Faith in Warcraft Lore

[Cheruscan]

I am mostly observing lore as I play the game, I dont read books about what presumably is happening somewhere without any players involved. I have a basic grasp of the story that lead up to "where we are rn" in the game.

So my question to the lore community.

How does faith work in warcraft?

I see the holy light cathedral in SW and northshire abbey a quick trip away, but nowhere else do I see a solemn church or chapel of the holy light in human lands maintained.

Duskwood has a chapel tucked away in a corner of the zone occupied by undead, thats about the only one in SW aligned lands.

in the North around Lordearon you see many chapels, repurposed into general places for gathering by the forsaken, like Tarrens Mill. Southshore, which is occupied by remnants of Lordearon doesnt.

Also the Dwarves and High Elves presumably also "believe" in the Holy Light yet I dont see any places of worship whatsoever in their lands. Why?

I gathered from ingame books that Lordearon was the original seat of the Holy Light church but the clergy moved to SW after the events of Warcraft 3.

And ofc theres the Scarlet Crusade and Argent Dawn, the first a human only group of zealots that presume every non human and suspect every human that isnt part of their group to be agents of the scourge. The latter an anti scourge group that seems to not care who they enlist as long as they are willing to fight the scourge of undead.

Is the faith just in a massive decline? Did the fall of Lordearon convince people that their belief was misplaced? If they dont belief in the Holy Light anymore why arent they searching for a different faith?

I am eager to learn or discuss about this. I think faith can be an amazing storytelling vehicle and makes a fantasy game much more immersive.

[Galendor]

Some individuals could lost their faith after the Third War, but mostly humans are as faithful as they were before. Especially in Stormwind that harbored many refugees from Lordaeron, and that has its own branch of the Silver Hand.

You can see that every zone of the kingdom has at least one church (except for Redridge), but here's another thing: game scale doesn't reflect real scale of Azeroth. WoW paints only the most basic details with broad strokes, so no wonder that Goldshire or any other minor settlement in this game is represented by two houses and the inn. Game-scaling like this simply can't add a church or another detail to every settlement. It's sad but it's true for a 20-years old game.

Regarding dwarves and high elves, they adopted human faith, but they are not even close to humans in terms of religion. Besides, sometimes they adopted it in their own ways - for example, from lore books in Gilneas we know that dwarves of Gelnor don't build churches: instead they do their religious rituals in caves. And even high elves, with their agnostical society, have enough Light worshipers to build a chapel in Alah'Thalas - perhaps now, more than ever, their people need the hope that the Light brings.

[Cheruscan]

Some individuals could lost their faith after the Third War, but mostly humans are as faithful as they were before. Especially in Stormwind that harbored many refugees from Lordaeron, and that has its own branch of the Silver Hand.

You can see that every zone of the kingdom has at least one church (except for Redridge), but here's another thing: game scale doesn't reflect real scale of Azeroth. WoW paints only the most basic details with broad strokes, so no wonder that Goldshire or any other minor settlement in this game is represented by two houses and the inn. Game-scaling like this simply can't add a church or another detail to every settlement. It's sad but it's true for a 20-years old game.

Regarding dwarves and high elves, they adopted human faith, but they are not even close to humans in terms of religion. Besides, sometimes they adopted it in their own ways - for example, from lore books in Gilneas we know that dwarves of Gelnor don't build churches: instead they do their religious rituals in caves. And even high elves, with their agnostical society, have enough Light worshipers to build a chapel in Alah'Thalas - perhaps now, more than ever, their people need the hope that the Light brings.

game scale is a pretty bad excuse, its not like I stumble from one important location into another by walking 10 meters, most areas are huge and can easily fit more scenery/buildings.

I suppose back then Blizzard either didnt have time or was to lazy to put more places of worship down, but Turtle WoW should remedy this error at some point I hope.