WoW: Just an observation.

[jadedmusings]

I've been watching OMFGCata's Lore 4 Noobs (L4N) series on YouTube, and it's been really interesting and somewhat helpful. This post isn't about the series or OMFGCata, it was more an observation on certain aspects of WoW lore.

From the transcript of Varok Saurfang's L4N episode:

However before he left Draenor he had a son with an unnamed Orc female and he promised her, that her son would stay behind and live untainted, he named his son Dranosh and left him with the Mag'har in Nagrand. [Emphasis mine]

The lover to Varok Saurfang and father to someone who would go on to be something of an important element in the War of the Lich King doesn't get a name.

What's the big deal? Just that Dranosh joins a few other WoW (male) badasses whose father's are well known, but whose mothers are viewed as so unimportant they don't even get a name.

• Kael'thas Sunstrider has a father but no mother. No name, not even a "died in childbirth" cliché.

• Fandral Staghelm, someone who is going to be important in the events in the forthcoming patch 4.2. (Warning: Spoilers at the last link.) He fathers a son with another unnamed woman, but we do at least know she died in childbirth.

• Varian Wrynn the current king of Stormwind has loads of lore about his father, but, again, a mother who remains unnamed. The mother of Varian's son is named, but Tiffin Wrynn gets taken out by a stray rock thrown during a riot of all things. Note that she produced a son first, so she's pretty much done her service to the lore. (Yes, that last part was harsh but no less true.)

So, yeah, just an observation that jumped out at me. Women give birth to (male) bad-asses and aren't even given a name. Seems a little unfair considering how much work goes into pregnancy and birth. Also, note the lack of badass daughters and mothers.

Comments

[doomhamster]

Further examples:
Garrosh Hellscream, the son of Grom Hellscream, has no named mother.
Darion and Renault Mograine's mother is called Elena, so she at least has a name, but she dies giving birth to Darion and her plot importance consists basically of being motivation for her husband and sons.
Arthas' mother isn't given a name (Lianne) until the novelization of Rise of the Lich King, and even then she's given no actual characterization. Also, Arthas' sister Calia appears only in order to be unwillingly almost-married-off, then she disappears and nobody even wonders what became of the Princess of Lordaeron.
Jaina Proudmoore's father and two brothers get names; not so her mother.
Darius Crowley's wife isn't given a name, though in fairness, his DAUGHTER Lorna is pretty important in the plot.

...the scary thing is, I could come up with more examples.

[nagaina]

My list of examples of this phenomenon is literally as long as my arm. I can think of only one example of the converse: Bolvar Fordragon's mother is presumed by most to be Lady Mara Fordragon, the High Clerist of Stormwind during the First War, and the patron of the southern refugees who fled to Lordaeron. There's a statue of her as an armor-clad, sword-wielding badass in Stormwind and who is memorialized as the "bright mother of our future." The connection with Bolvar isn't exactly fully articulated Lore, but neither does he have any known father.