As many people have predicted, this “Fourth War” seems to have been meant to be the faction war to end all faction wars, meaning Horde and Alliance are seemingly moving towards a new era of cooperation. This opens up the possibility that faction restrictions are going to be lifted soon and Horde and Alliance are going to be able to communicate and party together moving forward, possibly even join the same guilds.
If this happens (and I know that’s a big if, but let’s entertain the idea that it does), would that be enough for the players who want playable High Elves? What if they add blue eye color options? What if the High Elves returned to Quel’thalas and formally merged with the Blood Elves, ending the political distinction between the two groups, but allowing you to RP that you were Alliance the whole time before the merge? The High Elves would technically be Horde, but factions wouldn’t really matter in this scenario.
Would that work or is it “Alliance High Elves or bust”?
Edit: To be clear, I am not suggesting Horde “High Elves” be a new playable race, but rather a cosmetic option for Blood Elves in a game where being Horde or Alliance no longer matters.
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I personally dont want more rlves but high elves are alliance or bust i am sure
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I don’t want more elves, either, which is why I am proposing High Elves just become a cosmetic option for Blood Elves rather than a whole new race, but I’m not sure how well that will go over with the High Elf fans.
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Rage lots of rage alliance has been craving them and just making them cosnetic would not go well.
No, I want the High elves of the Alliance to be playable. Hell, even now Alleria and Vereesa manage to end up being a part of one the pivotal moments of the story.
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Those two made a cameo because of their relationship to Sylvanas, not because High Elves as a whole were too important and/or relevant to leave out. Vereesa didn’t even talk.
Still, you answered my question and I appreciate you weighing in.
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They’d have to Pandaren them into the game: remove Blood Elves and introduce Thalassian Elves that choose their faction.
Otherwise you still have things like racials, game intros, quests, etc. all referring to your character as a Blood Elf.
Alliance players would just love that.
Edit: Not to mention, who leads the faction? Who leads your race?
I think the reason people want to play as high elves is the whole ideology and appearance thing. A blood elf is still a blood elf, even if they’re allowed into Alliance cities and allowed to interact with Alliance races. They may look similar to a high elf, but they still have green or golden eyes along with the reddish skin tone.
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Well, if Blizzard is bringing down the factions, I suppose it only makes sense to add blue eyes as an option to the belves and suggest the helves and belves ultimately made up. That or find a way for customization options within a race to trigger different tooltip readings, so a blue-eyed belf reads as a helf when scrolled over or when NPCs talk to them.
That said, I’d hope for more than blue eyes, just to help helves stand out a bit more, but also make their addition more of a benefit to belf customization. For example; full beards. I imagine fuller, thicker beards is a style helves would adopt from their human and, especially, dwarven allies. I know a lot of belves want thicker fuller beards, so use this as an excuse to give it to them.
Honestly, while we’re at it, nip some other requests in the bud. Add some undead skins to the belves, and also to the nelves. Maybe add some new customizations to nelves to better reflect Highborne, too.
If customization option choice can affect tooltips, maybe have it affect racials too. So a belf has Arcane Torrent, but if you choose blue eyes and are a helf, that changes to, ‘Arcane Focus,’ or if you pick the undead option, it changes to, ‘Arcane Feeding.’ I’d say change the animation or at least the color as well for maximum effect, without going overboard. Undead nelves could maybe use, ‘Deathmeld,’ instead of Shadowmeld.
Small touches could make it work very well, assuming the faction barriers drop.
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Well, going by the conversation, seems like Vereesa and the SC and Alleria and the velves ended up doing scouting, but we saw helf siege weapons on the battlefield in front of Orgrimmar, so the helves contributed more than just manpower.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/435001891026632705/626375956436615188/image0.jpg
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Nice find. So again, the high elves(dont forget, Vereesa was also in the first SoO) are part of the Alliance that fights the Horde. Even when they are not playable they still manage to get added.
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No, to many elves in this game already, better question, would alliance accept blood elves if the game went cross faction?
Given they took in void elves easily enough sure
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I know that. That’s why I am not suggesting a new playable race, but a blue eye color option for Blood Elves in a hypothetical situation where factions stop being relevant.
Okay, first of all sorry, I thought you were just asking for high elves.
The reason I’d be against it is because if factions merge, and if races put aside their characteristics they will become blander than what they are now.
There has to be dynamics between the races, if they all agree on everything and anything, there will be no story. And this game’s story is already a dumpster on fire.
But that’s my 2 cents, I’m sure the Alliance would be up for it.
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Why would races put aside their characteristics?
I… fail to see how there wouldn’t be dynamics between the races though in this hypothetical.
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okay, let’s take the trolls for example.
They always meddled with voodoo, they worshiped gods and did all sort of blood and dark magic, and now? now all of that is gone, a hint of it stays, but your modern troll is as humanized as possible.
All the races, each and every one of them are being humanized, the orcs are warriors, savages… humanized blurting mah honor every 2 mins. Tauren, shamans who wanted to save the world and heal the land are now humanized, let’s save undead human, bring it to enemy, lets befriend enemy king. The undead, never cared for the living, always had their dark goals, humanized, suddenly care for the living, and if things go the way I see it, they will put Calia as their leader, just another human. High elves? the noteable ones were paired with humans, strongest mages? human. Dwarves were supposed to be greedy, always digging for more, they now think and act like humans.
And anyone who doesn’t think with our human values is instantly hit by the villain bat. Can’t other races have other values? their own moral codes? Can’t certain races just be different?
In the end if everyone will think and live with the human morality, what will be there to play for? to get new purple gear with higher numbers on it?
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Given the sheer number of races, I don’t see how overlap is impossible. While different races may share similar ideals (or pay lip service to that), the fact remains the definition of those ideals can still remain unique to said race.
Humans and Orcs both love their honor. Well, for the Orcs, honor has always been a pragmatic thing, doing what is necessary to survive, while for humans honor has always been a moralistic thing, doing what they believe is right for the greater society.
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If Cross-Faction partying was implemented? Eh. If the factions themselves were more or less dissolved lore-wise, Quel’thelas got a revamp and Belves/Helves were visually and culturally shown as distinct but once again unified as a Thalassian faction? Yes.
Otherwise Alliance or bust.