Talk:Racial terminology

Needs some Work
Sorry to say but we do not know who in-universe came up with the words, Half-Orc, Half-Elves, Goblinoid, or Half-Ogres. Infact those terms are used by all races of the world, and not just Humans. Infact we do not even know if those terms are actually considered racial slurs in-universe from various races POV.

Infact in many cases humans are the less likely race to use the terms, for example Half-Elf, except for a few specific individuals(according to Alliance Player's Guide). Sadly it was the High Elves who were more prejudice to the Half-Elves usually abandoning their children not long after birth. They find more acceptance from humans than they ever did from elves. Actually its implied that Half-Elves may have come up with the term themselves, in order to remember their heritage to elven history, and while they remain humble have a certain pride in remembering where they came from. Most humans view Half-Elves as Elves, not generally noticing their human heritage,as they look more elvish than human.

Half-Orcs, Half-Ogres, Half-Elves, Half-night elves, Half-keldorei, Half-Blood elves, etc are terms used by all races in the world and its unclear if they originate from any one specific race. The esteemed dwarven historian, archeologist, taxonomist, adventurer, etc, Brann Bronzebeard is known to have used many of those terms himself in his scientific reports, and he never specified where the terms originated from.

The only example of a "Half-Keldorei" ever seen in any story, called herself by that term. She was never clear what her other half was, just that she was half Keldorei...

Interesting enough the term Dwarf that everyone uses, to describe the "Earthen" is infact originates from a "racial slur". But the dwarfs have accepted it and don't mind being called it at this point in time.

This article is going to need some work and certainly some more citation. Its a good topic, but needs a bit more neutral stance, and less speculation.Baggins 15:23, 9 July 2006 (EDT)

Siege Engines
"There were Dwarven Siege Engines in the Third War, which were made by Dwarves and the fact they were constructed by Dwarves negate Dwarves as being brainless." --I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I distinctly remember hearing that the Siege Engine technology was developed by gnomes and simply piloted by dwarves. At this point this is nothing but speculation, but I was wondering if anyone else recalled anything similar to this? I can't find anything on this in the manual, so if no one else recollects hearing this somewhere, this can be ignored. --Pure.Wasted 06:16, 5 October 2006 (EDT)

Both. It was invented by Gnomes, but Dwarves would be able to create them and pilot them. Saimdusan 17:36, 24 November 2006 (EST)

"Blizzard Lore Department"
"Blizzard has confirmed through their lore department that crossbreeding between such different races as Elves and Man are impossible, thus half-elves are non-existant in the Warcraft universe" -- erm! VERY interested to see the source for this information. This directly goes against many well-established characters, such as Rexxar and Garona, as well as disputing Richard Knaak's writing (Vereesa bore Rhonin twins of obvious mixed heritage)). Sounds VERY fishy to me. --Pure.Wasted 06:19, 5 October 2006 (EDT)
 * I just removed it flat-out. There's plenty of lore to contradict that brain fart. Blizzard even recently went out of their way to say that Garona was "half-orc and half-Draenei" (and it would take a great deal of self-delusion to say that orcs and Draenei are the same race). Doesn't sound to me like they're saying that cross-breeding is impossible. Constanz Clearwater 14:23, 5 October 2006 (EDT)
 * Besides, Blizzard doesn't have a "Lore Department," they have writers, and Metzen is the head writer. Metzen, who from the very beginning has explicitly included half-breed characters. Sounds to me like somebody who has an axe to grind against players who describe their characters in their RSP tags as "half-elves. The article on half-elves was similarly defaced. Constanz Clearwater 14:25, 5 October 2006 (EDT)

Half-blood elf speculation
Baggins 23:36, 24 March 2007 (EDT)

I was actually about to ask a question about that. I agree, its unlikely that an adult half elf would change to a half blood elf, but what about, say, a child? A half elf that was born shortly before the third war and raised by elven parrents who convertd to blood elves would likely be raised as a blood elf, would he not?Tweak the Whacked 13:31, 21 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Well lore wise apparently the elven parents don't take chare of their half-elf children, they abandon them. Its the human parents that usually take care of them. Though for those that are hated by both parents, orphanages. Also its been stated before, according to the RPG half-elves are immune to the elven magical addiction due to their human heritage, so magic doesn't effect them in the same way that it does for elves. They don't have to feed on energy, or find alternative ways fend off withdrawal symptoms because they don't have withdrawal symptoms. Its those withdrawal symptoms that first lead to creation of the blood elves. Also as I recall magic users are actually fairly rare among half-elves, infact they are said to have limited arcane ability or none at all. However for those with magical talent it is natural talent through their high elf heritage.


 * However because blood elves are already mutated from their high elf cousins, a half-blood elf is born genetically different than a half-elf. Apparently unlike half-elves, half-blood elves are racially more like blood elves including the magic withdrawal issues, and having to feed on sources of energy. However they have limited arcane ability or none at all. Most who have any arcane ability cast warlock spells.Baggins 16:54, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Well I was refering more to being raised as a blood elf in the cultural sense. I.e., not mutated, but sharing the mentality of the blood elves.Tweak the Whacked 21:17, 21 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Like I said, not really. Blood elves or high elves won't raise them (Vareesa is one of the only high elf exceptions as far as I know), they are disgusted by them, and abandon them. Also the mentality of the blood elves is derived from their magical addiction and withdrawal symptoms. Half-elves don't suffer from that problem at all, so won't even have understand the blood elf culture. So far only humans and some of the Horde (mostly orcs, half-orcs and tauren) have accepted them.


 * BTW, I've created a half-blood elf article and expanded it with more information.Baggins 21:20, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Near-human?
This is what is written in the article: Medivh used this term as one other possible explanation for Garona's parentage if not human.

It has been confirmed that Garona is a half-draenei, so Medivh may had been refering to the draenei. And as there isn't another source for the near-human I believe that we should delete it, however I want to ask first. Benitoperezgaldos (talk) 19:49, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * We may as well leave it in, as it was Medivh's speculation rather than a player's speculation. It certainly doesn't hurt anything to do so. -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 21:29, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, you're right, I'll just modify then. Benitoperezgaldos (talk) 01:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

linked headings
Why are there section headings linked which redirect back into the page? It makes little sense...Baggins (talk) 08:45, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Terminology
Some of these "Racial terms used in multiple Warcraft sources" and "Racial terms described in the RPG" are Monster Types, not races. It would be like saying Beast and Animal were racial terms. Rolandius ( talk  -  contr ) 04:56, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Outdated
That page is so outdated and full of speculation/RPG lore that I'm not sure it's worth saving :/ Xporc (talk) 13:24, 24 July 2017 (UTC)


 * I've been tempted in the past to try and overhaul this page, but after glancing through it it seems like the best solution might be to just make this into a straight-up RPG page; that is, slap an RPG tag at the top and make it solely about RPG classifications like "fey", move things such as the listing of various half-breeds/hybrids onto relevant already-existing pages, and create new pages for canon definitions like "demi-human" that don't have their own Wowpedia article. Not sure, though; might be preferable to relinquish this page altogether and create specific articles for the RPG classifications as well. -- 10:54, 27 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I once tried to edit it as well, but I eventually abandoned due to the mess it is. Xporc (talk) 11:49, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Yeah I too wanted to, but I hadn't realized what undertaking it'd be yet. Maybe small steps ? And what about having an RPG section and a canon section, in order too keep all that in one page ?-- MyMindWontQuiet 12:00, 27 September 2017 (UTC)


 * If this page were to get an overhaul, several sections could probably be removed from the page altogether, in my opinion. Namely things like all the different types of half-breeds, the various dwarven and elven races, and things like mag'har and sporelings (not sure why the latter two were even put in the article in the first place). Those aren't really examples of racial terminology so much as just... well, races and subraces. In my view, given the article's name it should more be about classifications like the aforementioned "demi-human", RPG terms like "fey", or things like insectoid (though I'd prefer if that retained its own separate page as well). Not sure about classifications like "arachnid"; to avoid an influx of sections like "Pachyderms" or "Ungulates" it might be preferable to just stick to humanoids, and/or I'd be a proponent of only listing a creature under such a section if it's been specifically described as such in Warcraft material, rather than extrapolating, say, animal classifications based on real-world taxonomy with no actual basis in Warcraft's version of those creatures. This is all just my opinion on how it should be done, of course. -- 12:26, 27 September 2017 (UTC)