Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[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.

[Varodoc]

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

That's not the point.

[Vaedan]

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

Not really. Void elf heritage armor reveals whole chest, not to mention you can now hide any armor part through transmog, which resulted in possibilities of very lascivious mogs. I made quite a lot transmogs on my main and some of them would definitely make this version noticable.

[Ardenaso]

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.

found it, here:

There were others in the Silver Hand, Mehlar is just noted because he was Uther's apprentice.

"A few were members of the Silver Hand, such as Mehlar Dawnblade, while others belonged to the high elven Royal Guard."

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Paladin_races

I also once argued that yeah, the only confirmed pre-Blood Knighting High Elf Paladin is Mehlar

[Vaedan]

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.

First I played through that storyline, I had the feeling they are building Alleria and Turalyon as a dynamic duo, Yin and Yang, opposite forces which are inevitably drawn together. With another subtle hints that Light and Void are connected in some way, like Xal'Atath describing Naaru as brethren who lost the vision, I expected this storyline was meant to start building relations between Light and Void, showing us that neither of the Forces is actually good or evil.

I was quite surprised Void elves were based on that, but it may be a result of positive reception of Alleria's story in Mac'Aree.

[Ardenaso]

to those currently subbed and able to reply on official forums, does anyone have a "me not that kind of elf" peon with long ears and long brows?

[Varodoc]

Lol Void elves were datamined before 7.3 was even released, it was extremely predictable that Alleria's story in Mac'aree would lead to something far greater.

[DeicideUH]

Lol Void elves were datamined before 7.3 was even released, it was extremely predictable that Alleria's story in Mac'aree would lead to something far greater.

Would lead to something, but not void elves. Yes, there were void elf stuff in data, but the story was clearly written before any decidion was made, and without void elves in mind. Danuser also said the idea came after Alleria’s story was considered an internal success.

[FlubberPuddy]

I also once argued that yeah, the only confirmed pre-Blood Knighting High Elf Paladin is Mehlar

It literally says "a few", along with "others belonged to" so this is really silly. Mehlar is simply one of the named ones we know, it doesn't mean others didn't also exist as per the other sources.

Is an NPC Paladin not a Paladin because the NPC doesn't have a specific name but simply 'Lightguard devout' or something? Are "Silver Hand Knights" not Paladins?

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Blizzard just fixed void elf underwear in PTR!

That's awesome! Also nice to know that it is probably something 'easy' for them to do hence why it came so close to the pre-patch.

Also I really like how the blue/purple/grey hair options for the Void Elves actually works in favor of a High Elf look when working against the human skin tones. They feel the closest to 'natural hair colors' from the current hair color options.

[Ardenaso]

It literally says "a few", along with "others belonged to" so this is really silly. Mehlar is simply one of the named ones we know, it doesn't mean others didn't also exist as per the other sources.

Is an NPC Paladin not a Paladin because the NPC doesn't have a specific name but simply 'Lightguard devout' or something? Are "Silver Hand Knights" not Paladins?

Well yeah, I thought so too before, but not anymore

[scubi666stacy]

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.

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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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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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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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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-





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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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.

Well, I definitively will not switch towards Alliance anymore, though I have a bunch of characters there. This boat has sailed long ago. Blood Elves will stay my favorite race, though I have a couple of Void Elves. And my VE are what they are, no HE pretenders. I have played LOTRO for some years, there are the true High Elves. WoW just has a bland rip-off in that regard, which has never appealed to me. Especially since 2 of the 3 signature female Elven characters are arm candy for some human males. Go figure.

But anyway, if getting the looks satisfies a bunch of people on the Alliance side, then I'm fine with that. But if VE get previously exclusive look options from BE, then I would expect that BE would get something from VE in return. Or on the other hand, that BE and VE keep some exclusive looks to separate the groups, and that the amount of exclusivity is equal.

[Varodoc]

Void elves underwears are fixed, good. Now Blizzard can drop the pre-patch, all major problems have been solved.

[Frenchvince]

The Sin'dorei color codes will soon change for me.


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I didn't see it coming ...

https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/...571049990?s=20

At least we finally have a date for the prepatch !

[FossilFree]

Less than two weeks until High Elves! I'm counting down the days now.