Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Goldielocks]

I don't believe it is fake, more that it was a very early draft. There was corroborating evidence of a Barrens Warfront after all with the datamined maps and the music you can currently hear there. My own personal opinion is that the Azshara warfront was scrapped in favour of the Darkshore warfront, that the Barrens warfront is likely to come in 8.2 and that the Silvermoon or Quel'thalas warfront is likely, as something that big wouldn't just be brainstormed randomly. Given the scale of the work involved and the target, I figure Silvermoon will be the 8.3 warfront and it will play a role in the conclusion of the faction war we are as yet unaware of.

The problem with it being real is that it would essentially be vastly different than what anybody expects it to be. This is a game. The Horde can't lose a capital city every two weeks.

The most that could happen is the warfront perhaps creating an event that leads into some kind of Void expansion, but this idea that the Alliance will ever take Silvermoon is just ridiculous.

Okay so you don't think they should be playable because blood elves are horde.

Were not talking about blood elves, this thread is about the alliance high elves.

Really seems like you're dodging the point here. Blood Elves and High Elves are the same, especially now. You might have had a point in TBC but we're long past that. They only have different names because WoW is a game and that shit is required.

Also they have had more progression than blood elves. You hear the name Vereesa or Alleria more often than Lor'Themar, Lor'Themar hasn't played any role in any expansion since MoP where the alliance's counterpart was Vereesa. And in the books as well, Vereesa and Alleria(ironically, even though she's been gone forever) are more spoken about.

Character progression =/= race progression

[Obelisk Kai]

Individual High Elves? I suggest you go do some quests on isle of thunder, alliance side, where there is pretty much major high elf force that asks you to kill blood elves and the horde in various daily quests. Totally Kirin-tor neutral guys.

During the time period of the Isle of Thunder, the Kirin Tor had joined the Alliance and the Silver Covenant let rip. How does it contradict my point if you choose a time period when the Kirin Tor had explicitly made a choice in the faction war and yet right now, they are neutral again.

My point remains. The Silver Covenant is officially neutral, but each and every member is loyal to the Alliance and against the Horde. This is likely why the few participating in Alliance operations in Arathiy are with the 7th Legion and not the Silver Covenant. It is a question of different hats.

[FlubberPuddy]

If you can’t understand that physiological mutations or isolation for generations can lead to unique aesthetics as logical to be included, I just don’t think we’re going to get anywhere.
Which is fine I suppose.

I’m not saying that the different hair styles/skins/facial hair or whatever aren’t there to add uniqueness for the models. I’m saying it makes sense that they be unique and have unique qualities. It wouldn’t make sense for high elves to look unique due to a lack of the physical and cultural changes that are present in other allied races.
10 years of division while also still being around their kin =/= mutations and generational isolation.

Giving high elves their own physical uniqueness based on one ranger’s own aesthetics (who had been MIA for decades) and then comparing this to the other allied races with their justifiable cause for uniqueness seems silly to me.

Oh I definitely understand physiological mutations leading to unique aesthetics.

But I can also understand themes and iconography, which is also what drives unique aesthetics.

Again, my main premise was Alleria is a throwback to WC2 High Elf iconography, this is something separate and closed off from Blood Elves since they've already had an established iconography different from High Elves at their inception.

And what I'm saying is, Blizzard may hee-haw about "High Elves are Blood Elves" yet what's added into the game has always kept these groups separate, and continues to. It gets downplayed very often, but Blizzard wouldn't be keeping High Elves relevant on Alliance side if there weren't any differences between the Blood Elves. We wouldn't be getting continued ideological differences shown between the two. Since BC with that Allerian High Elf saying "don't worry I'm not a BE..", in MoP with the whole Purge storyline, in Legion with Elisande's comment. And now in BFA with the Blood Elf Heritage scenario.

As far as it concerns the game, development into it continually differentiates between the two elf groups. Am I saying this is enough to justify as an AR? Well to me yes, does that matter? No it doesn't. Blizzard has ultimate say, and ultimately it isn't happening now or in the foreseeable future. Will it ever happen? No one can really say other than Blizzard.

Heck to be part of the group that goes "High Elves are playable, just as Blood Elves" or "Blood Elves are High Elves" is actually undermining the narrative progression that defined Blood Elves and that this group has made.

Besides, saying the bold is just like saying "Mag'har are playable, just as Orcs" since every Green Orc was a Mag'har. And the difference between Mag'har and Green Orcs are way more superficial (who drank demon blood vs who didn't) compared to the political/cultural differences of High Elves vs Blood Elves that the developers continue to add into the game.

So again, the main point isn't about "morphological differences are required to lead to unique aesthetics" it's that High Elves and Blood Elves have already defined iconic themes about them and these themes continue to be played up by the developers with the additions into the game. Therefore, Blood Elves won't ever get access to what is iconic to High Elves (mainly the iconic stuff Alleria has) because BE iconic themes are now different from what Alleria's style represents.

Most who look at Alleria don't go: "OMG LOOK AT THAT BLOOD ELF!!" they go, "Oh DAMN THAT HIGH ELF"
Same for Lor'themar/Halduron: Instant recognition of Blood Elves vs "Look at those old school High Elves now Blood Elves"

[Obelisk Kai]

Okay so you don't think they should be playable because blood elves are horde.

Were not talking about blood elves, this thread is about the alliance high elves.

Also they have had more progression than blood elves. You hear the name Vereesa or Alleria more often than Lor'Themar, Lor'Themar hasn't played any role in any expansion since MoP where the alliance's counterpart was Vereesa. And in the books as well, Vereesa and Alleria(ironically, even though she's been gone forever) are more spoken about.

As confirmed by the developers, High Elves are already available as Blood Elves. Alliance High Elves, because they are almost exactly the same as Horde Blood Elves, have a direct impact on Horde Blood Elves and they can never be discussed in isolation from Horde Blood Elves. Or Alliance Void Elves.

To claim that the High Elves have had more progression than the Blood Elves based upon Veressa or Alleria is myopic. Alleria is the Void Elf racial leader, her story is Void Elf and not High Elf. When she first appeared in 7.3 she had escaped imprisonment, and she had been imprisoned because of her experiments with the void.

The Blood Elf storyline formed a major part of the Burning Crusade expansion, underpinning the Tempest Keep and Sunwell Plateau raids as well as the Isle of Quel'Danas zone.
The Blood Elves played a major role in the mid-point of Mists of Pandaria, where their relations with Garrosh and then their presence on the Isle of Thunder were hugely important. And for the record, Lor'themar's counterpart on the isle of thunder was Jaina Proudmoore.
The Blood Elves played a major role in Legion during the liberation of Suramar, comprising one of the two major armies sent to assist the rebels in taking the city. Later, this would led to the entry of the Nightborne into the Horde.

Across six expansions, the Blood Elves had a major impact in three. Given the multitude of playable races in the game, that is pretty good going.

By contrast, the High Elves have always played small bit parts. Their biggest role to date was on the Isle of Thunder, where they accompanied other Kirin Tor forces.

And I have read all the books. Alleria is spoken about in the Second War novels, which are based off of the games she originally appeared in.

Veressa appears primarily in the terrible Knaak books about her husband and in Tides of War, which is about Jaina.

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The problem with it being real is that it would essentially be vastly different than what anybody expects it to be. This is a game. The Horde can't lose a capital city every two weeks.

I do not believe the city itself will be the warfront. Rather, I think Silvermoon may have been shorthand for the event itself. The warfront would make more sense in the Ghostlands. You see, people believe the technical issues Blizzard has mentioned about updating Quel'thalas are a barrier. I don't. What I believe Blizzard meant was, the technical issues are there, but we would need a reason to justify doing it.

A warfront and a major, end of expansion event would qualify.

[Deleted]

376 pages later people still have hopes for high elves,cute.

[BlakeArt]

I, honestly, don't see the point into not giving "High elves" to the Alliance.

It's not about lore, because they have always been part of the Alliance and they have been more active and in the spotlight in some patches than some "main playable" races (Darkspear trolls and Gnomes or Gobelins, don't start me on the pandaren after MoP). We can see them around on a daily basis (not all the time, but just recently we have that female mage holding the portal to Arathi in Boralus and some of them in the warfront), so yeah, they are around. We could argue that Blizzard want to preserve faction identity but we already got "Blood elves" and "Void elves" sharing the same model and it didn't break the game, litteraly the same pandaren on both side.
Another argument would be that they are too few but let's be honest, they are a very few of "Lightforged draenei" or "Void elves" so, is it really relevant ? Blizzard has always been very evasive about that to allow almost any race to fit in (In the rpg books that aren't cannon anymore, there is more "High elves" in SW that there is orcs in Orgrimmar).

So ? What is it truly about ? I don't see. It would make a part of the community like, very, very happy, it wouldn't objectively broke the game. It's like, I got a piece of gear I'm not using, so I give it to roll and I'm glad it's useful to someone else. Not going to be jelly because if it's doesn't up me so it shouldn't make someone else happy just because I do not benefit from it myself.

That's all. I feel like it's a lot of stubborness in this just to make a point about not much.

[FlubberPuddy]

As I had a feeling, now it's confirmed:https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...ge=17#post-340

Blizzard actually LOVE that there's so much discussion around Allied Races, including the megathreads across all the capped threads. No other feature has had this much engagement.

"Posted by Eleroleron
Do the blizzard employees debate about the High elf/Blood elf race definition, especially when all those repeated threads pop up?"

Ever since we found out Allied Races were a confirmed thing we've talked about the idea of who/what could be an allied race all the time. It's a never ending conversation now because of the possibilities it opens up as playable races. We actually love the large discussions it's popped up among you guys. I mean megathreads that are spanning tens of thousands of posts total across all of the capped threads? That's just cool. No other feature in WoW as an idea has had that much engagement.

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Also: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...ge=19#post-369

"Posted by Fallynn
Are there REALLY too many elves?"

There's probably too many elves, but we could always use more!

[Syegfryed]

"Posted by Fallynn
Are there REALLY too many elves?"

There's probably too many elves, but we could always use more!

Need that carrot in the stick, so the helf boys don't rage quit

[Obelisk Kai]

Need that carrot in the stick, so the helf boys don't rage quit

Well it does remind me of the pre 04/26 period where even the act of a CM extending the cap on the threads in the official forums was taken as being indicative of imminent Alliance High Elves and we all know how that turned out. Community Managers are not developers, and should not be treated as overly coy sources of information. They are not teasing with some shocking new information. They usually have no information to share as that isn't their job. A CM is only a source when they are answering directly and clearly without obfuscation.

As for that quote Syegfryed, it could apply to a group of Elves we have never met. It could apply to Half Elves, an uncontroversial Allied race suggestion. It might even apply to High Elves like they think, but probably doesn't given the criteria for the rejection of High Elves provided by Ion and the fact Void Elves were created in their stead as a compromise (and like it or not, the existence of Void Elves is as big a barrier to playable High Elves as the fact High Elves are already available on the Horde, so Blizzard actually doubled the number of reasons to resist Alliance High Elves within the past year alone and that was after a decade of saying no anyway).

I figure it's just an ordinary CM statement of the sort we have seen before and which ultimately ended up meaning nothing.

This is because of Blizzcon. Many of them probably think High Elves are getting announced at Blizzcon.

Even if they got the entire WoW team to change their minds after the 04/26 answer, do people really believe they are going to up end the allied races they have already selected to be added in BFA? That answer pushed Alliance High Elves out beyond this expansion at a minimum. And given Allied races will be dialled back A LOT after BFA...probably much, much longer.

[FlubberPuddy]

Need that carrot in the stick, so the helf boys don't rage quit

From what I've seen in the official forums recently, the main high elf posters continued to have a sub way before these recent comments were made.

Nice attempt, but per usual a fail on your part. Also, still more relevant than Ogres.

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The only one I've seen mention about High Elves being hoped to happen at this upcoming Blizzcon is Obelisk Kai. I haven't seen many of the main High Elf peeps express this thought.

How delusional does someone have to be to create a scenario in their own head and then submit as fact and continue talking about it as if it's actually true? Only Obelisk himself would know.

Those quotes are merely meant to show Blizzard expressly enjoys the amount of engagement caused by Allied Races, why? Because obviously the level of engagement results in continued subs. Which means AR feature is a pretty big deal, playing the exact character race you actually want is a pretty big deal, even though many would like to down play that.

[Syegfryed]

From what I've seen in the official forums recently, the main high elf posters continued to have a sub way before these recent comments were made.

becue in their heads, blizzd "never said no" so, they keep posting stuff like this, so "the dream don't die"

Nice attempt, but per usual a fail on your part. Also, still more relevant than Ogres.

Hardly, show up s npcs ogres shows up too, only rexxar is more relevant in Bfa than high elves in their entire existence

and he is just half ogre

How delusional does someone have to be to create a scenario in their own head and then submit as fact and continue talking about it as if it's actually true?

well i don't know, high eves are so delusion that they create a scenario in their heads and submit s fact and continue talking s if it true, then tell me

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Well it does remind me of the pre 04/26 period where even the act of a CM extending the cap on the threads in the official forums was taken as being indicative of imminent Alliance High Elves and we all know how that turned out. Community Managers are not developers, and should not be treated as overly coy sources of information. They are not teasing with some shocking new information. They usually have no information to share as that isn't their job. A CM is only a source when they are answering directly and clearly without obfuscation.

thats right, but now the damage is already done, again they think the elves are 100% confirmed, and they will announce on blizzcon

[BlakeArt]

High elves will probably a thing at some point. But not directly, you know when the hype slow down and no one expect it anymore, hey, look at this, look what we had in our sleeves, so, hyped up ? I don't think they would give them right now, they need to keep some stuff for later. Just like wildhammer will be at some point, yo uhad regular ones and Dark irons, look up, there is the last clan.

[Obelisk Kai]

thats right, but now the damage is already done, again they think the elves are 100% confirmed, and they will announce on blizzcon

The High Elf stuff always peaks in the run up to Blizzcon. It's tradition. And what do we find in the run up to Blizzcon 2018? More High Elf threads spam. Yes, I think a large chunk of the pro High Elf community will again disregard rationality and will convince themselves there is a chance High Elves will be announced at Blizzcon.

This is incredibly unlikely. Ion's dev response in April means they clearly had no intention of doing it and Void Elves were presented as the Alliance's thalassian race (and anecdotal evidence suggests they are the most popular allied race which suggests that they are working well as the Alliance's thalassian elves, rendering High Elves on the Alliance a redundant concept).

Even were Blizzard to have been awed by the pro High Elf community's arguments (doubtful), they aren't going to cause Blizzard to turn around on such a short notice when the next allied races that have yet to be revealed, probably two per side, were likely already in the content pipeline.

At a minumum, this means the 9.0 patch cycle.

Which means this time next year, in the run up to the expansion announcement, we will be facing the same High Elf thread spam as usual.

[FlubberPuddy]

becue in their heads, blizzd "never said no" so, they keep posting stuff like this, so "the dream don't die"

We've already established here that there has been a sudden resurgence of High Elf threads recently, therefore the fact that's acknowledged means it hasn't been a constant continual "keep the dream alive guys" moment.

Probably it resurged because the Blood Elf scenario and in-game Alliance High Elves continue to show up and be two distinct groups now. Of course I don't truly know, but unlike you and Obelisk I'm not going to treat my speculation as fact.

Hardly, show up s npcs ogres shows up too, only rexxar is more relevant in Bfa than high elves in their entire existence

and he is just half ogre

Ah yes, Rexxar gets a few lines and he is so "relevant" the fact that you're so much more focused on tearing down any elf talk vs talking about ogre stuff just shows the relevancy of elves over ogres/half-ogres.

You're like that other poster who said goblins should be allowed on Alliance just because 1 single goblin is part of the SI:7.

Then again this must be some kind of ogre logic you're using I guess.

well i don't know, high eves are so delusion that they create a scenario in their heads and submit s fact and continue talking s if it true, then tell me

"Then tell me" assumes I've done what Obelisk and you are doing, which I haven't. Please show me where I've created a scenario in my head and then submitted it as fact and continue talking about it being true. Until you can do that all you're doing is the same thing you've always done: use childish quips like "I know you are but what am I" whenever you're shown to be a failure at proving your point.

thats right, but now the damage is already done, again they think the elves are 100% confirmed, and they will announce on blizzcon

Literally the only people I've seen talking about High Elves being announced at this Blizzcon is you and Obelisk, I guess you are both in the same boat in your way of delusional thinking. That tells me all I need to know.

I await more childish responses, it's expected from some ogre fans I guess.

[Syegfryed]

Probably it resurged because the Blood Elf scenario and in-game Alliance High Elves continue to show up and be two distinct groups now. Of course I don't truly know, but unlike you and Obelisk I'm not going to treat my speculation as fact.

every time an elf pop-up thy start the spam

Ah yes, Rexxar gets a few lines and he is so "relevant" the fact that you're so much more focused on tearing down any elf talk vs talking about ogre stuff just shows the relevancy of elves over ogres/half-ogres.

he have more lines in BfA than high elves in the entire wow existence including Alleria LUL

He is relevant, and part of the war campaing a important character who drive the story forwards, unlike high elves who just appear as npcs, and people talk like they are totally relevant

You're like that other poster who said goblins should be allowed on Alliance just because 1 single goblin is part of the SI:7.

they are in the same bag of high elves, playble on horde but appear as alliance npcs

and no, they should not be playable

Then again this must be some kind of ogre logic you're using I guess.

it is a ogre magi logic, way more logic than a simple elf

"Then tell me" assumes I've done what Obelisk and you are doing, which I haven't. Please show me where I've created a scenario in my head and then submitted it as fact and continue talking about it being true

but you did...

Literally the only people I've seen talking about High Elves being announced at this Blizzcon is you and Obelisk, I guess you are both in the same boat in your way of delusional thinking. That tells me all I need to know.

oh, i already seen like 6 times, i even get banned on oficial foruns for "trolling" because i said the topic was spam and they should go for the other topic not capped.

I await more childish responses, it's expected from some ogre fans I guess.

thats a lot mature

im not delusional at least, for a boring and elf

[Doffen]

Hardly, show up s npcs ogres shows up too, only rexxar is more relevant in Bfa than high elves in their entire existence

and he is just half ogre

he have more lines in BfA than high elves in the entire wow existence including Alleria LUL

You can just stop trying at this point, you have given up.

"Hey Rexxar got a little questline in Legion too, man he so much more relevant than High Elves ever was"

It's nice you like ogres, but High Elves have been a part of the story since TBC/WotLK, and a major part at that. And to to be honest, Rexxar is only a half-ogre LUL

[Syegfryed]

You can just stop trying at this point, you have given up.

"Hey Rexxar got a little questline in Legion too, man he so much more relevant than High Elves ever was"

im here waiting to you to prove otherwise, eh actually have meaning in the lore and not just random token npc

It's nice you like ogres, but High Elves have been a part of the story since TBC/WotLK, and a major part at that.

high elves have been part of wow since warcraft 2, and they sadly join horde already

And to to be honest, Rexxar is only a half-ogre LUL

yeah, and thats why make it funny, half ogre have more importance than all high elves left

[Doffen]

high elves have been part of wow since warcraft 2, and they sadly join horde already

Ehh, yeah, if you ignore the part of the High Elves that are in the Alliance, and was part of the storyline in WotLK, Cata, MoP(big time), WoD, Legion(a lot) and now they are in the Alliance War Campaign. And I guess you forgot Void Elves whos also High Elves.

yeah, and thats why make it funny, half ogre have more importance than all high elves left

And you truly believe that You said in the existence btw.

[Grythletubs]

As confirmed by the developers, High Elves are already available as Blood Elves. Alliance High Elves, because they are almost exactly the same as Horde Blood Elves, have a direct impact on Horde Blood Elves and they can never be discussed in isolation from Horde Blood Elves. Or Alliance Void Elves.

To claim that the High Elves have had more progression than the Blood Elves based upon Veressa or Alleria is myopic. Alleria is the Void Elf racial leader, her story is Void Elf and not High Elf. When she first appeared in 7.3 she had escaped imprisonment, and she had been imprisoned because of her experiments with the void.

The Blood Elf storyline formed a major part of the Burning Crusade expansion, underpinning the Tempest Keep and Sunwell Plateau raids as well as the Isle of Quel'Danas zone.
The Blood Elves played a major role in the mid-point of Mists of Pandaria, where their relations with Garrosh and then their presence on the Isle of Thunder were hugely important. And for the record, Lor'themar's counterpart on the isle of thunder was Jaina Proudmoore.
The Blood Elves played a major role in Legion during the liberation of Suramar, comprising one of the two major armies sent to assist the rebels in taking the city. Later, this would led to the entry of the Nightborne into the Horde.

Across six expansions, the Blood Elves had a major impact in three. Given the multitude of playable races in the game, that is pretty good going.

By contrast, the High Elves have always played small bit parts. Their biggest role to date was on the Isle of Thunder, where they accompanied other Kirin Tor forces.

And I have read all the books. Alleria is spoken about in the Second War novels, which are based off of the games she originally appeared in.

Veressa appears primarily in the terrible Knaak books about her husband and in Tides of War, which is about Jaina.

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I do not believe the city itself will be the warfront. Rather, I think Silvermoon may have been shorthand for the event itself. The warfront would make more sense in the Ghostlands. You see, people believe the technical issues Blizzard has mentioned about updating Quel'thalas are a barrier. I don't. What I believe Blizzard meant was, the technical issues are there, but we would need a reason to justify doing it.

A warfront and a major, end of expansion event would qualify.

I find it cute how you resort to flee to the "HI ELVS ARE BLOOD ELVS" argument because you have nothing to say.

Also yes the blood elves played a major role...in THE EXPANSION they were added in, Woooo!

Regarding isle of thunder, the high elves played an equal role to the blood elves. The liberation of suramar had 3 armies (more denial on your part), high elves, blood elves and night elves.

By contrast the high elves have played just as many if not more bits and parts than blood elves. And why does this matter considering they've obviously received more "bits and parts" than pretty much any other alliance race excluding humans since wotlk. They even had a role in Landfall which was before the thunder king.

Wow, you just named 4 instances of high elves being in the books. You also forgot to mention Stormrage, Warcrimes, day of the dragon, night of the dragon, and the new comic "three sisters". (regardless of whether any of these were terrible)

High elves are EASILY one of the most spoken about races in the alliance, I'm not sure why you blatantly choose to ignore this fact.

Instead of spiting alliance people who request easily the most valid race in the game, you should just make a request thread asking Blizzard to either kill them off or just turn them into void elves, then your bullshit logic may actually have some substance.

[Andromedes]

yeah, and thats why make it funny, half ogre have more importance than all high elves left

Too bad, that you cant play as Rexxar, because he is notable character, not some random adventurer you can create.