Humans and Architecture

I've been playing my warlock a lot recently (primarily for her jewelcrafting, but I am enjoying the class), and I have to say—I treat her very well. My druid doesn't mind sleeping under the stars, in the snow, or even hovering in Swift Flight Form. My death knight is lucky if she gets to stand in the threshold of an inn (and she usually has to stand there for days on end). But for some reason, I tend to pamper my warlock: a cherry grog every time she takes the ferry, a square meal at least once a day and a bedtime snack. And she always gets to stay in the best hotels—not just in the threshhold, either, but in an actual bed or at the very least in a chair by a cozy fireplace. She lives in Dalaran now, but her inn of choice while leveling was The Gilded Rose in Stormwind, and in particular the room where Fuzz the cat sleeps (which at first I thought was a dead rat on the table). If I found myself in Kalimdor at 3 am, I'd always take the extra few minutes to fly her to Theramore.

I really love Human architecture in WoW. Goblin towns are too gritty and sandy for my tastes, and the low little mud igloo-type buildings just don't seem hospitable to me. I hate making my toon spend a night in one of those goblin inns where all the beds are in the lobby beside a table laden with decomposing food. For the most part, I also dislike dwarven architecture (except the hobbit-holes at the Wetlands farm between the Dun Morogh airfield and Menethil Harbour). The dank industrial atmosphere of Ironforge conjures up a stuffy, claustrophobic feeling. Even though my main is a Night Elf, I find their architecture rather drafty. And the Draenei seem to fashion their buildings out of heaps of rubble. I've never played a Horde toon more than a few levels, but Orgrimmar seems too spikey to me, Undercity too maze-like (as well as dank), Silvermoon too distant, and Thunder Bluff too cows. You know, too cows. I'm not saying these other styles of architecture are inferior—they're certainly highly interesting, and I intend to look at each one in turn in the future—and I don't dislike the styles as such (how Derridean of me); but if I was in my toon's greaves, I'd find these places more or less inhospitable.

When it comes to architecture in WoW, I love what the Humans do. I love Stormwind in the evening when golden lamplight streams from the windows. I love the thatched roofs and the cobblestone streets, the ivy crawling over all the buildings, the cheery pubs. I love the Elizabethan-style leaded windows and half-timbered walls, alongside massive fortifications made from blocks of hewn stone. When I step into the harbour I always imagine seagulls and a fresh salty breeze. Inside the pubs, the coziness of the crackling fireplace is almost tangible. To me, Human architecture is all about hospitality, comfort, and good cheer, and reaches back to an Early Modern style.

The city itself was rebuilt with the aid of the Ironforge Dwarves (who contributed the Deeprun Tram at this time) after the Second War, during which it was reduced to ruins and overrun by the orcs of the Twilight's Hammer clan. Stormwind as it exists today, then, was built by the joint efforts of Human and Dwarven artisans, who were united in the form of the Stonemasons Guild led by Edwin VanCleef. Some of the builders lent their skills for free, while others afterward demanded payment from the Human nobles (who, in turn, refused to pay and ordered the Stonemasons to disband). If you recall The Green Hills of Stranglethorn, the father of Nesingwary's buddy Sir S. J. Erlgadin became disillusioned with the nobility for this very refusal to pay the builders. VanCleef led his betrayed Stonemasons out of Stormwind, while Baros Alexston (also an original member of the Stonemasons) chose to stay in Stormwind and became City Architect, a title which he holds to this day as he stands in City Hall. Whether or not the tale of the Stonemasons inspires compassion, we are pretty much required by the game to disapprove of the lot of them: they have evolved into the criminal organization of the Defias Brotherhood, and we still venture out to punish VanCleef.

So there you have it: a brief history of the building of Stormwind. But the essence of the Human architectural style preexisted the reconstruction of the capital city. Before that, Human cottages clustered around the SW fortress and in small villages elsewhere. Just as the style itself looks back to earlier Elizabethan times in our own world, the architecture visible in Stormwind and Human villages elsewhere is based on a time earlier than Stormwind itself, earlier than the statues in the Valley of Heroes (which pay tribute to heroes of the Second War). Those earlier edifices survive in rustic Old Town, Stormwind's oldest area, some of which survived the razing.