Fair enough, but that begs the question at what point should folk reconcile themselves to that decision?
Take this entire discussion for example. It is predicated on a desire to play a certain race on a certain faction. OK, lots of folks have that desire, nothing wrong with that.
BUT this particular race is a duplicate of an existing race that is playable on the other faction. And a narrative was developed which showed this race exiting one faction and joining the other.
It has been 20 years since those decisions were taken. A fifth of a century. A quarter of a Human lifespan. And every single action by Blizzard since then has doubled down on this.
They have publicly stated nearly a decade ago that Blood Elves ARE High Elves when directly asked about it.
A large part of the narrative of Mists of Pandaria solidified the presence of the Blood Elves within the Horde. When the Alliance next tried asking them to switch sides through Alleria during the Nightborne unlocking questline, she was brutally told no. Recent imagery from the new expansion shows Horde iconography on Blood Elf ships, a Horde banner done in a thalassian style fluttering from within the thalassian elf capital and an elven garden cut to represent the Horde symbol. A not so subtle reminder to any Alliance player that while they maybe in the city for now, to never forget whose side this city is on.
They are an intrinsic part of the faction and arguably the Horde was always a better fit for them emphasising a looser arrangement between the constituent states than the Alliance’s overarching control.
They have increasingly emphasised the ‘light’ orientation of the Blood Elves in recent years, making it clear the Fel of TBC was a single expansion long aberration. It also creates an interesting narrative dichotomy with the Void Elves, and dichotomies take two to work, not three.
At the first major opportunity to provide Alliance High Elves, the introduction of Allied Races in BFA, they created Void Elves instead. At the second and FINAL opportunity, the Midnight expansion with it’s focus on Blood Elves and Void Elves and setting in Quel’Thalas, they introduced the Haronir instead.
A lot of the arguments that we as players engage in on this topic tends to rely on those who want Alliance High Elves making multiple arguments as to why they are distinct enough to be allowed and those opposed pointing out all the problems with those reasons. Ultimately we end with the ‘appeal to authority’, that Blizzard can do whatever they will in response to the naysayers and that if they wanted to add Alliance High Elves they could and would.
But the corollary of that appeal to authority is never really grappled with, which goes back to the first person. Yes, Blizzard CAN do whatever they want, but they have taken every opportunity NOT to do it. Void Elves were probably the death knell for the dream and cross-faction play were probably the death knell for the dream.
I simply cannot see Blizzard giving the Alliance two thalassian elf options, one a complete duplicate of an existing Horde CORE race, when they a.) not only went to the bother of creating Void Elves, but gave the Void Elves normal skin tones and hair colours (something I think compromises the fantasy of the race and given the vast majority of Void Elf NPCs use the blueberry options, I think Blizzard agrees and sees those tones as a player convenience at best) b.) opened up cross-faction play, so you can be a Blood Elf who interacts with Alliance players in every meaningful form of content without the baggage of the void.
