New customization options for blood elves and void elves

Community General Discussion
845

No, no you can not.

846

But I said “please” :smiley:

No? :<

847

Stop with this false premise that by other people getting things you are losing out. They aren’t removing Blood Elves from the game, so stop acting like that’s the case.

It’s so amazingly petulant. It reminds me of a little child who cries to his parents because his brother Toby got the same monster truck present.

Drop it. This is not some arbirtray addition like plucking Orcs out of Horde and into Alliance. High Elves have in fact always been a big part of the Alliance story, and it’s not a little surprising that people for YEARS have been wanting them.

They lose some uniqueness in that they no longer belong to one faction (because it’s even worse for you as they’re still in fact unique as a race). BIG DEAL. Don’t you have better things to do than to rampage against people who have rallied for years wanting options that in fact make perfect sense given the history.

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848

Sorry if I will enter in this discussion, but in before the storm they mention how radiant undead elves are with long silky hair , beautiful in death, and in life. Their skin is intact, this was from a perspective of an undead walking around under city

Also I think in Edge of Night they mention that huamans have a crush on the banshee queen

849

I say, calm down old boy, it might just be the limitations of text based communication but that came across as jolly angry about anyone who is rather rightly concerned about this. It also missed the point by a country mile.

The problem as I see it is not that Void Elves are getting Blood Elf skins. That’s fine and dandy, good on the High Elf Fans, they’ve been persistent enough to warrant it. No, the problem is what came -afterwards-. Whilst the request for white and black hair colours is a sensible and rational one, this is sadly not the extent of people’s list of ‘demands’ (Yes, I have seen it couched in such terms) Which include the addition of the Paladin Class to Void Elves, just so that people can play High Elf Paladins (Y’know, that race that were totally famous for their paladins, ahuh, ). Some Demand All the options Blood Elves have, and -also- more, better beards, because its not fair that Blood Elves get the same beard options as Void Elves, so High Elves need to have more facial hair options now.

Sort of like

Weird, huh, But lets not stop there, High Elves also need Warpaint, because Alleria. That’s when you know you’re onto a real lore dope. Alleria wasn’t even on the freakin’ planet when the Exile happened, How on earth are they an iconic High Elf thing, when there was no distinction between Blood and High Elves when she left!

Lets add Silvermoon into that, For some of the more ‘zealous’ Pro High Elf fans (I’m wording that politically), Alleria saying she is sure that Silvermoon will stand with the Alliance again, is saying that High Elves should have Silvermoon. They actually think this new High Elf customisation means that the Alliance should have Silvermoon City, and it is (I quote) “A Spit in the face to the Alliance community” that they do not.

So like, yeah, there’s that level of crazy. Oh and the people who are demanding that the racial name is changed from Void Elves to High Elves.

So yeah, there is a lot of reasonable discussion, and a lot of crazy discussion, where High Elf fans can’t -stand- the fact that Blood Elves are getting blue eyes, but are perfectly happy demanding everything Blood Elves have, with blue eyes on top.

It isn’t therefore the scenario you describe, as that’s not how it has panned out. We used to have one central thread for Alliance High Elves, which contained some beautiful artwork, some genuinely good ideas, and suggestions for even the practicality of how they could be implemented.

Now we have multiple threads all about High Elves again, when they have just been given. Asking for more, and sometimes conflicting things.

It does not take a genius to work out why people are getting exasperated.

Ehh, Kinda is. It is interesting that you use the example of an Orc there, because everyone knows that is an iconic Horde race, and belongs in the Horde, and for it to be Alliance is silly. But the thing is, that is exactly the same, Its as if there was a small clan of Orcs who actually did turn Alliance, and were NPC’s who were hostile to the Horde, and friendly to the Alliance. People loved the idea, wanted to play them, but they were NPC’s, Then one day a decade later, Blizzard went “Y’know what, we’ve played around with the Human model skeleton, and stretched bits, so here you go, You can now play your Greenskinned Lionclaw Clan Orc!”
Reasonable people go wild. Takes less than a few hours for people to go “Excuse me, this is a spit in the face of Alliance players. Horde Orcs can be Mag’har, and their hairstyles look more Orcish, I demand the Lionclaw Clan get all of the Horde Options, in fact we should get them all and keep our ones we have, to show that we are different and better”

Blood Elves are a Horde Race. The High Elves are the aberration. The fact that they are being made playable is awesome! I have always said so, I’d have actually gone further, myself in terms of what I gave them, and hair options would have been one of those things, but seeing the sheer level of negativity, lack of gratitude and the ‘give me give me give me’ mentality that sprang up instantly just utterly soured me on the whole thing.

They are the only non core race to get a massive overhaul, jumping the queue to do so, and its still not good enough.

Different hair colours I can dig, but leave it there. The rest of the demands are simply ridiculous.

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850

You’re right that this isn’t anything like plucking Orcs out of the Horde and handing them to the Alliance. This is more in the vein of plucking Orcs out of the Horde, turning them blue and giving them to the Alliance and then three years later offer up most of the other preexisting customization options that belonged to the OG Horde Orcs. What you’re now left with is an allied race of Alliance Orcs, historically an exclusive Horde race, that now have a far broader range of options available to them than the original cast ever had.

So yeah. No wonder some people are upset when the copycat race on the other team is getting all our good stuff while we’re left with three new hairstyles and jewelry that we’ll never see thanks to our gear. (The hairstyles are very fancy though so the artists should get some credit for that. :+1:)

Not really at the moment. I’m bored and I think it’s important that Blizzard remembers that there are two sides to this debate when they make these decisions.

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851

One should never apologise for entering a conversation, kick the doors in, swagger into it as if you owned the place and own it!

Yes, you are right, essentially pulling together what the lore sources from the novels and short stores tell us, it seems to go like this.

Living Humans find Living Elves sexy as Hell.
Living Humans find even Undead Elves sexy as Hell.
Undead Humans find Undead Elves sexy as Hell

Whereas


Living Elves obviously like other Living Elves (Unless they are some degenerate Windrunner)
Living Elves find Humans just not Sexy (Unless they are some degenerate Windrunner)
Living Elves certainly do not find Undead Humans Sexy.
Living Elves are physically repulsed by Undead Elves.

Basically, yes, whilst the chattering classes of Stormwind may fantasise about Sylvanas, Lor’thermar, Rommath and Aethas (And that’s a pretty broad spectrum there; Ancient Elf, Middle aged Elf who knew her well, and young Elf) all find her visually repellent.

Gotta remember the fact that whilst people whinge about Elves just being long haired humans, they ain’t. They are a different -species- entirely. We don’t have that frame of reference in real life because there is only one sentient and sapient species, us. In Azeroth there are loads of them

Even a Forsaken would have a ‘human’ mindset as to how attractive an Undead Elf is, whereas a Living Elf would find them right at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley.

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852

Something making sense in the past does not mean it instantly makes sense now. That’s a faulty premise that assumes way too many possibly shifting variables do not in fact shift in time, when clearly things do shift in time.

For example, in the past it made sense for the Night Elves to kill humans on site a la warcraft III. Therefore remove night elves from alliance.
This is obviously an absurd argument because it ignores all of the space between then and now which changes the basis of the rationale. This can be applied to high elves as well (note: I am not saying this means remove their addition, I am saying it is faulty to interpret the high elves’ importance and significance to the alliance as being such as it was in WCII, because a LOT has changed)

This brings me to my second point. The High Elves have played a big part in the past. Their contributions in current WoW tend to revolve around individuals doing things rather than the race (like when they did in WC2). The argument “they have always been a big part of the Alliance” is disigenious. High elven individuals remaining central to the alliance =/= the high elf race has remained a strong force within the alliance. Within warcraft individuals are capable of many things, such as slaying armies or whatnot. This does not mean their individual efforts now represent their racial demographic in entirety.

Despite this, I still think it is good that high elf players can play high elf characters now.
I just contend they are “a central piece to the alliance” because that is false. They were once upon a time, but now the OG core races (Human, Nelf, Dwarf, Gnome, Draenei and Worgen)and have done far, far, far more for the alliance than the High Elves have. We see their troops everywhere, getting involved, selling us supplies, giving us quests.

This isn’t the helf’s fault, they’re extremely low in number. But they are no longer a central alliance race. They are an antique of the alliance. That is good enough to have them playable however, but it does mean their story should be tempered with this in mind and they should not suddenly be all over the narrative as if by magic.

853

The only real problem here are the voice overs and the race name. Imagine playing some sort of Alliance elf with the horrible voice void filter constantly.

Warpaint would actually make a lot of sense, yes.

I have actually a better idea: Let’s make a “Central City”-like city. Central City is one of the main locations in Legend of Korra, where different benders live together in one big city. WoW desperately needs that, imo.

I actually enjoy people losing their minds about them. It brings out the worst of everyone, I love it!

854

It’s only problematic if you assume the pale-skinned velf are meant to be OG pristine helf rather than ex-helf/belf whom have started investing in the void. Seeing as we see these individual in Telogrus, i’d say this is a rational assumption.

So there’s no issue. They’re “a different kind” of Void Elves. This doesn’t mean their voice needs to be changed or the paladin class opened up to them. They’re not meant to be High Elves a la Warcraft 2, from what I see anyway.

How people want to RP them is up to them. But RP desires that are misaligned with presented game lore will never trump game mechanics and integrity. For example I may harbour headcanon there exists a group of gnomes that are isolated and study nature magic after being blessed by Assenia (sp?) - the Garden Gnomes. This does not provide me with a reasonable basis to ask for gnome druids on the current branch of gnomes whom are meant to represent quite clearly a different kind of gnome to what I have in mind.

So it goes with pale Velf. Until we see otherwise, we have no real reason to assume they’re OG Helf over helf-turned velf considering:

  • the skins are a velf customisation option, so the reasonable assumption is they’re velf.
  • NPC deployment in telogrus makes it a plausible assumption.

Therefore all considerations about what they can have and can’t have should be made with this in mind: they are Velf in gameplay-technical-proper lore terms, not Helf.
Does this mean they can’t have facepaints? Nope.
Blonde hair? No reason why not.
Other hairstyles? Sure, they can have them.

Paladins? Not a chance.
Entropic Embrace rejig? Don’t think so
Voice effects? Doubtful.

I mean pretend you are whatever you want, that’s the joy of RPG games. But where lore line sits, it sits and sometimes we just have to acknowledge that and move on rather than create problems out of things that don’t have to be seen as problems.

I wish my guy here would throw potions at people to heal them etc. Alas. Suspension of disbelief is required. Same principle here. Redrawing quite a few gameplay-content lines because some people can’t entertain the smallest element of suspension of disbelief (when presumebly many of them have been roleplaying as helfs with a blue-velf or nelf model) is baffling.

Maybe i’ll be wrong, and blizzard will head into SL showing utter consideration for small things like “when you pick this skin, your char voice change!” or “if you have this customisaton, you get this racial graphic effect!” I just don’t pan my hopes on it because compared to stuff like exterior appearence (which has been given) these are very small-scale niche touches that although they add a QoL feature, probably aren’t top of their to-do list given things.

I’d argue there’s other issues that need addressing first, like 1) tying all all core race cusotmisation as promised and 2) Pandaren model update. Once all that’s done, sure, let’s look at adding class-customisation-race specific easter eggs.

855

I made a Void Elf fairly recently, its not -that- bad.

But not for High Elves alone, is the point. There is no evidence that it is a High Elf Only thing, and plenty that it is not. We see High Elf Rangers in WCII with warpaint. Which is cool, but 90% of them are dead, of the survivors, 90% of -them- are Blood Elves, also the Warpaint was red, just sayin’.
Kael’thas, from the TBC box art, has tattoos, also a Blood Elf.
Rommath has tattoos, also a Blood Elf.
Alleria has warpaint, but left Azeroth before the Exile.

A High Elf thing it ain’t.

I think that’s kind of the idea of Dalaran, which made sense until Jaina’s coup d’état. Now that the Council of Six are back in control it seems to be more neutral again.

2 Likes
856

While I agree to some extent, I find that in almost all cases in real life generalizations have an overall low percentage of accuracy. So I don’t see why the same wouldn’t apply in WoW.

And seeing as Thalassian Elves and Humans are (while two different species) very similar physically. They are actually the two most similar species on Azeroth.
Both being of a similar height, same range of skin tones, similar colors of hair.
Physically the biggest differences between them are the ears and eyes, as well a slightly different build with Elves being a bit taller on average and of a slimmer build. On average that is. I imagine in “reality” there would be Humans that were slimmer than the average Elf and vice versa, but we’re limited by how many models Blizz can be bothered to create.

So personally I think the attraction (or lack thereof) in the physical can be present. But there are other factors in play on whether or not either party would bother seeking out a connection. The biggest of which, is time.
For example Bob the Human could find Daisyleth the elven lady who sells flowers attractive, but with him approaching 25 and her being 222, his entire remaining lifespan would barely register as a blink in her life. So to seek out a connection would be in Bob’s mind fruitless, as even if she found him attractive, they could not build a life together. So Bob just think to himself “Oh well” and buys some flowers, deciding that today is the day he’s going to ask Daisy the pretty 22 year old Human waitress at the local pub on a date.

Likewise Bobolas the Elf can find Daisy to be an attractive woman as he orders a beer. But if he decided to ask her out and she said yes, with him being 250, she would grow old and die long before him. And the physical attraction would wane as she grew into frailty and heartbreak would follow when she passed and he still had a long life ahead of him.
So he just looks at her as any man would look at a pretty girl and think “Huh, she’s pretty” then not think more of it, and decide that he’s going to ask Daisyleth out on a date. But what should he bring? She sells flowers, so bringing flowers would seem a tad silly.

So I don’t doubt there are Thalassian elves who look at Humans and find them disgusting, just as they find most other races disgusting as the Thalassian race is obviously the superior race in this world.
While many Human men might swoon at the pretty, lithe elven women they run across.
But at the same time I find that generalizations are seldom accurate, and I find it strange that if two different species were similar enough that attraction could go from A to B, but not from B to A


So personally I think the greatest barriers to Elven/Human relations isn’t that the former exclusively finds the latter disgusting while the latter exclusively finds the former attractive.
I think it’s simply time

Imagine how rare it is for 20 year olds and 50 year olds to form a relationship in our world. Even if the 20 year old could find the 50 year old man to be ruggedly handsome, while the 50 year old could find the youthful 20 year old woman attractive. They rarely form a connection because of time.
He has at best 20 good years left, while she has her whole life ahead of her.

I think Human and Elven relations are the extreme of this scenario.
Sprinkled in with some good old fashioned Elven superiority complex and racism of course, and Human distrust of the “different”.

That’s what I think anyway.

857

I now want Bobolas and Daisyleth to meet. This sounds like a tragically unrequited love story.

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858

Very well


Bobolas decides to try to win fair Daisyleth’s hand, knowing that he will forever regret it if he doesn’t at least try.
He goes to her flower stall and asks for Daisyleth’s advice, saying he wants to give some flowers to the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and wants some flowers to complement her stunning appearance.
Daisyleth says that she knows just the flowers he needs, and helps him put together a beautiful bouquet for Bobolas to give to his beautiful woman.

Bobolas then pays Daisyleth for the flowers, and immediately hands the flowers back to her.
Saying that she would make him a very happy man indeed if she was willing to go out with him later that afternoon.
Stunned by this development, Daisyleth at first stands there, looking at the flowers.
Then breaks out into a big smile, takes the flowers and says she would be delighted to!
Finally someone bought flowers for her, something she desired for so long after selling flowers to others for several years.

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859

Now for the real question.

Are these two names taken on Argent Dawn?

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860

Only Bobalas is.

Don’t ask me how I know. :^)

861

So Bobolas is already taken?

Looks like Daisyleth is in for some heartbreak. Bobolas sounds like a complete cad.

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862

This maybe the best thing ive read haha

863

High Elf Wayfarer

  • This NPC can be found in Telogrus Rift (3).

Hence this is my take on the High Elf matter:

https://i.ibb.co/c2xJCNV/subrace-customization-mockup-highelf.jpg

Another Allied Race with the same model would not make sense
 and it would be unfair towards the fans of Wildhammers & various Troll tribes to come up with new racials
 but since some fans are really going crazy about this, maybe we could have an alternate demonym connected to an optional customization template and a quick line of text?

“Curious to learn more about the Void, some High Elf Wayfarers have joined their transformed kin.”

Which is why they now can have the Void Elf racials. :wink:

For more info about the fan concept of customization templates being connected to alternate demonyms:

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864

They don’t want a new racial but a toggle for the racial animation as far as I understand the situation.