I gave my answer to Plagueghoul’s title question. No idea if Plagueghoul will read it or have a reaction to it.
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I write an essay but get no reations to it. Sad.
Everything before this had nothing to do with this question.
I’ ve read a lot of writings about elves.
This is what I consider THE definitive work for people who want to break out of the straitjacket that most people lock themselves into. and you can get this for ten bucks.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20125/Eldest-Sons-the-Essential-Guide-to-Elves
A key thing to remember about Night Elves, for the bulk of their history they were anything BUT Nature oriented folk.
Not really sure how long Azshara reigned for, but the Night Elves were only around for five-thousand years before the War of the Ancients, and their earliest history was with following Cenarius’ ways for centuries before the Highborne established themselves politically. After that it was ten-thousand years under the care of Tyrande and Cenarius again, and Druids in the Dream that went with Malfurion. So the Night Elves have been nature oriented folk for more than twice longer than they were anything else.
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Malfurion was Cenarius’s first follower who remained mortal. Everyone else that Cenarius taught became a walking tree and was no longer part of society.
That has never been stated anywhere. And while Malfurion was the first to complete his studies under Cenarius, the Night Elves at large had followed Cenarius’ ways:
- Mesmerized by their discovery, the dark trolls settled along the Well of Eternity’s shores. Over generations, the energies radiating from the lake suffused the trolls’ flesh and bones, elevating their forms to match their graceful spirits. They transformed into highly intelligent and virtually immortal beings. These former trolls gradually abandoned their ancient heritage and traditions. The tribe’s mystics began worshipping the moon goddess, Flune, who they believed was bound to the Well of Eternity itself. They claimed that the deity slumbered within the fount’s depths
during daylight hours.
The former trolls also discovered the name “Kalimdor” and other titan-forged words from communing with Elune and investigating strange artifacts scattered around the Well’s periphery. Influenced by this newfound language, they called themselves kaldorei—“children of the stars”— or night elves.
The trees, flowers, and woodland creatures silently watched the night elves flourish, whispering news of them to the Wild Gods of Hyjal. Among them, the demigod Cenarius took a keen interest in these newcomers at the Well of Eternity’s shores. 'The night elves would claim he was the son of the great White Stag, Malorne, and Elune herself. Cenarius adored the night elves and believed they had the potential to become great caretakers of nature. He befriended the fledgling race and taught them about the natural world. It was Cenarius’s hope that the night elves would strive to live in harmony with the wilds.
For many centuries, the night elves did. They built a graceful society around the Well of Eternity. The capital of their small nation was called Elun’dris, or “the Eye of Elune,” and it was founded on the shores of the fount of power. The night elves also honed their ties with the surrounding woodlands and their myriad inhabitants. Cenarius guided the night elves when necessary, pleased by the wisdom and benevolence that thrummed in their hearts.
Chronicle I, pages 93-94.
And that continued being the case on into Azshara’s reign, as page 95 goes on with:
- There was, however, one location Azshara and her forces avoided: Mount Hyjal. The spirits and demigods who roamed the sylvan forests unsettled the queen. She knew in her bones that Hyjal was somehow beyond even her influence. It was a place steeped in ancient magic, a wild, untamable, and unchangeable land that stood in stark contrast to her vision of a new Kalimdor. Publicly, Azshara prohibited expansion into Hyjal out of respect for the night elves’ ancient kinship with the forests. In truth, she despised the mountain and the harmony it represented.
Azshara’s views on Hyjal were well known to Cenarius. With growing unease, he had watched the night elf empire expand. Year by year, he became increasingly frustrated with the hubris and thoughtless actions of the sorcerous Highborne. The majority of night elf society continued honoring the old ways of revering the wilds. The fact that these folk still lived in harmony with the land warmed Cenarius’s heart, but he knew that they had no influence over Azshara and her arrogant followers.
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The obsession with absolute moral purity Warcraft players have is something that dwells into the bizarre. I don’t think I have ever seen another fanbase that wants, nay, NEEDS their chosen corner to be right and flawless as much as Warcraft players do.
It feels it’s because the player character is tied to one faction or the other by mere virtue of how the game works. But they forget the one crucial detail that the PC (an individual) couldn’t possibly be the factions (large political bodies composed of several nations who are in turn composed of several thousands of individuals).
It’s simply unfeasible to think they would never EVER have any sort of moral dilemmas of any kind. Not only that, but from my own point of view as a player and consumer of this franchise, I find that boring, stale and derivative.
Even Tolkien, the author who is considered the father of modern fantasy by many, had dwarves, elves and all of the nations of Men be cruel to one another and themselves CONSTANTLY.
So, what’s the deal? I feel this needs to be examined.
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I don’t often see Horde fans asking for moral purity. Many even lauded Baine for his racism against Centaur that had neither biological or historical connection to the Centaur that attacked his people, for example.
More it’s fans complaining about Blizzard writing Alliance characters as having “moral purity.” But most often the people making these complains don’t play Alliance characters specifically because, as you mentioned, they find them boring. So it really seems like a moot point.
Other fans complaining about the Alliance being “boring” are often those that want to enact vicious things against the Horde and aren’t getting their demands met. Which I think is a good thing.
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I do mostly see that attitude from the blue aisle, but I simply chose to frame my post as a general problem out of a sense of fairness. Also because I would be lying if I said that I never see Horde players do it.
Also, regarding the vicious things against the Horde: That’s also relates to what I said; they want to enact their grotesque revenge fantasies while also having a position of moral superiority, that they are wholly just regardless of anything they do.
And it’s like…no it’s one or the other my guys.
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Well this is an MMO we are playing through, not a static tale of fiction. Even the LotR MMO is decidedly non canon. So, events are going to keep happening. For my part, Cruel to one another is fine if we are being cruel to one another. Not just the Alliance being fed their power fantasy, as the Horde loses while also helping themselves lose.
Being cruel to each other would feed the “cycle” of hatred.
You bring up Tolkien, but the races there are mean to themselves, as well. The men of Harad and the Easterlings are Humans, like the men of the west. Same race. The Noldor killed other Elves in the kinslaying.
That doesn’t fit with the down right racial focus of an MMO like WoW.
While many Warcraft III fans have posted about their personally being dismayed about how Blizzard has constantly undermine the ideas presented by Thrall’s Horde in the RTS in favor of warmongering, I don’t think I can remember seeing any Horde fans saying they only want to play good guy heroes.
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I did say that.
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Yeah. That’s gross.
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I’ll cop to probably applying to this, if at least on an individual level instead of the whole horde faction. Mainly because I think it’s rotten in general for the game to force you into a dark action just to chastise you for it.
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Yes, I don’t think Blizzard has written the Horde fairly. Not with Garrosh or Sylvanas as warchief.
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Speaking for myself, what I tend to see in this particular exchange is usually the Horde targeting a specific character for whatever reason, and then trying to spin every action they’ve taken as pure evil, when… that’s not really the case.
The people who do this will also ignore the Alliance’s actual morally unjustifiable actions (anything involving the Void Elves in the Fouth War, for example). It comes off almost as some sort of obsession, that they need certain characters to be villains for some reason, and will go out of their way to twist facts and bend logic to try and make it work.
Again, speaking only for myself, I am perfectly happy to own up to the Alliance’s actual atrocities committed against the Horde. That having been said, trying to paint something that wasn’t an atrocity into one just to satisfy some vendetta against a character just feels petty.
It doesn’t help that Blizzard themselves muddle the whole matter with cut content, glitched content, re-written content, retcons delivered via twitter but never reflected in game, etc…
At the end of the day, Metzen once said the Alliance was, ‘Lawful Good on Overdrive,’ or something to that effect, and a lot of players treat it as the only identity the Alliance has. Sadly, it’s about the only identity Blizzard gave us.
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Yeah it’s such a weird take.
It’s like people saying the tree burning is “ok” because fandrall has planted a corrupt one.
Which is more of a bait post than genuine thinking, I think it’s alliance bait at best.
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War of the Ancients tends to paint a different picture. Where it references Cenarius earlier students as all turning into Ancients and Treants.
Blizzard has no consistent vision. Instead each author tends to pick one character to be their Hero and pretty much makes them their ethical, moral, and cosmological center.
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The War of the Ancients also depicts the Night Warrior as the side of Elune that carries souls to their proper afterlife, but Tyrande showed no such ability when she became the Night Warrior. Many of the things in the War of the Ancients novels at this point are defunct and have been overwritten by Blizzard’s newer publications.
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