Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Primlight]

She found red/purple/orange eye glows and assumed they were for blood elves, she even assumed the blue glows were for blood elves because they matched very similarly.

We now know why, because Void Elves and Blood Elves share an exact same model besides the surface level details.

I'm really confused by this, despite the devs clearly stating that new customizations are only going to core races, you think it's more likely that these options are for Void elves? An allied race? Even though the main argument Keyboardturner used to support this was the discrepancy in the eye textures, yet failed to note that they look identical to the newly updated, live golden eyes blood elves currently have? Hmm.

I'd say coming to the conclusion that these are new colors for Void elves is a textbook example of *jumping the gun*, and wishful thinking.

[FlubberPuddy]

Female draenei had longer tail option since WoD, actually.
Blizzard just never activated them.

Ah ok! But see it was shown attached to a LF Draenei even before it's a thing.

I don't believe they'll leave the current Allied Races to the wayside after all the increased customizations come in for the original races.

It would just feel like a lesser experience to play an AR then when you have to do more to even play as one.

It's interesting cuz Annie and Perculia from Wowhead were talking about this today on their Wowhead Weekly. Saying that it's gonna feel bad if Blizzard keeps coming out with more newer AR and then gives them such limited customization cuz why would someone choose to play some diff AR dwarf over the original dwarves who keep getting updates and options, especially when one has to work for that diff AR.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm really confused by this, despite the devs clearly stating that new customizations are only going to core races, you think it's more likely that these options are for Void elves? An allied race? Even though the main argument Keyboardturner used to support this was the discrepancy in the eye textures, yet failed to note that they look identical to the newly updated, live golden eyes blood elves currently have? Hmm.

I'd say coming to the conclusion that these are new colors for Void elves is a textbook example of *jumping the gun*, and wishful thinking.

I like that I'm striking a chord somewhere that is causing lurkers to respond, even people making new accounts lol

1) I think the images posted here




can quite easily be discerned which ones are for blood elves and which one would go to void elves. Especially if one took the time to look at the packed texture for the void elf keyboard turner linked.

2) I only think the current blue eye options are for void elves. The green/teal/gold ones with a clear pupil and iris vs the blue ones with no pupil are very easy to tell apart.

3) While devs have said the new customizations for Shadowlands will be on the original races and not AR. They've already commented that certain things like Draenei tails will be available for LF Draenei.

So at this point I'm not sure what you're trying to angle at. That I'm jumping the gun on thinking new eye colors will come to Void Elves in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new eye colors in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new customizations at all?

[Frenchvince]

I just saw that humans will have the same mustache as their allied race KT, it's interesting.

[FlubberPuddy]

I just saw that humans will have the same mustache as their allied race KT, it's interesting.

A lot of the increased customizations appear to be answering player requests. I remember when KT were first revealed with these facial hair options and players were clamoring for them to be on humans! Awesome

[Obelisk Kai]

She found red/purple/orange eye glows and assumed they were for blood elves, she even assumed the blue glows were for blood elves because they matched very similarly.

We now know why, because Void Elves and Blood Elves share an exact same model besides the surface level details.

And turns out those other colors looks more likely to be for Undead eye colors as DeicideUH posted.

Alpha is Alpha, Beta is Beta, things can change or not appear as they seem. Keyboardturner knows that, which is why what they thought was for blood elves ended up on Forsaken.

Yet you are now presuming that this time she is right, despite a clear admission of bias from her on the whole high elf issue as recorded in the tweet I linked.

As for today's tweet, what did she write as her opening sentence?

I figured out why I couldn't find the eye textures before. Time to see officially what the fuck we're getting.

Perhaps this admission means what she said previously was merely guesswork. In fact, did anyone else corroborate her datamining of those initial eye colours in assigning them to the Blood Elves or was it just her? I mean she was clearly wrong given she got the Undead eye colours mixed in with some Blood Elf colours.

On this occasion, she finally finds the textures and determines that the only allied race customisations found on ANY parent race happen to relate to the whole blue eyes issue. Funny that.

Now I will say again. Maybe she is right. Bias does not mean your results are wrong, merely that your methodology and conclusions are still in doubt whilst an empirical result is awaited. But it IS justified to doubt her on this occasion and until we have the final result, one way or the other (or corroboration from other dataminers) then yes, her conclusions are not sacrosanct.

How is that someone who has a bias? Like I said, picking apart what you want and grasping at straws. It's getting ridiculous at this point how easy it is to prove you wrong.

You are aware you've indulged in some serious straw grasping yourself over the years? You could tell us again how Ion didn't want to ruin the big reveal for Void Elves by announcing High Elves too early and that was why he had to lie about it.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Frenchvince]

A lot of the increased customizations appear to be answering player requests. I remember when KT were first revealed with these facial hair options and players were clamoring for them to be on humans! Awesome

KT women's hairstyles are gorgeous.

[Obelisk Kai]

Female draenei had longer tail option since WoD, actually.
Blizzard just never activated them.

So they would have been included with the basic Draenei model that was converted over to Lightforged. Seems reasonable.

[DeicideUH]

Ah ok! But see it was shown attached to a LF Draenei even before it's a thing.

I don't believe they'll leave the current Allied Races to the wayside after all the increased customizations come in for the original races.

It would just feel like a lesser experience to play an AR then when you have to do more to even play as one.

It's interesting cuz Annie and Perculia from Wowhead were talking about this today on their Wowhead Weekly. Saying that it's gonna feel bad if Blizzard keeps coming out with more newer AR and then gives them such limited customization cuz why would someone choose to play some diff AR dwarf over the original dwarves who keep getting updates and options, especially when one has to work for that diff AR.

I'm beginning to think ARs will get some minor additions in 9.0.
Eye colors are really simple to add, as the tech is already done since 8.3.
It's likely that options they can just copy from other models, like orc straight backs or female draenei tails, will be ported over to ARs.
Also, mechagnomes got a new Enhancement option that is just mechanical eyes (the same ones that were used under helms when face plate needed to be hidden) with different ear options:



I wouldn't be surprised if each AR get something like 2 more skin colors and 2 more hair colors. Those are easy to do.

However, new geosets, like beards and hair, are unlikely at this stage. Maybe later.

[Ielenia]

Look we've been over this for years and it's old.

And we'll continue to go over this for as long as you keep bringing it up. The high elves are alive. To call them "dead" or "nearly dead" is disingenuous. Especially for a race that can live for centuries.

The developers have cited their near extinction as the lore justification for their absence.

And yet they continue to use them... over and over. And, if the datamining from Shadowlands alpha is any indication, they're about to be used again.

[Primlight]

I like that I'm striking a chord somewhere that is causing lurkers to respond, even people making new accounts lol

1) I think the images posted here

can quite easily be discerned which ones are for blood elves and which one would go to void elves. Especially if one took the time to look at the packed texture for the void elf keyboard turner linked.

2) I only think the current blue eye options are for void elves. The green/teal/gold ones with a clear pupil and iris vs the blue ones with no pupil are very easy to tell apart.

3) While devs have said the new customizations for Shadowlands will be on the original races and not AR. They've already commented that certain things like Draenei tails will be available for LF Draenei.

So at this point I'm not sure what you're trying to angle at. That I'm jumping the gun on thinking new eye colors will come to Void Elves in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new eye colors in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new customizations at all?

Except the fact that the glowing eye textures are not included in that image, only the new dim-colored eye textures that were added into the Alpha. (Golden glowing eyes are not currently active in the alpha) You can see in the picture Kai posted, that both the glowing gold, and glowing blue eye models look identical, making it far more reasonable that these are new colors for the existing "Glowing" eyes we see in game, and not new void elf eyes. Which honestly would make no sense, otherwise they wouldn't have stressed the fact that only core races were getting new options, and I doubt even further that they would add them in such an early build.

While devs have said the new customizations for Shadowlands will be on the original races and not AR. They've already commented that certain things like Draenei tails will be available for LF Draenei.

Which make sense, as the new customization was designed for the normal Draenei in the first place, no new work needed to be done.. These are not newly thought out options just for LFD, so idk why you would expect newly thought options only for Void elves, especially in a build this early.

So at this point I'm not sure what you're trying to angle at. That I'm jumping the gun on thinking new eye colors will come to Void Elves in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new eye colors in the future? Do you believe Void Elves will get no new customizations at all?

I think you're jumping the gun at thinking new eye customizations solely for Void elves have already been worked on and completed in one of the earliest alpha builds in the game. That out of 50+ new options being worked on (and yet to be revealed) that these eyes are not included. Sorry if I stop you from planning you parade a little early.

I mean it'd be one thing if it were only one shade of blue, but there are 8 shades of blue eyes, you have to really stretch your imagination to think that they'd add all those new eye colors solely for an allied race. How would they even justify that to all the other allied races that aren't going to receive anything?

[ravenmoon]

Well Skywall is basically the realm of the Air Elementals, why would such beings would let other mortals in there if they have no real connection to them?

And making a replica of a place that have such a strong connection to the Elementals without having any connection to the Elementals themselves feels weird.

Yes, you are correct fellow. And, I am very aware it is in the elemental plane.


But I am little curious what made you think that I am imagining the High elves to travel to the plane and live there? No, they'd obviously bring it into the physical plane it wasn't going to be a city.

I just thought Skywall would be cool and fit the look for a new High elf city perfectly. Lore is not a problem, in fact it's when you want to do things like that makes lore interesting cos you have to write a how, and why. Excuses like it's in the elemental plane, are not the real obstacles.

If I were a blizzard developer and were going to give the high elves a separate home - if Silvermoon is off the table, I'd use Skywall. If we had the resources and time , might build them their own city,

[Magnagarde]

While I do think that high elves should've been playable in the Alliance since WoW's release(the fact that Metzen originally wanted them playable in the Alliance in TBC, but Blizzard opted to "make the Horde pretty" says volumes), if blood elves do get the blue eye customization then there's not much more to talk about here. That's not to say that the Alliance high elf lore foundation revolves around the color of their eyes because there's quite clearly a whole lot more to it, but it shows a pattern of Blizzard moving in a specific direction.

The heavy lore reasoning and gameplay examples of Alliance high elves are meaningless in Blizzard's relentless steamrolling of their own work and creation. They managed to keep a clean face while retconning Chronicles into titanic propaganda. The high elves stand little chance when compared to these high profile lore stunts of theirs.

[Alixie]

Have ya'll seen the new intros for the Horde races? Oof. They're pretending the atrocities that the Forsaken (and the Horde) have committed, and rewriting them as always being the "unappreciated defenders of the living." No different than normal Humans, just dead. I think they're serious about erasing the last 15 years of Blood Elf history, and writing them as goody two shoes High Elves who never split from their cousins to forge their own (sometimes evil) identity.

With Teldrassil being swept under the rug, all of the other big events, specifically the ones that involve High Elves, could also be swept under the rug or phased out. They could easily pretend that the only "High Elf" presence in WoW are only Blood Elves, and do not exist in the Alliance.

I know there's a few people who would un-ironically enjoy erasing that distinction to justify blue eyes for blood elves, but this sanitization and homogenization should worry fans of other races who will also lose their unique themes and identities. Particularly the trolls, whos introduction has some unfortunate "one of the good ones" implications. And also factually wrong as you can actually play as "other savage tribes" with the new customizations.

[FlubberPuddy]

I know there's a few people who would un-ironically enjoy erasing that distinction to justify blue eyes for blood elves, but this sanitization and homogenization should worry fans of other races who will also lose their unique themes and identities. Particularly the trolls, whos introduction has some unfortunate "one of the good ones" implications. And also factually wrong as you can actually play as "other savage tribes" with the new customizations.

Honestly trolls are gonna troll, they have and they always will. Best not pay them anymore attention. And I think the re-writing of the race intros probably more related to the small blurbs that will be seen during the revamped character creation once one hovers their cursor over a race.

- - - Updated - - -

I wanted to clarify something because I think some people are still confused what I've been saying recently.

Two photos to make my point.



That's a Void Elf with her eyes I just took in-game, just a few mins ago.



This is one of the wowhead blue eyes from their blood elf post.

Notice how similar they look, the data-mined one just lacks glow effect.

That's why I've been saying those freshly datamined eyes looked like Void Elf eyes. Cuz that's the kind of eyes Void Elves have right now, in the game.

And even in the wowhead post you can see the clearly defined iris vs the blue ones having none. Just like Void Elves don't have a clearly defined iris.

So when I say 'it doesn't matter if blue eyes go to blood elves at this point' is because after more of the refinement that keyboardturner did, it's quite clear those blue options datamined aren't for blood elves.

Nowhere am I saying blue eyes aren't coming to Blood Elves, if one paid attention they would know that instead of spouting like a madman on the verge of breaking.

Can blue eyes still be added to Blood Elves? Yeah, duh. But that doesn't mean much because it's shaping up that Void Elves are getting a plethora of blue eye options themselves. Most likely because every single playable race is about to get multiple eye color customization and Void Elves are literally the same model as Blood Elves.

Another look at Void Elf eye color:



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Also at @ravenmoon keyboardturner found some different colorations for Night Elves, blue eyes among them, along with silver and amber (and many others but they don't speculate on what they're not as confident about).

https://twitter.com/keyboardturn/sta...33678480719872

[Alixie]

Agreed. Actually, after I made that post, I went back a few pages and learned that the blue eyes are actually for Void Elves and was relieved. Since Blizz likes throwing lore and race identity to the wind, I assumed the worst and Blizz would not only give Blood Elves blue eyes, but erase High Elves completely with the revamp.

I knew something was off because Helves have visible irises and a light glow, while Blood and Void Elf eyes have almost no distinction between scalera and iris, and have a bright radioactive glow.

[Obelisk Kai]

And we'll continue to go over this for as long as you keep bringing it up. The high elves are alive. To call them "dead" or "nearly dead" is disingenuous. Especially for a race that can live for centuries.

Individual members of a species can live quite lengthy time periods. A Galapagos turtle has a lifespan of what, nearly a hundred years?

They are nearly extinct though, or 'nearly-dead'.

Very few exiles are alive, but the emphasis is on 'very few' rather than 'alive'.

And yet they continue to use them... over and over. And, if the datamining from Shadowlands alpha is any indication, they're about to be used again.

They used what? Two named high elves in BFA? One of whom just opened portals.

As for using them over and over again, well, if the same football team of 11 players is used in 5 matches, there are still 11 players, not 55. And the Silver Covenant has only really been used in two or three expansions over the years. Now we have Void Elves, rendering the Silver Covenant entirely superfluous.

As for 'they are about to be used again', that's not the Silver Covenant NPCs datamined from the phased Icecrown is it? Because the reason they are showing up is that Icecrown has been phased.

[elbleuet]

Obelisk Kai you need to deal with the fact High elves will never go extinct no matter how much it hurts you.

Blizzard decided they won't 15 years ago, confirmed that in TBC with the rise of the blood elves, and later with the introduction of the Silver Covenant.

[Obelisk Kai]

Obelisk Kai you need to deal with the fact High elves will never go extinct no matter how much it hurts you.

Blizzard decided they won't 15 years ago, confirmed that in TBC with the rise of the blood elves, and later with the introduction of the Silver Covenant.

As Blood Elves are High Elves, of course they won't go extinct. As Void Elves are a variant of the high elves, that also means they won't go extinct.

But the topic isn't that the exiles are extinct, it is that the exiles are 'nearly dead'. Which is in fact entirely accurate. They ARE nearly dead. There ARE only a handful of them left. They ARE scattered across the world. And they ARE assimilating into their host societies. That is the canonical status they have. It is the lore rationale for why they were never made playable.

Getting pissed off because someone makes a reference to that canonical, unarguable status that they are nearly dead and then insisting they aren't is simply being ludicrous. It's like getting angry because someone stated the Horde capital is Orgrimmar.

[elbleuet]

As Blood Elves are High Elves

Why are you repeating this every day, every week, every month on every page of this thread ? Are you trying to convince yourself ?
I think everyone here got your point.

But the topic isn't that the exiles are extinct, it is that the exiles are 'nearly dead'. Which is in fact entirely accurate. They ARE nearly dead. There ARE only a handful of them left. They ARE scattered across the world. And they ARE assimilating into their host societies. That is the canonical status they have. It is the lore rationale for why they were never made playable.

This is no longer the case. Blizzard changed its mind long ago. Your souces are outdated, and you know it.
And for the record. There're already blood elves friendly to the Alliance in Telogrus Rift. A logical move since Anduin and Alleria are friendly to them as it was shown in BFA.
That means at least that some blood elves ARE actually coming back to the Alliance. And when they'll get their blue eyes once again, they will fuel the ranks of the high elves already established here.

So High elves will never cease to exist.

Getting pissed off because someone makes a reference to that canonical, unarguable status that they are nearly dead and then insisting they aren't is simply being ludicrous. It's like getting angry because someone stated the Horde capital is Orgrimmar.

I'm not. You seem to be. I'm happy with all we have. High elves, void elves, 2 Windrunners sisters... I can deal with that even if yes, if we can get some high elf costumisations then I would be even more happy

[Uthan]

...
And for the record. There're already blood elves friendly to the Alliance in Telogrus Rift. A logical move since Anduin and Alleria are friendly to them as it was shown in BFA.
That means at least that some blood elves ARE actually coming back to the Alliance. And when they'll get their blue eyes once again, they will fuel the ranks of the high elves already established here.

So High elves will never cease to exist.
...

Maybe the mind control spells the Blood Elf leadership used to keep people from going back to the Alliance are wearing off finally ;P