made one mistake. They have added monks with a words, that they always were in Azeroth before.
Now they decided to make that mistake again… Cheap…
Why do you think its a mistake to add these skins from a story standpoint? Can you elaborate?
Because they were newer in WoW before. And now they suddenly appear…
F to the LORE
What is this “lore” you are talking about? Haven’t seen any Lore since the middle of the Legion when they retconned the Titan’s death and from there only downhill spiral
There’s nothing wrong with that. There have been non-european people in Stormwind since Classic. One of the weapon vendors was asian. Furthermore Stormwind is one of the last great human cities in the world, meaning that it would have a diverse population.
If you disagree with this you are 100% being racist. Sorry.
They were never mentioned, wich could be explained that noone thinks it’s worth mentioning because it’s just normal: bloodelves see dark skinned bloodelves just as bloodelves, and humans see dark skinned humans just as humans not worth pointing out.
This would be the easiest explanation, and to be honest the desirable state of affairs in real live as well as the game world.
I think this is a bit of a missed opportunity to have some physical differences and associations with different human realms. That said… the only thing that this does is make the human ethnicity something that is totally irrelevant in lore. There is no racism between humans, there are no implications on the heritage that come from the visuals, and it doesn’t matter any more than hair or eye color.
A bit annoying, but easier to swallow than most Warcraft stuff, really.
I will show you 2 issues.
Now, when all those things happens in the world, Blizzard adds Afro and Asian humans without any Lore explanations. They just adding them because …
While Night Elves children still missing…
So, I will just say F to Blizzards Lore. Its a shame, that they decided to choose all that hysteria in the world over their own Lore.
An argument against that could be that those are new conscripts or recruits that have just turned adults and taken up the job for Stormwind guards.
I don’t think that disagreeing with that makes anyone automatically a racist. People have their reasons to dislike said new feature.
The person i quoted doesn’t like the fact that it seems as if they are being magically turned into a different race for the sake of it.
And i’ll expand on the reasons why I personally don’t like it.
I think that the lore regarding Stormwind is diluted and scarce enough, without having it even more spread.
Stormwind deserved to have its own identity, culture, and yes, it’s own “race” of humans.
Turning it into this sort of amalgam of different people, regardless of how Blizzard explains it, will make the kingdom lose even more of its own identity and turn it into some vague human collective that encompasses any kind of human being that roams the setting.
Gilneans are differentiated. Kul Tiran are differentiated. Stormwind should be too.
Black or asian themed humans surely should play a role in all this, but having them being dumped alongside the rest of Stormwind humans shouldn’t be the way to go.
Blizzard should’ve created a background for them, their own culture, and their own origin.
It was REALLY easy to explain how a new Stranglethorn village of black people decided to start an exodus because of trolls, and ended up pledging themselves to Stormwind. Same with the other features.
Throwing it all into the same mix, and hand-waving it with a “its fantasy”, shouldn’t be the way to go.
In both Beyond the Dark Portal, and Tides of Darkness novels, we have some accurate representation that even marked the physical differences between the “white” kingdoms on Azeroth. For example, Stromgarde and Alterac painted humans akin to some nord, whereas Lordaeron and Stormwind leaned on the more Roman/British kind of appearence.
a completely different issue.
Dark Skin was always an option, they just add fitting face-shapes that are more realistic. And just because it isn’t mentioned, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It only means that it isn’t worth mentioning. If you see something as completely normal, you don’t mention it all the time.
If a variation in skintone or eye-shape is normal, why would i talk about it?
It (again) seems like you hate something (more customization for humans) only because you want something else (nightelf children) but don’t get it.
No. They have always been in the lore. You just weren’t paying attention.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Woo_Ping
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Wu_Shen
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Shen_Kang_Cheng
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Wastewander
Turning it into this sort of amalgam of different people, regardless of how Blizzard explains it, will make the kingdom lose even more of its own identity and turn it into some vague human collective that encompasses any kind of human being that roams the setting.
Stormwind has always been described as one of the last great human cities in the world and a haven for refugees fleeing the war-torn north. There’s nothing wrong with this.
This is one of the main reasons for me to dislike it.
Its such a wasted opportunity, and a step in the wrong direction after how good they did with Kul Tiras.
Well, if human players truly feel that way, then i guess they’ll be able to take these sort of moves in a more positive way.
And if that’s the sort of story people want, instead of the more unique kind of attention Kul tiran or gilneans have, then i guess from your point of view this whole thing is indeed completely fine.
I personally feel that it dilutes an already overlooked kingdom identity.
thanks for looking that up my friend 
Another argument is their similar heritage to dwarves: They are basically descended from corrupted titan constructs, just like dwarves, who have a wide range of skintones as well.
What “unique attention”. The only unique thing Kul Tirans have over Stormwind is the fact that their government is much more fleshed out than Stormwind’s house of nobles. A few guards being asian or afro however has nothing to do with the house of nobles (or lack thereof).
Also, comparing apples to oranges. Kul Tiras and Gilneas have been isolated for a decade. Stormwind has been a cultural melting pot of refugees and Alliance races for a decade.
So let me get this straight, you people have no problem with Stormwind having noteworthy dwarf and elven minorities since Classic, but some human guards being of a human skin color that has already been in the game for 15 years is a problem? Just lol.
Physical differentiation, a defined culture and background, and their own story niche.
Again, if you are fine with Stormwind’s theme being that of the Great Human Hub, there is nothing wrong with it.
But, yeah, i still feel this is a wasted opportunity to give those racial features an appropriate and defined background. As well as allowing Stormwind to grow its own defined racial culture like Kul Tiras and Gilneas did.
I do not think its a problem. I think its a wasted opportunity.
Those features could’ve served to introduce other human segments or settlements into the story. Humans from Stranglethorn, Tanaris, etc.
And yes, then have said segments be in one way or another introduced as part of the playable human race, and included as part of the human NPCs in Stormwind.
I’m not against having those NPCs into the game or in the city, i simply dislike the way they were introduced.
It does not contradict lore whatsoever. There are many books and novels where black skinned characters are described, just as white skinned characters are. I am not aware of any asian character in books or novels but it’s obviously implied that the humans of Stormwind include racial variety.
Anyone who claims this is wrong, even from a lore point of view is, like Daelina said, racist fullstop.
I’ve read all novels, and i must say that i can’t recall a single one that went ahead to describe them in such diverse way.
I’m not saying that there wouldn’t or couldn’t be those sort of characters around, but i do think that you just went overboard with that statement.
As far as i recall, those few times when Blizzard actually described any character in such detail, were those when they explicitly wanted to highlight some new “exotic” character such as Makasa in the Traveller books. And she is from Booty Bay, not Stormwind.
This didn’t happen because any part involved was being racist, but because the narrative that had often accompanied Stormwind up until then, aimed at painting them as the classic medieval fantasy trope of knights that more often than not follow the romantic archetype. Yes, said trope being the standard white-skinned knight.
Why do you think that? What makes you think that disagreeing with the feature itself would make anyone a racist? Honest question.