The Unofficial High Elf Discussion Megathread

Community General Discussion
15357

:joy::joy::joy:

i know what you mean! its hard to tell sometimes because they are the same race

tbf, theres alot of people who play wow but never played any of the warcraft games. they probably just think high/blood elves are the same which they are technically. i think this is what blizzard meant when they said alliance high elves were never seriously considered because they would blur faction identity TOO much

1 Like
15358

To be fair the only argument against High Elves I think has been shot at all is the population one. (although story could change that, we will have to see)
I think all the rest are still completely valid (with valid conterpoints as well) so I don’t think anything really has been defeated in that regard.

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15359

Nope. They’re all dead.

Population complaint? There are battalions of High Elves in the Silver Covenant.

And the other Allied Races have low populations.

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15360

I’m not sure if you are trolling but the only counter point you mentioned there to say “they are all dead” was the one I agreed doesn’t stand up…

15361

Try the others. I’ll kill those too.

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15362

Oh I’m suuuuuure you will…
No chance you will say “See I win! LALALALALALA I HAVE SPOKEN I WIN LALALA”

15363

I see your list of counterpoints is exhausted.

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15364

No I just get the feeling that you won’t actually discuss since you claim you’ve won from the get go while I say both sides have valid points on lots of them

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15365

Type a counterpoint.

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15366

Each race minus the pandas have a distinct visual look that separates them from the other faction beyond skeletons.
As a high elf is literally nothing other than a blood elf with a different eye colour (although not all of them, depends when they left silvermoon) there is not enough there to seperate them visually.

Although of course there are hair styles that could be added but is that enough? I don’t know. You could go the route of different elf hair to keep the elf feel but that keeps the same feel as those on the horde.
You could give them human hair which could work but is that enough to separate the races?

And of course we are talking of the visual feel of the races here and not the “but in full armour you can’t tell the difference between a blood and void elf” because thats a different discussion completely.

So that leads to either making up new lore to make them different but are they then the elves you wanted?
Or working off lore from other groups of high elves but are those the elves you really want because most seem to want the silver cov.

So then it comes down to if lore is enough to seperate races and if the pandas were or were not a failed experiement that people and blizzard want to repeat.

And if we do repeat the pandas does that lead us on a slippery slope to horde gnomes and alliance orcs?

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15367

All High Elves need to be differentiated from Blood Elves is:

  • Unique Hairstyles and perhaps copy some hairstyles from Humans that Blood Elves don’t have and the non-tentacle hairstyles/facial hair from Void Elves.
  • No glowing eyes. We already see High Elf npcs like this
  • Unique idle stance. Just like the Nightborne, High Elves could have a different idle stance. This alone has a dramatic impact on character silhouette.

None of those changes require biological or magical excuses.

13 Likes
15368

To be honest, I have never seen a High Elf in the game that I knew was not a Blood Elf the first time I have seen them.

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15369

High Elves are an ensemble dark horse. (As in, an unexpectedly popular thing within a setting.)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/EnsembleDarkHorse/WorldOfWarcraft
They’re even an example on the trope page.

Granted I think Void Elves fit the definition too. They’re so fresh and new, with a very divisive aesthetic, but they are the most popular Alliance allied race. Still though, High Elves are talked about this much because they are most popularly requested allied race from the Alliance playerbase, because they make the most sense for being one at this point.

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15370

Well if Blizz gives High Elves new hairstyles and a new idle pose, you’ll be able to tell at a glance! :slight_smile:

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15371

Since they were unsuccessful in making Nightborne and Night Elves look visually distinct, that’s not just an in armor thing, that’s an all the time thing then that’s a pretty low bar for how different races have to be.

Then, like you mentioned the Pandaren.

The Developers said that they knew one faction would be upset when they gave Nightborne to the Horde, and they did it anyways even with internal arguments. So unless you can turn back time, it’s too late to worry about that.

The idea that High Elves and Blood Elves would be failed like Pandaren if they both existed is absurd because they already make Blood Elf and High Elf lore concurrently, Suramar, Isle of Thunder, etc. So in order for that to come true then they would have to begin to do less than they are already doing. They know what they want the High Elves and Blood Elves to be in the lore. So that isn’t an issue.

and as for the slippery slope, Are they going to be able to argue that those Gnomes or Orcs have been affiliation with the Alliance or Horde, are currently affiliated with the Alliance and Horde and have 23 years of fans waiting for it? So the slippery slope argument is a poor one because the argument for making those other races playable on the opposite faction is weak.

High Elves exist in the Alliance right now. The change is that they’d be playable, not that they’d exist.

10 Likes
15372

:clap::clap::clap::clap::raised_hand::raising_hand_woman:

well said. and thats really the only argument that matters. even the dev team said they are the same race and just giving them a different eye color isnt enough to make them distinct from blood elves

i think they learned from pandas that making a race neutral and able to pick a faction was a TERRIBLE idea. pandas and fair skinned elves on both factions is weird and blurring faction identity way too much

:+1:

15373

That’s funny. I can tell at a glance.

Which reminds me of all the anti-high-elf trolls that have eagle vision for telling Nightborne from NightElves apart but can’t tell the difference between a Blood Elf and a High Elf.

6 Likes
15374

Both true and false.
They did a good job on the NPC’s… they just thought copying a skin onto the night elf model would do the job and got very lazy.

But I wasn’t talking about the lore there.
I was talking about a visual distiction. You moved the bar.

But the argument of a visual faction identity would be gone.
So it would be a solely lore point of view.
Which is not the issue most people have with adding High Elves to the alliance.

So you did not address my issues here, you moved my issues to ones you could defeat.

2 Likes
15375

Just the usual public service announcement because Fyre keeps misquoting the developers:

Blood Elves are High Elves.
but if you’re playing WoW currently, High Elves aren’t Blood Elves.

Different groups. For any confused lurkers out there.

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15376

Nope it’s not my fault that trolls are being trolls.

I only respond to newcomers who express their opinions against HEs using the same ol arguments. I don’t (usually) respond to trolls, as it should be.

You don’t need new lore to make HEs visually distinguishable from BEs - Kul Tirans are fat humans and there is no lore behind that fact.

6 Likes