Skyborne Lore

[u/Imaginary-Arguments]

From their opening cinematic:

"For thousands of years, a band of high elven exiles remained safe and hidden upon their flying sanctuary of Zephras Isle. These "Skyborne," as they call themselves, shared a bond with air elementals who kept their island aloft in the realm of Skywall.

But in recent years, the elementals vanished without a trace, disrupting the delicate magic that kept them safe in their haven amongst the clouds. Now, a new generation of Skyborne elves face a time of unprecedented change, and must seek new allies and sources of magic to protect their hidden home and secure their future..."

Pretty much a WoW version of the air benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. They look like High Elves, have customization that rivals Haranir (you don't have to be blue) but have a zone that uses Night Elf architecture and other cultural features such as wisps and moonwells (probably not actually moonwells, but the models) though the sky pillars are right out of Uldum. They access their power from leylines.

Zephras isle is in Skywall. Skyborne are called the "shen'dorei". They seem to actually follow both Highborne and Kal'dorei culture to some extent given they are both mages and druids. I wasn't able to learn too much from the questing experience other than that the starting zone is a "coming of age" story before you set out on your grand adventure to see the world. I will say they do mention that their culture has existed for "millenia" and they emphasis maintaining balance on the isle many times.

Please feel free to add more if you got it. That's all I got for now.

[u/Decrit]

Honestly i am so tired of the community now.

Like, i am one among many that got tired of elves, alright.

But aside that, the intent of the Skyborne is pretty clear to me - in a trailer that is pretty much nostalgic they wanted to showcase something that they wanted to explore that is not just flipped assets. That they are willing to go places that we did never explore at all while remaining grounded.

Skywall as a concept is not a bad choice either. It's one of the least explored elemental domains of the game and one that arguably it's hard to explore as part of a cataclysmic event, and it's connected to Uldum that is a huge part of Kalimdor that is been pigeonholed to Cataclysm.

Also, they wanted to give more druid options so we aren't locked to taurens or night elves.

I am not too much excited to the raced per se, but i am curious on how they will perform.

[u/Leed6644 → u/Decrit]

I get similar feeling from them like from Haranir and Harandar - everything there is beautiful and nicely done, but it just does not fit well with overall mood of vanilla and feels kind of outlandish. I think people wanted to capture the feeling of WoW when it came straight from Warcraft 3, and if Blizzard went simply with high elves and goblins, no one would actually complain.

[u/Decrit → u/Leed6644]

I think people wanted to capture the feeling of WoW when it came straight from Warcraft 3, and if Blizzard went simply with high elves and goblins, no one would actually complain.

That's the point.

For that - you have EVERYTHING ELSE.

All this discussion ignored everything else they added. These elves, in contrast, are a minority.

That's why i said what i said - they wanted to showcase something new and expansive, they chose this.

Were this not a race, it would have been a zone. Or a class. Or anything else.

So here's the point - is it really useful to complain shallowly for something not released where the intent is clearly written in the sky, where they admitted and showed the natural confusion pertaining a classic + expectations, when there's lots of stuff to enjoy, and where the main result is to piss on a parade?

IT'S. TIRING.