WoW Encyclopedia Error

Yes, Malfurion as the first druid is in fact possible and true.

Keep in mind that like all history, it tends to be from the perspective of the writer. As far as the Tauren are concerned they were the first taught by Cenarius. This is a 'truth' they hold dear to them and is taught to the members of their society as evidenced by their scrolls.

The actuality is that they were not the first to be taught the druidic arts, but it was in fact the Night Elves.

The Tauren believe they were first. The Night Elves were the first.

I don't have all the answers for you right now however, hopefully more things will become clearer as we add more to the Encyclopedia and if they aren't, we can start working to answer more of those questions for you.

Right now the Creative team is very very busy with juggling many projects at once and while I'd love to load them up with your questions, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to get answers back to you in a relatively fast period of time.

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Any chance of an official post or some other method of feedback submission where players can ask lore-related questions, which could then be given to the Creative team for possible inclusion into the Encyclopedia at a future date?

This has been brought up before but honestly, even if we created a "lore" forum, we don't know what kind of support to answers we could give to it. The Encyclopedia however is a great first step toward making these things clearer and sparking conversations like these. We'll do our best on our end to get you answers as much as we can though.

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Let them make their own lore mistakes in future games! Dont u realise the WoW encyclopedia is just like an alpha test? You find an error and blizz fixes it before the whole world notices (and then they dont have to build a new instance to fix the error! zg anyone ?! :D)

Except this isn't an error. No cookie for you!

Just a bit more information for people. I had seen a post in which people were confused about who Cenarius' mother was. Some thought it was Ysera and some thought it was Elune.

Elune is Cenarius' real mother. Many people within Azeroth however believe that it is Ysera, of course they are wrong in that.

This is another situation in which perception of events has led to the perpetuation of false information among many people in the world and continues to be spread as the 'truth'.

I hope that clears up that one as well.

*edited to put in Ysera instead of Ysondre. Please warn people you love, don't lore and multi-task for the love of the Light.

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So Ysondre wasn't Cenarius' surrogate mother, as the War of the Ancients books seem to imply?

Key word is "real" mother in my statement. :)

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Biggest cop out ever. It's a question of source either way. We're supposed to ignore the obviously incorrect Tauren because the obviously correct Night Elves say so?

Were you there? Seeing as it never actually happened to anyone - at all - no, you were not. All of this is an 'I say so' fiasco.

Seeing as you have an actual franchise on your hands, you really should hire an author or two and write the whole thing out. And then stop changing your mind.

Tolkien did it. And it seemed to work pretty well for him. Seeing as you're abusing his genre, why leave that idea behind as well?

:P

I guess I'd just like you to never again try and use a lore reason when the actual answer is "because we said so".

That is all.

You're so far off on your accusation. This isn't a "because we said so" though in reality, Blizzard is the one that controls the lore and creates it. In this case however, it is a mechanic that is used in countless stories and consists merely of telling the tales of the many in ways that reflect their own perspectives and beliefs and then intertwines it with that of everyone else. Not all stories are linear and frankly I find the ones that are to be terribly boring.

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Actually, I believe Nethaera means Ysera, not Ysondre. Ysera, the Green Dragon Aspect, who taught Cenarius about Nature Magic. According to Blizz Lore, Malorne had a relationship with the Dreamer who "adopted" Cenarius. Personally, I'm waiting for the background on the Children of Cenarius, the Dryads and Keepers.

Yes, it's true. I'm going to edit now. I was caught multi-tasking again and trying to answer questions while doing other things at the same time. :(

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It isn't an accusation, its a fact. Site your sources, please. I'm not arguing the fact of the matter, because that would be impossible. The truth of it is, neither one was first because it NEVER HAPPENED. It's not real, and Blizzard has shown they have absolutely no will to avoid changing things - to have the backbone to make it as close to real as possible. It's far too fluid.

What mechanic are you referring to? The OP referenced information stating one thing, and you basically came back and said 'nuh uh' to refute it. No source, no information, just a statement of fact and a weak story reason to support what you said. And, as I pointed out, the night elves could just as easily be wrong as the Tauren, from a story point of view. In a he-said-she-said, you need need need independant confirmation, of which you can offer none.

Linear what now? WoW is dynamic exactly how? This is off topic, and doesn't support your point.

I understand I got a rise out of you, and were you in a position to do anything about it, that would be a good thing. But, things being the way they are, I apologize.

First, you didn't get a "rise" out of me. :) I was responding to the way you phrased things which basically implied a lack of forethought and care on the part of the Creative team when creating the lore. Believe me, they take the utmost care despite what people may believe. People here aren't the first to accuse an author of not sticking to the way things should be and bending the rules. I've seen it plenty of times before. By "mechanic" I meant that it is a tool that is used often in stories to create a sort of ambiguity about relationships between different people, races and nations. It is by no means new nor an invalid strategy in developing stories.

Second off, my source is directly from the Creative team and the lore bible. Yes, that's right, it is an entire bible filled with lore. I would say I have the best source possible but you may disagree if you wish. It just seems strange to me that anyone COULD disagree.

I'm not trying to disparage other sources of information at all. If anything this Encyclopedia will help those sources become more accurate and help them more than anything to clear up ambiguities. I know for a fact also having worked with people that have volunteered to compile lore infomration for the public that it is a rather daunting task and I applaud them for taking up the mantle.

In this case though, people that are trying to claim "Blizzard is wrong" are playing a game of telephone. You know how it is, you hear it from someone, who heard it from someone, who heard it from someone vs. me saying "Here you go guys, straight from the source."

Like any telling among cultures there was a point in time where perhaps things weren't written down and stories were handed down by word of mouth. I know my own family has some of those and while fascinating, without a written source and facts, they are just really great stories that I either take at face value and enjoy or discount them all together. Many native tribes all over the world still tell the tales of their forefathers via word of mouth and handing down the stories from parent to child. In this case, it is no different with the Tauren. Now, you can bring up that they have the scrolls with the written word but can you tell me WHEN they wrote those? How long was it from the time they were taught to the time they documented things?

Also having little to do with the Night Elves, how would they know that they weren't the first? Do you honestly believe that Cenarius paused before teaching his first Tauren student and said, "Hey, by the way, I taught the Night Elves first so be sure to write that down in your scroll some years in the future, ok?"

Whether the Tauren were first before the Night Elves or not doesn't disparage what the Tauren are as a race and what they have accomplished and continue to accomplish. Each has their own way for accomplishing their goals. Being 'first' in this case doesn't make either better than the other.