So, most of what I know is from what little I’ve retained from my childhood WC3 days and whatever intersects with draenei lore. Was wondering if anyone had a good lore video they’d recommend? There’s a lot and I’m not sure what’s worth the time.
For bonus points, I’d love any channel recommendations for flavor lore and small details and things like that.
I am afraid there won’t be many videos or books to help you, because introducing those to you will only confuse you. I can tell you what is current though.
If there is anything specific you want to know, it is better to ask direct questions. Events, culture, overall mindset and opinions.
I’m sure watching a wow video is more fun than watching Forumites go at it, which is a likely outcome.
Also, he wouldn’t even know what to ask if he didn’t know what’s going on.
I haven’t watched WoW videos in a long time…. But I often watch LotR videos on you tube. I guess in LotR videos, you don’t have to have an ear out for the subtle Faction bias cues from the “content creator” as it were.
Back in my early WoW days, I thought Nobble did a ok job of presenting lore videos - but maybe it was just the lore videos I happened to watch. Every one tells me he is a die hard Alliance fan, but maybe I just never clicked on the videos where he expressed it. I usually only watch his lore stuff based on a topic I like, and I didn’t feel a heavy Alliance tilt to the videos I saw.
I don’t have any recommendations except maybe Nobble videos. Also, he didn’t seem to “ham it up” or go on a lot of personal diatribes… but it’s been years since I watched videos like that about lore. Maybe he has changed. I suppose we all have.
There are many great youtubers out there who spend alot of effort explaining it all and of course the wiki moved and the articles are now more detailed.
Problem is still how confusing and zig-zaggy blizzard is with lore. You could make a Warcraft lore video today, and it would all be invalid tomorrow.
Hence why I asked whether it was just events, is it the cultural aspect in blood elven society, etc.
Having it pin-pointed which part it is makes for an easy summary.
Thanks for the help y’all.
Appreciate the list.
This was specifically something I was confused about, how widespread the golden eye effect was and such.
Very fair. I’ll probably have a better idea of what to ask when I’m a tad more familiar. The concerns about new lore contradicting old lore can definitely make it hard to navigate WoW’s story sometimes.
The only thing that comes to mind right now is how they currently feel about the use of fel and warlocks in their society.
This makes me hope they do something with Suramar in Midnight. Still the best representation of a magical society in WoW to date, and seeing some cultural overlap with them and blood elves would actually be sick.
Thanks again.
Blizz downplayed a lot of the cool stuff in WC3.
WoW Kael ends up being a madman and the magic addiction wasn’t a big deal. Garithos is literally unmentioned in the entirety of WoW I think.
Blood Elves don’t do much in lore, they keep to themselves despite the fact there’s a million people playing them.
We do know that the elves aren’t necessarily “redeemed” with the Sunwell’s restoration, There’s a lot of random sorcery around supposedly. It will be interesting to see what they do in Midnight. Lor’themar always used a lot of propaganda in the city and controls it with an iron fist.
An interesting thing is a while back they retconned why they joined the Horde, somewhat.
Originally it was about them trying to reach Outland or something, which was always weird. Mu’ru came back already and a giant Outland portal in Bloodmyst existed but Kael was making the pilgrims walk? Lmao
This got retconned to something about trying to support Illidan with supply lines. Which obviously the Alliance wouldn’t want. It also works better with why Night Elves are for some reason all the way across the sea in Ghostlands.
Oh, that’s reassuring. I kind of want them to be a bit, y’know, evil. I’ve always loved the tangible consequences of magic in WoW lore, seeing societies that rely on it to function suddenly forced to compensate with morally questionable alternatives. So do blood elves still rely on fel crystals at all? If the Sunwell is restored, they probably don’t need them, right, but do they still use them?
Kael’thas-through-Rommath was the real power in TBC’s Silvermoon. Neither Theron nor Brightwing condoned a lot of the stuff he got up to, but they couldn’t overrule the guy who spoke with “Prince Kael’thas’s full authority.” The Blood of the Highborne novella explores that era of blood elf history in a bit more detail than the game does.
… suffice to say, the SMC we’re likely to visit in Midnight probably won’t be a fel-powered fascist state awaiting Alliance liberation twenty years after Kael’thas died and Rommath was subalterned. Tragic as that might be for the edgier BE players.
They make rare appearances as background doodads - I think I remember some in Nazmir - but on the whole they default to those red arcane crystals in newer content. Dawnseeker Promontory on the Isle of Thunder seems to be the template for modern blood elf encampments; we’ve seen it in miniature elsewhere. One of the NPCs performing crystal maintenance there even jokes about how much easier the disused fel crystals were to operate.
There’s a few short stories on the official WoW website that you might be interested in, especially “In the Shadow of the Sun”, which is set at the beginning of Wrath.
Nobbel has a massive backlog of videos on Warcraft lore, each clearly labeled by topic, and he’s who I’d recommend for just about any lore topic if you’re looking for a summary.
Awesome, thanks a ton 
Essentially put the Horde past the Alliance in arcane aptitude and the only greater forces currently WAS Dalaran, but probably is the now reformed and empowered blue dragonflight and Azshara herself.
Which of course, if we ever get around to playable naga will continue to expand upon who becomes the greater magical force.
humans are better then you that is the only law in this franchise.
A few corrections.
This goes back and forth a lot.
The last it was touched on, while Silvermoon was rebuilt using fel as a power source for the magical rituals, the Blood Elves as a majority did not use fel to sate their addiction. The scale of the rituals used to rebuild Silvermoon City, however, did cause all elves in Quel’Thalas to develop green eyes by proximity to it. Some elves absolutely did drain demonic energies to sate their addiction, but not all, and not a majority of the playable Blood Elves.
If you’re looking to RP a Blood Elf, you can say they drained fel or not as you want.
There are a few issues here.
The kingdom of Quel’Thalas withdrew from the Alliance of Lordaeron after the conclusion of the Second War. High King Anasterian Sunstrider had been reluctant to join it to begin with. He wouldn’t have if a blood oath had not been sworn to the line of Thoradin. Anduin Lothar was the last of that line (not including Faerin Lothar or her family as its not yet clear what their relationship is to the original line of Thoradin).
Quel’Thalas only provided token support in the form of a handful of rangers led by Alleria Windrunner, and it was assaulted by the Horde. The modern day zone of the Ghostlands was torched in dragonfire by the Second War Horde, and the elven Runestones stolen and corrupted for rituals used by Orc Warlocks.
After the Second War, with Anduin Lothar dead and thus the blood oath satisfied, Anasterian withdrew from the Alliance, citing their invaded lands as one of their key grievances. In short, he felt the Alliance hadn’t done enough to protect Quel’Thalas.
After the fall of Quel’Thalas during the Third War, Kael’thas sought to rejoin the Alliance, believing the Alliance was his people’s best hope to secure their homeland and build a future. He found the survivors of the Alliance and joined forces to secure key strategic territories from the scourge.
Othamar Garithos was the highest ranking survivor of the kingdom of Lordaeron, and the defacto leader of the Alliance’s forces in the northern Eastern Kingdoms at the time. Due to personal grudges and prejudices (and possibly the influence of the Dreadlords as it has never been stated just when they began influencing/controlling him), he used Kael’thas and his people as fodder, to the point the Blood Elves had to accept aid from the Naga just to survive. Garithos used this as justification to imprison the Blood Elves and execute them en mass.
The events of WC3 cover that well enough.
Circling back to World of Warcraft, the Blood Elves began courting the Horde for membership, intending to use the Horde and its resources to gain access to Outland and there join Kael’thas. In Silvermoon Outland was described as a paradise, a land bathed in the mana that would sate the elves’ addiction to magic.
Alliance diplomats were present in Quel’Thalas, but their mission wasn’t so much to bring the Blood Elves back to the Alliance, as to spy on them. The presence of a sizable Kaldorei force without knowledge or permission was nothing short of an invasion. I don’t understand why they’re still there to this day. As recent as the Void Elf recruitment scenario, they’re STILL there.
I’d add here that the Scryers were also part of this number, and their defection was the largest loss of manpower the Sunfury experienced through numerous campaigns. There is no indication that they’ve rejoined Silvermoon, or done anything other than collect dust. Blizzard has just outright forgotten they exist it seems.
Yup. This was covered in the short story, ‘Shadow of the Sun,’ which itself was a fan-made story for a contest way back in the day.
Blatantly false.
The relationship between Blood Elves and High Elves is worth it’s own thread. Suffice to say, there are deep blood feuds there. If you read, ‘Shadow of the Sun,’ you’ll get an idea. While Lor’themar may have been willing to extend the hand of diplomacy after the Sunwell was reignited, it was he whom exiled the High Elves to begin with. Later in Cata, when the Silver Covenant are in Quel’Thalas at Halduron’s request to fight the Amani, Lor’themar even sends a messenger demanding to know why the exiles are in Quel’Thalas.
Blood Elven affection for High Elves extends enough to permit pilgrimages to the Sunwell. Or once did. As of the last time we saw the Sunwell, there were no High Elves there, not even Auric Sunchaser who stood as the High Elven representative during the Quel’delar quest chain during Wrath. If any race other than a Blood Elf is on that quest, when Quel’delar backhands Lor’themar, everyone else blames the High Elves without a second’s hesitation.
As I said before, the idea that the Blood Elves care about the High Elves is ludicrous, and contradicted by the lore time and again. This thread is about the Blood Elves, so I’ll just leave it at the examples above I gave.
If you’re looking to RP a Blood Elf, however, your character’s opinion of them can be whatever you wish. Again, I was citing examples of the general attitude between the two groups. Trust me, Blood Elves have a LOT of reasons to outright hate High Elves.
Almost right. The Sunwell IS sustained by a mix of holy and arcane energies. I don’t know if that, “not,” got in there by accident.
Indeed.
In the Chronicles, the Horde defeated Kael’thas at Magister’s Terrace once and for all. Conversely, the Alliance has credit for the clear of the Sunwell Plateau raid, and the restoration of the Sunwell (Lor’themar was prepared to destroy it again, but Velen used M’uru’s spark to purify it and reignite it instead).
Also true, although I’d add the marriage of the leaders only adds to the strong bonds these two nations share both in history and culture. Just as many consider the Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren of the modern Horde to have an unbreakable bond of brotherhood, the same applies just as much, if not more, for the Blood Elves and the Nightborne.
Considering the high elves never missed a chance to kill blood elves the hatred from them is very deep at this point really.
This is the major point of controversy when it comes to Blood Elf lore.
Recent books claim the fel crystals are all gone, but I havent read them myself.
We also know that blood elves now shun any kind of shadow/void magic, given what happened to the void elves. So affliction warlocks and shadow priests are likely illegal.
I assume blood elves are no different than humans when it comes to warlocks at this point: shunned, outcasts from polite society, but tolerated for their power.
But yeah, I dont think there’s anything left of the whole “mana-drinking-demon-elves” we were introduced to in Warcraft 3. That part of their culture hasnt been acknowledged since like 2007 and Blizzard has had no interest in showing it.
Just think of us as Horde high elves at this point. All the edge went to the void elves.
This constant statement does more of a disservice to understanding Blood Elves than anything else. The edge is still there, its just not the mana sucking, survival of the fittest, elves we got in BC.
The edge shifted from fel crystals to blood magic. Up to you, I suppose, if thats a down grade, upgrade, or lateral move. Astalor and various magisters, the very same people who derived sucking the light out of a Naaru to make Blood Knights, went on to learn how to recreate and control blood golems from the Thunder King. There are blood mages (not to be confused with blood mages proper) in their ranks in part to support these golems.
Spellbreakers still exist, and while not shown too often or as particularly menacing compared to their hype, the Blood Elves (and now Nightborne, theoretically) are the only people with magic denying capabilities.
Darkfallen exist. Count them as Forsaken or Blood Elf, they’re at the very least still elves, while also having a short stint of San’layn around.
While Blood Knights may lost an edge as commanders of the light without parallel, they’re still not the squeaky clean paladins of the Alliance given their aid with blood golems and magic. They’re still using ranseurs, and if nothing has changed, which still require to be smothered in demon blood to temper the metal. They still use willpower and faith in their ability rather than faith in the light. Which, why would they continue the old ways, with the associated pain and discord it created, when you could just be a cocky jack of a donkey and slurp it up with the Sunwell through a straw?
The magsiters remain as cocky as ever and Blood Magi proper still exist within their ranks.
So while some of the more overt edge from BC has fell by the wayside, it isnt abandoned as often suggested or left to another group. It could be more front and center, Liadrin could act less like a Knight of the Silverhand and more like a Blood Knight, it all still exists and has been expanded on.
This is literally my entire point. We both agree the “edge” (or whatever you wanna call it) has been drastically decreased in favor of vague aesthetics calling back to earlier days and the annoyingly on the nose “blood magic” (not to be confused by Warcraft 3 blood mages. Those are basically forgotten outside of the aesthetics of the destruction warlock).
The fact that they traded bloodmages for…blood mages is indicative of my point.
I would say that nothing you listed feels particularly edgy (is blood, on its own, edgy?) especially when the void elves are standing right over there. The very fact that blood elves made shadow magic illegal is a joke that borderline de-canonizes classes like the shadow priest and warlock (they also got rid of all the fel crystals, so we can assume both shadow and fel are at least shunned if not outright banned).
We also agree that the nature of their “edge” has changed completely compared to what was sold to us initially.
So yeah we’re on the same page here. I think I just dislike this stuff more than you do.
When do we see this? I have no idea what the magisters are up to.
I’m not sure what this proves. Also, didnt this happen way back in WoD? What have they done lately?
Again, what does this prove?
Again, this is my point.
How does this at all relate to anything I said? Isnt this a response to my previous post?
So?
Again this doesn’t prove or disprove anything I said at all.
And dont void elves have darkfallen customizations too? I could be wrong.
That’s not what I mean by edge. I dont mean a competitive edge. Is that where the confusion is stemming from?
How does this not make them squeeky clean? What is “dirty” about using blood magic in the way that they use it?
Source? I thought they drew power from the sunwell.
Do they ever ACT in a way that separates them from traditional paladins as we see them in the Alliance?
That “if” is doing a lot of work there. Given the blood elves rejection of fel magic (at least on a large scale with the removal of the fel crystals) Do we have any reason to believe this is still the case?
This is exactly what I’m asking for.
You’re perfectly explaining the issues I have, which again leads me to believe we largely agree and just have different tolerances for these things.
Aside from the Blood Knights, who for all Blizzard’s insistence to the contrary do come off as homogenized by their redemption at the Sunwell, I agree with Imfernal: there really isn’t a marked difference in how the blood elves have been portrayed pre and post-Patch 2.4. (Mostly because the blood elves of WoW were always a far cry from the depraved villain race of the RPG sourcebooks, but I believe we’ve agreed to disagree on that before.)
But then, I’ve always disagreed with this criticism of “Horde high elves.” The blood elves’ arc of a race fallen from grace, skirting its doom with corruption, but reclaiming its heritage was a story far worthier of Thrall’s Horde than unrepentant “demon elves” would have been. Which, in the first place, always struck me as a bizarre interpretation of a race whose racials are Arcane Affinity, Arcane Acuity, Arcane Resistance, Arcane Torrent…
Blood elves thought bad magic is bad yet void elves do it without harm. Blizzard writing is just not good when it comes to the Horde at large.