I don’t even know if it’s necessarily a large Imbalance in ratio. It seems like the presence of light just naturally overrides that of arcane.
My headcannon over the years has been; I have this glass of lemonade, I can’t drink out all the water from the lemonade and keep the lemon. I have to drink it all. Therefore it’s the same for the Sunwell.
I’d be happy, if they gave us this compromise and justifying the Blue eyes by saying because it’s a magical well or something you can choose what of its context you’d like or something along those lines.
Light is one of the two primordial forces in the WoW universe from which all other forces are derived.
Light and Void > Everything Else.
Plus as we have seen with the Lightbound, Light can corrupt just as much as any other if allowed.
So you’re either Fel Corrupted or Light Corrupted.
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Horde wanted brown orcs instead of green ones.
Sure! Here ya go!
Alliance want Highelves since they dont get Bloodelves.
ABSOLUTELY NOT, THAT MAKES NO SENSE.
Seriously, are they just saving them for a “break glass in case of sub loss” similar to Demon Hunters and Illidan in Legion?
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Just wanted to show my support. I’ve been a fan of High Elves since I played Warcraft II as a kid- Alleria and the Ranger units were my favorite troops, and I’ve roleplayed a High Elf ever since I started playing WoW back in BC.
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Put the video on its own line, rather than as part of a paragraph. Like this:
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Oh thank you. It was happening in other threads too and I thought Blizzard broke it.
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No, I imagine the design choice was based around the Allied Race system filling two specific purposes for Battle for Azeroth.
The first is adding races to the factions to increase customization, and while High Elves give the Alliance a non-Blue/Purple Elf, as Ion has stated, when it comes to faction conflict, they want a higher degree of visual distinction between the factions, and while High Elves can be made different, they can’t be made different enough. Even Void Elves don’t really help here if you completely cover them up in armor.
The second is that the Allied Races are meant to bolster the depleted populations of the factions and make this war possible in the first place. This is why the Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, and Zandalari are added; they bring new forces to the Horde, which will have been utterly decimated otherwise. Meanwhile the Alliance has always maintained numerical superiority, so the Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves, as smaller but powerful populations, help balance things out. Dark Iron Dwarves, while a long-awaited addition, don’t actually add troops to the Alliance, since they’ve been Alliance as is. The Kul Tirans, however, will add fresh soldiers and the likes.
So, while BFA is active, Allied Races need to be visually distinct from counterparts on the other faction, as well as fulfilling the narrative purpose of increasing the faction’s numbers. Dark Irons break this in one place, but it can be argued that they’re only now being organized enough under Moira to be able to field larger numbers. High Elves, however, are also part of the Alliance and so their addition as an Allied Race wouldn’t add a new population.
Once BFA is over, we’ll be out of faction conflict, and the addition of Allied Races won’t be narratively dependent upon bolstering the factions’ population. I think that’s the time we’ll see High Elves, as well as other favorites such as Broken/Wildhammers, added.
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Why are you telling us?
If you want blue eyes for blood elves, or more stuff for bloodelves, go advocate for blood elf stuff. You don’t have to tell us.
And often they say it’s part of a “compromise”
Why are you negotiating with us for a faction we’ve got on our side.
That’s got nothing to do with you.
I don’t remember the Shal’Dorei negotiating table…
And I’m sure you’ll try to say we get Ren’dorei…
Can I see a show of hands for the people who asked for Void Elves?
Like, fine, we’ll take them.
But if you think you get some kind of say in how things go, well first of all that’s very interesting. But second of all, I don’t care if you feel like Quel’dorei look like Sin’dorei characters
That obviously didn’t matter for Shal’dorei.
This isn’t the place to make your blood elf requests.
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No kidding. It’s like people saying that the Alliance must give approval for the Horde to get Mok’nathal.
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Honestly, some days I feel like Kul Tirans weren’t made for the Alliance, but were made so that Mok’Nathal or Ogres could be added to the Horde later down the line with a fully-prepared skeleton.
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I have the same feeling.
They were talking about upgrading the old world ogre model since WoD. That Rexxar face didn’t come with little effort. I feel that they made kul tirans either after conceptualizing ogres or with ogres as a reuse of the model already in mind.
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They could justify the work that went into the custom models for Kul Tirans if those models would also get used on another AR.
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Let’s be real clear here: we aren’t ever seated at any sort of “negotiation table”, over races or anything else.
People get paid to design this stuff.
People get paid to write this stuff.
People get paid to model and paint this stuff.
We fall into none of those groups. Narratively, they felt Nightborne worked better with the Horde through Blood Elves. It wasn’t even seceret. If you paid attention on the Vindicaar, this was almost completely translated, like most of Blizzard’s storylines, they drip little bits ahead of time.
Legion and BFA have dropped tons of bits that all but confirms our next expansion is a Void theme, with whatever happens with N’zoth, Azshara, and these outer storylines with Xal’atath, Sylvanas, and Alleria setting it up similarly to Garrosh setting up WoD in MoP, or Gul’dan setting up Legion in WoD.
Void Elves were either truly Blizzard wanting to give us a cool new race that wasn’t a previously established one (their words), or were a hastily constructed alternative when they felt an initial High Elf plan wasn’t going to work (my theory).
The fact you don’t care that Quel’dorei and Sin’dorei look nearly identical (wow same race, go figure), or that Nightborne and Night Elves don’t look different enough clearly isn’t a sentiment that was universal amongst the design team.
While I agree this isn’t the thread to make Blood Elf requests, don’t bring them up and then act incredulous or hostile to counter-discussion.
Indeed. I can almost imagine the conversation at the Developer’s table.
Dev 1: “So we’re giving the Horde Mag’har, Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari, and Nightborne. Maybe Vulpera depending on how well received they are. We should focus on Ogres or Mok’Nathal next…”
Dev 2: “Wait, we still don’t have the Alliance’s fourth Allied Race yet. We’ve got Void Elves, Lightforged Draenei, and Dark Iron Dwarves.”
Dev 3: “Pity Kul Tirans can’t be an Allied Race.”
Dev 2: “But they’re just humans.”
Dev 1: “Wait, aren’t we adding thin and fat humans to give Kul Tiras some more visual diversity? I mean, it’s all humans over there. We haven’t considered other races at all.”
Dev 2: “Yeah, there’s a thin model based on the Forsaken, and a burly model that’s a new skeleton.”
Dev 1: “Well we can’t give the Alliance the Forsaken model. Let’s make Kul Tirans an Allied Race with the big model. That way, we can use it to add Ogres or Mok’Nathal later. Actually, we can use that to give Rexxar a new model.”
Dev 2: “That sounds like a really bad idea. No one in the Alliance has asked for fat humans. We’ve already been ignoring a lot of their requests.”
Dev 1: “They’ll love it, trust me. It’s an entirely new model and skeleton, they can’t complain about faction bias.”
Dev 3: “But we’re only adding it so the Horde can use the model for Ogres/Mok’Nathal later…”
Dev 1: “Yeah, but it won’t seem that way, it’ll look like we’re just using an existing asset, and since it’s new, the Alliance can’t really complain about losing it to the Horde either. Besides, if Alliance players won’t even like Fat Humans, what’s the issue? They’ll be happy about the Horde having to use it.”
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I mean, Blood Prince Dreven looks pretty similar to Kal’dorei but you don’t see me in the San’layn thread negotiating with Fallyn with some authority I don’t have.
“Oh you want San’layn? Well what if we just gave Kal’dorei even longer canines?”
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Mine is that the plans for high elves go as far back as WoD, and they planted hints all over Legion, only for some executives to be impressed by Alleria’s story and force a change at the last minute, against the wishes of the team.
I can’t design or model things, but I sure can write (in my main language, that is), and I know a poorly conceived plot when i see one.
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I know right?
That’s what I was saying.
You don’t have any authority here.
Blizzard makes this stuff. Blizzard designs this stuff.
But at the end of the day we’re thousands of, paying, players who are making a genuine request to play a faction that’s already in the game with lore.
and at the end of the day you’re someone that’s gonna play whether we’re happy or not. Even if you do want Blizzard to destroy their Lore so you can pretend like you’re unique and that Quel’dorei don’t exist.
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So… you’re saying that we all agree that the Horde can’t have Ogres now that we’ve got Kul’tirans because it’ll make us feel less special?
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