[TWW] So about the Arathi

He did. Though whether this will be acknowledged, or either retconned or just ignored, is anyone’s guess. It has been more than a few years since the manga was released after all.

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It’s like radioactivity. Real life farmer Joe knows about nuclear power. Everyone knows it should be used for good, but can also be used in catastrophic ways and will most likely kill you if you don’t know how to handle it.

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Given that he’s given Arator a lavish lifestyle in Silvermoon with all provided for him I think they’ve erased that part of his personality, much like Garithos erased his own racism when it came time to team up with Demons and Undead Elves.

One could argue that that might have been a shrewd political move, of which he is more than capable.

I’m inclined to agree with your theory however. I think we’ve seen the last of that particular personality streak with Lor’themar.

He did. A half-blood’s demands means nothing, but it’ll never be mentioned again. Outside of this one instance and the RPG fluff half-elves have never been discriminated against.

Farmer Joe living in Stormwind would have seen a night elf, the Park was right around the corner up until Cata. It was remote parts of the kingdom like Lakeshire that hadn’t ever seen night elves.

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The thing with half-elves is that (not counting Arathi for this) there have only ever been 4 in the lore (+1 dragon pretending to be one), with one of them living almost 3000 years ago and being the Guardian, so any lore surrounding him will be ancient in-universe and could be mixed with being the Guardian (Such as his lifespan, did he make it to over 100 because of his elf blood or because of magic, or was it both? We don´t know).

The other 3 have famous parents on both sides and only one of them has actually even appeared in the game. They are by nature exceptional and just because Arator is treated in some way doesn´t mean other half-elves will be.

Ironically, it´s Kalec who is the best source for how current society in Azeroth would treat a normal half-elf…except that source comes from a comic released in March 2007. The half-elf-hating Lor´themar has never appeared in the game. This disdain for half-elves that people attritbute to him hasn´t been some major trait of his character appearing again and again and again throughout the years. It was merely an invention of Richard Knaak for a comic written in 2006, 20 years before Midnight will release.

And while lore doesn´t become non-canon simply with passage of time, there´s a big difference between something that appears repeatedly or is still being referenced in the game, and something that only exists in manga that´s over 17 years old. The views of society and specific characters on half-elves in the lore are basically non-existant.

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I would also attribute this to being a typical trope in the late 90’s-early to mid 2000’s fantasy. That of the “Oh the half-kin are shunned by all for being half!”.

It’s the same kind of tired fantasy trope as many other things that faded out since then.

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You discuss half-elves. I halve elves. We are not the same.

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I certainly hope Farmer Joe lives on his farm and not in Stormwind City!

Made me chuckle thanks!

Part of this also has its roots in the Warcraft RPG where you can read:

(High Elves) do not look favorably upon those who couple with other races. Such half-elves are rare.

History reveals certain prejudices against half-elves. Humans are jealous of half-elves’ extended lifespans. Night elves are suspicious of their high elf heritage. High elves see them as proof of their race’s weakening blood.

In recent years, this bias has waned. Wars and strife have shown how petty such prejudices are. In large cities, which consider themselves enlightened, half-elves find little of the historic discrimination. Still, many individuals, particularly high elves, remain scornful of half-elves and may or may not attempt to hide their hard feelings.

Tensions with the Horde and other forces strain relationships among all races, and some allow this stress to manifest itself in anger against anything different from themselves.

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Pretty sure Thalyssra made comment on Alleria’s relationship at one point too.

Yeah the RPG has alot of stuff in it like that. I believe the RPG was also the only mention of that the Horde was against women being soldiers and similar.

There´s kind of mention of that in canon, in book Cycle of Hatred, where for some reason the author decided that Azeroth is traditionally on the level of medieval Europe when it comes to gender roles and had every single female character in position of power (be it mage or military officer) as an exception who had to fight for her position.

The sexist men that believed women had no business in either magic or combat included Thrall and Antonidas, with Jaina´s position as a mage being almost an anathema to teachings of Kirin Tor, while Thrall outright said women had no place in orcish military.

The weirdest thing is that this book came out in early 2006, over a year after WoW was released. And while traditional publishing takes its time, often needing a whole year between author finishing final draft of the book and its release, I seriously doubt that the author didn´t have a chance to take a look at the game while writing it. I guess the RPG could have served as inspiration for the book.

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To piggyback off of this point, sometimes the level of fantastical elements the average peasant experiences in their life is conflated by the heroic fantasy that we, the literal main characters, are subjected to.

Per Traveller 1, the people of Lakeshire had never seen a night elf in the flesh as of early MoP. An entire Alliance race was a distant myth from a far away land that they had heard of from traveling merchants, but never seen. In the capital region of Stormwind they were sighted, but once you move to the countryside they quickly faded into myth and rumour — news still primarily travel through word of mouth.

The average peasant goes their entire life without never seeing a mage. Also around Second War there was a shift in perspective where mages were persecuted out of their communities out of fears that they’d be seduced by the powers of the Orcish Warlocks and betray humanity, a persecution that was exasperated by the Church. Alonsus Faol later decreed that mages are the Light’s Chosen and their powers are guided by the Light’s will, but there was still that one particularly dark period of time in history that saw what rare times the peasants saw mages become even rarer. Modera didn’t trust the shift, saying it would only be a matter of time they’d go back to their old ways when a new crisis comes along and a convenient “other” is needed as a scapegoat.

That’s not to say that you can’t have magic in RP; I’m very much not advocating for “low fantasy” RP as the dreaded buzzword, but that one should keep in mind the logistics of information a character has. Where did a character learn something, and what routes did that information have to take to reach them? For Farmer Joe out in the countryside, those fantastical elements in the setting usually reaches them by word of mouth, usually from traveling merchants and not from the fantastical beings themselves who have scarce reason to be there.

WoW is an incredibly high fantasy setting, but the lives of ordinary people aren’t always as exciting. Unless impacted upon by a fantastical elements, their lives remain mundane by norm, with access to what information and technology that is locally available and within their means. This changes depending on the region you’re inspecting — Westfallians might not have many interactions with magic, but the Tidesages have a close presence in the daily lives of Stormsingers.

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God forbid anyone have different standards than ours today. Its completely unthinkable that a society might have prejudice or dislike of things we don’t really care about. A good character is one who is without prejudice, opinions, personality and is just like everyone else!

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That hit a nerve :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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God forbid anyone have different standards than those of Medieval Europe.
See how it can be easily turned around?

WoW has had female guards since its inception, with blood elves and night elves being the only groups where guards were of only one gender (although with blood elves I´d say it wasn´t because of lore reasons but simply because the guard model was unique based on old male blood elf skeleton).
If you want a more historical setting where women aren´t allowed to serve in the military (besides few exceptions), this one clearly isn´t for you and hasn´t been since 2004.

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You can explore different standards without resorting to ye olde sexism & misogyny simply copypasted from our world history.

Personally I consider the inclusion of such not only off putting but also incredibly lazy.

Straw man. Argue with a point that was never made. The only point made was they were different and had different views.

All prejudice, character flaws are completely good writing. Not everyone is nice. Garithos was poorly written because he acted like a complete moron but the fact that he was a Human xenophobe was completely fine. Night Elves were Xenophobes too.

Who lives in a world where people are judgmental and prejudice against anything?

:nerd: but there was a nelf npc in lakeshire in classic
https://www.wowhead.com/npc=7009/arantir

maybe the hood fooled them