User blog:Arathorstories/Magic and Arathor

Okay, another bit of musing here that doesn't really 'fit' as a proper article. There's a tendency in some circles - I've been guilty of it myself - to look at Stromgarde's distrust of Dalaran and go 'oh, they don't like magic'. That's a fair perspective but increasingly, I think it's not actually even close to right. Certainly, they apparently put some stringent restrictions on the early human magi, but that was because they were new (though in my own fanon it remains a divide of strict discipline and regulation between the Tower of Arathor and the Dalaran magi's looser approach), not necessarily because they could do magic.

Let's look at a really basic fact that seems to get overlooked a lot. The geographical context of a people will, pretty much inevitably, determine a significant part of that peoples cultural background. The Arathi Highlands just happens to be one of the most magically charged areas of the Lordaeron continent (possibly the most naturally charged, if we consider the binding stones natural in a way that say, the Sunwell, isn't) and also the home of the first human settlement. I really don't think that's coincidence - or rather, I don't think it should be treated as such even though it probably is on Blizz's end.

Humans chose to settle in a relatively unforgiving area that really has only two or three things going for it: It lacks forests, which is a barrier against trolls. It has stone. And, finally, it has that abundant magic. We also know that humans hold a remarkable capacity for magic, and have since the very get-go. So we have naturally capable sorcerors settling in a region with a great deal of magical 'flux' and power, conveniently concentrated into elemental circles and elementals themselves (Both of which can be used, from different quests, as focal points and reagents in magic)!

To take the simple route of 'they don't like magic' really closes off a potentially interesting line of questioning and fanon growth, where humans built an empire with magic, but never quite learned to trust it. They made their home in a land full of magic - often extremely hostile magic - when they had sunnier pastures available. Magic is responsible for their very existence at this point, for even the chance to have built an empire.

What exactly this means, I'm not sure yet. It complicates things and it means a lot more thought needs to go into it, so I'll probably begin revisiting the incomplete pre-hundred page. But my initial leaning is that magic should actually be more weaved through the life of the Highlands than anywhere else, except for Dalaran. It may not be high magic - blasting off fireballs and conjuring muffins - but it should be there, even if its just using elemental ores in the forging of weapons, taboos about the stone circles, or petty rituals to say, bring rain, that may or may not work depending on if anyone has that innate 'spark' or not.