Transmogs 
Can’t wait for their baby!!
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if they make enough babies, it might became a new race. The Sunborne
jk jk
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Now we’re talking! 
Bring back the Lordaeron internment camps.
Uncalled for… Elves are mean! Don’t stand in the way of true love is all I’m saying… 
Oh…My…Gods, Lor’themar looks like an absolute legend in that picture. In that kind of “And this is the guy effectively running the Horde on Azeroth right now? Why, yes, yes it is, because he absolutely looks the part!”
I think, from reading ‘Blood of the Highborne’ that has just always been his natural hair colour, a sort of greyish/ash blonde. Also in that book it turns out that his natural iris colour without the fel green tint is brown. Oh and Liadrin’s is hazel.
Depends on whether you mean the original legends about Elves from our world, where they were always knocking around with Trolls, Orcs, Goblins and all sorts of monsters (Dwarves too to be honest) and were most definitely not buddy-buddy with humans, or the more stereotypical post-Tolkien Goody Goody two shoes versions of Elves. The Former I find interesting, the latter I find dull as ditchwater.
Unless the contents are reflected in the games, the books are just glorified fan fiction. They’re based on the games, not the other way around. And it’s definitely not that grey in-game.
With pleasure, now, Blizzard, let me please.
Aren’t the Tolkien elves more like high elves?
Tolkien Elves are pretty much the base Elves that most, if not all RPG settings and Fantasy Universes follow, including Warcraft, Blood Elves being in the Horde is just a deviation from that, a bad deviation imo, a betrayal to the setting that pretty much the thematic basis for the game.
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They’re a very-very-very sanitised and watered down version of Elven legends, to the extent that pretty much all they have in common is pointy ears, and extended lifespans.
Only since 1954. Before then they were -nothing- like subsequent settings depicted them as.
I’d argue that Blood Elves are more in keeping with the Germanic, Scandinavian and Celtic Elves of legend, so are much more ‘true’ to what Elves were in our stories.
I mean there is a -reason- in some remote villages in the UK they have a horseshoe nailed to the door, a reason that people were described as ‘Elf Shot’ if they were demented, Why milk and honey is still left outside doors in some places, why in the North of the UK it is incredibly bad luck if the first man who crosses your doorstep is blond of hair (A colour associated with Elves) and so the Tradition of ‘First Footing’ exists, why we feared Changlings… I could go on.
Elves were never -good- people until Tolkien did a hatchet job on them and gave us soppy whatnots like Legolas…
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true
High elves had a very Celtic feel to them in Warcraft 2, and they were part of the Alliance along with Dwarves, Gnomes, and Humans fighting against Orcs. They wore tribal tattoos in many colors, and braided hair with feathers.
In Warcraft 3 there was a shift, and Finally in BC we see that the Blood elves became more Middle Eastern in architecture. They seem to have abandoned the Farstrider tattoos, and instead have Runic tattoos (like Rommath) they abandoned the feathers. And even the clothing become more Red focused, rather than Blue and Green.
Meanwhile Alleria still has that Celtic aspect.
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Even people who like them need to see the damage they have done to the Horde’s classic identity of being the more savage faction.
It’s one of the main reasons why I play Horde far less, because Alliance’s image and aesthetic is still in tact. Worgen may be bestial, but they fit in FAR better than barbie elves alongside Orcs-- plus Worgen ain’t 50%, 50% bloomin’ percent of the ENTIRE faction.
Blizzard murdered Horde by adding that race to it.
They are a case-in-point example of why it’s sometimes a very good idea NOT to let players have what they want (as in a pretty race).
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aye! the massive imbalance of horde out numbering alliance started when they introduced blood elves apparently. I don’t know if it’s true but I can believe it. I also don’t like the way blood elf females run, this has no impact on my first point but I need to get it off my chest.
Blood elves were given to the Horde because no-one wanted to play the ugly bastards otherwise. And you know it’s the truth!
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Not no one, but the population was lower compared to the Alliance in Vanilla.
Asian players argued they want a pretty race for their Girlfriends to play horde with them. (I’m assuming the Girlfriends favored the alliance, lol)
It is LITERALLY to give Horde ‘A pretty race’, and it was stated explicitly.
I mean what great story and lore reasoning, considering the obvious effects it would have on the race balance within the faction.
I mean Humans being the dominant race on Alliance actially makes sense. One would not expect the dominant opposite to be cute dainty blonde haired pointy-ears.
As I said before, the macho screams of “For the Horde!” really do make me chuckle when one considers the actual sound that rallying cry would have-- as in an ear-piercing shrill of Thalassians. Then if things ain’t bad enough just wander down Orgimmar and look at the transmogs people have… yes, it really helps the raw savage atmosphere of the Horde capital city.
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It’s not 50%, but I agree it is pretty immersion-breaking at times when nearly 40% of all horde players you see belong to the race of “nearly massacred and recovering” elves. They’re supposed to be the least populous race on the horde in terms of lore due to the fact they were nearly killed off and being long-lived beings, don’t tend to proliferate super quickly.
Yet there are over twice as many blood elves as Orcs, and nearly 6 -7 times more blood elves than goblins, when goblins are both meant to outnumber belf and breed like rabbits as well.
I mean, player choices at the end of the day but yeah, it’s pretty bizarre. I feel okay with belf in horde and they do fit the horde in terms of their philosophy, but…the fact that they’re absolutely everywhere and comprise the vast majority of the horde at current is pretty unfortunate. Especially when you consider the horde has so much variety and options compared to alliance and yet nearly half of the playerbase opts to play the race that looks like physically ideal humans with pointy ears…
I also makes me cringe when on forums you see it’s mostly blood elves whom are “orcing it up” with their horde stance, like talking about eating gnomes, or how taurens are just steak etc. Just no. By all means, be the arcane attractive elves on the horde, but don’t for a second think that means suddenly they’re running around in spiked loincloths gorging their faces in bloodied messes of their enemies. It’s yikes central to me and comes across like someone wants the accolades of being a badass but doesn’t want to ensure the hardships of discomfort of actually having to be badass. Blood elves are also plenty badass without having to pretend to be orcs or savages.
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Well, if they added a 20-foot transformer robo-mech with rocket launcher arms as a race I think you’ll find it’d shoot up the popularity tables sharpish.
The point is player-choice should be curbed for exactly these reasons. Let players have exactly what they want and you end up with the monstrous neon palaces one sees in any game with player made housing.
People as a species do not have taste or self-reserve. They do not care about the aesthetics or integrity of a game world.