Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[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

[Obelisk Kai]

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.

Because it never hurts to remind certain people that what they are asking for is already there.

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.

Oh, would you care to share your sources showing the retcon? I would like to see it. Because I have all these sources in game and out saying the opposite and if you've information I've missed I'd be happy to accept the new lore.

As for the Blood Elves in Telogrus, as well as the high elf wayfarers, seem to be there to swell the ranks of the Void Elves. And a Void Elf, as so many others have pointed out, is 'not what was asked for'. The ranks of the Void Elves are very likley expanding, but not the exiles.
But I am happy you see the Void Elves as supplanting and replacing the exiles. Given that is probably their purpose within the Alliance, it speaks to a job well.

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

Except you inserted yourself into my response to Ielenia, who is most definitely not happy with the restatement of canonical fact. So my response was general.

[elbleuet]

Because it never hurts to remind certain people that what they are asking for is already there.

At this point it does when it is used to taunt other people.

Oh, would you care to share your sources showing the retcon? I would like to see it. Because I have all these sources in game and out saying the opposite and if you've information I've missed I'd be happy to accept the new lore.

Oh, since how much time do you care about the lore in game ? Because you know, IG High elves are everywhere. And IG, Blood elves don't consider themselves as High elves, and High elves clearly make the difference between them and blood elves.

As for the Blood Elves in Telogrus, as well as the high elf wayfarers, seem to be there to swell the ranks of the Void Elves. And a Void Elf, as so many others have pointed out, is 'not what was asked for'. The ranks of the Void Elves are very likley expanding, but not the exiles.
But I am happy you see the Void Elves as supplanting and replacing the exiles. Given that is probably their purpose within the Alliance, it speaks to a job well.

They're just high and blood elves manupulating the void, nothing more Before his transformation, Umbric was just a blood elf playing with the void.
So yeah, some blood elves are deserting Silvermoon to follow the teachings of Alleria and fight for the Alliance. This is an important point, as it shows nothing prevents the blood elves to defect from Silvermoon to fuel the ranks of the Alliance.

Except you inserted yourself into my response to Ielenia, who is most definitely not happy with the restatement of canonical fact. So my response was general.

Oh ok sorry

[Obelisk Kai]

At this point it does when it is used to taunt other people.

If you perceive it as a taunt that is your issue. It is a rebuttal to the never ending insistence from some that high elven exiles and Blood Elves are different people and that Blood Elves are not high elves. And if the statement is good enough for Blizzard to use to make the same point, then that's fine by me.

Oh, since how much time do you care about the lore in game ? Because you know, IG High elves are everywhere. And IG, Blood elves don't consider themselves as High elves, and High elves clearly make the difference between them and blood elves.

Nowhere has it been said in game that Blood Elves have a hostile reaction to being called high elves. That seems to be a headcanon devised by pro High Elfers to mirror the attitude of the single high elf exile in Allerian Stronghold who insisted she wasn't a Blood Elf. If you have any information that suggests otherwise, I am open to seeing it.

As for being 'everywhere' that isn't exactly true. They are present in Dalaran. They are present in Dalaran's Argent Tournament. They are present in Dalaran's Kirin Tor offensive on the thunder isle. They are present at Suramar at the Kirin Tor initiated offensive on the city. They WEREN'T present during the fourth war when Dalaran was neutral though except for one or two we saw about the place. One of which was even important enough to open the portals. But mostly they are seen in relation to Dalaran, and when Dalaran wasn't involved they weren't really seen at all.

The difference between an exile and a Blood Elf is politics. Nothing more, nothing less. Identical biologically, identical culturally and even both yoked to the same Sunwell and so subject to the same physiological changes that come with being attached to a power source of holy-arcane energy. They are as different from Blood Elves as the defias brotherhood mason stiffed for his pay is different from the rich stormwind noble who stiffed him.

They're just high and blood elves manupulating the void, nothing more Before his transformation, Umbric was just a blood elf playing with the void.
So yeah, some blood elves are deserting Silvermoon to follow the teachings of Alleria and fight for the Alliance. This is an important point, as it shows nothing prevents the blood elves to defect from Silvermoon to fuel the ranks of the Alliance.

More likely, in line with Moorgard's recent commentary that nothing is stopping you from headcanoning what ever you want within reason, they are there to facilitate those who wish to argue their Void Elf began as as an exile or a Blood Elf who had a more unique backstory than being one of Umbric's Mages. Besides, until they become Void Elves, they ARE just high and blood elves manipulating the void. Which means selecting the Void Elf option in the character creator does not encompass them, any more than selecting a Lightforged Draenei entitles you to play a pre-lightforged initiate.

[Primlight]

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.

I'm sorry but.. those don't look the same? Certainly not any more similar than the gold eyes Kai posted earlier either. They look like they could literally be a color swap for the gold eyes actually.

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.

Um, I can see the void elf's iris pretty clearly defined in the picture you posted actually, in fact the datamined blue eyes looks even less like the Void elf's eye upon closer inspection. I even went in-game on my void elf and inspected them closely as well, and confirmed it. It's especially apparent when the void elves glances to their sides as well. The blue edges do not look similar either, appearing darker, and more defined than the lines of the Void elf 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.

She didn't do any refinements though? All she did was dig up the same textures Wowhead dug up, and then say "Those look like Void elf eyes" and presented it as some sort of confirmation. Later when confronted about the similarity to the Blood elves golden eyes she quickly dismissed her earlier stance on the datamined textures and admitted that her "main" reasoning was that they didn't come with a blind option like the other colors (despite the fact that many eye color options do not have a blind option on other races either.)

So in the end, she didn't actually bring anything new to the table, and what she did bring she was so uncertain about she couldn't even stick to it under scrutiny. She dug a bunch of assets we've already seen, and made a speculation, which requires no more education than the ability to discern the differences in an image.

Forgive me if I remain unconvinced, as it would take some serious alignment of the stars in order for it to make sense. That out of all the races only the Blood elf folder contained customization options for an allied race. (in such an early build too.) That out of all the allied races, only Void elf customizations were found. That despite Devs stressing that new options were only going to core races, Void elves would still be getting 8 new eye color variations, 1 of which is partially green.

Now it's always been possible they aren't for the Blood elves, I'm not arguing that point, merely that the evidence I've seen hasn't been any more compelling than anything else I've heard on the forums by people with no skills in datamining. Earlier this week I posted a tweet to Danuser about my excitement for the new customizations and how I looked forward to Blue eyes on belves and got a like from him. Now I could have run to the forums posting it everywhere, claiming something with no factual evidence is some irrefutable proof of blue eyes coming to Blood elves, but I didn't.

The same can be said for Keyboardturner and her statements, she is not a Blizzard employee, everything she says is susceptible to interpretation and possible bias. The point is no one should be planning their ticker tape parade before anything is officially announced.

[elbleuet]

If you perceive it as a taunt that is your issue.

Your behaviour on this thread is the issue of a lot of people apparently.

Nowhere has it been said in game that Blood Elves have a hostile reaction to being called high elves. That seems to be a headcanon devised by pro High Elfers to mirror the attitude of the single high elf exile in Allerian Stronghold who insisted she wasn't a Blood Elf. If you have any information that suggests otherwise, I am open to seeing it.

Then I suggest you to read Day of the Dragon, and do the Purge of Dalaran questline.

As for being 'everywhere' that isn't exactly true. They are present in Dalaran. They are present in Dalaran's Argent Tournament. They are present in Dalaran's Kirin Tor offensive on the thunder isle. They are present at Suramar at the Kirin Tor initiated offensive on the city. They WEREN'T present during the fourth war when Dalaran was neutral though except for one or two we saw about the place. One of which was even important enough to open the portals. But mostly they are seen in relation to Dalaran, and when Dalaran wasn't involved they weren't really seen at all.

They're also present in Stromgarde, Outland, Stormwind, Kul'Tiras, the Hinterlands, off the coast of Theramore, Wintergarde Keep, the Ghostlands, the Borean Tundra, the Farstriders Lodge in Loch Modan and in various places in Kalimdor.

They WEREN'T present during the fourth war

Oh you mean just like the blood elves who didn't bother sending their own troops during the 3 main battles of the Fourth war ?

he difference between an exile and a Blood Elf is politics. Nothing more, nothing less. Identical biologically, identical culturally and even both yoked to the same Sunwell and so subject to the same physiological changes that come with being attached to a power source of holy-arcane energy. They are as different from Blood Elves as the defias brotherhood mason stiffed for his pay is different from the rich stormwind noble who stiffed him.

I told you countless times I considered the blood elves and the high elves to be part of the same race. Are you practicing a selective read?

Besides, until they become Void Elves, they ARE just high and blood elves manipulating the void.

Or you can also refer to the facts. That's just what I said actually. So the Alliance has also blood elves in her ranks.