Today’s topic is a look at the Blood Elves and what their role in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is going to be. WoW does a bad enough job trying to explain to you who the Blood Elves are, so we’re going to start out with a little bit of a back history and use it to try and see where they’re going to go with Cataclysm.

First things first, Blood Elves are High Elves which are remnants of the Highborn which are Night Elves who use arcane magic. I’ve drawn a diagram explaining everything below: 

I've taken the liberty to highlight the size of each race's eyebrows

If that doesn’t do it for you, you can read the past Loremaster’s Corner to get a pretty good idea of where the Blood Elves stand and how they went from being Night Elves, to Highborn, to High Elves. We’re going to focus specifically on the Blood Elves, how they as a race began, and where they will be going in Cataclysm.

So, let us travel back to the Third War when the Scourge was a collection of miscellaneous Ghouls resurrected in northern Lordaeron. The capital city of Lordaeron had fallen and the Scourge was planted directly between the vast mountain range holding Ironforge and Gilneas (which closed its borders to defend against the Scourge) and the great High Elven capital of Silvermoon and the kingdom of Quel’Thalas. Arthas, current commander of the scourge, wanted to resurrect one of his Pokemon named Kel’thuzad. He’d used game shark though so taking it to a Pokémon Center would have crashed his game.

He marches on the gates of Silvermoon which are guarded by powerful magic, destroys each and every gate, slays Sylvanas (who was a High Elf at the time) and razes their city to the ground. He reaches the Sunwell, the fount of Elven power and corrupts it. When Kel’thuzad is resurrected he leaves to go off and challenge the elite four or whatever.

It’s important to understand that this battle includes the death of King Anasterian Sunstrider, Kael’thas’s father. Anasterian was the man who withdrew the High Elves from the Alliance and was their rightful leader. This plays an important part coming up.

Kael’thas along with Lor’themar Theron, the second in command to Sylvanas, destroyed the Sunwell to prevent it corrupting everyone’s save games… I mean corrupting the land with the undead plague and killing every one of the High Elves. Prince Kael’thas along with the strongest of the Elves went off to Outland and to eventually battle Arthas leaving Lor’themar in charge.

Lor’themar and the remaining Blood Elves move into the forest and purge the forests of the Undead threat, proving themselves to the Forsaken who assist them in joining the Horde. As I said earlier, Sylvanas was the commander of the Ranger General and was good friends with Lor’themar. So with Thrall’s political savvy and Sylvanas’ suggestion, they gain strong allies who help them defend their land.

Meanwhile, Kael’thas betrays his people and allies with the Burning Legion. This causes the combined might of the Horde and Alliance to wipe out the majority of the Blood Elves (that didn’t ally with Scryers or remained at home). Before dying, Kael’thas, learning a lot from Arthas the now Pokemon Master, summons Kil’jaeden in the remains of the Sunwell. You defeat him and the Sunwell is reignited, bringing the Blood Elves back to their previous prosperity. Off topic a bit, but it seems like everyone tries to summon the biggest baddest Pokémon (Ragnaros/Kil’jaeden/Worgans/Elementals/etc.) and it always fails because they don’t have enough badges to control it. Remember people, you need to earn enough badges from Gym Leaders before you can take on that transferred Pokémon.

Kael'thas has long fallen.

So, with the close of The Burning Crusade, the story of the Blood Elves comes to a happy ending. Wrath of the Lich King provided nothing new other than confirmation that the Sunwell is reignited along with a reminder that the remaining High Elves are thick as thieves with the Alliance while the Blood Elves allowed the Horde to gain a foothold in Dalaran to assist in launching attacks against Arthas.

That leaves us with Cataclysm, which will be bringing the old world back up to modern times. Garrosh will be taking over and he’s probably not going to have a high opinion of the prissy Elves. Not to mention that the Blood Elves and Forsaken are thick as thieves and the Horde has a really bad opinion of the Forsaken right now. Their main plot line, Kil'jaeden, was resolved in The Burning Crusade, while their involvement with Dalaran and the cold war they have with remaining High Elves pretty much goes nowhere.

I see them now at the height of their power. They’re strong allies with Dalaran and allowed the Horde to utilize the resources in Dalaran to help defeat Arthas. They were heavily involved with a lot of Icecrown and the downfall of Arthas. They rebuilt their city, purified the Sunwell, and will probably rebuild a lot of their land in Cataclysm.

Yet, if the Forsaken is going to be turned into nothing but Garrosh’s playthings for him to run at the gates of Gilneas then I have to ponder what he’ll do with the Elves. The Trolls have a long history and will fare well on their own, but for a battered people I can’t see things turning out well for our friends the Blood Elves.

I’m guessing that Garrosh will give them some redundant task to do or perhaps they’ll be there assaulting the Greymane Wall. Either way, political merits don’t matter to a true bloodthirsty warrior.

One last note, something that isn’t brought up a lot, but Anasterian withdrew the High Elves from the Alliance. In the upcoming Alliance vs. Horde plotline, you’re probably going to see some strong hate for the Blood Elves coming from the Alliance. The Alliance doesn’t like traitors and Blood Elves are not only traitors (leaving the Alliance formally) but also allied themselves with the Horde. We’ll probably be seeing something where the High Elves in the Alliance try to besiege and retake their capital in the Silvermoon starting area.

Lore Theorycrafting

What if the Blood Elves remained with the Alliance? I personally feel that in Cataclysm the Alliance would have purged the Undercity of the undead and reclaimed their lands in the name of the Alliance. Silvermoon is a great assault point against the Undercity which is separated from the main Horde armies and is pretty much in the gutter as far as Horde relations go.

Then again, the Blood Elves from an out of lore standpoint, serve to break up the general monster theme the Horde has going for it. I’m sure the Alliance would become 40% Night Elf, 40% High Elf, and 10% Human if High Elves were a choice.

That’s my take on the Blood Elves and Cataclysm. Join me next week as I take a look at the Forsaken and their position in Cataclysm.