#high elf lore

[thechaoticdruid]

Astarion canonly has no body hair. He cannot grow any because 'high elves' cannot grow body hair in both DND and BG3 lore. I feel like this needs to go around because my nerd OCD goes off whenever I see Astarion drawn with armpit hair or other body hair, because he literally doesn't have it.

(No hate to people who like men with body hair, but this man physically cannot grow it.)

Edit: For people pointing out Halsin. Halsin is a WOOD elf not a high elf. (I'm not quite sure about drow cause I believe their darker complexion might make it hard to see if they have body hair.)

Edit 2: I went back and checked for myself that none of the player elf body models have body hair so it seems Halsin is a special case. But I mean he literally jokes about possibly being part half-orc so there's that. That being said the point is still Astarion has no body hair.

[warcraft-lore-archives]

Sin’dorei Lore Month Closing Post

What is Sin’dorei Lore Month?

For the month of September (and a tinsy bit of October), I gave everyone an in-depth look at everything blood elf (plus high elf and void elf), from their history to their culture and beyond. I delved into sin’dorei lore in a series of short and long posts dedicated to not only highlighting random lore facts but also covering and going into detail about certain aspects of sin’dorei culture, both past and present.

What did I do?

Posts have been archived under the #lore month and #sin’dorei lore month tags. You can also find them below if you missed any:

A Timeline of the Sin’dorei People

On Sin’dorei: Magical Addiction

On Sin’dorei: Political Divisions

On Sin’dorei: Eye Color

Lore Fact #52: Prince Kael’thas’ Tutor

Lore Fact #53: The Shepherd’s Gate

Lore Fact #54: Kael’thas’ Verdant Spheres

You can read the Sin’dorei Lore Month introduction post here, which includes additional posts I wrote on sin’dorei lore prior to Sin’dorei Lore Month.

Will there be more in the future?

Sin’dorei lore month may be over for now, but that does not mean I’m done writing about the blood elves, high elves, or void elves. You are always welcome to ask me more questions about them, but even if you don’t, it’s likely that I will continue to write posts about the sin’dorei in the future, especially since there will always be something more to cover!

As far as future Lore Months go, I have yet to decide when I’ll be doing the next one. As Blizzcon is this November, I’ll be taking November off and revisiting the idea in December at the earliest. If that falls through, I can definitely guarantee that there will be more come 2020!

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Nightborne Lore Month (June 2018), see here

For Kul Tiras Lore Month (August 2018), see here

[uninspired--poet]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

“There you go.” Sylvanas grinned as she positioned Vereesa’s elbow in a way that allowed her more control over the little bow she’d been shooting all morning. “Now. Always push towards your target. Draw to your eye, don’t lean into it. Relax your right arm.”

Vereesa groaned as she released the tension on your bow and turned the frustration in her expression towards her sister’s sympathetic gaze. “What is it, Little Moon?”

“How am I supposed to relax my right arm?” She demanded. “When that’s the arm doing all the pulling?”

“Stop pulling so much and start pushing. The most important thing your right arm is doing is pulling that nock to your eye. Once you get that down, nothing else is going to matter. You’ll be able to shoot from any position, even running. Even jumping. Let your right hand and your right arm be comfortable. Relaxed. Your left strong and steady. That’s what’s holding the tip of your arrow where it needs to be.”

[warcraft-lore-archives]

Your post on blood elves still having their addiction brings up some interesting opportunities for Blizz to add some more depth to void elf lore. I would assume they tap into the void somehow to feed their addiction, but as far as I know they never outright say that. It would be interesting to see regretful void elves who can't walk away from the void because they can't access the Sunwell. If you have any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them!

I’m sorry it’s taken me an impossibly long amount of time to answer this. I originally intended to do more research because I don’t actually know much about magical addiction, but I never got around to it. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that void elves might still suffer from an addiction until I got this ask!

Knowing what little I do, I imagine that any connection to the Sunwell, a fount of both holy light and arcane magic, would conflict painfully with the void elves’ newfound void form (for lack of a better phrase), forcing most, if not all of them, to give up the Sunwell. This would make their addiction more severe than that of the average blood elf, who has the Sunwell for sustenance. However, there may be void elf priests (and undead priests, to draw an important comparison) that wield the Light, even though it undoubtedly causes them harm. Therefore, it’s possible that some void elves do not suffer as greatly from addiction because they’re able to maintain a connection to the Sunwell. Given that blood elves still suffer from it, though, even with the Sunwell newly restored, I’d bet all of the void elves do experience addiction in varying degrees.

(Someone has pointed out to me that “holy” spec void elf priests do not currently exist in lore. The priest class, they argue, is almost certainly available to void elves because they can be shadow priests, but it’s unclear if void elves are realistically able to wield the Light. Small interactions between Alleria and Turalyon, powerful users of the void and light respectively, caused them immense pain, so there’s no saying what a void elf channeling the Light would feel).

What I don’t know is whether or not the void feeds the void elves’ addiction or if it’s possible that the void has “cured” it completely. Given that their dependence is on arcane magic and not the void, I’m inclined to believe that it has not actually cured it. However, that doesn’t mean the void can’t manipulate them into thinking one way or another for its own ends.

I took a cursory look at the Nightborne recruitment scenario dialogue which raises more questions than it answers about this topic. Alleria, a rather unique void elf compared to her counterparts, never alludes to the Sunwell causing her any harm. It appears at first glance that she can still feel the Sunwell, since she says, “The Sunwell has changed… but its beauty remains,” after seeing it for the first time since before it was corrupted by Arthas. Of course, it’s possible that Alleria can’t actually sense this change and is just commenting on what happened to the Sunwell. (Personally, despite Alleria’s vague wording, I’m inclined to believe she does have an innate understanding that the Sunwell’s energies have been altered.)  It could also be that the Sunwell is indeed causing her physical pain, but we wouldn’t know that without Alleria saying it, and that certainly isn’t something she wants to voice aloud in front of people who are skeptical about her being near the Sunwell in the first place. Alleria is, as we’ve seen in both the audio drama and the comic, content to keep quiet about the light hurting her. With that in mind, I’m hard-pressed to draw any solid conclusions about what the scenario says about the void elves and their relationship to the Sunwell.

I expect that if any void elves are still addicted to arcane magic, they use their void abilities to “acquire” it from various sources. I’d almost even dare to argue that the void itself is like an addiction since it has often been described as an endless hunger. This is really just conjecture and speculation at this point, but it would be interesting if the void completely supplanted arcane addiction in much the same way that the Death Knight “curse” does for blood elves. For those interested, the Ask CDev answer reads, “[Blood elf death knights are not affected by their racial addiction to magic], though their new addiction, the one all Ebon Blade death knights possess, is arguably worse: the need to inflict pain.”

With all that said, void elves probably still have an addiction to arcane magic until stated otherwise. However, depending on whether or not they maintain their connection to the Sunwell at the cost of great pain to themselves (if they even can), that may determine how severe their addiction is.

[warcraft-lore-archives]

Lore Fact of the Week #28

The exact lifespan of high elves is unclear and, at times, a source of much contention. A few outdated sources argue that high elves only live up to around several thousand years, while some more recent material claims that they have much longer lifespans, similar to their kaldorei cousins. Because recent information revealed that the Sunwell gives the high elves something akin to immortality, it’s not unreasonable to assume the high elves and blood elves are generally long lived, however exactly just how long lived is a matter of debate [Audio Drama: A Thousand Years of War, pg. 4].

The blood elf Lorash Sunbeam claims he was born in Tirisfal Glades after the Highborne were exiled from Kalimdor and sometime before the kingdom of Quel’thalas was founded on the Eastern Kingdoms [A Good War, pg. 50]. According to the timeline established in the Chronicle volumes, the Highborne were exiled by Malfurion approximately 7,300 years ago [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume I, pg. 117]. The Highborne, or high elves as they were to become known, founded Quel’thalas a little over 6,800 years ago, which means that Lorash was born sometime between the two events 6,800 and 7,300 years ago [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume I, pg. 120]. Lorash also says that his mother was raised into the Lich King’s army during the Third War, meaning she, too, must have lived over 7,000 years before she died [A Good War, pg. 50].

Anasterian Sunstrider, Dath’Remar’s great-grandson, lived through the Troll Wars 2,800 years ago, only to die during the Third War at the hands of Arthas [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume I, pg. 121, 129]. At the time of his death, the 3,000-year old elf was already considered old and frail [Blood of the Highborne, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, pg. 237]. On the other hand, Alleria Windrunner, who supposedly also served in the Troll Wars, would be older than 3,800 years today counting the thousand years she spent in the Twisting Nether [The Warcraft Encyclopedia: Alleria Windrunner, Audio Drama: A Thousand Years of War]. While the Sunwell explains the high elves’ longevity, it does not remedy the clear discrepancy between elves like Anasterian, who are old at just 3,000 years, and elves like Lorash and possibly Alleria, who show no signs of old age but are clearly older than Anasterian was when he died.

Since more recent and up to date material posits that multiple high elves have lived well beyond 3,000 years without displaying any signs of aging, it’s highly likely that the high elves have very long lifespans. Furthermore, given the Sunwell’s effect, one could conjecture that the high elves and blood elves are immortal and no longer die of old age.