While the focus has firmly been on patch 12.1 and the PTR, live WoW dropped a big lore bomb. This week’s 12.0.7 reset brought a change in how we see elves and trolls, as well as Azeroth herself!
The new Haranir-centric cinematic has the elves and trolls arrive to Harandar and find out something big about themselves. For decades now we all thought elves were descended from trolls, who were thought to be among Azeroth’s first races. Well, this week we found out that’s just part of the story. The haranir, elves, and trolls, as it turns out, are actually the same race, the haranir themselves! This is what Lor’thermar and Zul’jan find out in the cinematic below, as explained by Hagar. They started out on the surface, but the current day haranir went underground when they heard Azeroth’s call. Those left on the surface eventually evolved into today’s elves and trolls.
Athelarius’ video below covers the initial cinematic, but also goes into the “stay a while and listen” sections in the area after it. The last part of the video isn’t directly connected to this revelation, as it goes into the Ula’tek part of the patch and Zul’jan’s story.
This also means Azeroth herself might look like a haranir if/when she is “born”. But, we’ll probably have to wait at least until The Last Titan to find that out.
