(2023-12-28) Book Club: The Kaldorei and the Well of Eternity

Details

Author:	Alli
Summary:	Sil, Brannagen and Nunuzac meet up to discuss the most ancient of elven history. ~5000 words.
Rating:	T for Teen

Chain: Sil's Book Club

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some innuendo

Sil and Bran are in the Beer Garden, prior to the start of the book club meeting. There is, as usual, something on the table covered by a sheet, and a variety of oddly shaped sheet-covered objects shoved over in the corner.

Nunuzac scurries up to the table, a little out of breath.

Brannagen looks up from his book. "Oh! Lo there! Ye came in so quiet I didn't notice ye."

[Nunuzac]: Yes. I have on sneaking hoof. Hello!

[Sil]: Hi, friends! *Sil smiles* You're here for book club, right?

Brannagen tucks away his book on Old Gods and gives Sil his smiling attention, sparing a wink for Nunu.

[Brannagen]: Aye!

[Nunuzac]: Yes of course. I study.

Sil grins, glancing at Bran's book. "We talked a lot about the titans and Old Gods and Legion and stuff last time, and I figured this time we could move just a little bit forward in time to talk about elves. I really like elves."

[Brannagen]: Oh sure, sure, I just got here a bit early an' was readin' while I waited. Got so absorbed I didna even notice ye comin in an' settin' up, hehe.

Sil grins. "I didn't want to bother you. Seemed like you were really in the flow."

[Sil]: I do have to warn - I have not got clockworks and explosions for this first book, ‘cause it’s a lot more peaceful and just a lot of interesting discussion really. More if we get to the second, but if not, I’ll have ‘em for next time!

Nunuzac leans forward on the table in interest. "Some of those things I know of much and some I do not. Elves is one I do not. But I want to know. Because some of them were here when us draenei were other places, at the same time."

Sil nods eagerly. "Yeah, the elves used to be immortal so I bet some of them were around when you all were dozens of worlds back."

Brannagen nods solemnly. "A fascinatin' subject."

Nunuzac taps her chin thoughtfully. "But not now, yes? They may fall from old, because the life was tied to a tree. More great things given to fight the Legion. I hear this much from those we meet when we land."

[Sil]: The book we’ve got right now is “The Kaldorei and the Well of Eternity” which is in the Stormwind Library. I think it’s a little bit speculative in some places, because it talks about what might’ve been way back when the kaldorei first existed.

[Brannagen]: This book goes back farther'n even the oldest elves could tell ye.

Nunuzac tilts her head. "So it is not the I-saw-it account, but best guess?'

[Brannagen]: Somethin' like that, aye. Probably based on tales passed down an' so forth.

Sil nods at both of them. "Yeah, I understand its a recent thing, the losing immortality. But yeah, best guess. Kind of like the titan stuff, surely the author didn't see any of that either."

[Brannagen]: Heh heh. Would've been grand ta see.

Nunuzac nods emphatically. "Maybe the next secret titan house you find will tell you if it is right."

Brannagen laughs at Nunuzac.
[Brannagen]: Here's hopin'.

Sil laughs. "I sure hope so, yeah. Seems like people are finding a lot of answers these days!"

[Sil]: I think it’s nice to talk about, though. We’re seeing a lot here in Northrend about the beginnings of our peoples. Like, the dwarves were from the earthen, the gnomes were from the mechagnomes, the humans were from the vrykul.
[Sil]: This is not exactly about the titans, but it does seem like there is some sort of connection to how folk think the kaldorei got their start. So let's get started!

Nunuzac leans forward even more, flattening her hands on the table in interest. She probably has not gathered yet that a book club is somewhere you read the book beforehand, usually. "Yes, what does it say of the elves?"

Sil smiles. You totally don't have to read the book in advance for his book clubs.

[Sil]: Alright, let me set the scene…
[Sil]: Where we left off last time, the titans had left Azeroth with the one continent, Kalimdor, and the lake of the Well of Eternity in the center, full of energy that nourished all life. All around this continent were raging seas.

Sil pulls the sheet on the table away to reveal a rough model of a continent, with mountainy peaks in places, flat green land in other places, sandy brown in others. In the center is a large, probably not-to-scale lake as the Well of Eternity. It appears to be actual water.

[Brannagen]: Ohhh, that's real nice.

[Sil]: I helped with this one. It's a bit more art than clockwork, yeah?

[Brannagen]: The connection of arcane energy ta life, like the Well… it makes sense, seein' as how life is all about makin' order outa chaos.

Sil nods. "And it seems like that was a titan thing, right? Building… ordering… all that stuff."

[Brannagen]: Aye.

Nunuzac is all about storytime - she keeps her focus, tail swishing a bit. She perks up in surprise at the model. "Your craft! WoW! Okay, all one land, energy well… That is why there is energy well? Power Titan things like in Storm Peaks?

[Brannagen]: Aye, some kinda concentrated fountain of arcane power that helped life develop.

Sil nods at Nunuzac. "I guess I don't really know, but the books, they think it was put there deliberate by the ones that shaped our world."

[Brannagen]: Oh most definitely!
[Brannagen]: Very much the Titans' style.

Nunuzac flicks a look to Bran as she deliberates in thought for a moment. "I think I talk about this to Bran before - that this world has all these Titan things up on the places you can find. That is not so, in other places."
[Nunuzac]: So it is very a mystery, even to draenei.

Sil grins again. "Maybe Azeroth is special. Not just to us, 'cause we live here, but special all around.

Nunuzac nods in quick agreement, eyes widening.

[Sil]: So this writer, at least, thinks that’s where the kaldorei started. They were some kind of humanoid group that were drawn to the Well of Eternity by its strange energies.
[Sil]: But these… let’s call ‘em proto-elves. Instead of just getting nourished by the well in the moment, they settled down and lived by the shore. So they got changed over a long period of time instead.
[Sil]: I think that makes sense, as a theory. I mean, we've sort of seen how that works. The sin'dorei, they got changed by the Sunwell, right? And that's why they don't look like the kaldorei?

Brannagen nods.

[Sil]: And it makes sense the changes wouldn't be all in looks.

[Brannagen]: I find it interestin' tha' they call themselves "children o' the stars," when the Titans seem ta have some connection ta the stars themselves.

[Sil]: I wonder if its like… an old, old memory of where they came from?

[Brannagen]: Or somethin' about the way the stars interacted with the Well itself…

[Nunuzac]: It is maybe the well is star energy, if the Titan brings it here from out there.

[Sil]: Maybe the reflection of stars.

[Brannagen]: Oooh good theory, Sparks.

Sil nods again. "Could be!"

Nunuzac nods slowly. "I wonder what they were like before this - why it is thought they were different before."

*Sil nods, and then looks to Nunu* I guess we'll never know, right? If they were all changed, whatever they were before isn't around anymore.

[Brannagen]: Aye, wish there was someone left ta tell us fer sure.

[Brannagen]: Wonder if bronze dragons can go back ta before there was bronze dragons… Was this before or after the flights were created, I wonder? Anyway…

[Sil]: Oh, the dragons come up later, so I think it was after.

[Brannagen]: Hm, wonder if a bronze dragon could tell us fer sure then what it was like… But go on.

[Sil]: We'd have to make friends with one first. *Sil chuckles.* But okay, I'll keep on…
[Sil]: For the kaldorei, what they figure, the Well made them stronger, wiser, and immortal. And their society got bigger and more elaborate, as they made great structures and temples around the lake.

[Brannagen]: Makes sense. Order-based magic makes 'em build an' get more complex.
[Brannagen]: Almost like they're emulatin' the Titans themselves!

[Sil]: Yeah, shaping the world their own way!

Nunuzac tilts her head. "Sometimes great nation, great buildings, just happens from time and number and language, teaching gets better. But if it happens too fast, that could be this other reason.

[Sil]: Yeah, like a different between happening naturally and getting a little arcane magic boost.
[Sil]: Around then’s also probably when they came to worship the moon goddess, Elune, and they said she slept in the Well’s depths during the daylight hours. I do not really know if that is a thing.

Brannagen laughs.

[Nunuzac]: Pressure, need, also makes great things happen. Energy well seems more peaceful way - oh, goddess in the well? Curious!

[Brannagen]: Just primitive people seein' her reflection there a' night or somethin' and assumin' that's where she went when they couldna see her?

[Sil]: It might be, yeah! They had her identified with the bigger moon, right?

[Brannagen]: Aye.

[Sil]: It also got me to thinking about moonwells, like if maybe they're named so 'cause they're supposed to be resting places for her, something like that.

[Brannagen]: Oh, hm, maybe! Or at least maybe tha's how it started.

[Sil]: Maybe! And then they got a clearer idea of… um… I really don't know myself exactly what Elune is.

[Brannagen]: Well, she's a goddess fer sure, but I think associated more with Nature than Arcane.

[Brannagen]: She supposedly got it on with a stag wild god at some point, so er…

[Sil]: So I guess she's… uh… she's got to have an actual body, right? Not just like… moon spirit…

Nunuzac tilts her head a bit at Bran, looking as if she might be trying to figure out how to word something, then gets distracted again. "I think there is maybe more to know about this energy well. It could be more than a fill-the-gap story."

[Sil]: It's… it's a long history, but there's legacy of it that lingers even to today.

[Brannagen]: Well, gods havin babies together may nae work like it does with us.
[Brannagen]: And aye, Sparks, the Well of Eternity is a big mystery.
[Brannagen]: All we've got left of it is scattered drops here an' there basically. Wish I coulda studied the whole theng.

Sil frowns in thought at Bran's god procreation comment. "You'd think if they're gods and goddesses, they'd want to skip the painful bits of it, not the fun ones."

Brannagen laughs.
[Brannagen]: Maybe they do it in some really fun way that doesna involve bodies.
[Brannagen]: A lass told me once about a way ye can… er, never mind, continue.

Sil laughs. "Next time I'm havin' tea with a god or a goddess I'll ask 'em. Respectfully."

[Brannagen]: Aye.
Brannagen grins at you wickedly.

[Nunuzac]: I wonder if Oacha’noa takes tea…

[Sil]: Oacha’noa?

Nunuzac nods quickly. "Goddess I meet. In dragonblight."

Sil blinks. Maybe some people do have tea with goddesses.
[Sil]: Let me know if you find out!

[Brannagen]: …Huh.

[Nunuzac]: I do not think she had hands, cup is a problem.

Brannagen laughs at Nunuzac.

[Sil]: You could like… hold it up for her. *Sil chuckles*

[Brannagen]: I canna say as I've ever heard of such a goddess. What was she like? *He takes out his notebook.*

Nunuzac widens her eyes. "She might make me hold it up for her." She glances to Bran. "Big… big! She lives in the ocean, Tuskarr worship, has a pearl altar on a tall beach cliff. She appears, gives a command for us to prove worthy to talk…"

[Sil]: Command? How'd you prove worthy?

[Nunuzac]: Great big voice, wide mouth, flat arms, very mighty. We felt like we had to obey! All of us leap from up the altar into the ocean to show we trust Oachanoa.

Brannagen frantically takes notes.

[Nunuzac]: Like she talks and my legs go! Big goddess power.

[Brannagen]: Amazin'!

Sil 's eyes are a little wide. "I'm glad she didn't hurt you or nothing."

[Brannagen]: Sparks always has the best adventures.

[Nunuzac]: A little scary if you think too much. It is good she does not always show up with commands all over the place or makes you do bad things. I think that makes her good, yes? Maybe wants you to know she is strong to protect the tuskarr.

Sil nods. "Maybe so. They're a tough people, but I reckon they need protecting with the Lich King and the Scourge and everything about."

[Brannagen]: She lives in the ocean, which explains why I've never encountered her. I'm er… not much of a sea fella.
[Brannagen]: Dwarves're real… dense, ye ken. Not great swimmers fer the most part.

[Sil]: Ah, yeah, like the stone affinity. I guess you mostly swim like a stone?

[Nunuzac]: But I make you go off the story too far. They say Cenarius is the child of Elune, and I meet elves who know him walking around on the ground too. So maybe it is different here, or something like a poem in the way it is said, but there is something.

[Sil]: Yeah, yeah, I'm still on Elune, haven't even got to Cenarius yet. *Sil laughs*

Nunuzac laughs lightly. "Oh no, it's just what I think of from meeting the elves in the north Kalimdor. They, eh, become more friend when they find out we both have orc trouble."

[Sil]: Ah, got it. So Elune, back to that…
[Sil]: So we got that they tied Elune to the Well in their minds at least, and I guess for that reason elf priests and seers studied the Well with an insatiable curiosity, trying to uncover its secrets and power.

Brannagen has pulled out his own copy of the book now and is flipping through pages he's scribbled in the margins of.

[Nunuzac]: Did they discover anything?

[Sil]: Well, I guess it made 'em more powerful.
[Sil]: Together with this, their society grew in power, and they started spreading out through Kalimdor and meeting all the other races that existed. They also ran into the dragons then, though the dragons mostly stayed out of people’s way.

[Brannagen]: Wise, heh heh.

[Sil]: Yeah, I'd say. The elves got the idea that the dragons held themselves as the protectors of the world, which seems about right, and so they did the smart thing and pretty much left them to it.
[Sil]: But… that was also when Cenarius comes into it. *Sil nods at Nunuzac* That was when they first met him, there in the ancient forests.
[Sil]: Cenarius they got along with really well. Like you said, he was Elune's son, right?

Nunuzac tilts her head. She has probably mostly heard about Cenarius's demise. "Just walking around plain as day - hello! I am half goddess, nice to meet you."

Brannagen laughs.

Sil laughs.

[Brannagen]: Well, his da' was also a sort of god.

[Sil]: Must've been a wild time to be alive.
Sil does not seem to realize that he's saying this while sitting in a floating magical city transcontinentally teleported, which is frequented by dragons in human and elvish visage.

[Brannagen]: I thenk it was a god anyway, a wild god. Powerful stag creature.
[Brannagen]: Called Malorne.
[Brannagen]: Wonder what Elune saw in 'im… *Bran ponders.*

[Sil]: Maybe the antlers were impressive?

Nunuzac nods slowly, seeming to accept this. "Stag like deer - it is maybe he takes off stag shape sometimes? Some great beings do this. Some dragons too."

[Brannagen]: Hm, true. An who knows what all gods can do when they're 'in the mood.'

[Sil]: Yeah, true. It'd be cool to find out some day, but… uh… I mean, you know, for studying purposes.
[Sil]: But I did hear he died, right? Cenarius, I mean, and not too long ago.
[Sil]: He was with the elves from waaaaay back then till almost now.

[Nunuzac]: I bet with big minds and powers it is difficult to grasp how it may be. Yes. The orcs slay him, this is something I find out quickly, from elves with great feelings on it.

Brannagen nods solemnly, adding a note to the margin of his book.

[Sil]: That is really sad. And… probably another reason things are bad over in Kalimdor, between the orcs and the elves.
[Sil]: Back then, Cenarius spent a lot of time teaching them about the natural world, and they developed a strong empathy for the living forests of Kalimdor and the harmonious balance of nature.

[Brannagen]: I suppose that explains why they didna ALL go arcane-crazy.

[Sil]: Yeah, I'd guess that's got to be the start of the druids, right? And the priests were all studying the Well, but for learning about Elune.
[Sil]: So that's a lot of them already not going arcane-crazy exactly.

Nunuzac listens curiously for a moment, then her eyes widen a bit. "Oh, it is interesting, that this maybe says they went away from caring for the surroundings because of focus on energy well - then Cenarius points these things out, and he is child of goddess who might also live in the well…"

[Sil]: When you put it like that… *Sil chuckles* I guess it's all connected?
[Sil]: And a lot of it wasn't exactly arcane stuff either. It was just like we said, growth and order. Maybe faster because of the Well.

[Nunuzac]: Like Elune maybe trying to guide in a second-step way. Or maybe wild god and son points out something from their knowledge.

[Sil]: Maybe, trying to guide from both directions.

[Brannagen]: Well, I'm skippin' ahead, but they definitely do go arcane-crazy, some of 'em
[Brannagen]: But it looks like we can see from the beginnin' how there's this Nature side an' an Arcane side to 'em also.

Sil nods at Bran.
[Sil]: Yeah, for sure. They are not all of a one thing.
[Sil]: The kaldorei civilization, they just kept on expanding. Till their temples, roads and dwelling places stretched across the whole continent.
[Sil]: But they hit, uh, kind of a snag.

Nunuzac taps all her fingertips together a couple of times a little excitedly. "Mystery! What is the… snag?" This is something different from the stag, she gathers.

[Sil]: Well, that's the era when Queen Azshara came into power.
[Sil]: The snag was Queen Azshara. Things seemed really good at the start…
[Sil]: It says she was beautiful and gifted, and she made a massive, wondrous palace by the shore of the Well, where all her favorite servitors lived. I am not real clear on what a servitor is, but I think it’s like a servant.

[Brannagen]: Aye.

[Sil]: Okay, good, I got that one. *Sil flashes a grin*
[Sil]: These servitors she named the quel’dorei, and so that’s where our high-borne came from originally. They just adored her, and followed her every command, and thought that made them better than the other kaldorei.

[Brannagen]: Heh heh, gotta love that logic. "We're better'n you because we're servants."
[Brannagen]: "But our mistress is just the BEST though!"
Brannagen laughs.

[Sil]: Yeah, it sounds kinda backward doesn't it?

[Brannagen]: Sounds like a cult is what it sounds like.

[Sil]: I guess in a way maybe they thought everybody was serving Azshara, but they were just the best servants.

[Brannagen]: Oh, good point.

[Nunuzac]: Hmm, I think I meet some like this before. No power but love power. Think power will answer them in their trouble. Answer is 'maybe.'

[Sil]: Yeah… usually power is not beholden to no power.

Brannagen chuckles at Nunuzac.

[Sil]: But It does say everybody loved Queen Azshara. But the lower-caste people, the main kaldorei, they secretly hated the high-borne. I am not sure it was so secret as the writer thinks, if it was so wide-spread.

[Brannagen]: Heh heh, aye.
[Brannagen]: Anythin' that makes it inta a history book is not a secret.

Sil chuckles. "Exactly."
[Sil]: And this is where the arcane-crazy starts to come in.
[Sil]: The priests were still studying the well because Elune, but then Azshara ordered her own educated high-borne to also study the Well more. Of course they did, because they did anything she told ‘em to.
[Sil]: Instead of being all reverent and everything, though, the high-borne figured out how to manipulate and control the Well’s energies.

[Brannagen]: I can certainly understand the impulse ta understand a theng rather than just worship it. But one can't get tunnel vision about it like they did. Or she did. Who knows if any o' them Highborne had opinions o' their own or just borrowed hers.

[Sil]: Yeah, hard to say. But once you realize you can use a thing to get more power, you got to step back and be careful, right?

Nunuzac laughs lightly. "Energy can do a lot of things if you can turn it where you want it to go. So I guess depends on how badly you want to do certain things."

[Brannagen]: Ye can tell a lot about a person by what thengs they want an' how badly.

[Sil]: I guess they wanted to do quite a lot. Creating and destroying things at will, it says, and that they were determined to master the Well's power. Master arcane magic, that is, how it's come to be known.
[Sil]: They sort of agreed to be careful. The high-borne all agreed it was inherently dangerous and people needed to be responsible with the power, but then they just turned right around and weren’t at all.

[Brannagen]: Heh!

[Sil]: They were even warned by the nature-type people. Cenarius and other scholars warned that they were going to bring on calamity from messing around with volatile magic, but they wouldn’t listen and just kept growing their powers.

[Nunuzac]: I think I see where this goes a little.

[Sil]: Bad direction, yeah.

[Nunuzac]: Magic taboo.

[Sil]: These days, yeah. Not a lot of kaldorei mages around here.
[Sil]: But back then, as they got more powerful, other stuff started changing too.
[Sil]: The high-borne, who were already kind of haughty and aloof, started to get more and more callous and cruel to the other elves.
Brannagen takes a few notes, nodding.
[Sil]: Queen Azshara started to withdraw from the people to only be around her trusted high-borne. It says ‘a dark, brooding pall veiled her once entrancing beauty’, too, but I don’t know if that’s metaphorical or not.

[Brannagen]: Sometimes people can look entirely different when a different mood comes across 'em.

[Sil]: Maybe that's it? I just seem to see in books a lot that people's looks change when their heart changes. I feel like sometimes they mean it not literally.
[Sil]: Maybe it was just the brooding in this case. She got real broody.

Nunuzac leans her elbows on the table and couches her cheeks in her hands. "Oh yes, and hiding away? Something is happening? A bad adviser try to turn against others, maybe."

[Sil]: That, or they all just turned against 'em together, too caught up in their own little group.

[Brannagen]: Mm, that can happen.
[Brannagen]: Us an' Them.

[Sil]: Their own little group that's 'better' than the other kaldorei, yeah.
[Sil]: Anyhow, this book ends on a cliffhanger, and a late character introduction of Malfurion Stormrage. Malfurion was a young scholar who suspected a terrible power was corrupting the high-borne and the Queen.
[Sil]: That power wasn't exactly the arcane, or at least not only the arcane, I don't think. But that gets us into book two of elvish history.

Nunuzac perks up. "Druid Malfurion? Or was this before he became that?"

[Sil]: Oh, uh, I'm not sure when he turned into a druid? He probably was though, I'd guess.
[Sil]: He was young, but he'd have probably been learning from Cenarius, right?

[Nunuzac]: Maybe? I had heard Cenarius is where druids came from.

[Brannagen]: As I understand it, he studied from a pretty young age. His brother too, but didna take to it.

Sil nods. "Yeah, it didn't outright say it in this book, but all the stuff about nature and balance, I kind of took it to mean."
[Sil]: So he was probably a druid already, and good at sensing corruption and stuff.

[Brannagen]: Seems like a smart fella all around.

Nunuzac nods eagerly. "A different view than from inside the magic and servants world, maybe."

[Brannagen]: Aye, for sure.

[Sil]: Yeah, a broader view.

[Brannagen]: Some of it may have been the frog in the boilin' water idea, inside her inner circle.
[Brannagen]: Ye gotta be outside the pot ta see the heat.

[Sil]: Could be something like that, yeah. We've got a bit of time left, want to go into book two?
[Sil]: That next book is “The War of the Ancients”, also from Stormwind Library. So, uh, you can sorta see where things are headed.

Nunuzac shifts a bit restlessly but also looks curious. "Aha, it tells of what happens next?"

[Sil]: Yep, this one picks up where we left off, the high-borne were being reckless with the Well of Eternity’s magic, and bad things were on the horizon.

[Brannagen]: Some o' this I've heard from primary sources! Now we get ta the point where there are elves alive who fought in it. Not many, but some.

[Sil]: Yeah, I think we've even got a few of 'em in Cobalt! Or, um… one at least that I know of. Maybe more?

[Brannagen]: Possibly!

[Sil]: So the bad things… What this writer figures happened, the use of magic sent ripples of energy out into the Great Dark Beyond. Other things out there noticed. Most particularly, Sargeras noticed.

[Brannagen]: Aaaaaye.

[Sil]: You all remember him, yeah? The Great Enemy of all life, the Destroyer of Worlds. So he felt the ripples and traced ‘em back to the origin point, Azeroth.

[Brannagen]: So this is the point at which the Burnin' Legion begin their inexplicable obsession with our world, aye?

[Sil]: Aye… yes. Yeah. *Sil nods*
[Sil]: He must’ve seen how awesome Azeroth was, because he decided he wanted to destroy it, and maybe take the Well’s energies for himself or something.

[Brannagen]: An' he has just… never stopped since.
[Brannagen]: Ye'd think he'd have other hobbies.

Nunuzac grows a little worried looking at all this, a little deflated. "Yes, I hear this too, that the Legion finds here long ago. Another reason the elves give more welcome."

[Sil]: Yeah, now we're getting into the stuff maybe the draenei ought to hear more about, yeah?
[Sil]: So you know what's happened here, to prepare for next time.

Nunuzac nods quickly. "Ha ha! I bet most draenei already listen better about this. I should learn more of it."

[Brannagen]: What's strange is how long we've held out! Maybe that's why the obsession. Like Sargeras is one o' them lads who only likes lasses they canna have.

[Sil]: Might be. The world that got away.

[Brannagen]: Heh heh.

[Sil]: So this was the beginning of all that. Sargeras got all his Burning Legion together, all the million screaming demons ripped from the far corners of the universe, hungering for conquest.

[Brannagen]: Poetic.

[Sil]: Archimonde the Defiler and Mannoroth the Destructor, who we talked about last time, got all their infernal minions all ready to go too.
[Sil]: But here's the rough part, and part of the reason I think for the magic taboo later on.

[Brannagen]: We know the army wasna just created to take Azeroth though. They were there already, harassin' the draenei.

[Sil]: Oh yeah, I just mean he gathered 'em up for invasion.
[Sil]: But here… They didn’t have to force their way into Azeroth, because Queen Azshara was just so overwhelmed with the ‘terrible ecstasy’ of magical power that she saw Sargeras as another even more powerful being.
[Sil]: I guess she didn’t see or didn’t notice all the million screaming demons behind him.

Nunuzac flattens her hands one over the other at her upper chest. "Queen does stupid thing… all the other people have to face it. How bad."

Sil nods. "She was a Queen at the Well of Eternity, so no one could stop her, right?"
[Sil]: And that’s when Queen Azshara agreed to let Sargeras into Azeroth. Her high-borne all started getting corrupted, and they started worshipping Sargeras as their god.

[Brannagen]: It's hard ta fathom the power she musta had. We dinna follow our monarchs quite so blindly in thes day an' age.

Sil nods. "I mean, with all the stuff King Varian's done lately, we… we do not follow blindly, no."
[Sil]: And I think this is where we can close, right before the opening of the war…
[Sil]: In allegiance to the Legion, the high-borne and the Queen made a vast, swirling portal to welcome Sargeras, right in the depths of the Well of Eternity.

[Brannagen]: What could possibly go wrong!?
Brannagen laughs.

[Sil]: Hah, indeed. What could go wrong with a plan like that?

[Brannagen]: To be fair, they didna have the benefit of studyin' countless fools throughout history ta wise 'em up.

Nunuzac has quite a look of saddened grit teeth in her face. "Very very bad. So some elves become Legion too?"

Sil nods. "I think they like… turned into satyr and naga and stuff… but that comes later." Sil glances at Bran. "I guess that's true, too. And we do better now, right?"

[Brannagen]: Fer the most part.
Brannagen grins.

[Sil]: Well, we can all aim to do better. Beat the Legion next time it turns up. *Sil grins hopefully*

[Brannagen]: Here's hopin'. If any world could do it, Azeroth could.

[Nunuzac]: It must.

Brannagen gently pats Nunuzac.

[Sil]: And in the meantime, we can learn from history. So we'll be prepared.

[Brannagen]: Aye!
[Brannagen]: Those of us who read books, anyway.
Brannagen winks slyly at Sil.

[Nunuzac]: I listen to those who read the books.

Sil grins. "It works, either way."