ANTHROPOLOGIST Explores Teldrassil: Shadows in Shadowglen (Anthropologist Explains)

[00:00:08]A watchful druid counts just how many nightsabers prowl the shadowy woods, ready to cull their population.

[00:00:16]An ardent priestess kneels before a well, shimmering waters reflecting the moon above. A sorrowful woodland spirit looks upon piles of slain creatures too corrupted to be saved. Hey there, I'm Mal and welcome to the World Scribe.

[00:00:33]I've been playing video games for a long time and as an archaeologist and anthropologist, I can't help but apply those practices to the fictional worlds I play through. In this series, I am applying that lens to the world of Azeroth and we'll be looking at all of those scenarios and what they mean today. To an anthropologist, a fictional world is much more than just a setting.

[00:00:57]It is an expression of culture filled with both the intentional design of the creators and the unintended consequences of those choices. We aren't looking at the lore found in novels or elsewhere, we're here to analyze the game world and its non-player people. We're going to be relying relatively strictly on in-game evidence from buildings to NPC dialogue and environmental storytelling rather than using more curated external materials. Those external sources often can greatly expand on the lore, but we are here to focus on the society we actually see constructed inside the game world and minimize those preconceptions.

[00:01:43]While different fantasy peoples may have a long line of tropes and stereotypes, we want to see what they actually have to say about themselves and what their in-game portrayal actually tells us.

[00:01:56]Today, we're beginning our look at a big old tree just off the coast of Kalimdor.

[00:02:01]That's right, folks. We're looking at Teldrassil. Oh, hmm. You know, it seems we might be a tad bit too late. That's fine. I have the power of God and anime on my side and this bronze dragon I found. There we go. That's the one.

[00:02:17]We're going to be analyzing that tree.

[00:02:19]If you enjoy this anthropological approach to gaming, please consider giving us a like, subscribe channel, and let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. It all helps us immensely as we build this series. This video in particular has been made possible by the incredibly generous support of our patrons. If you would like to also support this channel, you can find details in the description down below. I post many of my additional thoughts, analyses, and responses that don't always make it into the videos over there. Additionally, you can gain access to our community Discord to share your thoughts directly, see some sneak peeks, and ask or answer questions. And to tie it all in with Teldrassil and the night elves, tell us in the comments down below what bucket list item you're putting at the very top of your list when you suddenly lose your immortality after 10,000 years and now have a time limit. Existential dread aside, I think I would finally get over myself and DM that game of D&D I have been putting off for literal years. As usual, to get started here, we're going to set just a bit of outside context so we understand the broad situation of the Kaldorei.

[00:03:33]Their recent history is marked by tragedy and great change for these formerly long-lived elves. During the events of Warcraft III, the immense world tree Nordrassil was severely wounded by the demon Archimonde, expending much of its power. The immortality it previously afforded the Kaldorei was lost. As we've already discussed a little bit, Teldrassil is another big, semi world tree off the coast of Kalimdor and grown just a number of years before the point in time of the Cataclysm. It holds the new-ish capital of the night elves, the Kaldorei, in the city of Darnassus, built following the events at Nordrassil. This tree itself is notably rather corrupted and was grown by a crazy person named Fandral Staghelm.

[00:04:24]Wait, that's not quite right. Al Crown?

[00:04:27]No, no, no, no, no. Staghelm, that's the one. Crazy druid Fandral Staghelm. In his bid to restore their lost immortality, he attempted to grow a new world tree. However, he was unable to get his new Costco-sized tree blessed by the dragon aspects. Though, we'll learn a little bit more about that as we progress through the region. As the intro cinematic that I'm just a tad bit too afraid to show for copyright reasons, so helpfully informs us, Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage has recently woken up from his extended nap time. His return as a great champion of the Kaldorei and potentially a new hope for their future suggests new things for the ancient people. In any case, we are going to be analyzing the people, places, and society of the Kaldorei.

[00:05:16]Let's start with the people themselves and see if we can get any initial hints to what we're looking at. First and foremost, the night elves have the ability to shadow meld, becoming stationary and stealth per in-game mechanics. Culturally, this strongly pushes a society that values the ability to hide and to wait. Building on that, as a Kaldorei druid, we also gain illusiveness, increasing our movement speed while stealth. Rogues gain this as well. Pairing with the cultural ideas of the stationary Shadowmeld, this would emphasize a culture of hunting, ambushing, and stalking rather than head-on confrontation. Even further on this theme, they have the Quickness trait, increasing both their chance to dodge attacks and their movement speed at all times. Again, cementing their agility and speed, not their stand-up durability or prowess. Night Elves also gain a small amount of nature resistance, which for some reason covers acid, poison, and electrical damage.

[00:06:20]Look, I'm not entirely sure why being able to resist an electrical current also makes you more resistant to toxins and corrosive reactive materials.

[00:06:28]Something about heavy metals, maybe? I would have thought the Forsaken would be more into the heavy metal side of things. Most nebulously, the Kaldorei also have the Touch of Elune, increasing their haste at night and their critical chance during the day. Elune is the moon and a well, you know, I'll let the true lore nerds argue about what Elune is in the comments. Mommy Moon scares me. And lastly, when dead for in-game mechanics, Night Elves can become a wisp that moves faster. Culturally, you're not necessarily finding and repossessing your body to go exact revenge on whatever punk rogue stabbed you in stealth form. No, to me this suggests that the Kaldorei have a complicated, messy relationship with death. Between their former immortality and their spirits becoming forest wisps when they die. We'll be keeping a keen eye out for any hints as to mortuary practices among the Night Elves, especially those that may be emerging after the last magical tree became notably less magical. But from there, we find ourselves entering the secluded, shady boughs of Shadowglen, where all new Night Elves begin their journey. We can find our cast members speaking with Ilthalaine, an older Kaldorei who states that his purpose is to train young druids like ourselves and to ensure that the balance of nature is maintained. Apparently, the spring rains were quite heavy this year causing some beasts to flourish while others suffered. We need to cull the night saber population so that they don't devastate the others and thus preserve nature's harmony. It's the classic World of Warcraft solution, kill a ton of this thing to restore balance.

[00:08:12]Now, technically, the balance of nature will right itself given time, which is why it's nature. It's natural. So, we're going to see if that balances itself while we two are around this rather purple pink tasting area. I'm not sure why the tree we're on makes purple pink mist. Might want to have that one checked out. And for all that we're on top of a giant tree, there also appears to be a bunch of other trees growing out of the the ground here. Did Altdor skill scoop up a bunch of terrain as it grew? I'm not entirely clear on the whole we're on a tree thing given that we're standing in a relatively normal-ish looking forest with dirt below and other smaller trees growing out of that. We'll keep an eye out for any clarification there. In the meantime, we can see some fascinating early examples of Kaldorei architecture with this sub-tree Altdor skill. It looks as though they have magically shaped it to suit their needs and constructed a stone and timber building within and upon it. They've used a mixture of prepared lumber and the naturally grown tree for this suggesting a mixed culture of working with the tree and utilizing the wood from this or others to accentuate and construct their own sections. The structure itself rests upon a heavy stone foundation worked with ornate meandering designs and fronted by ornate columns. Despite their arboreal inclinations, it does seem the Kaldorei have a strong tradition of masonry and stone working. Their lights appear to be specially grown saplings or plants of a sort with a bioluminescent bulb at the top. Inside the building, we can see actual lanterns instead, glowing with a similar light. I wonder if these are a harvested bulb of a sort or magical lights themselves perhaps. As a heart of the building also appears to be the heart of the tree, and it's unclear whether this was grown or cut out of the tree. Ornate carvings and scrollwork decorate a lot of the wood in here, and we can see growth rings on the heartwood of the plant itself. Taken together, this all suggests a culture that values the aesthetics of blending with a natural structure, even as they have forced it into an unnatural shape for their purposes. It remains to be seen whether the Kaldorei here consider themselves part of nature or masters of it. The difference, an important one culturally, is whether or not they consider themselves part of the ecosystem or above and atop it, shaping it to their whims and needs. Let's return back out front and begin annihilating the local cat population for Illhoof Lane. I think we might have some early hints here about what we actually see in night elven culture about their thoughts on nature. Given that Teldrassil is both an island with the inherently more limited resources and more careful management required, and that we're then also on top of a massive tree with its own self-contained ecosystem, the elves here may have had to adopt rather extreme measures to control the populations of the animals.

[00:11:19]There cannot be migrations. There cannot be relocation of one predator to a new territory. Food availability for herbivores, prey availability for predators, water availability for everyone, these are all immense concerns and this artificial environment has to be carefully maintained for them. The elves have essentially created a bio-dome up here, though one where evidently they don't have 100% control of the weather since Ilthalaine mentioned receiving heavier rains than usual. It seems like they're trying to understand and adapt to their new wacky lifestyle on top of giant towers of a tree as much as the wildlife is and both may be having growing pains there. So, while of course we can make the time honored joke of hee hee look the druids are wiping out all the wildlife again here on Teldrassil, controlling the populous of all of the wildlife they have had to keep alive up here in this unnatural environment is probably an unending task. Behind the scenes, I would not be shocked to find an immense organization of elves that has to constantly ship in new animals. Every time a cornerstone species gets wiped out in their artificial environment, they have to bring in more of them to prop it up. And while we're out here wiping out the night saber population, we can also see a large number of thistleboars. Given Ilthalaine mentioned that it was heavy rains that brought about this overpopulation, there has to be some link between water availability and the large cat population. My best guess there is that the rains provided more water sources temporarily and accelerated grazing plant growth for these boars or the deer or other prey species, which then allowed more night sabers to mate and successfully raise the young cats. Now, all of those young cats are striking out on their own over hunting the boar population since they cannot really spread out to find their own territories. They're all hemmed in on a giant tree with carefully controlled ecosystems. When we return to Ilthalaine, he tells us we performed our duty well, suggesting that this is indeed a recurring duty for young night elves. The maintenance of their artificial ecosystem and what we're seeing early hints at being a managed control idea of nature. Ilthalaine thinks we're able to help him with a more difficult task now given our aptitude with killing big cats. He elaborates that although the tree was theoretically cleansed of corruption previously, they keep seeing the signs of it popping up here and there and all manner of problems still plague the night elves. We're tasked with hunting down nearby grellkin that have gathered to the west and acquiring their fell moss, something Ilthalaine can use to help determine where the continuing corruption stems from. Malfurion Staghelm hanging out nearby jumps in and tells us that the grell have also been stealing from their food stores. He wants us to recover these from the grell camp. It's unclear here if Mal is related to the other Staghelm, Fandral. Checking out this grell encampment, it is somewhat interesting.

[00:14:36]They have a handful of little lean-tos set up as well as carved wooden totems of sorts and what looks like some drums.

[00:14:43]There are a lot of the little goobers here which the game classifies as demons. Neither night elf called them demons, but the quest name for Malfurion's bags is demonic thieves. So, it seems this tree has a bit of a recurring demon problem. Wonderful. The grell may also be trying to survive here, perhaps summoned or brought in by outside forces and then abandoned. They are far off to the fringes here in Shadowglen, stealing food and huddling together in these little camps. We reacquire their stolen bags, now evidently missing some of the food, and collect their fell moss. Is Is the moss growing on the grill, or do they just really like carrying around moss?

[00:15:26]Returning to Melithar, he tells us that he does not have any spare supplies for his customers without his bags, and that many young night elves are in need of them as well. It seems he might be some sort of weaver or tailor that makes satchels. I wonder if his exquisitely unfortunate relations may have necessitated the least threatening profession possible. He's just a single step away from basket weaving so that the suspicion doesn't fall on him. We also check with his partner here, Doronia Silvershine, and she mentions that returning to Shadow Glade, even though it is somewhat corrupted, is like returning home. It is ever peaceful and ever pure. Interesting. Peaceful and pure, what she finds value in here.

[00:16:12]Nature is not naturally peaceful.

[00:16:15]Purity, though, that can suggest quite a few different interpretations of nature.

[00:16:21]We'll keep listening and watching to form some more hypotheses about their concept of what is natural and what is pure. Anyway, we speak with Ilthalaine, and he adds some interesting tidbits about the grelkin. Apparently, they are still tainted by Felmoss, so evidently it's growing on them despite Teldrassil's blessing and being theoretically cleansed. He hopes that the Gnarlpine furbolgs are free of the same corruption, or we are still in great danger. For now, though, he wants us to check in with Dentaria Silverglade, a priestess of the moon who is investigating the corruption north of here. I guess she really likes teeth, given her name. We find the priestess over the poisoned body of another night elf, Ivaron. It looks like you're not putting your ornate 1% nature resistance there to good use, man. Dentaria is glad we're here and comments that our training must be going quickly. That suggests that Shadowglen here is indeed a training ground for young night elves.

[00:17:23]In the wake of their new found mortality, I wonder if birth rates have increased and thus an influx of up and coming youths have made this a necessity. That might also be a bit of a shock to a culture that has remained relatively isolated and with an overall elder population for good yeah, you know, 10,000 years or so. The priestess further elaborates that Ivaron was poisoned by the nearby Webwood spiders.

[00:17:49]She can keep him stable but needs us to gather ingredients for an antidote. The local moon petal lilies around these ponds will do. I wonder if he came here or was brought here specifically for the antidote knowing they could help. As we gather the lilies, we can also see a truly immense number of deer all either doe or fawns around these ponds. I wonder if the elves have domesticated these deer or if they are somewhat protected from the hilarious overabundance of predators that this environment has created. With the lilies, the priestess is able to cure Ivaron using some magic in the mixture, it seems. However, she tells us strange news has reached her. A woodland protector, Tyrande Whisperwind, has returned to Shadowglen. For her to be here, something must be amiss. Dentaria wants us to seek out this protector in the Shadow thread cave that tighter holds to the north. Look lady, you just had us cure the guy who got poisoned going in there. Now you want me to do the same?

[00:18:51]All righty then. We approach the cave and surprise, briar patch to the face.

[00:18:56]Tyrande Whisperwind tells us she had hoped that Teldrassil's corruption had truly been cleansed. It sounds like that's a recurring theme but something foul does indeed linger. She feels that the spiders suffer from the corruption much more than the other nearby wildlife and are becoming a danger to, as she puts it, your people and the forest. We need to thin their numbers, but more importantly, find the source of the corruption. While we accompany the dryads through this cave, let's discuss a bit what we've heard from her and what we see in these spiders. As far as the spiders go, they're massive, like freakishly massive. I'm not arachnophobic, but I'm also definitely not living anywhere near this place. I can only imagine what kind of wacky circulatory system they've developed to grow this large. For the dryad, clearly Tyrande does not consider herself a part of night elven society, differentiating between herself and our people. That is notable and interesting, something we will keep in mind for future hypotheses around woodland spirits. However, it is also interesting that the corruption's main effect seems to be heightened aggression, causing the wildlife to act with hostility towards others. That reminds me a non-zero amount of how the Sindorei lost control of their manicured wildlife following the loss of the Sunwell in our exploration there. While so far, we have very little to go off of it, does seem like the Kaldorei maintain a relatively strict control over their landscape as well, controlling populations of animals, probably having to bring in new ones when they inevitably knock some aspect out of alignment. A major thought here is that nature is not tranquil, nor peaceful, nor calm. It is often brutal, heartless, and focused on survival. More than that, enforcing any amount of control broad scale over nature, like forcing your own perception of what their balance should be, inherently is not natural. It is controlled and curated. Natural selection, brutal as it is, means that stopping one species from going extinct is eliciting influence on nature. Of course, the night elves here have also drastically altered the landscape in ways we can only just get hints of. So, they are also responsible for the climate and terrain shifts behind many of those stressors. The early, and I want to stress early, hypothesis that is forming is that night elves here on Teldrassil view nature as a thing to be corrected, corralled, and controlled in a cultural sense around balance and harmony. Predator-prey interactions are normal, but they must occur in an enforced balance. It does not seem like they rely on a brute-force magical control like these Sindorei, however.

[00:21:59]Whatever means they use to maintain their perceived peace and tranquility in their controlled nature, it is not by letting nature take its course, though.

[00:22:08]Letting nature find a way. It is not wild. One wrinkle I see in this hypothesis, however, is the corruption.

[00:22:16]Clearly, the elves are also dealing with other forces trying to get their fingers in the nature pie. The the mud pie?

[00:22:24]Thus, protecting nature from other influences while maintaining their own influence over it seems to be a core part of their doctrine of natural harmony and purity. We'll keep looking at this hypothesis, see where it goes.

[00:22:39]We also don't know for sure that natural selection is a process that exists on Azeroth. Without more information, it is the default assumption, but it could equally be that all species here have a magical root, and thus the elves are trying to maintain their version of that creature. I would I like to note that Tyrande comments on our actions against the spiders, calling them atrocities that are nearly unbearable in the name of pursuing that balance. The woodland spirits, something we know next to nothing about, seem like part of the same alignment as the elves when it comes to nature, albeit sounding a bit like they have a different approach to it normally. She also comments that the spiders may have been born with the corruption inside of them, suggesting it can be passed down through generations or is something affecting the spider eggs. Tyrande Whisperwind then thinks that what we need to do is slay the brood mother Gythius to find out more about this corruption. We locate the immense spider, helpfully titled Gythius the Vile, take her down, and find a totem corrupting the eggs. A Gnarlpine furbolg totem. We have been told that they had been corrupted before, but that if they were corrupted again, it would be a grave threat. It seems like whatever keeps affecting this tree affects everything living on it, and that makes me wonder about the elves.

[00:24:09]Tyrande Whisperwind needs to track down this threat and sends us to head back to Darnassus overglades to continue our training. She does mention seeking out a druid in Dolanaar who has spent time researching this corruption problem and that we should seek him out if we want to help further. Darnassus, when we speak with her, mentions that Teldrassil does still suffer, though Shadowglen at least is feeling slightly less of the corruption. They should be able to spare a moment or two for us to finish our training here. To finish that training though, we need to head to a moonwell in the northern end of the glade and retrieve a vial of water. The magic of the well will allow us to learn of our past. When we reach the moonwell, a shadow of the Kaldorei appears from the glimmering waters. It tells us of the changes following the battle for Mount Hyjal, where the world tree Nordrassil can be found. With the tree's power expended, the immortality of the Kaldorei with the Shade caused the very essence of their being was lost. The cataclysmic effects of such a societal change are hard to quantify anthropologically, but suffice to say they would be immense.

[00:25:24]The Shade further states that the Betrayer was freed while Shandris Stormrage disappeared into the Emerald Dream. It was a dark time for all, it states as it disappears back into the shimmering pool. So, that gives us some in-game context for the loss of their immortality and the changes wrought by that event. However, we need to see more of the night elven society before we can truly get into what some of those effects might be. The most important question is what the natural lifespan of a night elf without magical tree powers is, and how much time their society has before all of the elderly elves start to become a very visible difference. Beyond just that, however, the list of changes would be considerable. One in particular is a mentality shift. If you go from knowing that nothing but a violent death will take you, or you choose to end it, to suddenly having a time limit, that has some serious societal mental implications. I have a feeling a not insignificant number of elves collectively experienced existentialism very suddenly and severely. A lot of bucket lists of their own probably got written. Well, for now, we fill up the crystal file we were given and take a look at this moonwell. It has a very Shintoism torii inspired gateway on it.

[00:26:51]In traditional Shintoism and greatly simplified for our purposes here, these gateways are intended to mark the transition from the mundane to the divine. The magical waters of this stone well are clearly of great importance to the night elves, and we can apply the sacredness of the moon alone in both the name and in the crescent moon iconography present on the gateway. We can see a number of worked stones, some with magical lights that decorate the area along with a couple of priest stones. Cauldrons line the front, perhaps for offerings or for removing or adding water to the moon well. I would wonder about the spiritual practices around the water itself for washing or cleansing oneself spiritually in particular. It seems to be a magical focus of sorts, allowing the storing of thoughts, ideas, and perhaps even memories that can then be accessed via something like the shade. For now, we return the file of water to Dentaria.

[00:27:51]She tells us our recent history is fraught with strife and violence, and there is much with which we must come to terms. Yeah, I'd say, "I hope you guys have good health care and really good mental health programs. You'll need them." Our final task is to meet with Tenaron Stormgrip atop Al'drassil. He keeps watch over the glade and sounds like something of a local leader. We're to bring him the filled file from the moon well. As we depart Dentaria, Dentaria tells us that it was wonderful to have met us. She feels pride knowing there are young night elves filled with life as we are. We will do great things for our people and great things for this world. That is a bit notable as there are probably no small number of young up-and-coming night elves given the recent challenges. Dentaria is going to meet a lot more, I expect. We haven't had a ton of hints yet to any social contracts among the night elves, something that is always core to a society and one of the first things we look for anthropologically. This does sound here like a small hint at strong societal expectations on young elves, which may be a bit of a cultural shock given how many new ones seem to be coming. Her final words about doing much for our people and much for the world do tell us a bit about what she and by extension the faith of Elune considers important. Aid your people, aid the world. I'm going to guess the world part of that is very deeply tied to their consideration of what is natural. As we scoot on up the tree, we can overhear two elves discussing recent events. One states that they're grateful that Shandris Stormrage has returned, but everything seems so suspicious. What happens to Fandral Deer hat? It seems not all elves trustworthy.

[00:29:50]Interesting, we'll be keeping that in mind. At the top of the tree, we can find Tenaron Stormgrip. He looks at the filled file and mentions something interesting. The Moonwells contain waters from the Well of Eternity, the ancient source of magic that has wrought many horrors upon the world. Thanks, Azshara. He further mentions that the druids take advantage of its properties.

[00:30:14]The sentinels revere them as shrines to Elune and even the returning highborne look to them longingly. That sounds like there's a lot of deep and intense societal pressures towards those sacred spaces. Looking up from the file, he tells us there is much more for us to learn and the task we have begun here will take us through Teldrassil onto the very gates of Darnassus. While he could tell us more of the Moonwells and of Teldrassil. He mentions he must send us along to Koiteras Moonrage with the water from the moon well. We'll find him at the moon well in Dolanaar outside of this sheltered glade. Hey man, I'd actually much rather sit here with you for several hours discussing the social intricacies of using an ancient power source that people have deep trauma and hatred for as the focal point of your spirituality, but also as something druids use and now highborne survivors are looking at. Can we talk about that?

[00:31:08]No? No, you're just going to advise we stay on the road because the forests are dangerous of late. Is that a threat? Oh, you've even given us a wind blessing so we can leave faster. I see. I get the hint I'm leaving. Put the stick down.

[00:31:22]I'm leaving. Well, with that exit, let's discuss what we have learned here in Shadowglen today about the Kaldorei and about Teldrassil. First and foremost, the night elves themselves. Their inherent abilities and focuses suggest a culture that prioritizes stealth, speed, and guerrilla tactics. While they may be able to go into the front line, their innate abilities give us hints towards quick, patient ambush tactics. Their wisp passive also points us towards looking at death and mortuary practices.

[00:31:55]We suspect, but have not yet seen a complicated relationship with death, especially given their recent history.

[00:32:03]Beyond the elves themselves, we saw their buildings. This was particularly fascinating for the blend of natural versus constructed. The Kaldorei mix the two with their structures. This is an early hint that some of what we saw in the environment, their nature on Teldrassil. It is blended with the Kaldorei, but they retain control. That control was a bit of a recurring theme from culling animal populations to creating this artificial landscape atop a giant tree. However, this terrain was created, be it lifted by the tree or created by the Kaldorei afterwards, nothing up here can remain easily in its original state. There can be no migrations, few predatory territories, and extremely limited water sources tied entirely to rainfall. When these aspects shift even slightly out of balance, the elves must swoop in and adjust. If they do not, their artificial ecosystem up in the boughs of this tree will collapse.

[00:33:05]The night elves clearly value the visual and cultural elements of merging with nature, yet also freely reshape, carve, and mold the fauna, flora, and entire environment to their whims. This early hypothesis suggests that the elves have a strong desire for nature to be around them, be even part of them, but also fit into their view of what it should be.

[00:33:31]This is not a wild landscape. It is a managed one. Their druidism, especially what we have seen so far here on Teldrassil, revolves around a selected point of balance, not allowing natural processes like natural selection, if it exists, to run their course. However, we also saw that their landscape faces other threats, other forces trying to manipulate and control that same nature.

[00:34:00]The Kaldorei here are investigating a corruption, a malignance driving creatures upon the theoretically cleansed tree mad with hostility. One hypothesis we have so far is that their control of nature comes from the Kaldorei needing to keep other hands out of their natural pie. But in the process, the wildness, the natural capacity of that nature to adjust itself has largely been lost. That corruption of the tree is quite concerning. We have heard several elves discussing purity, as well as concern around what happened with Fandral Staghelm, the Arch-Druid that grew this particular arboreal titan. It seems all might not be totally well within and without Kaldorei society. From the grell remaining corrupted with their fell moss, to the spiders attacking various elves, to the revelation that a fel bolt totem was causing that madness in the spiders, it seems like whatever cleansing did happen was not nearly enough to protect the life upon the tree. Past that corruption, however, we also had a number of hooks for further investigations into Kaldorei culture.

[00:35:14]The first was the immortality shock, seeing what the effects of very suddenly losing their immortality have on the individual elves. We hypothesize this would be a cataclysmic personal change, with the mental and physical effects being severe. These would then ripple out into nasty societal effects that we want to keep an eye out for. As one response, we have seen that Shadowglen serves as a training ground, a preparation place for an expected influx of new young night elves to learn and prepare for a harsh world beyond their sheltered, controlled boughs. However, it seems not all elves are handling the changes particularly well, with the lingering doubts of about Fandral, the sudden return of Malfurion, the ongoing corruption of a tree that was supposedly cleansed, and a very early hints towards the reentering of a handful of ancient highborne into Kaldorei society, we want to be on the lookout for dissidents.

[00:36:17]Another hook for future investigations are the moon wells, sources of power created with some of the lingering arcane essence of the original Well of Eternity, The one that caused the Sundering. Once again, thanks Azshara.

[00:36:31]Different sectors of Kalimdor society have different reactions to the wells.

[00:36:36]Druids see them as a useful source of power, sentinels and priestesses as sacred places to Elune, the highborne as lingering remnants of a long lost glory.

[00:36:47]The wells also draw influence from Shinto architecture, so we can theorize at their purpose as a sacred transition from the mundane to the divine. Perhaps to Elune or to the Emerald Dream. We'll also be keeping a lookout for further real world influence from Shintoism and gauging how much was actually drawn upon when we have a better sample size. The wells themselves we hypothesize to be complicated in society. On one hand, they are seen as remnants of the old empire, something we have heard hints at being reviled and despised. Yet they are also sacred spaces to Elune and useful for magical purposes even beyond that.

[00:37:32]Given their direct tie to the Sundering and to the more recent actions of the betrayer Illidan Stormrage, I would expect your average night elf to have some seriously complicated feelings about them. Though perhaps also seeing them as a proper contained usage of such magic. We also had our introduction to a woodland spirit, Tyrande Whisperwind.

[00:37:55]She gave us little to work with so far, but seems to follow a similar ideology to the night elves, who also seem to view her in high regard. However, there were two very interesting notes there.

[00:38:07]Firstly, the elves regarded her coming with some concern. From their words, she only really shows up when something has gone horribly wrong. Secondly, she herself made a very clear delineation between herself and our people, separating herself and her kind from Kaldorei society. Both of these aspects give us the strong sense that the woodland spirits assist and work with the elves, but do not participate very much in night elven society. What roles they do play with the Kaldorei and any further hypotheses there will have to wait until we have some more data to work with. There were a few other points I wanted to touch on as well. We have seen a number of priestesses and sentinels and possibly some druids, and with them something of a strange gender divide. The priestesses are all women as the name would suggest, but so too appear to be all of the sentinels.

[00:39:03]Unfortunately, we have had very few individuals explicitly labeled as druids, so we'll have to keep an eye out to see if this theme continues and if we can make any hypotheses there. The sentinels themselves appear to wear a mixture of leather and metallic armor that is as much allowing for movement as for defense, further solidifying that hit and run agile battle plan. I'm a little less sure about their weapons. I don't quite understand how you fight with that thing. Like processing a zucchini, maybe? The priestesses we have seen tend to wear iconic flowing gowns in a stark reflective white, perhaps symbolizing moonlight. We'll see if there is any further information on them as we meet more. The sentinels and priestesses of Elune may also be closely linked. We always see the priestesses with their accompanying sentinel guards or not far away. I would wonder if this is a form of martial order that emerged out of temple guards or something similar, perhaps even something like a holy order. But that is all for today, my friends. I hope you have enjoyed this anthropological exploration of the night elves. We shall soon be passing out of the protected glade of Shadow Glade and entering the wider environments of Teldrassil. If you have indeed enjoyed it, please consider liking this video, subscribing to the channel, and leaving a comment about your thoughts, favorite parts, or whatever else tickles your fancy. If you wish to support us on Patreon and enable us to keep making these deep dives full-time, please check out the link in the description. An enormous thanks to our current patrons, Amel, M, Sniggleberg, Viverance, Kobold, Jacksmah, Echo Isles, Yosak, Nikon, Froyo, Bruno, Valandrian, and Zitterberg. Our gratitude for your support is immeasurable. Thank you so very much. As always, I have been your host Mal, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day today. Do no harm and do some good.