Elune is E'lune? wait what?Follow

The summary of every troll raid instance:

"Hey, let's eat our gods! What could possibly go wrong?"

Hmm. Was a nice read.

I do believe that the Trolls evolved into the Night Elves.
So I can actually agree with the article, as it makes since to me.

Crazy if that someone at Blizz sat down so many years ago and planned this all in advance, hoping for the day when the "truth" would come out.

The Vyrkul thought Arthas was a god too you know.



Well the website itself says that Elune has never been seen. Think in the real world about Jesus/Muhammad/Buddha/Vishnu/Mithra (delete the savior for the particular religion you follow and pretend I'm only talking about the other ones). We have plenty of pictures of them, or at least descriptions, but that doesn't mean anyone who claims they know what they looked like actually do. They have no idea. In truth, besides Night Elf dogma, Elune has never been described period.

One thing I liked about the Dragon Age game is they did an excellent job with the history. The church had their own official declared version, but it was also questioned, and found that even to people who just look a little closer that maybe the things that are declared official history might not be true. They did a good job of modeling real religious dogma.
I see the stories of the Night Elves in a similar light.

Who was it that said that said man created god in his own image? (no seriously, I forget :( Anyone remember?)



This is one issue that definitely is peculiar, but I doubt they'd have too much trouble retconning a rogue naaru that uses nature spells.



See: religious dogma. :P



Maybe that's why I like the idea so much. :\ Though I don't think it makes it a 'misguided cult' any more than those who follow the Holy Light. The Naaru are extremely powerful holy entities in the service of good, there's no reason that the truth of Elune being one of the Naaru would invalidate the values the night elves have nor the power they receive from her. It seems probable that if they went down this path, they'd explain why this Naaru is able to offer a different flavor of power, sort of how Nobundo went shaman and Velen supported him. Maybe another step in unifying the lore. It really does tie up some loose ends rather nicely.



I think it's been demonstrated that the Naaru have pretty individual personalities. I don't think this is really an issue. I was just reading a bit of stuff, and one thing I'd like to bring your attention to is that Cenarius also left the Night Elves for a while, and was later rediscovered by malfurion. The Night Elves basically abandoned their connection with nature and studied magic and built huge cities. Cenarius didn't have to be a Naaru to realize what the Well of Eternity was going to do, and in fact, he, malfurion, and many others initiated war against the highborne before they actually witnessed the effects of the well first-hand, yet Elune did not directly intervene even during the war.



Aww that's not a good reason to quit.



IF it does happen, it's a pretty obvious retcon, and I strongly don't believe they had this sort of intention when they first thought up Elune, but I don't mind if they end up going down this path. It would be an interesting twist to me, something the game needs more of. It would be very easy to do too, as basically everything known about Elune is from Night Elf lore, so they can just say its not how it actually happened, (unlike retconning the draenei into the game, but that didn't stop 'em)


THOUGH: They still need to explain where this crazy scythe of elune came from and what the heck the idea behind that was.



Edited, May 3rd 2010 10:51pm by digitalcraft

Edited, May 3rd 2010 10:55pm by digitalcraft

The Lich King IS an eternal, and it is debatable if he has achieved god-dom. However, Elune was established from the start as being a true diety--it was what set her apart from other eternals that have cropped up over Azeroth's long years. Velen, for instance, is likely an eternal (well, maybe more of a demigod I suppose--capable of living forever but also mortal in a way, like NEs were).

It is a ret con. And when the lore is basically 70% of the reason I play the game in the first place, huge ones like this (which only detracts from the story, imo) just ruin it. It isn't just this one, per se. But they were already changing so much in Cata that I was iffy about. Frankly, if this is true, what interest I have in WoW's story is gone. Because there's no point in following it if Blizz is going to arbitrarily change it as they see fit.

And it wasn't NE Dogma that describes what Elune looks like. It was established in the Lore itself, detailing her as having alabaster skin, silver hair and eyes that seemed to be made of pure moonlight, though it was difficult to see through the intense light that emanates from her body.

And this still fails to explain the beings that actually take direct lineage from Elune, such as Cenarius and all his children. They do not resemble Naaru in the slightest, and have powers only of nature--never of light. Even if there's a Naaru that could USE natural magic, anything descended from one should still be a being of light.



The elements found Nobundo. His power is completely* separate from the Naaru, as he isn't even able to access them anymore.



Not really. Actually, it doesn't at all. It just raises 10,000 more questions that are never going to get answers. Elune wasn't a lore problem before now. Now, if she is a Naaru, there are a ton of contradictions within the lore. Frankly, it's a dumb change.



Not really. The NEs hadn't really had a druidic relationship with nature until after the War of the Ancients. It isn't like they turned away from it in favor of the Arcane. Some NEs left their civilization and were transformed by Cenarius into dryads or Keepers of the Grove, but this was extremely rare. The demigod wasn't considered an enemy of the NE state, but he and his teachings certainly weren't, and had never been, a core part of it. NEs up until that point looked at nature as something to control. It wasn't until Malfurion became the first mortal druid that Cenarius' teachings actually entered the NE civilization.

However, during this time, the Sisterhood of Elune had long existed. Even if there weren't druids, there were NEs looking to the goddess rather than magic. And, actually, the actual practice of magic was mostly limited to the Highborne. Very few commoners were able to perform any spells, let alone do something of value with it.

The Well, on the other hand, wasn't seen as something bad. It was a part of nature. And, frankly, they had no way of knowing what it truly was (the magical fount actually joined together countless worlds). They sensed the chaotic magics being channeled by Azshara, yes. But had no reason to hate the Well of Eternity. And Elune did help them do what they could to stop this spell. The point is that it doesn't seem she knew what was coming in the legion, or else she would have actually helped rally a resistance BEFORE the BL arrived.

And Elune did directly aid the NEs in the war. She didn't materialize, no, but it was a time where she was VERY actively involved. You need to realize that even things like healing are considered expressions of huge power in lore. Even the high priestess of the time isn't known to have ever healed wounds. So Tyrande's inpenetrable shield (so strong even Archimonde couldn't break it, and yet we know that the BL can destroy Naaru, so this is awkward), the wounds she was healing, the smaller gifts granted, etc. were actually a massive investment by her.

It's a pretty huge ret con, and the only thing it does is tie in Naaru to Azeroth by shattering a bunch of lore in the process, to the point that a ton of it doesn't even make sense any more. When they ret conned Eredar, it wasn't so bad, because they were less representative in the lore. But Elune is a huge lore figure. Ret conning her is NOT okay. Especially when you are downgrading her...

We're not talking about the beliefs of an in-game people, we're talking about some that is said outright to be true, by Blizzard on their website



There's a big difference between real world religion, where no one in historical times has been able to provide definitive proof of a god's existence; and fantasy religion, where tangible evidence is seen every day.



This isn't religious dogma, this is stated to be historical fact by Blizzard, apart from her actual description

Assuming the Naaru tie-in from last expansion didn't leave a bleeding wound in your heart, yeah, the Elune = E'lune retcon is nothing.

As far as I'm concerned, The Burning Crusade is a part of World of Warcraft history that just needs to disappear in new content. The Illidan and Kael'thas story, sure, it was fun. The whole Naaru 'ohai we're luminescent wind chimes with godlike status' crap just needs to go away. Far away.

They can pack their bags with Power Ranger Paladin tier gear and set up camp in Wonderland for all I care, they just need to GTFO.

Edit: Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Edited, May 4th 2010 4:11pm by Mazra

Everyone seems to be getting hung up on how Elune was never described as a set of floating windchimes. (sorry in advance Mazra) I think we need to look at this from the view of the rogue tribe of trolls that became Night Elves.

There you are, a primitive troll, minding your own business when you and your tribe sense a power. Going against the rest of the troll civilization your tribe packs up and heads toward it. You reach a lake that emanates the power so you and your fellow tribesmen set up camp.

Then poof one morning/evening you've changed, grown smarter, taller, lithe, your tusks were exchanged for glowing eyes. Your tribe gathers by the lake's edge to talk about the changes when suddenly a bright light appears over the water. The light was so bright that the one emanating it could only barely be made out. It had two legs, two arms, and it's head bore a crown with 2 points like the moon when it was in it's final quarter.

It calls itself, Elune, and she has come to guide and teach you her chosen children.

Now when confronted with something so large to understand, mortals (including real life ones) tend to shrink it into something they can understand. So the being they could barely see through the light, to them, took the form of a night elf when described to others. Something they could more easily understand, after all, children look like their parents. If Elune changed them into this new shape then she too must look like this.

Now the Naaru by now must be aware that E'lune is responsible for the night elves. But like the article described they wouldn't be inclined to blow up a religion that does no harm to it's people and only good. And perhaps only at that point where that picture occurred did E'lune perhaps feel that the night elves were ready to grasp the whole truth.

Well at least that's my take on it. For me, this answers many of the questions I had about why is Elune the only god, why did she only manifest herself to the night elves, if she existed before the titans arrived on Azeroth then would she be considered an old god, if so, why was she not sealed too, or is she a titan who got there before the others. So yeah the Naaru connection got rid of my questions. It also makes sense that the Naaru would go to different planets to cultivate civilizations that would repel the burning legion instead of joining it.

I don't think it cheapens the blows Azeroth made against the legion but ties us into a MUCH bigger picture. After all, how many other worlds did the Naaru cultivate, and how many failed when the BL came?

Edited, May 4th 2010 12:18pm by Therenody

What annoys me, aside from the whole hotness thing (it's not really my main gripe as you may have guessed), is that throughout history, Elune has held a mystical status. You can find references to her in multiple cultures and I always liked to believe that every single deity in the game has its origin in the Elune myth. That "Elune" is the name for the source of all this power, not necessarily an actual entity.

Please understand that to me this is somewhat similar to finding out that the Christian God is actually a giant neon-colored wind chime that sparkles and makes pretty sounds. As impressive as giant, neon-colored wind chimes are, I believe the word I'm looking for is 'anticlimactic'. It basically kills a lot of the mysticism.

Also, is any of this confirmed to be true? The article starts out by saying it's a tinfoil hat "Know Your Lore" article and that they're basically just piecing together known facts to make some kind of comprehensible connection out of it. Doesn't mean any of it is actually true or going to be true, does it?

One can hope, right?

But they don't exactly stay dead.

I have to say that I really liked the idea posted in the comments thread over there about Malorne (and the other animal spirits/deities the NE revere) originally having been one of the Troll gods, but one that chose to work with Elune--basically they're all in the same category. Which could explain why certain ones could be making a comeback.

Heck, even ignoring the whole Elune/E'lune thing, I still like it. But then, I happen to be a big fan of the Troll->Night Elf theory; it gives my Hunter something to talk about at Explorer's League meetings besides Dwarves and Earthen. =p

I'm sorry but I have to contradict you here. The lore specifically says that she's depicted by the night elves this way, but has never been a material form, and is almost more a personification of ideologies.

"Elune has never been observed in physical form on Azeroth. Indeed, she is as much a collection of ideals as she is a personality in her own right. A powerful and spiritual deity, she is fundamentally an incorporeal being. Nevertheless, she is often depicted as a beautiful night elf woman crowned with a simple platinum circlet and surrounded by dazzling luminescence. Artists also traditionally portray her with long, white hair, alabaster skin, and eyes of pure moonlight."

From the official site itself, as authoritative as one can get.

Its all speculation by the author, hence the "TFH", Tin Foil Hat, in the article's title. She made the screen shot with the wow model viewer.

Source? The opening of the article implies it's from the Cataclysm F&F Alpha.



Minor problem: Knaak couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. He's a bad fanfic writer who thinks all the Mary Stu/Marty Stu tropes are good things.