The light is more like a cosmic force, or has a will in the same way that the Force from star wars might sort of have a will, but it doesn’t have a personality, it isn’t a ‘person’ in the way we tend to think of gods and goddesses of being. That said many characters have felt abandoned by the light regardless over the years in the lore too.
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Anyone who says Elune is useless and the Night Elves losing faith is a realistic outcome are the big dumb.
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Well but then again the Night Warrior wasn’t even able to defeat Nathanos so…
Dead man with bow empowered by his god(des)s’ avatars holds his own against Elven Matriarch with bow empowered by her goddess’s avatar.
They could have made it more exciting, but it came out like a wet fart.
With how the overall power levels of Warcraft keep climbing, I can’t wait for Bwonsamdi and Elune to start empowering the player characters to the point where we sunder islands, and destroy armies.
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fixed that for you
Lol just like how she couldn’t stop the war of thorns, blizz needed their plot to move forward… they have a believability issue tbh… no one bought that scenario.
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Maybe Elune isn’t particularly powerful. She didn’t stop the genocide because she can’t magic away the flames, or annihilate the entire Horde before that happened.
Everyone: “The story for BfA makes no sense.”
Also Everyone: “Tyrande and Elune being portrayed as weak and incompetent makes complete sense.”
Gotta love that double standard. Everyone hate the Night Elves. Sylvanas, who has been definably evil since Warcraft 3, is “Villain batted” effectively dismantling not only Forsaken Identity, but Horde identity as a whole, which is why BfA is the worst expansion ever from a story perspective.
But the moment it is suggested that Blizzard is ruining Night Elf Identity, and portraying Tyrande and Elune as incompetent fools, suddenly it’s “A believable and realistic outcome.”
Suck my moonberries.
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The black moon is not Elune’s dominate aspect it seems like. The Mother is very much a pacifist which brings healing and comfort. It would of been way out of character for her to of responded in such an aggressive way.
Actually when I look back Elune tends to only act if specifically asked to and then only to that individual… which has some interesting implications.
The sisterhood of elune always had a military aspect they were warrior priestesses when fighting started they fldidnt wait on the dideline in robes they got their armor their mounts and rode out to fight.
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Saying the Mother Moon is a pacifist is misleading. Which the Mother Moon is associated with peace, we shouldn’t look at the Mother and the Warrior as two separate entities, they are both Elune. As a deity of balance, I think it would be a vital aspect of the faith to acknowledge the necessity of both faces as part of a single entity.
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This thread is confusing to me.
What historical event would lead anyone to believe that Elune was capable of intervening in a war? The War of the Ancients was won with by mortals with the assistance of Wild Gods, sure, but I don’t recall any demons being obliterated by giant spears of moonlight. Same for the Qiraji War - Night Elves, Dragons, no Deus Ex Moon in sight. Same for the WCIII Battle for Hyjal - Humans, Orcs, Night Elves… no Majora’s Mask MOONPOCALYPSE.
Elune has never intervened in any direct, meaningful way. Why is her absence here worth commenting on?
That’s not to say that the Night Elves haven’t been mistreated here, but questioning Elune’s direct involvement is a bad angle to take.
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This is fair, and I certainly respect the perspective! I will note that it seems the Kaldorei themselves treat the Mother and Night Warrior as separate persons. My current pondering is perhaps it is a little like the Christian Trinity, except it is in this case a “Duoinity” of two “persons” being one greater self.
We tend to overlay the three “omnis” on these fantasy deities (if deity is even the right word for it): omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. The truth is, we don’t know if Elune possesses any or all of those qualities. If anything, none of the “deities” in the WoW universe possess any of those qualities as far as I know.
There are numerous story devices that could be used to explain her “absence,” but why is Elune being held to a higher standard than any of the other beings in that tier of existence?
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I suppose the problem is Elune is very mysterious. We no not exactly know what the Ceiling is on her power because we have no clue what she is. So, paired with the fact Blizzard has in the past called her a “True Goddess” (whatever that means) people start expecting more literal Forgotten Realms-ish divine interventions. My main focus was to present an alternative to the idea she just didnt care and is a “bad goddess”, which seems to be really common atm.
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We have no reason to assume that Elune has anything to do with the above. Elves eyes glow because that’s how they work. For all we know the power behind Night Elf priestesses is simply their faith in Elune. There are a couple of Night Elves who have converted to Light Worship, one is a priest who serves as guardian at Uther’s tomb.
The Moonwells are bleed offs from the Second Well of Eternity, where leylines cross. they have absolutely NOTHING to do do with Elune… save for the legend that she used to sleep in the First Well during the day.
There is a few more explicit comparisons that can be made here. The T ripple Goddess is a Moon Goddess known in Wicca and other Neopagan faiths, primarily inspired from a combination of Pagan deities.
In fact, Blizzard seems to take a lot from Mythology in general. Bwonsamdi is nearly a plagerism of Bawon Sanmdi (Even the same is almost the same.)
Elune is not much different, but the inspirations for her is much more diverse. In Europaganism, there is an odd consistency of Moon Goddesses being keepers of time, fate, and the cycle of life. Diana, Hera both represented by the moon, and said to carry three faces (Maiden, Mother and Crone) that represent a woman’s life cycle.
In many (not all) European paganism beliefs, there is a tendency to associate the moon with the cycle of life and death, along with the feminine. This makes sense, since women give birth, and at this time more likely to be medicine women and caretakers, which can be seen as having sway over the threads of fate.
You have Arianrhod in Celtic Mythology, as a Goddess who opposes masculinity. You have The Crones and The Fates in Norse and Baltic mythology, women representing the cycle of life and death, and the fate of the living and dead.
You can Mano, the Sami Goddess of the Moon, who is actually a lot like the Night Warrior face of Elune.
While Elune is certainly unique, I think the inspiration for her is very clear. I think that is the most insight we can gleam about Elune without any explicit lore given to us by Blizzard themselves.
This is ultimately why I deviate from any Abrahamic comparison to Elune, or any kind of Christian Worldveiw associated with her, or any kind of Light Association with her. Because the worldview that is offered by these pagan faiths is way different than what is offered by the Abrahamic faiths.
So, TLDR, I would say Elune is a Goddess of the Feminine, A Goddess of life and death, A Goddess of Balance, I would say she carries an animalistic sense of motherhood, meaning she is both dangerous and protective, but she also has a duty to uphold the sanctity of death, as well as life, and the natural order the two share.
IF I had to give her a Forgotten-Realms counterpart, I would say she is akin to the Raven Queen, who holds these tenants.
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Hold no pity for those who suffer and die, for death is the natural end of life.
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Bring down the proud who try to cast off the chains of fate. As the instrument of the Raven Queen, you must punish hubris where you find it.
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Watch for the cults of Orcus and stamp them out whenever they arise. The Demon Prince of the Undead seeks to claim the Raven Queen’s throne.
Thought, a more direct comparison would be Selune.
We have no evidence that ANY night elf has converted to the Light. The one at Uther’s tomb could very easily be a Priest of Elune who sees the Light as an extension of her. These are the views of Delas Moonfang.
Except they have everything to do with Elune…
“Moonwells are bound to the magic of nature and the light of Elune, and are known as places of healing for both the land around them and those who drink of their waters. Magi and other spellcasters can refresh their mana in these pools — a gift from Elune to Azeroth’s other defenders.” - Stormrage
" The first step to establishing a moonwell is to gain the blessings of the local wildlife. It is their good will that enables night elves to peacefully coexist, and a moonwell thrives on such energies. After receiving the blessings they are combined into a ritual bundle and imbue the moonwell, followed by water added from a preexisting purified moonwell. Combined with Elune’s light, a moonwell can purify its surroundings for years." -Suramar Questing
What are you talking about?
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Their death in the flames shouldn’t have even happened. Couldn’t she teleport them to Stormwind or something? Hell, there was a FREAKIN’ PORTAL right there! Why didn’t she just shield them while they ran through it?
Because Blizzard needed the emotional weight for Saurfang’s story. Night Elves are plot devices.
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That is mostly true. I would point out the moon is not always seen as female, though, even in European paganism. In the Teutonic faiths of northern Europe the Moon was male and the Sun female. Sól (the sun) was seen as the nurturing one whereas Máni was associated mostly with counting/time. In the Baltic you have the moon god Mēness who was seen as more of a trickster. Outside of Europe you have the Egyptians (Khonsu and Thoth), the Mesopotamian cultures (Sin), and the Japanese (Tsukuyomi). I degrees, though.
I would say Elune likely pulls from pagan as well as the Abrahamic faiths in how she was designed. Because she is so vague, however, it is easy to fill flesh her out in a way Blizzard itself may not have her down on their end which is why I personally try to be really careful about doing that.
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It is unfortunately not a matter of if Elune COULD do it so much as if the writing team wanted her to do it. And in this case, they didn’t because well… They wanted to make this an irredeemably evil act for Sylvanas.
The best we can do as players is try to contextualize why she would of chosen not to of within what we know about Elune.
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