The player Archdruid is a hero of the Dreamgrove, but was never the leader.
The player Druid is also not retired. Druid Players are still recognized as the Archdruid.
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Having the character become the " leader of your class faction" in legion is such a bad move, it always goes back to something like that. The same stories and events could be played framing the player character as one of many competent high trust members instead of THE BOSS
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I think Q’onzu calls druids by their title during 10.2 too.
Ysera and Alexstrasza blessed Teldrassil to protect it from any resurgence of corruption out of being impressed at how tenacious the world tree was in the face of adversity since day one… but I do not remember them extending that to re-belessing the Kaldorei. That be sort of Bad given it would have been indirectly rewarding the hubris that created it.
To be fair, the Dragons’ blessings isn’t what originally made the Night Elves immortal. The original Well of Eternity had, and the new Well on Hyjal likely maintained that, too, given the Sunwell has such properties. Nozdormu blessing Nordrassil really only compensated for the tree sealing the new Well’s power.
Plus, it would be hard to say the Night Elves who had nothing to do with Fandral growing Teldrassil should be punished for hubris while the Night Elves that had nothing to do with Illidan’s hubris of making a new Well got rewarded with blessings.
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I mean, it wasn’t even just Fandral anymore. The entire Cenarion Circle was responsible for regrowing Teldrassil. The Ancients. The Tauren.
Like, if the Cenarion Circle was convinced, I don’t think an argument can realistically be made about it being “hubris” despite what the Dragons thought.
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The idea that they aren’t the same thing opens it’s own can of worms tbh.
I mean when you think about it… just looking at it historically, they do barely anything to assist in protecting that well themselves despite being afraid what would happen if it’s used by malevolent forces. Like it’s prolly not intended but it looks like “here’s pocket change to to the job we should do but won’t” lmao
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the blessings were kinda carrots on a stick to make sure even a corrupt Kaldorei would feel a need to protect Nordrassil out of self preservation if nothing else.
The Aspects were pretty shrewd with what they did.
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Though they don’t seem to know how to do decorations if they were the ones who took down Archimonde’s bones. That’s the best winter’s veil ornament a tree could have.
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I mean, it was supposed to be a pact. The funny thing is, Alexstraza even made a promise to the Elves that as long as Nordrassil stood, the Night Elves would have a place on Kalimdor forever, though I think this was the WotA books, not the WC3 version.
And I mean, while it’s true the Night Elves aren’t up and leaving Kalimdor, it’s certainly no thanks to the Dragons.
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They also basically gave them authority over it, which they’ve never once actually tried to help them enforce, despite saying “Oh I mean we WOULD help you but uh…” like Ysera did in Ardenweald lol.
Dragonflight is weirdly hesitant to acknowledge that Dragons are pretty awful allies for most of history, with the most actively involved in the greater world actually usually just being spies keeping an eye on other races, like Krasus.
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Not even just terrible allies, they’re just terrible at their jobs in general.
Most of the major issues or threats surrounding what the aspects are meant to be overseeing were created by dragons.
Who messes with time but the infinite Dragonflight?
Who tried hoarding magic all for themselves but the corrupted Blue Dragonflight?
Not only that, but in most major conflicts they either abstain or make things somehow worse.
Dragons just kind of suck at everything lol.
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And still somehow they were the ones rewarded with Aspectral Powers instead of Night Elves getting any kind of blessing.
Night Elves don’t need a blessing.
Neither did the dragons.
I don’t think Blizz should continually retread old story points, they should be pushing for something new.
Besides, Night Elves receiving some blessing or immortality would kinda go against their narrative purpose anyway.
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It’s my perception that the Horde has repeatedly encroached on and killed nelfs in northern Kalimdor. Supposedly the Horde has been driven back time and again (according to the books), but, if so, the Horde always seemed to come back worse than before. I really don’t see any reason why nelfs would or should want to return to Kalimdor. Going back would be like visiting a graveyard. You might do it but you wouldn’t want to stay.
That also goes for the keepers honestly. Azeroth has a history of cosmically empowered guardians which grow apathetic over the millennia and sort of shove their work onto someone new.
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I mean, that fits though, right? They can’t really be overly flexible by virtue of being infused and influenced by Order to such a degree. Even the Dragons are so touched by it that they hyper focused on their own domains until otherwise corrupted.
A bit off topic, but with the power disparity Malfurion should be a Grand Druid instead of a mere Archdruid. The Grand Druid title is used in some other settings for Druids that are basically a walking genesis or extinction event who can cast yeetus deletus on entire civilizations at will. That description fits Malfurion to a T.
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To be fair, there weren’t really supposed to be more than a couple Archdruids initially lol but WoW has to like… power scale the world to keep making things interesting, at least they see to think? It’s just that everytime they do this, they then overuse the thing they’ve hyped up until it’s like, generic zone trash mob lol.
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They kept fierce watch on the lands surrounding Hyjal. They attacked both Jaina’s and Thrall’s forces when they landed not even close to it. Their strategy for defending Nordrassil was to make sure that no one got anywhere near it’s neighborhood by keeping strangers outside the entirety of the northern Night Elf territory.