Because it seems like they’re loa.
In the Farstrider questline you run into a mysterious force that causes plants to bloom, protects wildlife and manifests as a unicorn with the same green glowing effect as the ABUNDANCE Rat god.
The Farstriders refer to these vaguely as forest spirits. The rookie you’re working with heard stories about them but they were thought to be killed by the Scourge. But apparently they’re making a comeback.
Considering neighboring Zul’Aman is just crawling with Loa, that’s what these are right? But the Belves presumably don’t have the vocabulary for it so they refer to them obliquely as spirits.
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It’s possibly a lesser wild god (or not, it might be the full deal too, or something different).
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I do like that it’s kept vague. But it’s funny to me they’re regarded with awe and mystery and a wandering Zandalari would go
“Oh that’s nothing. We have one for garbage. Seriously don’t hurt the lizard raccoons if you visit Dazar’Alor, you will get choked out by a furious garbage goddess”
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So, funny thing - I did this quest after the main zone story, and when that first glowy flower appeared, my initial thought was “Oh no, Lightbloom here? Are we supposed to destroy this flower and root out the rest before they settle in? Why is the quest telling me to touch it instead of burn it? Is this yet another story where my character has to do the dumb thing and then deal with getting Lightbloom-infected?”
I did like the questline once I properly shifted my mental framing, but it did feel a bit out-of-sync with the zone story. (Though I prefer this side story to the main one, so yay?)
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I liked that it addresses the efforts to restore the land more than just doing the loredrop of Mirveeda’s notes.
The Zandalari still clearly see them as divine beings and not just trash collection.
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I do hope it is kept vague - the setting is missing entities with mystery and awe left.
I absolutely love Halazzi and the other loa, but I also do want to keep some spirits who stay on the fringes of one’s vision, appear and disappear for unknowable reasons, and do not attempt to be understood.
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That was my exact reaction too.
Mainly because there’s another questline to the south where the Lightbloom is treated as mysterious. And it of course completely does not work if you’ve already done the main questline.
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They’re the way I’ll finally get my Blood Elf Druids. Muahahahaha
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tbf if it happens, it does answer the question of what the land travel form will be, I guess
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Yeah I really appreciated that. I’m a fan of quests that just show how everyday life goes in the setting. And for the Farstriders it’s mostly crucial but unglamorous janitorial and conservation work.
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Unsure but it’s very certainly dream magic. They’re green. Some connection to druidism for sure.
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Loa is a troll word for things they worship. It contains multiple forms of divinities and always have. They would be Loa, but that’s not in itself saying much. Darkspear Druids call Wisps Loa.
They’re probably just local nature spirits. This isn’t an unheard of thing. Lesser animal spirits that aren’t full on wild god level aren’t actually that rare in the lore, darkshore questlines have a few. If the forums allowed linking things this would be a lot easier to show lmao but this isn’t really that uncommon. It’s just rare that they manifest.
What their historical relationship with them is, is unknown. DF doesn’t acknowledge a LOT of questlines and dialogue from TBC about how Quel’thalas is largely something they actively shape to be what they want via magic, to the point of doing annual rituals in villages like Suncrown to show their mastery of nature by binding elemental spirits to service by force.
So who really knows. But it’s not that crazy in itself for Quel’thalas to have nature spirits, most places probably do just not manifesting.
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they always could done belf druids (and NB ones) fit hey awnetd
BOTANISTS
is it same thign as ddruid gameplay no, but most classes and specs dont excit in lore like do in gameplay so druid just be closest thing
Kinda. TBC set up that the Botanists were using another medium for it. If you look at the dungeon entry for the Satyr boss after High Botanist Freywinn it says he’s the one actually giving them the essence to do their stuff.
It’d sorta just be the blood knight situation again.
Probably just lesser Wild Gods, just about any entity with a connection to Life or that Ardenweald can shove into a wildseed counts as one.
As a small point about the blood elves not having the vocabulary for them, “Loa” is also just the term for them for trolls and other races from Zandalar, just like “Ancient” is the Kaldorei term, and “Celestial” is the Pandaren term, “Spirit” is presumably the Thalassian term.
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Whatever they are, they’re very likely tied to the Emerald Dream, given that they use the Dream spirit appearance instead of just a regular ghost appearance. And that all the magic effects in that quest chain are Dream magic effects.
I don’t know if they’re full-on wild gods/loa, but that would be neat if so. My guess is that they’re just animal spirits, really. They didn’t seem particularly powerful (though I suppose they could just be minor wild gods like Lord Renard or something). I’d be happy if they did turn out to be wild gods!
Regardless, they’re a great way to bring about blood elf druids, as mentioned earlier.
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Even Night Elf and Tauren Druids used to learn shapeshift forms from various Spirits:
So wouldn’t be surprising if Blood Elves got to, too.
I really miss class quests, they were so good to establish things, even the distinctions in how a class worked in different societies based on their quests
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