Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Traycor]

Kul Tirans prove that fat can be distinct enough to be its own "race". And physique doesnt even need 15 years to give an explanation.

It's interesting that some people think every member of the race has the exact same body type and height in cannon. It should be obvious that High Elves have several different heights and body types. A new model would just represent a different group. No one thinks that the defias with the skinny model are a new "race". They're just workers from Stormwind. The new model is just a different look. It's a design choice. High Elves can easily have the same thing.

[Obelisk Kai]

It's interesting that some people think every member of the race has the exact same body type and height in cannon. It should be obvious that High Elves have several different heights and body types. A new model would just represent a different group. No one thinks that the defias with the skinny model are a new "race". They're just workers from Stormwind. The new model is just a different look. It's a design choice. High Elves can easily have the same thing.

The problem with your logic is that, as Blood Elves and High Elves are the same thing, there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

This is also why Blizzard went with Void Elves, a transformative process that almost certainly cannot be reversed without great difficulty.

[Uthan]

The problem with your logic is that, as Blood Elves and High Elves are the same thing, there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

This is also why Blizzard went with Void Elves, a transformative process that almost certainly cannot be reversed without great difficulty.

The problem with your logic is that, as Kul Tiran humans and Stormwind humans are the same thing, there is no reason Stormwind humans shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Kul Tirans can and should be equally applied to Stormwindians. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

Character customization choices are based on whatever subsection of a "race" that blizzard feels helps differentiate them from the rest and give them their own more or less unique and cool aesthetic, not on what they should have available based on lore (if so we should have tattoos for pretty much all races as well as most hairstyles being shared, etc). The playable Kul Tiran is blizzard limiting us to a specific subgroup simply because it helps differentiate them from other playable humans, and there's no reason they couldn't do the same with Blood elves and High elves, even if lorewise there would be a lot of overlap between them, just as a lot of other "races".

[FlubberPuddy]

they said they were not intend to be a different race, this don't mean they didn't become one, yet allied race ar enot just "different race" highmountain tauren didn't stop of being tauren

the proof/evidence is the dialogue with Ulfar saying the Thornspeakers left the drust and joined the kul'tiran society.

They said "not intended" then go on to explain what that statement meant by adding, "So, generally, when we’re spawning up Kul Tiras on the design side, we looked at using them as kind of our… maybe it’s a little bit like, ‘The big guy’s the bouncer!’ Or, ‘The big guy’s the ruffian who’s got a little guy up by the neck! And then the little guy’s more the scoundrel and they’re always holding daggers or leanin’ up against something,’ and, I don’t know, it just gives us a little more flavor and texture to the world."

Nothing in that further explanation talks about it's due to a mixture of Kul'Tirans procreating with Drust. "Joining a society" isn't the same as "all our people are fucking together now". If that were the case we'd be having a plethora of Half-elves shown in the game due to how long High Elves and Humans have mingled together in Dalaran. This is unconfirmed information you're trying to pass off as fact.

You're being super hypocritical here and others have pointed it out as well. Even Obelisk has to admit it is a theory but still tries to play it up as if it's a justified theory. Doing the same exact thing he calls out other High Elfers of doing.

Developer/aka Word of God is stating they're not a different race and you're pulling unconfirmed theories out to justify something against what a developer has stated. Sound familiar? lmao

You cannot go ahead and ascribe to Ion saying "Blood Elves are High Elves" thus go play Horde to play High Elf if you're going to turn around and then not take Travis Day at his word about Kul'Tirans not being a different race.

It's called a double-standard and posts like this:

The problem with your logic is that, as Blood Elves and High Elves are the same thing, there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

This is also why Blizzard went with Void Elves, a transformative process that almost certainly cannot be reversed without great difficulty.

Show how easy that double-standard proliferates amongst those against playable High Elves. As it's easily dismantled just down below here:

The problem with your logic is that, as Kul Tiran humans and Stormwind humans are the same thing, there is no reason Stormwind humans shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Kul Tirans can and should be equally applied to Stormwindians. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

Character customization choices are based on whatever subsection of a "race" that blizzard feels helps differentiate them from the rest and give them their own more or less unique and cool aesthetic, not on what they should have available based on lore (if so we should have tattoos for pretty much all races as well as most hairstyles being shared, etc). The playable Kul Tiran is blizzard limiting us to a specific subgroup simply because it helps differentiate them from other playable humans, and there's no reason they couldn't do the same with Blood elves and High elves, even if lorewise there would be a lot of overlap between them, just as a lot of other "races".

Good way to show the hypocritical nature of some posters.

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It's interesting that some people think every member of the race has the exact same body type and height in cannon. It should be obvious that High Elves have several different heights and body types. A new model would just represent a different group. No one thinks that the defias with the skinny model are a new "race". They're just workers from Stormwind. The new model is just a different look. It's a design choice. High Elves can easily have the same thing.

Also with the lift of transmog restrictions coming soon in 8.2 I think, that allow us to hide everything but pants. All Blizzard would need to have a set differentiation from High Elves and Blood Elves is forced tattoo/warpaint options across the face/body. Just how it is the only thing that defines Wildhammer Dwarves. This can be used for High Elves.

Or they can do things like feather's in all of the hairstyles or the highlights you came up with, basically like how little permanent Highmountain Tauren and Lightforged Draenei got and still became distinct enough to be their own race option - but for High Elves.

Not these Blueberry Blood Elves we ended up with.

Or they can as we've been recently talking about - go ahead with different body modifications to show maybe a beefier, more rugged lifestyle of High Elves with lower magic distinction.

Lots of ideas! Ball is truly in Blizzard's court.

[Traycor]

The problem with your logic is that, as Blood Elves and High Elves are the same thing, there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

This is also why Blizzard went with Void Elves, a transformative process that almost certainly cannot be reversed without great difficulty.

Void Elves have beards that Blood Elves don't. The void didn't do that. It's just new customization options. High Elves can have that too.

[FlubberPuddy]

Void Elves have beards that Blood Elves don't. The void didn't do that. It's just new customization options. High Elves can have that too.

Mag'har also have hairstyles that aren't on Green Orcs. We can clearly see both races are able to braid their hair and tie them into knots so there shouldn't be any mystical force that should have prevented Green Orcs for being able to do their hair up like Mag'har and vice versa.

Dark Iron Dwarves got additional tattoo customization when never in any history of media portrayal did they have tattoos. So they're an example of even if it never existed in the history of its people, Blizzard can add it in just cuz.

[matrix123mko]

Void Elves have beards that Blood Elves don't. The void didn't do that. It's just new customization options. High Elves can have that too.

Lor'themar is secretly a Void user.

[Garfurion]

So, as explained, there is a perfectly consistent explanation as to why the Kul Tirans have these freakishly large individuals who live among them so at odds with the rest of the Human race as depicted in game. And the intent behind making them playable seems to be a desire to give the Alliance something as close to a Vrykul as they could without it being a Vrykul, which would simply be far too large for a player model.

Actually what is the perfectly consistent is what Blizzard is telling us about Kul Tirans: they're human (Alex Afrasiaibi in a Lost Codex interview without even being asked about it).

Also if Blizzard intended to give the Alliance something similar to Vry'kul they would have given them different beard and hairstyles like this:



Actually telling people the Big Kul Tirans are related to Drust or Vry'kul would have made them more popular with the playerbase so there is no reason for Blizzard to tell people they are just obese/bulky humans.

Overall though, the point of this dispute is it's relevance to the ongoing High Elf debate. I think it is completely irrelevant, because all thalassian elves have been depicted using the same model for the past decade and a half.

That is incorrect. From Burning Crusade till patch 8.1.0 the Silvermoon City Guardians had a unique, modified Night-Elven model, not available to player Blood Elves or High-Elf NPCs.

Also, in Warcraft 3 and Vanilla WoW Night-Elves, High Elves and Blood Elves shared models and every Kul Tiran encountered in Warcraft 2 and WoW prior to BFA used the "normal" human model so it's an irrelevant argument. Blizzard will only make complete new models when it makes sense for them to do so and if it fits in their development cycle.

[Alixie]

The problem with your logic is that, as Blood Elves and High Elves are the same thing, there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves. This is why every single one of your proposals doesn't work, as any hair style, tattoo or even darker skin tone should logically be shared with the majority of their same race.

Kul Tirans are Human. There's no reason why SW humans cant share the same appearances, hair style, tattoos, darker skin tones, different weights, as the Kul Tirans because they are the same race. If my SW Human wants to get fat, they should be allowed access to the fat model used exclusively by Kul Tirans. Its only logical.

[Garfurion]

Isn't if peculiar how the one area of the world where we know Vrykul lived for a time with humans now produces freakishly, abnormally large Humans?

You mean the one area in the world apart from Tirisfal Glades where Tyr's Guard, a group of Vrykul stayed behind to guard Tyr's Tomb and lived together with Humans.

"At some point in Azeroth's distant past, humanity emerged in Tirisfal Glades. The iron-skinned vrykul who lived there slowly died off. Many of them suffered from the curse of flesh, a strange malady that transformed them into creatures of flesh and blood.

Yet one group of vrykul lasted longer than the others. They formed a secretive group-Tyr's Guard-to protect Keeper Tyr's tomb. The vrykul of this order knew that they would not live forever, and so they inducted some of the fledgling humans into their ranks.

The vrykul taught the human members of Tyr's Guard the history of the fallen keeper, his tenets of self-sacrifice and justice, and the truth of what lay within the tomb."

-- source Legends of the Silver Hand

There seem to be quiet some similarities between the Drust teaching the Kul Tirans druidism and the Vrykul laying the foundation for Tyr's Guard Paladins and the other of the Silver Hand, yet we don't see bulky human NPCs due to Vrykul genes in Lordaeron.

The first generation would have been a sort of Half Drust I imagine, but the Drust died out farily swiftly and as each generation succeeded the next, the traits became diluted and more widely disseminated throughout the Kul Tiran gene pool.

Half-breeds are very rare in the Warcraft universe:

Dave Kosak: "We don't have that many cross-breeds in the universe."
Dave Kosak: Half-races are so rare in Warcraft that we don't really have any established lore. (That I'm aware of).

Therefore it seems extremely unlikely they could have resulted in an entire population, otherwise we should probably have loads of half-elves by now and Kosak ruled them out explicitly in his tweet.

Not only have multiple Blizzard devs stated Kul Tirans are humans, they have also ruled out half-breeds which human-drust hybrids would be.

[FlubberPuddy]

Actually what is the perfectly consistent is what Blizzard is telling us about Kul Tirans: they're human (Alex Afrasiaibi in a Lost Codex interview without even being asked about it).

Alex: "Which btw they're human" as he looked at the camera lol good find!

[Syegfryed]

They said "not intended" then go on to explain what that statement meant by adding, "So, generally, when we’re spawning up Kul Tiras on the design side, we looked at using them as kind of our… maybe it’s a little bit like, ‘The big guy’s the bouncer!’ Or, ‘The big guy’s the ruffian who’s got a little guy up by the neck! And then the little guy’s more the scoundrel and they’re always holding daggers or leanin’ up against something,’ and, I don’t know, it just gives us a little more flavor and texture to the world."

this was a early statement of the kul'tirans, obvious things changed, pretty much like they said zandalari would just get dino travel forms, they were not intendtent to be a different race/sub-race, but then ended becoming one;

Nothing in that further explanation talks about it's due to a mixture of Kul'Tirans procreating with Drust. "Joining a society" isn't the same as "all our people are fucking together now".

when a people join another people hybridization happens, its the normal flux of things

this is just reforce by the kul'tirans characteristics, they look like vrykul and their racials its close related to the seafaring vrykul, unlike other humans

if that were the case we'd be having a plethora of Half-elves shown in the game due to how long High Elves and Humans have mingled together in Dalaran.

how long you mean like less than ten years? you are stretching too hard, kul'tirans had thousand of years.

yes prob there is a few half-elves, they could be an allied race, this would make sense

This is unconfirmed information you're trying to pass off as fact.

you just have to do 1+1=2

Developer/aka Word of God is stating they're not a different race and you're pulling unconfirmed theories out to justify something against what a developer has stated. Sound familiar? lmao

they are an allied race, this already proof they ARE a different race/race, not just the same race, they are not just regular humans

"These are Allied Races, these aren't Sub-Races. There's no direct associated Race or "Parent Race" or anything like that"
-Ion Hazzikostas, Blizzcon 2017 Q&A

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Actually what is the perfectly consistent is what Blizzard is telling us about Kul Tirans: they're human (Alex Afrasiaibi in a Lost Codex interview without even being asked about it).

Same as highmountain tauren are tauren, but not just the regular tauren, make perfect sense to me.

[Strippling]

Night Elfs are Elfs.... so are Blood Elfs... The species is Elf, but Night and Blood Elfs are different races of the same species.

Kul Tirans are Human... so are 'Stormwindians'. The species is Human, but they're both a separate race of human (just like Chinese people are a separate race to African people, both being human though).

High Elfs on the otherhand are the both the same species AND race as Blood Elfs. They're one and the same... the only difference being political.

So, sorry, but the "Kul Tiran" argument you high elfers are trying to make is kinda moot.

[FlubberPuddy]

Same as highmountain tauren are tauren, but not just the regular tauren, make perfect sense to me.

Night Elfs are Elfs.... so are Blood Elfs... The species is Elf, but Night and Blood Elfs are different races of the same species.

Kul Tirans are Human... so are 'Stormwindians'. The species is Human, but they're both a separate race of human (just like Chinese people are a separate race to African people, both being human though).

High Elfs on the otherhand are the both the same species AND race as Blood Elfs. They're one and the same... the only difference being political.

So, sorry, but the "Kul Tiran" argument you high elfers are trying to make is kinda moot.

The original intent of using Kul'Tiran in this thread is to show that Blizzard can give "the same race" different models on a whim. They're calling Kul'Tirans the same race. Alex Afrasiabi literally saying, "btw they're human" shows this.

He doesn't say anything about Drust ancestry, doesn't say anything about magically being changed.

What you guys are showing me is that you'll only listen to Blizzard when it helps you and when it doesn't then you'll try to find a way say "they're wrong" without having anything outside of head-canon to back that up.

Kul'Tirans aren't another race, they're human. They have different models from the "core human race" all because Blizzard wanted variety. This means other groups of the same race can also have modified models.

The highmountain Tauren example is silly, they have moose horns. Plenty have suggested here having permanent fixtures to High Elves such as tattoos/feathers/highlights etc. This would be on top of the different eyes High Elves have.

If moose horns is enough but Highmountain Tauren are allowed to have same skin tones, then extra accessories but the same model for High Elves is do-able too. Already precedent said by Blizzard.

Horde also already have two heavily modified Night Elf models in the Zandalari and Nightborne. Alliance only has Void Elves, which isn't a modified model. So all things being equal, it's also okay that Alliance gets another model based off the Blood Elf one again.

Which can be modified, just like Zandalari, Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, and Kul'Tiran.

[Strippling]

The original intent of using Kul'Tiran in this thread is to show that Blizzard can give "the same race" different models on a whim. They're calling Kul'Tirans the same race. Alex Afrasiabi literally saying, "btw they're human" shows this.

Just because Kul Tirans are human doesn't make them the same race as SW humans. I'm hispanic, am I the same race as an asian person? High elfs however, are the same race and species as blood elfs. Albeit, I do admit that given WoW is a fantasy world with different species this argument is a bit "grey". However, fact is Kul Tiran's are more different to other human nations (such as SW) than high elfs are to blood elfs. Physically and culturally there is more diversity between KT and SW than high elf and blood elf.

What you guys are showing me is that you'll only listen to Blizzard when it helps you and when it doesn't then you'll try to find a way say "they're wrong" without having anything outside of head-canon to back that up.

Sounds like nearly every high elfer.

Kul'Tirans aren't another race, they're human. They have different models from the "core human race" all because Blizzard wanted variety. This means other groups of the same race can also have modified models.

Again, same species different race.

The highmountain Tauren example is silly, they have moose horns. Plenty have suggested here having permanent fixtures to High Elves such as tattoos/feathers/highlights etc. This would be on top of the different eyes High Elves have.

Funnily enough, moose horns are more distinguishable than any of the high elf fan art (that attempt to differentiate them from blood elfs).

If moose horns is enough but Highmountain Tauren are allowed to have same skin tones, then extra accessories but the same model for High Elves is do-able too. Already precedent said by Blizzard.

HM Tauren don't cross faction boundaries. Likewise LF Draenei don't either. However, High elfs do, as confirmed by Ion (Lead Game Developer).

Additionally, "Blood Elfs are our High Elfs" - Chris Metzen

Horde also already have two heavily modified Night Elf models in the Zandalari and Nightborne. Alliance only has Void Elves, which isn't a modified model. So all things being equal, it's also okay that Alliance gets another model based off the Blood Elf one again.

Void elfs and Nightborne were a trade of both factions elf model.

Zandalari on the other hand have been altered substantially enough that they don't look like Night Elfs (completely different face, hands, feet, hair, added tusks).

For things to be "equal", high elfs would have to be so far altered from blood elfs you would be able to distinguish them from blood elfs instantly. I don't think some new hair color, tattoos and "feathers" do just that. What high elfers have proposed seems to be on par with the HM Tauren or LF Draenei treatment... neither of which cross faction boundaries. Like I said, VE and Nightborne were the equal swap.. so high elfs technically would have to receive the Zandalari treatment (uglier face, three toes and fingers, tusks, etc...lol...you get my drift). So, you can't use the Zandalari argument, cause they're a completely different species and race to their "parent model".

On a side note, high elf fan art seems to focus on a "woodland elf" theme. Given that the majority of Alliance aligned high elfs live in Dalaran (a majestic and magical city) the "woodland" theme isn't really relevant. High elfs of Dalaran resemble more their kin in Silvermoon City. The woodland theme appears to be based on "fan fiction" of the high elfs at Queldanil Lodge, but these elfs are so few in number it would make no sense for any "high elf" theme to be based around this very small group. It would make more sense for "high elf" aesthetics to focus around the Dalarani elfs...who again more closely resemble their kin in Silvermoon City and the Sunreavers, both of whom are Horde. So when Blizzard says high elfs would blur faction lines, one reason for that is because the aesthetic for majority of Alliance aligned high elfs is already demonstrated via blood elfs. Another reason of course is that blood elfs are the main high elven society in WoW, and represent the high elf trope in this universe. No need to double down on this trope when it's already manifested via the Blood Elfs.

[Alixie]

Kul Tirans are Human... so are 'Stormwindians'. The species is Human, but they're both a separate race of human (just like Chinese people are a separate race to African people, both being human though).

The word you're looking for is ethnicity. People from China, Africa, and YOU are all apart of the same homo sapien (race) species.

Back to video games. Humans are considered one race. Kul Tirans are not Drust. The Drust are part of the Vrykul race, who are a separate race from Humans. The Kul Tirans are not a freak sub race from drinking contaminated water. They are literally just fat humans. Blizzard made fat a separate "race".

there is no reason Blood Elves shouldn't have access to the same kinds of look. Anything proposed for Alliance High Elves can and should be equally applied to Blood Elves.

There's no reason why my SW human shouldn't have access to the same customizations as Kul Tirans and vice versa because they are literally the same race.

[Obelisk Kai]

Void Elves have beards that Blood Elves don't. The void didn't do that. It's just new customization options. High Elves can have that too.

Yes, every Allied race has different hair styles and facial options when compared to their parents. Check out Dark Iron Dwarves to ordinary Dwarves, Lightforged Draenei to ordinary Draenei, Mag'har Orcs to ordinary Orcs. But none of those examples use the different hairstyles and facial hair options as justification for a separate allied race, they all have something far more profound going on.

If you are arguing that hairstyles and facial hair is enough, I ask you to consider, what do you think of a Green Orc option with only unique hairstyles and facial hair being proposed as a new Allied race? Do you think the person putting that idea forward would be able to keep a straight face as they did so?

New hairstyles and facial hair options are a customisation flair on the new Allied races, that is all. They are not the true differences between an Allied race and their respect parents.

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Actually what is the perfectly consistent is what Blizzard is telling us about Kul Tirans: they're human (Alex Afrasiaibi in a Lost Codex interview without even being asked about it).

Also if Blizzard intended to give the Alliance something similar to Vry'kul they would have given them different beard and hairstyles like this:



Actually telling people the Big Kul Tirans are related to Drust or Vry'kul would have made them more popular with the playerbase so there is no reason for Blizzard to tell people they are just obese/bulky humans.

As I wrote above, the Kul Tirans having Drust/Vrykul blood is not incompatible with saying they are Human, which they undoubtedly are. As a real world example, some of us carry Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA due to interbreeding. Are those individuals not fully Human?

As for not telling anyone about it, that merely means it is not explicit in game. They didn't make the fact Void Elves can recruit other Elves explicit in game either, if by explicit we mean being flat out told that is the case. It was implicit, with all those Elves hanging out in Tel'rogus messing with the void and with the sheer number of Void Elves in the game world not lining up with the number of Elves present at the initial transformation. But Moorgard confirmed that the Elves can turn other Elves who seek their powers in his Polygon interview.

Now I will of course admit this topic is subjective, I don't have enough evidence to conclusively prove that what I am saying is fact in regards to the Kul Tirans. But I believe there is sufficient doubt that, for now, the question remains open.

That is incorrect. From Burning Crusade till patch 8.1.0 the Silvermoon City Guardians had a unique, modified Night-Elven model, not available to player Blood Elves or High-Elf NPCs.

Fair enough, I had forgotten about those guys. But they also no longer exist, having been replaced in that patch. I am also familiar with why they were like that, in that during the Burning Crusade development the proposed Blood Elf model was scrapped and begun from scratch. They were simply a testament to that work. They existed, but they prove a point in that their clear difference from other Blood Elves was incongruous from the rest of the game world. Their erasure and replacement with the proper model simply ensures EVERY thalassian elf uses the race appropriate look.

Also, in Warcraft 3 and Vanilla WoW Night-Elves, High Elves and Blood Elves shared models and every Kul Tiran encountered in Warcraft 2 and WoW prior to BFA used the "normal" human model so it's an irrelevant argument. Blizzard will only make complete new models when it makes sense for them to do so and if it fits in their development cycle.

Yet they have no reason to do so for Alliance High Elves, for whom they have time and again told us are the same race as the Blood Elves. There must be a justifiable reason for a new model, and an attempt to pretend that an Alliance High Elf is different from a Blood Elf is not it.

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You mean the one area in the world apart from Tirisfal Glades where Tyr's Guard, a group of Vrykul stayed behind to guard Tyr's Tomb and lived together with Humans.

"At some point in Azeroth's distant past, humanity emerged in Tirisfal Glades. The iron-skinned vrykul who lived there slowly died off. Many of them suffered from the curse of flesh, a strange malady that transformed them into creatures of flesh and blood.

Yet one group of vrykul lasted longer than the others. They formed a secretive group-Tyr's Guard-to protect Keeper Tyr's tomb. The vrykul of this order knew that they would not live forever, and so they inducted some of the fledgling humans into their ranks.

The vrykul taught the human members of Tyr's Guard the history of the fallen keeper, his tenets of self-sacrifice and justice, and the truth of what lay within the tomb."

-- source Legends of the Silver Hand

There seem to be quiet some similarities between the Drust teaching the Kul Tirans druidism and the Vrykul laying the foundation for Tyr's Guard Paladins and the other of the Silver Hand, yet we don't see bulky human NPCs due to Vrykul genes in Lordaeron.

Perhaps they did. The people of Lordaeron have been on a diet in recent years and are much skinnier than they used to be, so it might not be apparent anymore.

Half-breeds are very rare in the Warcraft universe:

Dave Kosak: "We don't have that many cross-breeds in the universe."
Dave Kosak: Half-races are so rare in Warcraft that we don't really have any established lore. (That I'm aware of).

Therefore it seems extremely unlikely they could have resulted in an entire population, otherwise we should probably have loads of half-elves by now and Kosak ruled them out explicitly in his tweet.

Not only have multiple Blizzard devs stated Kul Tirans are humans, they have also ruled out half-breeds which human-drust hybrids would be.

Again, the Kul Tirans are not half breeds, nor is that what I claimed. The Drust theory states that there was some interbreeding centuries ago, but that the Drust died out and 'Vrykul' traits disseminated throughout the Kul Tiran population. Kul Tirans are fully human in the same way someone who carries a few Denisovan or Neanderthal genes in reality is fully Human.

[Syegfryed]

The original intent of using Kul'Tiran in this thread is to show that Blizzard can give "the same race" different models on a whim. They're calling Kul'Tirans the same race. Alex Afrasiabi literally saying, "btw they're human" shows this.

and dark iron dwarves are dwarves, highmountain tauren are tauren

just not the same kind o dwarf and tauren, like any other allied race, kul'tiran are "human" in the exact same sense dark iron are dwarves, but not just the regular human.

He doesn't say anything about Drust ancestry, doesn't say anything about magically being changed.

he don't need to, this is lore coming after his statement.

Kul'Tirans aren't another race, they're human.

they are human in the same sense dark iron are dwarves, highmountain are tauren, lighforged are draenei

but still are different

The highmountain Tauren example is silly, they have moose horns. Plenty have suggested here having permanent fixtures to High Elves such as tattoos/feathers/highlights etc. This would be on top of the different eyes High Elves have.

silly is to think a tattoo is the same thing as a horn, its not nearly enough difference to even be viable

one is a biological difference that you cannot become, you must born with it, a tatoo anyone can put on himself.

kul'tirans do not have just tattoos, they have a whole different model, supported by lore, not just minor things

If moose horns is enough but Highmountain Tauren are allowed to have same skin tones, then extra accessories but the same model for High Elves is do-able too. Already precedent said by Blizzard.

the good old, if A its true then B should be true is a bad fallacy, horns are biological difference, rom taurens of ten thousand years of distance with the bless of cenarius, making then change, you think putting an earring in a elf they will somehow be different enough or be a different race? nop

Horde also already have two heavily modified Night Elf models in the Zandalari and Nightborne. Alliance only has Void Elves, which isn't a modified model. So all things being equal, it's also okay that Alliance gets another model based off the Blood Elf one again.

now you are just grasping at straws

[FlubberPuddy]

Nah the only ones grasping at straws right now are you guys. The only point of Alex Afrasiabi reiterating that KulTirans “btw they’re humans” is obviously due to people having been discussing the Drust theory. And yes it is a theory hell even Obelisk has to admit it is a theory, that means not backed up by any official material, not backed up by “Word of God” which you guys used to take as gospel.

Now you guys are trying to do all you can to fight against what “Word of God” have said on the KulTiran topic, because it shows that regardless of something being the same race, the model can be changed.

Also yes Strippling, you are in fact still the same race: a human. You’re getting confused with the word “ethnicity” which is what describes people being Asian or Mexican or whatever. But everyone of those guys, including you Strippling, is still part of the human race... that this had to be described plainly is just uh, yikes.

Also Obelisk’s Green Orc comparison but with new hairstyles and stuff is a straw man argument. First, no one is saying only add different hairstyle options for High Elves, and Second there’s no existence of some unplayable Green Orcs that have been fighting with the Horde for years that players get to interact with but can’t play.

Of course no one would make that argument with a straight face, because its premise is already stupidly flawed.

[Traycor]

If you are arguing that hairstyles and facial hair is enough...

You know that wasn't at all my point. You said any new options must be added to blood elves because of race. But Void Elves are blood elves who have different options simply because they do. High Elves could also have new options simply because they do.