While Fyre is being facetious here, Blizzard uses Blood Elven Death Knights now and again to represent “High Elves”.
Rachel in Dalaran is a good example of a Blood Elf Death Knight clearly representing a High Elf:
High Elves have been shown with the wayfarer’s red hair before also, and similarly, Blood Elves have been shown with blue hair on non-Death Knight characters (some very recently). There’s not really rhyme, reason, or consistency here.
I guess it would make sense- but again, it would cause a lot of backlash as they would be the only currently available Allied Race to become DKs. I’m pretty sure San’layn aren’t in the cards at the moment.
Well… he could have pent up anger issues do to the Red Dragonflight not allowing him to have “died properly.” Not that it was their fault, but being on the verge of death and then burned alive with “lifekeeping flames” to only be tortured by the Lich King personally THEN to take the mantle of the Lich King himself…
…That could cause a lot of mental health issues.
I mean, if we’re going to go your incredibly reductive route, no race in this game has culture because it’s all designed by humans or human influence.
So therefore you change my original stance of High Elves: “They’re identical culturally to Humans” to “They’re identical culturally to everyone.”
Doesn’t exactly make it better.
I’m just saying, saying that “High Elves have only got human culture.” because they’re part of the Alliance is reductionist.
If that’s the case, Blood Elves have only got Horde culture because they’ve got a Warchief.
It’s not as if the separate races of the Alliance don’t have their own faction leaders.
Quel’Danil has obviously got its own culture.
Allerian Hold’s obviously compromised mostly of the High Elven Ranger culture. (Farstriders share that culture.)
and the Silver Covenant is incredibly Elfy. It’s a magical city militant order. It’s sick… and as far as WoW goes, fairly unique.
They’ve got a Mage Culture and they’ve got a Ranger culture. Both of which are Elfy.
Right now Void Elves have no discernible culture as they don’t exist in the world.
Given how much things get retconned in this game, they can be given ever so slight cultural variations and it’ll be fine.
aye. I want a WoW 2 to bring in a new engine with entirely new physics. armor to function like it does in modern games. No longer just a static skin for the most part but actual clothes and armor on your character.
It’s not reductionist…it’s reality. High Elves don’t have a culture of their own anymore. They live in human cities, take human partners, fight for human kings. They don’t have a separate governmental structure, base of operations, or nation anymore like other groups within the factions do.
All High Elves don’t answer to any one representative of their race; they simply fight for the Alliance and thus the crown of Stormwind.
Fringe groups like Highvale or other lodges have carved out their own niches to survive isolated from Alliance presence, but they don’t collectivly represent one culture either taken in combo with groups like the Silver Covenant or High Elves within Dalaran.
This is what Ion meant when “there isn’t a good example of who or what a High Elf is that remains within Azeroth”. There are in fact, many, tinier groups all separate from each other except in that they are Alliance-aligned.
Highvale in Quel’danil Lodge.
Allerian Outpost (did they ever leave?)
Silver Covenant.
Dalaran/Kirin Tor.
There’s little common cultural thread here except that they’re all High Elf and they are Alliance friendly, but they have vastly varying lifestyles, social structures and relationships with magic post-Quel’thalas sacking era.
Being mages and hunters is also not culturally defining. Void Elves also seem to be primarily mages of some sort (Riftweavers) or hunters as well (those we see warp in with Alleria at Lordaeron).
I imagine it’s similar to a Blood Elf Asylum.
On this, is it kind of a missed opportunity to have random whispers as a Void Elf player?
They could have tied a random, low whisper of madness to Entropic Embrace proccing that would really drive that fighting against the maddening Void flavor home.
And of course, more Alleria whispers, please. We only saw these in the comic and just that little scrap was very enlightening as to what she’s going through internally.
The Ranger culture is a culture… and is pretty synonymous with all of the lodges.
Also, Mage Culture is obviously distinct… and it’s pretty impossible to separate if Kul’Tiran culture is Elvish or Human.
Besides. All of that is interesting anyways.
Gotta play Discipline or Shadow Priest.
I’m glad my Void Elf is a Discipline Priest honestly. Full exposure. He hears Void Whispers all the time.
Also… honestly. How is any of the minor High Elven groups different from Void Elves?
It doesn’t mean that High Elves don’t have a culture as much as it means that both Quel’Danil and Silver Covenant elves could arguably be separate Allied Races.
I’m not mentioning Allerian Hold Elves here because they’re mostly the Ranger culture. I feel like they’re pretty well covered by the other two.
Have the Allerian hold elves been addressed at all? Alleria is back, and I don’t see a reunion between her and her forces there, or characters like Auric.
It’s like, she said hi to her sister and her son and that was it.
We haven’t been to Outland in a bajillion years, and might never go back at all
But we still got Auric’s Angels, so at the very least he’s not been forgotten. At least not until Ion says he’s dead in the next Blizzcon.
Outland Mag’har + Allerian Elves coming to Azeroth for the war would’ve been sweet for this xpac. What a missed opportunity.
I really want to see these kind of reunions to happen, but then again the writers didn’t had much incentive to do it because the developers made Void Elves instead of High Elves;
There was no much point in making those reunions back in the day considering the decision of making Void Elves over High Elves, Blizzard was trying to defend their decision and portraying the High Elves even more especially after not making them playable would upset the Alliance players even more. In the end all of the narrative focus shifted to Umbric and his squad of Void Elves doing things for the Alliance because they had to prove their worth to the faction and the developers needed to flesh them out.
Then again i believe making High Elves a playable Allied Race would give a lot of motivation for the writers to work on these kind of reunions, a little part of the Recruitment Scenario taking place in the Allerian Stronghold were the High Elves meet it’s namesake would be a simple thing to do, but in a current scenario were High Elves are still unplayable there’s no much point, especially when they are focused on the Void Elves instead.
But, the Horde did bring Outland Mag’har into the ranks of the Horde.
Where do you think Garrosh Hellscream and Dranosh Saurfang even came from? His Kor’kron had Mag’har forces within them. While the playable Mag’har come from AU Draenor, we’ve had Mag’har from TBC used since.
I can’t say the same for Allerian Hold High Elves.
It’s safe to assume the Silver Covenant Rangers come from the Allerian Stronghold and the High Elf lodges.
While it is mostly true, Auric Sunchaser did make an appearance at the Sunwell (as we like to point out) and he has his “Auric’s Angels” team in BFA.
Ros’eleth from the Allerian Stronghold also made a recent appearance in the Hunter Order Hall in Legion.
But yeah, sad to say that’s pretty much it.
I guess that only makes the races an even more fitting pair.
Horde has had unplayable Mag’har since TBC, Alliance had unplayable High Elves since Vanilla.
We’d just be gettig the remainder of the forces in Outland back to Azeroth to finally make them playable.
It’s safe to assume things not shown, referenced, or documented at all?
It’s safe to have that kind of headcanon?
I mean, if we’re operating under no rules, lore or reference at all now, please let me know.