The Nightborne

The nightborne are a city-state of night elves that sealed themselves off long ago, preserving their Highborne culture for 10,000 years in isolation before joining the Horde. So if you want to see what kaldorei society was like before the coming of druidism and the purging of the arcane from their society, the shal’dorei of Suramar are right up your alley.

10,000 years ago, as the War of the Ancients raged, some Highborne realized Azshara’s deal with the Legion could spell their doom. So the leadership of one of the kaldorei empire’s greatest cities, Suramar, began working on a plan to save themselves. Suramar, while not as grand a city as the imperial capital at Zin-Azshari, was an important center of night elf learning, commerce, and research. As the world convulsed in conflict, the city’s ruling elite, led by the Magistrix Elisande, created a font of magical energy, similar to the high elves’ Sunwell, called the Nightwell. This font of arcane power, built at the intersection of many powerful ley lines, would feed the elves’ need for magical energy once they were isolated from the rest of the world. With the Nightwell ready, Elisande and her Highborne mages created a powerful shield to go around the city, permanently sealing it off from the rest of the kaldorei and the rampaging demonic Legion.

The kaldorei of Suramar would stay under this shield, sealed off from the rest of Azeroth, for the next 10,000 years. They had no idea of what the outside world was like, or if the outside world had even survived the Legion’s invasion. During their long isolation, the magics of the Nightwell changed the Highborne, again, much like the magics of the Sunwell changed the Highborne of Quel’thalas into the High Elves. The elves of Suramar would fashion themselves the shal’dorei, children of the night (or shadow).

With the coming of the Burning Legion’s third invasion, during the Legion expansion, the orc warlock Gul’dan would approach Elisande, still ruling in Suramar, and promise destruction for the shal’dorei if they didn’t bring their shield down and bend the knee to the Legion. The Grand Magistrix agreed to Gul’dan’s terms, the nightborne would lower their shield and work alongside the demons in exchange for being allowed to survive.

And with that the great shield that had protected Suramar for 10,000 years came down, and great changes came to shal’dorei society. Elisande would become increasingly paranoid and brutal, taking an iron first approach to keeping her people in line, as felguards and demonic inquisitors would begin stalking the streets, hunting for rebels and dissidents. As more and more civilians were taken prisoner, the player eventually finds out that the demons are taking shal’dorei prisoners for sacrifice and experimentation. Likewise, many shal’dorei warriors undergo infusions with fel energy, becoming demonically-fueled soldiers to fight alongside the Burning Legion.

In time, heroes of the Horde and Alliance would go on to lead a campaign utilizing allied blood elf, night elf, and high elf forces in liberating Suramar and killing Elisande and her ruling caste. Suramar, for the first time in over 10,000 years, was both free, and open to the outside world.

Negotiations between the night elves and the nightborne maintained a sour note throughout the campaign, as Tyrande Whisperwind still viewed the shal’dorei as the same Highborne who had almost damned the world 10,000 years ago and destroyed the night elf empire. Elisande making a similar deal with the Legion reinforced her belief the Highborne can never be trusted. So the night elves maintained an icy distance from their brothers and sisters in Suramar. Tyrande’s hostility to the freed nightborne was even more tragic due to the fact that Tyrande, and as well as her husband Malfurion Stormrage, and his brother Illidan Stormrage, were all from Suramar themselves, long before the War of the Ancients.

While the night elves regarded the shal’dorei with distrust, and sin’dorei of the Horde seemed to show a more open approach to the nightborne. Because of Quel’thalas’ own history of making questionable choices in an attempt to save their people, and the struggle the shal’dorei endured in keeping control of their magical condition, the blood elves saw kindred spirits in the shal’dorei.

This would in turn lead to the nightborne opting to join the Horde rather than rejoin their kaldorei kin in the Alliance. This would, of course, lead to even more mistrust from the kaldorei, especially after the following War of Thorns where the Horde would destroy much of the remaining night elf civilization, leading to the Fourth War. First Arcanist Thalyssra, the shal’dorei who led the rebellion against Elisande and freed her city, would feel regret and doubt for her decision to join the Horde during that conflagration. She would eventually ally with the tauren chief Baine Bloodhoof’s clandestine resistance against Sylvanas, alongside most of the orcs and trolls in rising up against Sylvanas and marching on Orgrimmar alongside the Alliance combined forces. Thalyssra would eventually go on to help lead the Horde as a member of the new ruling council, alongside Baine (tauren), Thrall (orcs), Rokhan (Darkspears), Lilian Voss (Forsaken), Lor’themar Theron (sin’dorei), Gazlowe (Bilgewater Cartel), Ji Firepaw (Huojin pandaren), and Geya’rah (Mag’har orcs).

Nightborne can play as warriors, death knights, hunters, rogues, monks, mages, priests, and warlocks.

Nightborne racials are based off the shal'dorei deep connection to arcane magic, and the aptitude to using the arcane.

1. Ancient History. The shal’dorei have a long history of, well, history. Writing and recording everything they learn. They start with 15 skill points in Inscription, rather than 1.

2. Arcane Affinity. Nightborne know how to manipulate arcane energies, so that they do 1% more magical damage than other races.

3. Cantrips. Every 10 minutes, a nightborne can summon an Eldritch Grimoire, giving them access to their mail for 1.5 minutes.

4. Arcane Pulse. A nightborne can expel arcane energy in all directions, dealing arcane damage and slowing them down for 12 seconds.

5. Magical Resistance. Nightborne use and exposure to magic their entire lives means they take 1% less damage from magical attacks than others.

Nightborne, like their blood elf and night elf cohorts, have a long, tragic history, and are always good choices for players who want to create a deep, detailed background for their character. The shal’dorei have a unique aesthetic, different from the night elves, whom on the surface, they appear to be almost identical to. So if you are looking to play an arrogant, standoffish elf who views everyone else as primitive newcomers, or you want to play a shal’dorei eager to see a world that has been closed off to them for millennia, the nightborne are a good choice. Ru shanna shal’dorei!