Nothing says ‘affinity for sun’ like a high melanin level
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But why introduce it now? The timing is my boggle. Zero issues with it on an absolute, not-affected-by-time concept. Did we not kill all the Sunfury Blood Elves in BC and they’ve just been hanging out and we let ‘em back in to Silvermoon?
Lol, I’m saying “we” on a human paladin. I, umm, mean the “Royal” we…
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I’m not morally outraged. Truly. I’m just playing a story-based RPG and having read the novels, geeked out to Chronicle and played this game for over 12 years, this change just feels as odd as if the Redguards from TES all of a sudden have white skin tones among them - non albino.
I sincerely don’t mean any offense and I really dig the look in general. It’s just hard to buy into it from a lore perspective.
Now, if the lore is such that Shadowlands or exposure to Azerite does this, I’d have zero issues. There would be some background. Something I could point to in-game from an RP perspective.
In sum: the color is of no importance to my frustration - it could be them being bright blue - it’s that the change is immediate with no justification in lore. If it’s the Sunwell, their sunny climate or whatever, why don’t we see more straight-no-chaser High elves (silver covenant) with this attribute, since the Sunwell and those elves are thousands of years old.
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Because there’s a new expansion and blizzard decided that they’re going to throw in a whole bunch of new customization options now that they’ve reworked most of the models.
I can hang with that. It’s just, am I being too greedy wanting a backstory? (Sincere question, I don’t think I am, but sometimes we can lose sight of the big picture - and I’m including me here.)
It’s really best to leave it up to the individual players to decide what the backstory is for their elf that has darker skin is.
If someone wants to play the characters coming from some tropical island, that’s fine.
If someone else wants to play their character as just having been in quel’thalas the whole time, that’s fine too. Some of us have been playing blood elves with darker skin tones for like half a decade.
Neither option is wrong.
(Edit: voice dictation sucks.)
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only reason i was against it for befls was i thought the dark shades should be given to half elves on the alliance as the only elves with darker skin options. but it was a pipe dream
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Can we not just have new character customization without people flipping a lid?
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This is my take too.
I am really wondering why people are so offended? It seems very… well… I won’t say it. But it seems very that.
Let people enjoy their blood elves of various POC. Not everything needs to be white.
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i dont have a problem with it other than i thought if we could get alliance half elves, since they’d be part human they could access the new african and asian skins. but oddly blizzard just up and gave them to blood elves. so that idea is out
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I think that’s a good point. And I did see your post earlier that was stating this. Kind of like blizzard just brought the kids a whole bunch of new crayons and we can look at it like new tools to build stories with.
For my edification, the more folks explain the counterpoint and give me reasons why this is a good thing overall, the more Im warming up to it and realizing I need to chill with the lore…
…maybe just a little bit! 
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Just for my take, I have zero issues with the color - it could be blue - it’s that it wasn’t historical to them until now. I’d have the same kind of boggle if TES introduces white-skinned Redguards.
I love how they look and have zero issue if they’re in game, it’s just the story connection. If blizzard was going to allow more freeform, self-realized lore, I’d like that to be applied elsewhere. (Class/race restrictions, for example - forsaken Paladins? - although I admit that there are gameplay implications when mixing facials with class toolkits)
I ramble, but at least I hope I don’t come off as offended by the change. Just a bit disappointed they seem pulled out of thin air and they feel more of an improv RP of sorts.
Edit to add: when they get added, I’m not going to ignore them or try to head-canon out their existence. Ultimately it’s a cool thing, and I just need to make peace with it. But the original issue was with the lack of story. Because the last customization added - the eyes - came complete with a lore reason at the time.
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Except this is Blizzard who have difficulty adding any new race without some kind of negative backlash from the community, because GD is a cesspool of entitlement.
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The best thing about the customizations is if you don’t like them you don’t have to use them.
The problem is. It’s hard to articulate.
There are people who don’t like the additional choices and rather than just letting others do their own thing they’re throwing tantrums, wanting no one to have those choices, and shouting, “Stop liking what I don’t like! Stop disliking what I like!”
But you know I’m on a roleplay server, you know the horde dominated roleplay server. I see dark skinned blood elves around expressed in TRPs frequently and I’ve never once seen someone make a big deal about it.
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In WoW, skin color and different kinds of racial features seem to be randomized at birth. Don’t think too hard about it.
Or that Darkspear Trolls are getting entirely different tribes as customizations. One that has only ever been vicious enemies in the Sand Trolls and one that is supposed to be extinct in Dark Trolls. Something that seriously needs explaining, but not a peep from these Lore Lawyers.
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Oh wow. I’m not aware of that, but anything that twists the lore is initially jarring to me.
However, that argument for the different tribes could be RP’d as the ones we play are actually individuals from the main tribe that disagreed with them. Leaving their warring, vicious ways in search of the darkspear trolls, hoping to be a part of, and create, a new unified troll culture - a dominant one, or so maybe they think. It could be explained on the heels of an expansion where the zandalari were brought into the horde - seeing this sort of strength in unity may entice other once warring tribes to to join the horde, too. Or at least a few rebels within those tribes.
That’s fair to me because we’ve seen those troll skin customization in game. It these customizations for the Sin’dorei are brand newt hat are harder to reconcile when using existing lore. Ultimately like Rialius is saying this does allow for some open ended stuff. It requires good RP which it sounds like he’s got nailed down - as do others. Heck, it could even be RPd that the dark skinned Belf’s don’t know themselves why they’re that skin color. This could propel them and give them a raison d’etre, or a vehicle for their own narrative. “Why did my skin color change? Why do I look like this?”
My take, but no offense intended.
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That’s exactly the way I’m looking at it in my headcanon. Vol’Jin I bet made a big impression on a lot of Trolls when he was alive and it inspired others to join the Darkspear. It would be nice to get an explanation for where the believed to be extinct Dark Trolls came from but it really doesn’t bother me. The skin looks cool. That’s all I care about.
I just find it funny that the human looking elves can’t be dark skinned cause mah lore to these people but anything else like stuff that really should have some in game explanation is completely ignored.
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Yeah. I don’t have a good answer for that. For myself, I know I’m stubborn, but hearing others provide good, constructive discussion helps advocate for logical reasons why it’s a good addition.
Heck, the more I think about it, the more I like the unknown quality of it from an internal character building perspective.
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Again just my own headcanon, I’m looking at the darkening of Belf skin tones as exposure to the Light side of the Sunwell. Afaik the High Elf species has never been exposed to the Light to that degree before, and like the Void turning Velfs blue the Light filtered through the Sunwell expresses itself the same way long exposure to the sun does, by browning the skin.
I look at a thing like this in game that is really inconsequential and I like giving it my own reasoning, I don’t feel the need to demand Blizz explain every little change. Especially when doing so would make me look suspiciously like a bigot.
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