The Blood Elves discussion thread

[Doffen]

I loved the edgy belfs of BC. Kael was also my favourite character from WC3, and I loved the sharp contrast between the nature-aligned, militant, elusive night elves, and the arcane-aligned, decadent, but comparatively less xenophobic blood elves. Them having to resort to desperate measures in the wake of the Scourge invasion made them quite relatable, and the overall narrative managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of "vanilla" (not the game) elves.

But, as the saying goes, good things don't last long. And in the case of belfs, it only took until the end of BC for them to be completely neutered, taking away all their edge, and effectively turning them into a misplaced Alliance race.

Well said. I wish we could go back to that era, but as you say, a year or two in they just felt misplaced. To me a real Blood Elf got fel green eyes that fought for survival while keeping their Arcane superiority. My favorite WC3 moment is when Kael and Tyrande met, so different but still familiar and they helped each other out.

Kael'thas was such a good character then. Hope they do him justice in SL.

[Zephire]

Love my Bloodelf! She's a Paladin, protecting her interests. She saves the weak when conviniet but mainly focus on dispatching large threats, no matter the cost. She's willing to sacrifice a lot for the greater good. She's a bit edgy, just enough to not be all smooth, she greed for power but does not abuse it, she's smart and clever. She also do not care about your race, gender or allegiance, it's not of importance when fighting looming threats, instead she judge you for what you do and how you act.

The Horde might be home but she often voice her oppinion that the two factions are something left to the past and that the future is without large factions. That the Sin'dorei should be able to work with whoever they want. She think it's stupid to keep grudges, it limits progress and want to make peace with the Nightelfs and the other Alliance factions. Many see her as a bit arrogant and power hungry.

That's kinda how I see Bloodelfs, a pragmatic race.

[ravenmoon]

Greetings.

As there are a lot of threads for Alliance elves: high elves, void elves and night elves, I believe there should be at least one thread for our beloved Sin'dorei. We deserve our own place where we can discuss the story, art and gameplay of blood elves without having to address them by comparison to Alliance elves. This way, all our suggestions will be as visible as these numerous night elf rants.

In case of elf haters, "hold your head high".

Hey buddy, in my opinion, blizzard are free to go in new directions for races, srengthen certain aspecs etc. When considering such things, there usually is some purpose - either because it's meant to be a core part of the race and its identity or it's to yield to something later in the plot and it's just their fave race so they want it involved in everything (like we get humans and orcs).

Rarely is it just a whim or random.

To me, based on what I've seen so far, fel is not really a thing for blood elves, even though it could be (it could come in the future, you might get lucky). Blood elves though, I feel should remain primarily arcane, light and ranged fire power. Fel should be a minor thing, I feel they should gain druidism too, becuse drudism is an elven thing, it is nature magic, and they're elves, elves who love magic - it's stupid this hasn't happened sooner. However given their history and night elf hate currently, they should develop theirs in the form of Botany, and it should steal techniques and principles off the night elven druidism, effectively being druidism without having to deal with night elves. I think Nightborne being druids (because they don't hate kaldorei and they are being helped by the druid Valewalker Farodin and Val'Sharah druids - is basically the perfect reason to see Blood elf botany explode and essentially be druidism without night elf involving. We could have the Nightborne druids and botanists work closely together, allowing Sin'dorei botanists to effectively be druids.

Afterall, they have a right to it just as much, their history is night elven they have the same nature love in them, spent 3k years in the long vigil etc, however since they hate night elves in the current set up. Nature magic masstery would be useful, but they wouldn't want night elf connection.

Fel
I feel that like fel, it should be minor. Face it, fel users for blood elves were largely a TBc, Legion enemy faction that dies off totally unpursued or even mentioned amongst blood elves afterwards. Very few become fel elves in that period and very few demon hunters. Even at their height of power - when invading the Sunwell plateau, we don't see that many blood elves wielding fel and we kill all of them.

I think fel should be a minor thing, it's introduction was largely to give blood elves a differnt feel and eye colour from high elves, but nothing more was made of it, the race moved away from it, and are esssentialy high elves on team red.

Demon hunters in legion is the next time we see blood elves with fel wielding capability, but it's not stressed racially. Even Belf warlocks have no subsatantial lore.

Blizzard could develop the fel aspect like you want, but Belves have death/blood magic via the San'layn which continue to be far more active than the fel elves or demon hunters who have no history or interaction with the blood elf faction (even when we meet them in Karabor, Kael is already opposed to them having joined the Legion, and they are enemies to the new horde aligned blood elf faction too who are also trying to stop Illidan. Current blood elves have the arcane which is one of thier biggest sections, the Light too, is finally getting the attention it was starved of, but unlike the high elves who were famous as priests, the blood elves are famous as paladins, and ofc you have the Farstrider forest rangers.

My Verdict
In my opinion, blizzard should continue to focus on the blood elf to bring out the culture of the Thalassian race and peple. I do feel strongly about this especially as Void elves are an allied race, just as i dislike nightborne being the primary forcus for kaldorei arcane, i do not want high/blood elves to be the focus for the Thalassians, it should be the blood elves. Roles should exist for void elves and high elves ofc - I think their future is human/elf friendship like in Lotr and WC2 rather than being a people of their own - and all racial specific activity would have to be with blood elves involved (not without), the racial emphasis should never lose primary focus on the blood elves, just like i feeel night elves should continue to have the primary focus and drive for botht he arcane and druidic aspects of that race, Not Nighborne, who as an allied race should have some involvement but not eclipsing the night elf, or as suggested by Mace, be the unifying agent when it comes to night elf matters.


BElf Fel Future
Fel legacy should be developed via the Illidari group, now I'm not opposed to blood elves having a role alongside night elves here - this could be interesting, i'm also comfortable with the two oerating largely indepeendent of each others too - the blood elven Illidari, breaking off for a fel elf sub-race, returning to outland to rescue and recruit the fel elves lef over in TBC, this is entirely a blood elf affia, , dont havetohave night elves involved. Night elfi llidari have a lot of stuff that can be written for them regarding the kaldorei.

Warlock lore is another area. The Black Harvest group seems just made up for legion, and is nothing like the shadow council of the orcs were, they could be anothr fel group rival or allies or both to the Illidari - and it is fitting that blood elves amongst them should be some of their strongest members. I wouldn' even mind if there was a larger proportion of blood elves here or it became dominated by blood elves raising the rleevance and usage of fel in identity with blood elves, but kept separate from the blood elf nation, jst like the Illidari are kept separate from the night elf nation - although with night elves, Illidan and his followers are a huge anti-hero in their lore, but then Illidan was alongside Tyrande and Malfurion in every night elf outing and just as frequently popping up as Queen Azshara - the dynamic is different.

However if your interest is so fel directed, aren't you better off pushing for playable Eredar? or Expanded Illidari or Fel elf lore/involvement or the Black Harvest stuff?

[Tuor]

In case of elf haters, "hold your head high".

Well i don't hate Elfs, i even used to play one has my main, but i totaly can't stand up for BElfs, because they look G... they look G... sorry i can't say it.

[Sangris]

it's called story development! blood elves have a story and it is a story that many people like!
if you want to play with corrupt elves with power-hungry dark powers who go crazy listening to voices of evil beings you can play with a void elf who they are former blood elves

Many Blood Elf fans are not happy with the direction they went with them and liked them because of their portrayal in WC3/TBC. That was their appeal. In fact, I'm willing to sacrifice the Sunwell and in fact all of Quel'thalas if it means we got TBC Blood Elves back (and have them stay that way, no redemption BS this time).

[Rhlor]

Many Blood Elf fans are not happy with the direction they went with them and liked them because of their portrayal in WC3/TBC. That was their appeal. In fact, I'm willing to sacrifice the Sunwell and in fact all of Quel'thalas if it means we got TBC Blood Elves back (and have them stay that way, no redemption BS this time).

but you can play with those types of elves now they are void elves and there are also the DH

[matrix123mko]

I actually play void elf as my main, thanks for your advise.

My point is that blood elves were introduced as reckless, power-hungry and most of them had this "ends justifies means" approach, which made them unique and separated them from other brand of elves both in the warcraft universe, and even to the others. They were beautiful, but they were not innocent, and they were deadly. That's what people liked about them. While I agree with you that they got development, it robbed them of the spirit in which they were implemented. What's even worse, it made blood elves even less fitting race in the Horde. Now, they are now just handsome elves with human culture and human values. You know, I wonder how mag'har reacts to the blood elves, which are now all about using Light, given that they have pretty big issue with this cosmic force, but this will be probably never shown. The same thing goes to the void elf - lightforged interactions on the Alliance.

If the blood elves are to be Horde's race of light users, then they can use light in a way more relatable to the Horde side and more true to their origins. Let them remain to be "true masters of the Light" and have their shady blood knight practises. It is still better than being pointy-eared human on the red side of the world.

Yes. Also, given how Anduin looks like, I think "prettyness" is also a common thing between two races.

That would be definitely pretty big reason to start a war. Definitely more valid than "I think they will threaten us in the future, because they hate us, because we hate them, and their young inexperienced king will fail to control them. I better slaughter their civilians, so they can hate us more."

I would actually like Eversong Warfront to be Draenei/LF Draenei + Void elves vs Blood elves + Nightborne. That would be the WF that Horde wins in canon and it would definitely bring some conflict between the races, making faction war way more valid and believable. Given how Horde actions were portrayed on the Alliance side, I can easily see draenei being mad at blood elves to turning on them after all they did for them back in TBC. On the Horde, you could see treacherous ren'dorei, delivering valuable secrets of the Sin'dorei to the Alliance and helping them to conquer all that blood elves strived to build after the scourge invasion...

The thing is that Draenei may have problems working with Alleria after she poisoned the Sunwell. I think they should work towards conquering Quel'danas and stabilising the Sunwell separately.

- - - Updated - - -

I loved the edgy belfs of BC. Kael was also my favourite character from WC3, and I loved the sharp contrast between the nature-aligned, militant, elusive night elves, and the arcane-aligned, decadent, but comparatively less xenophobic blood elves. Them having to resort to desperate measures in the wake of the Scourge invasion made them quite relatable, and the overall narrative managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of "vanilla" (not the game) elves.

But, as the saying goes, good things don't last long. And in the case of belfs, it only took until the end of BC for them to be completely neutered, taking away all their edge, and effectively turning them into a misplaced Alliance race.

It is sad how quick they were to do that. Imagine making tauren agree to Bael'dun dwarves at the end of Vanilla.

- - - Updated - - -

Many Blood Elf fans are not happy with the direction they went with them and liked them because of their portrayal in WC3/TBC. That was their appeal. In fact, I'm willing to sacrifice the Sunwell and in fact all of Quel'thalas if it means we got TBC Blood Elves back (and have them stay that way, no redemption BS this time).

To quote Sylvanas: "They don't need your redemption.".

- - - Updated - - -

Love my Bloodelf! She's a Paladin, protecting her interests. She saves the weak when conviniet but mainly focus on dispatching large threats, no matter the cost. She's willing to sacrifice a lot for the greater good. She's a bit edgy, just enough to not be all smooth, she greed for power but does not abuse it, she's smart and clever. She also do not care about your race, gender or allegiance, it's not of importance when fighting looming threats, instead she judge you for what you do and how you act.

The Horde might be home but she often voice her oppinion that the two factions are something left to the past and that the future is without large factions. That the Sin'dorei should be able to work with whoever they want. She think it's stupid to keep grudges, it limits progress and want to make peace with the Nightelfs and the other Alliance factions. Many see her as a bit arrogant and power hungry.

That's kinda how I see Bloodelfs, a pragmatic race.

I am trying to see them this way too.

- - - Updated - - -

Well said. I wish we could go back to that era, but as you say, a year or two in they just felt misplaced. To me a real Blood Elf got fel green eyes that fought for survival while keeping their Arcane superiority. My favorite WC3 moment is when Kael and Tyrande met, so different but still familiar and they helped each other out.

Kael'thas was such a good character then. Hope they do him justice in SL.

I hope he will not be "redeemed" in Alliance meaning which is to lightforge himself and apologise everyone kneeling and crying. He should return to Azeroth and see that Quel'thalas has problems that he needs to solve.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Well i don't hate Elfs, i even used to play one has my main, but i totaly can't stand up for BElfs, because they look G... they look G... sorry i can't say it.

Girly? Male Blood Elves are kind of Bishōnen looking to me too. Or Jojo like, depending on what you think

[Ardenaso]

Since Blood Knights "command" the Light, do you think they can cast some forbidden-ish type of magic spell that allows them to command the Light in Lightforged Draenei to turn them inside out?

[Thalassian Bob]

Disavow the Windrunners. Marry a fellow blood elf. Procreate. Save Quel'Thalas.

(This message is brought to you by the office of Lor'themar Theron)

[Ardenaso]

Disavow the Windrunners. Marry a fellow blood elf. Procreate. Save Quel'Thalas.

(This message is brought to you by the office of Lor'themar Theron)

this again (but I do agree with 14 words for Blood Elves, Nightborne is acceptable)



also why are Blood Elven women so smol

[Manariel]

it's called story development! blood elves have a story and it is a story that many people like!
if you want to play with corrupt elves with power-hungry dark powers who go crazy listening to voices of evil beings you can play with a void elf who they are former blood elves

I'm not sure that the Void Elves are power-hungry. I'm afraid that they'll replace BE in the quests were a mage NPC goes insane because of Artefact X however. Which would be a shame, because Blizzard should really take a good long look at the thalassian elves and settle on the best way to highlight their differences.

And no, having HE/VE wanting to "redeem" BE is not enough. For starter, HE should have given up on this a long time ago, and Void Elves should be those strangely idealistic individuals corrupted by dark powers compared to the more pragmatic/grim non-corrupted Elves.

I mean, come on ! The Blood Elves don't need to be zealots Blizzard ! Play up on the new triumvir of Magisters (Rommath), Farstriders (Halduron) and Blood Knigths (Liadrin) ! There is so many potential story here...

[Doffen]

I hope he will not be "redeemed" in Alliance meaning which is to lightforge himself and apologise everyone kneeling and crying. He should return to Azeroth and see that Quel'thalas has problems that he needs to solve.

Not sure how you took that from what I wrote. I hope they do him justice since they destroyed his character in TBC.

[Tuor]

Girly? Male Blood Elves are kind of Bishōnen looking to me too. Or Jojo like, depending on what you think

That is why people used to call them G... G... damn it, back in the days they were introduced in the game .

[ravenmoon]

That is why people used to call them G... G... damn it, back in the days they were introduced in the game .

It is partly, but ofc that is not what they were meant to be. I thin the western woke associated term was used for the BElf male because of his voice, that sounded camp in addition to the rather Bishōnen aesthetics used.
in simple terms, the anime appearance of the males coupled with the voice used made people associate them with gay - and in fact in Warcraft only NElf females have exhibited LGBT tendencies as far as I am aware - but maybe that's because I look at NElves through a microscope so tend to notice there stuff a lot more.

Tbh, the blood elf male voice isn't camp, nor is it gay (thre really isn't such a thing as a "gay" voice) , to me it reminds me posh east coasters, or wealthy Manhattan east side elites - it is aimed at the American interpretation of being posh and wealthy - reflecting the Thalassian lore for the race.

[Sangris]

To quote Sylvanas: "They don't need your redemption.".

And she was damn right about that.

[Tuor]

It is partly, but ofc that is not what they were meant to be. I thin the western woke associated term was used for the BElf male because of his voice, that sounded camp in addition to the rather Bishōnen aesthetics used.
in simple terms, the anime appearance of the males coupled with the voice used made people associate them with gay - and in fact in Warcraft only NElf females have exhibited LGBT tendencies as far as I am aware - but maybe that's because I look at NElves through a microscope so tend to notice there stuff a lot more.

Tbh, the blood elf male voice isn't camp, nor is it gay (thre really isn't such a thing as a "gay" voice) , to me it reminds me posh east coasters, or wealthy Manhattan east side elites - it is aimed at the American interpretation of being posh and wealthy - reflecting the Thalassian lore for the race.

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against gay people (even that i don't fully support them), its just the only time, in my entire life, i had an homophobic attack was the day i tried to roll a BElf Paladin, never again, and still don't know what happened .

[Sangris]

but you can play with those types of elves now they are void elves and there are also the DH

The Void Elf shtick is about how they are good guys despite using these evil powers blah blah blah boring. From the responses I see among most Blood Elf fans (and even some who don't like Elves) most of them actually want them to return to their TBC state. In fact, I daresay people wanting to play lawful boring cardboards are the minority here.

[ravenmoon]

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against gay people (even that i don't fully support them), its just the only time, in my entire life, i had an homophobic attack was the day i tried to roll a BElf Paladin, never again, and still don't know what happened .

Try rolling a blood elf hunter called Legolas if you want to know what being attacked is like.

yes I did thtat over ad ecade ago, theh responses I got, I ofc found it hilarious, but can you imagine a kid who just liked Legolas and wanted to roleplay that fantasy came on with that name.... sheesh, the community tore thesee people apart.

I do admire those mage players who kept their character named HarryPotter -but maybe it was because they couldn't afford a name change. I did make one of my feral druids in classic called Forest (at that time Forest Gump was still pretty well known hit), the amount of "Run forest run I got", i think i twas shortly after raiding Zul'gurub, , I just had had enough, and name changed on character transfer.

[Phaelia]

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against gay people (even that i don't fully support them), its just the only time, in my entire life, i had an homophobic attack was the day i tried to roll a BElf Paladin, never again, and still don't know what happened .

You had a homophobic attack on a video game that made you never want to make one again? As in someone said something mean and you stopped playing them? Gosh if only us LGBT folk got off so easy I did see an interview where the male blood elf voice was actually a gay voice actor, but in game there’s little to no gay representation. Maybe that’s why some of us identify with the blood elves others revile.

Attempting to take this away from the gay stuff, though, there’s so much more to the voice than stereotypical gay voice things. I’ve always imagined, like ravenmoon, that the Blood Elves were high society rich folk who both thought they were better and knew they were better than others, so they spoke as such. Their idle stance even gives them an air of superiority, while the female stance can’t believe she’s still standing there dealing with y’all.