Most pro-high elf supporters have suggested model changes equal to what was done to Kul Tirans and Zandalari, who are just Trolls and Humans, but stand and animate very differently than their parent race.
No reason why the same can’t be done for High Elves.
It actually makes sense for both, but since you’re so hyper focused on Helves that you don’t grasp the history of either Zandalr or Kul Tiras I’ll catch you up.
The posture of Male trolls of all 4 tributary empires has the hunched curve as an adaptation, specifically for the purposes of stalking and allowing them to maximize reach on a lunge. This tells us that the Firaki, Gurubashi, Amani and Drakkari nations were deeply rooted in hunting and guerrilla warfare so much that they adapted to this posture and maintain it even when they aren’t disposed to such proffessions. By contrast, the Zandalari do not, clearly showing that for them this is not the way things are done.
Kul Tirans have more mass and height then other humans owing to the fact that they’re crossbred with the Drust who themselves appear to have been Vrykul.
By comparison, the High elves have no reason to be differ from the blood elves in any capacity on a physical level since physiologically they’re the same race.
Then they should be called drust humans. Because 90% of the “Kul Tirans” we interact with are regular human.
At bare minimum you can say they’re human with taller human in them, which is just human, as Drust aren’t inherently a different race of human, they’re human.
EDIT: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Kul_Tiran_(playable)
Yup Drust human is head canon, nice try
Adaptaion ≠ new race.
The troll tribes all hail from Zandalari but adapted to each environment they went to, they did not evolve into an entirely different race because of those adaptations.
The entire point of this is story telling, who’s to stay a nomadic life didn’t make High Elves different than Blood Elves?
Even if they’re not physiologically different, a different stance and animation is literally all that’s required to differentiate the models and throw away any “silhouette” argument.
Aside from the Drust thing basically being headcanon, the silhouette argument doesn’t apply anymore since Pandaran; something that was affirmed by void elves.
Now, the devs DO think in lines of silhouette, but it amounts to them wanting to add new ones, both because they’re aware of the critique leveled at the recolourations in Legion and because it has been a successful design principle since TBC.
That seems too excessive. Like Yifftron said, they are anatomically identical. As for a different neutral stance, I don’t see why that is too much to ask for. The highborne are basically the same as night elves, only differing culturally after the latter moved away from the arcane arts (until recently again). Honestly when you consider just how related they are, its surprising how different they made them look.
I offer the suggestion of a different model out of courtesy of not stepping on “toes”, and just ripping the Blood elf model again like the Void Elves did.
I frankly don’t have an issue with a tweaked model being our High Elves, much like the Nightborne.
They’re called Kul Tirans because that’s where they live.
The exact nature of the drust isn’t actually clear, but based on the skeletons we’ve seen, ruins and use of runes which are all consistent with the Vrykul it’s pretty clear they weren’t just human.
Further:
The Drust were a population of seafaring [vrykul] who some time after the [Sundering] settled on [Kul Tiras].[[1]] They mainly lived in [Drustvar], but also resided in several areas of [Tiragarde Sound] and to less extent [Stormsong Valley]. When the [human] [sailors] from [Gilneas] arrived in [Kul Tiras]around 2,700 years ago, the Drust, led by [Gorak Tul], [waged war against the human settlers]. However, not all Drust agreed with the war, and the [druidic] [Thornspeakers] left Drust society to side with the humans.
From Wowpedia, litterally the first result from a google search for drust.
So completely putting aside how you swept under the rug the reason that Zandalari posture is different then that of other trolls, I again need to point out a few things Since you’ve made clear you have an aversion to head canon and all.
High elves are not nomadic.
They haven’t had nearly enough time to differentiate culturally from the belves to have any sort of distinction.
Your end point was to make belief that Zandalari are somehow a different race because of their posture, they’re not. That’s why they’re called trolls.
See what they did there, with story telling? Since up till BFA Zandalari have been a regular hunched troll model.
Weird how a story can change so many things and still have it fit
Also, you just described Drusts, not our playable Kul Tirans, who are just human.
Your head canon is literal head canon. https://wow.gamepedia.com/Kul_Tiran_(playable)
Some are, they don’t have a home, and who’s to say they aren’t in a newly developed story? You? Lol
Don’t have to differentiate culturally, no other AR has, they have a different story and experiences in WoW, separate from Blood Elves and can continue to have that going forward, your lack of imagination does not make this incorrect.
Try to cliff note your thesis statement there professor, I have breakfast to make.
There’s a difference between head canon and world building, for instance, your statement about Drusts is head canon, as not only have they been extinct since before our Kul Tirans could of been born, they’re literally classified as Vrykul, who are literally, tall humans.
High elves developing a story to explain a different model is more than possible, but if you’re so vehemently against it then fine, they can have the same physiological look with a different rig and still look different from the Blood elf model, problem solved.
Yes sweetheart, this is called choosing sides, all our races do it.
Poor thing, they’re really lacking in English classes these days aren’t they.
You just can’t fathom, their story being expanded hu?
But I guess that’s what happens when you come into an argument with an agenda.
The irony here is that you’re not actually looking to expand the story at all, but rather to regress it because you can’t accept that a decision was made over a decade ago that Horde got Belves and that this pretty much sealed the deal for helves being a playable race.
Further, when Bliz went to expand the story in an interesting new direction with Void elves the overwhelming response was outrage because it was effectively the final nail in the coffin for the legion of helf enthusiasts.
The sort of double standard that cezol is pushing is exactly the kind of nonsense that I’ve seen plenty of 20 somethings push expressley because they think being young gives them an intellectual advantage.
You’d be right if I was talking about Blood Elves.
But Alliance High elves are an in-game, established, separate entity.
Your failure to comprehend that does nothing but prove you’re entire argument wrong, unless you’re just ignoring lore-nuance for the sake of a biased narrative, and we wouldn’t do that right?
We argue with proven, in game, facts on the anti side right?
We don’t misinterpret and argue the High elf request in bad faith? Right?
Oh you’re serious. Lol yikes
But maybe you’re right, BFA isn’t over, maybe they’re going somewhere with the Black empire patch and will eventually involve void elves in it.
Your delusion to our request only continues to prove your bad faith argument and only pushes the already loose anti foundation down further into troll territory.
Cause thus far your only argument has only ever been: “I just personally don’t like them”, which is more than fine, but pretending Alliance High Elves are an impossible player request because of it is where you can’t pretend to have an “argument” anymore.
long term nothing is going to even out the factions. the elite and hardcore are incentivized to to all play on one faction. the tryhards obviously are incentivized to be on that faction as well. thus anyone who wants to take endgame seriously is incentivized to be on said faction. this all in turn makes it so the pugging scene is way better on that faction.