Does Alleria also officially lead the High Elves?

[Ardenaso]

High Elves are a mess.

In War3 they were all dying from power withdrawal addiction, so Blood Elves gets power from fel and after that from Naaru and after that from the restored Sunwell.

Meanwhile, we got blue-eyed elves just doing their normal walk in the forest with prince Anduin like nothing ever hit them. Why every elf in the world suffered from addiction but the oh almighty blue eyed ones are just mad about everyone else?

Garithos was right all along.

I think it's because they were privileged enough to have some mana crystals to soothe them like what Rhonin gave to Vereesa so she wouldn't need to transform into a Blood Elf

Now what I need to know is about the High Elves who were part of the Kalimdor Brigades and those in Outland Expedition

[ReVnX]

So the Horde got expelled from Dalaran by 12 high elves ? Alright keep going on x)

And one very angry mage

[Soon-TM]

And one very angry mage

Who also happened to be OP af. And still is.

[Ehrenpanzer]

I cant understand what peoples massive boner for High Elves is........

[Grazrug]

What high elves? There is no grander faction uniting them. They are scattered around with maybe the Dalaran faction of the silver covenant.

[Alanar]

I cant understand what peoples massive boner for High Elves is........

Same here.., these topics ate killing every viber in my body and my soul is nearly destroyed by the liked of ravenmoon and that 1 super alleria fan who pops up in every thread that has anything to do with elves. All these topic these guys make are all coming down to 1 thing: high elf. The newsfeed on frontpage has the word elf/highborne or alleria in it 9 out of the 10 times.

Collect your essays on high elves and put them where they belong.. yeaaa you guessed it: the big nerdy high elves thread.

Sorry about the wording, but this is making many people annoyed to say the least.

The best solution about these left and right high elves, is to focus on the actual story and give these.. void elves more story, so either join the blood elves or void elves and let the high elf bs die.

[Josyel]

The High Elven exiles are angry because they were expelled from Quel'Thalas en masse because they refused to draw Arcane energy from living creatures and/or Fel, and were driving something of a wedge in Blood/High Elven society due to causing significant unrest. Lor'themar exiled all these objectors to ensure the stability of Sin'dorei society as they were both trying to sue for inclusion in the Horde and because they lacked the power to quell any kind of civil war these objectors might prompt. Cut off from Silvermoon and Quel'Thalas, many of these High Elves were rendered easy picking for the Scourge remnants of the Plaguelands (and in the case of Quel'Lithien Lodge the depredations of Nathanos Marris). Suffice it to say, the High Elven exiles carry a pretty hefty chip on their shoulders as they consider their treatment by the Sin'dorei to be deeply unfair and unjust.

Hmmm, that would explain why they "hate" other elves, or just dont wanna pick any side, or even return "home". Even if its kind of dumb, after all those years and watching all their brothers suffer, that they are still mad because they got exiled for not following their leader...

But it still doesnt explain why they dont suffer from addiction. They didnt want to draw energy from other living things. So what? Did all of them get acess to mana crystals? Do they still do? Or does the sunwell gives them energy from whatever place they are?

Its a shame, because we saw the fall and rise of Sindorei because of that. We saw the fall and rise of the Nightborne because of that. We even know that night elves got their power because of the world trees.

[Aucald]

Hmmm, that would explain why they "hate" other elves, or just dont wanna pick any side, or even return "home". Even if its kind of dumb, after all those years and watching all their brothers suffer, that they are still mad because they got exiled for not following their leader...

But it still doesnt explain why they dont suffer from addiction. They didnt want to draw energy from other living things. So what? Did all of them get acess to mana crystals? Do they still do? Or does the sunwell gives them energy from whatever place they are?

Its a shame, because we saw the fall and rise of Sindorei because of that. We saw the fall and rise of the Nightborne because of that. We even know that night elves got their power because of the world trees.

Arcane addiction isn't a permanent state, it turns out - you could, over time and with great diligence, overcome it without necessarily losing yourself. It was intensely rough on the young and the old, of course, so those High Elven exiles who were children or approaching their twilight years often died from the rigors of withdrawal. There was the ever-looming specter of over-indulgence if one did find an external means of satisfying the addiction via artifacts, relics, or what have you; overindulgence leading directly to transformation into one of the Wretched.

Those in Dalaran had it the easiest, as they could rely on magical items or relics to sate the addiction safely - and were probably helped and monitored by the Kirin Tor. High Elven exiles in the various lodges peppered across Azeroth more or less managed to go cold turkey, albeit with high attrition rates relative to their populations. Nightborne addiction to the Arcane was more acute than that of the High/Blood Elves, due to their reliance on imbibing the substance of Arcane/Ley power directly from their Nightwell, which in turn caused their withdrawal to be invariably fatal (with fast transformation into Nightfallen and eventually feral Withered in only days) until the arcan'dor fruit was discovered.

[cparle87]

The upcoming novel will probably touch upon this subject. Alleria will be a major character, so Vereesa most likely will appear or anyway be mentioned, along with the status of the High elves.

This is an interesting question though, because for years Vereesa led the High elves, believing that her sister was dead. But Vereesa is not powerhungry, she does not care that much about her political status so long as she gets to do what she wants, so I don't think she'd have any problem giving the position of Ranger-General of the Silver Covenant to Alleria.

She led one group of high elves. There were the ones in Dalaran, the ones in Hinterlands, the ones in Eastern Plaguelands, the ones in Terokkar, the ones in Stormwind. Vereesa was only the leader of the ones in Dalaran.

[Grazrug]

Same here.., these topics ate killing every viber in my body and my soul is nearly destroyed by the liked of ravenmoon and that 1 super alleria fan who pops up in every thread that has anything to do with elves. All these topic these guys make are all coming down to 1 thing: high elf. The newsfeed on frontpage has the word elf/highborne or alleria in it 9 out of the 10 times.

Collect your essays on high elves and put them where they belong.. yeaaa you guessed it: the big nerdy high elves thread.

Sorry about the wording, but this is making many people annoyed to say the least.

The best solution about these left and right high elves, is to focus on the actual story and give these.. void elves more story, so either join the blood elves or void elves and let the high elf bs die.

Nothing else to say. Move the topic to the mega thread.

[Shakana]

I think Veressa should be the one always leading the high elves. And Alleria the void elves.

[Varodoc]

Or maybe Umbric becomes the sole leader of the Void elves while Vereesa remains leader of the High elves, while Alleria becomes the overall leader of the Void elf-High elf alliance. This could happen if they are planning to write a Thalassian civil war (I know it's a dead horse at this point, since Silvermoon was not a Warfront after all, but oh well).

[GreenJesus]

Arcane addiction isn't a permanent state, it turns out - you could, over time and with great diligence, overcome it without necessarily losing yourself. It was intensely rough on the young and the old, of course, so those High Elven exiles who were children or approaching their twilight years often died from the rigors of withdrawal. There was the ever-looming specter of over-indulgence if one did find an external means of satisfying the addiction via artifacts, relics, or what have you; overindulgence leading directly to transformation into one of the Wretched.

Those in Dalaran had it the easiest, as they could rely on magical items or relics to sate the addiction safely - and were probably helped and monitored by the Kirin Tor. High Elven exiles in the various lodges peppered across Azeroth more or less managed to go cold turkey, albeit with high attrition rates relative to their populations. Nightborne addiction to the Arcane was more acute than that of the High/Blood Elves, due to their reliance on imbibing the substance of Arcane/Ley power directly from their Nightwell, which in turn caused their withdrawal to be invariably fatal (with fast transformation into Nightfallen and eventually feral Withered in only days) until the arcan'dor fruit was discovered.

I think the situation was similar to 5G deployment in the USA. 5G will improve society in so many ways, but some boomers say "but the radio waves will cause caaaaanceeer!" (someone in my neighborhood) and petition for them to be removed. Now everyone is unable to have the benefit because of some boomers. Except in this case, it is a life and death/extreme pain situation from the withdrawals. If those boomers don't want the 5G waves then they can go move to Montana and live on some cattle farm in the middle of nowhere just like the High elves went to random Lodges.

[tru]

There are so few high elves left I doubt it really matters if they have a leader, they have no power

Void elves came outa thin air...just saying.

[Aucald]

I think the situation was similar to 5G deployment in the USA. 5G will improve society in so many ways, but some boomers say "but the radio waves will cause caaaaanceeer!" (someone in my neighborhood) and petition for them to be removed. Now everyone is unable to have the benefit because of some boomers. Except in this case, it is a life and death/extreme pain situation from the withdrawals. If those boomers don't want the 5G waves then they can go move to Montana and live on some cattle farm in the middle of nowhere just like the High elves went to random Lodges.

Well, for the High/Blood Elves the situation is somewhat the inverse of that - they were addicted to 5G (the Arcane in this case), and when it stopped broadcasting because the transmitter network went down (the Sunwell was lost) then they started to suffer from withdrawal and sickness. The Blood Elves, in this analogy, were able to make do by cracking open routers and signal multiplexers to sup on the precious Wi-Fi still within them - but the High Elves refused this reckless vandalism and instead committed themselves more or less to a slow and arduous process of weaning themselves off of 5G for the rest of their lives.

The Blood Elves eventually restored the old network, more or less, including a Light-based upgrade to 6G. But the High Elves, having been exiled for refusing to indulge in their baser natures due to the scarcity, have overcome their reliance on ambient Wi-Fi.

[Nurvus]

There are so few high elves left I doubt it really matters if they have a leader, they have no power

Imagine Alleria leading a playable group of Void-infused High Elves that is a fraction of those "non-Horde" High Elves.

[Obelisk Kai]

Arcane addiction isn't a permanent state, it turns out - you could, over time and with great diligence, overcome it without necessarily losing yourself. It was intensely rough on the young and the old, of course, so those High Elven exiles who were children or approaching their twilight years often died from the rigors of withdrawal. There was the ever-looming specter of over-indulgence if one did find an external means of satisfying the addiction via artifacts, relics, or what have you; overindulgence leading directly to transformation into one of the Wretched.

I don't think the cold turkey route is as successful as you imply here. Through great diligence you could overcome the addiction, but the Warcraft encyclopedia (which of course remains canon as of the time it was written) said the following

Such a low rate of attrition might be considered an argument in favor of simply forgoing magic and suffering through the consequences. Indeed, a few high elves are said to have succeeded in taking this route through sheer willpower: they survived the process, however unpleasant. Apparently certain magical artifacts also ameliorate the symptoms of withdrawal and might, if sufficiently powerful, be able to suppress them altogether.

This is not to say, however, that withdrawal from magic would leave the high elves unharmed. On the contrary, permanent mental or physical damage is possible.

The addiction to magic isn't just in the minds of the thalassian elves. There is a real, physical need for a constant infusion of magical energy, a quirk of their physiology as a result of millenia of dependence upon the Sunwell. What I believe the above passage strongly implies is that those who went cold turkey managed to achieve a temporary respite from the pangs of their addiction through sheer willpower. However, without magic, I suspect as the years wore on they would have been increasingly ravaged by physical and mental degradation. Who knows what sate they would have ended up in had they continued?

Kael may have been wrong in seeing the loss of a Sunwell as a mortal threat, but Illidan was surely right when he said their addiction had no cure.

Of course, the entire discussion is now moot. The restoration of the Sunwell has ensured that all thalassians (with the very likely exception of the Void Elves), even those who tried the cold turkey approach , can sate their thirst from magic directly from the radiance of the Sunwell itself.

- - - Updated - - -

The Blood Elves eventually restored the old network, more or less, including a Light-based upgrade to 6G. But the High Elves, having been exiled for refusing to indulge in their baser natures due to the scarcity, have overcome their reliance on ambient Wi-Fi.

I have to disagree on this. In the Shadow of the Sun clearly indicates that the high elves can feel the Sunwell again (though it 'feels' different). Coupled with the encyclopedia's comment that withdrawal risks the physical and mental health of the individual AND the presence of high elf pilgrims at the Sunwell during the WOTLK questline, I simply find no basis for the idea that the high elves have overcome their addiction.

I also find no basis for the idea that the high elves wouldn't have embraced the Sunwell following it's restoration as much as the Blood Elves did (the high elven pilgrims are proof of this). The Sunwell was restored for everyone and is partaken of by everyone once again.

Except the Void Elves because while not confirmed it is logical to assume that a void based physiology is incompatible with a light based energy source. They likely sate their addiction through their connection to the void now.

[Ardenaso]

Same here.., these topics ate killing every viber in my body and my soul is nearly destroyed by the liked of ravenmoon and that 1 super alleria fan who pops up in every thread that has anything to do with elves. All these topic these guys make are all coming down to 1 thing: high elf. The newsfeed on frontpage has the word elf/highborne or alleria in it 9 out of the 10 times.

Collect your essays on high elves and put them where they belong.. yeaaa you guessed it: the big nerdy high elves thread.

Sorry about the wording, but this is making many people annoyed to say the least.

The best solution about these left and right high elves, is to focus on the actual story and give these.. void elves more story, so either join the blood elves or void elves and let the high elf bs die.

I already bumped the Alteraci Human thread and I'm afraid I'll get banned for real if I bumped another one; sorry

Anyway, if you think the High Elf fanboys/fangirls were annoying enough, watch me flood and spam Alteraci Human suggestions

[Aucald]

I don't think the cold turkey route is as successful as you imply here. Through great diligence you could overcome the addiction, but the Warcraft encyclopedia (which of course remains canon as of the time it was written) said the following

Such a low rate of attrition might be considered an argument in favor of simply forgoing magic and suffering through the consequences. Indeed, a few high elves are said to have succeeded in taking this route through sheer willpower: they survived the process, however unpleasant. Apparently certain magical artifacts also ameliorate the symptoms of withdrawal and might, if sufficiently powerful, be able to suppress them altogether.

This is not to say, however, that withdrawal from magic would leave the high elves unharmed. On the contrary, permanent mental or physical damage is possible.

The addiction to magic isn't just in the minds of the thalassian elves. There is a real, physical need for a constant infusion of magical energy, a quirk of their physiology as a result of millenia of dependence upon the Sunwell. What I believe the above passage strongly implies is that those who went cold turkey managed to achieve a temporary respite from the pangs of their addiction through sheer willpower. However, without magic, I suspect as the years wore on they would have been increasingly ravaged by physical and mental degradation. Who knows what sate they would have ended up in had they continued?

Kael may have been wrong in seeing the loss of a Sunwell as a mortal threat, but Illidan was surely right when he said their addiction had no cure.

Of course, the entire discussion is now moot. The restoration of the Sunwell has ensured that all thalassians (with the very likely exception of the Void Elves), even those who tried the cold turkey approach , can sate their thirst from magic directly from the radiance of the Sunwell itself.

As I said above, and your quote confirms, going cold turkey is indeed possible but led to a high rate of attrition due to the arduousness of the process. Those High Elves remaining in Dalaran had more success in managing their addiction through access to magical items and with the aid of the Kirin Tor - weaning themselves off the Sunwell's absence slowly but surely, or managing the condition without succumbing to either withdrawal-based illness and death or conversion to the Wretched. Permanent damage being possible doesn't mean it is guaranteed, after all, and damage alone isn't necessarily fatal in the long-term sense.

Your quote goes to show that both Kael'thas and Illidan were wrong about Arcane addiction, as it is possible to overcome it - it's just an arduous and long process that neither individual wished to undergo for reasons of their own.

I have to disagree on this. In the Shadow of the Sun clearly indicates that the high elves can feel the Sunwell again (though it 'feels' different). Coupled with the encyclopedia's comment that withdrawal risks the physical and mental health of the individual AND the presence of high elf pilgrims at the Sunwell during the WOTLK questline, I simply find no basis for the idea that the high elves have overcome their addiction.

I also find no basis for the idea that the high elves wouldn't have embraced the Sunwell following it's restoration as much as the Blood Elves did (the high elven pilgrims are proof of this). The Sunwell was restored for everyone and is partaken of by everyone once again.

Except the Void Elves because while not confirmed it is logical to assume that a void based physiology is incompatible with a light based energy source. They likely sate their addiction through their connection to the void now.

Being able to feel the Sunwell again doesn't mean they're necessarily dependent upon it anymore - it's a power source they can now access once more, but not one they're required to access in order to maintain internal equilibrium. It feels different because it's composition is now different, as well; with the heart of M'uru being used to re-ignite it so that it now contains Light energies in addition to the Arcane. As your quote above illustrates, permanent withdrawal is possible albeit at high risk, which goes to show that those who did go through this process and emerged mostly unscathed would be free of their dependence despite still being connected to the Sunwell's essence.

I think it would be common sense for those who broke the addition not to re-embrace it, but we don't really know either way. I find no basis for the idea they immediately embraced the restored Sunwell, either; it may be a personal or individual decision depending on the High Elven exile in question. Those who managed their addiction might have, and those who overcame it might not. We simply don't know at this point in the story.

No idea on whether to Void Elves can access it, but I'd assume their transformation probably severed that connection. I'd agree that access to the Sunwell now would probably be deleterious to their health, and it's possible that Void transfiguration cured them of their addictions entirely (or as you said supplanted them with an addiction to Void energies).

[Maljinwo]

No idea on whether to Void Elves can access it, but I'd assume their transformation probably severed that connection. I'd agree that access to the Sunwell now would probably be deleterious to their health, and it's possible that Void transfiguration cured them of their addictions entirely (or as you said supplanted them with an addiction to Void energies).

Are Void elves truly thalassian anymore? They were half-way into becoming void entities
I'd think most if not all of their connection to the Sunwell is gone, specially now that it's infused with Light

Alleria did want to at least see the well though, but her voidification was radically different than the others