What exactly is An'she? How does the Sun fit into the greater universal cosmology?

[OwenBurton]

An'she is one of the most mysterious figures in the cosmology of the World of Warcraft universe - he seems to be the cosmic embodiment of Azeroth's sun, the male counterpart of Mu'sha, or Elune.

But what exactly is An'she, most likely? He is the Sun - but there are millions of suns in the universe, including the Sun which empowered the Arrakoa. Are they all sentient? He empowers the Sunwalkers, the tauren priests, and the balance druids - they use abilities based off of solar energy, which apparently has connections to Life (nature) and the Light, and some solar-based spells also inflict Fire damage.

As the arcane-based spells seems to be associated with the Moon, it would make sense that the nature-based solar spells are associated with the Sun (and therefore with the Wild Gods, which Elune also has a connection with via Malorne and Ysera). This would also tie into the masculine-feminine division between the night elf druids and priestesses (the mostly male druids wielding nature magic, and the mostly female priestesses wielding the more mysterious arcane abilities of Elune). But what exactly is he? Is he really just another aspect of the Light, as Anduin mentioned, just like Elune, or is he possibly something else? Is he perhaps some kind of aspect of Azeroth itself?

The Earthmother's eyes shone down upon the lands she had breathed into creation. Her right eye, An'she (the sun), gave warmth and light to the land. Her left eye, Mu'sha (the moon), gave peace and sleep to the stirring creatures of the dawning. Such was the power of her gaze that the Earthmother closed one dreaming eye for every turning of the sky. Thus, her loving gaze turned day into night for the first dawning of the world.

While the right eye shone down upon the golden dawn, the Earthmother's gentle hands spread out across the golden plains. Wherever the shadow of her arms passed, a noble people arose from the rich soil. The Shu'halo (the tauren) arose to give thanks and prayer to their loving mother. There, in the endless fields of dawn, the children of the earth swore themselves to her grace and vowed to bless her name until the final darkening of the world.

The tauren and the blood elves / high elves seem to revere the Sun, they even have a Sunwell -- while the night elves seem to the revere the Moon, and they have moonwells. What do you believe An'she really is? What do you personally think An'she should be, to really make sense, and to satisfy most players?

[Triceron]

An'she is just the name the Tauren gave to the sun.

Until the day Blizzard decides to officiate him as a tangible deity, An'she will just remain a legend.

The Tauren draw power from the sun. That's about the extent of it.

[Surfd]

The tauren and the blood elves / high elves seem to revere the Sun, they even have a Sunwell -- while the night elves seem to the revere the Moon, and they have moonwells. What do you believe An'she really is? What do you personally think An'she should be, to really make sense, and to satisfy most players?

Pretty sure the High Elves thing with the Sun is more symbolic in nature, rather than some kind of direct analogue to the Night Elves more literal reverence of all things Lunar due to their association with Elune. I very much doubt they "revere" the sun, so much as chose it as a symbol of their rather complicated history as banished exiles from Night Elf society after the fallout of the destruction of the Well of Eternity.

[Morae]

If its something, its probably some being of light. Naaru?

If it will come up, it might come up in a potential light vs void expansion.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If its something, its probably some being of light. Naaru?

If it will come up, it might come up in a potential light vs void expansion.

In Wrath, Cata, MoP, and Dezco's short story Bleeding Sun, the Sunwalker's powers were very clearly different in nature from the Alliance's Light. The Light/Naaru is pretty clearly and immediately identifiable in the prose as being the Light/Naaru regardless of who is the PoV character, be it Turalayon in Beyond the Dark Portal, or Tirion in Of Blood and Honor, or Velen on Argus. But the Tauren's An'she is presented as a more pagan belief, like American Indian Tribe's beliefs about the earth being alive, or nighttime being a cloak being spread over the world with little holes in it revealing the great spirit's eye (the sun and the stars). Anshe also never interacts with Dezco like the Light/Naaru did with their followers in their stories. The Light/Naaru usually make their presence known to their followers and guide and comfort them in their times of need, but Anshe - if he is real - never interacts with Dezco. Also, the prophecy about Dezco's children was not given from Anshe, but by the Celestials. The Naaru/Light never acknowledge pagan spirits as equal in WoW. Anshe is pretty clearly not the Light or a Naaru.

[Majerin]

An'she has changed a few times over the course of the game. Originally, An'she was its own entity; supposedly the complete equal and opposite to Elune. Then with the advent of the Sunwalkers, supposedly he was just akin to an elemental creature of some kind. The sunwalkers were described as, effectively, shaman in plate armor in a few different places. However, the most recent (and by far the least interesting) interpretation is he is simply the tauren interpretation of Elune rather than a unique entity. However, none of these have been completely solidified, word of god style descriptions and tend to be throwaway lines here or there. So who knows.

[loras]

An'she is one of the most mysterious figures in the cosmology of the World of Warcraft universe - he seems to be the cosmic embodiment of Azeroth's sun, the male counterpart of Mu'sha, or Elune.

But what exactly is An'she, most likely? He is the Sun - but there are millions of suns in the universe, including the Sun which empowered the Arrakoa. Are they all sentient? He empowers the Sunwalkers, the tauren priests, and the balance druids - they use abilities based off of solar energy, which apparently has connections to Life (nature) and the Light, and some solar-based spells also inflict Fire damage.

As the arcane-based spells seems to be associated with the Moon, it would make sense that the nature-based solar spells are associated with the Sun (and therefore with the Wild Gods, which Elune also has a connection with via Malorne and Ysera). This would also tie into the masculine-feminine division between the night elf druids and priestesses (the mostly male druids wielding nature magic, and the mostly female priestesses wielding the more mysterious arcane abilities of Elune). But what exactly is he? Is he really just another aspect of the Light, as Anduin mentioned, just like Elune, or is he possibly something else? Is he perhaps some kind of aspect of Azeroth itself?

The Earthmother's eyes shone down upon the lands she had breathed into creation. Her right eye, An'she (the sun), gave warmth and light to the land. Her left eye, Mu'sha (the moon), gave peace and sleep to the stirring creatures of the dawning. Such was the power of her gaze that the Earthmother closed one dreaming eye for every turning of the sky. Thus, her loving gaze turned day into night for the first dawning of the world.

While the right eye shone down upon the golden dawn, the Earthmother's gentle hands spread out across the golden plains. Wherever the shadow of her arms passed, a noble people arose from the rich soil. The Shu'halo (the tauren) arose to give thanks and prayer to their loving mother. There, in the endless fields of dawn, the children of the earth swore themselves to her grace and vowed to bless her name until the final darkening of the world.

The tauren and the blood elves / high elves seem to revere the Sun, they even have a Sunwell -- while the night elves seem to the revere the Moon, and they have moonwells. What do you believe An'she really is? What do you personally think An'she should be, to really make sense, and to satisfy most players?

I do not know of proper instances where An'she was given the same treatment as Elune, but i would not be surprised if they were to be similar deities, even if they are not given the same treatment in their representations in media so far.

Good catch.

[Chonar]

Obviously, it's Ragnaros's nom de plume.
An'she is the award-winning author of "Why burning is good, actually" and "Fire; the catalyst of evolution".

[Razion]

In terms of magic schools, Astral is composed of Arcane and Nature, while Radiant is composed of Fire and Holy.

Radiant forces like An'she seem less ordered, and more untamed or wild - even perhaps, disorderly.
Astral forces like Elune seem more ordered, but more spiritual and natural - more abundant of life.

An'she may be more prone to corruption. Elune may be less prone to corruption. An'she may be more destructive. Elune may be less destructive, more passive (more evident recently with the sleeping of Night Elves during the burning of Teldrassil).

But, both Elune and An'she (or, faith of respected Priestesses and Seers respectively) have granted visions before, and visions even can be granted by the Light so this seems like a general Priestly power - but it's important to remember that the Sunwalkers associated with tribes like Dezco's took on these pilgrimages to find the waters of Pandaria -- which, interestingly, was a font of power originating back to the waters preceding the original Sundering. As well to keep relations in mind, Elune was said at one point to have lived within the old pools of which Azeroth's powerful races congregated, as well. This would tie early Tauren religion back to Night Elf religion -- as we've seen more recently with Highmountain and even know as far back as the War of the Ancients has a bit of precedence there as well. To extrapolate on this, there may be a more direct connection to the faiths of Elune and An'she that may have been more closely connected in the past. Tauren beliefs still hold some reverence to the two Moons of Azeroth.

Worth noting, Anduin once cited An'she to be another expression of the Holy Light.
But Velen was also on record before of making such comparisons to Elune.

Whether these accounts are more accurate or say something with how the Light impresses its identity is less concrete, but nevertheless the schools of magic are similarly occupied as holy and operate under faith.

In the RPG, there's a comparison made between the Earthmother and The Light. An'she may then be considered an extension of both Azeroth, with relation to The Light. What it means being related to both is as of yet not very extrapolated on in canon proper.

In lore, An'she is both a force and "brother" to Mu'sha/Elune.

Zandalari as well revere Rezan -- with the power of Kings thus tying as well into the sun in this manner. The Light seems to denote power through blessings of Kings as well in other faiths. It seems monarchy seems to holy some semblance of authority in the eyes of the Light -- which holds up to Pure Light beings like Naaru having a Lightmother type figure and so on.

Dath'remar had a vision from the sun which ultimately resulted in Felo'melorn's forging -- the Blood Elves, it seems, held a strong enough legacy of Sun worship that seemed powerful enough to actually grant visions, even before the Naaru were being siphoned. It's unclear if the Blood Elves still hold much Sun worship in their current society now that most seem to have devoted themselves to Light worship, but Sun worship could potentially open them up to Druidism were it to resurface.

An item, An'she's Token of Guile, seems to imply an element of untrustworthy cunning to An'she.
Anshe is also seemingly responsible for various eclipses.

"The Embrace" of Azeroth's two moons doesn't seem to ever occur during the day.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

An'she or Sun is referred as fire magic and part of our solar system and is having a connection to holy light as well. It's a powerful star running on Hydrogen and Helium and once the Hydrogen is depleted it will increase in size and devour planets. Alright, I'm joking, but yes Sunwell should work very similar to Moonwell, it's just the Moonwell operates during the night.

[Powerogue]

I do hope they have an interesting plan for that. Was it Xal'atath that was intrigued at the ability of the tauren to withstand old god corruption "considering their origins", what was that quote?

[Maljinwo]

An'she actually a Before One that created the First Ones

Also it's the husband of Elune who's totally pissed about that thing she had with Malorne. After denouncing her as a furry, An'she shone its light on Azeroth and started retconning the origins of a race or character in the next expansion

[Syegfryed]

It will be rly awkward when blizzard just say he is a naa'ru and think that is awesome.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It will be rly awkward when blizzard just say he is a naa'ru and think that is awesome.

I can see it now.

Velen and Turalyon walk up to Dezco.
Turalyon: "Tauren! Your great spirit and the Christian god expy/angels are actually one and the same!"
Dezco: "uhhhhh, but Anshe is the brother of Elune?"
Turalyon: "Oh. That's great!" walks over to Tyrande "Your Japanese Shinto kami expy is actually the same thing as our Christian God and angels! And the same thing as that Cow-man's native American Great spirit!"
Tyrande: "Uh, but Elune also gave me void powers? And is also a god of death and wrath now? Isn't that like, the complete antithesis of what the Light stood for?"
Turalyon looks at warlocks and shadow priests
Turalyon: "I'm sorry for persecuting you guys for thousands of years. Looks like we were all drawing upon the same power all along! We're all brothers in the Light/Ans'he/Elune/the Void now, right guys?"

[Mungho]

I've been pestering Blizzard for years for more stuff about An'she. I'd really like more but Blizzard isn't interested in exploring him.

[Lupinemancer]

I'm more curious about the Blue Child.
Considering the Tauren believe the sun and the moon are the two eyes of the Earth Mother, and also considering the Night Elves worship of the Moon, you have to wonder how the Blue Child fits into their mythologies.

[shoc]

I don't think An'she is real. There is The Light, the magic source. And then there is the Sun, a physical object.

The thing is though that the Light and the Sun are not really related, the Sun is not magic as far as we know and you don't need to be exposed to Light from a Sun for Light magic to function.

I mean it's a religion created by cows, what are the chances they get it right. They probably falsely correlated and then anthropomorphized the Sun and the Light to come up with the story of An'she. According to the Tauren, Elune is one half of the Earthmother which can be debunked already.

[huth]

I don't think An'she is real. There is The Light, the magic source. And then there is the Sun, a physical object.

The thing is though that the Light and the Sun are not really related, the Sun is not magic as far as we know and you don't need to be exposed to Light from a Sun for Light magic to function.

I mean it's a religion created by cows, what are the chances they get it right. They probably falsely correlated and then anthropomorphized the Sun and the Light to come up with the story of An'she. According to the Tauren, Elune is one half of the Earthmother which can be debunked already.

It seems they work more on the Sun side of their Druid brethren than actual Light, that's just game mechanics. IIRC, they were even explicitly mentioned to be coming from the Druid tradition.

[TheFirstOnes]

Probably just the name of the Sun, or it could be a literal God, maybe a Prime Naaru or even some crazy Light Elemental of the Sun.

Either way, Mu'sha is just Elune, so An'she may be something else entirely also. And the Earth Mother's just Azeroth's Soul.

[VinceVega]

An'she is one of the most mysterious figures in the cosmology of the World of Warcraft universe - he seems to be the cosmic embodiment of Azeroth's sun, the male counterpart of Mu'sha, or Elune.

But what exactly is An'she, most likely? He is the Sun - but there are millions of suns in the universe, including the Sun which empowered the Arrakoa. Are they all sentient? He empowers the Sunwalkers, the tauren priests, and the balance druids - they use abilities based off of solar energy, which apparently has connections to Life (nature) and the Light, and some solar-based spells also inflict Fire damage.

As the arcane-based spells seems to be associated with the Moon, it would make sense that the nature-based solar spells are associated with the Sun (and therefore with the Wild Gods, which Elune also has a connection with via Malorne and Ysera). This would also tie into the masculine-feminine division between the night elf druids and priestesses (the mostly male druids wielding nature magic, and the mostly female priestesses wielding the more mysterious arcane abilities of Elune). But what exactly is he? Is he really just another aspect of the Light, as Anduin mentioned, just like Elune, or is he possibly something else? Is he perhaps some kind of aspect of Azeroth itself?

The Earthmother's eyes shone down upon the lands she had breathed into creation. Her right eye, An'she (the sun), gave warmth and light to the land. Her left eye, Mu'sha (the moon), gave peace and sleep to the stirring creatures of the dawning. Such was the power of her gaze that the Earthmother closed one dreaming eye for every turning of the sky. Thus, her loving gaze turned day into night for the first dawning of the world.

While the right eye shone down upon the golden dawn, the Earthmother's gentle hands spread out across the golden plains. Wherever the shadow of her arms passed, a noble people arose from the rich soil. The Shu'halo (the tauren) arose to give thanks and prayer to their loving mother. There, in the endless fields of dawn, the children of the earth swore themselves to her grace and vowed to bless her name until the final darkening of the world.

The tauren and the blood elves / high elves seem to revere the Sun, they even have a Sunwell -- while the night elves seem to the revere the Moon, and they have moonwells. What do you believe An'she really is? What do you personally think An'she should be, to really make sense, and to satisfy most players?

We do not know and i hope we will never know.

Not everything needs a tangible explanation. Blizz tried to explain everything which is why the explained themselve into a corner where some people see everything as a retcon.

They should NEVER explain stuff we have no way of knowing ingame. The nature of actual gods (not titans and such) should remain a mystery forever. Otherwise they actually have to explain the meaning of live at some point.