Draenei RP

[Jakoral]

I just started a draenei shaman on this server and I was wondering what are some things I should know about talking and acting like a draenei. Not to mention some other details that aren't exactly clear or well presented. Things like voice, personality, physical info, and other things like it.

Some stuff for RP'ing shamans would also be appreciated

[sonechka]

Hello!

Draenei (imo) are a -fascinating- race to play. They have a very rich history (spanning over 25,000 years, longer than the Night Elves!) and though there isn't as much written about them as a roleplayer would like, I can give you some tips based on my research. =)

Edit: Adding one more tip: Draenei were not born on Draenor. If they were, they'd be children- like...12 or 14 or so. They could be born on the Exodar, or Argus, or any of the planets/planes the Draenei stopped on in their flight from Argus, but not on Draenor.

1) Speaking/acting like a draenei- most draenei historically were a peaceful folk, but they have (within the last 12 years or so) been through not one, but TWO attempts at genocide. Their enemies have wiped out 80% of their population, and the crash probably wiped out even more. =( Some of them remain cheerful despite that, some are angry, some are quietly depressed and fatalistic. I'd suggest reading all the quest text as you do all the quests through the starting areas to get an idea of how they speak.

Technically, the Draenei have been on Azeroth for about a year and a couple months now, so your character could (conceivably) have learned fairly good common in that amount of time. Or, he/she could have just woken up from their escape pod and is just learning. Most of the Draenei language is fairly Eastern European based (judging by the voice acting) - there is a post somewhere about speaking like a Draenei that could help you if you wanted to speak "broken Common". Fair warning- this can be EXTREMELY challenging to keep from sounding silly.

2) Voice & physical info I'm going to combine- Draenei are -big-. Judging by the averages that human males are approx 6 foot tall, the average Draenei male is about 7 foot 6 inches and probably weighs around 400 pounds, judging by the musculature of the models. I'd go as high as 500 for paladins and warriors and as low as maybe 350 or so for mages. With that size, logically I'd see them having a deeper voice, or at least "bigger" than most races (sheer mechanics on that one- large voice box/lungs= big voice).

3) Personality & Shamanism- Kind of combining this one too. Draenei shaman all learned their art from the Broken (aka Krokul). This is a -very- humbling thing, so I wouldn't really see a Draenei shaman being a really arrogant, arsehole sort. (well...okay, it's possible, but it'd be a weird kind of arrogance. Arrogant in his humbleness *lol*) Other than that one thing, I could see almost any type of personality fitting the Shaman class. One note to make: per my reading, shaman are often looked down on by other Draenei as having turned away from the Light to follow the "lesser" way of the Elements.

The WoWWiki articles on Shamanism are actually quite good. They have very little info on Draenei shamanism, but a lot about the way the orcs and Tauren do it, which isn't -too- different. I'd also go look at the wikipedia article for the real world shamanistic belief if you wanted to, just for a more in-depth look at how you can incorporate the elements and maybe for some ideas for RP flavor.

We have 2 shaman in the guild at the moment- Anecia and Behlon. Behlon RPs as a Broken, Anecia a Draenei, so hopefully they'll pop in here with their ideas. =)

Good question!

[anecia]

Alrighty then!

As Sone mentioned, I play the character Anecia who is an Enhancement spec'd shaman. The way that I made her how she is is by looking at her talents on the tree as she gained them. Basically, a lot of the enhancement spec is based on melee strength and swiftness. A melee DPSer if you will. So, I made Ane very confident with weapons and she does have some what of a complex. One of those, "I'm better than you" complexes because she has spent SO much time mastering her weapons and the elemental knowledge she has. Because of that confidence, Ane walks with a defined swagger. Shoulders back, head up kind of a thing. I also chose one element that fit the general theme of her and took characteristics from it and incorporated them into her personality. I chose fire. She is blunt, destructive, quick to fly off into a wild rage and hot. I mean hot as in good looking. ;P

I also believe what makes a great character are little things. Little idiosyncrasies that make them unique. In Ane's case of physical things: Her tongue is forked and she is warm to the touch. But as for the rest of her, I left her looking like a standard draenei female. 7 foot something, 250 ish pounds.

When it comes to voice, you could definantly stick with the european like Sonechka mentioned, as the voice acting has that accent. But personally, I decided to make Ane talk in a dwarf-ish accent when she speaks Common because she learned it from the dwarfs. Which kind of ties into why she uses axes and maces and has a love for "the drink". But like Sone said, you have to kind of regulate HOW you type an accent because sometimes it can be over-done and it's VERY hard to read.

In short, basically the easiest way to get a good meshing out of a character initially is to look at your tree talents and kind of build on that. That's my suggestion anyway.

[behlon]

((I really don't have a whole lot to add for the Draenei-...ism, that hasn't already been added. *Cough*. But if you'd like to know more about Krokul (AKA Broken) or Shamanism period, those are entirely different ballparks.))

[۞ KAT ۞ AKA Red Viper]

welcome to the site.

i'd like to offer this link, found in the tips and hints section for how to speak a draenei accent.

it's really good, but quite hard core.

[Guest Amboro]

*chuckles* Seems like I was beaten to the cut! *chuckles* Well al this good advice, and it works out well.

[sonechka]

Thank you Kat! I had a brain fart and couldn't find the link. *laughs*

[Jakoral]

Another question I have is their age and lifespans. Are draenei immortal, or are they mortal, just with great longevity? Also, do they mature like humans or do they mature at a slower rate?

[sonechka]

That is an -excellent- question. Unfortunately, it's also one that isn't answered -anywhere-. *sighs sadly*

I can give you my take on it though.

There are multiple Draenei in the starting zones that remember Argus- a planet they haven't lived on for 25,000 years. This suggests that they are either timeless/ageless or that their lifespans are almost impossible to comprehend (like, hundreds of thousands of years in length). I believe they likely mature and age slowly- this is a biological basis. Most large biological forms take longer to mature than their smaller counterparts. Again, going back to the questgivers (Jessera of MacAree, or the hunter trainer in AzureMyst) they have the models of young, "in their prime" Draenei- and yet they're older than 25,000 years. So while their maturity may be a little quick at first (through childhood) I'd imagine at puberty things would start slowing down.

Unfortunately, this is all speculation at this point, as Blizzard has yet to release any information regarding the Draenei and how they age. = /

[Jakoral]

Thanks, I was wondering because I was going to make my shaman about 18 years old, but based on your statement, I might have to change that.

[aradaan]

I, being the nerdy math type, attempted to make a guess at the human relative ages of the Draenei... Basically, if your character is 18 by Draenei standards, I'd say they were about, meh, 4,000 years old, or that 4000 years of aging for a Draenei = 18 years of aging for a Draenei. I don't think that was entirely accurate, especially now that Sone point s out the

I THINK, however, Sone was right- at puberty things would slow down. Sooo... maybe, until thirteen, Draenei and Humans age at the same rate. A Human will reach maturity in twenty-ish years, while a Draenei would reach maturity in about thirty or so, perhaps? In that case, your Draenei would be, maybe, 30. (This is, of course, speculation, and a lot of really hopeful guesses)

After that, though, their aging would become more predictable.

In conclusion: Simply say that your character is 18 years of age Human standards.

And, also, sorry if that confused you...

[Kaolla]

I’ve been reading stuff on the Wiki and some books namely Rise of the Hoard and so far in my character’s back-story I have her being born on Draenor in the city of Telmor not long after the Draenei arrived on Draenor, this would make her somewhere close to 300 years old if I’m not mistaken (In appearance something akin to a 17-19 year old human) I just wanted to run a check on this to be sure that it would fit with game and guild lore, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t but the 2nd post in this chain has me wanting to be certain. I’d like to have all the kinks worked out of my back-story before I start RPing for sponsors.

P.S. If anyone would like to roleplay with a power-hungry somewhat shy/standoffish Draenei Mage who has on more than one occasion wondered if the Draenei would have been better of taking the path the other Eredar did and become part of the Burning Legion let me know. My on game time is fairly flexible right now.

[sonechka]

Hello Kaolla.

The reasoning behind my statement that Draenei would not be born on Draenor and be playable has to do with my admitted assumption regarding Draenei aging. Because Draenei are extremely long-lived or possibly functionally immortal, a 300 year old Draenei (in my opinion only) would be the equivalent of about 10, maybe younger in terms of how they grow.

Now, this is only a guess or assumption based primarily around characters like Velen, Jessera, Acteon, etc. and how they seem to have aged/how they speak.

Really, since there's no stuff set down, it's all guesses. *laughs* So a 300 yr old Draenei from Draenor could have been one of the first children born there, and she matured very quickly due to the, I dunno, maybe the lack of magical interference that the Exodar was putting out? That'd be how my character would explain such a young person seeming so adult anyway. =)

[Kaolla]

Actually I just found a very interesting article on the subject here:

www.wowinsider.com/2008/10/05/all-the-worlds-a-stage-so-you-want-to-be-a-draenei/

While it doesn’t set down any definite lore, the way I read it, it states that the Draenei sort of live outside time altogether. To quote it here:

“Growing up to adulthood would have taken some amount of time... maybe 20 years? Maybe 200? It probably doesn't really matter so much -- what matters are the experiences and lessons that defined your growth process, not the actual amount of time it took to get there.”

In other words the whole thing is pretty much a non-issue. A really good series of articles from the same source can be found here:

www.wowinsider.com/category/all-the-worlds-a-stage/

The article on alchemy gave me some great ideas for my character and I’m sure there is plenty of roleplaying fodder out there.

[sonechka]

That is an interesting point of view, thank you for sharing!

[behlon]

Honestly, speaking as a lore-hound, I just type something like, "Is or at least appears to be the human age of 21 years"


Because trying to work out the age in Draenei years hurts my itty bitty brain X.X

[Kaolla]

Well the issue here wasn’t so much age as it was place of birth, since while aging is not established in lore how long ago the Draenei landed [well crashed really] on Draenor is.

But, since we’ve established things are all up in the air anyways I’m going to go ahead with my original plan and say Kaolla was born in the city of Telmor on Draenor. Of course if you were to ask Kaolla her age she would just shrug.

I suppose that if Blizzard ever does release official lore that contradicts this that I will be allowed to change where she was born IC. That or I can have her capture by orcs in her past and used as a ginneypig for their warlocks to try out their “aging spell” on. If you don’t know what I’m talking about read Rise of the Horde.

But that’s all speculation really and speculation on a mostly unimportant detail at that. To be honest all this servers no real purpose other than to entertain the “what if?” part of my brain lol.

[Kuro]

I have an edit, if it wasnt already mentioned. In the first reply:

Edit: Adding one more tip: Draenei were not born on Draenor. If they were, they'd be children- like...12 or 14 or so. They could be born on the Exodar, or Argus, or any of the planets/planes the Draenei stopped on in their flight from Argus, but not on Draenor.

I think what Sonechka meant to say here was the Oshu'Gun, not the Exodar. The Exodar wasn't used until the flight from Draenor (Outland) -- Oshu'gun was K'ure's dimensional ship, used to rescue the draenei from Argus.

[Kaolla]

This is probably a silly question, but I’ve been pondering it. How well would one Draenei know another? Considering that unless something else is made up all Draenei PCs are survivors of The Exodar battle and crash it would seem to make sense that all Draenei would at least seem familiar to all other Draenei. I mean there can be all kinds of other possibilities, like if you start RP at a high enough lvl that you can wonder around Outland you can say you never left Draenor with The Exodar.

I of course am making guesses here since I’m not sure how the game mechanics will effect such a story… I’m only lvl 25 and still figuring things out.

I’m asking all this because it can provide a reference point for striking up an IC conversation even if it only turns out to be a case of mistaken identity.

[sonechka]

I say it makes sense for the Draenei to at least know each other by sight. Their race has been pretty much exterminated by the orcs, then the elves, then the crash and everything too, they're at about 20% or less (closer to 10% honestly...) of their population so they could have seen one another on the ship.