I’m just going to add as well that I didn’t fully address this point. The future war argument doesn’t work because if there’s a future war with the Horde, the Alliance is forced to defend the length of it, and the Horde could also attack it, and then use it for a more convenient highway into Night Elven lands. If your expected future enemy is the Horde - this therefore reveals itself to be a dumb move. If your current enemy is the Horde, this is needlessly roundabout, and wasteful given that you’re fighting the Horde in territory in which they have an advantage rather than providing direct support to Ashenvale, where you can leverage allies who have expertise in that region. The only situation in which this makes long-term strategic sense is if you want a future attack vector that the Night Elves couldn’t interfere with, allowing you to quickly and easily pour forces into the region in case of a future dispute. The Theramore Highway would have been just that.
So the roads on Teldrassil were for the sake of outsiders. That’s a pretty funny headcanon to imagine. The Night Elves revamping the place post-Third War for the handful of possible visitors.
I guess they never shipped between cities or used glaive launchers either back then.
Pretty much. More likely though, the road was for the sake of the players and Zone design, rather than true representation. Keep in mind, Teldrassil, in the lore, is a giant tree… In the game… It’s a giant stump.
I’m not sure I agree completely with the idea that the Night Elves don’t need or use roads, but they are less important given the nature of Night Elven supply and logistics. For another nation, you need to worry about how you get resources from production centers to the front, or to parts of your country. For the NIght Elves, the forests themselves are the production centers given the reliance on wisp construction - notably for things like bows, fortifications, glaive throwers and ships. That alters the whole strategic and logistical picture - and roads only start to factor in when we incorporate imported and specialty goods.
Like I said, that is a funny headcanon. Those Night Elves going to that trouble paving roads and building bridges they don’t really need and hardly anyone would use.
Well it is a tree with a wide, flat top.
I’d certainly agree with the idea they’re less important for Night Elves.
Well I would still say two notions exist. The first being actually moving something like a glaive thrower through undergrowth. They’re built with wheels, and this would include carts for anything that can’t just be produced on the spot. Night Elves have craftsmen like blacksmiths and the like. The use of wisps aids a lot. But the necessity of personel remains that can’t be everywhere, requiring some movement.
No, the night elves have been a target because they have resources the Horde want. In fact, the Warsong Outrider have been in Ashenvale since at least the third war.
One big issue I have is Blizzard has refused to answer why the night elves joined in the first. It is long past time that story is told.
The night elves have roads in their cities(see Suramar). Just because you can move in forested areas easier then other races, does not mean it wont be easier for you to still walk on paved roads.
We have see as per A Little Patient that the night elves cannot just rely on wisps. Remember their power over nature now is alot weaker after the third war.
Or Blizzard just threw down a road for the sake of the players and Zone Design. Kind of like how they made Teldrassil a stump so they wouldn’t have to design a zone wrapping around the trunk of a tree.
And those resources can’t be taken from anywhere else? Not dustwallow? Not imported from the Forsaken? Hell, the Kaldorei were more than willing to trade with the Horde, but the tension that came from being opposite factions often soured trade agreements.
As I said, the only reason the Night Elves are a target is because the Horde sees them as a threat, and they are seen as a threat specifically because they joined the Alliance. Had the Kaldorei remained neutral, I don’t think Ashenvale would have ever been invaded.
There has been a major cultural shift since then. The Kaldorei now are not at all like they were during the Empire. Their dependency on production and infrastructure is near zero after developing a symbiotic relationship with nature and the Ancients.
And there is a reason why every single night elf player hates that scenario. It once again paints the Kaldorei in a negative light specifically to make Humans look better.
The road conversation is somewhat diverting into a tangent at this point. The parties mostly agree on Night Elf road usage, and my inner libertarian is screaming at the concept of discussing roads in the first place. My point of the Theramore Highway being a logistical dagger in the hands of Stormwind against the Night Elves wasn’t contested by your post, so I will presume that we can move on from there, leading to this quoted statement.
That was Tyrande’s prediction, and we haven’t really seen it bear out. Druids appear to still do their druidic thing, Malfurion seems as powerful as ever. At this point we may even dispute the degree to which their longevity is at stake after Lorash demonstrates that elves can actually live for a very, VERY long time and still be quite spry without the blessings of Hyjal.
In short, Tyrande made a statement, but there’s no telling as to whether that statement was actually correct outside of a few isolated incidences of disease.
Or they put them in there because Night Elves use roads like they historically have.
Historically huh? lol
I mean, roads don’t have any real utility in the game. They don’t make it easier for players to traverse the zone, and some zones don’t have them. Teldrassil also is in no way the only Night Elf zone that has roads. Zones like Felwood for example - which represent a territory that the Night Elves lost during the Third War and were unable to reclaim from the demonic presence there - have an established road network, which could not have been built after the Third War to accommodate others.
So I agree that Night Elves did use roads, I just disagree that they are as important to them as roads are to other civilizations given the unique aspects of Night Elf production and logistics.
Definition of historically
1: in accordance with or with respect to history
an historically accurate account
2: in the past
historically, stagnant cities seldom have recovered
— Jane Jacobs
I feel like I’ve missed something, but how would the night elves leaving the alliance put them less at risk from the horde? I’d think that the horde would have to remain on guard with them for the rest of WoW’s life, thanks to BFA.
Because it means that the Night Elves would not be subject to the kind of strategic distraction that the Alliance has imposed on them. Recall that the last time they were attacked, it was because Tyrande and Anduin agreed to move their military away from what it was protecting to address something that Stormwind was concerned about.
Take away the need to support the Alliance’s objectives, and bear in mind that the Alliance hasn’t really helped them anyway, and that allows them to focus on their own security. It also means that if the Horde wants to go after the Alliance (as Talanji might still want to do given her beef with the Proudmoores for instance, or as Sylvanas wanted to do at the outset of BFA) - the Night Elves are no longer a convenient target to do that.
Unless the horde for some reason just goes after the night elves anyway to finish the job under the assumption that the alliance won’t even try to intervene this time. The scenario in my head isn’t about the horde keeping their eyes on the alliance, but their now perma-hostile neighbors on the same continent.
They kicked out the Highborne … Than imprisoned Illidan … and after everything he did , they still hate him . And ifc Tyrande used him when they were not able to defeat the Burning Legion… as weapon , tool …
Tyrande decided to left her people burn …
I mean, assuming they do that, the Night Elves being part of the Alliance doesn’t stop that. Stormwind is an ocean away and has demonstrated that if the Night Elves are attacked, they won’t help except to evacuate civilians. BFA put the central premise underlying why the Night Elves should be a part of and contribute to the Alliance to lie.
Given that, if that’s going to happen, then it’s better to not have to at the same time contribute forces and attention to a multilateral Alliance that’s not going to help you anyway. It’s like paying for an insurance contract to a company that will never pay out in the case of a loss-event. There’s no point and you’re better off saving those resources for yourself - especially if having that contract for some reason paints a target on your back, which membership in the Alliance did.
Fair enough. I know I’m is/oughting but I get the feeling that if Blizzard ever did try a storyline where the night elves temporarily secede from the alliance, they’d write yet another story of hammering them to drive home why they need the alliance after all, or at least use Gilneas as a warning tale for why they inexplicably can’t stand alone.
Tell that to Gilneas, Silvermoon, Arathi. Nations that ultimately fell and had no one to turn to for aid in their most desperate hour.
This isn’t helping your case for the Alliance. It sounds more like whatever semblance of unity and protection they provide is a phantom.