Following the War of Thorns and the Burning of Teldrassil, many Night Elves were killed or displaced from their homes. In addition, parts of Ashenvale and Mount Hyjal were subjected to fel corruption during Legion with demonic invasions (one scenario even has that lake under Nordrassil mostly dry up due to a demon portal). Darkshore was subjected heavily to the Forsaken blight AND further battles.
Though armistice was reached between the Alliance and the Horde, between the heavy losses and fierce battles, how much of Kalimdor do the Night Elves still have left?
AFAIK, the Nelves (not counting Cenarion Circle or any other neutral night elven faction in Kalimdor, just the Alliance ones, control…)
All of Darkshore
(Edit: Forgot the Shatterspear existed. They do not control all of Darkshore. )
Ashenvale is contested.
Feralas. (Feathermoon Stronghold, Dreamer’s Rest, Tower of Estulan, New Thalanaar, Shadebough) Horde are present in Feralas, but I am unaware of conflict as of late.
Desolace. (Nijel’s Point) Like in Feralas, Horde are also here but I don’t remember Desolace being an active warfront.
I remember something about Azshara from Exploring Kalimdor but I don’t recall exactly what it was.
Winterspring. (Starfall Village)
Mt. Hyjal, specifically Nordrassil was/is the temporary Night Elven capital post-BFA.
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Exploring Kalimdor is, at best, boring, but it does basically confirm everything is set back to Status Cataclysm. Which is… A choice.
However, night elves are clearly in charge of Hyjal.
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The Night Elves did not sign up on the Armistice. While the presence in certain areas such as the location of where the TalonDeep tunnel used to be now have a beefed up Night Elf presence, other areas such as Silverwind Refuge, remain lost, and the Horde has beefed up it’s presence at the two fortresses it controls.
If they’re not going to actually put any of the new territory in game I don’t see why they couldn’t have pushed all the way to the Barrens/Azshara border.
With both Sylvanas’ loyalists and the Horde siding with Saurfang both being recalled for the second siege of Org, who was even left to defend Eastern Ashenvale?
They could have given the Nelves a stronger “win” and justified the new status quo by the post-Sylvanas Horde not really needing/wanting it now that the world isn’t on fire anymore and the new leader of Azshara doesn’t think “sustainability” is a foul curse.
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Not doing so sets the stage by giving Tyrande motivation for kickstarting the Faction War back into play after Blizzard has decided that they’ve forced enough kissyface on both sides.
I presume Night Elves control everything North of Ashenvale, with Feralas and Stonetalon being contested.
The Blizzard answer is probably “Everything reset to default Cata zoning like nothing ever happened”
But that is boring, and Blizzard’s Lore is basically fan fiction at this point.
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Blizz’s weird obsession with Self Inserts and Writers Pets would attest to this. Sigh…
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I’m 100% sure that if we get another faction war, it’s gonna be Garrosh Mk 3 or a Lightbad expansion.
Tyrande getting a villain bat to the face would be jarring after her whole thing in Shadowlands, which doesn’t mean nu-blizzard won’t do it, but if anyone in the Alliance is going to break bad and start things off, it’s gonna be Genn (again)
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More than you’d think but less than you’d hope.
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All of it I would hope. I don’t know a single Horde player who cares about Ashenvale; or ever cared about it tbh. Locals to the South like Stonetalon, Dustwallow, Desolace, and Feralas are more interesting as contention points, and always have been. The only reason Blizz has ever forced the Horde to fixate on Ashenvale is because it keeps that Faction Conflict stoked the most. The Lumber was never worth the costs of getting it.
The Horde blowing up that Goblin made passage between Ashenvale and Stonetalon and asserting more control over that region? There are Goblin, Darkspear and Grimtotem settlements already there to build or repair relations with. The Horde moving into Dustwallow and making stronger ties with the Grimtotem, Stonemaul, and Mudsprocket settlements already there, resulting in the same? The Tauren reasserting and reclaiming more of a presence of their ancestral homelands in Feralas and Desolace again? The Bilgewater under Gazlowe making inroads with Mudsprocket, the TN’s Barge, and Gadgetzan to get easier access to Ungoro? Yeah, these were all zones the Horde should be interested in far more than that deathtrap of a Forest next door; but none of those regions would stoke the Faction Conflict quite the same way. Nor reopen the deepest wounds.
the Exploring Kalimdor book says the NE’s are close to reclaiming territory in Azshara so /s
It would be neat if the NE’s reclaimed Ferelas. Eldre’thalas still apparently holds powerful artifacts Azshara hid, and the Shen’dralar are loyal to Tyrande now. It would be cool if they could find a way to restore Faralas to it’s pre-Sundering glory.
Maybe in future time travel related content?
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I believe one of the comics refers to the idea that Forests of Ferelas are actually giving way to rolling plains like Desolace once had. The Forest is apparently on a slow natural decline to becoming a different Biome. Also, do the NEs actually give a crap about Eldre’thalas? They had no issues abandoning Eldarath due to being perceived as a tainted vestige of an ugly past? And lets not pretend they didn’t only allow the Shen’dralar back into their ranks because they were “so broken, desperate, and humbled they’d have no choice but to agree to anything the NEs demanded”. Hell, that was the stance of the PROGRESSIVE one in that argument, Malf. The conservative one was Maeve and she just tried to murder them all. Tyrande was somewhere in the middle.
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Man the Alliance gains so much territory while the Horde bleeds tons of territories, and main characters, and any reason at all to believe the faction is worthy (in a sense of being a morally good faction) or in the sense that they can actually survive at all.
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The Night Elves might feel the way about Eldre’ Thelas the way the Mordant Spire elves of Golarion feel about the ruins of the human kingdom of Azlant. The city may well keep secrets of the old Empire that they wish to stay buried.
Is it just me thinking this, or did Thadeus create two threads about NE greviances just to stir the pot…
Didn’t the Horde go rampage through that city to prevent the Ogres from having access to such secrets? Hell, the Horde didn’t even want em, they just didn’t want the Ogre’s to have em.
EDIT: Also, seriously, Long Lived Races in WoW, STOP BURYING CRAP FOREVER! If you don’t want it, and its too dangerous for the rest of the world to have, destroy it. Put it in the magic paper shredder. If the person is too dangerous to keep around, and you have no intent on putting in the work for rehabilitation, just kill them. Stop just sweeping the preverbal mess under a carpet and pretending it doesn’t exist anymore.
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This is a Mordant Spire Elf by the way. They all wear a distinctive style of mask and have pretty much abandoned use of the Elven tongue in favor of the extinct human tongue of Azlant.
And about where they live…
first by turning aggressive can claim Azshara back from the goblins
If nothing else, Eldre’Thelas could be a fun story beat for Nightborne and Night Elves to rumble over/work with down the line.
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