Highborne customizations for the Night Elves (NOT High Elves)

[Astranea]

Wait, where was this pic located? That's so cool!

This one specifically appears during the Battle of Zul'jan Ruins, which is part of the Horde War Campaign.

Both the moon necklace and the the pink skin tone being confirmed for the males are something I am hoping to see when the new customization for the night elves finally hits the alpha. :-)

It's funny how a lot of these customization options are already in the game. I wonder if Blizzard considers these ones to be Shen'dralar, or if they will come up with something new like Day Elves lol.

I doubt Blizzard had specific thoughts about their legacy... they may have just thought the lighter skin tones looked best with the specific 'clothing', assuming it can be called such. ;-)

But I believe somewhere in the lore (I should re-check this for sources though, as I just read someone referring this on some wiki page) it is explained that just as some night elf youth trained to became mage, some of the returning Shen'dralar embraced other professions as well. So anything is possible.

And there have always been both Highborne and non-Highborne of all kind of colors anyway. Them being possibly paler was just comment by Brann supported by some types on NPCs, but there have always been exceptions as the Highborne are a cast, and not a subrace... although the Shen'dralar having specifically developed at least a slight difference in their appearance would make sense, considering they have been isolated just as long as it took to create the Nightborne and the High/Blood Elves. :-P

[FossilFree]

This one specifically appears during the Battle of Zul'jan Ruins, which is part of the Horde War Campaign.

Both the moon necklace and the the pink skin tone being confirmed for the males are something I am hoping to see when the new customization for the night elves finally hits the alpha. :-)



I doubt Blizzard had specific thoughts about their legacy... they may have just thought the lighter skin tones looked best with the specific 'clothing', assuming it can be called such. ;-)

But I believe somewhere in the lore (I should re-check this for sources though, as I just read someone referring this on some wiki page) it is explained that just as some night elf youth trained to became mage, some of the returning Shen'dralar embraced other professions as well. So anything is possible.

And there have always been both Highborne and non-Highborne of all kind of colors anyway. Them being possibly paler was just comment by Brann supported by some types on NPCs, but there have always been exceptions as the Highborne are a cast, and not a subrace... although the Shen'dralar having specifically developed at least a slight difference in their appearance would make sense, considering they have been isolated just as long as it took to create the Nightborne and the High/Blood Elves. :-P

Good to know, I'll have to hunt them down and check it out in game.

What was the exact context of these NPCs in the Battle of Zul'jan ruins? I did the quest once, but I don't remember if it said anything about them being Night Elves, Shen'dralar, or just generic "Alliance" (tbh I didn't even notice them but was in a hurry to unlock ARs).

[Astranea]

What was the exact context of these NPCs in the Battle of Zul'jan ruins?

Just totally generic Alliance NPCs named Night Elf Sentinels. :-)

[FossilFree]

Just totally generic Alliance NPCs named Night Elf Sentinels. :-)

That must mean Blizzard has been planning this for some time already. Now I just can't wait to hear which data-mined options are official so I can start planning some SL toons!

[Astranea]

Am I the only one raising an eyebrow at the different ear choices given to the Blood Elves listed on Wowhead and wondering if the Night Elves may be getting something similar as well?

Surely, they could be just NPC assets... but I remain curious, as I've been hoping for some kind of ear customization for the Night Elves since I started this thread.

As I pointed out many times to those claiming it was a silly idea, I am aware that even though the statues in many Vanilla locations displayed upwards ears this is generally considered due to Blizzard not having yet established the lore about the transition between the Night and High/Blood Elves at the time... But despite of this retcon, since the choice of ears IS a feature for all other races with big ones, I always thought it was not too crazy to hope for such a feature for the Night Elves, despite of also believing it was very unlikely to happen.

Seeing it happen with the Blood Elves is therefore an astounding, and intriguing, welcome addition.

I seriously can't wait to see the load of additions for the Night Elves when they finally hit alpha... considering the amount of stuff being added for other races, there must be PLENTY more to come for them, too! :-D

[Hellspawn]

I'm kind of not sure if at least the tiniest ear choice is a bit too much (or to little). The giant elf ears is for me a flavour of the warcraft elves. Personally I would prefer nightborn style ear jewelry to different ear sizes.

[Astranea]

I'm kind of not sure if at least the tiniest ear choice is a bit too much (or to little).

It is strikingly small, and one DOES have to wonder if it may be a NPC asset, aye. Guess time will show!

The giant elf ears is for me a flavour of the warcraft elves. Personally I would prefer nightborn style ear jewelry to different ear sizes.

Oh yes, priority to the jewelry, for sure! I just see no harm in slightly different ears... I mean, if a player do not like them, they can just keep using the old model.

But if they also add ear options, I would hope for a more elegant shape for the male night elves, as the one they have now feels somewhat chunky compared to the females.

[Moonrage]

I personally don't care about smaller ears for Night Elves. Warcraft Elves are known for their giant ears. What I would like is jewelry for female (and maybe male too?) Night elves, just like the Blood Elves. I really like the tiara, necklaces and earrings that have been datamined for Blood Elves.

- - - Updated - - -

Also this hairstyle for both male and female Night Elves



I'm happy to see female Blood Elves got some long hair options too. Up until now they didn't have any that were super long.

[Astranea]

I personally don't care about smaller ears for Night Elves. Warcraft Elves are known for their giant ears.

Oh, yes! Do not get me wrong there. While I would welcome Night Elf ear options, I would never expect or hope for them to be smaller.

I just was hoping for slightly different shapes or tilt.

To me, small ears for the Night Elves would look... just odd... but then again, in the end we know it is always Blizzard’s choice.
I just think I would NOT use a small ear option on my Night Elves. ^^

[Yarathir]

I honestly want a bunch of jewellery (including in the ears) for night elves more than I want ear shapes or sizes.

I would like ear shapes for trolls though.

[ravenmoon]

I honestly want a bunch of jewellery (including in the ears) for night elves more than I want ear shapes or sizes.

I would like ear shapes for trolls though.

yeh, to be honest , I'm fine with NElf ears atm, I think they look good, I like how they were fixed after objections in 6.0, the intiial pass was horrible, but they've turned into one of the nicest features of NElves, in particular males who don't have much nice going for them.

Now troll ear variation, that is a good idea, noticed how vol'jin had different ears, and we see troll male and females having different ears, trolls in other medium like box cover art, comics, posters, website publications that don't use in-game models actually have different ears. SO tbh, it makes sense for them to have this variation.

Lore wise too, with all the variations of trolls out there, it would make sense that their ears had been different.

[Mace]

Liking the new jewelry for blood elves, hoping we can see more of this on the nigh elves

[ravenmoon]

Anyone else noticed how they're sharing a lot more now between void elves and blood elves? I hope they will do the same for night elves and Nightborne who stand to both gain in the exchange.


I would love to see Night elf and Nightborne also share some things.. especially each others body size. and pose


I see in Night elves, the Nightborne representing a half of the night elf, so the caster/priest types can have the Nightborne body size and stance, while the warriors, meleers of each share each others'

[Hellspawn]

Anyone else noticed how they're sharing a lot more now between void elves and blood elves? I hope they will do the same for night elves and Nightborne who stand to both gain in the exchange.


I would love to see Night elf and Nightborne also share some things.. especially each others body size. and pose


I see in Night elves, the Nightborne representing a half of the night elf, so the caster/priest types can have the Nightborne body size and stance, while the warriors, meleers of each share each others'

They there so much because its the same Model. With Night Elf and Nightborn thats not the case, I think they might share the same polygons but the night born model pretty heavily modified. So depending on the customization some stuff can be shared, other things would need modifications (for example bringing night born ear jewelry would need modifications to fit the night elf model.

[Astranea]

I really do hope we get to see more options for the Night Elves soon...

But I think what Blizzard did for Void and Blood Elves was the best compromise they could come up with at this point, AND it makes me very hopeful about them sharing some features in between Nightborne and Night Elves as well.

Or at the very least, now nobody will be entitled to tell us that the Night Elves cannot have certain colors only based on the assumption that they should be restricted to the Nightborne. ;-)

[Beloren]

They there so much because its the same Model. With Night Elf and Nightborn thats not the case, I think they might share the same polygons but the night born model pretty heavily modified. So depending on the customization some stuff can be shared, other things would need modifications (for example bringing night born ear jewelry would need modifications to fit the night elf model.

Ah yes on the jewelry bit, but then if they are adding that stuff to existing models now, it's likely they'll just do it on both of them - which means we'll have more options for


regarding the nightborne model, does that matter how modified it is though? It's a minor thing and if you have body shape slider you are literally giving the night elf model to nightborne with just the ears modified and not requiring any adjustments - night elves are already in game

Same with the nightborne, regardless of how many models and textures added or not, it's just a matter of swapping in the model, and doing a version with night elf ears - it's not rebuilding a new model at all. It's the easiest thing to do. As for the modificaiotns, they are goign to have to add jewwelry toptions to both nightborne and night elves, as well as skin tones so you just do all in one go.

It also implies that all the night elf hairstyles can be available to nightborne and vice versa, opening it up. They just need to decide whether they want to do that - Nightborne have essentially always been night elves at near starving capacity. they just change the ears - remember Legion beta the nightborne females had night elf ears, it's not hard to imagine that now they have access to proper food and water, and are being healed of the nightwell abnormalities some are going to look like night elves again but with different ears.

I was reading a similar thing earlier on, where i think either Mace or Ravenmoon was saying they can mostly share same assets, except for green hair on Nightborne and upturned ear tips on night elves. I think if they do that it would mean a lot of new options for Nightborne because they will essentially be filling a lot of night elf skin tones on them, which they are going to have to do at a later date anyway, meanwhile if they're giving the body type to the night elf, they'll have to give the night elf skin tones and eye colour, hairstyles etc to it, which makes it possible for the Nightborne to have more options. Meanwhile you just port the Nelf model over for the body type change with modified ears.

[Hellspawn]

*snip*

Textures you can share but everything 3D related would need some adjustment. Personally I think unless they now start to add options to all main-race related Allied Races they will leave everyone else untouched. They really only did minimal work to add the high elf options to void elfs, the skins actually still using the blood elf underwear. So personally I would not get my hope up for sharing more stuff between them.

[Astranea]

It has been a while since any new features for the Night Elves were datamined, so I played a bit with Photoshop to see what additional colors we could get for the facial markings (obviously on both males of females, although I only edited the females as it was much easier).

How about: pink, blue, light blue, gold, orange, white and black?

I am mostly fond of black and white, while I am most uncertain about gold and orange, although I figure they could still make sense matched with golden eyes and/or the new auburn hair color.

Most of the shapes are either from the current game files or based on them, with the exceptions of the last two which were inspired by the minimalist markings Azshara displays in the Warbringers video and the theme of the Night Warriors.

I am obviously assuming that all shapes should be available in every color and separated from skin/hair color, but I don't think you really need me to create a different preview file of headcanon options. :-P

Enjoy... I hope. ;-)

[shoc]

There's 10,000 years of difference between Night Elves and Nightborne.

There's a 1 year of difference between a Blood Elf and a Void Elf.

I want Nightborne to get better looking eyes but I don't think there's any logic to giving them Night Elf features and vice versa.

[Lahis]

There's 10,000 years of difference between Night Elves and Nightborne.

There's a 1 year of difference between a Blood Elf and a Void Elf.

I want Nightborne to get better looking eyes but I don't think there's any logic to giving them Night Elf features and vice versa.

Physical features and the Nightwell induced arcane tattoos, no.

The jewelry is something we could give to Night Elves. Nightborne culture is ancient Highborne culture, and jewels are part of culture, not biology.