Alright - so I haven’t been able to respond to some of the feedback from this. Now I can.
No. The War of Thorns should be used by the night elves to go back to their Long Vigil “roots” and remain delocalised and available through Northern Kalimdor, constantly on guard for new attacks. They amp up their borders in Ashenvale but have mobile delocalised settlements (as their buildings actually allow them to do with the Ancients) and reinforcements from the Vindicaar and LF draenei in Ashenvale.
I don’t see why this has to be a choice. As for Teldrassil itself - I used to hold that position, but I increasingly see Teldrassil or some kind of a permanent settlement being the route to further development. My personal bias is definitely creeping in here, but I’d love the graft the “layered city” idea that the Deus Ex’s Hengsha island showcased - just a lot more spread out, using more levels, and accomplished via wisp construction and druidism. I think that Night Elves need to have some answer for things like trade, working with other nations, and industrialization. I’d like to see them put their own spin on it, and make it uniquely theirs, but even so.
Because as poorly as they handled Sylvanas, the reality is that she ran off and didn’t give a toss about them. The entire Forsaken race deciding to engage in a collective delusion about that fact is silly. They can (and should) reject Calia at every turn. She is not Forsaken, and will never understand what that name entails.
I don’t want to seem hyperbolic, but it just reeks of the abused running back to their abuser. This is a chance for them to break free of that.
This doesn’t mean they should reject the core tenets of what being Forsaken means, but to deludedly revere Sylvanas is just not a good idea. You can explore how the individualistic society of the Forsaken deals with these fractures, and I think that would be good - no Forsaken is like another, and they all need to come to terms with their longest and only leader having seen them as pawns, and an Alliance who seems quite adamant on pushing Calia and the light-infused undead upon them.
I think I could have been more careful with the “god” phrasing. This came from an idea that I and others kicked around with a Blood Elf fan, who is pretty adamant in his belief that Sylvanas is such a central tenet to forsaken identity that removing her entirely just isn’t feasible. This was an attempt to make her impact on the Forsaken identity lasting - because right now, without their central character, the Forsaken don’t have an independent identity - and the options for rebuilding that identity … well, I get the strong sense that they don’t appeal to forsaken players. I’m certainly open to other suggestions here of course. I’m not a Forsaken fan, so I can’t claim to know what they want as well as they do.
What happened to blizzard wasn’t gonna recover from bfa mhmmm
The next 10K should be pretty interesting as a comparative note. But, you’re mistaken if you believe that something of the size of WoW can go down all at once. I believe we are witnessing further decline. I’d like to see that decline reversed.