Race inspiration, stating the obvious.

[imbak]

Really bored, so i decided to share where i think the inspiration for all the races come from...

Night Elf: Chinese
Tauren: Native American
Troll: South American/Carribean
Dwarf: Scottish
Orc: African
Dranei: Russian/possibly middle eastern?
Humans: American
Blood Elfs: British<---unsure, help me out!
Gnome: European<---unsure, help me out!

These are just my opinions, i back them up with the the building styles and the way they talk.

[Krypt]

Dwarf: Scottish

damn right.

[imbak]

Dwarf: Scottish

damn right.

chyea man im full blood scottish

[Brasko]

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

[Shadowclaimer]

None of that is anywhere near correct.. the only thing is architectural styles are somewhat based on different IRL cultures, that's about it.

[Priear]

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

Really bored, so i decided to share where i think the inspiration for all the races come from...

By all the statements thats whats pops in your eyes?

[Wintie]

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

[Varnir]

You realise, of course, that to anyone who isn't American they all sound very, very American.

Exceptions are the dwarves, draenei and trolls...but they even manage to sound American here and there too.

[Elementium]

Yeah Draenei are like Russian with a hint of eastern european tourist.

[Tirithor]

Yeah Draenei are like Russian with a hint of eastern european tourist.

aka Borat

[Unclean1]

Night Elves = Dutch clearly

que?

[Vk]

Night Elf: Japanese/ancient Greek
Tauren: Native American
Troll: Carribean/African
Dwarf: Scottish/Austrian
Orc: Mongolian/ancient Chinese
Draenei: Russian
Humans: cookie cutter Medieval Fantasy
Blood Elfs: Modern-West Metrosexual culture / Pop / Socialites
Gnome: Just a generic technological/smart midget race

[Balduvian]

Scottish? I dont know, but Scotland isn't known very well for its beer and its Oktoberfest.

Dwarves talk the same as Scottish people do, that's why. I guess
Aye, sir!

[voidmancer]

ok now this is my first post here, actually i registered just to reply this post but i am a mmo-champion fan for a long time. oh and these are just thoughts. dont flame me if u dont like my thoughts. btw my dad is a turk and my mom is a brasilian and i read alot and next year im going to the university to study anthropology so i know many many cultures. just tell me if u dissagree

i did a lot of research and so did the creaters of WoW did when they where putting the puzzles together. there are obvious stuff but some arent that obvious. like:

Taurens were inspired from native americans, peacefull nature, shamanism, totemism, pipes around the houses, clothing, thousand needles exc

http://www.sonsofthestorm.com/images...aneman029c.jpg

humans are classical christian europeans british who believe in the holy light. who's leader is arthas (arthur) who got his sword from the rock (excalibur)

the dwarves speak as scotts, brew beer like some countries of europe live in high hills and icy lands as scandinavian countries (north of GB) , were barbarians (vikings) before they met the holy light.

trolls arent really one thing but many. they represent all natives around the world, which are scattered all over azeroth, dark magic and voodoo, poison shooting, axe throwing dark"spear" are a portion of the africans tribes. trolls speak as jamaicans, do kapoeira like brazilian natives. orijinally witch doctors were some mesopotamian tribe that are called juju who do arcane magic and heal people.

draenei are mostly fiction since they where added on the expantion pack more then 10 years after the first warcraft was released. (im talking about the playable race draenei with perfect features and a decent culture, not talking about the broken) BUT still there are references to indians like jewellery and tunak tunak tun dance. still dont know where the holy light thing or shamanism of em came from. i guess i have to read rise of the horde.

gnomes arent really a big race, they are the newest race that dont fit nowhere, they dont have a homeland (gnomeregan is a lie) they didnt exist till vanilla wow (w2 gnome helicopters are also a lie) they basically AREN'T a RACE. they just represent the hard working intellegent ENGINEER that i like to call "Tesla"
http://uncletaz.com/library/scimath/tesla/tesla1.gif

forsaken are:
http://www.jinx.com/Content/Product/796p_0c_ZoomB.jpg
the forsaken dont believe in the holy light and are hated by the fanatic zealots of the holy light. but they still live in a land which was a main base of light called lorderon. (black metal community who burn churches and live in norway)


Now, lets get to the elves
Night elves are a race of beauty (brazilian) who live in the jungle (amazon), who had peace for thousands and thousands of years till the highborne (european) did stuff that they werent supposed to (cut down the amazonian forests) and they kicked (traveling throught ocean) the highborne for being so ignorant and for having a thirst for magic (wood)

so the night elves and the blood elves are a close race but mentallity are different like portuguese and brazilian share the same language. i shouldnt say there is HATE between them but both sides prefer their own race and arent really fond of the other.

and finally the ORCS!

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. which if he hadnt done we would have a flag of united kingdom :P like the orcs who were imprisoned in human camps. he has many quotes like lokthar ogar stuff like that

2. the turks old and real religion is shamanism, islam came after shamanism and many people followed it. and we could say warlocks are an example of islam going bad. Ataturk knew people would blindly believe in stuff that they thought were right cause most of turks didnt know how to read. so he built turkish language association and turkish historical association. Ataturk told turks to be civilized people as they used to be in the past, told them to learn shamanism, and stop the bloodlust.

3. almost all turks left their homeland because of the conditions of asia (hellfire peninsula) the wheater had changed, the water had dried the animals started to die (corruption of draenor) so they were forced to leaver their lands. then they had neighbours as europeans (alliance) thats when all the war started.

4. wolves are the "best friend" of turks since shamanism, they share their food with their wolves, they hunt with their wolves
http://www.sonsofthestorm.com/viewer...t&art=58#_self

btw notice the little kids hand, he is flashing the symbol of turks, its just like the metal symbol but there is a little difference. when u are making the metal symbol aka devils horn u put your thumb on your fingers. but in the turks symbol, u put your thumb under your fingers, like the orc just did.

5. i dont know why but some turks loved having axes. this is Attila's famous axe (kinda looks like arcanite reaper doesnt it?)
http://www.weaponsemporium.com/WE-At...e%20Bronze.jpg

6. turks grow their beards long and long just like orcs do


so!

thats my two cents feel free to comment on them

so far ive read many many history books, allmost all warcraft books, various "history of magic" books, so u can feel free to comment!

oh and please dont give me any political stuff. if u disagree kindly disagree

[Utal]

Night elves are based on Slight Nordic, but heavy japanese influence, they study druidism, old european form of shamanism that is most assoasated with england, they have mainly female warriors ( amazons of greek myth )

so they are based off alot.

[Dalithe]

Male Blood Elves are from San Francisco.

Female Blood Elves are from Hollywood.

/r
Dal

[Girlyman]

@ voidmancer

Call me stupid, took me long to realize those stuff.

[Kaldor]

would really like to see a game where human =/= white people.
In fact, can't really think of any prominent non-white human characters in blizz games, save samir duran and he turned out to be a xel'naga anyway.

not accusing blizz of racism so much, just wish they'd broaden their horizons. it would make the games more accessible and interesting. I'm not gonna want to play as much if humans = white people (yes I know you can change skin color, but show me one prominent non-white NPC) and my heritage is represented as some other.

If you wanna engage cultures that aren't your own, no need to hide it behind the mask of another race. step into thunder bluff and you know that's exactly what's going on - "we wanted to make something native american, but we couldn't do it straight up because we'd get in trouble, so let's slap it on a new race we created." as if making everything not white a different race and part of the "noble savage" horde is any better. you wanna include someone's culture put more effort into it than just including your own stereotypes.

You make some good comparisons but there's one thing which bothers me. Why do you use the term "white people" while you use terms such as "native american" and "my heritage"? Wouldn't it be more fitting to use the term caucasian?

[Vengal]

"humans are classical christian europeans british who believe in the holy light. who's leader is arthas (arthur) who got his sword from the rock (excalibur)"

Don't really agree with this that much, atleast the Arthus(Arther) section. Arthus was never the leader of any faction of humanity in wow, he was in line to be a leader. As soon as he killed his father he technically took over lordaeron but converted most its people into the undead. There are similarities between the Arther/Arthus storylines but really only because he pulled a sword out of a stone and their names are close. So while i agree that humans represent european christians its a big reach to say Arthus is Arther.

[ionpath]

Don't be confusing accents and "lore" with real life history and culture. Sure the game may have elements referring to a race or not but they weren't based or inspired by real life. Just a nice fantasy game that had some story in it because the people wanted to.