You see I think the night elf version is quite scholarly.. this is what Malfurion, a pre-sundering nighte lf brought to the nature arts that allowed it to develop greatly into what would become druidism.
The problem is people keep thinking of night elves as primitive and spiritual only, but their background, especially of their leaders is quite scholarly. Malfurion was a scholar and a very clever spell caster, not a prolific arcane user to go to the extent mages do, but was that because he wasn't talented or because he was wise enough to see the dangers of the arcane obsession on his society - and I don't think he ever was anti arcane, it's just that somethings can't be taken as far as Azshara led her people without certain consequences, because of their nature. Arcane is very potent, so you need to ease carefully and wisely into it to bring out the most.
I believe the night elves did that mostly (which is how they went so far) until Azshara went all "let's push all the way, abandon all reserve and care, because you know, I'm Azsahra, we're very clever, and we don't need to be that careful - there more secrets to uncover , more wonders to delight the people and secure may place as a goddess greater than Elune" probably motivated by vain glory, trying to impress the people more than the priesthood , which she had mostly succeeded despite their huge influence, but ofc she wanted more. There could have been other factors and the vanity was just a part.
But my understanding is the excessive push that was causing them to lose touch with their benevolent and reverent spirit. Malfurion spots this and "preaches" like a philosopher about this, and is considered a pariah in Suramar.
But he is very intelligent and knows magic. I think he takes the discipline of the scholarly approach to magic that would have had all night elves in that era taught, and applies structure a nd academic rigour to nature studies which allows it to evolve into druidism.
Many people miss this simply because they associate humble garb and rural lifestyle with being simpletons, primitives and well stupid. but this is not hte MO of the night elves, those guys live like that not because they don't know how to live otherwise , but because they've chosen that way ( I guess to prevent the Legion from returning).. they don't become stupid or less learned at all.
At least that is the underlying and background information that informs us about them, whether it is always emphasised in their quests or by devs, and whether players pick up on it (few do) or do not (which is most) because they don't think about fantasy programs, they just see and jump to conclusions.
All magic is scholarly. The same race that delved into the arcane and mastered it to such great lengths were not only adept at arcane magic. It's likely the priests were the first pioneers and scholars, and their scholarly approach would not have diminished. It just would have governed their behaviour and principals but largely kept to themselves. they don't seem to be a "spread the faith religion" and teach all people our ways.. but that may be because all night elves believed anyway (at least at the start) and much of basic kaldorei mentality and ideology was governed by their tenets.. with only Azshara's Highborne circle drifting through the lust for power their pursuit of arcane power compelled them to and even that was greatly in part due to the nature of arcane addiction.
then there is the connection between nature magic and arcane magic. They are not totally separate and independent, as if one can flow into the other and one helps the other complimentary, despite being different - but can just as easily work against each other, which is why utilising the arcane waters of the moonwells to boos the land need all nature to corporate and come into agreement (seen by the moonwell quest in Suramar).
So year, scholarly pursuit does not rule out druidism or make it difficult, just the opposite.. the problem is that arrogance does. Which is why I don't think the restored nightfallen would have a problem with it, as the Arcan'dor quests clearly show.. They have accepted the need for balance like the Darnssians realised after the sundering, ofc, no legion to prevent returning, so no one has to abandon the arcane. Yet they drained the nightwell, recognising the problem and addiction it can promote.
Illidan's difficulty with druidism was his humility. Cenarius comments he could be as good as his brother if would submit.. but recognises his path leads elsewhere.. rather than do that, Illidan is angry because he can't actually do something magically related. He knows he is good at magic. But then he goes on o be the greatest sorcerer that ever lived (at least according to the Wow encyclopaedia compendium released a few years ago). I guess means greater than Azshara, but then he masters the fel she was so entranced with.. she never does by the sundering, and we know her path led to the void and arcane. Just not in the way the void elves do it. Seeing who her masters were.
Azshara shoudl have trusted in the light of Elune, but I guess Elune was the competition, so the void became enticing when the old gods showed her their former kingdom.. she took the bargain.
Last edited by Beloren; 2021-09-08 at 08:48 PM.
Those new hair colors are great! My venthyr void elf is keeping her purple void elf hair, though my hunter will look great in white shiny hair!
And deffo black hair on my rogue
Keep those options coming. Maybe HM Tauren gets more too seeing they are disabled on ptr.
https://www.youtube.com/@DoffenGG
World of Warcraft stuff
https://www.youtube.com/@DoffenGG
World of Warcraft stuff
I bet the NPC pure black is a bug, like the purple eyes on High Elf females during Shadowlands Beta:
If you look closely, the ones that we got, are actually a bit different as well:
Less saturated.
But, maybe, just maybe, they went the easiest way and copy-pasted the Blood Elf texture, instead of looking for the Void Elves NPC's custom black hair color.
Last edited by Luck4; 2021-09-09 at 01:53 AM.
Pretty much, they are straight up loading BE textures as they are. Really can't do that with any other race because of the male eyebrow texture exists only on BE hair colors.
And the thing is that the "NPC" black hair color -which is actually the dressing room texture that models use when you're looking through your collection) was never meant to be an actual hair texture, so it didn't even have the eyebrow texture. That's why the female Acolytes walking on Stormwind have the tentacle turned off, because the glow texture is also missing.
You can load Duskrunner Lorinas in WoWhead and notice how his eyebrows aren't actually black, but a solid purple.
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It was always funny (sad) that they knew that black looked good on VE's, so much they used the dressing room balck texture on a couple NPC's
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hell yeah!
More hairstyles and faces would be great, but any new faces would have to actually be... new. There are no more blood elf faces to inherit since we have them all already. As for new hairstyles, I'd like them to actually be new, ya know? But failing that, ports from Humans or Kul Tirans. I'm not particularly enamored with any blood elf hairstyles so I think it would be nice to see some other alliance race hairstyles ported to void elves if we can't just get brand new ones.
Darker skin and pure white hair actually makes pretty good Drow fantasy. I love that. Maybe it's time to do my WoW drow ranger![]()
Last thing I want are cosmic "starcursed" hair textures and few more hairstyles. Then my wishes are complete.
oh, so cool. I'm pretty hyped for all the new appearances people are gonna create. High elves are finaly here, so are proper black/white haired void elves. Awesome.
Last edited by Vaedan; 2021-09-09 at 05:43 AM.