The Shen’dralar Mages and their adventurous young Kaldorei students are regarded with intense distrust and suspicion by their kin. History has taught the Kaldorei to be wary of the Arcane, and to hate those who abuse its power
The Night Elves bow to the will of Tyrande who granted permission to the petition of the exiled Shen’dralar, allowing their return to Kaldorei society and lifting Malfurion’s ten-thousand-year ban on the use of Arcane magic(Her reasons have not been fully explained), but none Night Elf will be quick to trust those who dabble in matters that have long been forbidden to all Kaldorei.
And don’t forget Night Elves are very conservative or their old costumes.
Topics like this are helpful, and the amount of effort put into the post certainly deserves appreciation. My concern is the inclusion of RPG-based information, however.
There are a few details I noticed in there which are specific only to the RPG and no other sources - details I remember from way back before the RPG was declared to be non-canon. Is there a way to revise the original document by combing through it and removing non-canon influence?
I’m not the author of this thread, I posted this without permission because I thought the original thread was no longer accessible, today I attempted again and I have access again(links at the start of my OP).
Anyway, without going through every little detail, what did you notice that was outdated or incorrect?
Well, I wouldn’t use “incorrect” because that’s a strong term. Outdated might be better.
It would take some time, but if you and other players like, I can sit down later and provide specific suggestions. Other people could too in order to spruce this up as a community.
The sourcing here is iffy and more consistent aging by reference ought to add a zero to those figures. We’re talking millennia, not centuries but the first kaldorei to die from natural aging happened recently in Wolfheart, I believe.
While we have an example of a single dad npc, isn’t it the case that kaldorei raise their young communally? I remember it being a thing, though it’s probably the case that these dynamics have been shaken a bit by the massive loss of lives of late.
What do you make of Archdruid Koda Steelclaw, head of the guardians in Val’sharah?
It’s more the case of not being accustomed to races not already in their homelands. You don’t see kaldorei purging non-elves from all their lands. It’s just that the strangers from across the sea were hostile and were met with hostility.
Don’t forget seafood. Various whitefish, squid and such. They’re far from vegetarian. Sentinels love their ribs!
We’ve never been given any real lore on that, were we?
Several now, in fact with one quest in legion reuniting two lovers whom just casually happen to both be women.
By the time of Legion, they instruct trainees by the bulk because of major losses.
They probably earned a few gold stars by now, having been responsible for evacuating the survivors of Teldrassil via portal.
Tyrande was quite cordial in WC3. I’d say most hostility has been earned since fighting on the orcs’ behalf.
Just to add something to this thread, though it may be taken poorly. I choose to believe the gender roles as enshrined in the lore is more a direct result of the unit design in Warcraft 3, that is, they chose to have 1 specific model per unit, such as the druids being male and the archers and huntresses being female, and this carried over into the lore. Unfortunately, I can not actually provide any sources to confirm this.
In light of that, I think it’s reasonable to assume there would be more than a few outliers to these gender roles, like in the case of Archdruid Koda Steelclaw mentioned above. And I think, in such cases, they were allowed to function within that role due to exceptional skill, or some form of blessing that marked them as “worthy”. And those outliers that weren’t exceptional or blessed may just have been ostracized from the night elven society, or just not otherwise noteworthy. Though I can’t call to mind any cases wherein those gender roles have actually been enforced within WoW continuity, but I’m not familiar with the books, just the in game content.
You touch on an interesting point here, so I’ll take a look at this point first. Wolfheart does establish that the oldest night elves are now ageing, to the point where Shalasyr dies of an age-related illness. That novel also remarks on Malfurion feeling back and knee pain like a middle aged person.
Here’s where it gets murlocy, though: all of the individuals who displayed signs of age were born before immortality began; that meant that they’d already aged, to an extent, without nature’s protection. Now, their lifespans may or my not have already been affected by the Well of Eternity anyway, adding to the murkiness here.
Here’s an important question for which we don’t have an official answer: are the night elves who were born during immortality ageing at the same rate as the older individuals? That could help us pinpoint their “normal” biological age. This is especially important for players, as the average night elf RP’er is significantly younger than the average night elf NPC/lore character. Across the board, most named night elves were exceedingly old; even Shandris, who was partially raised by Tyrande and is depicted as her junior, is approximately 10,000 years old. Among players, I see a lot of ages around a hundred years or so.
Is there information I’ve missed which could help us fill the gaps above? I’m worried that there isn’t, which puts us in a quandary in terms of how long our toons can expect to live. I hope I’ve just missed another novel or something, though.
If I’m not entirely wrong, those born in the age of immortals are effectively ageless as the immortality came about by the aspect of time. They’re not perpetually regenerating any signs of age, they’ve just been untouched by time. Now they do age, like everyone else but we have no indication of how an elf hits middle age beyond king Anesterian ruling for over 3000+ years and being described as old. He probably wasn’t crowned as an infant!
Well, this is an old post, so some outdated topics were to be expected and most things Marinya pointed is due to that fact.
Yeah thousands of years is probably more correct. I just Wish Blizzard would gives more details on night elf culture and physiology.
I’ve never seen any indication that children were raised communally, interesting.
This guide is old, Burning Crusade old, so what is written made sense then.
Still to answer your question, it says almost impossible as in very difficult, not impossible.
The culture changed since then and the female druids are probably much wiser now and respect is earned much more easily(From my point of view).
As for there existing female druids from before the third war and an archdruid also, I see it as an exception, female druids existed as well as male priests as proven by archeology ingame, that doesn’t mean it was against the cultural norms.
Again, the source is from vannilla/burning crusade where Night Elves were still very isolationists and had to make an alliance out of necessity with the humans.
But its true that night elves lived in peace with the tauren for ages, but the tauren respected nature and stayed away from Night Elf lands.
But furbolgs and dark trolls lived in ashenvale or did dark trolls only live in feralas? Can’t recall, I’ll double check when reforged comes out.
But overall I agree with your point, they are proud and more arrogant than really xenophobic, after all the other races are younger and naive in Kaldorei eyes.
True, I’d state again that I’d love a more in-depth look from blizzard at how night elf culture was pre-sundering, post-sundering and post third war, gives a new chronicle book with more in-depth look at the different races culture and history.
Don’t know what the source on this is.
Probably, that depends on each kaldorei’s personal view, like this guide which is more recent exemplifies on chapter one: outlook.
(For some reason it doesn’t allow me to post links so I had to include spaces on the link) scarteleu . fandom. com/wiki/A_Guide_to_Roleplaying_a_Night_Elf_character
Also living for decades(now) with the humans who employ so much arcane magic to the benefit of the world would probably help all but the most conservative kaldorei be convinced.
Was she? Again need to play Reforged to double check.
Maybe she didn’t released the blood elves were fel magic users.
This is touched upon in the Elegy novella from the BfA prepatch.
Equally, in Elegy the Highborne mages are met with cheers as they send in defense forces and their own in order to assist the sentinels during the War of Thorns.
I’m sure some kaldorei will never shake off the distrust towards Highborne or Arcane, but I’d say they have been able to establish themselves as valuable members of the night elven society.
Edit: I’d also be hesitant in saying Highborne mages are inferior to Blood elven ones, as the only instance we have seen one group beat the others is with one Highborne mage (who got assassinated) and a bunch of kaldorei initiates.
I forget the source but as there are cultural definitions of mother and father, the othes in town are functionally charged with a shared responsibility to raise the young ones right as symbolic aunts and uncles.
I can’t quote it directly but there was no hostility. Just a reunion of distant relatives with a common goal at the time.
On the topic of faith:
the Temple of the Moon in Suramar had frescoes and murals depicting and many other gods (actual gods, not demigods) shaping the world. This demonstrates that night elf religion is actually polytheistic, but above all stands Elune, the moon goddess.
This is interesting as it hints at a dim awareness of the titans, largely lost to myth as the night elves emerged as an entity and adopted titan words and concepts (like Azeroth) from remnants around the well of eternity.
Ackshually, the long belated wedding was a major event in Wolfheart making the co-rulership of the kaldorei nation, such as it is, official. It isn’t some newfangled foreigner idea.
What does it say, then? I forget.
Just mark your link and hit the </> button and you won’t have to ruin your links with spaces. Forum coding is weird.
“Delaryn’s pinkish skin glowed beneath her dark blue hair; she still had not chosen her facial markings. I know they do not always have to mark a rite of passage, she had told Cordessa once, But I feel they should. And there is nothing that has made enough of a mark on me yet to choose their form.”
Elegy p.7
So yeah, they don’t have to be for a rite of passage, but the phrasing implies that they are generally taken for those reasons.
Is the RPG that bad canonically? I mean most of the stuff there is very interesting to fuel us background information on stuff blizz never cared to touch, if it doesn’t contradict anything established why not use it a source?
And Yes, the guide is outdated it is from 2011, I found a better one in the meantime even though it is probably already outdated.
Bad would just be a matter of opinion; it’s a descriptive adjective. While I can’t speak for Alystiel, though, I also tend to view the RPG books with alarm.
The information contained therein doesn’t usually contradict canon; it simply isn’t canon. The RPG books also contain a lot more detail than actual canon; there are loads and loads of facts and details which simply aren’t confirmed by Blizzard to be true or false. In terms of “officiality,” such info isn’t any more or less valid than my own personal headcanon. Some people are comfortable with that; some people aren’t.
Even for those who are comfortable with it, though, there’s still a benefit in sorting out just what is canon and what isn’t; it can allow people to synergize their RP with others by knowing “okay, what’s-her-name is open to anything, but who’s-his-face only accepts canon. I better adjust my own RP accordingly depending on who’s logged in tonight.”
Mmmm I’d take the books as inspiration and not facts. Like classes for example, I think technomage is a RPG book class and not a canon one but you could still have your character as one who mix technology and magic and call it a technomage. But saying “it is like this because it says so in the RPG books”, no.