Thank you for reminding this part of the lore – blizzard~
Golden eyes was a thing that foretold of Druidism and being a notable Druid. Not merely being possessed of a … Hell with it, fine, whatever. What is one more retcon, right? Especially for those of us that NEVER FORGOT THIS.
Actually, the Night elves didn’t know what the golden eyes meant back then. Golden eyes were rare so it was seen as a sign of greatness and a bright future.
After the War of the Ancients, golden eyes became much more common since nelves stopped caring about bloodlines so much.
Canonically, golden eyes still stand for inherited Druidic potential, nothing was changed there
Yep. Gold eyes for a kaldorei can mean druidic potential or a sign of “greatness”. Before the Sundering, when druidism was still new and even before, when no night elves were practicing it, it was very rare and signified a magnificent destiny for the kaldorei born with golden eyes. It was why Azshara was such a big deal since the day she was born as well, since she had natural golden eyes as well, and she was the furthest thing from a druid, same as Illidan and likely many other kaldorei at the time.
It wouldn’t be until later on, post-Sundering and onward, that golden eyes would become less rare (but still somewhat uncommon) among night elves and associated more with druidic potential rather than some vague “greatness”.
For once, the lore does actually check out as “”””accurate”””