Originally Posted by
Molvonos
There are distinct difference between the High Elves and the Dark Iron dwarves though. Correct me if i'm wrong or add something I'm missing.
The Dark Iron dwarves have been a stable, sizable group since WoW's inception. Throughout most of the dwarven zones, we see some influence of their meddling and it only gets bigger and bigger the deeper into that zone-line you go, culminating in Blackrock Depths and Molten Core. It's not until later, when the storyline continues, that the Dark Irons (some, not all) join the Alliance under the Triumvirate of racial leaders (given we killed Thaurassan, it's Moira for the Dark Irons). We skip a few expansions (Burning Crusade and Lich King) before they really come into their own, both as allies and foes, given the nature of the Cataclysm expansion.
There's a constant presence they provide in one way or another, and finally, in BfA, where the Dark Iron presence really manifests since it seems they're welcomed fully into the Alliance fold (thus giving us the Allied race).
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High Elves are seen very rarely, in counterpoint. Be it because the developers didn't know what to do with them, didn't care about them or somewhere inbetween. There's a few high elves scattered throughout all of the Classic Zones and they provide very little in the way of actual presence (Most are 1 or 2-shot quest givers). You'd think that since, according to Blizzard, the High Elves naturally evolved/bled into becoming Blood Elves, you'd possibly see more than a few in Burning Crusade, but instead we get a half-elf that makes an appearance in Hellfire and does little else save for cry into his mead (and subsequently isn't seen again until the end of the Legion expansion).
And then Wrath of the Lich King happens and Blizzard seemingly gets off their duff and creates a faction, wholly comprised of High Elves on the Alliance side of things. The Silver Covenant. It's pretty cool, right?
Their zone? Crystalsong Forest, a horrifically underused (yet thematically and visually awesome), as well as being the defacto faction for the Alliance in Dalaran. They do fuck-all otherwise. One flight path and, maybe if I'm remembering correctly, come into play for the last big patch/raid of WotLK.
They play next to no roles anywhere else throughout the expansions (unlike the Dark Irons, as was the example). Hell, you can even say the Zandalar had more presence, despite the writing 'fuckery' that occurred between Classic-Zul'Gurub, Pandaria, and BfA. The Highmountain and Nightborne had entire zones (dungeons and raids) dedicated to them, with loads of lore. Mag'har has two chunks of lore (though they went with timey-wimey shenanigans instead). Lightforged Draenei had the entire Argus patch (which frankly, wasn't much), and then there's the Void Elves, who're absolutely 100% brand spanking new, having been created during the events of Argus.
I can agree that High Elves got royally shafted, but it does feel that High Elves are on their way out, with most of their newer members being halfbloods (Sylvanas is just jealous she cant make hatebabies with Nathanos) and their culture being absorbed into human/alliance society.