I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but no, I do not like the Void Elves. Everything about them is low effort and low quality, and too much about them is easily read as spite on the part of the Devs towards a portion of the community. One could go so far as to even misinterpret it as factional bias.
Their Origins:
Summary
There was no seeding at all for this race in the lore.
Nothing ever hinted at the existence of a group of Blood Elves studying the Void. Nothing ever suggested such a group was banned from Quel’Thalas. Even Alleria herself is so unalike the Void Elves that she doesn’t even feel like one, meaning her own existence in the narrative doesn’t feel like any kind of foreshadowing as to an entire race coming into existence.
The race was such a low effort addition to the game that they didn’t even actually exist until the last five minutes of their own recruitment questline. Also… Magister Umbric? Like, damn… step back Velen, Zul, you guys have got NOTHING on that guy’s parents where prophecy is concerned. Even the name for this race screams meme; Ren’dorei, like Kylo Ren from the new Star Wars movies (as if this race didn’t need that albatross hanging over it’s head as well).
Their Narrative:
Summary
So, you’d think the Void Elves, at the very least, would make the Void interesting and unique in how they use it, right? Sorry to disappoint you, but everything the Void Elves do is stuff mages have been doing for ages already, just flavored purple. Its not until a novel that we get something remotely unique (Alleria using the void to extract information directly from the minds of others), but you’ll never see that in game.
The Void Elves’ narrative existence is to fight the Horde, apparently. Throughout the Fourth War, Alliance players see them using the void to commit atrocities with the excuse of, “but it could be much worse,” while Horde players just watch them straight up losing their minds and void bombing orphanages full of puppies because reasons. It’s as if they exist to give Horde players a race to kill on the Alliance guilt free after the Horde started ANOTHER WAR. I mean, the Void Elves aren’t just messing with taboo power, they’re also TRAITORS!
Meanwhile every void-related storyline in the expansion is one in which the Void Elves are not present.
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There’s an artificial Old God in Uldir about to break loose and make it the world’s problem. Why, surely this is something the Void Elves would be able to innately sense, something they’d bring to the attention of the Alli- nope. It was Brann Bronzebeard. Because why wouldn’t it be?
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The player-character gets an eyeball slapped on their forehead that’s constantly whispering at them, and would like it removed. Surely our race of Void Experts will be able to help remov- nope. But the human shaman sure can.
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The Alliance fleet has been dragged to the ocean floor by Azshara. There’s an entire subzone filled with naga void mages, with their tomes laying around, the place so lousy with mind squids that you can’t take a step without trodding on one of their eggs. Over on the Horde the Blood Elves and Nightborne are getting some real bonding time. Surely this is a chance for the Void Elves to not only delve into the power of the Void, researching the naga’s methods to protect their Night Elven allies against it and thus proving their worth, but also a chance for the Alliance’s two elven factions to finally get some development that explains why the Night Elves would even give these eldritch abominations the time of day and- NOPE. The only Void Elves here are in generic Stormwind Plate as faceless, nameless guard NPCs.
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Ebonhorn is struggling against the whispers of the Old Gods and is going to succumb to their corruption if aid cannot be rendered! Surely now, NOW of all times, the Void Elves will act. They struggle against the whispers on a daily basis. Their experience, knowledge, and techniques, must be absolutely vital to developing a safeguard for Ebonhorn- nope. There was a cure all along in Karazhan. Because why wouldn’t it be in Karazhan? Oh well, at least the Void Elves can chug that potion to also- wait, they don’t even seem to be aware of it? Oh, okay… guess they’ll keep suffering the whispers, even though there’s an actual cure for that…
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N’Zoth has risen, the world is wracked by Visions of destruction, the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Uldum are being assaulted by the minions of the Old Gods. Surely now… NOW is the time the Void Elves rise up, to fight the void with the void, to prove themselves worthy allies, to show that their name MEANS something! Hahaha… no. They’re completely absent. Well, except as trash mobs in the Horrific Visions of Stormwind scenario.
Their Appearance:
Summary
They’re Blood Elves, with icy blue, purple, and grey skin tones to look like corpses. They get blue and purple hair (not even natural white or black at first, like, really?), and some of their hairstyles have glowing tentacles in them. Tada, Void Elves.
Like, really? Low effort doesn’t even begin to describe it. They look more like teenage half-night elf, half-draenei, rather than a race of void modified elves. Where’s the third eye? Where’s the maws for shoulders? Where’s the tentacle arms? Give us SOMETHING! Let us customize their void forms separately, going for something closer to what Alleria looks like than this obnoxious blue spray paint. How about some scars that glow with the void? Or tattoos? War paint? SOMETHING!
Their Heritage Armor:
Summary
This garbage looks like it was ripped off the corpse of a Dreadlord and then dipped into a pool of void-flavored koolaid. The wings are an interesting effect for sure, but why is it tied to the armor, and not something Void Elves could just customize for the character themselves? Wings, the swirling void walker effect, etc… that would’ve been cool.
Their heritage armor doesn’t even look remotely elven. There isn’t even a robe variant of it. Again, this feels like meme territory. THEY’VE GOT MAGNETO’S HELMET IN PURPLE! WERE YOU EVEN TRYING, BLIZZARD?! This looks like Dreadlord armor you could get off the Trading Post today!
Their Home:
Summary
A slapdash mess of re-used Legion assets put together so haphazardly that Blizzard has to invisible wall off portions of it so players don’t fall through to their deaths. I suppose I should be grateful they got something at all, but I think I’d have actually preferred nothing. The only saving grace Telogrus Rift has is that it’s not on Azeroth, meaning it’s the perfect place for them to exist and study without endangering anyone, but then you’ve got the only named Void Elves talking about bringing Quel’Thalas back into the Alliance rather than embracing a convenient new home.
What’s even the point of the Telogrus Rift when apparently even the Void Elves don’t want it?!
Their Racials:
Summary
So, the passives are pretty okay. Transmog cost reduction is a bit odd. “Ethereal Connection?” Didn’t we establish on Argus and in Outland that most ethereals HATE the void with a burning passion? Like, why would ethereals be giving the Void Elves discounts, rather than ripping them off out of spite for studying the power that destroyed their homeworld, and turned them into space mummies?
I’ve never used the teleport racial. A bit too clunky for my taste. I’ve been told it’s great in PvP, but I don’t PvP.
Then we get to Entropic Embrace, the frosting on the fecal cake of Void Elves. This obnoxious racial triggers every ten seconds, applying a blueberry coating to one’s character, whether they want it or not. Rather than having their void form be something the Void Elves toggle on or off the way Alleria does, thus proving their mastery of the void, it’s instead something uncontrollable, making it seem like the Void Elves have NO skill at all in wielding the void. This racial was designed to contradict their identity as masters of the void. It’s also ugly as sin and nothing whatsoever like Alleria’s amazing void form.
Their Effect on Other Races’ Lore:
Summary
I’m talking Blood Elves, and to a lesser degree, Night Elves.
First, let’s look at the Blood Elves. Congratulations to all the Blood Elf shadow priest players out there, looks like you’re no longer canon! Yeah, this race did that, because for SOME REASON Void Elves just HAD to come from some never before heard of faction of Blood Elves. I mean, this travesty of a race could’ve come from anything. Alleria’s forces from the Second War could’ve been transformed in Outland somewhere, having already established for themselves a culture and an identity or something. That would’ve been cool. Or hell, Alleria could’ve borrowed the Silver Covenant for a weekend to go investigate… I don’t know. Pick a void hotspot on Azeroth, it’s not like we’re hurting for them.
But no. Void Elves had to come from Blood Elves, as if the Devs themselves in one final act of spite were going, “You Alliance players keep asking for High Elves. You want to play Blood Elves so bad? Fine! We’ll make them blue to match your faction, LOL!” So now Blood Elf shadow priests and even their warlocks are cast into canonical doubt to an extent. Not only that, but the Blood Elves are made to look stupid. They exiled the High Elves and pulled a surprised Pikachu meme when the High Elves were hostile towards them. I’m guessing they thought exiling Umbric and his followers would be different because Lor’themar apparently shares a brain cell between himself, Liadrin, and Halduron (since all three are never on screen at the same time), and it just wasn’t Lor’themar’s day to have the brain cell.
Worst of all? The Blood Elves’ original identity as pragmatists doing what was needed to survive, of tapping into powers profane and taboo to get an edge, was excised completely from them in this act. Now they’re just the Holy Elves, while all that identity that made the Blood Elves so amazing to begin with was surgically transplanted over to the Alliance. What even is the Blood Elves’ culture anymore? I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Void Elves even have a culture, but their existence just invalidated what the Blood Elves had been clinging to since the Sunwell was restored.
Then we have the Night Elves, a race so suspicious of the Thalassian Elves they, for some inexplicable reason, sent an army halfway across the world to spy on them while their own sacred forests on Kalimdor were burning in Felfire from infestations of demons, satyr, orcs, naga, and corrupt furbolgs. The same Night Elves whom didn’t want the High Elves anywhere near their Kalimdor. Yes, these Night Elves apparently had nothing to say whatsoever about former Blood Elves inundated in the corrupting power of the Void becoming their allies. You even had Void Elves walking through the streets of Darnassus like tourists without a peep out of the Night Elves.
The worst incarnation of everything they hate about Thalassian Elves joined the Alliance and the Night Elves just shrug? We’re talking about elves wielding the same kind of powers AZSHARA HERSELF MESSES WITH TODAY! AND THE NIGHT ELVES ARE FINE WITH THIS?!
I’d get MAYBE some good will might have been earned if, say, the Void Elves had helped evacuate Teldrassil while it was on fire using Void Rifts, but no, we had to conveniently forget that, the Vindicaar, etc… existed so the Night Elves could suffer genocide. The first time we see Night Elves and Void Elves interacting (and the last time as far as I’m aware) is Shandris and Umbric teaming up on a mission in Zandalar. She’s about as passive then as she was with Voss in the recent Emerald Dream patch. Maybe Shandris is just a very chill Night Elf, I don’t know.
It STILL doesn’t feel like the Void Elves have done anything to explain why the Night Elves aren’t actively trying to wipe them off the face of Azeroth, let alone tolerate them anywhere near their settlements.
I could honestly keep going on why I hate the Void Elves as a race. I think the most damning thing of all is that this race had potential. It COULD have been amazing, it COULD have worked passed the flaws of it’s trash introduction, it COULD have provided a catalyst for change and thought-provoking stories, even internal struggle in the Alliance that would have felt entirely organic…
But it didn’t.
If this is what Blizzard always intended with the Void Elves, then they should’ve just added the High Elves and been done with it. At least we’ve had them in the Alliance’s narrative throughout WoW’s lifetime, so the complete and utter lack of development or use outside of fighting the Horde would’ve been fine. High Elves wouldn’t have needed as much.
Void Elves need multiple books and expansions to bring them up to par, and we’re WAY past the point this needed to happen.