Shouldn't the Pandaren from the Wandering Isle have evolved into a new race?

[Kharum]

The Pandaren from the Wandering Isle have left Pandaria shortly after the Sundering. It was around the same time that some of the Highborne left Kalimdor, and they evolved into a new race, the High/Blood Elves. Shouldn't the Pandaren have evolved as well? Or at least have some differences from the Pandaren from Pandaria instead of being exactly the same?

[Larynx]

Evolution does not work on those timescales. All instances of "evolution" in WoW are artificial and not through natural selection or other natural mechanisms, with the possible exception of humans.

Trolls -> Night Elves -> High Elves is entirely through magic. Night Elves = trolls mutated by the Well of Eternity. High Elves = Sunwell.

[Mormolyce]

Sundering was 10,000 years ago, in the real world this wouldn't be enough time for evolution. But of course this is a world of dragons and magic.

I believe the High Elves were altered by proximity to the Sunwell, similar to how the Night Elves were altered by proximity to the Well of Eternity.

They're actually not all that different if you look closely at them.

[StationaryHawk]

The Wandering Isle didn't have a well of magical power on it.

[judgementofantonidas]

The Pandaren from the Wandering Isle have left Pandaria shortly after the Sundering. It was around the same time that some of the Highborne left Kalimdor, and they evolved into a new race, the High/Blood Elves. Shouldn't the Pandaren have evolved as well? Or at least have some differences from the Pandaren from Pandaria instead of being exactly the same?

sorry, the only evolution they may have possible would be to serve as extras in kung foo panda II.

[Masark]

In 10,000 years?

That's not nearly enough time for evolution to do much. Evolution in most species is a really, really long term thing. Outside of directed efforts (e.g. deliberate selective breeding), you need thousands of generations for mutation and selection to do stuff.

Modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) have been much the same for the past 200,000 years, aside from small stuff like skin colour or adult lactose tolerance.

[R0ninX3ph]

Trolls -> Night Elves -> High Elves is entirely through magic. Night Elves = trolls mutated by the Well of Eternity. High Elves = Sunwell.

This is it right here, whilst evolution in reality is also through natural selection and then genetic mutation from said selection, "evolution" in WoW is less actual evolution and more pure mutation due to some kind of external source. Most life on Azeroth was created by the titans (some races and creatures outstanding) and then mutated due to outside forces. Dwarves due to the curse of flesh, Night Elves due to the Well of Eternity into High Elves due to the Sunwell and arcane magic.

There wasn't any kind of "special power source" on the Wandering Isle that differed to that of Pandaria to cause any significant physical mutation for the Wandering Isle Pandaren, their culture on the other hand, while very similar, is still different. Though, that is like comparing England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and America. All English speaking nations, yet all with differing cultures. That is how you should be looking at the Wandering Isle Pandaren and the Pandaria Pandaren.

[Annarion]

The Pandaren from the Wandering Isle have left Pandaria shortly after the Sundering. It was around the same time that some of the Highborne left Kalimdor, and they evolved into a new race, the High/Blood Elves. Shouldn't the Pandaren have evolved as well? Or at least have some differences from the Pandaren from Pandaria instead of being exactly the same?

Trolls are still kicking around and they were alive prior to the Sundering. The Aqir did diverge, but I feel like they were a composite species anyways. It's not like bears evolved into something else. The Kaldorei evolved due to the nature of the Well of Eternity, and while the Blood Elves look quite different, it's mostly societal, the only real differences are the skin colour and hair colour, and it's implied that using Arcane magic instead of Druidic magic is what caused it.

It's not like bears/snakes/hawks/etc. evolved into different things.

[Zobelthelich]

sorry, the only evolution they may have possible would be to serve as extras in kung foo panda II.

How clever, witty, and original. I've never seen this joke made before.

OT: There wasn't anything to magically alter them, so no. Apparently though the culture/accent difference is so telling that Pandaria Pandaren find my Wandering Isle Pandaren every bit as strange as my human, BE, NE, dwarf/beard sprite, etc. characters AT A GLANCE. So I guess there's that?

[Splatter]

We should have expected them to evolve different language and culture though. Look at the difference between the USA and UK, or even Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain. All have their own accents and sayings and that's over a period of only 150-400 years. Separate those nations for 10,000 years and lets see how different they are.

[Giscoicus]

We should have expected them to evolve different language and culture though. Look at the difference between the USA and UK, or even Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain. All have their own accents and sayings and that's over a period of only 150-400 years. Separate those nations for 10,000 years and lets see how different they are.

Wandering Isle is a similar environment to Pandaria. Asia and Africa are different. Same with the US and UK.