The Fate of the Nightborne - **spoilers**

[ravenmoon]

The nighthold has been reclaimed, and Gul'dan destroyed, Illidan has returned, and the .. the big spoiler. The night well is no more:

Thalyssra the new leader of the nightborne people and Suramar, chose instead to let the nightwell die.

No cleansing, no sundering, and she is applauded by both Tyrande and Liadrin.

inc screen shots. What will this mean for the nightborne - where will their place be I wonder?

[Magnagarde]

They're gonna need a plantation of Arcan'dor.

[FelPlague]

??? yeah.... of corse no sundering.. .the nightwell is NO WHERE NEAR the power the well of eternity had
and it dident die it IMPLODED so of corse its going to cause massive trouble

the wells of power of simple cheap copies of the orignal, made with 1 vial of the original, added to a pond of water, so they are no where near the originals power, even compareable

[ravenmoon]

The blood/high elves remain the only elven group with a well of power to use. This is now an attraction to nightborne who will not agree with Thalyssra for letting the nightwell die - although i find it hard that any would do so after what they've all just been through.

It would appear night elf kind just keep letting go of the power they need .. while blood elf kind keeps getting stronger and more knoweldgeable

[Stormspellz]

lets be honest this is blizz, doubt we will hear from the nightborne after this expansion

[Rhlor]

The blood/high elves remain the only elven group with a well of power to use. This is now an attraction to nightborne who will not agree with Thalyssra for letting the nightwell die - although i find it hard that any would do so after what they've all just been through.

It would appear night elf kind just keep letting go of the power they need .. while blood elf kind keeps getting stronger and more knoweldgeable

I would like to see all the elves work together and that each one has a role to play. I hope this is the beginning of a new future for the elf-kind. At the end of nighthold you could see all the elves together with the only person who can lead them to victory lord illidan

[ravenmoon]

They didn't save the nightborne well like they did the sunwell. Rather low key. quiet end

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lets be honest this is blizz, doubt we will hear from the nightborne after this expansion

i now have "never hear from them again" as the most likely outcome of all this. Thalyssra and co will revert back into night elves and we will never hear from them again, like we never heard from the shen'dralar

[Caerule]

My personal wish would be for the Nightborne to ally with the Blood Elves and seek connection to the Sunwell. Heck, take an Arcan'dor along too and see what cool new things the united elven cultures can come up with through studying its power.

But whatever happens, the Shal'dorei, no longer location-bound to Suramar due to dependency on the Nightwell for power, now have a lot more excuse to go out into the world. Which Thalyssra stated she wants the Nightborne to have a role in. Towards that goal, abandoning the Nightwell is probably a useful step to take. So, I'm hoping we'll get to see more of them, in whatever capacity.

[Mace]

The blood/high elves remain the only elven group with a well of power to use. This is now an attraction to nightborne who will not agree with Thalyssra for letting the nightwell die - although i find it hard that any would do so after what they've all just been through.

It would appear night elf kind just keep letting go of the power they need .. while blood elf kind keeps getting stronger and more knoweldgeable

don't be sad, the story is not over just yet, and blizzard do love good twists - there is still hope for a huge positive surprise. You never know. Thalyssra did the right thing, the good thing, the hero thing. Here is an excellent summary and a potential plot twist picked up from the official forums, this would be badass if it actually happened.

Firstly

It takes a great leader to make decisions but it takes a true hero to do what must be done, to ensure a brighter future for ones people.

Then

Thalyssra is very night elfy in her actions it's so reminischent of the wise choice Tyrande and Malfurion make - and a coming of age for the nightborne.

Still though, having the nightwell remain would have been exciting! I would have loved the nightborne and through extension, the night elves to have a well of power to play with which they would use for spells responsibly just as they very diligently use the Well of Eternity passively in the last 10k years.

For the story to show them rise to using the nightwell for magic responsibly would also have been a level of maturity - it's not that the nightborne were irresponsible with it, they had to use it, to save the city first 10k years ago, then survive under a shield with limited resources, this dependence is responsible for their appearance the nightfallen condition, and having cured it and gone through the experience they did with such courage and wisdom - seems to have made them even more capable of being entrusted with such power - and exciting to boost the night elves so.

The night elves really need a boost - really need cool coming back - the idea of Suramar and the nightborne, powerful mages with powerful magic like the blood elves was appealing to me - but it is also a beautiful story to actually surrender the thing that holds so much promise.

Let's not forget that, this choice she makes is beautiful and sad, but indicative of maturity becoming her age and is a beautifully sad way to end, and one that should really endear Thalyssra to Tyrande BIG TIME ! - the only thing that would beat this, is that if Malfurion or Illidan or even Tyrande steps in and says, something like

Tyrande: "in being willing to surrender such power, you have shown the Mother moon you are indeed worthy of wielding and using it. .. Behold the cleansing and empowering of the nightwell." Then Tyrande calls on Elune . "Goddess by your favour, grant children the purity and clarity of a pure source you desire. "

And a burst of radiant moon white energy flares up, Elune and Azeroth interact and the nightwell is restored and cleansed a degree of purity and wholeness the original well of eternity had before the highborne fell to abuse and misuse. Tyrande then adds.

Tyrande"Mother moon has given our people a second chance, for the power of the well will be needed to defend this world again and we have passed the test we failed 10,000 years ago, she bids us to now fulfill our destiny to use and rule with wisdom, compassion and strength against her enemies. You are entrusted with this, teach any of our people willing and able to learn what was once forgotten. THe priesthood will return to Suramar. ..."

"We have more work to do, for the White Ladies most sacred site still stands perverted and twisted, we will need the power to drive the demons off this world and cleanse what was fallen."

Thalyssra responds - completely stunned to tears. She offers a prayer to Mother moon pledging that indeed with her (Elune's) guidance her people will indeed handle the power with wisdom and integrity and will teach and be taught, instruct in the arcane and be instructed in Elune's wisdom. She turns to Tyrande

Thalyssra: "now I see how we failed so long ago, when we drifted away from faith in the mother moon, we gave up the greatest source of strength to temper the power and ambition the secrets of the Well unlocked, and diminished our capacity to act with discipline and compassion, losing faith that would have instead stirred our hearts to courage against the mightiest foes from the twisting nether and the great beyond. We will not err so again."

Turning to the nightwell now aglow with silver energy bursting forth from the palace in a beam (similar to the sunwells golden light and the tomb of Sargeras green fel light). Now dancing white stars of moonlight purified arcane energy fill the rooms chamber. Thalyssra conjures a spell and projects her image all over Suramar, Where the camera shows nightborne and nightfallen jubilant survivors watching in wonder at what has happened. It als shows the palace and city awash with silver glowing tiny stars

Thalyssra announces: "The tyranny of the Legion is ended over us. My people today with the help of outsiders we have overcome a great evil we fought to free ourselves from terrible bargain our predecessor felt she was forced to make. One that would have brought is into darkness and destruction to our race and our world as murders and not saviours failing our destiny. The nightwell saved us previously but also poisoned us as to our shame we hid behind its comforts rather than embrace our responsibilities, this inevitably led to the predicament that forced that terrible and evil bargain.

However thanks to the efforts of our ancient kin a cure was found for the poison in our bodies. And the Eye of Aman'thul that empowered the nightwell must be used for a greater task now, and without it the nightwell would not survive.

A sacrifice we were willing to make to both atone and be forever free from the lure of such unbridled power. But behold, the ancient legacy and matron of our race, Elune, the goddess of all, has restored the nightwell and purified it by empowering it with a passion of her eternal radiance of the moon. No longer to be slaves to a corrupting power, but steward, teachers and leaders combinging wisdom and intellect with faith and compassion to fulfil our former and original our people had strayed from 10,000 years ago.

We have been given a chance to learn from our mistakes, and press forward into a bold future as defends and guardians of Azeroth. We have much to repay the people of Azeroth and Mother Moon has blessed us and charged us with using the power for good.

Behold I give you the new Nightwell by the Light of the Moon - now, is not quite the time to rest and celebrate, let us use our knowledge and strength, and the gift of mother moon, gather faith and strength, brother and sister in arm, and together drive the remainder of this evil that has devastated our people for 10,000 years and seeks to destroy our world off this planet."

Now that would have been so so so so badass. And would have gained both the points from the letting go of the nightwell and an amazing turn aroudn:

when the shield is down, the nightelfs or nightborne can get their powers from the stars again, as they did before the shield whent up, having the nightwell up and running so to speak

I also like the sound of this, though they've given up the nightwell it doesn't mean that they are without power or magic, just without the nightwell, the original well is still there, though it's now more the size of the sunwell then a huge lake. But i like the idea of drawing power from the stars themselves - it really gives a Children of the Stars meaning back to the night elven group. Maybe even pooling starlight energy in the arcane font ,

Still the nightwell is a huge loss, however necessary, and ultimately I would like a miracle of sorts to still happen. but i definitely like the idea of drawing from the stars, this is what the astromancers, star augurs and priestesses of the moon do anyway, even the balance druids - it is arcane magic, but it is the arcane night elven folk that employ it most prolifically, while such spells are only a small part of a priest and druid's arsenal, it is the entirety of the discipline the power type is name after - arcane mages.

having the nightwell up and running so to speak ,probably will attract others to it also, for example, Azhara might become intrested in it, and she could be an even worse foe than the burning legion is, becuse she is already on Azeroth in full power whit an army, we have no idea how big is it, considering she do have an old god whit her to.

yes blizzard could take that route as well, afterall, we have to have new and greater evil to deal with after beating the legion, which has been the biggest bane of the night elven people - responsible for destroying their empire, responsible for the isolation of the kaldorei, shen'dralar quel'dorei and shal'dorei and off course again, hitting night elf domain again for the third time in a row, this time with the nightmare in the Emerald dream, and Suramar and the Nightwell.

There defeat should be very empowering to them.

Now that would be quite an exciting and fulfilling scenario, capturing both imagination, wonder and fantasy and hints at a lot of promise for future development

[OIS]

The Nightwell is gone? But the arcan'dor barely sustains the refugees in Shal'aran, how are the nightborne going to remove the addiction from the entire city? Let's hope they have enough arcwine for them to get by for a few expansions worth of time.

[Deleted]

Nightwell isnt in any way created from water from Well of Eternity, it was created using the Eye of Aman'thul. Furthermore Shadow priest artifact tells you they are literally sapping the "very lifeblood of the planet" meaning they are like leeches drinking the blood of a defenseless host, the azeroth titan. Its destruction is good thing.

[ravenmoon]

don't be sad, the story is not over just yet, and blizzard do love good twists - there is still hope for a huge positive surprise. You never know. Thalyssra did the right thing, the good thing, the hero thing. Here is an excellent summary and a potential plot twist picked up from the official forums, this would be badass if it actually happened.

Firstly


Then


Now that would be quite an exciting and fulfilling scenario, capturing both imagination, wonder and fantasy and hints at a lot of promise for future development

Wow, that would be amazing if they did that, I'd be so excited. It would be some quality writing too I love it. By giving up the power, with it's temptation and lure, they show they are actually worthy to wield it, no longer slaves to it. You are not a slave or addict to something you are willing to surrender or die too. Doing so qualifies them of actually being worthy of wielding the power, both them and the night elves who also gave up their power. How amazing if Mother moon was waiting for the last and most powerful of night elf kind to come to this place, before acting and actually restoring their source of power to use, having proved they are now worthy to wield it and being willing to also be morally guided by Mother moon, it would be beautiful so very very beautiful.

Tying in both original night elven themes of the arcane and mother moon, really bringing out how they were introduced before a race of powerful arcane users intertwined with devout faith and love for the mother moon. With Azshara who could have been an avatar of mother moon failing so bad, they can actually trust Elune again like they all did once so long ago.
But alas, i doubt the boys at Blizzard HQ care enough to take the time to set up such an interesting possibility or use it. Night elves, including nightborne , highborne aren't generating that much interest - although i think an ending like this would really raise the interest and profile of the group and make people excited. They're probably rushing to do Argus, which will be Army of Light, Draenei, Khadgar, Illidan, focused. I remember they never gave the night elves a role in outland for TBC though illidan was the main villain, and they so far haven't used them much here if you do not count the nightborne as an extension of them. I would have expected the elves, the illidari, in particular the night elves to be full on for Argus alongside the draenei. But i suspect this story has the humans again dominating the scene like they did in WoD and the ones who have the most reason to hate the legion, only have the illidari doing anything.
But hey, what do i know, this is cruel teasing.

if only they would weave in their own very themes together more completely, it would really give the sense of somethign new, but not alien from the night elf origianl foundation, it would have that at its base, like going back to a time when arcane, nature and the divine were all in harmony together as all night elf kind sought what was best for not only temselves but the world around them.. portraying the kind of wisdom and benevolence that originally led to the discerning of Mother moon, drew Cenarius to them, and allowed them to really understand the fundamentals of the building blocks of the universe in the arcane magic.

New, but very night elven, i love iet, and as such i fear i won't see it

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Nightwell isnt in any way created from water from Well of Eternity, it was created using the Eye of Aman'thul. Furthermore Shadow priest artifact tells you they are literally sapping the "very lifeblood of the planet" meaning they are like leeches drinking the blood of a defenseless host, the azeroth titan. Its destruction is good thing.

that's interesting, but how would they be sapping the lifeblood of the planet if the substance of the magic wasn't the well of eternity i.e the titan's lifeblood?

and if they're doing that, surely that means the Sunwell is too right? THe nightwell is made using the Eye of Aman'thul to combine the ley lines under Suramar tied into the arcane font of power they had atop the palce before the sundering. That source is originally from the well, and the leylines we know are like the veins and arteries of Azeroth, it's the same substance as the well of eternity. The Eye combines and empowers it together in that form. Without the eye, it will simply dissipate to what it once was.

Perhaps this was hurting Azeroth, like taking some of your veins and pinching them together to divert a measure of blood flow, - almost like a blood clot, which is why it got corrupted especially with a shield and power like the eye of aman'thul preventing necessary ebb and flow by forcing it together in one place - a crude way of using it, but we know they created the nightwell in a rush, there might be much better and less harmful ways to achieve the same result - maybe that's what Valtrois is hinting at too. I'm theorizinghere based on different pieces of info.. what do you think?

Also if the goddess steps in and works her magic, it could be turned into something useful and not leechful as well as Elune would certainly no the best way to empower this maybe with he r own power in a way that harmonizes with the land and planet, just like the original well of eternity who's presence nurtured, same with the second, and no forcing, - something magic users can if they actually care enough too, utlizie the way they combine their source - if the original makers of the nightwell did it in a more harmful way, it stand sto reason Elune can do it in a far better way. They have now shown the maturity now to wield this without falling victim to it's lure. And with the discipline, love and faith of the moon, it provies an understandble and explainable means of how they can handle so much power without going to their heads. the priest taking on the role of the moral conscience and protectors of the elven folk - the night ones.

[Rhlor]

The Nightwell is gone? But the arcan'dor barely sustains the refugees in Shal'aran, how are the nightborne going to remove the addiction from the entire city? Let's hope they have enough arcwine for them to get by for a few expansions worth of time.

Quelthalas could sell or give mana crystals

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This is interesting perhaps if we are going to more shal'dorei in the future. I think in an expa of N'zoth helping their cousins of darnassus and silvermoon

[Flurryfang]

I don't know how many Nightborne lives, but they will need alot of Arcan'dors if they are to make their people "well" before some succumb to the mana thirst.

[OIS]

Quelthalas could sell or give mana crystals

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This is interesting perhaps if we are going to more shal'dorei in the future. I think in an expa of N'zoth helping their cousins of darnassus and silvermoon

So instead of turning into the Withered, they become the Wretched.

I approve.

[ravenmoon]

I know this is silly but what is really annoying me with the Nightfallen quests is that Thalyssra seems to have completely forgotten about poor Theryn

Theryn died in defence of his former city - it is what he would have wanted.

[Cl4nK]

I don't know how many Nightborne lives, but they will need alot of Arcan'dors if they are to make their people "well" before some succumb to the mana thirst.

So instead of turning into the Withered, they become the Wretched.

I approve.

Knowing Blizzard, she'll most likely throw something like "Akshually, you fed enough Arcan'dors Fruits to everyone, the Quest is merely a representation of that" or they're gonna pull some crap like "Now that we defeated Elisande/Gul'dan, the thirst for the Nightwell is fading as it begins to die" or something like that.

[Zandalariprelate]

The blood/high elves remain the only elven group with a well of power to use. This is now an attraction to nightborne who will not agree with Thalyssra for letting the nightwell die - although i find it hard that any would do so after what they've all just been through.

It would appear night elf kind just keep letting go of the power they need .. while blood elf kind keeps getting stronger and more knoweldgeable

Well I think after watch how the arcandor had cured Thalyssra and Vanthir from the addiction and they no longer had to suffer the whitering, many people would be agree to destroy the fountain of the nightwell, now I am worry if this elves are become villains in the 7.2 or 7.3 like blizzard like to do since cataclysm(Alysra from the defenders of Hyjal, Klaxxi in mop and Ishkar in Wod)

[DeicideUH]

Knowing Blizzard, she'll most likely throw something like "Akshually, you fed enough Arcan'dors Fruits to everyone, the Quest is merely a representation of that" or they're gonna pull some crap like "Now that we defeated Elisande/Gul'dan, the thirst for the Nightwell is fading as it begins to die" or something like that.

They don't need to feed everyone at once. The nightwell is failing and will die out in time, but until there it can still be using. They must have reserves of arcwine as well. And I'm sure Alliance and Horde can help as wel. Over time, the situation could solve itself.

Well I think after watch how the arcandor had cured Thalyssra and Vanthir from the addiction and they no longer had to suffer the whitering, many people would be agree to destroy the fountain of the nightwell, now I am worry if this elves are become villains in the 7.2 or 7.3 like blizzard like to do since cataclysm(Alysra from the defenders of Hyjal, Klaxxi in mop and Ishkar in Wod)

Doubt it. Klaxxi were devised to be a threat, we were only temporary allies. Iskar was dark and moody since the beginning, and pretty displeased with our failure as the Avatar of Terokk. Alysra came out of nowhere, true, but she wasn't a developed character.

However, I could see Valtrois somewhat bothered by the Nightwell's fate. I don't think she would turn villainous, thought. (I think everyone here knows what I hope would happen to Valtrois and whatever followers she gets...)

[Cl4nK]

They don't need to feed everyone at once. The nightwell is failing and will die out in time, but until there it can still be using. They must have reserves of arcwine as well. And I'm sure Alliance and Horde can help as wel. Over time, the situation could solve itself.

Well, obviously they don't need to feed everyone at the same time, but they do need to feed everyone. I mean, there has to be a drawnback from letting the Nighwell die out. Simply letting everyone be happy and peaceful without any kinda of withdrawn is simply silly. No other magic attuned Elf Group was/is able to live without any "lingering" effect, the same should be for the Nightborne, but I really doubt Blizzard is gonna bother with them anymore.