Blood elf controversy The Blood elf controversy involves players who have voiced objection to blood elves feeling it will ruin the atmosphere of the Horde . Others think it makes little sense that the New Horde would let in such a corrupt race and feel this upsets the balance between the Alliance and Horde . The latest controversy involves their torture and exploitation of a Naaru and the hidden leper gnome sweatshop in their Capital showing Thrall and Cairne ' s apparent indifference . A defensive argument for the inclusion of blood elves . While the feeling of the general public is that the blood elves are evil , most of these opinions are drawn from what they have previously observed from their experiences in playing as the human - blood elf campaign in , who accepted Vashj and Illidan ' s ideas of obtaining magic at almost any cost , even consorting with upper - level demons . However , it is important to remember that the playable blood elves in Burning Crusade will not be the same as the playable blood elves in previous Warcraft titles . These blood elves draw their energies from demonic pests and mana beasts , the equivalent of rats or lesser rodents . Many are unaware of what happened to Prince Kael ' Thas and his accompanying strike force ( the blood elves of The Frozen Throne ) through the Dark Portal in search of a cure - this will probably be a major factor into why both Alliance and Horde will be able to battle him in the Tempest Keep . The playable blood elves of Burning Crusade were the great majority of the blood elf military , who Kael ' Thas sent to reclaim Quel ' Thalas and Silvermoon City . The Sin ' dorei bring with them a rightly feared and legendary arcane heritage , and the newly formed Blood Knights . With the reclamation of Quel ' Thalas and Silvermoon City , they also bring yet another Horde presence to a continent that is generally thought of as Alliance territory . Now there are two major powers on the Eastern Kingdoms that can act as buffers , supply centers and headquarters against Ironforge and Stormwind in case the Alliance initiates another Great War . ( This balances with the Draenei , whose territories are off the coast of Kalimdor , a Horde - dominated continent ) . From a strictly practical gameplay perspective , a Sin ' dorei Paladin makes a tremendously versatile addition to any party . In PvP the Paladin can be very powerful in comparison to other classes , and in PvE their ability to both heal and engage in melee combat means that they can serve equally well as either a main healer or main tank . The ulterior reasons are sympathy . Although all the races of the Horde wisely note the blood elves ' reputation as being reckless and dangerous , there are those within the Horde who view them as a race also in need of help . Orcs , no strangers to the debilitating effects of fel power , are surprisingly accepting of the Sin ' dorei , and many older orcs who have experienced demonic corruption firsthand are fierce supporters of the blood elves . Blood elves hate unlife in all its forms , but in regards to the Forsaken , blood elves are generally willing to accept an uneasy truce , possibly facilitated by Sylvanas Windrunner , who was slain defending Quel ' thalas against the Scourge and later raised as an undead , leading the Forsaken . While the alliance between blood elves and the forsaken is uneasy at best , it is strong enough that the Undercity and Silvermoon have opened a translocator between the two cities , making safe travel possible without low - ranked blood elves having to traverse the hazardous Plaguelands . This allows the once land - locked blood elf homeland unfettered access to the rest of Azeroth . As for the Illidari alternative , which many players have argued in favour of as a more suitable faction for the Blood Elves , this was most likely not exploited due to Blizzard ' s desire to retain a two faction model for the game . Time will tell how well the race integrates in the Horde . The " Common " controversy . A popular lore argument is " How can the blood elves suddenly forget Common upon joining the Horde ? " Traditionally Common is usually treated as universal language in earlier Warcraft games , novels , and in the current RPG , and is known by most races and factions in some form ( Common , Nerglish , Undercommon , Low Common , etc . ) . Even individuals and races that had never previously encountered members of other races are capable of having conversations due to a universal knowledge of Common . According to the RPG blood elves know Common , and it is one of their two main languages , which also includes Thalassian . However , some see the above argument in itself as flawed , because they have seen no evidence in need of retconning to show that most elves even know Common to begin with . They believe although there are undoubtedly blood elves who do speak Common ( as well as Orcs who spoke Common , Humans who spoke Orcish , etc . ) , they may not be the majority . They believe that the blood elves who know the language are usually commissioned officers , delegates , diplomats , veterans from the Second War , or defectors from the Third War . Quel ' Thalas has always been an insular nation , and officially severed all ties with the Alliance immediately following the Second War . It is possible as a result , that there are very few ordinary blood elves who speak Common . Elves who are the most likely to know Common are usually loyalist high elves who stayed with the Alliance even after Quel ' Thalas seceded , and many veterans of the previous wars have already died . Much of the current blood elf population are those who remained in Quel ' Thalas throughout the WarCraft storyline . There are many who have not seen any race aside from their own prior to the Horde induction , so it could be much less likely for them to speak Common . As with most of the other playable races , new blood elf characters are probably young enough to have never seen battle when they first start out . Also , after severing ties with the alliance , it is likely that the use of common has been outlawed among blood elves and are encouraged to speak Thalassian in order to preserve cultural identity . One wonders then , why the Blood Elves did not learn the language of the faction of which they ' d been members for much longer than the Horde but reverted this stance with the Horde , or why this speculative desire to retain their racial identity did not , in the same vein , preclude them from learning Orcish . However , the basic reasons remain decisions largely for the sake of competitive gameplay . Blizzard goes to great lengths to promote tension between factions , and discourages fraternizing and communicating with the opposing faction . Having a language barrier promotes this , especially when applied to PvP servers . This language barrier may not actually be present in non - game materials ( novels , etc . ) . The language barrier also extends from Blizzard ' s experience by letting undead speak Common — players displayed a noted ( almost repulsive ) lack of maturity with this ability , and Gutterspeak was the result . Why hunters and not warriors ? Suggested gameplay and lore reasoning . This is no longer an issue as Blood Elves can now be warriors . Prior objections included their slender physiques ( if so , how could Gnomes be Warriors ? This objection has many weaknesses to it ) and the lack of penetration the class had had in High Elven culture . It should be noted that again , this argument could be leveled against Priests , perhaps with even greater force ( particularly if one goes by the lore of the Broken ) - particularly followers of the Holy Light - and that , though the High Elves did not include many pure Warriors per se , they always had a warrior tradition in the form of the Spellbreakers , and now in the form of the Blood Knights . Moreover , Rangers are also trained to fight at close range , and combined with High Elven skill in the blade and bow and their high agility , there is little reason to preclude it as a playable choice , all this presuming blood elf have a high elf heritage . Bulk Up . There has been an ongoing complaint over the new changes done to blood elf models , and specifically the choice to bulk up male blood elves . The current models stand slightly straighter and have bigger biceps than the old models . The official CM response by Nethaera stated that the change was made in order to make male blood elves look more menacing and masculine to the opposite faction , and the answer was met with heavy criticism . Many fans decried this as unwarranted machismo and stereotyping , as these players wanted a slender male model available to the Horde faction . There have been ongoing petitions and forum threads since the change asking for a revert to the old model , and calling for a change in the male blood elf ' s stance and voice responses to remedy their perceived lack of masculinity instead of a physical change . It has pointed out that prior to this model change there have been reports of skeletal tearing ( the model ' s skeletal frame poking out of the skin ) during movement . The increased number of polygons , biceps size and general size of male blood elves appears to have repaired the problem . Defenders have also pointed out that there have been promotional pictures showing very bulky and muscular blood elves . These were done by Samwise Didier who typically draws all males in exaggerated fashion , even the traditionally slender trolls , and so it would be foolish to leave Blood Elves particularly slender , especially based on this concept art . Blood Elves , it is argued , could still do with improved toning to match their increased muscularity . Paladins . The most controversial facet of the blood elves is their ability to become paladins . It should be noted , however , that of all the controversy , this one is the most credible lore - wise . The ability balances the right of the draenei to become Shamans , an action Blizzard took as part of a way to clarify the role of the Shaman in lore . As many high elves were members of the Church of Light , many became priests and a few became paladins . . After the Third War , most of high elves became blood elves not the majority , and soon the race began to lose its light given powers . Thus they needed to find a new way to access the Light . They did this by sapping Light energy from the captive naaru M ' uru held beneath the Blood Knight headquarters .