Hello everyone! When I play in this game I’d like to feel immersed into the gameplay style of the class I am playing. Since I A Love Night Elves B Mage, I would like to know how my character could fit into WoW from an RP Perspective.
I was thinking he could have just been a Highborne that escaped from Maiev’s madness when she began killing off the Arcane users. Then he would returned back to the Kaldorei Society during Cataclysm. However Highborne are different than Kaldorei.
So my question would be like this, are there Highbornes that are teaching Night Elves about Arcane or Mage abilities or are they just alone among the Kaldorei Society?
I knew you would master this lesson quickly. You are a credit to the [highborn][sic]and to all our kin. Remember, as you grow in power, return to me and will instruct you further.
I’ve wondered this myself. Far as I understand it the Nelf Mages were survivors in Dire Maul who Tyrande let reintegrate into broader Kaldorei society. Which tracks to me at least. It’s been millenia and the Nelves have allies that are using the arcane without incident. Be a bit weird to banish or kill them when you’ve got gnomes popping out’ve portals in Teldrassil.
I do find it somewhat difficult to write a long lived character in WoW though. As the history of Azeroth is so weird it’ll mean they spent hundreds to thousands of years doing nothing much at all, only to have suddenly had the most eventful 12 years imaginable.
I had one of my Belves be a 3,000 year old Blood Mage who I wrote as a sort of crochety old man who’s basically just a snobbish hedonist that absolutely hates all this adventuring buisness. He would very much like to get back to getting wine drunk and watching bawdy plays in Silvermoon. So just wanton violence delivered with extreme prejudice on anything getting in the way of that goal.
I figure any character that old has to be a bit of a layabout at heart or be extremely incompetent. As you kinda have to explain why they’re not immensely powerful if they’ve been studying magic since the Bronze Age. And my solution was to make it so he wasn’t and indeed didn’t want to be doing any of this wandering hero crap.
There’s a new generation of kaldorei mages born of the Highborne from Endre’thalas and those who adopted it from the Darnassian stock. Many are being trained in Feralas. You can be a Highborne of Endre’thalas or a student of Estulan who decided to learn magic like Vestia Moonspear who used to be a priestess back in Classic. You can also role play as a student of Lorekeeper Amberwind.
Any Night Elf who takes to learning arcane changes similarly to Vestia whose model is now Highborne in appearance compare to her former form in Classic. Now, importantly since the Burning of Teldrassil the magi have been celebrated as essential assets in saving the people in Darnassus from the destruction done by the Horde. This can be seen in the short story associated with it and in Battle for Darkshore. You will see Highborne helping fight the Horde and doing so with exquisite fashion that Night Elves were okay with. Before Cataclysm and right up to Legion, Night Elves were wary though every time Highborne presented themselves they became increasingly important to Darnassian operations, and their bigotry has faded as seen in WoD in the garrison etc.
Currently any Night Elf mage would be among the last of the Kal’dorei a race that now borders on extinction thanks to the actions of the Horde. You are playing a survivor and depending on when you became a mage. You can play it up. Are you a student of Estulan? An old highborne from Endre’thelas and a survivor from the many calamities that have come to the Kal’dorei? Are you a young elf who just recently learned arcane magic or an old one? You can be a survivor of Teldrassil or a refugee from elsewhere Ashenvale/Azshara/Darkshore/Feralas. How your roleplay is your choice but remember as a mage you are NOW just being accepted by the survivors and only because of the events from the Fourth War.
A lot of Highborne Mages gave their lives during the War of Thorns having proven key to Malfurion’s defense and conversely most of them were massacred by Forsaken Rogues.
So among the surviving veterans, these Mages are remembered as heroes.
Prior to this Maiev was on one of her murder sprees with the Highborne so there’s room for whatever angst your character wants to carry.
This character was in the first class of magi to be trained by the newly-reintegrated highborne, though she later received training in Stormwind and Dalaran. Of the folks using the night elf model to RP a mage that I have RPed with, most have been RPing reintegrated highborne, many have been new night elf magi like my character, and a few have been outlaw magi who were in hiding but felt safe showing themselves once it was no longer a capital offense.
I created this character as part of the newest generation of Night Elf adventurers a Kal’dorei student of a Highborne tutor in Shadowglen.
While she was encouraged in her training by the Sentinels, her chosen vocation estranged her from her more traditional family until her participation in the War of Thorns alongside other Night Elf mages changed their opinion.
Kal’dorei is one of those words that has different meanings depending on the speaker. For Blood Elves/High Elves/Nightbourne/Highbourne, the word means 'low-born peasant"
Happy to help! To answer your question no, they believe that arcane magic comes from within and from the ley lines and are mainstream with their understanding of magic. They do however use moonwells which are blessed by Elune and are repositories of the water from the well of eternity.
Mine is a Highborne, was one of those exiled to Eldre’thalas, got freed, has been loaning his arcane affinity to the Alliance ever since. Slowly losing his mind to it, however (he’s very easily distracted, occasionally stares off into space, etc.). He has more story than that, but that’s the cliffnotes.
Kaldorei does not have an apostrophe. The OG race doesn’t use one >.>.
Or you could write him like The Elder Scrolls characterized its High Elves: Constantly striving for perfection. There’s also a lore book that talks about the psychology of the High Elves: Due to their long age, and the amount of time they have to refine a skill, they’re more aware of subtle imperfections. On the other hand, their own perfection might be so subtle that a normal human wouldn’t even notice it, if it wasn’t pointed out.
That’s a great point! The long-lived races would have thousands of years to perfect their various crafts. They would clearly notice things humans who live a few decades and rarely 100+ years would never perceive let alone comprehend. Reminds me of the calligraphy of Mordent Evenshade the leader of the Highborne amongst the kaldorei. He must of spent centuries writing out his name to make it a truly exquisite signature and as a scholar capable of reciting information that most humans would simply be unable to.