Ask a Lore Nerd: Alliance leaders and strange mythology
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.
We're all busy people, so let's jump right in here. Sorano asked...
Has Gelbin Mekkatorque ever done something to contribute to the world around him? Poor little guy seems to do nothing nowadays. I'm sure as leader of the Gnomes, he could do a lot to help the people of Azeroth.
He does things, but they're not portrayed in WoW very well. It's mostly things you will find in the RPG books. Mekkatorque helps design the various siege weaponry the Alliance uses (steam tanks, etc), and works heavily on figuring out ways to take back Gnomeregan from the ferocious level 30 elites and, more importantly, clean up the radiation.
IvanZephyr asked...
It seems that most of the Horde leaders play semi-major roles to say the least, but what about the Alliance?
King Magni does have a fairly significant role, though not much action is involved. I haven't seen anything out of Velen, Tyrande or the High Tinker. Velen really had the spotlight in The Burning Crusade though, so that's not much of a shocker.
There is a rumor that we're going to see Caverns of Time: War of the Shifting Sands following Fandral Staghelm around, but it's just a rumor. Don't get too excited over it, nothing concrete has been said by Blizzard or anything like that. It'd just a guess from some players.
JaneLame asked...
My question concerns Cenarius. I read that the demigod is the son of Elune, who seems to be shaped like an elf in the pictures, and Malorne, who is, uhhhm, a deer.
Is that sort of thing... legal in Kalimdor?
Apparently so! Keep in mind that God-like deities do not really follow the same rules Humans do. Mild bestiality is not unusual in many polytheistic faiths and/or mythology. Note that I do not mean to imply that all polytheistic faiths are about banging dogs or whatever, that's not what I meant, so please don't get offended. A lot of the 'ancient' polytheistic faiths were this way, though.
One of the more well known examples is the Greek God Zeus seducing and getting it on with a lady while he was in the form of a swan. The lady involved was not his wife Hera, by the way. Oh, did I mention Hera was also his sister?
There's also the story of the Minotaur, in which King Minos was supposed to sacrifice a bull to the gods, but decided it keep it for himself. The gods weren't down with that and caused Minos's wife to fall in love with the bull. At her request, the architect Daedalus built a wooden bull so she could climb into it and let the animal make love to her. Thus was the Minotaur born.
Welcome to mythology. This stuff is completely normal here.
Sweet_Sweet_SoulShards asked...
This may be to "Spoiler" to add here, but I would like to know some more about the Frostborn (those icy dwarves I think) and the storm giants and all that jazz in Storm Peaks.
The Storm Peaks is pretty much the number one place to go for Titan lore. Storm Peaks, the instances in that zone, and maybe a little Sholazar Basin. You learn a lot about the origins of the races here, what the Titans did, where they went, all of that. I'm not going to spoil everything, but the Frostborn seem to be an offshoot of the Earthen, and both the Frostborn and the Earthen come from the Iron Dwarves, the original Titan version of the Dwarves.
The Storm Giants were also Titan creations, and originally had a more metallic form. Other races, too.
You find out a whole lot more about why the races exist, why they've become what they are, and all of that throughout Northrend. I don't feel comfortable spoiling it all yet, because some of the reveals are really fun.
Ask a Lore Nerd is here to answer all of your questions about the lore and story of the Warcraft universe. From the religions of the universe to the 'evils' of Azeroth, everything is fair game. If you want more in-depth answers to some of your questions, you may find what you're looking for in Know Your Lore or the WoW Insider Directory.
