Suddenly, the tragedy of the Blood Elves was drawn into sharp focus, and we began to understand the hardship these people had endured. Such a once-proud people brought to their knees by the machinations of the Burning Legion.
The poetically tragic theme of the Blood Elf lands continued as we ventured farther south to Fairbreeze Village. There, we learned the measures the Blood Elves were forced to take in order to block the advance of the undead Scourge of the Burning Legion. The Blood Elves, once in-tune with nature's harmony, had been forced to burn the Ghostlands to the south of Eversong Woods, destroying the lush forests that had previously been a valued chunk of their domain.
Oh, but it gets worse... one of the quest-givers in Fairbreeze Village had a particularly grim quest for us that we still haven't finished yet. Following the destruction of the forest, the animated tree elementals known as Treants began to rebuild the scorched lands. Sadly, the Blood Elves could not allow the forest to return as it would allow the undead to continue their assault on Eversong Woods.
They tried to explain this to the single-minded Treants tending to the repair of the forest, but the elementals diligently continued their attempt to rejuvenate the area. Caught between their kinship and the security of their homeland, the Blood Elves charged us with slaughtering the Treants that were once their allies - a task so bitter that we simply couldn't bring ourselves to finish it.
As with most of the Horde races, the more time you spend with the Blood Elves, the more you learn of the tragedy that has shaped them into the cold and vengeful individuals they've become. They are not evil, as the Alliance might have you believe, but rather their civilization has been brutally damaged and the scars of this injury are evident all across their lands and in the hearts of their citizens.
We would see this new storyline (based predominantly on tragedy) become a general theme for The Burning Crusade. From the broken Exodar of the Draenei to the defiled Silvermoon City of the Blood Elves, countless tales of woe assailed us with each new quest, and things only got worse when we traveled to Outland... but that's a topic for tomorrow's article.
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