it'll probably be human architecture because Blizzard is lazy, but I imagine Tyrande/Shandris or some other Night Elf will show up. They just have to.
There is also the Azshara plotline, and it would be criminal if Tyrande wasn't there to be the main Alliance NPC(with Thalyssra being the Horde counterpart).
You mean the same way Tyrande+Malf just HAD TO show up when Illidan returns....? Oh wait. (And yes, i do know they let an intern write a "text only"-meeting of the three after the content was done. Probably because they received 5000 tweets about not having even a letter is just wrong. Though i have to admit - at the very end of that questline when you see the three ghosts sitting on the bench...was a little touching.)
The problem with Night Elves in WoW is that Blizzard loves to show them lose. They are so afraid of Night Elves overshadowing their precious A:H story/conflict that Nelfs just have to take a punch whenever they show up. Val'shara? Let Ysera die! Suramar? Just make up some bullshit how the Highborne exiles that never really broke with Azshara are the better allies for them and let them hate Nelfs for no fucking reason! Faction War? Let the destruction of their home happen in the prelude!
Maybe i'm too hard on Blizzard and they still have something great for Tyrande and the Nelfs to come....but after Legion told a lot of Night Elven lore (with the current Night Elves losing all of it, like always) i believe Nelfs will not get a major role in BFA. It's time to tell the stories of the other races for a while - which would be totaly cool with me if they simply left the Nelfs out of it completely...instead of destroying everything they have in the fucking prelude.
Last edited by Nathasil; 2017-12-13 at 11:02 PM.
I suspect same as there's warfront in Arathi, it's also gonna be one somewhere in Kalimdor with nelves taking major part in it.
It would make more sense if they opt for some kind of guerilla warfare and become something similar to Scoia'tael from Witcher series. That could be used nicely to instill some of that Amazonian "forest ambushers" feel back to them.
Making them move to Eastern kingdoms is the crappiest version of events and I hope Blizz doesn't do that, but instead use this whole losing home tragedy thing in effort to try to reinvent them to something more akin to their War3 depiction.
It would be cool if they go full protos for Aiur with nelves.
Last edited by Dagoth Ur; 2017-12-14 at 01:02 AM.
Having Night Elves fight guerilla warfare (which should be what they're best at) would be cool and all, I just fear they can't do it any more. Why? Because Orcs already ambushed the *night elves* in Ashenvale with shredders and whatnot, according to the novel (Wolfheart?). They've beaten the once-powerful nation into ground so much we're not really doing anything useful either, we're all weak when it comes to warfare.
Nevermind that they have millennias of experience of warfare, the whole nature on their side, their racial leader able to control tornadoes and keep the ground from splitting up and shit (honestly Malfurion is one of the most OP characters in WoW lore when it comes to mortals, he'd wipe the floor with Horde...but 'muh neutrality' just as it was with Thrall). If the warfront on Kalimdor won't have elven architecture (reminder: they added new hi-def buildings in Legion for Kaldorei), it'll be a crime they'd have no excuse for.
Best case scenario for me is that they finally try to remedy the damage Tyrande and Malfurion have brought to night elves, fix their characters and bring up the other elves (Shandris and Jarod hello), and have them finally show why they managed to beat off Legion initially with just themselves and Wild Gods. Please let BfA show the true might of night elves. Currently people keep saying they're hippie tree huggers and whatnot, and it ticks me off so much because I know night elves aren't that, but also that they're correct - night elves are so trash in recent lore, it's agonizing to roleplay one at times.
And regarding moving to EK, we'll have to build up a new high-def city there then, as I doubt they're willing to have two more races go without a capital zone. Besides, Night Elves don't fit in Stormwind just as much as Forsaken don't fit in Orgrimmar.
I'm not actually sure the Horde has conquered any Night Elf territory yet...
Based on this SS from the Blizzcon demo, the Alliance still has presence in Darkshore: https://i.imgur.com/MpLAK4f.jpg
Also, there is that infamous Ashenvale line, which implies they are still fighting over that specific zone.
kinda sounds like the horde torched the tree, but didn't actually gain any territory.
actually the horde is a faction made by different races with a common objective while the alliance is more akin a federation; if i had to make RL example the horde is similar to NATO everyone stick together for a reason but don't have to share the same view on everything, the alliance on the other hand look more like the USA each state has a degree of autonomy but in the end it's just a single nation who always do what the president want.
Actually the only way to solve the nelf problem is to make the alliance more like the horde.
IMO, Battle for Azeroth should be all the elves break away and make their own third faction. Elven Supremacy!
Sylvanas is trying to start a world war, and Lor'themar is just like, "You know what? Fuck this, this is dumb, I'm out of the Horde." Then he sends Tyrande an emissary like, "Hey, sorry about your tree. That's not cool. That wasn't us. We have a well we're pretty fond of, we get it. We left the Horde because of it."
Then Anduin's like, "Hey so we destroyed Lordaeron, now's the time to get revenge for my dad and end the rest of the Horde too!"
and Tyrande's like, "Uh... no. Destroying Lordaeron doesn't fix my burning tree, I have a civilization to rebuild, I don't need another fucking conflict right now.",
and Anduin presses to keep attacking the Horde,
and Tyrande's responds, "Okay, I see how it is. Fuck you. We're out of the Alliance. I have to put my people first, we just lost our capital and our world tree, and all you want is more death."
Then the First Arcanist Thalysra is like, "Hey Nightborne, I'm your leader now! We're gonna join the Horde because Anduin's a dick and we need to make all the expansion conflicts even to maximize carnage!"
And then Ly'leth Lunastre is like, "Uh. What? You're retarded, take your Nightfallen and go join the Horde. We just had our city sacked by demons, then sacked by both the alliance and horde, then our entire chain of command was destroyed, and we only just restored the Arcan'dor and can leave our 10,000 year bubble dome. We have to get our house in order before we go involving ourselves in someone else's war we know nothing about and have no stake in either way." - and the rest of the city-dwelling Nightborne all join Ly'leth, and expel the Horde Nightfallen from the city to go share a dorm in Orgrimmar or whatever.
Then Tyrande's like, "Hey Ly'leth, I heard what happened with Thalysra. Sucks for her, but do you mind if we crash on your couch for awhile? We could sort out your problems in Val'Sharah and Azsuna for you, and all we need is somewhere to not be on fire and homeless for awhile."
And Ly'leth responds, "Sure, cool beans. Thanks for teaming up with Lor'themar and killing Elisande and Gul'dan for us actually - you're cool in our books. We'll get you some blankets for that couch. Speaking of Lor'themar, what's he up to these days?"
Tyrande: "Dunno, but he sent flowers after my tree burned, very thoughtful - I'll go check on him and let you know"
So Tyrande sails over to Silvermoon just to hang with Lor'themar for a bit, and thank him for the thoughtful flowers, and they get to chatting - and Lor'themar's like... "You know, I'm feeling a little vulnerable over here with the Scourge and the zealous Paladins in EPL, not to mention being ditched on a continent now full of Alliance, even if I'm not Horde anymore. What say we get the band back together and do like an... Elven Empire?"
So Tyrande winks and says, "I didn't want to say it first. We're in! I'm sure Ly'leth is down too - her people mostly just want some new people to talk to after 10,000 years, but they are also super racist against ugly non-elves, so we're really all she's got as options anyways."
And so the Elven Supremacy was borne, and then they genocided all the boring other races and lived happily ever after.
The End.
"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
And no other term is as overused, misused or misunderstood as the charge of "Mary Sue." Warcraft's implementation of Elves have many flaws that are internal to their story - they're prideful, vain, and have quite a checkered history (such as a brush with inviting planetary devastation). A Mary Sue character's flaws are all either superficial or actually serve as net-positives. Elves neither steal the spotlight in the Warcraft universe nor are possessed of benefits far outweighing their flaws.
Med'an is a Mary Sue character (and race, if you want to get specific) - I can think of no other Elf in the Warcraft universe that measures up to the litmus test he provides as an illustration of Mary Sue-ism.
"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
A race that is:
More or less immortal (and without making you half dragon !)
Always young and pretty (if you look older than 18 you are a hag !)
Stronger than humans*
Faster than humans*
Better at everything at humans*
Super skilled at combat/always super experienced
Sexy women 90-60-90 with no exceptions.
And all of that without being mary sue because they are your racial traits - what a deal ! And with that, your character doesnt even need something as reduntant like personality.
*humans doesn't include "teh chosen one"
If elves are so full of potential then lets look at suramar....oh its player 2 blood elves. And driders, how original. I never seen dark skinner elves turning into spider monsters. And hey, those dont even need goddess, they do so purely out of instinct.
Offset by being:
Xenophobic to the point of absurdity
Generally disliked (due to envy, jealousy, or a reaction to arrogance real or imagined)
Addicted to magic and/or bound by ancient pacts
Staid and mostly unchanging
Eclipsed by human skill at magic, engineering ingenuity, etc.
Suramar is an example the darker aspects of the utopian concept - beautiful to look at it, but festering with corruption and vice at its core. Most of its citizenry are indolent - dusty relics of a bygone age content and besotted by supping on the very lifeblood of the world they inhabit. Only a precious minority of them actually set out to do what is right, overturning the decadence that had been place for 10,000 years. Political dissidents exiled to the wilds, forced to go mad from withdrawal and literally devolve into husks that then go on to prey on other uninvolved parties? A leader who allows misguided fear to propel into an alliance with extradimensional aliens whose goal is the corruption/destruction of the world to save her own skin?
Everything is easier when you look only at surface characteristics - but there's a wealth of detail below the surfaces, the Nightborne and the Blood Elves share a common root but they couldn't be more different when you get down to the specifics.
"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see." ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Actually suramar is example of - Elven leader (kael/elisander) makes deal with a devil (KJ/gul'dan) over source of power (sunwell/nightwell) that is used for generic world ending scheme (aka summoning of some weird shit in both cases) which makes secondary leader (theron/thalyssra) rebel against them which leads to civil war where forces of evil leader (sunfury/whatever assholes from nighthold were called, duskwatch i think) clash against good part of their race (silvermoon army and SSO/nightborne rebels) and win agaisnt them, caputing said source of power and resolving problems with mana starvation (restoration of sunwell/magical tree full of mana fruits).
Whoa those are totally diffrent.