Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Alixie]

What? How does that comparison even work? Again, the new purple eye color is based of the 2014 female HE eye texture, so it's a High Elf eye in origin. Both Void Elves and Blood Elves now have "high elven eyes" so what's the issue?

Dont be disingenuous. The argument for years has been, "The Sunwell has been restored. It has both arcane and holy magic, therefore Blood Elves should have gold and blue eyes to represent holy and arcane magic." Nowhere have I seen anyone ask for purple eyes for Blood Elves. The goalpost shifted, but the reasoning did not. Its about taking colors exclusive to High Elf NPCs, so Blood Elves can pretend to be 100% High Elves.

Only High Elves can have blue eyes. Give it to us.
After the update: Only High Elves can have purple eyes. Give it to us.

If High Elves were updated with hypnotoad eyes, Blood Elf players would demand to have those too, because "We're pure high elves. Psychedelic eyes are just another arcane color!" In an old game with graphic limitations, NPCs having exclusive attributes is important to separate them from players. Cult of the Damned humans have face paint or tattoos to identify them to a specific group, even though technically any human would be able to wear those markings.

But lets be honest. This kind of disingenuous argument is the reason why this thread is a million pages. That's why I said this opens up another can of worms. If "le Sunwell" is the reason to give Blood Elves every eye color available, then Void Elves should have access to Blood Elf hair colors and eye colors too.

Void Elves having red eyes is me returning the spite. If Blood Elf players want all of the appearances of Void Elves and High Elves and just claim "its Arcane magic", then I can claim that red eyes can represent Void magic, as red is a common eye color beyond Dark Rangers.

[Ardenaso]

methinks Blood Elf purple eyes can be easily justified with Dalarani Blood Elf citizens

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Dont be disingenuous. The argument for years has been, "The Sunwell has been restored. It has both arcane and holy magic, therefore Blood Elves should have gold and blue eyes to represent holy and arcane magic." Nowhere have I seen anyone ask for purple eyes for Blood Elves. The goalpost shifted, but the reasoning did not. Its about taking colors exclusive to High Elf NPCs, so Blood Elves can pretend to be 100% High Elves.

Only High Elves can have blue eyes. Give it to us.
After the update: Only High Elves can have purple eyes. Give it to us.

If High Elves were updated with hypnotoad eyes, Blood Elf players would demand to have those too, because "We're pure high elves. Psychedelic eyes are just another arcane color!" In an old game with graphic limitations, NPCs having exclusive attributes is important to separate them from players. Cult of the Damned humans have face paint or tattoos to identify them to a specific group, even though technically any human would be able to wear those markings.

But lets be honest. This kind of disingenuous argument is the reason why this thread is a million pages. That's why I said this opens up another can of worms. If "le Sunwell" is the reason to give Blood Elves every eye color available, then Void Elves should have access to Blood Elf hair colors and eye colors too.

Void Elves having red eyes is me returning the spite. If Blood Elf players want all of the appearances of Void Elves and High Elves and just claim "its Arcane magic", then I can claim that red eyes can represent Void magic, as red is a common eye color beyond Dark Rangers.

You know, context is a very important thing.

I have been staunchly pro high elf since... ever, I have uploaded tons of high elf artwork and concepts to this thread, made by myself. I think Void Elves should be able to have more natural hair colors -again, I have made mockups myself of Void Elf hairstyles with kultiran hair colors, and also without tentacles, or adding Alleria tattoos, or making the tentacles into braids-

And I'm not saying you should have known that, but I will say that you should not presume the motivations of other people, don't decide what other's people intentions are and actually just listen to what they say.

That I don't see an issue with Blood Elves getting purple eyes is because I try to be consistent. No, I don't personally like blue eyes on Blood Elves, but if they can have blue eyes, then they can have this new purple eye that by all appearances comes from an arcane background themselves.

You really have to take a step back and stop assuming what other people are saying and try to read what it's there, and not what you want to read into.

Cause in all your hilarious misrepresentation of my intentions here -seriously it is just funny- you have yet to even acknowledge the argument as of why purple eyes -as a new version of an old HE texture- make as much sense as the blue eyes BE have.

All you have came to do here is miss my point and hilariously assume I am somehow anti high elf and pro blood elf so you can have an argument.

That's some wild shit.

[Ielenia]

They're void elves, not blood elves. It'd be akin to giving Mag'har orcs some green skin options.

The other way around, really. Void elves came from blood elves, just like green orcs came from brown orcs. For your comparison to make sense, you'd have to say "it'd be akin to giving green orcs brown skin options".

[Thalassian Bob]

Hehe yeah. But indeed, it's kinda sad that BE's just don't seem to have an unique/stand out aesthetic thing like tattoos or warpaint; not consistently at least.

-Warpaint a la Farstrider has never been seen on BE's proper, even when it's part of their history.

-Scars and runes were a very iconic part of their BC look, but it just seems to have gotten dropped.

I really feel the female model is onto something with the jewelry options, but they failed to even attempt to translate that to the male mode -and I think we know why-

In a way tho, it's not as dire, several races don't have warpaints/tattoo either, kinda feels BE males just needed one more cool option -Personally I'd gone for scars/runes-

Or undead skin tones with red eyes: now that would have been *chef's kiss*

I'd settle for rune scars/normal scars (doesn't make sense that we can get the blinded eyes but not a cool scar to match them!

But, yeah, I think there were a lot of missed opportunities with everybody's favourite sun-lovers!

[Kyriani]

Part of me wonders if they are still undecided how to approach Allied Races; as in, do they add more options to them, or do they merge them back into the models of their core races to further expand customization? More of a wishful thinking, but it would be far more effective to say, merge the maghar and orc models and lock some corresponding options from each in the character creation.

But for other AR with different base models -Kul Tiran, Zandalari, Nightborne, Vulpera- It wouldn't work

So yeah, AR really have that problem of just having way fewer options than core race ones, so TBH it really feels the best way to expand customization considerably on them is to port stuff from their core races -cause adding 3 options just wouldnt be enough- maybe not everything, but a select overlap, + 3-4 new options.

As far as NB and VE hair goes tho, I keep thinking it would be maybe more interesting to give them hairstyles from their new faction rather than core race, so there's a more tangible cultural distinction.

It's hard to say. I'd expect the devs to reuse as many assets as they can by having allied races inherit them where possible, even if modified. Even the Nightborne could inherit assets from Night Elves with only some minor modifications, though I'm hoping that Nightborne get a serious rework so as to be more akin to the NPC's. Kul Tiran's could probably inherit many Human hairstyles refitted to their heads. They could probably inherit some of the Human jewelry options as well. As far as unique stuff goes Kul Tirans (especially males) could use more face options, and in a wider variety. All the KT male faces are ugly/gruff/old faces.

Vulpera would definitely need unique assets since they don't really have a parent core race, but they also don't have hairstyle options either. I'd take a guess that Blizzard would simply add more fur color options and patterns (texture work as opposed to model work), new jewelry options, and perhaps scars and blind eye options. They could also add more ear and snout variants.

Zandalari... I'm unsure. There may be existing assets from standard Trolls that could be modified to work with the Zandalari body such as hairstyles. There's also the option for more unique jewelry, blind eye options, etc.

While it would be nice if Blizzard simply shared assets within the faction, I think it may be too tempting for Blizzard to give Blood Elves some variation on the Void Elf hairstyles and vice versa. The same could be said for Nightborne getting Night Elf assets. I'd say vice versa but Nightborne have so few assets ro share it hardly seems worth it or even fair.

[Alixie]

You know, context is a very important thing.

I have been staunchly pro high elf since... ever, I have uploaded tons of high elf artwork and concepts to this thread, made by myself. I think Void Elves should be able to have more natural hair colors -again, I have made mockups myself of Void Elf hairstyles with kultiran hair colors, and also without tentacles, or adding Alleria tattoos, or making the tentacles into braids-

And I'm not saying you should have known that, but I will say that you should not presume the motivations of other people, don't decide what other's people intentions are and actually just listen to what they say.

That I don't see an issue with Blood Elves getting purple eyes is because I try to be consistent. No, I don't personally like blue eyes on Blood Elves, but if they can have blue eyes, then they can have this new purple eye that by all appearances comes from an arcane background themselves.

You really have to take a step back and stop assuming what other people are saying and try to read what it's there, and not what you want to read into.

Cause in all your hilarious misrepresentation of my intentions here -seriously it is just funny- you have yet to even acknowledge the argument as of why purple eyes -as a new version of an old HE texture- make as much sense as the blue eyes BE have.

All you have came to do here is miss my point and hilariously assume I am somehow anti high elf and pro blood elf so you can have an argument.

That's some wild shit.

No idea who you are, bro. I dont keep track of everyone's post history. That's crazy.

Your post is the same one I've seen repeated by many people who dont want the Alliance to have High Elves, or want the Horde to have "true" High Elves only. What was the argument? "Sunwell is restored, gib Blood Elves blue eyes back." So now that they got what they wanted - blue eyes to represent Arcane Sunwell magic - the goalpost has been moved because High Elf NPCs had their own, new color, and they want that one too, and presumably any unique customization they might get in the future.

Now my argument is that since Void Elves no longer have a unique eye color, that they should get red eyes to firmly represent void/shadow magic (as many shadow magic users have red eyes), since purple, according to posts like yours, is mainly associated with Arcane. And, Void Elves should also get green and gold because of the Sunwell's influence too.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

No idea who you are, bro. I dont keep track of everyone's post history. That's crazy.

I agree. I literally said that, when I also said that you should read what people are actually saying instead of making up their argument yourself.

Your post is the same one I've seen repeated by many people who dont want the Alliance to have High Elves, or want the Horde to have "true" High Elves only. What was the argument? "Sunwell is restored, gib Blood Elves blue eyes back." So now that they got what they wanted - blue eyes to represent Arcane Sunwell magic - the goalpost has been moved because High Elf NPCs had their own, new color, and they want that one too, and presumably any unique customization they might get in the future.

Now my argument is that since Void Elves no longer have a unique eye color, that they should get red eyes to firmly represent void/shadow magic (as many shadow magic users have red eyes), since purple, according to posts like yours, is mainly associated with Arcane. And, Void Elves should also get green and gold because of the Sunwell's influence too.

Again, you are not even reading what I am saying, you are too occupied having an argument against "posts like mine" instead of simply reading what *I* am saying. It's a joke.

Whatever argument you are having is not with me, cause I have literally said I don't personally like blue eyes on Blood Elves, yet you continue to pretend I am one of those who asked for them. It's goddamn embarrassing.

- - - Updated - - -

It's hard to say. I'd expect the devs to reuse as many assets as they can by having allied races inherit them where possible, even if modified. Even the Nightborne could inherit assets from Night Elves with only some minor modifications, though I'm hoping that Nightborne get a serious rework so as to be more akin to the NPC's. Kul Tiran's could probably inherit many Human hairstyles refitted to their heads. They could probably inherit some of the Human jewelry options as well. As far as unique stuff goes Kul Tirans (especially males) could use more face options, and in a wider variety. All the KT male faces are ugly/gruff/old faces.

Vulpera would definitely need unique assets since they don't really have a parent core race, but they also don't have hairstyle options either. I'd take a guess that Blizzard would simply add more fur color options and patterns (texture work as opposed to model work), new jewelry options, and perhaps scars and blind eye options. They could also add more ear and snout variants.

Zandalari... I'm unsure. There may be existing assets from standard Trolls that could be modified to work with the Zandalari body such as hairstyles. There's also the option for more unique jewelry, blind eye options, etc.

While it would be nice if Blizzard simply shared assets within the faction, I think it may be too tempting for Blizzard to give Blood Elves some variation on the Void Elf hairstyles and vice versa. The same could be said for Nightborne getting Night Elf assets. I'd say vice versa but Nightborne have so few assets ro share it hardly seems worth it or even fair.

I'd settle for rune scars/normal scars (doesn't make sense that we can get the blinded eyes but not a cool scar to match them!

But, yeah, I think there were a lot of missed opportunities with everybody's favourite sun-lovers!

https://www.dexerto.com/world-of-war...lands-1455863/

This article gives a lot of insights: It makes me optimistic about what we will see -hopefully sooner rather than later- in terms of customization, seen as more of an evolving system rather than just an expansion feature I guess?

But they def want to add more stuff here and there and see this as the start, and I hope we don't get just more options of what we have, but new entirely new categories.

[Kyriani]

Thanks for linking that article! It was a good read, especially the part about customization. It does give me hope that we'll see a lot more options added over the course of SL and beyond!

[BaumanKing]

since purple, according to posts like yours, is mainly associated with Arcane

To be fair, this eye color is similar to velves tentacles. So it's really up to players, as Danuser said. If you want these eyes to represent Arcane? Go for it. Void? No problem.

[Strippling]

Now my argument is that since Void Elves no longer have a unique eye color, that they should get red eyes to firmly represent void/shadow magic (as many shadow magic users have red eyes), since purple, according to posts like yours, is mainly associated with Arcane. And, Void Elves should also get green and gold because of the Sunwell's influence too.

And blood elves don’t have a unique skin anymore, ALL of their skins were shared with void elves who also have their own unique skins. Your argument about eyes is moot

[BaumanKing]

And blood elves don’t have a unique skin anymore, ALL of their skins were shared with void elves who also have their own unique skins. Your argument about eyes is moot

Not really. They still have different underwear.

[Thalassian Bob]

https://www.dexerto.com/world-of-war...lands-1455863/

This article gives a lot of insights: It makes me optimistic about what we will see -hopefully sooner rather than later- in terms of customization, seen as more of an evolving system rather than just an expansion feature I guess?

But they def want to add more stuff here and there and see this as the start, and I hope we don't get just more options of what we have, but new entirely new categories.

That is promising! The customisation added so far has, by and large, been great and much-needed. But, I picked up ESO again recently and the difference between customisation in a game like that and WoW is night and day. It's a great start but they could and should definitely add more.

Hopefully, as you suggest, that interview reflects Blizz agreeing with that sentiment. To make it an on-going thing rather than a one-and-done event for the next 6 expansions. ^^'

[shoc]

methinks Blood Elf purple eyes can be easily justified with Dalarani Blood Elf citizens

They should just pull a Forsaken and open up every eye colour completely arbitrarily.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

That is promising! The customisation added so far has, by and large, been great and much-needed. But, I picked up ESO again recently and the difference between customisation in a game like that and WoW is night and day. It's a great start but they could and should definitely add more.

Hopefully, as you suggest, that interview reflects Blizz agreeing with that sentiment. To make it an on-going thing rather than a one-and-done event for the next 6 expansions. ^^'

Indeed, while the options themselves have been overall good, the real advancement here feels within the expansion of the systems themselves, and I truly hope we see more customization options here and there without being "a feature"

As for Allied Races I really hope tho they do get a holistic pass at some point -whether is this expansion I do not know- something that really brings them closer in terms of options to core races; otherwise choosing an AR feels more like a limitation given the disparity of options now.

- - - Updated - - -

They should just pull a Forsaken and open up every eye colour completely arbitrarily.

While we can theorize all day what elven eye colors mean in terms of Lore, Forsaken and Worken pretty much said "let's just have fun with it" and it kinda now feels like just limitation in a world where huffing a plant can give you glowing eyes at this point.

Back when SL was announced, I kinda thought customization was going to be related to covenant; kinda still wish that, so that we could pick eye color based on covenant.

- - - Updated - - -

To be fair, this eye color is similar to velves tentacles. So it's really up to players, as Danuser said. If you want these eyes to represent Arcane? Go for it. Void? No problem.

I have said this before, but here goes with pictures! these are High Elf eyes, literally

This new purple eye color is based on the texture of the female HE NPC's introduced in WoD



And this is the texture of the new purple eye color; as you can see, there are two purple little dots: that's luminosity for the eyes, and that's why they have that soft purple glow



They are High Elf eyes, and of course they look amazing on Void Elves, but their origin, texture wise, is definitely from the High Elf eye texture.

So if Blood Elves already got 3 high elf eyes, it's rather stubborn to get pissy because they got a fourth one I say.

And overall, let's keep requesting what we want on High Elves -natural hair colors uh?- instead of harping on what Blood Elves get.



I keep saying that Void Elves don't need the same hair colors than BE's, for example, love how Kultiran colors look more desaturated

[Thalassian Bob]

Indeed, while the options themselves have been overall good, the real advancement here feels within the expansion of the systems themselves, and I truly hope we see more customization options here and there without being "a feature"

As for Allied Races I really hope tho they do get a holistic pass at some point -whether is this expansion I do not know- something that really brings them closer in terms of options to core races; otherwise choosing an AR feels more like a limitation given the disparity of options now.

Yep, I think that'd be great.

And the Allied Races definitely need some love! Some more than others. The Nightborne for example had a shockingly low level of customisation available compared to the void elves, for example. Compare them to some of the vanilla races now, though, and it's embarrassing.

[Mungho]

Yep, I think that'd be great.

And the Allied Races definitely need some love! Some more than others. The Nightborne for example had a shockingly low level of customisation available compared to the void elves, for example. Compare them to some of the vanilla races now, though, and it's embarrassing.

Oh, I agree Nightborne are like one of the gonkiest races on WoW now, especially the males. The Highmountain Tauren are rather boring with their lack of options too, compared to what Void Elves and LF Draenei have(the latter at least get cool-looking glowing runes on their body). It makes me wish that they switched which races were given to each faction.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Yep, I think that'd be great.

And the Allied Races definitely need some love! Some more than others. The Nightborne for example had a shockingly low level of customisation available compared to the void elves, for example. Compare them to some of the vanilla races now, though, and it's embarrassing.

Yah, the expanded customization really made races like NB and LFD look embarrassing in comparison; something really has to be done with them tbh.

I have always said tho, that NB at least got 3 distinct skins and white and black hair heh! But yeah; white the NE textures can't simply be reused on NB -the mapping of the face is off- I really hope they can inherit them partially -even if it takes more time-

TBH for them to inherit NE skins and faces, it kinda would be easier to remap the existing NB model to those, and fix the 3 NB skins and faces accordingly lol. But there's still the issue with the NB ear being completely different so it's very unlikely still.

That being said, kida would like to see the other AR that can, inherit skin tones and hair colors from their core races, like VE and MG did -Tauren, Dwarf, DK Orc, LFD- not all of them maybe, but a select variety.

[Kyriani]

I keep saying that Void Elves don't need the same hair colors than BE's, for example, love how Kultiran colors look more desaturated

I like those as well! I'm really hoping we see more customization in 9.1 for core races as well as allied races. If nothing else, I hope Blizzard will be communicative early about what we can expect for allied race customization, even if we have to wait some time before it gets implemented. If I could just see a blue post saying I'll get my black hair, I'd be tickled pink!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I like those as well! I'm really hoping we see more customization in 9.1 for core races as well as allied races. If nothing else, I hope Blizzard will be communicative early about what we can expect for allied race customization, even if we have to wait some time before it gets implemented. If I could just see a blue post saying I'll get my black hair, I'd be tickled pink!

I don't want to be too optimist and say we are gonna get AR stuff in 9.1 -I'd love to, but seems unlikely to me- but I do hope Blizz is more forthcoming about it soon? Like more of a "we are working on it" cause still the rhetoric is on customization as a whole.