I don’t labour under the misapprehension that this is a particularly hot take, but pretty much all of the void elf writing of BfA was a mess. Rushed, at the very least. A lot of things were bent and hammered into shape, all to facilitate them as a race in BfA. They’d have benefitted from some more time on the drawing board for sure.
I’ll add that I’m hopeful things will be given their time to cook in later TWW and Midnight. From what changes has been made to Telogrus and its residents, the outline of a plan seems to be taking shape.
Or honestly not existing. I am of the minority who thinks not even High Elves should have been an allied race (or that allied races should exist at all), but they’d have been a lesser evil in comparison to the mess that Void Elves are. I’ve said this in other threads and continue to echo it - it feels like they took away from Blood Elves all that they were in TBC and left them in a very uncertain Light-oriantated situation, where on the one hand it makes sense, as they try to balance their future and Sunwell’s restoration, but on the other hand they are very far from what we originally saw them to be, lacking any nuisance. And the lack of lore, leading to extreme player headcanons, doesn’t help them either.
I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again, all problems with void elves would have been solved if they were involuntarily transformed Silver Covenant instead of blood elf researchers.
Why are they allowed in the Alliance? They already were part of it.
Why are they loyal to the Alliance? Because Silver Covenant.
Why are they behaving like murderhobos everywhere? Because Silver Covenant.
Why is there no high elf allied race? Because now they really don´t have the numbers for it.
Why doesn´t the Alliance fire them anyway? Because it has seen what spurning potential allies who are not responsible for their current state does with Forsaken and blood elves and it doesn´t want to lose an ally by doing that mistake the third time.
And, you could later roll the high elf customizations into void elves and say that as time goes on, some high elves adopted the identity of void elves and became more willing to experiment with this magic that their own friends and family in the Alliance are already using, decreasing the amount of high elves even further and further justifying why they aren´t ever being added as allied race.
I know because I was one LOL. I was a very young teenager and my first ever character on Argent Dawn was a High Elf, but DESPITE THAT I used to spend so much of my time reading through the WoWpedia pages relating to anything Thalassian. Even if I didn’t get the lore spot on, I really wanted to make sure I was depicting things somewhat correctly, and ultimately I wanted my character to actually feel like an elf.
I remember one quirk my character had was meditating to combat mana addiction since I think I recall reading it was a thing in the Warcraft RPG? I remember spending my time writing little short stories/archives of what my character’s family were doing, the distinction between the Blood and High Elven members of their family etc etc.
I look on this stuff really fondly, whilst I was definitely far too young to be hanging around on this server, it genuinely was responsible for me getting the amazing grade I did in things like English and History. But I sometimes sit there and wonder: if I could do these things as a genuine child, what the heck is going on with these other people???
Maybe, but also I feel like it does make them a little less unique. With the exception of the forsaken being rejected by the Alliance but welcomed by the Horde, we’ve never had an actual turncoat race. With void elves it’s arguably worse, because not only are they shunned by theirr former allies and tolerated by theirr former enemies, but the magic they researched and infused themselves with (albeit involuntarily) is one that thrives off of paranoia - which the void elves would logically have plenty of considering all they’ve been through.
If they were always accepted by the Alliance, I think that would lessen that element of them where they’ve got a very good reason to be paranoid and uncertain and distrusting, but they maybe have an even better reason to not be (which is that doing so might result in total madness and probably getting chucked off one of Telogrus’ many islands)
Which I´d say is a good thing. That very uniqueness, of being a turncoat race that goes completely against the ideals of the Alliance is a bad thing. Void elves have everything going against them as members of the Alliance and nothing going for them. By making them existing members of the Alliance and former high elves, you could retain everything that they actually do post-corruption and still have plenty of justification why they stay members of the Alliance.
As of right now, they´re a sore thumb in the middle of the Alliance.
Not necessarily. It’s still something that would oppose the core identity of High Elves as those who denied fel and wanted to set limits on magic to the point that they were exiled. So why would such people then embrace something that has the same effects with fel (corruption, alteration, etc)?
Agreed, but the meta problem is that adding void elves and especially the high elf cosmetic option dillutes the aesthetic/cultural value that drives immersion. Basically the classic vs retail argument in which the more you add to the game the more you end up taking away. To paraphrase an extremely overrated TV show, you get quality by subtracting. Part of the issue is choice, too. If you have 5 options and both are equally valid then you only have one option. If every race can do everything then what is the point of racial distinction? If all identity is homogenized and uniformed then there is no identity. Limiting play choice increases player fun because it makes those choices more meaningful. It seems counter-intuitive but it is why games like Elden Ring are so popular.
I think that’s a take that depends on who you’re asking.
Though for example I’d agree with you, we also know there’s another side to this, both in the RP world and outside of it that would find homogenization more to their tastes. Does that take away from the lore, or the immersion of the world? I’d be inclined to agree, but not everyone would.
Maybe I’m being too intellectual right now but they could also just have, y’know, made High Elves and Blood Elves the racial split and continually solidifed and advanced their narratives and rivalry as opposing sides of the Thalassian coin.
Given some of the ‘reasons’ for X, Y and Z over the years, my question is how do PVPers manage to breath? Because, like, that seems like it would be challenging for some of them
Hypoxia would explain some of the rage posts that you see PVPers making on their respective forums and on social media. If you wanna see grammar, spelling, and sense go out the window, just mention Blizzard’s Social Contract to a PVPer - they really can’t understand why being unpleasant and toxic gets them banned.
I don’t disagree with this observation, but the orginal (and arguably the most interesting) TBC sin’dorei didn’t even make it through that expansion. By the time the ren’dorei were introduced, the grittier sin’dorei had been gone for a literal decade.
Now, I’m all for them returning to form so to speak, but I’m honestly glad it didn’t happen by means of Void shenanigans for the resident populace in Silvermoon. In that respect I’m good with another branch of the elven family tree seizing that particular aesthetic and lore. It’d have watered down the sin’dorei as a culture even further, if intermingled with something so opposing to their default aesthetics and vibe.
All that being said, I do miss the “magic vampire” days of the blood elves. Kinda hoping the Sunwell takes another dive, so that Quel’Thalas once more scrounges up all kinds and constellations of magic to endure and thrive once more.
I don’t even know if its possible in this day and age, given that there’s just another inactive Sunwell sitting around in the Broken Isles that’s still giving off immense Arcane energies even without the Eye of Aman’Thul. There’s also like… 10 or more cures for magic addiction now that are relatively easy to get one’s hands on.
Though I absolutely agree with you in the sense that they were gone, up until BFA, with being willing to adopt the Mogu’s anima technology, there seemed to be some hope. Though I maintain that we won’t know for sure until we see it in Midnight if the TBC ways have entirely been abandoned, it’s undeniable that having a heart of a Naaru within the Sunwell charted the race’s future towards the Light (and often forgotten arcane after the Nightborne became the new arcane elves) - with the exceptions of course that linger in the Murder Row (unless Blizzard decides to erase them going forward, but it’s still very much a wait and see).
Nah, Blizz will just have Lor’themar be like “Our old ways were very very bad. Now we have to embrace a new path”.
And suddenly, out of nowhere, he steps down as Lord-Regent and goes on a honeymoon with Thalyssra while Silvermoon gets ruled by a council. All’doreis will be welcome in Silvermoon.
Sin’dorei, Quel’dorei, Ren’dorei, Darkfallen and whatever subgroup of that thalassian elven family exists living happily together as if nothing happened at all. With all forgiving each others sins and appreciating each others like the Draenei and the Man’ari did in the Tishamaat.
I dont encounter power emotes very much. But if i do? I just match them out right? If you wanna go anime super main character in a fight. I can dance too xD
But as a vulpera it depends on the situastion… For example if an Fully armored orc with an axe three times my size says he is going to kill me? I will let him know… I will be fighting him with the intent to kill. Cause of course I would? My character would die if i didn’t. Thats the sorta situastion where I can end up having to power emote.
However if its a fair and square fight or battle. I would want to make the fight as cool and awesome for everyone included. I take my hits and damage if you do. And keep it fair.
