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This is a plea to all you lore hermits, lore philosophers, gods and demigods, and also lore peasants, peons wisps and acolytes, who pass this thread by.
I used to think Elune was a subject of faith and belief more than facts. She was the moon goddess sure but there were really no active interventions by her part, she might have existed physically or not. The theoretical goddess sat well with me.
At this point the divine interventions that qualify Elune as a factual deity and a significant physical power can be listed in dozens. Elune is there, whatever she is.
I have until now failed, however, to determine clearly what Elune is then. Swimming in the sea of theories and opinions, I'm frustratingly tempted to dub the following description as the most true:
Please you lore lord that reads this. Help this case out and shed some light on what can be concluded by the offizial sources on the nature and origin of Elune to date.
__________________
A brief TL;DR resumee of the thread is that nothing definite has been officially published about the nature of Elune. Most crazy theories are allowed at this point. There exist however some facts presented by the authors during the story. Some theories are more compatible with these facts than others.
__________________
A brief collection of some proven facts:
__________________
Some theories with pros and cons:
__________________
A relevant internal post that unfortunately doesn't answer my question but might be useful to read: Theory: Elune, Ysera and Tyrande.
I used to think Elune was a subject of faith and belief more than facts. She was the moon goddess sure but there were really no active interventions by her part, she might have existed physically or not. The theoretical goddess sat well with me.
At this point the divine interventions that qualify Elune as a factual deity and a significant physical power can be listed in dozens. Elune is there, whatever she is.
I have until now failed, however, to determine clearly what Elune is then. Swimming in the sea of theories and opinions, I'm frustratingly tempted to dub the following description as the most true:
Elune is a mass of inconsistent retcons worshipped by the night trolls. Err, night elves. Gotta have hotties in bikini for the sales.
Please you lore lord that reads this. Help this case out and shed some light on what can be concluded by the offizial sources on the nature and origin of Elune to date.
__________________
A brief TL;DR resumee of the thread is that nothing definite has been officially published about the nature of Elune. Most crazy theories are allowed at this point. There exist however some facts presented by the authors during the story. Some theories are more compatible with these facts than others.
__________________
A brief collection of some proven facts:
- Elune is there from the beginning. She was present during the ordering of Azeroth.
- Elune is not listed as a member of the pantheon. Nothing says explicitly that she is one of the titans and pantheon members lists are well known by this date.
- Elune is not listed along the old elemental lords Ragnaros&co, (nor among the old gods).
- Keeper Freya the titan-forged created life, the "wild gods" and the emerald dream during the ordering, not Elune. This seems explicitly stated.
- Elune is not listed among the wild gods.
- The pantheon created the pillars of creation and bestowed them on the chiefs of the titan-forged. Curiously the artifact that is named after her is introduced before any other mention has ever been made of her.
- Elune is not made up, and is powerful beyond your average titan-forged keeper (archaedas is crouched, crying in a corner). She bubbles Tyrande from orbit when she's in distress during the wota: not even the supposedly OP demons can make something about it. She picks up the colossal mass of dead/dying Ysera and creates a constellation with the shape of the dragon in space without even giving sign of breaking a sweat.
- Elune's powers, even though presented as linked to the night, moon and stars as opposed to the sun and the day, seem to be working during the day no problems in the few instances when she actually intervenes.
Some theories with pros and cons:
Elune is close to the Naaru. A Naaru herself, mom of the naaru, big sis of the naaru... What have you.
- Morally speaking there is a loose proximity between the entities, as both are good-aligned divine things, that have something to do with light and can heal stuff.
- Khadgar's and Velen's opinion support this theory.
- Some of the powers of Elune are more linked to the shadow of the night than light of some sort.
- Elune has moral sides that don't suit Naaru. She is presented as warlike at times and responsible of pretty aggressive magics that are supposedly based on moon- and starlight. Naaru are generally more Gandhi. / She has a clear sexual identity as female, and also displays dubious sexual tastes (at least from the point of view of a western culture), whereas the Naaru are portrayed as asexuate and seem not interested in sex at all.
Elune is a titan, specifically the spirit inside of the moon, similar to the way blizzard-narrator describes planets to have collective souls that are in truth titan eggs.
- Consistent with most of what is known of her.
- Her not having a form similar to the other titans, and not appearing among the pantheon members seems a little off.
- A slight explanation is missing as to why she is conscious at the time of Azeroth's discovery (while other titan eggs/planets, most notably azeroth, don't seem to have that kind of consciousness), and how she takes part into the ordering of Azeroth (the pillar "Tears of Elune" bears her name). Furthermore, if she's the moon and a titan-in-an-egg, and even cooperated with the Pantheon to order the planet she is orbiting, it is indeed strange that the pantheon didn't bother terraforming her too not even a little bit.
- If she is the moon it's not immediately clear how she displays her power over stars and constellations.
- If elune is the moon, the other smaller moon needs further explanation. (let's be honest here it's clear as day that it's a cnp from prototypical fantasy worlds.)
Elune is a constellar, a cosmic starry subtitan thing similar to the character briefly appearing into the WoW lore, Algalon.
- Consistent with most of what is known of her. Especially:
- she being present during the ordering of azeroth, having clear connections to the Pantheon (the Tears of Elune being one of the pillars of creation), while at the same time not being listed as one of the titans nor as one of the titan-forged they created.
- Plausible explanation for her powers being connected to stars and constellations and not to the moon exclusively.
- However, Algalon and Elune are clearly and vastly different in aim, scope and extent of their powers. It's not immediately understandable why they can be considered similar.
Elune is a loa/wild god.
- Based on the WoW item: Crumbling Ceremonial Vestments - Wowpedia - Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft that says that the pattern on the vestments can be similar to both Loa/Wild Gods and Elune cult design.
- Elune supposedly mates with sacred divine animals.
- However, Elune is mentioned before the creation of the wild gods. And she does't appear in the available lists of wild gods. This makes unlikely that she is one.
Elune is an old god. Maybe another reference to Y'Shaarj (or however that's written)
- Cause yeah why not she could be deceiving everyone and be the evilest baddest evil ever. We're waiting on that fifth old god to be revealed anyway.
- Theories like this fit almost any powerful character indistinctly.
- Inconsistent with the named pillar of creation, with her reported moral alignment, and with what is known of her powers.
A relevant internal post that unfortunately doesn't answer my question but might be useful to read: Theory: Elune, Ysera and Tyrande.
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