I really don’t get this as a reason it’d be a BAD thing for them to implement more skin colours.
It’s literally more choice. There is absolutely zero reason they shouldn’t - sure it’s a common trope in most fantasy settings where all elves, dwarves etc. are white, but there’s no good reason that SHOULD be the case. It’s a thing you can excuse for sure since most are based on medieval Europe and want to go for that aesthetic, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that it’s somehow a bad move to allow people to have more choice, play a character that they feel represents them a bit more etc.
The problem is that people are trying to stage Blood Elves as a seperate race from other elves, they are not.
There are ‘tinted’ or ‘non white’ (arguement used by others, I don’t agree with it, elves are elves) elf options already in the game and humanifying elves more then they already are for the sake of hitting a quota kind of feels like you’re actively saying that lore comes second and idk man as an RPer it just hits me the wrong way
I’m sure there will be people who will gladly theorize on what type of person I am in real life based on my opinion on how lore should be regarded in World of Warcraft but I hope that they’re a vocal minority at best
The thing is in WoW, the type of elf you are determines the type of elven culture you belong too and inadversably what faction you belong too, so if you want to expand on this, then please do not add it to blood elves but see if it’s possible to create a new elven culture that could meet that demand
Listen, its only a qouta because you choose to view it that way; otherwise its just extra customisation options.
People in the forums are more “obsessed” with that, while Blizzard only stated they would add more customisations; its their game, their lore and if they decide this is extra customisation options, then its just that, not some “hitting a qouta”-strategy.
P.S: I don’t really care who you are or what you are like in real life nor will I theorize on it
As an RPer, being able to make a character that resonates more with me is something that’s important to me. I’m not, in any way, advocating for additional lore to accompany this change; I don’t trust Blizzard with it, nor do I view it as necessary. I don’t think diversifying the human-based races (and I will argue that blood elves, dwarves and gnomes are that for as long as they have majority human features) is breaking the lore, and a plethora of other fantasy universes do this if you really want to cling to “but Tolkien”, “but fantasy tropes”. Even The Witcher has black dwarves!
I’m not saying anyone who disagrees with the black elf skintones coming in Shadowlands is racist; that’s a ridiculous stance to have. I just think people need to open their eyes a bit more to the importance of some diversity in historically white-dominated genres, especially Warcraft.
My main objection isn’t that it’s hitting a quota, it’s an arguement I use
My main objection is that it doesn’t make sense whatsoever to add extra options to blood elves for this who are part of a very specific elven culture that has been where they have been for thousands of years, there will not be much difference
I’m not against you getting your options, I’m against them retconning even more lore for the sake of it where they can just expand and add on what’s already there
This argument is brought up again and again, but I’ve seen zero examples of paleness/whiteness being a “staple part of high elven culture”. The only lore on the subject is magic exposure lightened their skin, and there are some very dark night elves.
I’m specifically speaking about Blood Elves in this regard.
Again, I’m not saying don’t make elves that meet those demands, I’m saying don’t just lazily add the options to blood elves and then pretend that that makes sense to the existing lore.
By all means, come with an elven culture with it’s own lore that you can add to these new character options. Like for example they’re giving Wildhammer Tattoo’s to regular dwarves. Wildhammers are an existing culture, do that for these elves and it’s fine. Just don’t just do it for the sake of it, that harms the lore (in my view)
Do you think it’s important that night elves/orcs/goblins have the skin tones they do? If you were to add ‘human’ skintones as standard to them would that damage their standing as a fantasy race?
If high elves and blood elves have a “majority human features”, wouldn’t the same count for the night elves at the least, and thus shouldn’t there be added white and black skins for them too? (and everything in between).
I’ve said this over and over, but here’s to another;
Dwarves, gnomes and blood elves are the three races that come with a human complexion, that being a skintone that ranges from light pinks to dark browns (and darker come Shadowlands). They also possess a plethora of human features; crop just the head of a dwarf/gnome, and it’s a stylised human with a beard. Cut off the ears/brows of a blood elf, and it’s a pretty human.
This doesn’t apply to monster races like goblins, trolls, or orcs, because they have very few human features. Yes, they’re humanoid, but they’re so wildly different to real-life humans that we don’t recognise them as such. There’s a reason in vanilla people made fun of the Alliance for having “humans, bearded humans, and short humans”. Pretending otherwise is intentional ignorance, and being pedantic for the sake of it.
The majority of night elf skintones and hair colours are more akin to drow, though you’re free to advocate for black night elves if you genuinely care. Though I very much doubt anyone here does.
Dwarves, gnomes and humans share geneology from being titanforged and started out as constructs that were given the curse of flesh.
All elves descend from trolls, to group Dwarves Gnomes and Humans together makes sense, but adding Elves to that grouping is just flatout ignoring the lore
But it does make sense in the lore, what wouldn’t make sense is suddenly have a side-group of Thalassian Elves who somehow branched of to become Darker-skinned Elves. Hell that would be a retcon to the current Thalassian Elves-lore, instead of adding a very tiny thing to it.
Also with the new starting zone they’re talking about Dwarves and Trolls hence why the addition of Wildhammer-Dwarves alongside Sand- and Dark-troll customisations make sense.
Don’t the Night Elves already have a very Human-like skintone anyways? I vaguely remeber something like that!
Talking about Night Elves eye colours; now thats a retcon. Since it used to be solely Silver, with some Amber and then Malfurion with his emerald ones.
