Justice for the Kaldorei

Lore Story
1

For the past two expansions, the night elves have been the punching bags of WoW. We lost our home, suffered genocide, and the victims were sent to the Maw to become fuel for the Jailer or twisted into monsters ,as seen in the Night Fae campaign. It also doesn’t help that Elune seemingly denied Tyrande justice in 9.1, and supposedly sent the souls to the Shadowlands without knowing the Arbiter broke.

The good news is we won the Battle of Darkshore, and took back some of the lost territory, but there are a few things Blizzard should do to make up for this series of tragedies.

First: Justice. I have no interest in going after the Horde anymore, because I’m as tired of the faction conflict as most people at this point. But Sylvanas must answer for her crimes, no matter her motives, missing soul fragment, or relationship with the Jailer. For too long, she has evaded justice because of plot armor and fan- service. Many desire vengeance, but apparently vengeance is bad now, and Danuser will most likely give his waifu a redempion story.

I could settle for a redemption story, but only if we get a scene where Tyrande confronts Sylvanas about Teldrassil, her restored soul lets her feel remorse for her actions, and she does something meaningful to make amends. Even then, she should serve some time in Revendreth, to properly atone for her sins. Either that, or she could sacrifice herself to save Anduin or something.

Second: A new home. Many players want a break from the cosmic stuff, and return to Azeroth. There are rumors of a new world revamp coming up the next expansion, and this would be the perfect time to give the night elves a new home. Mount Hyjal seems like a perfect place. It’s well protected by Aviana and the Green Dragonflight, and far from Horde territory. Malfurion might already be working on turning the area around Nordrassil into New Darnassus.

Even if there won’t be a new world revamp, a new disctrict in Stormwind, built around the embassy would suffice, since the Darnassus quartermaster is already there. Just give us something, Blizzard.

Third: Heritage armor: 6 races got their heritage armor in BfA, but none have gotten any in Shadowlands. Someone asked about it during Blizzconline, but Ion’s answer was “when it fits the narrative”. Well, the current narrative has been disappointing, and it didn’t stop some the sets added in BfA. I’m sure the art team has been busy with the covenant sets and the upcoming tier sets, but I really hope they didn’t just abandon heritage armor halfway. If they truly wish to tie heritage armor to the narrative, a return to Azeroth would be the time to do it.

As for the night elf armor, the quest could focus on rebuilding our nation. The armor could be either the archer armor fans want, or they could follow the same pattern as some of the existing sets and base it on a Warcraft 3 unit, such as the Warden. And no, warfront armor is NOT heritage armor. Heritage armor is race- exclusive, can be transmogged on any armor, and comes as a reward from a unique quest chain. Besides, many didn’t bother grinding the warfront for those generic- looking sets anyway. The Kaldorei deserve better.

These are the things I want as a night elf player, and I’d like to hear your thoughts.

10 Likes
2

Unfortunately according to the spoilers of the new book:

-Blizzard does not care much about Night Elves. They just rolled back most of the Kalimdore back to Cata. Including those trolls on the North of Darshores, they are back again.
It seams that no bonuses for NElfs. Blizzard will just stop that old story, and will paint Nelfs as aggressors, that fight against the Horde for no reasons.

3 Likes
3

Well at the end of the day, the Horde is more to blame than Sylvanas. No matter how reluctant they were to do so, the Horde warriors had free will when they participated in the burning of Teldrassil, just as they had free will when they decided not to rebel against Sylvanas immediately after. Even good old Baine took action against her only upon learning about the Derek Proudmoore plot (for some reason THAT was the breaking point for him).
Sylvanas, however, was basically mind controlled. You can’t demand justice from someone who was mind controlled, that just doesn’t work. And that’s what writers decided to do, whether you like it or not (I’m not certain I like it either, albeit for different reasons).

That one, for sure. I hope Kaldorei will get a bit more than a district in Stormwind though. Nordrassil makes sense but the thing is it’s a neutral territory, which is a problem, both in terms of gameplay and from an ingame perspective (I’m not sure NElves would love the sight of Horde members going in and out their capital freely).
Sure Teldrassil is gone, but I don’t see why Kaldorei wouldn’t return to the land they have retaken ? They once again control most of Darkshore now.

Anyway overall I’m not sure Blizzard is really interested in going very far in terms of “justice”, if only because they never really did that for any race, and pretty much every playable race had suffered this bad a blow in their history at some point. Not saying I don’t understand why Kaldorei players feel let down though.

1 Like
4

To be fair, they should have never left in the first place. The whole “they had been living in peace with the Kaldorei for years but one day Garrosh recruited them into the Horde for future attacks so Sentinels went and slaughtered them” storyline in Cata was never a really good idea.

3 Likes
5

Do you really feel that centralization is the way to go for Night Elves, though? Might just be me not being a real elf fan, but did this city full of tradesmen and merchants really feel very “Kaldorei, Keepers of the Wilds”-ish? I’m certainly not against pretty Night Elf stuff all over the map, and I would wish them a new temple of Elune somewhere (ignoring Shadowlands Elune lore, maybe…), but Darnassus always missed the mark for me.

2 Likes
6

To be honest Human and Night elf aesthetics are something i could do without, for at least a single expansion, where we don’t have an obligatory druidic nature zone, which is just somewhere between same old stuff and cringe. Giving them a breather for once, where they don’t have to deal with bugs, the Horde, mushroom drainage, frosty forests, fire elemental invasions, alien hiveminds, emerald nightmare and their goddess’s estranged twin would be refreshing.

1 Like
7

So, are the Night Elves still attacking the Horde in Ashenvale and Azshara during Shadowlands, ALONE without the rest of the Alliance??

that’s…madness. It seems even Rexxar is worried they are throwing away their own lives for nothing now that they are so few…

8

If you’re referring to the latest datamined dialogue, it wasn’t about the Jailer mind- controlling her, like many seem to think. It was obviously about Arthas mind- controlling her during the Third War. There were no implications in BfA or Shadowlands that she was being mind- controlled. The devs even said themselves she allied with the Jailer willingly. She was manipulated, just as Arthas was, but she was never mind- controlled.

I suppose that’s a good point.

That would work better in terms of gameplay. I’m sure we could turn our warfront base into a heavily fortified city.

Well, the blood elves got the Sunwell back, the gnomes reclaimed parts of Gnomeregan, the dwarf clans are united, the Darkspear have the Echo Isles… But on the other hand, the Forsaken are homeless too, with no clear leadership, and rumors of the Scarlet Crusade returning to wreak havoc.

But this is why I’m hoping for a return to Azeroth for the next expansion, because that would be the time to resolve the plot points left from BfA.

1 Like
9

Was this confirmed ? But anyway yea no I was referring to the soul split thing, I just phrased it poorly. No one was on the receiving end so “mind control” isn’t accurate but as far as we know the soul split does mean that she can’t be held accountable for what she did during that period doesn’t it ?

Ah well if what you mean by “justice” is getting their lands and capitals back, then Kaldorei will likely get justice and recover Darnassus at some point, or be given something else. But if justice means going through an entire arc with confrontations, a trial, retributions, making amends and having everybody come to their aid, then I don’t think any of the examples you listed was given that.

10

Well, a new capital was wishful thinking anyway. I don’t believe they’ll actually do it, and neither will they give the Forsaken a new capital. But they could at least give the night elves a quest that shows ingame what they’re up to. They could make it the heritage armor quest. Same for the Forsaken, humans, orcs, draenei, trolls, and pandaren.

I suppose the night elves fighting their own guerilla war against the Horde makes sense, just as I could see the Zandalari attacking Kul Tiras. The war is never truly over.

11

Which basically murdered all their storytelling potential and they were only ever relevant since then when Jaina needed punching bags.

1 Like
12

Sylvanas is a good girl now, speak about justice sheeesh.

13

Well, the Ranger-General High Elf part of her soul is actually innocent, but even if innocent she’s still talking about Teldrassil being unforgivable and that she must suffer some kind of judgement and punishment for that crime anyway after the defeat of the Jailer…so I wonder if it’s a still a good “justice/revenge” outcome for a Night Elf fan if she’s punished eventually? Remember you are punishing a person who is indeed half-innocent, though :thinking:

Right now the Blood Elves do indeed feel a bit boring lore-wise because they are in a quite stable position as a race, and all the thematic focus on the Light rather than arcane/fel magic makes them seem like they are the Humans of the Horde, especially with Lor’themar as a leader…still, in the future Lor’themar could die or the Void Elves could be able to corrupt the Sunwell so the Blood Elves could return to use some of the more morally grey methods they were using in TBC for feeding their addiction and for their own survival, so as a Blood Elf fan I am patiently waiting for that development…and for Blizzard to finally update Quel’thalas, of course :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
14

Firstly: We know that there will be a confrontation between Tyrande and Sylvanas, so I wouldn’t worry about that.

Secondly: A new home while sounds lovely (could be hyjal even as lorewise refugees were moved over to mt hyjal) I doubt blizz is gonna give us that :confused: gnomes and trolls been missing their capital for years now. Belf capital is still corrupted and ruined, same for draenei, which is just a crashed dimensional ship

Thirdly: Okay, hear me out, I am a nelf main but I do not think we need a heritage armor.
Same for forsaken. The whole darkshore warfront/pvp season then gave us kaldorei and forsaken themed sets. Including recolored and elite versions.

A heritage armor is a set of armor made for a certain race, with their theme in mind. That was what we were given as it is.

15

Yes, here is a good summery of the LORE key points from this book:

Well, it was known from the day one that Night Elves will not going to destroy the Horde, and will not going to kill Sylvanas. Because Horde is favorite faction of the Blizzard, and Sylvanas is favorite character of the Steve.

But now, when Blizzard have put out “The victim card”, and Jailor is now responsible in everything, Night Elves players at least will get revenge by killing Jailor.
Better than nothing…

P.S. Just for info, if somebody have missed this:

16

The cinematic, where good sylvanas feels bad about “all the lives” is cute and all, but it doesn’t really address anything meaningful besides Blizzard not taking easy copout number 3.

17

The problem with the warfront armor is people got tired of the warfronts quickly, especially since the gear became irrelevant the next patch, and the drops were completely random. As for the pvp versions, not everyone does pvp.

And being night elf/forsaken themed does NOT make it heritage armor. Heritage armor should be exclusive to said race, and warfront armor can be transmogged by everyone.

I’m sorry, but abandoning heritage armor because of warfront armor would be a cheap move by Blizzard. You can’t give heritage armor to one half of the core races, and leave the other half + the pandaren in the cold.

18

Well it depends honestly. Heritage armors are justs sets of armors that are designed for a specific race. Both kaldorei and forsaken has several sets that are designed specifically for them. Even the moonpriestess robes and sentinel glaives.

But I can agree to disagree ofc.

19

What i would love to see, all zones that were taken back by Kaldorei, shown in map and reworked. Tired of seeing for e.g. Ashenvale half burned or infested with orcs.

Hyjal could be new home for nigh elves, just need some re-work of zone itself. Bigger world tree and huge a tree house. Moon temples around and beneath world tree, a city like Suramar with more Ardenweald style environment.

All night elven and alliance souls rescued from maw

Heritage armor + moon/starry glowing tattoos like Tyrande in cenamtic.

That would be a justice. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
20

i’m afraid that would cost you a raid tier - Ion

just proof that raiders are a cancer upon the world :stuck_out_tongue: let it cost a raid tier then who cares