Whatever you say. You are not fooling me.
Same to you.
To be fair, the Illidari in particular don’t really treat what they are as this grand thing, as if being a fel-corrupted living weapon for killing demons is some sort of enviable privilege. They consider it a cursed and necessary evil to combat the Legion, but only those who turn coat and join the demons seem to actually revel in their condition for what it is.
If they could be 100% certain every demon in the universe was gone, it seems like most of the demon hunters would readily take a hypothetical, proven “cure” for their state tomorrow, because spending your immortal life forever wrestling with a self-aware monster in your head that wants to take your place and then do horrible things to everyone around you just out of pure malice is a pretty nightmarish existence to endure.
Whereas by virtue of their Highborne origins, the Nightborne and high/blood elves have long had this baggage of treating arcane magic as their birthright, wrapping it up in their ruling class so that arcane power goes hand-in-hand with royalty and nobility. It’s a dangerous sort of entitlement that encourages the formation of societies where the most powerful mages and their families are calling the shots just because they’re the most powerful mages.
And to the night elves historically, that probably looks an awful lot like naively expecting everyone to practice restraint when the most addicted of all the mana addicts are running the show.
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I’m still hoping the golden Illidan prophecy still ends up being true, even if Xe’ra was too early for it.
True, and that definitely would be the case for the Nightborne still, but not really the Highborne that had come to live on Teldrassil and/or teach other Night Elves magic.
And that’s probably because the Shen’dralar aren’t “running the asylum” so to speak. They’re beholden to the Sentinels, Wardens, and any other night elf agencies charged with keeping an eye on them and making moves if they start stepping out of line.
It’s when elves let their mages run civilization that it’s dangerous, because when the most powerful mages at the top run amok, basically being the ruling class by default means they aren’t systemically accountable to anyone until it’s too late and causes a violent revolution, demonic invasion or (usually) both at the same time.
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I agree with your assessment here as well, and more reason why the ban was not necessary any more, and why I believe Night Elf Mages are probably more wholistically integrated with the rest of Night Elf society now.
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They’ve taken over the jobs that Silver Covenant High Elves used to do.
The sacrifice of the Highborne Mages during both the War of Thorns and the evacuation of Darnassus probably sealed the deal.
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It is interesting that the Silver Covenant has been treated more like a group of Rangers and Hunters at this point than Mages.
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Actually going off the raiding population and racial imbalance, I’d say they don’t want anyone to play the Alliance at all.
And a night elf mage commander was encountered by the Horde in Darkshore. What I want to know is whether or not they have improved in proficiency since Cataclysm, and if so to what extent.
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I would like to think that a bit of Highborne know-how might be a bit of a boost in that regard but it’s hard to say because they don’t show too many specifcs. A guy like Mordent Evenshade might be very accomplished.
I do recall that they were making use of those volatile arcane elementals in that one Darkshore quest so maybe they still have a bit of learning to do. That being said, they seem to be visible as any regular old mage would be of any other faction so they must be getting there.
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Which quest was that, was it offered by Mordent?
My mistake! It’s a horde quest and it’s at an earlier level at that called Amberwind’s Journal, Arcane De-Construction, and Hacking the Construct - it’s also in Ashenvale.
To be fair I doubt the Highborne at Dire Maul had much time to study the arcane constructs (As opposed to arcane elemental) in great detail like the Blood Elves surely would have done. That and it’s likely that the mages involved are also just starting out.
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There must be many awkward conversations between her, Mordent and Genn regarding the number of Highborne magi and worgen who were killed by her Watchers during Wolfheart.
What is also unclear is whether Maiev truly was influenced by some dark influence as Jarod mentions.
"So I murdered a few Highborne, tried to kill Malfurion, and fled Darnassus as a wanted fugitive. Can’t you just drop it and move on? Everyone else has!"
- Heroes of the Storm quote
Maiev: The traitor Tyrande. You belong in a cell, no less than Illidan.
Tyrande: We remain allied through convenience. Do not make it, inconvenient.
Tyrande: The goddess seems to be testing my resolve…
Maiev: Like she tested mine while you murdered my sisters?
Maiev: Malfurion. I thought I smelled the stench of cowardice.
Malfurion: Let’s get moving. There’s time for us to hate each other later.
Malfurion: Hmph. Fate has chosen to be unkind to me this day.
Maiev: A true shan’do would forge their own fate.
It is funny that while Heroes of the Storm isn’t canon to the characters in Warcraft directly, this line might as well be.
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I feel like Blizzard is just trying to sweep any and all Richard Knaack books under the rug. Which is probably for the best.
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There aren’t any Medivhs, Proudmoores, or even an Antoindas among them… They’re competent mages but no standaouts among them Most of the Highborne mages snuffed the big one in Wall of Thorns
The Horde plan was actually to keep the Alliance Highborne too busy on Teldrassil to come help. They might have killed some Highborne, ones that came to help on the battlefield itself, but they were not all snuffed out. The mages are even referenced in A Good War as still fighting and killing the Horde after the time in Elegy you are referring to where the casters were targeted. And of course we see our Highborne Alliance side in the Darkshore Warfront, too.
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I did not say that they were all taken out.
At least two died in Darnassus keeping the portal open for others to evacuate.
And all of the ones involved in delaying the Horde duringt he War of Thorns were taken out by Forsaken Assasins as described in “A Good War”.
So I’m sure that there are some Highborne left, but given how small their numbers were to start, they took a population hit they probably will not recover from.