I’m enjoying the expansion of night elf tattoos to female bodies and some new ones on both male and female faces.
I’m also liking the Wow classic box art cover theme for the heritage armor - which is a powerful part of the fantasy - remember how only the Nightborne npcs had that look but you’d have to go back to WC3 to see them on the night elf? Then we saw them appear in the pre-patch for 8.0 but not available to players, so I’m glad they here.
However, one of the most exciting tattoo options are the ones that highlight the Priest and mage roles with the star tattoos glistening with arcane power of the stars Tyrande had on her Night warrior skin
and her Avatar of Elune skin.
I’d love those for my night elf - especially role playing a Moon Priestess and a Highborne arcane wielding night elf mage. It would reinforce that Elune power and Arcane heritage which has often been sidelined in the playable group -surprisingly, but it’s also cool.
Remember blizz, the Moon Priestess and the Ancient Highborne magic caster are also very popular fantasies for this race… not just the druid and the sentinel, and it would be so cool to have the tattoos.
Also these styles actually will fit any night elf class.
Warrior - you could be a night warrior or Elune warrior based or an arcane based warrior with these tattoos.
Druid - druidism is off course having links to Elune and the arcane so it would work there.
Rogue - same concept as warrior a night warrior or Elune or arcane enhanced rogue
Remember the night elf black eyes and the black moon sect introduced in 8.1 could touch all night elf classes. … so while it is most powerful on the Priest and mage class, it works for all the others.
There have been some really cool stuff for night elves come out, but they are often and for long times only limited to NPCs. WE didn’t see Illidan’s cool styles till Legion came out, 12 years after wow release and 16 years after WC3 and War of the Ancient trilogy book.
We got Malfurion styles early with the excessive druid exposures, but we didn’t even see the sentinel and druid armor form the opening cinematic in classic in-game till WoT.
And now we have what is arguably one of the coolest visualisations of the Night elf race’s star, Elune and arcane capacity, visualised in Tyrande’s tattoos, and I just wonder when we will see them.
An elune lunar demon hunter at this point would fit this aesthetic a lot, since they use war glaives and have no legion to fight. Class skins are just such a nice opportunity, and I don’t understand why blizzard doesn’t want this
Yes, I’m finding that too…it can literally fit every night elf cast, and opens your role play and fantasy options. with it playing as black moon sect or Highborne or a priest caste for nearly all the classes except warlock fits spot on.
It’s probably one oft he coolest things night elves have gotten, and so far one of the only thing that touches their main culture which is is the stars.
Often i think the developers forget that races are children of the stars, not children of the forest or trees. and while forest love is a key component, the original is the stars as connected to Elune and the Well of eternity arcane which all elves get the magic love from.
To see these vastly under represented in the main night elf playable group ii think downplays the race and the scope of it’s fantasy. After all, the sentinel and the druid are not the only things fans love about the race.
The Highborne and the Moon Priestess along with the Demon Hunter have been arguably the most powerful icons of the race. For the night elves we got Elune and the Well of Eternity first before the druidic love got expanded.
The forest and ancient ruins was the visual start… but we read about the wider scope as the foundation and origin before eventually seeing more of it when they did things like The Cathedral of Eternal night and Suramar city as well as Zin’Azshari in 8.1 - all this is part of the fantasy. - to see that both forest and city of the night elves can be so iconic, and the Moon Priestess has the depth that we saw in the night warrior only to see it more or less abandoned or side lined instead of promoted more through character options is a bit disappointing and I hope gets remedied.
Part of me hoped that the new tattos and armor would be close to what we saw on tyrande/elune.
What we got doesn’t look bad but becuse i was hoping for the above i can’t help to feel a little dissapointed. And night elves have been given some attention now a few times so im afraid we won’t get anymore now for some time.
Lets just hope that the new world tree will bring more options to us.
I gotta admit, that was me also. When I saw “new tattoos” - I thought… are we getting the star arcane tattoos we saw on Tyrande - cos those look awesome and fit the Kaldorei - children of the stars root of the race as well as their arcane/well of eternity mage aspect - neither of those seem to have much visualisation.
They really are cool, everyone that’s seen them likes them, so why don’t we have them yet? They were quick to give the black eyes, which was nice, but this glowing arcane tattoos full of star magic were a lot cooler and both my priest and mage Nelf toons can’t wait for them.
It’s just art work, and very cool one too - it symbolizes arcane power from the stars. In her case it’s the star power of the goddess.
It no longer has to be night warrior exclusive. Just like the black eyes aren’t night warrior exclusive - but a symbol of the night power, so to this seems to be a cool way to represent the stars’ power.
Presumably all night elves are both connoted to the arcane and Elune. And it would seem the black moon sect that the black eyes belong to are not priest exclusive either, any night elf class apart from DHs can get them.
It would be the same here too, and it makes sense since every night elf is touched by Elune and the arcane anyway, and it’s part of the original kaldorei identity.
The pre-sundering night elves had Elune, the arcane and nature all going for them at the same time. Their identity is rooted in Elune and the stars, the Well of Eternity and nature.
I can’t think of any customisation that better represents this.
Indeed, without explanation too, and that was less lore appropriate than the children of the stars empowered with glowing star and moon customisations.
Imagine if those night elf markings were more than just ink. Imagine if there was a whole cultural side to it too, which is why when it is infused with arcane power or Elune is called upon, the tattoos glow and get filled with stars.
What if it was something that was long dormant, and the night warrior experience unlocked this power, and all of a sudden, the markings ritual all night elves can take haling back to their most ancient days around the Well when they made contact with Elune all of a sudden makes unveils a hidden potential the night warrior power had to unlock… and now all can get it.
Off course, mages, priests and druids easily connect to arcane sources and the goddess… but the truth is, night elf warriors, rogues and huntresses, as well as wardens all have historically been tied to Elune and accessed arcane spells anyway. .
So from a lore perspective it is easy to make the connection.
the same way we did get a little bit of everything in customization. they all have unique qualities that make them famous: sylvanas banshee status, jaina double hair color, malfurion feathers… and tyrande night warrior look. we can’t look 100% like them, because they are the main characters of this franchise and they need to stand out
Yas to more customisation, ignore the naysayers who doomsay everything, main characters will always get the main spotlight regardless if the plyer can look like them or not.
I was thinking they could have different hues of silver glow on the tattoo outline, and and different densities of stars.
It is already going to be unique, because the player character tattoos are unique, the star power effect, could be a tick box like leafy hair or could be a slider, but it basically just adds a glow on the edge of the tattoo, and then fills it with stars.
It max setting it could have a glowing crescent moon on the forehead, so it will be a slider…
Setting 1: Outline silver glow
Setting 2-4; Increasing density of stars
Setting 5: Crescent moon
Additional option could be intensity: low intensity and bright glow
Then filler hue: here you can get variations on how deep the the colour against the stars in from the purple you see in Tyrande’s to black like the night sky or basically just variations of the night sky, including purple, so from light blue to dark purple near black.
Agreed, I do think customisations should aim to fulfil the various fantasies every race has.
In this case this star customisation is right up the street of the Moon Priestess (avatar of Elune), The Night Warrior, and the Highborne mage - because of the arcane power and racial star iconography now over their body.
The Blackmoon sect , Priest and Highborne mage characters would particularly welcome this.
it’s the dark elf fantasy side of the night elves, the one full of magical power, the stars, the ancient civilization, the original meaning of the kaldorei - the Elune, moon, star and well of Eternity side… it is different from the forest garb/ sentinel druid/huntress style, and the fel demon hunter side.
I have come to class the night elves into 3 main categories from their lore, which are nice and fit together through their story, but are also healthy because it makes the race feel like it his really ancient, has a lot of depth and believable once covered the entire planet. they are
the magical side - this as the Priestesses of the Moon, the Highborne mages, Elune, the Well of Eternity, the civilization , great temples and cities
The forest wildling - this has the druids, the sentinels and the huntresses too - who’ve roamed the ancient forest hunting enemies or tending to nature
The fel infused half demon elves, the Illidan lot we know as the Illidari -they have the fel power, the green flames and an elven version of the legion themes.
More arcane tattoos for all elf races, with perfect matching colour themes.
Or Night Elves get arcane body tattoos and Blood Elves get runic facial arcane tattoos. The latter appearing on the TBC box art, so go full kaldorei + box art and go full sin’dorei + box art.
Yup, Night elves are the night version of elves, the Star and moon to the high/blood elf sun.
Those people who just equate night elves to their forest elf half completely miss it’s a race that also has an elven civilization that the blood elves’ is similar too, just that by lore it was much grander given they ruled the planet - but it is essentially the night version. Or maybe they just don’t know, the game only has Darnassus, Dire Maul and Suramar with Warbringer Azshara’s Zin’Azshari available for night elf cities, which technically is 4 x the number of blood elf cities we have, but people still can’t imagine night elves with a civilization, temples arcane power… it’s been shown, but clearly not enough.
I expect all elves to have arcane tattoos or evidence of it, it is the night elves that are made from the arcane love, and nature love does not exclude arcane love, even when one magic ran far more prevalent than the other both were present… it’s weird to expect night elves to only have leaf and forest markings but no markings to signify the stars,Elune and the arcane power they can command both from the Goddess and or the well.
I expect the night elf versions to look exactly like the Tyrandes, while the nightborne continue as theirs, they may be a night elf sub group, but theirs is borne from the nightwell rather than the stars being trapped in that dome for 10k years.
Blood elves I expect fire and blood arcane runes. Their runes are more like Demon hunters’… Rommath has already shown us some of the blood elf arcane runes, in TBC they didn’t glow, but maybe with the development of the blood magi, and phoenix magi, we can have some glowing red ones and fire ones?
I don’t know much about night elf lore, simply because I don’t really care for many of their characters, minus Maiev and Jarod. Tyrande, Shandris and Malfurion all seem annoying and Azshara is a Naga and I don’t even know who leads the night elf mages tbh. Maiev embodies everything I love about a more savage elf, with noble intention. She is that perfect balance. Jarod is a cool guy.
So my only Night Elf is a Warrior, so faded white tattoos, plus the current features of a huge claw scratch across the face and a blinded eye - it would represent the Night Elf “Warden”-like character that I do love. It would be like a former-priestess, but no longer calls on Elune to bless her, so the arcane runes are their, but they no longer radiant.
Blood Elves having runes which match their eyes colours, plus getting red runes would be great. Golden, green, purple and with additional red - could really move things and the red could also work for anybody who wanted to RP a Darkfallen Elf. (Truthfully, Darkfallen features should have been blood elf-only.)
Various shades of green, ranging from a nature/farstrider look to a deep fel/warlock like green would also look great.
Purple would obviously work for the Silvermoon Arcanists and match well with the purple eyes for blood elves.
Avatar of Elune skin might be a bit too much (with stuff like that there’s usually only 1 avatar of something; so having lots of players run around with it would feel off to me).
The stars look really cool though and something like it would be great.
