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u/00365 Feb 08 '25
There are mountain lions in Alterac
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u/bshootingu Feb 08 '25
Mountain lions don't have manes
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u/GimmeDemDumplins Feb 08 '25
A shrimp didnt fry this rice either now eat your dinner and stop talking back
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u/bshootingu Feb 08 '25
... what?
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u/scribbles33 Feb 08 '25
its a succulent Chinese meal
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u/Legs181 Feb 08 '25
Shrimp fried rice. A Chinese dish
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u/RedTantor Feb 08 '25
https://wowrarespawns.blogspot.com/2011/10/araga.html?m=1 This rare spawn in hillsbrad has a mane.
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u/breachgnome Feb 09 '25
There are
mountain lionscougars in Alterac23
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u/suchtie Feb 09 '25
Mountain lion, cougar, and puma are all different names for the exact same species.
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u/Horkosthegreat Feb 08 '25
Do you think there are lions in England, Czech Republic, or Belgium? Yet all of them have lions in their coat of arms, symbols etc. This is exact logic they made Stormwind a lion =)
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u/Batmanbacon Feb 08 '25
No, but there used to be lions in southern europe and northern africa during roman times. The closest lion to Stormwind is over the ocean in Kalimdor - so it's like the Czech coat of arms was a llama
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u/Shaeress Feb 08 '25
The lion is also a symbol of the kingdom of Sweden. It's in the royal coat of arms and the capitol is absolutely littered with lions in various forms everywhere. But the first lion in Sweden was probably in 1771 when one was gifted to the king. It died shortly after, but I still displayed at Gripsholm's Castle (you should look that one up, actually). But Sweden has a lot of lion heraldry from hundreds of years before then. Heraldry can cross continents for sure.
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u/MetzgerWilli Feb 09 '25
It died shortly after, but I still displayed at Gripsholm's Castle (you should look that one up, actually).
Motherfucker...
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u/Montegomerylol Feb 08 '25
Heraldry/images/icons cross continents when people cross continents. That's why there are no llamas in European heraldry, and why there shouldn't be lions in Stormwind's. Lions in Azeroth are as far from Stormwind as llamas are from medieval Sweden.
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u/jpkoushel Feb 09 '25
There are elves in the Eastern Kingdoms that could have passed on the cultural memory of lions
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u/Lille7 Feb 09 '25
Elves and trolls had empires before the sundering. Both of those are found in the eastern kingdoms.
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u/Bananern Feb 09 '25
The land that is modern day Sweden was filled with sabertooth tigers back when those were around :)
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u/zanoty1 Feb 09 '25
Sweden would have been glacial during the ice age not sustaining life like saber-tooths or humans.
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u/Lunai5444 Feb 09 '25
Hillsbrad has Lions and is an historic human key area.
Not sure but maybe they hunted them till there were none left
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u/Horkosthegreat Feb 08 '25
historically, lions were in souther europe about 2-3 thousands years ago, with best guesses. So waaaaaaaaay before to have any impect in history of England etc.
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u/Batmanbacon Feb 08 '25
Sure, but the ones in north Africa went extinct not even 100 years ago. As opposed to no lions seen on the continent for 10 000 years
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u/Nishnig_Jones Feb 08 '25
How far back do you think the history of England and the United Kingdoms extends?
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u/NoAsk8944 Feb 11 '25
Back in my day there was no ocean, just one big landmass around a tree... then the demons came...
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u/Ok_Money_3140 Feb 08 '25
Problem is, the people of Stormwind have never been to the deserts of Kalimdor until Warcraft 3. They didn't even know they existed.
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u/falln09 Feb 09 '25
Weren't there lions with names in twilight highlands? I know we got to see them in cata but I'm sure the kingdoms had access to the areas before us?
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u/Elpsyth Feb 09 '25
Lions in hillsbrad. Argument invalid..
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u/ChristianLW3 Feb 08 '25
Thanks to the Romans all of those Europeans knew about the existence of lions with manes
The people of storm wind did not hear about lions until vanilla wow
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u/Derlino Feb 09 '25
Hell, there's a lion in Norway's coat of arms. Lived here my whole life, never seen anything close to a lion. The only native cats we have are lynxes, and they're quite different from lions.
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u/Haunt_Fox Feb 09 '25
There used to be lions in England. The Romans extincted the European lion.
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u/-Twin-Vader- Feb 09 '25
If the Romans wiped out the European lions, then that means there has never been lions in England.
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u/Haunt_Fox Feb 09 '25
European lion is simply the term for that variety of lion. But it did exist in England. So did bears and wolves. Every carnivore larger than foxes were genocided, and they tried to do it to foxes, too.
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u/MidnightFireHuntress Feb 08 '25
I'm pretty sure Stormwind's crest continued as the lion for Anduin Lothar, The Lion of Azeroth. Might be wrong but after Anduin Lothar was defeated by Orgrim Doomhammer, his general, Turalyon, took up the broken blade and shield and rallied the alliance army to victory. The symbol on the front of that shield was a lion.
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u/Laxku Feb 08 '25
Which still begs the question...how the heck do they know about lions?
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u/MidnightFireHuntress Feb 08 '25
https://www.wowhead.com/npc=50159/sambas
There are lions in Eastern Kingdoms :P
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u/BoulderRivers Feb 08 '25
So there were no lions on Eastern Kingdoms until Deathwing remade the world...
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u/Annia_LS111 Feb 09 '25
He didn't remake the world, he shattered and broke it. He didn't make Lions.
So that Lion would have been around before cata
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u/Agentwise Feb 09 '25
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u/Laxku Feb 09 '25
Now we're talking! Had no idea this rare was in Hillsbrad, but that is one for sure. Weird it's the only maned lion in EK, but we count it.
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u/RoyInverse Feb 08 '25
Why do the welsh have a dragon in their flag if dragons dont exist?
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u/BenWhitaker Feb 09 '25
Dragon deniers be like: the Chinese picked 11 real animals for the zodiac and then threw in a fake one
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u/Mazoc Feb 09 '25
Why does the Isle of Man flag have a man with a leg for his an upper body if those don't exist?
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u/3irikur Feb 08 '25
Lions are also in Norways coat of arms, but we have no lions here 🤷♂️
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u/boromeer3 Feb 08 '25
Wales has a dragon on their flag but there are neither whales nor dragons there.
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u/Ok-Gain-7473 Feb 09 '25
Pretty funny if the lion was a “mythical” creature to the humans of the Eastern Kingdoms, which turned out to just be completely mundane in Kalimdor
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u/Durffus Feb 08 '25
I think a lot of people are missing the point of this question by referencing real world coat of arms with a foreign animal, in regions that don’t have that animal.
No one on the Eastern kingdoms would have ever seen or heard of a lion before. They just simply do not exist to their perception. There are cougars on the continent, but not maned lions. It’s a question that has popped up in the community for more than a decade.
The simple answer is, Blizzard didn’t think that far ahead. They thought it would be cool to have a lion as a crest, but when they fleshed out the continent for the MMO, they never included a desert or savanna location. Slipped their mind.
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u/Montegomerylol Feb 08 '25
Or to be even more on point, they thought it would be cool because lots of the medieval European cultures they drew inspiration from when making the human kingdoms had lions in their heraldry, and while there are lots of ways for that to happen with exotic animals when cultures and continents are connected through trade, it's flat out impossible when you don't even know the continent on which those animals reside exists (SEE: the "new world" and Kalimdor).
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u/zertul Feb 09 '25
http://wowrarespawns.blogspot.com/2011/10/araga.html
There's a lioness in the Eastern Kingdoms, so pretty sure there was a lion there too, at some point.
They probably got hunted to extinction or lost their living grounds to other / stronger predators.Even if it's only cougars they took their inspiration from, it's not that hard to fathom that they got creative with it and wanted something more impressive, thus slapping on a mane.
There's dragons, unicorns and other stuff on our coat of arms in the real world.
Your simple answer might simply (ha!) be right, but there's a lot of other equally possible explanations.
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Feb 08 '25
[deleted]
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u/Durffus Feb 08 '25
It would be a possibility, certainly! If not for Blizzard making sure the players knew that humans have never been to Kalimdor before. That it was considered a fictional place by the alliance races. Even the wise and knowledgeable mages of Dalaran didn’t think it was real! They wrote themselves into a corner with that one.
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u/raxiel_ Feb 09 '25
What about the Zandalari? The Kul Tirans may have had some knowledge from crossing paths with them and they were part of the alliance until WC3.
Doesn't require the general population to be familiar with them, just good enough sightings to paint the picture of a mythical beast "hey you know those big cats we have in hillsbrad? It was like that but bigger, and it had lots of hair round it's head"
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u/Rogue009 Feb 09 '25
There are also no wild horses until Cata yet humans all have mounts. Theres like 4 farms in elwynn to feed the entire kingdom and there are more Defias npcs than civilians.
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u/Asd396 Feb 09 '25
There are no wild horses in Europe either. Granted, they went extinct fairly recently.
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u/Rogue009 Feb 09 '25
they had to have come from somewhere in Azeroth though
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u/Asd396 Feb 09 '25
Yep, but they might have gone extinct in the wild after domestication. The only horses living in the wild nowadays aren't actual wild horses, they're feral i.e. descendants of domesticated horses.
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u/Agentwise Feb 09 '25
Lions do exist in the eastern kingdoms though. Assuming you want to ignore post-cata (they are in twilight highlands) there is a rare spawn named Araga that has a mane in hullsbrad
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Feb 08 '25
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u/Durffus Feb 08 '25
True, they did add that NPC to the game six years after the game released.
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u/Stahlreck Feb 09 '25
Yeah but lore wise the Highlands have always been there even if the Vanilla map shows only ocean. So, works out I guess. An oversight that was corrected with Cata.
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Feb 09 '25 edited 4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Durffus Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25
Recently, yes. The orcs and humans travelling to the continent only happened four years before the time setting of World of Warcraft. And the symbol of Stormwind had presumably been a lion for at least 100 years before that.
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u/lasantamolti Feb 08 '25
Why is it the symbol of England although there’s no lions in fucking Europe even
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u/Threatening-Silence- Feb 08 '25
Why does England have three lions if there are no lions in England? ...
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u/StaySaltyPlebians Feb 08 '25
I know it's a sarcastic question but a fully grown adult male lion is one of the most impressive and intimidating sights you can get. Both traits royalty holds in high regard
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u/tinyclown1 Feb 08 '25
They were hunted to extinction in England and Europe
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u/EnvironmentalCoach64 Feb 08 '25
Why is his name Richard the lion heart I'd there are no lions in England?
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u/Curtkid6 Feb 08 '25
There's been no in universe reason given, but my head canon is that Varian Wrynn (or one of the Wrynn's) thought they looked cool and made them their emblem.
It's also my head canon reason as to why Stormwinds name changes from Stonewind during the time between the original Warcraft game and the MMO.
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u/Brilliant-Software-4 Feb 08 '25
Why do any countries that have lion's in there flags where there are no lion's there
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u/Terriblevidy Feb 09 '25
There are lions in the Eastern Kingdoms though. Dire Lions can be found in the Badlands. Lions in twilight highlands. Also hillsbrad has a lion.
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u/Maaybees Feb 09 '25
I know I’ve heard people call Anduine “little lion” maybe it’s not about a literal lion /shrug
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u/Beacon2001 Feb 09 '25
Funnily enough, humans are an ancient race, even older than high elves and dwarves. It's possible that they were scattered across ancient Kalimdor and enslaved by the Kaldorei empire. They would have likely seen lions during that time.
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u/Iluvatar-Great Feb 09 '25
It's kind of a European I medieval thing. Which humans are inspired by.
I think it's just as simple as they recognized that this animal is mighty when they saw them on their journeys to Africa. So they were like "cool animal let's make them our coat of arms"
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u/Pmike9 Feb 09 '25
Bruh same reason my country’s flag basically has lions despite us being far away from lionland. Lions are fucking cool
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u/OptimusPrimeRib86 Feb 09 '25
This ain't FFXIV ... Don't start that horrendous word over here. Just call it what it's been for years rotation and damage meters
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u/Tarlinator Feb 09 '25
The African Lion is one of the most depicted animals in China and they have a whole dance called Lion Dance. No lions in China
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u/Annia_LS111 Feb 09 '25
While there is one lion in the twilight highlands IRs possible there are more, there's lion mounts in game the alliance has.
This could also have something to do with the High elves joining the Alliance, high elves once were night elves and they saw Sabercats as loyal, brave and heroic.
Perhaps the High elves gave them the idea?
Most likely it's Lions weren't showed that much for some reason, maybe they were native to North Redbridge before it was turned into Blackrock, badland and so one.
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u/DoLewdThingsToMePlz Feb 09 '25
There was one lion in the eastern kingdoms for awhile. It was Varian. Wasn’t the stormwind symbol a lion because of that?
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u/TheClassicAndyDev Feb 10 '25
There are? There are hella lions in Hillsbrad yo I killed the shit out of those things.
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u/Opening_Basis7333 Feb 10 '25
Griffins are half lion. My head canon is that the forefathers road lions into battle while the later generation, rode the evolved/created griffins.
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u/theAnton81 Feb 10 '25
Probably for the same reason that a lot of European monarchies have a lion on their coat of arms.
Also, horses used to be unicorns, but then they took an arrow to the knee...
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u/Azur0007 Feb 10 '25
Anduin is "The Young Lion" throughout his youth, other than that mountain lions I guess?
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Feb 10 '25
Sir Anduin Lothar was called "The Lion of Stormwind" and obviously lions are traditionally viewed as a symbol of strength and courage.
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u/pilsburybane Feb 10 '25
There are multiple explanations of lions in the Eastern Kingdoms already (Sambas in Twilight Highlands and Araga in Hillsbrad Foothills (all the way back in classic!). It could also just be that They didn't make Kalimdor as part of the lore until 2002 with the release of Warcraft III, so they expected to make the Eastern Kingdoms significantly more diverse originally, hence the lion. I could see Westfall being a larger area that would have been a savannah with true lions in it, perhaps bridging the gap between Stranglethorn and the human lands better than Duskwood does? (Though obviously the original map from WC1 is drastically different than what we have today)
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u/HerculesMagusanus Feb 11 '25
I mean, Wales has a dragon, and tonnes of European countries have lions, despite there being no dragons or lions in Europe (outside of zoos, anyway - check out Cardiff's famous dragon zoo). There's a historical precedent
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u/crazyloomis Feb 12 '25
Germans comes to Sweden to buy moose crap in jars. Yeah, I don’t know why I just wrote that, but it’s true
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u/Kage1831 Feb 08 '25
I had to think about that for a moment. You're right, there are no lions in the Eastern Kingdoms. Mountain lions, maybe, but they don't have manes.
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u/purplerain4991 Feb 08 '25
Yeah pretty sure there is atleast mountain lions in hillsbrad.... so kind of?
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u/centurijon Feb 09 '25
Lions used to exist in Europe until humans hunted them to extinction. It’s why there’s still a lot of family crests with lions on them
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u/Jagueroisland Feb 08 '25
Stormwind is loosely based on England. Lordaeron is loosely based on Germany. That is why.
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u/Mangert Feb 09 '25
Gryphons are half lions
Griffindor in Harry Potter has the Lion as their mascot. Instead of a gryphon. I think stormwind is doing the same thing
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u/HomeForge Feb 08 '25
The unicorn is the National animal of Scotland. its also on their coat of arms.