It's Blizzard so I wouldn't get my hopes in regards to the quality and thoroughness of the handling if I were you.
It makes me wonder though. In case High Elves are actually added, what will replace them before each expansion reveal? In the same "This grain of sand is the absolute proof that X will be finally added" way that goes on for a decade.
You mean the alliance with the Horde that happened long after the actual schism? And that was apparently so schismy that Allerian Outpost High Elves were still willing to talk about reconciliation?
I'm leaving this here. Not sure if anyone has posted it before me.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=253233/...cast-transform
Almost confirms that the Void Elves will be like Alleria's Voidform.
Regardless of being fair and balance the factions. Think if, on BlizzCon, Blizzard announces that both Void Elves and High Elves vill be added to the Alliance. Noone has said anything about a race having multiple subclasses. Ofcourse they could do this with a lot of races. For instance, Trolls, Orcs on the horde side just to name a few. Noone has ever said that the current races only can have one, but it would definetly be a start.
Before anyone tries to correct me, isn't this a common understanding that we want more customization for our characters in game? Also, wouldn't it be strange to blow someones else candle(hope for a race) when you most likely has a wish for the game as well? Just from this perticular thread there seems to be envying. There are reason such as "In lore they aren't enough of a population to make them a race", "Its just a copy and paste of a already exsiting model", "go play horde" and so on and so furth. Why shoot this speculation down? Some people really look forward to the announcement and it will probably be way different than everyone expects, across every forum.
Personally I don't know were I stand in this matter. I play horde and have spent countless of hours into my characters, some which is Blood Elves. And if this speculation would be true I would have to server transfer and race change, for more than 500 dollars. So by that I say firmly no. But it would still open up so much for so many players if some type of High Elves excited within the Alliance. I don't think you can become more high end fantasy than that, which is what World of Warcraft is about. I welcome this change if it were to be realized because it would mean so much to others. Game logic and game lore is too different things. If you are willing to accept to be able to press a button and get teleported to an instance but it is totally possible from a lore point of view I think you are able to adapt to game logic contradict game lore in the future as well. Just don't butcher every speculation someone else has. Expecially when game logic always is bigger than game lore in game developement.
Regardless of being fair and balance the factions. Think if, on BlizzCon, Blizzard announces that both Void Elves and High Elves vill be added to the Alliance. Noone has said anything about a race having multiple subclasses. Ofcourse they could do this with a lot of races. For instance, Trolls, Orcs on the horde side just to name a few. Noone has ever said that the current races only can have one, but it would definetly be a start.
Before anyone tries to correct me, isn't this a common understanding that we want more customization for our characters in game? Also, wouldn't it be strange to blow someones else candle(hope for a race) when you most likely has a wish for the game as well? Just from this perticular thread there seems to be envying. There are reason such as "In lore they aren't enough of a population to make them a race", "Its just a copy and paste of a already exsiting model", "go play horde" and so on and so furth. Why shoot this speculation down? Some people really look forward to the announcement and it will probably be way different than everyone expects, across every forum.
Personally I don't know were I stand in this matter. I play horde and have spent countless of hours into my characters, some which is Blood Elves. And if this speculation would be true I would have to server transfer and race change, for more than 500 dollars. So by that I say firmly no. But it would still open up so much for so many players if some type of High Elves excited within the Alliance. I don't think you can become more high end fantasy than that, which is what World of Warcraft is about. I welcome this change if it were to be realized because it would mean so much to others. Game logic and game lore is too different things. If you are willing to accept to be able to press a button and get teleported to an instance but it is totally possible from a lore point of view I think you are able to adapt to game logic contradict game lore in the future as well. Just don't butcher every speculation someone else has. Expecially when game logic always is bigger than game lore in game developement.
Generalizing is convenient but dishonest. I just had a discussion with another poster (one that actually like High Elves and don't care about people that want to play "pure" High Elves) focusing on changing High Elves into something else, for no other reasons but to enhance their story rather than let it stagnate. If you missed it, here we go.
And I know High Elf fans that want to play "pure" High Elves are obviously triggered and offended by such alternative notions but, guess what, thinking that High Elves need to change and become something different isn't just about annoying them. They're not the center of the universe. Adding a playable race affects more than just High Elf fans. It's not a spot worth wasting.
Nor they'll necessarily give a crap about people that will either play "pure" High Elves or "screw it". Again, there's no strong hint towards anything "High Elven" yet and there's chances these people will not be the strong focus of anything. Adding Void Elves that don't scream "High Elf!!!" is not a disservice against them, nor a way to please spiteful people. If that's the case, it would just be a service to the vast majority of players rather than to a bunch of fanboys and haters.Whatever they do to the void elves, it will be done in a way that strikes a balance between being too familiar and new. They won't go out of the way just to make people who don't wanna them playable happy.
That's a bold statement you have nothing to back it up. You just don't know. Again, people here kept jumping to conclusions based on what they personally wish when, in reality, the amount of reliable info is barely significant.Void elves will only be as different from blood elves (not high elves) as nightborne are different from night elves. They won't make them unreckognizable, neither physically nor culturally.
Using the Blood/High Elf model is not an hint. It becomes a rather shallow hint only when you do the convenient leap of logic "Alleria is an High Elf so Void Elves must be High Elves" which is pretentious enough. For all we know, these could even be converted Blood Elves. For sure Blood Elves are easier to recruit, both from an ideological and logistical standpoint.It does hint, considering they use blood elf models, and their counterpart is nightborne.
Nightborne don't have to be a direct counterpart, much like Draenei and Tauren aren't in the slightest. And being playable isn't going to be a problem, we're talking of "Void Elves" here, they must be twisted by the Void in some way. There's no point to add a "Void" race that barely shows any Void influence.Well, to claim they'll be a breed of "void-corrupted monstrosities" you'd have to ignore that they are (apparently) playable and a counterpart to nightborne
Again, not an hint in itself. It still needs to fill several gaps by your own. A model can just serve as basis, otherwise you'll indeed present a copy paste.that they use blood elf models
In the Alliance you have the Silver Covenant who is led by Vereesa, not Alleria. It's a huge leap to believe that Alleria would simply side with the Alliance, take over the Silver Covenant by sidelining her sister and then turning all of them into "Void Elves". Not the most likely of scenarios and entirely based on speculation. Hell, there are ironically more chances Alleria would do that on neutral and isolated High Elves around the world, mostly because of the likelihood of the scenario compared to the first.and that in the Alliance you have (a) high elves and (b) a returned high elf hero who learned to use the void as a tool.
This is not the simplest, is the more convenient and it deliberately ignores than for a race to be called Void must be an huge thing for sure, not just an aesthetic tweak.Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is often the true one. It's way more farfetched to expect them to not be high elves or for them to be monstrous than the contrary.
Because literally none of this screams "High Elves" in any way or form? Despite all the info above the main "hint" towards that remains the convenient leap of logic "Alleria = High Elf who handles the Void ergo we gotta have High Elves turning into Void Elves" which is convenient as fuck. Hell, Alleria can't even be considered an "High Elf hero", she's a Thalassian hero first and foremost.A few weeks ago, when there were only those void elf weapon models around, I'd agree. But, considering we found data that hints at seemly future playable nelf subrace called void elves, using blood elf models and being setup as counterpart of the Horde nightborne, why are you ignoring that info as if it were non-existant?
Again, the main point remains one: there's just not enough info to keep screaming about High Elves as the OP did with this pretty silly thread. It's a possibility worth discussing, not the fucking obvious one that must be held on a pedestal while arbitrarily ignoring all the others. The very attitude of the OP misguided the ongoing discussion from the very start (kinda like @elbleuet did here) giving for granted that all the people had to discuss here the guaranteed fact that Void Elves are in fact High Elves. It's wrong and pretty dumb in all honesty, a mistake made from people that spectacularly failed to keep their High Elf boners in check (even though @ravenmoon has been unique even in that).
ZulkhanYou're worrying me now.Z * U * L * K * H * A * N
Which means Alleria is no "Void Elf", just an High Elf weaponizing the Void.
It's not heresy, it's a flat-out lie when people pretend to treat the two groups as two distinct biological races. If you believe in the latter, you're believing in a lie. High Elves aren't called the way they are for anything other than ideological/political decisions. Hell, several High Elves simply weren't around when Kael'thas came up with the Blood Elf name.
"Quick, let's conjure an imaginary group of people united in their Blood Elf fanboysm because their arguments offend me and no one should take them seriously".the blood elven cult that has taken over the lore section in this community for as long as I know
High Elves were against the use of Rommath's teachings, not the use of fel magic. There was a fucking High Elf warlock trainer in Dalaran back in WotLK.
Nope. The very dissenters lamenting that were merely silenced/mind-controlled by magisters, they weren't exiled like High Elves have been. And one of the few times we heard High Elves speaking their minds on the matter they specifically talked of "mana vampires" and their refusal to become like that as main reason of their exile.But the blood elves allying themseves with the Horde is actually what caused the shism between the 2 groups
She didn't really explain much, nor her point of view applies to all High Elves. For the most part, indeed, she never faced the moral/ideological decision High Elves had to face, since she fed all of her addictive problems by sucking mana from Gary Stu Rhonin.and Vereesa explains it pretty well when she says blood elf leaders turned their back on the sacrifices of her family.
False, because that's not the reason for why they left/were exiled. The ones we heard complaining about that were never exiled, nor they thought about abandoning but rather act like rabble-rousers.If the blood elves had stayed neutral then the High elves would have left the Alliance long ago to live in Quel thalas again.
Why should there be any Void Elves at all, if Alleria seems the only one who was willing to go that far and to learn how to use Void Powers? If she would be then teaching others, then it would be the introduction of a new class, not a new race. So we would probably get a new class for either specific races (which would be quite annoying, because it probably would be Elves again, and after DH being Elves only, this would be a stupid move), or a class which would be free for all races who are in some form utilising Shadow magic (either as Shadow Priests or as Warlocks), which should be a more diverse and more interesting path.
For getting a race, there should be a substantial number of members, preferably of more than 1 generation. Though I could imagine to have a Void race which multiplies via vampirism, but then you would not need Elves only at all, and could just get a Void-template for any race - which would turn out to be a Death Knight 2.0.
No guys... Void Elves refer to Alleria. You get to play as Alleria, do shadowy thing. Become a high elf, use void magic combined with bow and arrow, go on a diet to lose weight. Have salad stands across Azeroth to heal you up. A fit Alleria is a happy Alleria. That's what you high elf fans want, right? RIGHT?!
You are generalising as well. I have no problem into having high elves that, in your words, "become something different, new, independent, capable to stand on their own legs". But there's need to have some sort of familiarity to them, something that resembles what they were before, a reminder of their origins.
And most suggestions given just want to screw them. Most suggestions are given by people who are not interested in playing them, so they don't care to make any compelling theories. Let's uglify them! Corrupt them! Ignore all their past!
We're not talking about just one playable race, but a subrace as part of a big pack of other subraces. There's a huge difference between adding two new races that'll try to appease to a large audience and adding 8+ subraces (+ customization), each trying to appease a smaller audience.Adding a playable race affects more than just High Elf fans. It's not a spot worth wasting.
How many people care about lightforged draenei? Highmountain tauren? Not many. But they are just small parts of a bigger subrace set, that's why they are being added.
Compare to Nightborne: in order to introduce something new, they made a huge campaign that really explored the race. They had to give a beautiful introduction to them, make us care about them, or else adding them wouldn't be much.
Void elves (so far) have not gotten any of that. They do not even exist. And I bet they'll be introduced in those minor story patches we are getting during the drought, so I doubt they'll have the level of attention nightborne got. This means, most probably, that they'll be something already familiar to players. Something that does not require so many explanations and so much care about fleshing them out.
I'm not jumping to conclusions, I'm guessing. At no point I made any claim to be certain of something. I am, however, basing my guesses on hints, clues, storytelling tropes and a few high probability assumptions.That's a bold statement you have nothing to back it up. You just don't know. Again, people here kept jumping to conclusions based on what they personally wish when, in reality, the amount of reliable info is barely significant.
This is the part in which you cast out the most simple and probable explanation.Using the Blood/High Elf model is not an hint. It becomes a rather shallow hint only when you do the convenient leap of logic "Alleria is an High Elf so Void Elves must be High Elves" which is pretentious enough. For all we know, these could even be converted Blood Elves. For sure Blood Elves are easier to recruit, both from an ideological and logistical standpoint.
While there may be a few converted blood elves in their ranks, people who admired Alleria or something, but to consider that so many blood elves (like, 10% of them) would jump Alliance at once to form a new race is very farfetched.
That's not a fair comparision. Highmountain aren't going Alliance and Lightforged aren't going Horde. Nightborne and void elves are model swaps between the factions. Why are you ignoring this?Nightborne don't have to be a direct counterpart, much like Draenei and Tauren aren't in the slightest.
Tell me why "blood" elves aren't some sort of red vampire monstrosities, then.And being playable isn't going to be a problem, we're talking of "Void Elves" here, they must be twisted by the Void in some way. There's no point to add a "Void" race that barely shows any Void influence.
The "void" in the name may not be literal, just like in the case of "blood" elves.
Besides, since they haven't appeared in canon yet, "void elf" may even be a placeholder name.
Wretched are "crack elves" in the files. Makrura are "lobstrok".
I never suggested anything like that. I didn't go into details, I just presented a very generic possible scenario.In the Alliance you have the Silver Covenant who is led by Vereesa, not Alleria. It's a huge leap to believe that Alleria would simply side with the Alliance, take over the Silver Covenant by sidelining her sister and then turning all of them into "Void Elves".
Alleria coming back and making the "void elves" does not mean she has to take over the Silver Covenant or sideline her sister. They can work together. Vereesa, as the military leader, Alleria as some sort of spiritual guide in their new path. Blood elves have Aethas, Liadrin, Lor'themar, Halduron, Rommath and others, why do the void/high elves need to kick out one leader to follow another?
Leap of logic?Because literally none of this screams "High Elves" in any way or form? Despite all the info above the main "hint" towards that remains the convenient leap of logic "Alleria = High Elf who handles the Void ergo we gotta have High Elves turning into Void Elves" which is convenient as fuck. Hell, Alleria can't even be considered an "High Elf hero", she's a Thalassian hero first and foremost.
I remember when I was saying the nightborne would join the Horde and pointed out their good relations with the blood elves, and later the Silgryn/Liadrin duo on Argus. Everyone said the same you are telling me now.
I may be looking to deep into the clues and hints, but you sure are ignoring them completely.
Like, ignoring that Alleria still distrusts the Horde.
That Alleria has a human husband, Alliance sister, Alliance son, Alliance conrades at arms, her old ranger force is still Alliance, and there are high elves in the Alliance.
That, even before she joined the Alliance, Alleria was against the isolationist stance of Quel'thalas and criticized Anastherian and the Silvermoon government.
You are purposely disregarding hints and easy conections because you don't like where the story seems to be going. We lack a lot of pieces in this puzzle, but you choose to not see how the pieces we do have seem to fit in the picture.Again, the main point remains one: there's just not enough info to keep screaming about High Elves as the OP did with this pretty silly thread.
What others? Present your own theories, then, supported by clues and hints, or at least storytelling tropes. So far, you've been too eager to shot down theories while not presenting any that would be more convincing. If not from high elves, where do void elves come from? Is there anything to support blood elves would betray QUel'thalas and go Alliance? If they are not thalassian-looking, why do they use blood elf models as placeholders (reminding that nightborne use night elf placeholder models)? If not from Alleria, how these void elves come into being?It's a possibility worth discussing, not the fucking obvious one that must be held on a pedestal while arbitrarily ignoring all the others.
I've seen a few other theories around, but all of them are based on nothing.
Mine are based on lore facts (high elves exist in the Alliance, Alleria dabbling into the Void), assumptions (void elves do not get as much attention as nightborne, so they'll be something familiar, not totally new), hints (Alleria/Vereesa reunion, high elves needing a new direction), gameplay balance (nightborne going Horde, "void elves" are their Alliance counterpart) and business (high elves have been one of the more requested races for over a decade, and Blizzard acknowledging it a few times in the last few years).
It doesn't matter, just one more day before this discussion is over (hopefully, forever).
Last edited by DeicideUH; 2017-11-02 at 12:58 PM.
Ehh, it wouldn't be a class unless her void powers give her a very specific set of powers. If it were just a way to avoid addiction to magic, then it could be a racial only thing.
As far as population goes, thats a moot point if you consider some of the other already playable races.
they've been separated from the kalimdor group, and basically everyone else, but these are night elves that locked themselves up in their own city. They are not exactly kaldorei like the highborne are, that's not what i'm saying but they are night elf kind. Just think of it as a different kind of night elf. Whiles before you only had one kind of night elf, the kaldorei, now you have 2, the kaldorei kind and the shal'dorei kind. It is important to note that while the shal'dorei culture is different from the culture of the Long Vigil kaldorei, it is still the kaldorei empire culture, actually it is the the purest most perfectly preserved version of it - this is both stated in-game and several times by developers.
The whole point on the alliance getting playable blood elves as high/void elves, is happening because the horde will get playable night elves as nightborne. Nightborne are just a modified night elf, just as void elf will likely be a slightly modified high/blood elf. The current nightborne model is not a playable character model, it's more a placeholder, it shows a night elf that has lost oa lot weight (due to the stravation story and feeding on mana only) while highly empowered further by the arcane - this is essentially what a nightborne is.. except at the end of the story line, they get healed due to the arcane'dor fruit - so their playable version is going to be slightly modified from what you've seen is my best guess. It will be the night elf model with glowy arcane runes on their skin and able to conjure their own armor - they will have a different pose but the rest will be identical. Not sure whether the ears will remain uptruend or the normal night elven ears, if we see nightborne option on the alliance as a night elf skin, their own will probably be night elven ears, or the neutral boody of nightborne willl likely show ears returning to the normal night elven state. if you played the beta you would have seen that all female nightborne had the noral night elven ears, while the males had the tips upturned. They changed this in the build just before live release of Legion, and the ears look ghastly - but i think it was just to make them look a bit more distintctive.
Sadly I think not many people can wrap their heads around Suramar and the nightborne being anything related to the night elves because it looks so cool and they are so use to night elves looking so goofy, uncool and nothing to do with the arcane even though from their very first introduction, they were introduced as being very very arcane based, and shown that even though the Hyjal group stopped using it for spells, they were completley suffused by the power of the Well of Eternity. The arcane has never stopped being a part of any of their groups, it's just how it is utilised that has been starkly different.
People don't seem to get that, it is quite possible to have vastly different cultures within a race group. For the night elves this is nothing strange, the arcane culture is their original culture, it's not like it is osmething alien to them, and the highborne from Dire Maul, and the nightborne and Moonguard still follow that culture. THeir own society is shwon to be very segregated, they in fact have cutlutres based on the orders they subscribe too, you only tend to see the druid one, but looking at the lore, not all night elves follow that way of life, some follow the priest way which is very different - the only thing the priests shared with the druids was neither used the arcane for spells - not a problem because their orders don'tfocus on the arcane anyway, and they had this shared goal of protecting the world. they never mixed together either. It is no surpirse that the mage order returning with the highborne first then the nightborne would be any different. It's jsut that with teh arcane ban lifted, the other two groups aren't hunting down and killing any night elven arcane users, but are now utliizing them to help their kind.. The highborne culture cotinues to remain different and apart from the kaldorei culture - even though highborne are kaldorei. You can start thinking of Shal'dorei as just another race of night elf. Not kaldorei for sure, but kaldorei based, derived and linked. a different kind of night elf.
The confusion may boil down to what you refer to as night elf. The introduction of the shal'dorei has basically shown as that night elf is no longer exclusively referring to the Kaldorei race genetically, Night Elf was interchangeable with Kaldorei and they are all night elves (caps and no caps), while the Shaldorei aren't exactly Night Elvs as in kaldoeri they are night elves. It appears there is more than one type of night elf about. THis is how most people view it. Everyone knows they aren't the kalidmro group or the model normally used for night elves, they're different, changed by the nightwell, but it's also clear they are night elves - kaldorei empire culture, night elven moon/star loving/glorious children of the stars and all that jazz as you are shown. Night Elves are night elves, Nightborne elves are night elves, Night Elf with the caps refers to a group, the kaldorei.
In fact it was I who explained this first to someone on the alpha 2 years ago, I've spotted the trend ages ago. Warcraft does not have defined genetical groups for its races, neither does it try to, racial groups biggest distinction is cultural. It is culture that separates Kaldorei from Quel'dorei from Shal'dorei from High Elf, from Sin'dorei largely, the physcial differences are minor at best. However add to it culture, architectural syle, colour theme, political views, day/night cyclees etc you even have high elves as distinct from blood elves and they are essentially the same. Note that nightborne and Night Elf are not, but they are still close enough to expand the definitoion of the night elf no longer be what we knew as kaldorei and as the only 1 type of night elf type to exist. Now we have two. Shal'dorei, the night elves on the horde, and kaldorei the night elves on the alliance.
Well I hope I've explained what I mean by nightborne are night elves. They are simply a new kind of kaldorei. They are not divorced or separated from anything kaldorei, in fact they revel in all things kaldorei, but not the post sundering kaldorei, it's the pre-sundering one, cos they have continued that culture when the main group switched. It's not a divorce from kaldorei like the high elves did (despite their also physical change).
And whiles blizzard likely won't make a single look available to both sides, remember sub-races are minor variations of existing races.. if you put the night elf sub-race on the horde with the blood elf, and the blood elf subrace on the alliance with the night elf, they are still their races sub-race, just on the other faction. i.e. void/high elves are still Thalassian elves, and nightborne are still night elves.
However, remember it's not a hard and fast rule that blizzard won't give both factions the sanme model. Alliance nightborne could easily have normal night elven ears, while the blood elf aligned nightborne have the upturned ears, and that's the only distinction. IF both sides get void elves, the only distinction could be that alliance void elves can only have blue eyes, or horde ones can only have green eye, and the manner of void influence looks slightly different because of the fel infuion on the blood elves, - and thils will account for a distinct enough variation.
Anything is possible.. time will tell though
Well this is my last post in this thread before the opening ceremony.
Personally, after the datamining, I do think the Alliance will get some form of thalassian elf. I don't like that decision if it happens, and if it does I hope whatever they get is different enough from a Blood Elf to not count as a copy paste.
But all the debate is really over now, and to be fair the decision on this was made months ago. All we have been trying to do is guess who was right.
So, let's see what's on the other side.
Laters.
I'm fucking disgusted. The Void elves are fucking hideous.
LOOOOOOOOL you thought you'd get high elves, you got ugly gray elves instead
To be honest that's what I kinda expected, and now they pissed many people off. They pissed Horde off because they basically gave Alliance one of it's races. They pissed Alliance off because Horde got not one, but actually TWO more distinct races (Nightborne and Zandalari), and it even pissed the people who wanted High Elves off, because they got some hideous grey version of them.