San’layn/vampyr Elf ALLIED RACE Coagulated Megathread of Ideas{Re-VAMPed} (Part 1)

Yeah I’m looking forward to seeing what the deal is with Kael’thas. It doesn’t seem like he’s a Venthyr, as they all have that distinct look, and I watched “The Accuser” turn a soul into one last night on one of the side quests (actually paid attention that time).

Also if they are redeemed, I’m wondering where they go. Rebirth? Another covenant? Another part of Shadowlands? It doesn’t seem like they’re meant to stay in Revendreth if they’re going for redemption, unless they dedicate themselves wholly to the cause. Most, however, seem like they’re just on a journey.

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Being on a journey to your final destination in the Shadowlands seems to be the most likely result. There are apparently more parts of the Shadowlands than we visit, so others could end up there.

If the talks of some of the dead arrivals in Revendreth being capable of becoming a Venthyr and joining the covenant that way are true (which I haven’t gotten there and haven’t seen anything yet about it), that is also a possibility.

Seems like Maldraxxus is a final destination for some so far, with Bastion being either a final destination or just a stop on the way to being ferried to wherever. I don’t know much about Ardenweald, though it seems to deal with higher beings able to be reborn from my understand, but so far it sounds like Revendreth is just a connecting flight for the most part, so to speak.

Then again, the more I try to look at and make sense of it, the more my head hurts. I imagine it could be quite the challenge to write for this area, as I don’t think I could easily write multiple afterlife areas and such. x- x

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Just wanted to say, love how this thread is alive and going, I support more races and diversity, San’layn is no exception. :+1:t4:

While I know Shamans are very unlikely… Blood Shamans could be a thing, no elf like race has shaman available, while game play wise be similar but could draw their powers from else where.

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/762/197/large/conor-burke-shaman.jpg?1432504052

Goes great if you picked Venthyr :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I’ll be honest, I dream of an elf race in WoW that could be a Shaman.

Edit: the San’layn could get their Shamanism from the fallen Loa god Hir’eek, they’ve found a way to bring him to their cause in un death, spirit wolf form could be a bat, bat like totems, I don’t know just spitballing here haha

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Myself included, lol. Most of my toons are going there. Only thing I really don’t like about that covenant is the mount.

I have to get over to Revendreth with my lock because of the post you did where Kael is tied to that covenant. I thought he was not tied to any covenant but I didn’t do any research on his part so I was wrong. :frowning_face:

That would be a good idea. Something to separate it from the other 900 elf races we have. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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https://www.wowhead.com/quest=60502/sanguine-depths-an-ally-within

After doing this quest we learn more about the light in Revendreth. It seems that Sire Denathrius stole a Naaru and was using it’s power to defeat his enemies. So he was basically doing what the blood elves did with the Naaru back in BC. In a sort of way. The Naaru is in the Sanguine Depths dungeon. They also say they are keeping it in a place where they first got inside shadowlands and away from the Venthyr. So it seems the Naaru may unintentionally harm the Venthyr. But it is still allies with the Venthyr covenant, I will keep an eye for any light to venthyr connections. More lore quests will open when we get more renown over the following weeks.

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I forget which quest/npc said this, it may have been the Accuser, but if a soul is redeemed in Revendreth and chooses not to stay and become a Venthyr, they are returned to the Arbiter for a new judgement. The Arbiter then sends them to whatever part of the Shadowlands is now appropriate for them.

With the Arbiter out of commission, that may be why the soul the Accuser rescued became a Venthyr without a choice, since the option to go back to the Arbiter is unavailable and the only other option was the Maw.

We’ve been told that there countless areas of the Shadowlands, each meant for specific beings. The four we see (and the Maw), are only a tiny fraction of what is likely an infinite number of afterlives. Future content patches may add new afterlife zones to the Shadowlands for us to explore.

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Yeah I hear ya. I have an idea in my own writing of how afterlife works, but it’s less ‘infinite worlds’ and more ‘this his how it works’. Seems like it’s extremely complex for WoW, and then there’s the whole ‘you’re deleted from existence if you die here’ which I still, personally, do not like one bit. I know it ‘ups the stakes’, but eh, again, it’s just a personal gripe that I do not enjoy down to the core.

Thanks so much for your kindness, I really appreciate your words :slight_smile: Also, I honestly love that concept! I didn’t even think of that. I think in WoW lore there’s blood shamans, too, or something? I did a quick lazy google search and saw nothing of significance pop up, but I could have sworn I read that there was ‘blood’ as an element, and ‘corrupted shamans’ could use it. The concept could be applied similar to void elves, demon hunters, and warlocks, where something considered a ‘darker magic’ is controlled by someone strong enough an adapted for use to aid Azeroth as opposed to harm it. (This also applies to the lovely Death Knights, whom I adore <3 My heart is always in the Ebon Blade. I love antiheroes so much.)

Yeah same here, or a druid. I know I have a knife to my throat while saying that, of course, but either shaman or druid could be cool. And they could easily replace paladin with shaman in this case, since while paladins make sense just fine for undead (it’s supported in lore entirely, and if I’m challenged, I will link it here), it’d bring a more unique flavor along.

Haha I love these ideas! People have brought it up for druids as well, like tapping into drust magic for shapeshifting ability (since they are undead) and tying themselves to Hir’eek (who I still think should be redeemed fully. He was meant to be a ferry for the dead and benevolent, after all.) Though shaman, I feel, works in this case as well.

Here’s another factor to consider for your idea. San’layn have been pretty low-sight for ten years (since Wrath), right? And suddenly they do pop up. Where? In NAZMIR, and looking for a home in the Horde. How long have they been in Nazmir? They could have taken some examples from Blood Trolls and melded it into their own use of magic, I reckon. Food for thought for sure.

Haha yeah I think people would be more open to the idea with that, along with monster bat forms and/or ugly options or bat-like options.
Example of what I mean (BAT LIKE, not ugly.):

Source: https://twitter.com/saltmatey/status/1292633217468596224

Huh, the parallels to blood elves are interesting. Also noticing very heavy parallels to Nightborne as well with them.

That’s all interesting, thanks for clarifying! And makes sense too that they’d be able to be re-judged. I hope we get to return to Azeroth and deal more with the scourge in a patch as well, the ‘flavor of the month’ prepatch just wasn’t enough to sate that and I hope it’s addressed more too. We’re just in the start of the expansion though, so surely we’ll get to return home and do stuff too in time.

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So…since this hasn’t been brought up. On Dreadlords…Sire Denathrius is probably THE first Dreadlord. In Spire of the Unseen Guests (in their own language ‘Nathrezim’ means ‘Unseen Guests’) in Revendreth you can loot a book called ‘lost journal’. It contains “Enemy Infiltration-Preface”. Flavor text is “A report written by an unknown hand. The signature upon the final page has been rendered illegible.”

To our most wondrous and resplendent Master, (Denathrius)

I am pleased to state that, after a lengthy study of our rivals, I have completed my observations.

Please accept this briefing in advance of my complete report, which shall follow forthwith. We anticipate that certain of our targets will be more challenging to topple than others. But each is prone to manipulation in different ways, and our agents have already woven themselves into their very fabric.

This is, after all, the solemn duty for which you sired (Sire Denathrius) us. As you are fond of saying: Once a desire is understood, it can be exploited.

Enough prologue. Allow me to summarize our findings. In many ways, the titans will be the easiest to manipulate. Their singular goal is to impose structure upon everything they see.

Show them a force that opposes their drive for Order, and they will be consumed by their urge to eradicate it.

Their pantheon, so seemingly united in purpose, is vulnerable to fracturing. The void lords all but welcome us with open arms. They are so preoccupied with their thousand truths that they ignore the lies we sow in their very midst.

I believe we can leverage their vast reach to position them as a foil against our other rivals.

We remain wary, though. Since they are observant of multiple outcomes, it is conceivable they could anticipate our coming. Similar to the titans, the naaru and their keepers are singular in purpose. Their adherence to a linear path is an obvious shortcoming.

They savor nothing more than being proved right, so if they believe they have converted one of us to their precious Light, they will trust that agent implicitly.The adherents to Life are the most insidious of opponents, perhaps because their nature is so antithetical to our own.

Still, we learned much from observing the link between their plane and Ardenweald, and we have high confidence that a vulnerability has been identified.

Our operative has already gained the trust of her target.And as previously discussed, our position within the plane of Disorder is proceeding flawlessly. Consuming fel energy is not a pleasant process, but a necessary one.

The deception you have architected will bear fruit in the ages to come.As ever, we shall serve as your unseen hand. We will poison every host foolish enough to invite us into their midst.

I remain, as always, your faithful servant."

Soo…Dreadlords are actually creatures aligned with Death and the ones in the Legion were just infiltrators who consumed fel in order to trick the Legion. The one who infiltrated the Light is probably Lothraxion (the ‘light forged’ Dreadlord).

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Remember the blood moon with the shadowmoon ally orcs? Bloodlust is also our signature horde ability <3 San’layn blood elves would be cool. Even Venthyr who seem to use Ash golems/elementals and sinstone golems.

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Here’s the book for you, source!

That’s very neat, now I see why there’s such heavy speculation on it. I mean, looking at his legs, they are demonic.

https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/921052.jpg

https://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2015/may/dreadlord2blue.jpg

Quite like, well, dreadlords. Also, he has horns, unlike… pretty much anything there. So, I can definitely see it. That would be very neat, I’m not going to lie, if the “Master” being referred to is in fact the Sire. Since it was looted in Revendreth and he pretty much looks like a dreadlord without wings (and actually doesn’t look half bad, unlike other dreadlords :stuck_out_tongue: ) the key points are gleaming.

So I still feel that the vampyr curse upon the San’layn can be traced to the dreadlords and Venthyr as well, if they’re all connected. Holding a lot of hope for that one, not going to lie, as it’d be a really cool web of connections that would make a lot of sense–and open up playable San’layn, most likely, with Venthyr-like options being made available (because again that’d only make sense.)

Bonus Dread Jaina!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNT_YJAW0AAjcvX.jpg

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Sighs One day I too shall reach T3 and will be able to post pictures :frowning: But this is such a huge lore bombshell. Most rank and file Venthyr are pretty much just mortals who were redeemed via their stint in Revendreth and chose to stay and become Venthyr to redeem other once-wicked people (at least that’s what they’re supposed to do). Which explains why they don’t look like him. Dreadlords are presumably his own ‘offspring’ (He’s even called ‘Lord of Dread’) so to speak and are sent out to infiltrate the other forces (they according to this were directly behind the creation of the Legion because they manipulated Sargeras to turn against the other titans), Lothraxion tricked the Light into thinking he was ‘converted’…what makes me really curious now is wondering what agent infiltrated the forces of Life.

I like this separation because it makes it clear San’layn are still their own thing and I still stubbornly cling to hope that we’ll get our vampire elves. As pointed out, Venthyr are vampiric (as Dreadlords themselves have always been described as vampiric), but San’layn are actual vampires since they feed on blood.

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Also, one of the agents is female, from the “Our operative has already gained the trust of her target.” And most likely in Ardenwald.

Yeah, and if you think about it, the writers of this book are agents of death (life being their opposite), so the vampyr curse originating from the Nathrezim (should this truly mean they are originally agents of death, created by Denathrius) makes complete sense. The vampyr curse forces the one with it to drink the life energy of someone else–blood. And, according to this book, life is their greatest enemy.

Vampyr, therefore, would be a great concept to protect the Horde from these clearly malevolent forces by using their own magic against them. Just like how void elves are meant to use the void to protect Azeroth against, well, the void, and Demon Hunters against the Legion. (This could also apply to human vampyr–we don’t know the curse and how many it could affect, but it very well could be any living race. Though it’s understandable people would want vampyr strictly for Horde, as the alliance have werewolves (which…are…a…curse…from…LIFE! o.o)

One more thing.

San’layn are similar to dread lords in yet another way. Not only do many of their moves reflect one another (vanishing, appearing, etc), and they’re vampiric, BUT… they also utilize illusions for infiltration. Like the Dread Lords.

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Last_Rites

Prince Valanar says: My liege, the infiltration and control of the Alliance power structure by our cultists is well underway.

Image of the Lich King says: Your progress in this region has been impressive, Blood Prince. I am pleased…

Prince Valanar says: The power you’ve bestowed upon me has allowed me great mental influence over human minds. I bear these offerings as proof of my progress.



“The power you’ve bestowed upon me”… the Lich King used the ancient curse to create San’layn. Where did he get it? Well… most likely from the Shadowlands, all things considered, since the helm broke and literally split the sky open to allow us to get there. He was drawing his powers (some of them, anyway) from that realm. So… yeah.

This would be full circle, a key to the web entirely: (SPECULATION)

  1. Denathrius is a powerful entity, the creater of Dreadlords. As stated in the book, he “Sired” them. If the book is addressed to him.
  2. The dread lords are therefore enemies of life, and agents of death.
  3. The Lich King drew some of his power from the land of the dead–which includes the vampyr curse.
  4. The vampyr curse was created by Denathrius/any of the Dread Lords to be used as a weapon to further their own means, or something similar. It was either intentionally provided to Arthas for use, OR he somehow got his grimy cold hands on it and used it on Blood Elves. Either could be true.
  5. This is supported by how similar the San’layn powers are to the Dread Lords, how they might be agents of death, and therefore these life-drinkers further the Dread Lord cause.
  6. The origin of the vampyr curse, also applied (and possibly originally) to the Vry’kul, later used by Arthas on the Sin’dorei (and then also the vampirates in Stormheim) is in Revendreth through Denathrius and the Dread Lords themselves.
  7. This also explains why the Blood Princes have a bat-like appearance in some fashion, and why Lana’thel has wings from the curse mutagen.
  8. Horn options for San’layn, anyone? :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: Also I’m taking this opportunity to remind everyone that it might not matter, but I noticed it distinctly: Prince Valanar wasn’t among those brought back in prepatch by the Mawsworn to wreak havoc. But Lana’thel and the other two princes were. This could be:

  1. An oversight.
  2. Doesn’t matter, they didn’t intend on bringing him as a boss because they had enough already.
  3. A deeper implication–Blood Prince Valanar was brought back at some other point and is still out there.

(3) being a possibility is eerie, I’d say. I could be looking far too deeply into it, but still >.> (and there’s still two missing Blood Princes, shout out to Atherann and Theraldis!)

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Well…Odyn gave up an eye to peer beyond the veil into the shadowlands and seeing the Kyrian inspired him to create his Val’kyr (which in turn was the ‘inspiration’ for the Scourge’s Val’kyr). If the text is true the Legion was engineered by the Dreadlords and the Scourge in turn was a tool for the forces of death (the helm of domination and Frostmourne were from the Maw…Denathrius himself has a sentient runeblade Remornia…who, on a side-note, I firmly believe is what was used to shut down the Arbiter and divert all incoming souls into the Maw) . It stands to reason then, that Denathrius (or one of his agents) created the blood curse.

Not going to lie that one of my ultimate fangirl dreams would be for Kael’thas to become ‘faction’ leader of playable San’layn. They’d never let him be the leader of the blood elves again (nor, since he’s dead, would it probably even be possible), but since he’s saved from being corrupted in the Nathria raid (and he retains a unique, red-eyed model), would be perfect if he were to become San’layn. Heck…even if they don’t let him come back to Azeroth, it could at least lead in to a quest-line unlock similar to the night warrior, but for Horde.

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I know some here really aren’t a fan of the Venthyr race…but if San’layn become a thing. I really want to see them have those sentient Venthyr blades. They are dope imo.

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I love weapons that talk and sass their bearers in general. There’s a reason my mages usually have Aluneth transmogged so he can sass us as we adventure. Prince Renathal’s runeblade Vorpalia is sassy too XD

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I think Denathrius looks kind of Draenei like. Is it possible that Denathrius is the father to Dreadlord, Draenei, Demon Hunters, and who knows what else? Kind of like how Alexander Corvinus was father to both the werewolves and vampires in Underwolrd.

On to Shadowlands, I am loving the skills they gave my BM hunter in Torghast. WOW! He feels so heroic and like an actual hero. I get skills that increase the dmg of my misdirection target by 20%, one that drops my aggro and stealths me, one that adds explosive charge to my chakra, one that increases my speed perm that run by 1% each time I use disengage up to a %, one that when I kill those rats I get 1% health perm that run up to 100%, etc. AWESOME!

I am also liking the Soulbinds, though we could use more per skill. I haven’t got more then just to first two unlocked but the ones I am finding are quite varied. Really wish they had taken my advice on making the talent tree more of a per skill customization tree with at least 3 options per skill to alter it. The Soulbinds reminds me of that idea only greatly watered down.

I love talking weapons also. Wish there were more of them.

EDIT: Got my 2nd table companion from 2nd layer of Soul Forge (?). Think it was floor #3 but can’t remember. :confused: But I believe it’s random where you find them.

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Not to mention his castle is literally called Nathria. Sounds a lot like Nathrezim eah?

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Sounds like a decade worth of bad writing to keep kicking the themepark can down the road when they could otherwise just sandbox the hell out of this game and add depth to the current world never before seen.

I was sitting around in Sinfall this morning looking at the covenant vendors and thinking. Same god awful capes for the last 15 years. Then I looked at the NPC wearing a legit cloak and hood and thought… forget the players right?

So Wowhead has a page that goes over each of the covenant campaigns, including both a quick summary as well as a section that shows off important in-game text and screenshots for each chapter. The Venthyr campaign is here:

https://www.wowhead.com/guides/venthyr-covenant-campaign-story-rewards

I didn’t see a lot of note, but I figured someone with a more keen eye might notice something.

I actually got some time before I can actually do anything for the last chapter of my online class (almost done with the semester!), so I’ve gone ahead and started going through Shadowlands. I just arrived at Revendreth, which I’ve been looking the most forward to, so I’m going to try to finish that area so I can pick my covenant.

I thought about working on my Necrolords character to see their covenant campaign, but part me of just wants to focus on this character until I unlock flying. I really don’t want to go through a lot of on-foot questing with 40 characters, so flying will be extremely helpful in that regard.

Anyway, as I said before, I’ll keep an eye out for anything of interest to report back here. :bat:

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I didn’t think there was going to be flying in Shadowlands. I must’ve heard wrong.

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