How about a max level only questline which requires you to attain rep on the other faction races to allow defection to the other side.
Say your a Tauren and not happy with the Horde leadership, you can defect to the Alliance for example?
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I definitely want to play a night elf on horde side!
That gives exactly zero sense.
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Wouldnât work for every race though, in lore.
But I can see it work for some races.
Tauren have a lot of cultural similarities with the Night Elves and have worked with them in the past. Some Tauren might feel more at home within their ranks.
Blood Elves have always been split about their position in the Horde. To the point where they mind controlled citizens who loudly protested the decision.
Some of those I could see would want to defect.
Some Dark Iron dwarves could feel they would rather side with the Horde than join their old enemies the Bronzebeards in the Alliance.
Moiraâs hold on the Dark Iron clan hasnât exactly been secure at all times after all.
I can see how some of the more âArcaneâ minded Night Elves would feel more at home in Suramar than in their own homeland where mages are viewed with suspicion.
Not necessarily just defecting mages, but those who disagree that the arcane should be âsemi-bannedâ in Night Elf culture.
After Cata this is no longer true, before that there were no NE mages anyway, only Highborne had mages, but since they were accepted back and they are teaching the other Night elves, they have no need for that. Highborne + NE mages helped in the War of th Thorns and they are present in Siege of Undercity and retaking of Darkshore as well.
As fot other races frankly on the Alliance side, there are currently no race, that would have any reason to join the Horde. On the other side some Horde races have a lot of them to leave it and create another faction or join the Alliance.
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Yes, but that does not change the fact that arcane magic is viewed with suspicion in Night Elven culture.
Itâs been banned for literally thousands of years, and a couple of years of Night Elven mages doesnât erase all that suspicion.
Night Elven mages almost literally caused the end of the world after all, and many Night Elves remember this.
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*Was viewed.
Highborne themselves knew that and they still worked to earn the trust of other Night elves, they helped in many occasions and other Night elves are becoming Mages freely. There is currently no more tension, you can see a lot of NE/Highborne mages even in BfA, they fight for the Alliance.
So, sorry, but there is currently no reason for this to happen. Before Cata, yeah, but that is no longer true.
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*Is.
As I said a couple of years of âweâre helping!â doesnât erase the âwe nearly destroyed the world!â and the âwe didnât bother helping when Archimonde marched his demonic legions up the slopes of Hyjal!â
Yes, they are still trying to prove themselves.
But if they moved their butts to Suramar, they could just easily assimilate into a culture that widely accepts and uses arcane magic.
I personally would rather join a bunch of likeminded people instead of fighting an endless uphill battle to prove myself to someone who disliked what I was.
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You can blame every Thalassian elf as well for this then. It has been 10 000 years and all the Highborne that are now living, left the Legion and helped others fight it.
Can you tell me just one sign, where they seem to be viewed as something bad by other Night elves?
Again so many occasions when they helped each other, they fight along each other, fight the Horde, they are part of the Alliance. They can study freely, they are valued, how many more things do you need for confirmation that they are accepted as any other race?
What you are suggesting is pretty much Void elven case and look at how illogical nonsense is that.
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Well the Thalassians had their punishment. It was exile for not giving up the arcane. Which is the entire reason they donât live in Azeroth anymore.
Canât exactly expect them to pick up their entire kingdom and bring it to the slopes of Hyjal to fight the Legion.
Not to mention that the Thalassian kingdom was in ruins by that time, with 90% of the population being dead.
Not in-game no.
But anything else wouldnât make sense, seeing as a culture doesnât change so quickly to new ideas.
It took a world breaking to ban the Arcane.
Logically speaking it will take more than a spell cast into an orcs face to turn public opinion around.
It will take time for the Night Elven society to again become an âarcaneâ society, where magical colleges are built and whatnot.
Suramar is already there.
How is this related to the Void Elves? They literally canât go into Silvermoon, because if they get near the Sunwell they are literally a threat. Their mere presence is dangerous.
So I donât see them defecting to the Horde.
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I meant that Thalassian elvesâ ancestors were the same Highborne as those that still live in Kalimdor.
After the War of the Ancients the arcane usage was prohibited, but Highborne (although at those times the caste system was canceled, so Highborne or âlowborneâ could mix up) keep studying it, NE had a law for these, that actually said, that they would be killed for this act to prevent another Legion invasion, but they did not have a heart to do this, that is why they were banished from the lands. I did not mean pretty recent invasion that ended with killing of Archimonde, damaging of world Tree and losing immortality for Night elves.
Here is the thing, Night elves after losing their immortality already changed their mindset. They knew that they canât ban the Arcane usage anymore and they were the only one to offer friendship for Highborne (Shenâdralar) because no one really wanted to do anything with them.
The arcane usage is allowed again, all NE can study it, Highborne are part of Night elven army, they fight for them, they are equal, they can study, there are Highborne in the Mage Class Hall, so they have their freedom, no one is controlling/inspecting them.
They die for NE, they defend their lands.
So tell what other milestone they have to achieve in your eyes? They are equal, they are part of NE society, they fight for the Alliance.
Oh, possibly MB, for not specifying it, but I meant before they changed. They were Blood elves, that study the Void to protect their homeland, QuelâThalas, even though they were banished they still wanted to help, they were loyal.
But one scenario later, even though it is understandable, that they would be grateful to Alleria for saving them, they join the Alliance immediately, they want to prevent other Bllod elves to get knowledge about the Void, because they are concerned that they would misuse it and they would even help conquer the QuelâThalas, although it means that they would have to pretty much destroy itâŚ
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It works for some races, but not all.
Humans, dwarves, kul tirans, void elves, dark irons, gnomes and to a lesser extent gilneans - yes, many of these are sellsword types who work for their own whims and could see benefit to joining the Horde. It would only be a minority but the onus is there. Letâs not forget that not all human npcs are Alliance Aligned after all. More gilneans would have a problem given forsaken and gilneas, but it depends on their views of the King and Kingdom.
Night elf - doubtful, given the Horde contains two elven races they have beef with and represent the worst memories of their history. They may be alright with the arcane now, but that doesnât meant theyâre comfortable with it to the point the belf and nb use it for just about everything. Also, teldrassil.
Draenei - firstly, thereâs the orcs. Second, the draenei seem to be more culturally unified than the humans for example. Itâs very rare to see a draenei striking out on their own, doing their own thing, so sellsword types would be extraordinarily rare.
Light forged - I ntheiry they could, given the AOL worked with the Horde on argus. Then again theyâre headed up by an alliance war hero, and to oppose the alliance is to oppose several light worshipping races, most prominently their own kin so I donât think the light forged would actually join the Horde when push came to shove. Theyâd probably occupy a neutrality if not in the alliance.
Regarding horde:
Orcs - I donât see many orcs joining the alliance. Too much bad blood. Maybe a tiny few.
Trolls - culturally too distinct, the alliance doesnât really offer them anything, even if they disagree with the Horde. The Horde already suppresses parts of their culture, the alliance would do this even more.
Tauren - yeah some tauren would join np.
Forsaken - those who contest the legitimacy of sylvanasâ claim to lordaeron may defect. If the alliance will have them.
Blood elf - plausible, sure.
Goblins - its not like theyâre tied to the Horde because of anything but convienience. Some goblins would work for the Alliance sure.
Nightborne - itâs plausible a few would defect. If the night elves will have them.
High mountain - see tauren.
Magâhar - No. Culturally too distinct and the alliance hosts draenei and light culture that they have major beef with.
Zandalari - beyond the occasional sellsword or outcast itâs doubtful as the alliance invaded their city and killed their King.
Then I misunderstood you, apologies.
Just because their leaders say âdonât worry, these guys are cool.â Doesnât mean every Night Elf is going to be onboard with it.
Just look at European countries and muslims.
Theyâre just the same as the rest of us, they just have a different religion.
The law states they can come, and yet you have a loooot of people in each country that continue to discriminate against them.
While I think the Void Elves are cool, the lore for them is pulled out of some writers backside and half of it doesnât even make any sense.
The number of Void Elves in existence being one of them and how they are super-cool with attacking the Blood Elves being another.
NP, I could have specify it a bit more, but I usually try to not write huge walls of text X)
I do not want to go in this way tbh. But different religions are usually tied with different culture, traditions, history, ethnicity or even race in most of real life examples, well that could be ofc true to game.
This is however not the case for the Highborne/Night elves - given all those examples, that Iâve written so far, there is acceptance, no issues, equality, to change this after years by Blizz would be the same as Void elves âŚ
Do not take it personally, but your suggestion would be the same as this one, it would be illogical and very out of place according to years of experience, interaction with them.
I would understand some of the races to be âneutralâ, but just not Highborne/NE, their recent history and crimes that Horde did just makes that outright impossible.
That would be cool. EQ2 had a betrayal questline that you could do after hitting lvl 20. It was a long difficult quest during witch you served no faction at all until you finished it so during it you couldnt group, belong to a guild or enter any of the major cities.
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Just used it as an example of how even if the leaders say one thing, the people might feel differently, or at least some of them.
I still disagree, to a certain extent anyway, but I heed your point.
While I donât see it as impossible that some arcane minded individuals would seek to make Suramar their home, it might not be enough of them to make them playable Horde side.
Besides if they wanted playable Horde Night Elves, I assume most would prefer the Undead Night Elves resurrected on Darkshore.
I wouldnât like this concept myself. I believe we have our sides and there a plenty to choose from if people want to reroll. Or they can just buy a faction change and take their main over there.
Iâm not thinking of just a gameplay aspect, more of a player character RP one. Of course I can just roll an Orc to play that faction and I do butâŚ
My main now is this Gnome, I have fought the Horde and been a stalwart defender of the Alliance and itâs values since we invaded Outland.
However, my Human DK who was abandoned to the LK by the Alliance and feels that since the Lich King died, there has been no strong leadership to the Alliance. Varian started going soft and anduin is not the strong leader he deserves, he feels he should explore what the other side has to offer.
A long defection quest line would be awesome for that.
I think the OPâs intent is to have races on the âwrongâ faction via defection.
I rather like the idea, though Iâm not sure Iâd use it. The novelty might wear off when 50% of players in your capital originated on the other side. Maybe it could be restricted to one defector, per account, per server, such that most people would have most characters as regular race choices.
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I agree with you in that I like the idea too.
If it was to be something that was implemented they would have to balance it by not swapping 1 sides exalted base factions to the other, as a defector you would have to gain trust with the new side meaning that you would have to grind their reputations again. There would also need to be some kind of restrictions to prevent people from defecting to do 1 or 2 things and then returning to their original faction.
I doubt Blizzard will do this though because it is effectively a free faction change (one of their paid services).
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