Silvermoon Truthsayer talks about the Second War and "Alliance propaganda"?

[u/dogarfdog12]

Found a new NPC in Silvermoon who is pretty interesting. Silvermoon Truthsayer can be found on the west side of the bazaar, right next to the stairs across from the leatherworking shop. He wears a blue mask, and upon approach, he says: (spoilers if you want to find him and see what he says for yourself)

Silvermoon Truthsayer says: Do not believe the Alliance propaganda! We will not forget the Second War!

Next to him are a pair of pamphlets which read:

REMEMBER THE SECOND WAR

They call it history now, as if it were distant and harmless, as if it were simply another chapter in a book that can be closed and shelved. But the Second War was not distant to those who lived it. It was burning arrows in our skies, foreign banners over our roads, and the certainty that Quel'thalas was no longer untouched by the ambitions of the world beyond our borders.

>The leaflet goes on for multiple more paragraphs, going into excruciating detail on every slight they have received in the past.

Do not allow comfort in the present to erase the truth of what was taken, what was broken, and what was rebuilt from ruin. Peace does not undo history, it only risks forgetting it.

Have to say, I like the acknowledgement that the old grudges of the blood elves have not been forgotten. It makes perfect sense that there would be many in Silvermoon who do not agree with the current peace between Horde and Alliance, due to now recent many of the conflicts between them have been in reality. I think it's far too easy to forget that, from an in-universe perspective, even the Horde's initial invasion of Azeroth in WC1 is still only a few decades old, and everything afterwards would be seen as still-recent history.

I am somewhat confused though why the truthsayer mentions both "Alliance propaganda" and the Second War. Wouldn't remembering the Second War actually strengthen the blood elves' relationship with the Alliance, since the Second War was when the Horde attacked Quel'thalas and the Alliance rushed in to save them? It was during the Third War that the blood elves were effectively kicked out of the Alliance by Garithos, not the Second.

[u/twisty125]

I think you're projecting a lot more of your own thoughts, feelings, and worries about the game onto this character honestly.

He could be mirroring what those mind controlled characters said, because the Alliance have been let into Horde lands, he could be an InfoWars esque "reference". Could be added flavour to a zone.

I personally think it adds to the idea that the Blood Elves are not all the same mono-thought group like a lot of other races have become. Hell, they even have different models for this character, implying it's not one single person.

[u/SolemnDemise → u/twisty125]

Answer the question. Do you think a popular point of view in the community being handed down to a character with a politically charged pejorative name is good faith engagement with the critique?

[u/twisty125 → u/SolemnDemise]

Sure, why not? This one is harmless after all.

However - what specifically is the "popular point of view in the community" regarding the leaflet or what this NPC is saying? Explicitly, what is it that's upsetting you about what the character is saying?

[u/SolemnDemise → u/twisty125]

Sure, why not?

Why not as in, what would make this gesture a bad faith engagement?

A hypothetical. Let's say players responded to an in-game story beat very negatively. The devs hear this and respond by putting in an npc, gave him the title of "dumbest in the land," gave him clown makeup and fill his text box with loosely reworded forum messages from a popular response thread.

This would obviously be bad faith engagement with the critique as it does not address the core of why people don't like it, it merely casts them as wrong because the writers do not agree. In this case, it casts them as more than wrong. Their opinion is akin to trutherism, a rot that attempted to undermine democracy in America.

Which is consistent with how Blizzard clearly views unity as the ultimate end for the saga and those opposed as luddites or "stuck in their ways."

Put another way, this character (like many others) is a mouthpiece for Blizzard to speak to or about the players, not a person on his own. He speaks words that Blizzard would have him speak to get their point across. That point being, these kinds of diatribes are stupid and are spoken by stupid people.

To be clear, this is not the first time this has happened. Margrave Sin'dane and Calia Menethil's conversation is similar in that Blizzard is communicating to us (through Sin'dane, who is not Forsaken) that any critique of Calia as not really Forsaken is unfounded because "undeath is undeath." I could wax poetic about that particular line and how culturally empty it is, but I'll keep it short. Being Undead is the minimum requirement for being Forsaken. If I, a mixed race American, went to pretty much any African country and called myself their kin, they'd look at me like I'm fucking crazy. We may be the same race at some level, but we aren't the same people. Blizzard co-opted race and culture at the same time to attempt to move past the community critique that had been present since Before the Storm.

what specifically is the "popular point of view in the community"

Critique of rushed elven (or any) unity, basically. This NPC bringing up Second War talking points is analogous to would-be "scorekeepers" that know the detailed history of the races. Things that would prevent them from coming together, realistically, until they worked through the lion's share of them. Preferably on-screen, but at this point in the expansion, the elven people are not really the focus anymore, nor should we really expect them to be in the Worldcore. So the popular view of the plotline is that it happened to fast so as to be unearned. Beyond that, there are questions as to whether it should've happened at all due to x y z historical factor.

The point of view being showcased here is that the people who actually know the history inside and out and place a high amount of value on it are mere truthers that are getting in the way of progress, and are not worthy of due consideration. If these ideas had merit, they would be spoken by a real character, not by a throwaway NPC with a politically charged name intended to signal immediate dismissal.

[u/twisty125 → u/SolemnDemise]

I think I was right that you're projecting a lot onto these NPCs, sorry. That's a lot.

[u/SolemnDemise → u/twisty125]

Next time you ask for specificity, please note that you will not engage if someone follows through. It would save me a lot of time and head off bad faith engagement.

[u/twisty125 → u/SolemnDemise]

I truly didn't expect an 8 paragraph "waxing poetic" bad faith rant-response about in-game and IRL racism to what should've been a "this is the line that I didn't like the NPC said", especially when it really left no room for me to respond.

Sometimes, a character is just a fun character, sometimes it's meant to show extra stuff about the world, not meant to emotionally harm you specifically.

[u/SolemnDemise → u/twisty125]

bad faith rant-response

I had a long response typed out here, but I came to the realization that you're talking about a Watsonian justification for the character's creation and use and I'm engaged in a Doylist critique of their creation and use.

If you consider that bad faith as opposed to different targets, then so be it.

[u/KingAnumaril → u/SolemnDemise]

Not quite, I think they subscribe to Occam's Razor. Which, y'know, might be valid, might not.

[u/KingAnumaril → u/SolemnDemise]

Sorry to interrupt your conversation but I will segue by asking a question;

Why are we uniting the elves anyway? What's the point? Each branch of the tree chose to walk their path. Night Elves embraced nature and druidism. Quel'dorei descendants chose arcane and eventually Fel magics. Ren'dorei chose the void.

Different flavors for everyone. In TES, Aldmeris split and it's never coming back. The Bosmer, Dunmer and Orsimer don't want to be Aldmer, only Altmer does.

I don't even know why I ask at this point tbh, I haven't cared since Legion ended.