So, 10,000 years. That’s how long ago the night elves fought the legion and sundered the planet. That’s how long it’s been since the night elves had a massive shift to their status quo. since their civilization changed it outlook on everything. Since Malfurion and Tyrande took control of a nation.
You know what happened on earth 10,000 years ago? We were still discovering farming. The oldest known human settlement is 8000 years old. This is where i feel the great society of the nelves starts to struggle. How can a society truly be great if the stagnate for longer then countries have existed. And their characters acting so god damn childlike.
These people have been alive longer then written language, yet act like they’re still going through puberty. It also makes the fact there has been one true night elven schism seem improbable (Being the exile of the highborn 8000 years ago (Because it took 2000 years to enforce a law)). They also should have a god damn massive amount of younger elves running around, unless their breeding cycles takes centuries, they younger elves would ineviatably take over simply by numbers, and likely would have vastly different philosophies on life then the older ones.
The Night Elves should have had outposts if not flourishing towns in Northrend and Lordaeron before those strange mutated vykrul established their first kingdom in the EK
Immortality + wisdom and 10,000 is like running through a game with God Mode. Tyrande’s characterization throughout BfA leaves much room for improvement
Don’t get me started on how rarely fantasy narratives actually consider the consequences of extreme longevity.
This is my main beef with fantasy, in general. I love the exotic story elements. I hate the lack of intellectual curiosity that so often goes with them. This is why I generally prefer science fiction - the authors are much more likely to ask interesting questions.
There are several points to explain your protests.
First, Night elves were appointed as guardians of Nordrassil, the Well of Eternity and the surrounding lands. They took on that mantle and focused their attention on that only. They did not seek to extend their reach on far away lands (except that one time Fandral was an idiot and tried to take Sillithus), prefering to remain close to the object of their protection.
Second, Night elves got a very strong druidic presence in their society, which means remaining respectful to nature, which would slow down technological progress, or even make it downright unnecessary. Technology either advances to make people’s life easier, or make better weapons of war. Druids and wisps make life extremely easy for Night elves, able to grow buildings into their desired shapes, and I assume there have been some advances in weaponry, such as the giant rapid-fire shuriken launcher.
Third, night elves are (were) immortal. Combined with their respect of nature, they would know that reproduction needs to be kept in check so as not to be too numerous for their home to support them. It’s highly likely that their numbers remained static for most of the Long Vigil, maybe even reproducing only when there were accidental deaths. Those few children would in turn be taught the ways of their parents, and therefore think similarly to them.
Besides, it’s not like the High/Blood elves have been doing that better. Aside from having an arcaney civilisation, they are not that much more advanced than Night elves. Heck, I’m pretty sure they still think the same way as they did when they were exiled.
While that is true you generally find leaders to be wise and who is going to be wiser than a formerly immortal leader? That’s not to say they know everything but they’d have a pretty good idea having seen it all before.
Thing is, with no one dying of old age means there’s no generational turn over which means there’s going to be very little, if any, societal change.
For example, in the US right now you have the Baby Boomer generation being gradually replaced by the incoming Millennial Generation and its fueling a change of American society at pretty much every level.
The Night Elves don’t have that. It’d be like living in a world where your grandparents never died off and all of their customs and norms never died off with them and to get anywhere in life you’d have to conform to those norms and customs so things like counter cultures just end up getting absorbed and dissipated by the entrenched dominate Old Guard.
Do remember that Tyrande is a 10K year old relic of the past who has never had any reason to change the way she has done things because the way she has done things has always worked for her.
So when times change and the old ways of doing things stop working she doubles down on the old ways because that’s what old people do. They refuse to face facts, refuse to change with the times and often get in serious trouble because of it.
Just look at the mess World War 1 turned out to be because the people in charge were all Old Guard who refused to adapt to the new way things were done. They expected to fight the war in the way they had fought all the previous wars and were just totally unprepared for the new beast they were facing down.
I wouldn’t say that they dont like them. I mean they got a lot of stuff compared to many other races, only their appearance in WoW is ridiculous since Cata. I think more that Blizz don’t really know what they’re doing.