The story itself is one of desperation as the Scourge closed in, in those first days of the plague’s spread through Lordaeron.  What I noticed as my little deader shambled his way through the area, though, was how gorgeous it was.

Yes, it’s gloomy and dark and overrun by ghouls and skeletons, but the mills themselves, especially backlit by moonlight (as you can see in this flickr photoset), have an eerie kind of beauty about them.  The windmills stretch up into the night, the fields between them lie fallow.  While I think Elwynn Forest is one of the best put-together starting zones quest-wise, and while Azuremyst and Eversong are gorgeous in their own rights, I find Tirisfal to be the most visually stunning of the starter zones.

It might be that I’m slightly morbid; I’ll grant you that.

But here you are, looking on a countryside that’s been ravaged by plague. You’re travelling through a dead kingdom, and through the place where the brightest hope for humanity became its worst nightmare.  An immense sadness permeates the zone, but at the same time — especially when you reach Brill — there’s a stony defiance, too, a sense that its inhabitants will not only rebuild, but thrive.

Comparing Brill to Goldshire (and yes, leaving out the catgirl factor), I can’t help but feel that more care was put into Brill.  Goldshire is comprised of a handful of buildings right on top of one another.  Brill has its own main thoroughfare, including stables and a town hall.  Even its cemetery is impressive.

This evening I’ll get some screenshots up for you, but for now, I’m going to recommend you experience it for yourself, especially if you’ve never played a Forsaken.  Go take a ride through Tirisfal, or even better, a stroll.  Range northwest of Brill, to the Agamand Mills.  Go due north, to the coast and look out over the sea.  To the east, pause at the forgotten grave of Archbishop Alonsus Faol.

One caveat, of course. Brill looks amazing all decorated for the holiday, but since Hallow’s End is going on, you’re going to hear the Headless Horseman’s shouts all the time.  If that’s going to drive you crazy, I’d suggest either turning off in-game sounds or waiting until after the pumpkins and wickermen are packed away for another year.

This maybe an artifact of the people I game with, but there seems to be a common thread of sadness in all characters who come from “the North.” In fact Yeats said it best (with one small tweak), “Being a Northman, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”

For our RP, it comes up regularly in the Wrath Expansion. Arthas. The Culling of Stratholme. Wrathgate. The lore and setting of Wrath remind Alliance and Forsaken characters of what they have suffered through and lost. This loss–at least for our realm– has begun affect the identity of characters who come from Lordaeron–Northmen and Forsaken alike.

Grouping people together by ethnicity, even a virtual ethnicity like “Northman” or “Forsaken” is a risky proposition. Just as there is no reason to expect that everyone who was raised in a certain neighborhood/culture/ethnic identity to be alike, there is no reason to expect every character who grew up in Old Town, Senjin Village or as a dwarf in Ironforge to be a carbon copy of WoW’s races. That being said, there are certain historical and cultural concerns that these players will be exposed to.

For example if we continue to look at the North, we see a group of people who were not just devastated by war. We see a landscape decimated by plague. While the living survivors of Lordaeron can mourn their country, there are Forsaken survivors who lost more than just their country but their entire identity. Granted, through Sylvannus and other strong willed Forsaken, they have reforged a new racial identity, but as a culture the Forsaken are not even ten years old. While the living mourn the passing of their home and aspects of their culture, the Forsaken are forced to create something new.

Both provide a certain sense of melancholy. The Northmen miss their home and the Forsaken’s home is damn creepy. Members of both groups are angry at their situation but individually powerless to change it. Granted, we are limited by the mechanics of WoW itself–no matter how many times you clear Stratholme or raid Undercity, they wll always be there–but the logistics of healing the Plaguelands or warring with the Undercity are mind boggling. So we are locked in the same pattern of anger and melancholy that defines Northmen and Forsaken.

Of course there are exceptions; however, even exceptions would be exposed to these aspects of the culture. While the exceptions may not be particularly moved by the loss of their ancestral lands or disturbed by their rotting flesh, they will be aware of these ideas.

I wonder, however, if this Northmen Melancholy–or other cultural tropes–is limited to Feathermoon. I’d ask that other computer-desk-social-scientists give me their impressions of their servers. How do cultural and racial identities play out in the RP on your server?