High Elf Allied Race Megathread (Continuation)

[Renotarshil-malganis (Renotarshil)]

Does this mean, Red Squid Girls mailbox dancing confirmed?

[Gladwell-wyrmrest-accord (Gladwell)]

I’m still down for the Alliance getting High Elves, if the Horde gets Ogres.

[Avarie-farstriders]

What else could it mean?

[Ashamara-silver-hand (Ashamara)]

Still here to support High Elves.

[Alfgerdhr-moon-guard]

How about a race from lore; from the past they come, the HIGH ELVES.
No longer content to be just here and there, they’ve abandoned their (mostly) neutral stance and rejoined the Alliance!
And there was much rejoicing!

See how easy that is?

[Renotarshil-malganis (Renotarshil)]

I’m going to sleep well tonight.

[Azgoroth-lethon]

Explain how it’s bad. It’s no more ridiculous than anything else in Azeroth. I happen to think the models look incredibly cool.

[Alamara-goldrinn (Alamara)]

Remembering this:

You talk as if artistic quality was entirely subjective, but it’s simply not. Taste is subjective. You can like a poor story, but it’s still a poor story. There’s reason why even the worst movies and songs have fans.

Narrative structure is very important for the quality of a story. The structure itself can vary, but you can see the difference when you read a poor story and a rich one.

There’s a lot of small rules of how to create an engaging narrative, and void elf introduction just lacks so many of them that I could make a huge essay in this.

For instance, consider this: void elves didn’t merit even their own reputation faction you could quest with and earn the trust as their prerequisites. The reputation used had nothing to do with them, and that alone proves how there was no setup. The requisite is there for purely mechanical purposes, a to-do list that has nothing to do with the narrative.

Second, the story that is used as a prerequisite, Alleria’s story, fails to seed or foreshadow the void elves in any way. That alone is not a sin, but since the race didn’t exist back then, and no narrative tropes were used to build up towards their birth, it means their introduction would require a lot more care in order to have a good structure.

Third, that care never came. Their story is hushed and depthless. You are told the basic things: there’s this elf called Umbric that studies the void, go find him and his followers. But you never delve into them. You never see their story beyond this basic premise, you don’t meet them, don’t talk to them, don’t get to know their outlook on things. Once you find Umbric, he’s put out of comission by the ethereals.

Who are these ethereals? Where they came from? What were they doing there? No Clues, no answer. They were just there.

Then you save the elves, and, yay, they are transformed. Let’s explore what that transformation means? How they cope with it? What advantages and drawbacks it has? No. The void elves pledge themselves to the Alliance without even requiring a moment to think, and you are sent back to Stormwind to report your success. The end.

It’s a by-the-numbers effort that just runs over the bare minimum narrative elements of a introductory story. It never delves in the details, it never stops to tell the tales of these elves, it never tries to make you care about them, sympathize with them.

Like their unlocking requisites, the story presented is just a mechanic, a to-do list with the objective of enabling another race in your character creation menu, instead of fleshing out its lore .

If you wrote a story like that in a contest, you’d have no chance of winning. And that’s objectively bad.

I’ll compare it to that challenge of speed drawing. The more effort and the more technique put into a story, the better it is. Same as drawing:

https://themindcircle.com/speed-drawing-challenge/

Void elf story was like a 10-sec drawing.

[Hecatone-burning-legion (Hecatone)]

Down

This needed a complete sentence.

[Bloodfall-blackwater-raiders (Bloodfall)]

But Inklings can’t be red for obvious reasons. Nintendo only makes games for kids /s

[Zootopia-moon-guard]

How about a race from lore; from the past they come, the HIGH ELVES.
No longer content to be just here and there, they’ve abandoned their (mostly) neutral stance and rejoined the Alliance!

this would be a retcon of TBC when they joined the horde and the status quo of the last 12 years

[Azgoroth-lethon]

It reads like a bad fan fiction. Because it is.

[Renotarshil-malganis (Renotarshil)]

Down

I’m a strong independent Blood Elf who don’t need no regulation.

But Inklings

Not those Squid Girls. I have standards.

[Hecatone-burning-legion (Hecatone)]

this would be a retcon of TBC when they joined the horde and the status quo of the last 12 years

Pretty sure they were part of a different Alliance too.

[Alfgerdhr-moon-guard]

Nope.
Those would be YOU; the followers of Kael the Koo-Koo who named you all ‘Blood Elves’ then promptly abandoned you.
I’m talking about those others constantly found in the game, here and there.

[Azgoroth-lethon]

And then the Alliance killed their King and made Thrall their leader, because they knew deep deep down, that climate change was real.

[Lavinya-moon-guard]

I happen to think the models look incredibly cool.

It’s literally a blood elf painted blue, with optional kinda-tentacle-ish hair/beard. Nothing else was done to them.

Apparently that’s the most the Void will do to you if you’re a Blood Elf. Or maybe the most the devs were willing to invest in this poorly thought rushed race.

[Renotarshil-malganis (Renotarshil)]

Kael the Koo-Koo

Hey! You watch your mouth talking bad about our lord and saviour Kael who did nothing wrong.

[Bloodfall-blackwater-raiders (Bloodfall)]

Not those Squid Girls. I have standards

Damn. Guess I have to call off the FBI

[Renotarshil-malganis (Renotarshil)]

Squid Goat Girls from Outer Space.