Highborne customizations for the Night Elves (NOT High Elves)

[Hellspawn]

How about they take those and just shove it up where the sun doesn't shine?

Well I agree but... I rather have them on night elfs then them ending up on horde.

[Mace]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the ear changes that both male and female get. I don't dislike the concept, but all of them feel really scuffed. Hopefully that's just an early datamining build thing.

And to be fair, I don't think any race will get posture changes. As for beard/eyebrow separation.. well, some people said it's probably the case, but we can't verify yet, since eyebrows and beards are separated in the files to begin with. We'd need to see it in the ingame dressing room to come to a conclusion, but the fact that they added new eyebrows for females gives me hope that they will be separate customization options too. Fingers crossed maybe next week.

Indeed, fingers crossed. People need to let them know that they need to tidy up the way they do the new ear shapes/sizes - not one of them looks nice, but it's a nice concept - they could at least make them nice.

We have to keep knocking on the door of posture change, the male neck slant is awful - classic didn't have that, the Zandlaari doesn't have that, , they sometimes do these things and think it's fine cos they don't really care that much, but if we care, we should let them know, so I encourage letting them know on twitter, reddit, official forums and wowhead fansites.

[Moonrage]

I'm digging the Highborne vibe I'm getting from these customizations.

[Rhlor]

night elves look awesome! It is great that they are implementing features that represent conceptual art!

[Drewbacca]

Just out of curiosity, can someone remind me the lore behind Highborne eye color? People keep mentioning the blind eye color on the model, but the only thing I could find was that arcane magic can effect the color of the eyes, not that it dims the glow or makes them purple-ish.

Also, I keep seeing more upright ears in some people's custom model pictures, but those upright ears aren't in any of the WoWHead previews. It's tough to say since the Dressing Room hasn't implemented the ear options yet. Where are people getting that as an option?

[Yarathir]

Just out of curiosity, can someone remind me the lore behind Highborne eye color? People keep mentioning the blind eye color on the model, but the only thing I could find was that arcane magic can effect the color of the eyes, not that it dims the glow or makes them purple-ish.

Also, I keep seeing more upright ears in some people's custom model pictures, but those upright ears aren't in any of the WoWHead previews. It's tough to say since the Dressing Room hasn't implemented the ear options yet. Where are people getting that as an option?

There are new ear meshes and eyebrow meshes for both male and female Night Elves.

They're not in the Shadowlands client as options right now, though, so the WoWhead model viewer doesn't represent them. The WoWhead model viewer takes its information from the Shadowlands alpha client. Which means that, even though disabled, these options are already prepared in the game database in this build.

[Lorca]

It's just blind golden eyes, like how there's blind silver and blind blue ones too.

But they apparently look orange/red enough to pass as 'dark ranger' for Night Elves. As shown by the image @Shuya1 linked.

Incoming dark ranger fans to the Alliance? Or is it, if you wanna play a Dark Ranger...?

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Here ya go btw

Love this one!

[Amaterasu65]

Thalassian Elf who?

I'm in love with the new NE customizations, on females at least, male model needs work. At least their faces are gonna be fine.

[Yarathir]

Could end up scrapped as well or used for something else than what people want. So its very possible that players wont get them but NPC's will. Look at Nightborne NPC's and player models as an example.

Very unlikely, considering they can all be found in the player model controls. And I don't think they'd make 4-5 new eyebrows and 4-5 new ear styles the exact same build they added new player customization just for npcs.

Occam's Razor, they'll probably be player options in the coming builds when Night Elf customization is a bit further along in the client.

(Right now, the vine options that are most definitely player options don't work for males in the WoWhead model viewer either, and the beards are also bugged for the same reason. They're not complete in the client. Are we to assume that the males won't get those vines or that they will lose their old beard options?)

[Astranea]

Just out of curiosity, can someone remind me the lore behind Highborne eye color? People keep mentioning the blind eye color on the model, but the only thing I could find was that arcane magic can effect the color of the eyes, not that it dims the glow or makes them purple-ish.

There is not truly any such Lore as far as I know. I'd call it Headcanon deriving from the Shen'dralar Highborne being masters of the Arcane, Arcane magic usually being represented with purple light in game... and possibly this picture, commissioned by Blizz to promote the class mounts:

Arcane Mage Night Elf by Astri-Lohne on DeviantArt


If anything, the Lore states 'great power' (as in strong druidic potential) is connected to GOLDEN eyes. Like Azshara.

But we also have a few representations of druids with green eyes as well nowadays, so people would like that option as well. (Druid-only, whereas a hypothetical purple could be mage-only)

P.S. For the fun of it... here comes a PHOTOSHOPPED MOCKUP of a hypotethical Highborne female based on current customization options.
I have added:

• Matching jeweled headdress
• Matching jeweled earrings
• Make-up like facial markings in the style of those displayed by Azshara in the Warbringers animation
• Headcanon purple "arcane" eyes

[Combatbutler]

There is not truly any such Lore as far as I know. I'd call it Headcanon deriving from the Shen'dralar Highborne being masters of the Arcane, Arcane magic usually being represented with purple light in game... and possibly this picture, commissioned by Blizz to promote the class mounts:

Shen'dralar should actually have fel eyes, they did munch it for thousands of years.

[Astranea]

Shen'dralar should actually have fel eyes, they did munch it for thousands of years.

It's undoubtedly curious that 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 some sort of Fel 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. In short: arcane pylons siphoning and filtering the magical energy.

Or, more likely, Blizzard not having established fel addiction to work as we know at that stage. ;-)

[Doffen]

Arcane Mage Night Elf by Astri-Lohne on DeviantArt

WoW, that looks amazing. My Arcane mage was a Night Elf half of Legion, used kind of same color theme for the transmog. Looked nice.

[Aresk]

It's undoubtedly curious that 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 some sort of Fel 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. In short: arcane pylons siphoning and filtering the magical energy.

Or, more likely, Blizzard not having established fel addiction to work as we know at that stage. ;-)

Weren't the Shen'dralar siphoning for around a thousand years, versus ten thousand for the Sunwell and Nightwell respectively? Aside from the green eyes in Blood Elves, fel energy didn't really change the blood elves during their brief stint of performing fel siphoning from TFT-TBC, and the nightborne never really adopted fel siphoning except for a small section of the military (since they still had the Nightwell).

[Doffen]

My Nelf priestess for Shadowlands:



Man I love Shadowlands already. To play with my characters with all these options is something I look forward to, a lot!

[elbleuet]

Man. Playable Nightborne look even more terrible now with the new void and night elf cosmetic options.

[ravenmoon]

Shen'dralar should actually have fel eyes, they did munch it for thousands of years.

We don't nkow that - there was demonic corruption, but the magic they were siophoning from Immol'thar was ARCANe, not fel.

We know demons don't exclsuivley or only use fel, tehre are demons that use void magic, and they love devouring arcane magic too, there are demons that use arcane magic.

Imol'thar was chosen specifically because of its extraoridnary battery power of arcane they sought to harness, - we know corruption seeped into the Prince and some of the populace, but it was very subtle - so I don't think it was fel.


The blood elves were specifically absorbing fel magic, not the

[Doffen]

Man. Playable Nightborne look even more terrible now with the new void and night elf cosmetic options.

One of the biggest disgrace in WoWs history

Make them look like the npc Nightborne ffs!

[Astranea]

Weren't the Shen'dralar siphoning for around a thousand years, versus ten thousand for the Sunwell and Nightwell respectively? Aside from the green eyes in Blood Elves, fel energy didn't really change the blood elves during their brief stint of performing fel siphoning from TFT-TBC, and the nightborne never really adopted fel siphoning except for a small section of the military (since they still had the Nightwell).

I did not mean that the Nightborne used Fel. I just was comparing the length of their isolation to that of the Shen'dralar.

As far as I know the Shen'dralar were using Immol'thar as a source of magical power for the same 10,000 years that saw the Nightborne isolated. The trick being, even if it was a demon [a void horror, as stated in the encounter journal], they still managed to either directly draw Arcane power from it, or convert it to Arcane through its prison. As a matter of facts, if you take a look at Dire Maul, it can be noted that the demon's prison is patrolled by arcane elementals, and the center portion is blocked by a magic wall. To slay the demon, you must first destroy the pylons maintaining the prison, which are protected by energy elementals called Arcane Torrents and Mana Remnants, which are supposed - together with the shield that encloses the prison - to be maintained by the energy siphoned from the demon itself. Then there are mobs called Residual Monstrosities, and when you kill them they spawn more arcane elementals that attack with multiple AOE attacks like a mage's arcane explosion. In short: it all points to Arcane power either being siphoned or processed. [More details in this older post]

Anyhow, the Shen'dralar timeline is as follows:

• -10,000: The Sundering. The Shen'dralar remain isolated and secluded in Eldre'Thalas. Since they are becoming lethargic, they summon the demon Immol'thar and start siphoning its power. [World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1, pg. 133]
• -1,200: The Slaughter. Prince Tortheldrin and his followers kill most of their Shen'dralar elven kin in order to hoard the fading demon's power for themselves. Most of the city is abandoned, and other creatures start moving in. [World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1, pg. 139]
• 25: Dire Maul. The ruins of Eldre'Thalas are raided and the Shen'dralar discovered feeding on Immol'thar. The majority of elves, including the prince, is killed by the Horde, while the demon is banished into the Twisting Nether. The surviving Shen'dralar flee the ruined city and wander in the woods trying to wean themselves off demonic power addiction. [World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 3, pg. 120]
• 28: The Cataclysm. The Highborne Shen'dralar sorcerers from Dire Maul eventually settled in Darnassus.

This is supposedly why, contrary to the Nightborne, the Shen'dralar did not change appearance much if at all, and Brann Bronzebeard reports just that thay have a 'pastier complexion'. [World of Warcraft: The Magazine Volume II Issue I] (pic from Wowpedia)

Of course, it is all a bit of a big Lore Mess... but you cannot blame that one on us fans! It is Blizzard who told us the story that way. ^^

As for the new customization options... I am rather pleased by most, but I still wish they would at least add:

• Emerald dream green eyes (Druid only would be ok)
• Thinner eyebrows for the males
• Headdresses with different jewels (stones, pearls)
• Necklaces with different stones (and pearls)
• blue, black and white facial markings
• a few new shapes of facial markings
• a near-white ('full moon') and a very dark purple ('midnight') skins

These would obviously work for all kind of Night Elves, rather than be Highborne-only options. ;-)

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Oh and I also had fun re-drawing my custom headcanon black facial tattoo on the face of a 'Dark Ranger'...

[Doffen]

Would like the facial markings to be customizeable, as in change the color on them. When I go with blue hair I dont want the markings to be red! Hope they add that in.