Descendants of the Night Elves Part I

My first entry to A Keeper of Lore will be on the descendant species of the Night Elves. A surprising number of species have off-shot from these elves, although only one could be said to have come from any sort of evolutionary method. Each other off-shoot was artificially (and magically) created. This will be part one of a two, or maybe three part article. There are just THAT many variants and spin-offs from the Night Elves.



First, I think we need a brief background (brief since the article isn't on the Night Elves themselves) on the history of the Night Elves. 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, there existed a race of nocturnal and nomadic humanoids who eventually settled next to the Well of Eternity on Mount Hyjal. This was well before the Sundering that broke Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms apart, previously they had been a single continent. These humanoids renamed themselves the Kaldorei or "children of the stars". By proximity of the waters of the Well of Eternity, the Kaldorei changed magically, physically, and assumably, mentally as well and eventually changed into what we know as the Night Elves.


It is fan-speculated that the Dark Trolls that lived on Mount Hyjal were the ancestors to the Night Elves and that the Kaldorei may have been Dark Elves. This is supported by similarities in their looks, both being of the night and darkness and because it is known that some sort of physical transformation occurred that changed the Kaldorei into the Night Elves.

We'll start with the Harpies. These beings have a body resembling Night Elves but with winged arms and taloned-bird feet. They live in isolated, matriarchal societies and have no male counterparts. It is assumed they kidnap and mate with men of other, related, races then eat them. They also live in large, beehive shaped nests hanging in trees. They are a sapient race and can apparently speak Common if needed.


The Harpies have two different creation stories and it isn't truly known which is the correct one. The first is they were female Night Elves who had betrayed Queen Azshara, queen to all the Night Elves before the Sundering who were cursed for their betrayal. The second story, and probably "true" one, is that there was a group of Night Elves who worshiped Aviana, a demigoddess of all flying beings of Azeroth. It is possible that these women who gave themselves over to the demigoddess eventually changed form due to that service. This is not an unknown thing in Azeroth. Drakonids and Dragonkin are created from humanoid races that serve around dragons for extended amounts of time. It seems that any mortal race that spends enough time around any being or species with a large amount of power, long enough, begins to gain aspects of said being or species.

The next race on the list are the Naga. These beings are half-snake, half-highborne Night Elf and all evil. 10,000 years ago at the end of the War of the Ancients, the world split in two due to the Sundering. The Highborne, ruling class of Night Elves before the Sundering, were almost totally loyal to Queen Azshara and a queen needs subjects who love her. As the palace with almost all the Highborne inside was swept away in to the now churning maelstrom of the sundered Well of Eternity, Queen Azshara heard a voice call out to her telling her that he could save her. She accepted and accepted on behalf of her people as well. The being giving the offer was either directly an Old God or a direct servant of one. The being transformed the Highborne Night Elves in to corrupted visages of themselves, the Naga. Their capital is the underwater city of Nazjatar directly under the the ever-churning Maelstrom that used to be the Well of Eternity, although they have settlements all across the coastlines of Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Northrend.

The next race on our list is a species created at the same time as the Naga and in a similar fashion, yet by a different entity entirely. The Satyr are Highborne Night Elves that willing allowed themselves to be transformed into demonic, half-Night Elf, Half-goatlike demons of Burning Legion.

The father to all Satyr was Xavius, High Councilor to Queen Azshara. He was the one who initially made contact with the Dark Titan Sargeras, creator of the Burning Legion. After failing to properly block non-Highborne magic users from accessing the power of the Well of Eternity and allowing an intruder to destroy the partially created portal designed to summon Sargeras to Azeroth, Sargeras pulled Xavius' spirit into his domain and, after torturing it for a time, sent him back to Azeroth as a Satyr. Xavius then began recruiting like-minded Highborne to the Burning Legion as Satyr. It seems, however, that one doesn't have to be a Night Elf to be turned into a Satyr. There are even Satyrs who were originally Orcs and even Goblins.


So, I think this is a good stopping point for today. This is only part ONE of two or maybe three articles dedicated to the Night Elf legacy. Please join me again for A Keeper of Lore in the next couple days when I will post part two of this article.