Blue Eyed Elves - Act of good will or a higher up saying "Just do it"?

I agree with the notion of general haughtiness and eliteness. That makes sense.
I don’t agree that their culture is still largely authoritarian, mainly since the devs have written the story out as them simply being haughty and proud rather than a standard dictatorship.

Well…monarchy…but thats large semantics

Screaming and flailing your arms and legs around until the person you want to give you something throws their arms up in the air going “FINE WE’LL DO IT, SHUT UP!” is forgivable when you’re a toddler…

…but about 90% of you aren’t toddlers.

Hey, now. Don’t say “You” like I was part of the crowd. I am but a humble orc.

(Commentary): Arguably. Considering they are part of Dalaran, helped build the city, and thus shaped it’s culture, one could argue Dalaran’s culture is their culture as well. But regardless, the original point wasn’t that the High Elves had a culture entirely and solely their own, just that they had a different culture from the Blood Elves at all.

(Commentary): Unrealized potential is useless. BFA was a complete and utter failure for the Void Elves and Blizzard should be ashamed at their mishandling of the race. So many opportunities wasted and ignored that could’ve fleshed out the race. Instead, the Void Elves are basically just Umbric and some people who look like him. They don’t even have other named characters. I’m not counting Alleria either. She didn’t share in their experiences, which should be shaping their culture now that they’re free to develop one and have the support of a major faction to focus on it more rather than just on their survival.

(Commentary): First line sums it up well.

(Commentary): I’ve played both sides of the story. Nothing is shown or implied in the slightest. In Wrath, we saw High Elf Pilgrims visiting the Sunwell, with a representative there. And of course, the minute something went wrong, everyone instantly drew blades and pointed them at the High Elves. They were clearly not welcome to stay in Quel’Thalas and remained suspect. Then, in Cataclysm, we have reaffirmation that the High Elves are still exiles when a messenger from Lor’Themar sent to Zul’Aman demands to know why Vereesa and the Silver Covenant, exiles are in Quel’Thalas. As of the Nightborne recruitment questline, there aren’t High Elf Pilgrims or a representative there anymore either.

(Observation): Interestingly he never actually offered them a chance to return home. He didn’t even attempt to rescind the Exile. If anything he was there more seeking forgiveness than to offer them help.

(Commentary): Just like the elves who refused to drain mana. A nation divided would fall.

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You know all of the blizz devs play horde, right, including the game director? I could give you more and more concrete proof that blizz devs favor horde, but that fact alone should be all that one needs to be convinced of it.

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I will concede that it’s more authoritarian in nature, but that’s been more out of necessity than out of any sort of malice. Lor’themar’s been doing whatever it took to maintain a sense of order that his people have desperately needed. Including silencing dissidents, removing potential threats, and spreading propaganda.

However these things have relaxed since the sunwell was restored, their borders are more secure, and they finally have some semblance of stability in Quel’thalas. If it weren’t, Lor’themar wouldn’t be letting high elves still make pilgrimages to the sunwell whenever they so please.

Honestly, Lor’themar doesn’t get as much recognition as he should for pulling the race back from the brink of oblivion on multiple fronts, and holding things together as well as he has.

Bingo

so explain the no flying decision, then, O wise economic guru. How many millions of subs did they lose? How many millions and millions of dollars?

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Nah, the real toddlers are the horde biased devs.

Who went out of their way to give alliance corrupted wish AR’s rather than what was championed for years as requests, while at the same time granting multiple AR’s to Horde by request.

Void Elves: Just as many high elves in SW as were involved in the freak accident that created the Velfs. Blizz just couldnt stand to give alliance what they wanted.

KT: Vrykul were all but allies at the end of legion; would have been easy to grant them… instead we got fat Vrykul.

LF Draenei: Broken would have made far more sense at Argus.

Mechagnomes: not the Northrend ones we asked for.

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You…do realize that doesn’t counter my statement yes?
Lorthemar inherited his title. He did not seize power for himself.

I have played both as well, and I would need to disagree with you significantly in this aspect.
The high elf pilgrims go to the sunwell with Auric being a representative. Clearly, this means they are allowed to visit and stay.
Furthermore, suspicion is throw to the player and auric, which also occurs if the player is a blood elf. It is clearly not a case of them pointing blades at high elf (they focus on only you and auric). The presumption of them not being welcome and being suspect is presumption on your part. It is unsupported given lorthemar endorses all children of quel’thalas being able to go to the sunwell.

The matter of cataclysm can be explained as error. The events of the exiling occurs because of high elves who did not wish to mana tap. Vereesa and the Silver covenant are not present for this event. Neither is Alleria or Auric. The literature specifically states it is the quel’lithien high elves who are exiled.

So no, they aren’t exiles, and the literature contradicts it. Let alone, nightborne recruitement quest refutes this as well. If high elves were exiles, then kol tiras would not have ever been allowed to join, and he died as a high elf.
Alleria would have been refused as well, and so would have auric and the others.
Exiles means you can’t come home.

Why would they be there when it would not benefit gameplay? Goldshire is small in game but larger in lore. it is inaccurate to use what we see in game as perfect representation of the story.

They did not give him the opportunity. When he offered them aid, they promisedto send back the heart of the messenger who brought it. Given his regret over the issue and his desire to protect his people, it is clear he simply never had the chance.

But your suggestion ignores the context. There have been cases of disagreement with lorthemars ideas with no repercussions coming.
Halduron blatantly does something lorthemar does not endorse. No punishment.
It also states flatly why he did it in shadows of the sun, and why he realized it waswrong.

Let alone, if the sunwell goes boom its bad.

This is unlikely given that it’s just a cosmetic addition. I’m pretty sure they wish the high elf requests would end, and it’s clear they have been trying to end those requests without actually fulfilling the request (which is a losing proposition).

Blue eyes are basically plan B. They tried a minimum effort (bastardized) version of what was asked for. Now they’re trying to use aesthetics…except the horde can make characters closer to high elves than alliance.

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Well the simplest explanation is…

The Silvermoon Scholar and High Elf Wayfarer NPC’s in Telogrus are interested in studying the Void.

The accident that transformed Umbric’s squad is not the only way to gain void powers and be classified as a Void Elf as exemplified by Alleria and her acquisition of void powers without changing her appearance outside of void form.

The additional customizations could be construed as those Scholars and Wayfarers joining the Ren’dorei through a method similar to Alleria’s and thus aren’t physically changed like Umbric’s squad was. Maybe some students adapt better than others so some of the new generation have some skin change or hair change, while others who have a better grasp on the power take on few, if any outward changes.

With a more typical appearance, and the fact that we have in game representation of actual Alliance High Elves arriving in Telogrus to study the void, it’s fair to conclude that some may be joining the Ren’dorei.

With that, players who wish to RP as High Elves who have studied the void, rather than one of Umbric’s transformed squad members, now have the in-game support to do so visually, and hopefully with some additional dialogue, will have support for that canonically by detailing the process that new Ren’dorei are being inducted and the reasons why certain High Elves and Blood Elves are seeking to join.

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(Commentary): Seizing power was not a requirement for a dictatorship. Power held by a single individual or small group, with little tolerance for dissenters, was. It fits Quel’Thalas perfectly, and still does.

(Commentary): Visit, yes, stay, no. Auric even has an Islands Expedition team named after him. Now, that’s either because those are his soldiers, or he was killed and it’s in honor of him. Either way, considering the last place he was noted to be was in Quel’Thalas, there is no interpretation of that which makes it seem like High Elves are allowed to stay in Quel’Thalas, or are welcome. Indeed, the very hostile reaction towards him by the Blood Elves at the Sunwell is evidence enough of this.

(Commentary): In other words, “this lore which objectively disproves my stance is wrong.” While we don’t know enough about the Exile and who it applies to, we do know, thanks to this event, it applies to elves who weren’t even in Quel’Thalas at the time it happened.

(Query): Who?

(Speculative): Do you mean the Death Knight? Koltira? He chose to identify as a Blood Elf. Being dead rather deprived him of the choice initially. Having fought and died for Quel’Thalas, it’d make sense he’d stand with it’s rulers as one of Blood Elves.

(Commentary): I disagree. There’s no reason to disallow the High Elves a pilgrimage, but letting them stay would be dangerous. Remember, these are elves who chose the Alliance over Quel’Thalas, and not just when the issue of mana draining came up; many High Elves in the Alliance were those who defied Anasterian’s orders to return after the Second War. Not only would Lor’themar have to worry about spies and political agendas, there would be inevitable conflict within the city between the two groups. We’ve seen this highlighted through the conflicts between the Sunreavers and Silver Covenant; assassinations in the sewers of Dalaran, armed camps staring each other down across the Crystalsong Forest, vendettas enacted during the Purge of Dalaran, etc…

(Commentary): The presence of the High Elf Pilgrims back in Wrath didn’t benefit gameplay either. Why were they there then, rather than now?

(Commentary): None that we’ve seen at least. Halduron has been oddly absent in most stuff considering he’s the Ranger-General. Then again Rommath gets used only slightly more than Halduron.

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It would be difficult to define a response as a counter argument because what you said is so nonsensical, but I was simply busy earlier so I will elaborate:

Blizzard has said there are not enough High Elves to constitute a playable faction. Blizzard has also said that Blood Elves ARE High Elves, and Blood Elves are in fact a playable faction. Logic would tell us that these statements are made in context of each other, and therefor we should consider that Blizzard meant that there are not enough High Elves standing independent from Silvermoon to represent a second playable faction. Both statements remain true regardless of changes to eye color.

Requests started prior to TBC, and it’s been a long chain of excuses and subversions since then. Civility slips away when one side is constantly being ignored without proper discourse. The moving of the goalposts over the years does not help.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane:

  • TBC: Well, the blood elves joined the horde, there’s not many high elves around.
  • Wrath: There’s not enough of them around for a full race. The Silver Covenant is small compared to other populations.
  • Cataclysm: Even with Quel’danil Lodge, there’s still not enough.
  • MoP: Even though they played a part in a big story arc of the expansion, there’s not enough of them. Something something faction identity.
  • WoD: Pandaren were a failure (even though they failed for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to choose their faction). Something something faction identity.
  • Legion: We’re introducing allied races, meant for races that are not as numerous as the core races. What? High elves? Never heard of them. Have some tie-dyed elves instead. What’s that? Good lore and proper storytelling? What’s that? Can you eat it?
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Halduron is in charge of the local defenses. He doesn’t get used much because there’s not a lot of content that involves Quel’thalas’ defense. Maybe if we ever got that warfront, but no.

They gave him some limelight with the unseen path, but that’s over now.

There wasn’t anybody else at the sunwell at the time. There was one high elf pilgrim there if you remember correctly, Lor’themar insisted she be allowed to visit as it is her birthright. She made an oopsie though and won’t be coming back.

(Commentary): So, why weren’t there any High Elf Pilgrims at the Sunwell when Alleria visited? If pilgrimages were still allowed, it suggests that High Elves had stopped undertaking them. Alleria may have been the last one to do so.

There weren’t any other blood elves there either.

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(Observation): There were plenty of Blood Elves. They sprang to action to fight the Void incursion.

The guards?

(Commentary): Bingo.