#sin'dorei lore

Artistic depictions of the quel’dorei have been rather liberal in their portrayal of elven eyes, showing elves with everything from non-glowing, ostensibly ‘human’ eyes to glowing eyes in a variety of colors, some of which are not even seen in-game. The high elves in the novel Tides of Darkness and Sylvanas’ Warbringer short all appear to have non-glowing eyes, which stands in stark contrast to the ever-glowing blue eyes of their in-game counterparts* [Warbringers: Sylvanas, Tides of Darkness, Chapter Seven, Chapter Fourteen]. On the other hand, many forms of media such as the World of Warcraft comic, the movie, and Hearthstone hero art for Alleria Windrunner and Lady Liadrin, among others, exclusively depict quel’dorei and sin’dorei with glowing eyes. Since all in-game high elf, blood elf, and void elf models’ eyes glow, it seems that they are not intended to have ‘normal’ human eyes. However, given the number of discrepancies, especially in recent content, it could very well be that elven eyes have much more variety than what is represented in-game.

A Background

Eye color in elves appears to be determined by the specific type of magic they are exposed to over a long period of time, whether that be through consistent use of it, absorption, or simply being around it. This phenomenon actually occurs in human spellcasters in a slightly different way, although the effect is not as permanent in humans like it is in elves. Jaina Proudmoore, for example, has been shown as having glowing blue eyes when casting frost spells and orange eyes while casting fire spells [Cinematic: An Unexpected Reunion, Hearthstone Hero Art: Jaina Proudmoore]. Interestingly enough, elves’ eyes can also temporarily change color through spell casting or magic absorption. Immediately after siphoning arcane magic from a trident, Valeera Sanguinar’s eyes, which are normally a glowing green, temporarily changed to purple [World of Warcraft Comic, Issue #7]. Similarly, Vereesa Windrunner has glowing purple eyes as she casts what seems to be an arcane spell in her Hearthstone card art [Hearthstone Card: Vereesa Windrunner].

In most cases, eye color directly correlates to the relevant magic type. The high elves’ blue eyes may appear something of an oddity at first glance, considering they subsisted on an arcane fount for millennia. If channeling the energies of the Sunwell is the cause of their eye color, then it may strike one as weird that arcane magic - something that is commonly associated with the color purple - has given them blue eyes. However, raw arcane energies are shown to be both purple and blue in color. Mage spells like arcane blast and arcane barrage, for example, have blue effects, not to say anything about how all of the mage spells in the Warcraft movie are also blue [Video: WOW PTR 7.3 – Mage Animation – Draenei Female, Video: WarCraft: The Beginning: All Magic Effects]. Moreover, arcane elementals are primarily blue [Page: Arcane Elemental]. In other words, it is not all that farfetched for high elves to have gotten blue eyes from feeding on the arcane energies of the Sunwell.

It is also worth adding that a night elf’s eyes change from silver to gold if they have druidic potential or begin practicing druidism [Warcraft Encyclopedia: Night Elf]. The color gold does not have any obvious associations with druidic magic – in fact, it is usually indicative of the Light –, and yet it is widespread among kaldorei druids. (It may be important to point out that Malfurion’s eyes are green rather than gold in the Terror of Darkshore cinematic, a color oft tied to nature) [Cinematic: Terror of Darkshore]. Therefore, while eye color in elves is typically dependent on the type of magic they use, it is not unusual for their eye color to be a different color than that which is most commonly associated with the magic in question.

The blood elves have a long history of changing their family names to reflect and honor major transformations in their culture. It is strongly implied that many of the high elves first changed their surnames sometime after they were exiled from Kalimdor, likely so they could distance themselves from their kaldorei cousins and celebrate their new sun-centered culture. While a few of the Highborne, Dath’Remar Sunstrider included, had sun-oriented surnames to begin with, that type of family name was and still is particularly uncommon among the moon-worshipping kaldorei [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume I, pg. 118].

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!

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For Nightborne Lore Month (June 2018), see here

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.”

The Nightborne were indeed cured of their addiction with the aid of the Arcan’dor! The Fruit of the Arcan’dor’s description reads, “The ancient power inside this fruit brings the life essence and the arcane spirit of the shal’dorei into harmony, freeing them from their addiction to the Nightwell.” The player character gives this fruit to Nightborne exiles in Shal’aran several times, so I assume Thalyssra was able to provide everyone with the fruit, thereby bringing an end to their dependence on the Nightwell.  

To go hand in hand with this, the Nightborne are not using the Nightwell anymore. Thalyssra has dialogue at the end of the Nighthold where she says, “We no longer need the Nightwell, nor its power”. Furthermore, I believe it’s at least implied, if not outright said, that the Nightwell is fading without the Eye of Aman’thul to power it.

I had to look up information on the Blood Elves because I wasn’t sure, but a cursory search shows that they are still addicted to magic, at least for the time being. Some have speculated that their addiction could fade with prolonged exposure to the new Sunwell, but I haven’t found a source that corroborates this. The narrator of the Cataclysm intro cinematic for playable blood elves says, “Over time, the Sunwell’s light could cure the Blood Elves of their cursed state,” but whether this ‘cursed state’ refers to their fel corruption or their magical addiction is unclear.