Go look at the chronicle map of the Kaldorei Empire and tell me with a straight face that the CONQUEROR wasn’t interested in conquering.
She only grew bored AFTER conquering 90% of the known world
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SMALL and SPORADIC battles. So again, she claimed large swathes of land that likely had no inhabitants on it. And aside from the trolls the ancient night elves didn’t even seem to have a beef with any of the other races.
Besides the humans they kept as slaves and the trolls they casually murdered
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https://i.imgur.com/ZMvjls3.png
https://i.imgur.com/MwJmC2c.png
There is no lore they ever kept humans as slaves. If there was it was LONG ago retconned by the fact they didn’t even know what Rhonin’s race was.
As for the trolls, they were murdering pandarens as well in their bid for conquests. They were not some neutral foreign power. Again, the book does not mention who struck the first blow.
Zerde is a liar.
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I am giving you word for word from Chronicles. SMALL and SPORADIC is how it mentions any fighting between the elves and trolls. So don’t use Chronicles as proof when it contradicts your narrative as well.
How can you defend the proto tyrant of azeroth just how. What.
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You sometimes have to resd between the lines. The Kaldorei owned all but a sliver of ancient Kalimdor. They had to take it from someone, no land is ever uninhabited.
The various troll tribes and empires, ancient centaur tribes, furbolg, earthen, taunka, species of Pandaria. Murlocs, tortollan, Sethrak, probably every race that we know of except the few wr know were created recently, like Kalimdor Centaur.
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The problem with reading between the lines is that the lines are so vague that you can support Zerde’s relatively peaceful night elves or Frostfel’s kaldorei empire of blood or Erevien’s “all trolls are justified revanchists” depending on your preferred interpretation.
We don’t really have a lot of data on that period, but boy howdy, do we have assumptions.
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From the Kaldorei Empire page on Warcraft wiki…
The kaldorei started their rise to power by defeating the nearby troll tribes. Against their enemies, the kaldorei used overwhelming military power, their armies supported by Elune’s blessings. The night elves’ greatest soldiers were bestowed the goddess’ fury through dangerous rituals, and these Night Warriors secured Kalimdor for the empire. The night elves ended up subjugating some of the people they conquered, such as nascent humans, to use them as slave labor, but also came to conflict against the early dwarves. The line of Ravencrest rose to prominence during that time, the military power of Black Rook Hold extending over most of the realm.
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I dont know if I have ever heard of peacefully conquering a continent. There is absolutely nothing thst would support Zerde’s claims.
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Yeah I don’t know why Zerde is arguing that the Night Elves were somehow peaceful and that Azshara wasn’t interested in conquest.
The Night Elves literally conquered most of what was Ancient Kalimdor with military force. This is canon lore. The Trolls held much of the territory that the Night Elves would eventually conquer, and they lost every battle they fought against the Night Elves as they expanded.
Azshara was only disinterested in conquest after the Night Elves already controlled most of the world. Then and only then did she force the Zandalari, through threat of conquest, to rein in the other Troll tribes, and it’s why Troll tribes like the Amani hate elves to this day.
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No more than there is to support Frostfel’s empire of blood.
My personal best guess is that it was a combination of expanding into lightly populated areas, messy border skirmishes, and just the overwhelming force of night elves intimidating other parties. There’s a lot of supposition. I suspect the truth is somewhere in-between brutal conquest and bloodless occupation. But we don’t really have much information on the period, so everyone is throwing their favorite guess up on the wall.
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We actually know quite a bit about how they expanded…just look on the warcraft wiki if you don’t wish to read the novels. Its outright stated they fought snd conquered land, specificslly the trolls. Conflicts wiyh the early dwarves. And the Last Guardian even mentions they outright subjugated those they conquered- to help build their empire, it specifically mentioning very early nascent humans.
Let me quote the warcraft encyclopedia that used to be hosted on the warcraft website pre-rework.
the night elves learned the art of spellcasting, using the energies of the Well of Eternity. The night elves’ magic quickly allowed them to establish a strong empire. As the night elves claimed further territory, they came into conflict with the trolls in the area, who had long dominated much of ancient Kalimdor
They (Night elves) are quick to point out that the first night elves began their rise to power by defeating a number of nearby troll tribes. As a consequence, the trolls came to fear and respect the might of their new rivals.
Despite the trolls’ attempts to keep this new race from claiming further territories, the night elves built up a mighty empire that expanded rapidly across Kalimdor.
Clearly the troll conflict arose from the expansion of night elf lands.
Let me also remind you of the night warrior questline, where they say that in ancient times they used it’s blessing to “secure” Kalimdor.
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Kaldorei society was born in blood of innocent trolls. Hope we can take revenge on the night and high elves greatly one day.
We don’t really know what, or how, it happened.
Which is my entire point.
Obviously, there was bloodshed, but it’s vague enough to fit preferred interpretations. I just get crabby about assumptions being waved around as cold hard fact. Not accusing anyone of that, just noting it.
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So bloodshed would imply that Zerde’s fantasy of a peacefully expanding empire is moot. Theres really no way to interpret it that way unless you ignore a lot of stated lore.
Even Zerde assumes that the night elves slapped any hints of aggression down hard while expanding, which could match events as described.
If you want to take a very pro-elf view of what happened.
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