So, yes, it was the quote that you were thinking of, but you apparently didn’t even read what I wrote, because what I wrote was the majority of the quote you were apparently thinking of, yet claimed I was wrong. And he didn’t say “If you want to play a fair-haired, light-skinned, blue-eyed majestic high-elf, sorry but…the Horde is waiting for you!” He did not say “High Elf” there. He said “Elf”. You should never claim anyone else is “ill informed” at this point. It’s just embarrassing for you.
You can’t just pick and choose which part of a quote you want to use and ignore the rest, nor can you misquote and expect to get away with it.
No one has ever claimed that the Blood Elves were not High Elves in the past. That’s a complete strawman argument you’re trying to create. But Blizzard has officially stated at least a couple times that Blood Elves no longer consider themselves to be High Elves. First in the Warcraft Encyclopedia article that was on the old website, and is still considered canon. Second was in the story Blood of the Highborne, as I stated earlier in this thread.
It’s implied because of the question as he ends with “but no plans in the near term to add High Elves as an allied race.”
You are the one saying the Blood Elves are not the High Elves. Also, notice I didn’t put it in quotes… because there was no extra “explanation” as you implied. If I was quoting him, like the above, I would have. Also, I know you are acting out in bad faith because clearly you knew the quote and demanded I produce it. There is no need to respond to you further.
The Blood Elf intro calls them High Elves and explains why they now refer to themselves as Blood Elves.
Are you another person trying to twist something forth because you want to play Alliance Blood Elves?
As of right now, any Void Elf is pretty much a former Blood Elf or High Elf. The customization is there if you don’t dig the purple skin tone, so for all intents and purposes you could say Void Elves are indeed High Elves.
With one caveat, they are void possessed ones. So depending on how much you want to stretch, you could say they are “High Elves,” to me they are a new race and could be former High Elves (in that they were Silver Covenant etc. the ones people keep asking for).
Blood Elves are just High Elves under a new name and now a Regent, no race change whatsoever.
Notice how he avoided answering because he’s well aware of how ridiculous his reasoning is? How one hand he validates the fraction, and Alleria’s changes from “traditional” High elven behavior as natural “high elven” thinking, but then on the other hand tries to argue that the other 99% changed because they are just clearly different people. Why? Oh Because there was a name-change. All the races have development and grown since WC3, are we to believe they are all different people? When the only sole distinction is that one went through a name-change to honor their fallen?
He tried so hard to pretend like his argument had anything else besides a semantic argument about name-changing.
Yeah, because the question being asked was “We want alliance High elves” to which Ion responded that the Blood elves are High elves, just High elves with a different story, not that they are “different” from High elves in general, just not the “alliance” High elves.
We are the High elves, just not the “Alliance” High elves you want, the original traditional High elves that left the Alliance and returned home. Which is why he tells you at the end “if you want to play a High elf, the Horde is waiting for you.” because the quote is directed at people like you.
Edit: And no race has the same backstory, or relationship with magic that they did in WC3, they’ve all evolved and changed since World of Warcraft. Night elves are a perfect example I keep bringing up. This does not mean they are different races of people. How you can cherry-pick your facts is a question for a more temperate mind than my own.
This is referring to the fact that overall, High elves don’t act in any coordinated way, they do not have any specific set of beliefs or goals, they are a scattered people who’s alignments vary group to group. Some act just, and feel just like Blood elves like the Thalo’thas Privateers who call the Alliance a sham, dress purposely in red and send you out to kill alliance soldiers, to the many neutral High elves across Azeroth who offer quests to anyone, or those who’ve become cultists that we are forced to kill.
He’s telling the Alliance players that just because the Blood elves are not the High elves they wanted, they are still High elves. Because there are no specific rules or beliefs to who is considered a High elf that would invalidate Blood elves. Because again, they are not a coordinated whole.
Alliance High elves are but a fraction of a fraction of existing High elves.
It’s raining Airc, all around you. But you have simply chosen not to notice.
Both races have the customization needed to be ‘oldschool High Elves’ too (on the faction they want), thanks to the increased eye color options for belf and velf as well as the light skin tones and non-void hair colors for velf.
Neither one is labelled “high elf” in game, sure, but the customization is there. Just because my red draenei is still just called a “draenei” when players scroll over me, it doesn’t mean she isn’t an Eredar by my own design choices. Same deal with the high elves. And, realistically, we don’t need another belf-skinned allied race (we didn’t really need the velf, but it existing does give alliance high elves an option to those who don’t want horde high elves).
I know at the heart of this discussion is lore, but it seems a little odd to push so strongly for them to be faction-locked when it already exists in the form of player customization. High elves are already here, and requests already met for both factions to fulfill the customization option to rp a high elf.
And, to address the alliance side argument to this: Again, blood elves got lore-appropriate eye color options to match their already existing skin and hair options for a high elf. Note the already existing part, because they were less removed from high elves than the void elves were-- because blood elves changed their name and adapted their culture following a traumatic event, but that doesn’t mean they suddenly became different people of a different race. They collectively decided to go by a new name for the same race that they already were. The only customization they needed to truly rp high elves as a player was the non-corrupted eye color option.
Honestly until people don’t agree with a terminology to differentiate High Elves (The Quel’dorei as a racial offshoot of the Kaldorei) and High Elf (Modern socio-cultural-political groups) these conversations are bound to go around in endless circles.
Personally, to be honest? Modern “High Elves” might as well change their name. Elisande already clocked them that the name quel’dorei just doesn’t fit them, and a group of High Elves, the Highvale, already have changed their name; if you do their quests in the Hinterlands, you realize they are always called “Highvale Elves”
Maybe the best would be if the alliance High Elves split the difference and either went to the Void Elves, or the Highvale Elves shrug. Meh, all of this could have been more semaless if Void Elves hadn’t been so shoehorned out of nothing, and introduced as a more organic transition between Alliance High Elves and whatever new type of alliance elf is okay with using Void, lead by Alleria.
Oh, I totally agree. I have no problem with players wanting to identify their elf as a high elf, as that was the entire point of the customizations in the first place. So we’re on the same page here.
This is exactly what me, and many others are trying to express as well, but there are some fanatics that simply cannot bear the fact that Blood elves are playable High elves and try tooth and nail to argue that they are a “different race” or people altogether as a way of coping. Otherwise they die a little inside every time a “horde” elf paladin or priest passes them with blue eyes, despite having their own variation to choose from.
The cultural change between modern alliance High elves and traditional High elves is pretty stark. As you pointed out even Elisande picks on the Alliance High elves for breaking away from tradition, and mingling with the lesser races, and finally telling them they are unworthy of the name “High elves” because it’s quite frankly true. Modern Alliance High elves are simply pointy-eared humans.
If modern Alliance High elves adopted a different name, they would be arguably the most changed elf from their traditional people, but because the name didn’t change some people are under the impression that they are a reflection of the original High elves, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
No, there is no implied part. You love to only take a fraction of the quote to further your agenda, but in the full quote, he actually lists some of the differences between what a Blood Elf is and what a High Elf is. He also goes on to give examples of a few High Elves we’ve met. And guess what: They’re not Blood Elves.
No, your reading comprehension is so poor (or you’re just trying to make another strawman argument) that you might actually believe that. What I’m saying is that the Blood Elves WERE High Elves, but they no longer consider themselves High Elves. Look, I’ll try to make this simple to help you understand (if you’re actually serious about learning):
A group of Elves were kicked out of Kalimdor for continuing to heavily practice Arcane magic, even after the Legion had been drawn to the world due to that misuse. These Elves were part of the Night Elf society and called themselves “Quel’dorei” in the Night Elf language. When they found their new home in the northeastern lands of what is now the Eastern Kingdoms, they decided to keep calling themselves “Quel’dorei”. As they met other races, “Quel’dorei” was translated into “High Elves” in the ‘common’ language. For thousands of years they lived in Quel’thalas, calling themselves “High Elves”. Then, Arthas and the Scourge decimated their kingdom, killing off the vast majority of the Elves living there. Their new leader, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider proclaimed that they would change their name. No longer would they be “High Elves” or “Quel’dorei”. Now, to honor the fallen and to claim their noble blood, they would be called “Blood Elves” or “Sin’dorei”. This doesn’t mean they were no longer Elves. They were still from Quel’thalas. Still the same Elves that they were before (albeit changed in purpose). But they no longer used the name “Quel’dorei” or “High Elves”. Thus, they are no longer High Elves.
You seem to be under the delusion that “High Elves” is an immutable baseline that they cannot get rid of, that it is biological or something instead of what it is: A name. Yes, it is simply a name. When you change your name from Ted to Bill, you are no longer Ted. You WERE Ted, but you are no longer Ted. Just like Blood Elves WERE High Elves, but are no longer.
And when people talk about High Elves, and are not talking about the past, they are talking about a very specific subset of Elves. And they are not talking about Blood Elves at all.
Its about to get a lot worse too. (TWW Spoilers for the new zone)
Summary
The Arathi include High Elves among their numbers, but last I checked, Human, High Elf, or Half-Elf, they all just call themselves the Arathi.
Still, I’m a little amused. There’s an empire across the ocean, and there are High Elves alive and in it. I imagine NOW people like Galathir will change their tune about, “there aren’t enough alive to be playable.” For all we know, there’s enough living High Elves that they outnumber the Blood Elves ten to one.
Let’s be honest, it was never about numbers. If it were, void elves wouldn’t exist as anything but npcs given they are a fraction of a fraction that pulls its population from those same fractions.
It was about blizzard devs not wanting to do something, so they pulled out every excuse, promptly contradicted those excuses, and still went about things in the most convoluted fashion possible. Most importantly, they convinced themselves they were right all along. Now were stuck with their half-measures and everyone is unhappy.
Imagine if, just for a moment, blizzard bit the bullet and just made high elves; some people would whine and . . . that would be the end of it. No more high elf threads, no lolore. We could all move on with our lives.
If High Elves had been the Allied Race, adding Void Elves later as customizations would’ve probably left players feeling much more interested in Void Elves, rather than this lingering resentment and these half-measures that don’t quite allow for proper immersion as a High Elf. It would’ve given time for Void Elves to be properly seeded into the lore. Were Alleria to show up on a scene with a hand-picked elite few trained to wield the Void, that would’ve been much better received than the Void Elves were originally.
At the least the Void Elves should’ve been the High Elves. Alleria could’ve borrowed the Silver Covenant for a weekend trip looking for lost members of the Alliance Expedition and the lot of them wound up void corrupted. I think a lot of players would’ve been satisfied with that, because at least then the Void Elves are a sympathetic race of Alliance-loyal elves who fell to a terrible fate. It’d make sense why the Alliance tolerates them. Heck, Vereesa was a guest of honor at Tyrande and Malfurion’s wedding, so I could even see why the Night Elves would countenance calling them allies.
Right now I don’t understand how the Night Elves didn’t start killing the Void Elves on sight.