Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Lahis]

They basically just seem like the Void Elf equivalent of golden eyes.

Makes sense.

Blood Elves are powered by Arcane and Light. Light gives golden eyes.
Void Elves are powered by Arcane and Void. Void gives purple features.

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Looks like Theron is more concerned with getting laid than ruling Quel'thalas.

I believe a change of regime is in order.

#HailQueenAlleria
#MakeQuel'thalasGreatAgain

Dude takes two days off first time in years and already some asshole is trying to question his work ethic.

[Varodoc]

Makes sense.

Blood Elves are powered by Arcane and Light. Light gives golden eyes.
Void Elves are powered by Arcane and Void. Void gives purple features.

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Dude takes two days off first time in years and already some asshole is trying to question his work ethic.

You are right, the poor guy needs a vacation. Brainwashing any dissident must take a lot of effort.

[ddi2]

to the question about high elves........

Thats like me asking for a apple and you saying...nope we only have a fruit that grows from a tree, fell on newtons head and the nickname for new york share's a bit of the name...aka the big...apple....

Except for the fact that in that interview Ion spoke about High Elves as a different group... Even told that there are no plans to add them to the game. Which would be especially weird if he meant that High Elves are in the Horde. I mean, I am pretty sure he is aware that Blood Elves are a playable Horde race, don't you think?

And if I say purple-skinned, dark-haired, glowing-eyed elves, it doesn't mean I am talking about Night Elves. I might be talking about Nightborne. Races can share many traits, especially if they are very closely related.

[Broflake]

that's exactly what I meant in "blue eyes in the Purge of Dalaran"

Also brightsun and firebough aren't Horde, they're neutral pirates/privateers; if they were Horde they would be openly hostile to the Alliance PC - just as how the Quel'lithians are friendly to the Alliance but aren't Alliance

You're right about steelweaver however, but that makes him an extreme minority that Ion only granted access in Shadowlands

No they aren't, they both give horde only quests, and they HATE the alliance. I don't believe you've done the quest. Nor did I state they were horde, just that they were not alliance.

The sunreaver assassins/captains are also present in the fights prior to MoP' throne of thunder.
You also have lanesh and several other NPC's who are blue eyed high elves.

The fact of the matter is that, it was never a high elf exclusve.
Let alone it cant be exclusive if its on an NPC that is unplayable for the alliance.

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Except for the fact that in that interview Ion spoke about High Elves as a different group... Even told that there are no plans to add them to the game. Which would be especially weird if he meant that High Elves are in the Horde. I mean, I am pretty sure he is aware that Blood Elves are a playable Horde race, don't you think?

And if I say purple-skinned, dark-haired, glowing-eyed elves, it doesn't mean I am talking about Night Elves. I might be talking about Nightborne. Races can share many traits, especially if they are very closely related.

Well you need to understand.

There is a difference between referring to the high elf political group, which you and Ion refer, and the High elf RACIAL group.
The racial group is one that both the high elf and blood elf group both belong. Thalassians.
Hence, when someone says blood elves are high elves, they aren't wrong. They are by all means correct, and this is supported by the devs and story.

on the other hand, the high elves now, are political and not horde affiliated currently. That is the one that you want.
It is why I don't understand why many helfers go "BLOOD ELVES ARENT HIGH ELVES" when it is clear what people are referring to when they say it.
They speak of racial group, not political.

[Maljinwo]

Looks like Theron is more concerned with getting laid than ruling Quel'thalas.

I believe a change of regime is in order.

#HailQueenAlleria
#MakeQuel'thalasGreatAgain

Alleria? The one who abandoned her city because she was more concerned with getting laid with a human?

[Garfurion]

Yes...yes they do. It is stated the high elves always had the knowledge of drawing magic from objects, but that they never knew how to do it to a living being which is what Illidan taught them.

Yes...yes it does. Your racial abilities are essentially your innate birth abilities. Both blood elves and high elves are the samepeople with a difference in only name and political views.

If Mana Tap is an innate birth ability why did they have to learn it from Illidan as you stated above.

If Mana Tap is an innate birth ability, and Illidan taught it to the Blood Elves, does that mean Illidan is/was a Blood Elf ?

If Mana Tap was an innate birth ability how come Blood Elves can no longer use it ? Are they now a different race then they were in TBC ?

That is because void elves were transformed by the void and they no longer can use such an ability. Arcne torrent is its own type of magic.

If that is true then please name/link a lore source for that. Otherwise it's just your personal beliefs and not official canon lore.

There is no information in the encclopedia stating they never used mana tap. They never used mana tap on living things which was the point of contention.

As far as I recall Mana Tap didn't work on stones or plants. Could you please name/link a source stating Mana Tap worked to suck mana from non-living objects.

NPC's dont use racials dude. That is a false argument

Pathaleon the Calculator is an NPC and uses both Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent.

THey've replaced the mass majority of their body Unless you're saying it makes sense for gnomes to have the omnipurpose tool derived from mechanical arms?

As you write Mechagnomes have replaced a major part of their body with mechanical constructs...yet it is the "normal" gnomes who have an engineering specialization racial trait. It seems strange that Mechagnomes lost their engineering skills after replacing parts of their body with mechanically engineered parts. Do you have a lore source explaining how the Mechagnomes lost their engineering skills ?

They're literally called racials for a reason.

Racial abilities are used by Blizzard to make the different races more unique. It doesn't mean that acquiring a certain ability automatically changes your race.

If being able to drain mana from living beings makes you a Blood Elf then Illidan Stormrage is/was a Blood Elf.

Certainly there are cultural aspects, but those for the blood elves represent innate abilities used to take advantage of what they can already do.
Let alone it has been statedhigh elves can mana tap, the only difference is they wont do it on aliving thing, not that they will not use it on magical bjects (which they have).

Being able to consume mana from objects is not the same as Mana Tap. Mana Tap was used specifically on living beings and official lore states High Elves didn't drain mana from living beings.

Blood Elves are High Elves (the species) but they are not the only flavor of High Elves. There are other flavors of High Elves like the ones in Quel'Danil Lodge, the Silver Covenant, the Alliance Expedition and High Elves aligned with neither the Horde or Alliance. High Elven racials should match the theme of the entire High Elven species, not just the Blood Elves.

Btw, according to Ion Hazzikostas Void Elves are also a flavor of High Elves.

[shoc]

There's only one racial group, High Elf. Blood Elf is a political label. Void Elf isn't a political label, its defined by the power they harbor, that causes them to be literal threat to the integrity of the Sunwell, and therefore an existential threat to Silvermoon.

This is such pedantic BS that I'm embarrassed to have typed it

[Garfurion]

Alleria? The one who abandoned her city because she was more concerned with getting laid with a human?

No the one who was smart enough to realize the danger the Horde posed in WC2, unlike the High Elven Leadership, and managed to save Silvermoon at the head of an Alliance army when Eversong Woods was already burning as a result of the Horde invasion. The getting laid part didn't happen until later.

[Broflake]

If Mana Tap is an innate birth ability why did they have to learn it from Illidan as you stated above.

If Mana Tap is an innate birth ability, and Illidan taught it to the Blood Elves, does that mean Illidan is/was a Blood Elf ?

If Mana Tap was an innate birth ability how come Blood Elves can no longer use it ? Are they now a different race then they were in TBC ?

You have arms and legs, does that mean you immediately know jiu jitsu or tae kwan do or how to box?
You can throw a fist, but does that mean you're doing it the right way?
This is essentially the case with the high elf race. In blood of the highborne they blood elves are using magic crystal to draw sustenance.
They did not know how to draw it from living things which are greater reservoirs of magic.

If that is true then please name/link a lore source for that. Otherwise it's just your personal beliefs and not official canon lore.

If you press P, then go to General, you'll see your racial abilities are different from a blood elves. Hence...racial ability.
Arcane torrent is also an ability meant to release pent up energy gained through mana tap.
The sunwell essentially replaced mana tap's purpose, so all they're doing is using torrent.
Void elves don't have a connection to the sunwell, ergo, no arcane torrent.

Two sources.

As far as I recall Mana Tap didn't work on stones or plants. Could you please name/link a source stating Mana Tap worked to suck mana from non-living objects.

Blood of the highborne where and quel'lithien high elves who wished to only draw magic from artifacts and magical stones.
It is also mentioned in shadows of the sun where the high elves mentioned they were using artifacts to draw energy.
Valeera also uses her mana tap ability on fel daggers iirc.

Pathaleon the Calculator is an NPC and uses both Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent.

Pathaleon is a boss NPC. I am not sure you wish to count him given that Illidan is a demon hunter, and yet he does a bunch of abilities PC's can't.

As you write Mechagnomes have replaced a major part of their body with mechanical constructs...yet it is the "normal" gnomes who have an engineering specialization racial trait. It seems strange that Mechagnomes lost their engineering skills after replacing parts of their body with mechanically engineered parts. Do you have a lore source explaining how the Mechagnomes lost their engineering skills ?

They didn't lose it, it went to omnipurpose arm. They swapped a living limb for one that is a tool.

Racial abilities are used by Blizzard to make the different races more unique. It doesn't mean that acquiring a certain ability automatically changes your race.

You're right, the entire recruitement quest along with ALleria's storyline explains it. The racial abilities are just icing to the cake to explain it.

If being able to drain mana from living beings makes you a Blood Elf then Illidan Stormrage is/was a Blood Elf.

Being able to drain mana from living things is part of what makes you a blood elf. Just the emerald dream is part of what makes you a night elf. It is not alone, but the sum of its parts.

Being able to consume mana from objects is not the same as Mana Tap. Mana Tap was used specifically on living beings and official lore states High Elves didn't drain mana from living beings.

Yes, yes it is because the high elves of quel'lithien learned it. Mana tapping is purely the ability to draw from objects or living things.
Let alone the official lore states that the high elves who retained their name, not the high elves who changed their name, didn't tap living things. It says nothing about them tapping objects.

Blood Elves are High Elves (the species) but they are not the only flavor of High Elves.

not denying it, but they are the only ones playable that haven't been changed to a different species.

There are other flavors of High Elves like the ones in Quel'Danil Lodge, the Silver Covenant, the Alliance Expedition and High Elves aligned with neither the Horde or Alliance. High Elven racials should match the theme of the entire High Elven species, not just the Blood Elves.

It would match the blood elves because they represent the mass majority of the high elf species.

Btw, according to Ion Hazzikostas Void Elves are also a flavor of High Elves.

Grapes and Apples are both fruit, that doesn't mean they are the same species.

BLood elves are the original high elf species.
Void elves WERE the species.
He isn't wrong in calling them different flavors of the species when it can meanv oid elves are a sub species.
Sort of how fel blood elves were a sub species.

[Thalassian Bob]

My Void Elf Mage is so going to have purple eyes, Belf skin and purple hair.

My Blood Elf Mage is so going to have blue eyes, Belf skin and the new ponytail in blonde.

This is the closest I get to them I think, but used the Blood Elf options on the "Velf" too.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/61GEd1x.jpg[/MG][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/9nyh3BH.jpg[/MG]
Didn't find purple hair on the Blood Elf, but it's the closest I could find to purple. And I will also use a bit different hair style on my Void Elf.

They are both going to look very pretty!

Here's what my boiz are almost going to look like:



My blood elven farstrider (who either steered clear from the fel crystals or is a prodigal Allerian Stronghold returnee) who's going to be rocking blue eyes, that new brown hair colour and probably the new full beard (\o/) and my void elf magister who is going to be pale, blue or purple-eyed and probably using hair colour 8 silver unless some more natural colours are going to be added as soon as SL goes live.

[shoc]

High Elf = High Elf
Blood Elf = High Elf
Fel Blood Elf = High Elf
Crack Elf = High Elf
Void Elf = High Elf
Fair Skinned Void Elf = High Elf

[ddi2]

Well you need to understand.

There is a difference between referring to the high elf political group, which you and Ion refer, and the High elf RACIAL group.
The racial group is one that both the high elf and blood elf group both belong. Thalassians.
Hence, when someone says blood elves are high elves, they aren't wrong. They are by all means correct, and this is supported by the devs and story.

on the other hand, the high elves now, are political and not horde affiliated currently. That is the one that you want.
It is why I don't understand why many helfers go "BLOOD ELVES ARENT HIGH ELVES" when it is clear what people are referring to when they say it.
They speak of racial group, not political.

And I can say the same exact thing - I don't understand why many anti-helfers go "BLOOD ELVES ARE HIGH ELVES" when it is clear what people are referring to when they say it.

Also, Blood Elves being racially High Elves is nothing more than a forum circlejerk. Nowhere in the game is the race referred as High Elves. Never do the devs refer to the Thalassian race as High Elves. It's pretty simple, High Elves and Blood Elves are of one race. At some point all members of this race referred to themselves as High Elves. Then a group of these people started to refer to themselves as Blood Elves instead while a different group continued to call themselves as High Elves. For the entirety of WoW Blood Elves and High Elves are treated as separate people. How they are separate doesn't actually matter, politically, racially, whatever. But Blood elves are never called High Elves and vice versa. It's just not a thing. Blood Elves are a high elf fantasy trope but they are not High Elves of WoW, those are a different group of elves that also represent the same trope.

So when people say Blood Elves aren't High Elves, this is literally the case. They aren't. You might say that they of the same race which would be correct but 'Blood Elves are High Elves' statement is as true as 'Americans are British' statement. As in, it's not true at all.

[Doffen]

They are both going to look very pretty!

Here's what my boiz are almost going to look like:



My blood elven farstrider (who either steered clear from the fel crystals or is a prodigal Allerian Stronghold returnee) who's going to be rocking blue eyes, that new brown hair colour and probably the new full beard (\o/) and my void elf magister who is going to be pale, blue or purple-eyed and probably using hair colour 8 silver unless some more natural colours are going to be added as soon as SL goes live.

Very nice looking boyz there! Really like the mogs.

Yeah, I really like the Elves. Don't have any male actually on any of my elves. I just like the way the ladies look in gear and their animations so always went for them. I do think with the void elf that I linked will look even better with some of the Void Elf characteristics like hairstyles, just have to wait for the possibility to do so.

But the overall change to the blood/void elves with all the new possibilities to make my characters more unique is something I really look forward to. I do love Void Elves but when you have 5 that use the heritage armor(I mean its awesome) and 4 of them got blue hair it's pretty nice to now get some variety into them. To make each one something on their own is going to be awesome. Together with having them, and my 5 Blood Elves, in different covenants with new and nice looking transmogs is going to be great!

[Broflake]

And I can say the same exact thing - I don't understand why many anti-helfers go "BLOOD ELVES ARE HIGH ELVES" when it is clear what people are referring to when they say it.

That is because helfers often do the following.

So when people say Blood Elves aren't High Elves, this is literally the case. They aren't. You might say that they of the same race which would be correct but 'Blood Elves are High Elves' statement is as true as 'Americans are British' statement. As in, it's not true at all.

This right here.

You can't say people are wrong, knowing what they are referring to, and demanding they observe your context while denying theirs. Neither of you are wrong, but neither of you can claim the other truly is wrong. If people spent less time trying to be correct within their aspect, the discussions would be much more civil

Also, Blood Elves being racially High Elves is nothing more than a forum circlejerk.

No...it isnt.
Your request was to pull a core race from the Horde, so when people say that, its them pointing out the race you wanted is on the Horde and to go there to enjoy them. Saying "they aren't playable" is factually incorrect, and is an intent to deny what the Horde has as its most popular race. This is why there is so much contention. Many Helfers behave as if their request comes at no detriment, but it does. It waters down faction differences, and it damages the unique aspect of the Horde which is there only pretty race with a horde mind set.
That is no different than Horde demanding to have Humans, Dranei, or Worgen. ALl of which are important aspects of the alliance.

Nowhere in the game is the race referred as High Elves.

Blood elf heritage quest.
TBC where they explain their history.
[b]the race descriptor and explanation of arthas' genocide./b]

Never do the devs refer to the Thalassian race as High Elves.

Chris metzen said blood elves are their high elves.
They have iterated this more than once.
In game the high elves refer to the blood elves as kin. They view each other as the same people, but with different philoophies.
This is why someone who doesnt know the elf in front of them has to guess. They're the same people. Its like guessing whether or not someone is a democrat or a republican. You'll get corrected of course, but its an understandable error, and one they know of.

I don't disagree with the rest of what you are saying because its true.
Both groups are the same trope, its just a matter of what team they work with.

Which is why the request is so damaging and this change is so damaging.

The Void elf theme is completely dwarfed by this change..
So any interesting lore is going to be met with "okay whatever, I still look like elven waifu alleria.". Who many still refuse to acknowledge as a void elf despite the devs calling her such.
That is how important aesthetics are, and not only does it kill the void elf theme, it completely ruins the blood elf theme whose defining characteristics is that natural appearance.
And...for what?
Jewelry and accessories EVERYONE gets in some form or another?
Meanwhile...you can be a void elf and get access to BOTH themes. Void, and natural.

I don't mind that you guys wanted high elves. It was always your right to request and ill defend it. I disagreed with it though, because my concern, is having the game remain unique from other MMOs where everyone can be a pretty high elf. Now thats gone, and the worst part is that the alliance get the better end of the deal, as always, because they now get two themes to the blood elves one.

[Thalassian Bob]

Very nice looking boyz there! Really like the mogs.

Yeah, I really like the Elves. Don't have any male actually on any of my elves. I just like the way the ladies look in gear and their animations so always went for them. I do think with the void elf that I linked will look even better with some of the Void Elf characteristics like hairstyles, just have to wait for the possibility to do so.

But the overall change to the blood/void elves with all the new possibilities to make my characters more unique is something I really look forward to. I do love Void Elves but when you have 5 that use the heritage armor(I mean its awesome) and 4 of them got blue hair it's pretty nice to now get some variety into them. To make each one something on their own is going to be awesome. Together with having them, and my 5 Blood Elves, in different covenants with new and nice looking transmogs is going to be great!

Thanks! ^^

Both these chaps started as chicks actually haha! I think I just got fed up with how small weapons can look on female Thalassians sometimes! But that knew hairstyle with the tiara is very tempting on the ladies! It's really beautiful!

I know what you mean about hopefully getting some knew variety! I only ever really used the silver hair colours on my velves or the blue. And I feel like the velves currently only suit a quite limited transmog palette if you are going to have much of their skin/hair on show. Things are looking good for that so far though, so fingers crossed there's still much more customisation to come!

I'm really hoping for WC2 farstrider war paint for both Thalassian groups! Runic tattoos for magisters and warlocks would be great too!

[Bigbazz]

The people who allowed this change to happen are the ones to kept the threads alive by arguing so valiantly with the vocal minority who kept making these threads and posting in them. It's a dumb change that prioritises the barbie dress-up aspect of the game by diluting or removing the relevance of races and their lore, but at the end of the day who really cares?

It shows that if you keep talking about something (regardless of majority opinion) Blizzard will eventually say yes, no matter how many times they initially say no.

[Luck4]

This thread is going to reach 1000 pages way sooner than I expected.

Congratz guys, I mean, I know these customizations are not the High Elf AR most here were asking for, but at least you guys got something closer, and this came way sooner than I expected.

Cheers!

[Selinde]

Your request was to pull a core race from the Horde, so when people say that, its them pointing out the race you wanted is on the Horde and to go there to enjoy them. Saying "they aren't playable" is factually incorrect, and is an intent to deny what the Horde has as its most popular race. This is why there is so much contention. Many Helfers behave as if their request comes at no detriment, but it does. It waters down faction differences, and it damages the unique aspect of the Horde which is there only pretty race with a horde mind set.
That is no different than Horde demanding to have Humans, Dranei, or Worgen. ALl of which are important aspects of the alliance.

The Alliance wouldn't cry for pretty elves if they didn't use to be an Alliance race in the first place in the past. Neither of the races you mentioned have anything to do with the Horde.

Chris metzen said blood elves are their high elves.
They have iterated this more than once.
In game the high elves refer to the blood elves as kin. They view each other as the same people, but with different philoophies.
This is why someone who doesnt know the elf in front of them has to guess. They're the same people. Its like guessing whether or not someone is a democrat or a republican. You'll get corrected of course, but its an understandable error, and one they know of.

Your comparison to democrats and republican is off. That's because the original High Elves renounced their identity in favor of a new one with a new name, Blood Elf, honoring their fallen. The ones that didn't still call themselves High Elf and affiliate with the Alliance. Your comparison would hold true if all americans were once called Democrats as a whole group, and then the vast majority renamed themselves as Republican, abandoning their Democrat name. Yes they are the same biological race however the majority doesn't want to be called (or should be called) Democrat any longer since that name now does not refer to physical characteristics or biological race but a political stance. The comparison with American and British is more accurate.

Which is why the request is so damaging and this change is so damaging.

The Void elf theme is completely dwarfed by this change..
So any interesting lore is going to be met with "okay whatever, I still look like elven waifu alleria.". Who many still refuse to acknowledge as a void elf despite the devs calling her such.
That is how important aesthetics are, and not only does it kill the void elf theme, it completely ruins the blood elf theme whose defining characteristics is that natural appearance.
And...for what?
Jewelry and accessories EVERYONE gets in some form or another?
Meanwhile...you can be a void elf and get access to BOTH themes. Void, and natural.

I don't mind that you guys wanted high elves. It was always your right to request and ill defend it. I disagreed with it though, because my concern, is having the game remain unique from other MMOs where everyone can be a pretty high elf. Now thats gone, and the worst part is that the alliance get the better end of the deal, as always, because they now get two themes to the blood elves one.

Excuse me when does the Alliance get the better end of the deal when they get shafted 90% the time?

If you acknowledge Alleria's status as a Void Elf, then you must also accept that it's possible to be a Void Elf without permanent tainted features given the appropriate training. They are still void elves. They still affiliate with the void.

[Monster Hunter]

I think you're new here.

High elves being a unique addition was killed 2 years ago.

Ofc that's a big win for the Helf people. For the first time, we will be able to play a blood/high elf on the Alliance. Obelisk Kai and co lost their crusade when they kept telling us we would never get blue-eyed, fair skinned elves.

Sure guys you got blue-eyed blood elves, and I'm really happy Blizzard decided to satisfy both sides. But this is an ultimate victory for us.

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The tentacules were caused by accident. Shadow priests and death Knight have nothing to do here.

depends what you were fighting for. personally i was fighting against high elves being added as i don't want any more elf races taking up possible slots for new and interesting races, i don't like elves, i think there weak and a shitty over done trope in fantasy now. this current compromise is fine, people who want to do all the RP crap can play pretend and at the same time not much dev time and resource has been wasted on it.

but to say its the ultimate win is realy just self aggrandising the basic ask, high elves fundamentally still are not playable, a void elf that looks like a high elf is playable and a blood elf with blue eyes is playable, but for those who wanted a proper playable race like night elves and night born enjoy, this is basically the biggest crushing defeat they could have gotten.

[Broflake]

The Alliance wouldn't cry for pretty elves if they didn't use to be an Alliance race in the first place in the past. Neither of the races you mentioned have anything to do with the Horde.

Which means absolutely nothing.
Dranei were not an alliance race, until they were.
Neither were Goblins a horde group, until they were (even though a goblin works for the alliance prior to cata).
The alliance didn't have an Alliance race of high elves. They left between WC2 and WC3, before world of warcraft.
The alliance is owed nothing, they're a fiction faction. The devs want them to be on the horde, so they hit the horde.

Your comparison to democrats and republican is off. That's because the original High Elves renounced their identity in favor of a new one with a new name, Blood Elf, honoring their fallen. The ones that didn't still call themselves High Elf and affiliate with the Alliance. Your comparison would hold true if all americans were once called Democrats as a whole group, and then the vast majority renamed themselves as Republican, abandoning their Democrat name. Yes they are the same biological race however the majority doesn't want to be called (or should be called) Democrat any longer since that name now does not refer to physical characteristics or biological race but a political stance. The comparison with American and British is more accurate.

You are complaining that the comparison of two groups being different solely by their political views, isn't good enough because it doesn't have the same background history as another group that is different due to their political views.
Your response was pedantic, and only enforced my point.
So I am not sure why you ducked under the point to argue about nothing.

Excuse me when does the Alliance get the better end of the deal when they get shafted 90% the time?

Is this a friggin joke?
I've played Alliance all the way until BFA, where my wife wanted to go Horde since she'd always been alliance. The difference in what the Alliance have and what the Horde have is insane.
Prior to the release of Cata, the Horde had worse questing areas and less area to go questing. This is due to the fact that the Horde was designed last and was rushed last minute. So it took all the way until Cata to give them an equal amount of questing areas to the alliance and an equal number of capital cities.
The alliance has also had greater variety than the Horde in mounts, both ground and in flying mounts. They still have access to their bike, despite losing the voting contest (lol) because alliance screamed hard enough.
They had better racials overall for PvE for a majority of the game's time span.
The RP community is more expansive.
The pet players are more expansive.
The community in every aspect outside of raids/m+ is beter for the alliance.

Heck, the Alliance even acquired 2 of the Horde PvP mounts!

The ONLY area that the Horde has an advantage is

1. Raiding. The Horde has always had a stronger raiding community. They had better M+ until BFA, where the alliance wins due to shadowmeld.
2. Mentality. The Alliance whines and complains the moment the Horde gets anything. OH NO THE STATUE AT BLIZZARD! OH NO WE ARENT THE MAIN FOCUS OF THE STORY!

So if you want to do ANYTHING else besides raid and M+? You go alliance.
Their cities are better designed (Boralis vs Dazar alor), the aesthetics is better (WoD base), and their story doesn't involve them constantly regressing to WC2 behavior. Their racials are even better oh, AND they just got the entire design of a core race the horde has had since TBC.

Shafted indeed.

If you acknowledge Alleria's status as a Void Elf, then you must also accept that it's possible to be a Void Elf without permanent tainted features given the appropriate training. They are still void elves. They still affiliate with the void.

Prior to the announcement, it seemingly wasn't possible because Alleria's change was thorugh different circumstances.
Clearly this has changed, so I don't see why I'd disagree with you in this aspect.
I simply don't approve of it because it means that the alliance, once again, gets more than the Horde.

They get two themes to play. The horde gets one.
So...why would you play a blood elf when you can just play a void elf?
Blood elves aren't even a desired race in raids.