I know what Checkhov’s gun is (and I’m sure anyone who frequents the lore discussion and types long analytical essays would as well), and I know about those temples. That’s why I asked specifically within Suramar City. It’s also canon that the Nightborne were originally night elves cut off from any night elves outside the city during the Great Sundering.
You’re not wrong that all those things you mentioned tie in to things. However, it is incorrect to say that because those structures exist that means the Nightborne maintained their connection to Elune because there’s exactly no indication they did.
Keep in mind they once were Highborne, who were a caste of Night Elves. Naturally they did revere Elune while they were still Night Elves, but after 10,000 years of being shut away, there’s exactly nothing remaining of Elune within the city.
So I’m afraid this doesn’t qualify as Checkhov’s gun. It’s literally just there to establish that nelves lived in Suramar (and there still was a population in the form of the Moon Guard before the Nightborne slaughtered most of them after letting the shield down). What was Chekhov’s Gun was introducing Nightfallen in Aszuna, which kind of set up the story leading to Suramar.
So, again: Is there anything of Elune within the City? Whether an object or a statement? If not, then there is no reason to think that any Nightborne worshipped Elune after 10,000 years of being cut off from her. Kind of hard to feel any faith in something you can’t see after all. And it was stated in various dialogue that the Nightborne could not seen the sky for 10,000 years before the shield came down.
But where is the sign of them IN THE PRESENT? We’r e talking 13,000 years here. The outer city is full of nothing but mindless Wretched and wildlife and ruins. the inner bubble city, the only inhabited part of Suramar shows NO sign of Elune worship at all.
Elisande, along with most modern Nightborne were Night Elves. One of the jokes is that back in their day there was one kind of elf. ONE. Joking aside this implies that they see themselves as inheritors of the Kal’dorei Empire. The reverence of Elune was part of that. They built the groundwork for it for a reason. Not just to relate to the past of the Nightborne, but when needed the basis to their future.
Yes they were Night Elves back in the day. The problem is that the Highborne had largely left the faith in favor of arcane WELL before the legion invaded. They spend who knows how long without the faith and then another 10k years cut off from ther moon with zero members of the sisterhood in the city. They didn’t even include the temple in the shield. It’s not something that important to them.
As traditional moon priests? They wouldn’t be. Before the shield went down they probably had no knowledge of the light either. As currently priests, it’s probably something they picked up from the Sindorei. Especially after seeing that their well is a combo of light and arcane.
That still isn’t explicit evidence they still worship Elune. And I don’t see how the joke implies they view themselves as “inheritors of the Kal’dorei Empire”? If anything, both main story dialogue and other jokes indicate they look down on night elves.
As Kaileena pointed out, there’s exactly nothing indicating the Nightborne took any priestesses of Elune with them in the city during the Great Sundering, and there aren’t any temples or shrines at all within Suramar City.
Don’t you think if any Nightborne held on to Elune worship, there’d be some trace of it?
It’s my feeling that the Highborne in general looked down at the religion of Elune as “peasant worship”. After all the modern Kal’dorei are descended from the empire’s peasant class, which the vast majority of the Highborne considered fit only for extermination by the Legion.
Because willpower is all that’s needed to wield the Light. The Gnomes do it atheistically, studying and wielding the Light as a means of healing. They even take up medical titles and nicknames, instead of religious ones, like “Doc” and “Surgeon General”. Goblins do it as a satire of televangelists, believing only in themselves and gold, and can throw around a bit of Holy magic if you throw a bit of coin their way.
I’m sure the magically-inclined Nightborne can suss out a way to use magic for healing, without needing an overarching deity to focus on.
If you’re basing them being a part of the peasant class because Azshara and the highborne didn’t care if they were killed, I don’t think that’s correct. The legion killed anyone who wasn’t in Azshara’s castle. This included the Highborne of Eldre Thalas and Lord Ravencrest and the other lords. It’s wasn’t that they were peasants, they just didn’t care.
Also even if you’re right on that point about them all being seen by the Highborne as peasants and I don’t believe you are, the Nightborne are the Highborne from Suramar. While they like most Highborne had separated themselves from the faith they wouldn’t have been seen as peasants. It was in Suramar where the faith of Elune still held sway in society and even the lowest of novitiates were respected.
Anyone one could join the sisterhood but High Priestess Dejahna was very selective of who would be allowed to continue as some would only try because they lacked arcane ability. So I doubt they see the religious order as something for pesants. They would however looked down on the modern Kaldorei lifestyle as one that was beneath both the Nightborne and the Kaldorei considering where they came from.
I imagine after the barrier went up, they restructured and restratified into castes again. The higher class Highborne becoming the new aristocracy, and the lower nobles becoming the general peasantry. Plus the guards and servants, and their families.
She spoke about the Highborne in general, so that’s why my answer featured them and not everyone else. I’ll be more clear. The city of Suramar is run primarily by the Highborne or former Highborne. So that doesn’t soliders and citizens. But I think even the regular citizens are more similar to the Highborne of old than they are not. But that’s just ny opinion and may not but true.
She also mentioned that
I’d like to expand on a bit. There eere many nobles that took up arms in the war of the ancients and I don’t believe all of them died either. There were also the moonguard, the military units and the sisterhood and none of those were considered to be the peasant class, at least they wouldn’t be in a rl caste system.
That’s what I personally think as well. Just wanted to keep things entirely on what’s explicitly shown and all. I searched around to find any indication the Highborne didn’t care for Elune, but all I can pick up is that Azshara’s court probably didn’t since they were a bunch of vain hedonists; there might have been some Highborne that revered Elune but I have a hard time telling. But yeah, seems like most Highborne weren’t too interested in Elune worship since they don’t get the same emphasis with anything Elune related.
More like a caste consisting entirely of a particular ethnicity. Highborne aren’t simply night elven nobles; they are genetically distinct from ordinary night elves in the sense of being a subspecies. Not completely branched off like high elves, but you can still immediately tell the difference, on top of the fact they have a much higher affinity for arcane magic.
It’s not unreasonable to think Highborne would have created a city exclusively for themselves while the remaining “peasantry” stayed out in the woods. And as Galenorn mentioned, they probably had the caste system restructured so that lesser nobles are now mere commoners/guards/servants/etc.
They definitely do have some slight phenotypic differences though. They’re not simply higher ranked night elves; they’re kind of a subset on their own even biologically speaking. Hence why I said caste and ethnicity together. Same race; just not quite the same type within the race. I don’t have a better word than ethnicity aside from subspecies.