400 Days in Quel'thalas 章 10
[Propaganda Translation]: "The full grace of the Sun and the Grand Magister has been fully bestowed on these two extra national duines. In the eyes of the Great Magister, they are queo'duines- destined for the great task of restoring peace and friendship with Azeroth.
Bo Quinstrider and Amy Suaren, two foreign humans from outside Azeroth, have taken great leaps through their retribution, and reformation and have earned their place in the Sun's Light. To nurture these two duines and prepare them for their destined role as diplomats, they must be educated in full on everything in Quel'thalas so that they will be better able to convince and correct the traitor Sin'dorei of the Silver Covenant during talks."
When you get your servitorship- that's citizenship for a slave, they give you a Thalassian name. Out of a perceived respect for Azerothian officials who hero'humans were to negotiate with, if we earn our way up, which Amy and I seemingly did, the reward was being allowed to use our original first names.
After the indoctrinal sessions, ceremonies and dinner parties in Silvermoon and the propaganda department making us famous, we fell into a routine of schooling and road trips. We stayed at Wymeus hotels in each city and town. In the morning, we were taught by lots of blood elves, local or a teacher assigned to be with us. In the afternoon, we were driven to any place- monuments, heritage sites, major buildings, factories, farms, production centers, natural landmarks; anything that could be shown as a key point of interest.
One of the first places they took us to was the Dead Scar.
Talah Daararon - The Dead Scar
The Dead Scar was trail of death and decay left by the Scourge, and it went all 750 miles from Lordaeron to Silvermoon. It was the path taken by Arthas as he invaded these lands.
Back then it looked from satellite view like a black scar stretching across the continent before the arco-magnetic shield covered Quel'thalas. Now, the blood elf apothecaries found out a way by using, testing and mixing blights with all sorts of microbes and chemicals and have found a way to destroy the first plague of undeath that saturated the scarred land. Anyone and anything that tried to get across was reduced to carrion in less than an hour. The apothecaries destroyed the plague and by using complex biological agents and processes, vegetation began to grow, completely hiding the Dead Scar, but the plants and animals were different to signify the scar. Even though the land is rich in plants and animals, the Blood Elves decided to keep the name the same.
Every ten miles from Silvermoon to the southern border is a monument honoring the thousands slain at each location along the Dead Scar. Restoring vegetation here is a major triumph of the Blood Elves.
[Propaganda translation]:
"Burning fervor has aided our apothecaries in developing new feats to eliminate the Plague of Undeath in the Dead Scar, and allow for the return of wildlife to the Dead Scar. No more will living things die and become carrion. This is a triumphant achievement and sings praise of Tyndistor Sin'scothar!"
Arbar medo Asme – Education is Important
Much of the schooling we had, the Blood Elves talked about their version of history of Quel'thalas, and it differs hugely from what you'll hear elsewhere in Azeroth.
In the beginning, humans of Lordaeron were a major enemy, and secretly aided the Horde, and then they created the plague of undeath and turned everything in Lordaeron and Quel'thalas into Scourge. In the 4th war, the Alliance and Silver Covenant were out to destroy the Scourge then the Horde, especially Blood Elves. Both the Horde and Alliance are seen as traitors and aggressors, and meddling imperialists, always seeking to undermine the Blood Elves.
They viewed the Forsaken as the enemy because they used to be the humans who brought forth the Scourge, and sought to destroy the Forsaken and attacked, triggering the 5th War, but they say that the Forsaken attacked first, bent on turning all the Blood Elves into undead in order to expand their own nation. They treated the end of the 5th War as a triumphant victory since the blood elves literally brought back the Royal Apothecary Society- everyone and every thing. Second, they brought back millions of undead as slaves and using them, the blood elves built the new sunwell.
In school, we sat in locked off class rooms with guards keeping us separate from the blood elf students, and here, we'd be taken on a crash course through a general curriculum of what they teach blood elf kids.
The school environment was all about uniformed confomity. All blood elves, teachers and students, wore uniforms and it was rote learning by massive memorization. So much as a failure or screw up meant brutal punishment.
Sunwell # 248, Sa'krow
[Propaganda translation]: "To ensure Quel'thalas is amply nurtured and supplied with ample amounts of arcane energy, Telkar Sin'scothar handed down to our scientists and sorcerers the ingenious idea that arcane can be produced from natural Sunlight. It is willed by the Sun that the Sin'dorei make use of his gift to provide for all the infinite source of energy. Never again would the Sin'dorei have to risk their health by drawing arcane from dangerous forms of magic!"
«We're a tour of Sunwell 248, it's a smaller facility, about the size of a typical nuclear power station. It's hardly noticeable because the actual arcane well is underground. It is connected to the big giant Sunwell to the north, and can this place can be controlled from there.»
The way the new Sunwell reactors work is that they take in compressed particles of light, or photons into a thick glowing goop called shornar, and then break photons down into smaller particles called arcons. Arcons appear as this radioactive powder that is so fine you won't feel it when you touch it. Arcons behave like photons but can be used to make magic and create mana fuel. Arcane particles act as energy, AND matter. They will flow along adamantite cables like electricity and power up homes, and machines. On the other hand, arcons, when not in motion will fall to the ground like dust, and can be piped as a liquid through a massive network of underground pipes.
Blood Elves can with stand arcane radiation which is like gamma rays x 1000. Without the proper proofing potions everyone else will get severe acute radiation sickness and die within days of exposure. Blood Elves have found a way to cure radiation sickness and after coming here, I got pretty ill, and the guides pretended not to notice, then they cured me with a heal spell that felt more like ten thousand volts surging through me. So they do let people suffer for a while.
The Blood Elves compress light particles by absorbing sunlight with these giant-ass solar panels made of magnetically powered solid-plasma material called shornar. Light particles are absorbed then sucked down into a machine that compresses photons into a dense solid form that weighs nearly a kilogram per cubic foot. Magnetic forces are used to keep this stuff packed tightly, or otherwise, it would explode and blow the whole place up. Light produces heat and you got a nuclear fireball if the magnetic containment system or whatever craps out. And this sludge of photons is piped or trucked to sunwell reactors and power plants up and down the country.
Light is pretty much a clean source of energy, and the Blood Elves could have used light alone to power the whole country, but arcane provides nearly a thousand times more energy. Arcane is renewable, and when the arcane is spent, it is sent back and recycled.
"This is absolutely amazing. While we're all plundering the environment in vain to obtain energy sources like oil or coal, these blood elves have defied the limits of physics we thought were impregnable, and they have harnessed light and turned into a major source of energy. We use light too, but only in natural form, and solar panels don't generate a lot of power from it, but here there's enough power from a single Sunwell reactor that could power all of New York city for up to five years before you'd have to pump in some more of this shorenar stuff."
The pipes and tanks holding shornar and arcane are opaque because this stuff is harmful to even look at. If you looked at a block of shornar, you would still be blasted with so much wave radiation, you'd puke, then drop dead. The magnetic forces used encase the shornar and prevent photons from getting out. We see things because photons are constantly coming into our eyes. So without seeing photons coming or going, it's neither dark or bright; you just see some form of light gray. Many people see it differently, and because the nerves have trouble registering what you're looking at you get a pretty nasty headache.
For transport, the Blood Elves have found solid ozone to make good insulation material. Using arco-magnetics, the blood elves can gather ozone molecules and compress them into a solid, rock-like substance. Arcane binds the molecules together, so the heat wouldn't blow the ozone blocks to gas. The massive containers made from arscanized ozone store the photon-sludge. To boot, a sheet of lead encases the whole thing and is covered by enchanted eternium.
Dlutfairtiochta'churi - Solidarity Enforcement
Propaganda translation: "Like a body that needs proper blood flow, the entity of the Sin'dorei need to circulate properly in local areas and across the country. Tyndistor Sin'scothar once said that all Sin'dorei need to be able to move freely between work, home, school, the markets and other great places their local area has to offer.
To make sure that travel serves best the Sin'dorei, the Eternal Magister declared to the head of national transportation that Sin'dorei must always travel together and be among friends. Never should a Sin'dorei be left to travel alone. Our Father is infinite in his wisdom from the Sun and never fails to share his gifts to the Sin'dorei."
Nowhere in Azeroth do you see public transit so regimented or controlling. Everywhere in Quel'thalas, you never see anyone driving their own crystal-hover cars. I've never seen a single blood elf walking by him or herself. They always move in groups of two or three minimum. If someone has no one to walk with, a seemingly friendly Red Guard will accompany you on the way, or others will call out and say, "Hey, come over here and walk with us before they see you!"
The basic flow of coming and going from here to there has been literally choreographed. Blood elves new to a town will stay with the groups even if it means not being able to get home, say for example if you and four others walk by your apartment block and you are more than 50 feet from the door, you don't go home, you stay with the group. Blood elves jump from group to group, and its almost like having to jump floating rocks that keep moving until it is safe enough to jump onto a solid platform.
For them, its almost automatic. While we were in school in Tranquillian City, our guides took us on walking tours around the city, and we would be watching the blood elves as they walked by. This one woman was on her way home from work. Her home was right in front of a bus stop. She walks with another woman and the two split apart. So this blood elf proceeds to enter the door of the building when three more come out. Then she sees a blood knight or a paladin walking by and gets spooked. The others snap at her and she quickly joins them to shake off the attention of the stern-faced paladin, so she got on the bus with them and it took off.
There's this policy that one isn't supposed to be on his own and left to his own thoughts. The state religion dictates that if you're on your own long enough, your own thoughts will destroy you, and to keep everyone safe from themselves, they are always kept together, and their brains are constantly being bombarded with conversation, group mentality, and all that.
The group has a higher authority over a single blood elf, and by law, that lone blood elf must join the group and engage in conversation and stick with them. He or she would have to negotiate a path that goes by his house so he can get home. Blood elves native to a local area have this down pat, while new ones have to integrate in this collective swirling group mentality.
The reason for this solidarity enforcement is easy to figure out. It is to suppress individuality and free independent thought. Blood Elves are very intelligent, and even if fully brainwashed, can still think objectively if something strikes them as not right or ususal.
And those who break off from a group at the wrong time or walk on their own, they are quickly arrested and taken away. It's kind of sad if you think about it, because while everyone seems to be all together and friends and all that, each blood elf could be more lost and lonely than anyone else.
To be allowed to walk on your own for a set time and distance is a hard-to-get privilege. Unofficially, most blood elves can walk as much as 20 feet or 15 seconds before the guards move in and chase them back to the group. Based on class, job, family, you have to negotiate a license to walk on your own, even if you're a friggin' mail carrier, you have to be walking with another blood elf as you deliver the mail.
When you live at home, sometimes the state forces you to live with a roomate, pending where you are. In other places we've been to, we heard from local SDFC members that if you were to live on your own, you would end up in a state sanctioned arranged (forced) marriage with no right to refuse. If you got relocated, the people in the next town would ususally pick a wife or a husband for you and by law you had to accept.
"The National Tracks"
The transit system in Quel'thalas is huge, it's beyond huge, as it's the only way blood elves can get anywhere, most of the traffic on the streets and highways will be buses. The system of bus routes is class based, and each route, and even the models of buses are reserved for designated classes. Same goes for the subway trains, rail cars and trolleys. Because you have to stay in groups, the rapid transit system is dangerous. At certain bus loops or subway stations, blood elves who got on the wrong bus will encounter the guards who demand from them a permit for traveling however far. On top of that you got the zealots and paladins, warriors, death knights, blood nights, secret police, rogues all watching you the whole way.
The Blood Elves plainly named the nationwide transit system the 'National Tracks,' whatever that means in Thalassian. It is considered another great and glorius feature of Quel'thalas.
An Evening at Orillian's Apartment, Tranquillien City
We spent an evening in the apartment of an SDFC member named Orillian who personally owned Tavi as his slaves.
During the visit, Orillian was also visited by a government official who came to lecture his son and daughter, and they came in and sat the kids down and showed them a video on the arcane TV about how to walk around in groups outside.
The apartment block was 90 floors up, he lived on the 74th floor. The apartments of middle class blood elves are plain. Even though they have the money for consumer goods, guards, inquisitors, loyalty ensurance officials come to the home to make sure the person in question hasn't stocked up on material goods. For example you can't have too many ornaments, or decorations. Wall decorations are all up to a the city government's Residential Moderator Group, they come in, and decorate your apartment the way they want. You don't even own the place you live at, instead, it is owned by a local branch of the state. You live there because the housing group or whoever put you there.
You work at least 10 hours a day wherever, then you gotta find your way home through what I called the group march, and as soon as you get home, 20 blood elf officials come knocking on your door and barge in to inspect your place; to see if you've kept it clean, kept the pictures of the Sin'scothar dynasty clean, eaten all your rations, prayed, and so on. They come in, check the cupboards and sink, making sure Orillian and his kids didn't stash any more food than a jar of weird looking trail mix, at the same time the three of them were being grilled on the spot whether they're were being pious enough. They go through all your belongings and if they're satisfied, they leave. If not you're in for a beating or even execution.
Then of course, he had to explain to them why there were humans in the apartment and show them the papers and prove he was the owner of the two Tavi's in here and that Amy and I were the SDFC's prodigies. The officials almost got explosive over seeing us in here, because it is blasphemy for an extra-national human to be in the very "private" home of a Sin'dorei. Orillian had to fast talk his way out of getting beaten by the guards.
After the inspectors all left, Orillian could finally sit and relax, and I sensed the weariness, not just from what had happened but all the bullshit he's had to deal with.
Orillian: «You get used to this, then you really become weary. The average Sin'dorei will work ten hours a day, and then come home to this ruthless inspection on a near-daily basis. But we must persevere, for the authorities are guided by the Sun…»
That last part was a lie. Orillian only said it to save his own ass for when the video footage was viewed later.
Meals on Wheels…sort of.
"Working class Sin'dorei must concentrate the majority of their energy on the daily task at hand for the good of the nation. After work, they will go to the bufisanzo and dine on a delicious and nutritious meal that will nourish and energize them for the next day."
When I was a house servant, it was for an upper class family who brought food home from the markets. Working class blood elves- that means blue collar- have no right to go out and buy their own food. Instead rations are served on a daily basis, usually at work or elsewhere.
Tranquillian is a massive heavy industrial city, and the government controls all food supplies that come in from the farmlands. The authorities control every aspect of a worker's diet. They decide what you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and for low-working class blood elves, it's just dinner.
Most meals a blood elf worker eats in Tranquillian are at this place called the bufisanzo, or giant cafeteria. Workers will go from work to one of the huge bath houses where they can clean and swim a set circuit, and then after passing an inspection by the bath house's staff, they can go to the bufisanzo place and are served a set meal. You go in, show them your class gem, and they give you the designated food. Everyone eats here at least three times a week, even upper class blood elves who could be served their food at work but the state forces them to eat with the lowbies. Humans, tavi, slaves or prodigies are not segregated. To prevent discontent, we were given straight up black blood tofu, but it was diluted into a paste with water. I almost cried when I had to eat that shit gain.
Before eating, the blood elf workers all had to sing a hymn in unison with a priest and say grace before digging into the chow. And they got people walking around the whole place making sure every single man and woman is eating everything on their plate.
«Ugh…I think this food just burned a hole in my stomach…oh geez, I don't feel so good…Praise Sin'scothar…hwugh!» *Bo pukes, the other human slaves quickly scoop the vomit off the floor and eat it before a blood elf supervisor shows up. The nearby Tavi's who had been conditioned to be silent and say nothing.*
ᝌ