I don’t think we’re going to see elves that I identify as “Quel’dorei” or “high elf” on the Horde, or elves that identify as “Sin’dorei” or “blood elf” on the Allliance. I could see infiltration by spies pretending to be one or the other, but whether an blue-eyed elf decides they are “Quel’dorei” or “Sin’dorei” is going to be a statement of their political allegiances.
What does this mean for defectors, though? Could a blue-eyed Quel’dorei decide that they want to join the Sin’dorei? It seems like that had always been possible, since the distinction was based on the willingness to tap mana from living sources. Could a blue-eyed Sin’dorei renounce his current party and jump to the Alliance?
I wonder what kind of vetting would have to happen? Would the Alliance readily accept singular Sin’dorei defectors? They accepted the Void Elves, but those were Sin’dorei who left Silvermoon City not knowing where they’d end up, and certainly not expecting what happened to them or Alleria’s intervention.
I don’t know what would be involved, and I’m sure it’s possible, but I can’t imagine it’d be an effortless transition, or a safe one.
Blood Elves, the Sin’dorei, no longer drain mana from living things in order to survive. now that the Sunwell is cleansed and is a font of Arcane/Holy magic, that is where all of the Sin’dorei get their mana from.
the Sunwell is also where the High Elves, the Quel’dorei, get their mana from now and the only difference between the two factions of Elves is whether they are on the Horde or Alliance side of things.
the only Elf that isn’t allowed to pilgrimage to the Sunwell are the Void Elves (Alleria included) since they were specifically banished from Silvermoon for delving into the Void (teachings of Dar’khan Drathir) and the negative influences the Void could have on the City and the Sunwell now that they are partially Holy based.
It’s a racial identity due to thousands of years of separation and evolution. It’s not just a “political allegiance”.
Lorewise, they are actually, physically and intrinsically different. All 4 prominent races of elves.
They didn’t “leave”, they were exiled for meddling with the void right after the 3rd War.
All of that’s true. The difference between Quel’dorei and Sin’dorei is more than “I used to tap living things for magic”, I’d say.
Not the Thalassians. Their split was only recent. Biologically they’re the same race, which I don’t think ever mattered. “Sin’dorei” are just “Quel’dorei” who took the fel and adopted the new status quo along with their fellows. It goes to follow that any Quel’dorei who falls out of favor with their current party could just swap to the other. I’m curious how smooth that transition is, or if it’s even feasible.
Do we have any examples of Quel’dorei joining the Sin’dorei after the fact?
Rejoining the Sin’dorei? No, unless you count the Nightborne, which are in fact former Highborne too. But I wouldn’t so no.
and I don’t see why it would ever happened considering the Quel’dorei are the reason the Sin’dorei were exiled in the first place.
There is however, evidence that the Quel’dorei, specifically the Shen’dralar ones, did rejoin the Kaldorei after so long.
I just realized this wasn’t in the Story forums. Apparently if you open a draft you started in one board while in another, it’ll still get posted there.
Oops. Pulling this down to repost it to Lore and Story.
Thousands of years ago, the HIghborne left and made their own society which became Quel’thalas, but it would be wrong to call the Shendralar Highborne by “Quel’dorei”.
The void elves continue to train new recruits from the Sindorei, as can be seen in the void elf starting area, so it seems pretty easy for Sindorei to switch from Horde to Alliance if they’re willing to take void training.
Characters in Azeroth don’t think in terms of customization options or gameplay choices.
Alleria is a child of Quel’Thalas and a solider of the Alliance. She returned after 1000 years to find most of her surviving kin switched political affiliation. Didn’t change who she is.
I’m talking about the politics of the world, not things afforded to a player.
If you were writing a story in this world, setting aside the limitations of a game, how does a Quel’dorei of the Alliance go over to the Sin’dorei on the Horde? Vice-versa?
I’m trying to get this thread taken down so I can move it to story where I intended it to go but it won’t let me delete the thread and I don’t know why.
Just because there are High elves on the alliance, doesn’t make High elf an alliance race. Especially when the majority are said to be neutral, especially with examples of High elves who pretty much hate the alliance and send you on a quest to kill them.
Better tell Gilthares firebough and Thalo’thas Brightsun they aren’t high elves anymore.
The Alliance and Horde have both had the a part of the HIgh Elf fantasy since Burning Crusade. The Alliance had Quel’dorei, and the Horde had Sin’dorei.
And sometimes a member of a race tells you to kill fellow members of that race. That doesn’t mean they’re renouncing their membership of that race. How many times have humans asked you to kill other humans, or orcs to kill other orcs?
But there’s a reason why Quel’dorei weren’t made playable, and there’s a reason why they were written as a mostly neutral group. If the idea was to give the impression that a High elf was indisputably Alliance, why make so many of them neutral? Why add in storylines of them hating the Alliance or dressing like a blood elf?
Except when the theme of that quest centers hating on that faction. It wasn’t like “Oh go kill some humans for me!” It was “Damn the alliance!” and “That sham of an alliance!” and even “Go kill some alliance men!” It was clearly focused on their hate for the Alliance, not some coincidental quest that involved killing a race that happened to be on the Alliance.
And to further send the message they even had one of the High elves dressed entirely in red, to the point where he looks like a blood elf. I can’t imagine a better example to emphasize the point that being a “High elf” has nothing to do with factions. They typically don’t act as a coordinated whole, they do not share opinions, or goals with each other, they are a race of individuals who’s ethics, ideas, and perspectives differ from individual to individual.
A High elf may return home, but not consider themselves a blood elf and remain a High elf, after all Lor’themar himself said that every High elf is a child of Silvermoon, a type of rhetoric I doubt he’d use if he felt they were his enemies.
I don’t know if it’s ever been stated that Quel’dorei are majority neutral to the Alliance. Most of the times you see a High Elf anywhere, it’s in association with the Alliance.
Which storyline? And why didn’t it have as much attention as the Purge of Dalaran or the stand-off between High Elves and Blood Elves on the Isle of Thunder, in which High Elves are acting specifically on behalf of the Alliance?
Was this a single quest-giver? How do you know that he represents a majority opinion as a representative of his group and that this isn’t just a chip on his own shoulder?