So Lor’themar is at the top and Halduron and Rommath act as counsilors. What about the rest of their leaders? Liadrin, Tae’thelan, Solonar, Astalor and so forth. I know Quel’thalas is technically a monarchy and the regent only rules until the king returns but realistically I doubt they will dig out Kael’thas again any time soon so how do we manage the country in the mean time?
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What little we know of pre-fall Quel’thalas presents Anasterian’s relationship to leading families as more of a first among equals, something that actually matches how Tolkien’s elven monarchies worked, hence the power of the convocation, hence the Windrunners being such an influential family despite never even sitting on the convocation.
The current state of things is probably slowly reversing to what it was except with obvious holes to fill thanks to how extensively the scourge made Quel’thalas society collapse. I figure Tae’thelan and his daughter are basically as close in influence as the old convocation families at this point, as are figures like Liadrin and Astalor.
Incidentally I think if they dropped the Regent part of Lor’themar’s title (i.e. merely Lord of Quel’thalas) it would signal well the departure of the Sunstrider monarchy, the return to the old style first among equals governance and the end of the limbo while hopefully shutting up the people demanding he be made king.
Regency means he is not a permanent ruler. So either he will make place for Kael’thas or he will share the power with the other prominent blood elf lore characters.
Lor’themar doesn’t want to be king. But he also won’t step down. We need to find a middle ground.
I know Liadrin started out as subordinate to Rommath, owing to his Magisters creating her Blood Knights, but in more recent content they’ve been presented as peers and equals with her even taking the lead from him in certain quests (most notably in Legion’s “Take Me To Your Leader” quest). Her general prominence also makes me think “Blood Knight Matriarch” has just quietly become analogous to “Grand Magister of Quel’Thalas” and “Ranger General of Silvermoon” rather than their hierarchical inferior. Maybe they figured that was a bad look for the most notable female blood elf.
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I’ve been reading Blood of the Highborne for the first time and before the Blood Knights were created Liadrin was the high priest of Quel’Thalas, which from the way her predecessor Vandellor is presented was a rank on par with Grand Magister. So I’m not sure if once the Blood Knights began that she was subordinate to Rommath (at least on paper; in practice she probably was since the knights owed their origin to him), because it would have been a demotion instead of a lateral move.
Anyway as for Quel’Thalas’ overall leadership, don’t they have a senate-equivalent gathering of nobles? I thought there was something about Alleria interrupting a meeting of that during the Second War.
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Most nobles were killed by Arthas which is the reason why the convocation of Silvermoon collapsed.
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#$%a& the king
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Lor’themar doesn’t want to be King yet. I want Lor’themar, after successfully leading the defense of Quel’thalas in Midnight, to be spurred on to take the mantle of King by his people.
I don’t care how it happens. If need be, drag Kael’thas out of the Shadowlands for the express purpose of giving his blessing to Lor’themar.
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Lor’themar remains regent until one of three outcomes occurs.
- A Sunstrider heir is found and coronated as King/Queen.
- A new ruling dynasty is established (the Theron dynasty most likely).
- Quel’Thalas abolishes the Monarchy and establishes a new government.
Of these options the third one would’ve happened by now if that was what the Blood Elves wanted. Lor’themar is dragging his feet where the second option is concerned.
As for the first option, as of this moment, there is no Sunstrider heir. Whether that remains the case, we don’t know. After all, there is an entire empire of Half-Elves across the ocean, and we know High Elves sailed with them. Given High Elven lifespans, it’s possible there are living High Elves in the Arathi Empire, including a potential Sunstrider.
Prince Nallorath remains unaccounted for in the lore.
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There are a few things they could do. They could make the role of Monarch an elective role chosen by a reformed Convocation of Silvermoon, for example. Or be real radical and make it an open public election for all Thalassian elves—blood, high, and void alike. That would lean into the “reuniting the lost tribes” theme.
They could make Lor’themar formally Lord Protector and make Quel’thalas a Protectorate instead of a kingdom. That would kick the can down the road while giving Quel’thalas a stable governance system.
I take the route where Silvermoon isn’t leaving the Horde.
Or we give Kael the actual story he deserves, undo all of TBC and have the LORD of the blood elves(which is still his title) be the one together with Sylvanas defending Silvermoon like it should have happened at the start.
I mean de facto and explicitly this is already done as far as Lor’themar cares.
I still think that if they have to placate all the players who want him to be king, sticking to “Lord of Quel’thalas” at most is probably fine (and the fact that it echoes the way a lot of elven kings in Tolkien weren’t really kings by title is imo fine)
(IIRC the distinction between Tolkien’s elven kings and rl monarchies lay a lot in the distinction between “we follow because he is king” and “he is king because we follow”)
Being a reagent doesn’t have to mean you share power. Technically it means you rule until some other person takes over. But it is pretty clear that, as far as anyone knows, there is nobody to take over. So as far as Quel’thelas is concerned, “reagent” means someone who has the same powers as a king, but doesn’t call himself king. The is no court that can say otherwise and no significant group in Quel’thelas who disagrees.
When, and if (BEs are “nigh immortal”), Lore’themar dies, then we will find out if the post of “Reagent” is hereditary. Either there will be consensus, or there will be conflict and probably a winner. That will decide.
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Countries have weird names for kings all the time because of things like that. Russia had a “Tsar” and German a “Kaiser” because they were both technically (at one point at least) "Caesar’. Ie, they were carrying on for the Roman Empire.
Not so much a hierachy. Most of these head separate groups in the Quel’thelas government. Liadrin heads the Blood Knights, Hauldron the Rangers, Rommath the mages, and Tae’thelan the Relquary. My guess is they all report of Lor’themar, though maybe he has intermediate figures (thought more bureaucratic than policy making, since we never hear of them).
Solonar works for Liadrin, Astalor for Rommath.
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Yep.
Plus, it’s kind of cool that Theron is so noble that he won’t take the title of king because Kael’thas – for all of his faults – stated there would never be another king of Quel’Thalas.
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Seems to have been retconned. As far back as BC Kael’thas was the, ‘Sun King.’
The notion that Anasterian would be the final King of Quel’Thalas comes from, ‘Shadow of the Sun,’ a fan-written story that was made canon. However, while that could have been a retcon of Kael’thas’ title of Sun King, the title of Sun King persisted into Legion (Marquee Bindings of the Sun King item) and Shadowlands (his raid fight is called, 'Sun King’s Salvation).
So, Anasterian was not the last King of Quel’Thalas. Kael’thas was.
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oh.
neat.
i still think theron is noble in not taking the title, but i won’t be upsetti spaghetti if he does.
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So long as it doesn’t come back to bite him in the backside. Like I said, there’s an unknown number of High Elves in the Arathi Empire, and Prince Nallorath remains unaccounted for.
If the Arathi arrive in Quel’Thalas and there’s a legitimate son of Anasterian with them, that’s going to undermine Lor’themar’s authority in a hurry. Not that there is any evidence the Arathi across the sea will come over, or even if they did that a living Sunstrider would feel any responsibility to the throne.