To be fair, wasn’t this somewhat the case with the Vulpera, the Alliance attacks on them aside? Kiro seemed REALLY intent on joining the Horde.
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Which, sadly, it has.
I said it in a past thread as a bit of bait, but looking at the story, I really feel bad for Blood Elves. They abandoned their morals in the pursuit of power, joined the Horde, and what did it get them? The Alliance still had to get them back their well of power, and they were on the losing side of global conflicts both militarily and morally. Twice.
It’s like they can’t make a good decision to save their lives.
Speaking of which, I’m sure their decision to exile the Void Elves (a completely rational, logical, and wise decision by all accounts) is certainly going to end up haunting them come Midnight. Wrong yet again!
As much as I love imperfect characters, part of that is at LEAST being in the right once in a while.
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The Zandalaei/Vulpera were driven to the Horde because they were helping the Horde against the Alliance.
The blood elves switch sides because of Garithos who didnt have any true authority of the Alliance was just racist.
The smart goblins remain neutral and are making a decent amount of gold from both side without risking their neck.
I can’t wait to see the Ren’dorei save the day in Midnight because we obviously need more ‘Alliance Saves The Day’ in the story. /s God forbid the Horde stand on their own without the help of anyone else. I’m going to laugh if Lor’themar dies because buck with an F the Horde.
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It adds to the element that Lor’themar pointed to in Mists of Pandaria: “When will they learn? When will they see that the Horde exists BECAUSE of the Alliance? Because of their prejudice and their bigotry!? They force us ever closer to Hellscream’s Horde”
It is a core element of what the Horde is, as Sarm points to. A bunch of misfits who were given no other place, simply because the Alliance made some very wrong assumptions.
The Zandalari helped after the Alliance attacked them. Kidnapping Talanji. The Vulpera were just paid to do a job, and the Alliance burned them and their homes for it.
No. The Eversong Woods and Ghostlands are not made non-canon by any source. The entire ordeal with Garithos may have soured relations, but it is obvious that it was not the catalyst of the Blood Elves neglecting any possible rejoining wit hthe Alliance - as seen with the Blood Elves inviting an Alliance diplomat to Eversong Woods, who then turned out to be a spy and potential saboteur together with a Night Elven invasion force.
The Bilgewater Cartel were not given the option. They escaped their Islands, where they lived without any conflict with the Alliance btw, and their ship was shot down by Alliance because: “No witnesses” to kidnapping Thrall. When the goblins then did not die, the Alliance proceeded to hunt them down.
Aka. they were forced to join up with the Horde.
This one is indeed sad. I still hope that we get an ending to the Blood Elf - High Elf - Void Elf trio story where High Elves and Void Elves admit their mistakes and apologises to the Blood Elves.
But as you hinted, that is likely not going to happen.
Best case is, that blizzard completely overlooks the interpersonal relation and story between these three groups, and they all just hold hands suddenly.
Worst case would be Blizzard portraying the Blood Elves as the absolute villains.
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Its par the course for Blizzard.
The Horde courts the Zandalari, and the Blood Elves, Nightborne, and Pandaren in the Horde collectively have absolutely nothing to say about it. Blood Elves are walking around Dazar’alor like tourists, and all Ji Firepaw can think about is how cool it’ll be to punch a dinosaur.
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The next Exploring Azeroth will be covering Zandalar with Theron and Thalyssra narrating, which will be… interesting. Potentially the good kind of interesting, if it elaborates at all on elf-troll history and relations, but after the embarrassment of the new Chronicles the smart money is on the other kind.
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Not until the blood elves apologize for tossing out the high elves. With any luck the blood elves will share a good chunk of blame for what happened. The high elves didnt become angry enough to become so brutal for no reason.
I am hoping it portrays those who did the purge as people retaliating for their experience with getting tossed out of Silvermoon.
Assigning the Silver Covenant the “exiled mana vegan” backstory wouldn’t justify their actions during the purge. On the contrary, brutalizing innocent civilians over beef with a government a thousand miles away would shift their offense from police brutality to terrorism.
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Yeah, they’d be the objectively worst High Elven group to do it with. Not that the story needs more Horde bad/shame, because that’s been done a thousand times over anyhow.
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The High Elves are allowed pilgrimage. They are lucky to have that.
Yeah that will justify them killing civilians. Luckily for them Lor’themar is diplomatic.
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No, but it explains it and why the Silver Covenant acted so and the hatred the blood elves inspired in the high elves.
One man’s terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. Hell, the blood elves had joined an organization and some of its members were supporting one who did so! Hence why the Purge happened.
In any case we have seen the Warwithin, both side do not seem to be at each others throats. And with a theme of “unity” I doubt there will be much discussion of it.
Being banished from your home from no particular fault of your own? Sounds like the high elves just gave blood elves a taste of their own medicine.
We were banished for not wanting to drain mana from living beings so mass murder and terrorizing innocent civilians is justified
One hell of a take if I ever saw one
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You know that banishment was likely as violent as the exile preformed on the Sunreavers? Likely people were kill as well.
There’s no evidence that this is the case, the evidence actually points to the opposite in fact. If Lor’themar wanted them dead instead of being exiled, he would have just killed all of them.
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Pure speculation with no evidence any of that happened
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Yeah, Lor’themar having ordered his own Purge of Dalaran would be extremely out-of-character for him with the characterization he’s been given now. Then again, Blizzard has a track record for writing Horde characters OOC so I wouldn’t be shocked if they did this to spite the faction even further by ruining one of its best characters.
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I mean, there is no justifying the Silver Covenant’s actions during the purge. There’s never justification for an atrocity, under any circumstances. Granted this is just one more reason I liked High Elves; a traditionally Alliance race, and they committed one of it’s morally darkest crimes.
I don’t think it does.
It’s much deeper than, “We were kicked out of Quel’Thalas.” There was immense mistrust beyond that. Vereesa’s twins were abducted by a Blood Elf, who intended to drain them of mana, for example. That sort of story would invoke a lot of paranoia and suspicion. Then there’s the fact the Blood Elves joined the Horde. Many High Elves lost family and loved ones during the Second War, and no one came out of the Third War without having lost someone. The Blood Elves joining a faction of Orcs, Trolls, and Undead would absolutely seem outrageous to any High Elves whom were not present for the incident with Garithos, or those in Eversong Woods/Ghostlands leveling.
Paranoia, fear, and hate were building for a long time, and it cannot be denied that the animosity between the Silver Covenant and Sunreavers was present even in Wrath. The two had armed camps on opposite sides of Crystalsong Forest.
I’m not agreeing with Zerde, but the fact remains we don’t have any details about the exile of the High Elves from Quel’Thalas. It could’ve been as simple and clean as the High Elves leaving on their own, without complaint or fuss. Or, Blizzard could absolutely paint a picture of men and women being pulled from their homes, beaten bloody and comatose for not complying with the authoritarian regime’s decree, infants and children torn from the arms of their mothers and taken into state custody, etc…
Until we know, all we can do is speculate. Personally, I see no evidence to support the theory that the exile of the High Elves was so dark an affair. There’s never been any mention of it, and if things HAD been as bad as I described in the second possibility, I’m pretty sure every High Elf would speak of it in outrage. I’d go so far as to say, if the Exile does get portrayed in the worst possible light, it’d be worthy of being called a retcon, just because the narrative hasn’t made a point of how bad it was before now.
Regardless, the exiles were dumped into the eastern plaguelands to fend for themselves, so it was a death sentence from a certain perspective.
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I still think the paranoia and fear was very one-sided.
The High Elves did not trust the Blood Elves based on very typical Alliance tendencies - having wrong assumptions and reacting to these wrong assumption rather than reacting to something factual.
The High Elves may have had good reason not to trust the Blood Elves on the basis of joining the Orcs, Trolls, Undead, etc. But as you said yourself, they may not have known of the events in Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands, or of Garithos. So basically - their total hostility, while understandable, was based on a wrong assumption.
But I would presume, at the point of Midnight, it would be fair to say that every High Elf know the actual story of what happened. Garithos, the Alliance invasion of Quel’thalas in TBC and how they in fact pushed the Blood Elves into the Horde, rather than let them rejoin the Alliance.
I would still say that the Quel’Lithien High Elves are deserving of all of the sympathies that could be given. They were among the Blood Elves, they were in Quel’thalas when it was worst, they were fighting to keep themselves and others alive, and to take or keep what little they could of Eversong Woods until Rommath and other magisters returned from Outland, and they were tossed out and for what? Refusing to siphon magic from living creatures.
We know for a fact why Quel’Lithien was exiled and when, we also know why the Void Elves and Alleria were kicked out. But we are not entirely sure why anyone else but those were exiled, we can, however, presume that it was for the same reason that anyone else was - but that is just weird. We know that Vereesa and most of the Covenant was not in Quel’thalas at the time, so the whole siphoning magic from living creatures was entirely new for them. Vereesa was either stuck inside the dalaran bubble, or somewhere else with Khadgar. Same with many of the Sunreaver members.
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Alleria is proof that hearing about history is not the same as living through it. Those High Elves who didn’t experience the spying of the Night Elves in the Ghostlands, or Garithos’ treatment of the Blood Elves, have no basis to grasp the depths of betrayal the modern Blood Elves felt. I mean, even a chunk of modern Blood Elves didn’t experience it directly. Most are loyal to their kingdom first and foremost.
The High Elves as they are couldn’t understand what the Blood Elves went through. Its easy enough for the High Elves living in Alliance cities, supported by Alliance soldiers, earning a living with Alliance merchants, to see Quel’Thalas joining the Horde as an act of sheer madness.
One made all the more baffling as the Blood Elves have now found themself on the losing side of two global conflicts in which the Horde was morally in the wrong. Heck, the Alliance even secured, restored, and purified the Sunwell! From where the High Elves are sitting, they don’t owe the Blood Elves an apology, it’s the Blood Elves who should be apologizing to them and the Alliance. Even were Anduin/Jaina to come out and say, “No, the Blood Elves are entirely right, the Alliance outright betrayed them,” the High Elves still never experienced that betrayal themselves; all they know is that the Alliance continued to support and protect them.
Is it?
Keep in mind, around the time of the Exile, Kael’thas was still the ruler of Quel’Thalas and the Thalassian peoples of that kingdom. Lor’themar may have exiled the High Elves within Quel’Thalas whom refused to embrace mana vampirism, but that sort of decision could have been overturned by Kael’thas. It wasn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if he agreed with the action and then expanded it so that any High Elf whom didn’t return to the kingdom, pledge their loyalty to it, and rename themselves Blood Elves were also considered to be exiled.
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