Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Varodoc]

Blood elves actually have one of the best customizations from all races, which is probably one of the reasons they are so popular. I felt like Blizz is focusing on other races, giving them options to make them more popular options - night elves got a lot of interesting options to be honest, rightfully so. I understand why blood elf players feel dumped on first round of character customizations, but constant complains regarding void elves got "all their options" felt really annoying after a while.



I actually think it would be really nice to see Alleria being reconnected with her old squad. I always thought such details made the world way more living. To be honest, since Alleria is a thalassian war hero and esteemed Ranger General, I'd like to see some interactions with Silver Covenant too, but that is likely staying Vereesa's toy.

Well in 8.2 Vereesa Windrunner was seen following Alleria around at the Battle of Orgrimmar, thus it can be inferred that Vereesa and the Silver Covenant now serve Alleria. Maybe not officially, but since Vereesa clearly respects and honors her sister a lot, she would definitely follow her lead.

[Kithelle]

I just wish we didn't have to go through this debacle and they just gave us High Elves instead of Void Elves...to this day I still want to play a High Elf Paladin and more than ever I don't want to play a Blood Elf because I don't want to be on the murderer faction.

You know if another murderer gets in power the Horde will just go with the flow...

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So Entropic Embrace effect is not really a spell effect, but it is actually a skintone. Which means Void Elves will change their underwear midfight when it procs if they use normal skintones.

I guess I'm fortunate that I don't run around in my underwear so it wont bother me lol

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Archmage_Lan%27dalock

this guy seemed to be friends with a Shivarra, and she became "friendly" after Magtheridon fell; I assume he's one of the elves who were part of Kael's group that somehow went back to the Alliance?

I wouldn't be sure about that; the vague reference to their liaison could put it anywhere timeline-wise, even years and years before the First War.

Long ago, I had a... liaison with a certain high elf wizard named Lan'dalock. He later joined the Kirin Tor.

It could even put the whole thing centuries ago. High Elves have had knowledge of demonology since The Sundering, and some of it would have to have been practical when used to hunt demons when the Dalaran magii started their clandestine war.

I do think the origins of human (and gnome and dwarf) Warlock knowledge come from the same place than their knowledge of magic; from the High Elves, when they were taught the history of the Sundering after their magical prowess started to weaken the fabric of reality. It all harkens back to the Sundering, a forbidden, yet practiced by few, knowledge.

I don't think Blood Elves learned demonology from scratch from Illidan, but that they complimented that ancient knowledge with Illidan's, creating the modern Blood Elf Warlock. Yet ostensibly, High Elves already had around the same propensity to be Warlock as Humans, Gnomes and Dwarves could, and it was maybe the Blood Elves reputation with Fel magics what has diminished that -but not erased, as we have Landalock and Summoner Nolric, as well as all the Warlock HE mobs around.

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I just wish we didn't have to go through this debacle and they just gave us High Elves instead of Void Elves...to this day I still want to play a High Elf Paladin and more than ever I don't want to play a Blood Elf because I don't want to be on the murderer faction.

You know if another murderer gets in power the Horde will just go with the flow...

But AR High Elves never guaranteed paladins; Kul Tirans had more paladins on War3 and not even they got Paladins. High Elven paladins would be really cool, but I don't understand this misconception that they are a "must" for High Elves, when they have never been defined by it.

Like it's all moot since we got VE's, but yeah, even outright AR High Elves wouldn't have guaranteed Paladins, so *shrug emoji*

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I think we'd have to wait a long time for a significant enough population shift occurs from Horde to the Alliance for anyone to be concerned... if such a shift ever actually happens.

But I'm kind of doubtful that cosmetics will have much, if any, impact on the faction population dynamics. I just don't see the people gung ho about endgame engagement giving up the larger pool of potential guild recruits, people to do mythic+, a more populated group finder and more people to do other endgame activities with, just to play a pretty elf on the Alliance, when they already have pretty elves on the Horde.

Yeah; as long as Blood Elves had Paladins, the most popular class, and DH exclusive to the Horde, their population isn't even going to shift within the faction.

The idea that High Elves would be a major shift from Horde to Alliance is downright risible to me. The people on the Horde are there because overall gameplay experience, so that the alliance has the "same race", but with less options, would hardly be what sways people to change factions at this point.

I do think people greatly exaggerate the number of people that feel hostage on the Horde with the Blood Elves, and we are at a point where the imbalance is now a self-perpetuating mesh of factors that even outright AR HE's would scratch the surface.

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Yup, it's not unheard of to want to look like your faction leader. Blizzard is now giving those options with Blood Elves being able to look like Lor'themar (male and female), Undead getting to look like Lillian Voss (blue eyes on undead), Orcs getting to look like Thrall or Grom, and Humans being able to look like Varian.

It's nothing new at all, except for those petty persons who continue to have a tribal mentality over a video game.

Indeed, it makes perfect sense for Void Elves -regardless of origin- to want to emulate their leader's aesthetics. The choice of so drastically separate Alleria from the VE's was just baffling; if they had had more confidence on the choice, they would have just made Alleria herself blue.

I do hope we get warpaint on Void Elves, it makes sense both to Void Elves and to the HE fantasy.

Not going to stop Blood Elves from wanting warpaint even when it is something we never have seen them use so they might as well moved on from the tradition, but just like it was with blue eyes, more options are good overall -I mean Alleria has a lore reason for her retro looks, but it's entirely reasonable some Blood Elves would be Farstrider traditionalists so it would make sense, I would just personally like to see tattoos/runes/scars like the BC cover box art and Rommath-

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Most notable customizations added to core races are actually sub-race features (wildhammers, sand trolls, etc). Allied races are kind of sub-races on their own, so I don't expect anything "huge" added on this front, there is little potential among most of AR for this. To be honest, some AR like LF draenei or Highmountain Tauren should also be just customizations since the only difference to their core race are tatoos, horns and color palette, which is exactly what new customizations are covering for other sub-races.



I really hope something will happen. If we will ever see new AR, I believe it should be different in greater way in some to its core race, like Kul Tiran to regular humans.

Indeed, that's why my conspiracy theory is that some AR will be merged in their core race's customization someday, and AR will remain as more substantial alterations such as KT, Zandalari, NB, VE and Vulpera, cause Maghar and DI can really just merge too.

Specially interesting for DI, cause if we consider the time jump theory, any overlap we see between DI/WH/BB would be a reflection of years of co-habitation, best represented by Moira's son, Dagran II -who could have fiery DI hair and BB skin tone-

That's definitely a must have for proper high elf look. It complement our options pretty well:

- Wild Dreamrunner: a green unicorn from Dreamweaver paragon cache - not perfect, but still usable for ranger looks
- Pureheart Courser: a light blue unicorn from 100 exalted reputation achievement - actually really great option for high elves, but getting 100 exalted reputation is a heartbreaking grind
- Lucid Nightmare: black/purple unicorn rewarded for hidden and insane puzzle - probably more fitting to void elf fantasy
- Prestigious mounts: rewards for reaching various honor levels, different color variants, equiped with additional armor compared to previous unicorns

that makes pretty good selection of high elven mounts. Great news is these unicorns will learn to fly in Shadowlands. If there is anybody not comfortable with flying unicorns, you have access to two dragonhawk mounts and dragons or hippogryffs will work just fine as well.

Also the Dragonhawks from mount collection rewards, since in lore it's said the Highvale have the last Dragonhawks in the alliance.

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I guess it depends on how you view things. If you see void elves as high elves that learned use the void then it does fulfill the high elf fantasy.

Indeed, another way to look at it is also about what's explicitly part of the customization options, and what you can represent/imply with the customization options.

For example, in no place is explicit you can make a Highborne Elf, but through certain combinations -specially now the blue eye color- you can get that look, even when explicitly you are a Night Elf from Teldrassil.

So yes, you could be explicitly a Void Elf that used to be a High Elf -meaning they were never a BE- or you can choose the options that most resemble the aesthetics of a High Elf fantasy and choose that background, without void weighting in at all in that conceptualization.

[Kyriani]

The choice of so drastically separate Alleria from the VE's was just baffling; if they had had more confidence on the choice, they would have just made Alleria herself blue.

My theory has always been that the devs originally intended to give Alliance the High Elves they've been asking for, with Alleria as their leader. But once the Alleria story arc, model for her void form, and cinematic had been completed, they became so enamored with with those visuals that the "rule of cool" made them shift directions at the last minute. No one can argue in good faith that Alliance High Elves wouldn't have been the most organic choice for an allied race, especially at that specific time due to the Silver Covenant presence during the attack on the Nighthold. But when the decision to shift direction to Void Elves happened, they felt the need to make player Void Elves distinctly different from Blood Elves in as many ways as possible while still using the Thalassian model.

That led us to unique hairstyles, glowing tentacles, blue/gray skin, saturated hair colors in the bluish-gray to burgundy range, etc. About the only thing they had as part of the High Elf look were blue eyes but still not the same as the ones High Elf npc's sported. And obviously all of that is a massive divergence from Alleria Windrunner, the premier Void Elf.

The position at the time of Void Elf implementation seems to have been one of "We must enforce the visual distinction between the factions!" and "We're giving them the model! That's what they wanted right?".

The position going into Shadowlands seems to have shifted to "Fuck it, maybe this will swing a few more people to the Alliance." and "Fine. You want fair-skinned High Elves? Here you go, now shut the fuck up already".

Needless to say, there's still people asking for a High Elf allied race, though much less now, with most of those seeking High Elves now shifting to requests for Void Elves to get more natural hair colors, more hairstyles, a tentacle toggle, and the option to customize, if not outright hide, Entropic Embrace's visual effect.

[Ardenaso]

I wouldn't be sure about that; the vague reference to their liaison could put it anywhere timeline-wise, even years and years before the First War.

It could even put the whole thing centuries ago. High Elves have had knowledge of demonology since The Sundering, and some of it would have to have been practical when used to hunt demons when the Dalaran magii started their clandestine war.

I do think the origins of human (and gnome and dwarf) Warlock knowledge come from the same place than their knowledge of magic; from the High Elves, when they were taught the history of the Sundering after their magical prowess started to weaken the fabric of reality. It all harkens back to the Sundering, a forbidden, yet practiced by few, knowledge.

I don't think Blood Elves learned demonology from scratch from Illidan, but that they complimented that ancient knowledge with Illidan's, creating the modern Blood Elf Warlock. Yet ostensibly, High Elves already had around the same propensity to be Warlock as Humans, Gnomes and Dwarves could, and it was maybe the Blood Elves reputation with Fel magics what has diminished that -but not erased, as we have Landalock and Summoner Nolric, as well as all the Warlock HE mobs around.

But AR High Elves never guaranteed paladins; Kul Tirans had more paladins on War3 and not even they got Paladins. High Elven paladins would be really cool, but I don't understand this misconception that they are a "must" for High Elves, when they have never been defined by it.

Like it's all moot since we got VE's, but yeah, even outright AR High Elves wouldn't have guaranteed Paladins, so *shrug emoji*

hmm... there's instances pre-TFT where she isn't full on "destroy all life"? perhaps there's times pre-First War where the Kirin Tor managed to control her

aren't you the one who told me that there were indeed High Elves in the Silver Hand before TBC other than Mehlar though?

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

hmm... there's instances pre-TFT where she isn't full on "destroy all life"? perhaps there's times pre-First War where the Kirin Tor managed to control her

I think you are mistaking Malevolence with another shivarra, perhaps Delrissa? Malevolence didn't appear before Legion.

aren't you the one who told me that there were indeed High Elves in the Silver Hand before TBC other than Mehlar though?

I don't think so? As far as I know there are no confirmed High Elven Paladins on the Silver Hand before WotLK, so less so TBC. Mesides Mehlar, there's no mention of any Pre-Third War elven paladins on the Silver Hand.

I have said that WotLK did introduce a couple HE paladins (Isimode and Rulen Lightsreap on the SC, and another on the Argent Crusade) but those are all WotLK tho.

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My theory has always been that the devs originally intended to give Alliance the High Elves they've been asking for, with Alleria as their leader. But once the Alleria story arc, model for her void form, and cinematic had been completed, they became so enamored with with those visuals that the "rule of cool" made them shift directions at the last minute. No one can argue in good faith that Alliance High Elves wouldn't have been the most organic choice for an allied race, especially at that specific time due to the Silver Covenant presence during the attack on the Nighthold. But when the decision to shift direction to Void Elves happened, they felt the need to make player Void Elves distinctly different from Blood Elves in as many ways as possible while still using the Thalassian model.

That led us to unique hairstyles, glowing tentacles, blue/gray skin, saturated hair colors in the bluish-gray to burgundy range, etc. About the only thing they had as part of the High Elf look were blue eyes but still not the same as the ones High Elf npc's sported. And obviously all of that is a massive divergence from Alleria Windrunner, the premier Void Elf.

The position at the time of Void Elf implementation seems to have been one of "We must enforce the visual distinction between the factions!" and "We're giving them the model! That's what they wanted right?".

The position going into Shadowlands seems to have shifted to "Fuck it, maybe this will swing a few more people to the Alliance." and "Fine. You want fair-skinned High Elves? Here you go, now shut the fuck up already".

Needless to say, there's still people asking for a High Elf allied race, though much less now, with most of those seeking High Elves now shifting to requests for Void Elves to get more natural hair colors, more hairstyles, a tentacle toggle, and the option to customize, if not outright hide, Entropic Embrace's visual effect.

IMO, they didn't conceptualize Alleria and her Void journey as a way to introduce an Allied Race. Whether we look at VE or HE, neither race was properly set up by her arc to become playable, with her story being very personal.

To me it feels that Void Elves as a concept just came after the fact, but TBH High Elves weren't either intended as an AR through her -or the SC- either. It reads more like "shit, we need to give the alliance an AR that contrasts Nightborne for the Horde" and I do agree that at the time, their idea was to keep aesthetics segregated, and I am glad that that decision seems to have changed to allow for more overlap of aesthetics.

I do wonder; was that decision to segregate aesthetics caused by BfA rather than being a design choice by itself? Like I guess they could have changed their mind about aesthetics exclusivity from their previously more limited stance, but I do wonder if they weren't as firm on it since the beginning, but since BfA was presented as a big faction war it was on their best interest to create animosity and segregation between factions. Kinda moot to try to divine intention, but I have been thinking about it. Regardless, is evident they shifted from a intentional segregation of aesthetics for AR -by creating a whole different palette that didn't even match Alleria's regular form- to outright allowing a big overlap with skin and eye colors.

I am glad that they are moving in a direction where aesthetic overlap is allowed, it opens so many possibilities for the game in the future.

As for the people that still want HE's as an AR, godspeed, but personally I find it just very at this point with both VE and BE's getting their aesthetic to different degrees. At this point for me is more likely that Races are allowed to switch sides rather than HE's becoming their own AR *shrug*

(Which could be very interesting, I have always believed so. Not only could people finally have that elven paladin on the alliance, but Void Elves on the Horde? Oh la la. I have a "dark ranger" that would legit look cooler as a VE on the Horde hehe)

[Kyriani]

You do make a valid point that Alleria's story was a very personal one and not really conducive to an allied race unlock. I also agree with you that I am glad they seem to be getting more comfortable with aesthetic overlap.

And yea, letting races switch sides would be interesting, but I'm unsure how players overall would react to such a feature, how it would work, or if the devs would even consider it.

[DeicideUH]

To me, the return of the legendary Alleria herself would galvanize the high elves into an allied race. The void story was probably made later, and then they liked it, and, given the controversy of giving high elves to the Alliance, they decided to base the entire allied race in the concept of void users like her. It's very obvious that void elves were rushed into being, while just making a scenario for uniting the high elves would have been simpler and more natural.

Don't forget the constant presence of high elves in Legion, but no foreshadowing at all of void elves.

[Luck4]

To me, the return of the legendary Alleria herself would galvanize the high elves into an allied race. The void story was probably made later, and then they liked it, and, given the controversy of giving high elves to the Alliance, they decided to base the entire allied race in the concept of void users like her. It's very obvious that void elves were rushed into being, while just making a scenario for uniting the high elves would have been simpler and more natural.

Don't forget the constant presence of high elves in Legion, but no foreshadowing at all of void elves.

That's a shame because one gathering chain quest visiting many places and learning about the status quo of the High Elf individuals and groups across Azeroth and Outland would've been really cool.

I mean, like learning that some are dead, while others now have families, and another bunch had moved on to another place.

Most people dislike the AR Kul'tiran questline but I found it really entertaining because of traveling.

[DeicideUH]

Blizzard just fixed void elf underwear in PTR!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Blizzard just fixed void elf underwear in PTR!

Oh PTR? Need to check that out yay!

[DeicideUH]

Oh PTR? Need to check that out yay!

Yep, it was hotfixed on PTR. It is still not fixed in Beta.

[FossilFree]

Blizzard just fixed void elf underwear in PTR!

Care to link an image? I don't feel like installing PTR lol.

[Wired-Lain]

To me, the return of the legendary Alleria herself would galvanize the high elves into an allied race. The void story was probably made later, and then they liked it, and, given the controversy of giving high elves to the Alliance, they decided to base the entire allied race in the concept of void users like her. It's very obvious that void elves were rushed into being, while just making a scenario for uniting the high elves would have been simpler and more natural.

Don't forget the constant presence of high elves in Legion, but no foreshadowing at all of void elves.

Especially with the Windrunner name being dragged through the mud by Sylvanas. Would make perfect sense for either Alleria or Vereesa to step up.

[DeicideUH]

Care to link an image? I don't feel like installing PTR lol.

Can't you see the linked Twitter image? I'll post some in Imgur, then:

[FossilFree]

Can't you see the linked Twitter image? I'll post some in Imgur, then:

Nope, I couldn't. How weird, oh well. Thanks for alternate links!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Really like how swanky the VE underwear is, looks awesome on regular skin tones.

Honestly, while hair color -and styles- remain woefully limited, there was a time I never thought we'd get this close to a HE fantasy on the alliance, so yay for that!

[FossilFree]

Really like how swanky the VE underwear is, looks awesome on regular skin tones.

Honestly, while hair color -and styles- remain woefully limited, there was a time I never thought we'd get this close to a HE fantasy on the alliance, so yay for that!

Personally, I like dark haired High Elves better than blonde. It reminds me of Elrond and Arwen.

Still hoping for more variety though. Night Elves had the blue, purple, and blueish purple stuff covered already. I'd really like black hair the most, but earth tones in general would be nice.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

To me, the return of the legendary Alleria herself would galvanize the high elves into an allied race. The void story was probably made later, and then they liked it, and, given the controversy of giving high elves to the Alliance, they decided to base the entire allied race in the concept of void users like her. It's very obvious that void elves were rushed into being, while just making a scenario for uniting the high elves would have been simpler and more natural.

Don't forget the constant presence of high elves in Legion, but no foreshadowing at all of void elves.

I do agree; making the HE's an AR after their appareance in Legion would have been such a good idea, even though I don't think it was ever meant that way. I did like the SC showing up, but at times it really felt like a last minute addition in places like Suramar -With Vereesa and the SC going unmentioned in some parts, disappearing in others -Tomb of Sargeras-

But yeh, they would have made much more sense than VE's, specially when VE's themselves could have been a new aspect of High Elves as a whole. But they wanted to keep an aesthetic separation between BE and VE and we got what we got.

But for real, how could would have been if we had had basically the same VE unlock quest, but with Vereesa and the SC also included, with the resulting group a mix of all the alliance Thalassians.

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Personally, I like dark haired High Elves better than blonde. It reminds me of Elrond and Arwen.

Still hoping for more variety though. Night Elves had the blue, purple, and blueish purple stuff covered already. I'd really like black hair the most, but earth tones in general would be nice.

Indeed, actually love how some "HE looks" turn out. The problem is in fact the limitation of only "dark" colors, when every other races has a spectrum between black and white to a degree -the other race with the same problem being LFD-

Both VE and LFD do need more hair colors, and I hope they get them when AR are revisited. NB could also use more color tbh, but they at least have white and black, which should be something all races have; actually, pastel tones of NE hair colors could be great on NB.

[shoc]

The real question here is why Blizzard waited 3 years before giving Void elves fair-skin options. I mean, Alleria has retained her High elf form since Legion, this isn't exactly a recent development. And it's not like Blizzard should've been afraid of the Belf Horde fanboys, since they are like a very vocal minority. In the game or in any sane community you will never see people screaming and moaning about Void elves getting more options, which are lore-wise nonetheless.

In fact, shortly after BfA's reveal there were already several suggestions to give them fair-skin options, so really Blizzard took 3 years longer than anticipated:

That's cool, but practically speaking, on 99% of transmogs it will just be oddly purple hands.