Do we know where the Ancients (of Lore, War, Life…) really come from? In warcraft 3, these were wisps that were sacrificed into the tree. Do night elf wisps become the spirits that “take root” in the tree?
Are the night elf spirits simply reborn as ancients? We have seen ancients die in the game, from them being too old, or too weak, but we have not really seen their formation/birth.
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That bit of lore about wisps did not carry over, no. Ancients are Life elementals, effectively. There is a Quest that indicates ancients are actually the mature form of Treants.
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There’s a questine in Felwood where you can help an Ancient grow:
to
and ending with
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As to what actually determines what makes a Treant, when becoming an Ancient, become any of those other variants… also unmentioned. I mean it took nearly 2 decades for them to remember Tree’s of Life and Ancients of Wind. I doubt, if this patch didn’t deign to explore them, that anything in the near future will.
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Thanks! Strangely, my memory of the Felwood questline is vague, because I’ve only completed it once or twice before.
I always assumed that it was night elf wisps that gave “souls” and sentience to the Ancients, but I guess that isn’t the case.
As per new DF lore, Ancients are born from Dream acorns that grow on other mature Ancients. Meaning they’re sentient lifeforms that can trace back their lineage to the Ancient on which their acorn sprouted.
Whether the Ancients who make it to the physical realm may reproduce that way outside of the Emerald Dream is unknown afaik
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I know that’s how Dryads are born. According to the quest in DF that is. Did I miss a quest or lore book about the Ancients?
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Yeah it’s taken from one of the dialogues of that Dryad questline you’re mentioning
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Ah okay. I must have overlooked it than. Thanks 
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Ok, i’m jumping in the topic with another question.
Are the ancients in AU draenor brought there by Azerothian Night elves? Of draenor has their own ancients?
I’m guessing AU draenor had their own, considering the sheer amount of life/spirit the planet was imbued with. I doubt the Kaldorei would bring that many Ancients with them considering there wasn’t really a major reason to
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Speaking of Dryads being born, did my rude dryad daughter turn up at the big post-Fyrakk party? I was too busy waiting tables to notice.
She was like the only part of this whole patch that I found mildly amusing.
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Speaking of which, I don’t recall seeing my adopted dryad daughter there.
It was one of the many side quests that made DF worth it for me
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Not as far as I noticed.
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Skipping out on a lame elf party. She’s doin her ol man proud.
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Draenor has their own. The Ancients on Draenor are decedents of the Sporemounds, like all Primals iirc.
Wouldn’t be there in WoD if that was the case. They’re all over Gogrond.
They were some of the things that the people studying under Cenarius became before he realised that he could teach people without turning them into things.
I just wanted to poke in and say that the lore about how dryads are born also comes from the Traveler YA series of books. The first 2 books of the trilogy are a great source of world building and low stakes adventure. Third book is meh and a clear step down.
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Xarantaur was the first to be taught the safe form of Druidism that doesn’t turn one into Ancients though since the Bronze Dragonflight gave him immortality he was still counted as an Immortal Druid(with the Ancients being Long-Lived Druids due to having Old Age despite their long life) thus making Malfurion the first(comparatively) Mortal Druid.