I almost included Tyr in my first set examples, but postponed him in favour of Aggramar. Expect me to give him a write up soon though, because he’s more than worthy of specific reference by human characters - and particularly paladins. It’s called the Knights of the Silver Hand for a reason, but I don’t see much reference to him in RP personally.
[smiles at the camera]
I feel like Tyr isn’t talked about a lot unless you come from a specific set of RPers, really. There’s a few northern RPers who see Tyr as godly or saintly, and then you can see him mentioned from Titan worshippers now and again, but it’s definitely not a common thing in RP. As I said, I think it’s a pretty cool take on Light RP to include him, be it as a god, or just a saintly figure.
It’s also confirmed that ancestor worship was a big thing with humans for millenia. They believed that their spirits lived in their weapons as they were passed down through the ages. I could see that still being a thing.
Yeah, I was aware of that take, but it’s not a scene I’ve been around in quite some time. If someone who revered Tyr in their RP from that crowd would want to add their thoughts and how they approach it in their RP, I’d be happy to add that to the list - it’s more helpful than me designing something myself, since it’s already established among players.
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I’d consider myself somewhat from that crowd, for Tyr I suppose the main drawing point is the tale of sacrifice and that’s what I tend to harp on in the roleplay. I don’t do massively pagan rituals, I really just exchange the “Light” for “Tyr” or “Him” in most prayers or religious RP I do.
Stuart might do things differently from me, though.
EDIT: There’s a book of “prayers” that a player created a year and a bit ago. It takes from real life prayers as well as prayers and quotes from various bits of fictional media. The second book in the imgur album is all prayers and passages related to Tyr, if you’d be interested in reading it.
How much would you say that characters understand about Tyr as he truly was? Do they know about the specifics of his life and sacrifice, or is it more akin to vague mythology?
To those who study the Titans and archaeology, his truth is probably more commonly known, at least to a certain extent. But I’m sure those who venerate him may trust in their faith and conviction, rather than what the Explorer’s League may tell them.
I prefer to stay vague, knowing little to nothing of his regular life. To my character, he’s just the ideal servant of the Light through the tale of the sacrifice of his hand against the old gods (without knowing who the enemy was specifically).
I suppose a good comparison would be the Tidemother; from my understanding, people know little to nothing regarding the Tidemother, but regard her as the source of their power and as the divine figure all the same. It also avoids conflicts of canon/headcanon if more informed characters rock up.
This is just my take/the take of people I’ve RPed with often over the course of the guild.
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This is actually a thing that the Melody had to think a large amount about when we formed. Sure the characters existed before the guild, but when we created the guild to be a branch of the sisterhood we actually had to consider the practical and theological aspects of a Shal’dorei splinter sisterhood.
We don’t have a High Priestess like the Kaldorei, and Tyrande’s recent behaviors had to be rationalised in a way that allowed us to not be the villains in our own story. I think in the end you kinda have to borrow from some real life religions as it’s impossible to be 100% original.
We ended up taking a sort of abrahamic style “Prophet” ideal, utilising Haidene as a former high priestess that the sisterhood remembered and then throwing in a cheeky dash of Protestantism in that they treat the High Priestess’ word as that of her own rather than Elune (Yes we understand lorewise she is still the Voice of Elune, but from our IC perspective she’s just someone we’ve not heard from for ten thousand years).
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For what it’s worth they name drop in Before the Storm that it doesn’t matter what [deity] you believe in as the Light can be invoked through whatever story/figure that resonates in you the most.
Some guy worshipping Tyr and the values he stood for is a very legitimate way to reach the Light, even if a fringe belief in the grand scheme of things.
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Calling non-believers heretics was a really common trope in history, and in WoW Scarlet NPC’s call us heretics on aggro.
It’s not really gone into great detail beyond a few throw away sentences in Blood of the Highborne, and the old race-class quests for priests; but I imagine that the priesthood of Silvermoon straddle some middle-line between the Draeneic interpretation of the Light (veneration of naaru etc) and the old church which they shared in structure with humanity.
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Valendryn used to preach that the blood elves are the Light’s Chosen people now after M’uru was used to restart the Sunwell and it was very interesting to follow his interpretation of the torch being passed on from the Draenei to the Blood elves.
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Draenei give prayers to the Light and to the Naaru. We see on WoD that they had prayer statues littered around the place (If you can interpret their buffs as IC blessings or otherwise, up to you), and the draenei used them to pray “on the road”. There’s also a lot of spread naaru statues around “holy” areas, one by the entrance of Talador, and another near Auchindoun and Shattrath.
Draenei find solace in prayer, but while they actively pray to the Light, they learn how to act from the Naaru’s actions. If a naaru is prone to warring, the draenei around them eventually become more prone to warring. How long this process can be is up to anyone’s guess, really we don’t get it shown much in-game outside of the Sha’tar that came with A’dal behaving slightly different than the Aldor or the Lightforged being more aggressive versions of the Draenei.
So in essence the Naaru are like loa, but Light chimes. Each embodying different things, and the draenei that follow said Naaru take up these traits too?
Naaru are more than Loa. Loa are essentially “just” Wild Gods, while Naaru are the physical manifestion of the Light, pure beings of Light, acting as counterpart to the Void’s spawn: the Old Gods.
I was more looking at how they and their followers acted, from what Ynaar had said. They are Light elemental wind chimes.
It’s tricky with naaru as we’re shown only so much.
Many of them are shown with those little moments, to be selfless almost flawless beings whom have great benevolence and only really want to destroy the Legion and other big evils.
Then we have xe’ra (and the mysterious but heavily implied to be her Light Mother) whom sees it as their business to go one step further and force the lights perfection on other beings to help them, regardless of their own thoughts.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say each naaru represents an “aspect” of the light, as do Loa. Rather naaru represent all that the light may be each. The more powerful ones seem to show other aspects of the Light that are more militant as well, perhaps owing to their roles coordinating mortals against the Legion? I think it’s more blizzard haven’t shown us enough naaru yet, than anything else. I hope the next expo is light vs void because I really want to find more out about the naaru.
Draenei seem to behave as the naaru around them do. It’s unsure whether this is because they do so out of choice, because they revere the naaru and the light to the degree that they dogmatically accept whatever the naaru says as “correct”. This is the most likely option as the naaru “saved” the draenei so there is a kind of cultish reverance of them, from their perspective they have no reason to distrust or disregard what the naaru say, as they’ve seen it to be largely true. It could be that the naaru exercise some form of Control over them, albeit suggestively rather than outright through their connection to the light.
On chronicles however with the whole “wheel of magic” thing naaru are positioned opposite to void Lords, showing they may be equivalent to them at the higher level (talking naaru primes here). Its unclear what their relationship with the titans is, but there’s suggestion they are related to elune and she may have created them.
I like to think of naaru as angels. They’re not worshipped like a god, but they are the emissaries of that which is worshipped, and are what the worshippers interact with directly. They represent a form of the true divine, but not it entirely.
Similar to Hinduism as well in a way with the devas being a form of reverance that some may worship directly, but others see them as a representation of something far more complex and difficult to comprehend directly (Brahman).
I have now added Goldrinn, Norgannon, and Tyr. Let me know what you think! If I’m missing anything or misrepresented anything, I’ll happily change it up.
I’ll continue to add more as I have spare evenings. I’m just enjoying making little snippets of each for the time being.
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Oh, I didn’t know that. I never really meant that believing in Tyr doesn’t work, more so that it’s just probably not very common in the grand scheme of Azeroth to worship him as the source.
That’s a good bit of information to know about though, ty ty
The bear twins Ursoc and Ursol should definitely make it on the list! Their efficiency and team effort was unique, an inspiration to all! The wardens of the weak and patrons of nature.
They are largely worshipped by Furbolgs, Night Elves and even Humans (other races too, in present days I assume).