Night Warriors and what they are not

Why am I seeing so many night elves with the Night Warrior appearance around who clearly are not roleplaying them even close to correctly?, its bugging me a little.

To become a Night Warrior you have to undergo an extremely dangerous ritual , and become the incarnation of Elunes Wrath.

What does that mean?, well it certainly does not mean you go along with the current peace or truce (Very clearly not agreed upon by Tyrande, as she was notably absent from the events outside Orgrimmar) , nor does it mean you go back to Stormwind and mope around on street corners, mourning the dead but not wanting to do anything practical about it.

What becoming a Night Warrior means is taking on all of Elunes Wrath and becoming one of her avatars to extract vengeance and retribution against those who are perceived as a threat or outright enemies of her followers.

Now I have no issue with people wanting to play Night Elves who are wanting to go along with the new peace, that’s perfectly fine, Elune is after all generally seen as a peace loving goddess and very forgiving and I therefore get that many of her followers would act in that manner even after the terrible events that happened when the tree was burned. But if you want to play an elf with those views then please don’t then go and pick the Night Warrior look, Night warriors are NOT looking for peace, and are not looking to forgive or forget but are all about vengeance, there is no such thing as a Night Warrior that forgives and forgets and wants to make peace. It’s a bit like deciding to play a barbarian who loves to recite poetry and pick flowers and is a pacifist who would never want to hurt anything, it just does not work.

Rant over…please continue with your business.

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Uhhh I would say that’s someone method acting Tyrande to a tee.

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How do you figure?

I always thought there was only one night warrior ( Tyrande) and that the others just received a small portion of the night warrior’s power, a buff, not that all night elves became a night warrior, that is just my take on the lore anyway, but I do agree with the rest, a night elf that received a buff based on wrath and vengeance shouldn’t be preaching peace.

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Yeah. There’s been multiple Night Warriors throughout history, but only one at a time. The Army of the Black Moon receives the appearance (and presumably some kind of buff) due to fighting under the Black Moon in Darkshore.

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Because she yeeted out of Darkshore to mope about and tend to Malfurion’s wounds instead of trying to save her people.

Powerups are cheap. She wasn’t particularly interesting beforehand constantly fawning over Malfurion. Giving her bloodlust didn’t seem to change that.

They did a reverski on her and Maiev, they swapped paths and it was also cheap and devoid of logic. Why have 2 of the same character?

Maiev leads the Night Elf army now. Meanwhile Tyrande something something muh vengeance something something Malfy my love something somethi…

Have you ever watched an episode of DBZ and seen someone powering up for the entire thing, only for them to basically be filler in the episode following it?

Conversely, I’ve found the Night Elf/Tyrande story in BfA to be the absolute highlight of the expansion :new_moon: :crossed_swords:

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This bothered me the most about the entire thing.

Apparently Shandris, the general of the night elf armed forces for the past couple thousand years, was just shoved aside?

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But anyway. We all digress too much. This is a night elf thread so let’s just stop bumping it now :skull:

Only Tyrande is the Night Warrior.
All the Darkshore warfront NPC’s have the Black eyes whether they’re on the Warfront or training in Boralus.

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Only Tyrande underwent that dangerous ritual (and those that stood nearby took risks by witnessing it), those that receive the blessing don’t really undergo any dangerous ritual.

At the warfront all the NPCs that are Night Elves actually have the darkened eyes. So theres definitely a sense that in proximity, fighting on behalf of the dark element of Elune, under the darkened moon, thats what happens. (…) “But I think in the story sense, that any night elf that is fighting on behalf of Elune in that confrontation, their eyes would be darkening. - 00:52:58 Story and Lore Developer Livestream

This is partly true, but we see many Night Warrior NPCs comment on the truce. They are still vengeful but show patience and weariness.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : My brothers and sisters still seek vengeance for Teldrassil. But I… I am so tired of war.

Night Elf Sentinel (2) : To be honest, so am I. Rage still burns within my heart, but I long to live my life without it.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : I hope that one day, we can.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : We nearly had her. If I were just a few hundred yards closer, I could have taken a shot at the Banshee.

Night Elf Sentinel (2) : Have patience, her time will come. We will have justice for Teldrassil in the end.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : But when? How long must we wait?

Night Elf Sentinel (2) : For as long as it takes.

They also still very much stand with Tyrande. I’ve encountered a large amount of RP characters that are really sceptical about the Night Warrior blessing (as in it being evil), which I admit kind of irks me in combination with very pro peace and forgiveness orientated priestesses. The very members of Tyrande’s Sisterhood of Elune that one should assume should represent similar stances as the High Priestess and not more or less collaborate with Horde members.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : I fear for Tyrande. The Night Warrior is fierce, but… can a mortal control such power indefinitely?

Night Elf Sentinel (2) : She is the High Priestess of Elune. If anyone can wield the goddess’s strength, it is her.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : Perhaps you are right…

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : All this talk of the war winding down… Sylvanas is still out there. Have they all forgotten what she did?

Night Elf Sentinel (2) : Not Tyrande. She is still out there, too. Hunting Sylvanas and Nathanos like the dogs they are.

Night Elf Sentinel (1) : Mayu the might of the Night Warrior lay waste to those walking corpses.

Yeah, stupid of her to save the most powerful druid who could have (without Saurfang’s intervention) killed Sylvanas alone. At the same time also a major hero and leader of her people, not just her husband.

At the end of the scenario, she gives Maiev command as she has to “sate the bloodthirst” of the Night Warrior, thus giving Maiev control. He she has to control the power of a goddess, so I think that takes some focus. Besides, Maiev is a seasoned veteran and has been in command of forces even before Shandris was born. There’s really nothing wrong with putting her in that position while she’s busy sorting out her ritual stuff.

Shandris has taken up a major role in the War Campaign and supporting the 7th Legion on Kul Tiras and Zandalar. Surprisingly, she can’t be in so many places at once.

That’s right, they receive a battle enhancement.

“Elune has the power to do this. We’ve established that she does. And here it is again. She calls upon it. The unnatural dark falls upon Darkshore. And it gives the Night Elves a battle, you know, enhancement. Right?” - 00:55:22 Story and Lore Developer Livestream

Anyway OP, I think many just didn’t really think about what receiving the blessing means or chose it because it looks cool. You’re right in many regards, but not all of them have to be impulsive, vengeful copies. There’s definitely other feelings that play into it, but vengeance, even overwritten by a sense of weariness, is still the dominant theme, yeah.

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Which is weird because we know there are some elves (Jarod, Malfurion, Shandris) who were fighting there and don’t get black eyes…

I guess Blizzard wanted them to remain distinct from the other night elves at the warfront, or something.

Don’t think you’re understanding how cheap it was because they just hearthstoned out of there no problem. Man, why didn’t Varian do that either? I’m sure he had a hearthstone for his home city too.

It was cheap. It was poorly done. Tyrande has always been about her people. Instead it came across she cared more for Malfurion than the lands she has protected for thousands of years.

He’s the most powerful druid, can he not heal himself? After Sylvanas leaves, it is clear as day that Saurfang was not going to kill him and would have intervened if we went to strike Malfurion down too. Tyrande did not have to pretty much abandon her people.

Imagine you’re on the lines and suddenly both your leaders are gone from the field. How demoralising is that? No wonder the risen Night Elves cry out her name in hate.

She abandoned them. Yet she seeks vengeance.

OK.

I haven’t played the Alliance side of Darkshore, but does Tyrande’s writing show any hint of remorse for leaving the War of Thorns? Or even Malfurion? I feel Malfurion would.

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Just read Elegy, since you can’t play the darkshore invasion anymore.

I mean the 8.1 stuff.

I advise you to read the novella “Elegy” and “A Good War”. It explains why she has that hearthstone as well as Tyrande stopping Saurfang from killing Malfurion by intervention from Elune. I am convinced Saurfang would have tried to finish off Malfurion in the end.

So I don’t really think it was cheap or poorly done.

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This is what I hate about Blizzard. The fact that for in-game it looks bad. But they’re like “oh you should read the outside stuff!” No, just show me the stuff in-game too?

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I definitely agree with you there. It is lame and frankly bad story telling if you have two drastically different storylines about the same event without even a hint of it ingame.

But yeah, the ingame version was very cheap.

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