Shorter lived races expand their numbers faster. That’s the classic trope in how Orcs always take down Elven kingdoms in the long run. Elves may have magical and martial advantages but Orcs replace their fallen fast enough to more than compensate. The Quel’dorei would have had to start breeding faster and in bigger litters given their privations… it’s a s survival strategy.
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90% died in Quel’thelas during the Third War. Of the surviving population 9% became Blood Elves. 1% continued to call themselves High Elves and were forced into exile. Of the populations of High elves in other regions like Dalaran or other Alliance cities or the Lodges or Allerian Stronghold. We can’t make a case one way or another of their populations. We can assume when Kael’thas made his statement. He was referring to the population he knew of and didn’t consider those lost in Outland, but maybe he did include the population in Dalaran which he ruled over as a member of the Six.
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Lore said in a tweet that 90% of the high elven race died; not just 90% of the people in Quel’thalas.
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Someone on the forums is gaslighting you.
The number of High Elves is undefined, plain and simple, so saying there are more of them than Blood Elves is a fallacy. That there could be more isn’t necessarily wrong, but one could as easily say there could be more Darkspear Trolls out there. I mean, until Mechagon all that could be said for certain about Gnomes on Azeroth is that they came from Gnomeregan.
The only population statistic regarding Thalassian elves at all, is that 90% of the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas was wiped out during the Third War. That’s our ONLY statistic. Even that doesn’t mean much, when you consider some High Elves outside of the Kingdom probably returned to it to rebuild (Kael’thas and his followers from Dalaran being a prime example).
So, for all we know, although 90% of the original kingdom was wiped out, Blood Elf numbers today compared to back then could be 50% to 100% or something.
Anyways, numbers are meaningless. Lorewise, we don’t know the numbers for High Elves, or even Blood Elves, really, but as High Elves are supposed to be a, ‘rare sight,’ in Alliance territories, its a safe conclusion that there are more Blood Elves than High Elves, until told otherwise.
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Here’s what we know, but one thing Blizzard has told us dozens of times is that population count does not matter for races. We officially don’t know what we don’t know. In game we have Kael’thas assessment which is the closest we will get to a population count. A census would have to be done to tell us.
“Surviving high elves comprise a mere 1% of the original high elven population, with the blood elves accounting for the remaining 9% of it.[2][11] Since Kael’thas took 15% of the blood elves to Outland[11] (i.e. 1.35% of the original high elf population), and since Kael’thas’ army numbered at least 2,000[50] it follows that the total high elf population is currently at least 1,481 (and at least ~148,000 prior to the Third War).”
The number is not defined in a quantitative way, but in a qualitative one. If you’re told that 90 percent of the original population died during the Reign of Chaos and of the remainder, about 90 percent chose to rename themselves as Blood Elves and give the middle finger to the Alliance, you don’t need any numbers to tell you which of the two surviving factions clearly outnumbers the other.
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Basically. We do know Blood Elves are the vast majority of the Thalassian elves alive today. Void Elves would be a very far second place and High Elves would be even smaller. Though at this point I want Void and High Elves to just merge into one faction of exiles.
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Why? They don’t have anything in common, especially in politics. Voids are Blood Elves kicked out of the Horde. Highs never wanted anything to do with the Horde in the first place and certainly weren’t playing around with Void Magic.
Or is this a backdoor way of getting those blonde blue-eyed options in?
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Except, that’s not what we’ve been told. We’ve been told that 90% of the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas was wiped out during the Third War. Meanwhile we’ve also been told that Dalaran evacuated almost its entire population, leaving behind only a skeleton crew of mages to maintain Antonidas’ wards. After that, you have to take into considering High Elves elsewhere as well, such as Stormwind, Outland, Lodges scattered throughout the Eastern Kingdoms, etc…
In short, you cannot put a number of High Elves as they exist today, and not even Blood Elves. All you can say is that 90% of the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas was wiped out after the Third War. There is no clear lore afterwards regarding the populations or movements of the race, prior to or after its split.
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Alleria and Vereesa are the leaders of these two groups and Auric was the 2nd in command to Alleria. I don’t think the divisions are as steep as you are implying. In Stormwind we see High Elves talking to Void Elves and walking together. We also see High Elves visiting Telogrus Rift. So, it can’t be so divisive amongst a subset of Thalassian elves.
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An overall unification of Alliance Thalassians just makes sense at this point and solves a lot of problems. How do they go about that? I don’t know. There’s a number of ways. But it should be done in some way. A Faction/Name/Tag that can include them all. Whether they be:
Silver Covenant High Elves
Independent High Elves in Outland (Allerian Stronghold)
Quel’Danil Lodge / Various other High Elf Lodges
Stormwind High Elves (As well as Dalaran High Elves)
Void Elves (As well as those in between like the Wayfarers/Silvermoon Scholars)
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How does that contradict what I said? At the time of Arthas’ visit the Quel’thelans WERE all High Elves and 90 percent of them were massacred as I said.
False.
The lore states a very specific geographical location: Quel’Thalas. The statements we had do not take into account the High Elves in Dalaran, lodges scattered throughout the Eastern Kingdoms, in Jaina’s expedition to Kalimdor, or those trapped in Outland with the Alliance Expedition of the Second War.
90% of the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas was wiped out by Arthas’ assault on said kingdom, during the Third War. That is our statistic.
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So what? Are you going to make the claim that the vast majority of High Elves weren’t living in their country at the time? Theramore was not overrun with High Elves and the only other appearances in Kalimdor are those of single Elves.
The Alliance Expedition wasn’t exactly teeming with them either. The Allerian Stronghold itself is almost entirely Human.
Nobody is saying that the vast majority of High Elves were not living in Quel’thelas. That’s a ridiculous statement. What people are saying is that 90% of all High Elves living in Quel’thelas got killed.
We also know that hundreds, maybe thousands, but still a modest population lived in Alliance cities, lodges and were lost on Outland. These High Elves are the ones that continue on being called, “High Elves” along with the 1% who were exiled from Quel’Thelas. While we will never know the real numbers. We know that they could field specialist corps and become the backbone of Seventh Legion mages as well as have boats fielded by them, ballistae managed by them, and even an army present on the Isle of Thunder as well as the Siege of Suramar. We can also assume that like all populations post Third War continued to procreate, live and yes even die. Still they may have a way to recover if they joined their fellow exiles the Void Elves in creating a unified Alliance Thalassian faction.
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The thing inside Alleria might want to Void all the High Elves to extend it’s influence but Varessa might not want to give up her own command and her own faction, a faction which does not have that much commonality with the Voids since the Highs were booted out of Quel’thelas for not going along with the Horde and all the Fel consumption.
Pretty sure this already exists.
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There is also that horde alligned blue eye’d high elf from vanilla in ratchet. He is techncially “neutral” but only offers quests to horde.
Actually no. The High Elves that ended up on the Alliance are pretty much I say 1% of them that are still alive while those who are Blood Elves are the 9%. So clearly no High Elves nor Void Elves are not higher than Blood Elves.
This is coming from someone who knows the lore of High Elves of the Sin, Quel, and Ren’dorei.
This makes no sense. The original group were mere 15-20 people who turned into Void Elves, how can they have possibly higher numbers than regular High Elves?
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