NE Mages = The Death of Lore?

#0 - Aug. 31, 2009, 7:46 p.m.

The lore of this game is one of it's strongest assets. I hate it when it so easily retconned or cast aside. How do you think Blizzard is going to reconcile Night Elves and Arcane Magic users? Isn't this the reason for the beginnings of the Druidism Culture, the fall of Azshara, the Naga, Illidan's original imprisonment and a whole host of other issues. Given their past how can the night elves possibly turn back to magic?

Is blizz simply opening the game up as much as possible before letting it wind down?

I am not real sure how I feel about some of theses changes, don't even get me started on Troll Druids........

Kisirani

#61 - Aug. 31, 2009, 8:19 p.m.

The screenshot has been linked several times in this thread already, but I'd like to reinforce that we're perfectly aware of the way Night Elf society has viewed arcane magic over the years.

We are similarly aware that Night Elf Mages have been in the game since patch 1.3. Not all Highborne became the High Elves and Blood Elves of today.

As evidenced in the screenshot linked, patch 3.2.2 begins the explanation. We're not ignoring what came before, but we are moving the storyline forward, and at times, that means change and a shake up in the status quo.

Kisirani

#111 - Aug. 31, 2009, 8:58 p.m.

Q u o t e:
It's not really about that at all, at least not for me. I have no problem with night elf mages since they do exist in game. My complaint is that Blizzard tends to do these things rather... I dunno, sloppily. They throw in a scripted event like the upcoming one in 3.2.2 and then act as if that explains everything - and then a PC night elf mage gets treated with the exact same respect as if they'd been a PC priestess of Elune, by NPCs and the world in general.

I did not state that the event in 3.2.2 is all we're doing; in fact, I'm fairly certain I implied otherwise.

Kisirani

#180 - Aug. 31, 2009, 10:20 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Point being, to many people (myself included) this development isn't being driven by the story. Have you seen anything progressing towards the Nelfs accepting magic use in their society?

This would be because the announcements came before the initial story development in game. We've had that planned for some time.

Kisirani

#305 - Sept. 1, 2009, 7:23 a.m.

Q u o t e:
THOSE are the "Highborne". There WERE NO OTHER KINDS OF HIGHBORNE LEFT.

You are incorrect.

The Highborne in Dire Maul are meant to be Night Elves because they are, in fact, Night Elves. Not all Highborne crossed the sea or fell beneath it.

Kisirani

#359 - Sept. 1, 2009, 8:11 p.m.

To clarify one last time:

High Elves were Highborne at one point. Not all Highborne became High Elves and Naga.

The long, eventual evolution of the High Elves does not automatically occur if one uses arcane magic.

Concerning models, you are forgetting one key factor in Dire Maul: that there is a Blood Elf in the east wing, and that she used the old Blood Elf model before Burning Crusade. Had we wanted the other NPCs in Dire Maul to be High Elves, they would have been. They are Night Elves.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/diremaul.html

The preview page, written just before patch 1.3 a few years ago, mentions that they are Night Elves. High Elves are not mentioned.

I would understand the frustration if this were a retcon, but this is not. This is simply a matter of someone being mistaken in their knowledge of the lore.