Could WoW’s Hellfire Peninsula be a reference to the Iraq war?

Blizzard Entertainment is known for having themed-areas around Azeroth in World of Warcraft (WoW). Probably the most common and obvious among these so-called areas is the Un’Goro Crater, with its Mario and Luigi clones Muigin and Larion. If you dig enough, and keen enough, you will also find references to Pulp Fiction, Xanadu, and even “The Silence of the Lambs”.

Now, for The Burning Crusade, it seems like Blizzard was able to slip in another one with nobody noticing it. This concerns the hotly contested Hellfire Peninsula, non-playable character (NPC) Marshal Isildor, and the war in Iraq. The three don’t have something in common at first glance but if you speak to the quest giver, you will receive this in-game text message:

Do you think that demons will play fair? These beasts are more savage than orcs and more cunning than the undead. How many more soldiers need to die before we start paying attention out there?

Some players argue that Hellfire Peninsula can be accessed through a portal, basically implying that it’s a new world altogether. Before the portal became operational, the place has been the historic battleground between Khadgar’s Alliance and Ner’zhul’s Horde. This, on the other hand, can be construed as the warring Islamic factions of Shi’a and Sunni.

We know that most of you have visited Hellfire Peninsula and even played most of its instances. With the WoW-Iraq connection in mind, we’re sure you will be able to find more similarities. If all these turn out to be true, we don’t believe that Blizzard will go on record and admit the correlation. After all, it is still a very sensitive topic up to now.

Blizzard Entertainment is known for having themed-areas around Azeroth in World of Warcraft (WoW). Probably the most common and obvious among these so-called areas is the Un’Goro Crater, with its Mario and Luigi clones Muigin and Larion. If you dig enough, and keen enough, you will also find references to Pulp Fiction, Xanadu, and even “The Silence of the Lambs”.

Now, for The Burning Crusade, it seems like Blizzard was able to slip in another one with nobody noticing it. This concerns the hotly contested Hellfire Peninsula, non-playable character (NPC) Marshal Isildor, and the war in Iraq. The three don’t have something in common at first glance but if you speak to the quest giver, you will receive this in-game text message:

Do you think that demons will play fair? These beasts are more savage than orcs and more cunning than the undead. How many more soldiers need to die before we start paying attention out there?

Some players argue that Hellfire Peninsula can be accessed through a portal, basically implying that it’s a new world altogether. Before the portal became operational, the place has been the historic battleground between Khadgar’s Alliance and Ner’zhul’s Horde. This, on the other hand, can be construed as the warring Islamic factions of Shi’a and Sunni.

We know that most of you have visited Hellfire Peninsula and even played most of its instances. With the WoW-Iraq connection in mind, we’re sure you will be able to find more similarities. If all these turn out to be true, we don’t believe that Blizzard will go on record and admit the correlation. After all, it is still a very sensitive topic up to now.