Many people have drawn parallels between the Nightborne and blood elf dependence on magic to real world drug addiction, but this doesnt seem entirely correct.
A True drug (of the non medicinal kind), has negative effects on your body even when you get a steady intake of it. However, we see when Nightborne and blood elves get a steady intake of arcane magic, it actually massively increases their lifespan. The Sunwell is the cause of the high elves/blood elves long live spans, and we are almost certain that the nightwell was the source of the Nightborne living very long lives/being practically immortal.
We have also seen that Arcane magic has the capacity to increase intelligence, and has almost certainly had this effect on the elves being infused with it, meanwhile drugs damage the brain, and can only lower intelligence. Thus, Arcane magic is more like a nutrient, rather than an illicit drug. Adapting to taking it, can increase life span, intelligence, however, lack of this nutrient, like lacking any nutrient, can lead to problems such as weight loss, (Withered and Wretched all seem to lose weight) and even further, it can lead to starvation which can cause mental problems, something the withered and wretched also deal with.
Being starved for too long can also cause permanent physical problems, which can correlate with being a wretched too long leaves the state irreversible, and same with nightfallen, being a nightfallen is reversible, but if left in that state too long you become a withered, which is irreversible.
Your point is valid. Unlike a drug the arcabe has significant benefits for those that bind themselves to a font of power. However…
The overuse and subsequent addiction to the arcane has negative effects. Those who become addicted are now totally dependent on the well more so than any other factor that is needed to sustain life such as food or water. In the case of the Nightborne the Nightwell actually limited their ability to travel. Being too long without arcwine causes them wither quickly. And as we’ve seen in both elven cases the addiction and loss of and/or the overuse of the source said addiction can cause the elf to physically and mental deteriorate, which is irreversible.
The arcane is a double edged sword. Powerful with many benefits but addiction to fonts of power can lead to disastrous consequences if the Elves are not receiving constant sustenance from it. You can even argue that the well affects their decisions. Without the well Elisande may not have have handed Suramar over to the legion. She was willing to let the world burn just to keep the Nightwell.
Then how will you explain that Nelves live for so long without Arcane well? How come Ogres from Gorian empire were not living for 10k years? (which was magocratic society)
And lastly why elves wither once they’re cut from mana drugs? Why their life is depending on it while other races can live without it just fine?
The night elves were immortal, at first, due to the well of eternity, which is also arcane magic, and later, due to the blessing of Nozdormu. The ogres of Goria had no arcane magic fonts of power. Elves wither from lack of magic, the same way you wither from lack of food. Is food a drug now?
But they lost it in WC3 and they were not seen rapidly aging. - Although who knows, Tyrande is dying her hair, maybe she has grey hair beneth the hairdye.
I mean, indulging heavily in the arcane DID make them lose a couple feet in height and remove their ability to regenerate.
Regardless of where you fall on the elves vs trolls debate I think we can all agree losing the power to regrow lost limbs is a fairly hefty downside.
The weird thing is being deprived of the arcane then made the night elves become even shorter and turn a weird peach color. An effect that didn’t get reverted when they made the Sunwell.
So… What the heck? Does the arcane make you shorter or keep you the correct height? Does it make you closer to the form of a titan (IE more human) or does it stop you from turning more human?
Well, they didn’t actually start indulging in the arcane until they were elves. The mutation from troll to elf seemed to be caused by proximity to the Well’s radiant energies rather than the Dark Trolls actively tampering with arcane magic.
While it’s just a theory, the loss of regeneration could potentially be attributed to the arcane energies Ordering/stabilizing their physiology as they became elves, making them more metabolically and neurologically “organized.” Along with regeneration trolls are also notably more mutable by their surroundings than most other races, suggesting there’s a certain degree of chaotic “flexibility” inherent to their biology that allows it to more aggressively and organically shape itself rather than rigidly asserting its existing “structure,” be it via extreme regeneration or comparatively rapid biological adaptation to their surroundings. And since the trolls themselves adapt to differing climes so readily, their clothing, architecture and overall technology tends to remain largely derivative of the Zandalari rather than significantly diverging over the millennia to accommodate the broader range of climates they’ve come to inhabit.
Conversely, even after being Cursed with flesh the titan-forged races not only don’t regenerate on such a level, but also seem to generally not mutate overtly in response to their environment, which causes them to adapt their technological and architectural practices to accommodate those surroundings instead, suggesting that even as flesh their physiology retains some measure of the “rigid,” arcane-implemented stability that the Keepers originally created them with.
Blood elves’ changes might perhaps theoretically be attributed to a milder, more benign equivalent of Wretchedness or even Withering, wherein losing contact with previously omnipresent magic caused their biology to begin Disordering a bit as the absence of the Well of Eternity or the night elves’ ambient Nature magics robbed them for a time of constantly available Ordering magics to keep their physiology stable.
And since they’re starting out that process from a place of arcane-infused Order, rather than reverting back toward trolls they could have instead shrunk in stature so their smaller bodies could maintain their stability and efficiency in spite of the shrinking availability of ambient arcane radiation.
This is a really good theory. Especially since the actual answer is almost certainly “Blizzard was trying to hammer in retcons without massively changing the events that occurred so some things don’t make sense”.
If they ever put out a Chronicles book that explains the various races’ biologies and how they came to be what they are I’d like for this to be the canon answer. It is well thought out and accounts for the idea that arcane is supposed to be the force of Order in the universe.
Gorians didn’t have anything akin to the Well of Eternity, since Draenor was just a regular world, and the closest they had were imbued pieces of the Collosi/Magnaron. Though if they hadn’t destroyed themselves the Apexis might have managed to create something atleast Sun Well strong.
Night elves long lives came from the Aspects blessing Nordrassil, and they avoided the pitfall of mana addiction thanks to Moon Wells, which are a mixture and nature magic and water taken from Nordassil’s lake.
The OP pretty much explained your last point in their premise, when a species adapts to sustain on high concentrations of magical energy it adapts to it and becomes part of their make up as an additional nutrient.
Except that it’s not just “additional nutrient” if once cut from it you cannot live. If I was taking vitamins via pills as diet suplement, but in this case even if you need normal food and that isn’t enough to keep you living without pills, then it is a problem. Not to mention Arcane since the very start of the game was dscribed as very addictive magic.
So I am glad that they referenced it again with Niteborn. That it’s something that has serious drawbacks.
Wretched are created from overdosing on magic, not being starved of it. Taken in steady doses magic is incredibly healthy. Blood Elves can survive just fine without it (Albeit with withdrawal symptoms ranging from mild to severe based on how connected to magic they were) though, Nightborne can’t since they devolve into Withered (Although they seemingly can’t overdose).
Well, more specifically overdosing and then being starved of it.
If a blood elf can actually maintain the supply of magic for his overindulgence (as Kael’thas could when feeding on massive quantities of power at Tempest Keep) then he’ll remain a blood elf. But if he abruptly loses access to that (as Kael’thas did when he was defeated at Tempest Keep) then he’ll become Wretched.
Where is that stated? One of the very first quests in Eversong explains that wretched are the result of Blood Elves who could not control their hunger and didn’t pace themselves when consuming mana. Being starved of mana produces withdrawal symptoms but nothing further.
That’s the definition of not pacing themselves: overindulging to an unsustainable degree. Unsustainable so that, once they used up what they had, they’d crash and become Wretched. It’s why cutting off the supply of fel blood being consumed by the blood elves at the Throne of Kil’jaeden causes them to become Wretched on the spot.
It’s also why Kael’thas had become Wretched after his fall at Tempest Keep. As long as he had a steady supply of mana from the manaforges feeding his addiction he remained his old physical self, but when that was taken away with his defeat he became pale, emaciated and violently desperate. I.e. Wretched.
Like certain narcotics the more you overindulge, the harder it hits when you suddenly can’t maintain that level of a fix. The blood elves in general experienced a decline and withdrawal from losing the Sunwell’s ambient power, but those who became Wretched were individuals who frantically consumed whatever they could to stave off that withdrawal, then crashed even harder and worse than the rest when those sources of concentrated mana ran out.
The overindulgence by itself isn’t what’s transformative; otherwise bringing back the Sunwell would have caused even more to succumb. It’s specifically overindulgence that can’t be maintained, because once they run out their bodies are so acclimated to an elevated level of mana consumption that they degenerate into Wretched without it.