Are All Elves Kaldorei

Lore Story
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While the original elves still call themselves Kaldorei - is that the name of all elves, and the original group have no other because they have no additional distinction.

This may seem an obvious question, but I assure you it is not.

Naming can be anything but. Of all the elves, only kaldorei has no apostrophe. Quel’dorei, Shal’dorei, Sin’dorei - these all started of as caste of kaldorei. Being quel’dorei didn’t and still doesn’t mean you were not kaldorei in the original elven tongue. [Although some argue it means something new in the newer Thalassian tongue since a change happened]

Could it be that even though some genetic variation has occurred, even high elf quel’dorei, sin’dorei, shal’dorei are all still kaldorei and the new addition is more like a new tribe.

Almost like human is the name and of the race, but you have different tribes that have different names - even when those tribes vary slightly genetically be being black or white or yellow etc.

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Technically you’re correct, though I still think of them as discount night elves…….

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Actually. Night elves are just discount Dark trolls. Your last living ancestor currently resides in Zuldazar. :slight_smile:

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And yours too …

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Don’t talk to me, void lord creature/servant :wink:

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Don’t tell me what to do … or I will tell you where to go … :slight_smile:

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I wonder what Dark Trolls called themselves…

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Oh god. I thought it was obviously for all…

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Something without too many syllables

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Kaldorei is a selfgiven name based on culture. Kaldorei means children of the stars, because the mutaded dark trolls were nocturnal and revered the stars and the moon.
Every other elven group gave themselves Names based on their own changed culture:
Quel’dorei : Children of Noble birth (because they are descendents of Nightelven nobility)
Sin’dorei: Children of Blood (after most of them died)
Shal’dorei: Children of the Night (because Suramar lacked Moon, Star and Sunlight for millenia)
Ren’dorei: Children of the Shadow

All of them are elves and have the same origin (Kaldorei), not all of them are Kaldorei.
All Trolls are Trolls, and descendants of the Zandalari, not all Trolls are Zandalari. All Dwarves are dwarves, and descend from the earthen, but not all dwarves are earthen.

But: Since they are still the same species without changed genetics, Bloodelves and Highelves are technically the same, as are the Voidelves (but they are saturated with the void and i think it will not take many generations until they change to something else…)

I think you get it now.

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I always got it, however, when I think deeply about it, kaldorei is like the elvish tongue name for elves. The name elf is the common tongue name for the race anyway.

Quel’dorei means highborne and highborne were always kaldorei. So even when a group of highborne become high elves, they still keep the name Quel’dorei not as a racial name but as a caste designation.

The star fascination is swapped for the sun in them, does that stop them from being kaldorei in name, because they still call themselves Quel’dorei even though they are no longer like the Quel’dorei in appearance.

It’s like human, even though new cultures emerge and variations in skin colour eye colour etc develop they are still human. Kaldorei could just be their elven name for all of them, even though only the night elves maintain the cultural aspect of what it means to be children of the stars.

I suspect this is the case… and we just don’t get this nuance because most of us only think in one way Blizzard has presented the high elves so differnetly and distincly, even putitng the blood elves on a different faction,the palyers have interpreted them like they’re a different race or species even, and hasn’t crossed their mind that this might be the case with them.

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No, Quel’dorei means Highborne, and they remain Highborne. But they also changed physically and are a new Race now and not longer identify as Kaldorei.

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Call it subrace. They are still elves after all.

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Then where does it stop being a subrace? If you make a distinction between trolls and Nightelves, you can’t say all elves are a subrace to Nightelves.
Are Orcs a subrace to Ogres, Ogres to Ogronn,Ogronn to Gronn and so on? Where does it stop?
Every race has an origin, be it Space Robots with Old-God curse or something else. But all races are their own races.

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Lol. Yes. That was stupid autocorrect. Converted Quel’dorei to shal’dorei.

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You are generalising things.

1st that Kaldorei means Children of the stars, where none of the elves except Night Elves, have any relation to to Stars. Each of their name comes from their tradition and core characteristic of the race.

Their physical and cultural state do not match. If you are talking about the ancestry yes they all came from Kaldorei roots, but all Night elves came from Dark Trolls, but no one calls them trolls.

Evolution is great thing :stuck_out_tongue:

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No, that one is right. We have known the translation for a while.
(Kal → stars, Quel → Noble, Shal → Night, Sin → Blood, Ren → Void/shadows)
Why did they chooses to be Children of the Stars instead of Children of the Moon, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s said so go wild on the theories.

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Stars are seen only in the night so I guess it kind of makes sense, given their Night lifestyle.

I dont think you can put them in one pot where they share no similar traits over the centuries, only Shal’dorei maybe, cuz of their stagnated culture.

Only one thing they have in common is their arrogance, all the elves have that trait.

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My theory is that it’s one of the core parts of the night elves the lore team haven’t revealed in detail.

The night elves are very thin in detail. We know hardly anything of the Moon Goddess except a lot is done in her name and the priests follow her.

The star stuff is shown in game a lot, in the magic of the priests, druids and mages offensive stuff, in the greeting and motiffs… it hints to a large aspect they just haven’t fleshed out.

The astrology towers of the night elf civilisation we see speak of them, and we have as much Star symbology as moon just not much depth shown.

My suspicion is the major part of this identity is part of Night elf civilisation which has been on a 19k year pause due to the long vigil, and when we get a proper night elf story after BFA that will show proper night elf civilisation returning. We will see much more of this.

There is a reason Night elves are still purple skinned and silver eyed and stilll called Kaldorei rather than children of the forest like sons and daughters of Cenarius. And why they aren’t green skinned, eyed and only 1/3 of the hair colour themes match the forest colour, the rest reflect the arcane, the night and the stars/moon.

I suspect we have seen the detail on the Druidic nature life, but not the moon priest related life nor the core Star civilisation. Suramar is our only glimpse of that and it hasn’t given much detail.

But even then. The culture that stagnated is the Kaldorei invasion pre sundering culture. They just stuck in that phase. When you really think about it, the pre sundering culture had many phases. The phase around the time of the invasion is very different from the one when the cities were at their height and addiction hadn’t set it, which would have been different from the time when they were being built and the Kaldorei were expanding defeating their enemies with the Arcane well power and the night warrior ritual.

Also different from the phase they started really getting a handle on the arcane.

This is why although it is all Kaldorei culture. The nightborne would be different from the Farondis culture and likely different from the shen’dralar culture and all of these were significantly different from the high elves and totally different from the Druidic and priest long vigil dominated.

Bear in mind the priest and Druid culture were also different cultures

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I believe, that Night Elves originally being addicts from the get go. It was Well of Eternities powers and practice of magic that transformed Trolls slowly into Night Elves. The powers then was used in different ways and different places including Suramar. As of Culture of Kaldorei it was mainly same, but they had the diversity in beliefs and freedom to pursue whatever made them happy. Everything up to presundering time can be called evolving and forming the culture/expending the empire. What matters is how Night Elves were by the time of Sundering and Suramar was one of the biggest cities and after we learned it was also magic centred. And we already have quite good picture about Night Elven Highborne.

This is why Shal’dorei found their mutual interests with Blood Elves and not Night Elves. After Sundering Night Elves reformed from, magnificent magical empire to more nature loving and Elune worshipping savages.

Yeah I guess all the elves do share the resemblance to typical Night Elven Highborne, but I wouldnt go as far to call them all Kaldorei. Millenia living apart will cause some core changes in either race and in this case there is even physical change.

Besides no elf is as good as NE! :stuck_out_tongue: