Trade Princess Movement



The Trade Princess Movement is an entirely fan and player powered movement to create a female Trade Prince for the Bilgewater Cartel, the playable faction of goblins added in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It started as a thread on the Cataclysm forum back in January 2010 by the player Sarpa and was originally inspired by the forum’s MVP moderator Frejya, who has herself has shown support for the idea. The movement grew in support from countless players, broke multiple post limits, had mountains of fan art and fiction created, and was one of longest-lived threads in the Cataclysm forums before they became read-only and were ultimately deleted at the thread’s 391st page. There is now a facebook group of over 400 members and an official RP guild called  on Wyrmrest Accord. It is the oldest and most likely largest movement to overthrow Trade Prince Gallywix, with the movement pre-dating him altogether, as well as any widespread knowledge of Trade Prince Maldy.

The movement culminated with the creation of the NPC Boss Mida , effectively implementing the Trade Princess within the game, albeit in the reduced capacity of liaison to the Warchief.

The first 100 pages of the original thread are now available for download here.

The Trade Princess
Originally intended to be a vague concept with the hopes that Blizzard would run with the idea, the fans went wild with playful ideas, jokes, and definitions for the once nameless female Trade Prince. There have been limitless ideas put forth, but these are the most well known to the character players have already come to know and love. A quote from the original post says:


 * “The general consensus is that she be named Mida Silvertongue (Mida S. Golden touch, get it? ;) ), nicknamed Her Tallest (now Her Tallness) as Goblin leaders seem to often be a bit taller than the rest and as a nod to Invader Zim. She's a rogue, engineer, and could sell refrigerators to the Tuskarr. She also has a mutual platonic flirting thing going on with Vol'jin. She's clever, shrewd, and comical with a twisted sense of humor and an alchemical golden touch. A wild card.”

Many other character ideas developed out of this thread. The first was Her Tallest’s administrative assistant and secretary. Taken from the original post:


 * “Her second in command has been named Bowie (now Kazit), as a nod to Labyrinth. He's her long suffering right hand man, lacky, secretary, and is a seemingly cool, collected alchemist fire mage with pyromaniac tendencies with fierce, unquestioning loyalty to Her Tallest. If ordered, he’d shoot himself in the foot for her. He is a bit disturbed by the Vol'jin thing. He’s always highly stressed, and no one really knows what goes on deep within that head of his.”

Her office is also one of the primary running gags fans had with Mida’s character, as seen in the original post:


 * “Her epic steampunk moving castle home includes a trap door laser shark tank in her office, a small legion of mechanical squirrels and clockwork shredders in business suits. Raids will require appointments (we all acknowledge that this is far-fetched, but we love it anyway).”

Other minor pieces of her character people came up with include:
 * Daughter of a wealthy Baron from Bilgewater Port
 * Graduated from the Academy for Chemistry, Machines, Magic and Economics (A.C.M.M.E.)
 * Bowie graduated Suma Cum Laude from A.C.M.M.E.’s Centre for Research Into Fire and Explosive Studies
 * A joke crush on Vol’jin (Her private chambers are filled with art, pictures, dolls, action figures and sculptures of him). It's debated within the movement if she's serious or joking on this. Most agree that it's a joke and they have a platonic alliance.
 * She wears a plate-armor tuxedo
 * A Core Hound Pup as a pet. One head is usually donning a pink bow, the other a black bowler hat, and has been referred to as 'Princess Maximilian.'
 * She was originally referred to as “My Tallest” or “Her Tallest,” before she had a name as a joke about leader Goblins being taller than the rest and a nod to Invader Zim. Now she is referred to as "My Tallness" or "Her Tallness" after Blizzard put her in.
 * She cannot an be classified by any one stereotype. The closest one is that of Rosie the Riveter and her grease-monkey, not-afraid-to-get-her-hands-dirty personality, but also with a lot of powerful business woman and touches of nerd-gamer girl. The sort of female leader you just don't see in fantasy games where they're all sexy mystical Elves.

Important things to know

 * 1) We assume that Trade Prince is a gender neutral title like President or CEO. While it's fine to alternatively call her a Trade Princess, her technical title would still most likely be Trade Prince.
 * 2) We never received any blue posts in the original thread, but there were many green posts (MVP moderators) and the thread broke the post limit multiple times. Considering we had to ask for extensions upon reaching a limit from Blizzard, we chose to take that as a “silent” approval from Blizzard, to say the least.
 * 3) Sassy Hardwrench  has been a favorite of some players to overthrow Gallywix, including by many whom had never even heard of our movement. She plays a vital part in the goblin starting zone quests but goes off on her own to open a cafe in Stranglethorn afterwords. It is possible she is planning to overthrow Gallywix. She may not be Mida, but the primary goal of this movement is to simply get a cool Female Trade Prince, not necessarily the character playfully developed in the thread. Both Sassy and Mida are the two leading candidates to overthrow Gallywix and become the new Trade Prince. If either of these two wins out, we can consider our movement a success.
 * 4) Her Tallness has been implemented in-game! The NPC Boss Mida , and Kazit  are in the goblin slums of Orgrimmar. She is in charge of all goblins in Orgrimmar and is the official Liaison to Warchief Hellscream for the Cartel, unlike Gallywix who is yet to even be implemented. This is strong evidence in Mida's favor for being the next Trade Prince, as Sassy is not in a capitol city and Gallywix is not even in game, but Mida is already in a significant place of power. Regardless, we from within the movement are extremely grateful for Blizzard's amazing shout out to our cause!
 * 5) If Mida does become Trade Prince of the Bilgewater Cartel, of which there is now significant evidence and reasonable hope, she would be the very first fan-made racial leader, as well as be the largest, most direct impact fans and players have had on character creation, lore, and story progression in World of Warcraft history.
 * 6) It is the Movement's hope that if Blizzard uses the idea of Mida and runs with it they'll do their own thing with her and make her fit coherantly and thematically into the world and lore of Azeroth.

What about Gallywix?
The Trade Princess Movement began, and Mida Silvertongue was created, long before Trade Prince Gallywix had even been created by Blizzard Entertainment. We within the movement are well aware of the fact that Gallywix has been appointed Trade Prince by former Warchief Thrall. As Thrall himself says, however, he only made Gallywix Trade Prince “for now.” An overwhelming majority of players that have experienced the goblin starting zone, and many who haven’t, now agree with what members of our movement have been saying for over a year and a half (though Gallywix was named Maldy when we first began objecting to him), which is the simple fact that Gallywix is a terrible, unfit leader. A larger list of offenses and grievances has been written (see By Decree of the Bilgewater), but in the goblin starting zone alone, Gallywix:
 * 1) Was going to lose his status as Trade Prince before the eruption of Mount Kajaro anyway.
 * 2) Tried to sell his entire race and cartel into slavery after taking their life's savings.
 * 3) Hates the player, frequently berates and threatens him or her, and swears vengeance against him or her.
 * 4) Hired Southsea Freebooters to kill the player's party guests.
 * 5) Sailed a Trade Coalition vessel directly into an Alliance-Horde Warzone.
 * 6) Trapped, enslaved and brainwashed most of the Bilgewater Cartel in the Gallywix Labor Mine.
 * 7) Hired the Steamwheedle Sharks after enslaving his own Cartel to kill the player and the resisting members of the Bilgewater Cartel.
 * 8) Went to war with the surviving Horde and Bilgewater Cartel resistance on the Lost Isles using the Steamwheedle Sharks and Southsea Pirates as mercenaries, as well as brainwashed members of his own cartel for manual labor.
 * 9) Attempted to murder the player and former Warchief Thrall.
 * 10) Is hated by nearly all the orcs, Warchief Hellscream included, as well as all the player-friendly goblins (a goblin freed from an escape pod called him a monster . Sassy later echoed this sentiment ).

But perhaps most importantly, yet often overlooked, is the fact that Gallywix is only Trade Prince by the orders of FORMER Warchief Thrall. Warchief Hellscream has made no official appointment to Trade Prince or leader for the Bilgewater Cartel.

These things together, along with a growing distaste for him by characters and players, all seem to foreshadow his downfall as Trade Prince sometime in the future. This is now further indicated by the fact that he does not exist in game beyond the goblin starting zone, and further more by the fact that among his voice set is a quote that implies Gallywix is supposed to be inside the Gallywix Pleasure Palace, but for some reason Blizzard decided not to put him there.

On June 23rd, 2011, Blizzard posted its second “Ask Creative Development” answers. Among many was this question:

Based on this answer, it would seem Blizzard Entertainment has plans for the story regarding Trade Prince Gallywix, and even talking about him could “spoil the plot.” Given everything we’ve seen thus far, and then this response directly from Blizzard, his removal from power seems virtually inevitable.

Her Tallest and feminism
A large portion of the support for this idea comes from those players that wish to see more females in positions of power and portrayed in more positive lights. Right now, many of the in-game female leaders either aren’t independent leaders (Jaina and Tyrande), are emotionally unstable and more resemble foils to their male partners (Tyrande and Malfurion, Jaina and Arthas, Sylvanas and Arthas) or play very much to sex appeal at the expense of characterization and involvement in the game. For more of the arguments of feminism, please visit our guild website or facebook group. We have had many in-depth conversations about proper female portrayal in-game and the consensus is that it could and needs to be drastically improved. Because of this, support has been overwhelming for a woman who is neither a stereotype nor sex symbol; but rather powerful, independent, very intelligent, witty, physically strong and an overall complex, fully-involved character with a highly active role in the storyline.

In Cataclysm
Mida has been put into the game as Boss Mida, , and is located in the Goblin Slums of Orgrimmar. Bowie, it seems, has been renamed Kazit. Three other goblins accompany Her Tallness in the slums; Kazit, Bruiser Janx, and Engineer Niff.

Trivia

 * The name “Her Tallest," now "Her Tallness," is a reference to Invader Zim.
 * Her secretary Bowie, before he became Kazit, was a nod to the movie Labyrinth in which David Bowie stars as the Goblin King.

Influential contributors

 * Goblin character name (can be reached on Wyrmrest Accord) / Forum main character name (realms may vary)
 * Roulette / Sarpa - original poster, artist, and guild moderator 
 * Brumley / Denebvir - writer and guild moderator 
 * Snuffit / Dziewanna (formerly Dartertrick) - artist, writer, and guild moderator 
 * N/A / Frejya - supporting forum MVP and original inspiration 
 * Donizzle / Morharna - artist 
 * N/A / Penneigh - artist 
 * N/A / Venezius - Original WoWwiki page creator 

Fanart gallery
Please visit the official guild website to view the fan art gallery, located here.

Fan fiction

 * Silvertongue This is the official story for Boss Mida Silvertongue, written by Denebvir of Thorium Brotherhood. It is a re-write of the original story that was written near the movement's inception, before the release of the Cataclysm Alpha NDA. The first several chapters have been re-written with up-to-date information and story (view Deneb Vir's gallery for the other chapters). The original story (with outdated information, such as Gallywix being named Maldy) can be found here.
 * Trade Prince Election 2010 by Denebvir of Thorium Brotherhood
 * Scheduling by Dziewanna of Wyrmrest Accord
 * Golden Opportunity by Venthos of Turalyon