What’s the point in a fictional character’s inaccurate take on a setting that has its lore rewritten on the go? At least Chronicles flaunted itself as being the de facto lore deposit (before they undid that promise, of course)
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The conversation about wisps reminds me of this cinematic in which they gathered at the call of the Horn of Cenarius, and that during the War of Thorns it was Malfurion who summoned the wisp wall
I guess the comparison now would be like those wisps were all the dead night elves from the third war and Malfurion shot them straight into the sun and then patted himself on the back for a job well done.
Even so, amongst the infinite other planets in the universe of which I have to imagine at least some also worship Elune, why did she only send a few thousand night elf souls from Azeroth to the Shadowlands? If they used to get trillions of souls on the daily I feel like it would be a fart in the wind at best to stem the anima draught.
TL:DR why did they concept Shadowlands’ setting without any plans to elaborate on the consequences
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If we’re going to get characters takes on the setting I’d rather they err on characters other than the divine, those who dwell in the afterlife or anyone who isn’t a one expac gimmick tbqh. . .
Pandaren on high alert right now.
I’m a bit lost here, is it saying Night Elves make that choice to become a wisp? Because I am not reading it as that, and it does not seem to contradict (at least what we generally thought) that Night Elves just become wisps when they die. If you could cite the line specifically that would help.
No no, the point I was trying to make is that all night elves turning into wisps upon death might be a belief among the night elves rather than a canon fact, since the Warcraft 3 manual suggests so, and because the Wowpedia page about wisps being night elf spirits only sources an NPC dialogue about it.
Given it was a druid (Malfurion) who summoned wisps at the end of the Third War and also during War of Thorns, and that they look very much like Aessina (The Mother Wisp according to Chronicle 1) it could be they’re largely just a unique type of nature spirits of their own.
But then there’s stuff like this and I’m confused.
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Oh I see. I am inclined to believe they do just become wisps, and the WC3 manual seems to be written as a ‘it’s true but unconfirmed in the setting’ situation. Regarding some spirits that stay humanoid, I always thought those were Highborne and those not actively attached to Night Elf society.
Personally, I’d prefer the idea of night elves turning into wisps than shooting off to the Shadowlands. If that’s the case though, Malfurion and Elune seem pretty aligned about using night elf spirits as emergency fuel for the greater good.
And yeah, with the plentiful of Highborne spectres we see, I always assumed they were either cursed or not enough connected to nature, and thus outside the usual cycle of turning into wisps.
Even the Arbiter knows not to let Highborne into a precariously balanced realm of reality. The moment you look away they’ve made The Animawell and hastily consolidate their iron grip over the afterlife.
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Can’t dispute this.
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That’s elven superiority baby. Improvise, adapt, overcome. Usually with magical wells.
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This entire expansions needs deletion. I mean it, the retcon and unclear narrative consequences are just too MUCH.
You could ignore WoD, it didn’t try to fundamentally reshape the foundations of the freakin’ cosmos and reality.
Delete Shadowlands, make it so that we were in fact in N’zoth’s fever vision. Get me back to BfA, whatever!
“Why are we still here? Just to suffer? I can feel my brain… My heart… And even my soul. The passion I’ve lost… The fellow RPers we’ve lost… Won’t stop hurting. It’s like they’re all still there. You feel it, too, don’t you?”
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This is how I feel every time there’s a new lore snippet since the ending of Legion.
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While possible for the ones we see, there are wisps all over Eldre’thalas/Dire Maul and that one Highborne alchemist in Azsuna turned into a wisp as well, after lifting the curse on himself. So in my view Highborne can also turn into them, hence me not completely buying that Broker’s theory.
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I agree with you.
As for Dire Maul, it also houses faerie dragons, an ancient equine spirit (I always thought the horse out of place here), lashers, treants, ancients… Despite being a Highborne city, there was/is still a prominent amount of nature themed stuff about, and naturally not everyone was an arcanist/scholar either, such as Illyanna Ravenoak who was turned into an undead by the Prince.
Illyanna Ravenoak, along with her faithful companion Ferra, was once Prince Tortheldrin’s most valued hunter, until she refused to carry out her leader’s order to execute her friends. As punishment, he killed Illyanna and her bear, but he used his demonic power to bind their spirits to their bodies, condemning them to remain in Dire Maul as undead protectors.
(Dungeon Journal)
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See, even before the Grimoire, I never got the impression that they all became wisps. It’s contradicted by other things we see in-game, here are just two I can remember right away:
- Pre-Cataclysm, we helped a non-wisp night elf ghost, Anaya Dawnrunner, pass on to her proper afterlife.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/For_Love_Eternal - Night elves have a ritual of presenting blessed rice cakes to their deceased ancestors, and it’s not flavored as wisps flocking to the cakes, which means they must believe said ancestors dwell in some kind of afterlife beyond Azeroth.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Remembering_the_Ancestors
(Admittedly, given that it’s Warcraft we’re talking about, I half-suspect even the developers didn’t know for sure until they laid down explicit rules for the afterlife in Shadowlands.)
Yeah I think the last few expansions have altered the idea of teh Highborne society pre-WotA a bit. But it used to be much more Arcane magic and nature magic, whereas recently we’ve exclusively seen the Arcane part of it.
The palace of Zin’Azshari in that Cata dungeon is a very good example of how the Highborne lived (at least in older lore), just like Dire Maul is. But things like Suramar, Azsuna and Nazjatar seem to have shifted away from that to a full on Arcane society.
I liked the older ideas better, tbh.
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Also Night Elves belief Elune would take their spirits to the stars, no?
And incase of the Druids they can go to the Emerald Dream as spirits when they die(or if their mortal bodies die when they spiriting around in the Dream.
So really, before Ardenweald, Night Elves already had and believed in multiple ways of going on after death; either by becoming a Wisp, being taken by Elune or staying in the Dream 
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WoD wasn’t even THAT bad. It was time travel and alt-timeline stuff. And that’s fine, we’ve seen that kinda thing in WoW before with the Caverns of Time.
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