LAST NIGHT
It's our final night in Quel'thalas. Dr. Olsan works late into the night as he closes in on his goal of 5000 surgeries. The team of Blood Elves who he has mentored this month are ready to carry on his work and educate others in their respective hometowns. We have been moved from Inle to work in Starlight City, working tirelessly to grant more and more Blood Elves their vision. At 2am, the guards order us to stop and be returned to our host families.
We have learned to speak a bit of Thalassian, and for the most part have gotten through over 30 nights with unfriendly Blood Elf families.
Olsan:"These Blood Elves have two eyes, two ears, a mouth. They're just like you, me and like taurens, like night elves, like humans, like dwarves, gnomes and so on, they are still people who need our love, especially when coldly neglected by their own brethren."
Olsan strongly believes in goodwill engagement, and wants to help people, regardless of race. He believes that is a virtue that will truely bring Azeroth together. After granting undead slaves vision with lens replacement, he applies his same feelings for the undead as well.
"They are forced to exist long past their point of passing, and like the rest of us they deserve the same treatment as the living. I think that's one thing their leader, Banshee Queen Syvannas Windrunner has been trying to achieve for so long now. As for Blood Elves, it doesn't matter their politics are what they are, they still need the support of others."
After finishing a procedure on a blood elf child, he picks her up and places her next to his other recovering patients.
"She's going to have a future now. Her family should want to take her back now."
The next day, we will see the latest batch of results. Olsan has trained us all very well, with only few patients requiring further surgery. These Blood Elves will remove the bandages and cloths wrapped around their heads and see for the first time in years.
How they see the world is different from how we see it.
At the healing center, the patients are waiting for Dr. Olsan to remove their bandages. He has achieved his goal of operating on more than 5000 patients here in Quel'thalas.
Dr. Olsan is optimistic. As soon as bandages are removed, the patients should be able to see clearly. Our minders warn us to film only fully the pictures of the Sin'Scothar family hanging on the walls.
The first is an 18 year old Blood Elf girl. She had been blind for six years. Rather than be turned over to the guards to be killed, her father and mother have kept her hidden away in their house and fed.
Olsan (Thalassian) "Allright, open your eyes, try to reach out and touch my nose."
the blood elf does so, with a smile on her face.
"Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"
"four."
"Where's your father?"
"Dad?"
"Sarath! Can you see me?"
"Yes! I can see very well! It's because of the Grand Magister! We should bow to the Grand Magister for this. Thank you, Grand MAgister!"
"WE PRAISE YOU!"
"WE PRAISE YOU!"
For Olsan, all he is shown for appreciation for his work are quick nods. Ecstatic over their ability to see, the Blood Elves gather around the portrait of the Sin'scothar family and bow and praise the tyrant family, as if they, like gods and godesses, cured their blindness. Others clap for them as they do so. As more and more Blood Elves open their eyes to see, the first thing they do is pay tribute to the Grand Magister.
As I watch these Blood Elves say and do pretty much the same thing over and over and over and over again, I wondered, which Blood Elves were praising Tel'kar Sin'scothar out of genuine faith, and which of them were acting out of fear. And finally it came to me. Here, after generations of absolute rule and complete indoctrination there is probably no difference of true belief and true fear.
Blood Elf (Thalassian) "I praise you, Lord Sin'scothar, and I will grab my old staff, and I will kill everyone of the human enemies I see in your name!"
Blood Elf (Thalassian) "Because you brought us light and your greatness, I swear that I'll serve you and be faithful for generations to come! Great MAgister Tel'kar Sin'scothar! WE PRAISE YOU!"
Now it is time to leave Quel'thalas, and rather than only be relived to go back to Dalaran, we are moved by what we have seen here. In the time we have spent in Quel'thalas, we have learned that we now understand even less about the Blood Elf kingdom than before.
We are forced to split apart for an hour to see our billet families for the last time. While we have hardly understood what they said to us other than simple commands, I''m sure my billet mother told me to take what lessons I learned home and apply them well. Not that I knew for sure that's what she said, but I could sense it.
It's not until we arrive in Dalaran and go through a long 'exit' meeting with the Sunreavers that we finally turn in our visitor robes for our own clothes and reciever our belongings and travel documents. Just before letting us leave the Sunreavers Sanctum, we are forced to bow to a picture of the Grand Magister one last time out of respect for the blood elf kingdom.
We catch odd looks from others who see a bunch of humans whose hair is still in Blood Elf styles. I look forward to having my hair returned to normal and cleansed of the lotions that give it its arcane smell. We are told that after living a month in Quel'thalas, we will be smelling like blood elves for a week or two and advised to stay in the city until it goes away.
The future looks uncertain but steady for the moment. Despite the armies that have massed at the border at Thalassian Pass, both governments of the Forsaken and Sin'dorei have focused on other issues and become less hostile. The Alliance and Horde leaders have even suggested a slowl mutual standown at the border to prevent an all out war, but that remains to be seen.
Eventually, Blood Elves may have to reshape their country in the future to create a safe long lasting nation, as no one else will do it for them. Hope is given to blood elf exiles who live scattered throughout Azeroth, who many one day in the future rise to challenge the tyranny of the Sin'scothar regime.
Quel'thalas is a place ruled by an absolute dictator who now posesses weapons of mass destruction. It's no longer possible to look at the kingdom as an isolated anomaly. What happens here in the Blood Elf kingdom can directly touch everyone else in Azeroth.
