Characters / Warcraft The Horde Suramar

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A character subpage for the WarCraft universe, including World of Warcraft. For the main character page, see here. For the Horde character page, see here.

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The Nightborne, also called shal'dorei, are a powerful and mystical race of elves, transformed from the night elves of the ancient city of Suramar on the Broken Isles, shrouded in ten thousand years of history. During Legion's invasion, Grand Magistrix Elisande intended to forge an alliance with the Burning Legion, which intended to use them as pawns in the largest demonic invasion of Azeroth yet, all to preserve their civilization. The city of Suramar served as a max-level zone for the Legion expansion of World of Warcraft.

The Dusk Lily represents a rebellion among the Nightborne, led by First Arcanist Thalyssra. The player aids and allies themselves with this rebellion, removing Elisande from power, destroying the Nightwell, and freeing the Nightborne from their addiction to magic through the Arcan'dor, a tree with Mana-bearing fruits. After goodness is returned to Suramar, Thalyssra seeks allies in the Horde, whose leadership showed her people compassion and pity, as opposed to the Alliance leadership who offered dismissal and skepticism, despite Alliance adventurers aiding in the rebellion. Suramar subsequently joins the Horde, and the Nightborne become a playable race to Horde players who have completed the questline.

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General Tropes

• Addictive Magic: Their entire race is addicted to arcane magic, the very powers that built and protected their city. This is to an even greater degree than the Blood Elves were in Burning Crusade: if they don't consume Nightwell-infused arcwine daily, they begin to degenerate into emaciated, mindless Withered within a matter of weeks. Thanks to the magical fruit of the Acan'dor, they are cured of this by the end of the Nighthold raid in Legion.
• All Crimes Are Equal: All crime in the Nightborne society, ranging from vandalism to treason, is punished by exile, cutting the exiled off from the Nightwell and Arcwine (see Fantastic Drug below). There are no known instances of an exile being repealed and the exiled Nightborne being allowed back into the city.
• Amazonian Beauty: Just like the Night Elves. Justified as technically they are the same race. Their in-game models are re-skinned, slightly slimmer Night Elves with different clothes.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: They aren't all openly racist, but the similarities are there, including obsession over physical perfection for a select few, vile experiments on prisoners, and Gestapo-like secret police patrolling the place. One resistance member goes so far as to use the term "the wrong side of history" when referring to how future generations will hopefully regard the current rulers.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Ultimately the reason the Nightborne joined the Horde. During the Suramar Insurrection, Tyrande was judgemental of the Nightborne, unfairly comparing Thalyssra to Elisande. Meanwhile, Liadrin openly empathized with the Nightborne, and took care to help the civilians in the crossfire.
• City in a Bottle: The city of Suramar itself served as this for millenia, due to the city being under a barrier for all that time in the belief that they were the last living civilization. On top of that, the Nightborne's addiction to the Nightwell's power means that they could not leave the city for any length of time before inevitably withering.
• Cosmetic Award: The Heritage transmogrification armor is unlockable for any Nightborne character that's been levelled up to 50 through normal grinding (110 prior to the Shadowlands level squish).
• Crapsaccharine World: Subverted at first, since Suramar is a beautiful city, but they couldn't leave. Played straight after Suramar allies with the Legion, since demons and their allies patrol the streets, with dissenters and criminals either being forced to starve or being sacrificed to fuel the Legion's fel magic. Even children aren't safe, as the law in Suramar is as harsh on children as it is on adults, and during the insurrection Elisande's authorities start taking people's children.
• Duel to the Death: Fitting with them joining the Horde, the Nightborne have their own variant on this trope used to settle noble disputes, although unlike with Mak'gora, the Nightborne can select a champion to represent them.
• Fantastic Drug: Moreso than the Blood Elves, mana deprivation quickly erodes their sanity; even a short time without imbibing Arcwine can lead to withdrawal in Nightborne, Nightfallen generally require full focus to maintain their state of mind when not consuming mana and the Withered are completely mindless shells.
• Fantastic Racism: Subverted. Upon finding out that they are not the only people in the world they take a disdainful view of all non-Nightborne. Despite this, there are exceptions. The Legion ordering them to kill everyone probably helped shape their view.
• Foreshadowing: Silgryn departing with the Horde to the Exodar and subsequently hanging out with Lady Liadrin in the Vindicaar foreshadows the Nightborne joining the Horde. In particular that have a conversation that speaks of allies and Silgryn asks about the Horde.
• History Repeats: There's a staggering amount of similarities between the Nightborne's initial plight and the plight of the Blood Elves in Burning Crusade. Both were proud elven races with incredibly powerful magic at their disposal, but they were also addicted to magical wells of Arcane power that kept them from withering into zombie-like husks. Both societies became oppressive Police States for a time, had leaders who cast their lot in with the Burning Legion and were later dethroned for it, and both eventually found redemption and a cure for their addictions.
  • Lampshaded, since the parallels motivate Liadrin to put her all into helping the Nightborne. In turn, the Nightborne factor these similarities into their decision to join the Horde.
• A House Divided: Several Nightborne did not agree with Elisande's decision to ally with the Burning Legion and rebelled, trying to prevent the barrier from being lowered. However, traitors quickly dismantled the effort. The rebellion became an underground movement among the Nightfallen and dissenters within Suramar that the player helps support in the story.
• Magic Eater: Without day or night to properly grow crops while shielded from the rest of the world, the Night Elves took to infusing themselves with mana from the Nightwell to survive. This mutated them into the Nightborne and also made their magic addiction far more damaging than other elves since they are being starved as well as deprived of power.
• Lean and Mean: Nightborne are slimmer than normal night elves, the males especially, and officially play an antagonist role despite there being pockets of dissent. Subverted with the Nightfallen, who are both skin-and-bones and allegedly criminals, but are more often in friendly roles, with most of their villainy coming from mana-starved Sanity Slippage.
• Mage Species: Perhaps to an even greater extent than the Blood Elves and Void Elves. The Nightborne live and breathe the pursuit of arcane, having developed their culture more closely to that of the Highborne for ten thousand years. They even have a racial bonus that grants extra magical damage and most of their other racials have a magical theme to them.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
  • Several Nightborne do not hold non-Nightborne in disdain and are courteous, respectful and non-judgmental. There are even some who, while still being bigoted, will make exceptions. A few Nightborne also actively work with the Nightfallen resistance (Vanthir and Lady Lunastre in particular), subverting Elisande and her followers from within the city itself.
  • Following their integration into the Horde, a Nightborne Engineer can be found outside the embassy who disdains her people's lack of respect for non-magical technology and feels validated by the Horde's extensive use of it.
• Mystical White Hair: Nearly all Nightborne have white hair and are inundated with arcane energy.
• Neutral No Longer: In the expansion "Battle for Azeroth", the Nightborne join the Horde.
• Our Dark Elves Are Different: They are an offshoot of the night elves that remained isolated from the rest of the world after the Sundering, and therefore never developed the night elves' wood elf traits. They're practically a full expy of Dungeons & Dragons drow, with even darker skin than the night elves and a much haughtier and deceitful society. They also have a connection to spiders, and some of their kind have been mutated into drider-like Fal'dorei as a result of Valewalker Farodin's failed attempt to grow an arcan'dor tree. The Nightborne also chose to side with the Horde rather than the Alliance, finding their night elf kin to be too pretentious.
• Remember the New Guy?: Legion retconned Suramar from being sunk under the ocean until Gul'dan raised it to have been there all along, alongside the Nightborne existing when before all Highborne had either died, defected to the Night Elves or been transformed into the Naga.
• Technicolor Magic: Most of the magic they use has a purple tint.
• Terminally Dependent Society: There was a point where the food in Suramar ran out. The solution was to convert the energy of the Nightwell into a liquid called Arcwine. Since the Arcwine is their only source of nourishment, even Nightborne children have this addiction (though they imbibe it with juice, not wine). The supply is rationed by Elisande and her advisers, and Nightborne districts of "questionable loyalty" will find their Arcwine supplies reduced or stopped, the latter being a death sentence for all in the district if prolonged for long enough. After the Nighthold raid the Nightwell is allowed to die and the citizens are freed from it by eating the fruit of the Acan'dor... if they can get some of the slow-growing fruit in time.
• Utility Party Member: As members of the Horde. The Nightborne of Suramar do know and can wield combat-based magic, but living under a barrier for 10,000 years doesn't cut teeth well. As such, their mastery of Arcane magic is more focused on utility. They're masters of Abjuration, able to erect shields and barriers with the snap of their fingers. They're very adept at fielding portals; most modern Azerothian societies use portals sparingly, they can funnel some small resource lines or use them to move a handful of individuals, but Nightborne civilians use portals regularly for convenience. They're masters of illusions, and wear illusions to parties as masks and are able to sense and dispel illusions nearby. Lastly, they're very in-tune with Azeroth's ley lines and are masters at mana manipulation. One of the many Nightborne explorers venturing into Horde lands are doing so to attempt to map Azeroth's ley lines.
• Vestigial Empire: Suramar is the last surviving pocket of Highborne culture from the original Kaldorei Empire, as other Highborne have lost their homes and either joined the modern night elves, or became high elves, blood elves, undead, satyr, or naga (with the latter two being subject to a level of influence from the Burning Legion and the Old Gods, respectively).
• Volcanic Veins: Some Nightborne with powerful magic abilities have lines of purple energy along their skin that give this effect.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Like their Night Elf cousins, male Nightborne aren't fans of shirts. Those who do wear tops usually wear ones that are elaborate strands of material that still reveal a lot of their chests and torsos.

First Arcanist Thalyssra

Class: Mage

Voiced by: Salli Saffioti (English), Nina Tobilevich (Russian)

First Arcanist Thalyssra is the leader of the nightfallen rebellion against the nightborne of Suramar, who have largely allied with the Burning Legion. She was once a close adviser of Grand Magistrix Elisande, but was betrayed by Advisor Melandrus during an attempted coup d'état was left for dead. She ended up outside Suramar and started forming the rebellion. She is later present when Gul'dan falls, and the Nightborne are freed.

She spearheads the Nightborne's efforts to join the Horde after encountering dismissal at the hands of Tyrande Whisperwind, who accused her of becoming the next Elisande or Azshara. By contrast, Lady Liadrin offered Thalyssra's people direct aid during the Rebellion, offering respect and friendship instead of dismissal. Thalyssra visited Silvermoon on Liadrin's behest, and joined the Horde proper when seeing that the Horde values independence and offered them freedom to practice their magic.

In Battle for Azeroth, Thalyssra accompanies the player, alongside Rokhan, Nathanos, and Lasan Skyhorn in an infiltration of Stormwind to free the imprisoned Zandalari ambassadors, Princess Talanji and Zul the Prophet. Her mastery in illusion and barrier magic proves instrumental in their escape, and they escape to Zuldazar successfully to help establish Horde relations with the Zandalari Empire.

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• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Thalyssra succeeds Elisande as leader of Suramar and the Nightborne after the Nighthold raid.
• Barrier Warrior: See Utility Party Member above for more details, but Thalyssra herself specializes in shields and protective barriers. She isn't as adept in combat as other modern Magi, because she's never had to fight a war. When she does need to fight, she uses simple Arcane Barrages or even wades into melee with a Mageblade, but her shielding magic is her true strength.
• Calling Card: Thalyssra used the Dusk Lily as her symbol whenever the Nightfallen Rebellion performed an act against Elisande.
• Disney Death: Thalyssra is stabbed and pushed into Suramar's canals, but she washes up outside Suramar, resolved to fight as much as she can.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Thalyssra builds and leads a revolution and regime change against Elisande and the Legion from the ground up, and Tyrande flat up implies she can become another Elisande or Azshara. Thalyssra lampshades this later, pointing out Tyrande's dismissiveness caused her to turn to the Horde after Liadrin showed her and her people respect and sympathy.
• Enemy Mine: She suggests that the Horde and Alliance work together against Azshara. When Lor'themar points out that cooperation is the exception rather the norm, she muses that both sides should simply direct their forces against Azshara rather than each other.
• Happily Married: With Lor'themar, whom she married sometime between the events of Shadowlands and Dragonflight.
• Heel Realization: She revises her contempt for the Nightfallen after becoming one herself and living among them.
• Heroic Resolve: Survived being stabbed in the back to the point that the blade came out her stomach, then falling from a tower into a canal while bleeding and washing up outside Suramar.
• I Die Free: Tells Melandrus she would rather die than live one day as a slave of the Legion.
• In the Back: Was stabbed by Melandrus when attempting to stop the magisters lowering the barrier around Suramar. She survived.
• In the Hood: She is always seen with a hooded cloak and keeps the tattered remnants as a Nightfallen.
• It's Personal: She held a personal grudge against Melandrus for his betrayal, asking the players to kill him and bring back a personal item of his.
• La Résistance: The founder and leader of the Nightfallen rebellion.
• Noodle Incident: She seems to know Tyrande and their dialogue indicates a past animosity though this is not elaborated. It is plausible considering they are similar ages and from the same city.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her attempt to defy the Burning Legion got several people killed and had her branded an exile, shunned and led to her degeneration into a Nightfallen.
• Not So Above It All: While she is open-minded and intelligent, when you go to retrieve an important artifact from her manse, Thalyssra adds that she wants you to pick up her formal robes while hoping they still fit. She also asserts that she is a master of the arcane to Valewalker Farodin when dealing with the Arcan'dor.
• Official Couple: Becomes this with Lor'themar in the short story A Moment in Verse released following the events of 8.3.
• Power Echoes: Not to the degree of Elisande, but her voice does have a resonance or flanging effect.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Is one of the most open minded among the Nightborne and Nightfallen, one example being when she chides Valtoris over her disapproval of getting outsiders to help them. It gets to the point that the rebellion want her to succeed Elisande as leader of the Nightborne, which she does after the Nighthold raid. Thalyssra also votes that they should let the Nightwell die and not use its power when the Acan'dor can cure their mana addiction.
• Reflective Eyes: Thalyssra has this as she watches the barrier around Suramar fall.
• Relationship Upgrade: She and Lor'themar get married during the three years between the end of Shadowlands and the beginning of Dragonflight.
• The Smart Guy: She fills in the magic specialist niche that the Horde had been missing from day one of World of Warcraft, generally just slotting in random quest givers to fulfill the role instead. In Battle for Azeroth, she's typically the one in charge of complex magical ceremonies and plans.
• Statuesque Stunner: Once recovered, she's an absolute stunner of a beauty; and she's noticabely tall, being moreso than her husband Lor'themar.

Arcanist Valtrois

Arcanist Valtrois is a Nightborne quest giver and assistant of Thalyssra. She has something of a haughty and proud personality. Even while semi-Withered, she retains her posture and attempts to keep her appearance up. When she is cured of her addiction by the Arcan'dor, the first thing she does is run her fingers across her cheeks, and lament that Mana is wonderful for the skin.

Don't let this fool you, however. Valtrois is very adept in Arcane arts, particularly those pertaining to Mana manipulation and ley lines. The player assists her in redirecting the ley lines into the Arcan'dor chamber. Later, after the Nightborne join the Horde in Battle for Azeroth, she serves as an agent on Zandalar, impressed by the Troll's empire but haughty as ever, and can be recruited to fight the Alliance in missions.

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• Blue Oni, Red Oni: Though intelligent, Valtrois is the haughty, outspoken red oni to Oculeth's blue.
• Break the Haughty: The first part of Valtrois' character arc can be described as this.
• Cultural Posturing: Downplayed. Despite refusing to serve the Burning Legion and (eventually) being willing to accept the aid of outsiders, Valtrois is quick to espouse the strengths of the Nightborne.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: After threatening to kill the player in their first meeting, and only putting up with the outsider because Thalyssra insists on it, Valtrois gradually warms up to the player.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Valtrois argues to keep the Nightwell functioning after the Nighthold raid so the Nightborne can keep their magical power, she still thinks using it as a source of nourishment (and controlling people through that) is too far. She also readily concedes to Thalyssra's judgement without a fight when she decides to let the Nightwell die.
• Insufferable Genius: Subverted. Valtrois proudly considers herself a master of the arcane and one of her in-game quotes is about how good help is hard to find, though she grows out of the insufferable part over time into Awesome Ego.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arrogant and aggressive early on, but she cools off on the hostility after being scolded by Thalyssra and just stays kind of condescending. She's still basically a good person.
• Master of Illusion: Valtrois shows her props in the field of illusions by masking herself and the adventurer when they have to infiltrate the prison Tol Dagor with Rexxar in order to free Lady Ashvane. However, by her own admission, she cannot mask Rexxars’ smell and so he is forced to act as a prisoner under the infiltration.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Valtrois develops this dynamic with Stellagosa while working on ley lines.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After doing her first quest, Valtrois calmly states that she will kill the adventurer while giving them a chance to say any last words. Only showing Thalyssra's Calling Card prevents Valtrois from making an attempt on the adventurer's life.

Telemancer Oculeth

Class: Mage

Before the shield around Suramar City was raised, Oculeth maintained a workshop named after him and a teleportation network around the city which fell out of use. Banished for resisting the Legion takeover of the city, his work was still vital to the Nightborne, who made an effort to loot the structures connected to his old workshop's network while Oculeth himself joined the Nightfallen Rebellion.

In Battle for Azeroth, when the Nightborne join the Horde, Oculeth serves to enhance the Horde's network of portals. Surprised that the Horde hasn't established a Bureau of Telemancy, he properly anchors the Honorbound's portal supply line to Dazar'alor and maintains them with routine maintenance.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: Oculeth tends to be easily distracted.
• Blue Oni, Red Oni: He is the contemplative, friendly blue oni to Valtrois' red.
• Cast from Hit Points: His telemancy magic is dependent on his stamina.
• Deceptive Disciple: Warpcaster Thwen, Oculeth's student, as well as a Suramar loyalist. Not only does she look down on her former teacher, but he also considers her "a terrible student."
• Friend or Foe?: In the first encounter Oculeth traps the adventurer in a teleportation trap, threatening to teleport them somewhere deadly if they don't prove they're not an enemy.
• The Lancer: Serves as this to Thalyssra.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: If you fail to show the Calling Card in time, he teleports the player hundreds of feet into the air where they fall and die. Then they have to do a corpse run, return to Oculeth and try again.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Invoked. Oculeth's teleporter network became unpopular and only Oculeth himself could fully master it. After his exile, the player helps him recover or destroy all of his equipment and stop the Nightborne serving the Burning Legion from co-opting it.
• Pet the Dog: In contrast to Valtoris, Oculeth shows no disapproval of working with the Withered and teleports them to safety (along with the player character) when the training mission gets too dangerous.
• Teleportation: He's a master of spatial magic and often looks over the portal network wherever he lives. In Battle for Azeroth, that means he can be found in Dazar'alor checking out all the portals to make sure they work properly.

Runas the Shamed

An exiled nightborne encountered by the player in Azsuna.

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• The Atoner: Seeks to atone for his attempts to drain the blue dragons of their mana.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He represents this for his whole race. Runas is the first Nightfallen player characters can meet. Depending on the player's choice of in which order to clear the Broken Isles storylines, players can learn the existence of the Nightfallen at around levels 98-100 and not hear about them again until level 110, when the Suramar storyline is unlocked.
• Fate Worse than Death: He becomes a Withered.
• Heroic Willpower: Runas does not get enough credit for this. After he realizes he gave in to his hunger for mana, he resolves not to do so again. He is able to function well enough to speak with you in a period of mana starvation. For reference, every other Withered in this situation that you speak to, including the Nightfallen faction Non Player Characters later, cannot respond, because all their willpower is being used just to not lose their minds. In fact, Runas has such willpower that even after he transforms into a Withered, which is essentially a mana zombie, he's still marked as friendly and will not attack you.
• Horror Hunger: His mana addiction possibly because he was close to becoming a Withered.
• Hypocritical Humor: Derides his fellow Nightfallen for a lack of discipline with their addiction, then immediately stops the conversation to get a nearby mana crystal.
• I Gave My Word: Says this to Senegos.
• It Has Been an Honor: Says this to the player character just before becoming Withered.
  "Thank you, my friend, for making my last few hours mean something."
• Motor Mouth: He talks a lot, to the point that it annoys Senegos.
• Pre-Insanity Reveal: In the Tyr Questline in Dragonflight, the Tyr Guard journeys into the past to reclaim the Disc from Elisande. In it Runas the Bright can be seen as a researcher working under her, a neutral figure that politely asks you not to harm the other researchers and that he senses a bond with the adventurer though he cannot explain why.
• Sarcasm Mode: While he admits that the group of Nightfallen he belongs to are in the wrong and that something must be done to stop them, he makes it clear that he's not happy about having to see his friends and family die.
• Would Hurt a Child: Implied and downplayed. He was willing to drain blue dragon whelps of their magic, but it was due to his mana addiction.

Ly'leth Lunastre

A Nighborne noblewoman and an ally of Thalyssra. She becomes an Advisor in order to keep Thalyssra and the other rebels abreast of developments in their enemy.

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• Cain and Abel: She and her younger sibling Anarys do not get along, as Ly'leth supports Thalyssra, while Anarys supports Elisande. When Anarys refuses to go along with Ly'leth's plans, Ly'leth has Anarys locked away, and has the player take her sibling's guise.
• Combat by Champion: The player serves as her champion in the duel against Coryn Stelleris, Ly'leth's rival for the position of Advisor.
• Damsel in Distress: She eventually gets caught and locked in a cage in the Nighthold. Players can release her after defeating Spellblade Aluriel.
• Master of Illusion: She helps disguise the player as Anarys to enable them to get around Suramar more easily, although many of the guards can see through it ("An illusion! What are you hiding?"). She can also provide players with a magical disguise to infiltrate the party in the Court of Stars, although accusing the wrong person of being the Legion spy can cause them to get kicked out.
• The Mole: She infiltrates Elisande's inner circle as an Advisor.
• Non-Idle Rich: While she lives fairly comfortably, she provides a great deal of assistance to Thalyssra and her allies, often at great personal risk.
• Schrödinger's Gun: Her sibling Anarys will be whichever gender your character is.

Grand Magistrix Elisande

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale (English), Lina Ivanova (Russian)

Grand Magistrix Elisande was the ruler of Suramar and as such was leader of the Nightborne elves on the Broken Isles. During the Burning Legion's third invasion of Azeroth, Elisande allied herself with them, seeing no other option. She serves as the primary antagonist for the Suramar campaign and Nighthold raid, and is killed, replaced by Thalyssra as leader.

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• Arc Villain: Of the Nightborne campaigns in Legion.
• Assassin Outclassin': She's this during the Court of Stars dungeon, where the players' goal (story-wise) is to infiltrate a formal gathering to kill her. While her henchmen act rather foolish and careless, she knows enough to see the players coming and teleports away before you reach the final room.
• Baritone of Strength: Naturally, considering her voice actor, but downplayed compared to most examples of this trope. However, she is much more dangerous than her voice is deep.
• Climax Boss: While Gul'dan is the final boss of the Nighthold raid, the fight with Elisande brings an end to the conflict in the Nightborne storyline in Legion.
• Co-Dragons: With Gul'dan for the Burning Legion.
• Cool Crown: One made of gold that has a white halo of magical energy emitting from the back.
• Deal with the Devil: See An Offer You Can't Refuse above, moreso since it's heavily implied that Gul'dan has been invested with further Fel Magic to the point that Gul'dan himself has become a demon.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After defeating Elisande, her magical echo admits that she didn't see the player characters in her visions, considers that they may be able to defeat the Legion and offers her assistance.
• Driven to Villainy: See An Offer You Can't Refuse and Scry vs. Scry below.
• Expy:
  • Her fall and serving the Legion in an attempt to save her people is similar to that of Kael'thas.
  • Her name could be a shout-out to Melisandre from A Song of Ice and Fire. Both are physically beautiful, powerful magic users trying to save their people from a coming supernatural force attempting to conquer the world by killing or corrupting everyone, though Elisande succumbed where Melisandre stayed true to her faith and morals.
  • Also, ironically given Elisande's voice actor, she has some common traits with Saren, being a powerful yet xenophobic person who allied with an ancient, corrupting, omnicidal evil to save people from extinction.
• Fallen Hero: At first she led the Highborne rebellion against Azshara and the Burning Legion separate from the one led by Malfurion and Tyrande. Ten thousand years later she's pledging her people and resources to the Burning Legion.
• Fantastic Racism: She saw non-nightborne elves as race traitors (see "Reason You Suck" Speech below) and had an even lower opinion of non-elves.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Often teleports around the room during her boss fight.
• Heel–Face Turn: When she is defeated in the Nighthold despite the odds being stacked in her favor, as an echo she realizes the mortals may actually have a chance of stopping the Legion, and so decides to help them.
• Hypocrite: For all her bravado and arrogance in her "Reason You Suck" Speech that she delivers to the combined elven forces, everything she said can trace back at herself.
  • She's willingly disgraced the Nightborne's way of life, have herself and her people submitted to the Burning Legion, reduced to a mere pawn and serve under the organization of the demons with no redeeming quality, and a goal to destroy all life.
  • Allowed some of nightborne to dismiss their elven magical prowess and sophistication, something she considers "a glorious past", and embrace the fel energies of the Burning Legion.
  • Despite her original intention to save her people from total annihilation, she had zero qualms in denying arcwine to dissenting voices, exiling them, authorizing The Purge, and granting the Legion command over her soldiers when it's very clear that the demons see her people as little more than disposable pawns.
• Irony: Despite her mastery of chronomancy, Ly'leth states that Elisande is "remarkably unpunctual". It's possible that, due to Elisande's chronomancy and the fact that she leads the nightborne, it's not due to poor organization on Elisande's part but she didn't consider punctuality worth the effort. Trying to keep Suramar under control during a rebellion and helping Gul'dan's ritual probably took up her time as well.
• Magical Guide: After Elisande is killed, an echo of her appears due to the time-travel magic she employs. This echo offers the final Pillar of Creation and provides a buff in the fight against Gul'dan before disappearing afterwards.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The attack on the Waning Crescent was meant to demoralize and cripple the rebellion against her. Not only did it end up making the resistance more determined than ever to topple her, but it also caused a good number of her own soldiers to defect to Thalyssra in horror at what she had done.
• Not So Above It All: She has a secret quarters dedicate solely for her own pleasures. See Royal Harem below.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Gul'dan's offer of allegiance was this as he claimed the choice was to bring down the protective barrier around the city, grant him access to the Nightwell and live as honored allies of the Legion; or be destroyed like the rest of Azeroth, since the barrier was bound to fall regardless.
• Power Echoes: Her voice has a slight echo to it, and she is a very powerful magic user.
• Properly Paranoid: It was later revealed that there are caverns underneath Suramar that could be used to bypass the city's shield. This means that the Legion really did have to enter the city and that Elisande likely made the right call in choosing to surrender.
• Prophetic Fallacy: Her reasons for allying with the Legion was a view of the future where they were victorious; when things start happening that she never saw in her visions (her own defeat being one of them) she starts to reconsider the accuracy.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a short but harsh one to the combined Night Elf/High Elf/Blood Elf forces about why she considered them inferior to the Nightborne. Although, it's very ironic as her entire speech is an insult backfire. See, Hypocrite above.
  "Kaldorei. You disgrace a glorious past, hiding in trees and cloaking yourselves in false piety. You have grown as savage as the trolls that skulk about your forests."
  "Quel'dorei? You are peasants playing at nobility, all to willing to mingle with lesser races that dilute your bloodline. You are unworthy of the name High Elves."
  "Sin'dorei? Of all the elves, I thought you might understand the choice I made to save my people. Instead you ally with misfits and monsters."
• Royal Harem: A gender-inverted example. The Nighthold raid reveals that Elisande's Secret Quarters houses her harem of male Nightborne paramours... and one Gnome. Interestingly, all the guards are Nightborne women.
• Save Scumming: One of her fight mechanics involves rewinding time before she gets reduced to zero health.
• Screw Destiny: She allowed the Legion into Suramar because her visions gave her no way to avoid being killed by them otherwise. Following her defeat in the Nighthold, she realizes she never saw the players in her vision, which gives her hope destiny can be averted.
• Scry vs. Scry: An implied explanation for why the adventurers never appeared in Elisande's scrying, according to her echo. According to Fanon, either the Burning Legion, the Old Gods or both were messing with Elisande's scrying. The comic "Nightborne: Twilight of Suramar" depicts Elisande's visions with a green tint, implying that the Burning Legion was responsible.
• Sequential Boss: Her health meter seems rather low for a Raid Boss, but her Save Scumming ability means you have to deplete it three times, her attacks becoming more lethal with each.
• Stripperiffic: Her raiment includes an ornate skirt with a low waistline and top the size of a sports bra.
• This Cannot Be!: Elisande's words upon being defeated in her boss fight. Uniquely, this actually rekindles some hope, as she realizes her future sight was flawed.
  Grand Magistrix Elisande It's... not possible! I... I was destined to win...
• Time Master:
  • In addition to her Save Scumming, Elisande can create bubbles that increase or decrease the speed of player characters as they pass through them, as well as her implied visions in the lore.
  • Her ability to manipulate time is further referenced in Shadowlands, where Mages can find an Anima Power in Torghast, called "Echoes of Elisande", that makes time go 30% faster^note Among other things, this affects casting speed, damage or healing over time effects, and projectile speed per stack while Time Warp is activated.
• Time Stands Still: One of Elisande's notable abilities is to stop the flow of time for all but herself, and freeze the player characters in time briefly. She uses this occasionally in her boss fight, and to trap the combined Elven army in Insurrection campaign within her time stasis bubble. Although, they don't remain frozen in time for eternity, and suffer no ill side effect, but feel disoriented upon being freed.
• Tragic Hero: Subverted. She and her people went through a lot and even thought they were the only people left in the world for thousands of years. In the end, all she wanted was her people's safety. Unlike most however, she's able to make amends for what she's done.
• Tragic Villain: She was strong-armed into serving the Burning Legion to save her people. However, she never tries to resist or help the heroes until the very end after her death.
• Villain Has a Point: The massacre at the Waning Crescent is unconscionable, but Elisande didn't crack down on it for nothing. It was a breeding ground for sedition, and the rebellion really had its genesis in the city there.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: At first she sought to resist the Burning Legion, and even now she wants to save her people.

Victoire

Captain of the Duskwatch — Duskwatch First Blade

The captain of the city watch of Suramar for thousands of years, who switches sides to the rebellion down the line after Elisande commands the slaughter of civilians. Victoire proves a valuable ally that aids in both recruiting new members for the rebellion and saving hostages.

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• The Captain: She is this for the Duskwatch, basically the police of Suramar, that takes on a military role in times of need. This continues under the new management of Thalyssra.
• Defector from Decadence: Victoire leaves Elisande’s faction when the grand magistrix orders a massacre on Nightborne civilians for maintaining relations with the rebellion.
• Double Weapon: She wields a long double-bladed glaive.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: While training the civilians that has joined the rebellion for battle against the Felborne and Elisande, Victoire thankfully averts this.
• Everyone Has Standards: Much as she served Elisande and patrolled the streets of Suramar alongside demons, Victoire leaves after innocents are slaughtered.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Played with, Victoire starts as a loyal soldier of the government and their alliance with the Legion (which she’s no fan of), but switches sides when Elisande goes too far against the uprising. Victoire has a different view on this matter though, as inferred from one of her farewell responses “My loyalties have never changed” though this can also mean that she sets the wellbeing of Suramar above her leaders’ choices.

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