So we can set aside the out of game explanation first, that Void Elves were intended to be a different kind of high elf so as not to be too close to Blood Elves, but that Blizzard changed their mind due to the demand for the customisations and the fact that the game is on fire, making them amenable to make changes they otherwise wouldn’t. After all, had they wanted to give these customisations, they’d have made them high elves in the first place.
Still that leaves us with the geek’s dilemma of trying to explain the unexplainable within the established framework of the lore. All Void Elves did begin as blueberries after all, we were there, and all NPCs have been blue skinned. Having thought about it, I believe that leaves the following possibilities.
1.) All Void Elves are still blue skinned. The customisations are for player convenience and experience but actually have no standing beyond that. They would fall into a categorisation like Lightforged Draenei Shadow Priests, they wouldn’t exist in the game but do so for the players. This can be disproved by the addition of a Void Elf NPC with non blue tones at any point with the exception of Alleria, who became a Void Elf her own way.
2.) Void Elves are all still blue skinned but some have gone a bit mad and are projecting a false image of themselves into the minds of those around them of how they believe themselves to look, making them appear to look as they used to. The psychosis is so strong that the effects linger after death (which is why dead Void Elves wouldn’t revert to a true blue skinned form immediately before they res). This one can’t be disproved by the addition of a non blue toned NPC as that NPC could be suffering from the psychosis.
3.) The blue toned skin phenomenon was temporary for some Void Elves following their transformation and it faded away, meaning the physical effects of their transformation were minimised but they remain Void Elves.
I am not going to suggest that there is an option 4, that the customisations mean you are a High Elf who was never a Void Elf. The Void Elf racials mean that if you are playing a Void Elf, you are indisputably a Void Elf and this is an attempt to reconcile what is happening in game with established lore. Option 1 though may cover this, as it’s argues the customisations given don’t matter and exist solely for player experience, which allows a player to roleplay as a high elf even if in game they are a Void Elf but it does admit that what you want to believe as fact for yourself doesn’t necessarily correlate with what is in the game.
Why wouldn’t they be void elves? The void elves were created in a unique way they probably can not be replicated.
Like high elf/blood elf, the divide is more cultural than racial, they still consider themselves Thalassian elves and the children of Silvermoon, like the high elves and blood elves do.
Void Elves are transformed. Even says so in their race description. Even says so in their introduction. If all that was required to be a void elf was to wield the void then every blood elf shadow priest is a void elf.
I don’t think the developers put in a fraction of the thought you put into this question. The Void Elves were designed to look unique and cool, and the reason they were given normal skin colours is because people (myself included) cried rivers about them not introducing High Elves instead.
I agree with this, but I’m sure enough people are willing to suspend their disbelief enough and pretend to be a High Elf.
All Void Elves that were in the accident are still blue skinned. But since it was an accident, there is noch reason whatsoever to repeat it for any new recruits, which they obviously have. Being able to use the void doesn’t make you purple, as we know from looking at Alleria. Being turned by some Nexus Prince and barely being saved from your own stupidity does.
For the Quel’dorei/Sin’dorei recruits who were not part of the first batch of Magister Umbric and joined the Void Elves later though, it seems that a continued exposition to the Void of Telogrus’ Rift still changed their appearance quite a bit and corrupted them with the Void even on an inferior degree…indeed judging by the customizations avalaible to the players right now, even if they got their fair skin, they have no fel green or golden eyes anymore, meaning that if they were Blood Elves scholars of Silvermoon and joined the Void Elves later, their eyes did change colours because of the Void magic all around them. Same for the hair colour that cannot be pure blonde, pure red and other colours anymore.
However in lore I think most of them are blue skinned anyway, because most of them are just the ones who were part of the retinue of Magister Umbric. Blizzard said that even if their population is very low the Void Elves don’t recruit new members actively, they just welcome a few elves who are curious to study the Void in a deeper way to join them. And I don’t think they get a lot of recruits from the other Quel’dorei in the Alliance as they are not fond of dark magics anyway, nor a lot of Blood Elves would be interested in studying the Void anyway, when they can just secretly do it in the safety of Quel’thalas (as long as they don’t get near the arcane-Light Sunwell of course), rather than being on a small rock in space, alongside some new Alliance members that don’t entirely trust you (not everyone in the Alliance is like Anduin, and even Anduin had some doubts on the Void Elves)…maybe just some Sin’dorei shadow priests/warlocks who want to become even more powerful in the arts of the Void would want to join them, but that would mean the Void Elves get the most dangerous and scummy elements of the Blood Elves (heh) so that’s not a positive thing for them as a group anyway
They can in 9.1.5. Are we really gonna attempt to interpret Blizzard not deciding soon enought o give them more hair color options as lore? I certainly won’t.
Yes, they got some of the Blood Elves’ hair colours (not sure if all of them or not, and it’s possible Blood Elves will gain some voidy hairstyles in the future as well) but they still don’t get green or golden eyes, and the eyes are the most important detail for an Elf from Quel’thalas in order to understand about what kind of magic he/she is infused/corrupted. And the Void Elves only have voidy colours of course. So at least some sort of minor mutations definitely happen upon joining the Void Elves and living in Telogrus’ Rift always in contact with the void. Also they can’t physically be certain classes like Paladins or Demon Hunters.
I would say yes, at least for a race like Void Elves who are pretty much a “tabula rasa” in terms of lore, not only because they are kind of new but because they are given very little lore overall since their introduction as well.
For example, can Void Elves reproduce? Is the child born sane or insane because of the Void? Is the child born as a “pure” High Elf (sort of like two Worgen generating a Human child), or does the child immediately have void features as well? Until Blizzard don’t show or tell us about all of this, we can only assume, therefore it is lore that their reproduction status is currently in the limbo until it will be revealed otherwise.
None of the customisation options are to be taken as canon (Danuser words), but as a means to facilitate additional personalisation freedom for players. I think he exemplified what he meant by using the Bronzebeard treatment regardless if any dwarf went about with the Wildhammer tattoos.
These customisation options VEs are getting will fall under the same treatment. Probably because they go against the very concept of the race they are supposedly part of and require of a clarification that marks them apart from the actual background of the playable race.
Just like the Sand Troll customisation options go against the Darkspear background presented with the Troll PC.
The Void elf race (the one playable) is defined by - and I’m quoting the official race description here- :
Void elves (or ren’dorei , "children of the Void) are a race of Void-infused elves affiliated with the Alliance.
Their origins lie with a group of blood elves led by Magister Umbric, who were exiled from Silvermoon City because of their research into the Void. They were transformed by void ethereals but rescued by Alleria Windrunner, who had gained mastery of the Void herself on Argus.
Permanently transformed by the process, they pledged their loyalty to her and the Alliance and established themselves as the ren’dorei.
Highlights being “transformed by”, and “void-infused”. Core concepts that do not match with the physique presented with these new bits.
It’s a shame they went with the current approach regarding these customisation options. Oh well.
As far as I’m concerned, there is no canonical explanation. The entire thing is literally just Blizzard (finally) throwing the RP community a bone. It’s pretty much the same situation as Wildhammer customizations–people have been asking for them for ages and now Blizzard gave them the option, but as far as the game is concerned you’re still a Bronzebeard dwarf.
Well now with the amount of customization given to Void Elves, High Elves are indeed playable in the Alliance, basically. Even the hair colours can be the normal ones for High Elves now…
also, it seems they are re-doing the cinematic intro for Void Elves (where they show Telogrus’ Rift), as it is now a work in progress. So maybe they could change something while they are at it? It’s possible Blizzard could completely change the name of the race from Void Elves to High Elves once again, as I think only few players like the Void Elves’ identity over the High Elven one. It’s also possible they could change the name of the race completely or ufficially adopt the double name for them as well (so you can either call them Void or High Elves, and maybe you can also choose the racials you want, that would be different depending from what name you pick)
Wouldn’t that be unfair to the Blood Elves? They did spend ages saying Blood Elves ARE the High Elves after all and many Blood Elf players assume they are the High Elves using the fairly reasonable argument that Blizzard repeatedly told them they were. To allow the Void Elves to say they are High Elves explicitly in game will exclude the Blood Elves.
And Blood Elves have been around a lot longer than Void Elves. I think this would be too much and as a request is an example of how the high elf brigade can go too far (as is the request for void elf paladins which is taking the self-denial regarding the race choice they made to an entirely different level, a demand for Blizzard to violate the lore of their game to facilitate the pretense they aren’t what they chose to be). Not only did they get all the customisations they wanted, but now they want that final confirmation that they are the real deal and everyone else is an imposter.
P.S. Many cinematics in game are work in progress on the PTR despite being finished years ago. The Nightborne cinematic is also work in progress for example. I don’t think they are going to change anything in the setup, this is just how they do things on the PTR.
Which all comes back to my original point. How do we reconcile the new customisations with in game lore? The game describes all Void Elf players as Void Elves and no matter how they customise themselves, they still speak as Void Elves, use void elf emotes, make void elf jokes and proc entropic embrace.
My own personal conclusion is that until a Void Elf npc is introduced using normal skin tones (not Alleria due to her unique transformation), that Void Elves do not have normal skin tones. This is a player convenience they plan to ignore in the long term, kind of like being able to play a Sandfury troll without the Sandfury being in the Horde.
As a fan of blood elves I am upset by the fact that they said that blood elves are high elves. I mean, they’re the exact same species, sure, but the distinction is pretty damn important. The high elf/blood elf split has been been around since the original game. The existence of high elves as a separate entity to blood elves has never been a problem. It only became a problem when Blizzard themselves forgot about their own lore.
Maybe it could be seen as a problem that we have too many customization options, as many of these options rely on willful suspension of disbelief. If people can play void elves and pretend they’re high elves then more power to them. I personally can’t – because of the void elves inherent tendency to flare up into void monstrosities whenver they fight. It’s very hard to pretend that that is not happening when it obviously is.
It’s also kinda sad that these new options are so detached from the world building. What does it mean now that blood elves have blue eyes again? It probably means nothing. No one gives a damn. It’s not significant in any way. What does it mean that you’ve picked customization options that marks you as a wildhammer dwarf? It means nothing. The players themselves can of course fill this emptiness with their own stories, but is the player even allowed their own story anymore? We’re all the überhero of the warcraftian multiverse these days.
It’s good enough for RP, which very rarely uses ingame fight mechanics. So while I don’t disagree with you I would just add that there is an actual niche that this can reasonably cater to. Which is surprising, since they don’t exactly take care to cater to RPers usually. But I guess whiny elves are sometimes loud enough in the land of the blue birds. shrug
Even sadder is that I am thankful for that… Yes, the game should do the world-building, not my headcanon. But the way they dealt with it? Yeah, no thanks, I’ll coninue with my own interpretations, at least those might make some sense…
