Headcanon: Elune is, in FFXIV terminology, a primal.
That is, she doesn’t have an existence independent from her worshipers, but rather the power of worship is what brings her into being, in a fashion. The things the night elves interpret as Elune’s divine intervention happen because they believe she should intervene in this specific way.
And her perceived nature can be affected by the outlook of her worshipers, which is how Elune shifted to a dark avatar of vengeance. Tyrande, in a way, summoned this darker Elune into being.
That actually would pretty cool honestly I’ve always liked the thought Elune was effectively just a Loa that the night elves continued to worship after their transformation by the well of eternity. I’m not sure if it’s even mentioned in the whitewolf RPG novels but I hope this is the route they eventually take I still remember a lot of night elf players being distraught when the writers were hinting at her being a Naaru.
Anyways, for my own I have two ideas bouncing around. The Drakkari are not officially extinct, in fact they probably have many of different splinter tribes dotted around the continent of Northrend vying for power after the fall of the Empire rather than just being wholly wiped out. The Drakkari state is officially defunct but perhaps some of the royal family still reside in Zuldazar in secret, biding their time.
Talanji is unpopular with the wider Zandalari public but tolerated by the ‘Zanchuli’ because of her late father and the position of weakness the Empire finds itself in, with a general emphasis on her lack of concern for Zandalari independence and the distinct indifference she shows troll kind in favour of appeasing Horde. I like to think that most Zandalari still essentially retain the ethnocentric, cultural mindset they once had with most generally just considering this a blip in Zandalari history while their Empire regains it’s strength.
In this sense, they rightfully see the Horde as foreign invaders and a rival empire, exploiting the Zandalari moment of weakness to create a puppet state and use the Zandalari fleet and frankly preposterous gold reserve for the war effort. The Zandalari for their part have gained little and lost a revered god-king.
Speaking of gods, the new council is much reduced with a perceived lack of representatives of the great and mighty Loa and Bwonsamdi as the most revered makes some wonder if barbarian sacrificial rituals are coming back to feed this entity of Death. The memory of the death-loa reanimating fallen defenders of the city is fresh. If not a death cult on the model of Sylvanas’ Horde, Talanji is insufficiently reverent of the other Loa and while not, gods forbid, a secular ruler, she gambles with their favour and plays favourites.
Azerite went inert after the fall of N’zoth and Azeroth being healed (forget about the sword) and the budding market of superpower inducing glowy powder collapsed immediately.
The enhanced gunpowder industry likewise folded, but the collapse struck sooner due to the main suppliers, Ashvane Company and literally every goblin experimenting with it met with disaster.
There’s still a business for azerite but it’s on par with the pandaren TCM™ equivalent mentioned earlier, sold as crystal therapy and bags of dust for “good luck”, popular with yoga moms all over Azeroth.
Actual medical professionals are of course fuming at even more of this quackery popping up.
Sylvanas learned a lesson from this tale; to spend the strength of others toward her own ends. What was an inspiring act of bravery and humility was, in her mind, a lesson in cynical application of force and power.
From the sacrifice of fellow rangers during the scourging of Quel’Thalas, through her hunt for Arthas, the conquest of Lordaeron and her time as warchief, those below her were Arrows In Her Quiver.
That is semi confirmed since the temple of Elune in Zin-Azshari is called Elun’alor. The Elune speculation has come a long way. From a floating chandelier to a 3d printed robot.
Well, “alor” probably means love as Alor’el is a plant called Lovers Leaf. So the temple could be translated to Elune’s Love, rather than being connected to some obscure troll thing. What does “alor” stand for in Zandali?
It is probably a word that means some variant of ‘worship/love/shrine’ that has kept between the two species, because it is used in Zandali to refer to temples or other revered things in their culture
Jintha’alor in the Hinterlands is the Vilebranch capital, Mazra’alor in the now-plaguelands was a temple, Shadra’alor as another temple dedicated to Shadra, etc.
Dazar’alor refers to either the pyramid or the throne - Zuldazar is the city name
My take is that it means ‘for the love of’, love being used in the religious sense here. The proto-night elf trolls built a temple shrine to their loa who granted them arcane magic and mutated them into elves, and they kept the original name because they saw no reason to change it even as their language evolved from Zandali to what is now Darnassian.
[shrine specifically; ‘atal’ is the specific word for temples]
Joke’s on you, the naaru are obviously 3d printed too.
I’ve been interpreting Zandali “Alor” vaugely as “sacred place” as they mostly seem to be used for temple complexes.
Darnassian as the original elf language as it relates to zandali is ill defined and rarely explored, demonstrably having adopted titan words and later derivatives like Thalassian use the same old words with new meanings.
Azeroth is so heavily modified to support and protect its world soul that it might as well be regarded a cybernetic planet at this point with titan facilities woven through its mountains, ocean floor and anywhere else that it’ll fit.
Much of the machinery is non functional, broken by the sundering, shattering and other numerous -ings through the ages, old god sabotage, careless mining, goblin cooking accidents, tampering, overgrowth and cave-ins.
The result of all this is a broken, overengineered network leaking arcane energies in certain places and flowing this way and that; a good portion of Azeroth’s leylines are artificial and altered further by mortals and immortals.
As the Jailer held fragments of souls in seemingly identical, ice-like fragments, the entirety of Arthas’ soul wasn’t expended in the forging of Kingsmourne. Only the hoarded fragment was.
Unfortunately for him, annihilation might have been preferable next to never possibly being made whole again.
My headcanon of the day? Gul’dan left Grommash behind because he knew he was a wildcard n could likely fully son Blackhand in a Mok’gora if he decided he didnt wanna go along with certain plans, he didnt expect Doomhammer who lost to lame Durotan to be capable/or sly enough(depending what version you believe of his fights, either a great fighter or a sly guy who knew how to sway a fight in his favor dishonourably) as opposed to Grom who went on to kill Wild Gods and Pitlords with the same demon blood buff other Orcs got who didnt have close to as impressive feats even with, he knew Grom was that much of a chad in a fight based off maybe feats in Draenor we never see explored too much in lore.
Edit: the fact that in an alternate universe Grommash takes charge instead of Blackhand or Doomhammer further confirms this to my own imagination, with Doomhammer being pretty lame in the AU aswell, further confirming my idea that he was infact just sly and not as great a warrior as Orcish propaganda presents, but rather an intelligent and sneaky but still likely very talented warrior, just not as talented as Blackhand or Grommash
Eonar’s magic isn’t life magic, it’s actually hyper-advanced arcane botany. She took primordial life spirits and used her powers of Order to turn them into Wild Gods.
I like the idea of the Titans being slightly sinister, taking stuff they don’t like and shaping it into something more pleasing to them.
Not unreasonable with the lore of titans equating what they’ve “ordered” as something they created. Taking a thing and correcting it, then calling it theirs seems perfectly in line.
Trolls (and therefor elves) developed from ancient murlocs who settled inland away from oceans giving us a geneological line from ancient murloc to modern elf
Going by the laws of physics we’re familiar with in absence of an explanation in wows setting, going by the maps of the azeroth planetary system we see in titan facilities, the sun cannot be an actual star, it’s way too small for that, yet it’s still really bright.
The reason is, it’s a lightforged planet.
