Rollenspielguide - Meinungsumfrage

Den Guide hab ich vor gut einem Jahr geschrieben, er ist leider Englisch und WoW spezifisch, aber so wie ich das mitbekommen habe, sprechen hier ja die meisten gut Englsich und kennen WoW ^^ und vieles davon lässt sich sicherlich auch auf TES umwandeln. Meinungen, Kritik und Verbesserungen sind willkommen.

What is Roleplaying?

In general its like the childish "impersonisation", the dressing games of early childhood and the "pretending" taken to a whole new level. It can be compared to improvised theater where actors play without any script. Its like telling a story and being part of it at the same time. You write the Story while you play it and can change it at any time. It is a very creative and fun process to evolve a character and see how he, and others, change and act in various situations. Roleplay can be used for fun, to experience new ways of thinking, living, acting, makes fantasy games even more fantasy and fun and finally it can even be used as a psychological tool to deal with real life issues and problems (like phobias, traumas and such)

Roleplay specific vocabulary:

In Character (IC) - Stuff said and played AS the Character you play. Like "Hail and well met Traveller. Welcome to this harsh lands of...."
Out of Character (ooc) - Stuff that you as player say. "Today i pwned 5 noobs in stv" Since OOC is unwanted in Rps and may cause confusion, try not to use OOC if not rly necessary and mark it like "OOC: - i have to go now sorry"
RP - Roleplay
Characterlore - Stuff your character KNOWS - it should be clear WHY he knows and HOW he obtained that knowledge - its very bad roleplay if your character knows stuff, that he cant know. Like a hunter knowing all about a priests magic. likely even a priest wont know all stuff on that. Just like a cook doesnt automaticly know all recipes in the world.
Playerlore - the stuff you as player know - try not to confuse both. As player you amy know all about WoW Lore, but your character does not.
Gamemechanic RP - what we use in WoW. It means, your character can what he is able to do INGAME. If he can cook a feast, he can. If he cant, he cant. In Computergamebased roleplays its usual, that your character is limited to gamemechanics. So no, you wont have solod LK until you REALLY did in ingame. It also means, as warrior you cant cast spells and such stuff . It also means you wear what your character wears. You wont be in an elegant dress until you really have it on.
Powerplay - usually a widely spread and very childish and very bad version of roleplay. You play to be the superhero who is unbeatable and perfect and use every loophole in the rulesystem to create an overpowered character. This sort of "playing" is usually the surest ways to get kicked from groups as it is a quite lame way to play and doesnt allow for deep roleplaying or emotional stories and may ruin a lot of aspects of thhe RP treasure.

How do i start?

Usually you start with creating your character. Think what you want to play - the first choice usually is:

Gender:
Yes you can choose a gender. You can play your own real life gender or the opposing gender. A lot of roleplayers play characters of opposing genders too. If you choose to play as the other gender, keep in mind, that you have to act like that. A woman most likely wont be the "cockhungry whore" you dream of but a being with emotions, pride and her own mind and will very likely be pissed of by macho behaviour. If you play a man, keep in mind that men are in many ways different from girls - a bit genderspecific psychology knowledge helps. DO NOT fit in stereotypes - you can play what you want, each person is an individual, but keep in mind that you dont play yourself in a body of the other gender but really another gender which means you have other physical circumstances, likely genderrole and other uprising or status in society. WoW specificly not all races are "equal" in genders. As example, nightelfs are a matriarchal society were men usually have no political power and are expected to take care of food and children while women go hunt and fight. Bloodelfs on the other hand are a highly patriarchal society were its rare that a woman holds any power. Some races have very gender specific roles (nelf, belf, human) expect the same from both genders (orc) or are quite open to let each individual choose its own path (Tauren) That does NOT mean you cant play an influential belf woman but keep in mind that it will be offensive to many belfs and you may end up as outcast and will often struggle with offenses from BOTH genders of your race or others.
Gender also influences the way other players see you, as example, a Nelf female may treat a female of any other race much better then a male of any other race and a female in general should keep in mind, that other characters may try to flirt with her or do some "nasty" stuff - depends on how in debth and realistic you want to play - "adult" stuff like rape and such are usually NOT tolerated EXCEPT the whole group is mature and AGREES to play that. Its absolutely not recommended to delve into such stuff until you have a well known group u know, trust and have a lot of rp experience.
When coming to gender, also keep in mind, that you may have a different view on the world, depending on your gender and a different upbringing which is not to be taken lightly - even if you are a strong willed self sufficient woman, 20 years of people telling you how inferior you are, wont go unnoticed and may be a reason for very amazonlike behaviour or a very touchy personality when it comes to gender roles etc.
Again you can play whatever you want, but if you differ from "Stereotypes" keep an explanation ready why you are different.
Besides, if there is no gender equality that does not mean, that genders would not come along with each other, they just have quite strict genderroles and expectations. In Nelf society women do war and hunting and protect and care for their men, while belf society is the other way round. It also has nothing to do with sexism, its just a different approach to deal with problems and tasks.

Race:
Race is a very important choice as it will affect a lot for your character. Your possible classes, your loyalties, background, behaviour, personality and a lot of other stuff that is racespecific. Keep in mind you are first of all and individual and you can go against "stereotypes" BUT you should explain why, how you do it and it should be a struggle. Like, for Orcs, it is a struggle against their inner "fire" and keep calm when provoked due to their former taint. It doesnt mean you have to rage out all time, but you are by nature hot tempered and if you surpress the urge to punch someone, it should be played as a struggle.
Race also influences your reaction on others, and theirs on you - if you are a troll, dont expect to be accepted and welcomed in silvermoon. You may also see belfs more like dinner then equals. Usually you get along best with members of your own species though some races, like tauren - orc - troll - get very well along together (though their main loyality may still be in their own race) while others - like undead and tauren - may not find any common ground and it will be hard not to be hostile to each other. Remember, the "horde" consists of orc, troll and tauren - belfs are more or less asylants and undead are partners out of need and likely both parties will seperate as soon as they dont need each other anymore.
Race also influences your view on the world. A beautiful forrest in ashenvale may be a holy place to tauren and an unbearable, sick, offensive ugly stinking disgusting something for undead, while a goblin would simply see profit in cutting down the trees.
Same for spoken stuff - an undead likely does not care for honor at all while an orc would rather die then loose honor. if you insult an orc, be prepared for a duell to death. While a tauren may simply ignore the offense or an undead would simply flame back. So keep in mind, that your character may think quite differently than you - indeed, exploring the mind of your character is a lot of fun in roleplay.

Background:
The personal background of your character should have some effort put in it. It should make your character alive. If should cover why you are THAT class and not another, it should cover your past and explain some of your strenghts and weaknesses, your struggles, goals etc. It should explain why you behave like you do, where you got some flaws and so on. The background makes your character alive, covers his religious and political views, makes his view on the world understandable. The background should give you a clear portrait of your character
- does he have preconceptions? which?why?
- does he have family? which? where are they? which boundaries does he have?
- does he agree with his races / factions politics? genderroles? religion? why? / why not?
- how old is he?
- is he religious?
- what are his interests?
- what does he think of other races, factions?
- does he follow a "moralcodex" of some sort? Or the general rules of his society?
- is he egoistic or altruistic?
- how did he grow up and where?
- did he have traumas of any sort? which? how did they affect him?
- does he have quirks or even full scaled derangements?
- what are his goals in life and where did he get them?

Try to keep your character alive and realistic - usually the more realistic a characters is, the more fun it is to play. Yes flaws are a vital part of any characters and should not be missed. They can add a lot of debth and fun.
Stick to your character - you are not supposed to get along with everyone. Just as in real life you will have people who you just cant stand and otherway round. You may still be forced to work with them and find some sort of compromise. Just dont betray your character by letting him adapt to oppinions that are far away from his own. A Tauren will never ever tolerate or accept undead. They are against everything the earthmother stands for, they should be put to final rest and not be friends. Even if Cairne follows Thrall and works with them to some degree, any tauren will try to avoid those guys as much as possible. To acutally befriend an undead as tauren should be something extremely rare that needs heroic effort from the side of the undead.

Personality:
Yes you are an individual. You may fit in some stereotypes, but not in all. You are alive, with own oppinions, goals and flaws. You should, while creating your background, decide on a personality for your character and stick to it. It should not be too rigid tough as it likely will change over time with new experiences (like a human racist may completly rethink his view if his live is saved by a tauren) - you may become bitter, you may solve problems from the past and become happier and so on. But you shouldnt change lightly unless your character has some sort of mental derangement.

Alignment:
Are you good, evil, neutral? Or something entirely different? The Dungeons and Dragons System of Alignment gives a rather good guideline though you should keep in mind, that the world is NOT black and white and your character may have no alignment at all and just react to circumstances (instead of having sort of a moral codex)
Anyway it can help a lot if you keep in mind, that your character at least tries to be rightous (according to his worldview) or if he is completly against his societies rules (and thus, "chaotic") if he tries to help people and be "good" or if he is egoistic or even sadistic (and therefore "evil")

Cliche:
Please dont overdo it. While you should stick to some race and genderspecific stuff, you should never accept all of them. You may be a troll that follows voljin and stopped cannibalism. But you may ask yourself why the hell you should, nelfs are so tasty after all. You may be the arrogant belf noble, but you may be completly loyal and devote towards your superiors or be kind and nice to those orc who you like so much or be ready to lower yourself for your love and such. Dont be a primitive raging orc savage - indeed that cliche likely does not fit any orc in the whole WoW universe.

Lore:
Dont panic, you dont have to read any book or write essays on bloodelf nobility. But it is a very good idea to get familiar with the lore of your own race, so you know what your race is like. History is not really necessary if it dates back more then 50 years but you should have your races mentality and views and religion in mind and know at least some persons of your race. If you play a bloodelf you should have heard of dathremar sunstrider and know a bit about him. If you are a troll, Senjin should be more to you then a city and as orc you should know who durotan was. More helps, but is not really necessary. If you play a young orc that was born after the third war, hammerfall may just be a city to you, while, if playing an older orc, your eyes may get wet and your heart may cry whenever you hear the name. It helps to make yourself familiar with recent history, important characters, mentality / religion, genderroles and political views of your race. Even if you are against them, you should at least know what the generalyl accepted view of your race is. (just like you can be for or against democracy, genderequality, capitalism etc. but you surely know what your country stands for)
Same goes for phrases - it adds a lot of atmosphere if you are able to use simple phrases in your races tongue - Lokthar Ogar shouldnt be a random sound without meaning. If you are an orc you will never say it lightly, and if, you say it with pride and readiness to die in the following minutes. If you are a belf, the words "shindo falah na" may cause you to tremble or even cry as you remember your painfull past. The very name of your race - sindorei, may cause a deep sadness when memories come up how your people changed their name from queldrorei into sindorei.

Also react to characters. As undead Sylvanas isnt just a random NPC its your beloved queen, your saviour, your jesus who freed you from the Lichking. As belf Sylvanas may be someone you feel extremely sorry for, as orc she may be just a distrusted ally, as tauren she is likely an offense to everything you believe in and you will likely just hate her. Go into your character - if you were to meet the head of your state, would you treat him like just another NPC? ^^
It also doesnt hurt to react accordingly to other players. If you are an orc, tauren or troll, a shaman will be a person you respect, maybe envy or even fear. But you WILL act differently towards him just because he is a SHAMAN. You wont just take him lightly. A shaman is more then a priest to modern people, he is priest, doctor and leader in the same person. You wouldnt call your doctor an incompetent idiot while he is treating you, would u?^^
If he is 50 levels above you, he will likely be your superstar. Imagine you started martial arts and meet bruce lee. He is like a superstar in the WoW World. Unless you are lvl 80 urself, you likely wont act as if he is just another guy. If you play as lvl 20 character with 4 lvl 80s imagine being together with Chuck Norris, Julia Roberts, Bill Gates and Danny Devito. They are not just a random group they are fckn awesome.
Depending on what race you play you may act differently tough - an undead is not supposed to respect a shaman or even worship. For an undead a shaman may be disgusting, for a paladin he may be a sorry misguided creature, for a gnome he may be a primitive savage, a relic of times past. For your orc warrior he may be the superpowerfull exalted superhero you must protect with your own life, after all he is much more important then you. And so on.

Realism:
Dive into the world of warcraft. It is a world, very different from our own. The idea of gender equality is non existant in some races and cant be expected. if you are a male nightelf, you are inferior to women, women demand respect and special treatment, they are better then you. If you are a bloodelf female, you wont raise your voice against a male and humbly do what is asked from you. if you are an orc female, males are equal and you do neither expect any special treatment from men, nor will you treat men any other then women.
Keep in mind, that you can be different but it may mean a lot of trouble. of course the paladin matriarch is female, but if you look at the history of high / bloodelfs and royality thats really rare and the reason she is the first paladin has nothing to do with belfs anyway so they just had to leave the position to her.

Keep in mind, that gods, spirits and magic are REAL. You are NOT atheistic and you would never deny magic. You likely are very religious if you play tauren, orc or troll and humbly follow the races philosophy. Someone tainting the earthmother is evil and must be dealt with, you cant just sit by and watch.
Remember, there is no educational schoolsystem in most races. Your troll hunter may have no knowledge at all that has not to do with hunting and his own tribe for the last 20 years. If you are no lore oriented character (mage, priest, shaman) its very likely you dont know much about your races religion, other races or the world in general. You likely will have no idea what an old god is or what titans are. You may never have heard of gnomes and a rifle may be weird voodoo magic to you. It may go so far that you fear a mirror could steal your soul. it does not mean you have to play an idiot, not at all, and you can learn ingame while playing, but its very unlikely your character has much knowledge about various sorts of lore.
Also keep in mind, that your race may tell stories quite differently then others. If you ask an orc about the second war you will very likely hear a completly different story then from humans. A human may point out how gloriously the orcs were crushed under the mighty paladins, while the orc may point out, that the horde was fighting itself and betrayed by its own ppl (1/3 of the army) inmindst the most important battle. A human knight may tell you how valiantly orgrim doomhammer was defeated in battle by a honorable knight, while an orc may tell you that doomhammer was cowardly backstabbed by the lance.

It also helps a lot to add actual emotions to your character. He can be in love, or hate someone, he can be angry about stuff or sad. If your parents got slain by scourge, you may react hostile to undead and so on.

Also consider that you play WITH other characters, not against. even a rivalry is not possible without another player. So try to play nice and fair or else it may happen that no one wants to play with you anymore. Dont play the perfect superhero, its annoying. If you are strong, add some flaws. Get some flavor in your character, make him interesting, multilayered.

Profession:
Is not limited to WoW Proffessions. You can play a lot more then a blacksmith or alchemist. You could "own" an inn in any city and charge players to pay some copper for staying - be a nice host and offer stories and drinks. You could play a bard who writes poems and songs about heroic deeds (please not your own!) you could be a townguard or policeofficer. You could also play a wandering merchant, a storyteller, a healer. In theory you could also play a whore who takes money for some private time but that again is limited to your fellow players likings - in general gore and sex should not be included in "beginner" roleplay - while they, like "adult" themes add a lot of spice and realism, they can also lead to desaster and hurt feelings (real life) if not handled with care.

What can and what cant i include in roleplay?
In theory all that adds debth and fun to the game AND is accepted by your fellow players is acceptable. If people WANT to be the unimportant useless worshippers of your godlike superhero, its ok. If they dont, then dont play one.
It should also be clear, that you stick to "possible" stuff according to gamemechanics. So dont say you killed Deathwing if you didnt. And even if you did, be ready that no one will believe you. it also means you cant change weather as warrior, tough a shaman may, and dont cast arcane spells as priest or healing spells as mage.
Also do not include OOC comments and dont do NOT offend PLAYERS - characters is fine. If your character is insulted, react as character in game and dont take it to your heart - your character was insulted not you, dont be touchy, react ingame.
Some topics that are tabu ooc are ok ingame - racism belonging to game races is not only ok but sort of fitting - after all if all races would think good of each other the whole damn horde - alliance war wouldnt exist so smash that stinking drunkards head, you know the fat greedy dwarf that just destroys nature to dig up some treasures. But dont overdo it, likely your character will be mature enough to know, that not all of one race are the same. After all each race has its heroes and its villains. An orc shouldnt have a big mouth about humans and arthas, after all Nerzhul, the real lich king, is an orc, and you belf, better shut up about orcs serving the legion, just look at your king ^^
Adult themes (sex, gore, rape, torture etc.) are a difficult matter and should only be introduced after ALL players agreed ooc. It is also to be handled with care as you can easily dig up wounds (real life) or destroy the roleplay for someone else comptletly. (while i know a girl who used roleplayed rape to deal with a rape that happened to her in real life, raping a character very likely will destroy the game, and like torture should just not be brought up unless all participants want it)
Also keep in mind, that you have to stick to the universe you play in. You cant just add elements from other games. The multiverse from D&D does not belong in WoW and Voldemort is no WoW Warlock. Gandalf isnt chasing a ring and the Navi are no WoW race. Also, dont do things that simply can not be done in WoW. You didnt destroy dalaran and you did not burn stormwind.
Also, its no good idea to claim things that ruin the game for others - so you didnt kill the LK and you didnt slay the alliance leaders. It would completly destroy the opportunity for the group to do it together. You may have killed some rare mob or epic monster tough but no "major" one like arthas or kaelthas or illidan etc. Oh and you are not best friends with Thrall or Cairne. Even as lvl 80 character its likely the faction leaders barely know you, though they may have heard your name. But remember, they work together with hundreds of ppl, unless you do daily quests with them its unlikely they really know you. Minor leaders are, as lvl 80 character, possible though you shouldnt overdo it - you may have fought side by side with saurafang but more likely have been one of many soldiers serving under him. Also dont abuse titles or ingame stuff - yes you need to kill 10k people to become highlord of the horde, but really, how realistic is it to kill 10k people? You may just be aknowledged as great warrior and tactician and may have been promoted for great valor but you surely didnt get promoted for killing 10k enemies...better say you fought in many great battles. If you need to claim some epic unrealistic feat, go on but expect other players to simply not believe you. If a soldier says he killed 1000 enemies, you would rather send him into an asylum or buy him another beer than taking this serious.
So better stick to feats you achieved withing one "life" - meaning without dieing. And i am positive no one ever killed more then 50 players without dieing. While death isnt permament in WoW by gamemechanic, it should be played as it would - since a lot of great characters in wow DIED and were NOT resurrected, so fear death - yes a priest may ressurrect you but thats an epic awesome and rare feat. More likely you are dead forever - there is no spirit healer reviving u. Death should be serious - here the gamemechanic ruins the roleplay as "casual throwing life away" is plain stupid - after all, some of the greatest heroes are DEAD and never come back. Grom wasnt just resurrected by Thrall and (with cata) Cairne wasnt just cured of his poison etc. If Sylvanas could have simply walked to a spirit healer for ressurrection, the whole undead faction would not exist. So act like death would be permament.

1. Take the time to really create a character you want to play, make sure you know about your race and society ingame. In Roleplay you should not pick a character for looks but for story. Tauren may not be the best looking characters but they may fit your playstyle much more then the belfs.
2. Make sure you understand the differences between WoW game mechanics and roleplaymechanics. In WoW lore not a single character was ever resurrected (besides as undead and thats raised not resurrected)
3. Make sure, you can make a difference between player knowledge and your characters knowledge. Until you play as a 10000 year old undead its very likely you will never have witnessed something great. You surely dont know about the fight between Arthas and Illidan as neither of them would have told you and no one besides those 2 knows about that. You also have no knowledge about the future - though you may have heard rambles on the street or may have had a vision if you are shaman or druid etc.
4. Be sure you like your character and find it interesting. its no use to play, if you are not in the mood or have a character you dont like. And if you decided on one, stick to his personality. Like you wont change your oppinions per day, your character wont either.
5. Try to play a realistic character. For your character, WoW IS THE REAL WORLD. So make sure he acts accordingly.
6. Understand the differences between our modern world and the WoW world. WoW characters aint educated in school, so likely only know very little. They aint used to democracy and may find the very idea disgusting or just laughable. Equality between races, genders or proffessions does not exist in most races. Orcs have slaves and most Orcs are for slavery, Belfs are very patriarchal and a hunter aint as important as a priest. A Warrior is just another warrior but a Paladin is special etc. Racism is flourishing and a vital part of the world. There is no social program (in most races) and you have to survive somehow. The world is tough. In special as a belf you wont be a whiny sissy who will cry all time. After all you endured you likely are very bitter and sadistic, or completly broken. As orc, killing is nothing special and as undead you dont care about hurting others at all. Sure you can be different but realise, that a whiny soft belf wont be accepted in his own society and for sure not in orcish society. It doesnt mean you have to play the extremly tough killing machine who has no emotions. Just realise, that the world itself is quite rough and a sissy wont survive long in it so you need to find ways to deal with trauma, cause if trauma breaks you, you are likely dead. Again - you should have emotions and trauma should never go unnoticed - after loosing his family your character may have become a paladin of holy retribution to avenge, he may have become a lonely hunter to forget, he may have became a fierce warrior whos goal is to follow his lost comrades into the afterlife in a glorious way...It also does not mean you cant be happy, indeed you may seek happyness more then anything else to ease the pain and forget your sorrows. Its a fine line . just imagine how YOU would react in case of your character.

Another question: Age

The age of your character may be much more important then you think, depending on race. While all adult trolls will have been part of their first encounter with the orcs and therefore all interesting Darkspear events in the last 100 years, same for Tauren, other races can choose between a much wider roleplay arsenal.

As example - if you are an Orc, you can have, depending on age, a completly differend worldview. If you are 80+ You did participate in the slaughtering of the Draenei and drank from the Blood of Mannoroth willingly. You likely know Varok and Drekthar personally and fought alongside them in 3 great wars. You will be traumatised and influenced a LOT by your history - like Varok you may refuse to eat pork as it reminds you of the slaughtering of the Draenei or have much worse derangements. An 80+ orc does know little of the old ways (he would have to be around 150 years to remember them) and was raised and lived in an extremely brutal, warlike world. Its quite sure, that he hates humans a LOT and may kill Nelfs on sight and have a lot of "old fashioned" ideas like slavery, killing and war but he may also have seen to much and do all for peace he can. He can, in theory know most of the important Orc characters personally and will be a veteran himself, earning him a quite high status in society.
If you are fresh 18 or 20 years of age, you likely dont know anything else then imprisonment by humans, or if you were born to the frostwolf, may not understand the other orcs grudgesm corruption or guilt at all and may be, like garosh,lusting for war as you never experienced it...

Undead have, like Belfs, HUGE possibilities for background story - since they can in theory date back to very ancient times. A belf of 10k years age may even have fought Sargeras abd Azhara in the war of ancients and experienced the change from nelf to helf personally. Undead may have been some famous but fallen hero of old. In theory you can be each human or helf hero that doesnt show up ingame (like Uther Lightbringer) you could even be a former king of any human kingdom.

Orcs:

Orcs may be the most alien race for us modern people as the people they are based on are far away in time and the world since then changed a LOT. So really getting into the orcish mind may be difficult for a beginner in roleplay, as orcs dont know many concepts we adapted so readily like good and evil, enemy and friend, mine and yours. The idea of property was very different to them as was hierarchy and all other stuff we take for granted. On the other hand they lived some concepts that are extremely alien and likely disturbing to us, like selfmutilation, bloodsacrifice and a strict code of honor, were honor was worth far more then life. So i take my time to explain the orcs with a lot of details as orcs maybe the most customizable race there is and orcs have the biggest backgroundstory of all races, as they were in the very first Warcraft game and many books were written about orcish characters.
Also remember that this guide is written from an orcish view for orcish players. EACH race in WoW has advantages and drawbacks in roleplay, each has some serious strengths for playing it and each race can be a lot of fun to play, tough some races better suit a character then others. If you want to play a viking like noble savage, orcs may fit much better then gnomes and if you want to play a noble of high education, a bloodelf will be a far better choice then a troll. Just for information - yes the "real" vikings resemble the orcs well in many ways to people often have a completly wrong picture in their head regarding to orcs and vikings alike - did you know that vikings were the cleanliest people of their time? The best educated? That women had no where else as much rights? that vikings valued knowledge over stength? And the most shocking - being drunk was considered a huge humiliation and mead on average had just 1 - 2% alcohol in it? And that meat was considered bad food and they valued cheese as very good food? And maybe the most surprising - that a "vikingr" one who plundered was a criminal and most "vikings" were actually armed farmers, fishers and merchants? And like that, the picture of orcs usually has completly nothing to do with how orcs really are portrayed in lore so lets start:

General stuff:

First of all, drop all biases. "The" Orc is non existant at all. Orcs vary a lot not only from faction to faction but also from clan to clan and individual to individual. What one clan may be all about, another clan may simple not care at all for. So realise, that orcs are very different. First of all there are many FACTIONS of orcs - the typical player orc is an orc of the "New Horde" faction, serving under Thrall and stands for peace and harmony with nature and the elements, wants to live in peace and follow its ways of living without interference. But there is also the "True Horde" (aka Dark Horde) faction under command of Rend Blackhand, which unites various orcish clans, forrest trolls and Ogers for whom the second war has never ended and who still fight the humans with fervor and wont stop until they conquered all human nations. They are very warlike.
And there is the "Felhorde" faction which unites various felorc clans who serve the burning legion without question and have the only goal of conquering land and enslave other races.
But thats not enough, there are also those orcs who serve Illidan in outland and try to crush the legion and rebuild the orcish way of life on draenor, under command of Zuluhead the Whacked from dragonmaw clan.
And of course, there still is the shadowcouncilfaction lead by the stormreaver clan who try to rebuild the horde as it was in the first war.
You think thats it? Wrong. There is also the cultist faction of orcs, who worship and follow Nerzhul (so to speak, still) and want to be raised as deathknights serving the one true orcleader in eternity, crushing the legion for what they have done to their people.
And finally, we have the burning blade faction, which is sort of "felhorde light" they are willing to serve the legion but only in exchange for power, payed soldiers so to say and they wont fall for demonblood like the felhode (which also includes the twisted bloodelf guys) And to add spice, all these factions are at war with each other, each one claiming to be the one real horde and the others are either powerhungry honorless fools, bloodthristy barbarians, cowardly weaklings, traitors, slaves or something like that, depending on where you stand. Thralls new horde is often seen as a bunch of sissys who are weak and cowardly and the humans dogs, while a new Horde orc may view the felhode in exactly the same way with demons.
Oh i forgot the Maghar, who are basicly another faction of orcs, who preserved the "ancient" orcish ways, tough over time they allied with thralls new horde.

So you see, there are many sorts of "orc" - and we didnt even talk about clans! While the average player will most likely be a frostwolf or warsong orc, its totally possible that he comes from any clan, and since orc clans raise and fall very often you can even create your very own clan your character comes from, and you can create clanspecific behaviour, worldviews, honorcodes, quirks and stuff. No other race grants that much freedom in charactercreation. Still you should keep in mind, that all orcs share some stuff and im not talking about tusks. While the "demonic taint" is only unknown to the maghar, the various clans have very different ways of dealing with it and while all orcs are all about honor, the view of what is honorable may be very different from one clan to the other. Remember - maghar are a FACTION not a clan - they were made up by sick orcs of ALL clans who were infected with the red pox. So in theory each clan can be present in the maghar if you want to play an uncorrupted orc. But be ready to explain your greenish skincolor then

Names:

Orcish names consist of 2 parts - a first name, and a last name. The first name is given at birth to the liking of the parents, the last name is EARNED later in life. While orcs may share their firstname, the lastname is UNIQUE and always only worn by one single orc at a time. If a lastname passes on, the former wielder must be dead. The lastname does not require any blood relation between former and current wielder like it was with Garrosh Hellscream who was named after his fathers great deeds, Grommash Hellscream but can be with 2 completly unrelated Orcs as well as with "Slagfury" where the wielder of that powerfull weapon took its name as hist last name and the wielders often were not related to each other but rather killed each other.
A lastname can be granted by either possession of a great artifact (slagfury, doomhammer) or by a great deed done (wolfmane, destroyer) or by a physical feat (deadeye, metallfist) or a special behaviour (spinebreaker, blooddrinker). usually a last name is earned and given in a great ceremony so all know the name. While some orcs keep both names (Rend Blackhand, Killrog Deadeye, Neeru Fireblade, Orgrim Doomhammer etc.) its common to powerfull orcs, to drop their firstname and are only to be known with their lastname (Nerzhul, Ghuldan, Jubeithos, Drekthar...) As human example, great conquerors of mankind are often only known with their first or lastname - julius cesar was actually named Caius and Julius was his familyname. (and Cesar a title meaning "emperor")
An exception is Thrall, as Thrall is a HUMAN name given to him and simply means "Slave". Thralls real firstname is Goel and his lastname would likely be Doomhammer (as he inherited weapon, armor and warchief rank from Orgrim, besides Orgrim taught him a lot about orcs), but for unknown reasons he stayed with Thrall.
For Orcs its rather difficult to keep track of ancestry lines as the children usually bear completly different lastnames then their parents and 2 orcs with the same lastname may not be related at all. Just to add, marriage does not change the lastname, each partner keeps his earned lastname. Passing on a lastname to the next generation (if not an artifact) is often seen as an insult and humiliation as it, like in Garroshs case, simply means that the child did not do any great deeds and is simply overshadowed by his parent.

Genderroles:

In orchish society, genderroles are non existant. The same is expceted from both genders and both genders can achieve the same and there is respect to both. A male warrior would never question or doubt a female commander or treat her in any other way then a male commander. On the other hand, women do not expect any special treatment and may be offended and feel insulted if treated "nicely" or "carying". Indeed, an understanding warm hearted man who cares for her emotions may be outright disgusting to her and a man helping her carying may make her to force a duell for the insult. While no female warchief has existed so far (actually there only have been 3 so far anyway) its totally possible for a female orc to become warchief or anything else. (Like the leader of the maghar and sort of their warchief is greatmother Geyah)
Both genders are expected to hunt, to fight, to care for children, show responsibility, hunt for honor and so on. Women are comrades and partners in every aspect and while physical differences are obvious, both genders are treated the same way, have the same rights and duties. A macho flirting to an orcish woman with disrespect may very likely get his arm broken or his balls crunched. While a male with too much respect may simply be ignored.

Partnership: Sort of a subpoint. Orcs usually take one single partner for their whole life. Cheating is complelty untolerated and would be equal to suicide as the sentence is death. They are highly loyal to each other and usually die fighting side by side, care for each other (but not too much so no one gets soft) and do everything together. before picking a partner tough, many orcs may simply follow their "urges" and have sex with whoever plays along tough unwanted pregnancy automaticly leads to a partnership being formed, as duty demands it.

Lifestyle:

Orcs like it rough. In every aspect. Orcs are all about strength and toughness and in order not to soften up, live a harsh and difficult life on purpose. They SEEK wastelands to live in and feel most comfortable in hostile, barren lands like desserts, icy glaciers, showy mountains or places that are inhabited by extremely dangerous creatures. An ingame message of a female orc to her superior says "We found the perfect land. Water is very scarce and we have to fight for the rare watersupplys with alliance and beasts alike. The dessert is extremely hot and rocky and dragons roam the wild. Who ever gets weak will die in hours and i would not like it any other way."
Therefore, orcs usually shun comfort that is not necessary. While they do sleep in beds, they are usually made of wood and stone and rough leather and their houses are more for storing stuff then actually living inside them.

- Dressing:
They wear what is practical and usefull and dont care about looks. Tough in special female orcs tend to wear "light" sexy armor to attract partners if they have none. On the other hand, also male orcs are known to roam the land in pants, sometimes. But in both cases that may more likely have a religious background of valor, strength and fearlessness rather then a sexual background.

- Food:
Orcs are carnivores. While orcs CAN digest plants, they usually would rather eat dirt. They dont care about taste or cooking skills and prefer their meat either raw or burned. they dont add spices or sauce and prefer "rough" red meat over white meat or fish.

- Racism:
Orcs are not "born" racists but as orc its quite easy to become one. While orcs ususally respect and honor ALL forms of life, they, through experience and preconseption, have often quite racist believes about other races. (like all do) While there are quite some orcs who shun racism and try to unite all races in peace (like Thrall) others are highly racist (like Grommash) Racism is quite a difficult topic as orc, as on the one hand your leaders are for peace and equality between the races, on the other hand you experience a lot of hatred and bias from other races (in special alliance). While your religion tells you to honor all creatures and spirits, regardless of origin, a lot of races simply rape all you believe in and disgrace the spirits.
While you, at one side, feel ashamed for your races past (the enslavement under the burning legion and demonic taint) you, on the other side, cant help but to feel superior. After all, most of the most powerfull creatues in the WoWverse are orc - Nerzhul the Lichking and likely the most powerfull being next to Sargeras: Orc. Guldan the creator of deathknights and the very first warlock who crushed entire worlds: Orc. Broxxigar the very first being in the whole cosmos to ever wound Sargeras: Orc. Thrall the (later) one who killed Deathwing: Orc. Grommash Hellscream, the first being to actually KILL a demigod: Orc. Nekros Skullcrusher, the one who made Alextraza and the whole red dragonflight his slaves: Orc. Zuluhead wo enslaved the Netherdrakes: Orc And not to forget the Legion put a lot of effort into recruiting the Orcs as Sargeras himself was sure, only with help of the orcs could he conquer Azeroth. And would it not have been for the orcs, he would have succeeded. And dont forget the most powerfull rogue ever, Garona Halforcen - as the name suggest, half orc and the other race wasnt worth mentioning, seemingly. And there is the maybe most badass character in Wowverse Rexxar who is, like all Moknathal - half orc (and half oger)
While Orcs usually get well along with Tauren and Trolls, those races may still be too "weak" to count as equals among orcs. And all the other races are inferior anyway with exception of the humans. Humans, as hated as they may be, are respected for their strength in orcish society and may be, next to Tauren and Trolls, the only race Orcs can really respect.
That doesnt mean you could not have friendships with other, or even Alliance races - just because some of your people are racist it doesnt mean you have to be. Indeed you can find honor and strength in any creature if you look for it. Its just harder to find in some beings then in others. And then remember, that orcs grow up and are entertained with tales about great deeds from mighty orcs....what did other races achieve anyway? Also keep in mind that you likely havent heard about Guldan or Nerzhul cause their tales are tales of shame but you may have heard glorified versions of Orgrim Doomhammer who wiped out the shadowcouncil...and while you may have heard tales about Cairne Bloodhoofs great battles against the centaur or Senjins fights against the murlocs, it pales compared to the tale of Broxxigar who singlehandly killed a thousand demons...

Religion:

Orcs are a very faithfull, spiritual, religious people. Very rare and exiled is the orc, who does not honor the spirits of his ancestors or the elements. Outcast is the orc, who does not seek harmony with nature and his surroundings, and mocked is the orc, who doesnt seek wisdom.
For an orc, the spirits are holy, and to be revered. Orcs are animists, that means, for an orc, EVERYTHING has a spirit, a soul. May it be a sentinet being like orc or human, may it be animal, plant, item (sword, armor, spoon) or rock. Each thing in existance has a spirit and demands respect.
Orcs also believe, that the visible "physical" world is bound to and penetrated by the spiritual world. Spirits are very real beings that actually engage in mortal affairs and can be beneficial or malign to living beings. For an orc, death is not the end but a door into another reality, another life. The ancestral spirits may be called for protection, advise or even direct help and they may cause harm to the orc and his people if not respected. Same goes for all other spirits. An orc may kill a deer to eat, but he will honor and thank its spirit.
For orcs, the spirit world is just as real as the physical world and spirits may enter and act in the physical world.
Orcs have a very strong bond to their ancestors and often live like they would still be there (and they are) by speaking with them, giving them pieces of food on a plate and keeping a free place for them in ceremonies etc.
But they also are very connected to the spirits of the elements, as the elements rule all things on the physical world.
Orcs try to live in harmony with their surroundings, never taking more then they need to and thanking those who gave their life for them (including cut trees)
An orc will not lightly take life, but he also wont hold back a single second if he deems int necesarry to take.

- Ritual and ceremony:
Orcs do not have many ceremonies tied to a certain time or date, the only one known is the ceremony at mount oshugun to honor the ancestors. But they do have a lot of ceremonies on demand, like the ceremony of giving name, the ceremony of adulthood, ceremonys for reaching rank and status, marriages, ceremonies for a good hunt, a glorious battle, victory, help from the spirits and so on.
Rituals usually include thanking the spirits and sacrificing food to them but may also include blood sacrifice and selfmutilation. A example, on achieving adulthood and therefore acceptance in the clan, the "bleeding hollow" orcs pluck out one of their eyes and the "shattered hand" orcs crush their passive hand. The "black tooth grin" orcs take a lighter approach and smash out one of their front teeth. While by far not all clans include such practises, they are respected and never laughed at.

- The role of shamans:
Spiritual leaders of any sort (druid, priest) are respected by orcs in general but shamans are truly revered. An orc shaman is already a superstar just because he actually is a shaman. Only a few orcs have the qualities to become shamans in the first place, and even less have the abilities to really reach that goal and even less survive the tests. A shaman is considered an enigma, a very wise and extremely powerfull and may be envyed, revered or even feared. After all they can heal wounds and resurrect dead, change the weather, throw lightning and lava at their foes, talk to spirits, see the future and far away places and are decent and very fierce warriors. Even without his magic an enhancement shaman would be a very dangerous foe and with his magic he equals a demigod.
Shamans are usually welcomed everywhere and while they are not the worldly leaders of the orcs, their advice is never ignored nor are their words taken lightly. Indeed they are often sought by clanchiefs and average people alike and many are ready to take a long and hard jorney just to hear his words of wisdom.
Shamans are healers, guides, friends and parentlike figures, ideals to look up to and to protect with the own life. Shamans lead ceremonies and speak to the spirits on behalf of their community but they are NOT priests who follow dogma. They encourage their people to think on their own, and help them comunicating with the spirits rather then just telling the answer. They do not encourage dogma but rather help in the personal ascension of each individual.

Philosophy:

Orcs usually grow up fast and tend to have a lot of children, so orcish population grows very fast and the duells to death after an insult are sort of birthcontrol as otherwise, orcs would barely find enough ressources to feed all of them. Therefore orcs are quick to kill and used to pain and dont hesitate to take extreme measures, if they see it fitting. They wont see death as something to be taken lightly tough.
Orcish philosophy is pragmatic, survivaloriented and may be quite alien to players. Orcs are ALL ABOUT strength, honor and wisdom.

- Strength:
in every aspect is respected and expected - prowess in combat is much revered as intellect and intelligence. Indeed, strength to an orc does more mean a strong will, an unshakeable soul and a clear mind rather then physical strength and muscles. While of course, physical strength is respected, mental strength is revered. (Thats why shamans are considered much more important than warriors and why the physicly weaker women are treated as equals) So even a warrior will seek wisdom and knowledge and try to learn a lot about the world.
Strength influences the whole way of orcish lifestyle. To stay strong, orcs put their bodies under dangerous and harsh conditions, to gain strength, they complete tests that are often lifethreatening. To become strong they learn and travel, to improve strength, they battle giant beasts and fearsome enemies. They strife to overcome their own fears and weaknesses and want to become stronger with each passing day. As a result, weakness is considered a grave liablity and will not only lead to mockery and loose of honor but will very likely lead to the worst fate for an orc - exile. So even if badly hurt, depressed and stressed no orc will show any signs of pain or tears as long as possible. Indeed not even the partner (wife, husband) may ever see the other cry. Maybe in SPECIAL the partner wont. Weakness is the worst humiliation for an orc and may ecen be a deathsentence. Upon birth, the newbourn child is hold by a shaman over a river and examined. If the child is welcomed by the spirits and looks healthy and strong, its given to the parents who proclaim it as theirs. If the child looks frail or sick or does not have the blessing of the spirits, its drowned. "You should have been drowned" is one of the worst insults known to an orc.

- Honor:
Honor is what orcish society is all about. All orcs, regardless of clan or faction, prize honor over everything else. They strife to bring honor first to their clan, then their faction (horde) and last to themselves (nevertheless any deed done for the clan will also bring personal honor) They value honor more then life. An orc would rather die then loose honor. Killing an orc who lost honor or is about to loose honor is viewed as an act of mercy. Ingame, i was asked what i (in character) would do if my son joined the fel horde. For an orc there is only be one answer - kill him. And the reason would be - LOVE. A loving parent would never let his child loose honor or be a slave, he would rather kill it himself then watching his offspring suffer a loss of honor.
Honor is what rules orcish society in every aspect - personal honor decides which status you have, which military or religious rank you gain, how you are treated by others, which partners you can choose and much more. Honor is the "orcish currency" and a person of honor may indeed be welcomed in any inn and eat and drink as he likes without paying a single copper. A weaponsmith may deem it such an honor that this person wields HIS weapons, that he may craft legendary weapons without charging the hero a single coin.
Hospitality is the greatest honor an orc can bestow upon another - its the reason orcs and tauren became unsewering allies, as the tauren welcomed the orcs, who were complete strangers, in their lands and offered them shelter, guide and food without wanting anything in return. Therefore the orcs are bound by honor and duty to help the tauren as good as they possibly can.
A woman of honor may have difficulties finding a partner, as lesser men would not dare to romance her, she may be so highly respected, that most men would refuse to sleep with her, out of sheer respect of her accomplishments.
What is deemed honorfull is usually very different from clan to clan in detail, but there are quite some general ideals that increase honor in all orcish clans: Prowess in battle, all forms of mental, physical and emotional strength, knowledge, wisdom, travels (seeing the world), slaying fierce enemies and beasts, hunting skills, mastery of proffessions (more then any other: Blacksmithing, followed by leatherworking), mastery of weapons, valor in battle, known tales and skills as bard, victories in tournaments and contests, having a equally or higher "honored" partner, children that have high honor, pupils that reach high honor, showing no signs of fear or pain, hard work, victory over own weaknesses (even a whiny sissy may become respected and honored for overcoming these traits) military tactics, victories and keeping up the moralcode (but that one really may differ a LOT between clans. One clan may think its good to enslave and abuse conquered beings, while others may deem that most unhonorable. One clan may approve of an orc never getting married and conquering many beds, another clan may deem that immature and weak. Once clan may approve of diplomacy and peace treaties, others may deem that a grave weakness and cowardly behaviour and so on)

- Wisdom:
Wisdom is sought by all orcs, regardless of gender, age, profession or class. Being wise is highly valued, tough the ways of accomplishing wisdom are many - some orcs travel a lot, others interact a lot with other species, some try to find wisdom in the art of battle, others commune with spirits, some even study and read books. But all orcs seek to increase their wisdom - after all, when they grow old, wisdom will be the only thing that makes them valuable for the clan and an orc without value to his people is a dead orc - either by being exiled or suicide. Not beeing needed is the worst form of existance for an orc. The Maghar, when they were sick, were treated as being already dead and some orc stated that "they are of no more use and should die quickly" and another that "they are no orcs anymore" and indeed, wisdom was te only thing that made some maghar survive.

- Money:
Orcs have little use for money themselves and prefer to exchange wares instead of accumulating wealth or coins. Orcs only use money to interact with other races. Inside orcish society your currency is honor and duty. If you have high honor, others will simply give you what you want and need freely but in return you are honorbound to repay them in any way, may it be with wares, protection, help or entertainment or any other sort of repaying. Accumulating wealth is not considered honorable and usually no path an orc would follow as ways to earn money often are ways that lead to a loss of honor (greed itself is pretty much a huge blow to ones honor) If you give someone a present and he accepts it, you can expect that he will repay you, but its likely in some way you didnt expect. If the gap in honor is huge, you should not expect any sort of payback in return, as the sheer honor of helping the hero is considered payment enough. Of course, that you are actually deemed worthy to do something for the hero increases your personal honor and is therefore worth more then any form of payment.

- Posessions:
While orcs have sort of an understanding of "yours and mine" its by far less solid then we modern people know it. Orcs dont take things for granted or belonging to only them. Physical things like food, shelter, clothing and all sorts of stuff does not belong to a single orc but all living creatures. Its given by the spirits and belongs to the spirits so all things, including magical powers, are BORROWED and cant be seen as a posession or a right to keep them. You have to give them back anyway and they are meant for being shared.
While Armor and weapons are usually meant for a single person (and crafted to their physical traits for fitting) orcs share usually about everything. Even houses are rather granted by society - they are built together and given to those who need them most, respectively, the elder or families. The clanchief is usually in charge of granting orcs posessions of the clan. Orcs work as clan and not as individuals. An orc builds a house for the clan, not for himself, and if the clan decides he needs it most, he will get it.
Therefore greed, corruption and abuse are usually prevented. Quarrels over posession are often also not present and thievery isnt really a way to accumulate stuff. Often altruistic giving away to others may get you much more "wealth" then egoistic horting of treasures.

- Good and evil:
While its hard to imagine the burning legion as not being evil, if you really want to portrait an orc well, you have to leave behind the concept of good and evil completly. There is no evil creature and there is no good creature. The world is not black and white, it is colorfull and knows a lot of shades. Good and evil are mere "human" names based on personal evolvement but no generally fitting statemants or truths or even laws. A lion that hunts a zebra is evil from view of the zebra. For its children, the lion is good and the lion himself may just not care at all about it as its his nature to do so. Sho who is right? No one and all. Good and evil depend on your involvement but are never general laws or forces. Elemental spirits can be malign and they can be beneficial for the orc and his clan, the very same spirit may be both at the same time. But orcs would never call a being evil. or good. In nature everything is hin harmony and everything has its place. Without death, life would not be possible. Without shadow, light would kill, without night, day would have no meaning. Without fire life could not exist. Without malign forces, beings would become weak and corrupted themselves. Without the burning legion and the scourge, peace between the races would never be achievable. While orcs sure have enemies and beings they hate, they would not term them evil or themselves good. In special orcs know, how fine the line betweed those words is as, by their very nature, they are torn between honor and corruption and it is this struggle, that causes some orcs to fall so deep, but is also the cause why some orcs raise so high. Without challenge, no improvement. Without barriers, no growth. Orcs have a natural understanding of this and as a result, they do not excuse for their actions, never. On the other side, they never want an excuse from someone else. An orc thinks that a being always does, what it, from its viewpoint, at the current moment, the best thing to do. Excusing for something that you think is / thought was right, is a weakness, and therefore never done and never expected. Orcs are not resentful - as shown in the past they have no problems to ally themselves with their former enemies (like with the bloodelfs) if circumstances change.

Society:

As i said orcish society is all about honor gain, and the ammount of honor you have influences almost every aspect in your life as orc - social status, rank, wealth, love, "insurance" in case of illness or getting old, how your kids are treated and so on. Orcish society is on one side quite hierarchical on the other hand quite open. That means, while social rankings do exist, they have (above peon) very little influence in actual interaction with each other. While highlord Saurafang surely earns a lot of respect and is revered, it doesnt mean he would be snobistic or arrogant, indeed he will drink with his men as if he was a mere soldier and his men, while revering him, may still make jokes with him and tease him with his quirks. While Thrall is warchief, he still is very close to his people and loves to stay close to them as friend. Conqueror Krenna may be feared by her men, but they are still bound in friendship with each other. The ranks would be:

Slave: A slave is usually a non orc of any (usually hostile) race, tough orcish slaves are known (orcs who lost their honor as example). Slaves are used as working class who do all the unhonorable but necessary stuff like cleaning, mining, lumberjacking and such stuff. They are deemed unworthy beings and usually wont get any attention besides instructioning them. Orcs of the new horde will NOT abuse slaves as abusing the weak is seen as weakness and therefore results in a lack of honor. Slavery is not forbidden, tough not encouraged at all.

Peon: A peon is little above a slave and always orc. Peons usually do the work if slaves arent avalaiable and if there are slaves, they oversee them and do the slightly more honorfull work (like actual lumberjacking and not sharpening the tools) A peon is considered a "non orc" and a lesser "subrace" - anyone who wasnt able to accumulate honor until adulthood or didnt pass (but survive) the test of adulthood is a peon. Though peonship is not without hope - through work you become stronger, more mature, maybe even wiser. You can serve the clan and with hard work, may earn your status as clansmember. Until then, peons, while rarely treated bad, are often overlooked or ignored and more treated like pets then sentinent beings.

Child: Until the test of adulthood is taken, an orc, no matter his age, is considered a child and as such, has little responsibilites or dutys besides doing what its told and listening to its elders, but also has little rights. Its basicly as with our modern children, just the educational methods may seem quite rough as they are raised with weapontraining, hunting and such stuff and their test do adulthood usually involves hunting down and killing a rather dangerous animal that could kill the child. In days of old, on Draenor, orcish children hunted talbuk, nowadays they hunt boars, scorpions or kodo instead (for the new horde)

"Lower class": The lower class orcs are usually adult orcs, that follow a profession that is not considered honorable and therefore looked down at by society. This includes rogues, warlocks, whores, merchants and the like, though warlocks are viewed as lower then dirt and rogues are only slightly above. While they are tolerated, they are barely ever shown hospitality and usually have a bad standing inside the clan. Thats why some clanlike organisations for those professions formed and take members from all other clans who follow their profession. They are not to be mistaken for criminals. Criminals who do damage the clan are usually enslaved, exiled or killed.

Clansmember: The average tribesmember. Thats most likely, you. Hunters, warriors, fishermen, farmers, tailors, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, innkeepers, bards - you name it. Clansmembers are fully accepted individuals with many rights. They have a right to speak on their own behalf to the chief and may vote on various topics. While the chief formally doesnt have to agree with majority descicions, he usually does. The Clansmembers work for the clan and for their honor and try to have a good orcish life.

"Upper class": The upper class clansmembers are usually elders who became wise with the years, have accumulated a lot of honor or did some heroic feats. They have even more rights then normal clansmembers and are usually taken very seriously with what they say, besides they are often offered special protection and help. Shamans are automaticly treated as upper class members.

Leadership: The leadership usually consists of a chief and a shaman. While the chief holds the worldly power and has the last word on every topic, the leading shaman of the tribe acts as his advisor and it happened quite often, that the chief was more a figur that was controlled by the shaman. Usually a chief is expected tp respect the shamans views and to colaborate with the spirits, but his main interest should always be the clan as a whole and so he is free to decide whatever he wants, no matter what the shamans think of it. The chief is very often a former clansmember who was, through heroic deeds and accumulation of honor, considered "special" and worthy to lead the clan. A chief is in most cases elected by the upper class members or a council of shamans, but some clans are known to pass the title of chief to the one who is able to defeat the present chief in combat. Thats how Rexxar accidently became chief of a clan without ever wanting that position (though to be fair, you have to say it was a clan of ogers who adapted the orcish clansystem in the second war)

Usually this would be the end of the road. But in times of grave danger for the entire race, a clan overlapping structure is born. We know this phenomenon as "Horde"

Inside a horde, military ranks are given (that usually would not be needed) and the clan social standing becomes much less important. While no peon would be accepted as warrior, its possible that a lower class clansmember takes the lead over an upper class member. Chiefs usually stay in charge of their own clans as military generals but serve under approved leaders - highlords. And the "big boss" is known as "warchief" and has the last word on everything and is usually the chieftain of the most powerfull clan.
In times of war, shaman become less important and have to rise in military ranks like everyone else by following orders, showing valor and do heroic deeds in combat. Tough many shaman do never engage in the military system, and stay advisors, healers and scryers, as civilists.

A special note on society are wolves. Wolves are companions of orcs since the oldest days and in all hordes and clans. The wolf is usually considered a fellow warrior, a comrade, not a pet or mount. They are highly respected and orcs take good care of them. They hunt together, fight together and defend each other. The orcs bond with wolfs may be the closest bond the race has with others. For an orc, his wolf companion(s) is / are family

Stuff you should know as orc:

Nerzul: Once, the highest ranked shaman. Was deceived by demons and tricked into mobilising the orcs into slaughtering the Draenei. When he realised his deeds he turned against the legion but it was too late. Was later tortured by demons and made into the Lichking. His newest vessel (posessed body) is that of Arthas Menethil.

Guldan: The one who actually is to blame for the fall of the orcs. He pacted with demons, tricked the orcs into becoming demonic slaves, used the unknowing Blackhand as puppet to lead the orcs into the arms of the legion. Was the very first and most powerfull warlock ever, got killed by Orgrim Doomhammer.

Blackhand the Destroyer: The original warchief of the first horde ever formed. Chief of Blackrock clan, very fierce warrior., who crushed the human kingdoms in the first war and conquered stormwind. Deeper knowledge: ended up being a puppet for Guldan

Orgrim Doomhammer: Singlehandly wiped out most of the shadow council, after learning about their evil schemes and their fault in leading the orcs from the ancient ways of shamanism into the wretched warlock magic. He also killed Blackhand and became the second warchief who fell in battle when freeing captured orcs together with thrall war at Hammerfall by a lance that was rammed in his back.

Thrall (Goel Doomhammer): Well i guess you all pretty much know about thrall. His parents were murdered when he was a little child, he was taken prisoner by humans, raised as gladiator at durnholde, escaped, freed the captured orcs from the second war, learned shamanism from Drekthar and founded the new Horde.

Saurafang the elder: Highlord of the Horde, second in command and pretty much the military leader of the Horde, a fierce warrior and brother to Broxxigar

Broxxigar: timetraveller who fought in the war of the ancient, killed a thousand demons and was the first being in the cosmos that ever wounded Sargeras.

Grommash Hellscream: As chief of the Warsong clan stationed at the dark portal to defend it, was overwhelmed by alliance forces and later befriended and tought Thrall. Became tainted and pacted with the legion but redeemed himself and freed all orcs from their demonic bond to the Pit Lord Mannoroth, when he killed him. Died after the battle from his wounds.

Garona Halforcen: Rogue. She was responsible for killing Medivh who was at that time, posessed by Sargeras.

Oshugun - the holy mountain where the spirits of the ancestors gather.

Words and Phrases:

Aka Magosh = "Be blessed" (A greeting)
Bin mog gtazag cha "I will protect you" - use with care as, adressed to another orc who is able to fight, may be taken as insult
Dabu "i obey"
Daemon "Twisted soul" adressses to all servants of the Legion
Dranosh "Heart of Draenor" - often means mount oshugun
Garmak "Anguish"
Gol Kosh "By my axe!" used to swear an oath. Never said lightly as duty binds you to your word. Orcs usually dont say stuff for lightly at all, as they are bound to stand to their word, but such oath will result in complete loss of honor if broken.
Grommash "Giant heart" - a name
Kagh "Run"
Laktuk "Suffering"
Logosh "Ghostwolf"
Lok Narash "To weapons"
Lok Regar "Ready for orders"
Loktar "Victory" - a greeting used in combat and a warcry
Loktar Ogar "Victory or death" a warcry and oath to fight until victory or death. Never said lightly as retreat is no more option then.
Lokamon - A traditional song used to start to romance a woman
Lok Narad "Legend" - a great hero who will never be forgotten.
Maghar "Uncorrupted" adresses to be few Orcs that were never touched by fel energy and are therefore still brown skinned
Nagrand "Land of Winds"
Moknathal "Sons of Nathal" - Halforc, half ogre
Oshugun "Mountain of Spirits"
Swobu "As you command"
Thromka "Well met" - common greeting
Trkhsk "bloodshed"
Zugzug "okay"

The orcish soul:

One of the most important themes as Orc of the new Horde, or the Illidari and to some extend the Dark Horde, is that of sin and redemption. While the Maghar are completly unaffected by this theme, as they never got tainted, and the Felorcs never accepted redemption, this is a very strong theme for other orcs, in special orcs of the new Horde. For an orc, the worst thing that could ever happen was their enslavement under demons, they lost all their honor, they lost all their freedom, all their value. They lost everything that made them orc and they commited huge sins in their own religion and as result, were left by their ancestors and the elemental spirits. They lost everything they value and were driven, by demonic urges, to do disgusting things. The humiliation of being controlled by urges instead of free will is unbearable to an orc, and after they were freed from their sorry state, most orcs became completly apathic, some commited suicide, some simply denied to eat or drink. They did not want to live anymore and lost all strength.
If you play an orc, you most likely experienced this apathic, lethargic state of complete despair and depression. You did not even have the strength to end your dishonored humiliated life and readily took the humiliation by humans as punishment. Then the light came - an Orc with strength who gave you the most important thing - hope...hope that all you lost could be regained. He showed you, that the elemental spirits and the ancestors are ready to forgive you, that your honor can be restored. There are no words to express what an orc must have felt then. Thrall was more then Jesus to christians, he was much more then their savior, for orcs. Imagine the orcish mind: You lost your honor, your selfcontrol....you dont even deserve death. Some may have thought, that undeath as eternal servant of the scourge would have been a fitting end for them, would in not mean further depravement.
And then this man came and showed you - the spirits have not left you forever. They are still willing to help you. For an orc, this feeling may be the only accepted reason to shed tears and cry. That is so much mercy and honor shown to you, you dont deserve it at all, you should have been tortured to death or forever left alone, exiled to rott, but the spirits, they actually forgive you and you dont deserve it.
The showing of such hospitality can not be put in words, it must have shaken every orcs soul to the deepest core. After receiving such mercy, the heart of an orc just can answer with one thing - unquestioned loyality to death and beyond. Honor and duty bind you forever as you can never repay such honor. All you can do is do your very best and give everything you can without hesitation, in hope that this unpayable debt at least somewhat lifted.
Thrall did much more then saving your life and your soul, he gives you a chance to restore your honor. For an orc, no greater hospitality could be existant and he will do his very best to take the chance.
Try to imagine what this means to an orc. If your eyes get wet and your heart cries when reading this, you got the right feeling, or better said, a little glimpse of what it must feel to an orc.
You were the most depraved, honorless, controlled, weakest being in the universe and the spirits still ar ready to give you a chance you never deserve and tough you can never repay for your crimes, you are forgiven and offered a new chance. This theme of redemption should be present in your orc character. It does not mean that he is crying all time and running around the world kissing every leaf, but it should show in a unquestioned loyality to Thrall and a sense of duty that by far surpasses all mortal capabilities of unterstanding. You would readily give your life, your soul and your honor for Thrall and the Horde. You will do all that is asked from you without hesitation and you will help, thank and sacrifice to the spirits wherever you can. At least if your orc is somewhat religious which he should be.
This redemption after your deepest fall is a great theme to roleplay as it encourages you to give your best at every moment and be as honorable as you possibly could be. Of course, orcs are individuals and everyone will deal differently with this debt, but this theme should really be present in an orc. Barely 5 years have passed since then, so while not being completly fresh and the shock may have lost some impact, it still affects you and likely will until your death.
Grommash Hellscream is more than your superhero - he showed you, that an orc, even while under demonic command and taint, can rise and free himself, shatter the shackles and fight back. From all the orcs in history, Grommash, to you, is the most awesome, the most badass of all.
Respect and honor of heroes is a special topic for an orc, and you will very likely defend the honor of Thrall and Grommash as it was your own. So if someone insults them you likely will raise your axe and fight.
While this mentality may sound limiting, and it sort of is, it also grants a lot of possibilities and great experiences. How much your orc cares about that is up to you tough. There are also those orcs, who would again join the legion for power, the are those Orcs who dont accept this pitty insult of mercy from Thrall and spit on it. There are also those orcs, who cant bear the memory of what their race did and simply forget it, start a new life without the ballast from earlier times. There are those orcs, who are still very young and were born after all that happened. There are the orcs, who feel no obligation to pay back a hospitality that should never have been granted..its up to you to decide.
But whatever descission you make, never forget, that this theme does affect your character in some way. And even if you try to forget everything, in silent hours your heart may mourn and your conscience adress you to do something to pay back...you are an orc after all and if you dont rise to take the chance, you should better be dead. It really should be a huge inner conflict in your character and adds a lot of emotion and debth to this rather tough and cold race.

1. Class & Race: While all classes have more or less the same abilities per race, they may have a completly different approach to them and specialise in different fields. As example - even tough Elfen, Tauren, Orc and Troll Hunters CAN use rifles, they never would. Dwarfs can use bows but never would. Orc Hunters are supposed to be beastmasters as the orcish connection to animals and nature makes this the most likely way, while trolls would specialice in shooting and elfs in survival. Dwarfs may learn all 3 branches but wont master any of them. While Draenei, Tauren, Orc and Troll shamans all work with the Elements, they use very different ways to actually use their magic. Trolls focus on Loas who control elements while Orcs focus on the elemental spirits and Tauren on ancestors. While Elfen Warriors fight just like Orcish do, their style is extremely different. Orcs are very likely fury oriented while Elfs would be protection. While orcs would wield heavy 2 handed weapons, elfs would prefer elegant weapons like a sabre.
And so on - so remember, that your race may limit or affect your class in various ways you should be aware off. Exceptions are possible but should be properly explained. As example a belf beastmaster is very unlikely...in fact Farstriders arent known to even have pets at all.

2. Gamemechanic vs Lore: Very often both come into conflict. Lore is in most cases the prefered solution as its much more realistic and adds more flavor to the game. As example - a warrior may be able to charge 20 meters into the air and hit a Mage standing atop of a church while the warrior was on the ground but in Lore, Warriors are bound to the laws of phsics and cant simply charge up a building or tree (or through a wall - wood may be ok but stone - no)
If some feat sounds very unrealistic and does not appear in lore, it wont work in RPGs. On the other side, there are things possible in Lore that dont appear in the Game. As example, druids in Lore, who draw their power from the emerald dream, can shapeshift in ANY creature or plant that is natural in Azeroth. So they can shapeshift in a rat, a fish, a Kodo, a Lichbloom etc. but not into an Elek or Terrokartree as those creatures are foreign to Azeroth and dont appear in the emerald dream. Usually, where magic is not at work, the laws of physics appeal. So you cant jump down a high building without injury and falling into water from 100 meters may still result in death or severe injuries.

3. Possibilities & Limitations:
If you choose a class, keep in mind, that classes are NOT balanced RPG wise. Shamans and Mages can in theory pull off any trick you can imagine, while warriors, rogues or hunters are completly bound to real world physics as they dont posess any magic ability, while casters have much more freedom. But before you react, consider that magic is limited to actual ability of the caster. While a shaman may in theory raise a vulcano out of nowhere, that only happened once in lore and was done by a warlock. While a shaman could in theory, create a lake or turn a desert into a lush agrden or errect mountains, that will never happen. A shaman is bound to the philosophy of only asking for barest needs and he has to convince the spirits to aid him - while surely spirits will aid him in finding water for survival, they wont just errect a mountain cause the shaman wants to have a nice view.
While druids, in theory, could make the Trees move aside, they would never cause such a disharmony in the balance of nature. While mages, in theory, could cause a Tsunami to wash away coastal cities, the mana and mastery level needed for that surpasses all possible feats of a mortal.
Minor miracles are, depending on situation, acceptable as rainfall in the desert if the shaman is dying of thirst for example.
A priest is also limited - a priest can EITHER use healing, cleansing and supportive spells (buffs) OR cast damaging spells, curses and poisons - depending on the god he serves. HE CAN NOT HAVE BOTH. So a shadowpriest is unable to heal and a holy priest is unable to cause magical damage (but he may fight with a weapon)
Paladins are much more versatile as they are basicly fully trained priests who later learned how to fight. So a paladin may actually learn shadowspells instead of healing spells, bringing him closer to being a deathknight.
Then again, shadowmagic is more used for trollpriests and forsaken as human, draenei and elf priests use the power of the holy light.

4. Of classes and prestigeclasses:
In RPG version of WoW there are a lot of "prestigeclasses" avalaiable for experienced characters that do not exist in the PC game. As example, shamans do not split up in Elemental, Enhancement or Restoration but in the "basic" shaman who uses all 3 branches on a minor level, the farseer who is more of a scryer and divinator - which doesnt work in the PC game at all with serious meleefighting abilities (like enhancement just quite a bit stronger as he can see invisible and stealthed enemies and stun them with earthquakes and having a pet or even more) a battleshaman who is basicly enhancement² - just an awesome melee fighter or a spiritwalker who is basicly everything he wants to be as he can let any spirit of any ancestor take control over his body, so the spiritwalker may call upon a great warrior and suddenly use highest level warriorskills or call upon a hunter spirit and use a bow with greatest skill etc. and also posesses sort of a damagereduction vs physicval damage as he can partially step into the spiritworld, makins his body etheral and therefore resistant or even immune to poison, illness and physical damage. Magical damage will apply normally tough.

In general, roleplay is all about your ability to become one with your character and his world, dive into it, become a part of it and really feel it. Like it is with actors, you need a basic affinity for your character and should find him interesting and entertaining to portray him well.

So the first big help is to simply think about your character and the world he lives in. You could read books on WoW or WoW Lore or simply think in debth about your character to make him fun for you (remember your own fun comes first)

Another big help is to delve into similiar real world stuff to get a better "feel" for it as there is more information. If you play an orc it doesnt hurt to get familiar with vikings or germanic tribes or the mongolish horde or shamanism etc.

An often used approach in tabletop RPs is fitting smell and food - if you play an educated elven noble you can use incense sticks or delicatesses to "improve" the connesction and feeling - you could in theory even wear a robe if you play a caster. What helps and adds fun, helps and adds fun. The plus in WoW is, that no one will notice what you do in RL while playing. I as example bought 2 axes and practise Dualwielding to get a better feel for enhancement ^^
But dont be afraid - such hardcorepractises are really not needed.

A very good approach for everyone tough may be the use of fitting music. Yes music - the ingame music soundtrack is often fitting the landscape but not the situation or race or your character. Besides, various soundtracks are used for more then one landscape so may be confusing or simply get old after a while. So turn of the ingame music (you should still have sound activated) and go for some fitting music in the background - youc an use a CD player for this or simply run mediaplayer or Youtube in the background.

Here are some of my personal favorites listed to some stuff:

Epic Moments: (In general the Bands "Audiomachine" "Two Steps from Hell" and "Immediate Music" fit very well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqyy4fQ5CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7OdI-b61qg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIxas0a-KgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiapc462rEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_hWblg-kIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZOVbdvyTJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2fn3F_iNI (perfect for the final farewell)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSUKXKhmakM (Confrontation, fits well to Battling Ragnaros in MC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU4NYDDrKcQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sZYjWPJ2PQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ua8tK0ymYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByvYYoXlSxE

Epic Battles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvOteu42isc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9E-oOmsz9k

"Orcish" music: (In general heavy music with drums n bass or deep voices fit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4pIj2EsK9Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnGH_rvx42w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkDRF_h7Nws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xExo0A3zg98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPSv1qfZ6b8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo0xebL7JdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e012FidkL-Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc1eTT9o_Pg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zfSZ6sMLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT8NmybNyiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2uyWOlKGcM

More Warlike Orcish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOvPFi4DPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4BKRHPKE1I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msQ5pNnOdwI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_xF-c2mBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_4V2sqMu8Q+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQM5kVedEZA

More Calm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QO3WJqe0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJbu3JgXx4w

For Helfs & Belfs: (Heavy choirs, high voices, or orchestras fit well, like Brand X Music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbO66QPIFlc (Lament of the Highborne a must^^)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIX0jgR9bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETju6vL4FyY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywVt3rzT0ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJsu8w5OfiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYEWLmucCg4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nowFz9ALIOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY_AbBCzHT4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9S_2nn6OK0

Belfs at war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRuw9MgoRU

Tauren: (In general native american music fits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUzYWc_K3-I

Troll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMu1959Xvo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoPmZwoyCCI

Bedenke, dass ein Rollenspielguide für Rollenspielanfänger gedacht ist. Ein Guide zu Rp in WoW verwirrt eher jemanden, der sich noch gar nicht mit RP und/oder der TES-Lore auseinandergesetzt hat. Daher ist gerade der Abschnitt zu den Orks, aber auch der erstere "neutrale" Abschnitt eher verwirrend. Denn auch der allgemeine Abschnitt zu RP arbeitet mit vielen Vergleichen aus der WoW-Lore, was einem Eso-Spieler einfach gar nichts bringt. Erst recht, wenn die Person auch keine Ahnung von WoW hat. Am Schluss fragt sich dann ein Neuling. "Aha... und wer ist nun genau Cairne? Ein Kaiser Cyrodiils? Und ist Taure ein anderer Name für Bosmer? Seid wann sind Orsimer Aliens und glauben an die Elemente?..."

Der Guide ist gut geschrieben und spricht wichtige Dinge an, aber nebstdem, dass nicht jeder Englisch kann und es gerade für Neulinge eine zusätzliche Abschreckung sein kann etwas in einer fremden Sprache zu lernen, muss der Guide um ihn für TES-Rp anzuwenden erst vom Leser seinem Setting gelöst werden. Das ist für Rp-Neulinge sehr schwer.

Daher verweise ich lieber auf diesen "neutralen"-Rp-Guide, der bereits in der ESO-Rp-Com etabliert und auf deutsch gehalten ist.
http://www.teso-rollenspiel.de/index.php?page=LexiconItem&id=288

Dort wird auch klar nochmals gesagt: "
Zu Letzt: Wir bespielen hier Tamriel (The Elder Scrolls) also wählt Euren Namen entsprechend der Welt, in der wir spielen. Ebenso sind Konzepte für Todesritter (WoW), Elben (LotR), Jedi-Ritter und Sith (StarWars) usw usw. deutlich deplatziert und werden mit Sicherheit auf absolute Ablehnung stoßen."
Und dein Thread handelt nunmal über WoW-Namen und Konzepte.

Erstmal Danke für die Anmerkungen ^^

Dass es WoW spezifisch ist und Englisch ist mir schon bewusst, es ging ja um ne generelle Meinung weil ich evtl. einen Deutschen für TES schreiben möchte.

Das Problem das sich hier für mich auftut, ist, dass TES nur sehr wenig Lore hat (im vgl. zu WoW) und man daher sehr wenig TES spezifisches sagen kann.
Sicher allgemeine RP Tipps dies auch imm obigen Guide gibt gelten überall, aber ich kann zum Beispiel weder Details zur orkischen oder sonst einer Kultur schreiben ohne extrem spekulieren bzw, mich an realen Vorbildern (Orks - germanen, Kaiserliche - Römer etc.) zu orientieren weil Ingame widersprüchliche Infos kursieren und auch im Lore (Orks wurden iN Morrowind ganz anders dargestellt als in Skyrim und in Daggerfall sowieso^^)

Und die Lore die da ist ist einfach zu seicht. Über orkscihe Kultur und Lebensweise kann man wenig erzählen und die Zeitlinie...kann man was sagen aber bei TESO auch nicht viel weil die interessanten Sachen zum grössten Teil in der Zukunft liegen.

Über Klassen kann man schonmal gar nichts sagen weil wir nichtmal wissen was am Ende wirklich alles da sein wird ^^
Teso ist was Lore angeht einfach so offen, dass man in einem sehr grosszügigen Rahmen quasi alles machen kann und es als "mainstream" verkaufen weil man einfach kaum eine echte Linie hat. Ichs chätze das wird besser wenn das Game draussen ist, aber Momentan kann man da nicht viel sagen

The Elder Scrolls hat eine riesige Geschichte. Man lese schon nur die hunderten ingame Bücher die es gibt. Die Frage ist aber natürlich, wie du es angemerkt hast, was alles in der Zeit von TESO bereits geschehen ist oder was erst noch kommen wird. Das sich Kulturen über einen Zeitraum von 4000 Jahren verändern ist ebenfalls klar. Die Menschen von Arathor in WoW waren nicht die selben wie jene von Sturmwind. Daher ist es für mich jetzt nicht allzu tragisch, wenn sich Infos über Orks im Vergleich Morrowind-Skyrim oder so etwas beissen. Auch das Äussere kann damit zu tun haben, dass ein Clan zum Beispiel an einem anderen Ort sesshaft ist.

Zudem würde ich mir jetzt nicht extra die Mühe machen einen weiteren Guide zu schreiben, wenn es doch schon einen gibt (siehe Rowans Antwort).

Dein Beitrag hier ist sehr detailiert. Der sprachliche Teil gefällt mir. Schade ist halt wirklich, dass es auf Englisch ist, weswegen ich es auch nur überflogen habe. Für mich muss Rollenspiel sprachlich passend sein und das ist bei mir Deutsch, trotz guter Französisch und Englischkenntnisse.

Ja die Sprache ist auch so ne Sache ^^ Die orkische Sprache von Teso oder gar Andere sind ja quasi kaum vorhanden. Es gibt n paar einzelne Worte aber das Meiste wird aus WoW oder DSA übernommen, da hat Teso nich wirklichw as eigenes (Altmerisch ausgenommen)

Mein Problem ist, dass es bei TESO nichts gibt woran man eine Kultur wirklich fest machen kann. Ok die orks leben den Kodex von Malacath...der nirgendwo genauer erklärt wird. Sie haben ihre eigene Religion wenn man so will - die nirgendwo genauer erklärt wird. Sie haben eine gewisse Lebensweise - die sehr viele Details unbeantwortet lässt was fürs RP aber wichtig wäre. Bei WoW ist das abgedeckt da kann man bei orks sogar verschiedene Clans wählen die das jeweils im Detail anders handhaben.
Bei TES fehlt mir das.

Und bei TESO kommen doch viele der richtig epischen Charakter ja erst noch. Tiber Septim zum Bsp ^^ Das 2, Zeitalter ist doch gesamt das langweiligste von allen. Im 1. Zeitalter bzw. davor war ja noch richtig was los, im 3. ist wieder richtig was los. Das 2. ist so ein fader Brei wo man kaum was kennt aber bisher wurde das ja auch nicht annähernd ausgebaut. Sicher, kann alles bei Release kommen aber ich zweifle daran

Und genau da begehst du in meinen Augen einen Überlegungsfehler. Über das zweite Zeitalter ist am wenigsten bekannt aber es ist ganz gewiss nicht fad. Die Gefahr von Molag Bal ist sehr real und seine Taten haben Auswirkungen auf alle anderen TESO-Teile bist jetzt, denn er hat als Beispiel die ursprünglichen Vampire erschaffen. Zudem ist es nur logisch von Seiten der Entwickler, dass sie das "dunkle" Kapitel einer Geschichte mit einem neuen Spiel füllen, da es dort für die Spieler am meisten Neues zu entdecken und erfahren gibt.

In Warcraft war es nicht anders wie bei The Elder Scrolls. Völker die man durch vorangehende Spiele bereits eingehender kennengelernt hat bieten natürlich mehr Wissen für Rollenspieler (Nord, Dunmer, evtl. Bretonen und Rothwardonen?). Da die Orks per se noch nicht wirklich in den vorangegangenen Spielen thematisiert wurden, weil der Fokus auf anderen Regionen und Völkern lag, hat im Endeffekt noch gar keine Bedeutung für das Spiel und ist nichtssagend. Bei Warcraft kannte man die Hoch-, Nachtelfen, Menschen, Zwerge, Untote und Orks genauer, ehe das Spiel herauskam. Über das Spiel selbst erfuhr man dann ziemlich viel über Trolle, Gnome etc. In TESO wird man vorgängig bereits einiges über die Nords, Dunmer, Kaiserlichen (evtl. Bretonen und Rothwardonen) wissen aber halt weniger zu den Kahjit, Argoniern, Orks, Bosmer und Altmer.

Meiner Meinung nach steigert dieses Unwissen nur die Neugierde und ich freue mich drauf

TES hat eine weit grössere Lore als WoW. Aber man kann sie nicht einfach so niederschreiben, da sie auf ganz verschiedene Arten vermittelt wird. (Spiel selbst, gefärbte Ingame-Bücher, Romane, Ex-Entwickler-Posts, etc.pp )Dazu gibts auch einen Erklärungsguide zur Handhabung der Lore auf eso-rollenspiel.
Was alles über die Völker bekannt ist wird übrigens auf eso-rollenspiel.de bereits gesammelt, übersetzt und im Lexikon veröffentlicht.
Ein zusätzlicher Guide ist daher unnötige Mühe, da es sich nur wiederholen kann.
Ansonsten sind die Aufzeichnungen der Lore-Abende noch zu empfehlen.

Tes hat mehr Lore als WoW? Das glaub ich irgendwie nicht.

Wenn ich an grosse WoW Charaktere Denke fallen mir 100 ohne Nachdenken ein. Wenn ich an grosse TES Charaktere denke haben wir da...ich glaub ich krieg nichtmal 20 hin. Von guten Charakteren ganz zus chweigen dafür sind die nicht genug ausgebaut.

Landschaftliche Vielfalt oder historische Geschichte - ich denke da ist WoW auchs chwer zu toppen mit mehr als 10.000 Jahren Geschichtsschreibung, Völkerevolution und Co. Auch mythologisch ist WoW wesentlich ausgefeilter. Da gibts wirklich andere Religionen und Götter und nicht den gleichen Einheitsbrei bei allen, nur dass man mal die Daedra und mal die Aedra verehrt.

Wenn ich auf englischen Seiten Suche was über jeweilige Völker bekannt ist krieg ich da pro Volk ca. 10 A4 Seiten Text. Bei WoW krieg ich bei den meisten Völkern 50 Seiten udn dabei haben wir bei Teso 2 der existenten 4 Zeitalter ja nichtmal dabei ^^ Ich hätt mir ja Teso in der 1. Ära gewünscht wo es viele Umwälzungen, neue Völker und Co gab.

Ich hoffe aber auch darauf, dass durch TESO auf einmal ganz viel Lore nachgereicht wird, Das Ingame Lore hat nämlich den Haken, sich selber zu widersprechen. Ist natürlich für Bücher realistischer, aber machts halt schwerer es umzusetzen.
Bei Youtube - suche ich Lore zu TESO Völkern krieg ich 15 - 20 Minuten Videos. Suche ich Lore zu WoW Völkern krieg ich 45 - 120 Minuten oO

Du vergisst dabei, dass es mehr Warcraftspiele gibt wie TES Spiele, daher auch ein grösseres Vermittlungspotential an die Spieler. Zudem vergleichst du einen Apfel mit einer Birne. Es sind zwei unterschiedliche Welten, unterschiedliche Rassen und unterschiedliche Entwickler dahinter, mit einem unterschiedlichen Spielverständnis und einer unterschiedlichen Vermittlungsweise. Abgesehen davon ist es nicht die Quantität die es ausmacht, sondern die Qualität. In TES wird dir die Lore ingame vermittelt über Bücher, Geschichten die dir erzählt werden, was du selbst spielst und Lieder die gesungen werden. Es ist ein ganz anderer Ansatz. In meinen Augen viel tiefgehender, als das was Blizzard macht. Natürlich hat Blizzard tolle Geschichten, Rassen etc. entwickelt/geschrieben aber bei TES ist das auch der Fall. Aber wenn man mit Scheukappen vor den Augen auf die Suche geht wird man natürlich nicht fündig.

Ähm...Warcraft 1, 2, 3 und WoW. Ende. 4 Spiele

Daggerfall, Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Teso. 6 Spiele. Sind mehr ^^

Die Vermittlung von Lore bei Blizzard geschieht fast nur über Quests und ein paar Ingameschriften. Bei TES sinds fast nur Ingameschriften und n paar Quests. Und bei beiden gibts dazu noch Bücher ausserhalb der Spiele.

Aber Äpfel und Birnen? WC hat als Strategiespiel begonnen und wurde ein RPG. TES war schon immer ein RPG da hätt ich schon erwartet, dass es mehr Lore gibt und Qualitativ möcht ich ned über Teso werten, wer weiss was da kommt, aber bisher ist die Lore bei WC doch besser ausgebaut als bei TES. WOBEI TES mit Abstand schönere Geschichten hat. Die Nerevarine Story war echt genial^^

Kann man Arena als RPG werten? Und dann gibt es noch The Frozen Throneund zig WoW-Addons, die jeweils die Lore weiterentwickelten. Zudem hatte man durch die Strategiespiele die Möglichkeit die Lore in einem grösseren Rahmen wahrzunehmen. Eben durch den Krieg. Bei den TES-Spielen erhielt man "nur" Ausschnitte.

Ja und du vergleichst in meinen Augen Äpfel und Birnen. Beides Obst aber eben doch nicht das Selbe. Die schönsten Geschichten habe ich in keinem dieser beiden Spiele sondern in the Witcher gesehen. Hindert mich das jetzt am spielen von TESO? Nein. TESO reizt mich aus diversen Gründen, unter anderem eine vielfältige, lebendige und gut ausgebaute Welt. Da kann man natürlich anderer Meinung sein aber es wirkt bizarr, wenn du eine Diskussion beginnst, um stur an deiner Meinung festzuhalten.

naja wenn du Addons extra zählst, die ja auch die Story erweitert haben, dann bringen allein Morrowind, Oblivion und Skyrim 7 Stück hin.

Und ich will ja agr nicht drauf beharren, mit TESO mag sich ja vieles ändern, aber bisher hat WoW mehr Lore und detaillierter. Das heisst ja nicht, dass Tes schlecht wäre ich hoffe nur auf mehr. Bis WoW war die WC Reihe ja auch eher mässig - als RPG. Für n Strategiespiel wars schon viel Lore ^^

Anyway - the Witcher fand ich von der Machart gut aber generell empfand ichs nur als mittelmässig. Hat mich nicht mitgerissen. Aber Geschmäcker sind ja verschieden da lässt sich nicht streiten ^^

Ein Addon eines TES Spiels entspricht mehrheitlich höchstens einem Patch in WoW, welcher ein neues Gebiet oder eine bestimmte Instanz hinzugefügt hat. Addons von WoW sind inhaltli h ein ganz anderes Kaliber.

Und ja Geschmäcker sind verschieden.

Aber da wird doch nicht die Geschichte erweitert ^^ Der LK war schon vor WoW da und vor dem Addon Wotlk. Die brennende Legion gabs schon lange vor BC und Todesschwinge vor Cata. Das einzige Addon das alte Lore wirklich wesentlich erweitert hat war Pandaria - davor waren die pandas so ne Mischung aus Easteregg und Rarität. Die bekamen Lore erst durch Pandaria. Ok die Goblins und Worgen bekamen auch erst durch Cata mehr Bedeutung aber Lore dazu gabs schon seit WoW. Und die anderen Rassen hatten ihre Geschichte zum Teils chon vor WoW.

Die erweiterten die Geschichte. Mit BC wurde die Geschichte der Blutelfen, Orks und Draenei ausführlicher. Mit WotLK kam die Geschichte eines ganzen Kontinents dazu und mit Cata wurde die Welt grundlegend verändert. Auch mit Patches erweiterte Blizzard regelmässig die Stiry eines Volkes. Als Beispiele seien Zul'Gurub oder Ahn'Qujrai zu nennen. Da ist ein Addon wie Heartfire in Skyrim ein laues Lüftchen dagegen. Aber eines, welches die Spielwelt lebendiger macht und das gefällt mir.