I don’t need to see dozens of posts about high elves. Should they be playable? Should they be different from the blood elves? How? Are allied races the way to get them, or should we wait for something larger?

__________________

I just don't get the appeal, they'd need something to alter them, merge with dragons, lightning magic, ice


Making void elves belfs was silly

__________________
Brought to you by Sanguine Enterprises.

My Worldbuilding:
http://bloodinkworlds.tumblr.com/

All Blizzard needs to do is make customization options for Void elves that can pass as High elves. So long as they're indistinguishable from High elves, who cares? Is it really too much a stretch of the imagination to pretend the blue-eyed Void elf is a High elf?

__________________

Quite honestly elves are the race we need the least playable sub-races and variants of, considering come B4A the number of playable elves would've doubled, outnumbering any other race by far.

Not only will there be four different types of elves, but they'll be evenly distributed between the Horde and Alliance, making sure you can't escape their presence.

No, we don't need High Elves, we never did. It's never made sense for them to make up a playable race lorewise, and shoving them into the roster will nearly be as nonsensical as trying to shove in Void Elves.

And what races do we "need"?

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

We don't need new playable races actually, maybe just few other sub-races and it's definitely not another elves.

That's the thing: races are not needed. They are flavor. They help players create the character that looks like what they want. No race is "needed", the only reason we have them is to make (some) people happy. And high elves would do just that.

Of course, you may want something else, but that's just personal opinion.

You don't see people asking for murlocs, vupera or even ogres as much as you see high elf threads. There's a lot of demand for that. I bet there would be more people playing high elves than goblins, worgen, pandaren or maybe even draenei.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

I say we make Warcraft... pure again. Just Humans and Orcs.

__________________

I'm there with Anikin. We already have 4 different flavours of elves, we don't need another one. Especially because High Elves would add nothing that is already covered by the other elf-races.

We could very well say the same about High Elves.

I mean, we already have overhelming amount of playeble races. BC and Cata was ok, but Mists was already too much, like Pandarens was really good and well-developed race, but do we need them to be playable?
Now we have sub-races and they should either brings something new and interesting or just new cool visuals, High Elf can't do any of this, so they need to be redisigned, but then they wouldn't be a High Elfs that their fans demands.

I bet there would be more people playing murlocs than any race you listed. High Elves fans just vocal, like stupidly vocal most of the time, but that means nothing.

I have gnomes, I don't need anything else

Actually, we now have five flavors of elves, and the fifth was totally uncalled for. High elf fans would be very happy if we stayed with only four.

Of course. So, how about you ask for what races you want, instead of trying to say to others what they should or shouldn't want?

We don't "need", but it's nice to have them. The more the merrier.

[quote]Now we have sub-races and they should either brings something new and interesting or just new cool visuals, High Elf can't do any of this, so they need to be redisigned, but then they wouldn't be a High Elfs that their fans demands.

Lol. "Stupidly vocal" is just a way to dismiss that people wanting high elves are fairly common. They get "stupidly vocal" because whenever the subject is brought, there's a lot of people echoing them.

The only other race that is often asked for is ogres, and it still can't be compared.

Then be happy and stop trying to police what other people want.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

Nope. Game can easily become overloaded

It's cool, how you ignore the only line that really matter -- High Elves can't bring anything new to the game. That's why HE fans often look "stupidly vocal".

And you're the only one here who tells others what they should to do.

Anyway, I'm going to leave this topic and not pass through HE nonsens once again. Aalmost 10 years, I say that they will never add High Elves to Alliance, and I'm glad that I was right.

So what? Bring 30 races for all I care. If people are happy and keeps them playing and rerolling, who's losing with that? Why having options would be a bad thing?

Says you.

When did I (or we) ever do that?

I don't go to every vupera/murloc/ginyu/hozen/whatever thread just to pester people. I may say why I think it wouldn't work and leave at that, no need to keep coming back and repeating myself over and over just to bother the guys. Those threads always die out.

What bothers you is that high elf threads always return. Every year, every time an expansion is near. There's a demand to that, but you dismiss it as "stupidly vocal".

Anti-high elf people are as vocal and annoying, if not more, than high elf fans. Half of such threads are the same "anti-" people insisting in the same old tired arguments.

"High elves are blood elves". False. Even a NPC like Elisande knows the difference is not just eye color.
"They'd use the same model as blood elves". Uh... void elves?
"There's no population, no capital, no lands." So what? Void elves have such a big population, uh? And having capital or lands hasn't been a necessity since Cata, all you need is a story, and high elves have plenty of that.
"They bring nothing new". Maybe you lack imagination. Or maybe people want traditional things. What's wrong with that?
"Everyone and their mother will race change to high elves". So, they are not a vocal minority anymore, uh?

If you didn't bother so much, most of the threads would die out naturally. It's as if it was forbidden to express wants and desires if you don't agree with them.

Good for everyone, specially you.

People also used to say the same race wouldn't be available to both factions. That you couldn't create toons on both factions in a PvP server. That Blizzard would never do a vanilla server. Heck, two weeks ago there were people denying "subraces" or that nightborne would go Horde.

I think there were people denying the nightborne or highmountain by saying they brought "nothing new" to the game as well... hmmm...

Every single "anti-high elf" argument would apply to void elves, and yet there they are.

So, yeah, the threads will keep appearing. Every year, in every forum. Because there's demand. If that bothers you, it's better to stay away from them.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

I've liked the High Elves ever since WC2, just for the Tolkien-esque flavor. It was cool to see them sided with the Alliance and, as silly as it might sound, I've always associated them with the color blue. I've learn to like Blood Elves as well, but to many that's not the impression that really struck us at first sight.

I'll always remember the High Elves as an ally to the human kingdoms and partners in the Troll Wars. Even the Zul'Aman trailer kinda makes me wanna see both races working together again (spoilers: they still do, constanly. Only player characters can't).

So yeah. If they wanted to keep the desire of High Elves off Alliance players they should've made it so ALL of them went Horde or something, but that's not the case, and as long as it makes sense within the boundaries of the game world I think there will be some that want to embody that old idea of the noble elves that fought alongside the humans for generations.

__________________

I somewhat disagree, but it’s not a hill I’d want to die on. Void Elves very much remind me of the TFT Blood Elves: dark and edgy, and yet Alliance. Given how Liadrin is steadily pulling Blood Elves towards the Light, these are very much what Blood Elves used to be. They probably are going to pull Blood Elf Players (like me) back towards the Alliance more so than give Alliance High Elf fans what they want.

On the other hand, their Sin’dorei origins are probably the easiest and most likely part to change, seeing as how it’s really just a quest line. If it were me, I’d just make it a group of High Elven refugees/guerrillas who have been quietly holding out/hiding in the Ghostlands, and who have been getting desperate. I’d also change the name to either Grey Elves or Ghost Elves. Void Elves is a little too much on the nose.

That said I don’t think their relationship with the void is negotiable at this point. Alleria’s transformation built up to this.

And Deicide, you are right, these guys are wholly new, but I wouldn’t call them out of nowhere. This is just the next stage in Elven Evolution. You see the thing is, High Elves and Blood Elves really aren’t a different race. It’s a different ideology to be sure, you could easily argue a different culture, but genetically speaking they are the same. Void Elves seem to be something......... more.

The question now is if there’s room for one more playable species of Elf. Personally, I think we might have 1 to many. I’m wondering if we might not see Night Elves (and maybe the Nightborne with them) slowly die out.

My opinion could have been different if the void elves had already made their debut in lore and developed on their own, like Blizzard did with the nightborne. Right now, they feel like a forced addition, some "rule of cool" race without a proper background. I may review my opinion once I have played their introduction and seen on how customizable they may be.

There is one elf type too many. But if they are going to kill off one type, it will be the high elves (after all, they are not playable). If they do that, however, I'll be very pissed.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

Void Elves are like Alliance being given High Elves only in Corrupt-a-wish form.

What they really should do is make High Elves playable but give them blue eyes, different hair styles, a different voice, and a different (less cocky) stance.

And there you go.

As for lore, just say that high elves have begun to become more cohesive with eachother after the restoration of the Sunwell and the different threats Azeroth has faced in recent years.

The population argument is dead in the water when void elves 'make sense' on that front to Blizzard somehow.

I don't really understand the resistance to it at this point.

"Might be some story for the Velves in 7.3.5?"
"Might"?

My impression is that void elves will have a half-assed story in a short storyline, then will be forgotten for years.

I really doubt Battle for Azeroth will give any attention to allied races besides Zandalar (a lot) and Dark Iron (a little).

- Give them blood elf model with imported night elf animations. Eyes that don't glow, but have very bright noticiable colors (can change color between blue, silver and violet), different skin tones (the darkest colors around the lightest of the blood elves), different hair colors (high elves in game often have a light blue hair color not available to non-DK blood elves, for instance). Body paint option (like Alleria, or WC2's upgraded rangers), with green, blue, violet variations.

- The Silver Covenant leaves Dalaran because they can't trust the Horde, and another Horde treason against the city could be the doom of their entire people.

- They settle in Seradane, making a small town there and getting closer to the Highvale elves and Wildhammer dwarves.

- This new settlement also attracts more high elves that have been living in human lands.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

Can I double post if it's one day apart from last post and I have new info?

Hope this is not against the rules...

---------------------------------

Here's an interesting speculation, from Teerack in the MMO-C forums:

What do you think? I don't expect Aethas to turn sides, but if there's one blood elf that has been constantly being accused of not being "blood elf" enough, it's him. Also, that dialog does seem purposeless right now, unlike all other triggered dialogs in Vindicaar.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).

I expect the Void Elves to be the same wave of exiles Ranger Lord Hawkspear's elves were, but sure, anything is possible.

I guess it can be Aethas and a group he leads, though I'm not sure if blizz would be willing to have the leader of a Horde rep faction switch sides to the Alliance.

This just makes my problem with them even more stark, though. I'm not interested in playing as characters who for years have been Horde and have been trying to kill my Alliance characters. I'm especially not interested in having Aethas come over. It was bad enough that my mage had to help him get the Sunrevers back into Dalaran, but then I had to help him cover up the fact that one of his Sunreavers betrayed Dalaran AGAIN. I absolutely do not want that idiot in the Alliance. Especially since it wouldn't be because he chose to leave the Horde and join up, but because he was kicked out for being worse than the normal Blood Elf fel addicts.

I'll repeat here the plea I made on the official forums: pls gib High Elves blizz.

That's an interesting concept right there; It would have been rather interesting seeing Hawkspear trying to "revert" the afflicted elves of Quel'Lithien trough some void magic source. Makes me wonder it would have been a cool concept to have the "wretched" rehabilitated through the void.

While I pretty much agree with you everywhere about mostly everything, the notion that high elves would have the "lightest skin tones" really doesn't sit well with me. At the most harmless is that tolkienesque vestige of how elves should look like, but there's nothing in the lore that say high elves would be fair skinned, even more than blood elves.

And yet this is an in game issue, because that's exactly what happens with the npc skins for high elves, they are all very pale. And this is an issue with wow overall that goes deeper into fantasy tropes... Alas, I really wish that blizz started doing better at that, but that's not here nor there.

Personally I'd give every race just a wider skin tone palette, yet independent to that, perhaps I'd give High Elves cooler/duller/ashier shades, contrasting to the tans/goldens/warmer colors of the blood elves. That to show their contrast, and a way to visibly portray their separation from Quel'thalas and the Sunwell: Even if they are still connected to it, the physical distance is still noticeable, playing a bit more literal on the Sunwell thing.

I did not mean Hawkspear’s group necessarily, remember, there were many elves exiled for refusing Rommath’s teachings.

Let’s look at a potential scenario (as in an extremely hypothetical scenario meant to illustrate what I am talking about). We know that when Rommath arrives, many of the blood elves refuse his teachings, as they do not want to siphon magic from living beings and items directly, preferring to soothe the withdrawal effects. In turn, they are exiled by Theron, a Regent Lord who does not want to rule the nation divided, having to leave Quel’Thalas. As there are too many of them and the lands south are ravaged, these elves splinter into many groups (and many, in spite of Kael and Theron, reassume the name high elves). One of those settles somewhere in northeastern Lordaeron, their situation not unlike that in Quel’Lithien. They have to scrape a living, barely gathering enough resources to survive, searching for magical items that would soothe the effects of their withdrawal. Until one day, they find an artifact so powerful it could endure for years. What they do not know is that it is an ancient relic from the times of the Black Empire, lost in the north towards the end of the Aqir and Troll War. Soon, strange whispers start clouding their thoughts, just as happened to their kin in Tirisfal ages past…

They do look like Old Blood Elves don't they? Really makes you notice how hard they changed from TFT to now...

I'm sticking with what's in lore. While it does not say outright that high elves are paler, they are portrayed as paler. Like highborne night elves are usually portrayed in-game with white skin and silver hair, so we usually associate them with paler skin.

I wouldn't mind having other skin colors, but whenever I'm talking about them I try to stick to what is known and commonly accepted about them.

__________________
- Sorry for any typos; english's not my primary language.

- A better signature coming soon(ish).