Some classic style skyborne portraits and...

[u/ChromedDragon]

... making 90% of the high order NPC's flesh toned, and 90% of the windshaper NPC's blue would fix a huge chunk of the faction flavor issues without having to change too much before launch or removing customization options. second image is to prove no AI was used.

[u/ChaoticVoodoo]

Even just differentiating the icons on the character creation screens makes a big difference mentally.

[u/PirateMushroom → u/ChaoticVoodoo]

I think you’re right. That what bothers me most about the race. Forever is bringing back Horde vs Alliance and the first thing they do is give us a race that looks exactly the same regardless of which side they choose.

[u/Nrgte → u/ChaoticVoodoo]

Yes I think it's also really important to keep the faction identity and rivalry going. Blizzard saying they want to bring the WAR back into Warcraft and then proceeds to announce a neutral race felt a little bit out of touch. My first instinct was: Is this Kumbayacraft now?

[u/JollySieg]

Wow this is fantastic concepting. Great work they should definitely do something like this in-game

[u/Trentvantage]

Looks good to me.

[u/Nago266]

Once again, fans know and Blizzard doesn't.

[u/Daschief]

Blizz gets so lost in the corporatism that fan-made content often beats it out. They've been more receptive as of late but I hope they filter through all the noise and actually start picking up some of the genuinely good ideas like these (but of course this is the 5th time I've seen this exact topic but its executed well).

[u/Snoo56153]

Very cool blizz lets do it

[u/Internal_Demand6860]

Perfect

[u/ReinhardtXWinston]

Honestly I thought this was a High Elves vs Skyborne, which would work VERY WELL.
Hordes entire thing is - Accepting those who were left without.
Orcs were Slaves.
Trolls lost their homeland to humans & murlocs and Horde saved them
Tauren nearly went extinct to Centaur Raids and Horde saved them
Undead tried to rejoin the Alliance and was met with hostility, so the Horde offered their hand.

Skyborne were exiled by High Elves, right? High Elves are already among the Alliance. They only separated during the events of BC when the Alliance refused to come to their aid. That hasn't happened yet, so High Elves should still be apart of Alliance.
So, Skyborne try to join the Alliance, are rejected based on High Elves insisting they are to remain exiled, and the Horde offers to try to help them save their homeland.

We could literally have Drow on the Horde! That sounds badass.

[u/intracellular → u/ReinhardtXWinston]

Skyborne were rebels from Eldre'thalas, which was a society of Highborne night elves, not High Elves. Highborne only become High Elves later when they make the exodus to the Eastern Kingdoms and Quel'thalas.

[u/tarzan1376 → u/ReinhardtXWinston]

skyborne are more like refugees who escaped a tyrannical prince killing off his own people in diremaul to hoard his power rather than exiles. They escaped dire maul and fled, they weren't banished.

[u/AstronautGloomy3233]

"Small" things can improve so much but the Billion Dollar Company can't do it with their poor indie devs. They don't care, just ship the bare minimum and retailers will eat it up. I am shocked that even here retailers want to derail this topic. Worst timeline really

[u/RetchX]

Nice work chap

[u/Only-Percentage745]

Legit getting tired of seeing random people/artists on the internet come up with better solutions effortlessly than artists who are actually paid to do it. Hope all of this makes them at least question themselves and their decision-making.

[u/Fading_Hours_]

The Skyborne do need more visual differences between factions. They should expand on the arcane vs shamanism distinction with markings and accessories.

[u/bluegreen8907]

BLIZZARD, HIRE THIS MAN

[u/xGreir]

Fans know what Blizzard does not, once again!

You can scream it in their faces, and their whole team is still unable to do what a lone person on a forum is already delivering.

And god forbids tipping their hats and just commission it to the people that seem to know.

[u/CAlTHLYN]

why you want to change them ... they are just perfect as they are .. :c

[u/ImDoingMyPart_o7]

This looks SO much better, them being visually differentiated makes a huge difference.

[u/MaDpYrO]

A bit of darker contrast in hair and eyes would also fix the design itself, rather than look so unfinished.

[u/Known_Painting_1878]

THIS IS PERFECT!

High Order leaning into the less mutated high elf arcane side.

Windshaper leaning into its elemental and nature heritage. Starting to mutate into birds a bit.

[u/disastrous_hyena759]

I like the idea. The only thing I would add is, if possible, to make the left one more of a mage-type portrait and the right one more of a shaman-type portrait, in order to show the faction identity they serve.

[u/25toten]

Mom said it's my turn to post something about the race icon screen!

[u/bywaterboy]

AI prompt: Design me SD models for Skyborne race from these templates and present interphases of what the design process would look like.

[u/ChromedDragon → u/bywaterboy]

you can see each iteration is one simple thing like a hue shift or adding a feather

it would have been lots more effort to try and make the ai make these changes one by one and not change anything else than to just do them

[u/Caspus1 → u/ChromedDragon]

peoples brains are cooked lol. Unfortunate you feel you have to defend yourself but appreciate you nevertheless. Awesome post, hope blizzard takes notes.