Why no Tauren mages if vulpera have arcane knowledge?

[Selastan]

Are you trying to imply that by the time WoW launched the Darkspear Trolls weren't settled in and close enough to be available to Tauren? Because I'm not buying that. Partly because, you know, Zalazane, at the time. The Trolls were basically living with Orcs at that time - hence why they started in the Valley of Trials back then.

They were. Not long enough for young Tauren to apprentice under darkspear mages, certainly not long enough for enough of them to learn to justify a playable class. It wasn't until Cata I think that enough Orcs learned magic from the undead and blood elves, and orcs are more open to new ideas compared to the tauren, and have prior experience with magic in the form of their warlocks.

[Razion]

They were. Not long enough for young Tauren to apprentice under darkspear mages, certainly not long enough for enough of them to learn to justify a playable class. It wasn't until Cata I think that enough Orcs learned magic from the undead and blood elves, and orcs are more open to new ideas compared to the tauren, and have prior experience with magic in the form of their warlocks.

Just how long do you think it takes to discover they have an aptitude for magic? Savants can pick up and discover their talent immediately and it is why people get sent to places like Dalaran. While people study tremendously as mages to hone their craft, discovery has always presented itself as instant in novels and stories and younger NPCs especially - lots of children in the Mage District in SW, for example.

Besides, Tauren enchanters, inscriptionists, already existing Grimtotem mages, and Runemasters say hi.

[qwerty123456]

The elevators (why on earth does there need to be lore saying that the Tauren built the elevators in their own capital city?), the Flight path tower, the bridges that somehow support the massive weight of Tauren and Kodo when they really should not, the sheer complexity involved of transporting the building materials to the location...

You can really compare Thunder Bluff to... a wagon? Come on.

Wagons with planed wood, spoked wheels, arches, and smoke stacks. All in a land hostile to them.

Thunder Bluff was only created after they met the orcs and shit. They had been entirely nomadic until the orcs helped them kill the centaur and claim Mulgore. And given that the elevators just rise and fall with no attachments, the massive size of the flight path totem (which is a single trunk) I'd say its more druid/shaman magic infused wood/ropes than it is of the Tauren's technological skills. Sure the steps in the flight master totem require engineering but carving it out doesn't require any. That requires artistry.

Also have you never been to Thunder Bluff? All the bridges go through buildings on at least one end and they all have too small entrances for Kodos. They don't even have any Kodo in Thunder Bluff aside from the corpse tent skinnned ones. You even have to go to Blood Hoof village to buy one.

[The Council]

Different cultures do different things. more news at 1

[Melusine]

That's just flat out wrong. Tauren are incredibly intelligent. Look at Thunder Bluff. It's an engineering marvel. Great lifts, suspension bridges, and the logistics needed to get materials to BUILD an entire city from the ground up, on top of a plateau with sheer vertical cliffs, with not a tree in sight and a general unwillingness to mine or quarry. And all this without a formal education system or experience with construction. They figured out all this on the fly. That takes intelligence, and lots of it.

Thunder bluff is essentially a great big tree house in complexity. The lift is rudimentary, and doesn't require a huge amount of education, the exact same way most of Orgrimmar is rudimentary with a bunch of spikes and shit all over it.

But let's get past the understanding of engineering, mathematics and architecture, for a moment and go to metaphysics. Elves have it figured out. Human's learned it. Draenei and Eredar have most metaphysics of the universe figured out. Taurens don't. Taurens are more of a faith-based culture. Let me put it in a different way. A Jin-yu is an adept swimmer. A tauren is big and strong. A gnome is smart have a knack for building shit. Everything has a strength of some sort. Judging a blood elf off his/her ability to swim, well, that's not a good measure of their strengths. That a blood elf is one of the most gifted casters on the Horde side, THAT is a measure of a blood elf's worth in service of the Horde.

And what I said after that, about no class should have access to everything except demon hunters.... That's Blizzard talking, there.

[Sevarin]

you can probably shoehorn arcane magic into the tauren sun loving tree hugging culture. warlock would be a pretty hard sell though.

theres plenty of enemy cowlocks. to be honest, as players we are essentially an outlier, one that doesnt need to follow the typical "rules" of our races. theres no reason any race couldnt be any class, including demon hunters. if you can survive the demons blood, you can be taught the rest by other demon hunters.

[Kaver]

Because tauren mages would look ridiculously stupid?

Have you seen Tauren Hunters? I mean, it’s a giant cow running around with a rifle.