You know, as an interesting point of discussion to what I said earlier.
Assuming High Elven Shamans became a thing and they focused uniquely on the element of Spirit (perhaps being in-tune to magic on a biological level makes this uniquely possible for them), they could even play a role in healing Azeroth’s wounds. We know Shamans and Druids are gathered in Silithus trying to heal the wound. I can only imagine Shamans capable of wielding the element of Spirit with an innate skill would be exactly what Azeroth needs. Certainly having the first major act of High Elven Shamans to be helping to save Azeroth would be a great way to cement them into their new role.
I’m a bit skeptical against High Elf shamans, it may be silly but i feel like no Elven races should be allowed to be Shamans ever in WoW. It’s not fitting to the fantasy of the elven races as a whole.
Shamanism in WoW is not about nature, it’s about the elements and the elemental lords. High Elves having a better conection with nature makes them actually closer to the Night Elves and Druidism.
It makes more sense to write something about High Elves learning druidism with their distant cousins, the Night Elves, either to fortify the relations between them or to discover a different form of power aside of Magic and Light.
I still think that High Elves shouldn’t be allowed to be either, it’s not accurate to lore unless a retcon happen, and them having a class option not avaliable to Blood Elves would be a bit unfair to Blood Elf players (even though Nightborne can be warlocks while Night Elves still can’t, not even mentioning the fact that the Shen’dralar imprisoned a demon in their city for thousands of years yet they didn’t added Warlocks to the Night Elf class pool in Cataclysm).
See, I disagree. Shamanism and Druidism are two disciplines that are fairly well linked. I’m almost surprised we haven’t seen Night Elven shamans added in Cataclysm, to be honest. That said, whatever hang-ups I personally had with the idea of elven Shamans vanished when Draenei were added. In a lot of ways the Draenei were much like the High Elves; an advanced and long-lived race built on magic, with faith in the Light.
Now, the Broken learned Shamanism as a result of being cut off from the Light. The elements spoke to the Broken. High Elves in the Hinterlands lodge have abandoned the practice of magic, which creates something of a similar void in their lives as the broken had with the loss of the Light. Considering the proximity of the Wildhammers and the long-standing good relations High Elves and Wildhammer Dwarves have, there is logic in the High Elves exploring new avenues of knowledge and wisdom.
I don’t disagree on their connection to nature, but as I said before, I feel like there is room for High Elves to uniquely take up the art of Shamanism.
The Wildhammer only learned the ways of Shamanism very recently in WoW timeline even though the Dwarves have a conection to the Earth since their creation. This leads to another point: you cannot simply learn shamanism, the elements must chose and accept you. Nobundo became a Shaman because the elements of Draenor (outland) spoke to him after being abandoned by the Orcs after the fel influence. The Dwarves have a deep conection to the Earth plane, the Dark Iron especially have also a connection to the Fire plane, the Elves however, they don’t, neither the elements spoke to any of them.
I’m not sure how to address this other than to say, it’s not true at all. The Wildhammer have had a long-standing role as Shamans. Their Griphon Riders’ storm hammers were a direct result of that, just as an example. While we don’t know the exact point the Wildhammers became Shamans, they’ve been Shamans for quite some time.
Mountain King powers could’ve been linked to Shamanism, but considering Dark Irons also have Shamans, its fairly evident that Dwarves of at least two Clans have had a history of Shamanism. It might not have been called Shamanism at the time, but in practice it’s the same thing.
But it’s kinda weird to assume that it was shamanism when so many of the titanic races, creations and even Titan keepers like Odyn, Loken and Thorim have lightning and storm powers without having any link to the Windlords.
Warriors have Storm Bolt, Shockwave and Thunder Clap but those are not shamanistic powers, those came from titanic blessings.
The Elemental Lords aren’t really all that pivitol to the practice of Shamansim, though. They’re just extraordinarily powerful Elementals whom rule over the Elemental Planes, which are prisons constructed by the Titans when they were Ordering Azeroth.
The Elemental Spirits are what Shamans connect to, and considering the Titans are born from Living Planets, my guess is they all share that connection. One could argue every Titan can wield the power of the Elemental Spirits to different degrees, and considering they are also the embodiment of arcane (a force High Elves are intrinsically linked to), it’s possible for a race like High Elves to excel as Shamans.
A strange conclusion, having a strong conection to the arcane give you potential to be a Mage, not a Shaman. If that was the case then Blood Elves, Nightborne and Night Elves to some extent could be Shamans staying on the same line.
The Titan keepers might draw power from the element spirits, but without any lore indication (unfortunately we don’t have), it’s speculative, and the only elemental power i’ve see them using so far was Storm.
The thing is, they never did. Practicing the arcane is quite different from practicing shamanism. Shamanism is about establishing a connection with the elemental spirits, whereas the arcane is understanding the laws of the universe. One is based on intellect, the other on spirituality.
Worlds have a measure of Spirit Energy to them. On worlds like Azeroth, with a World Soul, this energy sustains the World Soul of the Titan, and we know a Titan’s power is that of the Arcane. We also know Spirit is one of the Elements of Shamanism. The two are, through this logic, connected in some fashion, and this explains the power of the Titans and Keepers when it comes to wielding elemental power.
Elves are an intellectual people, and when it comes to spirituality we’ve never really seen any who embrace the world around them. Either they’re embracing a philosophy or a higher power, whereas Shamanism isn’t about embracing either a Higher Power or a Philosophy. It’s a spiritual pursuit which requires humility, and there are not many humble elves.
High Elves are unique in humility. They live humble lives, they’ve been humbled by their fall from grace, etc…
If Arcane is a connection to the element of Spirit, then the High Elves have the potential to be Shamans with a powerful connection to that element, one I think only the Draenei could rival, but which they have not. Considering Azeroth is the most powerful World Soul, I would imagine any life to evolve on Azeroth (such as the High Elves) would have something of a leg-up, whereas life from other worlds which have grasped the practice of Shamanism would be able to do so easily and readily on Azeroth as well.
But hey, with a retcon, anything can happen, and some of the arguments you listed make perfect sense and could serve as a base for that. I would be happy if giving them shamans would aplease the people in the High Elf community, i just would never make one. I would pick one of the more traditional High Elven races like Hunters, Mages, Priests and perhaps Paladins.
Absolutely. My main would be a High Elf Mage. I’d probably roll one of every class and try them out and all, but my main would be a Mage.
Shamans and Druids are suggestions on how to further separate High Elves from Blood Elves and Void Elves, demonstrating their willingness to embrace nature and the world, as opposed to Blood Elves who live within their cities and carefully ordered forests, and Void Elves who dwell within the Telogrus Rift, set apart from all as they embrace a cosmic force. And of course, High Elven Shamans brings something unique to Elves, period.
I think that Druids make more sense on this matter, personal RPGey opinion.
But before discussing that, just make High Elves happen Blizzard, even with only generic classes, they have a lot of potential and a large fan community to support them.
I’m well aware, but it’s practice in Shamanism would be interesting to see, and perhaps even unique considering the aforementioned connection between the element of Spirit, and Arcane.
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