and I disagree. So we shall need to agree to disagree… which seems to happen a lot.
The similarities between Selune and Elune have no dependence upon subjective opinions, so claims of disagreement don’t change it.
But my thoughts on the original thread which asks about a “celestial connection” between Elune and Xe’ra reminds me of a list I had made back when shadowlands was current and I was trying to make sense of their use of Elune there. I never did figure out any way to make sense of her involvement in shadowlands writing. But any theory about Elune seems to need to be consistent with all of the below observations, whatever theories people come up with for her:
Sometimes invokes nature or life magic
Sometimes invokes arcane magic
Sometimes invokes holy Light magic
Sometimes invokes darkness magic
Can influence or even act inside of Death realms
Can encourage and empower rage and wrath
Can discourage rage and wrath and withdraw power to do those
Can kill or empower to kill
Can heal or empower to heal
Can interact with and even produce offspring with Wild Gods
Was involved in the origin and moderation of lycanthropes
Was involved in the origin and moderation of some few trolls changing into Elves
Was involved in the origin and moderation of protodrakes
Was involved in the origin and moderation of some few shu’halo into Tauren
Has acted or influenced on many other planets in addition to Azeroth
Has empowered “Night Warrior” status on a minimum of more than 6 mortal beings out in random planets in reality…maybe many more than that depending on how many planets there are and how widespread her presence
Has been described by Xal’atath as an upstart goddess.
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Most likely.
While it could be up for debate, Elune’s Tear did unlock Light’s Heart. Which is telling, as Xe’ra is supposedly fanatical about the Light. Doesn’t sound like she’d want to be connected to a being of Life if that were true. Though if it wasn’t true, and Xe’ra’s not fanatical…
Elune is definitely DnD’s Selune with the serial numbers filed off (and no Shar equivalent).
I’m saying the book itself was retconned.
Given that the Amirdrassil final raid fight took place inside the Emerald Dream with a magical seed specifically created, empowered, and sent out for delivery by Tyrande at the behest of Elune… the “most likely” explanation would be that Elune or other members of Cosmic Team Life empowered the dragons.
I think the more correct wording would be to say that Xe’ra was acting in a fanatical manner at the specific time of the Illidan incident. And my understanding of the Illidan incident after modifying it with what we later discover about Lothraxion and Nathrezim… is to conclude that Xe’ra was only acting fanatical about a prophecy that was fed to her and reinforced again and again by Lothraxion over the centuries. No other Naaru which we encountered on Outland or alternate Draenor…not even Ouros who was “of Xe’ra’s line…” ever treated anybody that way. By all means, I don’t worship naaru, but that entire incident seems like an exception to the rule of their normal behavior.
Are you so sure? Since the D&D portrayal of Selune plays with the idea that Selune and Shar are the exact same person…then I think it entirely possible that when certain mortals in the warcraft fiction do a ritual to be granted power as a “Night Warrior” complete with totally dark eyes…they could be getting possessed by a dark personality of Elune that Elune in her Light persona opposes and dislikes and maybe even is annoyed by. Same as Selune and Shar conflict with themselves in a Cornelius/TylerDurden fashion. What if… (and i repeat What if) …maybe Elune knows that sometimes her dark persona takes over and does things she thinks are bad…so maybe she negotiated with the Titans when they first arrived on Azeroth and agreed to let them put her in a Containment Cell for until the Azeroth World Soul was ready. And if this was the case, she already knew the tragic sacrifice she needed to make…and this could be the origin of the magical object known as a “tear of elune” that seems to activate some Titan rituals?
I agree that’s up in the air.
Funnily enough, Xe’ra knew she’d die soon. She referred to restoring Illidan as “her last act of service to the Light”. That opens some questions that most fans don’t look into further as their interest begins and ends at “Illidan eye-beams Xe’ra”.
I’m not sure about Lothraxion. He’s able to challenge Xe’ra’s decision about Alleria, so she didn’t control him. That stuff in Shadowlands tried to hint that he’s an agent of Death pretending to serve the Light, but given Xe’ra could read minds and knew Nathrezim as enemies makes it unlikely.
That Illidan incident is definitely an exception to the rule, even for her (apart from certain devs getting high on their edgelord fetish).
Really? Selune and Shar oppose each other fundamentally, and the conflict between them led to the birth of Mystra (originally Mystrul). But I never thought of it as a Cornelius/TylerDurden situation.
You know, you have a really bad habit of being unable to accept anything but what you think is correct. Might wanna work on that.
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Sounds like you are projecting.
game lore isn’t real life history
I thought people wanted Tyrande to get humbled every now and them? Personally, I do want Velen to be somewhat right, Elune does not have to be a Naaru, but I think she does need to be connected to them somehow.
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You’d lose that bet. Aside from being compassionate about their elves, the two could not be more different. Ellistraee did Xanadu level gambits against her mother. She’s far more intelligent and perceptive than Elune is on her best night. She wouldn’t be the goddess passing out artifacts to their priests that backfire horribly. (Scythe of Elune , yeah I’m looking at you !)
That is because she had competent writers, and I was meaning as the origin reference point for Metzen, not how things turned out. Metzen’s weird drow wood elves were a really hard sell back in the day, as the team could not see the point of not just sticking normal wood elves in.
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I’m still recovering from Paizo’s removing Drow from Golarion. I do understand their motivation though.
she kind of is her own shar when she’s mad.
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Whats weird about the emerald dream raid, is that despite amirdrassil being the joint effort of Elune and the WQ, when it blossomed, it was Azeroth itself that blessed the dragons.
This is something Vyranoth even comments on, so i’m sure what empowered them was the world soul somehow.
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Yeah Azeroth seems to of somehow kinda… hijacked Amirdrasil to act as conduit that bypasses what the Titans intended to exist.
Most likely because it was only Azeroth that could have done it. It took almost all of Elune’s moxie just to temporarily empower ONE Night Warrior. I don’t think that she could have managed a permanent power up of all the Aspects, or even one of them.
I repeat… we have no evidence for that. Nothing of the in game lore ever confirms that an azeroth world soul ever did anything inside the Emerald Dream.
Same exact rules for determining what happened apply.
Azeroth does bless the Dragon Aspects at the end. The Aspects themselves literally mention it in the ending cinematic.
No. Their exact quote is “this does not seem like titan magic”. They “NEVER” ever say “the world soul of azeroth gave us this power”. Not once.