The pandaren got the same story beat. No one questions the Protoss having a similar story beat(after the Aeon of Strife). The pandarens. hell, most of the races(including the Zandalari) got this type of background where a good chunk of it was in peaceful time with not really much to write about.
In the Night elves case having an immortal leader and a fairly rigid society might lead to stagnation.
To me this seems like an excuse to not tap into potential stories. The unused time is there, might as well do something with it. They donât need to be about Tyrande facing world ending threats to be interesting stories. They could be just about the Night elves having territorial skirmishes with other ancient races, like say, Nerubians or maybe even a Dwarven civilization.
Well for one, both dwarves and Nerubians didnt want their forest and were a continent away. For another, unless that lore serves the game/is suppose to add new content for it, Blizzard is probably not gonna spend too much time on it. The Long Vigil got a quick blurb in Chronicles for a reason, while nearly every modern conflict got pages full of details explain nearly everyone important involved.
Blizzard has an unhealthy obsession for the Eastern Kingdoms. Why would you expect them to write new stories about a new continent that didnât even exist until WC3 when they can repeat the same handful of stories in generic medieval Europe version #489025892345 ad nauseum?
I see what your saying but there arenât that many ancients races. The demi gods aided in the War of the Ancients as did the Tauren and the Trolls were forced out of those lands over a thousands of years ago. If their were small skirmishes it would have been with the remaining satyrs. If anything they should have had more interactions with the Tauren.
The Nerubians were in Northrend and the Dwarven that had not become Dwarves in the EK were busy in the Stormpeaks or other structures created by the Makers. Although I do wonder where the Dwarven that fought in the WotA went.
People so often take a look at the long vigil, and the more nature-based Kaldorei race, and seem to think the two are connect. Idk how many times I have both ICly and OOCly heard the Kaldorei were stagnate during these years. Honestly? I love seeing that when I am Roleplaying my Nelf because it is so easy to turn it around on them and make them look like the short lived and ignorant race that a night elf might claim them to be.
What do we know about The Long Vigil? Well, there were few major wars. The War of the Shifting Sands is a mighty impressive victory for the Night Elves, despite people claiming âYou needed help from the Dragonsâ As if that somehow invalidates the monumental task that was overcome. Before that there was the War of the Saytr, which I imagine was strung on for many years in the form of small skirmishes. Beyond these events? The Long Vigil was a time of relative peace for the Night Elves. Given how they responded to the orcs, and how little the Tauren seemed to know about them during Warcraft 3, it is my guess that the Kaldorei made a point to kill any and all intruders who encroached on their territory. Successfully influencing the migration patterns of most humanoid races southward. Note, Centaur, Tauren, and Quillboar having strong presence nearly everywhere except Northern Kalimdor, despite Northern Kalimdor being the richest in natural resources and food.
The reason for this strict enforcement of the boarder is probably because many of these native races did try to migrate north. Why wouldnât they? Most every other part of Kalimdor that isnât inhabited by elves is a wasteland, and yet, nearly all native races have removed themselves from the most attractive regions. This could be what Maiev meant about wiping out entire races that tempted her wrath. Whoâs to say they havenât? There would be no evidence of it by design.
What else do we know? That, via the blessing of the Dragon Aspects as well as their druidic and holy magics, the Night Elves were immortal and nearly impervious to disease. They built a society that was completely self-sustaining with nature, and concepts like poverty and hunger were nonexistent. To live in Northern Kalimdor during the Long-Vigil would have been something near utopia, and yet, because there no massive keeps and cities dominating landscapes, no gunpowder or steam engines, humans might call the Night Elves âstagnantâ during this time? A night elf hundreds to thousands of years old would laugh in the faces of any human, dwarf or gnome to say that, because it is a laughable and vain thing to say. It is a vanity that is reminiscent of the old Highborne Empire, the vanity that Night Elf culture has completely redesigned itself to not be.
Night Elf culture during the Long Vigil, in my opinion, is not stagnation but the way forward from a societal perspective. The product of lessons learned from mistakes that literally broke the world.
The issue is they learned those lesson all at once early on in the time. 7,000 years of nothing is highly improbable. Itâs timeframe stuff, an area filled with potential story opportunities ignored. Even if you donât have any current plot threads, you can still make stuff up, this is a fantasy setting.
Hell itâs probably the biggest issueâs i have with nelves, there all tell no show. Chronicles said Nelves were stronger, smarter and more cultured then trolls, but they are never shown as any of these. Trolls arenât really portrayed as a stupid race, they created Arcanite, are master Alchemist and Beast Tamers, know arguably the most about blood magic, carved massive cities of stone, and are one of the few living races with any knowledge about necromancy. Even on a technological level Trolls and Night Elves are around equal. As for stronger, well elves have been show to be pretty god damn strong, their known feats donât really surpass trolls, hell we canât even use the fact their a race of archers to their advantage as trolls also practice widespread archery. And more cultured is just something an imperialist says about a civilization they plan on conquering, trolls have myths and legends, which certainly makes them cultured. If it said it mellowed the night elves out a lot more then that would be true, trolls are very territorial, but they didnât give the proper set up needed to make their 3 claims seem true.
Then we of course have the multiple times they said, Night Elves won in the end guys. You know, like in cataclysm were despite the story stating the nelves won it never feels like it because they refused to update the zone? Or the times in BfA were they said the night elves suffered one causilty for every 7 orcs slain? Their never allowed to see their victories, or have their victories feel like theirs.
I mean, I would be for more nelf story telling, but Nelves really have been shown to be better than trolls⌠I mean⌠what have trolls actually done other than lose?
In what way? Night Elves have Glaives that jump to multiple targets. They have Glaive throwers too. When are trolls seen with anything like that? Never.
Why are we talking about Trolls suddenly anyway? I was responding to this:
This thread isnât about trolls.
Better then trolls in that they still have a large kingdom? Sure, better in terms of how the story treats them? Eh⌠also having a large kingdom doesnât relate to any of those points i made. You can find them better and all but better in general isnât what i was critiquing.
Glaive throwers are really an outlier in terms of the elven technology, existing solely to give them a siege unit in wc3. While i do see you point, the issue winds up being if we use outliers then the Trolls will be able to use the fact they have huge Golems and Laser Dinosaurs, and tauren have elevators. On average your Nelf City and Troll one have relatively equal technology.
I was using the Chronicles Troll passage as a way to show how nelves are victims of tell donât show. I really donât want to turn this into an Elf vs Troll thread, just wanted to point out that blizzard says things about nelves but never shows them.
Move that goal post.
Lol, okay⌠Still have been a part of Nelf lore since the beginning, soâŚ
Itâs not an outlier, is something that has always existed. Elven craftsmanship has always been a pretty Significant part of their lore. Itâs simply more nature based and mystical that what we traditionally consider tech.
Elven armor, glaives that will bounce to multiple enemies before returning, enchanted Moonblades⌠Trolls have nothing that even comes close.
And yet here you are.
So we are gonna pretend the eastern kingdoms doesnt have Ironforge/Shadowforge, Gnomeragan, Aeire Peak, Silvermoon, and even the âgenericâ human city sans Stormwind all have their own unique appeal?(gothic Style Gilneas and Pirate/Naval Theme Kul Tiras?). And that is ignoring EK had the Amani and Gurabashi civs.
I know you have an unwavering hate of the humans but the Questlines/Storylines of the EK is more diverse. Minus Arathi and parts of Lordearon, each focus on the races near said zone. Heck, the dwarves as one people probably have as many zones that focus on them as the humans!
How is the EK more diverse? Itâs copy pasta Fantasy. Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes all that resemble their Warhammer counterparts, because the first 2 Warcraft RTS games were Warhammer knock offs. Kalimdor is actually unique, with Night Elves being a hogpoge of various inspirations to the point of being their own unique thing. Orcs that are probably the most unique from any fantasy setting. Dryads, furbolgs, Quillboar, Tolâvir and Quiraji.
Kalimdor is much more diverse and actually unique compared to the near plagerism of the EK.
Yes because Blizzard does too.
I know that you are a unrepentant Blizzard apologist, but we all know Blizzard takes the easy route with alliance storytelling.
I always thought the perfect self-sustaining druidic thing to be a really dumb concept. Especially since it was introduced from outside sources, with Elune and the dragon blessings, it makes the story look like night elves were spoiled for millennia.
I take it as they were rewarded for their efforts against the Burning Legion and how they took it upon themselves to guard nature from that moment forward.
And they all end ep getting their own spin as decendants of sentient titan creations. Culture wise both dwarves and gnome have their on distinctions from say Warhammer variant(especially the steam punk gnomes and gryphon riding Wildhammers). Iâm also certain Warhammer does not have british werewolves.
Oh please your basically purple wood elves. Every race in Warcraft is either inspired, parodied or a combination of both with a dash of unique spin. No race is original.
There is a reason humans will probably end up getting their heritage armor last. Every race in Warcraft get their time in the sun to shine sooner or later. Gnomer/IF were hardly forgotten as shown by their respective raceâs heritage armor.
Lastly, Iâm no apologist, if you were here when cata was still current you would know that. I am quite content at the lore and I dont think humans have gotten as large a share of it as you think.
HmmmmmmâŚ. Do they though?
Thatâs rhetorical⌠they donât.
Matriarchal nature comes from Drow, the nature themes comes from Wood Elves, the architecture is Greek and East Asian. Aspects of their religion and folklore is Norse and Celtic.
Yeah, weâre snatched. EK can cry about it.
Or divinely chosen and vindicated.
Druidism was introduced by Malfurion who learned from Cenarius prior to WotA. They were able to adapt quickly because of Ysera.
To be fair theyâve had Elune for who knows how many thousands of years before WotA and the dragon blessing was because they stopped the legion and lost more than anyone else doing so.
Moving goalposts already eh?
Sorry darling, its long established that the Alliance story is a half-wit afterthought to the Horde. Thats why they focus on humans being special in boring old medieval England. Throw out new ideas and possibilities all you want, they never will capitalize on it.