That’s still rooted in modern anthropology and Enlightenment era race science lol
Remember, “sociology” for the West, “anthropology” for the Rest was the norm for the past two centuries of academic thought.
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This is not true. At least, not completely. Elune still retained a Following of Priests among the High Elves.
We do find mementos during Legions that indicate the they still did prior to retreating behind their bubble.
10,000 years of being cut off from her probably took their toll though.
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Yes an no.
While the idea that H. sapiens was related to an ape species originating in Africa was indeed born in the late 1800’s, the idea that H. sapiens originated in Africa and Europeans are descended from them did not.
Rather, there was the more commonly accepted “Multiregional hypothesis”, which posited that non-human apes (like H. erectus or something) left Africa and went to other places, where they individually became different races that we may collectively call H. Sapiens as a courtesy and/or due to intermixing, but are fundamentally different clade. It was popular because it very conveniently avoided the idea that African H. sapiens may have been the original inhabitants of Europe, but instead that Europeans merely share a distant common ancestor with Africans/Asians/Pre-Columbian peoples, etc.
Claiming “We Are All Africans” would have gotten you laughed out of the room, as everyone knew that Europeans were about as closely related to any humans out Africa as they were to the great apes.
And it’s from that model, along with Colonial attitudes that the “Lost World” myth and the idea of “evolutionary steps” and “de-evolution” in regards to people/cultures/civilizations came from.
It wasn’t really until paleontological and genetic evidence in the 1980’s better supported that idea that H. sapiens itself came out of Africa that you saw the “We Are All Africans” idea actually take root. And no, people weren’t really keen to jump on it then either, and even if lots of people accept it on an intellectual level, the popular culture still hangs onto the idea of “evolutionary steps”, “de-evolution”, and “superior/inferior” cultures/civilizations.
Like the idea that Elves inherited anything directly from Trolls is simply laughable and reflects poorly on Elves.
"It’s quite obvious that even if Trolls and Elves shared a common ancestor, that they developed quite independently from one another."
“Afterall, just look at how primitive and savage Trolls and their societies are. How could anything as sophisticated and beautiful as Elves be descended from something like that?! Surely, Elves must be the pure creations of Elune, or related to Humans, or something of that nature!” 
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Did the quest about 3 years ago so it’s hazy. But didn’t a blood elf pray to Elune to wipe out a bunch of night elves and humans for killing her brother?
It’s literally the opposite and thanks to the boost of the well of eternity, they pushed away a lot of races and did a lot of genocide which Maiev says with pride against the Naga.
Now looking in restrospective, the Nelf alteration with blood of the world really didn’t make a favor to them at the long run.
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What quest(s) are this?
Elven Magic’s would’ve been way weaker. They lost the well of eternity after all.
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Do you have a source on high elves still worshiping Elune? I was under the impression they all turned to sun worship.
Not even sun worship, really. They adopted more sun-themed aesthetics as a rejection of the old ways, but until some of them started following the Holy Light there’s no real indication that the high elves adopted any new form of spiritual observance when they turned away from the kaldorei cultural emphasis on night, stars and the moon.
Which wouldn’t exactly be surprising. As they began basically worshiping Azshara instead, the Highborne in general had begun dismissing Elune as something of a quaint and less-than-relevent deity revered by the commoners, and even though Dath’remar’s group rejected Azshara, that doesn’t necessarily mean they all went back to prioritizing the worship Elune instead.
Salient and unique details of the high elf Holy Light faith are sparse (one might even say practically nonexistent), but what little there is treats it like a copy-paste of the humans’ faith, akin to the same case with Light reverence among the Ironforge dwarves, suggesting they may have adopted it from early contact with humans (perhaps during the Troll Wars, or maybe even from the vrykul-transplanted human tribes who helped them survive when they first landed in the EK) rather than as part of some new “sun worship” conceived independently by the high elves themselves.
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I suppose when you have arcane magic providing nearly everything you need and want, the allures of spiritual beliefs become less appealing. However, the high/blood elves do seem to at least revere the sun, if not outright worship it. “The eternal sun guides us” as so many blood elf npc’s say, seems to imply some kind of belief system I would think, even if its extremely abstract in nature.
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Source?
Blizzard kind of walked this back in an Ask Cdev.
In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Maiev Shadowsong mentions the night elves wiping out various races in the past. Was this just bluster, or have they actually engaged in genocidal campaigns?
Maiev may not be the most balanced individual on Azeroth, but she does understand the value of intimidating her enemies. The night elves have never completely wiped out a species, though they have engaged in brutal and efficient campaigns of total war that have shattered their enemies’ civilizations, such as the War of the Satyr, in which they completely decimated any semblance of central leadership for the satyrs, forcing them to live in small sects to this day.
Literally the only example they could give is against demons. And that it was more-so bluster.
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Of course they did. Can’t have an Alliance race with anything … “grey” in their history.
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That response actually doesnt say they didnt commit genocide, it just says they never completely 100% wiped a race out, which is pretty hard to do. You dont have to succeed in wiping a species out for it to be genocide, the attempt and some progress is enough.
The satyr may even qualify, if the night elves kept trying to exterminate them even after the satyr were no longer strong enough to pose a threat.
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Hence why I said it only kind of walked it back. It implies her quote (“Naga? Many craven races have tempted our wrath over the centuries. None have survived!”) is incorrect bluster. The fact they can’t give many relevant events is pretty indicative of that.
I don’t think it is all that hard.
A reasonable hypothesis, but not something we can say with any certainty.
The Well of Eternity might have been gone, but the knowledge gleamed from it persisted.
So, racism?
Because they feel themselves as superior?
I know for sure the original design behind them emphasized their #savage nature. Grom of all people stopping to comment on how savage they are is worth emphasizing.
Um… Uuuuuh…
E-excuse me?
Superior to their now extinct ancestor?
Yeah, not really a sense of feeling, just a fact.
What would you call it when you refer to another race as lesser?
Would you say a chicken is superior to a Velociraptor?
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Are you trying to imply that humans are not superior to their great ape ancestors?
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I’m trying to imply that analogizing apes and humans to trolls and elves is inaccurate, as elves aren’t superior to trolls, or vice versa. Trying to say that elves are better then trolls is bluster.
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