I could imagine them simply have a generic “Highborne Elf” option and the game treating it as a neutral race option. Lore wise all three flavors would keep existing, but it be like how they compressed (nearly) all the types of troll together, or Wildhammer and Bronzebeard Dwarves.
TBH there is really no difference between Blood and High elves now aside for political affiliation. Void Elves took over the edgy pragmatist role of the old TBC era Blood Elves… which might be a reason Metzen would lean into them. He loves him some edgy material.
They are definitely not going to just delete a race from the game; it is a bit like trying to ask them to decree Shadowlands a N’zoth induced bad dream. For better or worse they (and we) are stuck with what they put out into the world.
So we’re clear; I know this is a bait question and I’m gonna answer it anyways so I can avoid leveling my druid just a little bit longer.
Overall I loved Legion’s story start to finish. There were certainly some bumps in the road, but they’re easily ignorable compared to the vast majority which was done right.
BfA outside of the faction stuff was pretty darn good as far as story goes. Zuldazar was a blast, Kul Tiras was fun, and the Nazjatar/N’zoth stuff should have been the main focus of the expansion.
Shadowlands had great zone stories in the four main ones, and the ZM campaign was alright for an endgame final zone (those don’t always get much story at all).
Dragonflight is probably the one I’m least interested in, because I just don’t find dragons interesting overall.
It’s all cool and everything to hate on the bad stuff, and I do that myself. But pretending there’s only bad is disingenuous at best. It’s easy to ignore the good, but I just choose not to do that.
So yes. I do anticipate having a blast in Midnight, and TWW before it. I still somehow enjoy this cartoony comic book style story.
Indeed. I think this is one of the more likely outcomes for Midnight, and I think in the end it’d probably resolve a lot of lingering issues in the playerbase. A lot of Blood Elf players feel like their customizations were stolen from them, and a few have admired one or two things Void Elves had. Granted I don’t think making the two races into one will really make those Blood Elf players happy, as the premise for their position has largely rested on denying the Alliance any High Elf options at all, and this would just finalize that, but at least some Blood Elf players would be happy for the new beards and the one or two hairstyles Void Elf women have that are actually pretty okay.
There is some cultural difference, but you need to read between the lines to pick up on it. In the Manga, we learned that the Quel’Danil High Elves (those in the Hinterlands) went cold turkey on magic after the Sunwell was destroyed, taking a very Kaldorei approach towards it, blaming it as the source for all their problems.
Then there’s the Dalaran High Elves whom enjoy more freedoms and liberties than their kin in Quel’Thalas would allow, such as marrying other races and having children with them. There’s also less/no shame in humbler work one feels passionate about. Astalor Bloodsworn chides his apprentice in a letter that all she’s good for is basket weaving, but we see High Elf bakers and florists in Dalaran whom seem to really enjoy their lives, whereas Astalor’s apprentice went off the deep-end at the idea of never being a proper Magistrix.
Quel’Thalas is a very strict place where non-conformity runs the risk of Exile/Banishment. By contrast, High Elves are more free to pursue lifestyles and ideologies they feel passionate about. Again, this is all something you need to read between the lines to see, it is there in the lore, and it is a difference between the two groups.
Blizzard could absolutely focus more on it if they chose to, although there never has been much incentive to do so, as the High Elves aren’t a playable race. Yet. Waiting to see what Midnight brings.
Circling back to Void Elves, I think Blizzard realized what a mistake they were, or rather, what a mistake it was to add a race to the game that didn’t even exist until the last five minutes of their own recruitment scenario. Small wonder players turned against Void Elves as a concept to the point they virtually stopped existing outside of Alleria. Then again, it seems as if they only ever existed to give Horde players a race to feel good about fighting over on the Alliance during BFA.
Like I said before, if they weren’t playable, they’d 110% be the antagonists in Midnight.
I’ve been pondering how they might compress the elves down, and my suspicion is in TWW we will see Void and High elves compressed via saying the Void Elves are now part of the Silver Covenant, paired with a new batch of customization—Alleria’s new armor looks very silver covenant to me, and we know she is in Dalaran for SOME reason. Then, in Midnight, we’ll see them tackle the faction divide and come out with a universal “Thalassian Elf” option.
Didn’t know she was in Dalaran to be honest, but I suppose her armor being Silver Covenant themed might be true. I hadn’t really thought of it to be honest. All I had been thinking was that it didn’t look remotely Void Elven. Also, I hadn’t realized until just now that Alleria is indeed in Dalaran in the trailer they gave us for TWW.
I think this is going to be another wait and see kind of deal. She has reason enough to visit Dalaran considering Vereesa lives there. Maybe Arator lives there too. He was raised by Vereesa, so Dalaran has probably been his home for years.
It’ll be a wait and see kind of thing for certain. Right now I couldn’t see the Silver Covenant featuring in TWW, especially with Midnight around the corner. It’d also feel a bit… weird for Alleria to basically turn her back on the Void Elves to join/lead the Silver Covenant (assuming Vereesa stepped down or something).
Yuh, the whole scene with her that introduces the new features starts off flying into Dalaran, then her walking the streets. I forgot too and had to rewatch the cinematic.
And screw you guys for making me do that!! Alleria’s voice actress is giving me some kinda feelings, and Xal’atath with her sinister smirky void-tatted-up face isn’t helping and maybe I need to stay away from the Paletress objectifying video game characters thread!!
Those are nice little moments you have mentioned. But can those moments stand up to how devastating BfA-Shadowlands has been?
Can this team (who are doing better as of Dragonflight) pull this saga off? I have some pretty serious reservations that they can pull off Midnight with the blood elves.
See? Bait question. I called it immediately. Because I’m talking about the majority of content for both expansions, and you’re qualifying all that as “neat little moments”.
One dumb faction war and a recolored Sargeras. Both quickly (and rightly) thrown in the dumpster.
I know it’s cool and edgy to focus only on the things you hate and decide in spite of recent changes that the bad things must continue, but I’m just some silly dumb broad picture kinda person who can somehow still enjoy the good stuff in spite of the bad.
Void elves will fit very easily into it given that it’s going to be void stuff.
What I’m hung up on is that when Metzen says we’ll be “reuniting the scattered elven tribes”, what does he mean by this? Do Kaldorei and Shal’dorei fit into this as well? It feels weird and like it won’t quite fit, so I’m assuming he just means Blood/High/Void.
I am pretty convinced right now he means to compress the Thalassian elves together into one group, reflected on the character screen as basically making them into a neutral race with high/blood/void elf customization options.
They could in theory also compress the Kaldorei and Shal’dorei, but that seems out of scope for an expansion about Quel’thalas.
It could also mean involving a lot of the minor elf variants we don’t see a lot of. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Darkfallen involved somewhat, especially in the Ghostlands. We might also see some of the Wretched or Felblood elves if any of them still exist.
Felbood I see some possibility of, but the Wretched should of been cured of their condition when the well was restored, as every Quel/Sin’dorei has a link to it.
Darkfallen I expect yes, would not surprise me Sylvanas shows back up to defend Quel’thalas and is their poster child for Darkfallen. Though, if they move Delryn back across they could have both being the Darkfallen representatives for their faction.
Please let this happen!! Delaryn was so cool in BfA’s pre-patch I was sad she died, and even more so when she got raised and joined the Horde. I really hope she comes back to the Alliance.