Talk:Monk races

Misconceptions
This page seemed to have been created under the misapprehension that all non-pandaren monks already existed before MoP. This is not true. Playable monks have been freshly taught by newly arrived pandaren teachers (hence beginning at level 1 in the normal starting zones), they are not past masters of the pandaren arts. As officially stated:


 * Q: Which races can be a monk?


 * Since coming into contact with members of the Horde and the Alliance, several of Pandaria’s masters have begun to teach their new allies the secrets of their ancient martial arts. Currently, every race except goblin and worgen can learn the ways of the monk.


 * In the wake of events on the Wandering Isle, pandaren monks will travel to key places throughout Azeroth to share their wisdom with young Alliance and Horde trainees.

This means that all speculation as to how races would know the ways of a monk is moot, since all playable non-pandaren monks have been freshly taught them by the pandaren masters who have recently joined the factions.

Regarding other types of monk, I don't see the two as being related. Even if we believe that the word itself means the same type of class (martial artist, meditative, using bare hands and feet, etc), a huge amount of the monk class is specific to the pandaren, such as channeling the mists, invoking the August Celestials, extolling the words of Shaohao, etc. It seems clear that other 'monks' which were found in-game long before MoP were earlier iterations of a similar archetype, rather than having been meant to have been taught by pandaren masters.

Regardless, we know that playable monks are not the result of other types of monk training; if they were they would start already at an advanced level of training (not with just a basic attack, knowing nothing else about the class), and would probably be a lot higher than level 1 too. Also, they wouldn't be going to pandaren trainers, which is where all playable monk training comes from. So, even if someone some day does announce that a certain NPC was taught the authentic pandaren monk ways long, long before anyone else (and I somewhat doubt that this will be announced) it still wouldn't be related to playable monks.

The reason for this wall of text is that, in the light of this understanding, most of the contents of the page were rendered inaccurate. I've therefore overhauled it, expanded the section explaining the class's origins and stripped the individual race sections down to the racial links. If we ever get any authentic detail about the relationship of a race to the monk class (such as perhaps if worgen and goblins become trainable) we can add it there. -- Taohinton (talk) 15:18, 29 March 2014 (UTC)


 * The only exception to what you say is Mojo Stormstout. He says he was recolecting herbs in Ammen vale when the Exodar crashed.--Cemotucu (talk) 15:33, 29 March 2014 (UTC)


 * True; I guess he's one of the wandering pandaren who made it Kalimdor(ish) long before the others. I've added him to the page. Seems like a bit of a retcon though. If he'd actually been there when the Exodar crashed, we would have had playable draenei monks throughout TBC, WotLK and Cata. Now he's supposed to have been there all along, teaching draenei skills prior to other sources… in the end it makes about as much sense as pandaren player characters starting off in MoP, then going to Cata, then TBC, then WotLK, then Cata again before returning to MoP. In the end I guess the lore is the lore, even if it is a bit silly at times. -- Taohinton (talk) 16:23, 29 March 2014 (UTC)


 * It is a retcon indeed. I'm curious if the same applies to the trainer in Sunstrider Isle.--Cemotucu (talk) 23:43, 29 March 2014 (UTC)


 * I don't know enough about the blood elf starting experience to say. If the zone lore specifically sets them in the past, I guess it would be the same, which would be pretty bizarre lore-wise (blood elves and draenei both having monks, and the only locatable pandaren, long before the other races). However, if the zone is just generally a bit out of date, I would say it's easier for everyone to assume they arrived there at the same time as the rest of the pandaren. -- Taohinton (talk) 17:36, 30 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Having checked it out (the first few levels at least) it is indeed a little odd. I think Blizzard have just gone with it in this case without making a specific explanation, as is obviously necessary for the draenei starting experience. Pao is described as "our Pandaren visitor" who trains "young monks here on Sunstrider Isle". Her appearance isn't otherwise commented upon (or mentioned) and this makes it sound like monks are commonplace (which they indeed are, player-wise).


 * Without a specific statement placing her in Azeroth's past, my feeling would be to consider her just another member of the pandaren monk trainer diaspora. The more I explore it, the less sense any of the timeline stuff makes anyway. Pandaren monks beating up Illidan? I suspect most of the other starting zones are also at least a little out of sync (referring to Cata as current) but clearly these pandaren are meant to have arrived at the start of MoP. I guess when WoD gets here, even the monk starter quests will be out of sync ;) -- Taohinton (talk) 00:20, 31 March 2014 (UTC)