With the announcement that Gilneas is being reclaimed, this shoehorning of Amirdrassil as the Night Elf home feels even more unsettling for those who care about the Kaldorei lore and fantasy. (Nearly) Every refugee population from the end of the Third War to the end of the Fourth War has reclaimed their homeland EXCEPT the Night Elves, who are arguably the most connected to their homeland. Gnomes have Gnomeragon again, Gilneans get Gilneas, Forsaken get Undercity back, the Dwarves are reunited in Ironforge, the Darkspear Trolls got their island back, and the dragons have their islands back. Who am I missing?
At the very least, there is no parity in the writing about the Fourth War.
Technical limitations are no longer an excuse. Amirdrassil has a whole mass of land underneath it that wasn’t present originally on the map. Blizzard could have made a new island off the coast of Azshara or Winterspring (if they didn’t want to do Darkshore again), kept it not visible from the shore (to avoid phasing issues), and made it in the Dragon Isles map (like Quel’Thalas is on the BC map right now). That solution would have avoided any issues with phasing or needing to revamp an existing zone. It would have kept the night elf culture intact while giving the developers UNLIMITED space to work with.
Lore excuses for why the island isn’t visible off the cost could include: the druids and the aspects together bless the world tree in ways to ensure the Kaldorei never face existential threats from the Horde again. The druids conjure a mist around it like they did with Kalimdor originally. Or maybe Nozdormu places the whole island in it’s own pocket time dimension. Yes, those are silly lore reasons but I’m choosing the hill I want to die on and that’s keeping them in Kalimdor.
While I grant that there are issues with the implementation of Amirdrassil, Night Elves only lived on Teldrassil for a few decades. It wasn’t exactly their ancestral homeland.
You have to be talking about Teldrassil because I still haven’t seen any evidence that the Night Elves are leaving northern Kalimdor.
(Also, voluntarily leaving is not the same as exile, but the leaving itself hasn’t been proven yet. Individuals, sure. The Night Elves as a whole, no.)
Look on the bright side. Now you won’t have the occasional worgen fan popping in anymore to talk about how they’ve gone through it for longer but nobody thinks about them.
I knew, with absolute certainty, when I read the in development update about reclaiming Gilneas that there’d immediately be a Night Elf upset about it.
The Stonemaul Ogres. They lost their home to Onxyia and her brood between the end of War3 The Frozen Throne and vanilla. As far as we know, Stonemaul Village still remains a ruin.
I will say that Amirdrassil being on the Dragon Isles and not Kalimdor is weird.
I’ve seen some fans for them but to me, it always felt like one of those suggestions people usually make for the sake of “WC2 completion” over actually wanting to play one.
The ending cinematic where Tyrande blesses the waters of Amirdrassil point to otherwise. Which have been put on youtube. Not to mention there’s a other kaldorei rpers that are acting like they have completely left Kalimdor.
The biggest gripe I have is the connection between the Dragon Isles and Emerald Dream. Technically Val’sharah was created with the image of the Emerald Dream in mind, and is a mirror of the Dream in of itself. Technically the tree could have been placed in Val’sharah. Granted yes there’s Shaldrassil which has been corrupted but I think in the 6 years since Legion maybe some of that corruption could have been healed by now?
The name of this thread is a bit… yeah… I mean I am not amused at where we ended up but it is concerning your immediate reaction is “how dare they get what I wanted.”
There comes a time when one needs to accept the world shifted in a way you dislike and try to make the most of what you have. We should 100% hold them to task with showing Kaldorei culture intact in Kalimdor whenever they next touch those zones, but we got what we got.
It’s not “How dare they get what I want” it’s pointing out the blatant lack of parity in Blizzard’s treatment of the Night Elves by pointing to not one, but two (and more) other races getting the same treatment.
I think at this point if you still like Night elves, if you’re still a fan of them and expect them to have good things, you’re kind of bringing the grief on yourself. If it wasn’t made abundantly clear by the heritage quest being half-assed compared to the Forsaken one a few months ago, the devs actually do hate Night elves.
Tell me where it says they are exiled. As far as I’ve seen, no one is forcing them out, which is what an exile it. They are leaving willingly to make make a new home, and not even all of them.
