Blood Elves Shifting Focus: Aesthetics, Culture and Magic since TBC

[TheImperios]

What really enrages me is that while the rest of the Horde becomes more and more evil, the blood elves become more and more good. Even though it is Silvermoon where dissenters are brainwashed and slavery is widespread.

Yet it seems that the current developers cannot think beyond ugly orcs and undead = evil, pretty orcs = good. Orcs, tauren and trolls must be the more unambiguously noble, if savage, races, while BEs and undead provide moral ambiguiuty.

[Mehrunes]

He is a liar he's been caught lying before too.

And yes because the story came out does in fact mean his word is not canon.

Oh and the fact that he isn't even with the company anymore.

and again, I disagree. Especially when what you are calling canon isn't canon. Which it isn't.

What has he lied about? The book not coming out doesn't make the words of a dev not canon. He said it'd be explored further. Lack of further explanation does not invalidate the initial claim. The words of a dev are by themselves as canon as it gets, because Word of God is a thing. Him not being in the company anymore is meaningless, he was in the company when he made those comments. Metzen retired too, is what he made not canon (also, I like the consistency from you, given how you touted Metzen's words as canon in previous post)? And you may disagree with Word of God not being canon, but when you think that, this becomes quite amuzing:

Lmao I never said anything about drinking demon blood.

Again, think before you speak, although that might be a mistake given you probably aren't good at it to begin with...

;c poor thing.

[Thage]

Lmao I never said anything about drinking demon blood.

Again, think before you speak, although that might be a mistake given you probably aren't good at it to begin with...

;c poor thing.

Please tell me you're smart enough to understand hyperbole as a conversational mechanic meant to purposefully present a stupid argument in its extreme as a means of making fun of someone. Please tell me you aren't so wrapped up in your drive to assert Death of the Author as a valid argument (despite Warcraft very much working off plenty of Word of God statements from developers) that you didn't just miss out on one of the basic foundations of language.

So let's get this straight... you're ignoring that Metzen himself stated that even before TBC had started blood elves had embraced Illidan's path, we see several of them just suckin' away at fel energy from fel crystals which are literally sitting there right in the middle of civilian festivities. The devs stated it's holding their structures together. Even back in wc3 there was strong demonic themes even before meeting up with Illidan. And some of those very blood elves did end up coming back to Silvermoon both before and after Kael's betrayal.

No. If you notice, I acknowledged that, for a few years in-universe where things were particularly desperate, Fel did play a role. But overall, their centuries of culture does not feature Fel as a major facet outside those few years. Fire and Arcane were their predominant themes in Warcraft 3, Light and Arcane beforehand, and Light, Fire, and Arcane from 2.4 onward. It's going to take at least a couple generations (like with the orcs) for the fel taint to revert, but that doesn't mean it plays some kind of key role in their society and culture.

The light being such a key part of their culture is the new addition, not Fel. And I have never and will never stomach that. It's the cheesiest, most cliche cop out of a way to have "redeemed" them. The prophecy idea alone was ludicrous, making the blood elves look like they had never been in charge of their own destiny.

The blood elves were in charge of their destiny. Liadrin could have told A'dal to fuck off and let the Sunwell keep its fel taint after being retaken. Instead, the Blood Knights decided to embody Retribution without the Scarlet Crusade's blind zealotry.

It was/is bad writing and to suggest otherwise actually makes YOU the edgy one. Not me.

You don't seem to understand what 'edgy' means. It doesn't mean 'contrarian,' it means 'an obsessive fix on juvenile 'dark' content to the detriment of the metaplot, with a teenager's understanding and grasp of moral ambiguity and character development.'

- - - Updated - - -

What really enrages me is that while the rest of the Horde becomes more and more evil, the blood elves become more and more good. Even though it is Silvermoon where dissenters are brainwashed and slavery is widespread.

In all fairness, ingame Silvermoon hasn't been meaningfully updated since 2.4. From what we've seen of the blood elves' development since (especially Liadrin more or less finding herself on the city's ruling council and Lor'themar's new de facto right-hand gal), the brainwashing (which was seen by Lor'themar as a necessary evil to maintain order when the blood elves were on the brink of extinction, a problem they no longer possess) probably isn't a thing anymore, and leper gnome slavery are likely much less open (then again, it wasn't in the open in the first case; Murder Row is Murder Row after all).

[Zuben]

The allure of Blood Knights to me was that they were a practical version of paladins, meaning they managed to wield the Light without deep faith and therefore could be used for other than paladin ideals. Even with the source of power changed from a tortured Naaru to a Light-based Sunwell worked within that mindset.

But no, they had to become traditional Light-worshipping paladins with Liadrin at the helm. So boring. I've come to appreciate her character more with Suramar's events and datamined Warfront quotes, but the Blood Knights themselves remain as they are.

So with the Blood Knights neutered I'm placing my hopes on Rommath's magisters and Astalor's blood magic/constructs. Also, what the blood elves haven't lost (although it's not very apparent in-game) is their drive for power. Where Explorer's League appreciates history and seeks knowledge, the Reliquary was founded to seek artifacts of power for the benefit of the Sin'dorei.