100% with you, give HE to alliance and give the amani trolls to the horde.
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The way I see it the main issue with Thalassian Elves is that there are only two sides for them. Horde Aligned Blood Elves that still make up for Majority of their race and Alliance Aligned High and Void Elves (the minority of the race). There is no common ground which forces one side to be denied their heritage and cultural space. Because Silvermoon is still Horde City. Even if the gameplay and story reasons means it will remain open to Alliance (though lorewise at least initially it seems to be temporary due to crisis and not “Alliance welcomed stays forever”)
Earthen, Dracthyr and Pandaren have 3 and the game makes it visibly clear the Majority of the race did NOT choose side. This leaves Pandaria, Veldrakken and Dornagal Neutral hubs welcoming their kin regardless of the race.
I do believe High elves are allowed to return to Silvermoon
and with horde and alliance hostility at an all time low, you shouldn’t feel bad about returning. Its not like you will be forced to cut contact with your alliance friends.
The way I see it, the most prominent faction of High Elves that remain are a bitter bunch who, much like their leader, have a personal vendetta against Silvermoon.
We can talk about if her reason is justified (I hinge on a yes) but the Silver covenant is itching for a fight and will antagonize the Blood Elves at every waken moment they can.
I think its important to separate the extremists militant borderline cult from the other elves who remained with the alliance.
The blood elves we met in TBC is largely gone, they mostly returned to what they once were, but with much stronger political ties to the horde than the alliance.
The Sunwell is back, fel is no longer needed, whatever fel corruption flowed in their systems is mostly purged and they no longer have to feed on creatures to starve off the mana addiction.
They could, if they so wanted, change their name back to High Elves and it would be as if nothing had changed.
Currently what I see is keeping them divided is the silver covenant and their hatred, but the story as of late is about letting go and forgive, so maybe that’s their final character arc in Midnight.
and in the final character everyone get to enjoy High Elves for the alliance and the blood elves to the horde. I dont see anything wrong with doing that.
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They’re a story point from a prior time, an unwrapped up loose thread. Nothing more, nothing less. Then they were tied up with Dalaran, note how every single appearance of the Silver Covenant has been Dalaran centric. Again, I don’t believe Blizzard writers owe anyone anything on the Alliance High Elves. If they wish to use the same small band of elves occasionally for story purposes then that is their choice.
Except the core fantasy IS the story as told and how it has been presented. One flows from the other.
Yet the point stands, Ogres were a long demanded race right up until Warlords of Draenor when they had their ‘if not now, when?’ moment that Alliance High Elves are having right now. Ogres were demanded for the same reason, a nostalgic appeal to how things used to be.
In the lead up to the announcement I remember seeing tweets from folks on the Blizzcon floor, breathlessly reported in the contemporary High Elf threads, saying they had seen High Elves and Ogres in the key art for the expansion. In hindsight the guys saying that clearly hadn’t gotten a good look and probably mistook the long haired Kargath and the menacing Blackhand as those races. Ogres of course aren’t playable because they are simply too big for a player character, but that didn’t lessen the disappointment of the folks at the time but they got over it.
But Blizzard isn’t ‘keeping them around in the story’. They’re at best background. There isn’t a single instance of there being a plotline dedicated solely to the Alliance High Elves, they’ve always been a bit part in someone else’s story. Veressa is the perennial sidekick.
This notion that there is an Alliance High Elf story of any importance is an invention.
Each example you’ve listed with the exception of Void Elves are on the same faction as their parent AND they are distinct, in those cases they offer differing takes on the core fantasies but do not usurp it. Alliance High Elves would be a.) identical to Blood Elves and b.) on the other faction.
I wish. I love Lodge HE and it would be my go to.
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So like 90% of every other currently playable race.
I fail to see how that’s an argument.
That’s just not true.
I can name a few from WotLK and MoP.
The same could be said about every other race that has had beef come and go since Vanilla, and not much of an argument against implementation.
It’s quite a universal problem Blizzards has when it comes to writing consistent faction plotlines.
You always come back to this point, that every respective dual faction race has some kind of neutral hub and therefore the Helves can’t be introduced - but how is that an argument? Why should it even matter?
If anything, High Elves and Blood Elves have more reason to be a dual faction race, because of their differences. At least their reasons are backed by decades of lore that cohesively exists with factions to begin with… They should’ve been the first dual faction race, imo.
The lack of nuance in terms of Alliance & Horde Earthen, Dracthyr and even Pandaren (which isn’t much of a story compared to Helves & Belves) is because they just wanted a reason to have them on both factions without doing too much work.
They already opened the box, crossed the line, and are consistently inconsistent in their own faction philosophies.
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My favourite take is Lodges, a less arcane, more rugged,type of High Elf. Not cosmopolitan at all, with scars, tattoos, and due to wildhammer/dranei, shamans. I would even go further and make then slightly more bulky.
Now it’s not an easy thing to translate in game except with costumization, racials and emotes.
And what are Void Elves is not purple blood elves? They are in a literall sense purple blood elves. Its their background.
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Don’t know if it has been mentionned, but the Quel’Thalas adventurers in Stormwind are Alliance-flagged blood elves with blue and golden eyes while those in Orgrimmar have green, golden and blue eyes.
Maybe some blood elves, untouched by the fel corruption have joined the Alliance again, like those in Telogrus Rift and that’s how we will get void elf paladin, golden eyes and regular thalassian elf customisations ?
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What’s the context?
Portal room?
Or just give amani trolls to the Horde.
Yes, portal room
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It begs the question, why are there adventurers of a horde race on the faction capital of the alliance?
Im a bit sceptical on this one. Might be some mistake. Can you direct me to the source?
Because just by the fact how easily the line is moved in various ideas thrown here it’s not hard to tell that if High Elves are introduced as an Alliance Race without access to Silvermoon it will NOT be taken well. If it doesn’t matter… Play the Blood Elf. Say you never took part in fights against alliance and RP that way. I’m not much of Roleplayer never had much time and chance but I have a knack for writing and developing backstories for my characters. In her particular case I had her skip the 4th war. She just couldn’t find a reason to fight there. So she sat it out only taking field once the New Warchief decided to remove all uncertain elements. Sure the game won’t acknowledge it but here I am. It’s my character and that’s what I would RP if I’d ever try.
Did you decide to just not read this part, or?
And most Helf fans would be fine with not being welcomed back to Silvermoon, It’s a part of what makes Helves different in the first place. They’re not Sin’dorei of the Horde city of Silvermoon. Thus the “neutral hub” part of the argument doesn’t really matter.
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The differences you say are about as Shallow as they are in the Neutral Races. They’re strictly political ones. The lore you so often refer to for High Elves is One group that likes alliance but not enough to actually leave their Neutral City.
Yes the conflict around Silvermoon will be interesting for a while. But then status quo will be annoying. Because the ownership of the place won’t change. Wow Writing made that mistake once. You really think they’d be so keen to repeat it?
Already seen some images. Intriguing.
And Cultural.
Why you have to make everything so hard. I know high elf game title and same hair styles for both void elfs and blood elfs is not perfect but its something what they can do by just adding high elf game title next to name well quest to get it and hairstyles are allready in game.
“The lore”, you mean, the lore for all High Elves in this case who are directly or indirectly Alliance members? You know that they’re exiled, right?
There’s no active lore for welcomed back, neutral Quel’dorei in Silvermoon. There are none of them there to leave in the first place, they’re not there anymore.
That’s the whole point.
We need to have a cosmic world-ending scenario for High Elves to officially come back to Quel’Thalas in the first place.
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