Madame (Sarah) Eva: The matron of the Eva family, a loving mother and grandmother, skilled with the old ways and precognition.
Watcher (Lorem) Eva: Sarah's only son, a member of the night watch, and a very unserious man
Blind Mary (Eva): Mary was the most beautiful woman in Brightwood by far, she had many admirers, and many men and women confessed to her, but she only had eyes for her childhood rival, Lorem. Mary once kept the mirror he gifted to her by her side constantly, until she was killed by a admirer turned insane ghoul.
Alyssa Eva: A sweet child, that inherited her mother's beautiful looks, and her father's unseriousness
Lohgan Eva: A kind and gentle boy who not only inherited his mother's love for tailoring, and his grandma's ability of precognition
As of the time of this post, there’s going to be an update coming to World of Warcraft where the once all female ghosts in Karazhan will be changed to include male varieties as well.
Full details on the update can be found here:
https://www.wowhead.com/news/female-only-ghosts-in-karazhan-updated-to-include-male-versions-324371
This has caused a lot of fun posts and people to take this as an ‘accidental confirmation’ by Blizzard that the character Medivh is bisexual. Pair this along with how some of his portrayal in Hearthstone was made into Warcraft canon, and in my opinion, it’s an excellent update to his character.
It’s no secret that Blizzard’s had a massive lack in LBGTQ+ representation for the longest time. Often when such subject matter did show up it was treated more as a punchline in some quests or was kept conveniently to the sidelines, with nonconsequential, blink and you miss it text, side characters, moments. It’s insulting, to say the least, and is the source of a growing frustration from the LBGTQ+ members of the audience. What’s more, whenever this frustration gets voiced it’s always talked down to. We are told that to ‘keep politics out of gaming’ and that we are too sensitive, when these are the same people that get bent out of shape when even a single thing changes or is called out in their game. It’s bullshit. LBGTQ+ people exist and the act of existing isn’t a political issue.
But of course, with people even making lighthearted jokes or posts of Medivh being a ‘Bisexual Icon’, there’s folks crawling out of the woodwork with reasons from “But the loooooooore!” (as if the lore isn’t constantly changing and being retconned from one expansion to the next) to “Well A-C-T-U-A-L-L-Y, those male guests were just for the female nobles that visited and attended his parties, Medivh was very straight”. To that, I’m going to say: “Nah, Medivh is a bisexual icon, deal with it”.
In my personal opinion, Medivh is an excellent character to explore queerness with. He’s a character that’s been around since Warcraft 1 and the effects and ties from his story are still felt throughout World of Warcraft in various ways. Medivh is also a character that’s gone through a large amount of evolution and various portrayals. My personal favorite being the One Night in Karazhan take on him because it’s so different from the usual ‘brooding, grand powerful hermit-mage’ that his type of character usually is. Medivh in One Night in Karazhan is instead, vibrant and is a thriving social butterfly that loves to have and treat people to a good time. His reasonings for being this way make a lot more sense when you really think about what Medivh’s situation was.
Now, I have to mention that I do a much deeper dive and deconstruction of Medivh’s circumstances and just how messed up they were in this self indulgent essay/headcanon dump: ‘My Completely Self-indulgent Medivh Essay’. Feel free to give it a read but here is the basic gist for this essay:
Yes, Medivh was the Guardian, one of the most powerful mages to exist at the time. He was also possessed by Sargeras and was the one that created and opened the Dark Portal that brought the Orcs to Azaroth and changed Azeroth forever. But here’s the thing, Medivh had no choice in any of it.
To be the Guardian means you have to put your life on the line for Azeroth’s sake. This is a role that had to be kept to secrecy, people had to make a lot of sacrifices to be the Guardian. You gain phenomenal powers and it is a great honor but none of this was anything that Medivh ever asked for. He was literally born to become the Guardian, there was no other choice for his own future.
Then you have Sargeras, he had his plans in play long before Medivh was even a thought. A sliver of Sargeras had entered Aegwynn (Med’s mother and the Guardian before him) from a battle between Aegwynn and his avatar. This influence hid within her and made its move when she decided that she wasn’t going to allow the Council of Tirisfal to choose her heir for her title and powers for her. Ignoring Chronicle’s softening of her, she used Medivh’s father, Neilas Aran, the court magician of Stormwind to sire a child. In TLG she let him know she flat out used him and felt nothing for him then came back later and tossed baby Medivh to him for free childcare. What neither of them knew at the time was that Medivh was possessed by Sargeras while he was in the womb. Sargeras would then screw him over even further by causing his powers to lash out when he was fourteen, causing him to accidentally kill his father and fall into a near 10 year coma, and wake up mentally and emotionally fourteen in a twenty-three-year-old’s body. So from the very beginning Medivh was always set up for failure.
So with this summary out of the way, the point of the matter is that Medivh is a character that had little autonomy for most of his life. His career and his fate were chosen for him from the start. Sargeras was in his head messing with him throughout his life, in TLG Medivh even tells Khadgar that he tried to fight it as much as he could. His story is a tragic one but with his reappearance in Legion there’s potentially a ray of hope.
I think there’s a lot of aspects in Medivh’s story that can tie well with the feelings and experiences of queerness. Not so much the being possessed by discount space Satan, but more so the struggle of trying to have autonomy and hanging onto who you are as a person. Being queer myself and looking at it through that lens, I see Medivh being vibrant and throwing parties as an attempt for him to seize what autonomy he could for himself. To exist, to be seen, and to have an identity of his own that had nothing to do with being the Guardian of Tirisfal. I think that it’s also something that separates Medivh from Sargeras. There were likely times where Sargeras may have forced the lines between them to blur as he gradually poisoned Medivh’s thoughts and twisted his soul throughout the years. Medivh likely had to struggle a lot with separating who he truly was from Sargeras. This being inside him, who wasn’t him but would at times take over his body suppressing Medivh’s true self. It’s a horror story where some elements can really hit close to home.
Medivh I believe surrounded himself with like minded, free spirited people like Barnes and the theater troupe (while there’s the joke Medivh’s only seen three plays, I choose to headcanon he’s a theater kid, given how he has a theater to begin with and his own love for theatrics). Whether you picture Medivh as aro, ace, gay, bi, pan, or trans, with the upcoming changes he clearly accepts many kinds of people into his home.
This also has the interesting effect of changing some of the tones for some events in his lore. One example being the titans sending down the Maiden of Virtue to punish Medivh and make him live a more ‘pure’ life. The Titans are Azeroth’s closest thing to a pantheon of gods. They are beings of order, having taken Azeroth in her rawest form and molding her into something they saw fit. Apparently, Medivh’s parties and behavior was seen as something that required ‘correcting’.
On one hand, it’s really easy to read it simply as Medivh being a selfish, spoiled brat. But with looking at it through a queer lens one can put a more positive spin on the situation. The Maiden of Virtue was sent to shame and punish him into conforming into something the Titans believe someone like Medivh should behave. It clearly didn’t work. Looking at this situation, one can read it as Medivh refusing to relinquish his identity because a ‘higher power’ wanted him to. In the real world there are so many that have to hide their orientation and gender thanks to people using religion and belief as a cudgel. So having a character like Medivh as queer, with the power and willfulness to flat out refuse and shut it down is a refreshing power move.
Medivh’s story and the way he is in general has elements that I believe many people of the LBGTQ+ can relate with. He’s a complicated character that has dealt with abuse and being forced into roles without his consent, he made identity for himself and it was stripped away by an oppressor (Sargeras), and, depending on if Blizzard decides he’s actually resurrected/alive instead of being a ghost, is a survivor.
So to me, I love the idea of Medivh being a queer icon in Warcraft. It hasn’t been officially stated by Blizzard at the time this essay was posted but it has started a fun conversation. There are and will be the haters who will scream and tantrum about the LBGTQ+ touching their precious (when convenient) lore with their filthy paws and tarnishing ‘their game’. But in the meantime, I’m going to continue having a blast with the idea and enjoy working the story potential it gives into fanfics, speculations, and essays.
If you enjoyed this essay, I did a few other bits of meta, headcanons, and speculation for fun:
My Completely Self-indulgent Medivh Essay
A Bit About Wizards and Sorcerers
Headcanons: Medivh is Alive and Currently Uses ‘The Guardian’s Study’ as his Home
I would love to hear more about Florelle. What set her on her path to be a rogue? What are her thoughts about the wars that have ravaged Azeroth? What does she seek out of life?
You have no idea how trilled I am about random OC asks!!! :D
So, here is some information about Florelle, my little Warcraft rogue.
What set her on her path to be a rogue?
Lady Florelle Gregmont never intended to be a rogue. Alas, her life had been all planned for her from the moment she was born. Her mother had died shortly after giving birth to her baby daughter, so her father took it on himself to raise her to be a formidable lady. Most would consider themselves lucky to be born into a noble and influential family of Stormwind.
But Florelle was trouble from the moment she was able to walk. She was smart, way too smart than was good for her. She was sneaking around Stormwind with her friends - urchins her father really disapproved of. She tested her limits. How far could she sneak into places she was definitely forbidden to go to.
Her father bestowed the best tutors on her and made sure she got the proper education from mathematics to languages and politics, music, art and philosophy. And she used her knowledge to charm people for information she could use to her advantage - but never in cruel ways. Florelle was more looking for fun than to hurt her peers.
She grew up a beautiful and popular young lady. The marriage between Florelle and the son of a wealthy merchant was as good as sealed when she fell in love with the young and charismatic leader of a street gang - Tybalt. Oh and he did fill her head with all kinds of ideas of adventure. There was a whole world outside of Stormwind to be explored and she could have all that if she went with him.
She was 17, he was 21. Florelle might have thought herself to be smart, but she didn’t really know the real world. When she ran away with Tybalt her father - in a fit of rage - disowned her, declared that she was no longer his daughter.
Without her father’s fortune Tybalt had no more use for Florelle and left her.
So, there she was. She had no home to return to - admittedly, her father would have welcomed her home if she had just apologized. But she was out of Stormwind now. She was... free... She took the odd jobs to earn some coins. Sneaking into places retrieving “misplaced” items or eavesdropping on the cheating husband to tell his wife about his affair with the stableboy.
By the time she was 19 Lady Florelle Gregmont was just a memory. She was now just Florelle.
What are her thoughts about the wars that have ravaged Azeroth?
Honestly, through her studies of history and politics Florelle came to the conclusion that the first two wars were a result of greed and arrogance on both parts from the Alliance and the Horde.
Her opinions that the humans always acted somewhat entitled towards the other races of Azeroth were never really popular among her teachers. But what did the humans expect when they greeted the Orcs with violence? And what were the Orcs thinking claiming land by force? Her naive opinion at that time was that they should have discussed their claims.
These days, after having been part of the fourth war herself - war is just a few powerful individuals butting heads... the heads being the soldiers fighting the actual war. They just want a place to call home, to live peacefully. War will never be the answer or solution.
What does she seek out of life?
At this point... she is not sure anymore. She reconciled with her father, she is the leader of the uncrowned and trusted advisor to King Anduin. She rose higher and traveled farther than she ever dared to in her wildest dreams.
Florelle just actually wants something that is her own. Her own home and place to live without fear of being assassinated - because, let’ss face it, she made a lot of enemies over the years.
idk i’ve been thinking a lot about night elves and esp how night elf families tend to be organized. the maternal side of the family is the Important side, where the eldest woman is referred to as shan’alunei. in lieu of surnames in a culture that holds a wide variation of traditions behind it, kaldorei might refer to themselves as [Name] [shan’alunei’s name]’dorei
alu'da - grandma
alo'da - grandpa
an'da - papa
minn'da - mama
marin'da - sister
aran'da - brother
thal'da - aunt
thol'da - uncle
thaldorei - matrilineal cousin (da/das doesn’t apply for cousins. dara is applicable but deemed excessive in most situations, usually a cousin that you are very close to is referred to as a brother or sister.)
tholdorei - patrilineal cousin
turn “da” into “dara” to formalize it
“da” becomes “as” to indicate patrilineal relation. a half sister from your father would be your marin'as. “da” becomes “daras” for formalizing. most commonly used when referring to a relative that is older than you.
continued hc: darnassus was the name of the night elf settlement where the first temple dedicated to elune was on the shore of the well of eternity. it was an incredibly holy site that was obliterated in the wake of the shattering. that is where their language and their new capital on teldrassil got their names
🌅 + 🍺 for the last OC question thingie, and Bri, Lor and Florelle!
Okay... I still have asks to cover:
Brianne:
🌅 - What is your OCs favourite time of day? Are they a morning person or a night owl?
Was already answered here.
🍺 - What kind of drunk are they? (e.g. talkative, sleepy, flirty etc.)
The overconfident one. Bri doesn’t drink often and she mostly only does when memories start to overwhelm her or she suffers from survivor’s guilt again. And when there is an Orc sitting next to her at the bar she is most likely to start a brawl because “she can outsmart an orc anyday” ... though no... not when she’s drunk. There are a few taverns across Azeroth who don’t server her anymore.
Lortheron:
🌅 - What is your OCs favourite time of day? Are they a morning person or a night owl?
He is the chipper and cheerful morning person who wakes up and is in a good mood. NOT.
Seriously. No.
Lortheron HATES mornings - he’s worse than his sister (Brianne) when it comes to being in a bad mood in the mornings. Though... then he is mostly in a bad mood, no matter what time of day. He prefers evenings though. It means the dreadful days are turning to an end.
🍺 - What kind of drunk are they? (e.g. talkative, sleepy, flirty etc.)
He gets really quiet and sulky when drunk. The more he drinks, the quieter he gets - and that means something because Lor is not really a chatty person to begin with.
He’s difficult, okay? He has many traumas to deal with and even more secrets he will take to his grave.
Florelle:
🌅 - What is your OCs favourite time of day? Are they a morning person or a night owl?
Nights. Though that comes with the job of being a rogue/assassin and feared shadowblade. As one of the leading members of the uncrowned she knows how to get jobs done during daylight, too. But during the day it’s all ... more obvious. At night you can’t see how messy things sometimes get and she just prefers the really dark shadows to hide away from what she sometimes has to do.
🍺 - What kind of drunk are they? (e.g. talkative, sleepy, flirty etc.)
It’s not easy to get her drunk. She has a high tolerance for alcohol. And it’s good that she’s the sleepy drunk because being talkative or flirty would bear the risk of revealing too much. Being sleepy is also dangerous because then she gets vulnerable. She knows her limits. There were only two occasions when she really got herself drunk.
Ohh! Then I pick Florelle. She’s the most talkative right now.
🎭 - Does your OC show different sides of themselves to different people?
Yes. Sometimes she wonders who she really is, she is used to wear a mask around people. As a shadowblade people must never know who she really is. Florelle Gregmont has become her alias for who she really is, a nameless shadow in the night. She is who she needs to be to get the job done.
When necessary she wears the mask of a friendly person always eager to laugh. Or the calculating politician. A clueless woman or a seductress, she can be all. But her true self, the sad and lonely woman, is someone only two people know (and one of them is dead).
🩺 - Does your OC accept help easily? Are they willing to admit when they need help?
Not really... no... she does know when she needs help and she is smart enough to ask for it if necessary - otherwise she would be long dead. But that doesn’t mean she accepts it easily. Needing help just means there are more people getting involved in the mess of being a shadowblade.
💡 - How does your OC enact plans? Do they plan down to the smallest details, or do the wing it?
Meticulously planned for various scenarios. She at least has a plan B (and C, D, E and F as well as several worst case scenarios). She believes that the moment you need to “wing it” you lose control of the situation - which is deadly in her kind of business. She never goes to enact anything without a plan.
Alright... the asks are kind of piling up in my inbox. Time to tackle them one by one over the coming days. I am somewhat braindead due to 6 hours of web meeting today...
💡 - How does your OC enact plans? Do they plan down to the smallest details, or do the wing it?
When she had plans in the past Brianne tended to overthink them A LOT. What if this unlikely situation happened? Or someone who was most likely never to show up appeared on the scene? It drove her into some anxiety attacks.
These days she mostly wings it. Go in. Get the job done no matter what. Get out. Casualties happen. If you want no casualties you have to state that BEFORE you send her to do the job.
She can get things planned for important jobs. But the regular mercenary job. Nah... she wings it.
🎁 - What kind of gift-giver are they? Do they give thoughtful gifts? Expensive gifts? Practical gifts?
What do you mean... gifts?? Giving gifts would be admitting some sort of attachment and that she cares. She’s trying not to get too attached to anyone because it always ends in tears and broken things - mostly furniture.
Yes, Bri is also somewhat stingy. But that wouldn’t stop her from getting gifts. She is rather not giving them for the aforementioned reasons.
🌅 - What is your OCs favourite time of day? Are they a morning person or a night owl?
She likes dusk actually. The days still have the warmth of the day but it’s getting darker and she can easier hide in the long shadows.
Bri is also no morning person. Don’t talk to her after waking her up... it never ends well.
