Night elf Highborne customisation and Hopeful Druidic and Basic Upgrades

Community General Discussion
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We have the druid look in the NElf male current model, we have the female warrior/hunter look in the females (crooked eyebrow/4pack abs), we got the Illidari warlock/demon hunter look on the DHs (which they should also use for NElf warlocks (illidari only ofc)… only one we are missing ins the highborne customisation. ( I didn’t add priest because some of the current options can pass for priest)

I hope we get that Highborne look, in addition to some additional options that speak to the druid and priest even though the current model caters to that fantasy. At the end of the day, the Illidari (i.e. Demon hunter , which should also be used for Nelf Warlocks) are the only customisation that have the level of choice the normal and highborne customiations should have. So I hope they add more faces, hairstyles, colours etc.

The Highborne
A neat, aesthetically beautiful night elf,

  • Very Handsome/Pretty face options, (mostly young, vibrant too not old),
  • Appropriate standing pose, regal and Lordly
  • Sophisticated stylish hair and neat eyebrows
  • Toned down musculature, and royalty grade ornamentations (typifying the highest cast of the nobility).
  • Kaldorei (Star) effects, like hair with stars, or skin with stars underlining the Children of the stars identity of the original arcane-tied culture they still display visible
  • Arcane effects - visible indication of their dominance and mastery of the arcane (glowing hands/feet.

It will be more pronounced on the males since they currently have the worst looking options and traditionally, NElf casters are male.

It’s a pull out the stops, and for a change have a really well done night elf customisation that speaks to this group, seeing the others are represented. Also a kinda make up for all the disappointment.

It would be awesome to see the majestic high class night elves actually have a model customisation option that truly reflects and represents them.

Druidic Customisations

  • Bushy Malfurion type beards for males
  • Wilder bushy hairstsyles for males and females
  • Leaves & flowers for male & female
  • Possible small antler type options

All Night Elves

Aside from the iconic class customisations spoken above, I hope all night elves get the following.

Eyes

  • Eyes available for selection on all genders
  • Silver eyes, original symbolic of the arcane heritage and birth on male and female
  • Gold eyes, original symbolic of destiny and/or nature influence
  • Green eyes (Malfurion has in LEgion ) representing attunement to the Emerald dream and nature
  • Black eyes representing the Night Warrior Dark side of the Moon Elune

Female

  • Non 4 pack abs option (appropriate for priests and highborne)
  • Ripped option that is currently only available on the DH
  • Ornamentation options reflecting moon (Elune) , stars (highborne/arcane)

Male

  • Eyebrows not linked to beards (no bearded Nelves should have choice for eyebrows
  • Ripped body option that the DH has access too avail to all NElves
  • Toned down musculature available for priest and highborne mage - or maybe on everyone.
  • Younger less lined and prettier faces - they are Elves, and the very long lived Immortal type long preserved by magic and great health - this should be the majority not minority.
  • New skin tones

Faces

I’m pretty satisfied with the female faces, they are varied, have a t least 4-5 very nice options. the male however…

2 of the best classic faces did not make transitions to the 6.0 update.

  • 1 had a lean, chiseled look but it was puffed out in 6.0
  • The other had a sharp narrower nose with full cheekbones - it got a potato farmer face - I was very disappointed, because those were my 2 favourite faces.
  1. I think they should make it in as additional faces.
  2. I think some of hte other faces should also appear but as non-wrinkled versions
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And i’m here waiting for the night warrior skin to not show a little green flame in front of my DH face…

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Wait, DHs can now use the night warrior skin? They couldn’t at first.

Wall of Text
So I realised that currently the night elves have 3 of the 4 iconic racial aspects represented in their models.

The 4 aspects of the Night elves are:

  1. The high arcane magic wielder - the dark elf archetype most common in the pre-sundering civilization, currently represented by highborne, Moonguard types.
  2. The Priestess of Elune type -
    (i)the female moon goddess devotee - caster type of largely star and moon arcane magic
    (ii) The forest ranger sentinel type - the female warrior huntress represented by the sentinels, wardens, huntresses etc
  3. The Druid forest lord - the forest elf archetype, prominent in the northern kaldorei during their long vigil era.
  4. The Demon Hunter Illidari - until recently have always been outcasts due to their association with fel magic and usage.

In-game Covers 3 of the above

  • Druid is covered by the Night elf male model - with his long wildish hair, burlier muscled appearance, and weathered face (though lore wise the weathered face is inaccurate - they are quite youthful, have the best health (you don’t get more natural, and they’ve been sleeping for a lot of the alst 10k years as immortals, they really shouldn’t be looking weathered and old)

  • Female warrior/hunter priest is covered by the Night elf female, especially after 6.0, when they gave her a 4 pack and made one of her eyebrows crooked, squared her face a bit more making it more masculine.

  • Illidari demon hunter - well covered by the Demon hunter models, which incidentally should be used for night elf warlocks too if you ask me. They may be numerically quite few, but they are a very key part of the night elf set upt.

  • Missing is the highborne elf - these are supposed to be the most elite, good looking, also vain and appearance orientated.

Frankly I think it wil be highly appreciated, to actually have night elf models that look very good, with elegant faces, not wrinkled, sharp, slim, – really dope hairstyles, and beards that aren’t amish looking, but stylish and elegant.

Hopefully this will be

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You all look Pi**ed of to me tbh xD

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Male Night Elves and Nightborne:
:rage::rage:

Female Night Elves and Nightborne:
:blush::blush:

Male Blood Elves and Void Elves:
:smirk::smirk:

Female Blood Elves and Void Elves:
:angry::angry:

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Too true, kinda missed the ball park on the elven beauty when it came to these ones.

If we get a night elf male upgrade in a highborne customisation, it might look up for the Nightborne.

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Just don’t be a male night elf or male nightborne.

And females.

BTW, is this a return of the weekly Wednesday Highborne/Night Elf threads?

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Females is a given, they would never do elves without doing drop dead gorgeous females. It’s the males the track record is a lot more questionable, hit and miss, with more misses than hits.

This character customisation is one of the few I can barely tolerate as decent enough to be elven, just barely though

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they exist and theyre called nightborne. if you want them play as horde.

t. Ion hazzihordestas

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Ooo… the backlash he would get if he said that about the Nightborne too. Can you imagine telling night elf fans - no your elves can’t be high class, beautiful and high magical - even though that’s half of their lore, instead to get that part they need to play horde…

Oooo… the topics about horde favouritism and stealing the best parts of alliance races relabelling them horde and denying the fans this was first established for from having it on their own faction…

Unlike the blood elf case, it doesn’t work for night elves, because night elves are first established as playable on the alliance and their long high arcane fantasy have existed as part of the race since the beginning, and up until 7.3.5 when allied races were introduced basically the race had all those aspects only present either on the alliance or neutral.

You know, I half expect some of them to think so, it would expose the horde bias if they said it though. Why would you all of suddenly exclusively identify the arcane portions of the night elves only with the Nightborne on the horde and not with the very race it is part and parcel off?

Alas, my delusions of bias and conspiracy are ill founded, as blizzard continue to give instances of highborne and NElf arcane casters. First in game appearance was in cata, and they’ve pretty much been there in every expansion including BFA where we got to see the proper huntress/sentinel units, in the same expansion we also saw more night elf mage casters, and priest black moon casters (arcane and void). So it’s notlike they’ve given any indication of abandoning them. 8.2 visits the ancient capital ruins with much Nelf lore their too, this is a follow on from Suramar and the Broken isles.

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ion wont make night elf highborne customisation. too much trouble for a race with a burnt tree, no real leaders(stupid and weak 1.0000 year old tyrande and malfurion KEK) that made peace with the good horde. for the horde!!

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I knew you would get it!

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I don’t think he determines that - it’s creative + arts so it’s more Afrisaiabi/Danuser and Chris robinson that determine that since it has nothing to do with systems.

And after the shti they’ve given night elves, they better give em some really cool customisation options. Not only has the race looked bad (especially if you’re male) for a long time, but been dragged in the mud as poster victim child, with anything worth anything either given to the horde, or kept as far away from being a part of the alliance group.

After feeding the alliance group so much crap, they kinda need to come up with some really cool stuff.

If they had made night elves awesome in 4.0 with a highborne customisation or in 6.0 with the remake, they would hae far less cries for high elves and what not.

If the horde is going to be the centre for the Thalassian elves, with the void elves being a taster on the alliance, then the alllance needs to be the centre for the night elves, with the Nightborne being the taster on the horde side. Not the other way round

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its sarcastic. /tar horde /spit

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/cast Holy shield
/use Hearthstone
“The Horde will endure - the Horde is strong!”

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i still dont get one thing. Isn’t highborne and blood elfs the same thing?! they just rename themselves blood elves because of Arthas…

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Not exactly.

Highborne were the upper class of the ancient Night Elf society. (You see many Highborne ghosts in the ruins of Zin’Azshari in Nazjatar.)

After the Sundering, a large group of Highborne survivors were exiled to the Eastern Kingdoms and they called themselves the High Elves. They stopped worshipping the moon and being nocturnal and embraced the day time and had a huge societal change, to distance themselves from their Night Elf Druid cousins. During this, their appearance changed and they shrunk in height, to look akin to Humans.

Basically, over generations, Blood Elven society modelled itself after the ancient Highborne Night Elf society, from which they descend from.
And even more “basically” - the ancient High Elves once looked like Night Elves, as Highborne and Night Elves are one of the same, only the former held higher wealth and intelligence.

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No, that’s why they use different names. Highborne in the pre-sundering society were the highest caste of nobility.

  1. There were other castes, like the priest caste for one
  2. There were other nobles, highborne were the highest echelon.

highborne are what blizzard used to show how high elves come from night elves. Hence the similar name. Just like Nightborne is to night elf highborne. They make it simple.

High elves changed from highborne, hence they gave themselves a differet name, or rather the name began to mean something else.

If you are a night elf, the high elf is a particular group of highborne that are no longer night elven. The night elves recently joined up with a large community of highborne. the survivors of Eldre’thalas who freed themselves of arcane and demonic corruption.

These highborne are rebuilding the caste, however it now means something else in todays society, as it exclusively deals with arcane magic, rather than being the highest caste of nobility.

You can be sure the highborne still consider themselves high nobility, however the kaldorei don’t have much urban society, and the caste, rather than being the most envied and esteemed amongst the race, is now considered the most troubled and least respected due to the past.

Blizzard hasn’t really explored how a Shen’dralar and the others cope with the new status - from the highborne point of view. How they try to rebuild trust and demonstrate their nobility vs entitlement.

  • Will we get to see highborne act and demonstrate true nobility like the caste originally was? This is a side of them the lore hadn’t touched on till we met Farondis in Azsuna who gave us a glimpse of what the caste was like in character when not influenced by the lies of the demons and addiction.
  • Will we see focused appearance customisation on them? The current night elf model can receive many an upgrade to look more elegant. Especially the male. Space for prettier and younger faces, ample room for more stylish and sophisticated hairstyles, beards and eyebrows.
  • Will the customisation be available for certain classes: Mage, hunter, rogue possibly priest (though new lore would be required)
  • Will the night elves new building/cities now be as incredible as their pre-sundering ones with both highborne mage and Ancient druids re-united once more - it was these together that built the great cities and sculpted the forests into lush paradises. [see War of the Ancients Trilogy]

Soz to only pick up on this part, I agree with the rest of what you said though. They did not model themselves after their highborne past. Though I suspect what you mean is in terms of magic use and cities - however that’s where the similarity ends as you yourself point out the massive shift in theme, faith and character.

  1. They embraced arcane magic usage their kin currently banned to prevent the legion’s return (like in th epre-sundering time, but how was different in their new society), and did not isolate themselves, choosing instead to build cities (also very different in style and colour theme and architecture) and carry on with their lives, rather than maintain a Vigil in austerity. (the type of society was different, it wasn’t the cold arrogance the highborne had over the other castes, nor the same customs in pre-sundering society - less rigidly hierarchal and focused on station and rank - although those elements would also be there, they’d be nothing like that of the old highborne kaldorei society]

  2. For the most part, they did not model themselves after the kaldorei highborne, from all accounts they sought themselves better and hoped to supercede the former. Remember these highborne exiles are not proud of the caste’s shameful history of being so addicted and then duped by the legion to cause a catastrophe on the world.

  3. They would have formed and done things in new ways they felt were better of a society of like minded equals. The level of monarch worship the night elves had of their leader would be totally absent. Notice how the Nightborne just transfer Azshara love to Elisande love, verytypical of a kaldorei pre-sundering civilization which they are.

  4. Darth’remar’s group joined Tyrande and are the only group from the Zin’Azshari Palace highborne that survived and did the right thing in the end even though they were involved with the summoning of demons.

  5. They hated demons, they hated addiction too [high elves were not even aware how dependent they had become on the Sunwell until it was dispersed - they didn’t plan it to happen that way, and it was very different from the old intense arcane addiction of the night elves that you see in the Nightborne [a closer look will easily show the night elf situation far worse].

  6. Their society would be different, more noble, faier, freer, but also responsible. Theyw anted to use arcane magic, but not call the legion back. They firmly believed this was the best course of action.

And you know what… they were right. Although the humans drew the Legion back, if the elves hadn’t shared the knowledge or kept the art going, Azeroths races would not have been able to stand against the orcs and their warlocks or successfully help the night elves fend off Invasion 2 in WC3. And the legion would have returned to Azeroth regardless with an Azeroth far less prepared than it as when the Night elf empire dominated the planet and elevated it.

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But are still remembered for the War of the Ancients.
Night Elf and High Elf relations were not a strong union between the TBC and WOTLK era.

Tensions began easing when High Elven Mages were allowed in Darnassus and a Night Elf Huntress joined the Silver Covenant, but it wasn’t truly until Cataclysm and MoP, did Night Elves and High Elves begin to trust each other.

Now, since then, I don’t believe Night Elves have a problem with High Elves. The current High Elves, were not even alive during the WoTA. I do believe that Night Elven Highborne are the ones that they truly held resentment for. Blood Elves were hated because of their actions of siding with the Naga, joining Illidan and those questionable magic methods during TBC, but the crux of the hatred is directed towards those who are/were Night Elven Highborne, because the majority of them were alive during the War and, in the case of Suramar’s Highborne, were indirectly responsible for the Sundering as well as /gquitting, and not aiding the Resistance.

The problem with the Shen’dralar is that they aren’t bringing anything of value to the table that races like Humans, Blood Elves, Draenei, Nightborne and Void Elves aren’t already filling.

What could have been for the Shen’dralar was put into Humans, Blood Elves and more recently, Nightborne.

Perhaps we need to see what secrets they were processing for Azshara during her reign or something akin to why they were her revered Arcanists - we need something, because at the moment, they aren’t anything of true value, other than portal keepers between Stormwind and Darkshore.

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Highborn should be an allied race not an extra customisation, as allied races is more about culture rather than actual race. Also some highBorne are too similar to the high elves, they should resemble more queen azhara type of elfish look.

From lore point of view, both highborne and nightelves lost their homes and they seem to cooperate well at some extend, could lead to something significant. I want to see more of what Azhara got planned although I’m not too excited about it because Azhara tends to be a very simple character by she got a lot of plot potential, from reclaiming herself as queen by force leading to a battle for Eldre’thalas, maybe a redemption path dilemma, maybe a plan with sylvanas since night elfs would be a common enemy, maybe take trying to conquer blood elves as her servant… Many options really.

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