cancerous wrote:
stinlin wrote:
Honestly? I could care less...The whole race and class thing has no impact on my game play choices. It just seems like they're catering to those who like to place one race but want to enjoy other classes besides what they're limited to. People are flipping out over something that's lore related - for real, it's not too big of a deal.
You have a point but it does have issues regarding retcons and what nots. The NEs have a pact of sorts with one of the aspects (Emerald if I am not wrong) thus the majority of the NPC druids are in the emerald dream including Malfurion. They also made an effort to banning the use of magic amongst themselves as they view it as the prime cause of the sundering.
Also a large number of the highborne are hopelessly addicted to magic energy. I am quite sure the Blood Elves have quests regarding this problem. Illidan's addiction lead to him to start absorbing demonic magic as well... we all saw where it got him. Kaelthas's ultimately lead him to you know... betray his own people? Lore is an important part of WoW, quest lines are built around it. It gives the NPCs grounding for the writers.
Letting NE mages appear in the game may sound like a "meh" thing but it really is not suited to the way Night Elves operate. Mages in WoW lore tear apart the laws of nature to do their work. This itself goes against their nature which is also the reason why the Highborne split from the NEs in the first place. Malfurion's side wanted to stop all practice of arcane magics while the remaining Highborne were already hooked on the energies (unknown to them at the time or yet to be written into the story). They moved to the place where they built the sunwell which provided them with an energy source till Arthas used it for KT.
Its the same thing as giving Gnomes the option to take up priesthood. They do not believe in the "Light", don't tell me they are going "adeptus mechanicus" and worship the Machine God... though Tech-priest are cool they are not WoW-cool
The highborne were nothing more than the nobility class of the Keldorei, which is the race that all Elves can hail their ancestry to. All the Keldorei could channel the arcane; few were taught/allowed to do so, simply as a matter of status. They believe the abuse of arcane magics by the highborne is what led to the Sundering, and so the Keldorei banished the use of arcane magics. Some disagreed, others simply couldn't live without the magic; thus the Keldorei itself split into what we know now as the High Elves/Highborne and Night Elves.
After the Sundering, the Night Elves took up the ways of nature, presumably as a means of repentance for the damage they felt responsible for; the replanting and blessing of Nordrassil by Alextrasza, Ysera, and Nozdormu also probably had something to do with their gravitation toward the ways of nature. The orders of Druids that resulted followed Malfurion Stormrage (who was already long standing Arch Druid and sleeping within the Emerald Dream, fighting The Nightmare).
The elves' naivete was in the fact that they assume that by leaving the arcane magics alone, Sargeras would have never corrupted Azshara and the other Highborne, the portal that allowed the Burning Legion into Azeroth would have never have been opened, and the War of the Ancients and the resulting Sundering would have never happened. Sargeras being what he was would have been more than capable of accomplishing his goals in any number of ways. And clearly, the events of the Cataclysm prove that magics with the power to radically change the world itself are neither limited strictly to the arcane, nor have to be fueled by naive mortals.
tl;dr The Elves would be foolish to simply continue to be ignorant of their own ancestry in the face of the dangers that are approaching.
As for Gnome Priests/Tauren Paladins, I don't see how your race precludes you from finding a belief system different from "the norm" for your general population. Humans do it all the time. Just because Gnomes have an affinity for technology doesn't mean some of them wouldn't prefer to take up matters of faith over science.