WoW Moviewatch: Lament of the Highborne Translation
by Michael Gray 
Jan 31st 2011 at 12:00PM
This is not only a performance by Ember; the video is also her first solo machinima. We already knew that she was a talented singer, but now she's showing off her creative chops with machinimation itself. She did a pretty good job. I can't wait to see what she does next.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
quasarsglow Jan 31st 2011 12:10PM
This song gives me shivers every time I hear it. It's a bit less eerie in English, but beautifully sung.
Ronin Jan 31st 2011 12:18PM
Whoa... beautifully done, and haunting.
And huge kudos-- she not only did the vocals, but the instrumentals as well (and the machinimation, of course!).
Although it focuses your attention on one little in-game problem: how did Sylvanas go from a Blood-elf to that hyper-sexualized model? But that's really nothing against EmberIsolte, of course, it was Blizz's decision.
Great quality machinima, as usual!
Straz Jan 31st 2011 1:01PM
She's wearing pretty much the same thing she was wearing in Warcraft 3. Elven rangers always wore form-fitting and revealing armor for better maneuverabilty, as I understand it.
sheyki Jan 31st 2011 4:26PM
The instrumentals aren't hers though..
Stirb Jan 31st 2011 7:51PM
"for better maneuverabilty"
Oh, I'm sure that was their excuse.
Ronin Jan 31st 2011 9:02PM
"She's wearing pretty much the same thing she was wearing..."
Except I wasn't talking about her clothing. I was talking about her body-- that's why I said "model". She went from the Blood-elf/Highborn model to that Slyvanus/Alexstrasza/Ysera model. There's really no lore explanation for her body undergoing that change, and it and it doesn't make sense. Again though, this is because Blizz chose to give her that hyper-sexualized model-- it's not EmberIsolte's fault.
"The instrumentals aren't hers though.."
I don't know why you say that. She claims they are. If you're talking about the writing of the music, that's different. I (and she) mean that she played the music.
Sorcha Feb 1st 2011 5:53AM
For starters, Sylvanas is not a blood elf but a dead high elf. From vanilla launch to 3.0, she had a night elf model, which made no sense. She had a modified blood elf one (with red eyes, a bit like the blood elf death knight NPC in Gundrak) for a little while on the WotLK beta and then gained her current model, which, as you point out, is the same as Alexstrasza and Ysera. Alexstrasza's model is a high elf, because that's what she prefers to appear as, like Deathwing preferring to be a human and Chromie a gnome. Since Sylvanas is a dead high elf, I think her current model makes perfect sense and certainly much more than anything she looked like before (in WoW, that is.)
The really puzzling one is why Ysera, who arguably would prefer to look like a night elf, also looks like a high elf.
Angus Feb 1st 2011 8:21AM
Small answer to why she is curvier than a normal blood elf:
She never went through withdrawal. All High Elves were junkies without knowing it.
Sunwell being destroyed caused them all to suddenly have their constant addiction brought to light and most started getting in pain within a few days. Withdrawal hit them hard.
Some high elves managed to have alternative sources of magic (Dalaran) and survived relatively unharmed. The rest got to look like the blood elf model.
The Banshee Queen died before any of those changes happened. Her body was the more voluptuous shape simply because they all were. High elves were pretty.
Sorcha Feb 1st 2011 12:38PM
I also think there's an element of compromise here on Blizzard's behalf in terms of detail. They've gone to great lengths to upgrade boss models over the last few years (with a few notable exceptions; Tyrande is crying out for it) but player models remain the same despire the fact that the leaders are for the most part the same race as the players. As far as I see it, the updated, detailed models are what the races really look like, and the lower quality ones we have are there because they're the originals, what we're used to, and because presumably letting us all look as detailed as new Thrall or Sylvanas would significantly increase the minimum requirements to run the game.
...I'm aware of how odd it is to be debating what fictional races in a fictional universe really look like.
Also, Ronin, I'm aware I missed the point of your question a bit. What I should have made clear is that lore-wise Sylvanas has always looked like she does now; the model change doesn't need to be explained because it's pure game mechanics.
Ronin Feb 1st 2011 8:06PM
Sorcha, the problem with your suggestion that Sylvanas' model is a "newer" model is that the Blood Elf/High Elf model is not one of the originals, either. It's more or less the same age as Sylvanas' "new" model.
Additionally, the thinner body-type of female Blood Elves/High Elves doesn't take fewer resources to render than a curvier model would. The "boss" models may have more polys or have higher rez skins, but if they wanted B Elf females to look as voluptuous as Sylvanas', they could, without requiring a greater demand on computers' resources.
Angus, your suggestion that Blood Elves are thinner than Sylvanas because they went through withdrawal, and she didn't, sounds good. Except that when you look at the male Blood Elves, they aren't thin-- they're quite buff.
MysticalOS Jan 31st 2011 12:20PM
it's terrible in english. the syllables don't match up well at all.
Sabarth Jan 31st 2011 12:33PM
Then please enlighten us with your translation...
Yeah thought so...
Awesome work EmberIsolte!!
Eldoron Jan 31st 2011 12:49PM
Sabarth, it's not her translation, it's Blizzard's.. you get the lyrics in both Elven and English in WOW on a piece of [digital] paper.. nvm
Cephas Jan 31st 2011 12:49PM
@Sabarth
If I'm understanding MysticalOS correctly, he's not saying the translation is wrong. He's just saying that the translation doesn't work with the meter of the song, and he would be right about that.
Gossamer Jan 31st 2011 1:11PM
While I do prefer the non-English version as well, this was well done. I agree, the meter is a little different in the translation and it doesn't flow quite as well, but this is true of a lot of translated songs and really has nothing to do with the singer. Overall, I liked this video. Ember's voice is haunting, in this as well in the other videos I've seen.
Kylenne Jan 31st 2011 1:52PM
It's just the nature of the beast. Most songs translated into English sound terrible compared to their original versions, whether it's from a made up language or a real one. See also: pretty much any English dubbed version of an anime song, and Shakira's entire discography.
Also, I feel like the one person on the internet who doesn't care for Embersolte's vocals. She's adequate, and better than a lot of the people in fandom who try singing (which admittedly is damning with faint praise), but she sounds like the average AI contestant singing by numbers; she hits the notes well, but there's no soul or emotion there. Maybe it's because I was a trained singer, but I don't understand the swooning.
Sabarth Jan 31st 2011 3:02PM
Then I do apologize as my comments should not have been cast toward MystycalOS, but Ember did do a very good job singing, let's put it this way... If you played my singing... your PCs would explode...
Jack Spicer Jan 31st 2011 3:15PM
What language is it in originally?
Mortenebra Jan 31st 2011 4:26PM
@ Jack Spicer: I *think* it's Thalassian. The reason why I put emphasis on the "think" is because I have clear forgotten when Thalassian became the chosen language of the current Blood Elves-- whether it was when they were the chosen highborne of Queen Azshara; when they were exiled by the night elves and became High Elves (which would be my guess, since there is such a heated and adamant stance on separating out Thalassian from Darnassian according to the old encyclopedia on the original WoW community site) ; or when they survived the fall of Quel'thalas and became Blood Elves. See the confusion?
sprout_daddy Jan 31st 2011 8:46PM
All of which confuses me a little. Assume it is in Thalassian. If Blizzard has the English version, I'm assuming they started with what they wanted it to say, then translated it into Thalassian. I guess they could have then composed the melody to fit the translated lyrics, but I would also think they would have had a melody in their "head" before they started, in which case I'm not alltogether clear on why the lyrics and melody don't mesh when retranslated. Her vocals were great - I'm just wondering about the process.