(12-20-2013, 12:31 PM)DaveM Wrote: [ -> ]I mostly like all of this, good work for the team designing the process. One thing really rubs me wrong.
This makes perfect sense:
Quote:Nobles seen being romantically involved with a friendly faction, but still outside their own race, can be subject to ridicule. It may effect IC trade from puritans [a vast majority of NPCs really] as well as harm reputation in the eyes of the other houses. This is not to say it cannot be done, but keep in mind the repercussions of dating outside your characters own race.
This, to me, does not:
Quote:Yes, this means having a human noble date a blood elf puts them at risk of losing nobility. Should it be found that the whole family knew of it and did nothing to stop it, they too will be punished. A characters actions represent the whole family, so keep an eye on those who create characters of relation.
The binary world of the WoW-game is not the Lore World. We live in the Lore World. In the Lore World, bigots (many many bigots) hate other races, totally. And fraternising with the other faction (as in the institutions of the enemy faction) is treason, totally. But in Lore World, you actually can have a couple of Sin'Dorei trading with permission inside of Stormwind, and plenty of "other-faction race" employees about, etc. Valeera comes to mind. Yes, lore figure, but then again, still main example of such, and of the character "Stormwind" reacting to Sin'Dorei.
What I'm saying is that throwing a blanket over any relationship with an "other-faction race", to the extent of implying nobility itself is at risk seems overkill. I empathise with the overkill, since abuse in this area is quite likely and frustrating, but I think a well executed relationship could work, even with the public aware of it. Upset? Pressure against? Boycott? Sure. I just don't see a noble being taken down for having a "turncoat" consort as in line with the lore. I suggest a more case-by-case approach.
This isn't quite right!
You're taking this from the perspective of contemporary times. Warcraft really isn't based in today's society (or today's stability) in any sense at all. Of all the cultures to suggest having inter-factional relationships, Blood Elven is possibly the most suicidal. Nobility even in ordinary medieval society was cutthroat - this is well known, supported by countless anecdotes of houses actually crushing eachother economically for perceived weaknesses (usually a slow economic death, most of the time).
Now, imagine if those houses were also naturally cunning, insidious and intelligent just by nature of birth and upbringing (far, far more than IRL nobility). Now imagine the leader of a house deliberately putting himself into the lion's jaws. At that level of blatant disloyalty, it wouldn't benefit anybody to
not take down the house, be it through stifling their coffers, rallying their own people against them or just plain marching to the gate and killing them outright. The Regent-Lord sends a message to any potentially subversive nobles, the other nobility get the defeated nobles' lands and the people are happy that another traitor is dead.
It can be paralleled with human nobles pretty closely, too. I mean,
a quest has the player
assassinating a high-ranking noble just for working with the Defias - let alone doing the bed dance with a member of another faction (keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of Stormwind's population experienced being chased out of their own homes, all their possessions burned and, in unlucky cases, the loss of most of their family). I imagine human nobility to be less malevolent, but envision the political climate - Varian killed Onyxia a few years ago, nobility are put on a tight leash, the people are madder than ever at nobles for being flippant and spending for themselves while the poor are cast out - now imagine a noble going out of their way to spite their own people by shacking up with an Orc or something, in the face of their entire faction. Lore figures are the exception (and generally very stupid exceptions thanks to Blizzard's
amazing writing) - using them as examples for stuff never flies well, and it's the same for this situation
The paradigm is different between nobility and the normal populace - I see absolutely no situation where a noble can just flippantly get away with a relationship of the opposite faction without repercussions. At the very least (and this would be in the event of extremely good conduct, huge political clout, etc) they would slowly lose face among their own people until they start losing peasants and gold just by nature of people not wanting to associate with such a deviant. At the very worst, they'd be summarily executed (and there'd be nothing that says they don't have the right, at that point).
Apologies for the long-winded thingy. This isn't to say, however, that I blanket-disapprove of inter-factional relationships for nobles - it's a unique facet of RP. But if it's not done in secret, I can't imagine the characters in question being able to run through the tulips merrily for long at all. To not be totally contradictory in this post, I've figured a few situations where it could work:
- Where the noble conducts the relationship in secret (many avenues that could support this, especially as a mage, warlock, etc)
- The noble relinquishes his/her title for the power of love, flees his lands
- With less contentious match-ups (Human - Goblin, would be seen as disgusting, but it's actually got a chance here instead of instant curb-stomping)
I suppose my point is 'it's possible, but a lore figure could barely get away with this, let alone your average noble' - but the point with CotH is to be creative. I don't think the regulation is to blanket-deny all inter-factional relationships, as if one with a particular amount of care, crafting and sense comes along I'd approve of it. How I see it, though, is that a lot of these potential relationships would be for novelty value.
In closing - before I accidentally make another paragraph of stupid waffling-rambling junk - I'd like to see people try it properly, but I'm not sure if it can be pulled off. I do want someone to prove me wrong, though!