Originally Posted by
ravenmoon
you mean like they kaldorei empire/civilization they finally showed in it's pristine condition, that amazed everybody.. mark my words, when they show the Shen'dralar off seriously, they'll be very very impressive.
Unless you retcon the lore, it is already stated, these guys were the empires most revered arcanists, and they processed the Queen's highest /top/best projects, often in secret - likely so she would claim the credit. they were the wonder engineers of all the "amazing" things the night elven civilization had, and the wonders.
Blizzard wrote this..this is why Mordent Evenshade has a line that says "the magic of this age, pales in comparison to the wonders of before". The lore supports this and is very clear that the kaldorei empire was Azeroths golden age and highest age of arcane magic, that no other civilization has reached.
FYI, the Nightborne in Suramar is not another civilization, it is the same civilization. People think the Shen'dralar are rubbish because Dire Maul is in ruins and they see Suramar all pristine, so look down on them, - it's because these people don't consider the lore and don't really care about night elves.
you also see the Nightborne in action a lot, being part of the focus of an entire expansion, whereas the Shen'dralar weren't used. when they appeared, you don't even fight them in Dire Maul, nor do you fight them or see them in action in Cataclysm. it's their new recruits and returned Highborne they are rebuilding that you see in Azshara zone, in stonetalon they just send you on quests.
In the WoT, it was felt they had a much more urgent use in making portals and only Mordant shows up briefly for the Darkshore Warfront, which he wins btw, because canonically, it's the night elves that win that warfront.
Nightborne vs Shen'dralar:
Magical knowledge and skill/expertise:
Shen'dralar win here: They've been furiously and feverishly studying the arcane for 10,000 years, even in their corrupted state, this was forte
They loved and eschewed knowledge, as is clearly evident by the quests involving them, including Shen'dralar reputation. The Nightborne on the other hand had fully functioning city so knowledge and mastery of the arcane wasn't their sole focus
2. The Nightborne had chronomancy magic to focus on too, and delved into nature magic too. whereas the Shen'dralar was solely arcane magic
We have not seen what Eldre'thalas was in it's glory before it fell to ruins, if they were to redo it again, it would look much better. Not Suramar level, but likely close, and it would be full of extraordinary wonders
Ahead of the curve:
shen'dralar would have been ahead of the curve. Ever watched the TV series called Eureka? they'd be a bit like that but for magic, and a city instead of a town. They'd have had frontier stuff not even ready to be released let alone the existing wonders lost to the sundering would all be in the heads of these people.
3. Nightborne stagnated a lot
while they did advance in magic, it was slow, and sluggish, things took ages to update, the counter is that the Shen'dralar would not have been able to churn out the same level of things they could with the well of eternity, but their arcane theory and knowledge would have drastically improved.
Magical Combat:
Here the Nightborne win. The Duskguard are Moon Guard that stayed to protect the city, the Moonguard stronghold night elves pretty much confirm this, one of the quests sends you into Suramar to retrieve an item of power one of the Moonguard masters had loaned to his student who had stayed in the city. We collect this item in the Court of Stars instance.
We know the Moonguard are the best magical combatants known to the races, both in legend and blizzard shows this, they are able to take massive chunks out of a much larger invading Nightborne force from the city that is Nightwell empowered too, this is their level of skill. IT stands to reason that the Duskguard are very similarly inclined. The differences is the current Moonguard would be far more combat ready and better suited to fighting having had to live out of a bubble in a wild country and dangerous world for 10.000 years, and deal with the aftermath of the 3rd war too.. remember the naga and demons fought when the Cathedral of Eternal night, aka as the Tomb of Sargeras to humans, was raised up, and Maiev's wardens headed there to capture them.
Still the Duskguard would be formidable magical combatants.
The Shen'dralar, not so much, it is likely they also developed powerful arcane weapons for the Queen and techniques, but it is unlikely they'd have used them much. They did have to fight in the war of the ancients, so they're not pushovers, but they're not Nightborne or Moonguard level when it comes to combat.
it is worth noticing that the player Nightborne would have very few of the Duskguard remaining as nearly all of them were Elisande loyalists whom we kill.
Magical Power:
Again the Nightborne win here, at least up till the end of Legion. The Nightwell hands down beat the energy from Immol'thar, The Nightborne had limitless power, but limited space, and most of their power was used to sustain themselves - they weren't building new things in that limited space, and we know it's the same city from 10k years ago, , but they got drunk of it's power, used it to make their clothes, weapons, and even feed themselves, they also had limitless power to do experiments and research, the Shen'dralar had all the power they needed, the lore tells us, and Totheldrinn ensured this remained by killing off most of the city to keep the net flow positive from the demon.
My point is that though the Nightborne had more power, it doesn't mean much. They were more powerful up to when the Nightwell goes. Now they'd be considerably weaker.
Should the Shen'dralar gain access to a powerful source of magic, they'd be formidable, as they'd have the great arcane expertise and knowledge. Leaders before the sundering in magical knowledge and having continuously studied and researched in the 10,000 years since.. this is heavy.
Conclusion
If they follow their own lore, without a doubt the fore most experts in magical knowledge and study would be in the night elf corner through:
1. Shen'dralar - have all the ancient knowledge lost, have had 10k years of further study and research, were the great wonder workers and spied on everyone else's progress collecting knowledge.. the few limited pieces of magic that the high elves reclaimed and then taught the humans, and all their new advancements (yes, they would have new advancements in a few areas that surpass the night elf empire - remember it is the high elves that spread magical knowledge, and they were great at some things, like portals etc - so while they lost a huge amount, they'd have retained some and advanced on those, also we know Dalaran and Karazhan gathered a lot of the lost elven knowledge, and this is the premium platinum gold for mages, they hunt for this lost knowledge and the Shen'dralar already have it
2. The Farondis Highborne have the Nar'thalas scholars, the greatest academics of the era, with the greatest magical academy where even dragons and elves worked together, before Azshara's arrogance and pride destroyed it. the people are still there, should blizzard ever choose to let the live on, they'd be an awesome boost to that front too.
3. The Moonguard. While neutral now, and very few, the thing is, it is their greatest masters, and leaders, the most skilled that survived. (same with the kaldorei in the WoT), this means they can train a whole new generation of the best magical combatants.
These 3 groups together working with the wardens, would be powerful , knowledgeable and skilled enough to actually police the magic wielded by Dalaran and Silvermoon. Suramar is the only one that is near their level. however if it becomes a neutral organisation led by them mostly, with void elves, Nightborne and even some blue dragons, like the ones in Azsuna, then hands down they'll do the job.