I have yet to come across any information of some kind of ancient Night Elven monarchy that Azshara would’ve inherited… I read this on Wowpedia (I know, not always the most reliable source :P)
“As one of the Highborne and sole heir to the throne […]”
Who was she the heir of? Was this retconned or a simply inaccurate statement? I’d love to hear any info/theories on Azshara’s ascension to power, before she was officially “The Queen”. Thanks!
If I remember right she took control of night elf society due to her extreme beauty and arcane power.
And the people were in love with her too, so Azshara had no opposition and everyone just kind of accepted it
so does that mean that the night elves had no previous established leader ?
well, they had no centralized government prior to Aszhara becoming queen
Okay, so, this is going to be a lot, apologies in advance.
In terms of night elves and their hierarchy prior to the War of the Ancients, we know every little and only have some inferences when it comes to pre-Azshara reign. What can be understood is that dark trolls didn’t immediately become immortal due to the Well of Eternity, meaning that there would have been a more than likely pretty long period where night elves did age and die, albeit after a long time. Going off this, we can assume that there was in fact a royal family that Azshara was a part of, and so she did inherit the throne. The nature of that ascension has never been made clear, but one might assume that she did have other siblings who had ‘accidents’, possibly when the kaldorei expansion happened under her rule.
The night elves did, and do to an extent, have a nobility system wherein they do have lords and ladies. Azshara, when she took the throne, created a caste separate from the nobility, however, more than likely as a way to divide the upper class and keep them in her absolute power. The assumption can be made that prior to her reign, the kaldorei had something vaguely akin to a feudal system which then progressed to absolute monarchy under her rule. All Highborne were nobles, but not all nobles were Highborne.
We have an example of this in the form of Lord Ravencrest, who wielded tremendous influence and power but wasn’t Highborne. In addition, night elves do have some NPCs that have the title of lord, but clearly aren’t Highborne, thus meaning they’re nobles but more than likely it has a different connotation now.
So, basically, it can be assumed things go like this:
Dark Trolls settle around Well of Eternity.
Slowly become night elves, create a kingdom, each generation lives longer and longer. Nobility is formed, royal family is formed, as well as lines of succession in the form of various princes.
Azshara ascends to the throne, begins to consolidate power via war of expansionism to create a Kaldorei Empire, creation of the Highborne to fragment the noble classes, and more than likely neutering the power of those also in succession as well.
Night Elves at this point are now basically immortal, so she rules for far longer than prior monarchs and continues to craft her image and authority to near deity levels.
" Queen Azshara was born with golden eyes, which were quite rare in night elves before the Great Sundering. Thus, golden eyes were commonly regarded as a sign of future greatness. Indeed, she was widely considered the most beautiful of night elves and swiftly became the most beloved monarch in night elf history. Strong-willed, manipulative, and incomparably beautiful, Azshara possessed far more magical talent than almost any other night elf. As one of the Highborne and sole heir to the throne, she had long been fascinated with the Well of Eternity."
From WoWpedia, so she inherited the throne but its not clear from whom.
My question is, who is Prince Tortheldrin in relation to Azshara?
There are lots of princes (and ghosts of princes) we’ve met who ruled pieces of the night elf empire, so it seems like prince is a title given to regional rulers under Azshara. Whether they’re actually her extended family or not I’m not sure, but probably?
Off the top of my head there’s Tortheldrin in Dire Maul, Farondis in Azsuna, and Toreth in Bloodmyst Isle.
considering the use of prince as a regional lord title, it makes me wonder why lord ravencrest was just “lord”.
feels like just a writing inconsistency, imo.
Not really as mentioned previously in this thread it just means that the Ravencrests were noble Kaldorei but not Highborne Kaldorei.
Thus the simple answer is that Lord/Lady is the highest title a nonhigborne could have.
In the grand scheme of things Lord Ravencrest’s holdings really weren’t that impressive even compared to his neighbors.
If nobles exist that aren’t highborne such as the Ravencrests, this further supports that what made Azshara, Queen was being the first noble to have enough power and authority to recognize her as the Ruler of All Elves.
There’s also princess Aszune, who was turned into stone by the Oracle at Stonetalon. Quite possibly, Azsuna is named after her.
Because old night elf lore was a copy from the high elves of warhammer(another case of giving too much fantasy tropes to elves) where every noble was called Prince and Princess. Ravencrest title is likely just a writer just nessing up
weird thing is, Aszhara did not do a whole lot of ruling. Like, in the War of the Ancients all she did was be pampered.
I don’t think he was a regional governor, his domain was only limited to Black Rook unlike how for example Farondis had all of Azsuna. He absolutely wasn’t Highborne at least, that was a big plot point in the WotA books.
Could be based on the size of the land they ruled or whether or not the individual were highborne. Ravencrest mainly ruled over Val’sharah and Suramar. Given that he wasn’t highborne (but still a noble) it is most likely the latter.