Teldrassil is the new home of the Night Elves. During the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Malfurion Stormrage, Archdruid of the Night Elves, called on the power of the spirits of the forest to help the Night Elves, Humans and Orcs to fight the forces of Archimonde and the Scourge. After a desperate delaying tactic on the part of Jaina Proudmoore, leader of the humans, Warchief Thrall, leader of the Horde, and Tyrande Whisperwind, High Priestess of Elune, the spirits lashed out at Archimonde as he climbed the World Tree, Nordrassil, to get to the Well of Eternity beneath it. The spirits defeated Archimonde, but the release of power burned the forests around Nordrassil and the tree itself was sent into hibernation. Losing the World Tree meant that the Night Elves lost their immortality, and would eventually lose their powers over nature.
Now homeless, the Night Elves chose to return to Ashenvale. The forests they patrolled for centuries would be their home, but there were those who did not wish to accept immortality. One of these was another Archdruid, Fandral Staghelm. Staghelm, and a cadre of other druids, stole a seed from the old World Tree and together planted it off the coast of Darkshore, a more recent settlement of the Night Elves, not far from the ruins of some old Night Elven cities. The mighty tree grew, without the knowledge of Tyrande and Malfurion.
Staghelm then sought the blessings of Ysera the Dreamer, Alexstrasza the Lifebringer and Nozdormu the Timeless, the three dragon aspects that had blessed the first World Tree. Nozdormu chided Staghelm for his greed, and refused to grant his blessing, and his "sisters" followed suit, leaving the new tree, Teldrassil, to grow twisted by dark energies.
Regardless of this fact, or in fact because of it, the night elves have built a new capital city, perhaps the first capital city they have had for millennia, on Teldrassil, naming it Darnassus, in honour of their native tongue, and there is a druid enclave, as well as a large temple to the Moon Goddess there as well. What does Malfurion think of such a thing? Well, we don't know, because he's been in a coma for the past four years, and Tyrande cannot wake him, nor reach him, nor can his fellow druids.
Why Can't Night Elves Cast Arcane Magic?
Once, many Night Elves were wielders of powerful sorcery, by virtue of channeling the powers of the Well of Eternity, the cradle of sentient life on Azeroth. They were led by a beautiful and powerful queen named Azshara. She ruled for many centuries over her immortal subjects, who renamed their capital city Zin-Azshari, "The Glory of Azshara", after her. After a time, however, Azshara was contacted by a powerful being, known as Sargeras. Sargeras promised Azshara power if she opened a portal for him that would lead him to Azeroth. She agreed, and she commissioned her Highborne, the elitist sorcerers, to begin opening a portal.
For years the sorcerers worked in secret, while her Night Elf subjects slumbered peacefully during the day. If they had remained ignorant, perhaps things would have been easier, but some of the Night Elves became aware of Azshara's dealings. Malfurion Stormrage, a young night elf studying the arts of Druidism from the demi-god Cenarius, his twin brother Illidan Stormrage, inclined to both sorcery and sword, and Tyrande Whisperwind, a priestess of the Moon. During the invasion of the Burning Legion, the Stormrage brothers and Tyrande played a crucial role in the defeat of the Burning Legion. Illidan defeated a powerful pitlord in single combat, earning the twin blades he still fights with, and the title of Demon Hunter. Tyrande earned the right to be high priestess of Elune after the death of the previous high priestess, and Malfurion was the one to stop the Burning Legion, by destroying the Well of Eternity.
The destruction of the Well had two serious effects, one being that a huge vortex of energy was unleashed upon Zin-Azshari, chewing away at the city and surrounding lands, and the other was that the destruction of the Well made magic universal, rather than forcing it to be channeled solely from the Well, though its power was diminished. The Night Elves fled, and when the waters finally calmed, the continent of Kalimdor had been split in two. This Sundering was felt the world over, and greatly changed the landscape. The Night Elves went to Mount Hyjal, now frighteningly close to the sea, and established a base there, but they learned that something was not right.
A new Well of Eternity scintillated in what was once an ordinary lake on the peaks of the mountain. Illidan, unwilling to give up his sorcery and immortality, had created a new Well, certain that he had saved the Night Elves. Malfurion, on the other hand, understood that the new Well would attract the attention of the Burning Legion, and for this crime, Illidan was banished beneath the earth, and Malfurion commissioned Maiev Shadowsong, a young Warden, to watch him for as long as necessary.
Now Malfurion was faced with the problem of the Well. He outlawed all arcane magic practices, and druidism was taught more prevalently. The remaining Highborne, specifically those that chose to reject the Burning Legion once Azshara's schemes became apparent, rebelled against the idea of losing their magic, and began to use arcane magic, even making a display of power in Ashenvale which destroyed a large amount of forest. Malfurion exiled the Highborne, not wanting to have them killed, and then heaved a sigh of relief. He then had to deal with the new Well. The Dragon Aspects Ysera, Alexstrasza and Nozdormu offered to aid Malfurion. With them they brought the acorn of a great tree, which they would plant in the Well. With their blessing, the tree would become strong and protect the Well from demonic use, as well as the use from other elves. In return, however, Malfurion and the Druids would need to spend time in Ysera's realm, the Emerald Dream, tending to its ever-changing pathways.
Malfurion agreed, and though it pained her to see him go, Tyrande agreed. She became the leader of the Night Elf Sentinels, and she and her people patrolled Kalimdor, protecting the ancient forests from demons. In conclusion, it is for this reason that the Night Elves abhor Arcane magic of all kinds.
Note: While not immediately obvious, these events did not all happen at once. The War of the Ancients, the first war against the Burning Legion, took 10 years. The previous lead-in to the war was nearly 100 years. The time between Illidan's banishment to the exile of the Highborne was 600 years. It's important to remember that a long period of time happened between events, because 10 000 years passed between the original war and the second invasion.
Who Is Rend Blackhand?
The orcish tribes, after massacring the Draenei, one of the other races native to Draenor, began to fight amongst each other. Gul'dan, once an orc shaman, however, had other plans for his people. Sargeras, through Medivh, wanted Gul'dan and his orcs to open a portal to Azeroth and attack the humans, but for this, the orcs would need a leader. Gul'dan feared that some of the stronger warchiefs, such as Orgrim Dooomhammer or Grom Hellscream would seize control of the Horde and halt his schemes, so he appointed a puppet ruler, a brutal warrior named Blackhand, as the warchief. He then formed a council of Warlocks which would rule the Horde from the shadows, and called themselves the Shadow Council.
Not all the warriors, however, wished to be a part of such schemes, and one warchief of a smaller tribe, the Frostwolf clan, spoke against Gul'dan, and for this Durotan and his tribe were exiled. Then, the invasion of Azeroth began. The orcs spent four years evaluating the situation, then began to assault Stormwind, the human capital of Azeroth. They defeated the humans of Azeroth, and then proceeded to move north, but Blackhand the Destroyer was not meant to lead the next invasion, because Orgrim Doomhammer, with help from Blackhand's daughter, assassinated Blackhand and replaced him as Warchief of the Horde. Blackhand also had two sons, Rend and Maim (charming names, really), and one of his sons, Rend, chose to claim himself as Warchief and reestablish himself in Blackrock Spire, the Orcish Stronghold of Azeroth. The orcs that follow him, however, are the orcs who chose to reject the reintroduction of the shamanistic culture by Thrall, who was appointed Warchief by Doomhammer, when he was killed during a battle of Hammerfall.
Why Are There Still Warlocks?
Warlocks are not necessarily linked only to the Shadow Council. There have been demon worshippers on Azeroth for as long as there have been Demons, which is to say, for a very long time. Not unlike mages in their arrogance, warlocks have always believed that they could control and manipulate demonic power, and some can, for a time. Even after the return of the Burning Legion, or perhaps because of its return, there are still those among the orcs, humans and gnomes who practice demon magic.
Why haven't the leaders done anything about this? Well, in the case of the humans, it's entirely possible that they don't know the warlocks are even there, and it's simply a cadre of secretive mages. Also, demon worshippers rarely advertise what they do. In the case of gnomes, since they are incredibly inquisitive, it is not surprising that some have embraced demonic magic. As for the orcs, there are those who despite paying lip service to Thrall, never stopped being a part of the Shadow Council, and the Shadow Council still recruits those that despise the humans, or simply want the power only the demons can give them. Thrall is aware of these warlocks, however, and can limit the amount of damage they cause by tracking their movements, rather than simply having them killed. It's a good arrangement; Thrall lets them live, and Neeru Fireblade thinks Thrall is an idiot.
Why Doesn't Kylian Put On Some Pants?
Kylian is an NPC from a roleplaying game I am in. He is a High/Blood Elf warlock, and the first time our party saw him, he answered the door wearing a bathrobe. He gave our party information, mention that someone tried to kill him, and they may send another, then we left. Later, when we saw him again, he was naked in a circle, wearing a collar, and being tortured by a very cranky warden in bondage gear and knives. Apparently, when she showed up at his door, he told her she didn't look anything like the ad[1] and then ganked him.
Ariana (my character), gave him her cape as a towel, so he walked around wearing with a cape for a while, then, when they were fleeing an exploding fortress (darn load-bearing bosses...), he cast a spell that he was kicked out of the Kirin Tor for inventing[2], which blasted a chunk off of the fortress and then ride down to Draenor. While this didn't kill the party, it did destroy Kylian's towel-cape. He then needed another cape.
Later, when the passed through a portal to return to Azeroth, and subsequently ended up in Nethergarde Keep[3], when the group was told to raise their hands, the towel fell off. They told Kylian to hold his towel, and eventually they got him some clothes.
When they returned Kylian to his home in Ratchet, he finally got his normal clothes back, a set of nice robes and silk boxers. And that's the story of naked Kylian.
1 - When you commission a prostitute, they have images of the prostitute, and so by saying "you don't look anything like the ad", he implied that she was a prostitute. He meant to say it when our party showed up, to Grosh'tar, the male orcish warrior. This probably would have gotten him slapped.
2 - You don't get kicked out of the Kirin Tor for any old reason. This spell was a Doomsday spell. Apparently Kylian only casts spells that make things explode. This lack of diversification occurred to him when getting ganked by the warden and her cronies.
3 - "So have you ever considered just throwing bombs through the portal?" "Och, we tried that!" "So what happened?" "They threw 'em back! Why do you think it's at the bottom of a crater?!"
What's The Difference Between High Elves and Blood Elves?
After the destruction of Quel'thalas, the High Elves were displaced from their home, and suffered from withdrawal from Arcane Magic. The Sunwell, centre of High Elven society since they established Quel'thalas, had been corrupted by Arthas when he resurrected Kel'thuzad. Kael'thas Sunstrider, son of the last Sunstrider king, tried to remain loyal to the Alliance, but the commander of Lordaeron's forces, Grand Marshal Garithos, was somewhat racist[1], and quickly alienated the non-human forces still in the Alliance. Some of the high elves, led by Kael'thas, burned down the remaining forests of Silvermoon, donned red clothing in memory of their fallen nation, and declared themselves blood elves.
Kael'thas encountered Lady Vashj, representative of the naga, and she aided him during the missions Garithos set for Kael, probably expecting him to be killed or fail, but he succeeded because of the naga. Garithos accused Kael of being a traitor, and captured him and his blood elf brethren. Vashj freed Kael and then helped him free his people. Kael no longer felt any need to be a part of the Alliance, and Vashj promised him that if he came with her, and worked for Illidan, he would help the blood elves sate their magic addiction. He agreed, and they departed for Outland. Illidan told Kael that while he couldn't fix his magic addiction, he could feed it, by absorbing magic from demons, long fonts of magic.
The blood elves helped Illidan in his battle against the Scourge, but in the end, Arthas triumphed over Illidan, and merged with the Lich King. Illidan, Vashj, and a humiliated Kael[2] now wait in Outland, hiding from Kil'jaeden and plotting against Arthas.
Meanwhile, back on Azeroth, there are still high elf lodges in northern Lordaeron, trying desperately not to be wiped out by the Scourge, the trolls, or the Horde. They attempt to reestablish ties with the Aerie Peak dwarves, long allies of the elves but not fond of the Alliance.
While the blood elves have not been seen in quite some time, I believe that the next time they are seen, they will be significantly different in appearance from the high elves, due to repeated exposure to demon magic, and as the orcs know, once you drink deep from a demon's cup, it's almost impossible to escape.
1 - Garithos was a little racist the way Hitler was a little racist...
2 - During the battle for the Frozen Throne, Arthas taunts both Illidan and Kael. I will eventually go back and copy the exact wording.
Illidan: Hello, Arthas,
Arthas: You've changed, Illidan. Did you eat something that disagreed with you?
Arthas (to Kael): Are you still upset that I stole Jaina from you?
Why Is Staghelm Such A Douche?
Fandral Staghelm is an Archdruid, and the current leader of the Night Elven druids. He has not made his distaste for Tyrande a secret, and perhaps the only reason why he gets away with it is that Malfurion is in a coma.
Staghelm has also managed to alienate the Cenarion Circle, which is led by Keeper Remulos, one of the sons of Cenarius. The Cenarion Circle accepts both night elf and tauren druids, something that Staghelm does not like. He does not deem tauren "worthy" of being part of the Cenarion Circle.
And of course, the fact that Staghelm refused to accept the fact that the night elves would lose their immortality so he chose to plant a tree for his own selfishness that is warping the surrounding land, sea and air also doesn't thrill me.
Ahem...
Staghelm: "Tyrande has no idea how to lead our people!" "I have vision that she does not!"
Tyrande: Right... who's got two thumbs and patrolled Ashenvale for 6000 years? That's right, *I* do.
I may dislike Tyrande, but I really hate Staghelm. I hope he gets violated my Malfurion's entangling roots.
What's With Gnomeregan?
Gnomeregan was the home of the gnomes. The gnomes took part in the Second War, providing valuable gnomish submarines, and significantly less valuable gnomish flying machines.[1] They were not in the Third War, because a crisis was occurring at home. Chief Mekgineer Thermaplugg conspired with the troggs and Dark Iron dwarves and they broke into Gnomeregan. In a desperate attempt to fight the dwarves, High Tinker Mekkatorque, released radiation upon the troggs. Unfortunately, the radiation not only didn't work against the troggs, but it infected many gnomes, and they became leper gnomes, and believed that their "gnome-ies" were troggs, and fought them.
The rest of the gnomish race has been evacuated to Ironforge, where the gnomes come up with schemes -- some of them quite mad -- to regain their homeland.
1 - Gnomish flying machines (which originally had the typo gnomish fiery machines due to a background conversation) were not particularly useful in Warcraft II. They were flying scouting units, and pretty well not worth having more than one. There was a trick, however, which if you hovered the flying unit over an enemy sea unit, while your other enemy unit fired, you could damage their unit with the splash damage, particularly if you moved quickly. This could also work if you taunted the enemy air unit dragon over their buildings, the splash damage would damage the farm. Other fun things (which were fixed in patches) were invisible dwarven demo squads and invincible goblin sapper teams.
What's The Relationship Between Jaina And Thrall?
In World of Warcraft, Horde cannot go to Theramore, and Alliance cannot go to Orgrimmar, but Jaina and Thrall are still strong allies in their battle against the Burning Legion and the Scourge. Their alliance was greatly strained when Jaina's father, Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, came to Kalimdor and immediately started attacking the Horde. In the end, Jaina chose to help Thrall, rather than her father, and this ultimately resulted in Daelin Proudmoore's death. Subsequently, Thrall left Jaina to mourn, and hoped that such a circumstance would never happen again.
Since that time, Jaina and Thrall have strictly restricted access to each others' people, though they do meet regularly in a more neutral location. Because of the nature of World of Warcraft, Jaina and Theramore, once a very important faction, are almost a footnote compared to the massive lands held by Stormwind. Stormwind, inevitably, will hear nothing of a truce between Horde and Alliance, and attack them when they can. This makes for a dangerous precedent.
As a more personal note, there have been whispers of a more physical relationship between Jaina and Thrall, which appear to be untrue -- for now. It is clear they care about each other enough not to immediately assume the worst about one another, and they respect each others' abilities. Whether this is love or not... only time will tell, but when Blizzard starts spreading rumours about their own characters, it makes you stop and think. Also, one of the easter eggs in the game is that the punchcard machines in Gnomeregan are phrases in binary, and one of them translates to "Jaina and Thrall, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G".
Regardless, the rumours, in conjunction with Jaina's choosing of Thrall over her father, have made some of her people lose faith in her, and there are whispers of "traitor" that will undoubtedly reach her. Her people are already beginning to divide along pro-Jaina and pro-Daelin lines. The high elves are becoming more alienated because of the night elves, and the dwarves are more interested in their Titan roots than politics. All of this leads to trouble for one Jaina Proudmoore. She could use a strong ally.
...
Ok, on a very personal note, I totally support Jaina/Thrall. I think it's entirely reasonable to think their friendship could have blossomed into love, and I cannot picture Thrall with any orc, really, and Jaina's already proven her mind is open to the unconventional. She used to date Kael'thas, after all, at least until Arthas "stole" her. I don't know how much Jaina knows about what happened in Lordaeron, but at the very least she has to know Arthas became a death knight. I'm sure she has some soul-searching to do, and Thrall may be just the person to help her do it. Also, if Jaina and Thrall did have a more open relationship, they may be able to induce the half-orcs and half-elves to support her. They have never had a true home, and few thought of them when things began to fall apart. If Jaina can convince them to support her, it could help her teeny little island nation. It mildly bothers me that the humans are stuck on one small island, but the Horde have spread out over large zones. Perhaps that will change, in time.
Hey, D, did you know your town was under attack by bears?
...yes, Bill. Jerk.
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