Talk:Harvest-witch

In regards to the "Origins" section

Several points made are still considerably unfounded. On one hand, the real Druids of ancient Gaul wore white robes and acted as polytheistic priests not unlike those of ancient Rome, their neighbors, not a cadre of botanists. Similarly, the word "druid" would've been synonymous with the word "abbot", as they were high ranking priests above those typical of the Gauls and also doubled as lawmakers; they did not practice "druidism", because as stated, the word was a title belonging to a practice, not the practice itself. The druids ultimately disappeared well before the founding of Christianity due to the conquest of pre-Christian Rome over the Gauls around 58 BC; it wouldn't be until the medieval times that Christian scholars began interpreting the roles of druids based on old Roman texts, and the Christians attempted to write them into legends and myths; virtually nothing is actually known of druids beyond their garb, significance and a couple of rituals as their way of life was destroyed and the conquered Gauls were converted to ancient Roman culture and would later become influenced by the Frankish Visigoths.

WarCraft "druidism" pulls more from various Norse and other generic primal culture cliches; shapeshifting is akin to hamask, wherein Berserkir were believed to literally turn into a man-like bear due to their wearing the pelts of the animals, and similarly the Ulfhednar wore wolf pelts and were thought to become lupine humans. The presence of World Trees stem from Yggdrassil, hence the names Nordrassil, Teldrassil and Vordrassil. The only real links to ancient Britain with druids are Cenarius who resembles Cernunnos and Malfurion who mirrors Merlin; Cernunnos is a much debated deity unlike other Celtic gods known for being antlered and associated with forests and hunting, and Merlin is an apocryphal being derived from a Welsh bard and Romano-British warlord.

Ultimately, Harvest-witches are just as different from historical druids as are the rest of WarCraft "druidism". If anything, the Harvest-witch pays more homage to the pagan spiritualism found in Europe during the medieval and Renaissance eras who were simply called "Witches" and were not associated with druids whatsoever, especially given that Harvest-witches exist on the fringe of society much like actual witches starting from the Dark Ages all the way up to the Colonial era and were believed to have turned people into werewolves or otherwise ghostly hounds; which brings me to my next point: Gilneas is NOT Victorian England. Based on their outfits, the architecture and ultimate lack of anything hinting at the Industrial Era which defined Victoria's reign; Gilneas is based on Elizabethian England if anything. Most people seem to assume that any Gothic imagery (such as werewolves, like the Worgen) tied to pre-modern England must make it Victorian (the out-of-place stovepipe top hats and half-assed Cockney accents also add to this confusion), but given the obvious Tudor styled buildings, the much earlier-than-Victorian outfits, the narrow-bored flintlock muskets, and ultimate lack of technological advancement, we should all be smart enough to know that Gilneas is not Victorian, despite the superficial cliches often attributed to it which do actually precede it. Tales of werewolves are older than the 1800s, Cockney accents are just lower class English (which may suggest Gilneans are all pretty scuzzy people), and top hats require the proper tailcoats, waistcoats and other apparel.

I was going to make these changes on the page, but given I'm just an infrequent visitor to this site, I figured I'd point it all out here and wait for some typical editor to consider making the changes. Myrthuil (talk) 12:39, 8 December 2015 (UTC)