The Kaldorei Conundrum

Yes that is probably what Blizzard did but you see the Void Elf addition seems to be a decision made a few months before their release.
Blizzard had no idea to justify giving Nightborne to the Horde to give them relevancy in the Night Elf lore which I think was the ultimate goal.

Void Elves were tied to an Argus faction that had the barest of development. Making them one of the most difficult reputations to farm (I know this because I went through it) for a race that was a recolor of an existing race.

Blizzard put so little thought and care into this race that it is astounding.
This is a band aid race to justify giving the Horde Night Elf lore.

That is all man. Nightborne came first and Blizzard had to figure out a way to give something out of nothing to the blue team.

THAT is my point and my sole complaint.
The fact that they are popular is nothing but an indication of Blood Elf popularity.
And given that they are the most popular race in wow is by no means a shocking development.

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That Nightborne models had to be scrapped together to be playable at all speaks against the idea that the Nightborne as playable came before the idea of Void Elves, which as you point out, would have been easy to reskin and implement.

I am not sure if you are comprehending this.

The goal here was to give the Horde relevance in the coming Night Elf lore because a lot of lore we come across is Night Elf lore.
Blizzard wanted to give the Nightborne to the Horde because of this end goal and because they had already the whole world built up for this race.

Void Elves were the exact opposite. They had nothing except the model which was just a Blood Elf model.

So Blizzard had to adjust the Nightborne model so it could function with the Night Elf animations without breaking and collapsing unto itself.
Of course also be able to equip every piece of WoW armor and weapon.

Blood Elves already had all this. So blizzard had to just make up some BS about Blood Elves joining and do a place holder reputation system and shuffle them into the Alliance to justify giving the Horde the Nightborne.
Blizzard could have given us a completely unique Blood Elf model with interesting effects like half their body is void, some limbs have shadow tentacles sprouting or they are somehow disfigured or bulky in a way.
Or maybe have an effect where their entire body and armor becomes shadow.
Just like Alleria.
Here for example we have a void transformation that went badly:
https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/HGXLHWMED5I81503067709465.jpg
Here is another example of it going VERY WELL.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rVVmq2iQRwQ/maxresdefault.jpg

Perhaps the Void Elves should have been presented as a cross of the two?

But we did not get any of those features because they took up too much time.
Probably too much time they could no longer afford with so much wasted on Nightborne.
So what did we get? We got a Blood Elf recolor and a shader effect.
I doubt the Void Elf project took them more than a week or two while Nightborne took months to accomplish.

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If anything its the inverse. Velves represent the elves that realize the Horde was bad juju:

"We do not stand with the Alliance out of convenience. Nor is it a mere gesture of thanks to Alleria.

Our ordeal has taught us the importance of great powers being in the right hands. We could not allow the Horde to know the things we know, or to use us as a weapon in their schemes.

We could not allow the Horde to know the things we know, or to use us as a weapon in their schemes. We fight for the Alliance because we believe in its values. And one day, I pray we will bring all of Silvermoon back into the fold."

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Presented as such to the Alliance, but when you get down to it, the velves studied their powers to protect their home, but they’re not doing a lot of that. They want to show that the void can be used like any other power, and to good ends, and yet, whenever an opportunity rises to do just that (I outlined 5 of them), the velves are absent.

They only appear in the faction conflict, and when Horde players see them, their portrayal is so cartoon villainous that the Forsaken are put to shame.

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I am not sure you are comprehending this:

I do not believe this is true, and I believe your entire premise is wrong, so I find everything you built off this idea to be unfounded.

The Velves literally helped even the odds back in Seige of Lordearon. As for opportunity to help, the Velves nearly helped us kill Gallawix, at the very least, slowed down his operation. They turned what should have been a route into a retreat for the Horde.

As for the Nazjatar thing, it just that the entire story seemed focused more on Jaina/Genn and Loth/Thaly.

Like I said, they appear when it’s time to fight the Horde, never when it’s time to deal with the Void.

But we are not dealing with the void, at least not in any truly meaningful way yet. At most a throw away line that naga use void power. And while the Old Gods are minions of the void lord, I really dont think it is gonna focus too much on the void itself so much as the Old Gods as entities.

Your premise is solely based on the idea that because Blizzard did extra work on a unique model is basis that Void Elves were planned and given to the Alliance from the very start and that Nightborne were a concession to please the Horde.

I don’t know how else to say but you are wrong.
You are so wrong it is not even funny.

There is zero factual evidence backing up your hypothesis than a mistaken interpretation of why an adjustment to the Nightborne was necessary if they were always planned to be given to the Horde.

I am guessing the reason you have this idea is simply because you have very little idea what goes into producing 3D art for a game.

You do see the irony of pointing out when there is no evidence to prove a conclusion, do you not? The fact is you are using your conclusion that Blizzard gave the Nightborne to the Horde to give them relevance to Night Elf content as evidence for everything else you believe. As you yourself point out, that’s not how proofs work.

Here is how my proof works.

We see how much work went into the Nightborne assets (not just body model).
We see how much work went into the Void Elves.

We can also look at what happens in the next expansion with Thalyssra introducing the Horde players to Night Elf lore in Nazjatar while Alliance have Jaina and Shandris.

Dude you are wrong.
We know and can literally see Void Elves are low effort and we already see the implications of what it means for the Horde to have a night elf background of their own this expansion.

First you moved the goal post that you did not like how they looked visually and then that they are poplar (like that matters at all).
All evidence shows that you are wrong. Move on.

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Issues with the night elfs is they joined the alliance and their culture from wc3 and wow is vastly different. This has just gotten worse over time, apparently some NE fight like humans now with plated armor and swords and shields.

Hey atleast they get plenty of screen time and have hand full of characters.

They messed up completely altering them to fit into the virtuous alliance. Not saying they shouldn’t be alliance either… but they definitely should have been the elder race in the alliance unaffraid of the Horde, and to have its poop in a group. We also had very little to do with ashenvale. It should have been our population center, especially since we apparently won there and the horde agreed to contain themselves to Azshara

Yet we got human boot lickers, who are hippies and incompetent…

But they have a large fan base that blizz has a hard time listening to.

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Do Nightborne really offer that much more of a hook in to “Night Elf” story? The horde already had Blood Elves and Nightborne are essentially the same culture (or very similar), since they’re both Highborne societies.

The only difference is that some of the Nightborne could actually have been alive during the events we’re discussing. I think if the Nightborne weren’t a thing, Blizz would just make the Blood Elves the Horde entry point for ancient elf story with a bit of a different spin.

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This undermines your point. Jaina is not associated with the Night Elves and was still made relevant to Nazjatar - and no, the Kul’Tiran Fleet has no relevance in Nazjatar, either, as after getting smashed they are never mentioned by Azshara or Jaina or anyone else again. So being associated to Night Elves is not necessary to be given relevance to Night Elf lore.

There are no Nightborne on Darkshore, either. There were no Nightborne during the War of the Thorns. The Nightborne have not been relevant to Night Elf lore.

The Unshackled were made up to give the Horde relevance to Nazjatar. Not the Nightborne. Lor’themar and Thalyssra lore wise weren’t even aware they were going to Nazjatar at all.

You are just talking for the sake of talking now arent you?

Isn’t that why you post?

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I at least try to make sure its coherent and there is a point to the discussion.
It appears you have completely given up and just want to somehow have the last word.

I mean now when we are in an ancient Highborne Zone people don’t have to just attribute those zones as night elf zones now… it’s just a historical zone that all elves can draw their roots from. Now the horde has claim to it too through night borne.

Before people considered places like suramar and Azuna to be night elf zones. Val’sharah definitely.

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