Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Darththeo]

While High elves are possible to become playable, it is unlikely they will any time soon. Void elves fill that role right now and they would need another race to trade.

[RangerDaz]

While High elves are possible to become playable, it is unlikely they will any time soon. Void elves fill that role right now and they would need another race to trade.

Well, as wildhammers and other troll races are being added to bronzebeards and darkspears, i guess the new blizzard pattern is to crumble subraces in the existing playable races. I would prefer that the silver covenant had their own race, but if they hammer them into the void elves with untainted hair and skin, i wouldnt mind, as it already happened with wildhammers and others.

I would also love Sanlayn and dark rangers to appear in blood elves as well. And while doing this, the farstrider markings could go to blood and void elves as the cherry at the top of the cake

[Darththeo]

Well, as wildhammers and other troll races are being added to bronzebeards and darkspears, i guess the new blizzard pattern is to crumble subraces in the existing playable races. I would prefer that the silver covenant had their own race, but if they hammer them into the void elves with untainted hair and skin, i wouldnt mind, as it already happened with wildhammers and others.

I would also love Sanlayn and dark rangers to appear in blood elves as well. And while doing this, the farstrider markings could go to blood and void elves as the cherry at the top of the cake

Except the Void Elf powers make no sense with a High Elf. Is it possible, I guess but if they are going to add High Elves they should be their own thing.

[RangerDaz]

Except the Void Elf powers make no sense with a High Elf. Is it possible, I guess but if they are going to add High Elves they should be their own thing.

Void elf racials and logging screen make no sense in high elves, i absolutely agree. Maybe a future cosmetic change would help for subraces to get their own racial icons and animations (like changing void to arcane would solve the issue i guess?) and also a new logging screen.

I think Blizzard believes it will be hard to add new races all the time, so it will be better just to add the new races as costumization options to the existing ones?

[Frenchvince]

Void elf racials and logging screen make no sense in high elves, i absolutely agree. Maybe a future cosmetic change would help for subraces to get their own racial icons and animations (like changing void to arcane would solve the issue i guess?) and also a new logging screen.

I think Blizzard believes it will be hard to add new races all the time, so it will be better just to add the new races as costumization options to the existing ones?

With these new customizations Blizzard does not need to explain anything in the lore, for racials and classes it is the same, there will soon be Wildhammer paladins, warlocks or mages, something illogical but now possible. ..so why not the high-elf option for the void elves.
In the end, Blizzard has less work to do and the players have what they want, everyone is a winner.

[Kelthos]

I think they should just give some High Elf customization options to Void Elves if/when they do additional allied race customization as a happy compromise to everyone. At this point I think we need to be realistic: Blizz will not add them as an allied race b/c they've already given the Alliance one blood elf copy. Another one would spark enormous outrage (from me included) if it were to take a slot of something more unique.

MAYBE Blizz could go one step beyond that and implement some sort of tech where if you pick one of the high elf skins your in-game race is shown as High Elf and the visual of the voidy racials are replaced with leaves and new names/icons. But let's be real, Blizz won't do that either.

tl;dr: the most realistic thing anyone should be hoping for is normal skintones, hairstyles, and maybe some tattoo/war paint options for Void Elves in the future. Anything more than that is a bit of a pipe dream.

[Uthan]

With these new customizations Blizzard does not need to explain anything in the lore, for racials and classes it is the same, there will soon be Wildhammer paladins, warlocks or mages, something illogical but now possible. ..so why not the high-elf option for the void elves.
In the end, Blizzard has less work to do and the players have what they want, everyone is a winner.

Except those who don't want something half-assed and have been waiting for Blizzard to properly utilize the foundations they've been building for 15 years, or aren't interested in any of the voidy stuff :P (doubt they'd let us completely disable racials and such).

[Varodoc]

the alliance already has the equivalent of nightborne, they are the void elves

What

Except the Void Elf powers make no sense with a High Elf. Is it possible, I guess but if they are going to add High Elves they should be their own thing.

Just make the portals blue and give an option to disable the voidform from the proc passive. There, you can now RP your void elf as a high elf.

[Frenchvince]

Except those who don't want something half-assed and have been waiting for Blizzard to properly utilize the foundations they've been building for 15 years, or aren't interested in any of the voidy stuff :P (doubt they'd let us completely disable racials and such).

I would also prefer to have the high elves as an allied race rather than as a customization option, but I have the impression that Blizzard is more and more lazy with their way of adding races, I think we will have to settle for personalization because the Thalassian model is already available in the alliance.

[Alixie]

We don't want Alliance blood elves. Screw the blood elves. We want the Alliance high elves that have been part of the Alliance already for several years, and have time and again lent their forces and help to the Alliance, often against the Horde.

BFA made me lose any interest I had in playing Horde. I care too much about the lore that I wouldnt enjoy playing a self righteous Blood Elf paladin with gallons of innocent blood on their hands. Torturing a Naaru, burning down churches and hospitals, bombing Theramore, a city with one of the highest High Elf populations, and Teldrassil. That last one is a doozy because they happily did to the Night Elves what Arthas did to them. Help an undead warlord wipe out an elven city and raise their fallen defenders as undead sent to kill their living survivors.

All of that is specifically Blood Elf history, and cant be erased with some eye color changes. Even if they claim to be holy rollers now. Or worse, claim to be High Elves again. (Which they wont, because their recent heirloom gear quest reminds everyone that they have renounced that name.)

[FlubberPuddy]

More pettiness, surprise surprise.

It's not petty to point out hypocrisy, especially when a game developer is trying to appear 'fair' about something.

And I'm some how the bad guy here? Some of you MF's got some damn nerve.

Attacking someone's argument =/= attacking someone as a person. No one called you the 'bad guy'. If you feel it's getting that personal it may be time to step away from the conversation for a bit.

[Ardenaso]

BFA made me lose any interest I had in playing Horde. I care too much about the lore that I wouldnt enjoy playing a self righteous Blood Elf paladin with gallons of innocent blood on their hands

Well take a good look



Though I can see High Elves doing the same on the Trolls/Orcs like they did in Dalaran to the Sunreavers

[FlubberPuddy]

Except the Void Elf powers make no sense with a High Elf. Is it possible, I guess but if they are going to add High Elves they should be their own thing.

High Elves should definitely be their own. Just like Wildhammer. Same for the different troll tribes too especially when there's already a separation between Darkspear and Zandalari.

But that would most likely be too much work Blizzard doesn't want to do. They already said it would be too many resources to explain the lore for every new option coming in Shadowlands.

I'd rather be able to have some semblance of High Elf fantasy playable than nothing at all. If that means settling for High Elf customizations onto Void Elves I'm all for it.

Who knows, they may be able to be paladins eventually when some sort of 'void paladin' is discovered

- - - Updated - - -

Snip

That's not really disproving Alixie lol but shouldn't have to. Blood Elves are some pretty self-righteous pricks, it's part of their personality and, to some, an appeal.

[Doffen]

Blood Elves are some pretty self-righteous pricks, it's part of their personality and, to some, an appeal.

It do turn me on so yeah.... :P

[Frenchvince]

Who knows, they may be able to be paladins eventually when some sort of 'void paladin' is discovered

Like the Wildhammer Druids, an expected addition for this race.

It wouldn't surprise me to see new race/class combos later.

[Rhlor]

No, the Alliance equivalent of the Nightbornes are the Quel'dorei (High Elves), because they'd give us access to fair-skinned elves the same way Nightbornes give access to purple-skinned elves to the Horde.

Also, it would really be simple to tweak the High Elves model to differentiate them. There is three main ways, one being totally lore friendly as it is, the other requiring a very small retcon which would actually makes more sense than what we have now fort BE and HE.

1. Lore friendly as it is :
Keep the current High Elves skins, but change the skeleton slightly so idle postures and moves are different between BE and HE. That way, it's easy to differentiate them from VE and BE (the VE being carbon copy of the BE with a hasty paint put on them, unlike the Nightbornes who at least look superficially different at first glance).

2. Small retcon needed : the Sunwell doesn't sustain High Elves because they are too far from Quel'Thalas :
It's a retcon which justify the presence of HE pilgrims in Quel'Danil (because if they can feel the radiance of the Sunwell from the other side of the world, they have no reason to risk their lives on a deadly pilgrimage toward a nation which despise them and has allied with the Horde).

Then, it's easy to say that the High Elves have been affected by the effects of not abthing in the Sunwell's radiance for years and :
a) use their skin on a slightly tweaked Nightfallen skeleton
b)create a brand new skeleton to highlight this change

But to say that the Void Elves, who are former Blood Elves, tapes in the exact same fantasy as TBC Blood Elves (without the arrogance) are comparable to the Nightbornes, who are vastly different from their former Kaldorei brethren in term of fantasy (them being the ultra-arcane dependent elves, who refuses to change their ways even after they have broke the world against Kaldorei who have chosen to build a brand new civilization which shuns arcane because it destroyed the world) is a little strange to me.

nightborne use the night elf model, just as void elves use the blood elf model

[Darththeo]

BFA made me lose any interest I had in playing Horde. I care too much about the lore that I wouldnt enjoy playing a self righteous Blood Elf paladin with gallons of innocent blood on their hands. Torturing a Naaru, burning down churches and hospitals, bombing Theramore, a city with one of the highest High Elf populations, and Teldrassil. That last one is a doozy because they happily did to the Night Elves what Arthas did to them. Help an undead warlord wipe out an elven city and raise their fallen defenders as undead sent to kill their living survivors.

All of that is specifically Blood Elf history, and cant be erased with some eye color changes. Even if they claim to be holy rollers now. Or worse, claim to be High Elves again. (Which they wont, because their recent heirloom gear quest reminds everyone that they have renounced that name.)

They didn't understand what the Naaru was and many blood elves did not approve of what was going on.
IIRC, they only burned one church and it is canonly still standing.
We have no idea how they supported the bombing of Theramore, we know some did, only the siege.
Did they do the same thing that Arthas did? I fail to see the scourged land leading up to Teldrissil. They were assuming they were going to capture the city, not raze it?

Don't assume everything the player means that they supported it.

[Ardenaso]

They didn't understand what the Naaru was and many blood elves did not approve of what was going on.
IIRC, they only burned one church and it is canonly still standing.
We have no idea how they supported the bombing of Theramore, we know some did, only the siege.
Did they do the same thing that Arthas did? I fail to see the scourged land leading up to Teldrissil. They were assuming they were going to capture the city, not raze it?

Don't assume everything the player means that they supported it.

Yes. Even Lorash can be considered as an isolated case himself

[elbleuet]

They didn't understand what the Naaru was and many blood elves did not approve of what was going on.
IIRC, they only burned one church and it is canonly still standing.
We have no idea how they supported the bombing of Theramore, we know some did, only the siege.
Did they do the same thing that Arthas did? I fail to see the scourged land leading up to Teldrissil. They were assuming they were going to capture the city, not raze it?

Don't assume everything the player means that they supported it.

The blood elves are still in the Horde after Garrosh destroyed Theramore, Sylvanas comitted genocide in Gilneas and later in Teldrassil whereas the modern Alliance did nothing to them. One of its leader even reignited their sacred Sunwell.

Doesn't mean that they should be in the Alliance either. But the blood elves are Warcraft's worst hypocrites.

[Ielenia]

That 'word play' is a direct quote from the game director. And if you think he is biased, Chris Metzen was fairly interchangeable with the distinction between Blood Elves and High Elves himself.

Whatever the director said or didn't say is irrelevant to the discussion on this thread. The game makes a clear distinction between "high elves" and "blood elves" in the form of separate groups in separate factions with separate names. The lore also already has a name that encompasses both high elves and blood elves: "thalassian elves".

When we say "high elves" in this thread, we are talking about the group of thalassian elven exiles from Silvermoon, aligned with the Alliance, and not the thalassian elves currently aligned with the Horde.

When we say "high elves" in this thread, we are talking about the group of thalassian elves that the game and lore themselves make a clear distinction from their Horde cousins.

When we say "high elves" in this thread, we are talking about the group of thalassian elves currently aligned with the Alliance who are not currently playable.

The context of such is beyond clear to everyone who lays eyes on this thread, because I honestly doubt anyone here lacks the intellectual capacity to understand that. Which is why I am accusing you of being dishonest and trying to "muddle the conversation" with word-play. Because I know you're smart enough to understand the context, and yet you willingly continue to engage in the word-play game to derail the conversation away from whatever new information was brought up.