Posts with tag night-elves

A soothing light fills you as you approach the naaru. Slow musical chimes echo within your mind and though a word is not uttered, you feel an assurance of safety.

The Sept. 13 publication date of Wolfheart, the newest WoW novel written by Richard Knaak, draws ever closer. We know surprisingly little about it at the moment. We know that it will take place on Kalimdor but will focus on King Varian Wrynn and his relationship with the wolf spirit Goldrinn and the new members of the Alliance, the Worgen. If you're eager for more information though, you're in luck. Shelfari, a book wiki run by Amazon.com, has the first chapter of the book available to read.

Click here for your free sample chapter and choose the Read First Chapter Free button below the picture of the book cover on the left side of the page. You'll be able to read the first chapter, as well as the chapter titles for the book (by pushing the back arrow on the pages). There are going to be a lot of spoilers in both the chapter names and the chapter itself, of course, so read at your own risk. For a quick (spoiler-filled) summary and a discussion of the possibilities, check after the break.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

The worgen are the newest race to hit Alliance side, and though they are humans affected by a curse, they aren't exactly the same as your run-of-the-mill humans we've been playing since vanilla. Worgen roleplayers have a ton of information thrown at them during the starting levels, but after the fight is over and everyone's moved on, it seems as though there's not much in the way of excitement or roleplay potential.

That isn't necessarily the case. The main issue I have with worgen -- and to a degree, their Horde counterparts the goblins -- lies in the fact that you are inundated with so much information in those first few levels. The story moves at a frenetic pace, and unless you're paying close attention, it can quickly become an overwhelming experience. Despite the relative lull after the starting experience is over, there is plenty for worgen roleplayers to use, even at level 85.

We need to get serious for a minute here. I've been quiet about a lot of issues that World of Warcraft and Cataclysm have brought to light over the six-plus months that the expansion has been rolling. I've turned a blind eye to many aspects of the game that have bothered and bugged me, from disconnects to warrior rage issues. With the Firelands and tier 12 armor sets, an issue has surfaced that I can no longer stay silent about and has sent me into a spiral of hate-fueled rants to my guildmates as well as sleepless nights over how I am going to cope with this looming curse.

My night elf cannot have red hair.

Let me explain why this is such a frigging big deal to me and all night elves across Azeroth. As a protection warrior, I need to not only bring my A-game when fighting the nastiest creatures that Ragnaros and the Firelands can throw at me, I have to look good doing it. As a main tank, my raid team and guild look to me for guidance, safety, and momentum. How, Blizzard, can I effectively be that focal point of magnanimous support and a pillar of raid success when my beautiful new tier armor can never match my hair? How am I supposed to lead gracefully and with assertion when I have to see a pale blue or (god forbid) purple-hued color atop my unhelmeted head?

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today.

100% out of spite, editor-approved.

Fletcher asked:

In 4.2 we see Malfurion getting all buddy-buddy with Thrall and playing Yoda to Thrall's Skywalker. We see druids who think the night elves should be actually taking the fight to the Horde in Ashenvale turned into disposable mooks for Ragnaros. Is there any bloody chance we'll ever actually see the Night Elves kick butt and take names like they did in WC3?

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This week, we repair to Teldrassil.

I owe you guys a cheat sheet for patch 4.0.3a and probably something on the recent tank cooldown announcements, but with raids still being tested on the beta, I'm afraid that Blizzard will make whatever I write obsolete within days. My informal sense of class balance as things stand now is that bears needed to be nerfed, cats might be nerfed a little bit (though perhaps not at all) and restoration is definitely going to get nerfed. I was wrong to predict that Blizzard would shy away from encounters with massive raid damage, though not as wrong as Blizzard was in reinstituting it. Rejuvenation spam, hoooooooo!

Anyway. In addition to updating our 101 and leveling guides when Cataclysm settles down, I've wanted to write a more lore-centric series on the new worgen and troll druids. While drafting those, I realized that what I really wanted to do was write a series on each druidic race now that the choice is more complicated than, "Are you playing Alliance or Horde?" While there are folks out there who can and will spend time on a character rolled purely for utility, most of us need to care about a toon in order to play it extensively. It's not really about roleplaying, it's about ... personality, for lack of a better word? As an example, I wound up deleting my first night elf because she bore a terrifying resemblance to Cher. I mean no offense to anyone who's a fan of her music, but the idea of Cher being able to Berserk is, at best, disturbing.

We'll start today with the original druids, the night elves.

The full series is available here:

1. Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a night elf druid
2. Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a tauren druid
3. Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a worgen druid
4. Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a troll druid

One of the better kept secrets of vanilla WoW is a zone called Quel'thalas. (Be careful not to confuse this with the zone Isle of Quel'danas.) If you're not a lore buff, Quel'thalas is the kingdom of the Quel'dorei, or blood elves, as they're now known. (Check out Elven Evolution and Current Horde Politics: the Blood Elves for the full story.) The blood elf zones we know in WoW as Silvermoon City, Eversong Woods and Ghostlands are all considered part of Quel'thalas -- but those are not the zones I'm talking about today.

The Quel'thalas I'm referring to is a tiny peninsula northeast of Tirisfal Glades. It isn't accessible by road or flight path, only water, and when you arrive you'll be greeted by ... nothing. There aren't any NPCs, enterable buildings or quest legs -- just an empty, unexplained mystery. Take a look.

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for the novel Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak. Readers still in the middle of the novel may want to veer away from this post, as I'll be discussing events covered over the course of the book.

Now that we've established what happened to Tyrande and Malfurion (in the midst of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ... stuff), we can begin to pick apart what happened in between the Sundering, the Third War, and present day. Tyrande Whisperwind is currently leading the night elves along with Archdruid Fandral Staghelm -- and Staghelm has a history that also stretches back thousands of years, one that's led him to his current less-than-friendly leadership.

Fandral Staghelm was born about 1,000 years after the Sundering and studied the druidic arts under Malfurion Stormrage, soon rising in ranks and becoming one of Malfurion's top lieutenants as well as training many of the new Druids of the Wild. Where Malfurion was even-tempered and kind, Fandral was hotheaded and aggressive, frequently clashing with Malfurion, and nowadays Tyrande over how night elf society should be run. He holds many strong beliefs that echo the beliefs of ancient night elves, including the belief that night elves are the supreme race on the planet, all other races are inferior, and night elves are the only "true" druids. Charming, isn't he?

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

While I had plenty of fun with Horde politics, I couldn't really cover the Horde side of the game without giving equal time to the Alliance half as well, so the next few weeks will be catching up on Alliance politics. Admittedly the Alliance hasn't had quite as tumultuous a time as the Horde, but there are still several factors coming into play that haven't previously been addressed. Varian Wrynn may make an ... exciting and explosive new leader, but the rest of the Alliance we see today is still fairly new as well. Today we'll be looking at the Alliance race with the largest impact on both the Alliance, and Azeroth both past and present day -- the night elves.

While the events of the War of the Ancients and the Sundering are well known, the events surrounding the night elves' allegiance to the Alliance are still a little cloudy. Was it simply gratitude to the Alliance for their help during the Third War and the events at Hyjal that caused them to join? If so, why did they turn away from the Horde, when they were present at Hyjal as well? For the night elves, the answer boils down to this: It's all about the trees.

I love reading the comments on KYL. Sometimes you guys have some really great ideas, and sometimes you guys know just where to poke a hole in whatever fanciful theory I've got out for discussion -- but by and large, it's just nice to see people asking questions and thinking. The bonus to having comments, however, is that I can see where people are confused and put together something to straighten it all out. The subject today is elven evolution -- the difference between the night elves, blood elves, high elves, Highborne, Shen'dralar, quel'dorei, sin'dorei and all those other terms thrown out there that make the simple process of figuring out where all those elves originated incredibly confusing. Elven evolution is fairly straightforward; it's just the extra terminology that throws people.

All elven ancestry starts with the kaldorei, which means "children of the stars" in their native tongue. These guys are night elves, and they are the first elves that ever existed and the elves from which all elven ancestry on Azeroth originates. Don't think of them exactly the same as the night elves we can play in Warcraft today, but as a slightly older version, though they looked virtually the same. Malfurion, Illidan, Tyrande, Azshara ... All of these elves were descendants of the original kaldorei.

Where the kaldorei came from is up in the air, though there are multiple theories. The night elves believe that the kaldorei were originally their own race, a primitive group of nomadic, nocturnal creatures who settled by the Well of Eternity and were blessed by Elune, transformed and subsequently adopting the name kaldorei. Ancient troll legends suggest that those nomads who settled by the Well of Eternity were actually trolls that were turned into the first kaldorei. This is where the crux of that argument about the elves' origins stems from. The elves believe that the primitive group of nomads were simply early elves who hadn't evolved into "proper" elves yet, and the trolls believe that the primitive group of nomads were actually primitive trolls who split off from the Amani Empire.

WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader!

We recently spoke to Nexus-Prince Haramad, leader of the ethereal Consortium, and he shed light on several key issues, including goblin rearrangement, investment opportunities, bad business practices, proprietary bandage technology, and static cling. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Archdruid Fandral Staghelm of the Cenarion Circle.

Our first reader question:

Dear Fandral Staghelm,

Over the years, I have many times assisted your morrowgrain research. I have found many weird plants in my quest for that elusive herb. I have been awarded many (useless but, I am sure, heartfelt) scrolls and pieces of food by your research team. My question is: Where is all this effort ending up? What end does all this morrowgrain research lead to?

Sincerely,
Bowjób-Lightbringer EU

Staghelm responds:

Look, pal, when I send you on an errand, you say "how high." You don't ask "what exactly do you need all of this eldritch herb for." I need it, you need to get it for me. You know the saying? Yours is not to question why, etc?

Oh, wonderful. See her, over there? My handler is signaling me. I guess that means "answer the poorly-named hunter's (yes, I know you're a hunter) question, you magnificent king among kaldorei." I guess it's just as well, I got a dozen emails about what I was doing with morrowgrain.

Fine. The big reveal. What am I doing with morrowgrain?

This is one of the many reasons why I really enjoy this job: one day, you're talking turkey with a psychologist who's dealing with serious addiction issues, and the next, you're writing about Night Elves in Guitar Hero 5. Personally, I prefer Harmonix's new Beatles game, but there's no denying that the character customization system in our very own Activision-Blizzard's Guitar Hero 5 is extremely complex. So much so that Artair on Doomhammer was actually able to make a pretty respectable-looking Night Elf male with the system.

Which really just makes it much more ridiculous that this thing could be playing onstage with none other than Kurt Cobain. But we'll let that one go -- if you've found a way to get any other Warcraft characters jamming in Guitar Hero (or any other game with an in-depth character creator), be sure to send us a tip and some pics.

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

As you know, the new race and class combinations coming up in the Cataclysm will open a whole new set of doors to people who want an alternative character choice that goes against the grain of their typical racial customs, to one degree or another. With the exception of a couple combinations that feel as though they should have been there from the beginning (such as blood elf warriors, which need no discussion here), each new possibility presents roleplayers with an opportunity to play an outcast of sorts, a character who has made a significant break from the traditions his or her race usually represent.

The lore behind each combination is not yet fully clear. We know tauren paladins will probably worship the sun and call themselves "Sunwalkers" for instance, but not much more than that. Some things are clear, though, and there's a lot to get the imagination going for those roleplayers who yearn to play something a little different.

For some, the Worgen seem unlikely members of the Alliance. These lupine creatures have a long history within Azeroth, even if no one is quite sure where or - to quote Chris Metzen, "when" - they come from. The choice to include the isolationist zone of Gilneas is logical. After all Arugal's infamous Shadowfang Keep is located just north of the Greymane Wall, right up the road. Added to this the fact a Gilnean hasn't been seen in a decade, well that makes them ripe for a lorefest. Blizzard have all but confirmed it was their isolationist attitude which led to the people of Gilneas becoming Worgen but if that is the case then it's kind of ironic. They hid to escape the undead plague and instead succumbed to another infection entirely.

Formally humans and now Worgen, the trailer hints that it will be the efforts of the Night Elves which will see the Worgen joining the Alliance. Now this in interesting because the Night Elves have their own history with the Worgen, Velinde Starsong and the Scythe of Elune. But given that the Gilnean Worgen are the only other Alliance race who can become Druids, there's an even deeper link between the two races. Also, given that Druids are skilled shapeshifters, the Night Elves could hold the key to helping the people of Gilneas deal with their curse.

Now the werewolves on which the Worgen are based are lunar creatures. In the most popular mythology they are forced to transform when the moon is full but this is not always the case. Part of this can be seen in the Wolfcult of Northrend's Grizzly Hills who remain in human form until forced into combat. For the Night Elves, who revere the larger silvery orb known as the White Lady as their supreme Goddess, Elune, the Worgen are a part of their mytholgy. While in the past, the Scythe of Elune storyline has been a big part of Worgen lore, how much of it and the pull of the Moon - which is found in traditional werewolf lore - will make it into Cataclysm remains to be seen.

This is part of the excitement of a new expansion, the promise of the unknown is just that, so promising! For a short time, our imaginations can wander without the constraints of fact and detail. We can dream of what we want the Worgen and, specifically, the Druid class to be within the lore of Azeroth. Regardless of what this might be in the end, there is definitely going to be a close bond between the Kaldorei and the people of Gilneas which will shape how World of Warcraft moves into a post-Cataclysm age.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert, erroneously described by Alex Ziebart as "universally adored" on this site (whisper the phrase "I hate Tauren cat form" in Turtlehead's direction and run) is your hostess today.

Mmmm...my favorite kind of Queue, the kind with a tank question. Actually, there were two good tank questions from the previous Queue, but the one asked by Gatorforest is something I'd like to address in a separate article. Additionally, two of the questions you'll see here wound up requiring fairly involved answers, so there are a few more questions I'd like to take a crack at sometime later this weekend if I get the time.

And because it's Friday:

Charlie asks...

How many Queue columns does it take for one to finally reach the front of the line?

The readers or the writers? I don't know about the former, but for us, it depends on the outcome of the previous day's in-staff gladiatorial match. Much like Mary Sues in the now-classic Pirate Monkey comic, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Actually, I'm just using this as an excuse to quote the following:

Professor Flitwick: Wait, she said she's both Dumbledore's and Snape's daughter. How is that possible?

Dumbledore: Ehh, remember that Christmas party where we all got really drunk?