Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Aldo Hawk]

So far, the most popular ideas seem to be the ranger aesthetic and warpaint from WCII, especially since it is lore friendly and not currently used in WoW except on one character.

Ideas have been thrown out for beefier High Elves and darker skin tones. Personally I like the idea of the more slender models like the Blood Elves had before the model revamp in Cataclysm. Ultimately, any new model would be a good choice, as long as it still looks like a High Elf and not some other creature.

Many more ideas were thrown about in the thread, but these were less popular. They included Wardstone/Aepexis crystal designs, the High Elf WCII sailor/fleet designs, Blue Dragonflight affiliation designs, and Night Elf models reskinned as High Elves (which is really what High Elves had in Vanilla).

I'm all for new ideas, which is why I made the thread. This is basically a big brainstorming exercise on new and cool ideas for High Elves!

Well, about the darker skin tones I should add that it would not be a good differentiating aesthetic for High elves, since Blood elves should also have them, and even with that, Blood elves were the ones getting darker skin tones by the presence of Fel in their living places.

Other than that, yeah, it sounds cool.

[Aucald]

These are interesting concepts, but I don't see any actual aesthetic differences you call out.
How would you represent these differences in an aesthetic way?

I saw a description somewhere, Scrolls of Lore I think, that had the High Elven exiles opt to try to spark their own version of the Sunwell separate from the one in Silvermoon - creating their own font of power so they weren't reliant on one they had no control over. The "heart" of this new font of power was a portion of Xe'ra that Vereesa took from the Vindicaar on the occasion of her destruction by Illidan, and was ignited through the use of the Focusing Iris borrowed from Dalaran at Jaina's behest. Unfortunately the piece of Xe'ra that Vereesa took had some Fel contamination in it due to Illidan's overwhelming firepower, creating an unstable matrix of Arcane, Light, and Fel energies at the heart of this new power source. The energies involved caused the following changes to all High Elves who survived being connected to the new power source:

- Burning or "flaming" eyes radiating unstable power of one the three types: Arcane (blue/purple), Fel (green), or Light (golden). Perhaps class-dependent.
- Runic marks or tattooing of their bodies of the matching type.
- "Unstable Energy" as a racial active, an alternating ability that manifests any of the three forms of power and temporarily changes and exaggerates their appearances. Unstable Light gives the a Light-based aura and adds Light-effects to their attacks, Unstable Fel causes burning Fel footprints and Fel attack effects, and Unstable Arcane triggers random surges of Arcane power, etc. etc.

This unstable cocktail of energies has also caused them to regress a bit towards a Withered/Wretched state - they are now more gaunt and thin, almost a bit skeletal in appearance.

[Traycor]

I saw a description somewhere, Scrolls of Lore I think, that had the High Elven exiles opt to try to spark their own version of the Sunwell separate from the one in Silvermoon - creating their own font of power so they weren't reliant on one they had no control over. The "heart" of this new font of power was a portion of Xe'ra that Vereesa took from the Vindicaar on the occasion of her destruction by Illidan, and was ignited through the use of the Focusing Iris borrowed from Dalaran at Jaina's behest. Unfortunately the piece of Xe'ra that Vereesa took had some Fel contamination in it due to Illidan's overwhelming firepower, creating an unstable matrix of Arcane, Light, and Fel energies at the heart of this new power source. The energies involved caused the following changes to all High Elves who survived being connected to the new power source:

- Burning or "flaming" eyes radiating unstable power of one the three types: Arcane (blue/purple), Fel (green), or Light (golden). Perhaps class-dependent.
- Runic marks or tattooing of their bodies of the matching type.
- "Unstable Energy" as a racial active, an alternating ability that manifests any of the three forms of power and temporarily changes and exaggerates their appearances. Unstable Light gives the a Light-based aura and adds Light-effects to their attacks, Unstable Fel causes burning Fel footprints and Fel attack effects, and Unstable Arcane triggers random surges of Arcane power, etc. etc.

This unstable cocktail of energies has also caused them to regress a bit towards a Withered/Wretched state - they are now more gaunt and thin, almost a bit skeletal in appearance.

Hmm... that is an interesting concept. Unfortunately, it's the Blood Elf concept (originally High Elves, but then tainted by a fel/arcane energy source that cursed them. They also imprison a Narru and suck out the light to become light infused/now have a restored Sunwell).

The basic concept of the High Elves is that they are free from all that. The suggestions above, while interesting, would just be a Blood Elf copy/paste.

If you wanted Wretched as an Allied Race, that's fine with me. They could work off the Undead player model.

[Aucald]

Hmm... that is an interesting concept. Unfortunately, it's the Blood Elf concept (originally High Elves, but then tainted by a fel/arcane energy source that cursed them. They also imprison a Narru and suck out the light to become light infused/now have a restored Sunwell).

The basic concept of the High Elves is that they are free from all that. The suggestions above, while interesting, would just be a Blood Elf copy/paste.

If you wanted Wretched as an Allied Race, that's fine with me. They could work off the Undead player model.

I can read it as a combo of the High Elves, Blood elves, and Nightborne (with the added dash of semi-permanent Withering). Don't think it really replicates the Blood Elves in any real sense accept perhaps in the broadest sense. It also gives them a physically differentiated form and subtracts the sense of a being another Alliance "pretty" race given their wasted, haggard apperances. They would definitely stand apart from the other Elven extractions based on silhouette, appearance, and overall presentation.

[Traycor]

It also gives them a physically differentiated form and subtracts the sense of a being another Alliance "pretty" race given their wasted, haggard apperances. They would definitely stand apart from the other Elven extractions based on silhouette, appearance, and overall presentation.

True, but it wouldn't be a High Elf at all, kinda defeating the point. It's basically a wretched with some new powers thrown in. Personally I think wretched, broken, and undead high elves should all be playable options, especially the later two.

[Ielenia]

Well, any new idea on how High elves could get more aesthetically differentiated from Blood elves?

This is some of them I pointed out earlier that are also lore friendly:



Any new idea?

I have one.

I believe that fel magic radiation from all those fel crystals in Silvermoon affected the blood elf's constitution, leaving them slightly weaker than they used to when the Sunwell was operational. The reasoning for this was the fact that blood elves could not be warriors when TBC came along. Only in Cata we were finally allowed to make blood elf warriors. What's the relevance? Onto the high elves:

The high elves opted to not partake of Kael'Thas' teachings of draining mana from living beings. They also were not around those fel crystals as they were banished from Silvermoon before, or shortly after they were added to the city, so they wouldn't be affected by them. On top of that, they had to find ways to cope with the pangs of magical withdrawal, which we know can cause physical harm, so one option could be that they trained themselves, physically, to resist the physical effects of their addiction.

And now we have lore reason to give high elves a slightly different build and posture.

[Ogren]

Controversial opinion I may have here, but I have zero issue with Alliance getting another pretty race and don't really see a need for High Elves to be scary wretched type creatures to be playable. I think having the monopoly on pretty races is what the Alliance is best known for, and I sort of like the exclusivity of Worgen being that race more iconic for being the most outwardly monstrous Alliance race.

That's not to say that we shouldn't get Broken, Ankoan, or Furbolg someday though, I definitely want those to happen someday, but I see nothing wrong with more pretty races on Alliance either because that's just simply been the faction's reputation since the start of the game.

[FlubberPuddy]

Controversial opinion I may have here, but I have zero issue with Alliance getting another pretty race and don't really see a need for High Elves to be scary wretched type creatures to be playable. I think having the monopoly on pretty races is what the Alliance is best known for, and I sort of like the exclusivity of Worgen being that race more iconic for being the most outwardly monstrous Alliance race.

That's not to say that we shouldn't get Broken, Ankoan, or Furbolg someday though, I definitely want those to happen someday, but I see nothing wrong with more pretty races on Alliance either because that's just simply been the faction's reputation since the start of the game.

Yeah, I would say that's the appeal and theme of Alliance: generic fantasy fare. I feel like most people pick playing Alliance because they want those archetypical fantasy tropes.

Horde typically appears to attract those that are looking for contrast to that, which is why it's such an amalgamation of disparate races banded together. Past the Orcs, Tauren, and Trolls - the Undead stick out like a sore thumb.

Contrast that with the initial Alliance races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes.

Then this continued in TBC: Draenei (aka Tieflings) to Alliance and then Sin'dorei to Horde (aka Elves).

Cata brought on Worgen (Werewolves) to Alliance and Goblins (Goblins lol) to Horde.

The issue imo is when people who are attracted to Horde's themes try to want to apply it to the Alliance. "Oh my god you guys want generic fantasy elves? That's so boring" Yes, of course. That's what Alliance's themes are "generic fantasy". We're starting to get a little more "alternative" with the LF Draenei and Void Elves, but overall the Alliance continues its "generic fantasy" themes with Dark Irons (Duregar) and Kul Tirans (Pirate-y Humans).

[Kyphael]

This thread needs to die.

We need to face the music, we won't be getting High Elves, the best we can hope for are High Elf-like customization on the Void Elf which Blizzard has alluded to being open to doing in the future. I'd settle for that. Debating this further is just going to boost Obelisk Kai's post count past 10,000, which I'm surprised he's not at yet considering every time this gets bumped, it's him debating walls of texts with the High Elf advocate of the week. lol

[Ogren]

Yeah, I would say that's the appeal and theme of Alliance: generic fantasy fare. I feel like most people pick playing Alliance because they want those archetypical fantasy tropes.

Horde typically appears to attract those that are looking for contrast to that, which is why it's such an amalgamation of disparate races banded together. Past the Orcs, Tauren, and Trolls - the Undead stick out like a sore thumb.

Contrast that with the initial Alliance races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes.

Then this continued in TBC: Draenei (aka Tieflings) to Alliance and then Sin'dorei to Horde (aka Elves).

Cata brought on Worgen (Werewolves) to Alliance and Goblins (Goblins lol) to Horde.

The issue imo is when people who are attracted to Horde's themes try to want to apply it to the Alliance. "Oh my god you guys want generic fantasy elves? That's so boring" Yes, of course. That's what Alliance's themes are "generic fantasy". We're starting to get a little more "alternative" with the LF Draenei and Void Elves, but overall the Alliance continues its "generic fantasy" themes with Dark Irons (Duregar) and Kul Tirans (Pirate-y Humans).

Yeah I think this is why I don't think the "High Elves on the Alliance would just make them LOTR cliche" argument holds water, because the Alliance is ALREADY like that, whether High Elves are part of it or not. Being the LOTR fantasy faction is just core to the Alliance and that isn't going to change regardless.

And personally, I don't see anything really wrong with that. Some people just really like that, so I don't see the harm in continuing on with it. There's nothing wrong with getting races that contradict that theme either, but it's not really a unique thing to do anymore after we've gotten Worgen and Draenei, definitely.

[scubi666stacy]

Yeah I think this is why I don't think the "High Elves on the Alliance would just make them LOTR cliche" argument holds water, because the Alliance is ALREADY like that, whether High Elves are part of it or not. Being the LOTR fantasy faction is just core to the Alliance and that isn't going to change regardless.

And personally, I don't see anything really wrong with that. Some people just really like that, so I don't see the harm in continuing on with it. There's nothing wrong with getting races that contradict that theme either, but it's not really a unique thing to do anymore after we've gotten Worgen and Draenei, definitely.

You definitively cannot compare Gnomes with Hobbits. Tolkien with his aversion towards technology and industry would surely not have tolerated something like Gnomes in his union of the "good people". There are some things which break the LOTR clichee at the moment. But as soon as you get stereotypical High Elves on the Alliance, you open a can of worms I would rather keep closed.

[Mace]

Controversial opinion I may have here, but I have zero issue with Alliance getting another pretty race and don't really see a need for High Elves to be scary wretched type creatures to be playable. I think having the monopoly on pretty races is what the Alliance is best known for, and I sort of like the exclusivity of Worgen being that race more iconic for being the most outwardly monstrous Alliance race.

That's not to say that we shouldn't get Broken, Ankoan, or Furbolg someday though, I definitely want those to happen someday, but I see nothing wrong with more pretty races on Alliance either because that's just simply been the faction's reputation since the start of the game.

It's got al ot more to do with what their players want. Many people like pretty, and many people play the alliance for that conventional pretty/noble race against evil and monsterish things even if some of those "monsters" aren't quite the evil they seem.

Some bitter horde fan bois who hate the alliance and feel the only way they can be happy is if blizzard actually give the other faction trash, might feel the need for high elves to be werteched like creatures as an acceptable compromise. But the people who want them the most, not to mention the vast majority of the alliance population would hate it or not like it at all.

Blizzard should have their races either pretty or cool and if it can be managed, both. The alliance can have monsterish race, but needs to be done in the right way, like worgen were. Blood elves on the horde was tough, and they were isolated on the horde till the nightborne were made a horde race... a move which ofc angered night elf fans as it appeared to deprive them of the visible portions of their race's arcane majesty and lore - a part of the night elves only read about in books, never seen even when the highborne were reformed. So much needed, but instead were given tot he horde, upset a lot of people.

Truth be told, both races needed the nightborne but for different reasons, what is puzzling is why both weren't given the nightborne? THe night elves could have gotten nightborne who the arcan'dor restored from a nightfallen state to their kaldorei form instead, while the blood elves typically got a lot who didn't experience that more partial ot them. Suramar could have been the night elf new capital, but instead shared.. opening up Silvermoon to later be shared as a solution. This way nightborne who are restored to night elves (siding with the alliance) and nightborne who didn't (having a fair few side with the horde) would have been available.

THe blood elves needed a race that was friendly with them and like htem, the night elves needed to have some richness of their own lore visible, diversifying thema bit while at the same time giving them some nice progress and coming together after so much loss and separation...fitting that the agent that tore them asunder (the Legion) is the same that would open the door for their healing and restoration (by their ultimate demise). Blood elves didn't need the arcane magic or the city aspect from the nightborne, the friendship and likeness is what they needed, a connection to their kaldorei past and a friend sympathetic to them and like them in a foreign horde. Whiles night elves needed some majesty and some bright hope for tomorrow after ruins and ruins and tons of tragedy.


But I wrote a topic recently on this here.:
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...4#post51449734

What I just don't get is how the developers could fail to see this incredible opportunity, and if they do see it now, how can they not fix it to this so they can progress that side of the story..? A good half of their playerbase plays elves, the nightborne situation available on both factions can be used to please all these fans rather than only one half of them.

ANd this is where blizzard disappoints, after such detail in legion , that made you feel they cared, how could they miss such an opportunity.? How can they still not see it even now?

[Obelisk Kai]

A reminder that I should read the whole response before replying. But I agree - these responses take quite awhile to parse and write out. I think we've both pled our cases, as well; and so from here I'll leave it for the other participants to make their own determinations as to agreement or disagreement.

It is simply not feasible to respond to every point made here in the depth it would deserve, so I hope you will forgive me if I do not do that. I disagree with a considerable amount of what you have written, and I believe the points you responded to stand almost as well as retorts to your counter-points. There is little need to rephrase my replies in another gigantic wall of text.

If I had to boil down my objections to your stance, it would be an apparent belief in the power of stories alone without taking account of the gameplay issues at stake. I understand that you are arguing from a primarily lore based perspective, but I don't think the lore of why Alliance High Elves are almost certainly not happening can be divorced from the gameplay rationale as to why they didn't happen (although, as we discussed earlier, we have disagreements over our respective interpretations of that lore even if we leave gameplay entirely aside).

For example

"I think I already answered this before, but to reiterate I think it is likely the Void Elves were made to facilitate a specific narrative - that of the "Light vs. Void" story-arc that is likely to assume a paramount place in WoW's overarching story... The High Elven exiles aren't exactly relevant to the current story being told..."

Yet while part of that may be true, it isn't the entire rationale.

We know from Ion Hazzikostas in 2014 that Alliance High Elves were on the table.

We also know from Ion Hazzikostas in 2017 and 2018 why they were rejected, because they are identical to Blood Elves who are the de facto playable High Elves of the franchise.

Now, there is probably a great measure of truth in that Void Elves were created partly as a result of the overarching light-void theme that is beginning to shape the franchise's lore, but the critical distinction is this.

If a Voided out race was needed to provide a story platform for the future it could have been Void Humans. Or Void Dwarves. Or Void Gnomes. But they specifically selected thalassian elves and voided some of them out. In other words, Void Elves weren't created because everyone forgot about Alliance High Elves. They specifically considered Alliance High Elves, rejected them on the grounds they were essentially already playable and then deliberately created a clear variant based on a theme that they knew was going to come to the forefront in the years to come. If they wanted a voided out race, it was killing two birds with one stone. And if the void wasn't as prominent now and some other aspect of the franchise's cosomology was instead at the forefront, say arcane magic, then they would have likely used IT as the basis for a variation on thalassian elves.

Whatever kind of thalassian elf the Alliance got, it was always going to be a clear variant on a Blood Elf because the gameplay need of maintaining two distinct factions means keeping the membership of both those factions as unique as possible. That it was Void Elf and not an Arcane Elf or a Tree Elf is a product of happenstance, just so long as the result was not a Blood/Alliance High Elf clone. An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf to the requisite degree to protect the integrity of the factions or the identity of the Blood Elves. That Void Elves exist is a testament to this. This is almost certainly why their introduction was a little forced, it is a contrivance designed to primarily facilitate a gameplay goal (distinct thalassian elves) at the expense of a story based one.

[Aucald]

It is simply not feasible to respond to every point made here in the depth it would deserve, so I hope you will forgive me if I do not do that. I disagree with a considerable amount of what you have written, and I believe the points you responded to stand almost as well as retorts to your counter-points. There is little need to rephrase my replies in another gigantic wall of text.

If I had to boil down my objections to your stance, it would be an apparent belief in the power of stories alone without taking account of the gameplay issues at stake. I understand that you are arguing from a primarily lore based perspective, but I don't think the lore of why Alliance High Elves are almost certainly not happening can be divorced from the gameplay rationale as to why they didn't happen.

For example

"I think I already answered this before, but to reiterate I think it is likely the Void Elves were made to facilitate a specific narrative - that of the "Light vs. Void" story-arc that is likely to assume a paramount place in WoW's overarching story... The High Elven exiles aren't exactly relevant to the current story being told..."

Yet while part of that may be true, it isn't the entire rationale.

We know from Ion Hazzikostas in 2014 that Alliance High Elves were on the table.

We also know from Ion Hazzikostas in 2017 and 2018 why they were rejected, because they are identical to Blood Elves who are the de facto playable High Elves of the franchise.

Now, there is probably a great measure of truth in that Void Elves were created partly as a result of the overarching light-void theme that is beginning to shape the franchise's lore, but the critical distinction is this.

If a Voided out race was needed to provide a story platform for the future it could have been Void Humans. Or Void Dwarves. Or Void Gnomes. But they specifically selected thalassian elves and voided some of them out. In other words, Void Elves weren't created because everyone forgot about Alliance High Elves. They specifically considered Alliance High Elves, rejected them on the grounds they were essentially already playable and then deliberately created a clear variant based on a theme that they knew was going to come to the forefront in the years to come. If they wanted a voided out race, it was killing two birds with one stone. And if the void wasn't as prominent now and some other aspect of the franchise's cosomology was instead at the forefront, say arcane magic, then they would have likely used IT as the basis for a variation on thalassian elves.

Whatever kind of thalassian elf the Alliance got, it was always going to be a clear variant on a Blood Elf because the gameplay need of maintaining two distinct factions means keeping the membership of both those factions as unique as possible. That it was Void Elf and not an Arcane Elf or a Tree Elf is a product of happenstance, just so long as the result was not a Blood/Alliance High Elf clone. An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf to the requisite degree to protect the integrity of the factions or the identity of the Blood Elves. That Void Elves exist is a testament to this. This is almost certainly why their introduction was a little forced, it is a contrivance designed to primarily facilitate a gameplay goal (distinct thalassian elves) at the expense of a story based one.

That Void Elves are admittedly so close to Blood Elves, as everyone acknowledges, shows just how mild the variation required was to reach a compromise.
That Void Elves are still unacceptable to a hardcore of the pro High Elf community shows that further compromise isn't feasible, as it will never be enough so long as it isn't an Alliance High Elf.

I've already said the gameplay issue is probably the only remaining salient rationale not to include them, which I cast as more a mistake in their reasoning than a straight-up refusal to do so out of some notion of protectionism for the integrity of the Blood Elves or some such. I think the Void Elves (and not some other Void-tinctured race) came about due to the storyboards created for Legion and specifically the return of Alleria and her association with the Void - Alleria being one of the nominal heads of the Void Elves (and a High Elf herself) and more or less the reason for their current existence. The creation of the Void Elves themselves is enough of an "attack" on Blood Elven distinctness on the face of it, but also adding the High Elven exiles in the short term would just represent a glut of Elven choices and it would diminish the impact of both the Nightborne and the Void Elves (pointedly not the Blood Elves, who've long been a legacy playable option by this point).

I am more inclined to see Hazzikostas' position as an attempt to mollify and explain why the High Elven exiles weren't chosen, despite their knowledge that a good many people wanted that option (and have done so since TBC itself). They wanted the new Allied Races to get more focus and have more impact on the current stories being told - and with the Void Elves being a necessity to the story itself, they were obviously going to get a paramount place over other possibilities. The High Elves were passed over due to being less relevant even if they were the more desired variant, not because the Blood Elves had to be protected.

We been over the differentiation argument many times now, and we've seen multiple models whereby the High Elven exiles could be differentiated well enough along the same line as the Void Elves themselves or the Kul Tiran Humans were differentiated - I'm unsure why you cleave so deeply to this idea of "An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf" in light of *all* the hypothetical models put forth that are in keeping with the established lore or easily established within it. I mean the Void Elves themselves were quite obviously "forced" in terms of their story, so a precedent already exists for that. The Kul Tiran Humans offer up another path in the form of a soft-retcon to an existing variant that was never in evidence beforehand. I can understand if you personally don't want this, and that is of course a valid opinion to have, but I think it is wrongheaded to try to cast it as an objective fact of reality as you've done here.

I don't think that community is a monolith, as it were; and from what I've read here people have many different standards. I don't think casting this as an "us vs. them" conflict is at all helpful to cultivating a meaningful discussion, or even reaching a mutually-compatible conclusion (if that is even possible). Sure, there are some people who would only accept High Elves as they are right now and any change is viewed as unwanted, but quite obviously I am not in that camp. I've made allowances for them being changed, altered, embellished, and even argued that they could change factions depending on story elements - and even agreed that in their current form they need more differentiation if they were to become playable. I simply disagree with the reasoning that it is manifestly impossible because *any* hypothetical model is an assault on some Blood Elven hegemony as concerns playable High Elven variants. I find it a flawed argument, no matter who is making it.

[Ogren]

You definitively cannot compare Gnomes with Hobbits. Tolkien with his aversion towards technology and industry would surely not have tolerated something like Gnomes in his union of the "good people". There are some things which break the LOTR clichee at the moment. But as soon as you get stereotypical High Elves on the Alliance, you open a can of worms I would rather keep closed.

Sure but Gnomes technology and stuff isn't portrayed in a way that's negative or harmful, they are about the positive progress of science with a cute cartoony style which doesn't really clash that hard with the Alliance's LotR motif. And honestly, even regardless of all this you'll still see people say the Alliance are very LotR or Tolkien-like despite all these races it has that you could argue clash with that because their presence isn't as strongly felt as the standard fantasy heroism that is core to the Alliance. It's pretty common I've heard people say they roll Horde because they want to move away from Tolkien cliche stuff even. It's just not something the Alliance will ever truly move away from because it's always been part of the Alliance since it was first formed.

But it's not bad or what I'd call a can of worms, it just is something that's all a matter of preference, like how some people might prefer idealistic characters over more grey anti-hero types.

It's got al ot more to do with what their players want. Many people like pretty, and many people play the alliance for that conventional pretty/noble race against evil and monsterish things even if some of those "monsters" aren't quite the evil they seem.

Yeah, also it's about fanbase natural inclination to want races who share common values with the races and factions they are a fan of. Just like the Nightborne, as you mention, they are so well-received because they share common values with at least the Blood Elves and I hazard a guess they would even match Void Elves in popularity had their models been handled much better.

Granted they would have been perfectly plausible sharing values with the Highborne and Mage aspect of the Alliance, but there are Alliance players that certainly wanted them for that reason too.

I think part of that is what I feel holds Void Elves back a bit in terms of reception. The idea of an Alliance race that partakes in dark energy is a cool and unique one, but requires a lot more storytelling to justify and warrants more gravitas than what little is given in the Void Elf introduction. Nearly every single Alliance race believes in a faith that is diametrically and zealously opposed to the Void. Even though Umbric says they believe in the Alliance's core ideals it's just hard to really take that as anything other than damage control writing by the devs to make them feel like they fit the Alliance more and just clashes with their Blood Elf backstory (why didn't they come to the Alliance earlier like the High Elves did?)

[scubi666stacy]

Sure but Gnomes technology and stuff isn't portrayed in a way that's negative or harmful, they are about the positive progress of science with a cute cartoony style which doesn't really clash that hard with the Alliance's LotR motif. And honestly, even regardless of all this you'll still see people say the Alliance are very LotR or Tolkien-like despite all these races it has that you could argue clash with that because their presence isn't as strongly felt as the standard fantasy heroism that is core to the Alliance. It's pretty common I've heard people say they roll Horde because they want to move away from Tolkien cliche stuff even. It's just not something the Alliance will ever truly move away from because it's always been part of the Alliance since it was first formed.

But it's not bad or what I'd call a can of worms, it just is something that's all a matter of preference, like how some people might prefer idealistic characters over more grey anti-hero types.



Yeah, also it's about fanbase natural inclination to want races who share common values with the races and factions they are a fan of. Just like the Nightborne, as you mention, they are so well-received because they share common values with at least the Blood Elves and I hazard a guess they would even match Void Elves in popularity had their models been handled much better.

Granted they would have been perfectly plausible sharing values with the Highborne and Mage aspect of the Alliance, but there are Alliance players that certainly wanted them for that reason too.

I think part of that is what I feel holds Void Elves back a bit in terms of reception. The idea of an Alliance race that partakes in dark energy is a cool and unique one, but requires a lot more storytelling to justify and warrants more gravitas than what little is given in the Void Elf introduction. Nearly every single Alliance race believes in a faith that is diametrically and zealously opposed to the Void. Even though Umbric says they believe in the Alliance's core ideals it's just hard to really take that as anything other than damage control writing by the devs to make them feel like they fit the Alliance more and just clashes with their Blood Elf backstory (why didn't they come to the Alliance earlier like the High Elves did?)

Erm... Gnomeregan? These guys have basically done to their own home city what Sylvanas did to UC when retreating from the Alliance, for whatever reasons. Gnomes are even more nutty than Goblins. At least, Goblins are doing all for profit. Gnomes just... do things without thinking, it seems.

I am very adamant in the stance that we have a storytelling line for the Thalassian Elves, which starts in their foundations by the exiles from Kalimdor, is then continued by Silvermoon / High Elves until the devastating Scourge attack, and then the re-branding of the people as Blood Elves afterwards. And now, we have another offshot in the form of Void Elves, who continue the story with a twist.

I would not mind if Blizzard would add "High Elf" customization to Void Elves, like facial tattoos known from the RTS games, or similar shenanigans. It would fit the narrative, that Void Elves not only got their numbers from Blood Elf exiles, but also have transformed willing High Elves. But for the rest, I would rather keep High Elfs as NPCs only. This is the role they have to play in the story now, from a larger perspective. If Elves would not have such large lifespans, we would not even have this discussion anymore, because they all would have died out by now, and we would only have Blood Elves and Void Elves.

Edit: I also don't see anything special High Elves could bring to the Alliance now.
Nature / Ranger: You got them in Night Elves
Arcanist / Mage: Either Night Elf Highbornes or Void Elves
Religious / Spirtual: Either Void Elf priests or Night Elf Priests / Druids

And for people requesting High Elf paladins - they deserve a special circle in Hell, to speak metaphorically. These probably have been exactly the people who have been wailing about Blood Elf paladins when BC has been released.

[Obelisk Kai]

I've already said the gameplay issue is probably the only remaining salient rationale not to include them, which I cast as more a mistake in their reasoning than a straight-up refusal to do so out of some notion of protectionism for the integrity of the Blood Elves or some such.

Yet saying 'the gameplay issue is the only remaining salient rationale' diminishes just how gigantic a feature it actually is, making it seem like one equal point among many. I would argue that the lore debates people get bogged down within this debate are pretty much flotsam caught in the tidal maelstrom that is gameplay.
This is a question that goes beyond Alliance High Elves.It is the less the elephant in the room than the whale in the house on this debate.

Should we have two distinct factions or should we not?

What makes a faction unique? Two things make a faction unique. Their stories, both as individuals and as a collective is one, the other is the cultural, aesthetic and thematic distinctiveness they bring to the table. Both are woven together into a tapestry, a single whole, and we term one tapestry the Alliance and the other the Horde.

Blood Elves are High Elves. There is no true distinction between the Blood Elf civilization as it is today and the High Elf civilization prior to Warcraft 3. The only thing that ultimately changed was a single adjective in the name. In gameplay terms, the High Elf experience is therefore available for anyone who wishes to be a High Elf. And that experience is interwoven with the rest of the Horde faction, their uniqueness melded with the uniqueness of the other Horde races to create a distinct whole.

Duplicating a part of that to the Alliance diminishes that uniqueness and erases distinction. The two factions become less different, and as Pandaren proved and Blizzard acknowledged, that loss of distinctiveness wasn't worth it. Pandaren are not a precedent to be repeated, but a cautionary tale against a repeating a mistake.

I think the Void Elves (and not some other Void-tinctured race) came about due to the storyboards created for Legion and specifically the return of Alleria and her association with the Void - Alleria being one of the nominal heads of the Void Elves (and a High Elf herself) and more or less the reason for their current existence. The creation of the Void Elves themselves is enough of an "attack" on Blood Elven distinctness on the face of it, but also adding the High Elven exiles in the short term would just represent a glut of Elven choices and it would diminish the impact of both the Nightborne and the Void Elves (pointedly not the Blood Elves, who've long been a legacy playable option by this point).

I have been explicit that I would have preferred Void Elves NOT to be a thing given their use of a model that I believe should have been Horde exclusive. For the same reasons, I opposed Nightborne going Horde. However, presuming that Void Elves are an equal attack on the distinctivness of Blood Elves as Alliance High Elves would be presumes that Void Elves and Alliance High Elves are equivalent threats. They are not. Void Elves are genuinely different. No matter how much people may debate how substantial the differences between Void Elves and Blood Elves are, they do exist. Alliance High Elves are identical, thalassian elves addicted to arcane magic and bound to the sunwell as much as any Blood Elf is. They look the exact same as Blood Elves, they have the same culture as Blood Elves, the only thing that differentiates them from Blood Elves is their alignment to the Alliance and their alignment to the Alliance is the basis for their existence and indeed their narrative, such as it is.

I just cannot give credence to the idea that Alliance High Elves weren't added because they had no role in the current story or that their addition would contribute to a glut of Elf choices. Whilst contributing to a glut of Elven choices is a negative that won't be diminished with the passage of time (as High Elves already being playable is a negative that won't be diminished with the passage of time), that isn't why they weren't added. We were told why they weren't added. They are identical to Blood Elves and to add them undermines the racial distinctiveness of the Blood Elves and the integrity of the Horde.
When they came up with Void Elves, they or something like them was always going to be the result, something that was 'another flavour of high elf' or 'a bit like a Blood Elf'. Hence the creation of Void Elves didn't come about because they wanted to created a void themed race. They wanted to create a high elf variant and the void theme was starting to rise to prominence. And that required the conscious choice to reject the Alliance High Elves as an option.

I am more inclined to see Hazzikostas' position as an attempt to mollify and explain why the High Elven exiles weren't chosen, despite their knowledge that a good many people wanted that option (and have done so since TBC itself). They wanted the new Allied Races to get more focus and have more impact on the current stories being told - and with the Void Elves being a necessity to the story itself, they were obviously going to get a paramount place over other possibilities. The High Elves were passed over due to being less relevant even if they were the more desired variant, not because the Blood Elves had to be protected.

The initial reaction to Ion Hazzikostas' comments in 2018 were extremely negative from the pro High Elf community. If he was attempting to mollify them, his response would have been significantly less snarky. I would argue in fact that if he were attempting to mollify them he wouldn't have said something like

If you want to be a fair skinned, light haired, blue eyed elf...sorry, the horde is there waiting for you"

Which he then followed up with by cracking a joke with Lore about the hate mail he was going to receive, which they both found pretty funny. So no, I don't think he was attempting to mollify them. If he was, he failed entirely. I on the other hand appreciate his blunt truthfulness on this matter which is what I really think he was trying to convey. After all, going out of your way to create a variant of the race the pro High Elf community was asking for, rather than just giving them what they wanted might have been considered a hint and if people don't take the hint perhaps being a bit more forthright will help. Again, Alliance High Elves were not passed over because they weren't relevant to the story. Alliance High Elves were passed over because they are identical to Blood Elves, an already available option.

We been over the differentiation argument many times now, and we've seen multiple models whereby the High Elven exiles could be differentiated well enough along the same line as the Void Elves themselves or the Kul Tiran Humans were differentiated - I'm unsure why you cleave so deeply to this idea of "An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf" in light of *all* the hypothetical models put forth that are in keeping with the established lore or easily established within it. I mean the Void Elves themselves were quite obviously "forced" in terms of their story, so a precedent already exists for that. The Kul Tiran Humans offer up another path in the form of a soft-retcon to an existing variant that was never in evidence beforehand. I can understand if you personally don't want this, and that is of course a valid opinion to have, but I think it is wrongheaded to try to cast it as an objective fact of reality as you've done here.

I cleave to the idea of '"An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf' because, well, an Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf. None of the hypothetical models put forward meets the bare minumum requirement that Blizzard has included with every single allied race so far, a non-replicable means of physical differentiation. Void Elves maybe forced, but the result was a blue/purple elf with a strong void theme. If you were attempt to argue that all the Void Elves needed to be an Allied race was their unique hairstyles, beards and being pro Alliance then I would have regarded that idea as a breach of the faction wall because it is wildly insufficient. It is their transformation that differentiated them, a one way process that completely re-defined them.

In contrast Alliance High Elves are irked because they were hard done by by Silvermoon fifteen years ago. And as stated a few days ago, if that is the qualification for an Allied race, then the Defias Brotherhood are equally well placed to be an Allied race. The problem is that a different story isn't a qualification for an Allied race. Being a new. genuinely different option, that is the qualification. And forgive me, but Alliance High Elves are as much a different race from Blood Elves as Tushui Pandaren are from Huojin Pandaren.

I don't think that community is a monolith, as it were; and from what I've read here people have many different standards. I don't think casting this as an "us vs. them" conflict is at all helpful to cultivating a meaningful discussion, or even reaching a mutually-compatible conclusion (if that is even possible). Sure, there are some people who would only accept High Elves as they are right now and any change is viewed as unwanted, but quite obviously I am not in that camp. I've made allowances for them being changed, altered, embellished, and even argued that they could change factions depending on story elements - and even agreed that in their current form they need more differentiation if they were to become playable. I simply disagree with the reasoning that it is manifestly impossible because *any* hypothetical model is an assault on some Blood Elven hegemony as concerns playable High Elven variants. I find it a flawed argument, no matter who is making it.

Except 'them being changed, altered, embellished, and even argued that they could change factions depending on story elements' has already happened. Void Elves are High Elves who have been 'changed, altered, embellished' and who have changed factions. They are the culmination of years of debate, a variant on Blood Elves that does not infringe on Blood Elves being the traditional High Elf option. I believe it to be manifestly unfair to portray the anti High Elf side as unreasonable because we are resistant to giving the pro High Elf side further concessions when they already got a massive concession in having a thalassian elf race of their own. What if the next 'compromise' isn't to their tastes either? Are we to repeat the process until every possible degree of difference between the Void Elves and Blood Elves is whittled away?

[Aldo Hawk]

I don't think High elves need much of a change, just the most basic that a small development on their current ones could give to them.

But yeah, I'm also not against a level of differentiation that doesn't end up making them not what they are.

Basically, It's just about wanting the lore of the High elves on the Alliance available to players, and that is a High elf that abandoned Quel'thalas or that got exiled from there, is Alliance, follow the same worship of the light as Humans and Dwarves, show a difference in lifestyle and choices with magic in contrast of the Blood elves, etc...

One way to see it is some kind of a Thalassian elf that adopted a mix of their pre-scourge culture and modern Alliance one.

- - - Updated - - -

And for people requesting High Elf paladins - they deserve a special circle in Hell, to speak metaphorically. These probably have been exactly the people who have been wailing about Blood Elf paladins when BC has been released.

I bet my balls that it's not for the same reasons.

[Ogren]

Erm... Gnomeregan? These guys have basically done to their own home city what Sylvanas did to UC when retreating from the Alliance, for whatever reasons. Gnomes are even more nutty than Goblins. At least, Goblins are doing all for profit. Gnomes just... do things without thinking, it seems.

Gnomes had one incident yeah, but they're still portrayed as much cleaner and more wholesome than the Goblins, whose landscapes tend to look like polluted slums and are a caricature of American decadence. (Gallywix is literally a corrupt businessman stereotype.)

I would not mind if Blizzard would add "High Elf" customization to Void Elves, like facial tattoos known from the RTS games, or similar shenanigans. It would fit the narrative, that Void Elves not only got their numbers from Blood Elf exiles, but also have transformed willing High Elves. But for the rest, I would rather keep High Elfs as NPCs only. This is the role they have to play in the story now, from a larger perspective. If Elves would not have such large lifespans, we would not even have this discussion anymore, because they all would have died out by now, and we would only have Blood Elves and Void Elves.

I wouldn't either and think that is more likely, this we agree, though this all could have been avoided if they had just done that to begin with and make the Void Elf backstory more related to High Elves. Afrasiabi being so open about it tells me they are having second thoughts about their stance on High Elves blurring faction lines if they're so open about Void Elves being allowed to look more like them.

Edit: I also don't see anything special High Elves could bring to the Alliance now.
Nature / Ranger: You got them in Night Elves
Arcanist / Mage: Either Night Elf Highbornes or Void Elves
Religious / Spirtual: Either Void Elf priests or Night Elf Priests / Druids

I would say that adding something unique and different isn't an absolute necessity of the allied race system. Look at Lightforged and Highmountain, what do they add? There is not much about them that I would say is much different from the Draenei and Tauren we already have other than different aesthetics. Same could be said of Nightborne really, they are not that much different from Blood Elves aside from new aesthetics.

The case would really be the same with High Elves, they would present Alliance an option to play an elf that was not purple or blue as default aesthetic choice. More warm-toned in their color hues. I think Void Elves themselves do present unique aesthetic but I also sympathize with the notion that it would have perhaps been better if they had been more like Alleria.

Allied races don't seem to be intended to add unique things but to just add more flavor, like an appetizer or seasoning on a steak. Core races are the steak, they should be the ones that call for uniqueness as justification for playability.

And for people requesting High Elf paladins - they deserve a special circle in Hell, to speak metaphorically.

A tad extreme...

[Aucald]

Yet saying 'the gameplay issue is the only remaining salient rationale' diminishes just how gigantic a feature it actually is, making it seem like one equal point among many. I would argue that the lore debates people get bogged down within this debate are pretty much flotsam caught in the tidal maelstrom that is gameplay.
This is a question that goes beyond Alliance High Elves.It is the less the elephant in the room than the whale in the house on this debate.

Should we have two distinct factions or should we not?

What makes a faction unique? Two things make a faction unique. Their stories, both as individuals and as a collective is one, the other is the cultural, aesthetic and thematic distinctiveness they bring to the table. Both are woven together into a tapestry, a single whole, and we term one tapestry the Alliance and the other the Horde.

Blood Elves are High Elves. There is no true distinction between the Blood Elf civilization as it is today and the High Elf civilization prior to Warcraft 3. The only thing that ultimately changed was a single adjective in the name. In gameplay terms, the High Elf experience is therefore available for anyone who wishes to be a High Elf. And that experience is interwoven with the rest of the Horde faction, their uniqueness melded with the uniqueness of the other Horde races to create a distinct whole.

Duplicating a part of that to the Alliance diminishes that uniqueness and erases distinction. The two factions become less different, and as Pandaren proved and Blizzard acknowledged, that loss of distinctiveness wasn't worth it. Pandaren are not a precedent to be repeated, but a cautionary tale against a repeating a mistake.

Considering I do not quite put the same emphasis as you do as concerns the protection of the Blood Elves' identity, it would scan that I also don't think the gameplay issue is as pressing or overwhelming as you do. The Blood Elves aren't special enough to be afforded such abstruse protection - especially in light of the all the other precedents made as concerns Allied Race inclusions. This strikes me as a form of special pleading.

As previously stated, I prefer the two factions remain - each with their own respective sets of disparate cultures. Preferably, I'd also like to see more variation in each of the factions as opposed to the current predominance of Human/Orcish aesthetics, but that is neither here nor there.

Blood Elves are High Elves, but they are not High Elves who have been exiled from their country of origin and leave as refugees in foreign lands, clinging to a heritage that has moved on without them and struggling to maintain themselves despite winnowed numbers and little support. In terms of lore the High Elven exiles are practically, fundamentally, culturally, and socially different from their now Blood Elven peers. In gameplay terms, the experience of these exiles is not available to be played in any capacity, as one can only play and thus experience the perspective of those who were not exiled from Silvermoon and do not live as refugees. Doubly so as this other faction is *not* allied with the Horde and thus does not share in that distinction either. No duplication from a lore or even gameplay-based story need exist because the experiences will be necessarily separate and distinct from one another.

The Pandaren represent a point at which minimal differentiation becomes problematic to the gameplay aspect of the equation - they represent a point to be avoided, but it is a point that *can* be avoided, and easily enough. I would agree with avoiding that particular nadir of indifference in the future as well.

I have been explicit that I would have preferred Void Elves NOT to be a thing given their use of a model that I believe should have been Horde exclusive. For the same reasons, I opposed Nightborne going Horde. However, presuming that Void Elves are an equal attack on the distinctivness of Blood Elves as Alliance High Elves would be presumes that Void Elves and Alliance High Elves are equivalent threats. They are not. Void Elves are genuinely different. No matter how much people may debate how substantial the differences between Void Elves and Blood Elves are, they do exist. Alliance High Elves are identical, thalassian elves addicted to arcane magic and bound to the sunwell as much as any Blood Elf is. They look the exact same as Blood Elves, they have the same culture as Blood Elves, the only thing that differentiates them from Blood Elves is their alignment to the Alliance and their alignment to the Alliance is the basis for their existence and indeed their narrative, such as it is.

I just cannot give credence to the idea that Alliance High Elves weren't added because they had no role in the current story or that their addition would contribute to a glut of Elf choices. Whilst contributing to a glut of Elven choices is a negative that won't be diminished with the passage of time (as High Elves already being playable is a negative that won't be diminished with the passage of time), that isn't why they weren't added. We were told why they weren't added. They are identical to Blood Elves and to add them undermines the racial distinctiveness of the Blood Elves and the integrity of the Horde.
When they came up with Void Elves, they or something like them was always going to be the result, something that was 'another flavour of high elf' or 'a bit like a Blood Elf'. Hence the creation of Void Elves didn't come about because they wanted to created a void themed race. They wanted to create a high elf variant and the void theme was starting to rise to prominence. And that required the conscious choice to reject the Alliance High Elves as an option.

The salient point here is that the Void Elves were provided a lore-based and gameplay mechanic sequence to *make* them different enough to constitute a new identity - the same process can be done with the High Elven exiles (either via a soft retcon and/or minor tweaks) while preserving their aesthetics and culture. Separate them from the Sunwell, alter their models slightly, give them a unique and perpendicular story, etc. etc. No one is saying distinctiveness is unimportant (although few people take it to such logical extremes) - distinctiveness can be preserved without reducing or lessening either of the factions' fundamental integrity.

As I said previously - the reason provided as to why they weren't added doesn't square with what already know, and even further with what has already been done as concerns Allied Races. Returning again and again to this refrain isn't very helpful when the gist is that the refrain *itself* is a mistaken notion. We all know what was done, and we all know the stated reasons as to why - the contention is because people do not fundamentally agree with those reasons and cannot square them with the current state of affairs. The very foundation of your argument is what is in question here, not its details or its extended elements. The reason people are likely getting short with this tack is because it has the appearance of being self-sealing as it is a form of presuppositionalism - an argument cannot be proven correct by continually pointing to itself as its own truth. "It is what it is and that is all it will be" is not a valid form of argumentation, not if you want to have a meaningful or constructive debate.

The initial reaction to Ion Hazzikostas' comments in 2018 were extremely negative from the pro High Elf community. If he was attempting to mollify them, his response would have been significantly less snarky. I would argue in fact that if he were attempting to mollify them he wouldn't have said something like

Which he then followed up with by cracking a joke with Lore about the hate mail he was going to receive, which they both found pretty funny. So no, I don't think he was attempting to mollify them. If he was, he failed entirely. I on the other hand appreciate his blunt truthfulness on this matter which is what I really think he was trying to convey. After all, going out of your way to create a variant of the race the pro High Elf community was asking for, rather than just giving them what they wanted might have been considered a hint and if people don't take the hint perhaps being a bit more forthright will help. Again, Alliance High Elves were not passed over because they weren't relevant to the story. Alliance High Elves were passed over because they are identical to Blood Elves, an already available option.

"Mollify" was probably the wrong choice of term. Hazzikostas' response to complaints about the Void Elves and the High Elven controversy has all the earmarks of similar PR blunders of late - "you think you do but you don't" and the now legendary "don't you guys have phones?" It's needlessly trite and doesn't address the substance of the complaints themselves, waving them away with a snarky dismissal that did exactly what I predicted it would by making the disaffected segment even angrier and thus more defiant. It's exactly the wrong tack to take if you wanted that segment to actually accept the Void Elven compromise, especially given the factional contention that was already in play due to the basic theme of the coming expansion (e.g. a "red vs. blue" faction conflict-centered extravaganza). They did indeed fail entirely, albeit in a different way then I think you took it - and their bluntness contained in it much less truth as opposed to an appalling lack of recognition. Since we've already covered and recovered the ground of ways in which they not identical, and not even really similar except in the realm of gameplay appearance, I think we can avoid covering it again here.

I cleave to the idea of '"An Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf' because, well, an Alliance High Elf can never be differentiated from a Blood Elf. None of the hypothetical models put forward meets the bare minumum requirement that Blizzard has included with every single allied race so far, a non-replicable means of physical differentiation. Void Elves maybe forced, but the result was a blue/purple elf with a strong void theme. If you were attempt to argue that all the Void Elves needed to be an Allied race was their unique hairstyles, beards and being pro Alliance then I would have regarded that idea as a breach of the faction wall because it is wildly insufficient. It is their transformation that differentiated them, a one way process that completely re-defined them.

In contrast Alliance High Elves are irked because they were hard done by by Silvermoon fifteen years ago. And as stated a few days ago, if that is the qualification for an Allied race, then the Defias Brotherhood are equally well placed to be an Allied race. The problem is that a different story isn't a qualification for an Allied race. Being a new. genuinely different option, that is the qualification. And forgive me, but Alliance High Elves are as much a different race from Blood Elves as Tushui Pandaren are from Huojin Pandaren.

Again, circular reference or reasoning does not validate itself - tautologies are not arguments. You've already established that your "bare minimum" is an impossible standard because, in your words, it will *never* be possible. In this sense your argument is auto-discrediting, you've made it somewhat pointless to even attempt to debate the matter because you've effectively stuffed your fingers in your ears and are now chanting "I'm not listening," proverbially speaking. As I've said previously, everything done with the Void Elves could have been fundamentally replicated with the High Elven exiles resulting in a discrete and differentiated group that stood as apart from the Blood Elves as the Void Elves now do *without* having to change their culture or society by introducing foreign elements like the Void. To put it succinctly: the Void Elves were not necessary to creating a High Elven variant for the Alliance - there was already an existing group that only needed the bare minimum of essential differentiation to qualify. That is the crux of the argument - and the reason why the developer's stated rationale has been so negatively received. The reasons as to why the Void Elves were made in the first place is secondary to this primary point of contention. If they could iterate an entirely new group, why not iterate on the one that is preexisting and already being clambered for?

The High Elven exiles would need far less iteration and embellishment to be suitably differentiated than the Void Elves needed to exist. Not to mention that the Void Elven story itself contains so many torqued and tortured plot elements in and of itself that it kind of goes without saying (e.g. the entire group turning entirely against Silvermoon and joining the Alliance over what was essentially a short-term political squabble).

Except 'them being changed, altered, embellished, and even argued that they could change factions depending on story elements' has already happened. Void Elves are High Elves who have been 'changed, altered, embellished' and who have changed factions. They are the culmination of years of debate, a variant on Blood Elves that does not infringe on Blood Elves being the traditional High Elf option. I believe it to be manifestly unfair to portray the anti High Elf side as unreasonable because we are resistant to giving the pro High Elf side further concessions when they already got a massive concession in having a thalassian elf race of their own. What if the next 'compromise' isn't to their tastes either? Are we to repeat the process until every possible degree of difference between the Void Elves and Blood Elves is whittled away?

The High Elven exiles already exist within the story and don't infringe on the Blood Elves being a traditional High Elven option, making the Void Elves both redundant and unnecessary to the equation. I don't think the anti-High Elf community is a monolith either, so the the unreasonable element I am underscoring here is a bit more specific than that. Portraying this as some kind of political drama is also highly odd, and equally unnecessary - no one is being conceded to here, and this isn't a game of political brinkmanship over video game rights or some such. It's a disagreement about a particular choice made by the developers in a fantasy video game - one group of people saying they got it right and issuing their reasons, and the other claiming they got it wrong and addressing their grievances. It's a matter of opinion. On that particular score the decision has more or less been made, and is highly unlikely to be unmade or changed in the short-term. If you must make it a game of brinkmanship then your victory is more or less a foregone conclusion, for what it might avail anyone. I prefer the discussion and debate, though; as well as the addressing of "what if's" and "what could have been's" - this isn't a contest in my mind, more an intellectual exercise.

And also the faint but extant hope that a developer is reading these arguments and takes away some instruction for the future, even if it doesn't concern this specific point of contention.