Be sure to check out my previous posts on the effect of the Highborne, The Highborne Empire and The eternal war of Trolls and Elves.

Now, I was thinking earlier today, and I had an interesting thought. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble putting it into words, so I'll add that in later in the post when my thoughts are more coherent. But first, some history.

10,000 years ago, the Well of Eternity imploded. The lands around the Well were destroyed, and water surged out of the well to replace it. For those who were unawares, the Well of Eternity was and still is (in a round about way) the source of all Arcane on Azeroth. Now, similar to the water that a Mage can conjure in the modern day, I believe that this water was heavily saturated with Arcane, and by extension, Mana.

Now, what does this mean? Well, imagine the following; Humanity in real life gets a crazy idea. We create a type of salt that is invisible to the naked eye and can fly. We then salt the Atlantic Ocean to such degrees that it's unhealthy for anything inside. Now, give this salt 10,000 years. Of course, it's going to spread. However, given how it can merge with water, as we previously saw, how much of it will stay with water? I believe that, while some hangs in the air, the majority of Arcane has stayed in the water and has infected nearly all, if not all, water in Azeroth. For my evidence, I'll point to various in-game occurrences.

First occurrence! As we all know, if you want to regenerate mana quickly outside of a fight, the most common form is drinking. Almost anything will go for drinking, from beer to milk. However, there's something important to be seen here. One of Mage's more infamous spells is being able to conjure food and beverages. Indeed, all that they can conjure is water. From one of the first spells they learn to the Wrath of the Lich King, all the drink that they can conjure is pure, simple water. Variations of it, sure, but it is merely water.

Second occurrence! This little spell was a spell that perked my interest very early on. How could a mage control an elemental? Well, the answer (at least to me) is simple. The Arcane from the Well of Eternity infected water so well that it even, over the course of 10,000 years, infected the soul of water. The very elementals of water had Arcane slowly and unknowingly pumped into them. This, of course, would allow the magicians to control the very essence that made the Water Elementals, allowing easy control over the Elementals.

Third occurrence! The Throne of the Tides is a dungeon in which the players protect Neptulon, elemental lord of Water. Eventually, however, he's stolen away by Ozumat, king of the Kraken, who is in service of the Naga/Highborne Queen/Causer of the Sundering/Ruler of the Oceans Azshara. Now, Azshara is someone who knows their way around arcane. She'd like to keep the Naga's natural habitat as arcane-laden as possible. During the instance mentioned above, Neptulon yells about cleansing the water. Of what? (Psst, it's Arcane).

Anyways, so after a whole bunch of conjecture, I arrived at the following; After the destruction of the Well of Eternity, the waters of Azeroth were infused with Arcane. Even the Water Elementals fell to this. The Naga would prefer to keep it this way, while Neptulon would not. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to poke holes in my idea.

... So... we'll soon be seeing these? (Assuming Arcane works like radiation where it has "corrupted" people before (actually a Radiation Mage sounds like a good idea (I need to RP one of them (does radiation even exist in WoW?)))

That would have happened a while back, Nymus. The water's been this way for 10,000 years.

Now that I think about it, though, you could easily make a conspiracy theorist who thinks that the mana is the government's way of brain controlling them.

Not bad, buuuuut-

1: I'm more privvy to Neptulon's cleansing being that of the Old God's influence (given the kraken is an old god servant).

2: Mages control/summon elementals to binding spells in the bracers I thought; also summoning/controlling other elementals are possible, just rarely done.


My thoughts anyway!

1) That's a good point, Cappn. It's further pushed by the fact that the kraken seems to spill out the influence. However, why would Neptulon, who is a servant of the Old Gods, be scared of them?

2) That's also a good point. However, all in-game items that named Bracers of Binding are worn on Earth Elementals, but it's not a stretch to say it would go for all, considering how the Water Elementals do have bracers on their model. So, I think the purpose of the bracers is two-fold for Water Elementals; one, to provide a shape for otherwise what would be water to adhere to and two, to bind them. However, the bracers bit doesn't explain how they would be summoned.

Neptulon is in fact not a servant of the old gods, only Ragnaros and that... airguy are. 2lazy4wowpedia

FlyingSquirrel Wrote:However, all in-game items that named Bracers of Binding are worn on Earth Elementals, but it's not a stretch to say it would go for all, considering how the Water Elementals do have bracers on their model.

AAAAAAACTUALLY. There is a quest in Stranglethorn that sends you to slay Water Elementals and collect what they drop, their bracers. If you read the actual quest, there is speakings about intent to analyze these bracers for magic content, which could (logically) mean that Water Elemental Bracers are indeed the source of magical binding.

(hooray for playing blizzlikes and remembering quests)

(12-09-2013, 06:28 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Not bad, buuuuut-

1: I'm more privvy to Neptulon's cleansing being that of the Old God's influence (given the kraken is an old god servant).

2: Mages control/summon elementals to binding spells in the bracers I thought; also summoning/controlling other elementals are possible, just rarely done.


My thoughts anyway!

To support the idea with some shaky but interesting tidbits from WC1:

Quote:These creatures are made of the magical essence of water. Once created, they are loyal servants, and will unerringly do the bidding of their masters. Should they escape the control of their master, they become free creatures to do as they will. They are excellent fighters and will defend those whom they serve to the death.

Quote:The creation of a simulacrum of the elements of fire. While these servants can be constructed and controlled by powerful mages, many have proved too difficult to hold in the summoner’s power. Should they escape their creator these creatures rage uncontrollably, determined to destroy all those who are like the one that imprisoned them in this domain.

A lot of in-game stuff shows that fire elementals are inherently rough and tumble, and much harder to handle both as a shaman and as a mage. From what I've seen, water elementals being 'corrupted' or 'upset' ingame is far more common than fire elementals, so it could stand to reason that they've been diluted.

If anything, it's a really cool theory to start ICly.

(12-09-2013, 07:21 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Neptulon is in fact not a servant of the old gods, only Ragnaros and that... airguy are. 2lazy4wowpedia

I know that he worked for the Old Gods back when the Titans showed up. However, since then, I am unsure.

As for @Valicor, I just looked up Bracers Binding on WoWhead and it only showed me things for Earth Elementals. That's interesting, though. Thanks!

Lastly, @Maulbane, that's actually exactly what I was looking for. However, the quote that you gave on water elementals does say 'The Magical Essence'. There's still just enough squeeze room to go with what I got through. The arcane in the water likely has no part in the control, but there is still likely Arcane in the water.

(12-09-2013, 07:40 PM)FlyingSquirrel Wrote:

(12-09-2013, 07:21 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Neptulon is in fact not a servant of the old gods, only Ragnaros and that... airguy are. 2lazy4wowpedia

I know that he worked for the Old Gods back when the Titans showed up. However, since then, I am unsure.

To help clarify this (as I've actually profiled a CMC water elemental!), only two lieutenants still serve the Old Gods actively - Al'akir and Ragnaros. Neptulon is pretty strongly aligned with mortals (actively fighting faceless ones and naga, both of which have ties with the old gods) during Cata and Therazane is more just tentatively doing her own thing (but friendly enough to give quests and not attack players)

Something to consider is that elementals are NOT element spirits; so creating them from magic should be possible.

(12-09-2013, 08:30 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Something to consider is that elementals are NOT element spirits; so creating them from magic should be possible.

The portrayal of 'elements', 'spirits', 'elemental spirits' is ultra-vague, but my understanding is that while Old God aligned elementals are separate from elemental spirits, they're both antithetical to arcane - alien junk from the Titans. Elemental spirits are assumedly the 'pure' state of Azeroth's world prior to the Titans, but the Elementals are also chaotic bastards and share a lot with the more nebulous spirits - like being able to speak Kalimag.

The best theory I can gather is that all the Elemental Lieutenants used to be purely natural elemental spirits, but when the Old Gods came they aligned themselves with them - taking a large amount of otherwise normal elementals with them and making them more 'chaotic', but still representing the world's elements in the same way as the ordinary ones.

If that's true, I figure you would be able to shackle elementals of either kind with arcane methods, but not actually summon them - I imagine mage elementals aren't actually elementals, more of a construct. If they are, they definitely wouldn't have been summoned, as that's the work of shamans if anything - I think ICly it'd involve actually finding a water elemental and shackling it (which ties into the idea of chaos vs order that the Old Gods and Titans have going), but you can't really represent that in-game without pissing a lot of players off.

... Yeah.

How does one get bracers on water or fire, though? Or wind? Hell, how does one get bracers on anything -but- earth?

(12-10-2013, 05:24 AM)FlyingSquirrel Wrote: How does one get bracers on water or fire, though? Or wind? Hell, how does one get bracers on anything -but- earth?

Magically enchanted bracers. Creativity is nice to have, really.

How do they physically attach to the elementals you mean? They just do. It's magic :V