Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Koryn123]

Agree 1000% . It's like how some people now are creating their RP for why a High Elf would go be with their Blood Elf brethren in the Horde, despite things like Purge of Dalaran happening and High Elves being a foil to Blood Elves consistently. There's even the flipside of players who play Blood Elves that are Alliance loyal (there's literally a great artist who currently does that for his character).

And it's a-ok! That's their character, it's their story. It makes the world feel more alive and less game-y too. I just hope that Alliance gets to share in that experience as well one day with a High Elf option.

Doesn't take much to make blue-eyed elves fit. We've already seen some on the Isle of Thunder with the Sunreaver Onslaught. Super easy to just say some of the high elf pilgrims to Quel'thalas weren't rabid Alliance supporters over their homeland, then when they saw that Quel'thalas was fixed up and safe again, not to mention the Sunwell being restored, they decided it was time to come back home. I can't imagine all the elves who went to Outland with Alleria would be more loyal to the son of a little kid who fled to Lordaeron whose kingdom wasn't even around when the Alliance was formed and not rebuilt until long after they went through the Dark Portal than they would be to their own country, their motivation for going on that suicide mission in the first place.

[Ardenaso]

There's even the flipside of players who play Blood Elves that are Alliance loyal (there's literally a great artist who currently does that for his character).

I'd like to know more regarding this

[Varodoc]

That's the beauty of RP, you can pretty much make up whatever backstory you want, you can really unleash your imagination.

Except Dragon RPers. Fuck Dragon RPers.

[FlubberPuddy]

I'd like to know more regarding this

https://www.deviantart.com/shinda292...-Sun-757428189

Was feeling nostalgic as fuck and missing WoW, so I drew my old character from the game and simultaneously did a remake of a piece I did 8 years ago.

For the WoW fans and some context, I used to play a Belf that was hardcore Alliance loyal (since, as a Warcraft 2 player, I strongly disagreed with Blizzard’s decision of the Sin’dorei going Horde, which no matter how hard they tried justifying it, always came off as forced or a case of “gameplay > story”). I would casually chill in Stormwind City, mingle with the Alliance, get rekt every now and then, but despite it, I made a fuckton of friends on the server Moon Guard and had great times years back.

In terms of actual story, the original piece from 8 years ago had my character standing at the grave of Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth. While not ingame, it was based on Chris Metzen’s drawing of Turalyon kneeling at Lothar’s grave from Warcraft 2, only in my piece the grave is worn and crumbling, with my character vigilantly standing guard. In the remade piece, my character (now much older) is standing at Lion’s Rest, which is none other than the grave of (IMO) the last King of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn (who was also, without a doubt, my favourite character in all of the Warcraft series). I decided to basically put Lion’s Rest on steroids when it came to details, since the in-game version, while it looks nice, I feel could use more Alliance symbolism, so below the giant Lion crest on the upper right, are insignias of various Alliance races, such as the Night Elves, the Gnomes, and even the High Elves (the other races got cut off and aren’t visible, but would still exist).

There are a number of other details on my character himself, but I’ll leave the hardcore WoW/Alliance fans to find those (ZOOM IN!). All in all, if I ever came back to the game, first thing I would do is rush to the Wrynn Memorial (after reconnecting with my old friends ayy).

For the Alliance.

-Shinda292

- - - Updated - - -

Just a note, the above description by the artist is for the picture in the link (which is huge in size). It's not related to the image in the post other than being from the same artist.

[Varx]

You helfers are so cute hanging on to false hope. "They might be DK options", "Not everything is final". LMAO give me a break.

[Rhlor]

I wonder if those blue options are possibly Death Knight-only options?

look at this is the color of the male models

[FlubberPuddy]

"Not everything is final". LMAO give me a break.

Easily prove-able.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=311922/...ility-upgrades

3rd post down talks about how a lot of seem out-dated as some apply to things like Shaman's Vesper totem working with what was shown at Blizzcon but is not in the current showing of Shaman in the alpha. As well as Warrior's Sunder Arms showing as part of a Kyrian ability upgrade but warriors do not have Sunder Armor back in the alpha.

No one's concluding blue eyes won't happen. But it is true that what's being found right now may not all be included in the game. Same goes for the character customizations, many of which even wowhead dataminers are unsure of. You going to tell those professionals they're wrong?

- - - Updated - - -

look at this is the color of the male models

SNIP

So the datamined BE eyes and these High Elf ones are further differentiated. You can easily put one of those side by side with BE version of blue eyes and the sclera immediately gives it away.

Kind of like how fast people noticed Sylvanas's eyes aren't glowy red in her new datamined model. So essentially it is now easier to tell a High Elf apart from a Blood Elf.

[Koryn123]

You helfers are so cute hanging on to false hope. "They might be DK options", "Not everything is final". LMAO give me a break.

I'm actually looking forward to getting blue eyed blood elves if they're coming. I think it's silly for all blue eyed elves to decide that they prefer hanging out with humans more than blood elves just because. I'd think some would want to return home if they could.

[The Silver Covenant]

I'm actually looking forward to getting blue eyed blood elves if they're coming. I think it's silly for all blue eyed elves to decide that they prefer hanging out with humans more than blood elves just because. I'd think some would want to return home if they could.

The Alliance is home.

[FlubberPuddy]

I'd think some would want to return home if they could.

Realistically some would. Just like realistically some people of the races in the opposite faction would side with the other. There's realistically some orcs/humans that are fine with each other and etc.

It's just gameplay restrictions that are holding those 'realities' from existing. Just like in the real world. Because this is a game.

[Koryn123]

The Alliance is home.

For elves who always lived outside Quel'thalas and had no desire to live there, maybe, like many in Dalaran, and Vereesa, a grunt-rank ranger who quit the Farstriders after her first mission and later called herself a Ranger-General of her brute squad. I'm talking about the people who care enough that they want to visit the Sunwell and don't have ill will toward their people. People like Captain Auric who, despite his Alliance affiliation, didn't forget his duty to protect Quel'thalas and its people. Judging by Lor'themar's greeting to Alleria, he considers the elves from the Sons of Lothar to be heroes of Quel'thalas welcome to visit, as long as they're not a danger, like Alleria being a void monster.

It's not beyond the pale to assume that Auric is allowed to live there again and didn't care to spend the rest of his days living in Alliance lands, devoting himself to the king of a kingdom that was defunct at the time of the Alliance's founding when the elves joined (to protect Quel'thalas, not humanity), wasn't rebuilt until after they were trapped in Outland for a good long while, whose dad was just a kid when Auric left, which is now part of a group that are the current enemies of his people.

No doubt he wouldn't enjoy attacking Alliance, and I wouldn't expect him to, but he continues to act in the best interests of his people by ensuring the blue-eyed elves have a voice and are protected, as the high elf representative at the Sunwell.

Plenty of elves were merely refugees who loved living there, and now that Quel'thalas is no longer powered by fel for buildings and people aren't sucking mana from living things for survival, and the Horde is not run by Kil'jaeden, there's plenty of potential for them to feel a yearning for their old home.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

For elves who always lived outside Quel'thalas and had no desire to live there, maybe, like many in Dalaran, and Vereesa, a grunt-rank ranger who quit the Farstriders after her first mission and later called herself a Ranger-General of her brute squad. I'm talking about the people who care enough that they want to visit the Sunwell and don't have ill will toward their people. People like Captain Auric who, despite his Alliance affiliation, didn't forget his duty to protect Quel'thalas and its people. Judging by Lor'themar's greeting to Alleria, he considers the elves from the Sons of Lothar to be heroes of Quel'thalas welcome to visit, as long as they're not a danger, like Alleria being a void monster.

It's not beyond the pale to assume that Auric is allowed to live there again and didn't care to spend the rest of his days living in Alliance lands, devoting himself to the king of a kingdom that was defunct at the time of the Alliance's founding when the elves joined (to protect Quel'thalas, not humanity), wasn't rebuilt until after they were trapped in Outland for a good long while, whose dad was just a kid when Auric left, which is now part of a group that are the current enemies of his people.

No doubt he wouldn't enjoy attacking Alliance, and I wouldn't expect him to, but he continues to act in the best interests of his people by ensuring the blue-eyed elves have a voice and are protected, as the high elf representative at the Sunwell.

IMO the thing is that eye color is at most a correlation between BE and HE groups, but it was never the cause for them being different groups.

It makes as much sense that BE's have blue eyes now because some HE's are returning to Quel'thalas as to say that some High Elves now could have green eyes because some Blood Elves defected to the alliance. They are political positions, and eye color is not a requisite for that. Ultimately, the difference between High Elves and Blood Elves is ideological and cultural, and there are several things that have to be crossed over so one becomes the other.

Or is just that naturally occurring blue eyes are returning to Blood Elves and no High Elves are returning to QT. Kinda prefer the later because of all the times High Elves could have chosen to return en masse to QT, the wake of the Blood War feels like the worst possible time to believe their political differences aren't enough to be separated. Like, for me it makes more sense that some Blood Elves would defect the Horde because of the Blood War -as well as for tauren- not saying they would become alliance -although it would be a good reason to add more VE numbers- but it's hard to buy the alliance loyal HE's -or even the neutral Dalaran ones- deciding it's good time to go "for the horde."

Like I would personally like if we started to see neutral High Elves in Silvermoon and Quel'danas -like Auric- it just would be hard to buy they would fight for the horde -which is essentially what a playable BE has to do-

Maybe if there is ever a neutral way of playing the game I could buy it. But not on a post Blood War political climate.

[Koryn123]

IMO the thing is that eye color is at most a correlation between BE and HE groups, but it was never the cause for them being different groups.

It makes as much sense that BE's have blue eyes now because some HE's are returning to Quel'thalas as to say that some High Elves now could have green eyes because some Blood Elves defected to the alliance. They are political positions, and eye color is not a requisite for that. Ultimately, the difference between High Elves and Blood Elves is ideological and cultural, and there are several things that have to be crossed over so one becomes the other.

Or is just that naturally occurring blue eyes are returning to Blood Elves and no High Elves are returning to QT. Kinda prefer the later because of all the times High Elves could have chosen to return en masse to QT, the wake of the Blood War feels like the worst possible time to believe their political differences aren't enough to be separated. Like, for me it makes more sense that some Blood Elves would defect the Horde because of the Blood War -as well as for tauren- not saying they would become alliance -although it would be a good reason to add more VE numbers- but it's hard to buy the alliance loyal HE's -or even the neutral Dalaran ones- deciding it's good time to go "for the horde."

Like I would personally like if we started to see neutral High Elves in Silvermoon and Quel'danas -like Auric- it just would be hard to buy they would fight for the horde -which is essentially what a playable BE has to do-

Maybe if there is ever a neutral way of playing the game I could buy it. But not on a post Blood War political climate.

I wouldn't mind the eyes being natural, but personally, I think uncorrupted elves choosing to go back home to Quel'thalas now that it's safe to do so would be more common than the pragmatic blood elves who did what was necessary to survive choosing to join the Alliance who'd hate them like crazy. Jaina didn't even trust Valeera who's never been Horde.

But you're right. After "The Fourth War" that I read so much about on my mission table, high elves would no doubt have heard stories from Alliance soldiers about horrible things done by the Horde under Sylvanas' orders and attribute that to the blood elves, since they're not all omniscient spectators of the story like we are.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I wouldn't mind the eyes being natural, but personally, I think uncorrupted elves choosing to go back home to Quel'thalas now that it's safe to do so would be more common than the pragmatic blood elves who did what was necessary to survive choosing to join the Alliance who'd hate them like crazy. Jaina didn't even trust Valeera who's never been Horde.

But you're right. After "The Fourth War" that I read so much about on my mission table, high elves would no doubt have heard stories from Alliance soldiers about horrible things done by the Horde under Sylvanas' orders and attribute that to the blood elves, since they're not all omniscient spectators of the story like we are.

Exactly; after this War the opinion of both factions should be very biased. We have npc's in Boralus talking about their frustration with the resolution as well as others ready to move on; it feels like the point is to show the alliance populace not being satisfied with the resolution and many still wanting to fight.

IMO It has always been hard to believe that High Elves that haven't already returned to QT would choose now to do so, nonetheless it feels far more likely after an expansion like say, Legion, where we all worked together -yet Vereesa and Alleria both still wanted to bring the BE's back to the alliance- than BfA where old and new wounds are now open.

Like Alliance aligned HE's returning to QT feels more unlikely than ever, and while the neutral ones of Dalaran have always felt like they could return if they wanted, now just seems like the worst time to do so with the Fourth War.

After a time-skip post Shadowlands though? I really wouldn't have an issue I think, but still doesn't help with us trying to figure up the reason for blue eyes now for SL, so I'm still gonna go with "Oh yeah them green eyes are getting cleansed back to blue because magic" all the explanation is that it just took a little longer than golden eyes.

[ravenmoon]

IMO the thing is that eye color is at most a correlation between BE and HE groups, but it was never the cause for them being different groups.

It makes as much sense that BE's have blue eyes now because some HE's are returning to Quel'thalas as to say that some High Elves now could have green eyes because some Blood Elves defected to the alliance. They are political positions, and eye color is not a requisite for that. Ultimately, the difference between High Elves and Blood Elves is ideological and cultural, and there are several things that have to be crossed over so one becomes the other.

Or is just that naturally occurring blue eyes are returning to Blood Elves and no High Elves are returning to QT. Kinda prefer the later because of all the times High Elves could have chosen to return en masse to QT, the wake of the Blood War feels like the worst possible time to believe their political differences aren't enough to be separated. Like, for me it makes more sense that some Blood Elves would defect the Horde because of the Blood War -as well as for tauren- not saying they would become alliance -although it would be a good reason to add more VE numbers- but it's hard to buy the alliance loyal HE's -or even the neutral Dalaran ones- deciding it's good time to go "for the horde."

Like I would personally like if we started to see neutral High Elves in Silvermoon and Quel'danas -like Auric- it just would be hard to buy they would fight for the horde -which is essentially what a playable BE has to do-

Maybe if there is ever a neutral way of playing the game I could buy it. But not on a post Blood War political climate.

I agree with this, it would be interesting. I mean you see Blood elf Sanguinaar in Stormwind, and the Thalassin elf situation is a bit complex,and there is enough to warrant seeing a few high elves in Silvermoon and Quel'danas, not to mention that despite being called Blood elf, there are a fair few number of these elves that actually lean a lot closer to the high elf mindset than the blood elf one.

I don't think they're the majority ofc, but they are not an insignificant number, and are largely the folk who've stayed around the city and not had to see the tougher choices their colleagues had or were forced to make.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I agree with this, it would be interesting. I mean you see Blood elf Sanguinaar in Stormwind, and the Thalassin elf situation is a bit complex,and there is enough to warrant seeing a few high elves in Silvermoon and Quel'danas, not to mention that despite being called Blood elf, there are a fair few number of these elves that actually lean a lot closer to the high elf mindset than the blood elf one.

I don't think they're the majority ofc, but they are not an insignificant number, and are largely the folk who've stayed around the city and not had to see the tougher choices their colleagues had or were forced to make.

I think that the possibility of a Thalassian reunification -under whatever name tbh- is possible in theory, but after the Fourth War it just seems more unlikely to be soon than ever; Only as of Legion Vereesa's resentment cooled down enough to think BE's can be redeemed -and return to the Alliance- and truly I don't see how there wouldn't be some regression after the Blood War. Like It's even hard to not see the BE's themselves making parallels between the Fall of Quel'thalas and The Burning of Teldrassil, but alliance and neutral High Elves would certainly not have the in-group bias to not see them.

It's just hard to believe that now, of all times, High Elves would decide to return in masse to QT. It just wouldn't ring true when it would had made sense for them to do so at any other time -honestly end of Legion would have been the perfect time-

As Vereesa puts it, the only issue for reunification for her is the BE's politics, and I really doubt the Blood War has made any reticent HE's now decide to go back to Quel'thalas.

[FlubberPuddy]

Just thought I'd share another update that's tangentially related here.

For the past few days on r/wow (sorted by 'hot') there's been posts clamoring for customizations to Allied Races. On Stiven's datamining streams there's always people (he gets anywhere from ~1k-4k+ views) asking if there's any customization for Allied Races.

To me it's just as I said. It happened at the latest Blizzcon already (interviewers asking for increased customizations to AR) and continues now that core race customization is being shown.

It remains to be seen what customizations Void Elves will get when their time comes (probably 2+ years from now lmao with the other AR), but here, official forums, twitter, reddit, youtube. Almost every social media platform VE players are asking for fair skins/to look like Alleria and non-VE players are suggesting a couple fair skins on VEs while blue eyes go to BE to 'finally end the debate and let both sides be happy'.

You don't even have to try to go searching, it's that blatant. It puts the ball in Blizzard's court pretty much.

[Shadowfury]

Arthas was possessed by an orc rofl. You can't use in game after decisions have been made to justify. Blizzard put that whole hackneyed thing in as an attempt to justify giving the horde a pretty race that happened to be one the alliance had begged for since open beta.

And 15 years later literally the same thing happened with the Nightborne and how they "decided" to join the Horde.

[Rhozul]

So basically the Alliance gets cool background story victories while the Horde gets an immersive Warcraft play experience. That's 100% fair, yep.

Genuinely curious, what immersive play experiences do you think I've gotten as a Horde player that you haven't as an Alliance player? Because from my end, it looks like nothing my character does actually matters because at the end of the day, the Alliance is going to win everything for two reasons:

1) Blizz always writes us our leaders into uncompromising monster bad guys who just want to destroy the Alliance and leave everyone dead, so there's never an outcome where we can win anything real.

2) Alliance players consider their wonderful characters / racist hero faction losing to be a travesty and write three paragraph essays on the topic whenever it happens.

[The Silver Covenant]

Genuinely curious, what immersive play experiences do you think I've gotten as a Horde player that you haven't as an Alliance player?

Horde players get to live one of the Alliance's classic fantasies: playing an elf from Quel'thalas.

World of Warcraft is incomplete until Alliance players can experience the game from the perspective of an Elven Ranger, Priest, or Sorceress.