Artistic depictions of the quel’dorei have been rather liberal in their portrayal of elven eyes, showing elves with everything from non-glowing, ostensibly ‘human’ eyes to glowing eyes in a variety of colors, some of which are not even seen in-game. The high elves in the novel Tides of Darkness and Sylvanas’ Warbringer short all appear to have non-glowing eyes, which stands in stark contrast to the ever-glowing blue eyes of their in-game counterparts* [Warbringers: Sylvanas, Tides of Darkness, Chapter Seven, Chapter Fourteen]. On the other hand, many forms of media such as the World of Warcraft comic, the movie, and Hearthstone hero art for Alleria Windrunner and Lady Liadrin, among others, exclusively depict quel’dorei and sin’dorei with glowing eyes. Since all in-game high elf, blood elf, and void elf models’ eyes glow, it seems that they are not intended to have ‘normal’ human eyes. However, given the number of discrepancies, especially in recent content, it could very well be that elven eyes have much more variety than what is represented in-game.
Eye color in elves appears to be determined by the specific type of magic they are exposed to over a long period of time, whether that be through consistent use of it, absorption, or simply being around it. This phenomenon actually occurs in human spellcasters in a slightly different way, although the effect is not as permanent in humans like it is in elves. Jaina Proudmoore, for example, has been shown as having glowing blue eyes when casting frost spells and orange eyes while casting fire spells [Cinematic: An Unexpected Reunion, Hearthstone Hero Art: Jaina Proudmoore]. Interestingly enough, elves’ eyes can also temporarily change color through spell casting or magic absorption. Immediately after siphoning arcane magic from a trident, Valeera Sanguinar’s eyes, which are normally a glowing green, temporarily changed to purple [World of Warcraft Comic, Issue #7]. Similarly, Vereesa Windrunner has glowing purple eyes as she casts what seems to be an arcane spell in her Hearthstone card art [Hearthstone Card: Vereesa Windrunner].
In most cases, eye color directly correlates to the relevant magic type. The high elves’ blue eyes may appear something of an oddity at first glance, considering they subsisted on an arcane fount for millennia. If channeling the energies of the Sunwell is the cause of their eye color, then it may strike one as weird that arcane magic - something that is commonly associated with the color purple - has given them blue eyes. However, raw arcane energies are shown to be both purple and blue in color. Mage spells like arcane blast and arcane barrage, for example, have blue effects, not to say anything about how all of the mage spells in the Warcraft movie are also blue [Video: WOW PTR 7.3 – Mage Animation – Draenei Female, Video: WarCraft: The Beginning: All Magic Effects]. Moreover, arcane elementals are primarily blue [Page: Arcane Elemental]. In other words, it is not all that farfetched for high elves to have gotten blue eyes from feeding on the arcane energies of the Sunwell.
It is also worth adding that a night elf’s eyes change from silver to gold if they have druidic potential or begin practicing druidism [Warcraft Encyclopedia: Night Elf]. The color gold does not have any obvious associations with druidic magic – in fact, it is usually indicative of the Light –, and yet it is widespread among kaldorei druids. (It may be important to point out that Malfurion’s eyes are green rather than gold in the Terror of Darkshore cinematic, a color oft tied to nature) [Cinematic: Terror of Darkshore]. Therefore, while eye color in elves is typically dependent on the type of magic they use, it is not unusual for their eye color to be a different color than that which is most commonly associated with the magic in question.
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