I don’t see any night elf save druids being interested in that.
If Cenarians were to be playable or they created a tree elf sub race for them, then that would work for that.
The night elf traditional buildings in Suramar , Zin’azshari, Temple of Elune and the ruins are much nicer, much more and they are more fitting.
Druid culture buildings in Val’sharah and revamped Darkshore also nicer and perfect for woodland homes for the small communities and druidic ones. They don’t fit the mage ones or the larger cities.
My ideal is to have 2 night elf kingdoms, one for the alliance in Kalimdor and one for the horde in the broken isles, especially so the nightborne don’t live as Blood elf sidekicks or in our shadow but are there own expression of the side of the kaldorei they were meant to represent.
For all the purists who disagree, that’s fine, the 2 night elf groups don’t have to hate each other.
Alliance night elves based in Kalimdor, their druids centred in Hyjal and Ashenvale, their priests in Moonglade, Felwood and Darkshore, their Highborne and arcane users in Feralas and Desolace.
Hyjal has no cities, but is restored, rich barrow dens, and tree homes similar to Val’sharah, a town like shal’anir on Nordrassils steps,
Moonglade has a new temple of Elune built there, with a few marble building a like you see in Meradil Suramar.
Eldre’thalas is the full on city, and the arcane group also rebuild the ruins there and in Desolace, which has a lot of country Azsuna style.
There is mixture in all these places, but not like you would expect, the communities don’t mix or interact with one another much, a product of millennia of isolation. E.g. Darkshore will have highborne towns and the forested area in the south, but the druid types avoid the cities, and so while the city types visit the forest, they don’t mix business or bother with the druid types. The priests who dominate this zone, have a temple built there, and spend most of their time there ministering to Elune.
The zones are distinctly related to the Orders (I,e
Priesthood, highborne or druid) and this is seen clearly by how much infrastructure you have of that order you have. Lots of forests means druids dominate, lots of cities and towns means highborne order dominate, Temple and military focus means Order of Elune
E.g., Desolace has a great temple, but lots of fixed cities and towns, as does Feralas, a small forest in Desolace if it can even be called that, and the forest in Feralas is dominated by infrastructure.
So whiles every zone has a community of every group or order, usually one dominates the scape of the zone .
Nightborne
Broken isle nightborne and the Night elves there are all allied together and horde.
But night elves work differently, the orders dominate behaviour and interaction and are where the dividing line occurs rather than the factions.
Nightborne druidism is born thanks to Farodin and the Val’sharah druids, Val’sharah being their druidic centre.
Farondis, their highborne in Azsuna etc
Suramar is not exclusively nightborne either, other night elves around the isles long separated also make it home, it was their capital too, and neither nightborne nor night elf forget it was those who were outside that won the legion war and this possible for the city to have remained. Farodin, Lothrius, Farondis all join Thalyssra in the city as leaders of the Nightborne realm.
While as horde you can’t play the kaldorei model, only the shal’dorei, similar to how alliance cant play the high elf model, only the void elf one.
The Orders are united across the night elves in both Alliance and Horde factions, druids of Val’sharah broken isles aren’t enemies of the Darnassian druids just cos they now have nightborne and are horde - think of it like Tauren and night elves from classic, their druids don’t fight each other, nor did you see shal’dorei attack the night elves in the War of Thorns. They are one order, dedicated to nature and this is their first duty. Same with the mage and priest orders.
To this effect, the priesthood main temple is restored at The broken shore or Thal’dranath, Tyrande is often there or in Moonglade, and is often seen visiting the Suramar too on priest business, new nightborne acolytes encouraged by the priestesses who moved from Val’sharah to Suramar during the war swell their ranks.
The wardens still maintain their vigil on the isles as their own unit, they are neutral faction and open their doors to shal’dorei women form the Sisterhood once more.
The highborne orders are also connected. Eldre’thalas, a restored Nar’thalas commonly share and visit each other.
The thing is most of these night elves are neutral sort of similar to the Cenarion Circle, some I individuals favour the horde or alliance, but this is more a Darnssian thing for alliance and a nightborne thing for horde.
While the druids are tight with each other, this doesn’t mean Kalimdor alliance druids would be friendly to broken isles mages or priests, nor broken isle druids friendly to Kalimdor highborne.
Outside their orders they aren’t at war or hate or enemies, they just have nothing to do with each other and remember that that lot are friends with people their friends don’t like.
However they don’t do the kinda hostility horde and alliance do with each other or blood elves and night elves either, they horde and alliance is second place to their Orders (I.e. 2nd place to Elune or the arcane or nature if they are priests, mages or druids)
This is how I would want it done . Something different to the blood & high/void elf dynamic, interesting, not different for the sake of being different, but somethimg that fits the dynamic of the night elves. They are generally more extreme into whatever their area of focus is, whether Elune, or the arcane, or nature, the lore shows us the night elves in those 3 areas get super dedicated and prolific at thi, it’s one of their racial attributes, the more fanatical elves, less mellow or tolerant than humans or slightly more humanized Thlassians. More exclusive. Therefore it fits that they woukd find more commonality across their orders, rather than the faction they are aligned with.
They are also enigmatic, so this is bkind to puzzle those who haven’t picked up on this aspect of them, which will be ,pat people and which is also fine.
