First of all lets start with what does work about the Haranir
- I like their aesthetic, somewhat beastial and lots of nature focus is a great combo imo
- Ties to Azeroth plotline, giving them a connection to the world soul is a good choice considering what the expansions are about
- Tying up their origins to the trolls and elves also works IN THEORY for me
Sadly that’s where it ends. I feel like there’s a giant disconnect between the Haranir and World of Warcraft. Most have little to know reason to engage with the world, most have no reason to go out adventuring, pretty much NONE have a reason to pick Alliance or Horde. They are also physically disconnected in the sense that there’s a loading screen (portal) between them and the rest of the world.
I’m not saying anything new by complaining about yet another completely new never seen before race being introduced and made playable over all the known races, but still… it’s a wack choice. If they wanted to they could have chosen to have made them a splintered group of dark trolls that instead of becoming nelves from the Well, became a new type of troll from closeness to the world soul. This could also tie into lore from BFA that most dark trolls have gone extinct, so the only ones that survived where those that hid away. That could also work for why they are so xenophobic and strict about leaving Haranir and revealing themselves to the world.
The “reveal”
Other than just being a mid way of revealing the troll and elf lineage (which I thought was already in-universe knowledge) it just feels like the worst way to retro-fit a completely new race into ancient Azeroth lore. What I specifically don’t like is them framing it like the HARANIR were the progenitor race/species that all the other evolved from.
- From a phylogenetic standpoint that’s a big stretch. The ancient “Haranir” were surface-dwelling creatures in a giant Pangea type continent. They eventually evolved into the various troll groups from adapting to their environs, and into the elves from the magic of the Well of Eternity. Meanwhile the Haranir that left the surface just… stayed the same? Despite having to now live in a completely different environment? That makes no sense.
- Haranir being the progenitor race while having both troll and elf physiology is also weird. So the proto-trolls (Haranir) looked like a mix of elf and troll with some quills thrown in as well, then evolved to look like trolls, and then some regained some of their more elf like looks and further evolved those looks?
And sure you COULD make the argument that actually the Haranir framing it as “We were the OG surface species you evolved from” is bias on their parts and that the memory paintings are not an accurate depiction of what they look like. But that is not what’s being presented to us currently.
Why even make this choice? They could have left whatever progenitor proto-troll be left unknown, we don’t need an answer to EVERY single species-origin. Instead they could have put the current Haranir as I mentioned as an off-shoot dark troll tribe, an unknown troll group (but not progenitor) that evolved similar feature to the elves from their own close relation to a magical source (world soul instead of the Well), or an early offshoot of the night elves that left from living close to the Well of Eternity before they fully took on the appearance of the night elves.
To me it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to invent a whole new race, one that never before existed in the lore, nor even had hints at all, and meta textually we know didn’t exist, and then try to retrofit them to actually be the MOST original of the original species actually. It’s like a bad attempt at trying to make them at all relevant to the world.
I also just dont understand what they were trying to achieve by revealing it? The characters themself comment on this, and I can’t see any kind of future reunification/friendship that will come from this that will be satisfying. It’s not like anyone disputes all humans having the same origin, but that doesn’t stop the constant wars on Earth.
Anyways I guess that was my little rant (world vomit?) over with. Hopefully it made sense since I’m sleep deprived from listening to snoring all night and gave up on trying to fall back asleep