Hey everyoneI’m a big fan of shadow priests’ lore and gameplay. But my understanding of the current post-Legion iteration of it is the generic human SP lore where it just seems like they go mad when they hear whispers of the Old Gods and they try to walk the line betwene sanity and insanity while using the powers of the Void against their enemies. But I know that originally it was quite different with forsaken spriests, troll spriests, human spriests all having kind of different origins. Trolls having their Loa, forsaken having the Cult of Forgotten Shadow and I would assume humans were the one who originally had that -influenced by the old gods- lore (please correct me if Im wrong im far from a lore expert). What I dont get though is how Night Elf spriests fit into it all.
I get that they worship Elune and people say that its just them worshiping the dark side of the moon but I just dont get what the relation between Elunes dark side and shadow/void is. Is it one of those things where Blizzard hasnt cleared it up at all or is there some canon explanation? Thanks for any clarity you guys canprovide
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Pretty much everything involving Elune is currently an enigma wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in riddle. She has ties to the forces of arcane, nature, light, and circumstantially, void. Elune seems to be something totally different than anything we have met before, and acts like an actual deity with true divine interventions when she does meddle in mortal affairs.
Canonically we have never seen a Kaldorei shadow priestess, at least that was not part of a cult like the twilight’s hammer and then they are definitely not serving Elune. There is some fannon linking them to the night warrior aspect of Elune, but nothing from blizzard itself backs that up
By the legion class explanation shadow priests are basically insane old god cultists who actually draw power from their own madness. Think of them like berserkers of the mind.
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Somehow the fact that we know very little to nothing about Elune makes it even more interesting playing a night elf spriest. So in this case, our nelf spriest characters dont really fit into the Legion class fantasy of them correct? Unless we actually want to roleplay our player character as a mad old god worshipper
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There are Night Elves who have been swayed by Old God influences before, so it probably has less to do with Elune and more just being similar to others that have heard the whispers.
An old example is:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Zamael_Lunthistle
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Cant Tyrande use voidy powers now?
Maybe the black eyes can help fit shadow priests into the mix.
While the TCG isn’t canon, I akways feel Anduros Silversong warrants being brought up in discussions about Night Elven Shadow Priests.
He’s notable for not only being a Shadow Priest, but also for… well, being a he. Again, while decidedly not canon, he does at least show that the idea of a Priest of Elune harnessing “the dark side of the moon” has been rattling around for a while.
Incidentally, the post-Legion, Old God cultist iteration of Shadow Priests ill-fits quite a few races. Namely Night Elves, Trolls, Tauren (represented in the TCG and equally non-canon Hearthstone, though I roleplayed mine as a Grimtotem sorcerer), and I suppose Blood Elves, now.
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Night Elf shadow priests definitely do exist, they are just few and far between in game and in lore. There is a Priest specific legendary from Legion called ‘Mangaza’s Madness’ with the following snippet:
“Mangaza of the Kaldorei was innovative among his brethen for his dedication to a different form of magic, choosing to assault the mind over the body. Tragically, this method eventually proved maddening to himself in addition to his victims.”
Another interesting NPC is Natalia Mar’alith in Silithus who succumbed to C’thun’s whispers and subsequently could use shadow priest abilities as a result.
Overall, I think if you want to pull inspiration from Elune having a darker side that would fit as well, but there are certainly examples of ‘traditional’ Night Elf shadow priests that have gone mad or fit the same sort of idea as drawing power from void instead of Elune.
It’s probably worth noting that Night Elven priests have never really fit the mold of a traditional priest anyway, drawing their power directly from Elune instead of the light has always made them unique. On that, it’s not far off to suspect that they would be a different type of shadow priest as well.
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I think it’s fine to have Night Elf shadow priests. The problem/good thing about Elune not being fully explained it leave the shadow open to interpretation. We know the void is the maddening, devouring darkness. Maybe Elune’s shadow is a little different, with out the madness that comes with it. It’s intresting because Elune is a being of light but she is most powerful and visible at night, during the darkness.
I think a Night Elf shadow priest could envoke the night or something. Casting their opponents into shadow envoking fear. This may sound pretty similar to what the class is now but I think it could be slightly different because the Night Elves live in darkness. But like others have said there have been examples of priests going mad. Maybe if they delve too far into shadow it could lead then down the path to the old gods.
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Thank you all so much for the detailed and helpful replies. Reading them helped get into character and connect with my toon much more. I like how you guys managed to justify both the traditional spriest fantasy of going mad as well as the mysterious dark Elune viewpoint. Its given me quite a bit to think about in regards to which fantasy Id pick for my character but in a good way this time!
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