Everything Blood Elves
#1
(( With the coming advent of our blood elf overlords I figured I would help to educate those who do not know every teeny aspect of their society and history. The bulk of this information can be found at WoWWiki ))

The blood elves, or sin'dorei ("Children of the Blood" in Thalassian), are a race comprised of former high elves who renamed themselves in honor of their people that were killed during the siege of Quel'Thalas by the Scourge during the Third War. The blood elves of Azeroth will join the Horde in the Burning Crusade expansion, seeking to reunite with Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider in Outland. Their capital will be Silvermoon in the Eversong Woods, the heart of their reclaimed and restored homeland.

Introduction and History

Ten thousand years ago, during the reign of the night elf Queen Azshara, there was an elite magic-using sect known as the Highborne, who dabbled in magics that many other elves considered heretical by drawing upon the power of the Well of Eternity. Several centuries after the Sundering, which destroyed the Well of Eternity, the Highborne left Kalimdor and settled on the Eastern Continent, founding the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. They became known as the high elves. During this time, they created the Sunwell, and switched to a diurnal waking cycle, instead of the nocturnal cycle they had kept when they were night elves. Their purple skin eventually faded to a pale peach color, like that of the humans and dwarves.

The high elves assisted the Alliance of Lordaeron in the Second War against the Horde and in the war against the Burning Legion. During the Third War, however, Prince Arthas led his army of the undead against them, ravaging Quel'Thalas and corrupting the Sunwell. Most of what was left of Quel'thalas was burned down by the high elves, in an effort to give the scourge a psychological victory and leaving the few high elves left who were making their last stand on Sunstrider Isle. Despite their efforts, almost 90% of the high elven population were eradicated during this conflict. In remembrance of their fallen brethren, most of them renamed themselves the blood elves, or Sin'Dorei, and swore to avenge their fallen race.

Cut off from their source of power once again, the elves went into magic withdrawal. Desperate for aid following the Third War, the blood elves accepted help from the naga. This was seen as treachery by the Alliance and they were sentenced to death. Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider led his followers to freedom, to the extra dimensional wastes of Outland, the remnants of Draenor, to pledge allegiance to Illidan who promised to grant them a new source of magic by siphoning the chaotic energies of demons. Together with their allies the naga, Illidan led the blood elves to conquer Outland, gaining in the process the friendship of the nearly extinct draenei. The blood elves then followed Illidan to the Icecrown Glacier in an attempt to destroy the Lich King, however, their plans were foiled by Arthas who wounded Illidan forcing the allied blood elves and naga to retreat, allowing Arthas to ascend the glacier and merge with the Lich King.

But not all blood elves currently reside in Outland with Illidan, some have remained in Azeroth. Flushed with their new found power born from their ability to siphon mana from creatures born of the Twisting Nether, the blood elves have managed to retake their beloved land of Quel'Thalas. Silvermoon has been rebuilt and the resident blood elves there plot to return to Outland, where they can reunite with Kael'thas and achieve the golden destiny he promised them.

Unfortunately, the Kael'Thas' decisions to continually accept the aid of the Naga and willingness to use fel magic has caused blood elves in general to be shunned by the Alliance. Thus, the remaining blood elves on Azeroth look to the Horde to help them reach Outland. While their relations with the rest of the Horde are shaky at best, the tauren and especially the orcs feel at least a little sympathy for them. Addiction to fel magics and a desperate search for a cure is something the orcs are very familiar with, and many older orcs who've experienced similar addictions feel great kinship with the blood elves. The trolls who have been the ancient enemy of all quel'dorei since antiquity accept them warily. The Forsaken have been working closely with the blood elves to purge the greater Plaguelands of Scourge presence since their induction, but the blood elves still regard them with distrust. Lor'themar Theron was Sylvanas Windrunner's second in command during the Second Battle of Quel'Thalas, and many Forsaken were high elves culled from the same battle. By propagating this information and the Earthen Ring's view of the Forsaken's affliction, they have gained enough sympathy from the blood elves to gain entry into greater Quel'thalas and set up outposts. However, most see these obsequious proposals as smoke and mirrors hiding a fiendish plan. Aid from the Forsaken has included offers of reinforcements in and around the reclaimed blood elf territories, and the opening a huge two-way portal outside both the Undercity and Silvermoon so that travel between the two cities is quick, safe and easy. Other than construction of the portal, Theron has viewed most of the offers shrewdly, and has declined on most.
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#2
Culture

Blood elves wear crimson-colored robes to suggest their fiery affiliation and the blood of the fallen elves in Quel'thalas. Many concentrate on studying arcane and fire magic, as opposed to the traditional frost and water spells of their lost high elf society.

Blood elf architecture is breathtaking. It involves pendulous creations of wondrous curves and columns, its designs natural, floral, flowing, animal. Their fountains seem to defy physical boundaries, creating or warping water in impossible ways. Blood elves have flags that feature a phoenix. In the Third War, Blood Mages had the ability to call phoenixes from the Elemental Plane of fire. These creatures appear to be deeply connected with the blood elves, possibly because they share a destructive nature, or perhaps due to their purely magical composition. This could allow the blood elves to have increased control over them. Since the phoenix dies and becomes reborn, it could be a symbol for the blood elves -- the blood elves metaphorically 'died' as high elves and were reborn as blood elves.

Tensions from the aftermath of the Second War have become burning hatreds. The high elves officially withdrew from the Alliance after the Second War under the belief that not enough troops were sent to protect Quel'thalas, and thus led to a needlessly engorged amount of slaughter and destruction. A few high elves remained under their own volition to continue serving the Alliance, but the loyalty of even these voluntary troops waned after the second sacking of Quel'Thalas by Arthas, to which the Alliance took no steps in intervening. Finally with Lord Garithos' dismissive and racist treatment of high elven troops, even more fell under the sway of Kael'thas' new vision for his people, and the high elves who remained loyal even after all of the Alliance's poor policies in dealing with the elven race still faced discrimination from the very people they served in Theramore and Stormwind.

As a result, blood elves are fierce jingoists, believing that the only people they can truly trust are their own. They are perceived as reckless and haughty, exhibiting none of the serenity or calm judgment of their ancestral peoples, and jumping at opportunity and quick solutions with little regard for the consequences. They believe power is not something to be earned -- it is to be taken. Power is something to be manipulated for yourself and the greater good of all blood elves. This reasoning also plays into how the blood elves successfully drained pure Light energy from the naaru to become Blood Knights, and paying no interest to the Paladin credos of benevolence or asceticism.

Leadership in Quel'Thalas

Lor'themar Theron, Regent of Quel'Thalas: Leader of the blood elves on Azeroth in the Prince's absence. Grand Magister Rommath: Leader of all blood elf Magi on Azeroth, and a fiercely loyal servant of Kael'thas. Halduron Brightwing: Ranger-General of Silvermoon, the blood elves' military commander on Azeroth, leader of the Farstriders (organization of blood elven rangers).

Physical Appearance

In the time between the Third War and World of Warcraft, blood elves on Azeroth began to take up wearing red and black in memorial of their lost empire and brethren. They also adopted hair styles against the norms of their previous high elf society and painted runes on their bodies to ward off demons or to simply look threatening. They feed on mana from mainly fel, and recently arcane , and divine[6] sources. The reliance on fel energy by blood elves on Azeroth and Outland may have caused their glowing green eyes. This readily available source of energy also tends to give blood elves a ruddy look compared to their quel'dorei brethren. Nevertheless when approaching Alliance towns blood elves would often disguise themselves as high elves to avoid harm.

Note that although blood elves show some physical differences compared to high elves blood elves and high elves are exactly the same physical race in terms of biology.However, in the Warcraft RPG they are considered seperate races more by culture differences, than because of any physical differences. In the first use of the term "race" it may be equivocation of the definition of the term "species".
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#3
Magical addiction

Since the destruction of the Sunwell at the hands of Arthas and the Scourge, the blood elves have been forced to deal with the sudden relapse of their addiction to arcane energy. A constant curse since the original Well of Eternity was destroyed, the addiction has become more powerful than ever. Blood elves spend their waking days struggling with their weakness, seeking either to sate it by siphoning magical energy from their surroundings or to resist the urge to feed.

While the blood elves do not abstain from draining arcane power directly, they are careful to keep their addictions under control, keeping the power their new abilities offer while maintaining self-discipline. Those who lose control over their addiction are known as "the Wretched," and invariably fall into insanity and corruption.

As Arcanist Helion (a starting zone quest NPC) says, "Control your thirst for magic...It is a thirst unending."

Reasons for racial abilities

The elves have long delved into the magical and arcane as evident by their cultural centerpiece, the Sunwell. Thus, they have developed a natural Arcane Affinity as a result of the well's magical presence, making the blood elves naturally skilled with arcane arts such as Enchanting. The elves' constant exposure to the Sunwell also gave them a natural defense against many kinds of magical manipulation, granting them a natural Magical Resistance. After the destruction of the Sunwell during the Third War, the remaining blood elves developed the skill of Mana Tapping to feed their magical addiction, allowing them to tap into the arcane energies of other beings. Arcane Torrent comes as a natural manipulation of these consumed energies and allows the elves to absorb and unleash the energies gathered.

Blood Elves in the Burning Crusade

The blood elves start in the Eversong Woods, the northern section of Quel'Thalas. Farther south is the Ghostlands, a level 10-20 zone.

Their capital city is Silvermoon.

The blood elf mount is called the hawkstrider, although at first they were named 'cockatrices' as announced by Gamespot. Blood elf paladins (blood knights) will have a charger-like horse that is black with bronze and red armor.

The blood elf languages are Thalassian and Orcish, and they will be able to pick the hunter, priest, warlock, rogue, mage and paladin classes, according to an update on the official homepage. This is the final outcome, and it will not be changing as explained by this blue post on the official forums.
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#4
Thank you for taking time to compile this, it cleared up quite a bit. ((Granted, I could have looked thru all the stuff . . .))
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#5
The Lore here explains Mages, Warlocks and Blood Knights (Paladins), but is there any existing lore on the other classes? Hunters, Rogues, and more specifically Priests? Anyone have a place on the internet I can go to read up on such things?

Thanks!
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#6
(I can't give you official sources, but in terms of Priests I think it's mostly a matter of tradition. Almost all the Elven fighters for the Alliance of the Third War were magic users, and most of them Priests. I would imagine there is a longstanding tradition of (Primarily Holy/Disc) Priests among the High Elves, and that probably hasn't entirely fallen away during the transition to Blood Elves.)
Righteous are those who look up and sway with the wind,
Who look down and dance with the shifting of the soil,
Who swim with the movement of the tides!
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