Saturday, December 2, 2017

The Draenei, the Lightforged, and the Krokul

One of the allied races joining the Alliance in Battle for Azeroth (or possibly a lot sooner) is the Lightforged Draenei. We first encountered these guys as part of the Army of the Light, a force that had been fighting against the Legion since its conquest of Argus.

The history of the Lightforged is a little ambiguous. They are called Draenei, which is the Eredar word for "exiled ones." In the case of Velen's followers, that makes perfect sense - they left Argus on the Genedar and wandered the cosmos for 25,000 years, always hoping they could return home but developing a new culture based around the worship of the Light and reverence for the Naaru.

Velen was the main skeptic of Sargeras' offer, and he was unable to convince his fellow Triumvirs, Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, to reject it. It was Velen who led the dissenters to flee the planet as the other Eredar began transforming into demons. The dissenting Eredar appear to have split into three groups:

The Draenei as we have known them since Burning Crusade have the most complete history - they fled from planet to planet, pulling up stakes when the Legion found them, and finally settled on Draenor after the Genedar crashed, where they attempted to make an honest go of it until the Orcs, manipulated by Kil'jaeden, turned on them, committing genocide and driving the few remaining Draenei into hiding until they were able to escape Outland on the Exodar and join the Alliance.

However, two groups remained on Argus.

One group was the Darkfallen Krokul, led by Chieftain Hatuun. Hatunn had been loyal to Velen and volunteered to face down Kil'jaeden in order to buy the soon-to-be Draenei time to escape. We don't really know what happened to him and his followers, but they seem to have been rendered Broken (Krokul being the Eredar word for Broken) much as the defenders of Shattrath would be during the war against the nascent Horde in Outland. The Broken on Outland seemed to be cursed by some kind of Void or Blood (is Blood magic a type of Death magic, like necromancy?) magic (whatever Sethe is tied to) the same way that the Arrakoa Outcasts were. How such a curse fell upon the Darkfallen of Argus remains a mystery, but these people waged a guerrilla campaign against the Legion from their hidden bases in Krokuun.

The people we have the least clear backstory on are the Lightforged, which is interesting, given that they are going to be a playable race pretty soon.

One possibility is that the Lightforged truly are Draenei who followed Velen off of Argus, but perhaps on one of the many planets they were forced to flee, they might have gotten separated, only to be rescued by X'era, who offered to purify them as Lightforged, and then they might have traveled back to Argus on the Xenedar.

Alternatively, not everyone might have made it aboard the Genedar when Velen led his followers off of Argus (we know Hatuun didn't make it,) and while some would become the Darkfallen, others may have been rescued by X'era.

It seems the Army of the Light worked with the Darkfallen to fight the Legion - it is Turalyon who calms down Hatuun after we arrive in Krokul Hovel with Velen. But how exactly their two factions cooperated is also ambiguous.

One thing that's pretty interesting about seeing the Lightforged join the Alliance is their relationship with the regular Draenei. The Draenei culture is largely defined by its faith in the Light. But while they are a pious people, they're still ultimately a group of (naturally long-lived) mortal people. There's variation in their religiosity, and even Velen appears to have (or at least be developing) a more nuanced view of the cosmos and the Light.

The Lightforged are different. They are literally infused with the Light, to the extent that even non-harmful Shadow magic can potentially kill them. Alleria nearly killed her husband Turalyon (the only Lightforged Human) when she used Void magic to help them escape the Legion.

With X'era dead, the Lightforged are going to have to come up with their own path to walk, but they are in a state where adherence isn't merely a philosophical choice, but rather a physiological fact.

The other really interesting thing is that the Alliance will be getting both the Lightforged Draenei and the Void Elves at the same time. The Lightforged are going to be fighting alongside people who are as infused with Shadow as they are with Light. That's got to be weird, and has the potential to create some real tension within the Alliance.

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