Have a nice Wednesday everyone! If our servers hold up today, you’ll read this article on time at 11 – if not, I’m writing it just for myself, yay! Let’s get straight to the point: Warcraft and its many Elven races. Yesterday I had quite a long and animated discussion about the lore of World of Warcraft – if you can’t relate, you should quickly click away.
Like the Blood Elves – only better
With the expansion “Legion”, World of Warcraft introduced a “new old” Elven race that had never appeared in the story before. That in itself is not a big problem, because if you want to expand a world, new elements must be added. But when you look at Nightborne and Blood Elves, you find quite a few parallels.
- Seclusion from the rest of the world: Quel’thalas and Suramar were long protected by barriers.
- Magic addiction that has been exacerbated over centuries.
- A source of nearly inexhaustible arcane energies: The Sunwell and its counterpart, the Moonwell.
stylish ears
When the Blood Elves were introduced in “The Burning Crusade”, they had quite a significant issue with their mana addiction. The Sunwell was corrupted, and they had to rely on Fel magic and leeching from a Naaru to quench their thirst. Unfortunately, the problems of the Blood Elves were completely resolved in TBC: By the end, the Sunwell was cleansed with Light, and all Elves are (basically) doing wonderfully again.
When you look around in Suramar, you often get the impression: “Wow, that’s how Blood Elves should be” and “That would have been cool with the Blood Elves!” The vineyards, Shal’Aran, the whole area around the capital, the singing children in the city – all of this creates a much prettier, darker, and more thoughtful image than back then with the Blood Elves. Sure, time moves on, and technology has advanced 10 years. But the fact that Silvermoon is still at the state of BC doesn’t really help.
What also troubles me is the simple knowledge that nothing “drastic” can ever happen with the Blood Elves, such as a change of loyalties. Story-wise, it would make sense for the Blood Elves to reunite with the (still remaining) High Elves or even join the Alliance. But that simply can’t happen for one reason: Player characters. It would mean a shift for players.
This brings me to another thing that really bothers me about MMORPGs: The static nature of the story. Sure, with Legion there are quite a few cool stories. But you can never expect any real “blockbusters”, such as the destruction of one of the major factions. In those moments, I wish again for a Warcraft 4 – but it probably won’t happen in this decade.
Maybe what bothers me about the well-thought-out coolness of the Nightborne is that the Blood Elves behind them fade away completely and seem utterly boring. But hey, you can’t have it all.
