For the Horde version, you quest with an orc from Ashenvale instead, who is fittingly much more aggressive and understanding of the spiritual customs

Haranir allied race intro time, here be spoilers. I'm going to start with the Alliance version, then see if there's anything notable to make it worth doing as Horde as well beyond the final quests.

Starting to do various side questlines now, starting with... the Teldrassil side quest in Harandar. I kind of expected this one way or another after seeing those roots lol, but I wonder if any difference in Horde vs Alliance will come up here.

It's really wild that this talent for Sunfury just happened to be tuned better in TWW, so now the hero spec is forever stuck with this goofy looking orb set-up that doesn't even match the Blood Mage fantasy lol

A question that's lingering in my mind now that I've finished Harandar's main story... what about Elun'ahir? We first met the Haranir near these massive roots that don't come from any World Tree, and the massive roots of Harandar had to come from *somewhere* before Nordrassil.

A really heartfelt Stay Awhile with Liadrin in the new Gardens of Remembrance in Silvermoon, getting mention of both Vandellor and Galell! I'm *really* glad that Liadrin, at least, still has a very clear impact from her story in TBC with this crisis of faith she's going through.

There's a book signed with the initials of Dar'khan Drathir in Windrunner Village, showing that he was planning the creation of Deatholme for a while before Arthas. It does make a mistake though, Deatholme was built upon the blighted roots of Thas'alah, not in a random clearing.

Chapter 3 of Harandar now, heading back to Eversong indeed! Here be spoilers, back at the Lightbloom near where the Amani cut one of the Lightwood trees down. Also I forgot to show the cool rootways animation for their portals the first time.

Halduron has quite the tiny bow in Midnight lmao

Seems like the Arcantina is only testable one story at at time now, so we'll start with the first one with Danath and Kurdran. The idea of "lets play a prank on Kurdran" and then immediate cut to the Path of Glory is so hilariously jarring lol

I hadn't even noticed this on the alpha, there's a lore book near the East Sanctum from Apprentice Mirveda, the mage who tried to cleanse the Dead Scar back in TBC. It details the years of work she did after our questing, and how she kickstarted healing the Dead Scar over time.

This tablet is interesting, is it implying that the Haranir were around *before* the Ordering of Azeroth, or just that the Titanforged told them about it after the fact? I feel like the whole Haranir/Troll/Night Elf timeline could use a much clearer answer at some point lol

Harandar chapter 2 now, getting to the stuff I'm very interested in seeing with the Rift of Aln. Here be spoilers, starting with exploring the haranir hub (which I'm surprised we didn't do in Zul'Aman)

Crazy to me that there's not a single piece of gear in the Quel'thalas expansion that matches the Blood Elf heritage set

I'm so excited to play a night elf shaman in Midnight 😍

These Horde catapults from Warbringers: Sylvanas truly are the strongest entities on Azeroth, because how the hell did they burn down an island-sized tree halfway across a continent so thoroughly that it's *still* smoldering 😭

Final zone testing, Harandar chapter 1 here we go. Here be spoilers, jumping right back to Orweyna now joined by Halduron!

This line has been edited (not in voice-over though) to no longer imply that the Sons of Lothar are on equal footing with the Dark Horde, at least lol

This has been fixed! Eitrigg's dialogue is now in line with his backstory from Chronicle, where he left after the battle at Blackrock and fled into the wilderness. It's a small thing, a quest text error like this, but I'm glad to see it listened to and corrected anyways.

Koltira and Thassarian are also here! So they have 6 people at least haha

I finally have my actual character to do a comparison of talents at level 80 on live vs Midnight beta. Rotational changes for Survival aren't even that bad anymore, the real hit I'm feeling is just how much utility Hunter as a whole is losing 😭

Forsaken seeing the Night Elves experience their core racial fantasy getting replaced by a more marketable neutral group in the newest expansion:

The Tempest Keep weapons in the intro questline got updated with descriptions and man, they REALLY want us to know how much the blood elves hate Kael'thas now lmao

Anduin, my love... there's a time and place for casual reading lmao

New Jaina art by Bayard Wu spotted, you can't escape me

A bunch of the generic Vanguard of the Light NPCs got new outfits this build, and amidst them is... what *might* be a gnome paladin? Please don't bait me like this, Blizz.

Outfit update #2, Delas now has one of the night elf polearm glaives instead of her hammer from Legion

The unlock questline for Void Elf Demon Hunters is finally functional! Here be spoilers, jumping right into Leona meeting up with Allari! I love that she's the mentor for Devourers.

Transmog is unavailable on the beta so I'm stuck looking like this for a while lmao

Haranir have committed the ultimate theft from Night Elves: their special jump animation.

Haranir testing works!

why

'Knaifu' is officially canon lol

The datamined night elf warglaives are being added to the trading post in Midnight!

Well, the new loading screen for Midnight is certainly thematic for the expansion. I wonder why they're so against using actual game locations for these Worldsoul Saga ones, though. Silvermoon/the Sunwell seems like it'd be a no-brainer easy win.

It's a shame that Wildfire Imbuement is locked behind such a bad talent in the new Survival tree, because it looks SO cool in action. I genuinely wish this was the main talent instead lol, weapon coating is such a neat fantasy for Survival to play with.

Alpha servers down for a full day

I only recognized the name because I reread some of the chapters last week, Jirri from the Sylvanas novel is one of the guests at Saltheril's Haven! Minor character overall, but I always love when they do deep-cuts for book characters.

Another interim questline between zone campaigns, this one about Umbric and the Sunwell Seems like they're going *very* hard on Lor'themar being the pragmatic leader in Midnight (except when it comes to Amani lol)

i love them sm

Shoutout to Zul'jarra for ushering in a new era of twink acceptance in the Amani Tribe.

Voice acting for this Stay Awhile, because Zul'jan's voice work is phenomenal. Definitely feels like a really clear set-up for 12.1 and the datamined Atal'Utek zone/raid.

Okay, Zul'Aman part 3 beginning with the dungeon. I'm so glad that Midnight has been properly integrating dungeons into the main story beyond just the intro one. Here be spoilers, heading into the Den of Nalorakk.

Here's a more comprehensive set of Zul'jarra's poke lines, featuring Liadrin lol

This poke line from Zul'jarra lmao

The view of the Eastern Kingdoms is also pretty crazy from here.

For the sake of having slightly less egregiously long threads, I'm going to split these zone playthroughs up into each chapter now haha, so here's Zul'Aman chapter 2. Here be spoilers, and now we're meeting the full cast of the zone it seems.

Okay, finally doing my Zul'Aman playthrough, first with my blood elf to see if any unique dialogue comes up. Here be spoilers, starting right where Eversong left off at the gates to original Zul'Aman.

Zul'jan also got voice acting this build! I love how contemptuous he sounds, but here's hoping he's not treated the same way Nathanos was lol