What racial fantasy captivates you the most?

[Mace]

I wanted chaos/evil-leaning human paladin allied with beasts like some dark knight, or some bandit/pirates like the Fogsail



guess I'll stick with short-eared blood elves

That fantasy doesn’t exist in Thalassians, orcs fit it though. If they could be paladins.

Troll paladins perhaps ?

- - - Updated - - -

I would say the High elves can claim a Mage fantasy, since there were several mages employed by the Silver Covenant.

But naturally they can't compare to the Blood and Void elves, whose core identity is based around the idea of Magic. In the Blood elves' case, it is the fiery magic of the Sunwell. In the Void elves' case, it is the cold magic of the Void.

The current blood elf fantasies based on Quel’thalas are indistinguishable from high elf ones.

High magic, magical city all of this is entrenched in the high elves and nothing in the blood elves is different until
You touch fel magic, warlocks, blood magic.

Fire arcane while not preferred dominantly amongst high elves was still there in the minority. It’s just become more common.

The differences are largely in attitude and philosophy rather than fantasy with the exceptions I pointed out.

[Ardenaso]

That fantasy doesn’t exist in Thalassians, orcs fit it though. If they could be paladins

blood elves are the closest to humans

[Amarys]

Orcs easily.. the original Warcraft 1 version. Necrolytes, warlocks, big buff warriors.

Even though WoD didn't quite capture that, since it gave orcs machines and mechanical things and also made some clans more "noble", it was still my favorite expansion by far because of this.

[Kalisandra]

Top tier racial fantasy.

OG Forsaken: got to be the goat. Mix of tying the story to major in game events, using the "human" part of the humans story while also not being tied down with their not as great overall lore and history.

OG Night Elves: enough has been said here, wild and savage was the right direction, especially considering their progenitors .....

Trolls: Troll lore runs deep, is multi faceted, and just in general really really really good.

Blood Elf: they were great, the mix of holding on to a vaunted past while dealing with massive internal issues.

Orcs: no description necessary

Good to average, not the best tier:

Tauren: a bit bland but pretty rich lore, I dont think they do enough or did enough (story/lore) to warrant higher ranking.

Dwarves: great, but I feel they play second fiddle to the Humans too much to really get higher.

Fun but not fleshed out enough, but there is still time

Gnomes: they could have such good stories, but instead we get half baked mechagon and thats supposed to hold us.

Goblins: really fun but outside of a cata start zone which is then completely unimportant, they need help story wise.

Fun but its too late:

Humans: some major issues with the human story vs others, multiple human nations with different origins that aren't fleshed out (ie we know why certain trolls are the way they are, but humans don't fully get that treatment). Over emphasis on stormwind. No real diversification to the humans.
Its also too late, you can't go back and add a human nation back into the story, and putting them in now brings up the "where were you when ..." argument.

And the Draenei don't even get a mention.

[Cthulhu 2020]

When I first started playing WoW way back in the day, night elves really captivated me and still do to this day.

I thought blood elves were interesting, but when literally 70% of the playerbase went blood elf, I kinda cringed away from it. Mostly because of the types of people who played it. Many of them largely just wanting to play the "most attractive" race.

Horde races overall never appealed to me, but that's probably because I played Warcraft 1 and 2. In those games the orcs, trolls and goblins were unquestionably chaotic evil. It wasn't until WC3 that Blizzard began to build them up as more sympathetic. But that stark contrast and pseudo retconning between WC2 and WC3 horde races was really jarring.

Fantasy humans are always pretty boring, and it's extremely difficult to make them interesting unless you go way outside the box.

Other than that, we got the most boring factions of both the gnomes and the dwarves. And in the case of the gnomes, the concept art for gnomes looked amazing. The actual in game models made them look like really creepy babies (big heads, big eyes) with facial hair and devious grins. And most of the gnome RPers I knew were for some reason enormous perverts. And about half of the non RP gnome players I personally knew in my guild ended up being stalkerish and creepy towards women in the guild.

So needless to say, the race that appealed to me most when jumping into WoW were the night elves and their connection to nature themes.

Pandas started as an april fool's joke, and became a real race with fleshed out lore that I thought was pretty cool.

Goblins started off as a somewhat more serious race, like gnomes but for the horde, and became a joke race. No seriously, their entire racial existence is a giant joke.



Strong racial identity is one thing I believe Blizzard does well. Though not REALLY well, because a lot of it is still retconned frequently and a lot of it never gets fleshed out. It's the one thing I wish FFXIV had more of, was strong racial identity. Though it more than makes up for it with amazing storytelling and world building that's on a next level tier. I think this is one reason why people like Xaela so much though, because it's the one race that truly has a unique, fleshed out and interesting racial identity.

[loras]

Warcraft has many fantasies, most are brought to the player through the faction or race you play, and some of the big ones like humans, orcs, night elves, blood elves - are multi-faceted - meaning they hold several fantasies and facets hat appeal to you..

For example, the Dalaran human living in floating city fantasy si very different from the Lordaeron paladin or the Stormwind warrior.

it is also the first fantasy that I have ever seen other races like elves, trolls and orcs have more than one thing to them. Elves like night elves and Thalassian elves are each multi-faceted.. with Night elves you have warrior priest female fantasy - Amazonian or temple priest, but then yo have the primal forest lord fantasy - full of walking trees, moving forest and weird and wonderful creatures, then you have dark elf high magic caster with a ridiculously gorgeous civilization and high magic under midnight star-filled moonlit night, followed by an edge-Lord demon hearted powerhouse, consuming dangerous magics to bring hell fire to hell itself.

With Thalassians, it's even more intriguing - near perfect society, with hig magic, nature love, forest wood elf type ranger experts as well as Light warriors wielding magic and the light like an Eternal (if you watched that movie), as a blood elf you're rich in the fantasy of a high elf arcane wizard close to the sun or a blood mage, or can switch to the Farstrider wood elf type a master of the forest paths and skilled with the bow, or paladin/priest. With a high elf, it's pretty much the same but you bat for the other side, you care more about your pristine morals (not just appearance), rather than doing what needs to get it done no matter the cost. Or you can choose the Dracula tinged fantasy of the void elf, if you could harness a dark power and resist it's corruption maintaining high ideals - o(sadly the capability to play an actual vampiric elf - i.e. darkfallen/san'layn is not available yet).


This is just a taster - f the many fantasies in wow from the werewolf fantasy, which is human but with a werewolf twist, to zombie apocalypse, - as a forsaken you're as diverse as your living human counterparts but you have the undead world thing to you which sets you apart. Other races are really one trick ponies. Gnomes are all about engineering gadgets and goblins about blowing everything up with alchamaeic engineering.

But whether a high mountain dwarf or deep dweller dark iron, an ancient roll Lord, priest to many loa in the voodoo arts of magic or a darkspear.. and that's not even shifting to Tauren - the fantasies are many.

Did we even touch on the Draenei ? Space goat? Angel-demon? Holy demon? With arcane technology, magic, tech as advanced as spaceships, now with a shaman tinge (still can't play the warlock Eredar though), but their Rangari hunters have a fantasy. (mage fantasy iss there, it's just not been highlighted yet, but it's a core part fo the race a huge part of it's history is dedicated, and survives in the present.)

Now, most of you have more than one toon you play of a different race. Is a different outlook into the world.

Which ones captivate you the most.

Didn't read it all because lazy, but what do i like the most?
From a me-playing rpg point of view that would be the human warrior as a sort of mostly-alliance-aligned mercenary.
Sure you're a bit of a tourist, but it does allow you to experience the world and stories wonderfully without drawing too much attention to yourself; it's primarily about being an adventurer in an interesting world.

Beyond that i do like mages, my gnome arcane mage seems to just make sense since, well, he sees the arcane as just another extension of the clockwork technilogy his race is so great with, with just a little bit more depth and potency. Additionally it's a great way to mitigate his diminutive stature compared to othet adventurers.

Other favourites are the dwarven (beast master) hunter and death knight, the dark iron shaman (elemental), the worgen outlaw rogue, kul tiran druid, forsaken demonic warlock, blood elven demon hunter or mage, mechagnome shadowpriest (DW admirer) and so on.

My absolute favourite is a very hard call though... the elements as depicted in WoW pre-old-god reveals were easily the best part of it for me, so probably the dark iron shaman.

BY THE POWER OF RAGNAROS!

[StillMcfuu]

And the Draenei don't even get a mention.

I think I would rate them around human tier, too many changes to their lore broke their story. Let's be real. I dont think people really care about dreanei lore, they care about eredar lore.

[draugril]

Dragon-taming Orcs. The audacity of that just hooks me right in.

[Mace]

Fantasies I don’t get are:

Tauren Sunwalkers. - what IS the fantasy here? What they trying to avhieve? Sunwalker feels like something a high/blood elf should be.

However I have no idea how to imagine it in the Tauren cultural setting. An’she seems more a sect and has no realisation unlike Elune. The Earthmother is everything to the Tauren just like the stars are to the night elf.

I also can’t imagine Tauren as any form of Paladin and they failed to define or characterise any unique form of it.

Orc mages. This seems utterly pointless. Sure any playable race might have individuals intelligent and talent enough to do the arcane. But the fantasy doesn’t mesh. Ogre mages we’re weird too I got them in the post WC3 twilight cultist sense. But pre dating it to the Ogre empire without providing characterisation makes it not compute.

I just see these skinny really dumb face looking humanoids and I’m supposed to believe they can handle the arcane fantasy which in Warcraft was initially very difficult.


Draenei shaman - this was done poorly. Darlene I like elves I think should be able to do thinks similar to the shaman but do via the arcane. And this would be their version of shaman, and they would have their unique name like Tidesage did.

They could have come about via a spiritual approach to elements. Where the Draenei shaman j in

[MidnyteTV]

Worgen really captivated me when Cata was announced. All I wanted to do was play a Worgen Rogue. The fantasty of being a nightstalking werewolf with fist weapons or daggers was just so enticing.

[Kalisandra]

I think I would rate them around human tier, too many changes to their lore broke their story. Let's be real. I dont think people really care about dreanei lore, they care about eredar lore.

I used to, and then there was the way WoD showed such promise and then just... dropped it. Follow that by Argus, and I feel that they closed it off without really fleshing it out properly.

[Tanaria]

While they have convergent fantasies, since TBC they have also divulged.

I don’t think the high elves can claim that sun king fantasy anymore or even a Mage fantasy.

I think of them more like Vereesa and the wayfarers.
@Tanaria would agree.

I would agree. The Sin'dorei are the core Thalassian race now and as such, High Elves make up the majority of Rangers on the alliance, with a few Mages whilst Void Elves make up a large core of Void Magi and Void Rangers.

As far as pure Fire, Arcane and Blood Magical practice goes - that's the new Thalassian craft (in the main) and that's now what they are known for.

This is why Sin'dorei Mages are a staple lore/class combo (and also why they are the default Blood Elf character option.)

And Sin'dorei don't call themselves "exiles" because they aren't exiles. High Elves chose the exile, because they questioned the magical practice of arcane tapping. They have to live with those decisions, unless they want to come back to Quel'Thalas and join the Blood Elves, Silvermoon and the Horde.

High Elves are part of a small minority - indeed, I believe the new Alliance Thalassian lore should make the Ren'dorei their core race and they become the High Elves' future. At least it would continue to showcase the differences between Sin'dorei and Ren'dorei.

- - - Updated - - -

The current blood elf fantasies based on Quel’thalas are indistinguishable from high elf ones.

High magic, magical city all of this is entrenched in the high elves and nothing in the blood elves is different until
You touch fel magic, warlocks, blood magic.

Fire arcane while not preferred dominantly amongst high elves was still there in the minority. It’s just become more common.

The differences are largely in attitude and philosophy rather than fantasy with the exceptions I pointed out.

Blood Elf and Void Elf fantasies are improvements that go above and beyond the standard High Elf practice.
This is why the Ren'dorei make such a brilliant allied race for the Alliance.

Odd, different, but still Thalassian...if only Blizzard cared enough to actually make them great, where we see powerful uses of arcane energy and void energy.
Indeed, since changing my night elf arcane mage to a Ren'dorei, I do feel like I'm playing an extremely powerful Arcanist, whereby he draws upon both the raw arcane power and the void with overwhelming forms of magic.

High Elves don't have this and Blood Elves, whilst they do have mastery of the arcane have used the arcane for things (like powerful Mana Bombs), their specialty lies with Fire and Blood Magic, with Arcane coming third. Frost and Fel Magic are quite low in use, within Quel'Thalas.

[The Stormbringer]

The Ren'dorei Fantasy

-SNIP-

This is a minor quibble, but please say "Void Elf" sometime. Constantly saying "Ren'dorei" feels very pretentious. The race name in-game is Void Elves. We don't constantly call the Night Elves "Kal'dorei" or the High Elves "Quel'dorei", do we?

[Kokolums]

The Ren'dorei Fantasy



- Alien/Otherworldly
- Elusive
- Secretive
- Shadowy
- Cunning
- Thirsty for knowledge
- Thirsty for power
- Cursed, in a way (they hear the whispers of the Void)
- Ambitious (they seek to master those whispers and use them for their goals)
- Very idealistic (they believe in the Alliance's ideals, they despise how the goblin people are oppressed by their ruler, they want to prove wrong those who mistrust them)
- Ruthless and Methodical in their approach (see Umbric's strategies in the BfA War campaign)
- But also fair, beautiful, elegant, ancient, since they are still elves

This is the fantasy that appeals to me the most, which is why my main has always been a Shadow Priest, even before the Ren'dorei became playable.

Just listen to the Ren'dorei theme, it conveys how mysterious and alien they feel better than words ever could, and it also highlights their insatiable quest for knowledge:

This almost doesn't belong in Wow anymore. WoW has devolved into "haha! let's just slap Kel'Thuzad into the game as a boss and throw him away! Screw his lore built up for years!"

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This almost doesn't belong in Wow anymore.

Anymore than draenei spaceships, pandas, timetraveling orcish tribes, and fox furries do?

WoW has devolved into "haha! let's just slap Kel'Thuzad into the game as a boss and throw him away! Screw his lore built up for years!"

Come on, that has been a thing since TBC with Vashj being unceremoniously killed as dungeon boss fodder and Illidan and Kael'thas being shoehorned into being crazy evil villains.

At this point, you can shove droids from Star Wars into WoW as a playable race and they would fit the setting. WoW has become a fantasy kitchen sink where anything goes. Main problem you run into is trying to justify a playable race as joining either the Horde, or the Alliance, as those are factions with defined culture, beliefs, and aesthetics. Rendorei don't fit the Alliance theme and lore, and the writers had to bend over backwards to shoehorn the allied races into joining the Horde because no one in their right mind would join the historically unstable, weaker faction. Should have just done the Pandaren thing where the race as a whole is not joining a faction; you're only playing as a small handful of that race who have cast of their citizenship to join one of the two playable factions.

[Calfredd]

Come on, that has been a thing since TBC with Vashj being unceremoniously killed as dungeon boss fodder and Illidan and Kael'thas being shoehorned into being crazy evil villains.

Serpentshrine Cavern was a raid.

[Beloren]

Anymore than draenei spaceships, pandas, timetraveling orcish tribes, and fox furries do?



Come on, that has been a thing since TBC with Vashj being unceremoniously killed as dungeon boss fodder and Illidan and Kael'thas being shoehorned into being crazy evil villains.

At this point, you can shove droids from Star Wars into WoW as a playable race and they would fit the setting. WoW has become a fantasy kitchen sink where anything goes. Main problem you run into is trying to justify a playable race as joining either the Horde, or the Alliance, as those are factions with defined culture, beliefs, and aesthetics. Rendorei don't fit the Alliance theme and lore, and the writers had to bend over backwards to shoehorn the allied races into joining the Horde because no one in their right mind would join the historically unstable, weaker faction. Should have just done the Pandaren thing where the race as a whole is not joining a faction; you're only playing as a small handful of that race who have cast of their citizenship to join one of the two playable factions.

And that started with the blood elves, who didn't fit the horde lore. TBC was when the last vestiges of the original order changed.

But some people are still stuck in the past and don't realise things have moved on. Literally anything goes, and i like some of that "anything"

[Th3Scourge]

For me it's the Draenai and Blood Elf girls getting nasty. God damn

[Mace]

I would agree. The Sin'dorei are the core Thalassian race now and as such, High Elves make up the majority of Rangers on the alliance, with a few Mages whilst Void Elves make up a large core of Void Magi and Void Rangers.

As far as pure Fire, Arcane and Blood Magical practice goes - that's the new Thalassian craft (in the main) and that's now what they are known for.

This is why Sin'dorei Mages are a staple lore/class combo (and also why they are the default Blood Elf character option.)

And Sin'dorei don't call themselves "exiles" because they aren't exiles. High Elves chose the exile, because they questioned the magical practice of arcane tapping. They have to live with those decisions, unless they want to come back to Quel'Thalas and join the Blood Elves, Silvermoon and the Horde.

High Elves are part of a small minority - indeed, I believe the new Alliance Thalassian lore should make the Ren'dorei their core race and they become the High Elves' future. At least it would continue to showcase the differences between Sin'dorei and Ren'dorei.

- - - Updated - - -



Blood Elf and Void Elf fantasies are improvements that go above and beyond the standard High Elf practice.
This is why the Ren'dorei make such a brilliant allied race for the Alliance.

Odd, different, but still Thalassian...if only Blizzard cared enough to actually make them great, where we see powerful uses of arcane energy and void energy.
Indeed, since changing my night elf arcane mage to a Ren'dorei, I do feel like I'm playing an extremely powerful Arcanist, whereby he draws upon both the raw arcane power and the void with overwhelming forms of magic.

High Elves don't have this and Blood Elves, whilst they do have mastery of the arcane have used the arcane for things (like powerful Mana Bombs), their specialty lies with Fire and Blood Magic, with Arcane coming third. Frost and Fel Magic are quite low in use, within Quel'Thalas.

Destructive power is not the main strength of the arcane. Blood elves have put all their focus in destruction.

The biggest strength of the arcane is construction. Building things and this is what the night elven Shen’dralar are the best at in the Kaldorei empire and what the highbelves focused on.

When most became blood elves, the priest order shifted to paladins. Magic focus shifted from creativity to destruction power just like frost shifted to fire.

And don’t look down on high elves, they are still a huge fan favourite.

- - - Updated - - -

Blood elves are powerful arcane wise with magic. But it’s all strength destruction related this is the consequence of working for the horde.

Void elves and Shen’dralar highborne are far more knowledge based and in my opinion because of their mindset and being geared more to creating things they will outstrip the blood elves - who would only compete when it comes to doing battle.


Nightborne have the Duskguard so they are well up there.

And if the Moonguard join the Darnassians, we’ll the blood elves will not be the most powerful
Magical combatants of the playable elven factions

[Tanaria]

Destructive power is not the main strength of the arcane. Blood elves have put all their focus in destruction.

The biggest strength of the arcane is construction. Building things and this is what the night elven Shen’dralar are the best at in the Kaldorei empire and what the highbelves focused on.

When most became blood elves, the priest order shifted to paladins. Magic focus shifted from creativity to destruction power just like frost shifted to fire.

And don’t look down on high elves, they are still a huge fan favourite.

- - - Updated - - -

Blood elves are powerful arcane wise with magic. But it’s all strength destruction related this is the consequence of working for the horde.

Void elves and Shen’dralar highborne are far more knowledge based and in my opinion because of their mindset and being geared more to creating things they will outstrip the blood elves - who would only compete when it comes to doing battle.


Nightborne have the Duskguard so they are well up there.

And if the Moonguard join the Darnassians, we’ll the blood elves will not be the most powerful
Magical combatants of the playable elven factions

Destructive Power has done more than whatever the shen's have done.
If the Shen's made the Empire, well - that's now destroyed. The Empire fell to the might of the Legion and the Sundering.
Same with the High Elves and losing Silvermoon to the Scourge.

Blood Elves have created Mana Bombs (a form of both construction and destruction) and as far yet, they are the most devastating arcane creation, bar none. Also, you are aware that Void Elves are former Blood Elves...so your basically saying that Blood Elves are knowledge based as well?

Mana Bombs are Blood Elf creations and used as tools of destruction and have been used.

Plus, are we saying Jaina's Arcane ship, that was created, raised and used for destructive purposes, is weaker than a shen'dralar tower construction?

Also - did you not play Legion? The Moonguard are almost extinct with only 3 members left...they aren't outshining anyone in a hurry.

Don't understand why you constantly want to tone down the Blood Elves, but then again - I already said you'd do this, for anything "blood elf" related, so I'll just do the same for nelfs. (Not Ren'dorei though - I've grown to appreciate them.)