The Complete Night Elf Story - Key Must Read/Play Sources List

Lore Story
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My Motivations and Reasons for harping on about Night elves - it is a long read so only click if you want tto understand me

Night elves are prob my fave race at the moment, there is a lot of info on them, in fact, most of their lore and understanding them is in material not in the game.

I think my motives have been misunderstood. I see so much to night elves, it gets me annoyed to see people only think of this amazing race as wood elves, which is only a fraction of their whole.

I don’t entirely blame them, cos wow has had a disporportinate span of time focusing on the druid stuff. Most of the priest and female stuff was in WC3, not wow, most of the arcane connection is not shown in wow till Legion, with some in Cataclysm, a lot of it is in texts from npc, quest, and in the books. So game players tend to think of night elves just as forest elves.

Which means they don’t bring them up or talk about them in any other context but that, which is why there interest on forums has historically been quite low - this leads to new developers only developing night elves when it comes to druid stuff which leads to them been left out of major events and never included as major players, because the devs now are only thinking of them when it comes to nature problems = irrelevant night elves, small scale night elves, and boring night elves. Might as well change them to forest elves.

i have a hard time reconciling that as the fate of the night elves, and i lost interest in wow because my fave race was soo boring. Until Legion came and actucally showed so many missing parts of the race previously only known to text readers, WC3 players, and lore scholars. So hope has been rekindled, and cataclysm was not just a blip or the end of development.

However with all this evidence, it is surprising to see how few people actual accept night elves others

IF you read everything with night elves in it and playing a role, you will be surprised how much Arcane and Elune stuff is there.

ANd this is why I keep bringing it up, becuase my geek brain sees people thinking of night elves only as wood/forest/tree elves, and seeing and reading all their material, it is clear why they arenight elves, not wood elves, as it is only a part of them.

I have gathered material I have read on the night elves, and paid attention not just to what i was shown, but to quest text, and not stopped there, a lot of npc dialogue and conversation.

IT shows the night elves really have a lot of stuff that is primarily arcane, and ELune and nature. With 4th smaller fel section for the demon hating demon hunters.

  • All night elf groups hate demons, every single one, the demon hunters use them to destroy them, not like warlocks.
  • Night elves are vain
  • Night elves use magic for everything (arcane was swapped for nature in the long vigil, but that was used ) , they have never let nature just be or anything just be without trying to improve it with arcane or nature magic.
  • Night elves are good. MOst are lawful good, except demon hunters who are chaotic good (Illidan was neutral for a while before being good again)

The Following are a list of key sources you need to play/read or experience if you want to see night elves fully, might help you see why I harp on so much about the arcane, Elune, sentinel huntresses and demon hunter parts. The non druid parts not seen so much in wow, but present in the lore.

You must remember that what the lore says is just as important as what you see in game, and it actually says more than the game does. The game focuses a lot on humans and the horde. Night elves are extras except in Legion.

This is Canon source Material and Is Recommended over Wow/Gamepedia Wiki Summaries

_ which are just other fans takes on the race and wont give you the whole picture_ They have been known to miss key info too

IF you ever wanted a good understanding of nigiht elves, here is a quick list, followed by the quickest background route, followed by tthe extended edition. Every detail is vital for a full underdtanding

Quick Play List

  • Read Chronicles Vol 1 section on Night elf
  • Play a through Teldrassil and 1-10, read all the quests and npc dialogues,
  • Then level a night elf demon hunter, and pay special attention to Azsuna, Val’sharah and Suramar, do all the quests there, take in the visual aesthetic, then
  • Finish off by playing the Broken shore (7.2) - also do all the instances.

If you want to understand recent night elf stuff:

  • Then play Azshara zone as horde,
  • Darkshore as alliance,
  • Then do Ashenvale as both horde and alliance, Stonetalon as alliance,
  • and then Desolace as horde,
  • Feralas as alliance.
  • Then Felwood as Alliance,
  • Then play Hyjal zone and Vashj’ir zone.

If you want more background info, I shall insert some reading material.

This is the full sequence to get a full grasp.

  • Read WC3 Manual on Night Elves
  • Read War of the Ancients trilogy.
  • Play WC3
  • If you have access to classic, play 1-35 Teldrassi, Darkshore, Ashenvale, Stonetalon. (Do BFD and Wailing Caverns instances too)
  • Play Duskwood Scythe of Elune and Worgen quests
  • Play Desolace, Feralas, Felwood, then Winterspring (esp Lake Kel’theril)
  • Play Dire Maul instance and max out shen’dralar reputation
  • Read Stormrage.
  • Play Worgen starting zone 1-12
  • Read Wolfheart.
  • Play a through Teldrassil and 1-10 cata remake, read all the quests and npc dialogues,
  • Play WC3 TFT
  • Play TBC Shadowmoon Valley and Black Temple
  • Read Illidan novel
  • Level a night elf demon hunter, and
  • Read Twilight of Suramar the Nightborne audio comic
  • Attentively play Azsuna and do the Eye of Azshara,
  • Play Val’sharah and do Darkheart Thicket
  • Attentively Suramar, do all the quests there and their instance, take in the visual aesthetic, nightfallen training, the works
  • Complete all order hall quests, including the Illidan ones
  • Do both Emerald Nightmare and the Nighthold,
  • Do all Legion invasions and World Quests in Azsuna, Val’sharah, Suramar, Broken Shore,
  • Play the Broken shore (7.2) - also do CoEN, then a ToS raid.
  • Now Azshara zone as horde,
  • Darkshore as alliance,
  • Then do Ashenvale as both horde and alliance,
  • Stonetalon as alliance, and Wailing Caverns instance with southern barrels quests around the Overgrowth.
  • Then Desolace as horde,
  • Feralas as alliance.
  • Then Felwood as Alliance,
  • Then play Hyjal zone and
  • Vashj’ir zone.
  • Play SoO up to the gates of Orgrimmar
  • Read War Crimes section with Tyrande.
  • Read Tyrande & Malfurion: Seeds of Faith
  • Return to Suramar and do Insurrection.
  • Recruit the nightborne to the horde if you haven’t already
  • Read Elegy and A Good War
  • Watch video on the War of Thorns - pre-patch event (found on youtube)
  • Do the Darkshore Warfront in 8.1
  • Read Chronicles vol 1 section on the Night elves, then the bit on the high elves up to the founding of Quel’thalas
  • Read Chronicles vol 3 on the 3rd war, Illidan, outland

Extra Material:
Broll Bearmantle in the comics about Logosh.
Druid activity in Zangermash, BladesEdge Mountains, Hellfire Peninsula, Borean Tundra, Desolace - note this is class related and not the night elf race, Tauren are involved, unless it is exclusively night elf like in Felwood, in which case it is night elf druids

Click here for my observations on night elves gleaned from this info - you may find it surprising that
  • Most of the stuff on night elves is actually centred around or about the arcane. It is the end goal or reason what most of their story is about.
  • Druidism and nature, is a much smaller fraction of the night elves, it only seems larger because when druid class stuff shows up, it has night elves, and people think it is about night elves, but it isn’t, it is about nature. As druid stuff was the only time more night elves were seen, people think they are largely forest elves and mainly druids.
  • There is a hell of a lot of stuff about Elune, the sentinels and the huntresses.in fact, when it comes to the night elf faction, they are the ones involved, the druids are about nature and it’s state.
  • Night elves are seriously into other stuff, those into the arcane are hard-core into it, those into fel demon hunting, hard-core, those into nature, are hard-core into it, those into hunting, do it hard-core, whatever night elves do, their orders have their devotees all in, to a level no other culture seems to be so extreme.
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Yes. I’ve waited for another one of those :heart:

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Chaotic good. Please, he wasn’t good or evil.

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Yes, that’s what neutral means Shandyra,

If you have any sources I have missed, please feel free to add, I think I covered the major ones, and a lot of minor ones

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Oh yeah, you missed the Worgen introduction questline.

Edit: Hail Greymane!

I also wish that Arctur would do the same.

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Thanks, I’ve added it and the Worgen quests from classic in Ashenvale and Duskwood.

Good catch

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I must say, Kalibas…

Youdo your research well! :smiley:

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Perhaps you could add the Shen’dralar/Highborne repeatable quests from classic?

They do add some lore to the Kaldorei, especially about how the Highborne think and act in current day? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ah good point, it is there that quests tell us the shen’dralar have been furiously researching the arcane in the last 10k years and scrying on the world for every last scrap of knowledge.

The vibe I got from them was a group of advanced magicians well beyond the world's current level of magic,

who weren’t really seriously interested in any of the worlds real magical advances because they were so inferior, however like rich noble men hunt for trophies of rare art or beasts to display and brag amongst themselves, so they hunted (via scrying) for stories of the civilizations in Azeroth and the relics associated with them (they are researchers, knowledge is their sport, their thing, hence why it makes no sense to imagine these guys as outraged or backwards in terms of arcane knowledge, their darnassian kaldorei students, yes, esp those returning to the arcane from a 10k year break, sharing the load of teaching a new generation of nightnelves, like i suspect Amnerwind in Azshara was a darnassian retunring to her original highborne roots, not a shen’dralar).

No, these shen’dralar, before being driven out of dire maul and later joining the Darnassian were totally uninterested in the well being of these civilizations and people’s they scryed, and so never interfering, just watching and collecting in addition to their furious fascination with arcana. This collecting thing possibly a result of arcane progress being slow because of the Immol’thar problem and a lack of a well of power to do more serious stuff. The demons energ is confirmed to be responsible for driving the Prince a little mad, I assume their callous, behaviour a result of this induced madness, which the survivors lose in the few years they spend weaning themselves off the addiction and demonic corruption.

Also missing is the cataclysm pre-patch announcement and cata blizzcon panel, that Metzen tells us the shen'dralar have spied deathwings plan

and have been approached by Azshara for recruitment, it is their rebuffing of her and discovery of the plan that causes them to approach the kaldorei in Darnassus to reunite. They feel the time has passed for the silly ban on arcane magic and the highborne, time to move on (They are right ofc, since the legions return in wc3, the arcane ban was pointless, and the highborne ban was a trust issue with that group)

I need to find a copy of that panel/interview, sadly the cata pre patch event with all its details is hard to find, it also didn’t he’ll that blizzard switched the focus of the cataclysm from Malfurion and the night elves to Thrall and the Earthern Ring, which made sense because of the elemental nature of the cataclysm, but it’s like the highborne were just left dead in the water after that, and the Night elves played no role outside Hyjal, not even in Vash’jir. It was all Varian and Garrosh, Thrall and the Earthern Ring after that.

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Kelibas is actually right with the Highborne scrying on the world, however even with that scrying, they are still lacking.

I’d rather see blizzard go into more detail about what the Night Warrior ritual means for the Highborne. Is this Blizzard’s push for the Moonwell/Highborne Arcane culture to start once again? How have their powers increased because of the ritual?

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Nice list, well done! I applaud.

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We love you Kallibas :green_heart:

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I think, the confusion on this is because blizzard doesnt really explain everything they show, they kinda leave us to figure out what is been shown based on previous knowledge.

Example, some players, particular horde side who did Azshara zone, think shen’dralar magic is inferior because of how outdated the night elves seem there.

This is until you realise those werrnt shen’dralar in that zone. With some research, you will discover that once the shen’dralar are let in, the ban on highborne is lifted, there is a piece of lore info that said many Darnassians who were highborne, but put that life aside because of the ban picked it up again when the shen’dralar returned.

This auto confirmed that not all highborne sided with darth'remar 7,000 years ago in exile

Some had put aside the arcane in line with the new laws and in agreement, I assume the zin’azshari ones mainly sided with Sunstrider, but other arcane users, some highborne, Moonguard that were with the army (not Moonguard who stayed guarding suramar), did not.)

It makes sense that It is these returned Darnassians that are the night elf teacher-student instructors (the lorekeepers) and advanced students you meet in Azshara.

Some of them, like Amberwind are teaching novices, their info is 10k years rusty having only a few weeks back in the arcane, nowhere near enough time to fully update or even refresh old knowledge, and they are the ones using out of date teaching techniques the high elves stopped because of the exploits possible. Another clue is some of these cast nature’s wrath and frostbolt - at first I thought they were some druid mage hybrid class, until I remembered that At a and other lore sources mentioned there were highborne and Moonguard who became balance druids when they had to pick up nature because of the ban, these must have been the night elves Wolfheart and cata mentioned returned to the arcane with the lifting of the ban…it would explain how the night elf students had made such quick progress only a few weeks after the ban was lifted, because some of them are returning to the arcane arts they mastered. It also explains why they are using the old construct method of learning, because they are 10,000 years out of practice.

And Not the shen’dralar themselves who were too few in number and too valuable to risk being sent to that warfront. The Lorekeepers are returned Darnassian highborne.

Blizzard later confirmed the night elf arcane users in Azshara were not shen’dralar, they were novices and new/returned darnassian highborne. This makes sense.

I am curious about this too. The moonwells are Well of Eternity arcane waters that have a priest moon magic purification ritual done to them, causing it to glow silver white.

WotA trilogy and lore sources puts the priests connected with the well of eternity

I deduce the mage class derives from the priest class studying of the Well, because it is the priests who first take the most interest in the Well believing Elune dwelt within its waters, before the night elves figure out magic from that study and thus It implies the mage class derived from the priest class and studying the well. It also explains why the priesthood was so intertwined with both the arcane society and we all dont need to be reminded how it is connected with the druidic one, and they are the reason why I can easily see night elves having an advanced arcane society right next to an advanced druidic nature society, because they both connect historically via the priesthood. It also helps that the arcane boosts nature naturally, and is the magic of creation fitting the night Elves building/creating nature.

It also explains why the night elf priesthood is so heavy on arcane magic spells. What people don’t get is that priest and druid arcane energymspells are not sorcery - some think it is because Elune is the source, but, I feel it is because the source of arcane for spells like starsurge , start all and all then other moin/star spells we see priests , druids and highborne/nightborne/Moonguard cast are sourced from the moon and the stars, while most sorcery spells are highly advanced spells that are sourced from the well of eternity use. It is that well spell usage that was banned, it is that use that is deemed sorcery as it lights up Azeroth like a beacon in the twisting nether - this makes sense because thenwell is tied to Azeroth herself, using it for spells lights up azeroth, but using its energybpassively in Moonwells boosting the land doesn’t, cos that isn’t active spell work, nor is using arcane spells like start all, moonfire, starsurge, star fire, lunar strike, becuase it draws the energy for thenspells work from the stars and moon, not Azeroth, lighting up the stars or moon, but not Azeroth and thus no danger to Azeroth.

Anyway, like Elune, blizzard has been very quiet on the actual Well of Eternity and the Night elves for a while, anyone who reads Wc3 manual, plays wc3, reads WotA trilogy and plays classic Teldrassil, knows the Well of Eternity dominates what the night elves are about,

in fact, before TBC and the sunwelll stuff shows up, the Elves and magical wells is mostly a night elf thing with the Well of Eternity and moonwell, the poisoned sunwelll in WC3, is still pretty much a mystery, of which we know the high elves have been using and get from the main night elf well vial Illidan collected, but aside from that magic wells are predominantly a night elf thing at this stage, some of you will remember,nwith all the pre-sundering and long vigil stuff centred around the Well of Eternity and all the moonwell s that are from it are a constant fixture of the night elves.

But like night elf lore just vanishes off the map after levelling the night elf zones in classic, with TBC arriving and blood elves taking the centre stage for elven lore, so to does info on the Well of eternity like the night elves drop off the map.

We know with the legion returned, there is no reason for the night elves to continue to ban the arcane, and sure enough, when blizzard finally gets to updating them in cata, we see the ban is lifted as expected, I also expected the night elves to start using the well again to help with their troubles, but blizzard is silent on that , I assume one of several things has happened,

  1. They either haven’t had enough time to go into night elves for cata to include that, since night elves weren’t a primary race focus in cata, they just get updated like every other classic race does.

  2. A lore reason could be the Darnassians though mending fences with the highborne, don’t quite trust them enough to be using the well of eternity yet.

  3. Or maybe they do, except the night elves are split from the cenarion circle, and they are in charge of the Well, so it’s not theirs to give OR,

  4. While magic is once more allowed now the Legion has returned, they are still a threat and the Well still the only known means to bring them fully to Azeroth at this point, so at least for that period in time, it would logically still be under lock and key even if the night elves badly needed it to fight the horde.

This is until Legion when the Legion find another means via AU Gul’dan and utilise another well to invade, it is here the truth of the Legion actually being after the world soul itself not the well of eternity is revealed. This is significant, because even when Tyrande meets Thalyssra, it is likely she has yet to know the true goal of the Legion, night elves would have still believed (up till Legion expansion) that their well is what the Legion was after, therefore having an exposed Well of Eternity or Night Well would still be viewed as a risk while the Legion is around.

Discovering it is the world soul the Legion is after changes everything, also the legion being finally defeated actually also means there is no lknger any reason to not use the well of eternity or even a nightwell. They are not actually an issue, because in the first place they weren’t what the Legion was truly after, and the Legion is no more.

So where does this leave them in 8.1? ..click to find out

Well, it is moonwells that Tyrande uses to connect to Elune for the dark moon night warrior ritual, does this mean the highborne can now use them for magic? Also the well of eternity? Can or would the night elves even form a new well, like a Starwell…? This should all be a desirable possibility and having the use of a well of power should be a much welcome boost.

It is also significant, that arcane addiction is also understood fully now, cured and the Night Elf users have learnt humility and the lessons of balance. It means that magical usage won’t bring back the fall to hubris and decadence,as mistakes have been learnt, and all the night elves are united in their desire to do the right thing and eliminate evil corruption.

This is why I am excited and expectant to see both the arcane power boost utilised through an arcane well like the well of eternity and the nature power from the emerald dream utilised through a world tree like shaladrassil

Currently despite them having very advanced mages and druids, their arcane empowerment from the well and nature empowerment from the emerald dream via the world tree is missing in the night elves. Missing at the time they need as much power as they can get seeing their small numbers and huge task.

It strikes me as really cool to see them get an empowerment from Elune (the night warrior), one from the arcane (the well of eternity or a new well i think called the star Well would be rad) and a nature empowerment from the emerald dream (via either Nordrassil or Shaladrassil) - i favour them using a new Star Well and Shaladrassil, because these are slightly less powerful than the well of eternity and nordrassil - gaining a Starwell could be more on the level of a Sunwell and Shaladrassil dream access more on the sort of level the light gives the blood elves and the Atam’al crystals give the Dranei. The night warrior is a bonus because their numbers are so small now, without the extra juice the much bigger numbers of their enemies would kill them off…and they need the power if they are ever going to rebuild their cool stuff i.e, rebuild their pre-sundering cities and cleanse their forests, healing the damage in places like Val’sharah and Suramar or Felwood and Desolace.

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Cool thread, friend.

Thought I don’t think Nordrassil or Shaladrassil give any bonus, since Nordrassil had it’s blessings blasted of them, and as far as we know Shaladrassil was never blessed?

That said, wasn’t the Well of Eternity drained by the Burning Legion?

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Aslong as a single drop survive’s the Second Well of Eternity is around. And so far nothing indicates or suggest it lost in power, at all!

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Lore tells us that so long as a small remnant remains, it’s power is still there. Look at Illidan when he did create the new Well. Look at Dath’Remar when he created the Sunwell.

The only well that was of different origin was the Nightwell.

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Well you definetively worded it better then me :stuck_out_tongue:

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Yes, you are right on both counts.

On the Well of Eternity, the waters I assume get restored as the druid says, “as long as some remains, it will replenish”, the resto quest stopped the Legion consuming the Well, Nordrassil still stood so the Legiom couldn’t access it’s power, and because the phase isn’t permanent, the lake fills up again, it is one of those lakes whose waters come from the earth beneath, this implies the body of water is much larger beneath than it is above, so when the Legion drained most of the water above, it simply filled up again. Is the most logical explanation

  1. Yes, the night elves nature enhancement came from Nordrassil blessing, while their arcane enhancement still comes from Azeroths Well of Eternity connectiom, (they just don’t use its power - for Long vigil reasons well known), which I strongly feel can now happen with the Legion gone and having a Well no longer an existential threat drawing a burning crusade to their world, it is now a huge benefit all round, and with the understanding of addiction, it’s curing and the new found humility of their arcane users have, they should start using it.

If Nordrassil is a permanent lock on the Well’s power that can’t be bypassed, it would be nice for them to acquire a new one, I’d love it to be called the Starwell, I am thinking the final vial, a huge store of Azerite and a fallen star could be the source, and the Night elves use that instead, either that or the destruction of N’zoth causes a new one, his location beneath Thal’dranath.

Regarding blessings, yes Shaladrassil isn’t blessed at all, but it does stand, meaning the druids were successful where Fandral failed, even though Teldrassiil is a much bigger tree. But then we find out the reason Teldrassil was flawed was because it was sabotaged by Xavius directed by the old gods to expand the nightmare.

If the druids find a way to link the night elves physically to the Emerald dream via the tree, it should provide a nature enhancement. Not the same as the blessings, but I imagine some benefits from the emerald dream can be gained, like higher resistance to elements and sicknesses that don’t touch that realm, not enough for spells, but enough for natural elemental immunity and natural sickness and disease, magical ones and magical elemental damage will still affect them normally. It could also enhance the nature powers of the night elves.

From the Starwell they can theoretically restore their immortality and have the power of their attacks boosted. Enhancing the arcane powers of the night elves.

This is all theoretical and speculative, but it could be a way they could use.

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I’m pretty sure its this; the World Tree changes the Arcane energies of the Well into Nature energy :I

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if you swim in the 2nd well of eternity in the mount hjyal raid you will become silenced :slight_smile: