The Night Elves are not abandoning Kalimdor

[Mara-kelthuzad (Mara)]

If they are trying to say this is just a backwater settlement for some night elves so they don’t have to live on the stormwind streets anymore and that this isn’t a capital and they can protect the tree that only had the purpose of getting the dragons their powers back, that’s fine, moving the night elf “capital” to the other side of the planet pincered between undercity and orgrimmar shipping lanes is another.

Portals have never actually mattered in the story, just look at how useless they were in WoT or Wolfheart, they couldn’t actually use them to move troops around, so portals are purely cosmetic. Some huts scattered around the roots of a tree are fine, but this isn’t a capital at all. But they at least seem to be responding to feedback by adding the portals and visitors, and this was likely all they could really change a few months out.

[Mianyaue-moon-guard]

Yes, it’s a really good news, even Darshore and Feralas are here.

Just need to add some Ashenvale visitors to make the thing perfect.

I hope they will update Darkshore (BfA) one day. Here are some ideas:

It's time to rework Darkshore and Ashenvale

I think it could be the perfect time for a rework/revamp for Darkshore and Ashenvale now or in the future for another expansion. The war is over now and Darkshore really need to be updated now with a rework/revamp of the area. We need to show Night Elves are rebuild cities on their ancestral lands of Kalimdor (at least for Darkshore and Ashenvale) even after the war. Night Elves need to think about their future in Kalimdor. We could make a new area for Darkshore (a third area: Darkshore after th…

[Madhronir-wyrmrest-accord]

Considering to reach darnassus you either needed to fly on a gryphon or use a portal from the bottom of the tree, I’m more than fine that the way to connect amirdrassil to kalimdor is trough portals. I’m not saying both are equivalent, but I’m pretty sure Tyrande already had the logistics of having a capital away from your main land figured out.

@Amadis-draka

Her heel slammed just above his armor into his bare temple. Saurfang staggered back, bright stars in his vision. Only sheer will kept him conscious.

So a single kick almost knocked out one of the toughest Orcs out there? Thats some good monk fantasy right there, shame Saurfang is the main character so he probably got the Win in the end.

[Mithonic-wyrmrest-accord]

The Shen’dralar leader reached an accord with Tyrande after we reclamed Eldre’thalas.

I looked into it after the Exploring Kalimdor book said there was still ancient knowledge to be learned from Dire Maul.

After Mordent Evenshade successfully reached an accord with Tyrande Whisperwind, upon which they began training a new generation of night elven mages at Teldrassil and other parts of Kalimdor.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/A_Cautious_Return

But it also warned Azshara was looking to reclaim lost knowledge from Edre’thalas. So I suspect the NE’s may be called to help defend the Shen’dralar from naga attacks in upcoming expansions.

[Rineha-zuljin]

Yes the doomers were wrong, again.

[Droma-moon-guard]

Wow, how gorgeous are these revamped buildings? This gives me so much Classic NE nostalgia, I can’t wait to see it in game. I really love that they’ve added a significant Shen’dralar presence, I love their lore and it’s cool to see how far they’ve come since Cataclysm.

@Madhronir-wyrmrest-accord

I wonder if a night elf monk would hang out more with the misfits area with the DHs, mages and Undead or would hang out with the sentinels…

I’m a bit bummed there aren’t any in-game Night Elf monk representations seeing as how they pulled all the stops for other classes. I feel like Monk meshes so well with NE lore (my Night Elf is a monk too!), it’s almost strange there isn’t more of them. I have a feeling they’d likely be with the Sentinels though.

[Furrfist-frostmourne]

I doubt Blizz would get that detailed but I find the idea of the development of different Night Elven groups quite interesting. Some areas like Feralas might be more militarized, some might adopt different architecture. I can see new Darkshore settlements follow a more ‘Dark Moon’ sort of vibe. Felwood could have something related to Warlocks and Demon Hunters. The possibilities are quite fun tbh, and it’s something they should extend to every race so that the races stop feeling like some singular mind.

[Nightlighter-quelthalas (Nightlighter)]

@Furrfist-frostmourne

Felwood could have something related to Warlocks and Demon Hunters

Agreed with the idea that Warlocks and DHs should have a heavy presence there but Druids should be heavily represented there as well. After all the purpuse of Night Elves have been the cleasing of Felwood.
We could have Locks and DHs combat “fire with fire” (fel in this case) to remove enemies while Druids cleanse and regrow the land.

[Dontsayiam-moon-guard]

@Mohenjo-proudmoore

But as someone who studies history as a hobby and plays Paradox strategy games, the Night Elf civilization with the addition of this tree is what we call “border gore”.

@Mohenjo-proudmoore

There were so many changes in the governance of the Roman Empire from splitting the Empire in half or into fourths, or changing around where the capital was so that they could better respond to threats from the Persians or the Germans. This patchwork civilization just irks me.

Here’s what I’m going to say to you:
The Nelves don’t have a form of central government.
The Nelves aren’t a centralized people.
There were never any strictly understood ‘borders’ that the Nelves held largely because of this.

The Nelves have always been largely associated as ‘living alongside nature’ which often conjures ideas of foragers or wandering peoples.

Not to say that there aren’t Nelf settlements or villages, there clearly are. But their agrarian settlements don’t appear to be the norm.

There’s simply areas they live in predominantly, and places they don’t live in predominantly.

The Nelves do not constitute the same kind of ‘civilization’ that the Roman Empire did, they’re two completely different kinds of people.

You could compare the Highborne civilization with the Romans, but no, there is no ‘central government’ of the Night Elves.

Not to say there aren’t spiritual/religious leaders, or venerated elders and so on… but there is no central power which holds sway over all Night Elfdom in the same way that the Romans had a central government.

The Romans, as with most empires were largely agrarian which created an association of land-ownership and power based upon that ownership. Land, as a stationary concept doesn’t move, and therefore a conglomeration of land ownership has a ‘center’, and borders can be drawn from that land ownership.

Nelves, are never really depicted as agrarian, nor are any of the irl people that their culture takes inspirations from largely agrarian. There is no ‘land ownership’ in the same way that we see among the Romans (as an example). There can be a concept of ‘territory’, but it wouldn’t be based off of land ownership surrounding a central ‘capital’.

In the same way, this can be applied to Tauren as well.

Thunderbluff doesn’t constitute a singular central governing ‘power’, but rather a large meeting place of sacred importance to the people. In a similar way to how the World Trees are presented to the Nelves.

[Anuella-cenarion-circle]

Conspicuous amount of Highborne content here: proper representation, makeovers, and an official “House of Shen’dralar” faction tag. Equally conspicuous are Amirdrassil’s fancy docks. Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where Alliance players cast off for Quel’Thalas from in Midnight, and the Highborne to serve as the night elves’ representatives in that expansion rather than yet more Tyrande and Shandris.

[Nightlighter-quelthalas (Nightlighter)]

I would never get tired of Tyrande/Malfurion/Shandris but for Midnight a expect Mordent Evershade to be our representative.
Still I do expect to see Tyrande just like in Suramar. I believe at some point we are going to see all elven factions joining forces and with them their respective leaders. Tyrande, Lor’themar, Alleria, Thalysra and Vereesa. Of course with each leader we’ll have some important characters like Mordent, Rommath, Umbric, Oculeth and so on.

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

@Anuella-cenarion-circle

Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where Alliance players cast off for Quel’Thalas from in Midnight, and the Highborne to serve as the night elves’ representatives in that expansion rather than yet more Tyrande and Shandris.

GOOD.

The Shal’dorei would of made sense to join the Kaldorei if they had had Evenshade as the diplomat and not Tyrande just thumbing her nose with icy silence. It burnt my biscuits they completely ignored we had the Shen’dralar to be the bridge between the two peoples.

[Madhronir-wyrmrest-accord]

I hope we get some “stay a while and listen prompts”.

Maybe DKs and DHs arguing who had it worse.

Jarod arguing some military tactics with the wardens.

There is a lot of potential here, fighting for a zone then seeing the rewards feels really nice.

Imagine if players could have access to a post legion suramar, this is how i feel with this.

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

DH: “I sacrificed Everything!”
DK: “But your pulse!”

That would crack me up.

Something that would be nice is if we saw the survivors of the Shal’dorei massacre of the Moonguard remnants joining up with the Shen’dralar. That be a nice door prize for how the shen’dralar were ignored in legion.

[Nightlighter-quelthalas (Nightlighter)]

@Madhronir-wyrmrest-accord

Maybe DKs and DHs arguing who had it worse.

EMO boys competition!

[Irenaus-wyrmrest-accord (Irenaus)]

Weird to me people view this as a response to feedback. Seems like just as planned. Unless blizzard commented?

[Dontsayiam-moon-guard]

Undoubtedly this was something they were already working on previously.

I truly doubt that Blizzard saw these random threads on the Story Forum and decided to take the time to script and create NPCs just to appease the seven people talking about this.

This was stuff that was already planning on being added, it just so happens that a weird niche fraction of the community threw themselves at radical conclusions based off of what little was revealed yet.

Just a case of people jumping to wild conclusions based on ambiguity and perceived ‘mistreatment’ by Blizzard.

[Fane-moon-guard]

Strategically Amirdrassil is a much harder target since the dragons are all in on protecting it. That would leave the night elves more able to spread their military to other locations.

I also kind of like the idea of night elf cultures growing a little more varied and unusual depending on where they’re from. Maybe they’d become more like the dwarven kingdoms, self-sustaining and governing but still supporting each other.

[Kynladoria-maladath]

@Fane-moon-guard

Strategically Amirdrassil is a much harder target since the dragons are all in on protecting it.

Let’s not pretend that this matters. If Blizzard willed it, the Horde would single handedly kill or defeat all of the dragon aspects and their flights at once and conquer the new tree.

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

It is also protected from multiple sides by mountainous isles and one side by a nearly impervious barrier. It is exceedingly fortified by default, let alone once actual foritifactions are inevitable put in place…