So I amused myself on a long drive this weekend by luring @eighthdoctor into a discussion of Warcraft daemons and how the stereotypes, associations, and inherent practical differences would shape daemon culture on Azeroth.
Might expand on that eventually but in the meantime, some musings about my kids.
Vazkri: Her daemon is a tigress. Like...I mean, what do you want from me. As if it could be anything ELSE.
Kemm: After much deliberation, Kemm has a kiwi. Unlike in HDM canon, we think birds on Azeroth would be strongly associated with rangers, hunters, and scouts rather than magic-users. (The stereotype for a mage is cats or, for particularly vicious war-mages, something venomous and deceptively deadly.) In that sense. Kemm's awkward funny-looking flightless bird is inherently mockable--a physical representation of his utter failure to be the kind of martial, dominant orc his family wanted. She's a burden, she looks stupid, she can't do anything in the field, she's not powerful or warlike...but she fits perfectly in his arms, and she doesn't scare people, and the people in Kemm's life who matter have loved her on sight.
Levaden: Settled as a stag when she was, like, 200. This is considered WILDLY young by kaldorei standards to the point where it's generally taken as a sign of immaturity--a soul essentially refusing to mature past adolescence, or at least so cocky that they both THINK this is who they are forever.
(In reality, Levaden just genuinely has a deep, rock-solid sense of self and an even more deeply-rooted sense of justice. She is always gonna be a bit of a flashy, fighty asshole, and that's exactly what the world needs from her.)
Velshada: Female, unsettled. Draenei can live for ten thousand years, and she's in her 20s, There's no rush. Vel's daemon probably won't settle for centuries; she's still learning who she is.
What IS notable as a young mage is that they have a strictly limited range. In a world where portal spells are an apprentice-level working and portals can easily close behind you--with your daemon on the other side--distance work is absolutely essential and normally starts early; but Talet won't let anyone pressure them. If Vel can't do portals until they've achieved a range they're not ready for, the solution is that Vel can wait to learn portals, not to rush them into a separation ritual.
Talet: Speaking of which, my theory is that on Azeroth part of the worgen curse is that it violently warps your daemon. Whoever and whatever you were before? You have a wolf daemon now. Forever. If that doesn't feel right to either of you, tough shit. I think that's the best way to mirror the intense spiritual effect of the curse in-universe. In a very real sense, the wolf is a part of you now, and you have to learn to make your peace with that. This gives most worgen INTENSE spiritual dysphoria--and that separates Talet from her kind, because Talet was bitten when she was twelve years old.
Her she-wolf daemon was forcibly settled, which was a little traumatic, yes, but--she wasn't warped. In a way they do mourn, a little, the fact that they never got a chance to find out who they MIGHT have been, but...no one ever really gets that chance. She's ALWAYS been a wolf. She and Talet both IDENTIFY with it--in much the same way that 'canon' Talet identifies more as a wolf than a human, daemon!AU Talet finds herself lonely in being MORE comfortable with a worgen-curse daemon than with the thought of anything else.
Rinda: Rinda has a big white livestock guardian dog. Think a Great Pyr. He's big and powerful and fierce in a fight, but not aggressive or threatening; he's warm, floppy, soft. Dog daemons are, stereotypically, for servants--and that's exactly how Rinda views her calling as a paladin. Being a paladin should never be about war. At your core, it should always be about making EVERYONE around you feel safe and warm.
Teelic: Teelic has a tiny cock little bantam rooster, and EVERYONE who makes the joke thinks they're the first fucking genius to ever make the joke. it's okay, though. They're perfect for each other--tiny, pretty, competent, domesticated...and fiercer, more vicious fighters in defense of their flock than anyone was ready for.
Beverly: Daemons don't come back. When you're killed and Raised, your daemon doesn't get Raised with you. In life, before Arthas stole him forever, she had a rat. Wildly intelligent, intensely prosocial, prone to climbing, relentless, gets everywhere. Rich people hate 'em. His name wasn't Malcolm, but Beverly's pet sewer rat still makes everyone incredibly uncomfortable.
Ihz: ....Be fucking for real right now. Literally identical to canon Ihz except that she uses a neck-strap for balance instead of a bridle and absolutely nothing else has changed in the slightest. She and Thorn are the healthy counterpart to people who don't speak to their daemons, or whose daemons have given up on being heard.
Ihz has exchanged three words with him in the past decade and two of those words were for someone else's benefit. They don't need to speak to listen to each other.
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