The true inspiration behind most of the warcraft races

[Ajaxandriel]

A while ago, some guy did an amazing post on the background of most of the wow races from real life culture, it was a good read, and i found very helpful with fairly accurate infomration, except I think he was entirely wrong, because the wow races were not influenced by scholarly research both historical and arcaheological, but were entirely based off popular fictional races of our era. Now the things those groups were based on might lead to someone who actually did real life research, but not the wow races.

So, where do you think the inspirations really come from?


Here is my guess:

• Humans - standard fantasy 80s/90s cartoon humans
• High elves - largely based on LotR high elves, then localised to a DnD derivative strain
• Blood elves - a dark elf variation of high elves at first, then given a more humanised bad boy spin to them.

• Night elves - original night elves were a unique adaptation of the original fusion of DnD dark elves and a spin on forest elves - then in wow, playable night elves reduced to dark skinned forest elves.

• Orcs - based on Star Trek Klingon adaptation of DnD orcs.
• Trolls - I don't know where their inspiration came from, they seem quite unique in this incarnation

• Tauren - a racial adaptation of the Minotaur, also an original variation - giving a minotaur as a race, and then basing that race on the native american culture - I belief this was Chris Metzen paying homage to his native american familial roots.

• Goblins - very typical fantasy goblins who are greedy and hordish, very unoriginal, they are given alchemy/engineering spin though with a vermin like breeding quality.
• Dwarves - LotR/DnD dwarves
• Gnomes - a unique adaptation of DnD and garden gnomes, the engineering spin is quite unique as well as their high intelligence.

• Draenei - original Eredar were based on demons, original draenei later modified to Broken I think were original. I'm not sure what really inspired the TBC draenei, but I don't think it was original although i've never seen it before, maybe someone can help. I think Chris thought it novel to give demons an angelic side - almost like the biblical accounts of Lucifer and the angels that fell with him who are regarded as the leaders of the demons, they actually were originally angelic beings. Modified to be mortal like.

I see the Blood Elves as a Druchii/Naggarothi inspiration, both deviating from the High Elves in Warhammer and Warcraft.

People have noticed the Tiefling inspiration for tBC's Draenei, but male (not-Classic's) Draenei and male Eredar themselves have face features copying the Klingon.

D&D troll, but otherwise yes. D&D trolls aren't "monstrous humanoids" like orcs, goblins or kobolds in D&D, but the physical resemblance between wow trolls and d&d trolls is striking

And the regeneration bit is without a doubt from D&D (even if D&D got it from Poul Anderson).

Culturally they're West Afrcian/Carribean, or rather a pastiche of it.

Yeah they're also basically "Hollywood Natives" (cf. TV-Tropes) with some actual african ethnic stuff like some of the Cameroun's Grasslands masks.

[Beloren]

I see the Blood Elves as a Druchii/Naggarothi inspiration, both deviating from the High Elves in Warhammer and Warcraft.

People have noticed the Tiefling inspiration for tBC's Draenei, but male (not-Classic's) Draenei and male Eredar themselves have face features copying the Klingon.





Yeah they're also basically "Hollywood Natives" (cf. TV-Tropes) with some actual african ethnic stuff like some of the Cameroun's Grasslands masks.

Hollywood Natives - ah, is that where you think they built the trolls around?

I had the feeling that blood elves were just their own creation like most of the sub races, a deviation of an already established race they attempt to do somethign different based on their own lore. just that this sub group comes to be the main face of the race, instead of its original incarnation as the "high elves", largely because they needed a variation to better fit on the horde, and the story had left the blood elves in the perfect position.

[loras]

I think it would have also been better to have kept factions at war always, even if they fight the same bosses they could have done it for different reasons. To me I would appreciate the horde more as the "bad guys." I think it would allow for a better story line as well. Just my $.05

That's one way to go about it, personally i'd prefer it if they went the third faction route, where there are two neutral/good options and one clearly evil option, but none of them want to destroy the world, allowing for more interesting dynamic in storytelling, pvp, etcetera.

That way PvE could remain as "saving the world" where all factions engage in it.

[username993720]

A while ago, some guy did an amazing post on the background of most of the wow races from real life culture, it was a good read, and i found very helpful with fairly accurate infomration, except I think he was entirely wrong, because the wow races were not influenced by scholarly research both historical and arcaheological, but were entirely based off popular fictional races of our era. Now the things those groups were based on might lead to someone who actually did real life research, but not the wow races.

So, where do you think the inspirations really come from?


Here is my guess:

• Humans - standard fantasy 80s/90s cartoon humans
• High elves - largely based on LotR high elves, then localised to a DnD derivative strain
• Blood elves - a dark elf variation of high elves at first, then given a more humanised bad boy spin to them.

• Night elves - original night elves were a unique adaptation of the original fusion of DnD dark elves and a spin on forest elves - then in wow, playable night elves reduced to dark skinned forest elves.

• Orcs - based on Star Trek Klingon adaptation of DnD orcs.
• Trolls - I don't know where their inspiration came from, they seem quite unique in this incarnation

• Tauren - a racial adaptation of the Minotaur, also an original variation - giving a minotaur as a race, and then basing that race on the native american culture - I belief this was Chris Metzen paying homage to his native american familial roots.

• Goblins - very typical fantasy goblins who are greedy and hordish, very unoriginal, they are given alchemy/engineering spin though with a vermin like breeding quality.
• Dwarves - LotR/DnD dwarves
• Gnomes - a unique adaptation of DnD and garden gnomes, the engineering spin is quite unique as well as their high intelligence.

• Draenei - original Eredar were based on demons, original draenei later modified to Broken I think were original. I'm not sure what really inspired the TBC draenei, but I don't think it was original although i've never seen it before, maybe someone can help. I think Chris thought it novel to give demons an angelic side - almost like the biblical accounts of Lucifer and the angels that fell with him who are regarded as the leaders of the demons, they actually were originally angelic beings. Modified to be mortal like.

• Worgen: Based on werewolves of local fantasy, adapted to wow with both night elf and gilnean roots - they made it original in the warcraft world
• Forsaken: Classic zombie apocalypse, with the spin that some zombies are sentient in control of their faculties, allowing them to be a playable race of undead humans, it allows exploration of this in a rather original way. Except sentient zombies aren't really original, so I guess not original. I would say izombie or the UK's "Being Human"

• Pandaren - Kung fu Pandas? (for the MoP fleshing out)?
• Vulpera - blizzards version of cutesy furry races very popular from far east asian series

Allied races are just variations of the in game main races in warcraft lore. They are entirely based on them:

• Nightborne - pre-sundering night elves
• Void elves - void wielding blood/high elves
• Highmountain - Cenarius enhanced Tauren
• Lightforged - Light infused Draenei
• Mag'har orcs - original orcs uncorrupted from fel
• Dark Irons - dwarf clan in warcraft lore with a mines of moria dwarf inspiration
• Zandalari - original trolls (in the same way kaldorei are original elves)
• Kul'tiran - humans with a little bit more vrykul in them
• Mechagnomes - half mechanised gnomes

What do you guys think?

The guy you are talking about is me.

and, you got it all wrong. i didn't mean the races inspiration. i meant their cultures.

The races themselves are based on, mostly, mythological creatures:

Dwarf

Small human-shaped being that dwells in mountains and in the earth / Norse Dwarves - Small Norse humanoids.

"The Warcraft dwarven affinity for mechanical engineering may derive in part from the Warhammer games' depiction of dwarves as technologically apt or may itself simply be an extension of their affinity for mining and metalcraft. This also relates to Norse mythology where they are the creators of many of the gods' artifacts and weapons, such as Thor's hammer Mjollnir."

"As in most modern fantasy, the dwarves in the Warcraft universe draw parallels to those in Tolkien's legendarium as well as the original race in Norse mythology. Most notably, and common to both sources, are their facility with an affinity for mining and other crafts of earth and stone. Their short stature and general appearance are common throughout mythology as well as fiction. The Warcraft dwarves' descent from the earthen also mirrors both sources."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Dwarf#Notes_and_trivia





Dark Iron Dwarf

"The Dark Iron dwarves bear much resemblance to the duergar from Dungeons & Dragons, including appearance, habits, and origins."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Dark_Iron_...tes_and_trivia



Elves

Supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore.

"The night elves were created early on in the development of Warcraft III when the developers were arguing over whether to make dwarves and elves their own standalone playable factions. They could never get the majority of the team to agree to make elves a standalone race until one developer suggested "dark elves". The team was enticed by the idea but since they didn't want to do a traditional dark elf race based on the drow from Dungeons & Dragons, they instead took the best of wood elves and dark elves and combined them into a single race, which became the night elves.[158] However, the night elves remained heavily based on the drow in early development,[159] at one point being envisioned as jungle-like insect riders.[160] The gender divisions (warrior and ruler women and magically-inclined men), darker-hued skins, and a very powerful goddess are the only elements of this that survive. According to Samwise Didier, many developers within Blizzard were initially skeptical toward the night elves since "people were used to the Legolas types, the elves that are your typical elves – blondish, brownish hair, while we were going blues and greens and purple". It took a good picture to help sell the concept, with Didier adding that "if you have a good picture, you can sell almost anything. If we had a bad picture for it, we probably would have just had wood elves".

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Night_elf#Notes_and_trivia

Warhammer Wood elves:


"The elves of Warcraft, like almost all elves in modern fantasy, are inspired in some regard by the elves of Tolkien's books, who were known as the Eldar or the Quendi. In Warcraft, like in JRRT's works, the elves are one of the oldest races, and became divided into subraces over time. As a quieter connection, "eldar" means starpeople, and kaldorei means "children of the stars".

"Though the vast majority of night elf lore is original on the part of Blizzard, they draw parallels to the Sidhe ("SHEE") of Irish mythology and other beings of Celtic myth (except for the chimaera and the hippogryph, who are Greek). Night elven architecture has also been said to draw upon Nordic and Japanese designs, while the ancient night elves' architecture is more Graeco-Roman. Blizzard has also said that night elves were based on traditional fantasy dark elves but with a twist."

"Originally, the race now known as high elves were simply called "elves", and conformed to the stereotypical fantasy elves. Though there were several hints of the night elves in various Warcraft media, the original elves were not referred to as "high elves" until The Last Guardian."

"Half-elves originate from Norse mythology and were borrowed by Tolkien, which he called the Peredhil. The most famous half-elf in Tolkien's legendarium, is perhaps Elrond Halfelven. (Unlike in some other fantasy genres, the Half-elven are not a distinct race from Elves and Men, and before they die must ultimately choose which race to belong to.)"

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Elf#Notes_and_trivia

Void elves are inspired by Warhammer's Dark elves:


Blood elves/High elves by Warhammer's High elves:


"The nightborne also share a physical resemblance to the drow of Dungeons And Dragons, though it is mostly superficial as the nightborne, while aesthetically calling to mind the classic "dark elf" fantasy, in several ways play to the opposite of the drow's prevailing attitudes and stereotypes, with an areligious society and a lack of defined gender roles. Rather than a disposable enemy race, they are a very divided people with a significant population of innocents, and the race as a whole made a turn for the better at the climax of the Suramar arc. The fal'dorei are also a clear reference to the driders of D&D."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Nightborne#Inspiration

The Nightborne appearance is taken from Evequest's Dark elves:


Gnome

Typically said to be a small humanoid that lives underground / Small humanoid spirits.

"In real-world mythology, a gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle and has a love for building unique items and gear."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Gnome#Notes_and_trivia

Draenei

Draenei are inspired by the Protoss of Starcraft.
"The draenei are taxonomically similar to the Protoss in Blizzard's Starcraft storyline. Both races are blue skinned with blue tinted blood, and both employ bipedal unguligrade locomotion."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Draenei_(playable)#Trivia



Goblin

Small, grotesque humanoids.

"In real-life lore, a goblin is an evil, crabby, or mischievous creature of folklore (mainly European, but other mythologies have similar creatures), often described as a grotesquely disfigured or gnome-like phantom who may range in height from that of a dwarf to that of a human."

"The presentation of goblins in Warcraft as intelligent, inventive and cunning beings coincides with the franchise's break from traditional portrayals of orcs, goblins and trolls as "all brawn, no brain"."

"Goblins seem to take some inspiration or at least show similaraties to: the Gremlins, for their destructive nature and looks, and the Ferengi of Star Trek, for their industrialized society, where a person's worth is equal to the belongings he can gather and hold, though this trait seemed to only develop after Warcraft II."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Goblin#Notes_and_trivia



Minotaur

A human with the head and sometimes legs of a bull.

"The tauren are based upon the Minotaur, a part man, part bull monster from Greek mythology, and the tauren were originally referred to as minotaurs during the early stages of development for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. The name "Minotaur" is either derived from Ancient Greek ταῦρος/taûros or Latin taurus, both meaning "bull". (See the article about myth references for more information.)"

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Tauren#Notes_and_trivia

Orc/Ork

Humanoids with grey or green skin and tusks.

In the Warcraft universe, Orcs are, mostly, based on the Warhammer interpretation (as Blizzard, initially, was about to make a Warhammer game).

"Warcraft is one of the very few fantasy franchises where orcs are put in a positive light. This is still true after two games with the traditional bloodthirsty interpretation."

"Orcs have a great amount of influence in the Warcraft game series; an unusual thing to see, as most fantasy works featuring orcs instead typically portray them as easily-killable, bestial and brainless enemies."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Orc#Notes_and_trivia



The Iron Horde seems to be inspired by Guild Wars 2 Charr:


Troll

Large, grotesque humanoids.

"The presentation of trolls in Warcraft meshes with the series bucking the trends of such Lord of the Rings based (in the eyes of pop culture) creatures, presenting them as intelligent, lean and lanky, and with distinct cultures, far removed from the mindless brutes they're more typically portrayed as."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Troll#Notes_and_trivia

Zandalari Troll seem to be based on Warhammer's Lizardmen:


Zombie

An undead human which preys on the living.

"According to Johnathan Staats, a lot of the designers simply wanted to be able to play as an evil, "badass monster", rather than simply a misunderstood plagued human, but in the end the Forsaken ended up around the center of the spectrum."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Forsaken#Trivia

Werewolf

A canine therianthropic creature.

"The worgen bear a strong resemblance to the "Myrkridia" from Bungie's Myth II: Soulblighter (a contemporary of Starcraft), especially the idea of them being from another dimension. Besides that, the worgen obviously resemble a werewolf as it is known in popular fiction, particularly the part where they managed to get the curse under control and only changed when the moon was up."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Worgen#Inspiration

Pandaren

came from Samwise Didier concept art.
"Some years later I did a Christmas picture for my family of a panda bear with a cub sitting on his shoulder in tribute to the new daughter who had joined our clan. That was the first panda picture I did.
For some reason, one of our webmasters asked if it could be made into a Blizzard wallpaper. People seemed to like it well enough so that when April Fools came around we announced that the pandaren were going to be the fifth race for Warcraft III. People got excited by the announcement, and seemed to be let down when they found out it was just a joke."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Pandaren/S...Interview_2009

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_humanoids

The cultures that were given to these mythological creatures, are based on real-life cultures (example: Tauren being the mythological Minotaur, but are, clearly, Native Americans and not Greeks - which, is where they originated from.)

I would like to fix some of the real-life equivalents i wrote, though - as Aucald didn't give me the chance to fix 'em.

Orc

not just Mongols/Turkic, but also Barbarian:

Fur-coated helmets, were, apparently, not just a Mongol arnament (especially, given the horns):


Also, their structures are inspired by prehistoric huts, made of animal bones, tusks and hides:


Dark Iron Dwarf

not Celtic as i thought (based on the Barbarians' black face-paint in the History Channel series 'Barbarians Rising') but, rather, Germanic:
From the Netflix Barbarians series


Kul Tiran

perhaps, not just Spanish but, also French:
In the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the guards use the same helmets as Kul tirans Guards, use their Two-handed Axes, and the green Buildings, awfully, remind those of Kul Tiras:




I fail to see, Aucald, why this thread is kept going, while mine was closed twice. I would like to appeal to you, so that you un-close it (and, perhaps, delete the copy of it on the RP forum). Use your magic of censorship and just cut out the inappropriate comments. pretty please

[Aucald]

I fail to see, Aucald, why this thread is kept going, while mine was closed twice. I would like to appeal to you, so that you un-close it (and, perhaps, delete the copy of it on the RP forum). Use your magic of censorship and just cut out the inappropriate comments. pretty please

That would be because your original thread invited the forbidden topic discussion it garnered due to its inclusion of wide chunks of real-world religious and spiritual examples and implicit criticisms. Whereas this thread and your post above stayed more or less grounded in fictional and fantasy examples without inviting discussion about forbidden topics. If you want to recreate your thread without all that you were always free to do so, but attempting to reopen it as it was elsewhere will result in the same response as before. I'm not a curator and I don't edit thread OP's willy-nilly, my only real capacity in that regard is to judge what is or isn't acceptable based on the rules of these forums.

[ravenmoon]

The guy you are talking about is me.

and, you got it all wrong. i didn't mean the races inspiration. i meant their cultures.

The races themselves are based on, mostly, mythological creatures:

Fascinating as ever dude.

Orcs feel very Klingon to me. I feel that violent behaviour/ nature is captured well in Klingon, and every time I'm reminded of them, I think of warcraft orcs character modelled on them.

[huth]

But without a doubt, the playable Pandaren we got finally in MoP had strong Kung fu Panda influences. Surely even the most obstinate naysayers can see that.

No, they don't. They have Kung Fu and Wuxia influences, just like Kung Fu Panda. They don't have much in common beyond that and being (based on) Pandas, though. Their visual design is also quite different from Po beyond being based on Pandas.

That you think so mostly shows that you never actually bothered to check and just took the memes at face value.

- - - Updated - - -

Kul Tiran

perhaps, not just Spanish but, also French:
In the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the guards use the same helmets as Kul tirans Guards, use their Two-handed Axes, and the green Buildings, awfully, remind those of Kul Tiras:

Then you're missing most of the important parts of their culture to focus on some minor parts of their visual design that weren't even specific to the countries you mention. They're basically the Hanseatic League as a country.

[ravenmoon]

Elves

Supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore.

"The night elves were created early on in the development of Warcraft III when the developers were arguing over whether to make dwarves and elves their own standalone playable factions. They could never get the majority of the team to agree to make elves a standalone race until one developer suggested "dark elves". The team was enticed by the idea but since they didn't want to do a traditional dark elf race based on the drow from Dungeons & Dragons, they instead took the best of wood elves and dark elves and combined them into a single race, which became the night elves.[158] However, the night elves remained heavily based on the drow in early development,[159] at one point being envisioned as jungle-like insect riders.[160] The gender divisions (warrior and ruler women and magically-inclined men), darker-hued skins, and a very powerful goddess are the only elements of this that survive. According to Samwise Didier, many developers within Blizzard were initially skeptical toward the night elves since "people were used to the Legolas types, the elves that are your typical elves – blondish, brownish hair, while we were going blues and greens and purple". It took a good picture to help sell the concept, with Didier adding that "if you have a good picture, you can sell almost anything. If we had a bad picture for it, we probably would have just had wood elves".

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Night_elf#Notes_and_trivia

Warhammer Wood elves:
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/stea...g?t=1571751758

"The elves of Warcraft, like almost all elves in modern fantasy, are inspired in some regard by the elves of Tolkien's books, who were known as the Eldar or the Quendi. In Warcraft, like in JRRT's works, the elves are one of the oldest races, and became divided into subraces over time. As a quieter connection, "eldar" means starpeople, and kaldorei means "children of the stars".

"Though the vast majority of night elf lore is original on the part of Blizzard, they draw parallels to the Sidhe ("SHEE") of Irish mythology and other beings of Celtic myth (except for the chimaera and the hippogryph, who are Greek). Night elven architecture has also been said to draw upon Nordic and Japanese designs, while the ancient night elves' architecture is more Graeco-Roman. Blizzard has also said that night elves were based on traditional fantasy dark elves but with a twist."

"Originally, the race now known as high elves were simply called "elves", and conformed to the stereotypical fantasy elves. Though there were several hints of the night elves in various Warcraft media, the original elves were not referred to as "high elves" until The Last Guardian."

"Half-elves originate from Norse mythology and were borrowed by Tolkien, which he called the Peredhil. The most famous half-elf in Tolkien's legendarium, is perhaps Elrond Halfelven. (Unlike in some other fantasy genres, the Half-elven are not a distinct race from Elves and Men, and before they die must ultimately choose which race to belong to.)"

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Elf#Notes_and_trivia

Void elves are inspired by Warhammer's Dark elves:
https://gamespot1.cbsistatic.com/upl...70916_site.jpg

Blood elves/High elves by Warhammer's High elves:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zhK8nPj2zCU/maxresdefault.jpg

"The nightborne also share a physical resemblance to the drow of Dungeons And Dragons, though it is mostly superficial as the nightborne, while aesthetically calling to mind the classic "dark elf" fantasy, in several ways play to the opposite of the drow's prevailing attitudes and stereotypes, with an areligious society and a lack of defined gender roles. Rather than a disposable enemy race, they are a very divided people with a significant population of innocents, and the race as a whole made a turn for the better at the climax of the Suramar arc. The fal'dorei are also a clear reference to the driders of D&D."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Nightborne#Inspiration

The Nightborne appearance is taken from Evequest's Dark elves:
https://wiki.project1999.com/images/NakedDEF.jpg

I find the elves of warcraft fascinating. I really like how blizzard expands them into more than just essentially a tribe that's about one thing.

Night Elves
This was what fascinated me about the night elves the most, the combination of their pre-sundering and long vigil lore, the various groups like the Moon priestesses, the Highborne, the druids, the Moonguard, the Amazonian type sentinels, then the demon hunters - which I think were unique to warcraft, all under this star banner - especially the pre-sundering civilization that seemed to have a lot more of that incorporated into it.

I find it very sad how WoW night elves have sort of devolved into stereotypical forest elves, with only a fraction of what the race is supposed to be. I realise that this is predominantly the playable group, and only watch with envy how the Zandalari are portrayed to trolls as the night elves should be really to all the derivative elven groups.

While blizzard has retained a sense of the scope of the original night elf race in the kaldorei - with the Highborne joining, the Illidari still around (and playable) alongside the Priest/hunter/warrior females and forest ranger/druids - they still seem somewhat very subdued and underutilised - could have much more from them.


Void Elves:
They could do so much with these, and develop some really interesting stuff, where the scope and diversity of the night elves is what is impressive, the unknown of the void elves is what could allow for much creativity.

There is also a chance to develop high elves alongside void elves, would be so cool to see a symbiotic like pairing of a void elf and high elf similar to the anime Uraboku and the Shadowhunters' parabatai bonding or necessitating the working together in a bonded pair would be so cool, void elves needing a high elf brings the high elf into this in such a cool way, can you imagine if a void elf/high elf toons always had to run with an opposite as their bonded pair? So when you design your character , if you are making him void, you have to design the high elf partner similar to how a worgen designs his human form, if your character is high elf, you have to design a void elf skinned partner.

It's like an evolution of what high elf is, alongside void elf.

I like how noble the void elves are, yet having this dark dangerous maddening power to contend with, I just think having a high elf counterpart to help stabilisation would be awesome, especially if the high elf finds their light abilities greatly enhanced by pairing with a void elf, and the void elf has a much greater ability to tap into the void with the grounding of a bonded pair..hehe.

But their scope and potential is great because they're new.


Blood elf
I like that the high/blood elf has the Tolkein ideal original, but the blood elf deviant variant. I don't like how too high elven the blood elves seem to be becoming, I feel what made them unique was being the cool rebel type elf, with a nasty bad boy streak to them. Made them a bit darker.

[ro9ue]

Warhammer + EverQuest explains pretty much everything you need to know about the origins of World of Warcraft.

[Venziir]

D&D troll, but otherwise yes. D&D trolls aren't "monstrous humanoids" like orcs, goblins or kobolds in D&D, but the physical resemblance between wow trolls and d&d trolls is striking:



And the regeneration bit is without a doubt from D&D (even if D&D got it from Poul Anderson).

Culturally they're West Afrcian/Carribean, or rather a pastiche of it.

That particular image though, is from D&D 3E, which came out after the release of Warcraft 2. And aside from the long nose, it looks absolutely nothing like a warcraft troll. And orcs, goblins or kobolds in D&D were never "monstrous humanoids", they were just regular "humanoids".

[username993720]

you think Chris Metzen, did research into world cultures , history and arcaheology? I some how don't think so, he understood cultural trends and what was cool, and i think he watched a lot of tv , read a lot of fantasy stuff including played DnD

Blizzard has historians. Just like Assassin's Creed has. they need them to base their game on real-life mythologies and history.
For example, Wrath of the Lich King was heavily inspired by Norse mythology:

Vrykul

"Vrykul culture, naming and architecture are all heavily inspired by Norse mythology and culture. The names of groups such as the Valarjar or Ymirjar are inspired by the Einherjar of Norse mythology, the warriors who died glorious deaths in battle and were brought to Valhalla by the valkyries."

Tuskarr

Not Norse, but still inspired by real-life:
"While the tuskarr appear to be inspired mostly by Inuit stereotypes, concept art also features Moai-like statues, so there might be influences from south sea island cultures as well, specifically Easter Island (or Rapa Nui)."

Jormungar

"The name is a reference to or inspired by the World Serpent of Nordic mythology, Jörmungandr, which was said to be so large that its tail had to be stuffed into its mouth to prevent it growing larger than the world. Jörmungandr was one of the three children of Loki, the mischievous Aesir God of Nordic mythology. In the quest The Slithering Darkness, Astrid Bjornrittar calls the jormungar the children of Loken, whose name is inspired by Loki."

Kvaldir

"They appear to be based on the recordings of vikings having used mist as a way to mask their movements and create sneak attacks, which the kvaldir seem to excel at."

I'd say they are based on Davy Jones' crew in Pirates of the Caribbean

Val'kyr

"Val'kyr are an obvious reference to the Valkyries of Norse myth — minor female deities in the service of Odin. Their duty was to choose the most heroic spirits of slain warriors and take them to Valhalla, where they would serve at Odin's side in the Ragnarök."

Wendigo

"The wendigo is a half-beast creature appearing in the folklore of the native Algonquian peoples found along the Atlantic Coast in North America. The creature is said to be able to possess humans and is especially associated with cannibalism."

Warg

"The word was also used to describe Fenrir and his sons Sköll and Hati in Norse Mythology."

Titanic Keepers

"Freya's name is derived from Freyja (also sometimes called Freja or Freya), the Norse goddess of fertility, beauty and love."

"Hodir may be named after the Æsir Höðr of Norse mythology. Loken's betrayal parallels that of Loki of the same mythology, who tricked Hod into shooting his brother Baldr.
Alternatively, he may be named after Hymir, a frost giant who once went fishing for Jörmungandr with Thor."

"Loken's name is likely based on Loki, the main trickster of Norse mythology."

"In Norse mythology Mímir was the giant guarding Mímisbrunnr, the well of wisdom beneath the world tree Yggdrasil."

"Odyn is a clear reference to the Norse god Odin."

"Much like Rajh, a titanic watcher, Ra's name is derived from Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun."

"His name, title, and location are references to the Norse god Thor. Thorim's hammer (Krolmir) is based on Thor's hammer (Mjolnir) and Thor's wife is also named Sif."

"Tyr is named after the Norse god Týr, and their history and experiences are very similar. Týr was the Norse god of law and heroic glory, and was depicted as being onehanded after having sacrificed his arm to the monstrous wolf Fenrir, similar to how Tyr had his hand bitten off by Galakrond."

"Helya is inspired by Hel, the ruler of the underworld of the same name in Norse mythology."

Jotunheim

"Jotunheim is named after Jötunheimr which was the "home of the Jotuns", or giants, in Norse Mythology. Also, "Jotunheimen" is a large mountain chain in Norway. "Heim" is a nordic (possibly deriving from the Norse language) word which means "home"."

Tol'vir

"The tol'vir's culture, architecture and naming conventions are all obviously based on real-world Ancient Egypt."

Centaur

"Blizzard took a distinctly central Asian influence for their centaurs, borrowing cultural elements from peoples such as the Mongols. Most notably, they are led by khans and live in collapsible huts."

"The nomadic centaur culture and the term "khan" have their roots in the culture of the Mongols. Centaur villages resemble traditional Mongol yurts."

Grummle

"Grummles are called "Sherpa" in the game files, likely referring to the eponymous Himalayan people living on the borders of Nepal and Tibet, renowned for their skill in mountaineering."

Ogre

"The Gorian Empire is based on the Roman Empire in its twilight years, when it was on its way to the collapse that would lead to the Middle Ages."

Arrakoa

"As with many of the races of the WarCraft universe, arakkoa culture may have a real-world analogue, here in the real world's Indian civilization. This is most evident in their caste system, but the high arakkoa also predominantly use chakram—weapons invented in India—and some have traditional Indian names. The Warlords of Draenor alpha also contained a reference to chakras in the Dungeon Journal entry for Ranjit, a boss in the arakkoa-themed Skyreach dungeon, but it was removed before the official release of the game.

As a result of this Indian theme, the winged arakkoa may be partially based on the Garuda, a humanoid bird who serves as the vahana (mount) of Vishnu in Hindu mythology."

Ethereal

"Ethereal names (such as "Bashir" and "Shaffar") are borrowings from, or alterations of, Arabic names. This is a reference to pre-Islamic Arabia, which was organized into oasis city-states ruled by trade princes or powerful merchant families."

Pandaria has a clear Asian cultures thematic and geography:

Shen-Zin Su

"Shen-zin Su is most likely a reference to the general mythological concept of the World Turtle, a giant turtle that supports the entire world on its shell."

Kun-Lai Summit

"This area is possibly named after Mount Penglai, a mystical land found in Chinese mythology, or Kunlun Mountain, said to be the paradise of Taoism.
The region particularly resembles the Himalayas of China and Nepal (particularly with Mount Neverest, an obvious parallel to Everest)."

Mogu

"The mogu, like their quilen pets, bear a striking resemblance to the Chinese guardian lions (also known as Shishi lions or "Foo Dogs"). Indeed, early concept art for the race is labeled "Foo Dog Warrior." - they are, clearly, based on Chinese Warlords of that time and their constant warfare.

Yaungol

A Yak+Mongol = clearly, based on Mongols and their raid on the chinese wall.

Sethrak

"The sethrak are partly inspired by the Bedouins of North Africa and the Middle East."

Halls of Valor

"The art and feel of the dungeon is heavily inspired by Valhalla."

World Trees

"The idea of a World Tree comes from Norse mythology's Yggdrasil. Like Nordrassil, it has a Well beneath it, the Well of Urd. It also has a connection with dragons in the form of the great Níðhöggr, who however gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil. The idea of a beast gnawing at the roots may be a connection to Yogg-Saron and Andrassil as well."

Titans

"Aman'Thul was likely inspired by the Greek god Zeus and the Norse god Odin."

"Some aspects of Eonar's character and powers appear to be based upon the Greek goddess Demeter, the sister of Zeus who presided over agriculture and the harvest."

"Norgannon may have been based on the Aesir Norse God Bragi, god of poetry and lore, or Mímir, god of runes and knowledge.
His name may be a reference to Organon, the name given to Aristotle's works of logic.
He may also have been based on Hecate, the minor Greek goddess of magic."

"Golganneth has some similarities to the "thunderer" archetype, of which the Norse god Thor is a famous example. Shargahn also has a tie with Thor's hammer, Mjollnir, in that neither are traditionally weapons (in old Nordic times hammers were used exclusively as tools, and were considered a very strange choice for a weapon). Golganneth's horn is more reminiscent of Heimdall, but his province of the sea and storms most closely links him with Njord, also of the Norse pantheon, or Poseidon/Neptune, Greco-Roman mythology, respectively"

"Khaz'goroth is partly based on the Greco-Roman god of fire and the forge, Hephaestus (Vulcan in Latin). Additional inspiration was also taken from Aulë, the Maker, one of the Ainur of the mythology of the Lord of the Rings, who was the creator of the dwarves and took part in forging the lands and mountains of Middle Earth."

"Aggramar might be based upon the Norse god Thor the Thunderer, or he could be based upon the war-god Tyr. Thor and Tyr are the greatest of the Aesir's warriors and the generals of the armies of the gods. Intentional or not, Aggramar also draws parallels to Freyr. Freyr is the nemesis of Surtr, who can be equated with Sargeras, and Freyr has the most powerful sword in Nordic mythology, which is also sentient like Taeshalach. Freyr's sword is one of a pair, meant to combat the sword of Surtr in Ragnarok, as Taeshalach is meant to combat Gorribal."

Helheim

"Hel is the name of the underworld in Norse mythology, ruled by the female being of the same name. It is one of the nine realms held in the branches and roots of the world tree Yggdrasil."

Highmountain

"Highmountain was mainly inspired by the Yosemite National Park, the Swiss Alps and Mount Everest."

Zuldazar

"The World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 art for Zuldazar draws inspiration from the Inca citadel Machu Picchu and combines it with the architecture of the Aztec and the Maya."

Even Shadowlands is heavily based on real-life historical cultures:

Kyrian

The Kyrian are obviously Greek.

"The name "kyrian" is likely derived from the Greek word κύριος (Romanized as kýrios), meaning "powerful one" or "lord" and commonly used to refer to the Christian God.
Relatedly, Kyrian characters have Greek-inspired names such as Apolon and Artemede."

Archon is "each of the nine chief magistrates in ancient Athens."

Necrolord

Margrave - "the hereditary title of some princes of the Holy Roman Empire."

Night Fae

Based on Irish Mythology. Tirne Scithe is Tir na Nog. Winter Queen is a character called Beira (Cailleach).

Venthyr

Clearly based on Dracula and Vampire fantasies which, are, in turn, based on Romanian folklore.

That would be because your original thread invited the forbidden topic discussion it garnered due to its inclusion of wide chunks of real-world religious and spiritual examples and implicit criticisms. Whereas this thread and your post above stayed more or less grounded in fictional and fantasy examples without inviting discussion about forbidden topics. If you want to recreate your thread without all that you were always free to do so, but attempting to reopen it as it was elsewhere will result in the same response as before. I'm not a curator and I don't edit thread OP's willy-nilly, my only real capacity in that regard is to judge what is or isn't acceptable based on the rules of these forums.

How do i do that with it being "races and their real-life equivalents"?

Then you're missing most of the important parts of their culture to focus on some minor parts of their visual design that weren't even specific to the countries you mention. They're basically the Hanseatic League as a country.

Please, enlighten me. i'm always happy to learn new stuff.
i'm not a historian, i just write what i pick up on the way...

[Triceron]

TamTam from Samurai Shodown, a series the devs played a lot of in the office.

Other inspirations from the game include Blademaster and the Taurens using giant totem weapons.

[Aucald]

How do i do that with it being "races and their real-life equivalents"?

Stick to the history and mythology, don't discuss and/or editorialize real-world religion and/or spirituality, try to stay grounded in fantasy/fiction wherever possible.

[username993720]

Stick to the history and mythology, don't discuss and/or editorialize real-world religion and/or spirituality, try to stay grounded in fantasy/fiction wherever possible.

That's what i did. everything i put there is either from Wikipedia or WoWpedia.

Religions...? is it europe 2.0 right now?

[Aucald]

That's what i did. everything i put there is either from Wikipedia or WoWpedia.

Religions...? is it europe 2.0 right now?

The source is immaterial, it the presence of it that's the issue. If you need more information feel free to PM me, as this isn't really germane to this thread.

[Beloren]

Blizzard has historians. Just like Assassin's Creed has. they need them to base their game on real-life mythologies and history.
For example, Wrath of the Lich King was heavily inspired by Norse mythology:

They now do, i don't think that was the case when they started this of, but as it grew massively especially after the MMO launch, they hired more people and did more thorough checks.

[username993720]

The source is immaterial, it the presence of it that's the issue. If you need more information feel free to PM me, as this isn't really germane to this thread.

I don't think i'm gonna try again. twice is cruel enough

The question is, do these rules apply to all other forums, like General Discussion, for example?

They now do, i don't think that was the case when they started this of, but as it grew massively especially after the MMO launch, they hired more people and did more thorough checks.

Obviously.
Did you, at least, understand that my other thread wasn't about inspiration of the races, but their cultures?

[cparle87]

[*]Pandaren - Kung fu Pandas? (for the MoP fleshing out)?

Chen Stormstout and Pandaria was around in WC3, which came out long before that movie. It's a coincidence and many people make the mistake that the race was inspired by the movie's renown.

[huth]

They now do, i don't think that was the case when they started this of, but as it grew massively especially after the MMO launch, they hired more people and did more thorough checks.

And at this point, the launch is closer to the beginning of the franchise than it is to today. Many of the races in questions didn't even exist back then.

- - - Updated - - -

Kun-Lai Summit

"This area is possibly named after Mount Penglai, a mystical land found in Chinese mythology, or Kunlun Mountain, said to be the paradise of Taoism.
The region particularly resembles the Himalayas of China and Nepal (particularly with Mount Neverest, an obvious parallel to Everest)."

Kun(lun)-(Peng)Lai

Night Fae

Based on Irish Mythology. Tirne Scithe is Tir na Nog. Winter Queen is a character called Beira (Cailleach).

Tirna Noch is a more likely candidate for the Tír na nÓg allusion.(just say it out loud) There's a few more of them as well.

[username993720]

TamTam from Samurai Shodown, a series the devs played a lot of in the office.

Other inspirations from the game include Blademaster and the Taurens using giant totem weapons.

He's basically wearing Aztec/Mayan/Inca clothings, which what are Trolls based on.

And at this point, the launch is closer to the beginning of the franchise than it is to today. Many of the races in questions didn't even exist back then.

- - - Updated - - -



Kun(lun)-(Peng)Lai



Tirna Noch is a more likely candidate for the Tír na nÓg allusion.(just say it out loud) There's a few more of them as well.

Would you like to expand on the Hanseatic League and their connection to Kul Tirans?