Okay I know I’m about as late to the party as I can be about this. But holy crap what a bizarre allied race.
First of all this feels like a cult Silvermoon seems very justified in banning. Even their leader admits he understands the hostility after learning he’s following in the steps of Dar’Khan. You know the one with the stupid hat who doomed race to be a level 20 open world mini boss at the end of an expansion from the Bush administration?
But then you visit their Cthulu Dimensional Rift sanctum and it goes even more like you’d expect than you’d expect when they solve a dark rubik’s cube;
But thankfully Alleria and one of the innumerable immortal mute murder hobos happens to be on standby so you manage to free them before they can complete their transformation into shoggoths.
And so they swear eternal loyalty to the Alliance because Silvermoon gave up on them?
UH YEAH THAT WAS EXTREMELY JUSTIFIED
Buncha lunatics who nearly turned into shadowfiends because they insisted on continuing the literal race traitor’s Ph’nglui mglw’nfah Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! nonsense.
I’m just saying the Blood Knights, Magisters, anything really should regard them as heretics and the solution should be;
This isn’t like the Worgen or Forsaken who caught strays. These dudes stuck their nose where it was told it didn’t belong and now hear murderous voices and have tentacles growing out of the back of their skull.
How was the Alliance the unambiguous good guy in BFA with these complete pyschos on board?
Personally, I head canon it that Alleria uses her knowledge of controlling the void to leverage the survivors into swearing allegiance… and in turn leverages her status of being an Alliance hero and the wife, (and maybe second?), of the Leader of the Army of the Light to keep the Void Elves in line and keep the Alliance from thinking about it too much… or at least from being willing to start a fight over it.
The original RP for Nightsong was that she was just a guard working security when she got caught up in the mess and because of her background she honors the deal even though she knows, true or not, it was born of trickery and manipulation because to the Horde Honor is important and as she values them more than the Alliance, she “Honors” the deal. She’s still pissed and currently visits Dalaran to visit her wife, who is still part of the Horde.
Um… maybe? Obviously, you just needed to make sure they hung out in the shadows, and you’d just miss them because they just faded into the background.
Also, just bad plotting. BFA had some nice zone quests but the whole thing was ruined by the Burning and everything after that.
I mean it’s a giant magic tree inhabitated by nature magic wielders who fought of the ELEMENTAL PLANE OF FIRE so efficiently they were able to grow a tree inside it. Plus ya know their main nemesis for untold millenia was the BURNING Legion.
So naturally they’d be super vulnerability to a conventional fire bombing done pretty much at random.
And what drives me nuts to this day is Azerite was already introduced and the Goblins led by Gallywix were the first to find it.
So it would’ve made complete sense for Sylvanas to fire essentially a nuclear bomb without any other member of the Horde being aware of it or having time to stop it.
But nah everyone just stood by in what logically should’ve been an hours to days long bombardment of a completely undefended population center. One the Horde was told to occupy for their strategic goals and in the funniest tone shift you actually deliberately evacuate Kaldorei civilians in the quest directly preceeding the infamous cutscene.
I still maintain that never happened as Blizz certainly is approaching the lore as such.
That’s actually what the story told to us in the beginning was I believe in an interview, that Sylvanas used Azerite weaponry to do it. So we were all kinda expecting a big emphasis on Azerite weaponry.
Okay, you can knock the guy for the other thing, but Dar’Khan is one of the most effay elves in the canon and he owes 80% of it to this accessory. 20% to the cape.
I actually liked Umbric’s original character motivation here. Bitterly following Alleria into the enemy faction because “Silvermoon turned its back on (him) long ago” was the chain’s least stupid plot development IMO.
Bizarrely, they reverse it 50 levels later: when you meet him again in Boralus, he claims to have always secretly been an Alliance fanboy, and that far from bitter over Silvermoon’s rejection of his life’s work he really just wants to reunite with the blood elves in the Alliance. And some people maintain that this is an edgy race.
It might its a blood elven tradition to use volatile magics. Hell, even now its not like the Blood elves have been fel study even though all their current issues can be blame of fel magic corrupting their prince.
We do not stand with the Alliance out of convenience. Nor is it a mere gesture of thanks to Alleria.
Our ordeal has taught us the importance of great powers being in the right hands. We could not allow the Horde to know the things we know, or to use us as a weapon in their schemes
True. And after all that, there are people still resent that Naaru in Legion for punishing Alleria for Void use lol.
Bringing it up because it’s about the same character (Alleria) doing the same thing (using the Void) and proving her detractors (Xe’ra and Lor’themar) had GOOD REASON to oppose Alleria’s actions.
See the part I find hilarious about that is the Horde has THE CULT OF THE FORGOTTEN SHADOW.
I know Blizz forgets they’re a thing constantly but the Forsaken have been dicking around with umbramancy for longer than the Sin’Dorei have been playable.
The dark is their domain. The grave their throne. The yawning maw of ravenous cosmic hunger isn’t even the wildest ish they’ve seen this Tuesday let alone an ultimate power.
I’ll preface this by saying I actually really like Void Elves and think they’re a cool addition but should also mention I am an early 2000’s Goth with a love for anything Eldritch IRL so I have a strong bias in favor of this cringey flavor of elf.
That being said, there were a few things with the execution of Void Elves that stuck out like a sore thumb to me…
Firstly, one of the whole original Blood Elf shticks was the study and use of magic. They’re absolute frothing nerds over sorcery of any kind. I know they jammed the whole study of Dar’Khan’s magic in there to villainize the Void Elves against the greater populace, but you’d think the top brass of the Silvermoon Magistrate would’ve had that stuff under lock and key considering he’s one of the races most prolific traitors. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve done the unlock so it’s a bit hazy but I recall going to Dar’Khan’s old haunt and finding his notations just strewn about. Imagine just stumbling upon a manifesto of the culprit of the near extinction of your people in a run-down shack.
Secondly, why wouldn’t the fringe group just go to Undercity before they got into hot water? The closest ally to Quel’thalas in both proximity and relations is Undead Lordaeron. Considering the CoFS, the Forsaken wouldn’t bat an eye at the study of the Void and would probably relish in the idea of getting their boney hands on some of Dar’Khan’s sorcery to study in great length, especially if it pertains to the Void. This also puts any of their shenanigans out of the harm radius of the Sunwell, although IIRC that was just an Alleria specific issue, what with swallowing a Void entity or whatever. I know one could argue that this might make Silvermoon a bit crunchy with Undercity relations, but the Forsaken aren’t exactly strangers to the taboo.
I feel like I had a lot more points when Void Elves were first announced so my perspective is not the most up-to-date but I guess this also prevents me from writing a novel like I normally do. (Sorry.)
I personally think that our void-aligned race (if any) should have been Void-touched Krokul from Argus and High Elves should’ve just been implemented with the return of Alleria instead of just an EXTRA religious version of Draenei… but I digress…
Edit:
Ah, I see we’re on the same wavelength with this thought!
I think people are under the assumption blizzard really wanted to justify Void Elves existence.
They didn’t, which is exactly why their entire starter quest and starting zone dialogue gets contradicted in BfA.
The entire point of the Void Elves was to make people who had been begging for High Elves since 2004 to shutup by giving them… Not High Elves, acting smug about it because ‘Well if you want to play a high elf you can just play a blood elf’ knowing full well there was a REASON why people didn’t do that.
I’ve said it before but you should just ignore anything said about Void Elves because 90% of it get’s retconned.
Yeah that’s especially bewildering. Especially when there are, far as we know, still Forsaken ‘living’ in the Ghostlands.
Could’ve walked up to the first rotter in Tranquillen, asked if they knew where to practice the forbidden dark arts, and they would’ve been attached to a RAS research camp within the week.
Also what bums me out is thus far the Velves just strike me as an excuse to not give the Alliance outright High Elves. Even though now you can make them indistinguishable from not just them but Blood Elves as well. Which is just bizarre.
Seriously only after unlocking them did I notice the key difference is slightly different overpriced haircuts.
When Cthulu elves sound awesome. I’d double down and let them be mindflayers (think they’re called k’thir on Azeroth) if they wanted. They could be WoW’s answer to Dark Elves as there really hasn’t been an outright cruel Elven race ever since Velen fixed the Sunwell’s pilot light.
And with the void portals you could have them keep it hidden from most of the Alliance. Maybe they’re making enthralled brain slaves but only the PC, Ren’Dorei and Dark Iron (who supply the victims) are aware of it.
This is my main gripe too, If they were going to give us a Void flavored race, they should have really fully LEANED into that as a theme. The hair tentacles should have more undulation, Entropic Embrace should make them explode into a Void-like being for it’s duration, we should have the ability to make them look more Void-scarred and possessed. Instead we got… sparklier, PURPLER (is that a word) elves because two other purple elves weren’t enough. But because of their Alliance alignment, we’ll likely never get any of that because they have to stay neutered like Worgen and Night Elves before them.
It’s also hilarious because even when Void Elves were introduced, MORE people RP’d them as Quel’dorei, and I think do even to this day. Void Elves serve no purpose other than to be Blizzard’s obtuse reason for not giving the Alliance High Elves.
Yeah I do love my Holy Light themed enemies, particularly the Scarlet Crusade who make up for any possible justifications by being frothing-at-the-mouth human supremacists.
But so far nothing the Naru are doing is that bad. Yeah Xera clearly needs to learn about informed consent and forcibly converting Orcs is kinda sus. But the Void is an all consuming entropy that appears to be the antithesis to the very concept of creation itself.
And in Horrific Visions we saw all the Rendorei went full Cthulu Phtagn with very little proding.
Still my headcanon the reason you don’t see any Forsaken or Worgen NPCs is because due to their inhuman condition they’re already very experienced at resisting magical intrusive thoughts. Hell that’s literally the Forsaken’s racial ability.
So they’re all off in the hills leading a spooktacular insurgency. That’s an alt timeline I’d love to visit. Frankenstein & The Wolfman VS Cthulu.
Plus while the Darkspear’s Voodoo is always as vague as it is esoteric, it DEFINITELY seems to involve Shadow magic.
I mean their hero class is called a Shadow Hunter for Bwomsamdi’s sake.
And I’ve no earthly idea if Shadow and Void magic is interchangeable. Sans an explanation I assume it’s a bit like the difference between coke and crack. Either will ruin your life if youre not very careful but one’s much better at doing that.
