Funny thing is that Illidan got his Demon juju, from the skull of a warlock. Problem here is explaining how a Nelf Warlock is not a satyr or kill on sight.
Night Elves barely tolerate their own Mages, so to think they’d tolerate a Warlock in Ashenvale or at Hyjal’s Well of Eternity…
But no - for this guy, bend the lore to make it all work around Night elves…yet if I suggested the same for Blood Elves - oh no, we can’t have that! “Come up with your own ideas - I like Blood Elf Hunters, maybe base your ideas around them?”
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Must have missed that person… or not remembered. Warlocks are highly individualistic so they’re relatively easy to explain away as shunned outcasts seeking power through any means necessary. Problem here is explaining how the Warlock came to associate themselves with Darnassians. There is no way to sugarcoat what Warlocks do, unlike mages.
(The thirst for power is one of the major issues i take with their excuse to remove metamorphosis and replace it with imp puns vomit)
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There was also a High Elf warlock trainer in Dalaran, Summoner Nolric…and Blizzard never really explained how he could live alongside the other High Elves, how the Kirin Tor tolerated him in their ranks, and how he managed to keep his blue eyes despite being a fel user and demon summoner (then again, Blood Elves warlocks can have blue and golden eyes too now, so that matter is not consequential anymore I guess, as Blood Elves warlocks not tainted by fel magic are allowed and exist now, unlike for Mag’har Orcs who can’t even play the class, and green Orc Warlocks couldn’t manage to make their skin return to brown yet after all…)
Still, we need a prominent Warlock character in the Alliance/Horde who is not completely evil and crazy or affiliated with the Burning Legion…for some reason, Blizzard has very high opposition to the idea of a “good” Warlock character in the lore (and when I say “good”, I don’t mean good like in the RPG alignment, but just a person who can be selfish and power-hungry but still somewhat loyal to his race/faction, and who wouldn’t like to see the world burn every time…
And I’m not talking just about the Blood Elves here, just ANY “good” important Alliance and Horde loyal warlock character would do, at this point… 
With the Night Elves accepting back the Shen’dralar Highborne, it might not be as difficult as it was before, after all…they summoned and siphoned fel magic from the demon Immol’thar for thousands of years to get their own power and survive as a society…sure, that does not really make them full-fledged warlocks, but still, it’s warlockish stuff done by mages that the Night Elves eventually accepted as they got them back in their society, after all…
Hey, we still do plenty of good actions, regardless of the power we seek or the personal motivations 
in fact, I think the Warlock player has generally done more good deeds than evil actions for Azeroth (obviously, not more good actions than the other classes played by the players, but surely more than the common regular NPC Mage or even Paladin for example, and that’s valid for Orcs, Forsaken and Blood Elf warlocks too…)
I wonder if they think things through when they do stuff like this. Unless it’s a Blood Elf who has already recovered her original blue eyes, there is a High Elf mage in Orgrimmar and there is no explanation as to why she’s even there.
Warlocks from other races do not show any sign of corruption, there is no real reason for the Blood Elven ones to have some. I like to use that as an explanation for my Blood Elf warlock to still have green eyes since she’s reckless, doesn’t think things through and although she has no problem controlling her demon pets, she will eventually become an actual demon herself if she keeps using so much fel instead of being reasonable about it. She was also an avid fel crystal user from the moment this technique was introduced to the Blood Elves who stayed in Quel’thalas since her withdrawal symptoms were very serious.
I can think of Zardeth, I don’t remember him ever doing anything crazy or against his own faction. For the Horde I remember Cersei, the Blood Elf warlock in the Swamp of Sorrows. I guess she’s probably not that famous, but I remember her well because she was the first Blood Elf warlock I saw outside of Silvermoon and I just loved her. I can also think of the lovely Tehd who partenered with a demon form thief demon hunter called Marius. There must be some more famous that I just forgot, but our class is generally linked to evil characters for good reason and I don’t mind, that’s part of it’s charm and what makes the player stand out.
Yeah but that’s not something they still do. Warlocks will never stop playing with demons and demonic energy sources and fel is the direct opposite of nature, which is so dear to the only uncivilized elves living in trees.
We did kill our share of NPCs in our quest for power though, I miss this trend
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Top tier firendly warlocks are likely all affiliated with the Council of Fell Harvest, which is basically an union of convenience that allows it’s members to do more research than they could alone. (That’s also why it’s basically the only Order Hall that actually worked outside the Ebon Blade and the Illidari, who are pre-existing organisations encompassing all of the hero class) That said only rly Blelves and the Forsaken have the backdrop, for open support of Warlocks and their activites. (Since all void elves are bargain bin shadow priests 
)
I meant it more in regards to the ethics of Warlocks since we still use the souls of our enemies for the sake of convenience, when we’re not outright chargrilling them to hell done. I mean srsly there are all these NPCs, with hopes and dreams, who get brutally murdered and instead of going to the afterline they get obliterated to fuel the transport of a slacking hunter.
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I’m not buying it, to be honest.
It is stated that those Elves who fled after the Horde killed Tortheldrin, they had weened themselves off fel magic.
Now if any of them were still using fel magic and summoning in demons - then they wouldn’t last 10 seconds in the Darnassian community.
Plus - the Shen’dralar just feels like such a small part of the night elf society. Hell, they weren’t even used in Legion. They could have been - Bob Evenshade and Vereesa Windrunner could have stood side by side as they marched towards the gates of the Nighthold, where Elisande can then address all “Quel’dorei.” But no…the only night elf living mages that were used, were those associated with the Kirin Tor.
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That’s because of the human bias this game has, which is unusual for a medfan story when it comes to magic, and also because the devs don’t know how to use all the races and casts they’ve created over the years. Some are absent where their presence would have made total sense, like the Void Elves and Alleria who were nowhere to be seen during the fight against N’Zoth and his minions despite the fact that it lasted for a rather long period of time. A cameo in the Vision of Stormwind isn’t what I would call contributing to the fight and outside of that, Alleria has only said one thing regarding that whole thing during a conversation with Turalyon. I guess that the emphasis had to be put on Wrathion alone, having other Void experts around wasn’t necessary 
To get back to the topic at hand, I think that the Shen’dralar were left out for one of these two reasons : either the lore devs completely forgot about them (which is possible with these guys), or they wanted the players to forget that Tyrande had allowed them back into Night Elven society to justify her disdain towards Thalyssra and the Nightborne, despite them being less problematic than the Shen’dralar were.
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The Nightborne are what the Shen’dralar could have been, but the Nightborne are better because they open up extra classes to a race that is directly a group of former Highborne Night Elves.
I always say - the protective wards that Jaina put around Darnassus during the Divine Bell business could easily have been given to the Shen’dralar.
Also, I think the devs have forgotten about them - could be a good thing to be honest. Night Elves were always cooler for me, when they had no Mages.
EDIT: Also, the lore has been updated. The Shen’dralar weren’t Azshara’s most revered Arcanists because they were the absolute best of the best. They were revered for their charge of storing the Queen’s tomes and documentation of the Empire. Nothing more. The only credit they have got is that they had no visible signs of fel use / around fel, unlike the Orcs, Felborne and Blood Elves, but it’s only a slight credit.
But then the whole Purge of Dalaran storyline wouldn’t have happened (which probably would have been for the best)…Blizzard needed Jaina herself to be involved with that storyline in Darnassus in order for her to react so violently against Aethas and the Sunreavers later…
(also, the Blood Elves tricked and defeated the Shen’dralar Highborne with their primitive magic in Azshara already once. So if the Shen’dralar had been the ones putting down protective magical wards in Darnassus, I think the Sunreavers would have avoided them and got the Bell even without directly using Dalaran’s portals and resources anyway )
So, were the Shen’dralar even Highborne of the “Inner Circle”, or not? (I think Dath’Remar mentioned the “inner circle” once and that he and his followers were part of it)
I think Blizzard explained it that only (Mag’har) Orcs and Quel’dorei (High Elves/Blood Elves) among all races can manifest visible signs of fel corruption like the change of colour of their skin/eyes (respectively) into green because of magical fel “radiations” and (heavy) usage … (I mean, before they are totally corrupted into demons anyway like the Red Chaos Orcs and Felblood Elves, but that happens only after drinking the demons’ blood directly)
No - they were just Azshara’s revered librarians, for lack of a better word.
“Revered” has little meaning within the Kaldorei Empire, since Vashj’ir was noted to be a “revered city of Azshara.”
I’m ok with them losing again, because this is about their city. They are alliance and blood elves are Horde.
Plus, as Jaina stated - she did catch every Horde Rogue that tried to enter the city. So again - a loss, but at least we would know that they can do stuff and catch rogues.
Well it would also apply to the Nightborne, since I also stated “Felborne.” Blood Elves had the green eyes and the Felbloods just had more demonic and fel stuff.
Whilst Fel-Nightborne also displayed signs which was a combination of the Orcs (skin tone turning green) and Blood Elves (eyes also turned green.)
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Illidan and Night Elven demon hunters do as well and they only consumed demonic energies once. It would have made sense for the Shen’dralar to show some signs of fel corruption after siphoning the energies of a demon for centuries. Another nonsense made in Blizz devs
Probably because giving green eyes to some Night Elves who are not Demon Hunters would be just too confusing for Blizzard…I guess for them in Kaldorei non Demon Hunter-culture , the green eyes must be associated with nature magic and nature magic only, not fel…
(in fact for now Blizzard did not make green fel eyes avalaible to the customization of the Void Elves either, despite there are some Silvermoon scholars just arrived in their group, probably because it would be too confusing, and green eyes are at least one difference that apparently they want to keep between the two groups, as they are a “mark of corruption but at the same time tradition and honor” for those Blood Elves who chose to stay in Quel’thalas and defend their Kingdom and people rather than refusing the Sin’dorei new practices and be exiled to the Alliance (valid reason for both the High Elves and Void Elves…)
They also stated that the Shen’dralar briefly studied the Void as well, but again - I think that is redundant because we have the Void Elves who have mastered the Void and in combination with the Arcane, can be extremely deadly Mages, when on the battle-field.
If they had stated this during MoP or Cata, then it would be an interesting development because then we would know that the Eldre’Thalas exiles managed to ween themselves off both fel and void magic.
Well that should also be their jam.
Nature/Elune/Sentinels - that has always been a big part of the night elves. Yes, we’ve got the Demon Hunters and in the Tyrande vs Sylvanas cinematic, it was clear that Tyrande’s animations were heavily inspired from the Night Elf Demon Hunter, but they’ve always been outcasts to Darnassian society.
Hell, they are outcasts to Blood Elf society as we’ve heard a blood elf demon hunter state, “my people shun me as a freak…” This is further developed when Lor’themar talks of fel magic to Thalyssra. He isn’t open to it at all.
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Any race that has access to priests should have paladins .
Paladins are in essence priests in plate
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Now that all races have access to priests, this would basically mean that all races should have paladins, right?
It’s hard to agree on that one. Several races are more known to worship the Shadow or Void and not the Light, but paladins exclusively use the Light. Void Elves paladins would be heresy and pure nonsense for example. Another class equivalent of the paladins should be created, although death knights already fulfill that role.
Before or after they finished their once in a lifetime explosion trick? =D
(Srsly tho void and light don’t mix.) I would suppose that the most sensible course would be to make something paladin-like. Same way we have the wickermonster druids now.
If you break down the paladin it is basically a warrior with supportive spells. The whole light and cavalry-theme is very human-centric and would look off on most races who have never really worshipped the light.
Blizzard have shown with Druids that classes can be the same but very different, and the ideas suggested by Senti probably have more thought put behind them than what we can expect to see from Blizzard… but for the sake of the topic I’ll put my cynicism to the side.
A Night Elf Paladin sounds wrong and in my head looks wrong if they just get the regular animations used by the current paladins + a holy nightsabre. A Night Elf Warrior Priest sounds much more correct. Prior to Cataclysm, Night Elf priest had access to Starfall which was an alternate aesthetic for light magic. Imagine that aesthetic slapped all over the “Night Elf Paladin”.
I believe this could even work for Orcs. Rather than rely on some convoluted explanation involving time travel Orcs, what if they instead revisited the Wolf Riders. The Wolf Riders already have the cavalry-aspect covered, but the holy magic is off. Maybe the auras could be replaced by banners or war shouts, and all holy magic effects could be replaced with nature magic. The existing paladin gear would not suit this paladin-reskin, but at this point I view that as a minor issue (since we have access to so much gear and it is not difficult to change your transmog to look orc-y).
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In FF XIV it works because class swapping is even part of the world. You can be any class as it resonates with the weapon you carry but if you want to have a job (imagine it like a secialication) you need a crystal and preexperience in certain classes. So it is unlike in Azeroth where your class is a way of life and so changeing it requires effort but actually build in in the universe from the start, that if you take yourself an axe you will be a warrior, you take a sword and be a paladin, etc.