The content of this article is not part of official Warcraft lore, but has nevertheless become part of the World of Warcraft culture or community.
Female Trade Prince for the Bilgewater Cartel!
The Trade Princess Movement is an entirely fan and player powered movement to create a female Trade Prince for the Bilgewater Cartel, the playable faction of goblins added in the expansion World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It started as a thread on the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm forum back in January 2010 by the player Sarpa and was originally inspired by the forum’s MVP moderator Frejya. The movement grew in support from countless players, broke multiple post limits, had mountains of fan art and fiction created, and was one of longest-lived threads on the Cataclysm forum before they became read-only. Frejya herself has shown support for the idea. There is now a facebook group of over 300 members and an official RP guild called <For Her Tallest> on Wyrmrest Accord.
The Trade Princess
 Mida Silvertongue | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Her Tallest, The Trade Princess, Her Tallness |
| Gender | Female |
| Race(s) | Goblin (Humanoid) |
| Level | ?? (boss) |
| Class | Goblin Tinker (WC3); Rogue(WoWRPG) |
| Affiliation(s) | Bilgewater Cartel, the Horde |
| Occupation | The Trade Princess |
| Status | Alive |
| Relative(s) | Baron Fizwitz Silvertongue (father), Bowie (assistant), Pompwhig Silvertongue (brother) |
| Alignment | true neutral |
Originally nothing more than a vague concept, the once nameless female Trade Prince has now been well defined within the movement. There have been limitless ideas put forth, but these are the most important to the character players have already come to know and love. A quote from the original post says:
- “The general consensus is that she be named Mida Silvertongue (Mida S. Golden touch, get it? ;) ), nicknamed Her Tallest as Goblin leaders seem to often be a bit taller than the rest and as a nod to Invader Zim. She's a rogue, engineer, and could sell refrigerators to the Tuskarr. She also has a mutual platonic flirting thing going on with Vol'jin. She's clever, shrewd, and comical with a twisted sense of humor and an alchemical golden touch. A wild card.”
Many other characters have developed out of this thread. The first was Her Tallest’s administrative assistant and secretary. Taken from the original post:
- “Her second in command has been named Bowie (now Kazit), as a nod to Labyrinth. He's her long suffering right hand man, lacky, and secretary and is a seemingly cool, collected alchemist fire mage with pyromaniac tendencies and fierce, unquestioning loyalty to Her Tallest. If ordered, he’d shoot himself in the foot for her. He is a bit disturbed by the Vol'jin thing. He’s always highly stressed, and no one really knows what goes on deep within that head of his.”
Her office is also one of the primary defining factors of Mida’s character, as seen in the original post:
- “Her epic steampunk moving castle home includes a trap door laser shark tank in her office, a small legion of mechanical squirrels and clockwork shredders in business suits. Raids will require appointments (we all acknowledge that this one is a tad far-fetched, but we love it anyway).”
Other minor pieces of her character include:
- Daughter of a wealthy Baron from Bilgewater Port
- Graduated from the Academy for Chemistry, Machines, Magic and Economics (A.C.M.M.E.)
- Bowie graduated Suma cum laude from A.C.M.M.E.’s Centre for Research Into Fire and Explosive Studies
- A somewhat unhealthy crush on Vol’jin (Her private chambers are filled with art, pictures, dolls, action figures and sculptures of him). It's debated within the movement if she's serious or joking on this.
- She wears a plate-armor tuxedo
- Giant Core-hound pup as a pet
- She was originally referred to as “My Tallest” or “Her Tallest,” and not by her name. Now she is referred to as "My Tallness" or "Her Tallness"
- She is not a typical woman, nor can be classified by any one stereotype. The closest one is that of Rosie the Riveter and her grease-monkey, not-afraid-to-get-her-hands-dirty personality, but also with a lot of powerful business woman and touches of nerd-gamer girl. She also has hints of a flirtatious, maybe even at times spoiled, girl mentality.
- She has a pet Corehound which she bought off the Gray Market whom she lovingly refers to as "Fluffy".
Important Things to Know
- We assume that Trade Prince is a gender neutral title like President or CEO. While it's fine to alternatively call her a Trade Princess, her technical title would still probably be Trade Prince.
- We never received any blue posts in the original thread, but there were many green posts (MVP moderators) and the thread broke the post limit multiple times. Considering we had to ask for extensions upon reaching a limit from Blizzard, we chose to take that as a “silent” approval from Blizzard, to say the least.
- We are aware Trade Prince Gallywix has been named the Trade Prince by the former Warchief Thrall. As Thrall says, however, he is only Trade Prince “For now." A majority of the feedback from players including those that have done the quest chain are now agreeing with what we’ve been saying since January (though his name was Trade Prince Maldy back then), which is that Gallywix is a terrible leader.
- Tried to sell his entire race and cartel into slavery after taking their life's savings.
- Hates the player
- Hired Southsea Freebooters to kill party guests
- Trapped, enslaved and attempted to brainwash the player and many others in the Gallywix Reeducation Cavern
- Attempted to murder the player and former Warchief Thrall
- Was going to lose the election before the eruption of Mount Kajaro anyway
- Is hated by nearly all the orcs, Warchief Hellscream included, as well as all the player-friendly goblins (a goblin freed from an escape pod called him a monster. Sassy later echoed this sentiment [1]).
- These things together, along with a growing distaste for him by characters and players, all seem to foreshadow his downfall as Trade Prince sometime in the future. This is now further indicated by the fact that he does not exist in game beyond the goblin starting zone.
- Sassy Hardwrench <Your Executive Assistant> has been a favorite of some players to overthrow Gallywix, including by many whom had never even heard of our movement. She plays a vital part in the goblin starting zone quests but goes off on her own to open a cafe in Stranglethorn afterwords. It is possible she is planning to overthrow Gallywix. She may not be Mida, but the primary goal of this movement is to simply get a Female Trade Prince, not necessarily our character. Both Sassy and Mida are the two leading candidates to overthrow Gallywix and become the new Trade Prince. If either of these two wins out, we can consider our movement a success.
- Her Tallness has been implemented in-game! The NPC Boss Mida <Her Tallness>, and Kazit <Mida's Personal Assistant> are in the goblin slums of Orgrimmar. She is in charge of all goblins in Orgrimmar, unlike Gallywix who is yet to even be implemented, while Mida clearly has. This is strong evidence in Mida's favor for being the next Trade Prince, as Sassy is not in a capitol city and Gallywix is not even in game, but Mida is already in a significant place of power unlike the two of them. Regardless, we from within the movement are extremely grateful for Blizzard's amazing shout out to our cause!
- If Mida does become Trade Prince of the Bilgewater Cartel, of which there is now significant evidence and reasonable hope, she would be the very first fan-made racial leader, as well as be the largest, most direct impact fans and players have had on character creation, lore, and story progression in World of Warcraft history.
Her Tallest and Feminism
A very large portion of the support for this idea comes from those players that wish to see more females in positions of power and portrayed in more positive lights. Right now, many of the in-game female leaders either aren’t independent leaders (Jaina and Tyrande), are emotionally unstable and more resemble foils to their male partners (Tyrande and Malfurion, Jaina and Arthas, Sylvanas and Arthas) or play very much to sex appeal at the expense of characterization and involvement in the game. For more of the arguments of feminism, please visit our guild website or facebook group. We have had many in-depth conversations about proper female portrayal in-game and the consensus is that it could and needs to be drastically improved. Because of this, support has been overwhelming for a woman who is neither a stereotype nor sex symbol; but rather powerful, independent, very intelligent, witty, physically strong and an overall complex, fully-involved character with a highly active role in the storyline.
In Cataclysm
It appears that Mida has been put into the game as Boss Mida, <Her Tallness>, and is located in the Goblin Slums area of Orgrimmar. Bowie, it seems, has been renamed Kazit. Three other goblins accompany Her Tallness in the slums; Kazit, Bruiser Janx, and Engineer Niff.
Her Tallness telling it how it is
Mida's Old Chat frame
Mida's New Chat frame
Important meeting
- Kazit1.jpg
Kazit - the best assistant ever!
Bruiser Janx - likely Mida's Personal body guard
Engineer Niff
Trivia
- The name “Her Tallest," now "Her Tallness," is a reference to Invader Zim.
- Her secretary Bowie, before he became Kazit, was a nod to the movie Labyrinth in which David Bowie stars as the Goblin King.
Influential Contributors
- Frejya supporting moderator and original inspiration
- Sarpa original poster and artist
- Venezius WoWwiki page creator
- Penneigh artist
- Morharna artist
- Denebvir writer
- Dartertrick / Dziewanna artist, writer and generalized long-time supporter
Fanart Gallery
For now, please visit the facebook page for the movement's fan art (link below).
Fan Fiction
- Her Tallest's Story, Part 1 of 13 (pre-release of the NDA, contains outdated names and information): http://deneb-vir.deviantart.com/art/Bilgewater-Part-1-159109953%7C by Denebvir of Thorium Brotherhood
- Scheduling http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5871706/1/Scheduling%7C by Dziewanna of Wyrmrest Accord
- Golden Opportunity http://whisperingsage.deviantart.com/art/Golden-Opportunity-160296388%7C by Venthos of Turalyon
References
External links
- Original thread (only avalible through November 30th, 2010)
- Facebook group Primary medium for the movement for players currently not in-game
- Official Guild Website Trade Princess Movement Headquarters!