Best way to bring out the stars in the Kaldorei (Children of the Stars)?

[ravenmoon]

From the official forums, I'd like to bring this over and hear your thoughts on this. The lack of development on the night elves has lead to an off kilter presentation, but the most core identity of them has had little no follow through in their visible content. Why? And what can be done. This is what is discussed here.

** Dislcaimer"" if you don't want to talk about elves, no need to respond.


Blizz, what happened to the core of the night elves?
Kaldorei - meaning Children of the STARS is what they are named after and I presume originally centred on, but got diverted from that destiny after the Legion came. I'm kinda quite curious at this stage, especially since the Legion and Long Vigil are now over, and the main theme of this race and details of its original culture and identity which it didn't rename itself from still seems core to them, but not focused on or fleshed out in game by blizz.


With the Legion and Long Vigil gone, it's given the night elves room to develop this more fully - But it's lack so far leaves me with the impression blizz kinda strayed a bit too far off track with the nigh elves who seem more like children of the trees or moon than stars.


Another thing worth mentioning is "the stars" is a very unique focus concept and makes you more excited and mysterious than the over used wood elf and dark elf themes, so it seems odd to cut out potentially the most unique rewarding and creative feature of the night elves and I greatly desire highly recommend they start showing them as their namesake.


Would really like to see them get back to that original "best of the dark elves meet best of the wood elves" vision with the stars and moon unique elements playing central roles intertwined with their arcane and nature duality.
Do you remember this interview?
`https://i.imgur.com/koc3l88.png`


Now emphasising the stars and the role they play in every facet of these two major parts of the night elves - arcane civilisation and forest life I think would make them more exciting and feel like the unique elven group the marrying of dark elf and forest elf original vision seemed to hint at. Sadly most of wow has been lame elf and wood elf for the night elves, rather than star focused dark elf and wood elf.


So as far as the things about the night elves we know most of from screen time in game are:


The Forest connection we get a lot of
Night elf lore on forest love is pretty fleshed out and integrated in the race - with druidism and the emerald dream having a lot of info on it, nature and the wild gods.


We also see the night elves connect to nature screen time wise and we get it. Druids in animals, looking after trees, caring for them, forest communities.


Character customisation added vines and bushy eyebrows too - we gots that. But they aren't children of the forest or trees.


"The Moon connection we get a fair bit of too
Next is Elune. She's been showing up more thanks tot eh Night warrior ritual, we also see a lot of the order in WC3, we read about them in night elf civilziation in WotA. we saw the Cathedral of Eternal night, but it's not as fleshed out as the forest.


We finally got to see Elune 's temples, we see moon symbols, druids, Tyrande and Nightborne/Moonguard casters use moon spells. The clerical side of the order is known though it's detail isn't fleshed out, but it's stated.


We see moon symbols in the new tattoos, and 1 female headpiece and earring option.
Elune is discovered through studying the well, believed to have fashioned the night elves from the well, and we know has some link to their arcane ability.


But they aren't children of the moon.


Way too little role of the actual key namesake, the stars. It is the most mysterious one. Is this the missing link, that connects the above two and the great mysterious pre-sundering culture? Have we seen the least of this because it was most strongly connected to the arcane phile pre-sundering culture, and is a casualty and mystery left for later when both civilization and arcane return and blizz would take a closer look?


The Stars
Here is where the most fundamental part of the night elves is, but the least evidence of shown. This core part of the night elves is still very mysterious running deeper than nature, Elune, the arcane but tied to all of these. But it's cultural significance, relevance and presence is sorely lacking in NElf content and material.


I do kinda feel cheated every time I delve into the night elves and see more about the forest than the stars or moon or night - and really hope they fix this.


Evidence of stars in Night elves so far

• Greeting/farewell emote "stars guide you"
• Star spells priests, druids, mages associated with the kaldorei which we see NPCs cast and use
• We know they kept their identity children of the stars defined them in the pre-sundering era, and didn't shift during the long vigil, so it is something, which like the night ties to both their arcane and nature halves, even though it's strongly connected to arcane casting and knowledge.
• We know their cities built astrological towers, but nothing is fleshed out.
• Hints of some sort of star/celestial facet to their religion, but details are scarce, even Elune worship details are limited despite her prominence.
• Druid balance spec class spells - as the only kaldorei culture based class, it's here they showed that star part of the kaldorei into game mechanics.

Trivia: Why we see star spells only on the druid class
The druid class' (the only class based on kaldorei culture even though they are credited with developing the mage and demon hunter classes too) balance spec spells is our biggest in-game mechanics features that shows this - which is ironic since the stars are associated with their arcane half/talent more predominant to the priesthood and night elven arcane users like the Highborne and Moonguard. But it's because night elf priests and mage class in game are not designed on the kaldorei root versions but the human versions and humans and their high elf teachers don't have this strongly in their culture or Holy Light religion it is missing in the in-game classes unless they introduce class racial spells. Druids were based on the kaldorei so have this. But NPC night elf priests and mages are shown to have star spells.


I want to know more Character customisation has nothing about, save maybe the 1 diamond pendant added for neck pieces. This central theme is completely missing, and often ignored showing more forest love or elune love, but not the stars.

What I imagine
So I've had to use my imagination so far thinking of as many ways this can apply to night elves and culture, and assume/hope it will be fleshed out more. So if we are going by what the name implies, here are some "I wonder ifs" I can think of, that might apply to night elves?

• Their star love is the most basic and fundamental to them
• The night elves fell in love with trees because it helped bring them closer to the stars.
• Arcane love may be genetic, but was the motivation for delving into the arcane was reaching and calling the stars - hence why the 3 major kaldorei classes from the beginning mage, druid and priest can all call down stars?
• Night elf names are based on star charts
• Night elves roles and professions are foretold by star seers and are organised on that path based on their star charts
• Night elf cities are built on leylines, but the building configuration and flow is built to match the constellations
• Night elf magical astronomy/astrology is the basis of mage portalling (it's how they discovered and mastered portals)
• Night elves some times magically inscribe their constellation pattern on their bodies and would glow when using arcane magic (fell out of practice amongst the Long Vigil group, but has returned since the ban on arcane practice was lifted).
• The reason their eyes shine silver is because their star love was so big, it somehow lit the arcane power within to reflect the light of the stars
• Night elves love diamonds a lot, because they remind them of stars (but had to do without most of that as one of the many sacrifices the long Vigil demanded, but now it's over it's back in style along with fashion and love for all things purple) - good way to reflect in character creation

Visibly Bringing out more of the Star identity of the Night elves In-Game


So let's look at some practical ways blizz could potentially bring out more of this kaldorei - Children of the STARS identity.


Racials:

• If you ever give an active damage ability racial, let it involve the stars.
• If we ever get class specific racial spells as a feature: having star related abilities across the kaldorei based classes (mage, priest, hunter, DH, rogue) would be good

Character Customisation

• Diamonds - often indications of stars, in jewellery and hence as cultural items should dramatically increase, so more head piece and neck pieces and earrings with stars for females and crescent moons too
• Male head pieces/ear rings can look something like this: especially floating ones like in this image. Could serve as a highborne customisation. https://imgur.com/VbQUtfa
• Notice star effects in hair linked to head pieces too like this image
• https://imgur.com/a/lA7CMa9 colour variants
• Star's tattooed like magical glowing runes on skin, like a custom that some NElves would tattoo their constellation birth on their skin. Even extend the internal arcane power their eyes glow silver with this. Something similar to this.https://i.imgur.com/jDid5OG.png?1
• * Star effect alternative for vines in hair would also be good. The effect could look like this: https://i.imgur.com/nZFTzWu.png?1

Culture references in quests, novels

• Bring this up whenever you go to the night elves from now on,
• In their new city, show the Astrological towers,
• Let's see NPC mage starmancers and Star Augurs (priest/mage cross overs)
• Highborne/Moonguard/Moon Priest NPC casters wielding star/moon spells in combat
• Reference to the stars in birthing, naming rituals
• Night elves told their star and a ritual that inscribes it in them.
• Houses in the new city matching the constellations, personal house, sleeping positions matching the stars
• Magic amplification and drawing from the stars.
• Elune and arcane connection

[Beloren]

Character Customisation

[LIST][*] Diamonds - often indications of stars, in jewellery and hence as cultural items should dramatically increase, so more head piece and neck pieces and earrings with stars for females and crescent moons too[*] Male head pieces/ear rings can look something like this: especially floating ones like in this image. Could serve as a highborne customisation. https://imgur.com/VbQUtfa[*] Notice star effects in hair linked to head pieces too like this image[*]https://imgur.com/a/lA7CMa9 colour variants[*] Star's tattooed like magical glowing runes on skin, like a custom that some NElves would tattoo their constellation birth on their skin. Even extend the internal arcane power their eyes glow silver with this. Something similar to this.https://i.imgur.com/jDid5OG.png?1[*]* Star effect alternative for vines in hair would also be good. The effect could look like this: https://i.imgur.com/nZFTzWu.png?1


Culture references in quests, novels

• Bring this up whenever you go to the night elves from now on,
• In their new city, show the Astrological towers,
• Let's see NPC mage starmancers and Star Augurs (priest/mage cross overs)
• Highborne/Moonguard/Moon Priest NPC casters wielding star/moon spells in combat
• Reference to the stars in birthing, naming rituals
• Night elves told their star and a ritual that inscribes it in them.
• Houses in the new city matching the constellations, personal house, sleeping positions matching the stars
• Magic amplification and drawing from the stars.
• Elune and arcane connection

How would stars in their hair work? Or look like?

This sounds interesting and all, but tbh, I think you're the only one really into night elves like this. The developers I don't think care that much. THey're happy with them having the forest elf theme as their core fantasy, if they wanted to go for the more unique star elf theme, they'd have done it by now.

But in case they ever do, some of these thoughts would be really cool to run with.

[Powerogue]

Most of that feels like it'd fit the nightborne better if we want to get into super fancy jewelry and arcane star symbols adorning them. Have you seen their city? Sometimes it literally rains little arcane stars, it's gorgeous.

[Beloren]

Most of that feels like it'd fit the nightborne better if we want to get into super fancy jewelry and arcane star symbols adorning them. Have you seen their city? Sometimes it literally rains little arcane stars, it's gorgeous.

Yep, I think so to, and I've told him so in the other topic. The Nightborne are really that side of the kaldorei, so you don't need to show it in the night elves, these are great ideas for Nightborne. Blizzard should use them in the Nightborne. Sure the night elves can share many of these two, but a lot of the character customisations should be Nightborne, while the cultural stuff makes sense to be shared. I can imagine night elves naming children and ordering their destinies based on stars or use to, and while that depends on your group (i.e. whether druid or priest), some still follow he old naming styles, but all the nightborne still operate like that - because they are the pure kaldorei pre-sundering civilziation.

This is what I told him.

What this means is that the star appearance, affliations, presentation will show up much more strongly in the Nightborne, because they are that half of the Night elf, meanwhile the Night elf will keep all of what it already has, but don't expect any major shifts towards a star identity or presentation, nor an arcane one.

Which is why I think people like Ravenmoon will be disappointed. His vision may be accurately based on lore, but that lore changes and the developers sometimes alter how they do things. May be right that allied races are not their to split focus of the races, however Nightborne could be the exception that blizzard are okay with, feeling that if they're going to represent the arcane culture of the night elves, then the alliance night elves don't need to.

The problem is that IF Night elves were a major love for the dev team, then they would 100% have done it like Ravenmoon and Mace are predicting, but the developers love the elves, and I think see them as one family with different parts rather than the troll approach having a lead tribe. It's an exception and it's not the first time.

Nightborne are HEAVILY Night elven - they use to post about this alot 3 years ago, well turns out they were right, but what that meant is that all these parts of the night elves they want to see in the alliance group are going to be seen in the Nightborne group. That's what it means. The Highborne will never be big amongst the night elves unless they have a major night elf push again.

You going to have to go Nightborne for all that kaldorei pre-sundering stuff and dark elf side, and likely star focus - or rather the arcane half of the star focus.

Their best hope is if Nightborne also become playable on the alliance. or become friends with the Nightborne, and the Highborne and nightborne work together despite being on opposite factions, like Ravenmoon wants.

I just think it's unlikely we're going to see the type of progression in the night elves he wants because they will use the nightborne for that.




They eventually showed it, but they changed those night elves to Nightborne, so it's their via the Nightborne. They just need to sort out the name thing. If they clarified that Nightborne are a specific nation of Kaldorei or consider themselves such, then the connection would be obvious to everyone.

It's obvious to me (thanks to you), Nightborne is like Kul'tiran, a different name that speaks more of the nation, but doubles up as a race, because they are a bit more varied from the normal human. And this is fine, because the Nightborne are based off the kaldorei - it's obvious visually and you can see it in the lore.

Therefore: Nightborne = dark elf Kaldorei arcane side, with the star iconography as a part of the ngiht elves now known as Nightborne. Simple. It's still kaldorei heritage but you experience it on the Nightborne.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Down with the kaldorei up with the stairs.

[ravenmoon]

Down with the kaldorei up with the stairs.

Dont you mean stars?

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Yep, I think so to, and I've told him so in the other topic. The Nightborne are really that side of the kaldorei, so you don't need to show it in the night elves, these are great ideas for Nightborne. Blizzard should use them in the Nightborne. Sure the night elves can share many of these two, but a lot of the character customisations should be Nightborne, while the cultural stuff makes sense to be shared. I can imagine night elves naming children and ordering their destinies based on stars or use to, and while that depends on your group (i.e. whether druid or priest), some still follow he old naming styles, but all the nightborne still operate like that - because they are the pure kaldorei pre-sundering civilziation.

This is what I told him.

The point is this is what the core of the kaldorei should be. It should be their most identifiable and relatable aspect permeating both their dark elf and wood elf sides.

You name and set up a race well, but the forget to develop it according to the plan, almost like the people who originally developed the race, named it can set up its background either completely forget what they had made this race to be, or new people came in , likely from EQ, had played WC3, saw forests and went ah forest elves, while the original creators diddnt even check in, just let them go, and thus they turned a unique concept it a generic one with some magical tricks.

[Alanar]

Just another one of your ideas that should just be something to add to the list in one of the other threads, no need to make a new one.

I also see alot of words again such as arcane and vigil... so I guess here we go again.

Good luck everyone.

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The point is this is what the core of the kaldorei should be. I

Not realy, just your opinion.

[rionalgaming]

lol the night elves are pure evil... n'zoth's children..

[ravenmoon]

@EnigmAddict

While you point out that the Nightborne are that part of the night elves, I agree, what you forget is that just because the Nightborne have a thing doesn't mean therefore the night elves don't or shouldn't have, in fact it is the opposite.

The Nightborne usually have it because the night elves have it. They differ mainly in the Nightwell corruption experience - that's it. What you see in the Nightborne is pretty much all present in the night elves, in particular the Highborne group, though it isn't shown in-game, but it's there because these are Kaldorei people, that continue in kaldorei ways, they don't have a post sundering experience of 3k years in forest world, then a break away to form a new kingdom having changed even their appearance etc. They are night elves continuing on, and get their bodies slightly altered by Nightwell corruption (via addiction) - like how the void elves are changed by the void - but the body weight change throws too many people off and the lack of knowledge of kaldorei history which makes it seem that the Nightborne are totally different to many.

So all the cultural things I pointed out, could be present in the Nightborne because they are present in the Night elf, and it's from the night elf, the reason for their very name ffs, is why they would be there.

Blizzard has to decide how they carry the Nightborne forward. Do they carry them forward as the kaldorei dark elf/arcane half of the night elves? i.e. a night elf race on the horde with night elven cultural influences including Elunism and druidism coming in via the Valewalker Farodin and the Val'sharah druids.. having that portion of kaldorei displayed with a heavy emphasis on civilization rather than forest. OR do they scrap all the kaldorei aspects and pursue them as purple blood elves, essentially Thalassian elves with a different skin.

The cultural identity is the distinguishing factor - yes, expanding the kaldorei star theme in the kaldorei and porting it to the Nightborne showing the civilization side of it through them, and also expanding their Elunism and druidism - that's cultural. Nightborne don't have to have a massive priesthood influence or druidic influence, just like at this stage the kaldorei alliance faction don't have a massive Highborne/arcane influence - that's fine.

But htey must decide whether the Nightborne will stick to their original identity or move on.

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Just another one of your ideas that should just be something to add to the list in one of the other threads, no need to make a new one.

I also see alot of words again such as arcane and vigil... so I guess here we go again.

Good luck everyone.

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Not realy, just your opinion.

you would need to read the topic to comment sensibly on it, you can do better than this Alanar, it's about exploring the identity of the night elves as children of the stars and how that can be shown more in them. Use your response to address the issue at hand.

[Syegfryed]

killing then, so they can go to the stars in the heaven

[Arrashi]

You hit them in the head with something blunt. They will see stars orbiting their heads then.

[Mace]

Most of that feels like it'd fit the nightborne better if we want to get into super fancy jewelry and arcane star symbols adorning them. Have you seen their city? Sometimes it literally rains little arcane stars, it's gorgeous.

That's there because they're night elves. you've never seen night elves in a city setting. Tha'ts what the Nightborne represent if you know the lore. Night elves who had the sky obscured by the shield, so wanted to replicate the stars via a magical spell. a false sky but reflecting their love for the stars.

there is so much blizzard can do to make this more apparent, simple neat things, but also go much further. Astorlogical towers are a thing of night elf cities, the stars are both a way of discovering yourself - so naming rituals, but also place in society can be heavily influenced by that.

THe night elves could have taken this to very high degree with star seers and similar the part of the Elune religion that placed people's roles, their destinies and their future, predicting events and things like that. This should e present in both night elves and Nightborne, but will be heavier in the night elves, especially the Highborne as they've been under areal sky for 10k years, while the Nightborne have not. @ravenmoon

Blizzard need to decide what to do the Nightborne have drifted away from the stars, Elune, druidism, only the arcane highborne culture of the kaldorei remains. However, since Legion, they druids have helped them, and they can become priests so some of that might be coming back.

If you ask me, blizzard have a lot more interesting things to write with the Nightborne and the Night elves, that can explore things like this more, they can show us some of these star qualities via the night elves interacting with Nightborne in the broken isles. people like Star augur Ertraeus and High Botanist Tel'arn are warped versions of the full things which should be part of Elunism and druidism, except they are missing the arcane elements they had in the pre-sundering era thanks to the ban.

But that's gone now, so blizzard can map a growth and evolution of these kaldorei aspects with a star focus - and do that via the two. I mean they could do it only in the night elves as they have the Highborne, but they really should be using the Nightborne in this as this is where they showed that ancient night elf culture.

But the alternative is to just turn the Nightborne into blood elf clones with a different model - pointless if you ask me, Nightborne and blood elves can be friends and keep their unique identities, and blood elves have a lot of nuance and diversification in the group through their various factions, and sub-races, including High elves, void elves, fel elves, san'layn/darkfallen, wretched, Magisters, Blood Knights, Farstriders etc etc..

That's a full package that has never needed the Nightborne, so friendship yes, sameness no. but it's not my product or yours, it's blizz's they need to decide.

[ravenmoon]

That's there because they're night elves. you've never seen night elves in a city setting. Tha'ts what the Nightborne represent if you know the lore. Night elves who had the sky obscured by the shield, so wanted to replicate the stars via a magical spell. a false sky but reflecting their love for the stars.

there is so much blizzard can do to make this more apparent, simple neat things, but also go much further. Astorlogical towers are a thing of night elf cities, the stars are both a way of discovering yourself - so naming rituals, but also place in society can be heavily influenced by that.

THe night elves could have taken this to very high degree with star seers and similar the part of the Elune religion that placed people's roles, their destinies and their future, predicting events and things like that. This should e present in both night elves and Nightborne, but will be heavier in the night elves, especially the Highborne as they've been under areal sky for 10k years, while the Nightborne have not. @ravenmoon

Blizzard need to decide what to do the Nightborne have drifted away from the stars, Elune, druidism, only the arcane highborne culture of the kaldorei remains. However, since Legion, they druids have helped them, and they can become priests so some of that might be coming back.

If you ask me, blizzard have a lot more interesting things to write with the Nightborne and the Night elves, that can explore things like this more, they can show us some of these star qualities via the night elves interacting with Nightborne in the broken isles. people like Star augur Ertraeus and High Botanist Tel'arn are warped versions of the full things which should be part of Elunism and druidism, except they are missing the arcane elements they had in the pre-sundering era thanks to the ban.

But that's gone now, so blizzard can map a growth and evolution of these kaldorei aspects with a star focus - and do that via the two. I mean they could do it only in the night elves as they have the Highborne, but they really should be using the Nightborne in this as this is where they showed that ancient night elf culture.

But the alternative is to just turn the Nightborne into blood elf clones with a different model - pointless if you ask me, Nightborne and blood elves can be friends and keep their unique identities, and blood elves have a lot of nuance and diversification in the group through their various factions, and sub-races, including High elves, void elves, fel elves, san'layn/darkfallen, wretched, Magisters, Blood Knights, Farstriders etc etc..

That's a full package that has never needed the Nightborne, so friendship yes, sameness no. but it's not my product or yours, it's blizz's they need to decide.

They need to care enough to want to develop detail like this. They've drifted far away from racial identity and culture.

Warcraft is full of half plots, half developments, and unfocused things, that don't seem to be thought out through well enough or started with a good ground work, but became a bit of a tangled mess, , like a staggering drunk aimlessly oving forward or a child that has no order or direction easily getting distracted and diverted.

They've done a lot of work to start fixing much of the lore, but things like Chronicle's are just history.. a world comes alive when you can show culture and the people, and you discover interesting things about them with a level of depth that seems real. But in wow it's very superficial, like a background not paid anywhere near as close attention too to hurry to get the quests that get you to fight.

it's like the creative team isn't properly invested in or given the priority it needs to make this a quality work. You have quest designers making up lore, no one focusing on race and zone lore. The arts team in contrast pays painstaking detail to everything, creative has no defined enough structure to properly reel this in and blend these elements.

The Kaldorei should have been star focused or heavily star influenced from the outset of wow that starts exploring their world. We should have seen it in the character creation, and the lore, as well as playing a heavy role in druidism and the forest. Knaak in his trilogy should have lent more time to showing how this played a role in every day living, culture, city life, civilization etc - but it's a problem with all of wow, so much is superficial. jeff Grubb's the Last Guardian to date is the only novel book that makes Azeroth feel real. The Travellers is basically a version of that effort. The things in there should be apparent in the game.

[Nnyco]

Cant you just spam this in one of your other 1000 nightelf threads?

[Beloren]

The Kaldorei should have been star focused or heavily star influenced from the outset of wow that starts exploring their world. We should have seen it in the character creation, and the lore, as well as playing a heavy role in druidism and the forest. Knaak in his trilogy should have lent more time to showing how this played a role in every day living, culture, city life, civilization etc - but it's a problem with all of wow, so much is superficial. jeff Grubb's the Last Guardian to date is the only novel book that makes Azeroth feel real. The Travellers is basically a version of that effort. The things in there should be apparent in the game.

We have to face the truth really, wow is not about spanning a real fantasy world, and bringing it to life anymore.

I keep having to remind you of this, you have these grand vision and idea of Warcraft that is no longer the case any longer. Sure when these guys were transitioning from WC3 to WoW, and when wow took off, yes, but it's declined heavily in that respect. The only real effort is put into game systems and art. The narrative exists solely to provide content, not to bring a world alive, because little effort is made for the details that really make the difference. The TLC moments.

At this point, they need a tv series and a new Warcraft RPG where the lore is legit, and neither is going to happen, so just quit it, you expect far more and value these people way more than it's clear that they are deserving. Their focus is not expanding the Warcraft theme or making more details - it's just providing more content for you to play and pay. That's it.

I've wanted things like a tv series and all your stuff for blood elves, but it's not what they are about anymore. You need accept this is the case and move on with your life.

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Cant you just spam this in one of your other 1000 nightelf threads?

If only. If only.

[Powerogue]

They need to care enough to want to develop detail like this. They've drifted far away from racial identity and culture.

They've drifted away from your idea of the night elf racial identity and culture.

An idea which, from the screenshots, seems to be based off various other fantasy realms, including but not limited to The Dragon Prince's star elves. (good show, a must watch, and also kind of funny that it has "moonshadow elves" as well which are much closer to WoW's night elves)


If you want to play dark-skinned elves with a strong star aesthetic and a love of magic and jewelry, play a nightborne.

If you want to play fierce defenders of their forests who use guerilla warfare and fight with savagery, play a night elf.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/st...rt-story/elegy

[Beloren]

They've drifted away from your idea of the night elf racial identity and culture.

An idea which, from the screenshots, seems to be based off various other fantasy realms, including but not limited to The Dragon Prince's star elves. (good show, a must watch, and also kind of funny that it has "moonshadow elves" as well which are much closer to WoW's night elves)


If you want to play dark-skinned elves with a strong star aesthetic and a love of magic and jewelry, play a nightborne.

If you want to play fierce defenders of their forests who use guerilla warfare and fight with savagery, play a night elf.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/st...rt-story/elegy

Exactly, they change stuff, they switch focuses, and they have every right to do so, including close the whole thing up. They seem to want to split the elves into different groups based on core fantasy.. it's the EQ, DnD approach but just fleshed out more.

You have to bear in mind they change their focus. Devs change, they switch focuses - and directions.

Yours may have been the original pipe dream if the night elves were to continue as the major race they started as, but that's not the case anymore. They are a backwater group that has had minor to average significance. Don't expect more.

[ravenmoon]

Exactly, they change stuff, they switch focuses, and they have every right to do so, including close the whole thing up. They seem to want to split the elves into different groups based on core fantasy.. it's the EQ, DnD approach but just fleshed out more.

You have to bear in mind they change their focus. Devs change, they switch focuses - and directions.

Yours may have been the original pipe dream if the night elves were to continue as the major race they started as, but that's not the case anymore. They are a backwater group that has had minor to average significance. Don't expect more.

You say with such confidence, but at the end of the day, they are called night elves, not wood elves, and Children of the stars, not children of the forest. Blizzard will remember that eventually and realise they have many options for a pure forest race and a pure dark elf race, but the night elf is a major race that blends the two, with a star& moon focus underpinning both aspects.

They'd realise this is actually quite unique and worthy of being the poster child for warcrafts elven races as it's the most original rendition of elves and has far deeper scope and uniqueness to be fantastical.

p.s. @Powerogue I'm well aware of the Dragon Prince, it's a well put together fantasy with powerful depictions of it's groups. The night elves are a fusion of the Moon elves and the star elves - it's okay if the highborne and nightborne bear the banner of the star elves, and the Elunites the banner of the Moon elves, with the druids holding up the banner of the forest elves.

The night elves are supposed to be a big race, global level, so they wild have some distinct groups and orders and off shoots that probably home in on some of these.

Up to the developers though.

[Skytotem]

I think the best way to bring up their 'star' aspect without turning them into Nightborne would be to give Nelf Priests (and possibly mages) some star-based spell animations (Their old racial WAS Starshards after all), and essentially do a deep dive on Elune's connection to astronomy and arcane energy, as well as the Nelves other niches, with a spiritual focus as opposed to Nightborne's scholarly take on them.

This way Night elves are juxtaposted from Nightborne by having a broader focus (Arcane casters, Druidism and Sentinel/huntress/Warden/watcher martial aspects all with a different 'aspect' of Elune attached to them) While Nightborne are more specialized (It's all arcane with them, but they have a bit of Time Focus, Illusion Focus, and Shield Focus)

[Alanar]

you would need to read the topic to comment sensibly on it, you can do better than this Alanar, it's about exploring the identity of the night elves as children of the stars and how that can be shown more in them. Use your response to address the issue at hand.

What do you mean? Its overkill to create a seperate thread when we already have 3 of those now, with just some slight differences. Its not worth the discussion with you anymore ravenmoon. You are not listening to others.. therefore its pointless. When you open a third thread and it ends in the same discussion people will get irritated by you.. and that already happend and tbh.. no one agrees with you besides mace, 99% all the time... all the people who respond to your threads dont agree with you over and over again. Do you consider this a healthy/usefull discussion ?

The way you view the night elves is just how YOU envision them, its your opinion and by no means law. We know there is a blue post of The argument of wood elves and dark elves combined is what made the night elves... well that all goodie and all but that is 15 years ago. Opinions and how they view that race can shift.. same as blood elves who had a major shift with the sunwell restored. I mean I get it.. there are no 2019/2020 blue posts regarding your view.. so you use old ones.. who are questionable to say the least.

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Most of that feels like it'd fit the nightborne better if we want to get into super fancy jewelry and arcane star symbols adorning them. Have you seen their city? Sometimes it literally rains little arcane stars, it's gorgeous.

This is true, it makes sense for what nightborne stands for and what they are.. night elves not so much.