Night Elves are not inherently xenophobic

Lore Story Forum
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While recently skimming through World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume I I re-read these passages on pages 94 and 95:

    The trees, flowers, and woodland creatures silently watched the night elves flourished, whispering news of them to the Wild Gods of Hyjal. Among them, the demigod Cenarius took a keen interest in these newcomers at the Well of Eternity's shores. Cenarius adored the night elves and believed they had the potential to become great caretakers of nature. He befriended the fledgling race and taught them about the natural world. It was Cenarius's hope that the night elves would strive to live in harmony with the wilds.

    For many centuries, the night elves did. They built a graceful society around the Well of Eternity. The capital of their small nation was Elun’dris, or “the Eye of Elune,” and it was founded on the shores of the fount of power. The night elves also honed their ties with the surrounding woodlands and their myriad inhabitants. Cenarius guided the night elves when necessary, pleased by the wisdom and benevolence that thrummed in their hearts.

    But in time, many of the night elves yearned for a different life. These individuals became obsessed with unlocking the Well of Eternity’s secrets. They rigorously studied the fount’s arcane energies, becoming learned sorcerers. They harnessed the powers of the arcane lake and constructed wondrous temples and roadways around it. Magic became an inseparable part of life as the night elves reveled in the power at their fingertips. Pushing the boundaries of their intellect became the driving force of their culture.

    It was during this era of unprecedented growth that the night elves’ most prolific leader came ti power. Her name was Queen Azshara. Through her unbridled ambition, she would elevate her people to extraordinary new heights… and sow the seeds of their destruction.

    As time passed, the night elves began eschewing diplomacy and largely ignored Azeroth’s other cultures. Azshara’s dogmatic beliefs regarding racial purity seeped in the night elves’ psyche, creating an atmosphere rife with xenophobia.

It was Azshara’s and the Highborne’s mentality that made them xenophobic, not something that was an inherent part of night elf nature. And in fact, the Highborne culture was not even the majority of the night elves’ way of life, as page 95 also notes:

    There was, however, one location Azshara and her forces avoided: Mount Hyjal. The spirits and demigods who roamed the sylvan forests unsettled the queen. She knew in her bones that Hyjal was somehow beyond even her influence. It was a place steeped in ancient magic, a wild, untamable, and unchangeable land that stood in stark contrast to her vision of a new Kalimdor. Publically, Azshara prohibited expansion into Hyjal out of respect of the night elves' ancient kinship with the forests. In truth, she despised the mountain and the harmony it represented.

    Azshara’s views on Hyjal were well known to Cenarius. With growing unease, he had watched the night elf empire expand. Year by year, he became increasingly frustrated with the hubris and thoughtless actions of the sorcerous Highborne. The majority of night elf society continued honoring the old ways of revering the wilds. The fact that these folk still lived in harmony with the land warmed Cenarius’s heart, but he knew that they had no influence over Azshara and her arrogant followers.

And we have seen the Night Elves making changes to their culture to go back to their more diplomatic ways before Azshara and the Highborne’s influence. Malfurion at least held positive connections with the Horde after their partnership in the Grand Alliance for protecting Mount Hyjal. The Night Elves helped bring the Draenei and Worgen into the Alliance, and lifted the ban on magic once they saw it was already proliferated throughout the world regardless. And even High Elves, Pandaren, and Void Elves could be counted under Darnassus’ banner.

TL;DR: Night Elves are not inherently xenophobic by nature. Azshara’s and the Highborne’s mentality that made them xenophobic, and Azshara and the Highborne supremacists are out of the picture now.

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And yet even with this explanation there will be others that want to look back at the third war.

I am however confused with this point. Please elaborate.

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I’m assuming he’s referring to Lanfen, the monk trainer added to Darnassus in MoP, suggesting that Pandaren ambassadors were welcome in the city as pointed out to the player if they ask a Sentinel guard where the trainer is. And prior to BFA’s launch patch, Void Elves could be found wandering around in Darnassus after the player had unlocked them. Not sure about High Elves.

Which this was unfortunately never elaborated on, but under the pretense that Allied Races can be found visiting other cities I think it’s a reasonable theory that some Void Elves could have traveled to Darnassus given the ancestral ties they have, as well as the atmosphere offered by the city in comparison to the others. Much like how Lightforged naturally show up in the Exodar, or how Nightborne would visit Silvermoon.

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For all the “Heaven forbid the lawful human Alliance ever do anything wrong!!” rhetoric that gets thrown around, night elf posters put way more effort into maintaining the image of some idyllic, unimpeachable race than any humans I’ve encountered.

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I mean, I don’t think anyone but the truest Anti-Nelf grognards would argue that, like, Night Elves have some kind of ‘xenophobia gland’ in their brain that makes them inherently xenophobic. To say that the Night Elves are xenophobic is to say that their culture is xenophobic, which… yeah? At least up until the Third War? They’re clearly liberalizing, as evidenced by the fact that they joined the Alliance, but it’s difficult to say that xenophobia isn’t an element of their culture, considering their 10,000 year isolation.

It’s okay. Night Elves are allowed to have been a little flawed but improving. Teldrassil doesn’t magically become justified if you admit that the Night Elves ever did anything wrong, ever. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.

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They’ve been out of the picture for 10,000 years, actually.

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'Cause they’re delusional I’d say. Everything that’s happened to Night Elves has made me more xenophobic to the other races and I’m not even a character in the game. As if they wouldn’t be distrustful of everyone else after all this.

Not to mention, if I recall, they attacked some humans unprovoked in WC3.

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Really?! How did I miss this?

Ok, I see your point. I more so have an issue with them being called xenophobic now ad they have made numerous strides towards relations with the other races. Back then during runner Kaldorei Empire and the long vigil it made sense, even though I think that were more isolationists during long vigil as opposed to xenophobic. We know that had some interactions with the Tauren during that time. I think the xenophobic title is appropriate for the time during the old empire, after that I’d say isolationists. Not trying to split hair but there is a difference.

True but to be fair, they were working with the Orcs that had just murdered Cenarius and Night Elves.

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I don’t like this. This is further evidence of Blizzard’s mad desire to make every society as pure and palatable as possible.

Flaws are what make things interesting and real. Societies that are isolationist and xenophobic are okay.

Good find, but I don’t like it.

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Did they actually know that though? It’s been a long time but I think the camp they attack is solely a human settlement not a mix of the two.

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Not inherently, sure. Still partly that way under Azshara. And fairly isolationist under some of Tyrande’s rule.

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Yeah rereading that title I feel like it’s an odd thing to say. Of course they’re not inherently isolationist, that would imply some sort of biological design towards mistrust across the entire race. As you said, they are at least partially xenophobic and isolationist

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I only think it is fair because apparently someone phrased it that way. And in Warcraft, races can have ‘genetic’ predispositions.

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I also find it worth mentioning that xenophobia and isolationism are not iherently the same. The Night Elves didn’t hate other cultures for being other. They tolerated many races in their lands, including the Children of Cenarius, the furbolg, the moonkin, the mountain giants, even the hippogryphs (if you want to grant them “racehood” for their intellect and sentience). There’s a difference between being xenophobic, and just staying at home, minding your own business (until your home is invaded by faulty Titan robots and mutant space rocks from another world).

Conversely, it was Azshara and the Highborne’s xenophobia that partially led, not to isolationism, but expansionism.

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They did. Tyrande already knew what the orcs did and then she saw the humans with them.

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You have to recall there existed a division with Frandal and Maiev in the night elf society.

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Night elves are tyranny of druidism. True elven culture is Suramar and Silvermoon

Malf was first druid and formed a sect around it. Exiled all mages just because of primitive fear and put brother to jail for an eternity for trying to preserve magic. And as time proved - even druidism can end the world (xavius, emerald nightmare, fandral). Forced people to either leave or live on trees instead of glorious city.

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I agree that post-WC3 elves have become quite cosmopolitan (possibly at the expense of their flavor as a race). I don’t really disagree with the OP on many of these particulars.

But there’s a broader narrative about Night Elves creating a flawless, utopian society that some posters spend a lot of energy defending, and it always rubs me about the same way as human paladins writing about how everyone should just convert to Light worship or whatever.

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Damn it, I got to the “hoi polloi” part of your message before you edited right out from under me. Now I’m curious about what the rest said. :frowning:

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Sorry about that. I tried pasting in the old post, but the UI is being annoying

You got most of it. All I really said afterwards was that the “I am a member of a superior race who must educate my inferiors” is really obnoxious when it comes from humans, and I don’t see why it’s any better from elves.

I edited to make it shorter and less combative <3

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