How to "Draenei"?

[ghaskan]

Greetings, fellow CoTHians!

I've been wanting to play a draenei for a while; however, they are rather alien to me, and no matter how many "how-to" guides I read, I'm still pretty unsure whether or not I'm ready to embark on this challenge.

Mainly, I have problems with details.

1. How would warriors differ from Paladin? Are they fighters like the holy knights who do not worship the Light as fervently? Would they still have any blessing of the Light (Gift of the Naaru seems to suggest all Draenei do)?

2. Is the approximate date of "Two thousand summers" since the Draenei's arrival on Draenor, mentioned in the novel "Rise of the Horde" trustworthy at all? Speaking of which, would Draenei who were born after they were exiled and before they arrived at Draenor simply be born aboard the vessel / a random planet?

3. I read somewhere that the Draenei who stood to fight against the orcs were all corrupted. Does that mean non mutated Draenei from the Exodar would have all fled from the battle?

4. Not really directly related with Draenei, but still applies...Weapons made of crystal such as The Oathkeeper and Merciless Gladiator's Gavel look pretty nice on a Draenei, but would these be reliable in combat, or obtainable at all? Also, the shields Draenei guards use (click for model) look nice, but they're incredibly small. Would they include any sort of magical trick, such as emanating a shield made out of energy from the "jewel" at the center to make up for the size, or is the shield just small?


Thanks in advance for the replies. More questions may or may not be underway, depending on how this rolls.

ghaskan-

[Dareksar]

Not really answering any questions but thought of dropping this to the thread anyways.

Hammer of the Naaru - Looks very iconic to a draenei, especially so because of BC trailer.

[Micheru]

How to "Draenei"?

Really all you need. Go to it.

[Dae]

1. How would warriors differ from Paladin? Are they fighters like the holy knights who do not worship the Light as fervently? Would they still have any blessing of the Light (Gift of the Naaru seems to suggest all Draenei do)?
All Draenei do have strong connections to the light, and you are correct in assuming that the "Gift of the Naaru" racial represents this. The thing is, the poor spacegoats just keep getting genocided at by the Burning Legion, and from the very start, its the most faithful to the light who survive.
I mean, just imagine if religious faith determined the survival of the human population in reality- we'd probably wind up with a small army of dentists with faith as deep as the Pope.
Draenei are more individuals than the lore itself would lead one to assume, and its important to remember that Draenei society is the way it is not because of social constructs or taboos, but because pretty much everyone who felt differently kinda died. As long as your character is the sort of person whose weathered extreme hardship through their intense faith, what they do doesn't really matter.
And even the feelings towards other races are the most justified of everyone- being immortal, they know personally the threat that half the Horde races have been for them. (Orcs killed them, Belves attacked them when they first arrived in Azeroth, the Forsaken were a part of the Legion) Even with the Broken Draenei, they don't hate them as much are just terrified that they could be evil like all their friends back on their home planet did when they got all Fel'd up, or even that being Broken could be contagious, and they'd lose the thing most dear to them: the Light.
In general, I feel that it is safe to assume that with whatever a Draenei thinks, its because they have a good reason to feel that way.

So, what's the difference between a human warrior and paladin?
Its just the career they've chosen. Perhaps a Draenei warrior isn't interested in all the responsibilities entailed in being a paladin, or is simply more interested in being a warrior first, religious devout second.
If you can pull your weight in protecting the innocent and fighting the good fight, no Draenei would go and complain about the fact that you're helping.
So, if you want some direction on the mindset of a Draenei warrior, just try to think of the kind of person a Good-aligned human warrior would be.

2. Is the approximate date of "Two thousand summers" since the Draenei's arrival on Draenor, mentioned in the novel "Rise of the Horde" trustworthy at all? Speaking of which, would Draenei who were born after they were exiled and before they arrived at Draenor simply be born aboard the vessel / a random planet?
To the former: this is a safe assumption.
To the latter: Yes, this is correct.

3. I read somewhere that the Draenei who stood to fight against the orcs were all corrupted. Does that mean non mutated Draenei from the Exodar would have all fled from the battle?
The Exodar was an occupied part of the Naaru structure, Tempest Keep. The people who got to the Exodar were survivors and warriors trying to evacuate the planet. It wasn't just fleeing, considering that when they went there, they had to fight to wrest it from Kel'Thras's forces in order to do so.
That being said, there is still a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt among the Draenei.

4. Not really directly related with Draenei, but still applies...Weapons made of crystal such as The Oathkeeper and Merciless Gladiator's Gavel look pretty nice on a Draenei, but would these be reliable in combat, or obtainable at all? Also, the shields Draenei guards use (click for model) look nice, but they're incredibly small. Would they include any sort of magical trick, such as emanating a shield made out of energy from the "jewel" at the center to make up for the size, or is the shield just small?
Don't worry about it.
I mean, if its used by the Draenei guards, you should just assume that a wizard Naaru did something to it to make it good.
And don't underestimate the strength of the crystals the Draenei are so often seen with! They made a space dimension-travelling ship with it, and that's gotta count for something.
In general with WoW RP, a not crazy-1337 outfit with a character who has the means to get decent gear is perfectly acceptable, and practicality doesn't have to play too too much a role in your choices. Just no Double-bladed rock lightsabers, please.
But if you're worried about these aspects of equipment, I can't imagine you'd go about making choices that would be unacceptable on the server.

[CappnRob]

Draenei shields that are small are basically just bucklers. They existed in real life, check em out.

There are also a few models of large shields with a draenic look to them.

[Wendigo]

To be honest I wouldn't see "Oh look typical draenei" as a dogma. You need to consider several other things aside "we are good!"actually many draenei are not good but rather hypocritical xenophobic fanatics that are simply too stupid or blind to realize some real connection.
Orcs are good example - "good" but stupid and self-righteou character will hate them since they attacked us, they hurt us and they are evuuul!
good and smart character will probably realize: should we hate them? They were corrupted by legion which came to Draenor following us so aren't we responsible for what happened for them instead and if we are or could be it's alright to hate them?

So good things to make good character first are:

Age - Even for draenei very important. Young draenei - under one thousand are simply young and they behave so. They are still draenei and they are already older than other races but their age shows. They can be considered unwise but also much more open minded, they would much easier blend into other cultures too. Good example is also their relation to mating and everything around it which will be clearly less serious, more psychically based and much more human-like.
On contray old Draenei has been following some mindset, rules and traditions for long time and will most likely be stubborn but old draenei can be also wise. Old draenei should follow old draenei traditions. Their view of mating should be much more spiritual and alien to humans. Old draenei is definitely harder to play as you very much have to realize the difference of what would millenia do to ones mind and also consider draenei traditions and traditional culture which is not just "light obsessed" but very spiritual as well which is not the same. I have draenei void of light, rude and sarcastic but he still fits in aspects of old draenei and is in some ways suprisingly spiritual despite being "unbeliewer"

Inteligence - As I said intelligence is important as ability to understand and realize facts. in adnd are often fanatical paladins called "lawful stupid" for a reason. Though even stupid character can be good, stupid good character wouldn't realize the connections but will be for some reason telarant or open minded as "I do not understand it so I can not be sure if its that bad" or "my mommie told me to be nice to people even when they are different" on the other side character that will be fanatical, stubborn and furiously refuse all reason, full of hate and acting like an iquisitor is not Lawful good but Lawful Neutral as best, very often Lawful Evil - of course it's alright to play character like that, it will be interesting but you need to realize what your character is as player [again in adnd lawful evil paladins is common term used to criticise play of some paladins and causes a lot of problems and arguments, rle of the thumb is no matter who your character is the player should remain open minded and don't get into situation when he doesn't see forest for the trees.]
Good smart character will be one that realizes the connections and tries to reflect on them while remaining good.

Wisdom - What is also important is wisdom - partially related to age but that is no dogma. Young character can be wise, especially when he/she is opened to thoughts of others and tries to learn from them. Wisdom in general means realization beyond your experience or intelligence though it is brought from these and from thoughts about higher means and reasons. I study philoshophy and social antropology and I was once told that to be good in it you have to be smart but to be great in it you need to be wise. Wise character has great ability to understand yet wisom also means that you are unbiased and open minded, wisdom is not absolute and is opposite of hypocrisity and fanatism as wise character would present his opinion and beliefs but never force them as a dogma. Think of Dalai Lama.

Morals - Even outcast can be moral, draenei tend to be lawful by nature ad every draenei will most likely have some high morals set of rules and so on. All of these limit the character somehow and its not as simple as to state "my character is good and will do only good things!" instead ask how important being good is to my character, will he/she follow either personal rules or try to stay good, again, example - your character swears oath to find and punish murderer of his friend, during investigation but find out that his friend was the attacker and there is more shady bussines going on, now question is will the character even so fullfil the oath to stay true to his word or decides that such punishment will be unjust? It is important to realize that the world is not black and white but there are many shades of gray. Dealing with situation like this is what defines character and what makes each draenei character unique - impossible to be descibed only by "draenei are all lawful and goody"

Try to answer these question and make unique character, view draenei culture as leading but still made from unique individuals that differ, base character only on dogmatic culture will create hollow and unrealistic character so the important always is to think it through and always consider both influence of the character's culture but also influence of other cultures and none less importantly the personality of the character itself.

[Xigo]

... The Draenei -are- good. And they have every reason to distrust other races after everything that's happened to him.

Forgiving so easily is harder than it sounds.

I've yet to see a Draenei go on a killing rampage against the other races. They're xenophobic, yes. They're fanatics of the Light, yes. But this is all for very valid reasons that I could go over again, but they've all been spoken of to death.

'Three hundred' might be young to them, but even so, they're still going to learn over the decades. It's not like they act as though they're children until they're a hundred. They still learn. They still grow. While they are likely not as experienced as their elders, this does not make them naive fools. Age does not make a Draenei closed minded. Age does not make anyone closed minded. Experience does. And I'd say that when you're an adult, you pretty much have a fairly good grip on what life is. By thirty? You probably have your beliefs set. If not, well, everything else that has happened to the Draenei over the years most likely did.

Age, in my eyes, does not matter to the Draenei. Experience does. It's just that experience tends to come with age. But they don't need to be 2000 to be 'experienced'.

Perhaps I am biased. But calling the entire Draenei race 'Lawful Stupid' is a poor way to describe them.

They are not blind.

They are not stupid.

They are a race of immortal beings hunted across the void, guided by things which are holy, and have been destroyed and attacked by other races that are corrupted by the servants of Sargeras. Despite this, they are not 'RAWR I KILL EVERYONE WHO ISN'T DRAENEI'. They -are- wary though. And they have been shaped by their experiences.

Imagine losing everyone you love at once.

That's what happened to a lot of Draenei on Draenor. And it probably happened in other places too.

[Wendigo]

I didn't called all draenei lawful stupid. Whole conclusion of what I wrote is that you can't call whole race... well anything. Whole culture has some typical quirks and of course is defined somehow but its made from individuals. Are there lawful stupid draenei? Yeah I'm sure of that. Are all of them lawful stupid? No. Are all of them good? No. Majority yes, all no.

The rest pretty much follows what I said as I said age and wisdom/experience aren't fully related but of course there is connection. It's much more likely for 300 hundred old draenei to behave as young, carefree, openminded but of course it's no dogma. Nothing is All I wrote is that you have to consider how the age of your character affects that character.
I know a lot draenei that are young and behave that way but I know thousands years old ones that are still bit childish and cheery as well as I know hundreds years old draenei who is very wise and toughtful. Important thing is think how the time affects the character, is the character diversion from standart, why? Everything has a reason.

[ghaskan]

Thanks a lot everyone for your helpful insights! Please don't mind me and keep the discussion up if you want - the more I read, the more I learn, so it's all right as far as I'm concerned.

Some replies incoming...

Not really answering any questions but thought of dropping this to the thread anyways.

Hammer of the Naaru - Looks very iconic to a draenei, especially so because of BC trailer.

How did I miss that weapon? It look gorgeous, while not being obnoxiously shiny (like the Merciless Gladiator's Gavel) and fits very well with Exodar's colours! Huzzah! Thanks.

How to "Draenei"?

Really all you need. Go to it.

1. How would warriors differ from Paladin? Are they fighters like the holy knights who do not worship the Light as fervently? Would they still have any blessing of the Light (Gift of the Naaru seems to suggest all Draenei do)?
All Draenei do have strong connections to the light, and you are correct in assuming that the "Gift of the Naaru" racial represents this. The thing is, the poor spacegoats just keep getting genocided at by the Burning Legion, and from the very start, its the most faithful to the light who survive.
I mean, just imagine if religious faith determined the survival of the human population in reality- we'd probably wind up with a small army of dentists with faith as deep as the Pope.
Draenei are more individuals than the lore itself would lead one to assume, and its important to remember that Draenei society is the way it is not because of social constructs or taboos, but because pretty much everyone who felt differently kinda died. As long as your character is the sort of person whose weathered extreme hardship through their intense faith, what they do doesn't really matter.
And even the feelings towards other races are the most justified of everyone- being immortal, they know personally the threat that half the Horde races have been for them. (Orcs killed them, Belves attacked them when they first arrived in Azeroth, the Forsaken were a part of the Legion) Even with the Broken Draenei, they don't hate them as much are just terrified that they could be evil like all their friends back on their home planet did when they got all Fel'd up, or even that being Broken could be contagious, and they'd lose the thing most dear to them: the Light.
In general, I feel that it is safe to assume that with whatever a Draenei thinks, its because they have a good reason to feel that way.

So, what's the difference between a human warrior and paladin?
Its just the career they've chosen. Perhaps a Draenei warrior isn't interested in all the responsibilities entailed in being a paladin, or is simply more interested in being a warrior first, religious devout second.
If you can pull your weight in protecting the innocent and fighting the good fight, no Draenei would go and complain about the fact that you're helping.
So, if you want some direction on the mindset of a Draenei warrior, just try to think of the kind of person a Good-aligned human warrior would be.

2. Is the approximate date of "Two thousand summers" since the Draenei's arrival on Draenor, mentioned in the novel "Rise of the Horde" trustworthy at all? Speaking of which, would Draenei who were born after they were exiled and before they arrived at Draenor simply be born aboard the vessel / a random planet?
To the former: this is a safe assumption.
To the latter: Yes, this is correct.

3. I read somewhere that the Draenei who stood to fight against the orcs were all corrupted. Does that mean non mutated Draenei from the Exodar would have all fled from the battle?
The Exodar was an occupied part of the Naaru structure, Tempest Keep. The people who got to the Exodar were survivors and warriors trying to evacuate the planet. It wasn't just fleeing, considering that when they went there, they had to fight to wrest it from Kel'Thras's forces in order to do so.
That being said, there is still a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt among the Draenei.

4. Not really directly related with Draenei, but still applies...Weapons made of crystal such as The Oathkeeper and Merciless Gladiator's Gavel look pretty nice on a Draenei, but would these be reliable in combat, or obtainable at all? Also, the shields Draenei guards use (click for model) look nice, but they're incredibly small. Would they include any sort of magical trick, such as emanating a shield made out of energy from the "jewel" at the center to make up for the size, or is the shield just small?
Don't worry about it.
I mean, if its used by the Draenei guards, you should just assume that a wizard Naaru did something to it to make it good.
And don't underestimate the strength of the crystals the Draenei are so often seen with! They made a space dimension-travelling ship with it, and that's gotta count for something.
In general with WoW RP, a not crazy-1337 outfit with a character who has the means to get decent gear is perfectly acceptable, and practicality doesn't have to play too too much a role in your choices. Just no Double-bladed rock lightsabers, please.
But if you're worried about these aspects of equipment, I can't imagine you'd go about making choices that would be unacceptable on the server.

Special thanks for answering the questions. I'll keep your answers in mind.

Draenei shields that are small are basically just bucklers. They existed in real life, check em out.

There are also a few models of large shields with a draenic look to them.

So that explains the small shields. I was never fan of "hugetastic" shields myself (how would someone use them, anyway?), but I never got the bucklers, either. Now I know what to use in duel-like fights!


To Wendigo and Xigo... thanks for bringing up some interesting points about Draenei characterization!


Now I need to get to work and try to roleplay this one... hopefully, as time goes by the race will stop being so alien to me, in practice.

[Micheru]

I was never fan of "hugetastic" shields myself

I've seen a couple of Tauren wielding massive half-cylindrical shields with spikes that look like it was part of a wheel of a steam roller. I can just imagine them charging into battle with it held forwards, impaling opponents in a football like goal charge.

[ghaskan]

I was never fan of "hugetastic" shields myself

I've seen a couple of Tauren wielding massive half-cylindrical shields with spikes that look like it was part of a wheel of a steam roller. I can just imagine them charging into battle with it held forwards, impaling opponents in a football like goal charge.

Of course, I can imagine there would be some case by case basis of usefulness, I personally wouldn't like to be charged by a Tauren or another large race using that shield (I think it's called Bulwark of Azzinoth)!