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.
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
14
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.