One of the troubling tropes of the fantasy genre is that race plays a huge part in the personality of a character. In most cases, the "races" are fictional, such as Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. While you find some fiction where perfectly fertile hybrids can occur, we can usually think of them as different species. Yet, inherently, they all function pretty much like humans - they tend to be bipedal, intelligent, dextrous - everything you'd look for in a human.
Of course, any intelligent person knows that in the real world, race is pretty much just a societal construct. Certainly, there are ethnic identities that can influence a person's worldview, and in parts of the world, looking a certain way can have a profound influence on how people treat you, which will then influence your own behavior. Yet studies have shown time and again that race does not really have a huge influence on one's culture and belief - it's your upbringing that causes such a thing. Sure, white people might need to spread more sunscreen on than our darker-skinned companions, but in the long run, we all have basically the same human capabilities.
In fantasy, one often finds that the "humans" are most similar to the intended audience, which in the US and Britain, is white people of Western European stock. It's pretty rare to find readily available fantasy in which the Germanic White People culture is represented as a fictional race while the human society is modeled on somewhere else.
Still, drama needs conflict, and there are not many sources of conflict more recognizable than the "us versus them" of racial conflict. That said, it does paint you into a few corners.
Looking specifically at World of Warcraft, it's clear that the racial conflict is a bad thing. Mists of Pandaria is all about how destructive the Alliance/Horde war is, both putting a spotlight on it and introducing the first race to be available to both sides. Truthfully, if there's one overarching moral to Warcraft, it's that we'd all be a whole lot better off if we could just recognize ourselves in those we think of as enemies.
However, I'm not sure it's gone far enough. And what I think we really need is some traitors.
We've had traitors before, certainly. One of the biggest cliches in Warcraft is the formerly good guy who goes evil. Sargeras, Deathwing, Arthas, hell, even Benedictus (first name Arnold?) But these people always go crazy and turn irredeemably evil. Most traitors, or defectors, as the other side refers to them, do so for reasons other than a sudden nihilistic corruption. Many do it for money or safety, which is not exactly admirable, but others have philosophical awakenings.
It stands to reason that such a thing could occur on Azeroth. Now, we've already seen at least one Forsaken who left Tirisfal after Sylvanas started going over the evil deep end. Garrosh has not exactly been making friends as Warchief, such that Vol'jin actually sought out help from the Alliance when dealing with the Zandalari uprising.
On the Alliance side of things, there hasn't been quite as much. Really, looking at the state of the war, there's not much reason for people to betray the Alliance other than out of a sense of self-preservation.
So how would one do this? Also, why should one do this?
With the advent of the Pandaren, we now have at least one instance where race does not define faction. What if this concept were extended? Imagine, if you will, that races previously limited to the other faction could now switch?
First off: the story. On the Horde-->Alliance side of things, members of the Horde might decide that they are fed up with the jingoistic aggression. Say you're a Forsaken or a Blood Elf. You remember being in the Alliance, and even though things aren't great between your people, you probably still feel more comfortable around them than taking the shouted orders of an Orc. Even among the other Horde races, you could imagine that under Garrosh, the Horde lost any pretense of honor, and that in fact, you see that honor within the Alliance. And again, if you're Forsaken, maybe you were raised by the Val'kyr, and rather than joining up with Sylvanas, you want to get sweet, murderous revenge against her.
For Alliance-->Horde, you could be sick of the rigidity of Alliance society. We've never really touched on what it's like for the average citizen, but between Malfurion, Varian, and the Council of Three Hammers, perhaps things are kept a little too tightly under control. You might be a Worgen who fought in the Northgate Rebellion, or a Draenei who feels that the Prophet has only led you to serve petty autocrats. You crave a free, rugged lifestyle that the Horde offers.
So how should it be implemented?
Like Death Knights, I think there's too much you stand to lose if the change is to an existing character (you might implement a paid faction change, like there is now, though.) What I would prefer is that you start a new character who is fed up with their home faction. You'd only need to create one starter zone/experience per side, and then maybe have a few NPCs to voice various reasons for doing so. The plot would take you from contacting people who could get you out and then follow your desperate flight to the enemy capital, where you eventually swear loyalty to the Horde/Alliance.
This would certainly be tough to implement, and would have people screaming bloody murder about it, but unless we see some kind of reconciliation between the factions, I think this would be a hell of a move for the game.
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