Night Elf

The Night elves are a fictional race in Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft series of computer games and novels.

Background
Night Elves (or kaldorei, meaning "children of the stars" in Darnassian, the Night Elves' native tongue) have a skin color that ranges from deep lavender to marble white, and they have extremely long (almost lagomorphic) ears, and hair in various cool-toned shades including blue, purple, green, white and black. The eyes of most Night Elves glow with a bright silver light, but in some rare cases a Gold eyed Night Elf is born, the Gold color signify they are destined for great things. The race is tall, with the men standing approximately at 7.5 feet. The men are always of a slim-waisted yet rock-like, extremely muscular build including gigantic bear-like arms and hands. Malfurion Stormrage has antlers like a deer, although this seems to be atypical and is likely the result of his druidic learning. The women are very different, having a slim, athletic, and voluptuous build, but still standing nearly as tall as the men. Unlike most other Elves, Night Elf men often have thick beards and bushy eyebrows. In Warcraft III, the Night Elves lived on the continent known as Kalimdor and were never seen by, and only known of by a few Orcs or Humans until they were introduced to the Warcraft Universe in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. In World of Warcraft, they live on the tree-island of Teldrassil, which is north and slightly west of Kalimdor. The greatest population of Night Elves reside in their capital city, Darnassus.

Many male elves are druids while many females become warriors in a group known as the "Sentinels." In World of Warcraft, however, both males and females can take on the role of druid, warrior, hunter, rogue or priest indiscriminately. In Warcraft III, the Night Elves were neutral but in World of Warcraft they have become a part of the Alliance. The night elf racial mounts are the Frostsaber (white tiger with either spots or stripes) and the Nightsaber (dark tiger available with stripes only). There are also other breeds of ridable saber cats called stormsabers and wintersabers; however, these epic mounts are only available at level 60. In Warcraft III they also had a strange form of Hippogryph as well, it being raven and deer, in the manner of a Peryton instead of the usual eagle and horse combination. This creature is used as an air transport in World of Warcraft.

Before the end of Warcraft III all Night Elf druids were male, and slept for thousands of years in the Emerald Dream while the women were left to protect their slumber. Hence the females became prominent in combat. They were described by Grom Hellscream in Warcraft III as too savage to be High Elves, and as "the perfect warriors".

In World of Warcraft, they are the second most popular race on American and European servers, right behind humans. The Night Elf Hunter is supposedly the most popular race/class combination in World of Warcraft.

History
Night Elves were immortal until the destruction of the World Tree at the end of WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. The forces of the Burning Legion had fought their way to the World Tree, which their commander, Archimonde, had set his sights upon. When Archimonde reached the tree, however, he discovered that he had walked into a trap set by Malfurion Stormrage. Thousands of wisps surrounded the Eredar and exploded all at once destroying him and damaging the World Tree. While this prevented Archimonde from destroying the world, it also deprived the Night Elves of the immortality that the tree had granted them. Not all of them adjusted to mortality well and many were terrified by the prospects of illness, aging, and eventual death.

It wasn't long before some of the druids decided to make a new World Tree and thus regain their immortality; an idea that achieved popularity with many of the Kal'dorei. Malfurion warned them that such a selfish act would never be blessed by nature and forbade the creation of a new tree. After making this proclamation, Malfurion became trapped within the Emerald Dream and not even the green dragons who lived within the Emerald Dream could find him. With Malfurion incapacitated, leadership of the druids fell to Fandral Staghelm who was one of the Night Elves in favor of creating a new World Tree. Under Staghelm, a second tree was brought into existence and named Teldrassil. Unfortunately, Malfurion's prediction was correct; the new tree was not blessed by nature and the Night Elves did not gain new immortality from its creation as intended. The new World Tree radiated corruption that drove creatures and people inhabiting the area mad and filled them with mindless aggression. This is just one example of the negative effects Teldrassil has had on the world around it. Teldrassil's one positive effect is the wondrous city of Darnassus that was built upon it.

After the wars played in Warcraft III and Frozen Throne, which caused the destruction of most of the High Elves, the Night Elves are the most numerous Elven race in the world of Azeroth.

Highborne
The Highborne (Quel'dorei in elven tongue) were the personal servants of Queen Azshara in Kalimdor. Upon discovery of the Well of Eternity, they began to probe the well for secrets to discover the nature of its power. However the Highborne began to spend large amounts of time around it and it began to adversely affect them. Many began to shy away from speaking with the other Night Elves outside of the Highborne circle and increasingly delved into work concerning the Well. After much study, Queen Azshara encountered and made a pact with Sargeras, leader of the Burning Legion. In return for untold power, Azshara and the Highborne would open a portal into Azeroth for Sargeras and his minions. Sargeras rewarded several Highborne with a new more powerful form: the Satyr. However Malfurion Stormrage, with the help of Tyrande Whisperwind, Cenarius, and fellow Night Elves were able to drive the Burning Legion back. But because the summoning was interrupted the spell went awry and resulted in a terrible explosion that destroyed over 80% of the land of Kalimdor, giving away to the Maelstrom and reforgeing the land into the three current day continents, Kailimdor, Northrend, and The Eastern Kingdoms. After the terrible destruction Malfurion and his followers reached the mainland with a few remnants of the Highborne. Malfurion did not punish them; he was content that the surviving Highborne could do no more damage without the Well's power. The ones that survived eventually left, under the leadership of Dath'Remar, to look for a new home. However Queen Azshara and some of her followers survived the explosion and sank to the bottom of the sea eventually mutating into the Naga. And there they remained until contacted centuries later by the Betrayer, Illidan.

Highborne ruins dot the lands of Kalimdor from Darkshore all the way to Azshara (the land named after the Highborne queen). Bashal'Aran and Ameth'Aran in Darkshore are the ruins of two large Highborne settlements that are occupied now only by demons and the tormented spirits of the Highborne. The Ruins of Eldareth in Azshara are all that remains of the Highborne Night Elves' ancient capital city. It is now overrun with a tribe of the Naga known as the Spitelash. Perhaps the most intriguing Highborne ruin in Kalimdor is Dire Maul. At the height of Highborne power, Dire Maul was known as the city of Eldre'Thalas, inside whose high walls were guarded many of Queen Azshara's most prized and powerful arcane secrets. Though it was ravaged by the Great Sundering of the world, much of the ancient city still stands. The three distinct districts of the city are overrun with a variety of dangerous creatures including Highborne spectres, demonic satyrs, and the Gordok Ogre tribe.

Famous Night Elves
Malfurion Stormrage
Considered one of the most powerful druids ever.

Illidan Stormrage
A night elf demon hunter who became a demon overlord. He can be fought in the Black Temple instance.

Tyrande Whisperwind
The current leader of the night elf people, Whisperwind is a powerful priestess.

Vereesa Windrunner from the novel: Day Of the Dragon.
She's a scout. Her mission is to take a magican to a harbor,
but they're attacked and need to face the mission together with the dwarf Falstadt.

Trivia
*The male Night Elf dance is based upon Michael Jackson in his concert performance of "Billie Jean".
*The female dance is based upon Alizee in her concert performance of "".
*According to a survey made by the [http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid-1&factionid-1&minlevel10&maxlevel70&servertypeid=-1 Warcraft Census] at 08-15-07, Night Elves are currently the 2nd most popular race in World of Warcraft, only slightly less popular than the Humans.
*The breasts of Night Elf females have been allegedly "nerfed" several times by developers, a curious move which will probably be reversed with the advent of the extremely buxom Draenei females with the release of The Burning Crusade.

Male flirts
*I'm a force of nature.
*You're an Emerald Dream come true.
*Wanna bring out the animal in me?
*Baby, I'm mortal now, time's a-wasting.
*I hope you're not afraid of snakes.

Female flirts
*There's nothing like sleeping in the forest under the moonlight.
*Sure, I've got exotic piercings.
*If I wasn't purple you'd see I was blushing.
*I'm the type of girl my mother warned me about.

Male jokes
*Man, I was halfway through the Emerald Dream when I had to pee.
*What? I didn't hear that.
*Who wants to live forever?
*Is that thing sharp? Could that thing cut me? I'm not immortal now you know.
*I don't mind the Gnomes, I'm just worried about tripping over them.
*Last night I went to an awesome stag party.
*I don't know about you but I can't understand a thing those wisps say. I usually just nod.
*You know those ancient protectors in Darnassus? They're not that old.

Female jokes
*Actually I'm more of a morning elf.
*I think guys just use the Emerald Dream as an excuse to avoid calling me back.
*You know wisps are actually pretty useful for personal hygiene.
*Oh I'm dancing again. I hope all your friends are enjoying the show.
*You know, I have to keep moving at night. Or I'll disappear.
*I said a bow string not a G...oh forget it

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See Also

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