Did the blood elves oppose burning Teldrassil?

[Talrath]

Never understood why Blizz thought that blood elfs joining the horde was a good thing. Bloof elfs didnt like trolls even though it was the amani that attacked them. The orcs even assaulted silvermoon city, here I get why blood efls would never get into the horde, but meh blizzard has no consistency.

[Ardenaso]

The original plan was to invade the city and force everyone to surrender. No one, not even Nathanos, nor Saurfang, planned to burn it.

Anyway, most likely no, the Night Elves were still reeling of the Highborne's arcane "degeneracy" (that's why most Night Elves still hate their Highborne and High Elf allies despite all of them in the same Alliance, except Tyrande probably); and the Blood Elves obviously would return the favor.

Best example I can provide is Lorash "I hate Night Elves because they exiled us" Sunbeam and Lady "I hate Night Elves because they are hugging their trees while we fight the evil" Liadrin

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War crimes are not just genocide, or wanton destruction... If we use real world examples and pull from the Geneva convention we get a longer list. Killing helpless combatants (think Azsuna's forsaken sailors or the fleeing orcs in Jade Forest), misuse of a flag of surrender (northrend murloc stuff), settling in occupied land (Bael Modan)... all that also counts as war crimes as well.

Yes. Also Dark Irons sending in their lava shit to Dazra'alor civilians and Void Elves sending Hordes to the Void (literally worse than death) should also be war crimes

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Never understood why Blizz thought that blood elfs joining the horde was a good thing. Bloof elfs didnt like trolls even though it was the amani that attacked them. The orcs even assaulted silvermoon city, here I get why blood efls would never get into the horde, but meh blizzard has no consistency.

I heard some asian players demanded a pretty female races for the Horde and so Blizzard got pressured and lo! You get Blood Elves

But in terms of lore, Sylvanas vouched for them and the Horde was the only one willing to fight for the Blood Elves

[Tarba]

It's a war crime, and here it's not even a city here but an entire zone where almost all of the nelves citizen lived (hence the genocide).

Nope. Not a genocide. Just taking down an enemy city. Orgrim or Genn were actually intending to genocide.
That was not the point here. A warcrime? Meh the night elves would not have surrendered. So it would ensure them to lose a a powerfull stronghold. Weakening them and the alliance enought to secure the horde. So that was not a destruction "unnecessary". The zone could not have been taken. With demigod malfurion alive it cannot work.
But hey, wow losses does not make sense because of the rule of cool. So the end result of all that was nothing.

Night elves were still powerfull enought to fight the horde without any stronghold. They could even be used as thenmain suicide squad by the alliance. Malfurion could rampage freely. The alliance had no problem taking care of the refugees. And no problem to attack the complete opposite of the world.

So who cares?
Night elves just lost a tree.

[Varodoc]

The original plan was to invade the city and force everyone to surrender. No one, not even Nathanos, nor Saurfang, planned to burn it.

Anyway, most likely no, the Night Elves were still reeling of the Highborne's arcane "degeneracy" (that's why most Night Elves still hate their Highborne and High Elf allies despite all of them in the same Alliance, except Tyrande probably); and the Blood Elves obviously would return the favor.

Best example I can provide is Lorash "I hate Night Elves because they exiled us" Sunbeam and Lady "I hate Night Elves because they are hugging their trees while we fight the evil" Liadrin

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Yes. Also Dark Irons sending in their lava shit to Dazra'alor civilians and Void Elves sending Hordes to the Void (literally worse than death) should also be war crimes

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I heard some asian players demanded a pretty female races for the Horde and so Blizzard got pressured and lo! You get Blood Elves

But in terms of lore, Sylvanas vouched for them and the Horde was the only one willing to fight for the Blood Elves

Magister Umbric does not send people to the Void, he sends robots.

The concept of war crimes in a setting without the establishment of what they are is a poor basis to judge.

War crimes are not just genocide, or wanton destruction... If we use real world examples and pull from the Geneva convention we get a longer list. Killing helpless combatants (think Azsuna's forsaken sailors or the fleeing orcs in Jade Forest), misuse of a flag of surrender (northrend murloc stuff), settling in occupied land (Bael Modan)... all that also counts as war crimes as well.

The Fall of Theramore was considered a war crime in-universe (there's even a novel named after that). Same thing for the Culling of Stratholme.

[eurojust]

Nope. Not a genocide. Just taking down an enemy city. Orgrim or Genn were actually intending to genocide.
That was not the point here. A warcrime? Meh the night elves would not have surrendered. So it would ensure them to lose a a powerfull stronghold. Weakening them and the alliance enought to secure the horde. So that was not a destruction "unnecessary". The zone could not have been taken. With demigod malfurion alive it cannot work.
But hey, wow losses does not make sense because of the rule of cool. So the end result of all that was nothing.

Night elves were still powerfull enought to fight the horde without any stronghold. They could even be used as thenmain suicide squad by the alliance. Malfurion could rampage freely. The alliance had no problem taking care of the refugees. And no problem to attack the complete opposite of the world.

So who cares?
Night elves just lost a tree.

Teldrassil wasn't a city, it was an entire territory where the majority of the night elves lived, hence the genocide. It's canon and even explained in the books.

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The concept of war crimes in a setting without the establishment of what they are is a poor basis to judge.

War crimes are not just genocide, or wanton destruction... If we use real world examples and pull from the Geneva convention we get a longer list. Killing helpless combatants (think Azsuna's forsaken sailors or the fleeing orcs in Jade Forest), misuse of a flag of surrender (northrend murloc stuff), settling in occupied land (Bael Modan)... all that also counts as war crimes as well.

The lore explicitly uses words such as "war crime" or "genocide". So i don't see why it's not possible to use these concepts. I'm not trying to make a list here, just replying to someone who said that it wasn't a war crime, when in fact it was a genocide.

[Thage]

I just realised how similar the events were between the sacking of Silvermoon and the burning of Teldrassil.
Well, the scourge was pure evil, while Sylvanas at least pretended that it was for a good cause.

With the blood elves' mystery, did they oppose the idea, knowing what it's like losing most of their people? Is it ever handled in the game? I haven't played for like 3 years so I've completely missed BfA except for watching YouTube videos by Doronsmovies and Nobbel87.

It's not really directly brought up ingame, but it's safe to assume the blood elves, pandaren, and both flavors of tauren were significantly not okay with the Burning of Teldrassil. That being said, any misgivings seem to have been buried immediately after because the Alliance proceeded to march on the Undercity, and it's a lot easier to fight down guilt over complicity in something awful if you can be outraged over something awful being done to you in turn (it's a bit hypocritical, but people are predisposed toward that particular flavor of hypocrisy as part of leftover tribalism).

Sylvanas, for all her many flaws, is good at controlling the flow of information, and she used that to her advantage to enjoy popular support for most of the Fourth War, as Lor'themar points out when throwing his lot in with Saurfang's rebels (as he mentions he's not sure that the blood elves will fall in with him on this one given Sylvanas's popularity among the civilians and common soldiers). That's part of why Saurfang held the mak'gora at Orgrimmar's gates; he wanted to get Sylvanas to out herself so the Horde would turn on her (hence his victorious smirk when she has her outburst before she drops him). Otherwise, it would've involved a bloody conflict as the loyalists were just serving the Horde and didn't know the depths of what she was up to.

So TL;DR: They probably had at least a few problems with it, but it wasn't something they had the luxury of taking a stand over as the war immediately heated up and Silvermoon was the last bastion of Horde power in the Eastern Kingdoms with the Alliance actively marching to the north.

[Unholyground]

I just realised how similar the events were between the sacking of Silvermoon and the burning of Teldrassil.
Well, the scourge was pure evil, while Sylvanas at least pretended that it was for a good cause.

With the blood elves' mystery, did they oppose the idea, knowing what it's like losing most of their people? Is it ever handled in the game? I haven't played for like 3 years so I've completely missed BfA except for watching YouTube videos by Doronsmovies and Nobbel87.

I don't think the scourge was pure evil, and nor was Arthas was he a monster? Ya definitely but he thought it was for the greater good just like every force in the damn WoW universe, I think the Burning Legion made it's most formidable opponent when they created him that they could not destroy without our help. Had there been a way to bring the Lich King on our side the game would have ended up being a lot different, imagine a redeemed Arthas with the power to command the damned? No Void anything would ever try taking Azeroth after that lol.

[Thage]

Never understood why Blizz thought that blood elfs joining the horde was a good thing. Bloof elfs didnt like trolls even though it was the amani that attacked them. The orcs even assaulted silvermoon city, here I get why blood efls would never get into the horde, but meh blizzard has no consistency.

To be fair, they were keeping an open mind. There was an Alliance ambassador in Quel'Thalas at first; the only reason they were keeping him busy in the sanctum near Silvermoon City is because they were giving the Horde emissaries a tour and audience with Lor'themar. It wasn't until Prospector Anvilward proved to be a spy, and night elves were sending spies and saboteurs to spy on and sabotage the blood elves' efforts to rebuild, that the blood elves rejected the Alliance outright and used the Horde in an alliance of convenience, especially when Sylvanas was the only one to send aid with retaking the Ghostlands from the Scourge (and possibly the Horde player character, if you do the quests as a non-blood elf; in TBC you report in to Thrall and let him know the blood elves are alright, if you're a blood elf you report in and tell him your people can handle their shit just fine and won't be a drag on the Horde).

Later, Lor'themar was actually considering defecting to the Alliance, and was in talks with Varian about it, but the Purge of Dalaran scuttled those talks and pushed the blood elves back to the Horde. Ever since, though, the blood elves have been somewhat fair-weather friends with the Horde, and are tied with the tauren and Darkspears as most likely to work cross-faction in coalitions when the situation calls for it.

edit: It's worth remembering that not even five years before the blood elves join the Horde, the Alliance remnants under Garithos had tried to execute their prince for 'treason,' after throwing him to the wolves twice (a story Rommath would have no doubt relayed to the survivors to get their blood up; rage is a hell of an anesthetic, to quote one of my favorite Mass Effect characters). With that being their last contact with the Alliance prior to Prospector Anvilward and the Darnassian infiltrators, it's no wonder they discarded the Alliance out of hand afterward and decided better to use the Horde that's at least making the effort of friendly overtures without sending spies and saboteurs.

[Alanar]

I talked to one blood elf the other day.. he said he doesnt care.
Idk about others but havent been in silvermoon for a while.

[eurojust]

edit: It's worth remembering that not even five years before the blood elves join the Horde, the Alliance remnants under Garithos had tried to execute their prince for 'treason,' after throwing him to the wolves twice (a story Rommath would have no doubt relayed to the survivors to get their blood up; rage is a hell of an anesthetic, to quote one of my favorite Mass Effect characters). With that being their last contact with the Alliance prior to Prospector Anvilward and the Darnassian infiltrators, it's no wonder they discarded the Alliance out of hand afterward and decided better to use the Horde that's at least making the effort of friendly overtures without sending spies and saboteurs.

Those humans were from Lordaeron (you know, the people who became Forsaken). Oh, and the Kirin Tor probably supported it as well, but it didn't prevent the Blood Elves from joining them here.
In the end the Blood Elves conveniently forgot what the humans did for them, just to embrace the Orcs who, unlike the humans, had fun slaughtering them and don't really feel bad for it.

[Ardenaso]

To be fair, they were keeping an open mind. There was an Alliance ambassador in Quel'Thalas at first; the only reason they were keeping him busy in the sanctum near Silvermoon City is because they were giving the Horde emissaries a tour and audience with Lor'themar. It wasn't until Prospector Anvilward proved to be a spy, and night elves were sending spies and saboteurs to spy on and sabotage the blood elves' efforts to rebuild, that the blood elves rejected the Alliance outright and used the Horde in an alliance of convenience, especially when Sylvanas was the only one to send aid with retaking the Ghostlands from the Scourge (and possibly the Horde player character, if you do the quests as a non-blood elf; in TBC you report in to Thrall and let him know the blood elves are alright, if you're a blood elf you report in and tell him your people can handle their shit just fine and won't be a drag on the Horde).

I'm not sure but I heard rumors that the spying was a "response" investigation sent by Fandral as to why the Blood Elves are harassing the Draenei.

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Those humans were from Lordaeron (you know, the people who became Forsaken). Oh, and the Kirin Tor probably supported it as well, but it didn't prevent the Blood Elves from joining them here.

The only Kirin Tor to support it directly was Jailor Kassan. Ansirem, Modera, Rhonin, and Vereesa just stood by and watched (though still the same indifference)

Also, let's not forget the fact that the High Elves have been cockblocking the Blood Elves to rejoin Dalaran since like... Wrath? Thanks Vereesa /s

[Camelboy]

Lorthemar always hated the night elves.

"Malfurion must die. As long as he lives the blood elves will never be saved."

That is what he always says.

[UnluckyAmateur]

They did not have much opportunity to oppose it. The original plans never included burning it and when Sylvanas gave the order it was a done deal.

Blighting Darkshore afterwards which we can see Horde forces busy at is something they could have protested.

Considering what arthas did, very funny that blood elves were complacent with doing the same thing to another people.

[derpkitteh]

considering it's the exact same thing that happened to them, they should have been absolutely livid and threatening to quit the horde over it.

[Ardenaso]

Lorthemar always hated the night elves.

"Malfurion must die. As long as he lives the blood elves will never be saved."

That is what he always says.

Wait why? Did they even interact?

[ravenmoon]

Lore wise, there is no indication. We see blood elves very much involved in the war campaign - both in the WoT pre-event and the Darkshore battle cinematic. Lorash is famous in Elegy/Good war representing thsoe of his people that hate the night elves enough to genocide them.

I would say, officially, no, they did not oppose the war. You notice certian horde races are completely absent. There are no Nightborne, nor are their any highmountain in the assault. Whereas void elves are very much involved in the Lordaeron battle. So I would sayNightborne and Highmountain did not approve or at least wer enot eagger to send people

Realistically, theere would be blood elves entirely opposed to what happened in Teldrassil, no matter how much they disliked or even hated the night elves. Priest/Paladin types would have a larger number, as well as some Farstrider types and others who are still more fond of alliance races or at least decent beings.


There is no official acccount of any, but if you interprete it realistiacally, which you should, there would be. Unless otherwise stated at some point along the line.

[Powerogue]

Lor'themar clearly did, but struggled to oppose her on account of prior respect for her and appreciation for her people being the ones to recruit them into the Horde. He clearly admired what Baine did and wishes he had acted sooner.

The other blood elves we don't see much of, just them helping the nightborne share their nerdy love of archaeology, and flanking Lor'themar somewhat in Nazjatar.

[Beloren]

I just realised how similar the events were between the sacking of Silvermoon and the burning of Teldrassil.
Well, the scourge was pure evil, while Sylvanas at least pretended that it was for a good cause.

With the blood elves' mystery, did they oppose the idea, knowing what it's like losing most of their people? Is it ever handled in the game? I haven't played for like 3 years so I've completely missed BfA except for watching YouTube videos by Doronsmovies and Nobbel87.

Ofc they did, Sylvanas was the one pushing htis, and Saurfang. ALthough he didn't think she'd burn the tree. Blood elvs aren't the type to be so petty, they aren't a genocidal race.

[Combatbutler]

Lorthemar always hated the night elves.

"Malfurion must die. As long as he lives the blood elves will never be saved."

That is what he always says.

Just wrong

Wait why? Did they even interact?

He never said that, nor is there any meaningful information to actually answer the OP'S question

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Nope. Not a genocide. Just taking down an enemy city. Orgrim or Genn were actually intending to genocide.
That was not the point here. A warcrime? Meh the night elves would not have surrendered. So it would ensure them to lose a a powerfull stronghold. Weakening them and the alliance enought to secure the horde. So that was not a destruction "unnecessary". The zone could not have been taken. With demigod malfurion alive it cannot work.
But hey, wow losses does not make sense because of the rule of cool. So the end result of all that was nothing.

Night elves were still powerfull enought to fight the horde without any stronghold. They could even be used as thenmain suicide squad by the alliance. Malfurion could rampage freely. The alliance had no problem taking care of the refugees. And no problem to attack the complete opposite of the world.

So who cares?
Night elves just lost a tree.

It’s confirmed in world that it was very much so a genocide and that the horde had the tree at there mercy. The night elfs were able to fight back because there army wasn’t there during the war of thorns and the horde only killed civilians by bunting the tree.