> born in dalaran, the most magical city on the planet
> be surrounded by hundreds of potential mentors who have studied arcane magic for centuries
> even the mfing sewers are full of magic
> become a paladin
How did Tyrande and Malfurion make that list? They’re like the most standard baseline out-of-the-box night elves you can find.
I started as a Warcraft fan with Warcraft 2. I loved playing the Alliance. I liked the Horde too, but have always liked the Alliance a little more, even back then. Humanity and the Alliance seemed to have more life back then. Which is weird, because they were just 2-dimentional models with a couple of voice lines.
It was something about the art style, the music. Even the missions of Warcraft 2 made me believe that these were real places with real value, and we were attacking/defending these places because of that.
Warcraft 3 did this as well, but a think with slightly less effectiveness. It is weird, the more Blizzard dedicated themselves to story, and more personal modes of Story Telling. The less character their world began to have. Stormwind now, in WoW, somehow has less character than when it only had Lothar and it’s remnants.
Still have subs, 
.
Paladins use magic.
They use “faith”.
Not “magic”.
Magic powered by faith.
Their faith or will does magic. Light magic is magic.
Both sides are supposed to get something out of the Alliance yes, but the Night Elves largely aren’t benefitting from the agreement - that’s my point, and as much as I just praised the gnomes, that’s not enough support to justify the NIght Elves’ presence in the Alliance. Stormwind largely pursued its own interests in that war.
The dagger that I refer to? That highway doesn’t go to Durotar - it goes to Ashenvale. You can make a case for it being something to help during war, but after the war, it’s a threat. The Humans could have provided more direct support by simply landing troops in Darkshore and marching south - but instead they wanted a logistical line that the Night Elves couldn’t touch. That’s a worrying desire.
The unit you mentioned was used for the evacuation, not for combat.
Regarding your last point - You prioritize land that’s on the other side of the world because when you accepted Night Elf help, you agreed to a mutual defense pact that held that they would not stand alone if they were attacked, and that you would help them defend their lands. That didn’t happen. The Night Elves were not only forced to stand alone, but without the benefit of most of their military because it was off doing something that Stormwind wanted it to do. Then Stormwind serially failed to mend this mistake because they were too consumed with checking off a geopolitical wish list.
If defending your allies and standing for their interests is that low on your priority list, or if you lack the ability to help them, then your allies have no reason to stay with you. The entire reason for their assistance is so they won’t be left out in the cold in their time of need, which is exactly where Stormwind left them.
M … Is that magic that doesn’t waste mana? Is it magic that depends more on your faith than knowledge?
M … Is that magic that doesn’t waste mana? Is it magic that depends more on your faith than knowledge?
Exactly! This is not “arcane magic”!
Super different kind of magic from what’s most commonly practiced in Dalaran.
According to the game and lore, yes. It is magic.
Yeah. But magic.
So. What do you call magic? Now I call magic the use of the arcana. Not something that cannot be obtained through non-physical efforts. And what can be obtained by non-physical efforts, if you refer to the lasso. Curve formulation.
An Archmage from Dalaran doesn’t teach you to use Divine Magic.
It seemed to me, or before the discussion one of the “great” debaters published something long?
Yes, thank you for pointing that out. The essence of my original joke post was that arcane magic was the specialty of Dalaran, and yet Ben Grandblade (the gentleman whose point of view I was satirically adopting in my sharing of said joke) became a practitioner of a completely different form of magic (Light) from that of his hometown (Arcane). The comedy comes from the seemingly non-sequitur conclusion suddenly arrived at despite the evidence offered to point to a different conclusion (after I purposefully essentialized and paraphrased what I’m sure is a much more understandable backstory in order for the result to appear as abrupt as possible, of course for the sake of the comedy).
I’ll be sure to add detailed addendums underneath all my future SF posts to make sure nobody is subjected to even the suggestion of inaccuracy.
Personally? Using certain forces seems to be what is considered magic.
That’s what seems to follow in the setting. Im that sense an Elemental is magical and natural.
I got why you thought the joke was funny. My comment was that there’s nothing actually weird about someone in a magic city learning some different (even very different) magic, especially one guided by faith. I’d have chuckled had it been about a warrior.
Tldr, I didn’t think it funny.
The Alliance has been sacrificing men for almost two decades just to make sure Ashenvale remains Night Elf land. Don’t kind yourself into thinking that Ashenvale would still be night elven land right now if not for the Alliance constant aid.
The heck would it be a threat? If anything having a road mean easier access for Alliance troops to keep sending troop if a future war broke out.
They wanted to break the Horde and force them to defend their flank. Not to mention being able to march on Ogrimmar or Thunderbluff. Hell, echo isles would be a short throw away. At that point it was all out war and capturing an enemy capital was probably the only way it would end.
He specifically said only one regiment of guards was to be used for evacuate the rest were suppose to help fight.
Wrong. You prioritized land where your civilians are currently located and when you are secure you secure your position and make sure the war is winnable then you take back what you can.
It would like if French soldiers that evacuated to Britain during world war 2 suddenly demanded Britain take back France while they were busy defending their own front from the Germans. Such a request would have gotten nothing but derision.
I’d also point out the night elven citizens were in EK at the time so defending EK meant defending them as well.
@Baalsamael , you can help with analogies about Stormwind’s behavior towards the night elves during the War of the Thorns?
I mentioned him so that he could see?
I think it would be in their hands, Zerde. During both of its periods of stress, the Night Elves were also contributing to Alliance objectives elsewhere in the world, and in both cases, Ashenvale was seen as a convenient proxy for the Horde to go after the Alliance. I dispute that the Night Elves a) would have had so little to deal with these invasions as they did, and b) that they would have had to deal with the number of invasions that they’ve endured were they not part of the Alliance. This leaves the Horde’s force composition - which is augmented by the fact that the Horde itself sought allies to counter the larger Alliance. Remove the incentive of those allies to join them, and the forces that the Horde even has to go into Ashenvale decrease.
In short, the Alliance has presented itself more as a factor that leads to more attacks, leaves the Night Elves with fewer forces to defend against those attacks, and gives the enemy more forces to attack with.
The Highway would be a threat if Stormwind decided postwar that it wanted to for whatever reason subjugate the Night Elves. Which, given their desire to colonize the barrens, is something that you have to worry about postwar.
I’m also not sure that World War II is your best analogy. During the Battle of Britain, sure, Britain itself was under threat - but at no time did that happen to Stormwind (infiltrators aside, which doesn’t require you to invade Lordaeron, and isn’t helped by sending troops to Arathi). Horde forces didn’t even show up on the same subcontinent for the most part. Stormwind was extremely secure. This is more analogous to Britain dragging Polish forces all around the world when they had no ability or desire to help Poland (and instead sold them down the river during the Tehran conference), and in the end left it under the Soviets - and even then it’s not quite clear because unlike in World War II with Poland, the Alliance actually could get its forces to Darkshore, like Tyrande finally ended up doing.
Or Britain’s more colonial desire to attack Greece or Italy (Which was to help them administer their colonies and possessions in the Mediterranean) instead of doing what the Americans and the Russians wanted - and yes, going right for France. Churchill’s soft underbelly theory was hilariously wrong, but he went after it anyway because he was thinking more about Britain’s post-war interests than he was about France.
Everybody’s a critic.
It would be. In fact, the only reason the Night Elves are a target for the Horde is because they joined the Alliance.
The Alliance really hasn’t done anything to protect Ashenvale, most of their efforts in Kalimdor has been for the sake of Theramore and Bael’Modan.
That’s not how the Kaldorei operate. They are guerilla fighters. They commune with nature. They can navigate the forests without the need of traditional infrastructure. Any road in Kaldorei lands is for the benefit of Non-Kaldorei.
That “flank” happened to be Theramore and Bael’Modan. Who received the support of the EK Alliance while the Kaldorei were left to their own devices.
The only regiment that was given.
At what point, ever, was Stormwind “defending their own front” from the Horde?