Spooncraft

With all the new revelations in lore coming with patch 2.4, I thought this would be a good time to highlight something that most players are going to overlook. The Blood Knights.

First off let’s get a little background to the whole thing, this means we rewind back to the beginning of the burning crusade when the Blood Elves first got their hands on a Naaru and started to reinvent the paladin class. The official lore off the Burning Crusade website tells the story pretty simply. More after the cut.

Not long ago, in Outland…

Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider and his blood elves waited until the newly arrived naaru departed Tempest Keep. He had little interest in what the naaru hoped to accomplish on this shattered world: it was Tempest Keep that had brought him here. At the prince’s signal the elves stormed the dimensional fortress, quickly defeating its automated defenses and claiming its satellite structures. The only real threat the elves discovered was a lone naaru who had stayed behind to maintain the keep’s defenses. With some difficulty, Kael’thas subdued the energy being and sent it to Quel’Thalas so that the magic-addicted blood elves could feed upon it.

Back in the capital city of Silvermoon, Magister Astalor Bloodsworn was not content with this idea. After long months of study and experimentation, he and his fellow wizards learned how to manipulate and corrupt the naaru’s luminous energies. In the end the wizards devised a process by which the powers of the Light could be transferred to recipients who had not earned such abilities. Instead of feeding upon the naaru’s magic, the blood elves would wield the naaru’s Light-given powers themselves.

Lady Liadrin, formerly a priestess, had recently renounced her vows, for she felt the Light had abandoned her people. She learned of the wizards’ achievement and volunteered to be the first to bend the stolen powers to her will. With her decision a new order was born: the Blood Knights. These renegade paladins are able to harness the sacred powers of the Alliance’s noblest heroes.

TLDR: Blood elves captured a Naaru and sent it back to Silvermoon city. So essentially the blood elves are given access to paladins, what’s interesting is how this is being changed in patch 2.4!

You see, after Kael’thas was defeated in Tempest Keep he traveled down to the Sunwell where his remaining forces were reigniting the well so that Kil’jaden could be summoned to this world. Kael sent a contingent of his elite soldiers the Felblood! They entered Silvermoon, took M’uru from his place under Blood Knight headquarters, and took the naaru to the Sunwell Plateau. In the empty chamber, the magisters that drained the Light energy stand around, dazed; young initiates seeking to learn the powers of resurrection (who would normally tap the power directly from M’uru) must instead collect the residual holy energies from the dazed magisters.

So this is a major change in how all Horde paladins will quest from the very begining as there will no longer be a Naaru in Silvermoon city! Now here is where it gets interesting. If you sit in Shatt long enough near A’dal you will see a series of events unfold. Here is the text screencapped.

SPOILER ALERT STOP READING HERE IF YOU PLAN ON RAIDING THE SUNWELL PLATEAU AND DEFEATING KIL’JADEN

Ok you can somewhat imagine what this patch alone means for the future of the Blood elves. The sunwell, the SOURCE of the blood elves original magical prowess has been reignited and is now full of power. The main reason why the blood elves were so destroyed and turned to sapping demonic energy for their addiction was because The Lich king Arthas had sacked Quel’Thalas and corrupted/destroyed the Sunwell in order to ressurect Kel’Thuzad.

If you listened to the dialogue files of Anveena and Velen etc, you get the picture pretty clearly. Anveena (the living personification and essence of the Sunwell) is killed/absorbed/whatever back into the Sunwell itself as Kil’jaden is killed (though his death animation shows him being sucked back through like he is being dragged back into the twisting nether father than being gutted like a fish) and Lady Liadrin shows up with Velen and company and a grand discussion takes place. The Blood elves are given back the sunwell to sustain them, the sunwell is purified, the blood elves have the light once more, and M’uru’s spark is saved by velen in hopes that some day in the far future he will be reborn as the Naaru he was and rejoin the light.

I have the dialogue here listed in chronological order so you can get a better picture of how things will go down when you beat Kil’jaden. You can still download the entire audio set and listen for yourself.

Kil’jaden: The power of the sunwell … turns against me … what have you done …. what have you done ?!

Anveena: The nightmare is over ! The spell is broken ! Good bye Kalec my love.

Kalecgos: Good bye Anveena my love. Few will remember your name, yet this day you changed the course of destiny. What was once corrupt is now pure. Heroes, do not let her sacrifice be in vain.

Velen: Mortal heroes, your victory here today was foretold long ago. My brother’s anguished cry of defeat will echo across the universe bringing renewed hope to all those who still stand against the Burning Crusade.
Velen: As the Legion’s final defeat draws ever nearer, stand proud in the knowledge that you have saved worlds without number from the flame.
Velen: Just as this day marks an ending, so too does it herald a new beginning.
Velen: The creature Entropius, who knew what force to destroy, was once the noble Naaru M’uru , in life M’uru channeled vast energies of light and hope, for a time a misguided few sought to steal those energies.

LadyLiadrin: Our arrogance was impardonable. We damned one of the most noble being of all ! We may never atone for this sin.
Velen: Then fortunate it is that I have reclaimed the noble Naaru spark from where it fell. Where faith dwells, hope is never lost young blood elf.

LadyLiadrin: Can it be ?
Velen: Gaze now mortals, upon the heart of M’uru, unblemished, bathed by the light of creation, just as it was at the dawn.

LadyLiadrin: Blessed ancestors ! I feel it ! So much love … so much grace … there are … no words … impossible to describe.
Velen: In time, the light and hope held within will rebirth more than this mere fount of power. May haps they will rebirth the soul of a nation.
Velen: Salvation young one, it waits for us all.
Velen: Farewell.