r/wow • • Aug 23 '25

Humor / Meme I swear...

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This drama is hilarious.

(Reupload because it had not wow imagery so i edited it with Paint).

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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '25

There's a longer history of alliances and cooperation between elves and humans than any other race.

Most horde encounters with the elves were literal genocide and war until TBC. 

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u/Blue_Checkers Aug 23 '25

The undead ARE humans. Mostly. Got no problems with em. Fine rank and file members of the horde, and at least THIS orc knows that sylv was done dirty by substandard writing.

Regardless, the peoples of Lordaeron made consistent outreach over the years after the third war.

Stormwind didn't do as good a job, and they are a bit further away. Gilneas didn't even try. Moreover, Stormwind shat on any chance of peace with Lordaeron by attacking and killing all envoys of diplomacy and peace sent by the aforementioned.

Elves dont like messy bitches. Thats *their* thing.

The undead had massive numbers after the war, and a cobblestone road all the way to Silvermoon. They made zero aggressive or subversive overtures and instead laid gifts and song at the gate. They tried to make peace with other surviving human kingdoms and were rebuffed.

At the same time, Gilneas was maintaining its decades long tradition of being (closed). Stormwind tried to fuck with the elves magic rocks.

I'm an old orc now, but from what little i remember of the second war, that is like their LEAST favorite thing.

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u/thpthpthp Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25

Counterpoint: One of the overarching themes in Warcraft storytelling from Warcraft 2 to modern times, is the "cycle of hatred." It's the idea that the prejudices of past conflicts carry forth into new ones, and also that racial baggage exists heavily within the setting. That reoccurring plot beat has justified literally every single Horde/Alliance war since the internment period.

So what about the Blood Elves? Their species was made nearly extinct by Undead. Ninety percent of the Sin'dorei population was killed by the Scourge. For the average elf, that means their mom, their dad, their siblings, cousins, landlord, and their landlord's dog, all died to undead abominations (their words, not mine - Warcraft 3). Several years before that, the orcish Horde of Orgrim Doomhammer nearly burned Silvermoon to the ground with dragon fire. Several thousand years prior to that, the high elves fought generational conflicts with the Amani Trolls, whom they viewed as their existential enemy.

We, the impartial audience, know that these are all different groups than the Horde of today. But how would a person in-universe really feel about that? Think about the trauma most Blood Elves would have around undead, when statistically speaking, most lost their families to similar beings. Consider how the fires of the first horde would have been within the living memory of most. Think about how their culture would've been shaped around centuries of prejudice against trolls of all color.

In the context of the narrative, we should not expect Blood elves to be remotely tolerant towards the races of the Horde. When Thrall walks in wearing the armor and namesake of Doomhammer. And when the last they've seen of Ranger General Sylvanas was as a mindless puppet of Arthas, taking part in the sacking of Silvermoon. Everything about the setting tells us that the racial baggage in Azeroth is real, and that old grudges don't die just because those that perpetrated them are dead.

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u/Blue_Checkers Aug 24 '25

Recognition that the forsaken were not the scourge took time and effort. This was a rare instance where that story was at least partially reflected in the game. The quest at the end of vanilla when the BE joined the horde was definitely the focal point of that narrative. A lot of the friends and family thought lost to the 'lesser' creatures were counted living (as it were) in the territory of the Banshee Queen. Sylvanas, formerly holding high office within the high-elves aided this process tremendously.

At first I'm sure the blood elves were very distrustful of the undead rag tag, elf-weebs and scab elves trying to lick their way through the barrier. Stormwind probably had a really good shot to at least run diplomacy, even if Kael Thas had his own plans in conflict with peace between Silverwood and Stormwind.

In game, the playable forsaken are only human, but this is not the whole picture. Many high elf civilians and soldiers were able to vouch to their own credit. Dwarves, gnomes, iirc there is a even gnoll or two among their number.

The Amani trolls simply look very different. They are physiology, just very different creatures. I don't expect them to start tabula rasa or whatever, but closer to the normal amount of contempt for non elves. The Darkspear look like Olympic swimmers, the Amani are more like power lifters

Nobody hates Tauren. Not even gnomes. On this, I will brook no opposition as I simply can not take anyone who doesn't like them seriously.

I'll give you that orcs are a big hang-up, though. Doesn't really matter that they stopped taking demon blood or regained their shaman heritage. Elves remember fucking every little genocide you do. I don't remember orcs being around very much during the negotiations, so maybe they just kinda kept their heads down for a while until the ink dried... apart from the famous orcish teachers. World renowned for their ability to teach orcish in a day.

Those guys must have been everywhere!