Sub-Race Photoshop Mockups

[Destinas]

You mistake me. I'm not saying silver hair exclusively had to do with Elune and not Azshara, it most certainly did have to do with Azshara, but it was still aesthetically connected to their appreciation for the moon and stars. One could infer abstractly through speculation alone that before there was nobility or civilization, the ancient Night Elves saw those traits as indicative of divinity. But this issue is one of both aesthetic sensibility in Blizzard's artists, and actual lore.

Night Elves have fangs and long bushy eyebrows and pointy toes and fingers because they were deliberately given aesthetic design derivative of owls and panthers.
This I would speculate is in the same boat as that.

But that's beside the point. The blue people are talking about here isn't literally BLUE. It's just like in Superman comics where they use blue to show the definition in his jet black hair.

I didn't explain myself well - I understood what you were saying before. My point was more about the fact that common Night Elves we play now, (and are most often depicted) are not often depicted with silver hair. That is a trait that most lore people would think of Azshara and the Highborne - which had little to do with Elune or any worship of the moon. Some Highborne actually cared about their goddess, but most only cared about magic and Azshara. Thus, it would defeat the purpose to make people connect the dots from white hair -> moon worship, literally or aesthetically, since it is almost always associated with a group of people who care little for that. I feel if Blizzard wanted it to so, they would have made more Night Elves with white hair, and perhaps made the Highborne with another color of hair.

While it would make sense to have white/silver hair be a very common thing for the general population of the Night Elves, they are more often depicted with green hair for their affinity to nature, or dark blue hair to represent the night.

[Yig]

I didn't explain myself well - I understood what you were saying before. My point was more about the fact that common Night Elves we play now, (and are most often depicted) are not often depicted with silver hair. That is a trait that most lore people would think of Azshara and the Highborne - which had little to do with Elune or any worship of the moon. Some Highborne actually cared about their goddess, but most only cared about magic and Azshara. Thus, it would defeat the purpose to make people connect the dots from white hair -> moon worship, literally or aesthetically, since it is almost always associated with a group of people who care little for that. I feel if Blizzard wanted it to so, they would have made more Night Elves with white hair, and perhaps made the Highborne with another color of hair. But I know the lore too, and I can see your point of view clearly, but I thank you for pointing it out in case I was not aware of what you were saying. My only definitive point was that yes, in the age of Azshara's rule over the Kal'dorei, the Highborne commonly had the silver white hair and skin, agreeing with you.



While it would make sense to have white/silver hair be a very common thing for the general population of the Night Elves, they are more often depicted with green hair for their affinity to nature, or dark blue hair to represent the night.

The only definitive thing I'm saying is the highborne in the time of Azshara were recognizable for silver white hair and skin. The rest was just personal arbitrary speculation. I should have qualified that better, I thank you trying to let me know I was making an error.

[Wildmoon]

I will say it again. Highborne look exactly the same as any Night Elf physically. Just look at Captian Varo'then. He was HB and had black hair and generic purple skin. Magic didn't alter the HB to look different. Illidan look just like average NE if not for his arcane tattoo despite involving himself heavily in arcane art. Silver Hair and skin ARE NOT special trait of Highborne.

They were simply a group of people who were convinced that they were superior to the rest of their kind.

[Deleted]

I will say it again. Highborne look exactly the same as any Night Elf physically. Just look at Captian Varo'then. He was HB and had black hair and generic purple skin. Magic didn't alter the HB to look different. Illidan look just like average NE if not for his arcane tattoo despite involving himself heavily in arcane art. Silver Hair and skin ARE NOT special trait of Highborne.

They were simply a group of people who were convinced that they were superior to the rest of their kind.

Exactly. The silver-haired Highbornes came after Cataclysm with Arcane Reforgers and Mage Trainers.

Before Cata, Highbornes looked alike:
http://wowpedia.org/Azj%27Tordin - green haired
http://wowpedia.org/Lorekeeper_Javon - dark blue/black hair
http://wowpedia.org/Lorekeeper_Kildrath - green hair
http://wowpedia.org/Lorekeeper_Lydros - purple hair
http://wowpedia.org/Falrin_Treeshaper - green hair

And some others:
http://wowpedia.org/Guardsman_Belothiel - dark blue/black hair
http://wowpedia.org/Allendril_Fallcreek - green hair
http://wowpedia.org/Councilman_Stark_I%27ylar - green/cyan hair
http://wowpedia.org/Kalytha - dark blue/black hair
http://wowpedia.org/Athrikus_Narassin - Athrikus Narassin, very powerful Highborne - purple/violet hair
http://wowpedia.org/Illyanna_Ravenoak - dark blue/black hair
http://wowpedia.org/Lord_Ro%27minate - dark blue/black hair
http://wowpedia.org/Sargath - blue hair
http://wowpedia.org/Archmage_Selwyn - blue/cyan hair
http://wowpedia.org/Shen%27dralar_Ancient - blue hair
http://wowpedia.org/Dath%27remar_Sunstrider - golden red hair (because he had exotic look)
http://wowpedia.org/Tsu%27zee - blue hair
Lady Vashj - silver hair, but in WoTA was described that she dyed her hair to look similar as her idol, Azshara

Other Highbornes has white/silver hair. Why? Maybe because of laziness of makers, maybe because they would be more distuinguishable than other nelves. But these are ingame models. Just like High Elves can have darker skin or green eyes (this probably is another shade of green, not 'fel', but rather 'woody'), the common Night Elves can have brighter (blue'ish, lavendar or something) skin and white/silver hair, and the Highborne Night Elves can have dark purple skin and just blue or violet hair. The physical differences can be in for example more blue eyes or in some like arcane tattoos, but there's no need to be Highborne to have a mutation like that. I think being a powerful Night Elven mage (like the ones from Moon Guard or Illidan if he wouldn't became Demon Hunter) is enough.

[Alanar]

I made some tweaks to your blood elf.

Blood Elves don't have as long of heads at Night Elves, and have a sort of "poutier" look

I can see this as an actual blood elf update seriously very well done!

[Dnusha]

Blood elves should be prettier that Night Elves. Thats all. /thread

[Deleted]

Blood elves should be prettier that Night Elves. Thats all. /thread

Matter of taste. Personally I prefer Night Elven beauty, they look more mature. Blood Elves (males and females) looks for me like something a'la teenage Night Elves, what can have sense because of their shorter lives.

[Dnusha]

Matter of taste indeed. Btw great mockup pics dude.

[Deleted]

Thanks
When I was doing my High Elves and Blood Elves, I didn't want to change their skull shape, because I wanted to show also another look on this races - and make them more similar to their vanilla models (also showing them only like the variation of Night Elves, without big ingerence into model). But of course I will try also change skull and face proportions to get them look like ingame models (shorter and more triangular face, bigger eyes, smaller nose and mouth etc.)

But returning to the skin variations - what do you think about something like Nightmare Druids? There are ingame Nightmare Dryads and Keepers of the Grove. They had green skin, dark lips, 'possessed' eyes etc. Maybe in Emerald Dream expansion we will see also the Nightmare Druids?

[Dnusha]

Sounds great, here some art i've found in the net.

[Lahis]

^ Would be sick if Barkskin's effect was that instead of the whirly thingy we have.

[Deleted]

In fact this isn't a subrace project, but just a speculation of possible Blood Elf female new model.
Edited the face proportions of my Night Elf reskin to look more like old Blood Elf.

[Nivena]

So, new mock ups:

Night Elf with jewellery and fixed eyes (Sentinel/Moon Priestess style):

The eyes look awesome, fitting the moon theme of the Nightelves much better than the eyes shown in the artcraft.

[Zathrendar]

Matter of taste. Personally I prefer Night Elven beauty, they look more mature. Blood Elves (males and females) looks for me like something a'la teenage Night Elves, what can have sense because of their shorter lives.

It must be, because BE males have never struck me as 'teenage', relative to NE or otherwise. Their concept art and models tend to feature them with strong jaws and long, thin noses, giving them a somewhat nordic look. The female models do look a bit teenage, unfortunately, but not universally. NE seem to have more angular features on the whole, with longer faces, which may give the impression of 'maturity'.

I also tend to view this nonsense that BE must be more beautiful than NE as foolish. They're both offshoots of a race that has features that are seen as very attractive by human standards. The Highborne engaged in selective breeding, and valued beauty, which could explain why the BE/HE (and female Naga) as an evolutionary offshoot of them tend to be very attractive, but there's nothing to suggest the NE are not attractive in their own right, albeit with a more 'Roman' beauty to them.

[Traveler Voltin]

Go to Dun Morogh, the snow has blue gradients in it just like the supposed blue people are seeing here and being far too literal about seeing.

what are you trying to get at?

[Destinas]

I will say it again. Highborne look exactly the same as any Night Elf physically. Just look at Captian Varo'then. He was HB and had black hair and generic purple skin. Magic didn't alter the HB to look different. Illidan look just like average NE if not for his arcane tattoo despite involving himself heavily in arcane art. Silver Hair and skin ARE NOT special trait of Highborne.

They were simply a group of people who were convinced that they were superior to the rest of their kind.

Well, Varo'then was actually a Highborne by association, being Azshara's personal captain. He was a rough and tumble soldier and may not have been born into the Highborne caste. It was mentioned in the novels that he knew a tiny bit of magic, but not much.

[Traveler Voltin]

i thought the highbourne were suppose to be slightly paler because of arcane magic abuse or something to that affect.

[Zathrendar]

There's nothing confirmed to that effect, however I would not find it implausible that they may have selected upon specific traits, like silver hair or paler skin. Certainly possible. They did change on a spiritual level, as they became more and more proficient and powerful in using arcane magic. I suspect they also retained their martial edge, which continues to exist amongst the HE/BE/Naga, to this day.

[Destinas]

There's nothing confirmed to that effect, however I would not find it implausible that they may have selected upon specific traits, like silver hair or paler skin. Certainly possible. They did change on a spiritual level, as they became more and more proficient and powerful in using arcane magic. I suspect they also retained their martial edge, which continues to exist amongst the HE/BE/Naga, to this day.

Warcraft Magazine issue #5 - Brann mentions that Highborne have the same qualities as all other Night Elves, but adds they're slightly pastier in complexion.

[shoc]

There's nothing confirmed to that effect, however I would not find it implausible that they may have selected upon specific traits, like silver hair or paler skin. Certainly possible. They did change on a spiritual level, as they became more and more proficient and powerful in using arcane magic. I suspect they also retained their martial edge, which continues to exist amongst the HE/BE/Naga, to this day.

Exposure to Arcane Magic actually does alter your appearance in certain ways. Jaina, for example, her hair turned mostly white due to the fallout from the Theramore mana bomb. Somewhere it says that the Highborne mages had paler skin and more pastel coloured hair then the usual black/purple/green of the rest of Night Elves society.