Blood Elves were based on a STRONG request from a poll of Asian players where many remarked on the Horde side that they and their girlfriends wanted a non-creepy femme race to play (Source)
That's a silly thing to say, cos if you knew any elven lore, you would know Tyrande is not magic hating, nor is Malfurion, nor the night elves, in fact I think only Maiev amongst any elven group is magic hating. To me it's clear the basis of the allegiance to the horde is more on the blood elves' friendliness and love/respect given, rather than any phatom hate from Tyrande which has no basis.
Tyrande is suspicious not hateful, and whatever her motives stated for helping the nightborne, she helps them, and specifically too as they are her people, even a few quests where such help was un-necessary or unrelated to destroying the Legion.
Blood elves show more love.. that's it.. it's nothing stupid about night elves hating magic or anything like that. Blood elf society has arcane usage fully integrated through it, night elf society is totally segregated, their is fully accepted arcane usage, but it's only in the highborne quarters, druids don't care for it, nor do priests, and it's not to say that eventually they won't.. druids have been using arcane well for ages (not for spells, but as moonwells) and the arcane augments nature, so yeah, you can use the arcane in total harmony to augment and amplify or enhance nature - druids will be interested. Vice versa arcane mages also need balance and harmony as all things are connected, they would greatly benefit from the augmentation and harmony that the balance of life makes evidenced in nature. Afterall, it is the work of both the arcane mages of the night elves and the druidic ancient trees that built wonders like Suramar city itself and many that were lost in the first invasion and sundering that followed.
This simply means that night elf story will likely show how the 3 core disciplines of their people (the arcane from which they are born), nature from which they've always cared for (from the Dark troll days), and the divine (the faith and realisation of the goddess that started this whole amazing journey for them).
It is worth bearing in mind that it is out of these that high and blood elves came, the thing is it is the Thalassian elves that continued the pioneering and innovative spirit of the night elf people, post sundering, the night elves just stagnate, whether in a forest or in Suramar or Eldre'thalas, they stagnate, the only night elves that did not, are those that went on to become high elves and had to reset their entire society and just get rid of all the nonsense of the both the pre-sundering arcane life that was corrupted (i.e. the ones the nightborne/highborne follow) and the druidic long vigil one they just couldn't stand any more of after 3k years, that preferred to stay in the shadows and not rebuild, but maintain an un-necessary penance and fear of moving forward.
The elves changed after the sundering, and the blood elves have really been the only group that have pushed forward. for 7,000 years while night elf, highborne, nightborne all pretty much stagnated - and are only now being forced to move on, and they are struggling, it's evidenced. How anyone can think nightborne have more in common with blood elves over night elves is beyond me and seems incredibly foolish and shallow - just because arcane wielding permeates both society? That's the only real thing they have more in common over the night elves, the lionshare is more in common with the kal'dorei.
Serisouly people can be so shallow, see arcane and go.. oh it's blood elf, not even reading lore and knowing that is night elf arcana, its different, the only thing common is that it's the arcane, outside that everything about it is different. Culture, style the works, including attitude, behaviour etc.
My fave thing about the Nightbourne ones, is how she proves Tyrande right.
"How dare she talk to me as if I might betray her like I once did..." while swearing to basically kill night elves.
For the Alliance, and for Azeroth!
Damn it's great to be Horde in this expansion, I had enough of the krybaby king, M'Alleria, Tyrande and her dumb mouth, and I finally get to play as a "night elf" there as well.
Yeah, and the NEs joining the Alliance in the first place was also a giant asspull, let alone remaining after it brought them jack shit (don't get me started on the retconned Draenei in BC) but that's how it goes with races, Blizzard goes for what's cool over what makes the most sense sometimes. Some Alliance players would have called bullshit no matter what Blizzard did because we all know the only reason there's so much controversy around elf races is because of the models, not the lore.
huh, all the racial leaders are female too...
Actually I love it, it just shows how much these two elven groups hate each other and plays well into the statements of the kirin tor guards who say the tension between the two is worse than the average Horde and Alliance.
Heck even Vereesa was uncomfortable sharing a camp with night elves and they are her allies.
Just because you cooperate with someone doesn't make you friends though, sure the whole things is forced over the top due the stellar theme of the next expansion, but it isn't a betrayal either, since both aren't allies and have no binding treaties. Even during the war of the ancients the nightborne betrayed only one faction and that was their legitimate ruler, who made a pact with the devil, the nightborne did what they did best and decided to hide like the cowards they were, leaving others to fight.
So in conclusion nightborne are cowards of the highest order, not traitors.
exactly. And many of them are happy about it. Anyone who loves the lore and the greater story thinks it was both a bad idea and executed even more badly. We should have gotten void elves and they nightborne. Firsts so much better. Or even better they swapped the Tauren Draenei races instead. So horde got Void elves and Lightforged and alliance got nightborne and Highmountain. This was far more logical
1. Light Draenei get in very well with Blood elves since TBC and it would boost the blood elf light story.
2. Void elves are clearly a blood elf thing. Blizzard got it spot on that blood elves were the ones investigating the void. What they got wrong was how silly and scared they made aromatherapy and co look for expelling them instead of utilising then off site. We are famous for dangerous magic and while we have a redeemed side aka light chasers like Liadrin we also have a frontier side. They’ve basically handed that to the alliance and it is a very Blood elf thing.
3. Nightborne are so arcane Night elf. Fit in like a glove with the highborne already there and to boot are the City folk the majority of the surviving 10k ur old Kaldorei come from especially at a time they are re-integrating arcane using elves back into the priesthood and druids. Nightborne were a perfect and natural progression.
4. We all know that if any race of the horde would get on with the night elves it would be through Druidic roots and shared love for nature and peace and that the Tauren in the horde fit perfectly. What a perfect opportunity to actually get a Tauren faction who actually fought with many night elves still alive today during the war of the ancients. It would be such a huge huge honour they would find especially since they’ve been living with Night elves for the last 10k Years.
Blizzard seriously messed up here. The horde is known for the power groups. Having the Vindicaar and the void elves but small numbers of them was a far better match and consistent story line that built on the Draenei blood elf story and also void elves restoring more uniqueness to the blood elves making us feel less high left and more dangerous with Liadrins lot bearing that high elf echo.
Without the nightborne the night elf recovery story is simply dead in the water their group continues to be boring and 1-dimensional and just one massive dump fest for the go to group when you want some one suffering loss. It’s zero growth and unhealthy. Bad moves blizz
The Lightforged give no reason, at all, for siding with the Alliance and killing Horde beyond muh Light. The Highmountain have no reason to be hostile to the Alliance. Void Elves will murderize Horde because they got exiled from Quel'Thalas for a very understandable reason. Don't blame the Nightborne alone, blame the entire idiocy surrounding the faction war and Blizzard pushing for forced conflicts all over the place.
True, but I mean Tyrande is still helping them I agree she's not the easiest to put up with, but I'd find it kind of odd if she immediately forgave Thalyssra and co for going chicken mode and hiding in a bubble. Did Thalyssra actually try to patch things up with the night elves? You can't just expect help and forgiveness right away if you don't try to reconcile yourself
I think equating the attitude of one stubborn, angry elf to that of an entire faction with many different races and cultures is very stupid, but hey, that seems to be a speciality of the First Arcanist I as an Alliance player was helping her and her people because I wanted to, staving away their madness and she just went ''nope fuck you, imma join your enemies''. Whoever thought up this final chapter to the Nightborne story needs to be fired
Last edited by mmoc5d54ba8d79; 2018-01-04 at 10:18 PM.