Returning player from BC, Night elf mages!?!?!

Lore Story Forum
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can anyone change my mind or give me good reason for night elf gulp mages?

Ok so i pretty late to the nerd rage bandwagon on this but i need to vent. I haven’t played since Burning Crusade, returned last autumn but no time anyways been playing a ton recently and loving it (I guess since its all so new to me, unlike you vets of the modern expansions who’ve been doing world quests for a while)

Anyways so today decided well ha maybe it is time for a proper alt, I like night elf lore from WC3 maybe I will roll a druid or a prie… mage!!!

by elune, night elves were based on their rejection of arcane magic, like that was the cool thing that made them so different from those high elf uppities and the just so recently in lore terms we can see the destructiveness of elves and magic mixing was shown with the blood elves barely missing a massive extinction event via drug withdraw with their super magic addiction. that whole thing, the blood elves joining the horde, just would reinforce the night elves disdain for magic, especially elf use of it.

i read a little about the “lore” some intern coughed up for the minor and forgettable quest line to explain this, so despite 10,000 years of stubbornness and and philosophical hardlining, tyrande ok random high bourne wizard, you can teach us magic! like wtf. something this drastic should at least be a patch or raid or something to explain it not some trainer quest

this lore wise ruins the elf divide for me, like i even inferred that is a major reason the blood elves threw their lot in with the horde wasnt as weird as it first appeared, since in the horde they didnt have to deal with anti-magic night elf druid rage. yeah imagine the most rigid immortal greek stoics who manage to build an entire 10,000 year old civilization on stoicism be lol nvm hedonists welcome!!

the elimination of night elf gender roles i can live with since their world in kalimdor was shattered by the WC3 story, and desperate times call for desperate measures, but allowing mages??? wtf, and having highborne teaching it to make new mages… like yeah im a 9,000 year old priestess of elune, uh hey maybe ill do a career change and of one of those azshara conspiring highbourne teach me how to use it, sigh WoW retcons usually dont bother but this is ridiculous. one can argue well the night elves are allied with the eastern kingdoms races and they use magic, but I am sure NE are like ha cute, the humans are trying to play with magic - an elf playing with magic though is something to be feared

p.s. hordies, waiting for you to july 20 plot your warchief

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Oh man, if you’re doing a double-take at that, there is so much more in store for you…

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The very short version is that the still living Highborne were pardoned at around the time of the Cataclysm and allowed to return to Kaldorei society.

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Times change and opinions change.

When they first kicked the High Elves out it was because their memories of the Highborne’s obsession with the arcane and the tragedy it caused was still fresh in their minds.

But it’s been 10,000 years and so many have proven that they CAN be responsible enough with it.

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Night Elves outlawed magic because it could draw the Legion to Azeroth again after they assumed the Legion lost its location with the loss of the Well of Eternity.

Turned out not the case and the Legion had been making attempts to get back onto Azeroth since before the forming of the Council of Tirisfal, so clearly already knew where Azeroth was, so made the Night Elves outlawing magic rather moot.

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The whole outlawing magic because of the Legion never really made sense to me. It’s not like they went around Azeroth stomping all magic use. They only stopped it in their own society. What the difference between a Night Elf using magic and anybody else using magic?

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There was none. Hence why there was no point in the Night Elves outlawing magic any more after they let the Highborne that would become the High Elves go and teach everyone else magic.

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Nobody tell him about Tauren and Troll Paladins.

… oopsie.

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You called?

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It was a big deal, but all contained in 1 Cata era book. Tyrande welcomed the arcane using demon suckers of Shendrela to live in Teldrassil. Maiev and the wardens strongly disagreed and secretly were killing all the arcane using NEs.

Eventually this lead to an all out war between the wardens and Tyrande’s forces. An assassination attempt against Tyrande failed and Maiev and the wardens fled being pursued by the NE military. In Legion Maiev admits she was wrong as the Burning Legion starts overwhelming the planet and she releases the Demon Hunters in the “all hands on deck” war.

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In a weird sort of way, Night Elf Mages were a matter of when and not if ever since the Night Elves joined the Alliance.

It just didn’t make sense for the Night Elves to maintain a strict ban on arcane magic within their own society when they were officially allied with a faction that made great use of it.

The exact mechanism involved the Shendralar of Dire Maul being readmitted into Kaldori society in wake of the Cataclysm, but like I said, it was a matterof when and not if.

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Ten thousand years ago. Times change. Even then, the Night Elves clearly have reservations (as shown in the novel Wolfheart).

Actually, it probably wouldn’t have been an extinction level event, per the lore.

On several occasions after the Sunwell’s defilement, Kael’thas publicly asserted that his people would die unless they found a new source of magic. There can be no doubt that withdrawal from prolonged exposure to arcane magic is a very unpleasant process: to this day it is not impossible that a high elf might choose to give in to the addiction and become one of the blood elves. Technically, though, the prince was mistaken. According to the top priests and medics on Azeroth, the only high elves who perished due to the Sunwell’s loss were the very old, the very young, and elves who were already in poor health.

This is not to say, however, that withdrawal from magic would leave the blood elves unharmed. On the contrary, permanent mental or physical damage is possible.

Further, their extreme use (via the Sunwell) and just having mages are not equivalent. Many races have been able to use Arcane in relative moderation.

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In the Cataclysm the Highborne of Dire Maul made contact with the NEs of Teldrassil, bringing news of rising Naga activity, the augers that hinted at the approaching Cataclysm and seeing if there was a chance to rejoin NE society. There was a lot of scepticism. Back before it happened during the prepatch they had a NE Highborne interacting with Sentinel and the Sentinel was treating him with a lot of suspicion.

In the end, Tyrande agreed to allowing those Highborne to rejoin NE society under the condition that their arcane activities were regulated and that the Highborne obeyed NE demands on how and what they could use their spellcraft for. I suspect that by this point, having worked with so many other races that actively used arcane had made Tyrande more willing to give mages another chance. There was a lot of tension on both sides, as shown in Wolfheart but in the end they found their place and have become more present in NE activities since.

Basically NE’s now allow arcane magic to be used by their population but it is probably one of the most strict races on rule of usage. I suspect things like their involvement in the evacuation of Teldrassil though will likely have increased their acceptance in NE society.

Hey, at least it had a smoother explanation than Tauren Paladins.

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I’m not even sure if the gender roles are still relevant as we have seen mor thread a few female druids in certain positions. The guardian of g’hanir is female. It’s odd that such a postion would be given to a druid with only 10+ years under her belt.

Anyway it seems like you’ve missed quite a bit. Just wait till you see the Nightborne.

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Only in the Nightborne’s case was the addiction Withdrawal at Extinction Level. They had to use the Arcan’dor to save their Race. The Blood Elves weren’t dependant at that level despite mental damage and pain resulting from it.

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I am not very well-versed in a lot of this stuff.

How explicitly - outside of game mechanics such as skill names, etc - are Tauren Sunwalkers affiliated what a ~paladin~ in within the game universe?

Edit: Wondering too, as I level my Zandalari Prelate, since it lowkey makes my eyebrow twitch every time an NPC refers to me as “Paladin” :stuck_out_tongue:

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The cynic in me says, “It wasn’t enough that the Night Elves were largely de-fanged as a race, became less savage, and no longer deserved Grom Hellscream’s estimation of them as, ‘the perfect warriors.’ Blizzard wanted to make them even more like High Elves, and so gave them the Mage Class.”

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It is no more implausible necessarily than tauren being paladins or Forsaken being monks.

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Because back then Warcraft magic operated in a similar principal as magic in Warhammer. Using magic attracted demons.

Since none of the other races had this problem, it kind of didn’t make sense.

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Basically they realized capping the Second Well and the Quel’dorei hiding their magic use didn’t prevent the Legion from returning, so they let a group of Highborne who had sealed themselves away return, under the provision that magic use was highly regulated.

While it is semi hypocritical they let the Dire Maul Highborne continue practicing magic, but wouldn’t let the Quel’dorei do the same, it is also possible this is one of the few cases of Kal’dorei adapting to the loss of their immortality, making them reevaluate things.