The Blood Elves and their future

Lore Story
1

Ok - so I think we can all agree, the Blood Elf story in the current climate, is extremely boring. They have indeed, become pointy-eared Humans, but on the red side and have a fount of power.

So, what do you guys think is needed in order to spice things up? At the end of 2020, an idea was tossed around that the Blood Elves should be removed from Quel’Thalas, become a small remnant and move to Azshara, Bloodmyst Isle and Netherstorm. A focus on Blood, Fel and Arcane Magic. Do you think this is necessary?

Or, should the Blood Elves stay in Quel’Thalas and perhaps, something happens to the Sunwell again? My concern with that is, would we go to TBC 2.0 where we work to restore the Sunwell again…

I don’t think Blood Elves and Nightborne should become separate as these two races can bounce off each other, like we saw in Suramar. It was great to hear “Sin’dorei and Shal’dorei - take the Promenade and use it against our foes.”
Maybe, if the Sunwell was to go and a magical Blood Crystal would take it’s place, perhaps somebody like Valtrois could work with the Magisters to connect it to Quel’Thalas’ leylines?

With the “Ranger General Sylvanas” back (kind of), do you think this might influence the Sin’dorei story or do you think Sylvanas would be kept with the Forsaken (Undead Humans, High elves and Night elves.)

What do you think?

2 Likes
2

Current state of their lore is indeed a bit stagnant and unimpressive but we do have to take into consideration that Nightborne are around to remind them who they are now.

With so many playable races it is obvious that no Orc lore will be made without Mag’har inclusion. Same goes for Tauren and their Hignmountain cousins. Now, no Blood Elf will be able to fart without Nightborne knowing which type of magic caused this effect.

Nightborne themselves are through and through the purest reminder of what ancient Highborne society was like. I assume that some changes were made to Blood Elves who held that title before and for the sake of diversity between the two things shifted their place.

As of the Human like nature that people accuse Blood Elves of.

Most notably it is due to sudden popularity in the Holy Light stuff among some of the Blood Elves. Most notably Liadrin who basicaly now became Tyrande 2.0. Preaching and teaching. Converting and sermoning around. Just like Tyrande did in her birthplace.

Suramar city where Faith of Elune came to be and where it’s citizens were among the first to see through it’s BS and excised it shortly after.

Although this weird devotion to the Light expressed by Liadrin and some of her Blood Knights is indeeda mystery.

If we go back to the past where Thalassian ancestors still lived in Ashenvale and refused to give up their magical powers by the order of the Kaldorei led by Elune’s faithful we can see that ancient Thalassians known then as Highborne were not too keen about her religion. And went even as far as Nightborne to declare her a false goddess.

How does that relate to the Light? It’s simple. In the novel Stormrage written by Ritchard A. Knaak. There is a conversation between Tyrande and Velen about faith of Elune where the Prophet pointed out how similar it is to the faith of the Light and that Elune herself might be some type of powerful Naaru much to the High Priestesses’ dismay.

So here is the problem. If ancient Thalassians rejected Elune entirely, then how the fel did Faith of the Holy Light took root in Quel’thalas? Thalassian Elves are intelligent and cunning. So obviously they would immidiately draw parallels between two religions and figure out immidiately they are repeating the same mistake.

The only logical answer to that is Blood Elves and previously High Elves do not have temples in their kingdom. Never had and still have not built a single one to this day. This means they have their own form of worshipping Holy Light. Completely separated from the rest of the world. And even that was very unpopular before Third War.

Only now it got more pread due to the influence of the altered Sunwell.

As we know Nightborne also do have Priest class, yet they as a society have no Priesthood at all. There was a hypothesis in which they were referred as Star Augurs. People that do not worship but look into the Cosmos and stare at the Light, Void, Fel and Arcane. Four major cosmic forces.

But that would require an actual extensive explanation.

To put it shortly. Blood Elf lore is boring right now because Blizzard is terrible at story telling. Always was.

3

The Sin’dorei playerbase would rage if we are forced to leave Quel’thalas BEFORE Quel’thalas even gets a major update…we have waited all these years since TBC, now we need an update to all the zones of Quel’thalas to happen before even thinking about something bad happening to the Sunwell, or the Blood Elves being forced out by the Alliance (by the Void Elves, clearly) or another enemy…also it seems Blizzard have no intention to give a whole continent to a single faction after all, so Silvermoon as the last major Horde capital in the EK must stay at least until the Forsaken cleanse Undercity or make a new one…

(but even if something bad happens to the Sunwell, the new source of magical power like crystals or something else provided with the help of Valtrois and the Nightborne WILL still have to at least be half made of the Light in addition to arcane magic, because of the golden eyes customizations…I don’t think it’s possible Blizzard could remove them now, the Blood Elf Paladins players would rage in an incredible way…and actually even I use golden eyes on my Hunter as they fit better with the mog, so… :stuck_out_tongue: )

So because of golden eyes we are stuck forever either with the current incarnation of the Sunwell OR a source of power that will be partly made of Light anyway…damage is done so they can’t remove them now I think (same like the Void Elves for example for some of their tentacle hair or skin colours)

She surely won’t return to the Forsaken (even in her current situation they wouldn’t accept her back after what she did to them and the Horde), and I know there are some nostalgics Blood Elf fans who would like to have her back as Ranger-General of Quel’thalas (just like the nostalgics who want a return of Kael’thas like Erevien), but at this point as she is not the Banshee Queen we knew anymore, she isn’t related to the history of the Blood Elves anyway, and probably wouldn’t agree to the decisions the Blood Elves had to take for their survival after her first death anyway…

actually there are more chances that “this” Sylvanas might join the Alliance because of Alleria and Vereesa rather than her return to the Horde, I think…or she just stays with Nathanos if she can find him…

4

But then what would this mean for characters who are closely related to Sylvanas, like Velonara as well as those who were impacted by her story, like Delaryn - by all accounts, these two are still Horde and for the former - this Sylvanas is the Ranger General she remembers.
For Delaryn - this is the reflection that she would see in herself. It’s all a bit…juicy, when it comes to this current Sylvanas and Delaryn.

What if the Golden Eyes were a powerful source of Light, that could no longer be changed? So, if the Blood Elves lose the Sunwell and a Blood Crystal is used to replace it - couldn’t the golden eyes just remain, like the fel green eyes remain? The common lore has stated that the fel crystals have long since been removed from Silvermoon and with the Sunwell…but, we know that not all Elves embraced the half-holy light of the Sunwell and still clung to the Arcane powers.

Plus, I use Valtrois as she reminds me of Rommath in some ways. Both highly strung, but both willing to defend their peoples.

That is what I thought.

To try and justify this with gaining a town in Azshara, Bloodmyst OR Netherstorm (not all 3) would cause mayhem. With what happened to the Night Elves and the harrassment that many Blizzard employees faced after that, I can’t see a repeat of that happening, anytime soon.
I don’t like Christie Golden’s writing and I do believe that she has caused some of the problems within the Alliance writing team (over emphasis on Humans and neglect for the other races) but harassing her on social media is wretched behavior.

The reason this whole idea was tossed about was to reduce the Blood Elf involvement in the overall story and put emphasis that Thalassian story was to be found on the Alliance.

1 Like
5

Kael’thas will return and aid the elves in kicking out the Orcs since they have caused too much trouble for the Horde since MoP. Lor’themar will be demoted to ranger general since he is a soldier and never was meant to be the permanent leader of the kingdom. That way everyone will be happy.

1 Like
6

What about the San’layn? Could they have an influence in any future storyline?

I mean, I was sceptical of Blizzard when they focused the recent San’layn story around the idea of Kaldorei vs San’layn, but I warmed up to it, because even though they are both elves, they are the antithesis of each other.
I wouldn’t say “no” to red eye customization for Blood Elves - hell, I might even make another Blood Elf Mage, just to RP her as a San’layn Blood Mage.

What about a story surrounding the Farstriders and Thalassian Dark Rangers? Haldoran and Velonara…? The latter does also consider herself “sin’dorei” and not just “forsaken.” I haven’t included the Kaldorei Dark Rangers as I think they’d work better with the Nightborne Nighthunter organisation, which we know exists, but we have only seen 1. (Off topic, I think they should expand Shal’dorei lore, through the use of Nighthuntress Syrenne and the Nighthunters in general. She was a great character and she could have been one of the Nightborne who voiced support for Sylvanas.)

Now, obviously - we also have to consider more uses of fel magic. A Silvermoon Warlock / Illidari Demon Hunter semi-union? Now, I don’t think somebody like Kayn Sunfury would pledge themselves to the Horde, but I reckon he could be written to serve as an Ambassador for the Illidari within Silvermoon and will defend Silvermoon, no matter what. Obviously, we don’t have many blood elf warlock NPCs to speak of, unless we use Rommath…

…or, if Blizzard do build up the Sanctum Guild once again, could it be female driven? Perhaps the Apprentice Mirveda becomes “Felcaster Mirveda” and maybe Shinfel Blightsworn returns…?

7

To be fair in old lore, the Elves of Quel’thalas had red eyes naturally, so that color should be given to them too, and not just purple…but I guess the Forsaken player would complain too much then :stuck_out_tongue: but yes, red would be a good possible playable San’layn option (as an allied race though).

Pretty sure you mean Halduron…it’s not your fault though, even if he is the Ranger-General he is pretty much absent in the story aside a few cameos so you wrote his name badly as a result…I would prefer a story about him and the Nightborne Nighthunters like Syrenne rather than the Forsaken again…especially now that Sylvanas is gone and most of the Dark Rangers are as well too…

You really like that idea I see, you throw it around quite a lot…I wouldn’t be against it but first Blizzard should expand on Silvermoon Warlocks standalone lore as well…which they can’t because we have no major warlock characters, and we can’t use

because he is actually a Blood Mage, and I’m sure that if he became a full-fledged Warlock, then he would become a raid boss in a very quick time anyway, let’s not forget that he was going to become a major member of the Twilight Hammer so he should have died back then in Cataclysm as the audio files of his raid boss fight were already out, but then Blizzard probably remembered about how they treated Kael’thas in TBC, so at least they spared Rommath this time…but if he becomes a Warlock or even just “more evil” than he is now, I know he will be the one who will be sacrificed for good this time around…

I guess she’s too loyal/iconic to the Council of the Black Harvest to become a main Warlock character working mainly for the interests of Silvermoon and the Blood Elves…the fact that she’s also dressed totally in black and without even just a bit of red ( the national Sin’dorei color) should also be indicative of this…unless she changes dress :stuck_out_tongue:

8

The issue I have with the San’layn is the exact same issue I have with playable High Elves (and indeed, Highborne.) Their is no difference between them and their core race relative.

So, the big thing with San’layn are the red eyes (as far as the Darkfallen NPCs go.) What concerns me most about the San’layn Blood Prince / Queen models is that the former is based off the male night elf - I wouldn’t want that. I don’t want to give any sort of illusion that the San’layn were also former night elves. It would be easier to give us the red eyes as an option because it kills two birds with one stone.

You can use the red eyes on your Blood Elf Hunter and Blood Elf Rogue and RP a Dark Ranger or you could use it on your Blood Elf Shadow Priest or Blood Elf Mage and RP a San’layn High Priest / Arcanist.

To be fair, I can never remember how to spell his name.
I think Syrenne would be a good character to use alongside the Sin’dorei Farstriders, but we don’t truly know her rank. Is she the leader of the Nighthunters or do they fall under First Duskblade Victoire? I mean, if Syrenne falls under Victoire, then maybe a better and more fitting character for Syrenne would be Ranger Captain Elsia?

I do only think the Illidari / Silvermoon Warlocks will take center stage again, if the Sunwell is gone.

Everytime we see Lor’themar, he is literally spitting on fel magic.
Plus, let’s not forget the Blood Elf Demon Hunter who tells Drelanim Whisperwind (more of her as well, as a side note), that his people shun him as a freak.

Would it take the Sunwell’s loss to cause a shift in Quel’Thalas society where wielding fel magic is at the same level as the Sunfury’s use of fel magic on Outland?

Baffles me why they even have the Warlock class if they’re just going to kill them all.

Maybe, but both her and Kayn Sunfury entered the story at the same time (more or less.) If nothing else, I’d love to see them serve as Ambassadors to their homeland of Quel’Thalas.

I mean, let’s be absolutely real here…Kayn won’t turn on one of his friends, like Kor’vas Bloodthorn or Jace Darkweaver, just because they are night elves. So, he absolutely won’t join the Horde as a full member, but I would like to think that Kayn would help his people, even if the majority shunned the sin’dorei illidari.

I mean, lets not forget - I know Rommath couldn’t be used as the “Warlock” character, but Rommath was indeed part of the Illidari in it’s earliest days. Could we not see some potential union between Kayn and Rommath?
Also - headcanon time; but I’d love to know more about Kayn. Was he a Mage or was he part of Sylvanas’ Farstriders?

9

Burn 'em, and make another elf BBQ, duuh. :grin:

10

Honestly, they should, after what happened in BfA. San’layn are homeless and near-extinct now, and apparently the idea is that the most natural option for them is to join the Horde. Not sure if that’s because they’re Blood Elves, or because they’re undead, or because the Horde will take anything in really, but anyway. That didn’t work out for Blood Prince Dreven and his followers, but surely some other groups are out there in the wild. Writers can’t just leave it at that… like, call a race back from WotLK just for one Alliance questline and never mention it again. So here I’m guessing (hoping) they have plans. But. Yeah.

Anyway, we know that most of the Dark Rangers chose the Horde over Sylvanas, so plots could definitely come out of that

11

Technically they are both (well, former Blood Elves at least), but now it’s very unlikely they will join the Horde at this point of the story. Blood Elves MIGHT be willing to accept some of the San’layn back if they prove themselves to be useful to their cause, but as undead it would still be very problematic to make them live around Quel’thalas now that Lady Liadrin and the Blood Knights have so much focus, and the Light so much prominence among the Sin’dorei society (almost more than the magical arcane arts nowadays, actually… and that’s bad, especially if in the next expansion the Light (and the Sun too, An’she for the Tauren, Belore for the Blood Elves, although for the Sin’dorei, Belore is not really a God and they don’t worship him directly, but it’s more as a symbol of reverence for their new life after their separation from the Night Elves and the rejection of Elune, and their new connection with the light of the day (and the Light too)) might be hit with the villain bat somehow… I don’t want the Blood Elves to be lectured about that by the Void Elves, maybe even returning to Quel’thalas from their exile to fix the Light “problem” with their Void :nauseated_face: (and the Blood Elves might even lose the Sunwell in the process too…I know Leià said the Blood Elves would get a good amount of lore and some possible good storylines about that, that would be very interesting, and I agree overall, possibly even “making Fel magic and warlocks great again” (semi-quoting Trump sounds very fitting here :sweat_smile: ) for them in the process, but still losing the Sunwell would be a huge negative blow for them, basically almost bringing them back to their TBC situation, but at least this time “they would not be UNPREPARED” (semi-quoting Illidan this time, very fitting again ) as they would already know what to do about it and how to deal with their magical addiction, and they would get the help of the Nightborne as well…but still, thinking about it as a Blood Elf fan is a bit chilling for the fate of the race after that) :cold_sweat:

Ahem…as I was saying about the San’layn, Forsaken are not very likely to accept them either, especially now that they are taken by Blizzard into a new direction for their after-Sylvanas (and her cult of personality among the Forsaken) period. As Warchief she was the one who had the idea to recruit them during BfA, but she’s gone now anyway, so…

The Kalimdor Horde, pretty much all races would say no, I think. Surely Trolls and Tauren. Orcs and Goblins might think about it if the San’layn prove themselves to be good assets in combat/war and in the economy of the Horde for each race respectively, but as I said, the majority of the Council would probably vote no about accepting them in the Horde. And even if they joined Forsaken and Blood Elves might not be willing to accept their presence among their own ranks and in their lands in Lordaeron and Quel’thalas anyway, and the same would be valid for the majority of the Horde races in Kalimdor too.

Well Silvermoon is surely not as flammable as Teldrassil as it’s not wooden, lol. And even if there was a big fire the Magisters and the Nightborne would be able to extinguish it just with their frost spells and water elementals, basically like Jaina did in Stormwind too :cold_face:…and no, unlike for the Night Elves and their Shen’dralar Highborne, mages are much more common and magical experts among the Blood Elves

12

You’d be surprised, really. Look at all the factions they added in Island Expeditions and subsequently ignored because “Shadowlands and Cosmic Lore is what the players of the World of Danuverse want!”.

1 Like
13

Neither do I. The Blood Elves hold the intellect that they need no lectures from any of the elven races (including the Nightborne), on how to survive going without the Sunwell.

The Nightborne can offer assistance - perhaps Valtrois can be part of the story that looks into the leyline feed around Quel’Thalas. This would link to Dath’Remar as he established this would be the Highborne’s new home, because of the powerful leyline energy that part of the land had.

What we’re dealing with at present, is a perfect race. What we have found is that being perfect is extremely boring. Now, the blood elves are not being written to overshadow the other Horde races - this is what separates the Human writing and the Blood Elf writing. (Some might argue with the whole business surrounding Lor’themar and Zekhan, but that’s for another debate.) The other issue we’ve got is the Blood Elves and their relation to fel magic. It’s negative. Not just Lor’themar, but Esara Verrinde of the Magisters who joins the Tirisgarde.
The Blood Elves, potentially shunning the Demon Hunters as “freaks.” Lor’themar’s silence on the Illidari Ambassadors outside Orgrimmar caused my eyebrow to raise. He made no comment on them - it was all Sylvanas (and Tyrande as far as the Alliance go.)

Now, the Sunwell going is not my preferred option, but what else can happen if we want to see some true story development where every sector of Sin’dorei society can be represented (not relating to classes like Monks, Demon Hunters and Death Knights as they are their own thing - I’m referring those areas that are still involved with the Quel’Thalas society now.)

If Azshara has turned against the Void, could she be the one who seeks to destroy the Sunwell? Could the -Light- part of the well, be seen as a gateway for the Void and she seeks to close it…through -direct- means. (Sort of ironic considering she wanted to open a portal for Sargeras with her Well…)

I wonder if we would see more of the Kaldorei vs San’layn. I was very skeptical of that when Blizzard first shown it, but I think the Kaldorei actually have the perfect rivals in the San’layn, instead of the Sin’dorei and Shal’dorei.

How many of the Shen’dralar are left considering they have been attacked thrice over? First by Tortheldrin, then twice by the Horde.

1 Like
14

There are more named Shen’dralar then there are named Nightborne. The entire Nightborne leadership was vaporized during the Nightfallen rebellion. They lost their best and brightest in the raid. The leftovers are sparse. A similar siutation faced by the blood elves. They lost Kael’thas. Bob is no real replacement since he is not even a mage but a ordinary ranger guy with a Bow as weapon. Can’t even fight properly anymore since he lost an eye. The future for Horde elves is grimdark. I see little hope for positive development in any form with the current writers we have who are fully fixated on human potential.

15

Depending on where the story takes us next, if we do end up venturing into the “Lifelands” or exploring the realm of life in general, I hope someone there can help the Blood Elves rejuvenate the Dead Scar. Maybe we even get to grow a new Thas’alah in Deathknell too and clean the lot of it all up. The Nightborne can use their rediscovered knowledge of Arcan’dor cultivation to guide them too as something related. You’ve then even got similarities between the wretched and the withered and a potentially remedy there if they’re not too far gone.

The whole instanced zone from Ghostlands to the of Isle of Quel’Danas needs facelift, so somthing that potentially ties into an Emerald Dream themed expac could blend into that quite nicely.

Further to that you can even start thinking about showing an updated plague lands just to south looking less decrepit and more verdant and a Stratholme in the process of being recaptured and restored. Progress has been hinted at in game and in external literature, so they’re going to have to show this in game at some point.

I’m still holding out for a return to Azeroth and an updated Eastern Kingdoms. Even with the current talk of potentially visiting the Dragon Isles and a continuation of our cosmic escapade.

1 Like
16

I’d love to see Thas’alah restored and regrown.
With Shal’dorei aid, they could even try and connect the leyline feeds around both Thas’alah and the Arcan’dor, to empower both.

Could also work well with a Sin’dorei Farstrider / Shal’dorei Arcanist union of sorts.

Now, before Legion - Night Elf fans had a point that their race was hardly being used. But we’ve had Night Elf lore in our faces since Legion. It’s the Blood Elves that need some lore (out if the two core elf races) and it’s the Blood Elf homeland that needs to come out of it’s TBC era.
Hell, we can still go back to that TBC era through a Bronze Dragon NPC and through WoW TBC Classic.

It does.

The fact that we hear of the Quel’Danas and Silvermoon updates through written works is not right. We should be able to see the museum of Magister’s Terrace. With that, the Stars Fury bow, Alleria’s Coif and other weapons and armor. We should see the current status of the Dead Scar.

Blizzard loves using the Blood Elves in lots of stories. It would be nice if a bit of that lore could go towards their homeland.

I’ve always said that Quel’Thalas’ regions are the Blood Elves and the Blood Elves are Quel’Thalas.

2 Likes
17

Yeah, and we all knew how well that worked out, so

be careful what you wisho for.

18

Blizzard could ruin a portion of Quel’thalas (Ghostlands would be okay since they are already corrupted) or even corrupt/destroy the Sunwell again, but I’m sure they won’t kill a lot of Blood Elves like they did to the Night Elves in the Burning of Teldrassil, because the population of the Blood Elves was already reduced by a lot during the Third War by the Scourge.

Also even without the Sunwell they won’t force the Blood Elves completely out of Quel’thalas, because Silvermoon is the last great capital city of the Horde in the Eastern Kingdoms…they are not going to give a full continent to the Horde and Alliance respectively

Also they said no faction war in a long time (or ever again), so the Blood Elves and Nightborne might deal with the bad repercussion of an update of the zones of Quel’thalas, I think. Maybe some troubles will happen but they will likely be minor ones in comparison to what happened to Teldrassil and Undercity, and the Blood Elves will stay there. And probably the new (or old, if the Scourge and Amani are still going to be there in a relevant way ) problems will be resolved by Blood Elf adventurers during the new questline experience anyway…

1 Like
19

I get that, but Blizzard have used the Blood Elves in a lot of their stories (just not in Quel’Thalas) and the story hasn’t been all that bad - not in terms of the Blood Elf arc being bad. In the instance of WoD, the expansion as a whole was bad as was it’s story.

The Blood Elves and Nightborne being used in Nazjatar was great, but it’s just a shame their wasn’t reference to Dath’Remar. I think the Blood Elves could have had closure on their ancestral past, if Dath’Remar’s name was mentioned in the Ruins of Zin-Azshari.

At present, I do think the Magisters of Quel’Thalas need more attention than the Blood Knights and Farstriders, but that’s just personal preference.

An updated Quel’Thalas could give us many things, such as:
The healing of the Ghostlands
Showcase the union of Sin’dorei and Shal’dorei
Have a small Alliance invasion which tells a story of Sin’dorei and Shal’dorei vs Ren’dorei and Humans.

1 Like
20

Dath’remar is nothing. Our true leader is and always will be Kael’thas. And I will stop at nothing to see him return to Quel’thalas and kill Bob.