The Highborne’s reckless defiance was as sudden as it was startling. In the end, the other night elves could not bring themselves to sentence so many of their brothers and sisters to death. Instead, they barred the Highborne from setting foot on Hyjal ever again. Dath’Remar and his followers were exiled, cut off from the Well of Eternity’s energies.
Most of the Highborne happily accepted their banishment. They were finally free of the other night elves’ constraints. Under Dath’Remar’s guidance, the Highborne built a fleet of mighty ships. They then set sail, leaving Kalimdor for whatever lands might lie beyond the churning Maelstrom. The Highborne’s determination was rewarded when they made landfall on a new continent some years later. This region, filled with lush wildlife and woodlands, would one day become known as the Eastern Kingdoms.
THE SUNSTRIDER DYNASTY
Dath’Remar Sunstrider hailed from a long line of illustrious Highborne, all of whom had served the night elf throne. Their namesake was something of an oddity among their moon-worshipping race. Dath’Remar’s ancestors had chosen “Sunstrider” to symbolize their penchant for delving into the unknown, for breaking expectations and throwing caution to the wind in their search for greatness. Like his bold progenitors, Dath’Remar carried on this tradition with pride.
The Highborne traveled on foot for months before finally settling in a place marked by a strange silver hand—a land called Tirisfal by tribes of primitive humans that inhabited the area. Initially, these humans rarely interacted with the Highborne. Yet as time passed, they began to tell legends of a brave metal-skinned guardian named Tyr, who had sacrificed himself to kill a monstrous foe in Tirisfal.
Indeed, the Highborne detected potent ley energies in the land—energies that the primitive humans could not detect. It was no Well of Eternity, but the lingering supernatural presence intrigued the experienced arcane practitioners. Some elves speculated that, in time, they could unlock its secrets and restore themselves to their former glory.
They were desperate to succeed quickly. After being exiled from the Well of Eternity, the Highborne began to feel the effects of aging and disease. Their skin had even lost its violet hue, and they had begun to shrink in stature. The Highborne feared that the effects would only worsen over time.
Led by Dath’Remar, the Highborne made a new life in Tirisfal Glades. For a time, they dwelled in peace and reveled in their independence. Yet as they tapped into the area’s latent magic, they found shades of dark energy. These shadowy powers drove some of the Highborne to madness. They began to argue that the humans had built their settlements atop the most potent ley lines in the region. Therefore, the Highborne should force them to relocate … or even conquer the primitive beings outright.
Dath’Remar did not agree. He had no wish to war against a people who posed no threat to his kind. The wise leader had also sensed the dark energies radiating from the land. He theorized that they might be responsible for the sudden rise of belligerence and madness that was afflicting the Highborne.
Ultimately, Dath’Remar chose to lead his people away from Tirisfal to avert violence and spare them from further calamity. He decided that they would try to make a new home in the north. There, Dath’Remar’s scouts had discovered a region rife with lush forests and powerful ley energies. Intent on reaching this land, the beleaguered Highborne struck out north and into the unknown.
The exile of the Highborne ended a tenuous chapter in night elf history. Yet even so, Tyrande and Malfurion found no time to rest.
Malfurion and the Cenarion Circle busied themselves with upholding the balance of nature and healing lands still polluted with demonic corruption. Much of this they did in unison with Ysera and her green dragonflight, deep within the twisting pathways of the Emerald Dream. Malfurion and the other druids slumbered for decades at a time, their dreamforms wandering Ysera’s realm.
Tyrande, Shandris, and the Sentinels maintained their guardianship over the night elf domain. They patrolled the forests without rest, ever wary of another demonic resurgence. Their efforts resulted in a long-sought period of peace and tranquility. Life in the forests and thickets of Hyjal thrived.
In time, the enchanted keepers of the grove and woodland dryads emerged from the secluded Moonglade. The night elves revered these creatures, for they were Cenarius’s own sons and daughters. Their presence in the wilds of Ashenvale was seen as an omen of better times to come.
Along with the keepers of the grove and the dryads, other creatures appeared in the open with greater frequency. The wise treants, the elusive faerie dragons, and the mythical chimaeras all began roaming the forests near night elf holdings. In the centuries to come, the night elves would foster strong bonds with these fay creatures and call on them in times of need.
With Malfurion in the Dream, the task of governing the daily activities of the night elves fell to Tyrande. The mantle of leadership was demanding, but she enjoyed it. Yet despite the hope and optimism that blossomed among the night elves, Tyrande could not shake the feeling that dire times were ahead. They had banished the Burning Legion, but they had not killed Sargeras. Tyrande believed with all her heart that the fallen titan was somewhere out in the darkness between the stars, plotting another attack. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Sargeras renewed his Burning Crusade to decimate all life.
And if that day did come, Tyrande hoped she and her people would be ready for it.
Far from the dense woodlands of Ashenvale, Dath’Remar Sunstrider and the Highborne continued their quest to find a home in the Eastern Kingdoms. They followed the trails of magical essence, seeking the confluence of ley lines that their scouts had spied in the north. The Highborne’s journey proved unexpectedly brutal. A ferocious blizzard stopped the elves dead in their tracks for nearly a month as they traveled, with no way to move forward or escape from the mountain passes.
The Highborne quickly realized just how vulnerable they had become without the Well of Eternity. For the first time in memory, they began to die of starvation. Only the compassion of some primitive humans living in the mountains kept the entire expedition from perishing in the winter’s fury.
Once the storm lifted, the Highborne forged ahead, shaken but determined to find a new home. As they drew closer to the land that the scouts had found, hope warmed their weary hearts. Verdant woodlands blanketed the terrain, and the ground beneath the Highborne’s feet crackled with potent lines of magic. But the elves soon discovered that another race also called this region home: the barbaric Amani trolls.
The arrival of the Highborne infuriated the trolls, who harbored a bitter hatred of elves from the days of Queen Azshara. The Amani sent out raiding parties immediately, and the Highborne soon learned to fear troll ambushes in the dense forests. Yet the elves stubbornly pressed forward, using their magical prowess to decimate any Amani who dared cross their path. Soon the trolls also learned to tread cautiously. The continuous skirmishes fostered a mutual enmity between the Amani and the Highborne.
Despite the trolls’ ferocity, the elves finally reached the nexus of ley lines they had been seeking. Powerful torrents of arcane energy converged in the vibrant forests. Dath’Remar proclaimed that this was where they would begin their civilization anew.
Before the eyes of his followers, Dath’Remar revealed something he had kept hidden over the long and torturous journey to the north: a vial filled with the enchanted waters from the original Well of Eternity. Just before the Highborne had been exiled from Mount Hyjal, Dath’Remar had secretly taken one of Illidan Stormrage’s remaining vials from the custody of the night elves.
Dath’Remar poured the vial into a small lake at the center of the nexus, and a brilliant fount of energy tore through the skies of Azeroth. The Highborne dubbed this glorious cradle of power “the Sunwell,” a name chosen in honor of Dath’Remar and his bold quest to reignite their culture.
Thereafter, the Highborne abandoned their traditional worship of the moon, instead taking their strength from the sun.
In time, they would even be known by a new name: high elves. The amount of arcane power available to the elves increased by an astonishing degree. Many of them proclaimed that Dath’Remar had brought them salvation. They called their new land Quel’Thalas, or “High Home,” and declared that it would dwarf the night elves’ civilization and stand as a monument for the ages.
The trolls did not agree. The high elves had built their new kingdom atop ancient Amani ruins—ruins still considered hallowed ground by the trolls. Outnumbering the elves by more than ten to one, the Amani struggled ferociously to drive the invaders from their sacred land.
The high elves drew on the full might of their newfound power, barely holding off the trolls’ assaults. Dath’Remar himself led almost every battle against the fierce Amani. Bit by bit, the elves carved out the borders of their kingdom, securing a new home, paid for in the blood of their brothers and sisters.
Yet many of the high elves grew wary of their rampant use of arcane magic, fearing that it could draw the Burning Legion to Azeroth once again. Dath’Remar sent his most powerful arcanists to find a solution. Over several decades, they built a series of monolithic Runestones around Quel’Thalas’s borders. This barrier was called Ban’dinoriel, or “the Gatekeeper” in the high elven tongue. It would prevent others from detecting the elves’ usage of arcane magic, and it would also frighten away the superstitious Amani.
The trolls eventually retreated back to their temple city of Zul’Aman. They decided it was safer to ambush elven convoys that strayed beyond the magic barrier than to launch a full-scale assault on Quel’Thalas. An elite group of high elf rangers soon arose to combat this threat.
Inside the borders of Quel’Thalas, civilization thrived. No longer fearful of using magic, the high elves created marvelous works and bathed their land in eternal springtime. Never again would they experience another winter as brutal as the one they had suffered en route to this land. Their capital, Silvermoon City, became a shining monument to the memory of the elves’ ancient empire.
With the new empire established, Dath’Remar stepped down as leader. His bloodline would go on to inherit a kingdom of peace and prosperity. Yet this era would come to an end when Dath’Remar’s great-grandson, Anasterian, donned the mantle of leadership. He would come to power at a time when his people faced war with the trolls once again.
As Quel’Thalas flourished, other Highborne communities across the world struggled to survive. One such community dwelled in the city of Shandaral, a repository of arcane relics and artifacts. At the apex of the night elf empire, this outpost had been established in the northern reaches of Kalimdor. Following the Sundering, Azeroth’s main continent had fractured into multiple landmasses. Now, Shandaral and its Highborne dwelled in the frigid heart of a new and harsh continent known as Northrend.
The Shandaral Highborne remained in total isolation, cut off from their cousins in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Their distance from the second Well of Eternity left them vulnerable to disease and other ailments. Yet unlike Dath’Remar’s followers, the Shandaral Highborne did not possess any vials of the Well of Eternity’s waters. They had no way to create a surrogate source of power. For centuries, these Highborne scoured the surrounding forest of Moonsong for a means to sustain themselves.
During this time, the Highborne witnessed members of the blue dragonflight using spells to crystallize living things and draw power from them. Although the dragons performed these acts out of mere curiosity, the elves saw the technique as a means to end their suffering forever.
Attempts by the Highborne to interact with the dragons were ignored or, in some cases, met with open hostility. Out of desperation, a group of Highborne sorcerers infiltrated the blue flight’s wondrous lair, the Nexus. The Highborne succeeded in learning the dragons’ techniques, but greed also drove them to take more than they had come for. The elves pilfered some of the powerful relics stored in the Nexus. In doing so, they triggered magical wards, sending the blue dragons into a frenzy. Although the Highborne thieves escaped with their lives, they knew full well that the dragons would seek retribution.
That day soon arrived. Dozens of blue dragons descended on Shandaral, seething with indignation at the theft of their precious relics by the “lesser” Highborne. The elven sorcerers, desperate to drive away their enemies, gathered on an icy cliff overlooking Moonsong. There, they agreed to use the techniques they had acquired from the Nexus. As one, the Highborne sorcerers focused their power, hoping to crystallize a small portion of the forest and use its energies as a weapon to annihilate the dragons.
The spell proved disastrous. The Highborne’s reckless casting set off a blinding explosion visible from as far away as Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. The roaring torrent of energy instantly crystallized the entire forest of Moonsong. The blue dragons, sensing the impending spellwork, escaped before disaster struck. The physical forms of every other living creature in the region were shattered by the release of energy. Their spirits, although warped by the powerful spell, were left intact, cursed to mindlessly wander the haunted land that would become known as Crystalsong Forest.
When the Sundering tore through Azeroth, the tectonic devastation rattled the captive Old Gods and weakened their keeper-wrought prisons. The apocalyptic event also stirred the malign entities to new degrees of deadly awareness. Over the millennia that followed, great tendrils of corruption spilled from the Old Gods’ damaged prisons and gradually seeped to the world’s surface. Northrend, where Yogg-Saron was imprisoned, saw some of the most severe effects. Festering blooms of a strange new mineral, saronite, spread throughout the crust of the land and sapped the life of native flora and fauna.
Upon discovering saronite, a small group of druids from the Cenarion Circle decided to eradicate it. They reasoned that if the life-giving energies of the World Tree could heal the lands around Mount Hyjal, another great tree could do the same in Northrend. The group’s leader, Fandral Staghelm, soon became obsessed with the idea.
Some druids advised him to seek the guidance of the Dragon Aspects. Their knowledge and blessings had allowed Nordrassil to flourish; without them, planting another great tree could have unforeseen consequences. Yet Staghelm believed there was no time to wait. Saronite was spreading unchecked throughout Northrend and even in other parts of the world. Rather than waste time in endless debates, Staghelm moved to act—without consulting the Aspects or the rest of the Cenarion Circle.
BLUE DRAGONS DESCEND ON THE HIGHBORNE IN THE FOREST OF MOONSONG
Fandral and his closest followers secretly cut six enchanted branches from the boughs of Nordrassil. With the branches in hand, they traveled the world to locations where saronite blooms had sprung to life. One by one, the druids planted the branches in these regions, hoping to thwart the corruption. The areas where Fandral and his allies left their mark included Ashenvale, Crystalsong Forest, Feralas, and two remote regions in the Eastern Kingdoms that would later be known as Duskwood and the Hinterlands.
The branches quickly took root and became new trees. Together, they acted like conduits, channeling the powers of the Emerald Dream into the waking world, strengthening the nearby wildlife, and scouring the saronite deposits. Heartened by their success, the druids planted the last and greatest of the branches in the mountains of Northrend, over the largest growth of saronite. This new World Tree—named Andrassil, or “Crown of the Snow”—grew with astonishing speed, and the benefits were almost immediate. The spread of saronite ceased, and wildlife flourished anew.
Malfurion and the rest of the Cenarion Circle became furious upon learning that these branches had been planted without their approval. They did, however, agree that the plan seemed to have worked. For several decades, Andrassil towered over Northrend, and all seemed well.
Yet in time, circumstances changed. Bloody battles erupted between the taunka and the forest nymphs of Northrend, two races not known for their warring ways. The fighting was sudden and shockingly vicious, filled with barbarism a
nd unspeakably vile acts. Word slowly reached the druids, and the Cenarion Circle launched an expedition to investigate the source of the violence.
What the druids found chilled them to their marrow. Andrassil’s roots had reached so deep into the earth that they had touched Yogg-Saron’s subterranean prison. The Old God had infused the tree with its foul energies, and thus all living creatures in the area were slowly being driven to madness.
The Cenarion Circle knew that, without the blessing of the Aspects, Andrassil was vulnerable to corruption. They were also aware that there was no way to spare the World Tree or ease its suffering. The Cenarion Circle sorrowfully decided that the only recourse was to destroy Andrassil. With heavy hearts, they felled the great tree. It slammed down onto the icy surface of Northrend with a deafening boom that echoed even through the ethereal forests of the Emerald Dream. Forever after, the druids would refer to the fallen World Tree as Vordrassil, or “Broken Crown.”
Although killing Andrassil had been a heartbreaking task, the Cenarion Circle was pleased it had stopped the growth of saronite. Yet unbeknownst to the druids, something dark had taken root in the Emerald Dream.
Yogg-Saron had used the trees planted by Fandral as a doorway into the Dream—a doorway through which the other Old Gods could grasp the ethereal domain as well. Small seeds of corruption were spread throughout Ysera’s realm. In time, these seeds polluted the dreamways. This marked the beginning of what would become known as the Emerald Nightmare.
As wars raged and new civilizations arose across the surface of Azeroth, the earthen largely kept to themselves. They were unconcerned with the activities of the world’s other races. Some earthen remained isolated underneath the icy mountains of Northrend. Others, who came south with Keeper Archaedas and the giantess Ironaya in an earlier age, slumbered within the catacomb vaults of Uldaman. Only a small number of these earthen had chosen not to be placed in stasis, deciding that they would watch over and maintain the facility alongside their mechagnome companions.
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