From what I can see he wanted to gain the upper-hand should Quel’thalas or the Sunwell be targeted again. Focusing his efforts on shadow magic however seems like a strange response to me, considering the scourge invasion was powered by death magic and succeeded in large part due to treachery from inside the walls of Silvermoon. If anything the actions of Dar’Khan should have taught magisters like Umbric the dangers of seeking to acquire large amounts of power. Studying shadow magic just doesn’t seem like an intellectual decision for a survivor of the scourge invasion, especially considering the deceptive nature of the void itself, and it seems obvious that it could pose a threat to the Sunwell?
Ultimately my main questions are: why did he choose to study shadow magic/the void specifically, and what are his justifications for this considering all of the above?
Bonus questions: is there any connection noted between Umbric’s studying of the void and Kael’thas’ allegiance with the Legion and acquisition of fel magic? Did his studying begin before or after the rebirth of the Sunwell? How did the aid of the Naaru and Draenei affect views towards his studies and why did he feel the need to even continue? And here’s a big one - why did the Alliance accept the Void Elves with open arms considering all of the other races mainly venerate the light or nature and why is Umbric viewed as “humble” by some of the fanbase? I understand Alleria vouched for the group, but surely the rest of the Alliance had a say in the decision to bring them on board? Is there a connection between Anduin’s possession of the void and Alleria/recruitment of the Void Elves?
Don’t worry if you don’t get round to those last questions.
Disclaimer: I’m a returning player so apologies if there is an official answer to all of this somewhere - I couldn’t find an answer anywhere online.
Real answer: There is no justification for any of it. Void Elves were obviously an undercooked idea, and their story came far behind their visuals. Nothing makes sense here, this is a clear case of author error.
The only justification Blizzard will ever give is that Umbric genuinely believed that the void could help his people, and that he disliked the other Magisters, as well as the Horde, anyways, making defying them a thing of pride. And the Alliance took them in, because they needed any weapon they could get for the war. If anyone but Anduin was asked, no one objected, or at least not in a manner that players would ever hear about. Taking in Void Elves, after the Alliance already admitted undead necromantic super soldiers, warlocks at the command of the King, and fanatic elves who trapped a demon inside their own body to gain fel powers just wasn’t a big deal. There were no conflicting moral or religious principles, because there are no moral or religious principles that anyone takes serious anymore.
Does that destroy quite a bit of world-building that came before? Yes, it does.
And if Anduin’s use of unspecified “dark magic” has any connection to Alleria’s or Umbric’s storyline, it hasn’t been revealed yet. I doubt it.
Two reasons - curiosity and power, are most logical explanation. Dark’hkan might have been a villain - but undoutably his studies were worth something potent. And where there is a power there will be someone to seize it. It hasn’t only been true for Elves but humans or NE (Kel’thuzard, Azshara, Benedictus (?) )
Elves have always had this unsatable curiosity when it came to magic, tested with most of them actually.
And as we know and to some extent Elves themselves - prone in magic schools - that there is no intricately evil magic and there can be replications to any house of magic.
So that being said I really cannot say why wouldn’t Umbric study it for the sake of knowledge - they had no ill intentions appearantly. Just oblivious to what they were stepping into.
Who knows really it was a pi** poor attempt to hand wave elves into the alliance and i mean it was poor since they could have just gone the high elf route.
Umbric did not choose to study Void/Shadow magic, it was the writers that forced him to do so because Blizzard did not wanted to give High Elves to the Alliance, despite the numbers of High Elves already being a part of the faction. So the Void Elves become lousy addition on Alliance while giving The Nightborne to the Horde.
Death magic is its own thing. Shadow magic is another term for void magic. They’re not related. In other words, it doesn’t really carry a traditional stigma, so I don’t think your point about treachery is relevant. It’s certainly not more suspicious than fel magic. In fact, the Scourge invasion was engineered by the Legion, so you could argue it’s even less suspicious than fel magic.
Blood elves generally aren’t the type to let morals stand in the way of gaining the power needed to defend their homeland, as the prevalence of warlocks and the first generation of blood knights shows, though things have somewhat changed in that regard since the Sunwell was restored. Regardless, there’s nothing illogical about exploring new magical avenues.
It’s left somewhat ambiguous when Umbric started his studies, but they were exiled only after the Sunwell was re-energized with the essence of the Naaru. If he started studying the Void before the Sunwell was restored, it’s even less questionable.
Nope.
Like I said, shadow magic isn’t strictly evil. Volatile and hazardous, yes, but that’s about it for any practitioner with good intentions. That’s why shadow priests are allowed in the Netherlight Temple, and why they can freely study the Void there.
As for the void elves: even the Lighforged Draenei, the single most zealous Light-worshipping race out there, are OK with them. Does that make sense? Not really, but that’s the way Blizzard wrote it.
Also, only humans and draenei are really big on worship of the Light. Night elves have Elune and nature, Pandaren have their own Wild Gods as well, gnomes have their science, Dwarves are fascinated with the titans, Wildhammer Dwarves are shamanistic, etc…
void elves are just a idea pulled out of no where to justify giving a Void version of High elves to Alliance
Of course the alliance complained they never asked for blue elves, and so blizzard added skin colors that are natural.
However, as bad as the sudden lore is, the Void elves is favored by some of the community as it adds a gothy/dark approach to the Alliance (other than worgens)
Umbric probably studied the Void as he sees it as great power. This is just the elvish nature. From Azshara, to Kael’thals, to Sylvanas, to Umbric. Almost All elves want to search for a greater power regardless of what is it. Elves are like sponges so they absorb the power quickly. This is why we have so many unique elves in the game.
Perhaps they want a new path, full of research. If we read some of the NPC voice dialogue that could explain some stuff:
“We embrace a new future”
“The universe is full of mystery”
“Walk your own path”
“Question… everything”
“Remember the Sunwell? Please… I am so over it!”
“Bal’adash Malanore”
“I greet you”
Yes, and Blood elf Deathknights are… there you go.
Blood elves have always used whatever power they needed to survive. Something their ancestors wouldn’t even think of using. Desperate times call for desperate measures. As you said, 90% got killed. That’s why they started using: Fel, Void, Etc.
Now the reason why they got kicked out is because of two reasons:
Umbric was studying books written by the traitor Dar’khan drathir. Though Umbric hated Dar’khan, he can’t argue the power is amazing.
Although, I would argue the Elven thing and magic with Elves like Tyrande and the Night Elves, but Tyrande’s recent usage of the night warrior’s super powers, and Kaldorei moonwells etc would probably just make your point.
Yes aren’t there High Elves in the Silver Covenant, Kirin Tor and other Human settlements? Didn’t Alleria have some with her too? Not sure, there were a few in Outland I think.
Sorry I should have been more clear, my intention for bringing this up was to highlight that shadow magic would not be the obvious counter magic to death magic (as far as I’m aware at least - I always assumed it was the light? In this case they could have found more ways to empower it post Sunwell rebirth).
I’m really trying to get my head around the different sources of magic at the moment, and figure out what it means for my mains. My balance druid feels like the most morally good magic user I have and I’m ok with that.
So Void Elves are like “hyper” BC Blood Elves? No wonder High Elf fans were unhappy with their unveil…
Thanks for taking the time
Although I’m given to believe they can’t have natural hair colours or non-edgy hairstyles? Was there a lore reason given as to why some Void Elves have natural skin tones now? The whole thing is a bit confusing, to me at least /facepalm
There is no official lore reason. Some speculate that there are two factors as to why they got natural skins.
Alleria is a Void elf who still keeps her natural skin. So it’s appears if you haven’t gotten into a Voidy accident, you keep the natural look.
There seems to be High elves and Blood elves joining the Ren’dorei or at least studying the Void in Telogrus. This is confirmed as Locus Walker says he is happy to see Alleria’s kin taking the same path as her.
Fascinating… I wonder if Blizzard has any plans to absorb High Elves into the Blood Elf or Void Elf populations? Difficult, as the High Elves I recall share more similarities moralistically with the Night Elves when it comes to their caution against magic. Or was that a myth? I can’t remember if that was the case or if High Elves were just loyal to the Alliance? If both are true, Blizz will have a hard time placing them with either Void Elves and Blood Elves, surely? Now I can see the demand for their own allied race
Why they studied the void in the beginning was to help with magic withdrawal. In the recruitment questline Umbric says something like Kael turned to the fel, but we chose another path. After the Sunwell being restored they kept studying it out of interest.
Umbric acts very humbly in the Alliance questlines. He admits they’d have all been screwed without Alleria, he doesnt get offended when Shandris questions if the power they use is safe and controllable, and he consistently does everything he can to prove himself and his people to the Alliance.
Can’t say about the high elves, but night ones after the events of the 4th war are more open to magic. If before night elves mostly were very suspicious of the highborne rejoining their ranks, after it even Tyrande (at least in Shadows Rising) had no problems moving around by using the teleports of highborne (that’s how she got to Stormwind to see Sira iirc).
Elves (Of the High variety) seems to have a curiosity for different magic systems. They seem to study different ones first - especially if it’s considered dangerous and then move on to the next instead of keeping on refining the existing field.
These Elves continued to study the Arcane when it was considered dangerous (Thought to attract the Legion). But the current really innovative stuff is being done by Jaina and Khadgar.
They jumped to Fel, which is proven dangerous. The most powerful users of that are Gul’Dan and Cho’Gall (Ignoring all Legion Generals).
They jumped to learn Demon Hunter Magic - all that exciting danger, new uses of Fel and all.
They have no Shamans, i.e. no Elemental and Ancestral magic, which is thought to be a safe field. This, despite being in the Horde who can give the very best Shamans as teachers.
They also have no Druids and ignore Nature Magic altogether (another safe field) - because they hate NE Memory more than they love Magic. They don’t learn from the Tauren or even Trolls, who get a power from a different place altogether. Such seems to be their disdain for “Lowborne” or Nature Magic.
So why not study Void as well? It is only dangerous so long as they don’t find a way to use it safely. Just like all the other magic systems till now. After all, all magic systems can be dangerous till proper study shows a safe way to use it. BEs do have Shadow Priests who use Void. Those are notably not kicked out of Silvermoon till now.
So yup, I fully expect BEs/VEs to study Void as well, and then leave the mastery to someone else as they find the next shiny thing. It seems to be in their nature. For all their “magical race” cred - they seriously have no magical masters at all.
The official Lore Reason Blizz gave for Umbric studying Void was: He was studying it to use it for improving Silvermoon’s defenses.
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