Race inspiration, stating the obvious.

[Deleted]

@yiffinhell

i'd say if you wanted to make it that way, you had to make humans different "tribes" like trolls- because their skin colour varies, depending on the place they live. currently, most humans aren't from a place that'd let them develop a very dark skin-colour methinks. so, we'll maybe see more non-whites in this island-addon that is always mentioned together with maelstrom and stuff(this copypaste that always shines up in future-addons discussion-threads)

also, you can't really say that all or most races really are just taken from one real-life ethnic group/thingie- so much stuff is just added for diversity and to fit in the way they are projected in the game/s

[loder]

Please explain your thought process behind orcs being linked to African culture. Please.

Better question... what "African" culture? ;D

[Khebul]

Draenei are supposed to be Indians (those one from India).
They ride elephants, they are very developed as medieval indians were, they have indian accent...
Their women do belly dance and their man dance like some indian singer (compare this and this).

[loder]

Draenei are supposed to be Indians (those one from India).
They ride elephants, they are very developed as medieval indians were, they have indian accent...
Their women do belly dance and their man dance like some indian singer (compare this and this).

The Draenei are supposed to be Russians

[Snes]

I can see how orcs could have some tribal african aspects to them if you consider their shamanistic background, but the turks fit the bill a little closer imo. They are kind of a mix too, the "blademasters" had long braided hair which is traditional in alot of kung fu schools (chinese), but the swords they used are straight edges which are more japanese, like katanas etc.

[loder]

Source plz

Source: Draeneis having a Russian accent

[Delijica]

For the people saying Indians from India, Hindu is the word you are looking for.

[Pythagoreant]

No. Not all Indians are Hindu. And if the word YOU were looking for was "Hindi", that is a language, and not all of them speak it. (Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, etc)

Also, the Draenei have russian accents but are very clearly based on traditional Indian culture.

[Zarc]

Humans = English
Night Elves = Dutch clearly
Dwarves = Scottish
Gnomes = Chinese maybe Korean
Draenei = Russian
Orcs = Italians... also kind______________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________a Scottish (Barrens is not really typical for Orcs)
Trolls = Jamaicans
Tauren = Native Americans
Undead = Japanese
Blood Elves = Swede's

How do you get Blood Elves into Swede's? Blood Elves are a "petite" race. Being a swede myself, altough not the classic stereotype, I can inform you that the swedish stereotype is a tall, strong and blonde person. :P Not at all like the "petite" Blood Elves.

I'd say it goes more like this:

Humans: Swedes (ofcourse!)
Night Elves: African-American (tall basketball player :P)
Dwarves: Scottish (indeed!)
Gnomes: Japanese (short, techno-freaks)
Dranei: American (since they are sort of weird and I don't really relate them to any natioanlity on Earth I figured why not give them to the weird Americans. I mean, take the current election as an example.. dishonorable ads smearing the opponent (talking McCain ads mainly), talking about who the person is, what the person has done in the past... very little talk about the issues, about what the candidate wants to do and would do if he was elected President... which is what it is all about, all else is totally uninteresting. Like in Sweden for example, I voted on the political party of our current Prime Minister because of their political program - their plan for Sweden over the next 4 years and the future if their confidence would be renewed, I didn't know anything about our Prime Ministers past, about his family or how old he was when I cast my vote on the political party he was and is the chairman of. What is relevante is what they wanted to do with the country - and what the others parties wished to do with the country. So that was what they discussed, and not a whole bunch of other totally irrelevante stuff.)
Orcs: German (well, just as Taurens below their appearence doesn't quite fit, too short, though I guess with the "Warchief" and all "Horde"-brutal warriorism patriotic thing going on, they could represent the Germans. They did start two world wars after all :P Altough nowadays they are definetly a better functioning democracy than eg. the United States of America)
Trolls: Jaimacan (so easy)
Tauren: Native Americans (well, if any I guess, with the totems and in touch with nature and all, though their appearance is kind of off :P large and strong, should be more fit and quick (again, sterotype)
Undead: Arab (they try to be our friends, but people distrust them because some of their kind, the Scourge (=terrorsits :P), are evil... kind of long shot, best I could do :P)
Blood Elves: French (!!! Ofcourse it's the French. Petite beutiful people, that's the sterotype of the french as I know it! Sure, they can't win a war, but they know how to speak (what they believe is) a beutiful language (I prefer English ofcouse :P world dominance for the English language!) and they master the art of romance and wine.

Did I wander off? :P

//Zarc

[loder]

Orcs: German (well, just as Taurens below their appearence doesn't quite fit, too short, though I guess with the "Warchief" and all "Horde"-brutal warriorism patriotic thing going on, they could represent the Germans. They did start two world wars after all :P Altough nowadays they are definetly a better functioning democracy than eg. the United States of America)

Might want to check your history there, genius. :-X

[Zarc]

Might want to check your history there, genius. :-X

What I ment to say was that they were highly involved on the, from a deomocratic point of view, wrong side of two world wars and lost them both and was highly invovled involved in starting the second one. Doesn't matter though, the point is still the same.

[voidmancer]

african for orc? russion for draenei? Undead for ARAB ?

@ Zarc
omg u really judge people for their looks. i laughed HARD when u said the undeads were arabs.
u've got two mistakes there. mistakin all arabs as terrorist, and all forsaken for terrorists (forsaken holy priest OMG!).... even if they were all terrorists u cant say they have anything else in common. "Trolls: Jaimacan (so easy)" no no no not that easy.

there will always be exceptions like blademaster orcs gun using dwarves

ppl if u really wanna see who is who, u can read lore books or check WoW atlas and see that that eastern kingdom looks like great britain, see that the trolls are scattered and stuff like that. u can also read some histroy books and cultures of the races before saying "germans are barbarians orcs are barbarians. so omg orcs=german!!"

and almost all races, buildings, stuff on earth are based on real life... lets say like the Oshu'gun was based on a humongous rock in australia.... thats why the puzzle fits. its interesting, cuz they didnt crap the story out of nowhere. if the lore wasnt based much of real life, than millions of lore freaks like me just wouldnt play the game. and games like age of conan or guild wars would have more subscribers.

[Zarc]

african for orc? russion for draenei? Undead for ARAB ?

@ Zarc
omg u really judge people for their looks. i laughed HARD when u said the undeads were arabs.
u've got two mistakes there. mistakin all arabs as terrorist, and all forsaken for terrorists (forsaken holy priest OMG!).... even if they were all terrorists u cant say they have anything else in common. "Trolls: Jaimacan (so easy)" no no no not that easy.

there will always be exceptions like blademaster orcs gun using dwarves

ppl if u really wanna see who is who, u can read lore books or check WoW atlas and see that that eastern kingdom looks like great britain, see that the trolls are scattered and stuff like that. u can also read some histroy books and cultures of the races before saying "germans are barbarians orcs are barbarians. so omg orcs=german!!"

and almost all races, buildings, stuff on earth are based on real life... lets say like the Oshu'gun was based on a humongous rock in australia.... thats why the puzzle fits. its interesting, cuz they didnt crap the story out of nowhere. if the lore wasnt based much of real life, than millions of lore freaks like me just wouldnt play the game. and games like age of conan or guild wars would have more subscribers.

Aww, come on! It's not my views, I was just taking up classic stereotype. :P I used the word several times to make that clear! And yes, stereotypes are indeed laughable! You think I was serious? :P

Also, "mistakin all arabs as terrorist, and all forsaken for terrorists", learn to read boy >.< I wrote "Arab (they try to be our friends, but people distrust them because some of their kind, the Scourge (=terrorsits), are evil... kind of long shot, best I could do :P)"

How do you get that into me judging people for their looks? How can you, having read that, as I asume you did, believe I believe all arabs to be terrorists? :P

[Stelio Kontos]

one of the most discussed fantasy fictioned thing on turkey is if the orcs were inspired from turks or not. My answer to that is YES. but based on what?
1. the blue eyed warchief Thrall that changed it all (Ataturk)
to the turks there is before him and after him since he changed everything, he flattered turks being a noble, brave, warrior-like race which eventually gave hope and liberated them from others.

But Thrall didn't kill millions of people in multiple genocides

[Dominate]

Humans = English
Night Elves = Welsh
Dwarves = Irish
Gnomes = French
Draenei = Thai
Orcs = Africans
Trolls = Jamaicans
Tauren = Native Americans
Undead = all over; undead humans are English etc
Blood Elves = Americans

[voidmancer]

But Thrall didn't kill millions of people in multiple genocides

ataturk didnt kill em either. if ure talkin about the armenian (draenei) issue, orcs slaughtered almost all draenei thinking of a genocide (1915), when they thought no draenei were left they went through the portal to kill more humonoids. they were influenced by demons and warlock magic (islam gone bad) then thrall (ataturk) came (1919), saved and gave hope to them by being their warchief (u would have to read lord of the clans for this)

and dude i ask for no political issues here. one country says that its a genocide and the other country says that its not. we will never know until we invent a time machine. being a half turk, i say its time to live in peace and prosperity

@ Zarc

omg omg omg so sorry. i wasnt thinking/readin clearly, my mind was somewhere else ;D
i know that u didnt mean it, u seem like a good guy. i just had a rough day and i guess i was looking for someone to flame and i take warcraft lore a bit serious :/ ... oh and thanks for responding so polite i was expacting a rooster fight after i said those things ;D

[Xeranar]

Might want to check your history there, genius. :-X

PSST, to you europeans, technically World War I and World War II both began with Germany invading a foreign country. That is how a war starts. You decide to send troops into a portion of land you don't own in a nation-state way.

Regardless, I know a majority of you aren't americans so when you look at the european references made upon WoW races you think "well i'm X! I don't act anything like that!" Well, DUH!

Americans live in America, we pull our inspiration from stereotypes, both good and bad. Modern western Europe acts roughly the same in large cities, mostly dominated by American popular culture. So most of the races are stitched together from different cultures for the sake of writing fiction so take it all with a grain of salt. Racism is racism. Be pro-sentient.

[Kittensnark]

There's the obvious ones.
Tauren : Native American
Dwarves : Scottish
Goblins : Bronx Investors
Worgen : British
Trolls : Jamaican/general tribal cultures

But from there a lot of the races get confusing.
I always saw Humans and Orcs as having been inspired by Star Trek. The humans are the Federation, mixed with Catholicism. The betterment of all because we know better kind of attitude. Good intentions, not always the best methods for getting there though. The orcs were Klingon. Even their language is similar, as is their devotion to battle, honor and strength.

Gnomes I've never been able to pin down to anything short of Industrial Revolution America. At that time, everyone believed science and machines could solve every problem. The gnomes aren't much different.

Forsaken I kind of see as Germans. The 'victory at all costs' and focus on vengeance hits very close to WWII era Germany. And their current styles and attitudes seem to be wavering around the current punk scene of modern Germany.

Night Elves always caught me as a mix of Japanese, with the architecture and zen-like attitudes. But they also have a strong Greek influence in there too.

Blood Elves, I'm at a loss for. The closest I can get is how American's view the stereotypical French. High and mighty, self absorbed and believe they're the most beautiful. A pretty bad view, but it's the best I can come up with.

Draenei are Romanian. The accent is a dead give-away. But so is the mix of the Holy Light and shamanism. The 'typical' Romanian, when seen stereotypically are gypsies. Devout Christians (the Holy Light) and yet still practice spiritualism of some sort (Shamanism). They're also nomads...moving from world to world. Like a typical gypsy. The forehead ornamentation is also pretty close to the beaded head-dresses of the typical gypsy.

[Deleted]

Blood Elfs: British<---unsure, help me out!

blood elves are german.. destroyed by a war , then followed a very ambitious leader ( quite mad even ) and got their ass kicked. they are quite white too