Nor would I … the Moonwells and Well of Eternity and their uses are the evidence that the night elves of the long vigil had the arcane always a part of them, suffusing htem, connected to them... this is different from arcane practice, which is using that arcane energy for spell work (mage spells, building cities, creating stuff etc). What the long vigil group did was ban arcane practice..not ban the arcane - you can't ban the arcane, it is a magical source of energy that is all over the planet, and partly makes up the night elves themselves.. it is part of their origin and make up, and is responsible for the world creatd and shaped...you can't ban that, and night elves' story has them made from the arcane and connected to an arcane well.. however what they can do, is not practice it -- which our playable group did in the long vigil to prevent the legion.. but have started doing it again.
I suspect the priestesses of Elune have a deep connection to the arcane blizzard hasn't fleshed out yet. In blizzards lore, Elune is one of the first things they discerned from peering into the well.. it was their fascination with her through the well that led to more studying. although not directly stated, if you read between the lines, it is the the priesthood that invents magecraft. Magecraft would have been those who focused purley on the practical and physical applications of utilising the arcane energy and developing that. Which must mean a measure of that has always been a part of the priesthood, and they would have knowledge and secrets of it - their focus was the philosophical and moral implications of the goddess of the Well. The arcane boosts health, life expectancy, enhances growth (stature), empowers strength - and we know mages who come from the elves use the arcane for food conjuring, some of the arcane specialists can restore health via evocation - all this implies that this priesthood probably learnt how to do things with the arcane no one else knows. Remember the high elves who teach the humans arcane magic do so from a state of having lost most of the knowledge from the kaldorei empire, and the priesthood of Elune doesn't go with them, so none of its secrets go with them as they reject Elune - meaning that we really don't know the extent of the arcane to which the priesthood nows and how.. they may be using the arcafne in totally different ways.. We already know that night elves when they cast certain spells like Moonfire, Starfall are drawing arcane energy from the very stars.. something we don't see blood elves do or high elves, but we see night elves and nightborne.That said, priestesses of Elune kept arcane secrets in their libraries. However, according to Vestia Moonspear called her fellow priestesses ignorant, hinting at them simply forgetting to read ancient books or even forbidding them.
The biggest evidence is how the priesthood wield arcane energy abilities.. Tyrande and starfall, and you see it time and time again, End time instance, ritual of the darkmoon, night elven priesthood of Elune has a connection tot he arcane.
Anyway, Vestia Moonspear has a point, but you can understand that after the sundering, night elf society are horrified with what practicing the arcane can do --i.e. call the legion, you also have to remember that these people believed the arcane and their achievements were really the best thing for the world and were doing good, yet all they brought in the end was the legion and destruction - there would be a reticence concerning applying the arcane, even without the ban - however 10,000 years is a long time, and a lot of new revealtions have come to line - including realising the demons weren't after their magic, addiction is curable and preventable without abstention, and evidence arcane use from the Well can be masked from the twisting nether.
I think Vestia is an example of many new priests who have no relucatnace or reticence aobut the arcane -- it's not tos ay they like or condone addiction, Tyrande, who fights for t eh shen'dralar to returna nd lifts the ban on the arcane would think as Vestia thinks, yet we see her utterly despise arcane addiction and the Nightwell's corruption. Althoguh at this point, Tyrande has no idea what the legion is truly after, it is later when Illidan returns, and Magni is there too, that it will filter to her that their Well was never the goal, just a feast for demons, the goal was Azeroth herself.
I agree that stargazing happens in high elf society, so does loving forests and nature - I mean they settled in a land that reminded them most of Kalimdor and its forests, they kept it in eternal spring too, called their city Silvermoon - even though they abandoned all these things from their kaldorei past as their main focus, you still see them using as much of their knowledge of arcane learnt from that period, they carry on the high nobility from the night elf phase, just without all the decadence and recklessness that dominated the highborne (which is also present in the nightborne).
Stargazing is still important in high elf society, as we can see from their observatory in Magisters' Terrace. Moreover, Nightborne too have forgotten to sleep at day because they couldn't recognise what hour is it. As for naga, we can't really see whether they are diurnal or nocturnal because they live underwater.
i'm not sure the nightborne have forgotten to sleep at day, they've been in perpetual night, and they are night elven, the day would be even more annoying for them.. and when the shield goes down, they are delighted to see the stars once more. In the city you see a lot of mimicking of starlight in tree boughs and other places -- very much still night elven at their core.. look at all the shrine's to Elune too in the city, that haven't changed at all, they are well tended, with offerings on them from the people -- this happens in the commons section - you don't see any of that in the elite section. Remember Suramar was the capital of the priesthood of Elune, but they all followed tyrande and the resistance in the march towards Zin'Azshari.
It is, the night elves even moreso than the high elves. People think somehow because the use of arcane..i.e. arcane practice was banned amongst one of the night elven groups, that this somehow means they are no longer arcane gifted or arcane connected or their very make up somehow stopped being arcane centred... lol.. no. All that stopped was that they didn't use their power and their gift, - their reason was to prevent the legion from returning. We see other night elven groups like the nightborne, shen'dralar and Moonguard, continue to use the arcane prolificly.Arcane is pure definition of elf and reason of their very existence.
But yes.. all elves, night and high are very much arcane defined. It isn't all there is to them, and some groups the practice of the arcane plays a much larger role.
Corection, magic addiction is in every group aside from the Long vigil night elves...you must not forget that they are not the only night elven group, and addiction was very much a part of the shen'dralar and nightborne till recently they've overcome (shen'dralar) or being cured (nightborne).Magic addiction is seen in every group aside from night elves, but they feed on moonwells, so it isn't a stretch that they are addicted aswell. However, Darnassians are the only group seen not to practice arcane. Elune, at the other hand was once an important part of ancient Kal'dorei empire but it was inherited only by Darnassians. As for druidism, it wasn't a part of Kal'dorei Empire as Malfurion was the first druid on Azeroth.
We know the darnassians aren't addicted because we now understand elven addiction. Elven addiction comes from living out of balance with nature. You can be suffused with the arcane and wield it profusely without being addicted... night elven addiction likely arose when they started substituting things in nature/and of nature even eating (in the case of the nightborne) with the arcane. I can sorta understand how this might have happened. when you discover the arcane cand o anything,a nd your continuous research yields applications and ways to do all manner of things, it is very easy to rely more and more on it, and use it instead of natural things. Why walk or lift things up when you can just conjure them, teleport, or telekinesis them... in the pre-sundering era, they weren't aware of addiction yet, so the arcane had no drawbacks that they could see. even if Cenarius warned about excessive use, they had no evidence.
Eventually though, when recklessness and arrogance replaced the typical night elf nobility and responsibility, then people started noticing. We know Malfurion noticed, we also know other highborne and citizens noticed too. The Valewalkers were formed to solve the problem and hopefully save the Queen and highborne caste in time to come to their senses, but they didn't manage to in time.
However now they have done. The long vigil night elves though suffused and connected to the arcane, are not addicted because their life is balanced, nature keeps the arcane in balance. This is why the high elves had a mild form of addiction, constantly suffused with the sunwell, while they never got reckless like the invasion period night elves, an addiction did occur which they didn't bother to balance with nature or live in a balanced way that would counteract it. But their addiction is different, maybe because of their change..? Remember the night elf is naturally arcane attuned in his natural state, perhaps in changing from night elf to high elf, some of that ability to process or contain the arcane was lost, requiring something extra from high elves like the divine to stave off their addiction. It's not like their is official detailed spelling out of this.. we are just reading in between the lines and going on the information we have. We have been given the explanation and solution for night elf addiction, how it works, how to prevent it, and how to cure it. nature balances the arcane. Harmony is the key to full living. This might be a universal principle, but for night elves it works, for high elves and humans we don't know. Humans don't have addiction issues, but it is theorised they would do if exposed enough. but we know from the high elves, the light can balance this out. The draenei don't get addicted, but the light is a part of all of them, so maybe htat is their balance. whereas for night elves it is done so in nature.
They carry motifs over from the night elf era, no doubt, and it's more than magecraft titles, we can expect similar orders amongst the highborne and nightborne - this is where the blood elves get it from - doesn't mean their culture or way of practice is the same.. people look and go hey, you have cities, we have cities..therefore we are are the same.. no. Similarities yes, but the same? no. The fact that the high elves are sun focused, day focused, have a more egalitarian and equal society, were not reckless or anywhere nearthe level of arrogance of the invasion period night elves, have their philosophy tied to the light, not Elune, these are all significant differences. If you observe Suramar in 7.0, which is a snapshot of kaldorei society around the time of the first invasion, you see their are clearly elites, and lowborne - the elites are conceited in ways that make the high elves look sensible, and they treat their "lowborne" with such contempt too.. in high elf society - they were all highborne - think of it more like the settlers in America, everyone was equal even though you would have leader/ruler and a royal family - they were a much fairer and nobler society than the invasion period night elves.Not really, blood elves have the same titles: magister, grand magister, arcanist, astromancer, etc. Their forestry is very similar to that of Azshara, they transform the environment to one they like.
People mistakenly presume that oh..blood elves have arcane, nightborne / highborne have arcane - so they are the same... completely ignoring how different the cultures are even though they have similarities. high elves come from highborne culture, but they aimed to do something better.. aimed to do better than what the highborne became around the time of the first invasion, .. they didn't return to the arcane combined with nature love and Elune.. the pre-addiction night elves had.. they forged a new path, one in the day, with the Light, and free practice of all magic with a lot of responsibility to avoid summoning the legion.. it was not the same society, nor culture, but arcane craft is pretty much the same... the craft knowledge was different. High elf knowledge was no where near as advanced as what the night elves had achieved prior to the sundering, and they performed differently too.
their forestry was not similar ot Azshara, quel'thlaas was similar to Kailmdor, that's why they chose it, and they kept it in eternal sptring, which is an example of their love for nature, they don't hate nature.. all the things and inner characteristics of the night elves carry over to the high elves, but less intently. Their arcane connection is not as naturally strong - (even though their society continued using the arcane unlike the long vigil society, but its arcane use was no where near as much as the shen'dralar or nightborne night elven groups), same with their nature connection... I think this is intentional.. remember, night elves are released to be the original elves, so all the elven qualities are stronger in them, the high elves are closer to humans, more humanised. The night elves are the original elves..therefore all the elven characteristics are more pronounced in them. it has nothing to do with how good they make use of htem - that is what their plot determines (e.g. the long vigil group don't make use of the arcane for spells at all, despite their deeper connection, stronger talent and power source)
Yes it is.. but you have to remember I am not excluding them. In fact if you read what I say through, you should see that I am showing that they have similar characteristics, just not the same.. night elves have the stronger base.. high elves have similar things but in a different light - sunlight instead of moonlight.As I said, druidism isn't as important as you think. Also, isn't it racist to exclude Thalassians because of their skin color?
They are both elves, therefore their similarities are far greater than their differences.. they literally have thes ame things but differnet shades of it. When you look at it, you see they are completely different to each other.. (what I mean is the shades are different.. one is day, the other night etc...in other owrds, when looking at how they are differnet we see they are very different, but we cannot forget that they are very similar.
I think this is why blizzard put the day eelves in one faction and the ngiht elves in another.