The original assertion made by Shadows was that if the only points of distinction between a proposed Allied Race and an existing playable race were only cultural, the two groups wouldn’t be sufficiently unique from each other.
Which is an interesting position, seeing as the distinction(s) between Night Elves and Nightborne are almost entirely cultural. Those who would posit that biological distinction(s) exist between the two groups are largely incapable of providing examples to support that statement.
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Blood Knights being in constant contact with a well of power containing the essence of the same naaru they drained doesn’t equal a High Elf Paladin making a pilgrimage to the Sunwell pretending never to return in order to serve it’s duties with the Argent Crusade or the Silver Covenant.
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Actually, now that the Arcan’dor is a thing, wouldn’t it be possible for the High Elves to completely cut off their connection to the Sun Well?
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Thanks for summarizing it.
I don’t really agree that Nightborne and Night Elves as we have them are “only culturally” different in the way Blood Elves and High Elves would be.
Biological differences aside, the Nightborne have spent 10,000 years in extreme isolation thinking that they were the last things alive on Azeroth. High Elves and Blood Elves have a handful of years worth of lite cultural differences that mostly amount to bad blood.
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Highborne for Alliance and Dark Rangers for Horde. This way both factions get something they have wanted for a long time without stepping on the toes of the other faction. ![:smiley:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smiley.png?v=6" ":smiley:")
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Exactly, you just can’t compare those two circumstances.
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Plenty of games with two or more factions where that is not the case. Comes down to more the differing ideals and less the races in it.
Drinking the demon kool-aid or not seems like a pretty huge, culture-defining decision.
Sin’dorei are all about that sweet, juicy power, while Quel’dorei seem to strive for more, uh, balanced lives.
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Can’t speak for everyone, but I would be happy with this.
Sure, but not really. The Sunwell was restored pretty quickly.
Again, mostly comes down to grudges.
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That’s absolutely agreeable. The point isn’t to suggest the circumstances for each pair of races are the same, but that most/all of the observable distinctions are (or can be) attributed to cultural divergence.
The TL;DR being that if being culturally different is enough for Nightborne to have a varied appearance, relative to Night Elves, then the same precedent may easily apply to playable High Elves.
It’s worth noting that many/most of the modern High Elves have likely lived outside of Quel’thalas for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. They would’ve had no obligation to adhere to the traditions of Quel’thalas, in the same way that it would be peculiar to expect an 11th generation American to be an exemplar of whichever country their ancestors migrated from.
Pandora’s box. The devs can regret their mistakes all they want. They exist though. The precedent has been set.
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Adding High Elves after we were already given Void Elves would be stomping on the Horde’s toes.
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They still have Warlocks. The Reliquary seeks power, not knowledge.
Despite having gotten rid of their demonic influence, Blood Elves have not gotten rid of their power-hungry mentality.
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All elves are power hungry.
Is that really what High Elf players want though?
When people suggest adding “normal” skin and hair to Void Elves, I’ve heard time and time again that they want the High Elven story of the Silver Covenant style, always-Alliance High Elf.
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Not adding High Elves after giving the Horde Mag’har, Nightborne, Zandalari, and likely Vulpera in the future while throwing us sad excuses of Allied Races would be stepping on the Alliance’s face.
Yeah, Night Elves are well known for dealing with demons and keeping wells of unlimited POWAAR around, aren’t they.
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