Highborne customizations for the Night Elves (NOT High Elves)

[Astranea]

The Night Elves have a long tradition of druids, hunters, priestesses and warriors, which are all currently characterized in game.
Even the latest addition to their ranks – the demon hunters – have some very specific customization connected to the fel corruption.

The only group of Night Elves which does not have a clear representation when it comes to the playable model is that of the magic users, despite of an Night Elf mage featuring in art commissioned by Blizzard themselves to promote the class mounts in Legion.

Arcane Mage Night Elf by Astri-Lohne on DeviantArt


How does this relate to the Highborne?

The Night Elven nobility of the pre-sundering civilization were powerful magic users, as proven by them triggering a number of major Lore events.

Long past. How would this affect the current looks of the Night Elves?

It is canon lore that a group of Highborne called the Shen'dralar rejoined the Night Elves as mage trainers following the Cataclysm.

Who are these Shen'dralar, then?

The Shen'dralar were Queen Azshara's most revered arcanists, charged with the storage and safekeeping of her most precious tomes. But they did not live in Zin-Azshari and remained isolated and secluded to the point that they were never exiled. We have met them in Classic in Dire Maul - and at the time you could even gain reputation with them. Now you cannot, because they are no longer a faction of their own and rejoined the Night Elves instead. Their new leader, Archmage Mordent Evenshade, has fought in the Battle for Darkshore.


Shen'dralar banner as seen in Dire Maul

How did the isolation affect the Shen'dralar?

Curiously, despite siphoning energy from a demon for about the same amount of time that radically changed both the High/Blood Elves and the Nightborne, the Shen'dralar did not transform into a different kind of elf.

How this was achieved has never been explicitly stated by Blizzard, although some theories that attempt to make sense of it from the limited information available from the Chronicles have been discussed in this post.

Even though it is undeniably odd, it has long been established by Blizzard itself and we are not here to argue about that.
(Although if it did not happen due to budget, the customization options coming with Shadowlands offer Blizzard a perfect chance to fix that).

But if they did not transform, how or why would they require any specific customization?

Being former nobility it is quite logical to expect at least some of them to make use of jewelry and fancier hairstyles.

Further, when it comes to the physical aspect, in the notes from Brann Bronzebeard from World of Warcraft: The Magazine Volume II Issue I (pic from Wowpedia) it is stated:

"Not much 'o difference between the Kaldorei 'n Highborne, physically pastier, maybe.
But they consider themselves different enough."

So we would expect lighter skin colors, as also supported by the evidence of the Surviving Highborne (mostly Shen'dralar used as mage trainers and reforgers) NPCs in game, which often have white hair (17 of the 21!) and shades of pink and light purple skin (9+7) versus occasional green (2) and water blue (1) hair and skins in pink with blue hue (2), full blue (1) or darker (2).

But fair skin is a specific trait of the Blood Elves!

True, but light skin is not the same thing as flesh-colored. Furthermore, as explained above, most Highborne NPCs already make use of pink OR light purple skins matched with white hair, which gives them a characteristic pastier look as described by Brann even without using a different character model.

So in order, to summarize:

1. Could Blizzard just add jewelry, prettier faces and fancy hairstyles to the Night Elves without breaking their Lore?

Easily, since the priesthood uses jewels and we are discussing simple aesthetics. The number of players rolling a 'pretty' Night Elf can never be an issue as long as the story of the Night Elves is being told us in whichever way Blizzard finds most appropriate.

2. Could Blizzard add some lighter skin tones and a slimmer model to the Night Elves without breaking their Lore?

For the skins, yes: as stated above, there are already some light colored skins for the Night Elves, so it would be just a matter of adding a few more shades.

For the model... extra work for the designers hence much less likely, but we have seen Blizzard implement posture changes for different races, and even bones/no bones options for the Undead, so it is not crazy to dream about it.

Point being, many races would benefit from the addition of a choice between a bulkier and slimmer build, as often the male casters look somewhat silly in their huge muscular bodies while on the contrary, some pretty-framed female warriors seem a bit too frail for the job. :-)

3. How about the addition of specific extra customization to the Night Elves mages?

Highly unlikely, but even giving mages any specific customization would not change the overall racial flavor in more dramatic ways than the addition of Fel skins and horns for the demon hunters did in Legion.

On the other hand, if they did want to do it, it would be awesome and Lore-fitting if it was unlocked through a tales about how rare the Night Elves mages are, and what kind of prejudice they face daily from their own people.

4. But how could a player be allowed to play a Shen’dralar Highborne rather than one of their trainees?

Blizzard has stated many times that the players should feel free to roleplay their character as it pleases them most, but when Shadowlands give us the new Exile's Reach starting experience the character's story won't even conflict. This is exactly like the Dark Troll customization being added despite of the old Darkspear starting area, and the Wildhammer Dwarf customization being added despite of the old Ironforge starting area: a simple aesthetic choice, so that the players can roleplay their characters as they prefer.

While which customization to add for each race is obviously totally up to Blizzard, we had fun collecting and listing some we would find feasible or pleasing according to our own taste:

Facial customization:

• Smoother, good-looking faces, especially on the males. This may be one of the most noticeable differences.
• Golden eyes as an option for both males or females. While not a specifically distinctive Highborne trait, this is a logical option since Queen Azshara is the only Night Elf female to have them at this point.
• Fine jewelry such as earrings, tiaras and hair ornaments. (This could actually fit the elven theme in general)
• New hair colors such as pink and platinum blonde like the Nightborne, as a part of the pastier looks reported by Brann, or anything else seen in the Azshara video (images below) such as red shades or even black or at least darker purple and blue.
• Neatly-trimmed beards and eyebrows for a more austere look.
• Elegant hairstyles such as complex braids for both males and females.
• New markings of different colors and shapes as a separated option.
• A choice of ears shapes. (*)
• Glitter make-up as an alternative to the feral-looking tattoos (idea by @Mace - his post here)

Skin and body options:

• Light skin shades such as ivory and light-grayish purple and blue, always as a part of the pastier looks reported by Brann.
• Electric skin shades like Azshara's or even tones of deeper blue and purple, possibly related to Troll heritage or the use of magic.
• Leaner build as an option for the males, possibly tied to a different standing pose. (idea by @Mace - his post here)
• Star markings or glitter make-up as an alternative to the demon hunter's runes. (idea by @Mace - his post here)

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(*) The statues in many Vanilla locations such as the Highborne city of Eldre’Thalas display upwards ears this is due to Blizzard not having yet established the lore about the transition between the Night and the High Elves at the time. But the choice of the ears is a feature for all other races with big ones, so it may not be too crazy to hope for something that is already in game in some other form.





Fantasy night elf skins dedicated to the magic users

• Nightfall - based on the exclusive male purple skins 2 and 3
• Moonlight - total headcanon possibly too similar to the Void Elves... But the moon! ;-)
• Dawn - based on the exclusive male blue-green skins 4 and 6, but also similar to the recently datamined 'drow' skin
• Pansy - a lighter variation of the male purple skins 2 and 3
• Levender - a saturated variation of the female skin 6 based on the colors seen in the Warbringers Azshara animation
• Lotus - a lighter variation of the female pink skin 9
• Also, some fantasy 'earth themed' skins (Wood, Laurel, Sandalwood) have been posted here

Concept for new markings

Some new colors: pink, blue, light blue, golden, auburn, white and black.

Most of the shapes are either from the current game files or based on them, with the exceptions of the last two which were inspired by the minimalist markings Azshara displays in the Warbringers video and the theme of the Night Warriors.




Reference: The colors of the Night Elves from the Warbringers Azshara animation

I am leaving this here as we can see the Night Elves (no reasons to assume they would all be Highborne) sporting BLACK, purple, blue, white, BLONDE and even RED hair, and also some BLUE SKINS similar to Azshara's, which makes this color a 'must have' on the Night Elf wishlist. :-)




Some more examples from Fan Art

Please notice the better looking faces, the neatly trimmed beards, and the ornamentations.

The Shen'Dralar Highborne by LiberLelula on DeviantArt


Highborne male by Beurghes on DeviantArt


Highborne male by Zelulae on Thumblr


Highborne female by Aloija on DeviantArt


I also very much like these two, although they are possibly too close to the Blood Elf and Nightborne models respectively:

• Night elf mage by Fanfoxy on DeviantArt
• Highborne female by Nozomi-N on DeviantArt (fifth from the right, or cropped here)

Lastly, here go some examples of deep purple skin and star markings on skin and hair as suggested by @Mace in his post.

While headcanon, these may be an interesting possibility for the Night Elves as long as they do not come too close to the Nightborne runes.



* edited on 05/06-05-2020 to include a new skin mockups.
* edited on 16-04-2020 to include data from a few of the latest posts.
* edited on 17-03-2020 to include contributions from @Mace who had his own thread merged with this.

[shoc]

If Blizzard does this it will be proof that they are deliberately giving players everything except for what they actually want

[Kyphael]

If Blizzard does this it will be proof that they are deliberately giving players everything except for what they actually want

This.

"No, you can't have High Elves, go play a Blood Elf, they're the same! By the way, here are some light-skinned night elves with blonde hair!"

[Astranea]

If Blizzard does this it will be proof that they are deliberately giving players everything except for what they actually want

Depends on personal feelings. The more I think of it the more I'd rather have this option to be completely honest.

[matrix123mko]

I think it would be cool.

[protip]

Looks like a good idea to me. More customizations that are well suited to the story and have a unique character.

[Moonrage]

I'd love this. I've always wanted to have Azshara's skin color. The blue skin color option for players looks awful compared to hers

[AcidicSyn]

Only issue I see is the light skin.

IIRC the light skin was a direct result of the exiled Highborne exposure to what would later become known as the Sunwell. They changed overtime to have lighter skin, among other changes.

A Highborne with light skin like what you have in this picture is by definition a High Elf no? I'm for sure on board with more customization options, so long as they fit the lore.

[Moonrage]

We have also been told that the Night Elves undergo some irreversible physical changes from mastering the Arcane that would mark them forever and once the process had begun there would be no way to reverse or stop it.

Yet, Blizzard has never bothered/had a chance to show us what happens.

Pretty sure they retconned this. The highborne were a social caste, not a subspecies. Highborne ingame usually do have blue-ish skintones and white hair, and the women often lack facial tattoos.

I do really think these customization options are really cool, my main is a night elf is a mage and I'd love to have a vibrant blue skin color option and golden eyes for her.

[Astranea]

Only issue I see is the light skin.
IIRC the light skin was a direct result of the exiled Highborne exposure to what would later become known as the Sunwell. They changed overtime to have lighter skin, among other changes.

I am not entirely sure.

What I mean is, if I read Wowpedia correctly, the change in skin color happened before they established the Sunwell, while they were wandering, and simply 'due to having become completely severed from the life-giving energy of the Well of Eternity'.

If that means simply 'they were far away' then the Shen'dralar might also have suffered a bit of it, while still not shrinking?

A Highborne with light skin like what you have in this picture is by definition a High Elf no? I'm for sure on board with more customization options, so long as they fit the lore.

As above, not sure, TBH however I always assumed the High Elves would have to be called such after completely changing shape and establishing the Sunwell. But I am sure there are people who are stronger on these details than I am and would rather let them discuss such stuff. Or Blizzard could clarify on it if they cared to go this way. I honestly would not mind either way, though, as I feel there are already some pretty nice fair colored pink skins in game for the Night Elves females at least.

[AcidicSyn]

Given that the peach skin tone could be scrapped while still keeping the other options, I am not entirely sure.

What I mean is, if I read Wowpedia correctly, the change in skin color happened before they established the Sunwell, while they were wandering, and simply 'due to having become completely severed from the life-giving energy of the Well of Eternity'.

If that means simply 'they were far away' then the Shen'dralar might also have suffered a bit of it, while still not shrinking?



As above, not sure, TBH however I always assumed the High Elves would have to be called such after completely changing shape and establishing the Sunwell. But I am sure there are people who are stronger on these details than I am and would rather let them discuss such a detail. Or Blizzard could clarify on it if they cared to go this way. I honestly would not mind either way, though, as I feel there are already some pretty nice fair colored pink skins in game for the Night Elves females at least.

Hmm, well if the separation from the well of eternity was the reason for the pigment change and not the sunwell then awesome. If it fits the lore I'm 100% for more customization; the more the better!

[Astranea]

The highborne were a social caste, not a subspecies.

Of course, although I would assume they may have some specific fashion such as, like you pointed out, more common hair colors or jewelry for example.

As to the ears, truth be told, there is no reason why the Night Elves could not be given a few different options of the shape. The vulpera and goblins have that, without needing to be multiple races or magic users. Just slightly different kinds of ears, which I am assuming can happen to a race with huge ears, like it can happen about tusks to the races who sport them!

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Pretty sure they retconned this. The highborne were a social caste, not a subspecies. Highborne ingame usually do have blue-ish skintones and white hair, and the women often lack facial tattoos.

I do really think these customization options are really cool, my main is a night elf is a mage and I'd love to have a vibrant blue skin color option and golden eyes for her.

It does feel that "Highborne Night Elf" is just a very good idea for customization; Highborne are usually represented with the lightest skin tones and hair colors in game, so there exists this notion that because they were a caste they didn't marry much outside their social circle, which would have potentially isolated an specific phenotype.

We also know Shaldorei have light pink and platinum blonde hair, does that happened because the time they spent cloistered, or was it a highborne trait already? Given the fact that Dath'remar was decribed as having gold streaked auburn hair, we know that the later is more than likely.

More so, we don't even know what the Shrendalar isolation -and feeding on immolthar- did to them, did they change somehow, even if in a less pronounced way than High Elves and Nightborne? Potentially, that's the reason they are portrayed as so pasty, because their own seclusion.

They could give NE's a very interesting set of added customization if they explored the Highborne possibilities really, specially when so far they haven't been shown to have any sort of varied "ethnicities" in the ways humans, trolls, dwarves have been shown, excpet for you know, the Shrendalar Highborne, which do have a 10.000 separation.

It's just really weird that they wouldn't have changed at all considering that the same amount of time changed the High Elves and the Nightborne, and all three of them were affected by different power sources.

There's little codified about Shrendalar Highborne appearance, so the customization revamp just seems like an excellent way of adding variety to Night Elves by exploring an underdeveloped concept.

[Astranea]

It does feel that "Highborne Night Elf" is just a very good idea for customization; <snip>

There's little codified about Shrendalar Highborne appearance, so the customization revamp just seems like an excellent way of adding variety to Night Elves by exploring an underdeveloped concept.

YES, EXACTLY! You said it - this is precisely what I meant, yet expressed with much better words I could ever use. THANK YOU! Very glad you liked (and perfectly understood) the idea. Can I quote you in case I need to explain the concept to someone?

Really hope more people can voice for this.

Oh and by the way, I attempted to create a thread on the official WOW EU forum, if anyone cares. Although I am not allowed to embed images there, and I fear that without the image, the post won't be getting much attention from the crowds.

Link here: https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...lves/106631/46

[derpkitteh]

highborne don't really look all that different from normal night elves though.

blonde hair, maybe azshara's shade of blue skin. but the only really noteworthy difference between highborne and night elves is the fact that highborne are taller than a normal night elf. something that should have been reflected in nightborne. but their model is so poor overall, it's not a wonder.

they didn't have light skin before arriving in the eastern kingdoms, either. light skin was a specifically mentioned new trait that happened during their evolution to high elves.

[Maxilian]

I'm ok with this, but since when light skin have been a thing of Highborne?

Note: At least, one of the thing i'm 100% sure Blizzard is giving NEs are the eye colors, let male and females have golden or silver eyes, regardless of gender

[Zorish]

The Shen’dralar were Highborne Night Elves who did not live in Zin-Azshari, and remained isolated and secluded to the point that they were never exiled from Kalimdor and never became high/blood elves.

want to see highborne? https://wow.gamepedia.com/Highborne there. This is "royality" or NE empire, they not very different physically AND NEVER HAD PINK SKIN! that's why it was NIGHT ELF EMPIRE, not HIGH ELF empire.

[Moonrage]

want to see highborne? https://wow.gamepedia.com/Highborne there. This is "royality" or NE empire, they not very different physically AND NEVER HAD PINK SKIN! that's why it was NIGHT ELF EMPIRE, not HIGH ELF empire.

OP just talked about different skin tones, hair colors, hairstyles and jewelry options. Ingame Highborne are pale and often have whiter hair. Dath'Remar Sunstrider even had auburn hair with golden streaks during Azshara's reign, so it's not much of a stretch to believe that Highborne had hair colors most night elf commoners didn't have.

[Astranea]

they didn't have light skin before arriving in the eastern kingdoms, either. light skin was a specifically mentioned new trait that happened during their evolution to high elves.

I'm ok with this, but since when light skin have been a thing of Highborne?

NEVER HAD PINK SKIN! that's why it was NIGHT ELF EMPIRE, not HIGH ELF empire.

I see many have the same point to make, so let me state this clearly (and also add it in the first post, hehehe)

The lighter skin tone could be totally scrapped while still keeping the other options, I do not care so much for it, was just giving a hypotesis.

What I mean is, I have just based my assumptions on two details:

• in-game Highborne are often using the palest night elves skin and white hair.
• if I read Wowpedia correctly, for other groups of Highborne the change in skin color happened 'due to having become completely severed from the life-giving energy of the Well of Eternity'. So if that means 'being far away for a too long time', then the Shen'dralar might also have suffered some form of withdrawal from it.

But if people who feel they know the lore better than me are all totally sure about this not being the case, or this option being listed upsets too many people, the idea of a lighter skin tone can be easily scrapped, as there are already some pretty nice light pink and even one peachy skin tones in game for the Night Elves females at least, and the Night Elf Highborne concept can easily keep standing on its own without need for that one specific extra option.

The point of this post rather being, as @MyWholeLifeIsThunder skillfully noted, that even thought the Shen'dralar Highborne were established by the Classic lore, we have never been told what their isolation did to them, and it's kind of weird that they would not have changed AT ALL considering that the same amount of time changed the High Elves and the Nightborne, so the customization revamp could be a good chance for Blizzard to adding some extra variety to Night Elves by exploring by expanding on the characterization of their resident Highborne.

[Moonrage]

I found this edit by Mystmantle on Deviant art
I loooooove this, this is totally how a female Highborne, or even Priestess of the moon would style her hair.