Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Ardenaso]

Except true High elves would never side with orcs and trolls but with humans and dwarves instead.

So High elves are still an Alliance thing

(repeating my previous post with a few edits and corrections)

Although we all know that Kael'thas and the Blood Elves dumped the name "High Elves" (and I still agree that any self-proclaimed High Elf prancing around Silvermoon deserved to be mugged for not taking the name that honors the fallen High Elves), they still tend to the Quel'thalas traditions, heritage, and its culture. They own Quel'thalas, Silvermoon, and the Sunwell and they are willing to defend them - as well as the appointed leaders' ideals, they are the true heirs to the title of High Elves and they are closer to the High Elves than the ones in the Alliance. To be a High Elf is to wield magic efficiently, as seen in Blood Knights who command the Light - compared to... High Elf Paladins who need faith to wield Light scratch that it's now forbidden anyway

The (Alliance) High Elves on the other hand, have abandoned their own kin in their time of need and chose to side with their enemy. They no longer indulge in Blood Elf stuff and they chose now to live in Human, Dwarf, and Night Elf lands, they basically set aside the nobility and the elevated status that defined them. They are now more like Wildhammer Elves or "Commoner Elves" than actual High Elves.

Now, why did they chose to fight for the Alliance? They were exiled? Lor'themar made amends for them to come back and they still refused. They didn't want to kill Alliance nor be on a genocidal/omnicidal faction? They could have been simply become neutral like the Kirin Tor or Argent Dawn/Crusade mediators who would settle at least to try and prevent civilian casualties, even Vereesa's husband and the people closest to Garithos' New Alliance Remnants themselves are neutral and are vouching for the Horde. They couldn't stand the Horde? They could have simply stayed in Quel'thalas or made themselves cleanse Ghostlands to be at least useful. But nah, to the enemy they went, while the Blood Elves were suffering in Quel'thalas for 5 years they were enjoying their selfish lives in Dalaran and human lands, doing yoga instead of helping the Blood Elves cope up with their addiction.

And then they further sealed off their legitimacy for Quel'thalas the moment they committed the Purge of Dalaran - they were pretty much eager to kill Blood Elves and they made themselves the enemies of the state (but then again it happened for gameplay reasons because you can't just put the Blood Elves on the Alliance anyway)

Quel'dorei? You are peasants playing at nobility, all too willing to mingle with lesser races that dilute your bloodline. You are unworthy of the name high elves.

Blood Elves are the real High Elves, and the High Elves today are posers

(and this is coming from someone who was an Alliance-biased pro-helfer)

(but although I would really love a unification of Vereesa, Umbric, and Mordent's Highborne in Eldre'thalas and make it their new stronghold with Alleria as their leader; Tyrande should really allow them at this point to bask in their Well of Eternity as well)

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My racial leader fought in the second war against the orcs and on the side of the humans, but a human leader condemned us to death and then the night elves invaded quelthalas. A true patriot defends his nation from all enemies even if they were allies in the past! and yes! some of my alts are going to be high elves!

to be fair it's not Garithos why the Blood Elves are on the Horde, but because the Alliance refused aid for years until TBC and the only thing that came for them was the Night Elven saboteurs; I wouldn't count Jorad Mace - he was most likely acting on his own

the only ones nowadays who were really affected by Garithos are Rommath and a few Magisters, the Illidari, the Scryers, (and the San'layn if they ever would rejoin their kin)

[Tinniel]

"Blood Elves are the real High Elves, and the High Elves today are posers

(and this is coming from someone who was an Alliance-biased pro-helfer)

(but although I would really love a unification of Vereesa, Umbric, and Mordent's Highborne in Eldre'thalas and make it their new stronghold with Alleria as their leader; Tyrande should really allow them at this point to bask in their Well of Eternity as well)"

No, buddy, you're wrong. Blood ELves didn't identified themselves as high elves. Quel'dorei is just a past time, history period for them and they speak about themselves as a separate nation.
High Elves today still High Elves today. Who real posers? Void Elves. They aren't just a nation and a bunch of people - just a little etnos and a tribe of voidlovers. And don't take on the role of a judge and an expert like Ponasenkov - cause I can easily said that you're a casual and lover of any kind of poop from Blizzard, if we are Alliance-bias here. Ideally, there shouldn't be a ren'dorei and there won't be. The topic of the high elves as a separate race will be relevant, and Blizzard's handouts and such "experts" like you will not be a hindrance.

[Vaedan]

The (Alliance) High Elves on the other hand, have abandoned their own kin in their time of need and chose to side with their enemy. They no longer indulge in Blood Elf stuff and they chose now to live in Human, Dwarf, and Night Elf lands, they basically set aside the nobility and the elevated status that defined them. They are now more like Wildhammer Elves or "Commoner Elves" than actual High Elves.

That is actually incorrect. The exile was not self imposted by high elves, it was Lor'themar who decided to exile them for the little reason of not agreeing on new methods of mana tapping and using unstable and dangerous sources of magic (like Fel) to sate their addiction. They were given no choice, they were kicked out. Blood elves did not give them any other opportunity. Lor'themar later regreted doing so, basically proving their point.

Don't forget that at the time of their exile, blood elves were not part of the Alliance anymore, but they were not part of the Horde yet (they become part of Horde during questing experience in Eversong/Ghostlands, which is AFTER exile of high elves). At that time, exiled elves who sided with the Alliance did not really sided with the enemy of their people, since Alliance was not the enemy of sin'dorei yet.

Now, why did they chose to fight for the Alliance? They were exiled? Lor'themar made amends for them to come back and they still refused. They didn't want to kill Alliance nor be on a genocidal/omnicidal faction? They could have been simply become neutral like the Kirin Tor or Argent Dawn/Crusade mediators who would settle at least to try and prevent civilian casualties, even Vereesa's husband and the people closest to Garithos' New Alliance Remnants themselves are neutral and are vouching for the Horde.

They sided with the Alliance since they possibly had friends and connections there, so it is logical they went for help in that direction. They were not really numerous and had many enemies on their territories. Many high elves indeed joined factions later considered neutral, such as Kirin Tor, so your complaint is not really on the place.

They couldn't stand the Horde? They could have simply stayed in Quel'thalas or made themselves cleanse Ghostlands to be at least useful. But nah, to the enemy they went, while the Blood Elves were suffering in Quel'thalas for 5 years they were enjoying their selfish lives in Dalaran and human lands, doing yoga instead of helping the Blood Elves cope up with their addiction.

You know that they were pretty much exiled for wanting overcome addiction, not just fed it with mana? Why they did not went to Ghostlands? Well, they were kicked out, it was blood elves who did not want them there. As seen in cata, as soon as Lor'themar invited them to Ghostlands during Amani crisis, Vereesa and her rangers went to help to defend their nation, so if blood elves actually showed a good will and were willing to give high elves purpose, they would not went away.

Also don't forget that following Third War, Dalaran was completely destroyed by Archimonde. High elves who went to Dalaran pretty much did not have luxurious and comfy life. They most likely had to contribute to Dalaran's rebuilding, which took until WotLK, so actually longer then Silvermoon's restoration. After Dalaran was rebuilded, sure they were allowed to use it's comforts, but I guess they earned them, since they were there to rebuild it alongside Kirin Tor. From their point of view, it's not hard to imagine their disgust when blood elves, who kicked them from their country, went to Dalaran and wanted to share it them.

And then they further sealed off their legitimacy for Quel'thalas the moment they committed the Purge of Dalaran - they were pretty much eager to kill Blood Elves and they made themselves the enemies of the state (but then again it happened for gameplay reasons because you can't just put the Blood Elves on the Alliance anyway)

Yes, the animosity of High Elves went beyond the edge with the Purge. I guess some high elves still hold grudges towards blood elves for exiling them. In their point of view, it was quel'dorei who stayed true to thalassian way of life, while sin'dorei were all willing to meddle with dark magics and sucking mana out of living creatures. I guess these high elves, who had to endure the hardships of their exile and remained true to the name "high elves" feel insulted when blood elves, after draenei helped reignite Sunwell, now all of sudden looks like they never tortured a naaru, they never sucked mana and they were keeper of thalassian traditions all along. They were not. They come to them once their problems were fixed, but they really did not stay true their principles in the darkest hour. I don't want to say that blood elves were wrong, I'm just pointing out why some high elves may feel towards blood elves.

Blood Elves are the real High Elves, and the High Elves today are posers

I believe both groups have their own arguments for being labeled real high elf and they dismiss the claim the other group has on this matter. Blood elves are in great advantage by ruling their ancestral homeland.

but although I would really love a unification of Vereesa, Umbric, and Mordent's Highborne in Eldre'thalas and make it their new stronghold with Alleria as their leader; Tyrande should really allow them at this point to bask in their Well of Eternity as well

I'd love that too.

[Varodoc]

"Blood Elves are the real High Elves, and the High Elves today are posers

(and this is coming from someone who was an Alliance-biased pro-helfer)

(but although I would really love a unification of Vereesa, Umbric, and Mordent's Highborne in Eldre'thalas and make it their new stronghold with Alleria as their leader; Tyrande should really allow them at this point to bask in their Well of Eternity as well)"

No, buddy, you're wrong. Blood ELves didn't identified themselves as high elves. Quel'dorei is just a past time, history period for them and they speak about themselves as a separate nation.
High Elves today still High Elves today. Who real posers? Void Elves. They aren't just a nation and a bunch of people - just a little etnos and a tribe of voidlovers. And don't take on the role of a judge and an expert like Ponasenkov - cause I can easily said that you're a casual and lover of any kind of poop from Blizzard, if we are Alliance-bias here. Ideally, there shouldn't be a ren'dorei and there won't be. The topic of the high elves as a separate race will be relevant, and Blizzard's handouts and such "experts" like you will not be a hindrance.

Ren'dorei aren't posers at all. They are their own unique race evolved from Blood elves after being mutated by the Void.

They don't even have such a small population, since their forces participated in several major battles of the Fourth War, including the suicide mission at Nazmir.

[Alanar]

There is no contradiction to the lore. There are healing spells based on shadow/void - Shadow Mend. Shadow Covenant. It sets precedent for any other future implementation of healing techniques used on the Void. What we've been discussing here was Void Knight as a possible "class skin" for paladins. That means it is separate class in the lore which uses the paladin class mechanics, so once again, it is not actually paladin (as a lore class) using a Void (lorewise). It's all around a paladin class (gameplay wise) being closest representation of Void Knight (a lore class), if that ever comes to be.



I guess it's pretty subjective. As for me, when I'm on the Horde, I don't want to be a high elf, I want to be blood elf and all what it brings, including be over all the "high elf" history, since as a nation, we had to overcome it in order to survive.

When I want to be a proper high elf, I don't want to be meddling with the Horde. I'm also sure more will come during SL on that matter and the Alliance high elves will get more options.

I guess yea sure, the thing is.. blood elves are high elves.. and adding blue eyes just make them look like true high elves.. void elves feels like second best.

But purely based on what a high elf is...Blood elves are able to look and feel like the real deal which is a fact realy. The only thing that is missing is the High elf tag. Hopefully we never get that tho.

Void elves are still void elves.. with or without blue eyes, still dont make them feel like high elves.

[Vaedan]

I guess yea sure, the thing is.. blood elves are high elves.. and adding blue eyes just make them look like true high elves.. void elves feels like second best.

But purely based on what a high elf is...Blood elves are able to look and feel like true high elves.. just a fact realy.

Void elves are tentacle elves with blue eyes imo. D

Well, it seems that Blizzard went to the road that "high elf" is mutual term for all thalassians. Blood elves are high elves, void elves are high elves...

Blood elves indeed look like proper high elf, no doubt. I believe we will have more options for that on void elves too once allied races will get their time with more customizations.

Also, even now, not all void elf hairstyles have tentacles

[Alanar]

Well, it seems that Blizzard went to the road that "high elf" is mutual term for all thalassians. Blood elves are high elves, void elves are high elves...

Blood elves indeed look like proper high elf, no doubt. I believe we will have more options for that on void elves too once allied races will get their time with more customizations.

Also, even now, not all void elf hairstyles have tentacles

Yea I guess true high elf fans might feel sad because even afther the eye winn, they still dont look like high elves. Reason why I called it the irony.

Yea it seems so.. but..

Blood elves are high elves, but not all high elves are blood elves.

For the void elves its abit differnt.

Void elves are high and blood elves. There is no way to know, only rp can make that differences. Which I believe was the whole deal with the eye color. Pople can rp as one, but not actually be one. Blizz intended.

[Frenchvince]

Now the void elves and the blood elves both have blue hair colors.
I can no longer see anything that could stop Blizzard from adding natural hair colors to Void Elves and other bluish colors to Blood Elves.
Natural or bluish colored hair is part of the high elf customization.

Let the ship sail quietly in the right direction.

[Ardenaso]

That is actually incorrect. The exile was not self imposted by high elves, it was Lor'themar who decided to exile them for the little reason of not agreeing on new methods of mana tapping and using unstable and dangerous sources of magic (like Fel) to sate their addiction. They were given no choice, they were kicked out.

Many high elves indeed joined factions later considered neutral, such as Kirin Tor, so your complaint is not really on the place.

In their point of view, it was quel'dorei who stayed true to thalassian way of life, while sin'dorei were all willing to meddle with dark magics and sucking mana out of living creatures. I guess these high elves, who had to endure the hardships of their exile and remained true to the name "high elves" feel insulted when blood elves, after draenei helped reignite Sunwell, now all of sudden looks like they never tortured a naaru, they never sucked mana and they were keeper of thalassian traditions all along. They were not. They come to them once their problems were fixed, but they really did not stay true their principles in the darkest hour. I don't want to say that blood elves were wrong, I'm just pointing out why some high elves may feel towards blood elves.

I meant before Rommath returned to Silvermoon, surely at that time the High Elves would be enjoying some mana crystals in Stormwind Mage Quarter, Theramore, and possibly in wherever Rhonin and his gang were taking refuge (Ambermill?) but you are right on the part where the Alliance wasn't the enemy of the state yet and that's my mistake on my part. Now if you don't mind me moving the goalpost a bit: now that the Sunwell is restored, why didn't they at least approach Lor'themar themselves and seek for amends I got the impression that surely Aethas or some Sunreaver or probably Landalock (I got the impression he's one of Kael's Outland forces who chose to go back to the Alliance) would send word in Dalaran that Lor'themar is also making amends for the exield High Elves? They still chose the traitors' path in the end; I also got the impression that they didn't join the Alliance in cleansing the Sunwell in hopes that enough Blood Elves would get killed in the encounter against the Sunfury for them to easier reclaim Silvermoon for themselves (just like Tyrande made the Nightborne arm themselves so they get killed and not the Sentinels)

well yeah some neutral High Elves in the Argent Crusade and the Kirin Tor is nice, but I meant the Silver Covenant in the Alliance

Fair enough here, you are actually right on how they really felt on the Blood Elves. I guess they won't be content until Rommath is removed from power given that Vereesa tried to murder him (and here is where I'm siding with Alleria and the Void Elves on their part)

[Varodoc]

Now the void elves and the blood elves both have blue hair colors.
I can no longer see anything that could stop Blizzard from adding natural hair colors to Void Elves and other bluish colors to Blood Elves.
Natural or bluish colored hair is part of the high elf customization.

Let the ship sail quietly in the right direction.

Patience, friend. It took 3 years for fair-skin options, based on my calculations it will take 3 more years for blonde hair options.

[Frenchvince]

Patience, friend. It took 3 years for fair-skin options, based on my calculations it will take 3 more years for blonde hair options.

I hope it will happen before 3 years lol, at the earliest at 9.1 or at the latest at 9.3.

[Kyriani]

Patience, friend. It took 3 years for fair-skin options, based on my calculations it will take 3 more years for blonde hair options.

I don't think we'll have to wait nearly that long.

I have a strong feeling that when the time comes for allied races to get a customization pass, it's basically going to amount to just inheriting stuff from their parent races. Even Nightborne will probably get most, if not all, the Night skin (refitted for their model) and hair colors and styles (maybe slightly altered to look smoother and primped).

In regards to Void Elves, they will probably inherit some, if not all the Blood Elf hair colors and styles, and probably have their hairstyles (with tentacles removed) shared with Blood Elves. I'm not saying this is the best way to address the request (I don't think it is), but it is the easiest, and most efficient method to provide customization to Void Elves without Blizzard having to do much work. I'll be surprised if they don't go this route. Maybe they'll make some modifications to the assets, but I doubt they will invest the time and resources to make brand new stuff for allied races.

I can only hope that Blizzard at least gives Blood Elves the San'layn/Dark Ranger skin and eye options so that they have a "second theme", which seems to be a point of contention right now with Void Elves getting the Blood Elf skin tones, and some Blood Elf players being less than satisfied with the customization they've gotten so far (and I think they are justified in their dissatisfaction).

[zysis]

Why have the Highborne been distorted into High Elves? What are they high on, exactly? You are posting Highborne Elves and High Elves. ALL elves were once Highborne; even Azshara is a Highborne, so is Sylvanas, Tyrande and Malfurion. Even Illidan is Highborne. Then the Sundering happened and thus was created all the Elven races, the Naga, the Owlkin, the Furbolg.... This isn't staying true to WC3 lore, it's a distortion of it. There are no "High Elves" except the ones that smoke weed. I think you mean Highborne.

[Varodoc]

Also I want green eyes for Void elves, because there are Sin'dorei scholars too in Telogrus Rift.

[Vaedan]

I meant before Rommath returned to Silvermoon, surely at that time the High Elves would be enjoying some mana crystals in Stormwind Mage Quarter, Theramore, and possibly in wherever Rhonin and his gang were taking refuge (Ambermill?) but you are right on the part where the Alliance wasn't the enemy of the state yet and that's my mistake on my part. Now if you don't mind me moving the goalpost a bit: now that the Sunwell is restored, why didn't they at least approach Lor'themar themselves and seek for amends I got the impression that surely Aethas or some Sunreaver or probably Landalock (I got the impression he's one of Kael's Outland forces who chose to go back to the Alliance) would send word in Dalaran that Lor'themar is also making amends for the exield High Elves? They still chose the traitors' path in the end; I also got the impression that they didn't join the Alliance in cleansing the Sunwell in hopes that enough Blood Elves would get killed in the encounter against the Sunfury for them to easier reclaim Silvermoon for themselves (just like Tyrande made the Nightborne arm themselves so they get killed and not the Sentinels)

well yeah some neutral High Elves in the Argent Crusade and the Kirin Tor is nice, but I meant the Silver Covenant in the Alliance

Fair enough here, you are actually right on how they really felt on the Blood Elves. I guess they won't be content until Rommath is removed from power given that Vereesa tried to murder him (and here is where I'm siding with Alleria and the Void Elves on their part)

In Shadow of the Sun, Lor'themar approached elves of Quel'Danil and they were pretty cold to him, expressing they will not forget so easily he basically drove them to Plaguelands and left them to their own devices. I guess most of high elves feel the same towards blood elves, plus Quel'thalas being part of the Horde does not help either. It was orcs who burned down Quel'thalas during Second War, trolls are one of the most hated enemies of elves and Forsaken proved to be as evil as Scourge, so I think Alliance aligned elves can't or don't want to get over grudges they have towards these races. If there are any high elves who would like to come back to Quel'thalas, I guess that's their pride which prevents them to open talks with sin'dorei for their return. I also guess many of them grow accustomed to life within the Alliance, so they'd see a traitor's path joining with the Horde actually. At this point, elves who sticked with the Alliance most likely adopted its worldview, which is not really fond of Horde.

The funny thing is that each elf group actually see the other as traitors. What I'm actually interested in is how many blood elves defected to the Alliance through void elves. At first, it was said they are crack elite squad, but during Alliance war campaign, we've seen them quite often in considerable numbers, they were even part of that suicide mission in Nazmir... The exile of void elves probably did not resulted in a major population loss in Quel'thalas, but it still most likely shifted Alliance - Horde elf numbers a bit.

[Varodoc]

The funny thing is that each elf group actually see the other as traitors. What I'm actually interested in is how many blood elves defected to the Alliance through void elves. At first, it was said they are crack elite squad, but during Alliance war campaign, we've seen them quite often in considerable numbers, they were even part of that suicide mission in Nazmir... The exile of void elves probably did not resulted in a major population loss in Quel'thalas, but it still most likely shifted Alliance - Horde elf numbers a bit.

I would completely disregard the "crack elite squad" comment at this point. Very clearly the Ren'dorei can field considerably military forces and are much more than a mere "crack elite squad":



On the left regiment, you can see that there are just as many Void elves as there are Dark iron dwarves, and the Dark Iron clan is a wealthy and ancient empire (Thaurissan was an emperor). So if the Ren'dorei can afford to send as many troops as a dwarven empire on a SUICIDE mission, very clearly they have considerable numbers.

And note that in the pics there are ONLY the actual Void elves with dark skin. The many scholars in Telogrus Rift would be considered Ren'dorei, further bolstering their numbers.

Very clearly Ion's comment about the Ren'dorei being a small elite crack squad can be disregarded entirely, because BfA (and now Shadows Rising) paint a very different picture.

[Kyriani]

but during Alliance war campaign, we've seen them quite often in considerable numbers, they were even part of that suicide mission in Nazmir...

I wouldn't take anything from that. Blizz is on record as saying "there are as many as we need there to be", when it comes to in-game npc's. We've always been told not to take the number of npc's in game as any sort of population indication for a specific race.

The Void Elves in the Nazmir suicide mission made absolutely no sense. There's no way that many Blood Elf defectors and Alliance High Elves all got void-roided out, mastered their powers enough to not be a danger to themselves or others, just to throw their lives away, in such a short amount of time. Especially not when Thalassians as a people already have a dangerously low population. In this case I think it was just poor writing/decision making. They wanted to highlight Void Elves "fighting for the Alliance" but the fact is, there's just no way that they'd have that many Void Elves to just throw away.

And even if we throw out the logic of "making" Void Elves (which we were told at the time Void Elves hadn't figured out yet (i.e. the devs hadn't thought that far ahead), just how many Silvermoon Scholars defected from Silvermoon and how many Alliance High Elf Wayfarers could or would, sign up for Void Class 101, just to die? It doesn't make sense. And that's why I don't put any stock in the number of Void Elves we saw at the Nazmir Suicide mission.

[Vaedan]

I wouldn't take anything from that. Blizz is on record as saying "there are as many as we need there to be", when it comes to in-game npc's. We've always been told not to take the number of npc's in game as any sort of population indication for a specific race.

The Void Elves in the Nazmir suicide mission made absolutely no sense. There's no way that many Blood Elf defectors and Alliance High Elves all got void-roided out, mastered their powers enough to not be a danger to themselves or others, just to throw their lives away, in such a short amount of time. Especially not when Thalassians as a people already have a dangerously low population. In this case I think it was just poor writing/decision making. They wanted to highlight Void Elves "fighting for the Alliance" but the fact is, there's just no way that they'd have that many Void Elves to just throw away.

And even if we throw out the logic of "making" Void Elves (which we were told at the time Void Elves hadn't figured out yet (i.e. the devs hadn't thought that far ahead), just how many Silvermoon Scholars defected from Silvermoon and how many Alliance High Elf Wayfarers could or would, sign up for Void Class 101, just to die? It doesn't make sense. And that's why I don't put any stock in the number of Void Elves we saw at the Nazmir Suicide mission.

I know we can't relate NPCs numbers to actual population that race has to offer, but even then, we see void elves way too often for them to be just "few special elves". Not that I mind that, it's just really awkward that they should be extremely rare... I guess it's similar to the treatment Alliance high elves were getting for the whole time. They were meant to be like 1% of the original thalassian population and yet they were present in almost every expansion in healthy numbers.

To be honest, not even night elves made sense in that mission. Not that they were already genocided like a year ago, I think most of kaldorei would be more likely participate in Darkshore fights. To be completely honest, sending troops to die makes no sense. It was clear 7th Legion wanted to divide Horde's attention, but you can do it in more ways, not only sending valuable troops to die. Alliance could employ Tidesages who can summon elementals to their side, they could use some constructs build by gnomes with remote control... or they could just take over important structures and imploy guerilla fights in the jungle. They needed to buy time, not to waste their troops... but I guess this mission was meant to show us that Alliance is willing to sacrifice its men for greater good.

Very clearly Ion's comment about the Ren'dorei being a small elite crack squad can be disregarded entirely, because BfA (and now Shadows Rising) paint a very different picture.

Blizzard is pretty inconsistent when it comes to population numbers usually, so I guess you're right. The problem is that we even don't know what is population status of both Horde and Alliance post numerous wars and crisis we've been through over the years. In most cases, we get no information about casualties, or we get only vague information like "Too many died" or "There is not much left anymore". Just look at night elves... we can't even tell if they are on the brink of extinction or not... not to mention that if there would be any logic involved, most of Horde races would be extinct by now, especially trolls and orcs (if they are not breeding like rabbits and reach full maturity in 2 years, what is considered to be general lenght of expansion in lore).

[Varodoc]

It's not strange that the Ren'dorei would have such a high population number. People forget that, though 90% of the Quel'dorei were slaughtered by Arthas, Quel'thalas had been at peace for 4.000+ years (aside from the Second War, which didn't cause too much death and destruction). Since the Troll Wars, Quel'thalas had been flourishing without any catastrophe. So of course the Quel'dorei base population was very high, definitely in the millions. So then even if 90% of them were slaughtered, the Blood elves probably still had hundreds of thousands of people, at which point it wouldn't be a surprise if the Ren'dorei, who were further bolstered by scholars, would number in the thousands or even tens of thousands...

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Blizzard is pretty inconsistent when it comes to population numbers usually, so I guess you're right. The problem is that we even don't know what is population status of both Horde and Alliance post numerous wars and crisis we've been through over the years. In most cases, we get no information about casualties, or we get only vague information like "Too many died" or "There is not much left anymore". Just look at night elves... we can't even tell if they are on the brink of extinction or not... not to mention that if there would be any logic involved, most of Horde races would be extinct by now, especially trolls and orcs (if they are not breeding like rabbits and reach full maturity in 2 years, what is considered to be general lenght of expansion in lore).

Put it like this. We irl humans number in the billions after thousands of years of war. In comparison, Quel'thalas had 4.000+ years of peace. I know that the elves in other settings, like Elder Scrolls, have a much lower birth rate compared to humans, but I don't believe this rule applies to Thalassian elves. So imagine 4.000+ years of peace and human-like birth rate. Certainly their population would be very high, No? At which point, even if the Ren'dorei were like a fraction of a fraction of the original Quel'dorei population, they would still be able to field tens of thousands of soldiers.

You don't even need population numbers or anything that complicated for this, just basic logic. If a kingdom doesn't have any wars for milennias, then I would assume their population would be very high and prosperous. Wars usually cause a lot of people to die, after all.

I also believe it is specifically mentioned in the Chronicles how Quel'thalas enjoyed a very long period of peace, prosperity, and stability after the Troll Wars. From Wowpedia, after the Troll Wars:

Jintha was among the first to fall. Leaderless, the Amani broke ranks and retreated north, but were hunted down and slaughtered at every turn. The disastrous battle shocked the Zandalari emissaries, who fled back to their island in shame and disbelief. For them, this defeat marked a dark turning point in history. Yet for Quel'Thalas, the war was the beginning of a glorious new era. For months after the conflict's end, celebrations graced the streets of Silvermoon. The grateful elves pledged their loyalty to Arathor and Thoradin's descendants.[18]

Years passed, and Quel'Thalas continued its prosperous growth.

[Ardenaso]

Fair enough

That I'm actually interested in is how many blood elves defected to the Alliance

I'd really consider Landalock to be a Blood Elf from Kael's group who returned back to the Alliance because he had a "liaison" with a Shivarra, and that was only possible after Magtheridon fell and the demons pledged to Illidan

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wow this is really proof that Void Elves are increasing by the minute, though I'd make a small nitpick on why they aren't falling in line by height. I'd imagine Telamoon here doing the Erwin Smith on their suicide charge in Nazmir