The Blood Elves as a nation had already severed from Kael’Thas and by extension — Illidan, by the time the Black Temple was invaded.
Again with the misinformation. Yes, it was before Garithos lied to them.
Otherwise there’d be lore about how the High Elves did go forward with the decision to be named Blood Elves then switched back on later conflicts.
That schism began when they chose not to embrace the new titled name for their people, as ‘Blood Elves’
The Schism had began in three different waves:
The prime & foremost schism came from the title - The ‘High’ Elves rejected the re-name to their people, which was presented towards honouring the fallen & the lost bloodlines.
The second, was them remaining with the Alliance despite the events of Garithos, Arthas and feeling abandoned by the other human / Alliance nations in their darkest hour - Most of the remaining “high” elves, despite the history - Had still chosen to remain with the Alliance following the Second War and did not return to their kingdom following the Third.
THEN, you had the magic satiation method; which was a minor factor at best - Yet those who also had the combined decisions of the two above, was the tipping point — When Grand Magister Rommath returned to Quel’Thalas from Outland to teach them Kael’s magic siphoning ways, some elves were disgusted by the practice.
Those of them who had the two points above joined with it, had caused too much conflict for comfort — Unable to lead a divided nation, Regent Lord Lor’themar exiled the remaining dissenters from the kingdom, the exiles finding residence in Quel’Lithien.
In relation to the playable races:
Blizzard themselves have stated that the high elves have a considerably smaller population than even the Gnomeregan Exiles.
SOURCE: 29 September 2005 WoW Forums Post by Caydiem (Old forums no longer available, after conversion to new forums)
Blizzard have also already been directly asked in relation to Allied Races & Sub-races to when or if ‘High Elves’ will become a separate playable race to which the answer was provided:
Ion Hazzikostas stated that high elves are essentially already playable as the blood elves on the Horde.
To further emphasise just how little in number the High Elves are:
Those remaining named ‘High elves’ are a rare sight even in Alliance lands, and are considered a fallen, all-but-extinct faction of their race.
SOURCE: WoW lore book - ‘Night of the Dragon’ - via page 7 and page 105.
The thing is that Void Elves, Lightforged, Mag’har, and possibly others, are all just a few select individual and exceptional survivors. The “too few of them left” argument hasn’t held water for years.
Talking about High Elf numbers is kinda hilarious because Blood Elves were essencially the left-overs from a genocide commited by the Scourge. However, Blizz went and retconned it in BC, creating an entire population to justify their playability.
the events in tbc just made it worse, but the pivot was naga. then mana issues, legion and horde. till the naga theres no way veressa wouldve abandoned her kin, she fought alongside sylvannas, though not at the moment arthas got her. i think alleria was already in terrokar, i dont know how as the dark portal wouldnt be open yet, heck she mightve already been on argus. somewhere in there, veressa had given birth to rhonin’s twins
by the time players get to outland, alleria has already set up a stronghold, left her son arator and a contingent of high elves in outlands, took another group of high elves with her and went to argus to find turalyon
it only takes like 8 people, not-related up to second cousins, with the ability to procreate, in good health and fertile, to make a village, then a town, then a city. lol
blizz just didnt want alliance to have playable high elves so they kept saying population, meanwhile ion was making sure surviving alliance high elves were killed off, such as garrosh nuking theramore which had a population of kirin tor high elves, who served as guardians and trainers for jaina. and sending the quel’lithien high elves an over powered trinket, which turned them wretched and set up a quest where horde and alliance kill their wretched forms
and the quest to thunder isle, only you and veressa survive the air attack, all the rest, who are silver covenant high elves are blasted out of the sky and die. and the excursion to confront elisande, the high elves, night elves and blood elves are nuked by elisande.
Yea, I mean, it’s not like the Silver Covenant was composed of 3 named individuals. It’s a whole faction full of anonymous figures. Perfectly reasonable to justify characters being added.
It’s just Horde bias from old devs. They weren’t very good at writting from the perspective of other factions. In this case, Blood Elf PoV was more important.
All Void Elves had was a generic zone, zero lore and not even their faction to farm. Alleria was the only one that got development, and wasn’t that large. Meanwhile, Nightborne got a massive focus. Not a shock that, right after Legion ended, Night Elves got wiped out and Nightborne joined the Horde.
Your wish is granted. The few remaining High Elves make up with the Blood Elves and join the Horde. They then join together and kill all the Void Elves.
that would be awesome but its such a long hoped for thing, it seems more likely for belfs to be neutral before alliance received something the devs have been avoiding since vanilla
well this is the problem, horde high elves arent alliance high elves. we asked to play the high elves we already had since 2000 years before the scourge attacked. think of it like everquest, without good alignment high elves and when the players plead for good alignment high elves, they copy/paste dark elves and claim they are now good aligned. hehe
The ‘High’ Elves rejected the re-name to their people, which was presented towards honouring the fallen & the lost bloodlines.
