The High Elf NPCs in the World, who are neutral or friendly to the Horde and the Alliance, fled the Quel’Thalas Elves in their hour of need, turning to the humans for sanctuary and not staying to fight for their homeland.
They betrayed the High Elves, they betrayed us, and that is why they live in Dalaren now, and in the World, without the ancestral home they turned their backs on.
We, the Blood Elves, named so because we are the ‘People of the Quel’Dorei Blood’, and to honour our fallen, are the Player Characters that Blizzard invested the High Elf Lore in; because we are High Elves, it is our lore.
Since starting my BE characters in BC, I have always identified with the Quel’Dorei ancestry my Race has. I never thought otherwise, and it is still strange to me that the Alliance persistently ask for, even demand, a Horde Race for their Faction.
The High Elf identity is Blood Elf. It cannot be separated. NPC’s and a non-playable organisation of a playable race. (Silver Covenant, Scarlet Crusade, Raventusk etc…), and the most ardent hopes and dreams, will not change this.
Precedent has now shown that if Blizz were to implement High Elves, by the fact of continuity they would give them to the Horde, as every Allied race bar Void Elves and Nightborne, has been a Faction of the existing Race ‘returning home’, becoming one with their brethren.
World of Warcraft Game Manual, Blizzard Entertainment, 2004.
Page 164, The Rise of the Blood Elves.
…" The undead Scourge had essentially transformed Lordaeron and Quel’Thalas into Toxic Plaguelands. There were only a few pockets of Alliance resistance forces left.
One such group, consisting primarily of High Elves, was led by the last of the Sunstrider dynasty: Prince Kael’thas. Kael, an accomplished wizard himself, grew wary of the failing Alliance, which treated it’s Elven allies with suspicion and hostility.
The High Elves grieved for the loss of their homeland and decided to call themselves Blood Elves in honour of their fallen people."