Meaningful and powerful parts to each part of the night elf factions connecting to classes. With exciting developments and plots that will make people excited about night elves again and make them attractive too. Have something to be excited about every class the night elf can play in a meaningful way that is connected to some strong part of their lore.
A route to the full measure of restoration and growth of the night elves.
The Entire Point of doing this is this ...click here to read why
I’m a little sick of so many forum posters, just coming on to criticise and trying so hard not to appear weird or “unreasonable” to others they end up having no imagination and never able to come up with anything striking or intriguing.
I wonder if they ever thought warcraft story was built on moderation and realism, on modesty and measured conservative strokes. No, it was built on extravagant, wild, imaginative dreams.
Spectacular things that would blow your mind, capture your imagination and excite you.
I’m not sure what they expected a “dreams” post to be. Timid, holding back? The way night elves have been dug into the dirt, I wanted to go extravagant, daring, creative, magical, imaginative. A direct counter to what much of warcraft has become - basically the worse case scenario happening, and if it can go bad, it will go bad and where the worse things are always happening and can be counted on happening with no great news to counter the bad.) Well, how about a case where the reverse happens for a change. Time to counter all that bad luck.
I took all the things i love in the night elf lore, and just imagined how I’d love them to return and in style so the race feels magical like it did the first time I came across them.
So much has been lost, a spectacular civilization, millions of lives, immortality, arcane and nature mastery, the cool mystique of the Children of the STars and what it meant, the Arcane well of power “the Well of Eternity”, the world trees and Emerald dream, the Goddess Elune and her order. The nobility and magic of the night elves - both arcane and nature. And while bits and pieces have resurfaced, like the Shen’dralar, Suramar, Val’sharah, CoEN, Azsuna, the Wardens, the demon hunters - highborne and nightborne, the wild gods, the celestials, yet none of these of been intrinsically tied to the current kaldorei darnassians. They are divorced from so much of this currently.
I’m looking at 8.1 and glad to see an Elune empowerment happening, intrigued it’s void - but the kaldorei are still pretty much divorced from so much - immortality, well of eternity, emerald dream, world tree, nightborne & suramar, Moonguard, Illidari, Wardens, etc etc.
They have all these assets around, yet WoT only seemed to show the druids and hunters in action, and the darkshore 8.1 while a start is just that, so much stuff about them still missing.
So yeah, i wanna see them live in their gorgeous cities like Suramar and lush forests like Val’sharah, want to see cool majestic arcane night elves, wildly magical nature druids, and the humble/pious sisters of Elune in all their splendour and prowress.
Yes, I want to see them command the well of eternity or an arcane well to replicate the wonders of their arcane era combined with nature magic harnessing the emerald dream to do what nature druid night elves did so well during the long vigil. I wanna see the grit and awesome combined martial and magical prowress in the demon hunters found to their cause, and with no small measure of other miracles, whether it be revived farondis, restored emerald dream worgen, most of the nightborne coming to their senses and some even regaining their kaldorei form - or the share awesomeness of immortality returning, and a new well of power, i mean a star well would be awesome.
Off course dreams are meant to be big, world of warcraft is an entire imagination project, and nothing i have wished for here hasn’t already been part of the night elves. You want to tell me now the night elves are in the 100s, + these restorations likely raising them to the 1000s, that it is unfeasible for such a small populace with such noble intent to successfully be written with the fullness of their potential and power brought to bare in what remains of their race and help kick start a restoration - in a world where you have so many other races, and each have their own incredible things.
But many people won’t share the delight in anothers’ dreams, even if it basically is all stuff that is part of night elf lore/history/character/state.
Factions
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Black Rook Hold Night elves, with Lord Ravencrest becoming the Death Knight Leader of the Kaldorei undead.His mission to see the Kaldorei restored to the world enhancing people they once were.
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Farondis Highborne restored to life after Azshara’s defeat and
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Mass nightborne defections from the horde (turning kaldorei from the arcan’dor while those on horde stay nightborne)
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Illidari night elf faction led by Altruis and Vandel
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Death Knight Ravencrest led undead Night elf faction
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Emerald dream returned Nelf Worgen faction [new faction]
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Evenshade/Estulan led Shen’dralar faction but Prince Farondis head of all Highborne
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Farodin led Valewalker Faction
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Maiev led Warden Faction
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Shandris led Sentinel faction.
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Lothrius led Moonguard faction
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Broll Bearmantle led Druid of the claw faction
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Naralax led Dreamweaver druid faction
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Malfurion led Druid of the Wild faction [head of all druids]
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Tyrande led Moon Priestess faction. [head of Order of Elune]
Note: Wardens are specialised night elf rogues. All night elf rogue players can associate with the hero class, like Warriors associate with the Sentinels. Ofc, not all rogues are wardens and not all warriors sentinels.
Mechanics - how this will play out: Click arrow for more detail
Many of these factions expand from the new additions. Currently, Moonguard, Valewalkers, undead night elves etc are very small in numbers, however the idea is that the new additions like the defected nightborne that turn back into kaldorei, the restored Farondis, the returned emerald dream worgen - these fill a lot of the slots. Here is an expanded view.
Druid orderS: Some from the defected nightborne - part of their story told below have some taking a keen interest in the degree to which the druids boosted nature.
Emerald dream worgen also join some of these.
Valewalkers: From the defected nightborne, Farondis highborne, emerald dream worgen.
Moonguard: from the Farondis highborne, defected nightborne, shen’dralar highborne and new mages. With Suramar largely kaldorei again, the dusk guard is reverted back to the Moon Guard it was. Now those who remain nightborne on the horde, continue with the Dusk Guard, and you will see dusk guard on the horde side nightborne.
Ravencrests - the Undead DKs are those the legion raised in 7.0, but after the deception is broken by his defeat atop Black Rook Hold, Lord Ravencrest instead decides to train his undead night elf forces as a unit to help the kaldorei survive extinction and become the great contributors and prolific leaders of enhancment and enrichment of Azeroth they were before the hubris that led to the first invasion.
Illidari - the Illidari undergo some changes, night elf demon hunters stay on the broken shore, but most of the blood elf ones return to Quel’thalas to reunite with their kin. The night elf illidari join the kaldorei efforts, lending their allegiance and great expertise. Their main base is on the broken shore, at the other end of the island to the Cathedral of Eternal Night.
The Unseen Path returns to being the night elf only organisation it was during the long vigil - with the legion gone, it continues to hunt enemies of Azeroth and the night elves. Most of the non-night elven hunters returned to where they came from. New members from all the various night elven populations joint htem
Sentinels, Wardens, Hunters are matrial wings of the Order of Elune led by the Moon Priestesses.
Progress
- Night elves take over the Broken isles, winning territory from the horde,
- Suramar their new capital,
- Priests in CoEN/ToS, Temple of Elune, Falanaar and Azsuna Temple (repaired)
- Highborne country in Azsuna
- Druid culture in Val’sharah forest
- Moonguard base in Suramar,
- Sentinel base with undead in Black Rook Hold
- Warden base in Warden Vault
- Illidari ship base on other side of broken shore
- Huntresses of the Unseen Path in Highmountain.
Empowerment
- From Broken isles they restore a new arcane well of power the Starwell from a star combined with a vial from the original well, boosting arcane works immensely
- They also heal Shaladrassil and the connection to the Emerald Dream , boosting nature works immensely.
- The Night warrior is an Elune empowerment from the priests to the most dedicated night elves of any class, the priest order enhanced
- Void elves become great friends via the priests void side of Elune, the highborne and the Illidari.
Details of Empowerment:
Night Warrior empowerment is granted by Tyrande and her closest priestesses. Night elves of any class dedicated to avenging the Kaldorei and claiming back Kalimdor can receive this empowerment if they prove themselves, only the most mentally capable and vigorous are allowed to go through the ritual.
The Star Well, the new Well of power, is what is used to grant all night elves immortality, it is the power used to restore most of the ruins on the broken isle, and is often used in tandem with nature to do some extraordinary works. The new well of power is clean energy, and the night elves have greatly learned from the mistakes of the past to harness this responsibly and balanced. The empowerment empowers night elven magical spells and power, night elf npcs hit harder and more effectively becasue of this too. The effect is barely noticeable on adventurers though as they are already greatly empowered to the level only night elven mages use of the star well can surpass, so you will notice no changes to racial capabilities. Similar to how the sunwell is employed, the Starwell can be used to protect the night elves’ territory
The Emerald dream and shaladrassil is used to link all night elf kind too, just like the new well, with the eternal dream comes immunity to the passive elements - not magical elements, passive ones like not feeling heat and cold in very hot or very cold climates, this is a great boost to normal kaldorei kind, but is only a physical comfort to adventurers as magical elemental attacks are not mitigated by this. The emerald dream also protects from natural disease and sicknesses - again , not magically induced ones. Night elves once again do not get sick. The nature bonding is natural balancing agent to the arcane, even without the arcand’or arcane addiction is much less likely with this in place.
End Result
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Night elves launch campaigns to reclaim their 10 zones on Kalimdor from the horde.
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They eventually succeed becoming their own faction. Draenei and Void elves join them, they are friendly to the alliance, but not a part of them by this stage.
Details Of HoW
The Defeat of the Legion and the near extinction of the night elves from the war of thorns marked a turning point.
In 8.1 night elves began to be terrifying to their enemies.
Night elves are feared
Though too small in numbers to make territory gains, meting a night elf became synonymous with certain death, only the very best of the horde could hold their own and prevent certain death.
8.2 Saw the night elves victory in darkshore took the zone into a stalemate, unable lacking the numbers or power to secure the zone, the night elves turned their attention to a more immediate threat, their former Queen Azshara,
Joint effort against the Azshara
with the kaldorei leading the alliance, and the shal’dorei the horde, Azshara’s naga homeworld was next, an epic showdown between some heroes, an Elune empowered Tyrande Whisperwind and an old gods empowered Queen Azshara resulted in her defeat.
Upon her defeat the Farondis got restored.
In her chambers phylactory of bodies was discovered and unlocked. Queen Azshara when she had cursed the highborne night elves of Azsuna had trapped their bodies in a micro dimension as she had stripped their spirits from them. This allowed the curse to continue in perpetuity, destruction of their bodies would have meant they souls would pass to the afterlife beyond her reach. The strange object was highlighted by moonbeam of light, no one knew what it was or what to do with it until the shen’dralar Estulan stepped forward, he had led a team that had developed a prototype device based on one the many new magical theories of the ancient time. He was able to unlock the device which united the bodies and souls of the Azsuna elves and their Prince’s Court.
The Return of Suramar: The genocide of the kaldorei caused many nightborne to have second thoughts about the horde, and parallels to the legion grew. In time, many nightborne, who were born kaldorei lost confidence in the horde and sought to help thier kin. In working with night elven druids, the effects of the arcan’dor would be greatly enhanced and result in many of those nightborne restored to their original form, the only physical trace remaining of the nightwell alterations and their time as nightborne would be the arcane runes on their bodies. They would become known as shal’dorei night elves or Kaldorei nightborne.
This is how the nightborne defection and some of them being restored to their original Kaldorei form can come about
Rough Overview
End Result: The nighborne who sided with the horde got kicked out of Suramar when things came to a head. The alliance defecting nightborne elves in Suramar are all night elves now, the arcand’or fruit reversed the effect of the nightwell changes, a combination of druids and mages in an attempt to accelerate the balancing effect and eradicate any addiction ended up accelerating the effect in many shal’dorei who were born kaldorei and eaten the fruit first, as it was most (not all) of those who had been in the nightfallen rebellion that joined the kaldorei in disgust over the War of Thorns, and they are the ones that had been with the fruit the longest, it was they who changed.
However many of the city elite who had never faced starvation and only joined the revolt when it was clear the rebels would win, these and a few power orientated former rebels favoured the Horde, liking their different appearance, some of these who had started changing were able to counter and stop the acceleration, however, many of the younger shal’dorei born naturally nightborne had no such visible effect from the Arcan’dor, besides the majority of them preferred the blood elven vision, having never experienced the grandeur of the kaldorei empire at it’s height, and only seeing the kaldorei in their war torn state, adopted the contemptable view of the sin’dorei for their siring race and rejected any interaction with them, instead adopting the view that they were a stain on the elven legacy and an ugly reminder of their fallibility. As such when the news of the genocide of elf kind in Kalimdor came, news that shocked and appalled many of the older original generation of nightborne born kaldorei, most of the younger nightborne applauded and felt inspired by the strength of their new allies much to the horror of their new leaders who had hoped the victory over Elisande and the legion had inspired all their kin to their nobler ancestral disposition. Whiles some of the powerful elite vying for leadership and hoping for horde help to do so, also took the side of the horde, much to the disgust of the others. And thus an irreversible divide occurred.
Horde side Story : Sylvanas sensing Thalyssra and her inner circles wavering resolve for the vision of the horde after the War of Thorns, set in motion a plan to inspire loyalty to the horde amongst a wavering nightborne populace. Killing Thalyssra would make her a martyr and the death of any of her council members might drive her further into the clutches of the kaldorei and cost her the entire race, a powerful new ally. Perceiving she could not sway her because of her insufferable values, Sylvanas and some concerned blood elves who reported on sentiments hatched a plan to discredit Thalyssra, and portray her and the ruling former rebels who were the cities new leaders, as weak and unfit for leading their people. They would say Thalyssra and her group were good for the legion conflict, but not to lead the people forward to the greatness that was their birthright, Thalyssra was weak, and much like the weak Kaldorei, she unwisely drained the nightwell that was a powerful tool that no longer crippled their race and made the shal’dorei dependent on non-elves and savages, needing the support of uncivilized allies. Elisande after all, was the one who truly saved the city, paying for her life to use the nightwell to destroy Gul’dan while Thalyssra hid behind outsiders (like Malfurion did) , not trusting in the strength of the shal’dorei.
Sylvanas was pleased to find a strong and vocal support amongst some of the cities elite, vying for position and power, but the most fervent came from some of the young. Unbeknown to her, however it also caused the opposite effect on many of the lower class, most of the original generation and most of the the elite who supported the nightfallen rebelliion.
Now young nightborne go forth to show their allies the strength and resolution of their race and are eager to lend their extraordinary intellect and skill to bringing conquest and victory for the horde.
Alliance side: The actions of the horde were indeed causing Thalyssra to waver and her heart was not in any of her warchiefs new schemes and orders, however the catalyst for change came from her closest friend Ly’leth Lunastre who was appalled at the behaviour of their new allies . They had joined a people they felt shared the same value for life but with a bold out take, not murderers of innocents and elves who had done no wrong but valued peace. When news of some of the horrors came, filtered in from refugees and kaldorei in the surrounding area, many a nightborne had offered helping hands, opening their homes, doing relief efforts, however when their horde sin’dorei allies heard kaldorei were been given sanctuary and aid, an edict was issued from the Warchief forbidding such and over ruling the authority and autonomy of the city’s ruling council many of which were older nightborne originally born kaldorei and many of which had led the rebellion alongside Thalyssra, this made matters worse.
Many remembered their days as kaldorei in a flourishing civilisation and world they stewarded, a time when things were better, their people full of kindness and nobility, times when the Queen had waged war on butchers for such acts (this was before the fall to addiction), many also remembered the very recent help their kaldorei kin had given them even after the disgraceful Moonguard stronghold attack by Elisande, help in finding a cure for their withering state and awful dependence on the nightwell, gaining valuable artifacts without which victory over the legion would have failed, not to mention the battle strategies from great generals like Lord Raven Crest that had proven effective and life saving in their efforts even the harsh words of the much venerated High Priestess, which had then come as a shock and sparked their hasty course of action, did not seem so bad in this light, as many began to see that despite those words, she had also put herself on the line for her former people, her sentinels and priestesses had died to help them, and perhaps she was owed a little more benefit of the doubt (but such is the relationship between family member huh, we get over-sensitive with each other) .
That was it! They were resolved, they would help their kin no matter what this Warchief said, and they hoped that the nobility of their kind that came through in the fight against the Legion would once more shine and certainly inspire their new quite splendidly looking blood elven allies to do the same as they had done against the Legion. It did not. When it became clear that their new elven allies would not assist, in fact discouraged it, with many fighting against it and when the kaldorei shared how delighted sin’dorei attackers were at cutting down their elven kin, only one course of action would be clear. They and their city would help their kin.
Sadly they did not realise that the Warchief had won enough hearts firmly over to her philosophy, things eventually came to a head, with one group siding with the kaldorei and the other with the sin’dorei, many of those who had been working with the kaldorei found themselves changing back too, much to their delight, however a few amongst them who secretly despised their former selves were dismayed. the druids had been working with the mages as a repayment for their kindness to ensure the healing work of the fruit would accelerate, no one predicted the extraordinary effect it would have. It was soon observed that this happened quickest on those born kaldorei, those born nightborne showed no sign of change though their health was even further improved. It was also during this period that they heard the first hand accounts of life after the sundering, and remembered how much they both had in common, of a time before sorrows. Many a nightborne heard of the struggle with addiction, the painful decision to ban the use of arcane in a world where using it meant bringing back the legion. Many nightborne were born kaldorei and so instantly understood what surrendering the arcane was for a night elf at that time. Disdain at weakness turned to admiration for a strength of resolve to do something like that to protect the world, especially knowing the dedication to Long Vigil would mean no rebuilding of civilization, would mean no use of arcane magic - a life the nightborne could not imagine.
And so they won the hearts of many of their kin. The time in the forests were no longer viewed as some sort of regression into savagery, but a dignified people that had kept their integrity and suffered living in the simplest of conditions while dedicating their life to an endless state of alert - and though many a kaldorei did share that a life in nature wasn’t so bad as it sounded, it still amazed many of their kin. They were delighted to have see such nobility and fierce resolve very much alive in their kin, and the outlook of the sin’dorei was flipped on its head. Many of these embraced returning to their kaldorei form, a form that signified nobility and courage with a legacy of both the arcane and nature. A form signifying health, free from addiction, and power with nobility and wisdom. Defenders and protectors of the world.
When things came to a head, many of the islands kaldorei, including the high priestess herself, who had been working closely with them, combined efforts to oppose those from the horde side seeking to drive them out this time they won, and it was the loyal nightborne that had to flee the city, Suramar became kaldorei once more, the rest of the nightborne, retrerated to Silvermoon, where contingencies to retake Suramar and find alternative homes in Kalimdor took place.
Conclusion : This is just an example of how it could go. end result is a continuation of the story of the elves, that paints a more nuanced light and a better end result of how competing view points and philosophies come to head, one group get inspired by their former selves to great effect after a horrible tragedy, the other takes a position of strength from their new sin’dorei allies, viewing themselves as survivors of an event that almost ends them, but doesn’t break them instead making them stronger, much like the sin’dorei resolved to be powerful and great so that no one would ever destroy, them so to those who came to side with them, would never be humiliated by a legion and would never look or be weak to the unworthy. And so you have a group of people that like the quests that had both factions involved in, the people are split with some going to the kaldorei, and some to the sin’dorei, those who go to the kaldorei cease to be nightborne and return to being night elves, shal’dorei night elves, but night elves, and they are proud for it, those who remain nightborne, are proud of their current disposition and allies. Win win win win win win for everybody, you get a beautiful story, good result at the end, both factions and groups of players get something out of this… I’m gonna play now. Talk more tomorrow
Night Elf Psychology:
The mass extinction event of the first invasion of the Legion, did change the night elf pyshcological core, but rather re-inforced it, it is expected the lesser genocide of the horde attack in the War of Thorns will do no less.
Why the night elves don't go all evil and revenge based
However the Legion’s invasion did bring out a fierce resolve and battle mindedness that was enough to overthrow the Legion and a Well of Eternity controlled and empowered Queen, a foe a lot more powerful than the rebellion fighters.
It stands to reason that after the events of the War of Thorns, the night elves will not turn into some revenge consumed forgetting all decency and propriety in pursuit of vengeance nor will it undo their peronality, however it would once again bring out the fiercest side of them. However this time it would be better, the first time round, while most night elves rirsing to the challenge were not combat trained or efficient (similar to the nightborne in 7.1), the kaldorei coming out of the War of Thorns are already highly skilled and experienced.
Legion Defeat
The final defeat of the Legion is another incredibly destiny altering event that would have an effect on the night elf. The last 10,000 years of all night elven groups and sub-races have been fashioned and orientated around watching/guarding/preventing or opposing the legion’s return.
A more detailed exposition
The refusal of the Long Vigil group to re develop a civilization was because of that, as well as the decision not to use the reformed second Well of Eternity for any form of magical spells. Why do any of that and risk an alien invason that could wipe out the world - not worth it, attitudes to civilization, magical birthright all change because of this.
The defeat of the legion will loosen those bonds too, no more reticent night elves about rebuilding civilization or using magic.
Atittudes towards the Well of Eternity would also change too, considered both a blessing and a curse because it was thought to be the only thing the demons were after and the only way they could enter the world, but it was also the life source of the elves and the reason they could regrow much of the devastated lands using its energies directly to boost the growth of nature rather than arcane spells. Well, it would once more be considered a blessing, but with the advantage of the severe lessons of abusive use etched in a culture for what arrogance and reckless abandon brought.
Night elves need power now, and they will use what they can, but they will never be reckless with it,
More details here:
unlike the blood elves who are all descendants of night elves, the night elves unlike they had actually lived in a world far greater than what their thalassian descendants achieved, the lessons of reckless use of any power being a constant presence in Azeroth as well as their direct experience being perhaps one of the greatest lessons of all, will ensure night elves with power will never be reckless - persistent, aggressive, clever, resourceful etc, but never reckless.
Magic Addiction Understood and Cured:
The knowledge of the druids and the development of the Valewalkers Arcan’dor both cured addiction and helped understand it. For night elves to use arcane magic, it must be in balance.
more detailed explanation here
This is what nature and natural living provide - just because you can use the arcane for everything doesn’t mean you should forgo natural life, this is the lessons they will have learned from the end of the pre-sundering era, where the arcane was being used for everything.
While that extensive arcane knowledge exists amongst the arcane night elves (the highborne, moonguard and nightborne groups) who continued excessive use of the arcane, this revelation about balance will shape how the night elves employ their knowledge and use of magic, to ensure they never tip over into addiction.
Conclusion:
With the destruction of the legion, the war of thorns and the curing of addiction. You have on the one hands night elves with a new destiny mandate, that is no longer hide, prevent, watch, but can now return to what they were doing originally before the legion arrived - learn, develop, grow and beautify
