Upcoming Anthology Clarifies Chromie’s Past
The upcoming anthology series, World of Warcraft: Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth, clarified one of the many things that have left fans frustrated with Blizzard over the years. According to the short story, The Visage, which stars Chromie, the popular World of Warcraft NPC character initially went by male pronouns while in her earlier Chronormu dragon form. However, later on, she chose a female human form following her coming-of-age ceremony. When asked by a blue dragon, Chromie simply responds that her choice suited her better. Apparently, The Visage’s direct revelation was not enough for fans. Some of them needed further evidence. Luckily, the author of the story, Steve Danuser, who also serves as World of Warcraft’s narrative lead, confirmed that what the story was saying was true. World of Warcraft has had a lot of memorable NPCs characters over the years, but few have as complicated of a past as Chromie. Although that shouldn’t come off as a surprise seeing that she’s a time-traveling dragon. With that said, being that Chromie’s been in World of Warcraft for more than a decade, fans have had a lot of time to speculate about her origins and her gender. It also definitely doesn’t help that Blizzard itself wasn’t afraid to join in on the fun as well. Case in point, Chromie says in Heroes of the Storm that her real name is Chronormu. Even though she clarifies then that it’s not a male name, that hasn’t stopped fans from wondering if she was merely trying to hide her past. Thanks to the new short story by Danuser, there’s no question that the bronze dragon is transgender. This revelation puts an end to a year’s worth of confusion regarding Chromie’s past.
Prior to the Visage Day ceremony, Chronormu is he/him. Afterwards, she/her in both mortal and dragon forms. — Steve Danuser (@SteveDanuser) May 14, 2021 Ultimately, this is just a start. Chromie coming out as trans isn’t all good news either. After all, some still harbor negative emotions regarding how Blizzard handled this whole ordeal. In particular, why Blizzard took more than a decade to acknowledge that Chromie was trans. Some are even going as far as to say that it’s a cop-out on Blizzard’s part. Of course, this doesn’t mean to say that Blizzard confirming that Chromie is trans doesn’t come without value. Hopefully, with Blizzard confirming that one of its most prominent NPCs is trans, we’ll see better LGBT representation in the future, whether it’s in World of Warcraft or other games.
