Introduction: For nearly seven thousand years, the high elves cultivated a shining magical kingdom deep within the forests of northern Lordaeron. But five years ago, the undead Scourge invaded Quel’Thalas and drove the elves to the brink of extinction.

Led by the evil death knight Arthas, the Scourge destroyed the mystical Sunwell, thereby severing the elves from the source of their arcane power. Though the scars of that conflict are evident, the remaining elves have banded together and retaken much of their homeland. Calling themselves "blood elves”, these grim survivors are committed to regaining the vast powers they once commanded.

Inspired by the leadership of their beloved prince, Kael’thas Sunstrider*, the blood elves now seek out new sources of arcane magic and the means of defending their land against the undying horrors of the Scourge.

Blood Elf (Sin’dorei) – formerly High Elf (Quel’dorei) Information:
*Note: At this time the Blood elves are going through a transition of sorts, so some information can be outdated. This will be revised soon to help folks.

Affiliation: Horde
http://www.wowwiki.com/Horde

Leader: Regent Lord Lor’themar Theron (Formerly Kael’thas Sunstrider)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Lor%27themar_Theron
http://www.wowwiki.com/Kael%27thas_Sunstrider

Capitol: Silvermoon City
http://www.wowwiki.com/Silvermoon

Main Language: Thalassian
http://www.wowwiki.com/Thalassian

IC RP "Speak”: "English”, from crude to proper, though more leaning towards proper

Main Groups: Blood Knights, Farstiders, Magisters, The Scryers (Outlands)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Blood_Knights
http://www.wowwiki.com/Farstriders
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/encyclopedia/402.xml
http://www.wowwiki.com/Magisters
http://www.wowwiki.com/Scryers

Main Faith/Philosophy: The Holy Light* (philosophy), Burning Legion (to a lesser extent)
*Until Recently: Mix of those that revere the Light and those that use it via force – most had lost "faith” when the Sunwell was lost. This outlook may be shifting towards revering.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Light
http://www.wowwiki.com/Sunwell

Note: Some warlocks, mages and other blood elves may follow, in some degree, the Burning Legions’ corruption. Varies on backstory.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Fel
http://www.wowwiki.com/Burning_Legion

Allies: Orcs, Undead (mixed feelings: Most quite welcoming, some scourge/undead distrust leaning), Tauren, Trolls (past enemy, so some tension could exist) Typically, they do not trust outside races in their past, but that can be "loosened” as they interact with other Horde.

Racial Enemy: Scourge, Wretched (those too far gone with magical addiction), Burning Legion (mixed but gaining ground), Alliance are seen as enemies for the most part, due to past affiliations (though that could be variable in some elves depending on backstory). Some High Elf conflicts as well, since they lean towards Alliance.

Note: The Farstiders had formerly been very bitter about joining the horde, having fought them in the past. They also are not as magic-dependent as other Blood Elves (mages, warlocks, etc.). Farstriders also have some conflicts with the Blood Knights. (This may change as the Blood Knights change their doctrine.)

Basic Height, Weight & Age:
Male Height: 5′3″ – 6′1″
Female Height: 4′11″ – 5′9″

Male Weight: 102 – 172 lb.
Female Weight: 92 – 162 lb.

Adulthood: 60-100 years.
Middle Age: 175 years.
Old: 263 years.
Venerable: 350 years.
Life Expectancy: 350-390 (~2000?) years.
(best guess)

OOC Culture Reference: Influenced from Tolkien’s elves with a heavy magic influence.

One look at the blood elves and you might think "arrogant pop star," but their story entails much more suffering and tragedy than is at first evident. Like so many in the World of Warcraft, they have very nearly lost everything that was important to them, and more than once their entire way of life has been upset, turned around, and set in an entirely new direction. They are at once brilliant and desperate, beautiful and woefully flawed, addicted to evil magic and yet not yet beyond hope of redemption.

The blood elves are the descendants of the original "Highborne" of the night elves 10,000 years before the setting of World of Warcraft, who used to follow Queen Azshara and studied the arcane magical energies flowing through the Well of Eternity. Following the "War of the Ancients," (discussed in the article on night elves), most of their peers at the time observed that arcane energies tended to attract evil demons from the darkest dimensions in the universe, and thought the world would be better off without it. The Highborne who survived that war had gotten very used to the power of arcane magic coursing through their bodies, however, and they suffered from serious magical withdrawal when those energies were no longer available to them. From their point of view, it was cowardly not to try again, to simply conceal themselves from the demons rather than to give up arcane magic entirely. Their addiction and powerlessness made them desperate enough to turn to violence, though they were no match for the new rulers of the night elf people.

A new civilization

These rulers knew that the Highborne could not be allowed to continue influencing and harming their community in this way, but also didn't want to simply put their kindred to death. They decided to banish the Highborne and their leader, Dath'Remar Sunstrider from their new homeland in the forests of Kalimdor.

To the night elves, Dath'Remar was a dangerous terrorist rebel, but to the Highborne, he was a great leader, and the founder of their new civilization. He led them across the sea, past the wild Maelstrom, to the northern lands of the Eastern Kingdoms. There, they encountered the humans and had peaceable relations with them, but they had to fight tooth and nail with the Amani forest trolls for every inch of the land they wished to occupy. Finally, they eventually established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas, and created a new fountain of magical energy called the Sunwell, using a vial from the original Well of Eternity that had been destroyed in the great war.

This time, however, they had some warning of the dangers involved in this use of arcane magic, and they attempted to use it responsibly. They placed monolithic Runestones on the borders of their kingdom in order to shield their use of these energies from the extra-dimensional demons. Over time, the energies of the Sunwell became an integral part of their identity, their culture, and even their own biology.
(Although their elven name, "quel'dorei," literally meant "Children of Noble Birth," they came to be known in these Eastern lands as the "high elves.")

These magical energies transformed the high elves into something quite different from their kindred in the far West. Without the World Tree, Nordrassil to bring them immortality and total harmony with nature, their stature shortened, and their complexion turned paler, and their eyes began to shine sky-blue rather than yellow or moon-blue. These changes seemed fitting, however, as they had already started to think of themselves as people of the sun rather than the night, and had completely separated themselves from their old identity.

Over thousands of years, they forgot much of their ancient history among the night elves. They became increasingly intertwined with the humans and dwarves in an Alliance against the trolls, and even against the orcs who make their way through the Dark Portal and up into Lordaeron.

A new catastrophe

Your blood elf character would have started life thinking of himself as a "high elf," a member of this peaceful civilization which did not worship nature, but certainly lived in harmony with it. You would have thought of humans and dwarves as allies in your struggles against the trolls and orcs. From the time of maturity around the age of 60, or even until old age around 350 years old, it would seem to any normal blood elf that things could continue as they always had. But the arrival of the Scourge, just 5 years before the current setting, changed everything -- ending the centuries of relative peace and prosperity that the high elves enjoyed.

Arthas and his legion of undead marched through Quel'Thalas, destroying the protective Runestones, and leaving a strip of lifeless wasteland in their wake. Arthas murdered their Ranger-General, Sylvanas Windrunner, massacred about 90% of the population, and in the end, defiled the Sunwell itself by using it to resurrect the evil necromancer Kel'Thuzad.

Kael'thas Sunstrider, descendent of Dath'remar Sunstrider, was out of town at the time of the Scourge invasion, but he came back to try and salvage his kingdom as best he could. He found scattered survivors hiding here and there, all weak and ill, with torn spirits and withered hopes. To them he seemed like a savior, the only one with wisdom and vision to lead them out of their despair. In honor of the fallen, he suggested his people adopt a new name, "blood elves," so that this tragedy may never be forgotten.

Kael'thas was forced to destroy the corrupted Sunwell in order to purge the blood elves of the undead taint now corrupting it (without knowing at the time that some of its energies had been preserved). Now that this energy was lost, however, he and his people had to look to new sources of power to feed their addiction to magic. The Alliance, however, completely failed to understand the true nature of the blood elve's plight. Grand Marshal Garithos, who had appointed himself leader of the Alliance forces remaining in Lordaeron after the Scourge had come through and destroyed nearly everything, believed that humans were superior to all the other races, and wished the elves and dwarves had never been allowed to join the Alliance. He gave the blood elves orders which were at first menial and then simply impossible to achieve. Garithos set them to defend themselves against an army of the undead, and then abandoned them at the last moment, withdrawing all the human forces into a different battle. Kael'thas and his regiment were forced to accept the assistance of the snake-like naga in order to avoid certain destruction. Garithos became enraged that the blood elves had accepted the help of their long-time enemies, despite the fact that he had left them with no other option, and so all relations between the blood elves and the Alliance broke down completely. Lady Vashj, leader of the naga, brought them to Illidan Stormrage in Outland, who taught them how to use demonic energies in order to meet their urgent need for magical energies.

A new hope

Nonetheless, to the blood elves remaining in Azeroth, it seemed like a new day was dawning. Kael'thas seemed every bit the great hero his ancestor Dath'remar had been (or seemed to be), and few suspected that even greater dangers lay in wait for them. Many of the most capable of the blood elves went with Kael'thas to Outland, while the remainder stayed behind to rebuild as much of Quel'thalas as they could. These blood elves still in Azeroth looked forward to the day that they could rejoin their leader in Outland, but in the meantime forged ties with their former friends among the Forsaken of Sylvanas Windrunner, and by extension, with her associates in the Horde. It seemed a temporary alliance of convenience at the time, but in truth it was the last refuge of their teetering culture, about to withstand yet another psychological blow, when their king and hero would become their enemy.

This brings us to everything your character would have known at the outset of the Burning Crusade, when blood elves were first introduced into World of Warcraft. More than any other race in the game, however, the story and conditions of the blood elves has changed a great deal since the Burning Crusade was first released. Next week, we will have a look at these developments and see how the blood elves stand as the attention turns toward Northrend, and their ultimate confrontation with their greatest nemesis: Arthas.

For more information about the blood elves, feel free to check out WoWWiki's information about them, but beware that reading it feels a bit disjointed, since the story of the blood elves actually branches off from the stories of both the night elves and the high elves, both of which have retained their identity as separate groups (although blood elves now far outnumber the remaining high elves who rejected the changes that Kael'thas brought and remained loyal to the Alliance). Dramatis-Personae, as usual, has a good basic introduction to blood elves. Together with this article, these should give you everything you need to get started roleplaying as a low-level blood elf, but as you level up your character will need to learn more and more about the changing state of their race...

There has been a great deal of change and evolution of the world of World of Warcraft, and to a certain extent, all the available player races have gone through changes because of the events that have taken place. The original release content had lots of dungeons and quests and things going on, but each one seemed to tell the story of a place rather than the story of a people. Like each place, the stories told there seemed static, as the players grew and moved on, the places all remained the same.

The Burning Crusade, however, began to change all that. Instead of just adding new content with each patch, some aspects of the old content were changed as well, with certain characters and peoples coming to the foreground as major antagonists. Players were no longer merely vague adventurers tasked with saving the world from one giant evil monster or another, their characters had vested interests in bringing about some change in their circumstances.

For no group of player-aligned characters was this as true as it was with the blood elves. From the time The Burning Crusade was released, up to now, when the next chapter of the Warcraft story (Wrath of the Lich King) is starting to unfold, the blood elves are the only player faction whose leader has turned into a major boss in a dungeon (not once but twice!), whose capital city has been deprived of one of its most significant residents (who also ended up turned into a major dungeon boss), and whose culture has undergone a complete turnaround over the course of this expansion's expanding storyline.

The draenei, of course, played a huge role in the story of The Burning Crusade, but in the end, they were mostly just very strong supporting characters. The blood elves were the stars of the show.

The lust for power

When we left our heroes last time, things didn't look too good for them. Their betrayal by the Alliance had left the blood elves in a pretty bad position, where they had no choice but to accept the help of the naga under the command of Illidan Stormrage. The way everything transpired, it seemed as though Illidan might even be a more reasonable and inspiring leader than the members of the Alliance could ever hope to be. The fact that he drew so much on the corrupting power of demonic magic seemed insignificant, as he taught them to control and harness its energies to their own will.

Yet the very act of learning to subdue demonic energy to their own purposes started them on a dark path that could only end in madness and destruction. They came to view all energy, no matter what the source, as a resources to be controlled relentlessly and remorselessly, no matter what the cost. Over time, the need to feed their magic addiction festered like a tumor in their hearts and turned into a wicked lust for more and more power. When Kael'thas saw the magical travelling fortress of the naaru, known as Tempest Keep, he viewed it merely as another sourse of power to be conquered and controlled. He waited till most of the naaru had left the floating citadel and then captured it for himself, in order to use it to drain vast amounts of magical energy out of the world around it -- but in the process, he even managed to subdue and enslave the naaru who remained behind aboard Tempest Keep in order to protect it. Kael'thas had become so corrupted by this point that he no longer viewed the naaru as a sentient being all on its own, but as another source of power to feed their magical thirst -- the energy of the Light which flowed through the naaru.


Stealing the Light

At this point it is important to draw a distinction between the blood elves who followed Kael'thas and the naga through the portal into Outland, and the blood elves who stayed behind in Quel'thalas and Silvermoon City. They were still one faction at this point, but a number of differences were starting to appear. For one, although the blood elves in Quel'thalas were drawing on fel energies just like their brethren in Outland, they certainly weren't surrounded by demons like Illidan and all his minions all the time, not to mention the vast energies of the evil Twisting Nether, which surrounded all of Outland. Thus, the blood elves in Outland were saturated to overflowing in magic and power, while the blood elves in Quel'thalas were still rather hungry for it.

Therefore, Kael'thas thought it wise to send the gift of this captured naaru, named M'uru, back to Silvermoon City, so that his people there could have more energy to help quench their magical thirst. Soon, however, the blood elves of Quel'thalas found a way to start using this power of the Light rather than merely feeding on it, casting spells and blessings in the same way that human, dwarven, and draenei paladins could -- while the other races drew on the Light through the power of their faith, the blood elves learned to control it as it flowed through M'uru.

The first blood elf to take up this path of corrupted paladinhood was Lady Liadrin, who then founded the order of Blood Knights that became infamous throughout Azeroth and Outland alike. Thrall and the other leaders of the Horde disagreed with the methods the Blood Knights had employed, but could not deny their strategic value on the battlefield.

Diverging paths

Thus empowered, the blood elves of Quel'thalas dreamed ever more fondly of joining their great leader in Outland one day, but as time went by, communication with their beloved prince began to drop off. Whatever was occupying his thoughts seemed to keep him too busy to communicate very much with his people back home. Some of the citizens of Silvermoon began to speak out against the practices of the new blood elf order, and even though these voices were quenched at first, the blood elves began to integrate more and more into the Horde society, and soon many of the questions regarding the rightness of what they were doing could no longer be ignored.

When the Blood Knights and other adventurers of Quel'thalas were powerful enough to come to Outland through their own power, they discovered that their leader had destroyed the natural environment around his new capital in Tempest Keep, leeching so much magical energy through his giant Mana Forges that the very land around them drained empty of life and began to fall apart. That their prince could be consumed with such lust for power at the cost of so much wanton destruction was unconscionable.

That was enough for many of the Azerothian blood elves to renounce Kael'thas and declare him their enemy, including the group known as the Scryers, now stationed in Shattrath City and sworn to assist the naaru A'dal. But many of the leaders and people of influence back in Silvermoon City remained not entirely convinced. As adventurers in the Horde, including many of their own people who had joined the Scryers, ventured into Kael'thas' fortress and uncovered his plans, it became more and more clear that their prince had undergone terrible changes and descended into madness. They fought him, but he escaped, taunting that he had sought a master with power far greater than Illidan -- Kil'jaeden, whom Illidan once served without success, and who now sought once again to destroy all life in Azeroth and Outland as the culmination of his millennia-long quest to crush the universe beneath his foot.


The Sunwell Redemption

The final tie between Kael'thas and Quel'thalas was broken when Kael'thas' minions returned to take back by force the naaru, M'uru, which he had once given to his kindred so freely. Lady Liadrin and her Blood Knights would have been left without any of their powers had the naaru A'dal not reached out a hand to save her and her people. Lady Liadrin was deeply regretful of what she and her Blood Knights had done to M'uru, but A'dal forgave them, saying that M'uru had known all along what his role would be in this unfolding drama. The naaru extended his own Light energies to Liadrin and her Blood Knights, and encouraged them to assist him to stop the terrible threat that Kael'thas now represented to all the people of Azeroth and Outland.

The former "Lord of the Blood Elves," now quite insane, had brought the remaining strength of his forces back to Azeroth and taken over the Sunwell Island, just across the channel from Silvermoon City, and planned to use the hidden energies of the Sunwell's magic to try and summon Kil'jaeden into the world. The blood elves and draenei of Shattrath united to overcome this threat, and as their forces ventured deeper and deeper into the Sunwell fortifications Kael'thas had set up, they found that M'uru himself was enslaved as a guard the site where Kil'jaeden would be summoned. The heroes were forced to destroy his weakened body and stop the entropic energies which now began to vacuum up all life around it as the last of his Light energies seemed to drain away.

At last, of course, the heroes faced Kil'jaeden himself at the site of the Sunwell (perhaps your own character was among them), and, with the help of some dragons, they drove him back into the Sunwell Portal, away from Azeroth. The draenei prophet Velen arrived, along with Lady Liadrin, and spoke to the heroes, as he placed the last remaining fragment of M'uru's body into the Sunwell. The result is one of the best scenes in Warcraft lore, which you too can look on, as the last spark of M'uru's life reignites the Sunwell with the energy of the Holy Light, restoring once and for all, that magical life energy the blood elves need, as well as something far greater, something with the power to rebirth the entire civilization of the blood elves: Faith.


The implications for blood elf characters are enormous. First of all, apparently the blood elves are no longer in magical withdrawal. They certainly no longer need to feed on demonic energy in order to sustain themselves (although their eyes remain green, perhaps as a mark of the taint that used to flow through them). The magic of the Sunwell has historically been broadcast to all the high elves (and now blood elves too) in the nation, and seems to do so even more now than ever before. The Sunwell has never burned so brightly, with so much pure and holy energy as it now has.

Likewise, the Blood Knight paladins no longer need to "steal" any Light energy away. It was a free gift of the naaru for a time, and now the Light is an essential part of the Sunwell itself. The Light is right there for any blood elf who wishes to access it. In this light, you could even interpret their modified Arcane Torrent ability (now minus the "mana tap" part) as an explosion of the Light-based energy flowing through them in addition to regular old magic. It makes perfect sense that most Blood Knights could have genuine faith in the Light now, and may indeed deeply regret their behavior in the past, trying to steal that which the naaru actually gave away freely.

A fair number of blood elves are sure to be reluctant to give up demonic magic, however. Kael'thas couldn't have been the only one to be driven mad by it. Doubtless, many of the most wicked and power-hungry blood elves could have joined the Blood Knights in a quest for more power; but now that their leader, Lady Liadrin, has embraced the Light for real, they may feel distainful of this new direction for their people. If your character looks down upon all this fluffy do-gooder stuff, he or she may try to steer other blood elves back towards the way things used to be under Kael'thas... perhaps not so far as to turn the world over to the demons or anything, but perhaps just enough to make as much use of demonic power for personal gains as possible.

Still, all these events leave us with far more questions than answers. Since the events of the Third War, there has been one turning point after another, as elves have gone from noble "high elves," to members of a crushed civilization, without hope or faith of any sort, through stages of greed and lust for power, remorse, and now... what? Does your character feel the power of love and grace emanating from the new Sunwell just as Lady Liadrin does? What must such a power feel like after so many years of addiction to mere arcane energies, followed by a dangerous trist with demonic magic? To what degree was your character involved in the injustice inflicted upon M'uru, and to what degree does your character now seek to make good of those deeds now that M'uru's spark of life has rejuvenated the greatest symbol of your people, the greatest fountain of magic in all of Azeroth, and quite possibly the soul of your nation? What does it mean to be a blood elf in this new age? What direction will they choose from here?

These questions are complex, and can be answered in many ways. Indeed, most of it is so new that many players, just like blood elf society itself, are still formulating their own answers, and many disagree on various issues. It fits though -- blood elves are a people in midst of a great whirlwind of change. But as the story of Warcraft moves on and turns to face its inner demons in Northrend, consider what new resources of faith and hope may be growing within your blood elf character. Consider also what challenges and difficulties may await him or her, which may severely test that faith and hope once again.

Blood Elves Views

The Horde

Orcs: There is possibly no more strained relationship within a faction than that of the blood elves and the orcs. When the blood elves joined the Horde, they did so purely for a single reason: They needed allies, and the Alliance had declared them anathema, so the Horde was the only option available. Importantly however, Thrall knew the horde were not desperate for allies at this point. While smaller than the Alliance, the horde had established itself. It is highly likely that the blood elves would not have joined the horde at all save for the intervention of the Forsaken. (More on them later.)

As such, the blood elves know they are on borrowed time with the orcs. Most blood elves see the orcs as crude, primitive beasts, but beasts the hope will keep their homelands safe from the vengeful Alliance. They feel they must tread lightly around them to maintain the allegiance, but few can likely contain their disgust enough to resist some choice verbal darts. This is, after all, the same race who only recently roared blood-curdling screams and assaulted Quel’thalas. Each and every Blood Elf can probably remember friends and family who died to these monsters. Yet now, and this must surely rankle their noble little hearts to no end, they need the orcs now more than the orcs need them. Hence, obsequiousness and veiled insult rule the day.

Of course, Lieutenant General. As always, your strategy is impeccable. That it has lead to our defeat in the last three battles is of course merely due to the larger forces we faced. Nobody could have done any better. I shall relay your commands to my troops with proper respect and consideration.

Trolls:The trolls, meanwhile, come with their own considerations, issues, and history. Where the orcs have the warchief and can on the whole be considered the dominant race within the Horde, the trolls are a distinct second best, maybe even a third best. (It’s difficult to say whom has Thrall’s ear more these days, Vol’jin or Cairne.) The Sin’dorei know they can’t compete with the orcs, but the Darkspear Tribe may be another matter, and it’s therefore worth it to them to jostle for position. As such, the blood elves approach the trolls with barely disguised hostility and bitter competition. After all, the trolls were fighting right alongside the orcs when they burned the edges of Quel’thalas. And while the Amani may have been a different empire, the high elves had long and bitter it’s not hard to see how the blood elves might see trolls as an ugly and detested species. When alone, blood elves are likely to treat trolls with condescension and insult. When others are around, they none-the-less will seek any opportunity to diminish the worth of the trolls to the Horde, thus elevating their own standing.

Oh, what? Was that your foot? I’m so sorry. I didn’t know where else to stand, you gangly blue-faced mutant. Your feet cover the entire earth in this area. Now get out of my way so I can walk. I’ll tell you when I need you.

Tauren: The tauren, like the trolls, are a race most blood elves see as competition. They know that if they wish to secure the place within the Horde, they need to tear a hole into the fabric of the society that they can fit in, and they see loose threads around the tauren. However, they’re not likely to be quite as vicious in their assaults as they are to the trolls, simply because the tauren never really have done much to hurt them. Furthermore, the tauren as a race have a certain quiet calm to them. While the blood elves would like to see them as pointless nature-worshipping savages like the orcs and trolls, it’s harder to make that charge stick; the blood elves are forced to acknowledge that while primitive, their society more or less works. It’s just more primitive than their own, which is hardly cause for rage. Pity and contempt, certainly, but not rage.

Don’t you dare talk down to me. We have achieved greater heights as a people than your precious Thunder Bluff has possibly aspire to. We sought the sun, and we touched its periphery. You have nothing to pride yourself upon.

Undead (Forsaken): A more curious relationship exists between the Sin’dorei and the Forsaken, as evinced by the fact that the two races begin as friendly toward each other, rather than neutral. None the less, calling their relationship truly friendly would be a misnomer. It is simply that, alone among the Horde, each race needs each other as much as they are needed in turn. When the blood elves sought entry to the Horde, it would have seemed likely that Thrall might very well have refused. Allow a stinking group of fel-smelling, magic-addicted aristocratic pains in the ass into your private club? My goodness, let me get the papers ready immediately. Y’know what, let me fill them out for you.

But Sylvanas, on the other hand, was in a different position. She had joined the Horde under similar situations, distrusted and on the outside. The only reason they were allowed in was that at this point, the Horde desperately needed more soldiers to combat the growing Alliance, and the Forsaken offered them. Sylvanas had her way in, but she was well aware that her power-base was limited. Distrusted by the rest of the Horde, she knew a single shift in the political environment could see the Horde turn on them, especially given her questionable plans. She needed leverage, a true ally to shift the balance of power.

Enter the blood elves.

The blood elves know all this, too. They’re no dummies when it comes to politics, and they know that the Forsaken pushed for their inclusion purely because it shored up their own political situation; as the Sin’dorei entered the political fray, the Horde changed from the shamanic races +1, to a truly divided pair of sub-factions. This is, in fact, fine with the blood elves, since it ensured they joined the Horde, and joined it with a reasonable position of power.

Yet this doesn’t mean the blood elves like the Forsaken. They remain rotting ghouls who are strikingly similar in form to the ones who destroyed their beloved paradise on Earth, murdered the majority of their kind, and plunged them into an eternal aching hell. You just can’t say, "Well, hey, you’re not the same guys.” For one, many of them are the same guys, since they were Scourge at the time. Sylvanas was a high elf before she became undead, and that is not likely to really improve the political situation between the two races.

In short, the Forsaken and the blood elves, for now, have an understanding based upon their mutual desire for more power and their shared fury at the Lich King. Should their political powers improve, however, look forward to seeing that understanding plunge… and fast.

Ranger Sylvanas was an honorable patriot in life, who fought valiantly to protect our homeland. Alone against impossible odds, she nearly defeated all of them single-handedly. I do not question her patriotism and determination now. That is why I am terrified of her, and her kind. Claim that they have free will all they want; they remain an instrument of her will, much like the Scourge was an instrument of Arthas’s.

The Alliance

Draenei: What a complicated relationship these two have! But recent acquaintances, the blood elves found the draenei at their weakest, fleeing the orcish hordes, unable to even fight them without becoming corrupted and defeated. They were possibly the most piteous race they had ever seen, and as such they likely took great pleasure in the sabotage of the Exodar. And yet… due to that sabotage, the draenei found their way into the Alliance, and through the turns of fate were eventually the potential saviors of the Sin’dorei. They know full well that they owe Prophet Velen a great debt. And a few of the more contemplative ones might even wonder: What if he had died in the crash we created? In short, the draenei confuse the blood elves. While they remain enemies, they are likely now looking at the draenei people with renewed respect. In fact, of all the races of the Alliance, it is likely the draenei they respect the most.

Do not ambush a draenei. Draw your sword, announce yourself, and slaughter him on the field of battle. They have earned this much.

Dwarves: Intriguingly, the high elves were most aligned with one of the dwarvish factions; the Wildhammer clan. Something about the two groups clicked, and as such they enjoyed stronger relationships with that clan than they did with the humans. As such, they must be at least interested in some way that the Wildhammer dwarves are at best tangentially connected to the Alliance, and that it is the Ironforge dwarves who have been the driving force for the dwarves. Benefiting from an insider’s perspective, the Blood Elves likely respect the dwarves as a determined, implacable enemy, but are disdainful of their fear toward magic, and know this is the key to defeating them.

Ha. They call themselves fearless? Not true. They are merely stoic; not letting that which should send them screaming into night past their eyes and into their brain. I, of course, can bypass such rudimentary mechanisms, and show them their fears directly. Make no mistake, the dwarves will scatter before our might.

Gnomes: While most horde races do not distinguish between the gnomes and the horde, the high elves had a solid comprehension of the Alliance during the Second War, and knew where the weaponry was coming from. In some ways, the gnomes are both the most derided and yet most feared race for the Blood Elves in the Alliance. The gnomes themselves are little more than an annoying pest, ever asking questions. Stained with grease, living in their rat-hive hovel of a city, the blood elves can look down on the gnomes with greater strength than just about any other race on Azeroth, Horde or Alliance. Yet those blood elves who did fight know firsthand how much damage gnomish weaponry did during the Second War, and even those who didn’t fight likely heard the stories. The Sin’dorei know magic back to front. They do not fear martial might. Yet technology, this crude mechanical aping of magic, may just be the force they cannot understand.

They send fire in sticks and fly above us on metal wings, the filthy little runts! Hurl ice into their crafts, hurl flame back at their fire throwers! Destroy these pathetic worms!

Humans: Ah, the humans. The most presumptuous of races. They saw the high elves working magic, and thought they could do so as well. They saw the dwarves fight and sought to emulate them. The most contemptible thing about the human race is that underneath it all they have no actual original ideas. They ape and mimic their betters in every way, stealing from other races rather than develop themselves. They stole magic from the high elves, shared their faith with the dwarves, learned their ‘technology’ from the gnomes. Is there anything uniquely human? Anything at all? Of course not. How low has Azeroth sunk that these hasty, short lived people have now become the most powerful race.

Oh look. A man. What now, human? What pathetic trick will you use to stop your inevitable death this time? No matter. I’m not going to wait to find out.

Night Elves: And then we have their ancient cousins. To describe the feelings the blood elves have toward the night elves as ‘bloodcurdling rage and hatred’ would be an understatement of epic proportions. If it were not for the thrice-damned Kal’dorei, the blood elves would never have had to leave their homeland. If it hadn’t been for the night elves, the Sin’dorei would never have been on Lordaeron’s borders, awaiting the attacks of the Scourge. Everything, every woe and crime against their people can all be traced back to being outcast by the night elves, and for what? For daring to explore the arcane? For seeking out power in all its forms? How, they cried, can it be a sin to find greater and better ways of shaping the world? We can make the world a better place. But no. The night elves, so blinded and lacking in vision, could not see the glory ahead. And this lack of vision damned the Quel’dorei, and then the Sin’dorei.

Did you ever hear the story of our old friend, Ranger Windrunner? She was captured by the Lich King. Bleeding and hurt, he tortured her body until she died, and then lifted her soul from her body so that her torture might never end. I swear to you, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll beg for her fate.

Viewing the Classes

Death Knight: No race suffered more from the Scourge than the Sin’dorei. None. In one fell swoop, the high elf race was all but destroyed, their most sacred site demolished, and what remained of their race scattered to the four winds. The Death Knights stink of all this. Few, if any, blood elves will have time for any of the Lich King’s castoffs, and woe betide a Sin’dorei Death Knight, he will be regarded as the twice-traitor he truly is.
Druid: Relics of a time long past. The druids worship a balance in nature that doesn’t actually exist; the strong destroy the weak, that is the nature of nature.
Hunter : Now here is an approach to nature the Blood Elves can appreciate! Hunting is a noble sport, and those blood elves who take it up likely see it as exactly that: Sport. If they’re hunting magical creatures, whose flesh may be consumed to relieve their pangs and aches, then so much the better. Hunting, to the blood elves, is an act of dominance over nature, and one they have great time for.
Mage: The high elves discovered the arcane. It is their raisons d’etre, their religion, their world. To be a mage within their society is much like being a doctor in our own; it’s the profession every parent hopes their child becomes, the point of highest respect. Anyone who is not a blood elf and studies magic is, of course, a thief. But at least they had the taste to steal the best.
Paladin: The Blood Knights are a curious order, and one now in a curious place. They had prided themselves on being the masters of a god. Think about that. They held captive M’uru, drew power from him against his will, and channelled it upon their enemies. Yet now they have learned M’uru was never captive, but stayed of his own free will. They have just had a crippling bolt of humility. Some will give up the sword they wielded as paladins. But others will take up the hammer, so to speak. Moreso than any other class, the paladins represent the blood elves now, and so each individual paladin must make his own choice where to go next.
Priest: On the other hand, priests are now torn. They had preached a foul, twisted version of the Holy Light. Not the Cult of Shadow, but rather a version of the Light that had the Light serve them, a version of the Light that put them at the center of the universe. Much like the paladins, they have had this delusion ripped away from them. Do they mend their ways? Likely not – To do so would destroy their power bases. New priests may carve out a more humble path, but for now, Sin’dorei priests are likely to be zealots, raging against a literal dying of their Light. As such, this is the image of all priests most Blood Elves will have.
Rogue: Only fools earn. Wise men take. Rogues are therefore seen as completely untrustworthy, deceitful, and wise. After all, they have survived by any means possible and not become Wretched. This is worthy of praise.
Shaman: Primitive savages, all of them. Barely worthy of a second thought.
Warlock: Probably before the destruction of the Sunwell, the high elves would have had nought but contempt for the warlocks. They commanded earth and nature on their own terms, and could well see that seeking to command demons only left yourself enslaved. One horrid hunger for magic later, however, and it’s amazing what now seems appealing. While warlocks are probably treated as just another kind of mage in blood elf society, surely some of them (now that the Sunwell is restored) have to be wondering if the warlocks aren’t looking like a problem now. The next few years will be critical.
Warrior: It’s not so much that blood elves shy away from a fight, but to be a warrior is so… brutish. Other races have warriors. The blood elves long ago created a system of magical defenses (as high elves) and left being a foot-soldier alone. They’ll battle, there’s no question there, and in many ways, rogues are the warriors for the blood elves. But the kind of heavy armor, stand up fight that a warrior represents is simply too classless to imagine for the Sin’dorei, and they treat warriors with barely disguised contempt.