Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[bobwuzhere1224]

Until the next purge

Blizzard does enjoy rehashing story content from MoP.

[matrix123mko]

Highborne are night elves.
None of those you listed are night elves.
Otherwise, they're all trolls and that is not correct.

I see you are really bad at lore. All of the races I listed are highborne. They even refer about themselves as such.

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yes, the Blood Mage's battle cry is even "by the blood of the Highborne"

Exactly. However, it appears to be not explicit enough for some people.

[FlubberPuddy]

Just a reminder for some Horde posters :

Dalaran is a human/high elven kingdom. I don't think they're too happy with how the Horde deals with human kingdoms in general.

True, but I don't think people are looking for reminders. I think Ion's comment on blue eyes vindicated people who request High Elves because they've had to deal with so long many antagonizers of the High Elf request who felt like they had ownership over the blue eyes and thus kept lording it over because 'eye color is meaningless' and 'why would they keep customizations for NPCs when it can go to actual players' and 'my leaps of logic say that Blood Elves should get the eye colors of the rainbow'.

It is such a frank 180 from what was said in that April Q&A explanation 2 years ago. Btw it's been almost exactly 2 years on the dot when Ion discussed it again.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=283929/...an-allied-race

Should we start having April be "High Elf month"?

"So, Blood Elves kind of are High Elves with different eye colors and backstory in terms of their relationship to magic in the Sunwell. But if you want to be a fair-skinned, light, blonde-haired, tall, majestic, elf...that is a Blood Elf....

...That said, obviously I understand you would love Alliance elves...you're an Alliance player, and want to be a fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed elf. Sorry? The Horde is there and waiting for you. Eye color is not quite the same but maybe contact lenses in the future, you never know? Anything is possible in the future, but no plans in the near-term to add High Elves as an Allied Race."

People lorded over the bold sooooo much, thinking it meant Blood Elves were open to getting blue eyes. Something I never thought when I heard that, but like I said earlier: people have an agenda.

Atm that agenda appears to be venting about Ion's recent comment on blue eyes for blood elves.

[elbleuet]

I see you are really bad at lore. All of the races I listed are highborne. They even refer about themselves as such.

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Exactly. However, it appears to be not explicit enough for some people.

So Satyrs are highborne too ? They're former Highborne, just like the rest.

[FlubberPuddy]

Also kinda curious they seem to have re-opened a couple high elf threads on the US official forums....



I'm really curious on what made that happen. Especially since one of the threads was apparently closed for 19 days before it was reopened lmao (very different from the automated system opening it up after every 24 hours).

[bobwuzhere1224]

Also kinda curious they seem to have re-opened a couple high elf threads on the US official forums....



I'm really curious on what made that happen. Especially since one of the threads was apparently closed for 19 days before it was reopened lmao (very different from the automated system opening it up after every 24 hours).

No one knows how the forum works beyond the discovery by users that mass flagging posts in a thread leads to it getting locked and too many locks lead it to get bugged in a unending cycle of opening and locking itself over and over. This lead to the mass spam of High Elf threads.

[matrix123mko]

So Satyrs are highborne too ? They're former Highborne, just like the rest.

So now they lose their name just because they took some fel? Who is supposed to give races names? Malfurion? I spit on him and his druidism.

[elbleuet]

So now they lose their name just because they took some fel? Who is supposed to give races names? Malfurion? I spit on him and his druidism.

Hum ... Well that's the concept.

When the blood elves took some void, they were no longer Sin'dorei, but Ren'dorei instead.

[matrix123mko]

Hum ... Well that's the concept.

When the blood elves took some void, they were no longer Sin'dorei, but Ren'dorei instead.

They had an ideological split and they aren't loyal to Quel'thalas anymore. But they are Quel'dorei, since they are nobles. Nothing can take noble heritage from you. Even kings cannot do that.

[Aucald]

They had an ideological split and they aren't loyal to Quel'thalas anymore. But they are Quel'dorei, since they are nobles. Nothing can take noble heritage from you. Even kings cannot do that.

That's not actually true. Most medieval monarchs had several levels of dérogeance - up to the revocation of nobility, on both the individual and family line of descent depending on the nature of the royal grievance. Religious disputes seem to be the major cause of revocation of nobility, but heinous deeds or treason against the crown could also cause it.

[Ardenaso]

They had an ideological split and they aren't loyal to Quel'thalas anymore. But they are Quel'dorei, since they are nobles. Nothing can take noble heritage from you. Even kings cannot do that.

they are still loyal to Quel'thalas but not to the Horde. They also probably want Rommath dead.

they seek to bring Quel'thalas to the Alliance like Alleria and Vereesa

[matrix123mko]

That's not actually true. Most medieval monarchs had several levels of dérogeance - up to the revocation of nobility, on both the individual and family line of descent depending on the nature of the royal grievance. Religious disputes seem to be the major cause of revocation of nobility, but heinous deeds or treason against the crown could also cause it.

Then sorry. Thanks for correcting me. I hail from country where king had no authority for most of history.

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they are still loyal to Quel'thalas but not to the Horde. They also probably want Rommath dead.

And Twilight hammer is loyal to Stormwind, just not the Wrynn family.

they seek to bring Quel'thalas to the Alliance like Alleria and Vereesa

They seek a way for Alliance to conquer Quel'thalas.

[Ardenaso]

They seek a way for Alliance to conquer Quel'thalas.

Well if you put it that way, yes

[Alixie]

By who exactly? The forum High elf fanatics? And even if we hypothetically follow that new stupid logic, it'd mean that Bloodelves with golden eyes, are now also another separate race from their green eye ones. Yeah no thanks.

Going by your logic, Alleria is just a High Elf with purple eyes.

If simply being tainted by fel (orcs) or void magic is enough to be considered a new race; then Blood Elves with their history with the Horde, slavery, use of fel, holy, and blood magic, and mana vampirism, should more than qualify. There's more difference between Blood Elves and High Elves, than there are between Alleria and High Elves. We accept simple visual differences to identify every other unique race. Why are Blood Elves the special exemption?

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Good thing you're not

I really think it was. What's funny is before the interview Zoltan and Cinderys asked if Ion could open up to their stream so that he could see the images they put up on there as they went through the interview topics.

During the part about blue eyed blood elves they had also put up an old picture of Vereesa Windrunner with her title of Ranger General of the Silver Covenant lmaoo, so Ion was seeing that as he was answering the question as well

I'm pretty sure the April Fool's this year has been a nod of acknowledgement of them having the High Elf topic in General Discussion forums on their radar as well.

Still don't know if anything more will come out of it, but it was nice to get the confirmation blood elves aren't getting blue eyes with the reasoning that it doesn't make sense for em!

I think the repeated exposure to the arguments, collection of lore and brainstorming of ideas with concept art, clicked. Before, his comments were pretty troll-y and ignorant. But yeah, Im glad that the Head Game Director himself made a firm decision instead of a joke this time. And one that makes sense thematically and literally. Now the writers can confidently write two separate stories regarding the two elf races. Well, I mean they been doing that for years, but now we have updated confirmation that the Blood Elves have evolved separately from their High Elf cousins.

Man, I love the idea of the introduction of the High Elves would be the unification of the High Elf clans, and agreeing to sever themselves from Silvermoon and the Sunwell for good. Sort of like a reverse of the Blood Elf heritage quest line. "We are High Elves no longer/ We are High Elves forever"

[FlubberPuddy]

Bellular made a video where he goes over the interview with Ion recently. The highlight of what he points out:

"Ion said that is a customization that exists for NPCs, not actually one for player characters. So know if you're somebody who is very unhappy at the idea of the Horde getting High Elves before the Alliance, which would be a bit weird, don't worry. It's not actually happening."



Time: ~16:15 mark. 16:30 is when he says the highlighted comment in this post.

Glad to see Bellular even saying it would be weird for Horde to get High Elves before Alliance. He says that a "blue eyed Blood Elf" is basically a High Elf. Him saying that it would be weird for Horde to get those before the Alliance is indirect admission that High Elves are for the Alliance.

Thank goodness Horde High Elves aren't actually happening.

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I think the repeated exposure to the arguments, collection of lore and brainstorming of ideas with concept art, clicked. Before, his comments were pretty troll-y and ignorant. But yeah, Im glad that the Head Game Director himself made a firm decision instead of a joke this time. And one that makes sense thematically and literally. Now the writers can confidently write two separate stories regarding the two elf races. Well, I mean they been doing that for years, but now we have updated confirmation that the Blood Elves have evolved separately from their High Elf cousins.

Yes, I think the request itself was organized so well and brought all the information on High Elves in a very succinct and presentable manner (Alurna Manifesto) that most likely once they sat down with the information they realized how lacking on knowledge that response was. Because when Ion is saying "Blood Elves are High Elves" he's talking about them being a race of high elves. Which is also why he calls into Void Elves being "something like a Blood Elf."

He probably didn't realize at that time that the High Elf request was about a very specific faction of a race on Alliance that calls themselves "High Elves" and continues to work among Alliance ranks despite the majority of their nation being on the Horde. Which is why I keep saying that he's never repeated those comments he said on that April Q&A. Because it shows a misunderstanding of what was being asked for in the first place. People aren't just trying to play a race, they're trying to play a specific sub-faction of a race.

Oh well that's all behind us now ! They've clearly learned since then and Ion's comment on blue eyes not going to Blood Elves because it wouldn't make sense for how they've evolved shows an acknowledgement that High Elves are a different thing from Blood Elves. Increased customizations make it even more likely, and the character creation overhaul leaves a LOT of room for more races to be added down the line.

I remember a certain poster who kept lording over "the Blood Elf story is the High Elf story" which we can now point saying this is not true, likely never was hence why they've kept the groups distinct for so many years already. Blood Elves have been going in a different direction from the High Elves on Alliance for a while. So it makes sense that Ion reinforced that there. It means we can expect more divergence between Blood Elves and High Elves going forward.

Man, I love the idea of the introduction of the High Elves would be the unification of the High Elf clans, and agreeing to sever themselves from Silvermoon and the Sunwell for good. Sort of like a reverse of the Blood Elf heritage quest line. "We are High Elves no longer/ We are High Elves forever"

Yeah that's what makes High Elves interesting to me, that they chose their allies of old over their nation. They had built such a strong bond with their allies that it was stronger than blood. Not unlike in real life where sometimes ties to family are weaker than ties to others.

Unification would be my go to for the High Elves, it brings up their numbers into an even more formidable force than they already are. Can you imagine the Allerian Stronghold coming back? Seeing Alleria? The Highvale running into battle among their Wildhammer allies??

OH the glory!!

[Frenchvince]

Unification would be my go to for the High Elves, it brings up their numbers into an even more formidable force than they already are. Can you imagine the Allerian Stronghold coming back? Seeing Alleria? The Highvale running into battle among their Wildhammer allies??

OH the glory!!

They could also strengthen the ranks of the Silver Covenant by joining it.
I also want to review the Sunreaver vs the Silver Covenant.
There was always interesting content every time these two factions were in history.

[delus]

I think they finally realized the confusion and have decided to go forward with blood elves evolving away from high elves.

[Obelisk Kai]

I think they finally realized the confusion and have decided to go forward with blood elves evolving away from high elves.

No, they simply reinforced a status quo where Blood Elves don't have blue eyes. After all, having a different eye colour was cited as one of the minute differences between the exiles and the Blood Elves that did exist, but didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Blood Elves remain traditional high elves, tied to the sunwell. The exiles are also tied to the sunwell and are moving in the same direction, they simply haven't lost the blue eyes yet. Most Blood Elves haven't lost the green eyes either. The process will likely complete outside of WoW's timeframe.

Blue eyes will probably become a Void Elf thing, to enhance differentiation between the two groups.

[Frenchvince]

No, they simply reinforced a status quo where Blood Elves don't have blue eyes. After all, having a different eye colour was cited as one of the minute differences between the exiles and the Blood Elves that did exist, but didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Blood Elves remain traditional high elves, tied to the sunwell. The exiles are also tied to the sunwell and are moving in the same direction, they simply haven't lost the blue eyes yet. Most Blood Elves haven't lost the green eyes either. The process will likely complete outside of WoW's timeframe.

Blue eyes will probably become a Void Elf thing, to enhance differentiation between the two groups.

They have evolved, which means that they are no longer what they used to be. But we already knew that, Ion didn't need to confirm it in an interview.

[Obelisk Kai]

They have evolved, which means that they are no longer what they used to be. But we already knew that, Ion didn't need to confirm it in an interview.

Species evolve across multiple generations. Individuals metamorphose. Some blood elves metamorphosed into void elves, they did not evolve into void elves. Blood elven society has evolved away from blue eyes, it belongs to their past, one where the sunwell was arcane rather than light dominated. Even the high elf exiles are subject to the influence of the sunwell so it is silly to assume they are somehow immune to the process. The same destiny awaits all members of the same race.