Quel’dorei High Elves as an Alliance allied race (Part 1)

Community General Discussion
1955

OK, I’ve had to explain this several times in this thread, but lets go over it again.

War paint or tattoos is not a High Elf exclusive thing.
Here are the examples where it has been depicted throughout the entire franchise.

  1. The Elven Ranger units in WC2. 90% of whom will have died in the Scourge invasion, of the survivors, 90% of -them- are Blood Elves. (Ironically their warpaint was red)

  2. Kael’thas, from the box art for TBC. Famously a Blood Elf.

  3. Grand Magister Rommath has tattoos, also quite famously a Blood Elf.

4.Alleria, who left Azeroth -Before- the Scourge invasion, so all Elves were Thalassians. She didn’t even -know- that Blood Elves existed until the end of Legion. She didn’t know that there was a difference between Blood Elves and High Elves (which is a purely political one, remember, the mana draining thing is a -learned- talent, not an inherent Blood Elven ability. A High Elf could learn to do it. Heck, they -do- do it, just on leylines or items (Which is what did for the High Elves at Quel’Lithien lodge.

Basically what it tells us is that Tattoos seem to be a Magister thing (Kael’thas and Rommath) and Warpaint seems to be a Ranger thing (the WC2 Ranger units and Alleria.
It’s a Thalassian thing, not a High Elf thing.
As such, if implemented, should be done so for both sets of Elves.

Trust me, I really don’t, I read books like War and Peace for fun! :stuck_out_tongue:

Have you read this thread? or are you just assuming you know my stance on the whole issue? I have said several times that I -am- OK with the other hair colour options. I have literally (in the correct sense of the word) stated that many times. If you had read the old thread I think you will find that I was actually advocating High Elves as a separate Allied Race, even suggesting racial leaders, starting zones, home region, and High Elf themed Racials. I’m just saying here that Void Elves are getting thrown under the bus so that people can play ‘High Elves’.

Of course it is. He lived in Quel’thalas during that brief period of time when the Fel Crystals were there. That is how the High Elven race react to exposure to Fel. Fun fact, Blizzard actually stated that the Allerian Expedition Elves -also- have Fel-green eyes in canon lore. Originally the models did, but then Blizzard felt it would be too confusing (a bit patronising of them I always thought) However they -did- leave in the quest text where one of the Allerian Elves even says that she knows she looks identical to a Blood Elf.

2 Likes
1956

Ok, lets unpack.

In WC2 there were no blood elves or void elves, just high elves, so there is nothing to to tell.
I looked up and i did not see any tatoos in Kael’thas.
Rommath has arm tatoos. I was sugesting face tatoos.

Look, i would be fine with whatever Blizzard wants to do, but it is clear to me they don’t want to make a high elf allied race. The current arrangement is a compromise and i can live with that. It just needs some more options. I don’t ask for blood elf options, i ask for unique options.
The blood elves got plenty already, and btw i play blood elf too. They really don’t need more. Actually it’s even ridiculous to me that they gave them the blue eyes since fel and light have been their latest addictions.

4 Likes
1957

Blood Elves can still have blue eyes.
It’s not “if you were around “fel”, your a blood elf.” It’s a political and principal situation.
Many of the SunreaverGuardians who stood against the Silver Covenant, had blue eyes.
And the three “High Elven” Magi who were torturing Aethas, feeding the Sunreaver Scout to the shark in Dalaran as well as other things - they actually all had green eyes.

So, blue eyes are not out of the ordinary for Blood Elves. Hell, before they met Illidan and travelled with Vashj to Outland, they would have all kept their blue eyes.

1958

This is true, thats why I said they were all ‘Thalassians’ so 1% of them would become High Elves, 9% of them would become Blood Elves.

It’s on the TBC box art, they are sort of runic tattoos mostly around his eyes, This is why I am surmising that tattoos are a Magister thing, Warpaint is a Ranger thing, as we have 2 Mages with Tattoos, and 2 types of Ranger with Warpaint.

They should have, to be honest. They should have bitten the bullet and just given them High Elves instead of Void Elves. If they had not turned Alleria all Voidy then the end of Legion would have been the -perfect- time to do this. Instead you now have the awkward situation where they put Void Elves in place, and some people like them, So all they can really do is add customisation, which is fine, but does mean Void Elves are getting less love.
Equally they’ve made a rod for their own backs, because now they can’t add High Elves as a separate Allied race, because inevitably Horde would get something different looking (Ogres would be the direct parallel to High Elves even though I can’t stand the idea of playable Ogres) at which point there would be outrage that the Horde was getting a ‘new’ race, and Alliance were getting a reskin of a reskin.

They really brought this on themselves.

They should give Void Elves more normal hair colours, but not unique options that Blood Elves do not get. Because Lorewise thats not what High Elves are.

Ehh, not really, Blood Elf NPC’s have had blue eyes since WotLK. Why would a Sunreaver living in Dalaran have fel green eyes, but a Silver Covenant living in Dalaran have blue eyes? It makes no sense. I mean Blizzard did confirm how the eye colour thing works, and there are Blood Elf NPC’s with blue eyes, and there have been High Elf NPC’s with green eyes (They likely went to Outlands and stayed too long, Blizz did say it happens to -all- Thalassians)

The thing is, they were not addicted to Fel. They were -exposed- to it. They were still addicted to Mana, they just took it from Living Creatures. We see what an Elf addicted to Fel looks like, they literally are called Felblood Elves, and they look very little like Blood Elves.

The Sunwell’s energies (Which by the way nurture High Elves as well, as they have the same addiction) are Arcane and Light. So Blue and Gold make perfect sense.

To be honest, Void Elves should have the same eye colour options as Blood Elves, to go with the hair colours, so that someone can play a High Elf, a Religious High Elf, or a High Elf who was on the Allerian Expedition.

1 Like
1959

if you want play blonde legolas horde is waiting for you.

1 Like
1960

dont like horde, thats why we ask alliance race not horde to be playable :slight_smile:

5 Likes
1961

But we don’t like Horde xD.

3 Likes
1962

To be fair here, it’s likely they will do this in the future. The developers have alluded to it but nothing’s official.

you - have - also - a - blond - avatar - character
I think, you get it without realizing it.

And we have a tabard for it, Alliance-exclusive. People simply want to play blond helves.

I personally believe that Blizzard is “done” with the helves after this. That’s why people are fighting for every inch, foot and square they can get.

Well, because you said it yourself. High -void- elf who doesn’t look like a high elf because it still lacks the cosmetic options for it.

True enough - but the same has been said about “fair skinned” elves on the Alliance and yet here we are.

1 Like
1963

This is slightly ironic in a thread asking for what are essentially clones to blood elves.

This is one of the biggest issues the Alliance has, people are bored of “same old same old” yet adovcate hard for Helf and stuff like Vrykul on occasion. They’re just more of the same boring “have a fleshy human-like race” the alliance is massively bloated with.

The alliance needs stuff that is a bit “out there”. Yes lore players will really love high elves or maybe Vrykul, but for the average casual player who is ignorant/doesn’t care about lore, the faction with “humans, fat humans, short human, short broad humans, humans with pointed ears, humans that turn into dogs” probably isn’t going to seem all that exciting when compared with the one that is “Orcs, trolls, cow men, undead people, humans with pointed ears, goblins, fox people” etc.

I mean, yeah chuck in high elves (i mean, they kinda are with the VE stuff) but they will not “resolve” the primary issue the alliance faces regarding their race roster. This is why having these options come through velf is preferable to having them come through an entirely new race, because that is another slot used up on a race that is too samey. Better to use one of the slots we already have in use to accomplish this purpose.

Ankoans, Jinyu, a renegade bunch of Satyr, Botani, options exist to spice the Alliance up a bit, yet the most popular requests are just more and more of the same be it high elves, or highborne nelf etc. People need to realise outside of humans and night elves, the alliance playerbase is really really quite small, this tells us that is people aren’t really into the “generic looking/pretty humanoid race” those two represent, the alliance offers them nothing else really. at least not enough to inspire huge numbers.

Look at the races other than belf on horde, even the core ones, all of them are doing better than the other alliance races beyond humans/nelf. If you want pretty and generic, belf are there, if you don’t, there’s options.

If you encounter this situation on alliance and decide you don’t, the only solution of substance is to roll a horde race unless you like werewolves. Blizz just need to stretch their wings a bit and move away from the territory of “goodish noble races = pretty human like am I right?”. I mean in Everquest the race of purest good and lawful alignment was a race of freaking Frogmen for crying out loud, including an ability to roll paladins. All it requires is some imagination.

2 Likes
1964

I am sorry but you are wrong.
Verry wrong.

The Alliance got the better deal.
They got an amazing reskin for the Dranaei, next to worgen one of the best races of the Alliance.
They got Void Elves wich are basicly cooler versions of the Blood/high elves.
They got the Dark Iron dwarf. Cool, dark, edgy, i love them
The Kul’tirans are amazing, they need some love in the customisation department but other then that 10 times better then the regulair old boring humans.
And Mechagnomes who are by far the best allied race and only third in the alliance of favorite racies, worgen and gnome being the first.

The horde got Pretty Orcs, Another set of Trolls, Boring Taurens, Furry Goblins and ugly nightelves.

We got the better deal for sure!

1965

High Elves are okay. KT should have been a human customization. Worgen should never have been a switcheroo race to begin with. It would be an easy fix to sum every human-race up under the humans and give them racials/stats based on the skin (Worgen, KT, …) they use.

Overall, it’s Blizzard’s fault for that mess they have created.

1966

Well yeah, -this- one is, I also have a redhead and a black haired one, I don’t object to them getting hair colours, but for some reason its always blonde people hanker after :smiley:

I suppose it would be only fair, given that Maghar Orcs get three versions, well, colours, of their armour. But what form would such armour take? And no, don’t say Silver Covenant, people can get that look already, and the Silver Cov ain’t the only High Elves…

Once they’ve done every allied race customisations I suspect you’re right, they won’t touch the models for a good while, if ever.

This said, until the game goes live, we don’t know if they are finished with the Void Elf options, after all, even on the PTR most of the other Allied races haven’t got their customisations yet.

Now there is a precedent for races not getting their updates at the time, as Draenei and Blood Elves had to wait an extra patch, but the difference is, they are of course, both TBC races, the difference with the Allied Races, is that they were released in the same expansion, so they would-have- to give them all customisation, otherwise that’s pretty biased. As a result even what is on the PTR is not the finished product, so there is yet hope for different hair colours so that people can look even more like High Elves. Fingers crossed.

1967

nop. We got actually reskinned races nothing more. I would trade all allied races for highelves anytime.

All these “new alliance allied races” can be put as subpar option for already existing ones.

1 Like
1968

Now thats just not true at all.
Def not Subpar

The Lightforged are absolutely Amazing!
The Dark Iron dwarf make me feel all tingly inside, as to normal old regular dwarves
Alltrough the Kul Tirans lack proper customisation options ( seriously blizzard) They look far FAR better then regular humans.
The Mechagnomes a… ok nvm
And not to forget the Void Elves that are basicly highelves in the upcomming expansion.

Sorry, not sorry, but i just dont agree with you on that one

1 Like
1969

Sorry but the most popular allies race is void elf. Alliance fans want high elf. Like vanilla… Not McDonald’s junk food fed humans

1970

Well yeah, but i never said they didnt
i just said our allied races are awesome( not mechagnomes) and we def got the better deal compared to the horde .

1971

… Your opinion doesn’t match reality.

Horde got nightborne (night elf cousins with suramar), zandalari trolls (biggest empire/lore in azeroth after night elf ), vulperas (fan loved).

Alliance got a purple high elf substitute and fat humans and diaper gnomes. Please.

1 Like
1972

Horde got Ugly fallied nightelves.
More Trolls, ( yawn)
Vulpera that dont fix in any faction really
More Orcs
More Tauren

Just DUll and boring.
True the Mag’har look alot cooler then regulair Orcs but they are still Orcs

1973

So the similar to the Night Elf model then? That’s the model High Elves (Even Sylvanas) had in Vanilla.

I agree that Kul Tirans look odd when compared to a normal human, when really they shouldn’t, but they suffer from NPC syndrome (Same as Forsaken) where major NPC’s don’t look like the race they are supposed to be (Lilian Voss is an exception) I mean Jaina is Kul Tiran, gee, I wonder why she doesn’t have the chunkier model,(In fairness, she has been in game well before Kul Tirans were an Allied Race) same as Flynn Fairwind, and Derek Proudmoore.

They’re just jarring (and yes I have a KT alt) because they’re practically a different species, it’s like Blizz gave the Alliance Ogres or something, I mean, they’d need different bone structure in order to survive, at which point are they really still human? Why are there two versions of them? The Skinny Kul Tirans could not physically contain the bone structure of the chunky ones, and the chunky ones would simply collapse under their weight if they had the bone structure of the skinny ones.
Neither would do well with the bone structure of the normal humans.

Its just weird, and a missed opportunity, that would have been a good time for them to introduce High Elves, similarly to how there are Dark Irons. Just give them the Blood Elf model, with Blue eyes, and the option of Golden eyes for the religious types, and Green eyes for those exposed to Fel, like the Allerian Expedition have in lore.

Before anyone quotes that person who said having the same model on the other faction is a mistake (Pandaren) consider this, Firstly, a Void Elf in armour is the same as a Blood Elf in armour. Secondly you’d know which faction they were by the colour of their name above their head, and thirdly, the guy who -said- that was an Ex-Employee. Anybody here not whinged about their last job? I mean they were either fired, or resigned because they didn’t like it, so of -course- they’re going to criticise their former employer.

Have you seen the Nightborne models in game? unfinished trash, they look appalling in comparison to the Night Elf mobs you see in Suramar. They also don’t get Suramar, the only thing they get is a square garden with no buildings. Suramar is ridiculous “An Illusion, what are you hiding?” “Uhhh, nothing, I actually look like I live here?” Zandalari get a pretty, but horribly designed city, and really? the biggest lore? That prize goes to the Humans, the Orcs and the Night Elves.
The Vulpera, whilst loved by those who play them, are not loved by many Horde players (some of whom are as thick as two short planks) and are kicked from dungeons and raid groups because they are playing Vulpera.

We’re not Americans, Diaper is not a word over here in that sense, at least, not in the UK, and also, they are wearing white underwear, who plays their character naked? Apart from deviants in Goldshire, So they have white underwear, so what? Calvin Klein had models in white underwear on billboards, nobody said they were wearing nappies did they?

The model just ain’t finished yet, unfortunately it looks like Blizz are spending the time on Void Elf customisation rather than finishing Nightborne models.

I’m OK with Zandalari, they are sufficiently different from Darkspear.

I reckon they do, they have the same characteristics and more importantly the same reasons to want to join the Horde as any other Horde race, They’re also the only race who initially gets told “No, you can’t join” and then has to prove itself.

Should have been a reskin of normal Orcs, especially as Orcs have a non-hunched option now.

Lamest Allied race ever. They’re Tauren who learned face painting and can double up as novelty coat racks…

1 Like
1974

They are not ugly. This discussion was brought up by a female hardcore NB fan as well. They look good.

A highly requested race for a long time which wasn’t just a paint shop compared to the regular trolls.

Obviously not. The Alliance needed a fantasy race but they got a customization option as a race, similar how Mag’har Orcs are for the Horde-only players.

They were a mistake and should have been Alliance-only for some diversity.

1 Like