My headcanon is that half breed high elves only get the fraction of the lifespan of a pure elf. Which fuels her reason to dislike elf x human couples.
As a World Soul matures, inevitably all the sentient races on that world will start to come together and react according to the nature of the World Soul’s essence.
Warlike Titans mortal ‘children’ clash repeatedly for hundreds of thousands of years, culling off the ‘weak’ races while the stronger ones intermingle, either due to working together or from the more darker aspects of war.
Peaceful Titans instead subconsciously push their mortals to work together in harmony, and while this can still lead to conflict as incompatible biologies, societies and religious beliefs clash, their mortals tend to unite into a single gestalt race.
Titans of other natures manipulate their mortals in their own way, but the important thing is that when the World Soul finally matures and ‘hatches’, the result is a devastating cataclysm of arcane energy, the very life’s blood of a Titan, that has a devastating effect on sentient mortals.
Most of the population will die, but the very strongest and those most in-tune with their World Soul will be transfigured into creates of metal, stone and order, effectively the ‘First Generation’ of that Titan’s servants. The process of the World Soul’s maturation also has the effect that when the ‘hatching’ begins, most of the sentient races are already ‘prepared’ for the event and have been mentally conditioned to welcome the ‘gift’.
Almost all of the Titans’ servants and followers are, in some form or other, the result of this ‘hatching’ and while will follow the entirety of the Pantheon, prefer to follow their ‘parent’ above all others for the most part.
The process of creating Titan Watchers and Servants on a developing World Soul is both a gesture of kindness and love from the Pantheon and also a rather dark way of trying to ensure the budding new member of their ‘family’ toes the line, since Titan Watchers and Servants also, from what we’ve seen on Azeroth, manipulate and ‘guard’ the sleeping World Soul.
If Sargeras had never touched Argus, it is entirely possible that Argus may have hatched and, given the nature of the Eredar back then, his children might have been the greatest sorcerers, healers and philosophers that the Titan Pantheon had ever seen. However, due to Argus’s power being constantly syphoned to serve the Legion, when the Broken Titan finally ‘hatched’, there was no great cataclysm for his ‘shell’ was already a broken, wretched ruin and his ‘children’ marked with the stamp of another Titan.
I’ve never read chronicles so I could be totally wrong on some of these.
Magic is like radiation.
All magic is corrupting, some more than others (fel, void, etc) but we often don’t view them as corrupting because the affects are usually seen as beneficial. Specifically because many races originate from those various schools of magic, arcane specifically.
Life/nature magic is the most corrupting of the “good” magic schools, typically users are reshaped into something closer to nature either an animal form or some other mutation like Malfurion’s antlers and feathered arms (are they actually part of his arm I never could tell??).
Order/arcane magic you are reshaped into a form akin to the Titans (humanoid) which is why non-Titan forged races like the Tauren, Jinyu and more take on humanoid characteristics. While they weren’t as heavily exposed like the Night Elves and High/Blood/Void Elves. The influence from Azeroth’s world soul runs deep seeps into just about everything. Also Freya ran around making wild gods who then made races and so I count that as arcane ok lol.
The rest are all pretty self explanatory, fel you turn into a demon, death magic you die, void magic you turn into a tentacle face etc. Holy/light is the only one I’m stumped on.
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Monogamy is exceptionally puzzling as a concept to most Night Elves
Especially since a significant portion of the men spend thousands of years asleep! A couple of stupid ones:
Those super-long elf eyebrows are actually a form of antennae that vibrate at a frequency used to sense and attune to magic, which is why they clip through armor and other solid objects.
Draenei horns/crests grow slowly but constantly, like rodent teeth; they can be shaped and filed into new forms, but it takes a while and they have to wear wire like bonsai trees until it’s done. This is the draenei equivalent of going out with your curlers in. Also, older draenei who neglect filing will eventually grow huge heck-off horns.
Trolls get gnarly piercings and body modifications. It’s not like it won’t all grow back eventually! However, they can’t get tattoos, because of the fur and also because they’ll healing-factor all the ink out.
Bloodmyst isle is the way it is because of how draenic ships work, and the radiation is explainable.
Draenei (or naaru really) ships are called Dimensional Ships. These move by means of crystals imbued with Transmutation magics, warping the space around them. When the Exodar crashed (sorry), that left a massive amount of these crystals shattered and scattered across Bloodmyst, resulting in its present (or past at least) radiation problem. Transmutative radiation, left unchecked and without direction as part of a vessel, with shards of a ship trying to repair itself resulting in them crystalizing their surroundings. Impulses trying to warp space in the wake of a catastrophic failure, largely only serving to warp surrounding wildlife and open rifts through which creatures of the void can come through.
As for how Bloodmyst is today? I have no clue. The magical radiation could have been halted, slowed down, reversed, or at this point Bloodmyst could be coming close to being a giant mass of crimson crystals, occupied by life twisted beyond recognition, and people are strongly discouraged from going there.
On a side note: Maybe the draenei used some crystals from Bloodmyst in the construction of a ship known as the Vindicaar in addition to spare parts from the Exodar. Then again, I’ve nothing to support that notion.
Okay here’s an idea that I’ve had on my mind for a while.
Death and the various afterlives are all connected through some sort of strainer/filter system that eventually puts us all in the same place.
ALright, so we all know how there are various different afterlives for many different races, yeah? We have going into rhe Light, into the Shadowlands, becoming one with the earth mother, being an ancestor that guides your family, and so on. Then we also have various magics/devices/situation where a ‘soul’ is captured and used to fuel a device, turned into energy, so on and forth. Example being soul engines.
Well I believe that these ‘souls’ are, in fact, simply leaving a fragment of themselves through each level of this Afterlife Filter. Souls are, from what I imagine, sort of like energy with memory. That is how they power devices designed to capture them and fuel various projects and weapon. The entire soul is not caught within them, rather a fragment or a partial memory is while the rest continues on. And as we’ve seen countless times, all these soul fueled devices ‘release’ the soul once broken or destroyed. But in truth what we see release is simply what is left.
This also applies to when a soul goes to the other places. I mean, it would really suck if you got sacrificed to an Old God, so now your soul is forever in damnation/destroyed, yeah? Well I believe a fragment of that soul stays in that realm of damnation, while the rest moves further down the chain, moving to their preferred afterlife, each stop leaving behind a memory of itself that believes they are the whole soul. Same with Bwomsandi, all those souls he collects? He keeps them, at least be believes he does, has the residual energy of their fragments while they keep on going and going until they reach the void.
And when they reach the void, depending on the death, the soul could leave various fragments of itself, each one believing they were at peace/misery/damnation. A part with the earthmother, another part watching over your orc children, a part fueling some demonic machine, even a ghost haunting a site of his murder. They are all still energy that eventually goes into the void, the realm of Death and then recycled into the Realm of Life as a new soul in some form.
That make sense? I don’t know.
Under the new rule of Shek’zara (NEW EMPRESS YAY!!!), some Mantid have been granted the ability to tap into the Sha, manipulating emotions in a way similar to their traditional ambersages. However, this Sha Swarm is trusted the least out of all Mantid society. Should any of them display a sign of madness, that member is killed mercilessly by their comrades.
Let’s be real, there’s no way that Tyrande maintained a ten thousand year dry spell, especially when Malfurion was rolling around in the grass with Ysera for all that time.
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At the risk of spontaneously growing a unibrow, a ten thousand year dry-spell explains so much about certain Night Elves. Malfurion, Tyrande, Maiev and Illidan just need some ‘alone’ time.
Also Tyrande probably had to deal with ten thousand years of ‘So your husband is sleeping with Ysera?’ jokes.
Wrathion is one of the few fertile Dragons left in existence, and his minions that we saw in Pandaria are now scouring both Azeroth and Outland for more Black Dragon Eggs and, in a dark twist, Netherflight Eggs to expose to the same relic that created himself. He’s siding with the Alliance right now because quite frankly Anduin is the only one who knows he’s responsible for Garrosh’s release on Team BLU and he’s promised if SI:7 aids his Black Talon Watchers in finding a work-around to the Titan’s callous ‘shut off’ switch for his species future, he’ll allow Anduin full access to the cure and offer it in turn to the other Flights to bring them on to the Alliance’s side of the fight.
The AU version of Garrosh is half-draenei. His mother is Yrel. Do as you will, for I have already won and the thought is now stuck in your head too.
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I feel legitimately betrayed by this post. This post came into my house, picked up my cat and threw that cat into the nearest trashcan just to spite me.
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Only the original Titan-warped Dragonflights are infertile. The Storm Drakes and proto-Drakes are all fine. This will cause issues in the future. Nether Drakes are too heavily altered for the ‘kill switch’ to work anymore.
The Desolate Council’s surviving members have fallen back as Sylvanas wished, that the Living will never truly accept them, but sadly they’re still wishing for their Final Death rather than the Kill 'Em All ideology Sylvanas wanted. At least they’re not trying to usurp her anymore, but the Desolate Council’s very existence has sparked a number of other, smaller cabals within the Forsaken who are starting to grow and merge with each other. Primarily of their ‘complaints’ with the status quo is that only the Blightcaller got the upgrade, and that there’s awkward rumors that the Alliance built graves for the Desolate Council members who were slain in Arathai, which seems rather odd given what the Banshee Queen told them what happened …
There’s plenty of Trolls of different Tribes and Sub-species within the Horde. Trolls have long been mercenaries and it’s a respectable profession within most of the Tribes, as well as a acceptable ‘out’ for individual Trolls who never gelled with their Tribe’s way of life or leadership. The Horde ended up being their best bet, despite the fact it had Darkspear in the ranks, and most of the Troll mercenaries have either outright joined the Horde and brought their families in to share in the protection and security such a large armed group provides, or have found families within the Horde itself.
The Centaur of Kalimdor have sided with the Horde in the Battle for Azeroth. This is both bemusing and frustrating to the Tauren, partly because they are relieved the majority of the Centaur of Desolace are no longer trying to hunt them down and partly because this is an ancestral enemy that’s just walking around ‘their’ continent, just a proverbial stone’s throw from Mulgore. A shared fascination with Druidism and a resurgence of ‘Good’ Shamanism amongst the reformed Centaur are making the species more palatable to the Tauren who deal with them, however.
Lightforged Draenei give birth to more Lightforged Draenei. Even crossing with normal, baseline Draenei gives rise to more Lightforged Draenei. This is both a feature, as Xe’ra wanted her army to produce more soldiers without constantly suffering horrible losses due to the trauma of the Lightforging process, as well as a flaw, as the Draenei of Azeroth run the risk of becoming extinct and this sub-strain of their species taking their place.
Jinyu feel very uncomfortable in the presence of Murlocs. The opposite is true for Murlocs, who find themselves innately drawn to the Jinyu.
The Saurok we find in Kul’Tiras are the members of the Smallteeth we encountered on the Isle of Thunder who stole Troll warships and sailed haphazardly north to escape the Mogu, the Shado-Pan and their own kind and found odd kinship with the pirates of the Kul’tirans, who also accepted Vulpera, Quillboar and Gnolls into their ranks without much concern. Deep in a hidden cove, Smallteeth shamans work feverishly to keep a collective brood-chamber warm and moist enough for the next generation of Saurok to successfully hatch in this ‘new’ homeland, aided by their new pirate allies who see a whole new generation of Smallteeth willing to fight and die so ferociously for them as the perfect payment for their ‘kindness’.
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I’ll throw my ring in the Wrathion hat - not only is Wrathion fully aware that he is NOT the last living Black Dragon as he previously believed, but he has also met with some of the other survivors.
Sabellian and his brood, being based in Outland, are quite far away from the Old Gods and their whispers, technically making them ‘uncorrupted’ - so long as they remain on Outland, that is. However, with Outland slowly but surely crumbling, Sabellian knows that it won’t be a suitable home forever - he and Wrathion have been working on a way to “purify” Sabellian and his brood, or at the very least his eggs, so that his bloodline can still have a future free from the Old Gods’ maddening whispers. In return, Sabellian has vowed that his brood would swear loyalty to Wrathion, and would even provide Wrathion with a consort to secure his own bloodline.
Wrathion has also spoken with Ebonhorn who, much like Sabellian, is only really ‘uncorrupted’ so long as he remains in a particular place, namely Highmountain. But unlike Sabellian, Ebonhorn has little patience for Wrathion’s schemes - his only concern is protecting Highmountain and its people. But that is where Ebonhorn’s power resides - Highmountain, possibly the only place on Azeroth where a Black Dragon would be safe from the Old Gods’ influence. It would make an ideal base of operations for Wrathion’s forces, as well as a perfect new roost for Sabellian’s brood.
For now, however, the Battle for Azeroth rages on, and the “Three Princes” as they have been called are content to simply watch and wait. Ebonhorn has no real loyalty to the Horde and simply seeks that Highmountain be spared the war’s wrath. Sabellian is eyeing up some new real estate in Highmountain. And Wrathion is still looking for the “Isle of Dragons”, and wondering how his new “brothers” could help in that goal…
My own headcanon was that Lightforged Draenei could only be created through the Lightforging process, since it seems like such a big deal (or it was supposed to be at least!), but this is still interesting!
I wonder if we’ll ever get any kind of official word on if being Lightforged means the Lightforging can be passed on through other means than a dangerous ritual?
Heres some:
Lightforged Draenei dont eat. The magic that they were infused with consistently refreshes them and leaves them in a combat-ready state, so that they can never be caught off guard (or poisoned) or waste time trying to obtain sustenance in an environment as hostile as the Twisting Nether.
Speaking of Draenei, the two groups differ greatly in who they get along with. Whereas normal Draenei are generally much closer to the Kalimdor Alliance, the Night Elves and Worgen, the Lightforged, because of Turalyon’s influence, are much closer to the Eastern Kingdoms Alliance, and especially Stormwind humans. There are more Lightforged Draenei in Stormwind than the Exodar.
When Azeroth finally ‘awakens’, she’ll look like a night elf, or at least some breed of elf. Reasoning: when exposed to her essence in the Well of Eternity, the trolls, the first true-born race of Azeroth, became night elves.
Incidentally, the reason Thalassian elves changed so radically in skin tone and stature from the Night Elves is because their exposure to Zakajz’s corpse in the Tirisfal Glades infected them with a mild form of the Curse of Flesh, making them smaller and altering their skin.
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Gnomish and goblin mechanical chickens lay eggs much in the same way real hens do. The mechanism and biology behind it is largely unknown but for some strange reason easily replicated.
Certain mechanical chicken breeds lay chicken nuggets instead.
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I look at it this way.
Lightforging basically makes you relive your life and fight the negative emotions more closely associated with the Void, you’re basically fighting your own mind.
To dabble in armchair psychology, the Lightforging Process seems to reshape your Superego into a form more befitting a Lightforged Soldier while simultaneously forcing your Ego into destroying your Id, a self-destructive battle which is the reason so many would-be applicants die in the process because the Id is such a vital part of the mind and the foundation of so much of what we do, which is then moderated by the Ego and Superego.
Now, if this process were started as soon as the offspring came into existence, the moment the very first cellular division started, then things get both trickier and simpler. The Id is literally the first part of the mind to develop and never really ‘grows’ from an ‘infant’-like state, but assuming that Id was constantly affected by the Lightforging process and a natural inclination towards Xe’ra’s ‘vision’ of what Lightforged should be. The offspring develops suffused with the mother’s biology, a biology radically altered by the Lightforging process, as well as the energies of the Light that are almost overflowing from that same process.
If the process holds true and the child makes it to term, then you would have a Lightforged child. It might not possess the golden metal runes or the permanent Mark of the Naaru, but that’s merely a formality at this point as the child is already primed and ready for the process.
There’s a potential for drift as the child grows up, of course, and their Id has a chance to flare up, and their Superego might evolve differently from those of their fellows, but a Lightforged ‘child’ is far more likely to survive Xe’ra’s process due to the conditioning happening in the womb where there’s no sense of will or identity to push back against the manipulation.
…
This is ironically dark for a process involving so much Light, eh?
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Tauren marriages are brief, simple affairs done at the end of one’s life. Before that, it simply doesn’t matter, since the hunts are dangerous and life is chaotic, who can keep track of that kind of commitment? But once you are too old to contribute a hunt, you are given an honored place in the tribe and gifted with the right to marry.
Orcs are intensely emotional and sentimental about their romances. How one’s partner sees them is considered the height of importance and so every Orc marriage is passionate and dedicated to his or her partner. Escalating attempts to out-do each other with gifts for their partner have resulted in wars, explosions and at least one mass extinction.
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It’s certainly an interesting head canon! Might make some sense too. I know one of my own headcanons I had for the way the Lightforged kept their numbers sufficient for battle was more …hearsay ICly.
Basically, that the way the Lighforged kept their numbers was very much based on individuals. Different Lightforged had different ideas about how best to go about this.
One school of thought is the idea that Man’ari Eredar that had shown signs of …being less Man’ari than their brethren might have been Lightforged as a gateway to redemption or absolution. Others ,if you wanna go a little more ‘Dark Light’, might have instead been forcibly Lightforged as a means to keep the numbers up.
Then we look at the breeding thing; some Lightforged may well have still had aspirations and goals beyond the Thouand Year War, and actually having a future -after- the war would certainly have been attractive to many. My Lightforged Warrior, Kuuden, used to kind of …sample the ocean, so to speak, and knew a woman who was so dedicated to fighting the Burning Legion that, when she -wasn’t- fighting, she was having children -specifically- to breed new warriors to fight. She still was noted to have had strong bond with them all, though. Kuuden, being the kind of Lightforged he is, never really approved. It bothered him, to see a fellow Lightforged do that.
It wasn’t that she was having so many babies that troubled him, but rather the motivation behind it. And ultimately, that woman was referenced as having lost all of her children in a botched attack on the Legion. She herself simply …vanished. Did she die? Did she go mad? No one knows. The idea is that some Lightforged may have taken an especially…zealous approach to this sort of thing, and not a particularly mentally, or emotionally, healthy approach at that.
And then there are other, more likely cases, where most simply …had children as natural happenstance tends to make so, those children grew up, eventually became strong enough to survive their Lightforging trials Assuming they weren’t born Lightforged, and then things went on.
…so, TLDR version, almost anything goes was possibly an approach some, but not all, Lightforged took when fighting the Legion; and not just in terms of keeping the army numerically strong.
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Honestly, the whole Man’ari converted into Lightforged is also something I headcanon. They had to have gotten fresh bodies somewhere in the Thousand Year War, and Lothraxion is proof that a Demon can be converted to a Light-based life-form.
And now I want to RP a Man’ari turned Lightforged now living on Azeroth and just trying to process it all and dealing with the people they spent 25,000 years trying to hunt down and exterminate …
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That’d be incredibly fun RP potential right there. It’s one of the reasons why I loved Void Elves so much as a concept! Recent enemies becoming allies and having to learn to tolerate each other.