The Nightmare is supposed to be dead with Xavius and outside of a single void flower, it has continued to be dead. If the Nightmare banner really did have to do with Diablo all along then I think they are going to come up with new threats that would fight for it.
But being in the Dream does keep it safe from 99% of mortal races on Azeroth. Having to fend off Drust (maybe Botani? I assume we will also have more enemies in the Lifelands moving forward) is a small price to pay for that safety.
The last straw of hope is Night Elves remaining in Kalimdor, and this tree means nothing since I really doubt Blizzard will make a new player hub in a patch anyway.
Regardless, it's the first huge disappointment of Dragonflight.
Ah yes, the closest to thing to "Life island".
As opposed to Northern Kalimdor, which contains the place Freya created the Dream to beginn with and bound her Wild Gods to, and had 2 whole World trees sprouting their roots into the continent.
Hell, even Val'sharah, a place which has the Dream superimposed onto Azeroth (a literal "Life island") is vastly more favorable, as a place with Nelf related history, than on the Dragon isles. (Which has no relations to the nelves beyond a theme overlap).
The nelves never left their ancestral lands.
Those lands are Hyjal and its surroundings, where they lived before they even became elves.
I don't think a Nelf city really decides whether or not a revamp is still in the cards, I think it's very feasible that they could not fit a giant tree city into any new version of Kalimdor just like they couldn't in the past.
Also this thing will 100% be called Valdrassil
Ok not to be that guy, but is this really true? I mean, Kalimdor is their ancestral home but that name referred to a super continent back then. The Well of Eternity, Zin-Azshari etc were all in a completely different place. I'm aware they've since dwelled for a long time in what is today northern Kalimdor, but technically they have ties to the entire world.
Yes it’s true.
The well of eternity blew up ten thousand years before WC3, with said exploding the high Bourne that stood against the legion had a culture shift and stayed in the same area all of that time growing and developing there new culture with only a handful of times they left the areas to deal with threats.
The race predates the sundering by like 2000 but even then they lived in the same area and post sundering they never left it.
Last edited by Lorgar Aurelian; 2023-04-20 at 06:30 PM.
All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth.
But what I'm saying is that the Kaldorei Empire stretched across basically all of Azeroth (or well, what is currently known to have been the Azerothian super continent of Kalimdor). They definitely have deep ties to the forests around Mount Hyjal, no doubt about that. But if you look at the Dragons, they left the Dragon Isles 10K years ago and basically all they do is reminisce about the good ol' days in the isles.
I like to be optimistic when I can.
As for this whole "ancestral homeland" stuff, Teldrassil was basically grown on nothing, wasn't it? From what I reread on wowpedia to refresh myself, it looks like they basically just chose a spot in the veiled sea off the coast and grew it there. Given previous Night Elf/Kaldorei holdings relatively near (Broken Isles) you could say the Dragon Isles aren't that far off from their "ancestral homeland" even now.
The night elfs have lived in the area around Hyjal for longer then the pre sundering race existed and unlike the dragons have never left there lands to re settle else where and don’t want to go back to the “good old days” they exiled the elves who did and they became the high/blood elfs.
The two really aren’t comparable.
Last edited by Lorgar Aurelian; 2023-04-20 at 06:43 PM.
All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth.
They are comparable, because literally the only difference is this:
DRAGONS - Lived in the Dragon Isles.
KALDOREI - Lived in the Kaldorei Empire.
Same Story
Left their ancestral home >10K years ago, out of necessity. Formed bonds and habits elsewhere. Settled in various places, such as forests, mountains, and magical cities, which overtime became like home.
Has already happened to Dragons, may end up happening to Kaldorei
Returned to their ancestral home, out of necessity. Keep reminiscing about the good old days, as if they never left. Remembering old friends, family, lovers, enemies, places, etc.
Again the night elfs are in there ancestral home already, they lived there pre sundering and never left with only a handful of known night elfs coming from Suamar and they do not want to go back to the old days they exiled the elfs who did.
These are apples and oranges, they might both be over 10k old fruit but they are not the same or even similar.
All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth.
I think the issue with this whole storyline that it's dragged out for so long in real time that expectations have grown more and more over it, and every step along the way has come with some sort of setback to the night elves. In the past year, we've gotten positively received and positively framed storylines for undead, orcs, and tauren, alongside an underwhelming human questline and ongoing night elf suffering porn: things have definitely skewed in the Horde's direction on top of the faction imbalance becoming dire enough to dictate more cross-faction systems. I can understand trepidation that the climax to this ~5 year plot is going to end with even more misery or the belief that the writing team doesn't care much for the Alliance outside of a certain MIA faction leader.