Night elves feel more disconnected and irrelevant

Community General Discussion
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Increasingly in wow I’ve noticed, compared to the original lore, how disconnected night elves feel from the other elves - and how they just seem pointless.

I really feel blizzard need to sort them out properly

  1. Originally presented as the original elves that encompass all things elven - magic, arcane, nature, religion, celestial moon and stars = now - they just seem to be nature only focused as if they are all druids
  2. Defined as children of the stars, the elves that looked to the stars, discovered magic, loved it even more than nature they also loved but found not enough to be their whole world - now the stars are just in name, their pursuit seems to be entirely to chill in Amirdrassil - again like they’re all druids and not Moon priest, mages, DHs,
  3. They are portrayed as defintley loving magic deeply, though through the past have gained wise caution - all elves have magical affinity and love through this root - yet none of this is shown in night elves in-game though it’s in the lore = they are presented in game as if any magic (incl arcane) is only a Highborne thing (a group largely ignored since Cata allied them with the main group) and not a racial thing tied deeply to their origin and story - we only see druidic magic as if all night elves are druids, - hardly ever see star/moon magic which all night elven classes, mage, priest and druid were supposedly prolific at or any other magic from them for that matter..

  • I never see night elves looking to the stars, and wielding star/moon arcane magic

  • I almost never see night elf priestesses wielding Elune magic - they just stand there with bows like all they are hunters and not priests - despite having actual sentinel huntresses

  • I hardly ever see night elves today doing any arcane magic or even involving themselves in arcane affairs, especially the mysterious Shen’dralar who were the keepers of all the kaldorei empire magical knowledge, and also the magical engineers of all Azshara’s wonder projects - their lore state this, but the game shows nothing.

    1. Night elves were the original and main demon hunters, but when have we seen a night elf demon hunters have any role in warcraft since a brief sideshow of korvas in Legion and Illidan’s short role in Legion 7.2/3?

Night elves were supposed to be all rounders, defending the world from threats - Druids cared about nature, priests cared about the will of Elune, and the people loved magic and nature - with mages caring about magic and civilization, demon hunters care about destroying the Legion and gaining power to do so. The lore explained the Long vigil group needing to cease magic to prevent the return of the Legion, and that became un-necessary after wc3 - yet I have seen almost no arcane magic, even with the returning Highborne, no star/moon magic from any mage, priest or NPC druid (only the class balance druid)

  • I see Night elves defined as defenders of nature which is a druid role not a racial role - rather than defenders of the world which fits all their roles

They come across caring far more about trees than the stars, despite their name and original identity.

Overall they just feel un-connected and unrelated to the other elves. Even Nightborne, the night elf off shoot is almost shown zero night elf characteristics since Legion’s bumper interactions - all we see are the moon symbols on their crates and purple colouring - no star magic, no Elune priestesses, nothing about the Arcan’dor and how have they picked up the monk class before the druid class with Farodin, Nighteyes and all those Val’sharan’s with them? Weren’t Nightborne and Highborne night elves the two wings of the kaldorei civilization empire on the alliance and horde - yet their visibility is almost zero and their connectivity completely ignored.

I kinda get the feeling, blizzard writes stuff, then largely forgets about it when they develop a lot of content. I can only feel that this is bad organisation, the people writing/designing content don’t know and don’t consult properly those aware of the lore.

for a consumer who follows the game, this looks bad, because we read about a group/race being one thing and building a congruent lore identity, which is then constantly ignored /sidelined rarely shown for the majority of their presence, - as if “we only need you to be druid unit” despite the fact your lore gives you sufficient depths and defined you as star seeking, magic origination based - we got humans and blood elves for that - so while there are nightborne and Highborne, we can’t be bothered to show much of that - But we are fine showing Humans as Wizards, warriors, Paladins and Priests in ample quantity - but night elves can only be druids (and sometimes hunters) instead of Priests, Mages, Druids, hunters/Demon hunters

When going through the lore, and reading the books, do you know what comes to mind when I go through the content? What happened to Tyrande? what happened tot eh moon and star magic? what happened to the great magical wonders - the magic is back where is it? Why are they called children of the stars, when everyone seems to care about trees only? Where are the demon hunters? where are the Highborne? Where are the mages? Why do night elf priests do nothing? Where is their moon/star magic? Why aren’t night elves now rebuilding their civilziation? The excuse of the Legion that caused the Long vigil ended in WC3 - why are so many elements you started just ignored or very poorly advanced or developed?

Tyrande took up to expansion 7/8 to do anything more than a few lines cameo lines (which came in MoP) - gross ignore of character

Malfurion - great character, despite us constantly seeing night elf druids - his been absent through almost every major event and relevance. He was given a poor excuse till Cataclysm - but the events of Stormrage seem to be ignored entirely

Question: What’s the point of buying your books if the stuff we read in them doesn’t seem to exist in the game or is rarely shown? Did you read war of the ancients? Wolfheart and Stormrage? Almost none of the characteristics, achievements and attributes of the night elves described as defining are hardly visible in game?

What is their place? I just wonder - You have very clearly defined them in lore, it’s so clear, the lore is detailed and extensive, but the game, barely shows a fraction of that - do you guys even communicate with one another???

The problem here is night elves are deeply ingrained in the lore, and t the centre of a lot of defining moments, they are too intertwined to be portrayed so poorly and incongruously. For everyone who starts following up, they will come into the game and be confused or wonder why?

You really should steward the project better please, these guys seem irrelevant and pointless. Their key defining and unique feature was the stars and moon , their night civilization and magic. Many races have magic, but they were the first and the only one based on the stars and moon, Many have religions but theirs is the only based on a moon goddess and stars, many deal and wield nature but theirs is the only that nature and arcane work in tandem - and they were the only ones that utilised fel as demon hunters - which is very different to your warlock fantasy.

It doesn’t do to have a unique identity and lore yet only focus on a very common aspect, i.e. nature only, which is supposedly just a part and not even the main identifier of the race. The main identifier is the stars first, birth from magic second, and then nature 3rd. But you’ve completely obscured the main 2, and focused only on the 3rd, which you’ve given none of the other elves.

Other Elves and Nature

Nature plays an overly large role in night elves during wow - should be the stars, but it’s a part of them. What i don’t understand, is how come all the other elf groups successfully inherit magic acumen from the night elves (who seem to shown with little to none, despite being unchanged and being the originators), and then nature love is not passed on to the other elves emphatically.

I don’t understand this. Elven fantasy has always been magic and nature - then beauty and excellence - it’s like the racial pillar. Yet the other elven races show little nature connection while the night elf race is seldom shown it’s magical connection.

This seems wrong.

  1. Nightborne - 7.0/7.1 - lots of stuff shown - night elf magical city, with lots of gardens, botanists - ends with a great magical tree saving them and becoming symbol, druids and mages involved - yet Nightborne can be monks and not druids - and no sign of nature acumen - it’s like a giant chunk of foundation lore for the race completely ignored in it’s portrayal going forward.
  2. High elves - portrayed as living in a forest land, originally, Farstriders, rangers, keeping the forest excellent magically etc, and yet from TBC when we actually properly see them, and only in Quel’thalas have we got any show of nature, and not much - Botanists in The Botanica, even a druid like shapeshifter, An Ancient - shows elven connection to night elves and nature - but it was only the one instance and short stroyline in Eversong forests about treants and ancient spirits,

Lore wise, the expelled Sunstrider Highborne who became high elves wanted a place where all magic, - nature and arcane could be studied freely the lore said, no hatred for nature was ever conveyed in the events that led to expulsion it was all about using arcane and how risky it was as it would alert the Legion and trigger the much feared second invasion - the high elves were noted to find a new home that looked like the FORESTS of their beloved Kalimdor original home, even named their city SILVERmoon based on the night and moon - even if they loved the sun more, they still love the moon showing connection - yet this is non-existent

Currently most players think high elves/blood elves are anti-nature - despite the visual evidence around them and the original lore - ? why? because YOU haven’t portrayed and showed the connection properly blizzard. You’ve overly focused on magisters, blood knights and demon hunters, with Farstriders hardly having a toe in and the love for nature not being evident in many blood, high or void elves.

Void elves are studying the void’s effect on nature, but you haven’t even thought for them to connect with night elf druids and tackle the nightmare and thus gain void elf druids?

So not only do you fail to show the night elf connection to magic well in =-game, despite the lore having it play a fundamental role, you fail to show the other elven races connection nature despite already introduced it as a core function in their starting/opening zones/areas.

And I don’t understand why? Night elves have a unique feel - night based, star and moon based, arcane magic is star/moon based, priesthood is star/moon focused, druids mix nature with the magic of the stars - this is unique. Defined as children of the stars, looking to the stars - but only the trees show?

Similarly, a lot of Sun and Light based themes for blood/high elves, clearly their land is very nature-esque, radiant, summer tones, greens with golden sunlight, sure magic is a strong theme, arcane usage for mages is fire/frost based, religion is Light/fire based - the theme works better with nature than the dark, the night and the moon, but is also a very different version than it - they feel totally unique for magic, religion and nature - so why can only one be visible per group yet the lore shows/tells about the interconnection and foundation - but only one side of it coming through?

I think you’re doing your earlier work an injustice, dumbing down your product and making it hard to introduce this to new people who initially love the fantasy and want to get into it, but then find too many inconsistencies or the things they liked seldom showing or developing properly.

Conclusion:

Both the night elf strong connection to arcane and celestial magic and the other elven groups connection to nature is far weaker in the portrayal in game than the lore defines - made all the more baffling by the unique expressions of nature and magic both have been given.

I wonder why this is done? And it makes the night elves feel very distant from the other elves - and not really relevant to them - perhaps blizzard should give up on calling them Elves, and stop kidding themselves they have anything to do with the stars or demons or anything not nature - and just rename them. Either that or start portraying them better.

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Xbox Announces Restructure
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Dudes you still bother with this ?
These are different authors, different designers, different artists, different devs.
Its like ordering a cocktail at a dive bar.
Stop bothering, its finished.

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I guess it’s all about cosmteitc items and vanity collectables (prurchaseable in GAME SHOP) or in game black market traders you can purchase gold via token to acquire.

I guess they don’t care about people getting into this stuff seriously as a cult following - maybe it’s for the best.

I always thought the sun and green field themes of Quel’thalas were perfect for nature and druids and wondered why the blood/high elves nature relation hasn’t been shown much - even the Farstriders are seldom shown.

And always thought that for a night race based on the stars and moon, that while nature could be a thing, it would be secondary to arcane magic and a moon goddess - and that’s how it actually was for them in their origin lore - the long vigil was posed as a pause on magic to prevent the legion, not a fundamental change in the genetics and definition of the children of the stars - yet somehow druidism became more relevant than both Elune and the Well of Eternity and their magical affinity.

it’s so lopsided. But that lopsided portrayal seems to have robbed the more unique and interesting depictions for both night elves and high/blood elves. Like they’re only tapping into or largely focusing on one fraction for their composition - with the rest already defined but just ignored.

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I have got news flash for u .nature has always been an integral and big part of night elves .

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Newsflash @Sigmug- I listed nature as one of the things integral to night elves - see above.

What’s changed is that ONLY nature remains integral. They’re children of the stars ,Elune, Magic, the night, the stars these were also the core of their identity alongside a nature, nature was actually secondary to those.

Think - what does nature have to do with the night? or chidlren of the stars? or the Well of Etenrity? Nature was developed in addition to that fundamental core. And grew to play a large role due to circumstances, however was never by definition the only core nor the primary one.

I think it just happened this way because people remembered the trees of wc3, more than the Moon priestesses, Well of Eternity or the night part of the night elves, and in wow, they had humans and draenei for priests and wizards, but no one else for nature lovers, so you only saw night elves as those - despite being able to be other things.

in time, new developers who came from newer fans whose identity of the race was based on the wow portrayal rather than lore continued to interpret this - and never cared enough to actually think this throgh or consult the lore or those who made it - and so instead of improving, it got worse. Besides most of those original makers are long gone, and couldn’t care less whether the new ones stick to the original core or not. Don’t care whether it’s consistent or not. And they are certainly not going to do homework on the earlier lore to correct the misconcepton nor care enough to see how night time and vibrant nature are too much at odds for nature to be the core theme of a race called night elves originally created from magic and a star/moon goddess - rather than a tree and seeds of the earth. Doesn’t even cross their mind.

Originaly Malfruion was second to Tyrande, Well of Eternity and Elune were more core to the night elves than CEanrius and trees. And this makes sense - you know night? children of the stars? Nature thrives from sunlight and daylight green fields - but you are a purple race, with purple skin and silver /blue eyes and hair colour tones - the colour of magic, and yet you’re more into nature than the Moon goddess or the Well of Eternity your race came from.

how does that make sense?

It’s never been that being into nature doesn’t make sense, night elves could be into poop and machinery too, nothing wrong with that, however a race defined originally on certain themes shoudln’t have the secondary theme supplant the major theme - when people do that, you change the race - and create a variant - like haranir who are entirely focused on nature or nightborne who are almost entirely focused on the arcane.

The issue here is the core theme has lost its integerity.

Elune, the stars, the moon, teh Well of Eternity, the Moonwells - how often do you see them play a role amongst night elves? Why do you see more of trees and nature and talk about it’s care, rather than of Elune, the stars, or magic or the Wells?

Weren’t night elves main enemies of the demons>? So just becuase the draenei come from the same race as the former legion lords, you’ve forgoetten that the main opponents and victors over them were the night elves whose great civilziation was destroyed by them?

This was the core of their introduction - yet you define them as caring more about nature than defending hte world, about trees than the stars, Cenarius over Elune, even converting Elune to be more nature based when she was almost entirely celestial and arcane based originally.

Demons hardly get a mention, even when it comes to Demon hunters, we see more blood elf acaton, the stars and moonwells are just secondary add ons and the priests are almost non-existent in priest capacity you’d almos think they weren’t priests but instead druids. And what about all those night elves that started learning magic again? or the Shen’dralar that are even more prolific/knowledgeable about arcane than possibly their nightborne kin (who were not furiously researching the field like they were for the last 10k years according to lore) - what have we seen of all those groups?

Just bits and pieces - cameos, and occassional “don’t forget me mentions” than anything serious.

Why would a race who’s been in hiding for 10 k years, suprressing their talent, now finally free of the demons they wee guarding against, instead choose to chill in under new tree, with world threats still galore, lands completely taken over and their civilization , they are now free to rebuild for hte first time in 10k years, still lying in ruins - yet they think this is the time to chill?

They’re idiots ! and they’re dubbed as “highly intelligent, evolved Beings!”

yet written like fools who don’t even understand who they are , sticking to a name and identity they clearly are not portrayed as living as/by.

None of it makes sense. isn’t it something worth fixing?

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Classic: Pretty heavy night elf focus on Alliance side.
TBC: Fairly limited, Zangarmarsh Cenarion stuff + a few things in Blade’s Edge
WotLK: Not much there, maybe I’m misremembering.
Cata: Kalimdor zones updated, Mount Hyjal added - pretty heavy nelf focus.
Pandaria: Limited again but that’s an expansion all about the new race.
WoD: Fairly limited too, but again that’s an expansion in a very specific, non-nelf place.

And with that laid out, here’s the MASSIVE STREAK of Nelf content:

Legion: Val’sharah, Suramar as a nelf lore zone, Tomb of Sargeras being a temple of elune, conclusion to Illidan Stormrage’s story.
BFA: Warfronts, armour sets, significant story focus on Teldrassil and Darkshore for the early part of the expansion.
Shadowlands: Significant night elf focus in Tyrande, the Maw and Ardenweald.
Dragonflight: Conclusion of the stuff set up in BFA, last raid is very kaldorei themed, hub zone of Amirdrassil is a conclusion for most nelf characters.

TWW was the first expansion since WoD without a significant amount of focus on night elves, and Midnight - while mostly being about the sin’dorei - has also brought kaldorei into the fold as well.

I don’t dislike nelves, but they are one of the most focused-on (and arguably over-exposed) races in all of Warcraft, which is why I always find it absolutely baffling that night elf fans will make threads like this again and again.

I will also concede that yes, not all of what I listed there was good - I think we all agree Shadowlands kinda sucks, but we’re talking about them being integral to the narrative and not whether or not said narrative was good.

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WotLK had DEHTA - far more memorable than the 2 sentinels in dragonflight

Cenarion Expedition - which is a DRUID class thing not a night elf race thing - yet lopsided portrayal has us thinking night elf more than druid.

Maybe if night elf demon hunters and Moon Priestesses and Wardens played a much larger role in TBC we’d have felt differently.

I think they wee showing class , and since druids were only playable by night elves and Tauren, that’s who you saw, - but they failed to involve the night elf priestesses with the Draenei ones, despite the initial connection made in the Draenei starting zone =- cos back in those days, blizzard, seemed to be using only one race for one class - despite the lore giving many races several core classes. On the alliance, humans were the wizards, draenei took over priests from humans and nelves, and night elves were the druids.

They say resources - notice when they actually went to focus on night elves again in Cataclysm remake zone and in Legion we saw much more of Mages, Demon hunters, even Wardens, Sentinels, Highborne and eventually Nightborne too - it was much more diverse, but outside the focus modules, they only show up for druid units, because it would be wrong to use humans for that.

Kinda lazy lore development - i mean they have shown night elf mages and priest and dhs, but notice how BElves are used more for DHs these days,

They have gained more focus since Legion true, but after Legion it’s felt off.
Tyrnade had a storyline true, it was a side quest - SL was all about Sylvanas, Anduin, Jailor, - fans were just much more excited over Tyrande’s tiny role and Elune cameo than tehyw ere about the vast majority of stuff. But odd how only Tyrande is in Val’sharah - and not the actual druid Malfurion - same with the Emerald dream, where we see no Elune arcane powers that seem to have been forgotten by her after her shadowlands cinematic.

As i mentioned where is the star mention? and the magic? the civilization and the culture? Why only the trees?

Let’s face it, we’ve made much more fuss over them. BFA kicked off with a genocide, so though it was more about humans/zandalari, Sylvanas and N’zoth, we remember the ngihte lves that only had the one battlefront

Fine we went to Naz’jatar, but the actual night elves played such a tiny role in their own historical sight, itw as laughable to see more elves on the horde side than on the alliance side where the core race resides.

But it’s much more than we use to get, but lets not emphaisze it more than it is, Naz’jatar was the other half to Mechagon about the zones and SL had a cameo, the next is patch 10.2 - which you could say was night elf repayment for having 7.3 swapped out from Thal’dranath to Argus that focused on the draenei instead.

All in all it’s 1 full expac - 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 10.2 (replacing 7.3)
1 battle front - 8.1 (which is an event like an arena)
Half of 8.2 (naz’jatar - which face had less elves than humans)
1 minor side story for 9.0
Cata remake - 1/8th of since every race had something. Hyjal , granted - Vashj’ir while a night elven related zone had no night elves involve - unless you consider the naga as night elven presence.

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But night elves are kinda the druid class. They have the most lore of any race that can be a druid, and, y’know.

As in, Cenarius. Malfurion’s mentor. I think it’s pretty disengenous to say that focus on Cenarion druids isn’t representative of night elven culture when it’s literally a massive part of their history.

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Frankly, i’m quite happy with the Night elves’ irrelevance, because i like Night elves, and “Story relevance” brought them nothing but misery.

Their relevance consisted of being curb-stomped by the Horde twice over, and Tyrande’s meandering storyline, the “Night warrior”-thing that went out like a wet firecracker, better to be irrelevant than to be the Worf of the story, the supposedly strong ones that get slapped around pathetically easily, just to make the baddies seem impressive.

If we get the world revamp that’s constantly being talked about, i hope the Night elves get a place in the world again (Hiding behind the dragons in Bel’ameth is such a pathetic ending), but other than that, leave them alone, let another race get kicked in the knackers for dramatic effect…

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Blizzard have no respect for original races.

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Actually I can’t really argue with this. Since the greater focus has happened, they’ve seemed more lame and less impressive.

Had a lot of noise but accomplishing nothing. Lost a city and civilization, half a continent - gained a small tree in a portion of a zone.
Lost immortality, magical capability, and power - gained nothing.
Written like idiots - though tagged as intelligent - can’t even tell about their origins properly.

The point is they aren’t really. The night elves are a race not a class. The druid class is dominated by them in game, but they are a much the creators of the druid class by lore as they are the mage and demon hunter class which they also created and are presented as the greatest in both classes yet what modern day night elves have played much a of role recently in either mage or DH class ? [we’re not counting Azshara and Illidan - they hardly show up either]

The point is not that druidism is relevant, it’s that the stars, Elune, magic and the night seem to be distant seconds when the main theme was stated as the Stars, Elune, the Night and magic - that’s all the dark elf side - this was counterbalanced by the nature side. Except we’ve been running largely on just the nature side and not seen the others.

So it’s not that night elves aren’t related to nature, it’s that their original and core themes seem to have no relevance in their portrayal in came and vast odds with everything about both their origin, lore and appearance.

The stars, the night, Elune , magic and the Well should be up there alongside nature, but we only see nature the vast majority of the times.

When did you last see a night elf priestess cast a magical spell? Starfall? Starhsards? Moonlance? And a Night elf mage use star magic ? or any other magic? When last did you see a night elf demon hunter do anything?

Totally agreed.

Who would accept losing an entire city, 5 + zones, for a measly patch of half a zone in the middle of nowhere?

not to mention immortality gone while Dragon aspects got their powers back. Legion is gone but the Well of Eternity isn’t used - they now understand addiction and have control they even understand why the legion came, and the role the well played, yet refuse to use power they actually need?

You think greater and mighty enemies are going to stay away just because you refuse to use the power in front of you? How stupid can they be? They’re supposed to be intelligent, but they are written like morons - d’uh what you do is you safeguard your resource and and guard it diligently, any powerful tool is an asset and can be a liability if your enemies cgain control - life is an asset too, but its a liability if you lose it or your enemies control you and your power within - so do you stop living and using your power because it can be misused? No

And they know their is nothing intrinsic in their magic that makes it more susceptible to misuse- not when they are wielding nature that can get easily corrupted by nightmare or fel magic that was successfully used to destroy the demons -

their reticence makes them look utterly foolish and undeserving of the very description attributed to them and in contrast to their fundamental nature - and for what? to say something different? They should be the ones taking the lead as the ones with the most experience and the longest lived - if anyone is advocating the correct approach and handling magic properly and Well’s properly it should be the night elves, not the Nightborne or the blood elves - yet their acumen is completely diminished.

night elves were originally about the Well of Eternity and the Moonwells, (Elune, then nature too), and all that drama and they still don’t know what do ? All those lessons, all the pain, getting free of addiction, mastering, excelling, thousands of years of knowledge? wisdom from hubris ,etc, and you mean to tell me all they can do is continue to use nature which has proven to be insufficient and just as easily manipulated?

Can they not see? any power an be co-opted, and even the most corruptible powers (like fel) can be used with a will and mind strong enough and actually be utilised for good - that’s what the DHs show them, DHs are elves too, yet they can’t? How dumb can they be?

These are supposed to be the original unbroken , most grounded and most experienced of the lot.. they have mages, priests , druids , hunters, DHs in their ranks who didn’t just stay in a city closing themselves off to the world (nightborne) or spend 10 k years furiously studying magic and gaining knowledge even through the influence of a demon (Shen’dralar) or lost longevity, 90% of the knowledge of the original, through devolution and starting anew as high elves under the sun and thus having a several generations on and less)

Their portrayal in-game is not congruous with the narrative and lore for them.

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Let’s sort a few things out, because I think you’re mixing together several different concepts.

Yes, the night elves were once heavily involved with arcane magic. However, after the Great Sundering, the use of arcane magic was prohibited by their new leadership. Moon magic, on the other hand, is not the same thing as arcane magic. It is primarily tied to Elune rather than the Arcane itself. In modern cosmology, Elune’s power seems to be much more closely associated with Life and Holy than with Arcane.

Because of the trauma of the Great Sundering, night elf society collectively abandoned arcane magic and embraced druidism and their connection to nature instead. After the Burning of Teldrassil they experienced another enormous collective trauma, which only reinforced that tendency. In a way, druidism became the foundation that gave kaldorei society stability for ten thousand years.

From a gameplay perspective, though, I do agree Blizzard could do a much better job. Night elf priests should probably have more moon-themed visuals instead of generic Light effects, and night elf mages could certainly use visuals that better reflect their kaldorei identity.

Star and moon magic are not the same thing as arcane magic. Generally it’s confusing, and it’s confusing me a lot too.

Night elf society has changed considerably since Dragonflight. They no longer have the same strong theocratic structure they once did (Shandris Feathermoon is a new leader). Their people were scattered after the Burning of Teldrassil, and many are focused on survival and rebuilding their civilization in Bel’ameth.

Some even joined the Druids of the Flame in search of answers, including former Priestesses of the Moon. After everything that happened, it’s understandable that some kaldorei would question Elune or struggle with their faith.

As a society, they haven’t actively practiced arcane magic since Vanilla. The Shen’dralar are an exception rather than the rule.

There are still Illidari NPCs around, but demon hunters have always been outcasts within night elf society. I wouldn’t expect to see many of them walking around Bel’ameth.

I don’t think they were ever portrayed primarily as “defenders of the world.” During the War of the Ancients they fought for their survival. Afterward, they became guardians of nature. Since nature exists throughout Azeroth, protecting nature often meant protecting the world as well.

Suramar was isolated for ten thousand years and became completely dependent on arcane magic. It would actually be surprising if their culture hadn’t changed dramatically over such a long period. Human kingdoms changed over only a few centuries. Orcish society changed drastically as well. Blood elves, despite descending from the kaldorei, also developed a very different culture, symbolism, and identity.

It’s important to remember that the game is not the same thing as the lore. Blizzard can’t include every detail from the novels because of gameplay limitations, development time, and narrative focus. That doesn’t mean those events or ideas don’t exist in canon.

Personally, I enjoy the books because they expand the universe, even if not every detail makes its way into the game.

Ironically, the situation was almost the opposite before the Great Sundering.

Ancient kaldorei civilization revolved around arcane magic. Druidism was a relatively rare path taught mainly by Cenarius. Many tried it, but most lacked the patience for it because mastering the Arcane was both easier and far more prestigious. Malfurion was exceptional precisely because he fully embraced the druidic path.

After the Sundering, however, Malfurion and Tyrande prohibited arcane magic. The Highborne—whose entire social status depended on it—refused to accept those restrictions and eventually became the ancestors of the high elves and later the blood elves.

In that sense, you could argue that blood elves preserved more of pre-Sundering kaldorei magical culture, while the night elves fundamentally reinvented themselves after their collective trauma.

I actually agree with you here. Blizzard hasn’t developed the Farstriders nearly as much as they could have. That said, Midnight has already started showing more of their connection to nature, so hopefully we’ll see that aspect explored further.

Of course, keep in mind that some of my points are my own interpretation of the lore. I also like to apply a bit of deduction, interpretation and a sociological perspective when looking at Warcraft’s world and its societies, so I don’t expect everyone to agree with my conclusions.

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Night Elves made themselves more disconnected from the other Elves. It’s in the lore. Whilst Night Elves took to Druidism and Nature, the rest of the Elves carry on in the lifestyle of their Highborne ancestors.

It’s not the fault of the Blood Elves, Nightborne, Naga or any of the others that Night Elves are different and with Metzen back at the helm - I don’t think we will see a great shift in night elf lifestyle. It will still always be about Druids, Nature, World Trees and Elune-based-Holy magic and revolving her around Nature and Healing.

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I miss Darnassus…Make something like it for Night Elves again.

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Implying they were ever connected or relevant
Face it ,they are miles away from what they were in WC3
What you had since day one a declawed and neutered shadow what they were

The evolution of the Kaldorei in a nutshell in WoW

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A furry used AI in a weekend post.

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Nature is part of the elf typeset, a core part, magic and nature. And night elves symbolised these deeply as the original elves, whereas high elves were elves that were a bit closer to humans so blizzard actually made the magical and nature bits more intense in the original night elf group.

Let’s remember, night elves living in nature for the past 10k years was due to circumstance and not desire/choice. They were forced into it because of the legion and needing to stop using arcane magic - the lore put that there, but the lore did not remove the arcane it w as plot devise toto also enhance the nature part of the night elves while introducing them with an arcane core being born from the well of eternity and actually being focused on the stars instead.

Problem is when you only talk about nature. Sure nature minded night elves would love that environment most, but their history and make up show us nature alone was never enough for them, this is why they left Cenarius in the first place - it’s not that they stopped loving nature, it’s just that the exclusive nature life style was not enough..

why would it be? They’re born /made form the arcane, have insane magical aptitude, and constantly look to the stars, this is how they became night elves from Haranir, you can love nature but it doesn’t mean it is enough for you.

Nature ONLY is enough for druids like Malfurion, but Malfurion types are not the only type of night elves, you have Azshara types, Tyrande types, Illidan types, Maiev types, Jarod types, Elisande/Farondis types etc. Currently it’s Malfurion types that over dominate

Problem is not night elves loving nature or living mostly in it, it is being entirely based around it and only having it visible - the narrative has made it clear what their origin is and what their base, it gave a reason for the main group to live without magic (i.e. technology) then removed that reason in the very first instalment ie. wc3), so why are a star looking race with an insane arcane aptitude and also quite talented at using fel only having a focus on nature magic - why aren’t we seen prolific Elune magic/ arcane magic and DH usage visible much more in the race?

Why are they only living in the sticks and woods, when the reason for the all nature existence ended, just like the empire ended? These elves should be rebuilding at last, why are they chilling in dragon island half of one zone when they’ve lost all their lands, lost their cities and civilization and are surrounded by world threats still -

I find it really weird night elves don’t have a capital city - it’s so regressive.

You lose Darnassus, your original home Suramar returns, but you are without a city, like you are all druids who can only live in a forest or prefer to live in a barrow den next to nature like a religious calling or directive.

It undermines the entire race making them virtually a class, and removing all the Elune lore and diversity, all the arcane lore and affinity that is tied to their entire origin and story.

The story is that they haven’t rebuilt anything since the first invasion because they’re on the downlo - either can’t use magic to rebuild because it would draw the legion o hidden away in the two remaining cities everyone else thought lost disguising their magic under shield or via pylons to mask usage.

Well Wc3 happens, legion returns, no more need for vigil, no more need for isolation, I get it , the druids would love and continue to live in trees and caves.. but the druids were only a portion of the night elves, there is the entire nations, the artisans, the craftsmen, those who were extremely talented at the arcane who had to put take up other things, the priests who had temples many left derelict and abandoned to focus on the more important task of a Vigil now ended.

I get some night elves would live in Amirdrassil nature heaven, but this is still a nation, a faction, there are still people who would want to rebuild their civilization, not just Highborne types, but let’s not forget all of them, whether Shen’dralar or Darnassians who returned to that station - night elves who are society and civilization minded.. the list goes on.

What about those who interact with the world, what about trade and resources, they need to protect themselves, they have enemies, they have magic, but they need to harness , train a generation anew, - the list goes on - off course they’d need a city, this is why Darnassus existed.

Bottom line nature night elves are not the only type, not if you are making this a rich diverse race with many branches, paths and portions, not when you have their original roots in seeking the stars, and fascinated/drawn to magic with an affinity to it the arcane.

you can’t have them all being druids when you wrote a legacy for them as Mages and as Priests of Moon celestial goddess, and also introduced fel wielding demon hunters.

It’s entirely regressive.

Not to mention from a lore perspective, why are you settling down in idyllic nature heaven, when your race is almost wiped out, you r civilization still needs rebuilding, most of your lands are conquered by your enemies and massive world threats still threaten to annihilate your world, and you have a Goddess you can call on, you have a powerful Well of Eternity -t he most powerful arcane source around the world, and you have Amirdrassil a sentient tree tied to Azeroth herself - and you are not utilising any of this to safeguard both your people and your world?

you’re the oldest and most accomplished experts in magic and nature, if anyone can utilise a magical well responsibly, after learning the serious pitfall, it’s you and you need the power, but yo would ignore it because you can’t understand that great power demands responsibility it’s up to you to protect your resource and use it, you have a goddess that can help and did in the past, but you can’t utilise your assets and instead will kumbaya in a settlement, becoming village people?

This is totally pathetic and regressive..who wants that as a fan?

Seriously blizzard

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Ugh, another AI rant.

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It’s not what I mean, lore wise all night elves, Nightborne included isolated themselves. The disconnect I am talking about is only in the game, how little they are shown in game to share the other elven magical attributes despite being the origin of that magical affinity and the only group without a deviation. Also how the other elves despite it being part of their repertoire are not shown their elven love of nature outside their starting/intro areas.

This is a problem of racial development and is symptomatic across the board. Outside focusing on the race, blizzard tend to reduce races to one -class ponies - when we meet them or at least don’t give fair representation.

where did you see serious action from a Farstrider blood elf regarding nature and forests to depict the blood elven love of nature?
when last did you see a nightborne hunter or Nightborne botanists and druids tending to the Arcan’dor?
When last did you see night elven mages, Highborne or otherwise?

How often have you seen blood elves in Forests or night elves in cities? It’s not like they don’t have particular orders and factions that are into such things.

Likely the opposite, it is Metzen who understands the night elves properly and wrote their lore - dark elves first with a forest elf side, calling them night and children of the stars, I personally think i it’s newer developers who got use to seeing the largely undeveloped night elves who had much more of their nature side visible first in game before the other bits were later built - that tend to forget night elves are other things.

It’s just like the players. . new developers are often players, 0 the players played through wow seeing night elves usually in druid capacity, rather than Priestess of the moon capacity or arcane wilders and are more pre-disposed to write them.

Look at people like Bellular - Belluular for all his knowledge thinks night elves are tree elves and never once considers how that is at odds wit h the very name and the design of the race - rather than fault the anomaly of the over nature representation, whenever they deviate from it he complains - I listen to him and think you’ve totally missed the point - you saw nature assets in wc3 because the story put them at that position for that game, if the game was based on the war of the Ancients instead you’d have seen cities and arcane mages galore - the difference is the war of the ancients came in book form rather than game form.

But Metzen outlines the core of the night elves - which is the night and the stars, Elune, and the Well of Eternity - the arcane source is their cradle - their story is about magic.. magic done so well it ran out of control that led to a 10k year hiatus - we have almost no story of the 10k years hiatus, it’s a massive period that just has mention.. all the actual narrative events happen either before it in the pre-sundering era or after it with WC3 being the even that ends the hiatus.

So to then assume night elves will be all about nature because of the nature side of the race portrayed in wc3, while ignoring the rest of the lore entirely, the origin story, Elune, the Highborne, the DHs etc misses the point - but players can easily do that.

Another misunderstanding is what we miss about wc3, it’s not “nature side” of night elves we miss. . night elves were portrayed as sentinels and priestesses in wc3, druids were a minor section as were DHs, it’s just the environment setting was nature based - what we miss about WC3 was that night elves were badass, they were badass during the campaign, and the lore about them was badass if you bothered it read about ancient elves with great arcane knowledge having to suppress it to prevent the Legion.

We didn’t view them as foes t elves, we viewed them as dystopian advanced elves. Advanced elves living in a dystopian future that had to suppress magic and now could unleash with their nemesis return - so whether druid, or hunter, moon Priestess or soon to return mage.

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Personally I feel like WoW has a big problem of “taking what exists in established races, retconning or watering it down to then give it to a new added race as a 'new defining culture”

  • Haranir and their bond with nature is just re-skinned from Kaldorei.
  • Lightforged Draenei are just Draenei even more fanatical in the Light
  • Mechagnomes are Gnomes more fanatical in their pursuit for tech and invention
  • Earthen are just regular Dwarves but with more focus on “beer and freedom”
  • Dracthyr are just Dragons Experiments based on the already established Dragonflights
  • Void Elves are just Blood/High Elves that infused themselves with Void
  • Vulpera are just nomadic Orcs, but in “cute, mostly harmless and stealing like Goblins”

Like, at this point I see a lot of “theme recycling” when I compare them to the “base races up to Warlords of Draenor”.

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