#draenei lore

Night Elf

Although the night elves have extensive religious beliefs and practices, surprisingly few details are known about their concept of the afterlife. The elven afterworld has been described as little more than a “realm of wisps and shadows” [Elegy, Part Three]. Given that some kaldorei – especially those who form a strong bond with nature – transform into wisps when they die, it is not surprising that the elves associate wisps with the afterlife [Quest: Wisp in the Willows, Quest: Presentation is Everything, Quest: Coaxing the Spirits, Elegy, Part Four]. That said, wisps can die again for a second time, after which it is unknown where they are thought to go [Elegy, Part Four].

Despite the apparent lack of details about the night elf afterlife, there is no doubt that their moon deity, Elune, plays a significant role in their afterlife and helping elves pass on. The kaldorei widely believe that Elune’s Night Warrior aspect takes the valiant among the dead and sets them riding across the sky as stars, which she did with the green dragon aspect Ysera [Item: Necklace with Elune Pendant, Quest: The Fate of Val’sharah]. One of the elves’ most celebrated high priestesses, Kalo’thera, underwent something similar when she “ascended to the stars” from a temple of Elune many millennia ago, although it is unclear if she did so because she died [The Sundering, Chapter Three]. Details aside, one kaldorei maintains that they all ultimately go on to be with the goddess after their death [Quest: Coaxing the Spirits, NPC: Yalda Dialogue].

Having said all that, it is worth pointing out that many night elves end up in the Emerald Dream in one form or another after they die, although it is unclear if that has led the night elves to think of the Dream as their afterlife or not. Some night elf druids, the likes of which include Thaon Moonclaw and Elerethe Renferal, appear in the Dream as spirits directly after they die [Page: Thaon Moonclaw, Page: Elerethe Renferal]. The Dream is also home to a significant number of wisps, although wisps are not necessarily tied to the Dream and can travel to the physical plane at will [Page: Emerald Dream]. Despite that, there are innumerable night elf ghosts that are neither wisps nor druids, such as most Highborne spirits everywhere from Dire Maul to Azsuna. Therefore, it is hard to say with any certainty if knowing druids and wisps eventually pass on to the Dream means the night elves believe the Emerald Dream is the afterlife Elune created for them or if they think there is another place they go to when they die.

Human

Most humans actively follow the teachings of the Holy Light, but it is unclear what kind of afterlife Light worship supposedly leads to. According to the non-canon RPG, the Church of the Holy Light is not a religion and thus has little to say about the universe’s cosmological origins, let alone any afterlife. Instead, the Holy Light is simply a philosophy of life exclusively focused on the moral tenets by which one should live [RPG, pg. 124-125, Page: Brotherhood of Northshire].

This is corroborated in-game by the fact that hardly any humans ever make reference to an afterlife. When Wyll Benton, House Wrynn’s family servant, passes away, he mentions he can see his deceased loved ones, but nothing of where he is going [Before the Storm, pg. 132 – 133 (paperback edition)]. Moreover, when the noble Crusader Bridenbrad perishes, he doesn’t allude to an afterlife, although the three naaru who save his spirit from undeath comment that he will “taste paradise” and that the Light does not abandon its champions [Quest: The Boon of A’dal].

The only time in which the Light is ever mentioned in reference to an afterlife is not by any human, but a draenei girl named Uuna who died long ago on Argus. Barred from passing on for millennia, Uuna finally gets her chance and remarks that the “light” – which manifests above her as an actual beam of light – tells her to follow it. However, Uuna asks to stay on the physical plane a little longer, to which the “Light” supposedly says she can stay [NPC: Uuuna Dialogue].

Draenei

The draenei have never so much as alluded to belief in a conventional ‘afterlife,’ – that is, a separate realm the spirits of their fallen go to other than Auchindoun – but there is no doubt that the dead hold a place of high importance in their culture.

The draenei’s relationship with the spirits of the dead dates as far back as Argus, when the Wakeners began delving into the magical art of soulbinding [NPC: Vigilant Quoram Dialogue]. With their newfound knowledge, the Wakeners learned how to take the souls of their kin and place them in armored constructs, giving them physical form so they could serve as the protectors of eredar society. The constructs, or Vigilants, as they were to be known, were a privilege afforded to the eredar’s greatest warriors and most important figures [Dungeon Journal: Hellfire Citadel, Socrethar the Eternal, Dungeon Journal: Auchindoun, Vigilant Kaathar, NPC: Vigilant Quoram Dialogue]. It was not until the draenei arrived on Draenor that their relationship with the dead grew to take on a more religious and spiritual tone.  

The Genedar’s crash and subsequent injury of the naaru aboard the ship dramatically changed how the draenei treated their dead because of a unique phenomenon that occurred when the naaru D’ore died. The naaru’s remains, which began drifting into a void state, started attracting draenei spirits. Because of that, the draenei were able to communicate with the incorporeal spirits of the fallen for the first time ever in the history of their society [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 54].

In short order, the draenei built a mausoleum known as Auchindoun – ‘a Home for the Honored Dead’ in the eredar language – to house their fallen, D’ore’s remains, and the spirits they attracted over the years. The draenei also went so far as to record the names of each and every draenei interned in Auchindoun in a book known as the Book of the Dead [Quest: Levixus the Soul Caller, Page: Levixus].

To protect the tomb-city’s spirit inhabitants from harm, the draenei formed a religious order known as the Auchenai and placed its members, led by Exarch Maladaar, in charge of communing with and taking care of the dead [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 54]. Among other things, the Auchenai’s responsibilities grew to include calming the dead and performing exorcisms [Pet Journal: Nightmare Bell, Quest: Speaker for the Dead, Quest: The Exorcism of Colonel Jules]. They even had the power to call forth the spirits of the fallen to protect themselves and others if necessary [Beyond the Dark Portal, Chapter Twenty-One].

Those who sought to join the holy Auchenai order and become death priests were required, as part of their initiation, to drink a potion that would allow them to see the dead. The potion’s effects were permanent and, in some cases, even maddening [Quest: Vision of the Dead].

Custom dictated that the draenei pay their respects at spirit towers outside of Auchindoun at specific times of the day [Quest: Spirits of Auchindoun].

Kul Tiran

The Kul Tirans choose not to bury their people, believing instead that the fallen should be given to the ocean [Quest: Lost, Not Forgotten, Item: Soggy Treasure Map]. Because of that, they consider it taboo to retrieve a body lost at sea [NPC: Thomas Zelling Dialogue].

So I referenced a couple things on Argus (and just Argus, so I don’t know about any draenei scripture elsewhere) to put together an abbreviated version of the Draenei (or Eredar) alphabet. There’s a scroll called “Ancient Eredun Scroll” that gives you a buff and looks like it has draenic letters on it: 

A house in the starting area of Krokuun also has sigils etched into its walls that are very similar to the symbols found on the scroll:

Interestingly, it looks like the characters can be flipped any which way. If you look closely enough at the scroll, half of it is mirrored and some other characters have been flipped upside down. This also happens in the house because the characters get mirrored onto the opposing wall. Now, I’m not a linguist, and the use of mirroring could definitely be chalked up to game design efficiency, but it would be cool if in their alphabet, flipping the character in a certain direction made it a completely different letter/have a completely different meaning. Also, because so many of the characters have small components (radicals, if you will) in common, I’d conjecture that you could add or subtract those from other characters and change them that way. Say you add a circle or a line here and there and voila! Different meaning.

I took a quick look at the sigils on Xe’ra’s model and the Warframes, too. 

After my previous post about Orynthia’s family history in Argus, I decided I wanted to post about some lore uncovered awhile back by @illuminating-vigil. Interestingly enough, a very significant amount of Argussian history can be learned through the Demonology Warlock Artifact weapon knowledge. Below are some of the excerpts from the wowhead page, as well as tiny opinions from me. 

The Draenei transported various animal species from Argus to Draenor and again from Draenor to Azeroth, first aboard the Genedar and then on the Exodar. From Argus, they brought talbuk to Draenor where they flourished alongside the planet’s native creatures. The talbuk did not ultimately make it to Azeroth via the Exodar, although some have almost certainly been transported on their own by other means [Mount Journal: Amethyst Ruinstrider]. 

The Draenei also conveyed several of Draenor’s indigenous species to Azeroth, including elekk and ravagers, among others [Quest: Alien Predators, Mount Journal: Great Red Elekk]. Unfortunately, many other specimens from Outland were lost in the Exodar’s crash [Quest: Alien Predators].

Even though elekk are native to Draenor, the red elekk is a marvel exclusive to only Azeroth. It’s theorized that their unique red coloration, nonexistent in Nagrand, is a mutation caused by radiation that leaked from the Exodar after its crash [Mount Journal: Great Red Elekk].

According to Exarch Onaala, female exarchs were practically unheard of in draenei society up until recently, implying that there is gendered stratification among the draenei. Nowadays, gender matters very little and anyone with sufficient courage and conviction can become an exarch [NPC: Exarch Onaala Dialogue].

Despite Onaala’s claims, the first exarch ever appointed by Velen was actually Naielle, who then held the position of exarch for at least 200 years from shortly after the draenei landed on Draenor to some time before their arrival on Azeroth [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 53]. In fact, all four of the original exarchs (Naielle, Hataaru, Akama, and Othaar) served as exarchs for the entire duration of their stay on Draenor [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 53]. Exarch Maladaar was appointed the fifth and final member of the Exarch Council just a few years after council was formed [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 54].

Although it’s surmised that there can only be five exarchs at a time, the historical presence of other exarchs may disprove this. One such exarch is Phoena (a female exarch no less) who appears as a ghost during Yrel’s trials, implying that she died at some point in the past. While it’s possible that her position on the Council was filled by one of the aforementioned exarchs after her death, it seems more likely that she was an exarch who ruled alongside the Council, but not on it. Because the exarchs were not officially formed until the draenei landed on Draenor and all incumbent members of the Council held their positions for close to all 200 years they spent on the planet, it’s possible that other exarchs could have served as leaders alongside the Council, but they themselves were not official members of the Council of Exarchs [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 53-54].  

Furthermore, there are currently approximately seven exarchs split between Outland and Azeroth in the main universe, which implies that the strict “five exarch” rule was either discarded after the genocide of the draenei or there was simply no five exarch rule to begin with [Page: Exarch]. As a counter argument, however, it’s possible that there are two exarch councils: one with jurisdiction over Outland and one with jurisdiction over Azeroth.

Even though draenei society has been continuously ruled over by multiple leaders at a time (the first and second duumvirate, the triumvirate, and the Exarch Council which went from four members to five), the designated number of rulers is in constant flux and does not seem to be set. With this information, one could conjecture that there were more than just five exarchs at a time on Draenor.

Following the massacre at Karabor, Gul’dan had the surviving draenei clerics marched out of the temple and told that they were to be taken to Hellfire Citadel as prisoners of war. Teron Gorefiend, then known as Teron’gor, slaughtered every single draenei cleric where they stood in cold blood, right in front of the holy temple. Their ghosts continue to roam the area to this day [Quest: Divination: Gorefiend’s Cloak].