Luckily no. Turns out to be a Void Ethereal studying Azeroth’s inhabitants:
Chrome is being weird and won’t let me highlight text to make an actual quote but you’re forgetting that if they had a Kul’tiran helping Feathermoon and Shadowsong then that Kul’tiran would immediately take over the entire spotlight. Could be someone as minor as the guy manning the boat at the docks. His human potential would outshine two well established Kaldorei anyday.
Sorry to break it to you but the Kul Tirans are going to be involved. Also, can I ask, while I get the frustration of “Human Potential” from the NE fans, what exactly do you want from the NEs writing wise?
They have strong isolationist tendencies when they are allowed to act on them; have a history of minor xenophobia; and have never been shown (since they became NEs) to have any interest in expansionism. They, as a species, would likely just sink back into their forests if given the opportunity to be left entirely alone from outside threats; and the vast majority of their stories revolve mistakes and enemies from their past (outside of the Faction Conflict), rather than goals of the future.
Also, let me remind you, I’m part of a faction that was literally just along for the ride the entire last expansion. While the execution may not have been great, the NEs got portions of Val’sharah, Azuna, Suramar, and the Emerald Nightmare Raid devoted to them. Anduin was fairly worthless throughout Legion; Jaina didn’t exist past Broken Shore; Khadgar and Turalyon were the primary sources of “Human Potential”; with Velen and Illidan also taking up much of the spotlight.
I get being salty about the game focusing so much on Humanity within the Alliance (but hey, guess what, they’ve been the focus since WC1), but their representation within Legion wasn’t really that overwhelming … while the Horde representation in Legion was … “Yup, guess we’re here too. Oh, Vol’jin gets killed by a trashmob and our only real contribution is our new Warchief going on a shady personal errand in Stormheim? Not even Legion related? Tha’s cool I guess…”
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If the Kul’Tirans have to be involved, I hope it’s Brother Pike and the Tidesages. That would make the most narrative sense, and Stormsong Valley was my favorite of the Kul’Tiran zones (even if while leveling I was begrudging being on Kul’Tiras at all).
I definitely think the whole “human potential” thing is overblown, especially since the line didn’t even make it to the live game. But even I was bothered by all the questing in 8.0. I was upset we had to spend our time fixing Kul’Tiras and Jaina’s problems instead of helping the Night Elves (with hindsight, this probably could have easily been resolved by switching the release of the Arathi Warfront and the Darkshore Warfront, but that obviously isn’t something that could have just happened given gameplay design time and workflow. But in an ideal world where we could jusyt snap our fingers, that would have been better).
But the intial Alliance War Campaign quests were even worse. Night Elves weren’t seen at all except to die to make the San’layn look threatening, while Rambo got to live, and then to add insult to injury, Wyrmbane then said that avenging Shandris’ sisters in arms was not a priority because we were going after Gallywix instead, only for it to be based on bad intel and it not be Gallywix at all.
This was really bad for two reasons: First of all, before this we had a quest where Wyrmbane was trying to take out some targets in an overly elaborate plan and Shandris instead just takes the targets out efficiently while Wyrmbane flounders around, so for Wyrmbane to mess things up again left a feeling of “Why is this chump in charge?” But secondly, and more importantly, the War of the Thorns happened entirely because of bad SI:7 intel, and so avenging Night Elves being brushed aside based on more bad SI:7 intel was salt on an open wound.
But that was 8.0. To answer your question, what we want taking Darkshore back, and the success or failure (Edit: Who am I kidding? We only want success) of that based solely on Night Elf leadership.
I think the saying goes something like, “More dangerous than a wise enemy is a stupid ally.”
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So were orcs, who’ve been taking a backseat from the horde spotlight for a while.
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You might also have remembered that Malfurion sacrificed the bulk of Night Elf power at Hyjal in order to destory Archimonde in what seems to have been a very permmanent destruction because he hasn’t been seen since.
To preserve the Night Elf race in the way you seem to want it would have meant that they could not have been player characters. And that would have been an extremely wrong move for Blizzard to take.
And I take contention with your assertation that the Night Elves have been useless hobbled etc since then. The Night Elves got virtually their entire pantheon brought back to life in Cataclysm, and Jarod Shadowsong was pretty much the co-factional leader of the military side of the anti-Deathwing effort. He also played a key role in Legion and he does so in the Darkshore Warfront as well. Shandris Feathermoon hasn’t been exactly sitting on her hands either and we got new Night Elf character in the Warfront and a somewhat lesser Night Elf just made herself the key figure in the advancement of Alliance leather working. (I wonder who is motivating Horde leatherworkers now)
The Night Elves in WC3 for all their power were really just pretty Trolls with a bit more magic, in their xenophobia. Being part of the Alliance lets them expand beyond that cardboard cutout role.
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Um… we saw Archimonde come back for Warlords of Draenor. Somehow he was brought back, I think, by using the Emerald Nightmare:
- Malfurion Stormrage says: This...you are certain this came from the Defiler himself?
Malfurion Stormrage says: I have encountered this power once before, within the depths of the Emerald Dream, near an abyss known as the Rift of Aln.
Malfurion Stormrage says: That place radiated an ancient evil with such intensity that we dared not venture closer.
Malfurion Stormrage says: It was all we could do to attempt to seal the taint away from the rest of the Dream. But it appears that we failed.
Malfurion Stormrage says: And now, to find a fragment of that power in the hands of the Legion? A terrible portent...
Malfurion Stormrage says: I must return to the place of my tutelage, the primal groves of Val'sharah, to seek guidance.
Malfurion Stormrage says: By giving us warning of this danger, you may have saved us all.
However, all of this I actually agree with.
I mean, in the Battle of mount Hyjal, the other races WERE canon fodder for the night elves.
I mean, their contribution to the battle was to slow the advance of Archimond and the combined forces of the Legion and the Scourge. They knew they couldn’t outright win the battle, they were just warm bodies standing between Archimond and his goal.
By definition, that make them cannon fodder. They did not contribute to Hyjal’s defense in any other way. Malfurion did all the strategizing…
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They weren’t. Saying they were doesn’t make it true.
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No, but this does:
Most thing’s in wow happen because of that though.
Shaw is a lot better at infiltration than information gathering, yeah.
My spy can sneak around very well but not actually do anything when he sneaks around.
Sounds like a pretty terrible spy.
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