So this is or was basically my attempt to connect a few points and build a theory around where the story might be going before I got to know about datamined stuff that seem to already determine where the story is going but since I’ve put so much effort into this, I just wanted to post it and see what people think. I hope I make somewhat sense trying to explain my thoughts.
So:
After playing through the story, reading quests, and looking at the new raid March on Quel’Danas, I think Midnight could set up a new story for our former high elves.
In the last raid Midnight Falls, L’ura the dark Naaru Aleria absorbed is the final boss and there are three different crystal with three different states:
Dawn Crystal
yellow / gold
Dusk Crystal
red
Midnight Crystal
blue void
Dusk Crystals transform into Dawn Crystals when healed.
That looks like a cycle to me:
Dawn → Light
Dusk → transition / duality
Midnight → Void
So to me the raid is basically showing the Sunwell being pushed from light toward void and back to light.
We know about Naarus that they fall into darkness once their light is exhausted
Light → Void → rebirth
Their “bodies” are essentially solidified Light. When they take massive physical damage, that cohesion breaks, and the Light “leaks” out.
- Entropy: Once the Light is gone, the remaining shell becomes a vacuum. To survive and eventually “regrow” their Light, they must pull energy from their surroundings. This shift into a “consuming” state is what turns them into a Void entity.
- Regeneration: This Void phase is actually a long-term healing process. They aren’t “dying”; they are essentially in a dark cocoon, slowly gathering enough energy to ignite their Light once again.
What’s likely the big change
I don’t think the Sunwell just goes back to its old Light state and everything moves on like normal.
What I think we are getting is a combination of Light and Void. Like the first boss of the raid Belo’ren, Child of Al’ar is half Void half Light.
The well that defined the blood elves for thousands of years will still exist in some form, but it wont be the same anymore. Arator will with utmost certainty play a big role here since he is the “Son of Two Worlds”.
Since Illidan refused the role of the chosen one destined to end the “Age of Demons”, lore hints suggest the prophecy actually refers to Arator. Recent animated shorts and story developments for the Midnight expansion focus heavily on Arator needing to find a balance between his father’s Light and his mother’s Void.
And this would not be the first time the Sunwell went through a major transformation.
The red dragon Korialstrasz (Krasus) gathered the Sunwell’s remaining dispersed energies after Kael’thas destroyed the well to stop it corrupting his people after the scourge invasion and hid them in the form of a human girl named Anveena Teague. She lived in secret in Quel’Thalas for years.
Anveena was literally the Sunwell’s essence given form, and her sacrifice became part of what allowed the Sunwell to be restored afterward. So the idea that the Sunwell can fundamentally change, and still in some deeper sense remain itself, is already part of the setting.
At the same time, I honestly don’t expect Blizzard to seriously touch Anveena here. She matters a lot to the deeper history of the Sunwell, but Blizzard seemed to not really give a crap about her ingame, and most players probably don’t even know who she was unless they looked into the Sunwell trilogy lore outside the game. After the defeat of Kil’jaeden and the restoration of the Sunwell through Velen and the core of the Naaru, Kalec literally says, “Few will remember your name,” and that line feelt like Blizzard telling us in advance that she was going to be dropped from the wider story.
But honestly, I wish Blizzard would at least give her an honorable mention if the Sunwell is changing this much again. Nothing huge, nothing forced, just one line from maybe Liadrin or Kalec if he makes it to the Sunwell again, or someone else acknowledging that the last time the Sunwell went through a transformation on that level, Anveena gave her life for it. That alone would be enough.
The “Duskwell”
If Dawn is Light and Midnight is Void, then Dusk is the state in between.
Not pure Light, not pure Void, and not Twilight, because that just sounds like the Twilight’s Hammer from Cataclysm.
The Dusk Crystal in the encounter is a red crystal with a yellow orange glow and dark void particles rising from it.
That is why Duskwell makes the most sense to me.
Why Void Elves in Silvermoon suddenly make sense
This is the part that clicked for me.
Void Elves being allowed into Silvermoon feels very wrong right now because the Sunwell is a holy Light source.
Void corruption is the ultimate taboo. We already saw that when Alleria approached the Sunwell, and now in Midnight Umbric and the other Void elves still aren’t allowed around it.
Under the old rules, Void touched Thalassians being a permanent part of Silvermoon makes no sense.
But if the Sunwell has changed and becomes both Light and Dark, then the rules change.
Under those conditions, Void touched Thalassians are no longer fundamentally incompatible with the city itself.
That means we reach a point where we “reunify the scattered elven tribes of Azeroth” like Chris Metzen said. I don’t quite know how that works out for Night elves but that is something we gotta figure out later.
Lor’themar & Thalyssra
Another reason I think this direction fits so well is the marriage between Lor’themar Theron and First Arcanist Thalyssra.
The Nightborne already went through their own version of magical dependence and transformation with the Nightwell during Legion.
So the leadership of Quel’Thalas now includes someone who has already lived through a civilization losing its old font of power and having to survive after that.
And that is where the bigger question starts.
Once the Sunwell becomes something else, the question is no longer just who gets to be in Silvermoon.
The bigger question becomes:
what are the elves actually supposed to rely on now? Can, will or do they want to rely on the new well after it being a target for invasion, being corrupted, destroyed and reformed for the third time?
That is where I think the Blood elves could split in a new way.
Lor’themar isn’t some grand magical visionary. He is a simple warrior. In the cinematic we saw that he didn’t even believe in the power of the light when Liadrin said “Only the light can save us now” and basically tryed to keep Liadrin from going to the Sunwell to pray to the light. He is the guy who was tasked by Kael’thas to keep Quel’Thalas alive, keep the kingdom together, and stop everything from collapsing while he was away.
That specific moment with Liadrin from the cinematics highlights his core conflict:
-
The Burden of Abandonment: When Kael’thas left, Lor’themar was handed a dying kingdom and told to “hold the fort.” He felt the weight of every blood elf death, which made him cynical toward “miracles” or distant powers like the Light.
-
Reluctant Regent: He never wanted the throne. He sees himself as a steward, which is why he’s often wary of grand ideological shifts. To him, the Light was a tool they had to “steal” from M’uru just to survive, not a deity to worship.
-
The Glue of the Elves: His “simple warrior” mindset on the other side is actually why he’s the perfect candidate to lead the unification in Midnight. He doesn’t care about ancient magical purity or Void-vs-Light philosophy as much as he cares about the survival of his people.
And if I’m not mistaken, Lor’themar was willing to go along with Kael’thas destroying the Sunwell rather than let it remain corrupted after the Scourge invasion. If the well becomes a problem, he is not the kind of person who blindly clings to it just because it used to be sacred.
So if the Duskwell turns out to be divisive, or simply not something his people want to depend on anymore, I can absolutely see him tolerating a harsh fallback if that is what keeps the kingdom standing.
Grand Magister Rommath feels like he could go even further. He comes from that older proud Sin’dorei survival first mindset. He was once a die hard Kael’thas loyalist, if a method works, if it keeps the blood elves alive, if it frees them from depending on one compromised well, he is exactly the kind of person I could see backing it hard.
So I don’t think this becomes some simple good versus evil split. I think Lor’themar would try to manage the crisis and keep order, while Rommath is much more likely to support a harsher answer if that answer means independence from another compromised well.
Astalor Bloodsworn’s Anguish Magic
Now we get to the key line.
Astalor Bloodsworn says:
“The Sunwell will soon be obsolete.”
but if the Sunwell technically still exists why use the word obsolete?
Blood elves first relied on the original Sunwell created from the Well of Eternity. After its destruction, many turned to siphoning fel based substitutes. Then after the restoration, they relied on the restored Sunwell again.
Midnight already shows that some of them turn back to fel because of desperation.
So if the well becomes the Duskwell, still sort of Light infused, while Light is also strongly associated with the Alliance through Velen “saving” the Sunwell with the heart of a Naaru at the end of TBC, and the Void is now also tied to the Alliance through Aleria and the Void elves, I can absolutely see why prideful Sin’dorei would stop wanting to rely on it like they did for many thousands of years and turn to a new and more unique Sin’dorei made source of power.
For true Sin’dorei, it may no longer be the sacred, trusted font of arcane or holy power they built their identity around.
For the Ren’dorei, it still contains Light, which is probably something they would not want to lean on either.
So the Duskwell may still matter symbolically, politically, or spiritually, but it doesn’t really solve the practical question of becoming independent of the well.
That is why Astalor now in Midnight matters so much, he was already working on an answer long before. His projects were already underway. He seems to have been trying to solve the bigger Sin’dorei problem all along: dependence on any single font of power. Midnight shows how relevant that goal is more than ever before.
He is trying to make power portable, extractable, and independent of one sacred place. A power that can not easily be invaded, corrupted or destroyed.
The Mogu and Revendreth
During Mists of Pandaria, Astalor studied Mogu Blood Golem empowerment. He was specifically tied to the animus golem, the blood powered constructs stolen from the Mogu, and used blood magic to empower those animus golems against the Legion in Warlords of Draenor.
In Shadowlands, Revendreth runs on anima extracted from emotions like pride, guilt, and suffering.
That seems pretty close to Astalor’s anguish magic. We are hunting prey, extracting anguish, and storing it in crystals for him.
So to me, anguish isn’t a completely new idea at all. It looks more like a refined evolution of research he was already doing.
Now add Kael’thas Sunstrider to that.
Astalor Bloodsworn was one of Kael’thas Sunstrider’s most trusted and high-ranking advisors, serving as a primary architect of the Prince’s vision for the blood elves’ survival.
Kael’thas is the one who was willing to push the blood elves toward dangerous replacement systems in the form of fel magic once the Sunwell was gone.
So thematically, a connection between:
Kael’thas
Revendreth
anguish as fuel
a new Sin’dorei first power system
fits extremely well.
Then there is Denathrius.
Astalor mentions a mysterious supplier for the crystals that can contain anguish. Since Sire Denathrius escaped the Shadowlands and remains unaccounted for, he is the strongest candidate for that role.
So if we mix:
Mogu and animus style experimentation
Revendreth style anguish extraction
then his confidence in the Sunwell soon becoming obsolete makes a lot of sense.
What this means for the Sin’dorei
This leaves the Sin’dorei with one clear answer to the Sunwell problem.
- High Energy Density: Astalor claims that even a “small touch” of anguish can generate enough power to repair and indefinitely sustain the massive magical defenses of Silvermoon City.
- Storage and Stability: Unlike the volatile Fel or the fading Arcane, Anguish is concentrated into crystalline vessels fortified by cosmic matter. These vessels act as long-term batteries, allowing the energy to be stored and used for various applications without immediately dissipating.
- Diverse Applications: Once harvested, the energy can be used to imbue weaponry, power arcane golems, and even enhance living test subjects. While the magic is “consumed” to perform these tasks, the efficiency of the extraction process makes it a more sustainable alternative to the elves’ previous desperate measures.
- The “Prey” System: To keep the supply of Anguish consistent, Astalor has established the Prey system, a targeted manhunt across Quel’Thalas and beyond. This suggests that while individual “units” of Anguish are long-lasting, the city still requires a continuous harvest of new “prey” to maintain its total power levels.
similar in principle to Revendreth anima
independent of any well
That is when Astalor’s line becomes true.
The Sunwell becomes obsolete, not because it vanishes, but because the blood elves finally get a system that doesn’t depend on one sacred font but even powerful “prey” might not last forever. The only everlasting method would be siphoning anguish magic right from Revendreth founded by Sire Denathrius - an Eternal One and the creator and the former leader of the realm.
This all would fit the word Blood in Blood Elf perfectly, more than the metaphorical meaning it has had for a long time.
Blood elves would finally become real Blood Elves, using anguish magic, blood magic, that either is or at least looks like literal blood.
Why this is still just speculation
Maybe both blood elves and void elves will still be able to connect to the new well, and continue to rely on it and Astalor is just experimenting with that system until he finishes his project and we see him become a new villain serving Sire Denathrius.
Together with Grand Magister Rommath, Astalor Bloodsworn probably represents what it means to be a Sin’dorei more than almost anyone after Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider.
Prideful, ruthless, pragmatic, and dangerous.
Whether he becomes a hero who liberates his people from dependence on a vulnerable well, from arcane addiction, from a giant target, one sacred location, one stationary power source that can be invaded, corrupted, and sim<ply destroyed, or a villain who leads them onto a new dark path with the Nathrezim, is the biggest question in the expansion for me so far.
But anyway, what do you guys think?
Is this well thought out or way too far out there?
Please let me know, I was thinking about this for days, spent a lot of time on refining my thoughts and put them into text but according to datamined information the Sunwell will be saved through the power of friendship and we’ll end up with a rainbow well…