night elfs CHOSE to stop using magic as at the time their fear of using it was greater than the risks involved in not having it as an option against their enemies.

the situation has changed.

their predicament dictates that they need to use all means available to them to defend themselves, therefore they have now CHOSEN to allow its use again.

If Warcraft 3 was a MMO people would be "WTF?!!? THE ORCS AND THRALL AND TRAVLING WEST R THEY COLOMBUS ?!?! OMG COWMEN IN WARCRAFT!! THIS IS A FANTASY GAME COWMEN HAVE NOTHING TO DO IN A FANTASY GAME!! THIS IS WARCRAFT NOT GREEK MYTHOLIGY!"

Is it really so hard for people to see that the people and races of Warcraft is changing and evolving. I mean the mere thought of the alliance and horde fighting together in a epic battle against a common foe would make me laugh at the time i played WC2. And it happend and it was quite good.

SENSIBLE LORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE!!
exactly..the Cataclysm is a big change. ALL races are affected by it. I mean ALL.

I think the race/class combination changes are the most effective way blizzard can convey how the races have reacted to it. There have to be some surprising changes, or little expected ones across the board. THere is enough background lore to make EVERY new race/class combination be authentic. This is why they did nto give any more, and is why the Draenei didn't get one more to make Horde/Alliance have 45 combinations each. Still i think if they were to make a 45th it would the Nelf PAladin, as you already see one training in MAestra's post and the sentinels are holy warriors, really paladin like already. It probably didn't make it, because it would be too much for night elves to start having converts to a different religion when Elune is so real to them.

NIght Elf mages is one of the things that will come as a result of the Cataclysm. THe Night ELves are the only playable race that have people alive that saw the first sundering, they know how to react to change. What a lot of people don't seem to be discerning is why the NIght ELves gave up magic.

They feared it would bring back the legion, and bottom line it was a self-imposed punishment for nearly destroying the world they had hoped to return to a paradise like state. Off coruse they grossly over-reacted. This is what Dath'remar and the highbourne tried to convey. All of a suden the ARcane became something that could corrupt the integrity of the Elf, that is how poor majestic Azshara could fall so. cTherefore they banned it, declaring to themselves they weren't capable of wielding it responsibly without bringing another catastrophe.

yet, their ban did not erase the consequences of their first era, becasue the Legion did return, and this time not because of irresponsible casting or reckless behaviour by any magic user.

Furthermore, magic could stillbe utilised they found out in the High elves, hmans and Gnomes without the use of a well. This is something they would not have realised having turned their back on magic. They would have felt no one else could wield it because they were guarding the well and Nordrassil - wrong again.

Also the High Elves, humans and in particular, new allies draenei would have shown, using the Arcane does not cause you to go reckless as a race, it is not arcane wielding that does that.

REmember all this would be giving them pause for thought, they would have now encountered the High Elves and later on draenei, On the High elves losing the Sunwell they would have thought "huh.. arcane again" but many high elves outside Quel'thalas did not become blood elves, largely on the horrifying principle of using Fel Magic.. furthermore, on talking more to High Elven survivors of arthas' camp, they would have realised what the high elves have been trying to say, it is not the arcane , but fell. The Sunwell was poluted with fel/demonic necromantic power when Arthas used it to raise the lich Lel'thuzzad, this started corrupting every Elf linked to it. Forcing Kael'thas to disperse it, and Krasus to re-consittute the uncorrupted elements of it. However those linked to it because of the Fel suffered intense drawbacks. Illidans hunger was not due primarily to arcane but to the dangerous mixing of the Fel aspect of this magic. Thoguh more powerful , more dangerous.

The Highbourne may have been trying to tell hte Night ELves that, and part of their scorn for their cousins is because they stubbornly refues to acede. None of this would have changed their stance overall so soon, except that the CAtaclysm occured, that would have been the breaking straw. No longer could they disagree on principal. THey had to do something or lose everything, IS the arcane really and truly dangerous enough to forbid? IF they bleieved so, they'd reject it all out and make a stand without it.

They are too noble and wise to fail to make use of a tool espeically when their is enough evidence now to support that it is not the arcane in and of itself that is dangerous. Therefore the whole society must shift it's gear.

Gone is the ban. Night Elves are on the brink of extinction, their homes are been destroyed, their forests cut down, the world they swore to protect is on the brink of ruin, the naga are rising and want ALL of Kalimdor, in particular the Night elves, wiped out. They cannot afford to ignore the help and offer of the Highbourne any more. The elves are too few, no time for arguements. IF they were 100% sure the Arcane is what corrupts and destroys without the individuals ability to control, then I believe the entire nation of Night ELves would reject Archmage Evenshade's offer. But they won't. ANd now, they must all fight for the very survival of the world and their race, They have possibly been brought closer tot he brink of extinction now than even at the Sundering.

Honestly, I'm not surprised that the NElves would go back to using arcane magic - even after they said it's bad for you, mind you. Two words why I'm not surprised: "Moon Well".

The biggest source of arcane magic in its purest form. Now come back and tell me they aren't addicted to magic. It's the biggest lie of a race in the history of the WoW universe; the elves have been trying to cover it up but they're kind of transparent.

"Magic is baad! Mmmkay! Now, if you'll excuse me I'll just go bathe in my moon well."

/facepalm

At least the Blood Elves don't lie to themselves. "HLEP! WE R ADDICTED TO TEH MAGICS!" <seconds later> "Ooh! Fel Magic. Good stuff! WE R CONTENT NAU!"

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Q u o t e:
The problem that a lot of people (or at least me) have with these changes is not that there are changes, but that the changes are made because of the gameplay. It is one of the biggest no-no's in storytelling in games. You make a game that fits the story, you don't screw up your story just because you want to add some sort of feature. If you do that then you have misunderstood the whole purpose of storytelling.

Adding human hunters to the game is fine, since their lack of inclusion was based on gameplay, so it is really just correcting a mistake. However, suddenly changing the story because some higher ups thought it would be "cool" and "rebellious" (actual statements used at Blizzcon) to have Night Elf mages, just shows a lack of integrity from a storytelling standpoint. This whole thing smells of a board meeting where it was decided that we need new classes so people would reroll rather than canceling their subscriptions, and the lore writers were either too intimidated or too blinded by the light to stand up and tell their bosses no.

As a game developer and major fan of storytelling in games, it really irks me when a company chooses to go this direction with their game. Especially when it started out so well.

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I really don't understand your reasoning here. A story is not static from the very first iteration, that would be -bad- storytelling for an ongoing game like this. Things are added to the story in every new iteration (expansion, patch, whatever) in a setting such as this. If everything remained static, that would be bad storytelling to me, unless you actually set out to make a "finite story" from the beginning. Now I get that some changes can be seen as purely for gameplay, but honestly, a race picking up a certain class is not far fetched in almost any case.

In this case we're talking about the night elf mage; there is a whole faction dedicated to them in game already. The Shendralar. There is TONS of lore about the Highborne. What is the problem of allowing it with this premise?

And in response to the Eredar thing with my initial post; The Eredar are those that followed Archimonde and Kil'jaeden's teachings. They are Eredar because of a philosophy, and a devotion to the fel. Correct me if I am wrong, but player warlocks are those who try to control the magic without falling to its corruption, am i right? Else I don't see why we have any form of tolerance for -any- player warlock, in character-wise.

I feel really sad about it now.

And "Hey, let's give taurens paladin class and for lore purposes let's make a simple quest where two taurens think that they can use light, or gnomes that they've learned priest stuff from humans!" makes me even sadder.

Adding Night elf mages is like Giving humans warlocks.. wait... er?.. Yeah it is! Warlocks are unliked by the general population of Stormwind after all they are in a "hidden" location. there are usually over 20 demon summoning Warlocks in Stormwind some with Demons.

In TBC there where more in shattrath A city ruled by a being of pure light. And the demon summoners where welcome. You might say they had demons under control, they where enslaved. no being can call itself good and use enslaved forms of life.

Blizzard never said all Night elf mages are gone. they have been hiding and from what I have seen from the quest in Dalaran. Still not trusted by the guard.

That a class becomes playable isn't the end of the world. We all know there are highborn left (Dire Maul) maybe some of these joined the alliance?


As for change it's a video game, the environment will change. There is no video like WoW not to it's size of lore and playable content. it will change It is a game after all, and so it must focus on Gameplay. But the story is quite awsome.

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Q u o t e:
Honestly, I'm not surprised that the NElves would go back to using arcane magic - even after they said it's bad for you, mind you. Two words why I'm not surprised: "Moon Well".

The biggest source of arcane magic in its purest form. Now come back and tell me they aren't addicted to magic. It's the biggest lie of a race in the history of the WoW universe; the elves have been trying to cover it up but they're kind of transparent.

"Magic is baad! Mmmkay! Now, if you'll excuse me I'll just go bathe in my moon well."

/facepalm

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I laughed so hard at your ignorance.

Just know I'll roll a Night Elf Mage as soon as cataclysm hits live! :D

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Q u o t e:
Adding Night elf mages is like Giving humans warlocks.. wait... er?.. Yeah it is! Warlocks are unliked by the general population of Stormwind after all they are in a "hidden" location. there are usually over 20 demon summoning Warlocks in Stormwind some with Demons.

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whiles i agree with the principal of your line of thought, that you can take up a practice that is not popular or even forbidden amongst your people and still go through with it, like human warlocks, I urge you to read what i wrote earlier. That with Night ELves this will not be the case. Night elves aren't human though, different race, they react differently.

There is sufficient grounds to abolish the ban on magic and end the exile, as the reasons for it in the first place either 1) no longer apply (i.e. preventing the return of the Legion, as they did return) and 2) aren't really correct (magic doesn't corrupt inherently, like they previously thought, that view was an overreaction after the sundering). Momentous events have happened that have touched ALL night elves. Practicing the Arcane before was viewed as a "distasteful" things, not a killable offence like warlock magic is amongst humans.

And now, the Night Elves have every reason to question their original ban on the arcane. Remember they banned it very shortly after the sundering, it was non-magic users who were making decisions about magic they really weren't qualified to , i.e. they couldn't know. They adopted the stance that magic inherently corrupts, yet not being magic users, how do you know for sure? This is exactly what Dath'Remar tried to point out. Yet if you read books like the well of eternity and follow their lore, you would see that "the corrupting nature of magic" is viewed that way because using it upstanding Elves compromised their integrity, including Azshara who they felt was beyond reproach, therefore it was not Azshara 's choices that caused this, it was the arcane that corrupted her and all the other highbourne that sided with the demons. Afterall an Elf couldn't possibly make such a cold calculating decision on free will, so magic must have compromised them somehow.

They were using it quite recklessly even when warned. At the end of the day,they were so broken by causing the near destruction of the world which is exactly the opposite of what an Elf stands for, it becomes easier to blame it on something other than your own people. Therefore, they alienate themselves form the higbourne, but then some highbourne did help and turned against Azshara, so Magic was in essence made the scapegoat. They were noble enough to give it up, as a self-induced punishment, even though they made much more out of it.

IT wasn't necessary the reaming highbourne were screaming , trying to let them realize, but hey, it was too soon after the sundering. Eventually the Highbourne try to demonstrate this by cooking up a storm, but like great spells sometimes do, it went wrong, and that ended up in banishment and served actually to confirm that mis-guided view rather than change it.

Think people!!! since then, the night elves retreat into the forest of Kalimdor, they don't monitor the progress of the other races. Maybe they do on Kalimdor for a while, but the Trolls to the south, the Quillboar, the Tauren and the centaur show no signs through 10,000 years of developing far enough to ever pose a threat of global magnitude, so events in the eastern kingdom they may not even be aware off, slip through = they stay in the forest affecting the world through the dream with Ysera's flight and in waking with Alexstrasza's flight and like dragons are, a bit above the issues of the younger races, unless they pose a global threat.

Their view is never challenged till humans and orcs set foot on Kalimdor. And they fight the 3rd war. IT is then they would begin to see that magic wasn't what they made it out to be. And you can be sure they would have had conversations with high elves who didn't turn to blood elves, albeit heated ones. Then the Draenei would arrive, and prove another race not gone corrupt because they use magi users.

All this may not be long enough to lift a ban, but then the Cataclysm happens and they lose ground to disastrous effects from it or the horde continuing to burn up resources to fuel war, forced to the bring, you can't wait a few centuries to make your mind about reviewing your original stance. Then Archamage Evenshade appears to Tyrande,and the full extent of Deathwings emergence, the rip in the elemental plane seals, and the stirring of the naga , on top of orc problems. Immortality is now lost, and there is every indication the High Elves were right about magic, collectively the make a decision to over turn.

I don't think it is feasible for Night Elves in light of this to practice the arcane in secret like human warlocks, the arcane is not demonic and its penalty for use is not death, which is the case of the warlocks amongst the alliance nations.. Furthermore, the situation is dire enough to demand an overturn of the ban and the exile, however it is perfectly understandable that there would be night elves who don't like the highbourne at all. Because if it was not the arcane but conscious decision that caused them to open the portal and keep it open to Sargeras back at the sundering, then it confirms truly that the highbourne do betray, by nature and not because of the arcane. Therefore some will actually hate the highbourne now, although i think most will see if for what it is, that in a time of crisis, some made the wrong choice, Azshara and the naga being one of them, and the satyr, and the blood elves.

If anything the wiser Night Elves would realise that they are less infallible than they had thought. I don't think as a race they'd be blind to that, not as a whole, but i can see some individuals being arrogant enough to be.

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Q u o t e:

whiles i agree with the principal of your line of thought, that you can take up a practice that is not popular or even forbidden amongst your people and still go through with it, like human warlocks, I urge you to read what i wrote earlier. That with Night ELves this will not be the case. Different race, they react differently.

There is sufficient grounds to abolish the ban on magic and end the exile. Momentous events hae happend that have touched ALL night elves. Practicing the Arcane before was viewed as a "distasteful"things, not a killable offence like warlock magic is amongst humans.

And now, the Night ELves have every reason to question their original ban on the arcane. Remember they banned it very shortly after the sundering, it was non-magic users who were making decisions about magic htey really werne't qualified to , i.e. they couldn't know. They adopted the stance that magic inherently corrupts, yet not being magic users, how do you know for sure? This is exactly what Dath'Remar tried to point out. Yet if you read books like the well of eternity and follow their lore, you would see that "the corrupting nature of magic" is viewed that way because using it upstanding Elves compromised their integrity, including Azshara who they felt was beyond reproache, therefore it was not Azshara 's chocies that caused this, it was the arcane that corrupted her and all the other highbourne that sided with teh demons. Afterall an Elf couldn't possibly make such a cold calculating decision on free will, so magic must have compromised them somehow.

They were using it quite recklessly even when warned. At the end of the day, so broken by causing the near destruction of the world which is exactly the opposite of what an Elf stands for, it becomes easier to blame it on something other than your own people. Therefore, they alienate themselves form the higbourne, but then some highbourne did help and turned against Azshara, so Magic was in essence made the scapegoat. They were noble enough to give it up, as a self-induced punishment, even though they made much more out of it.

IT wasn't necessary the reaming highbourne were screaming , trying to let htem realise, but hey, it was too soon after the sudnerign. Eventually the Highbourne try to demonstrate this by cooking up a storm, but like great spells sometimes do, it went wrong, and that ended up in banishment and served actually to confirm that mis-guided view rather than change it.

Think, since then, the night elves retereat into the forest of Kalimdor, they don't monirtor the progress of the other races. Maybe they do on Kalimdor for a while, but the Trolls to the south, the Qillboar, the Tauren and the centaur show no signs through 10,000 years of developing far enough to ever pose a threat of global magnitude, so events in the eastern kingdom they may not even be aware off, slipthrough.

Their view is never challenged till humans and orcs set foot on Kalimdor. And they fight the 3rd war. IT is then they would begin to see that magic wasn't what they made it out to be. And you can be sure they would have had conversations with high elves who didn't turn to blood elves, albeit heated ones. Then the DRaenei would arrive, and prove another race not gone corrupt because they use magi users.

All this may not be long enough to lift a ban, but then the Cataclysm happens and they lose ground to disastrous effectsrom it or the horde contniuing to burn up resources to fuel war, forced to the bring, you can't wait a few centureis to make your mind about reviewing your original stance. Then Archamage Evenshade appears to Tyrande,and the full extent of DEathwings emergence, the rip in the elemental plane seals, and the stiring of the naga , on top of orc problems. Immortality is now lost, and there is every indiciation the High Elves were right about magic, collectlively the make a decision to over turn.

I don't think it is feasible for Night Elves in light of this to practice the arcane in secret like human warlocks, the arcane is not demonic and its penalty for use is not death, which is the case of the warlocks amongst the alliance nations.. Furthermore, the situaiton is dire enough to demand an overturn of the ban and the exile, however it is perfectly understandable that there would be night elves who don't like the highbourne at all. Because if it was not the arcane but conscious decision that caused them to open the portal and keep it open to Sargeras back at the sundering, then it confirms turly that the highbourne do betray, by nature and not because of the arcane. Therefore some will actually hate the highbourne now, although i think most will see if for what it is, that in a time of crisis, some made the wrong choice, Azshara and the naga being one of them, and the satyr, and the blood elves.

If anything the wiser Night eLves would realise that they are less infallible than they had thought. I don't think as a race they'd be blind to that, not as a whole, but i can see some individuals being arrogant enough to be.

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Dude, this is beautifully analysed. This and your last post. There is book material here you know. Seriously, I could certainly buy this explanation, it explains a lot, and seems quite realistic given the circumstances.

it has a beautiful symmetry, becasue it really brings out the great quality of the Elves, it shows they act in wisdom and integrity, and have enough juice to change, yet at the same time it exposes that like every other race, they have not so pleasant aspects, they are not infallible, their xenophobia and arrogance has actually bit them in the foot here.

It also presents a very exciting possibility for Elves, because they've essentially been divided and really dwindled since the Sundering, despite the Night elves' elevation to the level that they're working with the dragons and immortal. It's beautiful, strong yet vulnerable, fearsomely dedicated yet open to change, zealous but not to zealot level, but yet wise and patience... And despite their years and wisdom, they can have the humility to learn.

It really portrays the night elves as they are described in the character creation screen. ENIGMATIC in every sense of the world. My advise, write a short story for blizzard, and bring out this nature of them you've discened. It is really well done, because the description holds very true to the Night ELf. Sometimes people forget what the core character traits of a race are, and end up viewing them exactly as humans but with different skins, when they are not. The Elf race represents something, usually it is an intense level of dedication almost perfect - yo always have races in fantasy genre representing type sets, you have the savage ones, yo have the really ugly and despicable ones, you have wise and gracious ones , you have the powerful ones, humans are normally a combination of all those things, but they coin other races to specifically represent different aspects of humanity, and sometimes after people observe the lore, they keep explaining things and making predictions about a race that really is not in their core nature...for e.g. you are spot on when you say Elven society would not tolerate the "mage" working in secret/underground on pain of death.. like happens for human warlocks.. Night ELves will either on the whole accept the change or reject it. Therefore the reality of the NIght Elf mage most likely means they accept it, and based on how you wrote this, i can believe why they accept it.

Nice one.

Gameplay > lore. Nelf female got awesome spell casting animations, totally worth rolling one for!

only thing that really bothers me about this is the horrible casting animations for nelf male characters. i would probably just end up on my floor laughing of i were to meet one in a BG or somewhere.

Tbh, I hope blizzard read this and they stick to the changes they have announced, rather than cave in to the people calling the cahnges ridiculous.

One of the things I am excited most about cataclysm is that the story is actually changing. Wow story was too stagnant for too long. yes it was

one of the things ive soley missed in warcraft is the WC3 epic story crafting that use to go on. Being an mmo, wow's story was stagnant and weak, and nothing much ever devleoped, you were just playing around in the world after the WC3 events. TBC and WotLK just really finished what frozen throne had started, only one real twist in TBC was Kil'jaeden almost coming through and the sunwell's re-ignition. Likewise the only twist in WotLK will likely involve Arthas, this just wraps up the FT.

CAtaclysm is a new story, and now they have phasing technology and the ability to tell it through. I'm xpecting great things from the questlines. I expect to see almost WC3 like developements as you progress through level 1-85, that have your trip to Outland and Northrend as side excursions to finish un-finished business of the 3rd war.

So yeah..i love the change of Night ELf mages, Troll druids, Tauren paladins, especially when their is background lore to support it, and you can write a very interesting tale on how they come to be and yes FYI, i will be levelling a Tauren Paladin, Troll Druid and NIght ELf mage, just to go through the storylines of those races and the new stuff added because of those class options

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Q u o t e:
only thing that really bothers me about this is the horrible casting animations for nelf male characters. i would probably just end up on my floor laughing of i were to meet one in a BG or somewhere.

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Think this will be the least played class/race/gender :P Just imagine ice lance like their moonfire motion.