Theorycrafting: Blood elves joining Horde.

[Adunai]

Night elves in the horde and undead in the alliance.

That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re loco man.

The Night Elves in the Alliance is equally weird. They were presented as an independent faction, half consisting of beasts, breaking the dichotomy without acting an antagonist. And what grievance do they have with the Horde? Chopping trees? Really? I mean, it's realistic, but still contrived - especially considering to what lengths did Thrall go to have peace with Theramore, they are expecting us to believe that the Orcs magically forgot about fighting alongside the Night Elves against Archimonde and his Scourge?

The Forsaken are explicitly free-willed Undead. Garithos did not represent the Stormwind-centred Alliance anyway. If in vanilla lore, the Alliance had no trouble working with the Forsaken-accepting Argent Dawn, I see no issue with having a monstrous faction in the otherwise-pretty Alliance.

The only gameplay argument I can think of is class balance. Yep, that's it. But hey, WoW butchered the Night Elves by making them humanoid-only anyway, it's not like WoW could be improved much with those constraints.

[Redmagejoe]

The argument against Forsaken in the Alliance isn't a gameplay one, but a thematic one. Have you read the actual quest text of a number of the Forsaken questgivers? While there are a few sympathetic souls early on who lament what they've become, none of them indicate any desire to reconnect with the Alliance (ignoring that prior to Warcraft III, the Alliance of Lordaeron insulated themselves from the Alliance of Stormwind which is what led to them being cut off from any potential support when the plague spread).

Furthermore, a great number of Forsaken have, in a way I find to be jarring and sloppy writing on Blizzard's part, inexplicably become so bitter and nihilistic and unsympathetic that their only drive is "fuck the living, fuck everyone, edge edge death death Evanescence, I just want to watch the world burn". A faction like that should be held at a Titan's arm's length by the Horde, let alone by the Alliance. Yet here we are.

[Whalemilk]

And what grievance do they have with the Horde? Chopping trees? Really? I mean, it's realistic

Trees were basically living beings for the night elves. It’s like they were cutting down all their buddies.

[Calevarn]

And what grievance do they have with the Horde? Chopping trees?

None, actually.

At the end of Reign of Chaos, Tyrande tells Thrall and Jaina that she misjudged them, and blesses them in Elune's name.

Malfurion holds a similar tone in his line "To arms, brave orcs and humans!"

That was the last interaction between the night elves and the orcs. After which a Pact of Peace is signed between the Alliance and Horde.

There was obviously no implication the orcs were trying to colonise Ashenvale, or ravage the forests, or that they held even remotely hostile terms with the elves by that point.

WoW Classic sort of winds back the clock in time to reset the Ashenvale stage to what it was during the Warsong invasion (a similar argument could be made that the clock is also wound back between Horde and Alliance relations to what they were in WC2, though there's more nuance). And from there it's a whole mess of insanely bizarre storytelling for the Horde, arguably behaving even worse than a fel-corrupted Grommash Hellscream did. A tremendous tonal whiplash from the conclusion of Reign of Chaos.

There's all sorts of gratuituously villainous acts by the Horde, from polluting the water supply and tainting the local wildlife, poisoning the land, cursing sleeping druids, a troll who wants to torture and eat night elves, and even a Shadow Council cultist you help in butchering the spirits of nature and steal sacred artefacts, while the Warsong are devastating everything indiscriminately ala Venture Co.

In the middle of all this, on Turtle, there's a tauren called Taupo Foreststrider who, hilariously, sends you to kill some bog elementals, and assures you "this is all in the name of balance" as he stands in viewing distance of a giant Warsong deforestation.



Now, if any of this sounds out of character for the Warcraft 3 Horde which repeatedly sought to let go of their history of bloody conquest, it's because it is. Thrall has no reason for doing or endorsing any of this, you literally go through Stonetalon stopping the Venture Co. from mindlessly deforesting the zone, learning of the damage that it does, while supporting the Warsong doing the same things Stonetalon taught you were wrongs. The story there is jarring and most often times all the NPCs will simply try to ignore why the Horde is invading, and focus on just getting you through your quest.

At best you'll get a "muh lumber" and that's also a contrivance caused by the fact Durotar was retconned from a savannah filled with trees and oases, and even a verdant, forested ridge into a desert where nearly everything is harsh, dead and dry.

As if Ashenvale was the only place in the world with lumber, or as if that explained why the Forsaken are there poisoning the land, the water and the wildlife which seems very counter-productive to the orcs' goal of exploiting resources anyway.

What they so desperately need all that lumber for is also something that is never ever clarified and left to everyone's assumption.

TLDR: Yes, the Ashenvale conflict, and to a greater degree the Horde/night elf conflict is all very contrived and influenced by Durotar retcons and gameplay design to generate faction tension.

[Trymv1]

Night Elves being in Alliance is peak 'two faction' design they chose to go with and Im pretty sure they admit there wasnt any other option with that setup.

If they'd have stuck with EverQuest reputation methods like they initially wanted, Night Elves (and honestly MOST of these complaints in this thread) wouldve just been their own group willing to work with some but not others.

[Markuis]

You are right. In W3, Durotar isn't a desert. And NE and orcs actually made peace. Ah, even vanilla is corrupted.

[Melhist2]

Undead elves to horde

[Talenne]

Night elves in the horde and undead in the alliance.

That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re loco man.

It would be cool to see but would require some thematic changes, like Night Elves would have to be more like their original pre-WC3 concept where they were pretty much blood drinking savage elves that worshiped animal spirits.

Forsaken might seem tough, they would not be called Forsaken since the entire point was being forsaken by humanity. (Even though they kinda brought it on themselves by betraying the last living remnant of Lordaeron's defense.)

I could still see it work though if they wanted to return to their Lordaeron roots, adopting the Light and becoming cool zombie bishops, might have to have Sylvanas and Varimathras involved somewhere else though and a leader for Undead that represents their heritage more.

[Andromath]

As far as Blood Elves joining the Horde go, I can't speak for the Turtle WoW devs or anything, but from a lore perspective while anything may be possible, that doesn't necessarily mean its plausible.

Blizzard's decision to add Blood Elves to the Horde in BC was a prudent one as far as gameplay is concerned. It opened up Paladins to the Horde and added a conventionally, 'attractive,' race to the Horde at the same time to bolster its player population. That would help Horde guilds find enough players to engage in more end-game raiding content.

From a Lore perspective, however, it didn't exactly make much sense. I think the biggest question left unanswered (or poorly answered) would be, What did the Horde have to offer the Blood Elves?

In truth, not much. The Horde was holding on by a thread itself at the time. Meanwhile the Blood Elves were constantly seeking new sources of magic to sate their addiction. The Horde had virtually nothing on that front, and thus very little of value to offer. Conversely, the Alliance as of Vanilla still counted Dalaran as one of it's members, thus meaning it was plausible for them to provide magical artifacts for the Sin'dorei (as they did with the Quel'dorei whom live in Dalaran). Another source of magic for the Sin'dorei (although this one is far less friendly with as-of-then established lore), would have been the Moonwells of the Night Elves.

In the end, while Blizzard added Blood Elves to the Horde in Burning Crusade, the justification was never exactly all that great from a lore standpoint. The Blood Elf starting area's were not the best written, meant to leave the player with enough personal justification to kill every human, dwarf, and night elf on sight as the game's PvP system demands. Meanwhile it expects players to ignore the numerous atrocities and depredations committed against the people of Quel'Thalas over the millennia by trolls, orcs, and undead, and one of that group actually succeeded at destroying the kingdom and nearly scouring the race from the face of Azeroth. We're also not to question why or how the Night Elves sent an army across the ocean to Quel'Thalas to, "investigate reckless arcane magic use," after ignoring it for 10,000 years in their own backyard (Dire Maul), and while their own sacred forests are overrun with corrupt furbolg, demons, naga, and orcs.

Where lore and story-telling go, Blood Elves joining the Horde made absolutely no sense.

In an ideal world, Burning Crusade would have opened with a new faction, rather than new races for the Horde and Alliance. We should've seen the Illidari introduced with the Blood Elves, Naga, Broken Draenei, and Ethereals as playable races. That set-up would certainly have made more sense for the Blood Elves, with most of those races having something to offer them as far as magical resources for their addiction goes. That would have been a lot of work as far as the development side of the game goes, but from a story perspective, it would have done the intellectual property justice.

Or at least that's my two coppers.

[Kefke]

As far as Blood Elves joining the Horde go, I can't speak for the Turtle WoW devs or anything, but from a lore perspective while anything may be possible, that doesn't necessarily mean its plausible.

Blizzard's decision to add Blood Elves to the Horde in BC was a prudent one as far as gameplay is concerned. It opened up Paladins to the Horde and added a conventionally, 'attractive,' race to the Horde at the same time to bolster its player population. That would help Horde guilds find enough players to engage in more end-game raiding content.

From a Lore perspective, however, it didn't exactly make much sense. I think the biggest question left unanswered (or poorly answered) would be, What did the Horde have to offer the Blood Elves?

In truth, not much. The Horde was holding on by a thread itself at the time. Meanwhile the Blood Elves were constantly seeking new sources of magic to sate their addiction. The Horde had virtually nothing on that front, and thus very little of value to offer. Conversely, the Alliance as of Vanilla still counted Dalaran as one of it's members, thus meaning it was plausible for them to provide magical artifacts for the Sin'dorei (as they did with the Quel'dorei whom live in Dalaran). Another source of magic for the Sin'dorei (although this one is far less friendly with as-of-then established lore), would have been the Moonwells of the Night Elves.

In the end, while Blizzard added Blood Elves to the Horde in Burning Crusade, the justification was never exactly all that great from a lore standpoint. The Blood Elf starting area's were not the best written, meant to leave the player with enough personal justification to kill every human, dwarf, and night elf on sight as the game's PvP system demands. Meanwhile it expects players to ignore the numerous atrocities and depredations committed against the people of Quel'Thalas over the millennia by trolls, orcs, and undead, and one of that group actually succeeded at destroying the kingdom and nearly scouring the race from the face of Azeroth. We're also not to question why or how the Night Elves sent an army across the ocean to Quel'Thalas to, "investigate reckless arcane magic use," after ignoring it for 10,000 years in their own backyard (Dire Maul), and while their own sacred forests are overrun with corrupt furbolg, demons, naga, and orcs.

Where lore and story-telling go, Blood Elves joining the Horde made absolutely no sense.

In an ideal world, Burning Crusade would have opened with a new faction, rather than new races for the Horde and Alliance. We should've seen the Illidari introduced with the Blood Elves, Naga, Broken Draenei, and Ethereals as playable races. That set-up would certainly have made more sense for the Blood Elves, with most of those races having something to offer them as far as magical resources for their addiction goes. That would have been a lot of work as far as the development side of the game goes, but from a story perspective, it would have done the intellectual property justice.

Or at least that's my two coppers.

Bravo. Beautifully said.

[Jongyi]

As far as Blood Elves joining the Horde go, I can't speak for the Turtle WoW devs or anything, but from a lore perspective while anything may be possible, that doesn't necessarily mean its plausible.

Blizzard's decision to add Blood Elves to the Horde in BC was a prudent one as far as gameplay is concerned. It opened up Paladins to the Horde and added a conventionally, 'attractive,' race to the Horde at the same time to bolster its player population. That would help Horde guilds find enough players to engage in more end-game raiding content.

From a Lore perspective, however, it didn't exactly make much sense. I think the biggest question left unanswered (or poorly answered) would be, What did the Horde have to offer the Blood Elves?

In truth, not much. The Horde was holding on by a thread itself at the time. Meanwhile the Blood Elves were constantly seeking new sources of magic to sate their addiction. The Horde had virtually nothing on that front, and thus very little of value to offer. Conversely, the Alliance as of Vanilla still counted Dalaran as one of it's members, thus meaning it was plausible for them to provide magical artifacts for the Sin'dorei (as they did with the Quel'dorei whom live in Dalaran). Another source of magic for the Sin'dorei (although this one is far less friendly with as-of-then established lore), would have been the Moonwells of the Night Elves.

In the end, while Blizzard added Blood Elves to the Horde in Burning Crusade, the justification was never exactly all that great from a lore standpoint. The Blood Elf starting area's were not the best written, meant to leave the player with enough personal justification to kill every human, dwarf, and night elf on sight as the game's PvP system demands. Meanwhile it expects players to ignore the numerous atrocities and depredations committed against the people of Quel'Thalas over the millennia by trolls, orcs, and undead, and one of that group actually succeeded at destroying the kingdom and nearly scouring the race from the face of Azeroth. We're also not to question why or how the Night Elves sent an army across the ocean to Quel'Thalas to, "investigate reckless arcane magic use," after ignoring it for 10,000 years in their own backyard (Dire Maul), and while their own sacred forests are overrun with corrupt furbolg, demons, naga, and orcs.

Where lore and story-telling go, Blood Elves joining the Horde made absolutely no sense.

In an ideal world, Burning Crusade would have opened with a new faction, rather than new races for the Horde and Alliance. We should've seen the Illidari introduced with the Blood Elves, Naga, Broken Draenei, and Ethereals as playable races. That set-up would certainly have made more sense for the Blood Elves, with most of those races having something to offer them as far as magical resources for their addiction goes. That would have been a lot of work as far as the development side of the game goes, but from a story perspective, it would have done the intellectual property justice.

Or at least that's my two coppers.

Damn, this is very well-thought explanation.
I am sure blizzard don't have answers to these questions. We are told to close our eyes and not to shoot back any questions (like many lore inconsistencies)

[Whalemilk]

Blood elves for alliance!
Ogres for horde!

[Etarpylon]

I heard from one of the discussion that blood elves or any survivors of Thalassian won't be joining the Horde in the future updates like they did in TBC.
Any lore reason for blood elves not joining the horde.
do you think Blizzard made a mistake by letting blood elves join the horde in retail?

My answer: No.

However, there is the fact Blood Elves joining the Horde could have been explained more readily, and without needing The Alliance to be insufferable douchebags in the process!

I would like to see Blood Elves recruited into the Horde, personally, but if Turtle devs don't want that I can easily improvise a way for Blood Elves to still be pals of mine in roleplay.

Vanilla lore isn't exactly good either, as I've unfortunately taken to noticing. In fact, NONE of the lore is good. So, we need to be the good lore we expect out of the WarCraft franchise (at this point).

I identified with the Forsaken due to being hella marginalized as a severely autistic teenager. I would identify with the Blood Elves in TBC for much the same reason. They are both underdog races who fit with other underdog races (The Darkspear Troll are underdogs even among their own fellows in other Troll tribes, and the Tauren are underdogs compared to every other Kalimdor-made race - the Quillboar, Centaur, and Harpies all gang up on them), so they are decent fits. The Orcs under Thrall's banner are underdogs because they want Peacecraft, but other Orcs would rather continue to consort with Demons or undermine the WC3 Peace Treaty in ways which can be seen as far as Ashenvale (though Ashenvale being bad storytelling is something I will absolutely take note and agree with).

Blizzard didn't make a mistake in the Blood Elves joining the Horde in retail, but their execution of it was sloppy. Basically everything Blizzard did with WoW, even their peak in Wrath of the Lich King, was done in the most sloppy way possible.

I will continue to observe everything from the lens of "I will roleplay eccentric misfit characters since I am an eccentric misfit irl" regardless of what Turtle does with Blood Elves. So long as they're not just murderhobo fodder, I will be content. If they get stuck being Alliance trash, so be it.

[Zirek]

Blood Elves should be in Alliance . They realy don't fit to Horde and it was one of the things bothered me in Tbc .

[Andromath]

I heard from one of the discussion that blood elves or any survivors of Thalassian won't be joining the Horde in the future updates like they did in TBC.
Any lore reason for blood elves not joining the horde.
do you think Blizzard made a mistake by letting blood elves join the horde in retail?

Vanilla lore isn't exactly good either, as I've unfortunately taken to noticing. In fact, NONE of the lore is good. So, we need to be the good lore we expect out of the WarCraft franchise (at this point).

Vanilla lore has some hiccups here and there.

Night Elves and Forsaken would be the prime examples, in my opinion. Between the Horde and Alliance, yes, the Night Elves do make more sense with the Alliance, but the unasked question is, Why did this have to be a choice to begin with?

Blizzard's answer is simple: they wanted a two-faction game, Horde and Alliance, and they also wanted to add Forsaken and Night Elves to it. Really, both of those races could have been their own factions entirely, neutral and independent from the others.

The Forsaken joining the Horde is a little stickier. If I'm honest, I feel like they'd have made an ideal fit with the Illidari. Illidan learns that the Royal Apothecary Society is creating a blight to kill the living and undead? He'd ask them to send him a list of requested research material, whereas in the Horde they had to keep that sort of secret/the Horde just looked the other way.

I'll also never get over the fact that within a few years of Grom sacrificing himself to free the Orcs and the Horde from the influence of demons that Thrall then allows a DREADLORD into the Horde into A POSITION OF AUTHORITY. I don't care what kind of justification for that lies buried in the minds of WoW's Vanilla Writers, I refuse to accept that there is ANY justification suitable enough for that to pass.

Narratively, the Forsaken were hostage to the Horde as well, always holding back from being a proper undead faction. Whenever they were allowed off the leash, their actions were so damning that the rest of the Horde wound up looking as if Warcraft II had never ended. By contrast I feel like Illidan would've encouraged the Forsaken to be evil-pragmatic.

A lot of Vanilla's lore was world building, and it did a great job making Azeroth come to life, but some of WoW's foundation was shakey before the game launched, and it always seems to boil down to what races are on what factions.

Blood Elves on the Horde was just one more glaring crack in the lore's foundation.

[Whalemilk]

If I was smart enough to make my own private server, I would remove forsaken altogether and have ogres in the horde.

It would be awesome to have all the forsaken land as leveling zones. Also, a undercity raid would be nice.

[Shroudedsoul]

I'm glad that the Elves aren't joining the Horde. It was always a mistake to let them on retail. It was only done to help the massively struggling Horde playerbase - lore be ignored.

Worse is on retail the High Elves are a major Alliance ally in pretty much every expansion yet are still not playable. Those Void Elves that the Alliance got weren't even High Elves that fought on Argus or for the Silver Covenant. They were like maybe a couple dozen rejected Blood Elves.

Ugh. Just thinking about Blizzard being so petty like that angers me.

Anyway.

I'm glad the High Elves are Alliance on turtle wow. Shows that the team here cares for the lore.

[Geojak]

High elves opening their doors to wayward breatheren? If you were a renegade blood elf would you join Horde, or your cousins working with Alliance, whose human elements have nothing to do with Garithos since he was a Lordaeronian noble and not a Stormwindian like the ingame humans are.

In the original games stormwind was called the kingdom of azeroth. south of thandor bridge is also called azeroth the continent and north is lordeaeon the continent. Blizzard retcont this as Eastern kingdoms and the planet was renamed to azeroth.

But still the humans are azerothian

[Enceebe]

Blood Elves should just be a renegage cult to Kael'thas who sold out to the Burning Legion and high off fel

I liked Kael'thas. A young prince on a mission to save his people. The mana-wraith in the elven starting zone in TBC pretty much showed how urgent they needed a new Mana Source or the would go extinct. They were betrayed by a racist human that even the dwarves disliked that fought under his command. And followed the only one that showed them a solution. They even cooperated with the nightelves when they first met them. The solution they made in WoW Legion and the nightborn was what they should have done with the blood elves. The night elves should have showed them a solution to their mana hunger.

[Enceebe]

High elves opening their doors to wayward breatheren? If you were a renegade blood elf would you join Horde, or your cousins working with Alliance, whose human elements have nothing to do with Garithos since he was a Lordaeronian noble and not a Stormwindian like the ingame humans are.

In the original games stormwind was called the kingdom of azeroth. south of thandor bridge is also called azeroth the continent and north is lordeaeon the continent. Blizzard retcont this as Eastern kingdoms and the planet was renamed to azeroth.

But still the humans are azerothian

Isnt more like the Eastern Kingdoms refers to the Kingdoms on the 3 Sub Continents Azeroth, Khaz Modan and Lorderon(Kalimdor was the original and only continent) or is this also a retcon. The 7 Human Nations(Kul Tiras, Alterac, Dalaran, Lorderon, Stormgarde, Gilneas, Stormwind), the kingdom of the dwarf, gnomes and High Elfes and the 2 major Troll Tribes, the amani and gurubashi.
The Ingame map is a bit wrong. The Zone east and west of burning stepps should not exist. Lorderon is the northern continent, in the middle is Khaz Modan. And south of the Blackrock starts the continent Azeroth.

[Kazgrim]

Blood elves are cooler than high elves.
/thread

[Ishilu]

Pretty elves in the horde? Who could possibly want that? What next? Pandas? Zombies?

Nah, seriously, I like that the horde more or less gets to keep their wc3 vibe here(except for zombies...). What's so important about blood elves when there are already high elves in the game?

[Lightbloom]

As far as Blood Elves joining the Horde go, I can't speak for the Turtle WoW devs or anything, but from a lore perspective while anything may be possible, that doesn't necessarily mean its plausible.

Blizzard's decision to add Blood Elves to the Horde in BC was a prudent one as far as gameplay is concerned. It opened up Paladins to the Horde and added a conventionally, 'attractive,' race to the Horde at the same time to bolster its player population. That would help Horde guilds find enough players to engage in more end-game raiding content.

From a Lore perspective, however, it didn't exactly make much sense. I think the biggest question left unanswered (or poorly answered) would be, What did the Horde have to offer the Blood Elves?

In truth, not much. The Horde was holding on by a thread itself at the time. Meanwhile the Blood Elves were constantly seeking new sources of magic to sate their addiction. The Horde had virtually nothing on that front, and thus very little of value to offer. Conversely, the Alliance as of Vanilla still counted Dalaran as one of it's members, thus meaning it was plausible for them to provide magical artifacts for the Sin'dorei (as they did with the Quel'dorei whom live in Dalaran). Another source of magic for the Sin'dorei (although this one is far less friendly with as-of-then established lore), would have been the Moonwells of the Night Elves.

In the end, while Blizzard added Blood Elves to the Horde in Burning Crusade, the justification was never exactly all that great from a lore standpoint. The Blood Elf starting area's were not the best written, meant to leave the player with enough personal justification to kill every human, dwarf, and night elf on sight as the game's PvP system demands. Meanwhile it expects players to ignore the numerous atrocities and depredations committed against the people of Quel'Thalas over the millennia by trolls, orcs, and undead, and one of that group actually succeeded at destroying the kingdom and nearly scouring the race from the face of Azeroth. We're also not to question why or how the Night Elves sent an army across the ocean to Quel'Thalas to, "investigate reckless arcane magic use," after ignoring it for 10,000 years in their own backyard (Dire Maul), and while their own sacred forests are overrun with corrupt furbolg, demons, naga, and orcs.

Where lore and story-telling go, Blood Elves joining the Horde made absolutely no sense.

In an ideal world, Burning Crusade would have opened with a new faction, rather than new races for the Horde and Alliance. We should've seen the Illidari introduced with the Blood Elves, Naga, Broken Draenei, and Ethereals as playable races. That set-up would certainly have made more sense for the Blood Elves, with most of those races having something to offer them as far as magical resources for their addiction goes. That would have been a lot of work as far as the development side of the game goes, but from a story perspective, it would have done the intellectual property justice.

Or at least that's my two coppers.

I agree. This is very well written and explained. There is not much I can add to this. Thanks for putting this on the forum !

[Greese]

Blizzard wanted to give Horde a "pretty" race and Alliance a "monster" race and everything else was mangled to make those square pegs fit in round holes. Same with shaman and paladins really. Thematically they made little sense on either side. You could kinda make sense of Forsaken Paladins and Dwarven Wildhammer shaman. Blood Elves milking a Naruu for Holy power and Space Goats being Shaman didn't really feel right to me to be honest.

[Shroudedsoul]

Blood elves are cooler than high elves.
/thread

High Elves are cooler.

Blood Elves are villains and neither faction should have accepted them at all. Glad TurtleWoW fixed that failure from Retail.

Blizzard wanted to give Horde a "pretty" race and Alliance a "monster" race and everything else was mangled to make those square pegs fit in round holes. Same with shaman and paladins really. Thematically they made little sense on either side. You could kinda make sense of Forsaken Paladins and Dwarven Wildhammer shaman. Blood Elves milking a Naruu for Holy power and Space Goats being Shaman didn't really feel right to me to be honest.

Blizzard is at it again on Lore butchering on retail. Check out the new races randomly getting Warlock with 0 Lore justification.

[Darbo]

Please no elves in the horde. They ruin our style.

[Dracarusggotham]

I will apport here.
Even Blizzard admited in TBC release that they made a mistake adding Draeneis to the Alliance.
What this have to do with the Blood Elves?
The thing is they made another mistake adding the Blood Elves to the Horde due to various topics.
First: Trolls, the Blood Elves always where in war with the Trolls, and I don't think they can want or desire to have an alliance with the race who centuries ago made them to have their first alliance with the humans of Arathor.
Second: Orcs, they recently where in war with the orcs in the Second War, the lore tells the fact about the blood elves being so suspicious about their alliance with Lordaeron, I can't think how they can feel about making the orcs their allies and allowing them to enter in their forests and city.
3. Undead, their race was clearly slaughtered by the undead, the Forsaken where undead under the Lich King control, I can imagine some of them participated in the destruction of Quel'thalas, I can't think how they trusted in Sylvanas or in the Forsaken, or how them let that race enter in Silvermoon or in Quel'thalas.
4. Garithos, he was only a racist human who become the auto-proclamated leader of the Alliance Remnants, they have more reasons to hate Undead, Trolls and Orcs instead the humans and the entire Alliance only for a human.

With this points the Blood Elves have enough reasons to avoid the Horde, Trolls, Orcs and Undead are a bad idea, only the Tauren have no problems with the Elves.
Now, at lore level have more problems too.
First: Garithos again, why them never looked for allies in the other kingdoms?
-Aerie Peak
-Stromgarde
-Even Dalaran have remnants of their mages and they have reasons for help the Blood Elves, due to their alliance with the Kirin Tor, Kael'thas was part of the Council of the Six.

Alliance: The betrayal of the Alliance have no sense.
Why the Night Elves or the entire Alliance wanted to spy or destroy the Quel'dorei before they become part of the Horde? This doesn't make sense, the Alliance lost their magic kingdom 5 years ago and the Blood Elves can be strong allies, or Stormwind was stupid or Blizzard never had a good reason the make the Blood Elves a Horde race.

And the last point: Their "hate" to the humans or the Alliance race, if they hate the humans only for Garithos, for obvius reasons the can hate a lot the Orcs, Trolls and Undead, they Literally made a genocide with the Blood Elves in the past. Why them don't looked for the Dwarfs in Aerie Peak? They literally have allies in the Quel'danil Lodge, the High Elves there have good relations with the Dwarves.

What kind of negotiations have the Blood Elves with the Alliance before joining the Horde? Why the Alliance sent a Dwarf Emisary instead of the King or maybe Jaina?

This is all my entire reasons for avoid and hate the idea of the Blood Elves being in the Horde.
They broke the lore a lot, more than the Draeneis.

[Galindae]

dont know when blizzard changed byt there is well of eternity.
it changed trolls into elfs
and because of it, demons invaded wow world kalimdor/azeroth it was 1 big continent. high queen azshara betrayed elfs , and followers of eluna divorced from high born elfs.
satyrs and nagas are also elfs , changed by fel
to topic , there was xenophob human Othmar Garithos (because of him blood elfs joined horde), byt its somehow very weird change because in war 1/2 elfs and humans fight vs invasion of orcs. (played game warcraft1/2 rts) maby because of arthas , elfs joined horde. who knows sylvanas women heart lol
horde is not evil under trall, they are like orc renegades who fight vs demon invasion. trall changed ways of orcs trough shamanism and his fights.(in wow evil is demons invasions not horde)
i have no idea why taurens joined faction where is undead and orcs with trolls (y i know orcs helped taurens against those centaurs) byt if u ask me night elfs and taurens they share almost same ''religion'' both are like greenpeace. taurens are anyway american natives (lacota place in barrens)
well maby adding to horde satyrs is best? just add male model and create like dark paladins (what is basicly same as paladins just use shadow magic) if humans and dwarfs use holly magic than satyr paladins use shadow magic and arcane healing (not holly healing) call tham darkmongers. ;-)

[Manletow]

Theres a quest in Felwood for Horde players to kill Blood Elves and "scare them back to where they came from".... but lets just forget about that. ;)

The Horde are the 'survivor' faction and Blood Elves are most certainly 'survivors'. Fits at least somewhat.
Plus they are rather edgy considering their addiction to (sometimes radical) magical energies.

Just make a 'Blood Elf' green eyed/skin version of High Elves that Horde players can choose to play as.
(Just like how Pandaren can be Horde or Alliance.)

Also Male Goblin models need to be updated/upgraded to be less hideously ugly.

This 67/33% faction imbalance needs to be addressed somehow.

[Tutayanova]

Pls, no blood elfs. It's open the way to Tauren paladin and other retail moments.

[Visionmoon]

Scarlet Lordaeron
If Sin'dorei doesn't join the tribe,The Undercity will turn into ruins.
Forgotten will be soul drawn，This is a futile.useless attempt.
Forgotten are scarce and desolate.
The alliance will accommodate the last one the scarcest Forgotten.

[Mac]

Blood elves, chud elves. Illidari playable faction when?

[Delsin]

The Blood Elves joining the Horde would make more sense in Turtle WoW than in retail TBC. The High Elves are more fleshed out, have quests and npc leadership, and most importantly, playable. Dialogue with High Elf npcs, partly through their questlines, indicate the extreme divide between them and their Sin'dorei cousins. This opens up a lot of story and roleplaying opportunities.

How do the Blood Elves feel about having to survive on arcane crystal scraps and fel magics, which according to lore, elves feel disgusted or uneasy or even physically sickened by fel magic, while their cousins have a pure source of magic of the lesser Sunwell-esque crystal of Alah'Thalas? The average Sin'dorei commoner's feelings would probably be one of shock, sadness, despair, and anger, as even if they begged their cousins for just enough of this essential magical energy to sustain them, they might be turned away due to their perceived taint. The leadership on both sides could use this as an opportunity to strengthen their control over their race and pursue their own goals. This could potentially lead to a 'Kin War' and the game development of a High Elf vs Blood Elf battleground, dungeons, raids, or even a whole zone. With the quality of the twow writers on display in Gilneas, I for one would be excited to see what they could do with this development.

Alliance does need Draenei though. If only for the goat memes. And so the Horde aren't the only faction that can be accused of being furries.

[Adunai]

How do the Blood Elves feel about having to survive on arcane crystal scraps and fel magics, which according to lore, elves feel disgusted or uneasy or even physically sickened by fel magic, while their cousins have a pure source of magic of the lesser Sunwell-esque crystal of Alah'Thalas?

So many people forget that the original difference between the Blood and High Elves is purely political, not cultural or magical. Maybe it was changed with the WotLK lore? But as of TFT, all were Blood Elves. Vanilla added High Elves to the places which were not threatened by Arthas - Stormwind, the Kirin Tor. TBC revealed that there remained neutral elves in Quel'halas which went to Kael'thas after Rommath reclaimed Silvermoon.

In short, there is no difference between HE and BE either if they are equally starving for magic (feeding on scraps, or coping with their weakest dying off) OR sated with magic (proper sources of magic, be it fel crystals or indeed Turtle's Alah'Thalas). Hence the largest obstacle would be Kael'thas' position, along with the state of Quel'Thalas on Turtle.

[Paw]

We could turn blood elves back into high elf. Problem solved. Those who still cling to hatred may remain to be called blood elf and form a strong community but in a dozen time less number of individuals.