Elune as a 'Life Lord': A Metaperspective

Lore Story Forum
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With 9.1 closing in and allusive content regarding Elune abound, I would like to talk about the perceptions of Elune in the meta and how her all-but-confirmed position as a Life Lord would be a windfall for both night elf fans and for the rest of the community.

Elune draws inspiration from a myriad of sources such as Elbereth from Middle-Earth and Selune and Lolth from the Forgotten Realms; by extension of the Selune and Elbereth, real world polytheistic lunar deities such as Selene and Hecate also serve as template for her portfolio and archetype. Like most mother goddess archetypes in fantasy, especially those associated with different roles reflected by the phases of the moon like Hecate, her motifs are reflections of divinity as it relates to motherhood and is a direct product of fantasy authors from the 1940s to the 1990s taking scholarship of ancient religion, whether orthodox or not, and applying it to their world building. We see this most prominently with Robert Graves’ controversial work The White Goddess as the ignition point for a revival of this mother goddess archetype, both in new age spiritual belief and in the works of fantasy as authors observing those revivals began incorporating similar ideas as literary devices.

As a result of an abundance of source material, it seems Blizzard didn’t exactly have a clearly defined role for Elune when she was first introduced beyond “the mother goddess of the night elves.” Whether the night elves were monotheistic or polytheistic wasn’t immediately evident, nor was Elune’s relation to other divine entities in the world like the loa or the Titans, or her role in creation, if any. For much of the WC3 period, she was background flavor until the release of the RPG source books.

The RPG set a standard of expectations for night elf fans about their cosmology. Elune was one of, if not the only, inherent deity of Azeroth. She was the nurturer of life, a pacifist, and above all, the singular goddess in whose image the night elves were made. Instead of their perceptions of Elune being reflections of their own form, their forms were a reflection of her own.

Then World of Warcraft launched, along with supplemental content like the Warcraft Encyclopedia and the War of the Ancients trilogy. Elune’s role in night elf society began to shift. She was no longer the singular player in the spiritual affairs of the night elves. The significance of the Wild Gods was initially established in Reigns of Chaos manual and their importance gradually increased in the night elf canon as WoW progressed; the muddling of night elf religion as monotheistic, polytheistic, or another variant-theism caused no shortage of debate. Some ideas from inspirational sources and the RPG remained constant however: Elune’s association with the moon, motherhood and nature are perpetual. Others, like her pacifism, changed. There was now an aspect of Elune, the Night Warrior, who didn’t shirk from violence and who served as a psychopomp for the valiant night elf dead.

For the next few expansions, Elune was left relatively contained within the compartmentalized lore of the night elves, only seeing vague reference outside of their narratives, such as in comparative religion with the tauren, the creation of the worgen, or the ascension of Kalecgos as the new Aspect of Magic. Until Legion.

Legion, and by extension, Chronicles, opened the flood gates of speculation on Elune’s true identity. Her artifacts were among those considered to be Titan in origin. The Tearstone had a clear connection to a Prime Naaru.

Theories abound. Was Elune something more than just a divine denizen of Azeroth? One of the most prominent theories, and one that hearkened back to earlier illustrations of Elune’s more monotheistic depictions from the RPG, was that she could be the Warcraft equivalent of the supreme creator: as Thomas Aquinas put it, the First Cause. Chronicles detailed that the universe took form when Light and Void clashed. Elune’s connections to the naaru not only gave her a tie to the Light, but the naaru’s life cycle of shifting between beings of Light and Shadow meant that it could be inferred she had a tie to the Void as well. Could Elune have been the source of both Light and Shadow, and whether inadvertently or deliberately, created the entire cosmology?

It’s a theory that I saw take root further as Legion and BfA progressed and one in which I believed was one of the most likely possibilities for Elune’s role in the narrative. As we saw the Night Warrior physically manifest through Tyrande and which used powers that resembled the shadow magic typical of trollish voodoo than the Light-adjacent powers of the Priesthood. The idea that Elune was an entity of dialectic monism solidified further.

Night elf fans, more often than not, rejoiced at the possibility of their race’s deity being the supreme goddess of the universe. Anything less, especially from Legion onward, was increasingly viewed as a belittlement of her role in the narrative and reduced her to a power level that bordered on insignificant. The rest of the community, however, groaned, for justified reasons. Most prominent among those was a very uncomfortable, reality-adjacent association with monotheistic exclusionism: “my god is the only actual god” and any other divine beings in the setting were going to be reduced to pale imitations of true divinity or remain as a part of older lore doomed to never be confirmed or denied at all, but nevertheless presumed to be insignificant in relation to the “one true God.”

Which brings us to the crux of this post: Elune being a ‘Life Lord’ is, arguably, the best of both worlds for the night elf fandom and the greater community.

For the night elves, Elune is not limited to her original design as a deity exclusive to (and vicariously restrained by) Azeroth. Her significance on the grand cosmological scale is likely far larger than any conception of her role during Warcraft’s early design period. While it is true she will likely not be the supreme creator of the Warcraft universe as a number of fan theories postulated, that idea has always been, in effect, irrelevant to her role in night elf society. As a life lord, however, she is still immensely powerful, and her connections to the natural world of Azeroth, the Wild Gods, druidism, and many other shared motifs of the night elves will likely be more clearly defined than ever before.

For the rest of the community, she is distanced from the exclusionary form of world building that being the supreme creator or the “one true deity of Azeroth” would imply: her role in the cosmology doesn’t supersede the role of other races myths or divinities nor does it make them irrelevant in the future cosmological-centered narrative. It places her in a well-defined niche within a greater framework that allows for other deities, like An’she, to take the stage and shine (ba dum tss) alongside her.

Elune is, in all likelihood, going to be one of many prominent actors in the narrative going forward and she will share the spotlight in that story with a host of other divine characters, both old and new. I would argue that Elune as a ‘Life Lord’ will place her in a significant, inclusive position in the narrative, with the capacity to retain her role as the spiritual progenitor of the night elves, with all that has previously entailed, without belittling or depreciating the lore of any other pre-established mythos. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

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Somethings in fantasy are best left undiscovered.

Death and knowing the Pantheon of gods on a personal level rather than some aloof distanced forces really hurts the story.

In some ways I think players would have preferred Elune to be this unknown than actually a character you can hang out with in Lifelands or wherever she may be.

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I would agree. I think that a part of the allure of fantasy and fiction, particularly IPs that encourage player participation and active roleplay like Warcraft does, is that mystery. And it’s in large part a placating force. For IPs that are mythopoeic in nature, like Tolkien’s work, it’s less controversial because people don’t have as great of a vested interest if the lore doesn’t go the way they anticipated. When people adopt personas and roles in fiction like WoW, they assume some ownership over the material that doesn’t happen as often in more traditional media.

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My problem comes with the themes and histories you rightly point out and my lack of faith in Blizzard handling them well.

The Alliance is largely based on that European genealogy of myth.

The Horde is largely based on NonEuropean peoples (save for French elements of the Belves and Nightborne, and the Penny Dreadful Gothic of the Forsaken) and our myths, often superimposed upon European myth monsters.

Eg Caribbean Trolls, North American Indigenous Minotaurs, Turkic/Hungarian/Mongolian Orcs

We are halfway through Shadowlands.

An expansion where, given pre-existing lore on Death, was expected to heavily use Horde themes.

Instead, all pre-existing Death lore was thrown out the window and ignored in the narrative. Even what was included, eg Bwonsamdi in the Other Side, was rendered periphery and arguably a carciature. What other themes exist, such as the fact the Primus is the father of Necromancy and thus are to the Forsaken what Aggramar is to the Orcs or Khazgoroth to the Dwarves, and we have gotten no Forsaken development.

In addition to that, the Shadowlands almost exclusively borrow from European myth. As the Alliance does, as Elune does.

This means if Elune is the Pantheon of Life (and note, we have confirmation she exists BUT NO CONFORMATION ANSHE IS REAL), then the Pantheon of Life is also borrowing already from European myth.

I had hoped Elune was a First One.

Because my hope was Anshe was also a First One.

Because we are currently 2/6 Pantheons down (assuming each force has one) and both are heavily Alliance themed.

If Anshe had been a first one, then there would’ve been a narrative obligation to balance out Anshe against Elune. An Alliance First One vs Horde First One, and playing on irony as the Alliance gets the Dark Lunar First One while the Horde gets the Light Solar First One.

Now?

I suspect the Pantheon of Life will be centered on Elune. There will be no Anshe. And it’ll just be more European myth and fiction.

So the game will feel more and more Alliance as Alliance themes dominate every corner of the cosmic forces.

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Assuming we do have a Lifelands expansion, what’s supposed to be the hook for horde races? Given how much the game has propped up NE-centric druidism, to the point where Elune’s leftovers basically encompass an entire Shadowlands zone that had to retcon the Emerald Dream to do it, the developers clearly want to keep talking about and exploring Elune. And where she goes, the night elves are always going to remain relevant. The rest of the alliance might not have as deep of a connection, but at least they still have some in an “assist your allies” sort of way.

As a horde player, and considering what feels like Shadowlands just skipping over most religious afterlives in general (except in the case of Ardenweald where that appears to be custom-designed to work with night elves), I don’t have any faith in a future expansion that currently has less theoretical horde relevance.

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My worry is we’re about to get a slew of retcons or Problematic Revelations

  • Shadowmoon Clan? Actually all Elune.
  • Orcish Shamanism generally? Elune
  • Anshe of the Sunwalker Tauren? Elune
  • The sun that blessed Rezan that now sustains Voljin? Elune
  • Hand of valor that made Voljin gold? Elune
  • The visions that led to felomelorn? Elune
  • The girl reading this? Elune
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My concerns surrounding Elune have to do with Night Elf cultural practices.

That’s it.

Power levels in my opinion don’t matter, and I don’t think anyone should want to intrude on another race’s religious practices. So obviously, this makes me not a fan of the current delve into the cosmology.

I think the question lurking under the surface here has to do with what’s important in an MMO. I can see why theorycrafters want answers to keep fueling their theories, but what gets lost in that, at least if you ask me, is that in an MMO the focus should be on what we are asked to play, what they stand for, what they represent, and fundamentally who they are.

Otherwise? I just don’t see the point.

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I would expect to see An’she, at the least. It would also be possible that our previous interpretive understanding of the Earth Mother is also challenged. While the presumption is that she is the world-soul, that’s only been alluded to by characters like Cairne. It may be the Earth Mother ends up assuming a role paralleling the Arbiter in the Shadowlands. (I personally doubt it and am still in the “she’s Azeroth” camp, but who knows?)

Beyond Elune and An’she though, I’d honestly expect the rest of the ‘Life Pantheon’ to introduce new characters like Shadowlands did with the Eternal Ones.

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good thread

not crying so wont catch on

kimda sad ngl

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I think that Elune is the only character in this entire setting that has been built up by the gods over the years, and given the appropriate mythos, that she could really fill this immense slot of a first one.

That said, I think Blizz is making a mistake in putting absolutely unknown characters in front of us to be these omnipotent First Ones, sometimes it’s easier to read familiar names and reconcile with them.

Elune as a Life Lady and member of a pantheon is in my eyes the wrong decision, it makes everything a one-size-fits-all and …just repeats the same story.

“You know…everything cosmic powerfull being is either a first one or a titanlike being”

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I just don’t have this expectation as we’ve had no mention of Anshe from neither the devs nor any character nor any piece of media outside of one (1) short story in a folklore book

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Being a subject in the most recently published collection of stories would lead me to believe that An’she is more likely to show up than if he hadn’t been illustrated at all. Obviously, that’s not a guarantee, but I think those stories were in large part selected to showcase particular characters and themes and to remind players of their context within the world.

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Whats wrong both NEs and Tauren worshopping the same god but interpreted differently?

Zeus and Jupiter come to mind no?

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While I agree it’s a thread of hope, especially given McKinney is one of the few Black women (or even Black person generally) that is known to be affiliated with Blizzard and is a Blizzard… Affiliated author (?) that also plays WoW and cares about the world, and also is knowledgeable about various myths and cultures (as her short story demonstrates) and capable of weaving together elements of Greek and Yoruba and Andean and Lakota myth seamlessly

I just don’t trust blizzard anymore.

To many explicitly promised Horde development that never came to pass.

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To me, it’s more that tauren only seem to acknowledge her as part of a whole, but the rest of those parts haven’t been given any weight in the story at all. Only Elune has mattered, of which the night elves are her favored race (on Azeroth) and one of their two leaders is her chosen prophet. There’s waaay more narrative attachment for night elves than anybody else regarding Elune.

So unless other attachments in Lifelands are created for horde players to give a damn*, Elune’s really the closest thing they have to a lore connection, and “finding out more about a god of your enemies” sounds sufficiently disconnected from any horde story that could be told instead that I’d be left wondering “why would I be invested in this?”

*And even this would be really weak, because tauren stuff has gone unused for so long that anything on that front won’t have the emotional roots Elune does with night elf fans, or alliance in general.

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Maybe in Life Lands Elune is the night and there is another zone for the sun.

So thats where the Anshe and Musha comes from?
Honestly this is why I said these pantheon revelations suck.

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Except in this case Zeus is appearing, telling everyone his real name is Zeus, everyone else is wrong, and so the Romans and every other syncretic cult across the known world are left with their hands in their togas.

Precisely

Unless they validate Elune as Musha in some regard, ie unless Anshe shows up and his name is Anshe, we literally have no motivation to care about a Night Elf goddess.

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And if his name was Belore (The name of the blood elf deity, another Horde people) would he no longer be Horde?

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I don’t understand why you are so sure that having Elune be a First One would automatically mean An’she is real. Or that An’She would resemble a Tauren in any way. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anshe ended up an another Human with Glowing Eyes.

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He’s no longer An’she, who is the only named explicit solar deity we know to be worshipped.

Belore is speculation based on Thalassian translation and vague NPC lines gesturing to some degree of sun worship that hasn’t been confirmed at any point.