Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Varodoc]

I'm surprised no one seemed to talk about the new ear options. I always found the long ears clipping through helm so stupid, so having short ear option is very appreciated.

[Packmule]

I don’t understand the fuss about this subject,

Alliance gets elves,
Horde remains having high elves.

The alliance elves left their own society, so they pretty much abandoned any claim they would have had to call themselves highelves, so their just elves. And im more then happy for you guys that you get what u wanted in 1 way or another.

[Strippling]

Problem with that distinction is that blood elves were already given dark hair.

That's not a problem at all. First, they have limited dark hair options, second they don't really have emo/goth styles like void elves do. Give void elves a variety of dark hair colors and dark hair styles to emphasize their void/dark theme. That way, players who appreciate race distinction will be respected while HE fans can play their HE fantasy (minus the blondes, reds and brown hair). It's called a compromise.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

All Void Elves really need is blonde hair and maybe a few more non-tentacly hairstyles to be as High Elf as they can be, and those will probably happen later on.

In the meantime, you can make a High Elf with the current options just fine.

It's better than it was, so that's undeniable progress. Overall we are closer to the aesthetics of High Elf fantasy than we have ever been.

We are not quite there yet. For a long time I haven't believed HE's are going to be their own AR, so what we are getting is like best case scenario in terms of implementation, yet I still wish there was a lore acknowledgement of HE's -some- moving forward -say, joining the VE's- and it wasn't just the aesthetics of it; and in term of aesthetics, the lack of light hair colors when now VE's have all skin tones available is downright arbitrary and doesn't make diegetic sense -and to me, is just yet another roadblock caused by their design choices, but now specially pointless when the only difference is hair color-

[Rhlor]

1) Ion literally said you can now play a Wildhammer Dwarf when he unveiled the customization options at Blizzcon last year. This has been followed up by Steve Danuser acknowledging that even though they can't put in story explanations for every single additional race customization (Wildhammer used as an example) due to limited resources, it doesn't mean your Wildhammer Dwarf isn't a Wildhammer Dwarf.

2) Ely Cannon, Blizzard Art Director, literally answers the question of why Void Elves and Blood Elves were given 'blue eyes' by citing that a race -> High Elves, hadn't been represented on player characters.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=316803/...view-with-art-



There ya go dude, supported at 3 different occasions by, at least, 3 different top Blizzard employees on what these new character customizations represent and mean for the players. High Elves included.

You should be overjoyed since you've been claiming you 'saw the light' about getting High Elves.

I'll say it once again, take it up with Blizzard if you're finding something confusing as your statements are getting into the territory of what only Blizzard could answer for you.

This is what they've said about what they've given us, you can either accept it or bombard Blizzard with questions about it, up to you!

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It's pretty fitting too because that Witcher hairstyle is named "Wizard" in the selector lol. But yeah the new human customizations have definitely given me more appreciation for my Paladin for the time being, he's going to have that same hairstyle too!

my mage is a high elf! got trapped in outland and came home after kaelthas's defeat as a high elf pelgrim that's the story of my character. and I still use the high elf name!

[Yarathir]

I don’t understand the fuss about this subject,

Alliance gets elves,
Horde remains having high elves.

The alliance elves left their own society, so they pretty much abandoned any claim they would have had to call themselves highelves, so their just elves. And im more then happy for you guys that you get what u wanted in 1 way or another.

Well, more like

Void Elves are a race and a political faction.

High Elves learned from the Void Elves (can be seen in Telogrus Rift) to harness the Void and became Void Elves politically, but like Alleria, remained High Elves racially speaking.

So they're High Elves, like the Alliance has had to start with.

[FlubberPuddy]

the lack of light hair colors when now VE's have all skin tones available is downright arbitrary and doesn't make diegetic sense -and to me, is just yet another roadblock caused by their design choices, but now specially pointless when the only difference is hair color-

It's cool, just as I suspected that they would eventually have to give at least High Elf skins, if given they were going to deal with the request in the first place, because regardless of simply the strictly Alliance High Elf fans - the strictly Void Elf fans themselves also wanted these options which allow them to look like their leader -> Alleria.

So it was almost always a given considering even without strictly Alliance High Elf fans, the customizations we got were ones the vast majority of the Void Elf fanbase were clamoring for. There were other requests like the ones @Yarathir has made, but I'm speaking on what could easily be found if searching for 'additional void elf customization options' or the like. Lots of threads on 'give High Elf customization to Void Elves' by various members of the VE fanbase community.

I agree with the hair color thing, but I think they're saving it for when Allied Races get their 'proper turn' down the line. As I said to another, the revealing and releasing of the skin/eye tones to Void Elves with Blood Elves was to avoid unnecessary but expected backlash had they only revealed what Blood Elves were getting.

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my mage is a high elf! got trapped in outland and came home after kaelthas's defeat as a high elf pelgrim that's the story of my character. and I still use the high elf name!

And don't let anyone else tell you that's not the story of your character!

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Well, more like

Void Elves are a race and a political faction.

High Elves learned from the Void Elves (can be seen in Telogrus Rift) to harness the Void and became Void Elves politically, but like Alleria, remained High Elves racially speaking.

So they're High Elves, like the Alliance has had to start with.

1000% agree. This actually gives feasibility to the 'they're recruiting more elves' because now it shows the Void Elf options in two groups:

Pale skinned ones = those who were of Umbric's original squad and got turned against their will by that one Ethereal in a botched way.

Human skinned ones = new recruits (could potentially say after all of BFA was done or after a bit of BFA started) more akin to learning more of the Void and being taught by their kin, harnessing its power but never having had their mortality almost taken away against their will.

[Rhlor]

It's cool, just as I suspected that they would eventually have to give at least High Elf skins, if given they were going to deal with the request in the first place, because regardless of simply the strictly Alliance High Elf fans - the strictly Void Elf fans themselves also wanted these options which allow them to look like their leader -> Alleria.

So it was almost always a given considering even without strictly Alliance High Elf fans, the customizations we got were ones the vast majority of the Void Elf fanbase were clamoring for. There were other requests like the ones @Yarathir has made, but I'm speaking on what could easily be found if searching for 'additional void elf customization options' or the like. Lots of threads on 'give High Elf customization to Void Elves' by various members of the VE fanbase community.

I agree with the hair color thing, but I think they're saving it for when Allied Races get their 'proper turn' down the line. As I said to another, the revealing and releasing of the skin/eye tones to Void Elves with Blood Elves was to avoid unnecessary but expected backlash had they only revealed what Blood Elves were getting.

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And don't let anyone else tell you that's not the story of your character!

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1000% agree. This actually gives feasibility to the 'they're recruiting more elves' because now it shows the Void Elf options in two groups:

Pale skinned ones = those who were of Umbric's original squad and got turned against their will by that one Ethereal in a botched way.

Human skinned ones = new recruits (could potentially say after all of BFA was done or after a bit of BFA started) more akin to learning more of the Void and being taught by their kin, harnessing its power but never having had their mortality almost taken away against their will.

even more so when danuser said that any role we want to play with our characters with the new customizations is canon.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I agree with the hair color thing, but I think they're saving it for when Allied Races get their 'proper turn' down the line. As I said to another, the revealing and releasing of the skin/eye tones to Void Elves with Blood Elves was to avoid unnecessary but expected backlash had they only revealed what Blood Elves were getting.

I do think that if we get new hair colors, it will be when AR get their customization pass. To a degree I believe that VE's need for unique hair textures since they include the tentacle -unlike the skin tones which were reused as is and only required separating the jewelry into a different texture- influenced as to why we didn't get new hair colors now:

Almost everything AR have gotten have been reused assets and splitting of already existing options -no new textures have been made for AR except for eye colors- so even while new hair colors are nominally easy to make, they have to be made on the first place, unlike the BE skin tones that are literally being reused.

So I do think it's highly likely VE's will get new hair colors, when AR are updated -who knows will that be- the only question is if they will try to replicate BE hair colors, or will use the opportunity to keep the difference? That could work either way for the HE fantasy; they could add hair colors that only fit VE aesthetics, or they could add warmer colors (blond, brown, etc) while still making them different shades -perhaps less saturated- than BE counterparts.

Personally, I do think we will, eventually, get more hair colors, maybe even blonde and brown, but will not be the same, because I do think if they wanted to do so, they could have made VE hairstyles use two textures -one for the hair, one for the tentacle, which could have allowed the use of BE hair textures as is, which is the case for skin tones-

So in short, I do think there's a chance VE's will get hair colors that fit the HE aesthetic, but we won't get them now because they need to be made rather than just reused like skin tones were. But I also don't think they will be the exact same colors that BE's have.

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I don’t understand the fuss about this subject,

Alliance gets elves,
Horde remains having high elves.

The alliance elves left their own society, so they pretty much abandoned any claim they would have had to call themselves highelves, so their just elves. And im more then happy for you guys that you get what u wanted in 1 way or another.

Why would the High Elves loose "claim" to their name because they are a subversive political party? Specially when the majority of their race already changed their name to something else?

It's like saying Pandaren should change their racial name depending on which faction they are.

Like for sure the Alliance High Elves could change their name to something else, just like Blood Elves did, but they don't automatically lose their name because they are a dissident group. And again, since Blood Elves already changed their name, it doesn't even cause confusion, which it shouldn't, since Pandaren have done it since MoP

The question is why people refuse to call Blood Elves... blood elves, which is the name they chose for themselves.

[Ardenaso]

I mean as fact checking goes, there are 2 High Elven paladins on the Silver Covenant (Isimode and Rulen Lightsreap)

there's no confirmations that they trained before the Third War, the most probability is that they trained in Stormwind post-Third War. The only one confirmed so far is Mehlar Dawnblade and Arator (at least he became a Paladin only after a few years after the Second War where there's around 14 years gap between Second War and Third War)

edit: wait no nvm, Arator's age is really inconsistent with different media and sources. Scratch that, it's just Mehlar it is

[Alixie]

I just want original recipe helves. Not extra crispy (belf), or sweet n' spicy (velf). Just regular ass 11 herbs and spices, and not a single ingredient more.

[Yarathir]

I just want original recipe helves. Not extra crispy (belf), or sweet n' spicy (velf). Just regular ass 11 herbs and spices, and not a single ingredient more.

Then roll a Void Elf or Blood Elf with blue eyes, light skin and in the case of Void Elves the most natural hairstyles and haircolors.

[Alixie]

Then roll a Void Elf or Blood Elf with blue eyes, light skin and in the case of Void Elves the most natural hairstyles and haircolors.

Im joking. Cosplaying as a helf is the best we can do right now. Hopefully those new customizations they've mentioned coming over the next few weeks involve normal hair colors and MAYBE paladins for velfs.

[Yarathir]

Im joking. Cosplaying as a helf is the best we can do right now. Hopefully those new customizations they've mentioned coming over the next few weeks involve normal hair colors and MAYBE paladins for velfs.

I can see lighter hair colors and maybe some more non-tentacle hairstyles (or a toggle to turn on/off tentacles on hairstyles that have them) but not sure about paladins, tbh.

[FlubberPuddy]

I can see lighter hair colors and maybe some more non-tentacle hairstyles (or a toggle to turn on/off tentacles on hairstyles that have them) but not sure about paladins, tbh.

Definitely see the lighter hair colors and non-tentacle hairstyles coming (the blonde/brown/black/white/reds people ask for don't have to be similar to BEs at all), but on the paladin front it probably will be a long while.

Most likely it isn't on the table until they start doing the customization specific racial/heritage quests they mentioned for the new options down the line.

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even more so when danuser said that any role we want to play with our characters with the new customizations is canon.

Well he said it's canon to you the player, that doesn't mean they acknowledge it as canon of their loreverse.

The other example Danuser gave of this was when BEs got Golden Eyes, he said the players can make up any reason they want for the Golden Eyes but they'll (Blizzard) only be putting that option on BE priests/paladins NPC to explain that it's from the Sunwell being cleansed in TBC.

So essentially: Your character is canon to you, but your character isn't canon to Blizzard's loreverse.

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So in short, I do think there's a chance VE's will get hair colors that fit the HE aesthetic, but we won't get them now because they need to be made rather than just reused like skin tones were. But I also don't think they will be the exact same colors that BE's have.

Yup, I agree with what you're saying. A lot of the changes AR got were due to it most likely being easy transitions with the work they were already doing for the non-AR customizations. More will come to AR later on, during Shadowlands (which is nice).

[Yarathir]

Definitely see the lighter hair colors and non-tentacle hairstyles coming (the blonde/brown/black/white/reds people ask for don't have to be similar to BEs at all), but on the paladin front it probably will be a long while.

Most likely it isn't on the table until they start doing the customization specific racial/heritage quests they mentioned for the new options down the line.

Didn't somebody show some hairstyles with Kul Tiran/Human hair palettes? That looked good to me.

[Kyriani]

I can see lighter hair colors and maybe some more non-tentacle hairstyles (or a toggle to turn on/off tentacles on hairstyles that have them) but not sure about paladins, tbh.

I really want a toggle for the tentacles. As has been shown, the Void Elf hairstyles with the tentacles toggled off look really nice. They'd look even nicer with a broader option of colors.

Void Elf Hairstyles without the tentacles:


CLICK TO ENBIGGEN!

Void Elf hair with more traditional colors:

[FlubberPuddy]

Didn't somebody show some hairstyles with Kul Tiran/Human hair palettes? That looked good to me.

Yeah I think it was @Kyriani, the Human/Kul'Tiran hairstyles and hair colors would go amazingly well with Void/High Elves!

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I really want a toggle for the tentacles. As has been shown, the Void Elf hairstyles with the tentacles toggled off look really nice. They'd look even nicer with a broader option of colors.

Void Elf Hairstyles without the tentacles:


CLICK TO ENBIGGEN!

Would love to have the bottom left two hairstyles without tentacles on my male High Elf !

I also enjoy how those more traditional hair colors can evoke the blondes/browns/reds/grays/whites/blacks without having to copy any of the existing Blood Elf hair colors.

[Kyriani]

Yeah I think it was @Kyriani, the Human/Kul'Tiran hairstyles and hair colors would go amazingly well with Void/High Elves!

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Would love to have the bottom left two hairstyles without tentacles on my male High Elf !

While I did post these images, they were created by Talendrion (Who I believe is MyWholeLifeIsThunder on these forums)

[FlubberPuddy]

While I did post these images, they were created by Talendrion (Who I belive is MyWholeLifeIsThunder on these forums)

Indeed!! Love the man's work