Originally Posted by
ravenmoon
You'll have a hard time explaining to me why it should qualify for Nightborne but not Night elves. I can understand and agree with a case for Nightborne to have this in addition. I wouldn't complain if it was given ot Nightborne only, though I would comment that night elves should have this.
At the end of the day, it is the Night elves that are the Children of the Stars, it is the night elves that have both an arcane and priesthood legacy that revolve around the stars and moon, even their druids have a portion (the balance druids) that looks upwards, and their culture and identity is rooted in the stars above.
I don't see why this can't be part of a Highborne/Moonguard arcane wielding night elf range of customisations. Nightborne are children of the night, not stars, but as they are night elven based, I can understand why they can have this and you would not see me objecting to Nightborne receiving this.
You may have decided that the part of the night elves that the Nightborne present is dead on the night elf side, but may I remind you it is part of the Night elves and their lore - and it is the very thing the name of the race takes from, if anything, more should be done to hone in on this unique identity and show how it dominated their civilization and how it expresses itself in both the rural centred forest druidism as well as the priesthood and kaldorei identity.
When you start planning these things, and think, okay.. in the case of the night elves, and the disaster that happened, what would a group like the Hyjal survivors leave behind and continue...? We know for the 10k period that specific group didn't use arcane magic, nor recovered any of their civilizations or lifestyle, but dedicated themselves to their vigil calling. druids had a different calling, there's was to nature, if you were a night elf and druid you would have responsibilities to both and both were connected.
But what part of your identity would remain? The star culture must have many facets that transcend the need for civilization. Sure, during the pre-sundering era, many applications, expressions would have developed in urban areas, but there would have been rural areas too, with a different type of life a lot closer to the one lived by those in the Hyjal group during the long vigil.
You can also study the impact of people like the Shen'dralar who have not changed their ways at all, and the Darnassians they recruit to their caste, especially those old Highborne who stayed with the Hyjal group and only recently returned to their original identity, adn the effect this must mean.
Then you flesh out the component f this star culture on the 3 main levels, in a city life -which you will show in the new night elf city, reminiscent of the pre-sundering era, in the priesthood which would have components for urban areas that are temple based, and components for rural areas which involve more hunting and patrolling, and finally the forest culture of the druids..
off course s a person long interested in the night elves, you have to understand, that I would require depth, and I would be looking across the whole race. At the end of the day, because I like this race, I am not interested in it being Pidgeon holed to one thing only - i.e. they have that forest thing. When I look at Humans and orcs, they have a much wider diversity, and i see this variation in the original concept of the night elves that had arcane roots and civilization, priesthood and religion that touched both urban and rural, and nature reverence shown best in the druids, added to this were the anti hero demon hunters - together you had an acceptable wide range and variation for the night elves that fit the profile of a race that once dominated the globe.
To only present them as forest elves, is a NERF of epic proportions down from the original concept which was the best portions of the Dark elves and the forest elves combined. Now I don't mind that the Nightborne are wholly dark elf portion, but I totally object to the Night elves been cut into the forest-elf-only portion. The night elves should have forest elf, dark elf, fel elf altogether. They are not an allied race, and they are not small race. The existence of the Nightborne shouldn't erase the Highborne, the Moonguard and the arcane side of the night elves - anymore than the Zandalari should remove stuff from the Darkspears or the Highmountain should now mean Tauren hone in on only one feature of their race's culture, or because we have Lightforged, Draenei shouldn't have light focus, but drift to something.
It is exactly the same thing people feel that with the Nightborne around, all of a sudden the arcane acumen and actions of the blood elves have been replaced like they don't need them. This is wrong too, the blood elves should still be seen and shown to have and wield the arcane. Blizzard did the same thing to the Night elven priesthood when the Draenei arrived and were made a priestly race. All of a sudden, we stopped all development of the Order of Elune, and all things priesthood were shunted to the draenei, . The good thing is that blizzard didn't undo the previous lore, but for those who now start insisting that the Order of Elune is not a priesthood or doesn't have it's temple priest components because in WC3, we saw sentinels dominate should be smacked on the head. We have 3 volumes of WotA trilogy showing us a detailed glimpse of the established order in the hey day of the race, and we see how it operated in the long vigil in WC3. In WoW, the long vigil is over, and civilization has returned, with it a temple.. all those who like to pretend that night elves don't do cities and don't do arcane, are just ignoring the lore get night elves to be the parts they want the most, blatantly ignoring what is being said. More insidious than they are those on the horde elf club, that feel that all the magical arcane acumen, the wonder cities should be a horde thing now because the Nightborne went horde and try to argue that the identity of the night elves is wholly rooted in druidism and rural existence and cannot nor should it extend beyond that , also need to be smacked on the head. Those just want the nice stuff of the night elf lore to only be available to their faction, which isn't based on that identity. It is literally stealing the alliance identity, then turning back to alliance players who demand this part of their elves be shown, and telling them, no, it's horde now, because Nightborne are horde now, and because Nightborne are showing that part ... yeh, like somehow out of nowhere, only one race is allowed to show this facet, and because the night elf sub race was taken to the other faction, that entire part of their identity which is shared with their Nightborne sub-race should now all of a sudden only be locked to the horde and the Nightborne.
This is exactly what you are saying is it not Alanar? That Night elves shouldn't have that sort of hair, only Nightborne? Just like in previous threads you kept insisting Night elves should not live in cities only rural areas, and certainly not pre-sundering styles because that's Nightborne now - and night elves have abandoned that - no one told you the long vigil was over, did no one tell you why night elves went so long without cities and magic, and you missed the memo that both are back? If you understood why they stopped, and you followed the events, you would understand why they have cities and arcane users too. Am I wrong Alanar? Please correct me if I am, and if I am I apologise for mis-reading you.
The funny thing about those people who claim night elves abandoned magic and cities and therefore shouldn't have is funny because night elves in Wow have always had a city since classic, and we always had night elven priests and druids using arcane based spells and we met pure arcane wielding night elves in Dire Maul - all 3 have been in the game since classic. Not only that, the War of the Ancients Trilogy is a 3 page book that is entirely based in the civilization of the night elves. And explains what happens that causes us to meet the night elves the way they are in WC3, which also explains why the night elves rebuild cities again in wow and don't try to ban arcane magic either from that point out eventually lifting the restrictions on themselves and re-integrating other groups of night elves .
But that's always ignored.