A new argument (new to me, at least) being made in the discussion about whether or not High Elves should be added as a distinct playable race is the idea that the High Elf fantasy is a Horde fantasy.
A brief primer:
I don’t care if High Elves get added and I wouldn’t play one. I care so little about the Allied Races that I only unlocked Highmountain and Nightborne because I had literally nothing else to do. I’m exalted with the Honorbound and I haven’t taken the time to unlock the Mag’har. I’ve mained this same Undead Warrior since the end of Legion because I don’t really like playing alts. What I care about are honest arguments and I’ve been seeing a lot of disingenuous ones being made.
As broadly discussed as ‘sub races’ were before Battle for Azeroth, the discussion of adding High Elves is not a new idea. Not once did I ever hear about how the “High Elf Fantasy” was a domain of the Horde’s. In fact I remember very clearly how adding Blood Elves back in the day was a matter of injecting “Alliance Fantasy” into the Horde.
Pretending that there isn’t a difference between the Blood Elves and High Elves has got to be the most annoyingly revisionist argument being made in this discussion, second only to the idea that the Horde is the only faction that the High Elf fantasy is associated with.
It was obvious to anyone who you spoke with about High Elves that you were talking about a group aligned with the Alliance and that Blood Elves were aligned with the Horde. It’s the same idea as Tushui and Huojin Pandaren, who are biologically identical but have different ideologies. To try and argue that this isn’t the same reality for the Quel’dorei and Sin’dorei is lazy, short-sighted, and not arguing in good faith.
TL;DR: The “High Elf fantasy” never did at any point belong only to the Horde. If the High Elves were added to the game it would not ‘chip away’ at the Horde fantasy. These are silly things to say.
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I can’t play BE anymore; just doesn’t fit the Horde theme in my eyes. Regal elves in mud huts and don’t get me wrong I love the Horde too but just doesn’t feel right for me.
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It was always about the ideology for me.
Blood Elves will do anything to survive. That always fit in with the Horde theme to me.
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I get that but for me just visually it doesn’t feel right.
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Blood elves are high elves. Blood elves came back to the Alliance in the form of void elves. You now have your high elves back. ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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I’m not arguing for High Elves getting added.
I’m saying it’s silly to say that High Elves are a “Horde Fantasy”.
I don’t care if they ever get added.
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Blood Elves were “given” to the Horde for one reason, and one reason only, because back in 2007? the population numbers were skewed, very severely, towards Alliance.
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Yeah but the argument was made that an Alliance race was going to the Horde.
It was a bad argument then, and it’s a bad argument now.
We can go round and round on this one all day. My * opinion * is that all PONCY Elves should form their own faction, and the Forsaken should’ve been a solo faction from the beginning.
However, that’s more EQish, and less WC III. /shrugs
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I’d actually love to have been around before WoW was a thing and see what the community felt about the Undead becoming a playable race and joining the Horde.
They were the “cool” race. Remember, this was back just before the heyday of Zombie movies, Zombie comics, etc.
So now you had a sentient Undead race.
Sylvanas’ belly button had very little to do with the Forsaken’s appeal.
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Had - as in back in 2007.
Times change. Since her model change- Sylvanas’ belly button has everything to do with Forsaken appeal. Proof - see Nathanos.
Even though they covered it up in Legion?
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Please read the description for Blood Elves that is located on their character creation screen, because it states that …the high elves renamed themselves to honor their fallen brethren, This means that the super majority of high elves are on the Horde, and they’re referred to as blood elves. You people seem not want to acknowledge this simply because you want a human looking elf that’s playable on the Alliance.
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I hope the Silver Covenant is wiped out in a future patch. Soon.
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Exactly my point. The High Elf fantasy is not used to describe the group of people who are now calling themselves blood elves.
Agreed. And there are two different groups within that collective who have different ideas about how to do that. One group renamed their collective and joined the Horde. The other group didn’t agree with this direction and renewed their ties to the Alliance.
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Honestly, I think Blood/High Elves should be a neutral race just because, picking a faction makes so much sense for them as opposed to the Pandaren.
The Pandaren don’t really have any reason to be split between faction. In BC they were a planned new Alliance race, but I believe the person who made them wanted them Horde so the Alliance got the Draenei instead. In Pandaria, making them neutral was supposedly the compromise.
The issue with Pandaren neutrality is they do not have any reason to fight one another to the death the way the factions have always been shown to be willing to do. Pandaren don’t have any blood-feuds or grudges with one another. They also have no reason to have a strong sense of loyalty to either faction.
High Elves and Blood Elves provide all of that in spades. The split of their society was a painful one given the events of the Third War. We’ve seen how families were torn apart by this. High Elves cannot believe Blood Elves would stoop so low as to ally with races like Orcs, Trolls, and Undead, the very races which have tried to destroy Quel’Thalas and the Thalassian peoples. On the other side of the fence, Blood Elves cannot believe High Elves are still loyal to the Alliance after everything that happened in the Third War, after an Alliance Prince (Arthas) destroyed Quel’Thalas and most of their people, and how the Grand Marshal of the Alliance (Garithos) attempted to finish the job afterwards.
Throw in the exile of the High Elves from Quel’Thalas, and there is a serious grudge. These two races being neutral and picking a faction not only makes sense, but it’s one of the most immersive and well presented stories World of Warcraft has available, and has explored.
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Just to clarify, I’m not arguing that the Blood Elves members of the High Elf race. I’m just saying that the Horde is not the only group that has High Elves in their ranks and I don’t think claiming the supermajority is enough to say that this group belongs just to the Horde. I’m also claiming that this is a line of argumentation that’s only come up because people are inventing reasons to say why the High Elves couldn’t be on the Alliance.
They were a part of the Alliance for the First and Second War. In the present story, there are Horde-aligned High Elves and every relevant piece of WoW media from comics, books, and even user profiles on these forums call them Blood Elves. The term “High Elf” has always been used to refer to that group of elves aligned with the Alliance.
I’ve edited the title of this thread to clarify that. Both the Horde and the Alliance have the High Elf Fantasy in their factions, and that faction determines a lot of important things about that particularly group of elf.
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I would like to see Helfs as a playable Alliance race. They would be split into Blood Elves for the Horde and High Elves for the Alliance. When implemented, give the existing Belfs the option of a one-time free faction change for their Belf toons. Based on what I’ve seen from the vast majority of Belfs on previous Helf posts, they will stay Horde and then you can have no-baggage Helfs for the Alliance. In return make Dark Iron Dwarves dual-faction as well (tbh they seem more horde-like to me anyway and I’ve seen a LOT of Horde posts wishing for Dark Irons).
Lore-wise the reasoning for Alliance Helfs is easy: after the restoration of the Sunwell back in BC the Horde Belfs continued to hunger for more power in keeping with the innate arrogance of all Helfs and Belfs. Helfs like the Silver Covenant weaned themselves off of their dependence upon the sunwell and remaining (or returned to being) Helfs. This is similar to the difference between Tushui and Huojin Pandaren.
90% sure this will never happen but i think would be fun if it did and it would satisfy the lore much better than the current setup. If not then I’m happy with Alliance Void Elves and keeping Dark Iron dwarves to ourselves.
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It’s very easy. They’re already a part of the Alliance.
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