I was running the Shadow Guard Keep Delve. We come across a Void Elf being drained of mana. And Valeera says; “Draining mana out of unwilling victims. A crime my people are too familiar with.”
I beg your pardon? I mean, the writer had to know that element of lore to even put that in. But if he knew about it, then he knows they didn’t drain people. It is almost impossible to see this as anything but a deliberate misrepresentation.
I mean Undermine showed us that avoiding Horde lore as much as possible is part of the plan. But it seems keeping the vilification of the Horde is also part of the plan? Why?
At minimum the “current” writing team seems to genuinely resent the WC3 vision of both factions, and absolutely revels in the WC2 vision of them. They like a simple moral binary, and have a very narrow aesthetic image of heroism. Which, tbh, the BEs might have met if it weren’t for the fact that “they joined the icky, yucky evul faction”.
Hence an expansion taking place in SM, that generally seems to be driven to frame the BEs as lesser, flawed versions of their far superior HE and VE counterparts. But ultimately why Blizz also seems driven to dissociate the BEs as much as possible from the Horde and WoT. Blue “Real” Sylvie “the Horde never knew” is being given a similar treatment.
Killing animals for meat is fine, killing animals for hides is fine, killing animals because they’re generally in the way is fine, killing animals for fun is fine, killing animals for the challenge of it is fine, but killing animals to harvest their mana is evil.
Actually in the Night of the Dragon the cousin of Vereesa Windrunner tried to suck the mana out of the Windrunner twins as he thought that a half elves would carry the greatest taste. This is why Blood Elves were called, “Mana vampires” and why Vereesa was so disgusted with the road Blood Elves took.
Do you remember BC era? This was a running theme about Blood Elves that they were no better than the vampyr that would later come. That’s why some became wretched and even their prince fell to corruption and many more became felblood elves. The lore is basically the fall of the elves which was a massive failure on their part and the lines that were crossed which led to the schism between the elven people. Only to be saved by the grace of the Light and the prophecy of Velen with the heart of a naaru. They also touched upon this theme of corruption in Hearthstone.
Mana wyrms? Wretched fools trying to siphon the very mana from their kin? They actually wrote a excellent story back in BC on how evil the Blood Elves were heading towards and how vicious they could be. I miss BC Astalor and Rommath, back when the elves had gumption! Well Astalor still has it… Rommath… not so much!
Which is another way of saying what I’m saying. Deliberate misrepresenting of lore to keep the Horde is evil theme going. Of all the things they feel they need to fix, the villian-batting is clearly isn’t one of them. They even want maintain it.
I’d argue M’uru was willing. OT; the Blood Elves of QT in TBC were, are, and always have been over-villainized. Nothing above a mana wyrm was being eaten.
I don’t see it as evil. Rather is desperation that birthed these actions. You’re evil actions aren’t because you’re evil person. Addiction is a helluva problem! That was the theme for the Blood Elves you were pretty on the surface, but underneath? Ooof and the point of redemption shouldn’t of been to turn them into Light Elves or happy little elves, but elves who know the edge and know when not to cross it.
A fair argument, although the Blood Elves had no inkling of that; to them, they were tormenting a living, sentient creature for power, one that they chained and imprisoned to ensure it couldn’t escape. For all intents and purposes, the Blood Elves would believe M’uru was unwilling.
Chronicle Volume VII, the Stonespire Tauren invited the dwarves to build Bael Modan and they genocided themselves so they could blame it on the innocent dwarves, for sure, definitely this is what happened
It occurred to me while writing the joke above: if Chronicles are “Titan perspective” that means the Alliance white washing is from a “Titan perspective” which means it is all unreliable narrator.
It’s been heavily implied blood elves give the good ol’ mana tap to humanoids capable of magic, not just mana wyrms, to the point people are actually wary of them. This NPC in Terokkar comes to mind: Taela Everstride - NPC - World of Warcraft
No, don't feel bad. I get that a lot.
<Taela looks both amused and annoyed.>
I'm a HIGH elf, not a blood elf. Don't worry, I'm not going to suck all of the magic out of you.
Oh sweet summer child they’ve preferred the WC2 version of these factions since Cata.
What you see now and the Horde and Alliance’s complete stagnation and neglect is them not knowing how to write for two factions that effectively regressed back to WC2 and then never actually developed again since like 2010, it can’t really be blamed on the “Current” writing team since it’s the fault of the creative power struggle during Cata onward.
Well the factions obviously can’t go back to “their W3 roots”, when one side, The Grand Alliance, has no W3 roots, since they were, cut, burned and plagued. You played W3 as Lordaeron, which is gone and Horde players tend to have an aneurysma if you mention Alliance having any ties to it, so going with Stormwind, the playable faction from W1 / W2, is the only option for Blizzard.
To be fair, there’s never really any game that’s centered around two factions that’s been done well. And by well I mean everyone for the most part are consistently happy
Most games either make them irrelevant narratively or they go the Elder Scrolls route and say it’s all canon, it just depends on which NPC you ask
I know that you mean the narrative so it’s not that relevant, but overall, WoW factions have been done extremely well, proof of that being that there are people still invested in them 22 years after the first game was released, with half of Blizzard’s shop being faction merch. FFXIV and ESO factions might as well not exist in comparison.
Spite towards the Horde and validation to the Alliance. And thus, further clout for the Alliance and extra in the mouths of the Horde players they hate.
in the mouths of the Horde players they hate.