User:Xporc/Seven Kingdoms

I greatly enjoy the orcish clans due to how varied and nice-looking they all are, but the human nations now look generic and meh as heck compared to them. This is me trying to fanfic some more character into each kingdom.

Alterac

Strengths

• Scouts and explorers: they know mountains very well and they can find gold mines easily.
• Expert assassins: Trained by House Ravenholdt.
• Natural allies: The Alterac Mountains are rich in animals and the kingdom can field gryphon riders, trained hawks and rams without the need of external allies.
• Pastures: The kingdom is known for its great pastures as well as the quality of its livestock. Alteraci gastronomy is known for being simple but nourishing and bountiful, and  [Alterac Swiss] is exported all over the Eastern Kingdoms.

Drawbacks

• Strong culture of slavery-like serfdom, there is almost no social mobility for the common folks.

Dalaran

Strengths

• Mages.
• Scholars and universities: they have the best alchemy, medicine and siege weapons of the continent.
• Many great craftsmen like jewelcrafters, scribes
• Can field Thalassian allies.
• Material wealth: In addition to elven allies, the city is rich enough to hire mercenaries when necessary.

Drawbacks

• Bad reputation: The Kirin Tor tends to act as a sort of global conspiracy and meddle in other kingdoms' affairs through the mages they share around the world, and as such peoples from outside the citystate tend to treat Dalaranian citizens with wariness.
• Weak nobility: A city of intellectuals and bourgeoisie, Dalaran has no strong military traditions and a lack of educated nobles when the time comes to raise and lead local soldiers to battle.

Gilneas

Strengths

• Heavy industry: They are able to field riflemen and cannons without the need of dwarven allies.
• Their isolationism led them to keep forgotten rural traditions like harvest-witches (druidism).
• Great culture of hunting and hound mastery.

Drawbacks

• Their isolationism also means there are often shortages of materials commonly found elsewhere, as well as a homogeneous culinary culture mainly based on game meat and that is vulnerable to diseases like potato blight.

Kul Tiras

Strengths

• Masters of the seas: They can quickly deploy armies of marines supported by hydromancers and chaplains almost anywhere in the world.
• Kul Tiras, while not isolationist, is in a fairly different environment that the other kingdoms and has its own strong customs, like tidesages (water shaman) and monster hunting.
• They merchant navy mean they can buy goods such as exotic technology (like pandaren rockets and hot air balloons) and enchanted items from all over the world.

Lordaeron

Strengths

• Light worship: priests and paladins.
• Economy and agriculture: they are able to have both lots of soldiers and high quality equipment.
• Diplomacy: Due to their great ambassadors they have a strong network of minor vassals and nobles that they can call for help.

Stormwind

Strengths

• Chivalric orders: Stormwind has the strongest knights of the Seven Kingdoms.
• Education: The peasants, masons and architects of Stormwind are well-educated and for such a young kingdom, their castles and monuments are renowned for the quality of their masonry.
• Balance: The kingdom can field almost all the different kinds of specialized units (crossbowmen, clerics, conjurers, spies etc.) by themselves even if individually such units may be less good at their job than more specialized factions.

Drawbacks

• Unruly nobility: Several noble houses of Stormwind claim glorious ancestry dating back from Arathor, and as such tend to act more independently toward their king compared to other nations.

Stromgarde

Strengths

• Ancient military expertise: they can deploy phalanxes of footmen with lances in great defensive formations (think Spartans in heavy plate armor).
• Strong militia: military drills are regular events in Stromic culture and their civilians can very quickly turn into squads of skillful minutemen.
• Elemental circles: Back in the first ages of humanity shaman were commonplace in their society, and a few of them still remains.
• Troll hunters: Experimented forest fighters, even to the point of adopting some Amani mannerisms like wearing war paints and necklaces of trophies, or using warglaives and throwing axes.