High elf

 This page is about the lore of the High Elves, to see the characteristics of the playable High Elves, see High Elf (playable)  ' "Long ago, the exiled high elves founded the magical city of Quel'Thalas. Here they created a mystical fount called the Sunwell. Strengthened by its magic, the High Elves grew increasingly dependent on the powers provided by the well. For generations, the elves cultivated a prosperous and powerful country until the shadow of death fell upon them. Scourge attacked Quel'Thalas and destroyed the Sunwell, at the same time reducing the population of the High Elves to an all-time low. Scattered and regretful, the refugees of this once proud race now seek a new place to call home and a way to feel the void inside them, left by the destruction of the Sunwell." '   -Intro of the High Elves in World of Warcraft: Mysteries of Azeroth

The High Elves are an ancient race of Azeroth, descendants of the Highborne exiled from Night Elf society after the War of the Ancients, they renounced the Goddess Elune to worship the Sun.

Currently following the Third War, High Elf society was affected and decimated following the plague attack on Quel'thalas, destroying their beloved capital, Silvermoon, and their beloved source of magical power, the Sunwell.

Currently still recovering from such a loss, with the help of the Alliance, the Elves are seeking a new path forward, as they repent of their past mistakes and seek a better future.

Exile of the Highborne
When the night elves adopted druidism, they outlawed the practice of arcane magic. The use of its dangerous powers was punishable by death. However, many Highborne loyalists of Queen Azshara survived the Sundering and grew restless. They suffered from magical withdrawal, and 7,300 years before the invasion of the Horde through the Dark Portal, they spoke against Malfurion Stormrage and the druids. Dath'Remar Sunstrider, the leader of this movement, declared the druids cowards for refusing to wield the arcane. Malfurion and the druids warned the Highborne that any use of magic would be punished. Yet, in an attempt to protest the druid's law, Dath'Remar and his followers unleashed a terrible magical storm upon Ashenvale.

The druids could not bring themselves to put so many of their kin to death, so they decided to exile the reckless Highborne from their lands. Sunstrider and his followers boarded a number of specially crafted ships and set sail upon the seas. By now the Highborne were glad to be rid of their conservative cousins and free to practice the arcane with impunity. None knew what lay beyond the Maelstrom, but they eventually found the Eastern Kingdoms and formed their own magical realm. They abandoned the concepts of Elune and nocturnal activity, embracing the sun instead. They would soon become known as the high elves.

Rise of Quel'Thalas
Sunstrider led the high elven fleets across the world for many long years. Their goal was to find places of considerable ley power for them to build their new homeland. After landing on the Lordaeron continent, they moved inland and formed a settlement in the Tirisfal Glades. After a few years, however, many were driven insane. The belief at the time was that something evil slept beneath the Glades, so the high elves abandoned the region and moved northwards. They wandered the land for years.

Around this time, they had become completely severed from the life-giving energy of the Well of Eternity. This meant that they were vulnerable to the elements and had not received immortality from Nozdormu and the World Tree. They had shrunk in height and their skin had become a peach hue similar to most dwarves and humans. The high elves soon discovered primitive humans, but associated little with them. The forest trolls of Zul'Aman, under the Amani Empire, posed a greater threat to their society. The elves soon grew to hate the forest trolls and they fought each other whenever they met. When the high elves went to war with the Amani trolls, the elves could not understand how the trolls' weapon enchantments were more powerful than their own. The elves then stole ancient knowledge from troll spellcasters, including the famous Zanza, and used stolen idols to craft their own versions of the troll enchantments.

After many more years, the high elves discovered a land in the northern forests which suited them, and founded the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Unfortunately, they would learn that Quel'Thalas was founded on a sacred and ancient troll city. The trolls began to attack the elven settlements en masse in retaliation. Although the Amani outnumbered them ten to one, the elves utilized magic to its fullest effect and defeated the trolls.

Some elves, wary of the kaldorei's warnings, created a protective barrier around Quel'Thalas which allowed them to continue their magic without attracting the Burning Legion's attention. To do this, they employed a series of monolithic Runestones. Soon, Quel'Thalas became a shining monument to high elven prowess. It was crafted in the same style as the halls of Kalimdor, with the addition of integrated magic and a brighter color scheme. Although they did not worship it, a great respect was maintained for nature. The high elves were careful to interweave their cities and architecture with their natural surroundings, creating a truly beautiful and tranquil land.

To sate their hunger for great magical power, the high elves created the Sunwell. It became the source of their power as the Well of Eternity had been in Kalimdor, although the Sunwell was much weaker, and the elves were forewarned of the dangers. As the high elves became more powerful, they cast an enchantment on the forests that bathed Quel'Thalas in eternal springtime, in defiance of the kingdom's location on the extreme north of the continent. From that point on, all high elves had access to the Sunwell's powers from anywhere on Azeroth. Over time, the high elves came to regard the Sunwell's waters as holy. Magic became part of their genes centuries before, but the Sunwell's unique energies became part of them acutely.

Troll Wars
For nearly four thousand years, the high elves remained relatively at peace. But while the elves established their nation, the Amani plotted their next assault. 2,800 years before the First War, the Troll Wars began. With aid from the Zandalari, small Amani warbands began attacking Quel'Thalas' borders while hiding their true numbers in order to test the high elves' strength. After several successful skirmishes, they launched an all-out campaign to wipe out the elves. The elves were hopelessly outnumbered and quickly lost ground while their casualties climbed. To help defend Quel'Thalas, the elves founded the order of rangers, the greatest of whom was Talanas Windrunner, the first ranger-general of Silvermoon.

Suffering loss after loss, the high elf king Anasterian Sunstrider sent ambassadors to Strom to ask for support from the humans of Arathor, in the hopes that there were humans who could become useful in combat if given magical training. The elven ambassadors told Thoradin that the troll armies were vast and would move to attack Arathor once they had destroyed Quel'Thalas. After some further negotiations, Thoradin and Anasterian reached an agreement, and elven magi traveled to Strom to teach exactly one hundred humans the ways of magic in exchange for the humans' military aid.

Once the elves had finished tutoring the human magi, many months later, Arathor began its offensive into the Amani's southern flank on the outskirts of Quel'Thalas. In coordination, the high elves launched a counterattack on the trolls' front lines from the north. Thoradin's army later began a slow retreat back to Alterac. Weeks of brutal fighting ensued as the Amani chased the humans toward the mountains, while the elves marched out of Quel'Thalas to harry the Amani's rear flank. Even though the Arathi were outnumbered, neither side gave ground. The high elves soon caught up and smashed into the Amani's rearguard. When the humans and elves were confident that they had worn down the Amani ranks, they unleashed their secret weapon. The one hundred human magi emerged from the fortress and, alongside the elven sorcerers, did something unprecedented. Instead of attacking individually, they pooled their power and unleashed a single devastating spell, creating a massive column of fire that tore down from the sky and engulfed the Amani army. The magical flames prevented the trolls from regenerating their wounds and burned loa and troll alike from the inside out. Without their leader, the surviving trolls broke ranks and fled north. The human and elven armies ran them down and killed everyone they could find. The Troll Wars thus ended with the humans and elves triumphant.

For Quel'Thalas and Arathor, the Troll Wars marked the beginning of a prosperous new era. For months after the war's end, celebrations filled the streets of Strom and Silvermoon. In gratitude, the high elves made a pledge of undying loyalty and friendship to Arathor and to Thoradin's bloodline. Humans and high elves went on to nurture peaceful relations for over two thousand years. With the absence of trolls in the northlands, the elves focused on rebuilding Quel'Thalas.

New world diplomacy
Despite the enmity that led to their exile, the high elves still kept some contacts with their faraway brethren. Talanas Windrunner fought alongside the kaldorei Emmarel Shadewarden, and Ranger Captain Areiel collaborated with Shandris Feathermoon several thousand years before current times.

Over 3,000 years ago the Council of Silvermoon, which had long ago sworn to forestall any full return by the Burning Legion, met with the most powerful Magocrat lords of Dalaran and formed the Council of Tirisfal, whose quest was to hunt those demons who had already arrived, and to prevent others from entering Azeroth.

One hundred years before the events of the First War, a group of high elves left Quel'Thalas and traveled to Winterspring in order to obtain the Crystal of Zin-Malor.

Second War
Peace in Quel'Thalas continued for almost three thousand years until the Second War. After the orcish Horde came through a portal from the world of Draenor, and defeated the Kingdom of Stormwind during the First War, they allied with the goblins and forest trolls, turning their sights on the north.

When the humans proposed an Alliance of their seven nations, the Wildhammer and Ironforge dwarves, and the gnomes also agreed to join the coalition. The Supreme Commander Anduin Lothar also contacted the high elven nation of Quel'Thalas. As a descendant of the famed king Thoradin, Lothar was able to make use of an ancient oath sworn to the ancient king by the high elves in times past, during the Troll Wars. Despite this, the high elves proved reluctant, not viewing the Horde as a serious threat. King Anasterian Sunstrider only subsequently sent a small, token, fleet to aid the Alliance. Some high elves, however, disobeyed the king's orders, choosing instead to join in the fight against the orcs, and answering Lothar's call to war. Chief among these was the renowned ranger captain Alleria Windrunner, who led a handful of her kin south with her. Though disappointed with the generally poor response from Quel'Thalas, Lothar nonetheless welcomed those elves who arrived, particularly Windrunner and her skilled rangers.However, the orcs' northern campaign, in which the trolls were meant to take back their ancestral homes from the high elves, managed to burn down the borderlands of Quel'Thalas, slaughtering many high elves in the process, and corrupting the Runestone at Caer Darrow. This enraged Silvermoon, which promptly pledged its full support to the war. The elves provided many archers, rangers and destroyers to the conflict, and even craftsmen for the lumber mills of the Alliance. The Horde eventually splintered under internal political pressure, and the Alliance charged southwards to crush it. The Second War was won, but in its aftermath, relations between the humans and the elves began to sour. The elves, who had been reluctant members of the Alliance in the first place, retained little interest or investment in its affairs, such as upkeeping the internment camps and defending Nethergarde Keep, but that was as much from their fascination with all magic as from any desire to help humans. Despite this, Alleria Windrunner and her rangers accompanied the Alliance Expedition through the Dark Portal, to avenge Quel'Thalas and keep it safe from future attacks.

Following the war, some high elves blamed the humans' poor leadership for the burning of their forests. King Terenas of Lordaeron reminded them that nothing of Quel'Thalas would have remained if not for the hundreds of humans that gave their lives to defend it, but nevertheless, the high elves largely abandoned the Alliance and retreated to their kingdom.

Third War
Although the high elves retreated from the Alliance, a number of them remained in Dalaran and were loyal to the Alliance through the Kirin Tor, as most contemporary human and high elven mages bowed to the sovereignty of Dalaran and the Kirin Tor at this time, with Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider among them. Despite the high elves' official departure from the Alliance of Lordaeron, some elves still remain true to their former human and dwarven allies. Some high elves were also paladins in the ranks of the Knights of the Silver Hand, such as Mehlar Dawnblade, a paladin pupil of Uther the Lightbringer. The altruistic priests of Quel'Thalas refused to abandon their roles as healers and agreed to remain in Lordaeron despite the edicts from their reclusive masters in Silvermoon City. The high elven priests use their Light-given powers to heal the wounded and bolster the spirits of Lordaeron's fighting elite. These high elven priests joined with Prince Arthas Menethil in investigating the plague with the goal of healing the land of its strange curse.

At the time, the high elves had remained at peace since the Second War, with even their ever-present Amani enemies having grown less bold. Yet while the elves were safe within their enchanted kingdom from the woes befalling Lordaeron, they were also secluded and left unprepared for what was to come. Following the Scourging of Lordaeron, the recently corrupted Arthas Menethil turned his sight on Quel'Thalas, as told by his master the Lich King. Their goal was to revive a human man named Kel'Thuzad, who could summon the demon-lord Archimonde into Azeroth. To do this, they required a source of considerable ley magic and chose the Sunwell. Rumors of Arthas's patricide were beginning to spread, but the elves did not connect this to the plagued grain epidemic, and only shortly after did the undead Scourge arrive at Quel'Thalas. The high elves faced the Scourge in battle regardless. The high elven army, led by the Ranger General Sylvanas Windrunner, made counterattacks every time the scourge advanced. Despite their tactics and magic, the elves were pushed back from the outer, to inner elf gates. During the invasion, Arthas raised the fallen members of Sylvanas's army either as incorporeal banshee or as intact bodies. These fallen high elves would become known as Darkfallen, prowling the lands as either dark rangers or blood mages for the Scourge. Finally, Arthas and his army, as well as new banshees, including Sylvanas, advanced on Silvermoon and crushed the defenders. Anasterian himself was killed along with his ruling council, High Priest Vandellor, and Grand Magister Belo'vir.

The Sunwell was used to resurrect Kel'Thuzad and fouled with evil in the process. Only about ten percent of the entire race survived the genocide. Several defenders were raised into zombies while some deceased magisters were raised into spectres and left at the defiled Sunwell. Some of them were lucky enough to be away from Quel'Thalas at the time (housed in Dalaran or had traveled to Kalimdor with Jaina), but the majority of those who survived only did so by defending themselves or hiding. Soon, Dalaran, with the second greatest concentration of high elves, was destroyed as well. Dalaran's defeat was swift and complete, and most of the high elves there died under Archimonde's attacks. Other elves died afterward from bandits that came to sift through the wreckage. The death knight's brutal conquest of the elven kingdom resulted in the utter destruction of Silvermoon City, the defiling of much of the high elven forests, and the total slaughter of around 90% of the high elven race.

Among the survivors, some high elf priests who survived the genocide joined the Human Expedition and the Kalimdor alliance to fight the Burning Legion.

Allegiance to the Alliance
5 years after the third war and after the departure of Kael'thas to Outland with the now called Blood Elves, after receiving worrying news of the prince's new alliances and after feeling abandoned when they saw that he did not return as promised, the High Elves decided to reunite with their brothers who had remained with the Alliance of Lordaeron, they sought to reunite every last elf that was in the ruins of the once glorious kingdom now in ruins. After that they set out in caravans towards the south, seeking help from anyone who could give it. some remained in the Hinterlands, at the Quel'danil Lodge, receiving aid from their former allies, the Wildhammer Dwarves. Others continued their journey, to Loch Modan, where they settled at Farstrider Lodge, from here they began to receive help from the Alliance, sent directly from Stormwind.

Vereesa Windrunner, the last of the Windrunner sisters decided to take command of her people, seeing that she was needed, she began to act as Speaker for the group of High Elves, whose name became the Silvermoon Remnant. Several High Elves continued their journey escorted by Stormwind's army towards the human capital, settling in Cut-throat Alley, they called it Little Silvermoon, which served as a refuge for the High Elves for two years. At that time, Vereesa Windrunner sought a way to have her people accepted back into the Alliance, knowing her mistakes made by her people's pride in the past, she sought to intercede with the leader of each of the races, the humans, The gnomes and dwarves accepted them without any problem, despite the bitter memory of the abandonment of the Alliance of Lordaeron by the Kingdom of Quel'thalas, they accepted them with pride, remembering all the help they had given them during the second war. However, the Night Elves were not so flexible, as the bitter memory of the War of the Ancients and all that the Highborne had done in surrendering to the Burning Legion still lingered. Vereesa fought to convince the Night Elves, and after killing a Satyr who was giving them trouble, the Night Elves accepted the High Elves into the Alliance, sending their response to Stormwind.

Following the acceptance of the 4 founding races of the New Grand Alliance, Vereesa headed towards Stormwind, and kneeling before High Lord Bolvar Fordragon and King Anduin Wrynn, Vereesa swore allegiance to the Alliance, accepting the mistakes of her ancestors and promising never to repeat them again.

Land of Light
Following their reunification with the Alliance, the High Elves could no longer live as refugees in the Alliance capitals, so they decided to look for a new place to call home. They traveled from Stormwind to the Tirisfal Highlands, where they found ancient elven ruins left by their ancestors, however, the place was haunted by various spirits and infested by Slimes, so it was discarded.

However, on a small coast in the North of Lordaeron, they discovered a small abandoned outpost, very close to Quel'thalas, the High Elves quickly headed to the place, it had its modern architecture, although clearly deteriorated by the passage of the Time, the Elves decided to restore it and quickly many began to stay there, although small, it was a reminder of their ancient homeland, so they decided to establish it as their main base, which they called "Alah'thalas" which means Land of Light in Thalassian.

The Regency Council
As the years passed, Alah'thalas grew to become a capital city, the elven society still recovering from their losses as they fight the magical addiction that is beginning to afflict them.

Meanwhile, a group of surviving Quel'thalas nobles have forced Vereesa Windrunner to be removed from her position as Speaker, the greatest exponent being Astalor Sunsworn, a proud noble who is reluctant to the Alliance as he fights to obtain the crown that by centuries it belonged to the Sunstrider Dynasty.

A new Regency Council has been formed, in which Vereesa has been included, bearing the surname Windrunner, a family of Forest Generals, whose ancestor participated in the Troll Wars and remained so until Sylvanas Windrunner, the last Forest General of Silvermoon who He died fighting the Plague Invasion.

The dispute over the Crown of Quel'thalas remains dormant as the Elves survive the hardships of having lost their home and their beloved magical fountain.