The thing that I love about the Draenei so much is that they are a heavily Middle Eastern and Jewish-coded fantasy race. Many of the NPC names are Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic in origin (let me tell you about Hellenic Hebrew and Hebræo-Arabic when Arabic became the lingua franca of the Middle East) and their accents are Eastern-European. They are a race of religious scholars, with many who devote their long lives to study.
And yes, they are extremely talented with jewelry-making and jewel-crafting (another profession that is historically associated with Jews, along with goldsmithing and silversmithing, because in medieval Christian Europe, Jews were segregated and barred from entering certain professions. Many Jews went into the professional trades or money lending- stigmatized professions beneath Christians in medieval Europe- in order to survive).
They follow a religion that encompasses their culture, a philosophy that states they are the Chosen People, the Children of the Light, and it is this culture that unites them through hardship. Their prophet is an old man who literally led them across the stars (similar to the story of Moses with the Israelites during the Exodus, an important hallmark of Jewish identity and culture), a man who speaks with the Naaru and the Holy Light.
“Not all who wander are lost, young Draenei,” he says to you.
Their main arc centers around their exile from their native world, constantly running from their enemies, and suffering from a devastating genocide that killed the majority of their people (over eight years of conflict, 80% of them systematically slaughtered by the orcs). Every land they settle, they’re eventually chased. They are a people who have never felt truly safe anywhere, who long to return to their native world. Their literal exodus from the world of Draenor after a devastating genocide was in a ship called The Exodar (how explicit can you get, Blizzard?).
Names like ‘Inaara’ and ‘Kaalif’ and ‘Idaar’ are Arabic in origin and were commonly used by Jews under Muslim rule during the Golden Age of Islam and names like ‘Merran’ and ‘Meiri’ (that are variants of the name Miriam, one of the most important prophets in Judaism and the sister of Moses), ‘Ezekiel’ (another name of an important prophet in Judaism), Joraal (Meaning ‘God will uplift’ in Hebrew, and the name of Superman’s father, another heavily Jewish-coded character created by two Jews) and ‘Behomat’ (Behemoth in the original Hebrew pronunciation, a sea monster mentioned in the Book of Job).
I can’t tell you how deeply important it is to have Jewish characters and Jewish-coded characters in fantasy. With rising anti-Semitism and a lack of good media representation, it’s absolutely imperative to have Jewish characters and Jewish voices in fiction, especially considering anti-Semitic history behind fantasy and science fiction.
Dwarves and goblins have been associated with anti-Semitic stereotypes for hundreds of years and historically speaking, fantasy has never been a kind realm of fiction for Jews. Even sci-fi is not a friendly place to Jews, even though authors like Isaac Asmiov, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Harry Turtledove and filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, and J.J Abrams have contributed deeply to both science fiction and fantasy. Comics are also not an exception to the contribution of Jewish experiences and backgrounds, as the American comic book industry largely was led by Jewish immigrants. Marvel Comics, for example, was founded by two Jews (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) and Superman was created with deeply Jewish coding by two Jews.
World of Warcraft is the biggest MMORPG game in the world, and its cultural impact is absolutely huge. To have fantasy creatures associated with Jews that is inherently positive, showing pieces and parallels to actual Jewish history, and to have Jewish stereotypes shattered, is an absolutely amazing development. I can tell you personally how disappointed I was as a child with not many Jewish characters in fiction, much less non-racist Jewish characters in fantasy and sci-fi. This means the world to me, to have such good and positive characters portrayed as Jewish, and I’m sure it’ll mean a lot to other Jews as well.
