Night elf mage concepts:
Male heavy: While Azshara was the most famous night elf for being a mage, turns out it's a male dominated arena. Perhaps because blizzard generally put females in the traditional male roles for night elves and the other way round. We have far more male night elf mage famous people.
1. Illidan - greatest sorceror ever (even though Azshara is more notorsiouly prolific for great arcane accomplishments)
2. Xavius - pre-satyr Xavius, 2nd best magician in the realm during that time period ( long before Illidan matures)
3. Prince Farondis - while we only meet him in Legion, we see he packs a punch and was willing to go toe to toe with Queen herself - very powerful
4. Mordant Evensahde - a bit like Thalyssra, we don't really see him do much, but as the leader of the Highborne he is noteworthy figure
5. Lothrius Mooncaller - one of the 3 leaders of the Moonguard, this guy is BADASS, did you see him against Elisande's attack force, he humiliated them, despite the great number disparities, you don't want to cross him.
Most of the Moonguard who were with the resistance, and some Highborne turned to duridism as remember it was ll night elves who agreed with the ban, including Darth Remar, it as only 3,000 years into it that Darth Remar felt it was time to move on.. the druids were vastly male populated too, showing that most of the pre-sundering magister population were male. This is likely because the order of Elune, the other most influential caste in the entire realm was exclusively female at it's sisterhood. Whiles the lore tells us males had a a priestly order connected to it, which I suspect is where the likes of Star Augur Etraeus come from.. This huge female organisation - trained casters, warriors, hunters etc.
Pre-sundering, the real had it's army, so that gender segregation was not as obvious in the military forces.. the Moonguard was mostly male, but the sister hood, especially the Night warrior would have been female. Ground forces would have been mixed, but because of the sisterhood, it is likely that even pre-sundering, females were not shy of picking up bows and swords and were probably the more melee focused..
But post sundering, during the long vigil, they would be almost entirely female.
Nightborne Mage Concepts:
I personally prefer males, but then Elisande, Thalyssra, and Thalyssra's replacement were all females. WE did fight a few mage Lords to be fair, who seemed more male than female, but the Duskguard were pretty even.
High elves:
No gender disparity - i pick what i like, I am not going to do a high elf mage, I am tempted to do a male, but I already have a blood elf.. and I kinda feel the blood elf should be the mage. I haven't relaly felt the need to play a high elf since void elves beacme avialable, and tbh, I'm really gald theyd id void leves, if you already play blodo elves, even though I love high elves, from a playing perspective of a person who does both factions, it maeks high elves a bit redundant. But now they are here, all my blood elves are switching to ruddier more tanned skin options, and darker hair options, i do have a black void elf, but the rest would be very pale skin and pale hair.
Void elves:
No gender disparity - I did go for a a female, mage is the best class for a void elf, not priest nor hunter. Because of Alleria hunter is a very good choice. But there is no priest lore for void elves. It is full of mages, then you have seen the rogues, warriors and hunters.
Therefore I have a void elf mage, rogue, warrior, priest and death knight - but I will make the female hunter high elven for sure. I was figuring whether I should make her void, but nah she'd be high elf.
Blood Elves
gAgain here, no gender disparity for mages. I do have a male blood elf mage, I've had like forever, I will still keep him and play him. My main was a blood elf hunter for a while, male too, I'm keeping him too. He's my farstrider, got a female warlock, green eyes, and off course, the only elven paladins are Blood elves, just like the only Elven druids are night elves, which is a bit silly, they should all have access to druids and paladins, but with different names. I think night warriors should be the night elf and nightborne version of Paladin, yes, nightborne should have access to them, Elune should be a big part of the nightborne, but other facets to the order that weren't emphasized with the Darnassians because of the Long vigil and the ban can now come out, including hte other star facets of the Order. I think nightborne druids should be Valewalkers, and blood and High elven ones as Botanists, Void elves should have a unique name, like Void Harversters or Tenders. Void elves should be paladins as Void knights or light paladins because of the high elf options.
All my blood elves except my paladin are changing hair colour and skin colour. and I'm removing the ones I chagned to blue eyes and setting them to either green or gold (priest/pala) or where the gear makes sense
This. Anyone mention to @Syegfryed yet that by his logic Dark Irons are a different race than Dwarves yet Moira had no issues birthing a Dark Iron Dwarf baby with 'another race'
Same argument for night elves and Nightborne, Nightborne are an ethnicity of night elf, though the nightwell made some changes, just like the void made some changes to purple void elves.. problem is it seems that people don't connect the nightborne as much to night elves... i kept thinking, it's literally a skinny night elf - both npc (old models) and player models, with upturned ears. Why do they struggle so much more? My only conclusion is because Suramar seems so different than wild forest life they associate night elves with.
Off course, I don't have such a problem, since most of my knowledge on night elves comes from the far more extensive coverage of them in the novels, than in game which has a lot to say about the pre-sundering era and Suramar too.. so I expect and associate Suramar with night elves, they associate it with a new elf race, and blood elves oblivious to the connection blood elves have with night elves.
what @Sygefryed is saying about void elves being a different race is just as invalid as those who say Nightborne are. They're just an ethnicity who's deviation is magically induced. That's the whole point of allied/sub -races. But he thinks they're something entirely different, not quite catching the nuance. It's an autism like problem, I can entirely sympthise with, but he is so stubborn sometimes, he can make it hard to be sympathetic
Highmountains: Cenarius magically alters the Tauren = Highmountain
Lightforged: Light ritual magically alters the Eredar draenei = Lightforged
Nightborne: Nightwell magically alters the night elves = Nightborne
Void elves: Void accident magically alters the blood elves = blood elves
Same story in every case. all these sub races are based on their main races. Problem with Nightborne is most of the populations unaware of the civilization of the kaldorei - so think it's new, but it's been there since WC3, yes since WC3, read the manual, and read War of the Ancients that was written when Warcraft 3, was been written even though it was released after TFT. It's just lore they're not aware of.
The culture, character oft he Highmountain is very Tauren - slightly different form the mulgore tauren but very Tauren
The Lightforged just have a different experience but are clearly draenei
The void elves are clearly Thalassians, blood elves with re-entering their loyalty on the alliance, but they have the blood elf tenacity, drive, and we know high elves are part of them too
The Nightborne are clearly kaldorei, civilization types from the time all kaldorei had a civilization as a major part of their culture - only now slowly returning after 10k years of vigil. But it is kaldorei culture - just a side that hasn't been seen. There is nothing in Suramar, and the culture you see in the quests that isn't an expansion on what you read in War of the ancients and an exploration. It's kaldorei through and through, just not much Elune speech and druidism.. but it has lots of gardens and plants, and it's full of moon symbols everywhere.
Not to mention that the parents of those Void Elves in the lore are Blood Elves, they dont stop being same race just because they change color over night
Its just out of the blue(pun) argument to say that lore wise, Void Elves is another race. It makes no sense from a lore perspective. Using the argument with playable races would be scraping the butter on the bread, but better than using the lore argument.
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I'd argue that the Nightborne are more "Female Mage." Elisande, the leader was female. All of her "first arcanist's" were female. The best leyline researcher in Suramar was female.
Yes, we've got Oculeth, with his telemancy, but Thalyssra is also known to have great telemancy skills, such as being able to teleport the whole Horde Army to Zandalar.
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Blood Elves are like Night Elf Mages, in some regard. Most common ones are males, but we've seen a lot of female blood elf mage npcs.
Also, the Sorceresses in W3 were all female high/blood elves, whilst the Priests were all male high/blood elves.
And I'm all for more classes, but it's got to be at a time when Blizzard can tell a decent story. Thus far, only Night Elf Paladins could fit the bill. Nightborne Paladins would be "Holy Light Acolytes", Blood Elf Druids would be "Tauren Druid Apprentices." Why? Because that's all Blizzard would muster.
If the story isn't going to be good, then I reckon it should be left unchanged.
It's pretty simple. If it doesn't say High Elf on the character creation screen when choosing a race you're not a High Elf.
You're free to create a Blood Elf or a Void Elf and RP as a High Elf though.
Horde players are playing blue-eyed blood elves or a few high elves freshly returned to QT
Alliance players are playing most of the remaining High elves.
Period.
"If you want to play alongside High and Void elves, the Alliance is waiting for you"
How is this so hard to understand?
"High elves" (like Silver Covenant/Highvale) = Pure High elves without any corruption of any kind;
Blood elves = High elves twisted by Fel;
Void elves: High elves twisted by Void.
Wonder how will age when/if we get new VE initiates made of High Elves then lol.
Okay so you basically didn't read the comic I literally linked to you. Come on, make an effort.no im not? it is on the playable ones lore?
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mechagnome_(playable)
its not just "remove their limbs and put a prostethic arm in the place" it is full reverse the curse of flesh in a limb, it is even highlight by their racials with then having organic light.
THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT HAPPENS IN THE COMIC AFTER ERAZMIN LEAVES, AND WE SEE IT BEING USED FOR THE FIRST TIME. THAT'S WHAT KING MECHAGON HAD BEEN WORKING ON AN TESTED ON THE GNOME EXPLORER.they experimented with ancient technology to reverse the Curse of Flesh and become living machines.
And that's why any critique you make is entirely surface. It's like you are unable to see the inconsistencies of treating Illidari as merely "another class" and completely dismiss how the lore itself might not be a one to one reflection of gameplay categorization. "Demon Hunters are a class" is the laziest read of the situation as you, again, completely dismiss how regardless of game mechanics, their biology has changed on a manner far more similar to LFD and VE than anything else. Death Knight's are also a class, but they are physiologically different and far more closer to forsaken than their original races.im not dismissing im taking then in account, i talk about then several times, but again, that is another case as their are a class, trying to put them in the same bag is a false equivalence..
Lol and you say that when I literally replied this before? You gave up on actually reading what one is actually writing a long time ago lmao.Except i never said anything about personal immersion, you are attacking a point that i never made, i was talking about lore and the canon origins, while you stating the canon is wrong and to be a elf is a mere "self identity thing" when its not.
You dismiss what doesn't fit your argument (Illidari) and misread and misrepresent the lore (mechagnomes)Race in WoW only works if it's understood as the interactions between biology, culture, identity and society of a group, because the absence of one of them by themselves does not preclude a race from being a "race". You can't reduce it to biology when we literally see the absence of that variable on mechagnomes, and yet we see it on Illidari DH
The former only. I doubt any High elf would return to Quel'Thalas. They left it in the first place because they wanted to remain pure, and not be twisted and mutated by Fel magic.
It could be a Blood elf who somehow never got mutated by Fel magic, and thus retains their blue eye. But how this is possibly, I do not know. Maybe they were away from Quel'Thalas in TBC.
That's why it's so silly to define race in WoW solely by the biological component. If there is a valid conceptualization in WoW about race, it has to take into account both culture and society of the group. Biology alone does not a race make, nor is necessary according WoW itself. If Blood Elves and High Elves are the same race, so are Maghar and Orcs.
I do think most of the WoW "races" would fit more with the concept of ethnicity, but I would think that wouldn't apply to "races" that are afflicted by curses/cosmic forces, as you can't really change your ethnic group.
That's why "race" is a weird term in WoW, and really only makes sense as a more complex grouping that not only accounts for biology, but also society and culture.
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For me the issue is taking the gameplay distinctions as the sole prescriptive notion without considering the obvious existence of lore and gameplay segregation in a game. If everything that we see during gameplay is "lore" then the world really just doesn't make sense, you have to use at least a iota of critical thinking to see the overall context so you don't end up believing stuff that contradicts each other.
Saying Illidari wouldn't count as a race because they are a "class" is just putting a gameplay classification in a place where it does not make sense. Logically, Illidari are as distinct from thalassians as VE's are, they are utterly infused with a magical energy, yet the gameplay treats them as different things. So it's either that Illidari should be considered another race and gameplay=/=Lore, or biology alone does not make a race and if they still consider themselves Blood Elves no one is going to tell them "akshually you're a Fel Elf okay?"
All I know is that you contradict yourself. You call me out for separating lore from my immersion, in the same breath you say "I don't have a problem with the RP you have"
And honestly? It really seems all of this stems of you misinterpreting my arguments. You care conflating my criticism of the concept of race in WoW as MY MOTIVE, when my personal immersion is separate from that belief, since my High Elves are just high elves with no void whatsoever, I'm not pretzeling in any logic to make my void elves into high elves, and it kinda baffles me how you mixed up the two concepts on the first place.
And all of this, because you are fixated on the idea that elves have to become mutated enough to use spatial rift lmao.