Lol! We’re getting something close now, though. And as long as you’re not a dev, you don’t have info. You have opinions. Not very well founded ones, though. My reason for being here, is to brainstorm ideas, show support, and argue the case for why I think playable high elves are a good idea. With the recently announced changes to void elves, I’ll keep on being here to support further options to make it possible to immerse one’s play even deeper into actual high elves.
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The weird thing about the “High Elf Paladin” complaint is as mentioned prior, they were rare, like super rare. They’ve never been part of the archetypal High Elf theme. That would be rangers and mages.
In fact, the Thalassians never really got fully on board with Light worship proper until the cleansing of the sunwell, and that was with regards to Belf and the Blood Knight arc predominantly. So in fact if we’re going to split hairs, Paladins have actually always been more of a Blood Elf thing since TBC, and prior to this they were as much a rarity for Belf as they were Helf.
So saying “they’re not Helf until Paladins” is a weird flex. Paladins are very much more a Belf thing than Helf thing. So I wouldn’t completely weird the lore by allowing Velf to be Paladins just because people seem to think high elve skins aren’t legit unless they can be paladins, because that’s just frankly bizarre.
Besides, they’re Void Elves whom have their natural skin tones and eye tones- they’re not “High Elves” in the strict sense of what the term traditionally means, only in so much as Belf are also “High Elves” (Thalassians would be a better term), so there’s no reason for them to be given Paladins given the continuation of their story appears to be them flocking to Telogrus to learn the Void- which immediately bars them from being Paladins i’d assume.
So yeah, the archetypal helf can be experienced by rolling a naturally toned hunter or mage. Those who have convinced themselves helf=paladins are taking high elf lore from a universe other than Warcraft. That would be Blood Elves who are chummy with the Light these days which isn’t surprising considering they’re the ones protecting and maintaining the Sunwell.
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Priests too, really.
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They’re rare, but not that rare. We have known high elf paladins before the rise of the blood elves, and we have a high elf paladin trainer now. High elves also has had priests all along, with a somewhat tight bond with the Light. Just look at Liadrin’s story.
But all in all, you’re right. We don’t need paladins for the high elf fantasy. I just really, really want them. They don’t break any lore, we know they exist, albeit scarcely, and they just fit into the Alliance so darn well. Also, with such close ties to the Alliance, with both draenei, humans and dwarfs working closely with known high elf groups, seeing more high elf paladins come about would make sense.
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I see that Pax is typing, I really want to wait, but indeed.
Paladin is a human creation, created some time during the second war. There have not been much time to train High Elven paladins after the High Elven nation left the Alliance following the second war.
High Elven paladins are extremely rare, there simply have not been enough time to present the concept to High Elves at large, despite Light worship being fairly common in High Elven society.
Yes, Helf did deploy a good deal of Priests for the Alliance, but Priests are distinct from Paladins. And Priests have never been a mainstream part of their culture in the same way one thinks of Arcanists and Farstriders. We can all probably name several prominent Thalassian Rangers and Mages, how many priests can we name?
It was Blood Elves whom made Paladins a “proper thing” for Thalassians when they initially perverted the way of Paladin magic in order to spite their previous allies and display their dominion over a form of magic they held dear. Turns out they’ve come around and now are “proper” paladins, but the idea of Thalassians themselves training martial warriors whom utilise Holy magic and them having a prominent place in their own culture starts with Belf. Prior to that Helf Paladins numbered what, 4 we know of? Whom were largely if not entirely apprentices to Human paladins. That doesn’t exactly paint a picture of them as having a strong Paladin culture if the few we can name are basically “squires” in terms of Paladin ranking. Whereas Blood Elves boast distinguished Paladins of high rank.
This is the one of things that should stay with Belf to keep the two further distinct imo. The Helf paladin request largely stems from a desire to play a “good” elf paladin rather than having firm roots in lore anywhere in Warcraft.
This said, we’ll have to see. It appears player satisfaction is the order of the day at the moment and lore appears to be taking a back seat. So with that in mind, Mechagnome Shaman when? If Goblins can do it via tech it sure as heck should be possible for the most technologically advanced race in Azeroth to do the same. It’s not like Mechagnomes display any consideration for their natural environment is it? So just write them like Gobbos- they exploit the elements using their technology.
Indeed.
It was just the small point of Light worship not being that big of a deal in High Elven culture.
But it was then. It is just exactly as you say, paladins is a human concept created about the time of the second war, so generally training High Elven paladins was probably not really on top of the list and since the High Elven nation left the Alliance after the second war, it ended up with mostly just stragglers of High Elves who probably sought it out.
Your finishing argument makes sense, however I don’t see it for one reason:
the customisation options we’re being given represent Void Elves, not High Elves. I’ve said this in other threads and i’ll repeat it here for clarity:
Generation I Velf: Caught in a void accident, hence physical change such as purple skin and tentacle hair.
Generation II Velf: Former Helf and Belf whom have sojourned to Telogrus to be taught Void magic and reuinite with the Alliance. They appear as they would regularly, save when they enter their Void Form. Any with green eyes have had this colouration removed as Void is notorious for consuming Fel, leaving them all with various shades of blue eyes.
Both groups call themselves “Void Elves” as a sign of their affiliation.
So in this respect, what appear to be “high elves” are still void elves, just a different type, which means Paladins will likely not resurface within their culture so long as the above is true (I realise there’s no confirm for it, but it’s a more plausible inference based on what we see in game than suddenly tons of Helf have rejoined the alliance, but for some reason they have Velf racials).
I suspect (I posted about an hour before the wowhead drop yesterday that they’d give velf “helf” customisation so hey, maybe i’ll be correct again) that Blizzard will write the lore so that the remainder of high elves mincing about the Alliance now all unite with their Ren’dorei brethren under Alleria’s banner, becoming void elves, even if some of them don’t embrace void powers. They do adopt the cultural philosophy of velf though (void is not the enemy, light is not the good) and this is how their race continues. Afaik “high elves” die out in name, but survive physically under the void elf banner.
This is what I predict is happening, because it’s a solution that stops people hankering after the “third group” of thalassians - the “high elves proper” whom are soon-to-be completely identical to blood elves sans their political alliance, and keeping such a racial theme going when you have Belf AND Velf is just an exercise in triviality. Far better to just throw the hammer down on the matter and go "High elves as a race are gone, they either took up with Umbric, or some of them reuinited with SIlvermoon- Arcane Light wielding Elves are Horde, Arcane Void-friendly elves are alliance, any questions?
It won’t be popular but it’s how I see it happening. It leaves people to RP the “old” high elves, but I don’t see the plot keeping them going and I don’t think this skin change will suggest it will. Rather it suggests their lore is about to become one and the same with Void Elves and what it means to be a “Void Elf” is being expanded.
it also make sense to unite the Helf into Velf fully in this way to set up the two Thalassian groups as opponents properly. One group (ironically the “bad faction”) wields the Light, the other (the “good”) wields the Void. If you have a third group “Helf Proper” whom also oppose Belf, it’s less contrasting because they’re more-or-less exactly the same, and it would be difficult to write them in a way where they would actually to the lengths of attacking SIlvermoon and killing their former kin.
It’s not so if you bind them all under Velf. The Void is a strange force that affects how people see reality, and it particularly sets people up to scoff at the Light for being “narrow”. If you have this influence floating around the Velf and Helf-turned-Velf, it suddenly becomes completely rational for them to be willing to draw blood with Belf fully, as they view the Belf as being bound to a font of magic that is dogmatic and limiting. Conversely Belf becoming willing to spill their blood because aside from some of them being traitors to the Horde (The Belf whom joined) those who aren’t (The former Helf whom just didn’t leave the alliance but haven’t actively antaognised the Horde) are now taking up the Void which Belf see as fundamentally dangerous to their way of life- they have a huge taboo over Void magic generally.
It makes total sense for High Elves to become Void Elves if they’re adamant on continued opposition to the Belf. Those that aren’t, the most sensible thing would be for them to reunite with Silvermoon (nobody is stopping them).
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H/b/velves is the same breed really. What matters is that you’re advocating for adding even more stuff for elves. Not sure if it came out today out of spite because helf option will be added, or because you want for velves to get belf class options and it’s just excuse and frankly I don’t care.
It was hilarious coincidence.
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You’re kidding right?
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It was a compromise. No need for the “low IQ” comments, it just makes you look stupid yourself.
SOlution 1: Give Alliance High Elves are a fully playable AR! (This assumes either a clone of the belf model with blue eyes exclusive to them or a *new model)
Who is happy?
- High Elf fans are happy
- Some general alliance players are happy (fans of elves)
Who isn’t so happy? - Void Elf players now feel less distinct, and their “alliance thalassian” narrative now competes with the Helf one.
- Alliance players who don’t care about high elves are not happy because they get a clone of a clone for an allied race.
- Blood elves are not happy because now the alliance has a race identical to them, and it seems to have a monopoly on the eye colour lore stipulates they should have. *They are also unhappy if Helf get a new model as arguably it will cause them to think why shouldn’t we get that?
Solution 2: Give Velf High Elf customisations and write the lore so that High Elves unify with Velf (current situation)
Who is happy?
- The portion of the Helf playerbase who just wanted to play a Helf physically are largely happy
- Void Elves are happy, more customisations for them, without taking away their lore or having it compete.
- Other race alliance players are happy, more options on a pre-existing race is always cool since it doesn’t take up an additional slot.
- Blood Elf players are happy, because it makes the Helf lore direction start to diverge from their own, finally securing the Belf as the legitimate authors of the “arcane-rangery-light-wielding” lore of Thalassian elves.
Who is Unhappy? - Some Helf players who believe that unless Helf can play as paladins, they’re not Helf
- People who spend an incessant amount of time looking at their racial nametag rather than their actual character.
- People with no suspension of disbelief (interesting trait in an MMORPG)
(Pro tip, the three points here are all actually the same people)
Gee I wonder which route blizzard will take which will result in the best compromise? Oh yeah it’s obviously the choice that will annoy more playerbases than the other just so a fraction of one of those playerbases can be happy. Totally sensible.
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probably because many of those that wanted high elves, wanted a proper race, not a recolor, and this is proof that when naysayers said " You juSt WaNt A PreTtY ElF" they were wrong.
we wanted quel dorei, not recolored ren dorei addicted to void magic.
don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for those satisfied by this compromise, but this is not what i’ve always asked for, and it would have been much simpler to just make proper playable quel dorei.
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Naaah~ main problem for them is that they are not Paladins and that racial makes them purple. It have nothing to do with lore 
Paladin is all they can talk about now anyway~ even in this thread.
As for “proper” queldorei race. Third race of the same model. You can forget about it~ not gonna happen. I dont even see 1% chance. Sooner they will add horse playable race for Alliance than this~
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no it wasnt. they gave blood elves - alliance highelves blue eye option. that’s all.
You have finally made a believer of me. I now believe that if you reflect the mentality of those who even now are not satisfied then absolutely 100% never -Ever- should your opinion be taken seriously on any matter whatsoever. Do you realise how petty, vindictive and ridiculous you sound?
So which Dev is it who plays Blood Elf who wanted Blood Elf to have blue eyes?
I mean, you must -know- this, right? You wouldn’t be making this up, or lying about it would you?
So which one was it?
Oh, by the way, Blue Elves are for both, not just Alliance, learn some lore please, before spouting your unpleasantness.
Rich coming from you. You never wanted High Elves, you just wanted Silver Covenant. I am fairly certain we can disregard your comments based on that lack of understanding about High Elves alone.
Try to refrain from insulting others, it weakens the argument of genuine High Elf Fans by being associated with your attitude towards others.
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They also gave void elves “normal” skin options.
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Yeah i know, forums were filled with countless requests to give void elf “blood elf skin option”
Guess you missed the "velf can now look like Helf with skin tones and eyes " part.
Yeah what a victory for belf. Having a race that can look exactly the same as them on alliance whilst their own nelf clone model is absolutely horrendous. 
I ask myself a question, how they will justify these High Elf style customizations for the Void Elves, elves who have been purified? The High Elves in the Rift that are made playable? Did they infuse all the remaining High Elves with Void? With these pirouettes I don’t really know what to think now since for me it was improbable that add these skins and eyes for the Void elves. Can’t wait for the devs to tell us more . 
T&E see them as proper High Elves, apparently.
