Was The Teldrassil BBQ A Genocide?

Lore Story Forum
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Does it make reasonable sense for the Horde to attack the Night Elves? No?

Conversation stops there.

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64

But the answer to that question is “yes.”

Things have occurred in the part of the lore you pretend doesn’t exist that establishes that the Alliance is a clear and present threat capable and willing to attack with 0 provocation. When something is a clear and present threat, it makes reasonable sense to attack it.

If this topic devolves into the simplest of dichotomies that you present, you lose I’m afraid. Which is why the topic of this thread isn’t about whether the attack on Teldrassil, or mining in Silithus are justified. It’s about whether the severity of the attack qualifies as genocide.

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65

No, it isn’t.

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66

It was not just Teldrassil.
It was also Ashenvale and Darkshore, the other two zones where the bulk of Night elf civilians live. Some may have fled, but the majority were slain by the Horde’s surprise advance. Same thing for Darkshore, anyone who couldn’t reach Teldrassil would perish. Not that it would matter, since Teldrassil was torched to kill everyone on it.

Hyjal and Moonglade have been under Cenarion control for a decade or so by now. Night elf civilians couldn’t even have fled that way anyway because Felwood is a blighted, hellish landscape of a forest which the Cenarion Circle and the Sentinels struggle to even make liveable to this day.

So yes, the majority of the Kaldorei citizenry would have been on Darnassus in the time of its burning.

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67

Does it really matter? There will always be enough Night Elves. Their population will seem no different than it was before. Blizzard isn’t going to suddenly stop the creation of Night Elf characters.

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68

I dont like teaming up on people - so I will try to be polite to the poster when I say this (polite to the Poster, not Saurfang):

But even Saurfang - the moping hypocrite simp puppet of Anduin and the Orc who cheers for Alliance victory while hoping for the Horde’s failure - felt the War of Thorns was A Good War up until the Burning of Teldrassil.

The feint. The invasion. The massacres in Darkshore and Ashenvale.

The leadership of the Horde who objects to Sylvanas the most felt all this was warranted.

So a simple debate on nomenclature for the event at Teldrassil is enough of a topic without delving into the “validity” of the assault to begin with.

Well - thats the topic of the thread anyway. But from what I surmise about the OP - I dont think this OP minds tangential arguments. He might actually enjoy them.

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69

Sargeras was right.

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70

im actually impressed blizz had the balls to saddle the horde player with -unwitting- genocide.

Even my siths in swtor werent allowed to go that far (afaik, havnt played in a while)

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71

Warcraft has always been violent.

I remember slaughtering Human Workers and Elven Wisps while destroying whole communities back in WC 3.

I would slaughter them to the last!

They could always run off and build something to waste your time, even when victory is assured.

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Yeah but this an rpg. In W3, when arthas destroyed all those kingdoms it wasnt us doing it, it was arthas- we merely went along with the ride

This is different given that the one doing that is our own character

Also the horde player is kinda told that they should feel bad, too.

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73

Yes it is.

Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part.

Sylvanas’ intentions are important for the definition, ‘a good war’ describes it as genocide, and even if you say Blizzard used the word lightly (and this accusation has some merit) canon always overrides player interpretation.

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74

So she committed genocide, she did not ATTEMPT to commit genocide.

Attempted murder is VASTLY different than murder.

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Not a good comparison, attempted murder doesn’t involve any deaths, attempted genocide still has people dying by the thousands.

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77

What, than, is the difference between genocide and attempted genocide?

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They’re mostly interchangeable, the former is already an attempt to wipe a race out of existence.

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79

I think what we’re arguing semantics at this point.

However, I think it’s fair to say as such; Sylvanas’ attempted extermination of the Night Elves was a form of genocide.

Does that work?

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80

i dunno, regarding the reason why the orc said in terror of darkshore “no single night elf could do all that” the devs said (i think it was terran gregory) that she has fought mostly only civilians


link for source
so i don’t think it is true to say that night elves have no non-combatants, they have a lot because not everyone is a powerful priestess, druid, or sentinel, some are just civilians
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81

I thought this topic was about semantics.

Yes, that’s a reasonable middle point :+1:

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82

You seem to think that one has to be powerful in order to be a combatant.

If a Horde soldier intent on conquering Ashenvale stumbled upon a Night Elf who spent 10,000 years being a chambermaid - if that chambermaid is attacking with fatal intent - they cease to be “non combatants”, as they are actively combating.

In Elegy, any Night Elf capable of wielding a weapon did. It speaks well of them. But they showed how deadly Kaldorei civilians are capable of being.

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The word genocide was actually used in Elegy. We can argue back and forth about whether it would be in the real world, but as far as the game is concerned, yes, it was.

It’s on page 5.

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