Wherein nerds rage over what it means to be fantasy

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh, the Eberr-irony!

 

[Relique du Madde]

Of course, the same arguments were made about Eberron (e.g. there was some classic AD&D adventure where the heroes explore a crashed alien spaceship, 3e had rules for firearms and lasers before Eberron came out, etc).

I just find the parallels... interesting.

Expedition to Barrier Peaks and then 2e's Tale of the Comet (I had that box set. I never ran it because the "Magic User ftw!" factor of the campaign really sucked).

Anyways when I read the WoW lore that basically stated that the Draenai were essentially "Space Paladins" that looked like the elder demons whose spaceship crashed on Azeroth I cringed. Warcraft made them seem like anything but what they ended up being.

 

[Jimlock]

Personally, HATE theme mixing... when you play in a medieval/dark ages world... you play in a medieval/dark ages world.... damn...

However, history DOES repeat itself...

 

[Asmor]

This works really well for 'magitech' settings like Eberron, I think, since we implicitly accept the idea that economies of scale rarely apply to magic stuff, so we're not asked to suspend our disbelief that nobody's tried industrializing it.

Industrialization of magic was one of the core principles of Eberron. o_0

Draenai were essentially "Space Paladins" that looked like the elder demons whose spaceship crashed on Azeroth I cringed.

The Draenei don't look like demons... demons look like Draenei. Or, more accurately, both look like Eredar. In essence, many of the Eredar were corrupted, and those that escaped corruption fled their homeworld of Argus and renamed themselves Draenei ("Exiled Ones").

Given their history, it's only natural that the godlike Naaru, source of the Light and eternal enemies of the burning legion (demons) took to the Draenei, hence why they have strong ties to the Light. They are also an ancient (they fled Argus 25,000 years ago) and magically powerful race, so it doesn't take much suspension of disbelief for them to create magical 'spaceships' to travel the planes in. If anything, it's strange that they're not better at it.

But anyways, hence 'space paladins.'

Warcraft made them seem like anything but what they ended up being.

Could you elaborate more on that? I don't get what you're trying to say.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Could you elaborate more on that? I don't get what you're trying to say.

According to Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans, Draenai Grona Halforcen was originally "Half Human" or at least that what she claimed she was. However, Grona was born before the conquest meaning that the non-orc inhabitants of Draenor WERE human-like because once she saw a human she assumed her non-orc parent was human.

When Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal came out we found out that the inhabitants of Draenor were the Draenai. Nothing was really mentioned about them except "they were weak and easily subjugated."

In Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, the Draenai were introduced via Akama. His original artwork was used for the base appearance of the Lost Draenai during Beta/Year One of WoW. However, you did learn the Draenai were warped by the destruction of draenor. This meant that original appearance of the Draenai still could have been somewhat human looking since there was not mention that they looked "demonic."

Then the retconns you mentioned began...

 

[Impeesa]

Industrialization of magic was one of the core principles of Eberron. o_0

I guess, yeah. I was thinking about it in the sense of full-on assembly lines, reducing the need for skilled labor, reducing cost and resulting in wide availability of 'high-tech' goods for lower & middle classes. Eberron justifies the widespread use of magic and magic items through dragonmarks, artificers, and magewrights, but the core assumption is still that the source is a skilled laborer and economies of scale don't really apply.

 

[Herobizkit]

For me, Fantasy equates to "stuff that doesn't happen or that I can't do in real life."

 

[TarionzCousin]

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks had laser guns and robots.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Vancian magic is sci-fi.

 

[Asmor]

a knowledge bomb was dropped...

Then the retconns you mentioned began...

I bow to your supreme knowledge of WoW lore. Though I've been playing since WarCraft 2, I've only really been paying attention to the story since WoW. Had some vague awareness that Draenei pre-dated The Burning Crusade, but really didn't know much about them at all.

Sadly, I must spread some experience around before giving you a richly-deserved tip.