Even if Kalimdor was a known continent, I doubt most people would’ve ever seen a Night Elf, I suppose.
With them being isolasionist(sp?) and being able to hide in the forests.
So maybe they were known, but nobody ever saw one 
1 Like
Lots of people saw them. It’s just they were generally the last thing people got to see.
1 Like
Khadgar also points out that the Sundering of Kalimdor is a tale even children know in Lordaeron, though Medivh points out that the child’s tale version is far too optimistic for what really happened. Khadgar asks how is it that we actually know about this, Medivh says that humans were on the verge of discovering the secrets of arcane magic themselves by accident, so the high elves intervened to teach humans about the War of the Ancients and the Highborne, and prevent them from breaking the world out of ignorance by summoning demons.
The elves basically saw the red flags when humans were like “yo the fabric of reality is kind of spicy rn” and realised they need to teach them how to wield magic safely before they draw Sargeras’s attention. The Troll Wars was also a contributor for further necessitating it.
5 Likes
Judging from this, it seems likely scholars and nobles know about Kalimdor and the Night Elves but the average commoner would not. Do we happen to know anything about Nathanos’s background before becoming a Lordaeron ranger by any chance?
Well, he is an over glorified mailman by the time Sylvanas sees him for the first time.
3 Likes
Concerning Lireesa Windrunner, the Farstriders shared one of her almost legendary exploits after her passing. (It is repeatedly mentioned how famous her career made her, so I dare assume these stories live on to modern era Warcraft.)
At one point, the Amani had risen up from within Zul’aman. Not a mere skirmish force, but a well-coordinated incursion with their finest warriors in the vanguard. So too was a massive creature that had once been an eagle, but warped and twisted into a true monster by means of dark magic.
Lireesa’s unit was the only one close enough to respond, only seven in number. Worse still was that they had lost some of their arrows hunting. More were spent felling the trolls and could not be retrieved, and soon they were dangerously low on ammunition. They prepared to spend the rest and then fight hand-to-hand, fully expecting to die to defend their people, when Lireesa spoke.
She would not hear of it, despite having only one arrow left herself. She asked each of the others to give her one of theirs and then fall back to defend the nearby village. They did so reluctantly, and barely had time to prepare defenses before the trolls approached - absent their dark eagle. Running ahead of them all was Lireesa.
Morale surged, and everyone, villagers included, fought the trolls to the point of them scattering and fleeing. No elves died that day.
Lireesa brought the Farstriders to the battlefield afterwards, showing them the slain dark eagle. It had an arrow in each eye, one in its throat, and four tightly clustered in its heart. They praised Lireesa, who rejected the honour of the kill. She could only do it with the strength (arrows) given to her by her companions.
On another note, Sylvanas was not universally beloved at the time of her ascension to Ranger-General. An oath was traditionally asked of each Farstrider on that day, simply being asked if they would serve the candidate. What was expected to be a formality did have some dissidents, who held that Alleria was the rightful heir to the mantle. Despite having once abdicated that right, circumstances had changed quite a bit by then - so was the argument. Sylvanas believed the reasons were entirely personal.
Alleria had been absent for years at that point and not sent word when the elder Windrunners died. She made a timely arrival that day however, vouching for Sylvanas and once more rejecting the title for herself.
Another ceremony involved the coming Ranger-General serving a simple meal to the Farstriders, as they would soon be serving her instead.
The Horde’s presence in Quel’Thalas angered Sylvanas. Not just because of their destructive nature, burning large swaths of the southern woodland, but because Anasterian had chosen willful ignorance on the matter. Sylvanas had been charged with investigating her parents murder and had found proof of Horde involvement in the shape of a Horde arrow. An arrow Anasterian threw in the fireplace, wanting to prevent panic.
It appears Eversong isn’t so enchanted as to guarantee fair weather all the time. Albeit rare events, lightning has sometimes set woodland fires.
When the Horde first reached Quel’Thalas, they set a number of fires in order to draw in the protective Farstriders and ambush them. Sylvanas saw through the ruse and ambushed the orcs in turn, suffering only small casualties compared to wiping out orcish units entire.
Sylvanas first learned of Paladins from Nathanos, and thus understood what Turalyon was when hearing of him. She quite approved of the warrior-priest concept.
The heat of a red dragon’s flame can be so intense so as to reduce trees to ash in seconds, or turn metal liquid. Not burning do much as near-instant incineration.
Also, the Convocation of Silvermoon was finally mentioned by its name. I personally started to wonder, but the council’s name is reaffirmed.
When Arthas first commanded Sylvanas to shriek at the defenders of Silvermoon, she was commanded to target the innocent first. Children, healers, the elderly etc.
Banshee eyes are, according to Arthas, red on account of their seething rage.
Arthas was responsible for keeping Sylvanas body more or less intact. It was held by Dar’khan Drathir in Deatholme, but reclaimed by Sylvanas and her dark rangers.
Contradictions and clarifications aside, it really doesn’t make me understand why Nathanos in any context would say something so bizarre in casual conversation. It’d be like meeting the ambassador for Austria and going “do you think it’s possible that you have whiter skin now because of the Late Bronze Age collapse?”
I will fully accept it if the answer is Nathanos is purposfully written as the Warcraft universe’s incarnation of a redditor.
6 Likes
Because look how smart and wise he is! Don’t you wish everybody was like him, having knowledge he can randomly drop, even if it makes no sense!?
1 Like
He is widely regarded as a rude individual among the elves. I can transcribe a segment of the conversation tonight.
80% of all High Elves died when the Scourge came. Such are the estimates by the survivors at least. The days following the genocide were spent cremating the almost incomprehensively large number of victims to prevent them from rising, which left ashen dust on the leaves of Eversong’s trees.
2 Likes
He’s a spy acting like a country bumpkin who mistakes a simple fountain as the famed Sunwell, and when questioned on how the humans let someone as clueless as him be a spy if he knows literally nothing about Quel’Thalas, he drops the act and lists what he knows of the Sunwell and the circumstance of its creation to provoke Sylvanas. Acting like a bright eyed messenger awed by everything was a cover for being a spy.
Though granted, he wasn’t sent to spy on the elves, but to spy on the Amani out of suspicions that they were working with the Horde and he had been instructed to share his intel only with Anasterian.
I think that is an important distinction to make and I am glad the book does so.
A while ago Narmë and I came up with the headcanon that the actual numbers for the Fall aren’t as high as reported (perhaps even being as ‘low’ as 50-60%), mostly to explain how Quel’Thalas can still field armies in-game just fine. We mused that they didn’t actually lose nearly everyone, it just feels that traumatic to the Elves that 80-90% is reported. This seems to make that even more plausible.
1 Like
To be honest, the Blood Elves never really seem to field any armies. They usually are pitted against the High Elves and both are presented as often small, more elite groups.
2 Likes
The exact quote is “one in ten of us” by Halduron, but this was only a few weeks after the attack.
It seems perfectly reasonable that the figures would be off, especially considering a great many slain had to be abandoned in the Dead Scar. Due to the remaining undead left on murderous auto-pilot, the dead but not risen elves could not be retrieved, and would be left to rot in obscurity. Sylvanas suspects a great many names would ultimately be lost to time because of this, their ultimate fate unknown.
You would also get a wildly different figure depending on if you count only the elves who died during the Scourge’s invasion or if you include the number of elves who died as a result of the Sunwell’s corruption and subsequent destruction.
The more I read about Nathanos running around Quel’thalas the more confused I get.
“Nathanos was trained by Sylvanas Windrunner herself to become a ranger, much against the upper echelon of Silvermoon’s wishes” tells a better story than whatever is trying to be so agonizingly detailed in the novel. Just because the writers have access to Wowpedia they don’t need characters to read paragraphs of ancient lore perfectly transcribed. Like, when Gandalf talks about his resurrection in The Two Towers he still keeps it vague even though he could probably go into excruciating details about the Valar and Aman and what wheels keep the world spinning. Nathanos vomiting facts from a textbook is just the most bizarre thing, because it’s Nathanos and not some ancient Dalaran wizard or scholar, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s up there with Kalec seducing Jaina by telling her magic is math or Tyrande saying “Objection your honor” during Garrosh’s trial.
I always feel that the more these writers try to posthumously characterize the Warcraft cast the more inhuman they seem.
4 Likes
It’s become more bizarre every time it happens, but I’ve noticed a trend lately that the WoW writers for both books and the game itself all basically have their characters behave like the stereotypical “bad roleplayer”.
Like, the kind of people who literally have wowpedia up in their background when rping and claims their characters knows everything are normally laughed at.
4 Likes
I suppose this means those BadRPers were the people who truly knew how to RP in the Warcraft setting, and we were, in fact, the badRPers 
3 Likes
And thus I reach the Shadowlands-related portion of lore tidbits. Be advised that most of what follows is coming from the Jailer and may be unreliable. Come to think of it, everything is narrated by Sylvanas, so bear that in mind as well.
Zovaal freely admitted to having tried to use the runes on Frostmourne, and the Helm of Domination, as tools toward his own ends. He was also quick to mention that he did not forge either, and was himself a victim of his brother’s Domination.
He used third party allies (Nathrezim I suppose) to at first give them to the Burning Legion, convincing them it was a weapon they could wield.
It doesn’t say how the Tools of Domination found its way to Ner’zhul, so I assume the old lore between him and Kil’jaeden remains?
Zovaal claims that Frostmourne held greater potential than was ever explored, because Arthas did not care for the Jailer’s agenda and instead pursued his own quest for power.
Through Frostmourne, Zovaal became aware of Sylvanas and who she was. (Implying everyone slain by the runeblade could be scrutinized by the Jailer, it seems.)
This 100%, the Blood Elves have - in the grand scale of things - largely sent token forces to help the Horde and only moved when strongarmed (Shadow of the Sun) or Silvermoon/blood elves could come to harm (Mists).
Between TBC and Cata you only really see the odd blood elf here and there. Aiding the Horde or being anywhere other than QT or Outland (Mehlar, the guy in Stonard, Pyreanor, Azshara mage dude etc). Cataclysm brought in the Reliquary but even then their goals were largely blood elf centric.
It wasn’t until -after- mists (8.2) specifically that you begin to notice the elves pick up their involvement. You have Isle of Thunder, Siege of Orgrimmar, Draenor, the Nightborne etc.
1 Like