I have always been facinated by the Thalassian ships in Quel’Thalas and i am wondering if there is any lore i should know about them. I tried to research but unfortunatly not much is known. I do know that they are called “Destroyers”.
In warcraft 2 these ships were very much different to the ones we see today. they resembled Human ships but had a blue sail with a white Unicorn drawing on it. I took a picture of a ruined High elven ship in thousand needles. Furthermore, the High elves provided much of the Alliance navy along with Kul Tiras.
https://i.imgur.com/i8pURPo.png
Nowadys the Elves use a more unique looking ship which has a plain sail and red elements to it. According to Wowpedia: Blood elf, these ships resemble a Arab Dhow which is why i took an interest in them.
My character Anizah comes from a Sin’dorei family of ship builders. The survivors of the family still continue to Build ships for Quel’Thalas.
is there anything i should know or change within the information i provided? i Want to be as accurate as possible. thanks.
There are actually working High Elven ships in Northrend that use the same Dhow design as the ones in Eversong, so I would consider these Dhow/Galley designs to simply be how Thalassian Elves design their ships. (WC2 is full of old designs that were retconned in WC3 and/or WoW.)
Onto your actual question: I think you’ve got everything down you need to know; I would only add that Sunsail Anchorage seems like the most likely place for a shipbuilding and seafaring industry to exist. I always love seeing more people incorporate the sea into their Elf’s backstory so I think this is a really neat concept!
Anizah’s family currently live in Silvermoon near the Bazaar, previously they lived in Goldenmist village before the war. the reason i avoided Sunsail is because i worried no family lived there and was mainly a harbor.
i might have to change this information, as you gave me an idea. thanks!
The world is supposed to be significantly larger than portrayed in-game, so I see no reason why Sunsail Anchorage wouldn’t be the size of a town.
Harbours need workers to load and unload the ships, who in turn need a healthy carpentry and shipbuilding industry to create new ships and repair existing ones. And all of these people need others to create goods just to live, like food, clothing and furniture. It would make sense you settle near your work so before you know it, you have a whole sprawling town!
I’d also add the flair – though this is pure headcanon, but a reasonably one I think – that there’s a healthy industry in Divination orientated mages being hired to magically predict the challenges some of these voyages may encounter. Some may offer out protective enchantments to sailors as well!
im really excited for this! I descend from a family of Ship builders and fisherman myself. though sadly, we cant build ships anymore as the last of the ship builders was my grandfather.
anyway this lore really hits home. Excited to see where Anizah’s story goes.
Repeating what Faelenn said: I think the current design of Elven Destroyers is how they’ve always looked, with the WC2 layout being soft-retconned.
Speaking of WC2 ships, remember those wacky Ironclad Human transports? They looked epic. Also, where did all the oil go? For that brief period it was one the most sought after resources; only now to have vanished outside of Goblin industry.
Defias squallshapers and similar npcs in vashj’ir suggest local variants of kul tiran tidesages exist to assist sailing vessels. It’d be odd for the magic obsessed blood elves to lack their own version.
My interpretation is that they would have looked the same in design as the Dhows we see in WoW. The only difference between second war and post second war ships is whether they have the Unicorn sigil or not.
A mostly medieval- to early-modern-times looking society suddenly being advanced enough to start using oil for their ships, and for nothing else, always struck me as extremely odd. I guess it is the quirk of Warcraft’s aesthetic but the logician in me is boggled.
Oilwells are still being tapped by goblins but as we see on draenor, oil platforms have a role in naval industry. The icebeakers the alliance use in northrend, later used to other ends lack sails and appear to operate by furnaces as paddle steamers.
based on the pictures ive seen, the unicorn ships look nothing like a Dhow. but it could be possible. Even the color of the wood is different than the modern ships.
anyway im more focused on the modern ships. They look better than the Unicorn ones in my opinion. The unicorn one looks a bit odd with the spikes
The soft-retcon in this case being TBC, which radically reshaped much of what we knew of elven culture ((not much)) as has been the case with every expansion that explores an old entity in a new light. Most of those ruined ships are from Classic.
With the phoenix not really being Thalassian symbol until after the Third War, you’d probably see the unicorn sigil up until the aftermath of the Scourge Invasion.
Although like you said, they could also have been older designs that fell out of use after the 2nd or 3rd War for whatever reason: Probably lack of sailors and resources - those smaller ships are obviously less intensive to upkeep.
Are we derailing another thread with nerd talk or this allowed now?
The ship added in TBC actually looks a lot more like the destroyer from Warcraft 2 than the ruined ship from Classic. The ship from Classic is probably meant to be the same ship - you can see as much by the ram and the jagged bowspirit, high elf anything Classic just suffered from a lack of dedicated helf assets.
And that’s unfortunately true! The only thing I came across was the “Destroyer” section on WoWpedia and a list of these ships across Azeroth.
Thalassian warships were very important during the second war and that might explain the wreckages in various areas of the map.
Onto more technical tidbits, the current destroyers are pretty interesting for various reasons. First and foremost, their masts. Seeing the details of that destroyer at Sunsail Anchorage, the sails are made in such a way that they can rotate based on the wind’s direction (especially the rear ones). Recalling the Bloodoath, its sails were set burnt and WoWpedia states that this ship is no longer able to continue its journey, meaning that Thalassian destroyers rely solely on wind speed and direction to move around, so it makes sense to pay close attention to the functionality of the sails.
Although I missed it at first, they have a steering wheel close to the stern of the ship, a bit oddly placed as a thin platform is right in front of it that might obstruct visibility.
About the side wing things on each side of the vessels, one would think that they are used to hold off other vessels from getting too close for a boarding assault or at least damaging the enemy vessels in the process. The Firehawk is an example of that at Hrothgar’s Landing. Two enemy vessels are oddly placed as if the side wings held them off at least theoretically.
Regarding storage, according to WoWpedia, it is said that Flying Osprey was caring “a load” of Lightforged Iron, which is an exceptionally light and flexible metal. That’s just a hint of its carrying capacity.
And to conclude, The Silver Blade has a fishing (hook?) thing attached to its bowsprit, indicating that the bowsprit might be used to hold larger fishes like sharks.
(PS: Sorry for my prattling but make sure to check that notable elven destroyers list on WoWpedia to get an idea or two about them!)
