Characters / Warcraft: The Alliance: Quel'Thalas

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A character subpage for the WarCraft universe, including World of Warcraft. For the main character page, see here. For the Alliance character page, see here.

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Icon of the Void

The high elves (Quel'dorei in their native Thalassian) of Quel'Thalas first appeared in the Eastern Kingdoms 7,000 years before the First War and mostly kept to themselves.

Its three-thousand-year-old king, Anasterian Sunstrider, honor-bound by a pact with the bloodline of Arathor for King Thoradin's help in the Troll Wars, sent aid to the Alliance of Lordaeron in the Second War due to Sir Anduin Lothar's status as the last of the Arathi. After the orcs, riding enslaved red dragons, burned the borderlands of Quel'Thalas, the elves put their full support behind the Alliance. The high elves were the most reluctant and fair-weather members of the Alliance, and seceded from it soon after the war was done.

About fourteen years later, the Scourge destroyed Quel'Thalas and the survivors renamed themselves blood elves (Sin'dorei or "children of the blood"). A short while later, the blood elves under Kael'thas joined Illidan Stormrage who offered them salvation. Close to five years after joining Illidan, they would join the Horde for support against the Scourge and fight their own prince for allying with the Burning Legion.

This said, a small number of high elves remain. Their central organization is the Silver Covenant, a branch of Dalaran in opposition to their sin'dorei counterparts. Per Word of God, most of the remaining high elves stuck with the Alliance after their kingdom officially left it after the Second War, and did not return after the Third.

While these remaining high elves are not playable in World of Warcraft, they still remain active within the Alliance. Recent developments during and after the Third Legion Invasion has led to the formation of a branch of blood elves exiled from Silvermoon City for dabbling in Void arts, with some high elven members joining as well, known as the Void Elves (Ren'dorei in Thalassian), under the leadership of Alleria Windrunner who is the first elf to master the Void during the events in Argus. These elves are a playable allied race for the Alliance faction since the Battle for Azeroth expansion.

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General Tropes

Shared tropes

• Agent Peacock: That's more of a blood elf thing, but since high elves and void elves look almost exactly the same, they get to join in the fun as well:
  Riftblade Kelain: "Oh, you must be so excited to see me! Imagine how you'll feel when you're dead!"
• Cosmetic Award: The Heritage transmogrification armor is unlockable for any void elf character that's been levelled up to 50 through normal grinding (110 prior to the Shadowlands level squish).
• The Exile: The elves of Quel'Lithien Lodge were this, having been banished by their regent for refusing to toe the line in regards to mana tapping. They were very bitter about this. Meanwhile, the void elves were exiled from Silvermoon for dabbling in the forbidden arts.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Played straight and inverted. During the Second War, the high elves as a whole were reluctant, distant members of the Alliance and left it as soon as their goals no longer aligned. After the Third War, the remaining high elves have been shown to cling much more tightly to the Alliance. The Void Elves also zigzag this, while they were still with Silvermoon enough to follow them instead of departing and remaining high elves, Umbric and many of his sect were against joining the Horde and missed the days when Quel'Thelas could call the Alliance friend. Part of the reason the void elves aren't terribly torn up by being officially exiled from their home is because they could finally return to the Alliance with Alleria's support.
• Mage Species: As descendants of the Highborne formerly empowered with the Sunwell, both high elves and void elves are naturally attuned with magic. Void elves even get a bonus to spellcasting.
• Occult Blue Eyes:
  • The eyes of the high elves are sky blue, the colour of the (original) Sunwell's arcane magic. Void elves also have blue eyes, but theirs are of a lighter, icy shade, like the eyes of voidwalkers. In either case, it represents their magical power.
  • In Shadowlands, the void elves receive a variety of new eye colors, ranging from blue eyes that are similar to the ones the high elves have, to purple eyes.
• Our Elves Are Different: Obviously follow most of the classic High Elf tropes, with the main difference being that they are technically a splintered faction of the Blood Elves who chose to keep their old name and stick with the Alliance. They can be visually distinguished from Blood Elves by usually being portrayed with glowing blue eyes instead of green. Void Elves are more similar to dark elves, what with pale skin, dark hair and sinister-looking goatees, but Dark Is Not Evil.
• Revenge Before Reason: They have slipped into this at times over their exile. When Lor'themar offered to send supplies to the underequipped rangers of Quel Lithien Lodge, its leaders rejected the offer out of a refusal to have anything to do with him and threatened to kill anyone he might send. The Purge of Dalaran was used as an excuse for members of the Silver Covenant to kill blood elves in retribution for the exile, despite the fact that the people being killed, shopkeepers and footsoldiers mostly, had no say in the matter. At the siege of Suramar, Liadrin notes that the Silver Covenant isn't even trying to hide that they are there to find an excuse to attack the Blood Elven forces, not to deal with the Burning Legion invasion.
• Undying Loyalty: Zigzagged. Per Word of God, most remaining high elves feel this way about the Alliance, choosing to remain with their allies over their kingdom. In contrast, the high elves of the past (who'd become the blood elves) are loyal to their own kingdom above all else. Yet, every major high elf character has shown only nominal loyalty to the Alliance — Anasterian was as fair-weather an ally as one can get, blaming the humans for his people's problems and leaving the Alliance the first chance he got; Alleria considered the Alliance as an institution little more than a vehicle for revenge to better avenge Quel'Thalas, and her entire motivation for crossing the Dark Portal was to keep her own homeland and people safe (Until she returned to lead the Void Elves); and Vereesa... who very nearly defected to the Horde in War Crimes because she wanted to be with her sister.

Tropes only applicable to high elves:

• An Ice Person: While blood elves prefer fire-based spells, the nightborne use pure arcane, and the void elves used... you guessed it, high elves are known for their usage of arcane frost magic.
• Depower: Since they refused to siphon magic like their blood elf cousins to replace the Sunwell's power, high elves had their magic weakened and used to suffer from magical withdrawal that they controlled through meditation. However, after the Sunwell was restored, this no longer seems to be the case.
• Dying Race: In recent times the numbers of high elves have been drastically reduced, as 90% of their population was slaughtered during the Third War, following this 90% of the surviving high elves changed their name to "blood elves", and eventually joined the Horde, while the few remaining high elves would cling to the Alliance. It is stated that the population of this group is considerably even smaller than the Gnomeregan Exiles. They are a rare sight even in Alliance lands, and are considering a fallen race.
  • With the de-canonization of the RPG Sourcebooks, it leaves them in an even worse state than before. In Elisande's word, because of how they slowly forget the legacy of their own race, and mingle themselves with lesser races in the Alliance, eventually they'll be assimilated into human society, and fade away in time.
  • The Void Elves joining the equation makes this even more concerning, as in Telogrus Rift you can observe both high and blood elves preparing to undergo the ritual to leave them void-touched, meaning that the high elves are losing even more of their population to the new race that is neither high nor blood elves. This isn't helped by the Ren'dorei also basically representing the Thalassian dissident movement, so some of those elves are probably joining more out of a sense that they have to in order to express their beliefs and oppose Lor'Themar Theron's rule than anything.
• Forest Ranger: Most of the well known high elves are rangers. Lore-wise, this is because they've tried to wean themselves off magic since the Sunwell was destroyed. This is downplayed in World of Warcraft, however.
• Hidden Depths: Though Quel'Thalas is no longer affiliated with the Alliance during the Third War, some individual high elves still chose to assist Arthas and Jaina in investigating the undead plague. Some of them even follow Arthas to Northrend. Also, high elves of Dalaran still loyally serve the Alliance even though Quel'Thalas doesn't.
• Hypocrite: Lor'Themar notes the remaining high elves like to take the moral high ground and act superior to the blood elves for not having resorted to leeching magic out of other creatures, while at the same time reaping the benefits those same blood elves provided by fighting to reclaim the Sunwell.
• In Harmony with Nature: Although not to the night elves extant, the high elves maintain a great respect for nature, interweaving their cities and architecture with their natural surroundings. It is for this reason they have a good friendship with the Wildhammers, bonding with them through their love of nature.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Elisande gives all elven races one but her speech to the high elves was particularly brutal:
  • Elisande calls out the high elves' attempts at taking a moral high road and the status as a "race". She lets them know that their willingness to intermingle with other races is destroying their identity as a sub-species and eventually they'll be no more. Given that the most well known high elves — the Windrunner sisters — all have human husbands/lovers and the high elves lack a proper racial capital, she appears to be on to something.

Tropes only applicable to void elves:

• Alien Blood: Take a closer look when they are struck, they bleed purple blood.
• Bad Powers, Good People: While they are infused with a tremendously dark force that has been known to subject its wielders to insanity, the void elves are firm believers in the core ideals of the Alliance and pledge to use it for the protection of Azeroth.
• Casting a Shadow: Though some of them don't actually wield shadow magic, void elves have all been infused with it, giving them numerous innate abilities. In-game, this translates into the ability to teleport and a chance to have one's attacks empowered and deal additional shadow damage.
• Character Customization: Since Shadowlands, character customization allows players to remove most void elf features from their void elves characters outside of the effect of Entropic Embrace, making them look like high elves or blood elves if they choose so.
• Creepy Good: They may be elves but being infused with the Void has given them an eerie pale complexion and they even have an option for tendrils in their hair. When in battle they enter a shadowy form that fully cloaks them in darkness, making them resemble Voidwalkers. Furthermore their shadowy nature has been noted as rather off-putting to the more light-faring members of the Alliance, specifically members of the Church of the Holy Light, and they are still working to prove their trustworthiness.
• Cursed with Awesome: The void elves' connection to the void gives them access to one of the greatest metaphysical forces in the Warcraft Universe, however the nature of the forced transformation when they were kidnapped means that they couldn't find a way to keep the voices from seeding themselves in their head, and while they can resist going mad better than any other mortal that's dabbled in void magic, it takes constant control and inhuman focus to keep their head in the current reality.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Notably one of the few Alliance races to invoke this trope.
• Dimensional Cutter: Their racial ability Spatial Rift gives them the ability to teleport through short distances by creating tears in reality. Similar rifts, but static and long-distance, are created during quests by void elf NPCs.
• Hearing Voices: Because of being infused with shadow magic, all void elves hear the voices of the Void in their head, similarly to pale orcs, black dragons, or Twilight's Hammer cultists. Unlike them, the void elves use their willpower and knowledge of the Void to resist the voices' influence.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: A haircut covering the right eye is available to female void elves.
• Irony: They're renegades who were abandoned by their former peers, rejected their traditions and turned to dark magic in order to protect themselves. They are essentially what the blood elves used to be in their early days, before the Sunwell was restored and the sin'dorei returned to the more conservative ways of the high elves (with some Light added in).
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Most void elves have dark hair, and all of them have unnaturally pale skin. Originally Alleria was the only one able to keep her original form at will, however by the time of the Shadowlands, some of the other void elves have also learned to retain their original appearances, albeit with varying results.
• Living Shadow: The racial ability Entropic Embrace gives them a chance to become voidwalker-like for a few seconds, gaining additional damage.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: They are given more natural hair colors since patch 9.1.5, but their hair will turn purple during Entropic Embrace.
• Power of the Void: The Void in the Warcraft universe is the purest and most dangerous form of shadow magic. Void elves try to control it with varying results.
• The Unfavorite: Umbric is very well aware being a user of void magic in the mainly Light-themed Alliance puts him and the rest of the void elves on the bottom of totem pole in terms of ranking.
• Unwitting Pawn: They constantly hear whispers from the Void, which can contain factual and useful information, but can also be lies intended to advance the Void's agenda. There is something of an art to discerning the former from the latter and not every void elf is capable of it, leading them to think they are working for the good of Azeroth while instead they serve the Void. This is one of the main reasons they are distrusted by the Alliance, as it's an open question whether each void elf has control of themselves or has been twisted to serve the Void without their knowledge.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: As per norm with the Void. They try to avoid this, but not everyone is fully successful:
  Shadeweaver Zarra: "Here! We land here, just like the whispers say! Yes! Hahaha. Yes yes yes."

Anasterian Sunstrider

Class: Battle Mage

Race: High Elf

Voiced by: Cameron Folmar (English)

The last king of Quel'Thalas.

"Outrageous! They dare to invade our home? They dare! We shall teach them to trespass here! Gather our warriors. Summon our rangers. We will attack the trolls and drive them from our forest so sternly they shall never dare encroach again."

The long-lived king of Quel'Thalas, who ruled it even before the Troll Wars. He perished during the Third War, in a personal duel against Arthas Menethil.

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• Aesop Amnesia: He never really learned the value of keeping up cordial relations with the younger races, despite being saved and assisted by them multiple times.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Being king doesn't prevent Anasterian from kicking ass.
• Cool Sword: Wields the powerful elven runeblade Felo'melorn.
• Dual Wielding: Wielded Felo'melorn in one hand and a staff in the other, though this is absent in his only game appearances where he just wields Felo'melorn.
• Fantastic Racism: Anasterian really had it in for the younger races, particularly humanity. His penchant for isolation did not bode well in the long run.
• Good Is Not Nice: Had the best intentions of his people in mind, but completely dismissive of anybody outside of that.
• Jerkass: At least to the rest of the Alliance.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Somewhat debatable, but he wasn't wrong in his feeling that the Alliance abandon his people, as their main army went to besiege Blackrock Spire, leave his people to contend with the Amani trolls, and much of Alliance resources were allotted toward maintaining the internment camps.
• Killed Off for Real: Killed fighting Arthas to protect the Sunwell during the Third War.
• Magic Knight: Capable warrior and a very powerful mage.
• Magic Staff: Wields a magical staff adorned with a powerful kaldorei crystal.
• Moral Myopia: Has a severe case of this that proves worse than Genn Greymane's. He does what he can to snake his way out of the blood oath he owed the Arathi, and only when the orcs attack Quel'Thalas does he fully devote his resources to the war. Once the war is over and Lothar is dead, he immediately pulls Quel'Thalas from the Alliance and blames them for what happened to Quel'Thalas during the war.
• Named Weapons: The Sunstrider family sword Felo'melorn, called Flamestrike in Common.
• Never MY Fault: Blames the humans for letting the orcs invade Quel'Thalas and the devastation that resulted for his kingdom despite the fact that he was the one who dismissed the Horde as a threat and so sent only minimal forces to help them fight the Horde and neglected to prepare his kingdom for an eventual invasion of the Horde.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While it's a given he was going to die, Anasterian opens his duel with Arthas by cutting down the former's undead horse Invincible. Since harm to Invincible is a massive Berserk Button for Arthas, it sends him into an Unstoppable Rage that Anasterian can't overcome.
• Old Master: Anasterian's age means he's had plenty of time to master both magic and sword-fighting.
• Old Soldier: He's noted to be extremely old, even for an elf, having fought in the Troll Wars. By the time of the games, he's still a quite capable fighter in his own right.
• Playing with Fire: Fights off the Scourge with powerful spells of fire.
• Rube Goldberg Device: His decision to secede from the Alliance lead to Gilneas and Stormgarde follow his example, and secede from the crumbling Alliance themselves.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Personally lead efforts to drive the Amani trolls from Quel'Thalas while the main Alliance army is away during the Second War. Later on, steps in to defend the Sunwell from the Scourge. Too bad he died doing so.
• The So-Called Coward: In Blood of the Highborne, Dar'Khan Drathir notes that Anasterian was likely cowering from Arthas somewhere in the Sunwell Plateau. Pages later, Anasterian unexpectedly appears on the front lines to take out hordes of undead, and attempts to kill Arthas himself.
• Somebody Else's Problem: His attitude towards the Second War. He and his council considered the orcs' invasion a human problem that would not affect Quel'Thalas and thus not worth the high elves addressing.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The Alliance risks its neck saving his nation (Indeed it was the fact that they were fighting in Quel'thalas that let the horde lay siege to Lordaeron) and once the war is over, he promptly declares it the Alliance's fault for not saving them sooner and letting so much of the land burn. This is after ignoring a Blood Oath he owed to the Arathi for saving his people from the trolls.
• Unknown Character: Out of the leaders of factions that had a major role in Warcraft III, Anasterian not only never appears in person, but is not even mentioned at all, not even by his son. In fact, even though he fought hand-to-hand against Arthas when the Scourge invaded Silvermoon City, in the game, Silvermoon's hero unit is an unidentified human archmage. This is rectified in Warcraft III: Reforged, where he finally gets an official character design and appears to defend the Sunwell alongside Thalorien, the wielder of Quel'delar.
• Wrecked Weapon: Felo'melorn was shattered by Arthas when he killed Anasterian, though Kael'thas remade the sword, making it capable of withstanding Frostmourne.

Alleria Windrunner

Class: Hunter

Race: Void Elf

Voiced by: Clare Corbett (English), Veronika Sarkisova (Russian)

So that's where she has been all along!

A high elven ranger captain of Quel'thalas, eldest of the Windrunner sisters, and an early volunteer to help the Alliance against the Horde in the Second War, even before the high elves formally chose to join the war. During the war the elven homeland was almost burned to the ground by the orcs and her younger brother killed, leading her to become obsessed with revenge and fixated on exterminating the orcs. She relished the chance to join the Alliance Expedition to Draenor and fight the orcs further, and once there, with the aid of Turalyon and Khadgar, eventually gave up on her genocidal quest. While she doesn't appear in The Burning Crusade, her son with Turalyon, Arator the Redeemer, does. Alleria returns in Legion, having been fighting the Legion on Argus with Turalyon and the Army of the Light, and afterwards returns to the Alliance, rescuing and recruiting Umbric's sect of Void users.

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• Action Girl: The original Action Girl in Warcraft. Pretty much all her sisters, and a lot of other Alliance gals, owe something to her character-wise.
• Action Mom: Though she disappeared long before Arator ever showed up in the game.
• Aloof Big Sister: To both of her sisters, as implied in War Crimes and outright confirmed in Sylvanas.
• Anti-Hero: In Warcraft 2 she's initially dedicated to annihilating the orcs in the name of revenge, but even after she begins to let go of that desire, she still advocates destroying black dragon eggs to prevent them from growing up into greater threats.
• Armor-Piercing Question: On the receiving end of one. After she mocks Lor'Themar by asking if he "only repeats the words of his Warchief", Lor'Themar questions how he could trust her when the "Void Lords are whispering in her head" all the time. She doesn't really have an answer.
• Badass Cape: In Warcraft II at least.
• Bad Powers, Good People: As of Legion, Alleria becomes touched by the Void and learns to wield it as a weapon without much change to her status as a hero of the Alliance and to Azeroth as a whole.
• Battle Couple: With Turalyon.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: After death of her brother, Lirath, Alleria does this to Turalyon for a time. Many years later it is implied that she is starting to grow distant from Turalyon again, but this time because of her new powers.
• The Bus Came Back: Returned along with Turalyon in Legion and later takes on a prominent role in Battle of Azeroth as one of the leaders of the Ren'dorei, the void elves.
• The Captain: She's a capable ranger captain.
• Casting a Shadow: She's picked up Void magic during her war against the Legion.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of her brother, Lirath, and the devastation of her homeland made her bitter and vengeful, and unfortunately, resulted in her being isolated from her lover, Turalyon. They did eventually reconcile, though. Even after a thousand years of fighting the Legion, she is still not over his death and finds the idea that Sylvanas is leading the people who killed him to be completely insane.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being aligned with the Army of the Light, she is learning how to channel Void energy from Locus Walker, a Void Ethereal; his teachings ensure she remains in control of herself. However, there are hints that the void elves may only be fooling themselves and, even if they're right, their presence is still very dangerous regardless of their will: Alleria walking near the Sunwell nearly destroys it or worse.
• Death Seeker: This is eventually pointed out to her and she gets better.
• The Exile: She was exiled from Quel'Thalas because her void powers are dangerous to the Sunwell, which is the center of Blood Elf civilization and something they cannot go without.
• Fantastic Racism: Severely against the orcs.
• Facial Markings: One of her more distinctive traits is her constantly painted face.
• Foil: Alleria recalls how she is cursed just like Sylvanas, the only difference is she chooses to take upon this curse by herself whereas Sylvanas have it forced upon her. Also,much like Sylvanas, she is a Windrunner who is leading a group of cursed outcasts (the Void Elves) while her sister is leading another (the Forsaken).
• Forest Ranger: An elven ranger.
• Hearing Voices: Since taking the Void into herself, its power whispers to her, demanding she take certain actions for its own ends, like killing Turalyon to "free him from the Light" or to kill Sylvanas. After absorbing L'ura's power the voices grow stronger and more insistent, but not enough to control her.
• Hypocrite: She worries about the inevitable meeting between herself and Sylvanas, and questions if she is even still her sister or a "Light-forsaken monster". To her credit, she does admit that she isn't so different herself, what with her being the first void elf and all.
  • In Before the Storm she opposes the reunion between Forsaken and their living relatives because she doesn't trust 'the rot riddled brains of the Forsaken to differentiate between friend or foe', when Alleria herself keeps hearing whispers telling her to kill her loved ones, making her just as prone to kill as them.
• I Should Have Done This Years Ago: When she cornered Sylvanas alongside Anduin during the Battle for Lordaeron, Alleria regretted not to have killed her sister the last time they met.
• It's Personal: After the loss of friends and comrades, and personally her brother Lirath. She dedicates herself to revenge, and exact vengeance upon the orcs whenever she can. She gets better though.
• Interspecies Romance: With Turalyon. Needless to say, this is something of a theme with the Windrunner gals.
• In the Hood: Along with her painted face, most depictions of her feature a hood.
• Irony: She doesn't like orcs, and yet her sister briefly ended up becoming their Warchief.
• Lady of War: The only female unit in Warcraft II, and its expansion.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Despite being a living legend of Quel'Thalas, she's not accepted in her town for her newfound powers. That and she chose to stay loyal to the Alliance, because of her hatred of the orcs.
• Never Found the Body: As with Turalyon.
• Opposites Attract: With Turalyon.
• Persona Non Grata: She visits Quel'thalas in an attempt to convince the blood elves to rejoin the Alliance, but Lor'themar is sick of hearing about it and doesn't even let her finish. He does, however, still consider her a national hero and allows her to see the Sunwell again. Unfortunately, her Void powers are inherently corruptive and just getting near it causes void creatures to begin spawning and nearly destroys it. He subsequently bans her from ever revisiting the city and she makes an implied threat of coming back in force.
• Put on a Bus: As with Turalyon, she's been AWOL since Beyond the Dark Portal and came back in Legion.
• Promoted to Love Interest: The original game didn't mention Alleria having any romantic attachments.
• Really 700 Years Old: She fought in the Troll Wars. The said war occurred 2,800 years ago — and since she was, obviously, an adult by then and well-established in the military (she was a leader), she's at least 3,000 years old, not counting the 1,000 subjective years she's spent fighting the Burning Legion.
• Rebellious Princess: As the oldest, Alleria was expected to succeed her mother as Silvermoon's ranger-general, but Alleria herself had little use for the expectations or traditions of the high elves.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The short-tempered Red Oni to Turalyon's cool-headed Blue Oni. She later becomes something of a Blue Oni herself after spending many years under the tutelage of Locus-Walker to control her emotions in order to better wield the power of the Void, causing her to become colder as a result.
• Revenge: Her driving motivation after her brother's death.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She hates orcs. REALLY hates orcs. She's cooled on it a bit by Legion and is willing to work with a Horde PC, but even after all that time, she clearly still considers them prone to demonic corruption.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's attracted to Turalyon because of the good inside of him and how he risks his life to save others out of selflessness.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: There are hints that her relationship with Turalyon may ultimately be impossible in the long run: Locus-Walker says that no matter how they feel about each other and trust each other, the Void and the Light cannot stand side by side. However, he is just as likely to be wrong, which would make it subverted.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Between Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal, as a result of her lust for revenge, but it's reversed before the end of the latter book.
• Tragic Bigot: Yes, she hates orcs, but look at it from her point of view: the last time she encountered orcs was in the time of Warcraft 2 while all of the orcs were bloodthirsty and murderous (which was due to the Burning Legion). She would be reluctant to believe the orcs weren't Always Chaotic Evil as they seemed to be, but is in fact very wrong in that regard as it is shown that orcs are more civilized then she deems them to be.
• True Companions: With Khadgar and Turalyon throughout the Second War.
• Tsundere: She is a Windrunner after all. It runs in the family.
• Unwitting Pawn: Heavily implied to be turning into this in Legion for the Void Lords, given her increasing forays into shadow magic. While Locus-Walker does teach her control, Alleria clearly struggles at points. According to Xal'atath, it is nearly complete, assuming Xal'atath itself isn't lying.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Is this during the hunt for Sylvanas in Shadows Rising due to interrogating others by invading their minds with the void.
• We Used to Be Friends: Has this dynamic with Turalyon early on in the novel of Beyond the Dark Portal.
• You Can't Go Home Again: She visits Silvermoon as an Alliance ambassador implicitly trying to recruit the blood elves back to the Alliance and is immediately rebuffed. However, Lor'themar allows her to visit the Sunwell over the objections of Rommath before she goes as he acknowledges her as a true daughter of Quel'thelas even if he has political disagreements with her. Unfortunately, when she just gets near it, her void nature starts corrupting it and she is banished from the city for being a danger whether she intends it or not. She leaves with poor grace, clearly intending to return one day whether the blood elves like it or not.

Vereesa Windrunner

Class: Hunter

Race: High Elf

Voiced by: Courtneay Taylor (English), Tatyana Shitova (Russian)

Vereesa is a high elf ranger and the youngest of the Windrunner sisters. Like her sisters, she fought alongside the Alliance against the Horde during the Second War. In current times, she is the leader of the high elf remnants in the Alliance and Ranger General of the Silver Covenant.

Enraged that Varian negotiated a peace treaty with her husband's killers, Vereesa plots to poison Garrosh Hellscream when it becomes clear that he will face life imprisonment rather than execution, as well as defect from the Alliance in favor of the Forsaken, both to reconnect with her sister Sylvanas, and to be able to set foot in Quel'thalas once again. However, at the last moment, she has a change of heart and decides to remain with the Alliance, even confessing the poisoning to Anduin in order to give him a chance to save Garrosh.

In Legion, despite still deeply distrusting the Horde, she agrees to work alongside them in order to combat the Burning Legion, becoming one of the main leaders of the Unseen Path, a Class Hall composed of Hunters from both the Alliance and the Horde. She later assists Tyrande Whisperwind in leading the Alliance contributions to the Nightfallen in Suramar, and serves as one of the main Alliance representatives aboard the Vindicaar during the Argus Campaign.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Justified for being an elf.
• Action Girl: Just like her sisters.
• Action Mom: YUP, she is!
• Alternate Self: The Azmourne Time Rift shows a mob where she became a Banshee Queen instead of her sister, with Soridomi lampshading how it is still a Windrunner Banshee Queen.
• Badass Normal: She doesn't have crazy void powers, she isn't an undead banshee queen. She's just an elf who's really, really good with a bow. Though she does use some arcane magic in her attacks, which may be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, though it is noted that she did need Rhonin's help to get over her own arcane addiction.
• Badass in Distress: She was caught in by the Emerald Nightmare in Stormrage. As of World of Warcraft: Legion she was among those in the Elven army who was trapped in a time stasis bubble created by Elisande during the Insurrection campaign, and unfortunately for her and the rest, they weren't free until the heroes of Azeroth stormed the Nighthold and defeated the Chronomatic Anomaly.
• Berserk Button: Has a number of them below...
  • Don't mistake her as blood elf. She's still high elf, period.
  • Despite what happened to her sister Sylvanas, don't refer the Forsaken Queen as a Banshee like Zendarin did.
  • Don't call her an exile of Quel'Thalas when she still considers her former kingdom as her home. Especially if your name is Lor'Themar Theron.
• Best Served Cold: How she and Sylvanas planned to deal with Garrosh during his trial.
• Big Sister Instinct: Little sister, but yes. She gets angry when Zendarin mockingly refers Sylvanas as Banshee.
• Boomerang Bigot: See Fantastic Racism.
• Defecting for Love: Almost left the Alliance to join the Horde, so she could be with her beloved sister Sylvanas.
• Enemy Mine: Joined forces with Halduron and Vol'jin to fight against Zul'Aman. Subverted at Suramar, where the fact that she so obviously hates the blood elves leads Liadrin to state she can't be trusted on the battlefield.
• Fantastic Racism: Rather severely against the blood elves, who were previously kinsmen of hers, and are technically still the same race. Possibly because It's Personal below, or because her blood elf cousin named Zendarin once tried to kidnap her two sons. This also extends to other Horde races, as she deem them as "Honorless savages and monsters".
  • Her hatred of the Blood Elves is elaborated on in Legion, where she claims that their actions dishonor the history, sacrifices and memory of the High Elves, the Windrunner family in particular.
  • She is however on friendly terms with Halduron and the Farstiders, and more than happy to lend a hand to help him with the Amani. Though based on her interactions with Liadrin and Lor'themar, Halduron appears to be her Bigotry Exception.
• Forest Ranger: The most classic example remaining out of the three Windrunner sisters.
• Four-Star Badass: Ranger General of the Silver Covenant. However, the merit of her skills and leadership is questionable as she styled herself with such title.
• Hypocrite: She only views the Horde as "Honorless Savages and Monsters" but Sylvanas reminds her that she is willing to abandon her children to join said Horde she constantly puts down.
  • She was perfectly willing to murder Garrosh for revenge when The Horde agreed to put him on trial for crimes he was obviously very guilty of; he was going to get justice but she wanted to dishonorably poison him regardless.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Like Jaina, how she views the Purge of Dalaran. But this doesn't stop her from enjoying it.
• Interspecies Romance: With Rhonin, whom she bore him half-elf twins. Also the same for her two sisters, Alleria (who fell in love with Turalyon with their relationship resulting in Arator) and Sylvanas (who had a history with Nathanos even before they became undead).
• In the Hood: Like her sisters, most depictions of her feature her hooded.
• It's All My Fault: So much comes back to her failures:
  • Because she got cold feet during her assassination attempt on Garrosh in War Crimes, he escaped causing the events of Warlords and Legion to play out.
  • Her attempts to shove blame off herself has caused her sisters to become VERY hostile towards one another to the point of actively trying to kill each other. By the end of "Sisters" she acknowledges how she has caused so much damage to her family.
• It's Personal: It's like there's a personal feud between her and Lor'Themar, since she calls him coward while Lor'Themar refers her as an exile.
• Irony: Vereesa gets a heavy dose of it in War Crimes, on more than one level. Despite her issues with the blood elves, she very nearly leaves the Alliance to join The Forsaken, who are far worse than the blood elves ever were. Though in fairness, this is in big part due to her sister's presence; she even looks forward to visiting Silvermoon again after switching sides.
• Mage Marksman: Downplayed compared to the immense Void and Death magic her sisters use, but she is shown to use arcane magic in her attacks, suggesting her to be a Spellbow.
• Mama Bear: Her ambitious evil blood elf cousin named Zendarin once tried to kidnap her two sons. He paid for it, hard.
• Ms. Vice Girl: She's probably the nicest of the Windrunner sisters, but has a major problem with Fantastic Racism.
• Never My Fault: Invoked and later Averted, she tries desperately to pin her "Assassinate Garrosh" attempt on Sylvanas but when she's exposed to be the actual mastermind behind both the plan and its failure, she accepts that had she not gotten cold feet, many lives would've been spared.
  • She is finally confronted for this in the "Sisters" short-story when Sylvanas reminds Vareesa that not only was SHE was the mastermind of the plan but she also the one who reached out to Sylvanas to help her in a scheme to murder Garrosh; and had she stuck to HER plan, the events of Warlords and Legion would never have happened and thus all the lives lost are her fault.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In War Crimes, she decides at the last moment not to poison Garrosh's food. Had she done that, she would have prevented the events of Warlords of Draenor and Legion.
• Parental Abandonment: Subverted. She very nearly left her kids behind and joined Sylvanas in the Horde, but got cold feet at the end.
• Properly Paranoid: To an extent, as Thalen Songweaver, a blood elf member of the Kirin Tor, turns out to be a Horde traitor, but it's unclear whether Aethas Sunreaver knew that when he vouched for him.
• Really 700 Years Old: Unlike with her sisters, it was never clearly stated whether Vereesa actually fought in the Troll Wars (which happened 2,800 years ago) — but she was definitely alive around then. Just maybe as a kid.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: On the receiving end from Sylvanas when she learns Vareesa told Alleria a doctored up story about their plot in War Crimes. It's so effective, Vareesa admits she is wrong and isn't brave enough to look at her faults but accepts her unreliable narration has driven her sisters to become enemies.
• Revenge: After Rhonin's death, she was driven by this.
• Satellite Character: She is based around Rhonin. In the novels she's working alongside him, then falls in love with him, marries him and bears his children. Except for a line in the Alliance's Quel'Delar questline, Veressa does nothing in the game until partway through Mists of Pandaria where she helps co-ordinate the Alliance forces on the Isle of Thunder. She's all for Purging the Sunreavers and it's strongly implied that her zeal came from the desire to avenge Rhonin's death due to the Horde's actions; it's also implied he influenced her views regarding tradition. When Veressa plans to join Sylvanas she only stops because she doesn't want to abandon her sons or stick them in the loveless Undercity); the children who Rhonin fathered. Even after his death she's still based around him. This thankfully got a little better since War Crimes onward.
• Tsundere: To Rhonin.
• Unreliable Narrator: When she reunites with Alleria on Argus, she had the displeasure of revealing that Sylvanas is a) undead, b) Warchief of the Horde, and c) their vast majority of their people are calling themselves blood elves and are also part of the Horde. We aren't told exactly what Vereesa told Alleria, but it was in no doubt told in an Alliance bias. She also tells her side of the War Crimes story to Alleria which makes her out to be a victim and completely blameless.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: A noted trait of hers.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Alleria calls out Sylvanas about "her" actions that took place during the War Crimes novel, Sylvanas absolutely tears into Vereesa for her Blatant Lies about who proposed the plan in the first place and who was the one to get cold feet.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Comes to consider a Horde Hunter this once they progress far enough into the Trueshot Lodge questline.

Auric Sunchaser

Class: Hunter

Race: High Elf

Good morning, Angels.

Captain Auric Sunchaser is leader of the Allerian Stronghold, and later the High Elf Representative in Quel'Danas.

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• Forest Ranger: A Ranger-Captain of the high elves, and left in charge of Allerian Stronghold.
• Minor Major Character: Despite his minor role in Terrokar and brief appearance in the Quel'Delar quest chain, he is one of two high elf racial leaders next to Veressa.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the Quel'Danar Quest Chain, when a blood elf player completes Quel'Delar, he congratulates them for reclaiming the blade on behalf of all the Children of Silvermoon (meaning both blood and high elves). For non-blood elf Horde and Alliance characters, when Lor'Themar tries to take Quel'Delar and is rejected, he defends them, reminding them that Quel'Delar chooses their holder and congratulates them as well.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Captain Auric has not made an appearance since Wrath, aside from a reference to him from the Auric's Angels, an Alliance team for Island Expeditions.

Magister Umbric

Class: Mage

Race: Void Elf

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker (English)

♫ Arise, ye victims of oppression; let the goblins fear your might! ♫

“We fight for the Alliance because we believe in its values. And one day I pray we will bring all of Silvermoon back into the fold.”

Umbric was a blood elf magister exiled for his Void research. Before the outbreak of the world war in Battle of Azeroth, Alleria Windrunner was searching for him in order to gain the exiles' allegiance and knowledge, and found him doing his research in Telogrus Rift, being nearly corrupted by the void ethereals, but ultimately mastering the power. He is one of the first void elves.

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• Casting a Shadow: He is one of the first blood elves to master the Void and become ren'dorei.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He wanted to harness the Void, a malevolent force capable of driving people insane through its whispers, to use it for good, and succeeded.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • He wanted to protect Quel'Thalas above all, but seeing as how his field of study was pursued by one of the greatest traitors to the elven kingdom, Dar'Khan Drathir, as well as the very nature of it being highly controversial due to it's corrupting influence, the Grand Magister of Silvermoon, Rommath, exiled him and his like-minded kin. He later joined Alleria Windrunner, a fellow exile who has mastered the Void on Argus, to fight for the Alliance.
  • He's also come to see himself and the Ren'dorei as this more generally, as despite having embraced the power of the Void, he and his followers genuinely believe they're the more sensible faction of Thalassian elves and want absolutely nothing to do with the direction the Theron regime is taking Silvermoon (that is, following Sylvanas' warmongering to the hilt). They've become something of a focus for a dissident movement in Quel'Thalas as a result.
• The Exile: His research wasn't received well by Grand Magister Rommath, and was exiled from Silvermoon.
• Hypocrite: A minor case. He's disgusted by the excess and indulgence of Gallywix's party while some of the Horde's citizens starve. Despite this, he doesn't object to the player disrupting said party by killing the underpaid waitstaff.
• I Owe You My Life: After Alleria saved him from Void corruption and brought him and the other void elves to the Alliance, he is keen on proving their worth to the Alliance.
• Meaningful Name: Umbric is derived from Umbra, the Latin word for "Shadow".
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: He had a fairly deep voice before, but after becoming ren'dorei he's downright bassy.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's appreciative of the fact that the Alliance has good reason to distrust those who wield Void magic and has resolved to deal with those concerns by being courteous and helpful and proving that they can be relied on.
• Thinking Up Portals: His shtick during the Alliance War Campaign; he frequently gives the player the ability to toss Horde assets into void portals, and can easily conjure them for quick transport.
• Undying Loyalty: Unlike the blood elves, and to a degree even the high elves, Umbric's loyalties were always towards the Alliance and he was one of the blood elves who argued for returning to them instead of joining the Horde. After his exile, he's thrilled to be able to pledge himself to the Alliance, and shows nothing but genuine loyalty and patriotism over the course of the Alliance's War Campaign.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His Void research was motivated purely to help his people defend their homeland, and was exiled for it. Nevertheless, he continues to believe that mastery over the shadows can be used for good.

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