After the War of the Ancients, the new night elf civilization banished those responsible for the Legion’s invasion. For their part, the highborne (as they were now called) did not hesitate to leave their brethren behind in search of a new home where they could practice their magic without persecution or restraint. The highborne soon arrived on the shores of what would eventually become Lordaeron. At first the elves settled in what would become the Tirisfal Glades but after a few years many of them started to go mad. Because of this, the elves decided to leave, speculating that something evil slept under this part of the world. They then travelled through the heavily forested lands of north eastern Lordaeron until they discovered a powerful ley configuration. However, the Amani Empire was heavily settled in the area and refused the elves entrance into their lands; the elves responded by attacking them with their arcane magic. Thwarted for the time being, the Amani pulled back to their capital city.

The elves soon constructed the magical Sunwell, whose scintillating waters were the very same as that of the Well of Eternity. From the sunwell, the highborne drew their magical powers. The highborne elves renamed themselves the Quel’dorei (or “high elves”), and the civilization they established was called Quel’Thalas.

When the Amani trolls recovered enough to attack the high elves, they found them to be too well entrenched in their newly claimed lands. Thus, the Amani and the Quel’dorei began a never-ending war over the trolls’ ancestral lands. The high elves and the forest trolls would forever be mortal enemies.