Great, so Shadowmoon valley is night elf zone too.
I swear, Dread, you can make far better arguments for Ardenweald being a night elf zone, based on 9.1 spoilers, but instead you choose this garbage tier arguments instead
“oh it looks like what night elves use- to an extent”
Need some help?
Winter Queen- sister of Elune now helped by Elune
all night elf souls from teldrassil who were rescued end up there, creating likely a surplus of night elf souls over other races there.
The Wild Gods that night elves worship and a close ally, Ysera, is there
But, no, you choose, “oh the trees look the same/it is a forest” despite me having this argument with you like 2 years back telling that you that the trees there do not look the same with clear examples of which tree species are there vs those in night elf forests. For the record, many of the trees used in Ardenweald are closer morphologically to tropical and ubiquitous trees like acacias.
And as if there are no other races living in temperate forests.
and “starry sky” because Shadowmoon valley and other zones do not use those assets- none of the night elf zones really have a sky like that tbh but you would know that if you spent any time playing in those zones.
And despite all this, it can still be argued that it is more than just a night elf zone, but also a night fae zone, so it is not just a night elf zone- and it isn’t necessary that night elves end up there after dying.
SMV is mostly plains and hills, but notice that the one area that is Dark Magical High Fantasy Forest themed (with the moonwillow trees) is part of Alliance questing and not Horde questing, while the more tropical-themed Botani swamp is Horde-centric (Botani-orcs).
This is cope dude.
Both zones rely on the same IRL body of fantasy with zero ecological diversity in Ardenweald.
Night Elves, Nelf Zones, and Ardenweald all are branches from the same tree, and that is obviously intentional.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re right. What do npc decisions have to do with Kyalin’s desire for the Horde player to be miserable? She can’t cut the difference between person and character.
I mean, Frostfire isn’t tropical. And every zone aside from SMV and FF have both Alliance and Horde storylines. So, this is pretty off the mark, if not outright a dishonest argument.
If anything, Ardenweald undermines Night Elf religious beliefs that Elune ushers Night Elf Souls to the Afterlife. As it has been made quite clear that the Winter Queen isn’t in the habit of doing her Sister any favors.
…why is this even a subject that merits discussion again? Did someone reject the possibility that an otherworldly esoteric realm didn’t have to conform to mortal ecological limitations? The NEPAS had something to do with it? Why would they reject that there’s a full afterlife that strongly conforms to nelf aesthetics?
I can’t speak for other Nelf posters, but for me, I never rejected the idea that Ardenweald is entirely forest. I don’t even reject that idea that it is aesthetically adjacent to Nelf Aesthetics.
Only thing I reject is that Ardenweald is some love letter zone to Nelf players. Or even Nelf-centric in anyway.
I don’t believe Night Elves have a monopoly on forests and stars.
This one post, which claims Ardenweald as nothing to do with night elves, is liked by a whole ton of NEFPA, including Faralon. The very same Faralon who just posted this:
Edit: Continuing on…
THIS Faralon post is hilarious.
And here’s an entire chain of posts with Faralon arguing that Ardenweald is not a night elf zone.
What other races uses Dark Magic Deciduous Forest motif while relying on northwestern European mythical creatures with some Greek elements sprinkled on top for razzle dazzle?
Would have been nice if such things were uniquely night elf, but Blizzard saw fit to pass it on to Trolls as well. If that is the case, then there is no reason why Tauren can’t achieve the same thing with Mu’sha.
In fact, of all the races that use Dark/Lunar magic, only Night Elves suffer from the culture erasure as that core feature of their cultural identity is homogenized into the human-centric Church of Holy Light.
And probably forest goblins. And forest gnomes. And…
I mean, humans live in forests, too. (And maybe they’ll even get to be druids one day, too, without needing to be worgen or Kul’Tirans!)
To be fair, the color scheme is very much the same as what we’ve seen in the Night Elf starting zones, but the same could be said for a lot of places on Azeroth.
Also, there are cave systems in Ardenweald that may speak more to some of the other races–notably orcs and trolls. So while Ardenweald may be topically all forest, its subterranean landscapes may be vastly different.
It isn’t just forest and night. It’s gods, purpose, link to the Emerald Dream (which only night elves are bound to, because Elune’s pet Ysera loved them above all other races), etc, etc, etc.
Or are we going to pretend the Nightsong never plays in Ardenweald? Or we never see nelf cutscenes in Ardenweald? Or that Ardenweald isn’t hyper focused on Ysera/Tyrande?
I will say it is a bit early to state this categorically, as we don’t have the cinematic with Elune’s message yet. That is the last big piece we need to that puzzle.