Cultural Headcanons

Most races spell words like “honor” or “color”.
Elven races spell these words like “honour” and “colour”.

Seeing as how the subtext of this is directed at me.

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So most races spell it correctly?

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I remember dragging Tyrande by the hand crying and screaming through Val’sharah because here BF got lost in the forest…

This narrative was presented with the same tone of severity as the BURNING LEGION INVASION I had previously been focusing my attention on.

And then I remembered.

Purple elves start touching magic is like kids eating paste.
You take the glue put it away, clean them up, and put them somewhere safer.

Or they’ll sunder the damn planet trying to bone a titan.

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I do get a minor chuckle out of the outrage about Teldrassil and the Undercity, when the Night Elves did at least as bad to the Twin Empires to the point the only survivors of the Troll species were those Tribes who lived in scattered outposts far from the center of the original super-continent, and what proto-humanity did to the flourishing Troll society that had rebuilt itself in what would become the Eastern Kingdoms and reduced both Jungle and Forest Trolls of those regions to sticks and stones-level of technology.

Warcraft is just a cycle of absolute horror that builds and builds until it reaches a certain peak, then falls down into a ‘trough’ of relative peace for a few millennia until it starts the cycle all over again.

rubs chin Considering how long Elves live, I wonder if there are any Night Elves who did live to see the destruction of the Twin Empires and are witnessing what is happening now and are having a horrifying epiphany about how things work in this universe.

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I told them I was there for the purposes of strengthening diplomatic relations, but in actuality I just came for the exotic drinks.

They haven’t suspected a thing.

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Suramar, during the time of the Sundering, was mainly the populace of Kaldorei Highborne that lived there along with a small amount of lower-class citizens. However, as time went on and the need for labor increased to maintain their lifestyle, some smaller houses dwindled and smaller ones still happened to fade into obscurity.

The Shal’dorei partook in more active forms of festivities during holidays. Like someone said earlier in the thread, flashy means catching notice. As such, they often had a few smaller but very frequent festivals or holidays that they would make the most of, with public displays of magical prowess taking forms in dancing illusions, for instance. Beyond that, the slow lack of vague religion caused them to become more indulgent than other elves- making celebrating a more carnal thing and leading to more skin being shown on a basis.

Demon Hunters are probably the least feared by the Void Elves, Lightforged, and Sin’dorei respectively- though, that doesn’t mean they aren’t hated. A LFD or a VE may respect a demon hunter for their fight against the legion, or understand the general idea of loss that pushed them to become what they are. Sin’dorei just can connect to fel and power. Nightborne are both suspicious but vaguely fond of their Illidari cousins as well, as they played a part against the Legion in the liberation of their home.

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Uhhh. Woops. Apparently blizzard had a senior moment and put my important events post here. Gg blizz.

So, this is not that much of a cultural one, but I think it is a good one to mention…

The portal rooms in SW and Orgrimmar have actually resulted in a larger number of soldiers being stationed in both cities. Not to handle the populace of either, but because one of the results the portal room has left is that it makes rapid response to aggression from the other faction much easier.

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Trolll death knights have started to abandon the ebon blade and instead have pledged themselves to bwonsamdi.

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Orcs are incredibly superstitious about Night Elves owing to carryover trauma from the Botani.

The clans of Draenor long realized that the forests and wooded areas of the world are dangerous and filled with evil things. Ashenvale, for them, carries an almost haunted reputation as a place that Orcs go and never emerge from. And while the Night Elves haven’t ever used them as mulch as the Botani do, the Orcs don’t know that.

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I have accepted this headcanon as my own.
I can just imagine a group of horde laughing at the orc in the party for wanting to gtfo from ashenvale.

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I like this so much, I’m actually going to apply it to Akarrosh now.

Same. I’ve actually had a lot of fun looking at the parallels between night elves and the botani. It makes me wonder how the two groups view each other.

Do night elves consider them dangerous extensions of life unchecked? Misguided kindreds? Even some who may consider complete unification with nature through the botani the next step in night elven culture?

And the botani. What if they have a naturally passive behavior towards the night elves, like most nature seems to regard them with? Or would their desire for balance as a threat that would cause them to target night elves with greater prejudice? Could they be an “in” with Azeroth, where they might use their connection to nature to corrupt ancients and spread throughout the night elf populace with unprecedented growth?

What do you guys think?

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Firstly, “'sup, laser-lock.”

Secondly, I think that- given time to interact, the majority of elven society may view them with a split- some may abhorr their desire to try and disrupt balance as they see the Botani as something that may have ONCE had potential to do such. The other group is more on-board, but I imagine would try to focus the growth in more deserted areas of Azeroth- i.e. Durotar or Sillithus.

As for dealing with them, again, it’s a split between being immediately hostile among them and willing to try and negotiate to understand, convince, or maybe both- when it comes to the Botani’s purpose/cause.

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Kaldorei are my jam, so here we goooooo.


Broadly speaking, Kaldorei culture is Monolatristic: They maintain reverence for many gods but have consistent worship for only one deity (Elune). This is reflected in their Theocratic government with Tyrande, Elune’s High Priestess, as the de Facto leader.


Kaldorei druids are Polytheistic. Their beliefs echo Shintoism in many ways, with Elune taking the place of Amaterasu importance wise. This is why the Druids generally yield to decrees of the Sisterhood.


Post-sundering, the Druids of the Moon are traditionally where Kaldorei males who felt the calling to serve Elune were sent. The longstanding silent understanding is that Tyrande and the Sisterhood are the “Public face of Elune” for the Kaldorei.

This suits the druids fine, as their approach to Elune is more mystical, emphasizing developing a personal connection to the Goddess and living in harmony with nature rather than adherence to a rigid orthodoxy with sole focus on Elune.


The Eternal Sun the Sin’dorei exalt is actually a lesser member of the greater Kaldorei pantheon recognized by the Tauren as An’she. The Highborne placed this divinity on a pedestal traditionally reserved for Elune when they were exiled.

The Sunwell was dedicated to Him and is seen by the Sin’dorei as an incredibly sacred shrine to the Eternal Sun much as the Moonwells are to Elune.


Kaldorei tend to find the arguably Monotheistic approach to the Holy Light Draenei and Humans have a bit disturbing, and often get mad when their priests try to say Elune is just a facet of the Light.


The Kaldorei have specialists in growing and maintaining their tree buildings, which other races sometimes call treechitects. These individuals are not themselves druids, but rather adept users of plant oriented magic with specialized training in working with Wisps.

In times of war they become the Kaldorei equivalent to a combat engineer, creating bridges from roots, growing fortifications and the like.


Despite Sin’dorei efforts to paint the Kaldorei as primitive tree-dwelling savages they are actually quite academic, with vast amounts of research in fields such as geology, meteorology, botany, wildlife management, and herbalism. Additionally, due to religious reasons astronomy remains a common research topic as well.

Books are actually quite common, with the largest library once being held at the Temple of Elune in Darnassus. Outside of the loss of life one of the greatest losses the Kaldorei suffered with the burning of Teldrassil was the destruction of their primary repository of knowledge.


The Kaldorei know how to get plants to leech metals to the surface, preventing the need to mine. The process is slow, and during times of war they often scavenge metal from their enemies and purchase it from their allies.

The mining the Kaldorei are doing in post-Teldrassil Darkshore has not occurred since the sundering, and is a reflection of how desperate things are more than anything else


The Kaldorei have a special sect of gravekeeper druids. These druids keep the wisps happy and make sure the corpses of the dead are reabsorbed into nature.

They brew commemorative teas from the herbs and flowers that grow on the graves of those they watch over during certain holidays such as the Lunar festival.


The Kaldorei did not, in fact, ban arcane magic in the sense of any usage of arcane energies. They banned mage magic.

In fact, within Kaldorei culture there is no division between arcane and nature magic. The division instead is between natural and unnatural magics, with the latter being shunned. This is due to Malfurion’s philosophical teachings of living in harmony with nature rather than forcing it into submission, an ideological stance that the rapidly gained cultural weight after the sundering.

What do I mean here? Lets take Mages and Druids as an example:

The fundamental hubris of the mage is their brand of magic is based on imposing their will upon a primal force of creation, forcing reality to warp in accordance with the mage’s whims. Doing this makes otherwise impossible things possible, but to compel an energy embodying the logic and order of the cosmos to break its own rules creates a volatile struggle between energy and caster. Should the caster loose that fight it can result in consequences up to and including the Sundering itself.

In their efforts to protect their environment (the originally Kaldorei) druids inevitably have studied it to an exhaustive degree. The flora and fauna, the geography, the night sky and blazing sun. As part of this they have observed how energies flow and naturally express themselves. Most Druidic spells are in essence calling upon a natural expression of these energies, often in a scaled and focused form. This includes Arcane-based spells: In calling on arcane energies to manifest in a way the energy itself naturally wishes to there is no struggle between energy and caster, and the resulting magic is stable.

TL;DR

  1. Mage Magic = unnatural use of arcane, results in catastrophe.
  2. Druidic Magic = natural use of arcane, safe for use.

Looking at things in this perspective Moonwells change from hypocritical to a prime example of a usage for arcane energies in post-sundering Kaldorei culture: The druids call upon the innate ordering properties of arcane energies to bring balance to the land. Moonwells generate a sort of magical inertia that strengthens life against the whims of fate and resists corrupting influences such as Fel and Necromantic magic. Life thus flourishes within the bounds of a Moonwell’s influence.

…This is also why one of the first things the Forsaken went after in the War of Thorns were the Moonwells. The very presence of a Moonwell causes their blight to be resisted. No point in trying to make a Kalimdor Plaguelands (Blightlands?) if the land itself is able to passively overcome your efforts.

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The Kaldorei likely see the Botani akin to how they see the Treants and Ancients: As agents of nature they would strive to live in harmony with. I find it likely the Kaldorei could help the Botani adapt to life in Azeroth, and the two races could get along grandly… I mean the Kaldorei live in buildings made of living trees and revere nature.

I suspect in place of the Genesaur the Azerothian Botani will come to worship Aessina as their new god, as she is the spirit of the wilds itself.

…I am sure many Kaldorei would be happy to accept the usage of Infestation to avenge Teldrassil also, so Orcs might have that to look forward to again.

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Given that the Botani did rather recently nearly infest Stormwind as shown in the Everbloom quest… I get the feeling the humans might be strongly opposed to the idea of bring even more of them to Azeroth.

In my darkest dreams, the Kaldorei, unwilling to forgive the Horde, use their Druidic powers to commune with the Botani that came through the portal with the Mag’har and unleash them upon Orgrimmar.

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I’m probably in the minority here, but I’d assume that given Elune was about as useful as a used tissue when Teldrassil burned, and the Wild Gods the Kaldorei are so found of and have such a deep connection to decided to stay in bed that day, that the Night Elves that survived and currently inhabit Stormwind as refugees are bitterly divided.

On one side, the Kaldorei who are fanatically hanging on to their beliefs because it is all they have left and point to the Night Warrior ‘blessing’ Tyrande has brought to their people as a sign that Elune hasn’t forsaken them one last time.

On the other, a larger number of Kaldorei who have gotten sick of copping the rough end of the pineapple over and over again.

Tyrande keeps screwing up and driving would-be allies into the arms of the Horde. Malfurion blows either hot or cold and can’t seem to do anything until things reach the stage of the entire planet is going to die if you don’t get involved right the heck now, Archdruid!. The dysfunctional marriage between the two leaders of the Kaldorei has led to an equally dysfunctional leadership style that zig-zags between gentle diplomacy and raging zealotry at the drop of a hat.

And the cherry on top, that not only did Elune not save them yet again, but the Wild Gods apparently decided to stay in bed that day and did nothing to aid the Kaldorei after ten thousand years of service and worship from the Night Elves.

This larger group of Kaldorei are finding strange kinship in the people of Stormwind and the living survivors of Lordaeron, who can sympathize after the Light has failed them all time and time again, yet since the Light is not a ‘being’ that can be blamed, but rather a ‘force’ to be respected and controlled, a number of Kaldorei are taking a page from the Lightforged and the Humans and Dwarves and seeking to bind the Light to their will as both a tool of defence and a weapon against the evils that continue to plague their people.


The Botani are the reason the Wild Gods never showed up to defend the Kaldorei. Some of the Wild Gods believe that the Botani will make the perfect replacement for the Kaldorei, given the right ‘modifications’, while others fear the Botani are much like an invasive weed, lacking any true predators other than the Orcs, and will choke the life out of their domains if allowed to roam freely. The debate rages so strongly that the Wild Gods were willing to abandon their allies rather than risk the pro-Botani Wild Gods being left alone with their new favourites and no oversight.

The Botani, for their part, are absolutely fascinated by the Wild Gods, beings of flesh, things that should be mulch for the new generation, yet these beings are in perfect harmony with the Green and seek its survival and expansion. Cenarius in particular, being a melding of both plant and animal yet beholden to neither side, fascinates the Botani to no end and is ‘stalked’ relentlessly by the Botani, who have managed to cultivate a single Genesaur seed and attempted to gift it to Cenarius as a gesture of good-will … and an attempt to convert Cenarius into a ‘proper’ Avatar of the Green.

Cenarius currently has the Genesaur seed, which is rapidly maturing in the Emerald Dream, and the Lord of the Forest is desperately trying to cultivate a more tolerant and balanced mindset in the ‘newborn’ Genesaur, but the ancient memories of the Sporemounds are strong and pushes the Genesaur towards dominating the world under sentient, parasitic plant-life, and Cenarius’s plant-like traits and his recent enslavement by the Emerald Nightmare have unfortunately made the God of the Forest rather vulnerable to the Genesaur’s own manipulations, and currently the two beings are entangled in a battle of wills deep in the heart of the Emerald Dream.


Before Goblins and Pandaren joined the Horde, most rations in the Horde’s armies were simply smoked or salted meat, hard travel bread, maybe some dried fruits and nuts and some hard cheese if you were lucky.

Once the Goblins joined, however, production-lines producing boxed lunches or snacks quickly became a ‘fad’ amongst the races dwelling within Orgrimmar, and the portability and preservation involved allowed these foods to remain edible, if not particularly nourishing for Orcs, Trolls or Tauren unless eaten in large quantities, for long periods of time.

When the Pandaren joined, Orgrimmar and her people underwent a culinary revolution, much to the chagrin of the Goblin food-barons. New methods of preparing the rice and crops native to Durotar and the Echo Isles, the boars, raptors, crocolisks and scorpids, all of it prepared in banquets … and lunch-boxes.

Enterprising Goblins quickly managed to manufacture fake lunchboxes in the Pandaren style, and Pandaren cooks became outraged that their culinary arts were being mass-produced, and mass-besmirched, by the Goblins, causing something of a food-war in Orgrimmar as Goblin vendors and Pandaren stall-owners competed viciously for the stomachs of Orgrimmar’s people, or low costs versus good quality, and the fight still rages on, albeit in a less combative manner, to this day, with Goblins and Pandaren pushing food-carts around the city to try and prove once and for all whose style of cooking, and business, is supreme.

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Headcannons accepted! I like’m :slight_smile: