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No, this isn’t about Chinese gold farmers. It’s about the subtle Asian influence that Blizzard choose to use for the Night Elves and by association, Druids. Whether because Night Elves have several anime qualities like long ears and angular faces, or because Blizzard simply wanted an Asian theme applied to one of the races, it’s undeniable. From the Night Elf pagoda roofs in Darnassus (as pointed out by Keredria) to the open air architecture of the Night Elf buildings to Moonglade’s hosting of the Lunar Festival mirroring the Chinese New Year in real life, it’s clear that there’s a connection. I’m a big fan of Asian culture myself and it was probably this connection that has always drawn me to the Night Elves.
But why do I mention this today? Because I wanted to highlight Runy’s haiku contest over at Unbearably Hot! Celebrate your Cenarion heritage by writing up a quick haiku about being a Druid. I’m very excited about the contest and just wrote this for one of my three entries I’ll be making:
A rustle of leaves
Life to the fallen warrior
By Elune’s grace born
So, head over to Unbearably Hot to submit your entries. Do not post them here! The contest, featuring a prize, ends on June 15th, so make your entries before the deadline!
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Ways to avoid harm
Turn kitty form and use cower hopefully convincing the mobs after you that you are not so much of a threat after all
Nature’s grasp and root em in place
and most important of all
/yell Get over here Tank or your healer will die
I hope I don’t sound like too much of a jerk saying this, but the first mention of elves comes from Norse mythology, where they tended to be described as beautiful, strong humanoids, although they weren’t as lithe as they appear in modern culture. They were also prominent in Scandinavian lore. The long ears and more androgynous look, so far as I know, were made the staples by good ol’ Tolkien, who is said to have based them somewhat on Norse mythology. Elves have tended to retain these qualities in games since then, going back to EverQuest or even further back to games like Gauntlet where the elf was a quick, nimble being.
I can’t say I have any idea about the architecture, though. Still, the Lunar Festival and the like certainly exist
And now I’m going to jump over to that contest, hehe.
Gus – Nature’s Grasp won’t work in any raid but Hyjal, and the time spent going cat form and cowering will very often leave you dead if a mob has decided he wants to whack on you :p
Seeing Treants burn,
only you can prevent them,
wisdom from Bear Form.
Start with highest rank,
with second best repeating,
proper Moonfire spam.
Great saga of durid,
knowledge ageless and humble,
teaches Alamo.
^_^ Yeah, I’ve studied a lot about elves and fae myself, Nilianil. I not sure why Blizzard chose an Asian influence for Night Elves. With Dwarves, Gnomes and Humans, I think they already used so much Germanic and Nordic influence there that they wanted to make the Night Elf culture to contrast more by choosing other cultural influences.
@MeanderingMind: Make sure you submit your entries to Unbearably Hot!
things are oriental, people are asian, the title of this just sounds kind of ignorant. :-/
this wasnt to reply to ^ but to the main post, sorry
Well, “oriental” could be the right word, in the Edward Said sense. Something that is “orientalist” reflects Western ideas (a collection of stereotypes collected through the ages) about the East. We’re not talking about an imitation of real people here–what’s being imitated is an artistic style, or rather a collection of styles (Anime, architecture, etc). What is Eastern is rich, exotic, indolent, all that jazz. Orientalism isn’t generally a good thing–it’s actually a means of perpetuating negative stereotypes. However, I think Blizzard had very good intentions with the Night Elves–It’s their version of cultural diversity. I would say that the designers admired the look of Japanese architecture and the anime look and ran with it. I love the look of Night Elves, and I think it’s an attempt on Blizzard’s part to make one of the alliance races less white. My main beef with the Alliance in design terms, actually, is that it’s a conglomerate of white looking characters v. a more diverse Horde (though don’t get me started on the troll voices as means of ethnic stereotyping, I hate them). Sigh, if only the undead were cuter.
Hey, thanks for the shout-out! I’ve definitely gotten some interesting submissions thus far, and I encourage people to keep writing them.
The term “oriental” was simply meant to describe the way the culture was themed and not in any way as a slur or anything negative. I apologize if anyone was offended. =)
I think they chose a Norse style, with a bit of Asian influence as well. The names are all extremely Norse and Celtic sounding, etc… Just as any elves from other places like Lord of the Rings, etc.
But the bowing and the wisps and the honorable air NEs have is all very ‘Japonaise’!