Discussion on the origin of the species

copied from the rp forum:

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=7913123478&sid=1

I haven't read it all yet, but the offended elf in the third post made me laugh.

It's the classic creationism/evolutionism debate, brought into the Warcraft universe. Elves were created by Elune vs. elves evolved from trolls.

Now there's a thing that people usually misunderstand about evolution. As we know, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom are chimpanzees. Some people interpret it the way humans evolved from chimpanzees. However, it is not true. Both humans and chimpanzees evolved from a common ancestor, which was neither a human, nor a chimpanzee. It was animal of a completely different, now extinct species, that was similar to a chimpanzee in appearance (from a human's point of view, at least. If there were paleontologist chimps, they'd likely say that it was similar to a human in appearance).

If we accept that evolution exists in the Warcraft universe, and it works the same way as in our world, we can say trolls and elves have evolved from a common ancestor which was neither an elf, nor a troll. It was a different species, neither an elf, nor a troll. It might have looked like an elf in appearance, or a troll, we cannot know until the Azerothian paleonthologists find fossils.

On the origin of other species, I like to assume (though it's nowhere confirmed in the Warcraft lore), that the animal-like species (tauren, furbolg, quilboar, gnoll etc.) share a common ancestor with their closest relative in the animal kingdom: tauren with bovines, furbolg with bears, quilboars with pigs and gnolls with hyenas. I'm puzzled with the gorillas of Stranglethorn; they could be the closest animal relatives of the human-like races (humans, dwarves, gnomes), but this contradicts the Curse of Flesh theory, which also has proof (the existence of Mountain Giants and troggs, dwarves' stoneform, etc.) - unless, of course, if the gorillas were cursed with flesh, too.

I laughed at the offended elf too. He reminded me of the people of the 19th century who objected to Darwin's theories. However, neither of those victorian gentlemen went so far to claim that the human-ape relationship is a lie spread by the apes themselves!