Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Traycor]

Oh, by the way Traycor, congrats on the 80 pages on your silver covenant high elf thread

Thanks, RangerDaz! It's great that so many people have enjoyed the thread and pitched in. And we've still got ideas batting around like lore, class options, and home base selections. The conversation is still lively! Thanks everyone for participating.

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Gonna be honest. I'm no fan of elves, but this concept is fantastic! elves like this would actually convince me to roll one. Brilliant work man. I'd play it.

Thanks, raz98! That's a very high compliment!

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High Elves would be amazing!

Traycor love your ideas and concept art! good job! <3

Thanks Drorith! If you've got any ideas for a High Elf Allied Race, feel free to chime in.

[Amunrasonther]

I had a new idea @Traycor. Do with it as you please. It would be a jewelry option.

Laurel Crowns!

From wikipedia, laurel crowns are symbols of victory and honor and were commonly found in Ancient Greek and Roman motifs. I think they'd be appropriate for your High Elf concept since it also has this nature feel to it. Males could be strictly leaf based, while females could have small flowers in theirs.

[Combatbutler]

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Purge_of_Dalaran

This i can't agree with you. The high elves harmed Lor'themar's people. any leader has to do what needs to be done to protect his people. He can't see high elves as his people after that, and high elves don't see blood elves as their people either.

There is still absolutely nothing that would even remotely indicate that he cut them from the sunwell. Heck he even allows someone as tainted and Partisan as Alleria access, since she is a daughter of Quel'thalas.

[Deleted]

Ogres and other troll races were also a part of historical Warcraft Horde fantasy, yet they aren't playable.

But they could and they should. Just like the High Elves.

[Magnagarde]

Undead elves make even less sense since only the Lich King has the power to raise non-humans, and why would the Lich King ally with the Horde in the first place? Sylvanas can only raise humans as Forsaken and only with the help of Val'kyr, which she has very few of. Her threat to raise Saurfang's son was an empty one as she doesn't have that power.

All of the undead rangers under Sylvanas' command were banshees raised by Arthas decades ago.

Just write in the power to raise high elves for Sylvanas via her Val'kyr and that's it? Write in a new Val'kyr that defects from Bolvar's Scourge? Just like they wrote in the whole Nathanos thing, they can write this in too.

[Traveler Voltin]

i am going to propose a scenario for you high elf demanders.

Say i am right and this happens.

High elves are added has a playable allied race for the alliance.
Horde overall population drastically drops to life support numbers.

what does blizzard do?
do they remove the high elves they just added and offer free race changes?

[Garfurion]

Just write in the power to raise high elves for Sylvanas via her Val'kyr and that's it? Write in a new Val'kyr that defects from Bolvar's Scourge? Just like they wrote in the whole Nathanos thing, they can write this in too.

Dark Rangers are essentially Banshees that repossessed their bodies, or a random other body so their undead status is somewhat different from Forsaken. Real undead elves would probably look a lot like a combination of wretched and Human Forsaken. I'm not sure how popular they would be.

Undead Elves also cause problems with Blood Elf DKs, who are technically Undead Elves. Which race should they belong to.

For RP'ing an Undead Elf there are currently 2 options. Role a BE DK or role a Void Elf (Hunter) with the correct skin-tone. There is a version of the 1st Hunter Tier set in Legion which has a helmet which gives glowing red eyes if I remember correctly. There are even Undead looking pets to tame.

[Saverem]

Post YOUR design ideas! So far, the biggest roadblock to adding High Elves as an allied race seems to be their lack of distinction from Blood elves. This is a thread for brainstorming design options that could set them apart. I looked back at the Warcraft II concepts and in game characters, and here is what I came up with.

SNIP

This isn't a Korean/Japanese MMO my dude. If you like that anime style crap, I suggest you check out FF14.

[Garfurion]

i am going to propose a scenario for you high elf demanders.

Say i am right and this happens.

High elves are added has a playable allied race for the alliance.
Horde overall population drastically drops to life support numbers.

what does blizzard do?

1. Go on holiday, they have less content to finish for BFA.
2. Rename WoW into Warcraft IV
3. Make fun of all the people that always tell "For the Horde" because apparently faction pride is depending on eye color.
4. Announce they have successfully increased the number of top raiding guilds on the alliance and will monitor the situation for the next 10 years.
5. Increase the price for cross faction race changes.
6. Eat popcorn and watch as Night-Elf numbers dwindle as Alliance players all switch to Nightborne.

Actually thinking about it makes it look really appealing for Blizzard, they can make a lot of money out of it.

[Traycor]

High elves are added has a playable allied race for the alliance.
Horde overall population drastically drops to life support numbers.

what does blizzard do?

It seems a stretch to think that any significant amount of Blood Elf players would leave the Horde. After all, they are already happy enough with Blood Elves to play that race. I seriously doubt you'd see millions of transfers.

This does raise an interesting question, though. Why do most Horde players pick Blood Elves? The majority of players are casual and don't know anything about the race or its lore. The answer is, the same reason why most Alliance players pick humans:

Most players pick the server and faction where their friends play. They then pick whatever race looks the most "normal" or the most like them. So, they pick Blood Elves if their friends play Horde. That majority isn't going to faction or race change because they didn't much care about race in the first place. They wanted a "normal" pick, and they got it already. That majority is just going to stick with their guild or friends and not care about much else. And new players can't pick an Allied Race, so they would roll Horde to play a Blood Elf, thus making friends they would stick with.

[Traveler Voltin]

It seems a stretch to think that any significant amount of Blood Elf players would leave the Horde. After all, they are already happy enough with Blood Elves to play that race. I seriously doubt you'd see millions of transfers.

This does raise an interesting question, though. Why do most Horde players pick Blood Elves? The majority of players are casual and don't know anything about the race or its lore. The answer is, the same reason why most Alliance players pick humans:

Most players pick the server and faction where their friends play. They then pick whatever race looks the most "normal" or the most like them. So, they pick Blood Elves if their friends play Horde. That majority isn't going to faction or race change because they didn't much care about race in the first place. They wanted a "normal" pick, and they got it already. That majority is just going to stick with their guild or friends and not care about much else. And new players can't pick an Allied Race, so they would roll Horde to play a Blood Elf, thus making friends they would stick with.

i saw this coming. congrats on being the first person to ignore the scenario and answer with the same bullshit.

[Deleted]

Most players pick the server and faction where their friends play. They then pick whatever race looks the most "normal" or the most like them. So, they pick Blood Elves if their friends play Horde.

It indeed is kinda like that. It is not even really about looking pretty,as much as looking relatable. Many other races, particularly in the Horde, just look too weird to many people. Even Orcs and Trolls who have rather human like faces are so distorted and caricatured (males in particular) that they just don't seem relatable. Notice how in Warcraft movie, the Orcs have face proportions that are much closer to human (not talking about mere CGI quality here.) I think if Orcs in the game would look more like that, more people would play them. The new posture will help, but the faces could use some work too.

[Syferite]

I honestly support the idea of people wanting to live out the race/class fantasy that they want, but I also feel that Blizz has some sort of artistic/lore integrity that they want to maintain. High Elfs are just a blue recolor of whatever the Blood Elves have. They do not have any unique architecture or culture. Their only differential characteristic is that they are loyal to the Alliance. This means that they will be reduced to human side-kicks. Something which we Night Elves fans detest because it ruined our race fantasy.

The only way High Elves will come into the picture is if they can have a unique identity. But, we have to look at the available options:

1). Maintain their current society - Infringes on Blood Elves
2). Nature/Druidic/Hunter society- Infringes on Night Elves
3). Light focused - Infringes on Blood Elves
4). Arcane focused - Infringes on Nightborne

If Blizz finds a way to pull it off, then great. Perhaps they'll decide to have High Elves that forged a friendship with the Wildhammer Dwarves, and take the Shamanistic route. It coincides nicely with Wildhammer/HElves/Revantusk/Ogres. The WC2 Throwback Allied Races. It'd be great packaging and sends a nice message.

But to maintain their artistic integrity, they have no choice but to drastically change High Elven culture. You're not going to be playing your proud, noble, aristocratic elves. You have that in the form of Blood Elves and Nightborne.

[Deleted]

i saw this coming. congrats on being the first person to ignore the scenario and answer with the same bullshit.

Your scenario is unrealistic, there is no point in engaging it.

[Traveler Voltin]

Your scenario is unrealistic, there is no point in engaging it.

high elves being playable is unrealistic.

[Deleted]

high elves being playable is unrealistic.

We'll see...

[sammygm]

Well, the problem is that they are currently blocked from the sunwell. High Elven Priests from Warcraft I and III all had access to the sunwell's holy energies.

Check on this site the classes of the known High Elves in:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Silver_Covenant
I only found 1 paladin trainer and 1 priest trainer that belong to the old Dalaran from Northrend.

Also Blizzard is giving golden eyes to the Blood Elves, so they are clearly giving a signal that holy energies are their major strength.
Unfortunately i believe that this is the best way to make blood elves and high elves unique from each other. But this is just my opinion.

High Elves didn't get their holy powers from the Sunwell back then. Before the destruction of the Sunwell, they got their Holy energies the same way the Humans and the Dwarves got theirs, through their faith in the Holy Light. Blood Elves only lost their powers because they lost their faith in the Holy Light, which is why they started to siphon the light from the Naaru Kael'thas brought back. If High Elves are meant to be traditionalists and are set in their old ways before the destruction of Sunwell, then they'll still share the same Church with the Humans and Dwarves, so priests and paladins are definitely a must

[Evangeliste]

not really, they have acknowledged that High Elves are a community favourite and are one of the most highly requested allied races and no allied race is off teh table

I'm sure if that was the case, after nearly 15 years... High Elves would be the first Allied Race. Instead Void Elves (Which there are High Elf NPC's in the same rift) and Nightborne are.

I'm more inclined to say, they're hoping it disappears...

[Lebanese Dude]

1). Maintain their current society - Infringes on Blood Elves
2). Nature/Druidic/Hunter society- Infringes on Night Elves
3). Light focused - Infringes on Blood Elves
4). Arcane focused - Infringes on Nightborne.

Or they can be Arcane + Nature focused and not step on anyone's toes.

Less "be one with the wilds" more "survival".
Less "ARCANE POWAAAA" more "careful control over magic"

One-dimensional storytelling is the reason Blood Elves only ever develop the Sunwell while Sunreavers/Farstriders have languished in irrelevance.

Also Night Elves don't develop marksmanship at all. They just show in cinematics. All their development has been Elune/Druid/Sentinel related with most combat relegated to melee. This is further shown by Wardens/Demon Hunters. There hasn't been anything "Hunter-y" at all.

And quite frankly I find it odd that you're connecting these to one another. Why are you including factions from the enemy faction? Like you're including Nightborne randomly in this discussion. What do they have anything to do with this? Quite arbitrary.

If anything the Alliance lacks much magic at the moment with only Light being a major power. Shamanism is barely developed, and the only really magical races are Humans (lol neutral Dalaran) and Draenei (hopefully the Lightforged will push Draenei more towards Arcanomancy/Shamanism development). The Alliance is pretty mundane atm. It needs Dalaran back (in an official capacity) and it brings with it a whole slew of High Elves.

[Syegfryed]

Huh? That's some strange mental gymnastics you are doing there, friend.

-Highmountain Tauren are just upgraded tauren.
-Lightforged Draenei are just upgraded Draenei
-Dark Iron Dwarves share almost every theme with the regular dwarves, with a different color pallet
-Nightborne are just a blend of blood elves with the night elf color pallet.
-Mag'har are just different orcs.

They are okay to step on each others feet, as long as the color pallet differs, evidently. That's the pattern I see.

note how all of then are in the same faction, not in the opposite