IRL, we have jokes about these things, like “walking is controlled falling” and “breathing resets your suffocation meter.” What memey jokes would night elves have about shadowmelding?
2 Likes
“Sorry my introvert reflex kicked in.”
5 Likes
“I didn’t see you in camoflague training today”
“Thank you, sir”
4 Likes
So, I was invited to this kind of wild party in Brill a few nights back, and after a few too many mugs of Skull Shocker, I stumbled back to my crypt and had my Imp write down these crazed ramblings… and when I saw this post, I thought I’d share them with you… Enjoy.
Ever since the introduction of the Shadowlands, the mystery of death has been removed from the world. We now know that once we depart from the world, our soul will go to the shadowlands. But what about the Adventurers and Heroes who have now set foot in the Shadowlands? Will they be greeted with open arms upon their eventual demise? Will they even be sent to their chosen covenant, or will they be judged anew by the arbiter.
However, I believe this piece of story can still be salvaged and turned into a viable piece of content, it simply requires a bit of rewriting or additional story. As we know, most forces throughout the cosmos is trying to get their hands on Azeroth’s Worldsoul, one of these forces being Death.
So, first we need to take a massive step backwards. And try to look at the entirety of the Warcraft universe from the Eyes of a God. The concepts of life, death, order, time, chaos… They are all below us… They do not concern or affect us.
Now. In the center of it all, we have Azeroth, the shining jewel that all these Cosmic Forces attempt to take control of. It’s a simple planet like many others, made up of the 6 basic elements, Spirit, Fire, Water, Earth, Decay and Air. All in perfect balance.
Now the Cosmic Forces that each control two of these 6 elements, wishes to assert their dominance over this world. The first to arrive are the Void, investing the planet with their Old God Seeds. At this point, the Elemental Lords banded together to try to fight off the invader (Basically trying to preserve balance), however they fail and 4 of them are brought under the control of the Old Gods, Fire, Water, Earth and Air. The Spirit and Decay Elemental Lords being mysterious absent. (We’ll get back to them 
)
The Void, which controls the Elements of Earth and Decay. Creates and empire of great earthen monoliths and temples across Azeroth. Their servants, lifeless husks of stone and the Aqir, an endless army of insects and scavengers, stripping the world of Life. The void was well on its way to a Victory.
-Intermission!-
So, time for a Quick Stategic overview.
Azeroth: Under Void Control.
Elements:
- Fire, Enslaved by void. Unable to contact Disorder or Light.
- Water, Enslaved by Void. Unable to contact Order or Life.
- Earth, Enslaved by Void. Unable to contact Order.
- Air, Enslaved by Void. Unable to Contact Disorder or Death.
- Spirit, Mysteriously absent. Able to contact Light and Life.
- Decay, Mysteriously absent. Able to contact Death.
So that leaves the forces of Light and Death, which could still be informed about the situation on Azeroth by their respective and mysteriously absent Elemental Lords.
And this is where my research has led me to the fact that the Cosmic chart as we know it, is wrong. We believe that Light controls that forces of Fire and Spirit. And that Order controls the forces of Earth and Water. However, this conception is wrong. As the placement of Water and Spirit within the Cosmic chart has been reversed. Meaning that Light is actually in control of the Forces of Water and Fire (which matches with light being either Blessing or Retribution). And Order is in control of Earth and Spirit, which also matches with them being Living Statues.
With this new Information, it now opens up the Possibility that the Spirit Elemental Lord, could contact the Titans, instead of the Light. Which, is exactly what happens in our story…
-End of Intermission!-
So, at this point Azeroth releases an echoed cried, and this echo is heard by the Titan, Aggramar. Who informs the rest of the Titan Pantheon and they travel to Azeroth, notice the Voids Corruption and engage them in a War.
At some point in this War, the Old Gods employs the ‘Curse of Flesh’ which proves effective against the Titans Servants, by turning their solid stone exterioriors into soft fleshy forms. At the end of this War, Aman’thul rips Y’Shaarj from Azeroth, creating a massive swirling crater. The Titans instead Imprison the remining Old Gods and turns the crater left behind by Y’shaarj into the Well of Eternity (Infused now with Earth/Spirit/Decay)
The Titans then also start to build massive installations upon Azeroth, to begin infusing it with Order.
And this is where we start to move into the territory of the true masterminds in he Cosmos. Death and Life.
With the Elemental Lords of Spirit and Decay absently missing, it stands to reason that both Life and Death have been made aware of the Situation on Azeroth. Which is currently in a War between Void and Order.
-Side Theory, The Celestial Accord-
So, Life and Death both wants to join the fight for Azeroth. But being cunning as they are, they form an Alliance, creating a Cycle of Life and Death.
Taking advantage of the Old God’s Curse of Flesh, they influence them to spread out across the world, spreading the curse as they go.
Furthermore, they used the newly created Well of Eternity to further populate the world with Living Creatures. (However Life had a side-scheme here… Immortals are pure life, no death part of that deal, hence why Elune loves her Elves.(Elune is actually the Big Bad for Life, overseeing Azeroth))
Together, they go about Constructing the Extra-Dimensional Realm/Engine known as the “Shadowlands”
From this Realm, they oversee their Plan, cycling the Spirits/Souls through their Engine, in an endless cycle of Life and Death, ensuring that Neither side gains an Advantage, while at the same time having a Mutual Alliance to keep the world protected from the other forces Influence.
At some point in this Alliance, the Cosmic Forces of Light and Disorder caught wind of their little project. And the 4 of them went together and formed the Celestial Accord, and together built the Shadowlands we know today. Each with their own domain to watch over their designs. Maldraxxus, Domain of Death. Revendreth, Domain of Disorder. Bastion, Domain of Light. Ardenweald, Domain of Life.
Each Force then sends a representitive to the Realms to watch over them. (Speculation, Winter Queen, Denatrius, Etc. are not Created in Zereth Mortis, but their respective Zereths and send to oversee their realms. The Copies we saw within Zerith Mortis was merely Death working to make replacements for some scheme.)
3 Likes
I hate Shadowlands lore, but this is really thought out and I appreciate it.
Here’s my own in-universe creation myth that I wrote for the six cosmic forces, shamelessly ripping off The Silmarillion:
https://www.argentarchives.org/node/268693
Years ago, someone told me that IC, shadowmeld is just natural camouflage in the night due to the elves skintone being darker than others.
Which was really stupid and weird to hear.
3 Likes
I assume that person hasn’t played WC3. Tyrande explicitly describes Shadowmeld as Elune’s power, as does the manual.
2 Likes
Very likely, I don’t remember much about said person other than that.
Headcanon that orcish society weirdly complex. More headcanon incoming below
The core principle of their society is Victory at any cost, no matter what. It doesn’t matter if its in combat, a contest, or even something as simple as a simple recreational game. However, because of this notion that your personal victory is all that matters, orcs have developed a societal, extreme level of poor sportsmanship and being absolutely horrendous in defeat. If you lose, it wasn’t because the other person was better, first or even lucky. It must be because they cheated, they were dishonorable! Their victory no longer counts and your families are now in a generational blood-feud.
This assumption that everyone else cheats, combined with that you must achieve victory at any cost despite this, has given rise to a society in which EVERBODY uses all matter of nefarious means and skulduggery to achieve success, all while pretending not to and calling out everyone else. Sabotage, spreading nasty rumors, poisoning, assassinations etc. Whatever can be used to give an edge, no matter how insidious, an orc will always take it. Because they naturally assume their enemy does as well.
So we have a society built on a strange almost performance, in which everyone talks and boast about their honor and how everyone else is untrustworthy. All while they are all doing exactly the same thing in the shadows. For a tribal society which on the outside looks fairly simplistic, there is a strange complexity to them due to this odd song and dance of betrayal and keeping up appearances.
Double posting as it ended up being an actual more detailed headcanon which, honestly, despite all the snark, I think it makes sense given what we got so far in the lore.
Edit: Further headcanon. This is also why we have seen so many examples of orcs being so brutal towards their defeated foes, often committing torture and humiliation rather than a simple kill. In their minds, their foes have been just as insidious, more so actually, than they have been. So now that they are defeated, a quick death or graceful defeat is not an option. They must be punished for their dishonorable ways, in the most painful and humiliating ways imaginable.
And just like before, it doesn’t matter what this is or who their opponent is. It could be a battlefield duel, an innocent civilian, a child. Even animals. It could be something as simple as a children’s game or just reaching a line at the vendor stall faster than you. Your foe is wrong, dishonest and must be treated with utmost hostility and you must be as awful as possible when you “win” to show that you are better.
4 Likes
I like to think there is some wider knowledge of the pre-sundering world from the Pandaren. Even if lost over thousands of years, I often have my wiser pandaren characters tell stories of the ancient elves.
I like making up stories about foolish, noble elves or having my older pandaren call all elves arrogant or power-hungry in lieu of what they knew about them back in the day.
I base all my headcanon on if it’s funny. This is funny to me. Hilarious, even.
1 Like
Reminds me quite alot of a cultural aspect called “The Game” in Orlais’ High Society within the Dragon Age Universe. It basically is the same thing: sabotage one another, kill your opponent with dirty means and do whatever you can to have your opponent “vanish”. And there is just one single rule:
Whatever you do, do not get caught.
However I believe that this type of “political play” if one may call it depends alot on the clans internal culture. I can imagine someone of the Burning Blade, the Blackrocks, Bleeding Hollow, Thunderlords, Shattered Hand and so on to participate in such activities to bolster their own standing within the clan. But I think within the Frostwolves or the pre-Gul’dan Shadowmoon such behavior would rather have been frowned upon. And that maybe because they were the more peaceful and cooperative clans, especially the Shadowmoon who were before Gul’dans influence considered to be the spiritual elite and most respected.
2 Likes
Since we’re on a pandaria adventure binge for a few more weeks;
The rise of the mogu led to tyrannical rulers destroying much knowledge so as to keep their subjugated people ignorant and fearful. This led to the near extinction of the original pandaren language among other things.
Some saw fit to hide scrolls and books where they could, to preserve what the tyrants would take from them but the vast majority of these treasures are lost to time. Lorewalkers still find the odd fragment from time to time but much is incomprehensible or lacks vital information to make them work.
Some of these include:
Cures for common illnesses.
A potion of immortality.
Oil that burns steady for a week.
Titan-derived telecommunications.
Several perpetual motion machines for power generation.
The true origin of the pandaren as uplifted raccoons(?).
46 flavours of classic icecream.
A steam engine operated airship.
6 Likes
This is worthy of a quest spanning the four corners of Azeroth.
2 Likes
The disabling of the Nymue construct within the Emerald Dream fundamentally upset its Titanic Ordering. Without this eternally vigilant automaton to weave the structure of the cycle, the Dream is no longer under titan control. Their grasp was never absolute, as the Nightmare can attest, but losing one of many keystones to the foundation of what they made it to be will in the long term have far reaching consequences.
In a broad sense, the great Balance and Eternal Cycle of druidism and how mortals view the Dream is at odds with that of the Titan Ordered design. Both strive toward continuity and natural equilibrium and actively interfere to stop threats to this state of the world but far different to the way mortals act in preservation of the world they know, the Titan design is an externally imposed course correction.
The Dream and indeed Azeroth itself is now free to drift from it in meaningful ways and grow unimpeded as natural life does. We may never truly know nor notice the myriad ways by which the world has changed, but to the Titans it represents irreversible harm to their grand design. Life blooms as it would, but no longer in their patterns.
2 Likes
The settlers of Bel’ameth come from all walks of life, old hideouts emptying out as they migrate en masse across the sea. In the months following Amirdrassil’s emergence the refugees of Stormwind have left the city entirely but for a few that managed to put down roots, so to speak. In these cases, they bonded with their host families and remain with the only families they have left in the world. Whether as adoptive aunts and uncles, husbands and wives or just particularly attached to new friends, they remain. Others brought their new families with them, though these numbers are small.
The lack of space under the great tree isn’t as much of a problem as one might expect; kaldorei being raised communally and used to shared living spaces. Even so, they gradually spread out across their new island home as new dwellings are constructed.
The druids strictly monitor the land to make sure that settlers do not bring with them any particularly invasive species of plants and animals, though herbs, vegetables and fruits intended for cultivation can get special approval. Pets are a different matter, but kaldorei have a strong fondness of cats to the point where fighting their inclusion is largely fruitless.
3 Likes
The reason behind the Kul Tiran vulpera almost entirely aligning with the Horde and/or the Bilgerats is heavily intertwined with the kingdom’s recent development. Not unlike Vol’dun, the vulpera community in Kul Tiras has never been big enough to truly influence the human kingdom, stand for itself properly or at least offer something worth the effort of granting them full citizenship, so it has mostly been left to its own devices. At least until the industrial revolution in the wake of the Second War greatly increased the kingdom’s need for labour force in Waycrest mines and Ashvane factories alike, both of which had a dire need for short yet agile workers… which implied either human children or adult vulpera, and between the two it was obvious which was preferred. Even if the human aristocrats were paying the vulpera fairly at first, the extremely unhealthy working conditions have started taking their toll quickly, and with the law belonging to the noble houses there was hardly an option to call for justice.
The situation changed with Daelin’s death and the authority of all the provinces quickly weakening. As the order in the kingdom diminished, Freehold was quickly growing from a rather small village into an independent city in its own right, attracting all kinds of people, including the non-humans without real strength behind them, and the one field where the vulpera initially had next to no competition was the ship shamans, since the tidesages willing to go rogue were initially far from enough to steer every non-aligned vessel. This made it possible to consolidate the Kul Tiran vulpera and get them some sort of a place to belong to, but still not enough to make them into a faction of their own. Eventually this was one of the reasons for the Ashvane resorting to the child employment, but the latest Alliance developments might alleviate the need for it completely in but some years.
What would happen next to the Bilgerats will depend from the Admiralty’s willingness to return Freehold and its people back into the fold… for example, by giving privateer patents and citizen rights to those willing to accept them. Even if it might be less than the Horde protection and kinship, it also lacks the possible issues, like open hostility of the Huojin Pandaren towards the saurok among the crews or the wrath of the (mostly unscathed) Kul Tiran navy. Either way, the opportunities are endless… for now.
2 Likes
Of all the city guards in all the cities, the grunts of Orgrimmar are the least corrupt. Theirs is a position based upon a warrior’s honour, tested over several civil wars. Thieves and bribes are met with the axe. It’s simple, it’s harsh, but it’s honest.
Many other places have their cities guarded by old institutions giving much deference to status, the scions of Suramar nobility getting away with much and more by blood, Boralus’ guards having deference to the Houses as much as smugglers’ coin and Ironforge being subject to deep seated clan politics.
Stormwind for its part is decidedly unremarkable in these statistics but stand out in an unusual ability to maintain social order, aided rather unsubtly by SI-7.
7 Likes
Elise Starseeker has normal night elf eyes rather than human-like eyes, so her WoW model is correct. Her Hearthstone art depicts her with human-like eyes at her own request as a human-weeb.
On that note, Reno Jackson isn’t a dragon either. They made him a dragon in Hearthstone because he thought it would be cool.
6 Likes
A nice reminder that despite everything Hearthstone isn’t canon. Gadgetzan isn’t a mob city either.
On topic.
Venetia exists, and agents of Venetia have a thieves cant-esque language that allows other “renegade spellcasters” to recognise one another, to share magical secrets, reagents and artifacts all over Azeroth.
On top of that, Venetian Spellcasters are going to have a field-day when TWW happens
3 Likes
Let me have this.
1 Like