So Who Did Bet on the Eredars?

The Draenei themselves, more precisely. Or the Eredars that didn’t Fall. This week, all World of Warcraft players have finally gotten confirmation of what the rumor had since quite some time already: the new Alliance race will be the Eredars, and in all honesty, my personal thought on them is that they’re not the “ugly” race we had been promised–they look quite rocking, in fact. Demon-looking, perhaps, but rocking.

What one may reproach to Blizzard on this is the changes applied to what had been the official lore until now: the original Eredars being corrupted by Sargeras (with two of their well-known leaders, Kil’jaeden and Archimonde, joining the Burning Legion and causing the havoc we know), while another part of them, led by Velen, left in search of a better world:

Velen saw the Legion in all its terrible might and witnessed the destruction it would wreak upon all of creation. He hastened to warn Kil’jaeden and Archimonde, but they dismissed his concerns, for they had been enticed by Sargeras’ promises. They gave Sargeras their allegiance and were transformed into colossal beings of depthless evil.

The sheer power that Sargeras commanded made direct opposition unthinkable. Velen nearly despaired, but his prayer for help was overheard. A being came to Velen and explained that it was one of the naaru, a race of sentient energy beings bent on stopping the Burning Crusade. The naaru offered to take Velen and any other like-minded eredar to safety.

Deeply relieved, Velen gathered the other eredar who had thus far refused to join Sargeras. Naming themselves the draenei, or “exiled ones” in the Eredun language, the renegades barely escaped from Argus, with the Burning Legion only moments behind. Kil’jaeden was furious with what he felt was Velen’s betrayal, and the demon vowed to hunt Velen and the rest of the draenei to the ends of the cosmos if need be.

I’m not sure if this change is such a bad thing. On the one hand, it looks like a rabbit gotten out of a hat, not to mention the reason why they’re not too fond of the Hordes races. On the other hand, I find this background a little more interesting than the previous one, and it’s not like every WoW character–especially the ones who aren’t RP characters–would know precisely about what Archimonde and Co. were before becoming corrupted…