How would you feel if Night Elves and Blood Elves switched factions?

[ThePallyRanger]

The Horde is more naturey and wild, and the Alliance is more institutional and industrialized. I think thematically, it wouldn't be a stretch to say they would fit.

And if they did switch, the Night Elves could roam freely across Kalimdor again, and it would end the faction war since both factions would be more or less continent-locked.

But that's not what I'm getting at.

Hypothetical: Suppose for whatever reason they switch factions. If it made sense lore-wise, would you be okay with it?

[Deleted]

The Horde is more naturey and wild, and the Alliance is more institutional and industrialized. I think thematically, it wouldn't be a stretch to say they would fit.

And if they did switch, the Night Elves could roam freely across Kalimdor again, and it would end the faction war since both factions would be more or less continent-locked.

But that's not what I'm getting at.

Hypothetical: Suppose for whatever reason they switch factions. If it made sense lore-wise, would you be okay with it?

Its ok for me, I'm not huge fan of elves, and hate the Belves. I prefer Humans and Dwarves.

[Spichora]

After burning their home and slaughtering so much of their population I doubt that Night Elves would even consider the thought of joining the Horde! Thats your lore explanation.

[ThePallyRanger]

After burning their home and slaughtering so much of their population I doubt that Night Elves would even consider the thought of joining the Horde! Thats your lore explanation.

Well this is a hypothetical. Suppose the lore is such that it does make sense, and they do switch. How would you feel about it?

[Friendlyimmolation]

Wouldn’t enjoy it to be sure and the retcons and changing of characters /story to justify it would be absurd

[Nathasil]

Night Elves should have been Horde in classic, Forsaken should have been Alliance (with exactly the narrative used in the BTS novel now) - but they were not; now it is too late, ESPECIALLY with the way BFA starts. It's not just Sylvanas who destroyes their homeland...all of the Horde is to blame for that.

So no, i don't think it could possibly work that way after BFA prelude. What i can definetly see is factions disappearing completely at the end of BFA and at some later points Blood Elves becoming High Elves again officially.

Edit:
Ignoring EVERYTHING that ever happened and just saying how i would feel about it? It would definetly be better for the motive of the factions AND for the motive of the two races as well. Giving the "Nature" and "Preserve the wilds" motive to the Horde in contrast to the "civilisation" motive of the Alliance would be EXACTLY what this game needs to create conflict in a non racist way. It would have been great for the whole narrative of WoW. But Blizzard did not chose that path and instead went for strict racism as the only thing to drive faction conflict in WoW - which at the end of the day makes everybody who enjoys the faction conflict look racist.....which is not good for the game. It did not have to be that way.

[Noomz]

The Horde is more naturey and wild, and the Alliance is more institutional and industrialized. I think thematically, it wouldn't be a stretch to say they would fit.

And if they did switch, the Night Elves could roam freely across Kalimdor again, and it would end the faction war since both factions would be more or less continent-locked.

But that's not what I'm getting at.

Hypothetical: Suppose for whatever reason they switch factions. If it made sense lore-wise, would you be okay with it?

There is absolutely zero reason for the Nelfs to join the Horde now that the same Horde will have fucking burned half their territory.

[Deleted]

Well this is a hypothetical. Suppose the lore is such that it does make sense, and they do switch. How would you feel about it?

Then what are we even discussing? Do you mean that the lore should be retconned so that night elves would fit in the horde and blood elves in the alliance and then make a switch? Or are we discussing that FROM THE START the switched factions would have been a better choice? Because neither of those would make sense in my eyes.

Trying to make some sense of the discussion, if we 100% ignore all world of warcraft lore and just discuss the logistics of making a faction swap of two races in an rpg. I think that might be an interesting story concept and it would be interesting to see the story unfold after the swap. But just imagine people who play night elves with their friends on alliance and then suddenly are horde. And imagine everyone who supports the alliance for lore reasons and wants to stay in that faction. I dont think this could be done in a good way

[LoLcano]

Thats like asking what if Jew joined Hitler in WW2 .

[Arrashi]

Why would horde want night losers ?

Also, blood elves can't join the alliance. High elven threads must go on....forever.

[Nathasil]

Why would horde want night losers ?

Also, blood elves can't join the alliance. High elven threads must go on....forever.

Maybe because the Horde went into WoW as a loser-faction? Horde won WC1, Alliance won WC2, WC3 had neither faction. So it would be a great fit.

Oh, and Blood Elves went into WoW as the biggest losers ever, on a racial basis. Why did the Horde want them?

[ThePallyRanger]

Then what are we even discussing? Do you mean that the lore should be retconned so that night elves would fit in the horde and blood elves in the alliance and then make a switch? Or are we discussing that FROM THE START the switched factions would have been a better choice? Because neither of those would make sense in my eyes.

Trying to make some sense of the discussion, if we 100% ignore all world of warcraft lore and just discuss the logistics of making a faction swap of two races in an rpg. I think that might be an interesting story concept and it would be interesting to see the story unfold after the swap. But just imagine people who play night elves with their friends on alliance and then suddenly are horde. And imagine everyone who supports the alliance for lore reasons and wants to stay in that faction. I dont think this could be done in a good way

Suppose instead of BfA happening as we know it, Devs changed things and made Nelves Horde post-Legion.

[owbu]

I like this idea. Tauren and Nelfs would fit together much better than most other races. And neither of them has shown a ton of loyality or interest into their respective institution.

[TheRagebear]

Why would horde want night losers ?

Also, blood elves can't join the alliance. High elven threads must go on....forever.

To be fair if the night elves were Horde then they would win every fight and somehow be better than the blood elves at magic. Bias does wonders.

[AcidicSyn]

Night Elves should have been Horde in classic, Forsaken should have been Alliance (with exactly the narrative used in the BTS novel now) - but they were not; now it is too late, ESPECIALLY with the way BFA starts. It's not just Sylvanas who destroyes their homeland...all of the Horde is to blame for that.

This. Though with the undead being undead, I am not sure how the story would have made sense if the humans were suddenly okay with the Forsaken being among them; they could have addressed this in a pretty similar way it was addressed for them joining the Horde. Have someone on the Alliance champion their cause, essentially sponsering them the same way the Tauren effectively sponsered the forsaken joining the horde. In hindsight; Vareesa could have been that character with her connection to Sylvanas; making it a positive relationship over what it became.

As for the Night Elves; no explanation is even needed. It made perfect sense for the Night Elves to be friendly with Thralls horde, especially considering Grommash was dead by then. They already had acceptable; if not outright friendly relations with the Tauren too. They would of course have been the odd-group-out, Thrall having to work with Tyrande and Malfurion to address the damage to Ashenvale caused by the Warsong during first contact; but that could have been used as an interesting story point for the horde story.

It would have been an interesting story, Horde taking the more "Nature's Wrath" kind of approach which Thralls horde absolutely fit and the Alliance taking the industrial approach. I would have enjoyed this direction; but it would definitely have been pretty far removed from the original horde; which I think Blizzard decided to try and capture more of instead.




But again; that would ONLY have worked at the beginning. Now? Impossible. Even if you replace BFA, still impossible. We'd have to go back to probably Wrath (at minimum) for that kind of switch to work.

[ello]

The Horde is more naturey and wild, and the Alliance is more institutional and industrialized.

Maybe in WC3.

Since WoW launched the Horde has added dead Humans, two brands of Elves, Goblins(arguably the most industrialized race in the game) and now more industrialized Orc sects. The Horde as a whole was mechanized quite a bit during Garrosh's reign(but randomly regressed in WoD for some reason).

I don't want this game to be cowboys vs Indians. That's boring.

[Haven]

To be fair if the night elves were Horde then they would win every fight and somehow be better than the blood elves at magic. Bias does wonders.

But then their racial leader would either randomly became a loot pinata because faction conflict, or died like a bitch. Or he'd just be Anduin's bitch like Baine.

[Arrashi]

To be fair if the night elves were Horde then they would win every fight and somehow be better than the blood elves at magic. Bias does wonders.

Ah, the good old "horde bias" argument never gets old.

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Maybe because the Horde went into WoW as a loser-faction? Horde won WC1, Alliance won WC2, WC3 had neither faction. So it would be a great fit.

But according to that alliance and horde are equal....

Oh, and Blood Elves went into WoW as the biggest losers ever, on a racial basis. Why did the Horde want them?

I dunno, they had pretty dank lore. And think about it - alliance still wants them, despite them being part of horde for 12 years. So there must be something.

[Nathasil]

This. Though with the undead being undead, I am not sure how the story would have made sense if the humans were suddenly okay with the Forsaken being among them; they could have addressed this in a pretty similar way it was addressed for them joining the Horde. Have someone on the Alliance champion their cause, essentially sponsering them the same way the Tauren effectively sponsered the forsaken joining the horde. In hindsight; Vareesa could have been that character with her connection to Sylvanas; making it a positive relationship over what it became.

As for the Night Elves; no explanation is even needed. It made perfect sense for the Night Elves to be friendly with Thralls horde, especially considering Grommash was dead by then. They already had acceptable; if not outright friendly relations with the Tauren too. They would of course have been the odd-group-out, Thrall having to work with Tyrande and Malfurion to address the damage to Ashenvale caused by the Warsong during first contact; but that could have been used as an interesting story point for the horde story.

It would have been an interesting story, Horde taking the more "Nature's Wrath" kind of approach which Thralls horde absolutely fit and the Alliance taking the industrial approach. I would have enjoyed this direction; but it would definitely have been pretty far removed from the original horde; which I think Blizzard decided to try and capture more of instead.




But again; that would ONLY have worked at the beginning. Now? Impossible. Even if you replace BFA, still impossible. We'd have to go back to probably Wrath (at minimum) for that kind of switch to work.

And to add one more thing:
I know today a LOT of players on Horde love their pretty Blood Elves. But nobody back in classic would have argued Blood Elves have a place in the Horde...they simply don't fit and water the motive of the Horde down to a point where it is really difficult to even make out a motive at all (the same is somewhat true for Alliance + Nelves). The Horde was "better" without the Blood Elves. That's just my oppinion, of course. The only reason Blood Elves were given to the Horde in TBC was the increasing player shift towards the "pretty" faction. I believe that to be a simple fact - it was also confirmed by multiple developer interviews that this was the main reason. If you look at realmpop you will notice there are three really popular races in WoW: Blood Elves, Humans and, yes, Night Elves.
So, to get to the point: If Horde would have had Night Elves in Classic, they would have NEVER needed to water down the motive of the Horde with Blood Elves. Night Elves would have been "pretty" enough and their motive fits FAR better into the Horde than Blood Elves.

As for the Paladin/Shaman thing that was also part of the probem in TBC...there would have been other solutions for this. But it would have been a totally different world, anyway, since Alliance would not have had Druids. So there would have been far more things to shift around than just these two classes.

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I dunno, they had pretty dank lore. And think about it - alliance still wants them, despite them being part of horde for 12 years. So there must be something.

Maybe because ALL playable races in WoW are "loser races" and both factions are loser factions? Which in turn makes everyone a winner as well. Think about it!

[PuppetShowJustice]

I'd quit. My Night Elf has served the Alliance aggressively since vanilla. If I wanted to be Horde I would be.