Not really a good analogy, since that’s two entirely separate countries as opposed to the vast majority of a race vs a handful of those elves that ran away from home. Ellisande calls them out for puffing themselves up and pretending to be more than what they are.
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I disagree that numbers have to do anything at all when pointing out the cultural political differences between two groups of people from the same nation.
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I’m going to hate myself for this but, was on my Paladin earlier and had this talent. Blessing of Dusk and Dawn. I.E Darkness and Light. Then I remembered the short quest involving getting the Corrupted Ashbringer skin in Legion. I guess the foot is kind of in the door for Void Elf Paladins. Not much of one but a start.
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This is disingenuous on your part. They did not run away, they were expelled, they were forcefully kicked out of their homes by Lorthemar.
And there are high elf settlements all across Alliance and Kirin Tor bases.
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One lodge was expelled, the rest chose not to come back.
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So they never ran away.
I disagree, when discussing who is the continuation of the legacy of a culture nearly wiped out by tragedy, just because the majority memorializes that tragedy in their name does not mean they are no longer the continuation of that culture.
The so called high elves are a group of pretenders trying to lay claim to a legacy that for the most part they abandoned on their own decision.
debatable, but ran away from home sounds funnier.
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Oh I agree that blood elves are the continuation of the high elven legacy. That’s the whole point, high elves have distanced themselves from their legacy, that’s what makes them different from blood elves, despite maintaining the old racial name.
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ok, in this one I’m gonna be talking about two concepts of high elves, so not capitalized is dealing with the sort of trope or generic fantasy concept of a high elf, like some tolkien elves etc, and capitalized would be the Warcraft specific ones.
The problem I see with the High elves is that of Blizz not being confident in their story, with WC3 and BC they took the concept of high elf and put a twist on it, a magical elf with an edge, but not going into the dark elf or full blown sinister fae side of things.
There were High elves around before BC, but they weren’t any sort of unified group, and you had ones that worked with and against the alliance, so they were much more a scattering of survivors. Kinda like Jedi post order 66, you might find some here and there, but they’re interesting in their rarity.
I feel like in Wrath they got lazy too, rather than make an organic Alliance aligned organization in Dalaran, they mirrored the Sunreavers and just made the Silver Covenant that pretty much had the backstory of “Horde Bad, Blood Elves bad for liking horde stay out of my Dalaran!” And that changed the High elves from scattered survivors into something with an organized force.
So, a bit for me it feels like Blizz hedging their bets “We love what we did with Blood Elves, but just in case, lets stick some bog standard high elves with the alliance”
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I honestly don’t believe Void Elves were created out of spite by the devs. Personally, I think that High Elves were probably on the table as the Alliance allied race opposite the Nightborne. But once they did the Alleria cinematic in the Seat of the Triumvirate and saw Alleria in her void form for the first time, they thought it looked super cool (and I can’t really argue with that), and then the “rule of cool” took over and they ran with it. I think they were honestly excited by the inspiration that cinematic gave them and really wanted to pursue it.
I think this is why the Void Elves were so disconnected from the Legion expansion compared to the other three allied races. Had Blizzard gone with High Elves instead, all the groundwork was already laid. The Silver Covenant High Elves were present at the Nighthold. They were acknowledged by Elisande as separate from the Blood Elves. And given that they’ve had a presence in WoW for years, little explanation was needed for them to officially join the Alliance under Alleria since she was now back on Azeroth.
But the I think “rule of cool” derailed that plan and so they wanted to focus more on the void aspect that Alleria was exploring, and give players the opportunity to be a part of that experience. This resulted in the Alliance High Elves who already had a presence in Legion being left by the wayside and Void Elves having no presence in the Legion story the way the Nightborne, High Mountain, and Lightforged had.
And while the lack of even a hint of Void Elves (as we would know them at release) in Legion was bad enough, the fact that Blizzard chose to (erroneously IMO) source Void Elves from Blood Elves rather than the Silver Covenant High Elves already present in Legion, and also made them look absolutely nothing like their primary faction leader Alleria (Umbric defers to Alleria), left many players disappointed. It just wasn’t what they were looking for.
I do think had Void Elves been part of the Argus storyline, sourced from the Silver Covenant High Elves already present in Dalaran/Legion, and had been introduced with the High Elf customization options we currently have now, that Void Elves would have been far better received. That’s not to say there weren’t/aren’t players who liked Void Elves for what they were as originally introduced, but (and this may just be my own confirmation bias) I think it left many more than that disappointed.
But do I think Blizzard made Void Elves as they were originally introduced simply to spite Alliance players who were asking for High Elves? No I don’t believe that at all. I just think it was the “rule of cool” gone awry due to a few poor choices, and probably not enough time to do it right since (I think) they shifted gears mid development from a High Elf allied race (which would be a “boring” copy/paste in some opinions), to Void Elves (which seemed “new” and “interesting” and less of a copy/paste).
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I still want Night Elf paladins. There was one in Legion.
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Night Elf Paladin should be the Alliance elf Paladin it’s fitting for a lot of different reasons and it’s also not lore breaking like people here keep wanting with a Void Elf Paladin since Void Elves are void infused and void and light don’t really mix.
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The fact they were from blood elves was a big win for me.
I played horde as a blood elf and had never touched the alliance before.
When they revealed void elves i knew i had to be one. They were the race i was playing, just a thousand times cooler.
So when i unlocked them, i was able to continue my characters story.
I was a blood elf who fought through legion, went off to study the void, got void powers and joined the alliance.
Although i dont think it would have hurt at all if alliance high elves were also part of that group.
That way everyone would have won.
But oh well, whats done in done.
It was confirmed straight after in their starting area that alliance high elves were in fact now studying the void as well. So its not like it was all blood elves all the time.
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there has been high elf paladins since high elves were playable.
you can tell they are high elf paladins because they live in the high elf city.
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It might have been best if it was a mix of both in the intro, especially considering how it appealed to you. It’s not like it would have been difficult either considering both Silvermoon and the Silver Covenant had forces at the Nighthold, so it would make sense.
But you’re right about the fact that the later generations of Void Elves are implied to be a mix of both Alliance allied High Elves and defecting Silvermoon Blood Elves.
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Except Blizzard has flat out said that the ones that don’t make sense (like Void Elf Paladins and Draenei Warlocks) will not happen.
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This one makes me sad in a way since I’ve always wanted Draenei Warlock and then Lightforged Draenei Warlock since they were added in Legion but I’m not going to lose my head over if they are never added.
My number one class/race combo want is Kul Tiran Warlock and I know eventually it will be a thing so I’m just over here waiting like. 
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Blizzard said no such thing.
These were the bullet points from Holinka’s interview regarding new race/class combos:
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The team wants to move towards a world where the race of a character is not an inhibitor to what class you can play.
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Classes that require more work with custom forms and animations will most likely be thought of and added over time.
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Classes that have strict lore adherence will likely need more set-up.
Your claim that “Blizzard has flat out said that the ones that don’t make sense (like Void Elf Paladins and Draenei Warlocks) will not happen.” is either something said many years ago, or just a fiction you created. If you still think it’s not, then PROVE IT by showing where a Blizzard dev said any such thing within the past 2 years.
^ CITATION PROVIDED ^
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No need to be sad. Zelestriana’s claim is false, and you might well see your Draenei and Lightforged Warlocks some day. Obviously there’s no guarantees for “if” or “when”, but Blizzard never said it’s off the table and is in fact on record as saying that Void Elf Paladins are on the table. And if that combo is on the table, then I can’t imagine anything equally problematic would be off.
From a French interview:
Ion Hazzikostas: “I think there are things besides their hair color that would make Void Elf Paladins disliked by their order. However, race/class associations are something the development team is actively discussing. We collect many opinions, many requests, and while some combinations might seem more complex than others, we believe that everything is possible. So we don’t want to close the doors of a certain class to a certain race. We don’t have anything to announce specifically for Eternity’s End, but it’s something we discuss a lot.”
It may not be a promise of anything specific, but it sure as heck isn’t a " X race/class combo is never going to happen".
(This interview is in French but can be translated via Google if you don’t speak French)
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That is not what they said:
Oh yeah, now I remember that(translated part of that for the story forums a while ago) should have just linked it and ended this debate about void elf paladins.
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