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Stereotyping the Horde
Terra Nova is having a discussion today entitled Cultural Borrowing in WoW, looking at the cultural references made in relation to the Horde (Jamaicans for the Trolls, Native Americans for the Tauren) and what that means given the Horde's reputation as Evil. From the article: "I want to talk about how science fiction and fantasy often engage in this type of borrowing -- most 'new' things are just old things recoded. For instance, the Wikipedia entry on Klingons points to the Soviets, Mongolians, and Japanese Samurai. In most cases, I think this whole process of cultural encryption, mash-up, and recoding is fun -- perhaps what good art is all about. Looking particularly at WoW, though, I have to wonder sometimes..."
Just a little correction, Malfurian Stormrage is not the current leader of the Cenarion Circle, he is in hibernation. Fandral Staghelm is the current CC leader, and the arrogant, self-righteous, condesending bastard you refer to, and he has a decent back story explaining how he got that way.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now. - Ed Howd
I'm not particularly up on my Norse mythology, but elves are definitely all over Celtic mythology, and range from the sprites you mention to the tall, fairly aristocratic, amoral Sidhe. They're never described as really evil, just highly intelligent, capricious, vicious beings who are so much above humans that they value us no more than animals. So sometimes some of them helped people, but more often they played tricks on us that ended in physically harming us. Even the Sidhe, which as far as I know are the pattern for later ideas of "noble" elves, are best known for making humans dance themselves to death for their own enjoyment. The grandparent's calling elves snobs is a vast understatement.
Again, it's not that they were evil, just that if you wanted to live very long it was best to avoid angering them. Which meant avoiding them entirely, if possible. And wearing iron and carting around wheelbarrows full of religious icons if you had reason to think you'd run into one.
gank: GA-nk, v, to brutally slay or kill, esp. when the slayer has an unfair advantage.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.