I always read the title as "High elf impregnation"

Having read both concepts, I'd be happy with both Marthen's concept and the Aethas concept.

The former I like because these are elves who actually went back to being high elves, and one could say their character has been fighting with the Alliance since the beginning.

The latter intrigues me a lot, too. It would make it more probable that Dalaran will remain Alliance. If Vereesa dies, the main opposition into them becoming Alliance is gone (well except for Jaina). If she lives, there can be amazing conflict between the two, plus an added layer of storytelling with Alleria her sister leading these ex-Sunreavers.

If Dalaran lands in the crater and becomes Alliance i will be so happy.

It only makes sense with the Legion and Scourge defeated that people would look towards rebuilding, especially after all they have lost.

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My guess on how the story will unfold:

* The void elf storyline will be similar to the krokul in Mac'aree: they've been "infected" by void and spreading the corruption. It's probably that a few reckless elves let the void spread out over a sizable population, and the blood elves, not being able to cure them, quarantaned them somewherem, like lepers.

* If this development is new or a retcon, I don't know. I think it makes more sense if these are not guys dealing with the void now, but remnants of the darker times in Quel'thalas, when the blood elves were desperate to find alternatives to the Sunwell.

* Aethas may somehow be involved. The dialog in the Vindicaar indicates he's attuning to cosmic forces. Maybe he enters in contact with the void, gets curious, and later he and some followers seek the exiles to study the void further. Things go bad and they are influenced by the whispers. This does not mean that "the Sunreavers" as a whole start dealing with the void, only Aethas and a few others.

* Aethas thus seeks Alleria (or Alleria senses the void in Quel'thalas, during the Windrunner reunion in Ghostlands). Anyway, Alleria finds the exiles and tries to help them like she did with the krokul. This time, however, she has more experience, and knows about the success of Nabiru in purging the void from afflicted krokul (questline in Mac'aree to get void-purged troops)

* Like the Void-purged Krokul, the void elves are not masters of void magic (or else they'd be a class, not a race), but they are purged off the void influence, with lingering void energies (read the Void-purged Krokul description). This leaves them changed, but sane.

* About the Silver Covenant, I think Alleria is able to convince Vereesa (if she dies, it will be later) to help the void elves recover. The high elves may be wary of the void elves, but would tolerate them. They'd play a role similar to non-cursed guilneans play to worgen: they are not playable, but would be frequently be keeping an eye on their void-touched kin.

* I don't really see Silver Covenant or other high elves going back to Horde just because of void elves or, worse yet, Vereesa's supposed death. If anything, they'd just stay away from the void elves, if the above cooperation angle ends up not being true. I think the cooperation hypothesis is good because, by adding both races' together, you have more characters (and population) available. Also, by keeping high elves present, it makes high elf fans more likely to accept the void elves.

* With the void elves now available, I really doubt high elves will ever be playable. That ship has finally sunk. At most, we will have a few void elf customization options that remind of high elves, but are still different.

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The High Elves will all be in Darnassus becausw the Sentinels will be out trying to waylay the Horde, guerilla style.

High Elves get burnt. RIP High Elves.

Meanwhile, Night Elves are mostly fine, striking from the shadows where rhey can.

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Just my personal opinion and something I might be completely wrong about, but I expect the race to have a significant array of High Elf-esque customization options (as in skin and hair colors, not necessarily hairstyles, which are identical to those of the Blood Elves). After all, they already seem to have blue glowing eyes already(which is one of the reasons why I presume these elves splintered off Silvermoon before Rommath's teaching had taken hold - and thus before Silvermoon became part of the Horde), so all you need to make them look like one are pale skin and hair colors.

Why? Because it feels to me like a typical attempt to kill two birds with one stone, ie an attempt to give those who want playable High Elves something at least rather close visually while making something new and avoiding the pitfalls of the traditional High Elves (not bringing anything new, being literally Blood Elf reskins, and so on) at the same time.

Just a small note here: it seems Blizzard wants all allied races to have different customization options than the race they are based off. Lightforged draenei do not share the hairstyles of standard draenei, and so far it seems to be true for the void elves.

The two hairstyles we see in the preview are not available to the blood elves (thought the female one is just the blood elf ponytail style, without the ponytail).

In that vein, I hope void elves get hairstyles that are a little more unkempt than blood elves'. I really dislike how all female belf styles look like the character is going to a high society party or something. I would like to see more casual styles. Or, like Alleria, they get styles full of braids and ore natural adorns (Alleria has feathers on her hair).

Another thing is that void elves will probably get one or two new customization categories. I'd love to see them get markings such as Alleria's warpaint or night elf-like facial tatoos.

Their eyes are more akin to a death knight's than a standard high elf.

I agree with that, but I think there will be more options that deviate from standard high elf look than ones that conform to it.

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That was my point, that while they may get skin and hair colors we see with High Elves in-game (or similar), they won't necessarily get the same hairstyles, as these tend to be identical to those Blood Elves in-game have.


They seem more like the eyes Alleria has to me. Ie something I would call a HD rendition of the High Elf eyes (as the eyes they have in-game seem to be quite lackluster - males still even have the Blood Elf green tint).



That is likely, although I expect at least a third that will be more traditional.

Males better have beard options.

They look more like DK's to me, but I may be wrong.

Also, that Alleria hair... braid, feather ornament... That's the kind of thing I want to see! Not to mention the warpaint/tatoo/whatever.

I hope you are right.

I share this sentiment. At least magnificent bastard full goatees!

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blue eye color for the blood elves

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Here's what I mean when I say void elves will get a few "normal-ish" skins (original/modified by my underwhelming noobish skills):

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That could work. It would satisfy the want for High Elves. Despite seeing Blizzard just capitulating and just out right making High Elves a playable Allied Race along with Void Elves.

I made a few more takes on void elf skins. Going both for exotic and normal-ish. The first to the left is the original one, the others are mine. I particularly like the third and fifth ones.




To me, the Blizzard one is the weakest. Very little contrast between color tones, feels dead. Even my versions of the blue skins (2nd and 4th ones) feel better, at least to me.

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This is not your personal blog, please dont.

Those look great, Deicide. The darker color on the hands is a lot less jarring with the flesh colored ones. I’m hoping we get something similar to your edits because right now it’s looking like we’re getting tiny, angry night elves.

Awesome, Deicide! If they add that, and we get most of the blood elf hair and beard styles, I'll be set and won't ever ask for high elves again.

I will punch you for your microagression.

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What they sold us / what we got:



After confirming my worst fears with the PTR, this void elf mess really let me down. I'm seriously considering to take a break off Warcraft after that. The only time I considered stop my subscription was WoD announcement, and yet I endured the worst expansion ever. This time, however, instead of just being a bad product, it felt like being insulted and slapped in the face.

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JFC, High Elf fanboys are something else.

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The Warcraft I fell in love with, 21 years ago, was a very different world.

I've endured the years of lore contrivances, storylines that go nowhere, retcons, ret-retcons, lore mishaps, dumb decisions and everything else. Every single thing I liked about Warcraft, from the Seven nations, diverse orc clans, gritty fantasy, interesting villains and a lot more, has since gone to dust.

The world I cared about is frozen in time, doomed to never get the focus again. It was replaced by spaceships, dumb demonic armies, time-traveling orcs, a war that endures just because it needs to endure and new islands full of new different flavored furries each expansion.

This void elf mess is very close to be the last straw. The only thing still holding me is nostalgia and routine.

Blizzard is not doing me any favors. I'm the one paying to play this game. So, since it's clear I'm not their intended audience and they have no interest in trying to reach a compromise, I'm very close to giving up. There's still almost two months left in my paid subscription. If I find no reason to keep interested in WoW by then, I'll just stop playing.

All I always cared for was the lore anyway. YouTube provides me that free of charge.

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The WoWHead PTR page only shows three skin color options.

Just fucking chill and wait already. You're sounding like a child.

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I'm pretty sure people thought the same thing when I was bashing WoD as early as the leaks started coming out.

I know the story already, and it's dumb as hell, with a NPC named "Umbric" (did they spend more than ten seconds to come with that name?).

Why would I expect anything other than variations of what they presented? It's their job to advertise their product. I don't need to pay for something I don't like.

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This do not remove the High Elf implementation. Now it's closer with the implementation of Allied Races. We will continue asking for them.

Umbric has a reminiscence to shadow, as it derives from latin Umbra (shadow). Blizzard does that kind of naming of characters a lot, aiming for subconcient identification with some valors.

@Noit I deserve it

It's funny that they wanted to remove the void elves far from the high/blood elves and ended up with night elf skin tones.

I'm fine with void elves as a concept en lieu of high elves. I just wish there were less.. extreme customization options. One tan or brown skin tone option wouldn't have broken the damn game.