I finally got my copy of The World of Warcraft Pop-Up Book today. It was supposed to be shipped last month, but Blizzard had a change in their gear store which seems to have caused delays. But I have it now.
Special note: No, there’s nothing that mentions any idea of Night Elves hunting Blood Elves down, nor is there anything about the Night Elves’ survival relying on Stormwind or the Alliance.
I’ll share photos of the Night Elf and Forsaken pages, but I don’t want to share photos of everything in the book. But I can lay out a sort of “table of contents” here:
Page 1: Stormwind
Top Information Panels: "Stormwind City" and "The Alliance"
Lift Tab: Information on "Lion of Stormwind" Crest
Pull Tab: Miniature Model of King Varian Wrynn and information on "The Sacrifice of King Varian Wrynn"
Miniature Model 2: King Anduin Wrynn and information on him
Miniature Model 3: King Genn Greymane and information on him
Page 2: Ironforge:
Top Information Panel: "Council of Three Hammers"
Pull Tab 1: Miniature Models of the Council
Pull Tab 2: Information on "Jaina Proudmoore"
Pull Tab 3: Information on "Ironforge"
Miniature Model 2: Boralus with information on "Kul Tiras" and "Kul Tiran Naval Fleet"
Miniature Model 3: Geblin Makkatorque with information on "Tinker Town"
Miniature Model 4: Magni Bronzebeard and information on him
Page 3: Lordaeron
Top Information Panels: "The Undercity"; "The Ruins of Lordaeron"; "The Scourge"; "Nathanos Blightcaller"; and "Kingdom of the Undead"
Large Pull Tab: Model of the Undercity
Lift Tab: Information on "New Allegiances" under Horde Crest.
Pull Tab 1: Information on the "Blood Elves" under Blood Elf Crest
Pull Tab 2: Miniature Model of Nathanos
Pull Tab 3: Information on "The Forsaken" under Forsaken Crest
Miniature Model 2: Silvermoon City and information on it
Miniature Model 3: Sylvanas Windrunner and information on her
Sample of Blood Elf information
Silvermoon City: Long ago, the High Elves were exiled from Mount Hyjal, cutting them from their source of immortality–The Well of Eternity. Across the seas, they created a new font of power, the Sunwell, and established Silvermoon City around it as the capital of their new nation.
Blood Elves: The High Elves of Silvermoon were almost completely wiped out when the Scourge invaded their kingdom. The survivors called themselves Sin’dorei or “Children of the Blood.” Today, they are more commonly known as “Blood Elves.”
Page 4: Teldrassil
Top Information Panels: "Teldrassil"; "Burning of Teldrassil"; and "Draenei"
Large Pull Tab: Teldrassil on fire
Lift Tab: Information on "Darnassus" under Kaldorei Crest
Pull Tab 1: Information on Velen
Pull Tab 2: More Teldrassil on fire
Miniature Model 1: The Exodar and information on it
Miniature Model 2: Malfurion and Tyrande and information on the "Night Elves"
Sample of Night Elf information
Darnassus: The Night Elves built a city high in the branches of Teldrassil–a quiet, peaceful refuge called Darnassus. It was revered both by Druids and the worshipers of the Moon Goddess, Elune. The temples and shrines nestled amid the massive branches were some of the most pristine wonders the world had ever seen.
Night Elves: The Kaldorei, or “Children of the Stars” in their native tongue, are long-lived Elves with a lineage that traces all the way back ti the beginning of recorded history. With victories ranging from the shores of the Well of Eternity to the heights of Mount Hyjal, the Night Elves are fierce warriors, protectors of nature, and devoted followers of Elune, lead by Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind.
Page 5: Orgrimmar
Top Information Panel: "Orgrimmar"
Lift Tab: Information on "The Runespear" of the Tauren
Pull Tab 1: Information on the "Tauren" under Thunder Bluff Crest
Pull Tab 2: Information on the "Orcs" under Orgrimmar Crest
Miniature Model 1: Thunder Bluff and information on it
Miniature Model 2: Saurfang and information on "Saurfang's Legacy"
Miniature Model 3: Thrall and information on him
Miniature Model 4: Jastor Gallywix and information on him
Page 6: Dazar'alor
Top Information Panels: "Bwonsamdi"; "Warships"; and "Loa"
Pull Tab 1: Information on "Zandalari Empire" under Zandalari Crest
Pull Tab 2: Miniature model of warship
Miniature Model 2: Vol'jin and information on him
Miniature Model 3: Bwonsamdi
Miniature Model 4: Talanji and information on her
If anyone wants any specific questions answered, please feel free to ask.
How would “night elves hunting blood elves down” even materialize? At this point the Blood Elves are the superior force. They can try to hunt us down, and the last of the night elves can get cut down too.
Silvermoon was probably the least affected faction in BfA, and thus still has almost all of its strength left, the Night Elves do not.
I’m didn’t mean to bring up your headcanon about the Blood Elves’ relevance in any fight. The idea of the Night Elves hunting Blood Elves never happened, and I was clarifying that from the last thread about the Pop-Up Book:
They don’t show Undercity covered in Blight clouds, or Stormwind after the Horde razed it the first time… but Teldrassil, they really had to make that pop.
I was hoping the pull tab for the Undercity would be a flow out of blight, but turned out to be the actual Undercity itself, which is one of the more impressive pop-up mechanics in the book, honestly.
Gotta admit, it is a pretty impressive bit of work put into that Pop Up book.
Though … I really am repeatedly shocked at just how tone-deaf about Teldrassil Blizz really seems. It comes off as if they’re proud of it … despite the fact that it is probably the single most contentious event in WoW history. No one liked it but the most rabid Sylvie cultist fan and Horde players who exclusively define the Faction by it not being Alliance; and despite how loud these groups are … they really are a minority within the Horde playerbase.
Well … I guess no one liked it but those groups and Blizzard themselves? They simultaneously hate trying to deal with the consequences of it, but love it? Are they deranged? What sort of echo chamber have they created in the WoW writing team?
I still can’t believe they did the Teldrassil pull tab as it on fire, cracks me up. It’s such a tonally out of left field bit of black humour. I’m half surprised Stormwind didn’t have “throw a rock at Tiffin.”
Ever consider that they are proud of it? That the point of it was for it to be controversial and to try and get everyone invested, albeit negatively, in the new direction of the narrative? If we just go off the measure of the hundreds of threads about the burning of Teldrassil than it has been a roaring success as far as Blizzard is concerned.
It doesn’t matter if the majority of players don’t like it. You’re not supposed to like it. It’s supposed to make Alliance mains mad and Horde mains guilty. The reaction of most players likely came as no surprise to Blizzard.
What was surprising, as you said, was the fact there were some that embraced the burning because they either genuinely hated the Alliance that much OR had done so to spite Blizzard’s shock-jock ploy. They really had to scramble when it turned out not everyone was interested in helping Saurfang rebel against another Warchief.
hard to tell, I love the Blood elves and stuff but we are still like 8 or 7% of our original number? ( 90% lost to the scourge, 1% going to the alliance being High elves, 1% lost in outland being kael’thas forces and of course the void elves) so how in earth can we have the high ground? against any faction in azeroth?
if you are talking about Players ok, but in the lore even after the teldrassil fiasco we are no match to the armies of the Nigh elves…
or there are new info on our numbers that i don’t know of.
Outside of lore/rp circles I haven’t seen too many people really care one way or the other unless they were trying to “gotcha!” an argument with it. People are more concerned about gameplay, like how much they hated Azerite grinding or how much the level squish/covenants are terrible and Blizzard should change them now!, than any story hooks.
I was thinking of buying the book then saw the price of the book and went “yeah no, i might wait for a sale”.
On topic, regardless of what any of might think of the Burning, it is now an important part of WoW lore and I expect will influence it for years to come.
I do too friend. There are a lot of things that I wish both sides could have just opted out of entirely in this expansion, if for no other reasons than our characters should know better than to go along with a lot of it.
I think this is the case, too. I think one success of the burning of Teldrassil that Blizzard got was drawing in players (or at least streamers) that weren’t into the lore by creating a simple to understand tragedy that would draw them in to caring about the story and want to know more about it.
For examples - and I’m not very familiar with his work - but I remember stumbling upon this reaction from Bajheera, who I think mostly plays for PvP:
And another one I can think of is Hazelnuttygaming, who I do watch for pet battle updates and other fun content, who openly admitted not being into WoW lore, but was draw into it because of the burning of Teldrassil event:
If this, or something like this, had been the start of Legion or any other expansion, I’d get it. It’s perfect for stirring up righteous anger and showing that these are opponents who do not recognize civilians, who do not show any quarter, and who need to be stopped at all costs. It’s an extremely effective emotional gut punch.
…but to make it be an event perpetrated by a playable faction? A group who should have the option to choose -not- do this, a group who definitely can’t (for a variety of reasons) be stomped and ground into dust like we did the Legion and the Scourge and others?
Why celebrate that? Why celebrate that you made one faction into mass murderers of fleeing civilians, and tell the other faction they have to suck up and ignore the deaths of all those fleeing civilians? The faction rivalry was toxic enough in places - did they really feel they had to make it worse?
Unless the point of BfA was to unite the factions against Blizzard’s writing. That’s gotten some traction, at least. But really, why celebrate this even in the context they set it?
