The histories of sentient races

[Etmosril]

Ok, so has anyone else noticed that no Azeroth, Draenor, or Argus races have actually evolved?

If a sentient race changes in this game, it is due to some divine act, fel power, arcane power, etc. The animals are the only creatures that have genuinely evolved throughout the ages (because I see nothing that suggests they didn't).

Prove me wrong, CotH.

[Terant]

Earthen becoming Dwarves doesn't seem to be from anything divine or otherwise. Same with Gnomes going from robots to... Gnomes, if I'm not mistaken.

[Krilari]

Earthen becoming Dwarves doesn't seem to be from anything divine or otherwise. Same with Gnomes going from robots to... Gnomes, if I'm not mistaken.

Curse of flesh caused the earthen to turn to dwarves and the robots to gnomes.

[Piken]

Actually, those two were the Curse of the Flesh from the Old Gods, I believe. But yeah. I could be wrong as to what exactly the curse is, but from what I gather, it's magic. <Shrug>

Edit: Ffff too slow.

[Etmosril]

They were created by the Titans. The Old Gods caused the Curse of Flesh. Sounds pretty divine to me.

[Kiffles]

I think that the Curse of Flesh was indeed magic, although I could be wrong. I've also heard that the changes happened over a long period of time, from metal/stone to squishy organs.

[Etmosril]

I am actually inclined to believe that the Draenei and the Orcs are the only races who were not affected by magic/divine will in their original forms.

I wonder how long evolution takes for Draenei - if you consider their life spans and relatively stable society (until they left Argus), it amounts to an incredible amount of time for a slight variation to show up as a racial trait. So either their race is ridiculously ancient (like, there-in-the-very-beginning ancient), or they were created.

There is pretty much no data on Orcs, other than they were peaceful and shamanistic on Draenor. I have no idea how they were created/they evolved. Given their relatively shorter life spans, evolution is more believable.

Those two races did burst in very suddenly. You hear nothing about them from before the fleeing from Argus, and the corruption in Draenor. No history.

Orcs are the most likely to have evolved (at least until their corruption). I'm fifty/fifty on saying they did.

[Bovel]

This is indeed correct. The Emerald Dream serves as a blueprint and start of evolution on Azeroth, and the only humanoids in there are dryads, keepers and tauren ancestors.

[Terant]

Ah! Evidence of the sort of evolution you're looking for on Azeroth would be Tauren vs. Taunka. The two races even acknowledge that they must be closely related. And in-game, the only difference at all is the male face. This change appears to have come from where they live, and not any sort of magic.

[Etmosril]

Wow, intellectualism. And I just started this thread to be a loretroll.

It seems that the Tauren and Orcs are the only genuine evidence of evolution.

[Terant]

Eh. Orcs definitely turned green and such from Fel corruption. If we count Arcane/Fel as evolution, then Blood Elves evolved from High Elves evolved from Night Elves evolved from Trolls.

[Bovel]

Has Blizzard made the troll to night elf theory a fact now?

[Terant]

I'm not sure. Still, the rest of that is definitely true, even if the Troll part is just conjecture.

[Piroska]

Has Blizzard made the troll to night elf theory a fact now?

Blizzard has yet to officially release confirmation. It's mostly speculation based on what knowledge people have scrounged up. In particular, the in-game text The Twin Empires states:

With the insectoids driven into exile, the twin troll empires returned to business as usual. Despite their great victory, neither civilization expanded much further than their original boundaries. However, ancient texts speak of a small faction of trolls that broke off from the Amani Empire and founded their own colony in the heart of the dark continent.

There, these brave pioneers discovered the cosmic Well of Eternity which transformed them into beings of immense power. Some legends suggest that these adventurous trolls were the first Night Elves, though this theory has never been proven.

[Etmosril]

Night Elves evolved from Trolls as a result of the Well of Eternity, methinks. And the High Elves only evolved into their own race because they were separated from it.