Void Elves would first need a spotlight to have it stolen.
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Void elves: one year anniversary and still have not been fleshed out.
Iâm afraid the spotlight has missed them in the darkness.
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Itâs probably best for everyone that they stay in the shadows, really.
To be honest, what the Void Elves need is an actual book at this point. Unfortunately I can think of some players who would utterly hate that as it would completely villain-bat the Blood Elves in order to make the Void Elves look infinitely more sympathetic, if not downright heroic. I can imagine that being particularly true of Rommath whoâs so under-used and under-developed that any writer would be tempted to make him into a villain.
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Iâm not sure even a whole book about them could fix them as a race, because they simply arenât a race. And I canât fathom any way to accetably make them one.
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They are not a race. They donât remotely qualify as a race. They are a bunch of mutated exiled blood elves.
Which is why Iâm afraid Blizzard will try to force more elves into the groupâŚ
I donât know. I think a well written book that separates them from the rest of the Blood Elves and shows them developing their own sub-culture within QuelâThalas as a minority could be downright interesting.
Imagine for a moment that Magister Umbric was a member of the Sunfury, who returned to Azeroth along with Rommath after the events of WC3:TFT. During the time spent in Outland he became aware of the power of the Void and had the blessing of Kaelâthas himself to study it. It could be Umbric had been in charge of the Magisters stationed in Outland when Kaelâthas returned to Azeroth with Illidan and Vashj to assault Icecrown.
That kind of set-up already lays down an infinitely complex background to explain why Umbric is such an idealist. His personal experiences with Kaelâthas, prior to the Princeâs corruption, would have had a major impact upon him.
From there, having him watch as Silvermoon changed from a place where free thought and personal liberties reigned free to a controlled police state where, âHappiness is Mandatory,â comes from every Arcane Guardian, and his growing concerns, would be pretty interesting. Is he the sort of person who sat back because it didnât directly affect him? Was he too afraid to speak out so he buried himself in his work? Or was he always outspoken, making himself a Pariah within the Magistry?
The Sunwell is reignited and his work, sanctioned by Kaelâthas himself, is suddenly deemed illegal. With his lifeâs work (well, life since becoming a Blood Elf) now terminated, the promising career he had ahead of him is ruined. All those years of study wasted. His followers are about to be re-assigned to other projects, and he says, âYou know what? No.â
I mean when you get down to it, a novel about the Void Elves could give us a glimpse into a part of the lore we havenât really seen; the years in QuelâThalas since BC ended.
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A book could make Umbric interesting. Maybe even come up with new and captivating Void Elf characters. But that wouldnât make them a race.
They still would have no history of their own. No culture of their own. Theyâll always remain a crack squad, never a people.
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Again, if the book takes pains to make them a minority within the nation of QuelâThalas, with their own morals, beliefs, and political views, then I think that builds a strong case around the idea of making them their own ethnicity. That wonât change their biological race, of course, but itâd go much further than anything that could be accomplished in-game.
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Suddenly having hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of Blood Elves interested in the Void, exiled and cobbled up together in Telogrus would do more harm than good to the overall lore of the game.
You canât exile a thousand people and have no one find out about it.
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They were left in the darkness (pun intended), very fitting.
To be frank, Iâm finding myself caring less and less about void elf story. Blizzard missed the moment to properly develop them. Thereâs more lore on vulpera or sethrak than void elves.
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Who said anything about, âSuddenly?â
Letâs say it begins with the Sunwellâs Re-ignition. Umbric refuses to stop studying the Void. Rommath cuts off all Magistry funds and resources to him and his researchers. They travel to the Ghostlands and continue their studies on their own. Meanwhile they begin a political movement to petition for reform of the government and itâs methods.
The Lich King is dead. Umbric and his followers have amassed a few hundred discontent souls, particularly former Sunfury who believed in Kaelâthas and donât care for how the current government demonizes him, something Umbric and his followers believe is wrong. Rommath decides that ignoring Umbric and his followers is no longer an option. He makes it clear what theyâre studying, and uses the term, âRenâdorei,â as an insult, sewing fear among the population of QuelâThalas to turn them against him. Itâs basically the political equivalent of a Scandal.
Cataclysm is over with Deathwingâs defeat. The Renâdorei continue to petition for change despite losing popular support. They do not deny studying the Void. Individuals interested in it come to them, while those growing disenfranchised with the conflict with the Alliance also begin to consider Umbric their only option to get out of it. Because of this, any, âRenâdorei,â found in Silvermoon are arrested, quietly causing their presence to diminish.
The Purge of Dalaran. Lorâthemar orders Rommath to consolidate the Magistry for the War. He now has the power he needs to Exile Umbric and his followers if they do not fall in line. When Umbric refuses, Rommath exiles them in the name of Lorâthemar, and banishes them from Silvermoon City on pain of death. By this time, Umbric and the Void Elves have found the Telogrus Rift and relocate there.
WoD-Legion. Umbric and his followers study the Void within the safety of the rift, while others within their number bring supplies in from Azeroth, risking arrest by entering Silvermoon to obtain supplies and information. Heâs kept apprised of the conflict, but the Renâdorei are not ready. He plans for them to return in a triumphant demonstration of power and glory, drawing inspiration from Dathâremar Sunstrider and the ancient Highborne, except he and his Renâdorei will not endanger anyone, but save QuelâThalas in itâs darkest hour, with the darkest powers of the Void they had mastered.
BFA. Alleria finds them. The Void Elves are transformed. Umbric officially adopts the name, now in defiance of Rommath and the rest of the, âTyrannical,â Government of QuelâThalas.
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And no one ever heard about them until Alleria came back from space?
You had to of been within QuelâThalas to have heard of them, of course, and Rommath made sure word of the Renâdorei did not expand outside of the Kingdom. Wouldnât have been hard if the Void Elves had an Anti-Horde agenda, and if they were primarily former Sunfury wielding taboo magic, itâs not like they couldâve turned to Dalaran and the Kirin Tor like the Sunreavers did.
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I am willing to accept this story as âhead-cannonâ as it would have been perhaps the best Lore based introduction for the Renâdorei & Umbric, and whats sad is that a player came up with a better introduction and story than the writers of WoW.
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Itâs more a hypothetical discussion of what the contents of a novel featuring the Void Elves would look like.
Personally Iâd also have some of the later chapters build on Void Elves within the Alliance as well, such as interactions with other races, and how the Void Elves themselves would begin coping with their new states.
Thatâd require a lot of retconning about what Void Elves are, and theyâre just fresh out of the oven
Because as far as we know, they were no political movement, and nothing was ever said on the matter. They were scholars who dedicated themselves to the study of the Void, not taking down the tyrannical government of Quelâthalas. There shouldnât be any âcommonersâ among them.
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Not quite.
Umbric didnât earn the nickname, âComrade Umbric,â for nothing. The idea of him, at some point, petitioning for a different political climate within QuelâThalas, isnât really all that far fetched, and assuming it died before it ever got too popular, thereâs a reason no one WOULD remember it. Pepper that incident with a few other isolated groups that would eventually be forced to fall in line, and it becomes easy to see how/why he wouldnât be referenced outside of QuelâThalas or even discussed all that much. Most Blood Elves would view him as a relic of a troubling period where the nation was reeling from the betrayal of the Prince and the restoration of the Sunwell.
Other such groups couldâve been former Blood Knights speaking out against Liadrinâs renewed faith in the Light.
Or Warlocks protesting the end to the use of Fel Magic as a freely practiced art within QuelâThalas (assuming it became relegated to the Magistry).
Or Farstriders pushing for a restoration of Old Principals and Traditions.
There couldâve been numerous political movements within QuelâThalas from the ending of BC through Cataclysm, to the Purge of Dalaran which was where Lorâthemar was galvanized and decided unity was necessary for survival.
1 Like
I mean, void elves could work on a larger scale if you were to strip out all the downsides to the void and basically just made them blood elves but then they would just be blood elves who can control the void. It kinda feels like they took the original story of the blood elves only with void instead of fel all while the blood elves are slowly becoming light corrupted.
5 Likes