I was looking up some other information for a different article when I came across something interesting: Koltira Deathweaver. He’s the guy from the Death Knight starting area that Thassarian rescues and comments that they are “brothers in death.” When the Death Knight starting area ends, Thassarian rejoins the Alliance and heads to Northrend while Koltira rejoins the Horde and does the same. Wait, what?
You see, what I noticed was that Koltira died during the Scourge invasion of Quel’thelas back in Warcraft 3, before The Frozen Throne. While the games don’t exactly matter, Blood Elves were a faction of High Elves that formed in honor of the destruction of Silvermoon City to get revenge. So that means Koltira is a High Elf, as he died long before the Blood Elf movement founded. But the High Elves are part of the Alliance. So why did he rejoin the Horde? Why do NPCs call him a Blood Elf sometimes? How does that even make sense? Well, I suppose it isn’t that confusing. If being a Blood Elf just means you’re sworn to avenge Silvermoon and Quel’thelas, and he died at Quel’thelas, his wants are probably identical to that of the original Blood Elves. And Silvermoon is really more of a Blood Elf city now than a High Elf city, despite a few stragglers left behind. But this got me thinking about Blood Elves and High Elves.
When the Night Elves first meet the Blood Elves, they’re part of the Alliance and working with Lordaeran to try to retake Silverpine Forest. Tyrande comments to Maeiv that they fought with the so-called High Elves in Hyjal. Kael’thas then explains that they have renamed themselves Blood Elves in honor of their fallen brethren and the loss of Quel’thelas, and seek vengeance for their people against the Scourge. At this point, being a Blood Elf didn’t mean anything separate from being a High Elf, just a sort of focus on revenge. As time went by, the term has evolved and even the elves have evolved. In game, the only way to tell a high elf from a blood elf is their eyes. Blood elves have green eyes, high elves have blue. Why is that? Supposedly it has to do with the magic addiction the blood elves suffer from. High Elves don’t suffer from it the same way Blood Elves do. Why is that? Why would being concerned with revenge make that kind of difference?
Now, however, the term means even less. Blood Elves serve the Horde. With the Sunwell restored the magic addiction is no longer a problem; with the Lich King dead, there is no real political reason to be a Blood Elf instead of a High Elf. A pair of contacts and a faction change and you could go from Blood to High elf (or vice versa) easily.
What I would like to see is something a little deeper in Cataclysm. A little more of an explanation, and a bit more of the reinforcing of the ideas they have been laying out. I would even go and make the eye colour a retcon. Make the claim that when you feed upon the magic of another living being, or upon a demon, that your eye colour turns green. Feeding upon orc blood made orcs red, so colour-changing has a precedence. Obviously Warcraft 3 doesn’t reflect this eye colour situation, but at least it makes a bit more sense overall. So make it so the Blood Elves were a political movement that ended up deciding that it was okay to feed upon others and make it something more when it was condoned and encouraged by Kael’thas. I’d like to see a novel or comic that explains why Silvermoon City, High Elf Capital, is now entirely Blood Elf. When did the High Elves leave, and why? Were they all so fed up with the magic addiction issue that they left? Were they persecuted? Why is there a huge gap in the lore here?
Also, now all blood elves have green eyes. Why not make it an initiation? Show your allegiance to Silvermoon (and the Horde?) by feeding upon another and having your eyes change colour. I’d actually like it if they switched it so it was more like the gold and silver eyes of night elves. With the Sunwell restored, make it so not all of the Blood Elves have green eyes. Have it be a mix of both, change it back to a political affiliation. Perhaps give a name to the high elves that still side with the Alliance. I’d just like to see more of this fleshed out and explained. I’d even like to see some of the blood elves that have fed upon the demon energies beginning to transform into fel elves. The same way Stormwind City has a hidden coven of warlocks at The Slaughtered Lamb, have it so to learn to summon demons you end up going through a false door or secret passage by the warlock trainers and seeing elves turned into fel elves by feeding upon too much demonic magic. The Fel Elf faction would be perfect for this, and they look amazing, too. Don’t let the Fel Elf model fade away after Burning Crusade!
So that’s my silly little rant about Blood Elves and High Elves. They’re everywhere, but there’s just not enough information. Give me more, Blizzard!
Basically, both the high elves and blood elves are addicted to magic, energy, whatever you want to call it.
After Arthas went nuclear on SMC and corrupted the Sunwell, all the elves scattered out of SMC. Some elves (the high elves) loosely allied themselves with the Alliance. Some took refuge in Theramore with Jaina, some went to Stormwind, some went to the Hinterlands. These elves have been fighting against their addictions ever since. They meditate daily to control it, and sometimes are able to get energy from the Moonwells (even though the night elves try to prevent too much of that). Their eyes are still blue.
The Blood Elves are the ones that instead followed Kael’thas and headed into Outland. There they allied with Illidan, and he taught them how to feed their magic addiction with demons and fel energies, turning their eyes green. Eventually they came back, reclaimed and rebuilt SMC for their own, which is why it is now a blood elf city and not a high elf one.
Now that the blood elves have the Sunwell back, they continue to feed off of it, but I suppose that the eye color change is irreversible, and I would bet that the belf warlocks continue to feed on fel energy.
Comment by moxie — July 27, 2010 @ 5:47 pm
I recently made a new warlock on a server where I play Horde at times and went out to Eversong and Ghostlands for the easy levelling. The Silvermoon City warlock trainer area definitely contains those evil-looking crystals with warlocks constantly draining from them, so you are probably correct about those elven warlocks. I’ve seen the meditate comment before, I’ve always wondered if that’s something Blizzard endorses or if it’s just that it’s taken from the Role-playing game and it’s necessary for gameplay there. Do we have confirmation that Illidan teaching them to drain demons dry is where the green comes from? I like the version better, myself, but I’m fairly certain Kael’thas had green eyes from the first moment he shows up in the games.
I’d also prefer to think that Jaina kidnapped the ones who went to Theramore. I don’t think anyone willingly leaves their beloved continent behind for Jaina Proudmoore, unless they’re ready for death.
Comment by K'vn — July 28, 2010 @ 3:44 pm