Elune is... [Spoilers!]

[Nagawithlegs]

Upon finishing the campaign quest with Elune/Tyrande and turning it into the Primus, he has this to say:



If the Winter Queen's "counterpart" is her sister Elune, this may be confirmation that Elune is a Goddess of Life who resides in the realm of Life (aka the Gardens of Life, and what the Emerald Dream is based on).

[TyrianFC]

I see it like this:

The Winter Queen (death) is responsible for sending souls back to Life - as part of her role in The Great Cycle. She nurtures them in death before sending them back to realms of life.
Elune (life) is responsible for sending souls to Death - as part of her role in The Great Cycle. She nurtures them in life before sending them to realms of death.

Elune wasnt a genocial maniac who 'let the elves die' in teldrassil. Thats not her role. Her role is more broad - to usher souls to the realm of death. Not sure how this overlaps with Kyrian. Kyrian might be delegated a similar duty as effectively workmen to do the grunt work en masse, but Elune might be the effective one responsible for the broad movement from life->death, just as the winter queen is from death->life.

[Goldielocks]

Idk the concept of a “Lifelands” seems kind of redundant at this point. I know that there is a good amount of lore that exists for it already and tbh that’s all we need. A force that helps proliferate life. It shouldn’t get any more complicated than that.

[shoc]

Idk the concept of a “Lifelands” seems kind of redundant at this point. I know that there is a good amount of lore that exists for it already and tbh that’s all we need. A force that helps proliferate life. It shouldn’t get any more complicated than that.

I think the reality we live in itself is the 'Lifelands'.

[Goldielocks]

I think the reality we live in itself is the 'Lifelands'.

Sadly though the prevalent theory now is that the Emerald Dream is fashioned from it. You kinda have to have this too considering she calls Ysera “of Elune” despite Ysera never interacting with her. Ysera is of the Emerald Dream and that realm is of Life. Hard to imagine it stops at just where Freya did her work.

[TickTickTick]

Elune (life) is responsible for sending souls to Death - as part of her role in The Great Cycle. She nurtures them in life before sending them to realms of death.

That would mean she pretty much failed in this task, since she willingly made Night Elven souls turn into wisps and remain on Azeroth instead of going to the Shadowlands.

Her saying she sent a cascade of souls to Ardenweald also implies it was a rare, one time event. Winter Queen wouldn't cry out for help if Elune sending souls there would be a standard. At the same time, Elune wouldn't feel like sending the Night Elven souls there would be such a help if she was constantly sending souls there.

If we believe that Elune represents yet another plane of existence, that would mean she's treating the mortal worlds like all the other forces are - playthings to empower and claim when they're needed as a fuel. Perhaps our world it the "plane of life", perhaps not. The reason why she's keeping Night Elven souls as wisps is yet to be explained.

[shoc]

That would mean she pretty much failed in this task, since she willingly made Night Elven souls turn into wisps and remain on Azeroth instead of going to the Shadowlands.

Her saying she sent a cascade of souls to Ardenweald also implies it was a rare, one time event. Winter Queen wouldn't cry out for help if Elune sending souls there would be a standard. At the same time, Elune wouldn't feel like sending the Night Elven souls there would be such a help if she was constantly sending souls there.

If we believe that Elune represents yet another plane of existence, that would mean she's treating the mortal worlds like all the other forces are - playthings to empower and claim when they're needed as a fuel. Perhaps our world it the "plane of life", perhaps not. The reason why she's keeping Night Elven souls as wisps is yet to be explained.

Also, what does all this mean for Sargeras then? The Night Elves who died at Teldrassil are a feeble trickle of souls compared to the cosmic-scale genocide Sargeras was causing. Teldrassil was home to like, a few thousand Night Elves tops? Sargeras was snuffing life out billions at a time. By all accounts, Sargeras was feeding the Shadowlands a hundred thousand million times more souls than Elune was.

[Ersula]

Also, what does all this mean for Sargeras then? The Night Elves who died at Teldrassil are a feeble trickle of souls compared to the cosmic-scale genocide Sargeras was causing. Teldrassil was home to like, a few thousand Night Elves tops? Sargeras was snuffing life out billions at a time. By all accounts, Sargeras was feeding the Shadowlands a hundred thousand million times more souls than Elune was.

Well, no, because Sargeras would use souls as fuel. But then again, that's also what the Shadowlands purpose was, only from a conservation angle. The Shadowlands aren't exactly a realm of death, they are a realm of recycling. Without the shadowlands, souls would simply return to the twisting nether, which is what we were told happened before we found out about the shadowlands.

Still, Elune is basically confirming Sylvanas' perspective is valid: Killing people doesn't matter because everyone's souls are caught in a terrifying tumble dry through the washing machine of existence.

[Powerogue]

It does confirm what we've had hinted at for a while, that the covenant leaders are titan-adjacent.

Interesting point though that if we did ever see Elune in the flesh, we may see her in the Emerald Dream itself. I'm not satisfied with just the corrupted raid and a few rooms of it, I want the full experience!

[uncl55]

Or... the story is utterly garbage and this mess cant be saved by any fanfiction you can imagine.

[Raisei]

If the Winter Queen's "counterpart" is her sister Elune...what about others? Counterpart for Primus, Jailer? :>

That is indeed the bigger question. I don't think it's the Titans, since they are from the realm of Order, so which other powerful beings do we have? The Lao and Nature Spirits seem to be clearly below WQ and Elune, so it can't be them. Maybe the Earthmother of the Tauren? Hrmmmm...

[huth]

If the Winter Queen's "counterpart" is her sister Elune...what about others? Counterpart for Primus, Jailer? :>

That's assuming there are counterparts for them. So far, only Ardenweald explicitly has a connection. She may well be the big exception.

- - - Updated - - -

Or... the story is utterly garbage and this mess cant be saved by any fanfiction you can imagine.

Yeah, sure, if you want to take the defeatist attitude to everything.

[Neverafter]

If Elune is the counterpart to the Winter Queen, does that make Elune the Summer's Eve?

[Darknessvamp]

I see it like this:

The Winter Queen (death) is responsible for sending souls back to Life - as part of her role in The Great Cycle. She nurtures them in death before sending them back to realms of life.
Elune (life) is responsible for sending souls to Death - as part of her role in The Great Cycle. She nurtures them in life before sending them to realms of death.

Elune wasnt a genocial maniac who 'let the elves die' in teldrassil. Thats not her role. Her role is more broad - to usher souls to the realm of death. Not sure how this overlaps with Kyrian. Kyrian might be delegated a similar duty as effectively workmen to do the grunt work en masse, but Elune might be the effective one responsible for the broad movement from life->death, just as the winter queen is from death->life.

Except we clearly know that isn't the case because:
1. Kyrians handle souls going to the Shadowlands as the 'natural' means of collection otherwise they remain where they died if not collected or claimed by others as shown by the quest where the Kyrians state they decide who gets brought in. They were also the same means through which all the Night Elf souls arrived as they ended up in the Maw.
2. Elune has only once intervened in one other's death aside from turning the Night Elves into Wisps and that was sending Ysera to Ardenweald specifically. Something which we get pointed out is pretty major and out there in her seed quest line.
3. The Winter Queen is only responsible for sending Loas and Wild Gods back after their rejuvenation. All mortals souls tend to get a raw deal of either being stuck in Ardenweald for the rest of their existence and/or getting used as fuel for the Gods' rejuvenation.
4. The Light can also just randomly decided to intervene and send souls into the Shadowlands as shown with Bluther so it's not Elune's unique ability or responsibility.

Also she did 'let the elves die', her literal intervention was putting them to sleep to ensure they died in the Burning under the pretense "they wouldn't experience it" and that was after we've seen her actually do miraculous actions to save Tyrande's life in the past. The fact that Elune didn't even try to attempt to save them and even encouraged it along means she let it happen.

[Dhrizzle]

Also she did 'let the elves die', her literal intervention was putting them to sleep to ensure they died in the Burning under the pretense "they wouldn't experience it" and that was after we've seen her actually do miraculous actions to save Tyrande's life in the past. The fact that Elune didn't even try to attempt to save them and even encouraged it along means she let it happen.

If it's within her power to intercede and save NElf lives on a massive scale are you also mad at her for allowing all those deaths during the War of the Ancients, the Sundering, the War of the Shifting Sands, the third-war nuking of Nordrassil and the Cataclysm? Why did she let Cenarius die in Ashenvale?

[Giannis-GR]

Perfect.

Elune is delegated in power to a being of such Pantheon..

Whose members can be defeated by 10 person groups without any significant power-ups or artifact weapons (i.e. how we defeated Sire Denathrius which for sure is greater in power than WQ)

And now.. after they made this spontaneous decision for the “cool factor”...

they’ll have to retcon a plethora of other plot points in the last 20 years involving Elune... e.g. how she created the prime Naaru etc...

The current writers pulled this idea of the “Pantheons” of each cosmic force out of the a$$es, and they try to find deities to make 6 pantheon packages...

I can only imagine how people who bought lore books or dedicated any of their time into lore reading must feel

[Sentynel]

I can only imagine how people who bought lore books or dedicated any of their time into lore reading must feel

Chronicle books look good on the shelf, I really don't care if they retcon every word of them. Considering the overall quality and inconsistency of WoW lore, these kinds of book serve more as a room decoration than a lore reference (like LOTR for example).

Story in this game will always serve gameplay. If gameplay demands we have to spank Elune in LFR, Blizz will make it work, no matter how awful it will look.

OT: I always wanted a full sized Emerald Dream expansion since I first saw those portals. Fingers crossed.

[Darknessvamp]

If it's within her power to intercede and save NElf lives on a massive scale are you also mad at her for allowing all those deaths during the War of the Ancients, the Sundering, the War of the Shifting Sands, the third-war nuking of Nordrassil and the Cataclysm? Why did she let Cenarius die in Ashenvale?

Except she did assist in the War of Ancients in helping in the fight against the Demons as well as didn't abandon all the Night Elves post-sundering (only the ones who drowned/were drowning as we learned) and I'm fairly certain ensuring Tyrande survived to help in the defence and use of Nordrassil in the Third War is intervening. The only two cases you would be correct is she didn't assist in the War of the Shifting Sands or helped in the aftermath of the Cataclysm. I'm not making the case that she should prevent all Night Elf deaths ever (which we already know she doesn't) but the fact she didn't even try helping them during the Burning of Teldrassil is very telling.

As for Cenarius, *shrug* I don't know. As we know now he can just come back after a rest in the Emerald Dream or a slightly longer rest in Ardenweald now so perhaps it's a case of she doesn't care much about the state her son is in as she believes he can just come back.

[Maljinwo]

She's a stag enjoyer