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The new Alliance race has finally been revealed. In an odd twist of fate, I was right, but kinda wrong. We have the... dundundun Dreanei. Now, since I've basically been saying it was going to be the Dreanei for a good... oh... eight months, you'd think I'd be happy because I was right, wouldn't you? Well, normally I would... but this isn't normally. Ya see, for a long time Dreanei looked like this:
And they've looked like this since they were introduced in WC3:TFT. That was until this year's E3. We finally got to see the new race and they look like this:
Now, one glance at that, and you can see they look nothing alike... but wait... they do look familiar, don't they...
Why yes! They look kinda like this guy:
But wait... why do the Dreanei, who are good guys, look like the Eredar... one of the foremost races of the evil Burning Legion?
Blizz's explanation? The Dreanei you see in SoS and TFT are actually mutated ones, and the ones we saw in tBC are the "pure" ones. Also the Dreanei look like the Eredar because they are really descended from them. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but I can buy it. We really didn't know that much about Dreanei history...
Oh wait, it gets better...
From an interview with Jeff Kaplan, one of the lead designers for WoW:
Q. Tell us about the physical appearance of the Draenei.
A. Well, the Draenei share a heritage with one of the major enemies in Warcraft, Archimonde. They are both descended from the Eredar. Lots of players have wanted to play demons, and Draenei are the closest you can get to looking like an Eredar. They have these cool forehead features, and one of the customization features is switching around these facial features and the tendrils hanging beneath the chin and so on.
At this point I had come to a conclusion, and I didn't like the conclusion I came to. The Dreanei had no connection to the Eredar or the Burning Legion prior to the planning for tBC. When they were planning the new Alliance race, they came up with Dreanei, then one guy pointed out that they could attach the Eredar and demonic look to them for additional coolness and everyone (or a lot of people) jumped on that ship.
And maybe I would have been fine with that... but then they had to do this (from the Dreanei Backstory):
"early twenty-five thousand years ago, the eredar race arose on the world of Argus. They were extremely intelligent and had a natural affinity for magic in all its myriad forms. Using their gifts, they developed a vast and wondrous society.
Unfortunately the eredar's accomplishments caught the attention of Sargeras, the Destroyer of Worlds. He had already begun his Burning Crusade to eradicate all life from the cosmos, and he believed that the brilliant eredar would be pivotal in leading the vast demonic army he was gathering. Thus, he contacted the eredar's three most prominent leaders: Kil'jaeden, Archimonde, and Velen. In exchange for the loyalty of the eredar race, Sargeras offered untold power and knowledge."
Note the bolded part. So what does it matter? Well the backstory for the entire setting since WC3 was:
"Sargeras was a Vanir Titan and their great champion, chosen by their Pantheon to defend the worlds they had created. He carried out these duties for countless millennia, seeking out and destroying the demons of the Twisting Nether wherever he could find them.
The Eredar, an insidious race of devilish sorcerers, used their warlock magic to invade and enslave a number of worlds. The indigenous races of those worlds were mutated by the Eredar's malevolent powers and turned into demons themselves. Though Sargeras' nearly limitless powers were more than enough to defeat the vile Eredar, he was greatly troubled by the creatures' corruption and all-consuming evil. Incapable of fathoming such depravity, the great Titan began to slip into a brooding depression.
As doubt and despair overwhelmed Sargeras' senses, he lost all faith not only in his mission, but also in the Titans' vision of an ordered universe. Eventually he came to believe that the concept of order itself was folly, and that chaos and depravity were the only absolutes within the dark, lonely universe. His fellow Titans tried to persuade him of his error and calm his raging emotions, but he disregarded their more optimistic beliefs as self-serving delusions. Storming from their ranks forever, Sargeras set out to find his own place in the universe. Although the Pantheon was sorrowful at his departure, the Titans could never have predicted just how far their lost brother would go."
So what, you ask? Well Sargeras' defeat of, and the trouble it caused in him was a universe altering event, and led to the world being the way it is. They changed that for no other reason than to make the Dreanei look "cool" like demons. It bothers me that they are willing to just change whatever they want to make cool.
In the end, I'm gonna give myself time to mull things over, but right now I'm really not liking the way Blizz is changing things. And I'm not one of those people who is gonna request Blizz not to change things. It's their game and they can do whatever they want with it, and if I don't like how things are changing, I'll just stop playing.
And they've looked like this since they were introduced in WC3:TFT. That was until this year's E3. We finally got to see the new race and they look like this:
Now, one glance at that, and you can see they look nothing alike... but wait... they do look familiar, don't they...
Why yes! They look kinda like this guy:
But wait... why do the Dreanei, who are good guys, look like the Eredar... one of the foremost races of the evil Burning Legion?
Blizz's explanation? The Dreanei you see in SoS and TFT are actually mutated ones, and the ones we saw in tBC are the "pure" ones. Also the Dreanei look like the Eredar because they are really descended from them. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but I can buy it. We really didn't know that much about Dreanei history...
Oh wait, it gets better...
From an interview with Jeff Kaplan, one of the lead designers for WoW:
Q. Tell us about the physical appearance of the Draenei.
A. Well, the Draenei share a heritage with one of the major enemies in Warcraft, Archimonde. They are both descended from the Eredar. Lots of players have wanted to play demons, and Draenei are the closest you can get to looking like an Eredar. They have these cool forehead features, and one of the customization features is switching around these facial features and the tendrils hanging beneath the chin and so on.
At this point I had come to a conclusion, and I didn't like the conclusion I came to. The Dreanei had no connection to the Eredar or the Burning Legion prior to the planning for tBC. When they were planning the new Alliance race, they came up with Dreanei, then one guy pointed out that they could attach the Eredar and demonic look to them for additional coolness and everyone (or a lot of people) jumped on that ship.
And maybe I would have been fine with that... but then they had to do this (from the Dreanei Backstory):
"early twenty-five thousand years ago, the eredar race arose on the world of Argus. They were extremely intelligent and had a natural affinity for magic in all its myriad forms. Using their gifts, they developed a vast and wondrous society.
Unfortunately the eredar's accomplishments caught the attention of Sargeras, the Destroyer of Worlds. He had already begun his Burning Crusade to eradicate all life from the cosmos, and he believed that the brilliant eredar would be pivotal in leading the vast demonic army he was gathering. Thus, he contacted the eredar's three most prominent leaders: Kil'jaeden, Archimonde, and Velen. In exchange for the loyalty of the eredar race, Sargeras offered untold power and knowledge."
Note the bolded part. So what does it matter? Well the backstory for the entire setting since WC3 was:
"Sargeras was a Vanir Titan and their great champion, chosen by their Pantheon to defend the worlds they had created. He carried out these duties for countless millennia, seeking out and destroying the demons of the Twisting Nether wherever he could find them.
The Eredar, an insidious race of devilish sorcerers, used their warlock magic to invade and enslave a number of worlds. The indigenous races of those worlds were mutated by the Eredar's malevolent powers and turned into demons themselves. Though Sargeras' nearly limitless powers were more than enough to defeat the vile Eredar, he was greatly troubled by the creatures' corruption and all-consuming evil. Incapable of fathoming such depravity, the great Titan began to slip into a brooding depression.
As doubt and despair overwhelmed Sargeras' senses, he lost all faith not only in his mission, but also in the Titans' vision of an ordered universe. Eventually he came to believe that the concept of order itself was folly, and that chaos and depravity were the only absolutes within the dark, lonely universe. His fellow Titans tried to persuade him of his error and calm his raging emotions, but he disregarded their more optimistic beliefs as self-serving delusions. Storming from their ranks forever, Sargeras set out to find his own place in the universe. Although the Pantheon was sorrowful at his departure, the Titans could never have predicted just how far their lost brother would go."
So what, you ask? Well Sargeras' defeat of, and the trouble it caused in him was a universe altering event, and led to the world being the way it is. They changed that for no other reason than to make the Dreanei look "cool" like demons. It bothers me that they are willing to just change whatever they want to make cool.
In the end, I'm gonna give myself time to mull things over, but right now I'm really not liking the way Blizz is changing things. And I'm not one of those people who is gonna request Blizz not to change things. It's their game and they can do whatever they want with it, and if I don't like how things are changing, I'll just stop playing.