Maybe, but that's void elf customisation. And a Void Elf with high elf skin tones is still a Void Elf.
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Given the Alliance high elf fantasy is the Blood Elf fantasy, except on the Alliance side, you keep missing the flaw in your statement. Everyone knows the distinction between the two groups.
The problem is that it's an insignificant distinction.
Just like Wildhammers and Dark Trolls are here, don't believe people will care. Someone coming up to them to say "but you're still a mountain dwarf!/you're still darkspear!" won't matter.
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Not sure why you keep strawmanning then. Glad to see I don't need to repeat myself.
Main thing I wanted to point out with that is that "Blood Elves getting blue eyes cuz they're high elves" (as some will say) isn't why they're getting it.
They're just getting it because Blizzard's intended goal is to increase customization options.
Just like Night Elves getting orange, green, blue etc eyes. NE aren't getting them "because of lore reasons", they just are because increased customizations are all about providing lots more options.
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Yup exactly.
Wildhammer Dwarves aren't playable, Dark Trolls aren't playable etc. None of these options infringe on a playable races. You know what hasn't been datamined?
Zandalari skins. Dark Iron Dwarf skins. And why? Because they already exist as playable options and giving those skins to their parent races undermines the point of them.
This high elf like skintone on Void Elves request fails on the same principle. The fact that the Blood Elves who possess that aesthetic are on the other faction is actually an extra impediment, not an aid, in the consideration of that request.
Not a strawman at all. You just keep arguing as if that distinction actually means something. So some high elves are Alliance. 'So what?' is the sentiment I am trying to convey.
Of course that is why they would be getting blue eyes, simply to expand customisation options. The sole physical differentiation cited by pro High Elfers for years will be demonstrated to have been an irrelevance. I don't believe there is any further consideration necessary for blue eyes beyond that.
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Not my sentiment at all, just one I share in. Their Alliance identity was cited by Ion during the 2018 rejection as being part of what isn't enough to justify them as an allied race of their own. That you keep arguing it is important despite it being cited as not enough is the problem.
Yep, for all races, and eventually, undoubtedly allied races who are sorely lacking (looking at you Nightborne with THREE options for hairstyles) and will definitely not be excluded over Shadowlands' life cycle when subsequent patches will need new features to keep players interested.
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That quote is two years old. Let it go, things are obviously changing and Shadowlands is indicative of new creative directions. If you want to keep spewing the same nonsense even as every new bit and detail of information from Alpha is released, that's your prerogative but it's becoming an exercise in obsession and futility. You're starting to fight the waves here and when Allied Race get their turn at customize options, you'll be drowning in Ion's words from 2018.
Given not two hours ago you were heralding purple skinned blood elves as the harbingers of the homogenization of all elves, I question your ability to divine developer intent from the few scraps of information we have. Until such time as they repudiate what they said on Blood Elves being high elves, the fact that comment is two years old is irrelevant. It counts. As does every comment on this topic for the past decade and a half.
Yeah, you might be right in it being unique to Kael, but it looks like that same person who found the skin textures has also dug up blue eyes (as well as other cool colours like purple and red) that are likely going to be for the blood elves (The one gold and grey one looks cool! Might be for Lor'themar-esque face scars!).
I'm really hoping we see some striking prime colour Farstrider-style tattoos as well! Something I've wanted for ages (along with Wildhammer ink!)! Combine the tattoos and blue eyes and I might retroactively start thinking of my hunter as one of the Allerian expeditions elves who decided to join the blood elven fold as opposed to maintaining ties with the Alliance back on Azeroth.
The larger skin tone spectrum is not something I for one am particularly supportive of. I'm all for a realistic range of Azerothian human skin tones because, like in our world, humans in Azeroth live in a wide variety of climates, but the high elves have lived in a single contained northerly kingdom for millennia - likely with very few generations between Dath'remar and contemporary Quel'Thalas. I suppose you could explain it as different shades of Kaldorei Highborne families developing differently once the Quel'dorei phenotype was properly established though.
It doesn't bother me enough to complain about it much either. Especially if it's going to make people happy.