Middle Eastern is very prominent in Silvermoon. For one there is a area called “Bazaar” similar to what an Arabian Bazaar Is, a place where stuff is sold. Originally “Bazaar” is a Persian word, so still Middle Eastern.
The body jewelry heavily resembles middle eastern culture.
The Architecture and curved doors are definitely Middle Eastern. The Lanterns as well.
There are a type of mana smoking things around, which resemble “Hookah” .
And strangely, Magic is always associated with the Middle East (magic carpets, genies) even though majority Middle Easterns don’t like magic, but it goes waaay back ancient.
Fun fact that IRL, there is a tribe called “Azande” in Africa with a very great belief in witchcraft, oracles, witch doctors, and magic. Their moral and legal system is based on it.
I always assumed “Zandalari” was at minimum a name inspired from them.
Yeah, that’s really “spooky”…unlike, you know, an undead driven orcish war-machine steamrolling the nature of northern Kalimdor, genociding the natives and burning down entire zones of forrest and wildlife, desecrating not only holy places but literally enslaving and torturing spirits into undeath…
It’s not like the greatest chieftain of the Tauren war murdered by an Orc, either.
But sure, the Alliance is the evil empire threatening the peaceful Tauren natives!!! More news at 11!
Edit: I just realised this thread was created by an undead High Elf…Sylvanas, is that you?
If Warcraft wasn’t an MMO, they really could have run with the Alliance as a critical view on real-life things like colonialism and viewing other people as straight up “primitive”. I’m not complaining and I’m fine with the current story, and while I feel like Blizz does try to add some themes to their stories (for me I think the Night Elves are a good example, they’re a race of sexist, xenophobic isolationists who caused the near destruction of the world because of their abuse of their power, and decided to plunge themselves back into being primitives, meanwhile literally killing on sight anyone who tried to use magic… basically becoming Luddites, and then as we’ve seen in the story that attitude has not helped them.), Blizz doesn’t really go deep into themes and metaphors, so the Tauren = Native American Colonial Oppression thing is probably just an unfortunate coincidence.
Man you really missed the point, I wasn’t complaining and EXPLICITLY STATED THIS WAS NOT AN ALLIANCE CALL OUT POST.
Also you’re comparing Orcs high on demon magic slaughtering alien crystal goat men, which is a lot more detached from reality than the whole Tauren thing, so it avoids feeling a bit familiar to real history.
The tribal aspect and a lot of the shamanism is similar to Africa, and I’m pretty sure African Paganism was pretty diverse, much like how every Orc tribe has their own customs and forms of spirituality
Erm…no? I was not talking about “Orcs high on demon magic slaughtering crystal goat men”?
I was specifically pointing out that the Orcs have tried to genocide the Night Elves for a LONG TIME and tried to colonialize Northern Kalimdor just as long. Garrosh started his invasion of Ashenvale SPECIFICALLY to steal the land, ressources and drive the Night Elves away for new “Lebensraum”.
There is really no doubt about the historical comparison Blizzard tried to pull with this conflict.
The old stuff on Draenor was a LOT better written and much more nuanced. The newer conflicts have all been about historical comparisons. BFA is the worst so far, toying with themes like Holocaust like it’s something for Horde players to joke about.
The only question i would like to ask is how can Horde players ignore ALL OF THIS and call the Tauren situation “spooky” because of Camp Taurajo…?