Haha, up in the air. Get it? Because Dalaran is a flying city.
…
I’ll see myself out.
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Khadgar wanted no part in the Forth War, and specifically kept Dalaran out of it. This is where most people’s idea that Dalaran is neutral comes from. It’s a solid enough assumption, but at the same time I suppose it could also be true that Dalaran could be an Alliance member nation, but refuses to take part in the war regardless. Blizzard never really gives us enough info with these stories.
I will bring up that there are undead and blood elves in the Kirin Tor though, which gives some more credibility to the idea that Dalaran is neutral.
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Pretty much. Be that as it may, that’s why they are largely irrelevant to the point I was making.
(If anything, Silver Covenant Elves should call themselves Dalarani Elves. They are one of those groups that are members of a faction, even tho they don’t reside on territory of said faction)
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If they did that, then we’d have to contend with the fact that that’s also the most logical name for the non-SC high elf citizens of Dalaran, like Fabioso the Fabulous. 
I think it’s pretty evident that Dalaran is a self governing body. It decided to work alongside the Horde during Legion without any imput or overseeing from the Alliance, it ever overruled its alliance-aligned Leader making that choice.
Dalaran is an autonomous city state under no faction jurisdiction even when Jaina was at the helm really.
I really don’t think Dalaran ever officially rejoined the alliance if I am to be honest.
Yeah, that’s the thing with the race’s names methinks, it’s more about place of residence/origin rather than political faction. I don’t think it’s an issue tho, not all humans are alliance, not all orcs are horde and all that.
That’s why in my head Alliance High Elves dropping the name High Elves should be less about their loyalty to the alliance, and more about moving on from what they once were.
Like the Highvale; in all their quests, they aren’t referred as “High Elves”, instead as “Highvale Elves” they already made that change and define themselves by the place they live on now.
So who knows, maybe “Alliance High Elves”, without a centralized populace could really just drop the “high” and just be “elves”, in the way humans or orcs define themselves. The problem is that it’s too generic the other way around heh.
Maybe that’s why it’s easier try to tie the name to an organization. Cause while I don’t think it’s tied to political movements, it is related to cultural groups, like it works with clans. I think that’s part of the reason why people gravitate to the SC, because they also have an identity as a cultural group.
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And there are Blood Elves and Goblins in the Alliance too. So… yeah. Not quite the dis-qualifier it should be.
The point is, last we heard, Dalaran is still a part of the Alliance. The Council of Six never voted to leave. That is where it stands.
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Technically, this is what every member nation of the Alliance is supposed to be. I think players simply don’t see it often enough unless it has something to do with the Horde.
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I agree. I think Void Elves fits for them. Stop latching onto a name of a bygone era and just support the actually official Alliance Pretty Elves.
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I was thinking specifically of the Undead Tirin Tor members channelling the portal to Dalaran in the Orgrimmar portal room. They certainly don’t seem like Alliance members to me.
You bring up an interesting point with this actually. The Silver Covenant were stated to have “joined the Alliance Vanguard” in Wrath. Did that wording mean they were fighting alongside them, or did it mean they literally became members? And if the Silver Covenant was part of the Alliance Vanguard in Wrath, are they still now?
The Silver Covenant joining the void elves could be a cool story if they did it right. And it would be a way for them to be able to remain relevant while also representing a playable race.
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But where are the Balloons keeping the city afloat?
Get it? Cause Khadgar is a crazy old man in a flying house?
I’ll just exit stage left out the floating sewer pipe.
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To a degree, yeah. But if so, Dalaran never needed to “officially” leave the alliance to not be considered a part of the alliance. It’s clear that in legion they had different goals than the alliance and they went on their own.
But it’s the same issue, not all “thalassians” on the alliance are Void Elves, so we shouldn’t call them void elves.
agreed
Disagree. Let people have the choice to choose their own immersion, don’t dictate what people should support. if someone wants to have the tools to be an alliance high elf, let them.
My point is that the name “High Elf” is perhaps the least relevant thing of the issue.
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Considering what the intended High Elf customizations for Void Elves were added for in the interview above, being Unified under the Void Elf name and banner would solve that issue. It can be filled with blue berries and not very blue berries elves that fight for the Alliance while dropping this whole High Elf naming issue.
I think joining an alliance military group makes you a member of the alliance. It’s not working with, it’s joined.
Like the Hozen we see in BfA. They are members of the Horde, even if their home isn’t part of Horde territory.
I think the implication remains that those members of the SC that joined the vanguard still remain so given by the presence of the shield mages in the airship during BfA’s Battle for Stormgarde.
That would solve many issues TBH, although it would still leave out any elf not willing to partake in Void. Maybe if VE’s had been conceptualized as something wider than just so laser focused on the void, there would have been no issue at all.
Indeed, but as I said above, the hyperspecificity of VE’s leaves out any thalassian not willing to partake in the Void. And you can’t really skirt around it when the name of the group is VOID Elf, yanno? It could still work, but it would be clunky: “Oh I’m not a VOID void elf.” k
if they had chosen any other name it would not be an issue. Like if they had called themselves “Twilight Elves”, children of the setting sun and all that. You can frame the void as part of that identity, while accounting those that don’t.
Problem is that “Twilight” already has so much meaning on WoW.
TBH the name “Void Elf” is just… bad IMO. It’s inelegant, more of a branding ploy to truly differentiate them rather than something that feels organic to the story. IDK, if the thalassian root of Ren’dorei meant more like “exiled” or “outcast” or even “twilight” and the common name be anything else, like IDK Duskborne it would have been better?
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I already Sparkle as an Elf.
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Personally I see this as a relatively small issue. The only elves who’s avoidance to Void (heh) would be a big part of their plot would be ones who refuse to use magic at all (which would really only be the Highvale who’ve been sadly forgotten) and ones who are faithful to the Light.
Light faith is a very small point of high elves though, as most are Rangers or Mages, and it even being a plot point was really only in the RPG, which was decanonized. And even if we wanted that kind, we could always just toss in some Disc Priesty or Alonsus Faol type void elves.
Even Vereesa almost joined the Horde to be with Sylvanas in a canon book released during BfA, so I’m sure Alleria could convince her to take up the Void.
That’s the thing, even if a small part, it’s still a part. I do think it could be written around, like having the light worshipping elves -who you really can’t call Void Elves- as a part of that society rather than leave them behind (Like, as safeguards to “pull back” anyone that falls too deeply into the Void. Like a sect of Disc priests that keep the balance and understand that there can’t be void without light, nor light without void.
Priests as keepers of that balance as part of VE society could solve that issue in an interesting manner, cause otherwise I think that barring the very idea of the light from a society that believes in it is, not good.
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If they wield both the Light and the Void as Disc Priests, but are still infused with the Void, I think they can still be called Void Elves. A sect of them dedicated to pulling VEs back from the brink before they fall too far is certainly interesting.
Another name only really becomes relevant imo if Blizzard adds a sub-race system. Otherwise it’s just another NPC race name.
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Pretty much, I think that would be a way to make Void Elves that use the light “work”. Like some sort of “Twilight Priest”
Yeah. Overall I think it’s just not great worldbuilding to have playable races so limited to certain aspects. And with Lightforged and Void Elves it really just restricts their cultural identity as groups so much, and it’s just egregious with two AR’s. Kinda a one trick pony feeling.
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It’s even worse with LFD imo. Sure they have the plot of being the Draenei that never ended up going to Draenor, which is pretty interesting (but leaves the plothole of how exactly did they end up with Blademasters again?). But outside of that, they’re just the Light race but with even more Light. Could’ve easily been a Nightwarrior style customization unlock instead imo.
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Ha! Ha! Blizzard, doing anything right? I thought Patch 8.3 was going to be a good patch to expand further on the Void Elf lore… Nope, still the same old nothing. There is no right.
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