Not quite. Nightborne culture was preserved Highborne culture, which was distinct and deliberately segregated from that of the kaldorei masses. Though presumably more urbanized than they are today, most night elves back then weren’t actually living like the Highborne did. That was part (though not all) of why the commoners and traditional nobility had started to feel so alienated and resentful toward the Highborne by the time of the WotA.
Normal, “commoner-level” ancient kaldorei society has actually been pretty minimally covered so far, as the lion’s share of the ruins and backstory lore center around either druidism (which only truly attained prominence in their society post-Sundering), the priesthood or Highborne culture. The latter of which just seems like it comprises all of the ancient kaldorei at first glance because with an expansionist nation as large as theirs existing as long as it did with a non-aging populace, the population evidently became so gigantic that the ruling Highborne caste alone were numerous enough to basically have their very own palatial cities distinct from those of the lower-caste elves.
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I like to run Tomb of Sargeras because the impressiveness of the ancient Kaldorei temple of Elune is just wow.
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The best part about being a Nelf is that you could be from any of the various eras of Nelf culture with distinct opinions on every other branch.
Almost all my Nelves are headcanoned as Highborne, some from pre-Well blowing up and others being born as part of the Shen’dralar. The only exception is my Night Elf Druid.
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The anti-void thing I found kind restricting to Blood Elf players especially the roleplaying kind, that played Shadow / Void story & powers.
Like when they were all “The Void has no place in Quel’Thalas!” at the Sunwell chasing Alleria Windrunner out, I was currently in voidform at the time & Xal’Atath and I were just awkwardly staring at each-other.
It kind of took a squat & dump on Blood Elf Warlocks & Shadowpriests (And maybe rogues or DKs if you wanna push it) who utilise the void / shadow. I decided to just roleplay in my head, the few void users we do have are ‘Void Hunters’ who detect & ‘take care of’ threats to the kingdom, along with maintaining order of what is allowed with such power (Much like the Mage-Hunters in Wotlk).
The Night Elf restriction & magic scare was a cool concept though, and managed to flow well because it was the case since launch, til Cata that is - like you said.
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At least with Night Elves and Mages the transition was made the right way. It’s not like one day we have no mages and the next day we did (well sorta).
You saw a kinda natural flow of how things evolved. First before we had mages there was Mordent Evenshade duran WotLK seeking an audience with Tyrande and he was not that well recieved. During Cataclysm and due to necesity they were allowed back in but on shaky grounds and remained like that for several years up to only recently during WoT when their aid at creating portals to help evacuate civilians trully helped them be viewed positively.
Sadly for me the Void Elf theme felt rushed and not well thought. Although I do enjoy using this VE character every now and then.
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