yes, read war of the ancients. some of the highborne reject the opening of the portal in ashzara and the summoning of the burning legion. those that do are lead by an elf with an athletic build and PALE violet skin and auburn hair with streaks of gold named Dath'mar Sunstrider. After the war the highborne refused to forsake magic with the rest of the night elves so they left for lorderean. Deth'mar created the sunwwell and silvermoon. so the highborne are the first of the blood elves.

oh, and the Highborne that remained loyal to the burning legion were cursed and became the first naga

The paleness described in the book I chalked up to being overworked as they were.

The contingent that left didn't go until after Tyrande had been prisoner for a few days. By that time, the highborne had been working on the portal for some time, leaving them in pretty bad shape.

Anyway, the point is that the general consensus was that the Quel'dorei/Sindorei look different from the Kaldorei due to the distance from Nordrassil.

I realize there were some indications this was not the case, such as the Shrendalar looking like the Kaldorei despite their distance.

However, this seems to be a clue more official than the rest that the above theory is not true.

I just found it interesting is all.