What are blood elves to you?

Community General Discussion
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I’ve been thinking a whole bunch about the ongoing debate regarding high elves/blood elves. I find it interesting that after all this time people still seem to be shouting the same things at the other side, making the same points over and over, with no one being convinced to change their stance. And I wonder about why. Because I don’t think it’s simply stubborn alliance players wanting the pretty elves on their side. I think it is a genuine difference in how people perceive the blood elves and what they are.

I get the feeling that what many in the pro camp are looking for is a sort of classic fantasy elf; friends with nature, good at the sneaky, stealthy bow and arrow game, uses magic but in that nice, natural way. And that’s where they see a place for high elves as a playable race. And I get the feeling that where the sides disagree is that many think the blood elves already fill that niche.

I am genuinely curious if anyone else thinks that’s accurate. And I’m especially curious about why people fall on their particular side.

Here’s where I’m coming from: Even after all these years I’ve never been able to perceive blood elves any differently to how they were throughout TBC. I still see them as they were described in the original TBC announcement trailer. The things they did back then are still who they are to me; Sucking magic from living creatures, subsisting on fel energy, draining the light energy from a captured naaru. Pretty much forsaking their connection to all things natural in order to pursue this darker path to power.

I now genuinely think that blizz’s intent was for their redemption at the end of TBC to wipe the slate clean and return them to their pre-WC3 status. That certainly seems to be the case given Ion’s now famous quote on the subject. If so I think they did a terrible job of it. The reigniting of the sunwell tucked away at the end of the final raid. The introduction of the silver covenant in the very next expansion, positioning them as a kind of “untainted” counterpart. And then no actual change to their city, their quests, their appearance. Not until the recent addition of gold eyes. In what way were they redeemed?

So yeah. I really do want to hear what others think. I don’t mean for this to add to the cacophony of noise. We’ve already got the megathread for that.

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Blizzard has always taken fantasy tropes and turned them on their head in some form or another. Orcs in every media I can think of (especially a Tolkien reference) have ridden on wolves, and been green. In Warcraft, orcs were brown first as a natural color and became green through demonic energy. This means that the fantasy trope has been turned on its head.

Similarly, blonde haired, fair skinned elves have always been seen with humans, and dwarves. Again, go Tolkien. Blizzard took that trope, and turned it on its head, putting the blood elves on the Horde, and making the elves which stayed with humans and all that viewed as cultural traitors because they didn’t stick to their nationality. They chose non-elven races over their elven brothers and sisters.

That said, blood elves are high elves. A change in name and eye color is not a change in biology, which is something the pro high elf camp has also admitted. They want the political / lore friendly aspect of being a high elf within the Alliance. And I don’t think that should ever be the case. I’m very anti-helf. Especially considering the Ren’dorei are an obvious compromise, and in my opinion, much better than helves given their voidy nature.

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Well written.

Personally, I’ve kind of given up on the story in this game. It’s sad but they’ve retconned just a few too many times. Illidan is now a good guy… Sylvanas was responsible for Wrathgate… I’m just kind bleh with it at this point.

It also doesn’t help that in BFA they have completely split the Horde/Alliance storylines. Yrel goes off her rocker in Draino but well only if you do the scenario. Just like Theramore, if you haven’t done the scenario it never happened.

I hope that makes sense, the Bucks of Stars hasn’t opened yet lol.

:cookie:

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Blood elves are life!

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My initial reaction was, “Interesting take on Elves, without the Sunwell they’ll have to find alternative power sources to survive, so they have to try to not be overcome by the Fel or not feel bad eating some Naaru steak.” I liked the idea and imagined all the trials and tribulations that will come with this, especially if they wanted to keep using the Light.

I was disappointed when the Naaru at the end of TBC was like, "lol JK you didn’t need to kidnap a Naaru to keep using the Light, you doofuses, you could’ve done it the whole time. :rofl: " , then the Sunwell was restored and anything interesting about the race is more or less gone.

They’re basically High Elves but still have the green eyes for some reason. Their eyes went green due to the consumption of Fel, but they haven’t done that since TBC.

Wasted potential, really.

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They are my friends.

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Sorry blood elves are not high elves. No matter what you say it will not convince me. I think it’s shady and disrespectful what Blizz did to the race and then made them Horde from Alliance.

Addicted arcane crack addicts with option of gold eyes :joy::joy::joy: :thinking::expressionless::expressionless::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::rage::rage:

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While I really love the lore of Blood Elves. They mostly serve the purpose of being the ‘humans’ of the Horde.

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What are they to me?

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They are a race of elves in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, created by Blizzard Entertainment.

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one big mess really…

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A core Horde race.

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Blood Elves to me are an attempt by a company to suck in vain people who for the life of them would NEVER play on the “monster” faction.

For some reason, many also identify directly with the Scourge, I mean Forsaken) that killed most of their people in Lore. They try to out edgelord the edgelord race in WoW.

I could respect the race if they were still High Elves and the goodie two shoes elves have always been. I mean in most fantasy settings, elves can out male human paladin most male human paladins.

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As someone against High Elves for Alliance. The Alliance already has exactly this Night Elves. We Blood/High Elves stepped away from that very nature to persue Arcane Magic. Striving as a species getting more detached from nature. (the reason people bring with the Druid/Shamans for Blood Elves debate).

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What are they to me?
Target practice :grinning:

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Years ago I used to dislike having belves horde side, but eventually I got used to them. Nowdays I find them an important part of the horde.

We are a ragtag crew of misfits, races so different who manage to not only coexist, but actually enjoy eachother’s presence. Blood elves add contrast to the horde, and have proven themselves numerous times over the years.

I think playable high elves are not necessary at this point. They don’t add much to the alliance, specially now that velves are a thing.

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ya know…

in a lot of medieval fantasy setting stories/games.
its usually the elves that hate everyone and only work with them for their interests.

including in wow. (i hear the blood elves still hate the horde somewhat)

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What Blood Elves mean to me. Put plain and simple they were something that was created to fix the population imbalance of Vanilla WoW. Now they are just a crutch for the Devs to use to pretend that High Elves (no matter the hundreds of them that are in the game, REAL High Elves) don’t exist so they can pretend that they aren’t playable even as they add races that amount to no more than a couple of dozen beings in ALL OF EXISTENCE (See LFD and Void Elves).

It was ok for them to be used to fix the population imbalance for the Horde but can’t do that for the Alliance nope. Have to pull Void Elves out of thin air that have no relevance and mean nothing and have done nothing since inception to pretend like the Alliance got something.

So what they mean to me are a source of aggravation and disgust with the game. They are still the same morally reprehensible beings they were in TBC even as Blizzard tries to dress up the pig that has gone along with now TWO wars against the Alliance. But i am sure they will paint them in some good light somehow.

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Man it didnt take long for the anti sylvanas folks and then"rawr blizzard greedy" folks tk show up.

Anywho blood elves, to me at least, are strong members of the horde. They provide arcane mastery and troops to the horde and have been loyal for years. The only time they considered leaving was when Garrosh was killing anyone on the horde who wasnt an orc, and multiple races were trying to get out of the horde in that situation.

Blood elves had earned their place on the horde a long time ago, all these anti-elf players need to deal with it. And all the helfers need to deal with them being exclusive to the horde fld the time being.

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I mean Night Elves somewhat hate the Alliance too.

I think for both Elves Night and Blood its more of a we care more about our own then any other race.

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