And as I’ve said before the Night Elves even during Azshara’s reign were not a Matriarchy, and the present set up much less so. A powerful female leader does not a matriarchal society make. Ask England about that sometime. The Night Elves have never had the lock on the reverence of Nature, Orcs, Wildhammer Dwarves, Tauren, and Trolls all have their own legitimate claims to natural ties. And more important, the Night Elves were not and never have been “The Guardians of Nature” even if some saw themselves that way. They were the Guardians of Nordrassil, and that duty was pretty much ended when the Tree was torched to kill Archimonde. When Nordrassil was renewed, it’s wardship was extended to ALL of the races of Azeroth, Alliance and Horde alike.
You might see this as some great tragedy because your night Elf character isn’t an annointed divine nature guardian any more.
I see it as an opportunity not to be straight-jacketed to such a narrow framework and freedom to define your character however your imagination can take you.
I would have been happy with a Neutral Nightborne, but while I will admit they share some cultural aspects with Blood Elves, I think they are more culturally similar to Night Elves. it is the birthplace of the Sisterhood of Elune, and given their immortality, there are probably direct family ties between Nelf and Nightborne families.
Thalyssra expressed to Lady Liadrin that the Night Elves were their first pick, and only went Horde because Tyrande was somewhat unwelcoming.
It just feels forced to me.
Yes they were… And I am done talking Nelf lore with you. You debate Tyrande’s combat experience, you can’t remember the War of the Shifting Sands, and now you debate their matriarchal society, which Tarren Gregory himself confirms.
Tarren can confirm all he wants, but there is nothing that SHOWS them exhibiting any of the aspects of a matriarchy. He can call a dog a fish if he likes but it will still drown if I throw it into a lake.
By your own reasoning, you can play a Night Elf mage and have the same race?
Well, the reason the Void Elves are so popular is that they were as close a copy of Blood Elves as Blizzard was willing to make. And we already have Blood Elves, so we don’t have any real desire for them.
Didn’t they become matriarchal after the war when the males spent most of their time in the dream? Even then, Malf was still a co-leader with Tyrande even if he was never around.
The are a theocracy that worships a female deity, it’s ruling class (Sisterhood of Elune) is exclusively women, had an exclusively female army (A gender restriction that was never applied to druids, contrary to popular belief).
I sure hope you are blind if you actually believe there was no evidence to their matriarchal structure.
No, because women became druids as well (Val’sharah retconned the Male only thing)
And Malf was only Co-ruler as of Cata, and even then, he is “Second-in-command” according to Terran Gregory.
That only applied to the druids. A society is not a proper matriarchy unless women are elevated to a primary role and men relegated to a lesser status. While there is strong gender preference for certain roles, it’s far from absolute and ancient Kal’dorei society was chock full of male leaders. Jarod Shadowsong assumed a leadership position during cataclysm as well as during the War of the Ancients. A matriarchal society would have provided significant pushback from this and none of that was seen.
You’re the one who’s now making a statement without proof. Azshara herself is not evidence as she put EVERYONE beside herself to a lesser status deemed only of worth as they served her directly. and Tyrande, regardles sof what else I may have said against her, did not run that kind of ship.
You’re whole argument revolves around aesthetics. There’s a lot more to it then that, it’s not just another pretty face. I’m pretty sure Bliz has even said they won’t add new allied races unless there is reason to do so, if it fits with the current plot. So Lore is absolutely an important reason.
Say what you will about Highborne, but the majority of the Highborne cast was banished from Kalimdor for their refusal to give up the Arcane arts after the War of the Ancients. Then Bliz danced around their addiction plot line.
Nightborne are straight up Mana Addicts. There’s a very strong similarity in cultures there, the Blood Elves and Nightborne have more in common than NE and NB.
I would have preferred Nightborne on the Alliance. But I can see why they went Horde. I think the demand for a High Elf variant was higher on the Alliance anyway (whether or not they are satisfied with it being Void Elves). I’m more annoyed that their models and gear seem a lot less cool than what the NPCs had. I probably would have even preferred withered looking people.
That said, for roleplay, people can still use the normal Night Elf model or even the Void Elf model without too much issue. So it is whatever.
It’s also lore that the city of Suramar was totally razed to the ground during the War of Ancients. It’s also lore that thanks to the Shield , the city of Suramar was never touched.
Since the city is obviously still there, and according to Thaylsrra’s story has always been there, we are finding “lore” to be a lot less rock solid than you think the word should imply. The definition of lore is more closer to story than history. Paul Bunyan by some definition, is classic American lore. However he’s a character that was totally made up by the advertising branch of a lumber company early in the 20th century.