A Question to All Night Elf Rpers-Regarding Faith

[Aldharn-argent-dawn]

So lately I have been looking at the lore of the night elven faith and my question is, what is the difference between a priestess of the moon and a druid of the moon.

Both draw their power from ELune and revere her, both can summon rays of moon and starlight and both are stationed within the templer of Elune. Also there is a quest in Suramar where you help set druids and priestesses set a moonwell together, it is a joined effort and in game emotes even mention druidic flame and a moonbeam etc…and with the added fact that we now know that ELune is a “lifelord” so whats the difference?

1. Suramar: Irongrove Retreat (after completing N [110] Eminent Grow-main)

-Mayruna, Mythandros, Solendra and Mardranel step up to the well and channel their powers. A large flash of druidic magic flares in the well, along with a large moonbeam that encompasses it.
-The Val’sharah Refugees celebrate as Starflutter happily flies up circles briefly above it. -Mayruna Moonwing says: It is done!
-Mythandros Irongrove says: This moonwell will nourish and protect everything around it. We can finally call this place home.
-Solendra and Mardranel bow as they speak in turn.
-Solendra Featherdown says: Thank you! Mardranel Forestheart says: Thank you. If you go check on the underground chamber back in Shal’Aran, several Val’sharah Refugees have moved in, growing new plant life and making the area a druid’s haven.

So can a priestess of the moon be a druid of the moon as well?
What are the differences between them?

[Gawrdon-the-shatar]

I don’t have a definite answer to that, but I view Kal’dorei priest(esse)s (of Elune) as something between a discipline priest, and a balance druid, in gameplay terms. In-game, of course, a night elf priest is a priest, but as you pointed out, lore-wise, it seems the priest(esse)s of Elune draw their power from Elune, hence the name.

I don’t rememer all the “branches” of druids (of the Talon, of the Claw, etc.), but it seems to me that druids have a more physical, or stronger, connection to nature magic, than the priest(esse)s of Elune.

Personally, since I don’t want to complicate things, I would RP my priest(esse)s of Elune using a night elf priest in-game (and refer to my abilities as lunar instead of Light/Shadow), but perhaps some would want to use an in-game balance druid instead. The latter category would probably find themselves a little limited on the healing side (considering the animations for druids’ healing spells).

Edit:
Some Kal’dorei have lived long lives, and RP-wise I don’t see a problem with a character that perhaps started out as a priest(ess)s of Elune, and transitioned to be(come) a druid (some centuries or millennia) later - or the other way around.

I don’t think one can say druids and priest(esse)s of Elune are the same, though, both because of the in-game difference, and “realistically”; being proficient both as a druid and a priest(ess) seems impossible to me.

(Sort of like being both the fastest and the strongest person in the world: You’d either be to slim to be the strongest, or too bulky to be the fastest.)

Another difference between druids and priest(esse)s of Elune - I believe - is that

druids direct the forces of nature, which then interact physically with the druid’s target,

while priest(esse)s of Elune direct Lunar powers directly into their target.

[Aldharn-argent-dawn]

I understand a lovely answer bytheway. Though while normally druids drive power from nature, we now know that Elune IS nature. Elune is a lifelord or well life eternal one. Which is the source that all druids use.

Further more another weird thing is (though I doubt it holds much impact) priestesses of the moon within the temple of the moon use healing touch as their mending ability, a druid spell.

Also regarding the part where you mentioned druids direct forces of nature and priestesses direct lunar powers. Druids of the moon and well also some other druids also have lunar based abilities both in game as a class concept and also in lore. Thats what confuses me.

Druid’s of the moon’s being of reverence is also Elune, and their shape is that of a moonkin, a creature believed to be created by Elune to quote: " The wildkin are serene, powerful creatures, believed by the night elf and tauren to have been created by the moon goddess to protect her sacred places.
They look like a cross between a and a horned, which explains both their wisdom and ferocity, and they possess all the best traits of Elune’s beloved night birds and the brute force of the benevolent bears."

“The priests of Elune see the wildkin as imbued with the spirit and strength of the Moon Goddess Elune, and the druids see them as guardians and protectors of nature.”

Took these from https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Wildkin#Moonkin

Also there were night elf druids mentioning calling upon Elune to mend the wounded.

[Ellennia-argent-dawn]

To be fair, It gets even mroe confusing since, im not sure if they confirmed that Elune is life lord, because i dont think we ever see her use nature magic like druids do. insted she does all bunch of things with moon and stars. And she is the counter part of her sister in shadow lands. Though the interesting and wierd bit about this is that lunar magic is described as arcane, as the druidic abilities state, thugh its seems a bit different sort of arcane. I also always looked at druids to have a connectin with nature and not Elune directly, caring for the planet, while the priestesses have a dirrect connection to Elune. So still I cant help as seeing druid more like a separate group, doing their own thing.

[Aldharn-argent-dawn]

I get where you are coming from though it was said that Elune is sister to the Winter Queen, who represents death. There were some quotes too.
“Elune is a moon goddess of the cosmic realm of Life. Her sister and counterpart is the Winter Queen, one of the Eternal Ones of Death. Together, they embody the balance of the great cycle of Life and Death.”
" The Primus says: The Winter Queen is bound to [her counterpart] (Elune) in the realms of Life. Together, they embody the balance of the great cycle."

Also there are druids in game mentioning calling upon Elune to mend the wounded, and again druids calling upon stars and what not.

Sylendra Gladesong from druid orderhall even mentions “I will call upon Elune to restore the injured.”

There were also some in game items with interesting quotes things like:

“When others receive life and energy from you, you too shall receive life and energy from me.”

— Promise of Elune, the Moon Goddess

Not to mention there are numerous indications of druids calling down starlight as well.

And now from here on out this is my own personal take on this but.

To me (and lore changed a lot in the years, I think they made a change to Elune down the line.) Difference between the druids of the moon and a priestess of the moon are similar to the differences between a loa priest and a zandalari druid.

A loa priest picks a loa and reveres him or her and draws their power from them but their druids learn to hear and serve all the spirits, while still being able to revere one. It kinda feels similar to that. But again that is my personal take.

[Aldharn-argent-dawn]

If anyone’s interested I thought I would add, I also found some cases of Tauren druid mentioning Elune and offering her light to cleanse corruption on a quest too.