HM Tauren are what the tauren could have been if they hadn’t been forced into a nomadic existance by the various centaur tribes.
Mecha-gnomes explore themes of transhumanism more directly then the other allied races, showing the value in moving beyond the limitations of the natural order while showing that it doesn’t have to devolve into being a souless machine.
Nightborne (aside from giving the horde a night elf rig) gives us a race that is able to see and expierience the world from a point of pure naieve innocense since they’ve been in a bubble for literally 10k years.
KT humans gave us a new, bulkier rig along with a culture that was distinct from the SW humans of the eastern kingdom with ties to precursor human races.
Now are some of these super developed? No, and blizz has shot themselves in the foot with regards to their distinction (like denying that the drust were some form of vrykul despite the presence of vrykul stuff all over drustvar and how it would explain the increased mass of kul tirans) but the same can’t really be said about the High elves who’s whole schtick boils down to:
They like humans and they’re elves.
That’s it. That’s litterally all anyone can really say about them despite them being around for pretty much the whole of the game’s history.
As to why I feel that races should have a niche: One of the most important things I ever learned in film school was that perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away. Simply adding the high elves (the fifth group of elves btw) to the game would fall into the “just add more stuff” frame of reasoning and rob the game of depth that any of a dozen other races could add.
Wanted them since WoTLK. Blizz knows the majority wants them. But they never listen to the majority ever. They only listen to the very small very vocal minority all the time so we will never get them.
They are not anymore “elite” then non-lightforged draenei!
They are a disapora race that have cut off ties with their Silvermoon brethren due to a injustice done to them back in BC. They are also a race that is now forced to forge their own path even though they don’t have a permanent home. To say they are “like humens but elves” is a simplification of what the high elves can represent and feels to me like a lack of imagination.
Man people keep trying to trot this out and I keep being mystified at how they either do not understand what Diaspora is or they do not know understand the history of WoW’s races.
Diaspora is at the core of the identity of the orcs, dark spear trolls, tauren, forsaken, Pandarens, draenei and the velves; All of these races were made to walk in exile from their homelands and none of them were able to truly recapture what had been lost to them since.
Literally that is what is happening to the remaining high elves.
And that helps the Alliance how? I would also point out unlike the vulpera, there former home still exist, but is now controlled by blood elves who they have a beef with.
in some cases, worse. for example, the quel’lithien lodge helfs were exiled by lor’themar because he said he couldnt afford to rule a divided people (meaning he wanted no dissent). he felt bad about it later, and extended an olive branch telling them they could return but they wanted no part of it. subsequently, sylvannas had them sent an overamped artifact that when paired with the functioning sunwell, radiated too much power and withered them (turned them wretched). only their leader survived and is often killed for sport.
edit: correction - it appears he just found the artifact . it says he unearthed it, so sylvannas is off the hook.
correction #2 - (sheesh) 2 did survive, one of which is in pandaria and the other is like the right hand man of the leader.
The high elves are welcome to return at any time, they just can’t take action against the horde if they choose to do so.
But if we’re looking at “things that help the alliance” then my suggestion is simple: pick any of the dozen or so player sized races that are in the game right now and I can all but guarantee that you’ll get more out of it then another elf.
And my point is the high elves are a diaspora and unlike these other races, they have not created a new home for themselves.
Or they can choose not to do that and support those that have supported them all this time even after their own brethren abandoned them.
Or we get it for our void elves as customization options and people who want to use it can, and those that don’t, can ignore it. And no, you don’t get to decide which race I or anyone else will get “more out of it”.
That would be like saying the night elves have a home right now even though they are technically homeless without their capital.
Baenan spat on the floor near the elf’s feet. “Ye blood elves wouldn’t know nobility if ye had th’ definition tattooed on yer foreheads. Pathetic, slavering magic addicts, ye even sold out yer own people!”
They have not, or rather not everything we want, hence why this thread exist.
Oh please, you have proven you don’t even know the story of the high elves enough to not understand why they didn’t got back to the blood elves and why they are considered a separate race to them to this day.
Hold up: you do understand that not everyone from a given race lives exclusively in their faction capitols right? Please tell me that you understand this along with regional territory.
Lie to me If I have to.
Who is Baenan and why should I take his word on the nature of elf relations over ~ya know~ the choices that the high elves made?
This thread exists becaue Emet is a zealot.
I will freely admit I’m not up to present on whatever fanfiction people have concocted for themselves about the second most boring and generic race in WoW.
And you do understand when we say the race is “homeless” we refer to the fact their capital is gone. Like, the worgen are technically homeless even though they have found a new home in Darnassus/Stormwind.
This thread is as active as it is because some people do agree with him, particularly in getting high elves fully.
This is Blizzard’s own lore that the high elves feel they were “sold out” by their own people.
I’m not sure you understand what homeless means. I’d suggest going into the downtown of a major city for a better idea.
Because the High elves aren’t it.
It’s also active because people are pointing out that this is a waste of time.
The lore is that the Alliance functionally abandoned the nation of quelthalas and the last ranking member representing their forces in Lordaeron first set them up to be slaughtered by the Scourge and after they were saved by the timely intervention of the Naga set out to genocide them and would have succeeded if not for the timely intervention of Illidin and his naga allies. Small wonder that Lorthemar notes the high elves who are still simping for the alliance because ~reasons~ and regards them as traitors.
If the high elves are trying to spin this as them being “sold out” then they are engaging in some neo-confederate levels of historical revisionism.
Because in this case “homeless” is referring to them not having their own country. And this is the nomenclature the forums have used. Night elves are still homeless Blizz
And you dont get to decide what is or what isn’t a “waste of time” either.
Sigh, could you at least get the lore right:
To make matters worse, the high elves of Silvermoon brusquely rescinded their allegiance to the Alliance, stating that the humans’ poor leadership had led to the burning of their forests during the Second War. Terenas fought back his impatience and quietly reminded the elves that nothing of Quel’Thalas would have remained if not for the hundreds of valiant humans who’d given their lives to defend it. Nonetheless, the elves stubbornly decided to go their own way. In the wake of the elves’ departure, Gilneas and Stromgarde seceded as well.
Quel’thalas was the one who abandoned the Alliance first.
That was Garithos doing. Most of the Alliance didn’t even know about it/condemned Garithos.
Lother’mar tossed out anyone in his city who didn’t want to suck mana like a vampire. Which happens to be every high elf(that happens to be their defining trait afterall). Even he wanted to apologize/try to make amends to high elves in his short story.
Following this definition Orcs and Dark spear don’t have a home either.
Sure I do. Just like Emet gets to keep posting threads about how butt hurt they are about a decision that was made 16 years ago.
This is completely inconsistent with WC3’s actual content; High elves were part of the Alliance/human unit list which would have included both priests and mages.
Me-thinks this is a case of someone writing the lore backwards.
Yes. Garithos who was (by hook or by crook) the defacto head of their forces and left to his own devices.
Lorthemar knew that Quelthalas was too weak to foster political division while facing down threats from the Amani nation, the scourge and potentially the horde. As such he had to make the hard decision to excise the people who were likely to raise trouble who represented a comparative minority of their people.
And again: Lorthemar has shown a willingness to allow those same people to return.
Correction, they didn’t. Now they both have a capital, which means they do not fit the definition of “homeless” as we use it in the forums to discuss races without capitals.
A decision that has slowly but sure been changing. Again, you just mention we got some high elven customization already. And the more people talk about the more likely it will be changed. Hell, no one ever expected Blizzard would change their stance about all class/race combos being available and yet here we are.
No it is not, and you are not up to date with even lore from Warcraft 3:
Priest
Despite the high elves’ official departure from the Alliance, some elves
still remain true to their former human and dwarven allies. The altruistic
priests of Quel’Thalas refused to abandon their roles as healers and agreed
to remain in Lordaeron despite the edicts from their reclusive masters in
Silvermoon. The high elven priests use their Light-given powers to heal
the wounded and bolster the spirits of Lordaeron’s fighting elite.
Sorceress
As with the elven priests, the elven sorceresses who remained in
Lordaeron paid little heed to their race’s departure from the
Alliance. These female magic users, serving as agents to the Kirin
Tor of Dalaran, use their arcane powers to aid the Alliance in times
of peril. Although their powers are not always used directly in
combat, the sorceresses are able to aid their comrades with a
wide array of specialized conjurings and magical effects
These are the high elves we want on the Alliance. The ones who have been loyal all this time.
Yes, he was defacto head and none in the Alliance actually agreed/even knew at the time what he did to blood elves.
And you can see why people wouldn’t like that. Or did you forget that is basically what happened with Jaina’s purge of Dalaran? I always found it ironic that the blood elves got a taste of their own medicine with that incident.
She had to make a hard decision regard a people who was causing trouble for the her/the interest of the nation of Dalaran.
Do you want to keep going with these semantics? Because it isn’t hard to dismantle them.
Except it hasn’t; Blizzard created the Rendorei because they wanted to give the players something unique and when it was met with less then great reception agreed to meet the players halfway by giving them their covetted cosmetic options and after this was met with more demands Blizz stopped acknowleding the complaints entirely.
Beyond that, 10.1’s CFG’s look like they might be taking steps towards removing faction divide entirely which would functionally render the various demands for high elves moot.
\
I mean, the part I find Ironic about all of that is that for all the high minded ideals that the alliance espouses they’re prone to the exact same kind of brutality when presented the opportunity. That was actually one of the themes from Mists regarding the faction war btw.