classic shadowlands story telling move.
I’d be skeptical if that was the case in previous expansions but honestly I have no good will and expect the worst .-.
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Gonna mirror what I just said in the Dark Ranger thread.
Blood Mages in WCIII were using fire and fel together. Not blood. And nowhere in that block does it mention vampyrs. Blood Magic can be as simple as what the Death Knights use in blood spec.
Further the San’layn wont be made for a few years after this point when Kael’thas attacks Icecrown. Lana’thel won’t become the Blood Queen until then.
I think all this block is doing is solidifying that
- Dark Rangers are members of the Darkfallen subtype of elf. Undead Elves all appear to have this subtype now, including the Banshee themselves.
- Darkfallen are not all Rangers nor are they all banshee that have reclaimed their bodies.
This opens many doors that were once lightly blocked in the lore or at least under contention.
Dark Rangers now have leeway to be many classes and from many start points.
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They’ve taken their cue from comics.
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Ugh, don’t get me started on Green Lantern’s lack of consistency…
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Or any comic character. I’m a big Scarlet Witch fan and the character pre-2004 and post are two completely different people. It’s like Marvel rebooted her. They just didn’t want to admit it. Not only that but the Avengers completely changed. And the Marvel Universe started to seem to become more like the Ultimates Universe.
Unfortunately so many different writers handle stories in comics that they can never be consistent.
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Talisen brought up some interesting points in regards to possible Dark Rangers (either as a race, class, or customization) here:
Despite the click baity thumbnail it’s not “proof” but it is some compelling info that I wasn’t aware of, particularly regarding the fact that the Dark Ranger Velonara questline keeps getting updated. If it does end up being customization options for Blood Elves, it would also serve to portray San’layn as well I’d think.
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Ya beat me to it!
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Hyper beat you both to it, but it was in a different thread. 
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Thinking over it for a bit, I have some mixed feelings over having a general Darkfallen classification with San’layn as a part of it.
The allure of San’layn for me involves both their backstory and also the vampiric theme. They seemed to be their own type of undead with a lot of potential and possibilities.
However, putting them as a sub-race of sorts seems to diminish this some. It makes them seem more like a specialized mook of the Lich King’s forces as opposed to something on a grander scale, like that of the Forsaken, Death Knights, and Dark Rangers.
Now in terms of playable races, I could see a general Darkfallen playable race being interesting. A lot does depend on how this would be treated, however. The last thing I want is for San’layn to be given the Wildhammer treatment, complete with no storyline presence, no vampiric themes, and so on. This applies to whether they would be a customization race for either Blood Elves or if Darkfallen became their own playable race slot.
I will say that it could be interesting to see Darkfallen as their own race slot if done right. Dark Rangers could be part of it along with San’layn, and it could please both parties in a way if done right. Granted, I still want vampiric things with racials and something like a bat form, though I am unsure whether that could/should be applied to Dark Rangers as well. I also don’t know what would be done with Night Elf Dark Rangers from BfA, since they are a thing and some people are interested in them and their storylines.
Ultimately, I’m worried about San’layn being downplayed in general. Even then, I’m worried that what makes a San’layn a San’layn may not get translated onto whatever playable form they would appear in.
I’ll think more on it and see if I can elaborate my thoughts more. Whatever the case, I still think it’s important to keep up the playable Horde San’layn support and voice our opinions on it in general. 
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Unfortunately, the Sin’dorei, a core asset of the Horde, see San’layn as part of the scourge that has been actively attacking Silvermoon and organizing scourge attacks in general.
While it would be nice, it’s just not possible especially with the recent update.
Personally I don’t think the recent update puts the idea of them playable down the drain. It was emphasized Vorath was working alone, and San’layn have their own minds now. They’re not a hive mind. We’ll have to see what happens in the future, but I don’t believe this event means we’ll never see them as playable. Just like how we got Death Knights & Demon Hunters, there’s plenty of stories. They too were originally ‘bad’, as were forsaken and worgen come to think of it.
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Yeah we don’t yet know how Belves feel about all San’layn. Just the one individual that attacks Silvermoon. And the quest makes it very clear they are a lone wolf.
There is definitely room with the Crown of Wills and how there being no Lich King can change members of the Scourge. This is the same game where part of the Scourge became the Forsaken and allied with the Horde. And the San’layn already allied with the Horde during BFA.
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The fact they look at a San’layn and go ‘Thats Scourge’ is pretty telling in the first place
You could say the same of the Forsaken before they broke off from the Scourge.
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Which would mean we’d need to debate or discuss nomenclature at this point, given originally we thought San’layn = Darkfallen like Sin’dorei = Blood Elf, but now we’re not so sure.
They pointed out in the questline they were specifically a ‘sect of Darkfallen’. Meaning vampire elves could be playable yet still, but we’d need to figure out what to name them. Especially if ‘Darkfallen’ is undead elves in general. We have a missing gap there. If San’layn are scourge, what would ‘vampyr elves’ be if not a part of the scourge? We don’t know. It’s entirely possible several vampyr elves leave the scourge for greener pastures. What do we call them? Gods know now.
Also why the thread title is always a party now.
Big same here. We’ll have to see, but I’m not overly happy about the new stuff coming out.
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Blizzard writing has, for most of the game, sought to close any optional or unintended directions that the story might go.
And, also sadly, the writing around left open plotlines and story points along the way which have simply been forgotten to be “options” for later is… jarring, at the least.
This is why I would honestly prefer a metastory.
That there’s more than one reason to date why new players leave at least start with:
- No story catchup in each expansion intro
- No ease-into or “Reminder, here’s why you’re here…”
- Story is an afterthought
And while the first two above appear to be one and the same?
They’re actually not.
The first is an overview of the prior story thus far.
The second is the in game sales pitch for the next expansion, the one starting up.
Sounds like what I’d posted a few days back as just an idea I threw out about Darkfallen being an Allied race and having customizations and selectable zandalari style racials to customize the type.
Could cover both types with a single allied race, but I was thinking that might be a weird way to go.
Kinda fits that bit about San’layn being a sect of Darkfallen.
Kinda makes sense from a deveolopment standpoint.
Yeah, mages only sucks.
Hopefully they keep the blood curse stuff in place…could work it in there.
Could this be part of fleshing both out to impreps to make them playable? Would be nice if so, but who knows.
Some even have a light bluish color.
Yeah, it leaves me wondering if it’s something they’d keep a focus on with story.
They often brings in new threads and then drop them. I kinda get why, but it does suck.
So yeah, it all depends on how it was handled.
That’s where I had suggested having a generalized racial, but let people choose the visual for it kinda like that one Zandalari racial.
You could have a movement based racial and have two options to select from. One goes banshee form, the other cloud of bats, or a red mist.
Could easily allow both blood and night elf body types to be used. The only one we’ve not really seen much of is a female night elf physique looking san’layn, I don’t mind additional options.
I guess another place it’d maybe lack a bit is in the area of the voice set. If you made a more generalized Darkfallen race, then the voice set would need to be that way, unless they finally made voice sets a customization option. Having a couple/few different ones and being able to pick which better fits your characters.
It’s something I’ve suggested a few times as a customization option.
Make a human, pick a gilnean voice set, but not be a worgen…or a kultiran voice set and not be the big body type. Sort of a “nationality” selection done by voice set.
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I’m not sure this is the right place, but with that new tidbit of lore…
What is actually up with the elf death knights? Void, blood, night, nightborne… Are they all darkfallen? How do night elves view their death knights? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE DEAD ELVES, BLIZZARD? Are they unusual compared to the other dead races in some way, or is it just a naming conceit?
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I would take this new development to mean that the elven death knights are all Darkfallen.
Just different types.
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At this point, that’s a great question and I wish I had the answer.
There’s now so many “I don’t knows” floating around. I really hope they didn’t chuck out the lore of the vampyr elves having the blood curse like the vry’kul in stormheim though… that’s a huge concern of mine. Reducing them to ‘just former blood mages’ would be so disappointing.
Yeah, I would agree with this!
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