Considering that the Night Elves are one of the oldest races in Azeroth, it’s strange how they’re still among the most mysterious. Even if you haven’t played World of Warcraft you’ve seen the image of the iconic Night Elf Hunter or Druid that often stands in as an emblem of the whole franchise. They’ve been playable characters since back in the day when the RTS Blizzard games were shiny and new, and their heroes are some of the most memorable, beautiful, and powerful.
There are players who have never played a night Elf and know virtually nothing about the race, and then there are those that love their Night Elf characters and never play anything else. The latter will already know a few of the obscure facts we’ve compiled about WoW’s most ubiquitous and somehow also most unknown race.
10 Night Elves Have Awesome Racial Bonuses
For those that don’t play Night Elves or tend to stay on the Horde side, they appear overpowered when it comes to racial bonuses — and some of that is connected to the lore. There’s a reason that you’ll see a disproportionate number of players with Night Elf characters. All of the racial bonuses are ideal for almost any class, like Shadowmeld and Wisp, which can cut down on your leveling time with their improved abilities to hide from enemies and run to your corpse more quickly when that fails. Night Elves also enjoy bonuses to agility and dodge.
9 Night Elves Caused the Great Sundering
It was actually the destruction of the Well of Eternity that caused the Sundering, so we can’t put it all on Azshara. There’s plenty of blame to go around the whole Night Elf community with few exceptions. Even if you know this bit of historical trivia already, you might not know how it’s related to other lore connected to Night Elves specifically and Azeroth in general. Examples include how dungeons like Dire Maul exist and why the race couldn’t train as Mages in the Classic version of the game.
8 Night Elves Have the Best Mounts
Mounts are important in World of Warcraft. They convey status and command respect from your fellow players. They’re so important that players will choose certain races depending on their racial mount, and even Horde players have to give it up for the Night Saber.
Any Alliance player can attain the Frost Saber mount, which is an epic variation on the regular Night Saber. Night Elves have access to the Night Sabers automatically, while other Alliance races have to grind up to an exalted reputation to get one — and there are plenty that do so.
7 Night Elves Used to be Trolls
Despite the resentment between the two races in contemporary times, Night Elves evolved from Trolls. Trolls are the oldest indigenous race in Azeroth, which is one of the reasons you find them virtually everywhere. One tribe, the Darkspear, is even part of the Horde. Back in the day, one tribe of Trolls settled near the Well of Eternity, and over the course of many thousands of years, it changed them. Their features grew finer, their skin turned a darker hue, and it also seemed to correct their hunched posture. The long pointed ears and devotion to animal spirits still remain.
6 Night Elves Have Powerful Friends
Living near the Well of Eternity gave the Night Elves some unique advantages right from the beginning. There were other powerful entities in the neighborhood, and one of them was the demigod Cenarius. He claimed to be related to the Night Elves somehow, perhaps through a connection to the Well, which explains why he took it upon himself o teach them about the natural magic of Azeroth. At the time of the Sundering, arcane magic dominated Night Elf society and Cenarius had almost been forgotten entirely. After centuries of staying hidden, he literally stepped out of a bush when he heard three precocious young night elves named Tyrande, Malfurion, and Illidan talking about him.
5 Night Elves Were the First Druids
The first thing Cenarius did when he stepped out of that bush was to offer to teach those Night Elves Druidism. All three accepted and studied the art to some extent, but Tyrande was already a dedicated Priestess of Elune and Illidan proved to be too impatient. Only Malfurion would become a full-fledged Druid and he was the first one in all of Azeroth.
Only one other race in Azeroth can practice Druidism other than Night Elves, the Tauren — who Cenarius came into contact with as well. The main reason that Druids are underrepresented in most player populations is due to the fact that only two races can play them.
4 Dire Maul Is An Old Night Elf City
It was called Eldre’Thalas, and it was populated by the studious and peaceful arcanists, the Shen’dralar. They were able to shield the city from the Sundering to ensure the survival of a few of them. But in the centuries that followed the ogres and demons took over most of the ruins, and the few Shen’dralar that remained were all but confined in a small corner of their once-great city. It was only after the Cataclysm that the Shen’dralar were integrated back into Night Elf society and players could roll Night Elf Mages again.
3 The Shadowsong Family Is A Big Deal
We hear about the Proudmoore family, the Menethils, the Windrunners — even the Barov clan of Caer Darrow have a place in the history books. Among Night Elves, it’s the Shadowsong family that participates in the important events that have defined the race. Maiev might be the best known of them as the jailor of Illidan Stormrage, especially since she got some publicity during the Burning Crusade expansion. Her younger brother, Jarod, was a commander of the Kaldorei Resistance during the War of the Ancients, and his wife Shalasyr was one of Tyrande Whisperwind’s close disciples.
2 Cenarius Thought the Orcs Were Demons
Nobody said Cenarius was the brightest sprite in the forest, and he made a crucial mistake that would shape Azeroth as we now know it. The Night Elves weren’t happy when the Orcs first walked into Ashenvale anyway, but to make matters worse, their leader Cenarion attacked the Orcs because he thought they were demons.
To be fair, he wasn’t completely wrong, since the Orcs had made a deal with a powerful demon named Mannoroth and gained extra powers and abilities when they drank his blood. However, if a prominent leader among the Night Elves hadn’t made this mistake when the conflict first began, history might have unfolded differently.
1 Night Elves Were Strictly Divided by Gender
If you thought that banning Mages was an extreme step, then the level of segregation based on gender that was once common in Night Elf society will be a shock. If you played Warcraft 3, you might have noticed most of the characters on the Night Elf side are female. Players familiar with Night Elf lore will know that Malfurion Stormrage spends a lot of time asleep, roaming the Emerald Dream while his Druids accompany him. Most of those Druids are male.
For a few generations, while the Druids were asleep, figures like Tyrande and Maeiv were in leadership positions and almost every Night Elf that wasn’t asleep was female. It wasn’t a societal norm that was enforced so much as it was essential, and after Cataclysm, those days were virtually over.
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