- Lady Liadrin says: We founded this kingdom as exiles in search of a new home.
Lady Liadrin says: But when we lost the Sunwell...
Lady Liadrin says: When we nearly lost everything...
Lady Liadrin says: In fear and grief, we cast out our own people.
Lady Liadrin says: Made exiles of them.
- Lady Liadrin says: We--
Lady Liadrin sighs.
Lady Liadrin says: We were foolish.
But the Sunwell was not lost in Legion, and rather than the Void Elves it had been the High Elves who had been exiled from Quel’Thalas by Lor’themar before the events of The Burning Crusade expansion.
The above scene continues on with Vereesa coming over to place a reassuring hand on Liadrin’s shoulder, and Liadrin declares about the exiles:
- Lady Liadrin says: Never again.
While the High Elves that had previously served Dalaran under the name Silver Covenant gave up that organization along with the Sunreavers to join together in Quel’Thalas as the Silversun Compact, the High Elves that had fought as part of the United Elven Army to take back the Isle of Quel’Danas from the Void do not actually even represent the High Elves that had been exiled from Quel’Thalas.
There is a High Elf NPC in Classic Aurora Skycaller who had the following line in a quest after she repaired a crystal for you:
- Like this crystal, the elves, as a race, have been shattered. I do not know if the pieces will ever again be reunited into one, but my sorrow has been eased by being able to help you
Aurora Skycaller came up again in a story set after the Burning Crusade and before Wrath of the Lich King:
- At the top of the trail, nestled among the boulders and dry brush, Quel’Lithien Lodge rose in front of them. Its fine wood siding had faded and pitted, undoubtedly due to the ravages of the plague, and the Farstriders had camouflaged its beams with rotting foliage. Lor’themar’s stomach pitched strangely as the lodge came into view, and he tried not to think of the days when its surroundings had been green and his visits greeted with delighted shouts, not angry blades. Those days were lost.
He handed his hawkstrider to one of the scouts. She collected it and left him with a suspicious glare. One of the rangers who had stopped him on the trail had run ahead into the lodge. As Lor’themar watched, the ranger returned, trailing two elves he had not seen in several years.
“Lor’themar Theron.” High Priestess Aurora Skycaller’s voice was measured and not a little unkind. “I must admit I am surprised to find you here.”
“Five years we rot here, thrown out of our homes at your behest because we refuse to suck magic from living things like vampires.” Renthar began to rise from his seat, leaning across the table, truly shaking with rage. “And now you want to offer aid?”
“Renthar,” Lor’themar started, “for all our differences, you know I would not have—”
Renthar laughed, interrupting him.
“You send us here to be ignored, inconvenient as we are, and then dare to be shocked when we suffer? There are no curses foul enough to describe you, Lor’themar.”
Halduron and Rommath awaited Lor’themar in Silvermoon upon his return. So did Aethas, much to Lor’themar’s chagrin. When Halduron looked at him and said, “Well?” Lor’themar simply shook his head. Halduron raised his eyebrows as if to ask, What did you expect? Rommath did not meet his eye.
“How did they react to you?” Aethas asked. Lor’themar turned to stare at him.
“Five years ago I threw them out of the homes they had fought for every bit as fiercely as anyone in Quel’Thalas today,” he answered. “How do you think they reacted?”
“They were yours when you exiled them,” Halduron said quietly.
“Actually, they were yours,” Lor’themar snapped back. He bristled a moment in fury, but then his shoulders sagged. Renthar’s words echoed ghostly in his head. You send us here to be ignored, and then dare to be shocked when we suffer?
“I never wanted to see them dead,” Lor’themar said at last, cringing to hear the plea in his own voice, “but I could not afford to lead a nation divided…”
A heavy hand on his shoulder made him lift his head.
“I know,” Halduron said, placing a refilled glass in front of him.
As for Aurora Skycaller’s fate? Her name isn’t mentioned again, but Quel’Lithien Lodge was ended with the Cataclysm update to the Eastern Plaguelands:
- <race>… please, I ask your help.
Something’s happened to my people. Our commander, Ranger Lord Hawkspear, came upon an item of magical energy, and my friends, my family… they succumbed to its seductive power.
They’re corrupted, <race>. All of them.
My Ellaria wouldn’t want to live like that, nor would any of my brothers. Please, put them out of their misery. Quel’lithien Lodge is not far; it’s just up the hill, to the northwest.
Do not feel sorry for me. Those were my friends that you saw at Quel’lithien Lodge, but they were already as good as dead.
There are obviously many larger things to find unsatisfying with how the United Elves storyline played out, but I found the regret of the High Elves’ exile being addressed by Liadrin, misdirected towards the Void Elves, and soothed by Vereesa while letting Lor’themar stand there silently just one more thing to have found unfulfilling.