I finally found that video, where Metzen mention that Pandaren was supposed to be an Alliance Race back in Burning Crusade.
Like I said in the past, It’s fun how many times Blizzard changed the lore to be able to give the Alliance fantasy to the Horde.
Even now we can clearly see that Pandas does not fit the Horde ideology and the methods they use to solve their problems. The Horde that Chen helped are gone for a long time now.
Back to elves…
Void Elves wasn’t made to appease Alliance players who’ve been asking for High Elves, they made Void Elves just to be able to give Nightborne and their rich lore and their beatiful city to the Horde. Even with all the complaints Nightborne feels alot more polished than Void Elves, I’m proud to be one of them.
Nothing, all Thalassian Elves have their magic addiction sustained passively by the Sunwell. The Blood Elves simply tap into the Sunwell to empower themselves, something the High Elves don’t do.
There are still some cultural differences. For example, while you’ll see a lot of Blood Knights taking central focus for Blood Elves and their Farstriders grow disenfranchised in the view of the public, the High Elves maintain a strong balance between their Rangers and Mages.
But… It IS kaldorei-themed! It was made to be! The PvE version is pure kaldorei, with kaldorei colors (light purple, brown and silver). But it’s elven, and the PvP version has blue/gold colors associated with the high elves. So, it fits them very nicely.
I believe 8.2 will be the barrens centered around tauren and dwarves with the 8.3 warfront being quel’thelas which will set the 8.4 alliance raid of silvermoon. I stand by my theory because there is simply too much story to tell in bfa.
I believe 8.4 will have sylvanas’ endgame for the horde which will be a raid where they sack stormwind. With that in mind I don’t think they would do another dazar’alor but instead give the factions entirely different raids that will have a major impact the the world. More capital cities lost just like how this all started.
Different raids would be hell to balance. Double the resources to make, plus favoritism accusations because the version for each faction is easier/harder. And, even if the fights are all mirrored, there’s still double the trouble with raid layout and visuals.
Blizzard has essentially come out and said they don’t care about the world first race as it wasn’t them that made that a thing. They have now even separated the world first kills achievements by faction.
They are essentially telling us that the doors are open for them to make faction exclusive raids.
Even in the video, they stated how they had doubts to the story they were presenting with the Pandaren idea they had in TBC.
EDIT: I also want to point out, you are leaving out very key info here to frame an argument. Pandaren never left the concept table. They were never put into the game or designed in TBC.
Although, I would find it a hard pill to swallow for Horde players that one of their founders of Durotar would betray the friends and allies he had in the Horde all while Thrall was still Warchief.
Honestly, if they were Alliance…cool. Though, Draenai were more interesting and better done to fit in with the TBC narrative. I dont know how Pandarens would fit into Outland.
Actually they technically do, since the Huojin ideology is basically “not every action is a pure white or pure black” and that “inaction in the face of adversity will always be the greatest injustice”
Though I find the Huojin/Tushui ideologies very weak in terms of differentiating.
But was alive with the Horde of Voljin, even if that was shortlived. I believe they would fit fine in a Horde that wasnt led by Sylvanas though.
But I also believe that is because of the neutral narrative, Alliance pandarens also receive no story even though they were originally conceived as a solely Alliance race.
The Pandaren were more close to the Horde than the Alliance. Mainly being Chen Stormstout teaming up with Rexxar and Rokhan during the Founding of Draenor. So there is some Horde Fantasy within the Pandaren if you side with the Horde that is.
While there are some Alliance Pandaren the True Pandaren were always Horde like Chen Stormstout.
He says that they had doubts about the timing, probably because Pandas had no connections with Burning Legion and their setting, not about they being Alliance.
If you think about their replacement, this makes even more sense, since Draenei are literaly uncorrupted Eredar, those who’re the very Lieutenants of the Legion.
They actually made their model back then.
Art Panel:
That’s where I say that Blizz changed the Pandaren to fits the Horde, because if you look at the Pandaren culture in their mainland, most of them are peaceful and have core values that fits more the Alliance, not the warmongering Horde.
I do a lot of casual PvP. First hint: hop on warmode and do faction assaults. Second hint: do casual Battlegrounds. It’s pretty easy to reach the 500 conquest/week necessary to get the normal set pieces.
About the elite pieces, you need to do rated PvP. The easiest way is to get one or more partners and do rated arenas.
Still there’s no lore evidence that High Elves should be different from blood elves/Void Elves based on their physical structure, at least not in this era if there is any i’m not seeing it… and I doubt it is mentioned in any books how they would be. (aside from a few now non-canon sources)
I’ve looked at the model edits from the other poster, look at the male character his shape doesn’t look elf-like at all, I can’t see them being related to the current High/Void Elves in any way.
Not to mention the story problems I already mentioned, and the faction imbalance introducing them it could cause.
