149733-why-so-exiled

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So in the short time that I've been playing it occurred to me that there are more Exile than Dominion. This perplexes me as Dominion is so very much more awesome (yeah I said it).
 
The starting gear looks better. I mean my first character was a Exile Slinger. my first thought as he stepped on to the planet surface was "Excretion stained long underwear, barefoot, in the snow? Really!?" That slob was summarily fried and the slot made vacant for a Dominion Engineer. Way cooler! 
 
So what is the deal? Is it the Alabama accents? A cowboy fetish? An inmate opposition to the color red? Or maybe it's the cutsie race that looks like adolescents with furry ears and tails as opposed to psychotic rodents.	
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			Probably the later.	
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			I'm going to go with cowboy fetish. Yes there it is, I admit it!	
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			Hey now, I live in alabama and despise the exiles :P  .  Also people like furries/humans and aurin are the perfect mix so therefore we have the problem we have.
			
				
	Edited February 18, 2016 by Bacon_21	
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A) they are the "good guys".  Blame Star Wars.  Blame Firefly.  Blame Saturday morning cartoons.  The good guys are good, even when they do bad things.  They are the underdogs that fight the good fight, come from behind and win the game.  No matter how "good" the dominion's actions may ever be, they will never be able to compete with the ethos of the Exiles.B.) The game is constantly considered a "Space Cowboy" MMO.  There's nothing cowboy-like on dominion side.  There's crazy, psychotic, shamelessly aggressive mayhem at the expense of others, but nothing even remotely familiar to the wild west, although there seems to be a few nods to the red coats version of the American Revolution.  Because everyone knows if you're British, you're either super smart or trying to take over the world... 
 
C) and this one really gets me...  In WoW, the Alliance was the bastion of good, but also was the "establishment" (aka "the man"), the civilized, but the militantly vigilant.   The Horde was the unruly, wild, fierce, savage heavy metal "bad guys", but Bliz did a TON to paint them in redeeming colors and honorable themes.  They tried to balance the tropes between the sides.  In Wildstar - the Dominion has all of the Tyrannical Establishment, the civilization and the militantly vigilance while also maintaining the wild, savage and bat shit crazy,   This is held juxtaposed to the Exiles who are justified to be and do whatever they want to/have to in order to survive and maintain their freedom.  Its the tale of the Aurin Hooker with a heart of gold fighting to free herself from "the unscrupulous Man".  You can't play "The man" in that story without feeling at least a little dirty.. :P)Only after making an Exile and a Dommie do you see that this conflict isn't about right and wrong or good and evil, but about the freedom of being in control and what each side is willing to do to achieve it.  If Carb wants a "good" flavored Dominion, they are going to have to pull a "Thrall".   With that in mind, I'm not quite sure I really NEED to be a good guy..  you know?   Its nice... but.. . everything has a price and some costs are too high...   	
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I think the Dominion races are pretty lackluster, bland, and, frankly, ugly.That said, the Granok aren't much better but their personalities remind me of Dwarves, which I've always found cool. Humans are boring no matter what, and Mordesh are creepy and tragic and interesting. For me, though, it was the Aurin's story. I felt bad for them, and I loved their lore. I'm actually irritated by all the strong Southern accents and so many cowboys around.
 
I love being the "bad guy" quite often, and I'm actually kinda disappointed that the Dominion just holds 0 appeal to me.	
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Hey now, I live in alabama and despise the exiles :P  .  Also people like furries/humans and aurin are the perfect mix so therefore we have the problem we have.
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There was a pretty big Chua fetish going on when Wildstar was first released.
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			Mordesh  :wub:	
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I'd love to run up a Dominion toon or two but my guild is Exile so there's absolutely no point if I want to actually play all the game has to offer. Also nobody wants to run up a Dominion toon because everyone knows the population is so one sided and people like to wait as little as possible to do things like Dungeons which is fair enough.
 
#DropTheFactionWall 	
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Well, I still think it has to do with the Dominion not having a classic brute male on the race options, to play as. The more down to earth, bad because there is profit, actually masculine type of an option.. while the exiles have them in spades and with variations.
 
(Someone might say the Draken males try to fill that spot but.. the lore, the hunched models and the natural affinity to appear more stealthy-themed actually take away from that)	
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			I actually signed for Exiles because I thought they were kinda like the Horde in WoW. Seems like a no :/	
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I actually signed for Exiles because I thought they were kinda like the Horde in WoW. Seems like a no :/
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Because people look at the aurin and go "I love anime and they are sooo cute and I love cats and they are like bunny cat people!!" That's my assumption any way.
 
I recently went... Exile... But as someone mentioned, I only did because it has a higher population and has raiding guilds that match my time a lot better. Driving me crazy seeing all these aurin!	
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I like aurin, adorable creatures really, and I will try to level mine up during double xp event :)
But my main is a chua, there is something epic about chuas =) And if I have time I might be trying out another chua during leveling event.
And just show illium vs thayd... personally those two can't compare... illium is too beautiful =)	
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I played Dominion during beta and wanted to when it launched but when some friends and I all moved over to WS from another game they all wanted to go Exiles, so here I am.
I chose Aurin because I dislike the gait the other female races have (I've tried them all) and the aurin animations feel more fluid to me. Humans aren't too bad, but humans (Zzz.) Her run is a little funky, but I'm getting used to her. 
 
The taller classes (male Mordesh!) also feel so awkward in housing to me.  :wacko:	
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			I think that the Dominion is been stereotyped big time by this game, the cities are more pretty than Exile, the Exile city looks like a dump.	
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			Because dummy dommies sucks, thats why!	
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The Dominon represents order in the universe. You all would do well to accept the protection of the empire. 
 
Now that the pot has been properly stirred; I actually have two Dom and one Ex character. All human. I find the Dominon lore (what little of it I've experienced thus far) to be more entertaining. I like the imperial expansionist point of view and the dry humor of the Dominion. While I do play my Ex character, I pretty much do so to try and keep his level competitive to my Dom folks just as an option. I find the Exile story line a bit played out (again what little of it that I've experienced) and the humor more slap stick. I can only stomach so much "They dun killed muh family", fart noises and clown shoes. I've also noticed a steady increase of Dominion players over the last week. I foresee the experience of fun in our future,	
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I like both factions, though Dommies go first - mysterious cybernetic Mechari, constructed long ago by the Eldan for not-entirely-known purpose, controlling the society from behind the veil of shadows, you can't get more sci-fi than that. That's my main. Even humans can get interesting, because they are based on this fancypantsy scheming nobility theme. And damn the vigilant Church music (Hymn of the Six) makes me wanna be a fanatic believer for a while (and if you read them journals of the likes of Toric Antevian, they are a bit more nuanced than your avarage computer game fanatic cult). And psychopatic rodents with sex-life better not spoken of? Dominion all the way!I love Thayd much more than Illium though, it's so varied and oozes cyberpunk / postapocalyptic vibe, there's slums where you don't know what's gonna happen to you behind that corner, then there's aurin growing a garden in the middle of this dump, and everything is built on the ruins of an ancient mysterious civilization (I like jumping on the broken metal pieces up high), it's like a labirynth you can get lost in. And big spaceship as a museum vs just a teleporter (biggest let down Dominion-side).
 
In the end, I don't care what bandwagon people jump on, I love all of them races of Wildstar, and the creativity that went into creating the universe is the biggest appeal of the game.	
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Yeah, cause who would choose the freedom fighter space cowboys over the "boring" space empire...? Right...? I don't really get what's so surprising about this. It has nothing to do with aurin. People choose aurin because granok and mordesh are basically just bigger - and (debatably) uglier - humans. Dominion races are more interesting tbh.
 
And as others wrote before me, it's not about good and evil, it's about order and freedom. Would you rather be a self-righteous space cowboy, or an expandable soldier? Why is it so odd that most people favor cowboys...? That doesn't mean the Dominion is not fun, I would have played that side without hesitation if I had friends there when the game started.	
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I'm still holding strong to everyone just likes the Aurin. Most new players go to the Exiles because their seen right off the back as the good guys! but they stay because of the Aurin. Everyone likes the idea of being half human - half kitty LOL. Lets just be real! Just like everyone loves that fat ass flying kitty mount LOL. Everyone likes the fluffy! (ITS SO FLUFFY!!!). Most people who try to defend this idea say "No, what about the Chua?" but honestly when you look at the Chua no matter how cute you try to make them their not "cute" or "fluffy" they are more on the lines of COOL! When I made my Chua i thought this guy is about to be a bad ass Jerry (Tom & Jerry) who does what he wants and no one is going to stop me!!! Lol.
 
If you look at other MMOs people don't mind being bad! but they stay for the cutest race! 	
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I like aurin, adorable creatures really, and I will try to level mine up during double xp event :)
But my main is a chua, there is something epic about chuas =) And if I have time I might be trying out another chua during leveling event.
And just show illium vs thayd... personally those two can't compare... illium is too beautiful =)
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And just show illium vs thayd... personally those two can't compare... illium is too beautiful =)
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			Plus Illium is just obnoxious to get around in. There's no straight lines between where you are and where you want to be. I don't think it's bigger than Thayd, but the layout really makes you feel the distance. 	
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Plus Illium is just obnoxious to get around in. There's no straight lines between where you are and where you want to be. I don't think it's bigger than Thayd, but the layout really makes you feel the distance. 
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			aurin.	
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Yeah, cause who would choose the freedom fighter space cowboys over the "boring" space empire...? Right...? I don't really get what's so surprising about this. It has nothing to do with aurin. People choose aurin because granok and mordesh are basically just bigger - and (debatably) uglier - humans. Dominion races are more interesting tbh.
 
And as others wrote before me, it's not about good and evil, it's about order and freedom. Would you rather be a self-righteous space cowboy, or an expandable soldier? Why is it so odd that most people favor cowboys...? That doesn't mean the Dominion is not fun, I would have played that side without hesitation if I had friends there when the game started.
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			Dominion are indeed cooler, I would change if they offered one way transfers for a limited time...	
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Toric and his sword would like a word with you about his "boring space empire"
 
The majority of Exile toons are Aurin, not the redneck space cowboys (exiles). At times Aurin make up a sold quarter of the whole games population (though it has gone back and forth, they've always been the dominant Exile race).
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I'm not sure how many of you actually have a formal college education, but anecdotal data does not equal real statistical evidence.
To everyone who has spouted off numbers as facts, please provide your evidence.
No, a screenshot doesn't count as evidence either.	
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I'm not sure how many of you actually have a formal college education, but anecdotal data does not equal real statistical evidence.
To everyone who has spouted off numbers as facts, please provide your evidence.
No, a screenshot doesn't count as evidence either.
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I'll accept the information from the first link, but the second could have a significant amount of response bias. Thank you for that information though. No disrespect, it's just a pet peeve of mine.
 
I won't argue against the possibility that Aurin have a crazy high population, as that is my experience as well, but I have no verified numbers in front of me. I'm not sure ethnography really applies to an MMO. For example the experience of an EU character on Entity may differ drastically from that of someone logging in during NA peak times.	
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			Was this supposed to be a rigorous rational argument, or were we all just sharing opinions and friendly speculation?  'Cause it seems like it was the latter until you brought the condescension.	
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Yeah, cause who would choose the freedom fighter space cowboys over the "boring" space empire...? Right...? I don't really get what's so surprising about this. It has nothing to do with aurin. People choose aurin because granok and mordesh are basically just bigger - and (debatably) uglier - humans. Dominion races are more interesting tbh.
 
And as others wrote before me, it's not about good and evil, it's about order and freedom. Would you rather be a self-righteous space cowboy, or an expandable soldier? Why is it so odd that most people favor cowboys...? That doesn't mean the Dominion is not fun, I would have played that side without hesitation if I had friends there when the game started.
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			Also, Carbines marketing doesn't really treat Dominion like a faction, more like the main bad guy for people not in the loop about the Strain	
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Also, Carbines marketing doesn't really treat Dominion like a faction, more like the main bad guy for people not in the loop about the Strain
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			So 2 links provided that shows aurin winning over humans by 18% vs 17%. Ok. I'm not convinced, that if we e.g. switched chuas with aurin, a lot more people would choose the Dominion. How many people root for the Empire in Star Wars? Or against Star Lord's team? Or against the crew of Firefly? It's so obvious that most people would choose the "blue" side against "red"...	
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Was this supposed to be a rigorous rational argument, or were we all just sharing opinions and friendly speculation?  'Cause it seems like it was the latter until you brought the condescension.
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			Though it has been suggested that there is a good guy vs bad guy thing going. I have to agree with the general point of view being, folks just dig chick's with cat ears and furry tails. If I could stomach the Exile monolog I might even play one. As it is I had to smoke my Exile engineer last night. I just couldn't handle it and a full stomach.	
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Which is odd considering they are the less populated.
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I think another thing the Dominion has against it is the game's continuation depends on them failing their primary objectives on Nexus.  The way the conflict has been written, the Exiles get to claim a victory every day they're not driven to extinction.  Since Carbine's writers can't eliminate either faction, that means Team Blue will always be holding out against all odds, and Team Red will never succeed in taking undisputed control of their holy land.
 
 
**SPOILERS BELOW***
 
Both sides get to have their little victories and defeats when it comes to revealing the mysteries of the Eldan, but even when they win, the Dominion's victories are to their own detriment.  The more they learn about their pantheon, the clearer it becomes that their state religion is a farce, that they've been venerating a whole race of Victor Lazarins, with far longer reach but no more wisdom and even more hubris.	
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Can we stop with the false "Exiles fight so they don't get extinct" that's just pure bs, the only ones that could somewhat go extinct are the Mordesh, well the ones that are still somewhat in control of their minds that is.
If every single Exile Aurin died they'd still be some back on Arboria, and the same can be said for Granok and Humans. Their little terrorist faction might get destroyed, but that in no ways means extinction for most of those races.	
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			Only the Dominion is currently rendering Arboria uninhabitable.  Since the Aurin aren't a spacefaring species, it's possible that eradicating the Exile presence on Nexus and completing the Reaping project they initiated eight years ago will signal the extinction of the species.  Unless some other faction has collected a genetically diverse sample and removed them to some third location, the Dominion is working to the effect of their extinction, if not with the intent of it.	
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Can we stop with the false "Exiles fight so they don't get extinct" that's just pure bs, the only ones that could somewhat go extinct are the Mordesh, well the ones that are still somewhat in control of their minds that is.
If every single Exile Aurin died they'd still be some back on Arboria, and the same can be said for Granok and Humans. Their little terrorist faction might get destroyed, but that in no ways means extinction for most of those races.
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And 300 years passed, none of the current exiles were there, it's like if the UK would still wage war against the US for breaking up.
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Can we stop with the false "Exiles fight so they don't get extinct" that's just pure bs, the only ones that could somewhat go extinct are the Mordesh, well the ones that are still somewhat in control of their minds that is.
If every single Exile Aurin died they'd still be some back on Arboria, and the same can be said for Granok and Humans. Their little terrorist faction might get destroyed, but that in no ways means extinction for most of those races.
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Only the Dominion is currently rendering Arboria uninhabitable.  Since the Aurin aren't a spacefaring species, it's possible that eradicating the Exile presence on Nexus and completing the Reaping project they initiated eight years ago will signal the extinction of the species.  Unless some other faction has collected a genetically diverse sample and removed them to some third location, the Dominion is working to the effect of their extinction, if not with the intent of it.
 
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Also, Carbines marketing doesn't really treat Dominion like a faction, more like the main bad guy for people not in the loop about the Strain
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I typed something long but then I realized it makes no sense whatsoever to waste time on this matter... After all, as some said before, people choose based on the races, so doesn't matter how good the Dominion's representation would be, people would still choose The Exiles because of the aurin... Right...?
 
Btw, the christian God is not a duality, he's omnipotent. Satan is merely a fallen angel who's only power is to corrupt people (which isn't really a hard task tbh), he's basically the warden of God's prison...
			
				
	Edited February 20, 2016 by Strayhand	
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I typed something long but then I realized it makes no sense whatsoever to waste time on this matter... After all, as some said before, people choose based on the races, so doesn't matter how good the Dominion's representation would be, people would still choose The Exiles because of the aurin... Right...?
 
Btw, the christian God is not a duality, he's omnipotent. Satan is merely a fallen angel who's only power is to corrupt people (which isn't really a hard task tbh), he's basically the warden of God's prison...
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It even says right there in the lore pages the dominion sees the Aurin as a primitive misguided species that's worth exterminating.
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So, why are we hating on a race for being popular again? This reminds me of the whole Blood Elf thing in WoW. Ultimately people are going to play the race/class that appeals to them the most and there's nothing wrong with that. However, I do feel that Carbine could advertise for and hype up the Dominion side a whole lot more than they already do. I'm hoping they become Dominion cheerleaders for when WS hits Steam. 
 
I remember when we had many servers and I was on Avatus the Dominion population far exceeded the Exiles.
 
Chua. Chua. Chua.
 
Maybe add new faction-specific costumes, hairstyles? Something? to make Dominion side more appealing.	
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So, why are we hating on a race for being popular again? This reminds me of the whole Blood Elf thing in WoW. Ultimately people are going to play the race/class that appeals to them the most and there's nothing wrong with that. However, I do feel that Carbine could advertise for and hype up the Dominion side a whole lot more than they already do. I'm hoping they become Dominion cheerleaders for when WS hits Steam. 
 
I remember when we had many servers and I was on Avatus the Dominion population far exceeded the Exiles.
 
Chua. Chua. Chua.
 
Maybe add new faction-specific costumes, hairstyles? Something? to make Dominion side more appealing.
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			I've always preferred playing the "bad guys" in games. I love the Drakens and the Mechari more than any of the races in this game. 	
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Because the reasons for their popularity are the kinds of things you wouldn't want to bring up at the dinner table ;) And yes, on PvP servers more hardcore PvPers play Dom (or at least did before they left)
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Avatus was PvE.  But I think it's that way because Chua can be the popular PvP classes? I don't PvP so don't quote me on that, but that's what I was told.  or maybe it's because we also had/have Enigma?
 
I'm not into Anime or furries, I like Aurin because they just feel agile and their animations feel more fluid to me compared to the other choices on Exiles side, for the same reason that I enjoy Chua on Dominion side, but I am currently playing Mechari over there.  
 
What i don't like about Dominion is how illium feels. It doesn't have any character/personality like Thayd does.  Everything you need is also spread out all over the place and Thayd has everything close by. Which, btw is the feedback that Carbine needs. What can they change to help build the Dominion population? I don't think the solution is deleting Aurin.  :P
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I like how dummy domies stating that aurin are the reason people prefer exiles. Nope. I couldnt care less about aurins, nothing agianst them but I play exile human, becuase dominion should and shall BURN!
 
Besides dominion has chua for friends. So all their arguments are invalid.	
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As far as I'm aware, every poll I've seen and every server I've been on has had the majority of players with Aurin characters. Chua have never even broken 3rd (with Exiles and Cassians usually taking 2nd and 3rd) 
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I like how dummy domies stating that aurin are the reason people prefer exiles. Nope. I couldnt care less about aurins, nothing agianst them but I play exile human, becuase dominion should and shall BURN!
 
Besides dominion has chua for friends. So all their arguments are invalid.
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So 2 links provided that shows aurin winning over humans by 18% vs 17%. Ok. I'm not convinced, that if we e.g. switched chuas with aurin, a lot more people would choose the Dominion. How many people root for the Empire in Star Wars? Or against Star Lord's team? Or against the crew of Firefly? It's so obvious that most people would choose the "blue" side against "red"...
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And that terrorist bullcrap... Not sure why people feel the need to belittle the other half of the playerbase by calling their faction terrorist or nazi. This is only a game, you don't have to hate the other faction you know (some people have characters in both factions, it's crazy, I know...). The whole war began when the Dominion oppressed (terrorized) their own citizens to the point of revolting, where they attacked military targets, and running since then. Basically the Dominion created the Exiles... And 300 years passed, none of the current exiles were there, it's like if the UK would still wage war against the US for breaking up.
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Religion is frowned upon in the ToS here, but I'll mention since it came up as an analogy to the game lore, the god in the bible, (not the popular misconception of it taken from media with out reading it through) indeed is a dualist entity. Lucifer (the fallen angel you're thinking of) is not Satan. Satan is the ever present aspect that opposes god (again Satan =/= Lucifer). Just as the Entity is the ever present aspect which opposes Drusera. 
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The goal on Arboria is resource extraction, not military action. The Aurin need not perish, and the Dominion is not actively exterminating them. Yes there forests may eventually be gone, but the Dominion is not interested in hunting down all the Aurin. They are interested in taking all the resources Arboria holds.
 
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			Illum sucks compared to Thayd. Seems like a lot more love was put into creating the exile city. That be a small reason as well.	
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That's what I meant when I said that the Dominion is working to the effect of their extinction, if not the intent.  They're harvesting all the plant life on a forest planet whose native species lives on (and in) the plants and breathes oxygen.  That will have the effect of making the planet uninhabitable for the aurin, whether or not any Dominion leader ever said to another Dominion leader, "let's kill them all."
 
Never has resource extraction by the Dominion rendered a planet uninhabitable, nor would removing the trees prevent life from persisting on Arboria. The closest correlate would be Bezegalor, which is polluted, yes, but also VERY inhabited. The Dominion has complete atmospheric control via technology (as Dominus displayed when he returned to Cassus from Nexus), there is no need for trees to produce oxygen, as the Dominion has terraforming technology
 
It's like this: if some horrible person stole your identity, emptied your bank account, maxed out all your credit cards and left you penniless and deep in debt, they might not have intended to financially ruin you; it's more likely they just wanted to get as much money as they could.  The effect would still be your financial ruin.  Regardless of the intent, they're guilty of bankrupting you.
 
Or it's like what most Modern nations (e.g., Australia, the U.S., Canada, etc) did to their native populations, minus the genocide but heavy on the resource extraction.
 
 
 
So the Vigilant Church preaches that the pantheon of gods used borrowed technology to combine a select few of their number into a gigantic monster that now threatens to destroy all life in the galaxy, or do they lie to the flock?  The parallel I'm drawing between the Eldan and Lazarin is that their hubris destroyed them.  They presumed to play God (or, in the case of the Eldan, to make one,) and that pursuit ruined them.  Now it threatens to ruin everyone else as well.  The monster they created will consume everyone and everything unless it's stopped.  That is not immaterial.  
 
The Vigilant Church decreed that the Eldan were gods and that Dominus and his children were effectively saints due to their relationship with the gods. This is identical to the situation in the Japanse Empire, where the Emperor is considered a God due to his relation to the Goddess Ameterasu. That's it, That's the core of the VC's dogma. The Eldan were (before Drusentity) gods in their own right, and their hybrid progeny were saints, with each of Dominus children representing a virtue which the Dominion values and citizens are encouraged to emulate. These include the COURAGE of Azrion, the STRENGTH of Tristan, the JUSTICE of Bronos, the PURITY of Evindra, the DEVOTION of Korol, the KNOWLEDGE of Galen, and ostensibly the "CUNNING" of Chaul (the ghost house, which has been struck from history after the trechery of Vorios the False. His virtue was probably cunning or something similar).
 
The Eldan (without becoming the Drusentity) were already gods by the standards of most religions (e.g., Greek and roman, Japanese, Chinese, etc). The Drusentity (which the Eldan became) is a god by EVERYONES standards. Your conflation between the Eldan and Lazarin is invalid, Lazarin was driven to madness by the loss of his wife and made a snake oil cure-all; didn't test it, and sold it as an immortality elixer for a pretty penny. He tried to play god and failed, exterminating his species and leaving what was left as quintessentially undead, rather than alive in a meaningful sense. His hubris and arrogance doomed his species. 
 
The Eldan were already at their end (the lore hints at a catastrophe that left few Eldan in the galaxy). They were determined to avoid complete oblivion by ascending to god-hood, which they did. Yes this happened to come at the coast of becoming a true dualist God (yin / yang; good / evil, etc). But the Galaxy is not truly in danger of being destroyed; it's just that Drusera and the Entity are in constant conflict. it's more than likely that neither could ever actually kill the other, just as with Raava and Vaatu from Avatar: LoK. So while Victor doomed his people, the Eldan created a new order in the universe; one of an age old conflict between good and evil; which, whether truly intended or not, was very successful. As it's mentioned that Drusera was named after a benevolent deity from the ancient Eldan pantheon, it follows that they also had malevolent deities, and this would have been a natural order for godhood in the Eldans distant cultural memory. 
 
The Drusentity has been around for centuries, if not millennia. And yet the Entity has never been able to take over all of Nexus, let alone anywhere else in the galaxy. The Contagion has done a better job of spreading across the galaxy than the Strain has.
 
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"the Eldan created a new order in the universe; one of an age old conflict between good and evil; which, whether truly intended or not, was very successful."
 
So two beings (a child and an intelligent, narcissistic virus) fighting eachother till the end of time on their little planet - what's the point exactly...? I just don't see a big accomplishment here...:)	
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Nazryn, you've gotta be pretty naive to think the Dominion aren't also trying to kill the aurin left on Arboria.
 
Regarding Drusera, it's made very clear in stories and in-game quests that Drusera's ability to hold back the Entity is just about done. She is desperate for help because she knows she can't keep the fight up much longer. If she falls and we haven't figured out how to contain the Strain and the Entity by then, well... it's not just bad news for Nexus.	
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Never has resource extraction by the Dominion rendered a planet uninhabitable, 
 
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"the Eldan created a new order in the universe; one of an age old conflict between good and evil; which, whether truly intended or not, was very successful."
 
So two beings (a child and an intelligent, narcissistic virus) fighting eachother till the end of time on their little planet - what's the point exactly...? I just don't see a big accomplishment here... :)
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			LOUD NOISES!	
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LOUD NOISES!
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There is no noise in space ;)
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Did you hear the latest NASA sound recordings? :P
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			So, technically there still could be LOUD NOISES... gotcha :)	
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			Nazryn, you seem like a smart guy, so I really shouldn't have to explain to you exactly what kind of devastation complete defoliation of a planet would wreak - not just on the plants themselves, but on every organism (aurin or otherwise) that depended upon them and the ecosystem they were a part of.	
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That's like saying that complete deforestation of the Amazonian Jungle wouldn't completely obliterate all the species that depend on that particular eco-system to thrive and survive.
You should state explain it to him anyway because he is a Nieztchean: everything is a problem of cultural bias for him.	
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Nazryn, you seem like a smart guy, so I really shouldn't have to explain to you exactly what kind of devastation complete defoliation of a planet would wreak - not just on the plants themselves, but on every organism (aurin or otherwise) that depended upon them and the ecosystem they were a part of.
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@Nazryn
 
Just because Nazarek deliberately created the Entity, the other stuff you are saying stays speculation. How do you know that the Entity cannot leave Nexus? It doesn't necessarily has to destroy Drusera to corrupt everything else. Drusera held it back until now, but how do you know she's not at the edge of her powers? You can only guess.	
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Obligatory dominion are actually the good guys.  
 
*gets popcorn (and coffee since it's morning here)*	
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			So I've got Nazryn telling me that the hero couldn't have just showed up in the nick of time, that the Entity has gotten nowhere in thousands of years, and I've got Drusera telling me "you got here just in time!  I've been holding it in check for thousands of years, but it's eroded my ability to contain it!"  I wonder which of them has a more complete understanding of the situation.	
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Also, as a point of fact, trees and leafy plants are NOT the major source of Oxygen to our own atmosphere (they never have been). We owe our oxygen rich atmosphere to microrganisms (such as plankton). Leafy plants help, but their contributions are dwarfed by microrganism influences on global biogeochemistry. Specifically, around half of all photosynthesis is carried out by plankton alone, and the other half is a mix of photosynthesis by leafy plants, terrestrial photosynthetic microrganisms, and other land based organisms. 
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			It's unfortunate that there's an actual or assumed imbalance between the factions, but I chose Exile because the Dominion just don't interest me in the slightest. The Aurin and Mordesh have interesting, rich histories and that's who I'll stick with until Carbine makes the Dominion remotely appealing.	
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So I've got Nazryn telling me that the hero couldn't have just showed up in the nick of time, that the Entity has gotten nowhere in thousands of years, and I've got Drusera telling me "you got here just in time!  I've been holding it in check for thousands of years, but it's eroded my ability to contain it!"  I wonder which of them has a more complete understanding of the situation.
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The writers who invented the situation based on cultural tropes and mores based in dualist religions. #Pappylicious
 
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You absolutely indicated oxygen.
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Drusera told me I got there just in time to stop a galactic apocalypse.  The balance of power and scope and pacing of the stories and mythologies that influenced the story are different than those of the story itself.  Making some obtuse protest of the story based on its thematic roots doesn't change it.  We're saving the galaxy from an Eldan mistake.
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How would the Strain leave Nexus on its own?
 
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How should I know?  You said she was a god, created in her turn by other gods.  I'm taking her word for it over your speculation based on your headcanon.
 
Because she couldn't kill herself with out killing herself... and wouldn't willingly leave Nexus 
 
 
That's an interesting assertion.  Every species, sapient or otherwise that we're aware of has been driven to extinction by some other factor than oxygen deprivation (habitat destruction in a significant number of cases,) but please do share your thought process!
 
There are plenty of ways by which species go extinct. Rapid climate changes, extraterrestrial impacts, etc. However the only even physically possible way removing a forest could cause FULL extinction of a planet, or the full extinction of a sapient race that can live in many different environments, would be IF removing the forest impeded their ability to respire. On our planet, that couldn't happen (as microrganisms, not forests, are responsible for the majority of the oxygen in our own atmosphere). But that would be a hypothetical possibility on an alien planet in our universe. Otherwise there is no mechanism by which losing trees would cause the extinction of a sapient species all over the planet that can easily live in desserts, plains, coastal environments, and non-forested regions.
 
If you're still confused, I'm not saying species CANT go extinct for many potential reasons, I'm saying the only logically sound and physically possible mechanism for harvesting trees to drive a whole sapient species extinct would be if they were all gone at the same time and were ALSO necessary to maintain respirable gasses in the atmosphere. As noted above, none of those necessary conditions are met on Arboria. 
 
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Mordesh  :wub:
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Did someone say aurin have rich lore? Wtf??
 
Aurin: got rekt by dominion, cried to humans for help, ran away,currently getting carried by other exile races
			
				
	Edited February 24, 2016 by GorenKillChua	
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Naz, your assertion that oxygen deprivation is the only thing that could possibly eradicate a stone age, sapient species is indefensible.  Habitat destruction and competition for resources are considered to be the causes of most extinctions we know of, and the Dominion is perpetrating both on Arboria.  Your assumption that the Dominion is running around behind their planet reapers replanting trees, and that they'll artificially stabilize the atmosphere of the planet and occupy it have no foundation in the existing story.  You're fluffing the story out with your own conjecture to try and paint the faction in a less monstrous light, when the writers are deliberately writing the story to make their actions monstrous.
 
Their objective isn't crop rotation or occupation or subjugation or genocide; it's total defoliation.  Rendering the planet barren is the objective.  Replacing what they took would defeat both of their purposes for doing it in the first place, so there's nothing in the narrative to suggest they'll bother do it.	
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Naz, your assertion that oxygen deprivation is the only thing that could possibly eradicate a stone age, sapient species is indefensible.  Habitat destruction and competition for resources are considered to be the causes of most extinctions we know of, and the Dominion is perpetrating both on Arboria.  Your assumption that the Dominion is running around behind their planet reapers replanting trees, and that they'll artificially stabilize the atmosphere of the planet and occupy it have no foundation in the existing story.  You're fluffing the story out with your own conjecture to try and paint the faction in a less monstrous light, when the writers are deliberately writing the story to make their actions monstrous.
 
Their objective isn't crop rotation or occupation or subjugation or genocide; it's total defoliation.  Rendering the planet barren is the objective.  Replacing what they took would defeat both of their purposes for doing it in the first place, so there's nothing in the narrative to suggest they'll bother do it.
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			Mordesh = Undead/Forsaken/Zombies.	
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I will admit that "furry factor" was in play when it came to me picking what I was going to roll as, though I like the scaly ladies almost as much as the fuzzy ones so I rolled a Draken within the same first few hours as I did my Aurin, so no faction bias there.
 
Anyway, more Dominion advertising is always good, but I don't know if trying to steer their "personality" in another direction is necessary.
 
Admittedly, I don't have the greatest sense of "faction pride" with the Dominion either, but eventually I just shrugged it off and rolled with the "rawr evil empire" schtick and how after a while, the Exiles proved to have not-so-goody elements of their own. The Granok could be just as warmongering as the Draken, or how the Mordesh could be just as cold and amoral as the Mechari. I'd say the Dominion only has slightly "worse" going for it on public image relations on account of most Cassians being overly condescending snobs versus the overly cordial buddy Exiles (and while there's certainly friendly Lowborns, it just left me wondering why they didn't ditch the Highborns to join the Exiles) or how while the Aurin weren't above questionable acts FOR NATURE, they weren't downright psychopaths like the Chua have been FOR SCIENCE every single time I've encountered them.
 
Aside from the human element of both factions being what makes the Exiles seem friendlier compared to the Dominion with the attitude of the bumpkins versus the nobles, I also can't help but note that pre-Nexus-wise the Dominion did a huge number on their PR with the ravaging of Arboria. Consider this from the prospective of a new player; That the cutesy animal people race (for whom we all agree there's a preference for in general) involves them being invaded/oppressed by this stuffy old Empire for a petty/selfish reason that reeks of disproportionate retribution because the Aurin had no idea the Exiles were "criminals" (and even then, only from the POV of the Dominion, we're dealing with politics that Aurin are completely ignorant of) or how the Dominion didn't even *try* to deal with the Aurin in a diplomatic way where, given how they are, the the same queen that willingly gave the last batch of humans food & gas would have given the next ones directions on where the last ones flew off to after they left. By all accounts, the Dominion pulled the Aurin into the conflict because being petulant was more important then being reasonable (and I might be mistaken, but isn't the emperor who called for the Planet Reapers the same one from the Dominion Arkship cutscenes? AKA the supposed "good and fair" emperor?), where the Aurin may have otherwise been content to brush off their encounters with both factions as interesting, but short-lived visitors and overall be non-entities in the current galactic stage.
 
Not helping the Dominion further is how their condescension towards Aurin goes so far as them being viewed as sub-human/barely sapient. In the same way it would explain why the Dominion wouldn't have obviously offered the Aurin to join them after a peaceful exchange of information on the Exile fleet, it also lends a frightening amount of weight to the idea that they will in fact have no qualms about wiping out the race on their own home world because they don't see it as genocide of a race, but extermination of "rats".
 
That all said, while I have nothing against either faction personally speaking, I can understand full-well why newcomers can be incredibly put-off by the Dominion because the circumstances and incidents surrounding Arboria alone *drastically* slant things in the Exiles/Aurin's favor even after a player goes further than skin-deep on their cat/bunny people, or how even when they do start to encounter dubious Aurin on Nexus, it's easier to justify in people's minds because a great deal of that eco-terrorism is directed at Dommies who are seen as the "roaches" of Arboria or how seeking to take Nexus from them is "you did it to us first, fair next".
 
And therein seems to be the problem, the Dominion in general do a grand job of making themselves look bad *before* we got to Nexus, so them continuing to do bad after is just expected of them now, whereas the Exiles (or at least Aurin) come off as justified with everything they do against the Dominion no matter how extreme it becomes as they're seen as "poor innocents" forced into something they would have otherwise had no stake in. Hell, it's similar with the other races too. The Granok & Mordesh are painted as victims of the Dominion pre-Nexus, so once again their actions come off as unintentionally justified post-Nexus, or how the Exile humans were literally played up as "good Dommies who got sick of jerkass Dommies" and how the the only "neutral account" is a Reddit post, not some event that happens *in-game* where people are more likely to take notice and perhaps rethink their opinion of both sides.
 
For comparison's sake, a lot of lore nuance for World of Warcraft's continued story is lost because it happens *outside of the game* or how people take the stuff they read on the main site while the game was installing to heart, and then may not read much afterwards (including in-game given how many people blitz through quest text). Another comparison is that it's alleged that part of why Blizzard has been ramping up the the dubious nature of the Horde and the underdoggedness of the Alliance these last couple of expansions is because after the introduction of Blood Elves, the Horde became the most over-populated faction on virtually every server, so Blizzard has been using a PR angle to slant things back in the alternate direction. Incidentally, the Horde has that same "read only the first few pages" thing going for it in that several Horde races were played up as poor victims of something or other in the early days including the Alliance, while the Alliance seemed fine and dandy outside of the Gnomes whose troubles were self-inflicted. Wouldn't you know it, every new race introduced since then has *always* been in some sort of dire straits to garner sympathy from the playerbase, or how Blizzard has tried to blame new Alliance race woes on the Horde (past-tense for the Draenei, present-tense for the Worgen) whole the new Horde races were self-inflicted (Blood Elves), couldn't be blamed on either faction (Goblins), or was the fault of *both* factions (Pandaren).
 
If Carbine (not us, them) are concerned with faction imbalance and image, it's going to take the Exiles doing something dramatically wrong and Dominion doing something selflessly good to turn things around, and even then it might not work given that Blood Elves still reign supreme (to the point Blizzard just gave up and gave them an exclusive hero class shared with the most popular Alliance race, Night Elves), or how some players grew to resent the more clearly defined "good guys versus bad guys" approach to the factions where once things were gray & gray and either stopped caring about any notion of faction pride/went wherever the populations were, or opted to quit until further notice. (I know it certainly did a number on my love for the game, with Warlords being the "right, I'm out" expansion and Legion thus far failing to draw me back in, the favored race-locking of Demon Hunter being "strike one".)
 
To that end, I cite WoW's attempts at faction imbalance or even just race diversity per faction given the over-abundance of elves (who ironically are the one race Aurins share the most in common with thematically-speaking, methinks there's a trend), because while I feel they did some things right (new races being more pitiable/empathetic all around, old races have their good and bad moments), I also feel their attempt to galvanize one faction while demonizing the other was taking the whole idea to an unhelpful extreme, or how at times it seemed like Blizzard (and certainly the players) were trying to legitimize stained race/faction histories instead of owing up to them. Perhaps instead of trying to revise/retcon the past lore to make it sound not-so-bad, energy would be better spent wondering how the races and factions can improve on themselves from here so they don't repeat the same mistakes or hell, maybe even make amends for them, especially if it brings a new dynamic to the story with it. I mean, if the Aurin's only reason for sticking with the Exiles is because of what happened on Arboria, what happens when the Dominion declares their full withdrawal from the planet and gives an apology (sincere or otherwise)? If nothing else that sub-faction of Aurin that wants to go home is going to have one hell of an arguing point more then ever, and the Dominion has to be smart enough to know that simply undoing this one action on their part would cripple the Exiles if only from the inevitable in-fighting as one group of Aurin wants to pack up and leave the other Exiles to their own devices, and those Aurin who don't want to abandon their new friends and have zero reason, thus far, to trust the Dominion would leave them alone from now on so long as they never help the Exiles again.	
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-snip-
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All good points, but while the dominion may view the aurin as primitive (which to be fair they are), the Aurin do the same with Veggies. In CRB HernCO's lore drop on reddit he explained that the Veggies are sapient and sentient, and that it is actually meant to be very dark that the Aurin breed and slaughter them for food (breeding livestock is one thing, breeding self aware, thinking, emotionally feeling beings to be eaten is another). 
 
So yea, the Dominion does pride itself and its heritage, and some elements do look down on others; but they at least don't mass raise and slaughter sapient / sentient beings to be eaten. Likewise, the Lowborns don't "leave the Highborn" because they aren't slaves, nor are they oppressed. Yes, there are prejudices in the Dominion on both sides; but all members of the Dominion are cared for, recieve free education, healthcare, and are given a high (compared to the exiles) standard of living (including the lowborn). Yes the highborn have easy access to the wealth of their respective Luminai houses, and are very much priviledged; but the Lowborn can become as powerful or more so than the highborn through merit (e.g., see Toric Antevian, and Corrigan Doon). 
 
from CRB HernCO   https://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/comments/3ndihm/lore_questions_hit_me/ :
 
"The Dominion takes care of its citizens, from the wealthiest highborn Cassian to the hardest-working lowborn. If people cannot provide for themselves, the Vigiliant Church is there to provide charity and the government itself might provide employment in public service or the military.
That doesn't mean the biases, prejudices, and even corruption don't work their way into the system. These are still laws carried out by fallible beings. Well, except for the Mechari."
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{| class="blockquote"
All good points, but while the dominion may view the aurin as primitive (which to be fair they are), the Aurin do the same with Veggies. In CRB HernCO's lore drop on reddit he explained that the Veggies are sapient and sentient, and that it is actually meant to be very dark that the Aurin breed and slaughter them for food (breeding livestock is one thing, breeding self aware, thinking, emotionally feeling beings to be eaten is another). 
 
So yea, the Dominion does pride itself and its heritage, and some elements do look down on others; but they at least don't mass raise and slaughter sapient / sentient beings to be eaten. Likewise, the Lowborns don't "leave the Highborn" because they aren't slaves, nor are they oppressed. Yes, there are prejudices in the Dominion on both sides; but all members of the Dominion are cared for, recieve free education, healthcare, and are given a high (compared to the exiles) standard of living (including the lowborn). Yes the highborn have easy access to the wealth of their respective Luminai houses, and are very much priviledged; but the Lowborn can become as powerful or more so than the highborn through merit (e.g., see Toric Antevian, and Corrigan Doon). 
 
from CRB HernCO   https://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/comments/3ndihm/lore_questions_hit_me/ :
 
"The Dominion takes care of its citizens, from the wealthiest highborn Cassian to the hardest-working lowborn. If people cannot provide for themselves, the Vigiliant Church is there to provide charity and the government itself might provide employment in public service or the military.
That doesn't mean the biases, prejudices, and even corruption don't work their way into the system. These are still laws carried out by fallible beings. Well, except for the Mechari."
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Exiles:
 	
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Exiles:
 
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