Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Frenchvince]

Since playing WOW, I feel like there has always been high elf threads.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Yea, I can see that. I guess this one just seems to stay up at the top all the time and the sister threads get pushed way down.

Indeed, but at least the BE kinda survives more than the dedicated VE thread there was one time lol.

TBH since I do personally believe the most HE's will get will be through VE's, I'm personally on board with this thread being here to mostly talk about the thalassian exiles on the alliance in contrast to their horde mainstream; like yeah, they are all basically the same people, but their stories are linked to either Horde or Alliance so there's that.

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Lol exactly; I still remember the "Why is the alliance getting Night Elves instead of High elves?" conversations bhahaha

[Beloren]

do you even read lore?

He is righ, it would have at least been consistent this way.

But saying that, blizzard have a right to mix and match all they want, if they want to take elves from alliance and put them on the horde, it's their right to do that. Maybe they didn't want the alliance to be about high elves, humans and dwarves, and wanted the horde to have a bit of that.. it is they that created the original horde and alliance identities, so if they want to change that, it's up to them isn't it?

I'm sure they are aware some people like Raven really liked the older more simplistic divide, the classic trio, and while it is still a popular theme in the fantasy world, there is nothing wrong with what they've done. If they don't want to use high elves, it's their asset to do as they please whether it's a wasted opportunity or not in anyone's opinion.

Most people who play this game don't really care anymore - so i fail to see this massive impact high elves would have. The reason they don't care is over a decade of downplaying their lore and literally abusing it to the extent it doesn't matter.

If the game had continued the strong story driven fantasy evident in the strategy games, then these things would have a mattered to millions, but they only matter to a few thousand.. we don't even get a few thousand replies over them on the forums.

People just don't care, and it's going to take a much much better effort to really engage the crowd on the story. Currently it's just a side dish that makes the button mashing have some modicum of meaning, it is utterly shallow and not worth pining over for anything or than superficial reasons like you want my pale skin and blonde hair with my sexy figure to be on your faction. Face it, it's not about lore, it's not about who had who first, nor theme or any of those things, those are just dressing compared to wanting an avatar to porn over on your fave faction.

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Lol exactly; I still remember the "Why is the alliance getting Night Elves instead of High elves?" conversations bhahaha

Poor Night elves, even the alliance didn't want them. I think they only got popular because of the 2 years blood elves weren't available

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Poor Night elves, even the alliance didn't want them. I think they only got popular because of the 2 years blood elves weren't available

I mean a lot of people thought they were replacement high elves, and tbh, in a way they were, but also they were a type of elf that moved away from the more cookie cutter and Tolkien inspired WarII elves by focusing more on druidic traditions and war culture. And also BE's came forward as a new spin on the actual Warcraft High Elves by TFT.

But yeah, even with an expy through NE, and a reinvention with BE, it wasn't going to be easy to just phase out High Elves, specially when they didn't really go for their extinction; lo and behold, as far as of legion, Alliance aligned High Elves were still a presence. There was always a clamor for them, and blizzard never really did pull the trigger on them, and in fact, perpetuated their presence in the setting.

So yeh, we have been talking about High Elves since 2004 lol

[ravenmoon]

I mean a lot of people thought they were replacement high elves, and tbh, in a way they were, but also they were a type of elf that moved away from the more cookie cutter and Tolkien inspired WarII elves by focusing more on druidic traditions and war culture. And also BE's came forward as a new spin on the actual Warcraft High Elves by TFT.

But yeah, even with an expy through NE, and a reinvention with BE, it wasn't going to be easy to just phase out High Elves, specially when they didn't really go for their extinction; lo and behold, as far as of legion, Alliance aligned High Elves were still a presence. There was always a clamor for them, and blizzard never really did pull the trigger on them, and in fact, perpetuated their presence in the setting.

So yeh, we have been talking about High Elves since 2004 lol

Night elves were created to be dark elves with a forest elf half - to have the best of both the dark elf and forest elf typical fantasy. They were initially created as an epic faction, and were given both detailed forest elf and dark elf bits.

In WC3, you saw the forest elf bits first because that was the stage they were introduced in, but the manual for WC3, and the War of the Ancients trilogy that had already been commissioned before the game's release were already planning on releasing the story of the dark elf side.

Night elves were going to have a wide range of facets tot hem, the extensive pre-sundering and long vigil lore, with more than just druids and sentinels was what their package entailed. This was the plan well into classic anyway. Notice how in classic, night elves build a city for the first time in 10k years, we also see Highborne return, although they're in Dire Maul at this stage, but they're not an enemy faction after you beat Totheldrinn, you actually gain rep with them.

Several things happened in wow that altered the course of the night elves. With the absence of high elves, blizzard started playing them in the high elf substitute role.. but when blood elves went horde, night elves got stuck in that role, partly due to lack of development like most alliance races not human got, but also they were okay to have the night elves feed the high elf role/itch - but obviously this ruined them to many, because that more fierce forest elf hardcore side you saw from the sentinels and Tyrande wasn't shown at all ever again (till BFA) and the civilization pre-sundering side oft he night elves, was not showcased properly either in the cata remake when the Highborne rejoined, in fact it's not till Suramar and Legion that you see this done correctly, only to then keep Nightborne and further take them horde occluding the dark elf side of the night elves.

Yet for any who look it's still there. It's there in all the lore, it's clear to see where the Nightborne come form, and what race they are a sub-race of, and no matter how hard detractors try, no one looking at Nightborne will say they are a blood elf sub-race - and they have tried to make them off as one. You only need pay attention to the in game narrative and cinematics to know the story, and if you pick up War of the Ancients, that was written with the WC3 in mind, you will know that all you see in the elven 2/3rds of the broken isles is Night elf lore. It is actually a place that has all the aspects of both the Long vigil and pre-sundering cultures of the night elves.


My problem is that Night elves aren't high elves, and shouldn't have been portrayed so soley as that. Night elves have a unique concept even if it is a combination of dark elf, high elf, forest elf and demon elf - it's the diversity that makes them a faction large entity. Through these groups they have a wide assortment of character and behaviour. Their core may be benevolent, curious intelligent, with a base arcane affinity by their origin and a nature and arcane love, with nature reverence from Cenarius in their early days, but you have a more cocky arrogant type in the Highborne and arcane users as well as the more accomplished types, a fierce savage streak in the sentinel and demon hunter types, a n anti-hero twist in the demon hunter types - but you also have a commonality, all of these groups have people with an air of nobility and grace -look at Prince Farondis, Thalyssra, Illidan, Tyrande they all have the sort of benevolent goodness you find in Malfurion but they have other traits, especially Illidan, that seems such a bad boy, but if you read his story in WotA and Illidan, he's very much a hero, desperate to save his people.

They are also united by their night life, which brings an interesting spin on everything, it's a night world, with starlight and moonlight treasured the most, and an entire culture that centres around that. and it's a shame blizzard doesn't delve into this far more than anything else, because ultimately, this is the most unique aspect of the night elves - seeing the dark elf and forest elf elements are not original at all.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Played a bit more with the idea of ombre hair colors/fades. Mostly from a VE perspective, but would look nice on HE's as well -but yeah, if I had to choose, I'd go with natural hair colors personally :P

[Eleann]

Played a bit more with the idea of ombre hair colors/fades. Mostly from a VE perspective, but would look nice on HE's as well -but yeah, if I had to choose, I'd go with natural hair colors personally :P

Nice work matey. Any chance you can do us a huge favor and lighten up the bottom part of the blonde a little? It's a bit too dark (don't attack me peeps lol) it borders a light brown which is not quite exactly what I was hoping for xD. Ooor you can do something similar to what I saw you do on your melancholy hairstyle Velf with the pink/blondish hair where you made the bottom part of the hair dark and added the stars! Wanna try adding that for us? Do a Light blonde with two dark blue highlights on it, with little stars in there to resemble the starcursed look? Or give me some info what software you're using so I can try making it myself? I'm sorry I have imagination but I really have no idea how to dab into this type of color editing!

[Vaedan]

Played a bit more with the idea of ombre hair colors/fades. Mostly from a VE perspective, but would look nice on HE's as well -but yeah, if I had to choose, I'd go with natural hair colors personally :P

Nice work. I must admit I actually like those light red hair with void skin, it gives me old godish vibes, N'zoth style. All of these look really good for both high and void elf archetypes and still remain distinctive from blood elves.

[Kyriani]

Played a bit more with the idea of ombre hair colors/fades. Mostly from a VE perspective, but would look nice on HE's as well -but yeah, if I had to choose, I'd go with natural hair colors personally :P

These look incredible! I want them all! Now do the boys and use the Agony and/or Restraint hairstyles ^_^

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Nice work matey. Any chance you can do us a huge favor and lighten up the bottom part of the blonde a little? It's a bit too dark (don't attack me peeps lol) it borders a light brown which is not quite exactly what I was hoping for xD. Ooor you can do something similar to what I saw you do on your melancholy hairstyle Velf with the pink/blondish hair where you made the bottom part of the hair dark and added the stars! Wanna try adding that for us? Do a Light blonde with two dark blue highlights on it, with little stars in there to resemble the starcursed look? Or give me some info what software you're using so I can try making it myself? I'm sorry I have imagination but I really have no idea how to dab into this type of color editing!

Honestly they aren't complex; you just need any software that allows you to change hue/luminosity by any means, and duplicating that layer and erasing half of it with a soft brush. Works the same for either editing a screenshot, or if you do some light model editing and can load models with a program, so you just edit the hair texture itself.

These overall are just proof of concept, yeah the blonde being a light color could look better with a more light pink end, or the white one to finish on a pink color. Here's the blonde pink tho cause it's just fun to draw my character's hair color hah.



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Nice work. I must admit I actually like those light red hair with void skin, it gives me old godish vibes, N'zoth style. All of these look really good for both high and void elf archetypes and still remain distinctive from blood elves.

Right? There are a lot of opportunities with reds and oranges for VE aesthetics; I could totally see this red hair color match pretty darn well with those N'zoth eye concepts!

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These look incredible! I want them all! Now do the boys and use the Agony and/or Restraint hairstyles ^_^

Thank you! There's an issue regarding how the textures are used tho, with some hair styles not following the natural "growth" as per the texture: these are the same textures than the ladies, but the mapping inverts the texture in this style, in some parts.

There are a couple solutions, like remapping the offending hairstyles, or perhaps a more involved solution that could work like the vines on NE and be a toggle; VE's have a duplicated geometry for the tendrils -that's why the effect moves- so imagine a colored overlay that goes over any hairstyle, and could change the color separately, similarly how the effect on dark iron dwarves is accomplished -could even have stars like on the previous mock up, and just like the VE tendrils, they could move!

[Kyriani]

I love the way they look! And thanks for explaining the details behind the textures! I wish Blizzard would do stuff like this!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I love the way they look! And thanks for explaining the details behind the textures! I wish Blizzard would do stuff like this!

no problem! I share the little knowledge of modeling I posses lol!

But indeed thinking about it, Dark Iron Dwark hairstyles work pretty much that way! From the overlay of another texture on the tips of the hair, to the animated embers, it would be totally doable. As you can see, the flame texture is a different texture, as well as the embers. So picture that, but with a duplicate hair texture on a different color -which could be customizable!-and a star/dots texture -that moves slowly-

[Tanaria]

Should High Elf customizations get all the Blood Elf hairstyles, are just the ones that you could use before they brought in the barber shop? For females, it's the high ponytail through to the headband hairstyle?

I think Blood Elves still need to be distinct, so maybe the newer hairstyles are only for them.

[Kyriani]

Should High Elf customizations get all the Blood Elf hairstyles, are just the ones that you could use before they brought in the barber shop? For females, it's the high ponytail through to the headband hairstyle?

I think Blood Elves still need to be distinct, so maybe the newer hairstyles are only for them.

I don't think it's necessary to give void elves any blood elf hairstyles that haven't already been shared with other races. There's a few hairstyles that blood elves have that originally came from humans, and I believe there was some overlap in hairstyles between blood elves and draenei at TBC release. Any hairstyle that isn't currently a blood elf exclusive should be ok to share, but I feel that the ones that are blood elf only should remain blood elf only.

And if that won't provide enough distinction, then don't give void elves any blood elf hairstyles at all, and simply share some human and/or night elf hairstyles with them instead. After all, they are living in the alliance society now. It would make sense that they'd start adopting the local trends to fit in, and there's quite a few humans and night elves in stormwind these days.

[Eleann]

Should High Elf customizations get all the Blood Elf hairstyles, are just the ones that you could use before they brought in the barber shop? For females, it's the high ponytail through to the headband hairstyle?

I think Blood Elves still need to be distinct, so maybe the newer hairstyles are only for them.

I think Void elves and Blood elves should both get new, unique hairstyles from now on. Blood elves especially need new hairstyles. I am aware they got two new very nice looking hairstyles recently, but I'd like to see something modern that is graceful and sexy at the same time for them, like maybe a very long, loose hairstyle with loose flowing curles? A bit like the Draenei wavy one but much longer.

And I would really love a long, straight one with side braid and a loose long braid one resting on the back for the Void elves. I mean, you can never really have enough braids for the ladies, and Velfs have none atm

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Should High Elf customizations get all the Blood Elf hairstyles, are just the ones that you could use before they brought in the barber shop? For females, it's the high ponytail through to the headband hairstyle?

I think Blood Elves still need to be distinct, so maybe the newer hairstyles are only for them.

Honestly? if we are going for small cosmetic variance, I wouldn't give VE's any unique* Blood Elf hairstyles, instead would prefer new and unique ones; but for option's sake, I think they could inherit either Human or Night Elf hairstyles, also as a signifier of their cultural cohabitation/syncretism

*There are some hairstyles that are shared between 2 or more races, so I do think that those -although most originating on Blood Elves- could be given to VE's since they are already shared with other alliance races. This isn't an exhaustive list, some hairstyles look very similar, but have different names; these are the ones that share both style and name.



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I don't think it's necessary to give void elves any blood elf hairstyles that haven't already been shared with other races. There's a few hairstyles that blood elves have that originally came from humans, and I believe there was some overlap in hairstyles between blood elves and draenei at TBC release. Any hairstyle that isn't currently a blood elf exclusive should be ok to share, but I feel that the ones that are blood elf only should remain blood elf only.

And if that won't provide enough distinction, then don't give void elves any blood elf hairstyles at all, and simply share some human and/or night elf hairstyles with them instead. After all, they are living in the alliance society now. It would make sense that they'd start adopting the local trends to fit in, and there's quite a few humans and night elves in stormwind these days.

Exactly this!

[Vaedan]

Honestly? if we are going for small cosmetic variance, I wouldn't give VE's any unique* Blood Elf hairstyles, instead would prefer new and unique ones; but for option's sake, I think they could inherit either Human or Night Elf hairstyles, also as a signifier of their cultural cohabitation/syncretism

*There are some hairstyles that are shared between 2 or more races, so I do think that those -although most originating on Blood Elves- could be given to VE's since they are already shared with other alliance races. This isn't an exhaustive list, some hairstyles look very similar, but have different names; these are the ones that share both style and name.

Well, when blood elves were implemented, females had actually quite a lot of their hairstyles copied from human females, some of these are even shown in the picture you posted. With WotLK release and introduction of barber shops, we've seen a number of new options transfered among races. In that round, blood elves (both males and females) got human, night elf, draenei and even gnome hairstyles, and vice versa. These hairstyles can't be really considered blood elf unique styles, since they are not exclusive for them in any way, so I don't see a reason why blood elf community should be troubled by sharing these particular hairstyles with void elves, especially given the fact they got most of them from the Alliance races to begin with.

I agree that both blood elves and void elves should get some options exclusive for each of them. Other races like humans, night elves, undead or draenei got quite a lot new options with SL character customization upgrade, so it's definitely time for thalassians to get their turn.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Well, when blood elves were implemented, females had actually quite a lot of their hairstyles copied from human females, some of these are even shown in the picture you posted. With WotLK release and introduction of barber shops, we've seen a number of new options transfered among races. In that round, blood elves (both males and females) got human, night elf, draenei and even gnome hairstyles, and vice versa. These hairstyles can't be really considered blood elf unique styles, since they are not exclusive for them in any way, so I don't see a reason why blood elf community should be troubled by sharing these particular hairstyles with void elves, especially given the fact they got most of them from the Alliance races to begin with.

I agree that both blood elves and void elves should get some options exclusive for each of them. Other races like humans, night elves, undead or draenei got quite a lot new options with SL character customization upgrade, so it's definitely time for thalassians to get their turn.

Exactly; all the hairstyles shown are present in other races, and while most we saw first on BE's, some came from other races , but yeah, all this hairstyles are non-unique.

[Eleann]

Exactly; all the hairstyles shown are present in other races, and while most we saw first on BE's, some came from other races , but yeah, all this hairstyles are non-unique.

@MyWholeLifeIsThunder can you do a hair color like that for us??



I would be dying to see a pastel pink like that!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

@MyWholeLifeIsThunder can you do a hair color like that for us??



I would be dying to see a pastel pink like that!

Sure! what VE hairstyle do you have in mind?