This would be the only form of Alliance high elf I'd be comfortable with.
This would be the only form of Alliance high elf I'd be comfortable with.
Here is something to believe in!
Yeah, for disappointment and regret, you can only be jerked around and messed with for so long, I think 16 years going on 18 is more than enough don't you, if I was able to have children when I satarted playing, they'd be an adult now. Freaky how long this has been a major part of my life and how pointless and thoroughly disappinting for me it has turned out, with disapointment after disappointment, and even after giveving up hope, it still disappoitnment, and when it seemed a revival came in Legion with the nightborne and shend'ralar, it ended up with worse disappointment when they annexed them from the night elves in 7.3.5 then wiped said night elves out in the war of thorns, giving their contrived enemies the pre-sundedering night elf city of suramar.
From the models, to the story, it's all been half arsed since classic. Teh shen'dralar re-inroduction could have been awesome, but it was mostly neglected and a side affair. Even in leigon they chose to focus mainly on new groups without involving much of the existing night elves.. the playable night elves got Val'sharah, all the other night elf involvemnt were neutral groups, and worse of all none of them were given interaction with the ngiht elves, or very little, especially the Suramar nightborne which should ahv been a massive reunion with the the darnassiasn from whom ALL their major heroes come from. Zero Moonguard interactions, Farondis also had none with the darnassiasn, and 7l.2 ignored the night elves on the broken shore with the very significant temple of Elune.
You can write an essay on the crap treatment, and knowing how very popular the night elves, their whole fantasy, their extensive background lore and story is, and how well loved they are, more popular than orcs, and in wc3 they wre the most popular race in the franchise. I reckon blood elves overtook them in TBC because their models were bedtter, and night elves got no development... if they had coontinued developing nelves an dalso updated their models, they'd have been insanely popular too.
Such an asset they completley mess up, and they wonder why people complain and quit theiir game. Drew us to the franchise with a number of things, racial diversity and story was one of them, when the story became crap and some of the best races ignored, what else do you expect.
I can see the first one, being due to incorporating the shen'dralar, and the third, since it resembles Azshara, but why the bright neon purple?
I'd be more interested in more hair style variants in both the shen'drelar and wilder forest elf varieties myself but I'm not saying no to more customization in general.
Found some more Shen'dralar art:
Source: https://arocasta.tumblr.com/post/173...-h-e-r-w-i-n-d
Good job in finding the most exotic Shen'dralar art there is.
Basically the truth...
I'm sorry but people have been yelling for High Elves for much longer than Highborne, which as a race, was easily included to the part of just having different eye colours and apparently a little skinnier than the Night Elves.
FOMO: "Fear Of Missing Out", also commonly known as people with a mental issue of managing time and activities, many expecting others to fit into their schedule so they don't miss out on things to come. If FOMO becomes a problem for you, do seek help, it can be a very unhealthy lifestyle..
They have like one gray skin tone, that's not really the same as full Shen'dralar options though. Dwarves have the same thing, a couple of grayish tones that have red (but not firey) eyes. They aren't actual Dark Irons, just a vague knockoff that kinda allowed you to RP it.
We need full iteration on the theme and color palette for Shen'dralar, not a watered down version from vanilla.
Think I finally realised my issue with any and all Highborne/High Elf suggestions; they're always so pale. As I understand it, didn't their exile lead them to becoming pale? Aren't the Nightborne closer to what the Highborne are supposed to look like? Not including the arcane runes, of course. I also don't understand why them joining the NE would mean we get a slew of jewelry customisation; aren't they trying to separate themselves from their old (Azshara's) vanity?
Anyway t;dr I saw the chance to draw night elves and took it:
Bigger resolution: https://i.imgur.com/sVlhkwd.jpg
Some hairstyles, skin tones and hair colours I'd like to see NE get; two are already in-game (1st is DH-only; 3rd is DK-only). I want more Rite of Passage tattoos as well, but I'm not good with designing those.
Also sorry for semi-necroing this thread, but all the other customisation threads are dead.
[QUOTE=Melathyr;51932166]Think I finally realised my issue with any and all Highborne/High Elf suggestions; they're always so pale. As I understand it, didn't their exile lead them to becoming pale? Aren't the Nightborne closer to what the Highborne are supposed to look like? Not including the arcane runes, of course.
I would say that night born look closer to highborn then high elf... but night elf look closer to highborn then both of them.
Night elfs should get jewelry customisation regardless, they are foten depicted with silver jewelry, mooncrests and piercings. They even have a joke about it...
Regarding Shen'dralar wearing typical highborn jewelry, idk possible, but why wouldn't they also wear silver jewelry?
I like the second and the third hairstyle. They also should give black hair color to all night elfs not just dh.
A arcane tattoo would be cool should include maybe mooncrest symbols to differenciate from the night born tattoos. Also they could do Tattoos that look more warrior like.
Its true that after cataclysme blizzard threw away the most intriguing race, the highborn. They came into the night elf society and thats it, you dont see a quest where the alliance consults with the highborn about advanced magic. They havent taken the effort to do even that, to me that appalling because as a writer you have to flesh out every race or some subrace. By fleshing these things out and continuing their storyline in the future, blizz can get people to like world of warcraft because of the lore.
Just look at Tolkien, look how he changed the writing of fantasy books. He made even an entire language that people even learn.
Now about the customization, night elf and highborn were almost the same. Night elf more bulkier and highborn more streamlined because of arcane magic. So they can implement this and give hairstyles which suits them. Also because of fell eating they have to change their appearance, green eyes, pointer ears, some fell scars which you can hide or show. Fell eating doesnt come without risk.
Also, elves are somehow the punching bag of blizz. Why? Dont know, maybe because they dont want a game thats centered around elves.
I can live with the fact they found a loophole, but blizzard has to improve their race lore progression. And I'm with you on that we dont need another elf race but highborne arent a new elf race. At the character creation blizzard can just put more creation stuff so that people can choose an elf of a certain sect.
- - - Updated - - -
Best looking night elfs ive seen
Wilder forest elf is another option for night elf customisations. Like a Malfurion type with bird legs and Antlers etc. Just like you have the demon customisation too for Illidari, which I still feel is the ticket and only acceptable option for night elf warlocks.
Saying that, I do feel they have to do something special and remarkable for a highborne night elf, it's the most sought after and requested night elf customisation, and while I believe the nightborne were 100% originally intedned to be the night elf highborne sub-race, the door opened for a highborne customisation when it was decided they would join the horde instead.
My only warning is be careful art devs, if you make the highborne night elf too pretty, the senior devs would find a way to give it to the horde - and I know exactly what they would do, they would make the broken isle night elves be part of the nightborne allied group, and offer the highborne night elf customisation to the horde via that, .. but I could in theory counter with fair warning that this would open the door for more high elf requests - although it might be what tips them over the edge. The demand is so high for nightborne on alliance, high elves on alliance, and to a lesser extendt void elves on the horde, and night elves on the horde.
Ofc this would all be solved by allowing players to switch factions via in game epic quest chains and reputation grinds. Although I don't think it would be satisfying enough if it was an individual thing for every race, because in the lore, there is more than enough support to have an entire faction of Nightborne, Blood elves (i.e. Thalassians), Tauren, Highmountain, Goblins and Forsaken have factions of the race (if not the horde group itself) that are friendly towards the alliance or even break away to join them. On the alliance I can see Humans, Kul'tirans, Draenei, Night elves, Void elves, Mechagnomes, working in the horde or friendly for alliance players to be a part off. Other races like Orcs, Trolls, Zandalari, Dwarves, Worgen, Gnomes I don't expect to have enough to constitute factions amongst them batting for the other side, but certainly they can have some notable individuals that serve as rallying points or examples of folk friendly. We have Broxigar as an orc for example, Rexxar the half-orc could also be, thrall is another that could be friendly with the alliance and help them out though a member of the horde. You can define your relationship too, sometimes you can be friendly with the opposite faction helping them or you can switch to totally hating your original faction and fully and wholesale on the opposite faction. The story allows or should allow for that.
- - - Updated - - -
All high elves changed from original highborne, the fact that they're pale is a major departure from their being highborne. It is incorrect for people to refer to the high elves or blood elves as highborne, their sires were highborne, they are highborne descendants. Ofc such is not the case for night elven or nightborne highborne who have been alive for over 10k, they are still the original highborne. We found there were highborne amongst the Darnassians that put off that identity, and stayed with the Long vigil group, when the shen'dralar group return and the ban on arcane usage and the highborne is lifted, many of them rejoin their caste and help build it up to help their people.
I believe the nightborne were blizzards attempt at a highborne allied race, for all I intents and purposes they are the night elf highborne allied race. However their addition does not distinguish the existing kaldorei highborne the shen'dralar set up, those are still kaldorei and could use their own unique look. Though in my opinion this should be tied to class rather than just be available for every night elf. Just like a night elf demon hunter loads the Illidari appearance, and a night elf death knight loads the undead night elf customizations. A night elf mage, priest, hunter (also warrior and rogue) could load a highborne customisation. A highborne warrior isn't necessarily a sentinel, so if the highborne customisation is available on the night elf warrior, you can tell which is the sentinel and which is the highborne warrior by just looking at the character. Another example would be the Dwarven shaman having the Wildhammer customisation load, but that customisation not being available to the dwarf mage and warlock as those aren't part of wildhammer culture.
This is good stuff, I especially like the middle one, it has a more distinctive arcane look in the colouring would be nice if the ydid something like that but with additional jewelry and ornamentation.
- - - Updated - - -
Night elf society strikes me as the type that would be very particular about such things, each one would have a speifcific meaning and denote something.
- - - Updated - - -
I was also very disappointed with their lack of detail here, but it's typical, you see them do this all the time, they focus on one thing only, and all theother implications, ossibilities, ramifcaitions get ignored. They ddi the same when Suramar returned, we were expecting much more family re-unions giving most of the Darnassians came from Suramar, but we got none, Tyrande barely made it , only much later on replacing Vereesa as the main quest holder, but this happens all the time with blizzard, if you're an orc or draenei lover, you'd have been both excited and disappointed at how little connection happened. And it goes on sadly.
You never see the Shen'dralar in action in cataclysm, I think the only thing is when Estualan sends that frostbolt at the ogre at a stupidly long distance, adn that's it Tehy certainly didn't show them off. WE finally get to see night elf arcanna shown of Surmar, and I asked myself at the time what the difference was, why do this only in Legion and not in cataclysm, and the answer came easily. It's the design process. Suramar and the kaldorei pre-sundering civilization and the aftermath ruins caused by the Legion's first invasion and the subsequent sunderiing were the theme and setting for the final legion invasion. AS such, it was the main focus on the expansion, so the new art, the themese, were all kaldorei focused, so you got to see much more of the actual pristine night elven city - they tell us this is what they wanted to show in Gamescom 2015 and the blizzcon that followed before the Release of legion.
In cataclysm, the night elf development was not key to the main story, it was only part of the re boot of the races, so no new sets, remember Darnassus wasn't even updated to accommodate the worgen who got a tree, meanwhile goblins got an entire zone remade for them in addition to their starting area, with Orgrimmar and Stormwind eating up the city revamp resources. It's the same when we go to the WEll of Eternity instance, look at the palace there, it's not a new set like you see done for Legion/BFA Azshara warbringer, so it simply reuses the classic night elf set for the place, but if you look at the 8.2 ruins of Zin'Azshari, and the warbringer video, there's no way the palce actually looks so crappy as it does in End times - again, it's not a new set, because the instance comes in the 3rd patch, and during those days, blizzard did not do full palette racial sets, even though the lore of the night elves actually demanded something much more grand for them.
This is why the Draenei set in WoD blows the TBC ones out of the water even though Draenei was part of TBc, we know the far bigger focus was the blood elves and the orcs. Likewise Legion night elf architecture blows classics away, this is because a new set is designed for the expansion, and whenever you see night elf or draenei stuff now they are in the image of the broken isles and WoD buildings. Not in the image of the classic and TBC ones.
Last edited by ravenmoon; 2019-12-09 at 07:48 PM.
I need more highborne (and frostborn *cough*)fan art!! I wish I was talented enough to do stuff like that. Have plenty of ideas, but no "know-how" ...I feel old, haha.
Frostborn as a future playable race plz!
Agree with this, and personally I haven't brought it up because it feels like a given that if all humanoid races are getting darker skin tones, so should Night Elves. (My own NE with a darker skin tone, still very pinkish/magenta)
As for the relation to it all with Highborne; my own headcanon of the whole situation is that Highborne as a whole, or in certain groups at least* where light skinned, which is the reason why the High Elves, and now Blood Elves, are predominantly light skinned as well.
Personally I'm on board with giving Blood Elves darker skin colors, but obviously given how pretty much all lore characters are light skinned, in universe -safe for some retcons- it would mean current blood elf pop (which comes from the exiled Highborne) is majorly light skinned, with a low % of dark skin overall.
But, that could have been a result of the specific group of Highborne that where exiled; If we take another group of Highborne, the Suramarians, current skin choices could be extrapolated to say that population was majorly dark skinned.
So you can even make the case that depending of city of origin, Highborne skin tones could fall on either sides of the spectrum, with the overall current kaldorei population being more of an average.
In short, Highborne customization could be used to give an in universe justification for either very dark or very light skin, besides the normal expansion of just saying "yeah, there have always been more skin colors" which while I'm personally okay with because at the end of the day is a cosmetic expansion that has little bearing on narrative, I do admit that having explanations for it all fits my tastes better.