Whether you call it Rogue Ebons or death knights who are acting against the better interest of the living, is mostly semantics. I also presume the 30+ figure was to give an idea of how many have been acting like this, in terms of personal experience. Compared to how few you see of the other kind.
Thereâs a very distinct difference between an Ebon Blade who is a literal traitor who now serves the Scourge, and a Death knight who doesnât follow the rules of a neutral faction RPers that inserted themselves into Alliance territory.
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The point is, we arenât the ones who coined the term ârogue ebonâ, itâs just what we read on their TRPs.
You should look at it from an IC perspective, if an undead does bad stuff and claims to be an Ebon Blade, how they are designed doesnât matter. What matters is people wonât trust the next one claiming to be Ebon Blade. We answered about some IC happenings, weâre not about the lore.
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What I am saying, as was brought up pretty clearly in the previous examples is this. If you steal an icecream from the shop because you donât like the shops owner, or if you steal the ice cream because you wanted an ice cream for free. It doesnât matter, it is still theft. âRogue Ebonâ While not an accurate term describes the character acting with âcriminalâ malice. Or in a way as to suggest their intentions are aligned more with the Scourge. Than with the Ebon Blade. Whether affiliated with either or neither.
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I see, thanks for the clarification! Because Iâve been around since the dawn of time and put myself out there quite a lot, for me itâs been a different experience just due to those two points alone.
As for headcanon, it comes and goes like in every active hub such as Duskwood. For the past years Iâve viewed the night elf community in Kalimdor rather splintered instead of being a tight-knit community, and without as noticeable group effort to get stuff organized compared to Legion times for example when we had campaign initiatives like the Starhost.
I think the curse of any hub, Kalimdor included is that they tend to follow the following trend:
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Itâs dead area
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Some people start to organize something there, and slowly more people join in if thereâs transparency of stuff going on (for example public events posted on forums, screenshots shared around AA showing thereâs life etc)
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Activity grows until the hub starts attracting more people whose characters might not be a good fit for the place, but theyâre hungry for interactions (for example demon hunters whoâve given up the hunt and just wanna be a normal person again)
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There may be 50% good apples 50% bad apples, and rumors start spreading in Discord and forums that hub X is so and so, look how terrible it is
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Number of people donât want to be associated with the negativity and leave
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The place falls quiet again, as those who came after Stormwind-esque bustle and armed with hefty headcanon now find it harder to inject themselves into situations as easily as before
Experiences differ from person to person, the above is what I think had often happened with hubs that grow from non-existent to small to medium outside the big cities. And itâs why Iâd be mindful about not slapping everyone roleplaying in a hub into the box of âcommunity Xâ.
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https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/014/078/278/4k/zach-fischer-garona.jpg?1542361728
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While this isnât intended as a criticism of you in any way, I imagine that Acrona experiences arenât the same as âregular playerâ experiences, especially in earlier years of AD and the night elf community.
One of the most recognisable night elf characters, public event/roleplayer creator, and a popular artist, I honestly imagine thereâs a certain subsect of players who would have been stumbling over themselves (and each other) to get your attention.
Of course, that will have had its own drawbacks and annoyances. Nobody wants to be swarmed by people looking for your recognition or (more likely) free art.
Your point about the lifespan and chronology of the average night elf hub is definitely on point though. Demon hunters, warlocks, and other âsocial rejectsâ demanding positive interaction with the locals is always a recipe for trouble â when I played a demon hunter for a time during Legion, I enjoyed having my character pass through Astranaar on other business and actively antagonise the sentinels out of spite (and in order to preempt the inevitable rejection).
That comes with its own problems, as the fel-infused characterâs OOC friends push to include them, even if the manner of that inclusion doesnât fit the atmosphere, which in turn impacts the sceneâs reputation.
My worst experience with night elf custom lore is with law enforcement and punishment. Exile and stays in the Barrow Dens were the typical outcomes for major misdeeds and that was totally fine, but then I saw (on more than one occasion) that a character had been tortured as their punishment. Night elves donât really do torture and sentinels certainly wouldnât be under official orders to carry anything like it out.
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Thatâs⌠incredibly disappointing. Iâm very new to night elf roleplay and would be interested to know what sort of headcanon is typically employed. Iâm all for roleplayers filling in the gaps left by Blizzard, so long as theyâre flexible in how they go about it and accept that not everybody will follow the same threads.
Night Elves donât really have Gender Roles anymore. And even in the old days they had male warriors ( Jared Shadowsong ) and female Druids.
Youâre 100% right and this is what I was alluding to in my previous reply, that my position is different to most people. The publicity has come with the good and the bad, from people looking to interact with me because of whatever they assume of my community status, to those who shy away from interacting with me because âbig name scaryâ or âI donât want to come across as being after artâ.
One annoying aspect is when individuals metagame stuff from my stories or art, or assume things like Acrona must love demon hunters because of all the art that includes them. 
Also sorry to hear about your negative past experiences! Iâm not a spokesperson for the night elf community even if I might sometimes throw my two cents in, and like with any popular race thereâs bound to be a lot of people who interpret the established lore differently or are willing to stetch the suspension of disbelief.
Hopefully youâll get some positive experiences to make up for it!
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Yeah â like you, I tend to have a more curated experience these days. Iâll roleplay with people I like, know, and trust.
I wouldnât even say that more experiences over the years with the night elf community are even predominantly negative. I had fun most of the time, but itâs also very easy to find the bad more memorable than the good.
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I havenât rped there as a druid, so I wonât judge the situation.
But you understand where the frustration may come from in the case of Zaphius, for example.
Honestly, I say death to all the illidari 
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Thatâs good, and maybe we can have our nelves meet one day!
Totally agree on the more curated experience. Though I still do public events on FF14, itâs been fun focusing mostly on Acronaâs personal storylines in WoW. And since I donât actively roleplay with a big number of people, I can take as long with those arcs as I like.
That said I welcome walk-up roleplay whenever Iâm around a hub or public event & free. So come hit me up folks, whether itâs to ask for directions or to steal Acroâs scroll or something.
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I definitely think a while ago (indeed, most of my experiences are from 2+ years ago when I mention this stuff) things were way worse. Three words: tower of notestulan.
But also my experiences as an outsider reaching out to the night elf community comes from around, well, 2021. And Iâve had mostly bitter experiences.
Which is a shame because it looks like they can make engaging and cool roleplay, and I have had memorable experiences with the NE community here and there and yet, I have also had the experience of them being very, very closed off.
My brain went âthatâs not how you spell thatâ before it dawned on me.
Then it went âoh, oh noâ.
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At least we had a community which worked together back then 
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As a night elf mage it was a bit odd going in there sometimes (it being a mage academy after all) and seeing all the sentinels⌠While the actual sentinel stronghold is literally just around the corner.
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I have to admit, I donât really know anything about this Not-Estulan business.
If Zaphius and me are referring to the same matter, there was a sentinel guild who used the Tower of Estulan as their base of operations. I donât remember any big drama though, and never really had a problem with the players myself, but didnât got there as often anymore when it felt like the place was actively occupied for other things than mage & magic stuff. Rather than fuss about it though, I just quietly went elsewhere which I tend to do if something isnât up my alley.
I understand the zones are meant to be much bigger in lore and roleplayers come up with non-canon locations all the time, in this case I just recall Feralas saw in general more activity at the time and Feathermoon wouldâve been better suited for the theme.
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I must admit, I have always been a little nervous to roleplay my night elf demon hunter in night elf locations for this reason.