Highborne or Nightborne - who's better at magic, who'd you prefer?

[Mace]

Although they are probably the two night elven groups that will get along very well (as i don't really see much hope for kaldorei and shal'dorei getting on fabulously .. unless the kaldorei have updated their views with all the new info Legion and Suramar brings - which will be more than I expect of blizzard to factor in - but that's a different topic in itself (blizzard didn't even update the kaldorei developments with the quel'dorei from Cataclysm - i'm not holding out hope)

It does the beg the question

• who is better at magic?
• who'd come out on top in a battle? and
• who'd you prefer?

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They're pretty much the same people group, same culture, same mindset. They are the Kaldorei empire culture. Difference is:

Highborne city of Eldre'thalas fell to ruin by Immol'thar.
Nightborne city of Suramar was maintained and thrived.

Both continued studying magic intensively for 10k years
Highborne chose to stay in their city, nightborne felt they had no choice.

Both have shown to have individuals of upstanding moral character [Thalyssra/Occuleth, Mordant Evenshade/Estulan]
Both have intact knowledge of all the wonders from the night elven empire lost to the night elves and high elves.

Although the nightborne look shinier because we see Suramar civilization unspoiled from the glory days of the Kaldorei empire, as those night elves, now nightborne have kept it going, unlike Dire Maul that eventually fell. Thats it not proof that the highborne have less magical knowledge or capability than the nightborne. Remember these groups are not like the remaining Hyjal Kaldorei who abandoned any use of the arcane for 10k years until cata events, nor the high/blood elves who are highborne descendants that went 3k years without any magic and after exile had nothing from their former empire and had to rebuild their knowledge base, infrastructure and everything from scratch when they found the land they named Quel'thalas.

[Rhlor]

Nightborne is obvious

[Deleted]

Nightborne. Make them playable. I want to feel even more superior over lesser races.

[Koryn123]

Did Dath'remar's highborne who eventually went to found Quel'thalas go without magic for 3k years? I thought they kept doing it in secret, then when they were discovered, Malfurion said they had to stop because he didn't want to execute so many people, then they unleashed a big magic storm, then Malfurion banished them and they went to found Quel'thalas?

In any case, I don't think the Shen'drelar Highborne even hold a candle to the blood elves and nightborne. They spent 10,000 years stagnating because all of their efforts were focused on keeping Immol'thar contained, and sucking him dry of fel to live for 10k years (but the blood elves being around Silvermoon when Rommath powered it with fel, so they just got tainted green eyes by proximity is way worse in the night elves' eyes).

Meanwhile, as you said, the Nightborne continued on in Suramar. They didn't expand, but their inhabitants were immortal so they had much longer to study.

Numbers-wise, it goes:

1. Blood Elves
2. Nightborne
3. Shen'drelar

Most Powerful of those alive now (until Nighthold):

1. Elisande (now with her dead, I think Nightborne are probably second-place unless Thalyssra is on her level)
2. Rommath
3. Mordent

All together:

(a small kingdom) 1. Blood Elves
(one large city) 2. Nightborne
(an almost unbelievably distant third as a small portion of the tattered remnants of those in Eldre'thelas) 3. Shen'drelar

Individual power-wise, I think that it might possibly be a tie between Nightborne and blood elves due to their magisters having access to the Sunwell, while it seems the Nightborne don't have as much to the Nightwell, with only the higher-ups having unrestricted use of it. So more blood elf magi having more access to the Sunwell would balance out the Nightborne's advantage of their living and being able to continue their individual studies and research for 10,000 years up to this point. And Shen'drelar again come in dead last, since they didn't expand, and in fact steadily decreased in numbers, and they likely didn't make many advancements as they focused on keeping Immol'thar locked up, and Tor'theldrin was mana-tapping his fellows. You see that in Azshara too, with a blood elf mage laughing at the night elven magi who were using primitive arcane constructs (not the golems, more like elementals) that had been outlawed in Quel'thalas for thousands of years due to their obsolescence and being dangerous as it was child's play for someone to take control of them from you. Even if those night elven magi were apprentices, their teachers still taught them those methods, so they obviously hadn't advanced beyond them yet as Quel'thalas had.

I'm sure Mordent is an okay mage, but he and his magi are using the pony express while the Nightborne and Blood Elves are on iPhones.

[Mace]

From what I remember, the highborne were not able to practice magic in secret. The storm was an attempt to show their kin the benefit/potential of magic and force an outcome in their favour, but they were so out of practice and being impeded as well that it went out of control and caused far more devastation than it was intended too. This sealed their fate.

Also I think people are grossly underestimating the Shen'dralar highborne because DIre Maul is not all fancy and thy don't see it like they see Suramar. yet they forget Suramar has been like it is for 10k years, i.e. it looked that good 10,000 years ago, and Eldre'thalas in its glory was likely similarly impressive.

Furthermore, i think its because of the Azshara quests in Cataclysm which people wrongly assume you were fighting the shend'ralar highborne and out foxing them so easily. Blizzard did confirm it was novices only a few weeks into training that were beaten, the event shows the remarkably fast progress the night elf casters made in such a short time, a testament to the training of the highborne.

I think these factors coupled with very little of the actual highborne shown in action make people assume the blood elves are far more competent than the highborne.

But this cannot be the case, the highborne have been practicing magic for over 10k years, longer than any living high or blood elf, they've had the knowledge of the age of wonders of the night elf empire, lost to the night elves and the high/blood elves (who had to start again), and they've been indulging their fascination and study of magic for that long coupled with spying on the rest of the world.

You just didn't see the impressive stuff and improvevments they gained because by the time you meet them, Dire Maul has fallen to ruin and their numbers so few, but they would be beyond high/blood elves, night elves and humans in terms of magical knowledge, skill and aptitude.

I also think that people grossly underestimate the kaldorei empire becuase they view it like they view our world, because its ancient they must have been pretty outdated by modern stuff, because in our world, we're at the cutting edge of human knowledge. And far more advanced than ancient empires, so they assume the kaldorei empire is outdated.

This is not what the lore says, the lore puts the kaldorei empire as the golden age of magic, reaching heights no one has since reached, and Suramar shows you what this looked like at its height, it is well beyond anything today, and the Highborne comment on it when you poke them in Darnassus. For the night elf arcane users that lived before the sundering, the world is in a fallen state, with so much lost - it's a post apocalyptic world for them.

This is what a lot of players/readers don't seem to be grasping, golden age was 10k years ago, nothing today comes close, sure their are some new tricks here and there the odd thing here and there having refined technique, but the vast majority of things lost. And if you think about it, you had a powerful well source, and you had millions of people, united adding all sorts of depth and progress in all sorts of fields .. it's basically like our world today, but without all the wars, competitive, but united ... look at how much progress happens with all sorts of companies and countries developing all sorts of devices, techniques etc for all manner of things --- this takes millions of people, sharing knowledge, competing, putting things out. .and these guys have an advantage over our modern world, they were crazy in love with magic, fascinated with it ever since they perceived the goddess, they also have super intelligence and got a queen they would do anything to please and she kept pushing them to master more magic.

THe level and extent is insane, a broken world like what happened doesn't compare, especailly with the night elves suppressing magic like they did. The high elves that got away, vowed to build something greater, but they haven't yet, what they built is the closest thing to the former empire, but as you can see in Suramar, it isn't there yet, and its much smaller, occupying a tiny portion of land with far fewer people in it, no way it's going to rival a globe spanning empire - that was at peace and very much in control. They had wars to fight with trolls, humans occupying a lot of land, and they like all the other night elven groups stuck to themselves pretty much although unlike the night elven groups, were not officially in isolation.

It is not a clear winner for nightborne, because the extent of mastery and expertise of the highborne isn't known. They haven't got the expose that the nightborne of Suramar have had. ANd they've been largely ignored again in the expansion they should have been at the forefront and the ones greeting the nightborne who afterall are the Kaldorei empire culture , which is the highborne culture, not the current Kaldorei culture.

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no question about it also, nightborne power exceeds the blood elves', Silgryn and Victoire were optimistic about the blood elves, they were no rival for the nightwell and Elisande alone, let alone the Palace (nighthold) guard and all the guys we fought there. (don't forget when the real fight begins, and the nightwell employed, the battle doesn't even last long, she easily defeats the combined army of night elves, high elves, blood elves and the Kirin'Tor)

Still they do mention the blood elves had a lot of power, so we know the blood elves aren't far behind, and are not totally outclassed (just like we see Silvermoon not a patch on Suramar, but it's not that far behind, not like say Dalaran or Stormwind which are aeons behind), we even see a blood elf caster able to spell break a powerful nightborne shield, but we also find out from Occuleth the nightborne have been a bit arrogant and sloppy, taking for granted their prowress and not updating properly or vigilantly their networks, systems, shields etc.

But we witness a level of magic, never seen before, outclassing every magical society so far shown in warcraft when we enter Suramar. This is intentional, the whole point of Suramar was to show you night elf arcane civilization in a pristine state. The devs said this themselves in Gamescom 2015, and the nightborne are basically kaldorei empire night elves who continued improving and developing magic for 10k years without falling to ruin. And this is the only difference between then and the highborne, sometime in the future, Eldre'thalas falls to ruin, but we do know the shen'dralar had kept on researching and studying because when we meet them in Dire Maul they are still studying and researching and have catalogued everything that has been going on in Azeroth. So they have also learntknew stuff, we are just not shown and on top fo that fully abreast with the progress of humans and high/blood elves.

the only group they woulnd't know about would be the nightborne as that shield would have been impenetrable even to scrying.

[Koryn123]

The WotA trilogy debunks the whole bit with the highborne back then being way more powerful than anything today. Rhonin goes back in time and has no problem managing without access to the Well of Eternity, while nobody else could do anything without it. And when Rhonin did have access, it was like he was thrown into super saiyan mode or something. He was revered by the night elves for his power, and I imagine if it were a straight fight with no Well of Eternity, the only Night Elf at the time who could beat him 1 on 1 in a fair fight of magic would probably be Azshara. At the time, yes, the highborne were unrivaled in terms of arcane. But by today's standards, they were far too accustomed to having access to a major power source to do anything without it, because they were drawing from it to use their magic at all times.

And no, Dath'remar's highborne didn't have to start again, there's no evidence of that. Maybe they had to write stuff down again after some libraries were likely destroyed by the Legion, but they already had the expertise. And with magic, it can't have been too difficult to write new spellbooks. And they didn't lose their immortality until around when they landed in Tirisfal, so they lived hundreds or thousands of years after that point and had plenty of time to do so comfortably in Quel'thalas while the Amani were scared away by their runestones set to keep their magic from setting off any red flags to the Legion who might be tuning into Azeroth's magic.

I think you're overestimating the Shen'drelar, and pulling expertise and power out of thin air where it didn't exist, at least when saying the Shen'drelar are far beyond the blood elves. If they were advanced by today's standards, they wouldn't have taught their pupils such an obsolete practice with those arcane constructs.

[Mace]

The WotA trilogy debunks the whole bit with the highborne back then being way more powerful than anything today. Rhonin goes back in time and has no problem managing without access to the Well of Eternity, while nobody else could do anything without it. And when Rhonin did have access, it was like he was thrown into super saiyan mode or something. He was revered by the night elves for his power, and I imagine if it were a straight fight with no Well of Eternity, the only Night Elf at the time who could beat him 1 on 1 in a fair fight of magic would probably be Azshara. At the time, yes, the highborne were unrivaled in terms of arcane. But by today's standards, they were far too accustomed to having access to a major power source to do anything without it, because they were drawing from it to use their magic at all times.

And no, Dath'remar's highborne didn't have to start again, there's no evidence of that. Maybe they had to write stuff down again after some libraries were likely destroyed by the Legion, but they already had the expertise. And with magic, it can't have been too difficult to write new spellbooks. And they didn't lose their immortality until around when they landed in Tirisfal, so they lived hundreds or thousands of years after that point and had plenty of time to do so comfortably in Quel'thalas while the Amani were scared away by their runestones set to keep their magic from setting off any red flags to the Legion who might be tuning into Azeroth's magic.

I think you're overestimating the Shen'drelar, and pulling expertise and power out of thin air where it didn't exist, at least when saying the Shen'drelar are far beyond the blood elves. If they were advanced by today's standards, they wouldn't have taught their pupils such an obsolete practice with those arcane constructs.

it doesn't debunk the level of power or magical expertise , knoweldge and mastery of the kaldorei empire. All it shows is that Rhonin knew somethings the kaldorei arcane users did not, how to access magic without directly tapping into the well, something they the kaldorei (highborne) develop after the world implodes and the high elves later teach that to the humans.

Also Rhonin has fought demons before and enters a period in kaldorei development when theyhaven't faced such challenges yet, remember the battle prowress in the original timeline to deal with such threats are all developed by the kaldorei, this is how the highborne who become high elves take that knowledge and skill and use it to fight demonic incursions 7k years in the future.

As i menetioned, there would be certain areas and aspects that would have improved since the kaldorei empire days, but the vast majority of stuff was lost, and lets not forget though, the shen'dralar and shal'dorei also kept improving and increasing their knowledge over 10k years, that is a long long time.

I also think that context you phrase the level of power based on accessing a well cannot be accurate. Think about it, the scale of magical spells and level of complexity to do their wonders is unheard of today, nothing comes close, it's not just power but complexity. You need a source like the Well of Eternity or the Nightwell to continue at that level. (or the Sunwell / Immol'thar to a lesser extent). This is what they are use to. Whiles they would develop and learn how to use magic without a well, it's like relying on battery power compared to nuclear energy, the scale of everything is completely toned down, to someone use to that level, like a nuclear engineer for example use to building incredibly complex and powerful machines serving a role in more complex procedures, it's like now operating as a lighting electrician. You may develop smarter ways to use your battery, get more juice out if it etc, but there is a limit with it, higher functions, more powerful ones, and the numbers of people, resources, infratstructure to drive the big stuff will all be gone.

Even as smaller cities retaining their knoweldge, neither highborne nor nightborne society would have been able to continue at the pace at which they were growing back then. I think the knowledge and power of Rhonin has been grossly exaggerated, his superior expertise would have only been in how to fight demons as they hadn't developed that yet when he gets sent to their timeline - it's not to say he was anywhere near as knowledgeable in a vast amount of areas an unrivalled magical empire that no one 10k years later has even come close to .. would have had. Again, i'm using Blizzards own words.. and while WotA focused far more on Tyrande/Malfurioni/Illidan than it did the magical wonders and development of the kaldorei empire, we have to factor in blizzards statements about that age they give in numerous places. Knaak in his book mentions as much but doesn't go into detail about it. WE see a lot more of the detail that is hinted at in WotA now actually shown in Suramar in Legion expansion.

As for Darth'remar's highborne having to start again, the evidence is in the narrative. THe empire is lost, everytthing is destroyed (that they know of), all the knowledge, wonders, well gone, they ban the use of magic and leave all the relics and artifacts buried in the ruins, and don't bother to rebuild them. You are told this. For 3k years, the highborne are with them, and you are told they get restless feeling it is too long now to keep up this "no magic " ban, it's time to rebuild and recapture what they have , having learnt from the past. Malfurion and the druids including Cenarius disagree. Where is the knowledge coming from? The art is banned, where the voluminous libaries of info ? in their heads? no! they are buried under the sea or broken lying in ruins. The demons remember sacked and burned cities before the sundering finished most of them off.

Darth'remar's bunch had access only to what htey ahd in their head. Think of the koweledge we have today.. all the countries, all the companies, and the records they keep, both digital and actual, you honestly think Darth'remar and his followers had even a fraction of that knowledge with them?

No, they had what they were good at, and could remember and had to figure it all out again. And lets not forget they had a gruelling exile that was so strenuous it phaysically changed them after being cut off from the well and nordrassil by the druids ( some lore has been retconned here), the lives that were lost, not to mentio possessions, freak storms, boating accidents, attacks, burnt camps, - one account tells us they had to secrete forbidden knowledge and items with them, hidden, and you know they would not have been able to carry much with them.

They essentially started from near scratch, which is a testament to them given how much they recovered and rebuilt. People often don't seriously facotr in the scale we are dealing with , the time slices. 3,000 years is a very very long time.

And as for the arcane construct, we are told it is the most effective way to transfer knowledge, the only reason the blood elves stopped using them was because they could be exploited like he demonstrates later, after the teacher ( a recently raised highborne herself) has already been eliminated. Using a construct like that is not an indication highborne magic is archaic and blood elf magic is far superior. If you are pressed for time and need to raise quality mages in ridiculoulsy short periods of time and feel competent to guard against any exploits yourself, ofc you would. As the teacher is assassinated by the horde hero before the blood elf can manipulate the construct, it is more likely that if she was original shen'dralar highborne (not a newly raised one) and still alive he would have had a nasty surprise and she would have been able to deal accordingly. Is it wrong to assume this? I don't think so, if she was original shen'dralar she is likely to have far more magical knowledge and certainly been aware of all the magical developments the quel'dorei, sin'dorei of quel'thalas as well as the humans have made since we are told and shown they have been scrying and spying on everything that's been going on, and their entire focus is magical knowledge, it is likely knowledge they already have and vastly inferior to theirs if matching in power. Don't forget you can know a lot, but if you're not powerful your icebolt won't do as much damage as a more powerful mage, no matter how knowledgeable you are. This is how a human can beat a 25k old Eredar, if she had the power of the Tirisfallen behind her, her knowledge won't surpass the Eredar, but she could be smarter, and pack a much harder punch.

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and one more thing, you musn't forget that the high elves are also highborne... they are highborne with a different development route than the shen'dralar or the nightborne. They are the only highborne arcane night elven group that had a break in magic, neither the shen'dralar nor the night elves of Suramar had that, none of them needed to start again, and lets not forget the nightwell was more powerful a source than the sunwell, because we are told it rivals the well of eternity. While Immol'thar is not, remember he was sufficient in power for them to power the city like the old days which is why they kept to themsleves mostly.

As far as we know. It stands to reason that the other highborne groups would be further along than the high elf highborne group. Not to mention that they don't have generations that have to learn everything again either as it is the same people who lived before the sundering that are still alive. This is also a huge advantage, and they are alive to teach their new generations too, benefiting from their new insights.

obviously being isolated has its disadvantages, your rage of improvement will be reducd, you're capped on how many people there are which can fuel greater development, and we see that, it has limits, but remember the highborne/nightborne societies are very magical, everyone is a spell user, this was how it was in the kaldorei empire, as you see in Suramar and as knaak also descirbes in WotA, children were learning magic like they did walking, reading and writing, this is a lot more extensive magical concentration and adeptness in their soceity than even the high/blood elf one where we know there are people not skilled or able to use magic at all (farstriders for example would have some amongst them) and we see this when we get to role blood elves as blood elf warriors/rogues and some hunters etc don't know any magic, even though they can man sap you - this is unlike the nightborne warriors or moon guard for example who's warriors/rogues are spellblades, who's hunters employ magic adeptly. And we know this is what highborne and kaldorei empire society was like... it was a lot more extensive if you follow what blizzard say precisely.

[Aucald]

From the Insurrection arc in Suramar my general take-away was that the while the Nightborne were powerful magic-users (probably on average more powerful that the Highborne, given their regular consumption of a Well of Eternity analog) they weren't as technically skilled as the Highborne or the Blood Elves. The Highborne and Blood Elves were more versatile than the Nightborne, their knowledge more expansive as well as a product of having a greater scope of experiences and knowledge. The Nightborne have stagnated due to their isolation and seclusion under the Suramar shield - so while they might wield excessive power, their fundamental grasp of magical principles and sciences is outmoded and archaic in comparison.

[Mace]

From the Insurrection arc in Suramar my general take-away was that the while the Nightborne were powerful magic-users (probably on average more powerful that the Highborne, given their regular consumption of a Well of Eternity analog) they weren't as technically skilled as the Highborne or the Blood Elves. The Highborne and Blood Elves were more versatile than the Nightborne, their knowledge more expansive as well as a product of having a greater scope of experiences and knowledge. The Nightborne have stagnated due to their isolation and seclusion under the Suramar shield - so while they might wield excessive power, their fundamental grasp of magical principles and sciences is outmoded and archaic in comparison.

interesting take on this, and some points i hadn't brought up.

I still think the the fundamental grasp of magical principle and sciences is far highter amongst the nightborne/highborne than the blood elves, but the nightborne have become complacent and overconfident because they haven't been challenged.

there knowledge clearly exceeds that of others, this is shown in their technology and magic that is still beyond any civilization currently, and if it wasn't for the fact that the highborne were also mentioned to have carried on in a similar vein, the only difference is their city of Eldre'thalas fell to ruin because of Immol'thar and thus we haven't seen the full extent of their capability, we at least can grasp an idea of what both the kal'dorei empire and the highborne of Eldre'thalas live like from Suramar.

Saying that.

Blood elves are probably the most magically adept Elven group out there. - it's hard to guage the nightborne because while they had slowed down considerably in comparison to Azshara pre-legion days, with the shield down, they've cranked up their efforts in much the same way as the naga/blood elves and highborne seem to.. except that they've been over confident, while their magic seems to outclass the Moonguard for example, they use it quite poorly , losing very large numbers to the devices and wit of the Moonguard at moonguard stronghold who take out far more of their number for such a small remnant left.

High elves, and now blood elves since the 3rd war have had to be cunning, tenacious and ambitious, we saw an unprecedented level of ingenuity, progress and drive in TBC, from the blood elves, - taking to even Naaru tech - but then before all that pressure the 3rd war caused, they were coasting it a bit.

Which goes to show that the Elf is a rather remarkable creature, the night elves in cataclysm showed the most extraodinary take to magic in history, within a matter of mere weaks their novices had picked up and grasped a deep enough level of magic to partake in the Azshara assault, the growth was extraordinary, most races incl gnomes/gobbos would take years to have gotten to where they got in weeks - even though they were in the end exploited by a knowledgeable blood elf - when you think about it, their speed of uptake was extraoridnary - the Menaar blood elf female is horrified at the prospect of night elves picking up their arcane legacy, - cos they've got a natural affinity to it, they've got highborne amongst them too who'd laid aside magic, and you have to remember the highborne caste came out of the night elf populace.

so these are 3 groups of elves that have shown remarkable tenacity when they've finally gotten on the move.

I try hard not to judge the nightborne superior because of how amazing Suramar is, we'll do well to remember that until not too long ago, Eldre'thalas was in a similar state of wonder, and the highborne unlike the nightborne were not sealed in a city. They were spying on everything that was going on adding to their knowledge, both through their own descorveries and that of others.

However power-wise, no doubt about it, the nightborne win with the nightwell.

[Deleted]

Forgive me for my english, it's not my language.

The elven races known as kaldorei, shal'dorei and sin'dorei have some similarities in their civilizations, but there still some differences.

The magical development of these races since the fall of the ancient elven empire:

1. The unbroken line of magical knowledge and development:

When it comes to this knowledge and development as a civilization, we can't forget that none of these elven races has a truly "unbroken line" of arcane knowledge and development because of some facts that affected them:

The kaldorei that belongs to the quel'dorei caste (commonly known as Shen'dralar) possess an unbroken line of magical knowledge, since they were able to maintain their society alive, they were able to maintain their knowledge, but the greatest problem that affected their development was that their society was unstable, not only because of the problem to maintain Immol'thar imprisoned, but also that as their immortality was kept only within the walls of Eldre'Thalas, none of them desired to abandon their immortal lives, resulting in an society isolated from the rest of the world.
An important point here is that although they were isolated, this wasn't a true isolation, they still had knowledge that the world was thriving and were even able to maintain some information about what was happening in the world, but this doesn't allowed them to develop their arcane magic in the same capability as the other elven races.

The shal'dorei possess unbroken line of magical knowledge since they were able to maintain their city untouched by the catastrophes brought by the destruction of the Well of Eternity, and even with the stability of their society, they were isolated.
This isolation kept them separated from the rest of the world.
As they maintained their knowledge, they were able to develop it, and although trainings would grant them advancements, they didn't face a worthy enemy during thousand years.

The sin'dorei in other hands can be complicated to explain, but it's not difficult to understand that they are, as much as the shal'dorei, a race that thrived.
When it comes to unbroken line of magical knowledge, people see the founders of Quel'Thalas as a group that suffered amnesia and lost the knowledge that they possessed inside of their minds, but if this was the case, then, they would never built an entire kingdom so rapidly.
The founders of Quel'Thalas were a group of members of the quel'dorei caste that lived at the palace in Zin-Azshari that abandoned their homes and lived for a time with the new society founded by the leaders of the resistance.
The book "Chronicles, Vol. 1" says that they lived almost 2,700 under the laws of this society and were exiled because they started to practice arcane magic.
Here is when people think that they suffered from amnesia and lost the knowledge at their minds. Not even a single generation passed during these 2,700 without practicing arcane magic, they were blessed by the immortality of Nordrassil. They were the same people that abandoned Zin-Azshari.
When they were exiled, they traveled the world and searched for a place to call home.
This place came to be the northern lands of the continent named as Eastern Kingdoms in the actual era, but there is a great point here, these lands were under the control of the Amani Empire that regained their powers after the fall of the ancient elven empire.
The founders of Quel'Thalas invaded their lands, conquered an isle and much of the northernmost lands of the Amani Empire (At this time, Quel'Thalas as a kingdom was only the Isle of Quel'Danas and Eversong Woods. That is why the runestones are at the borders of Eversong, this is the original borders of Quel'Thalas before the fall of the Amani Empire at the event known as Troll Wars, since when the trolls were defeated, Quel'Thalas took the lands that are now known as Ghostlands).
They were only a group of elves and conquered a small portion of lands from the Amani Empire (Chronicles, Vol. 1 says that the founders of Quel'Thalas were heavily outnumbered by the Amani Empire, but was able to maintain the lands that they conquered.
The founders of Quel'Thalas have an unbroken line of arcane knowledge and development as well, but the difference is that they lost their city and with that, their vast libraries.
If the founders of Quel'Thalas would lack of a considerable knowledge at arcane magic, then, the elven kingdom would never been built to be a reflection of the glorious elven empire that was lost after the destruction of the Well of Eternity.
Quel'Thalas, unlike any other elven civilization, is the most similar to the ancient elven empire. Not only because that they possessed a Well of Eternity named as the Sunwell, but also because they possessed the same diversity that the ancient elven empire possessed.
The conclusion here is that this unbroken line of arcane knowledge and development isn’t perfect at any of these groups, because inevitably, they faced limitations.

2. Their founts of arcane power:

When it comes to this, we have only two civilization of elves that has a fount of considerable arcane power, but people are putting too much confidence at superficial analyzes and accepting everything without questioning.

For example, in the Legion's expansion we discovered another fount of arcane power known as the Nightwell and many people assumed that it even rivaled the Well of Eternity.

But the truth is, the Nightwell can't rival the Well of Eternity and it's not even powerful as the Sunwell.
Why people say that the Nightwell can rival the Well of Eternity?

There is a citation of Valtrois that gives credit for this “theory” that claims that the power of the Nightwell can rival even the original Well of Eternity:

“We once nursed upon the very essence of magic itself. An elixir to rival even the Well of Eternity.”

But here, she says that the Arcwine, which is made from the Nightwell’s energies, is an elixir capable of rival even the Well of Eternity.
Why it can "rival" the Well of Eternity? The Well of Eternity slowly increased the longevity of the kaldorei, but the Arcwine was able to transform the shal'dorei in true immortals.

It rivals at only one aspect, but nothing in raw arcane power.

See another example that we can use: the Well of Eternity increased the longevity of the kaldorei, but Nozdormu was able to bless the kaldorei with immortality.
Can someone claim that Nozdormu possess the power to rival the Well of Eternity? No.

But here is when the things fits, the Nightwell is made by a pillar that possesses a fraction of the power of Aman'Thul.

Aman'Thul is the one that gifted to Nozdormu mastery over time.

But there is something more that can be used to analyze the Nightwell in comparison to the Well of Eternity and the Sunwell.

Using another citation of Valtrois about the Nightwell:

“The Nightwell is so overloaded that they could not spare anything for this seal. Instead, they are borrowing power from the ley lines.”

She says this on this quest: “The Seal's Power”

This citation of Valtrois is said after she tries to reverse a powerful barrier put at one entrance to the Nighthold.

During this, she says that this barrier is not made from the Nightwell’s energies, but from the energies of the ley lines.

And after this, she gives her citation that the Nightwell is overloaded.

Now, let us use a citation of Thalyssra:

“I can sense the Nightwell from here. Elisande must truly be desperate to overload the Nightwell like this!”

She say this when she was at the same entrance of the Nighthold that Valtrois states that the Nightwell is overloaded.

If the Nightwell is overloaded, then it has limits, and such limits the Well of Eternity and not even the Sunwell had never showed.

Now, let us cite a crucial point that some people forgot about the original Well of Eternity:

During the entire ancient elven empire, the elves hadn't ever used the true powers of the Well of Eternity.

That is precisely why Azshara and Xavius were conducting experiments at the Well of Eternity, to discover its true power.

Because they believed that they only used shadows of its untold powers.

So, how Valtrois could say that the Nightwell can rival the Well of Eternity and yet, say that it's overloaded?

Or… How she can know the true powers of the Well of Eternity if it has been destroyed at the early stages of the experiments?

The truth is, the Nightwell can grant immortality and this aspect can surpass the Well of Eternity, but the Nightwell can't rival in terms of raw arcane power.

Now, when it comes to the Sunwell, the comparison is more simple and easier to understand.

During its existence, the Nightwell was used to create the arcwine, clothes weapons and the magical barrier that once surrounded Suramar.

In other hands, the Sunwell was used to sustain an entire population of an entire kingdom, and its energies were constantly needed to sustain the buildings of Quel'Thalas.

The buildings of Quel'Thalas were created by using the arcane energies of the Sunwell to hold together white stones and living plants.

And this means that the entire buildings, from the Magisters' Terrace, Sunwell Plateau, Dawnstar Village, Silvermoon, Fairbreeze Village and other villages at the southern regions of Quel'Thalas...

An entire kingdom bathed in arcane magic.

The Sunwell was also used to protect Silvermoon with a magical barrier.

The Nightwell is overloaded and is sustaining only what the shal'dorei used at their city, but the Sunwell was used to sustain an entire kingdom.

Why the Sunwell is more powerful than the Nightwell? It's simple, the Sunwell is a remnant of the Well of Eternity, in other hands, the Nightwell is a core that harnesses energies of a nexus of ley-lines and the Eye of Aman'Thul.

No one noticed yet the comparison, right?

The Sunwell was made only with the waters of the Well of Eternity that was at a single and smaller vial and yet, it granted magic beyond need to the elves rise an entire kingdom.

That is precisely why the elves never used the true powers of the Well of Eternity, because only "a single vial containing its waters can grant magic to raise a kingdom."
The original Well of Eternity was and will always be the immensely fount with untold arcane power.

Someone can wonder what the ancient elven empire would achieve if it endured to its present day...

Now about the usage of such arcane founts:

The original Well of Eternity was a fount of arcane power at the reach of anyone capable to wield its energies at any place of the world.

The Sunwell in other hands was modified by its creators to be available only to them and their descendants from such larger distances.

The Nightwell is far more complex and yet, simple than the ones mentioned above.

As I said the Nightwell is a core that harnesses arcane energies from a nexus of ley-lines and the Eye of Aman'Thul, as these two distinct sources of arcane energy converges at the core, it creates what is the Nightwell, a unstable flux of arcane energy.

But unlike the Well of Eternity and the Sunwell, it can't be used from great distances.

We saw that the energies of the Nightwell were being redirected to the region were the arcwine was created and as we can see, there are some "mana generators" through Suramar and seems to be receiving its energies from somewhere.

Such generators are probably a system created by the shal'dorei to allow the energies of the Nightwell be available to them at any place of their city.

The shal'dorei at the regions around Suramar withered, if they were able to feel and harness the energies of the Nightwell from these distances, they would be able to feed upon its energies, but it wasn't the case, they withered, considering that at the middle of the withering process, they still retain their capability to reason with logic.

The Nightwell is only similar to the Sunwell in its name, because the usage of its energies is totally different.

In truth, the Nightwell is more similar to the Nexus at Coldarra.

The dragons can wield its power if they are closer of it, but from great distances? No.

The Nightwell, as anything with great amount of arcane energy, has a range, but itsn't capable to reach regions beyond the city of Suramar.

Although the Nightwell granted immortality, it has its limitations in comparison to the Well of Eternity and the Sunwell.

Now, there are some points that I want to cite:

How could Quel'Thalas be a smaller kingdom? The map at the Chronicles, Vol. 1 shows that the regions of Quel’Thalas are almost larger than the entire Broken Isles.

Now the archtecture and graphics of Suramar is a valid point to consider the shal'dorei as superior?

Suramar was made to be a zone for quests, if it possessed the same size as Orgrimmar for example, just imagine one hundred players at the same place.

All cities in World of Warcraft are greater than what is showed in-game and using the simplified versions in-game as proof that a race is better isn't a good idea.

Silvermoon occupies almost the entire northernmost region of Eversong Woods. Seen at the map of Azeroth provided by Chronicles, it lorewise, Silvermoon is greater as Suramar, the only difference is that Silvermoon was created to be a capital city for a race, not a zone for quests.

Suramar is only displaying a more realist view of what almost the entire places of World of Warcraft should be.

For a new player without much knowledge of the lore of the game, it’s reasonable to understand why he can see more greatness at Suramar, because Blizzard spit at his face it, but for those that have years of knowledge, we should agree that is a shame to see people using in-game proportions for discussions about the lore.

About the naaru technology:

Do the sin’dorei truly developed ways to replicate the technology of the naaru? Because replicate it and manipulate it is totally different.

The Draenei spent thousand years with the naaru and learned much of this technology with them, and yet, when the Old Horde waged war against them, instead of building another ship with the naaru technology, they were forced to hide.

They escaped from Outland by stealing a naaru ship from other stealers (the sin’dorei).

Do you see it? Being able to understand the technology of the naaru doesn’t grant the otherworldly materials to replicate it.

Another point to cite: although initially the group of sin’dorei that followed Kael’thas to Outland and then, returned to Quel’Thalas entered in contact with the technology of the naaru, we need to understand that this “contact” was very short, and considering that these ones that returned to Quel’Thalas broke ties with Kael’thas when he became insane, we may leave this naaru technology behind, because this doesn’t seem to be a good argument when we consider the actual facts.

In other words, the naaru technology isn’t at the reach of the sin’dorei.

3. The affinity for arcane magic and the physical of the elven races:

The kaldorei are taller and are very strong physically, the shal'dorei in other hands seems to be taller as the kaldorei, but are physically tinier, since they are very “fragile” in comparison to the kaldorei.

The sin’dorei (as the quel’dorei as well) aren’t taller as the kaldorei and the shal'dorei, but they are physically stronger than the shal'dorei.

Compare the models and you will see it, there is a clearly difference in the physical of the shal'dorei and the sin’dorei, even when comparing them to the kaldorei.
As we known, the shal'dorei aren't formed purely of members of the quel'dorei caste, but also from lowborn civilians that lived at the city as well.

They all became shal'dorei because all of they needed the arcwine to survive. If a lowborn was affected to the energies of the arcwine, then, it would change them in the same way as it would change the members of the quel'dorei caste.

Now, when it comes to affinity is complicated to put it in simple words.

The elven races received such affinity for arcane magic because they were once nourished by a fount of arcane power.

During the existence of the ancient elven empire we have 5,000 years (it's incredible that Quel'Thalas endured 7,000 years) and into these 5,000 years, the elves as only one race had been suffused by the energies of the Well of Eternity.

It’s said that the nobility of the elven empire arranged marriages to improve the affinity of their descendents, thus, we can consider that was more common to the members of the quel'dorei caste possessed more affinity for arcane magic.

Considering that the shal'dorei possess these 5,000 years of heritage being suffused by the original Well of Eternity and almost ten thousand years feeding from the energies of the Nightwell, then, they have almost 15,000 years.

Considering that the sin'dorei possess these 5,000 years of heritage being suffused by the original Well of Eternity and almost 7,000 years being suffused by the Sunwell's energies, they have 12,000 years.

But there is a difference, between the relationship of the shal'dorei with the Nightwell and the sin'dorei with the Sunwell.

The shal'dorei used the energies of the Nightwell (the arcwine) in the places of what would be their normal meals. This means that they didn't eat it every moment of every day, but considerable portions.

The sin'dorei was (and is) constantly suffused by the energies of the Sunwell at every moment of every day.

These smaller differences can be seen in how they were tied to their respectively founts of power.

The shal'dorei wither when they don't eat the arcwine, because their bodies perceive the energies of the Nightwell as "normal foods".

The sin'dorei overload because their bodies can't perceive limits of the arcane magic that they can support, and this is because they lived their entire lives being constantly suffused by the Sunwell.

These 7,000 years for the sin'dorei is more than the 10,000 years of the shal'dorei with the Nightwell because of the way that the Sunwell suffused them.
Considering this, the sin'dorei have more affinity (not talent, they aren't the same) than the shal'dorei.

The sin'dorei possesses a trait that proves this, their eyes.

Their eyes adapted due to the constantly energies of the Sunwell directly feeding them, allowing them to see the flow of arcane magic
.
Valtrois found herself surprised by Stellagosa claiming that she can see a ley-line’s flow, wait until she discover that the sin’dorei can do this as well.

In my humble opinion, both elven civilizations are advanced in their own ways, and this is because of a simple fact: both faced different situations and both advanced in different ways.

For example:

A remarkably advancement of the shal'dorei was the creation of the Arcwine, the food that sustained them during these thousand years.

A remarkably advancement of the founders Quel’Thalas was the creation of the monolithic runestones that dampened the magic of outsiders in their kingdom, but also hided their usage of magic from individuals of other worlds and dimensions.

It’s complicated to understand here that with different challenges, people would adapt and advance in different ways?

The shal'dorei didn’t created runestones because they were isolated from the rest of the world that they already believed to be under of the Legions’ control.

The Highborne that founded Quel’Thalas didn’t create the Arcwine because although they were imbued constantly by the Sunwell’s energies, they were using normal foods to sustain physically their bodies.

Different situations and it wouldn’t reduce the development of any of these races.

[Wildmoon]

The highborne continued to practice arcane after the sundering under the new society but it was just inconvenient for them because of the laws banning it. At some point, they openly practiced it daring the mass to act. They got what they wanted.