Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Frenchvince]

They're definitely going to increase the customization of the Allied Races at some point. Whether that happens during Shadowlands or another expansion is up in the air.

But every race/class they add into the game becomes someone's (and realistically more than 1) favorite race/class. And those customers aren't going to be satisfied with a lesser amount of options for the entirety of the game - that's a simple fact.

Especially even more so when it comes to Races (Allied or Core or otherwise), because they are the vehicles through which players identify their adventures.

It's more a question of when rather than if for Allied Races getting increased customizations within this context.

I am for the arrival of the high elves as a playable race in the alliance obviously because there are more interesting things behind (mount, armor, racial ect ...) but with the arrival of shadowlands, I think that customization options are more topical.
They will replace the allied races that were part of BFA.

There is still a lot of time before the end of BFA and apparently, in the interface of the allied races, there would still be room to add two, a horde and an alliance.
We will see if there are surprises or not, we just have to wait ...

[Shakana]

They're definitely going to increase the customization of the Allied Races at some point. Whether that happens during Shadowlands or another expansion is up in the air.

But every race/class they add into the game becomes someone's (and realistically more than 1) favorite race/class. And those customers aren't going to be satisfied with a lesser amount of options for the entirety of the game - that's a simple fact.

Especially even more so when it comes to Races (Allied or Core or otherwise), because they are the vehicles through which players identify their adventures.

It's more a question of when rather than if for Allied Races getting increased customizations within this context.

It would certainly be a progress given customizations by genealogy tree. Without thinking too much of lore. But in that case having some allied races was a bad move now, because for that matter then, orcs would be able to be customized into mag'har, taurens to highmountain, etc.

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Scars and scarification would be great for Warriors, and runes would make a lot of sense for Death Knights as well (connecting them to their powers just like their Runeblades do). Mages could get Arcane tattoos, and perhaps even ones that defy conventions and float, glow, or coruscate with power. Warlocks might cover themselves in Demonic script, for example. Tons of different affectations could be used.

Would be certainly good features for aesthetic of the characters. I dig that.
Irl, i really love runes. I'm even convinced i was some kind of pagan practitioner sometime in other life. lol
And necklaces in an aesthetic way of a amulet protection, even if it would be just for RP, but you could you know, pretend the necklace you have on gear, was the necklace you use has "powers", all about creativity of the mind, i guess.

[FlubberPuddy]

It would certainly be a progress given customizations by genealogy tree. Without thinking too much of lore. But in that case having some allied races was a bad move now, because for that matter then, orcs would be able to be customized into mag'har, taurens to highmountain, etc.

Yeah but it's sort of not different than how they added Void Storage which is completely useless now that we have the Collections tab. Or how Garrisons are in the game and once Player Housing does come (since they've said they're still working on how to implement it right and it's a big topic within the team).

It's kind of the consequence of constantly updating the game and also iterating on ideas. There will be some artifacts left behind that will have no more use (kind of like my Warlock's Spellstone and Firestone ).

Would be certainly good features for aesthetic of the characters. I dig that.
Irl, i really love runes. I'm even convinced i was some kind of pagan practitioner sometime in other life. lol
And necklaces in an aesthetic way of a amulet protection, even if it would be just for RP, but you could you know, pretend the necklace you have on gear, was the necklace you use has "powers", all about creativity of the mind, i guess.

I always felt that any game that lets you "equip" something should be able to be seen on your character. That's how I wish all RPG equipment was treated lol, but again it's Blizzard making do with a 15 yr old game and trying to modernize it as best they can. Love the necklace idea tho and I'd throw in Night Elves being able to have Antlers (as well as males being able to have face tattoos too) as additions I'd love to see occur too.

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I am for the arrival of the high elves as a playable race in the alliance obviously because there are more interesting things behind (mount, armor, racial ect ...) but with the arrival of shadowlands, I think that customization options are more topical.
They will replace the allied races that were part of BFA.

There is still a lot of time before the end of BFA and apparently, in the interface of the allied races, there would still be room to add two, a horde and an alliance.
We will see if there are surprises or not, we just have to wait ...

I'm also team playable High Elf stand-alone race as well, but I wouldn't mind as part of a compromise if they added High Elf skins to Void Elves. Rather have something than nothing.

Heck if Void Elves could be Paladins I probably wouldn't be as adamant about the developers implementing High Elves. I'd rather they get rid of race/class restrictions entirely and make it more DnD-like in all honesty. That game has the free-est character customization ever.

[Shakana]

Yeah but it's sort of not different than how they added Void Storage which is completely useless now that we have the Collections tab. Or how Garrisons are in the game and once Player Housing does come (since they've said they're still working on how to implement it right and it's a big topic within the team).

It's kind of the consequence of constantly updating the game and also iterating on ideas.

I just said something back on other thread that made me realize how and why we critize so much blizzard's ideas.
I said "better safe than sorry" i have been told all my life. And here is the thing: They keep adding things, sometimes, radical changes, where nothing from before was a safe system. Everything changes or it's a recycling with new bad features. Why not just make something new, but start on a soft point?

For example: Mission tables were bad. Just remove them. They keep bringing them in every expansion with different things. (I still appreciated them in Legion, not so much in BfA, and i think their origination, the expansion it appeared was even more useless, actually i think it was good for Legion, rep tokens for paragons, i still go there).

And i don't know, i feel they, themselves wait for feedback to do nothing with it, or don't even try. Players say "do housing", they say "gotcha, going to make gameplay fluid over housing, and make you get gear in it". No, no! It's just aesthetic. Don't make us stuck somewhere.

But enough, about system. My point is:

- It would be safer to just implement things softly and not heavily. That way, something not working as expected could be removed without bringing any problems or backlash to nausea. This is the "better safe than sorry", something they would regret later, could have been softly removed.
About the legendaries, don't even get me started. lol i loved them. How can such things like AP got to stay, mission tables, but not something so nice, changing on other expansion but not getting rid of it? I say. (I think we are going too far away from the point of this thread now lmao)

To go back to the topic:
- I always felt necklace as everything else you have for transmog, should be shown. Trinkets i mean, i get it. But rings and necklaces, why not?
You can show everything, boots, head, chest, cloak, hands. Why not a symbol or something else for those necklaces and rings related with the race or class? And, heads. I think the heads are the worse part of the mogs. They have such bad heads. Even a hunter belf using a hoodie, looks goddamn awkward.

[delus]

Instead, I hope they take the opposite approach and lean into the void mutant, ethereal origins of the Void Elves. Darker skin tones. Neon coloured tattoos. More tentacles. It will doubtless be more fun for the art team to try and make Void Elves increasingly differentiated from Blood Elves, rather than trying to undermine the differences that were the rationale for their creation in the first place.

Lol, no one would use those options.

[Obelisk Kai]

Remember that the customization options can give access to variants of parent races (Dark troll, sand troll, wildhammer dwarf...).

So the void and blood elves could also have the option of a parent race.

Logical scenario:

If blizzard has to extend the personalization of the blood elves, there will only be the San'layn and / or the undead elves (dark ranger) as an option because they are already part of the horde.

If blizzard has to extend the personalization of the void elves, there will only be the Silver Covenant / Alleria high elves as an option because they are already part of the alliance.

There is no evidence San'layn are a part of the Horde post fourth war. They were invited in by Sylvanas under the auspices of a single Blood Prince, they were encountered only by Alliance players doing the war campaign, the actions of the Blood Prince during those missions demonstrate that like Sylvanas they cared nothing for the Horde, and the strong implication is that the San'layn whom Sylvanas recruited were wiped out by the Alliance player.

Regardless of that, a Blood Elf and a San'layn are two entirely different things. A San'layn is an undead elf with vampiric qualities. That is entirely different from and completely inconsistent with the Blood Elf experience. You would need a full fledged allied race to justify a San'layn, it cannot be properly expressed as a skin option.

While the Dark Rangers remain a part of the Horde, they are still Forsaken. Undead Elves occupy a gray zone. While they could, and probably should, have been an Allied race, they were not selected. I would be very surprised if Blood Elves were given Undead skin tones as it would allow the player to effectively switch from being an Undead Elf to a living Elf in a barber shop at a whim. That seems highly immersion breaking and highly unlikely.

The same goes for Void Elves. Void Elves are purple toned for two reasons, because it reflects their transformation into Void mutants and because it is a handy method of differentiating them from Blood Elves. Erasing what differences there are between Void Elves and Blood Elves is counter-intuitive because the entire rationale for Void Elves was to give the Alliance 'something like' a Blood Elf whilst not being identical to one.

The other variants you list with respect to the Trolls and the Dwarves are unencumbered by the reality of them already being playable elsewhere. Nobody is suggesting adding Dark Iron Dwarf skin tones to Dwarves as part of the customization pass after all precisely because the Dark Iron Dwarf is an option and to give that option to ordinary Dwarves would render Dark Iron Dwarves redundant. The same logic holds for high elf skin tones on Void Elves.

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There is still a lot of time before the end of BFA and apparently, in the interface of the allied races, there would still be room to add two, a horde and an alliance.
We will see if there are surprises or not, we just have to wait ...

There is time for a hypothetical final pair in 8.3.5. If this is to happen the reveal will have to come very, very shortly as Blizzard will want to move onto the Shadowlands beta.

The primary candidates for the hypothetical final pair seem to be Kelfin, Mogu, Ankoan and Sethrak based upon expressed player desire and relevance within the game.

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Lol, no one would use those options.

Which would not be the point. Void Elves are void mutants. Players who choose Void Elves know what they are getting into, having unlocked them via the scenario, and it would be wiser for Blizzard to lean into the fantasy the Void Elves offer (which no other race can offer or will offer) in order to craft something unique.

[FlubberPuddy]

But enough, about system. My point is:

- It would be safer to just implement things softly and not heavily. That way, something not working as expected could be removed without bringing any problems or backlash to nausea. This is the "better safe than sorry", something they would regret later, could have been softly removed.
About the legendaries, don't even get me started. lol i loved them. How can such things like AP got to stay, mission tables, but not something so nice, changing on other expansion but not getting rid of it? I say. (I think we are going too far away from the point of this thread now lmao)

Yeah I agree, seems like it's from their mentality of "anything added to the game should be meaty when it's first released" and is why we as players don't see them develop virtually all the new systems that have come in a "better safe than sorry" manner. Missions tables are a quick easy example, in WoD they were very core to the expansion, then Legion eased up and they were prominent but mainly for the order hall campaign story (could be ignored after), then BfA they're practically a vestige.

But yeah in terms of Allied Races this is why I see them having come out with AR first and then now we're seeing simply increased customizations to existing races. Due to having this mentality in the company of "new release should be big and meaty" and I don't think they take player feedback into account when they decide those new features, they just internally agree and wait for player feedback. Cuz imo a lot of people were more moved to see Blood Elves getting Golden Eyes, Orcs receiving a posture update, and Night Elves able to "unlock" their cosmetic dark blue eyes.

But what sounds more meaty? "Here's a few extra character options" vs "Here's a lot of brand 'new' races"? From a business/marketing standpoint the latter. We're seeing the increased character options in Shadowlands due to the immense positive feedback of Allied Races, but also some of the criticism with the system. So they do this often: internally agree on new system to release, then reiterate it once it's out into the wild with player feedback.

To go back to the topic:
- I always felt necklace as everything else you have for transmog, should be shown. Trinkets i mean, i get it. But rings and necklaces, why not?
You can show everything, boots, head, chest, cloak, hands. Why not a symbol or something else for those necklaces and rings related with the race or class? And, heads. I think the heads are the worse part of the mogs. They have such bad heads. Even a hunter belf using a hoodie, looks goddamn awkward.

And is probably the reason why they don't show has many things (I know what you mean about the hoods, they're so goofy and BEs have slim necks but the hoodie looks so poofy).

But yeah short of a WoW 2, I don't think they'll be able to ever show any neck/rings. Just the way the game was designed

[delus]

Void Elves are void mutants. Players who choose Void Elves know what they are getting into, having unlocked them via the scenario, and it would be wiser for Blizzard to lean into the fantasy the Void Elves offer (which no other race can offer or will offer) in order to craft something unique.

If that was the fantasy, why did they even make void elf options that are similar to blood elves? No one wants to play a "mutant". They aren't going to be able to take the more normal options away. You may hate that they are as close to blood elves as they are but that ship has sailed.

[FlubberPuddy]

If that was the fantasy, why did they even make void elf options that are similar to blood elves? No one wants to play a "mutant". They aren't going to be able to take the more normal options away. You may hate that they are as close to blood elves as they are but that ship has sailed.

There's also been players (even in this thread) on forums who have said they've made Void Elves and lots of the reasons tend not to focus on the void aspect of them.

I've seen players say:

1) They wanted a slim male character (something Alliance is sorely lacking)
2) They wanted to be an Elf Warlock (something Alliance also lacked for a long while)
3) They wanted "to be sexy" (obviously referring to the Blood Elf/High Elf model as the most popular in the game by a wide margin)
4) They wanted something as close to an Alliance High Elf as possible (something nonexistent before)

I've actually found more players who say "cuz they're attractive/sexy" than "because I love the Void concept of em" when it's came to 'why did you choose a Void Elf to play?'

So while yes the game tells you "Void Elves are Void-y" a lot of players I've seen either downplay it or ignore it entirely when it comes to reasons why they play one.

For instance I couldn't get into playing a Void Elf character, the appearance to me just doesn't work for most of their classes. But we're about to get Allied Race DKs and then I'll be making one because they basically look Undead already, thus I can play a Void Elf Death Knight and the appearance and even racials fit (Void Elf transform just covers you into a Void/Purple energy that can easily be accepted as Shadow/Necromantic energy).

And in that way I can have a 'fallen knight high elf' type character for the time being. I will play that character as such, until and if a proper Alliance High Elf becomes available.

People make do with what they have until a better, more fitting option comes along. Blizzard is very aware of this I'm sure.

[Obelisk Kai]

If that was the fantasy, why did they even make void elf options that are similar to blood elves? No one wants to play a "mutant". They aren't going to be able to take the more normal options away. You may hate that they are as close to blood elves as they are but that ship has sailed.

Nor did I claim they are going to take those normal options away, however you do hit the nail on the head that 'they are as close to Blood Elves as they are'. Why, in the void elf customization pass, would they move to narrow that gap even further? There is already a perfectly good fair-skinned, blond haired, majestic elf option and duplicating that is pointless.

Instead while anyone should be able to make a Void Elf whose sole distinguishing features are blue hair and purple skin, Blizzard should lean into the void mutant, lovecraftian fantasy that the race offers and build into that, offering more extreme void mutations as options.

[Frenchvince]

There is no evidence San'layn are a part of the Horde post fourth war. They were invited in by Sylvanas under the auspices of a single Blood Prince, they were encountered only by Alliance players doing the war campaign, the actions of the Blood Prince during those missions demonstrate that like Sylvanas they cared nothing for the Horde, and the strong implication is that the San'layn whom Sylvanas recruited were wiped out by the Alliance player.

Regardless of that, a Blood Elf and a San'layn are two entirely different things. A San'layn is an undead elf with vampiric qualities. That is entirely different from and completely inconsistent with the Blood Elf experience. You would need a full fledged allied race to justify a San'layn, it cannot be properly expressed as a skin option.

While the Dark Rangers remain a part of the Horde, they are still Forsaken. Undead Elves occupy a gray zone. While they could, and probably should, have been an Allied race, they were not selected. I would be very surprised if Blood Elves were given Undead skin tones as it would allow the player to effectively switch from being an Undead Elf to a living Elf in a barber shop at a whim. That seems highly immersion breaking and highly unlikely.

The same goes for Void Elves. Void Elves are purple toned for two reasons, because it reflects their transformation into Void mutants and because it is a handy method of differentiating them from Blood Elves. Erasing what differences there are between Void Elves and Blood Elves is counter-intuitive because the entire rationale for Void Elves was to give the Alliance 'something like' a Blood Elf whilst not being identical to one.

The other variants you list with respect to the Trolls and the Dwarves are unencumbered by the reality of them already being playable elsewhere. Nobody is suggesting adding Dark Iron Dwarf skin tones to Dwarves as part of the customization pass after all precisely because the Dark Iron Dwarf is an option and to give that option to ordinary Dwarves would render Dark Iron Dwarves redundant. The same logic holds for high elf skin tones on Void Elves.

Anything you try to say here is useless.

https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowtooth_clan

The dark trolls are not officially part of the horde and they are no longer very numerous, even annihilated, however, there will be the dark troll option for the Darkspear trolls.
You see, it will be possible to change species at the hairdresser with a non-horde race and in under number.

With these examples, I just wanted to make you understand that Blizzard will give even more possibilities for customization options, without explanations and without being related to the "culture or racial aesthetics" of the race in question.

So I don't see why the void elves should be deprived of the high-elf option because it's a real demand from the players.

[Obelisk Kai]

Anything you try to say here is useless.

https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowtooth_clan

The dark trolls are not officially part of the horde and they are no longer very numerous, even annihilated, however, there will be the dark troll option for the Darkspear trolls.
You see, it will be possible to change species at the hairdresser with a non-horde race and in under number.

With these examples, I just wanted to make you understand that Blizzard will give even more possibilities for customization options, without explanations and without being related to the "culture or racial aesthetics" of the race in question.

So I don't see why the void elves should be deprived of the high-elf option because it's a real demand from the players.

There is no equivalence between a natural skin tone within a race and the skin tone variations that are a by-product of some external transformation.

San'layn are undead. They are not living. That is a profound difference between them and Blood Elves, particularly considering all the sub-customizations that an undead elf would expect to have such as rotting limbs or disfigured faces that would not be appropriate for a living Blood Elf.

Void Elves should, and probably will be deprived of the high elf option for the same reason Dark Iron Dwarves aren't allowed to look like Bronzebeards. There is a perfectly good option available right now to play a character that looks like that.

[FlubberPuddy]

There is a perfectly good option available right now to play a character that looks like that.

It means fuck-all when the developers are trying to force a "have pride with your chosen faction!"

Alliance players making this request want the option to play their High Elves, not the Horde's.

The same would occur with Horde players I'm sure if that meme of Mag'har going Alliance was true, or if Alliance get Lightforged Undead as an Allied Race (essentially fulfilling the 'Undead Paladins' request).

Actually a real example right now is that Void Elves can be made to look like an actual Dark Ranger more closely than Blood Elves, and players who want to play Dark Rangers aren't hailing to the high heavens that "a Dark Ranger option finally exists for us now!"

You're constantly trying to relegate this (and other race requests it seems like) to strictly appearances when it's the context of the faction (in a game with devs that pride themselves on people having faction pride) of that race as well that matters just as much.

Try as you might to keep separating the two things (race and faction), it's what makes your arguments look ignorant because the bottom line is most players care not just simply about the race's appearance but the faction they're on as well. And going even further, some players care also about a race's story and culture as well.

Some players do exist who only care about the race and their appearance and don't give a fuck about faction. But those players aren't like the ones here making a request and arguing for Alliance High Elves.

[delus]

Nor did I claim they are going to take those normal options away, however you do hit the nail on the head that 'they are as close to Blood Elves as they are'. Why, in the void elf customization pass, would they move to narrow that gap even further? There is already a perfectly good fair-skinned, blond haired, majestic elf option and duplicating that is pointless.

Instead while anyone should be able to make a Void Elf whose sole distinguishing features are blue hair and purple skin, Blizzard should lean into the void mutant, lovecraftian fantasy that the race offers and build into that, offering more extreme void mutations as options.

Maybe they should lean more into fel mutations for blood elves so they actually will feel like they belong in the Horde. Problem is the more aestetically pleasing options overwhelmingly are more popular. They will more than likely make void elves more aestetically pleasing as well because giving no options is better than spending months of development time to have your hard work laughed at. If they wanted unique, they would be better served giving them spiked dog collars and skull earrings than more tentacles.

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There's also been players (even in this thread) on forums who have said they've made Void Elves and lots of the reasons tend not to focus on the void aspect of them.

I've seen players say:

1) They wanted a slim male character (something Alliance is sorely lacking)
2) They wanted to be an Elf Warlock (something Alliance also lacked for a long while)
3) They wanted "to be sexy" (obviously referring to the Blood Elf/High Elf model as the most popular in the game by a wide margin)
4) They wanted something as close to an Alliance High Elf as possible (something nonexistent before)

I've actually found more players who say "cuz they're attractive/sexy" than "because I love the Void concept of em" when it's came to 'why did you choose a Void Elf to play?'

So while yes the game tells you "Void Elves are Void-y" a lot of players I've seen either downplay it or ignore it entirely when it comes to reasons why they play one.

For instance I couldn't get into playing a Void Elf character, the appearance to me just doesn't work for most of their classes. But we're about to get Allied Race DKs and then I'll be making one because they basically look Undead already, thus I can play a Void Elf Death Knight and the appearance and even racials fit (Void Elf transform just covers you into a Void/Purple energy that can easily be accepted as Shadow/Necromantic energy).

And in that way I can have a 'fallen knight high elf' type character for the time being. I will play that character as such, until and if a proper Alliance High Elf becomes available.

People make do with what they have until a better, more fitting option comes along. Blizzard is very aware of this I'm sure.

You know, this is the thing about void elves being DKs. They are crossing the lines even more by adding them. Try telling the differences between a blood elf DK with the pale skin tone and black hair from a void elf DK with similar options. There's kind of a double standard already when the Horde has access to the one distinguishing feature of void elves. However, few belf DKs actually use the pale skin because it is not as aesthetically pleasing. Still, I guess it's good news for someone who wants to RP an undead high elf who happened to master the void.

[FlubberPuddy]

However, few belf DKs actually use the pale skin because it is not as aesthetically pleasing.

Which is funny because I bet a lot of Blood Elf DK players do this yet try to admonish Alliance players for "just wanting something for appearances"! Like cut the crap, we all play the most pleasing characters to us, don't try to make it more or less than what it actually is for the large majority of the playerbase.

[Frenchvince]

There is no equivalence between a natural skin tone within a race and the skin tone variations that are a by-product of some external transformation.

San'layn are undead. They are not living. That is a profound difference between them and Blood Elves, particularly considering all the sub-customizations that an undead elf would expect to have such as rotting limbs or disfigured faces that would not be appropriate for a living Blood Elf.

Void Elves should, and probably will be deprived of the high elf option for the same reason Dark Iron Dwarves aren't allowed to look like Bronzebeards. There is a perfectly good option available right now to play a character that looks like that.

I don't really see the relationship between the two ...

It is obvious that the dark iron dwarves will never have the bronzebeard option, which is a basic race, already playable ... the opposite could have happened if the dark irons had not been an allied race.
Dark irons could receive the frostborn option, that would be more interesting, fire and ice together .

But we will stay on the main subject, the high elves, an option not available for alliance players, which has always had the potential to be a playable race, and / or now with the arrival of shadowlands, to be a customization option.

[Ielenia]

Except the same can be said for the Pandaren. Let alone that this turns their race neutral, and stagnates the entire storyline for the blood elves.

No, it doesn't make the Thalassian elf race neutral. And it does not "stagnate the entire storyline" for the blood elves. The blood elves have their own story now, and so do the high elves. The fact they have a shared past is MEANINGLESS. Unless, of course, you're also claiming that the void elves are already "stagnating the entire storyline" for the blood elves, since they share the same past. And Nightborne are also "stagnating the entire storyline" for the night elves since, again, they have the same past.

The blood elf and high elf lore became independent from one-another after the schism. One example: during the Throne of Thunder storyline, the blood elves discovered and studied Anima magic, but that lore development did not extend to the high elves.

The high elf lore is literally the blood elf lore. There is no reasont o make a copy of an existing race from a game design perspective.

By that logic, then the void elf lore is also "literally" the blood elf lore, up to the point of them being void-i-fied.

[Obelisk Kai]

Maybe they should lean more into fel mutations for blood elves so they actually will feel like they belong in the Horde. Problem is the more aestetically pleasing options overwhelmingly are more popular. They will more than likely make void elves more aestetically pleasing as well because giving no options is better than spending months of development time to have your hard work laughed at. If they wanted unique, they would be better served giving them spiked dog collars and skull earrings than more tentacles.

The idea that Blood Elves used fel magic to sate the addiction turns out to be the equivalent of misconception among the player base. The split was not over the consumption of fel energy, which does have transformative properties, but over the consumption of arcane energy from living creatures. Both Blood Elves and the High Elven exiles remain addicted to magic. The Exiles, with few exceptions, did not cold turkey the addiction (which is not without risk as the encyclopedia confirms long term denial of magic could lead to physical and/or mental damage) found alternative sources of arcane magic to sate their addiction. The fel magic used by the Blood Elves was stored in special crystals and used to sustain the spellwork that propped up Silvermoon's architecture, it was not directly consumed. Affected by this ambience and without the counter-balance of their connection to an active Sunwell, the eye colour of the Blood Elves shifted towards green, which merely proved that thalassian elf eye colour is extremely mutable under the correct circumstances.
The new sunwell is a font of light-arcane energy and all thalassian elves with the probable exception of the Void Elves are connected to it. Fel mutant aesthetics for Blood Elves would therefore be completely inconsistent with the lore.

For those who seek an aesthetically pleasing elf as you put it (which I presume is a call for a light skinned option for Void Elves given the previously expressed desire for 'high elf' options) the option to roll a Blood Elf is in fact there at this moment. If the problem remains that that race is on the Horde, that again leads into Blizzard's commitment to diverse factions.
As such, spending development time to turn a Void Elf into an ersatz Blood Elf seems to be a particularly wasteful use of that time when they could use it to further differentiate Void Elves along the path of the Void Elven fantasy (which is almost lovecraftian). There are plenty of cool things they can do for Void Elves when the time comes and which I suspect will be of greater value than a copy paste from an existing race.

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I don't really see the relationship between the two ...

It is obvious that the dark iron dwarves will never have the bronzebeard option, which is a basic race, already playable ... the opposite could have happened if the dark irons had not been an allied race.
Dark irons could receive the frostborn option, that would be more interesting, fire and ice together .

But we will stay on the main subject, the high elves, an option not available for alliance players, which has always had the potential to be a playable race, and / or now with the arrival of shadowlands, to be a customization option.

The relationship is straightforward. Dark Irons will not receive Bronzebeard like customization options because Bronzebeard Dwarves are already playable.

Void Elves will probably not receive high elven options because Blood Elves are already playable and Blood Elves are the traditional type High Elf types in this universe.

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It means fuck-all when the developers are trying to force a "have pride with your chosen faction!"

Alliance players making this request want the option to play their High Elves, not the Horde's.

The same would occur with Horde players I'm sure if that meme of Mag'har going Alliance was true, or if Alliance get Lightforged Undead as an Allied Race (essentially fulfilling the 'Undead Paladins' request).

Actually a real example right now is that Void Elves can be made to look like an actual Dark Ranger more closely than Blood Elves, and players who want to play Dark Rangers aren't hailing to the high heavens that "a Dark Ranger option finally exists for us now!"

You're constantly trying to relegate this (and other race requests it seems like) to strictly appearances when it's the context of the faction (in a game with devs that pride themselves on people having faction pride) of that race as well that matters just as much.

Try as you might to keep separating the two things (race and faction), it's what makes your arguments look ignorant because the bottom line is most players care not just simply about the race's appearance but the faction they're on as well. And going even further, some players care also about a race's story and culture as well.

Some players do exist who only care about the race and their appearance and don't give a fuck about faction. But those players aren't like the ones here making a request and arguing for Alliance High Elves.

Your basic starting point is incorrect. You define the exiles as plausible because they are politically separate from Blood Elves. Yet that is the sole measure of their differentiation, their politics. They are as separate from the Blood Elves as Defias Humans are from Humans or the majority of the Grimtotem Tauren are from the other Tauren. What these groups show is that the politics is functionally irrelevant as a differentiating factor.
Because Blood Elves are High Elves, High Elves are playable. What are not playable are High Elves for the Alliance. That may aggrieve you, but you can't play Horde Draenei or Horde Dwarves or Horde Humans, nor should you, that would be unfair to the integrity of the Alliance faction and the identity of whatever race was duplicated.

Factions have to mean something to be interesting. That means respecting the integrity of that faction and respecting the identity of the various races that comprise that faction. Duplicating a core part of the Horde fantasy to the Alliance is disrespectful to both the Horde faction and to the Blood Elf identity as the traditional type elf of the Warcraft franchise.

A High Elf option is in game. That game is predicated on a faction based system which prioritises the uniqueness of each faction over the desire of players to mix and match races and factions. The option ended up on the other faction to the one you preferred. That is unfortunate. But a variant was provided as a measure of compensation, distinct but similar.

[Frenchvince]

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The relationship is straightforward. Dark Irons will not receive Bronzebeard like customization options because Bronzebeard Dwarves are already playable.

Void Elves will probably not receive high elven options because Blood Elves are already playable and Blood Elves are the traditional type High Elf types in this universe.

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You are off topic or you take bad examples, I have the impression ...
We are just asking that an "unavailable" breed becomes "available" ...


The blood elves are not / more and do not like that they are called or considered as high elves, the worst insult for them, they are a race of thalassian elf who joined the horde, it is all.


you should have known since the time you've been in this thread, right?

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I want to see how similar BE and VE DK's will be able to look like lol.

But yeah, this conversation as a whole will never have a resolution because there isn't a right answer; it's just a gameplay design decision that they don't want to give the alliance a playable race that looks too similar to one on the Horde. By a pretty arbitrary definition of too similar in any case.

It's not a lore issue, it's laughable that people continue to say it's a lore issue when the lore of VE's origin was shat in the middle of the game just to justify why they should be blue despite the other known Void Elf looking like... a regular elf.

High Elves make more lore sense than pretty much any other AR by sheer reason of being already present and not a group suddenly introduced and then made an AR -no matter how much some people still debate that High Elves are loyal to the alliance in large measure- but they won't be one because they look too much like BE's.

It's not a Lore issue.