- How many High Elves chose not to become Blood Elves? 10%
- How many Void Elves were there compared to the full population of Blood Elves? Probably less than 10%
- There are enough High Elves to be playable based solely on the fact that there are enough Void Elves to be playable.
It’s not “my canon”, it’s just how the actual metrics work out. The Void Elves were a small group of Blood Elves who chose to pursue the void. The High Elves were 10% of the remaining population who chose not to be Blood Elves.
You’re conflating two issues into one.
“High Elves are Blood Elves” is inaccurate. It’s like saying that humans are Russian. Some humans are Russian. Some humans are Canadian.
Alternately, imagine this:
- Humans lose 90% of their population to a new plague.
- The remaining humans decide to call themselves “New Humans”.
- 10% of the remaining humans don’t want to abandon their name and identity, and call themselves Humans while splitting from the rest of society.
“New Humans” and “Humans” are both human. They’re the same species. Realistically though you enter the problem.
When you refer to different political groups, different cultural groups, by “species” names you completely destroy any political grouping that can occur. Blood Elves and High Elves aren’t distinct on genetic levels, we all agree. They’re distinct on social, cultural, and political levels.
Arguing about what species they are is literally irrelevant because that’s not what we’re arguing.
High Elves were nearly wiped out during the assault on the Sunwell. The small remaining group was presented with new ways to survive, and a small number of them opted out of that new lifestyle. The main group chose to name themselves “Blood Elves” as a new political moniker. Those who disagreed opted to retain the moniker “High Elf”.
Which means:
- Saying Blood Elves are biologically High Elves is accurate on a genetic level.
- Saying High Elves are biologically Blood Elves is accurate on a genetic level.
- Saying that Blood Elves are High Elves socially is inaccurate; they don’t agree with each other and are unique social groups.
- Saying that High Elves are Blood Elves socially is inaccurate; they don’t agree with each other and are unique social groups.
TLDR
Every naysayer I’ve seen focuses intensely on the 10% of High Elves who chose not to become Blood elves. It focuses intensely on how small the population is (regardless of how that’s never mattered). It focuses intensely on ignoring the reasons behind the split between the two.
Ultimately it ignores all of the nuance of the lore in favor of trying to pretend that being the same species is the same as being the same race, nation, or identity.
Edit:
To be clear, even in the linked videos below you, Ion isn’t completely willing to say they’re the same. He says that “blood elves are High Elves”, but then staggers when he goes to say High Elves are Blood Elves. He makes it clear that there’s just not a lot of current unique identity, and that they don’t feel unique (to the developers) enough to make that leap.
It’s interesting because it shows that even the developers are aware that High Elves aren’t really the same as Blood Elves, even though Blood Elves are definitely a kind of High Elf.
I don’t think anyone disagrees, necessarily, either. High Elves weren’t expanded. We know what they used to be, and what Blood Elves became, but there’s not a ton of development there. The argument goes, eternally, back to the statement:
“They’re not different enough because they haven’t been written differently enough, but there’s all the room in the world to do so. They’re already set up to be uniquely different entities, but they keep not exploring it.”
vs
“They could be expanded on and included since the lore clearly indicates that the High Elves joined the Alliance and Dalaran.”