I have been giving the Horde a lot of love lately. With the introduction of the Celestial Steed I figure it’s time to talk about the Alliance a bit and their otherworldly race, the Draenei. The Draenei are like the Blood Elves in that they’re not really the “Draenei” but are instead the eredar with a new brand. Let’s take a quick look at these crazy Russian squid people and see what wacky lore explains them.

Corruption of the Eredar

In the WoW lore there exists a being that’s a lot like MewTwo from Pokemon. It’s insanely powerful, better than everything else, and has no real match. Not only that, but it only thinks of battle and Team Rocket’s Arthas wouldn’t even be able to scratch it. That’s right, Sargeras the dark titan. He’s the ultimate bad guy in the WoW universe and the lord of the Burning Legion. At one time he was a Titan, but when he became corrupt, he needed an army.

Night Elves have a lot to be jealous of when it comes to mailbox dancing.

So he first looked towards the eredar. He went to their three leaders, Velen, Archimonde, and Kil’jaeden and offered them immortality and super awesome power. Well, Archimonde and Kil’jaeden accepted while Velen got the heeby jeebies and said no thanks. Their entire race began transforming into a corrupt demon like appearance, so Velen teamed up with the Naaru and caught a ride out of town. In the process, they renamed themselves the Draenei which means “exiled.”

Well they needed a planet to land on so they choose Draenor, a name they gave it, and became friends with the Orcs there. The eredar that were corrupt became the overlords of the Burning Legion, their power helping to enslave massive amounts of demons and other races.

Of course, time catches up to you, and they were eventually discovered.

The Draenei’s Flight

25,000 years later they were found on Draenor. Kil’jaeden, being a smart strategist, corrupted the Orcs through Gul’dan. They became enraged; trying desperately to destroy the Draenei. Many Draenei were lost to the corruption from the fel magic, degrading into one of many subspecies. Many others were lost in the battle over their capital city, Shattrath City, which fell to the might of the Orcs. It was later reclaimed by the Sha’tar and remade into the capital city of Outland.

Quickly the numbers of Draenei were thinned and they fled to hide in Zangermarsh.  Eventually, a few years later, the Blood Elves came and took over their mothership – Tempest Keep. In a last ditch desperate grab to flee and find help they assaulted the ship and were able to wrest control of The Exodar, one of the many wings of their ship.

They took to space, but the Blood Elves had destroyed part of their engine, sending them crash landing on Azeroth. There they met the Night Elves and became stalwart allies of the Alliance whose ideals match theirs perfectly. Since then, their story hasn’t really progressed much. They were able to retake much of Outland along with recovering Shattrath City. Yet, their enemy is the biggest baddest Pokémon around and Game Shark doesn’t work for WoW, sadly.

Pretty Fly (For a Draenei) - By Nyhm, contains mild bad singing

Divergences and Discrepancy

The Draenei were added in Warcraft III but were what we now know as the “Lost Ones.” The eredar version of the Draenei was shoehorned into the lore for The Burning Crusade. The Lost Ones that we knew from WC3, including Akama, were made into “The Broken” which were the less mutated version of them. Confused? Me too. Think of it this way. The WC3 Draenei are “The Broken,” the “Lost Ones” is an excuse for the Draenei models before TBC, and the Draenei are space traveling Russians.

Akama’s is another story all together and doesn’t really play much into the whole storyline of the race, but it’s an important story. He basically meets Illidan, trusts him, helps him fight away the Burning Legion, and then finds out that Illidan has gone nuts and is used to jail Maev (the Warden). He and his people stand guard over her prison until you kill Illidan, at which point it’s assumed that they become free and are able to go do whatever they wish.

Cataclysm and Onward

This series is supposed to be about Cataclysm and where the race will be heading to in it. Yet, I can’t really say with the Draenei. Their plotline doesn’t have a lot to do with Deathwing, they’re not in bad favor with the Alliance like the Forsaken, and they don’t have any heritage to dig up. With that, their role will work simply as yet another soldier in the army. Perhaps, though, they’ll give the Exodar a revamp or maybe some of the Exodar’s technology can be shared with the rest of the Alliance.

Lore Theorycrafting

This week let’s look at a tricky choice Blizzard made with TBC. What if they picked another race to join the Alliance instead of the Draenei? Who would it have been? I‘d love to see your comments on the forums so come on, post them!

My thoughts on this are kind of mixed because I’m not really sure who could replace the Draenei. The Worgen could have come earlier, but they don’t really play into the story of Outland as well as the Blood Elves did. Honestly, if we thought about it more back then, the Draenei were the only natural choice. They’re the only other race out there that had a storyline that dealt with Outland and Illidan. I’d love to have seen a race simply known as the Demon Hunters, deformed Night Elves with wings that could be a mixture of different classes.

So, when it comes down to it, I think the Draenei fit, but the way they’re shoehorned into the lore is a bit silly. Flying? Space travel? Science fiction plotlines IN MY FANTASY GAME? Yeah, exactly. They still don’t fit in, look around Dalaran; they’re the only race not like the others.

Come share your thoughts and comments on the Ten Ton Hammer forums. Be sure to comment on what race you think could have replaced the Draenei!