Global Supremacy: Episode 3: The Ethereals and K'aresh; Ironforge, a Republic? menu

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  1. #1
    Jeremiah's Avatar Former Mod
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    Global Supremacy: Episode 3: The Ethereals and K'aresh; Ironforge, a Republic?


    Welcome to the third issue of Global Supremacy! This week, we examine the future significance of the Ethereals and the planet of K'aresh, as well as the shifting governmental structure of Ironforge, and it's relation to the geopolitical climate of Cataclysm.

    You may be wondering, what is Global Supremacy?

    Global Supremacy is an MMOwned news feature about the influence of philosophy and political science on World of Warcraft and its storyline. Here, we'll be talking about WoW's lore and storyline, and how it relates to political and philosophical concepts in the real world.

    The other half of Global Supremacy is lore speculation and debate. Readers can get involved any time by posting a comment on the article of the week. I will select a pool of readers from the comments each week, and will end each post with a question for my readers. You are also free to make suggestions in the comments, and I will try to read as many as I can at once.

    But let's be done with all of the boring technicalities, and dive right in!




    We’ve got ourselves a lot of lore to peel through, folks. Blizzard dropped the big one with the lift of the NDA, which means I’ve got a lot of work to do.

    K’aresh and the Ethereals

    Perhaps the most interesting retcon of Cataclysm involves the world of K’aresh and the Ethereals. Introduced in Burning Crusade, the Ethereals were first thought to be emotionless beings, who only cared about their capitalistic ventures and personal gain. Blizzard’s creative development team has pulled a pretty big retcon here, though. It is now stated that the Ethereals were once a humanoid race with advanced technology.

    When the armies of the Void and their leader, Dimensius the All-Devouring, happened upon K’aresh, the Ethereals’ precious world was bathed in void and arcane energies, causing irreversible damage to the planet. The technological race that would become the Ethereals surrounded their settlements with shields, protecting their people from the radiation of void energies. Nevertheless, arcane energy slipped through the barrier, tearing the Ethereals free of their corporeal shells.

    With their physical bodies lost, the Ethereals evolved into a race of energy beings. Their souls began to dissipate into void energy, but brilliant Ethereal magi came up with a plan: to create new mortal shells for their people, using enchanted bandages to wrap their souls into a humanoid form. These bandages help keep the Ethereals’ souls from expanding into pure energy, and help contain their bodies in a quasi-corporeal form.

    Now, let’s sit back and think about this for a moment. We’ve already seen what unbound Ethereals look like; they look exactly like voidwalkers or other void spirits. Could this suggest that the Ethereals are slowly transforming into void beings? The relationship between the Ethereals and the Void is certainly well-reinforced within the Burning Crusade. Perhaps the void expanded like a hive, consuming the energy of living beings across the universe. They essentially could have vaporized the Ethereals and the other races of K’aresh in order to generate more void energy to create their armies. If this is true, the Void could be said to be not unlike the Burning Legion, in the sense that they continue to expand and consume the lives of beings across the galaxy. The chief difference between the Void and the Burning Legion appears to be organizational style. The Legion is quite well-organized, structured almost like an empire. They have assimilated several races, and united them under one dark banner. The Void appears to be nothing more than a living swarm of energy, consuming countless worlds for no purpose, aside from what is in the nature of the Void: to consume all sources of energy. While the Legion, intrinsically, is chaotic, there is some level of organization within the echelons beneath Sargeras. Sargeras’ intended purpose for the Legion was to wreak havoc and chaos across the worlds of the Titans’ creations. As he elected his three greatest generals, the Legion began to resemble something akin to a dark, galactic empire.

    Furthermore, could K’aresh be connected to the Naaru? The Naaru certainly have a relationship with the Void, as could be seen with the transformation and decay of Mu’ru into the Void Naaru Entropius. Is it possible that the Ethereals are related to the Naaru in some way? K’aresh itself sounds Naaru in naming. If the Ethereals had not recently retconned by Blizzard to have once been a race of corporeal humanoids, I would have postulated that they were the subordinate, lower class citizens of the Naaru world. A proletariat group within a society of energy beings. They certainly share many things in common with the Naaru, at least, in their energy forms.

    Ironforge: The First Republic of WoW?

    As a Political Scientist, I find the current events of Ironforge in Cataclysm extremely interesting.

    With Moira Bronzebeard’s return after Magni ends up petrifying himself during an elemental ritual, the Dark Iron dwarves unite with the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer dwarves under the once Bronzebeard-exclusive nation of Ironforge. Muradin returns to claim the title of Ironforge Senator, and becomes the representative of the Bronzebeard dwarves by heredity.

    Ironforge essentially does something revolutionary here: they abolish a long-standing monarchy; a monarchy that has outlived the long reign of the kings of humanity. With the Cataclysm wracking Azeroth, it is safe to assume that the massive change in governmental style in Ironforge will not be the first major political climate shift within the World of Warcraft. Volatile situations breed transitional governments, as we have learned with the geopolitical climate in the real world, especially in parts of the Middle East and East Africa.
    We must remember that Ironforge senators were elected by the King of Ironforge, so until we hear official confirmation that the senate of Ironforge is elected indirectly or directly by the citizenry of the nation, we can’t declare Ironforge the first WoW republic. I am however eager to see what happens in this situation.

    Next time, we will cover the tensions between the nation of Gilneas and Stormwind, and how it will affect the inner workings of Alliance infrastructural policy.
    Signing out,
    Aphel


    Question of the Week
    Q: The Ethereals have long been a fan-favorite race in WoW. If the Ethereals were made a playable race in the future, would you play one? Why or why not?

    Post your answer in the comment below!


    Old GS Issues:
    http://www.mmowned.com/forums/conten...e-0-horde.html
    http://www.mmowned.com/forums/conten...ighbourne.html
    Last edited by Jeremiah; 07-03-2010 at 02:05 AM.
    Leecher -> Active -> News Team -> Contrib -> News Team Leader -> Moderator -> Former Mod
    Proud Ownedcore Member 2007-2012

    Global Supremacy: Episode 3: The Ethereals and K'aresh; Ironforge, a Republic?
  2. #2
    Remus's Avatar Banned

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    Looks far improved from the peddling releases from you of late. (3 lines of formless text with no history behind it of relevant value with quotes you won't summarize/input your thoughts into from the players perspective, *really no cata content behind copy pasta?*


    [but this is atleast worthy of "article" due to the depth it has(which again the previous stuff lacked, with only the one qualm (yes yes always one ) big words make head hurt to dumb man in repetition, this isn't the Wall Street Journal or Harvard ]
    -----------------------
    Personally playing as an Ethereal would be pretty cool, game mechanic wise as well as lore.

    On one side you have the conflict between the void and the light. nice tension setting the stage for easy quest progression. On the other, the player itself is energy, when attacking and going about where does it's very source of energy result from how does it interact etc all make interesting things to think about.

    keep it going.

    denote.. article 1 and 2 are not viewable by us so this is technically 1. or provide working linkbacks
    Last edited by Remus; 07-03-2010 at 01:59 AM.

  3. #3
    Jeremiah's Avatar Former Mod
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    Thanks for the feedback Remus. Added some linkbacks to the old posts at the bottom. (Excepting Episode 2, which appears to have evaporated)
    Leecher -> Active -> News Team -> Contrib -> News Team Leader -> Moderator -> Former Mod
    Proud Ownedcore Member 2007-2012

  4. #4
    Hellgawd's Avatar Account not activated by Email
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    Very nice article, and a good read.
    I'm looking forward to seeing more high-quality stuff like this from you Aphel; and ignore Remus' shot at your advanced vocabulary, it's good to see not everyone here is intellectually challenged.

  5. #5
    Dombo's Avatar Banned
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    I wouldn't play an ethereal, other races now dominate the world of warcraft. There's no need to make them a playable race, I've found them cooler as NPC's.

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