At the start of last week's patch, Revelations, we are treated to one particular revelation about the haranir, elves, and trolls of Azeroth. Gathered together by Elder Hagar, the elf and troll leaders all bear witness to one of the Haranir's vision stones showing them the history of the haranir, and how elves and trolls all descend from the same ancestral haranir as the ones we met in Harandar.
Generations upon generations ago, we haranir stalked the forests of the world above, until we heard the call of our goddess.
Seeking her warmth some left the forest behind, vanishing deep within the sacred hollows of the world.
But many haranir remained above.
And over time, they changed, splintering apart as millennia passed, giving rise to mighty empires and terrible wars, fought by those who had forgotten they had ever been one people at all.
But here we are, together -- Elves, Trolls, and Haranir. We are all the descendants of one lineage. We are, in essence, one people, and now we can be so once again.
What We Knew Prior
While the characters present in the questline have massive reactions, ranging from shock to disbelief to anger, a significant question asked by many players after this cinematic was... didn't we already know this?
The concept of evolutionary ties between elves and trolls is not new -- in fact, it dates all the way back to vanilla WoW. On the original WoW site, Blizzard published a number of articles in the 'Troll Compendium', including a section speculating on the theory that night elves originally evolved from trolls that were transformed by the power of the original Well of Eternity. It is posited as a common theory that is hated by night elves for connecting them to a race they conquered, and loved by trolls for how it delegitimizes their elven rivals.
Little is known about the night elves' precise origins, for their race was formed so long ago that no hard evidence has surfaced to prove or invalidate this theory. All that is known for certain is that a tribe of nocturnal humanoids came to live on the shores of the first Well of Eternity, and the Well's cosmic energies changed them into the night elves we know today.
Certainly many trolls do believe that the humanoids who developed into the night elf race were trolls. The theory does have some credibility, for there is at least a superficial physical resemblance between trolls and night elves. Furthermore, the troll race dominated much of ancient Kalimdor--the only continent on Azeroth before the Great Sundering--long before the night elves came into power.
Nevertheless, many night elves find this theory preposterous and abhorrent. They are quick to point out that the first night elves began their rise to power by defeating a number of nearby troll tribes. As a consequence, the trolls came to fear and respect the might of their new rivals. The troll theory of night elf ancestry may have been a direct result of this early conflict. The trolls hated the night elves--a sentiment that persists to this day--and may have wished to marginalize the night elf race and its accomplishments. Also, attributing the night elf race with a troll heritage likely helped the trolls come to terms with their own shocking defeat.
Without additional data, there is little point in debating the merits of this controversial theory. No doubt it will remain a matter of contention for years to come.
While the theory popped up very early in WoW's history, it remained just that: a theory. It wasn't until 2011 that we were given a more direct confirmation of the connection between elves and trolls, thanks to Brann Bronzebeard. In the second volume of World of Warcraft: The Magazine, Brann discusses how he confirmed the relationship between dark trolls and night elves from characters like Freya and Cenarius. He points out that such confirmation would be certain to ruffle some feathers, and he was certainly proven correct fifteen years later.
Taking it even further beyond Brann's in-universe confirmation, we received an even more direct confirmation of this relationship in the first volume of the Chronicle series. There, they detailed the full history of the trolls, from their origins as accelerated life around the Well of Eternity, to their splintering into various tribes, to the confirmation of established knowledge that night elves grew from dark trolls who re-settled around the Well.
Before their war with the aqir, the troll tribes claimed large swaths of Kalimdor. Many of these groups, such as the Gurubashi and the Amani, clashed with each other over hunting grounds and territory. Yet one tribe was unconcerned with these battles for land and power. Known as dark trolls, they lived in a network of deep caverns that stretched beneath Mount Hyjal. They abhorred daylight, only emerging from their underground burrows at night. The dark trolls’ nocturnal habits changed them over time, turning their blue-hued skin into shades of gray.
The dark trolls cherished their independence from greater troll society, and they largely ignored the activities of other tribes. Unlike their Gurubashi and Amani cousins, they longed for a peaceful connection to the natural world. Dark troll mystics often sought ways to commune with the land and live in harmony with it. Many of these trolls gradually migrated toward the center of Kalimdor. They explored the labyrinthine groves at the heart of the continent, crossing paths with the elusive faerie dragons, chimaeras, and dryads. In time, the dark trolls also discovered an enormous lake of scintillating energies, a lake they would later know as the Well of Eternity.
Mesmerized by their discovery, the dark trolls settled along the Well of Eternity’s shores. Over generations, the energies radiating from the lake suffused the trolls’ flesh and bones, elevating their forms to match their graceful spirits. They transformed into highly intelligent and virtually immortal beings. These former trolls gradually abandoned their ancient heritage and traditions. The tribe’s mystics began worshipping the moon goddess, Elune, who they believed was bound to the Well of Eternity itself. They claimed that the deity slumbered within the fount’s depths during daylight hours.
The former trolls also discovered the name “Kalimdor” and other titan-forged words from communing with Elune and investigating strange artifacts scattered around the Well’s periphery. Influenced by this newfound language, they called themselves kaldorei—“children of the stars”—or night elves.
Chronicle's accuracy as a fully canon encyclopedia of Warcraft knowledge has been called into question in recent years, but at the time of publishing it was considered a definitively canon "top-down view" of Warcraft's timeline back in 2016, putting this as a very well known fact for the last decade.
What the Characters Knew Prior
While all of this lore may have been known by players, that information might not be as easily accessible to characters in-universe. The mere existence of the Haranir was entirely unknown prior to The War Within, despite their apparently massive impact on the history of Azeroth. What, then, was known in-universe about the relationship between trolls and elves prior?
As early as Alterac Valley, contention between elves and trolls over their shared heritage was well known. In a quest from one of the night elves in the zone, Alliance players are given the task of slaying trolls for their claims of being the night elves' predecessors. This order came from one of their two leaders at the time, Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, making it likely that the theory was quite widespread even back then.
Staghelm has given the order. All trolls on the field of battle must be exterminated. Their preposterous claims of birthing night elves must be met with force and due prejudice.
Slay them and return to me with their mojo. To reiterate: I want you to steal their mojo.
The Horde likewise has a similar quest from the Darkspear in the zone, tasking players will killing night elves as retribution for Staghelm's attempts to erase what they saw as established history.
<Najak snarls.>
Before the night elves existed there was troll. It was from troll that the night elves came.
Their mutinous attacks against my people will not be tolerated. Staghelm seeks to wipe us out - to leave no trace of those that bore him and his ilk. It will not happen!
For every night elf that you slay and decapitate, Najak will grant you favor amongst the Darkspear. Word of your deeds will be spread across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Go now and serve the Darkspear!
In one of vanilla WoW's later patches, even more in-universe speculation on this theory was added in the form of a lore book titled The Twin Empires. While much of this book's information is somewhat outdated with current knowledge, its place as an in-universe book makes it clear that from a troll perspective, they already held to the theory that some trolls eventually became night elves.
With the insectoids driven into exile, the twin troll empires returned to business as usual. Despite their great victory, neither civilization expanded much farther than their original boundaries. However, ancient texts speak of a small faction of trolls that broke off from the Amani Empire and founded their own colony in the heart of the dark continent.
There, these brave pioneers discovered the cosmic Well of Eternity which transformed them into beings of immense power. Some legends suggest that these adventurous trolls were the first night elves, though this theory has never been proven.
In more recent times, the concept of night elves coming from trolls also came up during Suramar, where tensions between the respective elf factions of the Horde and Alliance led to mockery and insult in place of violence. While the night elves mocked the blood elves' mana addiction, the blood elves in turn mocked the night elves being descended from trolls (a bit hypocritically, perhaps) by placing tiki masks and troll statues that said "Your Ancestors".
Legion also added a grey vendor robe that drops from characters on the Broken Isles, with a description indicating that it comes from a group between trolls and night elves that held the beliefs of both groups. While individual characters may not strictly know about this item, the fact that it drops from random enemies suggests that its description is not intended as an obscured piece of information.
With all that in mind, it is fairly clear that the idea of an ancestral connection between trolls and elves was fairly well known in-universe, which leads to the big question: what is the reveal even supposed to be?
Three Possible Paths of Evolution
Taking all that previous knowledge into account, the question of where the Haranir precisely fit into the timeline of troll-elf evolution still remains. Based on previous lore, information from Midnight, and the story presented by Elder Hagar in 12.0.7, there are three potential places that the Haranir fit in the evolutionary tree:
1. Haranir are a step before Trolls to Elves
This theory is perhaps the most simple place for the Haranir to fit, as it does not change any pre-established lore. In this version, Haranir would simply have been the lifeform that existed before trolls. This fits with the idea from Midnight leveling that the Haranir existed prior to the Titans arriving on Azeroth, and the idea from Chronicle that living around the Well of Eternity is what transformed the life forms who stayed on the surface into trolls.
However, the cinematic presents a very specific visual and description from Hagar, discussing how the Haranir were the ancestral group that splintered into elves and trolls, represented visually by two groups of haranir separately evolving into elves and trolls respectively. Which leads us to...
2. Haranir are a Divergent Common Ancestor
This is the theory that is most directly supported by the vision given by Elder Hagar. In the visuals, we are shown Haranir as the true ancestors to the night elves and blood elves, rather than trolls, making the three races a divergent evolution from one common Haranir ancestor.
While this is what is most directly presented, it obviously causes a great number of issues. The direct linear relationship between elves and trolls is clearly established as an in-universe and canon concept, and making the Haranir the direct ancestors of elves instead would fly in the face of that.
3. Haranir are descended from Dark Trolls
This was the theory that many held prior to 12.0.7, simply by looking at the Haranir and their backstory. From a visual perspective, the Haranir are essentially a 50/50 mix of night elf and troll characteristics, with the tusks and ears of a troll, but the skin tone and digits of a night elf. Likewise, their origins atop Mount Hyjal match up with the modern day location of the dark troll tribes, making it easy to surmise that they were split between those who traveled to the Well of Eternity and those who traveled underground.
This does present a few problems however, notably that the Haranir visions present the Haranir as existing before both elves and trolls. They were present in Hyjal as far back as the arrival of the Titans to Azeroth, and their relationship to the trolls would be indirect at best, rather than the idea of being the original ancestors as Elder Hagar describes.
Are the Haranir Actually Correct?
To answer the question of which of these possible paths might be the truth, the question to ask first is: are the Haranir 100% correct?
After the confusion expressed over the cinematic reveal, developer comments have since clarified that players are not necessarily supposed to take what Elder Hagar says as entirely accurate to Azeroth's history. In truth, the idea that the Haranir are a progenitor to the elves and trolls may simply be their interpretation of the information gleaned from their paintings and legends. While they might look back at the ancestors that predated all of their races to be Haranir, they could have still been trolls in reality, or an entirely separate race.
What we've been told in game may muddy those waters, however. In the weekly Legends of the Haranir quests, one of their relics allows us to recall the original creation of the paint used to create their murals. According to this quest, the haranir used Alndust, the magical remnants of Azeroth held within the Rift of Aln, to infuse their paint with magic that could recall not just the memories of the painter, but the memories of their ancestry, the objects around them, and even the land itself. Through this practice, they were able to recall events that no living person had ever witnessed, and record them in a way that prevented inaccurate depiction or generational decay.
In 12.0.7, though, Orweyna mentions in the patch that while their paintings cannot lie, they can contain inaccuracies or omit certain pieces of information, meaning the previously established accuracy of the Zur'ashar paintings might no longer be as ironclad as their stories made it seem. Ultimately, Blizzard may have intended the Haranir's reveal to not be a reveal at all, but merely their own interpretation -- which may make one wonder why the patch makes such a big deal of it all in the first place.
Did Everyone Get Amnesia?
Regardless of which theory is true, or how accurate the Haranir's beliefs are to reality, the story being told still has one main question: didn't we already know this?
For a character like Zul'jan, it is easy to surmise that he was unaware of popular literature given his upbringing in a hostile, isolated nation like Zul'Aman. For characters like Lor'themar or Vereesa, however, their lack of knowledge becomes more puzzling. Both are highly educated, worldly leaders, the latter of whom was directly present for the taunting between elves in Suramar. Characters like Talanji even directly cite Zandalar's archival knowledge of the dark trolls, making it likely that she was aware of these theories.
Despite this, the characters all react as if they are being introduced to the mere idea of an ancestral relationship between trolls and elves for the first time. While it is possible that all of these scholarly, well-rounded world leaders might have all coincidentally never heard about this one specific theory about their own people, it certainly stretches belief.
In all likelihood, it seems like the existence and prominence of this concept was lessened or removed for the sake of making the dramatic reveal of this storyline possible -- because ultimately, it is about the drama that ensues.
Does This Reveal Even Matter?
While the moments following the reveal have all manner of reactions from the gathered elf and troll leaders, there is one unanimous thought among them all: this doesn't change anything.
Regardless of how long the idea of elf-troll relations has been around, hostilities between elves and trolls have existed since the birth of their very first empires. From the conflict between Azshara and Zandalar, to the Troll Wars, to the still ongoing hostilities between Blood Elves and Amani, the true relationship between elves in trolls is defined by their conflict, not their ancestry -- and the gathered leaders all seem to agree on that.
Characters like Lor'themar and Vereesa are equally adamant that their hatred for the Amani has not changed, and even sympathetic characters like Liadrin question what the Haranir think this reveal would have accomplished. This is fairly in line with how the Haranir have been portrayed in Midnight: isolated and naive, if perhaps well meaning, and not truly knowing the impact of their actions on the world beyond Harandar. The reactions to Hagar's words have certainly reinforced that idea, but it remains to be seen if their negative reaction will cause the Haranir to rethink their approach to the world beyond, or their own history.
Additionally, this reveal serves as the impetus for Zul'jan's story arc, whose disbelief in this relationship leads Orweyna to show him ancient Amani history. That information sets him on the path we see him take in patch 12.0.7, as well as the upcoming story in patch 12.1. Perhaps more than any individual backstory details, this is the primary reason this reveal matters -- to stir up the drama that leads to the next stages of the Worldsoul Saga.
Ultimately, the reveal about the Haranir has certainly had mixed reception, both by the characters in-game and by the WoW community. For better or worse, it has certainly re-introduced a massive amount of ambiguity and discussion about previously well-established lore, and we will have to wait and see if that discussion leads to any new approaches to lore delivery going forward.
