What’s the difference between an Elf and a High Elf?
I’m up to the 4th book “Beyond the dark portal” and am yet to come across High Elves. Where do they fit in from a lore perspective?
Nothing, they all live in trees and make cookies. Oh wait that is Keebler elves.
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One is High the other isn’t.
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High elves are blood elves.
The taller blue-eyed high elves that the playerbase is obsessed with are just NPC dragons.
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Night elves
Blood Elves
and Void Elves, are all “Elf.”
They are all in the game.
Pure “High Elf”, that players want, will NEVER be in the game (even though Blood Elves and Void Elves are basically High Elves, according to Blizzard.)
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High elves are alliance, while blood elves are horde. Its that easy.
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They are in the game, just not playable. Led by Vereesa.
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There are no general “elves” in WC. All elves originate from the ancient Kal’dorei (Night Elves), prior to the events of the War of the Ancients and the Sundering. They were ruled over by Azshara and her chosen sect of “Highborne” elven-magi.
After the War of the Ancients, the remaining Highborne were banished from Kalimdor by Tyrande and Malfurion. They went on to the lands of Tirisfal Glades, didn’t like the land because it felt evil, and eventually found their way to the Eversong Woods where they created the Sunwell and founded Silvermoon City, the kingdom of Quel’thalas, and thus the Highborne became the High Elves (Quel’dorei, which more-or-less already means highborne).
Thousands of years later, Arthas lead the Scourge into Quel’thalas, killed Sylvanas and raised her as a banshee, and used the Sunwell to resurrect the necromancer Kel’thuzad into a Lich. Following this, Kael’thas Sunstrider, the Prince of Quel’thalas, returned from Dalaran and renamed his remaining people the Sin’dorei (Blood Elves), and he later turned to Illidan and his Fel-magics as a cure for the Blood Elves addiction to magic (following the destruction of the Sunwell, their original source of magic), and so the Blood Elves varied from the High Elves in their new intake of Fel-magics (which the surviving High Elves like Vereesa and Alleria and a few others never, well, ingested I suppose).
That’s pretty much it.
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Now that we’ve establish High Elves belong in the Alliance, let’s figure out the difference between Elf and High Elf.
The strand they smoke?
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Most of them do not, the rest should not, and the difference is that high elf is a category of elf.
She’s literally just a bloodelf with slightly differently colored eyes.
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High Elves are more power hungry and often get addicted to illicit arcane substances. Also slightly less tribal and druidic. Less scalping and riding giant cats, more magic vampirism and fluffy birbs.
that’s what high elf is.
well according to WoW lore elves supposedly evolved from an ancient race of trolls and the high elves still have a good relationship with da trolls and they get all the best stuff grown locally fresh and straight out of the jungles
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Isn’t that a void elf?
Elf is generic. There are many kinds of Elves. The first were Night Elves (Kaldorei) . They come from the tribe of Dark Trolls which was mutated over generations by the effects of the Well of Eternity.
Over time some Night Elves evolved (or changed) in many kind of elves (and some non-elf races) as they drew powers from different sources or simply underwent lifestyle changes.
High Elf (Quel’Dorei) is one of the many kinds of Elves. if you are reading “Beyond The Dark Portal” , you probably already read “Tides of Darkness”, all those Elves that joined the Alliance of Lordaeron are in fact High Elves. I don’t remember but it’s possible that the books refer to them simply as Elves.
Thafs correct, the book referred to them as Elevs. Which is why I’m yet to come across this “high elf” from a lore perspective.
One is just high… Dunno what voodoo the High ones are doing, and the other one isn’t.
History summed up (possibly spoilers)
Night Elf (Kaldorei) “royal” or “court” sorcerors devoted themselves to study the arcane, became elitists and called themselves Highborne. After lots of events transpired, they were exiled and journey from Kalimdor to Eastern Kingdom where they found Quel’Thalas. They renamed themselves as High Elves (Quel’Dorei), and had drastic lifestyle changes which also changed their phyisical appearance.
Quel’Thalas temporarily joined the Alliance, then would leave. Some High Elves decided to stay in the Alliance and didn’t return to Quel’Thalas.
Years later during the third war 90% of Quel’Thalas population would die at the hand of Arthas and the remaining 10% once again renamed themselves into Blood Elves (Sin’Dorei).
There are other branches such as Nightborne, Void Elves, Darkfallen, Withered, Naga, Satyrs, and more I can’t bring myself to remember right now.