Forum:What alignment did the Kaldorei have?
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Hullo, fellow Warcraft Lore researches, contributors, arguers and fans alike :)
I wrote about this a couple of days ago, in a wrong place as i see it now, in the alignment discussion page to be exact... The question is, were Kaldorei in their majority an evil, neutral or good race? Undoubtedly, a whole race cannot be 100% lawfully good nor can it be oppositely 100% chaotic evil, for an exception to the rule is always a possibility. But nevertheless, if cultural, religious and even philosophical racial mindset are are taken as consideration, a single form of a whole race might open before us, and in case of this question, it would be the solid outlook at the kaldorei as one. We do know that the kaldorei might have worshiped Elune long before the discovery of the Well of Eternity and the wake of their mighty empire, and that even before these events they have sought to follow her example and deeds. Judging by the fact that the kaldorei have revered her as a "true" goddess and believed in good, it can be assumed that they were at the very least of chaotic good alignment themselves, or are these conclusions wrong?
Of course we also know that with the coming of Sargeras and the Burning Legion, many highborne kaldorei, being corrupted by the Dark Titan and the energies of the Well of Eternity assisted the demonic force in the invasion of Azeroth, but they were merely one caste although an influential one, which was still one of many other groups. Besides, not all highborne fought alongside the minions of Sargeras during the War of the Ancients, so in a way this even confirms that some kaldorei who were evil themselves and were part of the elite cast of hignborne which knew the power of evil and it's nature, abdicated it in a hard minute, however they still decided to use arcane magic later... This doesn't necessarily has to proove anything though, as those highborne who went against the demonic will during the War of the Ancients could have done so not of good motives, but rather of fearing the uncorrectable.
I think this might be an interesting discussion, though i am sure it was talked over before. --K0ct-ep (talk) 22:13, September 21, 2010 (UTC)
- Seems like you've got the discussion covered anyway lol. The Kaldorei are as evil as the Orcs. Both were corrupted by the Burning Legion and used to prepare for its coming. Perhaps some did it willingly, but the majority were just misled innocents. I can't see how anyone can declare a whole race evil because of the desires of a few. So Kaldorei = Good and Orcs = Good. Although I must admit I really don't get the whole alignment stuff, seems more suited to D&D then WoW...
Max Krist (talk contribs) 05:52, September 22, 2010 (UTC)
I'd have to disagree about them being as evil as the orcs. In Rise of the Horde we learn that orcs were a generally good-natured, shamanistic tribe. They were deceived, yes, but in said book Thrall writes "We chose this path, we orcs. We chose it right up until it was too late to turn back." It is true that we cannot label an entire race as good or bad, but I would indeed call the kaldorei a good race. They did not seek war or practice cruelty even though they were at fault in several ways, an example being their racism.
It was the Highborne and their ilk, including of course Queen Azshara, who consorted with demons and brought about all that nasty not-niceness. The fault of corrupted individuals and their leaders, not the race. It was different with the orcs; most of them were corrupted to some degree. --Soulerous (talk) 18:01, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
- Remember, the analog to the Kaldorei of the elves for the orcs was the Mag'har. Like the night elves who didn't ally with the Highborne, the Mag'har remained largely free of corruption, if in a probably a smaller percentage than the uncorrupted night elves. Also, there is sort of a human/elf bias that runs throughout the Warcraft universe. You have to take that into account. When I first played WoW over 5 years ago, I started as a Tauren in the Horde and enjoyed it, but when I switched to a Night Elf to play with friends who were primarily Alliance, I was shocked at how much better and deeper the Alliance quests and storylines were. It kind of made me sad. The balance is shifting a little, but not that much. --
Fandyllic (talk · contribs) 10:29 PM PST 12 Nov 2010
The problem with the D&D alignment system is that it implies some kind of absolute good and evil. In terms of local social mores, however, alignment is frighteningly relative. Germany between the World Wars, for instance, or the Scarlet Crusade in the Scarlet Enclave. If there is no absolute good or evil, and there seems to be none in WOW given how Sylvanas is behaving as of 4.03a, you can't break anyone's behavior down to a D&D-style alignment system. This holds true across the edition wars; 4e's alignment system is still dependent upon there being absolute good and evil just like the one in 3.x and before.
A better alignment metric might be Altruistic <-> Selfish. --Darth603 (talk) 16:52, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
- My take: alignment is not a well-defined concept, it's an abstract approximation that only works literally in the editions of D&D it was designed for. The question in this thread is simply meaningless (besides, you can't force an entire race into one alignment). - LucidFox (talk) 16:58, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
- Night elves were mostly various sorts of Neutral, from Chaotic to Pure to Lawful, during the Long Vigil. Prior to that, they were all over the map. And to LucidFox, I would have to say that claim could be argued if Blizzard decided to go the Tolkien route, which originally they were, since his elves were pretty much the same. Elves are NOT human, therefore they'd have different tendencies as a species that differ from humans, orcs, gnomes, etc. Humans are versatile. Elves, Kaldorei especially, are extremely conservative. Myrlen Midnightstar (talk) 08:00, 10 January 2011 (UTC)