Blood elves, high elves and what could have been

[Theodarzna]

First of all, I have to publicly profess my most sincere admiration for @DeicideUH and all those who like him, still continue defending the noble and just cause of the High Elves as a classical playable race of the Alliance in spite of everything (those well-known haters from these forums included!).

---

Now, some of you already know me as a prior defender of the High Elves of the Alliance or the reconquest of Lordaeron in name of our Queen Calia among other popular claims of the Alliance; however, I have to confess I was forced to give up… Why? Just because of Blizzard.

As most of you could suspect, in general, Blizzard staff are pro Horde, something that is increasingly evident from Warcraft 3 onwards. Blizzard is like a judge affiliated to a political party: nobody can expect a neutral or objective verdict from him.

I got in touch with the Warcraft universe thanks to what I consider the best game in the franchise: Warcraft 2, and as a result, I consider that game as the cornerstone of what World of Warcraft should be. I know that I belong to a minority, because most of you started playing the most popular one: Warcraft 3 (the most dull and soft of the trilogy for my taste).

But I will stop rambling more; let's talk about the High Elves. Everybody knows that they have been perhaps the most popular claim of the alliance player-base over the last decade… and Blizzard always knew that. The question is: what have they done regarding that claim? They have ignored it intentionally for years.

Obviously, we could assume that Blizzard has no story to tell about the High Elves and that they consider them as a race condemned to disappear completely sooner or later… Ok, it’s their game; we can’t do anything in that case.

However, while they have continued ignoring any claims regarding the High Elves, at the same time Blizzard never has ceased to show us throughout the last expansions how the High Elves acted as a consistent, well defined and numerous race capable even of influencing the conflicts of Azeroth; like continually showing off us something we will never have. How cruel!

Then, the last straw that broke the camel appeared: the inclusion of the Void Elves from nowhere. Are those Void Elves supposed to be the answer of that long awaited claim? It seems so, confirming that Blizzard loves to laugh at his customers while spiting them in the face: Blizzard humiliates the alliance player-base once again… (Do you remember the promised “fist-pumping moment” of the Alliance in MoP when Dalaran rejoined the Alliance? How long did it last?)

Dear Blizzard, if you have got out the Void Elves of your marvelous ass with the simply purpose of stopping us claiming the High Elves as a playable race for the Alliance you are totally wrong, and what's more, the “novelties” introduced in ‘Battle for Azeroth’ motivate us even more to persevere in our demands as now they are even more valid than before!

We don’t want some Blood Elves traitorous to the Horde and corrupted with void energies… get those polydrug addicted elves where they fit! We want the pure High Elves you don’t stop of showing off to us expansion after expansion! We want the Quel’dorei of the silver unicorn to return to the Alliance again!

For example, these are the most popular excuses people give in order to make us think our claim is impossible to be carried out as well as their corresponding anti-excuses that destroy all of them:

Scarce population / there is not enough high elves so as to they can be a playable race

How many goblins can be aboard a boat? How many pandaren can live over a turtle? How many void elves can Alleria train per hour? In short, numbers don’t matter for Blizzard: if the Void Elves (a limited group of blood elves infested with the void) can be playable, the High Elves even more so!

The same race is already on the horde / that would break the faction identity

What’s the difference between a pandaren of the Horde and another of the Alliance? Is it that Blizzard has been concerned about giving the void elves a new model and animations to distinguish them from the blood elves? Obviously not, because they are the same race, aren’t they? Another barrier crossed!

There are no differences between a High or Blood elf / they are exactly the same except for eye color

Apart from the name, the culture, the demonic taint or lack of it, the colors and hairstyles they wear, their allegiances, the symbols by which they are represented, the mounts they use, their attitude and morality, their main heroes, the necessity of a Sunwell or not, their past experiences, the territories they control… yes, they are exactly the same thing. (Damn! I’ve forgotten the color of their eyes!)

And by the way, would it be possible to represent the very same race or specie by two different models? Would it be very crazy to make an exclusive model with different animations for the high elves? What an outrage would be that! Well, Blizzard has wasted a lot of time and resources doing precisely that: the new Kul Tiras human models. Enjoy very soon the much requested “allied race” for the Alliance: overweight humans!

Honestly, the inclusion of the Void Elves as an "allied race" refutes one by one every possible excuse and shows how it is fully viable for High Elves to be a playable race for the Alliance: perhaps, simply with new voices, lighter colors and some special features like Alleria-style war paintings they could work.

Putting myself in the shoes of Blizzard, I understand that maybe giving them a different "flavor", the High Elves could be playable in the Alliance in an easier way. For that special "flavor", even the void could play a role, but perhaps in a more “high-elfish” way. For instance, I will explain how I would do it:

• Alleria has been able to use the Void to empower herself without being corrupted in the process.
  
  
• Alleria tries the Blood Elves rejoin the Alliance, but she fails. She no longer sees them as her kin.
  
  
• Vereesa tries to prove Alleria that Sylvanas can be redeemed, but she also fails, being used by Sylvanas and killed at the end.
  
  
• Alleria enters full rage and take the leadership of all the High Elves, promising them to recover their former glory and recover Quel’thalas.
  
  
• Alleria train all the high elves at how to use the void to empower themselves, seeing the void not as a way of corruption, but an opportunity to try to balance their position regarding the blood elves, given their lack of Sunwell.
  
  
• The high elves at such disappear, becoming Void Elves, a playable allied race of the Alliance under the leadership of Alleria Windrunner, with void unicorns as their mounts and racial crest.
  
  
• The Void Elves have two forms: the very customizable high elven one (with a skin from pale to bluish color, great array of hair colors and styles, optional war paintings, etc.) and the void form, being able to switch freely between them.

---

Those are my thoughts, but as I have said before, I have no longer hope that Blizzard will do things right, not even for once. I'm glad of heart for all those who are satisfied with those traitorous blood elves converted into junkies of void energy… but for me, I’ll still want the proper High Elves on the Alliance as a playable “allied race”.

Blizz.... HIRE THIS MAN OR WOMAN!

[Andromedes]

Praise be Northem. All hail Void'dorei

[Combatbutler]

snip

Man your theories are always good for a laugh.

[Arrashi]

Man your theories are always good for a laugh.

"I feel the fanon overtaking me, it is a good pain !"

[Aeula]

Welp, Northem’s back.

[Andromedes]

Man your theories are always good for a laugh.

Still better than void elves (please let this be meme)

[Combatbutler]

"I feel the fanon overtaking me, it is a good pain !"

Never forget Northeron!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Still better than void elves (please let this be meme)

The void elves are a joke, but an expected one. There was no way blizz would have implemented the unchanged model. They could have tweaked the high elf model to represent their choice frail and sickly, that could have worked too.

[The Penguin]

First of all, I have to publicly profess my most sincere admiration for @DeicideUH and all those who like him, still continue defending the noble and just cause of the High Elves as a classical playable race of the Alliance in spite of everything (those well-known haters from these forums included!).

---

Now, some of you already know me as a prior defender of the High Elves of the Alliance or the reconquest of Lordaeron in name of our Queen Calia among other popular claims of the Alliance; however, I have to confess I was forced to give up… Why? Just because of Blizzard.

As most of you could suspect, in general, Blizzard staff are pro Horde, something that is increasingly evident from Warcraft 3 onwards. Blizzard is like a judge affiliated to a political party: nobody can expect a neutral or objective verdict from him.

I got in touch with the Warcraft universe thanks to what I consider the best game in the franchise: Warcraft 2, and as a result, I consider that game as the cornerstone of what World of Warcraft should be. I know that I belong to a minority, because most of you started playing the most popular one: Warcraft 3 (the most dull and soft of the trilogy for my taste).

But I will stop rambling more; let's talk about the High Elves. Everybody knows that they have been perhaps the most popular claim of the alliance player-base over the last decade… and Blizzard always knew that. The question is: what have they done regarding that claim? They have ignored it intentionally for years.

Obviously, we could assume that Blizzard has no story to tell about the High Elves and that they consider them as a race condemned to disappear completely sooner or later… Ok, it’s their game; we can’t do anything in that case.

However, while they have continued ignoring any claims regarding the High Elves, at the same time Blizzard never has ceased to show us throughout the last expansions how the High Elves acted as a consistent, well defined and numerous race capable even of influencing the conflicts of Azeroth; like continually showing off us something we will never have. How cruel!

Then, the last straw that broke the camel appeared: the inclusion of the Void Elves from nowhere. Are those Void Elves supposed to be the answer of that long awaited claim? It seems so, confirming that Blizzard loves to laugh at his customers while spiting them in the face: Blizzard humiliates the alliance player-base once again… (Do you remember the promised “fist-pumping moment” of the Alliance in MoP when Dalaran rejoined the Alliance? How long did it last?)

Dear Blizzard, if you have got out the Void Elves of your marvelous ass with the simply purpose of stopping us claiming the High Elves as a playable race for the Alliance you are totally wrong, and what's more, the “novelties” introduced in ‘Battle for Azeroth’ motivate us even more to persevere in our demands as now they are even more valid than before!

We don’t want some Blood Elves traitorous to the Horde and corrupted with void energies… get those polydrug addicted elves where they fit! We want the pure High Elves you don’t stop of showing off to us expansion after expansion! We want the Quel’dorei of the silver unicorn to return to the Alliance again!

For example, these are the most popular excuses people give in order to make us think our claim is impossible to be carried out as well as their corresponding anti-excuses that destroy all of them:

Scarce population / there is not enough high elves so as to they can be a playable race

How many goblins can be aboard a boat? How many pandaren can live over a turtle? How many void elves can Alleria train per hour? In short, numbers don’t matter for Blizzard: if the Void Elves (a limited group of blood elves infested with the void) can be playable, the High Elves even more so!

The same race is already on the horde / that would break the faction identity

What’s the difference between a pandaren of the Horde and another of the Alliance? Is it that Blizzard has been concerned about giving the void elves a new model and animations to distinguish them from the blood elves? Obviously not, because they are the same race, aren’t they? Another barrier crossed!

There are no differences between a High or Blood elf / they are exactly the same except for eye color

Apart from the name, the culture, the demonic taint or lack of it, the colors and hairstyles they wear, their allegiances, the symbols by which they are represented, the mounts they use, their attitude and morality, their main heroes, the necessity of a Sunwell or not, their past experiences, the territories they control… yes, they are exactly the same thing. (Damn! I’ve forgotten the color of their eyes!)

And by the way, would it be possible to represent the very same race or specie by two different models? Would it be very crazy to make an exclusive model with different animations for the high elves? What an outrage would be that! Well, Blizzard has wasted a lot of time and resources doing precisely that: the new Kul Tiras human models. Enjoy very soon the much requested “allied race” for the Alliance: overweight humans!

Honestly, the inclusion of the Void Elves as an "allied race" refutes one by one every possible excuse and shows how it is fully viable for High Elves to be a playable race for the Alliance: perhaps, simply with new voices, lighter colors and some special features like Alleria-style war paintings they could work.

Putting myself in the shoes of Blizzard, I understand that maybe giving them a different "flavor", the High Elves could be playable in the Alliance in an easier way. For that special "flavor", even the void could play a role, but perhaps in a more “high-elfish” way. For instance, I will explain how I would do it:

• Alleria has been able to use the Void to empower herself without being corrupted in the process.
  
  
• Alleria tries the Blood Elves rejoin the Alliance, but she fails. She no longer sees them as her kin.
  
  
• Vereesa tries to prove Alleria that Sylvanas can be redeemed, but she also fails, being used by Sylvanas and killed at the end.
  
  
• Alleria enters full rage and take the leadership of all the High Elves, promising them to recover their former glory and recover Quel’thalas.
  
  
• Alleria train all the high elves at how to use the void to empower themselves, seeing the void not as a way of corruption, but an opportunity to try to balance their position regarding the blood elves, given their lack of Sunwell.
  
  
• The high elves at such disappear, becoming Void Elves, a playable allied race of the Alliance under the leadership of Alleria Windrunner, with void unicorns as their mounts and racial crest.
  
  
• The Void Elves have two forms: the very customizable high elven one (with a skin from pale to bluish color, great array of hair colors and styles, optional war paintings, etc.) and the void form, being able to switch freely between them.

---

Those are my thoughts, but as I have said before, I have no longer hope that Blizzard will do things right, not even for once. I'm glad of heart for all those who are satisfied with those traitorous blood elves converted into junkies of void energy… but for me, I’ll still want the proper High Elves on the Alliance as a playable “allied race”.

Blizzard: This is how you give the Alliance Elves properly.
Northem: Hold my beer son. Sit back, relax, and learn how it's done.

[Combatbutler]

Blizzard: This is how you give the Alliance Elves properly.
Northem: Hold my beer son. Sit back, relax, and learn how it's done.

Or how to not do it, Northem has written so much real bad fanfiction on this site over the years, the epitome of it all was Northeron.

[Teri]

Uuuuuuugh... Blizzard...why...? The Blood Elves are not that judgmental... That is the Alliance, not the blood elves...

After the Wretched and Withered, 2 magical wells (Sunwell/Nightwell), I would think they learned something about power addiction.

Nightborne/Blood elves are closer together in lore now, and after seeing argus' void crazed creatures I suppose it was a clear choice.

They probably would have died/gone crazy anyway if it weren't for Alleria.

[Combatbutler]

After the Wretched and Withered, 2 magical wells (Sunwell/Nightwell), I would think they learned something about power addiction.

That is what the arcandor is for, use the wells and the fruit to disable the negative side effects.

[Teri]

That is what the arcandor is for, use the wells and the fruit to disable the negative side effects.

I know, it cured the nightfallen, but not the fully crazy withered.

We see void-crazed Broken (fell to madness), void-addled Broken (not 100% crazy, and curable) and also ones that got it cured(Void-Purged troops in order hall).

[Combatbutler]

I know, it cured the nightfallen, but not the fully crazy withered.

Yet there won't be withered anymore and those that still exist can be used as shock-troopers. Heck even wretched can most likely be cured with the arcandor.

[Andromedes]

Or how to not do it, Northem has written so much real bad fanfiction on this site over the years, the epitome of it all was Northeron.

If this is bad fanfiction, then blizzard's void elves are 5 year old kid fanfiction, but they can get away with it, because it is their lore.

[Combatbutler]

If this is bad fanfiction, then blizzard's void elves are 5 year old kid fanfiction, but they can get away with it, because it is their lore.

Basically the void elves are really bad lorewise and most of Northem's ideas have been consistently on the very same level. So from my perspective you ask me to saw of my leg with a spoon or a fork.

[Arrashi]

Basically the void elves are really bad lorewise and most of Northem's ideas have been consistently on the very same level. So from my perspective you ask me to saw of my leg with a spoon or a fork.

I will disagree with you here. Blizzard ideas are just bad. Half-assed bad. Northems ideas are....artistic bad. Abstract bad. Wonderfully bad. Give him credit when credit is due.

[DeicideUH]

@Northem

I would hate if the high elves turned into void elves, unless it was something imposed on them rather than a choice. To me, definition of the high elves is that they kept true to their morals, so turning to dark magic now defeats their purpose and instantly makes the blood elves right all along.

So, I was glad when I found out the void elves are actually exiled blood elves. That means the void elves are adding to, rather than subtracting, the population of Alliance elves.

I'd rather see the high elves helping the void elves out of pity, and the void elves in return becoming the elite force/guardians of the high elves.

That way, even if I cannot be a high elf in game, I at least would be fighting for them. I would be their defender. And their story would be continued, now tied together to the void elves' story.

I think the story of the void elves will be very close to those krokul in Mac'aree. They've been touched by the void, lost themselves to madness. In Argus, Alleria tried to help Arkhaan and failed. Now, she would try again with the void elves. This time, however, she will have the knowledge found by Nabiru (the broken that provides us void-purged krokul troops).

[Varx]

The lore reasons are not enough to warrant adding the same exact model to the opposite faction. You guys needs to stop looking at it from a lore perspective and see just how bad it would look from a marketing angle and a game-play angle to give the alliance an existing model and the horde a new one. Yeah sure you guys might be absolutely thrilled but think of all the other alliance players who would feel ripped off expecting a shiny new race and end up with an old one while the horde gets something like Ogres. And no, Allied races don't count as an option when Biologically Belfs and Helfs are the same race. The fel corruption level is no where near the same as green orcs. In fact Belfs have stopped using Fel since the end of TBC so I wouldnt be surprised if blue eyes became a new option for belfs lol. Talk about adding salt to the wound.

With that being said, what would you guys argue if in the upcoming novel it turns out that the elf next to Sylvanas is in fact vareesa and she ends up dying along with the entirety of the Silver Covenant. What would you guys say to justify it then. Honestly I just feel like you guys just like the Belf models so much but despise the Horde, their architecture, and philosophies.

[Andromedes]

The lore reasons are not enough to warrant adding the same exact model to the opposite faction. You guys needs to stop looking at it from a lore perspective and see just how bad it would look from a marketing angle and a game-play angle to give the alliance an existing model and the horde a new one.

All right, lets wait and see how Nightborne and Void elves will turn out. Right now, nightborne dont exist as playable model.. We dont know how much different from night elves they will be. But but, if nightborne are just recolored night elves with few gimmicks like ear decorations, then another excuse falls apart.

[Koryn123]

After the Wretched and Withered, 2 magical wells (Sunwell/Nightwell), I would think they learned something about power addiction.

Nightborne/Blood elves are closer together in lore now, and after seeing argus' void crazed creatures I suppose it was a clear choice.

They probably would have died/gone crazy anyway if it weren't for Alleria.

But Blizzard pretending the Alliance would just welcome them with open arms, when the Alliance is so staunchly Light-worshipping, is just dumb.