Thalassian Elves - How do you ICly see the variants?

Wyrmrest Accord
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In my opinion, the elves of Quel’thalas are one of the most interesting and varied races in game. They’ve been through a lot to get to where they are today, and I’ve always loved the story.

It just so happens though, that after thousands of years of relative unity, the elves of Quel’thalas are now divided. In very recent Modern History, we’ve seen 90% of the Thalassian population killed (It always hits me just how wide and spacious Silvermoon is… imagine the people who must’ve once filled it?), and the remaining 10% have fragmented into three distinct groups. The Blood Elves, the High Elves, and the Void Elves.

The first, and presumably the biggest, are of course the Blood Elves. Children of the Blood, swearing vengeance and changing their name to honor the fallen of Quel’thalas, their society has changed significantly, allowing more diverse magics to be used and taking more dangerous steps to ensure their continued survival. With the restoration of the Sunwell, the Blood Knights have also become a unique and ever more powerful force within Quel’thalas - using the Light of the Sunwell against their enemies.

The High Elves always struck me as a small puritanical remnant - they refused to indulge in Kael’thas’ new magics, and were determined to not lose themselves in the search for power. Thus, they were cast out from Blood Elven society, and have found a haven with Dalaran and the Alliance, retaining the values of the High Elves of old, and becoming an important, if small, part of the Alliance.

The Void Elves are of course enigmatic in that they’re almost too Blood Elfy for the Blood Elves. They continued seeking darker powers after the Sunwell was restored, going so far as to study the teachings of Dar’khan Drathir, the man whose machinations ultimately doomed Quel’thalas to a Scourge-inflicted genocide. Their continual use of darker powers got them exiled, and cast out of Quel’thalas. Like the High Elves they fell into the arms of the Alliance, though there’s no doubt that Void Elves and High Elves are VERY different from each other…and that most void elves were, to some extent, once Horde-aligned Blood Elves, adding a bit of conflict there.

So with all this in mind… Thalassian Elves are a quite popular race to play, and I’m curious, those who play them… what does your character think of the “other” Thalassian Elves? If you’re a High Elf, what does your character think of the Blood Elves, especially now that they’re reforming somewhat? If you’re a Void Elf, what do you think of High Elves, and so on?

I’ll do a post for Fal’therin, who’s very obviously a void elf, sometime soon as well. But I’m curious to know, elves of Quel’thalas… what do you think of your fellows?

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my only mildly quel’dorei character is a half elf and she deeply hates the horde for taking her mother from her for not having the right eye color (that’s not true but, you know how it is)

deeply distrustful of ren’dorei as well. void’s really bad we’re just gonna let these guys summon void gods to blow up military bases?

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Void elves are irresponsible idiots who probably didn’t deserve exile but are still probably safer as far away from the Sunwell as possible. Immediately embracing the color purple after turning purple is respectable aesthetically, but Karithien’s not sure if it’s a passing fad or not. Tentacles are a no. Frankly, he’d prefer them as far away from him as possible. Too much residual void and too much residual Light don’t mix well.

High elves are tragically naive people who also probably didn’t deserve exile, but Lor’themar couldn’t afford dissent when the blood elves needed unity and strength. There are plenty of good things to be said about about the high elves, including sticking to their guns, but respect and time don’t really heal all wounds. Or even most of them.

Karithien doesn’t enjoy killing in general, but there’s a different sort of regret for the other Thalassian elves.

Blood elves are often petty fools with too much time on their hands and too much spite. But they remain some of the most disciplined peoples on Azeroth, bonded together by shared trauma and mistakes; and Karithien doesn’t feel he’s much space to judge most of them after sticking a sippy straw in a Naaru to use the Light.

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Blood Elves are a good daily source of vitamin Bloodthistle… also a fine specimen of the harpervalley blonde cheerleader stereotype…

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Giliniar flat out used to loathe the High Elves viewing them as betrayers and complicit with Garithos’s actions. Granted, Gili more or less ended up driving straight into what I imagine most Helves saw as “The end result” by getting jumped up on fel magic, eating a demon heart and helping to conquer some alien world while surrounded by other elves jumped up on fel magic who ate a demon heart.

Being put in a crystal to stew for a decade did not really help the views, but the Burning Legion invasion that led to him getting let out did. Unsurprisingly, bigger problems pulling everyone’s attention is very effective for helping ease over hard feelings, more so since, while he still regards them as ideologically wrong, he has a respect for his kin after the Suramar ordeal.

Void Elves… er… oof. He does not really view them as his kin. He probably views them precisely how High Elves previously viewed him: Evil Monsters jumped up on dark magic. Initially, he was sympathetic towards them… but then Alleria nearly corrupted the Sunwell (also bear with, second hand info probably is not the most reliable. So her, like most elves, only got the memo a void elf nearly corrupted the holy sight, probably malicously). Now he views them as a major security risk to his people and not something that can, or should, be tolerated north of Khaz Modan. While he will tolerate their presence, he isn’t someone they should get near, more so with actions on Zandalar more or less reinforcing the view that they are untrustworthy monsters who corrupt the land itself.

End result, entertainingly, is he hates the fact he is feeling concern for his high elf kin, given they’re currently in the same space as the Rendorei. Given Gili has more or less only seen their corruptive behavior, and knows that evil is not monopolized by anyone or anything, he feels it’s inevitable that the Rendorei will turn their corruptive behavior towards the remaining Queldorei.

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If it’s to better the survival rate of your friends and people, Autai is going to support your endeavors. She loves folks that tamper with hidden/forbidden power/knowledge if it could better the living conditions of their people… now if if it causes the world to split in two…well…that’s juts an unfortunate effect and at least they tried.

So yeah, she respects most elves quite a bit and their history.

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Elven history class is probably torture.

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Not to mention full of draaaaaaaaaaaaama.

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Hey excuse me for me it’s symbolic :stuck_out_tongue: I’ve seen both sides of the faction war… now I’m not quite a high elf and not quite a blood elf. Not quite Alliance and not quite Horde. Purple’s a nice mix of that blue and red that’s defined us over the years :sunglasses:

So did Fal’therin, ironically. :open_mouth: My idea for this character was a Kael’thas-philosophy Blood Elf who viewed the Sunwell’s restoration as a grave tactical error. Blood Elves should get their power from sources they can control, sources that are varied. Destroy one fel crystal and you do not doom the Thalassian people. Destroy one Sunwell… and history has shown how very rekt we are. With that in mind Fal actually sought out Umbric’s group KNOWING that what they were doing was considered illegal… but not so long ago, so was the fel. Then they were shown the path that ultimately saved them. Umbric’s research intrigued Fal’therin and saw it as a possible long term cure to the addiction.

And instead he got himself exiled. So that was a RIP. Took him a long time to accept he was Alliance.

Loving the responses guys, keep em coming!

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(Hello, shockingly I am the alt of Fal’therin.)

Anyway in terms of Fal’therin’s thoughts…

High Elves are not, in his opinion, naive. They are however puritanical in their views of magic to the point of absurdity - he views them as little more open than Kaldorei, with all THEIR fears of magic. He deeply resented them for rejoining the Alliance at first, as in the early days he viewed them as traitors for siding with the faction that tried to kill so many of their people, even though Fal personally was not among Kael’s forces. He resented them even more by MoP, where he and his wife were involved with the rescue of the Sunreavers - he couldn’t believe that they would so violently side against his people - the blood elves may have cast them out, but they did not slaughter them, or deny them their freedom. Hell, the Blood Elves even let them visit the Sunwell after its restoration. So in a sense Fal has a deep distrust and dislike of the High Elves - viewing them as disloyal, and standing on a moral high ground they don’t deserve to claim. In his time in the Alliance he has gradually grown to accept them and even move for Elven unification, but he does not fully trust them.

Blood Elves are naive. In many ways Fal still sees himself as a Blood Elf, but he thinks they’ve actually regressed in terms of the Sunwell. They made such courageous strides towards attaining greater power, in their own way, not bound to a central fount of energy (as I mention in the above post) and so Fal thinks that the restoration of the Sunwell, and the apparent total reliance on it once again, is a bad decision. He also has a bit of a grudge against the Blood Knights, but that’s a personal grievance. They gained their power initially the same way as everyone else - sucking it from other sources. Now the Sunwell is the centre of their power, and he thinks they’re all high-and-mighty about it. Fal’s an old Farstrider and he isn’t a fan of how the Blood Knights not only parade around like “human” Paladins now, but that they are replacing the Rangers as the backbone of Quel’thalas’ military - which is actually a big part of why he started learning about the void - maybe the Rangers could become more powerful and relevant… :stuck_out_tongue:

Void Elves are obviously Fal’s own people but he’s not without his issues. First of all, he thinks any who actually worship the void in a religious sense are idiots. The void is dangerous, unpredictable and unruly, a power to be broken and tamed, not revered. With this in mind, he also thinks that discipline is essential. He rarely loses control of the whispers, and when he does he gets very irritated with himself and vows to do better. He also resents how many of his kind despise the Blood Elves. He gets it - he hates Lor’themar as much as anyone for exiling the Ren’dorei when they were just following the philosophy that, in his words, “made the Sin’dorei great”. But turning on and despising the Blood Elves when there’s so few left in the world is something he bitterly dislikes - he’s become something of a neutral character of mine, who, while theoretically Alliance, still loves and cares for Quel’thalas and his people. If anything his experience as a Void Elf has moderated his political views, and he hopes one day that Quel’thalas will unite again. So for him, regarding the exile of the Ren’dorei, it’s Rommath and Lor’themar who we should dislike, and call for the overthrowal of. We should not turn on the Sin’dorei - they were not at fault. It was the dumb leaders :stuck_out_tongue:

So yeah, that’s Fal’therin’s views on the elves of Quel’thalas

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(This is Taalva)

If you asked Aelyn what her thoughts on High Elves were she’d probably tell you they need to remove the stick from their rear regarding more dangerous magic. She’s never hated or resented them.

Ren"dorei? She quite likes them, she has a respect for those who understand magic deemed “dangerous” can be used for the benefit of others by those with a strong enough will.

Blood Elves, these were her people, she would have died for them I suppose in a matter of speaking it’s like she did. Then Teldrassil happened.

For Aelyn Teldrassil cemented Sylvanas (and the Horde) as no different than Arthas. Aelyn quickly defected to the Alliance and views any Blood Elf willingly flying Horde colors after Teldrassil as no different than the scourge.

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As far as Ava is concerned, High Elves would rather die than persevere. They would rather serve those who tried to sabotage the recovery of Quel’thalas, not just through Garithos, but through invasions into their homeland after him. He was not an isolated incident, and they still serve those filth. She sees them as idealogues who would sooner end their own kind than survive through questionable means.

Meanwhile, the Void Elves are compromised. Like Kael’thas, they went too far, and were overtaken by temptation. She saw it that way before their bodies were transformed into a physically distinct race of elves. Their dark power could destroy everything the Sin’dorei worked to build, and they specifically learnt it from a traitor who already did exactly that. She believes this to the extent of personally exiling her own daughter on discovering her use of the Void, after having already ensured she would not join the High Elves in exile, through questionable means.

Ava is about dominance as a necessity for survival, and she sees both of the other Thalassian groups as subjugated, and thus opposed to long-term survival. She would sooner “dilute the purity” of the Sin’dorei, than see them conquered again. Or subject to anyone else, like the weaker groups. She would see Silvermoon filled with halfbreeds raised as Blood Elves, than any Alliance banners beside their own again.

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(Taalva again, yes I have a lot of Elves sue me :stuck_out_tongue:)

I’ll let Veyalia herself answer this:

"First and foremost, nationalism of any kind is asinine and counterintuitive to your own survival instincts, be it Alliance, Horde, Sin’dorei, Ren’dorei, Quel’dorei or any other race, creed or political affiliation. If I fight it will be for me and mine alone and it will be by the merits of my own power not some borrowed font that can be just as easily taken away again.

As for the varying factions of Elves? There are no words from Thalassian to Common to Demonic that accurately describe how little I care about the political machinations of Elves I have never and will never meet."

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My half-elf is firmly in the High Elf view of Blood elves are power hungry maniacs… and even they thought the Void elves are dabbling too far into something they shouldn’t. Soooo…

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Tam considers herself a huge fan of elven culture, but her appreciation is very very superficial.

There may be a half dozen varieties of Xdorei and a complex history of political/cultural conflict, but Tam has no interest in any of that. All she sees is the over-the-top architecture, love of luxury, passion for wine, elegant parties, and lots of well dressed men with coiffed hair. Even in the few instances where she’s met Night Elves, she more or less treated them the same as the others and it served her well enough during the conversation.

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Lyloren doesn’t have much patience for the average blood elf. He generalizes them as cowardly and foolish, eager to return to an idyllic era that was never secure. Their hypocritical flop from imprisoning naaru to praising them is both amusing and irritating to him. Worst of all, he witnessed blood elf paladins fighting along the shores of Darkshore, eager to spill kaldorei blood alongside their savage allies in their unjust war. Ultimately, the blood elves are a Light-addled, self-serving people, and this disgusts Lyloren.

He has a less critical opinion of high elves, but he still sees them as somewhat naive, clinging to their moral high ground. He has a less generalized opinion of them as a people, however, and is much quicker to judge them as individuals.

The void elves, of course, are the ultimate pragmatists. They know the power of the Void is out there, and they know that the mastery of said power could be of untold benefit. They’re also definitely reckless and dangerous at times, sure. But they’re moving forward as a people and advancing their arts, and that’s more than Lyloren thinks can be said for the other branches of Thalassian elves.

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High Elves cared more about their virtue than the preservation of Quel’Thalas. Some call that a noble stance, but Laurensa will tell you that’s selfish and short-sighted. The homeland is worth sullying oneself to save.

Void Elves are more ambiguous. On the one hand, it’s not clear if Umbric had a particular goal with his studies, unlike the practical benefit of learning the Fel. On the other, Thalassian elves are entitled to any power they can master. The Void Elf exile was possibly (probably?) more a matter of Magisterial politics than national security. Not that it matters much now that they’re on the wrong team.

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Most of Altielle’s friends are blood elves. She views them as having Shal’dorei dignity and sophistication while having actually earned the right by being part of the world and enduring the horrors it’s thrown at them.

High elves are just that but blue to her. Nothing wrong with them.

Void elves? She’s a warlock, she understands the use of dark magic in desperate times. But the Void isn’t something one “dabbles” in. It isn’t like fel, which just corrodes life if precautions aren’t taken. It is insidious, it is conscious, it is actively looking for a chance to consume the user. The Ren’dorei are a timebomb. It’s not a matter of if they fall to corruption but when.

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in two words:

fricc them

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I’m quite enjoying the variety of responses on this thread! Keep em coming! I’m going to give this thread one last bump then let it fall.