The Stormwind Humans, Bronzebeard Dwarves, Gnomes, Draenei, and Tushui would be your segment of honor, Light, virtue, justice, and all the classic (some would say cliché) high fantasy nobility.
The Void Elves, Dark Irons, Worgen, Lightforged, and Kul Tirans are all oppurtunities to add shades of grey (real shades of grey, not the memeified Blizz version). Be it through their pragmatism, brutality, zealotry, what have you. You even have a chance at some undertones of British mercantilism and colonialism in the Kul Tirans.
Night Elves and Wildhammers, due to their closeness to, and emulation of, Nature, would be neutral-ish. Generous when on their good side, ferocious in their wrath. Their cultures alien to the domesticated civilizations of the Alliance, but still linked by a few shared ideals (and shared foes).
But no. We’re all just cookie-cutter, blue honor bois. I… I miss Lena. BfA has made for strange bedfellows.
Since people felt the raising this thread from the dead, I figured I might as well update it with the recent Story and Lore Developer Live Stream, during which Terran Gregory and Steve Danuser talked about the “Terror of Darkshore” cinematic, the Darkshore Warfront, and the quests and character customization connected to it, as well.
Terran Gregory: Kind of more recently at Blizzcon we revealed the "Terror of Darkshore" cinematic which was really exciting revisiting the Night Elves. You know, in all these years I'd never gotten to put Malfurion in a cinematic, right? And so, there was a lot of build up, a lot of expectation. I feel like the audience was definite after the events of Teldrassil feeling like the Night Elves needed to bear their fangs again. And that was principally the goal going into that cinematic, right? Is that we wanted to go back, we wanted to revisit those classic Warcraft III Night Elves. Reminded of their ferocity, that in the dark of the forest we should really be afraid of them. And that scene was a lot of fun to take, to bring through its paces.
Steve Danuser: Yeah, that was a great moment that really set the stage, again, for kind of setting up that new warfront that's in Tides of Vengeance of the fight over Darkshore, and it really got to help us introduce not only, you know, some gravel on Malfurion there, but, as you play through stuff, a new side for Tyrande, as well. And- to really- you know, it's- When you consider all that the Night Elves went through, as characters, seeing their home, not just taken from them, but burned to cinders, it was tough, and so we wanted to show how they were reacting to that. So we brought in, if you play through the Darkshore Warfront and the quests leading up to that, you see this murderers row* of great Night Elf characters coming back and seeing their different perspectives on how they're reacting to things. Seeing some of that payoff between Tyrande and Maiev after all these years and all this stuff in their background to see them kind of acknowledge that. But it was a great opportunity to, like you say, put some teeth back on the Night Elves, show their reactions to things. And, we thought, well, you know, that's a great moment. We have this transformation of Tyrande, that energy that she's calling upon, this dark side of Elune, how that infuses the other Night Elves in the warfront, hey, why not give that, as an option, to players. Allow them to tap into that power as well.
Terran Gregory: Character customization, yes.
Steve Danuser: Character customization.
Terran Gregory: And a lot of people were interested online in how exactly the players came to have the black eyes.
Steve Danuser: It is.
Terran Gregory: The darkened eyes.
Steve Danuser: Yes, the darkened eyes. And I think that speaks to the power of that ritual. This ancient ritual that Tyrande taps into - again, sorry, spoilers, but - Tyrande taps into that ritual, that calling upon- it's not even calling upon, she's demanding, she's like, "Give me this power. You turned your back on us, as those 'so-and-so's' took our home from us. Now you owe us. Give me this power." And that so infused her that it could change those Elves. So we wanted to give players that opportunity, to say, "You know what, I'm part of that, too. I stand with Tyrande," and show that off in their characters.
Terran Gregory: And if you'll notice at the warfront, all the NPCs that are Night Elves actually have the darkened eyes. So there's definitely a sense that, in proximity, fighting on behalf of the darkened element of Elune under the darkened moon, that's what happens. And whether or not the player has customized themselves, that of course is player choice, but I think in the story sense that any Night Elf that's fighting on behalf of Elune in that confrontation their eyes would be darkening.
*I was unfamiliar with the phrase “murderers row,” and looking it up it turns out to be the nickname given to the battling line up of the 1927 New York Yankees that were considered at the time to be one of the best line ups in history, and now the phrase is used for any particularly successful or powerful groups of people.
Additionally, recently there was a Polygon interview with Steve Danuser and Steve Burke, Senior Designer and Assistant Quest Lead that noted:
Burke also noted that many Night Elf characters were alive during the time of Queen Azshara (who is set to return in Patch 8.2). The Night Elf presence in the story will likely continue throughout that confrontation.
Yeah um, I stopped paying attention to danuser and the narrative team after the darkshore garbage writing. Reading more stuff/interviews doesn’t really show that they care much. Nightelves being raised to turn on there own people is really hack writing. The difference between that and when arthas raised someone. Arthas had the power to control the one being raised. Current valkyr lack there power. I still hate danuser and alex for that garbage.
Also the interview tries to give you this false sense of hope for the alliance. Yet when players voiced themselves while darkshore was still on the ptr. We still ended up with nightelves being raised. Don’t let it fool you , we know in 8.3 Sylvannas turns the tables on the alliance. There just trying to keep players subbed is all. I am pretty sure if sub numbers drop lower Activ will take over. Honestly would rather see what they could do since the devs/narrative team have delivered nothing but garbage.
You have to understand… Darkshore is like Arathi… it’s a PVE Warfront where both sides have to win. When it’s their turn,the Horde have their victory just as the Alliance has theirs. Darkshore, Arathi, by nature and mechanics both warfronts operate the same way, as a PVE victory for each faction in turn.
This is not a narrative, it is not a documentary, nor is it a fixed story… above all other considerations, this is something that has been true since Day 1 of the RTS… it is a game.
Still they could have avoided raising nightelves and just added a horde commander to the warfront. But no, they ignore lore , also the response from players voicing themselves to. This is why its good to see more streamers /youtubers and players turning away from the game/story. Numbers get low it will spark change.
What lore is being ignored here? It’s not an ignorance of lore it is an expansion of lore. Noone even as much as sqawked about Night Elf Death Knights. Since Elven Dark Rangers are already an established thing, what’s the stretch with two Night Elves being added to the ranks?
It’s not that the Night Elves are raised, it’s that they are raised WILLINGLY. I can only assume they have a reason for this distinction (My theory is an Elune Death God reveal). Its frustrating though, because the very idea that a Night Elf would be raised willingly, forsake Elune, and pledge their loyalty to their own murderers to fight against their own kind is a an attack on the cultural identity of the Kaldorei.
Actually, didn’t Fandral and the Druids of the Flame kinda do that already? He joined the Twilight’s Hammer despite the fact that his son got killed by minions of the Old Gods.
Nightelves being connected to the dream/elune like the worgen shouldn’t be able to be raised. Silverpine has Gilneans drinking worgen blood to prevent being raised. The nightelf deathknights like other races such as dranei were just added so that players could have more options. As for darkrangers, those stem from raised blood/highelves.
Lets not also forget the part were the nightelves turn on there own people once raised. Sylvannas doesn’t have the lichking/nerzuhls power to enslave and control . It’s some stupid move by the narrative team to screw the nightelves over more then they already have this expansion. Hoping more players get turned away from the story and game . If subs get low enough activ will hopefully take over and get rid of Danuser and Alex to.
Which is funny as Night elves didn’t have access to Chimeras at all during the WC3: Reign of Chaos campaign. It was only custom / multiplayer games that they were a night elf unit.
Hopefully the remastered WC3 fixes that, because it was really stupid.
Not really, he ultimately blamed Tyrande for her “inaction” during the conflict as the reason why his son died. Hence his dialogue back in vanilla. Later on, he blamed Malfurion for not bringing the horde to justice for the death of his grandchild.
He wanted revenge on both of them, and Ragnaros had the strength to make it happen. Also Xavius is somehow involved in this as well.
I believe it was more so the curse that prevented the weakened Val’kyr from raising worgen.
After the defeat of Arthas and Bolvar taking the reigns, the Lich King was weak. Hence why the Val’kyr sided with Sylvanas, however doing so further weakened their ability. Which is why they could only raise regular human corpses at the time.
Yes it does, because he is absolutely insane in Wolfheart, driven mad by the whispers of the Old Gods. His resentment for Tyrande and Malfurion might have paved the way for that madness, but it was the madness itself that drove the Villain bat to his head.