User:Minionman/Blood Elf military

The modern day blood elf military combines old high elf fighting styles with newer techniques developed during the war against the scourge. Like all elements of blood elf society, magic is quite important. Blood Elf soldiers are also very well trained and equipped, to make the most use of their small amount of soldiers.

Rangers
In the past, the High Elves were known for their rangers, and these skilled scouts, archers, and hit and run fighters have been maintained to the current day. the regent lord of Quel;thalas is a former ranger, as is the forsaken leader Sylvanas. The rangers today are led by Halduron Brightwing.

Rangers today serve the same functions they did before the scourge invasion. When battle is not occurring, the rangers act as scouts, they have keen senses, can move quickly and quietly through forests, or other rough terrain. In battle, the rangers either perform hit and run attacks, or stand with a large blood elf army and act either as regular archers or snipers. Rangers tend to wear little armor, mostly leather or cloth clothing, and carry few supplies.

In current day blood elf society, Rangers and Mages are often at odds politically. Rangers represent an "older", safer way of doing things, while mages represent a newer, more powerful future. Since most of blood elf society consists of magic users of some form, rangers are often held under suspicion, and can have difficulty interacting in Silvermoon or some of the more peaceful towns. In combat, most other types of soldiers prefer to keep the rangers around, their combat abilities complement other types of Blood elf soldiers well.

Most modern day rangers have been so since the scourge wars. Many hid in the Quel'thalas forests after the successful invasion, or had traveled to human lands to assist fighters there. New rangers are trained in much the same way as in the past, though the process is much sped up. Blood Elves who will become rangers are taught archery, trained physically to give them the endurance, motor skills, and strength to perform their roles, and taught to move quietly and quickly through different types of terrain. Ranger trainees practice for around 16 hours a day. One difference between current day and older ranger training has modern day rangers travelling with healers to actually fight against wretched, trolls, weaker scourge fighters, or some other enemy. This gives the rangers an experience of combat, as well as further practice of their skills.

Rangers today still use the same style of bows, arrows, and light armor used in the past, but all current day equipment is magically enchanted. Many of the bows and clothing are made in the undercity as well. Ranger clothing is often enchanted to make it harder, or quieter, bows are often enchanted for accuracy and/or power. Wrettchedness among rangers is extremely rare. Their low use of magic, physical fitness, and contact with nature reduce the effects of their magical addition as well as preventing wretchedness.

Spellbreakers
Bloof elf spellbreakers first appeared in the in Dalaran as human resistance attempted to conquer it back from the undead. The alliance fighting style at the time had a number of weakness and holes that demanded some sort of new magical fighter to fill. Against undead swarms, mages like Kael'thas could unleash powerful area effect spells, but the spells were difficult to use without the mages hitting their own forces. The undead and demons in Dalaran used magic quite heavily to hamper and interfere with human fighters, and the healers who otherwise would dispel such magic had their hands full simply keeping the limited number of fighters alive. The undead also made heavy use of summoned skeletons, and demons had left large numbers of summoned spawns in Dalaran, and these summoned creatures also hampered human forces and took time and soldiers better used to fight the scourge.

New equipment and magical techniques were experimented with the handle these problems, until an Elven mage from Dalaran taught some High Elf swordsmen some basic techniques ot harmlessly absorb and move spells. These swordsmen used these techniques, plus some new quipment, to make themselves highly resistant to damaging spells, and allow them to move enchantments from being to being, both removing undead curses and stealing their own benificial spells. These enchantment removal techniques were improved over time, and soon the new "spellbreakers" had learned to control summoned creatures and dissipate magical energy itself. The Elves proved much quicker to learn these techniques, their addiction had made them much more sensitive to magic than other races.

Spellbreakers today have changed somewhat from the original Dalaran fighters. Spellbreakers originally fought with thrown glaives, and were used mainly for their magical abilities. Modern day spellbreakers are much more important for their physical fighting abilities, and use mainly swords and javelins as weapons, since these weapons are easier to produce and learn to use. They still learn techniques, though, to move enchantments, be resistant to damaging magic, and to damage and dissipate the energy of enemy spellcasters.

Spellbreakers are quite costly to equip and train, and many Blood elves have questioned their worth from time to time, especially as the rest of the horde provides plenty of physical fighters and and magic functions could presumably be performed by mages. However the usefulness of these versatile warriors have been shown in battle after battle.

Equipment
Current day Quel'thalas spellbreakers are almost completely equipped with zeppelin equipment. To be able to perform their wide variety of roles, spellbreakers carry a large assortment of equipment.


 * A set of strong Leather or metal Armor (Including a helmet)
 * A melee weapon, most commonly a sword, but occasionally axes or spears are used.
 * A set of javelins (Usually kept at about 10-12 per spellbreaker)
 * A shield
 * A magical orb.

The spellbreakers switch between metal and leather armor depending on the type of battle they will be fighting. When fighting in wilderness areas, or in other hit and run fighting, Leather armor is used to avoid making too much noise. The other equipment is used in different combinations depending on the enemy the spellbreaker is fighting. Against most physical fighters, spellbreakers in the front lines will use their shield, and either throw javelins or fight with their sword depending on how close the enemy is. When attacking magic users directly, spellbreakers will hold their orb and either a javelin or sword, using the orb to enchant the weapon with special abilities. Spellbreakers controlling summoned creatures or moving enchantments will usually use their orb and shield, the orb for its magic, the shield to defend themselves.

Spellbreaker equipment is usually enchanted for lightness, to help ease the burden of carrying it all. Spellbreaker armor is in addition enchanted for magical resistance, and to dissipate magic much faster than normal. This armor will not protect spellbreakers by itself, but does help them absorb dangerous magic that comes their way.

Silvermoon usually wear red clothing, and carry glaives, as ceremonial clothing. Outside the cities, most spellbreakers were more greenish, brownish, and/or grayish clothing for camouflage.

Training
Spellbreakers from Dalaran learned many of their skills in battle, the constant fighting against the scourge provided and the training, physical exercise, and other skills needed. Once Quel'thalas was settled, however, the Elves faced the problem of training new soldiers in a large array of skills, while also preparing their bodies physically and magically for the role they would take in combat. A training method was developed, but it is very intense and time consuming, and even among elves is controversial.

Physical training comes first. Volunteers must be able to carry armor and equipment for long periods of time, go without sleep for a few days if necessary, and be strong enough to fight for long periods of time if necessary. Spellbreaker volunteers are trained quite intensely, within 1-2 weeks, they are usually carrying full loads of equipment, and about a month or two afterwards, are expected to be able to keep up physically with veterans. The blood Elves use potions and magic to relieve pain and heal volunteers, allowing them to exercise for far longer than normal. Sleep is rare during this period, bleary eyed volunteers, awake for up to 3 days at a time, are often seen in forests near Silvermoon.

When spellbreakers are judged physically ready, they are allowed a long period of sleep to refresh their minds, than sent to train with weapons and magic. During this time, spellbreakers also are prepared mentally for both fighting ability, and control their magical addiction and avoid becoming wretched. This training usually takes around 2 months, lasting about 17-18 hours a day, with about 1-2 hours left for eating and a small amount of social activities, and the rest mainly for sleeping. Weapon and magic training is still quite physically intense, during almost every hour of training time, the spellbreakers carry a full equipment load.

So called "tactical" training takes place along with the final section of weapon training. Here, spellbreakers learn about the different formations and fighting styles they will be using. furing this time, they fight in real fights, against spellbreaker veterans, or captured ghouls and trolls. Healers are used to ensure that spellbreakers do not die during these fights. When this training is done, the spellbreakers are considered full combatants, and officially join the Quel;thalas military.

Unlike what other nations might do, Quel'thalas Elvesd do not kick out volunteers who do not perform up to expected standards. They simply keep training the volunteers for as long as necessary to prepare them to become full spellbreakers. However, the social pressure to succeed is tremendous, and pay may be increased or decreased as well to encourage success in training.

When not engaged in combat, spellbreakers continue to train, even fighting against each other for practice if no other enemies are available.

Mages
As might be expected from such a magically based society, the blood elves make heavy use of mages in combat. Mages serve many functions, from healing, to slowing enemy forces, to killing. Elven mages used to be known as more subtle users of magic, but in recent years blood elf mages have opted for more power in some battles. These mages are overseen by Magister Romnath, who can from outland after Quel'thalas was reconquered.

The blood Elves use two main groups of mages in combat. All blood elf magical workers (Which includes most blood elves in general) are required to learn and practice a set of 4 to 5 battle spells, usually an area damage spell, a single target spell, a slowing spell, and some method of escape and/or shielding. While these spells are not as powerful as those of a full time battle mage, and these "militia mages" cannot keep casting as long without tiring, they are still effective in battle. If the blood elves expect a large fight, they will bring several magical workers along, and these workers would defend Silvermoon if it were to come under attack.

The other group of Blood elf mages, known as "blood mages" to the outside world, but simply as "battle mages" within blood elf society, practice full time with war spells. Blood elf healers are also considered "battle mages". Individual battle mages are capable of using a wide variety of spells, but usually specialize in a smaller amount.

In hit and run fighting, mages usually stick to slowing abilities, dispells, and other such abilities, to avoid making too much noise and light, and attracting more enemies to a fight. In more open fights, especially those against the scourge, mages will unleash their most damaging abilities, often onto enemies held still by spellbreakers.

The most well known spell used by Blood elf mages is the flamestrike. Invented by Kael'thas, the flamestrike calls down a large pillar of fire onto a wide area, burning anything in the area. flamestrikes in forested or grassy areas are followed by an arcane explosion, to put out any remaining fires that might expand out of control, this followup explosion will also often blow apart undead beings or machinery weakened by the initial flamestrike. Unleashed by militia mages, it is an effective spell against enemy groups, unleashed at full power by a battle mage, it is one of the most awe inspiring sights in Azeroth, and can burn away and known down trees, turn creatures caught in the center to char and ash, and boil away small ponds or snowdrifts.

Healer mages tend ot use similar techniques to those they used before the scouyrge war, those most healers can cast more spells before becoming tired, and use a wider variety of non-healing spells learned from the other mages.

"Unusual" magics (Demons, the Holy Light)
Magister Romnath recommended using demonic magic to satisfy the blood Elve's magical addition and provide them with more powerful spells, but demonic magic has not taken among the elves as much as expected. The Elves have discovered that the new types of magic that that demons offered did not do anything that their own magic couldn't do, Some blood Elves do practice demonic magic, and are occasionally taken into battle, but they most practice in magically insulted areas to avoid attracting the burning legion or other demons to Quel'thalas.

When the magister returned, he brought along a captured Naaru, M'uru. The Quel'thalas Elves had no idea what M'uru was (or even whether it was a creature, machine, elemental, or something else.), but knew that it was a powerful source of Holy Light magic. M'uru himself was kept in an insulated magical area, but his power was used by Blood elf volunteers to become blood knights, copies of the Paladins of the Dwarves, Humans, and Draenei. These paladins train their physical abilities along spellbreakers, their healing abilities alongside other healers, and learn techniques of their own, based off memories of fighting alongside human paladins, or found through experimentation. In small groups, blood Knights fight alongside spellbreakers, in larger battles, the blood knights usually defend the sides of their barmy from attacks, and heal, or use other spells, as needed.

Arcane Guardians
These machines were created soon after Magister Romnath's arrival, with the expectation that the mindless golems would replace other elves in physical fighting. These creations are tough against both magic and physical attacks, highly damaging, using several spells or physical attacks, and can operate continuously for several months without sleep or food, needing only occasional maintenance and a source of energy.

Unfortunately, the Elves have never figured out a way to give these machines much intelligence, making them almost useless in the hit and run battles commonly fought by the elves. They are mainly used to guard blood elf outposts, where this disadvantage does not matter, and are often allowed to be slow and loud, as these disadvantages do not matter as much for guarding outposts, and allow the guardians to be built more quickly and cheaply.

Outland elves
The blood elves in outland do not have as organized a military as those on Azeroth. They have also focused less on training their physical fighters, and more on their magical abilities, which were greatly increased by access to nether and demonic energy. These elves are also much more willing to enslave demons, and use the demons for physical work.

Unfortunately for the outland elves, they matched up poorly against the azerothian spellbreakers when fighting started between the two groups. The outland magic was mostly useless against the azerothian spellbreakers, and the azerothian spellbreakers' greater fighting experience in azeroth left them much more skilled than the outland elves at physical fighting.