You’re on the WoW Forums lmfao.
Another cesspool of terminally online degenerate reprobates, yes. But at least I can relegate myself to the ‘lore nerds’ corner and mitigate a lot of it. I am blissfully ignorant to the torrent of slurry that permeates the other forums.
Twitter, however, manages to be worse somehow.
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Know what the CRAZIEST thing about the High Elf request is?
If Blizzard had made the Void Elves, from the Silver Covenant, there would be NO High Elf request at all.
Crazy, right? Mind-boggling, even. Such a simple thing. The Elves, who were loyal to the Alliance all along, who were there fighting alongside the Alliance since Wrath, being transformed into Void Abominations due to some accident, would’ve absolutely quelled the whole matter for like 95% of the players.
Yet, for SOME UNKNOWN REASON, Blizzard had the Void Elves come from the Blood Elves. I cannot fathom why.
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In my opinion Wildhammer are of the same issue. They shouldnt just be customization, theyre so much more than simply “Bronzebeard with tattoos”.
These races have distinct cultures, beliefs, characters and yes, even some visual differences even if some are more minor.
If Dark Iron and Mag’har can become an AR, so can these. (And no, i dont think Dark Iron and Mag’har shouldve been customization for the same reason i dont think Wildhammer or High Elves should)
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I definitely agree. In a perfect world, they would all get designated racial treatment like unique customizations, starting experiences and racials.
However, I think what people are missing entirely is that these things require resources. Spending these on re-creating a pre-existing race when they could be used on new races or ones that haven’t had content in years to appeal to a vocal minority that is splitting hairs when it comes to lore differences or small visual differences is (IMO) kind’ve wild.
Heck, I would’ve loved a unique Man’ari experience but I’ll take what I can get.
I agree, this was damaging to the lore both VEs and BEs, but I feel like people would probably still be asking for them.
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Naovi - most allied races are pre-existing races. The only ones they made fresh were Dracthyr.
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Right, exactly. VEs are a pre-existing iteration of Blood Elves, with High Elf customizations added for both sides.
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And High Elves would require less work than other races to implement - all you have to do is give a racials which work more with their theme.
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So, if it’s a matter of racials, why not just add a toggle upon character creation for a different set of racials? (Or like I previously mentioned, a visual toggle for Entropic Embrace to be hidden)
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No one disputes itd take more resources. But id much rather wait- and perhaps not get them at all rather than get some lackluster customization option of one or maybe 2 options.
It also hurts the race storywise because they largely dont get anything when added(Wildhammer, High Elves, Farakki), or get little to nothing (Man’ari or Darkfallen).
Their culture isnt shown, their indivisuality. You are just cosplaying as a different race which is not ideal at all.
I know not everyone agrees, but id rather not get them at all.
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I agree that there would have still been some players asking for natural skin tones and hair colors. I mean, why shouldn’t they? Alleria still had her natural hair and skin colors. There was never a reason Void Elves shouldn’t.
That having been said, you wouldn’t have seen players asking for High Elves. Void Elves would have been High Elves, the new direction of the High Elf story. Now, some players would criticize it, but then there is no part of this game or its story that isn’t in store for criticism.
Instead, however, we got Void Elves, as a different direction of the Blood Elf story. High Elves remained untouched, and so, of course, right after Blizzard revealed Void Elves and said, “We’ve got more Allied Races coming, so tell us what you want,” they immediately got told, “High Elves.”
This wasn’t even a request that blind-sided them. Back in WoD or MoP (I think it was WoD) Ion had an interview in which the concept of subraces was discussed, and he specifically mentioned Mag’har and High Elves as long time requests by the players, but that at the time they had no plans for a subrace system. They KNEW what the players wanted.
So, again, it just strikes me as absolutely insane that they pulled a group of never-before-heard-of Blood Elves out of nowhere to turn into Void Elves, as opposed to Alleria borrowing the Silver Covenant from Vereesa for a weekend to go look for missing members of the Alliance Expedition on Outland, only to be ambushed and get the Silver Covenant transformed into the Umbral Covenant or something.
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High Elves at have a theme through out their history about having some connection with the forests - which aren’t present with the current set of racial for either Blood Elves or Void Elves.
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I guess that’s a difference of opinion, which isn’t really debatable. I’d personally rather take anything they can add for us and fill in the blanks with my own personal worldbuilding and story, so that’s more of an ‘agree to disagree’ situation.
I recognize these things take time and resources and a LONG time to implement, so if I can get a skin or an eye color option which is infinitely easier to add, I’ll take it.
This I agree with 10000%, I quite like Void Elves but they really should’ve been High Elves with Void Elf options as secondary. (Or in my perfect world, High Elves and Void-touched Krokul would’ve been the two allied races that we got.)
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I mean, this is a discussion in a forum specific to story/lore, i think it is understandable many of us feel slighted by such additions. We are passionate about the story.
Additional races with no story is really…blah.
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It is definitely understandable.
Agreed. Dracthyr got the short-end, but that’s another problem.
Do you think it would be feasible to HE fans if Blizzard added a quest-chain about re-integrating High Elves into the Alliance “officially” along with the Void Elves? Similar to how they did with adding Man’ari skins? (They even updated the Gift of the Naaru with a Sargerei graphic, so it’s entirely possible to alter racial visuals to align.)
If the concern is the lack of lore connection, would something less resource heavy suffice?
This is one of the bigger issues I take with Void Elves.
They didn’t even exist until the last 5 minutes of their own recruitment scenario, and what a Void Elf even is, is so poorly defined that there are questions about how canon a Blood Elf Shadow Priest is these days. Is a Void Elf someone transformed by the Void in the way Umbric and his followers were? Is it any elf who practices void magic, like Alleria? Does that only apply to Thalassian Elves, or would Night Elf/Nightborne Void casters also be Void Elves?
Crazy think, the Night Warrior customizations made the Night Elves look more like Void Elves than actual Void Elves.
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My concern with a direction like this is the damage it does to Void Elves. Ever since the High Elf customizations were added, its become rare to see a Void Elf without them. Even those players who actually play as Void Elves prefer them, because the natural skin/hair colors make Entropic Embrace really POP visually, as opposed to the pre-existing options.
Despite being playable for years, Void Elves have virtually no presence in the lore. Their existence is shallow.
Comparatively, High Elves have been a fixture in the Alliance since Vanilla WoW, made all the more prevalent by the Silver Covenant, and even 7th Legion High Elf NPCs in BFA. Between the two races, it’s clear which should be the, ‘subrace.’
I’m not suggesting that adding High Elves as yet another Allied Race is the direction to go, mind you. I just think that the Void Elves as a race concept in player eyes was all but dead on arrival, and pushing more High Elf stuff onto them isn’t a solution to that.
Ideally, I’d say if Blizzard were to add High Elves to the setting, they need to be visually different from Void/Blood Elves. For example, use the Nozdormu and Alexstraza visage models. Some players will absolutely pipe in, “Well, why can’t my Void/Blood Elf look like that, they’re all the same race.” Thing is, Kul Tirans aren’t a different race from Humans, yet they look different, so precedent is already set for having a different body-type to set a playable race apart from another.
Why would these High Elves look so different? Dunno! Maybe, as they controlled their addiction through meditation and willpower rather than through mana vampirism, their bodies began to rapidly change and adapt? Maybe Azeroth decides to imbue some High Elves with her power, the way she did the Dragon Aspects, for the purpose of protecting the world of something. Elves absorb magic like sponges, and High Elves have the least mix of other powers in them compared to Blood/Void Elves.
If they truly are to continue the customization with storylines- they need to up their game.a bit. A small teo minute questline isnt really…sufficient, especially for races not already in the factions.
I dont take as much of an issue with them as some people, but i understand the gripe. I would still argue theyre better than how any of the races added as “Customization” were done.
As for what your saying in general, how i take it is that Ren’dorei started as a very specific group that were genetically altered by the void being in the intro experience. They took on their new name to fit their new life. But now we see that less voidified elves(, thats the actual reality of the less void options. Theyre still void elves, just not mutated as such), being taught the ways of the void without that first initial mutation.
So TLDR; It is both a very specific group and something that can be picked up. So semi sort of like the other elves where it can be a political identity?
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You mileage may vary, depending on how you consider vulpera.
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Good point that people forget. They did the same for current ARs like the Dark Iron. They expanded and added new stuff to make them stand out- like flaming beards.
Races like wildhammer, high elves and so on can get similar treatment.
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