Teldrassil Zone Recycled?

Lore World's End Tavern: Role-play and Fan Fiction
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Ignoring any troll spam:

Postulations:

  1. The tree isn’t dead. Real world science shows us hardwoods in the real world survive worse fires every dry season.

  2. This is fantasy, anything is possible.

How do you envision the Teldrassil zone being used in future expansions?

General rules:

  1. if you don’t have a suggestion, please refrain from cluttering the thread. I’m not looking for “It shouldn’t be reused” type responses. If you think it shouldn’t be reused, open your own topic please.

  2. please try to give lore centric ideas. “Elune appears and magically makes the tree regrow to post-fire state” isn’t what I’m looking for either.

I’m genuinely curious as to what ideas folks may have in regards to the zone. Thanks!

I tagged you specifically Kyalin because I’ve read a lot of your posts in the Story and RP forums and think you as well as others might have some interesting ideas.

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Well, I can take a crack at it. I’m going to throw three “feathers” into the air, and then combined the concepts.

Feather 1: Technology

I have unpopular opinions as far as Night Elves are concerned having to do with their relationship with technology. This character is one that I RPed as a warden, recalling that in Warcraft III, Tyrande found that Wardens were hoarding goblin land mines. She even has a voiced line about it, and generally it’s a good idea to use them.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Night Elves do not display any outward issues to technology as a concept - just when it should clash either directly with them, or with their established values - and this can lead to wonderful situations like their odd partnership with Gnomes at Stardust Spire and in the Stonetalon Mountains. I do think this has to have limits of course - I do not expect to see Night Elves developing and using gasoline engines or being comfortable with weapons that interfere with their style of war. That wouldn’t preclude explosive-tipped arrows though, or living constructs that take advantage of mechanical principles rather than being powered by the arcane or by gasoline.

Feather 2: Organic Construction

At the same time, I think that wisp-driven and druid-driven construction has been vastly underutilized. In Warcraft 3, you could grow buildings with wisps that were able to manipulate stone to get us there - wisps also harvested gold, a metal, and if we extend moving and shaping of parts that would be required for them to be able to repair glaive throwers and ships - some metals likely would be counted as things that they can manipulate. The possibilities on offer I would argue are akin to what Avatar: The Last Airbender did with Earthbending.

Feather 3: Cities on top of cities

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a fascinating little city concept called “Hengsha Island” - which is a city that in the game’s lore undergoes massive economic growth and population influx. Their solution for this is to have a bright, glittering upper city separated from the lower one by the “Pangu”, which is a large, table-like platform that the upper city sits on. The lower one, with this canopy, is often dark, packed with activity and complex - and the game does a spectacular job at selling the verticality of this city concept.

“Catching” these feathers then, the Teldrassil of my dreams is a highly vertical concept, with druids having grown chambers and passageways to link different areas together. The trunk wouldn’t be so much solid as it would be porous and open, with different settlements existing on different levels, as well as large parks and areas that were deliberately set aside to host wildlife populations. Many of these areas would be linked by something of a copy of the Deeprun Tram - only the tramway itself rides on deliberately grown and shaped branches, being thrown down the track by a series of animated roots. Necessary elements of the new Teldrassil would include things like a port, a rebuilt religious center around where the old Temple of the Moon was, as well as several villages. It would feel at the same time relatively open, but labyrinthine to navigate and consider.

Obviously, I am not a fan of the Night Elves being in a perpetual state of decline, and I feel that a shift in their ideology would be required to accomplish some of this. Someone would have to stand up and say “no, we’re not going to keep feeling sorry for ourselves and we’re going to stop holding ourselves back out of a fear of arrogance”. The new ideology would have to be against the sort of complacency and restraint that it would allege led to Teldrassil’s burning in the first place. While there of course would be dissent asking if this is abusing nature rather than serving it, they would be a minority in comparison to those arguing that in a world where the Alliance won’t fight for them and the Horde wants them all dead, they must now use every advantage they can, worry about arrogance and pride another day, and far more aggressively pursue growth and societal advancement.

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Quite a bit of thought put into that. Interesting. But how would you handle the idea of building atop ruins and remains of victims? Someone, I think Ethriel, had mentioned the concept of Teldrassil being too sacred to rebuild due to the tragedy.

We’ve been at odds over some things, but that doesn’t preclude my wanting your input. Please?

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I wouldn’t agree with Ethriel there, and I think a part of this new ideology that I’m laying out is that it would prioritize moving forward and moving ahead. Under that idea - this is building back stronger, not being stuck in the past. Kind of the same energy that went behind building a new World Trade Center building in the place of the old ones.

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It’s interesting that you mentioned the use of arcane magic by the night elves. I always, from day one in 2004 thought it was odd that Malfurion forbade the use of arcane magic, yet the strongest DPS druid spells were arcane based, not nature. It always felt to me that arcane was contrary to natural magic. Now if you look at the cosmology chart for WoW, Arcane has been assigned to the Titans. While not diametrically opposed to nature, its still distinctly separate.

So perhaps Kaldorie aren’t as naturally pre-possessed to druidism as lore would have us believe? This would definitely align with your concept.

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I always saw that as reading a bit too much into the spell effects, because there’s nowhere else that the power type would really fit.

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I’m one of those nitpickers I guess. Every thing needs to line up for me. :man_shrugging:

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I suppose regarding the arcane, I would really like to see the concern from Wrath of the Lich King expressed, the one where they pointed out that casual arcane use was gradually, and over time, ripping the fabric of Azeroth apart in a manner that would cause it to eventually resemble the Netherstorm.

Night Elves would be excellent people to bring that concern up.

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I think that concept was nixed entirely with the new cosmology since arcane has been attributed to the sphere of Titans whereas Fel is now the apparent cause for the effects shown in Netherstorm.

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Unfortunate. That could have been a fun issue to have to deal with.

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I’d always hoped that each expansion would have a B-Plot that focused on the main world. Or, what I’d consider the “main world”. I’ve felt from my first day in vanilla that Azeroth as a whole grounded the rest of the worlds. What transpired “back home” (the B-Plot) should help ground and even progress whatever was going on in the main story (the A-Plot).

Show us how the people that inhabit this world respond to these different world changing events.

To this end, as a Gnome, I’d love to participate in an Operation: Teldrassil where the Gnomes help launch a prolonged effort to retake Darkshore as well as much of Ashenvale. As much as is reasonable given the narrative of that particular zone, at least. The Gnomes would be working alongside the Kaldorei to set up and maintain defenses, ports, strongholds and the like.

As a Night Elf Druid, after the shore was secured, I’d love to see a combined effort with the Cenarion Circle to clean up and rehabilitate Teldrassil. This is something that could take place over multiple expansions in the background and could be a great source for world quests and filler for between expansions. Its a great opportunity to really build out the Night Elven identity and make them shine in ways that they haven’t before.

Long rambly diatribe about rebuilding Teldrassil.

I see the Temple being cleaned, preserved, and expanded upon. The expansions could be something along the lines of open rooms and terraces with connecting balconies that reflect (in part) the ancient ruined architecture we find throughout the Broken Isle. Populate these areas with sentinel warriors and priests/priestesses of Elune going about their daily business of teaching, instructing, cleaning and rebuilding.

I think the temple would be a fitting “ground zero” memorial for all those who were lost. Like what they did in Stormwind, I think a wall of names and remembrance should be erected along with a small peaceful park, perhaps outside the temple in the lake/pond area. Have a couple of npcs that take shifts as caretakers, as well as having a few wisps wandering about, tending to the grounds.

For the rest of it, I’d love to see there be a joint effort among the races through the Cenarion Circle to rehab all that was lost. It’d be neat to see the occasional Tauren or Troll Druid wandering the wild habitats, helping to regrow the flora and fauna that were lost. To have the odd Kul’Tiran meandering about, helping to rebuild the towns and villages that were destroyed. It’d be great to see efforts made to do something along the lines of what Kyalin had talked about. Making the trunk of the Teldrassil more of a honeycomb of chambers, tunnels, and a few elaborate tram systems to help players navigate the entire structure.

As much as they build down and into the trunk I’d also like to see them build up and into the canopy of the tree. You see several instances of this vertical aesthetic done in the old zone, and I think they could expand on that more. Give Teldrassil that vertical feeling. Open up large new zones and really explore the world tree. Maybe uncover old forgotten ruins deep within the tree from a time long forgotten. Pay homage to the deep rich potential of Night Elven history, acknowledge their mistakes and tragedy, all while bringing them into a new modern era.

I think it could be interesting to see a Night Elf society reform itself around three major pillars. Druidism, Elune Priesthood, and Ancient Highelven Arcane Studies. You’d have the Temple, some kind of Druid Enclave, and an Arcanum-University of sorts. Three major hubs or centers of Teldrassil. All three work in tandem to each other. Providing support while keeping the other in check. Each having their own leader that forms a Triumverate that leads the Night Elven faction going forward.

Have a Demon Hunter/Warden Tower attached to the Arcanum.
Have a Sentinel “homebase” attached to the Temple.
Have… some secondary faction wing attached to the Druid Enclave.
…maybe a portal that connects to the Druid Class hall in Val’shara. A place where a druid of either faction could enter and meander Teldrassil? ikd, it’s a work in progress.

I may not have as firm a grasp on Night Elven lore and faction disposition as other do, but there is some great story potential that could come of this. Lots to work with.

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My take on this is having the night elves establish Valsharah as their new home because

  1. older elven homeland than Hyjal
  2. more infrastructure in place for a flourishing capital than Hyjal
  3. has a World Tree and is nearer in vicinity to Temple of Elune (currently ToS which should eventually be cleansed of fel and restored) than Hyjal
  4. allows them to be nearer to Suramar where logical, responsible narrative would see them renewing ties to the Nightborne ( Caileanmor, your proposed center of arcane magic).
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I believe that World Tree is extremely past tense.

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Negative, it’s still a very true and functioning world tree.

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I wanna be able to actually go to the burnt tree, it should be cooled down by now, I think having a completely dead zone with more skeletons and ruins than the kharazan catacombs. I was disappointed when I learned that the dead tree is a part of the skybox and not an actual zone. Regarding bringing it back to life, we seen world trees be “revived” pretty sure there’s one in Grizzly hills, just get a branch or something from there. On top of that, the red and green have shown that they still have some power, while they wouldn’t be able to completely heal the tree, they should be able to at least give it a boost. burnt trees (if burned from the outside) are still alive on the inside but takes years to recover so that’s another way.

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I agree wholeheartedly. Revamping the zone in a meaningful way, if written right would be awesome.

I removed my posted suggestion for a revamp of the zone because I submitted it along with my portfolio and resume for several positions with Blizzard. Basically I’d like to see the Wild Gods take up residence in the regrowing tree, angry with the Titans and with Elune for meddling in the “natural way of things” and using it as a foothold on Azeroth to work to renew a natural balance (as they see it) to Azeroth countering all the technology of the Titans, the influence of the Old Gods, etc etc.

Go with a heavy Celtic, northern Euro druidic theme for the zone. Bring in some Tauren lore to fill in the gaps in the Tauren druid backstory, maybe bring in a non playable race of elves that weren’t inspired by Elune’s arcane magic (wood elves?), but are actual nature based druids and shaman.