Highborne/Nigh elf mage

[Zoey]

Hello,

I would like to propose a long-term suggestion that I believe would greatly enrich both gameplay and RP: adding Highborne as playable race/subrace.

This idea mainly comes from my strong desire to play a lore-appropriate (Night Elf) Highborne character. As many of you know, this fantasy is currently missing, and it feels like natural addition given Warcraft lore.

To give some context: Previously on TWoW I attempted to recreate this by myself by modding the game where I replaced High elf female model to Night elf model which visually allowed me to "play" a Highborne mage. While it well visually, I ultimately stopped playing because being very RP and lore focused I knew that other players still saw me as High elf. That disconnect made the experience feel incomplete.

That is why I believe an official implementation would be very cool.

The core idea is that they would function as subrace of Night Elves with minimal visual differences (According to Brann Bronzebeard) but meaningful lore and gameplay distinctions. They would have basically same hairstyles and hair colors like white/pink etc., maybe few pale skin tones and markings would be replaced by something like arcane markings or jewelry or something simply to highlight nobility.


There are a few ways to make this happen:

Simple one would be to allow Night elf to be a Mage, but putting it only that way might feel conflicting with the lore so additional adjustments would be needed to backup this approach. Something in a way that you would not start in Teldrassil while also being hated or at least hostile with Darnassus meaning you would have to build up your reputation through quests from scratch which itself would be fun thing to do.

Better approach would be to introduce them as separate playable subrace. In both cases their starting zone would not be Teldrassil but they could either start for example with Humans or in better case they would start secluded somewhere in Eldre'Thalas/Dire Maul.

I fully understand that OctoWoW is currently focused on stability and reaching a solid base. That is why a much lower-effort solution while still giving players access to the fantasy would be simply introducing cosmetic Highborne themed skin for high elves that would still allow you to pick from same appearance options as night elves have.

[Octosaur]

As a point of criticism if Highborne were added as a separate playable race that would make the Alliance's racial choices 50% elves.

Canonically Highborne are just Night Elves without the facial tattoos so the best option available really is just playing a different caster and RPing as a Mage. Even if dedicated skins were created for Highborne they would need to be locked to Night Elves and not High Elves owing to the lore issues presented by the possibility of creating a Highborne Paladin.

Unique starting conditions for specific Race/class combinations would probably be ideal for every combination but there's a limitation in open world space and development resources to be considered.

The most workable solution would be adding a Highborne costume to the shop which would allow you to play as a Highborne Mage by just rolling a mage race and wearing the costume.

Classic WoW is not a setting overflowing with visual customisation options and folks historically have had to get creative with the tools available to have a chance at portraying less pedestrian concepts. I hate to be that guy but whatever options end up being available to you you're probably going to have to compromise a little bit.

[Ayesha]

I would love that so much… dare to dream
I suppose

[Zoey]

I would love that so much… dare to dream
I suppose

Yes and honestly I don't want to just dream entire life that maybe one day I will be able to play this game how I would love to. That is why I decided to mention this idea of mine and honestly I see it easily doable as mention above in my post.

[Allwynd01]

Are we talking about lore friendliness here? Because Forsaken Priest is not lore friendly, Blizzard just added it so more Horde races can have a Priest class, otherwise it would be only the Troll. Night Elf priest is also another one that is not lore friendly as the Night Elves in the old lore were represented as more savage while the game makes them look really neutered, like some passive hippies. And Night Elves use Elune's power, not the Light's power as Humans and Dwarves do.

So if we are talking about lore we should abide by the lore of Warcraft and instead of adding new things remove some.

The Forsaken cannot be Priests because using the Light hurts them and eventually should kill them. They would only be able to be Shadow Priests, but since that's too big of a change (create a new class) it's better to not have it at all. Night Elves, if they were to have Priests, they would also use Elune's power, not the Light and this is also a change for an entirely new class, which is unrealistic.

So what is left for Highborne Mages? Didn't the Night Elves according to the lore turned their back on elemental magic when Azshara was punished for it and they only used Druidic magic instead afterwards?

So how can a Highbourne Mage be added? It has to be an entirely new race for the Alliance and what about Horde? What new race are they going to get? Maybe one that allows them to be Priests in a lore friendly way?

[Zoey]

As a point of criticism if Highborne were added as a separate playable race that would make the Alliance's racial choices 50% elves.

Canonically Highborne are just Night Elves without the facial tattoos so the best option available really is just playing a different caster and RPing as a Mage. Even if dedicated skins were created for Highborne they would need to be locked to Night Elves and not High Elves owing to the lore issues presented by the possibility of creating a Highborne Paladin.

Unique starting conditions for specific Race/class combinations would probably be ideal for every combination but there's a limitation in open world space and development resources to be considered.

The most workable solution would be adding a Highborne costume to the shop which would allow you to play as a Highborne Mage by just rolling a mage race and wearing the costume.

Classic WoW is not a setting overflowing with visual customisation options and folks historically have had to get creative with the tools available to have a chance at portraying less pedestrian concepts. I hate to be that guy but whatever options end up being available to you you're probably going to have to compromise a little bit.

I understand the concerns, but I think some of these points miss what I was actually proposing.

The “Alliance becoming 50% elves” argument mostly applies if Highborne were introduced as a completely separate race slot. My suggestion was closer to a Night Elf subrace/customization option, so it wouldn’t really expand Alliance race representation in the same way.

Also, while Highborne are canonically very similar visually to Night Elves, my idea was never mainly about appearance differences. The appeal is the identity and RP fantasy — being recognized in-game as a Highborne through class options, presentation, starting conditions, and world context.

The suggestion to simply roll another caster and RP as a mage doesn’t fully solve that issue. I already tried recreating the fantasy through client-side modifications, and while it looked correct to me, the immersion broke because other players still saw something different. For me the goal isn’t just using Arcane magic — it’s actually playing a character that exists in the world as a Highborne.

[Octosaur]

A notable issue with what you're proposing is the restrictions of Vanilla at this time. The character customiser is extremely limited and whilst I'm not sure you can't have a race change based on which class is picked I am fairly confident that functionality isn't in the cards. If it is then that's on me but we're talking about getting old tech to do something it wasn't programmed to do.

It's why I suggested the costume option. Costumes are character-agnostic customisation. You can be any race and any class and wear them. It's clear to onlookers that the costumes do not mean there are canonically Ogres in the Alliance but a Highborne costume would allow you to play a mage whilst looking like a Highborne. You wouldn't be able to choose all of the character customisations but it's the closest implementation that would function with the current tech without also throwing up lore quandaries like why the Night Elves would be kosher with rubbing elbows with Highborne.

I also think I ultimately wouldn't care if Highborne was added as a skin option to High Elves which would open up customisation options and folks would probably just ignore Highborne Paladins, but I also don't know if the tech is there to support changing the model of a race like that. It's also a pretty messy implementation.

Overall I'm sympathetic to the fantasy you're after but I can't think of an easy means of implementation that doesn't come with some compromises.

If we want to speculate about bigger matters I do wonder if there isn't room for a Highborne neutral faction with reputation to grind through Dire Maul or somesuch. There is precedent in Classic tech for locking classes behind certain restrictions like Death Knights only being available to players with a lvl 58 character, but idk if that tech exists in Octo since it's built off of Turty which was built off of literal Vanilla. If that is workable then it does open up opportunities for expanding race/class boundaries as well as alternate spawn levels and locations but in the end it would still be a Night Elf Mage, not a Highborne.

If it can be unintrusively done so that the race says Highborne and the character has a Highborne customisation options and you get to play Highborne specific classes like Mage or Warlock then more power to you, but I suspect in reality there will not be an easy implementation without compromise. I hope it works out for you regardless.

[Zoey]

Are we talking about lore friendliness here? Because Forsaken Priest is not lore friendly, Blizzard just added it so more Horde races can have a Priest class, otherwise it would be only the Troll. Night Elf priest is also another one that is not lore friendly as the Night Elves in the old lore were represented as more savage while the game makes them look really neutered, like some passive hippies. And Night Elves use Elune's power, not the Light's power as Humans and Dwarves do.

So if we are talking about lore we should abide by the lore of Warcraft and instead of adding new things remove some.

The Forsaken cannot be Priests because using the Light hurts them and eventually should kill them. They would only be able to be Shadow Priests, but since that's too big of a change (create a new class) it's better to not have it at all. Night Elves, if they were to have Priests, they would also use Elune's power, not the Light and this is also a change for an entirely new class, which is unrealistic.

So what is left for Highborne Mages? Didn't the Night Elves according to the lore turned their back on elemental magic when Azshara was punished for it and they only used Druidic magic instead afterwards?

So how can a Highbourne Mage be added? It has to be an entirely new race for the Alliance and what about Horde? What new race are they going to get? Maybe one that allows them to be Priests in a lore friendly way?

Classic WoW itself already simplifies and bends lore in places for gameplay. Forsaken Priests exist despite the tension with the Light, and Night Elf Priests exist despite drawing power through Elune rather than Human-style Light worship. The game treats Priest as a gameplay class with different lore interpretations depending on race rather than creating separate classes.

Because of that, I don’t think “lore isn’t perfectly represented mechanically” automatically means something shouldn’t exist.

For Highborne specifically, I also don’t think this requires inventing new lore. Highborne are not a new race — they are Night Elves. The distinction is social and cultural, not biological. My suggestion was never “let all Night Elves become Arcane users overnight,” but rather allowing a specific Highborne fantasy to exist through limited race/class access, subrace treatment, different starting context, reputation, or other RP framing.

The point about Night Elves abandoning Arcane magic is also not completely accurate. The post-Sundering Night Elf society rejected Arcane magic, but the Highborne themselves continued to exist and later some groups were reintegrated into Night Elf society. So the concept of Night Elf mages is not inherently outside Warcraft lore.

And I don’t think this necessarily creates a Horde parity problem either. Not every addition has to be mirrored by adding a completely new race to the opposite faction — especially if this is implemented as customization or a subrace rather than a full Alliance race slot.

[Octosaur]

Classic WoW itself already simplifies and bends lore in places for gameplay. Forsaken Priests exist despite the tension with the Light, and Night Elf Priests exist despite drawing power through Elune rather than Human-style Light worship. The game treats Priest as a gameplay class with different lore interpretations depending on race rather than creating separate classes.

Because of that, I don’t think “lore isn’t perfectly represented mechanically” automatically means something shouldn’t exist.

For Highborne specifically, I also don’t think this requires inventing new lore. Highborne are not a new race — they are Night Elves. The distinction is social and cultural, not biological. My suggestion was never “let all Night Elves become Arcane users overnight,” but rather allowing a specific Highborne fantasy to exist through limited race/class access, subrace treatment, different starting context, reputation, or other RP framing.

The point about Night Elves abandoning Arcane magic is also not completely accurate. The post-Sundering Night Elf society rejected Arcane magic, but the Highborne themselves continued to exist and later some groups were reintegrated into Night Elf society. So the concept of Night Elf mages is not inherently outside Warcraft lore.

And I don’t think this necessarily creates a Horde parity problem either. Not every addition has to be mirrored by adding a completely new race to the opposite faction — especially if this is implemented as customization or a subrace rather than a full Alliance race slot.

Forsaken priests exist because Lordaeron was the seat of the Church of the Holy Light for generations, and Lordaeron was filled with the devout. Undead can use the light even if it is very uncomfortable for them, but for people of faith there is no inherent conflict with them feeling pain when they practice faith and in real life there are hundreds of years of examples of people embracing pain for the sake of faith, even in the Christian church upon which the Holy Light is based. The Night Elf Priests are casting the divine magic of Elune even though ostensibly the mechanics mean their abilities have visuals linked to the Holy Light, the argument for them is that the class should have more bespoke visuals rather than an excuse to drive the thin end of the wedge in deeper.

I agree that 'lore isn't perfectly represented mechanically' is not an automatic gainsay to people's proposals, especially as the lore of Warcraft is fluid enough to change.

Highborne are not a new race but they also are not Night Elves as we know them. They live, dress, and look different in plenty of ways even if the distinction is only cultural. E.G: I think the only time I've seen Highborne depicted with facial tattoos is Azshara's small unique tattoos she has in Cataclysm which aren't reflected in later artwork.

I understand what you're asking for but what you're overlooking is the big difference between the Night Elves and the Highborne is the Night Elves abominate the Highborne for trying to summon space satan and blowing Kalimdor to smithereens with their reckless and narcissistic embrace of arcane (and later fel) magic. Even if Highborne have been enfolded back into Nelf society at some point and to some extent we are also talking about a society which only 4 years ago (blink of an eye for long-lived Nelves) watched Space Satan's 2nd in command turn Kalimdor to extra crispy bacon and they had to sacrifice the central pillar of their civilisation (the World Tree & their immortality) to stop him. We're not talking about just a little feud here, we're talking about literal world-ending catastrophes both of which only happened because Azshara put Azeroth on the Legion's map. I'm not saying you can't write Highborne and Night Elves making good but... you DO have to write it. Describing relations with the Highborne as 'tense' is about as generous as I can manage. They might be the same race but humans IRL have a long history of feuding regardless of that. It isn't enough that Highborne are superficially similar.

What you're describing in terms of a sub-race is not as simple on a technical angle as you make it sound. I don't know if it is even possible without developing new systems. I get that you really want this and I agree it would be cool but to make it happen would require a whole storyline for the Night Elves, an indeterminate amount of background fiddling tech-wise, and art/moddling and possibly even vocal work to maintain a consistent level of quality.

Alternatively we can ask for Highborne costumes in the store that you can wear on a mage character from a different race which would give you personally access to playable Highborne mages/warlocks and all it would require is an artist to edit a Night Elf skin.