Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[bobwuzhere1224]

Me: "..doesn't mean every iconic faction race got in."

You:


Like some of us have been saying for a while now. People have to twist our own statements in order to have a leg for their statements. I think that's called strawmanning. You should stop that.

Or don't. But the strawman is obvious.

It's called educating you on a point that you are intentionally leaving out because it doesn't fit your narrative. The "high elves" you want to play as are just not as iconic as you think. Otherwise they would be playable instead of Void Elves.

That's just a fact.

[Odintdk]

Considering whom the majority of the thalassian ally with and what their values are ? They don't deserve to trash the High Elves. The Blood Elves are some of the most vilest, despicable beings on Azeroth. The High Elves are better because they have real values and morals and stick to it.

Like, why would you want to play Vichy France when you can play La Résistance ? That's what Blood and High Elves are, and in fact they are even more distinguished that those two sides by now.

I don't play a single Elven character tbh.. everything I play is Orc (and 1 Tauren because druid), but I do know that the Bloodelves have allowed even their High Elf exile brethren to continue using and benefiting from the Sunwell (except those who would straight up corrupt it with their mere presence). If they were as "vile and despicable" as you'd described, wouldn't they cut off those who disagree with their political stances/choices from the Sunwell? Or better yet, prohibit them from entering their kingdom?

[bobwuzhere1224]

I don't play a single Elven character tbh.. everything I play is Orc (and 1 Tauren because druid), but I do know that the Bloodelves have allowed even their High Elf exile brethren to continue using and benefiting from the Sunwell (except those who would straight up corrupt it with their mere presence). If they were as "vile and despicable" as you'd described, wouldn't they cut off those who disagree with their political stances/choices from the Sunwell? Or better yet, prohibit them from entering their kingdom?

I'm positive this is all just Anti-Belf propaganda because of bitterness towards the Majority of the High Elven population having joined the Horde.

[Odintdk]

This. The bulk of the high elf race is on the Horde, it'd make no sense and be unreasonable to offer more high elven options to the Alliance than the Horde. On top of that it'd blur faction lines and blur racial uniqueness to do this (which blizzard have said they wish to avoid both).

Not to mention how many Elf races are ALREADY in the game as choices.

I mean I don't dislike Elves at all, infact I've grown to really appreciate both Nightelves (after fully reading the war of the ancients trilogy) and Bloodelves (after playing Warcraft3/TFT), but we absolutely have enough playable elves, to say the least.

I'm positive this is all just Anti-Belf propaganda because of bitterness towards the Majority of the High Elven population having joined the Horde.

You're probably right. Makes sense really.

[Byleth]

ALRIGHT, IN AN ATTEMPT TO BRING THIS AWAY FROM ACADEMIC ESSAY LENGTH PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT

At a base level, what would you @Obelisk Kai and the rest of you fine folk think of Alliance High Elves but with a slimmer version of the human male model for instance, with tattoos, long ears and all that jazz, or a slimmer version of the Night Elf model? That way they are not just Horde Blood Elves but with blue eyes and tattoos.

Would they be different enough to satisfy Alliance High Elf advocates, and different enough for Horde players to not feel that their Blood Elves are diminished?

I am firmly in the anti-high elf camp myself. But I would be totally fine and cool with your suggestion - In fact it's exactly what I want.

[FlubberPuddy]

The best part about all the anti-helf people who are making trivial, pedantic comments is that what's actually done and said by Blizzard is an entirely different story regarding the High Elf request.

Continuing to make rationalizations hasn't gotten the Blood Elf players what they've wanted for Blood Elves, so it looks very silly to continue doing that. Regardless of however High Elves get implemented.

[Mace]

No, I just enjoy the fantasy given by the darnassian kaldorei and its one that barely tolerates arcane, not false highborne.

if that's the case, then why would you care about those who enjoy and want their highborne night elf fantasy?

Your response would be, "good for you, I just want more druid stuff." So yeh I don't believe you.

I dont care about these small groups living on the past, about illidan or azshara, i care about maiev, tyrande, malfurion and shandris and the society they built, not these delusions you spent an entire text wall typing down

Last time I checked, those groups were very much living in the present. And available in the present.

I care about the night elves that are playable, the ones that are the enemies of nightborne and blood elves and naga.

Indeed, but not for their improvement or building up, because you're a horde fan, your only interest is that the opposition faction elves don't get cool stuff. Or rather stuff YOU find the coolest - which means you don't want them having a magical high civilization side - which you know they have, but you don't want it appearing to the alliance side in game - (can anybody think of why people like him are like this?), and you don't want them having magical demon hunters. You don't' care one bit for Malfurion , Tyrande, Maiev, you're happy with them being secondary, and boring, only focused on one small aspect while your side's elves' boast the best of both the high elf and night elven races.

You're not fooling me.

That ouldnt care less about pretty cities or any of the conventions of the past, that have a natural architectural style that blends with nature with stone foundations saved for the temples or for sturdy fortresses like warsong gulch or feathermoon stronghold.
I don't care about the city that turned their backs on the rest of their people or the city named after an insane woman that sold her followers two times over, with cultures so rotten to the core that they repeat the same mistakes over and over.

Good for you, I'm sure homeless Night elves (if they were real) would agree with you. /s

The cities they supposedly don't care about are the one they mourn so grievously and take vengeance on all responsible for destroying them, whether pre-sundering or pre-BFA ones.

Horde fan speaking up supposedly in the interest of night elves? something is fishy here --- I wonder what...? Not !

Also the moonguard is a praticaly dead group and neutral , nightborne have cut any conection betwen the two with that bubble and now joining the horde, and what do you mean they don't reject the highborne? they are treated like second class citizens that no one cares about if they live or die, even tyrande accepted maiev immediatly after she killed some of them.

I see you're now resorting to making up lore now - "practically dead" "...cut any connection..." "...treated like 2nd class citizens..." "Tyrande accepted Maiev immediately..."

I get you're zealous about the Night elves not having their arcane fantasy . You really don't have to go this far to prove your opposition. I understand it all too well.

If you wanna predict where this will go, you have to start thinking like a developer. This means, realising that it's not only the horde elves that matter or need to be great.

The highborne were accepted for pragmatic reasons, but most night elves probably wouldnt bat an eye if they all died, even those examples of "arcane" are still not the mage like powers they detest, but a druidic and divine take on that energy.

In one sentence he denies the Highborne completely, and in another he now admits they're accepted -- but you said earlier on they were rejected?

You're not being genuine at all, you just saying anything against any alliance elf improvements. Especially if it has the chance to be better than a horde a elf (in your eyes)

those things arent night elven because THE NIGHT ELVES themselves REJECTED those traits, get inside your head that a few alliance/ neutral highborne and a horde alligned city doesnt change that, kaldorei evolved away from those types, while blood elves and nightborne embraced them (wich made them repeat the mistakes of the past to a T and become mana addicts)

The word of yana is that those things aren't night elves. But yes, Alliance and night ef fans need a horde fan to tell them what's a night elf and isn't. We're the TRUE night elves ..

/LMAO

If you are so desperate for the night elves to regress 10 k years and to be nightborne with pastel tones, just play the race and wait for the skin tones.
And you are still missing the point, their dark elven traits are not based on arcane magic, but on their enjoyment of darkness, burrows and a matriarchy, and screaming "omg you must be horde" when someone disagrees isnt a fair picture.|
Especially when i enjoy the kaldorei that exist in the game, and dont have to create entire pages of headcanon to enjoy them

You really have to accept that the Night elves are the original elves, made from the arcane with a very present arcane aspect to them. They have arcane wielders, fel wielders, nature wielders, divine wielders - it's part of their lore, available to them. You denying it or minimising doesn't change that.

ANd you certainly can't change people's desire for it, anymore than you can convince these folks here they shouldn't have High elves.

You don't determine what parts of the lore people like and want to see more, you really don't, stop bashing on what people want. You behave like you have no manners, tell them they shouldn't be, they can't be " and making up all sorts of ridiculous reasons. you should focus more on improving the leves you love and making them interesting than trying to harp on the other faction -- but then you probably take the whole Alliance/horde thing seriously and to heart, which explains this sort of behaviour.

Ah well, I guess we'll have more of these spats down the line. I'll leave you to get wound up though.

[Strippling]

ALRIGHT, IN AN ATTEMPT TO BRING THIS AWAY FROM ACADEMIC ESSAY LENGTH PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT

At a base level, what would you @Obelisk Kai and the rest of you fine folk think of Alliance High Elves but with a slimmer version of the human male model for instance, with tattoos, long ears and all that jazz, or a slimmer version of the Night Elf model? That way they are not just Horde Blood Elves but with blue eyes and tattoos.

Would they be different enough to satisfy Alliance High Elf advocates, and different enough for Horde players to not feel that their Blood Elves are diminished?

That may solve the aesthetic issue but the next issue is then the thematic. They would still be the same high elves who are the same as the blood elves albeit political affiliation. Void elves at least were changed aesthetically and thematically, their whole theme of the void distinguishes them thematically from their kin.

So for me personally, to be different enough to not have blood elves diminished in uniqueness I would be happy with one of two options:

1) make a half elf AR. The half elves can be derived from the silver covenant mixing with humans and are a natural by product (as we see with the windrunner kids). They would still be "the elves who were loyal to the alliance", but would be thematically and aesthetically different. Their story could move away from "high elf" in the sense that the high elf story is ultimately the blood elf story (thus not impeding on blood elves and not blurring racial identity and faction lines), and they could focus more on being a new take on elves (fresh and unique) whilst maintaining the "loyalty" status quo that high elfers want. They could be based off the human model with pointy ears (maybe shorter ears than full elves). It would also be lore friendly as even Elisande recognized this was occurring.

2) have the silver covenant join the void elves but retain the void aesthetic and thematic (aka, no high elf skins for void elves). That way players can RP their void elf who was from the silver covenant, thus always having been the elves that were loyal to the Alliance. This will allow those "alliance loyal elves" to be playable, whilst not impeding on the blood elf aesthetic or thematic.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm positive this is all just Anti-Belf propaganda because of bitterness towards the Majority of the High Elven population having joined the Horde.

Manariel is very anti-belf.. so anything they say regarding blood elves is heavily "polluted" so to speak with an agenda. They don't even realize that not even alliance high elves view blood elves in this same manner... as even Vareesa wishes a reunification with blood elves (in the three sisters comic). WHy would she wish to be reunified if blood elves were viewed as "vile, immoral, evil people". She may wish for them to rejoin the alliance, but the underlying hope of hers still remains the same nonetheless... that she wishes for the exiles and the main high elven society to be banned together once again. This shows there isn't any difference between them, save it be political. They are the same people, and that race is manifested and represented as playable blood elves. It's the crux of this debate, that blood elves are our high elves and as such alliance playable high elves would make blood elves de-facto neutral, would diminish the uniqueness of blood elves and would ultimately blur faction lines (as stated by Ion, the same Ion who high elfers are holding as "word of God" due to the recent no blue eyed blood elves comment. As such, the blurring of faction lines statement should be held to the same authority).

[Manariel]

I don't play a single Elven character tbh.. everything I play is Orc (and 1 Tauren because druid), but I do know that the Bloodelves have allowed even their High Elf exile brethren to continue using and benefiting from the Sunwell (except those who would straight up corrupt it with their mere presence). If they were as "vile and despicable" as you'd described, wouldn't they cut off those who disagree with their political stances/choices from the Sunwell? Or better yet, prohibit them from entering their kingdom?

Really ? Where are those pilgrims when Alleria return to Quel'Thalas ?

As far as we can tell, they aren't there anymore.

I'm positive this is all just Anti-Belf propaganda because of bitterness towards the Majority of the High Elven population having joined the Horde.

The majority of the thalassian population joined the Horde. Not the High Elves. There is clear differences between Blood Elves and High Elves. Get your facts straight, please.

[FlubberPuddy]

The majority of the thalassian population joined the Horde. Not the High Elves. There is clear differences between Blood Elves and High Elves. Get your facts straight, please.

They know this, but they're just going to be pedantic about it anyway. Hell even Ion knows. Hence why he brought up Alleria as an example of a High Elf and not someone like Liadrin/Lorthemar/Halduron/Rommath. It's also why he said players won't get access to blue eyes because that doesn't make sense for Blood Elves due to how they've evolved.

They're kinda just venting at this point and just rehashing their own venting amongst each other. Ion did mongo damage with this statement this past week.

[Manariel]

So for me personally, to be different enough to not have blood elves diminished in uniqueness I would be happy with one of two options:

1) make a half elf AR. The half elves can be derived from the silver covenant mixing with humans and are a natural by product (as we see with the windrunner kids). They would still be "the elves who were loyal to the alliance", but would be thematically and aesthetically different. Their story could move away from "high elf" in the sense that the high elf story is ultimately the blood elf story (thus not impeding on blood elves and not blurring racial identity and faction lines), and they could focus more on being a new take on elves (fresh and unique) whilst maintaining the "loyalty" status quo that high elfers want. They could be based off the human model with pointy ears (maybe shorter ears than full elves). It would also be lore friendly as even Elisande recognized this was occurring.

So it does simply boils down to the appearance of the High Elves. Because there is nothing in the lore save one statement from Elisande (an enemy serving the Burning Legion) which may even indicate that there is more than three Half Elves in existence. And even if Blizzard conjured enough of them to create an Allied/Normal Race, they wouldn't have any culture, any difference, from either the High Elves (thus "blurring faction lines" in term of story) or Humans (meaning the same bland Stormwindian take on them we got).

In that regard, it is far more efficient to tweak the model of the High Elves, since it would be lore friendly (or require only a minor retcon, as opposed to "suddenly there is tons of Half Elves around the world!") and, unlike what so many anti-helfers proclaim, it is war easier to disentangle them from the Blood Elves story by simply having them admit that they wo'nt ever return to Quel'Thalas, don't even want to and have them forge their destiny elsewhere (in the Hinterlands or Loch Modan or even somewhere else).

As a side note, in Three Sisters, it seems rather clear to me that the lie Vereesa said was about the Blood Elves.

2) have the silver covenant join the void elves but retain the void aesthetic and thematic (aka, no high elf skins for void elves). That way players can RP their void elf who was from the silver covenant, thus always having been the elves that were loyal to the Alliance. This will allow those "alliance loyal elves" to be playable, whilst not impeding on the blood elf aesthetic or thematic.

You do realize that having the Silver Covenant joining the Void Elves would make no sense? They refused to join with the Blood Elves because they fed of their mana-addiction off living creatures. There is no way they would willingly join the Void Elves, and there is no way that Void Elves could even replicate their own transformation anyway, since the artifact was destroyed and they have no idea how long it require ones to be infused with what amount of Void energy to be turned into a Void Elves like they were.

[Frenchvince]

The best part about all the anti-helf people who are making trivial, pedantic comments is that what's actually done and said by Blizzard is an entirely different story regarding the High Elf request.

Continuing to make rationalizations hasn't gotten the Blood Elf players what they've wanted for Blood Elves, so it looks very silly to continue doing that. Regardless of however High Elves get implemented.

It is something that they will not be able to do, their pride has taken a hit with the recent words of Ion, they compensate by continuing to say and repeat the same sentences which do not make sense and which do not lead to nothing.
It's really funny to read an anti HE which has been in this thread for a long time, which compares HE to hozen or centaurs, bad faith is at its maximum.

How do you want Blizzard to take them seriously lol, while waiting, they made the right choice.

[FlubberPuddy]

It's really funny to read an anti HE which has been in this thread for a long time, which compares HE to hozen or centaurs, bad faith is at its maximum.

Definitely bad faith. It's like that poster who likes to bring up the single goblin in the SI 'should Alliance ask for High Elves too'. Quite ridiculous comparison to High Elves with their plethora of NPCs and various involvement among Alliance in the story.

Meanwhile when you ask of them to identify what Horde race is parallel to High Elf NPCs they can come up with nothing. No unplayable NPC race has the exposure and continued involvement through various expansions like the High Elves.

How do you want Blizzard to take them seriously lol, while waiting, they made the right choice.

Yeah, if you're someone that would read anti-helf stuff you'd assume Blue Eyes would be a forgone conclusion, High Elves never existed, and that there's no such thing as a Silver Covenant being an Alliance faction.

[FossilFree]

This thread needs more art and less doctoral theses on WoW lore.

[Sharby]

This thread needs more art and less doctoral theses on WoW lore.

Agreed, I can't even be bothered to read the essays anymore I just skip over them. I wanna' see more nifty helf art.

[FossilFree]

Agreed, I can't even be bothered to read the essays anymore I just skip over them. I wanna' see more nifty helf art.

Haha same here! I'm just binging on the class skins thread right now. My art addiction needs sating!

[Obelisk Kai]

You really sound like Ion's comment had a huge effect here in all this spiel you're putting out that you're basically making a story in your head now despite my prior comments being plain for all to see. There's a lot of 'putting words in my mouth' you got going on, I've highlighted them in bold and will respond.

I get the implication you are making, it's not very subtle. You are implying that Ion's comment has unsettled people and they are panicking a as a result. You have said it a few times since the interview. I would argue that is more a mental image of your own creation. It might be a pleasurable fantasy to dip into but it actually doesn't reflect reality.

The reason people are commenting is not because they are panicking but because this is the high elf thread and that was information relevant to this thread. I am sure all the threads that cover topics touched on within the interview saw an uptick in activity as a result of developer commentary. That is the thing about developer commentary, it is real and pertinent information that can reshape debates.

I can assure you that nobody is panicking. I didn't put my head in my hands and cry out that the pro high elf people scored a massive victory. The fact is I laid out the consequences of this outcome several weeks before it actually happened, that IF Blood Elves didn't get blue eyes it wouldn't be to placate a small crowd of high elf npc fans, but would be for reasons of lore. I also laid out the consequences as well, that if blue eyes were denied for reasons of lore, the corollary would be that Void Elves wouldn't be getting normal skin tones as that would similarly violate lore.

1) This point doesn't make sense when we have far more non-elves in the game and it's not as if another elf choice has made its rounds yet. What you're doing here is equating people asking for High Elves to be asking for them "right this moment". That's not the case. That's not the case for any race request as otherwise all those various race requests on the official forums would be shut down.

The point makes perfect sense. Currently there are twenty three options for players to choose in game. This covers two types of humans, two types of dwarves, two types of Gnome, two types of Orc, two types of Troll, two types of Tauren, two types of Draenei and four kinds of Elves. Elven options constitute just over sixth of the total. People who like elves are therefore spoiled for choice compared to those who are fans of other fantasy archetypes.
Those four options are also unique in that they can be divided into two groups based on model, Kaldorei and thalassian, and that unique to the other racial pairs, the allied race is on the opposite faction to the parent. Elf fans are therefore catered to with both models on both factions.

Part of the reason Blizzard got away with presenting reskins as new race options was that they introduced so many in a comparatively short period of time. The roster has expanded by ten options in under two years, the biggest expansion ever. If you didn't like Lightforged Draenei, perhaps the Dark Iron Dwarves introduced a few monthsd later were more to your liking? Yet as Ion also said in the run up to BFA's launch they didn't want to 'overwhelm' the factions with too many choices, they don't want the core identities of the Alliance and the Horde to collapse with too many disparate options. And they certainly wanted to avoid Allied races being an 'expectation'. There will be future Allied races, of that I have no doubt. But they are going to be much, much rarer.

I doubt people will tolerate 'sub-race' options as their standalone new race every four to six years. They'll be looking for something fresh and new, such as the Kul Tiran model and as Blizzard described, that took as much work as all the other Allied races put together. Probably even more so in future given that they'll have to create two pairs of races of that fidelity at any given moment and that they will have to come into the game with a level of customisation options comparable to what the existing races will have after the revamp.

So no, the exiles will not be added as a standalone race. A duplicate of an existing race being added as the brand new race after a four to six year drought may please Alliance high elf fans, but it will enrage the wider Alliance player base who will surely see a priceless opportunity for something new and interesting squandered on something nearly identical to a Void Elf, except with human range skin tones.

Ion mentioned that character customization is never going to end, and that they always want to give people many options to be able to express themselves. The Thalassian model already exists on Alliance now, it's not a new thing anymore. High Elves being requested for Alliance are pretty much iconic at this point, so much that media personalities are echoing the sentiment that it's been asked for a "very very long time".

Except that rationale deliberately ignores two things. The aesthetic you are asking for is the aesthetic currently in use by the Blood Elves, and the reason the Void Elves don't have it is to differentiate them from the Blood Elves. While the exiles are politically different from the Blood Elves, they are biologically identical, and just as blue eyes are being kept unique for Void Elves, so human range skin tones will likely be kept unique for Blood Elves on the same principle.

2) I've already stated the High Elf request isn't just based in its popularity, but by all the organization done by people requesting them and all the evidence they bring because Blizzard continues to put them among the Alliance.

Other posters who have no horse in this have also came and acknowledged as well that people are only requesting High Elves because Blizzard continually utilizes them with a frequency unlike any other NPC race for the greater factions. Don't know why you refuse to acknowledge that fact.

That's what makes the High Elf request above all others, not simply popularity. It's also why the sentiment among some anti-helf people has been to kill off the High Elves in the Alliance. To ensure no more keep showing up to take away another evidence the High Elf request uses to separate itself from other race requests.

The organisation people have done isn't a real factor though. It's invested with importance by those who want high elves in the Alliance because they want to believe what they are doing has some kind of meaning.

I don't acknowledge 'other posters' as you put it simply because you keep citing them. Even in that quote from two years ago before Ion's rejection of high elves, where you were convinced you were about to win, you cited new people coming into the threads supporting it. It's always seemingly new people, or people with no horse in the race, or media personalities who offer a word of encouragement whom you keep bringing up. With new people it's to argue the movement is growing. With 'people with no horse in the race' it's to imply the strength of the argument is swaying people. With media personalities it's to imply if THEY are saying it we must be having an impact. I don't think there are as many new people as you say. I don't think those you argue 'have no horse in the matter' were as undecided as you claim they were and I don't think the media personalities have as much as an impact as you think they do.

If they did, master looter would be back.

Yesterday you lectured me when I used the pronoun 'we' to imply a generality amongst those opposed to this request, quoting lore (the CM not the story)and the importance of the pronoun 'I', yet you consistently attempt to have it both ways by continuous references to a shadowy, ill-defined group of posters that you want to argue constitutes popular support.

The high elf in the Alliance request isn't above all the others such as Eredar or San'layn or Arrakoa because of the 'popularity' of the request. It's because of the visibility. This is the only request that has spawned an opposition because it is an attempt to appropriate a core Horde race to the other faction. It's the continuous drama that these debates have generate that attract people. After all, Arrakoa fans probably don't feel the constant pressure to justify the existence of what they want. They don't feel the need to organise, merely to continually present their request when it comes up and hope one day the stars align. Same for Ogre fans, or Sabreon. No such thing as an anti-any other group, whereas their fans don't need to describe themselves as 'pro' to differentiate themselves.

The truth is, imagined popularity or imagined support won't cut it. Besides, the number of pro high elfers active on the web seems to be in the 700ish range. It always seems to be there. From the petition for the exiles to Mr.GM's Void Elf modification getting likes in the low six hundreds, it always seems to be in this ballpark.

3) If Blizzard believes factions are important then High Elves are a shoe-in seeing as they're known for being extremely loyal to the Alliance. Even the developers acknowledge this in-game with Elisande's comment.

Also just because Void Elves came does not mean High Elves can't come later. Dark Irons didn't stop Wildhammer from coming, different Troll tribes are coming - Zandalari didn't prevent that.

And Blood Elves don't prevent High Elves from being on Alliance, seeing as one of their stand-out visuals (Blue Eyes) isn't going to Blood Elves because "it doesn't make sense" for them.

Except that assumes the high elves are an important part of the Alliance. Lore (the story, not the CM) indicates they are not. They are a minor group on the fringes of the Alliance. And that inverts the evidence we have.

Blizzard has declared factions are important multiple times, from ruling out cross faction play to ruling out the exiles. Once again, as with the idea that Void Elves can get high elf skin tone customisations, the only way you can make this argument is to ignore the existence of the Blood Elves. Void Elves can't get human range skin tones because that is what separates them from Blood Elves. The exiles can't be added to the Alliance as a playable option because they are biologically identical to the Blood Elves and this damages the factions.

The Wildhammer don't violate the factions and are biologically identical to the Bronzebeard, the only real difference is they like tattoos. The Dwarf you play doesn't even have to be a Wildhammer if you have the tattoos, just a Bronzebeard with a Wildhammer fascination.
The troll tribes don't violate the factions and are biologically identical to the Darkspear, the only differences being their skin tones and those can be ascribed to a 'troll skin tone range' analogous to the human skin tone range that is being expanded in Shadowlands.

High Elf skin tones on Void Elves violate the faction barrier, they undermine the reason Void Elves were created in the first place and, as with blue eyes on Blood Elves, they don't make sense in terms of the lore.

High Elves as a standalone race don't make sense because they violate the faction barrier, are a very small variant on the already Alliance available Void Elves and are a waste of an opportunity that will come along every few years and which would enrage the Alliance playerbase.

Neither option appears viable.

The only option that is to play the high elf variant specifically given to the Alliance, the Void Elves and accept that without blue eyes, NOBODY gets to the absolute ideal of a blue eyed, human range skin tone elf. The Alliance gets the blue eyes for Void Elves, the Horde keeps everything else. Seems like a fine tuning of the compromise if you ask me.

[elbleuet]

1) make a half elf AR. The half elves can be derived from the silver covenant mixing with humans and are a natural by product (as we see with the windrunner kids). They would still be "the elves who were loyal to the alliance", but would be thematically and aesthetically different. Their story could move away from "high elf" in the sense that the high elf story is ultimately the blood elf story (thus not impeding on blood elves and not blurring racial identity and faction lines), and they could focus more on being a new take on elves (fresh and unique) whilst maintaining the "loyalty" status quo that high elfers want. They could be based off the human model with pointy ears (maybe shorter ears than full elves). It would also be lore friendly as even Elisande recognized this was occurring.

Unlikely. Only you and a few more are asking for half-elves. Only 3 are known. Not enough to make them playable if you ask me.

Also Elisande can be wrong. You know... When Jaina said the Horde was plotting against the Alliance in MoP, she was wrong.

No one cares about her nor what she has to say.

2) have the silver covenant join the void elves but retain the void aesthetic and thematic (aka, no high elf skins for void elves). That way players can RP their void elf who was from the silver covenant, thus always having been the elves that were loyal to the Alliance. This will allow those "alliance loyal elves" to be playable, whilst not impeding on the blood elf aesthetic or thematic.

You want all the High elves to be dead and you don't know how to proceed ? Am I right ? Haha
This does already exist. Some High elves are seen in Telogrus Rift. And we need the High elves to still be a thing so no don't touch to the Silver Covenant .

[Ardenaso]

Ah, glad to have another in agreement

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm still an anti-helfer

Make no mistake: High Elves are much better being a Void Elf customization option or if you want Paladins, then Stormwindian Human customization option since they're practically blue eyed humans with long ears

[elbleuet]

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm still an anti-helfer

Oh no we're too late... This dude has already been infected by @Obelisk Kai and @Strippling. He may look fine now, but it's just a matter of time before he turns into an anti-helfer monstruosity!

This entire thread must be purged.