I made a post on the old forums addressing the night elves and their misfortune over the years and how to spin it in your RP without making it feel meaningless.
EDIT: the links to old forums are dead. I’ll quote it.
I’ll preface this by admitting that this all started as a crackpot theory on the fly for the sake of being contrarian during an argument, but hear me out none the less. I promise I’m probably onto something.
So ever since Cataclysm, vocal members of the racial community have gotten increasingly agitated over the state of night elves. That for such a great and savage warrior race from Warcraft 3, they’re always getting shafted over by Blizzard’s story writing. But what if there’s actually an overarching point to the setbacks and calamities they suffer seemingly (at first) random? What if the “human potential” comment by Shandris is actually a self reflection on what the night elves have become?
To elaborate on what I mean, let’s look at the history of the night elves first. They were the pinnacle of civilization on the planet. By all intents and purposes, they basically conquered it. They mastered the arcane arts and if Aluneth is to be believed, at the height of their power had the potential to rival the Titans.
Then it all changed. They got too arrogant and reached too far. The Sundering came, splitting the world and the Highborne got banished. The night elves traded that arcane and royal aesthetic for a humble woodland theme, but the overarching theme of arrogance and pride continued, as events of Warcraft 3 showed us.
Losing their immortality should have been the turning point for them as a race, but instead of embracing destiny and adapting to the new world they find themselves inhabiting, Fandral planted Teldrassil and sought to reclaim their immortality – effectively stagnating the progress that the end of Warcraft 3 heralded and regress back to their old ideology. With Malfurion out of the picture, Fandral grew to be a very influential figure head of their society and even other key figures like Maiev (as per Wolfheart) bought Fandral’s message of immortality being their birth right. The arrogance and pride continued to fester, giving the night elves no reason to change. They clung to an idea of a world that no longer existed.
So along comes these younger races, orcs and humans who quickly rise to become the new power houses of the world’s shifting political landscape. The humans are malleable and quick to adapt to the harshest of atrocities and still thrive.
The orcs brought a lot of destruction to the night elven ancestral lands, but instead of adapting to the new threat and their technology, they remained adamant about their old ways. This cost them at first the life of Cenarius, then later a lot of innocent lives as the Horde began deforesting Ashenvale under Garrosh’s rule, and now the race hangs on the brink of extinction due to the burning of Teldrassil.The one constant in all these losses is the night elves holding on to old tactics and never adapting.
With Teldrassil, the symbol of the regressive progress Fandral represented gone, the night elves must come to terms with their fall from grace and their own mortality. They’re greeted with the harsh truth that there is no going back to the world they once knew and in order to survive as a race, they must adapt and accept some ugly, but necessary truths - a story mirroring TBC blood elves, which some argue was some particularly good story writing for its time.
Along comes 8.1 and its story developments. Many are up in arms over how Tyrande doesn’t oneshot Nathanos and that’s a can of worms for another time, but the important story element many gloss over is the approach the night elves and their Army of the Black Moon takes. Instead of revering Elune out of love, they demand retribution from her or else. The first signs of a cultural shift are already there as they remove the silk glove and equip the metaphorical steel gauntlet. As Tyrande states, she doesn’t come as a priestess and will only serve Elune if she grants her power.
Though Fandral’s actions delayed it by years, the night elves are finally embracing the change that Warcraft 3’s ending and their loss of immortality should have brought. They’re adapting for the sake of their survival, and in light of that Shandris’s comments about human potential - to me - tell of a shift in attitude from their old conservatism towards accepting progression. Because the humans have in every sense of the word the greatest potential due to their malleable nature.
Personally I’ve never liked the night elves very much but the BFA story hooks they’re going through makes me for the first time really interested in them and I might actually consider devoting time to playing one to explore these themes of survival and change, as I never got the chance in TBC with blood elves.
or you can just hate 8.1 as the worst pile of !@#$ blizzard ever wrote because the intro to the warfront didn’t match your expectations. whatever you think is healthy for you.
![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")