Ren'dorei, unite!

I have been searching for Ren’dorei guild for a while now, why do people really hate that race so much?
It is played, don’t get me wrong, but most of the players either bubble RP (same story as demon hunters unfortunately), or they RP as high elves.
Whats the difference between typical warlock and Ren’dorei?
As far as I can tell, Alleria helped them out to gain some of the control over the void, they are not rampaging and wreaking chaos all over the Stormwind city.
Is Ren’dorei lore really that bad in everyones opinion?
This fact proves that Horde is a lot less racist than Alliance (I’m not blaming any human controlled characters, simply lore-wise).
This is the reason why Sin’dorei left Alliance in first place (racism).
Now that I’m writing this, no one accepting Ren’dorei in their guild really IS cannon lore-wise.
Edit, after what Syelia wrote:
Okay it makes sense that common people of the Alliance don’t accept them, but what about the warbands? Guilds oriented about being a military units. Every soldier should count.
Sure you might say that Ren’dorei can snap in an instant and kill half of their allies, but no one will RP as a overpowered edge lord, at least I hope so. If they snap, 2-3 men should be enough to take them down.
But how come that no one has made Ren’dorei oriented guild? Like strictly for that race. Sure, they don’t have long backstory like humans, orcs or any other core race, but that might even be better in my opinion. It gives you more freedom.

People not creating void elf guilds does not mean they hate them.

When it comes to how they´ll be perceived by Light worshipping common people of the Alliance? Not much, they should be both distrusted at best and reviled at worst.
However, unlike warlocks, void elves can´t really hide what they are.

#forumRP

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People DO play them, walk around SW, it is full of elves, maybe too much of them to be honest

This part completely makes sense, however, people do have faith in their King, don’t they? And if they are good enough for their king, paladin nonetheless, they should be on the edge of being alright, at least tolerated.

I am not on the forums long enough to understand what you mean by this, I am sorry. :slight_smile:

They also worship the Light, so no, just because Anduin says it´s OK doesn´t mean they´ll magically trust their (at the start of DF) 5 years absent king.

Since you also edited the OP, let me respond to that:

Not really, especially if they are focused on certain theme (such as traditional Alliance races, Light worshippers, nelves+worgen and so on). There´s such thing as dilluting your guild theme and many want to avoid it.

You´re mixing IC and OOC. Sure, OOCly people know ren´dorei won´t snap and epicly own their mercenary/soldier comrades, but you don´t know that ICly. So there are plenty reasons why characters wouldn´t want void elves in their military unit.

There have been multiple (+ combined helf/velf guilds such as mine), it´s just that right now, there isn´t one active. You can thank Shadowlands for that.

They do have lots of backstory, in fact too much. They didn´t just spawn into the world, they were high elves and then blood elves before turning.
Which is also why void elves have way less freedom than other races because you had to have been a blood elf who got exiled with Umbric and was researching Void in Telogrus.
Only demon hunters have comparable level of limitation, even death knights now can be recently killed and raised soldiers.

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I am quite certain I remember there being a high elf/ren’dorei guild out there, yet I have no idea if they are still active.

Roleplaying a death knight, demon hunter or void elf always comes with certain consequences that you need to be aware of and be ok with before you roleplay them. The void is not a pleasant magic. As said before the ren’dorei cannot hide what they are, their aura’s alone aren’t nice to be close to for the common person. People are right to distrust them. Next to trusting your king or your church, there is also common sense, gossip, fearing what you don’t know and presumptions. Do not expect every character and person in Azeroth to fully understand things or to respond in a rational way. If you do not want to face distrust, dislike or do not want to be shunned at times, ren’dorei might not be the race for you.

Yet do not give up. There are certainly guilds that accept them! Just keep trying!

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Phtooey on all void elves

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are you aware that the Horde banished the void elves entirely?

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Not really the case, they were BElves when they got exiled from Silvermoon (to hang around freely in the Ghostlands as long as they liked with no repercussions).

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The forsaken as a whole have proven to be very uncaring towards their allies, mostly seeing them as tools rather than actual people.

And orcs were almost as bad. Garrosh Hellscream and several other orcs despised trolls, undeads, and many other members of the Horde. And even Thrall believed the orcs would accept only an orcish warchief (times have changed, definitely!)

Blood elves and Nightborne don’t always see their beloved allies as civilized groups either, not always atleast.

Many members of the Horde are either racist, or so structurally set in their views that they are unable to tolerate anything that doesn’t conform to their value-system

That’s exactly what happened though.
Void elves were a new race no one saw coming because it was literally just: “okay let’s pick some blood elves, infuse them with void loads, add a kg of void whispers inside their heads, turn their skin purple, and BAM! now you have void elves.”

Their background was written lazily and lacks worldbuilding.

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We are infact a high elf/ren’dorei guild and are still active!

This. So much this. People burn themselves out easily on void elf RP specifically because they don’t expect being antagonized/viewed differently IC.

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Imo, yes, blizzard has been very sloppy with Ren’dorei lore but there’s potential, mainly with all the whispers and the mental struggle because it is there at all times. It’s fun. It’s also fun to see others have different opinions about it. Anduin welcomed the Ren’dorei into the Alliance, so the military can’t just start murdering them unless they do some horrendous. Outside of their duty, everyone can have a different opinion about Ren’dorei, namely feeling indifferent, unfriendly or friendly towards them. It comes with how people RP their characters, it’s nice to see different sides at play.

As for guilds, there were some attempts on establishing a purely void elf guild, but to my knowledge these attempts failed. There are people that RP void elves but some tend to be “overpowered edge lords” or “drama stirrers” and others tend to be citizens/mercenaries which is kind of conflicting with Ren’dorei lore since they -are- an elite force that followed Magister Umbric and his lot into a search of Void magics. (perhaps some people should re-do the Ren’dorei introduction quests). So yes, the Void Elf RP scene is scattered as it always has been.

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I know reading comprehension is something you´ve never heard about, but I suggest trying at least a bit. We´re talking about RP character backstory, where you can´t just create a void elf who randomly started existing in the world in year 33 ADP by appearing as a grown-up elf in Ghostlands.

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Eh, the one I was an officer in had a good run throughout BfA. Good times. Shadowlands and the real life horror stories coming from Blizzard’s staff did us no favours however, so the key was turned and most either took a break or found greener pastures in other MMOs.

I don’t have the impression that people genuinely hate Void Elves OOC (except Marus maybe.) I think a great many people see a lot of unrealized potential however, which can make it frustrating to RP one for an extended period of time.

It’s more that it’s paper thin. I’m happy with the lore we do have, but desperately wish for it to be fleshed out to a much greater degree.

The barbershop tells us otherwise. Granted I don’t particularly see the big idea in playing a Void Elf IC and then not look the part, but I have no reason to believe they can’t assume a “normal looking self” through mastery of their craft. To each their own I suppose.

Waggles tentacles menacingly

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Unless we see customizations that would have big lore implications on NPCs (for example Alliance Dark Rangers), it´s better to not take it as lore. So far, every void elf besides Alleria (who had different process of becoming one) looks completely different from high/blood elves.
And we know exactly why Blizzard added in these customizations. They exist to appease high elf players, not to change void elf lore and say that those who followed Umbric haven´t been physically changed by the transformation.

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I miss that guild :frowning:

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I’m not particularly opposed when I see people doing it IC. Whether it’s an illusion brought about by magic or actual regression of the mutations (both of which are takes I’ve encountered), I’m honestly not fussed. So long as they don’t try to convince me that all Void Elves should look hale and healthy. :woman_shrugging:

Oh that was never in question.

:cry:

I think illusion is fine (although we then run into problem of what happens when it gets removed, because the character will still look like helf).
Regression of the mutations however is pure headcanon which would have pretty big implications if it was a thing. And I´d honestly take an issue with this specific one because it would mean the mutations aren´t permanent and incurable. Imagine having a void elf who hates what has happened to them and would give anything to have it changed. And then they meet another one who looks normal because curing this physical transformation is actually super easy, barely an inconvenience.

I guess that’s where the power of imagination comes into play. If we can make-believe NPCs for RP events when there are none, surely the skintone of a broken illusion isn’t a dealbreaker to any role-player worth their salt.

This on the other hand is a fair point. Even if it doesn’t solve the encroaching madness and whispers from beyond the cosmos, it’s potentially an undermining of Void Elf RPers trying to stick to the norm. So I’ll give you that one.

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For someone so preachy about reading beyond what is being stated, you clearly forget or ignore the fact that a character’s background is never removed from their concept - and their concept has several flaws, such as the ones I mentioned, which translates in an impoverished concept, overall.

Yeah, sure, they have a past as some other race and yet, while you speak about how important their past is, all the non-Alleria void elves we heard about barely had any relevant past that connects back to what they were in a meaningful way other than “edgy void student was exiled, lab accident happens, boom: void elf.”

Does Umbric have a sin’dorei family? What was his role, aside from that of a generic Magister? Do we know what happened to him while the undeads invaded Quel’thalas, or any other defining moment of his BE heritage? Nah, we just know he was a generic blood elf Magister who meddled with the void, was exiled… and then BAM! void corruption. The same goes for nearly all void elves, the sole exception being Alleria… but mostly because she was a character stuck in a limbo who was then repurposed as soon as the new writers got her hands upon her.

You can think that the old lore is a fundamental part of their past, but as a matter of fact, the old lore is entirely irrelevant to craft the void elves as a race and basically to their entire portrayal (even them using Dar’khan’s research is more of a wink towards the old fans or a retcon than anything else: his focus was death/necromancy, not the void)

I’d disagree on that, if we’re talking about the background of a RP character. Just because there was not much said about Umbric’s sin’dorei past doesn’t mean the same has to be the case for our void elves. Who they were and what they did prior to the exile still shaped them as a person. Hate on void elf lore all you want, but to say that void elf characters don’t have a background is straight up incorrect.

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