Garuhod’s drink didn’t turn anyone else into Wisps, and more likely was that he didn’t write down his final recipe before turning into a Wisp and rushing away, with Farondis then trying to replicate it.
And there’s actually not a lot to indicate that any undead reached the Shadowlands first. We were never shown any souls being taken out of the Shadowlands, and rather has Kyrians tell us that they were unable to pick up souls that necromancers has gotten to first.
She was also just toying with us. At least until she was trapped in the pressure bubble as we were. Thanks to Jaina and Thalyssra reverse engineering her anti-teleport spell. That occurred a little bit into phase 4.
Either way, i don’t think Farondis’ comment indicates that he was trying to replicate Garuhod’s recipe but to create a new one.
To “discover” something, and not rediscover it, invoking Occam’s razor, they are trying to find a cure, not one that results in explosion (and invokes giggles from the nearby ghosts).
Also “it seems Garuhod’s recipe was incomplete” implies
A) they have a recipe, and it’s incomplete, which the PC could complete- yet the PC doesn’t collect the same ingredients but something new instead.
And doesn’t collect the other ingredients they previously collected.
B) they have the exact recipe used by Garuhod, but it’s incomplete for the purpose they want it- which is to cure the curse.
Logically, option B is the only viable one, and the simplest explanation to this bit of dialogue.
Occam’s Razor requires two equally valid explanations with different levels of complexity, the simpler of which seemingly the more likely to be assumed correct. Occam’s Razor does not apply here, as we can neither determine which idea is more valid (Farondis wants to break the curse and make his people into Wisps or if Farondis wants to break the curse and not turn his people into Wisps), nor can we determine which would be the less complex of the two (recreating an unknown recipe or making an entirely new recipe).
Occam’s Razor basically never applies in lore discussions.
You’re applying Occam’s razor to the motivation of Farondis rather than to the logical path of his dialogue.
I wasn’t talking about Farondis’ motivation, or to the complexity of the recipe but to the implications behind the language used.
And the simplest explanation here is that
the cure was not yet discovered, since Farondis talks about discovering it, and not recreating it
Garuhod’s recipe was known yet incomplete as a cure, rather than incomplete in what was known to Farondis, based on what the PC adds
Garuhod’s recipe was not the cure itself, based on the comic relief nature of the quests and the reaction of the people around him
Also, i disagree that Occam’s razor is inapplicable to lore, but i do agree that we generally lack too much information to apply it to lore, and the use of Occam’s razor is not infallible.
Prince Farondis says: It seems Garuhod’s recipe was incomplete. My alchemists think some bile might be needed to balance this out. It’s supposed to have some amazing properties!
I believe the context of Farondis dialogue is that Garuhod broke the curse and became a wisp but did not leave a full record of the concoction he used, thus it was “incomplete.”
I would also like to add that it is beyond ridiculous that canonically, the player character knows what the final ingredient in Garuhod’s concoction is because we helped him gather the ingredients, but never shared that information with the rest of the Court of Farondis.
Now, now, let’s not be greedy. Is it not enough that the Nightborne have the most beautiful elven city in all of Azeroth?
My comment about Azsuna, and how it ties into the Court of Farondis, is that I’d really like to see it be used as an opportunity for the Nightborne and Night Elves come together to help aid Farondis and his people and mend their own fractured ties.
Why should the Nightborne care? Vandros, a former member of the Court of Farondis that would later flee to Suramar to become Elisande’s advisor, was the informant to Azshara that would see her bring her wrath down on Azsuna.
Why would the Night Elves care? By and large, they wouldn’t, but they are now at least more sympathetic and open to having former Highborne in their ranks, so those ones could express an interest in helping Farondis now that there living situation has been remedied.