Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Thalassian Bob]

Well there are dumb arguments on both sides, so at least we are united on that front.

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Forever heartbroken about this tbh. It has been 8 expansions and they still can't add a hood for Hunters that just uses that vanilla model jesus christ.

I hate that hood so freaking much. The shape sucks, and... why is it scaled like the rest of the armor? Make it a coif then! And the exaggerated sheen.

Hate it.

Much prefer the WoD hoods, but sadly they are limited to red, blue and green, so no fitting for a Dark Ranger.

Now, see, I'm not keen on the shape of the WoD ones at all. They've got the right clothy look, but I don't like how they come to a point.

I agree 100% that it's stupid that the LK ones are metallic and have that seemingly gilded rim, but I like the shape of them on blood elves. Goes to show how subjective taste is, I suppose!

Maybe with all the doom and gloom of the Shadowlands, we'll at least get a hood similar to the Dark Lady's new one. Fingers crossed!

They should at least make certain equipment full cosmetics, like most of the Cloth hoods.

That would be nice!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Now, see, I'm not keen on the shape of the WoD ones at all. They've got the right clothy look, but I don't like how they come to a point.

I agree 100% that it's stupid that the LK ones are metallic and have that seemingly gilded rim, but I like the shape of them on blood elves. Goes to show how subjective taste is, I suppose!

Maybe with all the doom and gloom of the Shadowlands, we'll at least get a hood similar to the Dark Lady's new one. Fingers crossed!

Yeh, the shape of the scaled one isn't that bad on elves tbh, nut the texture really kills it for me.

And honestly, I would kill my Dark lady endless times if I could get that sweet Shadowlands hood of hers

[Strippling]

In fairness I don't think warcraft content developed by third parties is strictly relevant. These guys depict Tyrande on the box cover as a mage for example, given the shape of the eneriges around her hands are clearly casting Arcane Blast.

But I don't believe that it needs to be stated that blood elves are the high elf option of Warcraft. That has been stated enough time across the past fifteen years ago that it should be regarded as the default.

I understand is was created by a third party. I was just interested at the fact that a third party creator views the high elf race as a feature of the Horde. Blizzard views the high elf race as a feature of the Horde and so does a majority of the community. It seems to be only the HE fans who think that blood elves are no longer high elves and that they do not represent the high elf race. It's very disingenuous to think as such, and given even a third party host can understand that blood elves are the high elves and that night elves are the core elf race to the Alliance speaks loudly.

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Blood elves. They're blood elves. You know ... Fel corrupted Thalassian elves.

High elves aren't playable yet. I hope they will.

A fel corrupted elf is a felblood elf. Blood elves are not corrupted by fel.

Also, blood elves are high elves. They are THE main high elven group in WoW, they are the representation of the high elf race. As such, the elf featured on the box is featured with the Horde and is a blood elf who are our high elves (as detailed by Chris Metzen)

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That is Blood Elf. Not High Elf.

Green Eyes are kinda telltale sing of Blood Elfism.

I know it's a blood elf. I also know that blood elves are our high elves, hence why the high elf race is featured with the Horde while the night elf race is featured with the Alliance. It's an accurate representation of where each race sits, the night elf race being core to the Alliance and high elf race being core to the Horde.

[matrix123mko]

I would edit that statement's language though, how can blizzard have no idea what the races awere going to look like when they determine that?

At time of Warcraft 3 they often made things quickly, as they didn't matter that much. You can see how they made night elf ruins mezzoamerican, which looks as if they just wanted to make ruins and that was sufficient for that goal. Dwarves got human buildings because they didn't matter enough to get their style. Draenei looked how they looked, although they rewrote their story in BC. As a concept artist, I know that sometimes you just put whatever as a look of a character and you go on because it doesn't matter.
You can see inconsistencies with high elf/blood elf designs in many places. Sorceress is the only unit with pupils. Spellbreaker and bloodmage have iconic elf eyebrows while priest and dragonhawk rider doesn't.

Perhaps it's more accurate to say the moved away from that old concepts to this new glowy eye one.

Then they moved pretty quickly, as you can see blood elf workers with glowing green eyes in Frozen Throne.

I do prefer it when only Night elves had glowy eyes, and for me it would have been better if Thalassian elves had normal eyes, but the iris's glowed when they were using magic - and this was only the case with Thalassians and humans. Void elves I think have good justification for permanent glow. So do blood elves.

I disagree. Humanising high elves is not a good idea. They are immortals with powerful font of power.

DKs should have glow

All sentient undead should.

DHs should have glow

This one depends on their bandana.

Nelves & nightborne should have glow
Belves should have glow (faint one though indicating low fel corruption)

Let's face it. You want to downplay power of Sunwell and Fel, although they dwarf your pathetic moonwells.

But high elves should be normal.

No. They should not. They are not half elves yet.

Worgen? - hmm, some, not all (few npcs, lock, druid, mage npcs mainly)

I like their faint glow. It makes them feel more bestial and powerful. However, I would like it to remain in human form, like with reptilian.

Forsaken? - few (priest npcs mainly -option available on CC for players though)

They are infused by powerful magicks.

Draenei - normal

They are the most powerful race in the universe. They consumed more arcane in their lives than night elves will ever do. They should have glowing eyes that would shoot lasers on Nordrassil from Exodar.

Zandalari normal

No. Their glowing eyes show their superiority as the highest caste of trolls.

Dark Iron normal

Fiery red is a must.

Mechagnome normal

Depends whether they have eyes.

Humans and Helves should have glowing irises when using magic
Draenei should get full eye glow when using magic

No. That should go for fully pathetic mortals like orcs(after killing Mannoroth) and humans.

[Strippling]

And honestly, I would kill my Dark lady endless times if I could get that sweet Shadowlands hood of hers

Haha, same here

[Obelisk Kai]

I understand is was created by a third party. I was just interested at the fact that a third party creator views the high elf race as a feature of the Horde. Blizzard views the high elf race as a feature of the Horde and so does a majority of the community. It seems to be only the HE fans who think that blood elves are no longer high elves and that they do not represent the high elf race. It's very disingenuous to think as such, and given even a third party host can understand that blood elves are the high elves and that night elves are the core elf race to the Alliance speaks loudly..

Blizzard has been quite clear that they view Blood Elves as the de facto High Elves of the franchise, so I assume any material or assistance given to the third party company merely corroborated the fact. Had Blizzard simply left Blood Elves calling themselves high elves within the rise of the blood elves campaign of warcraft 3, I really doubt this debate would have gotten off the ground. I suspect they only renamed the high elves because they thought blood elves sounded cooler, it's an almost Metzenian flourish I can easily imagine him doing without being aware of what the consequences would be (and how could he?).

Still, blood elves are high elves. Numerous citations attest to this fact. The one difference that stands is that the exiles have blue eyes. Yet a blue eyed exile is as much a different race from a Blood Elf as a green eyed Blood Elf is from a golden eyed Blood Elf. Eye colour among the high elves (who aren't void elves) is reflective of circumstances and is mutable. They all gained blue eyes initially from being connected to an arcane sunwell. Those who remain in Quel'thalas gained green eyes due to the presence of fel crystals and now some are gaining golden eyes due to their devotion to the light and connection to a holy sunwell. The eye colours are a universal quirk of the species, rather a differentiating factor.

[ravenmoon]

At time of Warcraft 3 they often made things quickly, as they didn't matter that much. You can see how they made night elf ruins mezzoamerican, which looks as if they just wanted to make ruins and that was sufficient for that goal. Dwarves got human buildings because they didn't matter enough to get their style. Draenei looked how they looked, although they rewrote their story in BC. As a concept artist, I know that sometimes you just put whatever as a look of a character and you go on because it doesn't matter.
You can see inconsistencies with high elf/blood elf designs in many places. Sorceress is the only unit with pupils. Spellbreaker and bloodmage have iconic elf eyebrows while priest and dragonhawk rider doesn't.


Then they moved pretty quickly, as you can see blood elf workers with glowing green eyes in Frozen Throne.


I disagree. Humanising high elves is not a good idea. They are immortals with powerful font of power.

All sentient undead should.

This one depends on their bandana.

Let's face it. You want to downplay power of Sunwell and Fel, although they dwarf your pathetic moonwells.


No. They should not. They are not half elves yet.

I like their faint glow. It makes them feel more bestial and powerful. However, I would like it to remain in human form, like with reptilian.

They are infused by powerful magicks.

They are the most powerful race in the universe. They consumed more arcane in their lives than night elves will ever do. They should have glowing eyes that would shoot lasers on Nordrassil from Exodar.

No. Their glowing eyes show their superiority as the highest caste of trolls.

Fiery red is a must.

Depends whether they have eyes.


No. That should go for fully pathetic mortals like orcs(after killing Mannoroth) and humans.

Believe it or not I think glowing eyes look weird on normal looking people with our skin shades and appearance.

It fits night elves but I guess that's because they were introduced with this.

I am not downplaying Thalassians at all, I genuinely think normal eyes look better. It fits void elves because they remind me of night elves because they have purple skin and unique non human like hair, makes them look magical.

DKs fit too, they are not just regular undead but powerful ones, they feel powerful magical super human.

Draenei I feel need normal eyes to look less alien funnily enough, they dont necessarily strike me as magical creature, but as aliens, however for their power levels, I felt glowy eyes were too much.Man'ari Eredar should have them but not regular Draenei. And your arcane comparison to Nelves doesnt make sense, Nelves are a race born out of the arcane and infused with it their entire existence, Draenei have some powerful sorcerers but many who do other things. The Man'ari are infused with super power. Anyway just sharing my thoughts on them. New races are often given glowy eyes for the cool factor rather than any meaningful thing from their lore.

Worgen are definitely magical creature, so it fits some, however normal is also good as it is a powerful sign of their humanity. Wolves dont have human eyes, but as lycanthropes, worgen should, while others think can have magical eyes if magical, what would be cool for worgen is if there yes can glow in the dark only.

Forsaken should almost always have either no eyes look I always found by far the coolest or that blind eyes look coming in the new customisation, I think it's okay for them to have creepy sick like glow, but it shouldn't be the norm, almost like something faint in the back. Now the undead armies controlled by the Lich kingmaker sense to have glowy eyes, and they do when he empowers them as seen in the WotlK cinematic, but forsaken? Death empowering them, shouldnt that equate to black eyes? Does it have to visibly show? They didnt have glowy eyes in wc3, unless you are a banshee in a corpse, its overkill imo.


Blood elves are fine with green glow, I didnt like it too powerful because of how I view Thalassians. But a distinguishing factor between them and high elves could be the powerful glow, ut I think it can vary. If blood elves can disguise as high elves, then the lightning cant be too intense.

[Thalassian Bob]

Yeh, the shape of the scaled one isn't that bad on elves tbh, nut the texture really kills it for me.

And honestly, I would kill my Dark lady endless times if I could get that sweet Shadowlands hood of hers

Well, I think it'd be right for us to put her out of her misery at this point. She's more of a catalyst than a character these days.

[Lahis]

I know it's a blood elf. I also know that blood elves are our high elves, hence why the high elf race is featured with the Horde while the night elf race is featured with the Alliance. It's an accurate representation of where each race sits, the night elf race being core to the Alliance and high elf race being core to the Horde.

High Elves are still Alliance. No amount of headcanon can change that.

[matrix123mko]

Believe it or not I think glowing eyes look weird on normal looking people with our skin shades and appearance.

I think it looks pretty great on blood elves in game and on most of arts. It only looked bad in Warcraft: Beginning, where elves had 30 seconds of screen time.

It fits night elves but I guess that's because they were introduced with this.

If we go for Warcraft 3, the game that defined(Warcraft 2 has only shown us a subfaction of Quel'thalas in form of one unit; nothing noteworthy, just like mention of gnomes) all elf species, the first high elf that we see is priest with glowing eyes.

I am not downplaying Thalassians at all, I genuinely think normal eyes look better. It fits void elves because they remind me of night elves because they have purple skin and unique non human like hair, makes them look magical.

And I think lack of eye glow on high elves would make them look not magical at all.

DKs fit too, they are not just regular undead but powerful ones, they feel powerful magical super human.

They are something like that.

Draenei I feel need normal eyes to look less alien funnily enough, they dont necessarily strike me as magical creature, but as aliens, however for their power levels, I felt glowy eyes were too much.Man'ari Eredar should have them but not regular Draenei. And your arcane comparison to Nelves doesnt make sense, Nelves are a race born out of the arcane and infused with it their entire existence, Draenei have some powerful sorcerers but many who do other things. The Man'ari are infused with super power. Anyway just sharing my thoughts on them. New races are often given glowy eyes for the cool factor rather than any meaningful thing from their lore.

Draenei are born of arcane too. They lived on Argus consuming his blood, just like night elves. They are like space version of elves and they are powerful arcanists by their nature. Unlike night elves, they have never tried to severe connection to arcane.

Worgen are definitely magical creature, so it fits some, however normal is also good as it is a powerful sign of their humanity. Wolves dont have human eyes, but as lycanthropes, worgen should, while others think can have magical eyes if magical, what would be cool for worgen is if there yes can glow in the dark only.

I would quite like Witcher eyes for worgen. On both forms.

Forsaken should almost always have either no eyes look I always found by far the coolest or that blind eyes look coming in the new customisation, I think it's okay for them to have creepy sick like glow, but it shouldn't be the norm, almost like something faint in the back. Now the undead armies controlled by the Lich kingmaker sense to have glowy eyes, and they do when he empowers them as seen in the WotlK cinematic, but forsaken? Death empowering them, shouldnt that equate to black eyes? Does it have to visibly show? They didnt have glowy eyes in wc3, unless you are a banshee in a corpse, its overkill imo.

In Warcraft 3 zombies had golden eyes.

Blood elves are fine with green glow, I didnt like it too powerful because of how I view Thalassians. But a distinguishing factor between them and high elves could be the powerful glow, ut I think it can vary. If blood elves can disguise as high elves, then the lightning cant be too intense.

We can only go in a way that a high elf that hasn't used magic for years could have weaker eye glow but still, that would mean that night elves should also look their eye glow.

[Obelisk Kai]

Well, I think it'd be right for us to put her out of her misery at this point. She's more of a catalyst than a character these days.

Sylvanas's narrative seems to be nearing a conclusion. She's made her big play, we know what her secret was and what she has enabled, she'll likely come face to face with Arthas in some capacity during the course of the expansion.

All that is left to be determined is whether she will be like Queen Azshara, the final boss of a mid-tier raid, or whether she will betray the Jailer and be the final boss of the expansion. I suspect the former.

[elbleuet]

I know it's a blood elf. I also know that blood elves are our high elves, hence why the high elf race is featured with the Horde while the night elf race is featured with the Alliance. It's an accurate representation of where each race sits, the night elf race being core to the Alliance and high elf race being core to the Horde.

You're approximatively 13 years late. This has been this way since their introduction in 2007. Night elves = Alliance elves and Blood elves = Horde elves.

Also Blood elves don't consider themselves as High elves anymore. Alliance Thalassian elves do.

Can you tell me why we said farewell to the Alliance High King in thalassian ?

Is there an equivalent in the Horde where we say good bye to Vol'Jin or Saurfang in Common or Darnassian ?

[FlubberPuddy]

It's never been about having a race option, if that were the case then Void Elves, who are also high elves, would've ceased the High Elf request or pretty much killed it. But instead all it did was make the High Elf request "louder" (in the sense it has grown) and more organized.

Just like majority of players weren't going around and saying Wildhammer are playable back in Cata when Dwarf Shamans are a thing, because the aesthetic look matters. Whereas now once the tattoo options were previewed at Blizzcon and even Ion saying so "now your dwarf can be a Wildhammer" is admission that the AESTHETIC PACKAGE is doubly important, not simply access to a race option.

Focusing on the race option is just because those against High Elves have no good arguments against them.

Blizzard has even indirectly acknowledged in 2020 the request still ongoing by referencing it during their April Fool's this year. And I do believe that the information found within the request is what led to Blood Elves not getting blue eyes. As 2 years ago Ion jokingly said a statement that people assumed meant blue eyes were coming to blood elves.

If Blood Elves still kept the 'High Elf' moniker, then presumably the High Elves who still call themselves High Elves now would've had a different name. As that's the entire reasoning they 'took back the name "High Elf"' to identify differently from their brethren who call themselves Blood Elves. This would've actually helped the High Elf request because it would give even less to the anti-crowd who keep Red Herring the request by focusing on the name of the race while the request always been about a specific group (or clan in other words, like Wildhammer) that already exists on the Alliance.

[ravenmoon]

I think it looks pretty great on blood elves in game and on most of arts. It only looked bad in Warcraft: Beginning, where elves had 30 seconds of screen time.

If we go for Warcraft 3, the game that defined(Warcraft 2 has only shown us a subfaction of Quel'thalas in form of one unit; nothing noteworthy, just like mention of gnomes) all elf species, the first high elf that we see is priest with glowing eyes.

presumably because the priest is using magic, however there were lots of portrayals of them didnt have glowy eyes as well,

And I think lack of eye glow on high elves would make them look not magical at all.

I guess it's because I think of them differently, more like humans possessing great magical ability and acumen, but not a magical creature inherently like a view the night elf...now that's just my view of it. As elves, devolved from night elves, they are elves, but they are not quite the same or quite as powerfully constituted as the original elf, they lost alot naturally in the exile, which is why they are very similar to humans, coming off as idealised versions of them . They generated their own magic, the love for it is in their elven DNA, but they are not filled internally with arcane power on a genetic level like the night elf, so they glow magically only when suffused with the Sunwell or in its absence another magical source like fel Crystal's or the light side of the new sunwell. I personally think of it that way, besides eyes you cant see irises in just look weird on normal human or very near human people - purple people dont strike me as normal people category.

Draenei are born of arcane too. They lived on Argus consuming his blood, just like night elves. They are like space version of elves and they are powerful arcanists by their nature. Unlike night elves, they have never tried to severe connection to arcane.

Draenei have no record of a massive hole in their planet with lifeblood capped, and that lifeblood actively remaking and rebuilding one of its sentient in heightened arcane magical beings, whose racial signature is magical affinity . The Naaru, light beings, used Ata'mal Crystal's to enlighten the Draenei, and they gifted and intelligent grew in many areas, not just magic, to a better level than the elves, I guess they are much older and were at it a lot longer than the elves have been. But nothing about being born of the arcane, that is the elves' origin story, not the Draenei, not the orcs, not the humans, not the trolls etc, just the elves.


I

n Warcraft 3 zombies had golden eyes.

not all undead did.

We can only go in a way that a high elf that hasn't used magic for years could have weaker eye glow but still, that would mean that night elves should also look their eye glow.

Night elves are connected to the well of eternity directly, they have this inner power from it as a racial trait whether they use arcane magic like the Moonguard night elves or highborne other abstained for 10k years like most of the Darnassians.

It's why they didnt lose the glow when the well imploded and still have it despite the Well not being used to cast magical spells. Nit the same as high elves who without the Sunwell, it's all gone.

[Thalassian Bob]

Sylvanas's narrative seems to be nearing a conclusion. She's made her big play, we know what her secret was and what she has enabled, she'll likely come face to face with Arthas in some capacity during the course of the expansion.

All that is left to be determined is whether she will be like Queen Azshara, the final boss of a mid-tier raid, or whether she will betray the Jailer and be the final boss of the expansion. I suspect the former.

Yeah, I think you're probably right regarding her fate as a mid-tier boss.

I held out hope for Sylvanas for so long. For years, I was this guy!



But, since Cataclysm, Blizz has walked Sylvanas further and further down the road of hypocrisy. The curse that she spent so long lamenting she began ever-increasingly inflicting upon others. One could argue that during the events of Cataclysm, those raised into undeath had the choice to live on in undeath or return to the grave, but by BfA, even that facade of agency was abandoned and she was transformed into the figure she dedicated her unlife to defeating.

It's irritating to have those who derided Sylvanas from the get-go be vindicated now. =/ At least she got the chance to shit on Vereesa and Alleria and their double-standards in that dreaful Three Sisters comic before we finally put the old girl in the ground for good.

[Broflake]

Also Blood elves don't consider themselves as High elves anymore. Alliance Thalassian elves do.

Heritage quest says otherwise. They have preserved their culture and returned to their ways prior to the sunwell being destroyed. They certainly consider themselves high elves, their name is meant solely to represent the honoring of the dead. Not sure why this is even being stated given the nightborne quest and lorthemar stating "we value the ways of our people.".

Can you tell me why we said farewell to the Alliance High King in thalassian ?

Red herring that is entirely irrelevant given that blood elves also speak Thalassian. Seriously, what relevance does this have to anything?

Is there an equivalent in the Horde where we say good bye to Vol'Jin or Saurfang in Common or Darnassian ?

Again, entirely irrelevant.

Blood elves are high elves. They have the culture, language, and everything else associated with them prior to the name change of WC3. Arguing otherwise is disingenuous. If anything, you should be saying that the high elves represent a change. Which is ironic that those who changed their name preserve the high elf ways, and those calling themselves high elves are leaving behind well...what was high elf in the first place.

[Obelisk Kai]

Yeah, I think you're probably right regarding her fate as a mid-tier boss.

I held out hope for Sylvanas for so long. For years, I was this guy!



But, since Cataclysm, Blizz has walked Sylvanas further and further down the road of hypocrisy. The curse that she spent so long lamenting she began ever-increasingly inflicting upon others. One could argue that during the events of Cataclysm, those raised into undeath had the choice to live on in undeath or return to the grave, but by BfA, even that facade of agency was abandoned and she was transformed into the figure she dedicated her unlife to defeating.

It's irritating to have those who derided Sylvanas from the get-go be vindicated now. =/ At least she got the chance to shit on Vereesa and Alleria and their double-standards in that dreaful Three Sisters comic before we finally put the old girl in the ground for good.

Sometimes a bad egg is a bad egg and not everyone needs or deserves a redemption plotline. Sylvanas's plotline is at least cogent, a single minded focus on the preservation of her people and getting revenge on Arthas culminating in his death. Her pact with the Jailer following her suicide is clearly where she crossed the moral event horizon after all. Edge of Night depicted it was her own inevitable fate that began to gnaw at her, and even though the Val'kyr bought her some extra time they would inevitably be expended. Concern for her people slowly morphed into concern for herself, and every action taken ostensibly to 'defend the Horde' and 'defend the Forsaken' was actually aimed at increasing the number of casualties going into the maw so as to feed her powers.

Perhaps the years long alliance with the Jailer darkened her further from where she began, or maybe she really was immune to redemption all along, but I feel her arc is mined out. The worst thing to do with any character is to keep them on past their sell by date simply because some don't want to let them go. Like those players who wanted the Lich King to survive wrath, oh we'd face him at the top of ICC and we'd beat him but with a flourish of his cape, a twirl of his moustache and a cackle of laughter he would flee into the night ready to challenge us again. That would have been a terrible disservice to the character, just as preserving Sylvanas a whit longer than necessary would be a similar tragedy. Her story is almost over and we must hope it is a good one.

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Heritage quest says otherwise. They have preserved their culture and returned to their ways prior to the sunwell being destroyed. They certainly consider themselves high elves, their name is meant solely to represent the honoring of the dead. Not sure why this is even being stated given the nightborne quest and lorthemar stating "we value the ways of our people.".

You know I have seen this mentioned a few times. That Blood Elves don't like being referred to as high elves, or take offence at being called high elves. I am aware of no examples of such an occurrence happening. I am happy to be corrected of course, warcraft lore is vast so perhaps there are examples that have occurred, but it seems what has happened is that the idea that high elves are annoyed at being called blood elves (which i think has one example) has been taken by some players who assume that the opposite, blood elves being called high elves, is equally true.

Frankly, as you demonstrate in your post, this doesn't seem to be the case. I think the Blood Elves regard the name as a part of their heritage, it doesn't deny that they are high elves considering what a huge part being a high elf is to blood elf identity, but blood elf identity is that patina of sorrow and remembrance overlaid on what was and in almost every regard, still is.

[Kyriani]

As an aside, I don't think Sylvanas will end up being a raid boss or even killed in Shadowlands. I think she's too popular for that. What I think might happen is that she'll end up taking the Jailer's place in the Maw, becoming some sort of "master over death" entity. In this way she could never be trapped in whatever "hell" she foresaw when she leapt from Icecrown because she would become the one responsible for sticking souls in those "hells".

In this way Blizzard gets to keep using her (since she's popular) and avoid raid bossing yet another Horde faction leader. They could also then say "See? She's not Garrosh 2.0!". Obviously that's all pure speculation on my part.

[Broflake]

As an aside, I don't think Sylvanas will end up being a raid boss or even killed in Shadowlands. I think she's too popular for that. What I think might happen is that she'll end up taking the Jailer's place in the Maw, becoming some sort of "master over death" entity. In this way she could never be trapped in whatever "hell" she foresaw when she leapt from Icecrown because she would become the one responsible for sticking souls in those "hells".

In this way Blizzard gets to keep using her (since she's popular) and avoid raid bossing yet another Horde faction leader. They could also then say "See? She's not Garrosh 2.0!". Obviously that's all pure speculation on my part.

I can see that, and I am sure many would be upset about it. I figured it would be the case given her "we will all be free" statement

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You know I have seen this mentioned a few times. That Blood Elves don't like being referred to as high elves, or take offence at being called high elves. I am aware of no examples of such an occurrence happening. I am happy to be corrected of course, warcraft lore is vast so perhaps there are examples that have occurred, but it seems what has happened is that the idea that high elves are annoyed at being called blood elves (which i think has one example) has been taken by some players who assume that the opposite, blood elves being called high elves, is equally true.

Frankly, as you demonstrate in your post, this doesn't seem to be the case. I think the Blood Elves regard the name as a part of their heritage, it doesn't deny that they are high elves considering what a huge part being a high elf is to blood elf identity, but blood elf identity is that patina of sorrow and remembrance overlaid on what was and in almost every regard, still is.

As far as I know, there hasn't been a time where the blood elves were offended being called a high elf. It wouldn't make any sense for them to be offended unless someone insisted on calling them that despite knowing the significance of the blood elf title.
I know there is one case in TBC where a high elf goes "im not a blood elf i wont suck the mana out of you" in a contemptuous way, but I think its mostly a way of making it clear of the difference in philosophies at the time. Of course, such a statement is no longer relevant since blood elves dont mana tap living things anymore

[Thalassian Bob]

Sometimes a bad egg is a bad egg and not everyone needs or deserves a redemption plotline. Sylvanas's plotline is at least cogent, a single minded focus on the preservation of her people and getting revenge on Arthas culminating in his death. Her pact with the Jailer following her suicide is clearly where she crossed the moral event horizon after all. Edge of Night depicted it was her own inevitable fate that began to gnaw at her, and even though the Val'kyr bought her some extra time they would inevitably be expended. Concern for her people slowly morphed into concern for herself, and every action taken ostensibly to 'defend the Horde' and 'defend the Forsaken' was actually aimed at increasing the number of casualties going into the maw so as to feed her powers.

Perhaps the years long alliance with the Jailer darkened her further from where she began, or maybe she really was immune to redemption all along, but I feel her arc is mined out. The worst thing to do with any character is to keep them on past their sell by date simply because some don't want to let them go. Like those players who wanted the Lich King to survive wrath, oh we'd face him at the top of ICC and we'd beat him but with a flourish of his cape, a twirl of his moustache and a cackle of laughter he would flee into the night ready to challenge us again. That would have been a terrible disservice to the character, just as preserving Sylvanas a whit longer than necessary would be a similar tragedy. Her story is almost over and we must hope it is a good one.

All salient points. Sylvanas' arc is fairly cohesive and believable. I suppose I just lament her not going down the path I would have taken her down (I would have made Genn the villain of BfA, forcing Sylvanas into an accidental anti-hero role, validating Vol'jin's choice and avoiding a repeat of the Garrosh arc. But hey ho!).

As an aside, I don't think Sylvanas will end up being a raid boss or even killed in Shadowlands. I think she's too popular for that. What I think might happen is that she'll end up taking the Jailer's place in the Maw, becoming some sort of "master over death" entity. In this way she could never be trapped in whatever "hell" she foresaw when she leapt from Icecrown because she would become the one responsible for sticking souls in those "hells".

In this way Blizzard gets to keep using her (since she's popular) and avoid raid bossing yet another Horde faction leader. They could also then say "See? She's not Garrosh 2.0!". Obviously that's all pure speculation on my part.

That sounds very plausible. Especially with all the merch they've been pumping out of her recently! Time will tell, I suppose.