So, first, let me preface this fact with something I just realized, in order to illustrate how ridiculous WoW lore can get and why you shouldn’t think too much about this.
Argus fell to the Legion 25 000 years ago. There are draenei in Azuremyst who remember Argus before it fell to the Legion and they aren’t even portrayed as ancient, middle-aged at most. One of them even asks your character if you remember Mac’Aree, making it apparent that it isn’t that unusual to have lived on Argus before Sargeras came. So, not only are Draenei capable of living atleast 25 000 years, it isn’t even considered something remarkable among them. Most likely they can live much longer, since 25 000 years ago, Velen looked middle-aged at most.
25 000 years is longer than even the troll and night elven empires existed. That is a lot of time. Such draenei could spend that time to master not only one thing, but basically almost anything. Assuming their memories don’t degenerate (and given the fact that they can still clearly remember Mac’Aree, that doesn’t seem to be a thing), they could become a Master Warrior, Mage, Hunter, Opera Singer, Driver, Doctor, Engineer etc. The draenei were also portrayed as a very advanced people, valuing wisdom, intellect and education, so this doesn’t seem like something they would avoid. So by that logic, Draenei should be the best mages, priests, warriors etc. and a single Draenei should be almost unbeatable in a duel. This draenei could be an expert in everything people on Azeroth know.
These people were defeated by a bunch of orcs shouting Lok’tar Ogar, who barely discovered metalworking. Said orcs had shorter lives than even humans and before uniting under a warchief were in perpetual war with each other, to such an extent that borders between the different clans became scorched wastelands. And that was before they even started sipping demon blood.
Now, time flows differently in the Twisting nether. Turalyon and Alleria were missing for 22 years, which they spent fighting alongside the Lightforged Draenei aboard Xenedar. But this was the length of time that passed on Azeroth. According to their short story, during these 22 years, 1 000 years passed for them. Turalyon was only still alive because he was granted immortality, Alleria because elves live for thousands of years. If we take this as an average, then that means that for 1 year on Azeroth, roughly 45 and a half years pass in the Twisting Nether (1000/22=45,45 repeating).
The Lightforged were recruited from the Draenei who were aboard the Xenedar, the second ship that split from the main one after the draenei evacuated Argies. So, around 25 000 years ago, since that time they were fighting demons. Except as we know from that short story, time went differently for them, so they actually spent much longer fighting demons. One year on Azeroth was roughly 45 and a half years for them. So, 25 000 * 45,46 = 1 136 500 years.
The original lightforged draenei spent over one million years fighting the Burning Legion. They were aboard a military ship, contending with horrors beyond imagination. Perfecting their techniques, tactics and strategies. Visiting worlds other races never even heard of. Their life was constant war, battling legion across all the worlds they invaded and rescuing the survivors.
One of those lightforged is Archmage Y’mera. She is old enough to have studied at Archimonde’s Conservatory of the Arcane on Argus before Legion invaded. She spent over a million azerothian years as a lightforged draenei, part of the Army of the Light. She mastered arcane magic before people like Magistrix Elisandre and Queen Azshara were even born.
Lets say that Azshara is 12 000 years old. She was said to be the most powerful mortal mage on Azeroth, I think. Yet she is a noob compared to Y’mera. Maybe there is a Level Cap in place and Azshara had time to XP grind all the way to 60. But Y’mera has been playing since The Lost Vikings pre-alpha, while Azshara is a BfA newbie. Queen Azshara is obviously a keyboard-turner, clicks on rend, stands in fire and wipes in LFR, while Archmage Y’mera is a Rank 14 Grand Marshal Arena Champion World First Mythic Raider, since before those things even existed.
Archmage Y’mera spent over a million years getting better at magic, to archieve her goal of one day retaking her homeworld. She visited countless worlds Azshara didn’t even dream of, learned their secrets, as her dialogue suggests she is willing to get any advantage she can get against the Burning Legion. She spent all that time fighting and defeating some of the strongest beings in existence. Archmage Y’mera might have been doing this longer than Azeroth even existed. Archmage Y’mera stared into the abyss and the abyss dropped some vendor trash.
Now, maybe it’s lower and in reality she only spent like 500 000 years “studying the blade”. The other lightforged are in a similar category. You can even play as one of them. They spent this ridiculous amount of time in constant war, scouring the universe and fighting in a war against the legion.
Now lets ignore this for a moment. Lets talk about how overpowered Jaina and Thrall are and how Varian is a noob compared to Tyrande, who is atleast 10 000 years old. I feel there should be something made clear.
Jaina is 40 years old, in the prime of her life. She had been studying magic in Dalaran since she was about 8 years old and it was under the tutelage of Antonidas, the greatest human archmage at the time, who selected her because she showed amazing talent for magic. She is a prodigy who has been doing this for a very long time in human terms.
As for Varian… he was the son of a king, taught to rule from a young age. This education surely included the art of war, most likely by mentor, Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, the greatest human general and later King Terenas. What little we have of his post-WC2, pre-WoW personality, he was kinda like Anduin is now, presented as sensible and wise beyond his years. He was all about supporting Terenas. He kept membership of the alliance after everyone else left and agreed to pay the taxes needed to fund the orc interment camps, despite the fact that Stormwind was being rebuilt and could use the money. He argued that sparing the orcs is the most humane option and kept his cool and reason under pressure from nobles and fellow monarchs. He had to lead a rebuilding nation while it was still threatened by remnants of the Horde still residing in Blackrock Spire. He spent a long time among orcs and knows them very well, since he is the anti-Thrall.
Thrall is younger than Varian and Jaina. Since young age, he has been trained and took part in gladiatorial combat. He has been educated in a variety of fields including warfare by his master Blackmoore, who wanted to turn him into his own personal warlord. He was a champion at arena fighting, defeating enemies such as ogres handily despite being very young. After escaping, he learned Shamanism remarkably quickly and by the time he returned to Durnholde to rescue Taretha, he was able to summon an earthquake strong enough to devastate Durnholde. He rose to lead the newly reunited Horde and under his leadership, the orcs were finally able to become a force to be reckoned with. This was largely due to his education under Blackmoore and his deep knowledge of their enemies and how they think.
Were Warcraft a human-centric fantasy setting, with all the non-human races being equivalent to orcs at most, I doubt anyone would have trouble believing that Jaina, Khadgar and Varian are very competent and probably even at the top of their fields. Maybe people would complain about Jaina and Khadgar being too powerful compared to other mages, that Varian is too much like a shounen anime protagonist and that Thrall is hogging the spotlight too much.
The important question is: how are you supposed to keep these characters relevant in a world where Archmage Y’mera exists? Or even humans and orcs for that matter. Draenei are better paladins and were doing it long before humans even thought of the concept, elves live for thousands of years. This is one of the problems with Blizzards writting. It seems like everything has to be huge at all costs, like in a bad comic book. Hence Draenei, Gnomes, Blood Elves and Night Elves losing 90% of their people during their respective apocalyptic events. This is made to add stakes to the story and make it seem more tragic, significant and interesting, but in the end it mostly serves to cheapen it, just like Turalyon and Alleria fighting the legion for a millenium.
Point is, in human terms, Jaina is a magical prodigy and foremost expert in magic, Varian is a Warrior King, Thrall is a young Warlord and skilled warrior. They are exemplars and heroes of their people. They are meant to stand toe-to-toe with heroes of other races, including Sylvanas, the ranger-general of Quel’thalas, Tyrande, High Priestess of Elune and others. Maybe the average elf is much stronger, skilled and smarter than the average human, but at this narrative level, I think the intention is for these characters to be comparable to each other and fights and conflicts between them be able to cause tension. Not, say, Sylvanas automatically owning Varian, because she had 1000 years to master combat.
And who says that a human hero couldn’t become more powerful than a member of a longer-living race? The underdog story is always a popular one. Nathanos became a Ranger Lord, while many elves didn’t (and lets ignore the implication that Sylvanas gave him the title because he was her boyfriend). And for one Jaina and Nathanos, there might be ten comparable elves in history of Quel’thalas. To me, Jaina possibly being the most powerful mage alive, even stronger than the remaining Blood Elf magisters and highborne who spent their entire lives in one city isn’t necessarily a problem. Jaina being as powerful as she is shown currently is another thing entirely and it is a problem.
If we focus too much on lifespans and how much a person can learn and master during that time, humans and orcs wouldnt have relevant heroes and would serve only as cannon fodder and someone who supplies the menial workers for the crystal mines on Argus or something.
I suggest we don’t dwell too much on what would logically happen and who should be more powerful and experienced than some other character due to how much older they are, but on what makes the best story and the problems with the narrative and problems with the portrayal of the different races (like how Tyrande and Malfurion combined had trouble with Valkyr-enhanced Nathanos and how Jaina had some ridiculously-corny floating ship).
Because otherwise it leads to a future dominated by glowing octopus people and I doubt anyone wants to see that 