Vulperans, Nightborne, Kul Tirans, Zandalari, Earthen, Ethereals, and whatever else other race they add in the future.
The Allied Race system allows for significant differences between races that otherwise are similar, but still vastly different. A Dark Iron as well as an Earthen using the dwarven rigs to them… they definitely have enough unique stuff where they are for all intents and purposes unique models - not unique base models though, that’s correct, but by that standard Nightborne and Night Elves would be the same whilst looking entirely different.
So yeah, the entire “should’ve been a customization/cosmetic” debacle is honestly at best just plain ol’ silly.
So you are arguing in bad faith. Gotcha’.
Furthermore, both Void Elves and Lightforged work as Allied Races and were the first ones added to the game. Meaning that one can look at them as the prototypes to see whether or not the concept of Allied Races work well. Which they do.
… Tbh I kind of thought Darkfallen Elves should had been customisation model options for Forsaken only — but that’s a controversial subject apparently, so I won’t go into that
Hence why I said they should’ve just bit the bullet and made Belves neutral lol
Eh, I’m fine with BE being their own thing. They already had the Silver Covenant that is distinct politically and culturally if they wanted to add that model Alli side. VE’s could have been neutral if a thing at all.
I wrote HMT in there too at first, and you’re right. Very low effort. But at least their huge antlers really break up their silhouette. They’re identifiable at a glance.
I’m really familiar with draenei and lightforged and sometimes I need to double take depending on the transmog and cosmetic options.
At the end of the day, “Tauren but Moose” is more distinct than “Draenei but gold eyes and also draenei can have gold eyes too dont even worry about it”.
The problem is they all should have been races instead of skins.
The Man’ari are a perfect example.
The LF are also from Argus, arguably so similar, but are different enough to warrant their own racials; yet the Eredar that allied with the demons for 20,000 years are just like basic Draenei and have get light based racial?
Weeeak! Awful!
They should have been properly added and been that character model’s avenue to being a warlock, not Draenei not LF D.
Void elves deserve to be a race, but the High Elves people have been asking for since vanilla (because there was literally HE NPCs in vanilla) deserve a race.
Blizzard has drifted away from compelling, unique races with their own unique perks, perspectives, prejudices, and cultural taboos. They’ve instead adopted an “any race can be anything” approach and nothing feels important, there are no meaningful decisions, less reasons to make alts to explore a different races’ lore because you want to play X class but your favorite race is restricted to them. I think it’s done immeasurable damage behind the scenes, because it’s slow acting, but cumulative.
No body cares about the lore anymore because they’ve let the lore erode around us and decay
Skinny Human! It just needs more facial options and unique long wizard beards. I don’t care if they’re a new race or just a new cosmetic, I just want them!
Eh I disagree @ Silver Covenant being a different race, they’re still both biologically and culturally the same – save except their political schism.
Hence another reason to why I said just make the Belves neutral.
At best maybe give a questline where the High Elves – even those outside of the Silver Covenant, made peace with the Blood Elves and the race could just have an NPC to talk to afterwards @ what they want their mouse-over title to be (Blood Elf or High Elf).
The introduction of ‘Void Elves’ as a separate race just seemed to be a reverse-compromise that managed to irritate both the Blood Elf playerbase and the High Elf wannabe fanbase
the 4 allied races from legion shouldve been cosmetic choices, with blood elves becoming a neutral race so alliance could still have void elves. because blood elves are just high elves, and in lore, there is high elves living amongst both factions. i know some players would throw a fit over that, but it makes sense.
High Elves are just Blood Elves*
As canonically in lore, most Thalassian elves are Blood Elves
But essentially yeah Should’ve just made them neutral and made Void Elves a cosmetic effect for the race to have, similarly to Darkfallen / San’layn appeals.
Pretty much every single Allied Race except for the Vulpera should’ve just been a customization option. Vulpera are the only ones that are an actual new race.
As for them being the first allied race, I was there bud, and even back then it was a lazy addition. It still his to this day, you can sit there on your high horse and defend them, but palette swapping two races in WoW does not constitute Blizzard quality.
They lack anything that sets them apart from the original base models that would make them more appealing and were a lazy attempt at forwarding lore trying to appease the player base. Nightborne, additionally, were also victim of this since it is VERY clear that the NPC counterparts are vastly different and the majority were expecting Nightborne to look like them.
But more specifically, Void Elves and Lightforged are among the worst of the allied races for quality. You can literally make either of them with a simple palette swap, yet they passed them off as a “allied race”
I already addressed this, so… to quote you again: nice try.
I have previously in another post addressed this, so you get the post where I mentioned it. Nightborne as they were created initially weren’t supposed to be a playable race, but with the introduction of Allied Races, they remade them so they could be that.
Without the more basic races that fit well into the story to become playable races, we wouldn’t get more unique races. Take it or leave it, I don’t care. That’s the objective reality that you are currently trying to argue isn’t real. That’s why I’m saying you are arguing in bad faith - because no matter how much you want to argue otherwise, these are allied races. Not merely just cosmetic changes.
Like it or not, doesn’t matter. Even the most bad faith argument is still defeated by pointing out what Blizzard have used Allied Races for in terms of what they have created with it.
