With Draenei is heavily implied you’re playing with one of the survivors.
Look at the Draenei active demographics. Looks alright to me with them being very few players.
Same with Gnomeregan exiles and also with the Darkspear trolls (already in much better shape 10 years later from the almost extinction).
The high elves that are left there are NPCs mostly and as Blizzard stated they have much less people than Gnomeregan exiles have. How could you justify having 20% of a faction (that will happen if they add High elf) being high elf when there were just very few left, and they were ALL Npcs.
We pick the escapee’s that left with Valen that crashed their Crystal Ship on Bloodmyst Isle, not the ones left on Outland. Some of the Outland ones did return, but it still was not a huge amount. A lot of those left on Outland became Broken
No need. I provided a source to demonstrate these races were all on the brink of extinction, and yet were made playable. Your goal post moving doesn’t invalidate lore.
So World of Warcraft takes place 10 years after Waracraft 3. We had a jump in the of 5 years between SL and Dragonflight. Today basically marks 25 years then from the begin of World of Warcraft and 35 years (in game) since the Fall of Quel’Thalas and the destruction of the Burning Legion in Nordrassil.
The High Elves situation dates back to 35 years. They are in worse situation than they were.
35 years ago during WC3 the Darkspear trolls were on the brick of extinction and were saved. 25 years ago with World of Warcraft they were already in better situation.
25 years ago also you start playing as gnome with one of the Gnomeregan exiles that survived.
What you’re trying to justify is that 35 years later, with less and less high elves, Blizzard add a High Elf race option for alliance just because other races were also on a brick of extinction back then?
Have you completely ignored the fact that the race itself has historically low birth rates (this is genetics) as stated by Veressa? You truly wanna argue that it would be justifiable having roughly 20% of an entire faction playing a race that is extinct, will not be able to reproduce or significantly have any prospect of future or growth, and that up to this moment were all NPCs that decided now to become heroes.
You’re comparing apples to bananas just because they are both fruits, but I guess you’re ignoring everything else that makes them different.
Really? Because Zalazane had enslaved most of the tribe which the Horde slaughtered when reclaiming the Echo Isles during Cata.
https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Zalazane
Wasn’t what we were talking about. I stated other races have been on the verge of extinction. Listed several. You asked for sources. Whether races recovered or not does not change the fact they were on the verge of extinction, and were playable.
As has been noted before, Blizzard has never given us any numbers on the population of the High Elves. There’s enough to field an army multiple times across the game’s lifespan, and very likely more of them than there are Void Elves, since Void Elves came from the already decimated numbers of the Blood Elves.
In other words, numbers don’t mean anything, and neither does a race’s status, ‘bordering on extinction.’ If anything Blizzard seems to enjoy the trope of the under-dog and having races being nearly extinct fulfills that; it’s a background they keep re-using. Heck, even the Mag’har were virtually wiped out when the Horde pulls them out of AU Draenor.
It was exactly what we were talking about until you diverted to try to make parallels which do not exist in the same situation.
Either they are 35 or 30 years, it doesn’t matter, the situation of the High elves do not change.
They mean, and they are exactly the reason Blizzard gave why the alliance would not have High Elves. Also, they can simply say that the high elves decided to go back to Quel’Thalas. And there goes your pathetic dream of playing a non-void whity elf in the alliance.
There is a time people need to grow up and move on.
But they also were physically and biologically different from the former High elves due to the usage of fel magic, that also carried over to children, see Salandria with the green eyes.
Of course it reverted years after the Sunwell was restored.
I’d argue that tattoos/piercings/etc should probably be offered to all races at this point. It’s not like an elf or panda or human can’t get a bad tattoo…
No argument here. Just stating the general consensus from High Elf folk that I’ve personally seen around.
Differences in opinion aside, MOST High Elfers can agree on those items generally.
Minorly more complicated than that for most of em but also kinda yes.
High Elves that stayed Alliance are in effect just Blood Elves that didn’t agree with the Blood Elves choices on how to survive and wanted to keep their allegiance, for whatever reasons, to the Alliance.
I’ve said this elsewhere - but my observation is High Elves are VERY traditional elves. From a time before Blizzard took their races in a different and recognizable direction. They’re generic, akin to the blonde elves in dozens of anime flicks and JRPG games.
Which is why people want them. Because they REALLY want classic elves in their game. But Blizzard have based their entire franchise on being unique. Their orcs aren’t classical orcs. Nor are their minotaurs, trolls, etc (dwarves maybe - they’re the closest to a ‘classic’ fantasy race).
I get why people like those elves but… WoW has spent 25 odd years trying to move away from the basic ideas in Warcraft 1 and 2 towards something that’s its own thing.
One of the things i really LOVED about Warcraft 3 was specifically how it subverted those classical expectations.
Arthas was like King Arthur, but with a twist. He was wicked, slaughtered a village of infected civilians, became the king of Death, etc.
Thrall was an Orc who was nothing like the ones from Mordor. He demonstrated a strong and caring disposition and their livelihood was bound not by blood or curses but by honor.
then you had Malfurion and Illidan who were like star-crossed yin-yang opposite brothers.
Arthas always pained me a bit because the Lich King is stolen almost 100% from another fictional character. Albino, soul drinking sword, etc. And now everyone just knows Arthas ^^
But I agree that wow definitely created its own versions of things. Thrall is Spartacus for orcs - but he shows they can be noble. Rather than the Tolkein or DnD monstrous race. And elves… well High Elves just lean into generic - nothing I’ve ever heard has told me how WoW high elves are their own thing. If they were? I suspect they’d be playable.
They should make them playable, but give them their original Vanilla 1.0.0 models and cite that’s their natural biological differences from the blood elves that justifies the unique model difference between the two.
They can be Alliance only, and have paladins. They start in an instanced version of Silvermoon that has the Hue and Saturation fader slightly adjusted to be blue instead of red
Damn right you’ll give me Broxigar. That guy is more heroic than the entire alliance combined in and of himself, and is indeed the most orcish orc to ever orc.
I have literally explained multiple times how they are not. But anyone who chooses to rp as a blood elf who acts like a high elf might as well be one, yes.
It reverted for Salandria specifically because she embraced the Sunwell hard. Being a bloodknight should lock you out from customizing your character’s eye color, and force them to be gold.
that’s alright. I can recognize that there are subtle differences between the two, like in the name, political aligeances, and the biology (which only extends to the extent that fel happened to turn their eyes green but that point is no longer relevant in 2024) but those differences, in my opinion do not substatiate your claim of how they are different.
because, for all the allure, the mystique, the illusory facade that the fabled High Elf has, they’re still a Blood Elf.