After pondering this question I've come up with different ranks
Dark Grey (In descending order)
Night Elves: The night elves have done horrible things in the past, the world of Azeroth is scarred from the War of the Ancients. On the opposing side they've spent the last 10,000 years atoning for this catastrophe. In WOW the night elves are the Germans, still atoning for what happened in WWII. Ironically my main is a night elf & I'm jewish..go figure. In my opinion the Night elves are the darkest of all the races in world of warcraft.
Trolls: The Trolls of Azeroth are almost to par to the Night Elves, They may not have blown up the world but if that one band of trolls hadn't settled by the well of eternity then the night elves wouldn't have sprung up. But what makes them so Dark is the history of wars & ethnic purges between different troll tribes.
Orcs & Humans: The Orc & Human Races are on par with each other for the atrocities committed. Granted the Orcs were under the demonic influence of the Burning Legion, but that cannot be a blank pass for what's been done 'For the Horde'. Draenor was ripped into Outland, The Slaughter of the 1st & 2nd Wars, the Felling of Cenarius in the 3rd War. The Orcs now are where the Night Elves 9,999 years ago, taking their first steps towards atoning for their sins.
The Human Race as a whole reminds me of Dorian Grey, Nice Looking but Blackhearted. If you think humans are the good guys, because well they're human, I'll just make one point: The Defias Brotherhood.
For Most low level alliance players, the Deadmines are a standard part of a leveling breakfast, it's a quick run with good drops. But most players don't delve into why you have to take out Van Cleef? What was his crime? Did he conspire with the Scourge? Did he help the Horde? No, Edward Van Cleef was an architect & engineer who's leadership is the reason Stormwind was quickly rebuilt after the 2nd war.
So, what happened when he and the other craftsmen asked for payment the work they did? The nobles of stormwind refused. They felt that they're thanks were enough. Imagine that "Gee great job on rebuilding this place after it was razed to the ground, you can't even smell of burnt women & kids anymore, Thanks Ed, hey if you need a reference for any work in Ironforge let us know Ok. Great, the guards will show you out..take care & tell the wife I said hi."
So what did he do, he organized, he created a union if you will, of men & women who were also screwed out of payment, and became a major thorn in the side of the humans of Stormwind. Now your involved & instead of just paying him for work completed, Stormwind asks you to bring his head back to Sentry hill.
For Most low level alliance players, the Deadmines are a standard part of a leveling breakfast, it's a quick run with good drops. But most players don't delve into why you have to take out Van Cleef? What was his crime? Did he conspire with the Scourge? Did he help the Horde? No, Edward Van Cleef was an architect & engineer who's leadership is the reason Stormwind was quickly rebuilt after the 2nd war.
So, what happened when he and the other craftsmen asked for payment the work they did? The nobles of stormwind refused. They felt that they're thanks were enough. Imagine that "Gee great job on rebuilding this place after it was razed to the ground, you can't even smell of burnt women & kids anymore, Thanks Ed, hey if you need a reference for any work in Ironforge let us know Ok. Great, the guards will show you out..take care & tell the wife I said hi."
So what did he do, he organized, he created a union if you will, of men & women who were also screwed out of payment, and became a major thorn in the side of the humans of Stormwind. Now your involved & instead of just paying him for work completed, Stormwind asks you to bring his head back to Sentry hill.
To Quote the ledger on Van Cleef that you recover during the quest chain "May the light have mercy on our souls." The nobles know they were wrong but they still do not admit it & send you & your party to take care of their 'problem'
There are more examples (Thrall's captivity, The Nations of Arthor Betraying the Human Kingdoms in the 2nd war.) But my point is that the Human race hasn't destroyed the world like the elves did or preformed the ethnic cleansing of the trolls, instead they just screw each other over again & again as they just smile & look pretty on the screen.
Medium Grey
Tauren: The noble Tauren, are the middle ground of grey in WOW. The Tauren are a noble race, that has systematically preformed ethnically cleansing the centaur & the quillboars from the areas that they . I held the Tauren in high esteem until I thought about the Razorfen Down instance & what it's saying. I don't know if it was intentional by the developers but after reading the lore I see an analogy to some Muslims feelings on American Troops being in Saudi Arabia. The quillboar are a noble people, like the tauren, the area they live in is sacred area where their god fell uring the war of the ancients & that no one should live there besides the Quillboar.
There are more examples (Thrall's captivity, The Nations of Arthor Betraying the Human Kingdoms in the 2nd war.) But my point is that the Human race hasn't destroyed the world like the elves did or preformed the ethnic cleansing of the trolls, instead they just screw each other over again & again as they just smile & look pretty on the screen.
Medium Grey
Tauren: The noble Tauren, are the middle ground of grey in WOW. The Tauren are a noble race, that has systematically preformed ethnically cleansing the centaur & the quillboars from the areas that they . I held the Tauren in high esteem until I thought about the Razorfen Down instance & what it's saying. I don't know if it was intentional by the developers but after reading the lore I see an analogy to some Muslims feelings on American Troops being in Saudi Arabia. The quillboar are a noble people, like the tauren, the area they live in is sacred area where their god fell uring the war of the ancients & that no one should live there besides the Quillboar.
The Tauren settle in their sacred land & the Quillboar become sick, they become demented, They're elders tell them what must be done, the Tauren must go, but the Tauren don't go & instead begin to kill the Quillboar, who lived in that region first. (Remember up until Warcraft III the Tauren roamed the Barrens & were almost extinct due to the wars with the Centaur.)
The Lighter Grey: The following races fall into the lighter grey side, I've broken these down until the following
Residual Effects: The Dwarves are an side effect of the War of the Ancients. They were Earthen, created by the Titans as a subterranean race. The War of the Ancients hurt the planet, and caused the Earthen to split into two sub-races, the Scottish Speaking Dwarves & the bestial troggs.
The Dwarven history does not have the same degree of degree of slaughter or deception as the races, but they do have their sins. The War of the three hammers unleashed Ragneros from his prison under RedRidge Mountains.
Survivors: The remain four races the Gnomes, the Draeni, the Blood Elves & the Forsaken are survivors. I know some of my readers may feel the trolls fit into this scheme, but as a species the trolls are still numerous, it's the Darkspear Trolls that were almost wiped out. In World of Warcraft what does it mean to be a survivor? How does it color the world view of the races that must pick up the pieces and move on?
Forsaken: The Forsaken are the most tragic of the races. Yes they looks all evil & nasty (since they're former members of the lich kings army) but they are just men, women & children who's will freed them from mindless undead existence & now must fight enemies on all fronts. As a race they're full of people who's stories are full of sadness and despair, & yet for good or evil they try to move on with their lives.
Gnomes: The gnomish race is on the same path as the forsaken, except small of course (sorry couldn't help it.) What strikes me though is that the relationship of the gnomes & the dwarves reminds me of a dysfunctional family.
The Dwarves delve into the mountains looking for clues to their ancestry. They awaken the troggs (which remind me of danny devito in twins: Arnold got all the good genes, Danny got the crap!) The troggs don't invade Ironforge but instead invade Gnomereagan. Do the dwarves help the gnomes? Nope, they gnomes take care of it themselves. A disgruntled gnome who couldn't ever lead due to party stacking attempts to take care of the troggs himself & we end up with a city that can't be cleared even though it's full of level 30 mobs.
So fast forward, do the dwarves help the gnomes, well if you call a lil slice of irontown help then I suppose so. But really they don't help much. The only other outpost they have is again a couple of buildings in Outland under constant attack by mobs.
The Blood Elves: In my opinion, the blood elves are the most outright grey race in World of Warcraft, I think this was intentionally done by the design team at blizzard. When I say outright, I mean that you cannot try to delude yourself that they're noble or wise, or the good guys, They were slaughtered by the scourge, abandoned by the humans, & are all mana junkies Just waiting for their next hit. They've had to make alliances with races they've warred with & had to flee their homeworld to one that has mana on tap because it's been split in two.
The Draeni: The Draeni as a race in world of warcraft are held up as holy warriors. But one thing I love about the design team is that even the noble are not free from Sin. The Draeni are noble and kind, in a way thats amoral. Firstly, the Draeni are racists, specifically against the broken, those Draeni who lost their connection to the holy light, & degraded to a lesser form. The only reason that shaman are a playable class is that the Velen had the the vision to let go of the normal racism towards the broken & allow the Far Seer Nobundo back into the fold.
Also the Draeni seem to have a capacity for acceptable losses that borders on the military. But I digress
So there you have it my breakdown of the grey races of the world of warcraft.
The Lighter Grey: The following races fall into the lighter grey side, I've broken these down until the following
Residual Effects: The Dwarves are an side effect of the War of the Ancients. They were Earthen, created by the Titans as a subterranean race. The War of the Ancients hurt the planet, and caused the Earthen to split into two sub-races, the Scottish Speaking Dwarves & the bestial troggs.
The Dwarven history does not have the same degree of degree of slaughter or deception as the races, but they do have their sins. The War of the three hammers unleashed Ragneros from his prison under RedRidge Mountains.
Survivors: The remain four races the Gnomes, the Draeni, the Blood Elves & the Forsaken are survivors. I know some of my readers may feel the trolls fit into this scheme, but as a species the trolls are still numerous, it's the Darkspear Trolls that were almost wiped out. In World of Warcraft what does it mean to be a survivor? How does it color the world view of the races that must pick up the pieces and move on?
Forsaken: The Forsaken are the most tragic of the races. Yes they looks all evil & nasty (since they're former members of the lich kings army) but they are just men, women & children who's will freed them from mindless undead existence & now must fight enemies on all fronts. As a race they're full of people who's stories are full of sadness and despair, & yet for good or evil they try to move on with their lives.
Gnomes: The gnomish race is on the same path as the forsaken, except small of course (sorry couldn't help it.) What strikes me though is that the relationship of the gnomes & the dwarves reminds me of a dysfunctional family.
The Dwarves delve into the mountains looking for clues to their ancestry. They awaken the troggs (which remind me of danny devito in twins: Arnold got all the good genes, Danny got the crap!) The troggs don't invade Ironforge but instead invade Gnomereagan. Do the dwarves help the gnomes? Nope, they gnomes take care of it themselves. A disgruntled gnome who couldn't ever lead due to party stacking attempts to take care of the troggs himself & we end up with a city that can't be cleared even though it's full of level 30 mobs.
So fast forward, do the dwarves help the gnomes, well if you call a lil slice of irontown help then I suppose so. But really they don't help much. The only other outpost they have is again a couple of buildings in Outland under constant attack by mobs.
The Blood Elves: In my opinion, the blood elves are the most outright grey race in World of Warcraft, I think this was intentionally done by the design team at blizzard. When I say outright, I mean that you cannot try to delude yourself that they're noble or wise, or the good guys, They were slaughtered by the scourge, abandoned by the humans, & are all mana junkies Just waiting for their next hit. They've had to make alliances with races they've warred with & had to flee their homeworld to one that has mana on tap because it's been split in two.
The Draeni: The Draeni as a race in world of warcraft are held up as holy warriors. But one thing I love about the design team is that even the noble are not free from Sin. The Draeni are noble and kind, in a way thats amoral. Firstly, the Draeni are racists, specifically against the broken, those Draeni who lost their connection to the holy light, & degraded to a lesser form. The only reason that shaman are a playable class is that the Velen had the the vision to let go of the normal racism towards the broken & allow the Far Seer Nobundo back into the fold.
Also the Draeni seem to have a capacity for acceptable losses that borders on the military. But I digress
So there you have it my breakdown of the grey races of the world of warcraft.
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