Elves and Speculative Evolution

Just for fun
Looking at how Elves had evolved over the aeons, it appears that, at least to my mind, that Elves seem to transform due to an over exposure to certain cosmic forces. I do wonder of the theoretical possibilities of the variations that might have existed in the Warcraft universe. I’d like to see other people’s ideas and perhaps some fan made non-canon lore behind those ideas.

Well, don’t forget what we call “Elf” is nothing but a hyper-evolved Troll
The “Night Elves” are nothing more than a tribe of Dark Trolls settled on the shores of an exposed wound of a Titan, tended by the titanforged, and tho its gone, the Well of Eternity was souranded by Titanic things, to aid the recovery and healing. They found some nice old tablets and took the Titanic word “Kaldorei” as their name (children of the stars - not even night, they should be Star Elves, really) and developed their own language
The rest of the elven kind branched out from these mutant trolls
(Well, maybe not the Dark Elves from Day of the Dragon, but not sure they are even cannon)
But the Dark Trolls were Azerothians… the chances are pretty slim Trolls evolved on the other parts of the universe and even if they did, their biology/DNS are similar enough to the Azerothian Troll’s to react the same way “Our Trolls” reacted to the Well then those mutant’s descendats reacted to other forces :thinking:

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One somewhat related headcanon I have is that arcane magic comes more naturally to Titan-created races, thus explaining why a lot of the more powerful mages we see are humans despite Elves having had thousands of years to practise. This would also explain Orcs getting Mages in Cataclysm and being able to pick up the arts relatively quickly, and why Elves seem to have such an adverse reaction to magic where it alters their entire body.

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I’m not that sure this is true - there are some named humans we know, thats true, Kahdgar and… Aegwynn? And kinda thats all
And then we have Azshara, Illidan…
All the exlied/self-exiled Highbornes who later become Quel’dorei
Oculeth, Thalryssa, Elsiande, Valtoris… just the Nightborne have more powerful mages than all the humans we know
Manastroms of any kind, all gthe Blue Dragons…

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I did say most for a reason. Azshara, Illidan, Thalyssra, Elisande, Kael’thas are definitely worth mentioning.

But then you have Khadgar, Medivh, Aegwynn, Jaina, Rhonin, basically the entire council leading the Kirin Tor, Meryl…

Not sure I’d count characters like Oculeth or Valtrois on the same level as any of the characters listed above, both the elves and humans

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The Ancestor of the elves is the Dark Trolls.

There is:

  • Night Elves

  • Highborne

  • Naga

  • Nightborne

  • High Elves

  • Blood elves

  • Fel elves

  • Undead Elves

  • Banshee

  • Void elves

  • Half elves (if that counts)

  • Demon Hunters

  • Worgen

  • Dark Fallen

  • Wretched

  • Satyrs

These are the same, biologically
You missed the Fal’dorei, those spider Nightbornes!
And the Withered Nightbornes
And the vampire elves whos name I forgot
And we have the fogiest idea what the hel are the Dark Elves from Day of the Dragon or they are cannon or not… :eyes:

Regardless, They have a different name, a different eye color, and different flags/Tabards, different factions.

Biologically all of them are the same.

An autopsy or two… dozen never hurt
Just to be sure
For, you know, science
(But I’m sure the Naga are very different inside, like the spider-elves)

If you mean san’layn, they weren’t missed. Those are the Darkfallen.

Elves do seem uniquely sensitive and susceptible to outside forces. Having formed by exposure from the well of eternity and thus being inherently magical, the nature of the magic seems to change with relative ease. This makes them adaptive but vulnerable, picking up these odd addictions and mutations along the way.

I’m guessing Light Elves (sun elves?) will be next with the new sunwell soaking Quel’Thalas in Arcane Light. If not that, some new subfaction will form from exposure to Azerite or something.

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I think that by the end of Shadowlands, everyone is going to forget Azerite has even existed.

That’s highly likely despite it being an entirely new, magical universally empowering substance that you can fashion into superior weapons, armour, gunpower and potions, giving you visions when you handle it as it pulses with raw power and potential of such magnitude that it “changes everything”.

Yes, it will definitely be forgotten. Maybe the new novel states how its awesomeness is vanishing following N’Zoth’s defeat? I really don’t know but it’s something they would stick in there as an aside.

No, I’m not bitter. I didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time having a character research this stuff for it to be made irrelevant.

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That, or they’ll say no more Azerite is appearing and the Azerite we have remaining is by no means enough to do anything cool with it.

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And then Vereesa accidentally inhales the last puff of empowered azerite, becoming the first Azerelf. Azerian?

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Azeroth’dorei.

More like elves have a natural tendency to get high and become junkies:
Original Kaldorei: Got addicted to arcane energy of the well of eternity
Tree-living Kaldorei: Got addicted to the world tree
High Elves: Got addicted to the Sunwell
Blood Elves: Got addicted to fel
Suramar Nightborne: Got addicted to arcane mana
Void Elves: Got addicted to shadow energies

If any of these groups lost their stash then they become mortal, weak wither and die. The entire history of Elves since the War of the Ancients was them finding a new thing to get high on.

Moving from one bad habit to the next, quarreling with their siblings and being generally delinquent in their relationship with the world, elves are Azeroth’s problem children.

Allegedly… :roll_eyes:
Nasty rumors, nothing more!
We are not 'addicted", just infused… could totally function without a sniff of void-dust, or a world tree, regular bath in moonwells, slumbering in dens because some now basically defunct pact with dragons or such things
And not wither if we leave Telogrus!
Consider the Ren’dorei took an evolutionary step forward… we are addiction free!
The voices told so… :eyes:

But what purpose do the extra long ears serve? They’re far too expressive to be a vestigial holdover from trollish ancestors.