WoW Race's and real world counterparts

[NotYoFriendGuy]

Actually, I will throw in my belief that Draenei are based on Jewish people.

They worship the real vessels of Light (Christianity came from Judaism - the Light humans worship was originally worshiped by Draenei).
They were killed en-mass as a scapegoat under the command of an evil ruler.
They have no real home anymore.
They fight another off-shoot of their people/religion (Man'ari Eredar) for their home and lives.
Jewish people commonly have accents from Eastern Europe/etc.
Beards = face tentacles?

^this
Only thing that says otherwise is their dance, but whatever.. :P good points

[Fcpremix]

Blood Elfs = 50% of the males in USA /50% of the Females of USA

All boney and AIDS infected or STD effected.

Sounds like someone's mad

[Crombie]

Orc- Strong african tribes like the Zulu

I stopped reading here. My fascination of the Zulu is absolutely unrivaled.

*cough* back on topic *cough*

Human-Middle Ages European
Dwarf-Middle Ages Russian
Gnomes-Modern Japanese?
Night Elves-Tribal Africans
Draenei-Middle Ages Jewish
Worgen-Victorian Era European

Orc-Also Tribal Africans (ZULU)
Troll- ???
Tauren-Mongolians (only nation I could think of that is nomadic)
Forsaken-Practitioners of Social Darwinism (We have the right to kill you because we are better than you)
Blood Elves- ???
Goblins- Borguiese (Probably completely butchered that, European Merchant Class)

[Deleted]

Blood Elves = modern day gays?

This

[Enraged_balloon]

crombie? really? the tauren are almost a mirror of Native american, i see the nomad kinda point. but this 'cow mirror' is in all the words (mojaCHE, and all the other ones that end in things like that), all the Totem poles, the ceremonial dress all this business. another thing that blizz does is the direct mirroring of irl legends and myths, if only they'ed mix some o them up a bit

[gentlecasca]

The Blood Elves could be representative of French during its time as a world power back in the 1800s. They're very aristocratic and focus on accumulation of wealth in terms of magic devices, artifacts, and straight magical energy itself. They live lavish lifestyles, to say the very least; anyone remember that one quest where you had to help a guy have a party while the Wretched were out wrecking a nearby port? Lol.

[Vannarius]

Night Elves have always been Asian influenced in my eyes. Multiple reasons:
1) Architecture - modeled after ancient korean/japanese temples
2) Mounts = Cats. Korean folklore involved a lot of tigers - Tigers are an iconic animal in korean culture. There is even folklore of a Tiger that shape-shifted into a human, and caused strife in Korean society. Great story.
3) The starting robes of the new NE mages are most definitely modeled after korean han-boks.
4) Some NE vendors sell kimchi - an iconic korean dish, as well as bean soup.

[Baker St Irregulars]

Blood Elves are the Japanese post WWI during imperialistic conquest of southeast asia.

I'm dead serious about this, I think BE politics were modeled after that era, a lot of quests I see in TBC revolving around them resemble a number of real world events and military campaigns carried out during that period.

[Slavko]

I think Draenei are obviously modeled after Romanys (i.e. Gypsies) - Indians who were driven out of their homeland by war and faced genocide and slavery in eastern europe.

Romani were a tribe of nomads that were from Northern Africa and existed during the late Roman Empire. Now, the Roma also known as gypsies (the English named them this because they resembled Egyptians) were nomadic tribes that migrated from Northern India into Asia minor and resided their until the rise of the Ottoman Empire. They eventually spread across all of Europe but predominently reside in Eastern Europe in countries like Romania.

You're close but not quite there.

Also I'd like to say that Draenei do resemble Roma but NOT Eastern Europeans. This makes sense as both Roma and Draenei as supposedly nomadic cultures. I also liked the point that they could be based of the Jews, which is interesting since Draenei as are ancient race.

[beg2d4]

lol no ones said goblins are jews from jersey. c'mon that ones fairly obvious!
and night elves LOOK black, as opposed to the blackface humans that are supposedly ethinic (culturally prolly closer to asians).
i agree draenei resemble gypsyies. trolls are jamaican (another obvi, mon), tauren are native americans, orcs are mongolian(sans nomadic lifestyle), humans are the the english of whatever time camelot was supposedly around(14th century??? beats me!), worgen are 1800 english, dwarves are scottish (cause there accent sounds more like Groundskeeper Willy then the Lucky Charms dude, only point of reference i could think of), undead are american (melting pot of everyone). hard ones for me to think are gnomes and belfs, gnomes are like humans that have evolved to the point that physical prowess isnt necessary anymore, but then had the unfortunate luck of getting sent back into a barbaric time. belf's seems like celebrities decided to only mate with each other, until one day a race of super gorgeous, snotty elitest beings were finally created.

[Deleted]

1. BLOOD ELFS - not only 100%, im 1000% sure and i bet they are ARABS (check their buildings, carpets, curtains) and they have paladins... paladin blood elf should simbolize muslim holy warrior... ever heard for Nargila that turks are smoking? if you look carefully you will see that in some houses of Silvermoon.

2. TAURENS - are 100% NATIVE AMERICANS (check their tents, that will be enough) and they are dedicated to nature (when they say: mother earth), they have shamans, druids ...

3. TROLLS - 100% JAMAICANS (check their speech)

4. DWARFS - are 100% OLD GERMANS OR VIKINGS (Germans like drinking beer, they had long beard, their dance, also german tehnology in guns (dwarfs have better chance to do more dmg with guns in game), germans have probably best guns in the world) so no damn chance they are russians... lol D

5. DRAENEI - Alliens, nothing else xD

6. HUMANS - middle ages - humans


for other races im not sure...but:
Orcs could be africans, night elfs probably Japanese

[Baydlag]

Humans - English
Dwarves - Scottish
Forsaken - German
Blood Elves - Swiss
Trolls - Aztec or Caribbean
Tauren - North American Natives
Goblins - Jews
Orcs - Mongolian
Draenais - Indians
Night Elves - Japanese

[yetgdhfgh]

Human - Generic medieval european
Dwarf - Scottish/Irish celtic
Gnome - victorian steampunk
Nelf - Japanese/korean
Worgen - Gothic 19th century british
Dranaei - Indian but with heavy russian accents

Orc - Mongolian ghengis khan era (those hats they wore in wc2 gives that away)
Troll - Jamaican / west african voodoo
Tauren - Native american
Goblin - Sleazy new jersey mafia types
Belf - Persian
Forsaken - Gothic mary shelly esque european

Pandarean - chinese

[MikeBogina]

Human-American's if they were a country back in medival times.
Night Elves-Californians/Liberal hippies!
Dwarves-Scottish/irish
Gnomes-geeks
Draenei-Hindu/gypsies and a lil bit of russian
Wargon-English/Furries!

Orcs-Africans
Undead-Zombies!!!
Tauren-Native American
Trolls-Jamaican
Blood Elves-San Franciscans/Conservatives
Goblins-New York Jews

Pandas-Chinese
Mogu-Oppressive Chinese ruler/army
Jinyu-Japanese
Hozen-Mugen from Samurai Champloo(maybe some southern asia country)
Yaungol-Mongol
Grummle-Tibetan
Mantid-also like the Mongols
Saurok-Asian pirates

Vrykul-norse vykings
Tol'vir-Egyptians

We're running out of cultures to model new races after xD

[beanman12345]

holy necro batman

[starlord]

nelfs are definitely more ancient japanese, think shinto (worship nature & spirits). but with a dash of matriarchy.

[muto]

Dwarves are Belgians for sure.

[Silver-Fox]

I'd wager the Tuskarr are a fantasy counterpart to the inuit with their societies revolving around fishing with virtually no agriculture.

Furblogs if you ask me remind me of the old Irish Druids in a way, living very close to the earth as they live underground to commune with nature. Shamans and druids hold the leadership positions. Just my opinion.

Ethereals come off to me as nomadic traders, whose real life counterpart might be the old Silk Road Traders, perhaps Arab or mythical phaeacians, traders and travellers who go many great distance for economical interest but stay out of political affairs and wars for the most part.

Blood Elves is the hardest for me to pin down. I feel like they don't have a real world counterpart, rather they are deviation from the traditional fantasy elves, much more aggressive and assertive than the traditional "high elves" who revere nature and pride in their seclusion from younger races. Though if I had to take a guess I would say colonial Americans. Fought a bloody civil war with their monarchy, left behind old alliances, made new alliances with races with common interests and are rebuilding their nation after a great betrayal trying to reclaim old glory but build a better future all the same.

Honestly I'm taking shots in the dark here but I thought I'd add to the conversation.

[Geary]

Maghar Orcs = Magyars? The Magyars were originally hunter-gatherers who practiced shamanism, and they migrated from Asia to Europe.

[madokbro]

Blood Elves - I can't place these guys anywhere.
Dwarf - Definitely Scottish
Troll- Jamaican!
Human- Medieval Europe.
Goblins - Jews may be?
Night Elves - Reminds me of my studies on early Central Asia/Siberia.
Tauren - Native American.
Orcs - Being nomadic and also good at settling down, tent like architecture, shamanism, this yells "Turks". Probably a mixture of Turks, Mongols, Tungus etc.
Worgen - English.
Forsaken - Well, hard to put. There were similarities with Sumerians in Warcraft 3, now I think Nazi Germany would be a good enough fit.
Dranei - East Europeans, may be Greeks, accent also reminds me of Gypsies in my city.
Pandaren- Chinese.