Common misconception that the kaldorei have been inactive during the Ten Thousand years.
They had wars and conflicts over this time. Satyr war and war of the shifting sands come to mind.
Prior to the War of the Ancients, Night Elves had a strong military culture, their priestesses were trained as warriors, the nobility trained as warriors and they had the best mages around. But they were always nature oriented outside the nobility circles. (You can see that Nightborne and blood elves still keep some level of connection with nature as seen with the hunter figures)
Then, comes the long vigil, where Malfurion and Tyrande are put in charge of the society. Malfurion, a druid, and Tyrande, a priestess of the moon. Malfurion with the duty to protect the dream, and Tyrande to protect the forests of Kalimdor.
Strong military culture + Nature connection culture + Duty to protect the wilds = kaldorei.
Still doesn’t equal Savage though. Like mentioned, they aren’t gobs, orcs, trolls or even worgen, who all have circumstances that make them far more violent than your average humanoid normally would be.
If anything, all that should make them cold and indifferent to anything that doesn’t have to do with their charge of looking out for legion influences. Which is what the Long Night was.
I feel like the term ascetic might be a more appropriate fit. It’s not out of ignorance or an unevolved society that they live among the forests. It sounds more like hyper-elevated wisdom leading them to eschew what other races would rely on.
I think it’s more of an older (“problematic”, I believe, is the in vogue term for it) use of the word “savage”. One where you don’t really live with the trappings of a (comparatively) modern society. Or much in the way of clothing.
Not necessarily violent, though they could be, like their WCIII intro. But definitely not on the short list for formal, high society functions.
Still kind of comes off like a bunch of rich people who got sick of the hustle and bustle of the city and went off to “be with nature”.
Sure, they look the part, sometimes, but its not as if nature is this anomalous force that they are just a part of. Its something they curtail for personal use. Most of the wildlife has been domesticated to some degree, or are maintained like they would be in a nature reserve. None of the other races on Kalimdor are in opposition to them before the Horde, and the Wild Gods are on good terms. And that doesn’t even get into their Aspect granted perfect health and immortality they had up until like 18 years ago? On top of their absurd natural benefits from the WoE.
Frankly, the “Nature” the NEs are a part of is so kind and picturesque (for them at least) that there isn’t a lot of environmental pressure to be “savage”. There isn’t much historical reason for it either, beyond the guerilla tactics they relied upon in the WotA. Which they designed out of necessity and largely a response to counter the Highborne and Legion forces. So I guess by Highborne standards they’re primitive and “savage”? That would be true. Then they proceeded to live for 10k years in relative peace and isolation. So what was the impetus for serious upkeep?
NE “nature” comes off as “Colors of the Wind”, because that is kind of what it is for them. They’ve literally actualized an idealized fantasy of Nature in many ways.
Having finally made it to Ardenweald (on my main), I have to agree. It’s Night Elf flavored, and relates to no other race on Azeroth as much as it relates to Night Elves. But it’s got enough of its own thing going on that it’s not specifically “a Night Elf zone” either.
I just did the quest da boss and I take back everything I said. Night fae is not for horde or trolls. SPOILER: you kill dambala, a darkspear loa, at the end of the quest line.
Edit: this is extremely disappointing. I was really excited to do this quest. First night fae quest involving troll loa and I end up having to kill a loa the darkspear worship? Its like they’re trying to tell me I chose the wrong covenant and this story is not for you. First with tyrande and shandris berating us, which from a story perspective I get but I didn’t choose to burn teldrassil or that story like and I the player shouldn’t be punished for it and now having to kill dambala? That’s too much. I’ll stick with night fae until deal for a loa and if that doesn’t redeem it 1000% I’ll be switching covenants if I don’t do it before then. This sucks as a troll player.
You know what? Changed my mind. I am 100% in favor of torching Teldrassil, just to kill those damn spiders. Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
I think the aim was to have the Night elves be “the other extreme” from their Highborne ancestors; they have rejected the trappings of the quel’dorei so hard that they threw the idea of civilization and urbanization out with it. “if it’s not a tree it’s probably evil.” You still see some of this in WoW lore, up to relatively recently (like you know, Maiev murdering all the Shen’dralar she could get her glaives into.)
Along with this rejection of civilization is the embrace of druidism; So we end up with a society of people who (per WC3) have no permanant dwellings, are extremely paranoid of arcane magic, and embrace animalistic behavior.
Maybe “savage” isn’t right - “feral” seems better.
'Course, like I said, the Night elves went through a pretty heavy makeover between Reign of Chaos and WoW, including but not limited to the War of the Ancients novels. So… eh, who knows. Still seems a missed opportunity to me. To have a faction within the Alliance that has a Horde-ish perspective on life, but is adamantly opposed to the Horde itself. A sort of mirrored faction
Lady Moonberry gives you a special spell to turn into a powerful spirit as it was the only means to kill Dambala.
There’s still one more chapter left concerning Bwom, but that deals with Vol’jin, so it seems he’s dead for the time being. Granted he wasn’t fully manifested when we kill him.
I’m still not sure they ever really embodied feral either. Its more like they’re fo-feral or fo-savage. Beyond “rejection of the Highborne” and Cenarius’ teachings there just weren’t any real cultural, historical, or environmental factors that would have pushed them to be anything other than “savage/feral … by Highborne standards”. Nature attuned sure? But feral?
And more often then not when I see complaints about the lack of NE savagry it tends to go hand in hand with the frankly really arbitrary expectation that the NEs be portrayed as more powerful than the Entire Kalimdor Horde … into perpetuity. And people being upset that that is not being maintained. Without any effort on their parts to actually maintain the once vast military edge they once had. Which … that level of power has never actually been a thing for the NEs; even during the WotA content. Outside of a few of their reps that is.
It’s a night elf zone where the Night Elf Winter Queen admonishes loa because trolls and troll gods must be made known as Lesser Than Night Elves and their Wild Gods.
Never touch Alliance content. Blizzard tracks what’s popular. If fewer people signed up for night elf factions and zones, we’d see them show up far less often which is something we mercifully need.
I’m gonna guess it just gets worse from here, I avoided spoilers, but nexts week quest is getting crapped on by night elves again. I’m going to continue to play night fae to get the whole story of it first hand. Probably going to be spending a lot more time on my necro resto shaman though, maldraxxus is pretty gross cool