Blood Elves: Class Identity dilemma

Community General Discussion
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Honestly, I find there’s been roleplay damage and class identity issues onto Blood Elves over the years.

From Burning Crusade, the Blood Elves had a knack for dabbling in dangerous & volatile magics, whether it was the fel, nether, void, strange magics found from Throne of Thunder and so forth … However over the years it seems they’ve damaged or removed the potential to such canon-aligning-roleplay & identities in certain avenues too.

For example:

As a blood elf shadow priest, when I did the quest-campaign in ‘LEGION’ for Argus – with Alleria Windrunner confronting the void naaru L’ura — who absorbed its power and ascended with greater void powers, I thought it was awesome!

  • Given priests relationships that can be held with the Naaru, it felt particularly intriguing & exciting too!
    • Especially in particular with the Naaru — I thought having a dynamic with the Naaru given the Sunwell was ignited by the core of one — That it’d be an interesting relationship with them that the Blood Elves could have, BOTH void & light alike.

Initially, I thought that was all wicked cool and loved the roleplay aspect of that for having a void-form visual for the Blood Elf race for the future … As we all know however, that was sadly far from the case and permanently refused & forever denied. :pensive:

Queue to the ‘Void Elves’

When Rommath declared ANY who so much as dare even treat with the void are a danger to the Sunwell and thus are not welcome amongst Quel’Thalas was discouraging - and also sorta weird approaching ‘Midnight’ given they’ll now make a return there – but moving on, the overall premise that any who treat with the void aren’t welcome felt quite disheartening — The fact that the idea of a customisation option of void elves for the Blood Elves was removed too in combination with such, felt like salt & alcohol in the wound from a Shadow-Priest’s perspective. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

  • and before the usual argument is made: “They were exiled for being infused with the void!” — No. The later to be known ‘void-elves’ exile was done-so BEFORE – they became void elves. They were still BLOOD ELVES at the time. It was solely due to treating or merely studying the void.

At least with Lightforged Draenei (which personally, I feel should had also been a customisation option for the baseline Draenei) — You still have them on the same faction.

Queue to ‘Murder Row’ dungeon in Midnight:

  • “Murder Row in Silvermoon City will also be a dungeon; sharing vibes with Court of Stars from Legion, we’ll be going in undercover to investigate rumors of fel magic being used within the walls of Silvermoon.”

Now with the Blood Elves newfound relationship with the light via the Sunwell infused with the naaru M’uru → It’s sorta obvious there was going to be a change in their culture and so forth, but you’d think after the lore & identities established with their journey, they’d still at least hold some merit worth keeping or at the very least given an area to practice their … “art” with perhaps monitoring every now and then to make sure they’re within confinements & safety measures (not summoning loose untamed demons).

    • Also worth to note: That if both fel AND void are utterly banned, shunned and utterly denied in the entire sense of their overall kingdom and people — It’s also detrimental to the class-race identity of Blood Elf Demon-Hunters too … Especially with the void-themed ‘Devourer’ spec coming soon :upside_down_face:

Overall however, the overall situation feels sorta slack for Blood Elf warlocks & demon hunters.
:open_hands: Alas, to be the devils advocate here for the fel & chaos component, we’re still yet to see the full-scope & nature of this dungeon and its lore – So there may still be some wriggle-room.

The Naaru and the light

Now given the Sunwell was reignited with the spark of the naaru M’uru — I thought perhaps there might’ve been some customisation option feature to have shadowform changed to lightform with light-visuals for their spells, maybe a lightforged version of ‘Devourer’ spec for Demon Hunters (same spec, optional visuals) → Along with perhaps lightforged demons for warlocks and an interesting controversial intermixed combination of light & chaos energies with a handful of their spells.

  • To an extent, I thought applying such customisations above for Lightforged Draenei would had also been interesting too, as a reasonable trade-off via “Faction-Fairness”

But in the end, it seems the void-identity with the Blood Elves was simply abolished & brushed under the rug, and they hyper-fixated such subjects of narrative to the void elves.

Ultimately:

It feels highly erosive and disheartening to class identity within the race, by using a whole cosmology and disconnecting it into a whole other race, whilst condemning it in the base-race such was derived from — especially after over a decade of 11 years of the race existing.

Now aside from the light-customisation visuals compromise that was formerly suggested & listed above, the creation of this thread was merely to address this from a race-class roleplay perspective in correlation to established lore and portrayals held within the scopes of the overall story. :slight_smile:

  • I’d love to hope some of such is addressed in Midnight – Although class identity issues correlating with race identities are very rarely addressed in the overall sense (and not with just Blood Elves) so I’m not holding my breath, lol

Anyway, feel free to share your shared-sentiments, extended upon ideas, thoughts and yadayadayada :grin:

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Well part of it is they got the energy to draw from, and are no longer in this “anything to survive state.”

Which is so silly because a cultural shift is huge and apparently only happened super recently so how is it going to shift so quickly once again? It shouldn’t and it’s lazy writing, removing the edginess of blood elves completely ruins the perception of them, and ruins player and roleplay identities.

I personally think another part in this is blizzards apparent need to develop every single bit of the cosmology and power behind “powers”, there can no longer be mysterious magics, it’s all explained near instantly, the dark heart being an exception.

They took any form of mystery from Warcraft, which plays a major part of losing the “blood” in blood elf.

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My hope is, that by the end of Midnight, the Blood Elves take a good, long, hard look at their recent history and start to come to some conclusions. Those conclusions would be that their culture undergoes a fairly radical shift depending on whatever energies they’re exposed to en masse.

The old Quel’Thalas was fueled by arcane, and was fairly passive, insular, concerned with itself moreso than anything or anyone else insofar as the rest of the world left them alone.

Quel’Thalas after the Sunwell’s loss and in which fel touched every Blood Elf became a ruthless meritocracy where survival of the fittest was a significant theme. They looked down on any elves whom couldn’t cope with withdrawal (Wretched) as less than an elf.

Quel’Thalas after the Sunwell’s restoration took on another shift, one mired in strict adherence to what is considered appropriate. The practice of taboo magic was no longer praised, but condemned. Blood Knights were being elevated, and the Blood Elves were organizing ever more into a strict, one could say almost zealous, people.

I’d like to imagine that once they’re aware of how these sources of power affect them that they’d have the mental wherewithal and discipline to avoid being so easily swayed. In a way, Lor’themar being a Ranger gives him the best position to be aware of this theoretical aspect of his people, and to correct it. He’s less affected by the various sources of power, and so can be far more impartial than the likes of Rommath or Liadrin.

Just an idea.

Otherwise, I agree with Aussie. Void Elves were a mistake.

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It is odd to be one of the only playable races to get writing that could justify the removal of classes when they are trying to come up with writing to add class combos(see void elf demon hunters).

The loss of potential is just so disappointing.

I would have loved to see Silvermoon become a civilization that placed equal value in the light, blood magic and fel which would be represented by our iconic colors of gold, red and green.

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There’s still a world of difference between being a Shadow Priest and becoming a being whose very presence is a threat to the Sunwell.

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I was under the impression that a lot of societies shun the idea of dark magic users like warlocks, shadow priests, death knights, and demon hunters. Warlock class trainers have a lot of locations that are either hidden or under the watchful eyes of others. Some don’t care like the forsaken, but a lot do.

I’m sure there are those who break the mold and have good intentions or want to fight fire with fire using their dark arts…. But a lot of societies have had issues with them in the past for so long that stigmas stick around. Everyday citizens most likely fear the sight of a demon or undead monster. It makes sense for laws to be passed forbidding them or making stricter rules on them.

The Sunwell is precious to the blood elves. Shadow priest, devourer demon hunters, and warlocks using void magic or void walkers probably scare the crap out of them knowing the possibility they might lose it again.

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The race closest to the naaru has shadow priests as a major part of their culture. About half their heritage quest is dedicated to them.

Blood elves being scared of a few shadow priests is dumb. Stupid development.

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For the Blood Elf priest players I was hoping we’d get a Blood Knight tabard around the time of its inception too, since priests also derived their power from taking the powers of the Naaru.

Ultimately, I’d love to eventually get some reverence or lore-reference towards priests within Blood Elf society, AND PRAY TO THE SUNNWELL → That it’s NOT treating the priest class as mere lesser-paladin fodder :triumph:

:pensive: Albeit, I feel that lackluster narrative problem may be derived more of a priest issue than a Blood Elf one — given that besides perhaps maybe Prophet Velen, they’re typically portrayed quite poorly in the story and treated inferiorly to paladins all the time (eg. Legion Orderhall campaign for priests).

:100: Percent!

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I always liked the Light being a major aspect of the Blood Elves, to the point of making them WoW’s equivalent of Light Elves. I just wish Blizzard would have made room for darker magics to remain a part of their arsenal and culture.

My Warlock being welcome for years, but the next day being a pariah, is a bit aggravating… however, that isn’t too much of a stretch. Most races have similar concerns about Warlocks.

I would hope the Blood Elves have some secret pact with these classes, to keep their practices outside their homeland unless the need arises. Maybe Rommath says something to Warlocks indicating he prefers we don’t scare the locals with displays of our power, or some such.

Wow has been good about little dialogue options and extra story bits as of late, so maybe we will get a better idea of what’s going on.

With Kayn, Koltira, and Shinfel, the Blood Elves have significant Demon Hunter, Death Knight, and Warlock characters. So it feels like there is still room for some edge among the Blood Elves. I might be really worried if any one - or worse, all 3 - become Void Elves or something. It is troubling that such a thing is even a concern.

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Yeah I always loved the light being a major aspect of the Blood Elves too :grin:

  • Albeit it’d be extremely cool to see such lore reflected in gameplay for Blood Elves, like with the spell-visuals thing I mentioned in original thread post.

But yeah, it’d be nice if Blizzard made room for darker magics along with those more volatile & mysterious – To still hold a place within their arsenal & culture. :dracthyr_nod:

Yeah that’s something I can sympathise for Belf warlocks :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

I suppose at least with warlocks, there’s more of a renowned established lore of being sort of hidden outcasts that have a blind-eye turned for by your faction time to time — whereas for Shadow Priests, particularly for Blood Elves too - They have no such luxury in the precedent of lore shown anywhere :pensive:

Honestly, even late would be somewhat fine (within reason, of cause).
I wouldn’t mind if they addressed it as a midway patch within the ‘Midnight’ expansion too.

Imagine if one of them was a shadow-priest :sob:
That’s the worry I fear for, towards the spec’s class-race identity …

But ultimately, yeah :beers: Here’s to the hopes they address it – and do so well.

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Oh no no. I don’t like this at all. No sir no way now how. Sure I can understand fel usage becoming far less popular but punishable by death? No sir not a fan. The blood elves and the arathi have far too much in common.

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Been that way for a while now.

In my own way I’ve been mourning the blood elves that could have been. These days all it looks like Blizzard is willing to write anymore is stories of the faithful vs the faithless… and whose good and bad depends purely on if you are aligned with the light.

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I’d argue the Blood Elves and the Arathi are both vastly different.

  • On the subject of the Blood Elves and the Arathi we see in Hallowfall – To be fair, the Blood Elves did come first.

Putting that subject aside however, yeah — The lore treatment of the narrative towards the class identities and cosmologies with Blood Elves story-telling could use more acknowledgement to address the issues pushed in my thread’s original post.

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They’re basically identical in their faith. The sunwell and the sacred flame are literally the same magic type.

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This really isn’t all that different from Night Elves — Demon Hunters, Warlocks, and even Mages, are effectively pariahs within Kaldorei society.

If a race doesn’t stand for anything in particular, they’re boring. I’d argue that Blood Elves changing their tunes every other expansion is far more detrimental to their identity, as a people, than any shunning of a particular magic.

That said, with hindsight being a thing, pushing out the Void directly led to the Alliance getting a powerful group of Void-wielding Thalassians added to their ranks; and pushing out the Fel is, apparently, canonically leading to many Blood Elves to defect to the Alliance (weakening the Horde, and strengthening the Alliance). So, that sucks.

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They’re “basically” and quite LITERALLY not the same in their faith.
Once more: Massively different …

For your statement of them being “literally the same magic type” — again – No,
They are literally NOT the same:

  • The Sacred flame: is fire and light.
  • The Sunwell: is arcane and light.

As was stated by Chris Metzen.

The only thing that’s the same is how they revere the light.
Which could be said for the same of Stormwind humans and Lightforged Draenei.

Now as for the Sunwell and Sacred Flame, to extend further →

The Sunwell

The Sunwell was created using a vial from the original well-of-eternity, imbued with vast amounts of power – which was poured into a fount @ the apex point of a leyline → After it’s destruction, it was reignited with the literal core heart of the Naaru: M’uru.

The Sacred Flame

The Sacred Flame on the otherhand, is a merger of Light and fire and is mostly just a important symbol of hope to the Hallowfall Arathi, who brought the flame with them from the Arathi Empire.

Overall:

The Sunwell also holds greatly higher value & connection to the light along with immeasurable amounts of power, compared to say the Sacred Flame …

:person_shrugging: Otherwise Xal’atath would be assaulting that in the next expansion, as opposed to the Sunwell. lol

  • I’d give even more, but don’t want to derail the thread subject too much …

Ultimately, even for the argument that they both hold reverence to the light → by that logic you could argue that the humans of Stormwind and Lightforged Draenei are also alike the Blood Elves, since they revere it too.

EXACTLY!!

That’s what I wanted! – Also desired to see nether-magics featured too, from all that surging nether-power we saw from all those immensely vast amounts of nether-battery things that we collected in TBC, along with all the immense studies the Blood Elves delved into with the nether as well.

  • Personally I thought after the whole void controversy thing – The Blood Elves might’ve opted that their shadowpriests are in fact actually nethermancers that tap into the powers of the nether, as opposed to the void.

The nether wouldn’t had been taboo for them either – as even the Naaru themselves drawed upon its power for their ships, so it’d work perfectly within the confinements of their lore.

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I’ll wait for the actual content to rush to judgment here. It seems like the dungeon itself involves people smuggling demons and doing nefarious stuff.

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Yeah, honestly I thought the same somewhat – Hence my statement:

:pensive: Albeit that aside, the scope subject & ordeal of the void with the Blood Elves still remains.

… That being said, if the dungeon does seem to depict an outright ban & detest in such magics & and such that was earlier discussed → Addressing the overall manner in the hopes it gets addressed, I’d wager is a good thing to make notice of :slight_smile:

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I think it’s more so the blood elves not wanting to repeat the horrors of their past. Arthas and the Scourge destroyed the Sunwell which really weakened the high elves. Essentially exposing a pretty bad weakness in their culture with addiction to mana. They had to resort to other means to sate their addiction. Leading to routes that involved sucking the life force out of living and sentient creatures such as mana wyrms and a naaru. They don’t want to become the crazy wretches that had run rampart over their lands like before.

When the Sunwell had that negative reaction from void coming into contact with it, I think it’s a reasonable reaction for the blood elves to be apprehensive with anything shadow related getting close.

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If there is anything nefarious to be done in Silvermoon, Murder Row sounds like the place for it.

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