Love in Azeroth -- A quick guide to customs of main races.

[Qaza]

Information paraphrased from the WoW RPG Horde Player's Guide.

Orcs:
Not much information is given, although it is suggested that orc culture is similar to a primitive human society in many ways. Previous to the New Horde, orc females "knew their place". Thrall has made great advancements here, and orc females are now essentially equal to males. In-game, it appears that at least some orc females have taken it upon themselves to defend this new power with tooth and nail, and that orc males take great pride in a mate that can hold her own in battle.

Trolls:
Outside of the Darkspears (who have relinquished some of their old ways since joining the Horde), troll females are considered property. They have no say in the tribe, and only exist to make more trolls. Until she is old enough to breed, she is her father's (or older brother's) property, and will be either given to a male as a favor, or taken as a trophy. Like skulls, trolls use wives for keeping score. More wives equal more power and more strong ties within the tribe, as the females' father or brother will only give such a valuable gift to someone he thinks can take care of her. There are exceptions to this culture, and they grow more and more prevalent as the trolls have more interactions with other races that don't involve immediate bloodshed. Darkspear females in particular have become equal to males, although reaching real positions of power remain difficult through all the hard-set traditions.

Tauren:
Tauren treat all other members of the tribe as close family, and all of their leadership titles--"chief", "chieftain" and "seer" are genderless. There isn't much information beyond this, sadly.

Forsaken:
It's almost impossible to say, as they come from so many different backgrounds. Usually they maintain the traditions of whatever race they belonged to in life, if they pursue such ventures at all.

I'll post up any more info as I find it. Until then--lore discussion!

Following written by sabrekab

Because I am a moron and because I am not allowed to post a new topic in the Guides forum, I will now put this here. Enjoy, and give me info if you can. I'm missing a lot of info on Dwarven and Gnome customs.

I wrote this, because honestly, people's romance policies on a lot of the races make me sad. Particularly the 'pretty' races of Night Elves and Draenei.


Draenei: Draenei are traditionalists. Because of the close annihilation of their race, they are very focused on procreation (unlikely to be accepting of gay or bisexual unions). They do not condone inter-racial romance either for this reason.
There is little known of their rites of marriage/partnership, but it is indicated heavily that O'ros and Velen would probably perform them in person (a single partnership is still very important to the longevity of the race).

Humans: Just like humans. There are conservative marriage-only relationships, there are casual ones, half-companionship half-romance - just like in real life. However, keep in mind your character's origins and beliefs and act accordingly.

Dwarves: Very little is known. Their culture does not lend itself well to frivolity (and they are also Light-worshiping), so they do tend to pair up for long periods of time in both a romantic and working partnership. I do not believe they are sensitive about extra-marital affairs when they exist.
Oh, and beards are a sign of beauty for Dwarf females. Hehehe.

Gnomes: While Gnomes do practice marriage, they are open-minded and probably willing to extend experimentation into their love lives. There is evidence of Gnome and Human relationships (Marven and Tamara Wobblesprocket) which backs this theory up nicely.

Night Elves: Let's get one thing straight here: Night. Elves. Are. Monogamous. You are NOT going to see a sane one flirting with someone if they already have a mate, and you definitely aren't going to see them go for a non-Kal'dorei. They spend hundreds of years searching for their ideal mate, and they are incredibly faithful to this mate once they have him/her.

Aaaand that's all, folks.

[Bishnak]

I'd like to think that the Horde now under Thrall is working to regain much of what their society used to be pre-Gul'Dan. In Rise of the Horde indeed females seem equal to the men as far as hunting and whatnot goes.

Durotan was slack-jawed when she refused his courtship hunt invitation, but accepted one that meant nothing more than a simple hunt. At the time, Draka was too young, the reason of declining Durotan's first offer. Whilst trailing a Clefthoof, they were attacked by a black wolf. After killing it, Draka revealed that she was of age to 'date' on that day, and romantically kissed Durotan.

Don't really know about the others, but Forsaken.. ya, ew.

[Nostra]

What you mean "but Forsaken.. ya, ew."? *Canibalizes Bishnak*

And this about troll females being property, I didn´t know...
This will surely grant me a new spectrum when I Role-Play with trolls!

[Grakor456]

Orcs:
Not much information is given, although it is suggested that orc culture is similar to a primitive human society in many ways. Previous to the New Horde, orc females "knew their place". Thrall has made great advancements here, and orc females are now essentially equal to males. In-game, it appears that at least some orc females have taken it upon themselves to defend this new power with tooth and nail, and that orc males take great pride in a mate that can hold her own in battle.

While primitive in some ways, I find it interesting that Orcs seem to have actual weddings and the like. At least, one is referred to in an early Crossroads quest. The concept seems rather...contrary to how Orcs are otherwise portrayed.

[Azheron]

Someone should definitely read that Troll part before RPing.

I will RP differently from now on ._.

On a troll. ... Not that it would actually affect... you know.

[Lynnora]

Excellent guide!

[kindle135]

I noticed that you did not include blood elves, and seeing as how a good chunk of the server is active on a blood elf, I'll add that blood elves are very pretentious and snobby and probably wouldn't have inter-species affairs, though homosexuality, extra-marital affairs and such seem fine, though I could be mistaken, and sorry for the lateness.

[Geekmart]

Night Elves: Let's get one thing straight here: Night. Elves. Are. Monogamous. You are NOT going to see a sane one flirting with someone if they already have a mate, and you definitely aren't going to see them go for a non-Kal'dorei. They spend hundreds of years searching for their ideal mate, and they are incredibly faithful to this mate once they have him/her.

Pregnancy and Fertility
Anessa Bearmantle, child of Broll BearmantleThe lack of presence of kaldorei children has led some to believe that birth within the Night Elves' society to be a rare occurrence. This is quite contradicting to the blessing of nature that the kaldorei have received.

Interestingly, it could be argued that the kaldorei have a similar stance to mating and producing offspring to the dwarves, being that they see no reason to have children often, and do so every few centuries. This likely subject to change since the loss of their immortality. Indeed, in more recent Feast of Winter Veils, it is not unusual to spot night elf children visiting Greatfather Winter in Ironforge

I don't wan't get to deep into the topic, but the Night Elves relationships leave me perplexe. So I quoted your message and the wiki one. We have many young night elves character that are young. Barly in the adulthood, saying 320 to 410 years. However the "Long Vigil" period was lasting for a while. How long exactly ? I do think around 7000 years, It ended when the Warsong first step foot in Ashenvale for Ogrimmar construction (But that's not my point.).

My opinion on the Night Elves is that there must have alot of "her for her". Very rare were the man that were not preserving their powers in their sleep. So that said, my idea is that generally seeing Night Elves that goes for woman should be something normal, espexcially like said, the fact that there is no children night elf in the game. However if we do read on the Taurens and the Gnome, those races grow up quickly compared to the other races. Probably why the childs are of those two are lacking in the game. I would personally see more young woman that goes for male now that Vigil period is over.

My final word would be to say, no where in the lore it is forbidden for a Night Elf woman to have a woman mate. I have seen Night Elves females harassing a sister for trying on a woman. I don't know if that should be right. Maybe for a lone character once in a while but not a whole group.

[Kaghuros]

There's pretty much no official word on homosexual couples among the Night Elves, hell, couples in general. Presumably, the Long Vigil was OK to most heterosexual couples because what's a few hundred years without contact here or there for someone who expects to live forever (The Druids woke up every once in a while, but not all of them were awake at once, and some were awake for long periods)? I think Night Elves could go for the same sex, sure, homosexuality is a quality of the Human race and some animals too so I wouldn't discount it among fantasy races. However, I have no doubt that Night Elves would stay monogamous until their mate's death.

Then again, there is also prejudice among In-Character Elves and among players, which could account for your experiences. Keep in mind that Elves are an insular and anarchic race, and there isn't so much of a rule of law as there is a racial state of mind that precludes anything else.

[Geekmart]

(The Druids woke up every once in a while, but not all of them were awake at once, and some were awake for long periods)?

Mhm, hence why I said it was very rare to see a male. But I do agree and I do not deny what you have said Kaghuros. My point was actually more based on that the Night Elves take very long in finding, especially when the imortal lifespan was still going on.

What I try to explain is more the idea that those who grew during the Vigil, might have manifested more interests for the homosexuality because of the lack of the males.

This is just my made opinion however. We can't really know.

[Jason]

We can't really know.

It's all gestation if WoW Lore doesn't cover it. Personally, I'd think it would be conflicting with their culture, but I honestly can't give a valid answer.

[Kaghuros]

Jason really has it right. Anyway, you don't need to make up lore to justify playing a homosexual character. You can just play him/her. For a Night Elf, you'd only have to explain her behavior if she didn't act like a Night Elf (I.E. Consorting with Blood Elves or flirting around).

[Geekmart]

Good times. Maray sure did take a beat. She in fact been hiding since that.

But I don't try to justify the lore. It is just a personal hypothesis that I felt sharing.

[Geekmart]

Sorry I did not meant to post twice. I kind of lagged when I hit submit.

[Grayl]

In all the lore and all the books of Warcraft, has there ever been any mention of homosexuality between any races what-so-ever?

I'm just curious, because before we start making these assumptions on different races' views on homosexuality, we should really know if they actually do have the same rate of homosexuality as real-life humans do.

Considering that homosexuality occurs in a similar rate amongst animals on Earth, we can't be 100% sure that it's only an occurrence on Earth. But with that in mind, have any of the authors of books based on Warcraft or have any Blizzard representatives ever stated anything to do with homosexuality on Azeroth? They have humans, tigers and rats, but they also have magic, dinosaurs and immortality, so I don't know if the same "rules" apply on Azeroth.

I guess I'm making this into a discussion that could go down the wrong paths (they have Gods on Azeroth, but I'm an atheist, so how does that work out?) and I guess only a Blizzard lore-keeper or whatever could confirm anything, but I just wanted to know if there is actually any proof of homosexuality in Warcraft.

I remember reading on the official WoW RP forums a big discussion about how most female night-elves probably were at least bisexual, as most of the males went into slumber and they were left to their own devices and only had other females for company. But I disagree; you don't turn homosexual because you couldn't get any heterosexual encounters, so I think that's a stupid theory.

Oh yeah, and thanks for the guide. It's nice to know how most trolls (un-including Darkspear ones, please remember this before treating Darkspear troll females as trash!) treat female trolls as "property". That's something I didn't know, and I actually thought the orcs would be similar.