Yes, but by that definition the High Elves are Night Elves too, they were just isolated from the parent culture, and changed. Honestly, put a Nightborne next to a Night Elf character, and you can see defined differences, I think it is largely facial, but they also seem to stand slightly differently, and there is something a bit more ‘claw like’ about their fingers and toes. I mean you can clearly see they were the same people, but there is a difference.
I agree with the war-paints looking awesome, but we see Elves with war-paints/tattoos in four different places, we see the High Elf Ranger portrait in WC2 with warpaint, thing is, 90% of them later died, and of the survivors, 90% of -them- are Blood Elves, We see Kael’thas on the TBC box art, he -was- a High Elf, but was the very person who renamed them as Blood Elves, we see Rommath who has tattoos, and we see Alleria.
Rommath and Kael’thas were both Mages, maybe Tattoos are their thing, The WC2 Rangers and Alleria were both, well, Rangers, so maybe Warpaints is a Farstrider thing (Which seems pretty likely) Yet we don’t see any High Elf (Or Blood Elf) models in game with Warpaints apart from her, and she left Azeroth before the Exile, so it might be a ‘Thalassian’ thing, or a ‘Ranger thing’ but it isn’t a ‘High Elf’ thing, if you see what I mean. I think a warpaint option would be pretty neat, but it would have to be a customisation for both High and Blood Elves to make any lore sense.
Now I can see the logic behind different hairstyles for High Elves, after all, we are often influenced by what is around us, Humans in their case, and a hair cut is a simple transitory thing to change, unlike a stance or culture.
Indeed they can, but everything you said about High Elves getting Druids and Shamans equally applies to Blood Elves also, who don’t get them.
The closest thing High Elves would have to Druids is the same as Blood Elves, which is Hunters, as we both agree, the Farstriders are the vestiges of Druidic magic in High/Blood Elven society, with their nature affiliated abilities.
I’ll grant you this, we do see -one-non Kaldorei Elf with Druidic abilities, the High Botanist Freywinn in the aptly named Dungeon ‘The Botanica’, However he is a) a Dungeon Boss, b) Unique, and c) most definitely a Blood Elf, not a High Elf.
They’re not though, they are biologically identical to Blood Elves, a change in political allegiance does not change how you look or stand, and we’ve already covered tattoos/warpaints. Haircut differences make sense, but otherwise they are identical. You could put a High Elf who had been exposed to Fel next to a Blood Elf who has not been exposed to Fel (and both exist) and you would think the High Elf was the Blood Elf and vice versa. They haven’t had time to build their own culture, in fact as Blizzard state, they don’t -have- their own culture, they are defined by what they were, not what they are.
Thing is, they are exactly the same people, just with a different political affiliation, I mean they are literally the same generation of Elves as the Blood Elves, with the exception of any children born post Exile, who would not yet be adult. Even those High Elves who first flocked to the nascent Dalaran City once it became a magical seat of learning would be the same generation as people like Alleria, and it seems, Lor’themar, Liadrin, Rommath, Kael’thas and Halduron. Elves live long enough that it is entirely possible, and probable, that some of the Elves who first taught Magic to humans, and predate the very existence of Dalaran, are still alive now. Some may be Blood Elves, some may be High Elves, but they’re the same people. Blizzard’s official sources confirm that the Elves who first built Dalaran’s magical defences are now Blood Elves, so even the High Elves who moved to Dalaran later are the same people. The only Generation born since the Exile as I say, would be teenagers at oldest.
That’s not saying they should not be playable on Alliance, but I am saying that there are not physical differences between Blood and High Elves.